EU Tour: London, England

--London, England--

Our opening moments of London were experienced in a place between consciousness and sleep. I'm pretty sure I saw a statue of a man throwing an elephant by its nose but no one in the band was awake to confirm this. We passed Buckingham palace, a few other things we were too tired to remember, and eventually reached the bus station. It was incredibly cold, rainy, and unpleasant in our sleep-deprived states. We were running on loosely four hours of sleep a piece (except that I'd had an hour or two nap in the green room) so even basic navigation became difficult. Because I'd forgot to pack an extra jacket my Random Encounter coat was used to protect my accordion from the rain as we ran from awning to awning, trying to reach the subway station. It took perhaps 20 minutes to get there, and Konami and I were able to ask the EXTREMELY KNOWLEDGEABLE staff at the station (no joke!) the least expensive way to accomplish the journeys we had planned. After we got our tickets we went through the claustrophobic confines of the London tube. To clarify, there were simply too many people in hallways that were too narrow and I, a person who got a CT scan with no problems, felt claustrophobic in there.

Just outside the Eventim Apollo, it stopped raining

After we got through the tube to Hammersmith west (we later learned that we were lucky to have gone to the correct Hammersmith!) we literally walked out of the underground mall across the street to our venue, the Eventim Apollo! The Eventim was significantly larger than our Manchester venue and we were told that a few unique things would be happening at this show, including a guest appearance by Julie Dawn Cole, the actress who played Veruca Salt in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film (who Rook got to talk to), the world premiere of three songs: World of Warcraft: Warlord of Draenor, the original Assassin's Creed song by Riva Taylor, and James Bond 007: Blood Stone, featuring the guest piano talents of David Wise (Composer of Donkey Kong Country, Solar Jetman, and Snake Rattle 'n' Roll!)! The band walked (and I limped) to the green room, a significantly larger room than the previous night located on the third floor. We dropped off our stuff, enjoyed a meal with Tommy, and set up for our sound check.

Future Conductor?

Like with the previous day I spent almost all of my free time watching the orchestra sound check and since it was the same orchestra as the previous night it took time for them to arrive from Manchester, meaning that they weren't able to check until significantly later in the afternoon. Konami and Rook checked into our hotel about a mile away while Kit and I grabbed really cheap sandwiches (2 pounds or ~$4.00 each), beer, and a thank you coffee for the tour manager.

It really glowed!

Kaitlin and her parents were coming to the show, so the moment doors opened I hopped outside to see if I could greet them. I was surprised to see some fantastic cosplayers (I had forgotten about the costume contest) on my path to the Lobby, and while waiting I spoke with another person who was also waiting for his friends to show up. I don't specifically remember the context of the conversation but it was nice not to have to wait alone. Kaitlin eventually showed up with her parents, hugs were exchanged (it was the night of our 2 year anniversary), and I returned to the back stage area in preparation for the show.

I caught part of the show from the audience

The show itself went very well. The crowd was extremely energetic, our personal performances were good that night (the stress of performing is never as bad as the first night), and in addition to all the guest artists and new songs being premiered the Guinness Book of World Records came out to congratulate Tommy Tallarico and give him two additional awards: Longest Running Orchestra Tour and I believe the Most Concerts Performed by an Orchestra tour in a single year. Someone also yelled at Tommy, mid show, to include something from Tron, and completely unscripted Tommy yelled "You want Tron? I'll give you Tron," and showed everyone that he was in fact wearing Tron boxers. Everyone, including the VGL crew backstage, lost it. It was one of those moments where it seemed too hilarious and random to not be scripted but it was a genuine improvised moment. We had a lot of fun watching the show unfold from the side of the stage and getting to chat some with the special guests. Kaitlin's parents (who had never seen me perform before) enjoyed the show, and I was feeling more confident with my wireless accordion's ability to let me run deep into the audience and goof off. It was a great time!

Before we knew it the show was over, people were met at the meet and greet, goodbyes were said, and we were trudging through the cold toward our hotel, which was about a mile's walk away from the venue. The more we walked the more it became clear that I could reduce the pain from my leg by locking it while walking, making me look fairly silly. Such is the price of comfort. 

Aside: Also, after a few remarks from people who read the previous entry I wanted to clarify something about the previous night and future nights where we didn't rent a hotel. It's not that we're utterly crippled by debt, it's that we cannot justify paying a few hundred dollars for a hotel to try to effectively get 4 hours of sleep. The stress from spending that much money would probably keep us all awake anyways...

Not Pictured: The Shower, which was missing a shower curtain, soap, and shampoo

The hotel itself, which was extremely expensive, even by English standards, offered coffin sized rooms with a beds that might as well have been carved from stone, and blankets that were as stiff and useless in the situation as a giant sheet of rawhide. Despite the physical discomfort most of us were able to fall asleep fairly quickly... That is, until about 6am, when a woman from the hotel decided it would be okay to literally just open the door and walk into our rooms. She did this to all three rooms. When it happened to me I thought perhaps that the sound of the door opening was from Moose going to the bathroom or something, and was confused to see a woman from housekeeping just standing there, creepily staring at us. After what felt like two minutes she eventually said "sorry" and left, slamming the door loudly and waking the rest of us up. It was weird... We suspected that she was secretly trying to get a glimpse of something indecent, which she wouldn't find in our rooms, and this only seemed to be confirmed as this phenomenon literally happened on the hour, every hour until about 10am, when Moose finally fully woke up to give her the towels to the bathroom (which she claimed was her reason for waking us up every hour).

Adam's Diner has AMAZING food, generous portions, and fresh squeezed orange juice!

Eventually we gave up on trying to sleep (largely because we had surprise plans for the day I had planned but forgot to tell the others about until the day of) and went to Adam's Diner nearby for breakfast. We didn't see anyone named Adam there, but the ladies who ran the place were awesome, going so far as to go out to purchase soy milk from down the block for my soy hot chocolate! The food was very British, fantastic, and memorable. Moose ate it entirely too fast and vomited about ten minutes after, claiming that he was sick. He was shaking from exhaustion, so we let him go back to the room to sleep, though he probably just ate too quickly. It's worth noting that he reported that even after the hotel lady returned the towels she returned to our rooms a few more times for seemingly no reason at all (even after Moose had said that the room would not require cleaning). Normally I'd say shame on us for renting a cheap hotel, but for the price we paid I can't really say that... this time.

Photos in the London Eye

The rest of us took the tube to the central part of London and went sightseeing!  Despite a torrent of rain (and my shoes getting soaked) we had a blast! Perhaps we shouldn't have played the song of storms the previous night... We were unable to find umbrellas for sale cheaper than $30 so we just got wet. While crossing the Thames River Konami's hair randomly got a huge volt of static electricity and stood perfectly on end. We saw some was statues and for the most part I did an extremely good job of remembering the layout of London from my last visit! We saw Big Ben, Parliament, the statue of Boudicca, Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye (complements of my mother), the London Dungeon, Big Ben, Parliament, and had a late lunch in the Sherlock Holmes Tavern, a place riddled with Sherlock Holmes memorabilia, a stuffed hound of the Baskerville head, and a full size replica of Holmes' room on the second floor. Just before dinner I'd noticed a man in full bomb-squad gear leave the building so I supposed that if there were any trouble earlier, it would be safe to eat there now that he was leaving.

"Hey look kids, there's Big Ben, and there's Parliament!"
I must have said that at least 10 times, each time with genuine enthusiasm

Konami was shocked to see the Thames River

Parliament, Big Ben

Collectively full and content on a day filled with adventures we returned through the tube to Hammersmith Station, only this time the subway was so crowded that only two of us could fit on the train at a time! Seriously, there was no room to move or navigate once inside the subway and at any given point I found myself in physical contact with at least four people. I couldn't lower my arm after raising it to waive at Rook. It was most unpleasant to begin with and then someone nearby sneezed... 

We picked up dinner (cheap sandwiches and beer) at Tesco in the Hammersmith station, and when I was sent on another task I totally lost track of what I was doing when I found a shop that specialized in only selling chocolate chip cookies. To clarify, these were AMAZING cookies... So I bought enough of them to warrant using my credit card (8 cookies) and ate to contentment. I remember not if my other task at hand was ever accomplished, but it didn't matter anymore. I had amazing cookies. I bribed the rest of the band with the cookies and they too forgot I'd been sent on a task. Incidentally there are no pictures of the cookies because they did not survive long enough to be photographed, or perhaps a potential photographer could do nothing but consume them. Back at the hotel we listened to the mixed tracks from the Big Blue EP (being released for free on Saturday on www.music.RandomEncounterband.com!!!) for the first time and gave Strader our final set of revisions because apparently that's how we roll in a time-crunch situation. I used a hair dryer to dry my shoes which created a mist of poisonous foot toxins that drove everyone out of the room shortly after. We collectively concluded that we would be big spenders (this is utter sarcasm), "sleep in" until 4am, and simply hire a taxi to take us to the airport the following morning (as opposed to the tube). We hired a taxi online, and passed out shortly after. We were on top of the world.

Mr. Sherlock Holmes's delightful Tavern

EU Tour: Manchester, England

-Pre Tour-

This weekend I went through my computer and watched videos of my love of 9 years, my band, Random Encounter. I watched our practices and shows from the early days, watched myself nervously take to the stage for the first time, head down, trying with all my might to play the right notes. Over the course of years (in the videos) I watched the membership of the band change and shift. I watched the band experiment and try to find its sound. I quit playing accordion in the band for a few shows. I watched the worst show that I've ever played, a show that only exist in the minds of those who survived it and in a folder on my computer labeled "2007 - the dark days" in videos casually named "delete me" 1 through 4. I watched as over the years members of the band got injured, improved some, quit, and noticed changes in myself as well. I watched the final show where the original band ultimately disbanded, and then found videos from practices that took place a few weeks later of a completely different band of the same name. 

Random Encounter, circa 2010

In these practices five youthful looking kids, who met purely by chance, were playing instruments with an utter lack of confidence. However, they put everything they had into what they were doing, which I admired. It was clear that we did not consider ourselves musicians. It was clear that we hardly considered ourselves entertainers but were striving to improve every weekend. Those videos of Rook, Moose, Kit, Konami, and myself are four years old now and in many ways, despite the added confidence that we can entertain people from time to time, there is still magic in everything we do. Every time we play a show to an audience that outnumbers us (and even if they don't) we're still genuinely excited and will do whatever we can to put on a good show.

Lots of looking down at our instruments

I'd written an article awhile back about our amazing journey with Video Games Live in Florida, and how incredible it was that Tommy Tallarico had allowed us to join him for it. What I'd omitted from the story was that at the end of the tour he'd given us an open invitation to perform with Video Games Live in the future. Moose and I noticed that VGL was putting together a tour across Europe and casually asked him if we could be a part of it. Each of the shows we wanted to play had a fairly special significance to us and if there was any way we might be able to make such a tour happen we collectively decided that we would do whatever it took to get there. To our genuine shock Tommy said we could join him so long as we made everything work on our own dime, and Konami and I spent the next few months planning the logistics.

Random Encounter does logistics
(Photo by Jeff Douglas Photography aka JDP)

I won't bore you too much with the specifics but I'm really good at finding cheap ways to travel (I have a reputation at work for regularly staying in the cheapest and most oddly pleasant hotels) and we were able to make the numbers work somehow by sleeping in airports, renting our instruments on site each night (to avoid airline baggage fees), and by spending hours of searching for the cheapest transportation options available in Europe. Even with these precautions this tour was still an extremely daunting prospect...

It was with the knowledge that this would be the single most expensive endeavor the band has ever undertaken, and with the realization that a single logistical issue could ruin any one of our six upcoming shows that Konami and I spent an additional few weeks checking, double checking, and verifying every possible aspect of the tour to the point where we had directions for every street we planned to walk down. We did this work between day jobs, recording the Big Blue LP, and recording two additional tracks for upcoming collaboration projects that would be due around the time we'd be on tour.

Manchester at night

-Manchester, England-

Tour began for me on Halloween with a panicked series of emails from the band. It seemed that while I was en rout via train to Camberley (to spend Halloween with Kaitin and her parents) the band, who was flying in from the US by means of Amsterdam, Detroit, North Carolina, and Florida, was stopped at the notorious UK security checkpoint and unable to get into the country without the address of where we were staying at. As we didn't have a hotel booked just yet they were trying to get my address in Camberly but somehow sorted it all out before their hour of free airport internet ran out and walked about five miles to a nearby hotel. That evening Kaitlin and I enjoyed a nice family dinner, a four story tall bonfire complete with an effigy of Guy Fawkes, and a fireworks display that would rival most 4th of July's. We turned in early, and I was on the train to Manchester by 6:38am the following morning.

Morning in Manchester

Oddly enough, despite living in England for a few weeks prior, this was one of my first experiences of being truly on my own. Traveling light, I had with me with my accordion and my trusty black duffle bag of 15 years, which Kaitlin had recently patched and which contained everything i'd need to survive the coming weeks. I switched trains at the Reading station without incident and slept for the better part of the journey to Manchester. In the moments where I was awake I occasionally caught people pointing at my accordion (which was on my lap) with interest, and I somehow got caught up in a conversation with the man who checked that everyone had train tickets. He was a self proclaimed "practicing pagan" who knew a surprising amount of occult-style lore. We chatted about this, laughing gas, and the finer points of cooking (he knew a LOT about what plants were edible and apparently has a massive garden behind his house) for awhile, and when he had to get to work again I watched the misty fields beyond my window. The only notable thing beyond the beautiful scenery of England was a field of goats in which I saw steam come from the butt of one of the goats. It was cold, I was tired, and I guess you can see more than your breath in those fields.

In Manchester I was about to get off the train (which was considerably packed) with my gear, caught in a crowd of people both behind and in front of me when the train door I was passing through started to close. Unable to move forward or backwards (I tried pushing my way through the crowd to no avail) my leg and my accordion both got crushed by the door along with my morale. It was crippling in many senses. What hurt most was the sad noise that the accordion made as it broke. I had literally just spent hours repainting it, making it extra pretty, dropping money on new internal microphones, and otherwise preparing for the most important two weeks of my life as an entertainer only to have the opening seconds of my journey seemingly be the last. I hobbled out of the train, literally limping from the pain, set my accordion down and surveyed the damage.

A sight no musician wants to see

Beyond my paint job being scratched up the damage was fairly minimal. Still, it seemed that i'd effectively broken two keys, which rendered the instrument useless as it made unwanted noise akin to a donkey's call without me pressing any of the keys. I'll admit I was fairly distressed by this so when I asked for directions and people shamelessly gave me bad advice I walked about a mile in the wrong direction before getting my bearings, pulling out my map, turning around, and limping back to the station. By this point one of the wheels on my rolling duffle bag had broken off and the dragging of the bag had created a hole in the bottom of the bag I didn't notice for a day or two. I lost the majority of my personal hygiene products and the AA batteries my accordion needed. With no means of contacting anyone (no WiFi, no cell phone service) it took another 40 minutes of aimless limping until I finally arrived at my first destination, the 02 Apollo in Manchester!

First impressions of the 02 Apollo

Walking into a venue that the Beatles have played at really boosted my spirits! I quickly met the VGL crew, who helped me find a pair of pliers. It didn't take look for me to determine that the damage to the accordion was too severe for me to fix. The metal inside of the keys had actually bent, not allowing the reed to close. Armed with WiFi I did a quick google search, made a skype call, and found the only accordion repair shop in Manchester, which happened to be in walking distance. I'm not sure what the odds are for such a thing in England, but I assure you that it's extremely slim that a shop would happen to be open, that the tech would be in, and that they'd be willing to accept a "walk in" accordion repair!!! So I immediately walked to a place called the Hobgoblin and met with the repair techs. They worked really quickly and were able to fix my accordion in under an hour! One of them wore a Ziltoid tee shirt, and as Ziltoid fans are a rare breed we chatted about Ziltoid's coffee fueled conquest and our mutual love of video games while the repairs were under way. By sheer happenstance the main tech mentioned that his favorite video game of all time was Earthworm Jim, which was composed by Tommy Tallarico, the guy in charge of Video Games Live. It felt like my civic duty to get the techs tickets to the show, so I did. I surmised that if I lived in Manchester these guys would probably be good buddies of mine. In exchange for me playing the theme to Game of Thrones on the accordion for them (which they recorded to advertise the shop) my repairs were unexpectedly on the house!

It got dark pretty early

I got pizza at the shop next door, bought 2 boxes (the minimum required to pay on credit card), ate on the walk back to the venue, and met up with the band (who was happy to see me for the first time in a month AND that I'd brought pizza). This is where I discovered that we were missing cymbals, distortion pedals, a drum rug, and guitar cables due to a mix up with the first rental company. Thanks to the magic of Skype I was able to get the owner on the phone and got the issue fixed (via delivery) with 5 minutes to spare before our sound check. Since part of the mistake was my fault I really have to credit them for going above and beyond. Once we could breathe again we took a moment to examine our surroundings. It was good to be in the presence of Video Games Live again and after our sound check I sat in the audience, still in genuine awe watching the orchestra work their magic on some of my favorite songs of all time. Just like with the last time I'd been with VGL I got super nostalgic and teary eyed, and enjoyed what felt like a performance made just for me.

I'm the guy in the middle (JDP)

Our green room was three stories up and my knee really wasn't doing well the second or third time I had to go up and down those stairs. My limp got more prominent (the less I bent my knee, the less it hurt) and I started to wonder how badly I had damaged my knee. In an effort to recover I slept under the table in our green room from the end of sound check through when the house doors were being opened. I hobbled down the stairs with Moose and was shocked to see a person in a Random Encounter shirt! I did a double and triple take at this, sure that my eyes were deceiving me. It seemed that somehow, all the way across the Atlantic ocean, in ENGLAND someone had heard of us! His name was Liam and he'd driven over 200 miles with his father from Scotland to see us! Moose and I got a photo with him (the pleasure was genuinely ours), chatted for awhile, and got backstage before the show started. 

The only sleep I got in Manchester was under a table of guitar cases

The show itself went well. Being our first show of the tour, playing on foreign instruments, having not actually practiced as a band in about a month, having a bum knee, and with the others being generally insecure about playing in front of a huge audience in a different country we did fairly well. We gave it our best and I don't think we could have asked for a better audience. One unexpected treat of the tour was the addition of the extremely talented Riva Taylor to the show, a world class singer who I found to be extremely approachable. She contributed her considerable talents to a few songs throughout each night of the tour (Journey, Assassin's Creed, and Still Alive) showing a level of mastery over her voice that I have only seen one or two other people reach. She also had a really good sense of fashion, rocking a different outfit for each song. It was really neat getting to chat and hear about her life growing up as a professional singer. Another pleasant surprise was Austin Wintory, the composer of Journey, who conducted Journey for half of the shows that we played with VGL. I found Austin to be a pretty personable guy and while I didn't get to talk with him nearly as much as I wanted to, it was really neat to meet him!

Riva Taylor singing Journey
(photo stolen from this website)

Never a dull moment with Video Games Live (JDP)

After the show we quickly discovered that the rental company was not going to pick up our gear. In fact they were under the impression that we were going to transport it to London, which we were utterly unable to do. Fortunately the stage manager (who we became very good friends with over the course of the tour) was amazing and said she could fit the gear into the truck with the other VGL gear. This single act of kindness saved us from missing the London show.

Liam, our #1 fan in Scotland!

At the meet and greet we met with locals, Liam, and a couple from Madrid (who bought tickets to see VGL in Manchester before the announcement of the VGL Madrid show). We also saw the two gents who fixed my accordion and thoroughly thanked them. One of the accordion repairsmen we'll arbitrarily call "Josh" asked what we were up to and when we told him we intended to walk to the bus station and wait until our 6am bus, he informed us that the bus station was extremely cold and offered to take us pub hopping in the only parts of town that would still be open after 10pm. So we packed up our bags and went on a walk around Manchester with Josh and his friend in the one place that was open, the gay bars.

A walk with friends is rarely too long

In the dark and quiet walk from the venue to our destination we only saw one other soul, who happened to be a regular (a clarinet or sax player) at the shop Josh worked at. They chatted for a bit and we continued our journey. Josh was fairly chatty and enthusiastic around us, which kept our spirits high. Manchester was no longer a place of silent mystery and frigged wet cold, it was now a dark playground for five tired but enthusiastic Americans and our local friends.

All of the nightlife in Manchester

By stark contrast to the rest of Manchester, the area around the gay bars was colorful, bright, and full of life! There were so many amazing costumes (it was Halloween weekend) and friendly people. We literally couldn't fit ourselves inside of the overcrowded bars we passed. After nearly getting hit by a train (trains in Manchester don't slow down when passing through town as we quickly discovered) we came to a quiet pub just past the bustle. Literally the moment we walked inside and order drinks a fo-American cover band took to the stage and started playing any rock song with lyrics pertaining to America, including Born in the USA, Sweet Home Alabama, and many others. It was pretty surreal, drinking "domestic" English beer from the tap that would normally have cost significantly more, and listening to a fake American band at midnight in England.

"Don't Blink. Don't even blink!"... or they'll throw you out of the bus station...

After an hour or two of the warmth of the pub we were forced to depart for the frigged bus station. The station was seemingly run by Severus Snape himself in the temporary form of a curt, balding, humorless muggle attendant who was offended by our very existence. He charged us 30p (~$0.55) each time we wanted to use the bathroom, insisted that we wouldn't be admitted onto the bus without a physically printed ticket (he was trying to encourage us to leave the station to seek a printer), threatened to throw us out if one of us fell asleep, and outright walked away from us any time we wanted to pay him to use the bathroom. Josh and his friend stayed with us until about 4am, after which point our time in Manchester became less enjoyable. Somewhere in the wee hours of the morning we wound up chatting with a local man who gave us our quote of the day: "When I met my wife, it was supposed to be a one night thing, but it sort of became a forever thing." Somehow we managed to stave sleep off until our bus arrived at 6am and we slept through the 4 hour ride to London.

Travel Journal: Oxford, UK

This reminds me of a puzzle...

When I was younger I used to dream about visiting England. My sister used to tell me stories about the country, the time she visited, and how different it was. A land steeped in history where you practically can’t step 1000 paces without bumping into something historical. A place where antique shops sell things older than the United States. A place that culturally views violence with more disdain than nudity. I never thought I’d wind up living there.

Adventures ahoy!

A few months ago when my girlfriend was accepted to the University of Oxford, and got a rather prestigious scholarship that allowed her accept the position without any reservations, my world was changed. Suddenly I was an immigrant, a word which has a fairly negative connotation in America. The process for applying for a VISA was supposed to be simple and friendly, but the website (which is admittedly in Beta) had a few bugs that made the process fairly stressful. This was combined with the fact that their email attendants (who are supposed to answer questions) didn’t really read my questions before answering, and there was literally no phone number available to get answers on the questions I had, save an official pay service that charged something like $2.00 a minute and was only “fairly sure” of the answers they gave me but insisted that I don't accept their word as being 100% correct. Applying for a VISA took about a week of my free time, about $600 (the application fee), and a full day to get through my “scheduled vitals appointment” where I had to sit in line for hours waiting for my number to be called. The ultimate result of my effort was a rejection because the person looking at my application saw that I used two addresses (a mailing and physical address), and thought it was suspicious. The annoying thing here was that they didn't ask any questions, just denied me, and I had no option to refute the decision… This outcome ultimately reduced my time in England from ten months to six.

The cake of a true patriot (we ran out of stripes)

It took until the day before we were planning to leave before I packed, largely because I use much of the things I’d be taking with me. The fact that we were leaving for England still hadn’t really hit me until well after we follow the traditional departure rituals of stepping on another’s feet, standing in the doorframe for a moment of silence, and driving north to the Villages, one of the largest elderly communities in the world.

We stayed at the Villages with Kaitlin’s grandparents for a day, as we had things to drop off and we were hoping to see them one more time before leaving the country. We ate, we chatted, we watched Golden Girls, Wheel of Fortune, Ellen, and got a full tour of the Villages before it was 3pm the following afternoon. As we stood at the bus stop, located next to a pretty awesome looking water lock, it started storming. We said our goodbyes and boarded the bus for an hour and a half journey. It finally felt like we were leaving for England.

We breezed through security (I expected a lot more hassle with my accordion backpack and nearly expired passport), waited awhile, and finally got on Aer Lingus to Dublin, our stop on the way to London. The flight was a lot more enjoyable than I’d expected. Food was given out, there were in-flight movies (we tried watching Cleopatra but gave up exactly 2.5 hours into the 4 hour film), and it was fairly roomy but it still didn’t compare to Korean Air… Nothing will. I worked on music until my laptop died and the following morning we woke to see the mist roll across the terrain of Ireland below us. The beauty we saw cannot be described in words by me. We were literally moved to tears just looking at it.

The Dublin airport was much like any other airport, except that there were signs telling Irish citizens to encourage their friends to promote international work/trade with Ireland, which I found kind of different when compared to the equivalent ads in America that would be anti-terrorism or fast food inspired. Our terminal changed no less than 4 times in the hour we were in Dublin without any warning whatsoever but we eventually found ourselves on the right flight to London. An hour later we arrived.

The last time we arrived in London Heathrow Airport it was vastly unpleasant but for some reason this trip through was not such. We got to avoid many of the queues from the previous journey (probably because it was not a holiday season, partly because we flew in from Dublin) and were picked up shortly by Kaitlin’s parents, who drove us back to Camberley. Once again the traffic signs, lights, and traffic driving on the other side of the road disoriented me, but I was able to stay awake for the rest of the day this time around. We had tea, chatted, opened up a bank account at Gringotts-er… Barkclays and prepared for our journey to Oxford. Did I mention that Oxford is where they filmed many of the Hogwarts parts of the Harry Potter films?

Quidditch anyone?

The next morning we departed for Oxford! It was a shorter drive than expected and the weather remained pleasant. I was told the following week that it was the driest September England has seen in 50 years! It was also fairly warm, averaging around 25 degrees C. My first impressions of Oxford were of its ancient buildings, its bustling foot traffic, and its lack of parking. It was almost exactly how I’d imagined Diagon Alley (no, really… There are candy shops, broomsticks, and Harry Potter merch in some of the store windows because its apparently visited by Harry Potter enthusiasts with regularity). We checked in with the property manager, found a parking spot (a feat in itself), and loaded the first round of boxes into our new flat. Just to clarify, it’s not that we had a lot of stuff, it’s more that we had a fairly small car (by American standards) to transport it all. After we got the basic tour of the flat we decided to go for a walk around the city of Oxford itself to accomplish a few tasks and also acquaint ourselves with the surrounding area.

A very interesting boat goes through the lock system

We passed a boat lock system, the historic Thames River, and dozens of long boats that seem optimal for river travel, all of which seem to have been greatly customized by their owners in terms of paint despite the fact that all boats seem to be the same identical shape. We passed a bunch of graffiti by some hooligans named “zuz” and “realm”, which was later scrubbed away by a community organized cleaning brigade about a month later. We passed a mix of ancient buildings, new ones, and quaint cottages. We ate lunch at a pub that J.R.R. Tolkien frequented, which is said to be the oldest in Oxford. We saw castle-like structures, old churches, the place where Harry Potter got quiddich lessons, the great New College Hall (also from the Harry Potter films), archways, and multi-century old pubs. It was exactly how I’d envisioned England to be.

First impressions of Oxford

Walking through crowds took a few days to get used to. Since driving in the UK is on the other side of the road, most of the people have a natural tendency to ‘keep left’ whereas in the US people have a natural tendency to ‘keep right’… However, even after mastering the art of keeping left we soon learned that Oxford has so many tourists from around the world that utterly disregard this tendency, throwing off the entire process of not bumping into people while walking. You more or less have to read the body language of the person you're walking past very carefully, which can be difficult as most tourists are not looking where they’re going in the first place.

Similarly to the Blair Witch, a shadowy knitting society has left mysterious markers around the city of Oxford

It was evening before we knew it and we departed for Camberley. We spent a day there, got some work accomplished, packed more, and returned to Oxford the following day. We found the same parking space by some miracle, loaded in the second (and final) set of boxes, unpacked, bought the basic necessities, and walked to dinner, a nice pub I can’t quite remember the name of. Then, just like that Kaitlin’s parents departed and we were living on our own in England.

The most visually impressive graffiti in Oxford...
Thankfully removed recently.

We walked to town the following morning (Sunday) to check out the Ashmolean Museum’s King Tut display, which was impressive. That took up most of our morning, and we also said hi to a manikin wearing Lawrence of Arabia's clothing. We walked around Oxford a bit more, bought a few more key items (a microphone stand, more pillows, a UK 3DS charger) and got a cup of tea at a local coffee shop. Despite the fact that we speak English in both countries, I quickly discovered that words have different meanings in England. When I bumped into people I said “pardon”, which I later discovered (after using the phrase for half a day) implies that you’ve farted. This was figured out after a nearby woman broke up into laughter. Other English words for things like q-tips, coupons, trucks, and various produce items were less embarrassing to learn, but made communication slightly more difficult. As with Belize, many words like ‘jailer’ are also spelled in a way utterly unlike their American counterparts. It’s taking time but I’m slowly catching on.

A nature trail just past the train station

Since Sunday I’ve begun life in Oxford, which in itself really doesn’t warrant much to blog about. Little nuances like checking the voltage and amperage on everything before plugging it into a power converter, or remembering to switch off the plugs after use, the fact that the water pressure in the shower here could skin a cat, and that the hot water (if applied past the first setting) could probably liquefy pewter. We try to go for a walk just about every day in the morning, before the US is awake. It's peaceful, and I still feel like i'm accomplishing much the business world I interact with is even awake (though some of my friends still haven't gone to sleep). We walk through town, through the nearby open fields and harbors, through the nature trails just outside of town, through a land very much steeped in legend and history, at least to me. This is my home now, on an off for 6 months out of the next year, and I’m very much excited at the prospect of this lifestyle.

Travel Journal: Orlando Nerd Fest

Guest of Honor Nobuo Uematsu

The last few days have been pretty incredible...

Though I have little idea how this festival went from concept to reality, the Orlando Nerd Fest was a great success from my perspective and marks one of the best weekends in memory. It maybe sounds a bit cliche but it's no less true and my only regret of the weekend was not being able to see more.

The Power Rangers walking into the Eyeshine set

Friday

I started the day off with work, doing whatever it is I do until it was time for dinner. Kaitlin and I caught a bite to eat at a local diner and got to the Orlando Nerd Fest (ONF) in time to catch Eyeshine's set. (also, free parking!!!) I've been performing at the same events as Eyeshine for over half a decade, and it's always nice to see Johnny and his band in action. When a group of people dressed as Power Rangers walked in, Johnny Young Bosch (the black Power Ranger, Vash the Stampede, and the frontman of Eyeshine) even busted out the Power Ranger theme in their honor. It was a pretty cool.

The mysterious yet entertaining guitarist

From there we wandered to the Jam Space, which also boasted an arcade-based game set. We played the various pinball machines that were present, that boasted various themes: Cats, Rednecks, Firemen, Star Trek, and Tron. Tron was by far the best. We also got a shot at Wreck it Ralph and a few other arcade games that were present before noticing a few familiar faces taking the Jam Space stage... We found seating and watched the performance of the UCF-based Geekapella, whom we'd talked with at Comic Con last weekend, and who I'd seen perform at Nerdapalooza two years prior. Their beat-boxing skills are still second to none, and their acapella renditions of nerdy songs were enjoyable. After them, a young man who never actually gave his name played acoustic guitar and sang songs with the audience. It was pretty endearing and based on how nervous he looked, we'd guessed it was his first performance. He did a great job though and remains one of the unexpected highlights of the weekend... Another unexpected thing was the turkey sandwiches that the hotel sold in their little cafe. They looked uninspired and overpriced, but were fresh and surprisingly tasty. We enjoyed second dinner (it was getting late and we were going to be up fairly late) while intermittently catching parts of Sci-Fried, the guys who put together ONF. Sci-Fried, made up of men who look rough but are the nicest people you will ever meet, typically performs a lot of high-hearted rock songs about Star Wars, the Evil Dead, and Star Trek, but their set at ONF had a number of newer songs that were a bit deeper. I say this as someone who enjoys songs like I Wanna be Your Jedi. Their new stuff was pretty well received and it was clear that they were having a blast.

We met up with Kaitlyn (a friend from college I will refer to here as Kat as I was also traveling with a Kaitlin), and caught up with Gerard (the Master of Ceremonies for the weekend) for awhile. Kat has a condition where it's hard for her to stand for extended periods, and we like hanging out as a group, so we sat down for awhile before catching Vivid's first US performance. For those who don't know Vivid, their music is featured in Bleach, and Mobile Suit Gundam AGE. They are also an extremely tight live band. Shortly after, the one man band: Professor Shyguy took to the stage. I've been following Shyguy for awhile now, perhaps two years, and every time I see him perform he is absolutely amazing. He does drums, vocals, guitar, chiptunes, and keyboard, sometimes all simultaneously, all while being a pretty snappy dresser and an extremely friendly guy.

He was the big act that Kat, Kaitlin, and myself wanted to see on Friday and he delivered. He had the Doubleclicks join him for a rendition of TMBG's Ana Ng, Steffeny from MPFM join him for a Lil' John cover, and Marc with a C join him for a ridiculously hilarious/awkward love song. We stood and danced for his entire set.

Throughout the evening we bumped into familiar faces, caught up with members of Those Who Fight (which I regret missing and whom I wish had more music online), and ended up sticking around for a mysterious band called Steam Powered Giraffe after we were told by a friend that Professor Shyguy was a part of this band. Though it turned out to not be true (Prof. Shyguy is not in Steam Powered Giraffe, he's in a band that sounds similar, called the Aeronauts) we stuck around anyway and found seats near the edge of the room. The next two hours were pretty incredible. It turns out that Steam Powered Giraffe used to be in a mime troupe (which I verified on wikipedia), and that their specialty is stage banter and improvised comedy. Walking out in incredible makeup, moving and talking like robots, and gifted with really great voices, they were a pleasure to watch. This was the most surprisingly fantastic act of the weekend for me, which I had pre-judged based on the name (I expected something heavy and industrial), and whom I was really happy to have seen. Though Kaitlin didn't particularly enjoy their music (which I would almost call folk rock, in a very good way), their comedy bits were top notch and kept her interested. I need to buy one of their CD's... Due for an 11:30am sound check the following morning, we turned in as things were winding down.

This was my view of the Earthbound Papas set

Saturday

We got a cup of tea, bumped into Vivid on the walk downstairs, and chatted briefly with their frontman/vocalist. There was a clear language barrier but it was really neat to meet them and exchange a few words. We got a second cup of tea from the cafe downstairs, sitting a few tables from Nobuo Uematsu (we left him well alone, I just mention this because it's something we realized as he was walking out of the cafe), and passed Steam Powered Giraffe's meet and greet session. It was cool getting to see them outside of their makeup and costumes.

We got to the main room just in time to catch Eight Bit Disaster, a sax-led group I'd seen earlier at last year's Escapist Expo, and while I wasn't particularly in love with the band last year, they have improved tremendously! They've become a pretty fantastic act and hit their set HARD with songs like Tank (Cowboy Bebop), Bad Dudes, and the Game of Thrones main theme. This was one of the few acts of the weekend where Kaitlin smiled and expressed interest in the music, and again, I highly recommend seeing them live if you get the opportunity. Sadly, I had to leave them to set up all of the remaining logistical nightmares for my own performance that I'd neglected. I'd forgotten to give crucial details to some of the folks who were going to be a part of our show. I also missed much of the Killer Robots set too, as started my own sound check and final preparations.

As suspected, our show went pretty well because we had a lot of fun. Victory. Personal highlights included being joined by Stemage and Lauren the Flute, and having the audience sing along to our sound check. It's still strange to me that we have fans. After we cleared off the stage and signed things for people, we caught the Returners, whom Kat and I dearly loved. Their rendition of Starcraft - Terran 2 in particular is now one of my favorite songs of all time. Kat and I immediately preordered their upcoming album (...do it!), and caught the front end of the Metroid Metal concert. It was mesmerizing, hypnotic. Music that's been deeply ingrained in my subconscious for years being performed live in front of me. Then we reluctantly broke away to catch the costume contest. Shortly before the contest I had joked that I'd seen a fantastic FF VI Terra cosplayer and didn't need to see the contest to know who was going to win... I was surprisingly right, though there were a few other really great costumes I'm glad I didn't miss.

The three of us (Kaitlin, Kat, and myself) caught dinner at the diner from Friday and got back in time to catch the sound check for Critical Hit, an 8 piece VGM gypsy-rock group. Having only heard a few recordings by Critical Hit in the past I wasn't exactly sure what their live show would be and enjoyed their performance. To start, during a technical difficulty at the opening sound check the violin and the cello players rocked a half dozen bonus songs (from Zelda to Flight of the Bumble Bee) to an extremely enthusiastic audience. They played 10 songs of variety from slow folk-like RPG tracks to upbeat rock arrangements. Kaitlin, who has a very small musical pallet for VGM, said that Critical Hit was actually her favorite act of the entire weekend, and after their set we all stood next to the main stage for an hour in anticipation for the main event of the weekend, the Earthbound Papas. Nobuo Uematsu and the Papas gave one of the best performances I've seen. Being extremely familiar with their ultra-precise and extremely complex music I was wowed as they hit every note, rocked every solo, and did so while being so relaxed and happy. They premiered a new song (Kefka's theme), rocked Dancing Mad, Seymour's Fight, FF VII Battle Theme (which I'd never heard before!), Decisive Battle, Force Your Way (VIII), The Festival of the Hunt, and ended the night with the best rendition of Clash at the Big Bridge I will ever see. I was floored. We all were...

Later that night I found myself socializing with bands, attendees, and ONF staff members. I got to chat with Sara Andon from Critical Hit (who's worked with Placido, Daft Punk, and many other amazing projects), Steffeny from MPFM, elements of the Killer Robots, and a few other fine folks throughout the wee hours of the morning until I discovered it was 5am. As I generally go to sleep around 9pm or 10pm this news hit me particularly hard, and I abruptly ended my discussion on the finer points of tectonic plates with gentlemen I'm confident had too much to drink to turn in for the morning.

Sunday

Sunday was a bit of a blur. Extremely exhausted by my old man sleeping cycle being thrown off, I trudged to the jam space for a noon performance with the rest of the band. Professor Shyguy joined us on bongos, Lauren joined us on flute (which she assembled in less than 10 seconds when we started playing music from Chrono Cross), and an extremely enthusiastic audience sang along. The audience told us what to play, we obliged. It was a really fun time, and in my sleep deprived state I'm told I didn't notice the next performer for a song or two longer than I should have. I'm really sorry to that guy, a chip-artist, and felt really bad about it later. Should he ever happen to read this, know that I totally didn't mean to be so much of a careless ditz and that I really apologize.

At about 1pm I got some unpleasant news and had to depart for home somewhat urgently. I rushed through a few goodbyes and departed before I could catch MPFM.

Despite only getting to experience about half of this 5 day music festival, ONF was an extremely good time. I really appreciated the opportunity to talk to everyone that I did, from birthday James to the curly haired girl with faceblindness and her husband. I lead a pretty normal life 95% of the time and often forget that people besides me actually hear the music I make. Talking with folks like that in person was extremely motivating, and the musicians I saw were also very inspiring. I got a lot of ideas and feel like the weekend had a very positive effect on me. The event organizers did a great job making everyone feel at home for the most part and putting together a really laid back convention. Sure there were a few small hiccups, there always are, but Orlando Nerd Fest was a great festival, and I really look forward to next year!