It's Benjtastic

It's time to move on...time to get goin'

2006-06-24T14:29:00.000-04:00

This blog is now retired. To check up with me, just click here. I decided to move to myspace so I can be cool too. It's also easier to update and you know me and updates. We don't get along too well.

So I bid a fond farewell to BlogSpot.

Sorry to have taken so long...

2006-04-20T17:46:00.000-04:00

Wanna know where I've been? Two words: Vampire Bunny. That's all you need to know.

Maybe I'll post more one day. Rock.

Real quick post

2006-02-14T00:17:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to post a quick note to say that my review of the Motley Crue show last night is now posted at MusicLiveWire. Vince Neil got pegged in the face with a cup of beer. There's no pictures because I wasn't cleared to shoot it. Luckily, the cool people at the Colonial Center hooked me up with a ticket anyway so I still reviewed it. Thanks! What was better is that she put me in the 2nd row. Those were the best reserved seats I've ever had. That beats my 3rd row KISS show from Charleston in 2000. Anyway, must...sleep...now....

Well, I'll be damned

2006-01-09T17:41:00.000-05:00

Wow. Check it out. A post. Don't really have too much to say, but I figured I need to post something at least every couple of months. Been working long hours at the ole job. Being salary kind of sucks. At least I still have my job. In fact, we had to fire half of the people that worked there. Now that sucked. People that have been there longer than me got the axe. I guess the company decided they could save a few bucks by getting rid of the people with benefits. Nice.

Anyway, in my precious little spare time I've been checking out some live bootlegs that my brother burned for me. There's some cool stuff in there. Right now I'm rocking out to a live show from Bowie's Glass Spider tour. It's got stuff like "Big Brother," "All The Madmen" and more. It's interesting to hear the differences from tour to tour. I think my favorite so far is the Bowie acoustic performance. It just sounds so good and he plays some pretty kick ass songs.

MusicLiveWire.Net has been updated for the month. At least the main page has. I haven't covered a show since Ben Folds back in November. I put in for Aerosmith/Lenny Kravitz Thursday night in Charlotte. Would be nice even though it was damn near impossible to get any good shots of Aerosmith the last time I shot them. After that I'm hoping to get Bon Jovi, Willie Nelson, Motley Crue (again), Gretchen Wilson and Nine Inch Nails. Those are all within the next few months. Maybe I'll get a couple of them.

Oh yeah, on a recommendation, I ventured out to the movie theatre. It's rare when I go out to one of those but I was told that I HAD to see King Kong in the theatre. Guess what, it rocked. I'm glad I saw it on the big screen because a TV set wouldn't do that movie justice. See it while you can.

Other than that, I've gots nothin'. Maybe this year I can post a little more. After all, my birthday is Wednesday.

Too Much Work

2005-11-08T10:36:00.000-05:00

Yeah, too much work. That's about the state of my life right now. Last week we had the CEO of the company come in. I worked over 60 hours last week. Working 6 days this week. Being promoted kind of sucks. I'm in the middle of a 16 day stretch with one day off. That day was yesterday. I did absolutely nothing. As the CEO was leaving he told his peeps that they had just seen the new model for how the company should look. A little pressure there. Let's see, today I work 1-10, tomorrow 8-1, Thursday 5am-10am, Friday 1-10, Saturday 1-10.

I also got an email about possibly covering Journey at the House of Blues Friday night. Unfortuantely since I'm working, that's not a possibility. However, they're playing Thursday night in Greenville and I'm there. Right now I'm boning up on my Journey by listening to their greatest hits. They're one of those band that I'd never really want to pay to see but am excited to see nonetheless. At least I'll have a new show to add to www.musiclivewire.net. Especially since I still haven't covered anything since Alice at the end of August. I'm kind of surprised by how many of their songs I actually know. Should be pretty sweet. They're also sending me their latest CD.

Ben Folds is coming up too. Gotta find the contact info. Anyone know who it is? Can't miss him again. I've got to cover some more shows to make www.musiclivewire.net worth it. That's about it. I've got to get ready to go to work again. Damn it. Too much work.

Random Link Time (Who knows where it goes??) May not be work safe, but who really cares. I don't check these things.

Where you been, yo?

2005-10-23T09:10:00.000-04:00

Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. Wanna know what I’ve been up to? Check it out here. That’s right, I’ve gots my own website now devoted to my photography and reviews (and reviews by Ben as well). I’m still contributing to CarolinaConcerts.Com as well, but this is what I’ve been slaving over. It sucks. I had the .com purchased. So I tagged all the pictures with the .com on them. A couple of days later, I get an email saying that name is taken. So now I’ve got the .net but the pictures are labeled .com. It’s too much to go change every image on the site. Screw that. It’s just from now on, they’ll be labeled .net.

Also, new email address alert. You can email me now at anything@musiclivewire.net. Seriously. It can be buttplug@musiclivewire.net or jesusrules@musiclivewire.net. Any word before the @musiclivewire.net will work. The old benjimckay@cs.com address is no longer going to be active. Too much spam. Granted, posting the address on the site like this is just inviting more spam. That’s fine and dandy, besides, no one ever said I was smart. SO…if you’ve emailed me and I haven’t gotten back to you, feel free to send another message. I promise I’ll email you back this time. Eventually.

I haven’t covered any shows since Alice back in August, but I’m hoping that I start doing more now. Especially since I’ve got the new site to promote as well. Tell all your friends. Bookmark it, link it. Write it on your chest and go topless down the street. Do anything to help me out. Obviously the more hits I get, the better it sounds when I’m requesting to cover shows. Help a brotha out sometimes. Jeez. It’s all give and take with you people. I give, you take. Not really, but whatever.

Right now I’m trying to download an Ipodder. Got to see what all the fuss is about. Besides it may be the only way to ever listen to the Alice Cooper radio show. It’s Halloween week on there and I’ve got to check it out.

And happy birthday to all those celebrating within the last few days and within the next few days. I’d congratulate you, but what’s the point? It's not like you're the only one celebrating this year!

Also, I'm digging the comments on my last post. Nice spam there.

I'm a slack bastard

2005-10-02T21:54:00.000-04:00

Sorry, but it's true. I've been all busy and stuff lately. Mostly with work stuff and Grandma stuff. Haven't covered a show since the Alice Cooper/Cheap Trick trek in August. Luckily, Pollstar finally used one of the CT shots. I've shot them 4 times and this was the first time. Last night, April and I took Grandma and April's mom out to dinner. It was nice. Tonight, April cooked for my mom and Vern. Family stuff.

I hate work too. I asked off for Saturday night but now I'm closing the freakin' store. I was planning on going to Savannah to see Ben Folds. Then I found out Chris' record release was that night. I was going to blow off Ben Folds and see him in Greenville next month to go to Athens. Now I'm working with little chance of getting out of it. I hate that place.

I've been talking with Lloyd lately. He used to be Jesus McChrist in Tykes With Guns. We may be starting up another project soon. I'm kind of hankering to get back out there. Hopefully I'll have the time to have some fun.

That's about all I got. Maybe I'll post again before the next blue moon.

Green Cooper Tricks

2005-09-02T14:17:00.000-04:00

Well kids. I've been a busy beaver lately, what with work and all. I've been working a lot. Except for when I took a vacation. On vacation, Ben and I took the long ride up to Raleigh to see Green Day. They were good. I didn't care for all of the crowd sing alongs, but overall the show was good. Don't know if it was worth the 7 hour round trip, but who cares right? Here's the review. Oh well, at least I got to shoot the "best band on the planet." At least according to Kerrang.

Two days later, I made another long trek. This time it was to Athens so I could meet up with Chris and head to Atlanta for the big time Cheap Trick/Alice Cooper show. Luckily, my car had no problems and everything went without a hitch. That is until we got to the venue. Everything was cool with my tickets/photo pass but Chris didn't have any. Luckily, he knows everyone and things were fixed pretty quickly.

Cheap Trick was actually a little disappointing. They weren't bad, but they weren't up to their usual standards. The set list was basically the same as the 3 times I saw them last year. Luckily, they threw in "He's a Whore," "California Man," and "I Know What I Want." As I said in the review, I guess it was time for an average show from the band usually known for amazing shows.

Alice on the other hand was everything I wanted. I got the creepy cheesy carnival spook show vibe that you've come to expect from him. What was awesome is that super cool song that I mentioned he had dropped has been added back into the set list. Now I've heard 3 songs from one of my all time favorite albums From The Inside. There was no mini Cheap Trick/Alice Cooper set, but that was fine. Alice's performance was excellent. Read the review here.

Right now, I'm listening to Dug (that's right, no O) Pinnick's latest solo album Emotional Animal. It's basically Poundhoud 3 and if you liked the previous two, you'll like this one. I like free stuff. I like it even more when it's an artist that I actually enjoy.

I found out that one of my Whitesnake shots was in Pollstar recently. Cool. Now, let's see if I can string together a couple of issues.

Right now, September is going to be pretty slow for shows with only Dolly Parton on my list. There's a few others but nothing big. October is looking packed though. I'll definitely make up for September's slack there.

Nice.

Spiders and Snakes and Blowfish

2005-08-22T09:09:00.000-04:00

The other day I was about to walk out my back door when I was greeted by this friendly little fellow.

Luckily I stopped within inches of her. Granted, it probably wouldn't have hurt me, but I certainly don't want it crawling on me. She moved from my back door over to a window which is so much better because she doesn't impede my progress but I can still check it out when I want to. For the record, her name is Hank II.

Ben and I trekked up to the House of Blues a while back to see some Whitesnake. As Ben put it, "they were good, but not Styx good." I really enjoyed the performance though and Coverdale's voice is still amazing. I was glad to hear the hits but it was the ones I didn't realize were his that really made the night.

A few days later I found out the Hootie and the Blowfish were doing an in store appearance at Manifest in Columbia. I went up there and shot it. They only played 4 songs which was kind of a let down but I at least got a couple of useable shots.

Most of the rest of my time is being spent at either work or at the nursing home visiting my grandmother who is now visiting there for a nasty tumble. She's doing well though and I'm doing everything I can to make it better for her. She should be getting out of there soon.

Wednesday night Ben and I are heading up to Raleigh to see Green Day. I missed them when they were in Charlotte back in April because I went to see the Drive By Truckers. I don't really want to go to Raleigh but Ben does so we're going. Friday I'm driving down to Athens so I can meet up with my brother to hit the Alice Cooper/Cheap Trick show. That's right kiddies. I was cleared thanks to Chris directing me to the proper person. Unfortunately, the Coop has now dropped the one song that I REALLY wanted to hear. He always does that. He'll play at least one super awesome song overseas and when he makes it to America he cuts it out of the set list and replaces it. Oh well, at least I finally get to shoot Alice! This will be the 4th time shooting Cheap Trick though. Nice. I'm just hoping I can make it there and back. I'm not too confident that my car can make it. Hell, the last time I drove to Athens was to see Alice and I broke down on the way back. Wasn't a good time. I guess we'll find out though. I'm chancing it just because it's Alice Cooper. "Big, big fun."

Oh yeah, I tried to search Google for some grammur rulez butt it appeers that Google done been brokun.

2005-07-23T09:52:00.000-04:00

Eisley

As you can see, I covere the Eisley/Hot Hot Heat show in Charlotte. Twas a good show. Eisley and World Leader Pretend were good, but boring. Hot Hot Heat on the other hand were incredible. Read the review here. I'm glad they played 10 of the 12 songs from their latest album Elevator, which is incredible by the way. Too bad I missed Kenny. Haven't seen him since the Billy Idol show.

I never got word back from the Ying Yang Twins. I had to go through the venue and that never works. Apparently the publicist didn't know the show was taking place until a few days before, after I had asked him! Also, don't know if I'm covering W.A.S.P. or not Tuesday night. I want to. Should be fun even though I've never really liked them. After that, maybe Crossfade in Columbia. It's a home coming show at a military base so I figure there's something worthy there.

And no, I never play Star Wars online. I'm not that much of a nerd, but thank you for asking!

Watched Hitch last night at April's insistence. It's actually pretty darn funny. Luckily I just borrowed it from my sister so I didn't have to spend any money on it.

Very slowly working on a portfolio of concert images. I'd like to make at least one dollar from taking pictures. I'll sell you a picture for a dollar!

That's it. Gotta go to work even though I really don't want to. No, I really don't want to today. Gotsta to make that money run like honey on your tongue.

Best Review Ever

2005-07-17T14:10:00.000-04:00

Check out this review of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. You'll thank me for it. It may be long, but it's hilarious. I haven't edited anything. I did bold my favorite sections though.

STAR WARS PART 3: REVENGE OF THE SITHSHere's a couple topics I never want to hear about ever again: Star Wars started the era of the blockbuster. Star Wars was the first movie I ever saw and made me fall in love with the films of Cinema. I camped in line for thirty two days to see Star Wars. Empire Strikes Back is the greatest sequel ever made, and also better than any non-sequel ever made. George Lucas earned ten billion dollars on merchandise. I hate Ewoks. I love Jawas. (or is it the other way around.) Originally there was a part where Hans Solo shot Jabba the Hutt with a harpoon but now they changed it so a robot bit Luke Skywalker on the leg. George Lucas ruined my life. I have a tattoo of Hans Solo. I had all the star wars dolls now they are worth one hundred and sixty two dollars on E-bay if somebody would buy them, which they wouldn't. The first time I ever jerked off was to Princess Leah in a metal bikini. I have nightmares about the part where Jar Jar stepped in space shit. George Lucas touched my childhood in the bathing suit area.

For years there's been a cliche about trekkies who like Star Trek, how they're obsessed nerds and they gotta get a life and etc. And I agree but somehow I think the trekkies for Star Wars are worse. Because at least the Star Trek trekkies are obsessed with something they LOVE. Now days the star wars trekkies seem to be defined by hating ewoks, hating jar jars, hating computer effects, hating george lucas's neck, hating the prequels, the Anakins, the special editions, some of the originals, themselves, their parents, and orphans. I mean there's six Star Wars movies and if you're a REAL fan it's only socially acceptable to like 2 of them. But that 1/3 of Star Wars (or more often the other 2/3) is their whole god damn life. Go over there on the ain't it cool news talkbacks, and every god damn topic turns into how they been wronged by George Lucas. Lord of the Rings is good, take THAT George Lucas. I enjoyed such and such movie, which is more than I can say for GEORGE LUCAS MOVIES, are you listening to me George Lucas? The article could be about the translation of Kinji Fukasaku's BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY series, it would still come back to how George Lucas would've screwed up the translation if it he was a guy who translated classic Yakuza movies instead of a guy who directed space movies every once in a while. And there is a 300% chance there'd be an assrape metaphor in the discussion. Even in real life these fuckers are crawling all over the place. Just the other day I heard a guy announce emphatically, "Phantom Menace is quite possibly THE worst piece of crap that George Lucas has EVER made." You could tell he got really worked up about it - I thought the dude was gonna start crying.

Well luckily, this REVENGE OF THE SITHS is the last puzzle piece for star warses so give it a 7 or 8 year cool down period and maybe the nightmare will be over, and these ponytailed assholes will fixate on some other god damn thing, like the lord of the rings prequels or something. What we got here is the best of the newer star warses in my opinion, one where you only gotta forgive a couple scenes and you actually get to enjoy the rest. This one has a better, more emotional story, the main guy Anakin is a better actor, and they got Darth Vader in there. I mean facts is facts, americans love a picture with a yoda or a chewbacca or a darth vader in it, and this one's got both.

I admit, I was soft on the other two. I realize there are some real howlers in there, but who gives a fuck. There's enough detail and imagination in this spaceland, and the whole feel of the thing is different enough from any other movies that exist that I was willing to give it a whirl. I'm not saying you gotta enjoy it too or that I don't feel dirty in the morning but they really didn't bother me the way they did to anyone who ever wrote anything on the internet. This new one though, honestly, it's alot better. Except for one part where Darth Vader, in the full iconic costume, looks up to the sky in anguish and yells "NNNOOOOOO!!!" which will probaly be the butt of nerd jokes for generations to come.

One thing I liked: they actually made Anakin into kind of a cool dude here. Before he was a whiny kid who talked in bad love poems but now he's got cool '70s hair and a scar, he does some dashing derring do or whatever it's called, and he's got a dark streak. A pretty big one where he ends up murdering children. Which I'm against. The exact moment of the switch from good guy to bad guy is a little bit iffy but the story is surprisingly convincing. There's a lot of different complicated motives for it that tie into the events of the other movies. I guess what made me realize it was working was when I caught myself rooting for this guy to figure out what's going on and make the right decision. I mean I had a pretty good idea it was gonna turn out bad. (there's other movies that take place later where he's darth vader, for those who don't know)

Also, I liked his relationship with Obi Won. I mean there's a little scene early on where the robot R2 fucks up and almost gets them killed. And Obi is about to complain about it but Anakin gets in his face and defends his boy R2. Because these two go WAY back to the days of bowlcuts and podraces and he's got R2s fuckin back. They're like brothers. Same goes for Obi and Anakin, but they're a little more like the brothers in GUMMO, they fight sometimes. But they're still brothers so you gotta feel bad when they end up trying to kill each other and one of them (I won't give it away) ends up face first in the mud, on fire, with both legs chopped off, gargling "I HATE YOU!!" in anguish just before being turned into Darth Vader. This is a tragedy by the way. Kind of a bummer, even in space.

You can never underestimate the whining and negativity of people who like movies, but my guess is some of the trekkies will actually like this one. This is the first movie I've ever seen where the audience applauded a hallway. There was a hallway that I believe was also seen in the original Star Wars part 1, now called Star Wars part 4. So everybody clapped. A real crowdpleaser as far as hallways go. There's one big opportunity that Mr. Lucas missed out on though, and that is to kill Jar Jar. I think we all know that if Jar Jar died in this movie, it would create joy and thunderous applause in every theatrical screening. Of course, it could've ended up Jar Jar dies heroically saving babies. Maybe it's better you don't make a god damn martyr out of the guy. I was also kind of afraid he'd be there for the birth of Luke and Leia (note: they are the main characters from the original star wars). Jar Jar would be saying: "Pusha! Pusha!" and then maybe "Looksie! Yousa has twinsies!" Instead, Lucas pretty much abandoned Jar Jar, showing him in a couple scenes but no lines. So it turns out Jar Jar lives which means that in the later movies, when a battle is waged to save the universe from Jar Jar's fuckup in the senate in part 2, he doesn't bother to help out. Fuckin figures.

I only seen this movie once but as far as I could see there was only two scenes to really be embarassed of. One was the "NNOOOO!!!" scene I mentioned before and the other one had Anakin and Podmay in an apartment together talking that kind of forced soap opera dialogue that part 2 is reknowned for. But otherwise this one is alot stronger and faster paced than the last two. There's a ridiculous amount of detail in these battles like some kind of where's waldo come to life. But at the same time they make you care about what's happening with the individual characters, even the robots. And they got some smartass dialogue going between them for a while, before children are being massacred and amputees are being burned alive. Before all that mess it's the kind of feel that fans love the Star Warses for. So they're probaly gonna hate this one.

I gotta say though as a movie watcher, you fuckin Star Wars trekkies should be grateful for getting a part 3 this good. Who ever heard of a part 3 that's better than part 1 and 2? Not fans of Blade, Alien, The Godfather, Halloween, Scream, Superman, Batman, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Friday, Night of the Living Dead, Hellraiser, Wild Things, Cruel Intentions, Jurassic Park, Naked Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, Rambo, Robocop, The Terminator, Tremors, Vampires, The Crow, etc. Friday the 13th 3-D was probaly my favorite though, 'cause it was in 3-D and has the best theme song. So I guess Revenge of the Siths is the Friday the 13th 3-D of science fictional movies.

Well shit, you know me, I gotta talk about the politics for a minute. Remember when I reviewed the last one (see above) and I talked about how nobody was acknowledging how much the political events of the movie reflected what was going on on earth. Well this one obviously has to continue with the story of the end of democracy in skywalkerville. The pervy chancellor who announced "I love democracy!" in volume 2 is now being even more blatant about his power grab. When he makes a crazy speech to the senate about how he's gonna make the republic into an empire and kill everybody that's allegedly after him, what happens? Everybody claps! Sound familiar?

Of course it does (hint: space story = exactly what is happening in america, except with robots.) I honestly believe that this is not based on what's going on in our country right now. I think it just happens to be what's going on in our country. The story is based on the cycle of how all democracies tend to end. It follows inevitably from the stories in the other new star warses and to what happens in the older star warses. I'm sure most of this aspect of the story was probaly made up in the '70s or '80s. But a funny thing is happening: this time people besides me noticed. There was even early word that this was a "Bush bashing movie" and I saw a couple right wingers complaining about it on their "blogs" (or web sights as I call them, because "blog" is a stupid god damn word that will hopefully die quickly like "dotcoms" and "webzines" and other "buzzwords.") I like that some of these guys are noticing. Our government does the same things as the evil empire in Star Wars, but it's the movie that's bad. Not the evil empire. The movie is unfair to evil space villains.

Obviously alot of people in the US aren't gonna be able to watch this movie without catching on to that parallel of a scared republic losing track of the values they once stood for, letting them be perverted. But maybe there's a Star Wars trekkie out there somewhere cursed with a poetic soul who will see it as a symbol of Lucas losing track of what made the original trilogy good. I don't know but I got a question for you star wars trekkies that I can't figure out. The question is what the fuck is your problem with ewoks. More specifically, why do you hate ewoks but not other lovable furry creatures such as chewbaccas.

This movie has some scenes on the planet of Chewbaccia where the chewbaccas live. Chewbaccas are like a far more lovable version of ewoks. They live in trees and have cartoony primitive tools just like ewoks, but they are much taller for hugging and they love people instead of growling at them and trying to cook them on a spit. Also chewbaccas do not bash people to death with rocks and logs and do not play drums on the severed heads of storm troopers. Chewbaccas are basically the kiddie version of the ewoks, for little babies who are afraid of ewoks just because they are cannibals. What I'm saying is you guys are a bunch of fuckin bigots. This is 2005 man, lay off the damn ewoks.

By the way I got a theory here about part 1 or 2 or whichever it was, when they got the E.T.s in it. As all trekkies know there is a scene in one of the star warses where they're in the senate, and in the corner of the screen you look closely using the pause technology and what you got is a delegation of the E.T. aliens from the movie E.T. Well at the time I thought this was sort of an "in" type joke but now that I've had five or six years to really seriously contemplate this scene I realized what's REALLY going on here in my opinion. You see E.T. - not just any E.T. but the specific character of E.T. we all know and love from the movie E.T. - he used to be a space senator. But that was a long time ago in a galaxy really, really far away or what have you. And the senate was dissolved when the empire was created. So now it's years later, 1982 or whenever, and the poor glowing bastard is flying around picking god damn flowers for a job. It's pathetic. So what I figure is, E.T. is always complaining about it. "I used to be Senator E.T. We flew around on platforms. I knew chewbaccas and everybody. I was like a god to girl E.T.s. And now this is my life, sneaking around at night picking flowers. I'm a fuckin migrant worker." Eventually these other flower pickers are gonna be sick of the senator's bullshit and take matters into their own long alien glowing fingers. What I'm saying here friends is the beginning of E.T. was no god damn accident. What I'm saying is, they left that fucker there for a reason. They WANTED Senator E.T. to be stranded on earth. Because otherwise they had fly back with him. And you know what happened though, my man learned his lesson by going through one of them inner journeys. He hit rock bottom. He learned how to party, getting drunk, dressing up like a girl, etc. He flew on a bike, he died and came back, he turned on his heart light, all because of the magic of a young boy's dream. And now hopefully he's gonna be a little bit less of a prick. It's like Scrooge in space. Only on earth.

Anyway E.T.'s not in this one that I noticed so fuck him. The point is, STAR WARS 3 is a pretty good space movie in my opinion.

DIGITAL PROJECTION UPDATE: I saw part 3 at the same theater I saw part 2, the Cinerama here in Seattle. Back then I complained about the digital projection. Now it's 3 years later, when digital projection was supposed to have caught on, and the Cinerama has actually ditched the digital projector and use the superior "film" type projector. I'm sure it was hard since they probaly spent alot of money on that gizmo but I applaud them for making the right decision. Unlike Anakin.

I've got more weed than you.

2005-07-14T13:23:00.000-04:00

Purdy purdy purdy

See, there's me and my 10 + feet weed. Click on it to see it larger. The weed actually tops out at the top of the photo. Impressive.

Yeah. I've been working a lot. Again. I haven't covered a show since Styx. That's about to change as I'm heading up to Charlotte Tuesday night to cover Hot Hot Heat, Eisley and World Leader Pretend. Warner sent me the Hot Hot Heat album and get this: I don't hate it. Nice. I wanted to go see Chris' band playing in Columbia next Friday but the club is shutting down so that ain't happening. Sucks. I guess now I'll just go cover the Ying Yang Twins if that show hasn't been canceled yet. My calender is filling up nicely though. Hopefully I'll get to cover half of these shows. One of my Styx shots was on Pollstar earlier this month.

Anyway, got nothing much of interest to say right now. I just wanted to show you my weed is all.

No Excuses I Just Want the Truth

2005-07-01T17:27:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I've got no excuses other than I'm just lazy. What have I been doing? Uhhh...looking for runaways, going to a funeral, working, watching movies, not going to Music Midtown (I know, I know), trying to get Alice Cooper's upcoming album, hoping some decent shows come around and just generally being a lazy 'tard. I did get the new Ying Yang Twins album in the mail yesterday. Uhh...ok. I haven't listened to it yet though. I'm excited about the Alice Cooper/Cheap Trick show in Atlanta next month. Alice has been doing "I Wish I Was Born in Beverly Hills." I so want to hear that song live. If I could just score his album.

I did finally get Peter Jackson's most famous movie ever, Dead Alive. If you haven't seen it, get it. It's hilariously gory. Good stuff. Oh yeah, speaking of Peter Jackson, I broke down and finally watched the first Lord of The Rings as well. Now I've just got to see the remaining 6 hours.

I've got a weed growing in my back yard that's over 10 feet tall. It's mighty impressive. When we had our lawn cut, I told them not to kill the weed. Luckily they obeyed my zany request and it still stands in all of it's magnificent glory. I'll post a picture of myself with the weed sometime.

I'm sick of spam. While typing this I got a message about "A rare piece of American History," Extended Mortgages," and "How to satisfy my woman by having a larger penis." Who told them? Anyway, all that while I was just sitting here. Luckily I don't get any spam through my CarolinaConcerts email address.

There, now you're caught up.

Random Link Time

Revenge of the Styx

2005-05-20T19:47:00.000-04:00

"You got a haircut, like Tommy Shaw"

Wednesday night, Ben and I hit up the House of Blues so I could cover the Styx show. Guess what? They were awesome. I went basically for the novelty, but these guys are super tight. I'm pretty sure it was the first night of their summer tour and they were on. They even threw in a couple of songs that weren't on the set list because they were having such a good time. It was contagious. Everyone was rocking out. The highlights for me were the obvious hits "Too Much Time on My Hands" and "Come Sail Away" which conjured images of Eric Cartman tormenting his friends of South Park. What's great about a band that releases a new album that's strictly covers is that you know all the "new" songs. Their version of "I am The Walrus" was actually dead on perfect. I was bummed there was no "Mr Roboto," but apparently, they haven't played that song in years. At least according to one of the Styx nerds at the show. And Ben was going to break into the robot dance. Would have been quite the spectacle. Their keyboard player was insane and a super cool guy. We met him after the show and he was really nice. I actually got a picture with him unlike a certain Idol.

Last night, I convinced April into going to see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. I completely loved it. Granted I'm pretty much a self confessed SW nerd. Not as bad as these guys though. The movie nicely tied up all the questions leading into Episode IV. Granted, there was still some wooden acting but the action scenes were unrivaled. This was definately the darkest entry in the series and quite possibly my favorite. Empire Strikes Back is probably a better film, but Revenge of the Sith might be my favorite. I'll definately go see it again and obviously complete my set when the film is released on DVD.

I just found out Cowboy Mouth is coming back to Columbia next month. They were the first show I covered back in '03 when I seriously started to cover shows. They were unbelievable. Even though I still don't know their music, I'm so at that show. There are other shows coming up as well but I'm not sure what I'm doing yet. I should probably find out.

Like Sands Through the Hourglass...

2005-05-11T13:48:00.000-04:00

Well, tomorrow, I’ve got to head back to work so I figured I’d post a little post letting you peeps know how everything went before I get back into the grind. I’m a married man now. That’s kind of weird. The night before was kind of weird. I was told that April couldn’t stay in the hotel room with me. She was to stay elsewhere. Someone else from April’s family was to stay with me. That wasn’t too cool. I called up Ben and offered him a free room for the night if he wanted to come out. Luckily he took me up on the offer. We ended up watching the Bulls’ final game of the NBA playoffs between eating at Friendly’s with my Mom and niece and nephew (why do their hot dogs have milk in them?) and back in the hotel. After which, we ditched everyone else and went the 30-40 miles down the strand to find where he’d be staying the following night. It was good to get out and just ride around. After that, we swung by to find the park where the wedding would be held. As we got back, I was informed that April was staying in the room after all. Wha, wha, whaa-aaat? So there were the three of us. Let me tell you, Ben snores like you wouldn’t believe. It sounded like he was wrestling hogs in his sleep. I only got a few hours of sleep.

In the morning, Ben and I snuck out and got in some miniature golf. Twas fun. Then we went out to the park again to check it out in the day time. There were so many ducks around that it was ridiculous. They were everywhere. We also saw Mossback McTurtle.

The wedding wasn’t nearly as disorganized as I thought it was going to be. The park we had it in was beautiful, even if it was filled with about 18 birthday parties going on simultaneously. Once we got there though, things went smoothly. Apparently, I forgot to inform Chris that he was the best man. Well, he ended up pulling the job off nicely. Luckily, afterwards he ended up taking the pictures. Good thing too, because Ben sucks ass at wedding photography. It was nice to see the peeps from work show up. Especially Sexy Josh who braved the interstate travel just to bring me the 20 ounce Dr. Pepper that I registered for. Good job. It was cool to have a wedding clown and wedding snake. Of course, you may say that they were there for the birthday parties. You may be right, but there was a clown and a snake at my wedding. It’s hard fact. You can’t deny it. Move on.

After everything went down and the wedding was over, my family, April, Ben, and Josh and his family all went out to eat at the old person’s restaurant K&W. It was weird to look around and see all these people together at once. After the dinner we all went our separate ways. Ben, April and I and Josh’s family all reconvened later to play some Hawaiian Rumble miniature golf. About 3 or 4 holes in, my sister and her crew showed up. Good times were had by all.

The next morning, Ben, April and I went out to breakfast before Ben went home. The Golden Griddle was a nice little greasy meal. We then went out to the park so I could finally, finally feed those damn ducks. Most of them were gone so instead we ended up feeding the turtles and Crookback McGhee.

The fish in that pond were huge. Crookback apparently had been in a brawl with some of the other pond dwellers and now he was all hunched up all Quasimodo like. Poor guy. We gave him bread. You may not have known this, but fish love bread. They do. Believe me.

April and I then went shopping. We bought a couple of picture frames to give to our mothers since it was indeed Mother’s Day. We also managed to get the Gout.

We spent the rest of the time playing miniature golf (the obvious staple of the Myrtle Beach area). It was quite a relaxing time and I really enjoyed it. Well, not the Gout part, but the over all trip.

On the way home I tried to get April to let me stop at Bo Bo Oriental Spa so I could partake in a seedy European massage. She wouldn’t let me. There’s no telling what I would have contracted there. It still amazes me that I can get a European massage in an Oriental Spa. Nice.

When I got home to a much relieved Jerome, I found out that one of my Razorlight shots was on the Pollstar home page that day I got married. Super awesome. I hadn’t been in there since December of last year. I was beginning to think they didn’t want to use my images anymore. It wasn’t a particularly great shot that they used, but I guess they were desperate for Razorlight. Now, just a few days later, I go to Pollstar.Com and see that one of my Muse shots is up there. Super nice and awesome. Now let’s see if they use the Billy Idol shot from the House of Blues. Three in one month would be my new record.

I just want to thank everyone that came out to my wedding last weekend. It was great to see you guys. We intentionally made it far away from home just so we’d know who really wanted it! Thanks for the gifts and the money. Just know that your money paid for many, many rounds of miniature golf at many of the Grand Strands greatest courses. I would like to mention one thing that disturbed me. Mutiny Bay miniature golf promised a Pirate show. I did not see one Pirate during their “show.” I heard a few pirates over the speakers but I never saw one. What’s up with that?

See, we really did get married. My mom now believes I’m not gay. I dressed as a sailor since I’d be on the water.

One more note. I went to Wendy’s the other day and noticed that for only $.89 I could double the beef. If I ordered a triple classic hamburger and doubled the beef, does that mean I’d get 6 beef patties on my burger? It should. I looked all around their advertising for an * to find the small print. There wasn’t one. Ben is convinced that it’s .89 per patty. I’m inclined to agree with him but I’d really want to test this out. I can’t possibly eat a 6 patty burger (nor would I want to), but maybe one of my portlier readers would like to try it out. Let me know. I’ll give you money.*

*I will not give you money.

Volcanos and Stuff

2005-05-05T13:00:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was pretty eventful. First off, Ben and I hit up Best Buy and Manifest in Columbia. I decided to try and sell some of those CDs that I’ve gotten in the mail that I don’t really want. I sold 17 of them for $50. That’s roughly $2.95 a piece. I probably got ripped off, but I don’t care. That’s $50 more than I spent on them. I ended up getting copies of the new Nine Inch Nails album and Ben Fold’s latest. The NIN album is great but Songs for Silverman was a little disappointing. It certainly didn’t grab me like Rockin’ The Suburbs did. Oh well.

In the PM, while waiting for the Bulls game to start, I decided it was time to play Dr. Scientist. It was time to erupt the massive volcano. The first step was to actually build the outside of the eruption machine.

OK. So the first step was easy enough. The bag exploded on me and sent volcano debris everywhere. After it was molded and such, it was time. We took it outside so we wouldn’t blow up my house or anything. After all, you saw the way the volcano looked on the box. I dumped the proper amount of baking soda in the top of the volcano and sat back ready to snap some shots of its glory. Ben had the honor of dumping the appropriate amount of vinegar in it.

WOW! It bubbles over. So that’s what a volcano really does. I never knew that. Look at how smug Toucan Sam and his evil twin Toucan Fred look. They’re dominating the volcano. After the initial disappointment, we dumped the remaining baking soda in a cup that was for some reason lodged inside of a tree in my back yard. It was about half filled. It was at this point that Toucan Sam decided he wanted to try his luck and sit in the cup.

Ahhh. It looks like a relaxing day in the sauna. Where’s the hot molten lava that I expected from this kit that was designed by a real volcanologist?? They put the wrong warning label on the box. Instead of warning people of the dangers of a volcano, they should have just put a big label that read “Warning: This Product Sucks Ass.” It would have saved everyone some trouble and me $.99. In protest and disgust, I threw the volcano across the yard until it ended up like this:

That was too good for that piece of crap. I know what happens when you mix baking soda with vinegar. I was hoping that maybe this was some mystical baking soda that would actually erupt and not just bubble. After all, compare the way the box looks with the actual product:

I was sorely disappointed. I wanted to blow the Smithsonian up for that. I’ll never support them again. Not that I have in the past, but now I know I’ll never contribute to their cause again.

After that horrendous display of crap, we settled in to watch the Bulls game. It was also disappointing. They came out and played like crap. Until the 4th quarter that is. They came back from a 22 point deficit. They cut it to 10 with like 45 seconds left. Most of the fans had left the arena. Pargo came in and nailed a few threes and tied the game up with 5.2 seconds left. They scored 10 points in about 30 seconds. It was about this time that I went nuts. Washington took a time out and when they came out, Gilbert Arenas sunk the last second game winning shot. After an amazing comeback like that, I fully expected the Wizards to be rattled and the game to go into overtime. It didn’t happen and now the Bulls will probably be beat Friday night and the series is over.

I went out and bought Stars Wars Episodes I and II. Now I own the complete set with Episode III to hit theatres on May 19th. I’m a nerd like that. I like the movies but I’m not one of those people that would dress up like them, unless of course you can find a Chewbacca outfit to fit me. Check out this review from the Target.Com website. It’s from Episode I.

WOW. This is the most amazing review I’ve ever read. If I could write like that I would be able to actually make money. First off, the guy gives it 5 stars. He goes on to say it isn’t as good as the TV says it is. In the next sentence, he declares that this movie is absolutely incredible. I love how he goes off on talking about the Matrix. However, my favorite line is the one about Anakin’s mom. “Anakans mom was pretty nice if she cleaned herself up.” Classic. Abe is my hero. Was this review helpful to you?

So I’m getting married Saturday. Nice. I guess this is my last post as single me. Not that it makes a whole hell of a lot of difference. All it means is that I’m broke now. Maybe I’ll see you Saturday. If not, wish me luck.

Thanks to Zach Braff, check out the funniest thing in the world. You won’t regret it. Trust me.

Yup

2005-04-29T18:48:00.000-04:00

I may have been shot down for Kenny Chesney tomorrow night, but guess what I get to do. I've got a volcano!

VOLCANO!

It was developed by a volcanologist which I didn't know existed until just now. Screw Kenny Chesney, I'm going to blow some stuff up. I found it for only $.99. You can't beat that. I'll be sure to take pictures and crap so you can see the majesty yourself. If of course I don't completely kill myself in the process.

Well, I've got a week before I'm married. Nice. If you're reading this, I guess you're welcome to come if you happen to be in North Myrtle Beach next Saturday around 4:oo at McClain Park. If not, it's cool. Just send me money.

A funny story. I've been asked to cover Dark New Day in North Carolina next week. They're the band where I was threatened to have my memory card taken. I wish I had known who their publicist was then. It turns out it's someone I've worked with before and is super cool. Awesome. Needless to say, I declined. Besides, it's the day before the wedding. I did get their CD today in the mail. It comes out in June so it's now in the delayed "to sell pile." It's super generic rock. You know what isn't? The new Billy Idol album. I don't know why I love that album so much. It's not all that great but I'm playing it constantly. It's always good to really like something I get in the mail. It's pretty rare.

I think I'm covering the North Mississippi Allstars Tuesday night. They're opening for Trey Anastasio from Phish. I don't know if I'm shooting him or not, but it would be good to get even if I'm not a huge fan. Thursday night I may be doing Sum 41 and Unwritten Law at the House of Blues. I probably need to submit for it. Yeah.

Well, yeah, I'm out.

Untested Link Time!

Drive By Truckers

2005-04-21T23:21:00.000-04:00

Well, last night Ben and I hit up Headliners to attend a free special Drive By Truckers show. It wasn't very exclusive because the place was packed. It was insane. It's still nice to see shows in Columbia doing well. Unfortunately, it was one of the most frustrating shows I've ever been to. I didn't go to shoot or review the show. I went mearly as a music fan interested in seeing this often pimped out band. I think they were really good. I couldn't really tell because the sound was horrible. That was the worst sounding show I've been to in a long time. The band played excellent, you just couldn't really hear anything. What made it so frustrating is the fact that I think I would have enjoyed it a lot, but I couldn't get into it because of the sound. Weird.

Oh yeah, I got the package from Chevelle's publicist. He sent me 7 CDs to make up for the Chevelle incident. It's a weird mix of Epic artists ranging from Jennifer Lopez and the Los Lonely Boys to Judas Priest and Steve Vai. A few of the CDs I'm actually interested in, but most of them are pretty useless to me.

I'm skipping out on covering a show at the Colonial Center this weekend so I can watch opening day of the NBA playoffs. The Bulls are finally back in it. They actually have a chance to advance to the 2nd round. Unfortuantely, Miami is who they're facing in that 2nd round and they're probably going to get killed.

3 Rivers is this weekend. I won't be covering that either. I've given it to Doug. Speaking of Doug, check out CarolinaConcerts. The main page has been updated. I'm jumping for joy and kicking my heels together. The next show I'm planning is Flava Flav next week at Headliners and Kenny Chesney at the Colonial Center. Maybe I'll get 'em. Who knows.

I've got a headache now so I'm going to bed. Yeah.

Billy Idol Hates Me, Too

2005-04-19T21:57:00.000-04:00

Billy Idol at the House of Blues

Ok, so last night Ken and I went out to see Billy Idol. He was actually really good. Thanks to the new memory card, I shot close to 300 shots in my 3 songs. I got to shoot during "Dancing With Myself" which was really cool. Anyway, this night was way weird. I usually don't post juicy stories like this, but I figure I owe it to my loyal readers to tell the story of what happened last night.

During "White Wedding" a really hot girl decided to grind on me. I thought maybe she was just dancing and was drunk and didn't realize. No. When she started to adjust herself for maximum contact, I knew something was up. No pun intended. About 15-20 seconds later I bolted. Apparently my expression betrayed me and a look of absolute confusion whiped over my face. Ken later told me he could see the total lack of comfort. After I left, apparently so did they. Hmmm. I'm a total playa.

I ended up upstairs where I could see everything pretty well. I got to watch Ken go nuts during "Rebel Yell." He had the fists pumping and everything. I could tell he wanted more. More, more, more, more, more.

After the show, we go out back to try and meet him. We succeed, and Ken gets him to sign my photo pass. Apparently "Benji" is a tough word to spell as Ken had to spell it out for him. When we were trying to get pictures, he totally blew us off not once, not twice, but thrice. It actually became quite hilarious. Especially the fact that I have pictures of Billy with random other people, but not us. At least those pictures are blurry. Bastards. If we can't get one, neither can they. When we got in the back of the line the 2nd time, another hot chick asks to cut in line. I let her and I'll be damned if she didn't kiss me. Were all of these girls completely drunk or just stupid? I don't know.

It was really cool going to a show with Ken. We haven't seen much of each other in a long time and it was really good to catch up. We may be going to the Black Crowes next Tuesday. If I get cleared, and he's down for going. If he's not down, Ben's up for it. Good stuff.

The best quote of the night was "I'm a heterosexual male, and Billy Idol proved it." It basically revolved around the Cradle of Love video and the impressionable mind of a 12 year old boy.

Rock.

The Chevelle Incident

2005-04-17T11:11:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a bust. First April and I go to Target to register so people can buy us cool stuff for the wedding. We sign up through their little computer and are ready to go scan stuff. The guy behind the counter tells us this scanners aren't working. We walk around for an hour before checking again. Still not working. Great. We decide to grab a quick bite to eat and head over to Headliners.

When we pulled up, the line was stretched out the long hallway and across the parking lot. Nice. When I get inside, guess what. I'm not on the list and have no tickets or a photo pass. I ask for the tour manager. He tells the people that if I'm not on the list, I don't get it. He didn't even come out and talk to me. Luckily, the promoter Charles was there and understood the situation. He told me to go on in and I could still shoot (first 3, no flash). I go upstairs where I run into a girl I work with. We chatted for awhile until Dark New Day started playing. I start shooting some test shots to try and get everything ready under the horrible lights. I shoot, delete, shoot, delete, etc. About 2 songs into their set a security guy comes up and tells me he's got to take my memory card because I can't be shooting. I tell him there's no way he's getting it because it was a brand new 1 GB card that Ben bought me for an early wedding gift. I deleted the two remaining crappy images from my camera and he says it doesn't matter, he's still taking the card. I told him I was just leaving. We go downstairs to the other side of the club where we can talk and the promoter happens to be standing over there. I explain the situation to him and he's totally on my side. He tells me to just not shoot and enjoy the show. Needless to say, I booked it right after that. I don't slight the venue people this time. They're just doing their job. The promoter was as nice as can be and actually invited me back to some other shows. He knew I was just trying to do my job too. The funny thing is, Chevelle's publicist is the one that emailed me to cover the show. I didn't request this one. I didn't even see the band. The first club show to sell out in a LONG time in Columbia, and I can't cover it because of miscommunication. Nice. At least I had an early night!

I'm glad at least this show was in Columbia. If it had been at the Beach or somewhere I travelled to, I would have been super pissed. I would have become a ninja and gone flipping all over the place chopping off heads.

Tomorrow night, I've been cleared (I think) for Billy Idol at the House of Blues. Ben can't make it so I invited my boy Kenny to accompany me. We talked about the show at the Muse show last week and he expressed his interest in seeing it but not wanting to pay the high ticket price. I submitted the next day and got approval. Hopefully we won't have a repeat of the Chevelle incident. Wednesday night, I'm back at Headliners for Drive By Truckers. I don't know if I'm shooting because their manager doesn't know if Jack Daniels (who is sponsoring this secret show) will have a problem with it. I'm off to email their publicist to find out. If not, I'll just enjoy the show.

Untestest link time...Star Wars Nerds

Muse

2005-04-13T11:32:00.000-04:00

Matt Bellamy of Muse

Holy crap kids. Muse was un-freakin'-believeable. It's hard to describe. It's like Beethovan, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Radiohead and Rush had a big ole orgy and Muse was the resulting freak offspring. Razorlight was pretty good too. I was impressed that MTV put together this great package. They were also there filming for an MTV show. Hopefully it'll be on soon. Look for me in the pit jockeying for position with the cameramen, security and other photographers. Unless 2005 is the greatest year in the history of everything, the Muse performance will be in the top 2 or 3 shows of the year. The best quote of the night belonged to Ben hands down. In a quite part of the show, he said quite loudly, "It's like Beethovan learned how to sing." The people behind us cracked up and I couldn't help laughing. He then turned around and explained that it was a compliment. I felt kind of bad because he had to buy a ticket because I was told I only got one. When I get there, I was handed three separate envelopes. I had 4 tickets. I ended up selling two of them for $20 and was trying to sell the 3rd one when it started raining heavily. I gave the last ticket to some guy standing out there and wished him a merry christmas. I guess I made some music dork's night. I ended up buying Ben some dinner to make up for his ticket purchase. He didn't care though. He said he'd have paid twice as much to see that show. We could have left after the 4th song and it would have been one of the best shows he's ever seen. Score one more for the all knowing Chris who hasn't steered me wrong in music suggestions yet.

Afterwards, we ran into Kenny. He offered to be my traveling companion if Ben couldn't make it to a show. I may just take him up on it. Who knows.

After this show, Chevelle is going to suck extra hard. At least I have the Truckers next Wednesday.

I'm not dead...

2005-04-11T11:09:00.000-04:00

Just lazy.

So what's been going on? I ended up covering both Motley Crue and Rascal Flatts. You can read the Crue review here. It was a disappointing show. The photos for both shows have been uploaded to Carolina Concerts. Only God knows when they'll actually be available for viewing. I sure don't. I also covered Strata.

I ended up getting a new camera too. A Nikon D70. It's so much better than the Fuji. The only show I've shot with it so far is Strata and that was in a club with probably the worst lighting of any club around. I'll be shooting Muse and Razorlight tomorrow night up in Charlotte, so hopefully something cool will come out. Now I just need to invest in some good lenses. That's the expensive thing.

My mom got married yesterday in what was probably one of the most disorganized weddings ever. There is almost something comforting in the fact that you know it's always going to be a mess. At least everyone seemed happy, even if the extension cords were crap and there was no music when there should have been. When it was time, everyone stared at me while I'm trying to get stuff working. It started and then someone stepped on the cable and we lost power. Luckily, it all went well after that. I did learn that my flash on the new camera is basically useless. Luckily I don't need it for shooting concerts. I'll eventually get a real flash. I think lenses are more important now.

In addition to the Muse/Razorlight show, I've got the Drive By Truckers coming up. This is a band that Chris has often pimped out to me and I'm anxious to finally see them. I'm also covering Chevelle. The Truckers and Chevelle are at the same crap lighting club that Strata was at. Those are the shows I've already been cleared for. The calendar is certainly filling up. The summer concerts have started and I can't wait to actually get out there and cover some more.

I also finally went to an NBA game. I went up with Ben and some guys he works with to watch the Bulls defeat the Bobcats 102-99. The Bulls have been my favorite team forever and it was a blast to finally see a live game. We're planning some more excursions next season. Seeing as how I was going to a sporting event, I decided I needed to wear a baseball cap to get in the spirt. Luckily, I now have one. My dad's Precision Reamers hat made me feel super comfortable around all those other ball caps.

I'll update again soon...or will I?

2005-02-15T20:13:00.000-05:00

bald headed geezer

Here's the pic that my mystery poster requested. Yup, that's me on the right. Boomhauer is on the left. Look at me. All mature and stuff now. Also, screw those everyday bloggers, what with their consistancy and all. Who needs that? Alls I know is that my mom thinks I'm a winner.

Today I was off from work so I just relaxed. I submitted for a few shows. Got word that Jimmy Buffett rejected me. At least I got a personal rejection phone call from the Colonial Center. She seemed sincerely upset that I didn't get it. Oh well, not a big fan of the Buffett anyway, but it would have been good to shoot. Still no word from Motley Crue yet. That's the only one that I really want. Knowing my luck, I'll get Rascal Flatts but not the Crue. Goodie.

I reviewed the upcoming Supagroup CD. It's got some kick ass old school classic rock. I think. It could all be a joke, but who knows. With a name like Supagroup and song titles like "It Takes Balls," it's got to be a joke. It's well done though. Check out the review at CarolinaConcerts. The site has kind of been updated. The "photo of the week" is still from September '04.

I also watched the movie The Last Broadcast on IFC. For those that don't know, that's the film that the Blair Witch Project ripped off. Honestly, I prefered the BWP even though The Last Broadcast was still a good film. I just didn't really care for the ending that much. In the PM, Ben brought over Saw and we sat around and watched that. I did enjoy that one. I've heard mixed reviews on it, but it was a solid rental. We also watched a couple of Ren and Stimpy episodes on the new DVD set.

Right now I'm sitting here writing this and listening to Loretta Lynn's Grammy winning Van Lear Rose. This is a darn good record, as the old folks would say. Brian Wilson got robbed. I feel he should have won every Grammy this year for "Vegetables." That song is awesome. KanYe West's acceptance speech was the best. Glad to see he won some awards. I downloaded the Jet album from Itunes. I'm a little late on this one. They're the band that got away. They played New Brookland Tavern sometime in the last few months of '04. Not much more than a week later they were all over the place. I skipped the show for some reason and have regretted it ever since. Stupid me. Now I request just about anything that comes through. Even if I don't get it, at least I tried. That's resulted in me shooting a lot of shows that I probably shouldn't have been doing. It has been fun though.

Peace out hookas.

Remember Me?

2005-02-03T13:25:00.000-05:00

Yo. That's right. It's been over a month since I've posted. Did you miss me? No? Well screw you too buddy. The past month has been rather dull, what with working a lot. I did manage to get addicted to playing the Xbox game Knights of the Old Republic. That's the best game ever. I finally beat it and was happy. Then I started playing the old Sega Genesis Shining Force games. I've beaten the first one and am about to beat the 2nd. That's right, I'm a nerd.

I finally went and got all my hair cut off. I've been wanting to do it for a long time now but never knew a style. This time I just said screw the style and had it lopped off. So far, everyone has approved of it. But what do they know, they're all crackheads any way.

In sad news, my awesome dog Panda got out of the fence and went missing for a few days. I checked the animal shelter and they hadn't seen her. A few days later I got a call saying that a dog matching her description was hit by a car and brought it. She didn't make it. I poured out some of my 40 for her.

I also turned 26 which now makes April refer to me as a bald headed geezer. I hate her. I've heard I'm getting married in May. So many plans have changed that I'm not exactly sure what's going on. First it was at the beach, then it was in Camden, now I believe it's back at the beach. Who knows.

Anybody know what's going with CarolinaConcerts.Com? Last I heard, back in December was the magazine was going well and would be out at the beginning of January. After that, Doug hasn't responded to emails and the site hasn't been updated other than the content that I've uploaded. It sucks because the main page hasn't changed in almost 3 months. Visitors to the site will think it's dead when it isn't. Wish I knew what was going on. CarolinaConcerts has been good to me but I may need to break away and start my own site. At least then it would only take one month to update instead of 3.

Couple of good shows coming up in Columbia. Half of them are at the Colonial Center and they love me there so maybe I'll get cleared. Alls I know is that I'll try. Nothing really came around in January so the last show I covered was the Cheap Trick one back in December. Oh well, nothing like getting '05 off to a rockin' start.

See ya in a month or so...

Hello There Ladies and Gentlemen

2004-12-30T13:53:00.000-05:00

April, Me and Robin Zander of Cheap Trick

So last night, April, Ben and I went out to the big Cheap Trick show over in Myrtle Beach. The band played great but the mix left something to be desired. Unfortunately for me, the band played almost exactly the same set list as they did back in April. That was good for Ben though. He's never seen them before and a greatest hits set was nice. During "Dream Police," guitarist Rick Nielsen throws out handfuls of guitar pics. When he threw them on our side, Ben and I each got one while April got a whopping 6. She's a pic magnet. We tried to con Tom Petersson to give us a pic too, but he claimed he couldn't read the handwritten sign.

I then decided that we should walk around back in hopes of finally meeting at least one of them. While going around back, I heard someone calling out "Tyke R." I turned around and it's the one and only Skinnee K, along with his Jonas pal Lopes. He came out apparently because I've often hyped up a Cheap Trick show. He was impressed and I was happy to see him again. I gave him a Rick pic and we all talked about crap while waiting out back.

Soon enough, singer Robin Zander comes out and starts signing for the kids assembled. He's a super nice guy and actually went through the entire line despite the 40 degree weather. He told me I look like a "rock and roll nut." Not sure what that means, but it's cool anyway. I got him to sign my House of Blues photo pass and asked for a picture with him. He obliged and I shook his hand and thanked him. What a swell guy. Golly gee, he's neat-o. I later found out that Bun E. Carlos came out to sign later. Unfortuantely, we had left. Rick and Tom left right after the show and didn't come out. Good stuff yo.

Today, my Martina McBride shot is up on Pollstar. Rock.

For Skinnee K. Scroll down for the edited and unedited Dolly Parton pictures that you were asking me about last night. Luckily, none of her face was obsured, so I just had to give her some extra hair.

2004-12-30T13:09:00.000-05:00

Dolly Parton Edited

2004-12-30T13:08:00.000-05:00

Dolly Parton unedited

Howdy Ho

2004-12-12T22:03:00.000-05:00

Yo. So it's been a month since I've posted anything. I think it's awesome that someone now wants to kill me because of my slackness. So what have I been doing in this off time? Mainly working long hours at the old job and doing some more work on the Carolina Concerts magazine. I've been doing all kinds of writing and soliciting advertising. As long as my old buddy pal Doug is up for doing it, I'm game. One of my Alan Jackson shots appeared in Pollstar last week and a Martina McBride shot will be in the December 20th issue. Good stuff indeed. I also covered Trans-Siberian Orchestra. They were incredible. I'll be photographing some Christian singer on Friday night at the Colonial Center. Notice, I didn't say I'll be shooting him. That whole thing with Dimebag Darrell is just insane. There's no reason why something like that should have happened. When I heard about it, I immediately thought the same thing my brother did. If I was covering the show, it could have been me getting hit too. Kinda scary. On December 29th, I'm covering the Cheap Trick show in Myrtle Beach. It'll be my 3rd time this year doing them. That's awesome. Hopefully, I'll also be able to cover Motley Crue when they hit in February. I've always wanted to see them but never had a chance. I'll go rock out with all the mullets and white trash in the audience. That's all I've really got going on now. I've also been remembering how stupid people are come Christmas time. Retail will do that to a person.

And finally, here's a completely untested link. If it works, there's no telling where it'll send you. Dwarf Tossing!

KanYe West

2004-11-11T15:09:00.000-05:00

KanYe West in Columbia, SC

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm slack. What else is new? I've been busy with the whole photography thing. I shot Alan Jackson and Martina McBride on Sunday night and KanYe West last night. An Alan Jackson shot is getting published in Pollstar in early December. Nice. Last night, April opted out of going to see KanYe West, so I took Ben along and made him earn his press pass by writing the review. He actually did a really good job at it. Check it out here. I really did enjoy his performance. It wasn't one of the year's best, but it was still a good show to see. He had the crowd going. I was thinking of doing Godsmack tomorrow night, but I haven't heard back from them since my initial email request and I'm not too concerned with following up on it. The thing that sucks is that Laura, the pr person for the Colonial Center, is leaving tomorrow for a job in Viriginia. She was the coolest person that I have delt with while doing this. It sucks to lose her, but I wish her the best for the future. Luckily, she introduced me to the person that's taking her place. All in all, things are going pretty well around this part as far as all that stuff is concerned. Just busy lately. Not too used to that. I'm out, yo.

Dolly and more

2004-10-18T17:04:00.000-04:00

Dolly Parton opens her tour in Greenville, SC 10/14/04

Yo. As you can see above, I did get to shoot the Dolly Parton show the other night. She was awesome. She'll easily end up in my top 10 this year. If you look at the above shot, you may be able to tell how much editing went into it. Going right into her hair and to the left of her head was a microphone stand. It's right up there where the background turns a little purple. I think I did a pretty good job covering that up. If I didn't tell you, would you have noticed? It was cool hanging out with my brother who was shooting too. Now we're in competition for the Pollstar show. I wonder who's going to get it? If by some wierd chance, they use mine, I'll be shocked (but not appauled).

Yesterday I went out with my family for my sister's birthday dinner. I then brought my nephew back here to play some Spiderman 2 on the Xbox. He's pretty good to have never played it before and picked right up on the awkward Xbox controls.

I have to go into work at 8 tonight and work until 8 tomorrow morning. That's going to suck. I have to do a lot of clean up work after a lot of stupid people that can't seem to do anything. Damn me for actually being productive. Trying to stay awake last night was pretty fun. I ended up watching The Rundown, Sea Lab 2010 and a god awful softcore Lord of the G Strings. Man that movie sucked! I ended up falling asleep around 3, so hopefully I'll be able to stay awake all night and not die.

It seems Columbia is getting some decent shows coming around now. Here's what's on tap for the next month or so:

10/23 - The Dresden Dolls - Columbia

10/26 - Dierks Bentley - Columbia

10/29 - Hootie and the Blowfish/Edwin McCain - Columbia

10/30 - The Gap Band - Columbia

11/5 - Rascal Flatts/Gretchen Wilson - Greenville

11/7 - Alan Jackson/Martina McBride - Columbia (or Willie Nelson in Myrtle Beach)

11/10 - KanYe West - Columbia

11/11 - Godsmack - Columbia

11/19 - The Secret Machines - Columbia

11/21 - Trans Siberan Orchestra - Columbia

Hopefully I'll get a few of those. I need more Pollstar shots! It's like a drug. Not really, but I'm going to pretend it is.

Anyway, I'm out.

Rock

Slackness rocks!

2004-10-13T08:11:00.000-04:00

Jerry Gaskill, April, Doug Pinnick in Charlotte, NC

How's it going? Yes, I'm aware that it's been awhile. Things are going good around here. If you check out Pollstar today, you'll see my "Weird Al" Yankovic pic up there. They used the carolinaconcerts.com tag as well so I'm happy with that. Speaking of Weird Al, I bought his movie UHF the other night and I forgot just how awesomely stupid that movie was. The commentary is something to hear.

I also got the Friday the 13th 5 disc box set. It's great to finally have all those movies that I've loved since I was a kid. I've pretty much watched the entire set. Getting the set was a journey in itself.

I'm waiting on word to see if I've been cleared to shoot Dolly Parton tomorrow night in Greenville. I doubt it'll happen, but I hope it does. Should be fun. Plus, it's the opening night of her tour.

As you can see above, I shot King's X earlier this month in Charlotte. They were pretty darn good. They played some songs like "Mr. Wilson," "I Can't Help It" and "Visions." Good stuff.

Today is my sister's birthday. Happy birthday, yo.

Pollstar

2004-09-24T16:27:00.000-04:00

Hey kids, check out Pollstar today. My pic is up there. If it isn't, hit refresh and it'll pop up. Hurry though, it's only on the main page for a day.

I've been cleared for King's X on Oct. 1 in Charlotte. I'm also getting the Jelly Jam and Jerry Gaskill solo album in the mail. This whole being press thing is pretty cool.

I finally wrote my Weird Al review. I'm not particularly happy with it though. Probably one of my worst. I guess I shouldn't wait too long to write again.

I was supposed to be watching my nephew this afternoon and helping him with a project, but that's not happening now. Oh well, I think Sunday will be that day.

Yeah, Ben's punk ass just walked in so I'm about out...peace holmes.

Sorry 'bout that...

2004-09-13T22:01:00.000-04:00

Yeah, yeah. So it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. No excuses for that. If it makes you feel any better, I thought about posting once or twice but didn't. Let's see. What happened while I was away? I took a vacation, covered Weird Al Yankovic, Brian McKnight, Angie Stone and Anthony Hamilton, went to a family reunion, had a new family member born and beat Final Fantasy. What was that other thing? Oh yeah, I was published in Pollstar magazine! That's awesome. That's a huge step in my development as a photographer. Good stuff. They actually used the first image I submitted to them. Pretty impressive.

Anyway, nothing interesting happening now. The next show I'm looking forward to covering is King's X up in Charlotte. I haven't seen them in a couple of years so it should be fun. There's a few other bands coming around that I'm going to try and do, so we'll see how that goes.

Anyway, that's about it...I'm out. Leave me a comment congratulating me on being completely bad ass now.

American Idols

2004-08-24T12:24:00.000-04:00

Yeah. I covered the American Idols show. The pics have been uploaded and are on display on Carolina Concerts. What's cool is that I've been checking the traffic and referral reports and those pictures have generated tons of traffic for the site. I even visited some of the sites and people have saved my images and posted them on message boards. That's cool. At least they left the (c) Benji McKay / www.carolinaconcerts.com on it and linked back to our site too. Free publicity for us. Earlier this week, the Skillet interview was the major traffic generator. Coolness.

Monday I'll be putting in for Brian McKnight in Columbia and Weird Al at the beach. April wants to see the first show, so why not try.

I've also finally managed to updateShut up and Die. It's undergone a major overhaul and there are tons of new Horror mini reviews up. In fact, we'll be getting together this afternoon to review a couple more.

That's about it for now...rock.

2004-08-19T21:45:00.000-04:00

Well kids. The interview was a success. That's me and John Cooper from Skillet. Unfortunately, the shoot was pretty horrible. Why do they make the singer stand in front of the lights? You couldn't see him! Oh well. I haven't heard about American Idols yet. I guess I will tomorrow. Oh well, I'm out. Have fun.

I'm back bitches

2004-08-18T11:50:00.000-04:00

That's right. I haven't posted in awhile. I'm a lazy SOB. I know it. Actually I did try to post a couple of times and ye ole blogger was messing up. I gave up in frustration.

Anyway, tonight I interview Skillet in Columbia. I've gotten a bunch of questions from their fans to ask. Basically so I don't have to actually do any work! Told you I'm lazy. I also submitted for the American Idols show in Columbia on Friday. I figured I'm off Friday night, got nothing much to do, might as well try to cover a show. I haven't shot at the Colonial Center since March with Aerosmith. Oh well. If I get it, cool. If I don't, no big deal.

I actually bought 8 movies at best buy the other day for a total of less that $25. I'm awesome. Picked up C.H.U.D. and a 4 pack of late 60's Beligum horrors. Good stuff. Haven't had the time to watch any of them yet, but soon I will. Oh well, hopefully blogger will post this one for me.

I'm bizack

2004-08-09T21:32:00.000-04:00

Yeah. I took a couple days off from posting. Screw you. Today I worked all day. I broke some computers at work. Then we got them fixed. I came home and watched Cheerleader Massacre. It was funny. I'll be interviewing Skillet on 8/18 at 7:30. If you've got any questions for them, let me know (unless the question is "who the hell are you.") I actually did get some questions sent in from some of their fans. That's kind of cool. Anyway, until next time...

Cheerleaders Rock!

Rockness

2004-08-05T21:14:00.000-04:00

This is the 2nd time I'm trying to type this up.

Today all I did was go to work, come home, watch Trick or Treat and type this. Luckily I heard nothing of runaways today. Good. I also heard nothing about Toby Keith, so that's kind of a relief.

I'm judge judy and executioner.

Weirdness

2004-08-04T21:43:00.000-04:00

Today something pretty cool happened. I was sitting at the computer like I usually do when a delivery guy came and dropped off a package. He then pulled out of my yard and directly in front of another car that was coming down the street. She rammed into the back of him. Right in front of my window. No one was hurt or anything, and it wasn't a serious wreck, but I thought it was pretty cool. He was actually dropping of the Skillet package from Lava records. I haven't really listened to it to much yet.

Then we had to go on a goose chase. Weirdness happened is all I'll say about it. I'm sure you'll hear about it sooner or later. I did take my nephew out to eat though. That was pretty cool. Everything basically worked out for the best. Then it was back home and I found out that Family Guy was on. That show is awesome. I always forget just how funny it is. It's probably the funniest show to get canceled. I've got to get those DVD collections.

I still haven't heard back about Toby Keith yet. If it doesn't work out, cool. I haven't really tried to much to get it this time. If I don't hear anything back by tomorrow night, I'll just assume that I wasn't cleared.

I also played some Nintendo emulated Battleship. I rock at it. I know, I'm a nerd. At least I kinda enjoy it.

I wonder how KISS was tonight in Atlanta. Guess I'll get the report soon enough. Did they play the "rare" songs?? Time will tell.

Good Times.

Whuzzup?

2004-08-03T20:59:00.000-04:00

Yeah, so I've watched the first two Karate Kid movies recently. They're rocktastic. Danielsan is a dorky little dude like me that takes out the jocks. I can relate. One time these jocks were picking on me and I waxed on and off their asses. OK, so that's not really true, but at least I like to think it is. Afterall, memory is subjective. Nothing really cool going down. You like how I post now saying that nothing of interest happened? That's how my life really is. Pretty boring. I am getting tons of emails about covering bands now. Too bad most are in Charlotte. I'm going to start doing more and more though.

Blah.

Yippee hooray

2004-08-02T19:19:00.000-04:00

This is the 7th day in a row. I'm a super genius. I have nothing to say, so...BooYAH

One more day

2004-08-01T21:07:00.000-04:00

Yo. What's up? Just got home from work a little bit ago. Nothing much interesting today. I did get to throw bricks at someone though. This super tall Mexican guy who spoke broken english bought 92 heavy bricks and I had to help him load them up. I was handing them to him and he wanted me to throw them. I threw about 50 bricks at him. He caught them all too which was pretty good considering that they were pretty heavy. Sexy Josh was impressed.

I decided to put in for Toby Keith this coming Friday night in Charlotte. I don't like him too much and I abhor that song about putting a boot in your ass, but April likes that kind of stuff. I figure it's about time I cover a show that she wants to see. If I don't get cleared, it's no big deal. In fact, it may be a relief to me! However, it would look good on my "resume."

So yeah...haha, I'm on a roll now as far as posting is concerned. Too bad I don't really have much to say about anything.

Chris, update your diary! I keep checking it and there's nothing new. It's like you turned into me or something.

Skinnee, thanks for the kind words on about my review. A lot of people are saying that's my best one. I don't see it, but then again, what do I know? Everyone should read Skinnee's web log. He does more stuff than me and he's generally cooler. Rock.

Yet Another Day

2004-07-31T09:55:00.000-04:00

Well, it's still kind of early so I haven't done too much. I'm typing this up now because I'm off to work soon and I won't get off until tonight and I know I'll forget to type anything up. It seems my KISS review may be getting published in Image Magazine. That's kind of cool. It's a Charlotte based mag with a circulation of 25,000. It's not 100% yet, but it's a possibility. Keep your fingers crossed. What's funny is that I'm not even a real writer. At least I don't consider myself one. I've also been told that the guy at Verizon really liked it too. Score one more for me. Now he'll be more likely to help me out in the future. Of course, Verizon is where the big shows happen.

NEways, i wuz jus gonna type UP sumthin real quik lik b4 i had 2 leave. Man, I really hate it when people type like that. Most fans of anything on the internet type things up that way. I can't take them seriously at all when I try to read crap like that. It's embarrassing. If I ever had fans that typed like that, I'd just shoot them. English is a glorious thing. Use it.

Another Day

2004-07-30T15:20:00.000-04:00

I've just been spending the day editing pictures of the KISS/Poison show. I also wrote the review. Check it out here. I was also cleared for Warped but now I can't make it so Doug is going to cover it for me. Coolness. It still amazes me that I can get approved for these based on CarolinaConcerts.Com. I guess with the more experience I get, the easier it'll be to get approved. Works for me. I just can't wait until the next phase of Carolina Concerts kicks off early next year. That should be pretty nice.

Anyway, Chris...the pit is open. I tried to email you a couple of times but your box is apparently full. A busy guy you must be.

That's about it for now. How many days in a row is that? HaHa. That's one/nothing. I win.

KISS and Poison

2004-07-29T09:03:00.000-04:00

Last night's show was pretty incredible. I actually had no problems picking up my tickets or my pass. Everything went pretty smoothly for a change. It was nice. I finally met Doug who I've been working with online for months now. I'd like to thank him for being so cool and helping me out. I'd also like to thank Lauren and Eric at Verizon as well. I also ran into a girl that used to DJ at the USC radio station. She was rocking out with KISS and I was happy to see that. I had no idea that she would come to a KISS show and actually enjoy it. I thought she was "too cool" for that. Oh well, glad you enjoyed the show Katy. And Skinnee, hope you enjoyed it as well. Unfortunately we missed each other again. Maybe we'll actually see each other sometime!

Poison was pretty good. They were exactly as I would have expected them. They did nothing but a greatest hits set and that's exactly what I wanted from them. It was fun watching Rikki Rockett because he reminded me so much of my old drummer Nilla. Nilla and I used to joke around and he would pretend to be Rikki. We tried to cover a Poison song one time but the drum parts were just too easy so Nilla didn't want to do it!

KISS was just awesome. Unfortunately we didn't get any of the cool rare songs like "Love Her All I Can," "She," or "All the Way." However, the set list was still pretty good compared to the last few years. It was great seeing the band with a drummer that can actually play the material! Eric was just amazing. In between songs he was just throwing his drumsticks off the stage to someone in the wings and they would throw them back to him. I guess he was either bored or just having a good time. It was so good to hear stuff like "Got to Choose," "God Gave Rock and Roll To You II," "Unholy," "Makin' Love," "I Was Made for Loving You" and more. I was also hella happy that they didn't play Cold Gin. I've finally seen a KISS show without that song.

I also bought the instant live CD that was available. Whoever thought that idea up is a super genius. As unorganized as the line was after the show to get the CD, we made it out in about 10 minutes and the line was thousands long. I was shocked at how quickly things went.

Just in terms of enjoying a show, this was probably my favorite of the year. It wasn't the best show I've seen this year but I did enjoy it more than any others. It'll still probably wind up in my top 5 shows.

Anyway, since it's so early, I haven't done anything today. I just figured I'd post some pics from last night and give you a recap. If you get a chance, see KISS on this tour.

Rock

2004-07-28T14:14:00.000-04:00

Well, tonight's the night. I'll be heading out to the KISS show shortly. I figured I'd post since I said I would. Nothing much really happened today. I was asked by Lava to interview a band when they play in Columbia next month. What's up with these Lava people? They want me to interview everyone. Actually, come to think about it, I guess it's pretty cool.

Oh well. I don't know how Verizon handles everything so I'm totally expecting some kind of screw up concerning my tickets/pass. Luckily, I know a few people there now so I should be able to get things going.

Anyway, not too terribly interesting, but at least it's a post, jerk.

What's new?

2004-07-27T17:58:00.000-04:00

Yeah. I think I'm going to try to post something every single day. I doubt it will happen, but let's see how many days I can acutally string together.

I'm super excited about the KISS show tomorrow night. It seems as I may be shooting Poison as well. Poison is a band that I've wanted to see for awhile. I actually really liked them when I was a stupid little kid. It'll be pretty interesting. Of course with KISS, I want to top the pictures I took back in 2000. I kinda know what I'm doing now so it'll be cool to see what I can do. It'll also be interesting to see Skinnee K again. We may be riding up to Charlotte together. Not sure yet. I haven't seen that guy in quite a while. I actually can't remember the last time. I missed him at the Darkness show last month.

I was contacted by Lava Records about doing something with the band Authority Zero. They're on the Warped tour this year. I think she wants me to interview them or something. Maybe I will. Maybe I'll just do some trade shots or a traditional photo shoot. Don't know yet. I did put in for the Warped tour today, so we'll see how that goes.

I spent most of the day answering emails and adding news briefs to CarolinaConcerts.Com.

So yeah, tomorrow's the big day for me. I'll be seeing KISS for the 12th time and shooting them for the 2nd. My first repeat is also my favorite band. Nice. They better do something cool.

That's about it for now. Let's see if I can actually do two days in a row.

Peace out home slice.

Guess What

2004-07-22T18:24:00.000-04:00

I'm as giddy as a Japanese school girl. I was cleared to shoot KISS next week. That's huge for me. They're the one band that I really got into this for. The super awesome thing is that they gave me comp tickets too. I didn't think they would. They did. I'm happy. The show will rock (hopefully). Other than KISS, I don't have much planned.

I shot some footage for another music video yesterday with Ben. Unfortunately when I tried to edit it together it came out looking like a dog taking a crap. Don't go into a video production with no real idea of what to do. It just won't work.

Yeah...so, that's about it. There's other things going on, but I'd rather not discuss them and since it's my blog I can do what I want. What are you gonna do about it? Nothing. That's what.

Rick Springfield

2004-07-07T14:23:00.000-04:00

So I've been cleared to shoot Rick this Friday night. I'm extremely happy by this. I've been wanting to see him for the last 4 years. Every time, something has come up. The first time I couldn't go because my old band had their first show the night after and we needed the practice time. The next time, he canceled. Now it looks like things will rock. Awesome.

I'm also on vacation, so that's hella cool. Don't really know what I'm doing yet.

I've been playing a lot of old nintendo games lately. I downloaded an NES Emulator. It basically makes it where I can play the games that I used to own on the ole NES. I've already beaten Zelda one and two and Contra. Good times were had by all.

Anyway, just figured I'd post something trivial so folks knew that I remembered this here blog. And now back to our regularly scheduled insanity...

PS...this was originally typed on 7/7. I don't know why it wasn't posted.

Life and Death

2004-06-19T17:31:00.000-04:00

Hi there. It’s been awhile, I know. Unfortunately, this will probably be the most personal post that I’ll ever write. I don’t necessarily want to write it, but I feel like I have to. Read on to find out why. Hopefully, my next post will be back to the regular old crap that you’ve grown accustomed to.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about life and death a lot. You see, on September 29, 2003, my father passed away. On February 29, 2004, April’s grandfather passed. Thursday night, April’s grandmother passed on. It’s not a particularly good time for anyone. Especially with father’s day tomorrow.

Thursday, before we found out about April’s grandmother, my mom and Vern visited the store. She was happy. She’s been out living. She was telling April and I about her weekend trips to the lake and such. When I first found out about Vern, I absolutely hated him. I didn’t know him, but I hated him. I hated the fact that my mom and dad weren’t getting back together. They got divorced when I was really young and I never really experienced the whole family thing. It’s always been splintered. That’s where both my brother and sister were lucky. They got to live it. I’ve been told it wasn’t all rosy and happy all the time. After all, they got divorced so something had to have been wrong. I held the wish inside and never told anyone about it. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. I knew deep inside that it probably wouldn’t work out, but there was still the dream. It didn’t pan out.

When he died, I saw how much my mom actually did still care about him. I had no idea. I used to blame my dad for not spending time with me. I now realize that it was a two way street. I never made the time for him either. Luckily, when we did spend time together it was great. In fact, I have no negative memories of the time we actually did spend together. I later found out that he felt that he wouldn’t push himself on someone no matter how much he loved them. It’s sad, but I’ve learned more about him after he died than while he was alive. I didn’t know how much he actually did love all of us. He was a pack rat and kept everything that we ever game him. I think the thing that hurt the most was actually one of the smallest things. In his room was a lottery ticket with the numbers 5, 7, 11, 13, 20. Those numbers are the dates of our birthdays. My mom, him, me, my sister and my brother. His family.

At least I got to see him one last time. He came into Kmart to pick up some medicine on September 19th. I think we talked longer that day than any other. We talked about his upcoming operation and I told him that I would be there, a promise I had every intention of keeping. Luckily, I made it a point to tell him that I loved him before he left. Usually, I never tell people that. I don’t know what made me this day, but thank God or whomever that I did.

So tomorrow, I’ll be making a solo trip up to the cemetery to visit my dad. That’s something I should have done last year.

I think in respect to dealing with loss, April is much tougher than me. She’s handling it well. I think she was actually relieved when her grandmother passed. She was there and left the room. When she came back in, her grandmother was gone. At least her grandparents are together again. They were actually my two favorite people in April’s family. When we got together, they made me feel comfortable. For that, I’ll always thank them.

I love you dad.

Kid Rock and More

2004-06-09T10:11:00.000-04:00

Yo. So I did Kid Rock and all went well. Here's a picture.

Kid Rock in Greenville, SC 6/4/04

To see some more images of Kid Rock and to read the Darkness review and see the pics, just go to CarolinaConcerts.
I'm also heading out to the beach Friday night to cover Michael Tolcher, Toby Lightman and Gavin Degraw. Tolcher's people actually called me up asking if I would do it. Why not? They sent me the CD too and he should be pretty big on the top 40 stations soon. He's a got a very middle of the road sound. Should be some more good experience at least. After that one, I don't really have much planned until next month with Rick Springfield, baby. I may be covering Jonas, but I'm not too sure yet. Anyway, figured I'd post something to let the kids know I haven't forgotten. I've got to get some emails sent now, so I'll type at you later.

The Darkness

2004-06-04T15:37:00.000-04:00

The Darkness is probably the best live show on the road this year. Go see them if you get a chance. Justin Hawkins is a great frontman. I don't know. Don't really have much time as I've got to get on the road to Kid Rock in Greenville. That's cool. I'm covering 2 shows in 2 nights in 2 states. Pretty sweet. Anyway, here's a pic from last night. Rock.
Rock

Woo Hoo...life rocks right now

2004-06-03T14:27:00.000-04:00

Alright, amusing anectode number 3 will have to wait awhile. In a little while I'll be off to the rockfest otherwise known as the Darkness show in Charlotte. To make it better, I was indeed approved to shoot the show. I was also approved to shoot Kid Rock tomorrow night and they did provide the comp tickets. That's made up for the expense of getting April's car fixed this week. First the timing belt, then the alternator belt, then a new battery. Last night, her brake lights were stuck on for some bizarre reason. We've got it all fixed, but I'm kind of hesitant to take it out on the road tomorrow. Oh well, I've gots to do it.

Hooray, Skinnee left me a comment. I've been feeling all lonely because no one has wanted to leave me a comment. Someone else should too. I hope to see my old pal Skinnee at the show tonight. Should be a rocktastic display of rock! I'm actually a little excited. Good for me. Plus I'm off work tomorrow too. Unfortunately, I've got to work Saturday morning at 8. That means I've got to drive from Greenville tomorrow night after the show and then get up and go to work Saturday morning. This is the life. That's enough of my unadulterated happiness. I know something will take the wind out of my sail. I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch or put all those eggs in one basket. Even if it's a pretty colorful basket with ribbons and bows. I've just got to watch out and not talk to any strangers or take their candy. Alright, that's more than enough meaningless cliches for one post.

Hiiiiiiiyahhhhhhhh

Halloween time and Every Time I Die

2004-06-01T09:25:00.000-04:00

Yeah, so it's been awhile again. Anyway...anecdote number 2. One day right after Halloween, I was walking through Kmart and just as I turned the corner to walk by electronics the Halloween theme music starts playing. I was all like "holy crap, Mike Myers is a gonna kill me." It was so weird and the timing couldn't have been more perfect. I turned to look (from a safe distance) and saw some little kid playing the keyboard. He knew the Halloween theme song perfectly. I was impressed.

Anyway. So I was at work Thursday and I get a phone call from Every Time I Die's people. He asks me if I want to do a photo shoot with the band. I'm like...ok. So I went to the club early and we did the little photo shoot. The band was really cool about it and climbed in shopping carts and on dumpsters for me. Good stuff. I got some cool images. I then shot the show and didn't get too much because it was so damn hot in there and the place was packed. I got a few decent images though.

Every Time I Die

Hopefully this week I'll be shooting the Darkness and Kid Rock. At the very least, I'm going to rock out to the Darkness on Thursday. That's pretty cool. So yeah, that's about it for today. Maybe I'll post something tomorrow, maybe I won't. Wouldn't you like to know.

Who Needs A Lawnmower When Your Dog Eats The Grass?

2004-05-25T16:50:00.000-04:00

That's right folks. My dog eats the grass in my back yard. I was chillin' out there feeding her and stuff when I noticed something strange. She didn't eat any of the food. Instead, she walked further out back and started munching on grass. I'm all like, "Hey, eat this food." She looks at me like I'm an idiot and continues munching grass. So now I don't need to cut the grass! Rock.

For the next couple of posts I'm going to entertain you with some amusing anecdotes like the one above. Amusing to me anyway. Some of them I'm just amazed by. Most of it is stuff that has happened at work, or stuff I've seen at work. Just wait. It probably won't be worth it, but you'll see what is funny to me.

Well, I'm doing that Every Time I Die show Thursday (if I can get out of work). They're sending me the CD and then we're setting up a phone interview for when they come back on the Ozzfest tour. I also got some word back from Kid Rock's people. They "don't think it'll be a problem" but they'll get back to me Wednesday. Who knows.

OK. Time to vent a little. Picture this. It's a hundred degrees outside. Someone walks into the store and says "is it hot enough for you?" OK, so they're trying to be polite and say something. That's fine. Then a 2nd person walks in and asks "is it hot enough for you." I bite my tongue. Then a 3rd person and a 4th person and the 47th person. Why even ask this question? I want to just tell them "no, it isn't hot enough for me. I'm waiting until my balls melt in my nutsack." Is that what they want to hear? It gets old. I hate retail. Here's a picture for you:

Panda not eating grass, but still rockin'.

2004-05-24T14:59:00.000-04:00

Howdy...What's going on? Going pretty good here. I just got the advance copy of Uncle Kracker's new album in the mail today. I'm on the 3rd track and surprisingly, it isn't that bad. I honestly expected to hate it but so far I don't. Getting free albums more than a month in advance rocks. Makes me feel special. Now I've got to get on the review for CarolinaConcerts.Com. Of course, the CD review section isn't even up yet, but it will be soon. Everything will be on my site SC Live.

I put in for both The Darkness in Charlotte and Kid Rock in Greenville. Hopefully something will come of it. Either way, I'm so at that Darkness show.

Remember me ranting about Bruce Campbell? Well, I went and made a soundboard for him. If you've never been to EbaumsWorld.Com, go there and check out the soundboards. It's hilarious. I'll upload mine somewhere and let you guys check it out. "Yo She-Bitch, let's go"

Anyway...I be out.

2004-05-22T21:55:00.000-04:00

Well, I just spent the last 2 hours reading Bruce Campbell's entire web site. He's a super genius. Here he is:

You should check out his site at here. Read that article. He's a pretty smart guy. I think Bruce Campbell is the 2nd coolest person in the world. The coolest is Bob Sagat. Go see him live. He's a funny guy.

Anyway, I was reading my brother's diary today and I realized something. I totally forgot about the Roger McGuinn show last night. I guess it's because it was in York and that's a market I never look at. I am shooting Every Time I Die next week. They've asked me if I want to interview them. Don't know anything about them, but I probably should do the interview. Nothing too interesting going on now. Just an exciting Saturday night doing nothing! Hooray.

2004-05-20T14:06:00.000-04:00

Yo. What's up? Doing good? How's the family? And the kids? What's fluffy been up to? Ohhh, he pooped on the carpet again. Shame. Anyway, I'm not doing much other than updating Carolina Concerts. I added a couple of press releases to the page. I'll be taking Ben to see Everytime I Die in Columbia. They're some hardcore band that he swears is funny. I hope so. I'll be shooting them obviously.

I started work on another KISS documentary today. I did one back in 97 on two VHS machines. I figure I can do a better one now. I don't really want to do it, but I want to put together something. The original ideas just aren't coming to me anymore. The one thing I can do is shoot Chris' video, but he's 200 miles away, so that ain't likely soon! I need new friends. Friends with ideas. Friends with a plan. Right now I'm stuck with a couple of people that don't know nothing about nothing. Just a bunch of nothins.

Oh well...nothing really to say, but I figured I need to update so folks didn't think I forgot about you. Nope. Not at all.

2004-05-15T20:08:00.000-04:00

Alright peeps, what's the good word? Well, it is now my turn to not feel well. My ailment is a killer toothache. I guess that's what you have to deal with from years of neglect. That's right, I'm dumb. I know it. Anyway, I've got a date with a dentist coming up. I'm slightly terrified! I figure they'll want to take a picture for their book to scare future patients. It's probably not as bad as I'm thinking, but who knows?

April's grandmother came home from the hospital yesterday. That's some good news.

Less serious news: I'm now extremely excited to see KISS again this year. Before, I was actually more excited to see openers Poison than my favorite band KISS. Then set lists started pouring out. Check this out...
Cmon and Love Me
Parasite
Christine 16
Makin Love
Got To Choose
Love Her All I Can
She
All The Way
War Machine
Hotter Than Hell
I Was Made For Lovin You
King of the Nightime World
God Gave Rock and Roll To You II

I've only heard Cmon and Love Me, Christine 16 and Got to Choose at the acoustic convention in 1995. Never heard the real rockin' versions. I've never heard Makin' Love, Lover Her All I Can, She, All the Way or I Was Made For Loving You live. At least I don't think I heard I Was Made live. They may have done it in 92, but I honestly don't remember. The non make-up songs are going to be cool too. Here's the songs they've been rehearsing...

Anything For My Baby
Rock Bottom
Two Timer
Strange Ways
Comin' Home
Goin' Blind
Kissin' Time
Cold Gin
Mr. Speed
I Stole Your Love
Creatures Of The Night
The Oath
I

Add that to Unholy and Creatures and you've got a pretty awesome pool of songs to choose from. You want to know why this is so awesome? It's because for the last 8 years (since they put the make-up back on), they've played basically the same exact set list. Maybe there was a few song variation, but nothing drastic. Now they've completely overhauled it and changed some songs each night. That's the way it should have been done all along. Right now I don't care if I get a fake Catman and Spaceman. Doesn't matter. At least I'll be getting people that can actually play the material.

That's right folks, I'm a loser with a toothache. I don't care though because I rock.

2004-05-12T20:45:00.000-04:00

Check out bowie's set list for last night in St. Louis...
01 Rebel Rebel
02 New Killer Star
03 Battle for Britain (The Letter)
04 Cactus
05 Fashion
06 Hang On To Yourself
07 All The Young Dudes
08 China Girl
09 Afraid
10 The Loneliest Guy
11 The Man Who Sold The World
12 A New Career In A New Town
13 Be My Wife
14 Hallo Spaceboy
15 Sunday
16 Heathen (The Rays)
17 Under Pressure
18 Days
19 Changes
20 Ashes To Ashes
21 Quicksand
22 White Light, White Heat
23 "Heroes"

(Encore)
24 Station To Station
25 Suffragette City
26 Ziggy Stardust

Look at number 24...STATION TO STATION AGAIN!!!!!! My brother mentioned something that I didn't even think of. Maybe Station To Station was the song cut when they were going up against curfew. I was thinking it may have been 5 Years, but what if it was S2S? Why Mr. Bowie?? Why?? OK, that's the last time I'm going to mention that. That's about it. Yeah, see you soon.

2004-05-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

What's up? I'm just wasting the time before I go to work downloading some songs that I should have gotten before. I grabbed the first single from Gene Simmons' solo album "Firestarter." Well, it is interesting. Definately sounds nothing like KISS. I'm anxious to hear the rest of his album now. Speaking of KISS, I've been checking out their set lists from some Austrailian shows they've been doing. They're finally changing their set lists around a bit. They've added "I Pledge Alligience To the State of Rock and Roll." I would have prefered "We Are One" from Psycho Circus, but what you gonna do? They've added a few other songs in there too that haven't been played in a long time (Unholy, Tears are Falling, Creatures of the Night and War Machine among others). Still no "Sweet Pain" or "All The Way" though. I'll bet that when they make it back to America, the set list will be back to the old crap from the last 8 years. Not really, but after that whole "StationToStation" thing, it wouldn't surprise me! Anyway, nothing really new going on now. Maybe something awesome will happen at work and I'll have a story to tell later.
ROCK.

2004-05-11T16:18:00.000-04:00

I hate David Bowie! The show after I saw him, he performed one of my two absolute favorite Bowie songs...StationtoStation. Oh how I hate him. I was always hoping I would hear it, but didn't put too much stock into it because I figured it wouldn't happen. The very next show he actually does it. I hate you Mr. Bowie. Actually I don't, but it does suck. At least we got our show. I guess that's something. Anyway, figure I'd vent. Got nothing else to say, blahhhh

Let us see if something works....

Haha, it actually does work. Ok, peace.

2004-05-10T21:00:00.000-04:00

I changed the layout of the ole blog. Leave me a comment.

2004-05-10T20:39:00.000-04:00

So yeah, it's been a few days. Oh well. Not really much to say today. Bowie was awesome. You can read the review here. I've also uploaded a review of the Authority Zero album. Check that one out too. It's located here. Other than that stuff, nothing new.

Oh yeah, I need a new look. Sick of the hair and feel a change is necessary. What should it be? The afro, cornrows, bald? Email me your suggestions.

2004-05-05T11:57:00.000-04:00

Yo, what's going on peeps? Guess what I'm doing today. You got it! Nothing. It's good to do nothing sometimes. It gets a little boring though. I'm awaiting this weekend when I get to see Bowie again. It'll be my 3rd time and I'm pretty excited. I also got a ticket for the Darkness in Charlotte in June. Can't miss them a 2nd time. Even if I can't shoot these shows, I'll still be there.

I've been conversing lately with some record label people and they're supposed to be hooking me up with various things. One of them wants me to do an interview with a newer band that's playing on the Warped tour this year. I'm probably going to do it. She's supposed to be sending me a package. I also decided I'm going to put in for the Hanson show in Myrtle Beach. The show isn't until July 5, but it's the kick off date of their tour. Couldn't hurt to do it. Hopefully I've got some more big names coming up including Kid Rock (who's on the label that wants me to do that interview), Roger McGuinn (of the Byrds), KISS and of course, the biggest name of all, Rick Springfield!

Oh yeah, apparently Chris is going to be shooting for WireImage now. Way to go. He's made it to the big time, and for that I salute him. Now If I could get to be as half as good as he is, I'd be happy.

Oh well, things are pretty good now. If I don't post anything before the Bowie show, I'll give you a full recap of the events when I return. I think I may have to work at 8 the following morning. I'll have to check my schedule to see what's up with that. If I do, it's going to suck! It'll be worth it though.

Rock.

2004-04-28T11:49:00.000-04:00

What's up y'all? Well, I ended up covering that Local H show the other night. They were actually pretty good. The guitarist/vocalist has his guitar rigged up to play the bass as well, so it was definately interesting. I counted and he was using 17 guitar effects pedals (11 stand alone and one 6 pedal board). There may have been more hiding around, but it was a lot.

(A good idea is a good idea...even if I steal it.)

(Scott Lucas of Local H at the New Brookland Tavern, Columbia, SC.)

So I had put in for the SnoCore tour tonight. Didn't get it. But publicists from both Smile Empty Soul and Finger Eleven have contacted me apologizing for the delay and have promised to hook me up. They're also sending some promo stuff for review so that's pretty cool.

Other news? I'm not sick. I think everyone else is though. My brother is sicker than normal. April's grandmother is back in the hospital with heart problems. To add more to April's worry, her mom has been admitted to the same hospital with heart problems as well. April's been running all around for the last month straight with no time to recover. I talked her into staying home yesterday to rest before she ends up in the same hospital. Luckily she listened. But this morning, she's back at it. First she goes to school and then she visits the hospital. Hopefully everything is going to work out for everyone. We don't need anything else just yet.

Anyway, I'm just about out to work now. I'll talk at you later.

2004-04-23T11:26:00.000-04:00

So what be the word, peeps? Prince was pretty good. You can read my review here. I got a couple of copies of Musicology and I'm actually listening to it now. It's pretty cool too.

I got cleared to shoot Something Corporate at the beach. Unfortunately they couldn't give me comp tickets so I'm not driving 4 hours round trip to shoot 3 songs and leave. That wouldn't be too smart. Still heard nothing about Trapt, etc. I'm assuming nothing. I guess I'll go shoot Local H Monday night. I've got to shoot something. It's been too long! I need some more experience.

Anyway, not much else is going down. I'll speak atcha lata.

2004-04-21T16:31:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've sorta hit a dry spell. It's expected I guess. Pretty soon I'll be on my way to see Prince here in Columbia. I hope it's a good Prince show and not a bad one. I've seen him a few times before and it's been either completely awesome or frustratingly bad. I'm hoping for the former. I hope he's still giving out copies of his new album "Musicology."

I had put in to cover the Kenny Chesney show tomorrow night but I didn't get cleared. Oh well. The publicist was really cool about it though and offered to hook me up when they come back around, so that's cool. It's all about connections, ya know.

I also put in for Trapt, Smile Empty Soul, Finger Eleven and Strata at the beach next week. I haven't heard anything back yet. I just always assume I haven't been cleared for something. Then if I am, I'm surprised and happy. If I'm not, it's no big deal because I didn't get my hopes up.

Monday night I may be shooting Local H at ye ole New Brookland Tavern. I'm still unsure yet. I probably need to if just to check out the camera in the club situation.

Anyway, I'm out now...peace

2004-04-13T13:03:00.000-04:00

So I'm back again. HOO-RAY. Yeah. I shot Cheap Trick Saturday night. Man, they're awesome. I had forgotten just how great they really are live. If you get a chance, see them. You should buy their albums too. I totally screwed up shooting though. I'm still not too sure how to use my new camera. I did learn a valuable lesson on it as far as the settings are concerned. Remember, all is not lost.

I read today that Weird Al Yankovic's parents died by carbon monoxide on the 9th. Sucks. I know that he always had his family in his videos and stuff. He was really close with them still. He's decided to continue touring. Well, I hope everything works out for him.

That's about it for now, I'm not doing anything today. I just uploaded my Cheap Trick review to www.carolinaconcerts.com. Check it out if you get a chance.

See ya on tha flip side, cool cat...

2004-04-09T11:42:00.000-04:00

Yo, what's up peeps? It seems I missed a pretty good show last night in Atlanta. The Darkness played and Ben went and gave me the low down through IM this morning. My brother covered the show and he gave me the low down through email. I had every opportunity to go, but I passed on it, so to quote Plant (who proabably quoted someone else) "it's nobody's fault but mine." Chris said that they said they'd be back in the summer, so I won't miss it next time.

Well, I shot Aerosmith and Cheap Trick. Not too good of an experience. The set up wasn't really very good to shoot it. I got some decent ones of Cheap Trick (well, Robin and Tom anyway), and one good shot of Joe Perry, but that's about it. To make up for the bad experience, Cheap Trick's publicist has hooked me up with another photo pass and comp tickets for the show in Myrtle Beach tomorrow night. I didn't want to go back to the beach to shoot but 1...comp tickets, 2...photo pass, 3...Cheap Trick is headlining! I met some cool other photogs there and the pr people at the Colonial Center are as nice as can be. All was not lost. Just wait until I really understand what I'm doing. I'm still learning now, but I'll get better.

I got shot down for Bob Dylan. Apparently labels don't like buying too many press tickets for the Columbia market. Sucks. Hopefully they'll start changing that a bit. I submited for Kenny Chesney in Columbia too. I've got to email back the Monday before the show. That show is the night after the Prince concert here. I'm not even submitting for that one because Prince doesn't allow photogs. I already have tickets anyway.

Well, thought I'd keep the one or two of you reading this informed and to let you know that I haven't forgotten about ye ole blog.

I'll post again soon...

2004-04-05T12:05:00.000-04:00

Well kids, I just got the word that I've been cleared to shoot Aerosmith. That's pretty sweet. I honestly wasn't expecting it. They still couldn't hook me up with a review ticket, so unless I can find a cheap scalper I'll be leaving after the 3rd song. At least I should be able to see all of Cheap Trick. It'll be my 3rd time seeing them and my 4th time seeing Aerosmith. They're always great. I'm pretty happy right now. I should go ahead and submit for Bob Dylan too. He'll be in Columbia next week. It seems I'm on a roll right now so I should go ahead and do it. I can't wait to shoot it with the new camera. I'm still anxious to try that sucker out. Hopefully no more soft focus problems like with the Liz pictures which I still can't upload because crappy server is down. Maybe I'll upload some of that stuff to a different free server so people can still see the work. I don't know yet. I'm actually off of work today so I'm playing a little catch up. I downloaded a couple of new tracks from my brother. http://www.chrismckay.net Go get the songs. Pretty cool stuff. A video store in town went out of business so I bought a second copy of the great B rated movie Monster Dog starring Alice Cooper. I'll sell you a copy if you want. Anyway, that's about it. I'm out

2004-04-03T11:30:00.000-05:00

Yo, yeah today I was supposed to be shooting that video for my brother's band. Of course, that's not happening now. Those jerk asses at work screwed me over. We'll get it one day though. I promise.
I noticed something regarding my photo page. It looks like a 2 year old retarded monkey made that site. Originally, it didn't look bad. For some reason (probably the smack), I decided to change it to the current form which is REALLY unprofessional looking. Last week I re-tooled the whole thing again. Now it looks all sleek and at the very least semi-professional. Too bad I can't upload it! The uploads on my server have been shut down until they fix something. Screw those free sites. I soon will have my own domain with my own space to use as I will. What should I call it? I don't know yet.
I ended up going out and buying a decent digital camera. It should work out fairly well. I've been playing around with it, and it seems cool enough. I guess I'll test it out for real Wednesday night at the Cheap Trick/Aerosmith show. I've been approved to shoot Cheap Trick but I'm still waiting on confirmation for Aerosmith. I've got to email their publicist back next week to find out. Cheap Trick's publicist at Big 3 Entertainment was really cool. I had my answer back within 24 hours. That was awesome.
In my last post, I noticed that I used the word "awesome" something like 42 times. I'm sorry. I must have been snorting sevin dust again. My apologies. Anyway, that's about all that's going on around here. I'll talk to you whenever inspiration strikes again...

(oh yeah, I don't snort sevin dust or use smack...I'm a Comet kind of guy).

2004-03-28T18:52:00.000-05:00

OK, so I've now missed 6 days straight. Screw you, jerk. Oh well, I've actually been busy lately. Wednesday night I went to see Britney. Even though I wasn't credentialed (obviously) I got the hook up and got in. My brother bought me a ticket, so I still got to see it. I reviewed it. It'll be up soon. I enjoyed the show. It wasn't as "outrageous" and "controversial" as everyone is trying to make it out to be, but it was still decent. Thursday I pretty much did nothing. Friday my brother and I went and shot Liz Phair in Myrtle Beach. That was pretty awesome. I've been wanting to see her for the longest time. Now I have. And I was cleared to shoot it too. That's pretty awesome. It was pretty funny with just my brother and I in a really crappy photo pit. He was using his super awesome camera and huge lens. I had my little 35mm film camera with (basically) a macro lens on it. It sucked. Even though I was right there, I couldn't get anything but full body shots. Add in development cost of the film and I you'll see why I won't be shooting much more with that camera. It was also incredibly difficult to get the thing in focus. I don't know if I got any useable shots yet. I'm waiting until they come back tomorrow I'll keep who ever happens to be reading this informed.
I ordered my Bowie tickets for the Atlanta show yesterday. Now I'm going to see Prince and Bowie. Pretty awesome stuff.
This weekend I'm supposed to be shooting at least one video for my brother's band. I don't know if that's going to happen because I've got to see what my work schedule is. I may call out that day if anything. They've been jerking me around for a while. Anyway...that's just about it. Enjoy.

2004-03-22T22:41:00.000-05:00

HAHA bitches, that's 5 days in a row.

2004-03-21T17:56:00.000-05:00

Man I want to go see the new Dawn of the Dead. I loved the original and I've been hearing good things about the remake. Seems pretty cool to me.
Today I was playing email tag with my brother about shooting some videos for his new band. This will be my first time doing one for someone other than myself. It should be pretty cool. I'm definately intrested in seeing what I can pull off. We'll end up doing one conceptional one and at least one performance clip. Depending on how things go we may be able to do a couple of them.

Oh well, nothing much to say today. So I'm out.
That's right, 4 days in a row...booyah bitches.

2004-03-20T14:23:00.000-05:00

OK. It seems that the server that I host 2 of my most important web sites is down right now. That sucks. It better come back up! My photography site and the Shut Up and Die sites are both down. Anyway, I'm supposed to be at the St. Patrick's Day Festival in 5 points, but there has been another incident. This morning April had to take her Grandmother to the hospital. Her grandfather just died less than a month ago, so I wasn't going to push it. I guess she's doing alright. April didn't say anything about her yet. I guess I've just been using today to work on my new site. Yup. Another one. It's basically a collection of whatever sites I've created that still remain. I've created about 532,522 sites in my time, and only a couple are still around. Weird. This one will have some new stuff on it too. It has a page devoted to the short films I've made. Soon will be details about the "music" I've recorded. Oh well. That is 3 days in a row. Take that chachi.

2004-03-19T22:21:00.000-05:00

Well, I did my business yesterday. I called up the Colonial Center and talked with their media relations person and she was as nice as she could be. So I faxed my request into her. I then called up the House of Blues and left a message for the guy and he never called me back. Then I was informed that I'd have better luck going through Liz Phair's publicist. Today I called Capitol Records in LA many times before finally getting to talk to the person I needed to. I forgot about that damn 3 hour time difference. Anyway, I got that request faxed off. Now I only hope that at least one of them comes through for me. Tomorrow I'll be heading out to the St. Pats Festival over in 5 points. Yippee. I get to spend the day with 50,000 drunk people and I don't even get to shoot it. I probably wouldn't go except that April wants to see Blake Shelton. I can still get the review of the overall festival though.

Yeah, that's about all I did. I worked at my semi-real job today too. But I'm always doing that. I'll never mention that again. If I ever say I did nothing, it means that I did nothing other than working at my semi-real job. Good stuff.

HAHA, two days in a row. I'm on a roll.

2004-03-18T10:50:00.000-05:00

Well hey. It's been awhile hasn't it? Yeah. I've been doing nothing much (again). What a surprise. I actually did manage to get over to Columbia yesterday to pick up those Prince tickets. While I was over there, I stopped by Fernillo and Associates to pick up my media wrist bands for St. Patrick's Day Festival on Saturday. It still sucks that they wouldn't let me shoot it, but at least I get in for free. In about 10 minutes I'll be calling up the Colonial Center and House of Blues to submit requests to be credentialed for a couple of shows. Britney Spears and Liz Phair respectively. I won't get either one, but that's ok. Because of my Richie Havens review, the owner of the Sylvia Theatre has offered me to shoot/review any shows there in the future. I'm definately taking him up on that one. Leon Russell and Roger McQuinn from the Byrds will be there in a couple of months. I'm so there.

I rescued my dog from my sister's house. When I went over there she was on a 4 chain. I loaded her up in my car and took her to my place where she can chill in a huge backyard. I let her out of the car and she ran around for no less than one hour. Nice.

I've been collecting Pepsi caps for free I-tunes songs. I had been against I-tunes for a long time. Then I saw I could get free songs and decided to give it a try. It's a really good thing. So far I've downloaded 2 Ben Folds EPs, a couple of exclusive songs (Liz Phair and Bowie) and a few songs for April. Speaking of Bowie, I just found out tickets for his Atlanta show go on sale next Saturday (27th). Awesome. That's another place that I'm so at.

The video front has been pretty productive lately. We made a movie trailer for our imaginary film "The Cat Who Knew Too Much." It stars Ben, myself and my cat Jerome. We then did a commercial for a new Fox reality show called "My Big Fat Gonnorrhea Infested Sex Toy" which asks the important question would you sleep with a fat guy with gonnorrhea for 1 million dollars? We then filmed a short video and completely overdubbed all the sound with sound effects I pulled from a sfx 3 CD set I bought. Its pretty funny. I'm still trying to come up with ideas for the video for a Chris McKay song that I'll be shooting/directing at some point with him.

ROCK...Rick Springfield will be playing the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach on July 9. Guess what...I'm There.

Anyway, until inspiration strikes again, I'm out to make some phone calls and do some business.

Peace.

2004-03-07T08:59:00.000-05:00

Hey there. Yesterday was no fun at all. I had to go to April's granddad's funeral. That was quite hard on her. I did learn that black funerals are a lot different than white funerals. It was weird. Yesterday's was a LOT longer than any I've ever been to before. It was basically like I went to a church sermon. I'm not used to that. Of course while sitting there listening, I found myself doubting everything that was said. The messages conveyed were the standards but while everyone was saying "amen" after every word, I looked around and half the people that should be obeying the messages are clearly not. That's really why I hate churches. I don't hate the messages or any of that stuff. I hate the hypocritical people that attend. ANYWAY...

I found a place to host my video for the Alice Cooper song "Pass the Gun Around." You can check out the page here. Definately let me know what you think about it.

I may be starting another band soon. It seems that the former bass player for Tykes With Guns wants to start a new project. I'd be down with it. I'll keep you informed of that stuff too.

But...I'm just about off to work now, so I'll speak at you later.

2004-03-04T12:06:00.000-05:00

So yesterday Ben and I were sitting around bored out of our minds. We decide to make another commercial. This time it's for the fictional drug Crapanol. Writing it was the most fun. Being able to use lines like "Now my leaky anus is a thing of the past" and "may cause genital acne" was priceless. Unfortunately, the finished project barely resembles a real commercial. It's still quite funny, but not as authentic looking as others.

I used this morning to finally make a King's X compilation set for Ben. I've been promising it for some time. So, just for the wait, he gets a double disc set.

Well, April's granddad's funeral is Saturday. She's been handling it pretty well. Much better than expected, so that's a good thing.

This afternoon I'm supposed to drive over to the Colonial Center and buy a couple of tickets for the Prince show. I checked Ticketmaster and all the seats left suck so I'm in no hurry. I still need to get off my lazy butt and get them before they sell out (like that'll happen). I seem to have the worst luck with shows unexpectedly selling out. We once drove to Atlanta for Music Midtown and they were sold out. How does an outdoor festival like that sell out? The world may never know. Anyway, who knows what'll happen. I'm out.

2004-03-03T09:13:00.000-05:00

So yeah. I forgot to update this thing yesterday. I told you it would be somewhat daily. Sheesh.

So, what have I been up to? Nothing. I requested media credentials for music midtown in Atlanta yesterday. They probably won't credential me. At least I tried. I also downloaded some video editing/DVD authoring software. They're really good. Not worth the $500 purchase price though. I think I'll use the demos and then that's it. Let's see...I also watched the School of Rock last night. It was decent. There were some pretty funny parts in it, but it wasn't a great Jack Black movie. I expected more. The kid on lead guitar is better than me though. He was rockin'.

Yeah, so that's just about it. Hopefully I'll do something more enlightening today.
Peace

2004-03-01T13:30:00.000-05:00

So what's going on? This is all about me. You probably don't care, but I don't care if you care. I'll probably end up telling you people way too much stuff, but that's all right. You know.

The other day I made a really cool Hardees Thickburger commercial. I recently got a digital video camera and I'm all about making videos now. So my commercial is really simple and it's just like a real thickburger commercial. It's one take, in black and white, and completely annoying. Just like the real ones! Ben and I also made a video for the Alice Cooper song "Pass the Gun Around." It's pretty depressing. I think we did a pretty good job since it was our first attempt. The only thing I would change about it would be some of the lighting. It's a little too dark in places. Overall though, it's pretty cool. I'm thinking of finding some local bands around here that want a video made. I could charge them $50-100 to make it for them. They'd get a video on DVD that they could use for anything they wanted. I know my old band Tykes With Guns would have been down for something like that.

I haven't really done anything with the photography recently. The last show I did was Richie Havens in York, SC. I didn't get to shoot it, but I did get to review it. I've posted the review on my site here as well as on www.carolinaconcerts.com. Check them out.

In other news, my fiance's grandfather died last Saturday night. It's been hard on her. I can't say I know what it's like when a grandparent dies, but I do know what it's like when a parent dies. It sucks. That's all I'd like to say about that.

Anyway, that's just about it for right now. I'll update this thing again when inspiration strikes.