Let’s Hope Your Resolution’s Made.

I'm not sure how I feel about this past year. Sure, every year has its ups and downs and in the end, everything seems to even out. But this year was a little different. Some things were really awesome and some things made me feel the worst I have felt in a while. While this in theory should have technically evened out, I don't think it did. I think it ended up just by a smidgen on the negative side. However, this year definitely made me realize some things that I'm glad I discovered sooner than later and that's a good thing.

School and all it's related activities: 2009.

With this year, another school year passed. Another couple of semesters involving schoolwork, homework, studying, useless number crunching, hating the people in your classes, loving the awesome new people you are fortunate enough to meet, and so on and so forth. This year was different from my past semesters in that I was super fortunate to meet some people through an on campus organization that I joined. I found out how much we all have in common and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of hanging out with those people and learning about them and their interests. It's not everyday that you can meet people with common interests and values at a school where you feel like almost everyone disagrees with everything you believe in. So that was neat. Another cool thing was that our band started to pick up a little bit. Nothing very serious, but it sure has become a lot of fun. Getting out and playing some shows really helped me get through the semester. You need some activity that you really enjoy to keep you sane when school picks up and starts to get annoying. But in the end, we are all at school to get some sort of education and its starting to hit me that I need to start taking career finding a bit more serious. There's so many people in my classes who know exactly what they are going to do and when they plan to start doing it. I guess it's kind of hard for me to decide if this is good or bad. On the one hand, they have more of a sense of security in that they've taken the time to think things through and decide on a path to take. On the other hand, they've in a sense left less room for spontaneity and "going with the flow". Which is the more important of this give and take situation? You tell me. One thing that I am certainly sure of is that I do not want a job where I walk in everyday watching the clock waiting for the day to end so I can get out of there. But somehow it keeps occurring to me that that is exactly what I am going to get out of college with a degree in finance. It's hard to not have any idea what you want to do with your life. I realize that it's very likely that many people feel this way and that in the end, it usually ends up working out somehow. I'm just not sure if it's safe to bank on that and let things run their course. Honestly, I'm so confused as to how people in my classes enjoy these things. I mean, the subject matter is not terrible, but is it interesting enough to them to base their life and career around it? Another thing I realized about my school and classes is the extent to which the competitive spirit goes. With all this talk about the Aggie community and the friendships that people build, people would be surprised how far students are willing to go to gain the upper hand even if it means cutting down another student in the process. The things that grades will do to people.

People and all its related activities: 2009.

Like I said earlier, I was super stoked to meet a lot of awesome new people this semester. I never really felt at home in College Station/Bryan, but a lot of these people really changed that for me. It felt so good being able to talk with people about things you don't normally have the opportunity to talk about with people at A&M. Sadly, I do however feel like things have changed with my older friends. These friends will NEVER be lost to me no matter what happens, but at some point you have to sit and look at the size of the widening gap between you and them. When it starts to become very evident that you have very differing views and philosophies on life, what can you do? I am completely afraid of the possibility that I grow even farther apart from these people. I want no such thing, but is it avoidable when you can start to see huge differences? I hope it is, but at this point I just cannot tell at all.

So, the other day, a friend of mine and I were talking about relationships and things like that. The conversation basically ended in them telling me that they think I am almost automatically labeled as a "friend" upon talking to someone of the opposite sex. At first, I was slightly offended, but on second thought I realized that they are completely right. Why would they say that? I have no idea. But either way they were definitely on to something. After thinking about this for a little bit, I realized there is nothing inherently wrong with this. It's cool to have friends. Friends are good things, right? Yes. But, it also hit me that at some point I would probably like this cycle to stop. Going to stuff like Fest made me realize how much that would have ruled to have someone to share that experience with. Maybe 2010 is the year for things to change? Possibly or possibly not, but let's be optimistic!

Hopes: 2010

This year wasn't all that bad. I made some great friends that I am glad I met and hope to continue to stay friends with for the rest of my college career and hopefully onwards of that. I hope 2010 is a year of change for me. I want to be more serious about finding out what I want to spend my life doing. I want to be serious about my health and take better care of myself while away from home. I want to be able to create meaningful relationships with people. All of these things are what I consider my main goals of the year. And I think that they are all achievable goals.

I hope everyone has a super kick ass New Years. Everyone is due for good time after another stressful but exciting year. Also, if you're not doing anything on the 9th, you should come out to a show we are going to play. As per usual, it may not be great musically, but it should most definitely be a fun time where we can all gather and bring in the new year. Bring in the new year 8 days after we already brought it in? Yes. Don't ask questions. Logic was never my strong suit. I'll post more details concerning location and such at a later time. 2010, let's do this.

We Don't Give a Shit About Anyone.

So I think this last week may have been the greatest week in terms of music in my life. Scratch the think part. I know for a fact. I saw so many fantastic shows the past few days that I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am to blogz about it all. I got to hang with friends and see some awesome live music. What more could I ask for?

On Monday, I ventured over to Austin, TX to see the Bridge 9 Tour. The show started off with Ruiner playing. I really have started to like this band a whole lot. The first time I heard them, I almost immediately was turned off. His voice was too gritty and strained and the music was really heavy for the most part. Over the last year or so, things have drastically changed. This band exemplifies everything you could ask for from music in my opinion. The melody is there, you just have to find it. The vocalist, Rob, belts out heartfelt and emotion driven lyrics that make me shiver everytime I hear them. Unreal. They also have a lot of sing-a-long parts which is awesome. After they played, Crime In Stereo played. They always put on an awesome show. Each time they play live, they are able to perfectly recreate the numerous effects they use on their records. This is usally hard for bands that use experimental sounds in their music. However, Crime In Stereo has mastered it well. They played a good mix of older and newer songs. Next up was Polar Bear Club. Sadly, almost no one at the show was into them. It's a shame because this band is really quite good. They play some really interesting music. Its a mix of punk with some cool post hardcore-esque parts. They also put on really good live show. Either way, they put on an awesome show and the people who appreciate their music probably really enjoyed it. Finally, the band we had all been waiting to see came on. Strike Anywhere has been around for a while and had just put out a new album called Iron Front. This album is arguably the best punk/melodic hardcore album of the year. So fast and to the point. Their set was unelievable. They played a few new songs which sounded awesome along with some of their classics. People really got into them which was fun to see and experience. Thomas, the vocalist, is a really smart and nice dude and his talking between songs was also really informative and entertaining. Strike Anywhere's songs are just so relevant to everything.

On Tuesday, I decided to spend money unecessarily again and see the show again in Houston. I debated the decision back and forth but it was totally worth it in the end. Everyone in Houston was so much more into all the bands than were the people in Austin. Walter's is also a smaller venue and that made things feel more intimate. Each band played almost the exact same set give or take a few songs. All in all, awesome show again.

Here's the fun stuff. On Thursday afternoon, Joe, Sabrina, and myself began our 14 and a half hour journey to Gainesville, FL for FEST 8. Fest is an epic three days of punk music and partying. It started on Friday and ended Sunday night. The drive is NO joke. We passed through Louisiana, Mississppi, Alabama, and various parts of Florida before finally getting to Gainesville. From the moment we got there, the excitement had set in. We waited around a bit and decided to get something to eat. We ate at Boca Fiesta! Boca Fiesta is owned by Warren Oakes (former drummer of Against Me!). He was hanging out at his restaurant and was really nice and welcoming. I had some sweet tempeh tacos that were delicious! Afterwards, we headed over to registration which involved a long line and lots of waiting. Once we were all done with that, it was time for a long awaited nap. 14 hours of driving sucked and we all needed rest. After a power nap, we headed to the first round of shows. I saw Ruiner again and also saw Defeater. I had been dying to see Defeater and they surely didn't dissapoint. We saw some other shows here and there including Small Brown Bike and A Wilhelm Scream (who were unreal). We ended the night at Living With Lions followed by Crime In Stereo. Both of those bands were phenomonal live. We got back to the hotel after that and crashed pretty hard.

On Saturday, we started the day off with some more cool shows. We saw Rehasher, Algernon Cadwallader, Bridge and Tunnel, Andrew Jackson Jihad, The Arteries, Drag the River, and more. All of those shows were so energetic and filled with some super fans. I think out of the Saturday shows I enjoyed Algernon and Bridge and Tunnel the most. We ended the night with We Are the Union and the Swellers. Both put on a fantastic show. WATU was especially fun to watch. People really got into their set. After the Saturday shows, we all heard of an awesome house show that was going to feature Bomb The Music Industry along with some other bands. A bumch of people had been talking about it, so we decided we might check it out. We get to the house and it is jam packed inside and has about 200 people or so gathered along the street outside of the house. It looks like it's going to get busted soon, but we stuck around just in case BTMI was actually going to play. A few minutes after we got there a cop car rolls through slowly trying to get people out of the streets and make room for cars and such. The cop car rolls by and just leaves afterwards. We all figure it was nothing more than a fair warning to kep calm and quiet. We were wrong. About 5 or so minutes later, about 8 more cop cars roll up. Here's a sidenote. We are at a party with a bunch of drunk PUNX. If there is any place on the planet that cops are the least welcome, it was here. One drunk guy starts to dance around in his silver spandex underwear while blocking the police car off and not letting him move. Of course the cops get mad and begin to get out of the car and pat this kid down. They pin him up against the car and go walk around to see whats going on here. Now we all know that one kid who has a jean jacket vest with patches and large boots and smells like he hasn't showered in nearly a week. Well that guy somehow starts to egg the cops on and starts acting really immature and begans cursing at them and maybe even getting physical with the cops. The cops decide that enough is a enough and taze the punx kid. As soon as he hits the floor, the kid's friends come and rush the cop and start beating him on the ground. PUNX. Apparently the cop was hurt bad. Soon after the cops began spraying tear gas and used rubber bulets on uncooperative people. This was a complete and total riot. I had seen no such thing before. It was actually quite entertaining.

Sunday was a bit quiter. We some cool shows. Some of the highlights were Samiam, Chris Wollard and the Ship Thieves, and Strikeforce Diablo. After the last show, we headed back on the road for the long journey back. It seemed a bit shorter, but I'm sure it wasn't.

Fest made me realize a few things. One: I have nothing to look forward to once I get back home. Over the last few days, I've had something fun to look forward to. After Fest, ther isn't much left until Thanksgiving. That' going to suck a bit, but eh. Two: It also made me realize that next time it may be better to have someone to go with. I saw that Joe and Sabrina had a great time together and so did the other people who brought someone along. I had a great time regardless, but it could have been fun to have someone to share that experience with. It also made me realize how much I want to be in a band that tours. bands have so much fun on route to Fest. That would rule.

Anyways, sorry if that wasn't very interesting. I hadn't made a post in a while and I told myslef that no matter what happened I would post something after Fest was over. Oh, I almost forgot! We made a bit of a detour to Nawlins today. We had stopped at Cafe Du Monde for a morning snack. That was fun. Till next time, bye!

It's Gonna Get Worse Before It Gets Better

Dear Piebald: Thanks for making some of the best music ever. I know I tend to go through phases where I think a lot of different bands are absolutely unbelievable and then soon after move on to the next one. But, I feel like it's different with Piebald. When you're bumming hard, there is a Piebald song to make you come to your senses and realize it's not as bad as you think. When you are super stoked on life, there is a Piebald song that will only bring you to a higher level of happiness. Every song on "We Are The Only Friends We Have", is somehow uplifting and beautiful in it's own awesome way. I played a bunch of Piebald on the radio show today because I really want people to understand how absolutely awesome they are. After the Piebald, I kicked people in the face with some Have Heart and Defeater. And while those bands may not put you in the happiest of moods, they sure will make you feel like you're ready to take on the world and destroy human souls.

This has been an odd week. One moment I felt like everything in life was going good, and in a matter of days, I realized that things were NOT going good. I don't want this to come off as a blog where I just talk about my shitty life problems, but for a few seconds that's what you'll have to deal with. And don't worry, the mood will change in a few short paragraphs. So, I'm a diabetic (genetically predisposed). I have this problem though. I really like sugar. You see the dilemma, huh? Well I am supposed to find a doctor up here soon so I can have someone monitor my blood sugar levels. Last time I was in Corpus and they checked it, it was bad. I'm starting to realize that this may actually have an effect on my life. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. "You're just now figuring this out?" Well, yeah, I guess I am. It's hard to live somewhere without your parents telling you to take your medication and all that good stuff. Sure, I can be responsible on my own, but it's just that much harder.

Our band is about to play a show with two legitimate touring bands and we are in no way ready. We have songs and we can play them well, but the problem is that we just don't have enough original songs. Honestly, the people at this show most likely are not going to recognize that most of our songs are covers because they probably haven't heard the bands we are covering. But its still no fun to play that many covers and only have a couple of original songs. We need to sit down and write more songs. Plain and simple. Everyone has such a tight schedule and is so busy all of the time that it makes it so hard to coordinate practices. Hopefully things will slow down and we wil have more time to all get together and start working on some new stuff.

School is harder than I thought. When people used to ask me how school was going, I'd usually respond with the typical "Not too bad, pretty smoothly". THIS IS A LIE. School is hard. Classes are getting difficult. For example I have NO IDEA what we are doing in my finance class and that is supposed to be my major. Something about investing or money or something, right? Who knows. I sure don't. I had a test in management that I thought was going to be waaay easy. Turns out it was the lowest grade I got out of all my first round of tests. The question of whether I'm fit for the business world becomes more and more important to me each day. I don't know if I have that cut throat competition attitude that it seems everyone else in the business school possesses.

Some other things happened that that really bummed me out, but that's not important and I'm tired of this dumb, sappy, unawesome mood. So let's all get stoked on the fact that at the end of this month me and Joe are going to FEST. Its quite possible and even likley that this means nothing to anyone else. But to us, this means we can die happy. If I never go to another show in my life, but I get to go to FEST at least once, I could honeslty probably live with that. I mean I would prefer that such a stipulation would never be put into effect, but if it was, I could deal. Fest is an extravaganza of punk music that takes place yearly in downtown Gainesville, Florida. It happens on Halloween weekend and is apparently the best time some people have in their lives. Three days of pure music, friendship and destruction. A chaotic time indeed, but a very enjoyable time as well. We will be staying at the official Fest hotel with some friends that we worked with over the summer who are playing the festival itself. I am probably more excited for this than anything that has happenned over the last few years of my life. Maybe even ever.

New Swellers album is absolutely fantastic. Every song has that epic moment that makes you realize why they are suddenly getting recognized. Sure, everyone had their doubts about their signing with Fueled By Ramen. I was most definitley one of those people. However, I must say, that I was absolutely impressed with the new record Ups and Downsizing. Some songs are poppy while others sound like they could be songs by A Wilhelm Scream. It's quite the mix of songs stylistically. Me and all my friends talk about how it sucks that they are touring with Paramore and stuff, but in the end I think we are all pretty happy for them and what's in their near future.

Moral of this unnecessarily long and drawn out story is that if you ever find yourself in a rut of some sort, pop in some Piebald and realize that as long as you're alive and have friends around you, things can't really be all that bad. If you want to feel like a hardass, throw in that Have Heart. And if you wanna bum yourself out hard, toss in some Mike Hale. I'm not sure how this is the moral of the story seeing as how majority of what I talked about was unrelated to this. But whatever, I have nothing to prove to you. You're reading MY blog. I'm kidding, come back, don't leave. Please stay....thanks. In other news, I realized I have a weird fascination with Taylor Swift.

Phew, you made it through another post! Congratulate yourself for being alive and well and not having ripped your hair out. It's quite the feat. Till next time, have a wonderful and awesome life.

Oh, and Zombieland was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. No joke, this film will destroy all expectations. If you are into being awesome and doing awesome things, check it out.

Bye, now.

When I look into the mirror, I see a boy not a man.

Its been a long few days. School has gotten into its "destroy all human souls" mode and is going to stay that way until the middle of December. I really wish I did more during those first few weeks when nothing was really happening. All I can think about now is all the awesome things I wish I could be doing. Sadly, I have tests and homework to do instead now. Free time is a valuable thing I wish we could all have more of. Enough of that though. Speaking of, if you ever have free time you should stop reading my shitty blog and should venture over to Justin Salman's blog. Honestly, it's funnier and probably more relevant in all possible ways.

Warning: This blog will probably be scattered and disorganized as it will be representing the millions of scattered and disorganized thoughts going through my head right now. Enjoy (Trust me, I don't think you will.)

Over the last few days, I have been having a really similar conversation with all of the close friends I have. The conversation usually begins with how much we all hate school and essentially hate what we are doing there. We go into college with the mentality that we are going to discover what we are good at and in turn make a career out of that. It's really quite a feeling. I can remember the feeling coming out of high school. I was as excited as anyone was. I was going to have so many things I didn't have before. There would be freedom, more interesting classes, different types of people to interact with, and so much more. Did all of that happen? Well, yes and no. I did find new and interesting people with different viewpoints to interact with and I did find that some classes I took were slightly more interesting or relevant to me. But as far as the whole "what I'm good at" or "what I want to do with my life" thing, I can't say college has lived up to what it is made out to be. I understand that stuff like this also has to do with the amount of effort you put into it. Trust me, I hear that all day from family and people who think they know what they want out of life. But why is it that some people are able to hone in on exactly what they want to do while others are left standing alone wondering why they are even at school in the first place? The concept is difficult for me to understand. Do I wish I knew everything about what I wanted to do with my life? No, not completely. That would take out all of the mystery and make life a lot less interesting. I think a person needs some form of change and questioning in their life for it to be worth while. But, on the other hand, some general idea would surely make things a little easier. Its getting harder and harder to go to class each day and discover more and more things wrong with the career path you are on. A friend of mine asked me today "How did we end up in one of the most conservative majors in one of the most conservative schools in the country?". I never looked at it like that. But he was right. This was obviously a wrong choice. Sometimes you just don't fit in somewhere but have unfortunately just taken to long to figure that out. I ask everyone reading this in all seriousness. What is going to happen to us after college? Are we going to be doing something we love or are we going to get stuck in a ridiculous routine that never ends? Sure, its a serious question. I'm not trying to get really deep with this blog or anything, I just want to know that I'm not the only person who is confused with this right now. On the bright side, there are a few things that are making this experience a bit better. There are a lot of great people here who are willing to hang out and make you feel at home when they know you usually don't.

In other news, I had 4 tests in a span of three days. One on Monday, two today on Wednesday, and one on Thursday. Its relieving that its almost done, but also nerve wrecking to know that I may not have started off the semester as awesome as I was telling myself I would. But, eh, what can you do, right? I need to grow up.

So, at least there's music to make shit better. September is almost over which means October is near! "What's in October" you may ask. Well, let me tell you friends. Number one: Strike Anywhere, Polar Bear Club, Crime In Stereo, and Ruiner show on the 26th and 27th. The new Swellers album comes out September 29th. Ruiner album just came out. So much stuff is going to happen and all of those will lead up to what will hopefully be one of the best weekends of my life...Fest. It's something that most bearded listeners of punk hope to be at part of. Soooo many bands in 3 days. I sure hope it proves to be as unbelievable as everyone says it is. Way too excited.

We have a band that tries to play music. Apparently we might record within the next few months which would be cool. First we have to write more songs, and fix the ones we have already written. But that is a fun process, so I'm excited about that. Hopefully we can play some local shows here and there to get into the groove of things.

Anyways, as usual, I'll go ahead and apologize for your wasted time. And believe me, this time I mean it. I promise my goal was not to bum you out super hard. Everyone has these questions at some point I think and mine happens to be now.

Bye, now.

Please join again next time where we'll talk about happy things like puppies and rainbows.

I Know I'm Small Time.

Sup BROmos? Oh nothing? Well, good! That means you have some time to hang out and read this. Some pretty interesting stuff has happened over the last few days. Some good and some not so awesome. I would venture to say that more things have fallen on the good side though, so worry not. This will not be a sad, broken down rant. So here are some of the good stuff I'll blogz about today. Number one: I got a job of sorts. Number two: I got a radio show on the student radio station. Number three: I made some new-ish friends at school that I think will help enhance the experience of being in ho-dunk Texas. Number Four: We might have some help booking shows for our band this semester.

So, Number One.

So, I had been looking for a job a lot last year and applied to millions of places and hardly got any responses. It may have been due to the fact that when I say millions, I really mean like 6. But that's besides the point. I did get a few responses letting me know that the jobs had already been filled by people who I can only imagine were smarter and more responsible. So, that was good. At least with those I didn't have the whole anticipation factor. Either way, the point is that one of those jobs I applied for finally came through. I had applied for a tutoring service that services the whole Bryan/College Station area. A student needed some help with a freshman level business math class and contacted me. FINALLY. So, that was pretty neat. The first session went well. He's a a good dude and is really in it to learn something and not just get his homework done by someone. I think I would prefer a job like this where we can work out our own times and such.

Number Two.

Last semester I applied to have a radio show on the TAMU student run radio station. Once again, I didn't get a response for what felt like years. The reason I'm guessing was because I was applying for the following semester (which would be now). So apparently it got approved and I believe it starts next week. That should be fun. I get to play whatever music I like as long as it is not charted in the top 100 Billboard or pop charts. I think this will be a fun experience. I can be boring at times, so hopefully I won't be all lame on the air. Maybe I won't talk at all and just let the jAmZ speak for themselves. Who knows. Honestly, there will probably be a total of 4 people listening to it at one time. I never listened to it much when I lived on campus. You can hear it on your TV if you have suddenlink cable service or via dem innernetz by visiting kanm.tamu.edu.
My show is on Saturday mornings from 10 a.m to 11 a.m.

Number Three.

I went to a Have Heart show a little while back with some people I barely knew. However, I had a really good time. It was really quite cool to be able to talk to people about stuff you can't talk to most other people at your school about. We shared a lot of music interests and other general interests as well. I didn't feel uncomfortable around them and didn't feel like I had to hold my tongue in an effort to not offend them. It was refreshing. They are all involved in a student organization called MSC Town Hall which is a music oriented student group for people who are not into most mainstream media. They book shows, have cultural type events and other things like that. I've met a good amount of people involved in Town Hall and it's really making me want to join it. They all seem fun and interesting!

Number Four.

There isn't much to this. Our drummer's old band mate is going to apparently help us book some shows around the area. That'll be sweet!

Some Un-awesome things.

I have a Management 363 course. The class consists of a regular large lecture conducted by the professor and a once a week small discussion group conducted by a graduate student. The large lecture is fine. The professor is really cool and gets her point across well. The small discussion group is pretty yucky. We are graded on attendance and on participation. Here's where the problem lies. Attendance is all OK. No problem with that. Participation is my problem. While in theory I think the idea is good, I don't think it transfers well in reality. As soon as the grad student announced that she was going to grade on participation, the number of people that began to talk and raise their hands was unreal. It got to the point where people decide to leave behind reason and logic and say absolutely anything to get their points. It was obvious that they were saying almost word for word what someone right before them had said. But that didn't matter as long as their voice was heard. There's a certain point where people are obviously fighting to have their voice heard over their fellow classmates and that happened a lot today. Maybe I'm not as competitive as I need to be. I don't like the pressure of knowing I have to say something productive instead of just letting it flow. I don't like not knowing whether I spoke often enough. It seems sleazy for people to just try and have their voice heard over other people's just to get a grade. Maybe I'm crazy and this is just what the professional business world is like. If that's the case, I don't know that that's what I want to do with my life.


School is starting to get hard again. Lots of reading and online homework assignments again. I always love the first week or two of school because it means that you still laze around and suffer no consequences. But now, it's about to get real again. Me no likey.

New JaMzZ?


Well Jay-Z's new album The Blueprint 3 came out just this week. I just listened to it and realized again why I Like Jay-Z so much. He's cocky, sure. But I feel like he also gives out his dues to those who are deserving of them. Most rappers these days aren't the most humble of people anyways. Either way, the songs are creative and have a lot of guest appearances from other artists who are popular in the rap/hip hop and R&B fields. It's most definitely worth a listen.

Polar Bear Club's Chasing Hamburg has started to grow on me as many people told me it would. The songs are weirder and less layered, but nonetheless still better than most of the music out there. Sure, some songs sound like they are featuring Santana, but so what? Everyone loves Santana, right? It's moving up on the list of what is being played most often on my Ipod.

Well, that's all for now. Bye, now.

There Was a Time When This City Shined.

Herro there! So, I'm not sure why you're here. Whether it's your first time here or you've decided to visit again, know that either way you have made a mistake and will now have to sit and read through more of my dumb banter on subjects that have no real value to anyone! Sweet, I'm stoked as well!

So, whats been going on lately you ask? Well, school started yesterday (Monday). It was actually a little less intimidating than I thought it would be. My professors seemed relatively laid back and pretty interesting as well. I have a Management class and the professor is really cool, She seems like she takes care of business but in a fun and interesting way. Then I have this Information Systems Statistics class with a straight INDIAN professor with a heavy accent and that ruled a lot. I have some crazy Asian lady for Political Science and she might be my favorite so far. She was extra funny and really liberal politically which stumped all of the people in class. I, however, was extremely excited. I've had almost all super conservative professors in the past so it'll be cool to see a class taught from her perspective. I have some other professors that were also cool but not worth mentioning. So that's basically how school has been going. I think it will be difficult course work but that it will be taught in a well paced manner.

So, our band had our first practice since last semester. I think we were all expecting it to be kind of shaky since we hadn't played together in so long and all of us were pretty busy over the summer with work and stuff. To our surprise, it went a lot better than we thought it would. I mean, we're nothing special and likely won't be but it was still neat to see that we could pick up from where we left it all. We played some covers to get reacquainted and then attempted to turn one of our singer's acoustic songs into a full band song and that turned out kind of cool. I think we're all excited to play shows this semester wherever we can!

Tomorrow, I'm going to a Have Heart show. I like Have Heart a lot but am in no way a die hard fan or anything. And as far as the other bands go, I've only heard some of their stuff but don't listen to any of them regularly. Have Heart is a straight edge hardcore band that has a pretty large following so the show should have a pretty big turnout which will be cool. Plus they are breaking up at the end of this year so I think it's worth seeing them when I have the chance. I think it'll be fun. I've been to a decent number of shows but never to one that has exclusively hardcore bands playing. I'm pretty excited for that.

So, recently I made an OkCupid profile. Before you start making fun of me, let me at least explain the reasoning behind it. I live in College Station. While there is nothing inherently wrong with the people here, there is a lot of difference between mine and most of the girls who go here's interests. With a profile like this you can, in a sense, find out exactly what you want to know about a person. If I'm at a party and talking to a girl, it's likely that unless we are talking for a loooong time that I will ever find out her likes and dislikes, movie/music tastes, basic life story, religious views, political views, and other interesting stuff. With a profile like this, I can easily find the people who have similar interests and would likely get along with me with a minimal effort. I'm not saying that relationships shouldn't require effort, I'm just saying there isn't anything wrong with narrowing your field down to people you'd be able to get along with. What's the use in talking to someone for so long only to find out that they're only romantically interested in "Bros" or southern boys with cowboy boots? No use. So, that's that. One of my best friend's friend found her boyfriend on there and they seem to be getting along. Yeah, it may seem lame, but what can you do? I know plenty of great girls in different places, just not very many here.

Polar Bear Club's new album leaked. It's called Chasing Hamburg...and it was not at all what I expected. when they announced the release date and stuff, I was so stoked. I actually searched almost daily for a leak. I was going to buy it when it came out regardless so I figured it'd be all right. Today Razzy sent me a link that took almost 3 hours to download only building my anticipation level. When it finally finished, it was hard to keep that level of excitement. It was very mediocre in my opinion (which I realize isn't worth much). Some songs lacked any emotion and power. Jimmy, the vocalist, is known for his gritty emotional screaming as well as his melodic cleaner voice. This album has a lot of melodic clean vocals but almost none of the emotional gritty stuff. It was disappointing. No sing a longs, no anthems, no nothing. Just a couple of cool songs and maybe one or two really catchy ones. I guess Ruiner, Strike Anywhere, and A Wilhelm Scream will have to make up for it when their new stuff comes out. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate Polar Bear Club's new stuff. I just didn't see a logical progression from the previous anthemic sing-a-long stuff. But if they're happy with it, then that's all that should really count.

Well, it's been fun. Sorry if I bored you to death with uninteresting facts about my life. If not, come again!

Bye, now!

Keep Running, Keep Shining On.

Herro there! It's probably going to be my last post before the school year starts mainly just because I've simply run out of interesting things to talk about. I feel like it's back to that lame time where summer is basically over because all of your friends are leaving to go back to school yet you still have a few days or a week to entertain yourself. Don't get me wrong, summer has been awesome. I mean, I did about the exact same thing almost every single night. The day usually consisted of work and the night consisted of going to Romey's house with Justin and sometimes Joe and Sabrina and then usually an adventure to the nearest Whataburger. But oddly enough, that was enough to entertain me. It's cool to just be able to sit and hang with people without really having to have anything specific to do. You know who your real friends are when that can happen and everyone is still somehow relatively satisfied. Anyways, enough of this silly bromance story.

Hmm, lets think about what we can talk about today. Ahh yes! So this week my friend (let's be honest and just say best friend, right?)came into town. We used to be real close, but then he moved out of town and we now go to different schools. Its weird actually how we've maintained a good friendship. In all honesty we don't have ALL that much in common besides the fact that our parents are friends and that we've known each other forever. His visit was really cool still though. It always seems to kind of pick up where it left off. I liked that we could still talk about anything. He's kind of the ladies man with style and I'm kind of the not ladies man without style, so its a rather neat interaction with the whole opposites thing and all going on. Either way, I always enjoy getting to hang with him whenever we get the chance. So, that was cool.

What else...Well I don't have a job anymore. This is kind of bittersweet I guess. I worked almost the whole time I was in Corpus, but put my two weeks in a little early so I could have some "free time". Now, I kind of wish that I was still working. I don't do much during the day anyways. I might as well have been doing something sort of productive. But either way, that was a good experience overall. The people there for the most part are good genuine people and really care about their co-workers. Hopefully I can go back and work there again sometime in the future.

Thrice show you say? Well it went better than expected I think. There was a really good turnout which is really helpful when you're playing a show. The crowd getting into it is always really awesome to see. Some people were more into it than others, but hey, what can you expect? We played decently I would say. It wasn't spectacular by any means but I think the experience was awesome. I'm definitely excited to do it again next year.

School is about to start. Not to stoked about that. For starters, It's hard to find new friends there that share any interests with you unless you're waaay into being a good 'ole southern country boy. I'm not too into that whole culture and the people I live with are not either. I guess I'll stick to keeping the good friends I already have there. A friend of mine would talk about how he wouldn't wear A&M gear around because of the things many people associate with our school. There's a kind of weird stigma. I feel like I am also starting to kind of understand that. I appreciate the education I am getting, but it doesn't help with the embarrassment I sometimes feel for the school and some of the people who go there.

New music? Ok. Well I've recently been listening to some more folksy stuff then I usually would be listening to. One artist I've grown to really like is The Tallest Man On Earth. Just good simple folksy music. Really quite relaxing. Also, some other kind of acoustic stuff like Chuck Ragan and Mike Hale. Chuck Ragan's new album Gold Country leaked and it's very very good. Much better than I had thought it was going to be. I am still looking forward to new stuff from The Swellers, Polar Bear Club, Strike Anywhere, Ruiner, A Wilhelm Scream, Crime In Stereo, and probably many others.

Well if you wasted time reading this, I truly am sorry and would be more than happy to try and work out some sort of reimbursement for you and any other friends that were damaged by my awful writing and useless banter.

Bye now, friends.

They said breathe deeply son, or be the next to die.

Sup, broskis? How's it been going? Anyways, I'll warn you beforehand that this post will probably contain nothing that you are too interested about. In fact, I'm not entirely sure why I am writing it other than the fact that I feel like it might have been too long since the last post. So, topics of discussion we will ponder over today go as follows. Number one: How much work sucks and this ridiculous girl who thinks she rules the place because she used to live in Florida. Number Two: The Thrice cover show that will happen this Wednesday the 12th of August. Number Three:...Honestly, I'm not sure I even have a third topic to talk about. Well, we'll just stick with the default which is new music or old music that's still as awesome as the first day I heard it.

Work Sucks and so does this girl who works with me.

So I have been working at this hotel on the way to Portland for the second half of this summer. I guess I can't really complain about working during the summer because I didn't really work during much of high school or much of the school year during college. But even so, it still sucks going into work every day for 8 hours. I know, I know, I need to stop whining and you're probably right. It's not that bad. And it's really not except for this one girl. Some days when I know beforehand that I won't have to work with her, I am almost excited to go into work. I mean, I get to meet new and interesting people everyday and don't have to do much straining labor. But recently I have had to work with her SO much that I am starting to hate it completely. She's from Florida and thinks that makes her super kick ass and awesome. She always brings it up and tries to somehow show us how it was better there and how she is better than us because she worked there. We work with a system called Opera Hotel booking software 4.0. She'll always say stuff like "Well in Florida we had 5.0 and it was way better and that's why we have so many problems here in this hotel. I should be a manger because I know how to do all this other stuff that other people don't know". She's been here for a whole of maybe 3 weeks. On top of that she gets so cranky when things don;t go her way and she takes it out on guests and acts really rude to people. IT SUCKS.

Thrice Cover Show.

So this year me and some friends are playing this cover show of a band called Thrice. They are really good musicians and are even better song writers. The songs we are playing are considered "older Thrice". Recently they put out some stuff that was a little milder. However, what it lacked in power and brutality it made up for in thoughtfulness and maturity. Because we are playing for people we had to go with the older heavier material to make it more fun. Also, I think everyone just genuinely enjoys the older stuff a little bit more. To be honest, some songs are going to sound better than others. After all, its just for fun. We're not awesome. We just like to play and would like some friends to come check it out! You may even recognize a song or two! There are a couple of other bands playing. The first band is a metalcore band. I've never heard them so I won't pass judgment. Then us. Then the guy whose dad owns the shop will play some songs with his band. Apparently they are all really good musicians so that should be awesome to see. The show is going to be on Wednesday the 12th. Call me, text me, facebook message me, for details and the location. I think it'll be a good time! Come hang out!

Musicz.


Well some bands that me and my friends like are coming out with new albums come September. Because the album release is a little bit of a ways down the road, I guess they decided to put out some teaser type 7 inches and EP's. The Swellers put out a 7 inch with two songs on it. They were both really cool and still had that authentic Swellers sound. Sure, they were a bit slower but they still felt really good. I guess they won't be able to play just skate punk forever. I think we can all live with this happy medium of punk and really good alternative sounding stuff they are doing now. Polar Bear Club also put out an EP with a few songs. Two are going to be on the album while one was a bonus track. I was really excited to hear them and was just as excited after hearing the songs. These new songs may lack a little bit of the vocal intensity that their full length had, but their choice of vocal melody always strikes me as genius. I never can fathom how people could create the lines of music that they do. So that's going to be exciting to hear both of their new albums come September.

Our Lungs are Black. Our Hearts are Gold

Certain things have been on my mind recently. Relationships, friends, the place I live, and music have all been on the top of this list. It's easy for me to think about all these things in my head, but sometimes I need to get it out. Not in a weird sappy kind of way, but rather a real way. I feel like each topic needs to be separated in to its own part and get the attention it deserves. I'm not in a shitty mood or anything, I'm just starting to realize that if I want to do anything with my life, I probably ought to start soonish, amirite?

Relationships: So, me and some friends made a movie recently for a film festival here in Corpus and it made me think a lot about the subject matter of that film...relationships. I feel like any post about relationships automatically makes your audience feel as if you are lonely and are in a bad place in life and need someone more than anything else. I assure you this is not true. I do not feel absurdly alone or out of touch. I do however feel like having someone around to be with would be cool. The film was about the idea of relationships and whether they were of any use or not. Is it worth it to be with someone and commit yourself when you can never be sure of what may lie ahead? Well, at this point in my life I think it is worth it. Will I think so ten years from now? Who knows? All I know is that it is so hard to find someone who shares your interests, humor, and general personality. In saying that, I kind of want to know what that feeling of relief is like when you find that person. I figure it's pretty neat.

Friends: I had the best friends growing up. Me and my friends were about as close as I think a group of friends that are not related physically can be. We did everything together. We played sports together, went camping together, hung out together. It seems that people always talk about the fact that people will inevitably grow farther apart as they grow older and change their interests and hobbies. I never felt this would bring me and my closest friends apart. Lets face it, it certainly did. One of us went one way, the other went another, and the other went yet another way. It's hard to stomach the idea that the people that were closest to you are no longer as close to you as you wish they would be. And this is no one person's fault. Shit changes. It's a cold hard fact of life that you cannot stay the same forever. However, it sure does suck. Hopefully at some point in the new future, that friendship that was can make some sort of reappearance.

The Place I live: I live in College Station. Its about as different from me personally as it can possibly be. This doesn't even really have to do with music or other superficial interests. It's hard to live in a place where you know the majority of people you run into have fundamentally different ideals and philosophies than you do. What do we have in common besides the fact that we attend the same academic institution? Almost nothing. It's really really sad. I feel like the people who live in the place I do are so concerned with things that people shouldn't really be concerned with. I enjoy the school and campus, but it is getting harder by the minute to tolerate people who surround me. And the sad part is I feel like I have tried to live a life of tolerance and understanding. It's tough.

Music: I don't really have a whole lot of new stuff to say in this department. As far as I know, most people are still pretty excited about the new releases set to some out in these upcoming months. The new Thrice album Beggars did leak far too early. I am guilty of downloading it and listening to it repeatedly. Its really good in my opinion. This may be because I have no real ties to old heavier Thrice. This could have made me a little more open to the idea of them getting slower and groovier. I dig it. some songs are better than others, but overall it's really cool. Also, I have been listening to a lot of a band called Living With Lions. Really good melodic punk music. Makes you feel happy and energetic. Check out their EP called Dude Manor and their full length "Make Your Mark". I can almost guarantee you will like something about it.

I feel like when I'm at parties having a good time, I tend to not be the same person as I would be in normal conversation and activities. I am starting to dislike this a lot.

Bye, now!

Cycling Trivialities.

I've decided that from now on the titles of my blog posts are going to be whatever song I am listening to or just got done listening to when writing the post. Today's title comes from Jose Gonzalez's song "Cycling Trivialities" of off his 2007 record called "In Our Nature". You should listen to it. The reason I have been listening to him so much as of late is because we used a lot of his music in this short film we made for the Corpus Christi 7 Day Film Festival. We have done this festival for the past 3 years. Each year the film has a significant improvement and we become more confident about our chances of winning with each passing year. This year was no different as we were probably more excited about this film than any of our previous entries. Roman has been directing each film we've made and has done a really great job of stepping up every year to bring something new to the table. This year we had some sweet expensive equipment that we normally wouldn't have as easy access to. We were able to use a $3000 HD camera that produced some great shots. This film as well of the previous two films has more of a thought provoking feel than cheap entertaining thrills. I feel like we were still able to entertain with this film however. It was about a guy named Sal (played by Razzy) and his breakup/aftermath of the breakup with his girlfriend Samantha (Ariel). Sal spends a lot of the film questioning the ideas of relationships, marriage, love, religion and other things associated with couples and their daily lives. The movie had a lot of dialogue, but I think it was appropriately done. The movie also chronicles the relationship of a "happy" couple (Me and this girl Lina). Its a cool juxtaposition. Anyways, here comes the epic fail part. We were supposed to turn in the film on Wednesday at 7:55. We turned it in at 7:5.....wait....wait for it.......7. Yeah, two minutes late. But don't feel bad, it wasn't even actually finished. We had some problems rendering it on the computer. They gave us till the next morning at 9 but said we wouldn't be in the competition but that they would still show our film. That was nice enough of them. I got a copy of the film yesterday on DVD and can say I am pretty happy with the turnout. Romey did a good job again this year. The dude has some serious talent. Hopefully next year we can actually be in the competition. I'll try to post the video online at some point.

It was a really fun time doing this film with everyone and hopefully we can all still hang out at some point. I met some new and cool people (Grigor and Lina)!

Another thing that has been on my mind is thanks to Mike Hale and Virgil of Suburban Home Records. I realized after emailing them two about using Mike's music in our film just how accessible people in the punk community are. I mean, I could never in my life imagine being able to contact someone like Jay Z or the All American Rejects or someone else who has such a huge fan base about letting us use their music in our film. I understand that bigger artists are probably more busy and could care less about what some kids are doing in Corpus. But still it made me feel happy to be part of a community where you can just email someone or message them on myspace and get a response within a day or even an hour. Its cool to know that some people actually check their email and are willing to send some help your way. Even Jose Gonzalez's manager was happy to help and responded quickly. We need more people like them!

Listen to Mike Hale's "Lives Like Mine"
Listen to Jose Gonzalez's "In Our Nature", "Veneer"

The Thrice show that I mentioned in some previous posts is in the full fledged practice stage. We have had a bunch of practices and are moving along at a decent pace. We did realize there were some songs that we had originally planned to play that we will not be able to pull off. However we added new BRUTAL ones that I think we are all excited to play. We had all kind of lost confidence but have since regained it with the new songs sounding a little better than expected for the short time we had been playing them. That show should be July 31st, but more details will be given when we know them/it gets closer to that time.

Strike Anywhere, Polar Bear Club, Crime In Stereo, Ruiner show costs $12 in Austin but a No Harm Done, Golden Age show in Corpus costs $15....can someone explain that to me?

Ehh, I think I'm done with this post. Bye, now.

Welcome Back Riders.

I sat down today and realized in the whole almost 20 years of my existence, I have never really been more excited about things to come. The neat thing is that there isn't one large event that I am looking forward to, but rather many smaller ones. The problem about one big event is while there may be such an awesome adventure leading up to it, then a glorious time while it happens, there's also that large let down when it's all over. Once it's passed, what is there to look forward to next? In this sense I would prefer to have smaller more spaced out events that let me stay happy all throughout the ride.

So the events go as follows:

1) New albums from a bunch of awesome bands released around September and October
2) Possibly attending Fest for free (except for gas costs which might be split)
3) October 26th (Strike Anywhere, Polar Bear Club, Crime In Stereo, Ruiner...HUH...WHAT??? all on the same night...seriously...YUP.)
4) Thrice cover show (July 31st)
5) College Station band (maybe we make new songs and get good)
6) I got a job (Radisson Hotel front desk)

More detail you say? OK!

1) So, this is one of the best times for music in my life. I'm sure there have been previous times where so much awesome stuff happened, but so far this is the best to my knowledge. Strike Anywhere, Polar Bear Club, The Swellers, Crime In Stereo, Chuck Ragan, Ruiner, Against Me! (not totally into them, but it couldn't hurt), A Wilhelm Scream and so many other fantastic bands are putting out new releases within the next few months. The stuff I've heard posted on the interwebz from some of these upcoming records sounds really promising. Honestly, even they all released songs that sounded like their previous albums, I wouldn't complain. It would still top almost everything else. Some of these bands have signed to new labels and it should be interesting to hear what they sound like and how their music has evolved!

2) You've heard about this in previous posts. Might get to go to this super music festival in Gainesville, Fl at the end of October. That would be suh-weet!

3) Umm...this is hard to explain. No matter what combination of words I use, there will be no way to truly show excited I am for this. I would drive 3 to 4 hours to see each of these bands at different places. Somehow by the grace of Bridge 9 Records, this tour was put together. It feels like they made this tour for my friends and I specifically. It's quite unreal how super this is going to be.

4)Every year some friends of mine do this cover show of a band called Thrice. I never listened to them enough to form a valid opinion of them. However, now that I am going to be playing in this show to give the singer a break by letting him just sing and not play guitar, I have realized the songwriting genius in a lot of their early and later stuff. This show should be a lot of fun. It's going to be on July 31st at a warehouse. when more details come I'll let you (as in no one due to this blog's nonexistent fan base) know whats up.

5) We have a band called Stay in Touch. We only have one and a half original songs now but we sure are trying to change that. The first attempt at writing our own stuff was not bad. The song can use some ironing out, but hopefully when that's done, it'll sound cool! Head on over to our myspace and be our friend. I mean, or don't, I understand either way.

6)I started working again today and that was weird. I work as a "front desk agent" at the Radisson Beach Hotel on Surfside Blvd. It's around the Portland area. The job is cool because there's AC and I basically work with one room booking program the whole day. It sucks though because I think I'm going to be working a LOT. But, hey, more cash moneyzzzZZzzZ. There's this one lady who thinks she knows it all and thinks she's real cutesy and sweet. She sucks.

Anyways, that's all I have now. Don't read this, it's not worth your time. Bye, now.

Fear and Loathing on Cape Cod

If you haven't noticed by now, the titles of my blog posts may have absolutely nothing to do with what the post is about. This is one of those cases. The title is a song by Piebald. It's about a group of friends taking a road trip to Cape Cod and having the time of their lives perhaps with the help of alcohol and drugs. That fact also is not relevant to this post's true nature, but it's such a good song that it is clearly worth mentioning. Now, on to the good stuff...or at least my skewed view of whats good stuff. I just finished a month long internship at a screen printing warehouse (I Heart U Productions)that does a lot of merchandise for independent bands and record labels. While this has no long lasting relevant impact on my major in school, it really got me thinking. The people we worked with were awesome. They lived well and didn't seem to face any real financial problems. They basically get to hang out all day while making shirts, koozies, record packages, and other related stuff while watching TV or listening to music. They get too meet all sorts of people through their business and have made some great friends along the way. To me, that really sounds like all I would need to be content in life. It's started to make me wonder what life would be like behind a desk working as some low level financial analyst or whatever other entry level job my major can get me. I mean, I like the idea of working in the world of business and learning about that kind of stuff as well, but this just seems so much more fulfilling. If you're reading this, let me know what you think. Is it more important to have a well paying job that I can eventually support a family with or is it more important to go with a career that may not pay as much but will give me something more like meeting awesome people and doing something I actually care about?

On to other stuff. Every year in October there is a huge drunken music bonanza in Gainesville, Florida called The Fest. This year will be the 8th year they have been doing it. As I was only recently introduced to punk and hardcore music within the last few years, I am still realizing what a fantastic idea this is. Imagine all the bands you love in one city playing at different venues for three whole days. For three days you immerse yourself in great music, tons of food, and for those interested, tons and tons of beer. People carpool to get there and also to get from venue to venue if it's a long distance. All in all, you meet new people, make great friends, and apparently have the time of your life...or year. I really want to go. I'm sure there are people who want to go more than I do, but I still really really really want to go. The issue is finding cheap tickets to fly there and also finding cheap hotels to stay at.

Finally, I realized if there is one person in the world that I could choose to eliminate from this earth it would be Bill O'Reilly. If I could pick more people, then more of the Fox newscast would likely appear on the list. Now, while I have pretty liberal political views, this isn't the only reason why I would choose him. If you are so unfortunate to have to sit through an episode of his show, you will immediately notice his disregard for the opinions of his opposition. He has literally told guests to "shut up" while they were giving answers to the questions he brought them on his show to answer. Really? Is that polite? Does that make you more intelligent or mature? Cutting guests who do not share your opinion off is one of the most disrespectful and ridiculous things I have seen on TV. I have no problem with people being assertive and standing up for their views, but there comes a certain point where you cross over the line of being a good debater and being a dick.

No one reads this, bye now.

Don't Worry Brother, This Will Blow Over.

So, this past weekend O Pioneers (the band of the dude who we are working with at I Heart U Productions) started their "Great North American Tour". The tour started down here and is going to take them up north until they hit Canada and then back down for a few shows. Thursday, we tagged along with the band on their first stop in San Antonio. Well, technically this show was "pre-tour", but It essentially was the start. Either way, we went to the show and got to see a ton of shitty bands play and also got to see three pretty good ones play. The first couple of bands were way too PUNX for me wearing their Casualties, Virus, and Operation Ivy shirts and sporting twelve inch high Mohawks. The next few were still better but still shitty. Then a band called The Anchor played and they were pretty cool. Then a band called the Menzingers played. They had just gotten done touring with Broadway Calls who are also pretty cool. When the Menzingers played it was like someone plugged in an Ipod in and started playing their songs. They sounded sooooo good live. On top of that, their music was really cool. I suggest that every person who is so unfortunate as to have to be put through this hell I call a blog should also check out this band via the link above. Honestly, this band makes me want to be lucky enough to be in a touring band. They played again the next night in Houston and ended up staying at the warehouse where we live and they were totally nice dudes. Their merch/roadie/singer's brother guy was totally awesome as well. Seeing how much fun this band had while playing and simply hanging out made me wonder why I wasn't doing the same. I then quickly realized being in a touring band involves being good at an instrument and being able to write good music (neither of which I can even remotely do). Maybe someday, maybe. In any event, they showed us what kind of life touring bands have. It's a life where you may have to drive 10 hours to a show where 20 people show up if you are lucky. However it's also a life where that is totally fine. To them, as long as their playing music every night they possibly can, they are having a great time. This seems beyond awesome to me and I hope it always stays that way. This band deserves to be heard.

In other news, I went to Dave and Busters for the first time in my life tonight. It was pretty sweet. Its like a Peter Piper's Pizza on steroids...make that crack...and without the pizza. I had a good time and plan on going back on Wednesday when they have half price games!!

So, we have a band in College Station. We have recently got a MySpace, but don't have any songs up yet. In any event, you should be our friend! We are called Stay In Touch! At some point, some poorly crafted and under produced songs will make an appearance on the page. Get stoked.