Well, let’s see, what’s new?  Friday was a full day which started in my hometown of Simpsonville as I was at Wal-Mart for our annual Rock ‘N’ Roll Up Your Sleeve blood drive.  My dear Aunt Pat was there to see her beloved nephew and to keep me in line as she likes to do to me on the air!  Greg and I were fighting with the Planet ape’s big ass as the concrete buckets kept falling over and my aunt had the genius idea of tying the ape to a couple of sign posts which already grounded in the asphalt.  Way to go, Aunt Pat!

The drive was a HUGE success as, not only was I busy for the two hours I was out at the Simpsonville Wal-Mart (which faces my alma mater Hillcrest High School on the other side of I-385), but apparently all our donor locations were as well as we brought in 575 units of blood compared to 560 last year.  And, for those wondering, we should be drawing for the DROWNING POOL autographed guitar and the PROJECT REVOLUTION tickets over the course of the day as well as picking our photographer for the show.

Friday night, Rebecca and I went out to pay tribute to Uncle Jim at the Jim Minchow Memorial Concert at Ground Zero.  We enjoyed sets from WHISKEY MOUNTAIN MACHINE, BOOLOW and got to see GHOST IN THE MACHINE for the first time as a five-piece since the addition of a second guitarist.  They ended their set with “Down for the Last Time” with guest backing vocals from Jay and J-Bird formerly of EVERY MANS ENEMY.  Afterwards, Jay confirmed the strong possibility of an EME reunion!  At that point, Becca and I were both beat and had to leave and miss HEADSNAP’s set being she had to work in the morning.

Saturday, I stepped out to feed and run a few errands, but, outside of that, I stayed in and vegged on the couch and did pretty much the same on Sunday.  Becca did come over so we could watch Dan in Real Life with Steve Carell.  The movie was actually pretty entertaining considering I am not big on indy comedies.  However, Steve Carell can pull them off as he did with Little Miss Sunshine.  Bill Murray, on the other hand, does not as I did not care for Rushmore nor Lost in Translation.

Dan in Real Life  \m/ \m/ \m/ \n

Yesterday, Paige and Nine made the HUGE announcement of the line-up for BIRTHDAY BASH XII!  Granted, they had to do it since Skip and Matt were both (and still are) sick with vacation coming for them next week (I will say no more).  So, the ticket blitz IS ON!!!  Listen all week as we will giving away tickets to see AVENGED SEVENFOLD, BUCKCHERRY, SHINEDOWN and SAVING ABEL at Clemson’s Littlejohn Coliseum on September 30th before you can buy them on Friday (P1s, you can buy yours on Thursday)!

While on the air yesterday, I checked out Best Buy’s website to see if there was anything worth picking up on DVD since all the decent movies have been confined to theaters this summer.  Being tight in the wallet, I really couldn’t have done much spending, but Best Buy happens to be running a killer sale of $5 DVDs!  I zipped over there immediately after getting off the air and picked up Clerks II, Grandma’s Boy and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle all for five bucks a pop!  Needless to say, I spent last night laughing my ass off watching the movies in their respective order as I have listed them but only making it halfway through the second one before calling it a night.  I did, at least, make it through Grandma making tea out of Alex’s pot and the huge party that stems from the ‘herbal’ tea!  “My grandma drank all my pot!”  Classic!

So, go pick up some killer cheap DVDs and tell them Twisted Todd sent ya since I used to work there!  Who says you can’t buy happiness?!

This years Birthday Bash is going to better than ever. Shinedown, Buckcherry, Saving Able, Avenged 7Fold. September 30th. Clemson’s Little John Coliseum. Last year was completely amazing with Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Seether, and Red.  I thought  back to the first Birthday Bash with Jackyl. Honestly, I remember talking to Zakk Tyler and being  proud that we stayed on the air for a year. The second Birthday Bash, I sat on top of the Planet Van. I could not believe the crowd. Carrie Martin and I said, “What are we going to do next year?” Creed was just something very memorable.  I remember looking at a sea of people. That show was only the beginning. Nickelback played Birthday Bash right after 911.

You know, I’m really not sure what happened to my weekend!  All I know is that I kept going all weekend yet I have nothing much to speak of except for yesterday.

Friday I had my best friend Kenny, who was in town from Atlanta for a couple of days, take me to pick up my car from Big O Dodge after getting the front windshield molding reset.  We hung out for a few as he was heading out to meet more friends at Gottrocks and I was heading over to Mikey’s new apartment where he was having a birthday party for his new lady friend, Kelly.  After only two hours or so, the cops came out because of noise complaints so the party disbursed with some going out to another party while Mikey, Kelly and others headed to Gottrocks.  I would have loved to have gone and hung out with Kenny some more since I rarely get to see him, but I was beat so I went home and passed out shortly after midnight.

I didn’t see the light of day until damn near noon Saturday!  I then came to the station to work on the local show while I was on the air.  Afterwards, I went to Beacon Ridge, the apartment complex Rebecca works at to do a little swimming with her co-workers and scarf down some grilled hot dogs!  We parted ways to change into dry clothes and then Becca came over to my apartment and we watched We Own the Night with Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg.  As I expected, it was a great movie with a lot of tense moments and some partial nudity from the lovely Eva Mendes!

We Own the Night  \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/

Yesterday, my cousin Ray and his wife Erin had a baby shower for their soon-to-be firstborn son.  Family and friends were out in droves!  I hung out and had some finger sandwiches, fruit, cake and punch – the only justifiable parts for a guy like me to show up to such events!  I then had to take off and head to Spindale, NC and host Sunday Night Live at the Foundation Performing Arts Center with Christian rockers DISCIPLE.  Before introducing the band, I sat in the back of the auditorium watching skits and commercial parodies while waiting to go backstage.  When intermission came, I got a call from Kris, one of the singers from my old band DEAD AT DAWN.  I answered and he asked where I was so I told him I was at the DISCIPLE show in NC to which he replied, “I know, but where are you?”.  At this point it dawned on me that he was there so we played Where’s Waldo for a few minutes until we found each other.  Shannon, the drummer from DEAD AT DAWN was with him as well being the two work together at Coca-Cola so we caught up for a few minutes before I had to go backstage and introduce the band.

I had always heard that DISCIPLE puts on an amazing and energetic show and they, by no means, disappointed me.  After the show, I joined Shannon, Kris and others for a little late dinner at the nearest McDonald’s and then headed home.  Rebecca called me while at the show and wanted me to stop by being she missed the baby shower due to some allergic reaction she had earlier that day and had passed out from the Benadryl she took.  I agreed, but only if I could challenge her to another round of Battleship since she had beat me the night before.  Lo and behold, she kicked my ass again!  I have never understood this, because my ex-girlfriend Sara used to beat me at the game all the time!  What gives?  I guess women are just naturally gifted at blowing things out of the water!  LOL!!!

I went to see the midnight showing of The Dark Knight at Hollywood 20 last night – or should I say this morning?!  Rebecca had bought our tickets on Fandango as all the theaters sold out as I am sure this film set an amazing pre-sell record.  After getting off the air, I got a little work done in the office until Becca got to the station then we went over to Target so I could pick up some much needed groceries and to get my cousin a gift for his baby shower this Sunday.

We ran the groceries back to my place then grabbed a bite to eat at T.G.I.Fridays and then on to the theater.  We got there about 10:30 and they were already seating so we got some reasonably good seats.  Despite the fact the projector broke down on us twice, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

I wasn’t too thrilled with Batman Begins being I actually prefer the surrealistic feel of the Tim Burton films.  However, the gritty realistic realm of Christopher Nolan’s Gotham City actually translated really well in this film.  The atmosphere really added to the twisted, sadistic nature of the Joker whose character was wonderfully portrayed by Heath Ledger who will, regrettably, not be able to reprise the role in any future Batman films.  Aaron Eckhart also did an amazing job portraying Harvey Dent and then the inevitable villain Two-Face.

The story was quite possibly THE greatest superhero screenplay I have ever experienced on the silver screen.  The complex twists, turns and moral obscurities were just extremely clever and well-executed.  And the film leaves you wanting more as you’re wondering what’s next and how long you’re gonna have to bite your nails until the next installment of the Caped Crusader.

The Dark Knight  \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m

I gotta say, yesterday actually started out great!  I had a terrific performance evaluation with Mark which was something I was sweating as I always do.  I came out feeling on top of the world and there I stayed until later on that day as I was on the air.  Jessica, one of my co-hosts for Upstate Unsigned, read me a less-than-flattering blog comment from the show’s myspace page.  Apparently a fan of an anonymous local band was upset (to put it lightly) that their song was dropped at the end of the show due to timing as we return to regular programming roughly around midnight.  She proceeded to not only attack the show but other bands featured on the show calling them ‘talentless’ and ‘mainstream crap’.  I would have to say a vast majority of the bands I play have quite a bit of talent and are anything but mainstream as there is a lot of metal, progressive, experimental and everything in between.  And, the reason the band was placed at the end of the show in the first place, was simply because they are somewhat new and have yet to send us any upcoming gigs which is what I base the show on in the first place to promote bands and their shows the following week.

Later in the afternoon as I was wrapping up my shift, I get someone texting in to 20346 criticizing me for dogging on emo.  As I open their text history, I discover it was my ex-girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend as I found where he had been talking crap to other jocks at the station about how I could not run Upstate Unsigned without Rebecca and that she was not given any credit.  Granted this was written before Spring Fling before Becca and I split while she was still co-hosting the show.  Giving Rebecca her fair due, she was an asset to the show and brought it to a level it would not have got to without her.  As a matter of fact, I had to replace her with TWO co-hosts.  I struggled to give her the credit she was due for the show, but, at the end of the day, when ads and promos were made, my name was the one that was tied in with the show simply because I am the one most people are familiar with because I am on the air five hours a day.  However, this guy cannot be reasoned with as he has not liked me from day one since before Becca and I had our first date and has repeatedly attempted to sabotage the relationship.  And, even though Becca and I are no longer together, he still will not let sleeping dogs lie.

After I got off the air, I busted ass to go pick up Rebecca and head downtown to catch Avenue Q at the Peace Center.  As soon as we found our seats, some dude I didn’t even recognize yells “Twisted Todd you suck!”.  A little shocked to hear that in a real non-movie theater, I laughed it off assuming it was a joke.  A couple of friends of mine, Robbie and Vanessa (aka P1 Keymaster and P1 Gatekeeper) were sitting on the other side of the guy a row behind him.  So, before the show started, I headed over there to say hi and, as I passed this guy, he was talking very audibly to his mother about how I had left Lisa’s apartment in a wreck.  To give background here, at the beginning of 2007, I moved in with a couple of friends of mine as a favor to help them with rent since their previous roommate had just moved out.  Within a few months they went through a bitter break-up and both of them moved out leaving me holding the bag.  Being a nice guy since my name wasn’t on the lease at all, I stayed and paid the rent until the lease was up.  When they moved, they left the apartment in a wreck.  So, when it was time for me to move, I emptied and thoroughly cleaned my bedroom and bathroom as well as whatever damage I had done to the kitchen and living room.

Being a confrontational individual, I quickly set the record straight yet without being hasty or rude.  I then tried to change the subject and asked how Lisa was doing.  He smuggly answered the question in a rather rude and dismissive manner and I, disregarding the attitude, told him to tell her I said hi.  He, in like fashion, said that she’d rather not hear it and then started barking at me to move and get my butt out of his mom’s face being I was standing right in front of her at the time.  Ok, boys and girls, NO ONE talks to me like that – I don’t care if you ARE ten feet tall and bulletproof!  So, I quickly invited him to take up whatever issues he had with me outside after the show.

After tipping Robbie off to what had just transpired, I ran to the restroom and to get Rebecca a bottled water.  The show began during my run, so I had to wait a few minutes as they were in an eight minute hold.  I got to my seat and struggled to enjoy the first half of the show all the while wanting to get my hands around that jackass’ throat!  I finally perked up and got a bit excited when they began their number “The Internet is for Porn” of which I have had the video on my myspace before.

During the intermission, I grabbed Robbie and Vanessa and had them sit in the open seats next to us which helped me take my mind off beating someone’s ass.  Of course, after the intermission, the guy in question did not return to his original seat and I did not see him the rest of the night which also helped.  Coward.

I ended up thoroughly enjoying the rest of the show and the four of us hit Steak ‘N’ Shake afterwards for some much needed sustenance.  While there, I filled them in on all the bs that day.  As usual, they all told me roughly the same thing: ‘don’t take it so personal’ or ‘don’t let those people get to you’.  Okay, I know I should be a bit more thick-skinned, but I am only human and surely that would start getting to anyone.  How would you feel about being attacked so many times in one day?  How should I react to all this?  Feel free to leave a comment.  Your feedback would be greatly appreciated!

That pretty much sums up my weekend!  After being a recluse most of the week, excluding Monday night’s SHINEDOWN show excursion, I actually wanted to crawl out of my hole for a little while so I went shopping with Rebecca.  Granted I was broke so I had to mooch moolah off my ex-girlfriend – hey, I’m classy!  We grabbed some grub at Doc Cheys then went to see what was new on DVD at Best Buy.  Of course, there was nothing worth adding to my personal collection but Becca picked up Waiting which was on sale for like 5 or 6 bucks.  We then went over to Barnes and Noble because Becca, being the avid reader she is, needed some new reading material.  I looked around to see if I could find anything that might entertain my incredibly short attention span long enough to actually finish.  I came upon Hell House by Richard Matheson and was quite intrigued.  I had read I Am Legend back in college (long before the Will Smith film adaptation) and really loved his writing.  Mr. Matheson has also penned Stir of Echoes, What Dreams May Come and even some scripts for the original series of The Twilight Zone.

By the time we were done at B&N, it was nearly 11 so we parted ways and I crawled back into my cave to stay for a vast majority of the weekend.  Sunday was my only day to venture out to see my mom and aunt for Sunday dinner and later to take care of the Planet’s premiere local rock show Upstate Unsigned.

Outside of that, I remained in my darkened apartment playing Resident Evil 4 on Gamecube (no Wii in my pad!) since I can finally get somewhere in professional mode, playing my handheld solitaire game, watching episodes of My Name is Earl from the first season DVD and occasionally turning on a lamp to read Hell House.  Oh yeah, and I occasionally stepped out to feed!

I have no life to speak of and I am quite proud of that sad legacy!

13 people were injured in Pamplona Spain Running with the Bulls. The report said that no one was gored.  I  saw an American  in the news clip. This spawned the topic of “What was dumbest thing you did on vacation.?” I was quite entertained by the response.  

One P1 said that she got stung by a jelly fish and the guy she had a crush on  peed on her.

P1 Maximillion said, “I got lost in the woods and fell of a cliff in NC.”

P1 Metal Star paintballed a car.

P1Hooterlover got busted with a fake id.

P1Megan lost all of her money in Las Vegas.

P1Monkey Nugget said,” I was car surfing doing about 80mp with me on top of the roof.”

One P1 got pregnant with twins on vacation.

My favorite was this text. ” My brother and I were in the Dominican Republic on the beach. My brother drank so much that he fell asleep in the surf. His $100. Dr.Martin Sandals floated off of his feet.

Quite a few of you got arrested.

Many of you got engaged or married. 

My dumb story.  I got in a jet ski accident and broke my leg.

Please share your thoughts or vacation stories.

Paige 

Before I get into last night’s show at the Handlebar, let me just say that yesterday was not one of the greatest days.  To be honest, the past week or so has just been hell for me in more ways than I care to get into.  I got to the station in one of my post-holiday weekend ‘can’t-believe-it’s-Monday’ moods.  When I am in one of these moods I just try to avoid people as much as possible in attempt to bypass any head-biting that might come from me when I’m grumpy.  And, of course, my evasive tactics are always thwarted by at least someone in building which resulted in a rather good tongue-lashing between myself and the co-worker (one of at least three run-ins I have had with different co-workers over the course of a week – maybe I shouldn’t be such an ass!).

After finally getting the matter resolved, I get back to work only to have my ex-girlfriend wig out on me and back out on last night’s SHINEDOWN show.  So, when I get off work, I head to the Handlebar, alone I might add, for the meet-and-greet with SHINEDOWN.  Finally, this was a turning point in my otherwise sucky day as the guys were really cool, conversational and very appreciative of the radio station and their fans.  I nabbed a couple of autographs, one for me and one for my estranged ex-girlfriend.

After that, Turtle, Greg (our promotions guy) and I introduced the first band, A VACANT SOUL.  The audience, of course, was all psyched for SHINEDOWN while a good many were pumped about PARMALEE yet just a handful of people to my left were familiar with AVS.  I can say with confidence that AVS recruited quite a number of new fans last night at the Handlebar!

Mattman and Paige from The Rise Guys Morning Show gave PARMALEE their stage introduction and then Turtle, intern Tyler (not to be confused with our other Tyler in promotions) and I introduced SHINEDOWN.  Tyler had the wonderful idea of Turtle and I going on with no shirts on since the place was so flippin’ hot and I took it a step further and suggested we actually throw out the shirts off our backs in addition to nice and clean station shirts we were throwing out.  So we did after mopping sweat off various body parts first!

SHINEDOWN came on opening with their killer new single, “Devour” which sent the crowd into a frenzy.  Overall, the entire show was great and I got to meet some avid listeners of the Planet and the Twisted Zone.  The only thing that still concerns me a bit is the fact that male listeners are a lot more excited to meet me than female listeners – and, when I say that, I mean more excited than any male should be when meeting another male!  Oh well, guess I should just become accustomed to signing more man boobs!  LOL!!!

Oh no, it’s Monday!  4th of July weekend is over!  Oh well, time to saddle up!  At least I have a few things to talk about – and yes, that includes movie reviews!  First up, I went to go see the new Angelina Jolie flick Wanted which was amazing even though I’m normally not into assassin movies.  From start to finish the film was damn near flawless with a great storyline with some clever twists and phenomenal special effects.  I had heard great things about the movie but wasn’t expecting to have that much delivered.  I’ve actually been debating over whether to give the film four and a half or five rockers.  So I compromised and gave it four and three-quarters.

Wanted  \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m

Friday, the 4th, when I wasn’t on the air, I was in my uncle’s pool and eating hot dogs off the grill!  That night I went out to Ground Zero to see KITTIE, DOPE and some great local bands throw down on Independence Day!  Screw fireworks!  I got there as A VACANT SOUL was on the stage and, I gotta say, those guys keep getting better every time I see them!  Can’t wait to see them open for SHINEDOWN tonight!  Expect another blog tomorrow!

After AVS, DEAD 7 hit the downstairs stage for which I was up front virtually the whole time considering they hit their first notes as I was walking out of the john!  They put on a helluva great set throwing in Johnny Cash’s classic “Folsom Prison Blues” as well as some new material.  Back upstairs A NEW REVOLUTION hit the stage.  I wasn’t too familiar with them but they put on a good set.  BOOLOW hit the downstairs stage next and they have really stepped up their game which is really a feat considering bassist/vocalist Jason Scoggins was running the upstairs bar the whole night when he wasn’t onstage!  Hats off to ya, bro!

DOPE was next upstairs followed by HEADSNAP downstairs.  Our Spartanburg boys never disappoint when they take the stage!  And, of course, KITTIE wrapped up the night on the main stage and I was pooped by the time they finished!  Yeah, I know I’m a pansy!

I went straight home, took a harlot’s shower and went to bed.  A couple of hours later I woke up starving so I went to Waffle House at about five in the morning.  Chopped steak, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns and toast never tasted so good!  I sat up for a while to let my late night feeding frenzy digest and then passed back out after seeing the sun come up and slept until time to go back on the air.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my Saturday.

Sunday (yesterday) I met my family at Golden Corral to have an early birthday dinner for my brother Anthony.  We then went to Hollywood 20 to catch the new Will Smith flick Hancock.  I really enjoyed the movie until the main character’s background was revealed and I was rather disappointed.  It wasn’t bad, but I thought they could have done better.  Nevertheless, the film was quite entertaining overall and definitely worth checking out on the big screen.

Hancock  \m/ \m/ \m/ \n

Last week I got a copy of the new horror DVD The Ruins which hits stores tomorrow (I love my job!) and I will be giving away copies of it all week long only on my show being I am the resident horror movie nut.  I finally got around to watching the film last night and got what I expected which wasn’t much.  I was surprised to see Shawn “Iceman” Ashmore from the X-Men films sporting the bearded nappy-headed look.  As a matter of fact I wasn’t sure it was him until the credits rolled.

Anyways, the movie had the whole Cabin Fever vibe to it where something organic yet sinister ‘eats’ its way through its victims and there is virtually no hope for its college-aged characters.  It was very predictable in places but had its redeeming moments of gore to appease horror fans’ bloodlust.  Not a must-have or even a must-see, but if you manage to win a copy off of me this week, it’s a fun run for a ‘got nothing better to do’ movie night.

The Ruins  \m/ \m/ \n