Story of my life...

It seems to be that this life of touring the world lends itself to missed occasions and special events more often than not.
In the next week i will have the honor of missing both easter with family and friends, as well as the wedding of my very good friend Derek. Everyone forgets about the "being away during special moments" part when they talk about how glamorous and exciting my life must be.
I am thankful that Derek knows, and understands, that i will be with him and his beautiful bride to be, Tara Jean, in spirit.
I actually just really wish i could be there for the bachelor party...haha....

you two are very lucky to have found one another and to have the family you have...best of luck in the future!

Snow in Salt Lake

On the bus getting ready to head from Salt Lake City to Portland for a day off. Well half a day off anyways. The drive tonight is almost nine hours which means another awesome morning of waking up and still having six hours to go. As i sit here in the back lounge the snow is falling outside and its rather chilly out. In fact we have just turned the heat on the bus for the first time all tour.
This morning i woke up and was surprised to discover that i could barely open my left eye. Now i am unsure what happened to me from the time i fell asleep until the time i woke up , but today has consisted of my eye being red, irritated, and very sensitive to light. Is it pink eye? Is there something on my cornea? did my contact scratch me? Who knows, but if it is like this in the morning i will be seeking medical attention. I wonder if its me getting older or if i just need a bit of a rest but this particular tour has beat the shit out of me. I swear to god if its not one thing its another and i for one cannot wait until the 10th of April when i get to go home for a bit of a break!

check 1 check 2

I know i have been lazy when it comes to updates and postings but what can I say...sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day!

things are rolling along quite nicely and i am closer to being home for a rest than i have ever been before!
pictures have not been nearly as plentiful as i would have liked but am hoping to make up for that during the last 7 shows of the run

my dear blog I am sorry for neglecting you and promise to spend more time with you in the future...

Craigers

Pic of the Day

Nice work Emmet!!!

Jets Overhead rocking out!!

En Francais

Thanks to Rosetta Stone , and the sheer number of Quebecois on my current tour i will win my battle to learn to speak French!

Lesson 1 - Craigers 90% - Le Garcon Mange

Lesson 2 - Craigers 78% - Le Homme coulet

Standby for more updates in regards to my progression!

I can see clearly now...

So with my schedule the last few months being as hectic as it was I started this US tour with only one pair of contact lenses...the one's that were in my eyes. My only backup was my pair of glasses... Stylish, yet not quite up to my prescription.
It was inevitable that i would lose a lens at some point, and that is exactly what happened a little over a week ago in Philly. During one heck of an eye scratch I lost a lens and have been forced this past week to wear my glasses. Now I am not sure if you can fully comprehend what its like to wear eye glasses that are a little under your regular prescription, but let me tell you its not all that fun.
Since I am in the USA and getting any sort of medical supplies is next to impossible , i decided that the easiest solution would be to contact my ophthalmologist in Vancouver and have them ship me a box of lenses for each eye. Now in theory this all made sense. First issue came up when the eye doctor did not have my lenses in stock. They would need to be ordered from Toronto. Well how about you skip the middle man and have the toronto manufacturer ship them to me in New York City. Unfortunately that is not possible sir. Okay so lets send the lenses from Toronto all the way to Vancouver , only to then ship them back east to New York City.
The next issue came up when the eye doctors office was unfamiliar with fed ex and the need to fill out paperwork properly. This includes a commercial invoice when shipping across the border into the United States. Okay so instead of a saturday delivery to Madison Square Garden, the FDA has decided that it is going to hold my little shipment of personal contact lenses due to improper paperwork and the potential for a Canadian shipment being something it is not, or, heaven forbid, skipping out on tarriffs!
Well after several phone calls to the fed ex broker and such , my lenses finally cleared US Customs and joined me today in Cleveland. It sure is nice to have clear vision again....

Craigers

Okay so the following pictures are nothing special, but considering my time restraints thus far on the tour i have not had an abundance of time to take photos.
enjoy the ones i have...
more will follow in the weeks to come i promise...

MSG in NYC

Everyone talks about and dreads working a show at Madison Square Garden. In all reality its kind of like having a day off without actually having a day off. Its local 1 for those who don't know and for a touring guy such as myself its all about pointing, directing, and keeping the guys busy. In fact its kind of like a social club in a way. Once you develop a good repoire with the guys and you keep them busy the day goes quite smoothly. Today has actually been one of the better days thus far on the tour, complete with a dark stage at two different points during the day. The dinner hour dark stage is what is allowing me the time to write this quick entry...
With about 2 hours to go before show time all is good in Craigers hood. The panic and stress of the major market shows left me years ago and now they are all treated the same....I leave the stress and manic behavior to those involved with management and administration, because honestly, if i had to take care of the guestlist in a city like New York or LA , i too would be stressed!

ill provide a show review later....

Lets Dance

I love it!, but dont understand it one bit...
in fact i have given up in trying to decipher what their videos are all about...
in fact who cares! We are all artists expressing our creativity in our own way so i say..
lets dance

!



sorry bout the watermark

Headphones

For the first time since i have been out on this tour i have spent a seriously quality day with myself! I actually quite like myself when i sit down and really hang out with me. To be fair and honest I am a good guy to hangout with..ha.. Okay all that being said, i have finally had a chance to put my headphones on and escape with some music for the first time in forever. Before i left on this tour i was lucky enough to snag a copy of the new Hot Chip record "One Life Stand".
This is a band that i fell in love with from the moment i heard the track "Over and Over". The last record "Made in the Dark" was one of my favorite records of 2008 and now with the release of "One Life Stand", Craigers is a happy Camper!
From the opening track "thieves in the night" to the lush Brothers, this album does not disapoint.
Dear Hot Chip, thank you for sounding so good in my headphones...

honestly i must learn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pjJ-Czqpps

KOL

Back lounge of bus 2 ...
heading to Worcester Mass for a day off...
Currently watching the Kings of Leon live at the 02 arena in London...
Hands down one of the highlights of my last year was seeing them in concert at GM Place..thanks Tom!

Karma

can be a real bitch sometimes...
Little miss Philly what were you thinking?

Head Count

Almost in Philly for a day off and the clock is pushing 2pm. Nothing quite like a 800 mile drive into a day off. I swear there is nothing worse than waking up on the bus around 11am only to discover you still have around 4 hours to go. Thankfully busses these days are all equipped with wireless internet. How the hell did anyone tour back in the 70s or even the 80s. I guess it was all about the women occupying your time apart from the gig...ha!
So yesterday despite loading in at 1pm and having no soundcheck went surprisingly well. I vote for that scenerio everyday...okay maybe not. Its really nice having the boss on in ears as it brings a certain level of consistency to the table that was not always there before.
For those of you that are keeping up with head smashing tally, yesterday i managed to hit my head twice and now have an indent in my skull. Seriously considering buying a nice hardhat for the remainder of this tour as i am positive i will end up knocking myself out one day.....
till next time...
Craigers

What truck did that go in?

With daylight savings now officially upon us, I celebrate with a nice spicy ceaser ( Canadian bloody mary) and the notion that in a way tonight is "roadie thursday". For those who are not aware of the terminology i will explain. Basically any night after a load out is complete and the next day is a day off is automatically dubbed "roadie friday!" Now this could be a sunday, monday , wednesday, or whatever, the fact of the matter is that it is what is.
Now for us, tomorrow is a show day, not a day off, so this is indeed what has just become known as "roadie thursday."
Let me dare to explain how this has come to be known.
We just finished our load out here in Tampa Bay and are now heading to Atlanta Georgia for our third show in a row tomorrow. The problem is that Atlanta is quite the drive from here, about eight hours, and the time springs ahead one hour..this puts us at the venue around noon with load in shortly there after. So it would appear that tomorrow is kind of like a half day that starts later but forces us to squeeze the same amount of work in with less time to do it. Anyways the point is that we all get to sleep in , do a gig , and then have the following day(monday) off in Philly. So yeah..roadie thursday it is , and all but one of my bus mates are up and having drinks with the time currently at 10 minutes to 3 in the morning!

Not to go into great detail or anything, but rather to inform those who are interested in knowing. I had the best show of my tour thus far tonight hands down. having worked through some key cue points and notes over the last few shows i would say that tonight i mixed a helluva great show and the boss was very happy. I must admit that at first i was kind of disappointed that i would be living under the stairs on stage left, but the more i get used to my world the more i like it. Never have i felt more in the zone mixing than i do right now.

Ryan, pictures will come soon...i just can't remember what truck my camera is in......

Gold Grill Anyone?

Today's show in Sunrise Florida, at the Atlantic Bank Centre, (home of the Panthers) featured quite the host of local crew cats. Suddenly after having breakfast this morning i found myself wondering just how would i look with all of my front teeth replaced with a gold grill? Something tells me i would not be able to pull it off nearly half as well as several of the local crew members did today. Never have i seen so much gold in so many mouths as i did today. In the nicest way possible i think it actually affected some of their abilities to think properly and perform tasks that were asked. I seriously do mean that in a nice way as everyone was really friendly and such, just more interested in hanging out and chillen then they were in really working. The loaders on the dock kicked some serious ass though!
So show number two is in the history books and although i had a great day , my show did not go as well as i had hoped. I never missed any cues, but we had some wireless issues, and an acoustic guitar issue off the top as well. The later was actually the error of the guitar player and nothing to do with us. Anyways i am starting to learn that each day the boss is wearing in ears brings on a whole new host of challenges. Its a battle getting him comfy with them and working together on a song by song basis to perfect the mix. I am glad he is giving them a chance as i know its for his benefit, its just going to take sometime for the two of us to work out all issues.

Now remember that I have declared myself to be "the person under the stairs", or en francais, le personne en dessour la escalier (or something like that). Anyways for the rehearsals and production days in Jacksonville i took pride in the fact that not once did i hit my head, even the potential is plentiful to say the least. Well i have now made up for that and then some and have officially begun to keep track of the amount of times i hit my head. In fact the other night during load out i hit my head so hard that i knocked myself to the ground and ended up with quite the goose egg. Today I believe the overall end of day count was five total times i hit my head and one time smacking my funny bone. My kick ass teammate Marc actually hit his head so hard today that he decided to dull the pain by punching the dasher...I am not sure if that really worked out for him or not....

We now head to Tampa Bay followed by Atlanta. Our first three in a row of the tour. The nice thing about working for the maestro is that he never does more than 3 in a row...
im off to hit my cozy little bunk and read my book....
night

Look Out Orlando

It took just under three hours for the 2010 installment of the Buble crew to load out our first show. The Production rehearsals are complete in Jacksonville and tomorrow we test ourselves with a load in Orlando, our first show, and then a load out. The overall vibe is a little different on this "Crazy Love" tour, but i think its all going to be just fine. On a personal note after 3 years of fine tuning my in ear mixes and waiting for the maestro to ask to try ears again its finally happened. Not only is he currently wearing in ears, but up to this point he is loving them and it is making for a fun night of mixing for me.
The bus has fired up its engines and we are about to head off to Orlando. After tomorrows show we actually have a day off in Ft. Lauderdale...it will be my first day off since Jan 18th and i cannot wait..
pictures and show review to follow our first real show tomorrow!

Its Time...

To get this show on the road...
thank you to the good crew of Jacksonville for all you have done and the help you have been...
tomorrow we have our final run through and then pack up and head for our first show in Orlando...
time to prep for life on the bus which begins tomorrow...

The people under the stairs

Preproduction is well under way down here in Florida and despite losing my phone everything is going very well. We have grown considerably since our last tour date in 2008 at MSG but its all for the best and we are bigger than ever. Still learning names and recognizing faces which has me excited and raring to go. I am focused on my job now and the task at hand. I am fortunate to have a seriously A list audio crew and together we are going tour the world and put on the best damn show we can.
I will however be watching the whole show from under the stage left stairs on a few video monitors....

Olympics pt 2

Finally my time being held as a hostage stage left at LIvecity Yaletown came to an end. Since i had to fly out at 6am the next morning my amazing crew mates let me leave early and get out of the load out. I must say that although i was quite pleased with my overall performance throughout the games, i am not worthy of the gold medal in audio production. My back troubles and lack of physical contribution has kept me from the top of the podium. Perhaps a silver or a bronze medal will look quite good around my neck and be one that i am deserving of.
Vancouver you have made me proud to call you my home. I know the start was rocky and the world's press was quick to jump on the issues and problems that occurred. However we overcame, rose to the challenge, and hosted a world class event complete with 24 hour street party, the likes of which have never been seen during a winter games. All seemed to be fairly smooth and free of major incidents and hopefully a long lasting legacy is in place and our memories are positive.
The last of my collection...

Question

Is it funny or scary that during a search of my hotel room for my phone I found xmas wrapping paper all bunch up under my bed?

phoneless in Jacksonville

It has been a terrible break up, but i must report that my blackberry and I are no longer together.
Thats right the relationship is over for the time being.
Not sure really who left who to be honest, but upon waking wednesday morning it was painfully clear that a split had occurred.

Initial reaction was that of fear, anxiety, and desperation but have since been replaced with an almost sense of calmness.
No longer can i be reached 24 hours a day, and no longer do i look at my phone and wonder why my friends have not messaged me. Its somewhat liberating to not have a phone at the moment and who knows..the way rogers is treating me at the moment i just may never get a new one....