10:24pm - Nov. 30 2011

Already knowing where I'm going to sit before the train arrives, I lean against the red pillar two thirds of the way down the platform. When I get on, I take my usual spot next to the window in the middle of the first car. An elderly man with a gulf war vet hat sits across from me. As the train is about to leave, two kids, one with an Eagan high school hoodie run up to the automated ticket machine. After one stumbles with his change to get his ticket the doors close. They hit the button on the door and get on. They spot a transfer left on one of the seats and they grab it. From their reaction to the stamp on the back, I can tell it's still good. Lucky day for him.

The elderly man is trying to open a box of chocolate covered cherries. These where my mom's favorite candy. It's shrink wrapped and he digs in his yellow nails to tear the plastic. He manages to pull out the top tray of five chocolate and begins to pop them in his mouth. One after the other, he holds them for a moment in his teeth between his gums and his lips. Almost as if he is giving a kiss or imitating a monkey. Before reaching the first stop he has devoured all five. Pausing, he notices me, horrified, staring at him.

"Would you like the rest?" he says to me as I'm taken out of my shock. I suddenly have a flash back to being told as a child to never except candy from a stranger. Which always reminds me of the Green Day music video for the song "Warning".

"No thank you." I stutter back at him. I'm always uncomfortable and awkward when people talk to me on the train.

"I don't care for them much," he lies as if to pretend he didn't just stuff his wrinkled face. "They'll just spill in my bag." he says to himself. I Ignore him and go back to looking out the window. I suspect he'll be getting off at the VA, just a few short stops ahead.

At 28th Street a TSA employee on his way to work sits down in the bench in front of me. He's old and smells old. I sink into my seat. His greasy hair is held down by a navy blue hat. Springsteen blasts in his ear buds. He must be hard of hearing. I quietly hold my breath until he gets off at the Lindbergh Terminal.

I'm on my way home from another night of work at the aquarium in the basement of the Mall of America. I take the train for 34 minutes to the Metrodome where my bike is still parked. It used to be I would where headphones on this train to drown out the noise of strangers. Lately, I either sleep or people-watch. Sleeping on the way home has it's downsides. Every now and then I am woken up by either another rider or the transit police. They always think I'm going to miss my stop. Only once have slept all the way into downtown.

The gulf war vet has now been replaced by suburban dude dressed in all black heading into the city. He sports his new black jeans, still pressed from being folded on the shelf, new Nike high-tops and an obnoxiously large watch. He's practically yelling into his cell phone. Makes me want to take out my phone and respond to him like we're having a conversation. We both get off at the edge of downtown.

As I walk onto the platform large snow fakes fall to the ground. Tomorrow is the first day of December and this may be my last ride on my road bike for the season. While wiping the snow off the seat, I check the tires. They're low from the change in temperature today. The batteries in my head light are dead. It must have been blinking all day in my bag. "Great", I pull my red had down on my face so it touches my eye lashes to keep the snow out of my eyes. I pull my keys out and quickly detach my U-lock as the southbound train passes.

I ride swiftly on the street. There are few cars out tonight. The snow is coming at me like a ton of frozen mosquitoes. I need to remember to get goggles this year. Across the stone arch bridge the snow is already beginning to stick to the ground. I peddle faster up the hill and pause only for a moment at the stop light next to Santana's. The last block to my apartment is a one-way street so I take on the sidewalk. The light above my building's door is also out and I fumble in the dark to find my keys. Up the stairs I take my bike to my third floor apartment. When I open the door, my cat sits patiently and gives me a quick wink. Hannah is asleep on the couch. She opens her eyes slightly and smiles as I put my bike away. I am finally home.

9:32pm - Dec. 1

Finding the space between work, sleep, eat to do the only thing that keeps you going. I was never meant to be kept quite. Never much for partying. My release is different. There's something to be said about the passionate. I will always admire those who do what they love. Someone who can dedicate there life to being happy. I currently have half the hours in my week dedicated to being a mindless slob of a capitalist. And I can justify it just about anyway I find how but it doesn't make me happier. Yes, it's nice to have somewhere warm to sleep. Yes, it's nice not having to check my bank account before I go grocery shopping. It's nice to be able to pay back all that money I borrowed. It's all so Minnesota Nice.

So am I selfish for not being satisfied?

11:47pm - Nov 21

A new beginning. If ultimately this music is what matters to me in this life. This band was it but the band isn’t good enough. I am not holding back. If this is our project and I’m dedicating 20 hours a week and you can’t spare 2 then fuck it. My 20 hours is down to checking email a few times a week and the 5 hours I spend at the show. The load-in, the load-out, promotion, that’s all part of it. Yeah I stayed out all night, yeah I had to work a 10 hour shift the next day. For what? 15 bucks. The chance to play for a few drunk friends. I’m done with amateurs. If you don’t have what it takes, don’t waste my time.

21 feels too old to start over. At 17, I thought I had it all. I thought people took the word “serious” seriously. I thought you wanted to put “entertainer” under job on your 1040. But the past year has brought us less then 2 steps further. So I bite my lip and count my loses. It’s a shame. I’m trying to move forward. Stop Drop isn’t just a name, it’s the commitment that I won’t stop playing music till I drop dead.

Fri Oct 8, 2010 - Duluth, MN

Been awhile since I've written anything. Stuck in a rut of work, work, work. Currently I have four part time jobs which has left little time for reflecting and writing. I spent time this past year looking at the movements from the outside. The way most people see it. I have seen how easy it can be to forget about the people and what they think. To become so wrapped up in your ideas that you lose touch with the community. For awhile I lost touch. You can get so lost in meetings and micromanaging and self importance. But in the end all that really matters is the effect you had on the lives of others, and if all you succeeded in doing was putting off others, then you took a step backwards.

I've been standing still for too long. Time to start moving forward again.

1:02pm - Aug 11

Despite the number of days we have had off on this tour, things have been going pretty well. Our new van hasn't had any incidents *knock on wood*. We've played with some really awesome bands. Our show Saturday night was canceled so we went to see Across the Aisle and spend the day in Manhattan. We played with Across the Aisle the day before in Jersey and were really impressed with their set. We got a photo with them after the show. I spend most of the day trying to find wifi in new york. They only place i found wifi was at starbucks. So I go in, buy my small (wtf is a tall) iced coffee, sit down and pull out my laptop only to find you have to pay another $4 to use the wifi for 2 hours. Whatever, I was able to get got up on my e-mail and talk to some friends back home.

We were tempted to not even come out here at all with three shows falling through a week before we left, but we did and it was definitely worth it. We met a lot of awesome bands in Jersey and got to see our friends in The Waffle Stompers. Touring is one of the best things I've ever done. The only down fall of this tour is that Kate is currently on the train back to Seattle and I wasn't able to be there when she left. I'll be touring out there in October/November to visit but these first couple months without her will be difficult.

I still have to find some studio time to record my solo EP, I'm not sure how much money I want to put into this. It will be an experiment if anything.

11:42pm - May 6

Ever since I was in my first band in the 6th Grade, I have wanted to play Warped Tour. I decided right then and there that music was my career. But I thought about the music industry a lot differently than I do now. My commitment was never in question, but my attitude and my expectations were. We just had to play that one show for some big league music executive and we had it made. Like for some reason they hung out at youth centers in the suburbs. I didn't get it. I had so much faith in magic.

Then I became an independent music junkie. Trying to pick the brain of every successful independent artist I met. They all had something in common; they all worked hard at their craft and promoting themselves. So it was right about that time that the MySpace phenomenon hit. Finally an easy way to reach hundreds if not thousands of music lovers. Then I realized there is a big difference between networking and spamming. Adding random kids who probably will never have any interest in your band and copy and paste messages spread like the plague. We also would get offers for this or that and things like "I love you band, I work for ...." Really? And you sit around all day on myspace looking for the next big thing?

Would I do that?

No.

I started to think about how I heard about my favorite band and what made them awesome. It was almost always word of mouth. So how do bands get talked about? They tour, they play awesome shows, they do something new. So my senior year of High School, when everyone else was picking out what school to go to for some job they hadn't figured out. I decided to stick with what I knew. We spent nearly a year before we had a complete line up, but it was something, something great.

After a few months of playing shows, I started to realize there is a big problem with the local scene: Over Booking, which leads to bad shows. Who wants to go to a show with 5 people. I don't. How come some bands had huge shows, when band that were just as good, if not better had fewer kids there. The bands with huge shows played less. That was the key. You over book your band and you will start to cut your fan base in half for every show.

Then one day I was showed a website that confirmed all my beliefs about being in an independent band. EarnItYourself.com The EIY philosophy was exactly what I needed to keep going, to work harder. I didn't care that I had lost my job, my apartment, my car, because I got it. There will always be set backs, but as long as you work hard and promote, promote, promote, you can do what you want to do. Nearly 9 years after my I set my goal, I have gotten one set closer. 2 Tone Runts will play on the Kevin Says Stage at Warped Tour this year on August 2nd in Minneapolis, MN.

Never give up.

4:02 pm - Mar 25

First let me apologize for my last blog and video blogs. They suck, I know, I'm sorry.

The tour was amazing. Everyone we met on the road was awesome. The show in Michigan was insane. We packed a coffee shop and everyone really connected. CIB 800 played an awesome set. They are all very cool guys who know how to put together a great show. I talked to a couple kids who where starting a ska band of their own. Can't wait to see what they got. It was truly awesome to see Kenny and the other kids in front singing along to the songs. After CIB 800, The Waffle Stompers from New Jersey played. Their brand of ska was a site to see. Towards the end of their set a recorded track came on and they broke out into possibly the greatest dance break I have ever seen. It's also featured in the music video for their song "serious." They closed their set with a cover of "Rollin." After their set I talked to Nathan, trombonist, and Ted, guitarist, for a while about everything from all ages venues and vans to future shows together and being an independent band. It was an honor to cross tour paths with them. I'm sure more shows together lie in our futures.

Saturday we played in Bradley, IL, a small suburb about 45 minutes outside of Chicago. It was a young crowd. It looked like most of the kids were 15 and under with their parents there to support their band. Hardly any of the kids their had ever heard of ska much less been to a ska show. We heard a lot of comments like "Trombones!?!?". The Projection put together the show in a local bakery and they did not disappoint. We often take for granted all the great all ages venues in the Twin Cities, but in most other parts of the country they take what they can get. I was impressed at how The Projection was able to turn that place into a venue. I spent a lot of time talking to a kid named Austin after our set. We talked about about the beginning stages of being a band. Little did I know that his band, At Rifts End, was playing that night. Those kids got a lot of heart and put on a great show. They are all 15 but if you were to hear them recorded you would never be able to tell. Their lead singer and the only female in the band rocked hard. Great voice and great energy.

Sunday we played in Madison, WI. We arrived late Saturday night and spent the whole day on State Street. The boys fell in love with Madison. The co-op we played in was huge. Build in the 1920's and taken over by squatters in the 70s. They build a fire in the fireplace before we played. The atmosphere for the show was just right. I saw an unexpected friend who appartently now lives only 6 blocks away from the co-op. It was quite a relaxed show and we played nearly the entire album. Another DIY venue with bass amps as a PA. Laura's brother, Brandon, put together the show and his band, Flowerbaby played a great set. A mix of covers and originals and a special encore of "Sexual Healing."

Around 3am I returned the van to the rental and returned to Connor's for a much needed night of sleep. I can't wait to get back on the road and am very excited by the thought of one day owning a van and traveling non-stop.