Joey's blog

2005-08-10T17:51:00.000-04:00

My band, Rotten Deal, started in January of 2004. Our original line-up was Colin as the drummer with Matt on guitar and me on bass. We were enjoying life, and playing our politically charged punk rock at Colin’s house on the weekends. As Colin and his parents continued to not get along they decided to send him away to a boarding school. This tragedy put Matt and me in search of a new drummer. As we were looking for a new drummer we also found another guitarist. We know had four members in Rotten Deal. Matt, Tom, Brett and me. We had all been in bands previously to this one, but this one felt so good. The Chemistry of our members feels so right. We collaborate so well that song writing has become easy and fun. We know have about 7 songs written and recorded. Tragedy struck once again 3 day before our first show. It was in the beginning of the summer, when we found out that matt had been sent off to a rehabilitation institution in South Carolina. Tom, Brett, and I had to play as trio. We were very nervous without our former front man. We played to the best of our ability and the crowed went wild. We pulled it off without Matt. Now, after playing three shows, we have developed relationships with the local punk rock bands that we play with. We are also looking forward to Matt coming home on the 25th of August for the weekend on a leave. We will try to schedule a show so he can play with us while he is here. We can’t wait until his rehab comes to a close so he will be back here for good.

2005-08-10T17:25:00.000-04:00

People can have their religion and that is fine, but it is when people take it too extreme, or when they try to impose it on you is what bothers me. On the day I graduated I saw this kid that I had not seen in years. He had apparently been a drug addict but was recovering. He was telling me how he was a born again Christian. This is when things got awkward. He began to ask me questions like if I believe Jesus is my lord and savior, and what my relationship was with god. I didn’t want to make him upset so I just gave him mostly positive answers, but when I told him I wasn’t really religious he got even weirder. He wanted me to repeat a prayer after him that was saying that I accepted Jesus Christ as my lord and Savior. I told him I really didn’t want to do it at the moment, but he just grabbed onto my hand and sternly told me to repeat after him. They way he was looking into my eyes and forcing me to repeat after him was pretty scary. He looked possessed. It was like he was part of some brainwashing cult that he called Christianity. He was probably a lot more normal when he was a drug addict. I may sound mean but people like him are really creepy.
This reminds me of when I was in middle school when a woman came to talk to my youth group. She told us how she was possessed by the Devil and how the Devil told her to kill her children and her husband. Personally I just think the woman was crazy and needed to be locked up, or in some rehab center.
Another time my Sunday School teacher was telling us that Harry Potter books were bad, because they promoted magic and wizardry. I thought this was ridiculous, there are plenty other books with similar subjects and this was the only one he named. I just wanted to yell at him and say, “Guess what Dummy, these books are put in the fiction section for a reason… They are not real, they are fantasy!” He was also going on about how upset he was because these wizardry, heathen books were allowed in public school libraries and that the bible wasn’t. If I was in charge, I would allow the bible to be in public school libraries, only I would put it in the fiction section.
I believe the bible was meant to teach lessons in the same way nursery rhymes do. I don’t think the bible should be taken literally like many people do today. Many people look at the bible as the absolute law and not as guidelines on a good way to live your life. Some religious people look at those who are not religious and judge them because of it, but in their religion God is the only one that is supposed to be judging anyone.

2005-08-10T16:10:00.000-04:00

In 1990, the greatest mob movie of all time was released. The Goodfellas, my favorite movie, stars Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Ray Liota, and Paul Sorvino. This excellent cast, with the guidance of the director Martin Scorsese, portrayed mob life in New York throughout the 60s and 70s. This Oscar winning movie centered around an Irish-Italian American, Henry Hill, that started working for the mob as a teen and slowly made his way up the mob ladder along with his two friends Tommy and Jimmy. They go through some really good times together as well as some really tough times, especially towards the end. This movie is based on a true story which makes it even more exciting. A famous line in this movie is when Henry says, “For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a gangster.” If you like mafia movies you must see this movie, and if you don’t care for mafia movies you should still see this movie. Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci are such great actors; they really bring the movie to life and make it seem real. This movie goes all out with restaurants as fronts, big heists, and people getting shot dead for getting in each others way. If you haven’t seen this movie yet you should rent it and watch it tonight.

2005-08-10T16:09:00.000-04:00

Today, August 5, is the day of the Warped Tour. On the front page of the friday extra it says, "the annual celebration of punk rock culture"(Friday extra). I have to laugh at this. Maybe that is what it used to be, but lately this annual show has been featuring rock bands of just about every genre but punk. Last year the Warped Tour revived itself a little bit by featuring some great punk bands such as The Casualties, The Briggs, Anti-flag, Bad Religion, and the Bouncing Souls. As I look at the set list for todays show, i see bands like: My Chemical Romance, The Starting Line, Thrice, Atreyu, Reliant K, Motion city Soundtrack, Mxpx, and Select Start. Hmmmm, thats funny, none of those bands play punk rock. The only punk bands that are on the playlist for this year are The Briefs, and Dropkick Murphys. So only two bands out of more than 40 are actually punk bands, at the annual punk rock tour. The truth, is that the Warped Tour sold out. The creators of the Warped Tour began it because punk was not main-stream and it was hard for punk bands to come up with the money to do a national tour. Now that the Warped Tour has established itself as a huge annual event the creators have gotten greedy, and chose bands that are more main-stream. These are not punk bands, and what bothers me is that they still call it a "punk rock" tour. The bands that are posing as "punk rockers" and this so-called "punk tour" are a disgrace to people like me who actually play in a punk band and they are a disgrace to all the punk bands in the history of punk rock, starting from the early 80s.

2005-08-10T15:41:00.000-04:00

Over recent years global warming has become progressively worse. The greenhouse effect is one reason for this. The greenhouse effect is when heat from the Sun gets trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere. The Sun radiates energy to the earth and the energy gets absorbed by the atmosphere; gases in our atmosphere trap this energy and this heats up the earth. Global warming can be compared to a car left out in the sun. When you enter the car it will be very hot inside, even hotter than it is outside. This is because the heat enters through the windows but cant escape as easily because it is being absorbed and not reflected. The U.S. is the number emitter of greenhouse gasses. America expels 25% of the carbon dioxide into the air, due to cars, factories, and power plants.
The Arctic Sea has begun to melt at 9% per decade since 1978 due to global warming. Because of this, scientists fear the extinction of polar bears in as soon as the next 50 years. The North Pole is 20% smaller during the summer than it was 25 years ago. Some scientists think that our temperature could increase form 1- 4.5 degrees in the next 50 years.
The increase in temperature could through the world’s whole climate off and cause extreme weather. It could also cause many animals to become extinct which could cause a chain reaction that may cause more animals to become extinct. The world’s climate is a very fragile thing and as humans we must do everything in our power to keep it stable, or one day we may be extinct.

2005-07-11T13:03:00.000-04:00

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