NP: Pig- Salambo

One more week to go. Its been 5 weeks since the Rally of Turkey, and this drought is about to end.

For future reference,

My top-6 picks are

1. McRae
2. Solberg
3. Makinen
4. Martin
5. Rovanpera
6. Sainz

yeah, I realize that Gronholm will probably be in there somewhere, but its so hard to root for that guy.

Now, my (sort of more offical) Fantasy Team consists of

• Drivers: Petter Solberg & Colin McRae
• Co-Drivers: Denis Giraudet (Didier Auriol) & Michael Park (Markko Martin)
• Cars: Rovanpera's Pug & Sainz's Xsara
• Tires: Pirelli

Classes start this week too. Man, this week is just going to suck.

Luckily, I just picked up Colin McRae Rally 3. Damn fun. Now I just have to resist the urge to go buy a steering wheel :)

NP: Conjure One- Tears from the Moon

Alright, so I went to go buy the new issue of RallyXS down in Sacramento. It just went to news stands in Europe last week, but I thought a boy could hope that some of the bigger chains might have it. Borders, Barnes and Noble and Tower all had the previous issue in stock, as I somewhat suspected, but I didn't want to make the trip a total bust. Glancing through the lastest issue of the on-and-off paper publication of Industrial Nation, I found out that Rhys Fulber finally released a solo album. I picked it up, along with Pig's Genuine American Monster; reviews follow with some other interesting tid bits I picked up.

Pig- Genuine American Monster (1999)

Released after 1996's Sinsation, its good to see the experimental Raymond Watts back. Don't get me wrong, I think Sinsation is great, but I miss the old experimentalism of Black Mambo and most of the stuff of a Poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Ray's love of consonance is back three times with Prayer, Praise & Profit, Riot, Religion & Righteousness, and Disrupt Degrade & Devestate. All are great songs, but I'm really getting tired of this naming scheme. Apart from minor quibbles, the greatest thing about this album is that it is exactly where the current crop of rage-rock seems to want to be. Gringing hardcore guitars with electronic beats. I guess tomorrow we can all see if Linkin Park has finally caught up to where Watts was in 1999.

There is a fine line between sex appeal and charisma. That said, Ray is once again, one of the most charismatic artists in industrial music today. And this album is no exception; its another very strong outing from industrial's most famous Brit.

Conjure One- Conjure One (2002)

What can one say about Rhys Fulber, the man is a serious musician. He has brought us, arguably, the best albums from Front Line Assembly, Delerium and produced and/or remixed Fear Factory's best outings (thank god Burton C. Bell has left Fear Factory). So, what do we expect from this man's first solo album? Hard, soft, experimental, ambient? The cover states that there are guest vocals from Sinead O'Connor, Marie Clair D'Ubaldo and Poe. Okay, so he's probably going to be pulling more from his Delerium/Sarah McLauchlin style, that fine he's really good at it. But then I see that Junkie XL helped produce it. Junkie XL is one of the only (if not only) electronic acts on the typically metal Roadrunner Records, a good friend of Dino Cazeras (again the Fear Factory connection, and probably the reason why he's on Roadrunner Records), and the remixer of the critically panned new Elvis song (its actually pretty good, in my opinion).

Pop it in, what do I get, the softer edge of Rhys and a damn fine album. Tears from the Moon with Sinead O'Connor is just plain beautiful. If you are expecting something as hard as FLA or Fear Factory, do yourself a favor and pass this album by (and perhaps grow up a little). Else, its brilliant. I can't really say much more, except that its really, really good. Expect Karma-era Delerium updated to sound more organic and modern.

Other music news that I recently dug up:

Although Tyler has only been able to force one Tarmvred song down my throat, I am dutifly excited that they are touring and will be in Hollywood towards the end of April. Also, Kush looks like it might be an interesting project rising from the breakup of Fear Factory. Raymond Herrera and Christian Olde Wolbers from Fear Factory are teaming up with Stephen Carpenter of the Deftones, and B-Real of Cyprus Hill. Could be good, but has plenty of potential to be quite awful. Junkie XL is going to be coming out with his third studio album (the second one never made it to the states if I remember correctly). With guest like Gary Numan, Chuck D, Robert Smith and Safron (Republica) showing up, it could get interesting. But then we have guest artists like Tiesto and Sasha (from Sasha & Digweed) that make me wonder if the album is really going to be as strong as I hope. Nothing agains Tiesto or Sasha, its just I would like to keep my Trance influences to a minimum. I guess I'll have to hear it before I judge.

I'm not really one to discuss politics online, but Michael Moore, you make me ashamed to be a liberal.

We do not need you screwing up our cause with your lack of compassion. The last thing decent liberals need is a Rush-Limbaugh-type like you.

Just do the world a favor and shut the fuck up.

Unless of course you want to box with Rush, then I'd pay to go see that. Wait, maybe not. I don't know how entertaining it would be to see to you two run out of breath in two minute increments...

So, senior year in high school, my buddy and I create one of the gnarliest catapults for our high school physics class. The main spring was from a dirt bike shock that we disassembeled (boy was that fun). The rest of the machine was built from rusty metal we found around my friends-dad's scrap yard. Fun. We didn't win the competition, our welds broke from the force of the motorcycle spring when we did our first run. Fun. We still got a trophy for having the most violent looking catapult our physics teacher had ever seen.

5 years later...

I come home on spring break from UCSB and notice that there is (for lack of a better term) only about one lynch-pin left holding the thing together. This is bad. The dirt-bike shock spring is still compressed 1/2 an inch (as it has been for the past 5 years) and there is one bent and rusty little bolt keeping my catapult from turning into my own version of a Bouncing Betty.

Problem: disable this rusty piece of crap for crap without hurting myself or giving myself tetnus. Fun.

First thought: maybe if I find a hacksaw, or cutting torch in my dads tool shed, I could cut the necessary welds or something (I am trained in using both of these tools, so its not quite as bad of an idea as it may seem). Crap. That would put me inches away from the thing while I release the old'n'rusty spring.

Second thought: drop it from a really high vantage point and let gravity do the work. Gravity decided to laugh at me. The contraption didn't budge after the 25 ft. fall to *soft* ground. Fun.

Third thought: Use a big rock, and let gravity do the work. After three tosses, I just ended up bending everything. Once again, gravity ended up being entirely unhelpful. Fun.

My dad saw what I was attempting to do and came down with large sledge hammer and a pair of saftey goggles. After a few quick swings, he turns to me and says in his best mocking-Ward-Cleaver voice "You see, there is a big hammer solution to just about every problem."

NP: Hellbent- Chromed

So on the way to Placerville from Santa Barbara, I decided to pick up some new (used) cd's. Browsing Dimple records in Folsom is one of my fondest teenage memories. I'm glad to see it hasn't changed much, even though a Borders just opened up down the road.

Anyways, I got a Depeche Mode - Little 15 (single:1991). I don't think I really need to write anything down for this cd. It should speak for itself. If it doesn't, you should probably stop reading my journal right now. and never come back. please.

Next is Hellbent- Hellbent 0.01 (1996). Not too bad. I believe its the premeire release from the Industrial supergroup. Not too bad, but it sounds a little dated by now. If you can find it for $5 bucks like I did, and you like minimalist electro-industrial, definitely pick this one up. It will be a good album to pop into the cd player on those days when you feel 'every record I own is overplayed.' This album is perfect for those days, because you will never be able to overplay it, its simple not good enough! But it is definitely good enough to listen to on the aforementioned 'days.' I think Hardcore Vanilla is much better. The addition of Jared Louche and subtraction of Charles Levi and Dylan Thomas sum a much better studio performance. I mean, who can argue with songs like Forget You and Rubber Girls With Knives.

Last Princess Superstar- Strictly Platinum (1995). Got this one on a whim due to a recomendation that a friend of a friend gave a friend and ended up passing along to me (not the recomendation, just the news of the recomendation). Anyways, what do I say about this album. Its the debut release for the Princess, and I think she is a little confused. It seems like she can't decide if she wants to be art-school-dropout rock or hip-hop. Throw in the fact that almost every song has radical tempo changes, and now my head hurts. Thankfully, from what I hear, she has decided to go with the hip-hop and drop the garage-rock-crap. I think I like it, but I'm not too sure. It is for sure a fungal album, so hopefully it will grow on me more over time.

I guess I should really learn my lesson and not feed the trolls.

Oh well, C'est La Vie.

Hah, eat that finals.

NP: Canibal Ox- F-word (Rjd2 remix)

I just killed the Compiler final. Woohoo!

Now to go brush up on my American Religions until 1865...

NP: Hellbent- Forget You

Interesting, so I just decided to write in my journal. It has nothing to do with the fact that I am in the midst of finals, and *everything* besides studying becomes a priority.

Good News: 91% on my Networking Final. Plus I finished both of my History papers

Bad News: I still have a Compiler Design final and American Religion final still to deal with.

Lets see how I feel on Tuesday afternoon...