So has anyone seen this Jesus Camp doc? [Bad Idea Series]

I had watched it awhile back, and now I saw it again recently, and it really freaks me out. Luckily only 30% of the USA identify strongly with conservatism. It's freaky how much these guilt ridden evil facist republican think tanks can take over the minds of the weak. Watching this video you can see President Bush and all sorts of Army stuff just thrown in the background, like these people can't exist without it. At one point they bring in a cutout cardboard version of George Bush, which basically brings flashbacks of Nazi Germany and all sorts of other weird shit. Fanatics in any form are always creepy, but these ones are in modern day life... They use religion as a drug and a crutch to keep people obedient and like livestock herd them.

Plus the whole chanting in tounges thing kinda makes me cringe.

Yngwie Malmsteen

This guitarist shreds like crazy, If you've not heard of him I feel sorry for you. He has such insane classical training that I can't even begin to explain his playing. Listen to that video and you'll understand, once you get past the incredibly 80's sounding keyboard solo. This song had a video that is no longer around, but It show's Yngwie fighting a 20 foot tall dragon with pure heavy metal shredding.

I love the sound of this song. It's got incredibly Neo-Classical style while not making a complete specitcle out of Yngwie, like some of his other material does.

Check it out.

Rockin' the STRAIGHT EDGE.

I got my band "Sacred" and the prog rock band "Open Evolution" a gig at a little venue called the Straight Edge. It's actually the only all ages venue in the area. As the name would prompt the show has strict rules against Drugs and Alchohol, it's about the music. I think this is a cool idea, and I respect the venue's rules (but I'm definatly not a straight edge individual, mean come on it's about the drugs sex and rock and roll always.) It's a completly do it yourself in a garage rock out with your cock out kinda gig. I've heard many different opinions about the venue, but I personally don't care, and plan to rock the gig. Who can complain anyway? It's exposure, and everyone has to start somewhere, No one plays an arena their first gig. Working your way up the laddar is part of the whole experience.

Plus EVERY good rock band starts in the garage.

Of Roadies and Tech Crews.

ONE night was a disaster. In all honesty my group got boned. I'm not going to mention names but I'm glad there will be other gigs. My friend Tamara just said Tofu Wiener.

An astounding horrible idea relating to post-modernism. [Bad idea Series]

In relation to our post-modern studies, I've found something that ties in quite well. A film about NOT stealing video game software from the early nineties. Yes that sounds incredibly like a bad idea am I right? Not only is it a cheesy public service announcement, it's also done in a hip-hop format. Hip-Hop almost always uses sampling of audio, and in this case most obviously does. At one point they say that this stealing of programs could be the "end of the computer age". It's no wonder society as a whole sunk it's teeth into illegal downloading. Let's watch and see.

A new blog series: "When was this ever a good idea?"

There are far too many moments in my life that go un recorded. Times when i see something and say to myself.. WHO EVER THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?



Not only does he pose on the cover of every Harlequin love novel imaginable, he apparently in 1993 got a record contract. From the first electronic drum beat of love.. You know this has to be great. The song doesn't include.. singing. It has fabio going on about how he wants to make love to you with 50 or so inuendos that make no sense after awhile. Lovely.

Enjoy.

Religion: A way to hate eachother differently.

Lets hear it for local hatemonger Eric Schumacher, a local pastor, Says

"Last June, a "500-year flood" ushered millions of gallons of water through eastern Iowa. In Cedar Rapids alone, more than 25,000 individuals were displaced in one day. Hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage was done.

The Flood of 2008 is arguably the most destructive disaster that the state of Iowa has seen -- at least, that is, until last Friday.

On April 3, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a state law limiting marriage to one man and one woman violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution. Licenses will be issued to homosexual couples April 27.

It is not hyperbole to say that this ruling has the potential to be the worst disaster to strike the state of Iowa."

What an asshat. I understand the whole right wing jesus freak attitude "Let's take some little parts of a book out of context and piece them together until they make my opinion sound right, and then spam it out to the masses" formula but denying the rights of others is no longer acceptable. It's not 1950 anymore. I'm glad they finally were able to understand that church and relgion are seperate entites. Homosexuality is love, of a different variety, but love none the less, and homosexuals are people too. I don't care what anyone says, people are born gay, no one would choose to be ostrocised and made of/hated by anyone. People can't choose their sexuality, much like you can't choose the color of your skin.

I totally took my pills today.

Feeeelin the downers.

Sweeeet.

Wanna know some killer lyrics?

"Oh

Oooh yeah

Ah

Ziggy played guitar,

jamming good with weird and gilly

And the spiders from mars.

he played it left hand

But made it too far

Became the special man, then we were ziggy's band

Ziggy really sang, screwed up eyes and screwed down hairdoo, Like some cat from japan, he could lick 'em by smiling

He could leave 'em to hang

They came on so loaded man, well hung and snow white tan.

So where were the spiders?

while the fly tried to break our balls

Just the beer light to guide us,

So we bitched about his fans and should we crush his sweet hands?

Ziggy played for time, jiving us that we were voodoo

The kids were just crass, he was the nazz

With god given ass

He took it all too far but boy could he play guitar.

Making love with his ego

Ziggy sucked up into his mind

Like a leper messiah

When the kids had killed the man i had to break up the band.

Oh yeah

Ooooooo

Ziggy played guitar. "

The other thing that's really awesome about this song is that the guitar tone is really classic sounding. It's kinda like Queen but a little more ballsy. Bowie totally rocks the high notes in this song too. I really like his rock and roll era opposed to the 80's synth pop stuff he's become a little more famous for. The Ziggy Stardust era of Bowie was much cooler in my opinion.

Good things never last.

ONE night.

That's the new name of the band; Sacred. No one liked Sonic Daze. I thought it had a good ring, but whatev.. I'm only lead guitar what does my opinion mean? haha, So uh, we're totally 80's rock-ish/metal-ish. We've been working on some crazy good material. I'm totally pumped for the show. The ONE night preformence features every single quality performence group in the school. Being the co-leader of Guitar Club, I've been in on it since it's creation. I'm really glad we auditioned people to a pretty high standard. I hate it when bands show up and aren't really good enough to play a gig but try anyway. I think it's about self respect more than anything ya know? I mean if I sound like shit I won't sit there and force people to listen to my bullshit for 20 minutes. There's a band that could stand to learn from this. That or play less SOAD covers. less to say they didn't quite make it in.

It hasn't all been perfect and clean. The rehersal schedule has been somewhat messed up. No one can seem to just print off 20 copies of a calander and tell us what's up. Then there was the totally spinal tap experience of having to hunt down a drum kit that we couldn't even use for a half an hour, and ofcourse I get yelled at for it. Then i'm working with a guy that's in two bands which are bothing playing this show. It seems to be hard for him to balance them at times, but he's doing a good job.

As for our setlist, it's going to be Run the Streets, Storm the Gates, When We Were Young, and Paranoid so far. We might have time for some other stuff but our drummer can't nail The Sword's: Freya, and we're on limited time. I'm kinda feeling mixed about that, but I can dig it.

Guitar Strings.

Guitar strings are the one part of your almight axe that aren't so indestructable. I mean you can shred it out for hours and hours but eventually those motherfuckers are going to snap right off. AND they're going to wait till you have a hard time getting new ones for sure. And forget about the rest of your night if you have a Floyd Rose trem with locking blocks. You're totally fucked then.

I think the guitar industry has a hold on the Guitar string market and makes them about as flimsy as possible. I mean they just want more money every time you snap them you gotta head out and blow 5 bucks on their PREMIUM STEEL blah blah. They could be weaving it out of tinfoil for all we know. I recently bought these Nickel super lights and THEY'RE SHIT. They cost half the price of normal strings and lasted a quarter as long.

Maybe this will help

I guess they raise the point that guitar strings are usually made out of high grade material, but I think there is totally something behind the idea that they make em weak on purpose. We live in a disposable evil capitalist system mannnnnn

And with that said.

peace.

On a more personal note.

It seems My blog has become a little less about me and more about what I like, which is fine and dandy, but I decided to put up a post that'd be a little more chill, and perhaps vent some frustration.

Well it's rather strange how close to the end things really are. I mean.. in eight weeks or so I'm gone from this place... That moment I've been begging for the past 3 and 3/4 years is kinda catching up to me. And it's fucking scary. I'm not even leaving town or home for that matter for another 4 years and i'm still kinda fucked up over it.

I mean honestly, I don't drive, I don't have a job, and I don't really know what the hell i'm doing with my life. I always seem to be a step behind everyone else, but i really try as hard as I can.

Another thing that starts to get to me is how everyone changes. The guy I was personally four years ago is nothing compared to the guy i've become.. I'm so far from what I was then it's scary to think of what it will be like after collage, but at the same time i'm excited for it. People change so much though, I've become more and more of a social outcast as every day passes and I feel like a lot of people are just pushing me further away from them. Ya see Highschool students really have no heart or mature sense about them. They see anyone excuting individuality and they decide to ostrosize them. What makes me different is that I won't play by the rules, and i'm not here to make anyone else happy.

What really struck me was a few weeks back I got to see a girl I used to love and know as my best friend. We met in the 7th grade, and she was really a pretty awesome person. She became insecure as the years went on and became a negative bullying kind of person. I never seemed to be able to say No to her though, And i'm not really sure why. Maybe it was because deep down I thought I loved her somehow some way. If I ever began to show any interest in her at all she'd shoot it down with negativity and make sure to make me aware of my differences from everyone in a somewhat joking manner, and played it off as this onging inside joke. I hadn't seen her in what felt like ages really... And when I did I was met with the harsh reality of what had become of her. I was really appaled at the way she spoke to me like we were still little kids, saying mean things about my hair and all sorts of things, I really felt like I was twelve again or something. this isn't something I will ever go through again because I feel really guilty for having put up with her shit this time around. I mean, I let myself down by submiting to her cruel stupid little immature shit, and I really don't feel bad for saying that. But really... Who's the changed one now? me...?

I've come into a circle of friends that I've never really had this year. A lot of my friends came to know one another and there's a group of about 12 of us or more that hang out and do what all teenagers do on weekends. [Sit around and read the bible ofcourse]. While we study up on our "scripture", I can't help but feel accepted for the first time in eons. My personal connection with everyone is somewhat limited, but It's the thing i've been seeking for about 17 years I think. It's really reminding me of That 70's Show with Eric's basement, only with more people obviously.

This one story can't escape my mind, and i've been kinda questioning what could've happened on this certain night not so long ago. We went to meet some people in a certain location where many other teenagers with nothing better to do on a Friday night go, to a certain parking lot not too unfamliar to me. I was somewhat nervous in this locale because at the time, we weren't exactly supposed to be there or thinking of doing what we were planning on later that night. Ofcourse about 3 minutes or so after we come to this location, a squad car drives into the lot and my friend that was driving decides to not so inconspiciously bolt from the scene in a orderly manner past the 5-0. Now i'm kinda relieved we're going and all, since we were already leaving when the squad car drove in, and we're turning out of the lot and my friend goes up over the fucking curb and almost nails a sign, The fucking squad car didn't see a thing. I would've been hit straight in the face with the sign had we ran into it too hard, I shouldn't have been doing what I was that night, and all the above. The amount by which I slipped by is not even measureable by the naked eye. This little incident has made me step back a little bit and look at what I'm doing before I do it.

I wrote some songs today with my good friend/band mate. This guy is insane, and can totally outplay me if he wanted to at guitar. We've got this insane chemistry and wrote two full songs in less than 5 hours. The only downfall to working with him is, his strict unforgiving music hating parents. They seem to find almost anything to kill this kids ego and creativity without any real reason. Not only does this hurt our band, it really just brings him down. He's the most talented musician i've ever met in my whole life, and I feel lucky that he wants to play music with me every time we jam. If you wanna hear what we wrote, listen to Storm the Gates and When We Were Young. They're amazing tracks and I can't believe we wrote them. They're not complete yet and a little sloppy, but They'll be much better in April at the ONE Night Benefit Show. I really can't wait to show them off tommarow at the rehersal.

I hope maybe this Blog is some kind of insight into me, and maybe people will be able to look past some of my image i've built up over the years. I don't want to change myself to please others, I want the world to accept me a little more for being individual. Just today a group of urbanly dressed african american guys came up to me, and one said that "this guy loves you mann" and laughed for no reason, and the other guy which he was referencing became insanly defensive and said "NO WAY MANN THAT GUYS A FREAK" and they all just laughed for no real reason. I don't understand why expression of ones self is so frowned upon. Is everyone really that shallow? I mean I honestly can't get any respect, and 95% of the time it seems to be african americans that make fun of me. All other races are much more tolerant. I believe it's the clash of values which makes me sound almost racist. It seems that the whole "ghetto urban hip hop culture" thing has been glorifying ignorence through rap music and brainwashing suseptable youth into becoming capitalistic thug gangster wanna-be kinda people. They idolize these mean rapper dudes who just want to hate eachother and shoot and kill eachother over something as stupid as money. Not to mention the trends it has set on to american youth. Wearing oversized clothing and talking as stupidly as possible is supposed to be "cool". This trend has crossed over into all gullible people, not limited to african americans alone, but it most definatly originated there. I really come to wonder what civil rights heros of the past have come to think of this. I mean, honestly they gave everything, sometimes even their lives to give these people freedom, and they abuse it to no end, and treat others with complete rudeness. I'm not a hateful person, I really try to be the most accepting individual as I possibly can. I put myself in everyones shoes, I'm not a judgmental person in the least. But something tells me more and more that maybe I should be.

That's all for now, I suppose i'll blog like this more often.... Comment if you wish.