Rehearsals today just over the river at the glamorous Camden New Jersey venue.  That's not until the afternoon though so I head out to find........yes, a Starbucks to get me a poofy Peppermint Latte.  I open the door for a lady coming out, she says thank you and I say "you're welcome m'am" and she looks at me like i'm from another planet!  The lad at the counter laughs and asks if i'm from the South.  I ask him what's up and he tells me it throws folks off when you're "that polite"...... Christ!...the mind boggles.   Have a mooch around downtown Philly a little, some really beautiful old buildings here, old for America anyway and I don't mean that in a disrespectful way before anyone get theirs knickers in a wad I just mean that they're old buildings considering most are built to last 20 to 30 years and then knocked down and replaced.  Just good to see nice architecture for a change.

Back at the hotel there are a bunch of so called fans waiting outside one of the side entrances.  They're actually a bunch of E-Bayers with multiple pieces of identical merchandise and guitar plates wanting them signed so they can sell them on Ebay..   little annoying as they give the real fans a bad name.  Get to the venue later in the early afternoon and the great crew have set all the backstage area up.  Grab a bite to eat and dust of the cameras and start doing my thing.  I always like to make sure that I get shots of the whole Def Lep road crew as they're the reason that it all can happen and everyone on the crew are so cool and easy to work with.  It makes the job great fun and so much more fluid.

As usual the guys pretty much seamlessly run through the set doing their thing, flipping me off and mouthing kind gestures.  Rick burns sage before rehearsals and shows and the pleasant aroma fills the air.  It's supposed to cleanse the area of bad spirits but personally I think it's a mask for all the Indian food we've eaten recently.  Get back to the hotel later and rest for a few hours before heading down to the bar for a drink with Sav and Malvin.