Cramped Style

I got the new Opeth, Kataklysm, In Flames and Children of Bodom albums in the mail yesterday. Three of them jewelcase retail releases, one promo. Free, except for shipping and the inevitable reviews I'll have to write by the 28th. Great - but I've sort of run out of room in which to put them.

I've been writing metal reviews and interviews since high-school. My heady, wide-eyed and overeager reviews won't be posted here for your viewing (dis)pleasure, because they're so shoddy I doubt you'd be reading a review - it would be more like a heavy metal hagiography. I've collected most of them, save for a few that I sold on eBay for tidy and criminally overpriced sums. (They were horrible sounding records. Truly terrible.) I own a bed with a bookshelf in the bedhead. It used house a mixture of books and CDs. Then the books were overrun and had to be relegated to another bookshelf. Now it's full of CDs. Inside the bookshelf and on top, with overflow residing on my bedside table (with duplicates and "unworthy" discs, for example: the original CD release of British Steel by Judas Priest sits there - the re-master takes pride of place in the "real" CD collection.) I have about 300 CDs, promos included. Promos I can't really sell, because they aren't groundbreaking/awesome/decent enough for anyone to give a shit about.

This really does give me comfort, because it's probably the most daunting obstacle I believe I face in the world today. It's tangible. The problem can be seen, not abstracted. Everything else is pretty much imaginary.

A year ago, I'd break a sweat because one of my friends could have possibly sort of given me a blank stare instead of a wistful silence. A friend told me "your psychology helps a lot" after giving her an impromptu session (because I'm a wanker like that) the other night. I'd like to think its helped me too, but I can't tell if it has or not. I spose that's a fairly good thing.

Catch and I are working on a new project. He's always wanted to become a stand-up comedian, and I'm helping him write some material. I think i've got some fucking killer jokes and anecdotes from encountering people and what they do. A fundamental element of comedy is making light of other's misery, and another is conflict. Combine the two and you just cannot fail. It's impossible.