Amena Brown:
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to HER with Amena Brown. We deep in the summer streets right now. I hope y'all are too. We're in the time in Atlanta where it's starting to get really, really hot down here.
Matt Owen:
(singing)
Amena Brown:
Yeah, very hot down here. We've had a couple of kind of temperate days. But it is approaching that time when it's two showers a day. If you can pull that off, it's probably two showers a day. If you went out twice in the day, it's very likely that might be a two-shower situation.
Matt Owen:
We don't say Hotlanta, but it's Hotlanta.
Amena Brown:
That might be the only time that is allowed. I'm going to try to help y'all right now. I feel like we've spoken about this on the podcast in the past. But just don't say Hotlanta to anyone outside of a literal funny reference to how hot it is. Otherwise, it lets us know that you either haven't been here or you don't actually live here. Or it just lets people know some things on your cool meter. If there's a cool meter, it lets people know. Also, Matt is here, y'all, in the living room. This is a Road Stories episode. Thank y'all so much for listening in on our Road Stories series. We are winding it down. That doesn't mean it'll be the last time you hear Matt here in the living room. But this will be the end of our Road Stories series and we thought it would be really fitting for us to wind the series to its end by using this episode to discuss lodging.
Matt Owen:
Lodging is important.
Amena Brown:
That's a big part of the road. We'll have this episode. Then next week we'll have our last episode, which is actually going to end on a really positive and fun note. So I'm looking forward for y'all to hear that episode too. All right. Today we're talking about best and worst lodging. And let me tell y'all something. When you're on the road, you are at the mercy of the people who book you.
Matt Owen:
You are on the road at the mercy of the people who booked you. You're at the mercy of the people who work at the places that the people who you are at the mercy of who booked you, who put you. And you are at the mercy of the transportation. And you're at the mercy of complete strangers as you are traveling to the place to be lodged at the place that you are at the mercy of the person who booked you. This is a lot of-
Amena Brown:
It's a lot of at the mercy. And none of it is in a good way for the most part. I mean, I will say if I could overgeneralize for people who book you, they tend to fall in two categories. You either have category one, which is people who want the best for you. They want you to have the best hotel their town can give you. They want you to have the best food available to you. They really want to host you well and give you a great experience. And it's always wonderful when you get those people
Matt Owen:
Very nice.
Amena Brown:
The other group of people are people who ... and really on a level, it's like I can't fault them for what I'm about to say. On another level, I completely fault them for what I'm about to say. But-
Matt Owen:
Shade, no shade. And shade.
Amena Brown:
It is a combination of shade and no shade. There is a little bit of shade here. But the other group of people are people who are really just trying to get by here, okay? They are trying to get you the cheapest flight they can get you. They trying to get you in the cheapest hotel they can get. They trying to get you to eat as cheaply as possible. Those people have no concern for what the rest of your experience is like. And the reasons why I on one hand can't fault them for that is Matt and I both have had experience planning events ourselves. And when you is working on an event yourself, especially on a limited budget and you're trying to bring in people that will give your attendees a good experience, that is a hard job. It's a hard job. We've both been in that situation.
Matt Owen:
People are expecting a lot. When they show up to your event, they are expecting a lot.
Amena Brown:
So you're there just trying to juggle ... convince this person whose work you may be really like or really respect to come to your small town, to come to your unknown event or whatever it is. So you do what you can to meet their contract, their expectations, to meet the pay. But if you got enough money pulled together to pay them, you may not have had money to do the rest of it very well.
Matt Owen:
And you know what? That is one thing that I would say, a lot of times it works out one way or another where, "We can't pay you a lot, but we can feed you good." Or, "Here's what we can pay you to do this." You're like, "Oh, word." And it's like, "But you on your own with everything else." And you're like, "Oh, okay." Most times it works out one way or the other. But then there's sometimes where it just ain't going to work out because ... I get it. We both work with large events and sometimes inside of large systems or large companies or college systems or whatever it is. And there's a lot of moving parts. It's not just this person being like, "I'm stingy today." You know what I mean? There's a lot of moving parts and they may not be thinking about you.
I will say specifically on the DJ side of things, we're usually the last thing that most people are thinking about. Usually, unless alcohol is being sold at this event, people are not really thinking about the DJ. And then sometimes even when alcohol is being sold at the event, they're like, "Oh yeah, we got to entertain these people too. What is the cheapest way we can ... " Or those kind of things. And so I get it, man. By the time somebody brings me in, I try to make myself real easy to work with. What are we talking about? Just go ahead and tell me everything up front. But I also understand that you may not think of everything. So doing this after a while, we have learned and I've learned that definitely from traveling with you that, hey, you might want to ask some questions.
Amena Brown:
Oh, for sure.
Matt Owen:
When I get there, is there going to be a sound system?
Amena Brown:
Yikes. Yikes.
Matt Owen:
Do I need to bring a sound system? When I get there, will there be a table for me to set up on? Will there be a place for me to sleep? Will there be food? Am I going to be fed? Not just will there be food?
Amena Brown:
Am I going to be fed is the question.
Matt Owen:
Am I going to-
Amena Brown:
Because there could be food.
Matt Owen:
Do I get to eat the food?
Amena Brown:
It might not be for you. That's true. That's true.
Matt Owen:
Man, I found out the hard way at an event that I went to where I thought they were sending us to eat the food, because the spread was laid out. It was not in the general area. It was in what would've been the green room area. And you stick that spoon into whatever that special type of corn was and the beans and all the fixings and stuff. Boy, they came around that corner. It did not matter that I was about to hit that stage. They were like, "That food is not for you."
Amena Brown:
I think this is a very important point, speaking of very important. Because sometimes you come in as the artist assuming that the artist would be included in the VIP. You quickly discover that the VIP is not you. That there's another category where they put you but you ain't that. You ain't the VIP. I think-
Matt Owen:
Somebody greeted you at the event, whoever your contact was for that day. And was like, "We are so glad you are here. Thank you so much for coming and being a part of this." The person who is at the VIP event that you're not supposed to be at, they are not also glad you're here.
Amena Brown:
No, no, no, no.
Matt Owen:
They are not impressed that you're there at all. Yeah.
Amena Brown:
We also had to learn on a business level. So for those of you listening that are freelancing, performing artists, or even if you perform as an artist as a side gig, important things. There are things that we had to realize over the years that may have helped prevent some of these worst-lodging situations we're going to get to here. Number one, we have talked about the fact that we traveled to quite a few small towns. The truth is, when you're not in a major town, you may not have a super-duper nice hotel to stay in. You may not have a direct flight that you can book to get there. Or you may have to drive to get there depending on the location. So sometimes it can work better in those situations to do a flat-rate gig. And so we had to discover this too that sometimes you can be getting booked by a certain organization or whatever company. And they may have the money set up in a certain way that they can book everything for you separately.
They can book your travel. They can book your lodging. They can pay your rate and possibly give you per diem. But sometimes you may have a gig that really they can't do that. They may not have the staff to actually handle all those things for you. This is me making up not-real numbers all the way, but could be real. But let's say you get booked and you say your rate is $5,000. You going to get paid $5,000 to go in and do whatever your performance is. And then on top of that, you are asking the organization to book two flights for you. So that you and whoever your traveling person is can travel there. They're going to book lodging for you. They're going to book whatever your food situation is. Okay. But every now and then, they might be like, "We don't have the budget or staffing to handle you sending us back all those receipts and reimbursing you and all the things." They may say, "Can you do the gig all in at 7,000?"
Then it's up to you to decide. Now you have $2,000. First of all, it'll be up to you to decide, have you calculated correctly? Because this also happens. Have you calculated correctly the cost of what it would take to travel there, of how much food is going to cost you per day, and lodging? Sometimes they would say 7,000 all in. And I would be so happy to see $7,000, I would say yes. And then discover that it's too far to drive. And that the flights are going to be $600 to get there because of the location being not in a hub or something. So now I'm 1,200 in on flights. Now I got to decide what kind of hotel am I going to stay in? And what am I going to eat for the rest of that?
Now, of course, there are a lot of budget ways you can handle this. I have some friends who travel that'll be like, "We don't really eat out on the road. We pick the type of hotel that has something of a kitchen." Or, "We don't do hotels at all. We do Airbnbs or Vrbo or whatever we need to do there-
Matt Owen:
But whatever you do, do not make that pizza that's supposed to frozen pizza that's supposed to be made in the oven. Do not put that in your microwave.
Amena Brown:
No, do not do that. Mm-mm. Do not put that in the microwave. Because I will tell y'all that ends very badly.
Matt Owen:
That episode back, you ain't saving money that way-
Amena Brown:
That ends very badly. But as far as people who like to cook on the road, people who are like, "I'm going to get fruits, veggies. I'm going to have oatmeal or eggs or whatever. I'm going to make it myself." There are budget ways to handle this.
Matt Owen:
I carry a travel grinder, because I'm about that with my coffee. I'm going to be grinding. I got the hand crank in there in the mornings, grinding my coffee beans, making my pour over. Yeah.
Amena Brown:
We are also people that will pull off to a convenience store or a drug store or wherever we need to go and get jugs of water. And we bring our water bottles with us.
Matt Owen:
Get that gallon jug.
Amena Brown:
So we can just refill water. You do all sorts of things. But sometimes it's easier on you if you can do a gig all in. If you're in a situation where you're feeling a little questionable about if the people who booked you are going to take good care of you, then they've given you the money. So that you can handle all of those arrangements yourself. So then in that sense, if you end up in a hotel you hate, you just have to take responsibility for it at that point. You can't say, "Ah, they booked me in a hotel I don't like." So that's a little tip for my artists listening. Sometimes you can go all in on a gig. We have some friends, especially our friends who are trying to build their music careers, their bands, they do all sorts of stuff to save money. Instead of doing a tour bus, they'll do a 15-passenger van. And people just sleep on that while they drive overnight.
Matt Owen:
They take turns.
Amena Brown:
They don't fly anywhere. They drive every place because gas and a van would be cheaper than flying six people wherever. You do all sorts of things. And then of course, you hope you get to a certain point in your career where people have respect for the career that you've built. And they are like, "Yo, it's important enough to us to do these things." Janet Jackson obviously is not out here having to be like, "Oh, gosh, I got to figure out how to book my own hotel and make sure it's not a motel with the doors out front."
Matt Owen:
Could you imagine getting that phone call? "Nah son, you pranking me. Hang up."
Amena Brown:
Period. Janet Jackson is at a level where it's like it's all VIP for her, for Beyonce, for artists like
Matt Owen:
Yeah. They've got that worked out by now.
Amena Brown:
But even for indie artists, you can get to a point where you get to that level in your career. But until you do, you working with what you got. Okay.
Matt Owen:
Work with what you got.
Amena Brown:
We going to start with worst lodging.
Matt Owen:
Might as well start there.
Amena Brown:
I wish we had an award name. I wish we had the Lodgies.
Matt Owen:
You, Lodgie, are the bottom.
Amena Brown:
Instead of the Emmys or the Grammys, I wish we had a-
Matt Owen:
Now presenting for Best Bottom Lodgie.
Amena Brown:
Yeah, because don't they give ... what do they call ... I think they give a worst ... I think it's the Razzies is the movies that are the worst, I think.
Matt Owen:
Oh, I think you're right. Yeah.
Amena Brown:
So it would be dope if we could have that for gigs where it would be like these were the best gigs and these guys were the worst. So worst Lodgie, number one goes to summer camps.
Matt Owen:
Worst Lodgie.
Amena Brown:
And we talked a little bit about summer camps in the past. I want y'all to know that we know lots of artists that travel, okay? We have seen on social media, our artist friends getting booked for summer camps, sleeping on blow-up mattresses in a gym.
Matt Owen:
I've done it. I've done it.
Amena Brown:
The people who plan a summer camp have so much shit on their minds. You being a VIP is not one of them, number one.
Matt Owen:
Nah, that's not of value. It's not a valued aspect.
Amena Brown:
Number two, the thing about a summer camp also is that, except for the one rich kids camp that we was telling y'all about, except for that these are always in very little bitty towns. These are in little bitty towns where you got two and a possible hotel choices.
Matt Owen:
Two and a possible.
Amena Brown:
And one of those possible hotel choices has the doors on the outside. And you're like-
Matt Owen:
Do you like the doors on the outside?
Amena Brown:
Y'all, I'm sure my rider might literally say, "We talking about a hotel where the doors are not on the outside." Yeah. I can't stand for the doors to be on the outside, guys. I really enjoy a building. I really enjoy a building where you walk into the building and all of the rooms are indoors. I don't actually know if it really equals more safety. But it's just the mental of me thinking that it does.
I want y'all to know that we did a summer camp in I feel like it was Kentucky, Ohio area. And it was one of those times where we're juggling a lot of things with these gigs. Sometimes you're getting back from a gig. You get home just in time to throw your dirty clothes out of the luggage, throw some other clothes in there, and ride out. Sometimes you're going from gig to gig. And I don't remember what happened here. I just remember that we ended up having to get there very late. It was dark. It was like 9:00 or 10:00 at night. I'm going to tell you another thing about a summer camp, especially church summer camps, is that they are mostly being run by college students. And a college student's level-
Matt Owen:
Our team is so young. It is so cool.
Amena Brown:
Okay. We try to tell y'all a college student's level of understanding of what it's like to be grown is very limited. They have small amounts but it's very limited. And mainly because a lot of college students haven't really experienced what it feels like to be bone tired. They've been tired. They have some all-nighters, some of them. But they haven't experienced what it's like to be bone tired like you can be when you hit your 30s and your 40s. So what I'm trying to-
Matt Owen:
Yeah, I think the travel can wear you out. That didn't kick in until I was well into my 30s, I would say. Probably mid-30s where I started realizing, why am I so tired? Travel?
Amena Brown:
Just the travel, not even the event itself. It's just the getting there.
Matt Owen:
It didn't used to ... What happened?
Amena Brown:
Wear you out. So we get there, it's night, okay? We get there. We do talk to the adult in charge because the adult in charge had to hand us our check. And I think they had to hand us money for per diem. So that we would have money for food. Then they were like, "These two ... " And there's normally a term for these people, the college students. They're camp counselors, they're interns. If it's a very scholarly situation, maybe they say they're fellows. Whatever this is, they have a term for them.
Matt Owen:
I never know what that means.
Amena Brown:
They going to send you with them. They're like, "They're going to show you where your lodging's going to be." Okay, so for those of you that aren't familiar with how Christian colleges work. First of all, there's a lot about that that we don't have time in this episode to explain.
Matt Owen:
I'm not sure myself.
Amena Brown:
There's a lot about that that we can't talk about in this episode. But okay, suffice it to say there's a split on most Christian college campuses between married housing and housing for the people that is not married. Typically, the married housing be a little nicer than the single housing.
Matt Owen:
That's true. That's true.
Amena Brown:
So a lot these summer camps will be hosted on the campuses of Christian colleges.
Matt Owen:
That has been the experience.
Amena Brown:
And we are being now ushered over to what is the married housing for this particular campus.
Matt Owen:
They tell you, "We put you up in married housing." We're like, "Oh. Oh, cool. We married."
Amena Brown:
The way they said it to us was very like we were about to experience something that was so special. Y'all, when you walk into this building that looks like a cabin kind of, we walk in and there is a television on the wall, I remember. I remember that some of the windows did not have coverings at all.
Matt Owen:
I remember several situations like this. The one that's in my mind, there was a TV that wasn't mounted on the wall.
Amena Brown:
That's the one, yeah.
Matt Owen:
But it was like a random dresser that was sitting in the room.
Amena Brown:
That's it. That's it.
Matt Owen:
And the TV was on top of a dresser, but that dresser might have been one of the only pieces of ... I don't remember there being anything to sit on in that room.
Amena Brown:
That's true. That's true.
Matt Owen:
There was a TV that I'm not sure it was plugged into anything. It might have had a DVD player sitting beside it. But I remember being like, "Huh, you decorated. For us? Married housing."
Amena Brown:
Then I remember the bathroom window did have blinds on it. But the blinds were kind of diagonal across the window. So if you-
Matt Owen:
Right. Not sure what it's blinding.
Amena Brown:
Okay. Because if you were in there to take a shower, somebody walked by, that's you naked.
Matt Owen:
You going to get that show. Naked and Afraid.
Amena Brown:
Okay, so then we go into what's supposed to be the bedroom. I want you to know that I'm doing my mom's version of air quotes. When my mom does air quotes about something, it means she is disgusted about whatever the situation is. The small amount of movement of her fingers is an indication-
Matt Owen:
Letting you know.
Amena Brown:
... of how much shade is about to happen here.
Matt Owen:
How phony she feels you are at this moment.
Amena Brown:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I want you to know I'm doing my mom's very minimal fingers here, very minimal air quotes, to let y'all know that we went to the bedroom. And we get in there and I'm pretty sure the bedroom either had only one window. Or if it had two windows, one of the windows had nothing on it.
Matt Owen:
No covering at all.
Amena Brown:
And there were two beds that Matt and I are grown enough to know were bunk beds. But they were just not on top of each other. They were just bunk beds that had been put on the same level side by side.
Matt Owen:
Side by side.
Amena Brown:
So we ask one of the college student intern fellows, we ask them, "Is there other married housing that has one bed?" And those kids looked at us and said, "Oh, no, you just pushed these together." Matt is over six feet. I'm almost six feet tall myself.
Matt Owen:
You're close. You knocking on it.
Amena Brown:
So these twin bunk beds that were made for children, it's not just a question of if it's wide enough. It's also a question of-
Matt Owen:
Yeah. Is it long enough.
Amena Brown:
... because it's a bunk bed, it had the frame around-
Matt Owen:
That's right.
Amena Brown:
So it's not just, is it wide enough? It's-
Matt Owen:
It's not like your feet could even hang over. You just ain't stretching all the way out.
Amena Brown:
No. Mm-mm. You really going to be pulling them knees together. So at that point we have to make a decision. We decided based on where we felt we could handle it, to go on and get that reservation at the Country Inn & Suites.
Matt Owen:
Going do it.
Amena Brown:
Which was the equivalent of having anything close to a Holiday Inn in that area. So yeah, mm-mm.
Matt Owen:
I think that you go out on your first trip and you're like, "Huh, that's a story from the road. What an adventure." You go out on your second, your third, you get out there a little bit. And you're still just happy that, "Oh my gosh, I'm getting to do this and I'm getting to see all these cool parts of the country." Honestly, the experiences that you get to have with people and you have these moments with people as a performer that, "This thing I just did, it worked in this town. And it also worked in this town. Those people really loved it. This is great." Then you get on the road a little bit more and then you get a little older. And you're like, "What am I willing to put up with? Because I understand that you got a lot going on, but I've got me going on."
And there is going to be a moment that the lights come on and the sound is up. And I got to do my thing. At what capacity do I need to be, in order to do my thing? What does it require? What do I need? I think maybe that's an interesting question though. You know what I mean?
Amena Brown:
Mm-hmm.
Matt Owen:
I don't know that I ever have thought as much about growing up. You grew up in a family that's figuring it out and then you get out on your own. And you figure it out. Then all of a sudden you start realizing, "Something here has got me bothered. I don't feel good. I'm tired. I got to get perform." Then you start, "Oh, it's because I'm a person."
Amena Brown:
That part. That part.
Matt Owen:
"I have needs. What do I need?" You know?
Amena Brown:
Yeah.
Matt Owen:
So you get out there and be like, "You know what? I know this is going to eat into my bottom line, but I need to be able to sleep."
Amena Brown:
Right. I need to be well rested.
Matt Owen:
You brought me here to put on a show, but you ain't put no curtains on these windows. And that is not the show I think you want me to put on.
Amena Brown:
No, it's not.
Matt Owen:
So I'm going to need a place to stay where there's a bed that fits the people who going to be in it and curtains on the windows.
Amena Brown:
And just privacy. Wow, you know?
Matt Owen:
Yeah.
Amena Brown:
Just want a little privacy, y'all. That's all. That's all. I also think a part of it is when you're first starting out, all of your travel gig experiences are these one-offs that you're doing. Especially if you're still working, like you say, you have your day job and then you're doing gigs on the side. At that time, I could be a little more lenient or kind of lax about certain things. Because first of all, I'm working a job I don't like so that I can do this thing on the side. So I'd be like, "Cool, whatever this hotel is, I'm just happy to be here." And not-
Matt Owen:
They got cable. I ain't got cable at the house.
Amena Brown:
Boy, they got Wi-Fi, yes. All those things.
Matt Owen:
Somebody else making the bed?
Amena Brown:
And not that you lose the gratitude for what you're doing when you become full-time. I mean, even after all these years, there's still a part of me as an artist that's just like, "Somebody wants to pay me $5." Now, my second thought has to be, "Now, girl, we not taking $5 for ... " okay. But there's still a part of you as an artist that's just like-
Matt Owen:
You don't got a $5 bill.
Amena Brown:
... "Oh my gosh, somebody is excited."
Matt Owen:
My bills are over $5.
Amena Brown:
Yeah. Somebody's asked me to perform at this. But after you start doing this as a job, what you're trying to give yourself is optimal conditions. So that you can give the people what they paid for. And sometimes people are paying you to do a gig and it's not occurring to them the other stuff you might need. It's almost like if you are a graphic designer and people are thinking, "Well, I should just pay you by the hour for however long it takes you to design." But it's not that you're paying for the hours of design, you're paying for that person's training, education. You're paying for the experience that they've learned over the years, which enables them to make your logo or whatever graphic design you've asked for. Enables them to make it within a certain amount of time. Because it doesn't take them years to make it, because of their expertise.
Sometimes as creative people, we're not adding that in. And sometimes the people who have the budget are not adding that in. So they're like, "I pay you $5,000, that should be enough." And you're like, "But you're also paying me that money to leave my home. You're paying me to come and do something that I've been doing for over at least one decade," by that time. So there's a lot that goes into that that you don't always consider for yourself as an artist, like you were saying, babe.
Matt Owen:
Because I think in line with what you're saying, it's like you are being booked to do a thing. The thing may only take up this amount of time. Let's say if you're hitting the stage for an hour. And this event itself is only a three-, four-hour event. Or I'm hitting the stage. If it's a conference, I may be doing a hour three or four times throughout the day. And be like, "Well, you just did three hours of work for that much money?" In my brain, go to my job, clock in and clock out, I only worked for this amount of time. Then you realize, "Oh, wait, I had to get up, go find a place to park for my car, park my car." Or, "I had to get up and get a Uber, Lyft," whatever you use.
Also, all this gear, I'm carrying in. Am I renting it when I get there? Am I bringing mine? That means that TSA is going to go through it and something's going to be broken by the time I get there. Now I'm having to perform on broken equipment. Or I had to go to a place and hope they're reputable with what I'm renting. I'm going to rent it. And it's going to be raggedy because the DJ before me does not care about other people's belongings. Or whatever it may be. And so you do all that. And then it's like, okay, then I also have to get to the hotel. We try to fly in the night before. That way you don't have to travel and then immediately jump up on stage. So we fly in the night before, which in order to save money on flights, you fly at a certain time.
By the time you get there in that small town, probably all the restaurants are going to be closed. Where am I now going to eat? I have to figure out something because there wasn't good food on the plane. There wasn't good food in the airport. So now I have to drive a couple towns over to hope that I can find a Waffle House or something open or something that works within whatever the dietary thing that you're trying to live your life and be a well-maintained adult, you know?
Amena Brown:
Right.
Matt Owen:
And then I got to get up in the morning, figure out breakfast, figure out how to get there, sound check. Sound check is never going to go the way they said sound check's going to go. Because again, you have all these moving pieces. And I get it. You've got all these moving pieces. So it's going to be a lot of hurry up and wait. So by the time you actually hit the stage, you have now had to work all of this just to get there. And you're not even done yet.
Amena Brown:
Yeah, that's a lot to consider. This brings me to our next worst Lodgie, which is the fact that-
Matt Owen:
I need a graphic designer to come up with what the Lodgie Award would look like.
Amena Brown:
Yeah, we do need to do a mockup so that we can have an idea about this. But my Second-Worst Lodgie goes to every hotel room that had gurgling heat and AC. Here's the unfortunate thing, people, you could do 1,000 things of pre-planning, okay? You could do the all-in gig where you booked the hotel yourself, you checked the reviews, you looked into all these things. You could get booked by a company or an organization that really wanted to take good care of the artists and speakers.
Matt Owen:
Yeah, all of the above.
Amena Brown:
Puts you in a really nice hotel. But I'm going to tell you what, you going to come across some gurgling, rattling, heat and AC in a hotel. I'm going to tell you what else gurgles and rattles is a refrigerator in a hotel room, people.
Matt Owen:
Yes it does. That refrigerator that you hear it when it kicks in, the ...
Amena Brown:
Y'all, yikes.
Matt Owen:
We've been doing this for a while together. And so we were traveling at a time before it was like these cute little AirPod Pros that fit in your ear without cables that you can put some noise-canceling on or something. Even you sleep in those over-the-ear Bose headphones. Bose, if you want to send us a pair, they work real good.
Amena Brown:
Bose, we would love to see. I know you're listening, mm-hmm.
Matt Owen:
Were doing this in a time before, where you couldn't roll over because there's a cable attached to something. It's just you and the noise in the room, that's it. And ain't no sleep. And whatever sleep you don't get in this town, now you have to take that into the next town.
Amena Brown:
Yikes. No.
Matt Owen:
So even if it was well-meaning people who put you in this hotel, but that hotel got that ... they put you by the ice machine.
Amena Brown:
Or they put you by the elevator. Now I need to bring an honorable mention of Worst Lodgie is when you stay in the host hotel at a youth event. Yikes, because now you are in the hotel. And the moment you get into a good sleep is when the students are coming back from whatever activity they went to do. And you listening to them in the hotel, running around in the halls. I mean, these are things that are inevitable at a youth event. But when you are staying at the host hotel, I'm telling you, you can't control these factors right here.
Matt Owen:
Let me tell you the worst kind of those hotels. Now, if we breaking it down to a sub-genre of the Lodgies. It's the hotel that it's a really tall hotel-
Amena Brown:
That's it. I know the one you talking about.
Matt Owen:
All the rooms are around the outside. But in the center it's just a big open space. So let's say you're on the 16th, 18th, 20th floor. You're looking all the way down at the bottom. And it's just a big open corridor. So that sound can just echo, echo all the way ... And other people's children running wild.
Amena Brown:
All the way. They are unfortunately all the way turned up at a time that you would like to be all the way turned down.
Matt Owen:
When you are at the event to be the DJ, you got to be the cool guy. You know what I'm saying?
Amena Brown:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Matt Owen:
You here to turn the party up. It's partially my fault that they're running wild. It's kind of on me. So it feels hypocritical for me to go down to the hallway and be like, "Would you hold it down?"
Amena Brown:
"I'm trying to ... " And that's the thing.
Matt Owen:
Let's act like adults.
Amena Brown:
Life comes at you fast. Because you had a time that you were in high school, even some of the college conferences we may have gone to you in your early 20s. You had a time that you were walking up in a hotel in the middle of the night just keeping a racket.
Matt Owen:
Cracking jokes all night.
Amena Brown:
And had some person open their door and look out into the hall. And say, "Be quiet. We're in here trying to sleep."
Matt Owen:
Made fun of you.
Amena Brown:
With their sponge rollers and whatever old stuff you thought that person was about. When you realize that that person is you in the hotel when those kids go running by ... When I really wanted to open up my hotel and be like, "Y'all going to stop keeping that noise out here?" And I was like "Wow, I really turned into somebody's grandma so quickly." Okay, our last worst Lodgie. I want to speak about a Murphy Bed. I want us to speak about being booked for a leadership event. I'm still not sure how this happened.
Matt Owen:
I cannot tell you.
Amena Brown:
I'm still unsure how this happened. But we were booked for a leadership event. Now that I think about it, if I understand the mechanisms of event booking, I think what happened is ... Okay, let me describe to y'all what Matt and I discovered when we walk into what we thought was a traditional hotel room. So we were booked for a leadership event and fly into the thing. This is at what I would probably say would be considered a three-and-a-half or four-star hotel. Probably a four-star hotel but older, right?
Matt Owen:
Yeah.
Amena Brown:
But you got all these different leadership people coming in from all across the country. So we go in. I feel like because of how we traveled in, I think it was like we traveled in and had not been in the room that whole day. Hadn't checked in. It was like we traveled in and everything just went to running.
Matt Owen:
I think we went straight into the event. Yep.
Amena Brown:
Rehearsals and sound check and everything. Did the whole event and then got back to the room. So y'all, we got our hotel keys, puts our hotel key in the door, walks in. And we know we're in a hotel room, y'all, but there's no bed. And then you know how when you're in a hotel, they have the door that could be on the side? We opened that door actually. Because we thought, "Oh, maybe it's a suite." But those doors went into the rooms next door. So then we're standing there like, "Did they really give us a room with no bed?" And this is two people who at this point are very, very tired.
Matt Owen:
Man, we've already done the gig.
Amena Brown:
It's been a long day.
Matt Owen:
Traveled, did the gig all in one day. We try our best not to do that no more.
Amena Brown:
Yeah, because of this reason right here.
Matt Owen:
This is one of those times right here. Yep.
Amena Brown:
Because of this Worst Lodgie Award. So we call downstairs thinking maybe they put us in the wrong room.
Matt Owen:
Surely.
Amena Brown:
So we're like, "Hey, we think we're going to need to move rooms because we are in a room that doesn't have a bed." The person at the front desk was like, "Oh, no, there's a bed in there. It's a Murphy Bed." I want to tell y'all right now as a grown person in my 30s that I don't think I knew what a Murphy Bed was for real. I knew that you could have a bed. Because I saw it in sitcoms in New York that you could have a bed that you could put up into the wall.
Matt Owen:
I saw it on The Three Stooges. That's-
Amena Brown:
And then you pull it down.
Matt Owen:
My reference point. Yeah.
Amena Brown:
Okay. I understood that.
Matt Owen:
You in a situation where you on the started from the bottom, still here.
Amena Brown:
I didn't know the term for it, I just knew that bed existed. I just assumed it's a New York, Boston ... it's a Northeast thing.
Matt Owen:
Whoever Murphy is, based upon his bed, I don't think it was a compliment.
Amena Brown:
I think the same person that came up with Murphy's law or that Murphy's law is named after, I think that person also is in relation to the Murphy Bed. I think that's the thing. So we-
Matt Owen:
Well we know it wasn't Murphy Brown, because she was handling that. I
Amena Brown:
No, I enjoyed Murphy Brown.
Matt Owen:
She was handling things.
Amena Brown:
But two Murphys that I don't really rock with is Murphy's law and a Murphy Bed. Eddie Murphy, I rock with. Murphy Brown, love to see it.
Matt Owen:
Smerphies Dance, but that's Smerph. Nevermind.
Amena Brown:
That's different.
Matt Owen:
That's a hip hop something.
Amena Brown:
But Murphy's law and Murphy Beds, yikes. Okay, so we finally find the little latch where you supposed to pull this bed down. And there's a lot of questions regarding a Murphy Bed. One of them is, do you know when the last time was the sheets were changed?
Matt Owen:
Oh, because it unfolded with sheets.
Amena Brown:
Unraveled. It wasn't even made. It was just like ... And now that I think back on this, the reason why this organization gets the worst Lodgie, now that I think back on this, I think what happened is they forgot. I think they had that room that they had been using. Because the conference had been going on for a couple of days. Sometimes people who are the organization leaders, they'll have a couple of suites. So that they can have meetings or little meet-and-greets or whatever. Because the room also had a very long farm table.
Matt Owen:
It did.
Amena Brown:
Long enough that you could probably seat eight people at it. That's how big the table was. So I'm like, "I'm pretty sure that they were using this room for meetings and all sorts of things. And they got to the end of the day." And we were like, "Yeah, great. Glad the gig went well. We haven't had a chance to check into our hotel." And they were like, "Oh, shit. We forgot to book so-and-so. Go get the keys. Get the keys for the-"
Matt Owen:
"Have we got a room for you."
Amena Brown:
Worst Lodgie Award.
Matt Owen:
Matter of fact, one day you're going to be doing a podcast.
Amena Brown:
Murphy Beds.
Matt Owen:
And it's going to be a great story to tell.
Amena Brown:
Yikes.
Matt Owen:
Also, if I remember, I know somebody knew that ... First of all, I think what you're saying is correct. I think that's absolutely right. And if I remember correctly, the hotel ... Because it was a nicer hotel. They sent a cheese plate.
Amena Brown:
That's right.
Matt Owen:
They sent us a cheese plate because they knew it wasn't cool. They knew this situation was not above board.
Amena Brown:
They knew it was terrible
Matt Owen:
They was being foul. So, "But you want some cheese?"
Amena Brown:
I was like, "I really want a different room." But we could not get that going. So we had to make it work in that Murphy Bed. I can't remember if we ended up getting them to bring us new sheets and we made the ... Y'all, all of that is fuzzy now because we were so tired. But worst Lodgie Awards go to, "You can push the beds together." "No, we cannot." Worst Lodgie for all of the gurgling heat, AC, and refrigerators.
Matt Owen:
Worst Lodgie.
Amena Brown:
Worst Lodgie to the Murphy Bed.
Matt Owen:
Worst Lodgie.
Amena Brown:
Okay. Now, I'm not going to y'all on a worse note because we have had some Best Lodgie Awards that deserve to be given out.
Matt Owen:
Lifes are full of ups and downs. And when you're down, hopefully you end up back up again.
Amena Brown:
Mm-hmm. So I want to give a Best Lodgie Award to the New York hotel that we stayed at where we actually could see the Statue of Liberty from our window.
Matt Owen:
Man. Man, that view, incredible.
Amena Brown:
I would also like to give a Best Lodgie Award to the hotel where we stayed at where we could see down into the Cardinals Baseball Stadium. I remember this one very specifically. Because we had been on a string of Mid to Worst Lodgie Award situations. And every now and then it would happen where you'd get a really great lodging setup. So we put the keys in ... This hotel's very nice. Four-star, fairly new hotel. Very nice. We put our keys in the door and walk in. And we're like, "Oh, this is nice." Then we put our stuff down and walk around the corner. We're like, "Wait, there's more-"
Matt Owen:
"There's more."
Amena Brown:
So it was a big old suite, I remember it had two bathrooms in the same suite. Some of y'all are going to be like, "Yeah, that's standard for the hotels I stay in." It is not standard to us, okay?
Matt Owen:
It's not standard. No.
Amena Brown:
Two hotel bathrooms in one room?
Matt Owen:
Because listen, when we're at the house, there's two of us here. So nobody ever has to wait to use the restroom. You handle your business, whatever you going to do in there. But when we're on the road it's like, "Oh yeah, I got ... But you know what? No, you go first." We take that turn. "Nah, nah, nah, I think I'm good. I think you really got to go. So you go." But that one had two.
Amena Brown:
Boy, I'm talking about Matt and I ran around like the two Pentecostal-raised children we are. Ran around. We was shouting inside of that hotel room, it was so amazing.
Matt Owen:
When you end up getting lucky to have a really nice hotel, you can pull up Yelp and find restaurants that meet all your dietary needs, all of everything. And it's all within walking distance. And you're like, "I could live my life like this. This is great." You walk out. And sure you may learn the hard way in Chicago that it's not Illuminati's Pizza when you ask the man at the door. And he's like, "Sir, that is Lou Malnati's Pizza." But you're in a nice hotel where that will break stuff down to you. And be like, "Also, you make this left and this left down there and you going to get there. Would you like a car service?" "No, I would like to walk." But I think that is also the benefit of, number one, you don't have to push your beds together. Number two, there's a working shower that probably doesn't-
Amena Brown:
Ooh, a working shower, my God.
Matt Owen:
The water's not rising in the tub. And you're like, "Let me shower quick because we about to overflow." Things are just working the way it's supposed to. It's nice, it's peaceful, and then also there are amenities around you. That is also the thing that's like, okay, I've had a string of four stinkers of hotels. The Lodgie list is growing. And then you get to that one, you're like, "You know what? I could do this. I can keep doing this."
Amena Brown:
Really, I think honestly, you get a chance to live the life that for a long time some of our friends and family thought we were living.
Matt Owen:
Yeah, every now and then-
Amena Brown:
They're assuming you're on ... If they've been on a vacation where they stayed at an all-inclusive resort or they stayed at a really nice property, they are assuming that when we are on the road it's us performing just staying in hotels like that.
Matt Owen:
Every now and then you get to the airport and it's the car service.
Amena Brown:
Oh my God.
Matt Owen:
And the person's holding the iPad with your name on it or the list or the document, that that's holding the sign that's got your name on it. And you're like, "Oh, this trip's going to be all right." But the one before it and probably the one after it, you going to pay them dues one way or another.
Amena Brown:
Mm-hmm. Yeah, these Best Lodgie Awards is what people think it's like when you're on the road. And the road is mostly not like that. But every now and then you get one that you're like, "Ooh, I get to actually maybe have nice room service." We would have every now and then if we got in a really nice hotel like that, if it was a organization or company that booked us, they would be like, "Just order whatever you want to eat. We're not going to do per diem. But whatever you want to eat, just charge it to the room. Just charge it to the room."
Matt Owen:
And their card is the card on file.
Amena Brown:
Not us turning into Macaulay Culkin. That was in the second Home Alone when he was home alone in New York. We would just run it up. Whatever they had on the menu y'all wanted to try, they have two cheesecakes, yes.
Matt Owen:
Side note, if you are a young artist listening to this and you're taking notes of what to do and what not to do. Or whether or not it's worth it to keep doing this or not, it is. Keep going. But one thing we definitely learned the hard way as two people who were building their credit when we first started doing this and didn't have good credit. So we didn't have credit cards. So when you go into a town, whatever type of hotel they booked you at, they're going to want your card when you get there for incidentals, for if you break something, for whatever you charge to the room.
So if you go in there with your debit card, depending on the hotel, they are going to put a hold on your card. And depending on your financial situation as a up-and-coming artist who might have just quit your day job and are trying to do this thing. And you got that one gig and you hoping you going to get that next gig. And you're like, "Ah, my bank account though." If you can, get yourself a credit card because that's really going to help you. If you can't, be aware.
Amena Brown:
Yeah, for sure. For sure.
Matt Owen:
Because that shock. When you're having that shocking moment standing in front of the person on the other side of the desk at the hotel, it's now too late.
Amena Brown:
That's true.
Matt Owen:
You got to stay somewhere. It's, I know for me, embarrassing. It's humiliating. You deal with yourself at that moment. But I'm just saying, if you can, get you a credit card. If you can't, be aware and think ahead.
Amena Brown:
Right. No, that's a great point, babe. Because I would like to also give an honorable mention Worst Lodgie to the organizations who inevitably forget to sign the authorization form. So that the hotel can be charged to their cards. You talking about getting into a hotel at 11:00 PM after flight delays and whatever happened to you that you got in so late. You're tired. You got sound checks sometimes at 7:30 the next morning. And you get in there and you're like, "Yes, I'm checking in." They're like, "Okay, we just need a card on file." "No, it should be paid for through," and you say the name of the organization. "Oh, looks like they didn't sign an authorization form." And you try to call this person at 11:00 at night and can't get them. So now your choice is, are you just going to sit there in the hotel lobby until this person wakes up in the morning to get your message? Or are you going to have to use your business credit card or, heaven help you, the business checking account, which is a situation we were in a lot of times-
Matt Owen:
Or your personal, if you don't have your business set up right.
Amena Brown:
If you don't have a business checking, yeah. Then now you have to give them your debit card, and it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if the next day the organization's like, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I got it all taken care of." Now the hold is there. And now the hold won't be released for a certain number of business days. Do they care about the bills you have due in between the business days? Do not.
Matt Owen:
Mm-mm. It's your business.
Amena Brown:
So that was a thing we had to learn. Until we were able to get a credit card for the business, what we ended up having to do was keep a certain amount of cash cushion in our business checking. So that if this type of situation happened, it wasn't holding up all the money. But y'all, I'm going to tell you, there's some hurt feelings, some tears wanted to be shed regarding the hold on that, and rental cars. Yikes. Please. Also, as our last Best Lodgie Award, I want to give a shout-out to the hotel that I stayed in LA for Maker's in 2020, which was a month before the pandemic, y'all. Before pandemic tipped in the US. This hotel was such a nice suite, I almost walked in and walked all the way around and was like, "Am I in the wrong room?" I was like, "Surely this is not my room." I mean, the whole beautiful view of Los Angeles, the big old soaking tub. Y'all know I love a good hotel tub, okay? The big soaking tub and the shower.
This is when you're having rich people problems. You know what I'm saying? Because most hotels be like, "You don't get both of these. You going to get all in one or you going to get just one. You're going to get just a shower and get a tub at your house. We don't care." But when they're like, "Herein is a soaking tub where three people could fit in this tub. Herein is a shower where two people and a possible could also fit in the shower." I want to give a very special shout-out to that. Did I record a video of myself in the room just to send to my family and friends? Yes.
Matt Owen:
Stunting. Stunting.
Amena Brown:
Yes I did because I just wanted to be like, "This is real. It's not just me embellishing that it's amazing." I did a tour. I did a tour for the people. So shout out to the lodging.
Matt Owen:
All right, I'd like to give two special mentions after you just gave our-
Amena Brown:
Our Best Lodgie Awards. We're doing Best and Worst Lodgies.
Matt Owen:
That's right. Best Lodgie. So I like to give two special mentions to two things that were cool experiences that I don't know that you're going to find a lot of places. One is a technology that was kind of popping up. But might have been unnecessary, but it was cool at first. That was the hotels that started putting little mini TV screens in the mirror. Remember that in the bathroom?
Amena Brown:
Man, that was a time. That was a time.
Matt Owen:
So if you were in the bathroom and you watching the game, you could go, and here it is at it. We all have phones and stuff on us now and the Wi-Fi and iPads. If you need to watch something, entertain yourself, however long you going to be in there, whether you're in the tub soaking or handling your business. So pretty unnecessary. But I remember at first being like, "Whoa." I remember taking videos and pictures, sending to friends, like, "Look at this, dude." And let's be honest, most of the time it didn't work. It was just fuzz or something.
Amena Brown:
Right, that's true. It was very cool. But then you were like, "Is this working?"
Matt Owen:
Yeah, that time has passed.
Amena Brown:
"How come I can't hear it?"
Matt Owen:
So special shout out to that. Also, special shout out to the hotel I was at in-
Amena Brown:
Montana.
Matt Owen:
... in Montana that I went into that the hotel was fine. It was just pretty good little hotel. But in the bar ... This is the wildest thing I still think I've ever seen. In the bar, they had what looked like a massive fish tank behind the bar with people dressed up as mermaids and mermen swimming, just doing mermaid flips and swimming up to the glass. And the whole tail, no feet thing. Mermaids and mermen. I guess that's the proper ... I don't even know what the right-
Amena Brown:
Merpeople.
Matt Owen:
I was like, "I don't know that you're going to run into a franchise of these." I don't know that you're going to be like, "Oh yeah, I also saw this in Chicago, New York, and LA."
Amena Brown:
Feel like the liability's high. High liability on this.
Matt Owen:
And that's a pretty specialized group of people. Need to be able to hold your breath for a long time. Do something interesting enough in that ... because it was fascinating. They were artists. Those people doing that thing, I hope they paid those people. But shout out to that. That's something that I may never see again. But that one time I saw it, whoa.
Amena Brown:
That was very cool.
Matt Owen:
Very cool.
Amena Brown:
That was very cool. When you came home and told me about that, I was like, "That is very cool." And herein is another theme in what we have talked about on Road Stories that I feel as things have opened up again. And we've been able to now do some traveling, but not for work. Not for gigs, per se. Sometimes we travel just to go to a different location and work on stuff or for client things. But it really does make a difference, these types of experiences that you can have. I think what I've enjoyed, even though we've been on the road way less than we used to in this other season of life, now we get to pick some hotels because they're designed really well.
And we get to go and see how they design this, how the architecture looks. Or if it's a historic hotel, all those things. Sometimes we get to treat ourselves when we can, which isn't all the time. But when we can, treat ourselves to just a nice hotel stay where it can feel like somebody else gets to take care of you a little bit. So I do enjoy those aspects of travel still. But now because we're traveling on our own reconnaissance, we get a chance to pick and choose where we're going, the city we're going to-
Matt Owen:
When we get there-
Amena Brown:
... and where we're staying.
Matt Owen:
And when we're leaving.
Amena Brown:
Mm-hmm, that's it. That's it.
Matt Owen:
Because let's talk about the ability to not take that red-eye flight back home immediately after the gig.
Amena Brown:
Oh, no. Please. No.
Matt Owen:
Sleeping in the next day, getting up. Yeah, it's nice.
Amena Brown:
Yeah, we're those people now. So Best and Worst Lodgie Awards. We hope all of these places, even though we didn't tell you the exact location of them, they know who they are.
Matt Owen:
They know.
Amena Brown:
All right, tune in next week, our last episode. We're going to tell you about what were our favorite gigs of all time. What were our best gigs ever. So we'll see y'all next week. HER with Amena Brown is produced by Matt Owen for Sol Graffiti Productions as a part of the Seneca Women Podcast Network and partnership with iHeartRadio. Thanks for listening, and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast.