More Adventurous

Sunday Mornings

2012-02-05T10:31:00.001-05:00

Keep it on Wax

2012-01-28T23:13:00.004-05:00

Christmas came and went. On this Christmas though, I received a great gift from my girlfriend. She got me a record player! It was quite the surprise. I apparently had said something many months ago about it and when the large box was put under the tree, I had NO idea what the hell it could have been. Turns out it was this!

Its a Crosley CR704. A 5 in 1 musical...box...for lack of better terms. It has an ability to play AM/FM radio, CDs, cassette tapes, has an MP3 jack and a turntable up top.

Its a pretty classy item, I dig the vintage look. Although a little skeptical at first. Since I've been without a record player for 7 years or so after the one I was handed down crapped out and I never sought out a replacement. I never knew the first thing about record players since I was 16 listening to Punk-O-Rama 1 to even now being 26. I just sort of felt that a 5 in 1 contraption that I am pretty sure you could order out of a catalog similar to Sky Mall would be all that good. Well, I was proven wrong. It sounds great in my opinion. I have it in my living room and I usually spend most of my time not in the living room and it fills the house with sound and I am surprised to be honest.

Sure there are probably better players out there. There are also worse I'm sure. The reviews for the most part are very good and as far as most of the complaints about this player go, all I would have to say about it in defense is that this player is quite obviously not a sound system. If that is what you are looking for then go out and buy big speakers, an expensive turntable and a receiver. If you are looking for something that is for the most part compact, lightweight and something to just enjoy listening to your records again as a hobby, this is right up your alley.

My last stated reason is exactly why I am so happy to now have this. Record collecting has always been a slight hobby of mine. Something that I have taken a long break from doing. Since being without a way to listen to all my old records, this could be the worlds most gigantic piece of crap and I would probably be just as excited. It's gotten me back into an old hobby, spending money...I mean record collecting! The funny part is some friends of my girlfriend have also just gotten a record player. At a recent birthday gathering the boys were all in the corner talking about records. Chris had said something that I will currently butcher trying to reiterate that having a record player brings back what "listening to a record" used to be. There is no shuffle, no mix, no skip, none of that. You put the record on and you listen to it. Which is very true.

The only negative things to say about this player is that you may have to open up the back and adjust a screw which controls where the record finishes. When I would play 7" records, it would end just shy and not finish the record. A little bit of a pain but something that is easily remedied. If you call Crosley they will gladly put you in touch with a technician who could walk you through the process. Unfortunately they are only open M-F 8-5 when I am at work but they emailed me instructions. Luckily a friend of mine also has this same player who had the same issue so he came over and helped me out. Secondly, all my records were skipping in certain spots. To me it was either record pressing plants have gotten super sloppy OR my player was not working properly. So I placed a penny on the end of the stylus to add just a little bit of weight since there is no sort of weight adjustment on the player(maybe where that turntable would come in handy?) and my problem was solved.

So in short, I am stoked and pleased with this player. The flood gates have now been opened. Record blogs to come!

Nutmeg.

2011-11-27T10:40:00.002-05:00

Christmas time is coming yet again. Every year this song comes to mind. As if you already didn't have enough reasons to like John Legend.

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Cats are Stupid, Right?

2011-10-14T21:59:00.000-04:00

This video made me legit LOL so hard.

Matt Brotka-Tattoo Artist Profile & The Fortune Healers

2011-09-07T18:35:00.002-04:00

This is my friend Matt Brotka, he is an amazing tattoo artist from Rhode Island. Hes worked at countless shops and for/with countless of my other tattooer/shop owner friends. A few years ago he packed up and moved to Richmond, VA. He now works out of Salvation Tattoo and this is his artist profile video. Which he used my band(The Fortune Healers) tunes for the background music!

If you have a minute check out the video! Then check out The Fortune Healers! and if you really like tattoos please check out his webiste! Matt is an extremely good tattooer and I'm sure RI has been bummed since he left. If you live in Richmond look him up!

www.mattbrotka.com

The Greenery

2011-08-30T19:38:00.003-04:00

This is a video for "Spit and Argue" from the Greenerys new record "Wasted Days".

Reason I post this, It was filmed at the Waterfront Tavern in Holyoke MA, a place I've gone to many of times for friends shows in the Western Mass area. My friend Matt is also the gentleman who starts all the ruckus, VERY like matt. Probably why they chose him to be in this video. Matts a real nice guy, unless you piss him off.

If you like gnarly pissed hardcore music, this may be a band for you.

Trick Throw offs

2011-08-14T10:30:00.005-04:00

Well, I make a post about Trick Drums and how I've never heard of them and what do I find out last week? Oh, just that my snare drum from Dark Horse HAS a throw off FROM Trick Drums!

I did say Trick makes all kinds of different hardware and I always knew the term "Trick Throw off" in the custom drums game and I knew specifically what that throw off looked like. However I just kind of thought that it was some sort of fancy name or description of an action it does. Which I do not see how a throw off switch can perform any trick at all, know what I mean? Its something that I just never really gave thought, which is why I didn't put the 2 together.

This is the throw off thats on my snare drum right now.

ALL the custom companies, SJC, Truth, Shine, Dark Horse, Orange County, etc use them. Not to mention some of the bigger named Companies such as Spaun. They also sell them at Guitar Center.

You can get whatever you want laser etched on them. Usually companies get their Logo on them. Like mine has the Dark Horse logo as well as the Trick logo.

So yeah, I just figured Id post this to show how oblivious I am!

Chip Ritter/Trick Drums

2011-07-30T11:12:00.005-04:00

I found out about Chip Ritter this morning looking at the TRICK drums webpage. TRICK is a custom drum company from Arlington Heights, IL. That I also found out about recently.

I attended the Harvest/Burnt By The Sun last show in NYC last week. The drummer from Burnt By The Sun who I was told is also the drummer for Municipal Waste, had a TRICK drum kit, a company I have never heard of before. So this morning I finally got a chance to check out their webpage. Thats where I found Chip. Dude has some chops and I'm a sucker for stick tricks. A little flash is cool and all but personally not my thing but stick trick drummers are definitely a thing that interest me and make me laugh whenever I see someone doing some whacky shit. Stick juggling is his shtick he is running with and I think its pretty cool. Decent video to watch. Quality is a bit off, but it is what it is.

TRICK has a Orange Country Choppers of drums vibe. All their drums are created with an alloy called AL13 shells from their own custom design. Along with all their hardware options, pedals, throw offs, etc that are also all made of metals. TRICK Drums may not appeal to me but they are on top of their shit. They really are doing something unique. Creating drums that are very industrial but at the same time look no different than any company thats using wood shells. They are machinists and they seem to be really good at what they are doing. They offer the ability to machine whatever it is you want on site (for a price increase of course) to fulfill your dream. They also offer laser etching, textured Metal Grain, Millusion and pin striping. Which if you chose to not wrap or finish your Trick drum kit, is something you could not do with wood shelled drums.

Not my thing but still cool in its own right. If you have a minute and care to check it out look here at TRICK DRUMS

My Friend Max

2011-07-11T18:18:00.003-04:00

This is Max. He's a recent friend that I have made. Max is a real good guy and happens to also be a really talented good guy.

I've known that Max was a musician for a minute and that my friend Paul had recently been working with him as his "backing band" essentially under his moniker "Max Prussner". I just heard this song a few days ago and was really impressed on how good it was.

This is a music video that was made of the song "Tell Me Trouble". It features lots of cool new friends that I have made over the past year and sadly, If I had only met Max a little sooner I would have had the pleasure of being in this video with everyone else.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

www.maxprussner.com

Signed!

2011-06-26T17:31:00.005-04:00

After recording 1 shitty demo in a hardcore band with some friends in 2004 and a handful of demos that were never released in various projects, I am finally in a functioning band that has a legitimate CD released! It would be my first not only written and recorded BUT mastered and packaged release on a record label! Its such a small thing that is going to go completely unnoticed but its still a pretty cool to me. You never know what can happen. Everyone starts small and this is just the beginning. Init Records is a great place for a start, TJ has known Steve for a while and I personally own releases from Init. When I was 16 buying Spirit of Versailles 7 inches I would have never thought that 10 years later I would be in a band that would have a release on that same label.

July marks a year that I have been doing The Fortune Healers. I've enjoying my time in this band writing rock n roll songs with my friends. Doing even the small things that we do. Pretty much anything that happens is an accomplishment. We've been lucky enough to be playing locally 1 to 2 times a month and its good to finally be able to play for/with friends considering a lot of friends have yet to even see me play drums or hear what I've been doing. Last week we made friends with a NYC band called Tidal Arms who are cool ass dudes and dug us real hard which is awesome as hell. We hope to get to NYC to play with them in the future. People seem to be digging it when they can catch a show so it makes me happy to know people are liking what I'm doing and to see how much I kill it behind a drum kit (beeep beeep).

The ball has started rolling and who knows what can happen. I'm excited to start writing more music for a full length, which will also be a first and we also plan to release a 7" sometime soon. I cannot wait to track for that. Its going to feature a song we play out but have yet to record thats one of my favorites thus far.

Until then you can grab our EP HERE in the INIT Records webstore for only $3!

Beardscaping.

2011-05-31T19:03:00.004-04:00

Like most people in their lives I've had my first birthday, my first day of school, my first time riding a bike without training wheels, my first kiss and the list goes on. In 2011, I crushed them all by doing the most magnificent manly thing out of them all. I grew my FIRST beard!

I've tried to grow one before in past years but to no avail. This time I just rode it out to what many have said was a "Good Beard". It blossomed quite nicely if I don't say so myself.

Since summer is here and I do not wish to have this thing keeping heat in, getting sandy, having sea life stuck in it and all the other things beards seem to collect, I decided to get rid of my manly possession. So my friend Chris documented the removal of my beard. Not without trying all the cool facial hair patterns I could have first of course.

I am proud of my accomplishment. I didn't think it would be possible, but it was. I look forward to next winter, it will blossom again!

BIG.

2011-05-18T17:15:00.006-04:00

So since I was heading south to DC and my snare drum just happened to be ready, we made a little pit stop in Kenilworth, NJ to pay a visit to the Dark Horse Percussion shop! Unfortunately DHP is not a 24/7 operation like I thought it was so I didn't get to take a tour of the shop. Real big bummer considering I didn't have to go pick up my drums like I had originally planned to do when they were finished. To actually be AT the shop and still not be able to see it was a bummer. Hopefully Healers will get down to New Jersey at some point or if I'm ever passing by again I'll get to check the joint out!

What was waiting for me in the hallway however was this beefy young lady:

14x8 15ply maple. Aged marine pearl wrap, single tube lugs and diecast hoops.

I originally ordered a 10ply but Anthony had this 15 on the shelf and decided to hook me up. Which I appreciate! I've seen a lot of people ordering 14x8 snares lately, you could say its the "cool thing" right now. So I kind of figured hey, why not? I already own a 14x7 why not go for a little more. I did NOT know what I was getting into! This snare is SO big its crazy. They never look all that big when I've seen others or when you're holding it yourself but once its set up in your stand, whole other perspective. It could be the single tubes that give it a bigger effect, I don't know but shes one big bitch!

I haven't had much time with her, I took her to the healers practice space last night and tuned her up to how I usually tune my snares but I haven't gotten an ear for her yet. My drums took a little while for me to get used to and this snare won't be any different. My tuning methods might not work for this snare. Theres still some kinks to be worked out. I'm used to a 7ply birch shell, so this is a HUGE difference in sound. In the end I'll figure everything out and get used to her and she'll be amazing. Can't wait for my band mates to see and hear it. I'm really interested in opinions of how she sounds. The shows I'm playing in June will hopefully give some valuable feedback.

If They Move...Kill Them.

2011-05-17T22:52:00.005-04:00

Fairweather reunion show, what can I really say? The culmination of 8 years in maybe an hour. I sang my voice raw, shook my body sweaty and head banged my neck sore. It was probably the best time that I have had at a show in a VERY long time. This show meant so much to me. A band I loved then, a band I still love today.

Its a bit sad to think about when I stop to do so for a minute. In most "reunion" type fashions this show seemed to be a celebration for a rebirth, but was more of a celebration to an end. I've waited so long and I finally got what I wanted. I ask myself, now what? Although you can never be too sure, this will most likely never happen ever again in the rest of our life times. The process of learning to deal with that is slow. However I am so thankful that I got to be apart of this. Considering so many probably couldn't.

If any of you do read this, Shane, Pete, Jay. It was more than amazing to see all of you again, playing my most favorite songs that at the age of 15 shaped who I was and influenced me tenfold musically. You gave me power, solace and most importantly, friendship. I am more than pleased to know you as people and be able to feel so close to something that at the beginning, never thought I would be.

Now heres a video of Soundtrack To the Ride as I make an appearance at 1:11

You say you miss me but is that the best that you can do?

2011-03-10T17:09:00.005-05:00

That line being said, I have missed Fairweather, for a long 8 years. I am also going to give them my best and trek my ass down to DC for this gig.

I found out via Facebook invite while at work and I almost lost my shit. I cannot explain how excited I am for this show. I can't wait to hear all those songs again and scream and shout with some friends like old times back in 2000-2002 all over New England. I've never seen DC so this is a great excuse to get on down there and see our nations capitol.

I've seen many "old" bands reunite the past 5 years. Even though I DO like those bands, some of them I never got to see when they were actually a band. Some I got a chance to see, but it was later in their career and I just never got a chance to develop that connection. Fairweather however is THAT band I have THAT kind of connection with.

I've been waiting a long time and I'm so pleased that I'm going to get the chance to be a part of this.

I Don't Ever Want To Feel Like This.

2011-03-09T16:56:00.000-05:00

Bazan: Alone at the Microphone DVD

2011-03-03T16:58:00.002-05:00

This is a really good Documentary on David Bazan. David Bazan is someone who I haven't followed so much as a solo artist. I own "Curse Your Branches" and it hasn't been spun as much as it probably should have. However if you did not know, David Bazan was the singer for a band I do listen to a lot and really enjoy called Pedro The Lion.

Its always opinion to say who is "amazing", "brilliant" and who also, "sucks" in music but I personally feel that David Bazan is an extremely talented song writer. So I am excited to watch this DVD for the interviews mostly but also to see my favorite Pedro The Lion songs performed since I never got a chance to see Pedro live when they were a band.

Things My Girlfriend Makes Me For Breakfast III

2011-03-03T16:36:00.003-05:00

Apple cinnamon pancakes with apple brown sugar compote. I don't really have much to say about it. Only that I wish you were there to eat it. Apple & brown sugar compote slayed me. It was incredible. The pancakes themselves didn't even have to be apple, an added perk for them to be of course but the compote alone kicked you in the mouth with flavor.

My Drum Rig

2011-03-01T16:57:00.002-05:00

Photo: Albert Longo

My drums set up after load in at The Fortune Healers show we played at The Met Cafe 2 weeks ago.

Adele Being Epic

2011-02-26T11:52:00.003-05:00

Shes so on point its almost not even fair.

Things My Girlfriend Makes Me For Breakfast II

2011-02-19T21:36:00.002-05:00

Banana French Toast with Blueberry compote!

Holy crap was that blueberry compote good!

Things My Girlfriend Makes Me For Breakfast.

2011-02-12T10:43:00.003-05:00

Its no secret, I LOVE food. Since acquiring a girlfriend who has cooking/baking talents I have been the most spoiled in the "what do you want for breakfast" department.

I haven't been all that active on here lately so I just cooked this idea up (please excuses that corny pun) to start posting the delicious things that I get to eat every now and again.

Here we have an eggs in a basket bread sandwich w/ soy sausage, cheese & spinach middle. Yeah, it was GOOD.

Innuendos.

2011-01-31T16:48:00.003-05:00

My girlfriend brought me this birthday card home cause she knows my humor(NEWS FLASH: I like REALLY dumb shit). She got it at Rite Aid. I don't know why but I find it weird that this was even in there. If you don't know what Rite Aid is, its a store/pharmacy exactly like CVS and/or Walgreens.

So Sick

2011-01-24T19:31:00.003-05:00

Matthew Richard...BACK on the internet!

2011-01-10T17:28:00.003-05:00

After getting up on The Dark Horse roster list and the website being redone shortly after my presence was extremely short lived. However the time has come again! I now have my drums, a band and all the other appropriate information together and I am back up on the site amongst the other DHP artists!

Head on over to www.darkhorsepercussion.com and check the ARTIST section to see the whole deal!

My Year In Pictures

2011-01-03T20:44:00.017-05:00

2010 was an amazing year for me. Probably one of the better years of my life. This blog is actually one quite contrary to all my other year ender blogs that I have posted in the past. I see this to be a very good thing. I set out to do things this year and I accomplished ALL of them. Everything went my way. I feel very fortunate and lucky to be able to say that. I've also met a ton of new people this year, I'm pleased to have met all of them, everyone is so awesome and respectful. Its great. I look forward to the lifetimes ahead with everyone. 2011 starts off amazing and I have only a vague idea of whats in store. Heres to having just about everything I could ever want.

April 2010: I moved out of my parents into the city of Providence.

July 2010: I was referred by a friend to talk to his boss/co-worker about a band he was working on. Thats when I met TJ, who is a dude thats totally on my level. TJ needed a better and more available drummer. Thats when I joined The Fortune Healers. Our Bass player wasn't working either, so I took the pleasure of getting my good friend Derek in the band as well. Not to mention I've known Jae for about 7 years. I'm excited to be in a band with good people.

August 2010: After over a years wait, I FINALLY received my custom drums from Dark Horse Percussion.

September 2010: I visited the country of Australia. This is me on the steps of the Opera House.

December 2010: After months of "dating", I have a new girlfriend. Its nice, different. Wish me luck! I'll need it!

Way Better Than A Bike Helmet!

2011-01-03T20:15:00.003-05:00

I'm seriously upset that this moves so fast and is only a little over 3 minutes. Because I would watch a legitimate 3 hour special about the making of a Daft Punk helmet!

New Years.

2011-01-02T23:32:00.005-05:00

Partied with a lot of great people. This was one of the best New Years that I can ever remember. Oddly enough, it was with all NEW people in my life. Change is good.

Oh, Christmas Tree

2010-12-14T19:53:00.003-05:00

This is my Christmas tree! Its my first Christmas tree in my first apartment! I think she looks pretty darn good. I wish I could take credit for how good it looks but sadly, I only put about, 20 balls on it. My room mate Kendrah did ALL the hard work. I just couldn't find a minute to strap down and say "alright, lets do this!". So thanks Kendrah for the good looking tree! I'll try to not suck next year!

Modern Love?

2010-12-13T20:34:00.001-05:00

"Be modern. Its the modern age. People swing. Theyre uninhibited. They fuck from the ceiling. They screw dogs, babies, chickens, fish..."
"I like to choose,i have to care"
"Thats so damn corny. The caring is already built-in. Then if you cultivate that caring long enough the next thing you know you think its love."
"OK,whats wrong with love,tony?"
"Love is a form of prejudice. You love what you need, you love what makes you feel good, you love what is convenient. How can you say you love one person when there are ten thousand people in the world that you would love more if you ever met them? But youll never meet them"
"alright,so we do the best we can"
"Granted. But we must still realize that love is just the result of a chance encounter. Most people make too much of it. On these grounds a good fuck is not to be entirely scorned"
"but thats the result of a chance meeting too"
"Youre god damned right. drink up. we'll have another"
"youve got a good line tony,but its not going to work"
Well,said tony,nodding the bartender over,"im not going to grieve about that either"

Barrel Snare

2010-12-13T18:56:00.004-05:00

I think this snare is so badass! I don't think I ever posted my drum kit idea that I've had for a long time that I guess is supposed to resemble being made out of old floor boards. Excluding the 2 horizontal rings, since this snare is supposed to resemble a wooden barrel, the finish pertaining to MY kit idea is very similar. The hardware is PERFECT. I don't think I ever described it well enough whenever I told someone about this idea I had. Now there is a great picture representation of it.

One day this kit might be made!

Stude Dudes.

2010-11-30T17:35:00.004-05:00

Healers in Trapdoor Studios getting work done! Our Ep is currently finished. Just needs mixing and mastering. Which will be taken care of during the months of December and January. We were hoping to have a complete finished product by January but the Holidays are a crazy time for everyone and we have some bigger plans in the works as to what to do with this EP once it is actually finished and in our hands.

We don't know what is in the future but we hope that its good. So as of right now there is no foreseen date to which these songs will see the light of day. Just know that it IS coming.

Giggin Vidz II

2010-11-22T18:06:00.003-05:00

I almost forgot! Here are 3 videos taken from the Cake Shop show! They were taken on our friend Nates iphone. They aren't the best in the business but they work just fine!

Clementine

When The Ship Comes In

Bad Days

New York, New York

2010-11-17T21:53:00.004-05:00

The Fortune Healers played a show in Manhattan, NYC. The reason I post this is because this is a picture of the FIRST outside of New England performance of my life. I haven't played many live shows in my time but the ones I have played were only in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Now I'm out of the box and out there showing NYC what I have!

I could not be any happier to be in a band doing things. No matter how small. I've had the dreams but I feel more grounded than I ever have before. It doesn't matter if there are 5 or 500 people there, I'm playing music! Every face I play for is an accomplishment. So many things to come and to happen. All I can do is be patient and wait to soak up every moment that happens.

Heavy Petty

2010-10-30T21:33:00.003-04:00

Now, I wouldn't even call myself a "Tom Petty Fan". To most, that might result in me being called an idiot but, I know the hits, I know Tom Petty. This song however, is completely fucking awesome! It's heavy, dirty, southern and it could not make me love it any more.

I heard it during a skateboard segment (one of many) that my friend Mark Choiniere does. I immediately recognized the voice and said "holy shit this Tom Petty song rules" and went to go find out what it was.

The only bad part of this is, is that I REALLY wanted my band to cover it. Since it ideally fits our sound more than anything possibly could have. Sadly this song is on Tom Petty and The Heart breakers newest Record called "Mojo". Which came out this year. I'm not too sure if you are aware of the "things you just don't do" list, most notably is wearing the bands shirt that you're going to see, etc. I feel covering a song, regardless of how old and timeless the artist is, that only came out the present year to just be poor decision making but boy do I wish that this song came out a decade earlier.

head bang.

Publicity.

2010-10-20T19:18:00.003-04:00

There is a write up on the Song Of Zarathustra reunion show thats taking place November 6th 2010 at The Cake Shop in Brooklyn, NY on a website called Brooklyn Vegan. This is cool because this is a show that my band The Fortune Healers is opening!

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

Tell Yourself...

2010-10-19T17:45:00.001-04:00

LIVE!

2010-10-18T18:54:00.006-04:00

Here is a picture of my kit thats on the Dark Horse website!

AND here is what it looks like in action!

My band(blog coming soon) played our first show last Friday. It was the musical side to the Love Thy Neighbor Art show tossed together by Mcinnis Tattoo. A place where many local and New England tattooers can come and show off their art and sell it.

It was a fantastic event to introduce ourselves to Providence. Lots of friends and just an overall great vibe and scene to be apart of. I could not be any happier with how the night went and how we played. It was a blast!

photos by: Rich Gaccione

Not Kansas

2010-10-06T20:46:00.009-04:00

I think its fair to say that anywhere you go there are things that feel familiar. People are people, cities are cities and the world turns as it should no matter where you are in it.

However sometimes you go some where or see something that really puts you in your place and it says "YOU ARE NOT HOME ANYMORE".

This is the first thing that I saw in Australia that really proved to me that I was there. It wasn't the airports, the conscious thought that I was leaving, the 14 hour flight, the fact that they drive on opposite side of the road and from the passenger seat or even seeing the Opera house 30 minutes after getting off the plane, it was this beach.

This beach was in Nelson Bay, New South Wales. How far out of Sydney I don't really recall. We landed at 6 in the morning, got carted around the city the "long way" from the airport and stopped by the Opera house. Finally getting to the house where we would be staying at around 930am. Took a 2 hour nap and had a shower. Then it was a blur.

We stopped by Kristys fathers to say hello and her step mother cooked us an amazing pasta dinner. Where her fathers house was, I don't even know but what I do know is that they had a handsome dog named Gus.

After dinner we made our way to Nelson Bay to the "caravan park". Caravan park basically being Australias trailer park where they will go off on holiday in the summer. I hear its a really good time too. This is where we stayed for a night. Its a friend of the families and they were nice enough to let us borrow it and stay there. That morning we had gotten up around 6am. Since the girls do not wake up that early, the gentleman and I being Americans in a new country, we went off to explore and thats when we discovered the beach. Since its about a 2 minutes walk from the caravan. I have to be honest with you. I really didn't know what I was going to see. I had no sort of preconceived image in my mind when I walked over the sandy grass covered knoll. You could say that I almost took whatever could have laid over that hill completely for granted.

Just Got Back From Australia

2010-09-28T15:42:00.005-04:00

I have proof!

It was an amazing time! The flight was utter hell but as soon as I got off the plane, both going to and coming from, all was worth it. I feel blessed for being able to have met the friends I had there which opened the door to this and made it possible.

I've tried to make a phony "Bucket List" consisting of small joys I'd like to accomplish. However it never really took off and it only had 2 things on it. One was to ride a tandem bike with 3 friends and the other was hold a Koala bear. Well you can now cross that off the list!

I got the opportunity to be driven up the coast of Australia 11 hours from Sydney to Queensland. It reminds me a lot of the drive to Syracuse. Lots of open land and cows, So many cows. Its nice though, with little towns in between.

This photo was taken at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane and hour north of Queensland. I would argue on whether or not the drive was completely, "worth it" but it totally was. Considering Queensland is awesome and the only state in Australia where physically holding a Koala is legal. So its what HAD to be done because THIS was the WHOLE point of my trip! Lone Pine is the same place where all my other friends have gotten the chance to do this same thing. Not to mention the wall of photographs of bands/famous people in the gift shop who also cuddled a koala.

I'll slowly but surely start blogging about my trip or just posting a few cool pictures. I have a lot of pictures to start acquiring not to mention getting back into the groove of life and work.

Customs Are DONE!

2010-08-25T20:31:00.002-04:00

Here is another sneak shot of them lugged up and assembled. Better pictures to come soon!

I cannot even express how I feel right now. They look PERFECT.

My Customs!

2010-08-18T17:54:00.004-04:00

FINALLY! I got this sneak peek earlier this afternoon. I cannot tell you how stoked I am right now!

All they need is drilling, lugs and assembly and they will finally been mine. It's been quite a trip...and wait but it's finally happening.

This picture doesn't really do them justice, the inlay looks white, when it isn't and the glare is making the glitter make it look like a snow storm. I will be posting better pictures in September.

Epic Snare.

2010-08-08T16:14:00.004-04:00

I found this video randomly poking around on youtube. Its of the Mars Volta performing the song "Goliath" at some large festival. Not only is this song is one of my favorites but holy shit!

I'm not too familiar with Dave Elitch but the dude is shredding right here. That roll set at 1:07 dominates. His energy is top notch and listen to that snare! I have no idea what it is, it would appear to be aluminum but I'm not positive. Thing must be cranked!

I only say aluminum because its shell looks like this snare that C&C did for Derek Grant of Alkaline Trio.

Giggin Vidz

2010-08-03T18:23:00.004-04:00

I filled in for a friends band not long ago. They wanted to play a last show and since I had filled in for them before last summer, I said sure, why not and offered my services. After the original person that was supposed to play for them flaked (which I knew would happen) I took the duties.

I have always been a skilled drummer, well, not ALWAYS but I am now. I haven't been given much out of music. I've had the drumming blood flowing through me as a child until finally got my first real drum kit for my 16th Birthday. You would think playing 9 years I'd have something to show for it. I guess that I do, I have a Demo of the only actual band I've ever done, which wasnt very good and I have rough cuts of a handful of songs from my band that just never got off the ground. I only have a few pictures from these events.

Now however, I have video proof! I think that this is totally awesome! I'm also glad that I do not sound as bad as I thought I did that night. There is some minor misses but overall, I think everything is great!

If you'd like to see all of them you can go HERE. I'm just going to post the video that has me in it the most (natrually) and the cover of Martyr ADs "American Hollow".

Intro/First Song

Martyr AD "American Hollow"

Ode To Serotonin

2010-08-02T20:51:00.008-04:00

The past few months I've been gearing up to the commemoration of my blogs first birthday. Only to realize I'm on my THIRD year of blogging. Whoops? So, HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY BLOG! You have been a good friend and I would like to take a few moments to talk about you.

As minuscule as it might be, this blog has had a very positive impact. It started out as an archive for me to jot down all the specs I had for the numerous custom drum kits I would create on a daily basis. I didn't really have any idea that it would turn into what it did.

I took it upon myself to steer this blog about as far away as possible from Live Journal as I could. Not only is Live Journal old news in the Internet world but I was also extremely guilty of being your typical "Live Journal user" in which I would disgustingly complain and pour myself into on a semi-regular basis about my troubles at hand and yes, they were mainly all about girls. I was no different than any other asshole on the Internet using that website.

Now, I've grown up. I've changed. It's time to personify myself appropriately. I will admit that I used to be a VERY melancholy person. From the ages of about 15-19, maybe even longer than that. I spent a lot of my years in all kinds of random holes. Some how all tied into "Love" in one way or another. What one even understands of love at that age is most likely complete bullshit anyway. So I guess that it was teens being teens. It was that, wasn't it?

In preparation for this, I've really tried to look at myself. So that I could properly distinguish who I am now, to who I was then. It's bizarrely all boiled down to 2007's down fall. The down fall of myself, if you will. If you have ever seen the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall I'm sure you are familiar and in some way connected yourself to the dialogue between Peter and Rachel on the cliff. I too feel impervious to pain. I honestly feel as though I had hit the lowest point I ever had in my entire life that winter. Since then I have become a completely different person. It's obvious that there is only one way to go from the bottom and that way is up. I no longer worry about love. Sure things have not worked out for me since but I look at them so much differently now. My blog has occasionally been compromised with what I have dubbed "rule breakers" due to these missteps. Though instead of ranting on like a mindless baby, I try to convey the emotion artistically. I try to grasp it, understand it and profoundly express it.

I cannot even remember the last time I carried a melancholy vibe. I see this a good thing. This blog has given me a place to express who I am today and I think I do a good job at it. It might not be perfect, well followed an viewed across the Internet and my grammar might be complete shit but none of that matters to me. I don't look down upon the rule breakers. For it is human to feel pensive sometimes and it is just apart of me as it is anyone else. Its all in how you deal with it and I just choose to not make myself look bad any longer. There's no time to be sad and it sure as hell does not belong on the internet. I'm a bright, loud, smiley and fun personality. Thats how I try to keep this blog. It might be a bit corny to admit that I am always thinking of what I can blog next. What am I going to find or what am I going to have to say. I don't consider myself a writer and I probably never will. I wouldn't even consider myself a "Blogger" even though by argument I totally am. I feel that most dubbed "bloggers" are self-absorbed attention whores spewing their ideals across the web in attempts to gain some sort of credible mark in the world of journalism. (view what I'm saying here on my buddy Phils tumblr).

I am very excited for things to come. When I stop and think about how awesome life is going to be from late August-December it blows my mind. For those who follow, thanks. I'm glad you like what you see. I have no intention of stopping.

Happy Birthday Blog!

"those who escape hell however
never talk about it
and nothing much
bothers them
after that." - Bukowski

Best Commercial.

2010-08-02T20:15:00.003-04:00

I wish that I could be as smooth as Keith Stone. I also wish I knew where to get that massive slim jim! Thing kills me!

Newspaper.

2010-07-18T11:29:00.005-04:00

I was in it the other day. Small local paper for the city of Johnston where the company I work for is. Its a small franchised owned print shop. The headline says it all really. A small local shop, surviving off local businesses, which in this economy is very hard. Considering many local businesses, not to mention print shops, have closed down. Thankfully we are left standing. However with the insane rise of Health Insurance percentages, which my boss/myself have to pay out of our income. Who knows how long insurance will last.

I am thankful to have insurance. I've only had it a year but I've used it. It may not be the best coverage ever but its good to have. Even though I am paying about $150 a month to have it. Though it could be worse. I could not have it at all or I could be paying a hell of a lot more to have it if I paid for it personally. Thankfully when our rates went up last year my boss told me that I'm going to be paying the same amount and that he is going to cover the extra amount due to the raise. At what point though is that going to stop? Until I either have to pay more, which I don't think I could afford OR my work cannot afford to cover the amount of money to continue my current rate/insurance policy thus canceling my coverage.

Its a crazy thing unfortunate thing.

Women.

2010-07-18T11:23:00.002-04:00

"A man didnt have to have a women in order to feel as real as he could feel, but it was good if he knew a few. Then when the affair went wrong he'd feel what it was like to be truely lonely and crazed, and thus know what he must face, finally, when his own end came.

I was sentimental about many things: a womens shoes under the bed; one hairpin left behind on the dresser; the way they said, "im going to pee..."; hair ribbons; walking down the boulevard with them at 1:30 in the afternoon, just two people walking together; the long nights of drinking and smoking, talking; the arguements; thinking of suicide; eating together and feeling good; the jokes; the laughter out of nowhere; feeling miracles in the air; being in a parked car together; comparing past loves at 3am; being told you snore; hearing her snore; mothers, daughters, sons, cats, dogs; sometimes death and sometimes divorce, but always carrying on, always seeing it through; reading a newspaper alone in a sandwich joint and feeling nausea because shes now married to a dentist with an I.Q. of 95; racetracks, parks, park picinics; even jails; her dull friends, your dull friends; your drinking, her dancing; your flirting, her flirting; her pills, your fucking on the side, and her doing the same; sleeping together....

there were no judgements to be made, yet out of necessity one had to select. Beyond good and evil was all right in theory, but to go on living one had to select: some were kinder than others, some were simply more interested in you, and sometimes the outwardly beautiful and inwardly cold were necessary, just for bloody shitty kicks, like a bloody, shitty movie. The kinder ones fucked better, really, and after you were around them a while they seemed beautiful because they were. I thought of Sara, she had that something extra. if only there was no Drayer Baba holding up that damned STOP sign."

Australia Here I Come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-07-09T19:34:00.004-04:00

You'd think I would look more excited? Well, in reality, I truly am. This is so huge! I'm going to be the first one in my family to go VERY far away. Everyone in my family is really tight knit and secluded. I'm sure other peoples families are like this too and I'm not alone here. Some people just don't have a desire to travel I guess? Members of my family get really stressed out even driving into Providence because of a simple merger onto a highway. Yes, its THAT bad. My sister has lived in Ohio and Kentucky. My grandparents have been to Montreal Canada, Cancun Mexico and Jamaica but I am going to be going to the other side of the globe. To places my mother, father and aunts have never and may or may not ever make it to.

However, booking flights gives me the biggest case of anxiety ever! It turns my brain to mush! After many many many and many months of procrastination, considering I've had the appropriate amount of money saved for a while. I finally buckled down this past week and scoped out flights and costs. No more than an hour ago, I got my ass off the couch and said "I'm booking a god damn flight, right now" and I did.

So for the last 2 weeks of September I will be in the land otherwise known as OZ. I'll be back just in time for the Autumn lovin. While I am in Australia, you can bet your ass that I will be crossing off 1 thing on my "Things I'd Like To Do Before I Die" List . Which is something I have really been slacking on.

This experience is going to really open my eyes to the whole "Live your life" cliche. I've always really enjoyed traveling. Theres SO much of a world out there and YOU have the choice to see it. You can go anywhere you want to. So GO.

Australian Snacks!

2010-07-01T23:04:00.013-04:00

The first interaction I've ever had with anything to do with "Australian Food" is this video right here. Its a Warped Tour video from a band called The Academy Is. One of the members of the band is Australian. That member being the infamous Michael Guy Chislett.

So needless to say when I first met my Australian friends I immediately asked them about Vegemite. After watching this video, my expectations weren't all that high...

And after trying Vegemite you can see that my expectations were right on this one. Its SO salty.
However, Australia has plenty of other great things to offer. They also seem to be A LOT better than things here in America. Using the word "healthy" I don't think would be correct, but they are still leaps ahead of us.

Here is a Cadbury "Crunchie" bar, which we do not have over here in the states.

Another Cadbury product "Furry Friends" showcasing the fine wildlife Australia has to offer

Here is what Dunkaroos look like in Australia. Not only is the Kangaroo different than the one advertised in America but instead of using that gross processed frosting, this uses Hazelnut Nutella.

Last but not least, The Nestle Milky Bar. I can't even begin to explain how much in love I am with this. I'm a large fan of white chocolate. This bar takes it to a whole new level.

Drum Tensions For Tama Swingstar

2010-07-01T21:05:00.003-04:00

For personal reference.

10x12:
Remo coated emperor- 75
Remo clear ambassador- 80

16x16:
Remo coated emperor- 73
Remo clear ambassador- 80

18x22:
Remo Fiberskin 3-Reso: 70
Remo Powerstroke-kick side- 70

Kits In The Stude.

2010-06-30T20:56:00.005-04:00

My good friend Jared is an Audio Engineer & Producer. He's a great guy and good at what he does. Recently Jared has gotten the opportunity to assist recording a record of a very recognizable band. I couldn't be anymore stoked for him. Jared sent me a bunch of pictures from the studio that he has been at for the past week or so. They look totally unreal!

I naturally took a liking to one of the photographs specifically.

Here is a shot of Joe Zizzos kit from The Sleeping set up in Applehead Recording Studio in Woodstock, NY.

Here is the kit on the Truth Drums website:

turquoise ripple, beavertail lugs, vintage spurs.

The most sincere congrats to Jared! Way to go man! I'm super excited to hear the record! I can't wait to experience all the new found knowledge he's learning the next time I lay anything down with him!

Book Snare.

2010-06-28T18:06:00.005-04:00

I wish that I thought of it! I suppose that I could always still do it, but with Bukowski books. Still wouldn't be all THAT original, so I will most likely refrain. I just thought it was really cool.

The Internet Is Sometimes Cool.

2010-06-23T21:58:00.005-04:00

There's this social networking site out there called Twitter. Have you heard of it? Well, if you haven't, I'm really interested as to where you live.

If you have it and use it, then you're probably guilty of following a "Celebrity" or two. Come on, don't lie. Now whats the best reward that you can think of when following a celebrity? Hoping that they will respond to something you've said at them. Whether you admit it or not, that burning desire is there and one day, you hope it will be fulfilled.

Well, I personally don't like celebrities nor do I follow any. Well, I follow one. AND GUESS WHO REPLIED BACK!?

DESIRE FULFILLED!

I'll totally take posting wrong information for a reply back from Louis CK! He's my favorite person. I have all his DVD's and also plan on seeing him live next time he comes around on a comedy tour.

He has a new show on FX coming out called LOUIE that I am very excited for. Lucky Louie sadly only made it 1 season on HBO before it got canceled. So to see him back doing something is awesome. Check it out next week!

Snack Modeling.

2010-06-12T18:58:00.003-04:00

Thats right, Snack Modeling. Its going to be the newest craze sweeping the nation. And YOU, yes, YOU are going to have the pleasure to know where it all began.

FUCK YEAH. RHYS DARBY

2010-06-09T20:26:00.004-04:00

fuckyeahrhysdarby.tumblr.com

if you enjoy Rhys Darby as much as I do, dont be ashamed, you have a home.

Wheres Your Showmanship!?

2010-06-05T10:34:00.006-04:00

I totally back this! It doesnt show how many people are actually there but it could be 300 it could be 30 and that dude is going all out and having a blast as if he was playing to 1 million people. Thats exactly how I feel about drumming. I love stick tricks and he has a huge bag full of them.

Once you get past how ridiculous it looks, you start to appreciate how amazing it is. So into that flame Ludwig kit!

Makes me think of Animal from the Muppets. So here is a video of Animal and the mighty Buddy Rich slaying.

Amber

2010-05-28T19:11:00.006-04:00

Stick To Your Guns "Amber"

STICK TO YOUR GUNS (NEW TRACKS POSTED!!) MySpace Music Videos

Here is the video for the new Stick To Your Guns song "Amber" off the new LP "The Hope Division" due out June 1st! This track is a little light but I assure you, the records got some "omph".

Give it a listen and check it out! They are positive fantastic people and I hope with the release of this record all their ideas and plans work out for them, they've got a lot of cool stuff in mind. Passionate people who believe that what they're doing could possibly make a difference some how. Something I feel a lot of bands have forgotten about.

Rawson has the gnarliest jumps of anyone I know!

Stick To Your Guns

Fairweather and Faulkner

2010-05-24T22:31:00.010-04:00

I am posting a new blog/re-posting an old Myspace blog of mine. I plan on removing myself from Myspace soon and I figured that I should probably get to moving old blogs over to save. This blog has 2 points. Point 1, Fairweather. Point 2, about how I got into William Faulkner.

I essentially would have really liked to wait to drop a blog like this in the glory that would be the band reuniting. However, in the event that it never happens, I would rather just get it off my chest and out of the way.

What can I say, I love this band. I may be guilty of growing older and my taste changing. Though they may not be in my playlist every day, it does not change how I feel. If the world was ever so lucky to be blessed with the opportunity to hear this band 1 more time live. I WOULD BE THERE. Front and center. Screaming and sweating.

Everyone has that ONE band they latch onto. That ONE band that means the complete world. Whether it was the first band they ever heard, the band that got them to pick up and play an instrument, got them into a specific music style or scene. Fairweather is really what got me into playing poppy emotional music. I was for lack of a better term "raised" on punk and hardcore music. Even though I had liked bands such as Piebald, Saves The Day and A New Found Glory, who in 1999 were still in some way hardcore punk bands but were totally on the verge of something different. I was so young and new to it all that I didn't really fathom what was going on around me, what I was a part of and what it all meant. Fairweather was the band that really grabbed me and opened me up to the lighter side of punk.

Fairweather to me, was MY band. I discovered them when they signed to Equal Vision Records. Who at the time had tons of bands I liked and was an amazing label for both hardcore and Post Hardcore, indie, emo bands alike. During the course of their existence I didn't miss a single New England show. I caught ALL of them.

Fairweather even lead to a great friendship that I still have with me today with a gentleman by the name of William Wheaton. Bill and I met at Iodine Fest 2002. A musical fest thrown by the label Iodine Records, which was a Boston based Indie label. We were both front row center, screaming every word enjoying Fairweather to maximum potential. Halfway through the set we looked over at each other to notice not only are we both acting like lunatics but we are also wearing the SAME Bane T-shirt, only different color scheme. We exchange pleasantries as well as jokes on how "gay" we are right now and later, names. After that, we just started running into each other through being involved in the same scene and later discovering us having mutual friends as I started to attend more and more shows all over New England always meeting more and more people. We still tell this story today to humor ourselves.

I also consider myself lucky to have a minor personal connection to them as well. After going to all the shows, always being in front, always saying hello, I got to establish a small relationship with them. We were never really "friends" so to speak but I guess I was that friendly face that they saw every time they came to town. Even though they were not a band any longer when the craze of social networking sites exploded, I coincidently found Jay and we kept in touch that way. The others I became friends with years after when Peter and Shane started Olympia. After publicly displaying my joy on the internet and attending their shows when they came to New England, I was now "that guy from the internet!" instead of "that guy at all our old bands shows!". With that statement alone, makes me wish we could all go back to more primitive, less...creepy sounding times. Out of that though, I got to meet another man by the name of Phil Williams who sang for Olympia. Phil is a great dude and someone who I am pleased to say I know. Whenever I have been in Richmond, hes the man I call.

Now to the original point of this whole thing. Here is the original blog, as it was in October 2005.

now you wonder, why post this? well, to be honest i dont really know. ive always been very into music. when i actually discovered what music, actually is, i cannot remember but, id like to say it started 5 years ago. i wish i could say i discovered Faulkner through my own interest by learning about him in a class room or hearing something through the news or something and read tons of his work, etc but thats not true. i heard about him through one of my all time favorite bands and a large inspiration to me musically and at the time of their exsistance as a band, a large part of my life. that band being Fairweather.

i bought the CD the summer of 2000 when it was released. very eager to listen to it, i ripped it out of the human proof packaging and demanded that Kate stop her life in her own vehicle and put in my CD and thats where it began. later i read through the CD booklet with squinty eyes due to their very small, hard to read scratchy font and there is where i discovered the last words of the last paragraph of this speech. the last paragraph, is exactly what fairweather meant to me. though, this isnt about music, its about writing, books, poetry, etc but that all pretty much ties into music if you choose it to. so in a way it all works out. fairweather was more than a band, they stood for something and meant it. they wrote from the heart and not of the glands. with their release of their EP "alaska" furthered their explanation of what they stood for. writing music for the passion, to feel, to be used as an outlet. instead of being what a majority of the bands are today, a bunch of watered down bullshit, where effort and feeling are second best due to style, image and songs about things they have never experienced. ill stop here, but if you made it this far, please read the speech and this will all make sense.

William Faulkner: Nobel Prize Speech
Stockholm, Sweden
December 10, 1950

"I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work--a life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand where I am standing.

Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only one question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed--love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, and victories without hope and worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.

Until he learns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail."

06-01-10

2010-05-03T21:49:00.005-04:00

The Hope Divison.

This Is Awesome

2010-04-16T17:48:00.003-04:00

Lady GaGa "Telephone" drum cover.

I havent posted anything drum related in a really long time. I came across this browsing around and was like "okay, ill check it out" thinking it wouldnt be anything too special. Its actually really fucking good!

Touche to this gentleman.

BATS!

2010-04-13T00:16:00.007-04:00

This is Luke Taylor. He is the owner and operator of a fine Providence business by the name of Hope Street Tattoo. He is also my friend and one of my favorite people.

Since moving into my apartment and being dead set that the vibe of my bedroom would be "October". I thought of a cool idea. Since I cannot even draw a perfect circle, let alone a distinguishable image of any kind, I called in Luke Taylor to aid bringing my idea to life.

What was my idea? Well, it was bats and webs!!!

Here is the end result: Bats and web at the head of my room/web in the right hand corner on the right hand wall.

I'm very happy with how it came out. Its exactly what I wanted it to be. A big thank you goes to Luke Taylor for taking some time out of his day to do it and being a good friend and artist, even though I didnt exactly challenge his artistic ability with a standard of "the more it looks like shit, the better!" but hey, Thanks Luke!

Apartment!

2010-04-01T23:00:00.010-04:00

Okay, so one of the "things to do" in 2010 was to move out of my house. CHECK IT OFF THE LIST! I will soon be a resident of Providence, Rhode Island. Officially.

Moving is something that has been on my mind for some years. Though I've never been so adamant about it until recently. I've mainly just been looking for the right moment, the right time and to fall into a very good situation. Well, that happened. Fortunately enough, I've found someone that fits all my criteria. Someone who I can trust to get shit done and be responsible and make having a roomate care free and enjoyable. Plus, she has cats!

I've found a really nice place. For really cheap. I'm pretty excited on it and it feels really good. It's a lot of work at the moment. They've done work to it since the girls who lived there prior apparently set the kitchen on fire (ha, WOMEN) so its really dusty and dirty right now. Also considering the fact that people who lived there prior probably weren't as clean as I am. So I've been cleaning all the windows, sils and as of tonight floors.

I plan on moving in slowly throughout the week and will hopefully be in by next weekend. Im excited to finally be in and have cleaning and moving over with and get to decorating. Me and Kendrah have both painted our rooms and after I took the tape off my room tonight, it actually started to look like a room. I immediately began to feel my love for interior design. DESIGN period, really. If im given the right thing, my mind goes wild and creativity starts to just spew out of me. Whether its a bedroom or a drum kit and considering my career, I guess it kind of makes sense. My sister is also really into Interior design, since we are slowly realizing we are the same person in most ways, I see no surprise.

Heres some terrible pictures I took of the place. (click to see larger versions)

This is the entry/dining room(left) and the hall to the Kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms(Right). Fridge not pictured. Fridge is now in.

This is the bathroom and kitchen, both located to the left. The Stove wasnt in at the time and they broke the window putting the cabinets in. That window is now fixed & the stoves in.
This is the living room. Its pretty big and has tons of windows, but it looks really good, nice and bright! Technical double parlor.

So yeah, thats about it. Im saving my bedroom for an entirely different blog. Its going to be a "before" and "after" kind of thing. I'm really into it. The color, the art im going to put up, the ideas that I have for other things in the room. It should be really cool.

I feel really blessed to have everything work out so well. Kendrah found a really nice place at the very last minute. Lucky enough to have pretty much everything redone in the apartment. To find a place as cheap as this one is in a fairly decent part of town. The city is rough, unless youre on the East Side but I feel that I wont have any problems. Theres children playing on the streets and I have a 80 year old woman who has been there 20 yrs who speaks very little english and fills the hall with delicious smells. All will be well.

My Bike!

2010-03-17T19:16:00.005-04:00

HEY! This is my bike!

She used to look like THIS but now she doesn't.

I'm SO pumped on how it came out. I decided that I wanted flat black EVERYTHING. So I've been slowly painting my bike since last summer. The other day I did the final thing, I painted my rims. Its only spray paint for car detailing that I purchased at Auto Zone but it seems to be holding alright. Though I know it wont last forever. Im already aware that my brake is going to peel away the whole side wall but it what can you do? Eventually I'll be able to start saving money for actual black parts but this will suffice for now.

Im VERY excited to ride it CONSTANTLY. Living in the city is what I need. Living in Woonsocket didnt do much for me bikewise. Bike paths alone got boring and I only rode with Mark maybe, once. When your only close by friend works 50% of his life and sleeps the other 50% you can't get much done in the buddy system department. Now I'll be able to ride everyday and probably with friends! I'll save gas and get a good work out. ALL positive things!

Now all I need is a good sunny summer. Unlike last years rain fest, bummer summer 09! Worst!

See you on the streets!

Signs

2010-03-15T18:12:00.007-04:00

This appeared in my tea a few days ago. I pulled out my tea bag after letting it steep and this is what I saw.

I dont think this is a fluke, I mean look at it! It has 2 symmetrical bubbles for eyes! They're both completely even and the same size! Since when do you ever see something with bubbles for eyes!? You cant MAKE stuff like this happen!

Im not one to believe in higher powers but Im having fun with this one. Things are changing for me at the moment. Theres still some time to elapse but in a month one thing in my life will be very different. There will be more on that to come since there are some feelings I will probably be wanting to express.

Im taking it as a positive, not only cause there is pretty much zero arguement you could possibly have with trying to say that this would be negative in any way but because I really feel good about everything thats happening. Lets hope that this is right!

Art Blog #3

2010-03-13T13:47:00.011-05:00

Its been a while since I have done one of these. I guess that I could consider the fact that I havent purchased any art or anything since art blog #2. FIXED THAT!

Theres a story to go with this one, sort of. Some time last year a friend sent me a link to an art related website, I think, maybe I found it actually. I also dont remember what the topic we were speaking about was which even lead to this discovery. Anyway, while I was browsing this webiste I came across a picture that I really dug hard. I dubbed it "Cereal Head". I said to her, and myself, "I WILL OWN CEREAL HEAD, YOU WATCH!"

A year later I still had the website bookmarked. A year later I FINALLY decided to take initiative and see what I could do about obtaining "Cereal Head".

This website was of a young artist who lives in Oslo, Norway by the name of Taylor White. I sent her an email asking if it was at all possible for me to get a print made up and how much it would be to do so for the size that I had wanted. Even without any sort of real organized "ordering system" for ordering prints she was still nice enough to email me back with the best and cheapest way to do so with different paper options that I could choose from. A few days later the money was sent and a lot later(ha, due to my paper choice not being in for some time) the print was in my hands!

Here is Cereal Head: 18x24 with a hand made mat that I had to do at work.

I cannot tell you how much I am in love with it. From the first time I saw it, I HAD to have it. Knowing that I had plans to move soon and finally for the first time have a kitchen to call my own. This is the perfect touch. Im very excited to hang it and stare as I enjoy my morning coffee. The colors are so bright and awesome that on spring and summer days Im going to have no choice but smile every time I see it. SO awesome!

Taylor White, if you do infact see this. THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN!

If you are at all interested PLEASE look at her website, www.Taylor-White.com or check out her Behance to see any of her other work. I definitely like a few other things that in time I might considering picking up.

Letters And Packages Pt. II

2010-02-24T19:33:00.009-05:00

I recieved another Australian care package from Kristy this week! Its a continuation of the first one that she sent last summer and this package blew it out of the water! Its a wonder what 6+ months of telling me "im terrible and im sorry, youll get this package eventually" can do!

This package totally exceeded my expectations completely and made me so extremely happy!

I got:
- a wicked cool hat
- a australian track jacket! OI!
- australian flip flops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- a koala tissue box cover
- pens, tattoos, magnet, oven mit, pencil sharpener, fake money
- vegemite
- a delcious australian Crunchie bar!

The perhaps bizzare stand out of this package is my flip flops. I cannont explain in words how friggin pumped on Aussie flip flops I am! It seems so god damn ridiculous and silly, but then again, thats TOTALLY me. I CANNOT WAIT TILL SUMMER! Summers going to get itself all kinds of fucked up in my aussie flops. Get ready for a shredding summer!

I also LOVE my boxing kangaroo pen! So cool! It has two little buttons on the back to control each arm!

Thank you Kristy! SO MUCH! YOU ARE THE BEST! I wish that I could reciprocate and send you cool shit from America. Even though I know that all you would want is single serving Ben & Jerrys ice creams. Sadly, those would totally melt by the time they arrived there. So Ill just send you myself instead. Sound good?!

Valentines Day!

2010-02-14T11:56:00.004-05:00

Yes, the dreadful day for many has arrived again. This time I do not find myself wallowing in any sort of contrived self-pity for the sake of doing so simply because I have no "valentine" or do I dare say the fearful words, that I am "alone". No, instead I find myself smiling. Why, you ask? Could it be the friend filled events for this evening? Maybe. Could it be that im going to see some of my friends play a show, playing songs I enjoy? Well, yes, maybe, but in all honesty, for the moment atleast, THIS is whats making me smile...

I forgot where I found this gem. I think my buddy Phil may have posted it in his blog last year or something. I find this is extremely clever and cant help but love it to death.

Happy Valentines Day!

Matthew Richard, On The Internet!

2010-02-02T17:21:00.004-05:00

WHOA! Is this true!? YES! IT IS!

I am now residing on the Dark Horse Percussion website. This is AWESOME!

Considering the fact that pretty much ANYONE who gets a kit from them gets on it, im not an actual "artist" OF Dark Horse Percussion. I still think this is cool as hell!

I wish I had a band to promote, was actually in a band and being Endorsed by Dark Horse or even had a good picture of me actually playing drums but I've got a long road ahead! Hopefully the future treats me well and I actually land something. Then I'll be able to get out there and show off a great drum company who I am proud to say that I represent, even on a unprofessional/personal level. Who knows, sponsorship maybe one day in life?

Im VERY excited for my kit to be finished and Im sure that it will be soon! Ive been waiting a long long time.

If youd like to check it out yourself, go to www.darkhorsepercussion.com and check it out! Site just got redone and stuffs getting added all the time, new pictures of kits and more artists. Check it!

St. Augustine Wedding Recap

2010-01-21T20:19:00.003-05:00

Its was a long 4 days. It seemed a lot longer than I expected it to feel. My pessimism was leading the way on this one, like most things. However I feel it was the long nights and early mornings which made it seem like a week. I wish that it was a week!

I didn't really know what to expect out of the weekend but I can tell you that it was excellent from the get go. MAYBE it was the fact that I was going to be flying on a plane with 3 of my friends. MAYBE it was the 8am bloody marys and white Russians at the Detroit airport. MAYBE it was the fact that I found out that cliff took some happy pills before getting on the plane because he didn't think he would get on the plane with them OR, MAYBE, it was the fact that Sean totally got on the plane with weed. It could have been any of those really, actually, it was ALL of them. It pretty much set the tone for how the weekend was going to go and it pretty much kept pace.

5am departure out of Logan, pit stop in Detroit, landing in Jacksonville, Florida around, 11:30am. We got through the airport with ease due to lack of baggage and nothing but carry ons and after we got the rental car, we were off from there.

Stepping outside of that airport was magnificent. I cant really explain it. I mean its nothing THAT great or anything lots of people probably haven't experienced before, I'm sure theres a lot better. The sun being as bright as it was did no justice to my brain considering it gets bright as fuck here and yet its still 12 degrees outside. My New England conditioned brain tends to not fall for bullshit, atleast weather wise. I walked out to a warm breeze and shed my coat faster than a presumptuous virgins clothes before his first make out session with the reassurance that he'll surely be sliding into home plate.

We made our way to St. Augustine, Florida to meet up with Adam and Brando who arrived there Thursday. Having done little research I wasn't sure exactly what I was in for. I found out quickly that I was apparently in Americas 1st city. WHO KNEW!?

St. Augustine is actually a very nice place. Its pretty much a legitimate tourist city. EVERYTHING to do there is pretty much tourism. The whole city is littered with beach shops, antiques, art galleries and signs with historical education about whatever architecture it is youre looking at. I didn't mind it though, I'm actually glad I did tourist things. This has been the 3rd time Ive been to Florida and every other time I never really went and did ANYTHING. I'm glad I had a buddy with me that was very much into tourism as I was. Adam and I dominated St. Augustine. Sadly, there is still a place or 2 we didn't get to visit.

Like Castillo de San Marcos! Which is a Spanish built fort. Otherwise known as Fort Marion from 1821 until 1942, and Fort St. Mark from 1763 until 1784 while under British control. Cliff was very much set on going and visiting the fort. We just never really got to it. Since also being a part of the wedding party we did have some sort of set itinerary for doing "wedding things" as disorganized it may have seemed. I dont even think adam or anyone else go to it either. I believe the brides maids did. Bitches...

We did do some cool shit though. Met some crazy locals hanging out playing pool at the local American Legion hall post #37. Which Brando/anyone only liked because of $6 pitchers. That shit didn't matter to me! We went to a gator farm and saw alligators. Played some mini golf, visited the beach and visited Ripley's Believe it or not! Now I know this might not sound like much or fall under the category of "wicked cool shit", but I thought it was really fun and enjoyed every second of it.

I really did like the city though. It would probably become boring fast after all my friends were gone and Ive seen all that there is to see and do. After Ive exhausted the bars, restaurants, gifts shops and women. After Ive drained the town of all its romanticism and the "City Of Lights" is nothing more than a Christmas tree in April. It was a really nice place. I enjoy visual aesthetics and St. Augustine had it. As corny as most would think "The City Of Lights" is, I loved it. Its simple and quaint. Right up my alley. Definitely would visit again.

Overall the weekend was great. I got to travel around a bit with my friends, got to visit a new place in Florida I've never been to before, escape winter for 4 days and most importantly be a groomsman for a good friend of mine. I hung hard, laughed a lot and met some new cool people who I hope I'll get to see again at some point in the future. Congrants Juston and Lauren. New friends, nice to meet you. Bon voyage!

Photo of Lightner Museum by James Watkins

Crucial Coffee

2010-01-19T20:45:00.009-05:00

This was my FAVORITE place in St. Augustine.

Photo: Marek Janicek www.marcraft.net

I didnt get to go as often as I would have liked but I did appreciate having a nice place to get a good cup of java during the day. What comes with not visiting often is also not getting to explore the menu as much either. I really liked the whole atmosphere it gave off and the small 17th century house that it's in is totally awesome. This picture showcases the "walk-thru" window thats located right on the sidewalk, 1 corner of the back and the sign shown is an old fire place that they turned into a cupboard for stock and the mantel was for all the sugar, cinnamon, milk, tops, sleeves, etc.

This picture here is a great shot of the front of the house, which is the main entry. its a VERY small place.

Photo: Kim Welborn

Crucial Coffee Cafe, I will miss you very much. Im going to be talking about you for a while im sure and how all I really want to do is just go there every time Im on my way to go get coffee from somewhere else. I wish they had your "standard" size coffee mugs. They only had large ones and very small espresso mugs. So I was shit out of luck with taking a piece of it home with me.

Gifts Pt II

2010-01-19T17:44:00.008-05:00

Heres a better non-mobile blogged picture of almost ALL the custom shoes, not just mine, that Juston got for his groomsmen. The only one missing is Brandos mainly because I couldn't find them in the messy ass hotel room.

They were done by Keller out of Classic Tattoos in Florida. They also came out amazing and were done all in pen. Check out his work at his Myspace & www.naturalbornkeller.com

Im not sure whether or not to blame the fact that there were 9 dudes in 1 hotel room OR if simply any hotel room with 9 people in it would end in the same result. I would wait for the wedding photographers shots of all of our feet to also include Brandos missing shoe, but I was just told that would be a while. So this is what you get!

Only Question You Need To Ask Yourself

2010-01-18T16:17:00.003-05:00

IS...

And my answer IS...

Gifts!

2010-01-15T13:57:00.002-05:00

These are my pair of custom slip ons for the wedding. Cliff & Brando got their own distinct pairs as well. Ill post pictures of all three pairs when I get back.

Rental Car

2010-01-15T13:33:00.002-05:00

I Think I'm Safer On An Air Plane...

2010-01-15T11:48:00.002-05:00

I think I'm safer in the sky up above...

Kingpin!

2010-01-12T00:36:00.004-05:00

This is my new bowling ball! I havent given it a name yet but I will soon. How did I obtain this ball you ask? Well I'll tell you!

This past weekend I went to Worcester to see my best friend. Since he has a Wii and I LOVE Wii bowling, I demanded that we bowl for an hour or so. We started talking and I told him that I've actually been bowling a lot with friends lately. Its been pretty regular and everyone seems to be really into it and having a good time. One thing led to another and it came up that he had his own ball and shoes. Well, little did either of us know that since cliffs finger rehealing after he fucked it up last year, that it no longer fits into this ball.

SO, since he got the ball for free a few years ago during some promo where you get a free ball if you play 30 strings or something like that. He's passing the torche on to me.

Thanks Clifton, you're the best!

I Don't Know Who Tom Ford Is...

2010-01-04T17:57:00.005-05:00

but his marketing technique is excellent!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T00:19:00.006-05:00

There is certain things in life. They're different for everyone. The thing(s) that bring you back to feeling like a child. It comforts you. Takes you away from the harshness of the world. The harshness of...age. It brings you to a place of innocence, away from all your worries, burdens and pains. It fills you with life. Maybe with the only glimpse of true happiness that any of us will ever feel in our lifetimes and your heart smiles.

Tonight I'll sleep with this light.

Tonight I'll pretend that magic is real.

Merry Christmas.

"Dear night lights, protect my sleeping babes, burn clear and steadfast tonight"

How much would you bet, that if I tried hard enough, I would spontaneously combust

2009-12-20T20:43:00.007-05:00

The end of December yet again approaches and of course, Christmas is on its way. This also means New Years is right around the corner. So in fashion, I see it time for a yearly recap of the things that have happened this year.

It would seem that nothing happened or atleast not a lot, but things did happen.

- I saw Jimmy Eat World on their "Clarity" Tour.
- Jeremy and Kris got married and also gave birth to a son, I think I know of a few others who had children, thats mind blowing.
- I went to Philly with a few friends and got to spend time with Jill for a day or two and meet her now husband, Alex.
- I got to meet 3 very special young women which I am whole heartedly pleased to say that I am friends with from a country far far away called Australia.
- I FINALLY purchased a Custom Drum kit from Dark Horse Percussion.
- I deviated my septum on the 4th of July thanks to Adam Gil.
- A friend in need needed me to fill in on drums for one of their shows, so I did and had a great time, it had been my first time playing a show in 4 years. So that was a really cool thing for me.
- I saw Sunny Day Real Estate on their reunion tour.

Thats it really. Nothing you would call an amazing year to remember.

This year I had a "plan" or atleast a goal of some kind. I dont think you could really call it a "resolution", maybe it was, I dont know, but I am confident to know that ANYTHING would be better than last year and I'll be honest, it was. My "goal" was easy. It was just to simply to TRY. Like I predicted, nothing really worked out for me. Maybe I could have tried harder? Maybe its all my fault that nothing really happened. It wasnt so much to get out there and try new things. It was more of a reason to seize opportunities. Maybe I should have tried to MAKE things happen, rather than give attempts that things that just happen to cross me by. I wanted to do things a little differently, possibly correct mistakes ive made in the past. Put myself out there in hopes that something or someone might align with me or...get it. I feel you can only do so much. Its always possible to make something out of nothing, but its of course, so much harder. Considering I feel the things I want dont really rely on me. They are more up to other people. Im probably making excuses, but I dont think so. Im pretty good at calling out bullshit, even my own.

The love I chose packed up and left like every love I've ever known. I believe that it was lucky number...4. Though you can't blame anything or anyone. Its nothing any of the women I've been fortunate enough to spend time with OR me had done wrong. It just came down to a decision. Me or...something else, somewhere else. It has seemed to be more that simply LIFE has been just pulling everyone in other directions. Whether it be ex-boyfriends, new boyfriends, family, jobs and things of that variety. And Im sure that my current interest will suffer the same peril. Come daylight savings she'll be just as gone as the cold weather and like the remaining snow we'll simply dissipate. I've never had a knack for timing, as it would seem. Id like to one day fix that.

On a more poisitve note, I tryed out for this band called Linden. My friend Rob had called me and told me his friend Eric deals with this band. They need a guitarist and drummer. So me and Rob learned some songs and tracked our tracks with Jared and sent them off. It was probably the most out there thing I've done. I was following my goal. I didnt care if I had to move out to Wisconsin. I was going to give it a shot and try to MAKE it happen. I gave it my best and it goes without saying, Im still here.

This same Eric gave me a call to also fill in for anoter band he deals with. They had a 2 month tour lined up and their drummer had just quit. Sadly, 8 days is not enough time for me to prepair myself or my place of employment that I would be abruptly leaving for 60 days. Now you could argue with me that right there I blew my ticket out, but Its something I didnt feel I could do. So I feel I made the right decision.

Speaking of decisions, I've made the decision that its time. Hopefully in the spring, summer or fall I will be moving out of my home. I've milked it for as long as I can. I've been spending a lot of time in the city and id like to move closer. Id probably see people more often. People might actually come over. I'll probably feel a lot less lonely. You never know who you might run into on the streets and theres always a place to go for a drink or a talk. Its a lot closer to my work. In the summer I can ride my bike for transportation and use my car less. I think it'll be a really good time.

I need to get out there on my own. It'll make me worry about more important things than what I worry about now. Though I know that I will be just fine. It might even occupy some of my time. I can always clean, do the dishes, take out the garbage, or paint something.

2010 brings new life.
- Im gonna move out.
- I've got plans to go visit my friends in Australia.
- I've been really wanting to get back into writing music again. So im going to start trying to get into a musical situation.
- My drums will be finished! I'll then be going to NJ/NYC to go get them and visiting friends.
- In January Ill be going to Florida to see Juston and Lauren get married. Starting the year off right with a trip to escape winter for atleast 4 days.

You never know what can happen. Maybe I'll find that band. Maybe Ill find a really cool place. Maybe I'll finally be enough to keep someone around. Maybe none of this shit will happen at all but as long as I feel good nothing else matters. I mean whats the worst that can happen? I get stuck in the same place I've been all my life.

Here we go again.

Releases of 2009

2009-12-15T18:22:00.004-05:00

I've ALWAYS wanted to do one of these! However I NEVER remember all of the releases that came out that year that I enjoyed! So this year I wrote them down!

This year I made it a point to actually PURCHASE copies of records. Im still in the vinyl game, but this year I felt that a lot of excellent bands put out great releases and they were bands that I really do love, enjoy and deserve to get their hard word rewarded by selling a unit. I did fall off the wagon and didnt buy ALL that I wanted too, but theres always time, right? Though im also guilty, cause I did download a lot too. Win some, lose some, I guess.

Here's what I picked up:
AFI- Crash Love
Alexisonfire- Old Crows/Young Cardinals
The Appleseed Cast- Sagarmatha
As Cities Burn - Hell or High Water
As tall as lions- you cant take it with you
The Audition - Self Titled Album
Brand New- Daisy
Cambiata- The Cambiata
Cartel- Cycles
Cassino- Kingprince
Cobra Starship- Hot Mess
Cursive- Mama Im Swollen
Dance Gavin Dance- Happiness
The Dear Hunter- Act III: Life & Death
Death Cab For Cutie - The Open Door
Decibully- World Travels Fast
Dredg- The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion
Evergreen Terrace- almost home
Every Time I Die- new junk aesthetic
The Fall Of Troy- in the unlikely event
The Fray- S/T
The Higher- its only natural
Jeremy Enigk- ok bear
This Providence- Who are you now
Mae- (m)orning EP
Mark Rose- The Greatest Lakes
The Mars Volta- Octahedron
Mayday Parade- anywhere but here
Maylene and the Sons of Disaster- III
Municipal Waste- Massive Aggressive
Nightmare Of You- Infomaniac
Owen- New Leaves
Paramore- breand new eyes
Polar Bear Club- Chasing Hamburg
RX bandits- mandala
Say Anything- Say Anything
The Seams- EP
Sherwood- QU
The Sleeping- what it takes
Soul Control- cycles
Taking Back Sunday- New Again
Thrice- Beggars
Thursday- Common Existence

Top 5 of 2009:
1. Thrice- Beggars
2. As Cities Burn- Hell or High Water
3. As Tall As Lions- You Cant Take It With You
4. Dredg- The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion
5. Every Time I Die- new junk aesthetic

Honorable Mentions:
Alexisonfire- Old Crows/Young Cardinals
Brand New- Daisy
Cursive- mama Im Swollen
The Dear Hunter- Act III: Life & Death
Jeremy Enigk- Ok Bear
RX Bandits- Mandala

I am a bit surprised at my list. There are things I didnt expect to be on it and missing things I thought WOULD be on it. This was a surprising year. I got into new bands. Some bands put out fantastic releases, but something about them fell short.

Solitude.

2009-12-15T00:11:00.003-05:00

"I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it
I was like another man without food or water.
Each day without solitude weakened me.
I took not pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it.
The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me."

The Blackbirds Are Rough Today

2009-12-13T22:55:00.004-05:00

"Lonely as a dry and used orchard spread over the earth for use and surrender.

Shot down like an ex-pug selling dailies on the corner.

Taken by tears like an aging chorus girl whos gotten her last check.

A hanky is in order your lord, your worship.

The blackbirds are rough today like ingrown toenails in an overnight jail--wine wine whine, the blackbirds run around and fly around harping about Spainish melodies and bones.

And everywhere is nowhere--the dream is as bad as flapjacks and flat tires:

why do we go on with our minds and pockets full of dust like a bad boy just out of school, you tell me, you who were a hero in some revolution. You who teach children. You who drink with calmness. You who own large homes and walk in gardens. You who have killed a man and own a beautiful wife. You tell me.

Why am I on fire like old dry garbage.

We might surely have some interesting correspondence. It will keep the mailman busy.

And the butterflies and ants and bridges and cemeteries, the rocket-makers and dogs and garage mechanics will still go on a while until we run out of stamps and/0r ideas.

Dont be ashamed of anything; I guess God meant it all like locks on doors."

Find and Buy Me This Shirt.

2009-12-10T17:18:00.006-05:00

Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve, what about an entire front print!?

I came across this photograph via my buddy Phil Williams blog. He found it via someone, who probably found it via 9000 people. Phil is always a good one for finding random cool shit on the internet. Kudos Phil!

I really dont have anything else to say about this shirt, other than I WANT IT. I would have to buy many of them, cause I would probably wear it every day for the rest of my life.

I NEED FUEL!

2009-12-08T22:13:00.004-05:00

Soooo, while perusing around on the old interwebs I came across this. Yes, you would be correct to say that it is a coffee mug, cause thats what it is, but its not your typical piece of ceramics meant for holding your morning brew.

IT'S A HOT WATER MUSIC MUG DUDE!

So, now I can say that I, Matthew Richard Tellier, has his OWN coffee mug. I use mugs daily, but now this one is MINE. It will be only used by ME and if not, I will pour whatever hot beverage is contained within this mug onto them. So back off!

Now I understand that it might be a bit frivolous to make such an event out of such and object cause its a friggin mug but this mug, for the time being until I acquire the other necessary attributes, is my manly possession. What is a Dad without HIS chair? What is a Grandfather without his cardigan, slippers and probably also, chair? Even an old dog without whatever it is hes been laying on for all those years...

So for the eager young gentleman that I so happen to be, whos ready to wake up and give the world a good ol fashioned ass kicking, this is the best and most relevant symbol that I can think of.

Someday My Dance Will Begin...

2009-11-16T17:37:00.008-05:00

Ive been neglecting my books. I havent read anything in a really long time. Ive had some things on the mind lately. To no surprise, these things are not good. So I opened something up and read a few pages. Ive been on "Run With The Hunted" for a while now. Poems, short stories, from Charles Bukowskis' other novels. This caught my eye really hard. So im posting it.

"I would never forgive the girls for getting into those cream-colored coupes with the laughing boys. They couldnt help it, of course, yet you always think, maybe...but no, there werent any maybes. Wealth meant victory and victory was the only reality. What woman chooses to live with a dishwasher?

Throughout high school I tried not to think too much about how things might eventually turn out for me. It seemed better to delay thinking...

Finally it was the day of the Senior Prom. It was held in the girls' gym with live music, a real band. I dont know why but I walked over that night, the two-and-one-half miles from my parents' place. I stood outside in the dark and I looked in there, through the wired-covered window, and I was astonished. All the girls looked very grown-up, stately, lovely, they were in long dresses, and they all looked beautiful. I almost didnt recognize them. And the boys in their tuxes, they looked great, they danced so straight, each of them holding a girl in his arms, their faces pressed against the girls' hair. They all danced beautifully and the music was loud and clear and good, powerful.

Then I caught a glimpse of my reflection staring in at them--boils and scars on my face, my ragged shirt. I was like some jungle animal drawn to the light looking in. Why had I come? I felt sick. But I kept watching. The dance ended. There was a pause. Couples spoke easily to each other. It was natural and civilized. Where had they learned to converse and dance? I couldnt converse or dance. Everybody knew something I didnt know. The girls looked so good, the boys so handsome. I would be too terrified to even look at one of those girls, let alone be close to one. To look into her eyes or dance with her would be beyond me.

And yet I knew that what I saw wasnt as simple and good as it appeared. There was a price to be paid for all of it, a general falsity, that could be easily believed, and could be the first step down a dead-end street. The band began to play agian and the boys and the girls began to dance again and the lights revolved overhead throwing shades of gold, then red, then blue, then green, then gold again on the couples. As I watched them I said to myself, someday my dance will begin. When that day comes I will have something that they dont have.

But then it got to be too much for me. I hated them. I hated their beauty, their untroubled youth, and as I watched them dance through the magic colored pools of light, holding each other, feeling so good, little unscathed children, temporarily in luck, I hated them because they had something I had not yet had, and I said to myself, I said to myself again, someday I will be as happy as any of you, you will see."

The Stranger

2009-11-15T01:56:00.003-05:00

This is an old blog that I had posted on Myspace in 2008. Ive been meaning to move some of my blogs posted there to blogger for sometime. I just happen to log in and actually do it. It might seem silly but since social networking sites sway with the trends, I dont know how log it will last, either my existence on the site or the site itself. I think its atleast something valid. Since I do post things that I feel pertain to me as a human being. Words that are simply better put. There will probably be more of these as time goes on and I seem to run out of shit to blog about. Ive been running on low for a while now.

I'm not really going to go into why I feel as though I have some sort of connection with this since I do not really feel as though I could describe it well enough into words. I suppose I could say I've always known I was "different" in some way,though I guess that could pertain to anyone but I'm refering to "society" as a general whole. I think differently,I question emotions and actions of people. I wonder "Why" a lot. If I just never "love" anyone,if I dont ever cry at a funeral,if I really dont love my mother as much as I really should, etc and if I dont do any of these things im labeled some sort of emotionless weird asshole.

I've just started reading "The Stranger" by Albert Camus. This is all inspired by him. While reading the Introduction(Peter Dunwoodie) I came across this and something clicked in my head directly after reading it. I felt "hey,this is...me" Camus once suggested that "if you want to be a philosopher, write novels". I really dont think that will be happening anytime soon or ever. So I'll just post the paragraphs I felt strong about.

"The answer must be sought in Meursault's own statements and attitudes, and it is in these that we encounter the philosophy of the Absurd that Meursault embodies.

As Meursault and his new girlfriend Marie dress after going for a swim Marie notices his black tie and asks if he is in mourning: 'i told her maman had died. She wanted to know how long ago,so i said "yesterday". She gave a little start but didnt say anything.' A few days later, when asked if he wants to marry her: 'I said it didnt make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to...Then she pointed out that marriage was a serious thing. I said, "no". She stopped talking for a minute and looked at me without saying anything...After another moments silence, she mumbled that i was peculiar, that was probably why she loved me but that one day i might hate her for the same reason.' When asked by his defense counsel if his mothers death had upset him he replies: 'i probably did love maman, but that didnt mean anything. At one time or another all normal people have wished their loved ones were dead. Here the lawyer interrupted me and he seemed very upset'. Such responses are disconcerting not merely because they reveal the heros rather brutal directness and honesty, but because these very qualities are used to challenge more normal conventions and values. As Camus put it, 'Meursault is condemned because he does not play the game', because, far from being the apparently indifferent, unemotional individual that his account first suggests, his actions and statements are the direct consequence of a philosophical stance which rejects widespread social and moral norms. He is accused of indifference after putting his mother in a home or refusing to look at the corpse, yet he acknowledges that, once settled, she was happier with people of her own generation and,after her death,his first thought on reaching the old peoples home is to see her body. He is accused of callousness because he smokes or drinks at ther wake, yet he had though about it beforehand and decided 'it didnt matter'. Accused in short, of not displaying conventional attitudes and reactions.

Meursault, then, is not an automaton, devoid of emotion, incapable of pleasure or reflection. On the contrary, it is in the name of alternative values that he undemonstratively opposes those of society. First and foremost among these values is, precisely, that of pleasure: whether in his work, on the beach, in his relations with Marie and his friends, even in prison, Meursault's primary concern is with immediate, sensual gratification. When such pleasures are unavailable, they can be dismissed; when offered, they are to be enjoyed; and from the outset the text makes it clear that the natural world (sky,sun,sea,light,warmth...) is the primary source of such pleasure, to the extent that Marie, whether in the sea, on the sand or in the smell of salt left on her pillow, is essentially the embodiment of those natural elements. Meursault dismisses the (cultural) notion of love, but fully appreciates the force of desire."

"The philosophy of Camus is a philosophy of the Absurd, and for him the Absurd springs from the relation of man to the world, of his legitimate aspirations to the vanity and the futility of human wishes. The conclusions which he draws from it are those of classical pessimism".

This is what I have to look forward to.

2009-10-24T15:18:00.000-04:00

Thanks Kristy!

Snare Re-Doins Pt. II

2009-10-10T13:42:00.000-04:00

Project number 2 was just finished yesterday! I took my sweet ass time with this one. I've been lazy. It happens! It also doesnt help when I go to get heads, finally, and they are out of Hazys. What can you do?

This bad boy is a 14x7 steel Tama Rockstar snare. Rockstars usually arent the best thing on the market, but I really like this snare drum. It looks like a serious beast. Appears so much larger than my 14x7 yamaha birch. Its strange.

BEFORE:

This is the kind of stuff I was dealing with! WHO DOES THIS!?

Again, I didnt really DO much. I just took everything off and then just used Brasso to just shine everything up. Nothing really all THAT special, but I think it came out pretty good, yet again. The finish could have come out a little bit better. It almost seems a bit scratchy or foggy? maybe? I dont know if its something I did. I used a green pad, it wasnt rough at all, but it had a little something to it. So maybe thats what did it. It had too much shit all over it and like, deposits? stuck all over the steel. Using an ordinary rag didnt seem like it would do anything for it. So I went with one of those green pads. No idea what its called, but it comes on the back of sponges to do dishes with, know what im saying?

Here is was it looks like now!

Now as for tuning. I went with the standard, using the dial of course. Bottom head 82, top 85. I think it sounds pretty good. Its a looser tuning than what I like but im not use to steel snares nor their tuning, but after I played around on it a little bit and heard it mixed with everything, its pretty good. Id like to re-do it again in the future with a tighter tuning, maybe 85 bottom, 90 top. I think thats what I use for my yamaha.

Then again, I assume steels are supposed to be tuned lower. Essentially im going for that Death Cab For Cutie sound with it. If you listen to "summer skin" off Plans or "grapevine Fires" off Narrow Stairs, youll know what I mean. Thats what I was going for. Something loose, little ringy, long sustain, give you lots of play for stick work.

Its loud as fuck when you really bang on it too, so overall I guess thats just its nature. Ill see what happens in a couple months. I would really like to re-do it and tune it differently.

FINALLY!

2009-09-09T22:16:00.001-04:00

Trick 'R Treat is coming out! New trailer was just released! Ive been waiting since 2007 for this movie! after last years hold up, I wait NO LONGER! Perfect for this coming Halloween! Although I do believe its going to be straight to DVD and not be released in theaters, like it should be.

Unmissed Conncections

2009-09-02T18:23:00.000-04:00

So theres a new band out, they have a new song up. This part is no big deal really. Though they blogged about, what im guessing, is the whole meaning to this new song. Who these people are, what band they were in, what band they are all in now, doesnt really matter. The whole point of me even blogging this, is to remember it. When the blog, the band, the people, me, are all gone. I read this and much like a lot of the things I've ever read in the past and probably will read in the future, a light bulb went off.

Now I wouldn't say that I have a hard time expressing myself on certain views when asked but sometimes other people just say better shit, so, fuck it. I read this and felt very much in tune with what was said. This persons views, whether they are true or fictional for the sake of song. Whether this event occured or it was made up for the sake of story. I very much feel the same way. What its REALLY about, I could only guess, but many things in art are always left open to the viewer, the listeners, own interpretation.

This is the blog which I am re-posting is from this band called Nocturnal Me. Now how you feel about this song, these dudes or bascially anything else, I dont care. This isnt some shameless promotion, this isnt some fan blog(though maybe it is? haha). This is simply a series of words which I felt was in some essence, "ME" and I wish to document them, much like the large amount of book quotes that are throughout my blog. Excluding the mind games part, im not too into games, PERIOD. I do like to get in their mind though, but MY intentions are not for games. The mind is the best and only way to really KNOW things about a person. Which I love doing. Ive probably pointed out things you do, say, weird ticks you might have, your fears and why you have them, and have in a minor way, poked fun at you for them, but I asure you, its all in good fun.

"This Isn't Love

"This is not my scene"...I thought to myself...

"This shouldn't be anyone's scene"...the other side of me replied...

Any place where you can smoke inside is bad news now a days, and for me its doubly true. I can barely breathe as it is, I don't need the help of vaporized nicotine and stuffy situations. The last thing I want/need is to waste my breathe on common conversation with anyone within these walls. I came in here with the home team and even we don't exchange more than a glance and some suttle nuances throughout the night. Words are overrated and oxygen is at a minimum.

I grab a drink and a seat (in that order) and decide to let my mind unfold for a while. I've always had the tendancy to look people in the eyes whether they're right in front of me or across the room. It's one of my only qualities that I continue to develop on a daily basis, and I also think that's what got her attention. This place wasn't crowded by any means but there were enough people there to call it a competition...

She works, I watch
She looks, I smile
Lather, rinse, repeat

For hours it goes like this until a subconcious connection is formed to the point where I feel familiar once she comes over to greet me.

"This is my kind of girl"...

Someone who doesn't cling to the stereotype of male dominance in romantic relationships. I HATE approaching women. 24 hours a day they are bombarded with insincerity and sketchiness and I refuse to fall into that category. From a very young age I decided that playing the game that way was not going to work for me. If I was going play the game at all, I was going to do it my way...Patiently, intelligently and planned. You can never lose as long as you don't invest yourself too much, and in this situation that's my M.O. Calm, cool, collected and detached. I never had a problem sleeping alone, and tonight is no exception.

The conversation navigates familiar waters. Where are you from? What do you do? What are you majoring in? Where do you live? What's your dog's name? Have you ever been to Amsterdam? How about this humidity? Do you have a cigarette? Why don't you smoke? Can I buy you a drink? etc...etc...Until finally, 6 syallabels are muttered which attack the crux of the situation with percision that only a female mind can conjure

She asks..."What are your intentions?"

At this point I'm always extremely honest. I'm a very affectionate person by nature, I love women and I love being close to them...If there is an opportunity for close combat, I'm just as eager as the next dude. But there IS something slightly different about me: I thoroughly enjoy mind games and I'm not ashmaed of it. The chase means more to me than any close encounter ever could...There is just something much more enthralling about playing a chess match and getting inside someone's head vs. getting wasted and getting in someone's bed. Call me old fashioned, but I'd just like to think I'm avoiding desperation with this mindset.

She can't take my honesty. It's obvious she's been jaded by her past and my answers seem to make her confused/angry/happy all at the same time. Am I a wolf in sheep's clothing? Another regret that she is bound to make? Or am I diamond in the rough? An opportunity she will likely never see again for months to come?

The questions remain unanswered. A few more drinks and she doesn't really care about my intentions; at this point ours may have morphed into one and the same. The time comes to pull the trigger and in my usual fashion I am gunshy. The lack of mystery unveils the situation for what it is and all I really want to do is go home and get a good night's rest. My causal irreverence towards the situation offends her to the point where she surrenders her Stoli 7 and Lime, shakes my hands, and bids me adieu immediately.

I remain unphased, unattached and unwilling to compromise my vision in order to gain experience. I'm only interested in someone who can capture my full imagination and it's obvious that tonight was no more than a conversation piece and a lesson.

The truth is simple:

It isn't much if you don't mean it.
And it isn't love if you don't need it. "

Drum Tuner!

2009-08-05T19:40:00.000-04:00

Okay, since finishing that Pearl Piccolo and not being happy with the sound of it, I decided that I was going to re-tune it. So I took the wires and both the heads off and started over before I actually delivered it to Luke.

However this time around, I made the decision to go out and buy a tuner. I'm not sure of my reasoning as to why I never really wanted one but think I was always a little confused about them, so I avoided it. I also thought I never really "needed" one. Guitarists have tuners, So I used that as my justification on going out and buying one because I for some reason felt that using one was "cheating". Since an experienced drummer should be able to tune them by ear, yadda yadda yadda.

So I went out and bought this guy right here. Its called "Drum Dial". I must say that I'm totally in love with it. I forumed around a bit and some seemed to like it and some seemed to dislike it, but that goes for anything really. Tuning is a really hard thing to do. I've been tuning drums for 7 years and Ive always said "hm, that sounds alright" after EVERY drum that Ive ever tuned. That is now a thing of the past to me, hello confidence!

"DrumDial quickly and precisely tunes all drums by accurately measuring drumhead tension NOT tension rod torque. Tension rod torque can be used to tell you when you are over tightening a bolt to prevent thread damage, but is not accurate for drum tuning because of the difference in screw tolerances, plating, corrosion, and thread wear. You can eliminate these problems by using a DrumDial to measure drumhead tension directly from the drumhead, allowing you to precisely tune your drums faster and easier than ever before."- www.drumdial.com

I love it mainly cause the manual gives you a bunch of standard tensions for different size drums. So you get a starting point to try, then fine tune what you like and dont like from there depending on what sound you want out of your drum(s). Since I've been doing snares over I've already been finding out what I like for snares, I'm definitely not following the tensions that are given in the manual. I dont really agree with the tom tensions but, I do like the kick drum tensions they gave. I'm happy with them, even though I should probably put new heads of my kit, I'm getting my custom hopefully soon, so whats the point?

For lukes snare, I was lucky enough to find someone in a drum forum who was using a Drum Dial and had the same exact snare. So I used the tensions he had used and I think the drum sounds fantastic now. Although I'm not sure if the drum dial just served as a placebo or not, since I'm not aware of what my tensions were BEFORE I re-tuned it with the dial. Kind of bummed on that. It's still ringy, but I'm happy with it now.

I've come to realize that the drum dial isn't "cheating", to be honest I really don't even know why I have this sort of guilt about it haha because I can still go by ear and learn that way, then just use the dial to even out the lugs I went either too far or too loose on. I can definitely tell already though just by using it once the huge difference there is when you have ALL your tension around the drum perfect on both tops and reso heads rather than a "guessed" tuned drum.

If you want ALL the info about how it works, go to www.drumdial.com. The site is pretty much a blog within itself.

OH, Hey, Australia!

2009-07-30T18:27:00.001-04:00

LOOK WHAT I GOT IN THE MAIL TODAY!

We're getting closer and closer! Now all I need is to save the money!

Saving starts soon!

Now that I have this thing, anyone down for a Canada sesh!?

Snare Drum Re-Doins Pt. 1

2009-07-23T22:13:00.000-04:00

I took up a project 2 weeks ago. I saw this snare drum sitting in Luke Taylors basement. Its a Pearl Piccolo 13"x3". Its been in his basement for lord knows how months. It wasn't being used since the top head had exploded, there was a VHS tape sitting inside the thing for gods sake. So since I have nothing else better to do with my spare time, I decided to take it home and refurbish it.

It was my first time ever taking a snare or any drum for that matter, completely apart, tuning both TOP and Bottom heads on a snare AND replacing snare wires. I figured it "good for me" since I love drums and don't ever shut up about them or stop looking at drums, drooling on the internet. So why not learn more, since you can never know too much about something you're sincerely passionate about.

Here's what it looked like BEFORE:

Now I was really trying to refrain from using the word "refurbish". Since it sounds really intense and like hard work. Where I didn't really do much. I just kinda "cleaned" it. Though I did take the time and got some polish from my grandfather and clean all the hoops, lugs and tension rods so they'd shine real nice.

Here's what it looks like NOW:

I think it came out pretty good. The only thing that stresses me out is the tuning of it. I don't know what it sounded like before hand. I'm also not familiar with Steel snares, especially piccolos. I think its way too ringy, but i'm not sure if that's just the nature of this drum/steel drums in general. Maybe I choked it or the strainer isn't set right, it could definitely be something with the bottom head. It doesn't sound awful but I personally don't particularly like the sound very much but that could have been because I did something incorrectly.

Though for a first try, I give myself credit. You have to learn some how so its an experience. There's another snare to "refurbish". So i'm going to try my luck with that one. It is also steel, but I believe its deeper, so this one will also sound different, but I am interested in seeing the difference between a 5-7 inch steel snare and a 3".

When my kit is finished and I get my new snare, I plan on changing the bottom head on my 14X7 Yamaha and see how that goes. So if I struggle with that one its only my back up and not my ONLY snare that I have.

Letters And Packages

2009-06-11T18:08:00.001-04:00

So many koala bears! I got a package from my friends in Australia today! They sent it out before they flew out of California, which was probably...2 days ago, i think? They were SUPPOSED to give me them when they were here in New England, but noooooo.

Im pumped on it! I love gifts! Even if its Dave & Busters frisbees! Which I only recieved because I was in D&B one time talking to Kristy and told her I was there and she had no idea what it was until she came across one while in Cali.

THANK YOU LADIES! You are too sweet!

Ill be awaiting my second package! Since apparently you forgot something, I cannot imagine what it could be!

I hope that I'll be seeing yous by next summer! <3

Australia!

2009-05-24T15:08:00.000-04:00

Next year I plan on accomplishing 1 of the things I'd like to do before I die. I'm going to Australia!

All this came about so strange. I recieve a message from a young lady claiming that she is from Australia and coming to the US. At first I thought "okay, yeah, so what, why the hell are you telling me"? So, I replyed anyway haha. Turns out that she was coming to Mass and also attending Metal Fest. Which is extremely close to me. So after some more talking, it came to be that she also knew/was going to meet lots of people I knew in the Western Mass area. So needless to say, I then became interested in meeting these, what turned out to be 3 females from the country of Australia.

from left to right: Ashleigh, Kirstie, Kristy & me! I'm very glad that I got a chance to meet these 3 ladies. They are extremely nice people and seem to have no attitudes at all. They were all very funny and witty ladies and we got along great right from the get go, it was fantastic. I had a lot of fun being around them and hanging for what was sadly the one and only night I got to spend with them. I didnt think they would be as awesome as they were! I do feel I missed out but having to work on weekdays and them spending their time in Mass an hour and a half away prohibited maximum hangs, but ill make up for that next year!

Kristy was sweet enough to just GIVE me money from her Country. One of the questions that I had asked her was if Australian currency had Kangaroos on it. Since anything to do with Australia, I always assume it has to do with Kangaroos. It turns out it does! Australian dollar coins are WAY cooler than the USAs Sacagawea dollar coin, that thing is stupid! Theirs has cute animals on it! The large 50 cent coin also has Kangaroos on it! Im very much pumped on having money from Australia and I definitly plan on using it! Since Ive met nice and awesome people from there, it has given me lots of ambition to actually get going on it. I now have friends to see and a place to stay so the stress of going on this trip completely alone is now gone! After I finish paying for my drums that will be finished in the next few months, I have nothing else to save for. They were the most expensive goal in my life, other than buying cars. So now that thats out of the way, its travel time!

It feels nice to have a goal. One that I know I can reach. Because the only thing thats holding me back is the money for a plane ticket. Which is something I can easily raise. I love to travel, I know there is a whole world out there and I want to see it! Im surrounded by it always, friends are off in bands, doing something they love and I also love, MUSIC. I wish I could catch a break on that part of my life. Though it doesnt matter, music will always be there, its something that im always going to be doing or trying to do. If I cant mix traveling and music together, so be it. Its not going to hold me back from raising the money to go off and see other places. It just makes it easier haha. Ive filled out my passport form. I'm going to go get my photo taken in the next coming week and then drop that off and await the 1st very small step towards making my journey to a beautiful country to arrive in the mail.

Plus I have this to look forward to!

Im going to be hanging out with all these ladies! Its going to be awesome! Hopefully there wont be much singing involved! HA!(this is actually them! this isnt a random video I picked off youtube!). I cant wait to see all the cool things the country has to offer from scenery to FOOD and Of course holding a koala bear! I'm not sure where Ill be going in the country but im sure that I wont be disappointed.

July 2010 here I come Australia!

Experiments

2009-05-21T16:51:00.000-04:00

2009 seems to be the year for them. If you could even call them that at all. Speaking for myself of course and since absolutely nothing thus far has been going my way, I've come to notice that positivity is hardly with me anymore like it was in January where all this "new lease and outlook on...(add variable X here)" started and im starting to wonder if I've just been shitting it all out with every afternoons BM. So in retaliation to my most recent blog entry(the one below this one) I've taken it upon myself to do something about "it".

My plan was everything but well crafted last night as I made the decision to not listen to ANY music, at all, for an unknown period of time. Since I find myself confiding in music always, searching for solace without much result of making things any better. So whats the fucking point? I kind of find it impossible however to not listen to anything, even though I have not tried it yet, the sounds of nature, life, the city, the hum of my vehicle as I gracefully disobey the speed limit, just wont cut it.

Im still going to try though, today was the day of Snapcase. I think I really just have to apply myself and say "no, dont listen to that" and try to focus on other things and listen to other things that I just find myself not caring to relate to and ignoring. I see it the only way. What Id like to help, isnt helping and if I want to do things different this year, I have to actually fucking do it.

"Problems" weight me down easy. I feel that I could have always done better, done more, I have trouble letting go, I have trouble accepting. I beat myself into the ground so hard I feel the warmth from hell, Id swear that Ive almost reached it a few times but in order to cast all these things away, really isnt up to any band or any song or any single person but myself. So in reality, what should it matter what I listen to? Well that is something I cannot answer, for some reason, it matters, in my world. If it hurts, why fucking deal with it any longer?

I really need to cut the shit with these rule breakers.

Which Came First?

2009-05-12T18:21:00.000-04:00

A lot of the time I think about this very thing. Maybe I need to branch out more and find new music? Even though I know within that new music, whatever it may be, I will search for substance, meaning, a connection, which I or anyone should see nothing wrong with since its something I think everyone does. Im coming to the conclusion that what Im attracted to and the kind of person that I am, is what never gets me out of the holes I find myself in yearly, usually over the same thing. So maybe its me? Even down to the books that I read, whether a fictional story or a philosophical book by a writer who has a far better grip on his/her own case of fucking... melancholia, than I will ever have. They all have one thing in common, dark, evil, depressing shit about loss, death, confusion and the shere burden of being given life.

I need a new playlist...or maybe a renewed sense of being.

"My bright, is too slight, to hold back all my dark"

Sorry for this Blog rule breaker.

Dark Horse Percussion!

2009-05-04T18:10:00.000-04:00

Thats right! After MANY years of dreaming up kits and talking to friends trying to get the hook up from the company they play. I have reached the end of the line. I have found a Company that is awesome and gave me an excellent price on a custom kit!

It feels weird. Its been SO long and now its finally happening. Im super pumped!

heres what I got:

SIZES:

24x18 kick
16x16 floor
12x8 rack
13x8 snare (10ply)

chrome 2.3 mm hoops
chrome Diecast hoops on snare only
chrome mini tube lugs
floor tom mounts for legs drilled into the shell.

kit color: Custom Navy blue with a glitter finish
kit stripes: 2 Donkey white abalone stripes
Snare finish: wrapped in Donkey white abalone.

The kit in look, will be just like this(minus the diff. colors obv.)

and thats that. I asked Anthony if he could photograph the process as best he can and send me shots so that I can blog the process here. I hope this happens!

STOKED!

DARK HORSE PERCUSSION

Futures

2009-04-11T15:08:00.000-04:00

I live in a colonial house, on the sunny side of San Nicolas Park, where I have spent all the days of my life without wife or fortune, where my parents lived and died and where I have proposed to die alone, in the same bed in which I was born and on a day that I hope will be distant and painless.

Gene Simmons Dog

2009-04-09T18:35:00.000-04:00

Ummmm.....Im basically speachless.