This is what I spent my afternoon doing. Red, White and Blue x2 #Freedom
People have been reblogging this… so I thought I should put up the real final version that was used.
We Know How This Story Goes
April 2nd Alkaline Trio comes out with their 9th studio album My Shame is True (Which I can only assume is a reference to Elvis Costello’s My Aim is True, I guess that’s why they call it pun-k rock… heh)
So they’ve been have a steady of release of tracks from the album the last few weeks, and for the first time in years (or last few albums) they feel like the band I use to know - the themes and tone are really hitting home.
There’s this fear I have that with getting older that I am becoming someone that I will eventually won’t recognize. I didn’t really like the last few albums that ‘Trio has put out, and I chalked it up to this - I’m just getting old. I went as far as saying that they should just call it a day, their direction was so far off from where I was that I felt embarrassed for my fandom. I glad they haven’t called it a day if the first 5 tracks off of MSIT are any indication.
Sure, they still are playing up some of the horror-punk themes that have been doing since Good Mourning/From Here to Infirmary, but something about this go around feels much more authentic - more real. Maybe it’s just better then the past albums, or maybe it’s just finding me at the right point in time in my life. I don’t know.
This probably sounds all way corny, but I’m sure everyone one has a band that they consider “their” band. The band that’s been there for important moments. Alkaline Trio is that band for me. My first (and eventual best) friend of high school properly introduced me to ‘Trio (I was aware of/enjoyed them through Tony Hawk soundtracks) and that was our connection/thing, and was able to re-connect with my life-long best friend doing the same thing. We stood hours in lines outside venues - hours in the rain to be first in line, blasted by drive-by firework mortars by immature anti-fans (they post-poned the show for an hour for that one, still have hearing damage, too), baked on asphalt in afternoon summer sun. It forged, strengthened, and concreted friendships.
I’m not that person anymore, but I feel a bit better knowing it still exist in somewhere. For that same matter, they’re not that band anymore. I’m just glad that for this moment in time I have my band back.
Twitter: The Comic is a collection of comics based on the greatest tweets of our generation. The source material is used verbatim, typos and all. Despite the seemingly random nature of the tweets, the comic has reoccurring characters and story arcs that aren’t fully understood unless experienced through a single reading. With explicit permission from the writers of each comic, Twitter: The Comic could be a pretty rad book.
On the road again
So, in less than a week I will be in Lincoln, NE for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival - Region 5 (KCACTF5). My school, and more specifically the director on Anoka-Ramsey’s theater productions, selected me to be one of 13 students representing ARCC at this festival… and I can’t fathom why.
I just might be pessimistic, which is more or less my standard mode of operating, but I don’t feel good at all about this.
I made some silly posters, mainly because I hated the posters the school of who ever they outsourced them to made. It was in my head that if I’m going to be at my little league community college, that I didn’t have to dislike everything I looked at.
My advisor (the director) signed me up for a portfolio review at this event. They accepted me reluctantly. So now I have this panel of theatre industry professionals, who only normally review portfolios of BFAs and MFAs, reviewing my little portfolio of a few production posters and their materials, a few pieces that I’ve been commissioned by the school to make, and my dumb punk rock shit. Godfuckingdammnit. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. My brain is working on auto-pilot.
Everyone has told me to go - teachers, advisors, mother, therapist. All along the lines of “Oh it will be such good opportunity”,”It will be a good chance for networking” and “You’ll meet interesting people” I don’t think any of them understand that I feel like I’m showing up to a dog show with a plush dinosaur and going on about it like it was normal. I will probably die of embarrassment.
All I want to do is stay in my bed, and go to classes - repeat. The classes part is even iffy. The part of my brain that feels excitement, pride, and all that other stuff just doesn’t work. Most likely a learned behavior due to let down and let down after let down.
Goddamnit.
Time for bed.
Fearful
I don’t know any other year to come around where the new year wasn’t met with cheer and hope, this year though, 2013 terrifies me.
It might just be getting older, seeing how the world operates and how things continue to be the status quo, or maybe I’ve just finally caught on considering 2012, or 2011 for that matter, haven’t really gone well for all-things-Dugan.
I’m hoping 2013 doesn’t kill me.
Doing practice runs for my Photog1 portrait assignment, getting color and technique down. This is a C+.
Smaller Dots.
Steadier Hand.
Dots before Outline.
(Possibly Shave Beard to Summer levels)
The night was dark, and the small Monticello neighborhood that I used to live in was bathed in the silence of sleep. Not a single soul was awake, save me and my two night owl friends. As teenagers, we were infatuated with the idea that whatever we were up to in that moment…
Fun Fact: I went to The Monte Club all the time when I was little. My grandparents lived in Annandale and we would go there for buffets. It was crazy to a little kid, kinda like a castle or something. The food was pretty awesome too.
