TSP-911 and the mystery of the LOST A.T.M. card

posted by XRIS....
9-11-05 TOMPKINS SQ. PARK, N.Y.C.

A stressful start to the day when the sound/stage guy showed up, properly expecting his balance due in cash, about 1.5 G's. i planned to cash a 500 dollar paycheck at the check cashing place, and get the 1 grand from the team spider bank account, aka my personal & only account aside from our measly paypal deal. Go to EVERY check cashing place in alphabet city, all closed. i rarely use these rip off joints, but never thought they would all be closed on a Sunday. Maybe its a 9-11 thing.

Decide maybe by some miracle we have enough in the bank, and can actually deduct it all in one day by ATM. Standing outside the Lower East Side Credit Union on ave B. i find my ATM card to be missing, stolen, something...
Now -Me-, i dont lose shit like that, i've had the same f'n card so long there was barely any ink left on the white plastic...
this is insane,,,

meanwhile as i repeatably pass Tompkins on my bike i can see trucks are pulling into the park... feeling like i am trapped in some bad RUN LOLA RUN type move, i
head off to Ave C. and start tearing apart the house, this sound/staging guy is cool, but he is not gonna get swindled. he's an old school self described "jewish skinhead from the bowery" and is as hardball as he is friendly.

tearing apart my room i get a call. it's my mom, maybe a saving grace. rare to randomly get a call from her on some random sunday morning. i cant believe she would even think i was awake already. In between grunts and pants as i lift up my bed while holding the phone w/ my shoulder i fill her in briefly on the situation. i pride myself on not ever crawling to the 'rents for money, but i am sure she must have a grand in some wire-able source, and i would possibly / reluctantly accept an offer of temporary generosity rather that have 2000 punk kids lined up to kick my ass for not putting on a promised show...
"well, good luck with that..." is my mom's only acknowledgement of this giant emergency. Guess i wont have to test my independence.

Start thinking outside the box. I never open my mail, but isn't there always some high interest credit card from my bank arriving that i have to cut up into little pieces each month...?

start bending envelopes in the mail basket... YES. a credit card.. and it's actually from my bank, not DISCOVER or some B.S. Diner's Card orsomething. Have to hook-up a land-line up to my wall to call them cause i know they use caller id as a verification method...
"um yes, i am intersted in activating my credit card, what is the credit limit?"
"2000 dollars"
"yes! uh, i mean, that is acceptable"
i activate the card, somehow convince them to give me a pin#, or at least keep my old atm one... everythi8ng is coming up roses, till i soon discover... you can only withdraw 1000 dollars in a 24hour period.. shit

still $500 short...

hit 4 different ATMs racking up some nice Deli ATM rip-off fees and
head over to the park with my TS / Personal check book, which is currently at check # 1004 because we've written like 3 checks in the last 5 years. Not a sign of trustworthy operation. I hope for some trust/ sympathy from Abbott, the stage / sound system guy.

i start with giving him the 1000 bucks ca$h, which sets the mood proper, then say how i expected to cash this check from Law & Order ( obviously a profitable company not prone to bouncing checks ), can i sign it over to you??/
he says he has a Business Bank Account, and they will not take double endorsed checks, in a cool panic i pull out my final pitch, the weak "can i write you a personal check?"

He is of course not down with that, not without hardcore collateral, now he has already looked me up and down and can tell the only thing that i have of value is the guitar on my back, but his punk rock / working class background seems to prevent him from zeroing in on a man's tools / bread and butter. He comes up with the idea, "you write me a personal check for 500 bucks, -AND- give me your paycheck, as collateral, and i will mail you yer paycheck after your personal check clears."

Could be an old bowery con, and i could lose my entire weeks pay, but the show must go on. Plus he is showing some level of trust because I, in theory could call Wolf Productions, on Monday and cancel that check along w/ my personal check, and screw him...
so i see it as a stand-off / agreement between two people who know how to work non perfect situations, not honor amoung thieves, as much of honor of those in the frequent company of thieves... we shake hands, AND THE SHOW GOES ON!!!

**THE SHOW***
mostly a blur, i will have to wait to review the misc. video tapes to recall most, but i do remember MAD CONDUCTOR winning over a potentially hostile hard core punk crowd w/ their hip hop ways, TEST SPECIMEN bringing some metal virtuosity from their mohawked 'selves ( i later realize their drummer was the kid in the picture in the New York Times article on the Riot at our show last year ), RABIA got a much longer and well deserved set than they were promised to due us being ahead of schedule so they were psyched), Brandon from DR. KNOW making a public apology to the Dead Kennedys, which Jello has been bugging me to give him on videotape for the A.T. website, People crowd surfing in stolen mail hampers during CHOKING VICTIM and STURGEON going beserker and beating up some kid on stage who took a swing at him, TEAM SPIDER kicked some ass our neighbor brought over a patio umbrella to shield ZAK from the blazing september sun, a new yuppie old lady coming and trying to pull the plug on the sound gear, police telling us they had a record 600 noise complaints, us being 50 decibles over the 70 Db limit, and the traditional pulling off the plug by the police during the last MDC song, despite the band being ready to go for many more...
but in the end, everyone got full sets, it was THE LOUDEST, BIGGEST, most professional SHOW / STAGE in the history of the park shows... best of all, it was FREE!
and even better... after we added up the total costs, and what we sold in water, donated t-shirts, riot dvd-s, etc... the cost of the show was 3000 dollars,... and we brought in 2,900 bucks. Then sam comes up and says he sold a couple extra cd's or something... and had 100 dollars he forgot to put in...!!!

We broke completely even.. to the dollar. unbelievable...
"its a wonderful life"
-----EVEN STEVEN--------



thanks to all for making it happen,

special thanks to Garrett from York, Pa. for hauling water to the show (putting the whitehouse / national guard to shame)

Robbie n Lara for making the shirts, will put xtras on the site..*they feat: George Dubya n daughter Jenna "showin their love 4 satan and ronnie james dio") --if you need to make shirts, Lara's company is squeezeboxstudios.com

thanks to all the bands, gear sharers, clean up volunteers, people who pre-ordered the RIOT! DVD, and anyone

we are forgetting... in the words of Ozzy: "WE LOVE ALLLLL"( We're GONNA DO... PAARRRRRAAANOID!)"

Comin soon: HALLOWEEN on the steps of City Hall, ...... X.