It was the good old time....

by Yome NetSan 23. December 2009

I just found 2 invoices for orders I made to Dry Goods back in the days.

10/31/2003 : Live in Vegas DVD $17
International shipping : $5

06/07/2004 : The White Tape CD $11
International shipping : $5

Now that MusicToday manage Dry Goods, international shipping for a $14 T-shirt is $16.21 !
I tried to buy The White Tape to check the shipping fee and they are $15.21 (the CD itself is now $12), as for Live in Vegas.

So it's three time the price !

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for both my Joy Box and an answer from my last message to Dry Goods...

 

Anyway, have a Merry Christmas and try to start 2010 as best as you can ! Have fun in Miami Holger !

 

Still waiting (part 2)

by Yome NetSan 17. December 2009

As expected, my new update about my Joy Box is another mail to Dry Goods...

Hi,
Your standard answer to my email sounds like a bad joke. I wonder if you have really read my original message...

The fact is that I'm still waiting for my order #24332894.
I checked my shipping address on your website and it's good (I've already ordered several times with this same account without changing the shipping address).
I checked my local post office and they don't have this parcel for me (meanwhile, I received other orders from several websites from France, Canada and Asia during this 2 last mounths without any issue).

I'm in touch with other european fans who already received their Joy Box (but with a scratch) as you can see here :
http://www.bouncingaroundeuroom.eu/post/2009/12/12/PHISH-Jox-Box-finally-arrived-in-Germany.aspx

I can't understand how you can make people pay such expensive international shipping fee ($59 in my case !!) without providing a basic tracking number ! Moreover, the items aren't that protected in the parcel and always come with a small or big scratch.
It is totally unprofessional and very disrespectful for your "valued" customer.
I'd like you to explain me how my order would cost you $59 to ship, with details. I have very high doubts about that amount.

Another example : If I want to order a simple t-shirt right now during the "7 Below sale", shipping to France would cost me $16.21 for a $14 shirt ! How can you justify those $16 without a tracking number ???
And of course, the free shipping is good only for US customers...

It's not a small order to an obscure seller on ebay in a difficult-to-reach country, it's a $225 order on the official web store of an internationally famous rock band !

I ordered on the 11th august 2009 and I doubt I'll get it before 2010 !

This is really a bad joke...

Please, I'm waiting for a real answer.

PHISH "Jox Box" finally arrived in Germany

by Holger 12. December 2009

Wednesday Dec 10th I finally got a letter that I can come to the German customs office in Berlin Schoeneberg to pay tax and release my delivery. So I drove to the department first thing in the morning on Thursday Dec 11th. From my previous experience I expected nothing less than 2 hours of driving and waiting. I was so damn right.

When you get there your have to show them the letter and you have to draw a waiting number - mine was #35. Next step after waiting is to go in, open the package by yourself, take out all contents and show them to the officer. Then he calculates the tax on basis of the value of the goods + delivery. It's 19% in Germany so on top of my 130,- USD value of goods + 50,- USD shipping I had to pay 23,- EUR tax. But you have to wait again before you are allowed to pay. With the receipt of your payment you can go back and finally release your order. What a hassle! But hey, fuck it - it's Phish :-) I would drive to Alaska.

The good thing about showing all contents of the box to the officer was to see them by myself for the first time in real. I got a huge smile on my face and the officer seemed to be kind of impressed as well. After driving to work I proudly showed the box to my colleagues. At home after work I made a couple of pictures.

The box itself is massive. Made out of heavy cardbox. Originally I thought its made out of plastic or wood. The cardbox seems not so stabile on the edges and corners. My box had a little scratch. Inside you find a hardcover book with lyrics, pictures and 2 CDs and 1 DVD. You also find 10 signed posters by different artists.

It's definately worth 75,- USD and you get a special price (11 USD each) for 2 Joy T-shirts.

Let me introduce myself

by Holger 10. December 2009

Yome was so kind to let me blog on his site.

Let me introduce myself shortly before I start to post stories about my Phish travels and experiences. My name is Holger and I am a German Phish phan who lives in Berlin since 2003.

My sister was hosting a kid from Massechusetts as part of a youth exchange back in the mid 90s. He had some Phish records in his CD collection incl. “Hoist” and “A Live One” as far as I remember. I was interested but not blown away immediately to admit. 1-2 years later I was reading the German music magazine “Musicexpress” and my attention was caught by the record of the month article – “Billy Breathes”. I almost forgot about Phish since I first heard them but I gave them a second chance. The album was gorgeous.

Only a couple of month later I saw that they play a show in Munich which was about 150 miles away from my parent’s house. I decided to drive down with a friend. The show changed my life. In the same summer they played only 60 miles away from my parents home in Nuremberg. I bought tickets for me and my friends.Later my sister and me also won 2 tickets in a competition by our local news paper because we were the only people who took part. So we brought two more friends. The show was amazing. Only one year later another Europe tour was announced. This time Germany was left out but Prague was only 130 miles away. This was my best show so far. Unfortunately we did not stay overnight – big mistake because it was the last time they came to Europe since then. Who could foresee this?


In 1999 I was very close to book a trip to Big Cypress after I got mailing with the announcement but in December ’99 I felt in love with my girlfriend so I didn’t want to leave her alone over our first NYE. Years went by and as a student I had absolutely no money to follow Phish in the US while Europe was constantly left out of their touring plans (maybe due to the increasing drug issues of Trey which could easily cause trouble if you travel accross different countries). In 2002 I got my first real job and in 2003 my girlfriend and me were flying to the gigs in East Rutherford (with special guest B.B.King) and Worcester and also to Miami for 2 out of 4 shows of the NYE run. In 2004 we attended 2 of the Las Vegas shows. We never did this for Phish alone but always planned a road trip around it with classic sight-seeing stuff. I had some of the best times of my life on these travels.

When Phish broke up I was shocked and very sad. Once the first reunion rumors came up my fanatism was back on track. I tried hard to get tickets for Hampton through the lottery and on Livenation but failed. I retried for the summer tour and had tickets in the basket but the site crashed several times. Don’t ask me how but as I wanted to see Phish again so badly I somehow manged to get tickets for Deer Creek / Noblesville and both Alpine Valley shows. The trip was only 4 days – fly in, fly out (Berlin-Amsterdam-Detroit-Chicaco + drive to Indianapolis). I was all alone and came just to see Phish. Crazy? Life saving! The shows and people I met on the trip ("Hi" to Matt & Justin!) were worth every Euro and Dollar. People around me thought this could heal my hunger but the complete opposite was the case. A total relapse: I am more addicted than ever. “Joy” is a great album and tomorrow morning I will drive to customs to finally get my box set.

In a little more then 2 weeks my girlfriend (still the same after 10 years of tolerating my passion) and me will fly to Miami to see all 4 shows of the NYE run 2009. We got lower section tickets on ticketmaster (I might tell you the whole drama of buying them in a different post) so I have no doubt that the shows will be mind blowing. I plan to blog about the trip to keep you updated. We will see what 2010 and the future brings for us Phish phans - hopefully some Europe shows after then 12 years of abstinence…

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/treyanastasio/sets/72157622845648589/

 

5 months

by Yome NetSan 9. December 2009

If these rumors are true, Phish should play there first gig in Europe since 1998 in just 5 months.

Unfortunalty, it seems unlikely they would announce such a tour this late, unless they really don't want US fans to jump the ocean to follow them.

I do hope they'll tour in Europe but the more time pass, the more I doubt it'll happens soon...

Live, hole and lump

by Yome NetSan 3. December 2009

When the Live Phish Series was announced, I was in university and didn't have a lot of money to buy things that's not food. So I told myself I'll never get that collection.
So I watched every batch appearing on Dry Goods, dreaming of the "innovative LP packaging includes sleeves". I browsed furiously the Live Phish web site to find all the funny hidden animations in the covers. I pictured myself holding the showcase organizer and using it like a "bag" to hold my stuff in the university.

Many years have passed and some volumes started to become unavailable in the official Phish web store. It was 2006 and I decided to buy them before it got worst.

So on the 25th may 2006 I placed maybe my biggest order on a website. I got all the volumes still available with sleeves (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18 and 20) and a showcase organizer. The grand total was $347.30 (including $47.60 for shipping and a 10% reduction thank to a coupon I got with the 2003 livephish cds). I received the BIG parcel some weeks later in my office (actualy, I had to go to the post office to get my package because it was a little damage). Hopefully, none of the items was damage (it won't be always the case, we'll see that later) but I face another strange problem. Some of the sleeves in the "innovative LP packaging" had some strange "glue" in them. It was like the plastic cover had melted a little. I had to clean the CDs before listen to them and one booklet had a little crush because of that. But I was so glad I didn't care. I took the train later that day with my Phish organizer with 15 volumes of Live Phish.

My goal from that day is to find the missing volumes. I actually bought #19 on a website and received it before the big batch. Unformtunatly, it wasn't the "innovative LP packaging" but the standard 2CD jewel case (the lump). I bought Volumes 1, 10, 13 on eBay. I found myself with 2 #1 because the first I ordered didn't come with the booklet. I might do a little contest on this site someday to have it won by someone.

I still have to find #17 (the hole) and #19 with sleeves to have a complete collection. So if you can hook me up...

 The latter Live Phish CDs don't have a big story like the original 20 volumes. I bought them as they were released. I'm not really fond of the cardboard ecolo packaging without any picture but the music is good so...

Oh yes there is a story ! I was about to forget the Island Tour crush !

When it was announced it was difficult not to buy them right away. Indeed, one of the CDs contains what maybe is my prefered improv in Phishtory : the Roses are Free jam. Anyway I finally pre-order the full batch and waited it patiently to come. When I finally received the CDs, they were sent from abroad in a regular bubble enveloppe. Needless to say, I got them crushed. 3 of the 4 boxes where heavily damaged, causing some cover sleeves to be torn. None of the CD had a crunch though but I was really disappointed.

So I took some pictures of the crushed cases and wrote a big eMail to Dry Goods customer service. I received an answer less that an hour later asking me which of the 4 cases were damaged so that they could them new ones at once. I answered back, asking if I had to send back the crushed ones and they told me not to.
Less than a week later, I received the 3 shows heavily protected in a bigger box. It was the good old time when Dry Goods wasn't managed by Music Today... But more about that later...

26 years later

by Yome NetSan 2. December 2009

I'm still up side down with the music.

Ok, I don't listen to Phish for 26 years but still there first show was on 2nd December 1983.

Part of my little celebration here will be to catch up with the present by listening to the Set II of the 29th November show in Portland. This way, i'll be ready to listen to MSG I tomorrow.

I hope that this flyer will be well spread amongst phans tonight for a big Happy Birthday chant !

 

I also got some presents by post this morning and one of them made me laugh.

So I received Phish: the Biography, a book about the band written by former senior editor of Rolling Stone Parke Puterbaugh. I read good and bad reviews of it (respectively in PT and Relix) so I can't wait to read it. The book is bigger than expected and with a hard cover.

Don't expect a lot of picture like in The Phish Book. It's all text with a small bunch of pages with some black and white photos in the middle. Some of them are really old and quite funny.

 

 

 

The laugh of the day was provided by livephish.com.
I ordered on sunday the 22th the 3 Limited Edition slotMusic cards of Festival 8. And yes, I received them today, a week and a half later. The small usb mini-sd card reader come in a plastic cd-size case with a custom Festival 8 cover. There is no track listing on the back because the 3 inlays are exactly the same (it reads "10/30, 10/31, 01/11/2009"). The only difference between the 3 is a little sticker with the date written on it on the back of the case. There's a big picture inside the sleeve but I don't know if it was taken during the festival.

I wonder if the micro Sd given (or sold ?) during the festival (or here) came with this same case. I could be as it could have been printed before the shows (if the inside picture is from this summer).

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for my Joy Box which should have been shipped (thanks to a 59$ fee) on the 17th November. I will sure check the date and price written on the parcel when it'll arrive.
I got a blank space where my Joy Box should be !

LivePhish.com 1 - Dry Goods 0




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