Priorities

So um, anyone that I didn't hang with this weekend, that I was supposed to hang with this weekend, um...
Sorry dudes.

I was busy watching the entire first season of LOST.
As of 3.30, i have 2 discs left to watch.
Peace kids.

New Art

New Art in the flickr.

New Haircut

Annnnnd let the complaining begin.
More pictures in the Flickr.

Two Album Reviews

Heyas, crew. long time no schreibt.
NUMBER 14

Has Been
William Shatner

artist site buy album

"Shatner?" You're saying.
"William Fucking Shatner made your top 15 list?" others say.


Fuck yea dude, and a great big fuck you to everyone that said the second comment. Not only does the aging thespian act, he....uh, kinda talks over music with some rough idea of what rhthym is. The first track (also the single) makes your nearly shit your pants until you realise that William Shatner isn't doing the actual singing (that's Joe Jackson).
Ben Folds produced the album, playing piano in a couple of tracks. Shatner sings about life, death, marriage, showbiz, and shit that annoys him.

Why It's Not #1
Gimmick songs like "You'll have Time" and the title track, "Has Been", detract from the whole image of the album as the voice of an old sage imparting wisdom on impatient young ears.

Worth Checking Out For
"Common People", "That's Me Trying", "I Can't Get Behind That"

Listen For
Background lyrics on "You'll Have Time", drums on "Common People" and "I Can't Get Behind That". female background vocals on "It Hasn't Happened Yet"

Overall Rating
9.4/10

NUMBER 13

Metropolis Part Two: Scenes from a Memory
Dreamtheater

Artist Site Buy Album

Dreamtheater is kind of a love-em or hate-em band.
I happen to love them. They're pretty much the most metal band I can listen to, and also one of the few "progressive" bands I can tolerate (the other being the Fiery Furnaces).
Scenes is probably the best Dreamtheater CD out there. The story behind this cd is pretty entertaining too, but that's on other websites. So look around. I'm not rewriting that. The story contained in the music is pretty intense, too- a progressive metal opera almost.

Why It's Not #1
It's LONG. Seventy some minutes long, with pretty solid songwriting, but tons of lengthy instrumentals, so it's kind of trying on your nerves.

Worth Checking Out For
"Home", "One Last Time", "Finally Free"

Listen For
ragtime piano solo on "The Dance of Eternity"

Overall
9.6/10

The second sentence would be a better title than this

First off, let me say this- If you are 300+ pounds, can't see your feet, or waddle when you walk AND aren't pregnant, you disgust me. Diet or Kill yourself. Please.
Why the fuck would you let yourself get like that? Seriously. You can't run, some of you fat fucktards can barely WALK, so you make the rest of us fitter people do your work for you. You sit at the TV all night because you have no friends, because the only people not completely repulsed by you are people just as fat, and they sure as hell don't want to go anywhere. They're parked.
You produce nothing, you just consume, all the time, and then demand handicap stickers for your vehicle (which is probably huge, lord knows you can't fit in a mid-sized car) so you don't have to walk as far to get to the counter at McDonalds or to get to the electronic cart at a supermarket. You know who deserves those handicap spots? Veterans, the elderly, maybe even the PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTUALLY FUCKING HANDICAPPED, not the selfish assholes who can't stand walking twenty feet to their electronic cart. Seriously, morbidly obese people, the entire state of Mississippi, kill yourselves. Kill eachother, if that works better for you.
Now, this sentiment is not directed towards the people who occasionally spend a night in watching the idiot box, or the people who eat TV dinners or Taters 'N' Gravy or whatever. Not at the people who have a little flub or a spare tire or lovehandles, whatever you call that.
This is directed at the people that claim obesity is a disease, or who blame their problem on fast food or heredity, or who see absolutely nothing wrong with being so big they can't sit on a chair normally, they ooze off of it. C'mon assholes, Oedipus proved heredity, predetermination was bunk. Take some fucking responsibility and shape up. Or die.
Reason I bring this up is because I went to Tom's yesterday (a burger & fries fast food join, for those not in the know) and after I ordered, I go to pick out a table, and there is this absolutely huge person, shoving fries in their mouth, mindlessly guzzling coke (or, for irony's sake, diet coke). Made me change my order to To-Go.

ANYHOW, lately I've been burning out on a few bands I really like listening to. For your knowledge, I DO NOT want to listen to

Organic, by Something Phonic
Funeral, by the Arcade Fire
OK Computer, by Radiohead
Agætis Byrjun, by Sigur Ros
Blood Money, by Tom Waits

Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus, by Cloud Cult

for a while. They're all really good, but not what I want to hear at least for a while.

Awesome thought today:
Musicians in general are paid a flat price, according to their contract, for recording an album, and then get more money if it goes gold or platinum or whatever. ie, they do not collect royalties, just bonuses if it sells well. However, when people download music illegally, it is one less album the musician sells and thus would receive fewer monetary awards from it, which would keep them more grounded in reality (unlike Flava Flav, or J Lo or whatever). The studios and record companies would then lose money on making the albums, and some of the smaller studios would go under, which in turn provides cheaper recording equipment for independent musicians (because supply would exceed demand) and the recording equipment would be of higher quality, because the same market lull that takes out the small studios will take out the low budget equipment, which in turn leads to more music. Which brings me to my two points.
1- Music is the opposite of greed.
2- Record companies are stingy bastards that are putting themselves out of business.

NUMBER 15
of the album review project


Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs
Andrew Bird
Buy Album Website







Laid back cellos, chilled out vocals, the CD reminds me of sitting out on the lawn on a sunday afternoon in the summer, sun going down but the day barely beginning, and you are alone, not by choice. Everyone else has shit to do except you- you get to take it easy.

Why It's Not #1: "Masterfade" and "MX Missiles", while not bad, sound like stuff you'd hear after "Taking It Easy" or "More than a Woman" (by the Eagles and the Bee-Gees, respectively) on the super market muzak.

Worth Checking Out For: "Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left", "Fake Palindromes", "Skin is, My"

Be Sure to Listen For: Theremin, Vocals/Lyrics

OVERALL RATING: 9.6/10

Also, new room setup (again). Pictures will go up on Flickr tonight.

Radio Silence.... Bitches

Ack will post more later, busy week, have to move shit around alot.

You're Ugly, and I bet your Mom is too

So I had a minorly crazy weekend. a Trivia Weekend, to be precise. I spent the vast majority of it in Plover (near Steven's Point), playing trivia with a ton of really cool people I only really see once a year.
Also, Dr Pepper is the most wonderful thing on the planet.
It's proven.
I'm going to have a new limited run feature on here, called "Sam's Favorite Albums" (similar to the old project of "Sam Reviews every album he owns" on the old blog).

Also, I doodled more today, and re-setup my room. Pictures coming sometime soonish.

My job is not challenging in the least

I spent all day drawing today.

Well, drawing and changing what paper was being scanned.

But mostly drawing.

Check out the artistry at my Flickr account (on the sidebar)

How can someone inconsistent mess up so consistantly?

Man, today was pretty damn good. Work sucked (I worked with Joanne, who doesn't talk and doesn't like Radiohead) but then again, it is good money so I should not be complaining. Trivia weekend fast approaches, but what I'm really looking forward to is 1) getting my wah-wah pedal at lunch time from Guitar Universe (or whatever they call themselves) and 2) Getting paid! whoo, bitches! then I can get my soundcard (which is uber sexy) and another monitor and my RECORD-O-TRONIX computer will be ready! (yay).

Mad props to Dan for hooking me up with a spare CPUnit, ACiD Pro 5.0 and mouse/keyboard setup, now to add the final touches....

Oh, and that setup that was pictured in Sunday's entry? That will be changing (again). I'll post photos when it's done, but for now, be aware that it is just all kinds of awesome.

Okie dokers, I will blog at you later, internet. I am bored now.

(Personal Life update)
There are not many girlfriend material girls in the fox valley. God damn. and the one that I thought was girlfriend material seems to have vanished on me.... God damn indeed.

This is what you get

Guitar store yesterday! I really really like that new guitar store out by the mall. Holy crap. They've got a shit load of stuff. I got some cords yesterday, for hooking up more stuff to the mixer. Then I decided I didn't want my computer by my shelves anymore.
So I moved it by the window.
Here is a picturePeace out, my droogs.