Learning to Disappoint

It had to happen and last night it finally did. Over the past couple months Band A has become less and less a priority in my life for a number of reasons. With the recent achievements of Band B and my recent relocation to the other side of town, practices were turning into more of a hassle than fun. I wish I could have continued to be a part of two bands but I had to make a choice and I went with my instincts. I want to make music my career and with Band B that is more likely to happen. Some of my longest friendships are due to Band A and even my own brother is in it but I knew this was the right thing to do. On Friday I called the guys and told them that instead of practice the next morning as usual I wanted to have a band meeting to talk about my future with them. We were finally able to meet last night. I told them that I needed a break for an indefinite amount of time due to a number of things including my hectic schedule. I’m not really sure what kind of reaction I expected but I told them whatever they wanted to do from this point was up to them. After questioning my motives and reassuring me this was a bad idea, it sounds like they are pretty much done with me and will move on. I feel bad but at the same time this is what I want. It just sucks that I feel like I may also be losing some friends because of this. I hope that won’t be the case.

In more uplifting news, my new residence is great. I went shopping for all the necessities last night (TV dinners!) and also learned the important use of the coupon. Amazing! I saved 20% thanks to the little clippings. I can now prepare and consume food all without the help of a fast food chain. Tonight’s meal: Enchiladas.


Something I’m still getting used to is another thing I got new last week; my new cell phone. After paying my ridiculous cell phone debt, I decided the best thing to do would be to get another cell phone. Luckily one of my new roommates works at the local Cingular Wireless. He hooked my fiancé and I up with a great plan and couple of cool phones. We each got the Motorola V220. It’s got all the goods including flip action and camera capabilities (I’ve always wanted a camera phone!). Maybe soon I’ll buy the USB cord to upload all my cool pictures. I don’t think it will be too difficult after that. Unlimited mobile to mobile and nights and weekends is always the way to go. Another cool feature is the speaker phone, for those times when you’re just to tired to hold the phone to your head.

Last but not least is something I’m very, secretly excited about. The same roommate who helped with the cell phones also happens to be the proud owner of a little game called GTA: San Andreas. Although there are only small gaps of time when he isn’t playing it, I have begun covertly playing it during his game breaks. I even had to delete some old files from my memory card in order to make room for the saves. I’m not very far along in the game but I can tell it’s going to be a lot of fun. Anyways I have to go. Time spent blogging is time I could be playing.

Movie: Any Given Sunday

Movin' on Out

I moved out! Yes, it’s true and I’m loving it. Like I had planned, I moved in with my fiancé’s brother. He had two roommates, but one moved out and now I’m in. I started packing early Monday morning and didn’t finish unpacking until 7pm. I can’t imagine how much it must suck moving an entire house. I was exhausted after one room. This is the first time I have ever not had a bunk bed. I laid in bed and just looked at the ceiling. Okay, not really, because I fell asleep watching Spiderman, but you get the idea. I think that’s when I knew this was my place, when I laid down and watched a DVD. I do this every night as I fall asleep. I really feel weird if I just lay down without a movie on, or at least the radio. I’m sure there are many psycho-dimensions to what I just typed but I don’t know any of them so… What I do know is that I love being moved out. I was at my fiancé’s last night and I realized I could go home whenever I wanted. I didn’t even have to if I felt so inclined. A lot of my friend’s used to talk about how when they turned 18 there parents would have to let them do what they wanted. This never made sense to me because they still support you. If you go to college, or just live at home and have a job (or not) they still pay for something, whether it’s food, housing, schooling, bills or whatever. So how can they not tell you what to do? I always knew that in my family, until I was completely independent I would have to obey my parents’ rules. Even if I felt I’d grown out of those rules, I knew that until I had grown up enough to take care of myself, I had to follow them. So now at 20 years old, I have complete freedom. It’s pretty cool. I can do whatever I want. Of course Uncle Ben brings up a good point which touches very close to home. "With great power, comes great responsibility." Although the power he was referring to involved beating the crap out of bullies in school it still has real meaning. I think my responsibility level is okay but I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

In keeping up with prior posts, my rockstar dreams are continuing to play out. After bitterly losing our battle of the bands we held on to hope because most (including these guys) thought we I did great. Supposedly we are tentatively scheduled for a sit down meeting with them as well as they are tentatively planning on going to our next show. That’s a lot of tentatives, I know, but I’m hopeful. If you wanna help call up Universal Records and tell them how much you love my band and more importantly, how much you want to pay to hear us. They love that kind of stuff.

Movie: Almost Famous

Good News and Bad News

We lost to a crappy punker band, supposedly by one vote. I honestly have no idea what this band has on us but it was enough to lose. I thought (and so did many others) that we played one of our best shows. Much of this was due to the fact that a rep from Universal Records was sitting in the audience. Stage presence, the one area our band can sometimes be weak, was actually great that night. Robert and Steven are usually very mellow on stage but knowing that Universal was watching got even them to rock out. Let me just state that by saying the following I don’t mean to sound arrogant but the general consensus after all four bands played was that we would be the winner. So much so that when the winners were announced a silence fell over the room for a few seconds and was finally broken only by the winners saying, "Are you serious?" Disappointing as losing was there still was a sense of accomplishment because the one person we wanted to impress, The Rep, absolutely loved us.

Having listened to the demo, she new what we sounded like but demo recordings are only so good. Before we played we talked to her and she seemed mildly interested. We talked about the industry and it’s difficulties and how she liked our sound but she wasn’t kissing our butts or anything. But after we played she talked to Ferocious and said she was definitely gonna bring a big shot next week. Since we didn’t win I guess they’ll have to wait until our next show but things are really looking good. I try not to get to excited because I know that the likelihood of something happening is pretty slim BUT you never know.

All of this is even more exciting when someone you know is going through it. Our friends’ band, Dizmas, just got signed to Sparrow Records (Switchfoot, Lifehouse, Newsboys). They spent a lot of time negotiating and touring to get where they are, and now they are recording a full length, major label debut. When they are done I can go to Best Buy and pick it up. These are guys I went to high school with! It’s nuts and I’m so happy for them. They have been doing the band thing for about 8 years now so they deserve it. I think I’m gonna go take a nap and dream of being a rockstar…some more.

Movie: Se7en

How Conceded

Somehow, beyond all hope, the pres pulled out a victory. John Kerry recently made the "I promise I won't try to win by suing" call to Bush. This was surely not a landslide win, but it wasn't as close as I thought it would be (about 3 million votes). Could it be that some of the polls leading up to last night were…INACCURATE!! Maybe, but at this point it doesn’t really matter. Being in California means a vote for Bush has pretty much no use and I’m sure that can be disheartening to some but I did see some Republican power. The main demonstration of this came from The Governor of Hollyw-- I mean California. Schwarzenegger, aside from campaigning alongside Bush for a number of days, also backed/fought some controversial props and measures in the state. As far as I know, everything he endorsed was passed and everything he fought, lost. All except for two. I really don’t see what could stop him from running for President. Just watch, next election’s candidates will be Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Republicans and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats. I can’t wait.

Along with my electoral prerogative, I also partook in another one of my civic duties. The jury kind. Yes the much feared Jury Duty. I got the notice over a month ago and nearly forgot to go but I did and apparently the system is nowhere near as problematic as it used to be. I showed up the first day, a Monday, which I luckily had off from work and sat around for a few hours. When they called the 50 or so potential jurors to the court room I was one of the lucky first twelve to be scrutinized by the defense and prosecution. The next day I was also the first to be excused for whatever reason. I had no complaints, although it would’ve been interesting to check out the whole thing. But I did need to keep working so all’s well.

Last but not least, Band B has a battle of the bands show this weekend that I’m very excited about. Not only do I think we have a fairly good chance of winning but supposedly a couple of people who work for Universal Records are planning on checking us out. Apparently DJ Ferocious goes to school with the daughter of one of our Universal friends. She gave her mom the demo and now they want to see us live. This could potentially be a big deal so we want to do our best. Or at least blow the other bands out of the running. I’ll let you know if we get signed. Seriously.

Movie: The Ghost and the Darkness