Common Denominators

As much as we all think as human beings that we are alike, the truth is we are not. We SHOULD be alike but we are not. Different cultures, ideals, religions...all these things that we created to separate us from each other. We made ourselves apart from each other.

Differences are fine. Being unique. But the things that actually separate us as beings are not minor differences. We make them into mountains or even walls so that we can feel better about ourselves.

People will always point to the race issue. Being a different race is not a barrier. Being of a different culture is. This is not to say we should rid ourselves of cultures. It's far too late for that. But to insulate ourselves with things like cultures or religions as excuses, that's wrong.

Culture can be as basic as economics. Many people didn't choose their culture but were born into it. It becomes status, good and bad. There aren't racial tensions, it's about economics. It's the culture. We embrace it. And that's a shame.

Album Review: OSI - "Blood"

Jim Matheos and Kevin Moore return with their third release as OSI. Mike Portnoy bowed out so Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison stepped in and does a typically great job. The album is basically a hybrid of the first 2. The crunch that was on the first album is back along with the trip-hop of the second release.

The opener "The Escape Artist" sets the tempo with Matheos ripping. The album basically ping-pongs between heavy and atmosphere. I find it to work alot better than being one or the other but that's me. "False Start", "Be The Hero" and the Mikael Åkerfeldt sung "Stockholm" being the other favorites.

On the bonus disc you get 3 more tracks with one being an extended version of the song "Terminal". One the stand out tracks of the whole album is on the bonus disc. "No Celebrations" is a heavy track sung by No-Man's Tim Bowness who isn't one to sing anything like this song and that makes the track even better for it.

If you liked either OSI album or are a fan of the Steven Wilson family of bands, the new OSI is right for you. Kevin Moore still sounds like Kevin Moore vocally. I have no problem with that but some folks prefer vocal tacticians. Matheos still rocks. Buy the special edition.

Facebook and their performance problems

Once again, Facebook is dead slow. They seem to be having problems for the last few days and it doesn't seem like they care to fix them. If they actually are trying to fix them, then they are clearly incompetent. But hey MySpace is actually fast. Comical.

The Best Albums of 2009...thus far...

Time to update my list of albums that are worth owning this year. It's the end of May so let's see what the first 5 months have yielded...these are in no particular order:

Umphrey's McGee-"Mantis": an absolute masterpiece, their best and might be my #1.
Mastodon-"Crack The Skye": also their best and amazing too.
U2-"No Line On The Horizon": believe the hype, this one is a classic.
Heaven And Hell (Black Sabbath)-"The Devil You Know": it's fucking Sabbath!!
OHMphrey-"OHMphrey": members of UM and OHM create a killer improv album.
IQ-"Frequency": I love IQ and this is on par with their best releases.
OSI-"Blood": awesome return, it combines the best moments of their first 2 albums.
UKZ-"Radiation": Eddie Jobson is fucking BACK, add in Trey Gunn...more music please!
Queensrÿche-"American Soldier": I was not expecting this to be any good and it is.
Thin Lizzy-"Still Dangerous": recorded in 1977, I know but this is a must have live album by an all time great band.
Steven Wilson-"Insurgentes": Not as Porcupine Tree like as one might assume, but it's SW so it's great.
Pendragon-"Pure": heavier than ever, still neo-prog and a solid set of songs. Might be considered 2008 but fuck it.
Saga-"The Human Condition": new singer and a killer album.
Gomez-"A New Tide": just another great album by a great band, overlooked.
VAST-"Big Band SiXXX": an EP that I wish was longer, some of Jon Crosby's best work.

On the horizon...Dream Theater-"Black Clouds & Silver Linings" which I have heard the 2 tracks and 3 of the cover songs. This will be a great album.

Does death exist?

Yeah that sounds silly. Rather than ask if there is life after death, why not question whether there is death? To suggest that life carries on after death (in whatever form) means that death does not exist at all. Death, in and of itself, is an end. That's what it means.

So ask someone if death exists, and they will say of course it does. So if that's the case, it's all over at that moment. The simplistic view of the afterlife makes it very hard to rationally accept that death does not exist. Pearly gates, clouds, God looking like Billy Gibbons at age 75, it's all rather hard to swallow. Basically it was all "dumbed down".

Could death not exist and could life continue? Now that's the real question. If indeed life does carry on, it's in some completely new form that we cannot begin to comprehend. Meaning, we're of ourselves...mind and body. The added element of the soul is what adds the questions. The thing that makes ME who I am is what raises the questions, can this energy that creates who I am survive the end of the mind and body? Transcendence.

Death exists for the mind and body, but what of the soul or spirit? You first have to "believe" that such a thing exists. I think that's easy enough to prove. I am looking from THESE eyes and not yours. Thus I am unique to myself. My energy makes me who I am so that energy gets a nice tag called a "soul" or "spirit". The next step is to determine whether that energy continues on WITHOUT the mind or body.

Can energy be destroyed? Along the same lines, when does this energy get created? I am not looking for a discussion on when life begins because that was not the question necessarily. If there is no end to the life force, does it mean that the life force is truly infinite? No beginning and no end. The universe is infinite, so we are told but how did we prove that?

As humans, we cannot even begin to understand the concept of infinity because everything we have and everything we know is finite. There is a beginning and an end. We understand that. The concept of forever sounds good to us but we can't really understand it so we make up things like pearly gates and things like that so it makes sense to us.

Yet there is so much more that we will never see or even know. I don't even mean the universe. What about our own brains and how little of it we even use? We accept the part we use as all that we can use. We put up nice limitations on it so we can easily understand and accept it. But there's more to ourselves we don't bother to explore. It's easier.

It's easier to have a simplistic view of life and death as well. Death could exist. The end of all we are in that very moment. The problem is there are so many question marks that it makes it hard to accept that death does exist and end everything. Rather than just make up fairytales about the transcendence of our "souls", why can't we explore it in an intellectual way? My guess is it's too scary. Because death still COULD exist.

DREAM THEATER - "Tenement Funster/Flick Of The Wrist/Lily Of The Valley"

Another cover, another awesome choice. I am sure the average fan isn't completely familiar with these songs but those of us who love Queen (Dream Theater obviously do) know this was a great idea. The songs do fit the band well. Jordan shines as does James. Even the backing vocals are great, maybe not as great as Queen but come on, who is?

It's funny. "Stargazer" was a slight surprise for me but "Tenement Funster/Flick Of The Wrist/Lily Of The Valley"??? Wow. It's a wonder they didn't just go into "Now I'm Here"! Regardless, this proves these guys know their music. I mean more from a fan perspective than just pure chops. It makes you wonder what the next cover is.

In the deafness of my world, the silence broke

4 hits. It's funny that the blog was well in triple digits for hits for weeks and weeks. I basically stopped writing new shit because all my hits were Dream Theater related. I added a few DT stories and they got hits as well. That was a good plan.

So then, POOF! The hits went to nothing. I actually prefer that. Now I see the "loyal" readers gave up, I can re-focus here. Say whatever the fuck I like and not really care.

Motivation

Regardless of how much you do, there's always more to do. So why do I feel lazy not doing the "more" even though I've already done alot. Guilt? Why though? Hmmm...

I can't even getting motivated to blog about motivation. Now THAT is irony!

Pool's open

So ok they did show...and there's no point in getting into that. The bottom line is the pool is open. Water is clear, the bottom is dirty. Looks like I'll be vacuuming today. There's a small leak on the pipe connecting to the pump which needs fixing. No worries, the pool is 2-3" above the optimum height so losing water is just fine.

True to your word

So if you are gonna open a pool up for someone...wouldn't you show up on time or at least SHOW UP? The problem is promises are broken. It's too easy. No one considers the consequences of their actions or non-actions until it's too late. Damage done.

The key is when do people actually give a shit. Do they ever? Maybe it doesn't matter? Who knows. All I know is my pool isn't open.

Time is short

It's amazing how fast time goes by. Also when you consider the grand scheme of things, our time here is short. It seems like either people don't care or just don't bother to think of it. Why else would we be more concerned with politics, war and basically all the selfish things in our lives? Everyday should be special.

Losing the audience

"Have I lost you?"

Apparently so. There was a spike in views on the blog because I had the new Dream Theater tunes and info on the new album. That played itself out. Also, I was not posting on here because I really didn't have much to say to the general public. I suppose I found the privacy of the MySpace blog to be more enticing. Who knows.

But I checked my stats and I had all of what...2 hits on Sunday I think. Now THAT is funny. The traffic I had been getting was DT related so I even posted some of my own stories I had about them which did help traffic even more. Hell even my bullshit porn posts were getting hits and now...POOF! I've lost the whole country of India!

If it sounds like I care, I really don't. I always found it amazing I got even 2 hits based on the hodge podge that I post, so maybe I am back to being a solo act. It was nice being an underground sensation for a month or two. So back to posting whatever comes to mind...

Read it or don't read it.

Music of the moment: May 2009

Here's what I am listening to after the trip south. I picked up some shit down there and yeah already had some music. This is not limited to new music.

Drive-By Truckers - "Southern Rock Opera"
The Decemberists - "The Crane Wife", "The Hazards Of Love"
Jethro Tull - "Broadsword And The Beast"
Gomez - "A New Tide". "Five Men In A Hut"
Queensryche - "American Soldier"
Black Sabbath/Heaven & Hell - "The Devil You Know"
U2 - "No Line On The Horizon"
Umphrey's McGee - "Mantis"
OSI - "Blood"
Rush - the entire catalog

Vacations

Vacations are a time for relaxing. It's funny how much work you have to do to actually GO on vacation. All the planning, the calls, and the packing...even when you get back the work continues. So the key is to enjoy the time, the vacation needs to be worth all the planning!

Dream Theater - A Rite Of Passage Video

Odds & Frauds

I am so amazed by complete and utter phonies there are. I won't bother making this political even though I could. There are frauds in all places. The worst of all are the ones that get closest. It's alot like putting a written page too close to your face. You can't read it because it's too close. You have no idea that it says something bad. It's not until you get further away that you read the writing.

And that's the only way. There is no way you can see clearly otherwise. You wind up not knowing what the real truth is with the frauds because it's too close. Once you have a better perspective, it's quite amazing really.

Using my powers for good

Something that will most likely never really happen. Every once in a while I have to do something. The goats photo is an example. I still get hits from my donkey porn post which was supposed to be a joke but obviously there are folks who like that shit. The goats post will hopefully fool people looking for three women fucking in a hot tub. And one day, I will turn over a new leaf...

3 way on a hot tub SEX FUCK PORN

Best releases of 2009 (so far...)

There are more releases coming of course but so far, these are my favorite albums of 2009. Some are well known, some not so much...

Umphrey's McGee - "Mantis"
OHMphrey - self titled
Black Sabbath (Heaven & Hell) - "The Devil You Know"
Mastodon - "Crack The Skye"
U2 - "No Line On The Horizon"
Queensryche - "American Soldier"
O.S.I. - "Blood"
Gomez - "A New Tide"
Saga - "The Human Condition"

FILEDEN sucks

Unfortunately I've exceeded Fileden's bandwidth which must be next to nothing. The Dream Theater tracks aren't playing because of them. I am looking for a new file host.

How to survive yourself

Wouldn't it be nice to have a survival guide for life or at least one that warns you about yourself? The guide would warn you of all the bad decisions, the bad habits and the ways for you to excel in life rather than shoot yourself in the head. Nice huh?

But since we don't have that (and we can't count Tony Robbins who is a douchebag), we have to rely on learning. They say history repeats itself. Maybe it does but only a fool makes the same mistakes twice. So, my point? LEARN. Why is it so fucking hard for us?

The initial mistake is made because of our own arrogance. We all walk around thinking we are better than that other moron. The problem is we aren't. Turns out we are related to that idiot. So it seems like it's inevitable. Well...it isn't if you are more in tune with yourself.

The important thing is to learn after that first mistake. I have. There is nothing better in life than that feeling. Cloud nine has nothing on it. After you muff a groundball, you want that next one hit to you so you can make the play and PROVE yourself. Prove yourself to yourself and everyone.

I wonder how Tony Robbins makes money...