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Wednesday, December 25, 2002 10:29pm
Merry Christmas everyone!!!
It’s almost illegal to say that these days, but
I guess that’s what makes me such a rebel.
You’ve gotta be when you play drums for such a
wild and crazy band like Drowning Fish!
So enough of this “happy holidays” nonsense.
Let’s get crazy… Merry Christmas!!!!
;)~ So
did Santa bring you everything you wanted???
All us bad kids woke up to Drowning Fish CDs
stuffed in our shoes.
Tragic I know… but I guess it’s better than
coal! Santa
being health conscious and worried about global reserves
and what not recently made the switch from coal to
Drowning Fish CDs.
No one is worried about depleting our reserves I
guess. L
Anyway, on with the show…
I haven’t written one of these in a while.
My New Year’s resolution is to focus more on
doing things like writing diaries and songs and stuff.
I keep getting sidetracked with everything else
going on. I
can’t wait till we get signed and have someone in
charge of the business side of the band. It’s
so time-consuming!
I’m off to watch Dawson’s Creek now, but
I’ll finish hopefully tomorrow.
I just wanted to say… MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
(damn I’m crazy)
Marc 11:13pm
Thursday, December 26, 2002
1:52pm
I’m back!!! I
just finished eating lunch.
So let’s see, where did I leave off???
Oh yes… I believe I was mentioning the fact
that I’m crazy and wild.
For those of you who are a little confused,
Dawson’s Creek did not move their time slot.
I was watching an episode I taped a couple weeks
ago and just got a chance to watch.
It’s the Christmas one where all hell breaks
loose at the dinner table… and Dawson loses the girl
yet again. Before
that, I finished watching one of my most favorite movies
of all time, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
I started watching it on Monday, but it got late
and I started getting all tired, and didn’t get a
chance to finish it till yesterday.
I love that movie!
I want to watch it again!
Anyone up for it???
You pay for your way down here, and I’ll pay
for the popcorn. Deal?!!
I’m duplicating promo CDs as I’m writing.
The duplicator is next to me, and every few
minutes I have to put a new CD in.
A lot of time goes into each $1 and free promo CD
we make. The
CD takes about 4 minutes to burn, and then you have to
copy the inlay with the names of the songs.
Then you have to cut that piece of paper to fit
perfectly into the paper sleeve.
Then you have to stuff the CD in the paper sleeve
behind the inlay you just put in, but not before
flipping it over and making sure it’s not blank.
And then you have to stuff any show handbills or
whatever in there behind the CD. And then you have to close the flap. And then we stand out in the sometimes freezing cold at Chain
Reaction, Glass House, etc. and hand out these things to
anyone who will grab it.
Every now and then you get someone that already
got the CD from us at another show. What sucks is that most of the time they say they never
listened to it! I
don’t get mad at them, but it kind of gets you inside
cuz you work so hard sometimes, and it just goes so
unappreciated. I
know we’re going somewhere though, so that thought
just keeps you from exploding.
And then all these people in positions (I won’t
mention names or places or anything) that could help us
out just ignore us with their egos and indifference.
These are the same people that will be kissing
our butts in order to feed their egos and wallets not
too long from now. That’s when I’ll be able to grant them their wish and not
pay any attention to them.
It makes you really appreciate the people who are
there for you in the beginning though.
I’m listening to “The All-American Rejects” right
now. It was
one of my Christmas presents from Mario.
They almost went from virtual unknowns to signing
with DreamWorks in less than a year!
The craziest thing of all is that just a few
years ago, “The All-American Rejects” were known as
“Drowning Fish!”
We just figured that one out yesterday.
It’s all so strange and coincidental and
ironic. About
4 ½ years ago, Mario (I’m back… my computer just
froze and I had to reboot, but luckily I had just saved
this thing. My
sister and her husband got us a new computer for
Christmas cuz this one sucks insert noun of your
choice here!!!
Hopefully I’ll get a chance to set it up soon.
Anyway, back to what I was saying…) was looking
through AOL profiles for people who had “Drowning
Fish” listed (I know, we were desperate… but it’s
always cool to see things like that), and Mario found a
profile for a guy from Stillwater, Oklahoma that said
Drowning Fish was his favorite band.
Big deal, right??? But you have to understand the fact that 4 ½ years ago, the
only people who really knew about our band was us, our
parents, and our unimpressed (and sometimes violent)
neighbors. Alright
alright… I was kidding about the “violent” part.
You have to admit though, it does add character
to the description.
Anyway, we were amazed.
The curiosity killing us, Mario decided to write
this guy and ask him how he ever heard of us—Drowning
Fish. The
guy wrote back and told Mario that Drowning Fish is the
name of his friend’s band, and then listed their
names: Tyson Ritter, Nick Wheeler, Jesse T, Joel H. and
Jason. I’ll
be back… Mario needs to use the computer to get some
PayPal orders for our $1 CD out.
Maybe it’s one of yours!!!
He also needs to do some other stuff, so I think
I’m going to go after-Christmas shopping now. Christmas brought me lonely heartache and an overdrawn bank
account, but you gotta love them credit cards.
Marc 3:07pm
Tuesday, December 31, 2002
7:52pm
Hey, I guess it’s taken me more time than I intended
to get back to this thing.
I don’t have much time to write cuz it’s New
Years, and I’m scheduled to get drunk and stupid
fairly soon. But
I just wanted to try to put an end to this unending
entry. Mario
always tells me that if I make these things too long, no
one will even bother to read them.
I guess he’s right, but my addiction often gets
the best of me. Anyway, let’s make all my long stories short!
Okay, first up… that other Drowning Fish
band. So
Mario writes an email, and the guy responds saying his
jr. high friends are in a band, and they’re really
good. We’re
like, “Jr. high friends…. Ha!”
Cuz we were a little worried that another band
with the same name might get big and force us to change
our name. Jr.
highers don’t scare me though… well, for the most
part anyway. Anyway, then a couple years later, a girl by the name of
Samantha (who I’ll refer to as Sam to protect the
identity of the innocent) writes Mario and is like,
“There’s this guy named Nick Wheeler that I’ve
been talking to online, and he claims he’s in your
band! He’s
not mentioned anywhere on your site though, so he’s
probably just lying.
What a loser!!!”
Alright, she wasn’t that harsh.
I just thought I’d add the derogatory term for
dramatic flare. Anyway,
Mario writes her back telling her it’s another
Drowning Fish from Oklahoma… not us, and she feels
stupid. ANYWAY,
that was all years ago, and we kind of forgot about
“Sam” and her little jr. high dramas.
Then just last week, after getting the new
“All-American Rejects” CD for Christmas, Mario
decided to check out their website.
He was surprised when he saw that Drowning Fish
was mentioned in their message board.
He thought someone was referring to us.
Reading some more, Mario realized that they
weren’t referring to us, but instead to AAR
(All-American Rejects) when they used to be called
Drowning Fish!!! Mario
then remembered that these guys are from Stillwater,
Oklahoma, put 2 and 32 together, and hasn’t shut up
about it since. Those
little Jr. highers that we brushed off as insufficient
threats to our band name… those kids are now signed to
DreamWorks. It’s
so crazy cool (contrary to popular belief, I was never
much of a TLC fan… but I always did have a thing for
Left-eye) that one of my favorite bands used to be
called Drowning Fish… but thank God they changed their
name!!!! It
would have got pretty ugly if we had to drive down their
and force them to.
I wonder if we had anything to do with them
changing their name???
It’s crazy to look at their CD cover and think
how easily it could have said Drowning Fish on it.
Anyway, that’s the story.
I made it as short as I could.
Anyway, I’m late… gotta get ready!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!
Goodbye 2002. Dammit… I hate goodbyes. L
Marc 8:16pm
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