I know I said I'd write more deep blogs soon, and I'm sure you're dreading that, so here's one that's kinda more pointless, rambling, aimless, and entirely what you're used to!
I bought a drum kit sometime last week. I'm super stoked on the deal I got for it. It's a cherry red Prodigy full drum kit in pretty damn good shape, and only cost me $300. I feel like I practically stole them. I totally lucked out on finding them, too. I was driving home from work and happened to pass a yard sale. My wandering, sleepy eyes caught a quick glimpse of a drum set and feeling reckless and bored, I stopped to check 'em out. I'm now pleased to announce that I'm finally attempting to learn to play drums, something I've always wanted to do. I love my guitar an excruciating amount, but for the last year or so I don't really feel I've progressed much. I've heard that learning a new instrument is a great way to change the way one learns and plays the instruments they're already familiar with, so I'm stoked on seeing how this affects pretty much everything. Who knows, maybe I'll even stop sucking hard enough to be able to finally actually write music!
Which brings me to my major thought of the night: There's something awesome about the artistic ability to write a song. I mean a real song, not something generic and without meaning. I fully understand that there are great songs that I don't like, simply for stylistic reasons (ie I don't like the genre. I don't care how great the song is, if it's something that my roommate used to play for 40+ minutes while I tried to sleep off the hardest week of my first year of college, I'm going to hate it. The end.), but I believe even the artist knows when they write a song that is, in the simplest terms, bad.
I mean that in the sense of songs that just have NO emotional connection on any level to anything. Completely hollow meaningless words set to a few chords and a beat. I don't want to name any specific songs/artists (mostly because that would take, y'know, research, effort, and thought), but when bands write songs about being blue-collar poor dudes who hate their jobs and blah blah blah, but they, in reality, are filthy rich and don't really have a concern that rivals anything on that level. And sure, you could argue that they weren't always rich, but there's still a limit. If this is your 12th album and you've been a commercial success since disc 3, give it up. It's stale.
Getting back on track though, the ability to write music that expresses what you feel, think, want, need, have, etc, and clearly communicate that to someone else is mindblowing. Some of the bands I love most (which you may or may not be familiar with now as a regular reader if you weren't familiar with before reading this here fancy blog) [Hint: all the blog titles are song titles/lyrics. And if you click them, or at least most of them, they take you to the song. WOW!] write songs that I can connect to on an emotional level ridiculously intensely, even if the subject matter is something that I'm not entirely familiar with. And that, in and of itself, is songwriting at it's finest.
A great example is 3AM by Matchbox 20 (Right about now is where you can make Rob Thomas jokes and mock me. Go ahead, I'll wait.) You've heard that song a million times, no? Are you fully aware of what it's written about? Most people, upon first hearing, assume it's a generic break-up/don't-go-I-still-love-you-wah-wah song. Plenty of them hold on to this assumption and go on listening (or not listening) to it. In reality, the song was written about a time when Rob Thomas was 13 and his mom had cancer. Weird, huh? The specifically awesome quality of the song is how the emotion you, the listener, feels when your original impression of the song meaning is interpreted, versus the emotion upon knowing the actual meaning, is still basically the same.
On the other end of the spectrum is when there is a song written about something so very specific, but you know exactly the emotion that the artist is trying to convey. I've never woken up from a hellish hangover next to a rapper from Minneapolis, but goddamn do I ever love a song about it. And I know the connection Jeff Rosenstock was trying to make there when he used that line. It's just something incredible about music that other art forms don't quite have in such a poetic kind of way.
I could go on all night here with this, but I'll stop it at that. It's just a weird thought I've had for a while, and I figured I'd blog about it while I'm here, feeling a little artistic. It's not like I can write a song about it or anything, right? Well, maybe, once I finish watching the DVD about teaching myself how not to suck at drumming...
-Riley
Also, since this is a radio-related blog and all, I feel I should say this: Martin Streek has passed away. I hate when people try to draw some personal meaning out of nowhere when a celebrity or public figure dies, but I feel I should say this: I remember the very first night my voice was ever broadcast over the FM waves. It was Midnight, and I was hosting our non-stop music show called Xstacy. The idea was to create a bit of a club-like atmosphere. I tried to emulate his cool, calm, deep rumble to his voice. It didn't come across quite the way I'd hoped. No one can do it quite as good as The Man, y'know? My grandest of grand goals is to wind up at The Edge one day, and from now on it's going to be at least a little different. I never really reflected on his influence until he was already gone, but I have to say, Martin Streek was one of the reasons radio always seemed like it would be so damned fun. And I gotta say, he wasn't lying. Thanks man, I owe you one. RIP.
Guinness World Record For The Longest Night Ever
Avast, my extended leave of absence from the blogosphere has come to a rest, and I have returned to my rightful e-throne. I suppose you may want to know what I've been up to for the past month or so to see what has kept me so busy from blogging, or you may just want to know what you've missed. Well...
-I got a job. It's pretty sweet. It's my first paying radio gig, even though I'm barely on-air at all.
-I've been doing karate about twice as much as I used to now. I'm much more sore much more often now.
-Warren left Against Me!.
-Parties. Lots of 'em. Nothing out of the ordinary to report there.
-My parents are splitting up.
-I saw The Hangover. Great movie.
-I blew my face off with a barbeque. Well, just the left half, but still, singed beard hair and burnt off eyelashes were had by all.
-Fuck you, spellchecker. It's barbeque. Not barbecue.
Yeah, so I guess that's about it. I also bought some pants, got a haircut, and slept a lot, but that didn't seem all that out of the ordinary. Actually, it's all pretty boring so I'll get right to the important shit:
My folks are getting a divorce. Well that sucks, eh? One half of me thinks it's weird that I'm putting this out in a blog before actually telling anyone in person, but then again, who actually reads this? So the new game is don't talk about this amongst each other, Dear Readers, but only to me. It'll be like a feedback survey to see how many people visit the site. Except only one person will respond and likely be the only reader I'm aware I have right now anyway.
I don't know what to say about the whole scenario. There's a lot of ways a person can look at an event like this, y'know? I could write a few pages about how this affects me and what's going to change in my life, but that feels more than a little selfish. I'm not getting divorced here. I'm not married. I don't know how any of this feels, how this really came about, or probably significant chunks of the backstory. It'd be like watching a movie with the sound off and occasionally losing consciousness throughout it all, then complaining about the character development once the credits roll. Not really fair to the actors, screenwriter, or director, right?
All I really can say is that it suddenly feels "real" now. Everyone's parents fight, and if they don't I'd be even more worried than if they did. When you're a kid they try to hide it from you. As you get older they complain about each other to you. When you're grown up, they stop hiding it all from you. But it still doesn't feel like a legit fight. Today was the first time since Christmas my family has all been gathered together in one place. It was a bit of a joint Father's Day thing with my sister's birthday (which is on Wednesday). They told us they've decided to call it quits shortly after dinner, and all anyone could do for the rest of the night was sit there quietly and stare at the TV. It was awkward to say the least.
I came home tonight at 3AM from taking my sister back to the city. Shortly thereafter, I could hear them fighting upstairs. Loudly. I quietly announced my departure and went for a walk around town for a couple hours while this all set in. I'm just getting in now, and it's all kinda settling in my brain now so I can start to form some kind of opinions, but really, I don't know what I'm doing right now. It's quarter after 5. I watched the sunset and the sunrise today. I was tired when I woke up, I'm barely awake now. If this is even legible I'll be surprised. I might just leave this overnight as a draft, then post it in the morning.
I've been pondering the subjects of home and family a lot lately, so maybe there'll be some deep blogs coming on those subjects soon. Until then, sorry for the poorly worded, half-asleep blog post. I'll get back to writing about being a poor, drunk college kid soon enough.
-Riley
-I got a job. It's pretty sweet. It's my first paying radio gig, even though I'm barely on-air at all.
-I've been doing karate about twice as much as I used to now. I'm much more sore much more often now.
-Warren left Against Me!.
-Parties. Lots of 'em. Nothing out of the ordinary to report there.
-My parents are splitting up.
-I saw The Hangover. Great movie.
-I blew my face off with a barbeque. Well, just the left half, but still, singed beard hair and burnt off eyelashes were had by all.
-Fuck you, spellchecker. It's barbeque. Not barbecue.
Yeah, so I guess that's about it. I also bought some pants, got a haircut, and slept a lot, but that didn't seem all that out of the ordinary. Actually, it's all pretty boring so I'll get right to the important shit:
My folks are getting a divorce. Well that sucks, eh? One half of me thinks it's weird that I'm putting this out in a blog before actually telling anyone in person, but then again, who actually reads this? So the new game is don't talk about this amongst each other, Dear Readers, but only to me. It'll be like a feedback survey to see how many people visit the site. Except only one person will respond and likely be the only reader I'm aware I have right now anyway.
I don't know what to say about the whole scenario. There's a lot of ways a person can look at an event like this, y'know? I could write a few pages about how this affects me and what's going to change in my life, but that feels more than a little selfish. I'm not getting divorced here. I'm not married. I don't know how any of this feels, how this really came about, or probably significant chunks of the backstory. It'd be like watching a movie with the sound off and occasionally losing consciousness throughout it all, then complaining about the character development once the credits roll. Not really fair to the actors, screenwriter, or director, right?
All I really can say is that it suddenly feels "real" now. Everyone's parents fight, and if they don't I'd be even more worried than if they did. When you're a kid they try to hide it from you. As you get older they complain about each other to you. When you're grown up, they stop hiding it all from you. But it still doesn't feel like a legit fight. Today was the first time since Christmas my family has all been gathered together in one place. It was a bit of a joint Father's Day thing with my sister's birthday (which is on Wednesday). They told us they've decided to call it quits shortly after dinner, and all anyone could do for the rest of the night was sit there quietly and stare at the TV. It was awkward to say the least.
I came home tonight at 3AM from taking my sister back to the city. Shortly thereafter, I could hear them fighting upstairs. Loudly. I quietly announced my departure and went for a walk around town for a couple hours while this all set in. I'm just getting in now, and it's all kinda settling in my brain now so I can start to form some kind of opinions, but really, I don't know what I'm doing right now. It's quarter after 5. I watched the sunset and the sunrise today. I was tired when I woke up, I'm barely awake now. If this is even legible I'll be surprised. I might just leave this overnight as a draft, then post it in the morning.
I've been pondering the subjects of home and family a lot lately, so maybe there'll be some deep blogs coming on those subjects soon. Until then, sorry for the poorly worded, half-asleep blog post. I'll get back to writing about being a poor, drunk college kid soon enough.
-Riley
Side Projects Are Never Successful
I've had a lot of creative energy lately and trouble finding a decent outlet for it. There's been plenty of things I want to do with it, but nothing I actually find feasible or attractive enough of an option to thoroughly follow through with it. Examples include working out again or fixing up my sister's old car that's just occupying space in the garage. The issue is as soon as I start thinking of those options I come up with reasons I can't/shouldn't. Such as being too broke to afford a gym membership. And the fact that driving my sister's car around without actually owning nor insuring it is more illegal than it is practical.
The most constant impulse I've had doesn't have quite the same obstacles to avoid. Over the past week or so every random musing that comes into my brain as a "What if..." type scenario balloons out into some kind of actual story arc that exists only in my brain for the moments I've decided to ponder it. Before you start thinking I fancy myself one of those deep-philosophy types, I should add that the scenarios are really more of non-sequitur moments of the utmost pointlessness, like the fantasy sequences that take place in Zach Braff's head in Scrubs.
I generally find them entertaining, and I naturally assume other people would too (because I thought of it. And I'm awesome. Duh). But I don't fancy myself much of a writer (look around the page. There's a reason there's only one person who ever comments on these. [Sidenote: Hi Kat.]), so for reasons unknown to me, I want to write a series of concept-albums about the fantastical happenings inside my head.
This isn't an announcement of a forthcoming boxset of The Soundtrack Of Riley's Brain, it's really just evidence of how unusual my brain has been behaving recently. If I were to attempt to write anything it would sound... bad. I'm fairly certain a concept album written about the thoughts that generally become my tweets (Peep 'em at the side there, yo! --->) wouldn't sound right set to some chill acoustic melody. And I don't have a synth, so BTMI!esque tracks seem out of the question. It would likely turn out eeriely similar to every myspace a bored high school kid with a guitar and a mic has ever set up, but with the phrase "space-carnie" used about a bazillion more times. And that... actually. Fuck. That sounds awesome. I'm gonna go write that.
-Riley
PS: I'm not actually writing any music. Sorry.
PPS: Also sorry for the pointless blog entry. I felt guilty for not having posted anything in a while, but I didn't have much of anything to update on apart from the sentence "I had the job interview and it went pretty alright, I think, so now I'm just waiting on a potential call back." And that's still short enough to fit into a Twitter message, just without the mindless concept-album bullshit.
The most constant impulse I've had doesn't have quite the same obstacles to avoid. Over the past week or so every random musing that comes into my brain as a "What if..." type scenario balloons out into some kind of actual story arc that exists only in my brain for the moments I've decided to ponder it. Before you start thinking I fancy myself one of those deep-philosophy types, I should add that the scenarios are really more of non-sequitur moments of the utmost pointlessness, like the fantasy sequences that take place in Zach Braff's head in Scrubs.
I generally find them entertaining, and I naturally assume other people would too (because I thought of it. And I'm awesome. Duh). But I don't fancy myself much of a writer (look around the page. There's a reason there's only one person who ever comments on these. [Sidenote: Hi Kat.]), so for reasons unknown to me, I want to write a series of concept-albums about the fantastical happenings inside my head.
This isn't an announcement of a forthcoming boxset of The Soundtrack Of Riley's Brain, it's really just evidence of how unusual my brain has been behaving recently. If I were to attempt to write anything it would sound... bad. I'm fairly certain a concept album written about the thoughts that generally become my tweets (Peep 'em at the side there, yo! --->) wouldn't sound right set to some chill acoustic melody. And I don't have a synth, so BTMI!esque tracks seem out of the question. It would likely turn out eeriely similar to every myspace a bored high school kid with a guitar and a mic has ever set up, but with the phrase "space-carnie" used about a bazillion more times. And that... actually. Fuck. That sounds awesome. I'm gonna go write that.
-Riley
PS: I'm not actually writing any music. Sorry.
PPS: Also sorry for the pointless blog entry. I felt guilty for not having posted anything in a while, but I didn't have much of anything to update on apart from the sentence "I had the job interview and it went pretty alright, I think, so now I'm just waiting on a potential call back." And that's still short enough to fit into a Twitter message, just without the mindless concept-album bullshit.
Calling Old Friends
Long time, no blog. Sorry reader(s). When you start a blog based almost entirely around the hijinks one gets in while studying radio in college, it gets a little scarce for material during the summer, when one is no longer on the radio, nor at the college. So what have I been doing? Well, see the title (and while I'm on the subject, sorry for two Defiance, Ohio referencing blog titles in a row. I couldn't find any other songs/lyrics that fit with this one. Bloggin' ain't easy.)
It's been good times chilling with people I haven't seen in a while. I've been home for just over a week now, and I think there's been maybe one or two nights where I've been home without anything to do. The rest have all been hanging out and reunion beers. Catching up on catching up is so rewarding somehow. Just spending a day or a night wandering around with no real objective, shooting the shit with someone is pretty much the best part about summer. I'm not one for big extraordinary plans, I just like to hang out and see what kind of adventures happen. Like a Calvin & Hobbes comic, but no talking tigers.
The weirdest part is adjusting back to a way more relaxed schedule. For one, my sleeping pattern is starting to return to almost resembling normal. Not too normal, mind you. But goddamn it feels good to get 8 consecutive hours of sleep again. I feel too lazy sometimes now, which I wasn't aware was possible for a long time. I need to find a job to keep me moving. Well, that and so I'm not, y'know, poor. Luckily, I have a job interview this week for a position that I would love to have, so I'm praying it goes well. I'd be ecstatic if I were somehow still in the radio loop all summer, and it's a job at a station nearby, so I'm giving this my all. I want this bad. Working at a station outside of the school for a little bit would be great too. Just the idea of being able to catch a glimpse of how other stations do it, seeing what I can pick up from that and learn to work with and take away from it is pretty exciting.
So there you have it. Riley's exciting summer thus far has been trying my damndest to get a job and drinking pints of Creemore and Guinness (that's right. When I drink at home, it's premium all the way) with friends while talking about whatever lack of thought crosses our minds. And so far, I don't think I'd want it any other way.
-Riley
It's been good times chilling with people I haven't seen in a while. I've been home for just over a week now, and I think there's been maybe one or two nights where I've been home without anything to do. The rest have all been hanging out and reunion beers. Catching up on catching up is so rewarding somehow. Just spending a day or a night wandering around with no real objective, shooting the shit with someone is pretty much the best part about summer. I'm not one for big extraordinary plans, I just like to hang out and see what kind of adventures happen. Like a Calvin & Hobbes comic, but no talking tigers.
The weirdest part is adjusting back to a way more relaxed schedule. For one, my sleeping pattern is starting to return to almost resembling normal. Not too normal, mind you. But goddamn it feels good to get 8 consecutive hours of sleep again. I feel too lazy sometimes now, which I wasn't aware was possible for a long time. I need to find a job to keep me moving. Well, that and so I'm not, y'know, poor. Luckily, I have a job interview this week for a position that I would love to have, so I'm praying it goes well. I'd be ecstatic if I were somehow still in the radio loop all summer, and it's a job at a station nearby, so I'm giving this my all. I want this bad. Working at a station outside of the school for a little bit would be great too. Just the idea of being able to catch a glimpse of how other stations do it, seeing what I can pick up from that and learn to work with and take away from it is pretty exciting.
So there you have it. Riley's exciting summer thus far has been trying my damndest to get a job and drinking pints of Creemore and Guinness (that's right. When I drink at home, it's premium all the way) with friends while talking about whatever lack of thought crosses our minds. And so far, I don't think I'd want it any other way.
-Riley
Sweet Dudes And Sweet Ladies
And just like that, First Year is done. Wow, that was fast. I'm still in London for another week or so, until my folks can get up here to help move me and some of my stuff back. With a week free I suddenly realize how I've become a bit changed over the course of the year; I suddenly have no idea what the hell I'm supposed to do with all this free time.
I guess over the course of the past 2 semesters, I've just grown too used to needing to do 5 different things at any given time. Whenever I had any downtime I would either dedicate it to eating, sleeping, or running over to the studios to do whatever was currently preventing me from eating and/or sleeping. And as tempting as it sounds, I don't think I can spend a week eating in bed. The concept of getting as much sleep as I need has somehow become foreign to me. I might just try to spend the week bumming around the city with my fellow radioheads that haven't upped and left yet.
Which brings me to another striking thought: Every single person in my program effing rules. Seriously. I love you all. It's been 5 hours since the last exam finished, and I'm already missing people. It's really weird when you think about how we all get along together so damn well. We're always working together and in the studios around each other, hanging out, doing whatever. I don't think there's a lot of other college programs where you can take a bunch of 20somethings, cram them into a few hundred square feet together for upwards of 40 hours a week, and have them all come out loving each other. It's something spectacular that we've all become so damn close over the past 8 short months. We all got to share in each other's accomplishments and achievements on Saturday night at Awards Night, and it was absolutely awesome. I love that we function like that sometimes, as something like a radio family. Then hours later at the afterparty we can function like... well, actually, I'm surprised anyone was able to function at all. There were a lot of shots of a little bit of everything...
So yeah, in short, I'm going to miss people over the summer. I'm also going to miss radio in general if no one hires me soon. I think I've made a little progress in looking by making a few calls to stations that weren't advertising positions, so we'll see how that works out.
So here's to summer, and whatever that entails these days!
-Riley
I guess over the course of the past 2 semesters, I've just grown too used to needing to do 5 different things at any given time. Whenever I had any downtime I would either dedicate it to eating, sleeping, or running over to the studios to do whatever was currently preventing me from eating and/or sleeping. And as tempting as it sounds, I don't think I can spend a week eating in bed. The concept of getting as much sleep as I need has somehow become foreign to me. I might just try to spend the week bumming around the city with my fellow radioheads that haven't upped and left yet.
Which brings me to another striking thought: Every single person in my program effing rules. Seriously. I love you all. It's been 5 hours since the last exam finished, and I'm already missing people. It's really weird when you think about how we all get along together so damn well. We're always working together and in the studios around each other, hanging out, doing whatever. I don't think there's a lot of other college programs where you can take a bunch of 20somethings, cram them into a few hundred square feet together for upwards of 40 hours a week, and have them all come out loving each other. It's something spectacular that we've all become so damn close over the past 8 short months. We all got to share in each other's accomplishments and achievements on Saturday night at Awards Night, and it was absolutely awesome. I love that we function like that sometimes, as something like a radio family. Then hours later at the afterparty we can function like... well, actually, I'm surprised anyone was able to function at all. There were a lot of shots of a little bit of everything...
So yeah, in short, I'm going to miss people over the summer. I'm also going to miss radio in general if no one hires me soon. I think I've made a little progress in looking by making a few calls to stations that weren't advertising positions, so we'll see how that works out.
So here's to summer, and whatever that entails these days!
-Riley
We Want A Band That Would Travel A Million Miles And Ask For Nothing But A Plate Of Food And A Place To Rest
I've been thinking a lot about summer lately, and all that comes with that. The fact that I'm broke as all hell and unemployed hasn't quite set in yet, and thus my brain automatically ties the keyword "summer" to roadtrips, camping, and, most of all, music in the sun.
I'm not even a big "music festival" kinda guy. I much prefer seeing a band in a small, dank, dark, hot and sweaty venue than going out with a few thousand other people and standing in the sun while watching them play. There's a few exceptions to this rule, but overall, I like small intimate venues by leaps and bounds. However the Bouncing Souls pit in the middle of a torrential downpour was one of the most fun live-band experiences I've ever had.
I'm just in love with the idea of a day hanging out in the summer listening to a killer line-up of awesome bands. A festival where there's not always a band you dig playing is not nearly as appealing. The whole thought process goes back to an old Jeff Rosenstock blog entry I read sometime during Grade 12 (that doesn't seem to exist anymore). Bomb The Music Industry! was playing somewhere-or-other, at some kind of festival or something. Besides the fact that they were playing and were awesome, Against Me! also did a set, so they all got to see that. Then some awesome ska bands I can't specifically remember, and at the end of the night Andrew WK appeared out of nowhere on the other side of town and did an interpromptu solo show. That's an amazing set of bands to see all in one day.
Then Lollapalooza 2007 rolled around, and of course I didn't hear about it until it had already finished. Pearl Jam, Against Me!, Regina Spektor, Ted Leo, !!!, The Fratellis, Tokyo Police Club, Modest Mouse, Muse... and the list goes on. If I had a time machine, that's one show I would definitely make a stop at.
So yeah, I've been looking at festivals a lot lately. Edgefest seems decent. It's heavy on the Canadian bands, which I actually dig. I think the CRTC has infiltrated my brain and enforced CANCON rules on my mental state. Either way, Billy Talent, Metric, Alexisonfire, and Beast seem like a decent crowd for $40.
Then there's Warped Tour: NOFX, Streetlight Manifesto, 3OH!3, Flogging Molly, Bouncing Souls, Guttermouth, Less Than Jake. It's like I'm in 8th Grade again. Another $40 I wouldn't mind parting with...
Then there's this years Lollapalooza: Tool, Rise Against, The Gaslight Anthem, Atmosphere, MSTRKRFT... I dig. $190USD, plus there's the cost of getting there and back. That's some money I wish I had.
And Bonnaroo. Ted Leo, Elvis Costello, NIN, Mars Volta, Springsteen... That would run me at least like $230. Graaah.
So, now that I've typed that all out, I feel even more compelled to go to at least one or two of these. Dammit. If someone could start a "Make Riley's Summer Rock Harder Than Yours Fund", that would be spectacular. I'll even set up a PayPal account for it if you people want to put money in it. Please? Thanks.
-Riley
I'm not even a big "music festival" kinda guy. I much prefer seeing a band in a small, dank, dark, hot and sweaty venue than going out with a few thousand other people and standing in the sun while watching them play. There's a few exceptions to this rule, but overall, I like small intimate venues by leaps and bounds. However the Bouncing Souls pit in the middle of a torrential downpour was one of the most fun live-band experiences I've ever had.
I'm just in love with the idea of a day hanging out in the summer listening to a killer line-up of awesome bands. A festival where there's not always a band you dig playing is not nearly as appealing. The whole thought process goes back to an old Jeff Rosenstock blog entry I read sometime during Grade 12 (that doesn't seem to exist anymore). Bomb The Music Industry! was playing somewhere-or-other, at some kind of festival or something. Besides the fact that they were playing and were awesome, Against Me! also did a set, so they all got to see that. Then some awesome ska bands I can't specifically remember, and at the end of the night Andrew WK appeared out of nowhere on the other side of town and did an interpromptu solo show. That's an amazing set of bands to see all in one day.
Then Lollapalooza 2007 rolled around, and of course I didn't hear about it until it had already finished. Pearl Jam, Against Me!, Regina Spektor, Ted Leo, !!!, The Fratellis, Tokyo Police Club, Modest Mouse, Muse... and the list goes on. If I had a time machine, that's one show I would definitely make a stop at.
So yeah, I've been looking at festivals a lot lately. Edgefest seems decent. It's heavy on the Canadian bands, which I actually dig. I think the CRTC has infiltrated my brain and enforced CANCON rules on my mental state. Either way, Billy Talent, Metric, Alexisonfire, and Beast seem like a decent crowd for $40.
Then there's Warped Tour: NOFX, Streetlight Manifesto, 3OH!3, Flogging Molly, Bouncing Souls, Guttermouth, Less Than Jake. It's like I'm in 8th Grade again. Another $40 I wouldn't mind parting with...
Then there's this years Lollapalooza: Tool, Rise Against, The Gaslight Anthem, Atmosphere, MSTRKRFT... I dig. $190USD, plus there's the cost of getting there and back. That's some money I wish I had.
And Bonnaroo. Ted Leo, Elvis Costello, NIN, Mars Volta, Springsteen... That would run me at least like $230. Graaah.
So, now that I've typed that all out, I feel even more compelled to go to at least one or two of these. Dammit. If someone could start a "Make Riley's Summer Rock Harder Than Yours Fund", that would be spectacular. I'll even set up a PayPal account for it if you people want to put money in it. Please? Thanks.
-Riley
"Sleep is for the weak, Apu!"
"...now I'm going to go to bed while you read over my ninth grade history notes."
Regular sleeping patterns have now been grouped in the "Things I Apparently Used To Do But Don't Really Remember." Too many late nights of last minute assignments and staying up late just because I can (Yeah! Fuck the man! 11PM is for suckers!) have made it bloody impossible for me to get to sleep before 3AM. I remember in high school when I couldn't wait until summer so I could stay up late every night. Now I can't wait until I can rearrange my brain to let me get back to sleep at the same time as everyone else in this time zone.
Speaking of the summer, I really, really need a job. I'm not too hard up for cash quite yet. I mean, by no means am I rolling in the dough, but in comparison to my other college brethren, I'm about as equally broke as everyone else. But that's not going to get any better if I can't find a place to work for the summer. Not to mention all the purchases I've been contemplating more than I should be allowed to lately (Why must every band I see have someone playing the exact telecaster I want? And why does Alan Cross appear and scientifically explain how awesome vinyl is just when I'm considering getting a turntable?).
As it stands now, I'm starting to get worried about summer employment. I've been attempting to get some summer jobs in the industry, but so far the only reply I've heard back from any of the jobs was an email telling me I forgot to attach a demo to my email. So that isn't exactly a good omen for me. If worse comes to worse I guess I'll try to get a job at a fast food joint or something, but I'd be bummed. I mean, I had the option of staying here in the summer, working at the school's station. I probably wouldn't really make any money since I'd still be paying rent, but I'd be staying in the radio loop. But the plan to move home was so that I'd get a summer job at another station, get more experience, and do a little better for the money since I would just be living at home and not paying rent and all that. But whatever. I'll figure something out somehow.
It's finally the home stretch. April and the last half of March have been some of the longest weeks I was unaware could even exist. Today I finally finished up the last huge nagging projects I had left. Sure, there's still 3 left next week, plus a test, 2 exams, and probably something else I'm forgetting, but I finally feel like the semester's main chunk is behind me and I can rest a bit more again.
Or maybe it's because I passed out at 4:30 without trying and just woke up now. Yeah, that's probably it. Either way.
-Riley
Regular sleeping patterns have now been grouped in the "Things I Apparently Used To Do But Don't Really Remember." Too many late nights of last minute assignments and staying up late just because I can (Yeah! Fuck the man! 11PM is for suckers!) have made it bloody impossible for me to get to sleep before 3AM. I remember in high school when I couldn't wait until summer so I could stay up late every night. Now I can't wait until I can rearrange my brain to let me get back to sleep at the same time as everyone else in this time zone.
Speaking of the summer, I really, really need a job. I'm not too hard up for cash quite yet. I mean, by no means am I rolling in the dough, but in comparison to my other college brethren, I'm about as equally broke as everyone else. But that's not going to get any better if I can't find a place to work for the summer. Not to mention all the purchases I've been contemplating more than I should be allowed to lately (Why must every band I see have someone playing the exact telecaster I want? And why does Alan Cross appear and scientifically explain how awesome vinyl is just when I'm considering getting a turntable?).
As it stands now, I'm starting to get worried about summer employment. I've been attempting to get some summer jobs in the industry, but so far the only reply I've heard back from any of the jobs was an email telling me I forgot to attach a demo to my email. So that isn't exactly a good omen for me. If worse comes to worse I guess I'll try to get a job at a fast food joint or something, but I'd be bummed. I mean, I had the option of staying here in the summer, working at the school's station. I probably wouldn't really make any money since I'd still be paying rent, but I'd be staying in the radio loop. But the plan to move home was so that I'd get a summer job at another station, get more experience, and do a little better for the money since I would just be living at home and not paying rent and all that. But whatever. I'll figure something out somehow.
It's finally the home stretch. April and the last half of March have been some of the longest weeks I was unaware could even exist. Today I finally finished up the last huge nagging projects I had left. Sure, there's still 3 left next week, plus a test, 2 exams, and probably something else I'm forgetting, but I finally feel like the semester's main chunk is behind me and I can rest a bit more again.
Or maybe it's because I passed out at 4:30 without trying and just woke up now. Yeah, that's probably it. Either way.
-Riley
