So much happened this weekend so it’s no wonder why it flew by so quickly!  Friday night I went out to The Real Gypsy to see my best friend Kenny’s band MARTIANS SEE RED play since they were in town from Atlanta.  These guys get better every time I see them and this time was no exception by any means.  I was especially floored by their cover of METALLICA’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” - especially considering we used to butcher the song over ten years ago when we were both starting out in our ‘garage’ band FEAR THE GHOST and I was attempting lead vocals!  I have video evidence of this abomination!

After the show, a bunch of us went to seek food at 3 a.m. and ending up at the Waffle House on Roper Mountain Rd just a mile or so down from my apartment.  Kenny and his drummer Troy (who was a roommate of mine for a few years before relocating to Atlanta) both decided to crash at my place since it was so close by.  We got in a little after 4 a.m. and Kenny took the couch while Troy took the futon in the spare bedroom.

We all slept in until well after noon and then they took off for Atlanta since Kenny had to work the next morning.  I pretty much laid low for the rest of the day until Rebecca came over and brought her new rescued dog, a black Great Pyrenees named Atticus.  Yeah, she really is dog crazy!  I was amazed at how well behaved the dog is!  I wish my dog Molly would be!

We put Molly out on my balcony and left Atticus in the living room as we ran to Lowe’s so I could get some carpet to cover the balcony before I get new neighbors downstairs so Molly’s pee doesn’t end up raining down on them!  That may not go over too well with the front office!  We then had some dinner at Red Robin’s and got back in time to catch Turtle usher in the Planet’s new metal show Planet X! 

The show kicked off with some FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH with “The Bleeding” then went into the new MUDVAYNE track followed by some “Cowboys From Hell” by PANTERA!  He also spun some of my old school favorites like “Peace Sells” by MEGADETH, “Dead Skin Mask” by SLAYER and “Madhouse” by ANTHRAX!  Of course, there was also a healthy dose of new metal such as “Forever” by IN THIS MOMENT, “Hearts Burst Into Fire” by BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE and “Two Weeks” by ALL THAT REMAINS!

I had a hard time going straight to bed afterwards since the metal got my blood pumping but I managed to crash within an hour.  I got up at 7:45 a.m. which is extremely early for me being an afternoon DJ and all!  I caught the 8:30 service at church so I could meet my mom and aunt at 10 for our trip to Chimney Rock, NC.  We stopped and got some late breakfast and got to Chimney Rock right around noon and spent a few hours taking in the view….and the gift shops!

On the way back, we stopped at Grandad’s Apples to visit the llama (yes, they have a llama!) and get some homemade jams and jellies.  I picked up a jar of apple jelly and a jar of blueberry jam which is flippin’ awesome!  PB&J’s anyone?

Well, now the weekend is pretty much over as I will be taking to the airwaves tonight at 11 for Upstate Unsigned with Donnie from WHISKEY MOUNTAIN MACHINE in studio!  See ya there!

Monday marked the first day of autumn, my favorite time of the year!  Today marks the first day I’ve had a minute to write about it!  LOL!!!

The weather has been so awesome the past couple of weeks with cooling temperatures that I wish I could broadcast my show is some outdoor studio!  I admit I’m not usually much of the outdoor type - until this time of year, that is, due to the moderate climate conditions.  I’m even arranging a short trip this Sunday to Chimney Rock, NC with my mom, my aunt, my dog Molly and possibly Rebecca.

Let’s not forget another reason I love this time of year:  the holidays!  It’s a three month onslaught of indulgence with Halloween (CANDY CANDY CANDY!!!) in October, Thanksgiving (FOOD FOOD FOOD!!!) in November and, of course, Christmas (GIFTS GIFTS GIFTS!!!) in December!  Granted, Christmas is technically in winter but, let’s face it, winter doesn’t usually get sucky around here until January and February which, in contrast, are my least favorite months of the year!  Not that I try to dread any part of the year, but those months are just so dismal!  I guess after a three month high (not that kind of high!  Drugs are bad, mmm-kay?!) I go into a bit of a new year low.

Anyways, I’m already looking past my favorite time of year, what the hell is wrong with me?  Autumn is falling and the holidays will soon be upon us!  And, for those of you who don’t already know, this will only be my second holiday season not working in retail!  Last year was a great holiday relief for me!  I’m sure this year will only be better!

Wow!  I was soooo busy yesterday I didn’t have time to blog about my mini vacation to Atlanta!  I went down Wednesday night after work and stayed with my friends Kenny and Troy (gotta love sleeper sofas!).  When I got there around ten, Troy was already passed out from a hard day (pansy!) and Kenny and I went out to a couple of sports bars where he proceeded to have a few too many beers.  Needless to say, getting home was fun being I had no idea where in the hell we were!  Friends don’t let friends drive drunk, drunk driving’s bad mm-kay!

Since we got home at, like, four in the morning, Kenny was a little difficult waking up later that morning so we could go to the Georgia Aquarium.  I convinced Troy to come along although I still ended up driving, but at least I had a coherent navigator as we made our trek into downtown ATL.  The aquarium was really nice, but we were able to cover the whole place and get some overpriced food in about an hour and a half.  Not quite worth the nearly $30 admission price, but I’m glad I went anyways.  Overpriced but enjoyable if you have the dough to blow!

I took it easy the rest of the day, but spent the day with our mutual friend Paul on Friday while Kenny and Troy were at work.  We grabbed some lunch at the Golden Corral in Alpharetta then went to Best Buy so Paul could pick up the new METALLICA cd.  While we were there, someone tipped us off that Hot Topic was selling it for only five bucks that day only.  Needless to say, we ended up at the North Point Mall to pick up the new cd and take care of some other shopping since we were conveniently at the mall anyways.

We got out to Paul’s car (no, I didn’t have to drive this time!) and popped the new METALLICA disc in at a good, full volume!  Wow!  It’s the first time I’ve wanted to crank a new METALLICA cd in 20 years!  It’s still not quite what they used to be in some ways, but, I gotta say, Lars has really outdone himself with his drumming which is a relief considering the YouTube clip where he can barely keep up the double bass in “One”!  The whole album is so much better than “The Day That Never Comes” which I consider to be the weakest track on the album.  I will further dissect the new METALLICA in the next issue of The Village Idiot where I now do CD reviews each month (and which would explain why I haven’t done any in a while here in my Twisted Thoughts!).  Make sure you grab a copy!  It’s FREE!!!!

METALLICA  Death Magnetic  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

That night Kenny, Troy and I went to a surprise birthday party for their bandmate Justin.  Kenny, surprisingly, stayed sober that night so I didn’t have to drive!  I did, however, do some really crappy driving in the Wii version of MarioKart.  The party was held at their friend Andy’s house and he was a wizard at the game taunting his opponents as he whipped our asses.

After the party, Kenny and I met up with a few other friends from the party at the Oasis, a fun little ‘gentleman’s club’ as they like to call them.  I still had money left over being I was shacking up at Kenny and Troy’s which was bad because that left me with money for dances.  In the words of Forrest Gump, “That’s all I got to say about that”!

I was invited to go to a college football party at Kenny and Troy’s other bandmate Gerr’s house to watch Georgia take on South Carolina.  I was already planning on heading to the Mall of Georgia that day while on my way home so I regretfully declined because they were gonna have some good eatin’!  I proceeded to head home and stopped by the mall and pretty much spent the rest of my paycheck (which was cool since yesterday was payday!).  I picked up a new pair of Chucks, a couple of shirts and a new coffee table book (I’ve been obsessed with those lately!) on roller coasters.

I got home, unpacked and unwound and prepared for my usual Sunday ritual of going to church, visiting my mom and aunt and working on Upstate Unsigned.  And, of course, I got my own copy of the new METALLICA disc yesterday so I can fine tune my review!

Ok, well we haven’t been sucked into a black hole, so at least science hasn’t killed us all as of yet in the search for answers to the origins of life.  But is this not the biggest bunch of boocrap billing for billions of bucks?  I mean ten billion dollars just to prove and better understand the “Big Bang” Theory?  And, to top it off, at the risk of possibly annihilating life on Earth in the process?  Granted it was only an extremely slim chance and life is about taking risks, but how great of a price is that chance?  Destroying life on Earth in an attempt to understand how it began?

There’s a book in my car right now that I am taking with me to Atlanta for the rest of the week that clearly tells how the world began and it’s called the Bible.  Now I’m not going to start preaching or Bible-thumping here, but, even if you don’t believe in God, this whole overpriced, glorified science project is downright ludicrous!  Isn’t there something better we could do with ten billion dollars than try to play God at the potential expense of the entire human race?  If this were a comic book, wouldn’t these European scientists be the diabolical villains?  For some odd reason I’m thinking of Doc Ock’s little pet project in Spider-Man 2 - just on a much grander scale!  I don’t even think Oscorp could cough up ten billion big ones for the science fair!

Labor Day weekend was just that: laborous!  So, when I wasn’t working, I was out trying to blow my paycheck!  Hey, what’s the point in working relelentlessly if I don’t take some time to go out and enjoy it?!  Friday I met up with Rebecca after work.  Yes, we are on speaking terms again and trying to somehow sort out our differences in some way whether it leads to us seeing each other again or not.  She brought me her latest dog rescuee being she is like the crazy cat lady only with a crapload of dogs instead of cats!  I think she knew I’d be interested in this one being the dog is a Boston terrier and border collie mix and I have always wanted a Boston terrier.  So she brought Molly (the name she gave her being she is fond of giving dogs people names - as for me, I still want a male Boston terrier and name him Vader!) to the apartment and we went to Target to pick up some stuff for the dog (leash, toys, bowls, etc.) and then went to Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner.

Saturday I did little more than do my on-air shift and the same could be said for most of Sunday.  My mom and Aunt Pat came over to see the new addition to the Twisted family and we walked her out to the small man-made lake out by my apartment complex.

Monday, when I wasn’t on the air (again!), Rebecca and I managed to take in a movie: the new comedy spoof Tropic Thunder starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey, Jr.  Of the three lead characters, Downey clearly made his mark portraying “the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude”.  I mean his character stayed in character until the end of the movie!  “I stay in character until I finish the DVD commentary!” I believe he said….and he wasn’t kidding!

And let’s not forget the A-list supporting cast of Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey and, oh yes, Tom “Damn, my ass is crazy!” Cruise!  I really enjoyed the film as it was a breath of fresh air from other crappy spoof movies such as the ridiculous Scary Movie saga that has bled over into the even more preposterous Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and all the other ”Fill in the Flippin’ Blank” movies!

And it really pisses me off that everyone is all up in arms about their references to mentally handicapped people as ‘retards’.  I admit it’s in rather poor taste, but isn’t comedy supposed to be unapologetically irreverent?  I mean I just watched the new Harold & Kumar flick on DVD and it’s remorselessly racist!  Being a Christian, I constantly see shows like South Park or especially Moral Orel that make a mockery of my beliefs.  Yes, it offends me, but I simply choose not to watch it if it gets too offensive which I did stop watching the latter of the two shows because it honestly made me feel like a heathen….or worse!  LOL!!!

Tropic Thunder   \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

And here’s a few of the DVDs I’ve watched recently now that I have a steady supply of rentals with Blockbuster Total Access:

I just mentioned how racist Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay was, but don’t get me wrong, it was a riot!  If you liked their first adventure getting to White Castle, you’ll caertainly enjoy this!

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay   \m/  \m/  \m/  \

I pretty much got what I expected out of Prom Night and maybe a little more since it was more bloody and violent than what I would expect from a PG-13 rated slasher flick.  Granted it is painfully obvious that it is not a remake of the Jamie Lee Curtis horror film of the same name.  The character names are different as well as the overall plot of the movie save for the fact that both films occur on (big surprise here!) high school prom nights.

Prom Night  \m/  \m/  \

When Grandma’s Boy first came out, I thought it would be a big piece of crap trying to capitalize on Adam Sandler’s success by throwing a comedy together using a cast full of his supporting cast regulars - but no Sandler.  It turned out being one of my favorite comedies in recent years so I had high hopes for Happy Madison’s latest DVD release Strange Wilderness.  I have to say I was somewhat disappointed.  Don’t get me wrong, it had some rather hilarious moments, but just didn’t deliver a comedy I’d really want to watch again.

Strange Wilderness   \m/  \m/  \n

That’s it!  I’m done and heading home to take care of Molly!