Blog

Back home! Well, close anyway...

Finally. Some imagery. Some thing worth 1000 words, cause I sure know my words aren't worth 1000 words. (I added show photos to the entries about the shows, so scroll down, take a trip down memory lane, and try to remember where you were when those shows happened...last week.)

I'll start by showing you how I have been forced to watch the World Series (and college football. And the NFL.), at all odd hours of the night in places with sub-par internet connections:

I mean, it's a neat application, but refreshing every 30 seconds at 3:30 AM trying to follow pitch-by-pitch or down-by-down is deflating in every way. Anyway, this was the top of the 9th of Game 4 this morning at 6AM from the Dubai airport.

Speaking of Dubai, here's a little bit of what it was like-

Views from my hotel room:

The soon-to-be tallest building in the world, under construction (one of thousands of buildings under construction in the city):

Dubai really went for it, all around. I hear they're building islands that will be in the shape of a palm frond, but that's not it - the next project is a set of small islands that are a replica of the map of the world. So you could live on "little Madagascar" or in "little Atlanta" if you wanted. Crazy. Also:

Hotels shaped like watercraft. Those hotels allegedly have more stars than Cassiopeia. I mean, 4 stars is pretty nice - what happens in 7 or 8??!? "Thanks for staying with us, Mr. Crowe. Your personal masseuse and chef will meet you in your room, which has the ability to break away from the mail building and fly you to the moon. Ah, and you will have the ability to become invisible as you choose until you check out."

Speaking of checking out, what about this mall:

That huge silver goiter looks a little weird, right? Well, it's this:

Yes, friends, a ski mountain INSIDE the shopping mall. Complete with snowfall every night. The day before the show, 2 guys rented ATVs and drove out into the desert. 2 other guys rented skiing equipment and hit the slopes. All four returned to the same hotel that night.

While they were doing that, John and i were shopping for gold and diamonds. We went to a four-story mall that sells only gold and diamonds. After much hunting, we finally found exactly what we were looking for:

Feels good to be a ring guy.

I didn't bring my real camera on this trip, but a shot of the show from the festival:

FINAL THOUGHTS

Crazy to be back out there - given the chaos that usually comes with an international trip, I had a great time. I miss all my boys on the road, and I'll take any 2 weeks I can whenever possible. Rolling with John everywhere was like a grown-up version of the days back in Abe, Hampton Inns, and *NSYNC watches. Good, good stuff. I gotta admit that I miss it a little bit. I love y'all.

Oh, and when chaos DID hit, I just looked at my mantra...

...and everything would work out.

See you soon.

-Scotty

Sitting in the other London airport this time, waiting to jump on the flight to LAX (the club, not the airport). Still reeling from the shocks of Dubai and trying to figure out what sort of sleeping pattern I'm going to be on when I land in Los Angeles County in 12 hours.

But I thought I'd tell you: I LOVE London. I never feel like there's enough time here (I never feel like there's enough time in Selfridges, much less the entire city) - so much to see, do, buy, eat, drink, hear, fall down on, get hit by, and instigate. Some of my faves:

1) SoHo, Carnaby Street, Covent Garden. Record shops dedicated to hip-hop? Shoe stores on every block? A shop that gets new, rare inventory in every day? Slap me.

2) Accidentally slipping into a terrible (really, "wvreelie" bad) RP/Cockney/Welsh/Irish/Scottish/Australian hybrid accent when I'm having a conversation. I apologize for my ignorance, it's just so fun to say numbers: "wun, tuo, free, fow, faive..." Your accent is art, and I want to buy all of it. Specifically:ﾠ

3) Locals use the word "brilliant" to say "ok, cool" or "sounds good." Since I usually check in just above average, I feel ON FIRE here 'cause I'm told every choice I make is "brilliant!"

4) Giving the Currency Exchange $100, getting back 48 pounds, then spending 14 pounds on a glass of wine. Don't do the math, it'll make you cry. (I love this because I like to keep my bank account at 3 digits. Including the decimal. It's a cool hobby, check it out.)

5) Maggie Jones. Every meal is like Thanksgiving. Maybe even better. Seriously, they don't eff around. The most delicious restaurant in the world.

6) Pret. Sorry, I love 'em and wish LA had 'em. We could at least trade out a few Carl's Jrs and Baja Freshes, right?

7) I wake up before everyone I know in the States, so I don't feel like such a loser rolling out of bed at noon (thank you Daniel Tosh).

8) October 23 at The London Forum.

Thank you for wonderful times, pink shoes, and $10 bottled waters.

-Scotty

P.S. I'm going through pictures on the flight, collage coming your way soon.

Hotter than Dubai.

or

Let's take a trip to Dubai

You can be the investigator, I'm your Private Eye

My gloves, my gloves, my gloves,ﾠmy gloves

Man, we are in the desert! This place is wild - a fair amount of culture shock in a place that looks like baby of Las Vegas and Miami.

Our set was at the Dubai Country Club - festival layout, like every other one except there was sand on the ground, not grass. Cool lineup of international artists.

Belief

Why Georgia

Vultures

Bigger Than Me Bod

Slow Dancin' in a Burnin' Room

Good Love is On the Way

I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)

No Such Thing

Gravity

Waiting On The World To Change

I'm Gonna Find Another You

About time we saw Trust Myself and Find Another You. I didn't know our man DaRyHa got to do his thing in the latter. Nice night (so HOT but a nice little breeze coming in), the guys killed it for the late night crowd at le festivale.

Getting all the pictures together for you from this trip, will post them soon. So much to try to describe...

Hasta luego.

-Scotty

Happy Birthday, Mama.

October 23, 2006

Kentish Town Forum

London, UK

Belief

Bigger Than My Body

Vultures

Good Love Is On The Way

Slow Dancing in a Burning Room

Clarity

Trust Myself

Why Georgia

Gravity

Waiting On The World To Change

No Such Thing

Daughters

In Repair

Before we get to the madness that was tonight, I gotta mention yesterday - we went to Abbey Road Studios to record 4 tracks for a television show. The place blew my mind. John took some pictures - we saw some amazing stuff and the atmosphere of the whole place is just sort of chilling in a very warm way. The band played Belief, Vultures, Gravity, and Waiting On The World To Change, jamming and playing other stuff here and there in between the takes. It's supposed to air in the UK and the US, so look out for it...

Some photos from Abbey Road, courtesy of Carolyn Snell:

Today we started with a hit at Virgin Radio - John and Robbie playing Belief and Waiting On The World To Change. Acoustic. Awesome.

And DEN! We hit the venue and started it off with a little Local-83 soundcheck party - throwback! Before y'all came in, I may or may not have heard John playing the chords to Outside in the Underground with Chris Karlic fluting a bit over it. It's nice!

And DEN! A few hours later...

The Forum is like a big, old theatre with the seats taken out of the floor label. Y'all filled the place up in a hurry, got it warm and ready, and my boys killed it. The energy in the room - coming off stage, coming from the crowd, coming from all the important folks sitting upstairs - was nuts. Belief - unbelievable. Not trying to be funny*. Slow Dancing is still a fave for me. The crowd was on fire the entire night, but especially shone in Waiting and Daughters. I caught myself watching, mouth open, head bobbing from the side of the stage watching the whole scene. Thank you, London, for making this show something special.

Then we got our hang out on and celebrated everyone's last night in London together. Exactly: fiesta, forever all night long.

I feel good! Helloooooo Ted!**

-Scotty

And, photos from the London Forum, again by Carolyn Snell:

*I AM funny***.

**stolen from DRH, JJ and the chaos he discovered.

***to myself.