google maps, boston and cold communication

i've had so many great times in boston but they have all been negated by this one trip. i understand its an old city (so is nyc). just like london the urban planning (or lack there of) was done in the 1600-1700's. i get it. seriously. BUT, you have got to be kidding me! try getting around harvard sq. coming from the west. thing is on google maps brattle st doesnt appear on the direction list. this is def. a google issues, get on it, you're worth a billion and this is a big city! the streets just randomly change name and the amount of notice one gets from the signs is about negative 5 seconds. also, i swear that most of the street signs have been stolen. what the fuck? also, nice one having a big movie shoot on that silly looking new bridge (name?), same day as a red sox playoff game. who is running the show here, ashton kutcher and we've all been punked? oh yeah, not to mention that harvard sq is closes as well for a street market (the reason i was there). any boston, you're one of the most transient cities in the country, grt your shit together or just keep being jealous of nyc.

i have a weird phone aversion. its clinical. i hate talking on the phone. i use email and text, which to be honest has held me back a bit. i have an observation regarding such cold communication. people dont answer questions they dont want to. im guilty. i dont know, i guess the modern age is designed to avoid confrontation and completely misinterpret the simplelest things. i have more to write about this but my phones about to die

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greed is terrorism

the new gay for johnny depp album has a lyric (read:statement) that i had my engineers 10 year old nephew speak..."greed is terrorism". it'll be out on nov 30th in the UK...just saying. anyway, i thought that having a child say this would have far more impact than me. the rest of the "song" has spoken word of the ethics of the nyse and the patriot act simultaneously. doesn't really make a point if you can't understand it but so goes punk rock. now, the 13 people that read this know.

i saw the new michael moore movie tonight. on day 6 of sober october, i finally hit the point of going to a movie by myself. it's only the second time i've ever done this. i'm always very skeptical of moore's films as they always seem as filled with lefty propaganda as a fox news broadcast is with the views of the right. i won't get into my opinions of his past films, just his current. contrary to most of the reviews i've seen, i really feel this was his best. being a self proclaimed "social democrat", i found many of the points made in this movie to be spot on. moore is essentially calling for a revolution but not the military kind, this isn't the 18th century. he is calling for a new system, one that has learned from the mistakes of it's predecessors. democracy is essentially an experiment that is ever evolving but never forgets the basic rights established by our founding fathers.

i'm not an expert of any sort so i won't embarrass myself by trying to act like one. i will simply say that domestic terrorism is real and it's head quarters is just across river away from me. to paraphrase a part of the movie, in a free market system, you can strive for riches and may succeed or fail. thing is, it seems that by definition, in a free market system if you fail, you should fail. you don't get reimbursed for your gamble like wall street did. i understand that there was a risk of a meltdown, but the people responsible for all this should at least be held accountable, not become treasury secretaries and get bonuses. all these people should be in jail. i live very simply and after seeing this movie, i'm kind of glad i have. greed is terrorism.

did anyone else see the piece on "horrorcore" that appeared on ac360 last night? some disturbed kid killed an entire family. he is into "horrorcore". this is the genre made famous by the genius of the insane clown posse. i don't want to be judgemental...wait, yes i do. have you ever scene the juggalo fest video on youtube? search it. fucking amazing! hip hop invaded middle america white culture but the elements of hessian metal still lingered....enter a bunch of dude in clown make-up rapping about killing people. it's a video game set to a cave man drum beat. that's a no lose. i'm certainly not blaming icp or giving them any credit at all, but they are lapping this up i'm sure. the whole thing made me sad, but i watched it like a trained monkey, guess i'm no better.

stay rock

it might get loud in sober october

NYC is a drinkers town. i'd say only london really rivals it in sheer consumption and cultural acceptance. public transportation and cheap options (at least in brooklyn) make it an imbibers dream. recently, my late nights (mostly working behind the bar) and afternoon "mornings" have grown tiresome. a few friends of mine decided to use the convenient rhyme to their bodies advantage and take on a "sober october". with my impending tours and general need to improve my well being, i decided to join them. i'm 5 days in and i'm nearly manic with energy. i made a soup yesterday! what the fuck? i feel great. although, i'm weary of the future, bender rhymes with november....haha.

i saw the documentary "it might get loud" last night. the movie focuses on the careers of jimmy page, the edge and jack white. they get in a room and talk shop, play each others songs then edge and jack worship jimmy page. i could've watched this movie for 3 hours. i loved the jp interviews. his story is a history of rock n roll. edge is quickly becoming my favorite guitar player alive. his playing really reflects his personality, humble and earnest. jack white, was out of his league and it was really obvious that the film maker was a friend of his. i don't want to be overly negative but the guy even admits that the white stripes "got away with it." he admits that the image was a distraction from that fact they were just a blues rock band and a sloppy one at that. i appreciate that he admits all this and i also appreciate what the white stripes did for the indie scene. without them breaking through, things might be very different these days but it doesn't negate the obvious fact that as humble as he was, he should not be in a movie with legends. he's a lucky, lucky guy and his impact is felt, but in no way the way that zep or u2 will be forever. then i got to thinking, who else could they have gotten for the modern era? so many options were tossed around but they were either too obscure (graham coxon of blur) or too mentally insane (eddie van halen). i guess jack white worked.

got a few new records:

doomriders: fucking awesome! heavy sludge a la older baroness.

baroness - blue album : jury still out on this one. i'll get back to you.

megadeth- endgame: megadave seems like they are pulling a "death magnetic" and playing on the fans need for nostalgia. makes sense really. i only gave one good listen and besides some really hoaky lyrics, it's a good record. the guitar solos are amazing. thrash has been back in style for a few years now so why not have the masters play it again.

muse - the resistance: fuck everyone, i love the obvious queen rip off's and the symphony.

top ten. the new depression

since i can't seem to get my shit together and stop being a depressive bore, i'm going to use my current morose state and lack of concentration, i'm returning to my eclectic, a.d.d. friendly top 10's:

1. U2 at giants stadium: holy fuck. this was the most insane show i have ever seen. they were amazing and i have to admit, the edge stole the show. that is no small order, but sometimes the quiet guy onstage makes noise in other ways. he was perfect. muse was pretty amazing as well.

2. rorschach reunion show: it was actually two shows in one night. i loved this band when they were originally around and i thought this would definitely disappoint but, i was very wrong. pure power and violence (in a very smart way).

3. stryper live: yeah, i know the top 3 are about as weird as it gets but i'm old. i saw stryper at 12 when my born again cousin dragged me along to the felt forum (i think). they were awesome, many years later this ex-catholic turned staunch atheist returned to his guilt ridden days and rocked for jesus. they were fucking amazing!!! if i hadn't seen #1 and 2, this would be higher on this list. it was kind of hedonistic for scary jesus lovers.

4. "the end of faith" by sam harris: ahhh, back to normal. this book is a few years old but no less powerful in its commentary on modern religion. not as difficult as dawkins nor as snotty as hitchens, harris makes a great argument for the obvious archaic nature of organized religion. some of his strongest points are in #5.

5. the war in afghanistan: i'm very torn. the 3 authors (especially hitchens and harris) mentioned above openly claim that islam is a very dangerous religion. making strong arguments and direct quotes (numerous of them) that show the koran is a violent book that according to islamic law, was written by god and is therefore infallable where as the bible and talmud were both inspired by god but written by men. get it? yeah, infidels must die. scary shit. the thought of nut jobs like the iranian government (who care less about their people than their insane ideologies) having nuclear bombs scares the shit out of me. thing is i'm staunchly anti-war, especially this one in afghanistan. does our government ever read history books? i hope you do. we can't win but it seems like we have to. the whole area is a nightmare. i'm still trying to figure it out. not sure it's possible.

6. hating digital music: i've yet again lost a lot of my music. it's vinyl for me.

7. god fires man "life like" 180 gram vinyl european release: nuff said. 3 extra tracks, cd included. fuck yeah! europe here we come.

8. gay for johnny depp "manthology" : be afraid! Uk here we come.

9. top gear: i fell in love with this show a few years ago and my obsession has not stopped.

10. intervention and hoarders: these shows are designed to make me feel better about myself. thank god, i need it. unfortunately, i've learned a lot about myself from watching said shows. intervention, you've taught me that i drink a lot but i sure as hell ain't those people. hoarders, you're a different story. i've always been a collector of sorts, records, videos, magazines etc. as you get older you learn to part with things but i find the whole exercise incredibly stressful. today, i had one of those days of cleaning and whatnot. i threw out all my video tapes, a collection that i could have saved myself from had i foreseen youtube. also got rid of a lot of cd's, this nearly killed me. i kept going and taking different ones back for no reason at all. it just made me feel better.....oh my god, i'm a fucking hoarder. all the sudden i looked around my room at the piles of shit that i can't seperate from. shirts, mail, posters, wires, music gear the list goes on. when did this happen? i'm not sure but looking back it's always been there. having stuff is a band aid for depression i think. although i've never been diagnosed as i haven't had health insurance in years, i think i'm a prime candidate. at least i'm somewhat self aware. i think. oh well. we all have our issues.

intra venus de milo

i should never blog at 7am on my way home from work. that is why i waited till now to write this one, on my way back to work at 7pm.

there was a girl in the bar last night with one of the more tragic "bad idea" tattoo's i've ever seen. i'm gonna preface this by saying that i have some questionable ones, no doubt which is why i can explore the subject from a point of experience and maybe just a bit of wisdom. i love tattoos but the idea of them expressing some sort of individuality is a dead one. where i work all i see are sleeved dudes and chest pieced chicks (the hotest w'burg accessory!), vice versa and both. its a uniform designed to attract particular types of the opposite (or in many cases, same) sex. whether they know it or not, that is the inspiration, in my opinion. my issue is not the work but the age at which these folks are getting covered. in the same way that children shouldn't have children or the way we are expected to choose what we should be for the rest of our lives at 18, the permanance of a tattoo should not be the choice of a confused young adult. i'm speaking of visable tats. stuff that can be covered is fine.

which brings me back to this girl. she couldn't have been over 23. i looked at her arm at first in awe of the tribute to my favorite movie, spinal tap, then in horror that the mock cover of one of their records was permanantly on her arm. venus de milo with an intra venus (sp.?) connection, you get the visual? i got her drink and brought my co-workers over to show them. surely this is the attention she subconsciously wanted by getting this on her forearm til i ruined it by asking her why the fuck would you get that on your forearm. oh to be young. she responded with something about wanting to be a tattoo artist, which baffled me even further. she seemed nice and its no offense to her but it stuck in my mind as a perfect example of what i'm about to say.....

so here's my "grandpa" rant; i think there should be a law against tattoos below the elbow and on neck, hands etc til a person is 25.

if i ever have kids they are sure to hate me.

listening to:
capsule "blue"
tragedy "vengence"
blood ceremony

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finally, a new blog post

i haven't written a blog in ages and that is mostly to do with my depression. it's sad. i get in a funk and no matter what i write i just feel like it's a waste and i sound like a dick. i know it's lame but true. that is until today. i read a facebook post by an old friend, ed from taking back sunday. first he complained about how many shitty bands were out there and then he apologized for his band getting so big and spawning so many wannabe's that just kind of suck. granted he isn't wrong but we must always remember when we started out all we did was play the music of our idols. the difference being between then and now is that these days it's too easy to record and get released. back when i was a kid we were happy to maybe get a 7" out, if that. a demo tape sufficed. people like me always wanted more but for many, that was not the case. they were just happy to play stuff that sort sounded like the bands they loved. ed and i being a perfect example, luckily for us not that many people heard the mind over matter demo. but that is how you learn. thing is these days, your training time is in public. especially with the way most labels operate by signing very young bands who live at home and have parental support. thus enabling the label to have to spend as little as possible on the front end. smart business really. unfortunately for the musician and consequently the listening public, the quality of what they produce will not be up to snuff, but will be heard by ears that are not musically developed enough to understand a poorly written song or a trite lyric.

i remember taking back sunday from the very very beginning. to think back then that they would be where they are now...well that is impossible. thing is they got better, a lot better and the timing was perfect. not a lot of people get that opportunity. they not only got it but seized it!! when ever a scene gets big or goes more mainstream, you have to deal with the ton of bands that follow in its wake. happened with grunge but again this is a different time. the internet rules now and that is wholly a youth based culture (not unlike most "scenes"). so what you get is more crap than one can handle, at least to my ears. ed and i are the same age. we know better. we say things like "why do people like this?". thing is i'm not sure i will ever know, maybe ed has more insight. malcom gladwell wrote a book recently about the idea of mastering your skill. it's called "outliers: the story of success". he claims that in order for a person to master their craft, they need 10,000 hours of practice and experience. song writing fits right into that realm. sure you have your phenom's but for most, experience is a must. if you're thrown right onto the warped tour at 18, does that give time to develop or a warped sense of ego? most guys i know in their 30's who have stuck with it are better than ever but they will never get that label push (or a label at all) because it's a young man's game. the youth buys into youth. look at most of the pro songwriters, you know those people actually write top 40 stuff for kelly clarkson (she might be a bad example) or avril lavigne or ashlee simpson. all older, all pros who would never be excepted to be pop stars. smart move. nothing like a young, cute catalyst. my point? i really thought the internet would change the rules to everything being about a song and nothing to do with image or age. i was wrong. maybe it's jsut taking a while. to my friend ed, this is the way it's always been and maybe 20 years a go, burn were saying the same thing about us. luckily for us there was no internet and we were allowed to get better and test the waters locally and not on an international level. blame the labels, blame the internet, blame the watering down of what is excepted as talent. most of all, keep getting better.

so, the errortype11 reunion went off amazingly. it is a big mindfuck to play shows like that but i took it for what it was and gave the best show i could. this week has been a bit emotional but inspiring none the less. it was great to see everyone who came out. we wanted it to be a party and it was better than expected because of all of you!!!! now, start coming to see god fires man. it's better for all the reasons listed above.

arty

negative/positive

whats wrong with being negative? to me its just being honest. i know i bum people out. i always have. i've only survived at my job because i throw a great party..again, always have... maybe its my catholic upbringing, maybe i'm just a misrable cunt. i've always been attracted to negative music (metal). i've always written darker styles of music and even when i didn't it always had to have a negative twist (see "happiness is overrated"). i dont know. am i wrong? am i hard to be around? my grandfather was like this too. he was a bartender for 50 years and survived 4 heart attacks. i always looked up to him and his work ethic (which is an antiquated bullshit class system idiom) and abilty to be quiet, something i later realized was depression. maybe thats it? maybe its because people think i'm frowning its actually a tiny smile..how emo. i set the bar high at a young age. i realize that now in doing this et:11 reunion. thing is i dont feel like i've ever been young yet i've taken so long to mature. i guess i just need to fall in line like a good working class warrior....
i'm tired.
i feel like u need to do a blog on talk talks "spirit of eden" and "laughing stock". if you are an elbow fan, its a must listen.

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