Update 9/20/09

I'm moving back to Plattsburgh!!!!!!!!
just got a cheap $275 a month studio apartment.
complete with bathroom, full kitchen & closets!
I'm so pumped to be going home!!! it does feel like home to me now.

Crown Of Lions has a weekend tour coming up this friday, saturday!!



Plus recording the 5 song ep. should be going down next month with Ethan Henry (Earth Crisis, Freya, Action Bath) as our producer. we're looking forward to that.

We're also planning a 3 day tour with Heal These Wounds in October for Plattsburgh, Burlington, NY and Albany. We're all very excited for that to go down.

Basically life has been devoted to school work and trying to get financially back on track. i really want to get in a state where i can start taking some responsibility for the welfare, upbringing of my son. Baby steps, basically.

i've been outta college for the last 3yrs now, so it's been a big adjustment going straight back as a full-time online student. but i have faith in myself that i can pass all of my classes. I've decided to apply too CCC next year, so that i can take on campus classes as well as online.


Just got a new PDA. this thing has Window's Media Play, GPS Application, Wi-Fi connection and everything else. it's basically my new lover! i don't like being the dude who glamorizes his new toys. but with all of the traveling and shit i do, this thing is gonig to be a lifesaver on the road!

that's about all at the moment. i'll try and make sure i update sooner, rather than weeks from now.


p.s. i want to move to Oklahoma. believe me, i have my reasons.<333

Rant #4,823,567,890,000,000

So i recently made friends with a girl who i think is an absolute sweetheart. but like so many ladies i meet, she is extremely self-conscious, and convinced she's hideous and un-wanted by anyone. what upsets me is still in this day and age, even in hardcore, mainstream or any stream that the media and society work hard to make people feel like shit about themselves. The magazines and the TV screen tell you how to look, what to wear and what to like. being ugly is socially unacceptable. but honestly dude, what the fuck is the true classification of ugly. what the magazines tell us, what the media tells us. people believe so much of the crap we are fed by media news stands and celebrity magazines that we honestly have just come to mentally accept specific traits as being the defining characteristics of "ugly".

i honestly think that no one is ugly, you can make yourself a hideous person by the way you act and present yourself in this world, and you can be ugly if you go completely out your way to change yourself to fit the mold of what society views as "beautiful". I've had enough friends almost have their lives ruined because of this, and I'm sick of it.

This brings me to a friend of mine who deals with it every single day, and i wish she knew that i think the absolute world of her as a friend and a person of beauty. so what if ignorant, excuse me... close minded and insensitive people think of you. just because you don't look like the girls in the magazine does not mean you're not a stone cold fox.
those girls basically starve themselves and work out non-stop to get like that. or many of them have never been chubby a day in their lives. this is the best part of the human condition. WE CAN ALL BE UNIQUE AND BEAUTIFUL IN OUR OWN SPECIAL WAY.

appreciate who you are on the inside and on the outside. I'm done looking and desiring specific types of girls just because that's what the world tells me I'm supposed to be attracted too. Fuck you! i could say that as long as you have a great personality and heart of passion, you're the most beautiful person on earth but this takes me back a step on my point here. blur the lines. see a person for who they really are, not for personal appearance or style. life's way to damn short for that, and you could miss out on the best thing in your life if you're so judgemental and close-minded about someone you meet. LOVE EVERYONE!!!


p.s. if you're reading this, and you're one of those people who constantly cuts others down and talks shit about someone for their weight, or physical appearance. congratulations, you've proven to us just how much you truly hate yourself. news flash, making others feel like shit will never fill the pathetic, empty hole in your heart. just thought you should know. =)

holy crap man

my sister just got married.

I'm turning 27 next Friday.

my son is sprouting teeth and learning how to walk and talk.

where does the time go?

and is 27 to young for a mid-life crisis?



NEVER AGAIN


WALKING DEAD

Wartime Souvenirs

so much has been running through my head lately, it's been hard to take a moment long enough to write it all down. This song seems to be the one consistent thing running through my head that was easy to Google, copy & paste. don't you wish thoughts and life could be so simple. i mean, i think that's why it's supposed to be an adventure. they'll say "life is an adventure, so you better enjoy it while it lasts". i guess that's why it's never easy. you have to work for it man. you gotta make it what you can make it, no matter what. going in with love and compassion not just for others, but for yourself. i don't know anymore. i need to get outta this place for a while. i need to feel like my life, my music and my ideals mean something more. i need to smile more. i need to forgive myself for all of my mistakes. i need to stop making mistakes. i need to kiss my son more. i need feeling something real again. i need to stop missing you so much...



How easily we forget,
How easily we comply.
Today are we even the splinter
On the hand that pulls the trigger?

They're still dropping bombs in the name of the city that we live in.
They're still dropping bombs in the name of the city that we live in.

If time has exhausted us, then fuck us all.
Holding solace in what we did
Can't get anything done today.
We feel self important too easily,
Backs are sore from the back patting.

Oh how easily we're pacified
By bullshit like TV shows on DVD.

It shouldn't take an election to remind us that there's a war on.
It shouldn't take a song
For us to come together and scream
That "We're still here and we're still pissed."

Remember the anger from five years ago.
Just like our parents, we've spent
Most of our twenties with a war on.
We leave legacies of tax-dollar land mines.
We're too caught up in our own shit
To consider, to consider any of it.

How easily we forget,
How easily we comply.
Today are we even the splinter
On the hand that pulls the trigger?

They're still dropping bombs in the name of the city that we live in.

2010 ECO-FRIENDLY SUMMER BIKE TOUR WITH IANN & KATT XVX!!!

so a good friend of mine from Albany facebook'ed me while i was in Syracuse talking about how we should bike to buffalo before the summer was over and we both went off to college for the year. sort of an end of the summer, "hello responsibility" trip. now what i hadn't really realized about my good friend Katt XVX is that she is also a folk/punkish acoustic singer & song writer. now we both definitely share many of the same views in Veganism, Straight Edge as well as political, social, and ethical ideals; and we also agree on the perspective of bikes being an environmentally, ethical and self liberating/fulfilling form of traveling. I'm not saying automobiles are the devil, because that would be hypocritical of me to say. but if i can travel long distances efficiently by bicycle, the I'm gonna do it. no questions asked.

Now. the idea came about very spontaneously while puttering around the house bored out of my skull. I just instantly thought how rad it would be if Katt and I packed some cloths, sleeping bags, guitars stuffed in milk crates with bungee cords on the back of our bikes and rode around the northeast for two weeks playing house shows, dumpster diving, sleeping in parks and busking on city streets. I also had the idea of us putting together a 6 to 8 song split Cd's, with all hand made, spray painted sleeves to sell on the tour.

In theory, this is 100% possible to execute. two people. both vegan, riding bikes that would require no gas to power. inevitably insuring that all money that was made from shows, demo sales & busking would go straight into feeding us and paying for minor bike repairs that we may have to make while on the road.

this has always been a dream of mine to be able to do. and it's rad that i have a friend that is just as equally excited about making this trip a reality.

right now I'll be spending the fall and winter months cataloging venues & collectives and hopefully soon we'll be plotting out a set travel route for the tour. as soon as we've determined the route that we wanna take, we'll be able to start booking shows in specific locations based on the dates that we'll be biking through those areas. I'd love to be able to book the entire two weeks solid so that we have shows every night. But we all know how touring goes. shows fall through, venues can't help you, etc. so even still, a few days off will be nice. especially since we'll be biking the whole time and playing when we're not traveling. a few days off from playing to rest and gather strength will be excellent.

right now off the top of my head, these are a few places I'm thinking to travel through that i know have a few good collectives. Buffalo, Syracuse, Earlville, Ithaca, Watertown, Ogdensburg, Plattsburgh, Albany, Poughkeepsie, Brooklyn NYC, Waterbury & New Haven Connecticut, Providence Rhode Island, Boston Massachusetts, Portland and Bangor Maine, Brattleboro & Burlington Vermont and possibly anywhere else we can find that will fit in our route.

i know i speak for myself and hopefully for Katt, that the summer of 2010, is going to be the greatest summer ever.


to be continued...

Syracuse Trip Top 20

1. that moment we shared during Wall.E, that I'll never forget.

2. gorgeous late night rain storm on Megan's porch.

3. Black SS, Sick Fix, Coke Bust, No Connection Show at SPARK Art Space.

4. Running into the dudes from Attempted Control.

5. Amazing T.L.T. & Chocolate Milkshakes at Strong Hearts.

6. that night i was alone in the city & how beautiful it all looked as the sun set.

7. BBQ Tofu & Vegenaise Subs from the Syracuse Real Food CO-OP.

8. Getting my acceptance letter from OCC.

9. every awesome in depth conversation we shared together.

10. getting prank phone called by Max at 2am while i was half asleep.

11. watching that tree get hit by lighting while i was under an overpass during the storm.

12. Sound Garden Music Store.

13. sitting in the park at sun down eating hummus/tofu sandwiches.

14. intense 6 hour walk up and down Erie Blvd. E & the Fresco Bean Taco's.

15. Enjoying the Fireworks from Megan's car on the highway.

16. My intense, but amazing 1hr walk across Syracuse to the bus station.

17. watching Across The Universe while you were at work.

18. Remembering how beautiful you looked that day you went to church with your friends.

19. my love for Recess Coffee House

20. our very last kiss.

So there goes my life
Passing by with every exit sign
It's been so long
Sometimes I wonder how I will stay strong
No sleep tonight
I'll keep on driving these dark highway lines
And as the moon fades
One more night gone, only twenty more days

But I will see you again
I will see you again a long time from now

And there goes my life
Passing by with every departing flight
And its been so hard
So much time so far apart
And she walks the night
How many hearts will die tonight
And when things have changed
I guess I'll find out in seventeen days

But I will see you again
I will see you again a long time from now

My body aches
And it hurts to say
No one is moving
And I wish that I weren't here tonight
But this is my life.

And I will see you again
I will see you again a long time from now

And I will see you again
I will see you again a long time from now