Randomness .... pure Randomness

Great blog about what guys can learn from the Sex and the City movie. I'll be missing that one. Sorry. I have a penis. And no desire to see a movie about a television show I never watched an episode of. Even for the alleged nudity.

The new Fish album 13th Star is AMAZING. "Vigil In A Wilderness of Mirrors" was always my favorite. The last couple have been ... meh ... but this album is gonna take over the top spot from "Vigil" in another couple of listens.

Two Cow Garage has music from their upcoming album on their myspace page. Damn. That's good stuff. They could be in the top 5 list for 2008 if the rest of the album is as good as what I've heard so far.

Speaking of my annual Top Album list ... five months into 2008 it's Aaron Tasjan on top with "Hard Love and Free Luck" ... and look for my detailed review coming this weekend; followed by Kathleen Edwards "Asking For Flowers" and Fish's album. Still waiting for Quinn Fallon (of the X-Rated Cowboys) and Red Wanting Blue's new release.

Speaking of Red Wanting Blue, they're playing Friday, June 6th, at the Park Street Patio for the Park Street Festival. I'm gonna be there Thursday, June 5th, for Saving Jane, before heading over (later) to Around The Corner in Gahanna for The Filthy Habits.

In happy hockey news, Stanley Cup finals are a blast ... I'll be keeping an eye on them Saturday night when I'm out and about, or before I go out (game starts at 8 in my world, check your local NBC station for your local listings). Still not sure where I'm gonna end up, but odds are good it will be The Treehouse for Two Cow Garage, et. al.

In sad hockey news, Luc Bourdon was killed in a motorcycle accident.

And finally, I was challenged to a trivia match by my friend Lawgirl. Wednesday night. At the usual spot. It's Sci-Fi trivia, so it should be an interesting battle. I kicked major ass last Saturday while waiting for the UFC fights. Music Trivia ... I had 23,000+ ... second place had 4,300. Cause I rule that way. She shall find out soon.

Song of the Day

Ever listen to a song and not hear it? (Rhetorical. See sales data, 1991-present compared to lyrical content. Nuff said).

Anyway ... I've listened to this song probably dozens of times. Today I finally heard it ... proving ONCE AGAIN what a lyrical genius Jeffrey Gaines is.

And pretty fitting for Memorial Day, eh?

"A Simple Prayer"

Neither side will win
All are sure to fail
But not joining in is an act of betrayal
Betrayal to your king
And all who fought before
The noblest of things is to die in their war

Neither should begin
For everyone will lose
Soldiers of tin
With everything to prove
Who do we oppose
And what do we defend
Honor I suppose

End your simple day
With this simple prayer
Pray they’re okay
And in the Lord’s care
Pray they return with their faculty
And one day we learn of war's futility

End your simple day
With this simple song
Sing pain away
Hope all are strong
Hope they return
To live happily
And one day we learn of war’s futility

Neither side will win
For nothing will be gained
Notify next of kin
Have this casualty claimed
These are words of kings
Commanders and chiefs
You hear the same sort of things
From scoundrels and thieves

Neither should begin
For what a price we pay
Soldiers of tin being blown away
Not a lot of grace
Nor majesty
A human disgrace

End your simple day
With this simple prayer
Pray they’re okay and in the Lord’s care
Pray they return with their faculty
And one day we learn of war’s futility

End your simple day
With this simple song
Sing pain away
Hope all are strong
Hope they return to their family
And one day we learn of war’s futility

Neither side will win
All are sure to fail
But not joining in is an act of betrayal
Betrayal to your king
And all who fought before
The noblest of things is to die in their war

Neither should begin
For everyone will lose
Soldiers of tin
With everything to prove
Who do we oppose
And what do we defend?

Hack journalism lives at The Other Paper

Being a professional critic is a difficult job. It's hard to go into every situation open minded, and appreciate it for what it is by leaving your preconceived notions at the door. I've done it. I was blown away by acts like MC Hammer and Motley Crue and Queensryche ... bands I'd not have on my iPod but enjoyed seeing live. Same with Bonnie Raitt, Wilco, Gomez and numerous local bands here in Columbus that I saw first, live, before I ever heard them, and then quickly added to the musical collection. Based on the live show. Because it's a show. An event. A moment in time. And I was able to remove my musical blinders and enjoy.

Sadly, that's not always the case. The Other Paper, one of the leading entertainment weekly papers here in Columbus, has an article by a guy who showed up at Rock On The Range with nothing but hatred for a majority of the performers. You can read it here ... and then read my response, which was sent as a letter to the editor of the Other Paper:

Great coverage on Rock at the Range (sarcasm). You send a guy (John Petrick) to an all-day rock festival who writes 29 paragraphs, 24 of them doing nothing but bitching about the prices of parking, beer and water; the intelligence of his fellow concert-goers and the bands picked; yet saves the final five for his love for the headliner without delivering a single bit about the headliner's performance? That's some of the saddest journalism I've seen in my life.

John, it's easy to mock bands you don't like. We've all done it. If you were only interested in Kid Rock and Rev. Run, praise them, but on their merits, as you did, and without having to spend the majority of the review bashing the bands you don't like. As for your praise of kids wearing Iron Maiden t-shirts ... ask them to name two albums NOT on the shirt, or five songs. Kids wear them because they're sold at Hot Topic and are cool, not because they necessarily know anything about the band, or even like them.

Come to think of it, they sound like your kind of person - ill informed and uninterested in looking beyond their blinders.

I hope next time Columbus as a festival that draws 28 bands and 100,000 people to town your coverage will be a bit more realistic, or at least your writer a bit more open minded.

I'm sure everyone at the event had their favorite, and least favorite, and nobody was happy about $15 parking, $8 beer and $4 water ... but that's life in the festival lane. You can be miserable about it, or accept that's what you're in for, and plan accordingly, rather than spend more time bitching about what it wasn't than enjoying what it was.

LOLTruthz

From the genius that is teh Interwebs II ... now with more LOLz (thanks Mark!)

I love my life.

Well, gas is $4 a gallon. Cleveland is 126 miles away from Columbus. I am in Columbus. David Ford is in Cleveland.

Some things (meaning amazing fucking music) are more important than the price of gas.

The genius that is David Ford was in Cleveland last night (that's May 15, 2008). And so was I. My favorite David Ford friend Lia (who you might remember is cooler than you) and I headed up I-71 in hopes of a great bunch of music from the now 30-year-old David (as of May 16, 2008).

We got more than that.

As I was checking in to see if I had a photo pass, who's in the lobby setting up the merch table but David Ford himself, and his tour manager Emma. So being the extrovert I am, I walk over, offer my hand and introduce myself as a long-time fan. The pleasantries are exchanged, I introduce Lia, he introduces Emma, I tell him I was hoping for a photo pass but hadn't heard back from the contact as his label. He looks at Emma, says "Put them on the list." Emma says "We have no list tonight, but we'll make one." We continue to talk, I fanboy out for a few moments (shut up, I'm allowed, I'm in the presence of genius), and not wanting to overstay my welcome or invoke the need for a restraining order, we allow David and Emma to get back to work on the merch table setup.

And out of the deal we got free tickets, and a photo pass, and the memories of being able to hang out and talk with a man I consider to be a musical genius. A man who's kept me company for many hours of music on my radio while driving, and a man totally worth driving to Cleveland to see play for the 30 minutes he was allotted as the opening man for Augustana. Even if gas was $10 a gallon.

Here's me and David hanging out before the show:

And here is David rocking out during the show:

Yeah ... good days, my friends. Good days. (More DF photos to come ... but homey gotta works in the AM!)

Handing out F-Bombs

A Rant in Three Parts:

Part One - Shut The Fuck Up, Bitch.

To the three annoying hipster bitches who parked themselves in front of me during the Tony Scheer performance last night at Rumba Cafe: Shut the fuck up.

To their annoying friend who arrived late and then had to talk over them - and the music - and bitch that she couldn't hear the basketball game ... Shut the fuck up. Yeah, your haircut is darling. Now shut the fuck up. Yes, the beer is cold. Would you please shut the fuck up. Yeah, the weather sucks. Please ... I'm starting to get angry here ... Shut.The.Fuck.Up. I'm glad your jobs is awesome. I wish you though silence was too. I really don't care that you're excited to see the "Sex in the City" movie. SHUT THE FUCK UP RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.

When I finally leaned into your personal space and said, "Uh, could you shut the fuck up so I can hear the music?" the look on your face was something I wished I could have taken a picture of. As for taking my seat when I went to the bathroom - and then giving me a nasty look when I reached between you and your friend to get my beer ... you're lucky my elbow didn't 'accidentally' find it's way to your face. While I'd like to say it's because I'm not a big fan of hitting anyone for any reason, in reality I was afraid you'd bite my arm off due to the voracity your jaws were flapping.

Part Two - Put a Cork in it, Corky

I'm so glad you and your friends are trying to spam my blog because TWO YEARS AGO I said your band sucked. Ego-surfing's a bitch, huh? But saying I look gay? That's such a 4th grade insult. I'd ask what gays look like, but you'd probably use the required playground comeback of "you." Dude, grow the fuck up. Instead of emailing me, why don't you give yourself a cock-punch in your cock-punch blog? You've earned it. Arguing on the innernets is like the special olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded. Shut the fuck up ... and fuck you. And your shitty band.

Part Three - Items of General Stupidity

Yesterday I read two things that make me pray for a virus that kills those with IQ's below 100:

The first was an article in the LA Times about how some West Virginians view Barack Obama, with this quote from someone who still waiting for the 1950's to come back:

"I've got 50-some guns, and I wasn't crazy about Obama's talk about small towns," said Sam Vetter, 64, a farmer and lifelong Democrat who regrets voting for Bush in 2000. "Besides," he added, "Obama just doesn't sound right for an American president."

Yeah, don't pay any attention to his ability to unite a country, change how campaigns are won, don't attempt to read any of his plans for America and how to fix the messes of the past eight years ... and derail Hillary's exepcted coronation in 2008 ... he just don't have a 'merican soundin' name (spit). How this clown managed to stop finger-banging his daughter put that many words together and have enough money to buy "50-some guns" is beyond me. Why anyone would need "50-some guns" is beyond me too. Come to think of it ... how he can count to 50 baffles my mind, too.

Shut the fuck up, you inbred, racist, hillbilly fuck.

The second was something I saw posted on the bulletin board at work about how to spend your IRS Rebate Check:

"If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.

If we spend it on gasoline, it will go to the Arabs.

If we purchase a computer, it will go to India.

If we purchase fruits and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.

If we purchase a good car, it will go to Japan.

If we purchase useless stuff, it will go to Taiwan.

And none of this will help the American economy. We need to keep that money here in America

The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it at YARD SALES, since those are the only businesses still in the United States of America."

I have no idea who came up with this bit of genius (heavy sarcasm), but it's obvious you know nothing about economics. We get less than 30 percent of our oil from "the Arabs." As for your claim YARD SALES are the way to stimulate the economy? I'm gonna suggest Corky give you a cock-punch. That's just shuffling the money between people, not stimulating the economy. I'd explain it, but your head would explode.

Shut the fuck up and take an economics class before posting your next missive. As for the racist tone that Japanese build better cars, only Mexicans pick fruit and Indians (dot not feather) build computers ... I think your kin from back in the holler of West Virginia needs help extracting his finger from his sister/wife.

This Week in Eric-Land

My friend Lia is cooler than you. She is the guest DJ on CD101 today from 1-2 pm (http://www.cd101.com if you're outside of Columbus and wanna listen).

Tonight I'm to see Megan Palmer tonight at the Rumba Cafe.

Tuesday might go see Iron Man. Hang out at Easton for a bit.

Speaking of movies, they're making a Dead Like Me movie. I loved that show.

Speaking of Television ... Battlestar Galactica has taken the "OH SHIT" count in Season 4 away from Lost. They stole a fucking base star? OH SHIT.

Wednesday I'll be On The Rocks in Dublin for The Filthy Habits. Damn those boys have good photos :D

Thursday, Lia (see above) and I are going to the House of Blues to see David Ford.

Friday I'll be at Victorian's Midnight Cafe to see Leah-Carla Gordone solo acoustic. She can rock the 12-string!

Saturday and Sunday I'll be in Youngstown ... going to visit some friends and take my mom back some big gray plastic bins she let me borrow when I moved ... and to get the last load of stuff out of her garage and basement ... visit some friends and grab some Yuengling.

Song of the Day

"Nowhere Is My Home"
~ Quinn Fallon / X-Rated Cowboys

You were on the edge when I found you,
You could hvae gone either way
How do you reach out to someone
Who keeps the whole world at bay?
My ears still ring with promises
That were spoken and cast aside
Heartbreak's my only companion
On this dark lonley ride
still I cherish the journey,
I just never thought I'd be arriving alone
I got heart like a highway
And nowhere is my home
Nowhere is my home

You're still disappointed
That I managed to move on
I found myself in a place without hope
And decided I didn't belong
But I never lost my faith in you
Just because you hesitated
There's no killer in this world
Like your own expectations
It never really matters
If I have no idea where I'm going
I got heart like a highway
Nowhere is my home
Nowhere is my home

If I walk a fine line
It's because I haven't far to fall
If I got nothing to lose
It's cause I got a whole lot of nothing much at all
But I see you everywhere I look
And I can't stand to be reminded
The road is a coward's refuge
At least I always know where to find it
Still I cherish the journey
I just never thought I'd be arriving alone
My heart is a highway
And nowhere is my home