The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again
Don't run back inside
darling you know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright
Oh and that's alright with me
You can hide 'neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero
That's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven's waiting on down the tracks
Oh oh come take my hand
Riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road
oh Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey I know it's late we can make it if we run
Oh Thunder Road, sit tight take hold
Thunder Road
Well I got this guitar
And I learned how to make it talk
And my car's out back
If you're ready to take that long walk
>From your front porch to my front seat
The door's open but the ride it ain't free
And I know you're lonely
For words that I ain't spoken
But tonight we'll be free
All the promises'll be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes
Of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they're gone
On the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win.
-Bruce Springsteen "Thunder Road"
PS Bruce knew how I was feeling tonight, he just opened the show in Anaheim with Thunder Road...Man I love that guy
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Disappointment
I really feel like this semester has been great. There have been great times and there were better times. But there has also been a lot of disappointments. As a sidenote I have not heard anything from MTV yet, but I'm not even disappointed in that. If it wasn't meant to be it wasn't meant to be, there are still thousands of opportunities out there. So don't be worried about that.
The recent disappointment has been with my fraternity. The fraternity which I have put a great deal of work and effort into and which I have gotten more out of than perhaps anything else in college has become an insignificant part of my life the past few weeks. I chose not to go to formal this weekend which used to be my favorite event of the year. Tonight we had a our last meeting of the year and my last meeting as an undergraduate. It was an absolute joke. Don't get me wrong I had a few drinks this afternoon with Mikey and I didn't follow dress code (I had my sandals on), but I had to leave. We have a ceremony for graduating seniors and people couldn't even take that seriously. It may seem dumb but I was really looking forward to it. And it was made out to be dumb and unimportant. People were drunk* during the meeting which is not only dumb, but its against so many rules.
Greek week was last week and I couldn't even get excited. Again another high point of my college life has been the Greek Weeks of the past and this one was eh. I mean we won Fraternity of the Year and I couldn't care less. Not because we didn't deserve it as a chapter, but because I think we were too cocky and we settled for less than the best. We didn't dominate. It was real close, it came down to grades and that has nothing to do with our chapter that has to do with the intelligence of our individual members. I've tried so hard to make people want more to always be better and tonight they proved that they don't give a shit about any of it. It was just about having a good time and not about the brotherhood and the bonds that we create when we join. If they are drunk what do they care. Selfish, f*cking selfish.
I guess I expect more of people. Not only more but a lot more. This guy came into my class last night and was talking about working with different artists and how they all have different expectations. I don't remember who he was talking about, but he said that someone in particular was very difficult to work with. Not in a bad way, just difficult because he really expected a lot of himself and also of the people who worked with and for him. This is how I imagine Springsteen to be. He goes out every night and expects himself to put 110% and also expects the entire band to do the same. That's why they are so good at what they do.
I hope to resolve these issues I have with the chapter and to be able to look back in a couple years and remember the good times and not the petty bullsh*t. I want to look back and remember that I was part of a great fraternity not a weak sorority. I want to be proud that I'm a Greek and right now I'm just disappointed.
This weekend marked the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death and in honor of him I leave you with this quote.
"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." -MLK Jr
The recent disappointment has been with my fraternity. The fraternity which I have put a great deal of work and effort into and which I have gotten more out of than perhaps anything else in college has become an insignificant part of my life the past few weeks. I chose not to go to formal this weekend which used to be my favorite event of the year. Tonight we had a our last meeting of the year and my last meeting as an undergraduate. It was an absolute joke. Don't get me wrong I had a few drinks this afternoon with Mikey and I didn't follow dress code (I had my sandals on), but I had to leave. We have a ceremony for graduating seniors and people couldn't even take that seriously. It may seem dumb but I was really looking forward to it. And it was made out to be dumb and unimportant. People were drunk* during the meeting which is not only dumb, but its against so many rules.
Greek week was last week and I couldn't even get excited. Again another high point of my college life has been the Greek Weeks of the past and this one was eh. I mean we won Fraternity of the Year and I couldn't care less. Not because we didn't deserve it as a chapter, but because I think we were too cocky and we settled for less than the best. We didn't dominate. It was real close, it came down to grades and that has nothing to do with our chapter that has to do with the intelligence of our individual members. I've tried so hard to make people want more to always be better and tonight they proved that they don't give a shit about any of it. It was just about having a good time and not about the brotherhood and the bonds that we create when we join. If they are drunk what do they care. Selfish, f*cking selfish.
I guess I expect more of people. Not only more but a lot more. This guy came into my class last night and was talking about working with different artists and how they all have different expectations. I don't remember who he was talking about, but he said that someone in particular was very difficult to work with. Not in a bad way, just difficult because he really expected a lot of himself and also of the people who worked with and for him. This is how I imagine Springsteen to be. He goes out every night and expects himself to put 110% and also expects the entire band to do the same. That's why they are so good at what they do.
I hope to resolve these issues I have with the chapter and to be able to look back in a couple years and remember the good times and not the petty bullsh*t. I want to look back and remember that I was part of a great fraternity not a weak sorority. I want to be proud that I'm a Greek and right now I'm just disappointed.
This weekend marked the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death and in honor of him I leave you with this quote.
"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." -MLK Jr
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Audition Video
Here it is. I hate to see myself on film sometimes and if you knew the number of outtakes there were you'd be glad I edited it down to the short clip that this is. I guess I better get used to seeing myself if this goes the way I want it to. Enjoy and keep those fingers crossed.
The April Fools day chaos.
So last night on my way home from Greek Feud (Fraternity/Sorority version of family feud) I stopped and grabbed a sandwich from the bakery around the corner. Really good Roast Beef with crispy onions and horseradish. Take it back to my place crack open a beer and sit back to watch some television. Monday nights are my long night, I have class until 7:30pm, but then I don't have anything on Tuesdays. Okay so I sit down in front of my television take a bite of my sandwich, and out of the corner of my eye I notice something that is out of place. There is a new Wii game case and I'm so excited I drop my sandwich. You need to understand how badly I've been wanting to play Super Smash Bros. and I had almost gone out and bought it myself. Okay so I as I reach for the case I also reach for my phone and before the word Bros is out of my mouth Steve is in a cab on his way over. This game is stellar. I'm not great, but I haven't played in a long time. So Steve and I crack a couple more beers and start playing. Before we realize it we finished what beers I had left and its almost 11pm. So we decide to run to the store to grab some snacks and more beer. We run into Mikey coming in the front door (thank him tremendously for purchasing our latest addiction) and ask him to run us to the liquor store, which he kindly obliged. So we go and grab some more beer and some snacks and head back to the land of Mario, Pikachu, and Snake. Mikey now joins in on the phone and after putting his car up for grabs to the winner of the first game I came off victorious and a proud owner of a new Lexus. Then Steve won the second game and claimed the car. All the time we are continuing to indulge ourselves in some beverages. So we play until about 12:30am before we turn on the late night talk shows. We continue to eat and drink and talk and hang out and then we decide we are still hungry. So what else is there to do at 4:00am than go to South Street Diner. So we scrounge up the cash we can find to get a cab (thanks for the $10 Mom) and head down there where we were the only people in the place. (Which I guess isn't that weird on a Monday night at 4am.) We enjoyed some hot wings, some eggs, some corned beef hash, some uncooked potatoes and Steve had the pancakes or french toast I don't really remember which. We head back to my place where Steve starts to wreck havoc. The restaurant downstairs just yesterday set up the patio fencing. Well after leaning into one Steve realized he could rearrange them pretty easily and quickly made a zig-zag of all of them. Then after I hand him his pillow to crash on the couch he proceeds to kick the bottles on the table creating a domino effect of glass bottles. This was not very quiet at 4:30am. We got up at a relatively normal hour the next morning and Steve was clearly hurting. After a couple of Tylenol and some Dagwood sandwiches we played some more Super Smash Bros and then Greek Week continued.
Tonight's event was Greek Sing where all the chapters put on a 5-7min song and dance routine incorporating everything and everyone in Greek Life. Our guys did an excellent job and came out on top with the NUMBER ONE.
I'm sure there is more going on it's been a crazy week. But I'll write more tomorrow.
Peace
Tonight's event was Greek Sing where all the chapters put on a 5-7min song and dance routine incorporating everything and everyone in Greek Life. Our guys did an excellent job and came out on top with the NUMBER ONE.
I'm sure there is more going on it's been a crazy week. But I'll write more tomorrow.
Peace
Sunday, March 30, 2008
My 100th Post
Well it's been over a year since I've been writing this blog and I've just hit my 100th Post. Guess I'll have to step up my game the next couple weeks to keep everyone up to date on life and music and everything more often than I have been. So let's get started.
This week the new Counting Crows album Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings was released. I've only listened to it all the way through a half dozen or so times, but I'm absolutely loving it. The first half of the album is what Adam describes as a typical saturday night that he had been going through for a while. Loud, rocking, and general just kick ass (remind me to tell you a funny story about this later on in the post). The second half is a little more mellow and laid back. Exactly what you need on those Sunday mornings recovering from your rough Saturday night. It is probably the best album of theirs since August and Everything After (Anna Begins has been playing on my iPod a lot lately.) The album reminds me a lot of the Live Across A Wire double-disc which was the electric MTV 10Spot Concert and the VH1 acoustic set. Definitely go out and buy this album though. Adam and the guys are going out on tour this summer with Maroon 5 who I wrote about here.
Definitely going to try and catch a couple of these shows depending on where I'm living this summer.
Which brings me to my next highlight of the week. So I was on Myspace the other night just chilling seeing what was up and I noticed a post from my old boss at Mtv. The bulletin headline was "MTV is looking for on-air VJs". Now you've probably read the posts where I talk about my dream of being on Real World. (I dream big huh?) But I never thought about being an on-air VJ. Just kidding when I was doing my internship at MTV, the few times I was able to work with TRL I totally could see myself hosting. So I decided what the hell I'll put my resume together and throw on a random head shot photo (Sent one from Gabe's Wedding over the summer where I was looking totally awesome) and wrote a cover letter about how awesome I am (Can I just say my ego has gotten and awesome boost from people telling me all week "I can totally see you doing that") and I sent it off thinking nothing of it. So I go about my business go to class and come back and check my email. Seriously like 1 hour later the woman emails me back (I know I've been telling people she called, it's way more exciting that way) and asks if I can put together an audition tape by the end of the week. My response "I'll overnight it tomorrow". She sent me everything I needed to do on the tape. I needed three video tosses (Up next grab your umbrellas, at number 4 it's Rhianna) then one minute review of a new album (see above Counting Crows review) and one host copy which is now taped on 7 different cue cards on my bedroom wall. So I take about an hour and half to film all of this stuff which should be 4 minutes long and go to the studio to edit it all down. Honestly I think some of the outtakes are funnier than the actual audition and I'm going to try and post everything here tomorrow so you can see how it came out. So then I overnighted it and they received it Thursday at 12:44pm and it was signed by a Mr R. Armstrong. (Not that I was concerned about whether it got there on time at all) And then there was nothing. What I'm hoping is that they got all the tapes they wanted by Friday at the end of the day and then they are going to review them at the beginning of this week and then call people back. I hope I didn't get everyone's hopes up including my own and now all I can say is I once sent in a tape to be a VJ as opposed to "Mom I know you haven't seen me in a couple weeks it's been crazy down here at work, but tune in this Thursday to catch my interview with Mariah Carey at 3:30pm all part of Spanking New Music Week" (How f*cking cool would that be?)
I'll keep you all up to date on the developments on that front. Life has been good besides all of that stuff going on. Have a major project that I've been majorly procrastinating on so now I have to kick it into high gear this week to catch up. Sure it will all work out. After all some of the project involves Bruce Springsteen so what more motivation do I need. The major upside/downside of this position will probably be leaving Boston sooner than expected. I believe the position would start sooner than later and recently I've gotten it through my head that I'm going to stay in Boston for the summer. But if the opportunity presents itself, I'm outta here.
Justin and I had a really interesting conversation the other night about friendships and how funny and fickle they can be. We were talking about how our relationship had changed over the years since when I first met him. We talked a lot about how things were different while I was in Australia and even this year. I've been working a lot and/or hanging out with guys in the chapter and haven't really been as close to my roommates as I was when I lived with them sophomore year. It's weird because as a sophomore I was the young and inexperienced one and I really looked up to guys like Hansen and took everything they said and did as the rule of thumb. And not in a bad way just in a different way as I went from being friends/roommates with him to my Middler year as President of the fraternity and him as my advisor, I tried to do things they way he did and run the chapter they way he did. But our leadership styles are very different and when I tried to emulate him it came off I suppose as not genuine or forced. Then I went away for a year and came back full circle and we are roommates again and its for sure different but so are most of my other relationships. Over time people change and grow and sometimes we grow closer and sometimes we grow apart, but I feel it's just the natural process of things. There is no really explaining it, or if there is I haven't figured that part out yet.
I'm happy that spring is finally here (although it was snowing Friday night). The more hours of sun there are in the day the happier I am for sure. To wake up to sunshine on my face is probably one of the best feelings in the world, and getting out of class at 7:30pm at night and still having some light is also awesome. I know that my birthday is coming and graduation and all kinds of fun things that the summer always brings. I am for sure a summer baby.
This post is getting entirely too long so I will save some for later in the week.
Until then I'll leave you with some Bruce...
"This one's for friendship...blood brothers on a stormy night, with a vow to defend, no retreat baby no surrender."
This week the new Counting Crows album Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings was released. I've only listened to it all the way through a half dozen or so times, but I'm absolutely loving it. The first half of the album is what Adam describes as a typical saturday night that he had been going through for a while. Loud, rocking, and general just kick ass (remind me to tell you a funny story about this later on in the post). The second half is a little more mellow and laid back. Exactly what you need on those Sunday mornings recovering from your rough Saturday night. It is probably the best album of theirs since August and Everything After (Anna Begins has been playing on my iPod a lot lately.) The album reminds me a lot of the Live Across A Wire double-disc which was the electric MTV 10Spot Concert and the VH1 acoustic set. Definitely go out and buy this album though. Adam and the guys are going out on tour this summer with Maroon 5 who I wrote about here.
Definitely going to try and catch a couple of these shows depending on where I'm living this summer.
Which brings me to my next highlight of the week. So I was on Myspace the other night just chilling seeing what was up and I noticed a post from my old boss at Mtv. The bulletin headline was "MTV is looking for on-air VJs". Now you've probably read the posts where I talk about my dream of being on Real World. (I dream big huh?) But I never thought about being an on-air VJ. Just kidding when I was doing my internship at MTV, the few times I was able to work with TRL I totally could see myself hosting. So I decided what the hell I'll put my resume together and throw on a random head shot photo (Sent one from Gabe's Wedding over the summer where I was looking totally awesome) and wrote a cover letter about how awesome I am (Can I just say my ego has gotten and awesome boost from people telling me all week "I can totally see you doing that") and I sent it off thinking nothing of it. So I go about my business go to class and come back and check my email. Seriously like 1 hour later the woman emails me back (I know I've been telling people she called, it's way more exciting that way) and asks if I can put together an audition tape by the end of the week. My response "I'll overnight it tomorrow". She sent me everything I needed to do on the tape. I needed three video tosses (Up next grab your umbrellas, at number 4 it's Rhianna) then one minute review of a new album (see above Counting Crows review) and one host copy which is now taped on 7 different cue cards on my bedroom wall. So I take about an hour and half to film all of this stuff which should be 4 minutes long and go to the studio to edit it all down. Honestly I think some of the outtakes are funnier than the actual audition and I'm going to try and post everything here tomorrow so you can see how it came out. So then I overnighted it and they received it Thursday at 12:44pm and it was signed by a Mr R. Armstrong. (Not that I was concerned about whether it got there on time at all) And then there was nothing. What I'm hoping is that they got all the tapes they wanted by Friday at the end of the day and then they are going to review them at the beginning of this week and then call people back. I hope I didn't get everyone's hopes up including my own and now all I can say is I once sent in a tape to be a VJ as opposed to "Mom I know you haven't seen me in a couple weeks it's been crazy down here at work, but tune in this Thursday to catch my interview with Mariah Carey at 3:30pm all part of Spanking New Music Week" (How f*cking cool would that be?)
I'll keep you all up to date on the developments on that front. Life has been good besides all of that stuff going on. Have a major project that I've been majorly procrastinating on so now I have to kick it into high gear this week to catch up. Sure it will all work out. After all some of the project involves Bruce Springsteen so what more motivation do I need. The major upside/downside of this position will probably be leaving Boston sooner than expected. I believe the position would start sooner than later and recently I've gotten it through my head that I'm going to stay in Boston for the summer. But if the opportunity presents itself, I'm outta here.
Justin and I had a really interesting conversation the other night about friendships and how funny and fickle they can be. We were talking about how our relationship had changed over the years since when I first met him. We talked a lot about how things were different while I was in Australia and even this year. I've been working a lot and/or hanging out with guys in the chapter and haven't really been as close to my roommates as I was when I lived with them sophomore year. It's weird because as a sophomore I was the young and inexperienced one and I really looked up to guys like Hansen and took everything they said and did as the rule of thumb. And not in a bad way just in a different way as I went from being friends/roommates with him to my Middler year as President of the fraternity and him as my advisor, I tried to do things they way he did and run the chapter they way he did. But our leadership styles are very different and when I tried to emulate him it came off I suppose as not genuine or forced. Then I went away for a year and came back full circle and we are roommates again and its for sure different but so are most of my other relationships. Over time people change and grow and sometimes we grow closer and sometimes we grow apart, but I feel it's just the natural process of things. There is no really explaining it, or if there is I haven't figured that part out yet.
I'm happy that spring is finally here (although it was snowing Friday night). The more hours of sun there are in the day the happier I am for sure. To wake up to sunshine on my face is probably one of the best feelings in the world, and getting out of class at 7:30pm at night and still having some light is also awesome. I know that my birthday is coming and graduation and all kinds of fun things that the summer always brings. I am for sure a summer baby.
This post is getting entirely too long so I will save some for later in the week.
Until then I'll leave you with some Bruce...
"This one's for friendship...blood brothers on a stormy night, with a vow to defend, no retreat baby no surrender."
Monday, March 17, 2008
I have no friends...
Okay so the greatest day of my life may have cost me all of my friends. After not sleeping all night on Saturday night because of the stress of planning the Ben Folds show, I was up at 6:30am. I drove over to the student center and loaded everything into the dressing rooms at 7:00am. Becca and a handful of the KappaSigs showed up around 8 to start with load in. Ben's tour manager Ashley was there working with us all day. He was a witty British guy who knew what he wanted and when he wanted it done, which was usually 10 minutes before it was scheduled to be done. Steve quickly opened his mouth during lunch and earned the nickname Swiss from our good friend Nigel I mean Ashley.
Still on a high so this probably isn't making any sense, but we get everything all set then we wait around for a couple hours for the show. I get to introduce the opener then I get my front row seat right in front of Ben. No here's where I lose my friends. If you have never had the privilege of attending a concert with me and then you will not know what I'm about to describe, but let me try. So there is something about live music. Particularly good live music. Particularly good live music I love that drives me wild. Absolutely insane. My adrenaline skyrockets, my emotions hit the ceiling and I lose all control of my feet. Let me just say that it "... makes it possible for all white boys to dance." There are even times when I blackout and come to in a completely different song, but that's besides the point. So since I was in the front row and since I was convulsing and dancing around people decided that I lost it. I'm pretty sure there are half a dozen videos that will soon be showing up on youtube/facebook. I'm pretty sure the bigger talk will not be about the concert but about my dancing and the obnoxious amounts of high fives that Swiss and I gave each other. They are just jealous...haha
So I've never felt so accomplished, so confident that this is the life for me, and that I put on the best concert Northeastern has seen in a while (not to give myself too much props). Last night may have been one of the greatest nights of my time here at Northeastern, but I'm sure it's just the beginning of some great shit to come.
Happy St Patrick's Day to everyone. If I can plan this concert imagine what my graduation party is going to be like. If only I had a $50,000 budget for that too.
Now back to "rockin' the suburbs"...Peaces
Still on a high so this probably isn't making any sense, but we get everything all set then we wait around for a couple hours for the show. I get to introduce the opener then I get my front row seat right in front of Ben. No here's where I lose my friends. If you have never had the privilege of attending a concert with me and then you will not know what I'm about to describe, but let me try. So there is something about live music. Particularly good live music. Particularly good live music I love that drives me wild. Absolutely insane. My adrenaline skyrockets, my emotions hit the ceiling and I lose all control of my feet. Let me just say that it "... makes it possible for all white boys to dance." There are even times when I blackout and come to in a completely different song, but that's besides the point. So since I was in the front row and since I was convulsing and dancing around people decided that I lost it. I'm pretty sure there are half a dozen videos that will soon be showing up on youtube/facebook. I'm pretty sure the bigger talk will not be about the concert but about my dancing and the obnoxious amounts of high fives that Swiss and I gave each other. They are just jealous...haha
So I've never felt so accomplished, so confident that this is the life for me, and that I put on the best concert Northeastern has seen in a while (not to give myself too much props). Last night may have been one of the greatest nights of my time here at Northeastern, but I'm sure it's just the beginning of some great shit to come.
Happy St Patrick's Day to everyone. If I can plan this concert imagine what my graduation party is going to be like. If only I had a $50,000 budget for that too.
Now back to "rockin' the suburbs"...Peaces
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Graduation, Ben Folds, and things
Well we are now only 53 days from Graduation. Scary thought seeing as I have a shit ton of stuff to do the next couple weeks and time isn't slowing down at all. This week is crazy because one week from today is the big Ben Folds show. Work has been good making lots of money. Kevin was in town this weekend and I went out a couple times with him. Also went out last night with Justyna and Becky for their birthdays and spent entirely too much money. Got my tax refund and worked two doubles this weekend, though so all is good in the wallet.
Haven't had much time to hang out and relax lately and this week isn't looking better, but after this week I'm definitely going to take a day or two and just chill out. Looking to start sending out my resume this week to my contacts in the industry and see where that takes me, then start actually searching job sites/fairs for positions. Not rushing anything right now.
Other than that life is good. Coming back off Spring Break and hitting the ground running in the morning.
PEACE AND LOVE
Haven't had much time to hang out and relax lately and this week isn't looking better, but after this week I'm definitely going to take a day or two and just chill out. Looking to start sending out my resume this week to my contacts in the industry and see where that takes me, then start actually searching job sites/fairs for positions. Not rushing anything right now.
Other than that life is good. Coming back off Spring Break and hitting the ground running in the morning.
PEACE AND LOVE
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