Far From Refuge

Helloooooooo.....so we had a very interesting Saturday night. I planned out a fun date night for Ash and I so we could get out of the house and do something a bit more fun than going to the Olive Garden for dinner. We started out the evening with dinner in LA at a place called Shamshiri. Its a Persian Restaurant that we actually had been to 4 years ago for what I consider our first date. This would be our first return in about 10 attempts. We have been wanting to go back for some time now, but for some reason our attempts were always stifled .

Our next, and last, stop was the Nuart Theatre in Santa Monica for a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. For all of you that have been to one of these shows, you know the craziness that we witnessed. Everyone else, take heed before you decide to go and read carefully. The first thing you see when you roll up to the theater is a line of people that wraps around the building. These aren't normal people though. Everyone is dressed up as either a character from the movie, a slutty costume that slightly resembles someone from the movie, a slutty costume that doesn't represent anything close to a character from the movie, and people dressed straight up weirdly. It reminded me a slutty, gothic version of the morP dance in high school. The most unfortunate thing about all the sluttyness is that it is mostly people that you don't want to see dress slutty, although Ash and I did get a kick out of the little gay boys dressed in only gold booty shorts, ala Rocky. All together it really reminded me of a gathering of all the weird, sometimes creepy, people I went to high school with, only on a larger scale. Regardless of this craziness, I do have to admit that it is cool that there is a place for these people to let their freak flag fly, so to speak. I commented to Ash about what all these people would do 100 years ago when their wasn't anything like this. Its interesting to think about.

Onward we went into the theater. Oh yeah, did I mention the movie started at midnight? Well it did. We were both winding down at this point. Not for long. Before the movie started there was all sorts of nonsense going on in front of the screen (explaining the rules, friendly banter, etc). They bring all the virgins (people who are there for the first time) up on stage and humiliate them. If you are a virgin they write a big V on your forehead with lipstick so everyone knows. Luckily for us, we had each others backs and entered the experience unscathed by the all the virgin nonsense. "Oh yeah we have been before..." Haha.

The movie starts...FINALLY. It felt like it took forever for it to actually start. Once the movie starts, there are people dressed like the characters from the movie that act out the entire movie on a stage in front of the screen. For the most part it worked really well. 90% or more of the characters looked almost exactly like the ones on the screen. Naturally they had an easier time finding girls to take these parts so a few girls played mens parts but it worked for the most part. Only one of the characters was overly distracting to the both of us.

All throughout the movie the audience yells at the screen and in one way or another makes fun of the characters or movie itself (usually the cheesiness of it all). We both agreed that the most annoying and aggravating part of the whole experience is when 3 or 4 people that work their walk up and down the aisles for the entire show and yell out little quips or quotes that they think are funny but mostly fall flat. Often times they were trying to play off what the character is saying by asking an inappropriate question before the character says yes, or something like that. Something like, "Hey Riff Raff, where do you keep the bodies of all the little boys you raped and killed?!" The character from the movie follows it by saying "Over here..." There were a few times where I laughed but for the most part it was just super obnoxious. Half the time you couldn't even follow what was going on because they were talking over the movie. A couple times I wanted get up and tell the guy he wasn't funny and to shut the f up. I restrained myself though.

The uncomfortable moment of the night came when we saw a couple kids under 10 years old there with their parents. I have no idea what kind of a horrible parent you have to be to subject your child to something like that. Weird.

Overall it was a pretty fun experience. If you can look past the quirkiness of the people that work there and go there, and don't mind a lot of dirty humor, I would highly recommend going. We didn't get home till around 3am. Ugh, so tired. At least we can't complain about a boring weekend, right?

Thrice - Yellow Belly by VagrantRecords

I like to consider myself a music enthusiast(read:snob). Someone who knows a lot of music and a lot about music. I also like to think that my tastes are pretty diverse and what most would describe as "good". I put good in quotes because there isn't one artist that is universally liked or hated by everyone. Even The Beatles have their haters and bands like Creed and Train somehow sell millions of records. There are times(probably more than I'd like to admit) where I am drawn to a band that I know I probably shouldn't like but I do. Evanescence is one of these bands. I'm not saying they are my favorite band or that I even love them. They do have their moments though and when those moments arise I can't help but to really enjoy them. First off, the above music video is terrible. I am not sure if it is more weird or lame, but it has a healthy dose of both. I get the analogy it is trying to make, but it just comes off as terrible.

As weird as this video is though, I really dig this song. Under all the corporate rock and overproduction is a really catchy and pretty melody sung by a front woman with (in my opinion) one of the prettiest voices in rock music. The pre-chorus and chorus are so dark yet so pretty. I feel like if the record company/producer let them do there thing without all slick production and generic sounding guitar tones they could really be a great band. Ok, maybe not great but more than what they were.

The funny thing is that while I enjoy this song so much, as well as a few others of theirs, I feel the need to keep it under wraps. Like if someone I respected, as far as music taste goes, found out I liked I would be way embarrassed. I couldn't say how I really felt about them. I'd have to say something like, "Evanescence? Oh yeah, that band sucks. Totally." I feel like such a tool saying that, but I would feel like an even bigger tool if I admitted I liked them. Haha. And this is where I get caught up in my own snobbery. Why can't I just admit that I like what I like? Who cares what other people think? Me apparently. I think one of my biggest fears is that people will think I have crappy taste in music.

There are times where I will in fact break this rule. For some reason, even though it is probably a bigger crime against music, I feel ok telling people that I actually really do enjoy Limp Bizkit's first album. Or, yes, I am a huge Blink 182 fan. I guess admitting you like Blink 182 these days is pretty safe considering the impact they had on my generation. That was not case when I was in high school though, especially if you were in the local punk scene like I was. Blink 182 was NOT punk rock and if you liked them you were a pussy. Sorry for the language but its the truth. If I had rolled up to a Guttermouth or Ignite show in a Blink shirt, I probably would have gotten my ass kicked. Hell, I saw a kid at a Thursday/Bring Me the Horizon show a year or so ago wearing a Blink shirt and I still kind of wanted to punch him in the face. So I'm a hypocrite. I admit it! Admitting you have a problem is the first step to resolving it, right? That will have to be enough for now. We can't face all our demons in one day right?

Also, please don't go starting a rumor that I am a Limp Bizkit fan. Fred Durst sucks and so does that band. I just enjoy their first album which has an unfortunate lame name that I won't list here. Its also unfortunate and embarrassing that I like that record. I hate that I do.

Although the pay isn't much more than I was making before with Fastech, I will say that the working conditions are leaps and bounds beyond what I have been experiencing the last 3 years. I genuinely like the people I work with and the controller here is very friendly. They seem to be really happy that I will be working there and I can tell already that they will be happy with the work I do. The past couple weeks I have had more good days at work than I have the last couple years. Thats always a good sign, right?

I would like to thank everyone who was praying for us in our time of need. Thanks to all those prayers, what we thought would be a really difficult time ended up being like more of an extended unpaid vacation for me (trust me that my mind was not viewing it as this at the time).

As for the storm trooper picture, it mostly made me laugh, but it also reminded me of how I felt every day after work at Fastech. Enjoy

Sidenote: This summer's new music has more than lived up to expectations so far. I have been rocking the following albums a lot lately.

1. Bon Iver - Bon Iver

2. August Burns Red - Leveler

3. Unearth - Darkness in the Light

4. Set Your Goals - Burning at Both Ends (still not totally into this one)

5. Nick 13 - Nick 13