Road of Regret part 2

“A girl would giggle and it’d make me red
A boy would laugh and I’d punch his head
I tell you life ain’t easy for a boy named Sue.”- Johnny Cash

I arrive at work and the first thing I am treated to is a barrage of assholes making fun of my name. Sure my name is usually a feminine name, but it isn’t like I haven’t kicked their asses enough times to make them forget about trying to make fun of it. Some people just never learn.
You get that a lot with a name like mine though, it’s sort of like that song Boy Named Sue. You really do end up fighting your whole life, which means you spend most of your life as a loner. Those who cross you just want to prove they are tougher than you and those who don’t are just plain afraid of you.
Either way you end up being labeled a troublemaker. School was hell because of it. It’s too easy for the kids to blame you since you have no real alibi. Therefore, the principal’s office becomes your home away from home. It gets to the point where you can mouth along with the lecture “when are you going to straighten up and fly right?” or “would you be acting up this much if your parents were still alive? Is this a cry for help?” The list goes on and on.
But you never do anything wrong, you just try to live your life and you get stepped on, treated like shit because that is what people think you are. The sad coincidence about it is that eventually you really start to think that way. You start to see yourself as the loner, the outcast. You are the Troublemaker, the rebel, the one everyone wants to see either in jail or in the grave. So you learn to accept what people think of you and just take on the role you’ve been assigned.
Eventually we all fall into the trap of being what everyone expects us to be. After high school I never really could get my act together. I spent so much time in the principal’s office no one expected me to go far, so I didn’t. That summer job at the working with your buddy at the mechanic’s shop has turned out to be a career. Not necessarily my career of choice, but its hard to become a doctor or a lawyer when the only thing you understand is cars.
So instead of a career where I can plan for my future, I live from paycheck to paycheck. It doesn’t help any when there are no benefits involved in your job. If you get a bad cold, you are short on your rent and I hate to say it but I feel a sore throat coming on.
I spend the rest of the day contemplating the cost involved in medication and how short I will be for the next week. So much so that I don’t realize how far past closing it is. I grab my coat and head for the door, when I see a car pulling up. A lovely young lady rolls down her window. I see a flash of black hair with Betty Paige bangs. I’ve always had a thing for good hair and that was definitely good hair. After looking around a little bit, she spots me and speaks.
“Excuse me, but are you guys closed?”
I replied “About a half hour ago.”
“Damn, I just wanted someone to look under the hood, I’ve been hearing a strange noise.”
“Well, I really have to close up the garage, but if you want to just park in that space over there and pop the hood I can check it out, see if it is serious or anything.”
“If you guys are closed I don’t want to keep you, I mean it’s Friday night, I’m sure you have plans, I think I can borrow my dad’s car until Monday.”
“Believe me, I don’t have any plans, just another night in front of the TV, watching god only knows what. Besides I enjoy helping beautiful girls.”
She blushed a little and gave me a quick smile before she pulled her car into the parking space.

The Weekend, It's Here!

This, I must say has been one of those weeks. Not one of those, is it still only Monday weeks, mind you. More one of those, everyday feels like Friday weeks. Since Wednesday I've felt like the weekend starts the next day. You'd think that would make for the world's slowest week. Let me tell you it did not. Of course it helps when you work half days Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Half days are fun. Especially this time of year, especially on a Friday. It gives you a nice, long weekend. The weather is great, the sun is shining. All that's needed is a trip to our not so nice beaches with a beer in hand. Or you could go the hippy route. Bring some weed, get high and go for a walk on a hiking trail. Enjoy the refreshing sounds of nature. I'd much prefer the part hippy route. Go for a hike to enjoy the refreshing sounds of nature. Just leave the weed out.

I love half days. Until you start the next week. Then you find yourself back to those full work days. It usually takes a day or two to re-adjust. Hey, as long as you have a window to the outside world it's not so bad.

Wait, I think I got myself off track. Oh wandering stream of conscious mind, good job. Time to focus. As I was trying to say. The last half of the week has felt like Friday. I get home, relax and think, "sweet the weekend is here." Then I realize, nope it's not. It's only Thursday. Only one day left. Today is officially Friday. It means the weekend is finally here. It means I will be seeing Kowalski and Maybe I'll Catch Fire tomorrow. It means the band is playing a show. Lastly, it means beer pong.

The Grass Is Green, Finally

I've been meaning to write a blog for about a week now. I've just been too busy to get the chance to do this. I wanted to get one put together as baseball season has finally started. Finally. I've always considered the time from the end of the Super Bowl until the start of baseball season to be sports purgatory. I've never followed hockey nor basketball. Neither of those sports have ever thrilled me. March Madness comes and goes and I don't care who wins. That is how little I follow basketball. Sure I'll do a bracket. But only if it's for baseball or football playoffs.

I was very excited for the new season to start. The most excited I've been for a long time. I'm not even sure why. Perhaps it was because I knew summer would arrive shortly there after. Either that or I was just more than ready to see my local team again. I think I'll go with the latter option.

I'm not one big on making preseason predictions. It is a bit difficult to accurately determine results over a 162 game season. Some people are spot on, others are way off. All I will say is this, watch out for the Florida Marlins. They, not the Phillies or the Cubs, will be the team to beat in the National League. I would not be surprised if they made it to the World Series. They are a young team with power and pitching.

This past off season saw the free agent market drop. Many good players have not signed on with a team yet. Many good players took steep cuts in pay. It happens. The salaries cannot keep rising, especially with the economy falling. Yet if you listen to the whispers out there from agents and players, they'd have you think otherwise. That nasty little word called collusion played a role in the falling salaries.

Many agents and players, they won't publicly say it, believe the owners colluded to keep salaries down. They used the falling economy as an excuse to do this. Really? What planet are the agents/players on? Did they not read about sponsors pulling out of deals? Did they not see ticket prices have gone down in some cities? Did they not read that season ticket orders are down for most teams?

Why would an owner pay $12 million a year for a player when revenue will be down? People everywhere are taking pay cuts and pay freezes due to lower revenues. Why can't the same happen in baseball? Why is it collusion when salaries drop? The owners are just following what other businesses are doing, slashing payroll and costs. It happens when the economy falters. People keep close tabs on their money.

It's a good thing the agents/players have kept mum about the nasty word collusion. Really what American is going to feel sorry because some pitcher made $6 million this year instead of the $12 million last year? Chances are the pitcher was worth barely $6 million in salary. The pitcher, like the housing market, was overpriced due to demand. With the economy down, the prices and market are correcting themselves.

So no I do not believe collusion is something the player's union should pursue. But that union is too powerful and egotistical. Give it a few years, once the economy is better, they'll look into it.

The Sounds of Silence

Last night I was going through my music collection to put together a new mix. I wanted to listen to a certain song before I started. I was browsing through my collection to get to that song. I came across The Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel. I had the sudden urge to stop and listen to the song. I sat back, lowered the lights in the room, and turned on the visualizer. I found myself so wrapped up in the song that before I knew it I had listened to two more Simon & Garfunkel songs.

That got me to thinking. Where would they be if the internet were around back in the 1960’s? Where would they be if a pretentious site such as Pitchfork Media were in existence. I bet they would not be around. I bet they would have never made it past their first full length album. Pitchfork’s pretentious failed rock critics would have ripped Simon & Garfunkel a new one. They’d probably call their lyrics the equivalent of third grade poetry. The critic would have told us how his 9 year cousin writes better poetry.

That also got me to thinking. What bands were stopped in their tracks thanks to the pretentiousness of Pitchfork Media? These so called critics are great at influencing the large masses of indie kids. The same kids in the 60’s that would have loved Simon & Garfunkel. Did we lose this generation’s Simon & Garfunkel thanks to some moronic critic at Pitchfork Media? That’s a tough question to answer. We may never know.

We are talking about a site that loved The Decembrists. Then the lead singer came out with an solo album. They gave it a 0 rating. The indie kids avoided it like the plague. One can only imagine what they would have said about a classic like The Sounds of Silence.

The other day they posted a short paragraph about the release of Clarity Live. The writer wondered why people would get the live album. Was it for the kids who didn’t yet own Clarity? I bet this critic’s attitude would have been different were Broken Social Scene to release a live album. This critic would have written a long, glowing article about its release. But oh no a borderline mainstream album is being released live. Why would someone want that? Forget the fact that it turned out to be a highly influential album.

Personally I think the music critics at Pitchfork Media have lost touch with music reality. They have to find obscure bands and write glowing reviews about their albums. If a band has any mainstream sound to it they have to give it a low review. These Pitchfork critics are nothing more than failed mainstream music critics. They couldn’t get a job at Rolling Stone or Spin. You give them a guitar and they wouldn’t know which end is up. Yet they have no problem ripping apart a real musician with talent.

I wonder what Lester Bangs, considered one of the greatest rock critics ever, would say to the Pitchfork Media jackasses. He’d probably look at these Pitchfork idiots and tell them to pull their heads out of their asses. Get over their pretentiousness. Music is meant to be enjoyed. It doesn’t matter whether it panders to the masses or not. How hard is it actually sit back, relax, throw aside any preconceived notions, and enjoy?

Deastro - Keepers

Taking elements of new wave, synth pop and electronic music, then mashing it all together into the music from a movie that John Hughes wishes he had made if he hadn't gone and sold his soul to the Culkins, Deastro's "Keepers" is an enthusiastic reclamation of all things joyous and wonderful. To call the songs that 22 year-old Randolph Chabot has crafted catchy would be an understatement. Songs like "The Shaded Forest" and "Micheal, The Lone Archer Of The North Shore" run with their exuberance like teenagers dashing through the hall on the last day school, pulling you along with them until you share in their feeling. But then there are the exhale moments, like the beginning of "Open Up Ye Dark Gates!", that are the summer sun and cool breeze car ride of abandonement. Where the elements of your life that form that knot in your belly untie and release you with a gleam in it's eye and a smile on it's face, as if to say, "You needed me, so you could feel like this".

Info / Listen / Buy

The Importance Of Research

I had a conversation the other day about Bill O'Reilly. I knew someone who watched his show almost daily. I kept my mouth shut as it was neither the time nor place to espouse my views on Mr. O'Reilly. Of course afterwards I went into my anti-Bill O'Reilly mode. I thought about all the things wrong with this man. He is ignorant and arrogant. He helps to further patriotic propaganda. Or how about his listeners appearing to share brain cells. And of course my favorite, his claims of a leftist slant in the "liberal" media.

The "liberal" media one is my favorite. The evidence he uses to prove this can easily be turned around. It can be used to show how the media is far from "liberal." Really Mr. O'Reilly, the media is "liberal?" If it were we would never have invaded Iraq. Cheney and Rumsfeld would be tried as war criminals. Bush would have been impeached for lying to the public. But the "liberal" media neglects to bring this to our attention. Perhaps it is because Fox News Corp, a noted conservative organization, controls a vast majority of our media.

That last paragraph was a bit of rant. My apologies. Yesterday I was thinking about Mr. O'Reilly again. I never liked how his listeners just go out and repeat everything he says. They never do the research to learn more. If Bill hates something, they must hate it also. If Bill says something, it must be true. No further research is required.

Yesterday I realized something. I am nothing more than the liberal version of Mr. O'Reilly's listeners. I only dislike him because of what i've read from liberal outlets. I repeat reasons why I hate him thanks to what i've read. How does that make me any better than the conservatives who listen to his show?

So I decided to learn more about him. I decided to do my own research on Mr. O'Reilly. What he actually says. What he actually thinks. What he actually believes. After my research I came to this conclusion. I still do not like the man. Nor do I like his opinions.

I was surprised to find myself in agreement with him on one topic. That topic is his view on violence in movies. He does not have a fondness for movies like Saw. Neither do I. They are a complete waste of cinematic space. He also calls out Kill Bill, Vol. 1 for its extreme violence. I have been doing that for years. Anytime I hear this movie mentioned, it's about how violent it is. Never a word about the plot. Style over substance does not always work. *cough, cough* The Phantom Menace.

That was about all I could agree with Mr. O'Reilly on. Everything else? He's just a bit too conservative for my tastes. I do feel better. I formed my own thoughts and opinions on him. No more merely repeating the liberal stance.

I end with this: I will watch, with my own eyes, an episode of The O'Reilly Factor. I need to see it for myself. Reading is quite a bit different than viewing.