12/9
Since I've been working at Fox News Channel, I've gotten to meet some pretty cool people. I met the wrestler, Bradshaw. I got to mic Henry Kissenger. I've also met Debbie Gibson, Ben Stein, Wayne Newton, Wyclef Jean, and I've met countless political people you've probably never heard of. Anyway, a few weeks ago, I met someone at Fox who was the last person I expected to meet. that's right, people. I met Don King. Now sit back, kids, and let your uncle Brian tell you the tale of a big fat boxing promoter making a TV appearance. When I got to work that day, I started my shift doing Fox News Live, and the usual crew was there. Halfway through the show, The stage manager tells me that he thinks Don King will be coming in tonight. Three things then passed through my mind. #1- Did he say Don King? #2- Maybe he meant someone else, like Larry King! Man, that would rule! #3- He's probably not here.. he's probably a remote from another city and I'll never meet them(which is usually the case). Anyway, I didn't think much more about it, and just went through my day as normal. When it came time to set up The Big Story Weekend, and I got the rundown in my hands, fresh off the copier, my dreams were fulfilled. Don King was the first guest on the show, and he was in studio! Now those of you who know me know my appreciation for this man. I've always enjoyed his flamboyant style of promoting, and I dressed as him for Halloween 2 years in a row(and played shows as him as well). So now to the good part. I set up all my audio equipment, and looked at my watch and it was a quarter to nine, which meant it was time to head to the green room and mic up Don! I walk into the green room, and nearly get knocked clean out of my shoes by the glare of Don's bling. Don was wearing a denim jacket plastered with more jewlery than I've ever seen in my life. When I regained my eyesite, I walked up to him and introduced my self. He responded by saying, "Hey, my man!" I then told him I had to mic him and proceeded to hook him up. As I started to clip the mics to his belt, he made a Micheal Jackson joke. He was like, "Whoa, man watch where you put your hands.. I don't wanna get sued!" I laughed my ass off. After I got him set up, I went and set up the host, and waited for the show to start. When it was time, the PA brought him onto the set, and he came out carrying 3 miniature American flags. The show then started, and Don began waving his flags and started his interview. They started off by talking about Micheal Jackson, and he was relatively calm. That went on for about 4-5 minutes. then Rita(the host) mentioned a boxing promotion he had coming up. Don then uped his voice and began screaming about how his promotion was gonna be the best thing to hit Atlantic City. Before I could even realize what was going on, he started screaming, and Rita brought on Donald Trump via phone! Don then was screaming about his promotion and Trump was backing him up... it was awesome! To conclude his appearance Don began offering everyone front row seats to his fight, and then they went to a commercial. I then led Don out to the green room, and took off his mic. When I told him I needed to un-mic him he said, "Get this stuff off me man," in his booming voice. After that I shook his hand, and told him it was an honor, and then told him how I was a big fan, and was him for halloween. To that he said, "Man, thats freaky"(or something to that degree). After that, he was gone. Man.. Don King rules.
9/10
Well folks, it's back to school with my ass, and time for another wacky year at Stony Brook. If the past week is any indication on how this year is gonna go, I better start coming to school wearing a hardhat and safety goggles. The first day of the semester I walked off the bus to find a d.j. blasting Joe Budden's party anthem, "Pump it Up," and immediately in front of the d.j. was one of those big inflatable fuzzy targets. You know, the ones where they dress you up in a velcro suit and then launch you onto the target with a giant slingshot device. The craziness didn't stop there, gang. I walked into school today to find that same d.j. spinning Li'l Jon, and a Rabbi sitting at a desk offering pamphlets that contain Jewish jokes. This place is losing its mind, and rap music seems to be the soundtrack.
5/15
Is it me or are the summer festivals looking awful lame this summer. For the first time in over 4 years, I have pretty much no reason to go to Warped Tour. Of course Pennywise is gonna be there, but I dunno.. I just don't think that sitting through a day full of emo and pop punk is gonna be worth it. Ozzfest has never been my thing, but I could always find at least 3 or 4 bands on the bill(besides ozzy) that I'd actually contemplate seeing. This year... Cradle of Filth.. and that's it. The most promising thing thats comin to town in my eyes is Lollapalooza. You have the Donnas(and you all know what I think of them)who I've been wanting to catch live. Audioslave is playing.. which should be huge, if they still put on a show like Rage used to. Jane's Addiction is another band I'd love to see. Jurrasic 5 was great last time I caught them. Pretty much every band on the roster seems promising except for Incubus, who didn't really do anything to me last time I saw them. And I really wouldn't mind seeing Incubus again. So that's where I'll be this summer, folks.
5/8
So the floodgates are open, and here it comes! Another end of a semester. This is when all the shit you've been meaning to do, but just couldn't quite bring yourself to doing sneaks up behind you, taps you on the shoulder, and goes, "Hey buddy, I'M A PROBLEM." I've seen this 2 week time period do some nasty stuff to people. The stress got to my friend Dennis so much that he took up smoking! The worst part about the whole thing is that after the first week of running around trying to get everything done, you realize that for the most part, you're totally screwed, and theres no way that you have time for things like sleep and food, when you have papers due, and presentations to make. You would also think that after doing this for 3 years, I'd learn to spread the work out and turn off the t.v. for 5 minutes, and maybe open up a book. nope. I have to just face that I have no motivation to deal with anything until it has to be done at the last minute. Take for example, my art history paper. I went to the Metropolitan Museum of art 3 weeks before my paper was due, cause I had to be in the city anyway, and sat down to write it a day later and just stared at the blank computer screen for an hour. I repeated that action for another 3 weeks until the day before the paper was due. That day, I was in school from 8 in the morning till 7 at night, and had a show at Da Phish immediately after school. I started the paper around 2, and worked on it in between breaks from classes. By the time i left school, I had a good 2 pages done out of a 7 page paper. I played the show, and we went on unbelievably late, and got home around 2:30. I then proceeded to write from 2:30 to 5 in the morning when I had 5 pages done. I went and got 2 hours sleep, and got up to go to school. I hit the computer lab at 9, only to discover that all of my writing from ealier that morning was in giberish. Crap! I went and rewrote the whole 3 pages and finished off the rest of it. 11 o clock came around and I printed, and ran to class, relievingly handed in the paper, and konked out in the middle of lecture, only to be awoken by a sloppy bump by an exiting classmate. Oh well.. I got it done, didn't I?
4/21
I've been under alot of pressure these days from a whole bunch of angles. It mostly has to do with the same debate I've come to have with myself over and over again. Should I live a comfortable 9 to 5 life or should I throw caution to the wind and play music for a living. Yeah, I know this seems like the same thing I've talked about for the past 8 years or so, but now that my college career is dwindling down, and I'm 21 goin on 22 this Nov., factors for both sides of the argument are becoming clearer and clearer each day. On the music side, I find that I'm in the best spot I've been in so far throughout my playing all these years. I'm in a band that I absolutely love and am behind the music 100 percent. I'm having a great time onstage, and am playing more shows than I've ever played, and having a great time doing it. My bandmates and I are the most compatable people, and we all get along great, for the most part. The songs are awsome, everything is cool. On the other hand, we barely make any money doing it. As far as getting a real job is concerned, when I get out of school, I'm gonna have some hefty student loans to pay off, and I'm gonna need cash to get out of home and on my own. I'm really into what I'm studying in school, and think if I was to settle into a regualr job in business/media, I'd be pretty happy. Its all up in the air right now as for whats gonna happen in the next year, and what position I'm in when I graduate, but I'm sure leaning toward the side of playing music.. I mean its been my dream since I was a little kid. But on the other hand, if I stay at working crappy jobs so I have time to play, I'll be in the hole for my student loan payements. Shit! I guess I'll just see what happens.
4/1
Well, its been a while since I've been political up in this thing, and warranting recent events, I think its necessary to do so. Our country is at war with Iraq. As most of my friends know, I'm against the war and the military action we have taken. I still can't see a clear-cut reason as why we have attacked Iraq, and I think the bad that will come out of this conflict will far outweigh the good. I'm not gonna angrily flaunt about how I think Bush is a jackass (he is a jackass, by the way), and how its completely clear cut that we shouldn't be at war, but I'm gonna take this matter in from both sides. Saddam Hussien is (was) an asshole. The fucking guy used chemical weapons on his own people, and has a ruthless history of aggression within his leadership of Iraq. After agreeing to disarm, he defied the U.N. by kicking inspectors out of Iraq on numerous occasions. He has been connected to several terrorist organizations, and sends checks to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel. I don't think he should be in power. I think the fact that this man should not be in any place to rule a country is legitimate. In that aspect I support the war. On the other hand I think that our decision to go in militarily was REALLY bad timing. At the same time we strived the U.N. to approve resolutions to go to war with Iraq, North Korea came in the picture. North Korea is basically a rock in the North Pacific. It has very little farming land and natural resources, hence the country is very poor, and near famine. The fact that the country doesn't have food is mostly due to the dictator in power, Kim Chong Il, who spends most of the nations money on the military. They have nuclear weapons. They are also not friends to the United States, as the dictator was once quoted to have said something along the lines of, "Fire will rain down upon America." This dude, like Saddam did a couple of years ago, kicked out U.N. weapons inspectors. North Korea also has ties to terrorist organizations, and could possibly sell its nuclear arsenal to one of them. I think this situation is a HELL of alot scarier than the one in Iraq, in the fact that at least Iraq had let U.N. inspectors back in. Lets face another fact here. Our economy wasn’t doing too good before this thing, and when we started to go in, and CNN made it seem like the war would be over in a week, things started to turn around. Well, it’s been more than 2 weeks, and every day this war seems to be looking like it’ll drag out more and more. In turn, the economy took a nosedive. Airline companies are shitting their pants cause no one in their right mind wants to get on a plane these days, and layoffs in related and unrelated industries are piling up more and more with each passing day. Did Bush and his cabinet see this coming? It’s not like the 40s when you go to war, and the whole nation just booms into heavy industry mode, and everyone’s doin alright. I’ll be lucky to find a job when I graduate college in a year (if I’m not playing music full time). I just think that at the moment we decided to go to war we already had major problems bigger than Iraq to deal with. Now it seems that the war is perpetuating the problems, and nobody’s winning. And the plain truth is that the only time we can do anything about this situation is in November in a tiny booth.
3/5
The ugly fact is, my friends, that I do indeed watch MTV, MTV2 and MMUSA. I watch them all the time... its safe to say those are the channels I watch the most. Now I know MTV has been diving into the depths of crap for a long time, and things have been bad... I mean real bad. But I normally tolerate them with the hope that something good will eventually come on. I mean.. these people they play were good enough to gain record label attention, right? They're making money, and people go to their shows, right? I mean, when a crappy song usually comes on, I can just shrug it off and wait it out till something good comes on, or I can distract myself by retreating to my computer, and put on some Yolk or something. One song caused me to flip out the other day. It was by a band called The All American Rejects called "Swing Swing." I was in the middle of doing an impossible homework problem for my Management Science class, and it was a doosy. I mean, it was one of those problems that you get and you know the professor didn't go over it in class, and the book explains it in a manner that is completely unintelligible. So as my frustration rose, and I started to really lose it.. this song came on. Wheres my remote? I can't find my damn remote... man this song is horrible... jesus, this problem is killing me.. my computer is frozen... oh god... "MOTHERFUCKER!" I then threw my calculaor at the TV. My mom screamed upstairs. "Brian.. are you ok?" "Yeah mom." I walked out of my room and into the bathroom. I was sweating, coughing.. my eyes watered in pain. Could it be possible that one song could do this to me.. yes, and folks, that song sucks.*This account was partly fictional.
2/20
There are certain things in life that you know for a fact you will never see. Like watching a pair of apes vanish into thin air, or seeing Sir Issac Newton riding his skateboard down the street. Well today my notion of this particular fact of life was shattered into little peices, when in the Union computer lab at my place of study, SUNY Stony Brook, A walking vagina came into view. This big felt(the material) vagina proceeded to walk around handing out fliers for some play or shit like that called "The Vagina Monologues." I was sitting next to my friend Tom at the time, and when this walking genital approached him with a flier, tom refused stating "i don't know where that's been." Who in god's name would walk around in a Vagina suit?? This person, and I'll be the first to say that that shit's FUCKED UP.
2/12
So it seems I've been keeping a dark secret from some of you for these past couple of months, and I'm here to set the record straight. I've been listening to the Donnas new album, "Spend the Night." Ok there I said it. But theres more. I've been listening to their cd alot. By alot, I mean its usually played in my car in its entirety twice a day. Some of the couple of people I told this to, have made fun of me for doing so, and for this, I hearby write my official documented reasons on why I think The Donnas kick ass:
background: First I'll give a quick background as to how I got into the cd in question. A while ago, I saw the video for the first single off "Spend the Night" titled, "take it off." I first played it off as another one of these stupid "rock revival" type bands, that was going to get really annoying in the next couple of months. At this point, I was, and pretty much still am listening to a steady diet of Yolk and other bands whose styles contradicted those of The Donnas. Upon second listen to the song, I found myself bobbing my head, and singing it to myself while at work. Next came downloading. I had 4 songs from "Spend the Night" on my computer, and couldn't stop listening to them. I was a bit ashamed, seeing as I had to keep up my whole "listening to funk, and obscure bands" image, and initially kept my secret obsession to myself. Then came the album purchase. While in Florida visiting family, I bought Spend the Night at a local mall. While buying it, I sandwiched it in between a Bad Religion and Audioslave cd. When I approached the female cashier, I couldn't look her straight in the eye, and had an embarrassed flustered look on my face, while thinking(in butch southern football player voice), "yup, yup... christmas present for my sister. who the fuck are the donnas anyway." I then slipped the cd into my discman, and listened to the album, and never stopped.
Synopsis; Why I love this album: First of all I'd like to stress how well this album was recorded. The guitar tone is huge on it. The drums are huge, especially the kick drum which can knock over a small building. The vocals are dead on, and the bass provides solid footing. The album is loud, and is meant to be cranked. Now, on to the songs. The songs are extremely well written and, though may seem a bit repetitive, are completely consistent. This is possibly the most driving cd I've ever heard. each song flows into the next and keeps up the pace without slowing down once. The lyrical content of the songs is also something I'd like to point out. Now some may disagree, but from my point of view, when Aerosmith sings about getting wasted or getting laid, its pretty cool, but when 4 chicks do it with as much or even more energy on an entire cd, its fucking awsome. On a side note, from video of recent performances I've seen, the band does a great job of playing the songs note for note live, and the put on a really good energetic show(which is high priority for bands I like)
Conclusion: Upon really getting into "Spend the Night," I looked into other Donnas albums, and bought their last album, "Turn 21." I must admit, "Turn 21" really isn't that great of an album. The recording quality is worse, and the songs are not half as good as those on "Spend the Night." The difference? A major record label deal. I have no doubt that their move from independent label, Lookout, to major, Atlantic, the band rehearsed thoroughly, and improved drastically. The credits on "Spend the Night" still list the band as sole songwriters, which goes to show the improvement is not the product of million dollar producers or writers, its just the product of a band developing and more money to record a better record. In all, I'm still addicted to the album, and can be seen twice a day headbanging in my car to it, and now theres no shame. I like the Donnas!
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