Blackfield By: Blackfield Year: 2004 Click here for the artists site As anyone who frequents this site (or, in all honesty, converses with me about music for any period of time) will know, I am a huge Steven Wilson fan. I have loved his work with Porcupine Tree, and was curious to see what else this amazing musician had done. In the reissues of all the old Porcupine Tree discs there was a little flyer for a project Wilson had done with Aviv Geffen, a popular Israeli musici...

I'll admit it. When I started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, way back in its freshman season, I was only watching for the incomparable Sarah Michelle Gellar. I remember seeing advertisements (I think I was about thirteen or fourteen) and thinking, "Wow. Now there is a prety girl. I'm going to have to watch that show." But my mother, in typical Mama Jones fashion, forbade me. And, in typical sonny-boy San Chonino style, I refused to obey and watched it in the basement, telling her I ...

Extraordinary Machine By: Fiona Apple Year: 2005 Click here for the artists site I’ve been an avid Fiona Apple fan since the early days, when Tidal first came out, and I heard the song “Shadowboxer” for the first time. I’ve just always been moved by her sultry, deep alto voice, creepy piano melodies, and disjointed but catchy lyrics. But I was even more a fan of her second album, When the Pawn . . . which showed so much growth as an artist and composer. But I wa...

As I've already explained in the comments to my last blog, I was really mad when I wrote that post. Looking back at it twenty four hours later, I realize that I don't even agree with a lot of the things that I said in that post. Of course I don't support illegal immigration, and if I had taken half an hour to cool myself down and think about it before writing that, I could have saved some serious face. It occurs to me that blogs written when under extreme emotional duress often go that way...

Here in the "great" state of Utah, we have a "problem" with illegal immigration. Or so the usual writers to the opinion pages of the local papers would have us believe. They make it sound as though our very way of life, our world, is coming to an end because of all this immigration. We have a strong contingent of the border "Minutemen" here in the state, and they are very vocal. They constantly exclaim that we must cast out all our illegal neighbors and unify (read: homogenize) our state...

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the state of Utah, but if there's one thing Utah has going for it, it's lots of Mormons. They make up over half the population of the state, after all. Now, that's not a bad thing, don't get me wrong - I do happen to be one myself, so I can't go hating on the population of which I am a part - but it does lend itself to a lot of closed-mindedness. Currently up on "the Hill", where the State Capitol building is, there is a bill that a Sen. Butta...

I always feel like an idiot when I start a blog. I think to myself, "why am I doing this to myself again? Why am I going to put my thoughts and feelings back out here for everybody and their dog to see?" I don't know why, but I continue to do it anyway. So that's the sum of it. I'll write my thoughts and feelings, and any and all of you are more than welcome to comment, ask questions, give advice, etc. You can never have too much connection, I figure.