Until I Find Out Tomorrow: September 2010

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.