It's a few days since I saw Staind in concert, and I must say, for $35 for the ticket, it was worth the money.

 

Lo-Pro opened. I never heard of them before, but they played a small tight set, and kind of set the tone when they left stage by saying they would be signing autographs. I wrote on how I met Halestorm, and a friend of mine met Staind.

 

Halestorm was very good. For $10, I bought their album at the show, and it's really accessable. Of course, getting the cover signed was rather priceless..:P

 

Chavelle I had heard of years ago, and a friend I had awhile ago was really into them. I kind of knew their stuff, but they sounded good live.

 

Shinedown I never heard of, but reminded me of Kiss on how they got the crowd to participate with singing and getting us ready for Staind was great. In fact, each band pretty much did this at some point in their set.

 

I really went for Staind, because essentially 9/11 cancelled a show in Omaha that I was going to go to with my then-band at the time. There were about four songs from that era I wanted to hear them play. And they played three (Outside, It's Been Awhile, and Mudshovel. The first two Aaron Lewis did accoustically. Epiphany was the fourth, but not played), because I loved those songs, and my band back then played them all.

 

It was worth the money.

It's kind of funny how I met Halestorm.

 

I called local cab company just starting out to take me to and from the Stimulate This! concert. I called them, and was told they would come get me in about twenty minutes.

 

I went back into the arena, and saw a line just right by the merchandising table, and a sign said:

 

"HALESTORM AUTOGRAPH SIGNING AFTER THE PERFORMANCE OF STAIND."

 

Considering that I was extremely impressed with Halestorm--ok I admit it, getting to meet a hot looking woman like Lzzy Hale would rock my world.

 

it was kind of neat going through the line, because I was talking to a bunch of kids who had to have been teenagers. I mentioned going to Rob Zombie, and the story that Rob told the father of a kid to keep him out of the pit, as it wasn't cool. Aaron Lewis of Staind made a similar comment. I was surprised about no mosh pits, but there was a lot of body surfing. I don't know if he saw something, but he made the following comment:

 

"Hey people, it's great that you're body surfing, but if someone grabs a female crotch or a boob, that's not cool at all."

 

And he's right.

 

Anyhow, as I started to get to the band, I met Joey first. I told him about Black Beauty, and he wanted to know what make she was. He could tell I was a musician, because of my language on describing her, and how long I owned her.

 

Lzzy was next in line, and when she signed my album cover, she blew a kiss. That's when I just said, "Wanna see my tattoo?" and lifted up my left sleeve.

 

The band got really curious, and wanted to know what it meant. "Family crest", I said. Josh, the bassist really thought it was neat.

 

Earlier during the show, the band did this awesome tribal thing. AreJay Hale, the drimmer, started a pretty cool solo, then some other drums were brought out, and the band pretty much did a tribal dance, banging on the drums.

 

It was one of those things that I know connected with both me and the band.

 

I'll post more about the concert itself, but I figured that it'd be fun to say that I showed off my tattoo to an extremely hot lead singer..

Stimulate this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz-9XQL6Ubo

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w4opXi2yzo&feature=fvw (--For Eric Carr)

 

 

The final video is for me. I saw Kiss three times, and each time, right before the curtain fell, Won't Get Fooled Again played.

 

For my encore:

 

 

Nuff said.

 

 

 

 

 

I wish I had a chance to see this in the theater (with some exceptions).

 

I never read the graphic novel, but a friend of mine who is extemely geekier than I who has, said that he thought I would like it.

 

Two things about this film must be addressed:

 

1). The graphic violence. Parts of it is breaking-bone-skin territory, or worse.

 

2). Dr. Manhatten's "member".

 

Addressing the first point: It's very violent, but so was Saving Private Ryan. In many ways, if you saw Ryan, the opening minutes of that film, it kind of numbed you to accept the rest of the movie. I happen to think that film is one of my all-time favorites because of the story.

 

Dr. Manhatten's member is the main controversy over the film. It's bulged, and hangs out there. Even CGI, it's..um hanging out there. View the Blue Man Group's Member at you own risk.

 

However, the story is top notch. It has a Blade Runner feel to it, on a comic book level. The first half of the movie establishes the characters, and it's rather disjointed. However, it all comes together very well.

 

Overall, I loved it.

In two days, they will be in Brookings, and I am so there.

 

Back in 2001, I was going to see them on a tour called "The Pledge Of Allegiance Tour" with them, Mudvayne, System Of A Down, and a few other bands in Omaha.

 

However, 9-11-01 killed that date.

 

I eave you with  Epiphany

 

 

 

 

Halestorm: I Get Off

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His eyes flared with fire

His mouth was not there

He yelled at me and said that I was his

I calmly said to him

 

 

(trot trot trot trot

Trot trot trot trot)

 

 

 

Download your copy and read it.

 

 

 

Mom told me her experience when Uncle Walter told her the news of the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. She was vacuuming the living room, and had Guiding Light on the television.

 

I remember when he told us about Three-Mile Island, and the whole mess with the Iran hostage situation.

 

I remember watching him talk about 9/11.

 

That's how it is.

 

 

Janis here.

 

Seems like our slaves have figured us out.

 

 

 

 

 

Random musings for today.

 

 

 

I'm not much of a basketball guy (except my Mitchell Kernels), but these two stories about LeBron James' supposedly being dunked on, and then with the help of Nike, have the videotapes CONFISCATED makes me wonder again about the maturity of superstars.

 

My point?

 

When you read the first article and watch the video of Jordan Crawford talk about the incident, the author opens with the lightsaber duel between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan. The tagline at the end is what made me laugh.

 

The second article and video is rather revealing.

 

The lesson that both articles bring forth is Watergate. I know this is a sports related item, but it shows immaturity of one of the biggest faces of the NBA.

 

Years ago, the band Anthrax wrote a song called Imitation of Life which is about basically image control. Being a fake.

 

 

Look at Michael Jackson. For God's sake, we had to endure weeks of everything about how wonderful he was. Did Lennon or Elvis (whose daughter, Lisa Marie, ironically was married to Michael) get this much attention? If the internet was around back when they died, I imagine they would have. And someone like me would probably write a blog entry like this one. It disturbs me now to find out that Jackson was taking 10 Xanax a night (a reduction from the 30-40 reported at some point).

 

 

In that respect, I shouldn't really talk bad about him in that way, considering that two of my idols, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison died that way. My cat's full name is Janis Joplin.

 

I guess this what happens when you get famous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At work, you have to have some fun.

 

Considering that I do not, i repeat, DO NOT look my age, this has become a great way to pass the time.

 

My personal ice breaker is: How old am I?

 

This little game started in a bar in Minnesota. I just turned 21. I was with family, and we were watching the Twins, and buying beer left and right. I think that a shift change occured, because a gal who I swore looked good in her 40s came to our table.

 

She took my beer away, and said to me, "Son, you're not old enough to drink this."  My mom (feisty and truthful woman she was) said, "He's old enough. I gave birth to him."

 

So I showed the bartender my ID. She looked at it, and complimented me for how young I look. For the record, I still get those compliments.

 

What's fun at work is, it's become a game that I'm the "Old Man". I don't mind that, because it's total fun.

 

"How's General Patton doing?"

 

"When you sailed on the Mayflower, did you have a room mate?"

 

Yesterday, I wore a shirt I bought that was based on Lord of the Rings, where it was kind of wrestling based.

 

(Front)

"Wizard's World Wide Wrestling Federation: Middle Earth Challenge Tour"

 

 

 

Yesterday's joke was rather funny, because I told it...

 

"I was there when Isildor claimed The One Ring."

 

What's fun for me is, this is with kids who are twenty years old or so. I explained to a couple of them on how special my memory of seeing The Empire Strikes Back waiting in a huge line with my brother, and (SHOCK!) no spoilers from the Web. Going back to my brother's place with blank faces, and having my sister-in-law ask us, "Did you like it?" when she saw our faces.  My brother replied, "Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father."

 

One of them reminds me of a younger me in the sense that he's totally comfortable in his skin when joking around like this. We've had some discussions on movies, music, and books that's just so much fun to discuss.

 

His relpy to my Isildor joke was: "Are you an elf?"

 

It's fun. I'm an old coot (LOL!).