Our Thoughts And Prayers Go Out To Jenny Rivera

And her family, the people with her and her fans.

I wasn't a fan just because her music wasn't the type that I listen to, but every time we lose someone we all are diminished.

A Welcome Interlude, Part Two

To Syd Barrett, In Tribute.

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.

Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the cross fire of childhood and stardom,
Blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger,
You legend, you martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Treatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
Rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter,
You piper, you prisoner, and shine!

Nobody knows where you are, how near or how far.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Pile on many more layers and i'll be joining you there.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
And we'll bask in the shadow of yesterday's triumph,
And sail on the steel breeze.
Come on you boy child, you winner and loser,
Come on you miner for truth and delusion, and shine!

To All Us Brothers In Rock And Roll.

And Madness...

Shine On.

A Welcome Interlude, Part One

          Okay, here in Dallas, we have a station called the Edge. On Saturday nights they have what is, appropriately, called the Saturday Night Edge Club. I have just heard two songs that I've never heard before and that, collectively, kicked my ass. Not easy to do, mind you.

          The first was called, "The Pot" by Tool. Here are the lyrics:

Who are you to wave your finger?
Ya' must have been out your head.
Eye hole deep in muddy waters.
You practically raised the dead.

Rob the grave, to snow the cradle.
Then burn the evidence down.
Soapbox, house of cards, and glass,
So don't go tossin' your stones around.

You must have been high.
You must have been high.
You must have been.

Foot in mouth, and head up asshole.
Whatcha talkin' 'bout?
Difficult to dance 'round this one
'til you pull it out, boy!

You must have been, so high.
You must have been, so high.

Steal, borrow, refer, save your shady inference.
King Guru done hung the juror with the innocent.

Now you're weeping shades of chosen indigo
Got lemon juice up in your...EYE!

When you pissed all over my black kettle
You must have been HIGH, HIGH
You must have been HIGH, HIGH

Who are you to wave your finger?
So full of it.
Eyeballs deep in muddy waters
Fuckin' hypocrite.

Liar, lawyer, mirror, show me.
What's the difference?

Kangaroo done hung the guilty with the innocent.

NOW!!
You'll weep or, change the chosen into gold.
Got lemon juice up in your high eye.
When you pissed all over my black kettle
You musta been!

So who are you to wave your finger?
Who are you to wave your mighty fingers at me?
You must, have been, out your, mind!

Reefer chased off indigo
Trapped without a reason
Reefer chased off indigo

Liar, lawyer,
Mirror for ya,
What's the difference?
Kangaroo be stoned
He's guilty as the government

NOW!!
Will you weep or, change the chosen into gold
Got lemon juice up in your, EYE!!
EYE!!

Now when you pissed all over my black kettle.
You musta been HIGH, HIGH, HIGH, HIGH.
Eyeballs deep in muddy waters
Your're balls deep in muddy waters.
Ganja Police, you must, have been, out your MIND!!!!

          The lyrics, plus the driving guitars and wicked awesome drumming leapt up, grabbed me by the throat and dragged me around the room screaming like a loon. Too much.

           Then, they played "Take A Walk" by Passion Pit:

All these kinds of placesMake it seem like it's been agesAnd tomorrow's sun and buildings scrape the sky.I love this country dearlyI can feel the latter clearlyBut I never thought I'd be alone to try.Once I was outside Penn stationSelling red and white carnationsWe were still alone, my wife and I.Before we married, saved my moneyBrought my dear wife over.Now I work to bring my family stateside.Got off the boat, they stayed a whilethen scattered 'cross the coast.Once a year I'll see them for a week or so at most.I took a walk(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)Ohh-ohh-ohh-ohhI took a walk(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)Ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohhPractice isn't perfectbut the market cuts a loss.I remind myself that times could be much worse.My wife won't ask me questions-there's not so much to ask.And she'll never flaunt around an empty purse.Once my mother-in-law cameJust to stay a couple nightsAnd decided she would stay the rest of her life.I watch my little childrenPlay some boardgame in the kitchen
And I sit and pray they never feel my strife.But then my partner called to say the pension funds were goneHe made some bad investments, now the accounts are overdrawnI took a walk.(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)Ohh-ohh-ohh-ohhI took a walk(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)Ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh"Honey, it's your sun"I think I borrowed just too much.We had taxes, we had bills, we had a lifestyle to front.And tonight I swear I'll come home and we'll make love like we're young.Tomorrow , you'll cook dinner for the neighbors and their kids.We can rip apart the socialists and all their damn taxes.You see I am no criminal, I'm down on both bad knees.I'm just too much a coward to admit when I'm in need.I took a walk.(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)Ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh
             Okay, that was it. By now, I'm gibbering gibberish like a gibbon in Gabon. 
             Then they finished off the set with, "Been Away Too Long", by Soundgarden:You can't go home, no I swear you never canYou can walk a million miles and get nowhere
I got no where to go and it seems I came back
Just filling in the lines for the holes, and the cracks

Hey, no one knows me
No one saves me
No one loves or hates me
I've been away for too long
This place has a sṗecial kind of falling apart
Like they put the whole thing together in the dark
No one knows where the edge of the knife is
And no one knows where intelligent life is
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/soundgarden/been_away_too_long.html ]
Hey, no one knows me
No one saves me
No one loves or hates me
Going straight
I only ever really wanted a break
I've been away for too long
No I never really wanted to stay
I've been away for too long
I've been away for too long
I've been away for too long
Keyholes, trough key holes
Where those
I am still hiding
Everyone inside
Tank girls and fly guns and silver boots on my way home

Going straight
I only ever really wanted a break
I've been away for too long
No I never really wanted to stay
Going straight
I only ever really wanted a break
I've been away for too long
No I never really wanted to stay
I've been away for too long

           Okay. Mind = Blown.

            Good night, all. I hope you're having as good a Saturday night as I am.

            Peace.    

            (What the...? Now they are playing my favorite Stone Temple Pilots' song, "Sour Girl". Truly, I am blessed.

A Reasonable Expectation Of Privacy?

          ButtChocolate, a highly-favored and well-known commenter just told me that he was banned for awhile, also. BECAUSE JOHN CHEESE READ HIS MESSAGES. As in, private messages. Granted, it's their website and they can do as they please. BUT. Why have a "private messaging" system if anyone in the chain of command can read them? Unless it's because Leighty,(Cheese), is Pargin's boyfriend, (Wong).

          BC said Leighty banned him because of the "lowlife" he was messaging with, or some bullshit like that.

          Delete your messages, people. Come here and be anonymous and talk all you want.

          Here, you can have your privacy, while smiling and waving to all the Cracked eyeballs peeled this way, lol.

A Disturbing Pattern Of Behavior

         One that has gone on for years in the Cracked forum. Their recent actions have been repeated over and over again. If you fire up Tor browser, (it hides your IP address, or gives you a fake one, if you so choose), create a new account, but DON'T login, you can ghost the forum. The things you will find there will destroy any lingering doubts you have about "overreacting" commenters. I may try and document them eventually, but it's literally almost overwhelming.

          This why they are trying so desperately to shut this matter down, by banning/deleting accounts and comments, (even now, a week later), lying about death threats from the commenters, (there were NONE. I lived at that article for three days straight. Never happened), making access to the forum airtight  and washing their hands of the whole mess.

          Because they know how the internet works. Big comedy website belittles and ridicules it's own audience? You think you've seen "butthurt" already, guess what?

          It hasn't even started yet.

Cheese And Cracked Are Running Scared

              Sucks when a dark truth is revealed to the light of day, isn't it? A comedy website, maybe the world's largest, hates and despises it's readers. Yes, you heard right, it's readers, it's revenue. Have you ever seen another site do this? I haven't. And they are scared to death right now that this will go viral and everyone will know how hypocritical they truly are. "Come, write for us", they say. Yet, we've seen fledgling writers treated with derision in the forums if they say anything other than, "Yessir, Mr.Cheese/Wong, sir!" And God forbid a mere mortal reader stray into that cesspool. One word, one smileyface, one "lol" and you're banned.

                John Cheese, (Mack Leighty), is David Wong's, (Jason Pargin), best bud. He's also a miserable, relapsing drunk who is taking out his rage and hostility on anyone in sight and Wong takes up and covers for him. But this time the curtain has been pulled aside to reveal, not the Wizard, but the sad, dark, shameful truth.

                The truth that a comedy website is populated with some of the most cynical, hateful, downright despicable misanthropists that money can buy.

                And that's just wrong.

An Alcoholic's Perspective On The Great "Cheese-Melt"

(This is not an attempt to rationalize, nor excuse, his actions. Simply a viewpoint into the actions of a possibly-relapsing individual from a broader standpoint)

             You all know me, some of you have seen the Youtube video where I talk about being an alcoholic/addict, (hereafter referred to as "a/a"). As an a/a, you unfortunately gain insight into a dark side of life, a world of pain and misery, but also redemption and triumph. It's an ugly world, full of hateful decisions and self-loathing. A world where you sell blood to buy booze and steal from loved ones to keep using.

              But enough about that, you get the point, I hope. The reason I'm writing this is to, hopefully, get people to understand what "relapse" and "dry drunk" means and why I think Cheese is doing both. (Please google both terms, this would be a wall of text to explain them here. I'll wait). If you've read about both then you've realized what I think has happened here. All of the symptoms describe his attitude and his actions.

               And that's sad. His BFF, Wong, should be helping him right now instead of encouraging such behavior. No one wants to see someone relapse.

                I was going to write more, but I've got the flu, it seems. I heartily encourage comments and discussions about this in the comments section here. (You know, the one where we care about you and value your opinions).

                I'll close the way we introduce ourselves at an AA meeting:   My name is Randy and I'm an alcoholic...