Following Tim

One of Jeri’s friends, Tim (Stough) not my beer drinking friend Tim, motivated me to draft a few notes about music/musicians etc. that have played a role in my quiet little life. To begin, I would have to say mention that classical music in general played a huge role in my life. I started playing the violin at 4 and went on a downward spiral from there. Farily early on, I knew that what turned me on was hard, fast and very technical music. And once I discovered Paganini….holy shit. That was then end…and the beginning. Faster. Everything had to be faster, and then heavier.

And then faster.

And faster.

And then at some point (like within the last few years), I decided that I liked to cry when I listened to classical music. But really, you can have your cake and eat it too. For example:

One day I was nosing through my brothers room and I stumbled upon an cassette by this “Anthrax” band. What the fuck? I snuck back to my room, and popped it into my ghettoblaster. This was completely unlike the “metal” I was accustomed to, the Black Sabbath, the Ozzy Osbourne or Iron Maiden. This was….this was “it”. As punishment for stealing his tape, my brother took a hammer to the tape while I pleaded to keep it. (See, he’s always been a dick). So, I had to maneuver my lardy self down and pick up “Fistful of Metal”. Sure, it had Neal Turbin, not Joey Belladonna, but somehow, that made it even better. This album, got the ball rolling for me.

I got him back though, I soon made off with his Stormtroopers of Death album (Anthrax w/Billy Milano on vocals….really the best line up….)

I will go ahead and insert the fact that Jeri has a mad crush on Scott Ian of Anthrax/S.O.D. fame. Mad crush.

Shortly thereafter I was corrupted my the true masters of the genre, Slayer. Kerry and his friends just blew me away. Totally and completely. They also blew Mother away with their overt approach towards religion, war and so forth. (Mother was in for a long ride.) While Reign in Blood is near the top of my all time favourite albums, I credit this track for both teaching me the proper mosh riff (to be brought up later), and how to “dance”.

Fine, toss in Metallica. How could you not?

At some point, I found myself gravitating towards the New York HardCore Scene. Everything that came out of there was so gritty, so real. Honest and simple. Agnostic (fucking) Front. That was my band throughout high school. My heroes. Sure, I was in the 2% of their fan base that was not a neo-nazi, and a metal fan. I got to chat with Roger Miret outside of Mudbugg’s before their show one afternoon. He was a real person, and I remember him asking a neo-nazi not to interrupt. I could see Vinnie Stigma, but he seemed pretty busy playing with his dog, and I was too chicken shit to go talk to him. I never got back into A/F after they reunited, but they will always have a place in my heart.

At this point, I was in the process of trading the violin in for the guitar. I set my sights fairly high, and didn’t waste any time learning songs I felt were “important”. No “Stairway to Heaven”, but rather a little tune by the Brazilian Masters….Sepultura:Dead Embryonic Cells. This track taught me how bad thrash could make your hands feel, and once again the sheer beauty of the mosh riff. (The mosh riff was prevalent throughout my days to this point, but the Brazilians simply rocked it. Pantera’s Cowboys From Hell and The Art Of Shredding” were not far behind.

Pantera deserves it’s own entry, as does Chuck Schuldiner (Leprosy), not to mention the entire range of the ultimate metal gods, Carcass (old: Exhume to Consume, to their “Swansong”: Ever Increasing Circles, Emotional Flatline.

(Johnny Winter, Rollins Band, And of course Fear Factory will all get their own entires, as their influence, was unshakable, and can’t be done in a paragraph…..interestingly, Gene Hoglan is now drumming for Fear Factory. He played with Chuck Schuldiner for a number of years, and is an amazing musician. Also, Dino Cazares is apparently back in Fear Factory; Christian Olde-Wombers and Ray Herrera are apparently pursuing their side project. Given the differing styles between Herrera and Hoglan, I’m very curious to hear new works.)

That’s all for now. Jessica, after listening to all tracks, you can comment on the prior entry. Kerry, you keep commenting on 2008 entries, Jeri, Captain of the Mountain View Neighbourhood Watch….. you eat your candy.


Quick Jaunt

elders

To Laughlin to see friends of Jeri’s.  Of course, I will now claim them as friends of mine….know what I mean dude?

Grand Ole…

I spent the last week at my 2nd job’s National training conference in Nashville, Tennessee.  I won’t go into great detail about the event, because although I found it to be quite interesting, I noticed Doodle’s eyes glaze over repeatedly.  I met up with good colleagues from Tucson, and made friends with people from all over the country.  The job you ask?

nashreason

Yes, I am now both a Federal, and a State employee.  But what didn’t make Doodle’s eyes glaze, were photos of the hotel where we stayed (Gaylord Opryland).  This place, well…I lack the photography equipment and skill to pull this off, and do it justice.  Stunning landscaping, beauty everywhere your eye happened to land…and to say it was H U G E, would be a gross understatement….

The requisite hotel room shot:

nashhotel

Views from the balcony (a rough morning to wake up to, with the lush waterfalls and stream….)

nashbalconyviewnashbalconyview2

And in no particular order, shots from around the numerous atriums (ok the entire hotel is made up of atriums….)

nashgrounds1nashgrounds2nashgrounds3nashgrounds4nashgrounds5nashsky

And, yes no trip would be complete without seeing (since it’s essentially attached to the hotel…..)

nashopry

And In Wait

Kerry decided Jeri needed some peace and quiet for a change, and has zipped me off to Nashville for a few days.  Why Nashville….was he trying to hide his lack of progress on the burro pen?  Who knows.  I will try to update on my various activities:  so far I’m only at the airport, where my belt set of the alarm, Military Jets are blasting off, and an elderly (drunk) man was having a tantrum because his bag was going to be inspected.  It may have had something to do with the large bottle of Popov he was carrying, but he was having no part in his bag inspection.  I wanted to stay, watch, and perhaps get some much needed photos for V1….but that would be rude I ugess.

Oh…emergency seat acceptance = Priority Boarding.  Nice!

The Good Wife

Because she ate part of her Lumpy-Bumpy bar, and let me play HAWX, the sweet one got homemade tortillas y frijoles….

goodwife

Nothing To Report

I realized that nary a photograph has been taken in some time.  Which, would normally mean I would need to draft something with a vague sense of witticism.  I have neither, so I will sum up the last week or so:

  1. Guitar Hero Metallica, best one yet.
  2. Kerry chickened out of the Amazing Race
  3. Jeri ate most of her candy, but not the Lumpy Bumpy Bar.
  4. Jessica/Muppet will continue to post on other entries well below this one.
  5. It was nice seeing Stephanie, although brief since I allowed the girls their quiet time.
  6. Kerry pussed out on the Amazing Race.
  7. There is nothing here for Jessica/Muppet and Doodle to get off topic about.
  8. Shopping for Business Casual wear sucks.
  9. I like everything I’m working on violin-wise, even if it hurts.
  10. Kerry looked at the Amazing Race like BYU looks at whiskey.
  11. We have too many stray cats, not enough dogs.
  12. It was nice to see a comment from Tim on here.
  13. One must use reverse psychology when giving advice to Muppets.
  14. Kerry….for fuckssakes….
  15. Jeri, I love you.

    Thrown Down

    So, there was going to be a Bobby Flay-esque meatloaf throwdown between Gary and myself, and a similar mashed potato throwdown between Jeri and Dawn.  Things went awry pretty quickly though.  The first bag of potatoes I bought (from Albertson’s) were mush.  I picked up another bag from Safeway, and yet again, they were mush…rot.  Shit.  Fortunately, Dawn called when they pulled off the freeway to see if we needed anything….she, had completely forgotten about the potato bout.  So, she stopped, picked some up and we were saved.  (Well, Jeri did manage did have a few incidents with butter but……).  Long story short, the potato throwdown was out.  No winner.

    What Gary will never live down is, while driving 6 hours for a meatloaf throwdown, he forgets to bring the meatloaf he painstakingly made, stopping at the magical Pork Shop for special ingredients….and then the impartial judge (for the sake of anonyity, let’s just call him “Don Harp” also failed to show.  So did we win?  Who knows.  But we did get Jeri to participate in RockBand…a truly miraculous event to say the least.  (Naturally she would not allow herself to be photographed singing…)

    gh_c

    Feasting For Jeri

    Dinner….Jeri’s favourite, Feast:

    feast

    We started with the ….wait back up here.  Jeri started with a nice glass of wine:

    vino

    And then came the Ducklava~ (phyllo dough layered with duck confit, pistachios and honey).  This didn’t photograph well….Jeri didn’t care for it, I thought it was divine.

    And then the entrees:

    entrees

    Jeri went with the Vietnamese Beef Salad, and I the special, a rib eye with gorgonzola, accompanied  with sauteed kale and potatoes (mine…or now, ours are better!).  Jeri seemed quite fond of the rib eye.

    And the highlight:  Dessert.  A Chocolate Espresso tart with chantilly cream.  Decadent.

    espressotart1

    Pima County Deputy Sheriff #6803

    If…if you even gave your correct badge number….You are an arrogant piece of shit mother fucker with absolutely no compassion for families who’ve just had a family member die.  Yeah, “you just didn’t want to be stuck there all day”, that’s your god damn job fuck face.

    I get questioned about why I have no respect for police…well there you have part of it.

    Bong Hit?

    jerbday1

    No….just Sweet Jeri blowing out a massive array of birthday candles!

    jerbday2

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