Bringing it back, because I'm bored

All I have to say is this, I am in love with the new Mortal Kombat game.

my stupid dreams, part 2

once again, no idea how this happens:

Carlin and I are off in grad school somewhere.  We are watching TV when Carlin's face pops up on TV saying that he is the person chosen by The Johnson Act, a program that picks a random adult in the US to look over the cryogenic remains of politicians and famous people.  Carlin was chosen to look over the remains of Ted Kennedy.  I travel with Carlin to DC as his legal advisor.  When we get there we realize Carlin has no choice, he has to look over these remains because it's law.  He is compensated with 40 grand a year, but he has to pay the upkeep of the place, which is 38 grand, so he is screwed.  I make it my life to free Carlin from this life of servitude.  

Then I wake up.

Nine Inch Nails: Broken

I'm gonna start writing about albums I absolutely love and that are close to my chest.

While I enjoy The Downward Spiral, this is NIN's best album.  It's an EP but every song is so good.  This album is to blame for some really bad industrial rip off music.  A lot of people say that Trent Reznor is ripping off Ministry, but he does it better.  these songs are so raw and they were meant to be that way, plus since the album was recorded in secret as a big screw you to his record label at the time it only gets better.  "Gave Up" is hands down my favorite NIN song.  I listened to this thing so much in high school; it was insane.  After buying Downward Spiral I wasn't sure about this band, but then I got this EP off of a recommendation, and I'm fucking happy I did.  The only other song that comes close to "Gave Up" in my mind is "The Perfect Drug", and that came out yearssssss later.  If I'm bored I will usually put this on.

As I've always said, I've never been depressed, but I love the sounds Reznor comes up with because he is truly unique.

my stupid dreams: part 1

so I decided this will be a good place to detail the few dreams I actually remember, seeing how I barely ever remember them.

So it starts off that I'm in a van going to Marine World, which is cool, but I'm in a van with Soundgarden/Audioslave singer Chris Cornell, Steven Segal, Kurt Russell and Danny Glover.  There might have been others but I can't remember.  We get to Marine World, Segal pukes after 2 roller coasters, Glover tries to break into a tiger cage but fails.  Next, Kurt Russell really wants to get a churro, so we all follow him, but there are no churros to be found anywhere in Marine World, so he gets super pissed and starts to beat the shit out of employees until they find him a churro.  After no churro can be found we all decided to go get some lunch.  We walk into a building in the food court and then realize we are in a Safeway.  Who knew Marine World had a Safeway in it!  And the food wasn't over-priced!  Danny Glover disappears at this point, Kurt Russell and Steven Segal decide to get sandwiches but Chris Cornell and I want some soup and chips.  We go to the counter to see what the soup of the day is only to find out that they are only carrying one soup, The Alexander.  The counter person tells us that it's Hillary Clinton's favorite soup.  Neither of us know whats in this soup so I ask to see the label of the soup to find out whats in it.  The ingredients read: sourdough, sourdough, sourdough.  

I then wake up, and I am just as confused as ever.

"Maverick" is one of the best films ever.

"First time I met the hombre I smelt nothing but trouble, and refried beans."

Damn this movie is gold, Mel Gibson, river boat gambling, indians, Jodie Foster being a cock tease, shooting people, the old West.  Too bad Mel is crazy, because he is so awesome in this one.

What 2008 did for me

First off I graduated college.  It was rad but also a bummer.  I would not get to see the rad people I was proud to be my friends.

My dad had a heart attack, and then got married, all without me there, weird stuff.

I did not go to Santa Cruz enough, probably because Nate was gone and Ira was being a reclusive hippie, but Carlin was always there for me.  I could always use dorm food to help me through the day.

The thing that really stuck out to me this year was the fact that I discovered a lot of good music, the best part is that most of it was old music.  Let's be clear, this sounds like a broken record but most new music is boring to me.  It's over produced and full of non-talent, the talent is in the business marketing and the producers who are smart enough to sacrifice their integrity for a steady sum of money, and more power to them, the artists are the one's who are suffering. 

The main shout out here goes to my friend Ian, he really got me to check out older stuff after years of me showing him the good stuff and getting him out of his terrible metal phase.  We now look at the music we used to listen to as a joke, but Ian really showed me that most new stuff now is simply ripping off someone who did it first 30 years ago, and that sometimes the people doing it 30 years ago did it better.  There is no problem with being influenced by older artists but sometimes certain artists (Muse) aren't even trying and are borderline ripping off their influences.

It's really getting to me, my former room mate is badass and I love him to death but for every good thing in music he likes he enjoys 4 shitty-fake artists.

Here is what I discovered in 2008

1. David Bowie:  I had a greatest hits, but I got "Heroes" and from then on I was hooked.  He has done everything and most people in music own him credit for doing something first.  I will say though he hasn't made a great album in many years.

2. Depeche Mode: this is a linger on from 2007 but I could not stop listening to them this year!

3. Studio - "Yearbook 1": this album I got off my friend James, and it's Swedish electro music but it's so good

4. Tricky - "Maxinquaye": another shout out to Ian, this album is not getting a play stoppage anytime soon

5. PJ Harvey - "Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea": another Ian shout, classic pop songwriting and all the Radiohead fans can rejoice because their singer shows up on it and doesn't turn the songs into electronically muffled shit.  

6. Oasis: they put out a rockin' new album last year and I discovered the good and bad of their back catalogue.  "What's the Story (Morning Glory)" is classic rock indulgence.

that's it for now, I need to sleep, but I discovered so much good old music that I had to shout it somewhere.

Top 10 Albums of 2008

I'm gonna start using this thing, so here I go:

1.Nine Inch Nails- The Slip

2. The Music- Stregnth in Numbers

3.Modwheelmood- Pearl to Pigs Vol2

4. Eagles of Death Metal-  Heart On

5. Beck- Modern Guilt

6. Flight of the Conchords- S/T

7. Oasis- Dig Out Your Soul

8. Portishead- Third

9. The Raconteurs- Consolers of the Lonely
10. Nine Inch Nails- Ghosts I-IV

-Coldplay, Guns N Roses, The Killers, pretty bad.

- Gnarls Barkley and Weezer put out "OK" albums, but it was nothing special, and I never got around to listening to Metallica's new album so that one is up in the air