Part Duex

America is off teaching (what a cutie) and I guess I fell asleep on the bed for like an hour while watching a 40 minute video (I think I got like 6 or 7 minutes into it) about how to make music videos. This is mostly the result from waking up at 7:30 am after having gone to sleep at 3:30.

Last night was essentially part 2 of Valentine's Day. On Tuesday, Iron Maiden's Somewhere in Time was rereleased on vinyl, so we passed by Amoeba to buy it and by a total miracle from a place not to far away below the ground, I found Mastodon's Leviathan on vinyl :3 Aside from it being my favorite Mastodon album, it's my favorite album in general and great to finally have in my collection. America got an Eluvaite (?) album and even though we heard like 2 songs in the car (not including the intro), I liked what I heard. From there we drove to the House of Blues to finally see Brujeria. I've been listening to them since middle school and for Valentine's Day, I bought tickets to go see them. We thought we were a bit late to the venue but it turned out we were just in time to watch every band play. Strangely enough, even though none of the opening bands flowed, they all sounded really good with Sangre sounding a bit like The Black Dahlia Murder and Pinata Protest kicking ass with their heavily Mexican influenced music. Their bassist looked like John, which was hilarious. Brujeria got on stage sometime between 10:15 and 10:30 and played until 12:30, with no encore, which meant more time for more songs :D "Matando Gueros" sounds so sick live but they played "La Migra," which is my favorite song, as is for many other people. I hope they tour again soon in LA, they're pretty awesome live. After the show was over, we still went to eat at Dennys. Got a grand slam at 2 in the morning with some coffee and America got some chili bean dip with coffee hahaha. Both my arms and back hurt from defending America at the front of the stage, but it was totally worth it as it was a great night <3

Ra-Ra-Rasputin

Wow what a weekend. On Friday I went to see Russian Circles, Between the Buried and Me, and Coheed & Cambria with America, Kim and Dennis at The Wiltern. It was so awesome. Russian Circles is a hard rock instrumental band with hints of heavy metal and when those little parts come out, damn do they sound good. The drummer is really good too. Very clean drumming. Between the Buried and Me, man what to so say. They played my favorite song "Ants of the Sky" which completely caught me off guard since they're currently touring to promote their newest album but I'm not complaining. There was this really weird pit of like maybe 10 people max (I want to estimate more around like 7 or 8) and we all started dancing around for the Western breakdown at the end of the song and looking hilarious, which was just great. America broke her nose (at least we think she did) and I dislocated my shoulder, but to hear "Ants of the Sky," totally worth it. Plus they played it back to back with "Prequel to the Sequel" just like on the album. For Coheed & Cambria, America and I stayed for about five or six songs, and which they played "A Favor House Atlantic," which was enough for us. We left a bit early to go grab some coffee at Tom N Toms and wait for the show to end and meet up with Kim and Dennis. America got the Peacon something and I got Cinnamon Chocolate I think, and we mixed them together to make a really good frapp.

On Saturday we drove all the way to Santa Ana to go see Firewind and Turisas. Doors opened at 8 p.m. which was really weird, so we killed time at IKEA America, Kim, Britney and I. Good mix of actually looking at furniture and completely messing around. The venue we went to had two different shows going on which was pretty weird. In one room, there was a hip hop type dj and in the other a bunch of metal heads waiting to get their mosh on (at least that's what we thought. Boy were we wrong). Even though there were only two bands on the bill, Helsott came and opened. We missed them at Paganfest last year so it was nice actually seeing them play a full set. Good band even though there were a lot of technical mishaps. Firewind was good too, but I just got tired of their solos after a while. They played the only I know by them "Head Up High," which was cool, but for every other song, it was like a solo every other word. Turisas was awesome and ripped it on stage. It was my third time seeing them and it feels like the crowds have gotten better every I've seen them. Still have to love the guy who plays the violin, he's super awesome. America and I were a few feet form the stage and got separated at the very end. I ended up in the back from all the movement and jumped into the pit. Pretty fun even though there was a lot of conflict with the trashers and pagans moshing. Regardless, the show still kicked some serious ass. The drive back was a little over an hour and we passed by to get some soda and shakes before leaving as our form of rehydration haha. It was cute having small talk with America, as our voices were partially missing. Hehe :)

Oh starless night sky, good to see you again

No Signs Of A New Season

In Flames is easily one of my favorite bands and I personally believe that their discography can be split into two sections: pre-Colony and post-Colony. Pre-Colony is their more melodic death metal stuff and post is not really as guitary but still fast and in-your-face. This song is called "The New World" and easily of the best In Flames songs in general (and they have a lot of great songs). Check it out because it's really good.

Blue Moon

I don't really like to talk about my birthday or mention it on my own will as it really annoys me when people go "you know my birthday is coming up" and pester you with countdown reminders. When it comes, it comes, and when it passes, it passes. But this is one of the few times (if the only) that I speak about it on this blog and that's because it is the same day as the Wolfpack Hustle Midnight Crash Race, which is a bicycle race on the LA marathon track at something like 4 a.m. So I'm going to do the race with a couple of friends from the bike collective and hopefully Jaime and Jeremy too. I'm really excited for the race and working on improving my uphill climbs as par of a kind of endurance training. I don't think I could ever really train for winning the thing since I really enjoy riding my bike recreationally and for transportation purposes, but competing and finishing is going to be loads of fun.

Lately since no one is ever really home anymore (and usually go through a full 24 hour cycle before I even see someone again), I've started this habit of looking into the mirror and telling myself "good night" as if someone else were here too in the house. It's definitely a bit comforting and helps deal with being home alone all the time.

Bleh. Ran out of things to do so many hours ago

Another day home alone. I hate that my window faces the east, the heat on a daily basis is ridiculous in here

Two Legged Massacre

So here' part two to Cattle Decapitation. This is "A Living, Breathing Piece of Defecating Meat." This was the first song I fell in love with on the album and for good reason. It's seriously great stuff. Check that shit out. Adios.

Thoughts of a Friday Urban Studies Class

• I really like my Friday Urban Studies class. It's very informative and very philosophical in a way. Our professor teaches 98% the class through pictures and detailed information. But what's great about the information is that he likes to get into the influences of many movements and landscape choices. My class is how ideologically a college course should be: mostly lecture with focusing on comprehension of the material rather than memorizing and regurgitation. Throughout the entire 3 hour class, our professor writes about 5 words on the board. 
• There is a guy in my class who literally sat in his chair and was on Facebook for three hours straight. I'm sorry man, but you sadden me. If the class was boring, I'd completely understand (besides the fact that I have no idea how people don't get tired of Facebook after at most 15 minutes) but the class is super duper interesting
• Apparently regular green grass that is used on lawns is harmful to the environment because of how much water is used up (grass isn't even really suppose to exist in Southern California). More than that, the major of the types of trees planted around Los Angeles are also very water demanding and is playing a significant part in our high water usage as a city. People used to get fined for having desert like front lawns (as in just dirt with shrubs and cactus, etc.) because many people in LA thought they weren't taking of their front lawns, even though the desert plants are native to Los Angeles and Southern California in general. The reason why most of LA has grass planted and trees is because there was a movement to build a Eden looking kind of environment, even though it forced the city to bring even more water from farther away just to keep it green year round.
• Since LA was originally a farm city, the major boulevards we know now only existed to put boundaries on farms and back then, the city streets were made for bicycles. In 1915, the LA Times had a bicycle club. How cool is that?
• My professor likes to pick a lot on Catholicism and the Bible. How awesome is that :)