Life lately

I just realized that it's been a week since my last blog post. o_O But I guess that's fairly normal for me, I just forget. This time, however, it's because I've actually been kinda super busy (in waves).

We had a new roommate come in on the second, and she brought two extremely comfy couches with her to replace our old heavy as fuck broken pull-out. And of course, her DVD collection, which I compulsively had to alphabetize and arrange in a way that all the titles could be seen. And she contributed this awesome Fight Club soap to the Shelf of Awesome, and some wicked art for the wall. It took us a week to get everything arranged to fit with all the new stuff (particularly in the kitchen area). I have done so much cleaning recently, but I am seriously loving my house right now.

The blue/green half of my hair had faded quite a bit, and I found lime green (and apparently UV-reactive) hair dye at Shopper's, so it was time for a bit of a change. I am so completely stoked at how it turned out! Because my roots were blonde and the ends were blue, the green bits kinda turned out in a gradient. It goes from limey neon yellow to neon green. Aaahhhhhhhh I love it so much!

My friend Chris recently moved to BC after making the decision a week before he left, and had to sell/give away/throw out most of his stuff. Couldn’t find a buyer for this gorgeous piece of instrument of a guitar, so he gave it to me! Got some other incredibly amazing(ly nerdy) things as well which I'm sure I'll show you guys eventually. Also, the first sticker printing of my Spider-Man piece came in. The corners turned out a bit dark, but it actually looks awesome that way.

Sunday was Maila's birthday. She's five years old now! I can't believe how fast the past five years have gone. We also had a BBQ on Sunday with a pretty big turnout. I live about as North as you can get while still being in Toronto, so quite often people just don't bother coming "all the way" up here, but they did this time! It's nice to actually have a BBQ at the house - haven't in three years!

Went through my high school guitar tab book today. Picked out the songs I wanna re-learn and figured out what bands I even had in there. There's a few that don't have a band name on them and of course I don't recognize the song titles at all, but at least I alphabetized them so I have an idea of the starting letter of the band. I had to laugh at myself when I saw tabs for a song by The Used. Two songs, actually. I also found the first song I ever wrote both lyrics and guitar for, back when I dotted my i's with x's... It's not all that great by a long shot, and judging by the scribbles all over it, I thought so back then as well.

And now, I'm all packed and ready for tomorrow. Soon I'll be on my way to Ottawa for a drunken pit stop and couch to sleep on before heading to Rockfest!!! This weekend is destined for greatness and I am so excited it's ridiculous. I'm going to lose my mind being without Maila for four days, though.

Sketchbook - All Of Time And Space

Over the past few weeks I've been slowly planning out my next full-colour drawing, and my first real crack at some Doctor Who fanart (actual first one turned out crap). Pretty much everything I plan on doing for the finished piece is brand new to me, so I might end up doing several more drafts yet. But I'm just so excited to get it done and show people that I figured fuck it, may as well give a peek into my sketchbook!

Unfortunately my final outline is too big for my largest sketchbook. If my scanner wasn't so damn small I'd just scale it down buuut no. So until I get a bigger one (probably not til the end of the month) I can't get going on this no matter how stoked I am on it. Booooo. :(

Rant: On Punk and Metal and the Elitists Within

Just a heads up: this is as close to linear thought as I could make it. It took six days, two restructurings, and a pile of rum to get this to make a lick of sense. But it still might be a bit all over the place.

When I was in the middle of writing my bit on Frank Turner's Tape Deck Heart in my Music of May post yesterday, I looked up his recent interviews to find something where he discussed his perspective on his own writings. Instead, I found one about him receiving death threats and hate mail for his political views and musical success. I got kind of incredibly angry. There's an issue that often rolls through my brain just to piss me off for the rest of the day: douchebag elitist prick punks and metalheads, hating each other and hating within their groups. I have known some personally on both extreme ends of the spectrum and many of them have been wonderful people, so long as the subject of music preferences never really comes up.

Isn't Punk Rock supposed to be about being yourself, having a good time and fuck everyone else? That's certainly what it meant to me when I was 13 and trying to find my way within it, and it still does at 24 while I continue to wade my way through. I'll never understand the swarm of elitist pricks who think they're better than everyone else because they've got more studs on their jacket. They listen to more bands you've never heard of with vocals that are impossible to make out, and are somehow convinced that makes them more of a badass. You can go on and on about how you don't give a fuck what anyone thinks of you, but at the end of the day you've spent more money on hair dye and more time rubbing dirt into your vest than the average person.

All that being said, I don't think everyone "punks out" their jacket or avoids bathing just to make themselves look like a badass. I certainly don't; I do it cause I like the look of it. What really gets me is assholes who try to police someone else's idea of the punk rock aesthetic. So what if I want to throw on a patch for some "sissy pop punk band" or a widely-known "sellout" metal band on my sweater? In what way is that any of your damn business? The way I look doesn't affect your life and I've not asked for your opinion.

Myself and some friends. Casualties @ The Annex Wreckroom, August 2011 (apparently).

Metalheads are just as bad. One time when I went to a metal show (whiskey and time has erased the details from memory) wearing a sweater that had a Dimmu Borgir patch directly above a NoFX one. About halfway through the show, I had someone stop me and say "are you seriously wearing a NoFX sweater at a metal concert?" To which I replied "yes I am, what of it?" and continued on my way to the bathroom. Does the fact that I think nothing of showing my love for both genres at once really bother you that much?

Most metalheads couldn't be bothered, though. The most they'll do is cut the sleeves of their shirts and sew patches on a vest in such a grid-like fashion that it hurts my eyes. (The one point where I prefer punk: no one cares to line up jack shit and the jackets/vests/sweaters look better for it.)

The Braveboard BBQ attendees of 2011. Best BBQ of every summer in Toronto.

Just because you can do some crazy Malmsteen-esque, mindblowing sweep arpeggio doesn't mean you've earned the right to be higher up on my list of favourite bands than a three-chord, three-piece punk band made up of people who've never even seen sheet music. And just because you can't be bothered to wrap your mind around more than a handful of strumming patterns doesn't mean you're cooler than someone who spent hours mastering the technique of moving their feet fast enough to get that mindfuck of a blastbeat right. No one is inherently better than the other. Each have their own things to offer, and if you really pay attention, you'll notice they overlap more often than not.

For cultures that already receive more than their fair share of criticism from the general population, Punks and Metalheads sure do love to hate each other for no damn reason.

In conclusion... I can't stand people bashing each other for the ways they enjoy music. Everyone hears it differently, everyone feels it differently and in no way is it any of your business how someone else uses music to get through the days. Whether they have it on absent-mindedly in the background of their regular life to liven things up a bit, if they can't make it through another night without hearing the right rhythmic words of therapy, or if they don't even care to listen. Until someone's threatening your life for having a different musical preference or style of dress, leave it alone. It's none of your business what I like or how I look.

Made it to a whole year of blogging! Thought that'd never happen. :P

Edit: I just realized that the conclusion really has nothing to do with what I had intended to write this about. Enjoy this view into my scattered brain. XD