3.11.2009

Misc. Writing


Tattered blue ribbons on the track,
Take a walk around for an hour,
I sing don't worry baby through the static,
Just to be greeted with a cold shower.

----------

I might not be as perfect as previously thought
But everyone has their PETA card hidden in their fur coat

----------

2.28.2009

Late Nights, Music & Lyrics

I've created a mix cd to somehow capture the influences that I'm collecting from to make this album sound good. And yes, Simon & Garfunkel fit quite well within all this shoegaze and experimental.

1) "Cover Me (Slowly)" - Deerhunter
2) "I Know There's An Answer" - Sonic Youth
3) "Never Stops" - Deerhunter
4) "Simpsons Theme Song" - Sonic Youth
5) "Mrs. Robinson" - Simon & Garfunkel (!)
6) "Superstar" - Sonic Youth
7) "Tech School" - Deerhunter
8) "Men" - The Dodos
9) "O'Rourke's, 1:20 A.M." - The Good Life
10) "Loomer" - My Bloody Valentine
11) "All I Do" - Plus/Minus (+/-)
12) "America" - Simon & Garfunkel
13) "Mary-Christ" - Sonic Youth
14) "Fools" - The Dodos
15) "The Moon Red Handed" - The Good Life
16) "Protection" - Liars
17) "A Dim Entrance" - The Good Life
18) "After O'Rourke's, 2:10 A.M." - The Good Life
19) "Cinderella's Big Score" - Sonic Youth
20) "Drinking with the Girls" - The Good Life
21) "The Only Living Boy in New York" - Simon & Garfunkel
22) "Sailing to Byzantium" - Liars

It's quite a motley crew but I love them all and they will all fit into the big picture that is the album. I can't wait.

2.26.2009

Sonic Youth + The Good Life + Deerhunter + The Dodos = My Album

After watching the movie "Amadeus" in music history class, it inspired me to write and compose an album. That day, I wrote 5 or so pages throwing ideas around about what I wanted it to sound like, and since it will be a concept album, I needed to write a story for this. My plans as of today, are to make this album sound like: Sonic Youth + The Good Life + Deerhunter + The Dodos = my album. We'll just see how things go but it's highly experimental right now. I'm going to be trying out weird tunings and time signatures. The primary goal currently is to finish the story. I'm planning for the songs to work out similar to a play, as in the songs will be "Act 1, Scene 1: _____". I'm planning on writing the whole story and dividing up the scenes, then once that's done, I'm going to rewrite the scenes to fit to music.

The story that I've been working with so far is about an old widow who retells the story of the gang war between the Chain Gang and the Puppet Masters, the events leading to the war, and the effect it has on the families of the gang leaders. I'm getting inspiration from various places such as Shakespeare, The Departed, and Gangs of New York. It's going to be fun to write music specifically to fit a mood for a scene.

This will definitely be a musical workout because I've never written an entire album before, let alone a full song without someone providing the lyrics. I relish the chance to flex my musical muscles though. It shall be a wonderful experience.

2.22.2009

Lucid dreams at its finest.

After a long day, I settled into my bed still typing away on my phone to Maddie. The room got hazier and my eyes got heavier. I was slowly falling into the rabbit hole in my mind. What was my bedroom slowly morphed into me sitting on my computer reading about the new NASA Node 3 that they are commissioning the public to name. Although, one thing caught my eye: you can already see the Node from Google Earth. I knew I had to see this so I opened up my Google Earth, went to the coordinates and there was the node. Google must have gone through hell trying to get these hi-res pictures of the node AND a 3-D model because you could zoom into the node so far that you could inspect the little bolts holding the node together in picture perfect quality. I noticed something odd located under the launch pad, there was a giant glass orb that seemed to contain something that I could not see immediately from the zoom I was at. I zoomed in further to inspect it, and to my amazement, there were homes in it, with all sorts of plant life. It looked to be a small planet that housed a rural town complete with plant life and homes but strangely, no water sources. And before I knew it, I was there. Google Earth had magically transported me into this town. As I looked around in astonishment, I saw a giant party happening in the horizon so I sprinted towards to what seemed to be a fun party. Once I got there I saw a medium size party, about the size of a backyard barbecue. Everyone was wearing tuxedos or baroque dresses. Out of everyone I saw there, the only notable faces were Matt Parkman, Peter Petrelli, Sylar, and Mohinder Suresh. All characters from the TV show Heroes. You could only imagine my excitement when I saw them. I wandered closer to hear what they were talking about since I was too star struck to talk to them. From what I gathered, it seemed they were all in character. They were all arguing about what they should do to get away from the approaching goverment forces. (You'd have to watch the show) Then it came to me, I'm in a story arc for Heroes right now. This place is actually somewhere located in the Heroes Universe!

While I was quietly contemplating what I should do. An older woman, stood up and announced, "Everyone! It's time." The crowd started cheering and whistling and then suddenly Matt said, "Okay you know what? Just enjoy the show, we'll talk about this later." Just as he finished uttering those words, the node seemed to be taking off. The ground started violently shaking and started to form large cracks in the earth. And within those cracks, a thick black substance was slowly rising. I looked over to see if anyone else was as alarmed as I was and they were. The crowd looked increasingly uncomfortable, it seemed that this wasn't supposed to happen. The only ones who were calm were Sylar and the older woman. Sylar looked over to the older woman and she smiled and nodded. Sylar reached his hand out towards the cracks and lightning shot from his hands and they struck the oily substance. The cracks had managed to reach all the way towards the node so the lightning rode its way towards the node, conducted through the substance in the cracks. As this was happening, the crowd was officially alarmed. They were screaming and running away from the cracks. The lightning had finally reached the node and Sylar stopped shooting the lightning, and all of the sudden, it was as if a nuclear bomb was dropped in the distance. There was a bright light and then a loud BOOM! I looked over to everyone and it was as if everyone had gone silent but everyone was still screaming. I saw Matt with his arms spread and eyes closed as if he were welcoming the explosion. There was a large gust of wind and then it was dark. A large door opened, and everyone was straining their eyes to see what was behind it. Peter yelled out, "I think I see an AT-AT!"

We had somehow been teleported yet again. We were in a giant warehouse, I didn't look to see what was in it, all I could focus on was what lay ahead of me. Taking no time to see what the crowd was doing behind me, I ran outside to a snowy landscape, and there were at least a dozen TIE Fighters in the air, a few cruisers carrying troops, scores of AT-STs, and hundreds of troops on the ground from both the Imperial and the Rebel army. They were all doing battle with one another. And we had all just gotten into the middle of it. I looked to the right and it seemed there were aisles of comics or action figures with a sign at the top that said, "Pick your own power". All I could say was, "No way." And ran as fast as I could towards the aisles. I could pick any power I wanted as long as they were from heroes or villains that were already established in superhero mythology. The day had finally come to pick whose power I wanted. I had discussed this with multiple people before, and I could never pick just one hero I wanted to be but now it was time. As I was perusing the selection, my father had appeared and said that we had to go. I was startled to see him at first, but I didn't question it. I noticed behind him that the battle had disappeared and we were now in a store. I was sorely disappointed to see where we were but I left with him through the automatic doors and then the world faded away into white back into the recesses of my mind. I awoke to see that it was 4:08 AM. I guess I fell asleep while I was texting Maddie.

9.08.2008

Guys Night Out

Well a week or two ago, we had a guys night out. And that was by far the greatest night of all time. It involved Ryan, JD, me, and our new friend Todd who was driving us. We drove all the way to Opry Mills to go see the Dark Knight in IMAX and since we got there an hour ahead of the movie, we explored the mall doing things such as finding things to "put your weed in"(apparently, there's a lot of things to put it in at the Journeys store), take pictures with a giant gorilla statue, play guitar at the Gibson Showcase, make fun of magicians, and contemplate hitting the boomerang helicopter out of the hands of the guy throwing it.

The movie was definitely even more amazing the fourth time on the IMAX screen. It could have been better if it had the entire movie in the IMAX format. But I think we all would have crapped our pants from the sheer awesomeness of the movie on such a large screen. Definitely worth the 9.50 we paid to see it.

After the movie, we just chilled in the lobby trying to figure out what exactly we should do next and where we should feast. We settled on Pizza Hut and Todd used his nifty little GPS on his phone to find one real quick. Once we got there, I found an awesome X Wing in the parking lot and I brought it inside and we all played with it. We're easily amused... We ordered two large pizzas and as we waited for our food to come out, we played with the X Wing for a while and we were wondering what was taking so long. But then a server came out and said that they ran out of large crust so they gave us four medium pizzas. The pizza gods were in our favor that night. We shall feast. We procured two peperoni and two meat lover's pizzas but split them up in half so that everyone had half peperoni and half meat lover's. As soon as we picked up the pizzas, everyone knew they'd made a grave mistake. Following our contact with the pizzas, all you could hear in that parking lot were the screams of men being burned by their feast.

Once we left Pizza Hut, we knew we needed some liquid feast to accompany our pizza feast. We ventured to CVS to acquire some Monsters. With our two Monsters each and our pizzas, we feasted on the way home. Later on in the night, our feast had betrayed us. We had eaten too much and could not eat anymore. All of us were sick in our stomachs but that didn't matter. We had feasted well and we'd sang "Don't Stop Believin'". Our night was completely perfect and it would be followed by bowling.

Here are some memorable quotes of the night courtesy of JD:

"Drive safely, I cant find my helmet!"

"I am enjoying large sums of pizza given to me by jesus!"

"Lets float the buffalo"
"Fuck a buffalo?!!"
"You know, there are only 25 buffalo in the world..."
"And we're gonna FUCK one of 'em!"

"We should take all of our blogs and make a superblog"

"Hey wouldnt it suck if we got in a wreck and died?"
"I was just thinking that"
"Hey guys, what if we just wrecked right now?"
"Holy crap guys, we need to pull over, NOW!"

"This cup holder definitely doesnt even go to this vehicle"

"How can you not have a bathroom in a CVS?!"
"I don't know, but i think we should get some monster"
"Mmmm"
"Guys, I still gotta take a major leak"

"Maybe we should take half of each others pizza, so we have half and half"

......"AHHHHH!!!!!"
"AHHHH!!!!!"
"OWWWW!!!!!"
"OUCHOUCHOUCHOUCH!!!!!!"

....."Guys, let's just never do that again"
"My leg is still on fire!!!!"
"Holy crap that was a bad idea"

9.01.2008

What's happening to our hood?

I find myself almost constantly occupying myself with entertaining the internet on BlogTV. It's an odd existence but I find myself coming back everyday, ready to start another show and entertain my friends, strangers, and strange friends. It's even more fun when I have my friends join in on the shows. Ryan is a very reliable co-host as he can keep things rolling and there won't be a dry eye watching. These shows have lasted hours without end and somehow, I almost manage to find a new way to entertain the masses. Whether it be Donna falling asleep while she was co-hosting and letting her co-host for a few more hours whilst sleeping or Ryan lip-synching & dancing to Straight Outta Compton. It's a way to bring all of us together while we don't have the means to go see each other at the moment.

I love the internet.

8.28.2008

Getting bored can be dangerous! ...Or peaceful.




If you don't get it, then here's a push in the right direction:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCQaa9CUJcw

8.25.2008

Video Post!!


I'm sick - Broadcast your self LIVE

Gotta turn up your speakers to hear this one.

So yeah. This sucks to be sick. :(

First "vlog" post though! :D

8.18.2008

Quoteage


Great quotes by Ryan Riddell:

"When life gives s hope we use it all up, when life gives us fear we regift it to someone else, but when life gives us love, of all things, that's the one we keep to ourselves to hold and hide. I say that love and interest should be as free as our minds, and that only goes as far as we let it."

"It goes from my head to the paper and there I keep them trapped forever. Some have dream catchers to ward off their demons, I have thought catchers to freak out my demons."

"Pikachu is to Ash, what I am to God. Pikajew!"

Ahh that jolly ol' Ryan.

8.14.2008

It reminds me of a joke...

I just finished reading the Killing Joke by Alan Moore, the same man who wrote the masterpiece The Watchmen. And I have to say, HE'S DONE IT AGAIN. He has somehow captured the very essence of everything that is the Joker and make it even better. The Joker is absolutely sadistic and I couldn't be more satisfied with it. All I could say after I read it was, "YES YES YES! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" It was everything the Joker is and should always be, hands down.

You can't not talk about the artwork in this beautiful book. Brian Bolland brilliantly visualized the Joker for all the world to see and he could not have done a better job. His "meticulous attention to detail" and"perfected clean-line style" have complemented this book better than most other artists could have done. He took on the task of illustrating the Joker for the masses, looked into its eyes, and slapped it like a pimp and walked away giving it the bird.

Therefore, I order you to go out and buy/borrow/steal these two masterpieces of literature. They need to be read by all! Young, old, dumb, intelligent, man, woman. Everyone must read it.

8.11.2008

The second to last first day of high school.

My first day was pretty frickin good!

My first block is US History and that has some okay kids in there, the teacher is pretty cool since he listens to Metallica & is an alright guy. My second block is really awesome since I have two of my best friends in there, Ryan and JD. The teacher said this is gonna be the easiest class we'll ever take in high school so that should be good. It's my favorite class now!

Third block is pretty good. The teacher is really nice and she doesn't waste our time in there. We already started working instead of reading the handbook and crap like that. Fourth block is gonna be my second favorite just because I love art! I love the teacher in there but the only downside is that I don't really know anyone in there since their ALLLL freshmen! I took the class a little later than most so I'm stuck in there with freshmen since I need an art credit to graduate.

Overall, today was a great day. I was just really tired all day. But that was fixed once I got home and took a nap!

8.09.2008

It feels good in my brain!

Just recently saw the long-awaited "Pineapple Express" and I have to say, it was all that and a bag of chips. I knew it was going to be a hilarious stoner comedy movie about dudes getting in some shenanigans and whatnot, but little did I know, it turned a totally different direction at the end with badass action, killing, and a whole lot of blood. It was completely awesome on every level imaginable. It surprisingly ranks up there with the Dark Knight in turns of entertainment value and exceeding expectations. I knew it was gonna be a hilarious movie, but it just got even better!

Seth Rogen and James Franco pull off their stoner personas perfectly mostly because I'm sure they were actually stoned throughout the whole movie. It seemed like it would be a really fun movie to work on if everyone was getting stoned on the set. Seth Rogen was actually kicked out of a after show party when the other partygoers suspected he was smoking a little more than a rolled cigarette at the party. And the best part about it, when Seth talked to reporters about it he said that it was a "terrible case of I-wanna-smoke-weed-all-day". Bravo.

8.07.2008

It's official!

School is starting! My fate is sealed. I think somewhere out there, the Devil is giggling like a Japanese schoolgirl. Just going back into the school building the other day, made me realize all the things I don't like about it. Mainly, annoying kids that go to said school, along with the atmosphere of the school. Which is, in short, school. They should have some way to make it seem like we are not in school so it does not suck so bad. Welllll, what can you do?

Semester 1:

1. U.S. History Standard
2. Psychology Standard
3. English 3 Standard
4. Visual Art 1

Semester 2:

1. Music History
2. Modern History
3. Algebra 2 Standard
4. Chemistry 1 Standard

Reserved

I recently came across this picture and I have no idea what I should think about it. I love the "baby Jesus" part, just because it makes me laugh whenever I think of the prayer that Ricky Bobby does in Talladega Nights. Ahhh funny stuff...

Clearly, the sign makes no sense whatsoever when it's taken out of context. Judging by the fonts and the colors used, you're definitely supposed to see it. Orphans and Jesus do make for a good sign but they took that a little too literally. The gentleman sitting in the chair holding the fish raises even more questions though.

One thing is for sure though: I am reserving "Sweet Baby Jesus and the Orphans" for a future band. I don't even know what kind of band it is yet, or if the band will even come to fruition. But, I do know that that will be our name. Yessssss...

8.05.2008

Quickie

Just had to share this comic:



I love basically everything that references Schrรถdinger's Cat. I guess it's one of those nerdy things that I love. I don't even know exactly why I love it so much, but just that it's one of those scientific theories that really strikes a chord with me because it amazes me that someone even thought of that. That, along with it being referenced in my favorite web comic, totally made me giggle like a nerd. Which is of course nasally and whilst pushing up my classes.

And if you don't know what I'm talking about, here's something to edumucate yourself with.

Rants are fun!

School's coming up this week. It's a grim reminder that I need to sleep earlier and wake up even earlier. It really doesn't bother me all that much since I usually get sleepy around that time anyway, I just force my body to stay up later because I can get more things done when I stay up later. I don't even NEED to stay up, I just feel like I should because I have things that I want to do or keep doing such as watching my favorite TV shows on the internet, playing video games, playing guitar, or have 5 conversations going on at once with my friends. I usually do more things at night than I do during the day, I guess it's because I'm sensing the loss of time around then and I want to get more done before the day is over.

I have this love/hate relationship with school. I love learning new things, seeing my friends, making new friends, but, waking up early? Lame. Projects? Lame. Stupid people? Even lamer. There's just some people at school that I cannot stand to the nth degree. Those people being the ones who want to slack off and make the people who actually do their work, me, do it for them whenever there's a group project or they copy off of me since I finish way earlier than me. Now, I'm not saying I'm smarter than them. But if they would just apply themselves and actually try at school, they wouldn't have to copy off of me. Those same people are the ones that smart off to teachers because they want to look cool in front of their friends. Now, sometimes, the teachers do deserve it, but a majority of the time, the kids are just trying to be assholes. It really just wastes everyone's time because we just need to get our lesson over with and finish our work, instead of them bickering about not wanting to do the work because it's "stupid" or a "waste of time". Just suck it up and do the work you douchebag.

Okay, I'm done ranting.

----------------
Now playing: Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm
via FoxyTunes

7.30.2008

Things of that sort

Well life as of late, has been quite rocky, to say the least. Things went sour between my lady and I and we had to go our separate ways. I apparently did not do anything wrong regardless of what I think. I still don't fully understand why things went bad. It was the kind of thing that you could only explain to people as: "Shit happens."

In other news, I've recently cut my hair. I like it but, you might think I don't like it if you saw me though. It's not that I don't like it, I just don't know what to do with it. It has too many possibilities that I can't even fathom what I want it to look like, so it kind of frustrates me. There's only two downsides to this haircut, if I style it the wrong way, from far away I look like a lesbian, and if I wear a beanie, I look like a cancer patient. It kind of reminds me of this quote from the movie Memento, "I'd rather be confused with a dead guy than a murderer."

----------------
Now playing: Smashing Pumpkins - Blue
via FoxyTunes

10.07.2006

Mekka Lekka Hi, Mekka Hiney Ho



I was reading up Pee Wee's Playhouse on YouTube, and that is a very disturbing but hilarious show. Jambi scares me. I don't know why. He is one creepy genie. Pee Wee, is just Pee Wee.

Did you know Phil Hartman was a writer/producer/Captain Carl on the show? And the Pee Wee Herman character came from an HBO act about Pee Wee with the comedy troupe that Phil Hartman and Paul Reubens were in called The Groundlings. It was actually more adult-oritented and included sex jokes. Amazing. Did not see that coming.

Watch Pee Wee's Playhouse reaired on Adult Swim!!

7.15.2006

Been a while...

Well it has been a long time since I have last blogged. I just suddenly got into the blogging spirit!

Well I just realized that I only like three songs of the Cure. I love the songs: Just Like Heaven, Pictures of You, and Lovesong, in that order. How many songs do you have to like to be considered a fan? Am I a fan just from liking those songs? Hmm...the many wonders of the world...

WHAM! has to be the best pop group ever! Who doesn't love the classic "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"? Or the amazing "A Different Corner"? Those are some amazing songs! But the question arises again: "Would I be considered a fan for only liking those two songs?"

Well I finally got pants that fit me today at Pac Sun. Two "deep indigo" colored jeans which are basically a pair or almost black jeans. (I guess Pac Sun wanted the "indigo" theme with their jeans") It turns out I wear 30x32 pants, and not the 34x32's I usually wear and are wearing right now. Who knew?

Well, my mom has made Jeff and I do physical things now. It's gay and helpful. I am sore everyday now, but I'm stronger. I also have to read. I have to read 3 books I forgot to read earlier in the year for school 4 weeks before school starts. So I'm not off to a good start. I've got it good compared to Jeff. He has to read 5 books! He has to read: Utopia, The Prince, Life of Pi, The Glass Menagerie, and...some other one I can't think of now and don't want to ask Jeff because I don't feel like it. And I have to read: Great Expectations (the last half is good I hear. The first half is boring as hell!) by Charles Dickens, Animal Farm by George Orwell, and Timeline by Michael Crichton (the best book out of all of them, in my opinion.)

This has been a random mumbling.

5.26.2006

Proof That The Rapture Will Happen In My Lifetime

Click for bigger picture.