new strings

So I got a new guitar, finally. I can finally not have to cringe everytime I take out my 250 dollars epiphone that I bought 6 years ago. I bought a 72 telecaster reissue (shout out to jays tele) off ebay and it is a thing of beauty and class. I was kinda pissed because the guy who sent to me never took the plastic covering off the pickguard and when he took it off to ship to me, it was all silly sticky so ive had to unscrew things and clean and wax, but its good quality Guitar and Me time. Im excited to play it at a show, but of course we do not have one for another 2 months- dumb intestines.

As most of you know I am student teaching this semester and it has been pretty crazy so far. The first week and a half, I was quietly thinking to my self that these emotionally distrurbed kids were not that bad and that my class was great. Well that soon changed, and since then there has been the most violent incidentst and the most restraints the school has ever had in a certain time period. It has been pretty crazy but definitely fun, and a valuable experience. I actually got permission to remain in the same school instead of switching half way like most student teachers have to do because im so good- what can i say, im a natural. (go ahead, roll your eyes.).

we have a 2 month break, WTF am i going to do? i am def guna try to spend more time with some of the friends i have here at college before we part at graduation....eeek.

cruise this weekend...waterslide bitches.

super...
mike

bye bye subaru

So today I went in to student teaching and the kids were pretty crazy. Some kids ran from the classroom and it was just a mess. I really kind of just sat around all day. I ran one lesson doing math word problems and thats it. My teacher gave me my evaluation. She said a lot of nice things and put a lot of confidence in my ability to become a teacher, eventually. It is really awkward for me to tell people about what I plan to do after graduation. I think i might just start saying that I am going to be looking for a job instead of having to explain the band, what we do, where we go, what I play, if we get paid, why we dont get paid, how im going to pay my bills and then after all that have them say "well thats exciting". yeh...its also hard.

I said a sort of goodbye to a big part of my life today....my gold Subaru Forrester. Although it is still parked in my parking lot at school with my license plates on and some old cds still hanging on for dear life, I signed the paperwork today so that the car will officially not be mine on Sunday and will belong to the kind flatbrimmed hat wearing gentleman who payed me 1400 dollars. WOOO. I actually need to go clean the rest of the car out as I will be leaving asap after school tomorrow to get home and play a show.

In the good news department, i bought a guitar the other day. It was kind of buy mistake but I am glad it happened. I bid on the guitar on Ebay for the thrill of bidding. I bid at a price that i thought would be a good price to get the guitar even though I really did not have the money for the guitar. Completely forgetting about the auction, i got home and realized i won. I was happy thought because it is definitely the guitar i want. It is a Wine Red 72 Telecaster Reissue. humbuckers <3. I am completely stoked to get the guitar.

im glad im blogging again

super...
mike

If you fear change, give it to me

I'm poor and I just bought a guitar so im saving up.

why is everyone so scared of change? change happens. think of what we would be like without change whether it be big or small. sometimes you have to take some leaps, have some faith, and just let your belief in yourself and others carry you through.

ps. this was not about money

im back....hopefully
mike

ive been a bad blogger

sorry...but i need to pack and leave for school. and i dont even know what time i am supposed to be at school tomorrow. only me...


mike

the other side of the fence

so i know you might make fun of me for this... but I'm watching Home Improvement and it is the episode where Wilson is thinking of moving. Something really cool happens.... through some work and confusion Wilson ends up on the Taylor's side of the fence with Tim on Wilson's side. They then start talking like they normally do but in reverse roles- wilson doing to talking or venting and Tim doing the listening.

Sometimes we all have to do this don't we? Im trying. Get on the other side of the fence and show the bottom of your face. See what its like. Wilson ended up realizing what he had where he already was.

This semi-deep blog was most likely sparked by me jealousy of people who put things into words and give me a whole new experience. Of course, all i can come up with is a TBS reference. HA

super...
mike

Catching up...

Since my die hard blog followers get mad when I don't write...

This weekend was eventful as always. We brought Andre with us and he provided some good entertainment. We started in Virginia on a hill where we caused a ruccus. Dob tried to use a porter potty and we shook it back and forth. Nate then thought it be a great idea to teeter dangerously close to a steep hill while wrestling dob. Who knew, it turned out to be a bad idea and they started sliding down the hill. Luckily Nicky has great traction kicks and a sweet studded belt which most likely helped him stop sliding when he went to save them.

Saturday we spent the day in Maryland. The most eventful things were Andre climbing the side of a building and us pretending we were kidnapping Dob into our big red van. We then drove to meet up with Score 24, Valet Parking, and tom and kenny from set in color to cause some more ruccus. I would recap this evening but it involves way too many stories that involve body parts and functions under the belt.

Sunday we played in Jersey and were greeted by Jay, Erica, Timmy, Colby, and Ryan. We really have some of the closest and most dedicated friends. It feels awesome to have the support of the people you love and consider some of your best friends. THey always come to see us and its not just to see us play. We play the same set every night with some minor changes (sometimes to lyrics- we dont have to pee in rome) here and there but nothing big yet our friends are still there all the time. Im not sure if i can describe how soothing and comforting it feels to have your friends in the audience. We always have fun and thats the bottom line, and i love this new group of friends ive developed.

Monday night brought another fun and entertaining game night at rickys house with Jay, Andre Timmy, Nicky C and the rest of rickys housemates. We played charades. I wasnt as good as i remembered being at this game but out team still kicked ass. We prob should have set groundrules for the items being used considering our team gave one team The Mystery Files of SHelby Woo when that same team wrote hand soap. We proceeded to make quesadillas, some with cheese balls and some in waffle makers. Andre made me a peanut butter, nutella, and bannanna sandwhich in a sandwhich press which was unbelievable. It is looking like that will be my new place to visit when im home on the weekends.

Today is pretty special. It marks the day that one year ago, my girlfriend Colby was suckered into calling me her boyfriend. Its been a great year and i dont think i could have gotten somebody more understanding. Its hard to date somebody in a band, let alone someone as irresponsible and forgetful as me and she deals with me pretty damn well. I was scared that this next coming months would be hard between student teaching and touring, but we can do it, i know it.

Thursday is highline- im wicked excited.

super...
mike

my bags are packed

its 6:30am and i woke up after an hour and 15 minute sleep to leave for our show in Virginia. Andre is coming with us so that should be fun. Dob is the man and we have a whole weekend booked yet again <3. 3/5 of my blog followers will be in the van with me, so jay and timmy this post is for you!!!! jay, see you sunday in NJ. timmy, text me.

we have a long ride ahead of us, prob like 7 hours....yayyyy...boo

super...
mike

tyson doing britney....scandolous

Some say the new All American Rejects was a flop, and then i immediately tell those people they are idiots. Whenever an album is different or something that wasn't completely expected people freak. All American Rejects made such a cool album and they did it in a cool way. They travelled the country for inspiration and recorded in a bus - amazing. Anway they are an awesome band and are super creative. I love them

This is them doing a cover of Womenizer by Britney Spears. I dare you to find a cover thats as original and creative as this

the sampled hip hop intro

I am sick of it. Why does every band feel the need to open their set with a hip hop song and do shitty fake dancing on stage. Yeh, granted, even scene kids and pop rockers like to get jiggy with it every once in a while to some Hip-to-the-Hop but when people come to see you play at a show, do not open up your set with someone else's music. I am a big fan of intro's, they are a great way to build some anticipation and use some cool dynamics to start your set. Im trying to figure out what idiot decided pushing random play on his NOW 74 Cd was a great way to start a set. There is a reason you have intstruments on stage- play them. I admit, a long long time ago in a land far far away, tc played Rappers Delight as an intro. I am not proud of it, but at least Nicky asctually played the bass lines. This rant excludes tasteful use of sampled reverses and noises as a short intro with some instrumentation (see Teamwork www.myspace.com/teamworkrocks) .

Heres a good example- The Audition
I saw them the other night, and this intro was just painful.



i imagine the brainstorming came about like this
band member 1 - "hey, we need a crazy intro for our set"
band member 2 -"yehh! something we can dance like fools to."
band member 1- "how about a rap song that is being played out on the radio?"
band member 2- 'BINGO! that would be the perfect melodramatic, copyright infringment, lame ass thing to do"
band member 1 (to himself) - "man.....we are going to look soooo cool. i hope i get to push play on the ipod"

super...
mike

Short Straws and Good Friends

Sooo, another weekend with my band has come and passed, but as always we are left with the exciting stories and memories a small unsigned band can make whilst on tour.

So our first show was in Allentown, Pennsylvania at the Sterling Hotel. We dint really have any information about the show. We knew what time it started and where it was. I know you might think thats all you need to know but theres a ton more, and Dob who usually takes care of this was not around- some might say we were Dobless and that is never fun. After getting there an hour early and killing time playing catch phrase, pool, and Male Erotic Photo Hunt we found out we would be playing at Adrenaline Friday with pretty much all metal bands. To top that there were two stages- one with lights, a big stage, a great sound system, and the whole crowd. The other stage was the compelte oppoiste and naturally that is the one we played on - First short straw we drew. Anyway, we ended making at least one fan which is always a success, had some Chinese Food and started makign our way towards our next destination.

Our friend Mio (our gps) really screwed us over and forced us to sleep in the van by adding an hour to our trip and past the time we neede to be at the house we could have slept at. SO we slept in a foodtown parking lot and watched Ironman which i rented for a dollar from those DVD rental vending machines.

Our second show was at an Elks Logde and brings us to short straw number 2. We were supposed to play second, and as we were about to load on we were told there was a band playing before. This happened after every band until finalyl we were playing last. Remember at a local show kids end to leave after the band they came to see plays so playing last for an out of state band is not good. Thankfully i had some saving graces. Colby and Timmy came to hang out and earlier in the day we discovered that we were invited to the Elks Lodge Members Only Bar. We signed in as guests and sat down to have some $1.25 beers with the old Elks. We listened to some funny old people conversations, ate the bar popcorn, and returned upstairs to play. My friends, includeing my new friends Karen (or linda/nancy accordign to me) saved me from become my grouchy self by insultng me and making me laugh. good times.

Our third show was at a VFW in Paramus, New Jersey. It was a very promising show. We were told we were 1st to 5th on the main stage, and we ended up being 2nd overall on the side stage with our set cut to 4 songs. another short straw. but once again we made the best out of it. Colby, Tim, Emma, Erica, Randi, Colin, Sean, and Tommy all came out to see us play (some were unsucsesful). We started husting and made alot of new friends and even convinced the promoters top let us play acoustic for the new friends we made. We got to see a ton of bands play and just had a good time with each other.

Overall, alof of times i tend to get mad and over react at things (thats actually probably a under exxageration) but i always have my friends there first insult me, then make fun of me for getting mad, and then laughin with me - weather it be my band, my friends Ive made from this band, or my beer lol. We can all rise above with only our friends by our side. Hell yeh nathen.

super...
mike

The Wonders of TBS

So in my nightly insomnia, i need to find random things to do. Most of the time I make sure I every show or every piece of music news in the LI scene or the whole east coast. Sometimes I make my friends entertain me. These options however sometime grow old, but there will always be one constant in my life late at night.... TBS. In my room i get abc, nbc, cbs, fox, cw11, and tbs so i cant be very choosy with what i watch, but TBS has provided me with a great source of bad, yet amazing movies. I highly suggesting tuning in to channel 8 (if your in queens). Here are some movies that i have caught recently...



Thank you Turner Broadcasting System,

super...
mike

what a year...

Well I guess I will start off by saying that I have been becoming super jealous of everyone that has cool blogs that I read all the the time so i decided with the New Year should come a new place for me to write my thought, which all too often will not make sense.

It is New Year's day and I had work from 11-6 which stunk. My New Year's Eve was not even close to as memorable as the one I had last year in Times Square but it was nice to be with Colby on New Years. I was a little sad during the evening though because for the last couple of years I have always spent New Year's Eve with my closest friends. This year, all of my friends had different plans and no one could really set on anything which meant I would not be seeing a lot of the people that I have grown close to this year.

Speaking of this year, it has been crazy. I am never one for going back and reflecting on a year, but this one has been pretty special for me. I have met so many people and experienced so much that a couple of years ago, I thought would never happen.

I thought of the people right now that I consider my friends and tried to think of one year ago when I did not know these people and it was hard to imagine (this includes people I knew but never REALLY knew). I don't want to name people because I think that is lame and I will most likely forget someone but I think those people can think back and think the same.

Another thing that progressed beyond where I ever expected is my band. I am so proud of what we have done, what we are doing, and who we are becoming. This year alone we have played with Brand New, toured for 3 weeks over the summer, and released a brand new EP that has been well received by our fans and online music communities. We are starting to play every weekend out of state and it just feels awesome. A long time ago when I started my first, shitty, dead end band, all i wanted to do was be in a band that was touring and finally i found the right people to do it with and its happening. We love playing the music we play and have fun every chance we get to play it. My expectations for the band keep rising and I don't think thats a bad thing although i guess sometimes its a flaw that i can work on in the new year. I always think we could be better, do better, sound better, look better. I push myself a lot to try and reach those goals and its feels great to reach them. I don't want to make predictions for where our band will be one year from now, but I know we will work as hard as we can to get as far as we can. THis year will be a little scary for me when I commit to the band full time instead of getting a job but I'm ready for it!

The future of this blog....
I'm sorry I typed so much in this blog and it got soo reflectional and crap. This will be kinda just an outlet for the stories I will have from our weekend trips and shows and also my job as a STUDENT TEACHER (AHHHH!). and i guess any stupid shit that i find funnny.

super...
mike