So many people just don’t know what the hell they’re doing when they pack. What do you need three pairs of heels for on vacation? There is a real art form to packing light, and like many skills, it take a life time to perfect. Hell, even as I write this, I’m questioning whether or not I should have brought that ONE hoody, even though I know I’ll need it on the plane right home. And i’m pretty sure I brought too much underwear, which is a tough call when you’re still back in long johns land and can barely wrap your head around the concept of “bikini day and night”.

Here’s my tips to packing light to help you on the way and a list of what I brought to Thailand + Bali for 5 weeks. Also, shouts out to American Apparel for providing this saucy wardrobe.

Never pack:

-high heels, dvds, any more than 1 pair of sunglasses, anything really expensive, anything sentimental, or anything you can buy on the other side.  for example, I never bring toothpaste or toothbrushes or any toiletries that I can buy at a pharmacy cause they add up in your bag and that shit always explodes and ruins something. Why lug it to a foreign country just to clean it out of your makeup bag?

Do pack:

-books/magazines (that you’re willing to leave behind), and ipod, bathing suit, good pair or sunglasses, condoms and advil-two things that are better to have and not need then to need and not have, one decent pair of shoes (like Vans) you can wear in the jungle/at the beach.

Technique:

First, think about what you’re gonna bring and make a list for a week before. Make sure you pack neutrals and separates that compliment each other so you can mix and match easily. Don’t throw all that shit in a bag, cause you’ll just keep filling the bag with stuff and you’re guaranteed to over pack that way. Lay it all out on your bed so you can take away that 4th white teeshirt when you realize you’re over-doing it. Also, you can’t bring any more than your bag will carry, so the smaller the bag, the less you’ll bring.

Here’s my list:

-two tank tops (one white, one coloured)

-2 pairs of shorts (one white, one coloured)

-one teeshirt (white)-you might need this if you burn your shoulders/chest on the first day and have to cover up on the second.

-one zip up/hoody

-3 bathing suits

-one pair of workout socks

-one pair of Vans (i bought flip flops here and I plan on leaving them behind)

-concealer/lipgloss/mascara/bobby pins and an elastic

-proactive (guuurl, I am not about to get acne up in this bitch for no one)

-sports bra + workout shorts and running shoes (but that’s cause I keep the fitness in check people)

-one pair of leggings

-one pair of light pajama pants

-a tank top with built in bra (doubles as yoga shirt and tankini)

-one bra

-four pairs underwear: one black, one white, one thong and a workout pair (i could have gotten by with two)

-one nice onsie to wear out at night

-light coat (i had to wear it for the plane and it doubles as a rain coat, but I might dump it anyway)

-a nice wrap: good as a scarf for the plane, but also doubles as a towel and a blanket for flee infested pillows

-a netting bathing suit cover tank dress thingy (haven’t even worn it yet)

I guarantee you’ll buy stuff. I’ve already bought 3 blouses and a Lil Wayne tank dress.

There’s other things too, like I brought and iPad and a Computer, and some chords to charge my shit, but for me those are essentials. I also have a smaller, over night bag that doubles as a beach back or a weekender and carry on. With 24 hours of flights to get here, I needed it.

This was the groovy ride I was given to accomplish my tasks.  It’s what would happen if a smart car and a mini cooper had baby.

The last few dates have been quite uneventful as far as touring goes, and especially for a Blondes tour.  I even contemplated eating some chicken wings listed on the menu after our gig at Fanshawe College – 6 suicide wings and if you could eat them all, you’d get your photo on the wall.  Didn’t do it.  I’m blonde, not crazy.

Unfortunately, due to unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, our Windsor show was cancelled at the last minute.  And so, with nothing but an extra 12 hours of time on our hands, we spent the night in a movie theater with another favorite blonde, Ryan Gosling.

On our way to London (Ontario…people keep asking me when I got to the UK, so I feel I need to start making the geographical location a lot clearer), Lesley and I decided it was time for this tour to have a theme song.  You’ll need to stay tuned (ha – no pun intended) for that future hit song written on the 401.

Tomorrow is our last show, and then back to the left coast I go.  It’s been a blast, to say the least.  Time flies when you’re having fun and since blondes DO have more fun, it’s been double speed .

VANCOUVER

So we got into Van mad early and checked into our hotel, then went straight for Pho, which is the new A&W on this tour, then break for nap times (well, I went for an epic 10K run along the sea wall, which was so absolutely beautiful, I’d rank it up there with a single surprise orgasm in terms of awesome-ness). By 6:30PM, we were at Fortune setting up and loving their Halloween decor, zombie Biggie and Tupac anyone?

Then it was off to dinner with Red Bull’s Kenny Mac, who took the motely crew of loud ass women to some Cambodian spot that sounded like Poon Pen. Best chicken wings and soft shell crab ever. At dinner, Kate from Stinkmitt joined us. She regaled us all with witty one liners like “My womb is a tomb” and “if they peaches are ripe, I say pick” in reference to wearing the same undies two days a in a row. Also, Kate and Maren sang a lovely cover of “Last night a DJ saved my life” that went like this: “Last night a BJ saved my life…” And Kenny Mac snagged it as his ring tone. Since those girls can really sing, the whole restaurant heard. It was just another classy moment on Get Er Done.

At the show, Stinkmitt performed, which was nice. Also, I got a boner for a Karaoke room ON SITE at the club!

It wasn’t mad full but damn that sound system is lovely. Oh and Kate got caught on video stealing our rider. The girls were mad at first, but it’s kinda funny now isn’t it? Check the vid for yourself below.

Kate an hour before the crime was committed

WHISTLER

On Friday we enjoyed a rare moment called “late checkout” and were on the road by 1PM towards Whistler. Six of us piled into one room since we had no intention of actually staying the night, having to drive to Nelson 10 hours the next day anyway. Being that it was Halloween, we got in the spirit and got our costuming on. Jubilee and B.Traits were Wayne + Garth, and Bitchin’ recycled some dope Gnome costumes from Shambhala. Betti Forde was Ke$ha in another bad ass onsie (her closet is like one endless onsie train; the ride gets better the longer you stay on it), and I was a Tweety Bird (again cause my fucking Shocker costume got stuck in the States since the people at BuyCostumes.com have never rerouted a package and have shit for brains and sent it to my HOME ADDRESS in Toronto. Assholes). But I don’t have pictures of us, cause that’s just how the cookie crumbled.

NELSON

By 4am we were strapped into a car with a sober Mama Miche at the helm and flying towards Nelson. Not gonna lie, that drive was a bit rough considering I got deep into the Burt Reynolds hole with Dom the manager at Garfinkels the night before. Sobering up in a car is lovely. Just lovely.

We made it to the Hume Hotel, which is where Spirit Bar is located and after getting a good dose of Oso Negro, we passed out for a solid 4 hour nap.

The party in Nelson went off like a crack whore with a fresh welfare cheque. I gotta say, the whore quotient was pretty low in Nelson, which was really refreshing. It was almost like a Jim Henson movie, with people break dancing and flipping around on the dance floor and furniture. Costume wise, we had a Hamburgler (Jubilee), Unicorn Trainer (Mama Miche), Bunny (Kenzie Clarke), a Kingu Flying Bat (B.traits) and I was Prince. Yes, the purple one. Highlight: B.Trait’s dad came dressed as a younger version of himself and her mom stayed right to the end (she’s from Nelson originally).

Awesome Nelson Ladies!

The Soundcheck at the venue for the evening, The Pyramid Cabaret, was about as nice a surprise as our life saving Pho at a Vietnamese Restaurant in Saskatoon. The sound was money. When we headed out for dinner and found that we were going to be sharing the Thursday night crowd with another night hosted by new friends and Winnipeg/Guelph DJ heroes, Brock Goldngrams and Tim Co-op, we were a little worried. Turns out that Thursday was not our lucky strike, but we got to have some serious bonding with opening DJ, and all around rad chick, DJ Sw@t, got to meet Andy Samberg (or a reasonable facsimile), got to play “Name what that dude smells like”, and got to DJ some bumping tunes for those lucky kids who came to check us out. Roxy definitely got us through the night, playing some crazy ripping bass lines that kept them on the floor till 2:30. We kept our party super tight due to the impending 800km drive between Saskatoon and Winnipeg that we were to tackle in the am, but did manage to have one of the shots that was dubbed by Mama Miche especially for the tour: The Hand Job, or, Jamieson’s shaken on ice.

We were up early enough to take Roxy to Tim Hortons for her virgin run…..A coffee, some Canadian lingo, and a breakfast sanny saw her totally sorted and understanding why some Canadians need their Timmy’s like some people need crack. We piled in the car and headed out onto the plains, our new mascot, Sparkle-Eh the unicorn, seated comfortably on the dashboard. After falling in love with a wicked Baltimore DJ mix, Portage of the Prairies and their weird bikes, and the fact that we had discovered The Nothing from The Neverending Story, we were off and driving that Mazda 6 like a G6.

Putting autopilot on and resigning ourselves to the fact that we were in for an approx 10 hr drive we hit that highway like a bunch of pros. 7.5 hours motherfuckers. Saskatoon was waiting for us, and we were excited to all be there to play at Scratch (a personal favourite venue in Canada and home to the best host ever, Neil Malik.) Neil fed us amazing Indian tapas and the Gaff warmed up the room with his serious skills. When we hit the decks, a Red Bull fridge filled with Heineken, Red Bull, and a bottle of the Silent Bird (grey goose), had magically made its way onto the stage behind us…so we invented another tour drink :The Finger Bang….Vodka, Red Bull, and soda. Very interesting to request one of those from whoever is on making drinks duty…especially in a crowded and loud club…oh, and btw, we totally rocked Saskatoon…

Bitchin’ on opening with some Nu Disco jams, Roxy on second playing her “best set!”,(INSERT PICTURE 5 HERE) and Jubilee getting into it with her signature bass. The end of the night had Jubilee and Mama being a bunch of pot-heads as an homage to our friend DJ Ayres, many grammatically erroneous Twitter posts, and some attempts to cover INXS’s “I need you tonight” with a beer bottle ‘jug band’ accompaniment.

The first word out of everyone’s mouths the next morning was “PHO”, so we made our way to the gates of heaven, aka Vietnamese Restaurant. That place will bring you back from the clutches of bad feelings from the night before like nobodies business. We had fixed ourselves, and the days drive from Saskatoon to Edmonton was calling (and B.Traits was tweeting for us to get our asses in gear and get there so she could meet up with us) so on the road again we went. The drives through the prairies are sponsored by the numbers 1, 5, and 5, and the letters k, m, and /hr. Needless to say, we got to the hotel in a shorter amount of time than was originally calculated….suck it Google maps. Jubilee woke up just before we rolled into Edmonton as our friends gave us a full shout on their radio show,….going from full sleep to “WTF?!” was pretty amazing to witness.
The Edmonton show was awesome for having at least the rider set out in full force. The pros in all of us shone through, and we went to town on the sound systems in Temple/Brixx. Jubilee and B.Traits gave the basement a thorough bassy rinse out, and Bitchin’ and Roxy went 4/4 techy upstairs. We got to see a variety of past Get ‘er Done fans, Betti Forde’s friend Gerald, (such a doll), all the foosh/danksoul/treehouse peeps, and Colleen, our resident hottie and music nerd.

Things we’ve learned so far? Driving on straight highways without any music or cd’s because there is no ipod plug in sucks, Mazda’s are just Ferrari’s in disguise, PHO is the elixir of life and we will probably eat it ten times or more before the tour is finished, stuffed unicorns on the dash is better than a GPS, having a cigarette lighter adaptor to plug your chargers into in the car is essential when you are tweeting/texting obsessively trying to keep the drive boredom at bay, and Roxy Cottontail is an amazing addition to the Tour this time around, and we will all miss her as she’s finished her dates and has headed back to NYC.
Saskatoon is definitely in the lead for best show, but now we’re onto the west coast….where we almost lost our minds and livers last times. Let’s see what you got.

First thing’s first, we are NOT cut out for car rentals. For some reason this tour does not come equipped with licenses that go with credit cards. Those two things do not mix in the same wallet, so our friend Kitty offered to drive. She can’t park for shit, but girl can drive for 10 hours no problem. She doesn’t have a credit card (of course). But meh, we figured out some voodoo for the car rental spot and we were off to the races.

The first thing we had to do upon arriving in Montreal was wait for 2 whole hours while Roxy Cottontail cleared customs. Luckily the tiny old lady who worked at the Montreal Dep gave use these nifty beer sized paper bags and straws so we could drink in the open.

The show at The Blemont included locals: Mary Hell and Hatchmatik who DID NOT wear a dress as he had promised me, but luckily he’s grown this impressive black cookie duster mustache that he swears is all natural. All these DJs meant 45 minute sets to the god damned minute. The show wasn’t the fullest, but all the right people seemed to show up and we got pretty toasted and eased into the cluster fuck of the rest of the weekend nicely.

TORONTO

Toronto’s always the stress show for me. Hometown shows are quite possibly the devil incarnate. Somehow I managed to get 3 hours work in at my office, take a long hot bath AND get to the show at Mod Club just before doors to set up the club with banners and giveaways from Heineken, Puma, and Dose.ca. Roxy finally got to perform and threw her signature bunny stuff into the crowd. And Embrace gave us our rider in a cooler.

Honourable mentions: Lucie Tic tore up the balcony, a lot of our guy friend’s showed up really tanked for some reason, and somehow, someone got these two skinny ho dancers up on the stage just as Jubilee started her set. They looked like her dancers, but also, because of the height difference, she was eye-to-hoop with them.

Thankfully Gay Rob stepped in as our alterna-ho dancer. And all was right in the world once again.

OTTAWA

By the time we were en route to Ottawa, we were hanging by threads. Jubilee, and Star Eyes and possibly Riviera (still not totally crystal on this point) played an afterhours in a toaster oven the night before and I got scared to be alone on the train. It took us two hours JUST to leave Toronto cause the DVP was closed which was brutal. A few Timmy Ho’s and a lot of jokes about hooping later, and we were in Ottawa. The capitol of our great nation, and also where all lesbians move to start a family.

Let’s prende une moment to respect Star Eyes’ van outfit for the day.

Ottawa had potential to be a really really hairy night. The club was set up perfectly when I got there on banner patrol. Our cooler of beer was replaced with a proper booth, and the dance floor was rammed all night long. Once again, all the right people showed up and that made all the difference.

This tour has almost killed me already (when Kitty wasn’t trying to kill us in the van of course) and it’s just really damn hard to describe. Like how can I explain to you that hooping is such a huge trend that the BBC is even talking about master hoopers reaching new heights of ecstasy and how Star Eyes heard that right when she got in the car en route to butt-fuck Utah after not having slept all night, and how that made her entire life? Or how Rod Lee is the only thing that will save your soul on a 500 hour drive totally hung over in the pouring rain? Or that Tim Horton’s is set to buy a house from us after this, or that there is a certain gang-mentality that takes over when you get that many girls in a van together? I can’t.

All I can say is hold on to your livers girls, there’s 7 more dates to go!

Toronto Photos By: Al D, Rest by this hot mess

LIONESS take on America – DAY 1

We decided to leave Wednesday night to beat the border heat before our first American show in Philly. We ended up waiting four hours for our visas. We were planning to drive half way and ended up only in Williamsville at the Garden Place Hotel. We were starving from the wait and thankful to find a 24 hour Timmy Ho’s. The gold lions lead us to our room.

DAY 2 – Philly here we come!

We get up and ready ourselves for the 3-hour drive. Then the burning smell… I thought it was the smell of Philly in the summer, but as we pull into the Holiday Inn beside the stadium, the parking attendant informs us that our van is smoking. MF. Our show is in a few hours and we have enough gear for five people. We call the promoter for the show and explain what a great start to our trip this was. Thank the tour gods! Kung Fu Necktie had a cargo van. We load up the van and as we pull out onto the street we notice about fifteen cops and a tarp with a body under it, and a pool of blood surrounding it. I take back the thanks, South Philly, what? We made it, and the show was amazing! We stayed up late learning Philly slang and sayings. “If your v-neck is lower than your necklace, you’re a douche. And saying, “Blow you” when you disagree with someone.

DAY 3 – NO SLEEP TILL BROOKLYN

Nothing like going to bed at 5:30 and walking up at 7:30 to take the van in. We have a full day of waiting and hoping we’ll make it to New York. Steven the promoter from the show takes us to a great place for breakfast where Ian the dj from Night Train comes to meet us in the shitty limo. No mini bar, broken cassette tape, broken locks and no AC – what a sweet ride.

$850.00 later we have new brakes and we are on our way. Good-bye Philly, I will miss you and your kind souls and dead bodies. Hello Brooklyn, I love your free pours and four o’clock last call.

After the show there was a karaoke party. It as fun to watch people belt out Metallica and Jay-Z “In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of…” I sang Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams.

Lioness Take Manhattan – DAY 4

Although eating 99-cent pizza & pretzel M&M’s seems like a good late night idea you end up having nightmares about being dragged under a red car and watching someone’s intestine’s turn into silk worms and pour from their stomach. Jeff had a strange dream too. It was about our friend Devon from YSP! And in the morning we found out he had recently stayed in the same room, in the same apartment. We talk about our visions over coffee and breakfast, then ventured into the lower east side. Hell yes!

DAY 5 – Welcome to Canada

QxBxR at Cake Shop was amazing! People danced and sang along, it was a great feeling inside. And now it was time to head back home. We stayed with the best cat. Stopped in Syracuse on the way back, crossed the border at midnight. And ended our epic 3 day American tour.

There’s more fun on the road coming. Stay tuned for the next round…

What you do need are friends – girls in the know.

I just jumped ship from Toronto to Finland to kick off the ArtStars* Odyssey, a world tour to uncover the 7 Unsolved Mysteries of the Art World for my web show.

And what mysteries there are – from basement galleries to underground comic scenes – Helsinki is the next Brooklyn and we were there to cover it all.

Should you ever find yourself in the land of the midnight sun (no jokes: it’s sun, all summer), these are the superwomen who saved our asses from tourist hell. They forever have our official ArtStars* Approval.

1. Hannaleena Heiska

Back when ArtStars* was in computer land in Toronto, Hannaleena was our best map sista. The Helsinki-based painter and music scene maverick was the best at filling us in on where to shop and all the best saunas. Props to the Heiska for being our first friend in Finland, for reaching out with a thousand links and veering away from the tacky and overplayed. Her next show is at Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary in September, where she is showcasing a new film featuring dancers, amusement parks and the Kallio art district.

2. Julia Wiræus

While reporting outside of Galleri Bergman, I had someone approach me – strange in the land of timid Finns. It was Julia. “Where are you from?” she asked, and we’ve been friends ever since. The print and broadcast journalist who is a film critic for Filmjournalen and a city culture reporter for YLE (sort of the CBC of Finland) gave us the who’s-who in clubland. Julia is originally from Uppsala, Sweden, but grew up speaking Finnish – about 5% of Swedes have Finnish as a mother tongue and 5% of Finns have Swedish as a mother tongue. Oh, let’s make out already.

3. Minna Parikka

This shoe designer and fashion world diva is well-versed in the runway world – she knows how to walk the walk, and it isn’t just the heels that have graced the pages of ELLE and Italian Vogue. A true business woman who checks her phone more than her hair, we took a ferry together from Helsinki to Suomenlinna Island for a picnic where she filled us in on her new spring/summer collection (shoes with hot lips, gloves with spill marks and little black dresses). She spent a chunk of time in London, Milan and Barcelona, having lived in London for school, so ask her to reminisce and nothing will stop her trot.

4. Erika Erre

She has draped an electronic toy dog in fresh lamb’s meat, poured out piles of sugar onto gallery floors and collects knives from flea markets – but art aside, Erika Erre, a master’s student at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki and a member of an artist-run space called Oskasenkatu 11, is an art opening scenester who knows everyone. She swept me into her industrial Vallila district studio and stumbled with me into the Sinebrychoff park (a park which is informally a perpetual booze picnic after 7 p.m). By far the nicest person I met in Finland, her next show will be at Huuto Viiskulma this August. Watch out for more meat, sugar and urban interventions – in black hats.

5. 1-800-MOM

Everyone needs a mom away from home and Sari Pesonen, a communications and culture rep with the Embassy of Finland, deserves a Mother’s Day card for putting up with ArtStars*. This art maven gives the best hugs and rocks clogs like nobody’s business. She recommends the best art museums, the best martinis and refuses to pay cover at heavy metal festival after parties. Peek into her picnic basket and you’ll find sticks of reindeer, cranberry crackers and organic butter. Sari loves the drama of ArtStars* drama – and without drama – we’d be nothing at all.

*snap*

Paul and I just got back from touring Europe on Sunday and after having a couple days rest in our own beds we headed to Calgary on Wednesday (Canada Day) to play at Sled Island, which is a pretty awesome festival all over Calgary. With Sled Island you never really know what you’re going to get because they take over every single venue in the city – and some of them are a little…shitty.  But it doesn’t really matter because the kids come out and we’ve definitely played our fair share of dive bars. It’s kind of like coming home in a weird way.

While there is something romantic about flying across Canada, it goes out the window when you arrive and your gear isn’t there.  Yup, my keytar and synths and drum machines didn’t make it on our plane.  So after checking into the hotel (Hilton! Yes!) we walked around a bit and met up with some Calgary friends. But that’s the thing about touring – there’s always something in the back of your mind that you know you have to be worrying about.  No matter: we made our way to Tubby Dog, which is the best fucking hot dog joint we’ve ever been to (and sadly, we’ve been to a ton).

Air Canada told us they’d deliver our gear to our venue in a cab – assuming that it was really on the next flight out.  So we did as we were told and showed up on time to the venue, which was as suspected a hilariously divey basement bar. It was only hilarious, though, until we met our sound guy.  There’s a this really weird feeling that you get when you walk into a club and realize that the sound guy is insane. It’s like the whole purpose of your life has just been compromised and there’s nothing you can do about it.  You could be playing the hottest show of your life but if the sound guy is crazy, it just doesn’t matter. So when he walked up to us, angry for some reason and sounding like he hadn’t been out of the bar in 30 years, we started getting sketched out.  Here’s a picture of him (we wanted to protect his identity a little bit):

I think he’s trying to turn up the suck in this picture.  Anyways, the beautiful thing is that just in the middle of talking to him, I get a text from Matt Lederman – our touring sound guy – who out of the blue says that he’s coming to Calgary tonight! Turns out that he is doing sound for !!! (also known as chk chk chk) for our show together the next night and he was getting in early. So we beg Matt to save us from the luddite who is going to do our sound and he agrees, on the condition that we buy him some bourbon.  Seems fair. After that, we roll upstairs and wait until, like a vision from heaven, a cab rolls up with all of our gear inside.  Sweet, sweet relief.

The show was pretty amazing and there’s still, after all these years, something really special about hearing people sing your lyrics back to you.  We debuted some new material too, and there was so much love in the room that by the end of it we were on a serious high.  I did elbow a girl in the face by accident, but hugged her during a crowd charging session during the last song so I think we’re square.  The bar (Vern’s Tavern) was conducive to sweaty crowd participation and we definitely shared some sweat with our fans.  It was dirty and delightful.

It’s funny, before a show I always feel like there’s no way I’m going to be able to make it on stage.  I get crazy exhausted, like my body’s anticipating the energy that’s about to be expended, and I am 100% positive that I’m going to play the show and go straight to bed.  Never works like that though! As soon as we finish our shows all I want to do is party with Paul and whoever else is around. After the show at Vern’s, we owed Matt for saving our asses so we wanted to give him the best night of his life, which ended up being a hilarious house party featuring reams of home brew beer, tents in the backyard, and a really, really stupid jam session.  I was given a synth that had no notes on it and I contributed less than zero.  Did I mention we were really drunk? That might have had something to do with it. Anyways, Matt started to fall asleep around 5AM so we grabbed a cab back to the hotel and tried to get enough sleep to seize the day.  We had another show the next night, and because days that don’t include hours in a van are such a luxury on tour, we were intent on making the most of it.  Fingers crossed the hangover isn’t so bad…

Oh yeah – did we mention the amazing Canada Day fireworks?

But for now let’s flash back to our show in Cleveland, where we blew the power.

Yep.

Little old us. In fact, we blew it during our gentlest, least-rockingest song ever, Little Garcon. One second we were playing, the next, the PA was gone. We kinda looked at each other like “wtf guys,” but luckily, the fine people of Cleveland…

… were kind enough to sing along without microphones and help us through the end of the song, which was really cool. Either way, I’m pretty sure we’re the first band to blow the power by playing a song that has more handclaps and harmonica than it does distortion.

We also played the same night as Beach House, in the same venue. I got to see one song, which was great.

But more importantly we snagged their beer after they left.

And drank it while eating rice out of a glass. Classy!

We then moved on to Brooklyn (here you can see Aron of Young Rival (*http://www.myspace.com/youngrival*) rocking out in a room that appears to only have fireflies or christmas lights.

But the highlight of that show for me had to be when two girls leapt on stage in an attempt to give Luke a big old smooch. At least I think that’s what happened. Anyway, what followed was us ending the song we were playing, leaving the two girls kind of in an awkward situation where they were now just standing on stage with us with no music.

So, naturally, we made them stage dive by chanting DO IT DO IT until they did it. I’m pretty sure Steve swore at them. One girl did all right. The other, not so much. She kinda fell on her head. But that was the crowd’s fault, right? Right?! PLEASE BELIEVE ME! I hope she is alive.

The next night we played a crazy show in New York that ended with us being denied an encore by the venue’s curfew (gotta get those clubbers in to dance and puke on each other!) – however, we managed to plead our case and get one more song. We then went out to a bar and felt like real grown-up rock stars by shooting pool and drinking the night dry.

Then we ended our US trek in Allston, MA, where our friend Julia (owner, operator and ruler of fuckyeahbornruffians.tumblr.com came and was nice enough to take a picture with us.

You can see more of me in my embarrassing tank top here in this video from our show:

We ended our tour back home in Canada, with shows in Montreal:

Ottawa:

and finally, the big finale, in Peterborough:

That’s all for me – see you in the summer, as long as our homecoming party hasn’t destroyed the city.

ruffian mitch

Not the Calgary show itself. No no no. That show was a lot of fun (including the dance party after). There was a small incident however; one we’ve never encountered before, because our fans are usually (a.k.a. always) not the type to give us the finger, because hey, if you’re a fan of something, you generally don’t show your appreciation by giving that thing the finger. Unless if you’re a fan of Stone Cold Steve Austin like me.

Anyway, here’s the full silly story:

We were about halfway through our set when Luke accidentally unplugged his guitar, thus cutting the sound out at a crucial moment in the song. He fixed it pretty quickly, but once the song was over, in a fit of self-rage, he threw a roundhouse kick at the microphone stand, which tumbled over into the crowd.

At the time I didn’t think anything had happened, but one guy took the brunt of the mic in the head apparently, and his friend (not him) took it personally, because that’s what bros are for, right bros?! From then on in, he kept pushing the mic stand back at Luke and into his face, as well as using some rude hand gestures that I can’t describe on here in fear of my mom reading this.

At one point I saw Andy (who is a man that I have never seen show even the slightest sign of genuine anger towards another person), pointing and shouting something at this guy. I didn’t know what was up, but I knew something was wrong if Andy, earth’s kindest soul, was shouting expletives into a dude’s face.

Then came the last song, when the guy pushed the mic stand completely over when everything BUT the vocals were supposed to drop out, thus bringing the song to a complete halt. At this point, I now knew what was going on and went over to yell swear words at this guy along with Andy for derailing what was a really fun set. He was taken out, we somehow pieced the song back together and finished.

Then I went outside before the encore to see if the guy was out there, and I beat him mercilessly with my bare hands.

Not really. I did that thing where your voice quivers and you make vague threats then leave. I’m a true badass!

I apologize for the lack of pictures in Calgary – I was completely derailed by that guy pushing the mic. Please accept this David Wilcox video that we watched before our show in Chicago and I hope you will forgive us: 

We then moved on to Saskatoon, where we had a great show at Amigo’s (you can check out some really sweet photos from the show here). Good thing that guy got some pictures because I sure as heck didn’t. Still rattled from Calgary I suppose.

From there we spent several hours in the van getting to Winnipeg.

We literally rushed to get there, loaded in, played almost immediately (to a really fun crowd)

Then had to leave almost immediately (after packing up the van from ON TOP OF OF THE VAN!

because of a long drive we had to do the next day. We were so delirious that I thought the road was covered in snakes. Turns out it’s just tar. Yep. Tar. We also hit a wolf or coyote driving through the night. It was both sad and 100% terrifying. We’re a bunch of fragile little boys.

We then played in Minneapolis at the Turf Club, which had a strange juxtaposition of back rooms (is that the right using of that word? I’m just trying to sound like an educated man.) One room looked like this:

While the other looked like this:

You can safely assume we spent more time in the cool room playing piano and taking psychedelic pictures than we did chilling in the murder basement.

During the show a girl jumped up on stage during Moose Bruce and tried playing Luke’s guitar, then just awkwardly climbed back down. It was pretty hilarious. To me. Not so much her.

Then it was off to Chicago, but first we hit up Daytrotter where we and Young Rival both recorded sessions that will go up sometime in the near future.

The drive from Minneapolis to Rock Island (Daytrotter) to Chicago was our longest trip of the tour (woke up at 6:15, arrived at venue around 8:00 I think), and it also may have been the biggest payoff in terms of stir craziness accumulated in the van and awesomeness generated at the show. If that makes any sense at all. All I mean is that we had a crazy fun show that was even more awesome because of how long we sat still in the van on our way there.

The pace of tour can definitely be jarring sometimes, in a way that’s more funny than anything really. You sit still for fourteen hours, then IMMEDIATELY rock out as hard as humanly possible, get drunk, go to bed. It’s like baseball. Sit still for a long time then run to first base as fast as your body will allow you. The only difference is that when you tour with us nerds, no one gets to first base. :(

I think I’ll leave on a high note. We’re all hanging out in the bar in Allston as people are coming in – should be a sweaty one tonight. Hoo boy.

ruffian mitch

There are seven fellers in our van because we’re travelling and playing with Young Rival, a rock and roll band from the rock and roll town of Hamilton (of the rock and roll province of Ontario).

So now is the time that you hum the Perfect Strangers theme song  in your head as I introduce every person in the van:

Luke – Guitar/Vocals (Born Ruffians)

Steve (“Mike Dakota”) – Drums (Born Ruffians)

Andy – Keys/Guitar (Born Ruffians)

John (“Demetri”) – Bass (Young Rival)

Aaron (“Dr. Edward Poon”) – Guitar/Vocals (Young Rival)

Noah (This is his sexy glamour shot that I took without his permission) – Drums (Young Rival)

And there are no known pictures of me, so in order to know what I look like, you’ll just have to combine Jack White, John Belushi and a modern incarnation of John Goodman’s Dan Conner in Roseanne – all comparisons I’ve received this tour. With the body of Usher.

We hit Victoria after four shows in the US that included confetti,

balloons, a failed marriage proposal on stage,

me smashing Luke over the head with my bass, about three broken bass strings, two shirtless men (one of which was the dude proposing), one pantsless man (for real) and we also played songs. We also discovered that men like to get naked to our music, but not women.

In Victoria we played with Mother Mother at this massive church.

The crowd was great and really receptive, but the highlight had to be when they all rose out of their seats and gradually danced up to the front of the stage during What To Say.

Right after the show, there was the after party (then after the party, we went to the hotel lobby) that Young Rival was playing. That night we discovered that even if no one knows they’re playing, Young Rival attract girls to their shows from all corners of the city. Their music is like some kind of conch shell that only babes can hear.

In Vancouver we returned to playing our own show, and it was maybe the wildest of the entire tour so far.

The place was crammed, people brought balloons again, I got blasted in the head with an empty can of PBR, Steve tore his shirt on the steel cage that surrounded the stage, and fans invaded the stage on our last song (before the encore even!) and they pretty much obliterated our gear. Between the steel cage and beer can to the head it was more like a pro wrestling show than an indie rock show, and THAT I can get into.

From there we spent two days driving, where we encountered this herd of wildlife.

Last night was Edmonton, yet another show that included balloons and sheer chaos.

There was no steel cage to climb, so it was back to being like a rock show again, which is okay too. At the end of our encore, my bass strap popped off and into the crowd. After the song I tried getting it back from a fan, which turned into a tug of war, which would’ve been embarrassing if I lost, because she was a small girl. But I won BECAUSE I AM A STRONG MAN.

We’re in Calgary right now getting ready to soundcheck. The sound guy just read us a short story over the PA. It was bizarre and pleasant all at the same time because he has the voice of a book-on-tape. Now he’s just naming cities and imperial measurements into the mic…

See you in five days!

Ruffian Mitch

End of the night at Amigo’s, Saskatoon. Great show, great food, great place.

We hit a brutal blizzard driving out of Saskatchewan towards Edmonton, wind gusts were up around 100km/h and there were a lot of highway closures all over the province. What is usually a five hour drive ended up taking about nine as we inched our way through the whiteout. This was the first glimpse of sun we had seen in hours, near the Westernmost point of the storm.

A herd of elk in Jasper National Park. Always nice to see the rockies again after crossing Canada, they mark the beginning of the final home stretch.

Tattoo salespeople in Prince George.

Our sold-out last show in at UNBC in Prince George.

We played an all-ages Easter Monday matinee show in Sault Ste. Marie. It was not the busiest show in the world, despite the nice weather.

An abandoned gas station somewhere along the highway. There’s a lot of boarded-up buildings along the Eastern shores of Lake Superior; a lot of them are seasonal places that open back up in the summer, but this one’s been rotting for ages. I love it.

Stephen at the helm driving through the Shield.

Devon and Sissy enjoying a Standard Lager before the show at the Royal Albert, Winnipeg.

Krista, Becky and Stevie from APTN do an interview in Winnipeg.

The Royal Albert Arms: one of our favorite venues on the planet!

Krista attempts to ignore the dick room at the Albert… IT IS FUTILE TO RESIST. It is truly amazing how many band rooms are covered in dicks all around the world, but this is definitely one of the best.

Becky, Krista and Sharlene Chiu from MTV doing a cooking show at Trevor (our manager) and Maude’s place in Toronto.

Henri Fabergé becomes a mic stand for Mac of Makeout Videotape, who opened the show at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto and will be touring with us all the way back to Vancouver.

Kip from the Horseshoe is a great sound guy who we’ve had the pleasure of working with many times. It was great to come back after several years; probably one of the best shows we’ve ever played.

Lake break somewhere on Highway 17 during the long drive from Montreal to Sudbury where we were spending the night. Nice to be back in Canada after nearly a month in the US.

Enjoying a low-key Easter Sunday night off with our friends from Sudbury at the Townehouse. Had some great pizza next door at the Laughing Buddha earlier.

We love Ramone! He lets us crash at his place whenever we pass through Sudbury. Good dog.

European tours can be like Miroslaw Balka’s How it is, the current Turbine Hall installation at London’s Tate Modern.  Balka’s piece – a 4-story tall steel box with a ramp entrance – is evocative and complex.  Viewers are faced with a moment of indecision when staring into the pitch black space from the top of the ramp. Which is kinda how I felt before this tour, after some last minute organizational drama and a major portion of bullshit at home. But when in life are things ever completely stable? Fuckit. Once inside the box, viewers are subjected to partial sensory deprivation and an overwhelming sense of confusion and claustrophobia.

KRAKOW

During soundcheck in Krakow I blew up a bunch of gear. I thought I was using an appropriate adaptor/convertor…obviously not. A piece of advice for anyone planning a trip to Europe; be absolutely sure!

After the initial fear subsides, a certain comfort and camaraderie emerges. An impromptu micro-society forms as viewers begin reverting to their real-world roles. The chivalrous protect the elderly from over-caffeinated middle-schoolers; teenagers giggle in huddled packs, using smartphones as a light source and operating with a general sense of characteristic awkwardness; earnest twenty-somethings try to muscle the experience into some ongoing search for identity and meaning.

BERLIN

I took a few days off in Berlin for some downtime – it’s one of my favorite cities. It’d been a hectic few months leading up to this tour so I was really looking forward to some doners and techno, both Berlin essentials.  My friend Jon and I caught Detroit House Legend Omar S at Panorama Bar and he dropped the track below at 10am (peaktime in Berlin). What a fucking moment, it was like perfect techno synergy or something, we just about jumped one another…does Panorama bar make people gay?

As the viewer ventures further inside, there is a growing sense of anxiety with the realization that ‘no, this steel box does not go on forever,’ and ‘yes, I will probably walk face first into the back wall very soon.’ This is where the piece is most disorienting.

PARIS

I played my first gig in Paris on this tour and it was also my first time in the city. I had a few days to hang out and explore but felt like a total boob for having such shitty French. I hate not being able to communicate properly. The gig was cool though, I got to play at the famous Paris Social Club with DJ Zinc (the legend!), Riton, and the very cool Forma.T crew. I also Macgiver’d my socks in the hotel sink.

Once the viewer has walked into the (curiously soft) back wall, the reflex is to turn around and stare at the opening, which with the comparative glare of ambient light, is immediately comforting and surprising. Imagine drifting in the ocean on a lifeboat and finally seeing land…Yea, it’s kinda like that.

MANCHESTER

My last gig was in Manchester, which I’m convinced is one of the coolest cities in Europe. Everyone is great, the fashion sensibilities are very hip and yet unpretentious, their taste in music is impeccable, and sometimes there are sexy girls in tiger costumes loitering at afterparties. Can’t wait to get back.

Egyptrixx “Battle for North America” EP is out TODAY. buy 12” or Mp3 at Juno/Beatport

TOUR DREAM DIARY: FINAL WEEK

The last week of our tour was a blur. I haven’t slept well because of a lingering hacking cough and so what I recorded was mostly fragments.

QUEBEC CITY

In Quebec City I dreamed that I was forced to decide between my best friend’s birthday party and a family gathering at my grandma’s house. My best friend and my mother were both very upset with me and I was afraid that if I didn’t attend my grandma’s party I would never see her again. I am sitting on a picnic bench in my backyard. It’s my childhood backyard, the bench is red, as is the garage. I keep seeing the garage door open, people are bringing in supplies for the party.

BUS FROM FREDERICTON TO HALIFAX

On my final sleep in my bus bunk from Fredericton to Halifax I dream that I am dating a friend from my past. I’m nervous to introduce him to the band and crew. I’m on a movie set that looks like Lucille Bluth’s apartment (from the television show, Arrested Development).  I am responsible for cooking a huge meal. I am left alone in the kitchen to cook a turkey. I’m afraid to cut open the turkey because I’m convinced that it will have human bones in it. There is a knock at the front door, when I open the door I mistake the guest for a man who I knew when I was a kid but it is actually a woman from across the hall. She is drunk and has run out of alcohol. She invites herself in and sits down at the dining room table. She pours herself a brandy and she removes the napkin from the place setting. I’m upset because I don’t want her to stay as my dinner guest. Even though no one has arrived, and the food hasn’t been served, I notice that Tegan has put away everything in the kitchen.

**Recently a woman bought and moved into the apartment directly next to mine. She comes home at 3 am most evenings, puts on French music or Peter Frampton at ear splitting level and cries. True story.

HALIFAX

In Halifax, our final day of tour, I am only asleep for a handful of hours. I wake up (to have a coughing fit) and attempt to scribble a few words down on a piece of paper that I place in bed next to me. I fall back asleep and have a waking dream where I write pages of notes in extremely small block letters with a green ink pen. When I wake up I’m disappointed to discover that my real notes are just blue ink scribbles and not detailed paragraphs.

TORONTO VIDEO SHOOT

After our last show in Halifax, Tegan and I fly to Toronto to shoot a music video for the song “Alligator.”

My wake up call for the shoot is 6 AM. I feel very nervous and I dream that Tegan and I are recording the video in my grandma’s bathroom. There are four other girls in the bathroom and we are recording a hip hop remix of the song. We are all dancing on the edge of the bathtub. The catering area for the dancers is in the kitchen and there are bowls of ice cream that have melted in the sun. I have a huge shawl on. It is dragging on the floor collecting lint and I am nervously picking at it throughout the dream.

Tour Dream Diary: Toronto

Tegan and I are at a street fair. There are magicians performing and we stop to watch a man who is shooting arrows that are weightless and hovering in the air above our heads. Another man is doing tricks with a small white sheet. The sheet keeps taking the form of a ghost. It also appears to be floating. People on the street are applauding.

Johnny, our bands drummer, is  trying to sort through a very complicated Indian food menu. We are responsible for ordering enough supper for the entire band and crew. Neither of us can read the menu, the words are very small and it all appears to be in French.

Damon and Kate, from AN HORSE, are upset because someone has leaked their cell phone numbers on the internet. They are both receiving threatening messages. They keep showing me their cell phone screens but I don’t seem to be able to read the messages. Damon shows me a folded note from his pocket. its a long list of things to order at the coffee shop. I take the note and collect coffees and pastries. He specifically has request almond croissants.

The last dream I have in the morning is that I am dating an actress on a television show. She has gray hair and she seems to only speak French. She is much taller than I am and we are having an argument in a mall. She rushes off to get back to set and I keep hearing my name over the mall PA system.

The last note I made when I woke up in the morning said ” Group shower, bathing suit”. It doesn’t jog my memory further.

Tour Dream Diary: Edmonton

Last night I slept in a hotel room in Edmonton, Alberta. I woke up at 11:18 am and quickly jotted these notes down.

___

There are a three of us at my moms apartment, we’re looking to a few have drinks but when I reach into the refrigerator for water, my friend Jeremy, who offers to fill it back up, jokingly does so, but with Grand Marnier. I’m furious. When I attempt to clean it in the sink, I discover that the Brita filter is filled with coffee beans and scraps of food.

I go into my closet and I’m searching for a t-shirt. I’m wearing green shorts and a stretched out orange top. I don’t like my outfit but everyone is calling for me to hurry up. I’m anxious so I just leave the outfit on.

We sit on my front steps watching people pass by on the street. The bars across the road are drag bars and all the patrons seems to know me. I ask my friend if he had fun at the party, he shows me a Polaroid picture of people with smeared make up lying on the street laughing, dresses pulled up above their waists. He also tells me my mom “knocked over a bunch of sitars”.

Earlier in the night I dream that my bed has “wood bugs”. The bugs look translucent and have the shape of a mosquito. Once the bugs find wood they turn into a screw shape. (I realize that description sounds like a dirty joke that an old man or a scientist would tell, but its a true description of the bug from my dream!)

The wood bugs have infested the hotel room. I’m trying to find a book or shoe to squish them with. I don’t want to ruin any of my books, plus the wood bugs have transformed into their screw like shape and I am on the phone trying to reach an exterminator.  I’m worried that we will end up with wood bugs in our luggage. We have magnifying glasses out and we flip over the beds and desks to check all the wood legs.

__

The only other note I made was from the middle of the night and none of it jogged my dream memory bank. But here is the exact note i took:

” W/ a friend. She has a car parked. Banff. Photos w/ snakes. Sunny missing girls”.

But it’s not just any old tour diary filled with boozy nights and airport talk. Over the next month, Sara’s going to detail her dreams on the road. Oh you think that boring do you? Well we’ve known her for over a decade and girlfriend has some gnarly dreams, in fact we’re really looking forward to this one. More than usual. More than booze and airport talk. That’s a lot for us.

Tour Dream Diary: Tour Bus

It is the second morning on our tour bus. Everyone has red eyes and sore throats from the altitude change and the restless night of zigzagging perilously through mountain passes. This is a photo of my bunk.

Last Night’s Dream:

I’m in a large house where a foot ball game is being shown on television. I hide my credit cards and ear plugs in an oven. The oven is on and so everything melts and the fire alarm goes off. The game is canceled. Texas is playing. People are very upset with me and so I hide in a room that I recognize as my cousins childhood bedroom.

A woman dressed in a football outfit enters the room and scolds me about the game, she insists I make a public apology. Then I am suddenly in a gymnasium and I’m standing in front of the entire team. I explain how sorry I am and everyone seems to forgive me. I leave the building to find breakfast, I realize that I am starving. I end up sitting outside of a cafe, seated with half a dozen people I don’t recognize. We are celebrating the relationship status of one of the male couples.

At one point I begin scrolling through a menu on my phone selecting films for my netflix queue. One of my selections starts to play on my phone and I’m really embarrassed because it is an adult film. I shut my phone off so it will stop playing. I keep asking people the time, I repeat over and over, “is it 10 am?”. I wake up when my alarm goes off at 10:18 am.

I’ve been to Johannesburg before, but after my first trip to Capetown, I can confidently say it is South Africa’s best kept secret. Unfortunately we didn’t have much of a chance to see the nightlife between Great White Shark Diving and golfing, but I hear it’s fantastic and apparently has the feel of a San Francisco.

We landed in Cape Town on the heels of 15 hours of travel and two hours of sleep! As soon as we landed, our lovely South African hosts – Sandra and Andrew were at the airport to pick us up and whisk us away to our first adventure – Robben Island!

Robben Island is 7 kms off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. The entire island was a prison that for 17 years held captive, former South African President, Nelson Mandela. The tour guides of Robben Island are all former political prisoners, and their stories really give you a sense of how far this country has come in such a short period of time. 88 year old Nelson Mandela is such an iconic figure to South Africa and its people that the mere sight of his 6×6 cell brought several travelers to tears. This is one of the most amazing cultural experiences I’ve ever had, I’m so happy we were able to catch that last ferry over. FOR VIDEO CLICK HERE

The traffic in South Africa was a whole different story. Between 18 wheelers on the side of the road that have been blown up, passing cars at 150kms/hr uphill on a solid line around a curve, and Josh’s never-ending quest to find the correct gear (he calls it a work in progress), I feel like a cat with 9 lives! Sometimes I pretend to sleep so that I don’t need to watch, and at this point, death road seemed like a bunny slope.

South Africa has a few quirky traffic rules that are taking awhile to get used to. In Canada, your license gets taken away if you drive over 150kms/hr. In South Africa, 140 kms/hr is considered slow and you will get passed on a two lane road!

Day Two was one of the scariest days of my entire life. We left our accommodations (a cozy beach house a couple of blocks from the shores of Cape Town) to head to Gaansbai, the world’s capital for Great White Sharks and we were getting in the water with them.

We stepped onto “The Barracuda” which was our boat for the day. Our host reminded us that “this isn’t an aquarium or a touch tank” and to keep hands and feet inside the cage at all times if we wanted to keep them. We pulled up to our dive site and anchored the cage right next to the boat. Two of the workers began “chumming” the waters (chum is a cocktail of ground fish guts and blood that is thrown out into the water to entice the sharks). As we put on our full body wetsuits and weight belts, the captain explained to us how fortunate we were with our visibility. Normally at this time of year, the clarity of the water is one meter, but today was the clearest day they have had in years and we could see 16 meters away! Perfect for diving with Great White Sharks. Between the chum, and the decapitated tuna head (the size of a basketball), it took about 30 seconds for the first shark to show up. Looking over the side of the boat at this 14 foot eating machine, I tried to find my waiver I had signed and take the next dingy back to shore.

Without adidas ClimaWarm technologies in my wetsuit, the 12 degree waters felt colder than playing in the snow of Ushuaia! Our dive guide instructed us to pee in our wetsuit to stay warm. As soon as I saw the first set of jaws coming towards me, I felt badly for the poor tourist using my wetsuit on the afternoon dive!

We shuffled into the 17 foot wide cage – 5 people at a time, with no snorkel or breathing apparatus of any kind. Just goggles, booties, a wetsuit (now a little wetter) and the old fashioned however long you could hold your breath! We were instructed to keep our knees on the inside bar of the cage until our spotter/tuna head thrower would yell “down”. On his signal we’d take our knees off the cage, and we’d drop down with the help of our weight vest to the cage floor, and peer out a small viewing area called the window.

We were instructed to look at the bait at all times. As the shark approached, the spotter/tuna thrower would slowly reel the bait closer to the cage, leaving us two feet from away from rows of razor sharp teeth. Shark after shark approached the bait giving us one of the most adrenaline pumping experiences of our lives. We thought the sharks were finished for the day, and then we saw the reason why they swam away. Bearing down on our cage was the biggest shark of the afternoon, an 18 footer we nicknamed “Alpa – Cino”, because of the large scar on the side of his face. One of the most amazing things about these creatures was how graceful they were despite their massive size. Even though we had one of the clearest days on record, these incredible animals would appear and vanish in an instant. Today’s experience was hands down better than any zoo or aquarium I’ve ever been to! FOR VIDEO CLICK HERE.

The third morning we woke up to a whole new adventure. Eleven children from a local school came to meet us for a golf clinic held at the beautiful Arabella Golf Resort. These kids ranged in age from 10 – 14 and had varying golf abilities but the one thing we all shared in common was our passion for the game of golf.

We had the honor of giving each child an adidas golf polo, cap and sleeve of golf balls. To see the looks on their faces when they put on their three stripes was worth every mile we’ve traveled to get here.  These kids come from some of the toughest social and economic conditions and for some, their one outlet and safe place is the Arabella Golf Club and their blossoming junior golf program. The kids, Josh and I shared stories about our excitement for the adidas brand, talked about safety and respect for the game and finished off with a clinic and chipping contest!

Golf is now a global game, and in 2016 will be an official Olympic sport. These children are the future stars of South Africa and I have no doubt will be standing on the podium accepting gold medals in no time! The enthusiasm and dedication that these young athletes have is inspiring to any human being that is fortunate enough to come in contact with them.

Today was one of my favorite days so far. Being able to share my passion with youngsters and help to educate the future stars of tomorrow was an incredible feeling. It’s amazing how we take simple things like running water, electricity, a meal and a soft warm bed for granted. These kids don’t have that same luxury that we do. We approached today hoping to give out some gifts and make a small impact on a child’s life; we didn’t realize that the impact they had on ours would last a lifetime.

Next stop…Australia to the hottest golf course on earth and taking in some Sydney nightlife!