.......You don't have to pity-laugh, it's OK (That stands for Oll Korrect, by the way, fun factoid of the day). This post is going to be a rare, excessively long and chronological post so bear with me, you won't get many of these unless I feel it is utterly necessary. I mean, what kind of boring story-teller tells a story in order anymore?
Friday was a fairly mediocre day at first: I attended the Midnight Metal Cruise after working a sub-par shift (which was still exciting if only because I have two more days working for that crazy alcoholic boss of mine), and it greatly exceeded my expectations. For one thing, Ironweed killed it, an awesome groove-rock/metal band with the former front-man of the best metal band from Albany ever, Held Under. Very fun stuff. The second band was Dead and Dying....Breed....one of the few bands still known as "troycore," and if you don't know what that is, well, you aren't missing much nowadays.
Anyway, the point isn't so much the bands that played as that it was on the Dutch Apple, a medium-sized boat that does cruises of various sorts. After some intense thunderstorms passed, and I had a few beers with some friends, I silently observed with renewed awe the city of Albany drifting by at a nice, comfortable speed. I saw the State building I worked at for a summer as a paper-pusher, with its green windows and its persianesque dometop; I saw the undersides of greenish-black bridges with supports that are older than me; The black water so calm and our boat humming steadily as she pushed on through, with the smell of fuel sauntering lightly on the breeze, all the while as the boat gently rocked. I had forgotten how much I really enjoy traveling by water, and I greatly look forward to my first trip to South Korea from Japan, which is relatively short distance by boat, and it's cheap too! I will of course be going to visit Yun, Kaitlin and Jaemin, as well as attempting to converse in broken Korean.
Woo, tangent. I had a great time on the metal cruise. I spent the latter hours trying to reel in some fishes, but none were a-bitin'. So, me and Eddy (a man with integrity and a healthy passion for life and questioning EVERYTHING, whom I have neglected to mention in my blog thusfar) perused a few bars and got some completely unnecessary late-night eats at Cafe 217, because it's a nice little joint. I ate Nachos with chili, not only because I had been drinking, but also for another, more pervasive reason: Apparently, while Japan is an acclaimed "eater's paradise" the one thing they can't do right/don't have a decent number of is Spanish/Mexican eateries. While I understand the geographical and cultural gaps which are only part in parcel of the cause for this, it still greatly upsets me since spicy foods are one of my reasons for living. I know there's curry, but c'mon, it ain't the same as a delicious burrito with mega-hot sauce!!!!!
So, following my 4am meal I awoke promptly at noon to meet with my dear friend Sarah for lunch (actually breakfast for us both, but we did not mind) at El Loco, another cool place to eat in Albany. I proceeded to eat delicious burrito with mega-hot sauce, while we talked about our lives, aspirations, yada-yada. The important thing here is that she is just one of many on my list of approximately (and I quote) 239 people I will sorely miss hanging out with. Here is a terribly blurred picture from that day:
After we said our goodbyes (and I had better see you again soon before I go!), I did less memorable stuff like go home and sit around in my underwear with a fan on me to dodge the heat, went to work, and went straight to Troy to pick up Justin, a younger guy who was in (ironically enough) a troycore band, who I've always gotten along with as he is chill and enjoys a lot of the same music as me. Before I explain anything else, I'm Fast Forwarding and loosely quoting my apparent drunken wisdom: "We are dudes who like metal. People don't get it, unless they listen to metal, so we go around being somewhat introverted and keep to ourselves, unless of course we are around someone else who likes metal."
The reason I picked him up was to see the epic Burning Human, a 10+ year old band whose latest cd has been produced by James Murphy of much fame, a band who pre-existed Shadows Fall and still have Jay Bittner as their drummer, a band that is from troy but not troycore so much as rip-your-face-off death metal. They only play once a year now if at all, and I've never seen them before. The other bands were forgettable; But Burning Human, who everyone came and paid an ominous $13 to see, had an absolutely crazy set which included these things, with absolutely no exaggeration whatsoever:
- A guy jumping off the stage backwards within 10 seconds, and no-one catching him.
- At least half a dozen different fights - not that I'm a fan of this at shows, because I'm not, but as a wise man once said, "anything is funny if it's not happening to you."
- Two or three people knocked out cold from sheer mosh madness, also kinda uncouth in my opinion but I was in no way involved.
- Firecrackers set off in the middle of the pit
- General mayhem and troycore debauchery.
- An awesome band with completely devastating tunes.
I proceeded to drop Justin off at some party, upon which made this discovery:
A truly epic night. I also had the extreme pleasure (or Schadenfreude, if you will) of watching a cop pass me and pull over the guy in front of me. I also proceeded to eat at Taco Bell, and came home to crash in at roughly 2am. The point here being that I have a stomach of steel and can take anything, even the beaniest of combinations.
6:52am: I was awakened by Jessica. Background: Me + Jessica is B.F.F., in the truest sense, we've known each other our entire lives. Jessica, her boyfriend Mike Legendary and I all left about an hour later to visit Mountain Creek in New Jersey, a water-park that I have never been to before. Apparently it had some rather unflattering history and an infamous record for injuries and deaths when it was known as Action Park. An interested read, and whoever approved a water-slide with a loop is on some hard drugs, a dead certainty.
Now I wonder why this one didn't last...
I was so tired I don't even remember taking this picture.
We met up with Ace, a friend of Mike's, at Traction Park and proceeded to our doom - er, um, fun. The very first "ride" wasn't a ride at all but a 20' cliff jump into a big pool of water. Here's a fact that will never change: I am afraid of heights. I manned up and stepped forward to take the plunge, and just as I did so the staff-guy said: "no arms out, no diving, no dying." I immediately jumped without looking down, and it was an awesome rush. Probably the closest to cliff-diving that I will ever get. I love water-parks, and on a hot day like today I got more sun than I have so far all summer, excluding my slick driver's tan. I also ended up with my back and shoulders a nice and crispy shade of red by the end.
Anyway, we went on many great rides, and other than NYC- and Jersey-kids being complete douchebags and blatantly cutting long lines, the apathetically pathetic staff, the somewhat crowded conditions, the overpriced food (of which I ate none at all, all day, for the sake of time money and health) and the lack of water fountains, I had a shreddin-good-time. It was a day to remember, to say the least.
We are some classy people, lemme tell ya!
And here I am now, 1:07am, tired as all hell, still chlorine-zonked and burnt out from a busy and awesome weekend. I have so many plans tomorrow that I can tell posting will not happen, so I prioritized this for the sake of retaining all the quirky details.
Real quick, because I'm equally as excited about this, here are a few choice band pictures and the coup de grace of this whole entry:
Damnation Alley - Just Fine. The first material by my band to hit the internet, please check it out if you like metal! :)
That is all from deep space. Tomorrow should include many things, including setting up my technologically-impaired relatives with webcam technology, hanging out with Josh one last time before he makes the move, seeing The Dark Knight, and having our first band practice with the new Drummer, Chris of Recon-fame. I really never used to be this busy, but I like it. Over and out.
Countdown to D-Day: 29 Days.
"Wake up wake up, we're losing everything! Wake up wake up, we are Fixtures.... Do we really want to face reality?" - Achilles
2 comments:
burning human was sick. later suckaface!!
I will show you a couple tex-mex places I know of.
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