Jan 14, 2017

I got up early and got a lot of little things done that I've been putting off. Becca wanted to go for a run so we met at Parvin. I ran the Black Oak trail for 4 miles. It felt good even though the temperature had dropped back to the normal cold. We walked a little after running separately then took off.

I felt like staying outside a little longer so I went to the park and ran 10 baskets, alternating 10 push-ups and 20 V sit-ups after each one. I played a decent game for being in a hurry.

I spent the afternoon packing, doing laundry, and taking it easy. Becca and I headed up to Philly early to meet up with Andrew to FINALLY get my MacBook Pro. We met at a Qdoba near Temple and made the exchange. I'm excited to have it, but it's frustrating to have a new thing and not be able to use it right away. We went to Blackbird and got delicious pizza and a sandwich then stopped at La Colombe for a cold brew.

We got to Union Transfer just as Hidden in Plain View was finishing up, but they sounded really good. The Early November played a full set of songs from The Mother, The Mechanic, The Path. It was a good mix of songs that I knew and some I didn't. The second set was worth the wait. It was full of all the songs I would want to hear including Fluxy! They ended on Every Night's Another Story which was an incredible end to a really fun and special night.

After the show we started driving North toward Watkins Glen. We drove about three hours, but it didn't feel like it because we chatted the whole time. We stopped at a rest area just over the New York border where we set up camp in the back of the car. It was cold and my sleeping pad sprung a leak so it wasn't very comfortable either, but I got to sleep.

Dec 21, 2013

I went over to Kim and Chester's in the morning to meet their new human, Courtney. Clearly, she took to me right away.. ladies. But seriously, she was cute and pretty much slept the whole time I was there shooting.

As per uszjh, we did some ridiculous photos with farm things. I took pictures of them on tractors, near corn cribs (which I didn't know was a thing until this morning,) and of course, with the cows. I need to bring some city people out here to take some photos just to see what they do.

I met Jess in Philly at Spring Garden School No. 1, an abandoned elementary school north of downtown. We easily gained access through an open window in the back and were soon quietly creeping up the stairs and through the mess of hallways.

We heard someone on the second floor so I said hello and a guy came out, said hi, and then moved on. I felt the threat had been neutralized. I could tell he was a nice dude, so I wasn't worried anymore about a homeless guy with a broken bottle coming to stab us. All good. We went up to the roof and shot some photos of reflections and the skyline, enjoying the view.

The cage on top is a cool, unique feature. We slowly made our way down the floors, checking out the different rooms. Few were picturesque, but it was certainly interesting to see what had become of the school. I was surprised there were so many books still all over the building. We encountered our friend again, who was taking wiring or pipes out of the walls to sell, I presume. We exited through the basement, giving instructions to several girls who were just making their way inside. We checked out another building nearby, but we couldn't find an obvious way in so we called it a day.

I went over to Sedgley, where there was a tournament going on and a ton of people playing because the weather was so nice. I chose to come to The Abbaye instead. I got a Fullers ESB, which was perfection, and the seitan cheesesteak. I chatted with a guy at the end of the bar until Jordan and Phil showed up to hang with me. We had a good time talking and Jordan really liked the Sweet Baby Jesus! Food and drinks and friends was good.

Joanna met us there and hung out for a while before going to The Foodery and then Soy Cafe, where I got a green tea coffee or something like that. It was cold. And it was pretty good. We spent an hour or so there before it was time to head over to the show.

We went over to Union Transfer and waited for a while near annoying people until The Early November came out. They played through The Room's Too Cold in full, which was awesome almost all of the time. The last track didn't really play well live, but the rest of it was fantastic.

Ace said something like, "Oh we forgot to turn on these Christmas lights during that whole set.. If you guy hang around we might come back and play another one." And then they did. They played a decent amount of songs from their other albums. The new songs all sound so good live.

They closed with "Every Night's Another Story" of course. It was a great ending to an awesome show. The crowd was great; everyone was having a good time and being cool. Ace was as grateful and happy as always and I left with a big smile on my face. I love those guys. I didn't miss missing the Brand New show at all. This band never disappoints.

Sep 10, 2011

After our meager continental breakfast we drove over to Blue Mountain and got to the registration tent where this overeager gentleman wrote our bib numbers on our arms and forehead so they could identify us in photos to tag later.

Once we had our materials, we walked around and check out the sites.

The mountain was transformed. It was really strange to see it without snow on it, let alone with all this other stuff going on. There were tons of people there and lots of Chevelle music.

The time had come and Ryan lined up with a big group of others and waited for the start of his heat. After a dramatic speech from a shirtless guy with a Spartan helmet on, they counted down and sent the runners on their way through a cloud of annoying smoke.

I spent my time wandering around looking at merch, taking photos of people coming down the home stretch to the finish line and doing a bit of reading. I was hoping to catch Ryan but it was my turn to get in line for my race so I went over there to get ready. He finished just before I started and came to give me a good luck talk.

This is a great shot Ryan got as I jumped over the fire at the end. So much happened before this. The first part of the race is running up the mountain. There are a few small obstacles: walls to climb over, under and through, ropes to help up steep slopes, a net to crawl under, fish netting to climb up and over and a bigger wall. The steep mountain made it impossible to run or even really continue walking at times. At the top they greet you with a big bucket you have to fill with rocks then walk down part of a double diamond slope and back up. It was crazy hard and I slipped and fell at one point. And the guy made me put the few rocks I spilled back in my bucket.

Once I somehow passed that rock bucket thing, I had to climb a big wall and finally got a nice cup of water! It was so good. Then I was off and running to a pulley thing with a heavy weight I had to lift about fifty feet up and safely set it down. Not too hard. The hardest thing was running downhill in the mud. There were rocks everywhere so I wasn't about to be careless and slip. More obstacles on this side were log stumps spaced about four feet apart you had to hop from one to the next, there was a giant water slide into a lake (so much fun) into a lake I had to wade through and swim under a string of barrels, and I think the next worst feeling thing was a really long length of barbed wire under which we had to crawl in the mud. I marine crawled a bit and then rolled, getting dizzy. It was hard.

This is what I looked like at the end. Mostly from the barbed wire crawl. The last bit included a wall with little pegs you had to cross that I couldn't do so I had to do marine squats. Then there was the spear throw, which so many people were missing, including me. More marine squats. Then I got to jump the fire, climb the little wall, fight the Spartan guy and cross the finish line to collect my t-shirt, finisher medal and banana! I'm so dirty.

I went right over to the showers and got in there for about a half hour trying to get all the mud off of my body and then tried to get some out of my clothes. It wasn't happening. I donated my shoes to a charity thing they had there. They need more pressure on those showers.

I had cut my hand sliding down one of the rocky hills on the way down so I got it wrapped at the med tent after I got cleaned and changed then we headed to the beer tent to grab my free beer from Long Trail brewery. It was pretty good, but I was starving so I drank it quickly so we could get out.

We went to check our times before we left. I came in at 1:47:51 and Ryan came in at 1:54:55 so we were really close. Though I couldn't run the whole time, I think my time would have been drastically improved if I weren't waiting in line a lot of the times throughout the race on the way up mostly. Some things only a few people could do at a time so we had to queue until it was our turn. Next time I'm going to try to stay closer to the front of the pack in the beginning and get ahead.

We went to Chili's for food and, even after having some free chips and salsa before our meals got there, we devoured our dinner. That was such a good burger. I can't wait to do another race like this!

We got back and I turned right back around with Joanna and went to the Electric Factory for a show. We got there when Man Overboard was playing. They were really good from afar. I need to listen to them more. When they finished we stood around for a raffle at the back bar to try to win a poster or tickets for either a NFG or Circa Survive show. Neither of us won anything, but I asked the girl who won the Circa tickets if she wanted to sell them and she ended up just giving them to me. So nice!

We made our way up front and The Early November came out to a very excited crowd. They haven't played a show for four-ish years. They opened with "I Want to Hear You Sad" and the place didn't calm down for the rest of the night. They were amazing and played every song I could possibly want to hear.

Ace was super thankful to everyone who was there and made that abundantly clear. They didn't want to leave anymore than any of us did. They played so many great songs. It was so much fun and by far the best show I've been to in a long time. I can't name the second best right now even.

It was quite a great day and I was tired; but the good kind of tired. I got a real shower when I got home and that felt fantastic. It was nice to lie in bed too.