So it was early. Despite the forecast of bad weather probably cancelling the barbecue we had planned, we're hoping to have a party tomorrow, or, at least, to go bar hopping or drink at someone's house, so dinner with the family was tonight. We went to my favorite Thai place, I had too much to drink, and now I am a good, happy, drunk.
This is how birthday dinners should be.
Halfway through the dinner, I put the hood on my sweatshirt up, and my dad decided to tell me I look like the unabomber. So I reached into my bag, pulled out my aviators, put 'em on, and started talking about how "I have a four square foot shack in Montana that I share with a typewriter and some rats. It's very scenic."
I'm still wearing the aviators.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I am going to have another and have a smoke, and then maybe watch a movie or something.
How much money do you typically spend on a birthday present?
It really depends on who it is. For my sister, usually 25 bucks or so. Friends, I'll typically just buy them a drink or something.
President Bush said Thursday that the U.S. is not headed into a recession. Are you, ahem, buying what he's selling?
I'm pretty sure we're more or less already there, if how much I have to pay for shit now as opposed to how much I paid for it 8 years ago is any indication.
I actually remember being able to go to the gas station, pump my gas first, and then go pay for it with a $20 bill and have change left over, and last I checked, I can't even fill my tank with $40 anymore unless I fill it when it's still like a quarter full.
So no, I'm not buying what Bush is selling. I can't really afford to.
By the way, if anyone wants a white Chevy Cavalier, in pretty good condition (aside from a sort of banged up front bumper and a couple really small things wrong with it), it's definitely going to be on the market soon, for cheap-ish!
+ New York Dolls! They sounded pretty good, despite only having two living original members.
- They played a lot of songs off the new album. Those songs were terrible.
+ They also played lots of old songs!
- David Johansen obviously stuffs his jeans. Also, he has a nasty muffin top.
+ They played "Personality Crisis" for the encore.
- They also played a new song to close the show and destroyed the momentum they could've left the stage with in doing so.
Also, the security guards went nuts kicking people out. The crowd was visibly bored when the band played new songs. Erik and Chris and Alex heckled them. "Buster" was the word of the day. Their drummer is also in Dirty Pretty Things. That's kinda lame.
Oh, and let us not forget how unkind the 80's were to a lot of the people involved. This video is very related to the rest of the post:
I have a free ticket to see the New York Dolls tonight!
So I guess I'll go.
I wish the Sleazy weren't a bunch of shitheads about bringing cameras in, 'cause I'd love to have pictures for you later, but I'm not gonna complain too hard.
They're really desperate to fill this show. Two of my friends have lots of free tickets, and the price was recently slashed to 16 bucks.
I'm pretty stoked.
Oh, and for those who haven't already friended my rad homies over at W♥M, I just posted an article on Indian Summer, a band I like, mere minutes ago!
How much does a person's musical preference affect how you view him/her?
I was just talking about this with various friends last night. I was mentioning that I can always pick out people who fancy themselves "indie rockers," but never had a "hardcore" phase. I was mentioning that my best friend doesn't listen to punk rock at all, in the same way that someone will parade their black friends around after being accused of being racist, thinking it'll somehow help their case.
And really, I have to admit, I really have trouble interacting in a meaningful way with anyone who's not into punk rock. I don't mean to be like that, but I really am. In high school, music was not one of my primary interests. I made more friends just by being really stoked on video games than I did through any other means.
Then when I was around 18, my friend, Quinn (of Rottin Youth) and I were talking, and he told me to come out to one of his band's shows. I really had no idea what to expect from a punk show. This was back in the day when the street punk thing was in full swing in Boise, and Rottin Youth and Corrupted Society were basically rockstars around here. I stopped paying as much attention to video games. Started buying lots of punk rock albums and going to lots of shows. Saw lots of aging bands, like Naked Aggression, The Adolescents, The Partisans, and lots of younger bands that I'd never heard of. Then I had a brief ska phase before discovering post-hardcore (Blood Brothers, The Locust, Converge, etc.), emo (think Indian Summer, Hoover, Moss Icon, Rites of Spring, etc. I know "emo" is a dirty word, these days, but it wasn't always), indie rock, and all that great stuff. Old friendships were strained. I started playing a hell of a lot more guitar. Not to impress girls like most dudes do, but just because it was all I felt needed to be done.
The street punk thing has since died out here, but it was a hell of a lot of fun while it lasted. The thing is, most of my friends now were there for at least part of that. Or they were there when it happened in their own town. Punk rock changes everything. It is a lifestyle and a state of mind. It will change you and how you look at everything around you. And frankly, at this point, I often find I don't have much to say to people who don't like punk rock. That isn't their fault; I just, for the most part, usually have very little in common with them.
- Hanging out with Erik outdoors. So fucking nice out today.
- Bumpin' the new Lair of the Minotaur album in my car, giving it a few listens before writing it up for W♥M (quick preview: it's pretty fucking rad, and makes me want to hit stuff with an axe).
- Drinking coffee on an empty stomach.
- Trying to recover from the worst, most restless sleep I've had in years. I dreamed I was playing the accordion naked in a record shop and got arrested. On a related note, I have a new thing to add to my "things to do before I die" list.
Ralph Nader entered the presidential race as an Independent on Sunday. What's your take on the newest presidential candidate?
I'll vote for him.
I really hate the idea of voting for a Democrat when I know for pretty much a fact that they'll be a disappointment and probably just as bad as Bush.
And before you give me shit for voting for a spoiler, I have to mention that I really do not want either the Republicans or Democrats to win this election! I think either way would be just as shitty! In fact, when you really look at it, they're the exact same goddamn party! Obama voted for the Patriot Act, too! He won't take war with Iran off the table, last I checked! Seriously, Democrats, it's time to wake up to the fact that "your" party really has about jack shit to do with your beliefs anymore. They're just kinda the Republicans' little bitches.
So I'll vote for Nader, even though I know he'll lose, while everyone else sucks the cock of this false dichotomy we have in place right now. It serves you pieces of shit right, what you get.
Why? Because I want to post a picture of my cat. Got a problem with it?
Which web browser do you use? What would you change about it, if anything?
I use Firefox.
If I could change anything about it, I'd make it stop getting incredibly slow and shitty if I leave it open for more than five minutes. I don't know why it does that, but it does, and it's really annoying.
I like Opera a lot better, but a lot of sites (including Vox) don't support it as well.
And I'm running Ubuntu, so I can't exactly use IE or Safari or anything.
