Archive for August, 2003

So last nite 1 and 2 met me at my work and we took the L to Potbellys for the pre-show punk rock meal and then hopped on the L again and took it to the Aragon for the big show. They were not allowing anyone with chains or spikes on to wear them in, so we went over to the bar next door and had a drink or two while we waited for someone we knew to show up so they could put their stuff in the car. Once that was taken care of we went inside the venue just in time for the Dropkick Murphys to take the stage. They didn’t do anything for me aside from bore me. I am just not into that stuff and when they busted out the bagpipes and horns I just wanted to punch someone to make them stop. They also had like 100 people in their band. I guess they are pretty popular as the crowd really seemed into them. We totally missed Reverend Horton Heat as they played first.

The Sex Pistols took the stage and they played pretty much every song they ever recorded with a couple exceptions. The first couple songs were rather sloppy but they seemed to catch their groove after about the third song. Overall they sounded good, but I don’t really like the way that Johnny Rotten sings in his PiL voice as opposed to the angry punk rock voice he had on those pistols records. When he sings that way, it just seems to lack the power and anger that they once had. He also really hammed it up big time and was also getting the crowd to sing along and your typical big rock show antics. That just didnt’ seem right coming from one of the first punk rock bands. I had a good time though and it was a real kick to get to see them despite those gripes. Beer was rather expensive and all they served was Miller so that was a big let down.

After the show we headed over to the bar next door again and proceeded to down lots of serum. I met some girl and was talking to her for awhile and I also saw a few people I have not seen in like 15 years and it was a real treat to see these people again and catch up. I ended up leaving my car at work in the city since I was in no shape to drive and got a ride home. I ended up home at 4am and had to be up at 7 to leave to go play paintball with people from work. So I borrowed a car from the Clown Ranch when we got back last nite and I was ok to drive it home and used that to drive the hour away it was to play paintball. I never played before and it was lots of fun but it can get really expensive buying ammo cuz you go thru it pretty damn fast. I was surprised that I was able to play considering I had almost no sleep and was a bit hung over. After the paintball I went back to the ranch to return the car and get a ride to the city to pick mine up and went home and took a nap. Now I find myself with nothing to do on a Saturday nite. I made some calls and no one was around so I’m stuck here alone, which sucks.

When I was in 7th grade I first discovered PUNK ROCK. The Sex Pistols and 999 were the first two punk bands I heard and I was instantly hooked on this new kind of music. It was everything I was looking for, and on top of that, it was as different from what everyone else was into (except for a very small handful of kids that you could count up on one hand who would end up being friends of mine) as I felt I was different from those people. I especially couldn’t get enough of the Sex Pistols. I wore out my first copy of The Great Rock n Roll Swindle as well as Never Mind the Bollocks. I was a little too young to have been able to see them when they were still together, they had been broken up for about 4-5 years before I ever heard them for the first time. I always wondered what it would have been like and wished I could have seen them. Back in the mid 90s sometime, they actually did a reunion tour and I was excited to finally get my chance to see them. The forces of evil (ie: part of the MXV curse) conspired against me and I got sick and ended up in the hospital. I was released just a day or two before the show and was way too sick still to be able to attend and sadly had to give away my ticket to a friend. I was crushed. A week after the show, I caught a webcast of a show from that tour, but it just wasn’t the same. I thought there went my only chance to see a band that ended up totally changing my life. Now they are doing it again and I have a ticket, I am not sick, and I’m going to see them tonite! I am pretty excited about it. The assklowns are coming down – two of which are from that small group of kids I met way back in jr high who liked punk rock – and we are going to Potbellys (the official punk rock meal) and then off to the show. Some people scoffed at the fact that they are “old men” and the ticket price was 47 dollars. I don’t care what they think, if Ric Flair in his 50s can still go in the ring and outperform people 20 years younger than him, I’m sure these old punks can still kick ass. 47 dollars is a small price to pay for something that meant so much to me and gave me a place I could belong growing up amongst a bunch of people I didn’t fit in with or even thought the same way as. If it wasn’t for punk rock, who knows what I would have ended up as, and I can damn sure tell you my teenage years would have been far more miserable.

I wish I could be taking some pictures of the show tonite, but the venue is not very condusive for such activities. If yr in the city tonite looking for something to do, by all means go to the show and see what you may have been missing, and join me in a serum or two in honor of a band that changed the life of me, and I’m sure countless others.

It’s been a rather uneventful week. Tuesday after work I went for a 23.5 mile bike ride. Last nite I didn’t do a whole lot and stayed in the Manor. Tonite will likely be much of the same. I may go for another ride though.

Tomorrow however is THE SEX PISTOLS at the Aragon. Tickets are still available so anyone else want to attend with me?

Saturday morning I am playing paintball for the first time in my life. It is a work function. It should be a lot of fun despite the fact I have to be up at a most ungodly hour to get there. I will likely just pull and all-nighter as I’ll be downing serums at the show tomorrow and will likely be out really late.

After that I have no plans the rest of the weekend so who wants to hang out?! Who is up for downing some serums and getting sauced?! Come on people, step up to the plate! I have a lot of forgetting to do and could use some help.

Last nite after work I went over to the Clown Ranch to gather up the assklowns and we went to the Tivoli to see Dr. Strangelove. I never saw it before and it was quite entertaining. Every so often the Tivoli has this movie appreciation club that meets up there and they show some old movie and they have an auction and other stuff. They even serve beer! They had my two favorites too but I was not drinking as I had to be to work early today. If you are not a member of that club, it is 8 bucks to get in, if you are a member it is 4 dollars. I asked the kid working the ticket window if he coudl pretend we were members so we could pay the 4 bucks and he hooked us up. There is hope for the youth after all! After that I headed home and called it a nite as I had to rise at an ungodly hour to get here this morning. It was a bad day yesterday between getting a phone call from the former Queen of the Manor to getting in an argument with another lady and finally calling her on her shit and pretty much ending that alleged friendship. It was al all around shitty day, if it wasn’t for the movies and the Mr Submarine for lunch, the day would have been a total waste and I still wish that I never left the bed yesterday morning, thereby maybe avoiding having to deal with the crap.

I’m getting flooded by emails from that recent virus going around. You know, the one with the emails that say “your details” “that movie” etc. I must get like 50 of them a day. I use mailwasher to weed thru my mail before I ever pull it off my server onto my PC so I’m ok as far as removing/bouncing them back but it is still really annoying. If I could find the guy who wrote this virus, I would give him a beat down the likes of which he’s never seen or felt before.

1. When was the last time you helped out a friend in need? What was going on that made you want to help?
I help out friends with various things regularly I think. Does someone you were recently “involved with” count? Cuz in that case then it is this week as I am loaning her something.

2. Are you a “pet” person? Do you like to keep pets or would you rather not bother with them? Why?
I’m allergic to cats and most dogs so I don’t have any pets. I like both but really can’t have them. Though the last one had a dog and it didn’t seem to bother my allergies at all, which was odd.

3. In a dating or married relationship, is it possible to change someone to be more like you want them to be? Have you tried to or had someone try to change you? How did it turn out?
It is not possible. You can turn them on to new things that are interests of yours like music or movies or a particular brnd of beer, but to outright try and change who they are doesn’t happen. The “ex-wife” tried her damndest to change me into what she though I should be in her eyes, and when her efforts to mold me into this object failed, she left me for the first “yes-man” she could find and control better, whom she ended up marrying. If you like someone not for who they are, but what you want them to me, and want to change them into that, then you shouldn’t be with them in the first place.

4. In your opinion, why is it that some married people have affairs? Is it ever justified?
Perhaps there is something at home they are lacking. Perhaps they are not being treated nice by their spouse. Is it justified? If I am the one they are having an affair with I’d say yeah cuz I can justify just about anything. In general? I don’t know, I guess it really depends on the situation.

5. Do you tend to make the same mistakes over and over? Got any examples?
Yeah, have you seen my relationship history?! I’ve made the same mistake over and over with the same girls! One I got back together with on 5 separate occasions only to have the same shitty end results! You’d think I’d learn. Also I inadvertatnly seem to get involved with girls that are already involved, or just end up in relationships that are full of drama and are complicated. I don’t seek these things out at all but it just keeps happening to me it seems. You’d think I’d learn that no matter what kind of good chemistry I have with someone, if she’s invovled with someone else at the time I should just turn and run but I don’t and can’t. Or, at the first sign of weirdness or when there starts to be drama I should get the hell out.

6. What do you find distracts you the most when you are trying to concentrate?
Things of a personal nature that weigh heavily on my mind. For example, despite my best efforts to concentrate on anything else, I can not stop thinking about the former “queen of the manor” and getting bummed out about it and miss her.

7. What do you know “now,” that you wish you knew “then?”
That is a tough one. I’d like to think I am smarter now than I was then but I don’t know. There are things I wish I could go back and do differently now knowing what the outcome was.