The Fate Of O.A.R.

O.A.R. are probably one of the bands in my top ten of all time. I have loved them for about three years now. I didn't pick up on them because of their show at Madison Square Garden, or Stories Of A Stranger, but because of Any Time Now. At that time I was in a "musical slump" I guess, and I hated anything that would come on the radio, because I was accostomed to liking whatever pop-garbage was on there. Nowadays I would go back in time and slap myself for liking that crap. Then I got hooked on Any Time Now and Live at Madison Square Garden when it came out (in fact I'm listening to About Mr. Brown from the Garden right now). It was like a godsend, the rhythms being permanently ingrained into my brain, humming them every second of the day. I know every lyric, every vocal twinge on those CD's, including 34th and 8th. When I found out O.A.R. was going to the Meadows up in Hartford I was estatic, and the same way when I found out they were putting out a new CD. That's when it all fell down hill.

I heard the single basically the day it came out on the website. This Town, catchy enough, but it was missing O.A.R's vibe, not to mention basically no sax, which was what caught my eye in the beginning. Then came What Is Mine, which was equally as terrible. It was a piss-poor attempt to throw back to the days of The Wanderer, and failed. Then All Sides came out, and I was looking for that one redeeming track that would tell me all would be all right. None was there, and I was down on my luck. I knew that this was over-produced poppy garbage, but listened, trying to find a song I liked, and there was none. Then the video for Shattered, a song that was terrible by O.A.R's standards came out, and they exploded.

I feel like now people are going to consider them a one-hit-wonder because of this song. They are by no means a one-hit-wonder, they just weren't that mainstream. I was proud, because now everyone was walking around singing the band that I was obssessed with, but then it started to fade. I saw the Blackberry commercial a couple months later, after my show on 8.09.08, which was incredible, because it was my first. I knew it was the beginning. I mean I had heard of it before, but now I realized it. O.A.R., the band in which I held my taste in music, was becoming a sell out.

They marched along this path, and just held my breath, and waited for them to be all up in arms, realizing their mistake. And now, on their facebook fan page, they announced they would be playing a complementary concert for NASCAR fans. Are you kidding me? I am so pissed off I am nearly at a loss for words. First they desert me and all the other hardcores with their pop garbage, then begin to sell out with a bad song and advertisements, but now... I didn't know they could sink so low.

A couple days ago, I was wearing my O.A.R. hoodie I got for Christmas last year (thanks to my parents, who rule), and a girl walked up to me saying "Oh I love O.A.R!" The conversation went as follows:
"Really?"
"Yeah totally!"
"Name three songs besides Shattered."
"Try Me, War Song, And Dinner Last Night."
"Try a song that isn't on All Sides."
"Don't know any..."

Now we have bandwagon fans. Bandwagon fans? Really? I don't know how many more people there are like that out there, but I am sure that there are. I am sure if I gave them all a copy of The Wanderer and Any Time Now they wouldn't like it, well a little bit sure. Either way, this is a wake up call. I doubt anyone from O.A.R. will ever read this little rant, but seriously if they are, wake the hell up. You guys are becoming a second rate pop act. I don't want any fans going to shows only knowing All Sides and TGOP. I am on the breaking strand with O.A.R. Don't make me cut my ties to the band that got me into music.

Rant Ends Here.
Andrew.

A Random Update

I mean I guess the title fits the subject of the blog eh? Either way some stuff has happened since I last updated. I have been kicked off the computer for the entirety of the fourth quarter (due to a B- in Science class). I am currently at the local teen center writing on a random computer (random things really have been happening (I mean I'm not saying that a B- in Science that I knew was coming is random, it is just you know... annoying?)) that is nice, but doesn't have flash, so I can't watch YouTube videos.

I've also kinda made some resolutions for the last semester of school. Basically I want to
1) Do my homework every night as to get better grades...
2)Go to sleep earlier, because I was going to bed at midnight during the third semester.
3) Yeah that's kind of it.

It's kind of self explanatory, I mean I just want to get better grades. I've basically been writing in a journal now because I've been cut off from all things digital ( :( ). I'll get through it, and hopefully get good grades.

There is a conversation going on beside me about parents with facebook. And now people who wont follow me on twitter (shameless plug : http://twitter.com/thatvloggerkid). There's some sort of party formation going on, and some hyper people dancing I guess, I'm not quite sure. Yeah, that's kinda it.

I could stay here for like twenty more minutes and write about how I finished Seize the Night, am working on The Gunslinger, trying to start The Andromeda Strain. But I really don't feel like it, and that sentence basically summed up this post.

Social problems could also be a topic of conversation, but considering as this is kind of a public blog, I don't really feel like I should discuss those issues here. So basically this post that is now terrible was meant to tell you that:

A) I like bullet points ^_^
B) I'm not going to be able to use computers a lot more often, so updates won't be as frequent, but possibly longer.
C) I've been reading more.
D) Life and social life hasn't really been going well.

Yeah so that's it. In a nut shell, it's life.

Bye,
Andrew

WCG Gamers? iBook G4s?

New Font? Why not? So yesterday night I was watching the horrid show WCG Ultimate Gamer. That's not to say it's all entirely bad, just mostly. I mean really, any show that pits gamers against each other in both real world challenges and game challenges, and somehow fails at it has something really odd in the mix. It's a great concept, like MLG, but was executed wrong, (not to say that MLG was executed wrong, I watched it most weekends (besides, what happened to MLG on USA anyway? That was all good fun.)) I think it started out wrong with the drama. I want to watch people kill each other at Halo, not weep about petty emotions. There was a fight between this guy Mark, and a girl with red hair named Ciji. Both cool people, but one thing is a little weird.

Mark says, well according to the little caption box that comes up to remind us apparently idiots what his name is three episodes into the season, (multiple times an episode) that his specialty is in fact, shooters. It's weird because the game of the week is NBA Live '09, and apparently as soon as the game is announced he goes wild, because apparently he loves NBA Live. Specialty still shooters?

I don't know what went wrong in the mix, but there is something so horridly boring about this show. I don't like nerd drama, and there should be positively none on a show about gamers. I don't really know any gamers who like drama, nor can handle it, but somehow drama seeps it's dark cape in whenever a camera is near. Shame Ciji got kicked off, by Mark. I don't like this show, but one thing: This guy is a douche. What kind of a guy starts some drama with a girl, kisses her, tells her it didn't happen, then kicks her off the show by purposely going into the elimination challenge. Man up and let her stay in the damn house. I'm done with this show. 0/10. I think Sci-fi (oh excuse me Syfy) should bring back "Who Wants To Be A Superhero?" That stuff was good.

Also, my iBook G4 came in from repairs today. I'd love to tell you I'm writing on it right now, but unfortunately the computer person we went to sucks, because he put the extra gig of RAM I asked for into the wrong computer, so we had to send it back, because my Dad doesn't trust me to put it in myself. Another issue we had was the batteries. Basically iBook batteries are designed to fry after two years, and I guess we have hit that time, because now we are down two iBook batteries, and when we go on the internet to try and find a battery, the Apple store sold it for an exorbitantly high $125.

I don't know what I'm going to do about that, but I honestly think we should save the $250 and just buy a Windows laptop, or just man up and buy the new Macbook. I want a computer back, I love them to write with, and this iBook just isn't going to go easy.
I guess that's all that happened for me this Wednesday April 15th, if I count WCG gamer from last night today's news. I basically went golfing today and read The Gunslinger, the first Dark Tower book, and those are all self explanatory. If I had to rate today, 7/10. Computer RAM fail, but the book was good, and I had pretty good tee shots.

Catch You Later,
Andrew.

Scarlet Fever, Easter, And Fishsticks

I haven't been feeling well for the past couple of days, including the day I randomly started blogging. Turns out I have Scarlet Fever, basically a combination of strep throat, a high fever, that ultimately results in a rash. I've been on antibiotics for two days now, and have progressively begun to feel better, but even that being said I'm certainly not at a hundred percent. Onto a happier note though.

Woke up this morning at around 7AM to discover that the Easter bunny had visited our house. Naturally, I say thanks to my parents, continue coughing, and checking out what I got. Just the new New Found Glory CD, which I was hoping to buy myself anyway, but it's all good. Then my parents, and they still are now, went golfing.

Clearly, we aren't a very religious family though. We used to be, but now it turns out that my parents have become devout golfers rather than Catholics. I myself have become and atheist and this doesn't really bother me, I chuckle at the irony of my parents saying we should try and go to church (of course I would protest), and then hitting up the course for eighteen holes on Easter Sunday. Now that's just me, but I think that would be one helluva confession.

I also saw the South Park episode from a few days ago. It was funny, I mean sure, the random vulgarity that makes South Park, well, South Park, is kind of the reason why I watch it. While clearly the joke was chuckles all around the first time I heard it, the joke being;

A: Do you like fishsticks?

B: Yeah

A: Like.... putting fishsticks in your mouth?

B: Yeah?

A: What are you, a gay fish?

Seriously, it was okay, and this messiah of a joke ultimately lead to an incredibly hysterical ending. Kanye West, who throughout the episode didn't understand the joke, finally comes out of a closet and admits that he is in fact a gay fish, proceeds to dive into the ocean, and starts humping some other gay fish. It was an alright episode with a funny ending. I don't rate stuff, but I guess if I had to rate this episode I'd give it a 8.5 out of 10. 

That's what's up for now,

Bye,

Andrew.

Tiered iTunes Prices? Really?

Wow. When I logged onto iTunes today, I went to check out the top one hundred songs for alternative, and I noticed that one of the songs, Santeria by Sublime (great band by the way), was $1.29. I clicked back into the music section, thinking it must be some music video, but my eyes didn't fool me. iTunes has started using tiered prices. Found out more on Gizmodo, they had a whole article on it. I love Apple, and seriously love iTunes, about a quarter of my library has been bought thanks to gift cards that have allowed me to get albums off iTunes, but man this sucks. The tiered pricing means that now every time a song gets popular, we, the consumers, are going to end up paying more for it. I mean, sure, for some, what does thirty cents do? But seriously, that thirty cents makes a difference, and I'd much rather keep it in my wallet than on a song.

Granted, I don't often listen to songs that are in the top one hundred all that often, but it's not all that nice to know that those people who are listening to bad music (well, at least in my opinion) now have to pay more for it. So for now, I am boycotting iTunes. I don't really have a choice. As for the Gizmodo article, I agree, I looked just now for about ten minutes, I could only find the songs that Apple has specifically put out at $0.69, but really, if you liked any of these songs, I'm sure you'd already have them.

So for now, I'm boycotting iTunes. This is a little stupid, while most songs are staying at $0.99, I shouldn't have to pay $1.29 for "I'm On A Boat". Bye iTunes, hello Amazon Unbox!

~Andrew