7.28.2005

Twin Fish Records

So you may or may not know, but I'm now "working" for a local record company called Twin Fish Records. They're pretty new, so no website yet, but we're working on it. Its actually a collaboration between many Electronic Arts (sound, video and animation majors) students and Darcy Stevens. Darcy's wife owns the company, and Darcy is the vice-president, and the students are the employees. I'm pretty excited about this; not only is this exactly what I want to do with my life, but the people I'm working with are people I like, which may not always be the case in later years. At least until I'm a big-league producer/mixer and everyone wants me for their record; then I can pick and choose who I want to work with. Till then though, I'll have to take what I can get.

7.27.2005

Text Sex

Well, it was only a matter of time. Sex has finally come into the 21st century, straight to your cell phone via the magic of test messaging. For a mere $0.99 per message, you can chat with a hot, sexy babe who's aching to read what you have to text. Jesus.

I'm sure you're wondering what such a conversation would look like, so I did some research and found a text message translator to experience it without the cost. Observe:

ey bb, wuz ^?
u bb.
wotU warin?
A SxC thong. u lk thongs, dnt u bb?
cn u hear me nw? gud

(From the same website:
Y is it u cn sue a cigrett cmpny 4 canca, McDs 4 getin fat bt u cant sue Jim Beam 4 all da ugly c*nts uve f*cked
!)

7.26.2005

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II

"A radioactive dinosaur fights a genetically engineered monster and battles pterodactyl Rodan for custody of a reptilian infant."

Now, the question is, what are you doing on Saturday night?

7.19.2005

Wow...

I'm already getting flak for my last post, and it hasn't even been three hours.

Look, to clear some things up:

1) I have personally experienced PWM's "alleged" antics at each of the concerts I mentioned. If you haven't, that's great. 100% of the time I have ever seen/dealt with them they have tried this nonsense. Only once did they fail. I have heard from other people that they have done this on numerous occasions, but since I did not experience this, I did not post about it. I may have few good qualities, but integrity is one of them.

2) I don't feel I'm damaging the scene in anyway. First of all, Springfield's "scene" is pretty pitiful, and that's because everyone in it is too focused on figuring out what the "scene" is to actually play or enjoy local music. Scene is what you make it. Support the bands you like, don't support the bands you don't. Trust me, if I had known Playing With Matches was going to be at the concert, I probably wouldn't have gone. Or, since it was a national act, I would have gone late to avoid physically supporting the local band I don't like Oh wait, I couldn't have done that last night because they stole the headlining spot. Which was the whole point of my post.

3) I don't feel the need to sugar-coat my opinions. It's a free country, I'm entitled to what I want to think. You can think of me any way you like as well, and I'm not going to email you or post hateful things about you on the internet. At least not using your name and linking to your website. Hello? Thanks for the traffic!

4) I'm not attacking them personally. I know a lot of people get this confused. Because I don't like a band's practices does not mean I don't like the people in the band. I am attacking their blatant disrespect for their fans (not booking the show well enough in advance to advertise on the flyers) and other artists. I don't think any local scene should support bands with this sort of attitude.

Honestly, I had hoped for a little more support. Guess this is why Clear Channel, the RIAA, and Bush are running our country - no one really has any taste anymore, for manners or music.

Oh yeah, and I'm not a professional, so I don't have to be on my blog. I'm not claiming to be a professional, so... don't know why people would confuse my personal blog with that. Just because I can have a personal opinion on my blog doesn't mean I can't have a professional opinion somewhere else. Or does it? Where is the line drawn, nowadays?

Being a rock star, the Playing With Matches way

A) book a show at a local venue, hopefully with national acts
B) the night of the show, feign ignorance of the lineup and insist you are the headliner
C) convince the venue and the other bands that its in their "best interest" to let you headline because, after all, you bring in the peeps
D) end up with no fans watching your show because they have middle school in the morning

At A Wilhelm Scream last night, Playing With Matches again committed their rock crimes. As I arrived at the Rockwell, a friend told us that Playing With Matches was added to the lineup. Okay, fine, local bands are often added to lineups at the last minute here in Springfield, especially for nationally touring acts. My friend went on to say, however, that the lineup had changed; it seemed that Playing With Matches was now headlining. Yup, you read that right: headlining for a nationally touring act.

When I dug deeper into the story, a Rockwell guy gave me the scoop: it seems the Rockwell was concerned that A Wilhelm Scream wouldn't draw enough of a crowd, so they (the Rockwell) decided to add Playing With Matches and have them headline to up ticket sales. First of all, Playing With Matches was not on the original concert flyers (see photo at right), so many people didn't even know they were playing. Secondly, the Rockwell didn't deliver tickets to the ticket outlets, decreasing ticket sales dramatically anyway. Third, it was a summer Monday in a college town, your drinking crowd isn't even interested.

I have difficulty believing that it was the Rockwell's idea to have Playing With Matches ultimately headline. I'm sure they enforced it, but I suspect that the band used a little sway to make that happen. The evidence:

1) At a John Galt Line Show at the Blue Room, the crowd eagerly anticipated the metal show that was about to take place. At the last minute, John Galt Line was informed that Playing With Matches, who were scheduled to play second-to-last, were to be headlining instead. The reason? More ticket sales. After the John Galt Line finished playing, however, most of the crowd left, leaving Playing With Matches to play with themselves.

2. At the Growl Benefit Concert, Fallen From the Nest, a Texas band, was the headliner, with Playing With Matches the second-to-last act. The concert started at 8:45p, and at 9:15p, Playing With Matches suddenly "realized" that they were not the headliner, and began whining that they were told they were the main attraction. Besides their unprofessional attitude when the coordinator attempted to book them in the first place, this usurpation did not endear them to the concert promoter. Check out the flyer, kiddies, and tell me who you think was the headliner.

I ask you, do you want asshats of this degree musically representing the 'Field? Remember what your mother always told you: Playing With Matches is not cool or safe.

EDIT: In response to the comment "Way to help the scene in Springfield..."

Yeah, I agree. This is no way for Playing With Matches to help the scene in Springfield.

7.13.2005

Redesign complete

Welcome to my redesigned blog! Thanks to StyleMaster 4.0 and Chugs for the awesome template. And thanks to me for tweaking it to work for my blog. And thanks to you for reading this.

Perhaps you've heard I'm in MUS 216, introduction to audio engineering. Darcy Stevens is my instructor (the only one for that class, actually), and he's a kick in the pants. Seriously, check out this statement:


Better is the enemy of good enough.


Is that not fucking cool? I have a million of them, I write them down every day. And, there's the world's dumbest guy in my class. I swear he asks dumb questions just to hear himself ask dumb questions.

Well, I've been working on this goddamned template for hours now, so I think I'll go to bed now. Look for another redesign in the future, done completely by me! Not in the near future, but soon...

Peace.

7.12.2005

Lame CSS shit

God, I've been working on a redesign for my blog for a solid fucking week, and I can't get it done. First it was the design part itself, then I said fuck it and used a template. Now I can't get the template to work correctly, so I'm thinking of a complete redesign. FUCK! Oh well though, stay tuned a few more days and I should have something done. Meanwhile, I'll change the background around for youse guys.

7.08.2005

I'm famous!

(That exclamation point is much deserved!)

Wow! My blog is in the Springfield News-Leader, our local paper (well, Springfield's local paper, I don't receive it). Thanks to Andy Cline, who lists southwest Missouri blogs for mentioning mine. And, since it starts with an "A," it was at the top of the list (don' you love the alphabet?).

Well, this definitely calls for more posts and more updates, and possibly getting my website up and running again. Wow! I still can't believe it! This is really amazing. Guess I'll have to bust my ass to get my blog redesigned, huh?

Anyway though, my fourth was happy and fun, and hopefully yours was too. Our friend Lucas made an artillery shell hand cannon, which is simply a gun you can use to point artillery shells. (Pictures to come soon.) Needless to say, it was the most popular toy at the party. Our finale was a sight to see, unless you were my mom, who got to see it a littly more up close and personal than she might have liked. Note: use flat surfaces to shoot off those large fountains (i.e. Diamonds in the Dark, Color Me America, Punk Rockers, etc.). Four people in my MUS 216 class have bandages on their hands from varying degrees of firework burns, and my hearing just came back yesterday.

I just had to do a wipe and reinstall on my laptop =( , but things are pretty much back to normal from that. After a long and angry conversation with Dell, that is. Dell used to have great customer service, but this past couple of years its gone to the dogs. I could give you a huge story, but I think I'll leave that particular customer "service" story until a day I'm more angry.

Wow. I still cannot believe it. Wow.

For those SW Missourians just coming to my blog for the first time, you should check out my Flickr site (which I'm much more proud of), and give me ideas for my blog and website redesign. Tell then, cheers!

And thanks to Amy from Gentle Whisper for commenting and turning me on to the News-Leader story.

7.04.2005

Happy Independence Day

Or, as I like to call it, Happy Blow Shit Up Day! I got all the fireworks for our big party, so hopefully you won't be seeing us on the news for starting brush fires when it's been so dry. We have enough fireworks to share with everyone for 3 miles! We-ll, not really I guess, since everyone I know loves the damn things and would never part with them.

Have a safe and happy Fourth!

7.02.2005

Save a tree and quit delivering phone books

Dear Phone Company,

Please don't send me any more phone books. I have enough. Four really is my limit. Please donate my excess phone books to a family in need; I'm sure they can use them for heating fuel.

I have one from you, Phone Company, and one from your rival, and one from your rival's rival. I even have the reverse lookup phone book, where the numbers are listed rather than the names.

All the same numbers appear in each of my phone books, and since I only have one phone, I think perhaps that four is enough. I keep one in my car for a booster seat, one in my kitchen for a trivet, one in my bedroom for a makeshift pillow, and one by the phone for, well, looking up numbers.

All my phone book needs are covered, and if I happen to misplace any of my phone books, I always have the internet. Thank you all the same.

Me