Astra Heights Redux

From the beginning...

Hello all Astra Heights fans, family, and friends. I just posted this on our Astra Heights myspace, but I know it's very necessary to post it here as well. This blog is just slightly more personal (even though this is still copy and pasted). Anyway, it is with great honor that I come to you today with this news. Honor mixed with genuine appreciation, love, and most of all, humility. My news is that I'm leaving this band of brothers and honorary brother. I love Mark, James, Bernard, and Timothy (who yep, you guessed it, Timbo's comin' back! Yay!).

My brothers and I have been through a lot. It was with our two older brothers, Phillip and Michael, that we first started Astra Heights almost 7 full years ago. We've made a lot of sacrifices together, and for all of them I am extremely grateful to have made it through. We've met so, so many people: All wonderful, all different, and all mattered. My life changed so much during the course of my time with the band, and I hope you'll continue to support the boys as they continue rockin' without me.

It wasn't an easy decision to leave, but it's just something I feel will help me be able to thrive more in other areas of this ol' life of mine. My plans right now are to go back to school (For those of you who might be curious as to what my plans are). And I most definitely hope you're doing what makes you happy as well. Does school make me happy? Not sure yet. I'll let you know after the next couple of months come to pass.

With all my love, support, appreciation, and love and support and appreciation!

Joshua Morales,
Drummer of Astra Heights (Jan 2001-Oct 2008)

That was pretty vain huh? lol. Laugh with me!

BRINGIN' DA WOOD!

MARK HERE

This guy's coming back....are ya ready?

A good, and new, feeling...

Freedom...

Will the real CROCKTASTICO hero please stand up?

I have toured the US many times and every tour is different. It's hard to have perspective on the whole experience. Our latest tour was long and rife with long drives. One of the things that stood out early on was the mind-blowing stamina of "AD" who drove the van and then drove some more and then drove a little more. Oh did I mention he drove the van? This is a super-human cat with a zen-like disposition and tolerable sense of humor. In other words, a great guy to have on the road. Thank you AD!

David Foster Wallace

LEILANI HERE.

There's a book from 1999 that I loved and studied and taught called "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men," a collection of short stories by this guy named David Foster Wallace.  Mark loved it, too.  I think it was the first book I ever recommended to him. (I love to recommend books . . . that PhD's gotta be used somehow.)

David Foster Wallace was one of America's greatest living authors.  Now he's not.  Friday he hung himself.

They say he was not deranged, or psychotic, or even very mentally ill . . . he was just sad.  As an author he struggled for  absolute truth, sincerity, and compassion.  The struggle overcame him.  He looked into the abyss and saw . . . . futility.

Here is a link to a commencement speech he gave at a Kenyon College graduation.  It is funny, and moving, and exemplary of his desire to love one's fellow humans despite every motive to the contrary.  Please read it.  I believe you'll be glad you did. Here

TOUR IS OVER IF YOU WANT IT

MARK HERE

So here we are...back in LA. In the comfort of our own beds, our good friends, and for me (my cute little guy Remy)...we had a good time on tour and we rocked many a people, but the truth is....we're very glad to be back.

I want to thank the other bands, AD (tour manager), the fans, and our managers for putting this tour together.

We look forward to doing some giveaways and producing some new videos and music in our down time, so please do keep checking back here and on our myspace.

until then!

Mark

Bay Area Recap

We got here, left here, passed through here, played here. It's all confusing because of the routing but we feel like honorary Northern Californians. This has nothing to do with the fact that I grew up here. Anyways, we did get to revisit our old Radio buddy Dennis. Here's us at the interview (with Kinski of Montenegro). We're all trying to be hip by concocting our own lame hand signals. I mean really, WHAT are all those lame hand gestures one sees all the time about? Don't they get you into trouble?

Photo Lisa

Walnut Creek

MARK HERE

Here are a couple of pics that Lisa took of us in Walnut Creek...who is Lisa, you ask? Well, she's our band momma up in the bay area....we got to have a nice relaxing day off at her place near the pool....

This was actually a pretty good performance and we made a new friend and fan out of Michael Mercer, a blogger in the bay area. Here is his blog: http://bandsofthebay.com/blogs/
His article (under the Verve article) even made the local newspaper with my mug on the cover of the Entertainment Section. woohoo!

Last night we played Reno, Nevada.

It's a strange, parallel universe where it seems only old people live and all they do is play slot machines all day and night. It's true.

And again, we rolled...

... To El Paso, Texas...

Bernard doin' a bit of maintenance:

Mark doin' a bit of the same:

Mark was either asking for something, or James was shootin' for an artsy shot:

Mark, Bernard, and Johnny of The May Fire restring their guitars:

And then the barbeque came:

Never could we have been happier!


Cat and Filipe from The May Fire:

Happy A.H. boys:

That was unfortunately all we got in pictures from El Paso. I guess you could see where our priorities lied at that time. Food, food, and food. No but seriously, the venue was neat and the manager and employees were awesome. We would love to play there again in the future.

... More on next posting...

Onward we rolled...

... Through the desert of America, we approached the breathtaking Hoover Dam:












As you can see we couldn't get enough pictures.

Our next stop was at The Beatles Revolution Lounge at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures from the show but here's a group shot taken the morning after:

And then it was on to Tuscon, AZ. Rob, James, and I try to entertain our heat-blistered minds with a game of pool and some good times. I think Rob won.


Rob: (Col. Robert Shaw as we call him)


James (or "Techie" as I call him)


It was one of those bars...

The following pictures were taken by our friend Stace:



... For more pictures, please see "Tuscon" photo album...

... More on next posting...