more musica por favor!!

becasuse you'll read this posting before the previous few, read the others below and you'll realize i'm on a bit of a music kick. i mentioned the band Head Automatica recently, and even though their music can be classified as EMO, and their music doesn't shake the world, i can say that that i can't get enough of their jam "Beating Heart Baby". I recently went to their web site, and what stands out and kicks ass about them is that they not only allow you to download their music via the website, they give you the HTML code to put on your blog for others to do so.... so here..... download, listen, enjoy:


Click here to download Beating Heart Baby to your computer!


by the way, having been to their site and realizing that they are in dallas in two days, i will be going to their show with Finch on monday at the Galaxy Club. Finch is another good band, a bit of rock, a bit of punk = good tunes. i heart dallas' music scene.

heavy rotation:

these are the top 25 songs currently in heavy rotation in my hard rock/metal playlists (= mp3's/cd/satelite radio/internet radio):

1 - Killswitch Engage - The End Of Heartache
2- Tool - Undertow
3 - Ill Nino - This Time's For Real
4 - Psyopus - Death, I
5 - Candiria - Mathmatics

side note - #'s 4&5 are extremely technical songs with intricate guitarwork & time signatures with no rhyme or reason to beat changes, the bands are as tight as i have ever heard. even if you don't like this genre of music, these two are worth a listen simply for the sheer musical genius/talent that shines through.

6 - Atreyu - Bleeding Mascara ...(one of my favorite bands, this song kicks!)
7 - Down - Lifer .... (Down = side project of Pantera, Crowbar, et. al.)
8 - Puya - Fundamental ...(great band from Puerto Rico, this jam has a great salsa/jazz flavor)
9 - Trivium - A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation
10 - Sevendust - Gone
11 - Faith No More - Suprise! You're Dead!
12 - Korn - Fake
13 - Finger 11 - Quicksand
14 - Type O Negative - How Could She
15 - Machine Head - Imperium
16 - Tool - Stinkfist
17 - Strapping Young Lad - Love?
18 - Refused - New Noise
19 - Killswitch Engage - When Darkness Falls
20 - Section 8 - De Omega ...(probably not findable, local band from Saratoga, NY)
21 - Avenged Sevenfold - Unholy Confession
22 - Taproot - Comeback
23 - Nonpoint - Mindtrip
24 - Deftones - Root
25 - Soilwork - If Possible

Honorable Mention:

Deftones - Headup
Daysend - The Blood Of Angels
Norma Jean - Liarsenic
Third Eye Machine - Rumkert

my list could obviously go on. unfortunately, i need to cut it off somewhere...

jamz worth a listen:

these songs are different, but surely worth downloading and listening:

Head Automatica - Beating Heart Baby

- has a catchy rockin beat AND a key change!!

Nine Inch Nails - Only

- Trent Reznor does rap/spoken word.... trippy and cool

stupid IT.....

1. my computer starts running slowly on friday, i wonder why

2. i start getting pop-ups, even when offline, i now know i have spyware

3. i do the typical ad-aware, spybot, microsoft beta, adware-away check-ups. it helps for about a half hour and then i start getting them again.

4. i pull out the big guns and do a "hijack this" scan and find a file called RPC helper.

5. the file description says "allows users to change registry settings remotely"

6. i view this as very very bad, so i disable the file in services.msc

7. my computer dies

8. apparently this RPC helper is a background program the IT guys here put on the computers so they can do stuff on the computer without actualy being at the computer. also, every program needs this enabled in order to work.

9. i frustratingly spend the afternoon rebooting in safemode to try and salvage anything i can.

10. i break down and give my computer to the IT guys here. they do CPR for two days and then tell me they just have to give me a new hard drive and they won't be able to get anything off my old drive..... two years of data/files/job history gone..... this angers me

11. they tried some more and eventually got the folders that were on my desktop copied over, but that's it.

12. i get my "new" computer and now i have to spend the week trying to get all the little settings i'm used to back to they way they were = annoying

lessons learned:

a. backup everything on your computer frequently

b. don't disable/delete anything till you know what it is

c. IT guys are complete idiots most of the time, though i'm jealous that they all wear hawiian shirts to work

chuckles

i don't feel like being creative today so here are a few quotes from my favorite comedian Dane Cook:

"Monopoly. Everyone had it, nobody liked it. Even if you think you liked it...you didn't. And it's simple why. This is anybody here, 4 and a half hours into a game of Monopoly:
'FUCK THIS GAME!!!!!!! It's 4 in the morning grandma... you win! I'm sitting on Baltic with CRAP! And where'd you get the pink $50's grandma, I hate when you're the banker! I'm paying luxery tax out the ass and you're stealing pink $50's?!?! I don't think so! Don't touch me grandpa, NANNA IS A CHEATING WHORE!'"


"I'll tell you what dream used to scare me as a kid, used to actually totally give me night-mares, remeber those kool-aid comercials? where that, no that big talking bowl of punch, he would come crashing through your fucking wall in the living room you wouldn't even know know he would just BOOUF!!! (Exploding Sound) oh yeah!, oh yeah!, oh yeah!!!right, and the little kids were all excited, YES, YES!!! and then they would drink out of him after debris fell in his open dumb head, he would pour himself, OH YEAH! OH YEAH!...him and his crazy tights...I don't like that, I don't like when juice wears tights, it's a horrible combination, a bowl of juice wearing tights, fuck drinking out of him, If that was me I'd be like oh no no no no no, you fix that wall before dad gets home from work, hes gonna beat me with a belt he's not gonna believe a talking bowl of fruit punch came in here, you stupid idiot, yeah comin' through the wall is real fuckin' cool....using the front door is cool..... don't touch me you drink! don't touch me you giant beverage, you are sweating or condensating, I will kick you in the tights and you will fall over your very top-heavy, you glass bitch, you glass bastard! OH YEAH! Oh No!"

"No one wants to drown. Drowning woud be the worst. Cause everyone knows that feeling. That feeling that you get, oh it's the worst, when you think you're drowning. Like during the summer, you're at a pool party or something. "I'm gonna go into the deep end. Watch my dive, watch my dive!!" Right, then you dive in *SPLASH* and the second you get to the bottom you're like, "GET ME OUTTA HEEEEEEERE!! WHERES THE SURFACE?!!" And you always come up under the kid on the raft. "JESUS CHRIST TIMMY!! DO NOT FLOAT ABOVE ME WHEN I AM DYING IN THE ABYSS!!.... YOUR SON ALMOST KILLED ME WITH HIS DAFFY DUCK RAFT OVER HERE JOHN, YOUR SON TRIED TO MURDER ME IN YOUR POOL..... FLOAT AWAY FOR ME!!! FLOAT AWAY!!"

pain in the ass....

in some previous blogs i have mentioned my chronic back pain that i have put up with for the past 6 months. i saw 4 different chiropractors, went through some intense adjustments / physical therapy and not much has changed. on wednesday i gave up and got an MRI. it was an open MRI so i got to just sit in a chair and watch the bourne supremecy while they took the images. the woman told me if i moved even once they had to start over, and that she has had people take 4 hours to get good images because they keep moving. i got excited about this cuz that meant that i could just sit there and watch a couple of movies instead of going back to work. sadly enough, i apparently was pretty still cuz it only took me a half hour. thank god cuz sitting is one of the more painful activities for me right now, especially if i can't move.

the bad news:
we have figured out why the chiropractor / PT wasn't working. i ruptured the disk between my 4th and 5th vertebrea, and it's squeezing out, putting pressure on the sciatic nerve, hence the chronic pain in the ass and leg.

i made an appointment to make an appointment with the neurosurgeon on wednesday for whenever we decide, to decide on the proper surgical route. difficult scentence, but no, i didn't type that wrong. apparently the receptionists for the surgeon are too busy to take down an appoinment, so i had to make a date for that.

the good news:
the nurses in the MRI place were really hot, and i got a free T-shirt. imangine that. ever the cliche, you spend $5000 on an MRI and all you get is a friggin t-shirt.

ROCK STAR: INXS

i try to avoid the reality tv craze like the plague, but i'll be damned if i miss one second of this show. ROCK STAR: INXS is about 15 youngins fighting for the ultimate title, to be the new lead singer for INXS. this show rocks for at least these two reasons:

1 - INXS was ahead of their time. their album "Kick" is still in my top ten favorite albums of all time, and it excites me greatly that they are considering getting back together.

b - unlike american idol et. al., every contestant on the show is required to have talent and credentials. This means that they must have had stage experience being the lead singer for other local bands etc.

the first episode was last night and it rocked!! there's no obnoxious anouncers like ryan seacrest reminding you to vote every two minutes. the M.C. is brooke burke, and she anounces a name and the song they are doing, that person comes on and does a truncated version of that song and the next is announced. every song is rockin, and every song is well done. songs included:

The Who - Baba O'Reilly
Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar
Blondie - One Way Or Another
Living Colour - Cult Of Personality
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Black Crowes - Remedy (one of my favorite songs)

it's on CBS tonight (tues 7/12) at 10-9 central and tomorrow night (wed, 7/13) at 9:30-8:30 central. watch it and rock out with the horns in the air!!.... at the very least you get to see brooke burke!!

la musica

GET THIS TRACK NOW:

Alice In Chains - What The Hell Have I

click to sample

what a great friggin song. it's off their album "Nothing Safe" which is a greatest hits box set. the song was also featured in the movie "The Last Action Hero". i had not heard it for the longest time, but it was played on the radio the other day and i can't get enough. you might as well download everything you can find by Alice In Chains, but if you're being picky, also get:

Alice In Chains - Would?

new york city!?!?!?! get a rope.....

i went up to NY for my vacation this past week and it was a rockin time as always with the Toga crew. moose and i decided it would be a good idea to go to new york city to catch a yankee game and check the sights. we got into the city around 4 in the afternoon and quickly caught a subway down to times square. NYC is effing fast!!!! moose and i are both tall guys, and typically when we walk in a crowd, we are the fastest walkers. also, i hate waiting for people, so i will just push through a crowd. NYC is a whole different story. i damn near got ran over by pedestrians!!! lights blinking, horns honking, people walking fast, subway doors closing on my limbs and not letting go = chaos. after dinner in times square we went to the up to the stadium to catch the yankee game. not only are moose and i tourists with a map in hand, pointing to places we have to etc., but now we are in the bronx, and clearly the minority. bumbling idiots, we walked down the street while crack addicts yelled obscenities at us, it was awesome. we made it to the game by the bottom of the second inning. our seats were in the absolute last row of the stadium. i only saw about 3 plays the entire game due to getting into conversation with people around us. we left in the bottom of the 8th inning, the yankees up 7-2, to go to some restaurant opening party. this turned out to be lame, so we left. by now, however, we are drunk, and have no idea where the hell we are. we walk down the street and i start asking people where a fun bar is. the first ten people didn't even ackowledge my existence. finally a guy just pointed and said two blocks up. we found the bar, and it turned out to be the one bar we had planned that we wanted to go to because they had beruit/beer pong tables there. moose and i got on a table and played all night, not losing a game. i remember checking my watch when we left, and it was 2:45. the next thing i remember is waking up in a trashed hotel room at 11. i heart time travel!!!!!! i have no idea how i managed to find the hotel. i guess that sometimes the best stories are those not remembered. i know i had fun during the times i remember, and since i still have all my limbs, i assume i had fun during the times i don't remember. moose somehow got lost in the train station on the way home and almost missed the train, the drive to toga complete with the worst hangover i have had in a really long time sucked ass. i got home, flopped on the couch and didn't pick my head off the pillow for the next 18 hours. i used to think that new orleans was evil enough to get the best of me, but now i know, it is NYC that is truely evil and is my arch nemesis. good times, great oldies.

ALWAYS carry a fly rod.....

scroll through my previous blogs to find "the project" and read it. if you're too lazy to do that then here is a re-cap. my sister, her boyfriend adam, and i made it our mission to turn a 22.5", radio-controlled, coast gaurd cutter into the best party boat ever. this included, but was not limited to

a. somehow making it be able to carry a martini shaker

b. putting alcohol related stickers all over it, something i highly recomend the coast gaurd does on all its boats cuz it looks good

c. ripping the legs off a WWF wrestler chick action figure, making a duct tape flipper and super glueing her to the bow of the boat, holding the american flag.

the mission overall was a success, however early testing failed miserably. before going nuts with the decorations, we decided to go to a local park and see if it even worked. for those not from saratoga, Congress Park is a nice, clean, trimmed, and even snobbish park in the center of town. It has a pond in it with a fountain and lots of ducks which are a favorite for the kids, and also protected by law. we shoved the boat off in this pond without a second thought of the dangers of the abyss below. aparently ponds have seaweed. the boat didn't make it 10 feet before seaweed/kelp/milfoil got wrapped up around the port prop. there goes steering.

the screws not only pitched in different directions, but turned in different directions depending on what buttons you pushed on the remote. there was no rudder. steering came directly from the turning of the props.

soon the boat could only go backwards in a small circle in the middle of this pond. the ducks were of no help. we asked them to give it a nudge in our direction but they just quacked mockingly as if to say, "we ain't helpin you bitch, gimme some bread!!" and went on their way. after several attepts to throw things to get the boat to start moving in our direction. Adam remembered he had a fly fishing rod in the car. he ran over, got it, and in three casts had hooked the boat and reeled it in.

the second water trial was after putting all of our decorations on it. of course, my fears came true, and the martini made the boat top heavy and it kept trying to flip. we eventualy used those foam noodles kids use when they swim to create an outrigger system. mission success!

just horrible....

every time i think the white stripes (no, they don't deserve a hyperlink!!) are going to die, they come out with a new album. there aren't enough unpleasant words in the english language to describe how much the white stripes suck. repetitive, annoying melodies/words, and a monkey could play the drums better. they're new song "My Doorbell" is horrible, just horrible. the last minute of the song, i swear the only sound from the rhythm section is meg white's incredibly untalented arms swinging through a crash cymbal...over and over and over and over and over and over.... she is the drumming version of dora the effing explorer.

re-reading that paragraph makes me angry because those words do not truely express my verifiable anger and hatred i have toward the white stripes.

in related news, not only do the white stripes suck, but jack white got caught blaring his own album in his apartment by none other than his neighbor moby.

a- rocking out to your own music is allright, but as a pop star who plays it constantly in the studio and on tour, why are you blaring it at home by yourself??

2 - who the hell would EVER live next to moby?!?! he is the epitome of tofu-eating, tree-hugging, philosophizing everything, horrible music writing suckage, and therefore one must suck a lot to live near him.

i wish i new other languages so that i could bitch about this while writing in foreign tongues so as to put more emphasis on the fact that the white stripes are the worst band to ever put out a professional album. F!!!!