Life has been on fast forward since Blissmas, but I’ve honestly been riding the high since then.
After the first Blissmas I did got thrown together in a few weeks, I immediately started putting together ideas for the next one. One idea that Jordan had was a Santa’s Village of sorts, but a fab company quoted an insane amount to make one… so of course I said “I can totally do that for way cheaper” even though I’d never built a set in my life, but hey fake it til ya make it! I threw a lot of ideas at the wall, but this doodle was the initial drawing I sent to the boys, with all my insane ideas attached like giant candy props, snowball fights, a snowman with a cryo jet in his neck (little did I know, that would blow up in my face and break it, fun!), a candy cane pit fight, so many bits and gags that anyone in their right mind would have said no to, but they trusted my vision and that will forever mean the world to me. I can’t thank anyone and everyone enough for letting me bounce goofy ideas off of you or for physically helping me put this together, while most of it was done solo in the frigid cold of a buffalo garage inhaling melted styrofoam fumes and taking breaks so I could feel my toes, I couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help, especially Cheyne. It truly brought me great joy to see the boys up there having a blast and see everyone in the crowd having fun as well. The real cherry on top was seeing a lollipop prop in the airport on my way home, an absolutely heartwarming experience.
A little shinfo behind the design: last year a random bunghole on the internet whined that they couldn’t see my stage design bc of the strobes, so a key inspiration was “ok, well then I’ll make the set come to you” and pulled an Eric Andre to have the boys destroy it as they went and yeet it into the crowd.
Idk what the future holds for any of this or if I’ll ever get to do another Blissmas, but I do know that if this was the last one I can take solace in going out on top. Long live the frog.
The other day when I was cleaning I found this doodle of the original Blissmas design concept I had, and I realized I never made a post about it. Last year @betterloversband asked me to go on the road with them and trusted me to do my thing; while we were out they said “so what do you want to do for Blissmas?” A few weeks out from it and I panicked a bit. I had never done production design before, let alone on a scale this size... luckily for them I had done some Mariah Carey Christmas gigs the year before so I had a good place to start mentally. How do I take that and scale it down to feel like a punk rock Buffalo Christmas party? And the Blissmas 24 concept was born, minus some red drape and an extra tree. Decked out trees with Mac Auras for stars, some ground fog, cryo, and cold sparks, a blanket of Christmas lights overhead, a kabuki drop, amps and risers wrapped up like presents, my tour rig of strike M’s from @squeeklights , and my personal favorite was the snowball fight idea. It’s always kinda scary having an idea on paper and not knowing if it will translate to the real world, but I think everything turned out pretty ok. Excited to do it again this year, even bigger and better than before. Special thanks to @brian_malota , @greggyslopes , and @james_bagz for helping take all my nonsense ideas from paper to reality.
Photos/ video: @lorciferbdoom , @_stellakelly , @gabethepigeon , @ianflynnh20 , @wucheyneclan , @bluskywishes
We asked @wucheyneclan for the pictures he was most proud of taking this past tour, and these are his selections. Please give it up one more time for Cheyne, and for the rest of our amazing, efficient, hygienic, locked-in goated legend crew members and the varying breeds of dog that they have in them, whom you will all find at the end of this carousel.
If we sounded too good, blame @rjdivine . If the lights synced up too perfectly with the parts, blame @xmanwolfx . If you’re enjoying the correctly sized merchandise you purchased and the way it was displayed, that’s because of @james_bagz . And if you liked how we arrived to your city alive, that’s all @ryanstamand . We are grateful and lucky to work alongside them, and believe they deserve all the recognition available ❤️ Enjoy your off season, gentlemen!
10. Strange Way of Life - this is technically a short film so idk if should be on the list; beautiful set design, cinematography, and costumes by yves saint laurent, this almost feels like an ad in a fashion magazine it looks so good.
9. Godzilla Minus One - all hail the king of the monsters! Combine a cool new take on godzilla with a grounding human story and you’ve got a kaiju sized W.
8. They Cloned Tyrone - a solid scifi film packed in a stylish package; feels like a phillip k dick novel adapted by john carpenter and directed by gordon parks.
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - the rare worthy reboot that stands toe to toe with the animated spiderman films. Jeff Rowe (The Mitchells vs the Machines) is 2/2 with animated features and I’m excited to see what he does next.
6. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 - James Gunn’s farewell letter to the MCU has it all and then some… you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be wow’ed at the stunning visuals and action sequences, but most of all you’ll hope he brings this energy over to the DCU he’s running now.
5. American Fiction - cord jefferson’s directorial debut is as sharp and poignant as you can get and you can feel jeffrey wright’s bitter snark through the screen, particularly his utterance of “fuck”.
4. You Hurt My Feelings - some of my favorite watches are often about nothing more than everyday life, and YHMF lets you be a fly on the wall as it perfectly captures the awkward absurdity of human interaction.
3. All of Us Strangers - a hauntingly beautiful film about love, loss, and grief with a killer soundtrack.
2. John Wick Chapter 4 - the rollercoaster i wish we never had to get off. Lets hope the upcoming Ballerina spinoff does this franchise an ounce of justice.
1. Barbie - this being my number one is kind of hilarious considering i avoided it like the plague, but goddamnit i loved it. Incredible cinematography, costumes, set pieces, this was a snarky surprisingly dark satire wrapped in bright pink box.
15. Fast X - zero shame in loving this absolutely ridiculous franchise, when they leaned into the absurdity it got way better. More Jason Momoa bad guys plz.
14. Ballerina - neon soaked violence ala john wick meets kill bill. Some really cool camera work makes the action even better.
13. Leave the World Behind - great tension and acting. i’m a sam esmail stan so i’m sure that made me a bit biased, but movies like this are way scarier considering they’re plausible.
12. The Creator - Gareth Edwards made arguably my favorite star wars entry with Rogue One, and he did a hell of a job with this one. Great world building, action, and ideas, would love to see more of this.
11. Biosphere - i love a good “what the fuck did i just watch” movie. Awkwardly laugh your way through the entire thing.
Better late (and i mean late) than never! 2023 Best Of Honorable Mentions - 2023 was kind of a shit year for movies; I had more in my Honorable Mention section than the actual best of haha. Lots of popcorn munchers and a few that *almost* made the cut, finally just finished watching a few. In no order
Dream Scenario - Weird Nick Cage is the best Nick Cage.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt - a beautiful film, it felt like watching poetry.
The Beekeeper / The Meg 2 - Jason Statham doing Jason Statham things, what’s not to love? Plus, how tf did Ben Wheatley direct this?!
The Iron Claw - feels kinda blasphemous not having it on my best of considering it’s objectively good, i just knew the story before watching (and they left a brother out) so it didn’t hit me as hard.
Mario Bros - this was fun (but the live action one still rules)
Past Lives - people are so weird. Great character study.
The Killer - i think this was my most disappointing watch; i liked it but wanted way more gritty se7en feel than i got.
Talk to Me - surprisingly fun low budget horror.
Sisu - you had me at the description “like john wick vs nazis”
Joy Ride - a rare raunchy comedy W
Spiderman ATS - Good but doesn’t even kind of hit as hard as the first film
Cocaine Bear - a gory horror comedy based on a true story? Sure.
Extraction 2 - i’ll always stan former stunt guys transitioning to directing, bc you know the choreography will be great and the fight scenes filmed correctly.
Plane - Gerard Butler is the new Liam Neesom and I’m here for it.
Infinity Pool - I loved BC’s first film and had such high hopes for this, and it has some really cool visuals but god is mia goth annoying.
First full song i can play on guitar. I have a hard time playing chords from breaking my wrist/ fingers and them healing wrong, so i’ve been trying to practice guitar more to get better at it, especially bc i’d love to play baritone live on some songs.
GP x TA UK & IRELAND ‘24
01.03 BRISTOL @ THEKLA
02.03 NOTTINGHAM @ RESCUE ROOMS
03.03 LEEDS @ THE KEY CLUB
04.03 GLASGOW @ KING TUTS
05.03 NEWCASTLE @ THE CLUNY
07.03 BIRMINGHAM @ HARE & HOUNDS
08.03 LONDON @ THE GARAGE
09.03 BRIGHTON @ CHALK
10.03 MANCHESTER @ ACADEMY3
12.03 DUBLIN @ WHELAN’S
Shout out to @orangeamplifiers for hooking up a sick rig for the whole band; we ran a full Orange setup in Sydney and loved it, so we decided what better place to run it back than where Orange was born.
I wrote a long post about how time is an absurdly broken concept and how life feels stuck on fast forward lately, about all the crazy highs and lows of the past year… but i think it was just for me to have a bit of cathartic output writing out and remembering all the good and bad, so i deleted it. I love my friends and family, my sister made a perfect kid, i love making and playing music with my friends, i love my job and all the absurd things i get to see and do, i love making more me time and having hobbies and learning new things, I really really miss my dog and i’m not ok more days than i am, but that’s ok and I’ll eventually be ok, just gonna keep trying to live my best life. Thats it, that’s the post.
1. Everything Everywhere All at Once: I saw this opening day of its limited release knowing nothing about it other than that i loved the first film the daniels wrote and directed; i then 2 more times after the fact in theaters as well as twice at home since. It’s like Rick and Morty had a baby with a Matrix movie that has more heart and charisma than goddamn Forest Gump. Glad this one got all its flowers and then some, they deserved it.
2. Triangle of Sadness: One of my favorite film scenes I’ve ever witnessed - a 10ish minute drunken dialogue between a socialist Woody Harrelson and a capitalist Zlato Buric while the 1% are violently covered in their own filth as a captain-less ship hits turbulent seas. Roman Ostlund makes some wild shit, but this is by far my favorite film of his so far.
3. The Batman: This is the best Batman movie to ever exist, fuckin fight me over it. Matt Reeves understands the source material, knows how to make it look and feel, and leans into the “worlds greatest detective” aspect more than any other batman outing has. Tbh, they had me at a score based on Nirvana’s “Something in the Way”.
4. The Banshees of Inisherin: Martin Mcdonagh has zero bad movies. Seriously, try to find one. Banshees is a comedic tragedy on par with Shakespearian levels of perfection, and a level of spite not even Larry David could hope to achieve.
