by the way, concerts suck if one is short like me. :-(

An excerpt from my personal Greymatter weblog, i hope you guys enjoy.
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last night was a great night. we finished striking the pub show from the night before and then we set-up for this persian new year show. after set-up, i came back to my room and Scott, his friend Sam (that was over) and i went to the Che Cafe. we did lida and melina to death. there was a long line, no doubt it was due to the locust playing that night. we got in and scott navigates us through the crowd until we're next to the stage.

we saw a couple of bands, of which Vue, i think, was the most notable (except for the locust, which was the major reason i was there, of course.) They had a good bassist and a cool keyboardist.

there was this one band there that was just horrible, but the crowd got really excited and started moshing. the funniest thing was to watch scott's friend sam push people back into the pit. sam was a really big tough guy and he sent people flying towards the stage. he could make the room sway to his every whim. sam was really cool. anyway, it was this band, with the forty-something-year-old lead singer that pointed out an annoying little kid who had been ruining the entire show for me. he was annoying and always jumping onstage trying to sing and dance with every band.

and then came...
the locust.

the locust was excellent. while they were onstage, some guy decided to get up onstage, get naked and jump on the ceiling. (many people hung from the ceiling previously) Well, let's just say he completed two of his tasks. He got onstage, he got naked. He jumped for the ceiling, held on, swung his legs over, and didn't get a good grip with his legs. He fell from the ceiling, headfirst. When the crowd picked him up off of the floor, everyone could see his shoulder area was bloody and he hurt his head terribly. the locust asked people in the audience to help escort the guy out.



after that, we came back to our room. i went to work. strike was a lot of work. it was only Mike, Erin, Bryan, Steve and i. it was funny, mike got a page from home, thinking it was Brandon asking if he needed any help, he answers it. He finds out that the rest of the tech crew are getting drunk, having a great time, AT HIS PLACE! lol. As mike would say,"COCKSUCKERS!"

After that, mike gave steve some brew, and gave erin and i a ride to the pub. i walked back to my room (around 3:00am now) to find scott and sam talking, and i joined in, i fell asleep sometime after four.

Thanks Blake, for listing your reasons. :) Well done, and I digged the analogies/ pop culture references.

Of things of little, but major relevance (being a forum of art), I'm going to see Jill Scott perform at the Universal Amphitheater tonight (with Lucy Pearl opening), which I'm REALLY excited about...Jill is wonderful R&B/Jazz/ spoken word artist...and her voice is phenomenal. A friend of mine told me to catch her when she was in town, and I love her CD "Who is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1 (right now she's replaced Fiona as my "IT" artist until my fave apple releases a new album :))....so I know I'm up for quite a treat. I'll put my review tomorrow on the NUMB, and offer my official TV "commentary/ rant/ bitchtalk" on Wednesday's night's crappy ass award show, the Crappy's...oh, wait a minute, the Grammys...a reason why most award shows suck and should be replaced by three hours of monkeys eating pie instead :)

For the time being, I pose a question to the numb posters out there. Most films have really sucked as of late (with some notable exceptions)...this disappointment with the quality of either big budget skin-and-blood fests or low brow, minimalist flicks sometimes inspires the casual film watcher to devise a film of their unique making. Being completely fantastical, if you were granted a sizable budget ($ 500, 000), a cast of 5 people (any actress, actor, or plant, or animal), and crew (a midget named Paco) to develop a Hollywood flick....what would the film be about, what would be its title and "catch line" (which you always see and hear repeatedly in trailers, newspaper ads, and MovieFone :)), and how would you convince the naive viewing public to see YOUR film instead of making out with their dates in the back of a Datsun, saving the whales, or spending quality time with their families? Now, the only req for this is for some CREATIVITY AND INGENUITY (not threatening people or releasing big budget porn...well, we can stretch the imagination :))...I'm sure all of you have thought at least once of creating your own film...so here's your chance to share it with us. Have fun :)

Ok, I've been thinking about this all day, and I think I can come up with 5. Let's not waste any time.

Problem #1- The inability of the Big Two (Marvel and DC) to take chances.

Have you read a book where Captain America was caught in a teen porn scandal? Has Superman contracted an STD? No, I thought not. The main publishers refuse to do bold and daring things with their mainstay characters. DC established the Vertigo line which does some amazing books (Like Preacher and Lucifer to name some) and Marvel is a few steps behind with the Marvel Knights line, but still, we never get to see Superman as being evil. If the main publishers refuse to push the limits, then the industry will die.

Problem #2- Lack of consistency

The creative team on many high profile books changes so rapidly that it's hard to follow. During my last days collecting the X-Men titles, I went through about 4 or 5 different creative teams. Every 4 issues, I'd get that tag-line "the all new, all different X-Men!" yet I was still getting the same crappy stories. $1.99 well spent, I assure you.

Problem #3- The dead rise again!

I hate it when characters are killed only to be revived several months later. It completely cheapens the toriginal tale. In Kevin Smith's amazing run on Daredevil, he killed off Mysterio, an old Spider-Man nemesis. It was a gripping story, highlighted by his sad death from cancer. Yet, 3 months later, in the pages of Spider-Man, there was Mysterio, alive and well. It's like being told that Bambi's mom got better and Old Yeller was brought back by a voodoo shaman. It's complete and utter bullshit.

Problem #4- Cancellations

There have been some excellent books to come along in recent years that were cancelled with little chance to prove themselves. It's like a sitcom that only airs 4 times before being cancelled. It never had a chance to live. JM DeMatteis did a great book called Man-Thing, where he took a pretty crappy character and built a damn good book around it. What happened? Cancelled after issue #8. Maverick? #6. Slingers? #9. I could go on, but I think I made my point.

Problem #5- Late shipping

Did you ever get really into a TV show, only to have it disappear from television for several months (ala Family Guy)? Comic books are much like that. The aforementioned Daredevil, while it may be an excellent series, was published roughly 4 times last year. 4 fucking issues in one year! How can I, the loyal reader, keep up with the story if I only get 22 pages every 3 months? Try reading Catcher in the Rye 22 pages at a time at 3 month intervals. It just doesn't work.

That's my bitch fest.
Oh, and problem #6 is John Byrne. I hate that guy.

That's exactly what I want both of you to do...good luck :)

Looks like Herbert is trying to get Omar and I to tear apart the comic book world. I can't speak for Omar, but I will do it happily. I just need some time to muse.

Topic for the week: FIVE THINGS WRONG WITH THE COMIC BOOK WORLD TODAY
For the experts, I want your input. Thanks.

Well, I'm a hard man to scare. I've been thinking about this question for days and have yet to come up with a single novel that I can recall reading that scared me. So, since I want to participate, I'm going to cheat (tee hee). The scariest "novel" that I've ever "read," is one that I had started to write several years ago, but gave up on because I had lost the emotion necessary to write it. The book was called Reflections and was the story of a man remarkably like myself and his fall from grace. While little more than nine or so pages ever saw the light of day, the entire novel is still sitting in my mind. When I "read" it, it terrifies me. Reflections was a story about how one event (true love betrayed) can completely destroy a man. Trevor Chase, the protagonist, was me, only a little taller and blonder. The things that I did to myself in that book still haunt me to this day. I turned myself into this deranged, twister, remorseless murderer. It scares me that I was willing to do these things to myself, even though it was only a story and one that never saw print at that. However, far scarier was the possibility that lie in the tale. I had made Trevor too much like myself and the situation that changes him far too believable. As I wrote it, I questioned myself. I wondered if I could really become this beast. For the past 2 years since I abandoned Reflections, I carry a small piece of Trevor with me as a reminder of what not to become.

Gee, umm. Scary stories? Hmm... i remember something entitled "molly" that scared the shit out of me. j/k it was just very disturbing, but you really should listen to "molly's lips" herb.


nothing scares me but life itself.


a novel has structure. A basic form that must be followed for books to sell well. Life on the other hand, has only two sure things: birth and death. Anything in-between is unpredictable. Life for one can last 50 seconds or 50 years. And then there's the question of: will it be 50 years of bliss or 50 years of suffering waiting for bliss.


i think the scariest thing is that one may not do all that one wants to with his/her life. That the opportunities will pass by. And that life will be uneventful. Or the opposite, a life so full of unstoppable dreadful events that one does not even have time to lick his/her wounds.

Photons have mass!? I didn't even know they were Catholic...!

Seeing how its "Hannibal" week :), I want to turn the musical mood toward horrific literature, and I pose a question to the numb:

Which is the scariest, most soul shattering novel (or graphic novel/comic book story) you've ever read...one that has left you staggered for days (R.L. Stine and Harry Potter doesn't count folks :))? Please share the essence of that literary work with us.

i love bob dylan.

another useless fact: bob heard jimi's cover and liked it so much, he began to perform it jimi's way.

btw, marvel, star wars and dragonball run through my veins. (more on this later)

herb, did you check out those bands i recommended to you a while ago? (especially one of the last ones, if you copied our conversation)

from the ends of the earth and back again, only to die here

Dear Lord, a kindred spirit. I am well versed in the tales of Marvel lore. It just surprises me to find others out there. You and I are more alike than Kevin could have ever told me.

are you unaware that marvel comics is a modern-day work of literature?

damn the man!