Tom's Blog

May 09, 2008

Just going to spend a couple of days with Annie and Steve and Rex.  My two Siberian Huskies, and my Parrot.  Nice to see the family again.  :)  You may notice that there is some work going on around the house/channel here. 
I will be leaving the LIVE stream on so you can watch some of the work getting done.  I think I may leave the LIVE feed on all the time now.  So stay tuned.

I am going to lay low for a couple of days while the work is getting done.  Floors are being polished, the house painted inside and out.  We will putting the studio together again Monday and will be going LIVE next week from The Channel for sure.

This weekend I am going to begin looking through some of the footage we shot on the trip.  Editing together some goofy pieces for you guys.  Should be fun.  See you guys Monday!  Have a great weekend gang!

Tom Green

May 07, 2008

We are driving to Los Angeles now. It was a fun trip. Probably one of the most fun road trips I have been on. And I have been to almost every state in the USA. And every province in Canada. I have criss crossed practically every highway. But this one has been great. We made some new friends along the way. Thanks everyone who came out and said hello. It has been a blast.

Tonight I am going to settle down at my edit bay and start looking a footage. And I am going to start cutting some funny stuff for you folks to see. Can't wait to start dropping some stupid clips out there online over the next few weeks. Should be fun.

And I think I have learned a few things this trip. On the open road. I think I have grown a bit, both as a person, and as a video maker. We really dialed this HVX-200 camera. We are getting some really sweet pictures from it, clean pictures, pretty pictures. I love documenting the vast landscapes that we traveled through. The deserts, and the beaches, and the forests. The small towns and the big towns that we criss crossed through along the way. And the interesting people, and quirky characters we encountered. At the truck stops, and the dive bars, and all the places in between.

I am going back to Los Angeles now. This is the city that I have called home for the past eight or more years. I like Los Angeles. But I love being out on the road more. I never really feel lost out in the real world. In fact in many ways, I feel more lost when I get home. LA is a strange place to live if you are not from there. And in many ways I am sad that this trip has to end so soon.

I think typing into this crazy blog over the last few years has helped keep me focused. It certainly is nice to be anywhere in the world, and to have you guys to check in with. I guess you could say over the last ten years I have traveled a lot. I have been to every state except Delaware and New Hampshire. I have been to many of them twice. I have spent months in Saskatchewan. Weeks in Alaska. Days in Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, The Carolinas, Kansas, Indiana, Michigan, Massachusetts, Ohio, Nebraska, Wyoming and all the rest.... Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and B.C. Sometimes it feel like I am always on the road.

I have been in Italy, Japan, Germany, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, England, France, Ireland, and some places I must have forgot. We even went to Iraq a few years ago. Right after they captured Saddam Hussein. We went to one of his palaces that had been converted to an internet cafe for soldiers. We flew through Baghdad in Blackhawk helicopters and visited with many US troops. We went into Kuwait, and Quatar, and Kosovo, and Djibouti Africa, and United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, and the list goes on and on.

I am usually happy and comfortable on the road. But as we are driving back into Los Angeles today, I also feel happy to be heading home. And yes, I miss my dogs. I can't wait to see Annie and Steve. I miss my girls.

But one thing I am starting to notice more and more. The more often I am away, in a new place I am surprised how similar everything seems to be. The cities and roads and traffic lights and buildings, and architecture, and hotel chains, and coffee franchises, and fast food stands are in every town. The same. Sometimes I wonder if it is too much of a coincidence. That everything is so neatly arranged and convenient to find. It makes the world at times feel very small. And although comforting in the moment, it is all to often a disappointment as well. It is becoming harder and harder to be surprised. It is getting much more difficult to find something entirely new.

The furthest I had ever traveled was when we flew 24 hours straight around the world to Bahrain. In the middle east. And I thought as I got off the plane how ridiculous it was to be on the other side of this big blue planet. And I thought about how my home where I grew up, was directly beneath my feet. Through all that rock, and magma. And then we drove to downtown Bahrain. And we checked into a Marriot hotel. And then we took a short walk outside in the streets. Past the Kentucky Fried Chicken, the Dairy Queen, the Burger King, the Cinnabon, Starbucks, and more. We opted for the KFC. I ordered the extra crispy, and though delicious, I secretly was wishing for something else in this first experience. Something other than the plastic traffic lights and walk and don't walk signals that we trudged past on the way to our meal. The red painted curbs lining the freshly paved streets, just like the ones in my hometown, and in New York and LA and everywhere else. When you grow up on a skateboard you notice this stuff. There must be a guidebook for urban engineers that gets distributed worldwide. Because the street signs and the painted lines on the road are virtually always the same. That part of it sucks

I have stopped myself lately from being disappointed by these similarities. I instead have tried hard to focus on the things that are new. The surprises are really the things that keep me going out on the road. The little differences that don't immediately thrust themselves in your face, but at closer inspection are just as amazing and surreal.

One of the highlights on this trip for me was in Butte, Montana. At the turn of the century this was a booming copper mining town. Over 100 000 people lived there. Today it is just a fraction of that. The longest running house of prostitution was there for the miners, until it closed in the 1980's. It's still there and has this creepy mannequin in the upstairs window wearing lingerie. The streets on the Sunday we were there were empty. Minus a few lonely pedestrians and the occasional car. The few cars that passed would beep at us with our camera, and pull over to say hello. Evel Kneivel is from Butte. And my favorite place was this Chinese restaurant in the downtown core. It is the oldest restaurant in the USA west of the Mississippi. We popped in for a drink. It has been operated by the same Chinese family since it opened in the 1880's! The booths in the restaurant are the same as they have always been. And they have one of the original menu's on the wall with most item's costing between 10 and 25 cents. It is like walking back in time. It exists as it did 120 years ago. We sat down at the bar, ordered a beer, and stared out the window at the snow capped rockies of Montana. The mountains also had not changed. It was the kind of moment that makes you feel small. It reminds you of your mortality. Don't sweat the small stuff. Not only will the mountains outlive all of us. But so can a Chinese restaurant in Butte Montana. Or the massive redwoods of Humbolt county. It was an amazing trip.

We are heading back into Los Angeles now. Right now. I am sitting in the RV typing this on a fold out table. Thanks for coming along for the ride. I will check in with you all soon, LIVE from The Channel. Stay tuned gang.

Tom Green

May 07, 2008

Hey gang. Well I bet you thought we would have stopped in Las Vegas. Actually we are in the town of McGill Nevada. We stopped last night, in this small copper mining town in the middle of the Nevada desert. Good people here.

We walked around mainstreet for a few minutes. The town has an amazing little bar that has a lot of history. The local folks bought us some beers. The bartender, Norm Linnell has been working at the bar for 69 years. There are pictures of the town on the wall from the 1920's. It is quite the place in the middle of the desert. We ended up staying the night up the road in the town of Eureka.

I am just waking up now, and we are going to begin exploring some of the smaller mining communities in the area. Nevada, is an amazing place. Just yesterday in Mcgill we met a bunch of great people, and interviewed them. I can't wait for you guys to meet Gary. He is a retired miner who loves the chicken at Kenny Roger's roasters. I have never eaten there, but I have to now. You won't believe how good Gary can make Kenny Roger's Roasters sound. Hmmm. Maybe I should just edit the video and show you guys. I will do that soon.

Back in Los Angeles in a day or so. I have to edit all this footage we shot on this trip. Probably shot 100 hours of HD footage, at all the great places we visited. Then in a few days we will start going back on the air and packaging the new season of Tom Green's House Tonight. Can't wait to show everyone the new shows.

I think we are finding a nice tone for the new season. It is a pretty strange thing to keep shooting television year after year. It is an evolution. I know it can be a bit confusing here at the website, because they style of the show has changed over the years. But I think it is important to keep changing.

Even if some of you want the show to always stay the same, I personally have to keep changing. I need to try new things, in order to keep myself interested. It is an exciting experiment, this webo-vision show. We are having a great time. And I personally am really enjoying traveling the country, meeting lots of cool people, and experimenting with new technology.

I am also really learning that I like to keep things positive. It may not be as instantly gratifying, but in the end, staying positive seems to work better in the long run. As I have gotten older, the desire to go out on the street and make people angry has diminished. I guess I just want to have a nice time with folks. Plus, pretty well everywhere we go people recognize me on the streets. I am amazed how in small town Nevada people come running from across the street with copies of the Freddy Got Fingered DVD, or Roadtrip. It just doesn't make sense anymore to be an asshole.

That's not to say that we haven't confused a lot of folks on this trip. I think the bit where we walked across The Golden Gate Bridge will be a fun one. I think we confused a bunch of old people and Japanese tourists. But I just don't have the urge to go get in a screaming match with some security guard anymore. I just don't enjoy the negativity. The older you get, the more you find that negative energy only ends up coming right back at you. If you put negative energy out there, you generally end up going to bed at night feeling bad.

Not that we were ever THAT negative. But I think living my life online the last few years has opened my eyes. I amazed at the horrible things people have written in to this website. I can't even begin to tell you how harsh some of the emails I have received have been. I have been goaded into a few arguments with folks online, and with other people in the media. I never feel good after one of these little spats. And about a year ago I decided I am just finished with them. If somebody writes something negative into this website, or if somebody says something mean about me in the media, I ignore it. Whenever I engage with this type of stuff, I always end up feeling bad. Because inevitably I end up saying something that is much meaner than anything that was said to me.

And I don't like being mean. So if you write a snarky email into the CONTACT section of this website, and you don't get a response, this is why. The fact is, I will remember you. And I will never talk to you again. If you want to be my online buddy or pal, keep it positive.  :)  This website is about embracing positivity. About chillin' with the positive people. And I appreciate the fact that there are so many more of you out there!

In fact, the longer I keep this positive vibe going, the fewer negative emails we even get. I guess I kind of feel like this website is a place where I can make friends with a large community of folks online. Maybe I even look at it like a house party. If you are down with the cause. If you understand the grass roots nature of what I am doing. If you understand that this is just an experiment, and that this website has limited funding, and that this website is a small operation. Not a corporate operation. If you understand that, then you are apt to keep it real and be positive. And when you understand what this place is all about. Then you can hang out with us and have some fun.

Thanks to all the positive people. You are the majority. And I appreciate all of your support. We are heading out into the desert now to talk to more of you. And to have some fun with these crazy new fangled video cameras. I hope you guys all have a great day. Stay tuned. You guys rock.

Tom Green

May 06, 2008

Well we had a nice rest in Salt Lake City.  When I say rest, I simply mean we stayed in the same motel two nights in a row.  We took a day off driving.  But now we are heading back out on the road.

I will say that we are entering the last few days of our road trip.  I want to thank everyone who has been watching and following along.  We are not rushing back to Los Angeles by any means, but we are heading in that direction.  There is still plenty to be seen.  I think today we will be arriving at The Grand Canyon!  We will be doing a multi camera shoot form there.  Should be fun.   We will also be driving the RV out onto a dry lake bed today in Utah.  I am excited about many of the great sites which we should be hitting over the next couple of days.

The good news is that we have had a blast on this trip.  We have figured the details on how to make this mobile studio work.  And we are going to do it again.  The plan is to go back to Los Angeles, and edit all the great footage we have shot.  We are then going to shoot another 24 episodes of Tom Green's House Tonight incorporating all this great new stuff from the road.  And then we are going to tweak the mobile studio, make some technical adjustments, and then hit the road again.

I want to hit every state in the USA and every province in Canada.  Then Europe.  Then the world.  Stay tuned gang.  We are going to have lots of fun here at The Channel over the next couple of years.  And I want to take you guys and gals everywhere with us LIVE.  We also want to make sure we get to all of you who didn't get to see us in person on this round.  We are coming to Indiana, Michigan, New York, Florida, Texas, and Kansas and everywhere around and in between.   Stay tuned gang.  You guys all rock.  Give us a moment to catch our breath, and figure out how to make it happen. 
But we will be back on the road soon.

Thanks again for all of the support, and thanks to all the great people we have met these past two weeks.  Both online, and on the road.  We will be going LIVE today.  Stay tuned.

Tom Green

May 05, 2008

Hey gang.  So we are in Salt Lake City Utah.  We are heading south now as you cn see if you have been following along.  We have been having a great trip, and getting lots of great footage.

We will be shooting some LIVE mobile command center footage today in and around Salt Lake.  Stay tuned.  I think we will probably have some fun today.  Please give us a call on Skype.

I would like to quickly say that we have had a great time, and met so many awesome folks on the trip so far.  It really has been an enjoyable experience touching base with so many folks around this country.  Everybody has been awesome.  

I would also like to say that this has been a nice template for future trips.  When we get back to Los Angeles we will be preparing to shoot another season of shows from the house.  But we also are already thinking about out next mobile studio adventure.  I have a feeling this will be the first of many road trip adventures.

We are currently looking for a sponsor who may want to help keep us on the road for longer periods of time.  Obviously it is quite expensive to be on tour.  I would like to thank The Canadian Comedy Network for providing us with the funding for this first of many adventures.  Stay tuned for the next season of Tom Green's House Tonight which will include all of the footage that we have shot on this trip.  (99 percent of what we have shot has not been posted, or even aired on the website yet.)  I can't wait for you guys to see some of the goofy stuff we have shot on the trip.  Lot's of fun.

So I hope all of you people are having a great day.  We will be hitting the road soon and going LIVE.  Stay tuned!

Tom Green

May 04, 2008

So we are rolling into Salt Lake City right now.  Utah!  Man.  Are the mountains of Utah, Idaho, and Montana ever amazing.  What a great week of driving this has been so far.  Or more?  Yeah, I guess we have been on the road for 10 days now.  Fun fun! 

I think we are going to get some great webo-vision in Salt Lake City.  We decided to turn south because we wanted to hit a big city with good Hi speed.  The mobile command center works far more effectively in some of the major urban areas.  I will say that we have been shooting tons of great Hi def footage along the way.  I am going to be editing lots of this stuff as soon as we get back to Los Angeles.  You won't believe what happened yesterday.  Let's just say it involved Rocky Mountain oysters.  If you know what that is, then do the math.  Funny stuff.

I think we will probably be firing up the LIVE studio in a little bit.  I also think we will be driving around tomorrow and really turning it up a notch with the LIVE feed.  Should be fun.  We are not really sure where we are going to drive to next.  You can see by the map that we are on a bit of a winding path.  I like it that way.  We are kind of going wherever the wind takes us.

Stay tuned.  I will see you guys soon on the LIVE stream.   Salt Lake City!

May 02, 2008

We are rolling out of Spokane Washington.  We are heading of into the wilderness to who knows where?  We just had a great time with some of the local towns folk.  We love Spokane.

It's funny the longer we are on the road, the more people are finding us along the way.  It is interesting.  And it really seems like the word is spreading.

In spokane alone we probably had at least 30 people track down our RV in only an couple of hours.  People would come running out of office buildings, and drive up to locations where we are filming.  It really is quite neat.  That people are watching our live feed, following us on our map, and actually catching up with us as we roll into town.

Many of the people have been getting calls from other parts of the world.  This really is a great way to spread the word about the channel.  It also is a great way to meet people.  Where else would we have met UFO Phil, of the world reknowned website www.ufophil.com - We had a nice morning LIVE travelling around with him.  He also took us to the local skate part.  It had some real nice lines in it.  Good time.

So we are back o the highway again.  I am writing this blog from the RV as we hurl ourself down the highway into parts unknown.  Did you know I have never been to Montana before?  I will be hitting Idaho and Montana today.  Two states that I have never been to before.  Should be fun.  Stay tuned for lots more LIVE webo-vision throughout the day.   You guys rock.  Email me in the CONTACT section of this website if there is anything you want to see as we travel.  We will go get some footage for you.  Help us research this thing.  If you see anything cool online, or anything you know of in the states that we are in... We will go there for you.  Just let us know!  Talk in a bit.

Tom Green

May 02, 2008

Well one of my favorite days so far on the trip was in the California redwoods. We spent most of the day walking among these giants. These are where the largest, and the oldest trees in the world are growing. Some of these trees are over 5000 years old. You really can't appreciate or even understand the full beauty of these trees unless you visit them.

We spent an entire day shooting lots of silly clips here. I think we just kept shooting because none of us wanted to leave. There is a magic in these woods. Here is a quick clip from our day. Stay tuned to The Channel here, and to our next season of the show to see much more silliness and fun from this amazing part of the world. You guys rock. We are getting up and hitting the road now. More goofy clips from the road coming soon. And we will be going LIVE this morning from Spokane Washington. Later today we will be cruising into a couple of more states. Idaho and Montana most likely. Stay tuned. Catch us if you can. Rock on. Etc...

Tom Green

May 01, 2008

What a great time we had in Seattle. We met lots of great folks out on the streets. Many of you found us as we cruised around in our mobile command center. We appreciated all the great positive vibes that came from all of the people we met. We also got lots of great video with many of you. Stay tuned to The Channel, and to our next season of the show. We will have mucho video from our trip. Thanks Seattle. Send in video as we continue our first ever Tomgreen.com USA tour. We don't even know where we are going to end up. But we are driving. We drove all day today. Tomorrow morning we will be going LIVE pretty early from wherever we ended up. Stay tuned.

April 30, 2008

Cool meeting some of you guys this morning. Rock n' Roll!