i don't like safes and cheese slicers

so about 2 weeks ago i cut half my thumb nail off with a cheese. that was not fun. it only went through 2/3's of the nail so i had to rip off the rest. its all good now and is working its way to being a full nail now.
about 4 days later i caught my finger in the door of the safe in work. thankfully there was music playing through the pa system, so no one heard my screams from the office. i went to the doctor the next day and he got a needle and made a hole in the nail to release the blood that was caught underneath as it was creating a whole world of pain with the pressure. my finger was holding out pretty good after that except that two days later it was looking like my finger was trying to kick my nail off itself. big lump between my nail and my knuckle, not pretty. 4 days ago my nail separated a little bit from my finger, some more blood came out and then later on that big lump disappeared. so over the last four days i have been able to look underneath my fingernail! i have been finding that real interesting, bit disgusting but interesting. if you have seen the ad for yakult "the healthy bacteria" where it goes "welcome to planet you, this is your intestine" that kind of what it was looking like under my nail!! so i got it caught on something the other day and there was more give and more that i could see. this evening it was just at the stage where it was about to fall off but still really connected but i got it. i helped it, so now it is gone and i have a zombie finger. it's well strange not having a nail but it'll grow back and look like it never happened. regeneration, thats my superpower!!! i want to keep it as a trophy but thats not good, it'd be worse than finding toenail clippings on the floor if you found a full nail!!!
just thought i'd share that with you.

here's a photo!!

shows

so i was at this show last night. the headline band , Coheed and Cambria were the only reason i was there.

on the way up i was wondering how long of a set they would play as it was a tour organized by someone that doesn't have anything to do with the bands, they just got the bands to play. it was alright as the played for just under an hour. they put on a good show, played from their new album and some older stuff. but after seeing that show i would say that a show that they are putting on themselves would be amazing. i think the Kerrang tour for them is a good idea so they can jump onto a bill and not have the worry that bands would have on tour, instead all the worry is on Kerrang!

back to the show. just got in before the end of circa survive. thankfully. not into it.
Fightstar were up next, i would not be a fan of Fightstar but i think i have seen them more than some of my favourite bands! they support everyone! they came across at this gig as heavy music by numbers. still lots of Deftones influence and our lad Charlie! wants to be a frontman and lose the guitar (to their Hugh Grant!! lookalike.) not so good, poor lad, he kept losing the mic and missing lines. this was the second show of the tour, and he's out of breath by the third song! they played their first single and messed it up! better luck next time guys!







madina lake. i had only heard the name, never check the music, didn't know what they were like or anything. they reminded me of saved by the bell. like as if the cast of saved by the bell had a band together and were trying to be a metal band they couldn't actually be that heavy. in fairness to madina lake they did put a good show on, wouldn't be into to them at all but they do give it socks. lead singer jumped off the speakers and back flipped into the crowd, the band figured that he'd be back before they end of the song and kept playing. until they came to the end of the song. guitarist asks for the crowd to push him up! after a couple of minutes he appears with less of a hoody than what he went into the crowd with! i would say it'll be a while before he jumps that far into a crowd again.

Coheed and Cambria, amazing. Claudio is huge!! he looks like he has the biggest hands ever! and so much hair. which have probably helped him in playing the guitar style he does. very talented musicians in the whole band, and every one of them giving so much energy to the set and the backing singers, haunting the songs along with Claudio.

but as i said earlier i think they would have to be a band that you need to see in their own set up, not in a support slot or as part of a tour/festival.







i know a good few people who said they wouldn't get out of bed for that line up and i think they were right. i wanted to see Coheed and Cambria. i really didn't want to be there for the wait for Coheed to hit the stage. but i was there and i watched all the bands with most of my attention. one thing that was taking my full attention away from the stage was the amount of people not watching the stage , running around the place just chatting away over the 120db of music to their mates.
it was €28.50 i think for tickets, i like to get my moneys worth for most stuff. i love going to gigs but when a band is on stage no matter how much i have paid, if i like them already or not, i will always give my full attention. thats the passion for music that the crowd screamed for when madina lake said that we are all here because of one thing, the passion for music. but not that crowd. Kerrang tour had projectors on either side of the screen and in between bands they would have "make some noise for..." and the bands name. this did only work before fightstar and before madina lake. it was strange hearing these really high pitched screams for madina lake and then pretty low screams for coheed directly after. while seeing the crowd around me i was thinking about all the gigs that i have been at in the ambassador and was i ever one of those kids! there is probably one maybe two gigs that i remember running around the place but i do remember that was IN BETWEEN the bands. the other thing is that it was an all ager so i can understand that its the first maybe second time some of the kids got out and there was just too much going on to keep them focused, thats fine but the rest of them, ugh!

basically strange gig, but enjoyable.



also this week seems to be gig week (dosen't help that i am super broke!!) was at this!! good show. unfortunately i got in before soul control so i missed first death and crowd control. but well enjoyed seeing soulcontrol, shipwreck and blacklisted. some strange people at the show but they were enjoying it so thats fine.

really good show and i hope the bands had a good time while they were here.














i going to see New Found Glory on Sunday. that is going to be great!. anyway.

history

history 101.
this is going to be my account of how so many bands have come from so few people.

deadletteroffice is where i am going to start but i'll just mention a couple of bands before that.
all my fault (AMF) is what i would say is the root of many things. members; Steven Arkins, Laurence Coleman, Philp Kos. I came across AMF at shows in Navan, where i used to engineer the gigs. they played many shows with No Big Thing and the two bands are the start of great things.

after AMF broke up, Steven A joined No Big Thing. there himself, Steve C, Barry and Antony began to make some of the best pop punk tracks ever. but unfortunately it did not last. Steve A left and joined "15 minutes" which changed there name to "wait for the day" after his arrival. today we know them as "Homestar Runner."

Laurence Coleman joined his brother Mark and good friends Jay and Gareth in the search for a drummer for something new. there they had thought of me, and then deadletteroffice was born. before the first gig for deadletteroffice Jay left and rejoined his old band 15 minutes which lead into Homestar Runner. deadletteroffice needed a guitarist for this gig and were graced with Ciaran Smyth.
After the first gig, deadletteroffice decided that Gareth was not strong enough on bass to carry on with the band, then it was the arrival of Chris Mahon. after that Ciaran decided that deadletteroffice was not the place for him.
deadletteroffice carried on as a four piece for a while until faced with the dilemma of Laurence leaving. in the search for a new guitarist they found Daragh McSherry. After Laurence had played what were to be his last 2 gigs, he decided that he didn't want to leave so deadletteroffice decided to have two guitarists again.
Unfortunately Chris was let go, which in turn he joined the Upgrades as their bassist. after playing with them for a while, he left and was replaced in the Upgrades by Barry from No Big Thing, Chris then played bass for Dear Catastrophe. up to the end of dear catastrophe Chris had joined/formed First Death in Nova Scotia.
Replacing Chris in deadletteroffice on bass was Neil Keating. deadletteroffice went onto to many gigs with this line up and then came the day when Laurence decided to leave, again. deadletteroffice went again on the search for another guitarist. they found Jay Donahey and played one gig with him but saw that it wasn't going to last. they played one final gig in the music centre. after that gig they had gotten in contact with Steve C from No Big Thing. Barry from No Big Thing was playing with the Upgrades on bass and Antony was playing drums for Little Nightmare with Ciaran Smyth. after deciding that Steve C was perfect for deadletteroffice, deadletteroffice decided that it was the end of the year and a half long journey with all the line up changes and 162 gigs.
this was when Born A Ghost was born.
during the time of Born A Ghost, Neil had started singing with Barntown Water Tastes Like Blood. after that Born A Ghost's time with me as the drummer had ended and they got Paul to play drums for them. this did not last very long as Born A Ghost was on hiatus since Neil and Daragh went to the states for the summer. upon their return Born A Ghost was no more. except for a couple of reunion shows.
Neil carried on with Barntown Water Tastes Like Blood and also joined many many other projects, notably Another Day in Hell.
Mark joined the Black Martyr until he got all that heavy out of him. he is now singing with 30 Nights of Violence with Steve C on guitar. I played with A Name to Kill For till its demise last October.

i hope that helps you in playing 6 degrees of separation

so it looks like my computer is loading up the video this time,
spent hours trying to do it the other day and it all failed.

2mb out of 9!!

5mb out of 9!!

9mb out of 9!!

( of )
I'm a little worried!
just in case here the youtube version.


so I've decided that I'll do a little more and give you the treat of seeing into my day.

so i work in urban outfitters, Dundrum. it's one of the newest urban outfitters in europe. it opened last august (2007) Antwerp opened end of November. Belfast will be opening in February. i am the menswear manager. its fun. so basically i'm pretty much there most of the time, we're open for more than most peoples waking hours! but its probably one of the most interesting shops to work for. for instance we have this guy that works there and his job is to build stuff! he has his own workshop in the store. what this also means is that i can go and get a power drill or something and change something within the store myself. i think its that thing that makes the company that little bit different than everywhere else. the same idea is carried on in everyone of the stores and there is a guideline to go by but each store has their own creative control over what they have to do.

so i have a team of people who are amazing, we have a laugh and its good times. I'm not that much of a tyrant! my floor has 72% menswear and 33% housewares on it. myself and the housewares managers both started working in the other Dublin store, Temple Bar around the same time and have worked up from sales assistants to managers, so we know our shit! she has a bit of a hard time because her department is everywhere in the shop! while i have all my menswear on one floor.

another key thing about urban outfitters is that although you may be assigned as a certain department manager, you also need to be knowing whats going on in the rest of the place. because at any stage you could be asked if you had any more chiffon sleeve cardigans in stock and do you know what the number of it is. (this happened today!) keeps you on your toes and busy. i like that, i like being busy.

so our store is at Dundrum town centre, this is a very strange place. its slowly growing on me though. there could be a very interesting sociology study to be made from it. after moving out to there i was faced with a predicament of where i was going to get coffee. any one who knows me from town would know that i generally was either in work in temple bar or having coffee at heavenly in temple bar. so it took a good month or so to find somewhere in the centre that did nice hot food for my lunch and coffee. there is some good coffee places there but i need the food as well. i like one stop shops! i had found a place and as a bonus they did amazing muffins but the thing is i wasn't getting a deal. 2 out 10 coffee were free after you got the stamps and there was a meal deal but it wasn't working out as well for me. as i was saying earlier about the guy who builds stuff in the store he is also a gent and does a coffee run in the morning for us as were in long before anywhere is open and probably open an hour before them!

so he was going to the cafe across from us. good coffee. i had a bad experience during my month reconnaissance there but i decided i give it another shot. now when it comes to coffee i am straight up a best customer, very loyal! i drink a different coffee than most and because of that the guy there knew straight away where i worked because of my coffee. now i like that. great customer service. I'm in there at least twice a day if not three. and it has kind of giving me a liking towards the town centre. i can sit out there, have my coffee and some cigarettes (chain smoke on lunch!!) and watch all the people go by in and out of the centre.

my floor is really nice. i have a waterfall behind those windows! the store looks out onto the mill pond (Santa's grotto is been taking from it now, yeah Santa's grotto on a pond!!) its got this clean industrial buzz going on with all the concrete and wood and air conditioning ducting everywhere.
i get to talk to random people everyday, sometimes they tell me stories about stuff like their family or where there have been, anything really.

well that enough of that.

i've put the youtube version of the video up cause bloggers video uploader hates me!

from way back when

was reminded about me having taped a gig from ages ago, yesterday. i will have it up today! can't believe i had forgotten about it. it was one of the best shows (tours) i have ever been too. it was also good to come back to dublin after playing around the the country to what like, 20 to 50 people across two shows, to this gig having that many there. just good to see the support from that early stage!

anyway the vid is the ruiner set of the dublin gig at boh's bar from october 28th 2006!










just a note on the tour.
met some of the best dudes on this tour, got to hang out with guys that i hadn't either had the chance ever to before or just needed to catch up with.

also got to see how scenes where coming together around the country, which is always great to see outside of dublin, like you see with loads of stuff, dublin is the centre of everything in ireland!!

eh intro i guess

So after seeing what friends had to say, it gave me some inspiration to use this account that i've had for some reason.

I'm a creative person so i might just use this for random thoughts, ideas, mini projects that i may do for my amusement. I have been meaning to get some videos edited and uploaded and my girlfriend got me a wicked camera for christmas. I'm slowly but surely building my gadget collection.

I've recently gotten reason for my mac and now I'm looking to get a midi controller to mac everything easier so i can make random samples, songs, and stuff.

i think also this blog could be another good place to keep people in contact with me, i guess. i want to make more effort this year. i got very much into my job last year but because i was living in town, i'd see people fairly often but now since i'm not living in town, i don't get to see anyone unless by extreme circumstances. i really miss walking around town and just seeing people around.
when you work in the epicenter that is Dundrum Town Center, you get a weird surreal feeling.
it is going to be Dundrum village! it goes from one main street to the other. and strange people are there, its just wierd!

anyway that was a little rant for an intro.
fuck it,

happy new year!!
hope christmas was amazing for you.

casey.