Free Bird Falling

Free Bird Falling

There is a time for all things
And a thing for all time
But nothing last forever
Not even the grapes on the vine
The winter frost will kill us all
Even though we seem to be 2 feet tall
We will be brought down
Brought down to the lowest of the low
The weakest of the week
Is the most worthy of us all (10)
No one shall know the eternal glory
That lies on Rylox 9
The only way out
Of this eternal fire
Infernal life
Ceaseless existence
Timeless hour
Ageless angels
Flying with vested interests
In us not reaching heaven
Where do we go
When it’s all been said
Where will we live
When it’s all been built
In a thousand years or so
Who will remember what we’ve done
The buildings will crumble
Our words will fade
The lines in the sand
Will mean nothing to anyone
So live life like you mean it
For you won’t get another one.


This poem was written in 5 minutes for a timed write in Creative Writing class, the theme is supposed to be Insecurity.

To Do List

To write:

Allegory
Surveillance Article
Killswitch Engage concert review
Mars Theory article
Outcast story
Descent story
Insingizi article
Life's Little Rules

Looks like I've got my work cut out for me

I Know, I Know...

Give me time. I have yet to have a minute or the energy to squeeze some writings out. Maybe during creative writing tomorow

Killswitch Engage - As Daylight Dies

Has Killswitch Engage gone soft? Maybe. Does it make for a better album? Definitely. On their first 3 albums, Killswitch pounded out a very brutal, very original sounding kind of metalcore. With distorted vocals, blinding fast riffs and well-defined songs, those albums were original, for the time. But it’s now 2006, and the metalcore scene has exploded, and there are multiple bands doing the scream/sing thing, most of them not as well as Killswitch. Killswitch isn’t even as good as Killswitch.

I remember reading a Revolver Magazine a while back, before Killswitch went into the studio saying that they were going to make the most brutal and hardest album of their career. What they’ve accomplished is good, don’t let me tell you otherwise, but it’s nowhere near as good as their first 2 albums. But that also depends on what you mean by good. If you mean good as in sounding like you threw your middle finger up and stabbed me repeatedly in the face then no, it’s not as good as The End Of Heartache.

But if you mean good as in a band continuing to grow and experiment and making a play for a mainstream audience, then yes. This album is damn good. It has all the hallmarks of a Killswitch album, screamed and sung vocals, intricate, always changing riffs and that damn double bass that makes you wanna get up and kill someone.

So in the end, there are 2 ways to look at it. If you’ve never heard a Killswitch Engage album, and this will be your first, definitely pick it up and give it a go. But if you’re a seasoned Killswitch fan, one that’s been around since their debut disc, then be a little more cautious. It’s not a drastic change, but enough of a change to give one second thoughts.

New Song - Ox Atlas - Speed Demon

As seems to be my habit on the weekend, I have once again picked up my guitar and written another song, this one called Speed Demon. I wish I could say that I created some brand spankin' new riffs for this one, but I did not. I took the half of a chorus from another song that I'm not using (the chorus not the song) and attached it to a riff that I've had kicking around for a couple months now. It actually turned out pretty good.

The name probably needs some explaining, as the lyrics make no mention of speed. Whenever I play guitar or sing, I tend to go faster than I'm supposed to or need to, simply because I'm nervous and want to get the damn thing done I guess. But on this song, that actually works 'cause the riff sounds better when I go faster, although I do need to remember to slow down on the chorus.

Oh, I have also discovered a cool "new" band. They're not new, they've been around for a couple years, but they are new to me. They are also a rare type of band. A stoner rock band (in the vein of Kyuss, Nebula & Monster Magnet, according to Allmusic.com they sound like the Melvins, but I don't hear that influence) but fronted by a chick. There is nothing really new or extraordinary that separates Acid King from every other stoner rock/garage band out there, except for the fact they are fronted by a chick.

The riffs are slow and heavy, the bass is monstrous and the drummming is basic. There are very few distinguishable riffs, as they all tend to vanish in the purple haze that surrounds this genre. The album I'm listening to is the 2004 reissue of their second album, Busse Woods, for the epynomous stoner rock label Man's Ruin (the same label that did the 9 volume Desert Sessions). "Even if you consider yourself a teetotaler Busse Woods is an exhilarating dose of metal." Too true. Too True

The Black Crowes - Remedy

If you feel down, or other wise upset, watch this video, it's a Remedy for what ails ya!

Rise Against - Paper Wings

The pain of the eternally romantic...

Music Codes - MySpace Layouts

Movie Soundtrack

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)

2. Put it on shuffle

3. Press play

4. For every section of the movie, type the song that's playing

5. When you go to a new question, press the next button

Opening Credits: John Petrucci - Wishful Thinking

Waking Up: American Minor - Cheaters & Non Believers

First Day At School: The Black Crowes - Thick 'N' Thin

Falling In Love: A Perfect Circle - 3 Libras

Shower Scene: moe. - Plane Crash

Fight Song: Daft Punk - Teachers

Breaking Up: The Grateful Dead - Uncle Johns Band (Live)

Prom: Proem - Mostly Forgotten

Life's OK: Gov't Mule - Slow Happy Boys

Mental Breakdown: Danko Jones - Sleep Is The Enemy

Driving: Aerosmith - Walk On Down

Sex Scene: My Morning Jacket - Come Closer

Flashback: Phish - Billy Breathes

Getting Back Together: Fu Manchu - Space Farm

Wedding: The Black Crowes - Sister Luck

Birth of Child: Aerosmith - Janie's Got A Gun (live)

Final Battle: Mustard Plugs - Mendoza

Funeral Song: Led Zeppelin - Celebration Day (kinda creepy if you ask me!)

End Credits: Three Days Grace - Over And Over

Sonic Youth - Incinerate

From their amazing latest album "Rather Ripped" here is Sonic Youth's video for Incinerate. It's a little arty, but it fits my mood perfectly right now. I might squeeze a post out tonight, otherwise, Happy Hump Day!

Another Time, Another Place

I feel out of place today, like I don't belong here anymore. It's not that I feel unwanted or unloved, I have plenty of friends and family that care about me (at least I think they care about me :P) but I just don't feel like I belong here. My values don't fit in, my looks are, well...weird for this time. I simply feel like I should have been born in the 60's. Flower children, peace love & happiness, make love not war and all that jazz.

I look around at the people that are supposedly my peers. I stand out so much, at least in my mind.

Callin' Out The Gangsta's

I've had it with the fake gangsta's populating our airwaves. Fuck 50 Cent, Young Jeezy, The Clipse, Lil' Wayne, Jim Jones, the whole Dipset & G-Unit clicks. They are not gangsta's. True gangsters don't promote the fact that they are gangsters. True gangsters are in the street, hustling, running drugs and doing drugs. Not in magazines promoting how many times they got shot, not on MTV objectifying women, and certainly not on BET.

If you're a real gangster, unless you're a psycho, you don't brag about killing people, or how many chicks you screw or how many ounces of blow you sell. You wanna keep that on the down low so the cops don't get suspicious of you and bust you. Although look at T.I., he supposedly sold Coke growing up and look at him now. Going to jail for parol violation may have been the best thing to happen to him (he didn't even have the balls to go to jail for something hardcore, say shooting someone, like Shyne (allegedly anyway :P)

True gangsters don't invest their money in worthless diamonds, they reinvest in the community. By buying and selling more drugs, guns and giving their hookers raises. Just kidding, they wouldn't dream of giving their hookers raises. If you think investing your rrsp in a giant gold necklace, look at how much gold fluctuates. Instead of buying what comes out of the ground, why don't buy the ground itself? Sounds smart to me...

People that say 50 Cent, Young Jeezy, The Clipse etc are true hip hop need a smack upside the head. Have you heard the new Game album? In the first 2 songs, there's barely a verse uninterrupted by a gimmick of some sort. Try listening to some good hip hop, real stuff like Giant Panda, Swollen Members, Jurassic 5, Immortal Technique or Aesop Rock. Those are all guys that know what Hip Hop really is.

Hip Hop is not about being "gangsta." It's about keeping it real to where you grew up, whether that's the hood or the suburbs. It's about saying something that matters. And 50 Cent? He's got nothing to say.

Trews, Moblie & Grace

Here's some rock for when you're feeling down

The Trews - Poor Old Broken Hearted Me



Mobile - Out Of My Head



Three Days Grace - Pain



'Nuff said.

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Powerball

On Thursday, November 16th, Power 97, the local "hard" rock station here in Winnipeg threw their annual concert Powerball. This year it featured Mobile, The Trews, Theory Of A Deadman and Three Days Grace.

Mobile took the stage around 7 to a 1/4 full stadium. There were some people there already, yours truly and Suki being two of them. Neither of us were particularly enamored with Mobile. They're too young to be any good at performing live, and plus the lead singer is just a dick. After their set they were out at the merch table signing autographs, Suki went up to each of them and asked them to sign her pants.

All of them were really nice except for the lead singer and the bassist (alright, the bassist was nice, but he was kinda perverted, more on that in a second). Suki went up to the singer and asked him very nicely if he would sign her pants. He completely ignored her, turned back to the person he was talking to, kept talking for 5 minutes, then turned around and said yes. He's acting like a rock star before he has the rights too.

And the bassist...he was just a little creepy. He grabbed Suki's leg, almost grabbing her ass in the process of signing her pants. Like she said later "He knew what he wanted and just went for it. BAM!"

Up next were The Trews, who in my humble opinion, were the best band there. They looked really scruffy, (half of them have full on beards) and looked as if they were here to rock. And rock they did. Along with The Black Crows, these guys have the potential to carry good-solid-balls to the walls-this one goes up to 11 rock & roll for many years to come

After The Trews were on stage, we went walking for a little while. I got a Trews shirt, and got the brothers to sign my notebook. You have no idea how happy I was!

Unfortunately, after The Trews rocked the stage, Theory Of A Deadman had to come on. I will be blunt, they suck. If Nickleback was the derivitive version of every 80's hair metal band without the good looks and talent + the angst of every 90's alt rock band + a lot of dirt from Alberta, then Theory is the derivative of the derivative. For what they do, dirty, by the numbers, angsty alt rock, it's good. But by it's nature, dirty, angsty, by the numbers alt rock is not good.

The less said about them the better.


And then Three Days Grace took the stage. And the crowd went wild. This is the first show I've been to where there was an honest to god mosh pit. People had backed away and created a circle where people were running around and attacking each other. Quite insane. Three Days Grace was good to be honest. Not quite my style of music, but they definately managed to win me over. My problem is this, I like Metal and Rock and even some Emo. I like a lot of music.

But if you're going to be playing a certain style of music, then you have to do that style of music balls to the wall, turn it up to 11 and all that. And Three Days Grace don't exactly do that anymore. Their first album they were all clean cut and played excellent, albeit by the numbers Metal. It was standard, less dangerous than Godsmack, but still entertaining and at least a little fresh.

But on this album, "One-X" they have become Greasy Metrosexual Emo's. And not even good Greasy Metrosexual Emo's. I spent the majority of my free time yesterday trying to think of a short version of that. GreMeEmo?

Anyway, they put on a very very good show. Both Suki and I lost our voices screaming out the lyrics. She actually screamed more than I did, as she is actually into them, where as I only know a couple of songs from their first album, but her voice was fine yesterday. Where as mine is completely shot to hell and back.


So in summation, Mobile = better on record, The Trews = best Rock 'N' Roll band there, Theory Of A Deadman = Warmed over Crap is still crap (although they do get points for having a lead singer that looks disturbingly like Chris Carraba from Dashboard Confessional, those points are taken away by the fauxhawk the singer rocked, they also get some more points for bringing out the lead guitarist from The Trews who rocked out even more with a mind bending solo, and for playing Santa Monica , the only good song they've come out with in a couple years) and Three Days Grace = Freaking beautifull greasy Emo's that managed to rock my socks off =)

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Daft Punk - Digital Love

Since I lost my voice at Powerball (I will be posting about that , I promise) and I can still barely talk, here's a dope song that will talk for me right now. From their second album, Discovery, Daft Punk's Digital Love.




Last night I had a dream about you
In this dream I'm dancing right beside you
And it looked like everyone was having fun
the kind of feeling I've waited so long

Don't stop come a little closer
As we jam the rythm gets stronger
There's nothing wrong with just a little little fun
We were dancing all night long

The time is right to put my arms around you
You're feeling right
You wrap your arms around too
But suddenly I feel the shining sun
Before I knew it this dream was all gone

Ooh I don't know what to do
About this dream and you
I wish this dream comes true

Ooh I don't know what to do
About this dream and you
We'll make this dream come true

Why don't you play the game ?
Why don't you play the game ?

Rant. Stay Away.

I don't know if I should be posting this, but whatever . Here goes nothing.

What the f*ck is wrong with you? I don’t understand what the f*ck is going through your brain (don’t worry about mine, though it’s small, it’s safe to be left alone) right now. I’m really f*cking confused when you flirt with me. I don’t f*cking know how to respond goddamnit! What we never had was never there to begin with! It’s dead, stabbed to death by a million unsaid thoughts, hacked apart with no thoughts to the family and then thrown in the lake with cement on its feet! IT WAS DEAD! I was finally over you. I was sleeping again, I wasn’t thinking of you all the time, I WAS FREE (well kinda, when I was away I didn’t care but now that I’m back and you have started to flirt me with me…I’m confused). Snow Patrol said “This blanket is freezing, it's been out in the hallWhere you've had me for hoursTill I'm sure what I wantBut darling I want the same thing that I wanted beforeSo sweetheart tell me what's up I won't stop no way”

The same goes here! WTF?


It should be pretty clear of who that is about.

New Song - Ox Atlas - Also Ran

I have written a brand spankin' new tune! It's a guitar driven piece, the verse is basically 4 power chords going up, and then the chorus is the same 4 chords in reverse, going down. It's a little song about how this one person is leaving and the person singing the song doesn't want them to leave, it's kinda autobiographical, but not really. I'd be lieing if I said I had experience with boy/girl relationships (or boy/boy, or even girl/girl for that matter) but I do have a very active imagination so I think I can kinda grasp how it would feel.

One interesting thing, when I'm writing to exorcise my demons (or maybe it's exercising them....) in any event, that writing's rarely any good. It's far too angsty, "The world is black like my soul." etc etc ad infinum. But when I'm imagining myself in these situations, my writing improves dramatically. The other thing that holds me back is my subpar guitar playing. For the life of me, I can't both play lead and sing, I can only play and sing when the guitar is mirroring the flow of the words. I really need to find a songwriting partner that can play guitar.


Grr. I can't believe that even a semi sad sack like the beautifull Jakob Dylan can write happy songs (see the first couple songs from the amazing album Red Letter Days) but whenever I try and write a happy song it just turns into sentimental mush, so all I ever write are sad songs. Kinda depressing when you think about it XD.

Video Of the Day: How To Be Dead - Snow Patrol

Music Video:HOW TO BE DEAD (by Snow Patrol)

Music Video Code provided by VideoCodeZone.Com

There's a sensitive singer songwriter in all of us :P

Sunday Morning Rambles

The Grateful Dead are ridiculously good. There is very little that can feel better than sitting at you computer on a Sunday morning, with absolutely nothing to do. The rooms a little cold so I have to keep jiggling or else my extremeties will go numb, but that’s not a problem, at least while Jerry’s singing. Everything about this morning is perfect. I do not have a headache, the coffee tasted good and I had some nice hearty laughs watching the extra featurs on the Office Space dvd I borrowed from the library this weekend.

I have also done some writing this morning, and I have discovered something about my writing style. I tend to rip someone off for the beginning, because that’s what I suck most at, is starting. I can never seem to find a way to start a poem until I hear a line in a song or a book or in a conversation. I put that down and then everything goes into it’s proper order. And it works. The Dead are great for beginning writing.

The Wallflowers - One Headlight

Sing along, I dare you. It's good for you're soul.

The Wallflowers - One Headlight:

So long ago, I don't remember when
That's when they say I lost my only friend
Well they said she died easy of a broken heart disease
As I listened through the cemetery trees

I seen the sun comin' up at the funeral at dawn
The long broken arm of human law
Now it always seemed such a waste
She always had a pretty face
So I wondered how she hung around this place

Chorus:
Hey, come on try a little
Nothing is forever
There's got to be something better than
In the middle
But me & Cinderella
We put it all together
We can drive it home
With one headlight

She said it's cold
It feels like Independence Day
And I can't break away from this parade
But there's got to be an opening
Somewhere here in front of me
Through this maze of ugliness and greed
And I seen the sun up ahead
At the county line bridge
Sayin' all there's good and nothingness is dead
We'll run until she's out of breath
She ran until there's nothin' left
She hit the end-it's just her window ledge

(chorus)

Well this place is old
It feels just like a beat up truck
I turn the engine, but the engine doesn't turn
Well it smells of cheap wine & cigarettes
This place is always such a mess
Sometimes I think I'd like to watch it burn
I'm so alone, and I feel just like somebody else
Man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same
But somewhere here in between the city walls of dyin' dreams
I think her death it must be killin' me

(chorus)

Some Random Musings

I seem to have cobbled together enough writings to make a semi-decent post, so here goes nothing.

G0tta C0me D0wn

Gotta come down
To where my soul is clear
Gotta come down
To where my brain can breath
Gotta get down
To where other people live
Gotta get down
To where I can survive


Untitled (As Of Right Now)

The same kinda threat
Said with a golden smile
Will kill you just as dead
As a the same kinda threat
Said with a gutter twist in mind
Spiral into the dark
No voices can be heard
Lost in our infinity
There's no way to be seen

Broken Barbie Fairytales

Here I go again
Writing my twisted fairy tales
Story of beautiful
But broken girls
Here I go again
Falling in love with her
But then I remember
She's already been
Beautifully broken
Beautifully Broken For Me.

Waiting

waitin' for the day break
Waitin' for the sun to shine
Waitin' for the clouds to part
So I can see your smile

Together

we'll sin together
We'll fall together
We'll rise togther
We'll die together

Draw The Line (This one's not as good)

Where do you draw the line
Between fantasy and reality?
When someone gets hurt?
Then it's already to late
But how do you
allow freedom of thought
But protect the innocence
from the oh so guilty?
It is the continueing conundrum
Of our tortured society.
We can't keep them locked up,
but we shouldn't let them out either

So yeah. That's the most recent batch of my musings. Hope you enjoyed them :P

Picture Of The Day

This was posted in the chat of one of the communities I belong to.