HENRY ROLLINS.COM- DISPATCHES

10-03-08

Henry Rollins — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:14:34 +0000

10-03-08 Houston TX: 0137 hrs. Sitting on the bus. It was a night off but that’s over with now. Like many of you, I watched the Biden / Palin debate. I wasn’t expecting much and wasn’t surprised at any of it. I thought Palin would be well-rehearsed and she was and Biden was Biden. Like the debate last week, it was for the most part, a non-event in my opinion. The last several days have been great, the shows have been good and the audiences friendly. Last night we left out of North Carolina and came here for a day off. We arrived around 1800 hrs. yesterday. It was a long drive for Tim but we all got here in one piece. Since I last checked in, there has not been a great deal to report on from out here on the road. It’s a show a night and then a drive. October is my favorite month of the year. I will be in LA soon as we pass through en route to Santa Barbara. I will try to grab some Thomas Wolfe and F. Scott Fitzgerald books to read during this month. I don’t read much fiction anymore but perhaps I can get back in the mood if there’s enough leaves turning colors and snap in the air. I am glad the night off is almost over. I am looking forward to the show tonight.

09-29-08

Henry Rollins — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:20:24 +0000

09-29-08 Tampa FL: 0307 hrs. I am sitting on the bus. We are in Tampa. I have been out on this leg of the tour for almost a week now. So far, it’s been going very well. The audiences have been great. A few hours ago in Ft. Lauderdale, I did show #101 for the year. We have been encountering gasoline rationing here and there since we left Tennessee days ago. I have not seen that in America for a long time.

I am sure many of you watched the debate last Friday. I watched the event as a re-run post show. I wasn’t surprised by any of it. There was one statement that Senator McCain made towards the end, regarding SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) and how it was a major factor in the ending of the Cold War that made me roll my eyes in disbelief. When he said that Mr. Obama just doesn’t get it when it comes to Iraq and what the consequences of defeat would be, etc. When I hear people talk about “victory” in Iraq, I get tired. When McCain evokes the memory of Ronald Reagan and SDI, which you remember as “Star Wars” I know without a doubt that Mr. McCain lives in an America that doesn’t exist anymore. That makes the thought of Sarah Palin as vp all that much harder to stomach. If you want to see the quotes I am talking about, you can download the entire debate on the internet. I got mine from the Washington Post. It was the one part of that whole thing that jumped out at me. I don’t think the debate changed anyone’s mind, that is to say, at this point, I bet you know who you’re going to vote for and no debate is going to flip you over to the other side or something.

I am looking forward to checking out the Palin/Biden debate tonight. I will again have to watch it on re-run. I have no idea about how it will go but I am interested to hear Ms. Palin define her positions on whatever is asked as the couple of interviews I have seen her do were less than satisfying on an information level.

I met a woman the other night who is a Palin fan was sure that Senator Obama had called Ms. Palin and couldn’t be swayed, not that I tried really. I don’t bother arguing with adults most of the time, what’s the point?

I have a lot of shows ahead of me and I am thankful for the chance to get onstage every night.

08-26-08

Henry Rollins — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:12:31 +0000

08-26-08 Edinburgh Scotland: 1901 hrs. Tonight is the last night of the run of shows here at the Edinburgh Festival. I hope I can come back next year and do a longer run. The last few days have been eventful. On Saturday morning, I took the train from here to Leeds for the Leeds Festival. I was onstage at 1330 hrs. and off an hour later. Road Manager Ward and I went to Oxford and spent the night and then the next day, drove to Reading where I was onstage at 1345 hrs. at the Reading Festival for an hour. That might have been the largest audience I have ever been in front of on my own. I left the site very quickly and went right to Heathrow and flew back here, had a couple of hours off and then went and did the show here at 2245 hrs. By the time I walked back in here post show, I was pretty worn out but happy to have done all the shows. Tomorrow is a day off, we will be driving from here down to Cambridge to be ready for the show there on Wednesday. I will be in the UK until the end of the week and then back to America. The shows have been good so far, the audiences have been great and I am looking forward to getting onstage tonight.

08-18-08

Henry Rollins — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:40:47 +0000

08-18-08 Edinburgh Scotland: 0040 hrs. In my room near the venue. My night off is over and the first show is in about 22 hours or so, I am doing 7 shows here. I just finished 8 shows straight. I wouldn’t have minded being onstage tonight but liked walking around tonight in the fall air. The shows have been going well and the audiences have been really great to me. An apology to all the kind folks who showed up at the London show the other night. Strange venue, right? Very sterile and I couldn’t see you all very well and felt very far away and I am sure you saw me struggling with that up there. I got some letters telling me it was noticeable, sorry about, thanks for the cool letters nonetheless. The show in Wales, forget it, what a great time. Such a great venue and audience, same with Birmingham. One of the funnest nights on the run was also a real drag at the end. The one I am referring to is the one in Brighton. Great venue, town and what an audience. Fantastic. The downer part was post show when I was hanging out talking to people and I left a package that said “From Shend to Henry” on it on a chair while I was talking to people and someone took it. I would like it back. It means nothing to you and it was a gift to me. Please play fair and give it back. I am not mad, just let down that someone had to do that. If the person who took it can contact me, I will be happy to send you something in exchange for it. Thanks. Past that, the last three shows have been festival dates on the European continent. Belgium, Holland and Germany. All of them were a blast and it was an honor to be back at Pukkelpop again. Someone there told me it was my 5th time at the festival. I only hope to get back there again before it’s all over, such a great time. So, it’s been just that, a really good time, low on sleep and I am really gutted about losing my care package from Shend but I am hoping that I can have it back sometime.

08-10-08

Henry Rollins — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:42:41 +0000

08-10-08 Birmingham UK: 1551 hrs. I am backstage here at the Birmingham Glee Club. Jah Wobble was here last month, it’s a shame to have missed that. I got here a few days ago in an attempt to get over jet lag and I think I achieved it. Last night was the first show of the tour. I was on for a 75 minute slot at an event in Leicester called the Summer Sundae Festival. I think it went well and I am glad to have the first show under my belt, they are always the hardest ones to do. It’s very easy to get rusty. The last leg of the last tour ended in Auckland New Zealand on 04-27-08 so it’s been awhile since I have been on stage night after night. I don’t like being away from it for very long.
It’s the early afternoon here. The sun is out and people are outside enjoying the last bit of summer. It’s already getting cool here which makes it feel like September. There’s a lot of rain in England and that makes things kind of depressing after awhile but when the sun comes out, England is one of the better looking places I have ever been, there’s a lot of green and a lot of interesting architecture and also, it puts people on the street in a good mood, which is great. The first few times I came to England to do shows in the early 80’s, it wasn’t the best of times but after those initial visits, things got much better and since then, England has turned into one of my favorite places to be and to do shows. I already like so much of the music that comes from here so it’s cool to be a fan of the rest of it as well.
There’s not many days off on this run and not many on the US dates coming up and that suits me fine. I am much better off with a show waiting for me at the end of the day than without. It’s good to be here and have a show in a few hours. I have an interview with a man from the Daily Telegraph soon so I’ll end this here. I know I have been less than diligent with the journal entries. I will work on that. One of the things that keeps me from writing more often is not laziness or a lack of interest but more a desire to spare you the profound tedium that often dominates my waking hours. Thanks for reading and I hope some of you UK dwellers make it to some of these shows.

08-01-08

Henry Rollins — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:25:20 +0000

08-01-08 LA CA: 0740 hrs. I got back to LA two days ago. It was interesting living in SE Asia for a month. It’s different than being here but not at all bad, just different. The last several days of the trip, I was in Burma, or the Union of Myanmar, according to the Junta that rules the country. The flight from Bangkok to Rangoon, or Yangon as it’s now called, is not very long but as soon as you land, you know that you’re in a totally different place. It’s interesting and sad to be in a country that endures sanctions. I don’t believe they are an effective way of dealing with political problems because ultimately, the wrong people are targeted. Once you get out of Yangon and head north, the roads disintegrate. We shook rattled and rolled all day, every day. The people couldn’t have been more friendly and regarded us with no small degree of curiosity but were generous and civil nonetheless. I have spent about a month and a half of this year in Southeast Asia and I must say, I really like it there. In the last two days, I have gotten at least 9 hours of sleep so things are a little strange and I am finding comedy in the strangest of moments but I’ll even out over the weekend. I can’t believe it’s August already.

07-14-08

Henry Rollins — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:54:39 +0000

07-14-08 Thailand: 2033 hrs. It’s Sunday night and the end of the day off. With some luck, tomorrow will be our last shoot day. I think we can get the last pages shot and have time for some pick ups that our editor has requested. Of we can wrap out of this thing tomorrow, we would have come in under budget and ahead of schedule. It’s been a good chunk of work but I am glad it’s coming to an end. The day off today was nothing much, I got up early and walked around before the tourists were out and before the heat had started to realize its potential. I got some interesting photos of a McDonald’s that has some rather obscene Ronald McDonald statues. I also visited my favorite homeless people near the hotel who I give money to when I see them. The nice woman with the stump foot smiled when she saw me coming. I read the paper and saw the story about the American air strike that accidentally killed a bunch of innocent people at a wedding in Afghanistan, I’m sure they’ll understand that sometimes mistakes are made and that somewhere, someone is really, really sorry. In a few days, I will be somewhere else. I hope I will be able to follow up with another entry here at some point. Apparently there is no internet where I am going, that’s what I heard last I checked but you never know.

07-09-08

Henry Rollins — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:41:49 +0000

07-09-08 Thailand: 2124 hrs. Today was long but we got a lot done. I have a lot of lines tomorrow so I am going to try to get to sleep sooner than later. I wanted to walk around some tonight but between rehearsing lines in my room and over thinking it all, I can’t go out there and deal with the streets so choked with vacationers. They are friendly but I don’t want to do cell phone pictures on crowded sidewalks in hot weather so I am staying in tonight. Perhaps I’ll get out there tomorrow night. With the nature of this project we are doing, there’s only one person on camera, that’s me, there’s a bit pf pressure to walk into the building every morning pretty damned prepared. It’s easy to make mistakes on this thing that causes us to re-set everything and start again. I nailed the last 4 takes today without making any mistakes, I didn’t know how I did that, perhaps it was knowing that I was getting out of there as soon as the last one was done that was the inspiration. Food here is cheap, I mean really cheap. Earlier today, I ate some fish and vegetables along with a glass of tea for like a dollar or a little less. I don’t know how they do it. It’s strange to see your dollar actually go somewhere. I have to be up sooner than I want to be so I better hit it. Fanatic! Vol. 3 is almost off to the printer.

07-06-08

Henry Rollins — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:02:48 +0000

07-06-08 Thailand: 1228 hrs. I have been here for several days. I have been prepping for a shoot that starts tomorrow morning and getting my head around jet lag, besides that, I really like Thailand. I have been here many times. By day I have been in rehearsal and working with Carol on the last bits of Fanatic! Vol. 3 via e-mail and doing other writing and reading stuff. By evening I am in the gym, liking working out in this sauna weather and by night I am on the streets with my camera, seeing what I can get away with sans flash. I am finding that I can do quite a bit if I position myself well. There’s a lot happening on the streets here, depending on where you go. I will be here for at least a week. Not much to report on at this point, I am just waiting to get the first day of work wrapped so I can get a real sense of what the work day will be like. When I get more to write about, I will.

06-28-08

Henry Rollins — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:48:10 +0000

06-28-08 LA CA: 2250 hrs. I have lost count as to how many times I have been to New Orleans. I have been touring through there since 1981. I have to say that this visit was the most meaningful. I have never stayed in the town for that many days and seen so many different parts of it. To access the city through the Katrina filter is a whole other thing than what I usually do. I interviewed several people in the two days of shooting and the stories were everything from extremely sad to inspirational as hell to barely believable trying to get my head around the information. The city is doing better than it was in the days immediately after Katrina hit, of course but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done and it won’t be finished for quite some time. That being said, the amount of people who drop into New Orleans to help out when they can is constant and I don’t think that will be stopping any time soon. Americans are great and they show it when they take their vacations and spring break holidays to come to the city to pitch in. In a way, New Orleans, Louisiana is every American’s city. If we lose this one, we lose big. NOLA is such a huge part of our culture and such an important part of what makes America so great. Hopefully the program we worked on down there will convey this and remind people that three years later, we should not forget the place. I got back here Friday. I have enough time to take care of a few things and then move out again. It’s going to be a busy year, so let’s go already.