Trespassers will be eaten...

meh...

2007-05-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

1. You can ONLY answer Yes or No!
2. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages you
and asks!

Kissed someone on your email list? yes

Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back? yes

Been arrested? no

Kissed someone you didn't like? no

Kissed a picture? no

Slept in until 5 PM? no

Fallen asleep at work/school? no

Held a snake? yes

Ran a red light? yes

Been suspended from school? no

Totaled your car/motorbike in an accident? no

Been fired from a job? no?

Sang karaoke? no

Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? yes

Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? no

Caught a snowflake on your tongue? yes

Kissed in the rain? yes

Sang in the shower? yes

Sat on a rooftop? yes

Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes? no

Broken a bone? yes

Shaved your head? no

Blacked out from drinking? no

Played a prank on someone? yes

Felt like killing someone? yes

Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? yes?

Had Mexican jumping beans for pets? no

Been in a band? yes

Shot a gun? no

Tripped on mushrooms? yes

Donated Blood? no

Eaten alligator meat? no

Eaten cheesecake? yes

Still love someone you shouldn't? yes

Think about the future? yes

Believe in love? yes

Sleep on a certain side of the bed? no

so people are just figuring this crap out?........

2007-05-02T10:17:00.001-07:00

Kitty Empire
Sunday March 25, 2007
The Observer

Heavy metal is the preserve of knuckle-dragging simpletons, right? Of delinquent Beavises and monosyllabic Butt-heads; people for whom making the sign of the devil's horns was the point of evolving an opposable thumb?

Wrong, according to a study presented this week to the British Psychological Society Conference. Warwick University's Stuart Cadwallader, who carried out the study, says some of the brightest young people in Britain like nothing more than a monster riff to unwind to after a hard day of being a chess prodigy. The study found that one third of their sample - drawn from members of the National Academy of Gifted and Talented Youth, or Nagty - rated metal among their favourite genres of music, ahead of classical and jazz, two complex genres long thought to be the sound of choice for brainiacs.

Article continues
All this seems deeply counter-intuitive. Ever since 'heavy metal thunder' - a reference to motorbikes in Steppenwolf's 'Born to Be Wild' - gave birth to a whole genre of noisy, aggressive music, people have looked down on metallers as thickos with poor social skills. Of course, cannier metallers have played up to the stereotype. AC/DC's guitarist Angus Young still dresses as a schoolboy in a winking acknowledgement of metal's puerile attributes.

Yet clever kids have always been into metal. Take the lid off any university science lab and you will find metal fans scurrying around. Queen's Brian May has a degree in astrophysics; Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden is a graduate who holds a pilot's licence too. Lemmy from Motorhead knows an awful lot about the Third Reich.

The study's conclusions come as no shock to me. Although I don't lay claim to youthful brilliance, I was a metal brat once. I remember the frisson of buying my first album - Destroyer by Kiss - when still in primary school. It wasn't like my father's Beatles albums, or my mother's operas. Nor were Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath or any of the other bands my exotic long-haired cousin introduced me to, or the other things they led to - the blues, punk, industrial, techno, hip hop, grime. And that was the whole point.

The Cadwallader study concluded that metal helps smart kids relieve the pressure of being gifted. Again, this seems to blow fundamental socio-demographic certainties out of the water. You would have thought that sensitive, gifted young people would gravitate to less hairy forms of music for succour. Mopey indie rock is tailor-made for the middle-class and misunderstood. Then there's emo, with its triumphalist alienation and clever song titles. 'This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race' quips a song by Fall Out Boy. But no - it's Slayer all the way for these junior masterminds.

One of the respondents summed up metal's appeal as only a member of the under-19s intellectual elite could: 'The cathartic release offered by heavy metal played loud, either by my hi-fi or myself on guitar, is a wonderful thing when it's needed.' This teen metallurgist proves two things. That he or she got to the heart of the matter a lot faster than Cadwallader, with his fancy funding. (Give the kid the PhD instead!) And second, that for young clever clogs, as for the rest of us, metal's primary appeal is the way it refracts ugly feelings of frustration into something meaty and satisfying.

In the savage 'uurrgghh!' of metal you can hear the collective human howl of disgust at a world gone mad. It's the sound of the rejected getting even, the trampled-on standing up, the unbeautiful settling scores with the buffed. Metal is the arena where the most unpleasant human emotions are let out to play - safely, for the most part. (Metal still sparks sporadic moral panics but, largely, metallers are a self-regulating and moral bunch.)

In a society embarrassed by intelligence, members of Nagty must nurture juicy revenge fantasies against the clots who rule the playground. Surely it's better for them to stick on 'Iowa' by Slipknot - a classic of nihilist bleakness - than to go on a murderous spree with a compass. Metal offers a world where injustice is punished, wrongs are Avenged Sevenfold (a band), where Vulgar Displays of Power (a Pantera album) are acceptable - if only for the duration of a CD. What's not to like?

And then there's the business of scaring your parents. These talented teens have probably spent a disproportionate amount of their lives pleasing their mums and dads with their sparkling SATs and prowess on the violin. As puberty and the natural urge to cleave away from the nest take hold, metal is a logical first port of call. You want to express an identity distinct from your parents? Heavy metal - exciting, ghoulish, loud - is perfect. That or gangsta rap.

Of course, metal is currently undergoing one of its occasional irruptions into fashion. It wasn't so long ago that Lordi won Eurovision. Fashionistas are still sporting ironic Judas Priest T-shirts - the kind of sacrilegious behaviour that brings proper metal lifers out in hives. A recent spate of so-called 'hipster metal' bands - esoteric outfits like Mastodon, Lightning Bolt and Sunn O))) - has brought this most outcast of genres blinking into semi-respectability. If these gifted youth aren't careful, they might end up cool as well as clever.

From the UK newpaper, the 'Telegraph' - metal's for smart kids!!

2007-05-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

Heavy metal 'a comfort for the bright child'

By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent

Intelligent teenagers often listen to heavy metal music to cope with the pressures associated with being talented, according to research.

Brian May with degree, Heavy metal 'a comfort for the bright child'
Queen guitarist Brian May has a degree in astrophysics

The results of a study of more than 1,000 of the brightest five per cent of young people will come as relief to parents whose offspring, usually long-haired, are devotees of Iron Maiden, AC/DC and their musical descendants.

Researchers found that, far from being a sign of delinquency and poor academic ability, many adolescent "metalheads" are extremely bright and often use the music to help them deal with the stresses and strains of being gifted social outsiders.

Stuart Cadwallader, a psychologist at the University of Warwick, will present the findings at the British Psychological Society conference in York today.

He said: "There is a perception of gifted and talented students as being into classical music and spending a lot of time reading. I think that is an inaccurate stereotype. There is literature that links heavy metal to poor academic performance and delinquency but we found a group that contradicts that.
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"We are looking at a group with lower than average self-esteem that does not feel quite as well adjusted. They feel more stressed out and turn to heavy metal as a way of relieving that stress.

"Participants said they appreciated the complex and sometimes political themes of heavy metal music more than perhaps the average pop song. It has a tendency to worry adults a bit but I think it is just a cathartic thing. It does not indicate problems."

The researchers surveyed 1,057 members of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth - a body whose 120,000 student members are within the top five per cent academically in the 11-19 age range.

Asked for their favourite type of music, 39 per cent said rock, 18 per cent R&B and 14 per cent pop. Six per cent said heavy metal and a third rated it in their top five genres.

The heavy metal fans in the study had lower self-esteem and more difficulties in family relationships and friendships.

Mr Cadwallader then held an online discussion involving 19 members of the academy, 17 of whom were heavy metal fans. They spoke of listening to bands including System of a Down, Slipknot, Tool, Dragon Force, Forward Russia and In Flames when they were in a bad mood and using it to work off frustrations and anger.

One student said: "It helps me with stress. It's the general thrashiness of it. You can't really jump your anger into the floor and listen to your music at the same time with other types of music."

Mr Cadwallader added: "Perhaps gifted people experience more pressure than their peers and use the music to purge this negativity."

Dan Silver, assistant editor of the music magazine NME who has worked for Kerrang! and Metal Hammer, said: "Many themes of heavy metal are about alienation. If you have these kinds of feelings there is a lot you can get out of the music and the community of fans who are into it."

Music: Lucinda Williams: Live at the Filmore

breathe...

2007-04-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

it's been a really long time since I wrote in here....
been really busy, really stressed....
can't really say that's done, but the end is an awful lot closer.
in terms of school, all I have left is the honors - which I need to get back at, but I also really need a few days to clam down and relax before i do that; it'll get done. they always do...and shortly it can have most of my time at least....

otherwise...
today was rough...
it was a pretty big day, but I don't think too many people who were around even realized........for that matter yesterday was too...hard, major, but nice...
not really sure where everythings going from here on out, but we'll wait, and see, and try and I think it'll be ok.

sometimes you think you're one of the people that can give up or stop, but then you realize that you can't - even if you want to, or think it best - and so you know you're in, one way or the other and you're not letting go...

I think steve earle has a song that goes that way...actually avenged sevefold too... not lucinda tho, or good charlotte...

2007-03-17T06:35:00.000-07:00

'using a sword is like using your heart.'

- some samurai guy

2007-02-24T01:01:00.000-08:00

"and sometimes you make shit up, cause reality does *not* rhyme."

-steve earle

8 more.

2007-02-22T11:45:00.000-08:00

Indeed.
since the last 10? 8 more....
it has been a good week.

now they have mostly all been incredibly good deals (like $4.50-good), so it's not quite as ostentatious as it might be.... but I do still need to calm down a little though...

and I realized that I am a more diverse listener than *I* gave myself credit for, let alone the rest of you............this happened as I was elastic-band-ing a steve earle cd to an Afi cd while holding a minsk cd. You may not like what I'm listening to and there may be lots of stuff I won't touch - but beat that range....

And all this listening (and an inspired guitarist friend) are making me more musically inclined again - I miss my band, but I also just wanna write, just me....I feel some quality time with my piano coming up soon, I think....

Also - today was a fucking awesome day as I got an autographed copy of Bruce Dickinson's second novel in the mail...........sweet merciful crap - it is awesome...and while the autograph part wasn't really the selling point, I have to admit to think that Bruce was actually in contact with the copy I have........that's pretty nifty. It makes me think about the life the book had before it made it to me.....where it's been and stuff - I know most recently it was in australia.... but I'm like that - I always wonder who owned used stuff I buy too, and why they let it go.........

but - I am so excited to start reading my book. school be prepared to fuck off; I have more important things to do now!!

Music: Steve Earle - I feel alright

I'm having a music fit....

2007-02-19T18:37:00.000-08:00

I have bought 10 cds since friday....
I wish to buy more - I am in one of my 'buy-up-stuff-you-only-have-on-tape-or-vinyl' moods....

tommorow I think I will go to hmv and buy and/or order a crapload of stuff...
I need many random things - like, seriously, why don't I have 'raw power' on cd? and what am I supposed to do if I want to listen to 'the show must go on' in my car? and what if I've been pronouncing 'lynyrd skynyrd' wrong this whole time?....

these are serious concerns and must be addressed....

fuck i love music

music: gimme back my bullets - skynyrd

3:49

2007-02-18T23:28:00.000-08:00

It's pretty late....
But it's so pretty out - I wish you were up to see it; I wish we had a cup of tea and we could curl up in a ball like puppies and just watch the snow...
It's coming straight down - no wind - giant flakes of snow in no particular hurry....
it's lovely; I think this may be the nicest snowfall of the season....
makes me happy that I'm an insomniac...

Today I am listening to Steve Earle...
I feel like he's been after me for a while - he's been coming up a lot lately and a bunch of other people have been listening to him, and then today at hmv I found Copperhead road lost in the fitness section, and I decided to replace my cassette tape (which easily hasn't been listened to in a decade)...
plesantly, Greg now thinks i am a fully functioning human being, having experienced me listening to something without death metal vocals....

I think the beauty of Steve earle is his 'master-of-the-bloody-obvious' quality....
I really love the song Waiting on you - there's nothing incredibly inovative about it, but I think that's why it works so well. I watched a commentary on an episode of Buffy once with Leslie, and I remember one of the characters is in the middle of a breakup and says to her boyfriend 'don't you love me anymore?' and the writers talked about what a difficult line that was to settle on - it's not creative, or unique, it sounds pretty lame.....but that's kinda how life goes and it works.....steve earle is like that, I think.....

'Here comes the night, day brings no light
For wrong or right I'm here waiting on you
Words cut too deep, old ghosts won't sleep
But they'll never keep me from waiting on you

Breathing out, breathing in
Holding out, giving in
Doing with or without
For a lifetime, just a lifetime'

Also - he's good cause you know however crappy your life is, his is most likely worse...and i's always reassuring to be reminded that there are people with worse problems out there...

Yet as much as I like the snow, I wish to avoid the predicted storm tomorrow. I have to work, and I have stuff I've been meaning to take care of that maybe I can get done if it does not snow, and god I need to get it done.....

I can't believe it's been three years - I never forget but I don't know that I'll ever be used to it.
from one, three that can only ever be two now... but probably never will be...
never again...
'demon'
I wonder if anyone would remember that but us....
= )

2007-02-16T12:34:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite picture leslie has taken of me.

I had forgotten it.

It pleases me, tho.

2007-02-16T12:17:00.000-08:00

1. Where were you 1 hour ago?
driving home from hava java

2. Who did you last text?
shawn

3. Is there anything pink within 10 feet?
umm, yeah - there is...............see I really like hello kitty; an awful lot of that crap is pink

4. When is the last time you went to the mall?
tuesday, and like every mall visit I make, it involved hmv and coffee and that is all

5. Are you wearing socks right now?
nope, I hate socks

7. Do you have feelings for someone?
I think I might

8. what did you last drink?
water

9. What are you wearing right now?
black pants, maiden shirt, fleecy hoodie

10. What was your last purchase?
coffee

11. Last Food You Ate?
multigrain wheat thins and cheddar with malt wiskey

12. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
Kate - who canceled my dinner plans

13. Have you bought any clothing items in the last week?
hell no

14. Do you have a pet?
yup. Caspian - cutest puppy ever

15. What's the last sporting event you watched?
world cup, last summer

16. What is your favorite class?
right now? umm let's go with 'least-crappy' instead, shall we? and that would be latin, since it's
the only class I have that doesn't have at least one utterly unhinged induvidual in it

17. If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?
maiden, front row

18. What is the last thing you purchased online?
a case and some cables and shit for my mp3 player

19. What are you listening to?
Avenged Sevenfold...............damnit shawn!

20. What's your favorite soup?
I make a pretty awesome veggie soup/stew type event that's really good

21. Do you miss anyone?
yeah I really do.

22. Last play/musical you saw?
G.I.C's violated-by-a-cactus show.....it was fucking good too

23. What were/are your plans for the day?
I needed to get some latin done, and I've accomplished that. I was going for supper with Kate but now she can't, so I plan to cook instead. There's a party I wish to stop by for at least a little bit, and a show I said I'd probably go to - I feel I can fit them both in nicely....

27. What do you know about the future?
Right now, not much - I know I am worried about it and I am not the only one.....and I want to figure out at least some of that.....

28. Are you wearing any perfume or cologne?
no

30. Where are your best friends located?
around - downtown, mount pearl, ottawa, calgary..........

31. Do you have a tan?
never - there's nothing dark and evil about the sun

32. How old do you want to be when you have kids?
I don't know if I want them at this point, but I suspect I would be more of a mind to adopt than to physically produce them anyway.........there are a lot of kids out there in the world that already need someone....

33. Who was the last person that hugged you?
susan I think

34. Do you have any tattoos or piercings?
yes

36. what phone do you have?
I have a cell phone.....um, that's all I really know

37. Do you like hot sauce?
I don't really like anything that you would put hot sauce on..............spicy is good tho

38. Are you talking to anyone?
nope

40. What is your mood?
not exactly fabulous but better than it has been for a long time - I figured something out yesterday..........I don't know if it's good or bad, but somehow it feels better to have realized....

41. What makes you mad?
lying, and any sub-category there of

42. What's the last movie you watched?
gladiator, I think - I watched that a lot last week........

2007-02-02T12:17:00.000-08:00

i was going to write in here before I went to work tonight...
I just don't know what to saw tho...

I think something really shitty is going to happen soon...

another pretty day....

2007-01-21T20:55:00.000-08:00

I didn't enjoy it much though....

I've felt kind of crappy for a while now, but today was really bad.
My stomach was worse than it has been in a lot of years... and I had a ridiculously intense headache to accompany it - which resulted in most of my day consisting of me having not eaten, curled up in a ball, listening to LOTR cause looking at it hurt my eyes too much....

everything hurts too much lately...

today was pretty....

2007-01-16T17:00:00.000-08:00

slushy, and poorly plowed... but very pretty - even hardcore boys agree.

so ,it was nice to take a few minutes to appreciate that...
and the simple niceties...
warm coffee and free cookies and good conversation I could do with more often....

not long back into school...
It's been a pretty rough couple of weeks....
I've been sick for a while now...
it manifests in a few different ways and it doesn't seem to be getting any better...
I was stranded for a day...my car betrayed me, but we're fine now...

my brain has been hurting a lot...
i never realized confusion could be a continuous state...
greek, philosophy, life in general - perhaps you could just figure yourself out for me....that would be lovely...not likely, you say? I know... but it'd stil be lovely...

2 and a half months and I am done....
I've yet to declare it too openly, but I have decided it is too late and I am too uncertain to apply for grad school in the fall....
I am taking an indefinite amount of time to figure my crap out...
continue to peddle maiden cds for a living and see if I can actually make a living at it...
monday nights have become heavier on the pink than the blue and I enjoy it....
I can think of worse fates.

so that's one of those new years' resolutions I made taken care of - more or less...
the other one...
no idea.
on hold, I think - put off until the world decides its time....
I followed thru on part of it - in a sort of trial by fire type way - no idea where it goes now tho....
lets hope I make it....

Tonight I decided I needed a break...
from too many dead languages...
I decided to watch a movie - I bought Tombstone yesterday at hmv. I haven't seen it since I was about 14; I really liked it then. It's still pretty damn good, but possibly in a different way than I remember...
I'm amazed at how much of the wicked dialogue I still know line for line in my head...
and there are so many actors in it.....
Brian couldn't believe I liked it. Guess people aren't always as easy to read as we think.....
fuck I wish they were tho.....

there was a funny story too, and I really wanted to tell it.....but i don't know how.....

and so it begins.....

2007-01-01T08:54:00.000-08:00

Bleh - new years.

Usually my most hated time of year (well except blistering summers in landlocked mainland provinces). This year it was nice - I hung out with a few friends...low-key, relaxed, nothing fancy, and Dawn and Mark were my New years' kisses. = )

Dawn asked if I was making resolutions.....I don't know really - I often try to make *something* maybe 'decisions' more than anything. I made two last year; one I did not follow through on.....though I had tried to but other elements messed with me, and are in fact still doing thier best. The second I did pretty fucking good with - especially for me - though I think I may have lost it a little this past week or so....

But at any rate I think I will make one or two for this year. I going to need to have care for something that didn't need any before and to figure out my own mind - this is disheartening but important and I believe it is worth the effort; and I also need to make some post-spring decisions about what the hell I'm doing with my life.....depending on how this term unfolds, of course. I cannot do another one like last term. I just can't.

In related news, for those of you who gave a shit - I finally checked my grades and tried to register. The grades were acceptable - though I'm not even sure a colum of 100's would have satisfied me in terms of the stress and difficulty that went into them....the registering has proved tangly......and I am having loan issues.......please friend don't hate me if it all goes to hell......

As for Christmas - it was ok. I guess it's never really everything you want it to be, and it'll never feel quite as awesome as when you were a kid and all you had to think about was which giant package you went to first. It was very busy, and too short, and came too quickly, with no snow until boxing day. I didn't feel very good and I didn't relax much. But I got my christmas cards done and was pretty satisfied with the results, though only a few people seems to really appreciate them this year. I saw people I haven't seen in ages, like mark, which is awesome but they go again too fucking quickly....... and I missed people who were gone, like Gillian and Adam, and even some who were here....

Shows were in short demand - which is pretty weird for the festive season. I saw Glenn Nutio and White Tara, wich was a pretty enjoyable show; and I saw a little known act I can only refer to as 898, who were pretty impressive, in terms of talent as well as enthusiasm; I saw Jigger at junctions, which was a pretty terrible show, though Jigger as usual were fantastic and it was nice to see Phil and Geoff.... Junctions is a truly horendous bar now (more than ever) and I think its bad energy has permeated my soul in some way. ick. e-vibes and hostyle-attire I cast thee out.....

Music: The Black Keys - Magic Potion

even more now...

2006-12-17T15:00:00.000-08:00

= (

15 minutes between me, supper, and hmv

2006-11-29T12:15:00.000-08:00

not enuff time to do any school work, or read or watch anything, too early to call anyone (as anyone I know who's not at mun, and who I therefore have not seen today, is not yet home from gainful employment), and it's too pitiful to just sit hear staring at the wall listening to emo........

Today was somewhat crappy...

there are people around me who fucking suck, and some who are fucking awesome - and i wonder sometimes if I treat each grouping of them appropriately or that I put too much weight on the wrong one.....maybe I'm crappy and expect or demand the wrong things......casue I'm not getting them anymore......but on the opther hand, maybe my Greek Poetry paper has my ideas of power and balance all fucking fucked up.....

I can't wait for school to finish..... I have 6 pieces of evaluation in the next 19 days........this does not bode well - but what other option does one have (I guess I just need to debate my options for next term....)? IT will be a rough couple of weeks - I just don't have very much critical thinking left in me......

but yes - the 18th. that's the light at the end of my tunnel (tho I will be popping out thru a side exit for a moment after I finish exams on friday - I will drink, go to work, and drink again - with adam, tho I'm not sure if he knows this, but he leaves the next moring and he's not going away for chrstimas w/o me seeing him outside of an exam room. So last paper handed in that morning of the 18th - then off to drink/fuck/piss/ get in a fight/....and whatever else one does to partake of the crazy release of pressure. Mark will be home then - which I am super excited for....we will be the utmost in metal; Sara as well - always fun; I can hang out with my monkeys; kate if she can let go of her new beau for 5 seconds; lay eyes on my future roomie again and see what color her hair is these days.......my boy wil be super busy and in business mode, but I will be a horrible influence and make him stay out past his bedtime and not be too shiney. I think I will be drunk everyday.....just a tiny bit less if I need to be at hmv; I will buy jager by the case.....I will christmas shop and buy presents and make christmas cards and bake and go to shows and buy a dress to wear to a wedding and go to said wedding and lots of other super fun stuff.....

Music: AFI - the new thing.....december underground, maybe?

I miss my friend

2006-11-27T18:26:00.000-08:00

= (

hey world....

2006-11-26T00:11:00.000-08:00

long time no see...

been too busy. still too busy. but had a few brief reprieves in the past few days....

Pointless Classics papers have been eating my soul, and i only have 2 of 3 heading towards done; the coming week holds a presentation and most notably the end of Antigone and Wheelock....which will be lovely...

tonight I went to Dawn and Danielle's joint semi-formal birthday party - which was nice; I think they had a good night and they liked thier presents and that's the part that matters.... everyone enjoyed fancy clothes, and I enjoyed getting my jager back (well, back in my tummy, as it were...) Drank enuff, quick enuff to feel it; left fairly early; was pretty silly; and ended up watching hairspray on tv....that movie rules...i wish I was john waters' kind of beatnik...

yesterday I had super yummy indian food, saw the new james bond movie which was fucking excellent, realized that sometimes I worry when I needn't, and found out I'm not quite as strong as i thought i was...

anyway - I'm going back in, back in like three weeks.

Metal note: buy mid-range champange...

Music: Corrosion of Conformity - Deliverance

About fucking time...

2006-10-30T23:36:00.000-08:00

Skull finally has like 2 fucking free minutes to actually update this crap.... which is lovely....

Rough damn month - far, far too much on the go to get into here and now....

highlights feature:

Maiden in To ........this makes three, for those of you who may be counting.....and is at least the second best viewing, if not the first. It was pretty fucking amazing - maybe they will simply get bettter and better everytime I go to see them.....this show was just so fucking good - everyone was so on top on thier game; they just played so well - and the whole new album no less which I've come to love more and more everytime I listen (which was quite a bit as I don't think I've purposefully listened to anything else for about a month)....so good...and I was so close....and that metal guy was so pretty....I mean - nothing.... ; )

Leslie interviewed me today for a folklore paper about seeing them a bunch - and it was lovely; I probably could have talked for hours - fuck. maiden. metal. someone encouraging me not to shut up. what more could a girl ask for?

This past weekend was also pretty fun. As anyone who's ever seen me would know, I love Halloween. The costumes and fun and evilness and tricks and treats and skulls and bats and vampires and everything that is awesome in the world in one fun holiday. Sadly tomorrow is the day itself and I am working a shift at hmv that will prevent me from teh handing out of candy = ( .......but I will be festive at school tomorrow and I will go see swords after the mall closes and then Kate and I will watch Halloween, because we have to! but this past weekend was the celebratory drinking party of the holiday and I had a pretty fantastic time........possibly due to or possibly in spite of my pantless state ; ) I saw most of my local friends over two days and that was lovely - some who have been scarcely encountered as of late, and that was even better again..... John wins the prize for best costume - what a fucking awesome Edward Scissorhands he made (and for giving me a shirt that only needs to be moderately altered - thanks again); Nancy also looked fantastic (sewing-prodigy that she is - I was highly impressed).....

And today was good - GiC did not fuck me; and I was festive; and leisurely talked to some wayward friends........still more ont eh list, but I swear I am getting there....and watched 3 episodes of the original british queer as dolk, courtesy of teenwolf (no hugs I promise)

There has also been a fair bit of stress and issues and fucking shit lately too......which I am not really of a mind to go into, but it's all left me pretty dissillusioned with and ambivilant towards school - I think I have come to realize that it is not ultimately worth what it has been demanding of me........I don't know where than leads at this point...but I guess we will see...

At any rate then, it is very late and I have a long day to contend with tomorrow.....I hope my update was not too crappy.....

2006-10-29T07:23:00.000-08:00

Hey all......sorry I have not posted in such a crazy long time - life has been time-consume-y and interfer-y.....soon, I promise.

Everyone have a good holiday though....

So this is what I did to myself last week = )

2006-10-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

'Sing, Goddess, the wrath of'......

2006-09-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

if only it were that instead of Sophocles.....

Today was a terrible day for some reason.

Less than one full week into classes and school is driving me to drink - literally...I was in *both* campus bars today.....not a good sign.

Greek is going to do bad things to me - in actuality I am not even sure I an capable of doing it in the end.....I have no idea what's going to happen. I know that I simply cannot continue devoting the kind of time I have so far to this one class...my other classes are going to pick up and I simply won't have it to give - I can only hope by then, it won't *need* so much of my time....

Today though, Greek broke something in me.........I got a really hard bit and really didn't know what was going on, and my brain just kind of shut down - and it was luckily towards the end becasue I didn't have anymore to give....

And I needed moral support, or encouragement, or something.....and I picked the wrong person to go to, and that made it even worse and just made me even more sad and depressed, for a whole slew of reasons....

Then I had a three hour class I'd yet to have and I don't know how I feel about it and I don't know if I should do something else instead, and if I did that, how much it wouls fuck up other things I have been trying to organize....

And my tummy has been crappy for days, and now on top of that I have a headache that doesn't want to go away...

And I want a mucep and I probably wont get one...

And the world is making getting to see maiden as complex and un-fun as it can be...

And tomorrow we will be having a ridiculous amount of rain...

But now it is 1:15 am, and I have given up on working, and I am watching a Maiden dvd as a last ditch attmpt at improving my day.... I have said more than once seeing them was the only thing I've ever done that I *never* wanted to have end on me.......if I could do nothing else for the rest of time, I would be content watching them play.... as such, it seems to be working somewhat....

Beast over Hammersmith; Bruce younger than I am now..... fuck, October 16th isn't close enough...

Music: Maiden with moving pictures, in my first interlude away from new audio-only Maiden, in exactly one week (I've bought new Blind Guardian and new BLS and have listened to neither as of yet....)

Upon reflection...

2006-08-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

it looks like I haven't written a sensible post in here in bloody forever; let's attempt to remedy that shall we?

New and exciting?

I played my first show as bassist with Endearing Perversion this past weekend (and wore girl-clothes to keep said band - and kate, who is always complaining at me to wear my nice clothes - happy............though I wore my *own* girl which did not make the designer who outfittted my guitarist especially happy). I think it went pretty good. My singer, Cara, has a lovely summary of events up on her blog, which I couldn't do justice to here, so check that out. But I had a lot of fun - ran around a bunch that night; saw j. fisher play one song (which was awesome, and I am happy that his show went so well and also that we fixed everything), totally missed sheavy, and ended up not being nervous at all cause I was too busy being impatient and wanting to go do other stuff! = ) And a bunch or people came just for me - which was sorta heart-warming!

And now that that's done, I'm in the midst of a little down-time that isn't all that down-y.......the best part though? I get to cook and actually eat remotely sensible now that my time is my own again - so sweet....breakfast at breakfast time, supper that doesn't involve toast *or* standing - good times. Yesterday I planned my whole dinner around the fact that I had a crapload of fresh local snap peas! Kate came by after a stressful day at he kiosk and I made pretty yummy rice paper rolls that seemed to intrigue her quite a bit. I cooked, we ate, drank wine, and sat around listening to JKW....

MUN also starts again in a week, which I'm looking forward to, but with the summer being so damn busy, I never really did get back at latin, or the more daunting greek, which I had planned on. So I've got about a week to get back at that, and try to get back into it all again. Greek is very intimidating, but lynn and I are forming a united front and it's Antigone, so hopefully it won't be *too* bad.....only 1350 lines of untranslated Greek between me and the light at the end of the tunnel.... And I also need to start thinking and planning the honors essay I'll be writing this year - I'm in the market for an interesting *greek* topic, that I'm not already super-familiar with. This will definetely be a super-busy term and year (there's also a Classics conference hosted by MUN in the spring, which I'm kind of excited about, being the geek that I am) so I am already hoping that people will be understanding if my free-time for hanging out diminises somewhat......and I should also be the proud(-ish) bearer of an honors degree at the end of the winter, which just means more school, as I'll be on to a masters somewheres - thanks to GIC mostly, I have Oxford in my head, which would be *so* fantastic, but I guess we'll see how things work out..........

That covers the broad sweeps at least - other than that, things have been mostly par for the course....copius amounts of coffee (yesterday was a peaberry day!)..... a bunch of fun shows past - notably the JKW cd realeases - higlights including local tough and the dislocating of a knuckle (those guys really *are* tough), Alex borrowing my eyeliner, and the longest swords set I've seen in some time - and upcoming - the punk prom friday, again with swords, but in fancy clothes (ooo - I hope judge dredd dress up; this would be hilarious), and metal night @ the alternative saturday - should be fun (in an ideal world I would *love* for the guys from sheavy to come and yell orgasmically for some incidium song, just to balance that bassist's love for the electric sleep! = ) tee hee)...ooo - also, Thursday is Jager night at the Basement, which now makes it my favorite bar!..... and I've bought too much stuff lately but not nearly enough cds - eveidence of this? Ticket to go see maiden in TO in october, but no dice on the new Maiden album, as I apparently have to wait another week -BOO!! If I find out Bruce was out flying planes or riding tanks instead of getting this album out on time I will be very unimpressed!!

Bleh - off to find Shawn, eat, and do something productive, such as read (english, greek or latin - I've yet to decide) or draw........or possibly watch Rome.....

Music: Pelican - Australasia

2006-08-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Nancy !!! = )

love Nadine

it's pretty rough, pretty diy - but I'm proud of it...

2006-08-25T23:51:00.000-07:00

not metal !? = \

2006-08-22T23:44:00.000-07:00

Oh Leslie - you are such a bad influence........I've been listening to Wolf Parade all night!! What's wrong with me?! eep....

Enraged

2006-08-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

It's heading for 4 in the fucking morning and I am *losing* my shit - my fucking neighbors just phoned me to complain that something 'like music' which was coming from my house they thought was too loud, and was keeping them up - just like last night when 'thumping' kept them awake til 5 am. Indeed. I sleep with music on every night of my fucking life - just like I was doing about 15 minutes ago, when the phone fucking wakes me up to tell me this shit. Not to mention that it's bloody pouring rain and my fucking window was fucking closed, and and yesterday I was fucking out til like 4 am, so I'd like to know how the fuck I was making any noise that would keep anyone awake.

I got off the phone, so damn confused after making a pretty lame defense cause I was like 'what the fuck? but I wan't even here.....' but still totally fucking pissed - I would like nothing better than to go have a screaming match with my fucking suburbanite neighbors right now.....which is utterly outside the realm of possibility, as the rest of the people who live in this damn house will probably live nest to these bastards for quite some time....yargh....

I am almost tempted to start playing bass as loud as shawn's little practice amp will go without killing itself....

Cause I really need to be annoyed at shit like this now too - I definetely don't have enough other fucking things to worry about, or deal with, or fucking get up for a few damn hours....growl

2006-08-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

"When someone sees the same people everyday ... they wind up becoming a part of that person's life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how others should lead their lives but none about his or her own."

Paul Coelho - "the Alchemist"

so are we all 'someone' and 'the others' at any given time?......

2006-08-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

I meant to put this up like a month ago but I totally forgot......it's a coffee shop in Ottawa - it fucking sucks and the owner is a lunatic, but notice the name of said establishment.....

Thursday morning.....two hours in...

2006-08-03T07:55:00.000-07:00

Today I got a Hello Kitty coloring and activity book.

And my dog came home from her camping trip.

And I had a giant bowl and many handfuls of excellent cereal with yogurt bits.

And blogger won't let me post any pictures.

And I'm listening to Aqualung on vinyl.... and it is truly awesome. Flute solo!!

So now we're all up to speed.

That is all.

music: the Tull

Tales of the plague and crying over spilt bubble tea...

2006-07-21T07:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a crappy day. I am sick. I seem to have contracted something flu-like which seems ridiculous in July, and yesterday I felt really really crappy. My body felt like it had been beaten in a bad fight or a car accident, or had fallen down a lot of stairs, and there was just this crazy pressure in my head - it sucked really fucking bad..........walking from my house to my car required an awful lot of my stamina, and so I spent the majority of the day watching dvds, cause outside of mumbling to myself and staring at the wall, this was the pastime that seemed to require the least amount of brainpower (and/or will to live).......which was key - just to prove my point in regards to my diminished intelligence, at one point yesterday Leslie said to me that she had seen ‘Dave and Jen’ which I thought about for a moment, and then answered, ‘who the hell are dave and jen?’ She responded ‘Dave Strange and Jen Squires’ (in that tone that people use when they’re answering a *really* dumb question......sorry Leslie; sick skull is only a burden) which I *still* had to think about for a minute before I realized these were friends we were talking about (sorry guys - really not my day) ............bleh...............and the worst part of the day? The giant sticky mess that was left of me and my kitchen after an ill-advised attempt to make bubble tea while sick........the cover pops off a cocktail shaker and the rest is history, covered in glucose syrup. I am unsure of whether or not I will regain my taste for bubble tea............

So I finished off the day watching ‘The Fellowship of the Ring,’ which has always held the power to make me feel better.........well except when Boromir dies his noble death - that’s incredibly sad, but the movie still makes me happy......

And yet all in all, better than the day before the day before yesterday, which was one of those where absolutely nothing goes the way you want it to, and every little thing that can occur or not occur to annoy or inconvenience you, will. At the end of the day I was talking to my friend Shawn on the phone and he told me to just go to bed and write the day off.......which was excellent advise. By that point I was in a mood that redefined ‘bad’..........

The only part of that day which really bears mentioning at this point, was running into an old friend at Hava Java (which is normally my favorite-est place in the world but only bred crappiness that day). I see him around periodically - and most people who know me will surely have heard me mention him - he was once one of the nicest, happiest, coolest, intelligent, and all-around kick-ass people I’ve ever known.......I loved hanging out with him and talking to him, and did so at length..........I spent way to many 3am’s and sunrises at Tim Hortons on topsail rd (when it was *the* goth place to be) with this boy......and he’s one of the few people I ever let get away with being protective over me. Now I think he needs someone to be protective over him.........I think - but I don’t know how to do it, and I don’t know who else can either. My friend seems irrevocably fucked up these days; he has undergone a change such that it’s nearly impossible to see the person he once was in the person he is now - and I have no idea what, if anything, can help him. I suspect he might be schizophrenic or some thing.........I have a pretty limited knowledge of stuff like that, but he manifests incredible paranoia, and -most worryingly - carries on lengthy conversations with himself....so I am at a loss......

I have had an ass couple of days.........

And there doesn’t seem to be much going for the weekend. And next week I turn 26......I guess we’ll see how that goes..........

on an completely unrelated note, the new geico gecko speaks like Steve Harris............this rules.

Music: The Return of the King Soundtrack

earplugs. sobeys, most wisely spent 3 bucks ever.

2006-07-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

I am much berated for not updating this thing enough - so I am trying.....but what to say? It’s summer and the beauty of summer is the spare time and nothing much really happening.......

Actually shows have been happening and music in general; some are past and some are upon us but I am enjoying it - it seems to be the flavor of the summer (well - along with coffee, but everything in my world has a slight coffee taste). My little mainland jaunt afforded the opportunity to see roughly a dozen bands in a week or so (enough that a bouncer at one of the venues in Ottawa started referring to me as a regular), and now I’m just trying to keep pace. Since I’ve been back I’ve seen everything from hardcore shows in vegan communes to acoustic sets in dingy bars (actually I think both of those might have been the same day.......)

Last week saw the return of sheavy, assisted by JKW; this was pretty good....strange more than anything else. People were present and absent who were and were not expected, things seemed a little off-kilter but overall it was a good time - though neither myself nor anyone else had or, in fact, ever will have as good a time as the new guy from Incidium, who was without a doubt the happiest and sweatiest person in the bar - random metal guy, I love your enthusiasm; at some point we will formally meet. As well there were a really awesome couple of blues shows courtesy of a lovely gentleman named Raoul, who’s last name I won’t presume to attempt to spell, but who was fantastic. Of course he was playing with my friend Steve so his quality was presumed, but it really was excellent; and the man sings and plays harmonica - who knew how great that could actually be? And the Powerhouse Blues band also came out of hiding at these shows to put off a great set as well.

As for this week so far I’ve taken in Glen Nutio - who I enjoy way more than I would ever have expected of myself, and not just cause he plays with a professor of mine! That was actually a really fun show - got to hang and drink with said prof in nautical wear (which was much more classy than the matching after-hours club girls from junctions last week), catch up with a bunch of wayward friends and associates, see a chap wearing what was essentially a plush unicorn helmet, play my worst game of pool *ever*, and was told that another professor of mine, who I liked and respected quite a bit, had told someone completely unconnected that I was an excellent student.....................this was especially nice to hear - I’m becoming more and more convinced that this Classics thing is my path, so it’s nice to have people who are already on that road believe I should be taking it as well. Which I decided, today, to do in full force - I would like to do my Masters at Oxford if at all possible; there’s nowhere I would rather be for Classics, so I will aim for that and work from there.

The rest of the weekend holds shows that are obligations but should still be fun due to the expected attendees, the long-awaited taking in of wax mannequin; next weekend Jigger; the weekend after that the JKW cd release............there are metal shows coming up, hardcore when August hits, bands from away, long range plans in the works to travel to see witch, blind guardian, Maiden of course, my own shows with the awesome band who’ve taken me under their respective wing (and I *am* learning bass - I’ve been practicing, albeit without amplification, I’ve got a few of their songs mostly worked out, a magnus rising song down perfectly, some random type O, and other bits and pieces.............three of my fingers are, hmm.....funny - first they hurt, then they went numb, then they hurt again and now they’re kind of pins-needle-y all the time.......I figure this will pass in time........hopefully...........)
Music is too good.

Today I bought a cd called the Gersch. The first post I ever out up here, I believe had a bit about how much I love the stickers that go on the front of cds..............this one has raised the bar for all that will follow. It reads: ‘Historic recordings featuring the guy from Isis with the best hair.’ And he certainly plays like he has the best hair.

Mmmm - cds............so many on the way to me right now.........must.....hold.......out..............I can make it..........

On a completely unrelated note, I love Highlander...........I think I forgot, but I do - some day just for posterity I will type out my recollections of my phone call from the crazy Highlander-guy and put it up here, cause it’s actually one of the funniest things that has every happened to me.

Music : the Gersch

Skull puts the 'sum' in summer...

2006-06-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

Home now - enjoying the inevitable relaxing one always wants to do after relaxing vacations.........and trying to figure out what to do with myself for the rest of the summer........

Spare time is lovely and everything, but I somehow became used to not having a lot of it; where I was once a person who had tonnes and thought that was perfect, now I get bored (or in all honesty, I’m not bored now, I just think I will be after July 9th when the world cup ends - sorry I really like football; I’ll stop talking about it I swear........although today was funny, I watched so many games I had them all mixed up and I knew who had won and lost I just had them beating teams who had in fact lost to a different team all together.....my poor brain is getting mushy from too many statistics........)

So summer plans.........

I need to get back at my artwork - I have been very lax these past few months and that is one of the only things about myself that disappoints me...........I love drawing and I am better for having done it, so how is it that I get so little done - so that is my main goal, I think............and I have a friend waiting on some artwork for his newest musical venture.....make that a couple of friends actually......

Also, there is school......I am debating whether or not it’s useful for me to do this Roman Civ intro that’s offered over the second half of the summer. It seems like a good idea. And it would start this coming Monday so I have to hurry up and decide........which would be aided immensely by figuring out how one goes about getting an honors and a masters and then a ph d, and where one does all these things, and how many languages one need know and so on and so forth.........yup - need to figure out school stuff. I know what I want to end up with, I just need to figure out how I’m getting there................and either way I plan to start studying Latin and the longer-neglected Greek again – yes, I know this makes me an incredibly big geek, but I’m ok with that............if I’m really gonna be a Classicist I can’t forget my languages every summer.........also my latin-friend says he plans to get back at said languages too - if he does it and I crap out, we will be in no where near the same league and that would be sad........

Need to learn how to play bass too...........in a kind of ‘frying-pan-into-the-fire’ sort of way - there’s a band waiting on me who can actually already play their respective instruments..........

And then there’s general summer fun, such as bonfires on beaches, eating ice cream, bubble tea and frozen coffee beverages, wandering around downtown, midnight swinging, soccer, driving around with the windows open listening to Highway to Hell (this is quintessential summer metal) and just your basic hanging out and doing nothing.............

Bring it on!

Music: Norther (who may or may not be simply a front for Children of Bodom) - Mirror of Madness

Group activities..........damn I never did play well with others.....

2006-06-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

I encountered this on livejournal but I moved it here.... On the one hand I believe (hope?) more people visit here than there, also I know it's way less of a pain in the ass to comment here and anyone should be able to, so that makes it more useful....I'd do it again in a heartbeat! ; )

And I just think it's a nice idea - sucks if no one posts cause I guess that means no one cares about your opinion of them, but I guess those are the risks you take living on the edge like this.....

Here we are then:

If you comment...
1. I'll respond with something random I like about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll name something we should do together.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me (or just me).
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
7. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal so you can do the same for other people. (but if you lack a jounral we can overlook this part - but you other blogger people better fall in line!)

Music: Children of Bodom - Are you dead yet?

TraveloguE

2006-06-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

So I am in Ottawa - and I figure I should update this thing before Leslie loses her mind completely.....at least I know someone cares. ; )

Travelling now, obviously. I like being home (like my friend mark who likes being in his house cause thats where all his stuff is) but adventures are ok too (or they must be - I keept randomly taking them).

The day I got here was hilarious - I was awake for over 24 hours.......madness - I stoped drinking like 9 o clock, but I still felt drunk the whole damn night. We went to see the Longtimers (slash old-timers) who are really fucking good (and better since I saw them last)

Then I went to Montreal, ate tons of great food, drank tons of cheap wine (just like I told shawn, I fully intend to drink every day.......ah, damnit - I don't think I *did* drink today.....ok - its not too late I still have 18 minutes before it's tomorrow......), spent a bunch o'cash (most of it in a goth store.....no, really I swear I'm not goth; *seriously* - not goth; and I also bought Maiden records - whoo hoo) - all while trying to still be a good friend......who knows?........

Oh, and I also watch the world cup whenever possible....which was a surprising amount of time all things considered. I have seen at least part of every game so far - and usually most if not all of each one. The best one so far was definetely the Japan/Australia game this morning, I woke up early and watched it befoer we checked out of our hotel room - that was fucking excellent. And I was totally going for Japan - poor bastards, but they played so well and then Australia went insane on them. But it was *such* a good game. So I think I'm going for Portugal in the end...........quite possibly because we were walking through a Portugese area when they won yesterday and I *loved* the mass chaos that came in the wake of that win. Actually that's probably the highlight of my weekend.......it was so much fun to see people totally lose thier shit like that - sorta heartwarming frankly - so I think I got a little swept up in that. World cup final party at skull's ok?

Otherwise I intend to have a quiet-ish week. I will feed my friend sara, who normally has terrible eating habits (today I snuck brocoli ionto her fajitas, like you do with kids), and try to keep her healthy, and also try to make her study. I will try not too spent too much money and I will look forward to next weekend when I'm gonna see about a dozen bands.....literally.

then back in NF Sunday. So I guess I'll see a bunch of you then. = )

music: Neurosis - Time of Grace ($12 - Sound central; my new favorite store.....and I got a free Isis poster)

2006-05-27T23:28:00.000-07:00

oh - and I forgot this:

music: The Tea Party - Seven Circles (Oceans is a really pretty song)

This is hilarious...

2006-05-27T23:26:00.000-07:00

You Are The Lovers

You represent ideal love: innocence, trust, exhilaration and joy.

You demonstrate the harmony of opposites, two sides coming together.

At times, you also represent the struggle between what is right and what is tempting.

Control is an issue for you, especially when you don't know your reasons for choosing something.

Your fortune:

You have an important choice you need to make about love, and it will be a difficult choice to make.

You are likely struggling between the love you crave and the love that is right.

In the end, you will choose what you crave, even if it's bad for you.

Because without what you crave, you will feel empty and incomplete.

What Tarot Card Are You?

Sometimes you read something or you hear something and it just seems really significant...

2006-05-27T22:33:00.000-07:00

"Pride and resentment are not indigenous to the human heart; and perhaps it is due to the gardener's innate love of the exotic that we take such pains to make them thrive."

- Hope Mirrlees: Lud-in-the-Mist

I have issues. oh - sorry I'm not writing about them or anything......I just have them ; )

2006-05-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

I hate malls and I’ve done enough shopping in the past week or so to last me a lifetime.....or at least until the fall when clothes starts being made in black again. I saw white jeans yesterday. But I’ve only been watching other people try to buy clothes - I’ve been buying too many cds and dvds (but come on - $40 for the entire dead like e series?!) *and what constitutes 'too many' cds you ask? Yesterday I bought a used Sentenced collection at Freds cause I saw it had a bunch of tracks on it from an ep that I didn't have, which, it turned out when I got home, in fact I actually *do* own, but seemed to have forgotten*.......so I’m implementing a ban on non-coffee/non-gas/non-show spendage.........these are the things I cannot live without. Well, *I* don’t actually need gas, technically gas is bad for me - but my car likes it and I like my car and I want him to be happy and drive me around (say to shows and coffee) so in the end I need gas...............which *sucks* as anyone who buys gas will know - I filled up yesterday cause I was in CBS and it’s a little cheaper - $52. I wanted to cry.........

And speaking of spendage, it looks like I might be buying a bass soon....... I’m actually really into this whole thing.... I’ve been messing around a bit on basses I do not own.........and actually hauled out my old shitty guitar to fuck around a bit - my fingers hurt.....not to the bloody extent they did when I ‘learned’ how to play guitar years ago, but enough that it might feel like progress.....

I will be staying up very late tonight; hopefully it will be less dramatic than as is the pattern I've already established here.......... I’m playing airport chauffeur at like 5am........so I have a *lot* of time to kill - thoughts, offers, and suggestions welcome (I know I've got some friends out there who seem to have abandoned me - now's your time)......anybody want to go get coffee? = )

music: Matriarch (this fucking awesome female melodic death metal band from Puerto Rico, I recently discovered.......they are crazy good) but I only have like one song which I just put on, so previously it was.....
Isis - Panopticon

Orange, thou usher confusion.....

2006-05-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

I saw the sun come up last night (for complete details, most notably including the crazy uber-goth blood moon, please refer to Miss Lester B’s blog for a riveting retelling of events)...............well, perhaps not literally - I wasn’t actually looking at it or anything.........but I was still awake, no where near my bed and the sneaky thing came up - this never bodes well for my sleeping which is fairly sketch at the best of times. I really can’t sleep properly if I’ve seen morning light.........I don’t know why. And this whole turn of events was pretty unexpected - I’d actually figured it’d be a pretty early night and I’d probably come home, relax, hang with the pup, read some.........not so much.....my late night excursion with the jay to my silent bob (it has to be that way.........I’ve got the coat, you’ve been known to have the pot.....between the two of us we *might* swear that much........) actually offered an escape from an earlier unexpected turn of events..........unintentionally but still.............I can be quite the sucker for punishment sometimes (which it dawns on me frequently corresponds with those nights on which I see the sun come up..........wacky; it might be a theory worth looking into with the assistance of my tin-foil-hat-wearing-oprah-hating-conjectural-almost-roomates) but that hppily didn’t really get to fulfill itself yesterday..........instead we observed and pondered intently as the world around us seemed to crack at the seams, and unbeknownst to its softly sleeping inhabitants St. John’s seemed to transform into a police state, at least for a time..........

The rest of the weekend was a little *less* epic and/or mystical.......I went to the last Magnus Rising show, which was really fun (despite the fact that I headed down to the show in a ridiculously crappy mood). The single best anecdote of the evening would have to be a friend of mine pointing out to the guitarist that his Les Paul, it seemed, was showing wear on the varnish on the back, where his crotch rubbed up against it.......(this is extra funny to me - my friends seem to have an odd penchant for saying incongruous things to this poor guy). In all seriousness though, I enjoy them more almost every time I see them............so I really am going to miss them when they leave in a few weeks...........and as was pointed out to me at the show, with them gone and Cyprian AWOL, there aren’t too many metal bands currently around the city to get excited about......not many bands, period, actually - Jigger don’t play enuff, Bung are.....well, bung, and therefor cannot be expected to play with any regularity, Sheavy seem to have something in the works though.......and actually there might be a few things to look to. Brains have a last show this weekend, with Swords, et all - I’m pretty excited to check out this new venue (tho I’ll miss the kebab place - their chef was really sweet even if their heating system was imaginary) the alternative (despite the *horrible* name - which is up there with naming your band, say, Helloween). JKW have a show the weekend after that and I’m pretty sure we’ll see Jigger and Sheavy later in the month...............well maybe not me - I’m still debating heading for the capital to check out Pelican and Mono, but we’ll see..........

In other random news the show seems to have resulted in me being asked to play bass in a metal band...........this is pretty excellent, and a teeny bit daunting as I own neither a bass nor an amp, and have only ever played Metallica and Black Sabbath songs on one - but I have a burgeoning interest in picking it up, and a selection of metal chicks (and metal guy sporting newly flowing locks, as I’m told) seem willing to take a chance on my learning curve - not too bad. Seems like bass then will be my project for the summer............unfortunately it dawns on me that most of the bassists I know are going to be leaving St. John’s over the next couple of weeks so looks like I’m mostly on my own............. but actually I can think of one bassist I know who should be around and she also happens to be one of the nicest people I think I’ve ever met, so maybe she'd be willing to help me out if I need it...........

oh, and on an unrelated note I really like the way other blogs have you list what you're listening to........as far as I can tell blogger does not but I figure it'd be cool to list it just the same, so.........

music: In FLames - Come Clarity

And the award for funniest band ever goes to...

2006-05-12T18:40:00.000-07:00

Rosemary's Billygoat...what follows is an actual excerpt about them from a magazine that I found in my friend's bathroom - I think it was Blender - apparently they are a real band.....and I think this just might be the funniest thing I have ever read (and I've read Good Omens - which has gay monkeys on nitrous oxide...)

So they like goats?
They are Goats! Or more accurately,this LA metal quartet claim to be half-goat - just like thier guitars!

Half-goats guitars? Are they easy to play?
"No," admits singer Mike Odd, "but evil is never an easy path to follow."

Nothing I can say can make that any funnier then it already is...

Blood is always metal (well, almost always........)

2006-05-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

And so by that logic I was pretty metal Monday night...........

Though blood or no blood, it was a fairly intense and odd night - also pretty damn fun. Pre-show I tagged along with the people who were going to the show with me as they went to something called a ‘Pampered Chef’ show, which is basically the tupperware party of kitchen stuff, as far as I can tell (and ironically neither of the people I went with even cook - Sara had a mild panic attack yesterday in the five minutes during which she’d thought it was a good idea to make supper)........this turned out to be the scarier part of the evening, but there was free wine and foodies, and Sara and I made our own fun via notes about hardcore shows written stealthily on the little pink post-it notes that I think we were supposed to use to write down which tube pan we couldn’t continue living without..........

Then there was coffee, the waking of the dreaded-napping-Leslie-beast where all but skull fear to tread *sorry to add to the mythology Les, but only you and I know what truly happens when you are awoken* ; ) ............and the last minute check and distribution of highly-needed ear plugs - ‘ok, so everyone has their earplugs and no one needs to go to the bathroom?’ ‘But mom.........’ ‘No buts; lets go........’ (ironically when we got to the bar, we discovered that between half a dozen of us, we were short one - not one set, one earplug - and someone would not let me go get them one, so I am worried about their ears - how will you hear your sad-bastard music if you damage your hearing? I mean, its sad and quiet to start with.........)

Then to the show itself, which was a good time - LOUD, epic, fast, and screamy - despite the sickness that seemed to have plagued all those hardcore boys on tour, both Swords and Die Brucke played well......although I think I learned that Die Brucke don’t like getting their picture taken (think King kong when all the flashes and crap make the monkey go crazy.........ok, that wasn’t a really flattering comparison, but it still works!.........); Shortly after attempting this (with that camera of mine which refuses to capture a decent Swords picture...........it’s like a battle of wills now - I’m gonna keep taking them; the camera’s gonna keep refusing to have them come out...........and we’re both too stubborn to admit defeat) I got pretty decently pummeled by the singer......but he felt so bad, and apologized so much that I ended up feeling bad too - cause it was totally an accident. And I can’t help but draw attention to the fact that at the rock or metal shows I spend the rest of my time at, that would never happen.........it’s everyone for themselves, you get hurt or go down, for the most part that’s just too damn bad for you. I got damaged at a Bung show over christmas when this big drunk guy fell on me and messed up my knee which still catches - no one gave a shit but the guitarist from the band who asked right away if I was ok, and I couldn’t even get out so I ended up sitting next to him on a cabinet till the set was over......that sucked and if I ever see that guy again I will give him something to remember me by...............but this time was no big deal - everyone was pretty sweet about it and I was fine, just pissed that I missed like a quarter of their set cause I had to go to the bathroom to staunch blood-flow (though it came to my attention later how much more metal it would have been to have stayed and spit it somewhere - but, I’m sorry, that’s just not sanitary ; ) ...........) Next time Die Brucke - play longer! It’s the epic (or possibly non-Rhapsody power) metalhead in me -if a song is good it sound be like 37 minutes long not 1 !! (hmmm.....I wonder if swords have any songs that are actually longer than the Die Brucke set......definitely not outside the realm of possibility)..............

tee hee...

2006-05-07T00:20:00.000-07:00

nadine --

[noun]:

A hard-core grave robber

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

"There’s a lightbulb that’s been on since 1904........

2006-05-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

and somewhere Thomas Edison lies cold and dead I the grave"...........and I’m in a pretty good mood - a better mood than I think I’ve been in a week or more - and not just because Edison’s no longer a threat........

Strange........ I seem to have started this post there a couple of days a go and never finished it......I don’t know if I’m inspired enough to keep going with it (more of a night person and that was in the extreme a.m-ish), but it made me smile when I found it, so I thought I'd post it anyway. The gist of it would have been something along the lines of ‘I love my friends...’......yeah - I know it sounds pretty mundane, huh? Kept you waiting with baited breath for my next post and it’s that anticlimactic.....but I am paraphrasing and it’s also pretty true, especially that one who told me that Edison had been taken care of...........I might still be distempered and hard to get along with (oh, and trust me, I am) - but I’d be just a tad more completely-insane (a possibly a little more rampage-y) without ‘em.....

But in other news, last night I went to see a man who had taught me a course in Greek Tragedy violated by a tiny cactus on stage...........I’m not quite sure if that constitutes irony exactly, but it’s close - and at any rate, it was pretty damn funny either way.....

The rest of the weekend doesn't seem to be taking any great shape though - I have a feeling there will be high and low points, and good and bad, but we'll see........

(oooo - I think that was a cliff hanger...maybe I should re-name my blog Dallas? hmm - probably not; I'd need a cowboy hat....and probably a horse.....I don't think Pegasus would count - he has wings....and he's made of plastic and is about 2 inches tall......oh well; it worked as a concept...)

A Fog horn is not a happy noise..........

2006-04-22T12:16:00.000-07:00

It’s about 4 in the morning and I just drove home from Leslie’s.......through what I’m pretty sure was a zombie-paradise. There was the most intense fog, like there only is in video games and at the ballet; every street light I saw was straight out of Casablanca, in that way where you’re pretty sure the world actually ends right there outside that dull grey circle; and if I wasn’t perfectly capable of driving from Leslie’s to mine without my eyesight, it all would have been pretty scary - it was that kind of fog that means you see nothing until it’s far to late to avoid it. And I saw an old man walking in the midst of all this.....and I was terrified.........

When I left Leslie’s, due to a fairly serious computer malfunction she was still in the pre-writing stages for a paper that’s due in less than 36 hours, and, due to a somewhat less serious but no less enraging malfunction, I had just finished losing a large amount of nonsense which would have been my very first blog post (right behind the one that Leslie posted in a shameless showing of self promotion.....) It was quite brilliant, and featured a title along the lines of ‘People ignore anything that gives them some inkling of human behavior....’ which was one of the first ideas Leslie had come up with for her paper............not bad, huh? You’d never guess that the thing was about sexy graffiti........those gladiators certainly had it pretty good (well, outside of the fighting for their lives......... but in all honesty, everything I know about gladiators could fit inside a Russell Crowe movie........)

At any rate I also have a paper due in this same time frame..........it’s basically done, and I’m mostly happy with it - I just need a few more conclusions...............there was a while there where I was afraid that I might lose my taste for the vine, but it seems to have emerged intact, and if everything goes according to plan, by this time Saturday I will already have spent a great deal of time in Dionysus’ company.........there are parties, and shows, and I intend to have a very good time............

In other news, so I now have a blog ; ) - though I’m reconsidering in light of everyone’s technical difficulties. I had figured it was high time I joined the rest of you in the 21st century, and abandon my Amish tendencies (except for the drinking......and swearing........hmm, I don’t dance though). So here I am......and I intend to stay - in a week or so I fully intend to be mp3 player shopping, finally having been won over by the concept of having all of my cds in one tiny box that I can carry around with me............it will be sweet.............

That is to say nothing of the irony that in the last week or two I’ve only listened to about four cds. Pelican have become my primary studying and paper-writing music - something about all that drone-y instru-metal apparently helps me think. (oh - as an aside, I have a moderately entertaining Pelican story: I had ordered the 2nd cd from Fred’s, during which I’d gotten in a sort of heated discussion about whether or not they were a metal band - and just so it’s on the record, I did not start it, and there are a metal band - after a ridiculously long time it finally comes in, I pick it up, in the process seeing the guy said discussion had been with, go out to my car, open it and read the label attached to the cd which stated that they were, in fact, a metal band.......or the most monumental metal band the world have ever seen or something along those lines - the word behemoth may have been in there; cd labels are funny like that). So that would constitute 3 of the 4 afore-mentioned albums, the final being Witch........I cannot say enough about this band - I love them; I’m actually kind of worried I might wear out the cd....can’t........turn....it.....off...... They are undoubtably one of the best things I’ve heard in ages - completely at odds with the fact that they really do sound like they fought their way out of the seventies; they’re doom-y metal-y type stuff (I’ve heard the term ‘hipster-metal’ applied but I hate it). I heard modern stuff in it, but I can’t help think of Cream or Zeppelin when I listen to it........I get that visual of John Paul Jones plodding away with his bass strapped somewhere between his armpits and his chin. At any rate, it’s brilliant, go, listen, buy. You will be happy.............and even happier if the rumor I’ve heard that they may be making their way here comes to fruition (incidentally the bassist is one of us)........

2006-04-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

So now you post whatever you want. Rock and fucking roll.

Go look at Leslie's cool blog