ANA SEZ:

01/20/05
Hi to all! This is my last rant as an Arti member. I have decided to heed to my hand injury and take a long break. For those who may not know, in mid-2003 I gradually incurred an injury to my right thumb which I thought could have been a pulled muscle, tendonitis, a tumor even?!

After seeing now 5 doctors and trying 4 types of therapy (everything short of surgery & acupuncture) I'm still in the same position. I can play like always, but I have a lot of pain as a result. The injury is in the pully - the area of ligaments which surround the tendon that goes from the thumb up the arm in my pick hand; the ligaments are inflamed. When the tendon moves between them it gets aggravated. I tried physical therapy & anti-inflammatory medicine but it was only pain relief. I went to such lengths as to get a cortizone shot, but something in there atrophied and it took 10 months to get my playing ability back. The pain also came back during this time. I tried chiropractic care and laser & accuscope therapy too but the pain stuck through it all. It did help my left hand, though! :) So it is at this time that I think the only thing that is guaranteed to work is to take time and let it heal. My last alternatives were acupuncture (which I don't see any use for if a chiropractor couldn't dig deep enough) or surgery to open the ligaments so the tendon could move freely around....that sounds creepy. POP!

So yeah, I'll be taking a year before I do anything serious again, in order to make sure I can really heal. I'm still playing! I just can't commit to anything right now because I'll never know what my limit is if I ignore the signs. It's really frustrating not being able to move forward with Artisan, and to hold them back is unfair. There's so much to be done. I hope to be out there again in 2006...I'll miss my former bandmates and the music more than words can express, and I wish them the best!

I made a MySpace page HERE so we could keep in touch, I'll post blogs on there too. I'll miss ranting, but hey - at least I can blog! I'll use my Email ana@artisanmetal.com until further notice.

Metal on! Ana

Into my ears!:

PAIN OF SALVATION - The Perfect Element, One Hour by the Concrete Lake, Remedy Lane
DISSECTION - Storm of the Lights Bane
EMPEROR - IX Equilibrium
EDGE OF SANITY - CRIMSON & Crimson II
IMMORTAL - At the Heart of Winter
MY DYING BRIDE - Light at the End of the World (and I still think it's boring)
INTO ETERNITY - Buried In Oblivion \m/ \m/



9/23/04
this is a gradual rant...
We're doing shows again! \m/ I'm looking forward to seeing all the bands we're playing with, since we're doing a couple of all Metal nights. There should be a lot of styles to enjoy.

(insert 2 days of silence here)

I wrote lyrics the other night. I love using my frustrations as a tool to make songs. I love staying up late, too! Too bad it kills my head, but that's when I'm most creative and most inspired.

So one of our shows has passed and it was a night full of Metal - which is what I like to see! It ruled to see a bunch of other good bands up there.

(insert another couple days of silence)

It's interesting to recognize chain of events. Sometimes things suck, a long time goes by and things suck more and more until you think there's nothing left to lose. On the flipside sometimes things are laid out for an easy, organized change. That's more like what happened to me, and in my opinion it rules. I'm tired right now from staying up late too often lately. It's cute to watch Sage sleep on her back with her paws in the air...I'm going to go watch Hidalgo until I pass out with my hands & feet in the air.

(another week of silence)

This rant is boring, huh? Well Hidalgo was surprisingly more boring than I expected. Everything's boring, especially when I don't get enough sleep. I've been missing too much Aqua Teen!! Aqua Teen is never really boring. Sometimes a little too out there, but that's what makes it rule. Speaking of ruling...

On CD:

Death - The Sound of Perseverance
In Flames - COLONY
Control Denied - The Fragile Art of Existence
the Gathering - Nighttime Birds
Emperor - Prometheus
Opeth - Deliverance
Testament - First Strike Still Deadly
Lots of Pain Of Salvation albums!!!!!
Somehow my Three Brain songs are still in there!


On paper: New book - lotsa schtuff aboot horses



5/28/04
So like...Artisan hasn't had much to say lately because we've been working on getting back up to par to do shows and record...sorry if the website is boring, you just need to read our rants instead! Sitting in a window seat in Spring is cool because bugs fly really fast and go SPLAT on the window! My thumb is finally back to normal size but it still hurts (though not as bad as before). I'm not so frustrated anymore because I'm too burnt to have emotions. :P "Let's go drink until we can't feel feelings anymore". Do you know where that quote's from?

Invader Zim is playing in the background and I'm having a hard time keeping my train of thought (which is always moving in different directions anyway). The more I think about it, the more I think I probably have ADD maybe. I went on a cleaning frenzy the other night and now I can't find any of my belongings.

So, this week I have Laryngitis. I've been doing some new vocalizing in Artisan, and I guess it's either wiping me out, or the weather is screwing me up. Hot days, cold nights. Going to bed with wet hair (don't let my mom read that part). This is the first time in a couple months, so I'm hoping it's not from singing. I sound like an old lady or Marge Simpson right now. We had an Entombed moment last night and it was good. Well, since I don't like Entombed very much (except I did like them live!) I thought it was a Carcass moment...but I liked how Mike said "that was an Entombed moment".

Well... I don't think I've been to a show since Opeth. How depressing. I've been poor and selling stuff on eBay (I sold an Alice Cooper picture that's older than me!) - I like eBay because I get money for cleaning junk out of my house! I did actually buy a new CD (Decapitated) and have more on my list of stuff to get. More eBay first! Got some to sell! I'm gonna go wash my hair and go to bed now.

Anybody got a cough drop?

On CD:

OPETH - My Arms, Your Hearse (Still!)
Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon
Iron Maiden - 2 compilations
Three Brain - comp made by Trevor I mean Sven Manhausser
Some other comp (it has King Missile on it!)
More Maiden...
Decapitated - The Negation
Edge of Sanity - Crimson \m/ \m/ \m/

On DVD: Invader Zim - Volume 1 DOOM DOOM DOOM

On TV: Ren & Stimpy Friday night!

On PC: crap

On paper: Do you have any TP?!??



1/7/04
Been a while. I guess not enough random thoughts have been going through my head.

I'm becoming more of a NERD everyday!! It's funny that now that I have the actual Lord of the Rings book, I understand a bunch more subtleties of the movies. No, that wasn't supposed to spell subtitles. I got the Age of Empires & Age of Mythology set and now I can kill stuff on my free time! What free time?

I have been so frustrated with everything that I thought instead of complaining and making everyone more annoyed than the average American is I'd just shut up and hide. Did it work? Are you a happier person now?

I think I'm wired. I just ate a mega-sized Rice Krispies Treat & drank some Coke. I don't even like Coke! Oh yeah, in case anyone was wondering, the horse I was "supposed to get in the first place" came home with me over the summer and he's happy to be off the track, unlike the other one. He took his first jump about 2 montha ago. Yay horsie! He's been doing so well in his training and has only hurt me once :P when he got scared and landed on my toe.

I hadn't written much here but in June I found out I have tendonitis in my thumb. I got a Cortizone shot and it looks all atrophied? However it's spelled! But feels better. Took a while to get it back to speed with playing but I definitely notice the setback.

So Ed's learning the material now and it feels good to have 2 guitars again!! Other than that we're preparing to make another demo - we need something with our current lineup! The first demo we will keep available for download, and sell cheap if anyone's interested. Saw Dimmu recently \m/ and OPETH!!!!! \m/ \m/ enough said. It was cool to see Nevermore again too, and it was cool to see my guitar-sluttin' pal playing with them (see also Testament, Dragonlord, Forbidden). He just gets to have all the fun, huh? Enough about that other stuff, let's talk Opeth! Um, I could go on forever but in a few short words, other than how much they rule for having Opeth underwear at their merch booth...they sounded SO GOOD live and they always have so much emotion while they play! I hung out with Alina and watched people act stupid. Or maybe I acted stupid with Alina and watched Opeth. Did I mention how much I love the solo in Deliverance? Ahhh, it rules.

Last time I wrote was spring...now I have uh - Winter fever? All I do in the winter is sleep and stay indoors. I'd probably develop SAD if I didn't live in sunny California! Being cold sucks so much I don't even like to get up if I don't have to. Usually I do have to because I have too much going on but I cherish the time I have to be lazy! In Oct I had a sinus infection that put pressure on my eye and had double vision for 2 weeks! Since they did all these tests, I got to see my skull! That's pretty Metal. I guess not as Metal as vomiting blood (right, Mattey??) Matt loved the vomiting blood story. Especially since I Emailed him right after it happened. I'm not sure anything I'm saying relates to anything at all....but maybe that's why we call these Rants! Maybe we should change the name to Ramblings!

On CD:

OPETH - My Arms, Your Hearse
Dimmu Borgir - Spiritual Black Dimensions
Godgory - Way Beyond
Arcturus - Aspera Hiems Symfonia
Old Mans Child - In Defiance of Existence
Anathema - Judgement
Monstrosity - Rise to Power
ARTISAN demo 2003 Some mix of bands and King Missile! I love that Irish Soap song they play where he sings about people dismembering each other and doing Irish Jigs and stuff.

On DVD: Lord of the Rings - 2 Towers Extendo-megaDVD how long can this movie be?!!

On TV: Cartoon Network, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, Forensic Files

On PC: Age of Kings and Age of Mythology (wif mods)

On paper: The Lord of the Rings (trilogy) <--I'm actually READING! I'm not a psycho LOTR fanatic but it just happens that I got all this stuff for Xmas and it'll take til the end of summer to finish, so shut up. :P



4/10/03
Haha, I laugh when I read my last post. I get all bitter during the holidays. Anyway here I am again to waste more bandwidth.

So I was speechless for a long time because I saw Opeth twice, and Testament on the night in between. All 3 shows were awesome. I've recently received a copy of the Damnation promo and it's so.. captivating. I love everything Opeth does. They do it with such passion. Anyway, I'm really excited now that Justin's all settled in and we can geek in the studio and bring him up to speed with the music. We're getting the itch to play out. The recording is coming slowly but everyone involved is really busy. All you need to know is that it's on it's way! :) I also started a new job selling really cool schtuff, so I'm happy. I liked being an IT geek, but this is probably less stressful than having every little situation an urgent one, everyday.

I just called someone a guido. I think that's OK because I'm Italian. You know how black people can call other black people "nigga"? So does that make it OK for me to call this dude a guido? OK, back to my regularly scheduled blurb...

I've become and eBay freak. I have had to find alternate ways of supporting myself so I'm selling stuff for like, everyone who has junk to get rid of (including myself). It's kinda cool, but time-consuming. Here's the mailman. My dog's going nuts. Be right back. Nothing for me except the offer for a Gateway PC with AOL. What kind of idiot do they take me for?! 30 months of AOL on a PC? I use PCs for playing Age of Mythology and downloading stuff I should be buying!

So lately I've been renewing my love for being awake and productive. While I was working far away and commuting all I could do on my downtime is music and sleep, and I'd often have to forgo sleep to see my friends. After my surgery (read 7/24/01 below) I had to sit out from the gym for a long while. It's cool to be back at it... and I have recently also made my way back into horsie world. Speaking of horsies, I got a new one, or at least I thought I did...just found out today that he was the wrong one off a racetrack and should actually still be racing (was brought back to the track). That explains why he was such a spaz. It was fun while it lasted, but I'm gonna look at the one I was *supposed* to get this weekend. Spring fever is comin' on. I'm in need of the sun. Until next time.....

Metal!

Hitting the temporal lobe:

OPETH - Damnation
OPETH - Deliverance
Kalmah - They Will Return
Carcass - Heartwork
Soilwork - A Predator's Portrait
Lacuna Coil - Unleashed Memories
Monstrosity - In Dark Purity
A bunch of demos, old and new.

Hitting the occular lobe: Adult Swim Sundays! Also the cool Anime during the week (Yuyu Hashuko and Inuyasha). Cartoons are cool.

Stuck in the hippocampus: INSANIQUARIUM! Go to AddictingGames.com and play it!



12/28/02
Been a while!!! Happy holidays, everyone! I hate the Christmas / New Year season. Everyone drives more like jerks than usual. I get all anxious when I'm in crowds and people are all rude and crowd you in places and have BO, their kids cry as they're being dragged behind their frantic shopping parents... I thought the holidays were supposed to be a happy time of year, but everyone gets more selfish and stressed out than ever during the holidays.

On a lighter note, I had to go on a binge and buy lots of Metal merch. I got a bunch of CDs and shirts and feel like I'm almost caught up with the times now. I've had a huge and growing wishlist for almost a year now!!



10/16/02
(belated from 8/30!)
Wellll, I saw In Flames in SD. It was pretty fun, nice small club. They don't play enough old stuff anymore tho....and they wore all white. Hah, they're weird. It was cool to see them with SENTENCED and Dark Tranquillity!!! DT really kicked my ass. What a stage-presence Mikael has...and it was rad to finally see Sentenced (too bad there were so many technical problems).

I know Perry's usually the bringer of bad news lately, but this time around I have some. I lost my sister to her battle with cancer in August (and have procrastinated on posting this rant ever since). I've been pretty depressed & stuff. Don't know why I'd rant something so personal like this, but I guess to anyone who it applies - just make sure to love your family and friends all the time, even if it means being silent when you'd rather be a jerky. Everything happens so quickly.

It's finally not 300 degrees, but I miss summer already. I didn't get to swim enough this summer :P I've also moved for a few months and am homesick. My brain hurts from recording & mixing. I like it. Better that than the POP I've been experiencing at work trying to make loads of urgent computer problems go away in 1 day.

spinnin':

Anathema - Judgement (see a new Album of the Month coming up?)
Emperor - 9th Equillibrium
Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness Triumphant
Solitude Aeturnus - Adagio
Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes (cuz Mike MADE me listen to it!)
Immortal - At the Heart of Winter, Damned in Black
In Flames - Whoracle
Testament - First Strike Still Deadly

also spinnin': Lord of the Rings (man this is old...also Shrek, um..can't keep up! Lots lately.)



7/19/02
Metal is flowing! I love the feeling during/after a big show. This past Wednesday at the Keyclub was awesome! There were so many people, and every band got a good response. It was definitely a heavy night, I'm sure we were the least "Death Metal" band on the bill, but it seemed that we incorporate enough of it into our music that we generated some interest. It was nice meeting new people and hanging out after the show, etc. Looking forward to doing more shows of this nature. Going to see In Flames in San Diego in a couple weeks! \m/

My family is visiting from Canada, I haven't seen them in 5 years!! I'll be actin' like a tourist for the next week or so. Playing with kids rules, my neice and nephew are in for it! *evil grin* Looking forward to continuing our recording. I jammed with CHIP a little while we did drum tracks. Matt did a good job laying them down in the hotter than hell Utopia Studios, and Vince is doing an excellent job engineering us. Shameless plug to good food: Poquito Mas. Mmmmmm.. anyway, until the next Ana-rant!!

CD's:

Opeth - every album
Sentenced - The Cold White Light (promo)
Anathema - Judgement
Arch Enemy - Wages of Sin
Hypocrisy - S/T
The Gathering - Nighttime Birds

DVD: V (the first season - 3 hours of V!)



6/7/02
2 words. HYPOCRISY. SOILWORK. Oh yeah!!!! \m/

I bet you've been waiting for this rant, eh? OK, maybe not. Anyway...this show was awesome. I wish it could've happened at the Keyclub the night before, as previously planned but oh well. Schtuff happens. Soilwork...aaahhh...they were SO GOOD live! Hypocrisy kicked my ass too! They had a touring guitarist (who may have fallen asleep, even though he says he did it himself) who was sharpied. You know what I have to say about sharpie ink! Wear it with pride! He did just that, he had his shirt off so the world could read I'M BARE BREASTED, HOW ABOUT YOU? and various other graffiti. They played a good mixture of material. After the show for some parking lot antics, a bunch of us went out & harassed each other, listened to music and whatever else. I took the opportunity to add to the debauchery on Sharpie Boy's body. You can't give Ana a sharpie and not expect that it be used. Watch your ass (literally). Anyway, not much else going on except a lot of wating. We have lots on our plate, waiting to record the rest of the tracks and soon to play out again!? I'm itchin to play out.

In one ear, in the other:

Emperor - Prometheus
Sentenced - The Cold White Light (promo)
In Flames - COLONY
Soilwork - A Predator's Portrait
Soilwork - Natural Born Chaos
Hypocrisy - The Final Chapter
Hypocrisy - Maximum Abduction
Hypocrisy - S/T
Carcass - Heartwork
Cynic - demos 89-91 & Focus

DVD: Happy Gilmore



6/3/02
OS X is on Stimutacs! *bounce..... bounce..* these icons make me laugh, cuz I keep thinking about Sealab. "Punch it, ho-bag!" Anyway, I'm such a slacker. I totally didn't write about how freaking cool the Immortal show was. My last rant was kinda random, but that was the state of my brain at that point, since we were spending way too much time in a tiny room listening to the same song over & over again. Now let's talk METAL.
First off, the coolest thing about In Flames & Iced Earth was.. IN FLAMES! Man, I love that band. I was so tired that night (what's with these weeknight shows at the Palace anyway?). Mike, Perry and I had balcony seats, they failed at getting in on the floor and I went to the bathroom - when I got back, they were gone...soo I ran out onto the floor hoping they somehow made it down there. They were there - across the room, but I managed to cram myself over & up close to the stage near my axe-partner and absorb all that is Swedish Metal. Oh yes. In Flames always have such an energetic vibe on-stage, so I couldn't see anything else around me except for Perry's hair flying around. Once Iced Earth was on, I was pretty beat so I went over to bug Mike. There was a pit between where I was standing for In Flames and where we were during IE, there were a few people I knew over there too, joining in all the antics and boppin' around. The coolest things were seeing my friends' little Metalhead boy getting all into IE, and laughing at the pit that was not quite a pit. Watching this 8 year old raise his hands with such passion \m/ \m/ was probably the best part of the IE set. IE sounded really good. I'm not a *huge* fan but I like their music. After the show I had to race over to merch to bug the guy who's always doing merch for CM shows. Used the last of my energy to chat with him for a bit, then took off. I think someone else steered while I slept, cuz I don't remember the ride home.

Then, the next week.......IMMORTAL!! Oh my god! That show ruled all that is frosty and grim! hehehehe! :P It was cool to see Catastrophic again, they have certain parts of their songs where they go off, but too many "groove" riffs. The drummer is really good & he should do more of that cool technical stuff cuz it rocks ass. Yes, I just said "rocks ass". Anyway, I flew solo to this show, I found my way up front cuz I had to get a megadose of Immortal. When they came on, the air thinned fast. Bodies rushed forward and inward, and I became very friendly with the fence in front of me. I think it knew my blood type by the time the set was done. Immortal was awesome live.. I tend to watch drummers, and being right in the center was a good place to observe the almighty HORGH! He rules. He plays drums like he's multitasking along with other things (like being cool) - no effort, but it shreds most immensely. It was hard to concentrate with people landing on my head, but the set kicked so much ass!! Between Immortal and Manowar I was waiting for my friend to arrive, expecting to be able to breathe a little easier, but the crowd got tighter. I was too tired to try to hold my place up against the fence anymore, I was flung in front of some rabid Manowar fan who I gear-geeked with for a bit, so after a song I didn't want to be in his way anymore cuz I'm not even into them...so I made my way toward the back. NOW I knew my friend was there.... I just followed a huge trail of energy until I found the source, and there it was! Mike Grant, with hair flying and fists waving, singing at the top of his lungs. Nobody gives me a fix of 2nd-hand concert energy like Mike does! I rushed over and greeted him in the most Metal of ways... "HEY BEBE!!" Then it was time for us to wander around the venue and taunt people. Taunting people rules. We taunted people outside afterwards (thanks to Heather for the SOND digipack!), then went to Denny's and talked Metal and stayed up way too late. Keep your eyes peeled. Tomorrow is Hypocrisy/Soilwork and I'll proabably rant again!



5/6/02
I'm a slacker!!! I haven't ranted in a long time, so prepare for a babbleathon!
Since the last time I radiated your eyeballs, we played a second time, I saw some of my friends play in San Diego which was fun! Our show was cool, a nice way to go out before hiding out in the recording studio (which we've been in since the day after our show) - recording is coming along well, hopefully we'll have something up soon. Hopefully we can get the engineer to make a sample of Mike's voice at the end when he was messing with sounds and put an effect on it that sounded like something out of the Exorcist. Ah, I'm still drying tears from that one. That is if I can produce tears..studio food is pizza and Coke, it dries out your eyeballs (they become crystalized with salt!) after a while and attracts carnivorous earwigs & they start chewing on them from the inside..

I saw In Flames and Iced Earth last week. It's almost like it never happened, it was kinda surreal. The Palace was packed, I've heard that every night in the States has been sold out. The show was excellent. Listening to Tad Morose right now, they groooooove. Oh yeah, and I just learned that the drummer of Immortal calls himself HORGH and couldn't help but laugh when my dog heaved last night & the sound it made, ahh..OK I'll stop. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing them as well as seeing Soilwork & Hypocrisy! The song du jour is the first track off the new Emperor album. I don't think I've played a single song over & over that many times since....since I first heard "Gods of my World" by Borknagar. Maybe I'll make a CD of just those 2 songs over & over til it runs out and I go crazy. I killed a fan on Saturday I think. Any fans stay away from me. Next time I'll turn it into a newt, cuz it'll get better. Trust me, I turned Perry into a newt once and he's just fine.



3/14/02
2 things!!!!!! (as Mike would say)
I went in The Van of Death to Las Vegas this weekend with 9 of my closest friends, and we went to the Onward CD release over there. It was funnn! The vibe was so much fun. The people were cool (maybe not the 2 chicks who were getting naked..EEK!). It was the same lineup, but instead of us it was Cage from San Diego. We drank way too much and did debaucherous things in our little hotel room - OK maybe we just defaced a condom and a few of our friends. (Pix will be on my Personal Site soon! :)

and 2: Dimmu Borgir and Cryptopsy were RAD!! \m/ I missed Krisiun & Diabolic cuz I was outside harassing people. It was a night of blast beat from outside, and once I was inside, I pushed my way up to the front so I could see Flo play drums. I was in awe. Cryptopsy is so tight. I lost the remainder of my energy during Dimmu - I totally enjoyed that too. I was sent off to a conference for 2 days, and was out both nights as well...it's Thursday, and my last good sleep was last Thursday. I think I'll shut up now and get some zzzzzz's - but first, I must listen to the new Soilwork! Thanks, Heather!



2/18/02
Last night's show kicked major ASS!!! For those who didn't make it - I said 7:30! (grin) We'll be back out soon, once we've recorded our demo. This was just a little peek out of our hole, and we were all very inspired to come back out again by the response at the show. It's getting difficult for us to concentrate after such an awesome night. We must do it again, and more frequently! Thanks again to ONWARD for arranging the event, and Vegas Dan for booking and organizing everything. You guys rule!



2/5/02
We're finally playing a show! This will be very much fun, since we (or at least I) have always wanted to do a night with all my friends. Not only am I finally going to share a stage with my bandmates (all of whom I never got the chance to play with when we were in seperate bands), but all of the other bands that night are made up of many of my closest friends! What a freaking night to remember. Now what's frightening is we've been working hard on 3 songs so we could make our demo and have put off finishing up our other material until afterward....and now we have a show booked! Eek! :) Time to get crackin!

OK, enough of that mooshy girly attitude. It's time to kick some ASSSSS!!!!!!! \m/

....I think.

Thanks to all who celebrated my birthday with me! It was FUN! It's tragic that we lost Paul Baloff on my birthday. Definitely a downer. However, this weekend will be a very Exodus weekend. I'll be at both shows to support the rest of his friends and bandmates and to Metal Steadfastly. Cool word, eh? OK maybe not. Anyway...enough for now.

Now damaging my ears in my new car with:

In Flames - Colony
Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse
Godgory - Resurrection
Katatonia - Last Fair Deal Gone Down
Onward - Reawaken (promo)
Lots of other promos.....THANKS, ANDREW@CM!!


1/4/02
Woohoooooo we have found our new home (just like aliens. We need aliens for the walls.)!! Seriously, we're all a bunch of NERDS! We tossed our gear in the room and promptly hung posters on the walls! The face Warrel is making on my DHIADW poster deserved a fork in the eyebrow (he looks like he's hurting). He is now called FORK BOY. The carpet we hung on the wall looks like it's been spilled on. Many varieties of liquids, and some Hot Tamales. I know where Perry's going to aim when he drools now. I was wondering, since we don't have the floor of Sound Arena anymore, where Perry would drool.

I have consumed WAY TOO MUCH SUGAR today!!!!!!!
Anyway, I think we tuned our stuff up after 2 days of decorating the walls, and that's only cuz we ran out of gummy stuff to stick the posters up with. Matt got me & Perry guitars for Christmas. Pics will be up soon. Mike's a HEEB so he didn't get anything for Xmas. (jk) Hope everyone had a good holiday. Looking forward to going to some more shows soon, dammit! Next on my list before Strapping Young Devy comes out to terrorize LA will be Cut Throat. I want to hear their new chick singer who Perry promptly denied as an audition for our Entourage. OH yeah, Lacuna Coil was VERY GOOD live!! Moonspell was still boring - just not my kind of music.

Now puttin' in my head:

Opeth - Morningrise
Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse
Dimmu Borgir - Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia (Thanks, Mike!)
Anacrusis - Manic Impressions (Thanks Per. E. Air!)
Arch Enemy - Stigmata (Thanks Mattey!)
Dream Theater - Awake
Monstrosity live
Meshuggah - Destroy, Erase, Improve
Carcass - Heartwork
Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black

Vid: Forbidden (various stuff)


12/17/01
First, I want to say that I had a great time seeing Dragonlord last weekend, it was good to see my friends from Northern CA and surprisingly, both nights had some of L.A.'s finest local bands as openers, which is rare.

I've been pretty sick these past couple weeks. I hate the cold. I know, I live in So. Cal and it could be much worse. Yes, I'm a wimp. (cough cough)

In worse news, I was extremely saddened to hear that Chuck Schuldiner passed away. Not only is he one of the "extreme" (aggressive, death, technical) Metal community's biggest influences, he was a very intelligent and inspiring individual. His lyrics did as much as his music. He talked a lot about strength and overcoming fears, not wasting a day of your life. As much as it hurts knowing we lost someone so important in the Metal community, I'm sure he did exactly as he wrote about and lived to the fullest, keeping true to himself and others. For that reason he seems to have lived a good life. I hope to support the upcoming benefits for other noted musicians such as James Murphy and Chuck Billy and see them through their battles with Cancer.

I close my eyes and sink within myself
Relive the gift of precious memories
(Symbolic)
-In Memory: Chuck Schuldiner
[EmptyWords.org]

Metal!:

Lacuna Coil - (all of em)
They're playing Thursday..you know how it is
Control Denied - The Fragile Art of Existence
Kreator - Coma of Souls
Death - Individual Thought Patterns
In Flames - Whoracle
Amorphis - Tuonela
Dragonlord - Rapture
Hypocrisy - The Final Chapter
Strapping Young Lad - City
Soilwork - The Chainheart Machine



11/21/01
OK, so maybe I was premenstrual or something during my last rant. GET OVER IT! I AM NOT MOODY! hehehe =]~

Today is Mommy Greco's B-day! Happy Birthday mom! And my brother's B-day was yesterday. Happy B-day to you too! OH YEAH, and Mike's B-day was a couple weeks ago, pics from our dinner in the photo section. Anyway, we spent the past couple nights schmoozin' with the Metal Masses, and it was fun as usual (minus Jim D. punching me in the stomach. JK dude....just wanted to see if you were paying attention and reading my rants. My liver has recovered).

I'm happy to finally be playing with Matt, but my amp has a different outlook on life. It will be seeing Dr. Boogie this weekend. Speaking of Dr's, my nostril is healing just fine, thankyouverymuch (see rant from 7/24). I can't think of anything cool to say right now, because I'm really looking forward to seeing Dragonlord (even if Stevie Di isn't playing, goddern@#^*%!!) and that's all I can think of. Either that or sleep, since I have gotten 7 hours total in the past 2 days. It'll be nice to see Noctuary with Dragonlord, since I missed them at the Witchery/The Haunted show (sniff sniff). Rob, thanks for the beer. =]

Hey, what's that smell?:

Oh, that's just our drummer. We're used to having a nice, warm room with no body odor. JK Mattey. You don't smell. I'm just too tired to name my playlist. My playlist consists of about 550 MP3s in rotate mode, and what's on now is: Sanctuary - Future Tense. "...and a BITCH on the side (What went wrooonnngggg??!!)" hehehe



11/8/01
I just want to yell about how stupid people with cars are!!! GGGGRRRRR! Seriously.. people do stupid shit, then they get mad at me (or whoever else is around)...and they ALWAYS flip me off when they do it. Like.. I like to be a little more creative (sometimes when they pull up to flip me off, I pick my nose at them, sometimes I just smile or wave..etc). Anyway, once somebody was in REVERSE on a 2-lane highway. I honked just so they'd know I was coming by and they caught up & flipped me off! A guy was in the right turn lane and decided not to signal, but to merge back into traffic in the intersection & pretend I wasn't there...so I kept going and he had to get behind me. Soooo he speeds up, changes lanes and gets in front of me. Ooooh that teaches me. Then he puts his turn signal on to turn right at the next light, and when I passed him, he got pissed & flipped me off. !?!?

Some dumbass chasing another person (probably a dumbass too) was next to me, trying to pass traffic to chase her some more but couldn't get thru...he goes in the carpool lane at 80MPH, then swerves inward towards her as to threaten her "hey don't mess with me, I'm so cool" and loses control of his car, spins out & plows into a semi 3 lanes over. Dumbass! Did I mention he was a dumbass? Well, he endangered many lives doing that, so I'm doing my part to make sure he doesn't drive again til he grows up. Speaking of growing up, I hate when people act childish and then expect to be forgiven like they were when they were little kids. I say once you're old enough to know you're doing something wrong (15?), you should be more responsible about it (prelude to my new song here...but I won't tell you what it is until later. The acronym is RTY). I am feeling particularly misanthropic this rant, so I'll shut up until I'm happier.

This month's theme - Girls n' stuff:

(female singers)
The Gathering - Nighttime Birds
Arch Enemy - Wages of Sin
Shadow - (self-titled)
Lacuna Coil - (all of em)
Aghora - (self-titled)
White Skull - Public Glory Secret Agony
(female singers/guitarists)
Rapture - (self-titled)
(female guitarist)
Warface (demo)
(female bassplayer)
New Eden - Stagnant Progression (pre-production)



10/10/01
The Century Media party was a huge success. It's good to see a Metal night pack the Roxy! Saw a tribute night at Paladino's last weekend, all the bands were pretty good. People kept thinking I was the guitarist of "The Iron Maidens".. so I guess either I shred, or she has brown hair. :P We tuned our instruments down this week (except CHIP - hehe) and I had to reach into the inner depths of my um....ovaries(?) to try to produce lower vocal notes. I eat too many Oreo O's. Our website is down for maintanance again (well, it's not if you're reading this right now). Mike has me on his cordless phone & I'm (virtually) walking with him to get his mail. He needs to stop eating Yoshinoya....and I must shut up now.

Stuff that you should play loud, too:

Arch Enemy - Black Earth
Arch Enemy - Wages of Sin
Testament - Live at the Fillmore
Soilwork - The Chainheart Machine
Gardenian - Soulburner
In Flames - Whoracle
Damn The Machine
At The Gates - Slaughter of the Soul
Death - Individual Thought Patterns
Hypocrisy - Abducted



9/24/01
Lots going on lately, and hardly any shows. Lots of bands are cancelling shows due to terrorist threats & activity, which is kinda' a bummer. It's too bad that people who travel for a living have to be scared out of doing so. OK this is a depressing rant. I think everything's getting to me because computers hate me. Anyway, I'll keep it short. Don't forget that during these times you can always contact the American Red Cross at (800) GIVE-LIFE (for blood donations), (800) HELP-NOW (for monetary donations), or visit http://www.redcross.org.

In light of being hard-up for live music, my playlist follows:

Dream Theater - Live Scenes from New York
In Flames - The Tokyo Showdown
Iron Maiden - Live After Death
The Gathering - Superheat (A Live Album)
Exodus - Another Lesson in Violence
Sanctuary - Into The Mirror Live
Artisan live rehearsal (I miss our drummer.. and am sick of CHIP!!)



8/27/01

All I can say is Thrash of the Titans RULED! Click here for Metal Judgement reviews

I made this rant 2 weeks ago, but didn't post it cuz I couldn't think of anything else to say....but after last night, I have more to brainbarf! The Arti string-players went to a WWIII release party last night. Rise & Prototype kicked major ass, as usual. Imagika played.. it was good to see them finally, and their new (female) bassplayer was an ass-kicker. (It's good to see other girls in Metal). Engrave......(long pause and much thought) used a Metal Zone pedal. Hehe..and the other guitarist had realllllly long hair. Can you tell I paid a lot of attention to the blast-beat and faster-than-speedy riffing music? It was a bit much. To top it off, Nocturne played.. or something of the sort..more like screamed and banged their instruments...but I can't tell whether they were good, since they had strobe lights blinking from the time they started setting up. It was kinda cool to see them mutilate themselves, I guess.. I mean if you can't understand the music or watch them play their instruments, some form of destruction makes up for it, eh? Next time I want to see an explosion. Yeah.. that would be cool.



8/9/01

WOOHOOOOOOOOOO I AM SO EXCITED! I am going to live out my all-time dream! No, I'm not going on tour (yet - hehe)... I'm going to see Forbidden play! Oh yeah and lots of other bands I was too young to get out to see in the 80's!! Just saw Flotsam last week, but this'll be COOLER cuz they'll probably play more old stuff! I love No Place For Disgrace to death! I just can't wait to see all these bands I've known & loved for so long play together again...and get to see Death Angel & Sadus &...well you get the picture. Best of all, Chuck Billy & Chuck Schuldiner will benefit from this show as well as all us fans. It'll be cool to see Metal friends & fiends & sing along to old Forbidden Evil songs with Perry! *puts on falsetto voice* "YOU'RE ALL WELCOME TO THE CHURCH OF LIES!!"
I think my nose is still broken.. it feels numb. I have pics too! Ya know.. swollen eyelid pics. hehehehhe
Anyway.....THRASH!

Playlist
Forbidden: Twisted Into Form
Memory Garden: Mirage
Atheist: Elements
Jason Becker (forgot the title, latest release)
Sentenced: Crimson
Meshuggah: Destroy, Erase, Improve
Soilwork: A Predator's Portrait
Flotsam & Jetsam: Drift
Dragonlord : Rapture
Random Artisan recordings from practice sessions



7/24/01

Well, I've been reconstructed. No, I didn't get implants! I got my broken nostril fixed! I am like all the other boys & girls now, and I can breathe through both sides. Oh yeah I didn't know, but my nose was broken too (thanks to Eric from Rapture for doing kewl stunts in the jumpy thing) so that's all better too. Anyone who hasn't been fixed for a broken nose, it's cool. You get really drugged, then (you hear it all) cut open, skinned off the bone, broken, bone shaved back to normal & sewn up. Then you throw up blood when you get home! I've been told I'm pretty damn Metal for going through all that, especially the barf part! Some think I'm a masochist cuz I didn't take pain pills. OH!! So then you have a cast on your face, it swells up and turns purple, you can't see anything but your eyelids... and when they pull the packing out of your nostrils a week later, it's all hot and slimy, and your nose is all swollen and looks like Ms. Piggy! :P~ Cool, Eh?!

I have no playlist cuz I've been laying on the couch with my melon at at 30 degree angle watching reruns on Animal Planet. The Hypocrisy DVD was pretty damn cool.



6/28/01

Oh My GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!! The new Arch Enemy kicks SO MUCH ASS!!!!!!!! OK, I'm calm. In Arti-news, the "MOW" (or meow) song we're doing drums for currently has vocals/ideas comin' out of the woodwork. It's giving *me* wood. =]



6/14/01

YAY I got to take CHIP home & play with him a little....I haven't been doing much except staring at a computer screen, so I don't have anything exciting to say. I'm going to watch Mike make a sneak appearance with a phantom jam-band on Saturday. Friday I'm gonna see Proto. Right now I'm extremely hyper cuz I drank my secretary's caffe latte yuppie-titled starbucks crap that gives me a bbbzzzzzzzz and I'm waiting for something cool to happen. Til next time...

Playlist!
Forbidden: Twisted Into Form
Death: The Sound of Perseverance
In Flames: COLONY, In Flames: Clayman
The Quiet Room: Reconceive
Amorphis: Tuonela
Carcass: Heartwork
Lacuna Coil: self-titled EP & Halflife
Sentenced: Crimson
Nevermore: The Politics of Ecstacy



5/29/01

As Perry noted our support for Chuck Schuldiner in his battle with Cancer, I'd like to make note that we're also behind Chuck Billy and will be at the Thrash of the Titans show to support both Chucks (this benefit has been opened to Schuldiner as well)! For more info on Thrash of the Titans, go to http://www.thrashofthetitans.com!

In other news, last weekend's long-awaited Nevermore/Opeth/Angel Dust/God Forbid shows (all 3 of the CA dates) were incredible. So much music, so little sleep..and even more driving. =] ::Ana's wheels start turning:: Wait...did Mike say he was jerking off with the drum machine? Then Perry took it home? Is there something I should know about this CHIP? I'm glad I was busy going to the same show 3 nights in a row that weekend hehehe..