Sunday, June 17, 2012

METAL and HARDCORE and BOOBIES...OH MY!

So, it's been a while since I've said hello to you all, and it's for good reason. I've been excruciatingly busy. Between spending time with the lovely Elizabeth and dashing Blade, I've been working, playing lots of music and putting together fun things to do for all.

*Here's where the shameless self promotion comes in...

GOGOSTOCK 2012 at the Dolphin Tavern is less than a week away. With the help of some good people, Domn, Will & John, we've been able to build a reputable lineup of great bands for your listening pleasure...with dancing ladies for your viewing pleasure. Check out the information below and come out for a great time. Tickets are cheap, beer will be cheap...and well...if you've been to the Dolphin, you know what to expect.

3 Days of Go Go, Metal, Hardcore & Rock N' Roll at the Dolphin Tavern. Any doubts of the awesomeness you will behold? See what the Philly Citypaper has to say.

Friday Metal Lineup - Starts at 7:00 PM
BOUGHT AND SOLD
MACHINES OF PENALTY
SICKTRUST
FLESH ENGINE
MOXLEY
Serpenties De L'Metal - Couldn't find a link for these guys, but they kill.

Saturday Hardcore Lineup - Starts at 4:00 PM
UNITE RESIST
SPINECHAIN
STOMPING GROUND
NON-STOP!
PROLES BLOOD
Troublesome
Ballistic

Sunday Rock N'Roll Lineup starts at 3:00 PM
The Chelsea Kills
Route 611
Slo N' Shakey
Study Electricity
The Rivals
Doghead - Again, no link, but great solid rock n' roll.

All 3 Days:
Live GoGo Girls
Raffles
Prizes

MUST BE 21 with VALID ID to Enter
Tickets - Available at the Door - First come first serve
Single Day Tickets - $10 / per day
3 Day Pass - $25

SPONSORS
Pabst Blue Ribbon
Philadelphia Eddies Chinatown Tattoo
SMUTLIFE
Philly Roller Girls
AIR Records
SIDELAB STUDIO

Come on out, have fun, you may go home with cool stuff. And I swear, the next time you hear from me...I won't be asking things from you, I'll just be complaining most likely.

Thunderstick out...

Friday, October 7, 2011

TENT CITY HALL

Crap, what's going on is what runs through my head. I just want to get to Staples and take care of my business. Rounding South Broad St. coming towards me appears a few bicycle policemen being followed by about 1,000 people with homemade signs with big smiles on their faces. My next thought was these people seem pretty happy for being so angry. I whip out my crappy phone and start taking pictures and a video. I get the universal hand gesture for "Come with us!". I told one person I was an amateur journalist here to document from an objective POV and that I would inform the people on my Blog of what I observe. Little do they know that my Blog consists of less followers than the people sitting in the Starbucks I'm in right now.

I digress. Ok, I know I'm wordy and get off topic. Here's the cliff notes...I go to Staples, I get business cards printed for my girlfriend (Surprise!). I finish with the business card business and saunter over to City Hall to find Tent City.

There wasn't a feeling of solidarity, revolution, indifference or even mild anger or sadness. It was a feeling that a lot of these people had nothing else to do. I was mildly disappointed in their lack of organization. Okay, a lot of these people have had a tough time. I've had a tough time. A lot of people I love and know and respect are having a tough time. It's called life. Right now, things aren't easy for just about everyone. I agree some things need to change. I disagree that camping in front of City Hall is going to do it. Why not the Philadelphia Financial Exchange? Why not the Bank of America branch in Center City? These people are organized enough to get a permit and march during a very disruptive time. Why aren't they organized enough to put together a plan of action? I may be getting old, or seasoned or have become much more conservative in my 30's, but sleeping on the street with a sign outside City Hall arguing with the other people sleeping on the street makes you look homeless, not like a Revolutionary.

True revolutionaries built this country. They never claimed to be revolutionaries. They were tired enough to pick up and move to the other side of the planet to a new world that is uncultivated and build a nation and take over the world's largest superpower of that time by utilizing military strategies that were unheard of. That's revolutionary. What happened in the 60's when DC was marched upon? Mostly lots of crappy drugs, new venereal diseases were spread and a few guys got their point across enough to be called poets.

Instead of fighting against a $5 charge from Bank of America and yelling to other angry people about different unstructured agendas, let's take a look at Iceland right now. Whuuuuuh? WTF does Iceland have to do with this? The citizens are re-writing their own Constitution. They are taking their country back and are showing true patriotism.

Or let's take a look at another part of the world where things are much worse than here. Greece. Whuuuuh? Yeah, shit's hitting the fan over there big time.

As Americans, we've had our heads up our own asses for a very long time. Not as individuals, but as a nation when it comes to finances and foreign policy. Stripping the US Federal Government to the core and building it from scratch isn't going to solve anything. Organizing ourselves as a nation of solidified people and standing together on policies that are researched and constructively deemed forward moving for the people as a whole and sticking by a finely structured plan of action, while being able to adjust and make decisions built on these policies is possibly the answer. Will it happen? No. There is too much at stake for too many people and fear and complacency are what rule these days. Free information hasn't made us smarter. It's made us lazier. It's sucked the life out of our economy because none of us want to pay for what anything is worth.

Complacency and a sense of entitlement are two of my biggest grudges with the current generations of people in this country. I see it every day. We are not entitled to shit. Our forefathers worked, killed and died for what we have today. Our fathers worked, killed and died for what we'll have tomorrow. Our generation doesn't work, isn't willing to kill or die for any belief or stigma. We're a bunch of pussies that need our asses wiped on a daily basis because our iLives aren't processing fast enough.

So get off your couch, out of your tent and put together a plan of action. Stop complaining to people that agree with you. Stop stopping traffic for an hour. Stop taking a week out of your life to join a cause. Start reading. Start believing in something instead of being part of a percentile. It doesn't take rocket science to build a business. It takes hard work and as little as a lawn mower and some determination.

So as I sit here in Starbucks finishing my delicious Pumpkin Spice Latte, typing on my HP Computer, listening to Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits coming from my Samsung phone on the Sprint Network using electricity from PECO wearing clothes I bought from mildly expensive stores, I say....man up. Get organized. Find balance in your life. Push forward. If you want it that bad, do something about it and get your fucking head out of your ass and for the love of God, go home, take a shower and stop acting homeless to get attention.

Thunderstick out. Oh yeah, here are the pictures I took from the "Protest".

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Skin Deeper

I was on a favorite website of mine this morning and ran across this quote from a great singer of our times, Adele. A lot of times, both the fairer sex and us men are judged on appearances. Even just yesterday, while my better half and I while walking the streets in Philadelphia, we were on a quest to find a perfect butt on a girl...to no avail. There was no doing doing doing to be had.

Yes, I am guilty of judging those on how they look. This is not the pot calling the kettle black. When it comes down to it, our society today is full of critics. What is the old addage? "Those who can not do, teach." Well, these days, it seems it's become "Those who can not do, criticize."

Here's my thoughts on the matter...we're all imperfect. We all put others down to boost our own egos. We're all guilty of this. Yes, you too. Even just pointing this out is judgmental to a degree. There is constant focus placed on ego and how it has affected mankind. From the bully in your high school who was displacing negative emotion by beating the piss out of you for your lunch money to international struggles over which God to worship, costing millions of lives through the centuries.

This makes me think of another misquoted addage which is a verse in the Bible. "Money is the root of all evil." WRONG! Money is necessary in the society in which we live. If we threw money away and said "Yay! Evil will be gone soon!", mass pandemonium would break out. Now...let's see what the actual verse says. "The love of money is the root of all evil." - 1TIM 6:10 (In every translation and language).

Ego, when misdirected or unleashed, has historically been responsible for many horrible things. But it has also been used for good. Just like anything else in our lives, balance and proper placement of our ego is what is needed. Without ego, we would be quite boring. Individuality would become null. Innovation would not exist. What reason would we have to be proud, therefore boosting our self-esteem in a positive way, without ego? Yet, he who says he is humble, truly is not.

Won't finding happiness and inner peace show your true beauty instead of relying on public opinion and media expectations? Why not focus on just what makes you happy? Why not feel the positive effects of what your ego is supposed to do for you? When you're on your deathbed, will what other people thought throughout the years matter? Why not try to find a balance in your life? The decision to do these things may be the easy part. The little three letter word that baffles all of us is "HOW".

And right now, even thinking "Who does this Thunderstick guy think he is telling me about ego?" is your ego. But, you're right. Who am I to be waxing philosophical about things that are yet to be understood after generations of thought on the matter. So, here are some influential figures' thoughts on the topic. I don't agree with all of these, but who am I to judge.

“Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called 'Ego'.” - Frederich Neitzsche

“Give up all bad qualities in you, banish the ego and develop the spirit of surrender. You will then experience Bliss.” - Sri Sathya Sai Baba (Indian Spiritual Leader)

“If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It's very important to be aware of them every time they come up.” - Deepak Chopra

"I got a big ego, such a huge ego. But he love my big ego, It's too much. I walk like this 'cause I can back it up." - Beyonce Knowles (song lyrics - Ego)

“Where ID was, there shall ego be.” - Sigmund Freud

“Let's face it; God has a big ego problem. Why do we always have to worship him?” - Bill Maher

"The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being." - Eckhart Tolle

Thunderstick out.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Happy 9-11? WTF?

This morning on Facebook, I wrote "Happy 9-11!". I'm sure this caused many different reactions to those who saw it. A lot of us are scared to express our emotions on other's opinions of this day of remembrance. I was going to wait to write this, but the two responses I've gotten so far are interesting.

1. I was asked "Happy?" by someone that know me well and has become a good friend.
2. I was called a "f*cking idiot" by someone whom I met once and had only conversed with drunkenly.


We all have different memories and varied stories, some more heart wrenching than others about that fateful day just a decade ago. For some it's seems a lifetime ago, others still too fresh to recognize as the past. It took me a very long time to see images of what happened in different media outlets, because I was too busy in my dreams watching it replay over and over. And I'm one of the lucky ones.

Without getting into the hairy details, I'm lucky to be alive. Had I been a responsible adult in my mid-20s, I'd have never made it to my late 20's. The afternoon before the successful attack on the WTC in NYC, I was in a meeting at "Windows of the World". For those not familiar, it was a restaurant in the North Tower on the 107th floor of WTC. Specifically, I was at "The Greatest Bar on Earth" shamelessly promoting a new European energy drink as a mixer that would eventually take America by storm, Red Bull.

My meeting was running over and we scheduled to pick up where we left off at 9:00 am the next morning, Tuesday, September 11, 2001. After an art gallery opening the evening before which my friends and I turned into a near all-nighter, I drove home, showered and went to work. I got into my work van and started driving over the Brooklyn Bridge worried about stinking of the whiskey from the night before. Upon reaching Lower Manhattan, I felt the ground shake and decided to turn back to Brooklyn. Speeding into the Red Hook docks, I saw smoke billowing from the first tower to be attacked. The other drivers were standing at the edge of the dock speechless. I jumped out of my van and got the news that it was an airplane and most of them thought it was an accident. It felt like black sludge was running through my veins and I started shaking. I immediately called my mother who was in Bucks County, PA fast asleep. I spent the morning on the phone with her praying not to lose the connection knowing I wouldn't get it back.

Fear and abandon. There's no words to describe the feeling I had when I noticed a plane looping around the Statue of Liberty, turning a 90 degree angle and implanting itself into the side of the other tower. During those moments, the only word that would come out of my body and I repeated incessantly was "NO!". No breath could enter my body, no tear could leave. Although I should have been relieved to be alive and had just escaped death, all I felt was overwhelming fear and indescribable loss. Not a physical loss, but one that shook my heart to the core like never before.

I remember seeing the beautiful blue cloudless sky being eaten by smoke and soot, a memory that I will carry with me to the grave. This was soon followed by ash, paper, bits of clothes with flesh and blood attached to them raining from the sky. After wandering through Brooklyn looking for something, but not knowing what, I returned to my car. And on what started as a beautiful morning, I used my ice scraper to clean bits of people, ash and paper off my car. The smell was of death.

Looking back, It took me many years of self-destructive behavior, testing, hurting and ruining personal relationships, sabotaging everything that could become of permanence in my life, testing my will and betraying my conscience to push through the mental, emotional and spiritual walls I had built that day. Don't get me wrong, there are many other reasons that I constantly rebelled, yet that day put a seal on any glimmer of reasonable thinking I thought I had.

Fast forward ten years, 4 DUIs, jail time, therapists that said I was beyond help, dismissal of reason, destroying of opportunities, rehab, an awakening and much painful work to find myself again, I can honestly say this is the first 9/11 I woke up a happy man.

For many years on the anniversary of this day, I would stay in bed, put massive amounts of alcohol and other substances in my body and do hurtful things to myself and those who care for me. Today, I'm spending the day cleaning my new house with my sponsor and the girl I will marry one day. So, yes, to me I say "Happy 9-11!" and I look forward to waking up in the morning now instead of the daily - wake, vomit, sludge through work, drink myself stupid and repeat - routine of my past 10 years.

There are many who haven't moved forward or have been forced to relive the horrors of that day regularly, if not constantly. I can only pray and hope that you are able to find your way as I have been blessed to get on with my life's journey. If I could envelop those that were suffering and take it away from them, I would have done so long ago, yet I am only one man. So, if you read something, meet someone who has been through these events personally, or you don't agree with someone's opinion regarding this day and what they have to say, don't be quick to judge or insult. You more than likely have had a different experience than them. Give them a moment of your time to express where they're coming from and you may learn something or become enlightened to a different perspective.

Thunderstick out.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Hello my potential minions. You have just ventured into dangerous territory. Continue further and you will not be able to wash some of these images and ideas from your mind...EVER. The following will not be tolerated:

  1. Weak Heart
  2. Weak Mind
  3. Weak Spirit
  4. Weak Tongue

If you have to question yourself regarding any of the aforementioned ailments, I suggest you return to your previous activity, pray to your God for forgiveness and move along as if nothing has occurred. Good riddance.

Now, you with the strength and conviction to journey into my mind, good luck. You will need and know how to use the following tools:
  1. The capacity to whore your ideas.
  2. The strength to stand for your beliefs and convictions.
  3. The ability to prove your rant, point and/or argument.
  4. The cunning to understand blackened sarcasm.

If you're still here, put on your helmet and insert your bite plate. This short bus is going down a bumpy road to nowheretown.

Without further adieu, today I have a bit of a rant. Upon nearing my exit of Philadelphia's wondrous transit system, I was catching up on some reading while overhearing a young Pre-Med student describe his day to his girlfriend in doctor corporate speak. I was about to stop eavesdropping when this was relayed to his uninterested better half, "I started learning today about under-promising and over-delivering. I think I met the Professor's expectations."

My head nearly exploded. There are innumerable items wrong with this statement. Let me list a few....

  • Part of the curriculum for future medical professionals (those who will be taking care of us 25-45 year-olds in a few years) is constructed so these burgeoning young minds will intentionally lie to their patients.

  • Honest diagnosis of a medical problem? Slim pickins.

  • Stress on the patient. Take 1: Dr. Turd, "Mr. Snyder, we're not sure we can remove your hangnail. We may have to amputate your arm." Mr. Snyder, "Ummm..." Dr. Turd, "Whoa, we got it with a pair of tweezers. Aren't you amazed with my ability!" Mr. Snyder, "Ummm..." ...and...SCENE!

  • His contradictory statement. The Professor's expectations? How could he know the professor's expectations when the Professor is teaching him to lie?


  • Where on this green earth did doing your prescribed job correctly go? With the time you're spending trying to manipulate the person who you're feeding chemicals to treat an ailment, you could be concentrating on hmmm...giving them healthcare. Wait...what? Complete the task you're payed an insanely inflated salary to perform? Possibly, Insurance rates could go down, patients could be healthier. Ailments are treated instead of side effects of the other scripts they're taking. People could live longer, society could flourish. But, nah...gotta cover my ass and make sure I look good.

    I think that the "Under-Promise and Over-Deliver" stigma should stick to certain industries like fast food, porn and to a certain degree business.

    On that note, I’m going to finish my plate of beef nachos and my roast beef sandwich and throw some DNA into a sock...Good health to you!

    Turn off your TV and pick up a book. Lonely ladies, get your fill of Fabio like men here
    .

    And if you want to get real live human sex, ladies...walk outside of your house. Men, take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth and bring a gawd dang rubber with you!

    Thunderstick out.