So without further as previously stated in prior blog. I bring to you a piece of old writing that I came across as I was going through old composition books and journals.
I really wanted to put this in on the actual anniversary date because I'm just a sappy nostalgic fuck but alas life gets in the way of such things. So I bring to you uneditied as it was poor hand written in my lineless scrapbook my adventure into meeting Nine Inch Nails back on 01/22/2001 at Virgin Megastore in NYC.
Sometimes, I wish I was still on that rediculously long line. If you read all of this ... I thank you.
"So many words, so many stories. So much to say and yet, never enough time to say them.
A novel can be written about everything that took place yesterday. I met Trent Reznor, Danny Lohner and Jerome Dillon.
What could I say? It was just glorious. The whole day in itself was fun. Minus the fact that I woke up at 5:45 and got ready before 7 a.m.
I made my way to NYC. That was the earliest that I had ever gone to NYC.
The whole atmosphere was just different. I felt as if I belonged. As if, I was another nameless face going into the city. And let me tell you about the sunrise. It was that kind of sunrise that you could look at without having to look away because of its intensity. Perfect, round, and flaring it stood there on its own, alone in the cloudless sky to steal it's spotlight.
Beautiful, on this stretch of marshland, around the Meadowlands and such, was this vast strip of water. The sun just came down and glistened on the water...And as the train rolled on, the sun soon engulfed the New York City skyline. It really was just awe-inspiring and I took it as the sign that the day would be grand.
Even though the Twin Towers weren't there anymore, which if they had, would have made my day.
We arrived at Penn Station to prepare for the day ahead.
I have always loved Penn Station especially at night. Where I see all sorts of people on the floor either sleeping or reading the newspaper, playing with palmpoints, or just eating. I mean..how cool is a place that you can camp out anywhere on the floor and just go to sleep. That fact alone, , that there are places where people can be left on their own and not fucked with by rude people is so great.
Moving along, we get out at Madison Square Garden and make our way to Times Sqaure. I loved being in New York before all the chaos and havoc breaks loose.
1. Because there practically noone in the streets.
2.It's so quiet and just a scent in the air...not the norm accumulation of various stenches and smells.
After about 20 blocks or so, we arrive at the Virgin Megastore and begin our wait for NIN. After about an hour or so, we get inside to pick up our reserved copies of And all that could have been, the live cd/dvd. Along with the copy of the cd, they handed me this pass which was the cover of the album along with today's date and such. They then inform us that we have to get only on line at 3:30p.m.. But knowing how rabid NIN fans are, we would be online as soon as we could. Before the long wait, we decide to cross the street and grab some healthy delicious breakfast at McDonalds. Stay for about two hours, bullshitting and conversing over hash browns and black coffee.
We go back out to our same exact spot we had when we first arrived so we definitely lucked out on that one.
It was now about 11 in the a.m. or soand the weird thing was I ran into an old friend of mine named Manny. This guy is basically dropped off the face of the earth and it was nice to shoot the shit with him for about an hour or so. Something was weird about the guy, he wasn't the same. Something selfish or just not right. So I eventually made my way back to our spot.
In the span of the afternoon, I made a journey into the McDonalds again to warm up and grab some cookies and coffee. I loved that fact that even though I was surrounded by friends and new acquintences, I still had the oppurtunity to just be alone and simmer in my thoughts. I felt so lost, as if I was a piece of driftwood in a never-ending ocean. I became a member of a club that did not exist. Among the huge overwhelming buildings, on the wide sidewalks. The sun blaring down on me, with that bone chilling wind in the air. I loved every second of it. The fact that getting lost in oblivion is so beautiful. There were moments were the street became a vast windtunnel and we huddle into a tightly packed mass of body heat all the while my friend with his dollar store speakers was blasting Skinny Puppy. To warm up, we'd start mini mosh pits and eventually strangers would jump in and get their kicks. Every so often, NIN's staff would come out with cameras and mini dv camcorders walking up and down the line to capture everything. Eventually one of the cameraman stopped and interviewed us. We told him that my best friend would be Trent's sex slave and would do anything that he pleased and I told him that he was over influenced by Yanni. To this day, I wonder if he ever saw any of that footage.
Time was drawing near and I could feel the nervousness setting in. As we were finally being let into the store, we realized that we got out of the line outside only to stand in another line that spiraled down each floor of this massive store. But now the stage was set, and could see the table on the bottom floor where the band would be sitting at. Surrounded by huge stills from their "Fragility tour" We were never really that far behind and our place in line wasn't bad compared to the poor souls who were still outside.
On the way in I began conversation with this guy who was behind us. I figured if he was laughing at my friends and I he was cool and not one of those adults that couldn't bare to hang around teenagers ( I was 17 at the time). He was from New Zealand, he looked like John Lennon if lennon had only cut his hair and didn't carry such a heavy accent. Only thing that I felt bad about was that after I got my things signed and met the band I didn't get a chance to say good bye to the dood. Spent a large sum of my day waiting in line with him and never said good bye....I guess he was one of those "single serving friends"
And as we sat there, well actually stood there, he had finally come out. Between the pillars, I saw him.
To know he was only a matter of a few feet away was incredible. It really hit me then and there that we were going to meet him and how lucky we were to be there. I was one of the 500 people in the world that was there. This was around 5:00 and after an hour and a half, there he was. I was next in line.
I could see Trent, Jerome and Danny sitting there signing away. I kept getting closer and closer and closer.
And I fib you not, as I stood there in total amazement at the fact that NIN was right in front of me, Trent looks up and turns his head towards our direction. Trent and I made eye contact (wow...I just up chucked in my mouth a bit..I was lame!) And ever before I could say anything, Lennon said what I was thinking at that exact moment "holy shit....eye contact"
And then there I was, at the beginning of the table. Waiting for my turn to get my stuff signed. I couldnt believe I was there, never in my life would I have imagined being 10 ft away from Trent Reznor. Jerome was first and I asked him about his favorite set up for drums and where to sign my poster. I moved down to Danny and Trent, I heard their convo. The guy in front of me had a Nirvana shirt on and I heard Danny say something along the lines of "how do you wear another band's shirt to a singing?" They laughed it up a bit and there I stood...like a complete lamer...deer frozen in headlights afraid to move..devoid of all and any motor function.
They both looked up at me and Trent laughed and asked how I was doing? It snapped me out of my dazed and said I was doing alright. I shook both of their hands and told Danny that he was the fuckin man. I was thinking extremely hard of a question to ask Trent knowing that this would be the first and last time I'd ever be that close to him again. And the only thing that my brain could come up with was " I know that you have got to be tired of playing certain songs over and over again night after night...but which song do you still enjoy to play and not yet tired of?" Closer was playing over the P.A. system and Trent cracked a smile and pointed to the speaker and said" Certainly not this one" I was surprised and not at the same time. And that was it, I thanked him for all the inspiration and years of therapy that his music had given me and told him to keep going because (pointing to all the people) it obviously means alot to sooo many.
I made my way up the escalator and met up with my friend...As I was walking out I noticed Chris Katan was there for the singing as well...I did a double take but didn't really care to say anything to him. We stood outside all mad with excitement and shock. My best friend Kim told me that she was approached by one of the security guards and was invited back to the after party at whatever hotel they were staying at. I was joking all day long but I knew it would happen. She was fuckin hot, what else could I have expected. We began our walk back to Penn Station through Times Square.
The walk back was great, the sun was gone and the mood of the city was seriously different. People wore their fatigue on their faces and wanted to be left alone. The whole day in NYC , all I could think about were the people and the stories they had to tell. Everyone was so different and I just sat there and wondered and people watched. What they had gone through in their lives, it would take an eternity to now the whole story of everyone. But life isn't meant to be that way.
We spent another half hour in Penn Station , It was a sullen, peaceful, reflective point in the day. We sat there on the floor, watching the people so caught up in their lives, scattering like grains of sand against the wind when their train was "now boarding". Right then and there, so many things hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized Erika was moving to Florida. She told me that her dad had bought a plot of land and that the house being built at that moment. In all honesty, it didn't hurt that bad to realize it. It had been talked about for so long that if it were to happen, I don't think it'd have phased me.
I eventually said my good byes to Pam, Perobi and Kim. Jolil and I made our way to the train back to Jersey.
[A few days later Kim would tell me that she never got to see Trent because he was escorted into the hotel with a jacket over his head because the groupie chicks had turned into rabid zombies wanting this cock. She said the party was actually kind of lame and that the band was in another room that practically noone was really allowed into. She decided to leave and was outside of the hotel on the phone when Danny Lohner came out for a smoke and of course she couldn't pass up the chance to talk to him. She said he was really a pleasant and down to earth guy and they hung outside for about an hour and a half. He was making phone calls to his girlfriend and received a call from someone who he was on the phone with for awhile. He eventually passed to phone to her and it was Maynard from TOOL. TOOL being another favoritie band of Kim she never shit her pants. They talked for about 5 mins and that was that. They took a shitload of pictures together and she made a huge framed collage of the whole day which is hung up on her wall somewhere now whereever it is that she's living now.....]
The train was packed as could have been expected, just like the morning ride in, I stood against the door looking out the window. It was sad to think that the whole day, a day out of the norm for me was finally coming to an end. We talked about the day the whole way back and little things we noticed throughout the course of the day. We finally made it back to Elizabeth. As I walked down the platform steps and onto Broad Street, I looked around and realized for the first time that where I had come from, where my whole life had been based on, I realized that this city was dead and that there was soo much more out there. What had always looked so busy and alive was actually barely living. Jolil stayed on Broad St. to catch the bus home. So it was a lone walk home for me. As I took that walk home slowly walking smoking a cigarette, I realized so many things were brought to my attention. Which made my decision about the future even more broad and scattered. And why now? I mean school's almost over, and the rest of my life is just ahead of me. And maybe I won't end up in NYC, but it made me really , truly, realize that there is a life for me out there. So if I had not ended up meeting NIN, I would have been fine with it.
Because the fact that so much was opening up to me and I was introduced to new thoughts and realizations was worth it all to me. So yeah, that was my day more or less, some details have been omitted but because I was lazy to put them on here. And who knows , maybe I'll get to meet them again. So that was my day..Have fun Looking back....
I know have carpal tunnel due to typing all that. I was such a fanboy but it was one of the greatest days of my life. I also ran into Chris Rock earlier that day while on a mission to find a gold marker for the poster...he was a pretty cool dood but I didn't really hold him up. Other then that, if anyone reads this..I thank you the same for bearing through all the rambling....I gotta get some sleep...until whenever...good night and good morning.
Zepp
I really wanted to put this in on the actual anniversary date because I'm just a sappy nostalgic fuck but alas life gets in the way of such things. So I bring to you uneditied as it was poor hand written in my lineless scrapbook my adventure into meeting Nine Inch Nails back on 01/22/2001 at Virgin Megastore in NYC.
Sometimes, I wish I was still on that rediculously long line. If you read all of this ... I thank you.
"So many words, so many stories. So much to say and yet, never enough time to say them.
A novel can be written about everything that took place yesterday. I met Trent Reznor, Danny Lohner and Jerome Dillon.
What could I say? It was just glorious. The whole day in itself was fun. Minus the fact that I woke up at 5:45 and got ready before 7 a.m.
I made my way to NYC. That was the earliest that I had ever gone to NYC.
The whole atmosphere was just different. I felt as if I belonged. As if, I was another nameless face going into the city. And let me tell you about the sunrise. It was that kind of sunrise that you could look at without having to look away because of its intensity. Perfect, round, and flaring it stood there on its own, alone in the cloudless sky to steal it's spotlight.
Beautiful, on this stretch of marshland, around the Meadowlands and such, was this vast strip of water. The sun just came down and glistened on the water...And as the train rolled on, the sun soon engulfed the New York City skyline. It really was just awe-inspiring and I took it as the sign that the day would be grand.
Even though the Twin Towers weren't there anymore, which if they had, would have made my day.
We arrived at Penn Station to prepare for the day ahead.
I have always loved Penn Station especially at night. Where I see all sorts of people on the floor either sleeping or reading the newspaper, playing with palmpoints, or just eating. I mean..how cool is a place that you can camp out anywhere on the floor and just go to sleep. That fact alone, , that there are places where people can be left on their own and not fucked with by rude people is so great.
Moving along, we get out at Madison Square Garden and make our way to Times Sqaure. I loved being in New York before all the chaos and havoc breaks loose.
1. Because there practically noone in the streets.
2.It's so quiet and just a scent in the air...not the norm accumulation of various stenches and smells.
After about 20 blocks or so, we arrive at the Virgin Megastore and begin our wait for NIN. After about an hour or so, we get inside to pick up our reserved copies of And all that could have been, the live cd/dvd. Along with the copy of the cd, they handed me this pass which was the cover of the album along with today's date and such. They then inform us that we have to get only on line at 3:30p.m.. But knowing how rabid NIN fans are, we would be online as soon as we could. Before the long wait, we decide to cross the street and grab some healthy delicious breakfast at McDonalds. Stay for about two hours, bullshitting and conversing over hash browns and black coffee.
We go back out to our same exact spot we had when we first arrived so we definitely lucked out on that one.
It was now about 11 in the a.m. or soand the weird thing was I ran into an old friend of mine named Manny. This guy is basically dropped off the face of the earth and it was nice to shoot the shit with him for about an hour or so. Something was weird about the guy, he wasn't the same. Something selfish or just not right. So I eventually made my way back to our spot.
In the span of the afternoon, I made a journey into the McDonalds again to warm up and grab some cookies and coffee. I loved that fact that even though I was surrounded by friends and new acquintences, I still had the oppurtunity to just be alone and simmer in my thoughts. I felt so lost, as if I was a piece of driftwood in a never-ending ocean. I became a member of a club that did not exist. Among the huge overwhelming buildings, on the wide sidewalks. The sun blaring down on me, with that bone chilling wind in the air. I loved every second of it. The fact that getting lost in oblivion is so beautiful. There were moments were the street became a vast windtunnel and we huddle into a tightly packed mass of body heat all the while my friend with his dollar store speakers was blasting Skinny Puppy. To warm up, we'd start mini mosh pits and eventually strangers would jump in and get their kicks. Every so often, NIN's staff would come out with cameras and mini dv camcorders walking up and down the line to capture everything. Eventually one of the cameraman stopped and interviewed us. We told him that my best friend would be Trent's sex slave and would do anything that he pleased and I told him that he was over influenced by Yanni. To this day, I wonder if he ever saw any of that footage.
Time was drawing near and I could feel the nervousness setting in. As we were finally being let into the store, we realized that we got out of the line outside only to stand in another line that spiraled down each floor of this massive store. But now the stage was set, and could see the table on the bottom floor where the band would be sitting at. Surrounded by huge stills from their "Fragility tour" We were never really that far behind and our place in line wasn't bad compared to the poor souls who were still outside.
On the way in I began conversation with this guy who was behind us. I figured if he was laughing at my friends and I he was cool and not one of those adults that couldn't bare to hang around teenagers ( I was 17 at the time). He was from New Zealand, he looked like John Lennon if lennon had only cut his hair and didn't carry such a heavy accent. Only thing that I felt bad about was that after I got my things signed and met the band I didn't get a chance to say good bye to the dood. Spent a large sum of my day waiting in line with him and never said good bye....I guess he was one of those "single serving friends"
And as we sat there, well actually stood there, he had finally come out. Between the pillars, I saw him.
To know he was only a matter of a few feet away was incredible. It really hit me then and there that we were going to meet him and how lucky we were to be there. I was one of the 500 people in the world that was there. This was around 5:00 and after an hour and a half, there he was. I was next in line.
I could see Trent, Jerome and Danny sitting there signing away. I kept getting closer and closer and closer.
And I fib you not, as I stood there in total amazement at the fact that NIN was right in front of me, Trent looks up and turns his head towards our direction. Trent and I made eye contact (wow...I just up chucked in my mouth a bit..I was lame!) And ever before I could say anything, Lennon said what I was thinking at that exact moment "holy shit....eye contact"
And then there I was, at the beginning of the table. Waiting for my turn to get my stuff signed. I couldnt believe I was there, never in my life would I have imagined being 10 ft away from Trent Reznor. Jerome was first and I asked him about his favorite set up for drums and where to sign my poster. I moved down to Danny and Trent, I heard their convo. The guy in front of me had a Nirvana shirt on and I heard Danny say something along the lines of "how do you wear another band's shirt to a singing?" They laughed it up a bit and there I stood...like a complete lamer...deer frozen in headlights afraid to move..devoid of all and any motor function.
They both looked up at me and Trent laughed and asked how I was doing? It snapped me out of my dazed and said I was doing alright. I shook both of their hands and told Danny that he was the fuckin man. I was thinking extremely hard of a question to ask Trent knowing that this would be the first and last time I'd ever be that close to him again. And the only thing that my brain could come up with was " I know that you have got to be tired of playing certain songs over and over again night after night...but which song do you still enjoy to play and not yet tired of?" Closer was playing over the P.A. system and Trent cracked a smile and pointed to the speaker and said" Certainly not this one" I was surprised and not at the same time. And that was it, I thanked him for all the inspiration and years of therapy that his music had given me and told him to keep going because (pointing to all the people) it obviously means alot to sooo many.
I made my way up the escalator and met up with my friend...As I was walking out I noticed Chris Katan was there for the singing as well...I did a double take but didn't really care to say anything to him. We stood outside all mad with excitement and shock. My best friend Kim told me that she was approached by one of the security guards and was invited back to the after party at whatever hotel they were staying at. I was joking all day long but I knew it would happen. She was fuckin hot, what else could I have expected. We began our walk back to Penn Station through Times Square.
The walk back was great, the sun was gone and the mood of the city was seriously different. People wore their fatigue on their faces and wanted to be left alone. The whole day in NYC , all I could think about were the people and the stories they had to tell. Everyone was so different and I just sat there and wondered and people watched. What they had gone through in their lives, it would take an eternity to now the whole story of everyone. But life isn't meant to be that way.
We spent another half hour in Penn Station , It was a sullen, peaceful, reflective point in the day. We sat there on the floor, watching the people so caught up in their lives, scattering like grains of sand against the wind when their train was "now boarding". Right then and there, so many things hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized Erika was moving to Florida. She told me that her dad had bought a plot of land and that the house being built at that moment. In all honesty, it didn't hurt that bad to realize it. It had been talked about for so long that if it were to happen, I don't think it'd have phased me.
I eventually said my good byes to Pam, Perobi and Kim. Jolil and I made our way to the train back to Jersey.
[A few days later Kim would tell me that she never got to see Trent because he was escorted into the hotel with a jacket over his head because the groupie chicks had turned into rabid zombies wanting this cock. She said the party was actually kind of lame and that the band was in another room that practically noone was really allowed into. She decided to leave and was outside of the hotel on the phone when Danny Lohner came out for a smoke and of course she couldn't pass up the chance to talk to him. She said he was really a pleasant and down to earth guy and they hung outside for about an hour and a half. He was making phone calls to his girlfriend and received a call from someone who he was on the phone with for awhile. He eventually passed to phone to her and it was Maynard from TOOL. TOOL being another favoritie band of Kim she never shit her pants. They talked for about 5 mins and that was that. They took a shitload of pictures together and she made a huge framed collage of the whole day which is hung up on her wall somewhere now whereever it is that she's living now.....]
The train was packed as could have been expected, just like the morning ride in, I stood against the door looking out the window. It was sad to think that the whole day, a day out of the norm for me was finally coming to an end. We talked about the day the whole way back and little things we noticed throughout the course of the day. We finally made it back to Elizabeth. As I walked down the platform steps and onto Broad Street, I looked around and realized for the first time that where I had come from, where my whole life had been based on, I realized that this city was dead and that there was soo much more out there. What had always looked so busy and alive was actually barely living. Jolil stayed on Broad St. to catch the bus home. So it was a lone walk home for me. As I took that walk home slowly walking smoking a cigarette, I realized so many things were brought to my attention. Which made my decision about the future even more broad and scattered. And why now? I mean school's almost over, and the rest of my life is just ahead of me. And maybe I won't end up in NYC, but it made me really , truly, realize that there is a life for me out there. So if I had not ended up meeting NIN, I would have been fine with it.
Because the fact that so much was opening up to me and I was introduced to new thoughts and realizations was worth it all to me. So yeah, that was my day more or less, some details have been omitted but because I was lazy to put them on here. And who knows , maybe I'll get to meet them again. So that was my day..Have fun Looking back....
I know have carpal tunnel due to typing all that. I was such a fanboy but it was one of the greatest days of my life. I also ran into Chris Rock earlier that day while on a mission to find a gold marker for the poster...he was a pretty cool dood but I didn't really hold him up. Other then that, if anyone reads this..I thank you the same for bearing through all the rambling....I gotta get some sleep...until whenever...good night and good morning.
Zepp
rexx:
i really enjoyed reading this.