Travel Day to Osaka, Japan

On the nearly eight-hour long flight from Perth, Australia to Hong Kong, this is how the routine went:

1. Infant states the desire to sit with Mommy (or Daddy, depending on which one she wasn't currently with).

2. Infant is told, "No, just stay here with me. Mommy/Daddy is right over there."

3. Infant starts WAILING LIKE A MOTHERFUCKING BANSHEE AT THE TOP OF HER FUCKING LUNGS until she is allowed to go to Mommy/Daddy.

4. Twenty minutes later, the process would repeat.

This shit went on ALL GODDAMNED NIGHT LONG. During takeoff, the little fucker kept undoing her seatbelt and jumping out of her seat. Same thing at landing time.

Worse case of parenting I've ever had to suffer through. What this child has learned is that whatever she wants is available to her as soon as she wants it. She simply has to pitch a fit. She was in complete and total control of both of her parents. Unbelievable.

What's more is that she's going to grow up to be a selfish, miserable, whiny bitch of a human being and it's not really gonna be her fault. Rather, the fault of her irresponsible, ignorant parents.

Did I mention that she had a little sister, maybe a year old, who was barely any more well behaved?

Did I also mention that I was the closest person (other than the parents) to these little shits on the entire plane? One was next to me, and the other was directly behind me.

What the fuck are crying infants doing in the business-class section of an overnight flight where everyone is trying to sleep????????

Un-be-lie-va-ble!!!!!!!!!

OK, so much for the rant. I think you get the point…

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Having gotten next to nothing, sleepwise, the first order of business at the Hong Kong airport was to go directly to Starbucks and take an intravenous feeding.

Then I did a little shopping, of which there was a fine variety. Sooner told me about a store where I could get a cool black leather luggage tag with a red star on it. One of the images that Rage Against The Machine uses quite a bit is the Communist Chinese red star. It's also featured on the stage backdrop. So I scored one of those, and a baseball cap that also has the star. On the back, it reads Shanghai Tang, the name of the store.

After landing in Osaka, it took the better part of an hour to reach the hotel. We're staying at The New Otani Hotel, and the venue, Osaka-Jo Hall, is right outside my window. We'll be walking over to the gig on Thursday morning. Love it.



I managed to squeeze a 45-minute nap in and got downstairs at 8:30 to meet everyone to go out. We went to RockRock, the famous roadie bar here in Osaka. I've heard tales of this place for years, and I was finally able to go. Yay!

It was just a hole in the wall about 15 minutes from our hotel. Total rock bar, displays of gold records, photos, guitar picks, instruments, and all sorts of music memorabilia. Exactly the kind of bar I'd like to own one day. Looks like it wouldn't hold more than 50-60 people comfortably, but I've heard that the place will be wall-to-wall after our show.

They had waaaaaay too big of a PA in the room, but even when it was really loud, it sounded great. All they played was rock and roll, mostly hard rock, and they treated us like royalty. They're all getting tickets to the show here, and in return, we got fuckedupper than a football bat. The owner was buying shots for us all night, and the DJ was taking requests and it just got wilder and wilder. At one point, the DJ started GnR's "Welcome To The Jungle" and one of the bartenders came running out of a side room dressed up like Axl Rose (wig and all), carrying the top half of a mic stand with a mic on it. He did the most amazing impression of Axl I've ever seen. Knew every word and grunt, and had the dance moves down pat. Big fun! The dude was spinning around so much, I could barely get a shot of him:

Here's Sooner, our LD, having too much fun at RockRock:
The surprised-looking guy in the background is Brad Madix, our new FOH guy.

This photo is Bob Weibel (audio tech), Andy Veasey (drum tech), and Craig Baker (bass tech).
Finally left there around 3:30am. Sure glad I'm off tomorrow.