The pond is being crossed.

I'll see you in a few weeks America. We'll be over there with our friends in Blacklisted and Soul Control. Bjorn is coming with us too. I'm excited. No phone over there. Just an Ipod and some books.

If you want to get in touch, message me on myspace or email me at nickwreck@gmail.com.

12/28: Amsterdam, The Netherlands @ Bitterzoet 
12/29: Munster, Germany @ Baracke
12/31: Rosswein, Germany @ Juha 
01/01: Hamburg, Germany @ Hafenklang 
01/02: Linkoping, Sweden @ Skylten 
01/04: Helsinki, Finland @ Semifinal 
01/05: Jyvaskyla, Finland @ Lutakko 
01/06: Tampere, Finland @ Vastavirta 
01/08: Berlin, Germany @ Cassiopeia 
01/09: Warsaw, Poland @ Radio Luxemburg 
01/10: Prague, Czech Republic @ 007 
01/11: Nurnberg, Germany @ Z-Bau 
01/12: Venice, Italy @ Rivolta 
01/13: Luzern, Switzerland @ Sedel 
01/15: Barcelona, Spain @ AP Vallarca 
01/16: Madrid, Spain @ Barracudas
01/17: Toulouse, France @ le Caravan Serail
01/18: Trier, Germany @ Exhaus
01/19: Essen, Germany @ Cafe Nova 
01/20: London, UK @ Underworld 
01/21: Cardiff, UK @ Lepub 
01/22: Manchester, UK @ Star And Garter 
01/23: Dublin, Ireland @ Eamonn Dorans
01/24: Belfast, Ireland @ Bunker 
01/25: Leeds, UK @ Josephs Well
01/26: Hitchin, UK @ Club 85 
01/27: Birmingham, UK @ Irish Club 

I fly back January 29th. February is dumb anyways. When I get back, things will be a lot different, hopefully.

Peace.

I've had this blog for a month?

Ok so here is another installment of "Watching My Brothers Movies.' I got a nice stack this week that included the movie Open Water (2003). I had been avoiding this movie for obvious reasons. One being its going to suck. But every movie can't be Armageddon, and today was my lucky day. So lets go over the plot. A couple, past their Cancun spring-break days, takes time away from their busy work lives to take a tropical vacation. What can you do as a 30+ couple on vacation besides scuba dive? Bocce? Now obviously the only thing between you getting left behind at the "magical kingdom" dive spot, and going back to your resort to have an oversized margarita and meaningless sex is a guy with a clip board probably playing MASH. (I always got the shack) Hey, I'd trust him. Whoops, you're stuck in the middle of the Ocean now, bummer. About 20 minutes later I'm bored and writing this. My guess is these losers die. Although, I did hear there is a second one. Too bad you won't be reading about it on here.

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), seems a bit more promising. I might recap later.

My, Gentleman's Quarterly

For the past six months or so I've been receiving the magazine GQ, or Gentleman's Quarterly. Regardless of what you may think or have heard previously, it's a rather informative magazine. Recently the December 2007 issue arrived to my doorstep. On the front cover and within its binds were "The Years Big Winners".

This list included Kanye West, Alex Rodriguez and Bill Clinton.

Oddly enough, I have a different list.

Andy Rice-
This booking agent powerhouse made the big move from Seattle to Boston to land himself in one of the most prestigious households this side of the Mason Dixon line. He will now be forced to drink md 20/20 on weeknights and wait for Jeff to listen to Crime In Stereo's "...Is Dead" in its entirety before he can take a shower. The anticipation is even killing me, I need a Xanax.

Taylor Sullivan-
This year has been huge for "Taybird". He recently "punk'd" Jeff for the $50 he owed him right before he left for lovely Puerto Rico. And only earlier this year I over heard talks between Tay and a womenfriend (not to be named here!) about trading some Uggs, for who knows what... wow! Not to be outdone by the goatee he was sporting just in time for the winter cold. I expect nothing but the same in '08 from "Taybird".

Sean McNeil-
There are guys who are top performers, and are constantly on lists like these, year in and year out. Sean, is one of them. He's a big winner not only because he downed an entire caffeine free Diet Coke and then muttered a few second later ".....this isn't beer?", but, in the wee months of this year Sean really began to shine. It was a cold night in the North End, Sean had one too many pitchers of Newcastle Brown Ale, and upper decked Jeff's toilet with puke. This was after he ran out of the bar with the waitress he was trying to impress worked at, so she didn't see him puke. As a brilliant man once put it, "So... you're sayin' theres a chance." Yes, yes there is. THAT, ladies and gentleman, is a man at the top of his game.

There's so many more people I'd love to acknowledge here, but only have time for these big three today. If you feel shorted, or feel like you should be a part of the list as one of "This Years Big Winners", drop me a line. Until then, keep your shoes tied tight and grab an md 20/20. Maybe YOU, can make the list in '08.

Where are all the dragons?

On Saturday night, Brian, Rick, and I took a walk down to the liquor store on the corner of Commonwealth Av and Harvard Av to buy some Absinthe. You're probably asking yourself "Isn't that stuff illegal and only in Europe?" Well yes, but from what I had heard, contrary to popular belief, Absinthe was "legalized" the week before in Boston, and was ready for purchase and consumption by the ignorant. So we set out on a journey.

It was a brisk 35 degrees, we walked down to the store, and there it was. Sitting on the shelf. There were a few different kinds, different accouterments, different bottles, different alcohol level. 'Dude this one comes with the melting spoon too!' Brian exclaimed. We obviously got that one.

Now I've never been privy to the making, or consuming of Absinthe before. Apparently there are three parts to the mixing of Absinthe, as so to make it pleasant enough to the palate to drink. You first melt a cube of sugar over top of the drink, in the melting spoon, and then pour it in coupled with ice cold water. I've also never been around a methlab, but I can only assume this is what it feels like. Three guys just sitting around melting a substance looking like fiends just ready to get as fucked up as possible. So we were hoping for the best.

Brian and I pace ourselves. Were having a good time onDemanding Job For A Cowboy videos waiting for dragons to appear. Meanwhile, Ricky downs close to four of these concoctions and passes out at 8:30 pm. I went ahead and made the assumption Ricky was seeing all sorts of shit at this point and HAD to go to bed or else he would try to fight the dragons he was seeing, only to find out the dragon was a green line train or something worse. So I hurriedly mixed one last drink of Absinthe in hopes of fighting my own green line train at some point in the night. But, to no avail.

After some sleuthing it was determined we were part of a hoax we didn't want to be part of. We obviously knew there wasn't wormwood (the ingredient that makes you hallucinate) in this Absinthe, but maybe there was a substitute? Wrong. Its just a terrible, and expense way to get drunk. But neither Brian, or I got drunk. I was pretty upset by the whole scenario, I began the walk down to a different liquor store with a hole in my pocket and no conscience. So I bought three bottles of md 20/20. No, I didn't get to see any dragons.

I'm sorry, Starbucks.

My father and I drink a ridiculous amount of coffee. I start at 7:30am everyday on weekdays. My Starbucks barista's know me as "Grande Dark Roast", that's not because I'm Italian; because I'm not. Now I go to Starbucks because of the quality of the coffee. Dunkin' Donuts coffee is too weak, Tim Horton's cup of coffee is about the size of a thimble, and for the life of me I'm terrible at making coffee. I used to go to Starbucks inbetween two and four times a day. This was until a friend of my fathers bestowed upon us one of the greatest inventions of the past decade. The perfect one cup coffee maker.



Isn't she a 'beaut'? Now office buildings, workplaces, and even North Face outlets have been outfitting themselves with these lil' guys for awhile now, why not me? It's essentially just an espresso machine, that instead uses little satchels of coffee, which make strong consistent cups of my favorite dark roast coffee all day in a matter of seconds. This makes my day more productive, and manageable without the coffee runs. Not to mention a little whiskey can go a long way in a late night cup of coffee.

So now my Starbucks visits have dwindled, the stack of green and white cups with terrible poetry are gone along with all the recycled cardboard handles, and my barista's may have forgotten about our connection. Well, I won't. But, I'm sorry, maybe I'll stop by sometime, and say hi.

My brother goes out and buys most of the newly released CDs and DVDs that come out every Tuesday. This has gone on for four or five years now. Your imagination hasn't steered you wrong, he has quite and extensive collection of both digital formats. I'll peek into his room on Monday's and take a few, and then watch them over the week. One of this week's selections was Manic(2001), in which several youths struggle with a variety of serious problems in a pysch ward. I'm going to tell you a little bit about my favorite part before you watch the video. Two young angst ridden fellows become so overwhelmed by the constant struggle in their adolescent lives, that all they can do is listen to the deftones... take a peak.



Yes, that is the kid from Brick push pitting.

'I'd like a one-way ticket to Hell, please'.

I've lived in Rhode Island at my father's house since the end of our last tour, which ended August 29th. I sit here now on November the 13th, attempting to figure out javascript coding, drinking my third cup of 'perfect one cup coffee' at 10am, eagerly anticipating my departure for the weekend to Long Island, maybe NYC, and Boston. A long weekend if you think about it in terms of travel and sleeplessness, but sleep and I aren't great friends as it is, again. All of that aside, it seems all I do is try to figure out how to feel like I'm somewhere else. 'The Dangerous Summer' seems to be helping a bit, my singing could use some help though, but I digress.

My initial point was to display that I now, find it funny I'm thinking of things in a 'How soon can I get out of here?' way, without any concern for where I may wind up. This list of places certainly includes Connecticut, and even New Jersey. If you had asked me two, three years ago you couldn't stop me from traveling back to Rhode Island at any cost, to stay at my fathers house, to see my mother, to find my friends.

'I'd like a one-way ticket to Hell, please'.

Its a shame, I like this weather right now.

Seems so far off doesn't it? Two, three years ago? Never fails to amaze me, what I thought I knew; or even now, what I think I know. I need a few more years...