ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!

As I have state before or has been deduced from some of my stellar work, I love me some music. More so I love concerts. I usually don't like sitting in some crap ass bar paying a cover charge/drink minimum/smelling like smoke. Instead I like larger concerts. I think that it is because a bigger place allows for some production that enhances the music. The following is a list of my favorite five concerts; in no particular order.

Slayer: The Roy Wilkins Auditorium in Minneapolis (2003)

SO MUCH FUN! My best friends and I were front row the entire time (we had to sit through some crap ass bands to maintain that front row). My friend Ray and I were on Jeff Hanneman's side of the stage and he walks over and stares at us and throws his pick in our direction. Just then some ass face put his gross hand up and knocked it down. The security guard who saw that it was meant for us picked it up and in what was actually 0.5 seconds but seemed to take about 15 minutes; he picked it up and it sat in his hand just staring at me. I then snatched it up so fast and hard that I nearly tore his plastic glove off. He then asked me if I was the one who got it, I said yes and he high fived me. Awesomeness.

Ohm: The Baked Potato in Los Angeles (2009)

Chris Poland is one of my favorite guitar players. Awesome in every aspect. Just wow. Anyways I was in LA for the NAMM show and got the chance to see his band Ohm play. The best part(s) of this were that we got there early enough to see them sound check and afterwards he walked past me and said "Sound good?" My brilliant response "Oh yeah", I said this while managing to not shit my pants. Then they played and it was incredible.

AC/DC: The Fargodome in Fargo (2000)

I was in the way back nose bleeds for this one but it was still the LOUDEST concert I've ever seen and I was front row for two Slayer concerts. They played everything you would expect them to and it didn't sound tired at all.

Faith No More: The Warfield in San Francisco (2010)

One of my all time favorite groups. I touched upon the adventures that went into this concert in an earlier post so I won't dwell too much on it. But it was awesome. They played everything you would expect and we were able to see them play with Chuck Mosely, something that they hadn't done since about 1988 I believe.

Metallica: The Fargodome in Fargo (2004)

Front row again. Very fun. My friends and I were singing the whole time and it was awesome. Then during "Master of Puppets" James Hetfield looks right into my eyes and then two things happened. 1) I forgot the damn words. 2) I turned into a girl. Then later on during "One' Kirk Hammet plays the final solo right in front of us. The lamest thing that happened was at the end of the show. The whole band were throwing pics into the crowd and this asshole security guard in front of us decided that rather than being cool and giving them to us, he would pocket them. All 15 of them. Lame.


I don't get out to see as many shows as I did in my younger days when I was an undergrad and in high school. Mostly because of time and money, but when I do it is still fun. And that's how I'm gonna end this one. Peace out gang.

End Of An Era

Since the semester just ended and I transferred out of Graphic Design into Printmaking, I felt that I would talk about some of my feelings/insights/rambling incoherent thoughts on the subject.

When I was an undergraduate at UND I did a lot of things and found that I enjoyed Printmaking and Graphic Design, in that order the most. Not sure why I chose to go with Graphic Design when I feel that I was and still am better in Printmaking, maybe it was the fact that it should be easier to get a job with Graphic Design. Anyways the classes I took there in retrospect didn't really prepare me for the overwhelmingness (is that a word?) that I would soon feel. I mean sure it started out fine and they eased us into it, making me feel like I could do it. But how quick the tide can turn.
We were told how rough and tumble things would be in the real world, how you had to know just about everything about everything WHILE also realizing that you're just a designer. If that doesn't compute let me break it down real fast: if you are doing something related to say brain surgery for some reason, you need to know everything there is about brain surgery so that you can be the smartest (in a perfect world) person in a room of both designers and brain surgeons. While also not trying to be a brain surgeon. That's what it's like in a nutshell. VERY,VERY overwhelming.
I guess that I realized that I just like design and not love it. I don't want to spend hours upon hours working on something that I might not care about. Also design is so vague. Half the time it seems like a guessing game on what a teacher is looking for. One of my biggest peeves was that it became a god damn money pit. Every project got more expensive, this past semester I probably spent a good $500 at least on ink cartridges. Then there is paper and other miscellaneous crap to go with it. I guess another thing that I could never get into (some of my designer friends felt the same way also) is that I don't want to save the world. It seems that everything has to be about saving this, conservation, informing people about evil corporations, blah blah blah. That's not me and it never has been, and it also loses me very quickly. Plus I don't know if it's just me but if Graphic Design is all about being unique and coming up with stuff that normal people don't think of, why is it that just about every designer out there wants to do one of these boring things? Kinda seems to defeat the overall goal, might be me though.
Anyways so I'm done with it as a major/future occupation. I mean there are things about it that I still like and will probably hold my attention. I won't forget (fingers crossed) it and can integrate it into my future work as a Printmaker. Also I made some pretty cool design friends and if any of them stumble upon this I very much enjoyed working with them. But upwards and onwards!

Damn I Love A Good Book In The Evening

I don't know why, but ever since my last semester of college, when I took a "Vampire Literature" class to fill up my English requirements I have totally been into reading fiction like that. Now I'm not talking about wussy Twilight stuff, its more of the violent vampire (there are two kinds: sexy and violent (I learned that in the class)). It's just so good; but as of late I have been exploring the other monster realms with werewolves and also my new recent favorite: zombies. There is just something about those types of books that I find interesting. Maybe it's the unrealistic nature of them or just the fact that it happens in a real world setting.
The funny thing about this is that for the longest time I was all about nonfiction books, my thought process was that you couldn't write something better than someones life that they actually lived. My personal favorites were/are "The Dirt", "To Hell & Back", and "Juiced". But ever since that class I have been hooked on reading this stuff. It's an interesting hypothetical survival tale. Hiding, scrounging for supplies, trying not to get bitten, what happens if you do; stuff like that. I know that it's not for everyone but if you start reading it, it really makes you think. It might have gotten to me a little bit because since I like to walk more than ride the bus, I am constantly thinking "If zombies came at me right now, what would I do?". Messed up, I know.
I just think that I have read and seen to many zombie things. Of course this will never happen, but you never know right? If it does I will be maybe adequately prepared to run and hide. Maybe I should start reading nonfiction again, but then again that stuff really did happen.