September 21, 2010
10:34 am

“Young Throats” Video by A Nice Idea Every Day.

(If you haven’t heard, the vinyl for Privilege, pt. II: The Past, Imperfect has been slightly delayed. Digital, however, is totally available like RIGHT NOW. Buy it from iTunes?)

Rachael and I left Jherek and Freddy to work on their drinking problems in London, as we endeavored to return our tour van to its rightful home in Prague. Yes, we were driving back across the entirety of Western Europe. And yes, we were SO OVER IT. But first: we had this stupid video we committed ourselves and a bunch of fine Germans to make.

I had contacted the fine folks at A Nice Idea Every Day after seeing a couple of their videos, and being struck by their particularly inventive economy. It turned out we sort of had a day off in the vicinity of their home in Berlin, and so plans began to take shape. After a brief respite with our Tomlab brethren in Cologne, we made our way to Fabian and Vivian’s flat in Berlin, were we had a few hours of sleep before waking to make way to the wilds of Northern Deutschland with our fab production crew. They warned us of ticks and of mosquitos. I tried to remember the German word for “leech”.

Rachael very quickly sustained a rather substantial slice from a broken mirror, which more or less set the tone for her particular streak of luck. Mosquitos don’t particularly care for my putrid blood, but they love the pure, untainted crimson of miss Jensen. Covered at any given time by a literal baker’s dozen, the welts were impossible to quell. She began to take a chill before the sun went down, and remained physically inconsolable for the better part of two days after. I thought she would never speak to me again. We slept a little bit in the van, while Fabi & Viv worked through the night. After roughly 28 hours of shooting, we returned to ANIED headquarters for a three hour nap before taking to the autobahn for our last ditch to Prague, sleeping briefly in the back as the nice, silent Czech rental employee chauffeured us to the vacant Vienna Airport for my second allnighter there in six months time. I watched a television show about zombies with great empathy.

Injuries sustained: Rachael—mirror cuts x 7 years bad luck, dozens of mosquito bites; Zac—minor bruises and scrapes from “stunt work,” unidentified cuts on wrists and arms; collectively—black lung from the toxic smoke inhalation.

SUCCESS!

love,

Zac Pennington