06/05/00 ~ 3:40 p.m.
     What a night.  I went to the Fireside Bowl and found out I was an hour early for the show.  When I finally did get in, I found out The Starlite Desperation had broken up and would not be playing.  I also got pretty sick over the course of the evening.
     On the upside, all the bands that did play were good.  Project K had a nice pop/somewhat surfy sort of thing going on.  The Ruby Dare took a nice spin on the D.C. sound, I think I noticed some Corm/Nation of Ulysses/Bluetip influences in there but they had their own take on it.  The Eternals, which includes Damon Locks of Trenchmouth, were amazing, I can't even think of any words or genre labels that would really describe it.
     See the rest of the pictures from this show here.  Also check out recent news like my garage sale vinyl find and Survivor thoughts.
     Grunnen Rocks: If you ever wanted to know what the sixth song on the second Unwound LP was, and who was in the band at the time, this is as good a place as any to find out.  Extensive band index.
     Kleenex Girl Wonder: This band put Downers Grove on the map.  Pop genius masterminded by Graham Smith.  All the recent events of our lives have revolved around him in some way or another...
     The Random Food Generator: Menus to turn the strongest stomachs.  Hit the refresh or reload button on your browser to get a new menu.
     Buchanan, Robertson, Quayle quotes: Care of Politicalamazon.  Also take the bigot test and see how Nazism is alive and well in America.
     Politically Incorrect: Speaking of politics, this is a great show hosted by Bill Maher.  Musicians, politicians, actors and various riff-raff discuss the issues of the day.  Be sure to check the upcoming guest list for your favorite pop culture icon.
     I also reorganized the links section, hopefully it is a bit more readable now.

06/07/00
     The links still look all wrong... I'm trying organize them so they look neat but it's just not working out...
     I got an interesting email today.  It concerns a music review I did for the online zine A Different Kind of Greatness.  The review was basically negative, although I still stand by it.  The message was as follows:

Hey Erick,

         This is Jacob from Mars Electric.  I just wanted to write and say thank you for the review.  Even though it was not a favorable one, I appreciate your opinion.

                   Jacob

     It caught me by surprise as I generally wouldn't have expected a member of a "major label band" (ethereal term though it may be) to read reviews of his music.  I did think it was a nice thing to do though, and wholly out of sinc with the sort of rockstar arrogance one might expect.  It was nice to get and I really wish I could say I liked the album more than I did.
     In a larger sense, a musician is also putting a lot more at risk than I am.  If I write a bad review, I've only wasted a few hours (depending on how much I listened to it) and I can just move on to the next review.  An album produced by a band is usually the composite of several years work and if people dismiss it, it could be seen as a waste of those years.
     On a completely unrelated matter, there sure are a lot of digital cameras out there these days.  As you may have guessed, I use one for most of the photography for this site, as well as the print zine.  At the show on Sunday, Project K had one (they even took a picture of me) and The Ruby Dare also had one (on request I took some pictures for them).  I personally save a lot on developing and film, and I enjoy the quick results, so I'm not surprised they are so popular now.

06/09/00 ~ Wee hours
     I saw The Minus Man last night, and I have to admit it was a bit confusing.  If anyone has clever insights into the movies hidden meanings, send 'em over.  Or if you would like to have your say in our heated debate over the goodness (or badness) of SLC Punk, do likewise.  Yeah, links are a bit better now.

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