Saturday, June 20, 2009

Toronto Nights: A Casual Ramble Blog


Some bloggers blog every single day. I am not one of those bloggers. Would you believe I don't even know how to type? What do other bloggers blog about? Real things? They just ramble on in a casual tone about their day? That's so boring...but I'm willing to try anything for a quick buck! Here's a "casual ramble blog" for you:

It's raining outside right now. It was nice all day, but now I can hear the rain hitting the window of the hotel. I'm tired, but I can't sleep. I think this trip to Toronto has totally thrown my schedule off. Before I left LA, I was going to bed at a reasonable hour and waking up before 8am. Last night I slept from midnight to 3am and then from 6am until noon?! What a weird schedule! The only coffee I was able to find in a short period of time was Starbucks. It's odd—I never go to Starbucks when I'm at home or have a choice, but I flock to it when I'm out of the country. They must have a deep psychological hold on me. The coffee's never that great, and the baristas never know what they're doing, but it's consistently disappointing and that's what I count on. AFI had a four hour rehearsal today in some warehouse on a soundstage. We haven't really played a show in a while and our crew needed to run through everything, plus it was good for us to run over the songs again. I sang all my usual backgrounds and harmonies, and by the second time through the set, my throat was raw. I guess I'm out of practice. For the record, I'm over shouting. It really just hurts, and never sounds that great. My favorite vocals are the harmonies on Summer Shudder and the ooohs during the intro and re-intro on Missing Frame. Two of my favorite basses from the last tour cycle need neck/fret work and I am playing my old back up bass for the show tomorrow. I don't like it as much because it's a bit on the heavy side, but it still sounds great. Fender makes some great basses. I'm designing some new ones for after we start touring for real and I'm really excited about those. Nothing crazy...just cool colors. Tomorrow should be fun. It's been so long since we've played a show (KROQ's xmas show doesn't count because our set was so short) that even if it totally sucks, it will still be fun. I'm kinda hungry. I should have bought some chips or a clif bar when I had the chance. I think the rain stopped. I forgot to see if the show is indoors or outdoors. I suppose it doesn't matter. The stage is always covered. It's weird, I can't really remember that last time I was nervous before a show. I know I was nervous when we played Just Like Heaven during the soundcheck for the MTV Icon: The Cure show, but that's because we were playing TO The Cure. I was probably nervous in my earlier AFI days when I was the new guy. I had to learn 15 songs in a month and then play in front of thousands of people with one of my favorite bands. The catch was—these were thousands of Offspring fans, not AFI fans, so I was too busy trying to win them over to be nervous. Did we win over any of their fans? I'd like to think so. I still run into people all the time that tell me that their first AFI show was on that tour. This was back in May, 1997. I turned 21 in the middle of the tour. L7 was on that tour too. They called themselves our moms on stage. It was really an amazing experience to play such huge shows at that point in my life. There were many years of crappy shows and long van tours after that, so it was an unusual way to start a career with AFI...but I like to think that it has come full circle. In more recent years, we've headlined some of the venues from my first tour. Time is a funny thing.

I feel like this isn't boring enough, and I apologize. The casual tone is working for me, but my thoughtless rambling seems to drift toward interesting things from the past. Let me try to focus on more mundane things from the present.
My phone is always set to vibrate. It's been like that for years. It always surprises me when it gets turned off of vibrate by mistake and I actually hear it ring. About a year ago, I set the ringtone to "motorcycle" which sounds like vibrating. Problem solved. Tonight I watched the Wolverine movie. I didn't see it when it came out because everyone said it was so bad. Rottentomatoes.com gave it an 8 or something horrible like that. I think everyone, including myself, was expecting something truly awesome. I walked in tonight expecting something truly sucky. It wasn't totally horrible, and since my expectations were so low, I kinda liked it. The writing was awful though. The lighting and SFX were so weird in the New Orleans fight scene that it took me out of the element. I think they tried too hard to put a bunch of actors and characters into the movie and just lost sight of what makes a good action movie. The popcorn sucked. I need to stop eating it. I never enjoy it. At least I stopped drinking soda a few years back. If I had soda tonight I would certainly feel awful right now. I'm excited to see the guys from Rise Against tomorrow. They're close friends and are passing through while on tour with Rancid. Joe Principe shares my love for coffee and we never miss a chance to get lattes. I can't wait to see them play in a couple weeks in LA. It's awesome to see your friends' bands doing so well.

Come on...not boring enough!
I guess I should probably try to sleep. I don't have to be up early, but uninterrupted sleep is always the best, and those pesky hotel maids are always trying to break in and clean in the morning. I'm so glad I don't have to take time to wash and style my hair anymore. What a waste of time that was! If only I could have all that time back. I would have so much time on my hands! I could write a thousand blogs. It's raining again. Maybe it was always raining, but I just couldn't hear it. Okay, it's bed time for me. Blogger out.

Wow! That was boooooooring! I hope I never try that again! Casual rambling blogs might be fun to read, but they sure are boring to write! Until next time, Tranq out.

P.S. Which of the following should I do next? Another Psychedelic Photo blog? Horse Blog Vol. 2? A semi-irregular, Tranquil Mammoth multi-lingual statistic blog? Maybe another Tranquil Mammoth Challenge of 2009 like Horses vs. Fugazi?? Leave me a comment and let me know which of those you'd like to see.

73 comments:

. said...

odd

Anonymous said...

Haha, omg. I didn't know you can be borring. Haha. But even than you're funny, 'cause you kinda suck at being borring. Sorry. It's sort of a compliment.

Oh, and make an other muliti-lingual blog, I liked that one best so far :DD

Much love,
and much for all of you guys fun tonight!!! ♥

SAM DUNN said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
SAM DUNN said...

If the coffee is so bad while you're away use up all of your coffee time and try photography instead! How about a Psychedelic Photos of Canadian Horses blog? x

blogger said...

Sounds like its time for stream of conciousness.

Anonymous said...

[???]
Hunter, festicalguide [that's some sort of roundup of all festivals in Germany, Swiss and Austria] says you'll be playing at FM4 Frequency. Fact or fiction?
[Never read it written by one of you]

Katrin said...

Why did the part about your phone make me laugh out loud?


XD

I could have easily read more about the rain, really.

rarishes said...

My friends and I are also visiting Toronto to see a certain band play later today. We tried to get Tim Horton's but it turns out that was in Sketchville so we skipped it. So now I'm going to have complimentary hotel room coffee.

I very much enjoyed this blog, for the record. And my vote goes to another horse blog!

chaoskitten said...

horses vs fugazi type thingy! :)

that blog was quite interesting. i can't type either! i'm hopeless!
whenever i go into Starbucks i always get hot choccy, i hate coffee! lol!
but what weirds me out is that the people behind the counter ALWAYS have an american accent! even though they told me they've never been there! i always feel like i'm sitting in a cosmopolitian cafe in New York instead of a cafe in Dublin watching students from Trinity college argue about food, Lost and Grey's Anatomy! lol!

i'm off school so my schedule is all over the place at the moment too!
hope you had fun though at Toronto!
bye! :) :)

Haras said...

Ohhh I am so excited. See you tonight, eh!

Anonymous said...

Horse Blog Vol. 2!! :)

GabyBoop said...

Well...

Although you gave a lot of info you don't usually give in just one blog, I don't know; please, don't ever do that again. I like your posts even if they're two paragraphs long, ha ha, they're so much more in character!!

Aaand my vote goes to "Horse Blog Volume 2, the vengeance"

Dustbunni01 said...

A good remedy for a raw throat is warm bread with apricot preserves, and tea. :)

LynellMarie said...

Gah, how boring! >.<
Now, let's see those statistics!

BooBabyDoll said...

If that's boring...then writing about your past and about what friends from bands you're gonna see is perfectly fine with me....But as to what you should post in the near [or "soon" xD] future I think you should do all of them! AT ONCE! Not really, but yea. XD

Hope to see pics and maybe some youtube vids from tonight since I'm not in Canada. :p

XOX
<3

Anonymous said...

Someone clearly needs to sing you lullabies.

Nick said...

I'm loving the Garden State picture you photoshopped. Haha

L.C. said...

easily the best blog you've written, I love rise against, perfect band to clean your house to (not in a boring sense...). Have you had a 3/4 late? Perfect amount of soy milk in my opinion, as long as the coffee is good quality. peace.

Tyler said...

You should do another challenge blog like "Horses VS. Fugazi". I liked that alot.

Gillian said...

woah. you actually pulled off boring?
i didn't think you'd actually do it. congrats :DD

you should totally do a multi-lingual statistic blog. that was pretty tight.

Anonymous said...

another horse blog! i vote for that! and this blog was sorta borring but yet awesome =) good work hunter

peace

sadclowndisease said...

Yep, it's been raining like hell here lately. If you get the chance, watch Metric play today. Great new album, fun, dancy, kickass music. I've got no way to Toronto and am shooting a show tonight. Bleh.

Kick major ass!

P.S. If you wanted to throw a dedication, that'd be ok.


P.S. Starbucks is shit. Tim Hortons, while overly saturated in sugar, is awesome.

<3Roy

Anonymous said...

I would say that blog was pretty pointless but interesting to read =P hahaha
Toronto and LA is only about 3 hours apart.. It can't throw you off that badly! I wanted to go to Edgefest SOOOO badly to see you guys, but my parents wouldn't let me... So now I have to endure the thought of you guys being in Toronto, but me not being able to go.
You should write something like this from time to time... It would be interesting =P
Starbucks isn't that bad, is it? I find it alright :D

Anonymous said...

Hey! I like your ooh's best! XD

in all seriousness, I vote for Horse Blog Vol. 2. Besides, weren't we promised a Vol. 2? o.o;

impure0purest said...

wow, that must have been boring to write... Serious lack of exclamation points there.. hahaha!

I think that you should do another contest one... like, "The Hunter" vs, Mike Dirnt's "The 45 RPM" I'm gonna get those later this week, but I don't know whether to go for the hi-tops, cuz the last Macbeth shoes I got were YOURS! or the low tops, which are still cool, but look a little less awesome..

Karlye said...

I actually found that very entertaining Hunter, thanks for that. And have fun tonight in Toronto!

I say go for Horse Blog Volume 2, seeing as horses still kick ass.

Kera said...

even when you are trying to be boring you make me laugh. why is that? the part about being over shouts was funny. well i'd say i like photo blags because they are always interesting, so there's my vote.

Anonymous said...

I have always wondered if I was the only 10 year old led to AFI through The Offspring!!! I was so disturbingly obsessed with them, I had thousands of pictures on my bedroom walls...then I read one day they were touring with AFI, a band Dexter signed and was quite fond of and thought, wow they must be the shit! And you were! So slowly my bedroom walls & notebooks & such morphed into an AFI obsession. I had to giggle when I read that...

samantha said...

Horse blog vol.2!

1340230984 said...

Awww...but I like reading your boring rambling blogs. They're rather interesting to me. Does that mean I'm even more boring than you? I feel like I should write a rambling comment to match your rambling blog. I'm using my mom's laptop right now because my boyfriend is on my computer downloading music (yes, the legal way). He's DJing a party later tonight, so he's picking up some new tunes. It's for his older sister's friend's husband's birthday. The guy is turning 40, so it'll be a bunch of 30somethings and 40somethings. Should be fun though. They like alternative rock music like Tool and Muse and also 80s stuff like Dramarama. I wonder if we can somehow sneak in some AFI, although you guys don't really make party/dancy music. I guess that's the only downside to being an AFI fan: your songs never get played at parties. Or maybe they're just never played at the parties I go to. I suppose it's possible that one day I could hear an AFI song played at a party, since the only parties I go to are the ones that my boyfriend is DJing. (I don't like parties. Too many drunk people.) Maybe I can put in a special request. Which song though? It's not like you can mix from Lady Gaga into "Days of the Phoenix." I'll have to think on this some more.

Okay, that's it from me. Kat out.

P.S. Do black jeans vs. bananas. Or China vs. pigeons. Or maybe cupcakes vs. trees.

nysho said...

Hunter!!!!! What about the AFI Studio Blog? Pictures,videos,candids,outakes? anything? An animation of the kermit the frog on top of henson studios playing the theramin alongside lil wayne and mc hammer playing pogs with bummo in order to raise money for a NEON WELCOME TO GRASS VALLEY SIGN......... DOES NOT COUNT!I BEAT YOU TO IT SO YOU CANT DO IT! AFI STUDIO BLOG IT IS!!!!!

Emerald said...

Best wishes for the show, I realise it will be occuring around now? Or a couple of hours. I wish I could be there to see you guys!

I loved your blog, please do another one about Horses. That was hilarious :D

Thanks for being awesome! <3

lezah said...

Horse blog. That was epic.

Nothing's more mundane than my random rambles.

Denise said...

Learn how to speak Finnish. Then teach it to me through your blog. I'm having an awful time with it.

Kiitos.

Christy said...

L7 were your moms?! NO WAY! I want L7 to be my moms! I'm super jealous right now. Gosh, it must be so cool to be you. Hell, I'd just like to meet L7...

I really enjoyed your rambling post. L7. So freaking awesome! :D

I don't care what you put in your next blog as they're always amazingly entertaining, but could you do it soon? Please? Thanks.

skenasis said...

I aww'd at Summer Shudder having your favourite harmony. That's just one of the many reasons why that song's name is tattooed on my right foot :)

Also, my vote goes to another challenge blog. I know I've read more than enough about horses for the next few years.

Katie said...

Ah that ramble blog was fun. Go for the versus blog next time for sure.

Anonymous said...

casual is always best. your blogs are far from boring no matter what you write about. =]

Brittney said...

Challenge blog, please.

Yeah that wasn't really boring. I don't find many blogs that boring though, so maybe it's just me.

Becky said...

Horses vs. Fugazi is classic. Total win.

BeccaTheisen said...

Congratulations! My eyes actually glazed over!
Serious bloggers everywhere rejoice.

Em said...

I vote for another multi-lingual statistic blog, it was very clever and etertaining!

Wow, this casual ramble blog was truly boring. But despite the boring style of writing, I also liked and enjoyed it very much. Because it felt more personal and real.

Anonymous said...

I think you should do another Horse blog. Or a statistics blog on horses in various languages!

susan said...

oh my god that was soooOoOooOooOo boring i couldn't get through it.

excellent work!

Anonymous said...

I'd really love to know how to fight moar animals.

Sarahface8 said...

That was the biggest waste of time. I spent approx. 3 minutes reading your boring blog, and although I loved it, I will never get those 3 minutes back. have a good first show tomorrow and don't suck because if you do everyone that went to that show will write boring blogs and threads about it on the AFI board and I will read every single one of them. Please, please have a non-suckish show with your older, heavier bass and don't scream too much because then you'll write another boring a blog about how your voice hurts and the coffee/tea isn't as good or soothing. Science dammit, Hunter. I wasted another 2 minutes writing you a comment.

Sarahface8 said...

Also, it would be really cool if you wrote about Molo, the god of moles.

Unknown said...

Tranquil Mammoth multi-lingual statistic blog?

That because it was EPIC. Epic written in capslock, to show my love for this one.

Anonymous said...

One like Horses Vs. Fugazi, that was quite enjoyable! :3

SeanLinnae said...

I really loved Horses v. Fugazi.

You should do another similar one!

MJ said...

I actually liked this blog. It's like you're incapable of being boring. Everything you talked about started off boring and leaned towards something interesting.

Way to go, Hunter. <3

P.S. I secretly liked the boring bits. And it definitely rains a lot in Canada. I'm on the west coast, though.

P.P.S. I vote for a blog switch day. You and Jade should write in each other's blogs. Just once. It'd be interesting. You guys could make it a competition or something.

But that's just an idea. If not, I vote for Horse Blog Vol. 2.

Anonymous said...

I notice 1 or 2 people ALWAYS vote for the "tar pit" under your posts.

J_yellow said...

Is it sad I didn't find that boring...
Your rehearsal paid off... the show at was awesome!
"the ooohs during the intro and re-intro on Missing Frame." <-just happen to be my favorite part of my favorite song! ^_^ (Thank you-guys for playing that btw...)

I like the Horse Blog Vol.2 idea... Vol.1 remains one of my favorites!

FatKidsFTW said...

If you don't like StarBucks, when you're in Phoenix next, try Lux! It's on Central!

Cat Beard said...

blahg

follow the white rabbit said...

I think you should write Horse Blog volume 2.

Or maybe a horses vs unicorns blog :) That might be interesting.

Kris said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kris said...

This wasn't that boring. You're going to have to try harder!

I just wanted to comment on the coffee situation in Toronto. My boyfriend and I headed down from Montreal for the Edgefest show, and during our stay at the Delta Chelsea, we were craving soy lattes, so we decided to go look for a Starbucks or a Second Cup (somewhat better than Starbucks and a gazillion times better than Tim Hortons) since they're the only places that reliably offer soy milk. Like you, we avoid Starbucks at home and lament their omnipresence in Montreal, but we were actually annoyed when we didn't manage to find one and came back to our hotel room after a half hour walk empty-handed. Anyway :) just thought I'd share. Be well! And thanks for a great show at Edgefest, despite the nastiness of the weather.

GiGi said...

Hunter; that wasn't boring at all. :)
By the way, I asked you in 2005 if Hunter Revenge or A.F.I might come to Puerto Rico someday and you said "Maybe not Hunter Revenge but A.F.I. might :)"

It's been four years... T___T

Esmé Glass said...

Stream of consciousness died with Woolf, man.

CAIT said...

Long blog? Yes Boring blog? No ;P

As for the next one I'm thinking another one like the horses v. Fugazi one :D
That one was fun :]

x

havokisthecure said...

it is not boring...and I liked Wolverine...of course they changed LOTS of stuff from the story and I am a little bit dissapointed but it was OK...I guess hehe...

crampedstyle said...

That post was so absurdly long that I can't read it. Not now at least. I have to go back to work. At 0249 hrs, EST.

Jessus said...

Challenge of 2009 pls.

Coffee for the win.

Anonymous said...

Raining when you arrived still raining now. : / Gasp! You could pull off boring? Never would have guessed.

MAV-tastic said...

please watch this...hilarious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA

Anonymous said...

you may not blog every day, but you seriously need to blog more than twice a year.

Droneth said...

Another Horses Vs. Fugazi-esque thing would be pretty awesome.

Esmé Glass said...

Yo, do you even HAVE a blog anymore?!

If you need some inspiration, I've always found that devoting an entire week to guys who look like girls jump starts the ol' creativity. Or girls that look like guys. You know, whatever.

I'll just show myself out.

Holly_Billie said...

Hey Hunter, I'm just wondering if you know about the new restrictions on the AFI discussion boards...Why are the Electic forums now DF only??

There have been so many board members AND DF members who have left today because of the restriccations....

It's not what the board OR Despair Faction members want.

Im just asking that you read some of the members posts on
http://despairfaction.com/showthread.php?t=133115
And maybe if you and the guys agree, get the decission reversed???

-Holly xo

Faithless I'll adore you said...

ohh god u ar funny!!!
i needed t0 laugh!!!
so hell yeah I wnat that mug!!!
but i dont hav a credit card
and i dont think my dad let me his!!
lol
parents!!!
so...
nice blog BTW
i can wait for u 2 comne to Houston
It would be my fisrt time!!
so im really exciting!!

MsLindaLee said...

Far from boring - Love the oddity!!! I thought I was the only strange one... I thought I got a laugh out of you when I saw you at the Webster as the Most Rockin-ist Mom Ever! Thanks for the so-called boring blog. Please write more.

Rebecca Baxter said...

So i just found your blog (and twitter!). Pretty much made my day/week/life.

I'm hoping you're going to keep using this, it would be pretty awesome.