Retail vs Corona Halloween Bash Style

Buenos dias! 

It's 5 am on an October day in California. The pandemic still rages on and on. The fight against covid has been arduous and never ending, yet we still persevere in the sector of work retail. Why? Because we have to. Because to persevere means to get the job done and do it well. Here I'd like to go into the inner details of what retail work at the grocery store has been like at this current stage of the pandemic. 

a) So the work itself has become more intense and faster paced. There are more customers going out and shopping for their own groceries now that the vaccines are out and people feel a lot more comfortable about being back out in public. Our staff has dwindled in the last couple months, due to young people quitting and older people retiring. And on top of that our staff we do have is limited to part time hours (20-25) a week because management doesn't want to give them the extra hours. Leading us full time workers to have to work that much harder. The lines build up and when I turn around to see who's also cashiering alongside me, there's oftentimes only one or two people. 

b) Some of the staff are still getting sick with covid here and there. It goes unreported at our store because of confidentiality and all that. But isn't that something that we, as workers, deserve to know? Instead, oftentimes, the affected person takes a few days off randomly and then suddenly they're back perhaps 3 or 4 days later. When asked about if they had covid, they often say, "I had a cold." Again, most of these covid infections go unreported but it's at least partially known because the infected person is known to be sick and known to be out for a few days. Obvious troll is obvious. 

c) The actual work day itself has become more normalized and streamlined for me in particular because my work schedule was shifted from all night shifts to all morning shifts. Getting up in the morning was always my nemesis but now that I'm used to it I've realized that waking up in the morning and working throughout the early day is actually better for my body. "Oh, that sweet circadian rhythm." 

d) At the store we still deal with a lot of anti-maskers who refuse to wear a facemask inside our store. At this point we sort of just have to accept it and move on. Our store doesn't have security throughout the day and only sometimes at night. It's just not worth it to confront these people as oftentimes, they are aggressive Trump types that cannot listen to reason due to their pea-sized brains. Upper management sometimes tries to get involved but even they themselves are scared of these people. Trump types love to use intimidation and oftentimes it works.

e) The cleaning situation at the store is for the most part pretty good. As workers, we strive to make sure the place doesn't look or smell like a pigsty. The cleaning is more important in the departments (produce, deli, meat, etc) but even on the front end we oftentimes spend a lot of time washing down the registers. Squeaky clean!

f) Lastly, the morale of the retail work world has always been extraordinarily low. Right now in October there's a small movement of workers trying to rise up, fight the man, and demand better wages and benefits. It's called Striketober, but will it really amount to anything? The biggest workers strike was the teachers strike back in 2018, and that went well, right?

Well, the retail world is full of people who just don't want to be there or are stuck there because of whatever reasons. Right now, morale is at a historic low. The workers are hurting badly: they're not getting the hours they want (either number of hours or the time they want), their pay isn't increasing for years and years, and on top of that the company took away our $20/hour increased pay, which only lastly 5 months. Its no wonder these people are down in the dumps. 

With companies like this life is very stressful. Most of these people have children and have to provide for themselves as well as their families. These are mostly hard working Hispanic people and occasional young white, middle eastern, and Asian employees. The fight against covid while working retail has never been harder. And the scary thing is that for most of these workers, their struggle is invisible to the public. Sometimes the stress there can be overbearing and frightening, a scanner darkly during Halloween. 

The public is still much in love with nurses, cops, and fire fighters fighting the pandemic than with the people who are providing them food to cook for their families. That is the reality. It was never going to be easy.

Keep the faith. 

I don't know about you, But I'm feeling 22

Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the internet, 

It's been another birthday. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling twenty-two. That's what I said when I lost in black jack. I'm actually about a decade older than that but isn't age really just spirit, daesein? Yes, I'm feeling another year older, and yes it's harder to wake up early in the morning, and yes it's more tiring being on my feet at work all day, and yes I've got lots of laundry to do, and yes all my relationships are like a chess game, etc. But in the end I still feel like a young grasshopper, a mere sapling awash in the pools of the universe, awaiting the wheel of fate. 

I spent my birthday weekend in Las Vegas with friends. The trip itself wasn't remarkable but I had a lot of fun playing black jack, baccarat, and roulette with friends, learning it on the fly, as well as some slots as the casino. My favorite meal was a Monte Cristo sandwich. The bread had the texture of fried chicken. I would take a bite and then drink some coffee to go with it. 

There were three metaphysical moments I experienced over that birthday weekend in Vegas. 

1) On the drive there, when we left California and entered into Nevada, there were these dust storms and doom-inspired mountains. A sign on the highway read Shoshone. When we passed that landscape and that sign, I had some kind of meta moment in time. Something about the land or something. 

2) On the drive back there was a car accident on the road leaving Nevada and going to California. This is probably a big drinking/smoking in the car road. Anyway, so this car gets into an accident and the car is completely totaled, especially the front end and the car seat was crumpled/crushed into itself, meaning this person was killed instantly on impact. It really is the city of sin, for I saw Death himself, staring back at me from the abyss. 

3) On the last day the guys wanted to go to a antique shop to look around. I stayed in the car with the window down and did a lot of reading and got some rest. I was in that state between wakefulness and intense sleep, meanwhile the weather outside was going from sort of hot to more mild coolness and breeze in the mid afternoon hours. It was the most relaxing part of the trip. 

As if that wasn't enough, as soon as I got back, on the next day's morning, I had an 830am-5pm shift, right back into the saddle again, ad infinitum. 

But you know, I'm feeling good. I said a prayer for the deceased in the car accident, did some meditating in the car, and turned on Handel's Water Music to vibe out to something flowery. And you know what? Life is good. I'm older but I still feel young. Covid is still raging but I'm healthy. My house is in order: I'm reading books, I'm playing guitar, I have a for work life and a for fun lifestyle that most people would be jealous to have or can't have because they're busy doing other things like trying to make ends meet. Most people are stuck in obligations at work or have kids, or both, and meanwhile, I'm out here trying to figure out how I'm going to get Korean spicy spare rib soup for dinner or how I'm going to manage to find time to finish the Ring Cycle. 

The world from say 2004-2021 went through a drastic cataclysmic change. I cannot see the world in the same way as it was say in 2004. Covid has created a new system in which we have to learn to find a new way to life. That's really all we can do. 

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling twenty-two.

A Super Spreader Event In My Town

To whom it may concern:

Tonight at my local retail grocery job, we had a what is called a super spreader event. Tonight was no average night. No sirree Bob. It was October 31, 2020. Halloween night. Halloween is a really big deal in LA of course. 

I clocked in at 7 pm and the front end was busy. Around 8 pm the managers were spending a lot of time outside trying to disperse a large crowd that was getting bigger and bigger. The crowd began gathering bigger and bigger. My estimate was that there were over 100 people [maybe more counting the ones going inside and outside the store], mostly millennials, standing around in the middle of the parking lot. They were huddled very close together, chatting among themselves. There were many young men and women who did not wear masks, guaranteeing this becoming a super spreader event. 

Now, I know that Halloween is a big deal in LA. And I know hot girls want to show off their costumes. And guys want to party but they can't have a real party. So they have a tail gate party outside of a grocery store. There are serious problems with this whole situation and I needed to jot down what happened tonight right away so you can get the information straight from the horse's mouth. 

My closing front end manager is a nice lady, a Filipino woman. But this was her first weekend closing and she could not deal with this situation. Don't get me wrong, I don't think any manager could've dispersed that crowd. She did everything she could. She called the cops and the cops came but they also did not and could not disperse this crowd. This crowd was determined to party all night in the store parking lot. They didn't leave until nearly after midnight. I've never seen anything like it. 

Another issue is the fact that many of these young people partying outside came inside the store not wearing masks. The manager told many of them to put on masks or leave but almost all of them snapped back at her with excuses for why they had to stay inside the store. One person said, "I lost my keys, I have to stay in here and look for them." 

The blatant disregard for human life was on full display here. The decline of the western male and female is on full tilt. Our millennials here in America are stupid as fuck. This is why Asia and Europe laughs at us. They would rather tailgate party, talk very loudly without wearing masks, while huddled close up together, than have a small get together and practice social distancing. 

America is in for a rude awakening. There's nothing but death and misery ahead in the coming months. It's going to be a dark winter. But at least we had a fun Halloween night, right?

October 1st, 2020, Thoughts

So, here we are, 2020, October 1st. Let me start that by saying it's a blessing all of us reading this are even alive today. As of this writing over 200,000 Americans have died due to COVID and it's expected that at least 400,000 will die by the end of the year, and those are considered "good numbers". Grim to say the least. Tonight I will jot down some ideas on life, politics, work, music, reading, writing, a little bit of everything to show some appreciation for the fist day of October. Happy Halloween folks!

The reaction on the internet today is mostly praise or disavowal of the Presidential Debate last night. Most of my Facebook feed was disavowal but you can imagine that some of my right-wing friends were praising the President. It easy to see that Trump would never condemn white supremacist groups, in fact, I believe he's only condemned white supremacy once as President, and he only did so when he was asked three times, and said it with no conviction. 

So we know that Trump is a white supremacist. We know that he likes the fact that these right-wing militia groups support him. He will use them as force if necessary to quell violence between right-wing racist groups and leftist protesters who get a little too aggressive, maybe Antifa or BLM. He would be cool with using the Proud Boys as an intimidation tactic in black and brown communities to get people to steer clear from their voting stations, so they can't vote, so they can't vote for Biden, and so they [Proud Boys] can undermine American democracy. Yes, we know all that. 

So it seems fair to say that we don't need to spend much air time on national TV news talking about how much of a racist he is and how he won't condemn right-wing white supremacy groups. Another thing we know is that most Americans are middle of the road. They aren't entirely overly left-wing or right-wing, they're mostly moderates in middle class or lower middle class. The one thing I don't get is how upset and/or surprised white people are over the, "stand back and stand by," which is a military language. 

Dear white people: 

Stop being surprised by Donald Trump. We all know what the man is about, what he stands for, and how he's corrupted every aspect of American government and organizations. That's why his cronies are trying right now to jump off the sinking ship. Former Trump supporters and government officials are trying to get Biden elected. That's very telling. We, collectively, as a nation, as a body politic need to stop being surprised by what Trump does and come together as a country to elect a real leader, in this case, Biden/Harris. 

The more airtime that Trump gets on TV and/or online news for being a "race-baiting, xenophobic bigot," the more we see that he's a disgusting monster. The problem is that's all old news. If people keep thinking like that, they'll say, "this is why I hate politics, I'll stay clear of all that shit, I don't need to vote," and that's how he will get lots of more votes because he will make good people think that politics and voting isn't for them. Obviously those people are intimidated and will be fearful about taking action by voting against him. I know lots of people like this in my friendship groups. It is what it is. 

But we have to stay vigilant. It's much harder being a good man than an evil man. Nobody ever said having a democracy would be easy. That's why we're here. 

In other news I had a great jam session with my friend Jason, who plays the alto saxophone. I'm beginning to get a better feel for jazz guitar. I realized in a simple jam that if I play a lot of simple triad [chords that are only three notes] but use a lot of inversions, that I can get that real authentic jazz guitar sound from the 50s. Instead of relying on big chords all the time I need to play more triads to play smoother and faster chord inversions. Chord inversions are the sounds of the same chords but the notes are re-arranged. On piano it's a little more tricky to play but on guitar there's a physicality to it, a formula form, if you will. It's all shapes, chord shapes that every guitarist knows, but maybe haven't played extensively before. 

Also, I've learned to tighten up my solos more. I start with a slow melody, expand upon it, get some speed in there, and end it with some more melodies. I'm beginning to tell a story with my solos, a beginning, middle, and end. Things make a lot more sense that way rather than playing everything fast. Heck, I think jazz guitar solos sound better when they're slower anyways because its more bluesy, and I think it meshes more with the saxophone if I don't shred that much, if at all. A more moderate, medium tempo for the licks gives it much more form, in my humble opinion. 

In other news, I'm about 100 pages away from finishing Tolstoy's War and Peace. This novel took so much out of me on an emotional level and a philosophical level. I thought a lot about love, misery, despair, existentialism, war, brotherhood, wife-hood, and much more. What made War and Peace so difficult for me was not the fact that its 1200 pages long; rather it was the fact that every sentence is somewhat thought provoking, every line-paragraph-page-chapter-book kept making me think a lot, more and more, even when I wasn't reading the novel. It's a powerful force. I will definitely read the book Tolstoy considers his first real novel too at some point: Anna Karenina. But War and Peace is unforgettable. Most of the readers I run into at work say that they've never managed to read it, either out of intimidation of the challenge of such a long emotive work, or possibly they think the 1200 pages much too long. The book is worth the time and effort to read it and it reveals much. I'll be sure to write my last post about it tomorrow or sometime thereafter. 

Work has been much slower this year due to COVID. In most of my years working this current job, I was working over 40 hours a week due to being the go-to guy who helps out and covers other peoples' shifts. But due to COVID the store has cut down most employees' hours so much that most of the emergency staff hired from the beginning of the pandemic have already left or quit, most of them did so after only a month or two of work. It's crazy that the company is cutting hours so much even though my store is a million dollar store [its like LAX, you'll run into everybody and anybody there] and they're doing very well there, they decided it was the time to cut hours and not give workers more pay. As for me, I can still pick up extra hours here and there but it seems like for now my hours will stay pretty low but steady. I've realized that most people are hurting from COVID, they're unemployed and relying on unemployment. Lots of them are going to food banks to get food to feed their families. The hard thing for me to do has been to find a way to live with less money and spending less money. But the more difficult problem for so many Americans is how do you find a way to live during COVID without a job? Or also, how do you find a way to live during COVID if you're working from home, stuck with your family and kids all day? There's a whole discourse to be talked about on the subject for sure.  

Lastly, its October 1st and it was 100 degrees today. Let's hear it for California! October is a great month because its right after my birthday and I've always loved Fall and Fall weather. Halloween is always a fun holiday, as it's really the beginning of the regular holidays after the high Jewish holidays. 

I end with a jest. Lucifer [Milton's Lucifer] gave rock and roll to you down at the crossroads. Happy Halloween!

Weekend Update

Greetings everyone! Thought I'd do a weekend update, unfortunately not SNL style, but rather a vlog style summary of what's been going on in my life. Alright, alright. 

I've been working a lot at the retail gig. Forty hours or more every week. This upcoming Halloween week I only have one day off. That's kind of a bummer. But if I learned anything from the first episode of Futurama, "you gotta do what you gotta do." I've found that at a job such as mine you really have to stay positive and keep a good attitude. This is where all my improvements in thinking [from literature] come to the rescue. 

I've stopped drinking soda and energy drinks at work. Now I'm not nearly as tired when I get off work at one am, nor am I as tired during the beginning or middle of my shifts. Overall, I feel a lot healthier and better. I've lost a few pounds already only after a couple days. My body feels like it's going through some sort of detox from all the sugar I've been ingesting all these years. I have withdrawals and crave the sugary rush but when I actually have a little bit of soda I find that I'm not satisfied by it anymore. Ain't that a bitch? That sudden realization that I was drinking too many calories and in fact not overeating all the time that contributed to my weight. That hit me like a lightning bolt.  

I'll probably have to cancel my weekly jazz jam session, unfortunately. I haven't had as much time for music as a result. I haven't even been listening to as much music either. Oh well, things happen. I haven't done the open mic sessions for two months now. Sometimes I think about giving it up for good. I've done it for about two years straight and I would say that it's run its course. Thankfully, I got a lot of great recordings out of it that you can hear on my Soundcloud. 

In terms of reading and improving the mind, that's been my number one goal. Today, I'm going to go through some Jack Reacher short stories before work. Within the last couple weeks, I've read Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag, Tractatus Logico Philosophicus by Wittgenstein, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, and now I'm halfway through The Outsider by Colin Wilson. I've been reading a lot in my living room on the couch, but I also read a lot at Starbucks, where although it's noisy [damn indie rock music], it gives me an opportunity to get out of the house. I really love the coffee there as well. 

I've been thinking a lot about writing [thinking about writing a second novel, I finished my first one a while ago] but haven't had the time to really do much writing on my usual subjects: literary criticism/synopsis, my main and favorite subject the last couple of years. I'm sure I'll get back to it, in due time. I really want to write a review for Colin Greenland's space opera from 1990, Take Back Plenty. Now that is a true science fiction gem. However, as you can see from the recent posts I've been writing, just not about books. Not a lot but I'm keeping a flow, a gestalt if you will. Lately, I've been writing posts like these, going into my thoughts, my meager life [lol]. This goes with all the books I've been reading, as they've influenced me in my life heavily, more so than my friends and colleagues. So when you see me writing about the dialectics of the modern proletariat [a recent post] that is definitely an influence from philosophy and extended readings. 

Lastly, I want to say that reading doesn't just help with my writing but also with my social interactions. I always experience status inconsistency wherever I go but I've also learned that when you get to the heart of the matter and really use all your social skills to max capacity, you will end up having more friends than enemies. 

Have an excellent end of October weekend. Happy Halloween! Free candy for everyone! 

Dialectics of a modern proletariat

Here we get to the crux of the matter that I was trying to get into in the last post, entitled Black Metal October, the dialectics of a modern proletariat. Oh boy...here we go. 

Clearly, I haven't read enough Marx and Engels, or Hegel to truly discourse on said subject, so instead I'll do a write up on my personal views towards the matter. 

Work is a wonderful thing. In moderation. Even when you're too entrenched for free time sometimes. I've been in the working world for some thirteen years now. It's had its ups and downs, but mostly its been the same since day one when I was nineteen years old in Wisconsin. "Same shit, different day," as the snarky co-workers like to say.  Touche.

The thing about work is that when you consider that you're going to the same place every day and working for money, that is actually a purpose-driven life [john grisham], in and of itself. That alone is satisfying enough for most people to even consider their job their actual status in life. "I'm a banker." "I'm a doctor." "I'm a cashier." "I'm a warehouse worker." And they would never even question trying to be/label themselves as something else like a guitar player [my own personal circumstance], or a writer [me again], or a painter, comedian, actor, gamer, wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, mechanic, etc.  

The hardest thing about work [for me] isn't the work in and of itself. I've worked hard for thirteen years straight with only six months off. I've only been unemployed for six months since I was nineteen. Anyways, the hardest thing for me is keeping a good attitude on the job. It's always a good attitude thing on the job, as opposed to when you're off the job, because when you're off the job who gives a shit, right? 

So the question then becomes how do you stay positive in a working experience? I'm not quite sure there's any real answer to this. For me it always goes back to myself, my own inner mind, my mind's eye if you will [happy Halloween!]. As you can tell, I'm a pretty down to earth guy who's been around the block, seen some shit, met a lot of interesting 'characters', if you will. But again, it always stems back to personal experience. How do you stay happy when you're working all the time? 

The truth is I'm not really sure. But I have some basic ideas. You have to enjoy all your free time away from work to the max, 100% overload. Work hard, but play much, much harder, so hard that if people from work chilled with you outside of work they'd have no idea of the 'real' you, you're ultimate persona [don't ask, its a California thing]. 

So for me, this would include hanging out with friends, guitar playing, music listening, writing, and reading a lot, performing at open mics. If I skimp on these other things for whatever reason I can't be chipper at work, it just will not work. Why not? Who knows, I'm not a psychologist, I'm more of a philosopher, an avid amateur one at that. 

The other side of the work coin that we haven't spoken of is one of metaphysics. Because you are working at whatever job it is that you do, you are fulfilling a job that is key in the universe, you are taking a position that is important whether you know it or not. Phillip K Dick has a novel where this guy is doing crossword puzzles [or something of that nature] and without his knowledge, because of the fact that he is doing these puzzles, the government is taking his answers and using them as coordinates to help stop an alien invasion. Talk about a great concept. Consider this. Because you are doing whatever it is that you are doing in your life, you are filling a void that is missing in the universe. When you leave, that void goes unfilled and could potentially cause disorder, decay, maybe even chaos. You're actually important even if you're a pencil pusher. How about that? 

Halloween 2018

Halloween (2018 movie) is a direct sequel to the original Halloween film, a slasher flick starring my favorite Halloween and horror character, Michael Myers. I ended up watching the film at an early midnight showing for employees at AMC theater, where my friend works. The audience of AMC staff wasn't my cup of tea. The constant laughter, whispering, and talking throughout undermines the seriousness of the horror flick, which it is a great one. 

The movie starts 40 years after the first one left off. Michael is old, but we hardly ever get to see his complete face. However, he's just a plain looking, bearded, tall, generic white guy from what we can see. His victim from the first movie Laurie Strode, whom he didn't kill is old, and looks even older. She's estranged from her daughter, the horror of Michael ruining her life, her marriage, etc. 

Michael ends up getting sent to another facility. Somewhere on the road the inmates break free, and Michael is on the loose, setting the movie up for the grisly murders. The body count isn't very high in this movie, but the killings are much more grisly than the original film. Not only that but Michael goes on a killing spree on Halloween night! Evil ensues. 

Once he finds a knife, its trademark Halloween time. Once again, the murders are pretty simple, but we see that Michael is a lot more aggressive with his killings. He's the face of evil, as they say. Anyways, so he's on the run murdering everyone he can, mostly teenagers, cops, and his doctor, but eventually Laurie Strode finds Michael and they have an epic battle in her booby-trapped house, the house she built waiting for this moment, to kill Michael Myers. She's prayed for this, she says earlier in the film when she finds out he's on the loose. 

They trap Michael in the basement, and set the whole house on fire, a scene reminiscent from Halloween II. Of course, Michael is presumed to be alive, and in the last scene we see Strode's granddaughter clutching the knife Michael had used. Fin. 

The movie is actually pretty great, considering that nothing could've topped the original film and that making a sequel to the original is pretty damn difficult, never mind those other six (or however many!) other Halloween movies there are. I think this movie is a good horror flick, it has the gore, the evil mascot, the innocent victims, and even a smidge of evil mysticism (the inmates at the hospital when reporters go see Michael). 

I think the movie's most serious aspects were undermined by the audience, but I still enjoyed the movie even if they all thought they had to be coolest kids in the room. The acting, while not great, was still decent, and Michael Myers' character was perfect, I remember him being the same way in the original. In this aspect, they excelled especially. 

This is a great holiday movie to watch right now. Even if you don't like horror movies (like me), I think this is something even people who are afraid of horror movies can enjoy. There's some grisly murders, but some of it is downright laughable, like when Michael stomps on a guy's head, and the head explodes into pukey chunks. You would have to be unbelievably strong to do that! Anyways, check out the movie, its the best time, its fresh, and its almost Halloween.

Happy Halloween

Halloween is here! This is probably the first time I've ever taken Halloween seriously as a holiday or ever really celebrated. Probably because I've been partying with my friends like its the second coming of high school. It's been a blast.

As a kid my mom didn't really allow us to celebrate Halloween. Being a strict Catholic and a bit of an overprotective moma bear she's against most things associated with horror and dark vibes. I'm not necessarily the opposite but Halloween is cool.

The thing that I like the most about Halloween isn't the partying or the candy. It's that evil vibe that really seems to go with it. There's something dark about Halloween that only lasts during this late autumnal period. To go further with this idea it could possibly be related to the change in the weather (winter is coming) but its not just that. It's also the way people think and interact with each other. Halloween ain't so big a holiday that people act totally different but people do seem to be more joyful. That's a great thing. 

I've been celebrating by listening to the band Ghost a lot. I wrote about them in a post that you can check out here. I literally just got into them this week and they're like the perfect Halloween band. They're dark gothic costumes certainly fit Halloween perfectly. I might delve more into more authentic black metal because of Ghost.

But yeah the whole festivities of Halloween have had me not playing games so much. Lately, I've been listening to music (Ghost mostly) and hanging out with friends. I've been working on getting my friends better on guitar and bass for our band that we're starting. So far we have the beginning of a simple song and we're playing the Adventure Time theme song together. The song started off as just a bass line I wrote for my friend to practice and its developed into something more. Not bad but we have so far to go.

I feel like I'm a great teacher but I can only provide so much training with them. They have to go the extra mile and become a better musician on their own. Hell, even though I've had like three great teachers none of them really taught me how to play with original style or creativity. I did that myself over time.

I have many ideas for the band. I kinda wanted a simple rock group with a strong punk, black metal, and pop vibe. By pop I mean have catchy metal riffs and lyrics, not like Taylor Swift or anything. I want our songs to have tasty arrangements that require musical prowess and skill but in the beginning I want things to be more simpler until the guys can learn to hang at my level.

That could be a while. In the meantime I'm still looking around for people to jam with and I'm still working on jazz standards. I'm also in the process of saving up for a cheap drum machine so when we start recording we'll use that because we don't have a drummer as of yet. We're gonna need drums at some point and I also want to get a keyboards player.

I gotta say that I love it when we all play with guitars and bass together. They're a couple of noobs now but they just might be good musicians given the right musical training and if they practice harder.


We're not even sure what the band will be called but knowing my friends it will probably be something that suggests a metalcore sound. They're really into the more modern metalcore bands whereas I'm more old school, more into the 60s and 80s sound of rock and roll.

We'll have to see what happens. Hopefully I can emerge out of this with a gigging band and get somewhere. Let's see what winter brings us. 

Who's that guitar playin' sonuva bitch, a question commonly asked, on his head a bucket of chicken bones, on his face a plastic mask. He was born in a cage, raised on a coop, children fear him, critics rage, he's half alive, he's half dead, folks just call him Buckethead.

Black metal meets Pop and Psychedelia

I've developed a fascination with a newish heavy metal band from Sweden called Ghost. Their lyrics are totally satanic and black metal but their music is more psychedelic and pop rather than a black metal style. They wear robes and stuff. The singer wears a pope-like outfit and he's called Papa Emeritus. The rest of the band wears masks and go under the names Nameless Ghouls. Pretty cool gimmick, eh?

This might seem silly and I assure you it is. But something about this band is amazing. Their lyrics are totally silly but their music is so catchy and infectious. Its almost like if the Beatles were a black metal band in 2016. They've made me realize that not every song or band has to be progressive or technical. All you need is some catchy riffs and lyrics and you've got yourself a song.

It took me a long time to realize that and this band has shown me that. That's why I think they're the best metal band I've heard in a long time. I bought their 2016 ep entitled Popestar. It features one original tune called Square Hammer and four cover songs originally by Echo and the Bunnymen, Simian Mobile Disco, Eurythmics, and Imperiet. Those are all fairly pop so you get the idea of where this band is going. Right to the top in terms of musical popularity. It seems like they've just been getting bigger and bigger in America. I could see them playing big ass festivals and stadiums like Metallica and Slayer sometime soon.

Popestar is a good ep and shows how great their covers are. On their first album they did a brilliant rendition of the Beatles' Here comes the sun. Their cover is pretty darn good. That entire first album is great. It's everything a good rock album should be. Even if this band has a strong black metal vibe in terms of their lyrics, the music is classic rock and roll. That's what I like about them.

Its cool that I got into them just in time for Halloween. They're definitely a Halloween sorta band with their elaborate stage shows and costumes. You should check them out on YouTube. Listen to the first album Opus Eponymous and Popestar if you wanna hear what got them their Grammy this year.

Classic stuff. The Nameless Ghouls play a mean guitar too. I also love how they have keyboards. Reminds me of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and my young progressive rock days.

Killer. 

Junkenstein's Revenge

The new Brawl is a co-op mode where players fight against hordes of zombie robots. Sounds pretty great right? It has a similar vibe to Team Fortess 2's Mann vs Machine mode. The Junkrat Frankenstein skin has a pretty strong Tf2 vibe too. 

Players are limited to just four characters-McCree, Ana, Hanzo, or Soldier 76. This is a great combination of characters for fighting off hordes. McCree can use Deadeyes to take out hordes of "zomnics" and Hanzo can take care of the heavy dps "zombardiers".

You have to last seven minutes against a sea of enemies and you can't let them get through doorway defense points. The key is communication. They added an extended interface that helps keep track of ultimates and allies' health and stuff. Pretty neat of Blizzard to do that. You're gonna want a mic for this one.

"The brawl demands a lot of coordination and constantly tosses new challenges in your direction. Things go from bad to worse any time a boss shows up. Deadlier opponents drop into the map including “Junkenstein’s Monsters” (a reskinned Roadhog) or the dangerous “Reaper” (Reaper reskin, if you couldn’t guess) and they will do their best to kick your ass. High health pools and dangerous ultimate abilities make these foes more than mere AI bots; when left unchecked, they can really bring the pain." (Kotaku)

The mode is basic and doesn't bring anything new to the table but its still pretty damn cool. Ideas like this makes me wonder if they are ever going to add a co-op gamemode for Overwatch. How about an Overwatch moba mode like Battleborn? Or Overwatch with a League of Legends style. Something like that would be cool.

Halloween in my video games, nice. 

Overwatch Halloween skins are here

So they finally decided to drop that Halloween holiday celebration with new in game cosmetics, most important of which are new character skins. They will available for three weeks. Which seems like a long time so I'm definitely gonna grind some loot crates and try to get some of these cool skins.

"The new “Overwatch Halloween Terror” seasonal event offers the gorgeous skins, along with some themed profile icons, victory poses, sprays emotes and highlight intros, inside glowing jack-o’-lantern loot boxes. Over 100 seasonal items are now available." (Kotaku) 








 






The witch mercy, Frankenstein Junkrat, and Frankenstein's monster Roadhog are incredible skins. The rest are just like meh. Like they could've done much better on any of the other skins but these three are so well done that I'm down to grind and possibly throw down on loot crates to make sure I get them. I was only able to get a few of the Olympic Games skins. I'm gonna play a lot more this holiday season and make sure to get a lot of these Halloween skins.

I love the holidays. Halloween is so awesome. I'm going as Buckethead to this anime convention (Aklibafest) this weekend. Got my plain white mask, just gotta go to Kfc and get a bucket. It's gonna be tight. The voice actor for Winston is going to be there.

Stoked.

Overwatch getting Halloween theme soon

Word on the street is that Overwatch is getting Halloween themed loot boxes! Pretty sick eh? Our first real holiday with Overwatch and cool things are already happening. Imagine what they'll do for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

People on Reddit found some sort of leak that suggests Overwatch is getting Halloween themed loot crates. Each loot crate will have up to four cosmetic items including at least one Halloween skin, highlight intro, emote, victory pose, player icon, voice line, or credits that you can use to unlock other items.

The post says that more than 100 themed items are available and if you get repeat items you'll get coins. Nothing on when this goes live but it will end at 4 pm ET on Noember 1st. People are thinking this will all hit the live servers sometime next week.

People on Reddit aren't happy with the fact that if you get repeated items you just get coins. People are hoping that the coins will be special Halloween themed coins that you can use to buy Halloween loot but I think that's all wishful thinking.

Its good to have in game parties and themes like this. It really brings the community together and brings out the better in them. The Olympic Games theme was so great and there were so many people playing the game all the time. That was like the golden age of Overwatch. Summer Games and Season one Competitive. Great times! I hope this brings some new players to the table and keeps the existing ones active on a daily level.

Also, I love Halloween. I'm going to Akiba Fest (anime convention) and Halloween parties this year as Buckethead, the shred metal guitarist from right here in California.

Pretty cool.

Summer's almost gone

   

     Just thought I'd do a little rant on the change of seasons and the holidays incoming. The first thing I noticed when I got up today was that it wasn't hot, neither in my room nor outside. In fact, I found it to be a bit chilly. Welcome to October in California. It was really only like 60 degrees but that makes a huge difference from the 90-100 degree weather we were having just a month ago. Things are looking better climate-wise here in Cali. Sometimes when it gets super cold here it reminds me of Wisconsin, where I used to live about 3 years ago. I happen to have a bit of a cold at the moment so when I left for work I made sure to wear my signature North Face jacket, which I have two of. I find North Face to be such a Wisconsin brand because when I lived there practically everyone wore it. I'm looking forward to the cool weather. Now maybe I won't have to turn on the air conditioner when I'm chilling in my room.
     Also, the holidays are coming up here after Halloween and the start of November (Black Friday and all that). I'm thinking of plans for gifts and all that for my friends and family for Christmas already. I know its a bit early but I'm already thinking of stuff.
     For friend #1 I was going to get him Fire Emblem Awakening. For friend #2 I would get him some game on the 3DS. For friend #3 I would get him an Xbox game. For step-dad I would get him either a book or a jazz CD (saxophonist Steve Coleman stuff). For my older brother I would get him a PC game (Shovel Knight, Metal Gear V, etc). For my younger brother I might give him my used tablet (because I have the Wii U game-pad, which kind of works like a tablet too) or a jazz CD. For my mother I would send a Buddha figurine (because she's a Buddhist now). For my step-mother I would get her an interesting ukulele or some other small musical instrument. I'm thinking that all this stuff is going to cost a lot so I'm going to start saving now. The only real expensive stuff that I want that is coming up is the Starcraft II Legacy of the Void Deluxe edition which I have on pre-order at the moment. It's coming out November 10, which is only about a month away. November is when all the new games are coming out. This year and next year is going to be a crazy good year for gamers. I know that in November on the 10th, Starwars Battlefront III is coming out as well as Fallout 4. Not only that but there's also the new Call of Duty Black Ops 3. A great haul incoming for gamers in November! On December 4th Xenoblade Chronicles X comes out on the Wii U. I'm definitely going to pick that up or my older brother will because that's basically the only game he wants to play that's a Wii U exclusive.
     Anyways,  I'm probably going to pick up Legacy of the Void and Xenoblade Chronicles X. What awaits us in 2016 is more great stuff. But because all this stuff is going to be pricey I'm going to be saving up, it'll be worth it to have an amazing Christmas with my friends and family. Christmas here has always been great. Maybe we can even get my younger brother out here to enjoy it with us. I should mention that October's my brother's birthday month so I'll probably send him something as a gift through the post. Either a CD or a book would be good. I'll probably end up sending him my Herbie Hancock autobiography book, I think he would love reading that.
     I'm also looking forward to Halloween because I might go to Halloween party with my friends. I was thinking of cosplaying as Ash Ketchum from Pokemon but I might think of some other characters. Other peeps I'm interested in cosplaying are Ryu and Snake. I would definitely do a cosplay of Snake, it would be sick to have a black Solid Snake at a party!
     On a side note, I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving because I love eating Turkey prepared in a Chinese style, it's so good! Anyways, that's the end of this rant. I'm going to try to get back to writing about music, particularly jazz. I know the blog has kind of side-tracked and gotten to be about my personal life and gaming. I think it's cooler to write about music and I'm going to make an effort to get back to that soon. It is called ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com after all.