codeine

It's 2:20am here, but this is my noon pretty much.  Graveyard shift's got my circadian rhythms all fucked up.  I sleep when the normal folk are working, and I work while they sleep.

I did that for a while, recently almost attained normal person hours, but now I'm back to it again.

Wish I could get back to when I would get up at 4:30 AM and go for a bike ride and then be already on with my day when everyone else was just waking up.  Now I just stay up til 4:30 AM (or later) most nights.

How about Sassafras?  Not that anyone calls it that.  Maybe it could be a 'thing'?

damn its 5 AM here, I should probably get some sleep.

After more googling I came up with some things:


Apparently this JJR guy went to bat for the assaulter and threatened to sue to guy from Hotel Year (Hotlier) into the ground for blowing the lid on the thing. Also found this petition to get JJR removed from tours here:

https://www.change.org/p/four-year-strong-a-loss-for-words-transit-remove-john-james-ryan-from-your-future-tours

If anyone is wondering I found the stuff just by googling John James Ryan Harry Corrigan and you can find links to the other stuff mentioned using those terms or the change.org link.  If you check out the link, JJR is basically a lying scumbag who tried to cover up for Harry. If this issue is important to you, it might be worth signing.

Then I stumbled upon JJR's twitter and one of his pics has a comment from Jake Lang (twitter handle Fake Wang)  I recognize this guy, he took over merch duties on Fireworks' more recent tours.  Nothing really fishy there, but they are friends and the pic and comment were recent so I guess Fireworks must (still) be at least associated through business with this JJR guy and so that must be how their name showed up on that list.  I think JJR tour manages a ton of these pop punk bands.  Found nothing else regarding any comments or involvement though.  So he tour manages the Wonder Years, here's a link for more on where I got that, from the guy from The Hotelier: http://www.wonderingsound.com/feature/the-hotelier-interview/

Would like to see more bands speaking out, instead of helping sweep it under the rug by doing nothing.  I'm disappointed. More digging turned up Chris Mojan's twitter from Fireworks and he sent out a tweet recently mentioning Front Porch Step, all I could really find on that.

We all have our moments, haha.

 

I will say, though, it's sort of strange how many out-of-town people I hear say Hotlanta and mean it. Like, I don't think I've ever heard someone from the metro area ever call it that without joking.

It's cause they are used to the heat...

I'll see myself out...

THE PLACES T AND BRUCE HOLD IN MY HEART ARE BIG AND CANNOT BE REPLACED.

Blade's heart is like a cloud, not a pie.

Also pro tip: if you ever do visit, try avoid calling it Hotlanta.

I know I felt lame saying that.  Just cause we were also going on about the heat so I did.  I apologize for being a lamewad dork.

Here's is the assaulters original post on the subject. It's disgusting. Also trigger warning because he is very descriptive of what him and the woman do.

http://pastebin.com/BzS9fnqt

Read the link you posted and then realized that the girl's account of what happened is in the ap thread links, here:

http://pastebin.com/dDmRSJcD

Haven't read that link yet but just glancing at it safe to assume that its more graphic and more of a trigger than his account. *edit* after reading MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING and that link also links to this: http://explainingwatertothefish.tumblr.com/post/67169470945/tw-harry-corrigan-of-long-island-bands-is-a which has even more information.

Really bugs me that guys in bands use whatever little notoriety they have to take advantage of young women.  This is not what I thought pop punk was about.  Predators should not be allowed to play all ages shows and be near youths.  Allying yourself with someone who preys on youths is also despicable.  Ugh.

Timing is also important with all of this...

 

Trying to objectively put myself in other people's shoes here....  If I was friends with someone, and I didn't think they were capable of such actions, and they told me the accusations were bullshit, I would believe them.  The fault comes through when the evidence is no longer refutable.

Totally.  I just really kept that band close to my heart and don't want to find out that they did something like what the guitarist from State Champs did.  (make light of the accusations and subsequent backlash, and then proceed to backpedal.)

When I saw FW live  I talked to Dave and Tymm briefly and told them how much their music meant to me and gave Dave a massive hug, dude hugged me back and I was almost crying.  Kinda glad Tymm isn't in the band anymore seeing this stuff. When he left I was bummed and skipped out on going to see them cause its not the same with a replacement.  Since then I've been like 'I hope they don't make another record without him, they should just break up.'  So I've kinda lost interest a bit cause of that, but now this is a whole other thing, and seeing them fall on the wrong side of the issue pains me.  I can't support a band after seeing them in that light.  So that's why I want to know exactly why they were mentioned.

The mountain areas stay pretty nice. I think Flagstaff is still hitting highs in the 80s, with cool winters but not snow on the ground for 6 months straight.

The only season I like where I am is like late august til early december.  The rest of the year kinda sucks.

Yeah.  I remember hearing they were buddies with the rapist.  There were also some other posts in that ap.net thread about the dude in Fireworks making fun of a homeless person, and using queer in a derogatory way.  Just to fill you in.  Again, that stuff, while lame, isn't on the same level as knowingly allying yourself with an offender.

Yeah I saw that other stuff... mostly just want to know what exactly they have to do with the PN related bands/issues.  Another google search said something about Long Island so that must've been it.  And the homeless guy thing was me in this thread I think.  It was from a YT video they posted a long time ago.  Brett is pretending to be a panhandler and they roll the window up in his face.  The queer thing seems to be randomly thrown out there.  I kinda doubt Dave would talk bad about gay people.  But yeah, definitely not on the same level.  I guess they are acquainted with either this Harry or JJR guy from the scene and that's why they were mentioned.  Still don't really get the full picture but that might be all I can find on it.

If you ever find yourself in Atlanta for some reason, haha.

 

Also, speaking of the heat, we're finally out of it for now, but we had a crazy heat wave late last month. It was at least 97°F (36°C) every day for two weeks, then it jumped back down into the upper 80s, which is where we normally are this time of year.

 

Nowhere close to Arizona summers, but still pretty hot.

I've been to Hotlanta once... actually only drove though... it was raining and 'King of Pain' by The Police was playing on the radio and all I could think was 'this looks like a really beautiful city I'd like to spend some time here.'  Now every time I hear that song I think of Atlanta and rain on the windsheild.  Love that song.

 

Parts of AZ stay nice, just not where I live. Just got back from SF and the heat felt even more harsh

Judging by how hot it is here right now... I cannot fathom being that close to the equator.

I was at the Fireworks/Turnover/Sorority Noise show on Long Island tonight. Harry Corrigan appeared to be welcomed with smiling faces and open arms at all three of the bands' merch tables. I found it beyond fucked up that this guy was trotting around the venue like he was some legend, while being in a room surrounded by a noticeably young, predominantly female crowd.

 

Obviously this is just one persons interpretation of a situation, but I thought I'd share it.  I honestly doubt Turnover and (especially) Sorority Noise had any idea who this dude was.  Not really in too similar of scenes.

That must've been why FW was mentioned in that absolute punk summary? Ick. Thanks for finding the quote though.

I love talking about shit like this.  Lately a buddy and I have been debating Georgism Economics theory.  I hadn't even heard of it till he brought it up a year ago or so.  He's super into it.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism

I'm gonna have to read into this.  Hope it doesn't get me put on a 'list.'

 

Haha, yeah, we're hitting 115. Slight climate change.

I'm actually sweatin balls myself right now so I can't imagine what the heat there is like.  But the winters are rough!  Lots of shoveling!  People think 'global warming'  but its actually 'climate change' so we get more storms and shit than we used to cause the winds and everything increase.  More extreme weather on both ends, hotter summers and insane winters, at least for the past few years that's been the trend.

stupid mobile messed up my message...

I gotcha though!  AZ to Canada?!  You will freeze your nuts off in the winter.

Yo, VC hairy dudes...

HOW DO YOU PUT UP WITH BODY HAIR?! I've recently discovered some hairs popping up on my chest and I can't stand it. They're gone now, but I know they'll come back. I don't want to fight this war.

(I'm 27 and haven't had to deal with much body hair ever. Was nice while that lasted.)

I'm pretty hairy... like somewhere between just a little hairy and gross hairy.  Some girls don't mind it or even like the wooly bear look.  I hate it.  One time I asked my mom to wax my back cause I felt self conscious going to the beach shirtless.  I kinda wanna get someone to use some clippers on my back again, waxing is pretty painful, but I don't like being hairy on my back, it bothers me.

TMI-> On the other hand, shaving and tweezing can be really bad dude... like one time I buzzed my chest with clippers and started tweezing the shaven hairs out and then they'd grow back and some would grow underneath the skin and turn into zits, and if you don't like pop the hair out it can get ingrown and get infected. <- TMI

If you're hairy, you're more or less stuck with it.  If your just getting a bit coming in at 27 I don't think that's enough to worry about.

Ben & Jerry's

Hook us up with some ice cream?!

I'll give it a shot at least, I tend to be good at that kind of reading.

That put a smile on my face.

 

Don't mind me, I'm just gonna break up the political ideologies discussion for a bit...

No worries.  I feel bad for getting into it cause I know people tend to shy away from that type of stuff, and I don't want to be alienating.  Besides this is Small Talk, not Massive Talk.

I'll give it a read if I can. I'll stick to digital for household peace. Ideally, what would a communist/socialist society look like?

In a word: Idyllic. I don't really want to get into this stuff though man... its such a rabbit hole... we could get into how paper money is fake and has no real value, (another major misstep in human history) and the barter system, etc, etc.  but fair warning if you pick that book up:  it is actually very short but very high level reading... the sentence structure is very very advanced.  I've never read a more difficult book.  But its worth it, if you can manage, to share the ideas.  I'd be proud of anyone who reads it.

Those sound great on paper, but they just have never and never will work. I'll elaborate in the morning when I'm not on mobile, but essentially there's no drive to work if money is equally distributed, nobody works, things fall apart.

True communism has never been implemented in history.  'Those work on paper and not in practice' is entry level BS, sorry to say, but I know that's what people feed you. I was fed the same lines by people who didn't know what they were talking about when I was a youth.

Neither Russia, Cuba, or China were ever truly communist, those are facist regimes.

My brief synopsis of the manifesto:  The industrial revolution completely fucked the planet up.  

Just look at other countries in the world where people dig through piles of garbage to survive.  If you want to know how things got to this point (which is the first step to figuring our way out of the mess we're in) read that book.  It should be mandatory reading.  We probably wouldn't live in a society of buffoons if it was.

But like I said before, this is why I don't really touch politics anymore, too messy, much prefer philosophy.

As for the 2nd part of your post... thats why you start by raising capital, its like a wave dude.  Waves are everywhere in nature, one year there are more flies, next year there are more frogs.  Do you get what I'm saying?

Anyways you don't have to agree, but if you just think about any of this stuff then just that makes me satisfied.

This will be the last political post I make. /politics

-> Reverts to chill mode. 

Capitalism has its problems, but is there another system that works better? If there is I'm seriously interested, just never seen anything. I hail from a FOX news only house, so I'm a little sheltered as to what I've been exposed to outside my own research.

Socialism.

Socialism is a synthesis of Capitalism and Communism.

In a nutshell you use Capitalism to raise the money and then switch to Communism to distribute the money.

I know I shouldn't be saying this stuff because Socialism and Communism are both dirty words in the USA because of indoctrination and xenophobia.

I would highly recommend to read The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels.  That book opened my eyes to a lot of stuff.  It's very difficult reading though, its way above a typical 15-year olds reading level.  If you do get a copy, don't show it to anyone who watches FOX they will probably think you 'need saving' or something.

That being said I was pretty into politics as a youth but these days I'd much rather read philosophy.  Politics are too depressing for me.

Harry from some irrelevant band raped a girl 3 years ago, was called out by Christian of The Hotelier, then JJR (tour manager of several bands including the wonder years) told Christian off for it, 3 years later Harry is in a new irrelevant band and gets signed by Pure Noise and several major bands defend and even support Harry, thus this boycott 

Good summary. Reading more about it... aaaand the guitarist of State Champs is a fucking idiot for the comment he made and subsequent backpedaling.

I want to know what Fireworks has to do with any of this.  parkinglot shed a bit of light but if someone could check out those tumblr leads for me, I seriously don't know how to use it and don't want to sign up.

I think they tweeted (or at least 1 member) defending pure noise or the rapist. Either that or they just congratulated No Good News on the signing. A little vague, but I know it was because of a tweet that has probably since been deleted.

I'm trying to get actual details via google search but it links to tumblr and I guess I don't know how to use the internet anymore cause I can't find the actual discussion.

Can someone who understand tumblr dig for me?

You can find it if you google:

"oh no what did Fireworks do"

With the quotations

Hoping that will shed light.

Have you met capitalism?

Sorry for the triple post everyone and double quotes, but I gotta say Bruce... I usually agree with you pretty much 100% of the time you post anyways, but when it comes to that other thread I agree with you 300% seriously glad to see.  You are a breath of fresh air man... faith in humanity restored.  Nothing but upvotes and love for you!

Don't like the vast majority of PN bands.  TSSF, FYS, State Champs and Gates are dece but don't really buy any of their records anymore so I am definitely not buying any in the future, but I found this link: 

http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=3725131

I'm gutted to see Fireworks mentioned in there... can someone shed some light?  I love their music, briefly met Dave and Tymm before (Tymm's not even with the band anymore).  I've seen them joke around in videos and stuff, once Brett made fun of homeless people and I get how it is to joke around with your friends, but I thought it was kind of harsh and a little heartless, but I brushed it off, separate the art from the artist, people aren't perfect and all that.  But this business is way too far past the line and I legit want to know how they even got mentioned in that post. Anyone know?

Time for everyone to get mad at me again.

I know you're on the right side of this and I am not attacking you personally. The "what if it was your daughter/mother/sister/girlfriend?" thing needs to stop. I get what the point is and its coming from the right place, but it's kinda shitty. It implies that women are their relationship to men before they're just human beings. It just perpetuates the idea of women belonging to men. Not actively, but shit like "Hey man, that's someone's daughter (or whatever)" in response to, say, something like street harassment is like saying "Hey, think of how another man would feel about this"

I WILL NOW BATHE IN YOUR DOWNVOTES

Upvote for you Bruce.  Women are not chattel!