vtshredder's posterous

FUCK BP

Recently, i was instantly cast as an Asshole due to my lack of remorse for the Guatemala sink hole.  A FB acquaintance posted an immediate response to said sinkhole, asking for donations.   After much deep thought, i felt the need to express my gut wrenching nausea related to the BP disaster.  I expressed the odd ball notion that maybe it's time we focus on the goings on here in the US?  Maybe, just maybe.. its time for Americans to take a stand, and focus on our own disasters.

I was immediately cast as thoughtless by many.  This is just one random quote in response to my simple deflection sidestepping a sinkhole: "Justin is just another example of some asshole spouting canned rhetoric that he doesn't understand. We are all doomed".

The only phrase that holds validity, is the fact that we are all doomed.  This quick thinking twit was so ready to spew hatred, just because i was more concerned with the future of our country, no..the fucking PLANET....rather than a sinkhole that does not even compare to wild fires that plague California.  A small percentage are out of luck because of this sink hole.  Really hard luck, and yes it sucks so bad.   But, not for nothing, thousands here in the United States are loosing their homes, their jobs, their every day existence and livelihood.

The Gulf Disaster is by far, impacting many more lives and sensitive wildlife, than a sinkhole in Guatemala.  I guess i am a total asshole because i care more about the vital ecosystem, and several thousand Americans over 144 Guatemalans. Well then tag me Asshole for life. 

The Gulf may never be the same since the Gulf Disaster.  A 2 block radius of Guatemala may never be the same due to that sinkhole.  My heart goes out to anyone affected by the sinkhole, and i would never ever want anyone to go through this, but, its time to weigh the scales here in America and what we focus our attention on. 

Unlike "twit" and others that so instantly cast me aside as thoughtless, i did research and have been devoting a lot of my free time researching the Gulf Gush.  Unlike the sinkhole; this toxic soup has been gushing for months and there is no end in sight. 

Fact: Seafood is a 2.4 billion dollar industry in the state of Louisiana.  In fact, Louisiana produces more than 30 percent of the seafood originating in the continental United States.

Fact: Nearly 75 percent of all U.S. waterfowl use Louisiana's three million acres of wetlands to rest or nest.  Once the oil spill gets into those wetlands it is going to be an absolute nightmare for those waterfowl. 75 PERCENT!!!

Fact: Two of the major industries in the Gulf region, seafood and tourism, are going to be pretty much wiped out for quite some time. How many states line the Gulf coast?  How many beaches closed?  Fisherman out of work?  Even Marina owners..devastated. 

Fact:  Blue fin tuna are among the most valuable fish in global markets.  Guess where they go to spawn?  The Gulf.  Not to mention thousands of Dolphins and Shrimp...all have one main drive in life.  Breeding in the Gulf of Mexico.

I could go on an on, Sea Turtles, Pelicans that were just removed from the endangered species list.....Key West, Bahama's, coral reefs disintegrate before our eyes.....oil could flow into the Mississippi River....reaching the Great Lakes???  A hurricane can blow toxic spew up and down the east coast!!!  All worst case scenarios.  All not that far from reality after 3 months of continuous gushing whilst hurricane season in full swing.

I am full of hate and despondency due to the lack of care from our own people, our own Government, yet another robot President.  No one seems to care...BP gas stations are still full of customers.  FBI, Coast Guard, and local officials, all being paid off by BP to hide the media and the honest to goodness coverage of total destruction that is going on.  No end in sight, no hope, no resolution.

This is the sinkhole that is bottomless for aeon's it seems.  Yet, i am an asshole for weighing the scales.  Humanity makes me nauseous!  Greed, money, lobbyists....

Even if this rupture is ever plugged, what hope do we have for humanity if those we chose to lead us let this happen for so long with only one thought on their mind....$$$.

~JT~

How To Destroy Nine Inch Nails

How To Destroy Angels.  This is what Trent Reznor has chosen as his recent primary project.  For those out of the loop, Nine Inch Nails, the music, the band, the man i have been avidly obsessed with since i hit puberty (see initial blog), has taken a hiatus.  Trent has decided to retire from touring as the front-man of Nine Inch Nails “for the foreseeable future”, and has put Nine Inch Nails to the wayside. He recently found true love, and has taken her hand in marriage.  It is with much disdain that i felt the need to immediately blame her, the new wife, for the path he has now decided to follow. 

When Trent gave up drugs and started pumping iron, i was all for it.  It took time for me to immerse myself with the new album following his strait edge ways, but unlike others, i did not refrain from giving it a chance and letting it grow on me.  It was a new sound and not the same angst feeling us NIN fans had grown to love.  As i mentioned in a previous blog, Nine Inch Nails is ever changing and has never been the same sound, so it was not really all that difficult. 

Without going off on a tangent, i was disheartened when How To Destroy Angels came about.  After being told NIN would not be touring, it was natural for me to feel empty and disappointed.  I felt like i deserved an explanation, and i felt this recent wedlock was fucking everything up.  I called his new wife the Yoko Ono of Nine Inch Nails. Then "How To Destroy Angels" released their first track, and i promptly discarded it as empty and vacuous. 

Shame on me...who the fuck do i think i am?  Trent is an artist and i have no right to expect an explanation or demand a certain product or sound.  How dare Trent not make me want to mosh and slam my fists on the steering wheel when i dive.  Why would he do that?  I guess that's like asking Pablo Picasso why he cannot just paint two tits next to each other, if you catch my drift.

Moving on, i feel the first thing i needed to accept is that Trent is not on vocals, his wife is.  It goes without say that you can still hear Trent's DNA in the music.  His sound is very much there.  So ya..This is not Nine Inch Nails.  We now have "How To Destroy Angels". You either accept it or you don't. Trent may always be switching things up, but whatever he composes, that core remains the same, true emotions and feelings.  It is not like How To Destroy Angles sounds like some mainstream bullshit top 40 waste.  It is peerless, and its intriguing to say the least. As the days go on i realize I personally love the sound; slow sultry female vocals to the slower tempo of the music.  I go through the days well aware that both tracks echo in my head over and over again.  I wont even being to tell you how awesome and entertaining their first video is. 

If Trent was still out there screaming the lyrics of Terrible Lie and Ruiner after 20 years, he'd be critiqued for pandering to his audience and not growing and evolving. This very evolution of music gave us 20+ years of edgy, thought provoking, insightful music that has enhanced many people.  Again, shame on me for being disgruntled. 

So in conclusion, Thank you Trent for the many years of Nine Inch Nails and opening my ears to what real music can allow you to feel.  Thank you for leading me from the masses and allowing me to stray from the blind sheep of music marketing madness. 

I cannot wait to hear what the future holds and what you and your personal Ono have in store for us, and i will always be along for the ride.  I just hope you signed a prenuptial.    

~JT~

High Beam's

Here is something i will never, ever understand.  The frequent use of High Beams while driving at night. Am i seriously the only one person on this planet, that very rarely uses high beams while driving?  As far as i came to understand in DMV class, High Beams should only be used when circumstances urgently permit, and must be shut off when other cars are in sight, roughly 500 ft if memory serves.  It feels as though everyone around me....blind as bats.  Come to think of it, not a good analogy because bats fly flawlessly at night.  Us humans need the glow of an atomic bomb in order see clearly during the night navigating an automobile.

I personally, seem to see very clearly at night just using just the low beam option, even here in the back roads of Vermont.  Yet everywhere i drive, ass clowns behind the wheel feel high beams are standard that instant second the sun is no longer in sight.  No matter how many street lights shower the roadway in luminous

The heat of your breath.....

So what better way to start working on something that falls along the lines of "blogging", other than one's obsession.  Don't get used to this...it wont happen often.  Blogging that is.

Other than Stella Artois, Nine Inch Nails is the most extreme obsession that i posses.  This is not a recent obsession.  This is an obsession that started in 1991.  For those that lack the skills of quick thinking, that's nearly 19 years.  Wow, now that i say that to myself, 19 fucking years. Just short of 2 decades that required my full attention and 100% devoted exigency.  Just uttering the phrase, Nine Inch Nails or the mere mention of Trent Reznor sends me into focused oblivion....like a horse with blinders and leather straps. I am sure you can see the affiliation there.

It all started with a video on MTV.  I am sure most of you recall a time when MTV actually played Music Videos, NOT TV shows that never include one morsel  of anything related to music in any way shape or form. 

It was the video for Wish.  Naturally, at a young age and mentally fishing for ways to hide real life, i was intoxicated.  I was at a friends house, his bedroom actually, when the video for Wish came on.  Before then, i have heard of Nine Inch Nails, but never really focused on them.  In that bedroom, i sat there in amazement watching the video for Wish.  Mouth open...fully immersed in; Trent clad in latex and army boots screaming at other young strapping lads beating themselves against the cage that Trent, and the gang were encased in.  "Wish there was something real...wish there was something true"!!! 

At a time in my life when things were...rebellious, this got me excited.  Watching the video, that day, actually gave me an erection, and gave some odd tingly feelings that made me want to do something.  I guess this is where an obsession can take hold of you personally, and make you do things that you claim you have no control over.  Whatever the case may be, drugs, sex, violence, GWB, Jesus.....

I almost want to say, that very day i felt what heroin users call true bliss.  Never being one who has ever, nor will ever, feel the experience Heroin exudes, i almost want to say i know where they come from.  The moment i left my friends house after watching Wish, i ran directly to the record store and purchased "Broken".  Walked over a mile even! Broken felt...like everything i ever wanted to say to anyone, and any emotion that has ever ran through my brain.  It felt, consecrated.

That is where my NIN obsession all began.  And even though Broken was my first experience ever, PHM was not far to follow.  Life was ever changing, and Nine Inch Nails, always has and always will be...ever changing.  Nine Inch Nails is never the same sound.  It is never the same emotion or beat or even fucking band members.  Nine Inch Nails changes with times and the life and the goings on, so to speak.  Nine Inch Nails has always shown that redundancy does not really work in always getting across what YOU want and feel.  True fucking emotions....and wanting the balls to stand up and just fucking say it....NIN never sounds the same and you never know what to expect.  And that, is what keeps me personally obsessed with anything and everything Trent has to do or say. 

I have seen Nine Inch Nails over 20 times.  Yes, 20 fucking times...that, mathematically, means i average one show a year since i have become a fan.  With Trent, for the most part, putting out an album every 5 years....i would have to pat my own self on the back.  So you can understand my disdain for Trent deciding no longer to tour.  I feel, that is what i have lived for since the day i grew hair on my balls. Being there...feeling him...watching Trent in action front fucking center!

 No matter where i was or what was going on in my life, Nothing...not one fucking thing ever stopped me from seeing Nine Inch Nails live.  From begging my mother for $50 cash because a DJ on a FL radio station claimed: "First come first serve right now at THE EDGE box office in Ft Lauderdale" then waiting on line for hours in the extreme heat, and to having a roommate call my job then claim my house was broken into, just to get me out of the office and get tix the second they went on sale....i have seen Nine Inch Nails every time. 

So what do i do now....nothing to live for.  No Live Nine Inch Nails you say.  Well, i say i know Trent after all these years.  And i say, it may be some time....but he is going to do things that will always and forever keep my attention and admiration always.  He will always be my Heroin....and i will always need a fix.  Even if it means watching You Tube for 2 hours straight and reliving the times he gave us devoted fans..that sold our lives and nearly cost us our jobs.  Trent makes music the way is should be made.  No one tells him how to do it.  Not even the labels....he makes this feeling...clear here.

Trent Reznor....is my personal Jesus. 

~JT~