Revolution Music
The intro might be a little intimidating for some people, especially those poor people who have never developed a healthy taste for rock, but it's worth listening. Maybeshewill is considered post-rock. Whatever that means.
But seriously, give them a listen. I think their songs are always so well composed. Tells an entire story, without the use of vocals from a lead singer.
Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job.The dollar buys a nickel's worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere that seems to know what to do and there's no end to it! We know the air is unfit to breathe, our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad. Worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy so we don't go out anymore. We sit in a house as slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster, and my TV, and my steel belted radials and I won't say anything." Well I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad!
I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crimes in the streets. All I know is first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, "I'm a human being, God Dammit! My life has value!" So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out, and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
Waddle Waddle
I don't know if my gait looks like a waddle, but I definitely feel like a crippled penguin right now. It's honestly been a very long time since I've been this sore. I ran for the first time in 4 months on Tuesday. I normally never get sore from running, but if you run in Vibram FF shoes you are supposed to allow for an adjustment period for your legs to adapt to using muscles that it normally does not use. 1-2 miles of light running would probably have been a good idea. Of course I decided to be a hero and go for a hard 4 mile run and now my calves don't work and I have some major shin splints going on. Holy freaking turtles man . . . I have been walking with a limp for the past two days and have not been able to hit the gym all week because of this. Not good considering I have another jiu jitsu tournament this Saturday!
Anyway, kill an hour of your morning with this:
What a great mix!
Popeska
A friend of mine recently put me on to Popeska on Soundcloud. I guess you could label him a dubstep artist but that would be a little misleading to both dubstep fans and non-fans alike. If you're a fan of electronic music at all, then do yourself a favor and check this kid out. I love the diversity of sounds across his tracks and I think this kid has a really bright future. Too bad there's not a lot of information out there on this guy except that he's a 19 year old from Atlanta named Ralf.
He can pull off Skrillex-esque bangers:
And then he can surprise you with some really beautiful melodic tracks:
And he can go somewhere in between:
As a fan, my hope is always for artists I like to succeed and blow up. It makes me really happy when talented artists go from obscurity to widespread recognition. I remember when a friend first put me on to Apologize by Republic (before they changed their name to OneRepublic), I instantly fell in love with the song and tried to tell as many friends as possible about them. A year or two later when I heard their song being played on the radio I was really happy for them, although the Timbaland version that's played on the radio is GARBAGE.
Same deal with The XX. I had heard some of their tracks on HypeM and was really impressed by their sound. I honestly didn't think they would break into the mainstream, but I went crazy when I recognized one of their songs being played in a Volkswagen commercial one day.
Fitz and the Tantrums was also another awesome group that I found on HypeM. I jumped at the chance to see them live when I heard they were coming to town. I also didn't think this group had any chance of commercial success, but was freaking stoked to find out recently that they had a music video that was being played on cable.
Anyway, if you're into electronic music check out Popeska's soundcloud!
Blue Pill Please!
Ugh. MONDAYS!
For the most part my weekend was a freaking blast. Went out on Friday and had a grand old time at the Opera, although dancing like a lunatic all night takes it toll on the body. I need some reassurance from other people that it is absolutely normal to have your legs and lower back feel sore the next day after a night out.
Saturday was productive. I managed to get a great night of sleep prior to my Saturday afternoon competition training session, led by recent 2012 Houston Open double gold champion Gianni Grippo. The Saturday training sessions are one of the things I look forward to the most and it's such an honor to be able to train with so many killers on the mat on a weekly basis. The Saturday training sessions always leave my body in tatters but every second of it is a joy. I signed up for another tournament for this coming Saturday, both in the gi and no-gi division. I hate competing, but I want to accustom myself to that heightened level of intensity and destroy those butterflies that always seem to fuck everything up.
After training, I went home, did some laundry, and later a few friends came over to hot pot and watch the NBA all-star festivities. Relatively mundane sounding Saturday, but it was GREAT! Debauchery is fun and all, but low key activities with close friends is one of those super under-appreciated things in life. And of course I got some JIU JITSU in! 
Sunday was a mega bummy day though. A bunch of friends came over and we ended up lounging around my apartment for the entire day, until night fell and I was forced to remove them from the premises so that I could focus on some productive useful grown-up things like buying groceries and preparing my dinner and lunch for the week.
Let's start the week off with The Jane Doze. They are a female mashup duo from New York. I'll be the first to say that I am not a fan of mashups usually, but these ladies totally take familiar sounding tunes and totally make it their own. Their sound is a little bit more laid back. Perfect for if you're not ready for that IN YOUR FACE energy music on a dreadful Monday.
Tried and True versus Shiny and New
I have no idea how this happened but a few days ago, in the middle of the night my roommates comes over and knocks on my door. I open the door and he's holding my toothbrush, which is vibrating like it's fucking possessed with the spirits of every single person that has ever died in that bathroom.
He told me he woke up in the middle of the night when he heard a buzzing sound coming from the bathroom, which is right outside his room. He saw that my toothbrush was vibrating so he turned it off and went back to bed, only to find it buzzing again and this time he thought I was fucking with him.
He came over to my room and told me my toothbrush was going on the fritz and there was no way to shut it off. I took a look and couldn't find anywhere on the toothbrush where I could any type of battery out. My only options were to either let it vibrate randomly like a spaz or throw it out.
The frugal side in me just couldn't bear to toss away a freaking Sonicare toothbrush that I just got less than a year ago, so I wrapped it up in a towel and put it away in a corner. So now it's back to the good old fashioned original toothbrush.
A few days later though, my electric toothbrush is still buzzing!
This is the mosquito that never dies.
The goal here is to call up Sonicare and see if they can freaking get me a new one. If not I'm going to start an angry consumer campaign by writing to The Consumerist and hope my story publicly shames them into offering me a new one. There has to be some kind of warranty on it, right?
I should check . . . or better yet, SLEEP.
Good night!
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