Do you know who Alice In Chains is? They are a hard rock/metal band known for the notorious singles “Man in the Box”, “Rooster”, and “Would”. Did you know their lead singer Layne Staley died of a drug overdose back in 2002? Did you know he was known as a vocal god of his genre? Well, look into it if you didn’t know any of this, because if you call yourself a fan of music, specifically rock, you might want to know this stuff so you don’t get laughed or boo’ed at when someone plays their songs and you ask “who is this???”
Years went by after Layne died, and their guitarist/secondary singer Jerry Cantrell continued with his solo music career. Then suddenly something amazing happened. Earlier this year articles were released saying that Alice in Chains were back … with a new singer? O.O
How dare they! Right? Many would compare it to picking Megadeth back up with a different singer if Dave Mustaine died. Virtually all fans felt insulted… until the first material to be released by a new album was heard. I might as well just say, it was a turn for the band that NOBODY saw coming.
I got the privilege to obtain this new album, entitled “Black Gives Way to Blue”. Another shocker added as the cherry on the cake is guest musician Elton John who plays the piano in the last track, a very special tribute to Layne Staley, properly named after the album.
It’s not enough to say that this album is impressive. It literally mesmerized me from the first track to the last. The mixing is fantastic, the guitars are gorgeous, the drums sound epic, and the lyrics are fun, intelligent, artistic, haunting, and contemplative.
Whatever you do, if you are somebody who is new to Alice in Chains, or an old-skewl fan who has yet to hear this album, just give it one listen. Have whatever opinion you may, but whatever it is, either way, you will hear the beauty inspired by the legacy that Layne left for all the fans of Alice in Chains. Don’t take my word for it. Go. Experience it. It’s worth it!
I’m going to begin rewiring certain areas of my mental system.
I’ve done some research into certain personal development topics concerning the mind. Specifically I read on the topics of thought conditioning and behavioral conditioning.
Thought conditioning is the application of consciously changing your thoughts to influence your actions in some positive, productive manner. In this matter, behaviors follow thoughts.
In the matter of behavioral conditioning, it is the other way around. You act on something regardless of whatever it is you think. When you reach accomplishments though your actions, the motivational thoughts then follow in suit.
I thought, what if instead of acing on something regardless of what I’m thinking, I actually train my mind to take any negative or conflicting thought and act opposite of what is typical of a human being? For instance, if I thought to myself, “I don’t feel like brushing my teeth tonight”, my conditioning would train me to use this thought as a trigger to do the opposite of what I’m thinking. In this case, I would be aware that I do not feel like brushing my teeth and instead of going along with what this thought tells me not to do, do the opposite which is brush my teeth.
In summery though, I would have to induce this effect as an automatic reaction. Afterward, having gotten a task done, I feel good that I got it done.
Just think of how much more productive somebody could be if every time they thought “I don’t feel like doing that”, they automatically did it anyway simply as a natural reaction. The thought simply fascinates me to no end.
I’m not going to post much here, but I will say this.
People and their crutches… they are getting old. Pot, cigarettes, alcohol, tv, coffee, soda, sleeping pills, they can all be thrown into a giant fire big enough to be seen from jupiter, not a trace of any of it to ever exist again if it were up to me. Needless to say, I hate them.
I’ve probably lost cool points to you pot-heads out there, but what can I say? The effects of crutches seem to multiply and close in around me. It’s pretty ridiculous.
My mother lost her ability to speak and smell to cigarettes. Her boyfriend thinks he needs pot to stay sane. He almost lost his life in a car wreck while drugged up on pot, coke, and drunk off of alcohol.
I have family members who can’t seem to drink anything else every single night other than warm cans of Dr. Pepper, and then wonder why their teeth brown up over the span of just a couple years with abscessed teeth.
Do you see where I’m getting at here?
I’m not perfect, and I’ve also once believed I needed cigarettes, and even pot. I had also settled for brown soda when all there was else to drink was water. But like many people out there, I’ve let myself actually grow past this mindset, moved on to cut out these things and realized that it really is all in one’s own head.
We’re socially conditioned to think we need these things to get by. We think we need to weight 120 lbs to be attractive. We think we need to drink coffee in order to get awake in the morning. Did you know you can get the same effect out of eating an apple?
I’m sorry you guys ended up feeling these are things you need or thinking these are things you “enjoy”. They were just a fun phase of my life. But I was smart and strong enough to know that I can move beyond them so I can start taking better care of myself. I just hope that you will get that chance to realize the same thing for yourself one day too.
I’m glad I began writing in this blog more often. It’s played a large part in helping me increase my writing activity so I can get back on the ball at my official blog – musiciansdojo.com.
I’ve determined something important when it comes to managing blogs that you plan on taking as seriously as a future online business:
If you’re going to have delays with putting out large, serious posts, make sure you have a good plan of putting out small filler posts.
I haven’t begun this suggestion yet myself, but I’m about to very soon.
I ran into this writers block recently and have slowly started to come back out of it. But I’ve had some trouble finishing my first post since I hit this block. I know now that I need to stop being afraid to throw out smaller posts, at least to keep my activity’s frequency healthy. I think I’ll begin this tomorrow and keep steady on finishing up my big article.
So, note to self:
I have “big articles” and I have “filler articles”. Make sure you utilize filler-articles while you are writing and finishing those more difficult big articles.
I’ve got to get this out somewhere, I think I’ll just post it here.
I like Metallica. I like Megadeth.
But put up against Megadeth, Metallica these days is simply finished in my eyes. They’ve failed the “Metal” included in the very name. They might as well change their name to “Rocklica” or “Attempted-Punklica” or “Countrywesternlica”. The “Metal” just doesn’t exist there anymore.
And what is this about Death Magnetic “going back to their roots”? I’ve listened to this album dozens of times and even as musically intuitive as I am, I simply fail to see any hint of the original sound anywhere in it. The mixing of the album is far from anything in their “roots”. James’ singing is miles away from any tone or texture he once had. Kirks solos are one dimensional excuses for the beautiful arpeggios he once soured through back in his younger years. Lars simply proves that he no longer has the stamina for the power, speed, and complexity he used to wield when the band was making the real impression on metal. And Rob Trujillo thinks he’s a monkey with a guitar in his hands. How, again, is this considered “metal’?
Now lets take a look at Megadeth.
Dave Mustaine successfully preserved his singing voice, and all the while also preserved his style and skill to play exactly what his original vision was born to emanate: Actual fast paced Metal. Even after their stages of experimental mainstream radio sound, Dave kept his plan solid: if this experimentation came short of what was hoped, the sound would transform back into what made them genuine in the first place.
If there is one bone I probably have to pick with Megadeth though, (and it is only one, unlike Metallica), it would be Dave’s style of lyrical writing. He’s almost completely turned his back away from conforming words to the rhythm through schemes such as metaphorical rhyming. He’s fallen more to simply spouting a literal story or however his perception sees the government in a fashion that almost bluntly resembles reading random articles in a magazine. However, I have heard some evidence that he’s recently attempted to back away from this style a bit. Let’s see what happens during their next album release, whenever it may be.
Either way, the main idea here is simple, and I’ve debated it over chats over and over again. Now its time to post it here: Metallica is no longer metal. Megadeth has claimed the throne as king of this hill.
Daily routines are where it’s at. I recommend them to everybody. If you already claim to have one, ask yourself, “How clear is my routine?” Also, how many bad days out of the week are you normally having? If the answer is more than one, then I’d say, your daily routine isn’t clear enough.
Since I’ve began mine, I’ve increased my productivity by at least 120% which leaves me in very good moods and leaves the people around me with much less (if anything at all) to have to complain about. But the trick was how well I have designed and clarified it.
Whatever issues you are having with things such as energy, patience, running errands, or getting in contact with people, be sure to clarify what that issue is and design your routines make you attack it head-on. Trust me, you’ll find it worth it.
Routines = good. Don’t just keep one, keep refining it and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
I think I’m done slacking off on my business after this week. I want the chance to fill it with content more often. I think I will begin taking more serious contemplation as to the best way to achieve this. Although it’s a long term project, it’s one that deserves bigger regard if I really want to design my future the way I want it.
I found a program that has allowed me to start organizing my thoughts. It’s called The Journal. I’ve only had it for two days and I’ve already created daily routines, topics for my blog, pre-writing templates which have been extremely helpful, and problem solving strategies for all my current endeavors. If you’re someone who loves to organize their thoughts in a static medium where you can study yourself from this perspective and clarify what you need to do, this is the software that I am really beginning to think can help you accomplish this.
I’ve come down with something today, not sure what it is. But I’ll keep you informed when I find out.
I like to search for fan-made music videos of favorite shows and movies. I’m actually a very detailed critic of them. I’ll run across some where people just threw random scenes of the characters chatting, and then expect to get spectacular responses as if they’ve made an emotionally touching music video or something. HA! But every now and then, I actually come across those that are perfect in almost every way.
Right now I want to show you one of those. My favorite movie of all time has always been and always will be The Crow (Brandon Lee). I had the pleasure to stumble upon a YouTube author named WizzyWarlock, who, at the time I found this video, had 2 others which were extremely good as well, but were taken off for some reason some time after.
His style of video, lyrical synchronization is flawless to me. He uses subtle steady transitions from measure to measure, having each scene that fades in match in some way to the lyrics at that time of the song. This video is The Crow, put to Smashing Pumpkins’ “The Beginning is the End is the Beginning”.
If you tried viewing my blog and realized you couldn’t, I apologize. I found my blog was suddenly set to private, although I don’t remember ever even going into those settings. lol! Anyway, I went in and set my blog back open. So read and comment away peeps!
Since I don’t have any spectacular ideas for a fresh blog entry, I’ve decided this entry will show you an old entry from another blog of mine some time ago.
There’s something I’ve learned about my life. And that is, it can consist of much more than what is immediately in front of me. I have talents, I’m artisitic, I have the potential to be very wealthy. One thing that has consumed this chapter of my life is web design. It’s what I’m going to college for. Yet the longer I’ve been in this major, the more I’ve discovered that sitting behind a desk playing with html code isn’t what I want to do for the rest of my life. I don’t plan on spending it creating interfaces for others who most of which most likely wont even give me the kind of credit worth me feeling good about for making, if any credit at all. Their customers won’t care who made the website, they care about the company itself.
I think of ambitions of trying to get together another band one day. There’s only one major problem with that, however: family affairs. I don’t like the idea of having to leave my family somewhere while I tour around the world getting screwed over by a record company. The real idea behind such an ambition is more along the lines of simply being able to do something more active with my life and being able to make a more direct impact on people’s lives, the kind of impact that will have people recognizing who I am and what I’m doing. I want them to know what my intentions are and what great things I’ve done. And it’s not so that I can simply feel good about myself, I’m not so selfish when it comes to that. It’s more about showing people in the world that another good person out there exists. Someone who cares more than the average person. Sure, friends know all this and they may be inspired. But friends only go so far out there.
But most importantly, I want to be able to better ensure that my future generations have a good name. A name that when people hear it, they can more than likely think of who their father is and what he did and know that the name is good, giving those future generations a better chance at being favored by society and having a better chance at getting great opportunities. It’s simply a gift that I want to be able to keep on giving years on down the line. I simply don’t think that mere web design would satisfy this want.
There are other things I could look into, but I want to get my degree in web design/development, at least as something to start with. However, I’m not the best about planning things because the outcome of planned things usually never work out the way it’s planned. Things always come smoother as they come. The way my life has always worked, as long as I can just turn the ship in the right direction, the winds should take me at least near where I want to go.
I simply hope whatever direction I turn this ship, that I choose the right direction to turn, because I simply haven’t decided exactly what direction just yet.
So I wonder, what about you?
What are your ambitions of the future whether in comparison or in contrast to what you are currently doing?
Do you know who Alice In Chains is? They are a hard rock/metal band known for the notorious singles “Man in the Box”, “Rooster”, and “Would”. Did you know their lead singer Layne Staley died of a drug overdose back in 2002? Did you know he was known as a vocal god of his genre? Well, look into it if you didn’t know any of this, because if you call yourself a fan of music, specifically rock, you might want to know this stuff so you don’t get laughed or boo’ed at when someone plays their songs and you ask “who is this???”
I got the privilege to obtain this new album, entitled “Black Gives Way to Blue”. Another shocker added as the cherry on the cake is guest musician Elton John who plays the piano in the last track, a very special tribute to Layne Staley, properly named after the album.
