last week i was in cocoa florida. played a show at a neat venue call 321 local. super fun night, although they butchered my name a bit. i met a guy in the local cocoa band “my dearest friends” which is probably why the person making the flier confused the name.

staying in merritt island with family, why is it that small children are so talented with legos? i love the four soldiers on the wings. they’ve sure got their job cut out for them.

kitty must know that I’m allergic to cats… so she takes a nap right on my computer bag.

made it to the atlantic ocean for the sunrise. there’s something so powerful and mesmerizing about this huge ocean.

the orlando show turned into a dance party after the performances. loved the opportunity to see such talent as maximino and dark sea of awareness perform.

got to spend a relaxing morning on the beach with amy from lighthouse music. the saint augustine show was such a fun time. very intimate experience at budget records with the band the best of synthia. i spent the next few days getting over sun poisoning. shows how white i am. jeez.

in jacksonville i got to hang out with my good friend siddie! she made homemade crackers and hummus. yum!

as payment for her kindness, massage et al, i mowed siddie’s forest of a backyard so now hopefully she’s out there doing yoga and having friends over for barbecues and such 🙂

played at a beautiful outdoor venue in jacksonville called underbelly. love their logo!

finally i am out of florida. being away from the comfort of family and friends, this tour is really getting on. goodbye florida. you will be missed.

as a reminder of where i was just one month ago, here is one of my many checklists to keep me on track. i believe this was my last one before hitting the road, with subcategories and all.

-marc

i’m spending a lot of time in florida while on tour. meeting interesting people. running into old friends. playing shows.

 

in tampa i had the pleasure of performing with the amazing band “i and i”. more amazing than their performance is the group of 14 people (including the 4 members of i and i) that have built such camaraderie in their friendship. i felt honored having dinner with them.

i stayed the night in tampa at my aunt & uncle’s house. my aunt likes to collect things from around the yard. for example…

before heading to the st. pete show, i was able to partake in my grandmothers 91st birthday! someone thought it would be funny to switch the numbers around on her cake. but of course she was the first to notice this 🙂 and no it wasn’t me.

also i got to do some tune ups on my new pedal boards. it was my first woodworking project so i knew there’d be a few kinks to work out. luckily my uncle’s shop has every imaginable tool within arms reach.

found this little gem at a gas station along i95

omar the mystic told me my future for only a quarter. looks like i have nothing to worry about on this tour. who needs luck when you have love and success?

i arrived in cocoa this afternoon, with a couple days off to catch up on some work. i’m staying at my cousin’s house. right now the family is out taking their weekly tae kwon do class. adorably awesome!

-marc

screen printing 101. class is now in session.

i know… it’s been awhile since i’ve posted on here. this is meant to be a place where my thoughts can be let loose. but preparing for going on tour has taken up all my time and mental energy. so now that i’m officially on the road touring, as of april 1st, i can finally start regularly updating this. partially for the entertainment of others, partially for my own sanity.

lets start back in gainesville, almost a month ago, with screen printing 101.

 

i needed to find a way to make money while on the road. gotta pay for that gas to get to the next show right? not to mention the occasional bite of food. so i needed merchandise to sell. two albums, some stickers, button pins & magnets. easy enough. but what about t-shirts? it cost so much money to have t-shirts printed, even if by a local company. so how about i print them myself? screenprinting can’t be that hard right?

 

first things first is pulling off the old screen on the frame you borrowed from a friend.

then you stretch the new screen with a staple gun handy. kinda like stretching canvas.

i’ve got a lovely bunch of stretched out screen, diddly dee. there they are standing in a row, bum bum bum. big ones, small ones, ones as big as your head….

next you find yourself a sam. sam’s are easy enough to find. they’re friends named sam who know how to screen print already. they’ll show you the ropes the first time around.

dark room fun with emulsion. for burning up the screen. emulsion is light sensitive.

at this point, we have to take an ice cream break (says sam’s son). hey, screen printing is hard work…

back at the presses on my own. time to push through some envelopes and shirts.

the first shirt! i’m so proud.

i also made patches 🙂

easy enough. now i have some great shirts and patches to sell on the road!

-marc

 

 

p.s. i want this sink

procrastinate. procrastinating. procrastinator.

it is 9pm on a sunday and i’m looking for excuses. excuses to preoccupy my time. sure i need to book a national tour. but i also need to eat. maybe i’ll make some dinner. yeah, that’s a great idea.

ok so now my belly is full and sure, i need to book a tour. but… i also need to take a shower. it’s cold out and i could really use a shower anyway. yeah, hygiene is important. and the water would be so very warm.

ok so now it’s 20 minutes later (i also trimmed my nails) and i need to book a tour. but look at this website. it’s been so long since my last journal entry. i should update it with a new post. i’ve been so busy lately doing anything but booking shows that i haven’t had the time to update this journal.

jeez. the procrastinator, who likes to procrastinate, is procrastinating.

-marc

girls are weird. and on that note, guys are weird too. i took off the last couple of days from work.

(yes, this is working. it’s like a full time job)

but in the process of enjoying my “weekend off”, i managed to burn a large hole in my living room carpet. my accomplice to the burning gave me a beautiful wooden necklace which i plan on keeping with me at all times while on tour. because you know what? once i’ve traveled far away from the burnt carpet, i’ll need something to remind me of what sex can do to a person if they’re not careful.

on a more positive note, i’m still afraid to make that first phone call. in my mind, that first phone call solidifies everything. booking a tour is scary. but i’ll get the hang of it eventually and probably even start enjoying it (like everything else involved in this music making scheme of mine).

ok, so not a scheme. but whatever.

oh so i figured that my cute “manual map up on the wall” method was a little outdated for booking a tour. so i switched it over to google maps. apparently you can make custom maps with color coordinated pins and everything. google, you rule. i’m not taking the map down off my wall though. i like staring at it in disbelief. it’s almost like meditating (or procrastinating).

-marc

the black pins push so easily into the drywall.

despite the fact that black represent a place where i have no connections. a place where i want to play. black represents the hardest place to book a show.

i’m mapping out my tour. up on my wall, taped to the drywall, is a map of the eastern united states.

white, so difficult to push in, represents a booked show. red, the hardest to get in of them all for some reason, represents a location where i have a connection to try and book a show. an old friend, family, anything personal. i should of put up a cork board. and then black, pushing so easily into the drywall. black.

thirty pins later, fifty pins, feeling like a hundred. i’ve got a rough outline mapped out. who knows what it will lead to? i only have one white pin up. my fingers, aching. i should of put up a cork board.

-marc

well, here it is. my online journal. do you really want to read my thoughts? you might want to think about this first before continuing on. if you do, i’ll be posting them here on a regular basis. while on tour, among other things, i’ll be keeping my brain in check via this virtual notebook.

i spent the last month working on this website. i’ve turned into a sort of do it yourself (diy) musician as of late. except that there’s a lot of things that i don’t know how to do. so making a website, for example, takes me a month instead of a week… because i aim too high & won’t settle for less (plus i pay myself lousy wages). ah to be your own boss.

it’s all going great though because i have complete control over all the different aspects of my music promotion, which is cool. but then i’m also scared shitless to be booking a tour across the united states on my own, which isn’t cool… even if it is only the eastern united states.

i find that just not thinking about it helps. kinda like plugging your nose when you’re eating something you’re afraid of. or diving into a pool of cold water; does tightly closing your eyes really makes a difference? it’s pretending to be fearless. haha. at least i have this neat new journal to strip down in and be totally honest. i think it’s natural to be a little scared. or at least i’m ok with being scared.

-marc