Yes, even old jaded punker rockstars have to stay at hostels sometimes…keeps the ol credibility up with the crusties, ya know? Just wouldn,t be right to have the kids see us crawling out of the local Four Seasons after the mani pedi and brunch….
After a good night’s rest, the fellas are on track. Onto Hamburg now, one more night as the power trio and then we hopefully pick up Kimm at the airport Friday morning…..then and I can lower my guitar down to the kneecaps again and play every other chord like Paul Stanley!!
Let these pictures take you with us on the magical tour through the beautiful German countryside…..
What can I say? That beautiful port town makes a band hungry. The show was a gas, learned a bit of the local language,
Anthony is crowned the new fooseball king…..
let us continue now—onto Riesa and all the delicious animals they may have in store!!!
Miracle of all Miracles!, US Airways came through and got the fellers into Heathrow right on time! Met up with Ant and Alf, grabbed a quick bite in Terminal 5, and hopped Brit Air for a quick jaunt to the mainland…
Landed in Dusseldorf and the tourvan wasn’t ready, the tour manager was stuck in highway construction, the backline wasn’t there……things running in the usual mode, eh? Luckily, our old pals in SNFU sent their van to pick us up, and we were soon safely cocooned backstage at the Zakk club. It was a high school reunion for Punk Rock dinosaurs!!
Played our set as the rockin power trio, as Kimm wouldn’t be joining us til Riesa. Benny the tour manager finally arrived with all the goodies from Machete Merch, and the sale was on!
Spent the rest of the evening catching up with old friends and a lot of cool German fans. Mr. Chi Pig stayed close for much of the evening, entertaining us with his skewed take on the world order!
And as usual, the night ended with a long ride in a van, 30 minutes to find a parking place near the hostel. Gig one under the belt, and so far all limbs and appendages intact…cheers!
Alright then, got off the flight and in pretty good shape…..didn’t get a wink of sleep with all of the kneecap abuse ….. but discreetly farted the last stubborn remnants of Walt’s WharfBlack Bean soup into the face of seat 35C on the way off the plane..! mmm…revenge!
Ok then, London. I am here a day before the rhythm section. Kimm and I were thinking of just picking up a couple guys over on this side of the pond, but turns out there’s no Home Depot here yet—Hey 0!!!!
The sad state of the economy means Pricelined rooms at Hyde Park Hilton for 50 bucks!! Got checked in and looked longingly at the bed, but the job on day one is to stay awake til midnight and get the ol’ body clock back on track….
Well, the job is also to stay away from the Schwarmas they sell outside of every proper pub in this nutty town! Far too early on the week to start losing precious bodily fluids through *ahem* excessive potty breaks!
The key is to keep moving, kid! Quick tube ride, Central line to the Northern, Picadilly then hit the streets to Covent Garden and a quick Extra Cold Guiness at Punch & Judy’s—yeah, I know it’s touristy, so kill me! I hang out at Downtown Disney every Thursday night too, pretending I’m a exchange student from Wisconsin!
Alright, keep it moving, I’m feeling the effects of Mother Earth’s gravity pulling me down! Back into the tube and pop up a short time later in Camden Twn, and into our beloved World’s End to get the wits back….
Jesus…don’t know if I’m gonna make it! The body just can’t weather the effects of Time and travel like the old days, and that bed and a nice cup of tea is calling louder than last call at Alex’s Bar on a Friday night!!
Keep moving, that’s my motto, which I’m apparently saying aloud to myself at this point. Also, no Schwarmas, no schwarmas, though they are waving the pungent meat bombs under my nose at every stall!!
A few more at Hawley Arms, and the jet lag has now morphed into a really nice Dementia…I was later found down by the water talking to a group of bewildered ducks…..
It’s midnight now, and after a fevered tube ride back to Queensway station I finally stumbled my way back up to room 520. It was only then I realized what I was gripping in my trembling hand…Gaaa! Schwarma!!!
Ah London…same as it ever was. Off to pick up the fellas at Heathrow and onto Dusseldorf now..Cheers!
Really? Is there some fucking unwritten rule where they put the guy who leans all the way back in front of me?
Virgin Airlines non stop LAX to London, and yeah, spent some miles to upgrade to Premium—-but I might as well ship myself to Heathrow in a goddamn refrigerator box when the 5’3″ man in front of me decides a trans-Atlantic flight would be a good time to torture my kneecaps!!!
Oh, look at him—he’s bouncing back and forth in his Premium Class leather heaven like a goddamn monkey. It truly would not surprise me if I started feeling the tell-tale masturbatory rhythms of primal satisfaction coming from seat 35C!!!
What the is this all about? Do you short gimps really feel that a long period of time spent in a small metal tube is the best time to express your hatred for any normal sized human??!
Ah well–I’m use to this kind of abuse…at least they had good in-flight entertainment going on……..
Well, I ended up watching Anvil over and over 10 times…..Who’s heard of this movie? hmmm? Childhood friends continue playing long after any demand exists, and they ride their sad legacy into the dust….sound familiar kids?!?!?!
News Item: Hollywood Reporter, July 8, 2009- HOLLYWOOD:DreamWorks is in negotiations to acquire movie rights to the View Master toy from Mattel (which owns Fisher-Price) and has asked Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to do some “Transformers”-style magic on it.
Wot say? A movie based on a toy? Pffft- we were way ahead of Hollywood when Kimm and I took our considerable advance monies from Posh Boy and bought the movie rights to Klik Klaks: The New World Order!
Gee, is Hollywood running out of original ideas? Ya think?
Well, it was bound to happen. After the recent Germs bio pic
and the worldwide success of your old pals in One More for all My True Friends, a major motion picture studio has come calling for the film rights to our amazing story. Hardly a surprise, considering the valuable audience profile of CH3…let’s take a look, shall we?
Much like the Dogtown story received its dramatic account well after the documentary, the idea is to tell the CH3 story in full cinescope, with major hollywood stars in the roles of the CH3 crew.
Of course, the major hurdle proved to be casting this epic. I mean, how ya gonna find 4 mainstream actors that can convincingly portray your heroes on the silver screen?!
The actor portraying Alf had to have the winning combination of street smarts and sensitivity…..
First calls went out to Vin Diesel :
and funnyman Dave Atell….
These choices seemed viable, but Alfredo nixed them as not reflecting his own proud Latino Heritage. We’re pretty happy with his final choice:
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Oh, we know what you’re thinking for the role of Anthony…
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Easy, right? Let’s put in the calls to Keanu or Depp…..
Well sir, Ant had final approval and he said fuck those pretty boys! The negotiations and proposals went on for weeks…..
Ant saw himself portrayed by someone like Tough guy Danny Trejo:
While the rest of us thought charcater actor Luis Guzman might capture his free spirit……..!
Surprisingly, Ovitz put in a personal call from CAA, seems like one of his A listers wanted a crack at the role of the boyish bass player. Although skeptical, we agreed to let this Hollywood vet read for the part and he knocked it out of the park! We couldn’t be more pleased with the man set to portray Anthony Thompson next year!
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Next up: The casting call that put Hollywood on Red Alert! Yes, the lead actors that would portray Mike and Kimm in the movie. These roles would have to be considered among the classic Male duos of all time…..
And don’t give me that Clooney/Pitt nonsense! Those closeted fairies wouldn’t be able to last ten minutes in the real world of hardcore punk!
But who then would deliver the magical chemistry that saw childhood friends Magrann and Gardener become the worldwide sensations you know them as today?
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We went through the obvious hollywood duos to no avail:
The star search continues as millions of dollars are wasted on the halted production! Please send your own ideas to: castingcall@channel3themovie.com
Hmmm, what’s in the ol CH3 inbox this morning? Spam, spam, email for viagra, email for extenz, email for online Xanax…goddamn, do these people know us or what?
Hey, what’s this? Alfredo has finally finished up the Summer Tour poster eh?
Sweet Jesus! Did we really sign off on this many dates for the Summer? Goddamn, it’s time to get in shape for that madness! In the old days it was so easy, getting ready for a tour. All you had to do was get the guitars out of hock, break up with the girlfriends and cut off whatever warts that were getting a little too obvious…….
But with *ahem* advanced experience, we’ve found we need a bit of more preparation than before……
Oh, don’t act so shocked! Did you really think we maintain this sleek image through God’s gift alone?! It’s no wonder the CH3 hairstyle has been compared favorably with the rich pelt of the arctic seal….
And we obviously have to get the ol’ wind back, and if you’re like us, that means hours of riding bikes in the riverbed while singing Prince songs as loud as possible…
And nutriton, you can’t forget that! I mean, you can’t expect people to pay good money to watch a bunch of fat old fuckers laying about the stage, can ya?
Plenty of sleep, hydration, and a strict diet– that’s the key to a successful tour, eh?
Heh…yeah, right.
Listen, we’ve tried all of this clean living nonsense, and that shit’s not gonna help you out on the road. Here’s what ya gotta do:
Set the alarm for 3am, then get up and take 2 Tylenol PMs with several shots of Jager. Trust me on this, it’s the only way to get your inner body clock on track. Don’t go back to bed though, oh no….find yourself the most uncomfortable place possible and let the medicine do it’s magic!
Now you wake up at 1pm, feeling disoriented, hungover and parched. Perfect! This simulates the day-after the show perfectly. Now I’d suggest sitting in a large cardboard box with a bag of Beef Jerky and a liter of Mountain Dew for 7 hours. This is roughly comparable to your van ride between Baltimore and Boston on the New Jersey Turnpike….
Now what you want to do is go down to the shopping mall and ask strangers if they know where the promoter is. Of course, they will have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about, and will either ignore you or try to push you into the planter. This is identical to the treatment you will be receving after you arrive at the club and have to wait in the parking lot for two hours before someone shows up with the drink tickets. In the meantime, disconnect your refrigerator and push it up and down your driveway a few times to get in shape for the load in……see if you can get someone to stand directly in your way and tell you how much your new music sucks if you really want to get the full effect!
It goes unsaid that you’ve been drinking beer all day, of course! So let’s say it’s around midnight now and you are feeling weak, drunk, dehydrated, and you’ve been shitting a constant stream of orange liquid….it must be showtime!
Now go for an hour long jog while trying to remember the words to songs you wrote 26 years ago. When you do forget the lyrics, throw a beer bottle in the air and try to dodge it….extra points of you can get your neighbors to yell out requests for Shattered Faith and Agent Orange songs while you run past!
Now you’re sweaty, exhausted and ready for bed…..but you know damn well that’s not gonna happen! Find a bar that still allows smoking, and see if you can find a couple drunken Germans to talk directly into your ear canal until closing time. You can’t undertand them, but you must stand there and nod politely as they get more drunk and agitated…..eventually, one of them will yell something about George W. and take a swing at you.
3 a.m. means it’s time for the one real meal of the day……
Congratulations! Day one of the tour is complete!
Repeat this routine for two weeks and you’ll be ready for all that this wonderful world has to offer!!!