I Went to a Show! Cursive, Alkaline Trio - March 25th

I will not let this blog eternally rest! It has been ten days since my last (confession?) post, and that is far too long. I'm determined, from this point on, to write something every day, whether it's that interesting or not (which, of course, it will be. I am very interesting and have varying interests!) Will I stick to that? Probably not! Let's go!

So last night, the 25th of March, I spent my evening at the House of Blues. The lineup? The Dear and Departed, Cursive, and Alkaline Trio, in that order. Cursive has been my favorite band for almost ten years at this point. Holy shit! I've liked something the same amount for ten years! Naturally, I wish they had headlined the show, but I understood the situation. Alkaline Trio has been around just as long as Cursive, AND they just released a CD a couple of weeks ago. And they've been on a major label, so they're arguably more famous, blah blah blah.

I made sure to get to the show early, because: A. I have OCD! B. This show was kind of pricey (granted, I got a 2 for 1 deal, so it cost me thirty dollars for two tickets, which isn't that bad. However, if you are quick, you will realize that means that without the deal, ONE ticket cost thirty dollars, which is too much! What you might not immediately realize is that the actual ticket only cost eighteen dollars. The fees for one ticket cost nine dollars! That is fifty percent of the ticket price, which is an outrageous percentage! I almost didn't go out of spite.) Since the show cost so much, I wanted to get my money's worth and see the opening band.

I should have known from their name (which is a bad name,) but the Dear and Departed would have been worth the money if I had spent free dollars, because they are not worth any money.

My first thought upon hearing their opening song was that it kind of sounded like Angels and Airwaves. Uh-oh! And then they continued to play for a half-hour, and it all sounded like the same awful opening song. Boo! Here's their setlist:

1. Who

2. Cares?

3. Go

4. Away!

5. Get

6. Off

7. The

8. Stage!

Next was Cursive. This was going to make the fourth time I've seen them. The first was with the Take Action Tour in 2002 at the very same House of Blues, and they played with Common Rider, Thursday, Poison the Well, and someone else. That was a good show that for some reason inspired the band not to come back for seven years. In 2006, I saw them in Houston with Jeremy Enigk of Sunny Day Real Estate and some other band with a name I can't remember. This was great because Jeremy Enigk is great, with or without SDRE. The third time was last November at One Eyed Jacks with Capgun Coup (boo!) and Caddywhompus (hooray!) I thought that show would have been packed, you know, because the best band was playing that night, but not so many people were there. The people who didn't go must have something wrong with their brains!

Anyway, Cursive has been great every time I've seen them, and Tim Kasher has been great because he is usually very drunk, and therefore, fun to watch! He has one of the best live voices around. This doesn't mean that he sounds exactly like the CD; on the contrary, he usually doesn't try to sound like the CD. Instead, he will vary rhythms (because he is very rhythmic!), or replace certain words, sounds, or silences with pained screams. The best!

This show was no different from all the rest. Even though they only played for 45 minutes, they packed that time period with excellence, and played a nice assortment of songs from across their discography except for their first two CDs, which is okay, because no one really wants to hear those. But they didn't play anything from their Eight Teeth to Eat You split, and they never do, which is crazy. You would think that by now someone would have told them that Excerpts from Various Notes is their best song. Oh well, they didn't have a cello anyway, though they did have a dude playing keyboards and trumpets (and they did play a number of songs from The Ugly Organ, which is basically known as their "CD with the cello," but cello or not, they had to play songs from that because that is great and everyone loves it and if they didn't play anything from it, there would have been a Teenage Riot!) They had four Mama, I'm Swollen songs, which I must say, has grown on me considerably, and sounds pretty great live. The rest of the set consisted of three songs from Ugly Organ, two from Happy Hollow, and one each from Domestica and the Burst & Bloom EP.

Here's their set list, pretty complete (but not in the right order.):

1. Sink to the Beat

2. The Martyr

3. Dorothy at Forty

4. Big Bang

5. From the Hips

6. I Couldn't Love You

7. Let Me Up

8. Mama, I'm Swollen

9. Some Red-Handed Sleight of Hand

10. Art is Hard

11. A Gentleman Caller.

Finally, there was Alkaline Trio, and it seems like most of the crowd was there to see them. While I was certainly interested in seeing them (they haven't played a show here in over ten years,) I'm not really a huge Alkaline Trio fan. Their first CD, Goddammit! is fantastic, and the song Private Eye, from their fourth CD From Here to Infirmary, is also great. That's about it.

I know lots of people like that song Radio, but these people need to realize that Radio is just okay, although it does have that line "Shakin' like a dog shitting razorblades" which is a really fucked up image. This is good because it is very descriptive and memorable and this is bad because it makes me think of a sad sickly dog trying to shit out razorblades.

But I don't hate them. I don't hate Radio. It's just that most of their songs sound the same. They all sound pretty good, but I have a really hard time telling one song apart from the other, and thusly, they are really boring. It seems like Matt Skiba and Cindy from the Brady Bunch found a book that explained "How to write a pop-punk song," and it explained that all their songs should be the same tempo and have the same intensity and that no one wanted to hear about drinking anymore and that they should write about spooky things and blood.

So they played, and they were pretty good, but like i said, it was boring because all their songs sound EXACTLY the same and Jeremy (Blum!) and I kept thinking every song was the first song from Good Mourning that goes "Step 1: Slit my throat! Step 2: Play in my blood! Step 3: Cover me in dirty sheets and run laughing out the house" which is so overly violent that it is silly and seems like someone writing a parody of an Alkaline Trio song. Anyway, we kept trying to sing that part because it always sounded like it might fit but it never did.

They did, however, play Private Eye! Very good! And throughout the show, I kept wishing for them to play a song from Goddammit, but knew in my heart that they probably wouldn't because that's their first CD and they've released six full lengths and two rarity compilations since then (!) so they have lots of other songs that they'd rather play about ghosts and goblins. Anyway, I vocalized this hope as "I hope they play Clavicle" because that's a great song, and guess what happened you got it THEY PLAYED CLAVICLE.

By this time, I wanted to leave because they played everything I wanted to hear and was willing to bet that they wouldn't play anything else interesting. Also, the place was pretty crowded, and I was getting kind of claustrophobic and tired from standing in one place. And, of course, my head had exploded after they played Clavicle, so I needed to go and take care of that. They left the stage, and then came back for the encore, and as they did this, I left. Yes, I know that they probably played Radio, and everyone probably went crazy, but I didn't want to go crazy, I wanted to go home.

But before that, I went to Taco Bell. Then home.

A good night!

We Had an Emergency Room Honeymoon!

March 15th was my maternal grandfather's birthday.

March 17th is St. Patrick's Day.

And for twenty-three years, the day in between was pretty insignificant.

Last year, March 16th was set up to be a pretty good day. My favorite local band, Antenna Inn, was playing that night at the Saturn Bar. They were to be followed by Caddywhompus, and I had only heard good things about them. So I got there, stood outside for a while, socialized and smoked cigarettes. Once I entered, I ordered some red wine, which I rarely do since I don't like red wine; however, this wine was served in a single-serving mini-bottle that made me feel like I was either drinking on an airplane or playing the part of a radioactively-enlarged monster terrorizing the cast of Sideways.

As Antenna Inn set up to play, I found a place to stand in the already-crowded stage area. My legs started to ache. I've never really been a fan of standing in one place for a long period of time, and I wanted to sit down, but knew that wasn't gonna happen, so I tried ignoring it.

Right as the band started to play, I got lightheaded, and it felt as though I had stood up too quickly. My vision went dark. Usually, however, that feeling disappears in a matter of seconds. This time, it just kept getting worse. I couldn't see at all, and I knew that I wasn't going to be able to stand for much longer. Knowing I needed some assistance, I turned to Kathleen and Richard, or at least where I thought they were, and told them I needed to sit down. However, the feeling of passing out grew stronger, and I couldn't wait for them, so I turned towards where I knew I could sit down, and blindly barreled my way through the crowd. In my stupor, I ran face-first into a metal pole. Finally, my friends caught up to me, and helped me sit down by a video-poker machine.

After a few minutes, my vision returned. I was covered in cold sweat, and i wanted to go home, so Kathleen drove me in my car.

I had never passed out before. EVER. So i went to the doctor the next day, but they guessed that I probably just had an anxiety attack.

That night, I went to the ER because I couldn't breathe when I laid down.

They thought it was pneumonia, and treated me for that.

Two weeks ago, my left foot swelled, and I couldn't stand for long without my legs getting stiff.

The doctors were baffled.

They gave me a CAT scan, a MRI, an ultrasound, they did x-rays.

They did a biopsy on the rashes that had shown up the previous summer, never went away, and had been previously disregarded as being plain ol' dry skin.

They did a biopsy on my kidney.

They did a biopsy on my lymph nodes.

On March 16th, I got sick in a way that I hadn't before.

A month later, I found out I had lupus.

A year later, I pretty much have it under control. My blood work looks normal. They've got me on a ton of medicine. Most of it does its job, though I have been pretty sick recently, probably as side effects to new medicines I started taking or as side effects to old medicines I'm coming off of. Things, however, are a hell of a lot brighter than they were one year ago.

I'm sure this won't be the last time I talk about lupus or lupus-related things. (I have all kinds of wonderful stories.) Unfortunately, it was a pretty big part of my life this past year, and it will always be a part of my life. I'm determined, however, for it to not be a big part in the future.

Anyway, happy anniversary, lupus.

I got you some paper.

*sigh*

Listen -
MY BAD.
I have a tendency to start a blog, write a couple of entries (if I'm feeling particularly peckish,) and then forget about it completely. About a year later, the urge to write again returns, and i start ANOTHER blog, in which my first post usually explains how I have a tendency to start a blog AND SO ON. (I'm going to go ahead and also apologize for the excessive use of typing in all caps that I have already done and will continue to do.)
So.
This particular blog started as an attempt to make my way through my unnecessarily large movie collection. By blog's end, I had reviewed two movies, neither of which I actually owned.
I then moved on to I Finished the Internets because, well, i had.
I started a Tumblr blog for a while, also called I Finished the Internets.
And now I'm back here. I've taken the moniker of T-Shirt Rebellion for a long time now as a sort of all-encompassing title (hip-hop star, Twitter, AIM) and it seems appropriate for me to use it in my blog web address and name. And I've just always liked I Finished the Internets! They are now together as one.

So what's my mission statement for this blog? Every time I've named one, I get bored with the idea quickly and then give up on the blog. So the mission statement for this blog is that there is no mission statement, and the only rule is that there are no rules, and this party is going to go from 10 o'clock 'til question mark. It will be about all things, but mostly will allow me to speak more verbosely than twitter or facebook.

Ok, never mind. This is my mission statement:

Recently, I've been pretty sick and most of my days and nights are spent at home. This has essentially killed my social life and I rarely see or speak to anyone. This blog is for me to keep in contact with people. Have you been missing my caustic wit? Come get your fill! And leave comments!

If we aren't friends on twitter, I'm there as tshirtrebellion. On facebook, I'm Shawn Dugas.

And I promise I'll actually write in this one.

Probably.

The slow down of new posts has begun.

My apologies for not having posted in a while.
I'm almost done with school FOREVER...
that is, until I start teaching...FOREVER.
I will put up a new review soon, probably about the movie Rocket Science, which I randomly picked up on my trip to Blockbuster, and ended up being pretty damn good.
For the time being, take a look at my buddies' blogs.
This one is from Leo the Jesus, lead singer of local musical phenomenon The City Life.
http://actlikeromansdressliketurks.blogspot.com
And this one is from Mark Heck, manager.
http://thebeardlesshipster.blogspot.com/
Sorry, I'm not more clever right now.
I'm very tired.

Little Children, and Sesame Street Old School

Whoa!
So I am already here with my first deconstruction, and it's been like what, two days?
Ok, here's the problem.
The first DVD i shall be reviewing is not actually one that i own, but one that i've rented. So it kind of goes against the whole conceit of this blog. And the DVD contains nothing on it, but the movie itself. Not even a trailer. So this could be considered cheating, perhaps, but it could also be seen as me easing myself into the grueling process of devouring everything that I own.
The movie is Little Children, released in 2006. Starring Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy) and Kate Winslet (boobies!), the film is a look at the goings-on of suburban America. The two characters, Brad and Sarah, already married and with young children to boot, meet on a playground. As time goes on, they get closer and closer, looking forward to their daily meetings at the swing set or public pool, and they start doing it. A lot. Will they leave their proper families to run away with one another? Will Brad fail his bar exam again? Will Brad realize that he's already married to Jennifer Connelly?
The movie also features Jackie Earle Haley (Bad News Bears!) as a pedophile who castrates himself. So, yeah.
(It should be noted that I sort of fail as a legitimate movie reviewer. I don't have the patience for summarizing plot. I don't, however, have a problem with revealing crucial plot points or twists. This means every one of my reviews will be SPOILER ALERT!!1!)
My friend Whitney (that's right, Whitney Brown. Three posts and two mentions. Not bad, my friend, not bad.) said that Little Children is way better than American Beauty. That American Beauty is like the red-headed stepchild to Little Children.
He is wrong. American Beauty is far superior, a classic of recent cinema.
Little Children is good. But, come on.
I like the font used in the titles and credits, though. It's pretty sweet.
It uses the narrator from Frontline.
It has Jennifer Connelly in it.
Overall, it was quite good.
Now, here would come the time where I would make my ultimate decision as to whether or not I would sell my DVD on Ebay, or realize that I could never truly part with the movie.
However, I don't actually own it, and to sell the copy that I now possess would surely anger Blockbuster Online.

ALSO, BONUS NOT_REAL REVIEW!>!_!

Recently released: Sesame Street Old School.
The first set features the years 1969-1974. It features the premiere episode of each season as well as various selected sketches from those years. For some reason, I got sent Disc 2 of 3, forcing me to be lost in terms of Sesame Street continuity. I watched the 1970 episode.
Sesame Street is a fucked up show.
Is it a hour long these days? Cause it sure was back then.
There was like a 7 minute long segment about firemen, with a high-pitched, beautiful, 70s AM radio style song describing what the firemen are doing.
There's a dude wearing a helmet explaining that the difference between short and tall people is...well, just listen.

There's two Bill Cosbys reciting the alphabet.

There's no Elmo.
There are the Yip-Yip Martians.

Overall, Sesame Street is pretty awesome.
And there's no Elmo.
Yet.

so...
instead of starting off with a bang, a well-rounded, complete dissection of my first DVD (I'm not sure which one it will be...off the top of my head, what's the first DVD I own in alphabetical order? Adaptation...Is it a number? 13 Going on 30...I don't really own that.) I am sitting in Loyola University's library (7th best in the nation according to the Princeton Review!) using their 7th best computer to type a blog about absolutely nothing of importance. I told myself I would use this time to finish up a take-home quiz for my 19th Century British Fiction class, which actually turns out to be a 10-page paper each time I do one, but instead, I'm honing the art of procrastinating. And besides, bestcrosswords.com hasn't updated with a new crossword since this morning, so really, what else can I do?
In about 40 minutes, I will be on my way to do A Gentleman's Delight, the biweekly internet radio show I do with Richard Dubourg and Whitney Brown. You can listen to it on crescentcityradio.com Mondays from 9-11 pm and Thursdays from 11-1 am. When we first started it, we were excited about it. We had all sorts of plans and ideas for it. As time went on, and people stopped listening, we've become a lot more jaded about the whole affair. Perhaps if more people listened, we would put on better shows, but really, its a Catch-22. So what I'm saying is, listen, and then we'll be entertaining. Or something.
Here's things I like that can be easily found and linked from Youtube. Enjoy!





...aahhh, i'm bored.

Introduction

With a moniker so clever and boring that it could only be found as the title to a sociological thesis paper or the chapter of a Chuck Klosterman novel, I hereby begin this blog.
But really, it is not for you, the reader. It is for me.
You see, I have a problem.
I own. A LOT.
With a DVD collection somewhere in the 400+region (I am typing this from my school library, meaning that my estimate could be way off,) I have recently realized that...I don't need all this stuff. I own movies I've never watched, but have merely bought because the Sunday newspaper ads have told me that Best Buy is selling copies of Stephen King's Pet Semetary for 4.99. (And yes, I have never seen Pet Semetary. And I'm ok with that.)
But i don't want to be ok with that. I don't want to own movies I have never seen. In fact, I don't think I want to own movies that I have seen. I don't need to own them. I've seen them. How often will I really watch them? Not often enough to need to own them.
Therefore, this blog is my homebase for entirely consuming, and then depossessing, any and all movies that I own. I will go through my collection, one by one, initially in alphabetical order, but eventually in no particular order (I can't watch all the seasons of South Park in a row. Can't do it.) I will watch everything contained on the discs, including all commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, and slideshows of images. And then, after having utilized the disc in all possible ways, I will sell it, using the money for other ventures (but most likely just spending it on other crap I don't need, i.e. video games, cigarettes, heroin.)
Perhaps I won't sell everything I own. Hell, I like some things enough to watch them more than once. But i know, deep in my heart, that I don't need everything I have, and I want it to be gone. Plans are, after completing the disc, to immediately sell it on ebay, allowing you, the reader, the chance to own what I have already deconstructed, and therefore, also don't need. But hey, as long as it's not taking up my space anymore!
There will be no regularity in blogs. I won't just be consuming a DVD; I'll be consuming time! Posts will come out when I'm ready for them to.
Also, if you have any requests for DVDs to be reviewed, I will do my best. However, it seems a bit counter-productive for me to review things that I don't own. I'll make my decisions on a case-by-case basis.
And, I'll probably end up using this blog in the fashion of the old Livejournal (and Deadjournal, whee!) form, to, you know, just talk about stuff.
Here...we...GO!!!!!!!!!