A Trip To Blood Mountain

This past weekend I saw Mastodon at the Starland Ballroom in NJ. I was supposed to see them a few months ago, before Blood Mountain came out, in New York, but got stuck out of town. They played with Converge and Priestess. We got there late becuase of traffic getting out of the city and missed Priestess. I wasn't really disappointed though, usually bands that sell girlie underwear don't appeal to me much. Converge played a tight set during which i ate nasty pizza at the bar. During the long wait between Converge and Mastodon they played a footage from an AC/DC concert on a projection screen in front of the stage. this would have been cool except they played different music instead of AC/DC, mostly bad metal. Mastadon took the stage and got rowdy while raging through all the hits. the sound was good and they played really tight. I wasn't that much into Blood Mountain before the show but i've been listening to it alot since. the bulk of what they played was from Blood Mountain and Leviathan, with some older classics tossed in. a good set. on the way home we stopped at a rest stop and at nasty arby's fries. shit was gross.

learn more about the modern masters of metal here.

The Eyes of a Fish

Recently, I purchased a Fisheye 2 camera from Lomography. It's a great point and shoot 35mm wide angle camera. Simple to use with just enough options on it to keep it fun and creative. If you're not aware of Lomography go to their site. They have tons of awesome cameras and they love photography of any nature like crazy. I've got my eye on a lomo LC-A+, it rules and I want. Check out my flickr page to see my first pictures taken with the Fisheye 2.

The 10 rules of Lomography:

1. Take your camera everywhere you go & whenever you go.
2. Use it anytime — day or night.
3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but a part of it.
4. Shoot from the hip.
5. Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible.
6. Don't think.
7. Be fast.
8. You don't have to know beforehand what you've captured on film.
9. You don't have to know afterwards, either.
10. Don't worry about the rules.

Cat Power

On February 5th I went to see Cat Power at the Hiro Ballroom in the Maritime Hotel. I was excited to see her perform, especially at such a rad venue. I was also unsure of what to expect from the performance--I'd heard from several sources that the usual ending of a Cat Power show occurs when she becomes upset and then leaves stage mid-song. While I thought that would be interesting to see, but I'd like to get my $25 worth. Well, what occured was about the exact opposite of what I expected. She was on stage for close to 2 hours, and about 30% of that time was spent talking about crazy shit. She was totally raging that night. One prime example would be the gem, "If he gives you the ring, you've gotta give him the anus." Pretty incredible if you ask me, but the fun didn't stop there. When she got around to playing songs she sounded unbelievable--I got chills a few times, her voice was so unreal. Friends of mine who've seen her before were a bit disappointed, mostly from her non-stop craziness. This being my first time loved it. The worst part was the douchebags behind us verbally jacking themselves off to one another. Also, I think Cat Power stole some Mitch Hedburg jokes and I swear I saw Ryan Adams.

Check out these bootlegs I recorded of the show (there's a bit of background noise on some and I didn't name the tracks--sorry).

Shark Attack

From the deep dark depths of our expansive wild blue ocean rare and exotic, prehistoric creatures have begun making their way to the surface. The question we must ask ourselves now is: friend or foe?

Within the past 30 days on two seperate occasions two different types of shark which typically live at roughly 3,000 feet below the surface made there way up and died only hours after they're sightings.

-January 21, 2007 a Frilled Shark was spotted by fisherman in Japan. Frilled shark have been seen before, but dead and no bigger than a foot or two. This guy was alive, although sick, and was 5 feet long. Scientists believe the shark was sick and that is why it left it's usual depth for the surface. Four days later, January 25th, a Goblin shark was found, also in Japan. The Goblin Shark, like the Frilled Shark, was taken to marine park to be studied but died hours later.

Is this all part of a plan that all the deep sea fish have? Were these two simply scouts sent to observe us? Are there really deep sea merpeople riding fish like horses cursing us for being able to wear sunglasses, when they themselves obviously have no need for them? Yes.



side note: the goblin shark can be easily studied in Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania for your PC.

Outlaws

After owning and enjoying "The Outlaw Bible Of American Poetry" I ventured out into the world to purchase it's good friend "The Outlaw Bible Of American Essays". The first thing that struck me was the size (which may or may not matter). The Poetry edition was a beast and felt good to hold. I only assumed that the Essay edition would be as large, if not larger. Although when i found it on the shelf it was indeed smaller. But whatever, it's the content that matters and the content here is, in spirit, as large, if not larger. A good solid collection of works from a good solid collection of writers. The book was published by AKPress. Here's their summary of the contents:

"Like its highly acclaimed companions, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry and The Outlaw Bible of American Literature, this edition is a primer for generational revolt and an enduring document of the visionary tradition of authenticity and nonconformity in American lives and letters. A raucous eruption of language and a showcase for the best essayists of our time, The Outlaw Bible of American Essays chronicles American history and measures the boundlessness of dissident thought. Kurt Vonnegut, bell hooks, William S. Burroughs, Eldridge Cleaver, Iceberg Slim, Hubert Selby Jr., Eileen Myles, Allen Ginsberg, Annie Sprinkle, Miriam Makeba, Sparrow, Tennessee Williams, Susie Bright, Brenda Knight, Sue Coe, Fly and dozens of others present an inspired showcase of unsparing inquiry and revolt."

I'd fly if I could fly

I happened across a blog called "what do i know". It's done by a web designer. A few posts were about a site he was building called Super Deluxe (which is owned by Turner Broadcasting). It's video site with social networking and video sharing, but that's not the cool part (actually that's the lame part). The cool part is that Super Deluxe only shows new original comedy. Certainly there's a bunch of stuff that's not really funny. But since i've found it it's grown quite a bit and continues too. A bunch of note worthy funnymen have already joined the ranks making original short series for the site, like: Dave Foley, Alyson Leevy, Richard Belzer, Lance Myers and a bunch of others. If you don't recognize the names you definatly recognize there work which ranges from kids in the hall to wonder showzen (i guess that's not a huge range, but it's comedy site so get off my back). The Best videos i've found on Super Deluxe have been done by Brad Neely and his series about Baby Cakes. An almost 30 year who lives with his dad, plays role playing games, drinks beer and writes beautiful songs. At this point there are two episodes in the Baby Cakes Diaries series and about 5 or so 30 second spots promoting the site. Take a visit to Super Deluxe and check out everything by Brad Neely, then browse around find more funny.