recently, i have been rocking out to a band who will remain nameless. my exboyfriend steven used to send me some of their songs on mix CDs when he was still living in america, so i thought id give a couple of ther albums a try. and you know, for midwest pop punk, which i usually think is tripe, it wasnt bad.

i have this policy of never looking at pictures, watching music videos, or listening to any hype about the musicians that i like. It will invariably piss me off, depress me, make me feel inferior, or in some other way change my opinion of them.

as i think this is fucking dumb and vapid of me, i usually avoid the situation entirely by listening to who i want to and telling the peanut gallery to blow me.

however, just now i broke my own rule and went to their website, hoping for a face behind the voice that has me jogging to the beat of rhyming lyrics for the first time in years.

well, he ain't handsome, but i dont care about that. id actually check him out in a bar and even make out with him on the stairs out back, if he was lucky.

but their whole gig seems to be some sort of goth crap intermixed with a 20 dollar fee to join their website. give me a fucking break! 20 bucks for a t-shirt and the knowledge of when they will decide the world is ready for a tour?

i hate that shit! i have no problem with bands making money, but i do have a problem with bands milking their fans for every damn dime they can afford to toss in for a hoodie or a cheap-ass made-in-china patch! why do people have to be so greedy?

and now i have done it to myself again, and i will never hear their music clearly without the sound of a cash register clacking along behind.

"ive got a big fat fucking bone to pick, with you my darling..."

fucking greedy cocksuckers, you broke my heart.

Come see Triac and Flowers In The Attic tonight at North Six in Brooklyn. I'll be there and you can buy me a drink. Evan is out of town so don't know where/if I'll be staying.

Last night me and Bendependent took a trip up to Ballmer to meet up with Kara, Abby, Ang (always cool to meet a fellow Head) and an assortment of other people including Ben's friend Chris. We met up with K&A at some joint called, I believe, Club Charles (stop me if I'm wrong, stop me if I'm wrong).

Earlier in the day K&A witnessed and were apparently extremely fascinated by the goings on at some kinda Anime convention. The ladies were so impressed by what they saw that Abby repeatedly expressed her newfound passion for anime. (This morning on our way home, Ben and I saw some of these frea-- lovely people walking to the convention some already in full regalia. Ironically enough on our way into the city we saw a completely different group of fanatics as Ravens and Eagles fans poured out of the football stadium following a preseason football game.)

Anyway, we hung out for a bit, drank for a bit and then left pretty much in unison. K&A left first to grab pizza and 'cuz Abby had to work early the next morning. Then me and Ben left when Ang, Chris and co. rolled out. They went their separate way while we went to catch up with K&A. We actually arrived at their apartment building before they did. We decided to kill time by drinking some of the Schlitzes I had in my bookbag and calling and text messaging random folks in our phonebooks. Ben called Denee and I left a rambling message about something or other. Then I called my friend Sara and left another rambling message about something or other. Then I texted Myriam and we exchanged a series of rather amusing text messages (by the way thanks for the warning about Four Brothers M.)

K&A arrived (sans pizza for us fellas but that's okay after all they were allowing us to crash at their place.)

Now we get to the real point of this post. I LOVE KARA AND ABBY'S APARTMENT!!!! It's like a miniature-feminized version of the Dirtfarm but that's not to say it's derivative in any way. It's just a beautiful example of contained chaos that perfectly matches the personality's/tastes of its occupants. I was especially captivated by Kara's vast collection of books about Marilyn Monroe, Mae West and all the burlesque-related stuff.

I woke up right around the time Abby was getting ready for work because no matter how late I stay up I always freakin' wake up ridiculously early. So as I was laying on the spare mattress graciously provided by Kara this morning I read a copy of Wil Wheaton's book Dancing Barefoot and then read a graphic novel called Pin Up (Kara, do you have the next part of this series? I have to see how it turns out!)

I tried to play Pac-Man on Nintendo but couldn't get the blasted machine to work. Ben told me to jiggle the cartridge from side to side but it didn't work. I suppose if I cared enough I probably could've gotten it to work but alas that was not the case.

Really though, I was just enamored with Kara's literature. I said in one of my recent journals that you can tell a lot about a person by their choices in media. If I had never met Kara and Abby before last night, just one look at the crap in their apartment and I would probably propose to one or both of them. Not that most of that stuff is anything I would be interested in collecting (though really, I have no problems at all with multiple books of naked women--even if most of the women in those pics would be old enough to be our grandmothers) but it's the fact that it's so concentrated -- I think that's the word I'm lookin' for -- that I find instantly appealing.

Dudes on this site pick on Josh for making friends with a bunch of hot women-folk. I don't necessarily think that's entirely fair to Josh or our female compatriots. All of the female heads I know and/or have met are all very unique and complex women with very strong personalities and a whole lot of smarts. If all that is taken into account when defining the term "hot" then yes our Killogg ladies are unquestionably synonymous with hotness.

I'd like to also add that while the various forms of media we collect might say something about our personalities, I do believe that even more can be determined (for better or for worse) by the company we keep.

I don't know about y'all but think I'm in good shape.

Ok we are like ten minutes out of Philly and the back right tire blew out. So, we are on the side of the road. No spare, no jack so we may be here for a little while.

One Friday afternoon a few weeks ago, I sat bored at work, thinking about the abysmally empty weekend ahead of me. Luckily, inspiration struck. I made a few inquiries, checked the credit card, and eleven hours later was on a flight to Chicago. Voilà les resultats!

Warning: many, many, many pictures inside.

first photo of the day Saturday.


As I was taking this photo, a guy pulled up on a bike, screeched to a halt about a foot away from me, muttered, "daggone ninjas always be climbin on shit," and then sped away.


These young girls were drunk.


These young girls were young girls.


After this photo was taken, the round guy shot our friend Song with a pellet.


This week has been a mess. I've had a lot of fun... enjoying various rowdy and embarassing shenanigans...
Now its Sunday.
I started writing this because I had something to say but now I can't really figure out what it was supposed to be... let me think...
Thursday I went out and saw my friend's band. Ah yes I remember now. I went and saw my friend's band Glaz Almaz at the Ottobar and they were actually really good and really noisy. I thought it was pretty awesome that this dude I know is making cool music without having heard most of the stuff he'd be compared to. Oddly enough he asked me if I've heard of Clockcleaner, because people who heard his band tell him he should get shows with them.
After the show I stayed out till last call, then came home and watched some X-Files with Abby, whilst snacking on a brownie and hoping that the brownie magic would kick in. I got impatient and I went to bed.
After work on Friday I came home and napped, and then went right out to the Triac, Flowers, etc show.
It was good to see Jeremy who is now home from Paraguay.. also his friends from out of town, and everyone else who came back to our house to chill out. The remainder of my brownies were ravaged and I was bummed out. Alas. Josh was shitfaced and he dumped Mr. Clean all over our bathroom floor and hallway. I have some videos of Josh that I might upload.
On Saturday I slept in (of course)... and then went with Abby downtown to marvel at the Otakon kids. At first I was shy about approaching them, but then we went and had a few drinks at the Wharf Rat. We were given free Jager shots and beer refills. We soon walked home and got more liquor, then headed back down town.. went to a hotel bar...
it was an awesome day. I spent the day wandering around in Baltimore as though it was the first time I've been here. We got some pics of Otakon kids, and then finally headed home.. to the Club Charles.
Reggie's re-cap kind of takes it from there.

On an unrelated note, I want to preserve this conversation. I was just speaking to a high school friend I've been back in touch with lately. Maybe this is the kind of thing you "just say" to someone, but somehow it makes me feel good anyway.
"no you just have too much imagination... i think you can see parts of people that sometimes they themselves cant"

I've been kinda tossin' this idea around for a while and now it looks like it just may happen. Bandcakes is simply a breakfast party hosted and "catered" by me that I'm throwing for local (or not) bands whose music and performances I've enjoyed over the last few months. If you've ever seen Dinner for Five on IFC then you'll have a good idea of what I'm going for. The idea is to not only give back to some small bands but hopefully to spur conversation about music or whatever people want to talk about. I just figured since everyone participating will be musicians it's probably natural that a good portion of the conversation will center on music though I hope that it doesn't stay there.

It's not confirmed yet but it looks very much like the first ever Bandcakes Version 1.0 will take place on October 1st at my place and hopefully the participants/guests will be Jinxed at Twelve, Mess up the Mess, the Mathematicians and perhaps Sentai. I hope this is the crew because it presents a very very diverse group of acts which is really what I want.

The question is should I find some way to preserve this event? Like should it be videotaped or something? If so are there any volunteers with video equipment who'd be interested in recording this hopefully momentous occasion?

I'm not even sure I want it to be recorded. But I do hope to make this a regular occasion and I would like to get some really diverse groupings. If things go accordingly then the groupings would include at least one up and coming act and at least one more established act. I'd like to see members of Fugazi sit down with members of Rare Essence. Something like that.

But that's just me dreaming. Right now I'm all about Mess up the Mess, Jinxed at Twelve, Sentai and the Mathematicians. Hopefully all will be able to attend, this could be a really cool thing...