UK TRIP - Post 5 (Saturday - Weston Park. Pics O plenty.)
August 26, 2003 04:42 AM
I'm on a roll now. Come clean - you lost faith in me didn't you. But I'm
posting like a craaaazzy fool now. I realize I lost the battle and probably
lost most of the traffic from the UK since we'be been back a week now.
But..hey, if this just ends up being some obsessive family photo album
that we can look back on one day, it's cool.
Here are the beginnings of our Sunday (August 17th) - heading to
Stafford... Weston Park. And in case you didn't know or care, the 17 year
old drummer for this band's name is Weston. freaky huh. He played there
and his name is Weston...get it? It's the same. That's freakin' weird, yo.
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and now, I'll go to work on posting. bd
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Basically, first there are a bunch of images taken in the back passenger
area of this interesting van/bus thing that Nettwerk rented for us. You'd
climb in the middle, but there was a front seat that didn't allow access to
the back. Jon (band member) and Rock (Nettwerk trouble-shooter/tour
manager, friend) and Paul (driver/new friend/great guy/musician) were
up front. Gear was stowed in a separate back end to the bus thing. ok.
I'm warning you....there are too many of these images.
Stacy is most annoyed out of any of them at being photographed. But, I can imagine how much it would suck
to have a video camera lurking at every step... she's pretty cool with it overall.
Weston was having a reflective moment... probably thinking, "I want food".
You can read the journal for the complete account of all our doings,
but just in case you're A.D.D., we picked up Dave after eating b-fast at
the Holiday Inn - and, well, he's always entertaining. We stopped at a
coffee shop in the area where Jack the Ripper ripped on innocent women.
yikes. But the cappuccino sucked. There were wicked grounds in the
bottom that I chugged and almost spewed. Dave is a joy to be
around...and pound for pound, is probably the best managers on the
planet. Now, let's join the virtual picture tour now still in progress...
Here is Dave reading the Blender story on Eisley for the first time. Then
he turned around and said, "nice article"...and started shooting video with his little digital camera...
...as seen above. That's why the girls are making such weird, funny faces.
I didn't blur these. I'm not going for some blurred look. This must be an
image of Stacy while changing metamorphic phase. Her isotopic density
looks to be about .00kilogigs. That's about when the bubbles start. I must
have turned the camera off when she morphed... and, well...the explosion.
I warned you; but, you know the rule...if I like it, it's going on the forum.
I'm not in the band...I can do this. If it were up to them, there would be
no images on the world wide web; but since I like the band and they let
me live with them...I post these. Besides, I think they're cute. Especially
Weston and Jon.
They're drinking hard apple juice. It's out of control. Rehab. It's the only
thing left to do.
I might be wrong, but I think this is the tower at some train station.
And this is cropping into the beautiful train station building.
And this is it from a distance...driving away. We're heading out of London
to Stafford. It took quite a while to get there. I will go back and look for
more images perhaps...but for the time being: ( I had a photo of what I thought at first was Weston Park, but Juan told me I was bogus. I was.
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captains log. stardate 0826003. It's thundering outside. A Texas shower
is steaming the slabs of molten asphalt deliniating our very manicured
lawn. The humidity is thick as a brick. Chauntelle just did her "LA Times"
interview. Weston is looking on a Radioshack website looking for some
wire he needs to replace. Sherri is out with mom and Collin doing
something. Stacy had to get the dog out - she (the dog) got scared
because of the loud thunder. I'm posting but want to go outside to see
how nice the yard work I did looks. Darin from Nettwerk just called to
give me the phone number for the photographer. He also wants "The
Winter Song" by FedX tonight. I'm no Ozzie and this isn't intertaining.
More pics later.
boyd
UK TRIP - Post 4 (3rd Pile - Hyland Park, V-Fest)
August 25, 2003 02:10 PM
Hey...if there's anyone left on the forum, I finally have images from day
one of the V-Fest. I have to tell you why I'm tardy...why so late....why
such negligence...such a mean dufus, and am guilty of such juvinile
behavior...why I should be ripped:
Well, because. Because, I had all this other crap I had to do, right? (you
don't want to know what it was) So, I took my Apple up to the Vineyard
on Sunday to catch up on a little work during 2nd service, and accidently
left it in an office that later got locked. So it took us all afternoon to track
down a key... after failing, me and a friend did the only thing left to do:
pop the acoustic panels, jump over the sheet rock and steel my
computer.
Then.... once at home, we had all these visitors (like always...revolving
door), but they're not really visitors, they're friends...so my family - they
forced me to go buy groceries, make hamburgers, cook them, eat them
and then yammer until about 10:30pm - at which time I fell asleep, but
woke up at 12:30am and worked till 4:30am on these very images...and
then I went back to sleep but woke up at 7:30am to take Jessie to school
and then I started this huge yard work project that lasted all day until
now.
WHY did I do yard work? Because LA Times is sending a photographer to
our house on Wednesday to do this shoot for the story they're doing...
(on that band that lives here) Phone interviews ("phoners"....but I hate
that word) happened today and...well screw this; now back to the V
FEST.
Posting begins now..it takes a while...on the fly. bd
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Smiles in the isolated splendor of the dressing room. So far, I don't think
the band has ever dressed in one of these. I might be wrong.
Chauntelle smiles chirpingly as the birds flutter from her messy hair.
And a fiest, it was...for behold.
They're on this ipod kick. Sure, they're great, and they all want me to be
jealous...but my Titanim pretty much rocks the same; basically it's got
itunes - and I can burn cd's. And I have gigs of storage. Think of it as a
large silver ipod. See? I'm cool too.
But it's an ipod fetish with these eisleyoids. borderline cult!...it's like
they're losing their identity and trading it for the ipod. I got it....Eipod.
yes. That would be...mic those drums dude-i-bro'.
Matt is a sweet guy. All of those Colplay crew guys are so nice, it's
sickening. And Eisley is sickening.
These are almost like real live comic strips. I didn't make it up. (but Matt
is very sohisticated - not like my bad dialect) I guess Coldplay really has
their guitar stands labeled... but this is all Johnny's gear becuz
Matt is only his guitar tech.
Like I said in my journal, Eisey got the coveted position - opener,
which is undesirable...unless you're a new band in a foreign land on a
stage that swallows you up and you really need a sound check.
Which was totally happened because Eisley got the hook up from
sympathizer - Derek (Coldplay's production manager), shown here.
Jon, stoic...warms his axe in the English sun... if the sun don't come you
get a tan from standing in the English rain.
I think the picture says it all. These shoegazers finally united, joined
arms, and stormed the stage, ravaging Eisley and scattering their spoils
over the campus. It was a sickening sight. Turn your head. It's too gross
to even imagine.
Stacy on big screen. Funny....they had no clue they were on these big
screens. It made them a little nervous after they found out and the show
was over. "Are you telling us that our big faces were on those giant
things for everyone to see? ahhhh!!!!"
My shots from the actual stage don't get much better that this, but they
do get very much worse... which is why I filmed the big screens.
Browse through these. I have no comments.
Filming them film again...
vvshhs bbbbttt. bllggbvvvt....glitchuk. glitchuk. where's the popcorn.
You'd better not say they look like Hansen. I always avoid this threesome
line-up. Something about it is just not right...or is it? Am I weird?
I love that Gretch. Champagne sparkle. sweet. George Harrison used
a model similar to this or exactly like this remake during much of his
career with a band from Liverpool. The vintage tones one gets are
so nice.
woah. I looked at the screen and for the first time saw there were more
than a few thousand people on the lawn. sheesh.
Sherri shots.
A great photo of Jon.
There is is again...three in a row.
peeps.
sis. sis. sis.
Weston pounding in full on boy wonder style.
Does anyone recognize themselves?
Jon at the V-Fest.
Chauntelle at the V-Fest.
Jon-Jon at the V-Fest.
We figured out that there were as many people at the festival that live in
our entire Town. 80,000. Of course, they weren't all watching eisley.
Would you have gone to see the baby band opener with no press, no
buzz, no nothing? Of course not. But something went wrong and many of
you did. ("them" to US)
More grandstanding. more grandisement. a true grandioso.
disengrandisement.
I said I'd post some images from walking around Hyland park, but I don't think I have any. Getting confused over the two identical shows. And the image of Stephen that was here....he too was at Weston so I pulled it. Thanks for tuning in. boydout.
UK TRIP - Post 3 (PiLe O pICs #2)
August 23, 2003 01:58 PM
It's Saturday night - 5 days after our return. As many of you know, we
returned home, lived in a stupor for one day and headed to Austin the
next for activities there before driving home Thurs. night - arriving home
at 3:30am... (see "Finding Eisley"...where all home base activies that
don't merit their own new topic go) and began recording (I didn't actually
record...though my polka and moose head marimba band could certainly
give eisley a run off the deepest moat.)
Let's me pick back up on FRIDAY AUGUST 15th (was it?) - the day before
the festival - the day we went SIGHTSEEING: (for those tuning in on the
fly, it takes a while...but images will begin to slowly appear)
Snuck this on in...leaving DFW on Thursday morn. (train thing)
Somewhere between the last train in DFW and this one in
London, there was a whole lot of air. I still have to find
those images on Sherri's camera. Soon.
Special Agent: Lady Dag-dag. See how how she runs...
(this is just bringing closure to a series on the first batch)
And after a brief nap at Sherlock hotel, we were off for Coffee.
Just in case you Americans wanted to know what all the concrete
chunks and scenes were from the first round of pics came from.
final shot - corner of that church with British lady flashing by.
K-marts are just pre-fab, metal warehouses... this building seems
to have some centuries under it's belt.
Buy you can buy noodles right next to where you buy a "TAT".
whisking by at bus speed... I captured my bevy.
I think this is my favorite street shot.
This is at that big public place where the giant lion is. A nice place
for people to hang out.
Keep in mind, we're still dazed and confused with no sleep in us.
A Tower Records! But, unlike in the US, there are NO eisley ep's. 
This is Chauntelle, calling her mom (my first wife) to ask if she can
cancel her credit card on-line. (she's still my first wife)
Rock and Chauntelle are hi/lo fiving it so they can look like dorks.
Some Triumphant Arch. They'd build these just to receive their
army after battle. This one is at the Parliment...the government.
This guy hates his job. Agree'd? or at the least, he's bored.
The guard surely smirked and motioned and spoke. Well, there
were these 2 boys before us wanting to punch him...so...
These two were the fiercest. but they were out of uniform and...
they surely smiled and laughed.
I call him "Eisgor" (the "s" is silent)
i dunno....25 yards of this propaganda.
This one was leaning...or it could be my camera. Nahhh..
Look, I know this is boring for you British peeps, but honestly,
this stuff freaks us out. I'm not joking.
Maybe in some really old New England towns, there are relics that
approach such splendor, but....Nahhh....
I drool over this stuff. Remember...I can' post whatever I want.
because, "THIs.....is my Xanga....."
sheesh. I guffah...I spleek, I spew...I golly-sputter.
And here...enshrined in stone forever - are the holy monks of
magumba...yes. I see them now. Mo (nk), Lar' and Curlie.
I'm not comparing Eisley to to either world so don't draw your'
own confusions. The modern world is steeped in consumerism
and commercialism... harder and harder to escape the cultural
vices - and be free enough to produce original art. Don't conform.
I'm sure the guys that built these fine edifices were conformists -
it's been too long since Art History. And, I was just going for the grade.
Another rich street scene.
We're over looking the Thames (?) River. That big feris wheel
is out there. But I've got to limit the images from here on out.
Maybe it's just the evening light that I'm fascentated with...the colors
are fading, but the cool palette makes me happy.
Jon Won could eat no porridge and his wife could eat no pie.
I've never spelled poredge, poridge... Jon's not married.
Sherri is shooting something. She's always shooting something.
She's seeing me seeing her. Look at the crowds we're passing.
Blurries.
Every once in a while, you capture something special. Some moment
where the conversation has lapsed; brain waves are reacting to new
stimulous, but the expression hasn't moved on yet...it's still on pause.
...and held there long enough to freeze it forever. Make it go away.
I'm not joking. This is a grade A English Dark Alley - the kind that
Jack the Ripper might have taken advantage of. But we won't go there.
We won't go IN there.
Don't you just love these corner lots...like, on a sharp tip of a block.We
don't have those in Texas...I really like these but don't understand the
civil engineering.
Where's the horses? What about horses? Don't people ride horses?
In Texas we all have horses and ride them to school, to work and
to the Hydrochloride Clinique where we all work (in a factory).
We ate chinese food that night, but were so tired...oh so tired.
You can see how tired Chauntelle is...she's oh so tired.
I didn't photoshop this. It's just the way it was.
Same here.
a nice green London sign.
Heading back underground to find our way to the hotel.
self-explanatory
This was in the underground - tiles. Nice detail. I don't know what
it means, actually.
There are many more images to come. We are just now getting to
the actual festival. Thanks for your patience. Hope to have them up
before Monday. (our monday) bd