June 22nd dawned just like any other day. I was at home, enjoying my two weeks (or so) of summer vacation before I came back to Davis to study my butt off in Organic Chemistry. Early in the afternoon I checked the Vertical Horizon website and noticed something at the top of the screen. They wanted extras to be in the video for You're A God! I went and checked out more about it, and found out that they were shooting in LA that Sunday and there was a number to call to find out more info. I called and left my name and phone number for someone to call back, and when I hadn't heard back by that night I figured that they had had enough people want to go before I called in. I wasn't too disappointed, because it did mean a lot of driving that weekend. When I got up the next morning I had forgotten about the shoot until my parents asked about it. I told them that I never heard back, but that was all right, it would have been a kinda hard thing to figure out. Around noon that day the phone rang, and I answered since no one in my family seems to like doing that, and it was Richard, about the Vertical Horizon shoot. I talked with him for a few minutes, was told about the very basics of the shoot (it was being done at Culver Studios in Culver City, the guys would be there, I'm over 18, I'm under 24, I know the lyrics to You're A God, I'd take a friend with me, and got directions to where it was being taped). I immediately called my roommate Anne, who lives in Bakersfield (about halfway between where I live and LA) and quickly convinced her that this was a great thing to do at the last minute like this. It wasn't very hard to do. So then I went and told my parents that we were going, so I'd be leaving a day early, and they teased me about being a groupie. Like I haven't heard that before . . .

So on Saturday afternoon I drove from Shaver to Bakersfield. That night Anne and I went out mini golfing with her younger brother, Michael. It was fun, and managed to get my mind off the fact that I was going to see VH the next day. We finally went to bed at about midnight (since we were planning to get up early the next day to drive the 2 hours to LA and we wanted to be there early to make sure that we got in . . . I thought that there would be A LOT more people than there were). We got up early, and left her house around 8-8:15, and got to Culver City at around 9:45 or so. The drive was pretty uneventful, Anne even fell asleep for a while. Almost too long. I was driving along in the fast lane and looked up and realized that I didn't know what exit to take, but I thought that the one that I was supposed to take was next . . . I quickly woke Anne up while trying to find the directions, and discovered that I was right, and I had to be over in the slowest lane NOW. Everyone was very polite and let me move right away, and we were off on the next leg of the journey. We managed to get the right exit the next time, and the next time without any major problems, and then we were in downtown Culver City. That's where we got lost. Somehow I thought that two streets were going to be parallel, but they were going to meet somewhere . . . I don't know. What's funny is we continued down one street, which led into a residential area so I got off there and went down to the next main road which turned out to be the one that the studios were on, and we passed them without knowing. Twice. Finally got it together and found them, and discovered that we had passed them twice, got a kick out of that, and figured out the way into the complex. There was a security person at the gate who checked us in (like in the movies!) and made sure we were who we said we were and then let us in. We were instructed to go down a little ways, until we passed an RV to turn there, and then to park wherever. So we passed the RV and there was a sign on it saying "the band" . . . I was just kinda in shock, I was there, and I was going to be in a music video with my favorite band. So we found a place to park and looked around us, and we were on this "Main Street, USA" set. It was really odd . . . I wonder if I have seen it before on tv or in a movie.

So we went to Stage 6, where we were told the video was being filmed and were promptly taken to Stage 12, which was the "Extras Holding Area" (the actual sign on the door). We were the first people there, but some others showed up pretty soon after we got there. I met two people (a guy and a girl) who were there from the extras agency, who it turned out had sent people because there weren't enough fans to cover the 150 wanted. They were pretty nice, but admitted they had no idea who VH was, so I sang a bit of Everything You Want for them, and they quickly figured it out :) Then they were excited to be there. After them, I met the people who became "my group" for the day. Erica (who was panting after Matt :), Chris, and Pete, who were from San Diego and in the military made up our group. We hung out the whole time, and later were joined by Kill (aka Kelly) who was paid, but was pretty cool. Most of the paid extras acted like they were better than the fans, kinda snooty. After about 3 hours of waiting (which didn't seem very long, truthfully) some guys came in and took away our table and chairs to make places for the crew to sit, and we were served lunch. Mine was unfortunately pretty bad. After we sat down in some chairs brought in for us, Erica noticed that the guys in the band had entered the room. They were just kinda milling around the front door, near the food, so she went up to say hi to them, and I decided that I could do that, and so did Chris, so we went up there and started talking to the guys. We didn't talk for too long, since it was lunch time, and they wanted to eat, but we did get to talk to Keith long enough for him to say to make sure that we were in the front near the stage because they wanted their fans to be the ones right there, and not so much the paid extras. We were pleased, because we had talked with them for a few minutes, so we went back to sit down, and Erica was just freaking out. Pete let her use his cell phone to call her friend in Nashville, and when she got the machine, she left a short message and ran over to the table where the band was sitting. She gave Matt the phone and asked him to leave a message, which he did. Then she came back and was even crazier (but only in the best way possible, I think :) After a while Matt walked around to every table and thanked everyone for coming out to do the shoot. It was pretty awesome that he did that, we all agreed. Then they announced that they would be taking the extras into the stage soon, and pretty quickly we were off!

The Shoot

We went into Stage 6, where it was pretty dark, and were taken into the area where the part of the video we were being used for was being shot. We were able to see some other places in the video. One area was set up like a little girls room, but we won't know what happens there until the video comes out either. There was a guy with a big video camera walking around, so we talked to the camera a little bit (more to come on this later). The area that we were in was painted red and had silver trim. It was supposed to be like a private basement concert. So they got everyone in there (I think there were about 120 extras or so) and then had the row that I was in (on stage left) move back so that they could get one more row of people in there. Luckily there was room for one person at the front corner when they had moved in those people, so I regained my place, and Erica and Chris squeezed in too. We found out later that they had made Matt's wife and Sean's girlfriend move more to the back of the stage. Then they brought out the guys, and had them get up on the stage and we did a few takes. In between takes the guys talked with the fans, so I got to talk to all of them a fair amount. I'll put down on the bottom everything I remember talking to them about. We did a few more shots, and then were taken outside for maybe 20-30 minutes while they laid down a track around the stage for the camera to roll on. We came back inside and did some shots with the camera on the floor, and were taken back outside again. This time Ed came out with us, and we talked for a few minutes about jazz. While we were standing out there, Kill noticed someone walk by and turned to Ed and said "Is that who I think that is?" to which he replied "Yeah, she's in the shoot." Of course, I had missed it entirely, so I piped up asking who it was, and was informed that Tiffany Amber Thiessen was there. Then someone came and pulled Ed away, since they were supposed to be doing a VH1 interview. We were let back inside (finally) and noticed that they had set up the track so that it started out on the stage and sloped down to the floor (so that it could follow someone getting off the stage). Then they moved in a wall with a cutout in it, like a two-way mirror (one-way mirror? the kind that looks like a mirror on one side, but the other side can see through it). I couldn't see from where I was, but I guess the other side of the wall was set up like a dressing room, and Tiffany Amber Theissen pretended to do her makeup in the window while the shot went on. We had to do this one a lot, because there were some problems figuring out how people should move, and how Matt should move. The last time Matt went to the window and just stared at her for a long time, apparently she finally flipped him off, so he ran around the wall to chase her, or something. It was really funny.

I think we heard You're A God 20 times that day. Sometimes it was "chipmunk speed" (aka double speed, aka 48 frames), but it was all fun. Towards the end of the shoot (we went in at about 2-2:30, and it ended at about 8:15 or so) everyone was really tired, so we would collapse across the stage as soon as the song was done, and then when they started the music back up again we'd spring into action like we hadn't heard the song 15 times already in the past 5 hours. And Ed (good-naturedly) complained that Matt shouldn't have written the song. They finally thanked us for coming, and asked us to leave the stage, but I had talked to the guys, and they had promised that I could get some pics with them, and Ed had told me that we could talk sometime. Between the takes, the other guys would walk around, but Ed stayed at his drum set. At one point he was just kinda staring off into space, so I called his name and when he looked over, I just grinned at him, so he grinned at me, and then I waved at him, and he waved at me, and then I did some sort of funny wave, and he did some sort of funny wave back at me, and he said to make sure that I got to talk to him after the shoot was done, becuase he didn't want to move (it would make the stage messy, which was a pretty constant problem). So, at the end of the shoot, I managed to get one of his drum sticks, and although Matt had promised me his pick, I forgot to get it from him. We waited around for a few minutes inside, and were taken outside, and then herded back to the other stage, and let back outside again (I got the feeling they didn't know quite what to do with us). So outside we went again, and waited a few minutes for the guys to come out. Matt came out pretty quickly, but he had to go back inside because there was one more shot that he had to do, I guess. I managed to get another picture with him (I had gotten one inside too). A few minutes later Ed returned, so I was talking with him when someone came up and interrupted. It wasn't anything big, he talked with her for a minute, but in the meantime . . . Matt was talking to someone else right near me and he started to back away from that person and almost ran into me, so I took a half step backwards and then he turned and was about an inch from hitting me, so I called him on it. He then said that it was because I hadn't beat him up enough in the last part of the shoot (one of the parts that they were having problems with). So he puffed out his chest and looked down at me (he's TALL!) and smiled, so I set my shoulder into his chest and we had a pushing contest. Anne was standing righ there, but she didn't get any pics of it, because I couldn't very well turn to her and say "hey, take a picture!" . . . I mean, I was in a contest with Matt Scannell . . . It didn't last long tho. I wanted to get a pic with all of them, but Keith was changing somewhere, and Matt had to run inside for the rest of the shoot, so I got one with Sean, Ed, and Matt and right after Matt went inside, Keith came out, so I got one with him too. He was in a hurry to get somewhere (I don't think I even knew at the time) so he kinda ran off. Then Sean took off somewhere, and Ed and I stayed and talked for a while. Then he was informed by Keith that if he wanted a ride back to the hotel the van was leaving in 5 minutes, so Ed took off inside to get something. Anne and I were just standing there, and it was getting close to 9 and we had to drive back to Davis still, so I went back inside to find Ed and say bye, and found him. I told him that we were taking off too, and he put his arm around me and kissed the side of my head, it was pretty cool! And I said that I hadn't wanted to leave without saying bye, and he said that he had just been headed out to say bye to us. And he reminded me that I needed to email him (I don't know if it went through yet) because he wanted to check out this site. And then Anne and I took off and pulled by the guys standing by their van and chatting. We got some ways away from the studios and realized that we didn't know where to go to get gas and food, so we went back and told the woman at the gate that we forgot something inside and pulled in to find that the van was still there, so we got directions and followed them off the property. I was just about to miss the turn that we were told to take, until I saw Richard's arm pointing out of the driver's window, so we took the turn, and that was it. No more VH for us . . . I drove the first two hours (since I am used to driving and eating at the same time and used to mountain roads, even tho the Grapevine isn't exactly a mountain road) then in Bakersfield we pulled out, got more gas, and switched places. For the next 2-2.5 hours Anne drove (we both had had a Coke and a Frappuccino at this point), and then we pulled over at 1:30 in the morning to get more gas (about $100 for the trip total) in either Modesto or Merced (it's northern-ish and starts with M . . .) and I drove the rest of the way to Davis (another two hours) drinking a Wild Cherry Pepsi. We got in at about 3:30 am, but I was so buzzed from the caffeine I didn't go to bed until 5, when I completely crashed. Got up at 10 the next morning (when Anne made her way to her class) and called Phillippe (I thought I was calling Richard, since he had offered us his couch to stay on if we didn't think that we would be safe driving, everyone was worried about us) to inform them that we got here safe, and it turns out that they had been wondering. And that was the end of that story . . .

Post-Shoot

As far as what I talked to each of the guys about . . . here's what I remember the best, hopefully I will add more to it later

Keith

• Are We Alive - hopefully this will be on the next record
• Glass Waltz - he mentioned possibly speeding it up so that it would be on the next record
• Learning how to play the guitar (he recommended starting on a classical, which is what I have, and I should be able to get a *decent* used one for about $100) and told me that he started when he was in college, so I should be able to learn still. It's amazing how neat that is coming from someone who's work you really admire.
• Will Foy - I had to ask if they knew him, since he didn't think that they would know him just by his name, they'd only recognize his face. Talking about Will led into
• The Cheerwine Exceptions - Keith mentioned them and I surprised him by knowing the dates and the place they were recorded :)
• The Grog and Tankard - I said that I had heard the Wash Away from this show, and the acoustic guitar intro gives me the chills, and he replied laughing that he doesn't want to hear it because it must sound so bad. Then he said that it was the first time that they played with a full band (I'm not sure that's right, I only hear Matt and Keith on the acoustics, and this was before ROI, so I wonder if he was thinking of a different show)
• The Taft School - I mentioned that I have this show on cd, and he didn't think that they had played there. It even got to the point where he went over and asked Matt about it (granted, they played there in 1996, which I told him) and he finally admitted that they did. I was ready to go and grab my cds from my car to show to him.
• Liberty and Sunrays and Saturdays - Erica asked him to play Sunrays and Saturdays, which he happily obliged, but explained that his guitar was tuned really low so that they didn't keep breaking strings (he broke one and Matt broke one, and Keith's shoulder strap kept coming off). It was too noisy to hear, and I commented that I would rather hear Liberty anyway, so he changed to that, but I still couldn't hear it at all.
• There and Back Again - I told him that I saw and original go for $50+ on eBay a few months ago, and he was very surprised. He said that he has a few of them that he's keeping as mementos. How much they have changed since then, how young they were, and both of us said nearly in unison "and Matt had hair!" He mentioned that he would love to redo that cd now, and see how different it sounds. Especially since On the Sea was the only song to really make the transition to electric with them.
• Why he majored in Japanese - He said that Georgetown requires you to declare your major when you apply, and by the time he was allowed to transfer to another major he decided to just stick with Japanese. He also took French and Spanish in high school, so he liked languages enough to make it through there.

At that point, he was called back to his place on the other side of the stage, but for the next few shots every time the camera was close on Matt he would look over at me and grin (this involved bending over so that he could see me down on the ground below Matt's guitar).

Matt

• Who's headlining the tour with 3eb this summer - 3eb is, to which I replied that they need to headline something out here because I want to hear other songs like Wash Away with the jam in the middle of it and Santa (which got a nice smile out of him)
• The Man Who Would Be Santa - I just told him that it's a great song, and I hope they play it when they come out to play here again.
• Will Foy - same goes as above, but this didn't lead into the Cheerwine Exceptions
• There and Back Again - told him the same thing that I told Keith, but Matt said that he didn't even have a copy of it.
• What he majored in at Georgetown - Psychology, tho he doesn't know a thing about it, and he doesn't know what he would have done with it had he not dedicated everything to Vertical Horizon.

Ed

• Like I said in the part earlier, he didn't move really during the shoot, so I only sorta talked to him then, however, I did say that I had met them at the Sac show (to which he replied that it was a long time ago, about 5 months or so) and I said that I didn't think that they would remember me. Then I told him that we talked about their tour bus for a few minutes, but it didn't help.
• Michael Crichton - I had taken "Timeline" with me into the shoot earlier that day because I thought we might be sitting around reading, and he noticed it sitting on the ground when we were outside. He's reading some short stories by an American author who's name I can't remember now, and I didn't know then.
• Touring with DMB at the end of the summer - he said that they were going to be touring with them, and I said that I wished that I could go, and he said to go . . . at which point I reminded him I am a college student, which means I lack the funds and the time to take that trip.
• My website - I said that I had one, and he expressed an interest in seeing it. Told me to get in touch with him via email (I don't know if it went through or not) so I tried . . . still waiting to see what happens.
• Backstage Passes for when they play in SF or Sac - I figured the best they could do was give us backstage passes or something for being in the shoot, and he said that he would see what he could do, but they are hard to come by . . . I mentioned this to all of the guys and got basically the same reaction from all of them *sigh*

Sean

• Reminded him that I met him at the Sac concert - that I was one of a group of girls that he talked to for a while before he went off to see Being John Malkovich who were concerned that he would be recognized. Then he asked about my friends, and I introduced Anne (she was one of the group that night).
• The video for Everything You Want - it had just been released the week before the Sac concert, which is why he wasn't being recognized at that point.
• One of the girls behind me asked him something about where he went to college, and when he replied Berklee School of Music for one semester, one of my friends said that she was moving to Berkeley and they had a funny conversation (he thought that she meant in Mass, she thought that he meant out here, at Cal) until he figured out what she meant and asked why she was moving to Mass.
• A minute later he said that he had left high school twice to do other things, that he didn't care for it too much, when I piped in that he had toured with Arlo Guthrie twice. Promptly received funny looks from a lot of people, until I explained that I had read his bio . . .
• Backstage Passes - same thing as what Ed said
• What the bead bracelets he wears mean - that he loves his girlfriend (at which point he looked down at her and smiled very sweetly), she has the same ones, so they match
• The Unchosen Ones and the band email address - I said that the Unchosen Ones was taken down a few months ago, and Sean seemed surprised at that. Then I said that they had taken down their email address, and he said "yeah, the first time we checked it we had over 300 messages, and there was no way that we could get back to everyone, so we took it down because we didn't want to hurt anyones feelings when we didn't write back." Or something along those lines.
• Lines Upon Your Page - Josh's site, because it runs a posting board, and I mentioned that there was an always hot topic on there (not religion, but I can't remember what it was that I told him about . . .)