Boston Nights Forever

The thing that I miss most about living in the city, is driving and biking around at night. On a night like tonight it makes it even worse. As I sat on LJ's porch chillaxin' talking about all things relavant in the world today.

The rain began to fall and it was a beutiful moment. The air cooled, just for a moment, and the leaves shook with excitement from the prevailing rain. The night was young and I hopped into Blue Steel and drove down the road, blasting the soundtrack from Boondock Saints, and was thoroughly enjoying myself.

I'm not sure what it is, but the city at night is so beautiuful to me. Part of it is the fact that there aren't very many people out late at night. Another aspect that makes it different is just the magic of total darkness lit up by thousands of lights and buildings.

Stary Nights - Boston Lights

Pitter Patter

The rain keeps falling
pitter patter
pitter patter
The leaves are shaking
pitter patter
pitter patter
The air smells fresh
pitter patter
pitter patter
The storm is over
pitter patter
pitter . . .

And The Beat goes on . . .

At the young age of 24, this kid right here, is content with his life. New Hampshire has given me some time to think about what I want to do and what the future will bring. Well I have come to a realization; some would say an "epiphany".

The future is the future because you don't know what is going to happen. I am a big supporter of Karma and Faith and in time everything will work out, but right now I'm scrambling to pay the bills and working temp jobs, free-lancing, and all that good stuff.

I don't think I will be in New Hampshire very much longer, I have lived here all my life and like Cheryl Crow says, "A little change will do you good" (cheesy but true). I don't know where I am going, but I know this much, I will go for it 109.67% and if I didn't I would feel like I wasn't being true to those in my life now and in the past. Pop + Gram (God rest your souls), Bud and Grandma (still kicking around in NJ), my parents, and of course my sister.

Hindsight is 20/20 and that is so true when I look back at my college years. The friends I have made, those who I keep in touch with, and those who I have let fade away into oblivion. College was the best 5 years of my life, but now, only a year out of college am I truly finding myself and what I want to do with my life.

The great thing about life is that you don't have to decide what you want to do "right now" and that you have your whole life to make that decision. I know I am rambling here, but its 12:18 in the AM and I just felt like writing something. I didn't even know it was going to be about this. Listening to Jack Johnson tends to "mellow me out" and makes me write what is on my mind.

The greatest thing about being a journalist is that you are always looking for the next story, the next job, the next article, the next movie to film, or the next interview to conduct. I realize that I'm not a working journalist right now, but I know that down the line I will be and all the hard work in college will have paid off.

When I was in school I never got a co-op in journalism. I only did internships, un-paid internships. Many ask why? The main reason is when you work for free and you write for free you get only what you put into it and nothing else. You may get a reference or a letter of recommendation, but that is just a bonus. I have a few friends from NU that I graduated with from the j-school and I keep tabs on them, finding out who is still trying to write.

I mean, god damn, it's frustrating trying to write anywhere. I finally got a couple of free-lance opportunities, and the pay is nothing ( well it's something). The great thing about that is I will be getting paid to write and that's all I want to do.

I have heard the life quote somewhere, "Find something that you love to do and figure out how to get paid to do it". Well there are many things that I love to do and hopefully I can get paid for all of them, but for right now, it's writing. Down the line, I will try and get back into radio and video editing, but for right now, I am a writer.

I will be a writer until I decide I want to be something else. After all it's my life and this is the path I have chosen.

If you are reading this and you don't know me, this is probably a little too deep for you to take in. If you are reading this and you know me, please post a comment and let me know what you think.

My current mood reminds me of the always used poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. The last two lines of that poem sum up my feelings right now:

I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Inundated With Whatnot

Stuff is always on my mind
looking for someone who is kind
Never stopping to think
searching for that casual wink

Television has lost my attention
The media, I will not mention
music always relaxes me
soothes and sets me free

Lost and trying to a find a home
Like a dog looking for his bone
Loneliness drives oneself crazy
Right now I just feel lazy

Stuff is always on my mind

Foo Fighters - In Your Honor

Lately, pretty much every night before going to bed I have been listening to In Your Honor, the latest CD by Foo Fighters and I have to say the 2nd disc of the CD, is probably my favorite CD in a long, long time.

I listen to a lot of music and I always say, that CD is awesome, i.e. The Killers - Hot Fuss or Coldplay - X&Y. Don't get me wrong those are great albums, but the Foo Fighters have just put out a great double CD. I actually didn't go out and buy the CD I downloaded it, which I rarely do nowadays.

However, I did go and buy the album on vinyl, which was a great decision. The album is so awesome and to hear the crackle and pop in between on tracks on vinyl, just makes it so awesomely bad.

If you have the opportunity to check out any part of "In Your Honor" I highly recommend it. The first CD really "rocks" and is normal catchy Foo Fighters that we are all used to. Remember the video that they did back in the day where they filmed it like a Mentos commercial? Awesome

Dave Groel, the lead singer of the Foo Fighters is an amazing musician. He was the drummer in Nirvana. He was the drummer for Queens of The Stone Age, for a while. He played the devil in a music video for a Tenacious D video, "Tribute". I don't know what else to say, but . . .

Foo Fighters + Weezer + Kazabian = one of the best lineups for a show in a while

Veronica Guerin

Of all the movies, books, television shows, and stories about journalists that have been "in the news" in the recent years, I think the story of Veronica Guerin is one that all show know about.

In the last couple of years there has been scandle upon scandle at different papers, magazines, and television stations. Take for example Derek Lowe cheating on his wife with a reporter for the local Fox affiliate station. The story of Stephen Glass and his made-up stories at The New Republic, Jason Blair and his "travel" that never happened for the New York Times.

In the cases of Blair and Glass, it sickens me that their have been books and movies made about the stories of the these two journalists with no morals and dedication to the craft of journalism. They got caught up in the whirlwind of writing for two major publications and saw absolutely nothing wrong with fabricating stories out of thin air.

Enough about the bad, back to the focus of this peice. Veronica Guerin, for those who don't know, was a reporter in Ireland and uncovered the "drug scandle" that affected thousands of people. Through her tireless efforts many were sent to jail and laws were changed allowing the Irish government to seize property and freeze assetts of suspected drug lords.

She paid the price dearly to uncover the truth about drugs in Ireland, she was brutally murdered, shot multilple times by a henchman. However, through her spirit journalism and the code of ethics and morals, if they still exist, lives on.

Since her death in 1996 over 196 journalists have been killed. 196 people have been taken from the world of journalism, reporting the news to the people, and sent to a better place.

I hope that this story will cause some of you to learn the story of Veronica Guerin and her plight to fight what was wrong with the world. It's a movie that should inspire us all to do more in life and not think about ourselves, but the people around us and how they are affected.

In a world of sensationalized journalism where NBC, CBS, FOX, etc, etc rush to predict who has won the presidency (or won the popular vote back in 2000) it is refreshing to hear of a stpursuit of the story. She never backed down and I hope that in the future when I finally break through that I will have half of the heart and dedication that she had.

Night Time

Bedtime creeps closer
but i think no sir
sleeping only settles the mind
losing, losing lots of time
music and tv stay on
but me, i turn off
gone, gone for a couple of hours
until the morning when one must shower

Radio killed the Musical Star

Coldplay has done it, I didn't think it would happen this fast, but I read an article today that convinced me that Coldplay is done, cooked, over-played, over-exposed. Chris Martin declined a meeting with the Prime-minister of his own country because he is a affraid it will taint his image. Coldplay is part of the machine and they are the latest band to struggle, then have a successfull album and then eventually fade away into abiss.

Take for example the 'awesomely bad' rock band known as "Creed". They said that they had musical differences, but the real reason was they broke up was that there was no market for their music anymore.

You know how flooded the music market is with Coldplay right now. People are thinking, wow these guys rock, I love them so much. Think way back to when Creed was the cool new band, remember that? Ah yes, the good old days. Are you thinking I hate Creed? Well you are not alone.

Alter Bridge, A cloned less "mashed potatoes in my mouth" version of Creed, came out with a radio single called "Open Your Eyes". It is Creed minus the crappyness of Scott Stapp. Guess What? It's still crappy music. But the radio stations will play it because they are like: yah, it's Creed without Scott Stapp, sure we will play it, people liked it in the past, they will like it again. But, honestly it's all just recyled crap over and over again, on most radio stations.

Creed came out with their first album, Parachutes, and it was a classic album, with the singles Yellow and others. Now, they are just another band and Chris Martin is just another rock star that has let it get to his head.

Tailgating and Clocks

Coldplay rocked the Corporate Sponsored Outdoor Music Venue in Hartford, CT and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Mad props to Mike W for inviting me to the show. 109% dissaproval of Brain blowing it by bringing four beers in a cooler to tailgate. Who does that?

Then the kid realizes that he only likes one Coldplay song, Clocks, that's it. He not only does this but he says that the concert "sucked". I don't approve of people who go to concerts like Coldplay and get so hammered that they don't make it through the show. Those people shouldn't be allowed to buy tickets, because there are probably some real Coldplay fans that didn't get tickets because those "A&F Boys and Girls" bought tickets and did one of many things:

They got so wasted that they stay in the parking lot and they didn't even go into the concert

They passed out in the Corporate Sponsored Outdoor Music Venue during the show

They became so inebriated that they exhaulted fluids from their bodies IMMEDIATELY!