Six Flags Great Adventure Trip Report

Saturday was my school's annual trip to Great Adventure. Since I haven't gone to the park much this year at all, I signed up. Everyone boarded the bus before 8:30, and shortly after we were on our way. The bus was annoying as usual with annoying kids being annoying kids, and luckily there wasn't an enormous amount of traffic on the Turnpike. We arrived shortly before opening and parked our bus in the employee parking lot. Great photo ops of Nitro here, I managed to take a short vid on my phone before we left. We made the long walk over to the entrance, swiped our passes, and entered the park. Everyone was waiting for the rope as usual, and luckily we made it a couple of minutes before the drop. As we waited, quite an ironic situation happened. I managed to strike a conversion with another guy waiting for the rope, who talked about the short cut through the game room. On my last visit, the game room wasn't open, so we had to go all the way around. Anyway, finally the rope droped and everyone began to sprint, and the so called running of the bulls began. I actually find this event to be tons of fun, racing to your favorite ride to be the first one there. It just adds even more to the thrill. Anyway, we headed right to the game room, as our target was El Toro, but the doors were sealed shut. Time to turn around. This is when we had to pick it up. We were obviously behind now, so we continued to go down the Boardwalk, through the Golden Kingdom, and into Plaza del Carnaval, all while running as hard as I could. Fortunately, the running paid off. I was the first one to Toro, my friends, shortly behind. Unfortunately, Toro wasn't open yet, but it didn't take that long to do so. In no time, we boarded the front row on the first train of the day. It felt quite rewarding after running and being the first one there. Toro was amazing as usual, still easily the best in the park and maybe this country.

Rock Quiz!

I'm bored so I've decided to make up a quiz of sorts...10 random lyrics from some of my favorite bands. Some will be easy, some will be tough. Lets see who can get the perfect 10...

1. "Deep beneath the cover of another perfect wonder"

2. "One more indecent accident"

3. "Mark still lives at home because he's got no job, just plays guitar and smokes a lot of pot"

4. "We're off to never never land"

5. "Do you have the time to listen to me whine"

6. "I got a new complaint"

7. "I had to find the passage back to the place I was before"

8. "Because all my favorite buddies take my money from me"

9. "Music the great communicator, use two sticks to make it in the nature"

10. "Gotta promise not to stop when I say when"

Good luck...

Album Review:Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace

The highly anticipated album (by myself, at least), Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace was released last Tuesday in stores courtesy of the Foo Fighters. I have since bought and listened to the entire album, and think it's one of their best yet. Lets have a look at the tracklist...

The Pretender-Current single. This is an awesome song and can really get the adrenaline rushing. Catchy chorus and drumline, great guitar.

Let It Die-This one starts off as a softer, acoustic feeling song until you reach about 2 minutes in. That's really it picks up with an awesome guitar solo and finishes off nice and strong. Also, excellent lyrics in this song.

Erase/Replace-This song features an some guitar riffs, but it's a bit lacking on the lyrics end. Still a very catchy track.

Long Road to Ruin-Soon to be next single. Great, catchy lyrics along with an awesome guitar solo.

Come Alive-My current favorite. Similar to Let It Die, this one starts off in a low, melodic tone then picks up with classic Dave Grohl screaming and an awesome guitar riff. This song has it all.

Stranger Things Have Happened-Nice acoustic track with strong lyrics.

Cheer Up, Boys (Your Make-Up Is Running)-This one seems like it was meant to be played live. Great rock anthem, and I love the lyrics on this one.

Summer's End-Nice melodic acoustic track.

Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners-Dave Grohl keeping his word. This is a nice strong instrumental, however.

Statues-Like the lyrics and the use of the piano. It's something different, the Foos have never used a piano in their songs before.

But, Honestly-This one is similar to Come Alive, starting off slow but suddenly becomes a face melter with maybe the best guitar riff on the album.

Home-The end of the album with another soft song with piano.

Overall, the album is awesome, and definitely one of my favorites. It's great for the normal Foo fan, but also has stuff any normal rock fan would enjoy.

Today's Music...

I think I'll get this started by talking about today's music. Unfortunately, the music people listen to nowadays is, for the most part, garbage. When I go on to iTunes and see the number 1 song is Britney Spears, there has to be something seriously wrong. New age music has been terrible, with rap and pop being the center points of it all. I'm not one for all that "it has a bad influence on the kids" crap, but I seriously can't figure out how in the world people can listen to this stuff. What happened to the days of rock and roll? Unfortunately, those days are gone and have been replaced with garbage. Pure garbage.

Now, luckily some great rock bands have broken through and shined somewhat during this era, but most of these guys have been around for 10-20 years or so. Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Offspring, Foo Fighters and more continue to keep rocking to keep the fading genre alive. I continue to search for some new age rockers out there, hoping to become the new RHCP or Foos. I don't see any of that. The "popular" rock of today is either 1. poppish sounding or 2. a new term called "emo", neither of which qualify as real rock 'n' roll by any rocker's standard. So what makes me wonder is what will happen ten years from now when these guys are finished supplying us with their greatness. The future worries me for once the star genre, now fallen victim to crap of today.

For us rockers, we just have to keep on rocking. Well always have the masterminds of rock's greats to back us up, even when they're gone. Rock will always be alive, even if it's not in the eyes of the general public.

For all of you reading this that listen to rap, think about what you are doing. How can one guy rapping about getting high be better than a bunch of men rocking their hearts out about what's really important? You decide.

For all of you reading this that are indeed rockers, rock on my friends.