A. J. Roach

American Football in the Brah

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 12:09:00 -0400

I’m a huge NFL fan. I know, I know… That’s not a popular statement in the crowd that I run with. In general, I’d say most folk singers don’t even know what the NFL is. Not a huge organized sports crowd… at least not the folk singers I know. Actually I do have two close folk singer friends who are sports fans: Danny Schmidt and Robby Hecht — who is a fellow Tennessee Titans fan. Actually Danny is more of a college football guy, but at least he doesn’t look at me like I’m speaking a foreign language when I say something like “Wow, if Matthew Stafford can stay healthy, Detroit could really be a contender!”

I’ve spent large portions of the previous two NFL seasons here in Edinburgh (the Brah). This season will mark 3 in a row in which I am 5 time zones away from most of the NFL action. There are a number of challenges that go along with this geographic dilemma…

- The 1:00pm (early) games don’t start until 6:00pm. When I’m in New York, I’m several beers in by 6:00. Hell, the late game starts at 8:00, so by 6:00 most of the games have either finished, or they’re well on their way to being decided. The only advantage is that I don’t have to feel like a lush when I start drinking when NFL Sunday Countdown comes on (10am in New York, but 3pm in the Brah)

- Just watching the games is extremely challenging. As you can imagine, American football (even though the NFL is the most financially successful sports league on earth — take that FIFA!) is just not that popular over here. Most people you meet on the street take the same view towards American football as the aforementioned folk singers. You really need a friend who has Sky Sports (sort of a DirecTV type thing available over here) or a really great internet connection.

- Snacks aren’t that great here. Nacho cheese doesn’t exist. Well, I should say they have what they *call* nacho cheese, but it’s disgusting. Also there are no Cool Ranch Doritos and no Nacho Cheese Doritos. Instead they have ‘Cool Original’ and ‘Tangy Cheese’. They’re not the same.

- The one pro of being an NFL fan over here though, is a big one. The beer. Cheap beer here is way better. As I type this (and watch Countdown), I’m enjoying an 8.5% lager that cost me about what a 3.0 watered-down crappy Bud would’ve cost me in New York. So here’s to week 4. Go Titans!

xoaj

Top 10 whisky I’ve ever had. Top 2 aged less than 20...

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:02:11 -0400

Top 10 whisky I’ve ever had. Top 2 aged less than 20 years. Jon Green, you are a prince among men!

Dusty Rose - Austin, TX

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:00:14 -0400

Dusty Rose - Austin, TX

New Years Eve in Edinburgh. Fighting through the crowds to get...

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 08:02:00 -0500

New Years Eve in Edinburgh. Fighting through the crowds to get to the Ceilidh

Happy New Year!

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 08:02:00 -0500

Happy New Year!

At the Ceilidh dance on New Years Eve!

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

At the Ceilidh dance on New Years Eve!

Great time tonight with Gerry O’Connor, Martin Quinn and a...

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Great time tonight with Gerry O’Connor, Martin Quinn and a host of other great musicians at the Christmas Concert at the Spirit Store in Dundalk, Co. Louth, Ireland

Christmas day with NPK. Note the scotty tie.

Sat, 25 Dec 2010 07:56:00 -0500

Christmas day with NPK. Note the scotty tie.

NPK on Christmas Eve at a pub in Ireland. Wise men in swaddling...

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 07:55:00 -0500

NPK on Christmas Eve at a pub in Ireland. Wise men in swaddling clothes and we were all seeing stars.

Happy birthday to me! (it’s a guitar cake!)

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Happy birthday to me! (it’s a guitar cake!)

Photo

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 12:00:00 -0500

Last night’s show at my friend’s loft here in...

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Last night’s show at my friend’s loft here in Edinburgh. The above shot was taken just prior to showtime and the picture above that is the “official” attendees list.

Edinburgh holiday party for musicians.

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 07:46:00 -0500

Edinburgh holiday party for musicians.

Last night, our friend Norman had invited us to go and see his...

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Last night, our friend Norman had invited us to go and see his band, Teenage Fanclub, perform at the O2 ABC Theater in Glasgow. This was a homecoming show of sorts as Norman and the band are originally from Glasgow, so we were pretty excited to go. I had no idea how popular this band is! People were losing it! In a good way I mean. It was a great show with the only downside being that because the last train back to Edinburgh leaves at 11:30pm, we literally had to run out of the after-party and down the street to the station in order to catch that last train. As a bonus, The Arcade Fire was playing in Glasgow last night too, so the train was PACKED! Should’ve taken a picture of that, but couldn’t really move my arms. Anyway, here’s a shot of Norman et al on stage.

Two nights ago we went over to my friends Douglas and Maria....

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Two nights ago we went over to my friends Douglas and Maria. The snow had trapped a group of American musicians here in Edinburgh, so that they couldn’t make their Glasgow performance. Douglas wanted to have a bit of a “jam” at his place and invited us along. I’m so glad that we decided to brave the weather and walk over. It was such a great time and we convinced Tony (one of the trapped Musicians) to come out and play some with us at our show last night at Medina. After the Medina show, we went to Sandy Bell’s for a late-night session. That’s where this picture was taken. That’s Tony with the banjo.

At a concert in an incredible Edinburgh loft. I’m...

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

At a concert in an incredible Edinburgh loft. I’m performing here next week.

Winter Wonderland / Pleistocene

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:55:53 -0500

It just hasn’t stopped snowing here in the past 5 or 6 days. One would expect this in the highlands, but down here next to the sea you just never expect more than a “dusting” of snow. I suppose it’s fitting as I’m sitting here reviewing final mix candidates and trying to get the artwork together for ‘Pleistocene’. Maybe I’ll name my next record ‘Southern Pacific Vacation’ or something like that.

In the previous post, I’ve posted a final mix candidate for one of the tracks from ‘Pleistocene’. I’m so excited about this record that it was hard to pick one to share. It’s really meant to be a full-album-listening experience, but hopefully this one track will at least let you in on some hint of what we’ve been getting up to.

Bandolier from the forthcoming album, ‘Pleistocene’.

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:52:25 -0500

Bandolier from the forthcoming album, ‘Pleistocene’.

The ‘Brah (Edinburgh) in the snow. Like a medieval winter...

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 06:56:30 -0500

The ‘Brah (Edinburgh) in the snow. Like a medieval winter wonderland.

Delta: The worst. (pt. II)

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:39:00 -0500

Stupid Delta. We get on the plane and then in typical Delta fashion we are told that there’s a slight delay while they finish some routine maintenance. Obviously not all that routine or else it would’ve been completed before they loaded us all onto the plane. An hour and a half goes by and finally they tell us that the maintenance is finished, but now there’s a lot of water in the aft coming from the bathroom, so they need to figure that out before we can take off. Another hour and now we’re getting pretty close to the 3-hour rule (They get fined pretty heavily per passenger if they keep passengers on a grounded plane for 3 hours or longer), so I’m now starting to worry that they’re going to start off-loading us. Finally we get the word just in time that something was screwed up with the bathroom sink, it’s been fixed and now we’re backing away from the gate. Another 40 minutes or so of taxi time and finally we’re in the air!

Once up there though, there was a multiple hour debacle concerning the in-flight entertainment system. I mean yes, I realize that not so many years ago there was no in-flight personalized entertainment system but you know what, it also wasn’t all that long ago that people thought leeches cured diseases. It’s a different time people! A time when I expect my 8-hour flight to have some entertainment options to lull me off to sleepy-time. After what can only be described as the greatest display of unorganized unprofessionalism I’ve ever witnessed, the in-flight entertainment still wasn’t working properly so I assume they just gave up. My iPod was out of juice and of course with Delta (unlike with many other cross-Atlantic carriers) there is no power at your seat, so that was that. I tried to go to sleep, but the seat itself was really uncomfortable. Even more so than usual on an airplane. As we were landing, the inept flight crew was apologizing profusely about the massive inconveniences that everyone on board had had to put up with over the past 8 hours. They assured us that once we de-boarded there would be a delta representative with vouchers for free future travel. Free is the only way I would EVER fly Delta. Even then, I’d probably have some hesitation. As stated in the previous post, I never would’ve bought this flight had I known it was operated by Delta. So we finally land and taxi to the gate. Then the flight attendant comes on over the loudspeaker and says “Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve just gotten word from Atlanta. I’m sorry that we’ll not be able to offer you vouchers at the gate as previously stated. You’ll need to visit Delta.com in order to redeem your vouchers.” You’re kidding me. So I’m just gonna go to the website of the largest airline on earth and there’s gonna be a link there that says “Were you on that crappy flight from JFK to AMS? That totally sucked, right? Well, no worries brah. Click here to redeem your sweet free travel voucher.”? Yeah, sure. Basically what she was saying was, “I thought that I worked for a company that was made up of decent fair-minded human beings, but it turns out that I work for jerk faces. Giant jerk faces who know that if they tell you to go to their website instead of giving you the free vouchers that most of you will never pursue it. Personally, I’m now considering alternative employment.”

I did have a really nice Dutch guy sitting next to me though, and making jokes with him about how miserable the flight was really helped to pass the time, so a big thanks to him. Other than that, the only positive thing I can say about that flight is that it got me here safely, and in the end I guess that’s all that really matters. Stupid Delta.