Sheer Terror & ref down

People have balls. Serious fucking balls. I'm kinda over supporting people that don't bother to support me back. Fucking clowns.

My two favorite quotes from the weekend.

"Dealing with an egotistical bitch? Tell her "you're not pretty enough to act the way you are acting.""
- Pro Sex Tips

"Toys R Us, nigga, I don't wanna grow up!"
- Paul Bearer, Webster Hall, 11/28/2010

Friday night was rough. I'd been sick the previous couple of days. Being Thanksgiving weekend, damn near everyone I knew was off, but not my office. Never my office. I was up at my usual 530am, with a foggy head and sniffly nose, was working all day, had to rush home, shower, rush to the studio to get my gear then get down to Ace of Clubs early enough to be able to find somewhat decent parking. Manage to park around the corner, in front of The Artist Formerly Known as Bond Street Cafe. Had a nostalgic moment about it, but that's a rant for another time. The show on Friday was actually a lot of fun. Edge Of Madness, Alekhine's Gun, Doomsday Mourning, The Last Stand & Respawn the Ancient were also on the show. I know someone in every band except Doomsday Mourning & Respawn the Ancients. Lots of friends. We had a very good response. Our new singer Mike is coming along nicely. He still needs to come out of his shell and actually say something between songs. Joe & myself have been the comic relief between songs, then Mike would mumble the name of the next song, haha.

Saturday's productivity was limited to changing the oil in my car & having my vroom vroom washed, then the rest of the day was spent on my couch.

Yesterday was the Sheer Terror homecoming dance at Webster Hall. They were AMAZING. It's great to see them finally headlining a venue of Webster Hall's stature. CBGB's was cool and all, but they are certainly deserving of more. Paulie declared last night was not a reunion, since Newman, Chickie & Pat want nothing to do with him, it's the beginning of a new era in Sheer Terror. New lineup and a new song was unveiled last night, which was crushing. If they keep it up, the new Sheer Terror album is gonna absolutely flatten any and all hardcore releases for the year and beyond. Mike Scondotto & myself were discussing how we didn't like Love Songs For The Unloved (Sheer Terror's last record). It was too punky/punk n roll. Not the Sheer Terror we grew up on and loved. Breakdown also played last night, and they were equally as incredible. Stigma & Step 2 Far were also on the bill. I enjoyed their sets. A few other bands also played who i didn't give a shit about.

Sheer Terror in their glory...


I also got cockblocked really bad by my bassist at the show last night. I was discussing it with a friend earlier, so I'll just copy and paste...

me: well, one of the bouncers was this huge fat dopey looking white guy. some of the other bouncers were having some fun at his expense, mainly putting signs on his back.
first "ladies only", then "men only", then "unisex" (signs for the various bathrooms), then some long funny sign that i can't remember that Joe took a picture of.
Sent at 9:45 AM on Monday
me: there was this cute chick near me when that last sign was on his back. So i lean over and say "wanna laugh your ass off?" she smiles and goes what? i tell her to turn around. she had already seen that and was laughing. we're talking briefly and Joe comes along and start yapping away with her, nonstop, buying the three of us shots, and keeps going on and on and on.
to the point where i texted him and said "thanks for chatting up the chick was starting to chat up, dick"
and he apologized cuz he thought i knew the broad.
we both had a huge laugh over it, especially when I'd glare at him from time to time and he'd start laughing and apologize again. he had said "dude, she'll be back. she'll need another drink eventually."
she never came back. glare glare glare

her: funny first half. sad second half

me: yeah. he bought me several beers to atone for his sin.
and i told him "dude, if you ever do that again, I'm gonna have to go Burt Reynolds on your Dom DeLouise ass and smack you across the face when you do wrong."

her: hahahaha

And finally, my MMA tidbit for the day:
My friend Keith Peterson is a MMA referee. The video below is of a match he refereed which featured a 3 second KO. The KO wasn't all that spectacular as much as what transpired afterward. The KO'd fighter was so dazed that after Keith waved off the match, Keith was taken down and was in full mount before officials pulled the dazed fighter off him. Pretty god damn funny!

this dog

looks hella stoned. the more you look, the more you will laugh, lol

beards = instant cool

Monday monday

I know I don't update this very much. Not nearly as much as my Livejournal days. I either have nothing to say, or simply can't talk about certain things on a public forum like this. So enjoy this superficial update of my recent shenanigans for all 2 of you that read this nonsense. My apologies, I'll try to write more and open up some more in the near future.

Went to see Suicidal Tendencies last night at Terminal 5. Never been there before. Nice place. Would go again. Didn’t enjoy ST nearly as much as I did a couple of years ago at Starland Ballroom. Underdog was first. I never gave a shit about them. They were decent, I guess. I know (and enjoy) one song of theirs, and only because it was on the GTA 4 soundtrack. Cro Mags were up next. They absolutely killed it. Still doing the typical Bloodclot-Mags set of mostly Age Of Quarrel, Crush the Demoniac from Best Wishes and a couple of Bad Brains covers. Supposedly they’re actually gonna do a new record next year! It’s about god damn time. The nuthuggers can say what they will about Paris & Harley, at least they tried putting out a new record (Revenge), and it was a good god damn record! Let’s see if Bloodclot and his band of all stars can one up Harley & Paris by putting out a better record. Suicidal Tendencies took almost an hour getting on stage. I doubt they were pulling a Guns n Roses, I’m putting the blame on production. Cro Mags got offstage at 940, ST didn’t go on til 1030. I don’t know if promoters/production thought CM had a 60 minute set or what, but it was really annoying waiting that long. Hell, going to mostly smaller scale shows these days, the half hour wait between bands was annoying. Mike Muir talks WAY too much. I know his odd brand of rambling is part of his shtick, but that shit got real old, real quick, especially when he’s going on for damn near 10 minutes before there was any hint of a song being played. They kept throwing pseudo-funk interludes into the middle of classic songs, which drove me nuts. If I wanted to hear that shit, I’d listen to Infectious Grooves. Since I don’t own any IG records…yeah. Lead guitarist Dean Pleasants looks like Carlton Banks. Drummer Eric Moore looks like Weezie from Old School. Bassist Steve Brunner was wearing a tail…? I didn’t even watch their entire set, I split around 1130, I reckon they wrapped up at midnight.

Friday night went to a show at FLC for the first time in a very long time. It was weird being there, especially since they no longer book “heavy” bands and I really don’t care about most of the pop punk/emo/whatever stuff they’ve been booking lately. Also weird being there while surrounded by little kids. I think the only people that were older than 17 were myself and the staff. Too bad they don’t book heavy shows anymore, Everything’s Ruined always had great shows there. We’re no longer welcome in our homebase. Life goes on. Afterwards, went to Jimmy Ryans and had a few drinks. When I got there, a friend of mine was talking to some weird dude. I say hi to my friend and greet this stranger. I immediately regretted that, since it was pretty obvious that this dude has intimate relations with a glass pipe. A little while later, I’m in the bathroom, in the stall. I hear the door open and thought to myself “my luck, it’s that dude.” Sure enough, it’s that dude. After brief small talk, he asks if I could buy him a drink. Nah bee! Then he starts going on about how he’s going to buy the bar and give all his friends a round of drinks on the house when he becomes owner. Year, good luck with that, guy. Avoided that dude like the plague for the remainder of the evening. Later on, I was having a smoke out front when I see him walking out with some fat chick and get into her car. WOW! Talk about rock bottom: going home with a crackhead. I don’t know if she already knew him and was giving him a ride to where ever, but I like the more amusing scenario I had playing out in my head.

Went to the Halloween parade this year. First time I’d ever been. Went with my lil buddy my latest and greatest BFF Amy, we were dressed as The Dude & Walter from The Big Lebowski. Her facial scruff as the dude was amazing and I kept laughing every time I looked over at her. The parade itself was an absolute zoo. It took us about 15 minutes just to get out of the train station, since there was so many people going as well. We managed a halfway decent spot to watch the parade up against a bank handicap ramp. After a little while we tried to move along the parade route, but simply couldn’t move. We went back in the other direction and managed to escape down Bleeker towards 7th Avenue and simply walked/people watched our way up 7th towards 23rd street. We saw at least 3 Gumbies, a very impressive Boba Fett and a couple of other random/amusing costumes. Then we hopped on the N train towards Astoria (where we parked) and went home. Good time, but not sure if I’ll go again.

Now for MMA talk, the exit point for those of you that don’t care about that…

World Extreme Cagefighting, UFC’s sister promotion (both owned by Zuffa) has finally been absorbed into the UFC. There will be one more WEC event in December. I can’t tell you how excited I am for this. WEC focuses on lighter-weight fighters: Bantamweight (135lb), Featherweight (145lb) and Lightweight (155lb). The Bantamweight & Featherweight Champions are now the first UFC BW & FW champions. FW Champ Jose Aldo will defend his UFC Featherweight title against Josh Grispi in January. Dominick Cruz defends the BW title for the final time as WEC champion at the swansong December show against Scott Jorgensen, the winner shall be the first UFC Bantamweight champion. The only overlapping division is the Lightweight championship. It shall play out thusly: Also on the December show, WEC LW champ Ben Henderson defends against Anthony Pettis. At the UFC show in January, UFC LW champ Frankie Edgar (Jersey represent!) defends against the most boring fighter alive, Gray Maynard. The winner of Henderson/Pettis takes on the winner of Edgar/Maynard in a title unification match. I hope Ben Henderson takes the whole thing, and he’s got the skills to do so. However, I’m hoping that Anthony Pettis pulls off the ultimate underdog come from behind impossible and takes the whole thing. He was featured recently on an episode of The World Of Jenks. It was a really touching look at his upbringing and his family and what he’s had to face in life. I think it would be a total Rocky story if he somehow managed to be the dark horse in this 4-way dance and ends up UFC Lightweight Champion. Coming from nothing and reaching the top of the mountain. Would make for one hell of a follow-up episode of Jenks, too.

This WEC/UFC needed to happen. When Zuffa purchased WEC several years ago, they kept it active as a separate promotion, focusing on the lighter weight fighters. However, they didn’t have the name recognition or TV presence that UFC has. (how many of you have even heard of Versus, the network WEC is on?) More often than not, WEC’s fights outperforms those on UFC ppvs, in terms of excitement, action and pace. Last week’s WEC 52 was no exception, featuring the debut of former WEC Featherweight champ Urijah Faber at Bantamweight, taking on Takea Mizugaki. Faber is one of the most exciting fighters to come out of the WEC and will finally get the exposure he deserves with the UFC-brand push behind him. Faber won via rear naked choke at 4:50 of round 1. That was the only fight I had a chance to watch so far, since I had rehearsal and got home in time to catch that fight. Will need to watch the rest that I had DVRd.

UFC 122 was on Spike TV Saturday night, and what a hunk of shit that was. Lately, UFC ppvs have been quite boring, with fighters more concerned with point-fighting and grinding out a decision, than actually throwing down. It’s smart, but not exciting. The main event was Yushin Okami vs Nate Marquardt, winner gets a shot at the UFC Middleweight title (after champion Anderson Silva defends against Vitor Belfort at UFC 126 in February.) I’m a big fan of Nate Marquardt, but as is the case with Greg Jackson’s fighters, he was playing it a little too safe and eventually lost the decision. Cagepotato said it best (and bold by me for emphasis:

After effectively nullifying each other through the first 10 minutes, Yushin Okami and Nate Marquardt absolutely sleepwalked through the final round of a fight where a shot at the middleweight title was on the line. Okami won (I guess) because he pushed forward and threw some grazing jabs and because Marquardt couldn’t do one damn thing with his takedowns. In a word: Pathetic. Seriously, just have the winner of Anderson Silva-Vitor Belfort cool his heels until Chael Sonnen gets back, because I’d way rather see that juicehead Republican pathological liar get the next shot at the UFC gold than either of these two.

Chael Sonnen is the only person to actually take a fight to Champion Anderson Silva as no one had done before. At UFC 117, he actually dominated the previously-thought-to-be-untouchable Silva for four rounds before finally getting caught in a triangle choke at 3:10 of round 5. To think, he was 110 seconds away from becoming the Middleweight champion. People were itching for a rematch, however Sonnen was cited during the post-fight drug screen for “elevated levels of testosterone”. Basically, he pissed hot and is under suspension for a year (from the date of the fight, Aug 7, 2010), pending the outcome of an appellate hearing in December, at which point his suspension may be reduced or upheld.

Since UFC events have been great big hunks of shit lately, the entire MMA community is excited for the addition of the WEC roster, a bunch of supercharged midgets that actually fight with a sense of urgency and fight to finish instead of snoozing along on points.

don't be scared homey

So September 11 came and went and I have yet to start on my mission towards better health. I really need to do so soon, my energy levels are at an all-time low. However, Everything's Ruined did have a mighty fun show with Despised Icon & Misery Index at Europa in Greenpoint Brooklyn on that day. I was never all that big on Despised Icon before. Had one record and listened to it a few times. It was good. They were amazing, as was Misery Index. I have since started getting more and more into Despised Icon. Figures that I would after they've announced their imminent breakup. The Brooklyn show was part of their final US tour. At least I got to see them/play a show with them before they call it a day.

Hopefully that will be my final show as a singer, since I don't like singing and playing guitar. Several reasons, first and foremost i have the HARDEST time writing lyrics. If i could be one of those people that simply whips out a notebook and constantly jots stuff down, I'd sing and find another guitarist. 2nd, for the kind of music I play, i definitely need an actual frontman. There is a better crowd interaction and dynamic as opposed to a dude that just stands there and sings while playing guitar.

Going to Headless Horseman with Brazen & his girlfriend for her birthday (among others.) That's gonna be a blast. That's my favorite Halloween activity. I should try to get to Eastern State Penitentiary as well since I didn't make it last year.

Friday I slept a LOT. Fell out around 9pm, slept for 12 hours, woke up at 9am on Saturday, went back to sleep at noon and slept another 3.5 hours. I woke up late in the afternoon and after a short while could've gone back to sleep. My body apparently needs rest badly.

Saturday met up with Joe, Gary & Len was in town for the day and we all converged on Greg Mahoney's house to watch UFC 119. WOW what a complete piece of shit that card was. The only matches worth anything were the preliminary matches that were shown on Spike TV. My detailed UFC thoughts are below. While we were watching the ppv, I got a text from Krissy telling me to come to Brady's for Tori's birthday. I told her we'd be there after the fights. Given how shitty they were, we should've skipped the ppv and just gone straight to the bar. Had a good time. Almost got into a fight. Kate was there and some dude was hitting on her friend Keri in a very "handsy" manner. Kate wasn't having that and chased the dude away. Later on, Len says to me "yo, this guy keeps eyeballing me." Turns out it's the same guy. I give Gary a look, he smiles, and i decide to get very loud about it. I basically start yelling that if someone has a problem with my boy, be a man and step up. The guy took the bait and started walking past me. As he did so, he looked at me directly in the face. I start yelling at him and he kept playing dumb saying "what? what?" and trying to hold his hand out to shake mine. I pull out the infamous "put your fuckin hand down" line and I'm still yelling at this dude. I end up dowsing him with my beer, he threw his bitch drink at me. I was waiting and praying for him to throw the first punch, but at that moment, Joe & Gary grabbed him and said "you really don't want to do this, homey. You are about to get fucked up real bad." At that point the guy was shoved out the door. The staff at Bradys thanked us for not getting into it with the guy inside the bar and not wrecking the place.

Sunday went to Brian's house to record click tracks for a new song. Done. Tried to do it for an older song, at which point our sense of timing and rhythm completely abandoned us and we simply could not get it done. So we left it for another day. Went to my mom's house afterward to watch the season premiere of Dexter. Overall it was a great episode, but what i don't understand is the Hollywood cliche of people having sex in the middle of an emotionally charged moment. SPOILER ALERT in case you haven't seen it yet, just skip the rest of this paragraph. Season 4 finale had Dexter's wife murdered by the Trinity Killer just before Dexter himself killed Trinity. Season 5 begins immediately after, with the police coming to the house. Afterwards, his sister Debra goes to Dexter's house (he's at Deb's apartment) to clean up all the blood in the bathroom (where she was murdered, the FBI had released the crime scene at this point), and is joined by fellow detective Quinn. For some inexplicable reason, all of a sudden she jumps his bones and they bone the moment they are done cleaning. Who the fuck has does that? I'll tell you this much, in every situation I've been in where someone close to me has passed away, the last thing I wanted to do immediately afterward is fuck. Does anyone do that for real? Such a ridiculous cliche.

UFC 119
Matt Mitrione vs Joey Beltran opened the Spike telecast. Matt has only 2 pro MMA matches under his belt (both wins, over Kimbo Slice and Marcus Jones) and is basically in the UFC because he appeared on the atrocious season of The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights. Should've been called The Ultimate Fighter: Dudes who could all easily make LHW if they got into shape and cut to 205lb. In any event, Matt (former NFL pro football player) displayed vastly improved stand-up skills. His overall skillset is improving exponentially with each fight. If he skipped the NFL and started out in MMA at a younger age, he would absolutely be a top prospect very quickly. Matt took Beltran apart using his reach advantage and took the unanimous decision, improving to 3-0. For some reason people hate on him cuz he was kind of a doof on the show, but I dig this dude. He's a special kind of crazy. I'm very much looking forward to watching his career develop. Will he wear gold one day? Doubt it, but it's pretty much guaranteed that, win or lose, every match he's in will be exciting.

CB Dollaway took on Joe Doerkson in the other prelim match. CB Dollaway is another TUF alum that, while not winning the show, has made his mark in the UFC afterwards regardless. He is also showing rapid improvement with each match. Dollaway won via INSANE guillotine choke that Doerkson tried his damnedest to get out of, with both fighters rolling several times like gators. Doerkson couldn't escape and was forced to tap or go to sleep.

Since Dollway vs Doerkson ended quickly, Sean McCorckle vs Mark Hunt from earlier in the evening was broadcast. Both make their UFC debuts. Mark Hunt came to the UFC due to some sort of stipulation in his contract from when the UFC bought out PRIDE, where Hunt made a name for himself. He is also a former K-1 kickboxing champion, tho his MMA record at 5-6 is a little less impressive. However his losses were to legends like Josh Barnett, Allistair Overeem, Fedor Emelianenko, Melvin Manhoef, among others. So he lost to the best of the best.

The rest of UFC 119 was an abomination in one way or another. Almost every match went to a boring decision with very little action and very little in the way of domination of one opponent or the other. The only exception being the opening bout of the PPV telecast, former UFC Lightweight Champion Sean Sherk taking on rapidly rising Evan Dunham. Exciting three round war that anyone with half a brain and a working pair of eyes could see that Dunham won. For some reason, Sherk took the win via split decision.

The rest of the matches are not even worth going into detail about, except for the main event, former Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir vs former PRIDE Grand Prix champion Mirko "Cro Cop" Filopovic. On paper, this was poised to be a barnburer. However the reality was far different. Both men took their cues from the earlier fights on the card and neither made any significant offense. It was quite clear that the legendary Cro Cop of old, the Cro Cop with the fearsome left high kick that has separated many a combatant from consciousness, is long gone. What we're left with is a past-his-prime Cro Cop that's getting a little older and has simply not looked the same since transitioning to the UFC from fighting in Japan most of his career. Especially hasn't looked the same since getting knocked into the middle of next week by Gabriel Gonzaga, ironically enough via left head kick. It's a very real possibility that retirement may be imminent for Cro Cop. In any event, after 14 boring-ass minutes, Frank Mir won by KO with a knee to the face that came out of nowhere. That was a purely Hail Mary luck shot, he shouldn't even try to pretend it was anything other than that.

Classic Facebook

LOL

ghetto commandments

Training Day

April of last year, I took a course to become a Mixed Martial Arts referee. Didn't pass the class, but it was an amazing experience. It was with Big John McCarthy, the OG referee around from the very beginning of my beloved sport. HD Net was there to film a segment on his class. Here it is. In the beginning you see a guy talking and two fighters going at it in the cage behind him, take a close look at the referee. It's me! You can spot me a few more times as well. In an interesting coincidence, one of the fighters is Joe Henle, who was on the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter (Ortiz vs Liddell.)

Dennis Wolfberg

Man, this dude is still one of my all time favorite comedians. He passed away in 1994. Taken MUCH too soon. Cancer sucks. Who knows how big he'd be if he was still alive today. His presence and delivery is amazing. I hope all zero of you that read this enjoy these videos.

the hardest move is making the first step

Stepped on a scale at my mom's house last week. 292.2. That is just WAAAYYY too much. Have let myself go completely. I need to change that. Need to get back into something resembling decent shape. We have a show coming up with Despised Icon on September 11. After that, we're taking a month off. I'll take the opportunity to stop smoking and start getting back into training. Joe trains with his friend Samir, so I'll be joining them. Also will start eating better. Cooking at home instead of eating crap food out all the time. Hopefully I'll get into decent enough shape where I'll be able to ride a bike next year without almost dying after only 2 blocks.

I really need to start caring again. I don't like what I've become.

Galactica: Sabotage

AMAZING!

deal with it!

determination

this dog

is BLAZED!

today's LOLs

When you're hungry, gotta do what you gotta do



Can i have a chair?

the life of a musician

Great read by the singer for Trap Them about the finances involved in being a musician in a extreme/heavy band.

http://www.metalsucks.net/2010/07/19/trap-thems-ryan-mckenney-responds-to-sacha-dunables-metalsucks-column/

truth

"It's a saying they have, that a man has a false heart in his mouth for the world to see, another in his breast to show to his special friends and his family, and the real one, the true one, the secret one, which is never known to anyone except to himself alone, hidden only God knows where."

- Vasco Rodrigues

Louie CK

The opening scene from last night's episode of Louie. Yes, she's a plant, but that doesn't make it any less funny.

"You don't like rape?" LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNRNCk3YwqE

Embedding disabled. oh poo on you, Louie CK!

the good old days

This may make me seem and sound like curmudgeonly old man, but I miss the days when the only way someone found out about a show/concert was either being handed a flyer (for smaller/DIY shows) or looking at listings in The Village Voice (for larger-scale small shows or big "concerts"). When one would go to the record store with some hard earned cash and actually LOOKED for new records to be turned on to. When someone made a flyer with a marker, scissors, glue and a photocopier.

Granted, I love, endorse and utilize the new technology to the fullest. The internet, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, photoshop, etc. have all been a gigantic help making getting your name to, potentially, an entire planet of people in mere seconds. But at what price? It's too easy now to make a name for yourself. The passion that I knew as a youngin "coming up" in "the scene" just doesn't exist in what I see in today's music scene anymore. Ok, that's not exactly fair, there will always be SOME sort of passion involved in smaller/DIY circles of music, but it's definitely not the kind I saw as a kid. These kids have it too easy.

The world has shrunk exponentially. Reach out and touch someone.

Good times

DYN-O-MITE!

Last weekend was the best weekend I've had in a VERY long time. Thursday night I received a text from Ray from Full Blown Chaos.
"What are you doing tomorrow?"
"Not sure, why?"
"Wanna do gang vox on the new record?"
"Sure! When? Where?"
"8pm, Milford CT."
I had just played a show earlier in the evening in Milford CT! DOH! In any event, I did have plans, but I canceled so I could make it up to Milford. I must say, the new Full Blown Chaos record is going to be a monster. Everything I've heard so far has been absolutely stellar. Easily their best effort yet. Very much looking forward to having the finished product in my hands. Ray played one particular song where Mark pulled out a Marty Friedman-esque solo that blew my mind. When it came time to do the gang vocals, it was Ray, his guitarist Mike, my bassist Joe had tagged along and myself. It was quickly apparent that the main voices were Ray's and myself, since we're both singers. We were LOUD! Joe lost his voice very quickly. After we were done with gang vocals, Ray asked me "what are you doing tomorrow?"
"I think just having lunch with my mom and my brother. Sup?"
"I may have a plus one for Warped Tour tomorrow. Wanna go?"
"Yes"
Katz Deli will have to wait for another day.

Picked up Ray on Saturday and off we went to Nassau Coliseum. As we approached the arena, I asked him who was hooking us up? He says "everyone" and then further explains that he was "on like 8 different lists." However, on this day, Andrew WK and his band were going to be the ones who would be the source of the day's hospitality. "Hey man, we gotta hit 7-11. Kenny (AWK's guitarist) says they get shit on this tour and want us to bring beer." A case of Keystone and Budweiser later and back to the arena we go. Kenny met up with us in the parking lot and handed us a pair of VIP passes to use during the day. From there, right to Andrew WK's tour bus.

Now, I have been a pretty big fan of Andrew WK pretty much since he first hit big. I Get Wet is still in heavy rotation on my ipod. To be imminently entering his tour bus, I must say, was pretty god damn sweet. First person I meet is AWK's wife, Cherie, who was very nice. Everyone in the band and crew were all super nice and welcoming, which is a refreshing change. Lot of bands these days think they're hot shit and have their heads up their ass. They usually get slapped repeatedly inside my head. So far, no one has been dick enough for me to slap them in reality. However, everyone in this crew were all super friendly. After a beer and some small talk, off we go to the stage that AWK is playing. We get to an area behind the stage where different bands have their gear waiting under tents, and face to face is on stage. I went out front, just inside the barrier, to catch the rest of their set. They were awesome, as always. At this point, I had noticed Adam had tweeted "face to face rules" and a picture of them performing. I texted him to tell him where i was (behind the stage, at that point.) A song or two after I started watching f2f, Adam finds me by the barrier. I join him on the "civilian" side of the barrier (haha) and we're watching some more f2f when our mutual friend Chuck Haile comes walking by. He's on tour with Dillinger Escape Plan. I think he's doing merch, but as is the case with Chuck, I'm never entirely sure what he does or who he tours with. After jawing for a few minutes, Chuck gives Adam a vendor wrist band that now allows Adam to join us backstage. After face to face ended, we did just that. Dillinger Escape Plan was up next. Adam & myself, due to our respective credentials, were able to watch from the side of the stage, which is always the best place to watch a show. It was even more amazing to do so on a stage of Warped Tour caliber.

I used to be a fan of Dillinger Escape Plan back when they first hit. Inhuman had put out one of our 7"s on DEP's old label, run by their former guitarist (before they were DEP) Matt Beckerman. We played a show with them back then and there was even talk of doing a tour with DEP & Candiria (where we would've stuck out like a sore thumb.) Back then, they were innovative and exciting. However, lately, it feels like instead of remaining innovative and exciting, they've blended into the sort of spastic tech-metal that they helped pioneer. They're not at the head of the pack anymore. To make matters worse, visually, they look like every other asshole that infests Williamsburg. I had seen them a couple of times recently and was completely bored by them. However, on Saturday, I actually enjoyed their performance. Am I starting to warm up to them enough to give them another chance? Maybe. We'll see.

After DEP's set, Ray, Adam, Kenny and myself went back to the tour bus. As we're approaching, who had just gotten off the bus, Andrew WK himself! We all introduce ourselves and he graciously invites us onto the bus and tells us to make ourselves comfortable. Ray then starts playing some songs from the new FBC record and everyone is instantly excited. Kenny starts punching the walls, literally, and says "dude, this makes me want to punch a hole in my wife!" He says that several times during the course of the day, much to our amusement. After some relaxation, we make our way back to the stage, with Adam, Ray & myself taking our positions on the side of the stage.

Andrew WK hit the stage and it was as energetic as amazing as always. It was such a treat to watch the show from the side of the stage, I loved every minute of it. Adam was never big on AWK (but didn't dislike him, either), but I looked over and he was thoroughly enjoying their set. New fan born, right there, possibly aided by the friendliness and hospitality we were shown throughout the day. As usual, the set comes to a close with their big hit "Party Hard", which has a bunch of people, who were also already watching the show from the side of the stage, run to the front and...well...party hard during the song. Ray & myself jump on a mic for the final chorus. Adam hastily grabs his phone and videos this event. My friend Marc later remarked that the video looked like it was filmed by Michael J. Fox (ouch, haha.) And just like that, the set was over. Adam and myself briefly talked to Cherie as she passed by, when we see Ray talking with Kenny and Andrew. I don't usually fanboy out, but I had to tell him what a great show he/they just played. Talked to Andrew briefly then asked to take a picture with him.

This was the resulting picture:


Awesome on so many levels!

After that, Adam & myself went wandering around and managed to catch most of Whitechapel's set. They were brutal as all hell, and the crowd were beating the shit out of each other. After their set, we opted to skip Suicide Silence and made our way back to AWK's bus. More chillaxin and beer drinking for pretty much the rest of the day. Wandered around and hung out with more people during the course of the late afternoon. Adam briefly went off on his own to watch Reel Big Fish before getting turned away for more backstage access for some reason. The show ended around 830pm. After all the kids were shooed away, Ray, Adam & myself made our way back to the tourbuses for the band/VIP bbq that takes place every night after the show is over. After several hours of beer drinkin and meat eatin, I finally made my way home (after dropping off Ray) around 1130. If I didn't need to get up early on Sunday to record at my drummer's house all day, I would've stayed much later.

On Monday, Adam and myself still reveled in the amazing day we had together on saturday (over emails.) By Tuesday, a search we had both started had finally bore fruit: video from the audience of Party Hard from Saturday! Ray, Adam & myself appear at 2:15 on the left side of the screen.


I need more days like that.

Some people really need to read this

They're/there/their is touched on, among other things. Correct spelling and grammar is sexy as hell.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/10-common-errors-spell-check-won-t-catch-2039083/

Bits

What's been new in the last few months?

- After being shackled to spectacles since I was 7 years old, I finally manned up and got laser vision correction eye surgery a few weeks ago. The procedure itself wasn't bad and only took about 20 minutes. The only thing that had me nervous was the thought of the eye clamps to keep my eyelids open. Being a big fan of the movie A Clockwork Orange, I had something like this in my mind:


Wasn't nearly that bad, at all. The recovery was a bit rough. My eyes burned like hell and I'm going to be taking eye drops for another month or so. My mom stayed with me for a couple of days, which was nice. I slept a lot. My vision, while infinitely better than it was before, still isn't perfect. There remains a bit of fuzziness, as if I'm frustratingly still frustratingly a tad nearsighted. At least I'm already able to have shed my glasses and able to do the one thing I've never been able to do comfortably: wear sunglasses.

- It may very be possible that I FINALLY have a good lineup for exercise in pain that is Everything's Ruined. Diallo, the weirdo drummer that I used to jam out with back in high school, quit, citing depression as a result of breaking up with some girl that already had a boyfriend. So, yeah. Found Brian and not only is he an awesome drummer but he's an awesome dude. Joe from Pinebox took over for Muttley on bass. James is still on guitar. I was singing and playing guitar for a while, then decided that I'd rather just stick to guitar. Figured we'd need an actual frontman: better crowd interaction, better dynamic. Truth be told, I absolutely suck at writing lyrics. If i had the gift of the written word, I'd be the frontman and would have looked for a 2nd guitarist. However, over a period of several months, I only managed to write lyrics for 3 songs, 2 are being kept and the 3rd is being mercifully buried. We've been writing new stuff and working towards recording a new full-length sometime in the fall. Can't wait.

- After 12 years, Faith No More finally got back together and played at Williamsburg Waterfront last week. They were just as amazing as always.

- Hurricane Alex tore through my family's city in Mexico, Monterrey a couple of weeks ago. My cousins have been sending me pictures of the devastation. It's shocking to say the least. As far as I know, everyone in my family is ok.





That last one used to be a dry river that had been dry for about 20 or so years that had been turned into public park space.

- Finally went to a couple of Yankee games this year. I always passively enjoyed baseball, but after going to a Met game 2 years ago (first time I've been to a baseball game since I was a little kid) I started to enjoy it more. I'm not a statistic spouting nerd by any stretch of the imagination, but I'll watch a game on TV every now and again and go to a game. The new stadium is absolutely beautiful. First time I went with some broad I was seeing at the time. 2nd time I went with my dear friend Angela & her fiancee Greg. Have grown real close with them over the last year. I'm glad. They're good people.

I guess that's all I can remember for now. All the more reason for me to start blogging again.

Backstage with Joe Rogan

Ariel Helwani goes backstage with Joe Rogan. A great conversation between two of the sports smartest analysts.

Jewel sings Jewel

AMAZING

Undercover Karaoke with Jewel from Jewel

Star Wars subway car

This is amazing.

Open for business

It's been a while since I've had anything to say. Retreating into one's own head will do that. A couple of months ago, my mom suggested I should "write stuff down", since I do lot of traveling and do a lot of things and such. Little does she know that I'd already been doing that for several years, but stopped months ago. Maybe I'll find a blog binding service sometime and have those old Livejournals printed and bound into book form so she can read for herself (since she doesn't use computers.) Her birthday is in December, so that will likely end up my project for October.

In any event, I'm back to posting my ramblings on the interwebs. Hope you enjoy.