Thursday, October 20, 2011

Modern Life Is...

...definitely not War, according to an ex-marine Vietnam war veteran whom I thoroughly pissed off yesterday on my lunch break at work. More on that in a bit.

First, just thought I would throw it out there that we are writing for a full-length LP to be out next spring/summer. We have the music for 9 songs written, 2 more being worked on currently, and a neat little cover tune. Madison has I think 5 or 6 songs worth of lyrics done. We already have a name and concept (no, its not a concept album though), but we will wait to unveil that until a later time, probably when we record it, most likely February-ish.


So now for the story (sorry, I know this is the Cloud Rat blog and not Rorik's personal bullshit blog):
My good friend and bandmate Jimmy and I were having lunch at this tiny chinese joint in Lakeview, MI. I'm wearing my work clothes, which, this day, included my cherished Modern Life Is War hoodie. This bigger, older guy sitting at an adjacent table asks me about my shirt, I tell him its a band. He then unbuttons his shirt, opens it like a bat opens its wings, and his shirt underneath says MARINES. He stairs at me real hard for about 10 seconds, then tells me that my shirt is a "fucking crock of shit" and that war is hell and american life bears no resemblance to it. I, with infinite wisdom, maturity and tact, tell him to "fuck off" politely. God I am an idiot sometimes. I could have just remained silent, or nodded and smiled, or said I'm sorry, or that suffering is relevant, or that the band name is not implying that modern american life is literally war, or that he doesn't know about me and what I've been through, or countless other things. But, in the heat of the moment and caught off guard, I of course said the worst, most immature thing possible. Fuck off. Real nice. So he got up from his table, walked to mine, put his finger in my face, and gave me a lecture of how shitty, disrespectful, ignorant, and spoiled that I am, and then said "any time, any place if you want to tell me to fuck off again. In Vietnam, they taught us how to kill and maim, and that's it." Very uncomfortable. I told him "I'm glad that you are proud of that." I have learned that I'm not good with confrontation. There are any number of things that I could have said to make the situation end quickly and generally comfortably for both parties, but when I'm caught off guard and in the moment, all my logic and knowledge gets thrown out the window and my adrenaline pumps and nothing good comes of it. Need to work on that.

So I'm gonna leave you off with some good shit that I just heard yesterday. Check it out, super good. 

-R

4 comments:

  1. I hit a fucking car riding my bike the other day. My fault. Well, a wiser fella than myself once said, sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, well, he eats you.


    PS - You know, Dude, I myself dabbled in pacifism once. Not in 'Nam of course.

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  2. fuck him, you can say whatever the fuck you want, this is america (the country that douche supposedly shed blood for these exact freedoms right) isnt it?

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  3. something i wanted to share:

    http://vimeo.com/couchmode/user3183821/videos/sort:date/15540231


    this dude rules!

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  4. Fuck that guy, seriously. You said the right thing.

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