I'm getting back into the groove ever so slowly.
As most of you know I got back from St Petersburg LF really late Friday night after having my mother cremated. The whole ordeal was very hard considering the shows I had to attend and events I was involved in and crazy commutes to the burbs and back where I was phoned at 530 AM on a Sunday morning from a Dr who said my mother was deteriorating. Being that I was getting into a trend of early to bed and early to rise getting such depressing phone calls all hours of the night and day left me unable to sleep due to stress. Not even sleeping aides were working in my quest for rest.
Saturday night Grego, Steve and some others went to the Blue Iguana to see Zorans band ALL SYSTEMS HALT perform for the first time since their Metro gig last June. They were the only act and it was fun to see them and trade inside jokes among each other during their performance. They went on late so I go little sleep in time to wake and train out to Midway where I was to meet up with Ron Marks and Dan Laudo for their video shoot the next day.
And as if all of the unpredictable occurrences had never happened, at the last minute the space we were suppose to use fell though and I had less than one day to acquire another and get the gear there. Well with the help of Yvette Ulrich my photographer friend in LA if all came together. We got a Marshall stack which is a company that endorses Ron, Sabian cymbals for Dan who he is endorsed by and even a drum, as well as a make up and hair stylist. So with that done we qwoudl be able to enjoy one night togther.
We checked the boys into their room at the DAYS INN (not the one that smells like Caribbean Jerk Sauce) and walked to Ranallis for dinner and football. After we ate our massive entrees filling our now unvacant guts we mossied over to the bar where Dan and Ron could smoke and catch the end of the game. We noticed a couple of attractive females at the other end who had been staring at us since we entered. Now after about 45 minutes I said to Dan, "Why don't they just come over and ask who we are? " And a minute later, almost on cue the blonde yells out, "Is your name Alex?" I went over and found that it was Bree (Butterburger) from myspace someone who I began communicating with regarding bars in NYC to visit on her birthday. Ironically, the Butterburger became a big joke with me an my cohorts on our last camping extravaganza. I was humored when I said to Dan and Ron, "Jesus, you guys are the famous people, why was I the one recognized." To which Ron replied, "You're more famous than everybody."
So we hung out with them for awhile and laughed it up prior to cabbing across town. They were very cool and went up and bought the last copies of MK left at Tower Records. I'm sure they're tainted now.
Afterwards we cabbed over to Street Side where we waited for Dietrich Thrall who really came through for us in getting the final pieces together for the video as well as filling in on bass. It is also likely that Dietrich and Dan will be Ron's touring band.
Later on my friend Linda from Indianapolis who I've known since 1989 showed up and it was the first time I had seen her in just over 4 years. She looked great and planned to stay for a couple days. But as I've always found no matter where I bring a pretty gal that nobody I know has ever seen whether they have girlfriends, wives or fiancés the dog in them immediately comes out. I will not name the two fellas out of respect, but I will say that it drastically changes my feeling of trust in them. And Linda isn't the kind of lady who goes around wanting attraction, in fact, over all she's pretty anti-social, by her own admission. I always thought of her as more of a hermit.
Somehow we all made it out and I wasn't even in Linda's car one-minute when my cell phone rang and it was one of the guys I had just mentioned, and he called repeatedly for the next 5 minutes, something that he has made a trend as of late. Dietrich took the band out to eat an early breakfast and I tried to get to sleep as Linda kept making me laugh. Something that was actually pretty nice after the past few weeks.
We woke up Monday went to the Golden Nugget to meet the guys and arrived early afternoon at the warehouse in Lincoln Park where the shoot would take place. Everything went perfectly. And as I've said before there is something refreshing about working with pros as opposed to wannabes something that I'll never do again, and why should I. And the entire performance only took a little over 90-minutes to capture and with the load in and out load we were done in around 4 hours all total. Paul Baio was great and we all ended up at NEO for Metal Night where we were treated very well.
The next morning Blabbermouth had already picked up on the video shoot and posted the photos, which is a good thing. I had received and Kevin posted the MINISTRY concert and backstage party photos and I got an email from the band saying they are using the pix fro the upcoming MINISTRY DVD. I had the $5 pizza over at Kelsey's and Dakota took really good care of us as always.Tuesday night we had some last minute business to take care of and after the stresses had passed, Linda, Greg and I went to NEO where I danced my ass off into a sweaty mess for the first time in many years.
Wednesday I said goodbyes and tried to rest all day. I met Paul for wings and got to bed pretty early. It wasn't as easy to sleep as I had hoped, too much on my mind, too may emails to return and very big week coming up.
I got invited to Seymour Butts Pimps and Ho's party this weekend, which is being filmed for his TV Show Family Business, and Gauge gets to town on Sunday so we have a pretty busy week lined up. And for the first time in my life I do not have concrete plans for Halloween. Not even a costume idea. That just goes to verify my state of mind, I don't even think I'll be able to have fun on my favorite holiday.
That's my story and I'm schticking to it. What I need now is a nice wekend out at Tubby's Drive Inn II.
Posted by Alex Zander at October 21, 2004 12:15 PM