if we took a holiday (oh yeah, oh yeah)

I’m normally not crazy about holidays (as I’ve said before) but Halloween is just plain fun. Hell, I love dressing up so it’s a time I allow myself to celebrate.

It was my first Halloween working with the handicapped at work. We got to do a parade of the participants through the business offices which was a lot of fun. Some of them came in drag, some vampires. We had an Elvis even. It was a blast.

Afterwards, I was going to stay home but my friend Sophia came over and we went trick or treating with my housemates. It was her first time and she looked FABULOUS!

it's all good

It’s good to be back.

The best part about going away from home is that you get to feel the love when you come back (most of the time anyway).

I got back home at 1 am this morning. I got Dean calmed down by 2 am.

I found that I was missed by my housemates too. They cleaned the house spotlessly for my return. Hell, they even made my bed which is something I NEVER do. I didn’t sleep long but it was still the best sleep I’ve had in a month. I woke up at 6:15 am and got ready to go to work.

My boss did not expect me in even though I told her I would be in the day after I got back. I was so glad I came in too. I got so many hugs and I really felt that I was missed. I am told at work that I am appreciated a lot but it really sank in today.

Riding my bike home from work today, I felt so whole. I love you all!

(my new thing was going to work on that little of sleep when I didn't have to. I'll stop copping out on the new things starting tomorrow.)

the long way home

26 hours in airplanes and airports.

By continually crossing timezones, you can make a day endless. Today felt that way.

The flight over the Atlantic was nine hours by itself but it wasn’t so bad. I watched Sunshine, Live Free or Die Hard, 1408 and Mr. Bean’s Vacation. Mr. Bean was mildly entertaining. Live Free or Die Hard was poorly edited and I felt like I missed the best parts. 1408 was a gigantic pile of poop that I ended up fast forwarding towards the end and Sunshine had a lot of potential and then got extremely dumb.

Going through customs was a rat-race of banality. Dominic tried to take a mini-bottle of wine off the first plane, through customs and into the Detroit airport. One of the security guys took it from him and then got concerned when he heard Al and I laughing hard at him.

The other flights were boring. I couldn’t really sleep so all I did was reflect on the past month. I did LOVE seeing old acquaintances and friends there. It was just hard. I didn’t feel that I really EARNED this month off. Plus I didn’t feel the need to escape. I love my friends, family, job and dog. Going away just made me realize that.

frankfurt, germany

We decided to head to Frankfurt today. Our friend Ania has a friend there that's agreed to let us spend the night. It's nice to be able to depend on the kindness of strangers. That's about it. A LOT of driving today and not much else but getting ready to go...

berlin, germany - day nine

We decided against going to a squat anniversary outside of Bochum, Germany. We stayed in Berlin instead. We figured out how to work out the money situation for the rest of the tour so that put my mind at ease so I went to ride the metro.

I am alone, sitting with my empty glass...

Get it, Berlin...The Metro...

Anyway, it was a quick way to see the city. I was surprised at how comfortable I was just getting on it and going wherever. I didn't know exactly how it worked. I sure as hell didn't pay for it. And it turned out okay.

In the evening, Lenin told me where the gay quadrant was so I decided to head there on my own around 10:30 pm. I didn't find anything even though I walked around forever! It was disappointing but I came back to Lenin's place around 1 am and drank with his housemates. Then we all went to a bar for a while where drag queens were the bartenders.

berlin, germany - day eight

Our last show.

We played at the Tommy Haus in Berlin. It was okay. I sold my t-shirts for four euro just to get rid of some. I sold four of them so I was happy.

Before Riot Cop played, I went to the restroom just off the courtyard and got stuck in the bathroom for about fifteen minutes. I started to freak out a bit because nobody was responding to my yelling or kicking of the door. Finally, someone saw the lights flicking off and on so they came and opened the door. Fortunately, Lenin and his housemate Liza each got locked in there too so I don't feel like an idiot alone.

It's bittersweet that the tour is basically done. We were waiting for it and ready but now that it's here, it's sort of sad.

linkoping, sweden

We played at the same venue here last year, Skyleten. It's weird to come back and see the stickers that you put up the year before.

I walked around town a bit before the start of the show. It was a full moon and just gorgeous. Shortly after we finished playing, we headed back for the ferry.

Again, I love the ferries. This time I didn't sleep. I just stayed awake and read "The Golden Compass" which is AWESOME. When the ferry was close to docking in Rostock, I felt like a kid on a ferris wheel. I didn't want to get off. I just wanted to keep riding it.

stockholm, sweden

We always get lost in Stockholm.

GPS does you no good when you don't have a definative address. We played at Fullersta, a squat-like house that keeps getting displaced and then the people have to start over again in a new location. Dominic played at Fullersta with another band but it was at a different house. I guess they just take the essence of the house with them and get pushed further and further out of the city.

When we finally did find the place, we were greeted by Amyl and Kenko, two of my favorite people from last year. This year, Amyl is about 7 months pregnant. Sarra, her bandmate from Abductee SD now has a child as well. His name is Freddy after Freddy Mercury. I LOVE babies so it was really cool to see them at a show. They said they toured with a baby once too. They're really responsible and won't bring them to a place that's smoky or near the loudness of the band. Sarra said that Freddy is really soothed by just being with her and the distant bass of the band. Plus I think it's good to have punks exposed to babies as well. Sarra said that she wouldn't bring Freddy there on a weekend night. Fortunately for us, it was a Wednesday. Yay babies!

berlin, germany - day seven

This morning, Al and I hung around the kitchen for a while and did nothing but relax. It was great and I felt so at ease.

We were scheduled to head to Sweden today. Unfortunately, we have next to no money. The ferry to get over there costs 130 euro and then there's gas to buy when we get over there. I presented the idea to the guys that we just don't go for those two gigs. Ultimately, it was decided that we see it through.

We left Berlin around 7pm to drive to Rostock so we could board the ferry. I love the ferries. Last year, we took Scandilines. This year, we took TT Lines for the first time. They still had a sauna there but no solarium or relaxation room. Rough.

berlin, germany - day six

We have a day off.

I love Berlin. Knowing that I had nothing else to do today, I put on my headphones and simply explored Berlin. The only thing I HAD to do was exchange our Czech money for Euros. The nearest place anyone believed a currency exchange place to be was at Alexander Platz. They told me simply to walk to the gigantic mirror ball. There's a TV tower here that we've been staring at through the kitchen window everyday that resembles a mirror ball. I was pretty excited to walk to it just to see it closer. Plus it was a towering landmark that would be easy to find. The city is gorgeous and I was thrilled just to walk around it.

berln, germany - day five

You never wish for trouble along the road but these are the things that make for the better stories afterwards.

We were 10 km from a Czech/German border, just outside a tunnel when the van died. Lenin cussed for a while and then went out to look under the hood. A part by the fan belt became detached and needed to be welded back together. Those who know me will understand why that's all the information I can give on what went wrong. Whatever it was, it left us stranded for several hours.

Lenin put on this bright orange vest and hiked to the tunnel where there were emergency phones. He has the European equivilent to AAA so he called for a tow truck. After hours in the van, a Czech tow truck came and the grumpy old man driving it said he would take us to the border and then we'd have to call a German tow truck.

We went to the border and squeezed together in the van to ward off the coldness. It took about an hour for the German tow truck guy to get there. At first, Lenin insisted he take us to Berlin because we may have a show there. The guy protested for a while and then agreed. We called on his phone to confirm that we did have a show there. It turns out that it was cancelled. The next option was for the guy to bring us to a hotel which AAA would pay for until they could send out a mechanic in the morning. This was the option I was rooting for. Unfortunately, we went with door #3 which was going to the tow guy's friend in the nearest town, Dohna, where he would try to fix the van.

We spent a few hours at his shop and he eventually got it welded back together. We drove until we got to Berlin. I rode in the front because that's where it was warmest.

prelouc, czech republic

Slovakia is postcard country. I couldn't stop taking pictures of the scenery we saw on our drive from Bardejov, Slovakia to Prelouc, Czech. Unfortunately, we couldn't stop the van much either. We had a tremendously long way to drive. The above picture was taken behind a gas station after we passed by a castle.

The castle is powdered in snow and I'm looking towards it, over this small Slovakian village while the church bells ring through this valley and I was just awe-struck by the beauty of it all.

Like I said, we had LONG drive to Prelouc. We were planning on getting to the venue a little after the show started anyway but then we found that the main road there was blocked with construction. Lenin's GPS directed us to a few off-roads that we all dubbed the Scooby-Doo roads. I was just waiting for us to meet the Harlem Globetrotters on the side of the road. Ruh-roh!

bardejov, slovakia

Bardejov was our best show last year. Bardejov LOVES Riot Cop. The show was a lot of fun and we got to see Pharoh, our host from last year. He was one of the main people I was looking forward to seeing again. He's like the best host ever!

One of Lenin's friends (the brunette in the pic above) hung out with us in Bardejov last year and sang all cookie-monster style at the end of Riot Cop's song War. She made a repeat performance tonight, accompanied by a girl with a pink mullet who was also very sweet.

Fortunately, Pharoh didn't make us drink as much this year. He did have some liquor ready that was a first (and LAST) for me. It tasted like black licorice and soy sauce.

zilina, slovakia

I love Slovakia. We got to Zilina early so we walked around to find the Honey Bunny Pub where we were supposed to play. I was shopping around and I stumbled upon it. It was cool because I rarely can locate the pub.

It was raining outside slightly. We waited inside, each with our book and/or journal. I bought a hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps to spoil myself some. The place was so rad. The guy who worked behind the bar was cool to us too.

We played with Krupaya, a band from England. They got the crowd all warmed up so that when Riot Cop played, people were stage diving and all that. Pictured above is our host for the evening, Peter along with Lenin at the disco party afterwards. They also had the best beer I've had so far there, pictured just below Peter and Lenin.

cactus bar, slovakia

This is a picture of the Cesky Tesin centrum in the morning. Dom, Al, Lenin and I walked around. First, we went for vegan food. It was super cheap here. I got a whole sackful for less than 10 euro! Whoo hoo.

Then we drove to ?, Slovakia. I should know the name of the town but I don't. It's something like Bansky Bottica but I could be wrong. Anyway, we played to a few people at a place called the Cactus Bar which was okay. Nothing too memorable. Afterwards, we went back to these guys' apartment where we watched this stop-motion animation show called Pat and Matt which is hilarious!

cesky tesin, czech republic

In contrast to the show in Ruda Slaska, the bar in Cesky Tesin was VERY political. I loved it although I had to sell merch in the hallway.

Cesky Tesin is a border town in between Poland and Czech. People were walking across the border without getting stopped. We were told that people head over the border to buy groceries several times a day. However, we got stopped for over a half an hour. We were only 100 meters from our venue and we were late because of the border patrol.

The bar was cool and we had a fun disco party afterwards! Disco!

poznan, poland

We got to go to Poznan todaz, home of the Rozbrat squat. A few years ago, Krystoph from the squat toured the US and stayed at my place for a week. He was real cool and the squat sounded awesome. I was real disappointed when I didn´t see him here. I asked some people about him but everyone I talked to hadn´t lived at Rozbrat very long.

Rozbrat is pretty big, kind of like a high school campus size or maybe the size of a retirement village. It´s surrounded by a fence and there´s a huge gate at the front. We were the only band so the guys played for quite a while. I guess it was the 13th anniversary of the squat so it was really an honor. Al was stoked on the show because, a few days ago, the founder of the squat was back with his band and sprayed pepper spray on the stage. The smell still lingered and Al started gagging in between songs. He said he had always wanted to play in the mist of pepper spray though.

ruda slaska, poland

We went to Poland today. Lenin was excited because we got to go to his hometown before going to Ruda Slaska and we got to meet his mom. I swear we need to have a mom in the van. She had coffee and cake ready for us and she gave us various medicines that we needed to take care of our coughs, indigestion and stuffy noses. Moms rock!

Afterwards, we played at an actual club. Not a squat, not a bar but a club. It was very apolitical. We played after Eye for an Eye which has a HUGE following here. In comparsion, the crowd response to Riot Cop was super-weak. During the show, Al broke a guitar string and didn´t have a spare. Sucky. The whole vibe of the place was all testosterone punk.

Afterwards, some friends of Lenin´s took us to an abandoned movie theater which is being squatted by them. Dominic said it was spooky. I thought it was pretty cool. It was something new at least!

roznov, czech republic

Roznov is the hometown of Martin, who runs Malarie Records, which is the record label that Riot Cop is on in Europe.

Since we found out the night we were leaving the states that we weren't going to get records, we were saying that we were going to have words with Martin. Then the CD production was delayed time and time again. We kept talking about how Martin had a lot of explaining to do. Then, when we saw him today, it was all "Hi! How are you? Good to see you!" I felt like we had just bent over.

We did get CD's which was cool. Our caseless CD-R's weren't cutting it. The CD's do look nice too. I helped assemble them for a while. That was a first.

The show was alright. There was a indie band that played before us, Blockshot, which was really good and ended up getting screwed over when it came to splitting up the door. However, they were from Berlin and we are from all the way across the Atlantic so it does seem fitting that we got paid more. I feel bad for them though because they sounded real good.

After the show, we had a disco party. Martin is very controlling of the music at his disco parties. Unfortunately, nobody danced much. He insisted on playing poppy-punk which may have been dance-able but it's called a DISCO party for a reason.

novy bor, czech republic

As much as I love Berlin, we needed to get on the road badly. Tensions were running high and money was running low. The money situation hasn't been as bad as it was last year but we're here to play so let's get on the road!

We got out of Germany and went to the Czech Republic. I like Czech. Maybe it's my heritage or maybe it's just that it's someplace new.

We got lost trying to find our venue outside Novy Bor. When we finally found it, we walked into what looked like a town hall with posters of half naked women, Eminem and Shakira on the walls. Yuck (except for the Shakira part). They fed us something that tasted more like roast beef than anything else I've had since becoming vegerdly eat it.
tarian. It was in this stew and I had to get Dom to double-check with the guy to make sure it wasn't meat. The mushrooms in it even had the texture of the fat that falls off the beef. EWWWWW. It was so authentic tasting that I could hardly eat it.

A drunk girl bought Justin a shot of rum and then proceeded to fall all over him. Unfortunately, he left her at the merch table and she proceeded to fall all over my merch. It took us FOREVER to get out of the venue when we were done playing. We were supposed to be staying with a guy in red leopard print pants but he had to wait until his friend down at the bar was ready to drive him. So we followed them and noticed that they pulled over to the side of the road, trying to get this girl walking through the countryside to get in their car. She didn't so they pulled away. Lenin then pulled up and asked her if she wanted a ride. She climbed in crying and holding a large knife in front of her. I don't know what the situation was but we came upon our lead car which was waiting for us. The girl said she wanted out there and when she opened the door and climbed out, the lead car went in reverse too quickly and hit our right fender. It didn't cause any damage to us but Lenin was pissed because the driver was drunk. The driver tried to give him coins (which aren't worth shit in Czech) and Lenin got REAL mad at him. Lenin got in the car and tried to drive outta town. Fortunately, the road he got on was closed and we had to turn around. He calmed down and we followed the car to Leopard Pants' apartment.

Crazy times.

berlin, germany - day four

I sometimes forget to appreciate that, hell yeah, I'm in Berlin!

I didn't do a lot today. We just sat around and took it easy. Today, for some reason, I was okay with that. Dom and I went to a different info-shop today. They didn't sell t-shirts but Dom was able to trade some of his zines. The guy seemed pretty interested in them.

When it got late, I decided to walk around the area by myself. I was walking down the streets, not able to read any sign or understand anything anyone said as they walked by me but the leaves were gliding past my feet and the city just looked alive. I thought, "This is what it's like to casually walk around Berlin in the fall." I was just glad that I could appreciate where I was at that moment.

I'll post pics later!

berlin, germany - day three

We are back in Berlin. I love Berlin. I think this was where I'd go if I ever decided that I couldn't take the US of A anymore.

In order to alieviate any sort of cabin fever in Lenin's flat, I walked around on my own. I went to a falafel place next door Maximillians and got pommes frites. Last year, we survived almost solely on frites. This year, this was the first time I'd bought them. After heading back up to the place, we chilled for a while, then Al and I decided to walk around to find fabric paint so he could make more patches. We were unsuccessful but we did buy a bottle of sour apple liquor. We then went back to Maximillians where I got a falafel and he got fries. After eating, we went to a nearby park and drank our booze. Whoo hoo! Tour!

We headed back up to Lenins and Dom wanted fries so I went back the Maximillians AGAIN. Lenin wanted to go to a lesbian rock show but we didn't have the money so we all went to a different falafel place with Marika.

This is why we shouldn't have days all. All we do is eat fries and falafels!

dresden, germany

This tag was the first thing I saw when we pulled into Chemiefabrick in Dresden so I had to get a picture in front of it.

Before they left Chemnitz today, the guys from Icos opened up our van where I was sleeping just to say goodbye to me. Very sweet guys. We took a guitarist from Rakkaus and the traveler merch guy from Seattle with us to the next show in Dresden. Al and I guarded the backseat with vigilance and made them sit up with Dom who kept frowning at me for that. Seattle (what we dubbed the traveler guy) played in one band that toured and just decided to stay in Europe, couchsurfing if you will with other bands. Dom and I think he's gonna try to latch onto us in Leipzig but we've already vetoed that idea.

Chemnitz was nice, nothing special though. They had a shower which I am always grateful for. Lenin is really sick now so him and I went to bed early and opted out of any sort of disco party. Sickness kind of defeats the purpose of a rock tour.

chemnitz, germany

I made my escape today.

The lack of privacy is an issue for me on tour. As I've said before, I tend to be a solitary creature so being around these guys all the time gets to be too much for me.

This morning I woke up before anyone else and I decided to explore Gorlitz. It's a beautiful city with cobblestone streets and very old architecture. I got a donut which had unexpected Bavarian creme in the middle (YES!) and a cappuchino and I was off! I walked to a fountain and sat down and just enjoyed Germany. It was fabulous.

Upon returning, we talked for a while, ate breakfast and then headed to Chemnitz. At Chemnitz, we sat around a fire pit for hours waiting for dinner. I should have walked around to explore the town but I didn't want to be away when food was served. I think that all of the sitting in the cold made me sick. :(

The show was good. Icos was awesome and we played with Rakkaus, a band that we played with last year. I wanted to stay up and disco with Icos but I knew my body needed to rest. Damn tour sickness!

görlitz, germany

Today we drove to Görlitz, Germany. I love Germany and I think that I could spend the whole tour here! Our contact at the Hospi in Görlitz informed us that we might not get paid because Icos, the band we are playing with, has an asking price of 120 euro. It turns out that it was a good show for a Sunday and there was enough money for us. Our contact guy was sweet and handed me money as people were handing it to him at the door.

Icos was awesome. I don´t care for growly punk too much but their sound was downright beautiful. If they had a CD instead of an LP, I would have bought it. Not only was their sound great but the guys were super-sweet as well. Hell, I´d love to do the whole tour with them! After the show, we had another wild disco party where everyone got forearm marker tattooes or marker moustaches. Lenin has dubbed our tour the 'Moustache Means Respect' tour.

hamburg, germany

I generally consider myself good at what I do but today, I was Captain Eat Shit. We went to Hamburg with Marika, a punk from the Kopi and her dog. The dog slept in the back with me most of the way. He was a sweet dog but it was a bit annoying after a while.

When we got to Lobush, the venue in Hamburg, we were taken to an apartment just down the street where this older punk with half his face tatooed served an awesome meal. Kabobs and everything. We ate, then we started arguing. I got defensive and questioned my place on the tour. We haven´t really talked about finances too thoroughly. Then Dom and Justin both had to reassure me that I was valued. We went back to the venue and I realized I had left the money at the apartment. Our cute liason Thomchek had to take me back there. When I got back to the venue, I found that I forgot the merch display in the van. I had to fetch Lenin´s keys from upstairs (eight flights of stairs!) but I couldn´t find them. I ran up and down three times, trying to find them. Finally, Lenin came with me. They were in his bag which was in the middle of the room.

After that, I was very careful and deliberate about what I did and said so as not to screw up again. I was very comforted by the fact that most of the older, rough-looking crusty punks there were queer. They were very sweet. Maybe today wasn´t so bad after all.

berlin, germany - day two

Dogshit city again. I used to hate it when I heard people call it that because I love Berlin. However, before we got into the van today to go to the show at the Kopi, three of us managed to step in dogshit. It has this nickname for a reason. Today we played with Question, a band from Minneapolis. After hearing so much about her, I finally got to meet Saira, who played with Dominic in Destation. They were cool. It´s so weird hearing other Americans talk over here after you get used to hearing broken English. Spidey from Portland lives here and she speaks as though English is her second language. At first, one would think that she´s just trying to pass as German but I could totally see myself doing it too after a while. I find myself speaking broken English a lot because that´s how it´s spoken to me so in my mind, that would be the easiest for an ESL person to understand. Anyhow, I love the Kopi. We spent a lot of time here last year even though we never played a scheduled show here. Our friends Kutt and Ania spend a lot of time here and it was pretty clear that they were glad to see us again. We drank a LOT and had a decent disco party afterwards, even if there was no ABBA. :(

berlin, germany - day one

We stayed with BJ in Ultrecht, the guy who set up the show. In the morning, he made us breakfast and we left Holland properly. It was a long drive to Berlin. People drive insanely fast here because there's no freaking speed limit outside the towns. Last year, I was supposed to be the backup driver for Lenin but the van ended up being a stick and I can't drive a stick very well. Hell, I can't DRIVE very well period. I'm glad now that it's a stick. I would've had so many panic attacks driving here or I just would've killed us all in the most spectacular crash the autoban has seen in a while.

We don't have a show in Berlin until tomorrow but we needed a place to stay and Lenin lives here so here we are. So far, we've had pretty comfy sleeping arrangements. Last night at BJs, he warned us that his cat snores before he went to bed. About fifteen minutes after the lights were turned off at 3 am, there was the loudest snoring I've heard in a while. Justin swears it wasn't him but I don't believe that a cat could make those sounds. I ended up sleeping with ear plugs in for the first time ever.

Well, so far, I'm kind of bored actually. I love it here but I feel like I should be doing MORE. It's Berlin, you know. However, I don't know what part of the city I'm in, Lenin went off to someplace where I don't have the money to follow and all of the guys are kind of really mellow right now. It feels like we haven't really started the tour. Tomorrow's show should be good though.

ultrecht, holland

Today, we played a show at ACU, a radical cafe in Ultrecht. The show was okay but Riot Cop was only punk band at the show. It was a lot more emo-core than we are used to. However, I think I enjoyed it more.

We didn't sell that much stuff. I made our poster board to display the merchandise. It looks more like I giving a science fair presentation on how a volcano works but we have such an eclectic assortment of merch, it has to be displayed somehow besides table-top. We did make 100 euro at the door though. That means we're only 100 euro in debt now. Wow, this is gonna be a rough tour.

The guy pictured above is Lenin, our van driver. He's awesome. Lenin has a bit of a temper but I haven't heard, "Topher! Get IN THE VAN!"yet so I think he's worked on his anger issues a bit!

I'm still enjoying it all but I think that we are going to end up losing a lot of money. Oh well, we'll have fun doing it!

And I was able to shower today!! Yay!!! (and post pictures!)

bochum, germany

I wish I could post pics because I love this place. I´m at an internet cafe right now but maybe I could post them from someone´s house. Maybe tomorrow night.

Justin gave our driver Lenin the wrong airline name so he waited at a different gate than us for around three hours. We ended up getting a phone card so we could call him. It was great seeing him and the van again. It felt like we never left.

We have a show tomorrow night in Ultrecht, Holland so we are staying on the way at Lenin´s friend Ola´s caravan again in Bochum, Germany. I loved this place last year and I´m glad we get to stay here.

UPDATE: This is two caravan wagons which Ola and the other people in the caravan built together in two weeks. There's a kitchenette, a hide-a-bed and a kicker table in there. I slept SOOOOO well!

detroit rock city

So we´re on our way. I feel a lot better now that we´re headed out. I´m still a little concerned about us losing money. It turns out that our booking guy in Czech didn´t get our records pressed. We´ll have CDs after a week or so but no record. For your average band, that would be fine but for a punk band touring Europe, it´s pretty bad. Oh well, we´ll just have to make the best of it.

We went to Detroit today to get our connecting flight to Europe. It was my first time in Detroit and it didn´t leave me wanting to come back. I ate some steak fries that were promised to be vegan but they still made me sick. I threw up on a plane for the first time since I was in fourth grade. However, after I threw up, I felt a lot better and was able to eat supper 10 minutes later. On the flight, everyone had their own personal TV built into the seatback in front of them. We all started out watching Fantastic 4: Silver Surfer but afterwards we all watched something different. I watched Oceans 13. Neither of the films was great but Oceans was better.

UPDATE: the above picture is the tram that runs above the Detroit airport! Whoa...it's like...the future man!