Seriously!

I just want to thank everyone that said "Happy Birthday" to me yesterday. Even though two people didn't say it to me... haha, but I see or talk to them almost every other day so it's all good. I know I'm over dramtic and keep stressing over getting closer to the big three zero. But seeing people go out of their way to say happy birthday or buy you a $10 starbucks giftcard even though they don't have to, really make getting older worth it.
Yeah I got cake, Ice Cream, more cake, $200 giftcard to best buy from my coworkers, but the best part of my day was reading the blog that my sister-in-law posted lastnight. Here is a copy of what she posted. Thank you and I love you all!

Happy Birthday to our brother and uncle Jason dear,
We’ll celebrate in style with a water and no beer.
A talented artist and photographer true,
He is humble as pie and doesn’t hog the loo.
We love when he visits, especially his bro,
They play nerdy xbox games and eat funyuns you know.
Handsome as a hunky dude and smile bigger than the moon,
I just know he has a fan club affectionately known as “Faint & Swoon”.
He says funny things, a right jolley ol’ chap,
A stand up comedian that makes you slap your lap.
His clever mind is always brewing deep thoughts like Jack Handy,
I hear he even stays clear of strangers danger offering candy.
They know him very well at the theater showing movies,
A connoisseur of fine sound systems, popcorn, and all things groovy.
Often seen with books, this boy knows how to read,
even a comic would suffice as he finishes in record speed.
He also likes his music, varied taste does he have,
One moment he’ll be hearing indie, then electronic or some jazz.
A puppy companion steals his heart and tugs at his strings,
The lady folk will melt when they hear how he sings.
The little kids adore him and jump when he’s around,
Always a listening ear to humor their stories kindly found.
We love our Jason dearly, and hope he knows how much,
A real cool cat with oodles of talent, dependable, loyal, and such.

Happy Birthday JASON!!
Remember who you are and don’t party too hard:)We love you!

A Year Older, & A Year Wiser... Maybe...

Well that time of the year has one again rolled around, and as hard as I try to prevent it time just sneaks up on me and "BOOM!" Its the day I was brought into this world. All throughout my 20's I've had a hard time accepting that I'm getting older. The first half wasn't so bad, then 25 hit... Ok yeah I had a bit of breakdown on my 25th birthday, sure tears were shed, and cake was to be had. When I turned 26 it wasn't as bad, I was still in my mid-twenties. And now... 27 years of age I begin my late-twenties. I'm now two years away from starting the long haul of the bottom of the ninth of my twenties.

Okay yeah I'm being a little over dramatic but I do still have a hard time getting older every year. And with every birthday I take time to sit back and reflect on where I am in life and what has happened over the past year.

Well to begin this year alot has come to pass and I've had some trials to overcome. One I am still battling and hopefully will have slain this diabolical beast that challenges me so this year. I awoke this morn with a great amount of depression and a severe case of no motivation, yeah I was late to work today... oh well. "Why the case of Debbie Downers?" Well let's just say that I thought by 27 I wouldn't be where and who I am today. Sure I've had my fare share of setbacks but they were suppose to just be goomba's walking back and forth aimlessly on my trek to the flag at the end of the level. Yet I've treated them like the huge gaping hole at the 3/4's mark in level 8-1. (hehe, yeah I made a Mario Brothers reference.) I hoped by now I'd have accomplished some personal goals, and have a certain thing in my life where I can say "Best thing to ever happen to a shmuck like me." But since I'm lazy and have been letting things hold me back; I haven't given the time to sit and personally reflect on where I want to be heading and what I want to achieve. And doing this now makes me wonder... Am I the person I was supposed to be, by letting opportunities pass me by or not taking them head on changed what the Lord had planned for me.

Well there is only one thing to do now; I have three years to wrap up my twenties. Time to make the best of it by making things happen, and not just waiting for them to come to me. As in the Famous words of Pig Pen in Out Cold it's time to "Carpe the Diem. Seize The Carp."

Nine Inch Nails Salt Lake City '08

Not last Wednesday, but the Wednesday before that I got to enjoy something I’ve been waiting for since November 4th of 2005. If you think it’s a re-run of Law and Order; you are oh so beyond wrong. For instance here is the line of what I’m talking about...

And then here is where you'd be if you were somewhat close to what I’m talking about...

Here is where you are drowning because you’re an idiot!

I’m talking about getting to see one the greatest musicians of all time perform live at the “E-Center.” Still don’t know what I’m talking about? Then I shall spell it out for you, on Wednesday September 3rd of 2008 Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails graced the good city of great salt lakes with his presence. The reason I call Nine Inch Nails as Trent Reznor’s is how Trent has set this band up. If you follow the bands time line of putting out new full length CDs you’ll notice the decent sized gap , almost four to five years between each album. Trent disbands the members at the end of each album then finds new musicians to record and tour with him for the next album. Granted 99.9% of the creativity and writing is done solely by Trent and I’m sure he brings in the influences of the new members into his ideas and direction for the current album. By doing this it keeps the band with a constant fresh and new sound. Listening to all the CDs on shuffle you can easily tell this song is from Pretty Hate Machine or this one if from The Fragile without having to look.

There are so many reasons I could go off on why NIN is one of the greatest things to happen music. And all that Trent has done to evolve rock, Industrial, alternative music genres into what it is today. And how NIN is in my top 5 favorite bands. But that’s not what I’m here to write about. I’m here to share and try to help express the just how amazing Nine Inch Nails was in Concert.
Now being that I work for a radio station group here in Salt Lake City I get the opportunity to go to a lot of concerts, I average about 40 concerts a year. The bands I love and support I go through the promoter and pay for my tickets, all the others… yeah I’ll go for free. Sorry I’m not paying my hard earned money to see Green Day, or Kenye West; they’re a bunch of overpaid prima donnas’ who deserve to have their music illegally downloaded.
I got to The E Center at about 7:45pm; oh and before I get into talking about the concert one little gripe I have with concerts. If a venue is planning on making everyone pay to park then that should be included in the ticket price! Half the reason you sit in line to park is because people don’t plan on paying to park and hold up the entire line. Especially in a society where we are moving closer and closer to doing rid of printed money. After spending a half hour in line waiting to park I get frisked, my ticket ripped, and I’m off to find the suite my tickets are in after a quick look at the merch table. I sat down halfway through the opening band‘s set, a band called Deerhunter, who honestly sounded like a dark and more industrial Death Cab for Cutie. Which wasn’t bad, they did an alright job, its alwas nice to go see a concert and not have the night almost ruined by a horrible and shotty sounding opening band. But I found myself digging their music and started to tap my feet after a couple songs. After they had finished the arena lit up and I couldn’t help but notice just how empty half of the seats were, even in the GA floor which could have easily fit 500 more people. The E-center on a full stage concert fits 12,000 people; I’d say there were about 5,000 there. I’m sure I could use my connections with the promoter of the show to find out exactly how many tickets were sold, but honestly I don’t really want to put forth that much of an effort; only to be possibly disappointed. I kept hoping that more people would show as it got closer for NIN to take stage.
After about an hour’s wait the lights turned off and Nine Inch Nails took the stage (if you have ever seen footage or gone to one of their concerts you’d know why it takes an hour to set up their stage; look at my pictures to see the reason) They opened with “999,999” going into “1,000,000” “Letting You” and then to “Discipline” off of their latest digital release album The Slip.

The energy off the first three songs played I could have left the show and felt completely satisfied with the evening. But alas there was still an hour and forty-five minutes left.
Of course following the newest songs NIN pulled out the golden oldies with “March of the Pigs,” “The Frail/The Wretched,” “Closer,” and “Gave Up.” Then Trent changed it up and showed off what’s new in the world of concert visuals. The stage went dark and then all the band members were at the edge of the stage with a large LED backdrop behind them and proceeded to play “The Warning” and “Vessel” off of Year Zero, which is an album centered more on keyboards and other synthesized instruments. Of course the lights and animations on the LED screen synced up with the music. It was hands down the coolest thing these eyes have witnessed.

The next part was in my opinion the downer of the evening. All the energy that NIN had built up and got everyone going, was almost killed by the next three songs. The Stage went dark again and when the stage lit up to revile yet another LED screen, (separate from the one before, Here is a diagram of how these were set up…) They then began to play the three song set from Trent’s little side/instrumental project called Ghosts. Which if you have playing in the back ground while you clean, read, or just plain relax is an amazing project pulled off soundly! The idea behind this project was that they go into the studio and just played the first thing that came to mind, and didn’t edit or put any real post-production into it, very experimental. So it’s basically free mind writing but with instruments. See music like this is great but doesn’t really fit into a concert. Thankfully they ended this segment with a remixed Ghosts version of “Piggy” Which was incredible to hear a classic NIN song redone.

The Stage went dark yet again and the front LED screen lowered then begun to play an animation of what looked like cells from a microscope view with “The Greater Good” playing. Slowly you hear the faint sound of Trent singing and all the sudden you start to see a face come onscreen and you realize it’s Trent singing into the viewer of a camera being projected onto the screen with a filter to match the animation. It was really cool he’d move the camera so it would be just a close up of his lips singing to his eye, then back to his face. Again the stage went dark and was reviled back to its original form then proceeded to build and bring the energy back with “Wish,” “Terrible Lie,” Survivalism,” “The Hand That Feeds,” and “Head Like A Hole.” Trent thanked the crowd and walked off stage, The Front LED Screen Dropped and displayed the NIN logo glowed in red.

Of course this is the intermission for the encore. The screen then lifted and Trent walks out. Now every NIN concert I’ve been to Trent never really talks or addresses the crowd except only to introduce the new band members. But this show he actually addressed the crowd, He was saying how he didn’t get a chance to watch Deerhunter perform earlier but as he was walking on stage to begin the show he saw through a gap in the speakers the huge empty area in the back of the arena and thought to himself “Sh*t no one came to see us!” Then proceed to thank us and tell how grateful and appreciative he was for everyone who did show up. You know how every band that comes through they always say how “This show is the best so far on the tour,” or “Salt Lake is their favorite city to play.” When you know they are going to Pocatello or Denver and saying the same thing to them. But you could really tell Trent was being sincere and meant it. From the suite I was sitting in I have a good view of the majority of the arena and I noticed the change in the crown for the rest of the show, it was amazing to see the attitude change in the entire stadium. Everyone cheered louder, got into the music more, and just made the last four songs the best part of the show. I couldn’t have imagined the show ending any better. This concert is easily number two on my list of all-time favorite concerts.

And "Yes" I did take all these pictures at the show I have more, and some video's that I'll try to post them after I do some editing.

Worth Dying For.

Last night I finally finished watching season 2 of Showtime's Dexter. If you haven't heard of this show; or just passed it by along with the rest of the TV to DVD shows, which seems lately like every TV show from “Mork & Mindy” to “So You Think You Can Dance” is just popping out of the DVD birth canal faster than a beer guzzled by a NASCAR fan. So it's easy to miss the really good shows out the pile of crap they keep pumping out to make a quick buck. Because movie studios & TV studio's don't make much of a profit off of the opening weekend or on first air of the show. Unless the movie is a huge blockbuster it'll make it's money back while in the theaters then afterward everything is just profit for them. But a movie makes almost twice as much when it's put on dvd; so if you break down the cost to make and press each dvd the production company pays maybe 1-2 dollers per dvd, then they spit it out onto the retail market for a comfortable and satisfying $20 on average. So needless to say movie and TV studios make more money off dvd then they do with the initail first release. Back to the reason I'm writing this entry, Dexter is an amzing show, it's suspensful, smart, and full of dark humor. You should definately check it out.

Just to give you a brief synopsis, the show follows the main character named Dexter who works as a blood spatter expert for the Miami Metro Homicide forensics department. Which is the perfect gateway for his dark secret. You see Un-beknownst to all of Dexter’s friends, girlfriend, and sister; Dexter is a serial killer (I mean the term "friends" loosely, Dexter admits in his own commentary during the episodes that he doesn't really have friends or a girlfriend, just people he interacts with show the world the mask he wears that he's just an average normal guy). Now by actual definition yes Dexter is a serial killer, but watching the show you sympathize for him because he's using the monstrous skill of killing people for good... Dexter uses his skills and his access to police files to hunt down and kill people who themselves are murders, rapists, and other serial killers. So in a twisted and very realistic kind of way Dexter is more of a vigilante/hero. He doesn't kill innocent people only people who have done wrong and managed to slip by or walk free from the justice system. Now the majority of season one follows Dexter doing his normal routine, and the introduction to another serial killer who knows all about Dexter and his secret, then proceeds to play games with him. Dexter now makes it his personal goal to find and kill this man before his coworkers arrest him. Now I'm not going to give anything way from season one because if you watch the first two episodes you'll have the season finished in three or four days, it's that good.

Season two picks up right where season one left off, but this season is dramatically different. Season one followed Dexter going through his code and rules for killing people, Season 2 Dexter's underwater cemetery is found by local treasure hunters, and Dexter is quickly named the new target of the Miami homicide department and the FBI. Of course nobody knows that’s Dexter is the "Bay Harbor Butcher" so with every episode the suspense builds and builds and the more evidence that is found you wonder when Dexter is going to get caught. If you watch the show you know that Dexter is calm and manages to keep his cool in every situation, not this season, on top of being target of every cop in Florida his life that he has so perfectly created with his code is falling apart. The relationship with his girlfriend is on thin ice, Dexter can't calm the monster inside by killing since there is a sate wide manhunt for him, and to send Dexter eve further down hi downward spiral there's new sexy British female is pulling him further and further away from his code and rules.
Dexter is bizarre, creepy, and intense and quite possibly one of the best shows currently running. Along with Battlestar Galactica(the new version, not the seventies series) which unfortunately has it's crappy episodes from time to time just like every other show out there; they can't all be winners... unless that is if you're Dexter... Go watch this show now! If you don't have Showtime you can check it out on CBS they air the edited episodes which I don't entirely agree with; so minus the intense language, the very very small amount of nudity (like we're talking maybe out of the entire season two or three episode have nudity in it and it's for maybe less than a minute long), and the graffic scenes involving dead bodies. But I guess something is better than nothing. I believe you can also watch the first season for free online on hulu.com.