Updates

I haven't been writing, because there's not really a lot going on here. Seems to be a down time for me. Not much of anything to report.

I'm looking forward to ramping up towards getting some more serious demo recording done. Eric's back in town, and once he gets comfortable on the drums I plan to kidnap him and take him to my fortress stronghold until drums have been recorded. OK, nothing quite so insidious, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless. However, that means I really have to buckle down and whipping these tunes into better shape. They're largely in various stages of rough demo quality, and they need to get better and get finished before they get recorded. Also, I plan to start looking around for some more recording gear so I can hopefully get a better sound. Most importantly a decent (yet cheap) mic pre-amp would be nice.
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Some quickie movie reviews:

Clerks 2: The commercials for this didn't look that funny, but that's only because the funniest stuff can't be shown on TV. Admittedly it's more "dick and fart" humor from kevin Smith, but it funny dick and fart humor at that, so no complaints.

The Descent: Chicks vs cave monsters? Originally I said pass. But then good reviews started rolling in, and I found out it was directed by the guy who directed Dog Soldiers. So I went. It was pretty good. There are two distinct vibes to the movie, let's call them "pre-monsters" and "post-monsters". The first half is about set-up and slow claustrophobia, and it's plenty creepy in the caves even without scary creatures. When the monsters appear, it gets more action-y, but even still, depsite that I typically don't go for that in my horror movies, it was still good. But yeah, definitely do not see this movie if you're claustrophobic.
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New Slayer album comes out tomorrow. Although I'm not the metal fan I used to be, (despite a slight resurgence brought upon by hanging out with metal fans), I'm unreasonably excited about this. Probalby just residual awesomeness hangover from seeing them up in Lowell last month.
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Speaking of concerts, I saw Poison and Cinderella over the weekend. It was slightly disappointing. Not for any major reason. There were two main negatives: Tom Keifer's voice was shot, (otherwise Cinderella was right on), and Poison's sound was pretty bad. But neither would have killed the show for me, not even combined. However, the show just seemed bland, unmemorable. Nostalgia apparently only carries you so far, when you're seeing the same show year after year. Not that I want Poison putting out new material, since their last album, Hollyweird, was an unmitigated craptastic disaster.
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Signed a new lease for another year in Medford. That's noteworthy just for the fact that whenever I've lived not in Weymouth, I hadn't stayed at any one place for more than a year. As August was getting closer, I had it in the back of my head that I would have to get packed up and ready to move again. Not that I wanted or expected to, but just a subliminal result of past history.
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So, finally after about 31 years, I'm starting to get a decent idea of a possible tattoo to get. There's a line from It by Stephen King (and also from the Dark Tower series), that says: "Behold the turtle of enormous girth. Upon his shell he holds the earth." I kind of dig the imagery of a turtle with the earth on his shell. I thought about it for a while and instead of a globe type earth, I was thinking that his shell could be painted like a flat map, and you'd be looking at the tattoo from above. And also, the quote has some meaning for me, aside from being in an awesome book. Big decisions, for me, have always felt like the weight of the world on my shoulders, to take from a cliche. And as such, I tend to move slowly on them, like a turtle.

I'm thining it would make a good forearm tattoo, or if I did it upper arm, could maybe make a good centerpiece for a small upper arm sleeve. (Which would of course entail more ideas that would need to be thought up.)

But at any rate, I'm going to sleep on the turtle idea for a couple of weeks and see if I still dig it. At which point I have to find someone to design it for me. And then of course, I need to find the money to pay for it. Oh, and a good tattoo artist. I'll probably be about 45 by the time I'm ready.
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Just found out last week that Kevin is once again having his charity pub crawl this year. Drinking for kids. It didn't happen last year, which was a bummer because drinking your way through 20 bars in a 10 hour span down Hancock St. in Quincy is really a time not to be missed. Except in your memory the next day when you wonder exactly what happened after 4pm. So mark your calendars for October 28th. And bring a video camera for documented proof.
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I'm crazy for football. I woke up yesterday expecting to see NFL Countdown and a game or two. And then realized that the season hadn't started yet. And then later realized that pre-season started last night. So technically I did get to see some football and more importantly it's time to start scouting for my fantasy football teams. One of the only redeeming things about summer ending is the coming of football. That and Octoberfest beers.