Happy New Year, I Guess

As another year rolls in, I once again find myself feeling bits of melancholy, stress, angst, happiness, excitement, and disappointment. What did 2008 really leave me with? Good memories, a lot of new friends, good experiences, etc. But I also realize as another year passes there has been a lot I've still missed out on, and my patience for seeing everything I want to narrows. At least this new year's eve I'll be home, and not out making one of the worst decisions of my life as I did last year.

Just as well, I've enjoyed the past few days, the remaining days of the year at This Is For You Fest (as well as the even more fun pre-show). I met a lot of cool people and saw a lot of sweet bands. But it also made me ache to see shows like that all the time. I love going to shows and the venue being packed to the brim with barely enough room for a circle pit. It even got me thinking that more small bar shows should be booked, as much as Blackbox needs the money, sometimes I miss the feeling of the tiny packed Uncle Lou's shows. The pre-show at Hoops on Saturday night left me with a feeling of well-taken nostalgia.

No resolutions this year, and no one to be with except a couple of my closest friends. No special someone to share it with, and strangely enough I don't care too much. I don't drink, so I obviously won't be getting drunk.

But I will welcome 2009 with a smile, and if I could, a hug.

Making friends around the globe.

Yoshi was cool. More blog-ness about TIFY Fest when I feel like it.

-

Last night I dreamed I was pregnant and I pissed oil.


Weird.

M(E)RRY CRUSTM(A)S?

Today, as we do every other 25th day of December every year, is the annual celebration of the historically inaccurate birth of Jesus Christ (Crust). I'm not a fan of this holiday, and haven't really been ever since a found out Santa doesn't exist a few years ago and the few years later death of my grandmother a couple years later. Nevertheless, it is time to be spent with loved ones, which I did. I spent most of the day with my mom and brother, and had a one-on-one lunch time with my dad. My aunt and grandpa came to visit for a while, and when they left my brother went home with my dad and I went to go see "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" (which opened today) with my mom. It was actually really good - highest recommendation. Oh, and for the greedy part of today I got a bike light and some cash. Sweet.

So now I'm back home and blogging, wondering where all the time went and looking forward to a hopefully eventful day tomorrow. I have to do a bit of shopping, but not the same kind of shopping everyone else will be looking forward to tomorrow. Critical Mass is also tomorrow, and upon returning from that I'll be setting things up for the next few days of This Is For You Fest and such...which I'm really excited about. Chris, Nathan, Tyler, and probably others will be taking shelter in my house for a couple days. Anyone else who wants to hang out around a backyard fire and a tent whilst staying sober, feel free to...just let me know.

On that note - NO DRINKING/DRUGS/VIOLENCE at TIFY or ANYTIME at Blackbox. I don't know why kids can't seem to understand that. It's not worth getting the place shut down, seriously.

Geez.

Okay. Whatever. I'm tired. Goodnight.

By the way -

You know what's fucking stupid?

Fighting over subcultural differences.

And homophobes.

And prejudice people in general.

Seriously.

In your fucking lungs.

Holy shit, I love Coke Bust.

Today is Monday, which means I'll be seeing them at TIFY in exactly one week - in hopes that TIFY actually happens. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Today has been rather uneventful, but enjoyable nonetheless. Spent the morning doing a rather small Food Not Bombs breakfast, with just Sebastian, Christina, Thomas and I attending the sharing. Afterward Thomas, Sebastian, Daniel, Abbey and I spent an hour or so indulging in Tijuana Flats unlimited chips and salsa. Yum.

Sad news - my best friend Meagan's dog of the past 10 years passed away today. I haven't lost a pet in a long time, and I'd really hate to lose my cat. I feel really bad for her, and I also miss her because I haven't seen her in almost a month.

Not much going on otherwise - but today officially starts my Winter Break. Let's hang out, please.

I lied.

Be at this, cuz I will:

One more thing.

I think I wanna cry:

One thing.

12/16/08

Im currently enjoying a cup of coffee and listening to Strike Anywhere, who I haven't listened to in a while. This band makes me feel so nostalgic, as they were one of the first punk bands I got into. I still love them, as I'm not one to abandon old favorites.

At Stardust 12/12/08 -(from left) Elliot, Myself, James, Lindsay, Chris Fromdeland, Cy...in ghost form.

As I talked about for days on end, I spend last Friday having a campout of sorts in my backyard. It went really well, attended by everyone pictured above. Much of the time was spent talking around the backyard fireplace my mom bought from a garage sale and eating delicious foods and snacks. We ended up burning 3 logs and couple phone books to keep the fire going until around 2:30 in the morning. The next day Elliot, Chris, Cy and I hung out for a while, ran a few errands for my mom, and I made some really tasty stuffed peppers. Everyone left around 6, but Elliot returned later that night and we went for a ridiculous walk downtown - I never before realized it was so populated with such a gross crowd of people. We then returned back to my house and Elliot drove back home, and the fun was over.

Anyhow, life's been treating me well lately, albeit an unfamiliar feeling of loneliness has been creeping up on me, but for now I can brush it off.

This weekend is Orlando Punk Fest at Blackbox. I will probably not attend, seeing as I may be out of town. If at all, I'll just go Friday. This Is For You Fest is also fast approaching - which I WILL be at. Also, I'll be setting my tent up in my backyard again around then - so if anyone cares to have some (sober, please) fun camping and such during those days, feel free to join.

Anyhow, here's what to look forward to this month, in flier form:


Lata.

-Dylan

This house is

very angry. What a bummer.

On the other hand, I discovered something I found really cool today. Tom Gabel (of you guessed it - Against Me! fame) had a band called The Adversaries before AM! which was totally, totally unlike Against Me! at all. If anything, they were very crusty sounding hardcore punk - even sounding akin to bands like Charles Bronson at times. REALLY good, nonetheless, and I'm not just saying that because AM! is my favorite band of all time. Download that shit here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=98QQXVZ8.

Anyways, I'm camping in my backyard tomorrow. Yes, I'm aware that's a very juvenile thing to do but I don't really give a fuck. It's fun.

Goodnight.

Lack Of Internets

I haven't had much internet/computer access the past couple days, and it feels good! I'll still keep posting on here when I can though.

As I may have stated, Chris and I spent the past Saturday in St. Pete hanging out riding bikes and meeting people, as well as reconnecting with old faces. We managed to take a few pictures as well:

Chris Fromdeland enjoying his banana at the farmers market.


Despite the look, that soup was really good. Sweet potato tomato basil. Hmmmm.



Taking pictures with Jesus Crust.

Enjoying coffee downtown.

Not drinking with Haley and Carly.

Chris upping the punx!

Being grym!

A creepy billboard in Tampa...


It was a lot of fun. I can't wait to get out of Orlando again next month - to Miami!

2 THINGS:

HOLY FUCK:



and.

Uh...
That is all.

Good.

With a pleasant nip in the air and a good feeling overall throughout my body, today's been quite nice - simple, but nice. Except for the 22 dollars spent on mailing out ebay packages - I really think I was just being profiled and charged way more than I should have been. It was just 2 pairs of jeans and a hoodie. I don't think I'll ever use the College Park post office again.

Tomorrow is Orlando Food Not Bombs, of course - come share food at Lake Eola park at the corner of Central and Osceola at around 5:00. I'll be there. Tomorrow is also is a semi band practice for Chris, Nathan, I, and maybe Tyler. I'm excited!

- Dylan

Getting away.

Sign I found posted on a pole on Edgewater on the way to school. No joke.

This weekend I will be returning to one of my favorite cities in Florida - St. Pete. I look forward to going back and getting out of Orlando. Lately I've felt the need to get away from here, as much as I love it. Hopefully all will go well and it will be just as fun as I look forward to it being.

In other good news, it seems I may be in a band now - sweet (as opposed to the one Wes and I may start too). The other night when Chris and Nathan came over we jammed a little bit jokingly playing power-violence sounding stuff that we made up off of the top of our heads. I did vocals, Chris played guitar, and Nathan drummed - on the floor. We actually ended up sounding pretty good, funny enough, so after some thought I brough the idea of being an actual band up to Chris who brough it up to Nathan. We all thought it sounded like a good idea so we asked our friend Tyler Legacy (yes, that is his real name) if he'd be down to play bass and he said yes. Sweet. I hope we can make it work despite living in different cities. Seeing as I'm not as into hardcore as the rest of the band and they're not as into crust and the like as I am, power-violence seems like a good medium. It will pretty much be the shit.

I've also recently discovered how much I fucking love Amebix - which should have been automatic anyways, but I digress. I've also discovered that i really like From Ashes Rise - I'm a sucker for melodic stuff, and theyre really kicking my ears' ass right now. "Nightmares" is a really good album, and I hope it doesn't get added to my list of "really good albums that i listened to once and forgot about".

One last note - I really wish there were other punks at my school.

I think it's time for a change.