back in the first world

hello all. i just returned from my voyage through spain and morocco. it was rad, but right now we're all wiped out by african stomach parasites. once i've recovered i reckon i'll have some videos to share with you.

jared got shot in the face with pepper spray by a preteen soccer hooligan in valencia!

stay tuned.

Addendum to the post below

I didn't post any fun stuff in the spring break post so let me make that up to you.

Here's a video from one of my favorite shows in recent memory, one of my favorite showspaces, and one of my favorite current punk bands. They're breaking up this spring, and they were one of those bands I got into when I was young, saw a ton of times, and got every record. Marshalltown, Iowa boys, though they could have called New Jersey their second home.
Modern Life is War at 538 Johnson playing First and Ellen.


Mike Sheffield and I's legendary joke band, NAUGHTY is back on myspace.


Check it out if you like riding motorcycles upside down and hair metal. Violate Me is my personal favorite.

NAUGHTY

And now some things I miss from America.

Reporting in!

What up team. Let's recap spring break.
To answer Alex's question, some of us did meet up. I hopped an overnight train to Berlin and teamed up with the likes of one James Hodges and our beloved friends Mike Crowley and Laura. Berlin was awesome. It's covered in graffiti and wacky murals. It's unlike any other city I've visited, I almost felt like it was something someone invented for a movie or something. We cooked a lot of food and explored and drank beer. We also went to a haunted house in what used to be a Nazi bunker. Once inside the haunted house, there's a guy there whose job it is to follow you through the corridors and scare you periodically. He did a really good job, and loved picking on James.

After about 6 days in Berlin, I saddled up my horse and moved on.

The next 5 days were spent among friends in Paris, the city of lights. We ate a lot of good food, attended some super Euro dance clubs, stayed up late, and celebrated by 20th birthday. I also saw Versailles with Mary and her whole family which was fun. On my first night there we went out to this bar to meet some people we know and it was a good time, when that bar closed some French guys made friends with us and took us to their favorite spot and started buying us free drinks, an unexpected birthday gift. Anyway, we left there real late, and when we came out, everybody was crowding the platform to hop the late night bus home. These 5 dudes were standing with their arms around eachother, one of them asked us for cigarettes but none of us had any, so he walked away back to his squad. Upon putting his arms around them again, however, one of his friends cracked him in the face which put him flat on his back, unconscious from his head hitting the sidewalk. The 4 dudes then took turns beating on his face. The first guy held him by the hair and punched him repeatedly. The next guy kicked him in the face a few times. The last guy was on crutches and smashed one of them across his face. All while this dude was unconcious on the ground. They took off and somebody called the cops, we got on the bus and got the hell out. So that was TOTALLY insane.

All in all, killer spring break.
Much love to everybody, what's new with you?

More like... Sprung Break.

Yo dudes, what up.

I just got back on friday from my spring break trip to New Orleans to do some work.

It was a pretty fun trip, met some weird girls from sarah lawrence, some normal people from columbia, and some trashy people from the French Quarter.

It was pretty nuts... the group we were supposed to be working for no longer exists in Louisiana, as we found out the day we flew in, after driving six hours trying to find a building that is now boarded up and abandoned.  We did, however, find another place to stay, make food, shower, etc.

My buddy Jason and I primarily worked with some really nice people from Tennessee, which was rad.  We had a dance party with some old ladies.  I ate a lot of fried chicken and jambalaya, upped my stats in strength and dexterity so I could use the nail gun while roofing, and did some sightseeing around the levees and the 9th ward, talking to some of the people still living there.

And yes, people are generally nicer down south, and yes, there was a large amount of people missing their teeth.

Want to hear about your spring breaks: did you all wind up meeting up at some point? 20 story beer bongs?

p.s. i think i am going to be rick astley for halloween next year.

spank it

last night i probably saw the best concert i've seen in prague so far. jessie evans from the vanishing with toby dammit from SWANS playing drums. it was at a venue called skutecnost which is an art gallery and bar below some hostel though it felt much more like a big wine cellar.




this guy named ventolin from east czech republic opened. aside from looking exactly like dwight from the american version of the office, he played sick beats and sang and shit. comparisons are stupid but fuck, it reminded a lot of dan deacon.

holler back,
mike

stop snitchin

this weekend, i did things that would probably give my parents a heart attack.
this video has pretty much been my mantra.




lots of love,
michael

Sometimes I feel like this is my Xanga...

...Just kidding.  I never had a Xanga.  Or a Live Journal.  Actually, I remember a girl from my school who had a live journal, and her parents found out, and made her delete it because they thought it was so dumb.

so she started another one and wrote about that.

aaaanyway, i saw this on the interweb.  maybe you guys have seen it?  maybe i am late on this one?  whatever, i thought some of the stuff was super funny...

like this:

keep rocking.

suckers.

who else misses new jersey? (part one)

expect more soonly, both more homesickness as well as updates from berlin and my upcoming journey through spain and morrocco. viva!

Busy Bee

Yo internet.  Yo MJ.

i've really dropped the ball on this whole internet blog thing.

my bad.

i've been super busy though!  i started a non-profit with some kids in music business... we just got a grant and are applying for another one, and are in the running for a 10 thousand dollar grant for winning a business plan competition.

it is pretty exciting.

i went back home and played some jazz music at mr. t's surprise anniversary party.

no, not that mr t.

yeah, tutoriello, the band teacher.

uhmmm you can check out that whole non-profit thing i guess, www.voiceofreasonrecords.com.

we pretty much right now are just doing benefit cd's/concerts to fundraise and help promote other good causes... eventually we want to go on high-school/college/community tours, show kids how to put on a benefit concert, show them the benefits of musical activism, blahblahblah.

hope all is well.

-alex.

i still use this thing?

yes, i do. at 4:42 am prague time in fact.



this weekend i went to an event called the sperm festival. an act called burbuja played cool avant garde music while a cat-ram and a chicken-elk became aware and frightened of the concept of time by a man with a giant clock for a head. symbolism, anyone? i'm thinking the cat-ram is like god and the chicken-elf is like the devil. time is michael jordan and the man wearing the giant clock for a head? obama.

i made some new dogboy songs. (dogboy being a name i've been making poppy noise songs under) it might not be your thing.




ahoy,
mike

Quick Updates

Up'd the punx last night at the CPA and saw some Italian Oi and street punk bands. Hung out with some punks from Pisa, they told me they'd check out MJ. Lots of skinheads in attendance. Fun times.

Rode my bike into the italian countryside today, chilled and had a beer in a little town 6 km or so outside of florence.

Exams tomorrow. OOF.