McNastee, Sean (Good Riddance), Intrinzik

Waking up everyday is a wonderful thing. I can’t be thankful enough for the people who are closest to me in my life right now. My employer has taken steps to make me a more effective employee for his company, my family is always supportive in my endeavors, and my friends are always looking out for me, have my best interests in mind, and try to keep me in good spirits.

While I certainly feel I am at a pivotal and very important time in my life right now, I have found it is in my greater interest to seize the day!  That, my friends, is just what I’ve done the last 4 days.  It has been a whirlwind of a trip, and right now as I look out on the beautiful desert mountain range in Phoenix as I wait to board a flight to Salt Lake City, I can’t help but be greatful.  I’ve seen the Oklahoma City Thunder start their season with a winning record high atop the Ford Center in Loud City, met the MLS team Columbus Crew in the DFW airport, interviewed with a modeling and marketing agency about design work, enjoyed sky box seats and amenities at the Phoenix Suns Home Opener, watched some local AZ artists at a Devil’z Nite Show, took new photos with the Intrinz Ink crew, built the Underground Hustlin’ Online store, finally got to see the horrorpunk band Calabrese, and watched the incomparable Strung Out tear down the Clubhouse.  That’s a mini vacation and a whole TONNE of stuff to cram into just a few days.  Needless to say, I’m exhausted and reinvigorated at the same time!

Although my flight for Phoenix didn’t leave until almost 7 p.m. on Thursday evening, my festivities started off on Wednesday evening at the Ford Center, when I watched the Oklahoma City Thunder absolutely run wild Hulkamania style on the Sacramento Kings for their season opener.  The Ford Center renovations are wonderful, the new scoreboard is sleek and vivid, and the new LED animations that run around the stadium are vastly improved since last season.

Back in Loud City

As Big Slack and I entered Bricktown, you could just feel the electricity in the air.  NBA Basketball was back, and Thunder are on a mission to prove to naysayers and critics alike that this a team to be reckoned with.  Outside the Ford Center, there were live bands, the new Rumble the Bison Van, games and food.  Mat Hoffman even did a stunt show before the rain started coming down.  As we entered the arena we were greeted by many Thunder staffers and as we made our way to Loud City we were basically swallowed up (pause) by a group of Thunder promotional staffers whose sole purpose was to hype the crowd.  There was even a band dressed as referee’s singing Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative.”  You just can’t beat that.

Early press releases stated that “Let Me Love You” singer Mario would be singing the anthem, instead, we were treated to Oklahoma City RnB group Meant2B.  The game was exciting, Nuttin’ But Stringz performed at halftime, and the thunder closed out the game with a home victory and have started their second season with a winning record!  UNHEARD OF!  Westbrook showed real growth as a PG, Durant had, what I consider, an off night, Green looked tremendous (pause), and my man Krstic was killin the Kings on both ends of the court.  I don’t care what Slack says about them, I love the European players (sooperpause).

Heading home, I was jazzed from a Thunder win, and looking forward to flying out to Phoenix.

The Will Rogers airport in Oklahoma City is generally a breeze to get in and out of.  Unfortunately for me, and about 80 other passengers heading to Memphis (there was no Delta direct to PHX), mechanical problems delayed the flight by a few hours and I would miss my connect.  Talking to reservations on the phone, one option I had was going Friday…that wasn’t really what I wanted to hear.  The other option I had was being thrown over to American Airlines and going to PHX via DFW.  Bet!  The only problem…those flights were delayed too.  I learned I was going to spend 5 hours in the OKC terminal before finally heading to Dallas.

Nothing is happenin’ in the Will Rogers airport.  After you visit the three shops and food court…you’re pretty much cashed out on entertaining yourself.  Well, cashed out if you aren’t looking to spend a grip on alcohol at the bar.  I made it through though and worked on writing some songs as I waited to board.   I think airport terminals are a lot like prison.  They really zap the inspiration from you.  You’re pretty much trapped until you board a flight to leave, unless you want to go through the security check points again so you can do something outside the airport.  Then you’ve got to get your car out of the parking lot, pay for that, blah blah blah…it’s draining.

i love my McCafe! DELICIOUS!

Flying into DFW I saw the new Cowboys Stadium.  HOLY COW!  This is the Colosseum if Jerry Jones were a Roman Emperor.  Flying over it, I could only compare it to one of the giant spaceships from the Independence Day film, a giant stone Zeppelin parked in the middle of the metroplex.  Incredible.

We landed, and I wasn’t in any hurry to get off the plane because I knew my flight to PHX was already an hour behind.  By the time I got to the gate it was 2 hours behind, then that crept to 2 1/2 hours.  I saw the team and staff for the Columbus Crew, an MLS team, in the food court.  They were rockin’ slick adidas warm-ups and looked pretty pissed about the flight delays which seemed to be airport wide.

It was at this time I realized I don’t ever want to wear a suit as a required uniform for any job.  It is one thing to be stylish, it is another to look like you’re a cog in some greater machine.  The suit may fit, but the suit doesnt fit you…if that makes any sense.  The people I saw sometimes had an air of pretention surrounding them.  All I could think is how much these people looked the same,  All of them.  Same haircut, same style of suit, same mannerisms, it was quite scary.  Then I found myself wondering how different are these people in their expensive taylored uniforms any different than the guy scraping by at McDonald’s in his uniform.  I am disgusted by the way some of these people were behaving.  How much more important do you think your life is than a guy like myself with a face full of piercings, body covered in tattoos, wearing a Cannibal Corpse T-shirt?  I would assume not much, but then again, maybe I’m just trying to make myself feel better.

I finally arrived in Phoenix after about 12 hours of airports and flying.  I could have flown to Europe in that time.  Intrinzik(INT) picked me up from the airport and we went back to his condo because Friday was a big day.

Friday morning INT and I headed out and got our grub on before meeting with the owner of a modeling/marketing agency about getting me some work.  The owner seemed like a fast paced guy who knew what he was looking for.  Afraid to pull the trigger and give me a job right away, he offered some freelance work as a trial to see if I’m worth my salt.  With any amount of hard work and luck, I’ll tell you who I’m working for in the near the future.

Energized from the meeting in Tempe, I headed back to INT’s place to work on the Underground Hustlin’ Web Store, and Undergroundhustlin.com.  Right now we are offering drops from Ron Jeremy for UGHXX and you can order the back catalog of Underground Hustlin’, minus a few of the more rare editions.  After getting that task started, we headed out to the Phoenix Suns home opener against the Golden State Warriors.

My view from the Sky Box Suite

I must confess, INT does it big!  We had a skybox suite waiting for us and a buffet meal from the Lexus Club.  This wasn’t your standard stadium food fare.  I was treated to marinated chicken tostadas, roasted red pepper hummus, gnocchi bolognese, shaved Italian meat, variety of fresh cheeses and more!  The hand-made ice cream was probably the best I’ve ever had.

The game was exciting, although, it sucked to see Taylor Griffin in a suit on the sidelines as part of the inactive list.  I think the Suns wanted to come out swinging at home, even though their opponent was the obviously outmatched Golden State.  Channing Frye was doin’ the damn damn, as well as Nash and Stoudemire who are pretty much a given.  Rookie PG for the Warriors Stephen Curry still looks undersized and damn near like a high school player compared to chiseled NBA veterans. I won’t deny that he’s very good for a rookie. The Suns demolished the Warriors with ease, I recap the score in the video, ha!

Where's Waldo at the Suns game?

After the game we headed over to…ahem…the G-Spot. Fellow Intrinz Ink artist and ’sworn friend’ Virus was running sound at a Devil’z Nite rap show. I got to see Masonic Minds and Dirty Charlie tear it up, and INT did a guest spot during the Masonic set to cap off the night. After that, everyone was tapped out, so we called it a night. Saturday morning, I woke up and got ready for our photo shoot with Sol-Exposure. While I was waiting to head out, INT’s lady made us breakfast and I got my grub on, but didn’t pig out, while working on the UGH store. We proceeded to head across town and meet up with Virus and the ever eccentric Daniel Jordan. I don’t think I’m the easiest person to shoot, and I need some direction when having photographs taken of me. I’m also a bit of clown. I’m overweight, I look and feel uncomfortable a majority of the time, so I tend to joke around in situations I’m nervous about. However, Hillary managed to get some decent shots which made me look like Color Me Badd singer Bryan Abrams’ brother and/or the lead singer of Smash Mouth. Thanks for being a trooper, Hillary. (BTW the shots Virus got are incredible! Daniel Jordan even levitated for one of his shots….F-N-CRAZY!)

BIG WINNERS!

We picked up a friend of Jason Cruz, lead singer of Strung Out, at the airport after the shoot. INT dropped her off at the hotel and chatted a bit with Jason before we headed back to INT’s place to get ready for the big show at the Clubhouse. STRUNG OUT, CALABRESE, POUR HABIT, Nations Afire and some bands we missed!!! Hell yeah!

Before the show we had some bomb ass Thai food at La’s Cafe.  Tofu FTW!  Then INT schooled the basketball game and I struggled with Skeeball at an arcade/pizza joint where we got cool prizes like plastic army men, smiley face stickers and atom tops.

The first band we saw was Nations Afire, they rocked out for the crowd, I’m not used to seeing a punk band whose lead singer has ear monitors…orrr maybe I never see that part because they handle sound check mostly before the show.  I’m not really familiar with their music, but the crowd seemed into it, and a lot of kids were singing along.

Pour Habit was quite an entertaining experience.  The Clubhouse has the all ages area cordoned off from the bar area and the band, whose name infers they like to drink alcohol, couldn’t exactly play to the drinkers who were wrangled in the back of the venue.  The lead singer jumped off stage and onto the bar only to be stopped when his microphone chord/leash ran out.  He started singing the song on the edge of the bar, but a pit erupted and his chord was disconnected by a circle of moshing fans.  Classic performance, the band acted like they were bothered by each other at points but still played a great show.  I’m sure being stuck in a van with 5 other dudes will do that to you.

Calabrese at the Clubhouse

Calabrese blew my skull wide open, ate my brain, threw it up back into my head, and then sewed it back shut.  I’ve listened to their music for a few years and they didn’t disappoint.  Watching them made me miss being in a band, and made me reminisce about old bands like The Horrifics and The Staggers from Dallas, TX with whom we played shows.  They played two new tracks from a forthcoming CD slated to be out in February and ripped through an energetic cover of AFI’s Sacrifice Theory.  I bought a t-shirt, I forgot how inexpensive Tees are at punk rock gigs.  thank God for DIY!

Strung Out rocked the crowd next and a majority of the audience moved from behind the bar toward the stage.  I enjoyed most of the show from the bar and chatted a little bit with Hillary, our photographer from earlier.  She was there to shoot some of the Strung Out performance and was in competition with a hippie dude in a flannel jacket.  I wasn’t close to the stage, so I can only assume he smelled like Patchouli and b.o.  I did well because I didn’t have a drink all weekend and was able to drive the inebriated Intrinzik and his girlfriend, Jen, home.

I let Mac and his lady friend, Miche, hear some PBR stuff.  You can get that on UGH Volume 19 right now….the first song is also in the flash player on this site.   They bailed out to play some 360, and I called it a night.

Goodbye, Phoenix

So here I am now, in the Salt Lake City airport finishing this blog waiting to go back to Oklahoma.  The last four days of my life were fantastic, and I’m determined to make everyday great.  Except Mondays because Mondays always suck!  So on Tuesday, I’ll see you back in Loud City for the Thunder vs. the Lakers.  I hope the home team gets the W just like the Mavs did a few days ago.

Until next time,

Mack