14:59 into my 15:00.

Death of A Legend

jasonsmith21 — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 04:32:56 +0000

Today, the world of sports, and the people of America; have lost an icon. Jim McKay, the face and voice of ABC’s ‘Wide World of Sports’ died today. As a kid, I remember watching ‘WWoS’ on Saturdays, with McKay taking me to far off lands, to witness sports I never knew existed. His legend preceded me, as the host of the Olympics for ABC, making the Olympiads relevant for the American people, culminating with the ’84 Olympics in Los Angeles. His quote, “They’re all gone.” while commenting on the Munich ’72 Olympics tragedy that saw 12 Israeli athletes lose their lives at the hands of Palestinian terrorists remains to this day one of the single greatest statements not just in sports; but in all of broadcast journalism. As a former newspaperman McKay brought a literary sense to his coverage, and had a unique way of commentating, making you feel like you were there. Many colleagues have spoken out about the wonder of Jim McKay, and how proud they were to have known and worked with him. I myself even feel like McKay had somehow, through WWoS and the Olympics, made the world smaller; but when the President of the United States makes a statement about you and your life and how people around the globe will be saddened by your loss; you know you’ve made an impact. It is sad that McKay would pass away on the day where Big Brown would lose his bid to be the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years in a sport McKay loved so much; horse racing.

I personally will miss McKay and every time I see a skier go tumbling down a snow covered hill, I will always remember ‘The agony of defeat’ and the greatness of Jim McKay.

I’m no Rachel Ray fan, but….Seriously?

jasonsmith21 — Thu, 29 May 2008 01:21:25 +0000

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24860437/?GT1=43001

Try Honesty, Try Honesty

jasonsmith21 — Thu, 29 May 2008 01:01:04 +0000

Hey folks,

So, here I am reading over the comments on my blog, and someone decided to leave some rather unpleasant comments about me, and Dali Hopper. Ordinarily, this would not bother me. In fact, we welcome criticism and insight from outside sources. This helps us grow and evolve as a band, because it’s the bands that stay hungry and are always trying to improve their sound and prove themselves every time out that last. In fact, during just about every practice, there are people around that are always making comments and discussing our sound, and ways we can improve. Even after the last show, people were saying, “We really liked the show, but we had a hard time hearing you over the drums.” Granted, we had a confined space to work in and I was RIGHT next to the drummer and don’t feel that my microphone was turned up enough, but that’s ok. This is an example of what I’m talking about, but the comments made on my last blog, well they are just childish and downright immature. First there is some etiquette for critiquing and commenting on a blog.

1. Be Honest. Honesty will go far, but be honest without making yourself sound like a jackass.

EXAMPLE: “Dali Hopper sucks ass; sweaty, smelly ass” doesn’t exactly make the commenter appear to be too intelligent. People will think “What a stupid asshole”

CORRECTION: “Dali Hopper is not my kind of band, perhaps German Synth-Pop-Neo-Punk-Electro-HipHop is more the way to go for you guys.” That is more to the point. Yet you still don’t make yourself look like an asshole. People will think “That’s good insight for the band, I agree, German Synth is the way to go.” You see what I mean? It generates discussion.

2. Offer insight. When critiquing, it is important to offer ways to improve.

EXAMPLE: “And you can’t sing” is, again, not helping your IQ out today. And again, makes you look like a stupid asshole.
CORRECTION: “Perhaps you should take some vocal lessons, you were off key in several spots and your voice seems to weaken near the end of each chorus” This makes you sound intelligent, offers insight as to exactly why you feel that the singer cannot sing, and provides a method of improvement.

3. Use your real name and e-mail address. Mature people will think higher of you if you have balls and use your real name and/or e-mail address. This way in doing so, you offer people the opportunity to provide a rebuttal to your opinion, or agree with your opinion and maybe expand further on your comments. This will also give people the impression that you are trying to offer advice, and not give off the impression that you are a moron. If you fail to follow rules 1 and 2, but still manage to pull off rule 3; at least people will know who to call a stupid asshole.

EXAMPLE: mom@gmail.com, i know, for a fact, couldn’t possibly be your real e-mail address. No intelligent human being would select such a moronic e-mail address.

CORRECTION: i_am_a_stupid_asshole@gmail.com would be more appropriate for you; since you’re a stupid asshole.

In conclusion, 1. Be Honest, 2. Offer Insight, 3. Have balls. This will help you go a long way in not being a stupid asshole.

For the rest of you, I hope you enjoyed our last show at Hot Rods, more to come, in larger venues, I promise. I have a few things up my sleeve that should put us on our way. Also, if anyone wants a cheaply created 4-song demo to enjoy, let me know. For the right price, I can hooks you up fat yo.

Making 9:00pm count (by not being a stupid asshole)

You know what is awesome about Dali Hopper?

jasonsmith21 — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:53:11 +0000

They challenge my songwriting skills every week. Expect big things from these guys. Oh yea, Raine Maida stood next to me at the show last Saturday *giggle*

Making 6:52pm count,

Raine Maida, not quite a God, but better than me…maybe even you.

jasonsmith21 — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:26:05 +0000

I am officially approximately 60 hours away from witnessing my hero in action, Raine Maida. While I have many influences in my life, both living and deceased, Raine Maida is the one that I have followed since the early days. Sadly, I am not old enough to have gotten in on the ground floor of earth shattering artists like The Beatles, Zep, The Who, etc. I have been lucky enough to have gotten in early on OLP. Dating all the way back to Naveed I have been with the band, following their careers for a small US following, gaining some momentum with Clumsy and Happiness…, and finally their pinnacle, Gravity and their singles “Somewhere Out There” and “Innocent”. Being there from Naveed
has allowed me to watch a few guys from Canada grow and evolve into a hard working, dedicated, passionate group of men who will put everything they have and then some into each new album. Their work has to speak to them before they will allow it to have a conversation with the public. They are a breath of fresh air from these power pop, mop-haired, melodic groups, rappers who don’t actually rap but just repeat two words and a grunt or two and handing a pretty blond a guitar and vocal lessons, putting her on some crappy MTV show and forcing her down the public’s resisting throats until we just give up and digest it just to get her fifteen minutes out of the way and we can all move on to the next one. Not that those bands are bad, because not all of them are. OLP has just been a band that I could relate to, with songs that I have always dug, and understood. Then Raine decides to get into this Spoken Word, poetry slam type of music and releases a solo album The Hunter’s Lullaby which is a FANTASTIC album. I cannot wait to see him Saturday, especially at a small venue like St. Andrews Hall. This will be a momentous occasion for me, and can’t wait to see how this changes my life, or at least effects my music.

Making 8:25 am count,

You went so far…

jasonsmith21 — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:10:56 +0000

As to create the World Baseball Classic, in an effort to bring a global feel to the game when the Olympics dumped baseball, yet you still have yet to create International Major League Baseball teams other than Toronto. America’s Pastime has become a global game, yet the League has not. Start small; maybe absorb the Japanese League and its players. I understand that the league is really watered down, pitching is a concern for most teams, and the talent pool for good, young arms has nearly dried up. Much of this can be attributed to kids injuring their elbows by throwing curveballs in Little Leagues (for all my readers who have young children, especially boys, don’t let them throw a curve before they can shave), along with the whole ESPN “Chicks Dig The Longball” campaign. No one wants to pitch anymore. In Japan, they play the game with such passion and reverence for the way the game should be played. It could very well infuse a crop of players that could reinvigorate the game. MLB has stressed that they want to get away from the whole steroid issue, the best way to do that is to have new stars come in and change the way Americans think about the game. Think about it, how can you have a World Series between teams based in Boston, Mass and Denver, Colorado, when teams in Tokyo, Mexico City, London, Berlin and the like didn’t even have representation? Skeptics will say that realigning the league would be torturous, travel arrangements a pain, etc, etc. As I write this blog, the Boston Red Sox are playing against the Oakland A’s in the Tokyo Dome, Japan, and most of the NPB teams are in Tokyo or the relative vicinity; this blows the travel issues. As for realigning the league; you keep the Divisional format, since NPB has divisions as well. You simply add one of the NPB divisions to the American League, and one to the National League. If they truly wanted to make it a global game, they would easily find a way to get it done.

Making 8:10am count,

I’m goin’ back to 505

jasonsmith21 — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:58:45 +0000

So, a few of you know that I’ve been really, really
in to the BritRock scene lately; Arctic Monkeys, The Beatles, Oasis, etc etc. I had this really dope idea: The Band, our families, and I would all travel to London, life in flats downtown for a year and do nothing but just hit the pubs everynight and check out the local music scene, check out the bands we may never hear of on this side of the pond. Of course we would have to have a TON of money saved to afford all this, plus we could supplement by playing shows of our own. That is, if the Brits accepted us Yankees coming over and rocking in their venues. This could make for an unbelievable opportunity for us to really expand our already enormous influence base, and evolve our sound. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the band, our sound, and who we are currently, but it never hurts to add a little flavor and stash it in your back pocket and unleash on people when you start to feel that you are getting a little stale. An Emeril “BAM” to the soup that is your rock music, so to speak.

So, if you had the dough, and the year to kill, where would you go? What would you do? Now I know some really eclectic people with some very big imaginations, so lets have it kids!

Making 8:57am count,

Well, Here I am…now what?

jasonsmith21 — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:38:30 +0000

Since Blogger has decided that in the 6 months since I have posted a blog, somehow my profile has become spam (I always wondered how they made spam, now I know what’s in those little cans…unused blogs lol), my new home is here at WordPress. I will really really try to keep up, not that there’s a TON of things in my world that most of you don’t already know about via the blog-crazed being that is my wife. Anyways, thanks for checking in. More to come.

Hello world!

jasonsmith21 — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:23:00 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!