skipped a night

I started this entry hours ago, at least, and the computer crashed several times during the babbling (nothing was lost as I rarely write in the browser anymore) so it's date stamped now I forgot what the title was, but as the first line of the actual entry (next paragraph starts it) said, it was a good thing...

and a good thing, too, because three entries blinked out at the world and wondered where the world went and if three more popped out into the silence, well, that's oddly depressing in some way when the manic rush comes back down to Earth as it often does after a couple of days of concert rushes and magic... so in our mutual absence (so much pressure to appear, to perform, to be present and heard, no doubt... the blogging life brings us to the fast lane of contact and communication and time away aches in places we seldom, if ever, bring to conscious awareness if the offline world (such honest hunger is considered weakness, neediness, and even selfishness, no less) and yet, here it is slipped amidst a rambling opening amidst a rambling series of entries and whatever, it becomes part of the past in this briefest moment), I played in other places and napped...

after the last three entries inspired by the Friday night concert, I spent the time between concerts setting fantasy football teams and napping briefly... adding concerts to my going out activities this year was definitely the best thing I could do for myself (though my wallet is sniffling in my pocket) because previously there was dining out and that's about it and that's definitely too one dimensional for mind, body, and everything else... returning to the world of live music is the best thing for the body, for sure... and the mind and energy (spirit, soul, anima, ka, whatever word we choose to represent the ethereal aspect of being) follows suit as it can experience this physical life more fully as the body experiences the physical life more fully (so obvious, yet so ignored by most, which is the single saddest and most limiting choice humanity collectively and individually makes, but that's a rant or lament for another day)...

so yesterday was the Deland Music Festival and I didn't get to it... I'd have only been able to spend a couple of hours there before heading down to the 30 Seconds to Mars concert in the evening and the evening concert ended after midnight and I got home around 2am (so I passed on driving up another hour or so to try to find the after parties for the Deland festival because I probably would not have found them by the time I got there)... sounds like excuses, but oh well, I am passing as human these days after all...

nyuk nyuk and cha cha cha...

so in keeping with my human persona, I shall make excuses for a bit... I spent the night here rambling for the three part entry you can scroll down to read if you wish basically was the trade off... and while strong loud voices in my head (the same voices that get me out of the house and back to real life in real time offline) remind me how foolish it is to remain so enamored with this online world (hey, the babbler needs a home and loving too, so the physical world voices, with all their real world real time power and logic, have a strong opponent and maybe that's what balance is all about)...

ah, gee, if only the day was 42 hours long as I've often requested... I keep sending in the paperwork, but the dang universe doesn't pay attention to the applications and follow up memos I send, so I napped and woke with just a few hours to spare before the evening concert and so I did the fantasy sports instead of driving an hour and a half there and spending an hour or an hour and a half at the early hours of the festival... just not enough time, dangit...

back to the fun now, the 30 Seconds to Mars concert was very excellent... Cobra Starship opened and had the crowd bouncing and screaming within ten minutes... the lead singer has a great stage personality and potential, though he does beg a bit much, but that is the job of an opening front man so all in all, great job... Cobra STarship was followed by Receiving End of Sirens who were very disappointing... their sound was garbled and actually came off almost like white noise, or perhaps gray noise, and it's effect was to put the crowd to sleep... ironically that is probably exactly what the venue (Hard Rock Cafe) wanted because their big signs banning moshing, surfing, and cameras were all over the place once again (but wait, Mars landed and changed everything)...

the audience re-awoke for the third band, Rock Kills Kid (who was not on the original bill and a pleasant surprise), though the sound system remained questionable as the overdone bass and reverb and buzzing combination continued to distort the sound... maybe it was partly on the groups themselves for trying to put too much music and affects into the sound system, but they have much room for improvement...

then came Head Automatica who found a way to clarify their sound better so at least there were distinctions between instruments, but the vocals were still a bit too buried in the collective sound... they, like all the other bands, thanked Mars for taking them on their tour as if they thanking their fathers for taking them to the toy store... hopefully somewhere along the way the opening groups will take the lead of Cobra Starship and feel a sense of pride at being there and thank the audience as much as being thankful for being on Mars's coattails because it came off much like corporate kissing ass to me... but then, I find a whole lot of that in music these days (which makes much of their edge rather false in spite of, or perhaps because of their very limited adjective vocabulary...

I mean come on, really people, there are so many more expressive and even shockingly edgy adjectives to use... constantly using fucking {or fuckin} in every fucking sentence is fucking not impressive to fucking anyone with half a fucking mind, especially when most fucking sentences are fucking less than five fucking words to fucking begin with... but we fucking love you guys)...

ah, but that does sound cynical and I am much too amused and happy to be ranting just now... much more I am floaty (as opposed to bouncy) and maybe a bit closer to the nostalgic soaring (with a touch of misty, lingering from the grumps that I dumped right here in RealTime™ a few entries ago as I released my first reaction to seeing a local production of A Chorus Line...

see?... I mean, just look at all those adjectives... much more descriptive than if I simply said fuckin this and fuckin that all the time... sheesh, kids, show your creativity and talent and not just your ability to follow blindly like the very stuffed shirts you wish to rebel against (and my free advice to rockers concludes for now)...

meanwhile, where were we?... ah yes, we come to 30 Seconds to Mars... but before they came on, another surprise... a three person drum corps (I forget the name) that placed with all sorts of percussion and lighting and made for a fun, if oddly placed, break from the head banging rock... and then....

suddenly the sound system was cleaned up and the instrumental and vocal distinctions were much better (the acoustics of the Hard Rock, as with any room with many side pockets, still leave a lot to be desired though)... being in the very center of the room (horizontally and vertically) brought the experience to it's peak (including room flaws), but it was still excellent... the stage was sparse, allowing the actor-turned-singer, Jared Leto, to move freely and move well he did, leaping into the crowd more than once and following the lead of one of the opening acts, actually head walking and standing while singing... I don't have the picture, but I did get a few decent shots during the concert and as soon as I find time to see if the software will install and run on this dinosaur machine I'll see about photo blogging a bit... one of these days...

and before Mars started the second song they challenged the uptight Hard Rock authorities by demanding the audience on the floor form an open circled and start moshing in it (and the audience did for a brief few moments before the bouncers came along and put a stop to it... that's just one reason why the House of Blues is infinitely better for a rock concert)... they could not stop a few members of the bands, including Mars, from crowd surfing though.... ... actually climbed down off the shoulders of fans and walked through the crowd during once song (I have a snip of that on video)... Jared Leto (it's interesting for me that he still gets called Jordan Catalano so often thanks to My So-Called Life... I mean, he's pretty, but my focus was much more on Angela as that is where I first fell in love with Claire Danes {who competed with Larissa Oleynik and Alyson Hannigan for my attentions at the time}, but that's another so-called life ago... yes, my fantasies have always been diverse and momentary, but every one who's ever been is always welcome in my mind)...

are you still there?...

yes, well, much web browsing and reminiscing later, I'm back to do something in the way of a conclusion for this entry... I recommend the new dipped Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies and the new Dove Milk Chocolate Moment cookies along with some chocolate milk and chocolate and French vanilla cool whip and Godiva Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Praline ice cream... and of course, all that must follow some home made pizza with mozzarella, provolone, asiago, romano, parmesan cheeses and assorted spices and toppings... for those of you thinking I am repeating myself, well, I would have been if I wrote an entry last night after the concert instead of setting fantasy sports cuz I had a similar dinner last night after the concert (which was another reason I crashed instead of babbled because a meal like that after a few days of minimal sleep and loud music and dancing and much bouncing is a sure sedative as the body laps up the sustenance and sends sleep signals to the brain cuz the body replenishes and rebuilds itself best during sleep...

perhaps I should simply call my next babbling blog digression...

meanwhile, there's something called Amendment 3 on the ballot around here that does away with majority rule, which is pretty much the equivalent of doing away with true democracy as minority group (and special interest groups) could pass laws for the majority (as if the majority could actually understand the way laws are made or even interpret the meaning of a single bill (oh, but bill is so the right word as the cost is usually so high)... one of the main problems I see is that the news, that is, the press, do not report the news or the facts in any sort of unbiased manner, they report their opinions on their interpretation of the facts... read for yourself... we even have to wonder who is behind the supposedly public service websites, but maybe they do the facts justice after all... politics...

anyway, history clearly tells us that in an empire on the decline, oligarchy happens sooner or later... and these days those in power are at the stage of legislating oligarchy instead of just buying it...

yeah, digression, dangerous stuff...

I suppose it could be said that I think too much... but then, to do anything too much (or too little for that matter) requires (or at least assumes some standard that determines what is enough and that leads to ideas like normal and average and it can be said those places are just a stone's throw from mediocre... anyway, from my perspective, I don't think enough... alone out here on my own little mental cloud, my standard is apparently very different from most others... but then, I do not try to legislate, demand, coerce, buy, or even suggest that anyone change their mind and live by my standard (at least not often, he chides, but really, very rarely and only when it is requested and I believe the requestor could actually make the effort and change)... and it works two ways, you see (or I can only hope you do or you miss the point), cuz if you view my perspective as elitist then it is you choosing to view it from below, for to me, my perspective is just different, not better or worse in any standardized size cuz it's those general standards that people try to make cover everything that muck everything up by distorting perspective...

ya falla?...

obviously we are in the midst of yet another btc ramble... page 45, in case you are keeping track... that is in MS Word, 0.5 inch margins on all sides of the page, and Arial 8pt bold font, in case you like the details... that could turn into 45 entries, I suppose, if I chose to cut the btc entry size back a bit more (I did when I switched to the three column format, actually, if you were keeping track)... we shall see when there's time for the upload... meanwhile, it appears that there is something wrong with the comments at behind the candoor and hopefully it will fix itself when I upload a new entry...

I shall pause here with no actual conclusion because I am realizing more and more that I am spending my rambling time here in this RealTime™ blog and that defeats the purpose of rambling and the brevity this blog was supposed to be for at the start... what can I say, I miss you... and maybe it's cuz I feel like you notice me more here than anywhere else at the moment... and ultimately (not to diminish the missing you), it's habit... like myspace... one of these days I'll get back in the habit of putting the aimless rambling back where it belongs and return here with the brief updates of life offline in RealTime™ and all will be well, or at least more balanced, in my written gardens again... for me, that's better for balance in life... it's time to leave RealTime™ now and shift into babble time...

hope you've been enjoying your weekend J