Phishmas Eve

With a belly full of turkey dinner, a few Miller Lites, and an adventure that has already begun; I write with the latest update this Phishmas Eve. As promised Mackenzie (far right) came through with some creative advertising for our little road vending operation.

Tomorrow is the first show at Fenway Park, when Jay and I "set the gearshift for the high gear of our souls", and start our Phish adventure! More to come after Fenway... as for tonight there is much more celebrating to do!

The Tickets Have Arrived

With only Eight days to go until the Element (a.k.a. the Phishmobile) is packed up and on the road, we are still waiting for the Knoxville TN tickets to arrive. Thankfully the bulk of the tickets landed yesterday, and they are  a beautiful sight! They are all shades of pastel, and kinda look like monopoly money with fine lines and holograms sparkling in the light... takes my breath away.

It's amazing to think of all the potential stored in those tickets. Potential adventures, memories, surprises, insights, laughs, and much more to be discovered. Each ticket represents an experience; a dream come true for us, the band, and the thousands of others who will be sharing the groove in just a tick of the clock. In 5, 10, 20+ years I'll look back on these stubs and smile, remembering the amazing experience represented by a shiny piece of paper. The great thing about technology is I'll have a whole lot more than stubs to remember, AND they don't rip tickets anymore, now that scanning has taken over.

This time next week the car will be packed, and we will be in Plattsburgh having a celebratory turkey dinner with all the fixings. Our amazing friend Mackenzie made a logo for our "storefront", cleverly named "McGrupp's General Store", after a character in the song "McGrupp and the watchful horsemasters". We will be making signs and creating our "staff" T-shirts from an iron-on she made for us. This is the big time yall!

My next post will hopefully be Saturday night, proudly displaying the shirts and signs, and I should be able to post after Fenway, next Monday (hopefully with video and photos of the show). It's going to be tough updating the blog from Long Island, with no known internet hook-up, but you never know! Until then... Phish be with you.

Vending on the Road

I've been waiting for the UPS man for a few weeks now, and would have given up hope if it wasn't for the "track your package" option. I have been waiting for the final shipment of goods we are going to try and sell while on tour this June, and today I got the glowsticks! The first round were destroyed in transit... yeah that was funny.

Jay and I wanted to figure out a way to make money by selling legal ;) stuff in the lots. When on the road for a month, spending like evil monkeys, every earned penny will add up! We figured since we really have nothing else to do, we'd become a part of the scene by getting to the parking lots early and setting up shop and possibly helping create Shakedown Streets across the USA (a dream come true, of course). Attracting passers by with tunes, good smells, and perhaps some live entertainment; customers will hopefully pony up the $1-2 for our shite.

We have decided to sell:

Glow Necklaces, cuz seriously who doesn't want to glow in the dark?

Kettle Corn, cheap, yummy, and the smell will travel for a few rows. POP pOp!

Earplugs... little, yellow, and effective!

Cold bottled water, better than the $5 you'll spend inside!

Blow Pops, come on... it's 2 treats in 1

If it all doesn't work out... I love blowpops and will always need earplugs!

28 Days 'till Phenway, but who's counting?

Jay and I have been asking each other, "is it June yet?" for 4 months now, and it's finally May! The final plans are being checked off lists and in a few short weeks we will be setting sail on the adventure of a lifetime!

My first show was in 1998 at the Worcester Centrum, and I have been a phiend for live Phish ever since. I had been a phan for many years, but was not switched on to the live side of Phish until college. The internet was reletively new and my old mac wasn't internet ready, so I was kinda oblivious to the legions of phans who followed them around the country. I had no idea a concert could be a different musical journey each night. A guy who lived on my floor Freshman year who we called "sketchy Keith" was a part of a taping tree, and after a few bootlegs I was hooked (no pun intended).

I saw them whenever I could, and discovered the beauty of the Phish lightshow and CK5, but still stayed in the 200 mile range around Seacoast NH. Something always seemed to hold me back from doing a full on tour. At Coventry (the "last" Phish show) I felt some regret that I never did the Phish tour thing, traveling with Phish and many other phans from city to city, logging hours of live Phish experiences. It was then that Jay and I made a pact that if they were ever to have a reunion, we would do the whole tour. It was a pact laden with the many ups and downs of emotion we felt that whole weekend in Northern Vermont where we were all tested physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally and every other way one can be tested.

When the rumors were confirmed and it was "ophicial" I knew this would be our tour! Luck was on our side as well, because Jay and I both were free for the summer, with the usual distractions of employment out of the picture. Lady luck further smiled on us when I won 2 tickets to 10 of the 11 June shows through the lottery, and Jay won us 3 tix to Phenway. After a battle with ticketmaster and livenation, trying for Redrocks and other West coast shows, we cut our losses and considered it a miracle that we scored 2 tix to:

5.31.09 Phenway Park Boston MA

6.2.09 Jones Beach NY

6.4.09 Jones Beach NY

6.5.09 Jones Beach NY

6.6.09 Mansfield MA

6.7.09 Camden NJ

6.9.09 Ashville NC

6.10.09 Knoxville TN

6.18.09 Burgettstown PA

6.19.09 Noblesville IN

6.20.09 Alpine Valley WI

6.21.09 Alpine Valley WI

8.16.09 SPAC NY

So that's the history (or Phishtory) of our tour this June. More to come on our road towards Phish tour 2009!

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