Scandinavia.

It fucking rules up here.  It's a lot like Canada, but more Ikea.  The weather is gorgeous (currently 80F in Gotenborg, Sweden today).  I've always loved it up here, but visiting in the summer is a whole lot nicer.  Just a little over a week left of tour.  It will be cool to be back home for a bit - I plan on buying a car.  That means I'll probably venture out of town a lot more too.  Summer time in Ontario is amazing, and I just want to drive with the windows down and listening to really loud music.  Speaking of music, I picked up some new albums - No Age, Nouns (great record, does Sub Pop put out anything that isn't great?  I don't think so), Cut Copy (competing for my favorite record of the year), Animal Collective EP (amazing), Santogold (giving this a try), new Bonnie Prince Billy, etc. etc.  I buy a lot of music, so what.  I think it's going to be a good summer, but time will only tell.  I've had a lot of veggie street meat in the last 24 hours, but I think I might go back for more.  Over and out.

Look at it, all lit up and stuff

After driving 16 hours from Madrid, Spain -> Paris, France, we hit the town last night and I took this picture of the Eiffel Tower all lit up.  It was a beautiful sight to say the least.  Last night was a bit of an adventure as on the way back our subway line stopped running all of the way and we spent about an hour walking around trying to find our bearings.  Somehow we stumbled upon a Castle but it was too dark to take any pictures.  Fortunately our bilingual friend and superhero, Kevin Kennaley, used his french powers to get us a taxi.  Today we're playing the 'Big Show', and hopefully I'll get to do some more sightseeing.  This marks our 3rd and final show in France, and I must say that I'm happy to be moving on.  Very excited for Scandinavia (Max Burger, Cheap Monday Jeans, Swedish folk music, and good times).  I wish Daft Punk was playing at my house, my house.  Over and out.

Conquering Spain.

What's up Mediterranean Sea!  We are currently in beautiful Spain right now.  Yesterday I got to visit the "La Sagrada Familia Terminada" in Barecelona and explore a bit of the city.  The show yesterday was a lot of fun and one of the sweatiest shows we've played in a while.  Today we are in Madrid but unfortunately it's a bit rainy.  Exploration might be a little less today.. plus I think we're kind of in the ghetto.  Sunday is our 1000th show and we are celebrating in Paris - not a bad place for such an event.  Huge drive day tomorrow so maybe I will do some reading or something productive.  Peace out, soundcheck time.

Baguettes & Cheese

Here it's just toast and fries (drop the French prefix).  I'm in France today for 1 of 3 shows throughout the country.  Definitely my least favorite part of Europe, but hopefully the shows will go alright.  Still not homesick at all, I'm having a pretty rad time.  Started working on my tour photoblog, and I've already seen a lot of cool shit.  Today we found out that in order to play our show in Helsinki, we will have to take an 11 hour boat cruise from Stockholm to Finland (each way).  We've taken a good share of ferry rides in the past, but this is definitely next-level.  Not much else going on, just trying to survive France - is there anything else to eat other than sandwiches here?  I don't want another baguette.

Not homesick.

Vienna is beautiful.  Such a wonderful day in the city.

Berlin was on fire the other day, across the street from the venue!

Bringing down the wall [again].

Today we visited the remnants of the Wall (the Berlin Wall, to be specific).  Had a nice walk around Berlin, which is one of my favorite cities as noted earlier in my blog.  We couldn't have asked for better weather at this time of year.  So happy about that.  I bought a few records the other day (Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Fuck Buttons, Boys Noize, Hercules And Love Affair).  Really enjoying the DIOFF? album, despite the mixed response it's been getting.  The record is definitely all over the place (House Bangers to Indie Rock Jams) but it's pretty fucking good.  Fuck Buttons is also, really fucking good.  This year is shaping up to be a better year for music.  I'm really bummed that I will be missing the My Bloody Valentine reunion in September.. who knew that it would happen in '2008' and when I was going to be out of town?  Great timing on my part.  Time to do stuff, getting out of here.

Reeperbahn

Parts of Germany are really fucked up.  We had a day off in Hamburg today and this time we actually got to walk around the Reeperbahn area (known as the Sinful Mile).  As my pictures below detail the area, you can buy any sex object or movie ever created, watch just about any act performed on screen or live, purchase handguns/knives, or even treat yourself to one of their lovely prostitutes (to be easily identified wearing their fashionable fanny-packs).  However at the edge of this adult-circus, there is a graphic sign that suggests No Handgun, No Knives, No Blunt Objects, No Mace - all of which are probably in high abundance throughout the area.  We did find some delicious falafel at around 1am.  You can always rely on late night kebabs for tasty treats.  This time I drank Fanta, figured I should probably try and fit in?  Bus internet in Europe is a savior.  All of the wifi.

Germaniacs.

Shorts+Sandals in Europe is one of the greatest feelings.  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous over here since landing in Frankfurt on Thursday morning.  After staying up all day to adjust to the time-zone, I crashed hard in the evening and slept a total of 14 hours (a new record for myself).  Now I feel great and I'm ready to party, kind of.

Rocking out in the famous Earls Court today, pretty excited about that.  These festivals have been overwhelmingly great for us.  Walked around London today, had some Starbucks upon waking up and now I'm feeling pretty energized.  Time to get ready to rock out, hopefully I can stay healthy this time around.

You_are_so_analog.

Leaving tomorrow for Europe, big flight overseas and probably a restless evening of very little sleep.  I find it hard to sleep on planes, especially when I should be.  Hopefully I'm not sick on this tour as I'm just getting over yet another cold.  I miss playing shows, so it will be fun to get back into it again.  Overall, time at home was good, but still confused as ever about a few things.  As it all starts to become a little more clear, there are more distractions that prevent from true understanding.  Solitude overseas will be much enjoyed.  Hopefully I can do more writing to vent my thoughts and ideas.   I'm ready to enter the bubble and sequester my mind. I've come to realize I often fear normality and conventional routine.  Future exists as an abstract idea right now.. I need to build what I cannot see, before imagining the plans.  Time to sleep?  Possibly.  I'll let the Brian Eno ambient collection drift me to off to Dreamland and hopefully feel better in the morning.  About Everything.  Analog/Digital, it doesn't matter who you are.  Dreams = escape.

Stress. Fucking Intense.

This video is fucking intense, holy shit. I love Justice. Seeing them at Rock am Ring / Rock Im Park this year, stoked.

Again with the blueshell.

Big Race.

Today I bought a Wii and the new Mario Kart game.  Big race indeed.  It brings people together and its a hell of a good time.  I have great friends and I've really enjoyed the mass amounts of hanging out I've been able to do this time around home.  In just less than a week I will be on a plane bound for a foreign continent.  It feels like I've been separated from the touring life for such a long time.  I guess I'm ready to resume, but home is feeling comfortable.  Everything else has been great, and I'm excited about the future.  Life is complicated, but the more I live, the easier it is to figure it all out.  Puzzles are as difficult as the ones I choose to solve.