What to say, what to say. It’s 2:08AM. Been going to bed around 3 as of late and it MUST STOP. I’m getting way too tired in the day and my bed here just isn’t comfortable enough so as to allow me to rest up properly. Every day pretty recently I’ve been having blood-shot eyes by around 8:30, 9PM. I swore the other day that I’d be going to bed so much earlier, but awesome-ass things just keep emerging and I’m engaged until the super early morning hours. Tonight’s distraction away from sleep was Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Yeah, I’m pretty sure blogs, forums, Facebook statuses, and Twitters are all a-buzz with MW2 updates. But shit. It really is a cultural phenomenon within the gaming world. Jon told me that 5 million people bought it at its LAUNCH at MIDNIGHT. 5 million people in the U.S. lined up for it. Ain’t that crazy? Let’s do the math on that.
$59.99 x 5,000,000 = $299,950,000. Yeah. This game is equally making over $300 mil. Isn’t that crazy to think about? Just on the FIRST MORNING it amassed $300 mil. To date, Men In Black, the movie, has made less than $600 million. Movies are universal enjoyment… video games are definitely a niche. To me that’s pretty stellar. Like, just imagine that kinda success. I know my name isn’t attributed to anything jaw-dropping. I mean, I’ve had some poetry published… and I’ve had my music on the radio twice… but whatever. Nothing worth writing home about… yet.
Definitely this past week I’ve been seeing myself in a different light musically. It pretty much all started Monday with my performance of One More Time at Kafein. My stage antics still suck and I can’t talk to an audience worth a damn… but I still killed that song and Joe was definitely singing it long after I was done playing. His words at the Harrison stop were, “Dammit! That song is so catchy!” You’re damn right its. 
And then yesterday at band practice with Brett and Shawn, I had Brett saying multiple times, “I swear dude, I feel like I could cry- you’re amazing!”. And jamming last night with Joe at 1 in the morning? Yeah. I came up with some super sick stuff on drums. Oh! And back up a bit, I believe I had Paul grinning from ear to ear when he heard the drums I wanted to add to his new songs for the Stellanecks. Just… fuck yeah. I’m in a very good place musically, and now that I’m taking the time as of late to really practice my instruments, I’m starting to feel very, very accomplished.
Speaking of Paul, I met with him last night to discuss what’s going to be happening with his band the Stellanecks and the recording of their album, “Sweep the Sky.” It was a really good brainstorming session and the one thing I loved most was his comment about me. I forgot why he said this to Dom (the other member), but Paul’s words were, “Dude, I know Mort. He’s gonna give us all he’s got and work harder for us than anyone else possible, just busting his balls to get us the best album we can.” It was really endearing to know that that’s how he views me. Lately I’ve been feeling kinda lame in terms of my success, but I really feel like it’s just been due to a lack of inspiration. Nothing has been inspiring me as of late. All my fuel used to come from Harriet’s love. It just got me going like crazy. And without it I need to find some sort of new muse. The last album I heard that got me amped was This Will Be the Death of Us by Set Your Goals. While Raditude, Armistice, and even Lost In Suburbia have been super sick albums that I’m a huge fan of… they haven’t inspired me. And shit. It’s been forever since I’ve seen a movie or an anime that really got my creative juices pumping. I’ve exhausted a lot of good art this past year… it’s safe to say I’m in a dryspell and just need to let this drought happen.
So what exactly AM I doing creatively these days? I’m playing in Brett Cooper’s band on bass, I’m reading/playing through a Motown Bass Charts book, I’m playing for the Window Theatre, I’ll be recording the Stellanecks, I’m reading The Gunseller by Hugh Laurie, I’m trying to write blogs about zen teachings, and I’ll be devoting a lot of time very soon to experimenting with Pro Tools 7 LE. Word up.
Right now I’m listening to the music from Samurai Champloo. Such good music… such a great anime. I miss those days where I had so much new/good anime to consume. I’m at that point in my life where it’s very difficult to find a new anime because it seems I’ve watched all the good ones. I think the last show I watched that was great was like… Magikano. And that was last semester. Sad day! I haven’t even watched a Japanese film in forever. Been meaning to watch My Neighbors the Yamadas and 9 Souls with Harriet. Hopefully that’ll still happen. But I wanna watch something I haven’t SEEN. I tried watching this documentary on Akihabara, but it was just such a shoddy production that I didn’t have to determination to sit through it. Twas cool… nothing more.
However, tonight I started watching this fucked up movie called SALO (or, the 120 Days of Sodom). I really don’t care for it, but the stuff happening on screen is so interesting and depraved that I can’t bring myself to turn it off. Basically, it’s this true story (I think- otherwise there’s no way a plotline of this caliber would make it onto the Criterion Collection) about how these boys and girls were captured and taken away to a private Italian Villa where these fascist leaders set up a type of sexual retreat where they were allowed to do whatever they pleased to the kids. And basically it’s a TON of homosexual sodomy occurring randomly and usually painfully. It’s not exactly cringe-worthy… but it is most definitely one of those movies that’ll have you saying, “What the fuck?” quite a bit. I dunno. Do I recommend it? Nah. But if you’re looking for something controversial and something that’s gonna stomp, jump, and destroy a bunch of taboos- then Salo’s your movie.
Yeah. p.s.- it’s been a while since I’ve seen a great movie. Anti Christ is totally one of the best movies of the year/potentially one of my all-time faves- but it was just so insane that I feel like I didn’t enjoy it WHILE I was there. It’s one of those movies that yes- if I think about it, it’s a beautifully haunting film. But I have a hard time admitting that it was so good just because of the subject matter. Haha… I really do want to see it again so badly- that imagery is STILL stuck with me. But at the same time, the movie is exhausting to sit through. Part of me doesn’t know if I can have the strength to endure it’s brief hour and a half runtime again. Fantastic Mr. Fox and 2012 are out. I really want to see those. Fantastic Mr. Fox is reviewing incredibly well and 2012 just looks like an onslaught of mindless fun. Saw Donna today- she said This Is It is phenomenal and Kirby said the same, so you know me and the Duemigs will be making a trip to the theatre for that one.
Anyways, this has been a pretty lame blog and I’m super tired, so I should just grab some shuteye. But… even though I find these types of blogs “stupid” nowadays… I really should do them more often. I’m going to kick myself so hard when I have basically all of my highschool career documented here through my WordPress blogs, yet none of my collegiate career. Granted, there’s been a lot going on that I really have purposefully chosen to neglect writing about. But I can’t keep doing that. Life is filled with joy, sadness, triumphs, defeat- I need to capture that all.
Goodnight, then.
p.s.- Chris wrote me today saying how badly he wants to just be able to hang with me 2 to 3 times a week, chilling out and just talking with some good music on in the background. There’s a man I wish more than anything that I could do the same with. Fuck that ocean that separates us. Haha.. and I have to include that the kid has no problem admitting he wants so badly to be related to me. Now that’s raditude.
