PETER COOKIES

…and it was pretty much the only interesting thing that happened all day.

This was a sweet show.  Harms Way playing the first two 7″s at the Albion House.  Every band was made up of my friends, so it felt like a high school show.  Jimmy brought out The Mask.  Brian Laude’s pecker made a well-received appearance.  People moshed like it was the Planet of the Apes.  Not to mention it was all for a good cause.  There is a video of this show up now, with the glaring omission of me indiscriminately baloney-chopping people to The Murdario Stomp.  Why is that part not in there??  I never get in videos.  (>_<)

Shea was there, and he showed me the difference between spot metering and center-weighted metering, so hopefully my pictures look a little bit better from now on.  We also made a decent chunk of change off merch that will go towards what we lost when our van got stolen (which, in my case, was my favorite Hank Williams shirt).

Good vibes at this show.  I have great friends.

So my doggs and I went to Starved Rock on Wednesday.  It was the first hot day of the year and being outside was an absolute necessity.  I used to come here with my dad a lot when I was little.  Back then the drive seemed to take a whole day, and it’s funny to realize now that it’s only about an hour and a half away from Chicago.

It rained off and on all day, and the woods had that great rainy smell.  We climbed down into a couple of the canyons, skipped rocks, and played with echoes.  Bo found a couple of big garter snakes (I was out of film by this point).  We also stopped at this hilarious little trading post in town and all bought matching bronze dagger necklaces. (that’s a lie, Bo paid for mine.  Thanks buddy!  ^_^)

I bought some dirt cheap Walgreens film that I really should have just thrown in the garbage, but the pictures came out surprisingly nice.  I thought there were 36 exposures instead of the actual 24, so I ran out of film pretty early in the day.

I bought a cheapo photo scanner (an Epson V600) with money I got for selling some stupid hardcore shirts on ebay.  This was my first experience scanning negatives.  I have a lot to learn but overall it seems pretty straightforward.  Also, when I got the photos developed I got a set of prints, and I am now completely addicted.

Chuck Ragan has been my very favorite musician for the past 8 or 9 years.  From the first time John Friel played me the Rumbleseat song “Cursing Concrete” off some No Idea comp sometime around ’03 or ’04, Chuck gained himself a lifelong fan.  I’ve listened to every single album, EP, split, comp track, single and b-side, and I’ve listened to them all hundreds of times.  I really just think Chuck is fucking great.  So it’s oddly enough that I’d never seen him play his solo material live…until tonight!

If I had to encapsulate the way I felt about the show in a word, it’d be relieved.  I feel relieved that I wasn’t let down or disappointed by the show in any way.  To be honest I felt a little apprehensive about this beforehand, and maybe subconsciously that’s why I’ve always found some reason not to go see Chuck when he’s been in town.

I went with my good friend Zach who I’ve known since high school.  I showed up a little late, just as Austin Lucas was finishing up, and I’m pissed at myself that I missed his set.  If you haven’t heard Bristle Ridge or A New Home In The Old Word you really need to get into it.  The guy sounds like a ghost.

Something that surprised me about the Revival Tour was that there is no setup time between musicians; the first guy just introduces the next and he goes straight into it.  That gave the whole show this really nice even flow that was a sharp departure from a punk or hardcore show, or basically any other kind of show for that matter.  The whole thing felt really collaborative and organic; many times one person or other would run on stage to sing or play a part and then run back off.  Seriously good vibes.

At one point Tim McIlrath from Rise Against came out and did a little acoustic set.  He asked if anybody wanted to hear anything and somebody yelled “Killing Tree” and the dude fucking played a damn Killing Tree song on the acoustic guitar.  How cool is that?  Won me over for sure.

Chuck Ragan came out after Tim McIlrath, together with Jon Gaunt and Joe Ginsberg, and I was beyond excited.  When they kicked into “Nothing Left To Prove” I honestly felt like a kid at his first show.

If there is one slightly negative thing I could say about Chuck’s set, it’s that it was heartbreakingly short.  I’m sure he only played six or seven songs and he couldn’t have been up there more than half an hour.  I mean, I’d listen to him through next week if I could, so really it’s a minor complaint.  And with that being said, he played a few of my absolute favorites: “Let it Rain”, “Meet You In The Middle”, and Austin Lucas even came out to do “Hold My Bed,” at which point I misted up a little.

After Chuck was done, Dan Andriano came on and played a solo acoustic set.  He did a few old Alkaline Trio songs and a bunch of what I assume were newer Alkaline Trio songs.  I think most of the people in the crowd were there to see him.  I’m not a huge fan but he obviously made a lot of people’s night so that’s very cool.  As my friend Steve Kane says, “Enjoy Your Day” is an incredibly embarrassing song.

After Andriano’s set all the musicians came back out on stage and played a few songs, which included “California Burritos”, and then closed with “Revival Road”.

Leaving the show I felt like how I used to feel when I was 14 and going to see Local H or somebody downtown.  Just really excited about music and feeling good about life.  I wish I could just quit my job and follow this tour around in a VW bus like some Deadhead loser, especially since Tom Gabel is joining the tour tomorrow.  I’m not going to do that, but seeing Chuck Ragan was some serious bucket list shit, and I’ll always remember this show.

I got the negatives and scans back from my first-ever roll of film!  A lot of the pictures turned out looking like complete shit.  I guess I have a lot to learn about setting exposure.  There wasn’t anything I’d call great, but I did get a few ok pictures.  At the end of the day, though, I had a great time using a film camera for the first time (it just feels so much more right) and that’s all I care about.  My next goals are some good portraits and a color roll!

I was at my mom’s to do laundry today.  While I was there I decided to walk over to Bemis Woods. It was such a nice day out today that I knew I’d feel like a lazy slob if I didn’t take advantage of it.  It’s a pleasant experience to be able to walk around in warm weather at sunset without any mosquitoes whatsoever.

I was pretty outdoorsy as a kid, so me and my friends spent a lot of time clambering around in the forest, despite my mom’s constant warnings that the area is a notorious gay cruising spot (I think this was actually true).  When we were 13 or so we did our part to destroy the local ecosystem by showering the area around Salt Creek with a constant barrage of airsoft pellets and paintballs.  A few years after that we spent a lot of time drinking obscene amounts of cheap beer and starting drunken brawls with rival gangs of beer-drinking forest people.  I remember one time we were driving away from our spot when a group of our rivals was pulling up.  I motioned for them to roll down the window like I wanted to tell them something, and as soon as it was cracked open I threw an egg (which we always had a supply of).  It sailed right through the crack in the window and hit the kid right in the face as we sped off.  God we were such little shits.

Once my friends and I discovered this beautiful, verdant meadow in the middle of the forest about half a mile off the main bike path.  It was full of prairie grass and wildflowers, and even a little grove of birch trees.  In the summer we would come out here and build small bonfires, and I think we even slept out there once.  I would go there alone sometimes just to be by myself.  At some point the Forest Service or whoever cut down all the grass and destroyed all the vegetation with some sort of controlled burn.  I’m not really sure why they did this; I don’t know much about forestry but I assume there was some good reason.  I remember being devastated; in typical teenage fashion I had come to consider it to be my meadow, where nobody else was allowed without my permission.

Some of the grass has grown back since then, and I think I’ll stop by again in the summer when the plants are in bloom.  I did find our old bonfire pit, and there were a couple beer bottles around, so I guess kids still drink out here, which makes me happy for some reason.

My LVCs are pretty thrashed after 12 months and two washes.  The fading looks great but they’ve done their tour of duty and it’s time to retire them from the front line.  Not having been in the market for denim for awhile, I tried on an old pair of 511s and decided they look completely bleedin’ ridiculous.  The times have changed.  514s are out of the question because of their low rise and what basically amounts to a boot cut.  I saw recently that Levi’s has a new fit out: the 513.  It’s basically a 511 with a higher rise and a tad wider down the leg, but still with a taper.  In other words, it’s essentially the modern slim fit I’ve been wanting them to make for years now.  I’d even call the fit comparable to LVC 1947s or 1967s.

I looked online and saw that there was a “rigid” (whatever that means) selvedge version, but considering the trash materials Levi’s has been using the past few years, I wanted to see them for myself before pulling the trigger.  The store in Wicker Park was out of my size so I hopped on the Red Line in the middle of rush hour (mistake) and went to the store on Michigan Ave, “accidentally” ruining as many tourist photos as I could along the way.

The selvedge 513s surpassed my expectations, given that I wasn’t expecting much.  The denim is dry, sanforized, with a decent matte sheen (it’s obviously synthetic indigo, but nice synthetic indigo).  It’s also decently heavy (the Levi’s site says 12.5 oz and that sounds about right).  They have nice redline selvedge and the construction quality is at least as good as my Turkish-made 1967 LVCs (which is not saying much).  The fit is bang-on perfect for me, but knowing that all Levi’s bag out in the ass and knees in just a couple days, I sized down to a 30 waist.

The surprising thing about these jeans is that they’re actually really nice Japanese denim (Kaihara Mills, in fact, which along with Cone Mills White Oak, Levi’s uses for their LVC line).  In a day and age where idiots are rocking giant cuffs on non-selvedge jeans, denim companies are practically painting “JAPANESE!” and “SELVEDGE!” down the legs of their higher-end models.  But these don’t advertise it anywhere; I never would have known except that on the receipt it says “513 Slim-Kaihara Selvedge Rigi”.  You’d think that with the price Levi’s must be paying for Kaihara denim, they’d want to brag about it a little, but anyway I’m glad they’re not.

So overall, these were a really good purchase.  For 130 clams you’re not going to do much better.  Yes it would nicer if they were rope-dyed with real indigo, and double-felled, and a bit heavier, but for that price point there’s really no use complaining.  They’re a solid pair of decently made Japanese denim jeans with a great fit, and that’s just what I was looking for.

My only worry is that in a few months they’ll release some 15 oz Cone Mills denim, Made In U.S.A. version and I’m going to wish I had saved my money.

I picked up this mint Nikon N80 for 50 bucks off ebay.  This is my first 35mm film camera and I know next to nothing about shooting on film, but 50 bones for any SLR is insane.  Particularly one with a very modern feature set like this one (it was produced through 2002).  Everybody wants a digital SLR these days, even a shitty one for 10 times the dosh I dropped on this.

I have a 50mm lens in the mail as we speak.  I’m really excited to get into film, even after finding out that processing and scanning film is prohibitively expensive these days.  >_<  But really, I’ve always wanted a film camera and I think having an SLR again will help me develop my photography skills.

Can’t wait to take this thing on tour!

p.s. I jury-rigged a softbox with a cardboard box and some posterboard to take the picture above.  I’m pretty happy with how it turned out! ^_^

For whatever reason I stopped writing my tour journal after Brugge.  It might’ve been because there were only two days left and I was sort of mentally checked out at that point; everybody was getting everything together to go home.  Also, I remember those two days mostly being stale pretzels at German rest stops and uncomfortably long drives.  In any case, it’s not like I owe you more entries, you bullies.

Here are a few random things I do remember.  The show in Lichtenstein was at this youth center that was literally in the middle of nowhere.  We were driving along this two lane country road trying to find it, but there were no streetlights and no addresses, largely as a result of there being no evidence of human habitation.  We were basically in the middle of a forest.  Just when we had pretty much decided we were going to be axed to death by maniacal forest people and eaten by the moonlight we happened on the place.  As I recall, we found it as a result of Mandy Morrissey having been there before for some reason, and he somehow guided us there.  Pretty mystical.

Here’s another funny story about Lichtenstein.  Remember how a few posts back I said I shouldn’t talk shit about the people who let us stay with them?  Well I’m about to do exactly that.  We stayed with these two kids who were Christian gay German Madball fans.  NOW, I should make it clear that all of those things are perfectly fine when taken singly, but together as a mosaic of personality traits I find them vaguely unsettling.  Their apartment was somehow connected to a nearby Gothic church, nothing scary about that at all.  When we went in the place was absolutely freezing, and I rationalized that to myself as being something Europeans do.  You know, save some energy by turning off the heat while you’re gone?

So after showers we were all ready to hit the hay.  Me and Uriah were too slow rolling out our sleeping bags in the living room so we got stuck in the bedroom with these two Christian gay German Madball fans.  And no, nothing like that happened, but get this: it was very cold in the room when we went to sleep, but I woke up in the middle of the night because my teeth were actually chattering, like in a damn cartoon.  Uriah was up too, because while we were sleeping one or both of our hosts had opened the door to the outside.  I mean Christ it’s January and well below freezing.  I know that at times the cultural differences between Europeans and Americans can seem like quite a gulf, but are you telling me Europeans can’t tell the difference between hot and cold?

We got them to shut the door and I went to sleep deciding that maybe we’d be murdered in Lichtenstein after all.  So that gave me a chest cold that lasted about two weeks…

Bochum was the next and last day of tour.  The show was pretty uneventful.  We did the usual last day stuff like get all the money straight and get everything packed and ready to go home.  Me and Foose got in a stupid argument with the promoter over money.  Somebody puked outside for reasons I didn’t understand, I don’t remember who it was.  There was one of those big clothes/shoes donation bins outside the venue, and like the lazy scumfucks we are, we donated a bunch of stuff rather than have to pack it.

We got everyone together and dropped off Dead End Path at their airport terminal.  I genuinely like every one of those guys and I can say without reservation that they’re my favorite band I’ve been on tour with.  When we were dropping them off I realized how much I wanted to just stay on the road for a while longer.

The flight back was an ordeal and a half.  After flying from Frankfurt to London, there was a silly-long layover where I spent about 30 bucks at this conveyer belt sushi place, simply out of sheer boredom.  Keep me out of those places from now on.

Flights always seem twice as long when you’re coming home from a trip.  I watched the new Footloose and it was excellent, but the remaining six hours of the flight I could’ve done without.  We got back to America, waited in the longest customs line in history.  Jenna graciously picked us up from O’Hare and that was it!