Notre Dame

I had to be "that guy" in this photo in front of the Notre Dame football field (i.e. where the movie Rudy takes place). They had a massive Touchdown Jesus mural as well as a statue of Rudy's coach. Notre Dame is an amzing school, mostly because I am such a big fan of Rudy.

Grand Rapids Michigan

Grand Rapids, MI.

Indy

After the Chargers suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the sub-par NY Jets, I found myself in the heart of Indianapolis, where I came upon the ol' capital building and this unsuspecting girl wearing a Colts jersey. She must have been "a ho" of some sort as she did not object to being groped and harrassed by my friends and I, good times.

I had words with a bartender who finally admitted he was glad the Jets won, as he was shaking in his lil boots that the Colts would have to face off against the Chargers again, and lose of course.

Overall, Indy is an amazing city with plenty of bars and food-eries open late, with my favorite being a 3 story bar with a bowling alley on the top floor. This is where the local "dustheads" working there let us know that we somehow played an extra $50 worth of games and drank an extra $50 worth of beer while we werent paying attention. You gotta love the locals, especially when they are fiending for a dimebag by duping unsuspecting visitors. And no, we did not pay the extra cash.

Chattanooga Choo Choo

We had a day off in Chattanooga, TN home of the OG Chattanooga choo. Also, checked out this cave in the side of a mountain with a waterfall called Ruby Falls they used in the civil war for harboring confederates, the aquarium, and lots of Jack Daniels (due solely to the fact that Tennesse is the home of Jack Daniels). Good times were had by all.

Smoke and Mirrors

Smoke machines, spot lights and unfettered courtside access were the necessary ingredients in this tasty little morsel of a photograph.

Dirty South

We have meandered from the upper peninsula of Michigan and Canada down through Kentucky and Tennessee. I must say the South has more than its fair share of dry counties, obesity, cheap booze when you can find it and the quintessential Wal Mart in every town.

P.S. The Trotters are killing it (see above).

New Manties

I decided to spoil myself and got a new pair of man panties. You know how I like it snug.

Springfield, Illinois Hilton

After a long hard fought battle, I finally have my own hotel room for the rest of the tour, which means a whole lotta walking around in my boxers, drinking milk from the carton, eating cold leftover fast food, crying myself to sleep, pounding Jim Beam at 3AM, that sort of thing :) This little gem was at the Hilton in Springfield, very sophisticated I might add.

Wal Mart Kentucky

I heard about this web site called the people of Wal Mart where one can gaze upon the dregs of our society (that's a little harsh, let's just say the less fortunate ones) and have a laugh. I always thought, how do such people exist, where do they live and how do they live?

Apparently a small contingent of them reside in Bowling Green Kentucky, milling around the Wal Mart Supercenter participating in a good ol' fashioned consumer capitalistic frenzy. There are several standard issue characters which made an appearance. Among them were:
1) Meth Mouth
2) Morbidly obese woman using an electric wheelchair in the candy aisle
3) 15 year old carrying baby
4) Really, really old people, that you are scared they will survive this Wal Mart trip.
4) and my new friend and personal favorite shown above, crazy Jesus guy

Crazy Jesus guy and I made fast friends while waiting for a cab, especially after I told him I was jewish.

"Gregory, do you believe Jesus Christ is the messiah?"

"Not really, I'm Jewish."

"Oh my god, I knew I was going to run into you today. I decided to come to Wal Mart and God told me I would run into someone to spread his word. It's you, Gregory, are you ready to accept Christ?"

"Uhhh."

"Do you believe in a heaven and hell, where do you think you're going and why?"

"I'm a pretty good guy so I'll say heaven. Jews don't really speak about hell too much, more reincarnation until you get it right sort of thing."

"NO, Gregory, the old testament talks about Hades and the jews are a lost people. Lost until they accept Christ..."

The intense conversation went on for a half hour so here are a few fun facts that this guy spit out.

-5 marriages
-Studied eastern religions until he saw a woman with a, "bright red aura coming out of her heart chakra, that knocked him back 4 feet, flying into a wall." She was a true believer so he followed her teachings for a few years and she showed him "the path."
-He traveled the world for years seeking mystics, watching monks levitate, burn themselves, that sort of thing for years. Finally, he found what he was looking for (i.e. Southern Baptist).
-Used to drink and smoke heavily, now just smokes 2 packs a day. Apparently he throws some ganj in the mix too. Talked about how he quit everything except cigs and one other substance.
-Lived in LA off Sunset Blvd. during the 70's aka he has done enough drugs to kill 5 small horses.

Good times overall, we hugged and parted ways as friends after I took a photo with him and his amazing gear. I'll never forget you my friend...

Una Mas de la Ninja

When the stadium goes completely dark, and those spotlights come on that's when I work my magic.

Pregame Flippage

This photo is of my boy, Ninja, who sits next to me on the bus, during the pre-game show. The dude has some pretty serious b-boy skills, recognize son.

More of this Michigan place

They tell me I'm not in SoCal anymore. I'm beginning to think they are right.

Upper Michigan

Head high snow + Jesus Like pose = Wintery Nirvana.

Did I mention that when I tell people from California they usually think I'm gay. Here's an example:

"From California, eh?"

"Yup"

"You surf?"

"Nope"

"Faggit?"

"Uh, not really. I mean I've experimented a few times and all but." (the last part was a joke. For the record I am as butch as they come. Uh, I mean manly).

"I thought so..."

I've also been telling people that I'm the "white Globetrotter" so that's been fun.

When speaking to one Michigonian with a bad case of meth mouth, the conversation went like this, "How do you guys handle the cold out here?"

Reply, "We don't, I fucking hate it out here man, wish I could find a way outta here."

Trottin

This broken fog machine hooked up some tasty images, but not as tasty as that soul food (above) courtesy of the family of one of the crew. Pork chop over rice, cornbread pancakes, sliced turkey, real mac and cheese, green beans, corn, damn I just had a foodgasm.

Don't F around in the D

New Year's Eve in Detroit was an interesting little foray to say the least. To begin with, my hotel had some fancy club party going on and due to a bone chilling temp of 5 degrees, I donned my shiny shirt, greased up my hair, put on at least 7 dabs of cologne and ventured in (I had to blend in right). I actually didn't do this, but had I done so the rest of my evening could have been wuite different indeed.

Apparently Detroit has a large population of Caldeans (which are a type of Iraqi Christians aka the east coast version of Armenians) that comprised about 90% of the party's demographic.

After hours of imbibing alcoholic beverages at an open bar, one was thrown out of the party and upon telling the bouncers how unappreciative he was of their efforts to end his night early, a brutal melee ensued (see guy with bloodied face). The disgruntled Caldean proceeded to throw a trash can at the bouncers, and his next memory will now forever be that 8 huge, rampaging, out of control bruisers beat him into a pulp on the sidewalk while it was snowing outside.

The bouncers who were wearing auto mechanic's gloves (better for face smashin) began issuing savage beatdowns left and right. Kicking and punching out of line party goers in the face and throwing them on the ground. It was seriously insane, people were bloody everywhere, girls were screaming and crying and more Caldeans kept on coming up to the bouncers for more pain.

The girl (shown above) above started screaming at her boyfriend about this time and hitting him for some odd reason I am unsure of, but it had something to do with being white and not Caldean and him not accepting that fact.

At one point the rowdiest of the bouncers was carried off by the others after going completely apeshit on an unconscious guy, "He hit me first, I'm not going to stop until I find my hat," he cried as his fists rained down on his unmoving opponent with blinding speed. In his defense it was a really nice hat with the stickers still on it and everything.

Meanwhile, a fellow observer tells me, "You don't fuck around in the D!" as we enjoy a cold beer outside while this carnage ensues around us.

Finally, after about 6 people are in need of medical attention, and puddles of blood paint the snow and concrete red, the police arrive and who do they see. Just me, drinking a beer on the sidewalk, smiling and enjoying the scene before me.

The offficer, a "take no shit" 350 pound detroit cop comes up to me, "You are drinking an open container in public, put it down."

"Ok," I reply. As I go to throw the bottel away I take one last sip.

The cop shouts, "If you take a drink, you're spending the night in jail."

Did I mention at this time there was a war going on around me?

Alas, as he says this I am already taking one last sip of the beer and throwing it away, "You want to do it the hard way?" he says as I am thrown against the hood of the police car and handcuffed quite tight. I am subsequently thrown in the squad car while he goes inside the party to break it up.

I couldn't help but laugh at my own misfortune, perhaps my own stupidity. To make a long story short, I see some crew members from HGT and I am yelling at them through the window of the squad car to help me out. Keep in mind I am the new guy on the tour, 5 days in and I manage to get arrested/detained. They are able to smooth talk the cop into letting me go about 45 minutes later as bloodied Caldeans walk by shirtless and swollen, mocking bouncers as they exit. I was thankful the police officer had the courtesy to leave the heat on in the car that whole time, so in a sense I had the best possible view of the scene.

The last words the cop says to me after looking at my ID are, "I don't know how you do it out in California, but this here is Detroit. You don't mess around in Detroit...."

Muchas Miles

So Far we've hit:

Pittsburgh, St. Clairesville, Cleveland, Toledo, Cincinatti, Detroit, Canada, Detroit, Canada again. 5 days, 9 games, 12,000 images captured and about 1,000+ miles of bus travel.