Saturday, August 30, 2008

Where is the Girl Power

Recently, I have been paying attention to the music my sister Jess listens to, mostly to bug her about it or confuse names on purpose to drive her a little batty.
Anyways, I have noticed the clothing or lack there of that these girl groups are wearing. It's sickening. They are supposed to be role models to the youth.
The Pussycat Dolls and Girlicious are two of the biggest girl groups right now. They are produced by the same people and sing the same kind of crap. There really is no difference between them. Neither group is more talented or attractive than the other.
The only difference is one group has more skanklicious members.

Girlicious


Pussycat Dolls


Spice Girls


The Spice Girls much like other girl bands were not particularily talented, however they promoted Girl Power and encouraged young girls to be the best they could be. At least the Spice Girls had something to stand for, something to believe in, what do these girls offer? Fashion tips on hwo to be the best skank you can be? How to wear the least amount of clothing? Apparently to be successful, you have to be willing to leave your dignity and self respect at home with your clothing. You don't have to be talented or attractive just willing to take off your clothes like a stripper, appear in almost soft porn music videos and promote wearing your underwear in public while dancing on cars, in alleys, streets, whatever the creative director feels will give these girls more media attention. How sad is it that for young women to live their dreams they have to settle for this and leave their morals behind. So I ask you "Where is the Girl Power?"

Friday, August 15, 2008

Road Trip Part 2

After we packed and left the hotel in London, we began the two hour drive to Toronto. We had our cooler of food crammed into the back seat and ate lunch on the road. We had our ipods hooked up to the FM transmitter and drove like hell to get to Toronto because the Mayhem festival had started at 1pm.
Because Spencer had made us late to Billy Idol I could basically get away with whatever I wanted. We listened to most of the Spice Girls Greatest Hits CD. He also enjoyed a few Big 'n' Rich songs including "Hillbillies Like it in the Hay" and I sang a lot. Why is it that when people are in their cars they think no one else can see them? I embarrassed myself a ton but what do I care, I will never see these people in their cars ever again. It was highway karoke. Eventually, I put on some Slipknot to get us in the mood for some Mayhem Fest!
When we arrived to downtown Toronto, it was as if ever street we needed to be on had been ripped to shreds due to construction. It was a special type of hell. Spencer was getting really stressed out and very vocally loud...at me. We got to the Delta Chelsea but had no idea where to park or where the main entrance was, so obviously I had get out of the car and look for it. We went to the underground parking garage. This is quite possibly the smallest parking garage I have ever been in. It had one lane for traffic yet there were signs all over the place that said "Share the road" I am not sure how in the world that could be possible because the corners and ramps of the parking garage...long story short the front end of Spencer's car ate some cement wall. Thankfully, it was only cosmetic damage. It could have been way worse and I am so grateful that it wasn't as bad as we had expected.
We checked into the hotel, and collapsed. It was an extremely exhausting two hour drive especially the last half hour. We quickly got ready, me in my Rancid shirt, spiked belt and dirty jeans. I forgot my hoodie and of course it was cold, with the high risk of rain. It never rained, or I would have cried. We navigated our way to Downsview Park which was really far from the hotel. We didn't drive either because we didn't want to pay for parking again. The hotel already gouged us for $26 to park there for the night. We realized that Slipknot and Disturbed didn't come on for at least four hours. We had no money and no one that we wanted to see except for Slipknot and Disturbed. We sat in some wet grass for hours.
Disturbed finally came on stage after what felt like forever. I didn't see the performance at all because I am too short and there were some rather tall people in front of me. Once it was dark, Slipknot came on and performed for a little over an hour. Of course they played one of my fav songs and their new song "Psychosocial" which is quickly growing on me.
We had no money for shirts or anything and Spencer was a little upset about it. We were walking towards the exit after the show when Spencer tripped over a box. It was a small box but heavy. Spencer carried it all the way back to the hotel. We opened it to discover 50 magazines with Kat Von D on the cover.
We finally crawled into bed at around 12am. Check out was at 11am.
In the morning, I let Spencer sleep in as long as he possibly could. I packed everything up and started stacking our stuff by the front door. 15 minutes before we had to leave a maid came bursting through the door and was trying to rush us out so she could clean our room. I was pissed about it.
The line up for guests to check out seemed to go on forever, we paid for parking and could not wait to get out of Toronto.
We got on the highway only to be stuck in a traffic jam. There was some construction on the highway and one lane was closed. As we inched closer to the construction we began to see emergency vehicles speed on to the highway further ahead of us. There was smoke everywhere. We finally caught up to the emergency vehicles and watched as firefighters tried to put out a truck that was on fire. A one hour drive took almost three. It was an exhausting drive and when we finally got home, I slept for hours.
The concert road trip was a lot of fun, but I don't think we will be doing it again any time soon.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Road Trip Part 1

On Thursday, Spencer and I began our concert road trip. We had a cooler of food, enough money for gas and $10 for Timbits and coffee from my mom. Our first stop on the road trip was London, Ontario to see Def Leppard with special guest Billy Idol.
We all know how I feel about Billy Idol.
We arrived in London, checked into our hotel and ate dinner before getting ready. The room we were staying in had a full kitchen, not that I would know what to do with it. It was a really great hotel and thanks to Spencer's job we paid $20 for the night. I was rushing around getting ready for Billy Idol and Spencer was watching Family Guy. I was getting really, extremely stressed out because I did not want to be late for the concert especially since Billy Idol was opening for Def Leppard.
I'm waiting by the door, itching to go when Spencer decides he has to go to the bathroom. We were late for the concert...I missed Billy Idol's opening song. We couldn't find out seats so I missed some more. I was so angry. If I would have done this to him, he would have felt the same way I did. He bought me a shirt to make up for it or at least try. It didn't make it better but hey now I have a new Billy shirt that fits. Well, I still cram into my Devil's Playground shirt, it's actually what I wore to the concert with faded jeans and a spiked belt.
We got to our seats and I was mesmerized as usual by Steve's guitar playing. I stared off into space as he played. I could watch him play guitar all day long. Billy performed a short set maybe an hour long, I was disappointed. He didn't play "Hot in the City", "Sweet Sixteen" and a few others which kinda sucked and I missed him play most of "Flesh for Fantasy" because of a certain someone.
After Billy Idol finished I was ready to go. I had completely forgotten about Def Leppard.
I am not a huge Def Leppard fan, but it I do love "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and they played it of course. They were awesome, and they did an excellent show.
After the concert we walked back to the hotel, grabbed something to eat and then went to sleep. We had to be up early to pack and head to Toronto for the Mayhem Festival.









To be continued...

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

I was punched in the face by punk rockers

Sunday we started the concert season. This year we kicked off the season by going to see one of my fav punk bands. We saw Rancid. It was awesome even though Rancid isn't very good live. There were two opening bands. They were okay, again not that great.
During the set up for the second warm up band, Spencer and I decided to get closer to the stage so that when Rancid was playing we could see them. Little did I know that I was standing in what is known as "the death zone." The first chord was plucked on that beat up Fender and people around me lost their minds and started moshing. My heart was racing, people were smashing into me and I was getting tossed around "the death zone." I lost Spencer in the crowd of lunatics, I became frantic, I started pushing back to get to Spencer so I could get the hell out of there. Next thing I know there is a fist in my face. It wasn't a very hard punch but enough for me to start pushing harder so I could get as far away from the "zone." My face wasn't bruised, not even a slight mark, I'm glad that my beautiful face wasn't smashed. Spencer saw the terror in my eyes and scooped me up, in seconds he had knocked over what seemed like a million punk rockers. I'm still wondering, what kind of people mosh to a warm up band???
I stayed on the side lines as people continued to smash each other around and then pick each other up off the beer soaked floor. I waited impatiently for Rancid to come out and play. It seemed like an eternity.
After an eternity of waiting Lars and Tim came on stage. They played Fall Back Down, Roots Radicals, Olympia, Old Friend, Black and Blue, Ruby Soho and they closed the show with Time Bomb. I'm disappointed that they didn't play Red Hot Moon, Salvation, California Sun and a few others. I was concerned that they weren't going to play Time Bomb but that was their encore, it was such a relief. I have the song on video thanks to my digital camera. And you can actually hear the song over the screaming. Well, I still can't hear but hey, I saw Rancid and it was awesome.
Tomorrow night, I'm going to see Billy Idol and Def Leppard. I'm practicing my fist pumps in excitement.