Music and Movies!

One last week of all this stress everyone! I don't know about all of you, but I am definitely feeling all the stress weighing me down and scaring me. It's all slowly being lifted off as this semester comes to an end, but I wish it would just all be gone now! My plans for this summer consist of two things. Work and making music. Now that all my friends are getting done with school too they're all coming home and that means more people to make music with. My band mates are finally all here! We've got a show scheduled at the warehouse already too, Second String Dinosaurs on June 13th, along with my cousins band Prehistoric Forest. You should all come see us play! We're a very different kind of local band, stuff that most people at the warehouse aren't used to hearing, but it's fun!
So has anyone seen Wolverine or Star Trek yet? I saw Wolverine opening night being the geek I am and thought it was glorious. I love it all, and I think the opening credits were the best I've seen in any movie ever, it was very creative. I'm very tempted to read the whole graphic novel based on just seeing the movie. I was very impressed. I have yet to see the new Star Trek movie, but between all my friends who have seen it, I've heard nothing but praise. It's nothing like the old Star Trek series or movies, and is much, much more filled with entertainment. I suggest going to see both for anyone who hasn't yet!
So to conclude my blog this week...June 13th, if you've got nothing to do, go to the Warehouse. Come support the local music venue!

This week in the life of me.

Good afternoon fellow bloggers, I don't really have much on my mind this week, so I'll let the thoughts flow freely. First off, I'll throw this out there; I am sick and tired of hearing about the Swine Flu. I hear people all around me freaking out when the truth of the matter is, in my opinion at least, the media is hyping this up as much as they can. I'm pretty sure the death count hasn't gotten above 8 or something. And America has the sources to stop it, so we really have nothing too much to worry about... I'm just fed up with the media and its excitement over this. In other news, my laptop died a week or so ago! The backlight on it just decided to crap out on me, so they had to replace the whoe LCD screen, luckily it was under warranty though, or else (so they claim) it would have cost me $750, but I'm pretty sure that's a big stretch...Just them tryign to scare me into renewing my warranty. In other news though, I got a new bass guitar and it's gorgeous! It's a 5 string bass with an f hole in the body, and it sounds great, much better than my old bass. I'll attach a picture of it here once I'm done. Well that's all I have for you this week guys. Have a good weekend!

Trivia!!

Evening fellow bloggers, I write to you all tonight from Port Edwards, playing that massive trivia contest I've been talking about for weeks! It just started at 6, and so far there are about 20 people here within 30 minutes. A pretty decent outcome if you ask me. The weather has been just about perfect lately! A little warm for me, I always think spring weather doesn't last long enough...but who asked me right? I've been longboarding constantly, sitting out on the stoop with my roommates, just like stoop kid from Hey Arnold! It's also been warm enough just to hang out late at night outside. Well I really can't think of too much more to update you guys on, so I think I'm just gonna end it here this week...Over and out!

Video Games

Well, world of the internets...This is my week to geek out. I'm goign to be listing my personal favorite video games at this point in time. There aren't very many of them, but hey, I still think it's worth listing off because I have nothing better to blog about this week!

Left 4 Dead- This is definitely my favorite game at the time. I play it just about every night with my roommates. It's a first-person zombie shooter game. You get to choose between four survivors of a massive infection. Every level you fight your way through hordes and hordes of the common infected zombies, and every once in a while you run into what are called "Special Infected." There's the smoker, the hunter, the boomer, the witch, and the tank. The smoker's special ability is to grab the survivors from a far distance with it's tounge to pull them in and start clawing at them. The hunter's ability is extreme jumping. It can jump really far distances from building to building until it can pounce on a survivor and once again, claw at them. The boomers are ridiculously fat, because they spew vomit on the survivors which brings a horde of common infected to who ever got spewed on. It's pretty hilarious to watch. The witch can either do no damage, or a lot of damage. She sits in corners crying and if you don't disturb her, she wont hurt you. On the off chance you accidently shoot her or walk into her, she'll shriek, and basically kill you in a heartbeat. The tank is basically just that. He's a huge zombie that can destroy anythign and everything. All in all this game is all about team work, which is why I love playing it with my roommates.

Halo 3 has been on of my favorites games since it came out. Another first-person shooter. You're a super-marine basically saving the earth from two races of aliens cann the Covenant and the Flood. This one is great for playing online, it's simple two team shooting action. Not too much to say about this game. It's been a huge franchise ever since the realease of the Halo 1. If you haven't heard about it by now, well, I don't really know what to say.

Rock Band 2 is a brilliant game. First game of it's kind to bring drums and a microphone to gaming systems in a big way. This is just a fun party game. You play "instruments" and hit notes. For me personally, it's a good way to work my drumming chops while not annoying the neighbors at 2 a.m. This is definitely a great game to play even if you're not a gamer. And age doesn't matter at all. Literally anyone can enjoy this game.

Well those three are my favorite at the moment. I love playing them as much as I can! I'll probably keep blogging with my lists because they're always things I can enjoy that maybe other people will enjoy too. You know, sharing the fun! Speaking of fun...here's a quick sidenote. This sunday, Easter sunday, a great pop techno band by the name of Freezepop is playing at the warehouse, so everyone should check out their myspace or soemthing and come to the show, it'll be awesome! Take it easy bloggers!

Trivia

Some people love trivia, some people hate it with the fiery passion of 10,000 suns. I for one love trivia. A lot. Which is excellent, because this weekend I'm heading up to my roommate's hometown of Port Edwards, which is right next to Wisconsin Rapids. Port Edwards has a radio station that holds a 10 hour straight trivia contest. They'll ask a question and then play two or three songs while you find the answer and then call in to the radio station to answer the question. I've never done this contest before, but I have done something like it last year, but more extreme. Last year, in late spring, I went to Port Edwards with my roommate once again, for another trivia contest. This contest is much more intense though. 72 hours straight through a weekend, of sleepless googling, finding answer after answer with a huge group of friends. It might not sound like your thing, but it'sdefinitely one of the funnest experiences I've had in the past year. Tons of caffeine, great music, surrounded by friends for 72 hours, sitting on a computer, free food and snacks. What more could a college student ask for really... So anyway, that's what my weekend will consist of, and probably a lot oflongboarding with the beautiful weather. Well, until next time bloggers!

The Times They Are A-Changin'

This week I've decided to blog about some of my plans for this upcoming summer, and even just the near future. We'll start with spring break! Spring break is so close I can smell it. I have no real plans for it, but that doesn't make it less enjoyable. The two days I have anything planned are the night of Hairspray at the La Crosse Center, I have to work 4 hours to clean it all up... which kind of sucks, but hey, it's better than 8 hours. And then next Sunday a group of friends and I are heading up to the cities to see Eric Whitacre preform some of his pieces. Eric Whitacre is a choral music composer, and has made several beautiful pieces of work. I geek out to good music like that, as do a select few of my friends. My next big plan isn't until school is out, and that's moving out. Currently I live with 5 other guys, which really isn't that bad, we're rarely all home at the same time, so it doesn't get too packed. This upcoming summer though, I'm only living with 3 of the 5 guys, in a much nicer house. It's over on Johnson street, by Jackson Plaza, for those of you who know the neighborhood. It's far from campus, but we're fine with that, because we're all sick of dealing with drunk people every weekend yelling and being ridiculous. Going back to the warm weather now, it opens up so many things to do, I'm so excited! I'm one who can enjoy winter for about a week, and that's it, so spring has been long awaited by me. It opens up so many activities, like longboarding, hanging out down at Riverside, going to the pearl and not freezing, frisbee, and I may even start paintballing this summer. Well that's it for this week bloggers; until next time!

An ever-changing list

After not being able to think of what to blog about for the life of me, I went to check the class blog that Mrs. Allard told us about, and it gave the idea of making a list of something. So I've decided to do what the easiest one for me is, bands/musical artists. Of course this list is always changing, even hour by hour, so I bring you, in no particular order; My 15 favorite bands (At the moment), complete with commentary!

Rush- Rush is a classic band, made up of three brilliant musicians. Who can deny listening to a band with 24 gold records and 14 platinum ones? I often listen to Rush when I want some inspiration in playing music, the play very different then most bands you hear nowadays.

Reel Big Fish/ Streetlight Manifesto- I say both of these bands because I love ska and I never really listen to just one or the other, I usually just mix the two and put it on shuffle. These guys easily give me my ska fix when I need it.

Brand New- Sometimes, I just need a good band that can relax me a bit, and Brand New does that while not being too weak.

CAKE- I never really know what kind of music these guys are classified as, they've got a very twangy guitar sound, and a very mellow vocal track, but it's just so enjoyable to listen to, I'm almost always in the mood to listen to these guys.

GreenDay- Who doesn't love a good dose of GreenDay every once in a while? I grew up to my dad listening to these guys a lot, so I learned to love them pretty quickly. As often as I hear people complain about their newest album, American Idiot, I'll admit that I really don't mind it at all, and enjoy it often. Of course I love their old stuff, and would choose that any day, but who wouldn't?

Death Cab for Cutie- Yet another band who is good to listen to while relaxing, very laid back, yet awesome to listen to.

Dream Theatre- Most of you probably haven't heard of these guys. They're a very technical band, and very, very skilled. The only reason I stumbled onto these guys is because my musically inclined friends found them and brought them up to me, giving me yet another band to listen to.

Ludo- For those of you who didn't know, Ludo has been coming to the Warehouse in La Crosse for years, but only recently became a pretty well known band. These guys put out an awesome sound, and a different one at that, they've god a moog player! And if you don't know waht that is, you should Google it! They also have a fantastic live performance and are really hilrious people. My old band actually got to open for these guys a few times before they made it big, so that's pretty exciting.

Motion City Soundtrack- Oh man, I love these guys. They're very up beat in most of their songs, and also put on a sweet live performance. One of my close friends introduced me to these guys after they came to the Warehouse about 4 years ago, and really got me hooked pretty easily.

MAXEEN- This is another band I found from the Warehouse, and once again got to open for them. They never really made it big, and are no longer a band, but they made really cool music, and the singer was very Michael Jackson-esque, but the rest of the music wasn't, so it made for an awesome mix.

Muse- My love for Muse has grown exponentially over the years. My mom first introduced me to them, as she has for plenty of other good bands, such as Queens of the Stone Age, Disturbed, and NIN. Anyway, I digress. Muse is a trio of guys who make some kickass music. They've got a DVD out of them playing at Wimbley Stadium, and it's just mind blowing to watch. If you've never heard of these guys, I suggest you do soon.

Paramore- Sometimes you just need a good fast paced band like this. They're fun to listen too, plus the lead singer is a babe. haha

Primus- What a weird band... The bass player is one of the best out there, and are just weird and fun to listen to, you should at least check them out once.

Protest the Hero- I wouldn't consider myself a metal head, but a lot of the time, I just need some metal to listen to. These guys surely do that, and they add a very technical aspect to it, which I love in music, plus these guys recorded a CD at 18 that's better than many CD's out there. They're very skilled musicians.

System of a Down- Yet another band that gives me my metal fix when necessary. These guys are a blast to listen to.

Well that's it for my list. I hope some of you maybe find a new band thanks to the list. But if anything I hope it gives you a little more in depth picture of what I like. Well, I'm off for this week. Until next week!