Rock. And to a lesser extent...roll.

Let's get the little necessary recap out of the way first. Friday night I went to the Creepy Crawl to catch Machree, Mike Judy's band. They were headlining the show and after, Hope and I had planned to walk up to St. Louis University to catch the end of a free show with headliners, electro favorites So Many Dynamos. So here's the awesome part. Machree played early. So after saying our goodbyes to MJ, we headed up to SLU and caught the whole free show, which was exhausting, yet awesome. The openers, Say Panther were probably my favorite. This band is just so charming and honest. Seriously, give them a listen. Free downloads on their myspace (myspace.com/saypanther). Next was Maps and Atlasses. They were just tiring, but their drummer was probably the best technical drummer I've ever seen play. Ever. Oh, and their frontman had a sweet stache. So Many Dynamos didn't impress me much. But their guitarist had a Rickenbacker, so it was cool.

Saturday was intended to be Every Time I Die. The lady on Craig's list never called or answered her phone, though, so I headed to Illinois (begrudgingly) for Saosin, Armor For Sleep, The Bled, and Meriwether. Meriwether was decent, but one guy moshing like a total idiot ruined their set. The Bled. One of my favorite bands to see live. Period. So intense and so good. Plus James had some great glasses on. Check my flickr for a picture. Armor For Sleep was the epitomy of mediocrity as usual, but I still like seeing them live. "Believe the news..." and so on. I don't like Saosin, but I respect those guys. And they played a decent set. Cove's stache was pathetic. End of story.

Sunday was a pretty typical day. Chruch, Illinois, Grandma's visitation. You know. Monday I skipped school for her funeral and burial in Rumbaur, MO, which is down near the Arkansas border. I got back around 9, which put me back in town too late for Scary Kids Scaring Kids and Gwen Stacy, but that's not really important. I needed to be there for my family.

Yada, yada, yada. Skip to right now. Lost is on. Tomorrow is bound to be a snow day, the roads are already bad. There is no way tomorrow won't be awesome. I will go sledding for the first time ever. I will discuss religion and other things intelligent people discuss. I might discuss music. Maybe. I will make a snow angel. A perfect one. And that's just during the day. Tomorrow night is Cobra Starship. Creepy Crawl capacity: 400. Tickets sold for this show: 536. Number of teenyboppers attending: probably a good 530. But it'll be fun. Getting there wicked early and standing in the snow. Life is beautiful. Nah, but right now it's pretty rad.

Christopher Michael Tucker.

Song of the day: Really anything by Paul Baribeau.
To quote my friend Kyle, "This guy's a prophet."
4 free downloads at myspace.com/paulbaribeau
I suggest starting with "Ten Things"

"name ten things you wanna do before you die and then go do them.
name ten places you really wanna be before you die and then go to them
name ten books you wanna read before you die and then go read them
name ten songs you wanna hear again before you die, get all of your friends together and scream them

because right now all you have is time time time yeah,
but someday that time will run out.
that's the only thing you can be absolutely certain about.

think of all the things that are wrong with your life and then fix them
think of all the things that you love about your life, be thankful you are blessed with them
think of all the things that hold you back and realize that you don't need them
think of all the mistakes you have made in your life, make sure that you never repeat them

because right now all you have is time time time yeah,
but someday that time will run out.
that's the only thing you can be absolutely certain about.

name ten thousand reasons why you never wanna die, go and tell someone who might've forgotten
try to list the endless reasons why it's good to be alive, and then just smile for awhile about them

soon the sun will rise and another day will come
soon enough the sun will set, another day will be gone

and right now all you have is time time time yeah,
but someday that time will run out.
that's the only thing you can be absolutely certain about"

January 24, 2008.

Last night, my (great) grandma, Leona Hosfelt died at the hospital of an aneurism. She was 89. I was informed of this while laying in bed this morning. All i said was, "Ok." I didn't feel anything. No great grief, no crying, it all just kind of passed over me, and still hasn't really registered much. I suppose it wasn't really a surprise. She had been sick for awhile, in and out of the hospital a lot, and it's amazing she lasted this long, being a smoker for many years. I'm just glad I had as much time with her as I did. She was an amazing lady and I'm going to miss her more than I can really put into words. My dad always says that the worst thing is that that unique person, their personality, is gone. This is the first time anyone close to me has died, so this is a completely new experience. I guess I don't really know what to do with it. All I can do is write.

I love you, Grandma. I miss you.

Christopher Michael Tucker.

You've got to go with the motion.

Hello bloggers. Last.fm just reached an agreement with most of the record labels to allow the playing of full tracks via the website. So. The social music revolution continues. You should join up if you haven't already. Well it's day 4 with the haircut I think, and it's not too bad. I miss the bangs, but like I keep saying, just give it a couple weeks. I instinctively reach up to my forehead to brush them out of my eyes at least once a day. Nothing there. But the low maintenance thing is great, and most everyone likes it, so I guess it's a success.

I was thinking today, and I'm really content with the music I listen to. I'm so glad I got exposed to the music I listen to now. I don't even know how to say it. I'm glad I listen to Ben Kweller and not Sean Kingston. I'm glad I listen to Superfun Yeah Yeah Rocketship and not Daft Punk. I smile when people look through my iPod and say "I've never even heard of these people." I was looking through a girl's Zune today and as I called out the names, she was as defensive as a druggie who knows they're caught. "It's not mine! I'm holding it for a friend!" I got a black kid into Every Time I Die the other day. Yeah.

Christopher Michael Tucker.

I pinpointed the song that got my foot in the door of the hardcore scene today: "Reinventing Your Exit" by Underoath. But for song of the day, I'm gonna go with the first hard music that really blew me out of the water...
"Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste" by Norma Jean.
I know most of you will shut this off pretty fast, so if it's any incentive, this song features Josh Scogin now of the Chariot and Aaron Weiss from mewithoutYou. Intrigued? Too bad.

I've had kisses that make Judas seem sincere.

I'm just going to title these with good and or interesting lyrics now. So hello there, internet. A lot has happened since we last spoke. My dad turned 48 and I saw Juno two more times. I'm actually supposed to see it Friday morning now? Pretty crazy. Gonna break my record of seeing a movie in theatres, previously held by two of the LOTR's and the first Pirates Of The Caribbean movie. Well. Super Bowl's coming up. I've gotta go for the Packers here. How can anyone not like Brett Favre, really? Such a genuinely nice guy, and one of the best quarterbacks ever. You girls bored yet? Okay...

What else to talk about? Music. I've downloaded some goooooood music this week. Really good. I finally got Against Me!'s "New Wave" which really blows anything else they've ever done out of the water. Seriously. Listen to "Thrash Unreal" and tell me I'm wrong. Who just thought of Sullivan? Kudos. I got Tegan and Sara's "The Con" and also "So Jealous." Both really good and really strange. But I love them. Darn Lesbians. Speaking of strange, I bought mewithoutYou's "Brother, Sister." Also great, and the epic closing song rivals and in my opinion almost tops RK's Deathbed. So there's some incentive to pick that up. I got Ted Leo and the Pharmacists' "Living With The Living," a really good politically charged record, complete with a songwith a very simple solution to ending the war: "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb." I love that guy. 38 years old and still getting it done. I also got two Solid State Records releases: Norma Jean's "Redeemer" and the Chariot's "The Fiancee." Both very technical and very well done. Personally I like the Chariot better, Josh Scogin being the former screamer for NJ. Now you know.

You know what's great about music? I'm sure you know some things, but here's something I've been thinking about for the last week or so. Even the most somber of emotions can sound beautiful. I'm sure there's a lot more I've yet to say, but I'm going to leave you with that. Have a nice night...or day.

Christopher Michael Tucker.

Song of the day: "In A Sweater Poorly Knit" by mewithoutYou.

Now accepting applications.

So I've seen Juno twice now. It truly is one of my favorite movies ever. Also one of the cutest movies I've seen. I really wish I had a girlfriend to see this movie with. "Here is the church and here is the steeple, we sure are cute for two ugly people." C'MON! I melt at the ending every time, and I want to be able to look over into some girl's eyes and feel what Bleeker and Juno feel. Young love is so simple and so carefree, and I look forward to experiencing it one day. I just wish it would hurry up sometimes. I guarantee you this, whenever this does happen, me and this girl will rent Juno and watch it and it will be the cutest thing ever. And we will both play our guitars and sing "Anyone else but you" and it will be magic. The End.

Christopher Michael Tucker

Song of the day: The Moldy Peaches – Anyone Else But You
(Duh.)

Pterodactyls swarming.

2007 ended well. Over the course of about a week, I had something to do every single day. It started with being with my family a couple days for Christmas. Speaking of which, it went well. I got my new camera, money, CD's, everything I wanted really. Then for about 3 days straight, I hung out with my friend Kyle everyday and basically found myself a whole new circle of friends. Well I had known these kids before, but we just kind of talked at school and didn't really do anything outside. Same with Kyle really. But now, I feel like I could basically call him or any of them up, and be like, "Let's hang out." And we could. One reason this worked out especially well is the fact that Kyle actually has a car. This car.

Probably my favorite winter car, me and Kyle decided (with my favorite summer car being Amanda Gelso's LeBaron convertible). The day after Christmas we took apart his dashboard and put in his new speakers. Then we ended up going over to my friend Kelsey's for a bonfire, which I still need to upload pictures from onto myspace. I unleashed my inner pyro, and some kids learned not to give me the lighter fluid. Dipping sticks into lighter fluid and sticking them in the fire: not smart. Filling up a styrofoam cup with lighter fluid and tossing it in the fire: not smart. Tossing the can of lighter fluid into the fire: not smart. Oh, well. We're teenagers and we're invincible. Duh.
The next day Kyle took apart his door and we ran around with Tom and Kelly and then ended up back at my house eating some pizza. I was planning to go see Ludo and the Hush Sound that night with a friend, but she bailed, so I asked Kyle, since he was already over, I asked him. We got there early and met up with Allyssa and Sarah and some other people I knew from other shows. We ended up second row and I got a good chance to test out my new camera. You can see the shots on my flickr if you want. It was A Very Ludo Christmas. There were snowmen, reindeer, presents, santa, and well quite frankly, it was just a sight to behold. Ludo's always a fun show anyway, but you could tell the sold out Pageant really got them into the performance. We met Ludo and Greta from the Hush Sound after, which was pretty cool. We were supposed to meet Allyssa, Liz, and a couple others at Del Taco in the loop, but we couldn't find it, and since it was getting on towards 1, and Kyle was short on gas, we headed home.

Friday night we went to the City Museum, which isn't a museum at all. For those of you not living in St. Louis, I suggest you check this out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Museum
And maybe take the photo tour here. http://www.citymuseum.org/phototour.html
That should give you a better idea of what that night entailed. We had pizza at this place in the city and then got lost on the way home. Long story short, we ended up in south county and almost went to Illinois. No biggie though. Saturday night I went to the mall with my friend Nicole and bought some new jeans from Urban Outfitters. $50. The cost of being awkwardly proportioned. Sunday through Tuesday I spent with my dad in Belleville.

I came home Tuesday night, checked the phone. 16 missed calls. So I call Kyle first, who shouts, "Oh my God! You're alive! I'm coming to get you!" So basically two minutes later he and 8 other people who also thought I was dead are in my kitchen. Meanwhile, I'm just trying to get some pants on. Haha. I got them on, found my cardigan and we went to steak and shake. I had fries. They were delicious. We decided to go to Kelly's next to watch Superbad, but we stopped at Shop N Save first to buy some popsicles for our popsicle eating contest. Outside. 15 degrees. Needless to say, that lasted about 30 seconds before we threw down our popsicles and ran inside. Kyle and Tom stayed over at my house that night and we stayed up till 6:30 watching youtube videos and playing PlayStation 2. We got up around 10 and tried to figure out what to do with our last day of freedom. We ended up going to Kelly's for awhile to finish Superbad and I tried to make her dogs love me. My efforts were futile. We ended up back at my house playing a little 007 and having pizza.

Today was my first day back. My classes aren't too bad, there's only one I really don't like. They're also all fairly easy. That's always a plus. I feel pretty good about this semester. It sucks to be back, but I'm staying optimistic. Tomorrow I'm going to the movies (I really want to see Juno) and possibly to the opening of this photography exhibit (http://flickr.com/photos/toddowyoung/2124803601/) if I can swing it. Are you still reading this? Wow. I love you. Goodbye.

Christopher Michael Tucker.

Song of the day: The Color Fred – Complaintor
(this should play now.)