Bad Taste

I'm up early, for a Saturday, because we are leaving at 8:30 AM for Alex's basketball game at West.

I have a bad taste in my mouth because I had ordered the Metallica movie "Through the Never" on DVD. It arrived yesterday. I put it in the DVD player upstairs and it won't play. At first, it played but, at the 5 minute mark, it seemed to freeze. I turned off the DVD player and turned it back on. I was able to watch 15 minutes of it before the DVD player "crashed" again. It is a 2 DVD set so I put in the second one - with the documentary about how it was made. Karen and Alex were in the room sitting, while Megan popped in and out, as I was watching this.

What I found interesting was two things:

• Alex seemed to be really interested when the documentary talked about building the stage and about how it took 40 trucks to move the stage. He asked about bands on tour moving their stages around and really seemed to be interested. It'd be a clamorous job to be on the road crew and it would be very demanding, physically, to be doing construction work day in, day out. I would actually consider doing it for a band someday. I know I would be the low man on the totem pole and I wouldn't ever get to work on a tour as big as a Metallica tour, but nonetheless, it'd be something I would do, if it were presented to me and I had no other responsibilities in life, which isn't going to happen, so what I'm trying to say is that I will never be on a road crew. 
• Karen seemed somewhat interested in the movie itself. She asked about the premise and if it was about the band. It was kind of funny that she was so adamant about me NOT taking Megan to see it and, exactly 4 months later, Megan was sitting on the couch when the movie began and when Metallica were playing "Creeping Death" on the screen. Is it a movie for kids? Of course not.

The other subplot is that while we were watching the documentary, the people on the screen were using adult language - the F bomb - and neither Karen or Alex noticed it. This is the same kid who seemed very distraught when we were going to the Iowa game on Tuesday. I had picked one of the new Five Finger Death Punch CDs and put it in the CD player in the Ford on the way to game. What I hadn't really paid attention to is that the "volume I" CD is vulgar - F bomb this, F bomb that. Alex really didn't care for it. He also didn't like Ivan Moody's voice when he growled. I pointed out that I really liked the drums more than the vocals and, about that time, the drummer went into this amazing drum fill that I think made Alex realize why I like them. That's just the good - awesome drums - and the bad (to Alex) - the vocals. I do like the way FFDP's lyrics are so confrontational. I think I posted an article about Ivan Moody choosing to be sober and I respect that. A lot.

Speaking of choosing to be sober, I still am. I guess I don't obsess about it nearly as much as I used to on this blog. That may be because it is now part of who and what I am. I don't really think about getting drunk anymore. I don't find myself surrounded by people - either at work or outside of work - that are drinkers. I don't know if that would have happened if I had never chosen to stop drinking or if it would have evolved naturally. I feel like my sobriety is not something I have to think about all the time. I can be sober and live life without being obsessed about it.

It's 7:55 AM and we're leaving @ 8:30 AM. I *have* to take a shower or I'll feel gross at the game. Thus, maybe more words of wisdom later today. Iowa plays MI @ 1 PM and then we're going to 5:15 Mass because Alex is serving.

Through the Never

I was at Best Buy one day early. Metallica's "Through the Never" comes out on DVD today. My plan is that on the way home from going to the Iowa Hawkeyes v. MSU men's basketball game with Megan (game starts at 6), I will swing through Best Buy and pick up the DVD. I get really excited when I talk or write or think about Metallica. I really enjoy the riffs and the drumming and some of the lyrics simply make me turn into goo inside.

I will probably never forget that when I saw "Through the Never" in the theater, it was on a Monday night in October. I drove from North Liberty to the Cedar Rapids theater. I was the only one in the theater. I played my air drums and no one, except maybe the employees, saw me in my glory. It was totally fitting to be in the theater alone. Karen wouldn't go with me - and I don't blame her. I wouldn't want her to sit through something I love just to hate it. Even though it was rated R, Karen didn't approve of the idea of taking 17 year-old Megan to see it. Alex was eliminated from contention because he is 15.

Last night, WWE Raw was interesting. Read the results if you want. Coming off of the Royal Rumble the night before, I expected a great show. And, to me, it was.

• The Internet is buzzing that John Cena is going to fight the Wyatts at Wrestlemania XXX. Judging by the way the show ended, I think that is true.
• Golddust / Cody Rhodes got their rematch v. The New Age Outlaws. It ended with Brock Lesnar coming out and slamming each of the Rhodes brothers with a steel chair. I don't know, for sure, if that means Lesnar is going to feud with them or not. I do think Lesnar's mouthpiece, Paul Heyman, is one of the greatest heel managers of all time.
• Even the main event was good, though it has been done before. The heel team (The Shield) fighting three faces who don't have a lot to do with each other except that they are crowd favorites. Thus, when the Shield took on John Cena / Sheamus (who returned to action at the Royal Rumble) / Daniel Bryan. Bryan, it felt like a repeat. All the crowd favorites have to do is fight. 

And, in general, there has been a lot of backlash because he wasn't put into the Royal Rumble match the night before. The storyline is that HHH and Stephanie McMahon didn't want to make him have two matches in the same night, even though he's done that before. Batista won the Royal Rumble, but it was Roman Reigns that has emerged as the real winner. He eliminated more WWE wrestlers than anyone else in a RR match. The tease is that the Shield are going to deteriorate into nothingness, but that wasn't really played up in the main event, which ended when the Wyatt Family attacked John Cena and caused a disqualification for the Shield. That means Cena / Sheamus / Bryan are in the Elimination Chamber match at the next PPV in a month. I fully expected the Shield to go after the Wyatts at the end of Raw, but they didn't.

For as tired as I was from suffering through the movie "Frozen" at 4:10, I was somewhat captivated by the storylines and how they advanced.

Giddy with Glee

It almost was a sign that I need to rededicate my efforts in the area of writing music reviews.

Prior to leaving the house to take Karen to work, I was in the den and noticed a cassette in the 'to do' stack of cassettes I am converting to MP3 as part of the conversion project. I noticed a band called Marilyn Suicide. I've had the cassette for at least 20 years but I couldn't remember what they sounded like so I stuck it in my pocket.

After I drop Karen off at work and I am alone in the van, I put the cassette in the van's cassette player. These are the lyrics from the first of four songs by this band.


Sick of all your late night bitching
Tired of all your Sunday preaching all of the time
What's wrong with you baby, I'm ready to split
All I get from your mouth is just a bunch of babbling lip


Instantly, I'm a senior at Mount Mercy College, writing reviews for the Mount Mercy Minstrel as the Arts & Entertainment Editor. I've just started to get the idea that I can send a letter of inquiry to bands, in other states, and state that I'd like to write a review of their music for the newspaper. In the beginning, I know I would actually buy the cassettes I was receiving. Bands like Marilyn Suicide, Witch Bonnie, Erotikill, and Cherry Street sent me cassettes and I was just so tickled to listen to them. I began to have my current attitude about music I hear on the radio.

• For every Green Day, there are bands like Bayside who are at least as talented.
• For every Metallica, there are bands like Disarray who are at least as talented.
• For every Nickelback, there are bands like Watershed who are at least as talented.

Yet, Green Day, Metallica, and Nickelback get a lot of money to play their songs; Bayside, Disarray, and Watershed do not get that type of money. Are all six of these bands fantastic? Yes. I'm listening to Watershed's "Star Vehicle" and "Black Concert T-Shirt" after it and WOW! Great music.

All of this is to say I checked the mail yesterday and there was a package from BB Gun Press, who does publicity for Metallica, with the "Through the Never" soundtrack. Getting promo packages in the mail has never gotten old.