NEW KITTIES!

i know this is my tour blog, but sometimes we need to break a rule, or seven.

for years, Drew has been scouring the petfinder ads, he wanted a kitten. Not just any kitten. a Maine Coon kitten!

apparently NO ONE gives up their Maine Coons. and now I know why.

This breed is the most even-tempered affectionate cat I have ever met. and soooo beautiful.

Our friends Breck & Laura introduced us to their two super-giant cats, and gave us the information on where they got them. We drove out this week to meet Alex, and to meet our little guy, who we pre-named Jonesy, as the only cat survivor in ALIEN. Smart lady, she had ALL NINE kittens out. Of course, we went bonkers, and adopted RIPLEY to go space-exploring with Jonesy.

here is the first photo she sent of the litter of babies.

COME ON! look at those faces....

One of the conditions of adoption, is to adhere to a raw meaty bones diet, which we started with Batman & Selina Kyle. They have taken to it, completely and totally. To see them like tiny tigers, gnawing on their meat, as nature equipped them with the scissor-like back teeth.

We also got different cat litter, the pine pellets. Much cheaper and now there is a line at the cat box-- they love it!

so we finally met the kittens and here is Drew holding Jonesy:

here is their cousin Gatling, who is an 8-month old boy who is still growing. Ripley is sitting on his tail and Jonesy is lying down behind him, all pooped out from playing.

and here is the sweet girl kitten, such a loud purr machine.

we are transitioning the house and the other 2 cats for the royal twins arrival, the adventures are just beginning....

Japan, i am in love with you...

this has been the year of travel...

The year started in Boston & Minneapolis with Neil, helping out on the Calendar of Tales project. It is finished now & you can download it HERE.

it's already June (can't quite believe that!) and i have been from the shark tanks of Australia to the soccer heart of Brazil, to the SXSW, Lollapolooza & Coachella festivals, but last week I got back from my first trip to Tokyo.

It's the first time i felt a magic home in such a foreign environment.

was working the Japanese dates of Ozzfest, for Slipknot, we shared the first night with Slash. Great music in the production office! it poured rain, but we were inside, so wet gear wasn't an issue. The TOOL crew loaded in the night we played so I got to see many of my favorite tour buddies-- a roadie reunion.

here our DJ tech models one of the Japanese record needles I had the runner find:

Shopping in the Shibuya district was exciting on so many levels, everything old was new again. little happy teeth scratchers!

My translator Yoshie took us to a shop called Toyku Hands, which is 7 floors w/three levels each, stocked full of EVERYTHING, one whole floor of watches, one whole floor of make-up I have never heard of or imagined. here is a shot from the fabric area:

going to the little mini-markets for breakfast, i found that they make their hard boiled eggs EXACTLY my style, a little underdone, the seven minute timer I do. Egg in a box! All the food was just what I like...

my cabbie drives past Toyko Tower:

there was a currency exchange machine in the lobby of our hotel, so i flipped some of my unused Australian dollars-- you just pop them in and out comes yen moneys. While I was there, conversion was easy, it was about one to one.

Such pretty cash, and I asked who were the people on the bills-- answer: novelists, artists, teachers...very civilized.

I have about a billion photos, but still have loads of prep to do before i push off this week to the UK, for the Castle Donington date of Download Festival, and a week in London. Cannot wait to put some pounds sterling into my wallet-- here is a shot of the shrapnel in my backpack from my trips.

the only time I will ride a tour bus this year is with my author boss, here is our tour schedule for his upcoming THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE last signing tour: CLICK FOR DATES. hope to see some of you out there!

AUSTRALIA!!

Life is moving at warp speed, I have to say, I am enjoying the mileage piling up on my frequent flier accounts. Flew alllllll the way to Australia, in support of two bands, both headed by my much-beloved boss, Maynard James Keenan. A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, both playing mostly different days, but on two wild occasions, playing on different stages at the same festival...a mad dash, and all done with grace under pressure. I have been working for different versions of all of MJK's bands since 2001-- never a dull moment.

We landed in Brisbane and had most of a day to ourselves before the first round, so I wandered the city and helped our production mgr Kahuna celebrate his birthday.

For the Soundwave Festival, the Australians assign a liaison to the bigger acts, we all got bag tags with BT on them, for our fantastic guide to all things Aus, Ben Turner. He runs the Enmore Theatre in Sydney which I fell in love with. (I see AFP is playing there in Sept, hope she gives Ben a big ol' kiss from me..

here's the Enmore lobby:

can you see the Sydney Opera House behind me? my runner Maria had a better time of keeping her hair out of her face in the wind.

I walked all around downtown Sydney, and took a break in the cools of the Aquarium. I am spoiled by the brilliant Baltimore aquarium, so I was slowly kicking my way through the beginning, until I got to the tunnels where you walk under sharks and stingrays and manatees and all manner of swimming creatures. I stayed transfixed for hours.

i took so many photos, but I will only post a couple, just know, it was a life-long dream to be that close to walking under the sea.

look at this crowd (behind our drummer, Mr. Friedl):

(photo by Joe Paul)

we had a night off in Sydney. Sarafina, our friend who moved from LA to Aus a few years back came and met me, and I told her I wanted to go to the world-famous AC/DC Cherry Bar. SHe agreed, with the caveat that it's a touristy place but that our laminates will get us in front of line. Before, heading to Cherry, we went to the Lucero show at the Palace, courtesy of Ali, and it was such a gorgeous bit of the Deep South down undah.

Sarah at our hotel bar!

the seats at Cherry:

It wasn't crowded at first, but then I started seeing all the security guys roll in.... the whole trip was constant roadie reunions, the band & crews of Garbage, Slayer, Tomahawk, Metallica, Blink etc all meeting up, I saw friends I hadn't seen in ages.

our TM with actual Roadies chips...

we had a ferris wheel in catering in Perth--(Joe Paul & Billy H.)

Allers and John Laff load out the Blink camp, just after I got back from seeing Ghost on the faraway stage:

Someone told me that Australia was like America 25 years ago in many things but prices (man, was it expensive) shopping in Australia, I found great magical things:

American metal in Aus!

we had a half day off in lovely Adelaide, I was sad to leave there:

flying over Perth, look at the difference:

What a trip--

I was home for a few days, before I was called to SXSW, for a quick meeting with Neil, that blog will be detailed over HERE on the Neverwear blog.

On Wednesday i fly to Brazil, and we do the rounds of Lollapolooza, which I can't spell... stay tuned!

Kitty's cyber garage sale is in progress....

In addition to getting the version three-point-oh of the MAKE GOOD ART hats up on the Neverwear site, I have just spent the last few days photographing and prepping some of my tour memorabilia from over the years--

here's my note to the ebay world: It's been awhile, I used to do so much back & forth on Ebay, but I have been touring so much, out on the road for over a decade, and when i am home I work as the merch queen/assistant to the amazing Mr. Neil Gaiman.

Some of my tours include: TooL, Rob Zombie, Britney Spears, Jonas Brothers, Lady Gaga, Perfect Circle, Tori Amos, The Kills, Motley Crue, Deftones, Godsmack, and more. I have worked SO many local shows here in LA, I can't even go into it.

I have things from all these tours to share with the world. Little artifacts from a simpler time, haha. **ALSO Husband says, they have to go. Too little space here in the treehouse!

Will be rolling them out as time allows, I am touring Australia next month with A Perfect Circle & then I go to Japan with Slipknot. I have so many things to post, feel free to mark my page-- I am going under the assumption that it's ok to sell these old mementos, but if some or another boss comes out in protest, well, I will have to deal with that as the time comes. I had a giant yard sale, and it was funny, the attendees had no idea what I had. This is a cyber yard sale as none of the auctions will start at higher than 99 cents and none of them will have reserves. So! Let the bidding begin. CLICK HERE for KITTY'S CYBER GARAGE-SALE some samples:

I am also cleaning out my bead nation! I have bagged up loads of rare, vintage, gemstone, glass, Japanese hand-rolled, metals precious & not, findings etc, and am selling them in big batches like so:

watch here for updates! email me with questions! CLICK HERE for KITTY'S CYBER GARAGE-SALE ***Tonight, I am off to see Band of Skulls & Muse at Staples Center, then back at it.