Theme Park Experience

Nice little background on this week's edition with Jake Bannon from Converge. I had never interviewed him before, but one of my friends had. The word on Jake was, "He's intense." I didn't know what to expect, but when I called him a few weeks ago, he was one of the nicest guys I've ever interviewed. Obviously we talked about a lot of different stuff, but I'm happy it's stuff you don't normally see in an interview with him. Looks like all that time listening to the band's material and following MMA helped me.

I made a big hub-ub about getting a new bike, but I haven't really written anything about it since then. Well, the bike has served me incredibly well. So well that I clear an average between 20-45 miles a week. The key is to stay consistent and there is immense enjoyment in staying consistent. I've had to make some adjustments to the bike in order to handle everything I like to do: got new tires (the ones that the bike came with had large nubs, so it felt like I was peddling a tractor), new tubes (it's not fun to get ready for a ride and finding a flat tire), and new pedals (the plastic ones that came with the bike broke after a few long rides). Thus, I recognize all the employees at the bike shop I go to. Finding a safe route from my house to the White Rock Lake trail, I can clear 22 miles in two hours. That's two nine-mile laps around the lake as well as four total miles to get from my house and back. I get a strong feeling of happiness when I'm able to accomp...

I know I've written about going back to the Best Buy I worked at in college, but there were new thoughts that came into my head when I was in Houston last week. I don't miss working there, and the store layout that I remember is completely different now. Instead of drawing customers in with CDs and VHS tapes, the emphasis is (and has been for a few years) on cell phones and computers (especially their Geek Squad service). My area of expertise has been relegated to a pit stop before checking out. What was once a dozen aisles and shelves is now a couple of shelves and kiosks. And the CDs are shelved in alphabetical order with no room to break things up by music genre. It's Kanye West next to Wilco across from Jason Aldeen and As I Lay Dying. I'm not bitter or hurt; I simply reflect how I've moved on from there as a former employee and a regular customer. Working at the store between 1997 and 2000, I experienced the last hurrah of the music industry with CDs. I sto...

This week's edition is with Hormones, a local band. Turns out, we have a few close mutual friends, so there was no shortage of things to talk about. And it certainly helped that these three guys had been friends for a long time.

I don't think it's ever too late to try something, but there are matters that seem more apt when you're younger in order to fully experience. It's like a rite of passage; getting the sense of what it means to be an adult and (mostly) unafraid. Latest examples: riding a Ferris wheel and visiting a haunted house. Kind of like those John Hughes movies I wrote about a few weeks ago, you can experience those at any time, but there's more of a lasting impact when you're becoming an adult. In one 24-hour period on Saturday, Jenny and I went on the Texas Star for the first time and went to Screams, a haunted amusement park, for the first time. We had a ball with both, and neither of us came away frightened or scared to go do those things again. Riding the famed Texas Star, we (including my sister and one of her daughters) enjoyed an amazing view of the city and the rest of the State Fair. Motion-wise, it felt like we were in an elevator with a windy 360-degree view....

This week's edition is with Matt from Joyce Manor. If it seems rather short, well, it had to be done over e-mail since the band was on tour in Europe. Matt gave some good answers, and the brevity of the interview seems apt for how short their songs are.

For the past two nights, I was able to let go at two different shows. Absolutely let go without breaking the law or making a fool of myself. Just being able to do that has been difficult in recent memory, but it looks like the Afghan Whigs and Jealous Sound helped me get out of this box I've been in. Prior to Sunday night, I had never seen Greg Dulli perform live. Not with the Gutter Twins, the Twilight Singers, or the Afghan Whigs. Thankfully, I was able to see the reformed Whigs (assisted by players from the Twilight Singers) play a magnificent set at the Granada Theater. Playing all of the songs I love by them (especially from Gentlemen , Black Love , and 1966 ), I was quite a happy camper. I sang along without a care about who was around me. Dulli's lyrics and singing certainly convey an incredible vulnerability -- hence why people still love him. Even though he sings about a lot of broken relationships (and I've sung along to them while going through one in recent ...

This week's edition is with Jayson from California Wives. Special note: this is the first time I've ever asked a band, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" It won't be my last.

For many years, I had seen only a couple of movies with ties to John Hughes (whether he was the writer or writer/director): Ferris Bueller's Day Off , Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York . That meant no Sixteen Candles , Pretty in Pink , Some Kind of Wonderful , or The Breakfast Club for me in the 80s. Of course I knew about those movies, but I wasn't drawn to R-rated movies in general because my parents didn't want me to see them. The R-rated movies I was attracted to were action flicks, not salty-language pics about romantic triangles. When I really got into movies that were beyond what the multiplexes had (aka, college), I was more into horror flicks and indie movies. I'm talking the Scream franchise (and its ensuing knock-offs), some of the Halloween movies, Good Will Hunting , Swingers and all of Kevin Smith's movies. While I did see Weird Science , I had been told that I must see The Breakfast Club , Pretty in Pink , and Sixteen Candles by man...

What happens when I receive an e-mail about a VIP pass sitting at the Observer 's front desk for me and a couple of other freelancers? I go by and talk with Audra for a little bit. Knowing that the pass is good for a show that's very close to my home, I then open my big mouth and ask, "Is anybody covering this?" That's how this review came to be.

This week's edition is with Jeff Klein from My Jerusalem. Jeff is the first person I have interviewed three different times. That's a record for me.

Well, since I talked about it on Twitter last week, it looks like I can make this official here: I strongly believe I have another book in me to write. That's book number three for me, officially. Even though I had an idea to write something about vampire zombies in suburbia during Christmastime (really), I've shelved that idea for now and will focus on something different. It will be a (gasp!) novel and I've already begun working on it. What it will be is an extremely loose concept: pop culture critics. That's all I can say for now since that's about all that I have in the can. I don't foresee this book taking years to write, but if that's what happens, then that's what happens. As exciting as it would be to write an entire book in the month of November, I'd rather create qualitative results over quantitative. Meaning, fifteen pages of useable stuff after a few weeks instead of fifty pages of crap that must either be chopped into pieces or throw...

When it comes to decorating, there is usually only one time of the year that I do it. And it's not Halloween. What gives? I've always enjoyed Halloween as an adult and a kid. I'm always happy to see what my nieces will be each year, and I'm very eager to check out horror flicks I have not seen before. Giving out candy can be fun, but in the neighborhood I live in, it can take a lot out of me. But for all my time out of my parents' house, the most I've done in terms of decorating was placing a plastic jack-o-lantern on the kitchen counter and filling it with candy. No skeletons, skulls, vampires, goblins, or ghouls. In the last five years, I've had the pleasure to carve jack-o-lanterns with my friend Amy. Making a party of the event by adding caramel apples, this has been a wonderful get-together every time. This year, though, Amy is moving out of town, taking a great job in Houston, so there probably won't be a party. But I'm adamant that M...