New LJ Post – “Talkin Bout Practice Not a Game Not a Game”
hey yall
band practice for the upcoming EU/UK tour starts tomorrow! very. exciting. stuff. honestly, i’m just a tad bit nervous. it feels like a big sort of tour. the kind that we really have to put a lot of muscle and elbow grease and, of course, luuuuv into. with us, everything always comes together last minute. and i do mean everything. for some reason i can never seem to remember that though and i freak out like a crazy person with some serious anxiety issues. anyway, now that we’re really all going to get in there and start rehearsals, everything will fall into place. on the one hand, you have to work at it to make that happen… and on the other hand, well… you’ve got to let it happen.
so, i’m pretty sure most of you have heard about Miles, who’s been playing drums with us on the past few tours. Miles got into a crazy golf cart accident (i know, it sounds a little nuts but it’s for real). he really f-d up just about one whole side of his body. mostly his face and shoulder, it seems like. poor dude is such a trooper. today, when i swung by the place we’re going to be rehearsing, he was there and i was pretty surprised at his attitude in spite of how torn up he looked. torn up is a lot different than turnt up, by the way. not at all a good thing! we are not positive that he’ll be on this next tour with us but we are going to figure it all out one way or another and the show will go on! we’re just so damn thankful that Miles is alright and not only is he getting all the right care but he’s also in as good of spirits as i can possibly imagine one being in his situation. feel free to send him some extra love if you’re surfing the web with nothing to do – his twitter handle is @mileskmcpherson.
in the meantime, from now ’til the start of our tour, there is so much to do. first things first, we have a million interviews and promotional stuff we’re working on for all these upcoming shows. lots of basic rehearsals. i’ve got a million merch emails to sort through, which is, for the most part, one of my favorite jobs to have. then the three of us really have to dig in to finish the show, production and set list and everything. the most obnoxious thing i have to do is to figure out exactly what i want to wear for the shows. this may seem like it would be a simple task for a t-shirt and jeans kind of gal but ohhhh no. it’s the hardest thing EVERY TIME! i don’t really enjoy the process of packing a separate stage uniform but it’s just becoming necessary. now that i’m getting older, i have this fantasy of having this great stage outfit that looks sick in pictures but feels as comfy as my regular day time clothes. the truth is, no outfit of that sort exists. slight growing pains. what’s more important to me? living out my freddie mercury dreams, blazing the stage and feeling awesome… or just the simple joy of being comfortable? when i really think down to the core of my issue, it all just has to do with the fact that i’m growing up. my tastes are way different than they were. but you know what? i’m a lot older than i was when i started getting up onstage, wearing the t-shirt i slept in the night before and one of the only two pair of jeans thrown into my suitcase 5 minutes before walking out the door to get in the van. i want a little more… i EXPECT a little more of myself. it doesn’t even feel like a burden so much as growing pains. growing pains are a good thing because… duh. you’re growing. alright, so expect a sequined purple unitard with bright red legs and a tiara. shit’s getting real. paramore 3.0!!!! taylor and jeremy are glittering their beards!
when i was a kid, my dad would take me to ultimate fun world every other sunday and we’d ride go-karts and play arcade games. around the time i was 9, i started to get the worrrrst growing pains in my ankles and around the lower parts of my legs. it sounds funny but pushing on the gas pedal of the go-kart and driving around seemed to ease the discomfort cause i’d be stretching my leg out and putting pressure on my foot while stepping on the gas pedal so hard it hit the floor board. we’d drive all day. i’d race every kid on the track and sometimes dad would ride with me and other times we’d even race each other. by the time we were done, i’d be laughing so hard and smiling so big that the pains in my leg were hardly noticeable and for some reason to this day i think about all that.
the weirdest part of this whole entry is that all i came here to say is this… we are incredibly excited about the next few months of life, paramore, music, everything. i, personally, have this feeling that even though we want to put on the biggest shows we’ve ever put on, they will still feel incredibly intimate to us and hopefully to you too. that energy is what i live for and as much as i go back and think on all the incredible memories we made at tiny hole-in-the-wall places with a few hundred people… the way it feels to know that we’ve really grown and come all this way with you is completely and stupidly overwhelming in the best way possible. thanks for all of it. remember this, as much as we are pressing the pedal to the metal, you are driving this freaking go-kart. you are the reason we’ve gotten where we are. let’s make more ridiculous memories. see you soon, over there!
-h
(i don’t proofread since having earned my diploma in 2006, so i’m sorry for all the errors, misspells, and mistakes)
