riverscuomo.com archive - 2002

The website riverscuomo.com was originally registered by Rivers Cuomo assistant Sheeny Bang in 2002. Bang used the website, for a time, to blog about her interactions with Cuomo.

2002-07

Interesting things happen to interesting people all the time and I, well I get to watch these interesting things. Assisting Rivers has been many things and as with all jobs there are ups and downs and plenty of in between, but the one constant in this one is that it is always interesting. It might be because he's busier than most so there’s always something going on- so much so that at times it’s hard to keep up! Another reason could be that he lives a lifestyle that is mysterious and intriguing to most especially since he is in the public radar to a certain extent but without the spotlight I think he’d be just as fascinating.

Well, whatever the case, helping him out means that I get to go where he goes and see what he sees and at times vicariously experience the things he does. I guess here I'll try and pass that on in yet one more incarnation. - SB

2002-07-05

Rivers has been in great spirits and his attitude towards everything very positive. All of the guys are happy to be out on the road but I think Rivers more so than the others.

We flew to Salt Lake City from Los Angeles on Friday and got to the hotel early enough to check out a nearby mall. Rivers got a book on economics, a Debussy CD and then a nice meal at CPK. I was surprised when he ordered soup with his meal as I thought he didn't like it because I'd never seen him eat it.

Later that night Rivers got some good news he was waiting on and it was great to see him punching the air and giving a emphatic "Yeah!" It was hard for his happiness not to be infectious as he shared the news that Rick Rubin wanted to produce Weezer's next album.

He ended his evening watching 'A Beautiful Mind' which he rated as "alright, but too mushy". - SB

2002-07-06

One of the many additions to our touring party is Big Pete who is head of security. Big Pete seems to make Rivers smile, maybe it's his absurd size or the sense of security his presence seems to command but it seems to make Rivers happy.

For the last couple of tours Rivers usually drank a glass of wine before the show but tonight he didn't touch his glass. He claimed after the show that it wasn't as much fun sober. I didn't notice much of a difference performance wise, random, hilarious comments flooded the song interludes much as before.

After the show it was the usual winding down of shower, meal and now, foosball. - SB

2002-07-07

Woke up in a deserted mountain side parking lot to a clear sky and bright shining sunlight. I guess the rumors of rain were just that. Rivers woke up and was chartered to the backstage dressing rooms via a van which was making that journey all day long for all of the bands and crew. The building though open only in the summer seemed to miss the necessity for air conditioning so it was rather a scorcher for the day. At soundcheck it was sweltering in the direct sunlight making Pat and Rivers resort to wearing towels on their heads for a momentary respite from the suns rays. They played Simple Pages and Butterfly in the heat and then returned to the semi cool dressing rooms where Rivers did an interview for Rolling Stone's On Tour Review and then relaxed before the show with some foosball action.

The show itself was amazing, the atmosphere that Red Rocks provides for a show is just unbelievable. It really is a special place and it looked amazing to look out into the crowd from the band's perspective. - SB

2002-07-08/2002-07-09

Woke up and still had some of the day to relax, Rivers idea of relaxing being 2 hours of conference calls- hey, to each his own.

Rivers met with the message board winners after the show and that was pretty neat to put faces to screen names. They were very gracious and well behaved and Rivers seemed to enjoy the meeting, they may have set the precedent for the rest of the tour and his obliging attitude towards meeting fans again.

Afterwards, while we were all busy packing up for the next show Rivers went out to the venue in town where am Radio were doing their show and managed to catch most of their set. Once we were ready he called us with his location and we picked him up in town with the bus. It's hard to tell with his dead pan humor whether he was pulling a joke on us or not, but I thought it was hilarious that he was waiting for us at a bus stop. - SB

2002-08-17

The Enlightenment tour was a huge success and Rivers was definitely pleased with the end results, he and Scott agreed the other night that it has been one of the best summers of their lives. Summer ain't over yet.

Now it's hard to describe something about Rivers with any real conviction cause he is such a mercurial character: what may be true now may not be in a month's time. In some cases, change is gradual and at other times it's literally over night (the suits for instance).

Even after over a year of doing this job, I still couldn't really say that I know him well. I know plenty about him, likes and dislikes, history etc but I can never say I really understand him cause he's always changing the goal posts. This tour was an example of how he tries new things all the time, he had routines that I thought were well established on the other tours that just went out the window on this last tour. For example, he used to drink wine and take a couple of hits off of a joint before the shows. I think it was to loosen him up for the show and plenty have speculated this state of mind for unleashing his random, often hilarious, banter in between songs. Whatever the case, that routine went out the window immediately on this tour (fortunately the banter did not). He used to drink loads of Mountain Dew as well, now his drink of choice is non caffeinated tea. 'Wilson', as his soccer ball was nicknamed, no longer makes the journey on the road with us. Little as these things may seem, I think they indicate changes on a bigger scale within him. He's definitely entered into a new stage I would say, gradually this time, since the recording sessions at Sunset Sound. It should be interesting to see how the fall rehearsing and recording sessions will go if it keeps up as I'm almost certain it will have an effect on him musically- just as everything does in his life. - SB

2002-08-20

An item of interest (at least for me) I entered my 100th song into the Catalog o' Riffs. The first one ever being 289 Little Songs (aka We Go Together) a little over a year ago. Today it was 388 (not yet titled). Now, how's that for progress? The system for entering the songs is pretty simple, he has them recorded on a little Dictaphone and I input the song directly into his computer via Wavelab and save as an MP3. I then Hyperlink the mp3 to the Catalog o' Riffs. So, I have performed this action a 100 times now. Considering that for half of this time Rivers was on the road- where his songwriting slows down immensely- this is a staggering show of numbers. - SB

2002-08-21

During a taping of a TV show here in England called 'Popworld' Rivers donned a long, blonde, rock wig from a box of props and kept it on while the cameras rolled. It was funny to see the reaction of local crew as they laughed thinking it was a great joke and then when he remained straight faced and kept it on, their laughter quickly turned quiet and hushed. After all this time it still cracks me up to see him freak people out and I don't mean that in a perverse way, it's just that when people don't know him and expect conventional, typical behavior and he doesn't supply it's amusing. Okay, maybe it is a little perverse. - SB

2002-08-25

He pulled a fast one on me for the UK festival dates when he asked for 'normal' clothes which he wore on stage. Two days in a row so I thought the suits were history, but they were back after the shows. Thank God because I had just learned a new tying style for his ties after he saw the kind that Christian Bale wore in 'American Psycho' and asked if I knew how to tie them like that. Knowing nothing about tying ties but up for the challenge I did some pretty shnazzy origami like experiments until I finally figured it out, so I’m glad he's keeping the look. As for emulating Patrick Bateman, well... - SB

2002-08-30

Around the world in 13 days. This was a particularly hard tour for me because in these situations Rivers feels out of place and uncomfortable when he's without his routines and when you're in someone's close proximity all the time it's hard not to be sensitive to what they are feeling and giving off. Being a problem solver, I wanted to be Sheeny who comes and saves the day but it's just impossible as it has nothing to do with me at the end of the day but it's hard to remember that sometimes.

All in all though I think it went tremendously well and Rivers managed to relax a bit and even had some fun in the end. He seems to be on quite a social kick at the moment, going to parties, meeting new people and hanging out. While we were in London he went out quite a bit with Jordan. Lord knows what they get up to but whatever it was it kept them out til the wee hours of the morning. He also went to Reading Festival on the Sunday to see Puddle of Mudd and Slipknot play. It's funny cause like with all things that he does there seems to be a game plan for hanging out and socializing. It's not just to have fun and hang out, there's a purpose and strategy to it and essentially it is all for the greater good ie Weezer and it's progress. The only time that he seems not to be doing this is when he talks to chicks but that's a whole different can of worms.

We've only been home for three days and keeping with the pattern, he's gone out every single night even the first night after a 12 hour trans-atlantic flight. He couldn't miss the am Radio show at the Troubadour though and was more than happy to be there to see the band and even signed some autographs for the kids. My friend Phe said she'd never seen him smile so much. He was probably just happy to be home as we all are. - SB

2002-09-05

Rivers is going to start playing in a weekly poker game. I think this is brilliant as I used to play in a girls poker group when I lived in London and I know that Rivers would be great at this. Talk about a poker face! It will be very interesting to see how he fares.

I only realized how competitive he was a few weeks ago on the Enlightenment Tour. It was during one of those "Play Foosball with Weezer" local radio station promotions and Pat and Rivers were playing. The two guys they were playing against were actually pretty good and the score was tight and it could have gone either way. During the whole game Rivers had his usual calm expression and I thought it was all no big deal. The score was 7-9 Weezer and then Rivers knocked in the final game winning point. Immediately he turned around and gave out his first expression during the game which was an emphatic "Yeah!" and a clenched fist of victory. I was shocked. He was actually really into it which totally took me by surprise since he seemed so "Whatever" about it all. - SB

2002-09-11

It's been nice being home and having a break and things slow down. Seeing as we are home for the next few months I have also decided to take the plunge and have bought a puppy, the cutest ever in my opinion. Milo weighs a mere two pounds and seems to be a hit with the gang, seeing Karl coo over the dog was pure comedy. I had a conversation with Rivers about him before I got him and of course he was non committal in his answer. I wanted to hear "Yes, Sheeny you should get the dog, I won't mind it being around all the time, it won't bug me." Instead I got "I expect a certain level of performance from you and if this won't effect that then I have no say in the matter. It's entirely up to you whether you want the dog or not." Well, so far so good, he's a quiet little guy and it took Rivers a while to even notice I had him on the first day. When he saw him tucked under my arm his eyes just went wide and then he started laughing - probably giving Milo a complex.

Also during this time we have been home, Rivers' usual house help has been on vacation so I have had to take over some of these duties, like clearing up and getting groceries and stuff. I was getting said groceries when my roommate Phe (who also works for Weezer when we need an extra hand) asked why I was shopping for him and when I explained that his usual help was on vacation she exclaimed "Oh my God, is it like Survivor Island up there?" This made me almost pee my pants from laughing so hard. I took a risk and told Rivers we had dubbed his house Survivor Island since and I was relieved to see that he could see the humor in it and thought it was equally hilarious. - SB

2002-09-25

I don't think I've ever met a man more girl crazy than Rivers. Actually, I should say a man who met more crazy girls than Rivers. They seem to fascinate him to no end, all types, kinds and ages. That's the only way I can really explain it, he is utterly amused and intrigued by them and vice versa.

When Weezer were in Japan back in May after one of the shows Rivers went outside the venue where there were a group of waiting fans, mostly girls. As he came out everyone crowded around him hurriedly but bizarrely no one said a word. Huddled around him they just stared in awe and he was still as a statue. After a few moments they started to slowly pet him on his head like a dog and then he broke the stillness by blinking and they all giggled with excitement. I'm told it was all very surreal but it doesn't surprise me, I've seen him have that affect on people.

It also doesn't surprise me to see that letter from a girl when he was in school screaming her frustrations and injustices inflicted by Cuomo showing he must have always been this way so it's not just a recent "rock star" thing. I don't think he strings them along or tells them lies to make them feel this way, in fact I don't think he even thinks about it, he's just him and this is what happens. I mean girls he meets and hangs out with seem to lose all common sense and logic and it happens quickly, letters and emails stating love and deep emotion after knowing him a mere couple of weeks.

I told him once how I found it fascinating that people were always vying for his attention - male and female - and I attributed it to intensity of attention from his part. When you are just talking to him he has a very focused and concentrated way of looking at you and paying attention so I can only imagine that it must be very intense at other times and this must be what people are striving for all the time from him, this concentrated show of attention. - SB

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