See Army of Anyone

Tonight I saw Army of Anyone--the amalgamation of the Deleo brothers from STP & Richard Patrick from Filter, as well as a kickass drummer in Ray Luzier--in only their second gig ever and while their set could have been weak if they only played songs from their new album, the addition of STP and Filter songs--such as Welcome to the Fold, Take a Picture, Hey Man Nice Shot, Vasoline--made the show an amazing experience. The setting was great as well @ The Paradise in Boston, since I was literally within 5 feet of Patrick and having him face me directly during a lot of the show! High-fiving him was cool, and getting a pick from the band was fun. Seeing Patrick sing reminded me that he was like the first singer I ever got into from back in like Jr. High when "Title of Record" came out. The show was an amazing experience for me to see some of the guys from two very influential bands in my music history.

If you should have the chance to see them, check them out! Their new stuff isn't bad at all, either. The memorable ones for me were: It Doesn't Seem to Matter, Disappear, A Better Place (acoustic), and Goodbye.. The old stuff helped usher in the new songs and I loved the whole show!

Hooray For Delirium!

I need to slow down. After partying till dawn, I lost an entire day in recovery--and my recovery wasn't even recovering-worthy. Maybe keeping awake while I sleep doesn't work.

A taste of the future for the rest of us?

Check out this interesting article:

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=15857

I find it disturbing that the general public of Middlesborough and elsewhere is not outraged at being watched. Has reality television desensitized us so much that we actually want others watching our actions?! We have already allowed too much surveillance of our lives into our lives, in my opinion. Sure we do not want crime to happen nor have criminals get away with it, but do we want to sacrifice our freedom and what privacy we ought to have for security and the "Big Brother" phenomenon?

Any "But I'm a law-abiding citizen that has nothing to worry about" people out there can shove it because I obey the law and have little to worry about in that respect, too. This is a matter of choice and if we are not even given the ability to choose for ourselves--whether for good or for poor--then what are we left with? We'll be left with a laundry list of what we can do and a whole world of possibilities out there in which we can no longer live.

R.i.P. Arnold "Red" Auerbach

Red Auerbach died the other day, not too long after his 89th birthday. As the man that orchestrated the Boston Celtics into the greatest basketball franchise ever, it is sad to see him go and he will not be forgotten.

Online Networks

I was thinking back to when Facebook first came out to UMass and how swiftly it grew. I remember how excited Nicole and I were those first few weeks that it was going around campus because we were able to connect with people we knew. I also remember how there was this collegefacebook.com that found it's way to me like a week or two sooner than the now enormously popular facebook.com had and I believe connectu.com was discovered not too long after that as well, this being all in like October of 2004—back when I first lived in Orchard Hill. It seems so long ago now!

It makes me wonder if there will become a market for exclusive college & university online communities since facebook as well as myspace have both become so big and open to anyone. I know that facebook users—prior to facebook going public—were upset at the idea of it going public but it nevertheless did. It will be interesting to see if connectu or collegefacebook make a comeback and create a popular and exclusive online community for college students again.

Social Distortion

Social Distortion rocked last night @ the Avalon. I would actually consider going to see them again tonight. Mike Ness kicked ass! I am so glad that it worked out for me to go, since I was not originally going to bother. I will be looking for a few of their albums to add to my collection.

Waiting for the *boom*

I saw a guy delivering oil to my building this morning while smoking a cigarette. I am not 100% on this, but is that a bad idea? I would figure to at least hold off on the smoking until I was not around that could even slightly be chanced to blow up.

The next several days...

The end of this week, as well as this three-day weekend, should be real good. I am going to see Porcupine Tree (if you have not heard of them, look 'em up!) tomorrow and I think it will be a good show. I own three of their albums and they are all amazing and a little different from each other. On Friday I am going to see Iron Maiden, which undoubtedly will be insane. I need to remember to bring my ticket for that because I see myself forgetting it. Hmm.. I have not seen any live music since Locobazooka, so I am pumped about that.

Speaking of which, I saw Black Stone Cherry at that music fest and I just bought their album last night. I gave it a listen this morning and it is the best album I have heard from a newer band in a while, though there have been some other good ones that have come out in the last year or two. For a few years I did not find anything worth while, unless it came from a band that's been good for years. But this is definitely a band to check out.

As for the rest of my weekend, I am going home again because my parents are throwing me a graduation party. I think it has been prompted more because it is also a going-away party for my sister, as she is moving to Florida in a few weeks. That should be interesting.

Google Desktop

I installed Google Desktop onto my computer yesterday. It seems like it could be useful but still, having about an inch of my screen taken up all the time by this sidebar may become distracting. There are other options for placement of it, but I figure that if it's not set up this way, then it won't be used. But overall, it is neat and may prove to help in my organization. I would recommend it thus far. Maybe if I had a bigger monitor. No, probably would make no difference.

Also, this morning I discovered what I want to do for my adventure in life. It will demand much planning and preparation, but I am hoping that perhaps within five years I can manage to begin my journey. More details sometime later down the road...

Happy Birthday, Red!

Red Auerbach turns 89 today. Amazing, that guy smoked cigars like all of his life and he's still kicking.

Changes

I am switching over to this blogger as my main site. It leaves me with a little bit more flexibility and ease.

Moving on

It's going to be weird not being in Amherst come September. I have been used to moving back mid- to late-August over the past four years, a time still smoldering in my mind. But this year I won't be doing that. Instead of moving to Amherst, I'll be moving to Boston (Brookline, to be exact). I'm excited to be moving on with my life and despite the resentment I have with a lot of my UMass experience, I still feel that I am leaving a comfort zone that I will not have again. Amherst did become my home, probably why my real home lost it's touch, and I have more sentimental memories there than I think I do in Paxton or at SPM. At some point I will lose the feeling, so maybe I should enjoy it even if it causes me pain or grief.

This had not come to mind until this past week as I was leaving the Cape with my friends after a week vacation. I thought about how I would not spend time with friends so freely the way I always have. UMass allowed for that, even if I did not take advantage of all my time there. I feel like moving and settling into Boston will make my life grand and change it both socially and personally. I'm still feeling more loss over leaving UMass now than I do in feeling excitement about moving to Boston.