1. i discovered ham and eggs at waffle house.
2. i screened honey i shrunk the kids alongside three roger rabbit cartoonsin austin texas at the alamo draft house. i didnt see a frame because i was too busy making out with a drunk mexican in the balcony. well, she was part spanish too. and she looked japanese. it would be the last girl id sleep with before i met my girlfriend. and i have to say it was an amazing sendoff to a series of wonderful nights on tour. you become a rockstar to have great sex, is my secret suspicion. and im happy to say that over the past few years, ive luckily been allowed to be that rock star. in my own little way.
3. i dated a marine corps drop out that worked at mcdonalds. she flew into minneapolis for my birthday. we met at warped tour.
4. i kissed a girl in louisiana to paramore. what made it kinda cool is that they were performing live and we were under the stage and she was wearing a black bikini. she would drive to new orleans to spend a few days with me. we had different politics and that killed it.
5. i fell hard mid summer, the day batman came out. she worked at the place we were performing. i had fans go chase her and ask her to batman. she liked the roadie. my heart was crushed. later on in canada, i did mushrooms and snuck into a drive in and watched get smart. i managed to cry watching the movie without knowing the sound. i only needed to see the actors get emotional. the girl went to college in the fall and got into a horrible car accident. she survived and has a little scar down the side of her face.
6. i made peace with nerdcore in every way i could. in many ways it was like entering a dunking booth, ready and willing to be dunked. ready to get hit. ready to follow it up with thank you sir may i have another. bullshit begins with me was my mantra in 2008. i accepted responsibility for pretty much everything, from things going wrong on tour, to rifts i had with friends, to anger towards any one or thing. i made peace with old friends, my brother, my hometown. i set anger aside and made room for love.
7. what caused this was the loss of two friends, erlene and terrin. their deaths had me looking at life with a new set of eyes. i learned that it is never a good idea to wish evil upon another. that you should treasure every second you have with your loved ones. that carrying around anger everywhere you go is a waste of inventory space.
8. i got to tour with reggie and the full effect. i had to cancel my appearance at pax to do it, wish crushed me more than anyone else i’m sure. but i saw it as my bob dylan woody guthrie visit. i had to meet my hero and be around him. my friend adam asked, was he really your hero. id have to say yes, i sited that as my favorite music in web profiles and interviews ever since i started being mc. i saw him, james dewees, as an inspiration. his ability to combine satire with quality music, to jump from genre to genre. it inspired me to become mc chris. to saddle unrequited loves songs along side hip hop party songs, to juxtapose these opposite things was a page taken from the book of reggie. to be funny and be great. not only did i make great friends, but i got a new tour manager and roadie out of the deal. sully and race would join me for the rest of the fall. race would sleep in the van one night when i lost the keys. they kept good books and kept me positive when im prone to hating all.
9. i got to kill reggie and the full effect on stage with a lightsaber dressed as darth vader. it was supposedly their last show. so currently, to this day, i killed reggie and the full effect. im part of the lexicon. that day, i had broken up with the marine and made a prayer at the wall i got mugged at in south philly. im an atheist so my praying really takes a lot. i know how to be thankful to be alive, and saying it in a whisper with my head touching the bricks, made sense. i think the difference to my praying now and my praying then is that i talk to the unknowable currents of the universe, not some old guy with a beard.
10. the ergs broke up. we toured together in 2005 i think. mikey’s been my friend since 1999 if not earlier. i remember seeing him at cbgb shows so who knows how far back it goes. my whole scene and social life was semi dependent on this band. it was kinda the cornerstone of the pop punk scene in ny. even though they were jersey kids. i think i got a little scared that the scene would just dissipate and pop punk really would die. mikey’s doing some hardcore stuff i’ve heard. and im sure they’ll pop up here and there. i said to mikey at the donkey, can you believe im opening up for reggie and the ergs broke up. i mean mikey introduced me to the reggie albums. i remember him playing them on the cd player in the souse house tv room, sitting on his knees. many things came full circle this year.
11. i went to cartoon network offices in LA and pitched a cartoon. i hadnt planned on doing it, but thought to myself. im in LA. i know the lady id be talking to. why not just write and tell them my plans. i had originally intended to make it over the winter, at least the sound track. after the pitch she said she would need things to go way faster and that they just needed a treatment for her bosses to read and peruse. (the jury is still out btw. but it’s the holidays.) the best part of the pitch, was being able to tour the offices of the flapjack production team. they were all having a yellow post it note storyboard meeting in a room, so they were all gone, but i got to peek into a possible universe. i got to meet thurop, creator and voice of flapjack. he was even cool enough to write me and offer up some audio for a rap song. one of the show’s artists wrote and was gonna help me make a shirt but he gotta put on the backgrounds on adventure time. if you know what that is, you know that it’s totally cool and definitely worthy of a shirt sacrifice.
12. i had a remix contest and an Italian won it. that was kinda cool. i’ve still never been outside of the country and it’s my dream to play overseas. anywhere to anybody. i know england and australia are foaming at the mouth. i wish my booking thought i was ready. ace tells me he can book that himself, so who knows. i told my folks 2009 was all about travel, if im not making cartoons. here’s hoping i get to. id like to just go.
13. i got two iphones. one got slammed in the minivan’s sliding car door. i kinda hated the iphone at first, but now that im off tour and dont use it anymore i dont mind it at all.
14. i got to be on a real motion picture sound track. i was in kevin smith’s zak and miri make a porno, or at least fett’s vette was. like i said on tour, there’s no sweeter justice than getting paid 10k for shit you did 8 years ago on bonghits. weinstein and scott mosier even asked for another original song to go on the credits. i made a song on two different buses, in two different countries. it didnt make the cut but it was fun to try. it was also cool to see the movie with some fans in huntsville, al. it was also my first date with this girl ill write more about later. the song came on during their star wars porn part. it was kinda awesome and embarrassing at the same time. much like the athf movie experience, it’s just cool to come out of movie speakers.
15. i had a packed to the max record release party at a record store in my neighborhood in brooklyn. the party was for my new album mc chris is dead, it premiered at number 4 on hip hop itunes. tommy boy and comedy central wanted to put it out, but i decided to do it myself. i also got rid of the jewel case and used an eco sleeve, no plastic wrap. i made less waste! we also released it on vinyl. which was a first.
16. david mack painted the covers for both the cd and vinyl version. he’s a kick ass marvel artist that likes to play my music for brian michael bendis. david was cool enough to put nate bellegarde’s cartoon of me on hawkeye’s tshirt in avengers 39. hawkeye is my childhood hero so this was beyond a dream come true. this is what trumped skywalker ranch and the playboy mansion
17. i hired danzig and less than jake’s mgmt and then fired them a few months later. even though i fired them they still handed in letters of resignation! i’ll prolly never use mgmt again. tom morello, my obi wan kenobi of the music industry, told me never to sign with any management. and i dont think i ever will. i dont think ill ever USE mgmt. it’s always seemed unnecessary and wasteful. i think you should heed my advice on this one if your considering it. you feel like it’s this badge of honor but really it’s just theft.
18. i got a couch and flat screen which was a big deal because before that it was a thirteen inch and folding chairs.
19. i went amazon and ebay crazy. bought every mcdonalds drinking glass i could find, every star wars one, every muppet one, every peanuts one. i still have some work to do on the garfield mugs. i made a wish list and fans actually bought me stuff. yesterday my christmas presents to myself arrived. breaking away, the antoine doinel criterion collection boxed set and finally, a VHS of On the Right Track with gary coleman. he lives in a train station locker.
20. i went gi joe crazy. posted pictures from the upcoming movie, blogged like nuts about it, exchanged emails with someone that worked on it, got free stuff from hasbro at every new york show. and then when i’d tour i was always scour walmarts searching for new waves. i now have bins of joes that i will auction off on ebay this summer. i’ll be auctioning all kinds of cool shit starting next month!
21. i maxed out face book, surpassed ten million plays on myspace. next year we might make it to 100k friends which is an exciting prospect. we’ve got 12k fans on iLike and we started a new fan page with no friend limit on it, that guy’s about to bust past 5000 any day now. we also set up a counter in october on mcchris.com. i thought no one was going there. turns out it gets visited 1000 times a day.
22. i got a brand new nephew in the spring. and luckily i had been asked to perform in minneapolis right when the little guy was born. so i got to see him fresh out the oven. sadly he was born with cystic fibrosis but on the upswing, i was moved to raise 25,000 dollars to fight the disease. we hope to raise 50,000 next year. thanks to everyone that helped, we hope we see your dollars in 2009 as well! i found it amazing that my little fan community or cult as my relatives call it, could raise such an amount just with a paypal account a little silver bucket. it’s really amazing what we can do once we put our minds to it.
23. we got a black president. i got featured on the official obama blog, in a video shot at warped. i encouraged everyone to register to vote. i got some hate mail. the election results were announced in florida while i was in the middle of signing after my show. it was a thrill to be alive. i got to vote my absentee ballot on stage in new orleans. i made a pretty good joke all fall about how a vote for mccain is a vote for the zombie apocalypse within our lifetime. we definitely dropped the ball.
24. i got to see the grand canyon. boring.
25. i got a photo op for my nieces with katy perry in california. katy and i hung out once or twice, she and travis were very complimentary after my fourth of july performance opening up for andrew wk which everyone at warped saw. she said i was always kickin ass and that every time she saw me performing i always had a crowd. she summed it up with slow and steady wins the race. you’re a turtle she said. i got to look at her boobs up close all summer.
26. while workshopping in new york late one night, louis ck came in to test some jokes. he came on right before me which was weird in itself, but i kicked ass. and then he said to me, really good, i actually liked it a lot do you have a number or something? i said that i would find him and sent him a myspace message, no reply. it was still an honor to get a thumbs up from him. i also exchanged emails with prince paul, and beckles from tv carnage, and ben snakepit and dr. frank from the mr. t experience.
27. girl talk, the dj of the moment, mixed some fett’s vette into one of his live mixes. i wrote him and asked him to open for me, before he started blowing up, and he said he already had at mr smalls in pittsburgh. how weird is that. i remember my crowd not reacting and then i got up on stage and did the running man.
28. i got to be on a real rap song that made it onto real hip hop mixtapes. it was with a real rapper even. talib kweli but me on his side project with res, idol warship. the song blew up my google blog alert nonstop all year.
29. Scholastic arts and writing awards contacted me and wanted to interview me for the library of congress and for an awards ceremony at the brooklyn museum of art. i won an award for ink drawing when i was sixteen and they saw me as an alumni of merit. i even performed a few songs in front of the kids and all their folks. you shouldve seen them all go nuts once they figured out i was mc pee pants. which wasnt revealed until the main interview. they gave me a gold medal i was unable to receive beforehand because i didnt come to new york when i was sixteen. again, this is life coming full circle.
30. sixty minutes came and filmed me. i told them there was no scene though, just my fans and then the segment never aired. it was still cool to be filmed by them. it felt good to be honest about what i do, rather than lie about some scene. it might’ve killed the piece, but it still felt good to be honest.
31. interscope had me come in and bought me lunch. people that had huge posters of eminem over their desk told me that THEY were big fans. nothing came of it. but it’s cool that they ask you in and show you everything and then load you up with cd’s. warner brothers also came to some shows and gave me cd’s.
32. i toured with pinback in the winter after touring with them in the fall. terrin, my friend that died of cancer, was the keyboardist in the band and prolly my best friend on tour. we always smoked together. it was always really easy to make his wife laugh. the last thing we talked about is how his kid wouldnt let him play video games. i miss him. rob crow was a great influence on me and the album. we tried to make it good for him.
33. like i said before i opened for andrew wk on the fourth of july, and i went .. tom from against me performed, so it was quite a sandwich. awk was also on my new record and he was awesome to get to know and to work with. he’s already said yes on returning for album six. after that show i had everyone’s respect on tour. it’s like everyone that worked warped was at the show. after that it was lots of head nods as id ride around on my mongoose. which got stolen.
34. i did all 42 shows of warped tour. went through much bus drama, made awesome new friends in broadway calls and protest the hero. i survived the heat, the road, i got a kickin farmers tan. i survived. i wanted to give up through much of it, but i didnt. it was like going camping, or being on some hellish bout of outward bound. i think i wanted to see if i could do the show with my arm tied behind my back. after three buses and three roadies i was happy for it to be over. this time last year warped was already booked. i doubt they’ll ask me back. i dont know if id return. i think i want to stay home this summer if i can.
35. i got asked to do a g4 commercial and i said, NO. they also asked me to freestyle. it’s cool that they think to ask, but then i see the final product and im glad i avoided it. some things that are good for business right now might morph into something you regret down the road. i try to avoid regret whenever possible.
36. i went to the adult swim upfront in nyc and saw kanye west perform. i got to be in a new live action pilot by dave willis, creator of athf, voice of carl and meatwad. he also put me in his show cheyenne cinnamon and the fantabulous unicorn of sugar town candy fudge. it’s been taking forever to make it and i just recently found out why. it’s cgi. that’s right, my next cartoon on adult swim will be all futurey looking. oooooh. there is still no word on their premier dates but me thinks may. that’s when they usually screen pilots. adult swim was nice enough to advertise my tour and album on tv, and some folks even came to nyc and took me out to dinner. it’s nice to not be forgotten, and it’s nice to still be on the christmas list. this year you got a calendar and some shades.
37. i saw a ton of movies that i liked. here they are: alvin and the chipmunks, lars and the real girl, red belt, happy go lucky, let the right one in, spiderwick chronicles, charlie wilson’s war, step brothers, drillbit taylor, dont mess with the zohan, water horse, orphanage, mummy 3 and ghost rider. oh and wall-e. some of those movies were bad, but i enjoyed them the most or had the most fun watching them. i also enjoyed madmen, south park and super jail.
38. i enjoyed danny mcbride in everything he was in, especially, eastbound and down. i also think jack black kinda made up for king kong with lots of awesomeness: be kind rewind, kung fu panda, tropic thunder, and most importantly his work as ben franklin in drunk history.
39. my friends curtis and john got to make a show and put it on the television on adult swim. it was called fat guy stuck in the internet and im in it for less than one second. thanks guys! curtis and john and the rest of my mercury players were awesome enough to come into smt studios and record skits for my new album. even ucb theater founder matt besser came in and recorded the album six teaser than comes at the end. thanks to all my actors, people quoted the chekeezie line to me all year! touring this summahhh. there’s even little kids on youtube immitating it, after much parental coaxing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMlOGXtQeZE
40. i enjoyed some kick ass video games like: oblivion and fall out 3 (same thing. jk. actually one of the designers of the fo3 wrote me and told me he was a fan, a guy from naughty dog sent me a free copy of uncharted, and the ceo of epic games recently wrote me and told me every day is mc christmas! horray for mc chris fans and the games they make!) i also played ratchet and clank, indiana jones lego, bad company, gta4, mgs4, uncharted. i think oblivion has to be my fav. currently im playing tomb raider and dead space which are both fun. well tomb raider can be a little frustrating. glitchy as fuk.
41. i read a lot of comics! my favorites were unlikely and clumsy by jeffrey brown and old man logan and kick ass by mark millar. i got stoked on secret invasion and the return of hawkeye but i think the theorizing was more fun than the pay off. it was still an amazing ride and im excited to see how the marvel u progresses. i still think i need answers on dr. strange and the scarlett witch. i still am kinda lost on some things. i hope dark avengers is good. and new mockingbird hawkeye adventures will keep me forking over my weekly dollars. thanks forbidden planet for holding my comics all year, even through renovations.
42. i read mad books. i got really into historic crime nonfiction like devil in the white city, then i read seven lies my teacher told me and i got depressed. i also read an inspiring walt disney biography. at the beginning of the year i got recommended a documentary on charles m schulz. this changed my life. i got really into all things peanuts. went to knott’s berry farm, got a joe cool tattoo, bough peanuts toys all over the country. i just got his biography for christmas and cant wait to dive in. ive taken to reading three books at a time. right now it’s hero with a thousand faces, please kill me, and thunderstruck. oh and the lecture. which so far sucks, but he really hasnt started lecturing yet.
43. i think i got into peanuts so much because i suddenly saw myself in charlie brown. he was chronic depressive prone to staring into his empty mailbox, and living his life through his dog, his alter ego, this super creature with infinite ability and skill. charlie brown is to snoopy as i am to mc chris.
44. i loved music a lot this year, i liked: the soviettes, gil mantera party dream, css, mgmt, the polysics, matt and kim, akon, crystal castles, demi lovato, taylor swift, tegan and sar, tilly and the wall, and girl talk. not a lot but still awesome.
45. the thing i liked more than anything this year was the simpson’s ride. it was so kick ass in every way and one of my favorite experiences. the line, the gift shop, every part was awesome. it was better than the show or the movie or any game they’ve made. all i’ve done for the past few years is hit every amusement park i can. i think i was turned away from magic mountain twice this year. the simpson’s ride is a really good reason to hit up universal studios. or you could just wait a year for hogwarts and go then. the best part is that we got tickets from free from jake blues from the blues brothers through the gate. his son was in broadway calls. very cool.
46. i guess most importantly this year, the one thing that was really new and awesome above all things, was… i got a girlfriend. after much searching, waiting and bitching, i finally found the girl of my dreams. i took her home for thanksgiving to meet my folks which i’ve never done. she just spent a week with me in new york. seems every year i fall in love and it doesnt work, it doesnt make it past christmas or past tour. everything always fizzles because of different kinds of distance. well. we’re still going. we’re able to communicate and still feel crushes two months in. our goal is to make it to harry potter this summer, the movie i mean. if i can get there, then i’ll really be impressed. all i can do is try. we had lots of fun watching big robo and blood freak on TCM (keep playing stuff like that and watch your ratings soar!) we saw slumdog and the wrestler, we walked the bridge. we did it every day like grown ups do. we forgot to go out. now we’re apart again. i heard her voice again last night and all i want is to see her.
47. i managed to keep my fans, maybe not all of them, but enough of them that we made 100k this year. and raised 25k for charity. of course after expenses and taxes i was left with negative 500 dollars which is kinda a slap in the face, until you think about all the happy days and drives and smiles the music made and then it’s ok, that it was all for financial naught.
48. andrew from age of rockets, saved my life and made me some music to rap to and then he took his band on tour with me. we’re making music all the time. we cant stop and it makes me happy to do it. just like it was ten years ago in the souse house in jersey where this all started.
49. george w bush will soon be out of office. his end, and barack’s beginning, might be the coolest thing that happens this year.
50. im alive and i’m happy, ive got a girl and some fans, some friends i can call. i have heat and food and you guys all give it to me. it’s the oppositie of corporate, it’s like a community or maybe the family i always wanted. thanks for reading, thanks for following my life and cheering my joys, booing my bad days. thanks for all the love. it’s made up for a rotten toy filled childhood. it’s made up for a lot of things. i love you guys and i hope you stick around in 2009. i’ll be making something. that’s for darn sure. can’t help it. cant wait to let you know what it is.
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