(Don’t forget tonight 5pm – 7pm Eastern: Google Hangout! DGC video chat, should be viewable to all here: https://plus.google.com/106322465979385944906/posts?hl=en)
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So the stupid part about being on a bus overnight that was built to sleep eight people was that we really didn’t sleep.
Bart got into his bunk but didn’t end up staying there. No one really felt like settling down; it was like a sleepover party. Colin had a nap and then got back up, and Chris never even got in bed, I don’t think. People had quiet conversations, or read a little, and checked out the various parts of the bus all over again.
It took me a little while to figure out why there were holes in all the tables. As soon as someone stuck a Coke can into one it was obvious, though. There were two toilets, one in each “lounge” area. The one in back was tiled and had gold-tone fixtures. (“Crap. This is nicer than the bathroom we have at home,” Chris joked.) The front lounge had a door that could shut us off from the driver completely, but there was a phone Marty could use to call us or vice versa. The front lounge was just a lounge, with a TV set in one corner and a VCR, while in the back the corners held some kitchen stuff, a microwave, coffee maker, freezer and so on. Ten people could comfortably hang around in the back, twelve if you were friendly. The banquette-type seats that lined it had drawers under them. There were also storage drawers under the double bunks that could be pulled out so that instead of eight bunks, you could sleep twelve.
The shower really seemed like something from the set of a science fiction movie. The entire interior was a uniform beige color and it was like it had been molded from a single piece of plastic, which I guess it was. When Chris got in I seriously wondered how he’d wash the lower half of himself since there wasn’t room for him to bend over. Those of us of the smaller species of human had a lot less trouble. Chris said he planned to shower at the venues whenever he could, which got a thumbs up from Carynne.
Continue Reading »
Okay, it’s a Sunday, which isn’t a regular posting day for DGC, so here are news and notes about the Kickstarter which is ongoing and other cool site news!
Kickstarter
The Kickstarter stands as of this writing at 86% funded! $2,367 pledged, $383 to go.
Posting Schedule
Plesae note that as soon as the Kickstarter ends, we’re dropping back to Tuesday/Thursday posting, Continue Reading »
(Kickstarter update: $2,330 as of this morning! With $420 and ten days to go! More below.)
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The San Diego show kicked so much ass we did an extra encore, which was my fault. I just didn’t want it to end. Louis whapped me with a rolled up newspaper afterward.
“The first show where we have to get on the road overnight and you decide to go overtime?” he admonished.
“But it was worth it, wasn’t it?” I said.
He didn’t answer, just handed the newspaper to Petey, who whapped me with it again. Continue Reading »
(By popular demand! Everyone wants to know what Daron was up to last night. Our usual m.o. when a graphic erotic scene might occur is to only send it to those who make a donation. But since we have a Kickstarter going on right now, I made a new reward there which will be anyone who donates at least $1 the bonus scene! That way all donations will be funneled through there. Anyone who already pledged in the Kickstarter will automatically get the bonus scene, too! See below for more news.)
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I didn’t get to San Diego until the next day and was actually an hour late returning the car, but if it mattered I didn’t hear anything about it.
From the rental car place by the airport I took a cab to the venue. It was yet another one of those round places that looked like a UFO landed in the middle of nowhere, and then they built a parking lot and stuff around it.
The crew and the equipment were there, the rest of the band was not. Continue Reading »
Things went to hell the next day.
No, they didn’t. I just wanted to try saying that and see how it sounded. Because things don’t just suddenly go to hell in the same way they don’t just magically get better, either. If there’s a miracle in my life, it’s the miracle of patience. I don’t give up on things. Even when I’m not even sure what those things are.
And in fact the next day was pretty good, all things considered. Continue Reading »
(Kickstarter status: 53% funded! 16 days to go! We just have to keep up this pace and we’ll make it! http://kck.st/IlE7Bi)
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Carynne. Oh my god, good old Carynne. She sat down with me in the first row of seats and went over every mother-loving detail I asked about. Come to think of it, it was a good time for us to check in about all kinds of show stuff, even if I had an ulterior motive.
I tempered my questions about various details with inquiries as to her opinion on things, which kept her talking and kept it from seeming like I was second-guessing her. What was going to be our best venue? Which show was likely to pull top gross? Did we need to know anything special about Canada? Et cetera.
Sometimes I am a really good bullshitter. Continue Reading »
(Quick Kickstarter update! We just need $150 more to hit the halfway point! We’re at $1225. Please pledge if you haven’t yet! http://kck.st/IlE7Bi)
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The next day was another media day, but at least this time there was no crack-of-dawn radio show on the schedule. I sat in the lobby bar, where my friend Crystal–the bartender from the other night–kept me well hydrated while a parade of rock critics and journalists took their turns with me. If I’d wanted, I could’ve done it at BNC’s offices, but I think it was a lot more fun to sit in the bar where we could see the people going by and a terrific woman brought us drinks than to be stuck in some conference room with stale coffee and no doubt a flock of hovering publicists.
Digger put the schmooze on each one before or after they spoke to me, and steered one or two to Ziggy, who was entertaining in the suite upstairs, from what I heard. It was a little tiring talking to so many people, and answering the same questions again and again, but really not high on the difficulty scale. It seemed to me as we went up the fame scale, the questions got dumber and more repetitive. Or maybe Jonathan had spoiled me.
Or maybe I was just bored. Continue Reading »
Back at the hotel I went and checked the suite to see if there was anyone hanging around. Apparently I had just missed Louis and the video of that night’s show. Carynne and Bart and Michelle were still there. I could hear Digger’s voice through a closed door, like he was on the phone with someone.
I didn’t see Chris. “Everything okay?” I asked, sitting down on a leather couch. It creaked under me. Continue Reading »
(And the Kickstarter has been going almost a week! We’re up to $585 which is 21% of the way there! If you haven’t checked out the pledge and reward levels yet, or watched the fun little promo video I made, it’s all at the DGC Kickstarter page here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1458565937/darons-guitar-chronicles-omnibus-book) And now, today’s episode…
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It was a very professional crowd, it seemed to me. They clapped in all the right places, cheered in all the right places, never got too crazy, but never lagged in energy either. Don’t get me wrong; that was perfectly fine. But it wasn’t special. Or maybe it was me. I was so ready for something to go wrong, and when nothing did, maybe my head wasn’t in the right place.
Ziggy knew how to play a crowd like that. Let’s face it, he knew how to play any crowd, deep or shallow, rowdy or subdued. Lacey didn’t show up as far as I could tell and I had to keep reminding myself she was okay.
I forgot all that when I came off stage and saw Remo standing there, whistling and clapping. Continue Reading »
(The Daron’s Guitar Chronicles Kickstarter has raised $355 so far! We need to get to $2,750 by May 21st to make our goal of having a printed omnibus paperback. If you haven’t donated to the site in a while, this is a great way to do so and get some nice perks and/or books for the trouble! Full details on the Kickstarter page here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1458565937/darons-guitar-chronicles-omnibus-book)
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Chris wasn’t in the van to the venue. I refused to worry about it and reminded myself I wasn’t his babysitter. I still felt relieved when I saw him standing outside the back door, though, shooting the breeze with the security guard there. He didn’t appear to be barred from going in: he was wearing his backstage pass on a lanyard.
He trooped inside with the rest of us. The sound system had been set up long ago–yesterday probably? I didn’t know. After the beautiful open air place we’d been in Santa Barbara, this felt like an airplane bunker.
I finally cornered him in the men’s room. Continue Reading »
