the absence of seasickness

Somewhere between Ireland and England, I think I've finally made peace with my lifelong bout with seasickness. Since as long as I can remember, a chilhood ferry trip to Catalina; deep-sea
fishing trip in Mexico in my teens; and then the more recent tour travels: Vancouver to Victoria, Ireland and France. And for whatever reason, this morning is different. The rocking, the teetering horizon. I forgot about the ocean air and feel sad that my brain associates the term sea breeze with deodorizers.

I rather enjoy the tail end of a ferry ride. A majority of the people are asleep and those awake are typically reading or watching the water. There's a calmness in the air and everything
feels at ease. Life doesn't stand still, but slows to a pace where you can catch yourself and yoru actions... for a moment. Soon, the PA will announce our arrival. A passenger will ineveitably take a cel phone call. We'll eventually arrive and sit in the hull of the ship awaiting the feel of the sun. The motorway will bring traffic and 5hrs from now I'll probably receive some annoying emails...

But right now the little ones rest and await another city. Right now, we are unreachable and exist on the outside.

land hooooo.

-i

2:35 am // sheffield

I'm up. Brian's up. Stef is up.

It's a night off and I think people are trying to catch up on life, laundry and the French Kicks. Brian just had a 15min iChat with Alex and the Kicks while they were all at the Double Door in Chicago. Ohhhhhh, technology!

At some point Davey somehow stealth'd his way into our room and hid in the toilet and freaked us all out with some sinking turning on by itself antics.

Tomorrow is Sheffield followed by Dublin the next day.

Oh yes, oh yes.

-i

getting started

Where do I start? Lee, Davey, and myself reunited with the brothers several days ago now. As to what they've been up to, please refer to the last entry below. It was then off to Barcelona. For some returning, for others and myself the first. I think we were sitting down for tapas in under 2hrs of landing with a round 2 about an hour before playing. Thanks to Xavi for taking us to some amazing tapas while simultaneously conducting an interview.



The following day Edward and Lee took the undergound to the beach while the rest of us slept in and then walked around the Avenue Para-lel. The air, the landscape and sky was reminiscent of home, palm trees and all.




It was then back to London for the Heavenly Forever extravagaanza at Queen Elizabeth Hall.


It was truly an honor to play this event. A label so rich with history, an amazing roster and
not to mention some of the loveliest people to work with.

-i

Jet Lag, Separation Anxiety, and Soccer AM

Getting 10 total hours of sleep in 3 days after a trans-Atlantic flight from hell will lead you to think crazy.  It'll lead you to ask yourself such questions as: "How did my brother's birthday only last 7 hours?" "Where the hell are Ian, Lee, and Davey?" and "Why am I sleeping here again?!" 

Insomnia-induced puzzlement aside, the last three days have been special.  You see, Ed and I had the distinct honor of crossing the pond before the rest of the boys to appear on the venerable UK variety-sports show Soccer AM.  It marked the first time any of us Little Ones have appeared on live television.  I feared the worse but to borrow an Uncle Lee term, the taping was "smooth." 

 

We chatted about Ed's pugs.  We listened to the great English footballer Dion Dublin talk about his retirement match for Norwich City.  We met the hilarious Fonejacker Kayvan Novak, who you can see in action here.  Ed and I even got to take shots on goal.  Unfortunately we went 0 for 2, but hey, if the great Dion Dublin couldn't get it in, maybe we never had a chance.

It was an amazing experience capped off by Ed receiving a great birthday present.  This signed Queens Park Rangers jersey.  

With that, I leave you a little video of Ed and I arriving in London.  We dedicate this one to Ian, Lee, and Davey back home. See you in a few days! And to the rest of everyone out there, hope to see you when we come to your neck of the woods! 

x Bri 

enter Latitude

A festival plopped smack down in a middle of a forest. Neon sheep being herded around at random crossings. Spoken word, comedy, artists new and old. Rain, sunshine, rain, sunshine, rain... sunshine. The festival gods were a bit of a tease, but people had fun nonetheless. There was a river, or maybe it was a lagoon, that separated the artists area from the actual stage area. So there was a boat that carried bands and crew back and forth across. Fun and very Jungle Cruise-esque.




We played on the Sunshine Stage which was the most foresty of the stages.
You can see people making their way through the trees and emerging onto the
tented stage area like something out of Lost or Swiss Family Robinson.


We truly did not know what to expect. It was our first UK festival in almost a year and I think it's safe to say that we were all blown away.

Thanks to all of you...

Here's a pic us, Stef, and Mike from Birdpen watching out new favorite band, Voluntary Butler Scheme, featuring Rob, who played keys with the Boy Least Likely To.


Seriously, this was a real treat and you couldn't help but smile throughout the set. He performed by himself and jumped around on instruments while layering in loops of himself on the spot. In the end sonically creating a full band, but with just him on stage. There was something so vulnerable and undeniably honest about it. Hats off to you Rob. Hopefully we can share the stage someday.


Later we had dinner with Anya Marina in catering. Anya is also from Southern California and whom we have several other things in common with. We then had a couple hours until leaving the site so everybody ran off to explore. While walking through a forest I came across a younger couple, with their arms thrown over each like either were holding the other up, and looking up at the treeline. They were pointing and looking for Ewoks in the trees, one of the them sure he saw one and trying to help the other to see them. LOL. I would of thought them crazy or on whatever drug if I hadn't half thought the same thing. Though I wasn't actually actively looking for them in
the trees. I'm just sayin, it had an Ewok forest vibe to it.

A lil' more rain, some new friends, a cart ride and a boat ride later and I was back to our meeting point to find Edward and Lee giggling about their latest video creation. But more on that later.

Farewell, Latitude.

-i

hello, Norway

So we've arrived. Well, yesterday that is. After some naps and power converter questing we walked to the Slottsfjell Festival to check things out. Gogol Bordello was performing on the main stage and we were lead through the masses by our very sweet band liaison, Marit. What a beautiful country and easily one of the most lush festival sites I've ever seen. We even met someone who lived in Poway, CA??? Quite random. The first night we got there we even attended an afterparty/club thingy that was held close by in some warehouses. I think the quote of the trip was easily, "does it ever get dark here?", with nightfall coming in at around 11pm-12am?!?!? As if the jetlag wasn't enough. Overall, the festival was fun, the staff was great, and the audience very sweet.

for shizzle.


We overheard the Lethal Bizzle crew ordering up a round of "Zoom Zooms". Lee attempted to figure out what it was but had no luck. If anybody has any information regarding the ingredients contained in a "Zoom zoom", please please please let us know. We left the festival with our curiosity unquenched.

for the kids

Whenever the five of us are the same room I kinda feel obligated to post. We're all at the Rollercoaster (studio) with Mr. Newton recording a song for a children's show that I can't really mention which just yet. But tomorrow we will be going in for a taping for an appearance on the show where we will be performing said song. We're ridiculously excited seeing as that our first "television appearance" will be on a kids show. RAD! Too bad Pee Wee's Playhouse isn't around anymore. Not that they had guest musical acts, but it would be quite surreal to rock out with Cowboy Curtis.


Meanwhile, between takes we're brushing up on our Norweigan:
Ja. Yes.

Nei. No.

Vær så snill. Please.

Takk. Thank you.

Vær så god. You're welcome.

I think we're gonna need to find some phonetic translations. Holy crap! we're going to Norway next week!!!

-i

oh, moses!

Today our collective hearts go out to Moses the french mastif. Now this lil' incident went down 2 days ago, but today we felt the worry. And we have a friend named Moses too, so it's more in support of fellow Mosessss. This poor monsterous mastif got his head stuck in a cat flap and required the help of the fire department to help him out. A friend of mine dogsitted a mastif once and I was afraid he was going to eat me as the span of his bite can easily take out my entire head and torso. These dogs are gi-hugic! Anyhow, this modern day Winnie the Poo made it out in one piece and lives to bark another day.

The whole story is over here.