After what seemed liked endless months of nonstop work, I finally got to get away from it all and made trips to both Savannah, GA and Tampa, FL for a much needed vacation.  Since my finances have been less than satisfactory lately, I had a shoestring budget to go on but, lucky for me, I have friends in both places!

I went down to see Rebecca in Savannah first and just chilled with her for a few days before making my trek down to Tampa.  We went to see Inglourious Basterds since she had yet to see it at that point and we also hit River St. which is a must for any trip to Savannah!

On Tuesday morning, I gassed up and headed even farther south to visit my friend known as G Man and his wife Barrie.  We had tickets to see MOTORHEAD that night at the Ritz Ybor so we met up with his friend Ross and hit a couple of bars before getting to the show.  We got in just in time for REVEREND HORTON HEAT to promptly start the show at 8.  Admittedly, the REVEREND isn’t my bag (neither is MOTORHEAD for that matter, but any metalhead can appreciate the legendary Lemmy!) but he was actually quite impressive live!

MOTORHEAD took the stage next to ensue chaos in the crowd as G Man served as my mosh pit blocking wall during most of their set.  When they resumed the stage for their encore, G Man walked up to the front of the pit as it had subsided since the band was playing their acoustic number “Whorehouse Blues” which G was filming with his mobile phone.  As soon as they finished the acoustic tune, one of their roadies brought Lemmy his bass and I, being unguarded by G Man, made the wise decision to slip over to my right by a considerable distance as MOTORHEAD revved up their most notorious heavy metal anthem “Ace of Spades”.  The crowd went ballistic and apparently even G Man got thrown around the pit thus dropping his phone.

After the show was over, G Man was lucky enough to find his phone with the help of other concertgoers.  The phone had actually fallen apart into a few pieces but, miraculously, wasn’t broken.  As a matter of fact, it had taken some great footage of being thrown around in a MOTORHEAD mosh pit!

After the show, we hung around since we had after show passes but Lemmy stayed back in his dressing room with a few select fans of the female persuasion so G Man had a girl take Lemmy his ace of spades playing card to get it signed and we bolted since it was already well after midnight and G Man and Ross had to be up early.  We ran by Steak ‘n’ Shake for some late dinner since all of us were starving by that point and none of us had eaten before the show.

I slept in a little bit the next morning but not too late since I was heading for Busch Gardens.  I finally got up around 10, hit the shower then grabbed a quick lunch at Arby’s before hitting the Gardens.  I got to the park around noon and it was quite a slow day there which was great for me since I didn’t have to wait long before I was riding the first roller coaster of the day, Sheikra!  I have to say it was by far the best ride in the park with Montu being a distant second though it was a great coaster in its own right.  I took some video of Sheikra from below the ride because I did not want to risk dropping my phone on the ride!  I may have to see if I can get it posted!

I ended up leaving at five only to hit Tampa’s rush hour traffic so less than ten miles took a good half-hour as I made my way back to G Man’s apartment.  When I got back there, I went with him and his wife to a restaurant called Lee Roy Selmon’s which is named after the NFL Hall of Famer and former Tampa Bay Buccaneer who is also the owner.  G Man told me about their entree called Twisted Southern Chicken which perked my ears up for obvious reasons then further tantalized my taste buds as I read the description:  Grilled chicken breasts stacked on smashed potatoes, smothered in maple bacon creamed corn, melted cheddar cheese, cool sour cream and freshly diced tomatoes.  Holy crap!  I now have a new favorite dish!  Too bad all their locations are in Florida!  Needless to say I slept real good that night!

I slept in a little while again Thursday morning and then got up and packed my things and hit the road to make my way back to Savannah.  I stopped in Ocala, FL to meet up with my old college sweetheart Elena for some lunch and some catching up since we hadn’t seen each other in twelve years.  After lunch, I followed her to their Best Buy so I could get a car charger for my iPod which was dying from the long hours of my road trip over the past few days.  I also ended up picking up a copy of both Robot Chicken: Star Wars specials on DVD since I have the seasons already.

I got into Savannah around eight that night and Rebecca and I went out to dinner.  She retired early after a hard day and I stayed up to watch Conan and catch MEGADETH on Jimmy Fallon that night.  I’m not sure if it was the sound settings on Rebecca’s TV, but MEGADETH’s sound was horrible and I couldn’t even hear Chris Broderick’s guitar solo and I know it’s not a refelction of the band by any means!

As I was sitting up watching TV, I began to develop a sore throat which is how all my ailments start.  So, needless to say, I awoke the next morning beginning to feel a bit under the weather.  Rebecca and I went to grab some lunch and then went to go see the new animated flick Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs starring the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Bruce Campbell and Mr. T.  It was a fun movie about an inventor whose inventions always backfired on him and created a rift between him and his father as well as others.  Accidentally, one of his inventions literally takes off and begins raining food on his hometown making him a huge hit and brings worldwide attention to the dried-up secluded town.  However, this newfound success has its own unique set of consequences!

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

Not long after returning to Rebecca’s apartment I started running a fever of 101.7 degrees!  I went and soaked a while in the tub and then we ran to grab some over-the-counter drugs to try and alleviate my symptoms.  It became clear to me that I was not going to be able to make it home that night so I could make it to my anger management meeting the next morning, so I decided to take some nighttime medicine and try to sleep off whatever I could.

I ended up waking up in the middle of the night feeling better but being unable to go back to sleep so I got up, packed my car and headed home at about 3:30 in the morning.  I made it back to my apartment and crawled into bed around eight and slept an hour before getting up, showering and heading to anger management.  After the class was over, I ran to Target to get Little Jay something for his first birthday since his party was that day.  I figured since I wasn’t running a fever I could risk a drop-in.

I grabbed some grub on my way home and sat and watched a movie as another feverish wave hit me.  I fought it on into the night rather unsuccessfully but ended up sleeping it off during the night as I slept nearly ten hours and so far, so good today.

Well another holiday weekend has come and gone but not without leaving its tale to be told.  Before the weekend officially started, I went to the Handlebar Thursday night right after work for a little local band action with TREND KILL OMEGA, KELEN HELLER, THRESHOLD and WAITING FOR AIR.  I got into the auditorium just after WAITING FOR AIR finished their set unfortunately because I was having to tend to some serious business: feeding my fat ass!

Tyler from promotions, aka Twisted Tyler, and his band THRESHOLD were up next and put on a great show.  I gotta say Tyler really is impressive on stage - can’t wait ’til I get in a band and play a show again!  I got to catch KELEN HELLER for the first time featuring Ricky and Mark formerly of HEADSNAP and their set was interesting to say the very least!  I managed to stay late enough to catch a handful of songs from TREND KILL OMEGA’s set as it was my first time seeing them with their new singer whom I went to high school with.  I gotta say, I was impressed “Opie” as we used to call him back in the day!

Friday after work I stayed in the office to finish up a few extra things and, when I went out to my car, lo and behold there was Rebecca parked next to me!  She came into town to visit family and surprise me with a visit so we went to Blockbuster to trade one of my online movies for Push on Blu-ray and then grabbed some dinner from Oriental House.

Push was an interesting spin on the ’superhero’ genre as it is a tale of people with extraordinary abilities running from a secret agency that seeks to research and exploit their abilities.  Fairly clever film for a decent movie rental night.

Push  \m/  \m/  \m/  \

Saturday I took it easy most of the day and then forced my lazy ass to get off the couch and head out to Gottrocks that night to catch LECHEROUS NOCTURNE, GIGAN and INSIDIOUS DEMISE with Rebecca.  We got there just as INSIDIOUS DEMISE was finishing their set which ended before we could step foot inside the door.  GIGAN was next with their unique style of death metal and I noticed a fellow lefty playing guitar and a hot chick kicking ass on bass!

LECHEROUS NOCTURNE dominated the stage next with Kreishloff’s ludicrously fast shredding and Hohenstein’s God of Thunder vocals and stage presence.  Filling in bass duties was the singer/guitarist from APOTHEOSIS who’s name escapes me because I always call him “Heavy Metal Kenny” because he looks like the death metal version of my best friend, Kenny!

Also over the weekend I managed to take in a showing of the new Rob Zombie flick Halloween II.  Granted I had already heard all the not so flattering reviews of the film, but I decided to give it a shot anyways.  After seeing it for myself, I can honestly see where some people would have complaints because the film does have weird moments that seem to be for the sake of just being weird (and when I say weird, I MEAN it: watch out for a very “Weird” cameo).  Don’t get me wrong, I love Rob Zombie’s morbid and often trippy style but this did go overboard in a few areas.  However, I enjoyed the film overall and liked it more than I remember liking the first Halloween remake he did a couple of years ago.

Halloween II  \m/  \m/  \m/

Sunday I managed to make myself go to church and even go to that night’s Single Adult’s ministry, The Point.  As usual, I stood out like a sore thumb as most people who are rockers/metalheads usually don’t go to church nor get involved in religious activities which makes it a bit difficult for me since I seem to represent two very different groups without really belonging to either.  I know it makes me unique and I even hope it even opens some people’s minds on the stereotypes related to the groups but, damn, it makes it really lonely and alienating sometimes.

This weekend I went to Hollywood 20 to see the new Quentin Tarantino flick Inglourious Basterds starring Brad Pitt as a mercenary sent into Germany-occupied France during World War II to hunt and kill Nazis.  The film was superb from the opening scene to it’s rather explosive climax to it’s terrific ending and was filled with great and occasionally humorous dialogue and rather tense moments.  I’m normally not a fan of war films but the story here is brilliant and is definitely the best film I have seen this year with only Watchmen and Pixar’s Up coming anywhere close.

Inglourious Basterds  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

The rest of my weekend was delightfully unproductive as I only ran to Blockbuster on Sunday to swap out a couple of my online movies, picked up a muffin pan and cooking spray from Wally World and grabbed some grub from Jack-in-the-Box and made some blueberry muffins and watched movies all day.

The first movie was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li on Blu-ray which was basically a hi-def turd.  Chris Klein has to be one of the worst actors I have ever seen whose acting skills make Keanu Reeves look like an Oscar winner!  Although I am a big fan of Smallville (speaking of which, Season 8 comes out on Blu-ray tomorrow!), I have never been a big fan of Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang.  I’ve seen worse films including the first attempt at bringing the Street Fighter game to the big screen with the flop of a film of the same title starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and the second Mortal Kombat movie.  This is better than those but that’s about as far as it goes….

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li  \m/  \m/

After the disappointment of the first movie (not that I had high expectations in the first place), I popped on Race to Witch Mountain on Blu-ray starring Dwayne “will ALWAYS be ‘The Rock’ to me” Johnson.  This one wasn’t great by any means but was about what I had expected if not a bit more.  Nothing much else to say except it’s an update of Disney’s Witch Mountain series from the 70s with a lot of fun elements giving well due nods to the original films.

Race to Witch Mountain  \m/  \m/  \m/  \

That’s my weekend in a nutshell.  Yes, I’m that boring!

Saturday morning marked the official beginning of my anger management classes.  I can’t go into any details due to the confidentiality of the sessions and those involved in them.  What I will say is that I really hope this works in taking the edge off of me in the sense that I am so high-strung.  I am at least making the best of it by making fun of myself and the situation by having weekly Anger Management Moments on the air every Monday during the course of my sessions.

When I got out of my first session, I met up with Rebecca who was in town for the weekend and we caught a double feature at Hollywood 20.  The first film was the new Harry Potter flick.  What can I say except it’s another Harry Potter movie?  I admit they’ve been getting progressively more interesting now that Voldemort has actually manifested in physical form even though he does appear in this film and the film doesn’t get really interesting until towards the end.  I’m ready for the final battle in the upcoming last chapter which is being split into two films.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

After the wizardry was over, we saw the new thriller Orphan.  Ok, I know the whole evil child theme is nothing new by any stretch of the imagination, but I gotta say that this child’s secret was original to say the very least.  I can’t really say any more than that.

Orphan  \m/  \m/  \m/

Sunday my cousin Ray and I drove out to Roebuck to jam with Tommy and Corey from OF GOOD & EVIL.  It was great to get to jam again and we will meet up again in a few weeks!

Man, what a week this has been!  So much has transpired this week that it seems so unreal!  Our Governor Mark Sanford runs off to Argentina for some extramarital activities, Ed McMahon dies on Tuesday, Farrah Fawcett loses her fight with cancer followed by Michael Jackson’s succumbing to cardiac arrest yesterday.  WTF’s next?!

In light of all the events that have taken place in the world this week, my petty actions seem trivial.  However, it is my duty to share with you my twisted world despite how inconsequential it may be.  Having said that, I finally watched Role Models starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott as a couple of guys who are court ordered to do community service by being ‘Big Brothers’ to a couple of troubled youths.  I knew I would enjoy the film but I didn’t expect it to be as hilarious as it was!  You gotta see it!

Role Models  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

Wednesday morning I got up just a little earlier than normal to go catch the 9:30 a.m. showing of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  Overall, I enjoyed the film though it wasn’t nearly as good as the first.  The sequel’s plot was weak, the dialogue was lame but the action and special effects were amazing!  The eye candy, for the most part, made up for the script’s shortcomings but I’m not sure I can forgive the writers for the characters of Mudflap and Skids whose comic relief was painfully awful as they reminded me of Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - only times two!  Still, the film is worth taking in in the theater for all the eye candy: amazing special effects and MEGAN FOX!!!

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen  \m/  \m/  \m/ \n

After the movie, I met with Hugo Ferreira, frontman for TANTRIC and his record rep, Bebop for some lunch at P.F.Chang’s.  They were coming in to promote the band’s new single “Mind Control” and Hugo even came into the studio with me for a few when I went on the air.

Speaking of which, I gotta hit the airwaves and prep for my interview with former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted!  WOOHOO!!!

Saturday morning I had to get up relatively early and head to Greenwood with Dex for our remote at AT&T.  It was a very warm, sunny day and we got to meet a lot of Greenwood P1s!  Before leaving, I took advantage of being on location a few stores down from Marble Slab Creamery as I went in and had them make me a milkshake combining both cheesecake and blueberry ice creams flavors for a delicious blueberry cheesecake milkshake!  YUM!  Also before leaving, apparently Dex got bit by a fire ant, but I wasn’t aware of it until a few minutes ago when he showed me the red, swollen area on his left forearm!  I hate those things!

After the live broadcast at AT&T, I went to go see the new horror flick directed by Evil Dead/Spider-Man director Sam Raimi, Drag Me to Hell.  The movie is about a young woman who is trying to get promoted to assistant manager at a loan office.  Pressured to take charge in order to get the promotion, she denies an elderly gypsy woman a third extension on the mortgage on her house which is being foreclosed.  The woman then begins to beg thus making a scene forcing security to escort the old woman off the premises which brings shame to the gypsy and invokes anger and retribution in the form of a curse which summons a demon to come and drag the young woman to Hell to burn for eternity.

Granted the film is no Evil Dead or Spider-Man, but it is filled with numerous ‘jumping’ suspense scenes and a lot of ridiculous and gory elements you would expect from a Raimi film.  Plus, his trademark yellow Oldsmobile which shows up in all of his films (except for The Quick and the Dead since it was a western) is actually the vehicle driven by the elderly gypsy woman in the film.

Drag Me to Hell  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

The movie didn’t scare me as bad as I thought it would having come from a strict Southern Baptist upbringing where ‘fire and brimstone’ are common themes in their weekly sermons.  I think the ridiculous elements of the film helped take my focus off the grim horrific nature of the overall theme of the film.  This was a relief considering I am truly terrified of Hell and still sometimes feel like a wretched hellbound soul as a result of years of condemning and belittling sermons from my childhood church despite the fact I am a born again Christian who now attends a non-denominational community church.

However, the film did disturb me enough to choose a comedy for later that evening so I went to Blockbuster to trade Fanboys in for Paul Blart: Mall Cop starring Kevin James and my future wife Jayma Mays.  The film was a rather decent comedy about a mall cop (go figure!) who hasn’t been lucky in love but meets an attractive redhead in the mall who gets taken hostage on Black Friday by a group of thugs who are trying to rob the mall.  Of course, our hero takes charge and saves the day thus rescuing and getting the girl.

Paul Blart:  Mall Cop  \m/  \m/  \m

Sunday I just had lunch with my Aunt Pat, Uncle James Ray, cousin Ray and his wife Erin and their son Jay and then I came home to do some dishes and some laundry (I took out the trash on Saturday) and relaxed for most of the day.  I love being lazy on Sundays!

Last night, I ended up working over in the office for a little while after getting off the air.  Before leaving around 8:30, I called Happy Pie (insert shameless plug here) and ordered my usual, a medium mushroom and black olive pizza, then left out to pick it up.  As I picked up my order, I was talking to a young lady who works there out in the parking lot and noticed the oncoming storm approaching from the direction of my apartment.  So, I hurried over to my apartment so I could check my mail and pick up the copy of Fanboys I had waiting on me.

As I pulled into the complex, I stopped by the mailboxes and walked down the walkway towards my box on the left and noticed movement to my right out of the corner of my eye.  I looked down and saw a young copperhead striking at me!  The angry serpent struck at me two or three times as I backed away.

 I then called Rebecca who was already on her way to watch the movie with me and she had me call my property’s emergency maintenance.  In the meantime, I turned my car towards the walkway and my headlights apparently bothered the snake so it retreated into the pine needles.  When she got there, she called her cousin who happens to be a maintenance guy at my apartment complex and just happened to be on call so he had to brave the severe weather to make it in from his home in Piedmont!  She then played watchman for me so I could get into my mailbox to retrieve my mail without worrying about a venomous reptile nipping at my ankles!

We then went in before the weather hit the fan and popped in Fanboys, the long awaited comedy set in late 1998 about a group of Star Wars geeks who go on a mission to raid George Lucas’ famous Skywalker Ranch to steal an advanced copy of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.  The film was actually finished two years ago, but must have faced some distribution issues or something leading to its delayed release.  The movie was well worth the wait as it was filled with great geek-laden humor and numerous cameos including the one and only William Shatner who assists our heroes in infiltrating the mansion owned by the creator of his rival sci-fi franchise.  Did I mention great Trekkie fights?!

Fanboys  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

This morning I got up a bit early to head out to Pebble Creek Golf Course to witness the kick-off of the 6th Annual Rise Guys Big Ass Golf Outing.  After meeting and greeting with a few P1 golfers, I left for Hollywood 20 to catch the noon showing of Pixar’s Up in 3-D.  The film was another heartwarming animated feature from the premiere computer animation company.  However, I did not expect the film to have so many tear-jerking moments as I had to fight back tears at least three times, and not quite successfully each time!  Another wonderful story with even more lovable characters!  How does Pixar keep doing it?!

Pixar’s Up  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

Wow what a week(end) this has been!  I took in some good movies, found a new bowling technique at the Rock ‘N’ Bowl, went to Morganton, NC and visited the renovated Frankie’s Fun Park!

Monday after work I went to Blockbuster to trade in a couple of my online flicks and picked up Passengers on DVD and Taken on Blu-ray.  I started with Passengers with Anne Hathaway which wasn’t nearly as suspenseful as the trailer leads you to believe.  The film is really slow paced with a decent payoff, but not enough to justify being dragged through most of the movie.  However, the ending did help make up for the rest of the film though it was an ending that was fairly predictable.

Passengers  \m/  \m/  \m/

Later in the week I watched Taken with Liam Neeson as a former spy whose daughter is kidnapped in Paris by an underground prostitution ring.  The film was quite impressive with Neeson’s character showing some even more impressive skills in the hunt for his daughter and her abductors.

Taken  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

Friday night was the night of my personal favorite event in Test Fest, our annual celebration of manhood, the Rock ‘N’ Bowl.  When Rebecca and I got there, we were placed in the first two lanes which we had to ourselves so we took advantage of it and bowled to our hearts’ content!  We started playing off of some of the P1’s in the neighboring lanes and P1 Boss T and I started randomly coming up with ridiculous bowling techniques including the reverse Granny or as I call it the ‘Goose egg’ because you look like you’re laying an egg and you tend to come out with no pins taken down.  Then, as a joke, I grabbed a bowling bowl with both hands, held it up in front of my face just below eye level so I could aim the ball then thrust the ball forward with rather satisfying results.  Needless to say, I began using this technique since it seemed to be working for me and ended up setting a new personal record for myself with a score of 116 and later tied it!  I grabbed a video camera and had Rebecca film me using this grand technique so hopefully I’ll have it posted here soon!

I had to pack in right after bowling because I had to be in Morganton, NC by 11 the next morning for a remote at Carolina West Wireless.  Being we don’t get to Morganton very often, I had Sarah Berger throw in some extra Planet shirts because I knew the eager NC P1’s would be out in force - and they were!  It was great meeting some P1’s I normally wouldn’t get to run into around town so I was thankful for the trip!

When I got home, I ran to Best Buy and bought seasons 6 and 7 of Tales From the Crypt since they were on sale for $17.99 each!  Now I’m only missing season 5!  I went home and chilled in front of the tv since I needed the rest and didn’t sleep well the night before.  Which is odd, because if I didn’t have to get up early, I would have been out like a light!  Weird!  I also watched Underworld: Rise of the Lycans since I had picked that one up at Blockbuster when I returned the others.  This film serves as the prequel to the Underworld series with some of the original cast reprising their roles to tell the backstory of their characters.  Personally, I wasn’t blown away by the other Underworld films but I really liked this one.  Makes me want to go back and revisit the rest of the series with a renewed perspective!

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

Sunday I slept in getting some much needed rest and then went to Frankie’s Fun Park with Rebecca for the first time since they renovated the place.  We played various video games before going out for a round of miniature golf and laser tag.  I kicked her ass at miniature golf but got my ass handed to me in laser tag!  I’ve ALWAYS sucked at that!

Memorial Day I took in a double feature down at Hollywood 20 and saw Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Angels & Demons.  The sequel to Night at the Museum was true to the first film, but seemed to lack the charm and wonder of the first installment.  Don’t get me wrong, it was still a fun and immensely enjoyable film.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

There was only about a twenty to thirty minute lay over before Angels & Demons started so I went and got some popcorn while waiting.  The sequel, which was actually written BEFORE The DaVinci Code and serves as a prequel in the novels, was many times a better film than The DaVinci Code.  The film seemed more sinister with the threat of a very old vengeful secret society known as the “Illuminati” attacking the Roman Catholic Church.  Plus the battle of religion vs. science actually showed much more reverence for the Catholic church than the other film thus stirring less controversy.

Angels & Demons  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

I hope everyone went and saw their dear moms for Mother’s Day!  I did but I’ll get to that in a few.

First off, as I’m sure everyone knows, Star Trek opened on Friday so I went to check it out both before and after my air shift.  After work, I met up with my friend Steve who used to do maintenance at my apartment complex along with his brother-in-law Rich and Jeff and Willie from my band TRAGEDY CHAPTER to catch the 8 o’clock showing on Hollywood 20’s digital projector.

The film was great although I was a bit disappointed I think mainly because I had built it up in my head for many moons!  Still, the film was visually stunning and had a fairly unique and complex storyline.  Trekkies should not be disappointed though I, of course, am a Star Wars geek!

Star Trek  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

Saturday I loafed around all day and watched Hotel for Dogs with Rebecca since she had it on her Netflix.  It was a cute movie filled with wondrous inventions and that tugs at the emotions of any dog lover - yeah, I may have shed a tear or two…..

Hotel for Dogs  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

Yesterday morning I got up rather early so I could make it to my childhood church where my cousin Ray was dedicating his 7-month-old son Jay.  When I got there, I saw people who have known me my whole life who looked at me as if I were some heathen who’s been out raping babies since I no longer go to their church - which, by the way, is hardcore Southern Baptist.  To top it off, I ran into the former pastor’s son who I went to high school with who also happens to work with my drummer Willie.  He said he had heard TRAGEDY CHAPTER’s music from Willie’s iPod and thought we sounded really good.  Then he had to announce immediately after that he doesn’t listen to my radio station anymore because we’re so ‘anti’ everything he believes in.  Okay, granted, we are a rock station that is predominately, well, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll with songs like “Crazy Bitch” by BUCKCHERRY, “Bad Girlfriend” by THEORY OF A DEADMAN and “Figured You Out” by NICKELBACK but it’s not like EVERY song pertains to sex and it’s not like we’re advocating worshipping Satan, killing your mother or raping babies!  Now I know why I no longer go there and why so many of my colleagues and I go to a nondenominational church!

After getting home, Mom called me and said she was turning onto Woodruff Rd so I got in my Jeep to meet her at Cracker Barrel.  As soon as got in my car, she called back and said that there was a line of cars just trying to get a parking space.  I then asked her if she was that hungry to which she said she wasn’t so I told her to meet me at the station so I could go charge my iPod on the computer in my office since I don’t have one of my own!  When I got to the station I gave her the rose I got for her from church that morning and the $5 cake I got at the Wal-Mart on Pelham Rd with strawberry filling!  I then showed her around the station since she’s never been inside and then we went over to Best Buy for a little shopping.  She picked up Liar Liar and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford on DVD while I nabbed Night at the Museum on Blu-ray since the sequel is hitting theaters this summer and I haven’t seen my copy of the DVD since I moved into my apartment two years ago.

When then went to Cracker Barrel at about 2 in the afternoon after the worst of the crowd had died out.  We brought the cake in with us, had lunch and some tasty strawberry-filled Mother’s Day cake!  Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!  Love, your TWISTED son Todd!

I got the weekend off to a great start by taking a couple of hours out of the office Friday morning to go see X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  I actually didn’t have very high expectations for this one since it was a spin-off flick, but was pleasantly surprised.  The film actually did very well in telling the backstory of X-Men’s most popular character and keeping it fairly congruent to the other films.  And, despite comic fans’ disapproval, I thought Ryan Reynolds was great as Deadpool.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

Later that night I watched one of Rebecca’s Netflix movies, Choke based on the novel by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk.  Granted Choke was no Fight Club by any means, but the film was still very complex and compelling - ok, the boobs helped!  Like Fight Club, there’s really no simple way to describe Choke.  Just go pick it up and watch it!

Choke  \m/  \m/  \m/  \

Saturday I got up early for my air shift and then hauled ass to Spartanburg for the Upstate Unsigned/BLVD Music stage at Spring Fling 2009.  I arrived just in time to see THE DIRTY EIGHTIES take the stage as they put on a great set including their cover of METALLICA’s classic “For Whom the Bell Tolls”.  Next was FROM TOMORROW as they brought some hard-hitting metal action to our stage.  THE VESSEL followed with their unique blend of rock and then handed the stage over to EVERY MANS ENEMY.  This was the first time I got to see EME with my friend Mikey playing guitar in the band and I was quite impressed as I knew I would be having briefly worked with Mikey myself.

We then had to take a break as the weather started to get a little rough as did certain dog show hosts.  So after dealing with rain and pissies, DECADENCE took the stage and put on a great show that included a cover of KILLSWITCH ENGAGE’s “The End of Heartache”.  Wrapping up the night was NOXIOUS who took advantage of the extra time we had been given due to the circumstances of the day.  They ended with their cover of TOOL’s “Schism” after dealing with some technical issues.  So, outside of weather, technical difficulties and a few unpleasant dog lovers (don’t get me wrong, I love dogs myself but DAMN!), I had a great time as we had a great turn-out with some great bands gracing our stage!

Yesterday I stayed in except for a quick trip to Blockbuster to do one of my in-store trade-ins on my online account and picked up The Uninvited, another foreign remake only this time the original was Korean as opposed to Japanese.  A tormented girl returns home from a mental institution after witnessing her mother perish in a fire only to find her father is shacking up with her mother’s caretaker.  With the deadly vixen threatening to take over her home, she teams up with her sister to investigate the woman’s past.  I would like to say I saw the ending coming, but no, I did not by a long shot.  Great story with an incredible twist ending!

The Uninvited  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m