I sold my soul to the devil and all I got was this lousy sampler CD

I started this post like 2 weeks ago and just now finished it up. however I guess since it was saved as a draft it will show up for teh date I started it on... stupid blogger.


As I mentioned in the last post, Sunday, I went to Ozz Fest with Kevin, Laurel, and Crystal. It was Crystal's birthday, and she likes System of a Down, and somehow Laurel could get $10 tickets. So it seemed like a good idea. Ozzfest is an all day affair, with like 20 or so bands. It starts at 9:30 am and goes until like 11pm. I figured it would be good to get there relatively early even though I didn't care too much about the morning bands, because A) we would get better parking and hopefully not have to wait 2 hours to get out of the parking lot like we did last time I was at Nissan Pavilion, and B) I figured that we had tickets for the whole day, and even though they were only $10, we might as well use them. So I suggested that we meet at 7:30 am to head out and get there around 9:30, assuming there would be a good deal of traffic (last time I went to Nissan rt 66 was a parking lot). Kevin, being the one planning this whole thing, compromised and said to meet at his parents house at 8. Well, I got there at about 7:55, and called Kevin to find he was "on his way". I think its was at least 8:20 by the time he got there. Then I called ducore who was supposed to meet us there as well to see where he was. The call went down like this:

Me: Hey Ducore, where are you?
Ducore: Um, at home...
Me: Uh, you're supposed to meet us at Kevins parents' at 8, Its 8:30.
Ducore: 8PM, right?
Me: Um, Ozzfest is all day long. It starts at like 9, we're about to leave.
Ducore: Shit, let me call you back.

Him and Shanni ended up not coming. Somehow they missed the fact that this was an all day festival and I guess Kevin failed to menion AM when he told them when to meet us. So we head down to Nissan and take the back route to avoid traffic (probably unnecessary as there was no traffic) and get there in really good time, I think it was like 9:30 when we got there so we went to Panera for some breakfast. At some point someone asks what time system of a down goes on and I say 9PM. everyone else is like "well why the hell are we here so early?". Evidently I was the only one who had looked at the schedule online. Everyone really only cared about seeing System, so I think they were a little teeved that they got up so early to come see bands they didnt care about. Anyway, I like concerts even if I dont love the music... I like the atmosphere, so I didnt mind it. We went over to the second stage which had bands playing until like 5pm when the main stage opened up, and saw "Walls of Jericho", which weren't overly impressive, even though they have a female vocalist which I usually like. It was basically just a bunch of rythmic guitar and unmelodic screaming. We made some comments about how original it was for a heavy metal band to have a biblical name, and how the singer really needed to chill out. Seems like you have to be pretty high strung to scream like that. No one seemed too excited about watching them so after wandering around the vendor tents and whatnot, and deciding not to go into the "sideshow" tent, we went up to the lawn where our seats were and found a tree to get some shade under. We hung out there for a while, and then I decided to go back and watch some more bands at the second stage. I also wanted to see Bad Acid Trip cuz I'd heard them before and thought they were ok. I got there part way through their set, and it was alright. Basically, If you take System of a Down, and take the most psychotic, nonsensical parts, thats Bad Acid Trip. They have a song called like "Black Metal Kitchen Appliances" if that is any indication of how crazy they are. Side note: a group of guys we say in Panara that morning were on stage taking pictures of the band. Anyway, I dont remember the next band, A Life Once Lost, I think they were playing when I went to see the Dimebag Darrell tribute guitar display. He's the Pantera Guitarist who got shot to death during a concert. A bunch of other musicians decorated his signature Dean guitars and they were on display. That was pretty cool. There were a lot of references to Diembag Darrell by bands throughout the day even though he died like 2 years ago... But I guess that shows the influence he had. The next band was Norma Jean, who even though they were very hardcore and heavy, I kinda liked. I'm sure some guitar purists would have wept over the music they were playing on their beautiful Les Paul guitars (usually not a heavy metal guitar). The moshing got pretty crazy for them, which seemed like a bad idea considering we were on a gravel parking lot. There were a lot of bloody knees and elbows. I think I saw a little of the next band Bleeding Through before going back to see what people wanted to do for lunch, but I dont think I was impressed.

This seems like a nice place to start a new paragraph. Anyway, I went back to the rest of the group and we grabbed some overpriced food ( I got a cheese burger). Then Kevin, Laurel and I went back to the stage to see Atreyu. Len likes them so I wanted to see if they were any good. I wasn't all that excited by them. Nothing to write home about(aparrently however something to write a blog about). However, they finished their set with a really cool instrumental that made them a little better in my book. Next was Black Label Society, which is Zakk Wylde's band (He used to be/ maybe still is Ozzy's guitarist). Oh, and he also plays on shake's new birthday song on Aqua Teen Hunger Force. He is a phenomenal guitarist, but I dont really like the style of his music. I had a similar reaction to him as seeing Lynard Skynard. Too many confederate flags, and redneck fans. I know thats really stereotypical and stuff, but it rubs me the wrong way. Also too many skulls and guns and whatnot in their stage back drop and the band teeshirts people were wearing. That being said, their song "Suicide Messiah" is actually growing on me, so I guess they were all right. As I said, hes a fucking awesome guitarist, just not my style. Next was Ozzy himself. It turns out, now that I wikipediaed the matter, that Zakk Wylde was indeed playing with Ozzy. Hmm, thats cool that he played two sets like that. Anyway, Ozzy was alright. He played some Black Sabbath songs, which was cool. It was kinda funny when he was all like "I cant fucking hear you" and the crowd would scream louder and then he'd be like "I cant fucking hear you" again, and I was not sure if he was just egging the crowd on, or if he was really hard of hearing. He is pretty old, and acts like he's senile or something. He actually acts exactly like my Dad's cousin who has parkinsons... So kids, dont do drugs because it will make you act like you have parkinsons. I was hoping he'd play "War Pigs" which he didnt, so I was a little disapointed.

Next we went back to the lawn, which was pretty empty even though the first band Dragonforce was starting. So we staked out a place at the very front of the lawn. Dragonforce wasnt that great... I mean musically they were good, but they sounded like Iron Maiden, and it was all like D and D imagry in the lyrics, which always sounds too affected for my liking. I probabaly see them like Ducore sees Dream Theater. Next was Lacuna Coil, a band from Italy with a male and female vocalist. I had listened to them a bit online, so I was excited to see them. They were pretty good. They did a cover of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence". They said a few things to the crowd in funny Italian accents (I think they made some political statement or another that I agreed with). Anyway they were good enough for me to buy their album. Hatebreed came on next, but I missed most of their set as I was getting dinner. I made the mistake of offering to pick up food for everyone else, so I ended up waiting in two long lines and carrying a crapload of food back. Then as I walked back onto the lawn the security lady told me I couldnt carry the box that my pizza was in onto the lawn as it could be used to set fires. I dont know how this was any different from the container of fries (soaked in grease nonetheless) I was also carrying or the countless other paper products that people had on the lawn, but apparently pizza boxes are a huge danger to society. Maybe thats what Saddam was stockpiling in Iraq. So I started to figure out how I was going to carry a pizza back to my seat without a box. I ripped the top of the box off, and by this point the security lady had been replaced so I walked right by the new guy and he didnt say anything. I'd like to think she felt sorry for me so walked away so I could get through. So I ended up only seeing the end of Hatebreed. I dont really like them, but I wanted to see them to see if they would change my mind. I also wanted to relive the days of watchin MTV's "Headbangers Ball" with Ben and making fun of all the videos; Hatebreed alwasy hosts those things; actually I think we may have seen a crappy Dragonforce video on there once and been like "What, are they trying to be Iron Maiden?". Ah well. Next was Avenged Sevenfold. They turned me off the same way as Dragonforce. Too affected. They did however have a giant skull with bat wings that towards the end of their set lifted into the air and flapped its wings. Very 70's bad hair metal. It made me think of "This Is Spinal Tap". Their amps also went to 11.

Finally we were getting closer to the main attraction. Only had to get through Disturbed. I wasn't really looking forward to seeing them even though I had gone through a phase of liking them like 6 years ago. I guess you could say that I was "Down with the sickness". They actually were really good after all. They did however go with the ever popular pseudo nazi fascist imagry stage design with thin black drapes with circular logos on a red background (or was it red on black) that was cool when Pink Floyd did it, but by the time Green day got around to it, was a little worn out. Seems that every band that wants to sing about politics feels the need to pretend they are Hitler to make a point or something. Yeah thats right, Disturbed went political. I guess their songs arent overtly political, but I think you can take them that way, and their new video seems to be about rebelling against the man or something. But the really overtly political part was David Draiman's (sp) whole anti Bush, anti war speel bewteen songs. That was pleasently surprizing (I expected that from System of a Down, but not Disturbed) and I bet it pissed off all the rednecks who were there to see Black Label society (or the person whose car we saw in the praking lot who had pro Bush/support the troops bumber stickers and a system of a down hat in the back windsheild; Something tells me they are missing the point of their music) anyway, I dont remember what he said, cuz it was a long time ago, but he ended with something about bringing the troops home and how great a country this is/can be and then went into a "USA, USA" chant that was pretty cool since joining in it felt like I was vocally supporting our country and its ideals, not its retarded policies... Yeah, I way overanalyze "USA, USA" chants. Anyway, their music was good and got me in the mood for system, as I knew some of the songs and made a fool of myself headbanging and singing along. Of course they played "The Sickness" which drove the crowd crazy. Good times. A lot of people left when their set was over.

Finally system came on at like 9:20. They started with the first few songs off of Mesmerize, which was cool. at this point I was back with all the crowd surfers and whatnot and distracted by people kicking my head from above and the jackasses molesting women who surfed by. This pissed me off cuz I was distracted throughout "Deer Dance" which I was looking forward to hearing. They played a good mix of old and new stuff covering all their CDs (unlike Tool who totally skipped Undertow and Opiate when I last saw them... bastards). They played "Suggestions" off their first CD, which was cool, although Crystal was upset not to hear "Spiders". I would have liked to hear "Soil". They did however of course play "Sugar", which was one of the highlights of the night. Also, they played "Cigaro", the song of Mesmerize that is like "My cock is much bigger than yours, My cock can walk right through the door.", but they started it real slow so if it wasn't for the lyrics it could have been a ballad. This made the lines like "cant you see that you love my cock" especially funny. Another highlight was "Radio/Video", which the guitarist prefaced by saying something about how all we all cared about was dancing. "Radio/Video" has this like caribean/regae sounding break in the middle that was really cool live and everyone was dancing to. I dont remember exactly what the stage design was like but it did have some cool lighting like it seems that every headlining band is using now. The guitarist was really good, but didnt do anything as crazy as some of the videos I've seen of him. There was also some guy who came on partway through to play backup guitar wearing some sort of dress or frock that made him look like one of the sand people from Star Wars. They finished their set a little before the 11 oclock curfew and didnt play an encore which kinda sucked. We then left and had almost no traffic going home, although I did miss the exit onto 495 twice.

Not Cool Dudes...

I went to Ozz fest at Nissan Pavilion today with Kevin, Laurel and Crystal. It was 10 bucks and System of a Down was playing so it seemed like a good deal... Ill review the concert later as I need to go to bed now, but overall it was fun, even though most of it wasnt really my style, but for 10 bucks, you really cant loose. System of a Down was awesome, which was what was important.

Anyway, I just wanted to quickly point out a few things that realy pissed me off and I have to vent about
. When System of a Down started, I left the rest of the group who were sitting/standing at the very front of the lawn area on the part where it slopes down real steeply to the sidewalk that seperates the lawn from the pavilion, and wandered a little deaper into the lawn where the mosh pits and crowd surfers were for a more intense experience. What I found were a bunch of stupid assholes.

First off, the stupidity. People were crowd surfing right at the edge of where the lawn gets really steep to go down to the sidewalk, and where the people concentration thins out significantly (and the people aren't paying attention to the crowd surfers), which seems like a bad idea. Some of us more rational people were trying to push the surfers away from the edge and get others to do the same, but still, surfers were getting on right near the edge and the people below them were directing them precariously towards it. Considering the number of people I saw with busted faces (one guy took a face plant into the sidewalk; not sure if he was drunk, tripped, or fell off the edge of the crowd surf ocean), It seemed like caution was advisable.

Next the assholeness. When I go to a heavy concert, I see people act like idiots in the pit, knocking each otehr around as if they wanted to kill each other, but if someone falls, there is an arm to help them up or someone offering a shirt to wipe the blood. People tend to have this code of concert conduct even when they are being really violent towards each other. This evidently does not extend to female crowd surfers. When you crowd surf, you should expect to be manhandled a little bit, maybe your ass ,chest or loins will get inadvertently grazed and its no big deal, thats part of the contract you sign when you get on. You should not however expect to be molested by a bunch of degenerate assholes. One girl took her top off (well she was holding it and didnt seem upset about it being off, so I assume so), and she got a few grabs, and even one lick of her breasts. That may have been a little across the line, but she took her shirt off, so maybe thats what she expected. I guess thats ok until she says no or brushes hands away and then its wrong. But another girl was being passed around fully clothed and suddenly some guys started like ripping her pants off. I think they were the kind of jeans where they're cut down the side and then laced up and tied and someone untied or ripped the tie. Then the hands started grabbing at her chest and groin. Like really violently. It was the most disturbing way I have ever seen a woman treated and it really pissed me off. Obviously she was unhappy and eventually got let down with her pants at least partially on. THERE IS NO FUCKING EXCUSE OR RATIONALE FOR THAT BEHAVIOR. I then saw multiple women get felt up and have their shirts pulled at and a few get goosed in the vajayjay, and one of them started kicking wildly as if, you know, maybe she didnt feel like getting to 2nd base with a total stranger. I moved closer to the action to see if I could determine who was doing this and maybe get up the balls to do something about it, but I couldnt tell and pretty soon the girls got the idea that maybe crowd surfing in that area was a bad idea. I did however end up next to a couple biker looking guys who were vowing to find the assholes who were molesting these underage looking girls and kick their asses. I hung out next to them for a bit figuring that if I did see someone do it and try to confront him, it would be good to have the biker guys around (or more likely, I could help them find the guys and let them do the dirty work). Few things make me want to get into a fight I'm bound to loose, and this is one of them... However as I'm yet to ever get into a fight, I clearly lack the balls. Still, those asses not only violated poor highschool girls, they ruined part of the System of a Down concert for me as I was watching for more molestation instead of the concert. Eventually after I didnt see anything for a while, I went back to the rest of the group and had a much better time, but I still looked back every once in a while to see if there was any more going on.

Anyway, If one of those unfortunate girls reads this, I appologize for my gender, and hope your ok. And if one of those guys reads this, you should be very ashamed, and you need to learn to treat women with respect. Perhaps thats the reason why you have to feel up unsuspecting underage looking girls at concerts to get your kicks instead of having a woman who will let you do that to them.

Next time you go to a concert, act civilized.

drunken ramblings on war and movies

I wrote the following post last friday while drunk, and just now got around to cleanign it up a little. It probably is rambling and full of BS. You wave been forwarned.

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So, I just watched the documentary "Gunner Palace". I bought this DVD like a year ago, and only now got around to watching it. Its an excellent film that gives a view of the war in Iraq that you wont see on TV. You see these kids who are over there fighting in our name, and regardless of what you feel about whether they should be there or not, you cant help but seeing the human side of them and feeling for them. They are following orders, and there is nothing but honor in that. Even a jaded lefty liberal like me wanted only to talk to these soldiers and hear their stories and understand what they have seen and experienced. Some of these soldiers are like 19, I mean, I'm a lot older than that, and what the hell have I done with my life? For better or for worse, they are at least theoretically fighting for SOMETHING, while I sit on my ass and drink beer and watch porn. Not that I'm about to join the army, but it does make you want to do something to make the world a better place.


Anyway, seeing "Gunner Palace" gave me the impetus to finally post about something that has been rattling around in my head for a while. Obviously anyone who has been living under a rock less than 2 metric tons knows that the middle east is currenlty exploding in a shitpile of death and destruction. Some even think this is the beginning of armageddon (maybe I should read revelations whil I still can). Hezbolla kidnapped some Israeli soldiers and lobbed some misslies onto Israel, Israel bombed the shit out of Lebanon, and everyone went apeshit.... Now, I am a pacifist, and a simplist, so to me all this seems pretty retarded... but the more I watch the news (I'm a glutton for punishment I guess) The more pissed off I get. This is not a red/blue state issue, but there are two sides to the debate in this country and they are both retarded (note, a]no offense to mentally disabled people b]everyones entitled ot their opinion, and I am entitled to my opinion that your opinion is retarded). Being the glutton for news-overload punishment that I am, I listen to CSPAN's Washington Journal almost every morning while I'm in the shower. Really, it is a great show, probably as good as a call-in show can get. But almost everyone who calls in falls into one of two camps (as do most media sources):

CAMP 1), the I support israel even if they rape my daughter and salt my crops camp. This camp thinks that our foreign policy should follow whatever Israel says and Israel is incapable of bad judgement or alterier motives. They think that if Hezbolla talks shit about Israel, Israel would be showing restraint if they left a Lebanon sized crater in the middle east and induced a mild nuclear winter.

CAMP 2). The Mel Gibson Camp. This camp thinks that Israel is the devil incarnate and incapable or doing anything justifiable. They border on supporting Hezbolla and Hamas terrorist actions and think that Hezbolla is mounting a legitimate military campaign here.


Ok, Your both wrong. Ya idiots. Look, Israel is reacting to being attacked. They are justified in fighting back. They are not however justified in going to the extents they have. What do you know, both sides have a grain of truth and a grain of dumbassness. If Canada decided to kidnap some American soldiers and rain Katyusha rockets on Detroit, what the fuck would we do? We'd bomb the shit out of Saskatchewan is what we'd do, and the same people who comdemn Israel whouldn't complain about it. But thats not to say that Israel is without blame. They need to realize that killing inocent civilians is only going to help the enemy. Do you think that Hezbollah didnt predict their response? Of course they did, and the response plays right into their hands by turning moderate Lebanese to their cause and ensuring that Hezbollah can claim a raison d'etre now that Israel has invaded again. Hezbollah is now rescued from the edge of insignificance to a (somewhat) justifiable existence. Shit, half the freaking country is Christian, and Israel is unnecesarily killing civilians, Its hard to claim that all of those civilians are enemies of Israel. That cant possbibly be good PR. The country as a whole does not overwhelmingly support Hezboillah, but they probably will when you cut off their exit routes and blow they hell out of their houses. Not to mention that in my mind at least, there is no such thing as collateral damage. There is no justification for killing another human other that DIRECT self defense. If someone is aiming a gun at you or someone else, then you can kill them... but if that gun aiming person is in the middle of a bunch of kids, there is no justifying the death of those kids. Even if you bomb the gun guy and kill the kids, you can't just say "they were at the wrong place at the wrong time" and go on with your life. You may feel you have to sacrifice them, but you can't poretend that it is anything short of a tragedy. You can't just say "well, war is hell" and be done with it. So yeah, Israel, stop fucking killing so many damn civilians. Its not helping your cause at all, and its wrong.

On the other hand however, you can't expect Israel to just let a bunch of terrorists kidnap their soldiers and incessently bomb their cities. They have to fight back. They are a little tiny Jewish country in the middle of a bunch of Arab/Persian/brown-people countries and a bunch of people who seem to agree with the religious right in our country that their religion and morality should be forcibly inflicted on the entire world. Israle has to fight back lest they face ceasing to exist as a nation. Thats a fate our country hasn't even had to consider for the last couple hundred years or so. "But Tim, didnt the Israelis steal their land from the Arabs who have been there since the dawning of time/ Didn't the Arabs steal the land from the Israelites in the first place and therefore the Israelis were merely taking back the land that was rightfully theirs/ ?". Good question... the answer is: I have no idea, and who gives a damn. People have to live with the situation as it is now, regardless of the percieved wrongs that their people suffered. The American Indians got fucked over royally by our ancestors, and you dont see them blowing themsleves up at discotheques. Not that we call them discotheques here, but thats not the point. I think that if all sides in this middle east conflict just decided to deal with the hand they have been dealt and be conducive to the other side doing the same (ie, no blowing yourself or anyone else up), things would be a lot better. I can never ever understand what it is like for the people on both sides of the conflict. I have no horse in this race other than the desire for peace, but I think that if people could distance themselves from the rhetoric and the percieved slights of the past, they could see the humanity in their enemy and work for a world where people of different cultures/religions/backgrounds could get along. Obviously it is not soley a religious fight, there are plenty of Muslims living peacefully in Israel.

Going back to the movie "Gunner Palace", when the soldiers first got there, they were welcomed into the country by the majority of civilians. Say what you will about the motivations and whether we should have been there, but we did some good. However, as time went on, the people of Iraq got less and less fond of our presence. The moral, is that in a war like this, where you are dealing with an insurgency that blends in and is part of the civilian population, you have to keep the hearts and mids of the general population. If you fail to do this, then the people you claim to be liberating become the enemy. No one has to join an army and put on a uniform to fight back, they just have to get pissed off enough by your presence to want to lob a grenade at you.

"Gunner Palace" was shot in 2003 and early 2004. From the looks of it, things have gotten worse since then. We have the largest and strongest military in the world and yet 2 years later, we are still fighting a bunch of ragtag militias. We're obviously doing something wrong. Israel is easily the greatest army in their region and yet after a month of fighting they have made no headway against the same kind of ragtag geurilla warriors we are fighting in Iraq. So yeah, I think Israel should take a lesson from that and make sure they aren't alienating the people of Lebanon.



*Take all of this with a grain of salt. It is either the uninformed, unsourced rantings of a drunken lunatic, or the most intelligent thing you have ever read