Unknown + Lies

2010-04-01T17:55:00.001-04:00

EASTER with CONCUSSION, ISOLATION, TROUBLEMAKER and DEATHBEDS
Saturday, April 3, 7:00pm
@ The Charleston, 174 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn

Come see EASTER's last show as duo! Plus Concussion, Isolation, Troublemaker and Deathbeds. Plus FREE PIZZA!! This show flippin rules.

2010-03-26T19:36:00.006-04:00

EASTER at Lit with Hallux, Meek is Murder and Know Nothing
Monday, March 29 @ Lit
93 Second Ave, NYC $6

Hi Everybody! Jon and I have played together as EASTER as a two-piece for 5 years now. On Monday night, we welcome kickass bassman Mike Tsouris into the band! Come on out and welcome our new member and watch our set! Then stick around for Hallux, Know Nothing and Meek is Murder (schedules below).

Precious Metal presents... www.myspace.com/preciousmetalnyc
11:00- MEEK IS MURDER http://www.myspace.com/meekismurder Ex-The Red Chord guitarist Mike Keller delivers chaotic and epic outbursts with help from drummer Frank Godla (Empyreon)!
10:15- KNOW NOTHING
http://www.myspace.com/kn0wnothing Longtime Today Is The Day bassist Chris DeBari presents his newest band!
9:30- EASTER
http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks Aggro noise rock in the vein of old Unsane and Today Is The Day - now a trio!
8:45- HALLUX
http://www.myspace.com/halluxmusic
Pounding, oppressive, metallic post-Swans dirges, featuring bassist Jason LaFarge (producer of albums by Angels Of Light, Devendra Banhart, Khanate, and Child Abuse)!

ALSO coming up on April 3 - EASTER's last show as a two-piece! Check it out!

KOMONDOR & EASTER at Charleston, December 10!!

2009-12-01T14:09:00.004-05:00

EASTER returns to the Charleston in Brooklyn on Thursday, December 10, 9pm!! This time we are welcoming our upstate friends KOMONDOR. Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/komondorband.
EASTER as always can be heard at http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks. The Charleston has great beer and free pizza!

EASTER in Brooklyn THURSDAY!!!!

2009-09-11T02:27:00.005-04:00

BULL DOZER, EASTER and DOWNWARD HACKING MOTION
8PM Thursday, September 17 @ The Charleston
174 Bedford Ave (Between N 7th Street and N 8th Street)
Brooklyn

EASTER @ Lit Lounge, Monday August 24!!

2009-08-19T15:38:00.007-04:00

EASTER with GOES CUBE (The End Recs) and DBCR
+ Guest DJ: Gary Suarez (MetalSucks.net)

Mon. August 24, 2009
PRECIOUS METAL
@ Lit Lounge, 93 2nd Ave, between 5th & 6th St, NYC Door: 8:45 pm / Price: $6

Hi everyone! EASTER is back at Precious Metal at Lit this Monday! If you love metal, punk, hardcore, noise or any dark underground shit, then Precious Metal is the most fun thing you're not doing! Of course, it's always on a Monday so your job might make it hard for you to have fun there. But for all the laid-off people I've been talking to, maybe Monday's not such a bad idea? Plus, all you teachers who are off this summer won't have Mondays to ROCK on much longer! So come celebrate with us!! We'll be playing with local kick-assers Goes Cube and DBCR plus the DJ stylings of Gary Suarez between sets.

As always, EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be heard at http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks. Please come! And, if you feel like it, help us promote the show by forwarding this invite to anyone you think might be interested. See you Mon.!!

EASTER @ Brighton Bar, Sunday April 26!!

2009-07-18T01:28:00.006-04:00

THE BRIGHTON BAR
121 Brighton Avenue
Long Branch, New Jersey

On Sunday, July 26, Jon and I are playing a gig near the beach at Brighton Bar. For over 20 years the Brighton Bar has been the hot spot for many New Jersey bands and National Acts, performing original music. On July 26, the waters will be infested with ROCK, including Sister Waize, Mashmallow Bunnies Lotza Cuma, Fun Machine, DECAP ATTAK, Jeckyl n' Hyde, EAStER, CLAMFIGHT, Maegashira and Soul Hammer

Come join us!

EASTER in Brooklyn FRIDAY!!!!

2009-06-15T19:32:00.004-04:00

EASTER @ TOMMY’S TAVERN
Friday, June 19th at 8pm
with Methodist, Senium and Tight White Jeans
1041 Manhattan Ave,
Brooklyn, New York 11222
Cost: 5.00

EASTER returns to Brooklyn this Friday with friends Methodist, Senium and Tight White Jeans!
This is one of those rare weekend appearances we hardly ever get because not a lot of people ever come to see us. But if you come out to Tommy's on Friday, maybe our rep will change!! Tommy's is a great bar right in the center of Willamsburg! It's got a pool table and anything you could want to drink. Plus, it's SUMMER and you need some rockin! Methodist and Senium rule, so even if you hate us, you'll probably like them. And Tight White Jeans are having their first show ever! So help them feel wanted.

EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi. They can be heard at http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks. Methodist, Senium, TWJ and Tommy's info is also available on that page. We'd love to see you!!
Don

EASTER @ Fontana's, Wednesday, April 1!!

2009-03-28T12:16:00.004-04:00

Artist: EASTER
Date: WEDNESDAY APRIL 1, 2009
@ Fontana's
105 Eldridge St.
NYC
Door Time: 7:45
Set Time: 8:00
Set Length: UNTIL 8:45
Cover: $6
Age Limit: 21+

Hi, everybody! Jon and Don will be at it again this Wed. April 1, yes, April Fools Day!! NO this is not a joke. YES you may indulge playing your infantile pranks with us and others at Fontana's on Wed. in honor of this retarded tradition.

Some suggestions:
- Tell us that you hate us and that you're not coming to our show, but then actually show up! OH the look on our faces!
- Yell "Owww!!" really loud when Jon throws a drumstick. Then cover your eye, call the cops and have him charged with assault. Won't he be suprised!
- Hire a convincing she-male to come up to Don after the show and say "I really like your band wanna buy me a drink?" and see how long it takes him to figure it out! His best time is 18hrs.

Whatever you do, we would love to see you, even if it is a school night. On the up-side Fontana's seems pretty intent on getting us out of there by 8:45. So if on Wed. you find yourself bored and lonely, come on out and rock with us! Joining us will be WE ARE ALL SAVAGES, PASSIVE AGGRESSOR, THE MUGS, BAZOOKA CHRIST, WITH DJ MODEL JERK in between bands.

As always, EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be heard at http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks. Their album Molt can be found at http://cdbaby.com/cd/eastermusic. Also, look for us on iTunes.

Another MOLT review!!

2009-01-22T11:14:00.002-05:00

At Built on a Weak Spot - check it out!
Thanks Jonathan for listening and writing!!

The MOLT CD RELEASE PARTY!! Friday, January 16th!!

2009-01-11T21:32:00.004-05:00

Thinning the Herd with EASTER
at Tommy's Tavern
Friday, January 16, 2009, 9pm
1041 Manhattan Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11122
(718)383-9699

Hey, everyone! MOLT, Easter's debut album was made available to the public months ago, but we have been unable to properly celebrate its release until our awesome metalfriends Thinning the Herd offered us this weekend show with them in Brooklyn! MOLT took a long time to put together and Jon and I worked our asses off to get it done. For a time it took over our whole lives. But after much blood, sweat, crying, screaming and heavy lifting we did it - and we need to celebrate!!

Of course, our celebrating means nothing without our friends so PLEASE come out - we'd love to see you! You don't even have to buy our album because we will be giving it away FREE! And I don't know if there is a door charge, but if there is and you can't pay it come get me and I’ll get you in.

EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be heard at http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks. We have lots of shows, but this is a PARTY and we would love to celebrate with you!!

All of EASTER’s friends who have supported us in the past, come to our shows, read my annoying emails, given us critiques, helped us carry gear, bought us drinks, etc. You know who you are and YOU all are as responsible as we are for this album, the way I see it. Jon and I THANK YOU!! and we really hope you can make it to this party. Thanks and all love,
Don

EASTER @ ABC No Rio, Saturday, December 27th!!!

2008-12-22T11:52:00.003-05:00

EASTER with Seth Tobocman, Blackout Shoppers, and False Prophets
Saturday, December 27 at 3pm,
$7, All ages admitted!
ABC No Rio
156 Rivington Street
(between Clinton & Suffolk)
NYC
212.254.3697

This Saturday, EASTER plays their first all-ages matinee at the legendary home of diy ABC No Rio. We will be joined by first-generation LES political punk rockers FALSE PROPHETS, local punks BLACKOUT SHOPPERS and the ear & eye politics of the SETH TOBOCMAN BAND. This show is very special to us because ABC is and has been a supercool NYC art space and punk supporter for nearly 30 years! All proceeds from the show go to the ABC Building Fund AND it is an all ages show on a Saturday afternoon, which means all you people who used your babies as an excuse to avoid our shows in the past now HAVE NO EXCUSE!!! You know who you are.

EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be heard here. Our debut album MOLT is killin it on the Internets. If you come to the show, we might give you a copy because we hate profit.

So please join us this Saturday!! P.S.: If you do bring your kids, please make them wear tiny little earplugs. I'm serious.

Love,
EASTER

EASTER in Jersey!! Friday, December 19th!!!

2008-12-11T23:42:00.004-05:00

EASTER with Resin, Amsterdam Ave. and We Are Bayonets
Friday, December 19, 2008 at 9:00pm
Clash Bar
39 Harding Ave
Clifton, NJ
973-772-6149

Come see EASTER's return to New Jersey for a rare Friday night show! Joining them will be the vicious punk bands Resin, We Are Bayonets, and Amsterdam Ave. EASTER has been kicking ass on the scene lately and their debut album MOLT has been getting rave reviews - check this one out

EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi. They LOVE when you come to their shows and pretend to like it/them! So do us this little favor and come out to Jersey, will ya?

Since it's out of town, we are simutaneously offering rides and asking anyone with a car who can help out driving to Clifton to do just that. If you want to come and need a ride, contact me and I will get you there!

EASTER at The Charleston!! Thursday, December 4...

2008-11-25T12:27:00.004-05:00

EASTER at The Charleston
Thursday, December 4, 8pm
174 Bedford Ave (Between N 7th Street and N 8th Street)
Brooklyn

Come see EASTER live in the heart of Williamsburg on Thursday, December 4 with sick metal band Thinning the Herd. EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be heard at www.myspace.com/easterrocks. Check out a review of their live set by our good friend Craig at theoriginalsuperextra.blogspot.com and a review of our debut album "Molt" at www.myspace.com/punkofallforms.

REVIEWS!!!

2008-11-24T13:47:00.002-05:00

Check out these cool reviews of EASTER!! Here is a review of our live set Popeye's last month and here is a review of EASTER's debut album Molt (she thinks it's called "Mold" - honsest mistake) thanks Craig and Beth for paying attention to us. Anyone else who would like to review us should come see our upcoming sets December 4 at the Charleston in Brooklyn, December 19th at the Clash Bar in Jersey, and December 26th at ABC no Rio. OH and if you want to review our album "Molt" send me your address and I will mail you a FREE COPY! Check our myspace site for more details. Word uuuuuuuUUP!!

EASTER at Hotel Vernon, November 1!!

2008-10-25T20:37:00.004-04:00

EASTER at Hotel Vernon
w/Leecheater, Can't Kill Katie, Reign of Pestilence and Westside Infection
Saturday, November 1
1 Millbury St. (Kelley Square), Worcester, Massachusetts 01610-275
Cost: Free!!

Driving Directions

Once again EASTER brings the music to people on Saturday, November 1 when we pay our first visit to Worcester, MA to rock out with our friends Leecheater, Can't Kill Katie, Reign of Pestilence and Westside Infection!

This gig is way out of town for our usual crowd so it would be great if you would like to come up with us. If you have a car, we would love your help transporting equipment and possibly people up there and we will pay for gas (we could use the help!!). Keep in mind that it is autumn and a trip through New England is ideal and colorful!! So please let us know if you would be willing.

As always, EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be heard here.

Please join us if you can, it'll be a blast!!
Love,
Don

--
Donald J. Puglisi

http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks

EASTER at the Basement TOMORROW

2008-10-20T12:06:00.004-04:00

EASTER with Hooker Dragger and Wetnurse
Tues.October 21 at The Basement
744 Broadway
Kingston, New York 12401
8pm Doors
Cost:FREE
Driving Directions

This one got dropped on us pretty late and who the fuck knows where Kingston, NY is, but Wetnurse and Hooker Dragger are truely two of the finest bands in the NY underground so we're gonna party like it's Tuesday night in upstate NY!! So come on out if you can - we could also use help with transport so let us know if you would be willing. (If we drive up early enough I'm sure foliage is gorgeous...). Easter will feed you, rock you, buy you drinks AND pay for gas if you can help us PLUS we'll throw in a free copy our CD "Molt" not yet available in stores!! Now how many rock bands do that in this economy?

As always, EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be heard here.
Please join us if you can, it'll be a blast!!
Love,
Don

EASTER with friends Saturday at Popeye's!!!

2008-09-30T12:16:00.010-04:00

EASTER with HALLUX and HOOKER DRAGGER plus special guests!!
@ Popeyes Pub
Saturday, October 4th, 8pm doors
2056 Main Street
Cortlandt Manor, NY
(view map)

Hello friends! EASTER is back at it having just completed their upcoming debut album Molt. We also have NEW SONGS that we're choosing to debut live in the woodsy mountains of north Westchester! Popeye's Pub is a sweet little love shack in the forest that caters to some of the areas best hardcore and metal bands. Joining us on Saturday will be Brooklyn doomsters HALLUX and the upstate bloodlust grindcore of the legendary HOOKER DRAGGER! Ooooooo!

Once again, EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be heard here. EASTER puts on a performance that Adam Savage of Zombie Core magazine calls "defiling". So come dance, drink, bang your head, raise your hands and watch us sweat!

EASTER @ Don Pedro, Thursday August 28th!!!

2008-08-25T11:53:00.009-04:00

EASTER with WRECKONING || 12 STEP PROGRAM || BORING KIND OF GUY
Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 8:00 PM
90 Manhattan Avenue b/w Boerum and McKibben
Brooklyn, NY

Aww shit! EASTER returns to Brooklyn for a night of the HARDCORE with New England headkickers Wreckoning, 12 Step Program and Boring Kind of Guy at Don Pedro !! Kick off your Labor Day weekend right with a show that says "Fuck You!!" to your boss, your job, the end of summer and the abhorrent "back-to-school" media campaign. EASTER has an arsenal of NEW SONGS to help wreck all the bullshit, plus some favorites from the upcoming album "Molt". So come out, drink, dance, see some awesome bands and have FUN!

EASTER @ Cake Shop Saturday, July 26th!!

2008-07-22T11:08:00.003-04:00

EASTER @ Cake Shop!! with HIGHTOWER (SF), FRONTSIDE FIVE (CO) BUZZARD
Saturday, July 26th,
$7, 9pm (8pm doors), 21 and over
Cake Shop (Downstairs)
http://cake-shop.com/
152 Ludlow Street btw Stanton & Rivington
NYC

EASTER has been kicking ass all over 914 and the five boroughs! Now they return to Cake Shop to bestow their sonic wreckage on the Lower East Side!

We will be supporting our old friends Jake and Shane (ex-Jiker) of Hightower on their tour from the West Coast, plus awesome skate rock bands Frontside Five and Buzzard!

If you were ever down with the old OLD school Eastchester/Bronxville skate scene, want to catch up with some old friends, drink, dance, see some massive electrifying rock, that can all be done at Cake Shop on Saturday!! If you don't know any of these people or bands, trust me, it's all good times - drink, dance, make new friends... we'd love to see your face and buy you a drink!

These bands are going to RULE!!! So COME!!! It's Saturday! NYC!! Summer! Skateboards!!
Love,
Don

EASTER returns to Lit this Monday!!

2008-07-17T10:06:00.002-04:00

EASTER July, 21 2008 at Lit Lounge
for Precious Metal Monday!
with Lapdog Of Satan (mems of Priestbird), The Atlas Moth, and John Wilkes Booth
93 Second Ave, btw 5th and 6th streets, New York, 10003
Cost : $6, 8pm doors

Your old buddies Jon and Don return to the stage this Monday night at Lit Lounge for Precious Metal Monday! Time Out New York calls Precious Metal one of "The city's most vital music nights" so if you don't check it out, then you don't deserve to think of yourself as a true NYC music snob douchebag! Joining us this time around are our good friends from Strong Island John Wilkes Booth and local rockers Lapdog of Satan. Plus, all the way from Chicago is the awesome metal of The Atlas Moth! Daaaaamn!!!

Once again, EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be heard here. We have NEW SONGS and a forthcoming album "Molt" that we are very excited about. So come join us at Precious Metal and see some great bands!
--
Donald J. Puglisi

EASTER returns to Brooklyn, Saturday!!!

2008-07-09T09:28:00.005-04:00

EASTER @ Don Pedro for the
RESURRECTION FILM FUNDRAISER! feat. CREATURES LIKE and TRAUMA TEAM !
Saturday, July 12th 2008, 8pm
90 Manhattan Avenue b/w Boerum and McKibben
Brooklyn, New York 11206
Cost: $7

EASTER returns to NYC this Saturday, July 12th!! At fancy tex-mex restaurant and rock venue Don Pedro. This event will be a fundraiser for the independent zombie film "Resurrection" and many of the bands and fans will be disguised as the living dead! So feel free to slop on some corpsepaint, blood, ripped clothes, etc. or just come out looking like hell in general. It doesn't matter! Whatever you look like, EASTER will rock you into re-animation!!

EASTER is the music of your good old buddies Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be heard here. We have NEW SONGS on our myspace site plus we will be playing some of our new hits live on Saturday! So take a listen!

ALSO, get excited about EASTER's new album "Molt" which we are hoping will be available in August. Woo!

EASTER @ POPEYE'S PUB this Saturday!!!

2008-07-01T10:50:00.002-04:00

EASTER @ POPEYE'S PUB
On Saturday July, 5 2008 at Negative Zero Birthday BBQ Blowout! Bobby's BDAY!
2056 East Main St, Cortlandt Manor, New York 10567
Cost : t/b/a
8pm
http://www.myspace.com/popeyespub
"Bobby of Negative Zero Production's Birthday show. All day indoor/outdoor show. Come have a fucking shot and a beer with 1 of the guys who's more than likely booked you're band at somepoint."

EASTER returns! Harder, angrier, meaner, and kicking off a series of area shows with a post- Independence Day BBQ at Popeye's in Cortlandt Manor, NY. EASTER has new songs and their debut album "Molt" will be available soon. So get excited! If you live in NYC, take a day trip upstate for some good food, drinks and music. If you live in Westchester, then we know how bored you are - come have fun!

If you didn't already know, EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be heard here.

It's been a long time since our last show and this is one of those Saturday shows that we rarely get, so it would be great to see all of you! Please come!!!

Don

--
Donald J. Puglisi

http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks

My Recent E-mail to Dell Computers...

2008-03-13T11:12:00.006-04:00

...they really used to make a good computer, but the one I had most recently SUCKED and at this point is presumed dead. I can't even get it to turn on. So last night I called Dell support (UGH!!) and after jumping though hoops on the phone for 40 mins. they hung up on me. Here's my email and, if you're buying a computer, maybe it's time to look into a Mac.

"Last night I phoned technical support. After waiting on hold for 20-30 minutes, the technician finally responded. He had me shut down the computer, disconnect all of the cables, press and hold the power button for 20 seconds, then reconnect the cables and turn it on again. This made no difference. The technician then put me on hold and disconnected me.

I have been a user of Dell computers for many years now, I have always trusted them. But this most recent computer has seemed to be of lesser quality than ones I previously experienced. And last night's experience with tech support was nothing short of CRAP. At this point, I am expecting to be further ignored by your technical staff and I will NEVER do business with Dell again. To say I am disappointed is an extreme understatement. I payed hard earned money for this computer (and its warranty) and had hoped at the very least for your consideration of my problem. Last night it was made known to me that you have NO consideration for your customers or supporters. Maybe, if you have the time, you could see fit to respond to this e-mail and let me know what I can do with this now useless piece of garbage I bought from you."

I said GOOD DAY.

Check this out http://www.whydellsucks.com/

EASTER returns to Lit on Monday!!!

2008-03-08T11:04:00.001-05:00

Hey friends-

If you're free on Monday night, come hang with Don and Jon at Precious
Metal Monday, March 10 at Lit Lounge!

EASTER
RISING UP / RISING DOWN
AND OTHERS
@ Lit Lounge, 93 2nd Ave, between 5th & 6th St, NYC
$6

I don't know exactly when we'll go on-- the lineup is still getting
worked out-- but if I were to guess I'd say we'd start sometime
between 8:30 and 9:30.

Hope to see you!

Easter

EASTER @ Rocky's February 28th

2008-02-25T00:07:00.002-05:00

Thursday, February 28th, 8:30pm
351 Kent Ave. (@ South 5th St.)
Brooklyn, New York 11211
w/ Bottom Bracket, Hookerdragger

EASTER returns to Brooklyn and the Rock Star Bar in Williamsburg, Thursday, February 28th! We'll be playing with our good friends BOTTOM BRACKET and HOOKERDRAGGER. This show will also be a birthday party for EASTER's voc/guitarist Don Puglisi so don't miss the opportunity to give him punches!

EASTER's One-Year Anniversary @ Lit!!!

2008-02-08T10:52:00.000-05:00

EASTER @ Lit Lounge
with Diesel Theory and Inswarm
Monday, February 11, 8:45
93 2nd Ave, between 5th & 6th St, NYC

If you are a fan of the NYC underground, it doesn't get any further down than PRECIOUS METAL!!!

It's hard to believe that it's been a whole year since Jon & Don hit the stage at Lit for the first time as EASTER. Come join us for a little Monday celebration with excellent bands Diesel Theory and Inswarm!!

EASTER @ Cake Shop!! with HIGHTOWER (SF) and DEMASSEK (RI)

2007-12-25T16:36:00.000-05:00

EASTER @ Cake Shop!! with HIGHTOWER (SF) and DEMASSEK (RI)
Friday, December 28th,
$7, 9pm (8pm doors), 21 and over
Cake Shop (Downstairs)
152 Ludlow Street btw Stanton & Rivington
NYC

Happy Holidays everybody!! Right in the middle of all of it, EASTER was offered a last-minute show with good, old friends HIGHTOWER from San Francisco. If you know Don from WAY back in the day, you may remember Jake and Shane from skateboarding and from JIKER and the Rockin Rex scene. They've returned from San Francisco to NYC for a night of rock with Rhode Island metallers DEMASSEK. All of these bands bring the BEST of what rock has to offer, and Cake Shop offers booze, coffee, tea, records and cake (duh). This is a PARTY and we'd love for you to join us, to see old friends, meet new friends, and hear some great music!

Once again this is a FRIDAY show which EASTER hardly ever gets!!! We go on promptly at 9pm. If you need any more info, need a ride, need assurance reach us HERE. Hope to see you!!

Love,
EASTER

EASTER plays New Jersey, Sat. December 1st!!!

2007-11-26T15:37:00.000-05:00

EASTER @ Axis Lounge
w/ Within Eternity, DIG, & A Circle Needs A Center
Saturday, December, 1 2007, 8PM
316 19th st Carlstadt, NJ, 07072
Cost : no cover

Hi everyone! EASTER returns to the tri-state area this Saturday, December 1!! This will be our first show ever in New Jersey as well as a not-usual Saturday night appearance, so we hope you can make it. The Axis lounge is 20 minutes by car from Manhattan (just west of the Meadowlands) and boasts "the hottest bartenders in New Jersey". EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be heard here. As always, if you would like to not recieve these emails anymore, respond to this email and ask nicely to be removed from our list.

P.S.: Jersey friends!! We really could use your help on this one - you know how hard it is to get people out of the city. If you can take the time to come see us and bring friends that would be wonderful! We're crossing the river to PARTY so please party with us!!!

If you want to make the trip from NYC but have no car, let us know. You can come with us or we can help hook you up with a ride. We'll even play the Sopranos theme song for you while we're driving there.

Please come! We promise fun!
Love,
Don

EASTER tonight! (and part of tomorrow)

2007-10-01T09:49:00.000-04:00

EASTER tonight!!
12am at Trash Bar
256 Grand St, Brooklyn
Cost : $6

Thanks to everyone who made it out to Casa Del Don for our celebration this weekend. This picture says it all. For more pix of our rocking good time, check out here, here, and here.

The fun hasn't ended yet! Tonight Jon and Don return to Trash Bar in Brooklyn where they will surely wake up some hipster neighbors - or give them hipster nightmares ("my hair!!!"). Anyways, like I said before, it's going to be tough to get people enthusiastic about this show. But defeat of the Monday blues is like all of our stuggles in life. We must be strong, persistent, positive and forge on! All we need are 10+ positive people who can go to bed a little bit later tonight and make up for it with lots of coffee tomorrow morning. Do it for the kids. Hope to see you there!!

P.S. Here's some kids...

Pulling out all the stops!!

2007-09-27T10:41:00.000-04:00

EASTER @ Trash Bar
Monday, October 1, Midnight
256 Grand St, Brooklyn
Cost : $6

Hello, friends. EASTER really needs your help with this one. Again, we've been given a shitty night and time to play at Trash Bar and they're telling us that we need to bring at least 10 people for them to let us play there again. Many of you have been SO awesome to us in the past and for this we are thankful. I can't think of a worse night or time for us to be playing, but if there is any possibility at all that you can help us out and drop by for this show it would be really great. Jon and I promise to rock the shit out of you and show you the best time you could possibly have at midnight on a Monday!!

The presumption is that if we get 10 people to this show, then Trash will give us a better night and time the next time we play there. Whatever. We're not the Rolling Stones, we have jobs just like you, we spend more $ than we make playing music and, most importantly, we LOVE to play!! Our friends are a big part of this love. All that we're asking is that you drop by if you possibly can, bring some friends, maybe if you teach a class offer your students extra credit to come to the show, bring an insomniac support group, ANYTHING. Bring your grandparents. Autistic people. Cadavers. Anything, I'll pay for them.

Whatever happens on Monday, remember that EASTER loves you! And if Trash doesn't let us play again then fuck them. If you don't want to recieve these emails anymore please let me know. Otherwise see you soon!

Don

EASTER @ Lit Lounge TONIGHT!!!

2007-09-10T09:33:00.000-04:00

If you are a fan of the NYC underground, it doesn't get any further under than PRECIOUS METAL!!!

EASTER plays with these hard rockers TONIGHT September 10!
Downstairs ($6):
1100- WITH DAGGERS DRAWN (NJ metal)
1015- AMOREA (NYC metal)
930- GOLLUM (North Carolina prog metal)
845- EASTER (NYC noise rock)
+ Guest DJs: Mike Gitter (Roadrunner Recs) & Suzy Paradise

We know Mondays stink, but drop on by!! We'll make it worth your while...

Skateparks and Colleges!

2007-09-04T10:44:00.000-04:00

What's up, EASTER lovers? Not that we're tired of the club scene, but EASTER would love to play their songs for the under 21 crowd and rock fans who aren't into the smokey NYC underground. If anybody out there has info on booking bands for colleges and skateparks anywhere in the Northeast U.S., please let us know - your help would be greatly appreciated. EASTER has always loved and supported skaters and scholars and would be honored to be either cheered or jeered by them.

ALSO if you are a fan of the NYC underground, it doesn't get any further under than PRECIOUS METAL!!!

EASTER plays with these hard rockers on September 10!
Downstairs ($6):
1100- WITH DAGGERS DRAWN (NJ metal)
1015- AMOREA (NYC metal)
930- GOLLUM (North Carolina prog metal)
845- EASTER (NYC noise rock)
+ Guest DJs: Mike Gitter (Roadrunner Recs) & Suzy Paradise

Drop on by!!

Attack of the 2-man Bands!!

2007-08-22T16:40:00.001-04:00

I'm really excited for this show tomorrow. I think it's going to be super big fun!! You know summer's almost over and kids and teachers out there (you know who you are!) aren't going to be able to hang out on a school night soon! And if you ever had any question about how hard a two-man band can rock, we have 2 two-man bands to answer your question! Please come, you won't regret it! Unless you suck.

The deets:

EASTER + The Austerity Program
Thursday, August 23, $5
Rock Star Bar
South 5th + Kent (Williamsburg)
Brooklyn, NY

Listen here:
http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks
http://www.myspace.com/theausterityprogram

EASTER with The Austerity Program @ Rocky's

2007-08-13T09:41:00.000-04:00

Justin and Thad of The Austerity Program are old friends of ours from our college days. So if you hung out with us back then, remember Rodrigues, The Jolly Tinker and Pugsleys, you should come out for a bit of nostalgia. If you didn't hang with us then, you should come to Rockstar Bar anyway and get your ass blown away!!

This is also a record release party for The Austerity Program's new album Black Madonna. Check this out to see what it's all about, kind of.

The deets:

EASTER + The Austerity Program
Thursday, August 23, $5
Rock Star Bar
South 5th + Kent (Williamsburg)
Brooklyn, NY

Listen here:
http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks
http://www.myspace.com/theausterityprogram

EASTER @ Trash Bar, Monday July 30th!

2007-07-26T10:46:00.000-04:00

EASTER @ Trash Bar
Monday, July 30th, 11PM, $6
256 Grand St. between Driggs and Roebling
Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY 11211
http://www.thetrashbar.com/

718.599.1000

Hi everyone! EASTER will be at it again in Brooklyn this Monday so drop on by! This time we'll be playing a late gig at Trash Bar in Williamsburg. And OH will it be the tops!! Sure it's a Monday, and just like Garfield you HATE Mondays!! But Garfield's a douche and it's WAY past time for you to stop acting like him.

For those of you who don't know (and probably still read "Garfield"), EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be listened to here. If you listen to it and decide you hate it - obviously because you love the soundtrack to Garfield: The Movie too much - then go eat a big plate of lasagna, get fat and DIE!!!

All jokes aside, it would really be nice to see you again and Trash Bar is an extremely fun place. And even though it's a late show on a Monday, remember IT'S SUMMER!! Take some time off, rock out late on Monday, skip work and go to the beach on Tuesday! You'll beat the weekend crowds!!

Hope to see you!
Love,
Don

Hmmm...

2007-07-20T12:09:00.000-04:00

Hmmm..., it seems my picture portraying Bush as a vampire sucking the blood of Lady Liberty has inexplicably disappeared. I wonder if I broke some rule. I didn't own rights to that picture so maybe it got removed for that. But I stole it from someone who I'm pretty sure stole it from somewhere else. Anyway, nice picture, huh?

I wanted to thank anyone who reads this who came to our show the other night. Jon and I had a great time and is good to see our old friends and the nice crew at Midway. Our next show is July 30th at Trash Bar in Williamsburg and should be awesome.

I don't have anything to talk about lately other than when my band is playing. OH look at this picture. Is it poison ivy? I have it in my back yard. Yikes!!

EASTER @ Club Midway THIS TUESDAY!!

2007-07-16T10:36:00.001-04:00

EASTER @ Club Midway
Tuesday, July 17th, 7:30PM, $5
25 Avenue B, New York, NY 10009
212-253-2595
club@clubmidway.com

EASTER is returning to Club Midway this Tuesday for a smash-em-up git-down summer evening rock show!! Afterwards, Midway is hosting Punk Rock Heavy Metal Karaoke which I know some of our fans might get WAY too into. So drop in, say hi to your buddies Jon and Don, have a beer, listen to EASTER, then bust out you're own take on " No More Tears". And, with a little convincing, maybe you could get Jon and Don to do their duet of this classic ! If there's more fun for $5 on a Tuesday night in the summer then I don't know about it.

EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be listened to at http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks . Check it out and let us know what you think! As always, if you're no fun, you don't care about any of this, and wish to be removed from our list please respond with a kind REMOVE.

Upcoming EASTER shows include July 30th at Trash Bar and August 23rd with old buddies The Austerity Program!! Stay tuned!!

Hope to see you!!
Love,
Don

EASTER in Sleepy Hollow, June 30th!!

2007-06-27T09:09:00.000-04:00

Two more shows....

2007-06-15T10:28:00.000-04:00

...have been added to the EASTER summer schedule!! On Saturday, June 30th you can see us for FREE at Hudsons Bar and Grill in Sleepy Hollow, NY - Westchester peeps: We could really use your help on this one! The show is at dusk and Hudson's is sure to have a lovely view of the river and the scenic Hudson Valley. The perfect atmosphere in which to bring your family! Except for our music, which is violent, bloody, drug induced and outright frightening. Hire a babysitter!

EASTER w/ Steel Toe Destruction
@ Hudsons Bar and Grill
8PM Saturday, June 30th
226 Beekman Ave.
Sleepy Hollow, New York 10591
Cost:FREE! (21 & over only)

Next up, EASTER returns to their favorite LES venue Club Midway on July 17th! It's a Tuesday night, which I know is a little rough on some folks, but we'll be going on at 8pm and it all has to be wrapped up by 10 - at which time Midway presents Punk Rock Heavy Metal Karaoke. So you only have to hang around if you want to see me bust out my best "Master of Puppets". Plus, Midway is totally nice place to hang with friendly bartenders. So enjoy a nice evening drink with us!

EASTER @ Club Midway
8PM Tuesday, July 17
25 Avenue B
New York, New York 10009
Cost:$5

And don't forget our big Brooklyn show next Friday with Rosetta and The Minor Times (details below)! To see a complete list of all our shows and to hear some EASTER songs check us out at myspace.com/easterrocks

Hope to see you!!

EASTER plays a FRIDAY NIGHT!!!

2007-06-11T09:48:00.000-04:00

EASTER with Rosetta, Bruce Lamont (Yakuza), TIDESWITHIN, and The Minor Times
9pm Friday, June 22
@ Water Street Lounge
22 Water Street, Brooklyn

Water Street is a Lounge/Bar in the D.U.M.B.O section of Brooklyn and the bands we're playing with are really great. To all of you who've said you couldn't make it to our shows because we always play a weeknight, this is your chance!!

ALSO...
EASTER @ Trash Bar
11pm Monday, July 30
256 Grand St. between Driggs and Roebling
Brooklyn, New York

Yes, it's a crappy night and time. But just in case you can't sleep and/or are on vacation, we could really use your support. So show up and we'll buy you a drink and perhaps even a late night snack!

Solar Buffet recap...

2007-05-31T11:04:00.000-04:00

Solar Buffet was fun! EASTER made a couple new friends. Check out The Gloominous Doom members of whom were there but only played acoustically around the camp fire. There were lots of hippies there and most everyone was friendly and not completely turned off by the demonic sounds of EASTER. And Wideass Estates is a gorgeous place. It has almost everything - camping, a swimming hole, good food, beer, snakes, mountains, men with beards, naked people, and the elusive Lepresquatch! Noticeably absent though was a decent toilet. I don't think anyone there took a shit the whole weekend. At least not that I heard about. Uh, and why would I hear about it?

Other than being backed up, I had a great time and would like to thank Mike, Kristen, Dave and Shaun for showing us a good time. They all went above and beyond for their guests and are very nice people. And thanks Cormac for helping us get the gig.

Look for EASTER to be playing this summer in NYC and places within one day's driving distance!

Shows this weekend:
Set Theory
on Friday, June 1
at Victors Bar And Grill
500 Commerce Street, Hawthorne, NY
Set Theory includes members of Boink, the first real band I was ever in. Also Earthling, former member of the legendary Zoepy and supporter of EASTER this past weekend (Thanks, G!).

Unearthly Trance
W/Villains!
on Saturday, June 2
at Rockys Rockstar Bar
351 Kent Ave, Brooklyn
I fucking LOVE this band and am very jealous of them. We saw them last month at Midway with Rwake and Made Out of Babies - what a fucking show that was! But UT rocked it best.

Come to the show and if you see me ask for a free EASTER demo!!

Don't be afraid!!

2007-05-23T09:58:00.000-04:00

Take a good look, my friends. This is Poison Ivy. The most evil plant on the face of the earth! I know a little something about the effects of this sinister, inanimate beast and let me tell you YOU DO NOT WANT.

Now that summer is nearly here and all of us will be spending a lot more time outdoors, perhaps even going to outdoor festivals organized by people we don't know, who neglect to announce that the whole area is festooned with this vile plant. It happens, oh yes, it happens.

But not at the SOLAR BUFFET!! Why you ask? Because EASTER will be there! They have at least five songs about the evil of poison ivy and their crushing sound acts as a natural repellent to all urishirol carrying plants! Don't believe me? Well come to SOLAR BUFFET this Memorial Day weekend and see for yourself!

EASTER @ the Solar Buffet Festival
May 26, 2007 (Memorial Day Weekend!), 7PM
sawmill lane
Drehersville, Pennsylvania 17961

Spring Happenings!

2007-05-16T10:10:00.000-04:00

Jerry Falwell died yesterday. In honor of him I wrote this haiku:

Dear Jerry Falwell:
Even in death, go fuck yourself
and kiss my ass.

It's Spring!! Holly's been spending lots of time outdoors, as have I. My allergies haven't started bothering me much yet. It's been awhile since I last blogged but I've been keeping busy. EASTER has been working at coming up with some new material. In the meantime, we're playing a neo-Woodstock festival out in PA. I expect this will be super-fantastic FUN. Contact me if you're interested in coming and if you're in the area, come check it out!!

EASTER @ the Solar Buffet Festival
May 26, 2007 (Memorial Day Weekend!), 7PM
sawmill lane
Drehersville, Pennsylvania 17961

This is an annual Woodstock-esque festival, formerly called Mai Bok, now known as SOLAR BUFFET held at Wideass Estates near Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in lovely Pennsylvania. And this year, EASTER is crashing the party!

This is a 3 day event involving camping, rock bands, DJs, drinking, and possibly nudity. It begins Friday, May 25th and goes through to May 27th. Provided all goes as planned (probably not) EASTER will be playing around 7pm on May 26th!

The Moral Majority is not invited.

EASTER @ Club Midway April 9th!!

2007-04-04T18:56:00.000-04:00

EASTER @ Club Midway April 9th! Fuckin' A!!

We did it before and we'll do it again!! This Monday April 9th at 8pm the hardest rocking duo in the East is going to fuck-up Club Midway! So drop by and be cleansed by their fire!!

EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi. If you know who those people are PLEASE COME!!! If not, PLEASE COME!!!

EASTER @ Club Midway

April 9, 8PM

25 Avenue B, NYC

An Evening with Kelly LeBrock...

2007-03-21T10:27:00.001-04:00

...with 10 minutes of EASTER!! FREE!!!!

SATURDAY, MARCH 24TH
THE INTERNATIONAL KELLY LEBROCK BIRTHDAY INVITATIONAL
A 25 band tribute to Kelly LeBrock.
8PM-12AM!!
At midnight watch WEIRD SCIENCE as scored by HELLS HILLS!!

FREE!
@ CAKESHOP
152 Ludlow
NYC 10002

EASTER has the 9:30 - 9:40 time slot. It's a short set, but should be a VERY fun night all around. Cakeshop has lots to drink and lots of attractive people hanging around it! So even if you hate us and our music, you can enjoy watching Weird Science and seeing 24 other bands play. Plus, IT'S FREE!!! It's a party!

EASTER is the music of Jon Gill and Don Puglisi and can be experienced at http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks but is much better seen live. So PLEASE COME!!

An article that caught my eye...

2007-03-20T18:32:00.000-04:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070320/ap_on_go_pr_wh/fired_prosecutors_73

If someone could tell me the difference between testifying not-under-oath and being allowed to lie, I'd like to hear it. And why should any of these people want to be allowed to lie? Ha!

Prepare for constitutional meltdown.

Stick your brackets up your fucking ass...

2007-03-17T12:45:00.000-04:00

It's St. Patty's Day! Here's what I like to think about each St. Patty's...

Thanks Again!!

2007-03-07T13:44:00.000-05:00

EASTER played Club Midway on Monday night at it was rocking good fun!! Thanks to everyone who braved the cold to come see us. Special props to the folks who came to both of our shows!! You now have the rank of general in the EASTER Army. For pics look here and here. Thanks Ali for taking pics!

Yesterday I took off from work and slept like I haven't slept in weeks. I've been so busy and stressed lately and once the responsibility of this second show was finished I just shut down for a while. But now we're looking for new shows to do and hopefully will get our act together to hit Philadelphia, DC, and anyplace in between in the near future. So if you have any info on shows or have a band and would like to get a show with us or whatever, please contact me. I keep telling people to book us with punk or metal acts, but nobody listens. So, if you want, we'll play with your hip Kinks-wannabe band or your depressing acoustic folk music. It'll sound stupid, but whatever.

OH, and since the weather will hopefully get nice soon, we would LOVE to do any sort of outdoor music fest. Anyone with info please contact.

Again, thanks friends. See you soon!
d

EASTER March 5 @ Club Midway

2007-02-28T00:18:00.000-05:00

Thanks!!

2007-02-27T03:31:00.000-05:00

Big thanks to everyone who made it out to EASTER's first show. Jon and I had lots of fun and I hope you all did as well. Thanks to everyone who took pictures, bought drinks, smiled, laughed, shouted, gave opinions and compliments (our favorite!). You made our transition from a period of not-performing to performing again very easy and comfortable and we had great fun. Here's pics!

I got so amped for this show that exen though I was completely exhausted afterwards, I couldn't get any sleep. And note on having a two-piece band: it's bad for my back. One less person to help lug my big cabinet around. I broke a sweat a lot yesterday and it occurs to me now that I'm going have to practice a lot of heavy lifting if I'm to continue my "Active Maturity" which it would say on my bag of cat food. If I were a cat.

If worst comes to worst, I'm going to need to wear one of those heavy lifting belts; You know, one of those like reverse-WWF Champion belts that those guys wear. THOSE guys.

This Thursday March 1, Stinking Lizaveta and Weedeater are playing Club Midway. I plan to check it out and hand out flyers to Easter's show there on Monday, March 5th at 10pm. A lot of people seemed to dig hanging out on a Monday night last night. We're doing it again next Monday! Come on by!!

Another day older and deeper in COME TO OUR SHOW!!!!!

2007-02-22T09:32:00.000-05:00

Here's my favorite new artist, Nora, the piano playing cat! She's brilliant! Also, here's pictures from the birthday party me and my friends had for me and my friends. It kicked ASS. But I partied too hard and now I have a nasty cold and some kind of fucked up sore under my tongue. Bleah!

But anyway, thanks to all the lovely people who joined us. And an extra special thanks to Nick and Sherine for making this wonderful and HUMONGOUS cake!

Slayer was awesome, as usual. But it's made me realize how much I don't like fat, sweaty, bald men rubbing up against me. Eww!! I also saw a crowd of people there that could only be New York Times jounalists (like, one of them was a menopause-age woman with puppies on her pink sweater) and HELLO.

Okay, here we go again - THIS Monday, February 26th is EASTER's first show. Easter is the Jon Gill/Don Puglisi experience, and what an experience it is! Think of a two-man Black Sabbath meets two-man Bad Brains. And those two men are Jon and me! Awesome! Details:

Easter at Lit Lounge
w/ Maegashira, Javelina, and Babyhead
Monday, February 26 at 8:30PM, $6
93 2nd Ave.,(btw 5th & 6th)
New York, NY 10003

We also have another show coming up next Monday, March 5th!
Easter at Club Midway
w/ The Jupiter Deluxe
Monday, March 5 at 9PM, $5
25 Avenue B, (btw 2nd and 3rd)
New York, NY

Sorry about the Monday shows, we are nobodies after all. But if you show up, then we'll be somebody! And maybe then somebody will give us a better night to play! Mondays ROCK!!

Tonight!

2007-02-15T13:29:00.000-05:00

Watch this video and just try and tell me you're not totally fucking amped to see Slayer at Hammerstein tonight! Woo!

ALSO - I'll be handing out 200+ flyers at the Slayer show tonight for the EASTER show on February 26th at Lit Lounge. A limited number of these flyers are RED. If you get a red flyer and bring it to the show on the 26th, you will get a FREE EASTER T-SHIRT!!! They're perfect if you have no shirt!

Yes!! My first hairbrained promotional scheme! I'm getting choked up (sniff).

Some things to think about...

2007-02-09T23:16:00.000-05:00

What makes a Superbowl Spectacular?
just look at these pics! The Snap Powers crew put on a party with grace and eloquence as always, or that's what I always assume b/c I never remember them. But this film should sum up everything.

SLAYER at Hammerstein Ballroom, February 15th w/ who really cares? It's SLAYER!!
be there or be not-satanic. I'm going with my gang. Fuck with us and you DIE.

EASTER at Lit Lounge, February, 26w/ Javelina, Chapel Perilous, Maegashira

Yeah!! Please come if you can, I'll buy drinks for as many people as I can and Easter promises to RULE.

RWAKE at Club Midway, April 16th
w/ Minsk, Made Out Of Babies & Unearthly Trance
Rwake makes me insanely jealous of them. Now I have to go to this show so I can hate them even more.

Back with a Blog!

2007-01-30T16:49:00.000-05:00

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Oh. If anyone is reading this at all, then THANK YOU. If not, I understand. I've been very neglectful of my already-fairweather online journal. But first I was very busy at work, then I had a bit of a low period. An old, dear friend of mine died suddenly and tragically, I tried to write but everything I wrote was hateful and negative. Then it was Xmas which, if you're already negative, STINKS like skunk's guts. But all that shit's over, it's a new fucking year and there are some things to talk about! So lets get started, shall we?

EASTER @ Lit Lounge, February 26, 8pm!!
w/Maegashira, Javelina & Chapel Perilous- some great bands from various places in the Northeast at Lit's weekly Precious Metal showcase! PLEASE check these bands out because they fucking KILL and thanks Javelina for the dope artwork seen on this page. There will be a limited supply of FREE Easter t-shirts given out to the happiest/drunkest fans so don't miss out. This is Jon and my first show as EASTER and we're going to do everything we can to make it kick ass. YOU can help us just by showing up, hanging out, getting drunk and screaming as loud as you can!

And you thought Jesus would return as a man...
Check out THIS and THIS and start worshipping the animals, you heathen assholes!!

Remember when I said I'd like chop Bush's head off?
Oh shit! They're on to me! Read THIS and HATE it. Uhhhh, I meant the bushes in my back yard.

Your myspace profile is forever...
And that's how long we'll love you...

Halloweeny pics...

2006-10-23T23:49:00.000-04:00

More at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sardonic/

It's Autumn! I am full of apples and Misfits songs.

2006-09-27T13:59:00.000-04:00

I really like the blog, and I don't want to forget about it. I just spent the 45 minutes trying to log in again because I couldn't remember my password, because my computer was remembering it for me for so long and somehow I got logged out. OyE! Anyway, thanks if you still check in. I want to keep doing this, but my creative focuses have been elsewhere lately. A few things:

Static Age
My band EASTER is getting airplay on a radio show in St. Louis! KDHX 88.1 Saint Louis Public Radio has a nice radio show named Slip of the Disc where Easter is played in the second hour of the broadcast on September 19th. Unfortunately, the last I checked this stream is only 40 minutes long and we're not on it. I spoke to someone over there and apparently they will fix it, and its a great show so check it out anyway. This particular episode contains an explanation of the "plate of shrimp" phenomenon that I've been trying to describe to people for years (don't ask me anymore, see Repo Man, watch TV - basically, you already know what it is, you just need to realize it), Slayer, Motorhead and Jerry Seinfeld. Thanks Geoff Dunn of KDHX!!

American Nightmare
I've been watching To Catch a Predator on Dateline. Now THAT'S good programming. The pervs are always like "This was my first time, I'll never do it again, I just wanted to be friends" and, worst of all, "Yeah, I've seen that show. I'm going to go outside now and the cops will tackle me, right?" Listen up, creeps. You're penis is getting you into big trouble. Can I suggest maybe NOT BELIEVING THAT YOU ARE TALKING TO WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE ON THE INTERNET? And, more importantly, maybe getting some help instead of getting into this situation, which destroys your life and is highly entertaining to me and most of America.

Horror Business
Autumn is practically here and it's time to get Halloweeny! Which means LISTEN TO THE MISFITS!!!! I plan on organizing foliage viewing excursions and horror movie viewings at my home in Money Earnin. Each weekend will be a new leafy destination and gory flick!! (Except October 28th when some jerks I know decided to get married JUST to ruin my autumn plans!! Grrr!) Stay posted!

Gouls Night Out
Upcoming shows include No Means No with Lambic @ Northsix on Thursday, September 28. Iron Maiden @ Continental Airlines Arena (on Friday the 13th!!!) in October, Melvins with Big Business (YESSS!!!!) @ Warsaw on Tuesday, October 17th, and also, possibly Deicide on October 2oth (I can't DEcide. Ha, ha, ho....).

New songs on Myspace...

2006-09-05T12:07:00.000-04:00

I guess part of the reason I haven't been so attentive to my blog lately is that I've been concentrating more on music. This weekend, Jon and I went to record songs for our project EASTER with Major Matt Mason of Schwervon! and Olive Juice Music. It was a great experience! Matt and his wife, Nan, are super nice people. They have a cat named Gummo who looks like he could be Holly's big brother. He could be a bit scratchy and bitey, but he liked hanging out with us.

Anyway, the end result of this weekend is four songs: It's Not Like That, Jim Pfizer, Climb 4 Cash, and The Steady Wave. They can be heard at our Myspace site http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks so give it a listen and let us know what you think.

Long time no see...

2006-08-23T11:07:00.000-04:00

Well, I haven't been feeling too bloggy lately. Combine late summer lazyness with my typical year-round lazyness and it's a wonder I ever get out of bed. But I've been having some fun lately that's worth mentioning...

Last Friday, Mac and I went to a death metal show hosted by our new friend Anita. Bands included Estuary - death metal from Cincinnati, OH a.k.a the ONLY good thing EVER to come from Cincinnati, OH. Also, Mortal Decay, Fecal Corpse, and Origin. I hadn't been to a death metal show since college, but I had heard death metal. I really loved the scene. If you know me, you know I always wear black t-shirts with some sort of skull on them - a typical punk/metal thing. But this night, for whatever reason, I wore a nice collared black dress shirt and it turned out I was the only male there who WASN'T wearing a black t-shirt with some sort of skull on it. Add that to my short, gray hair and freshly shaved face and I felt a little out of place in metalworld. But nobody gave me shit. And I never would of thought someone in a band named "Fecal Corpse" would be so friendly, but everyone there was totally chill. They let us smoke pot with them backstage, we laughed, bought each other beers and we drank like there's no tomorrow.

I had some vacation time last week in which I'd planned to go to Montauk. It's very pretty out there and I try to make it out every summer. But things got screwed up with my schedule and, overall, I just was lazy so I didn't go. But I did spend some time at Teatown Reservation in Ossining, NY. When I was younger, my uncle used to take me and my siblings to Teatown to do some hiking and observe wildlife. On this occasion, I saw many deer, a chipmunk, and two little toads - each about the size of an average bee. They also have a nice little zoo there where they keep injured animals that wouldn't survive in the wild. Here, they had two fat, fluffy rabbits, owls, and a bald eagle. The eagle made me feel very patriotic.

My band, EASTER, finally has a Myspace account, as the previous post indicates. The page is currently not where I want it to be - the artwork below is supposed to be showing up in the background of the page, but is not seen on some computers. Do me a favor - if you read this, check out our myspace page and then contact me and tell me if you see the artwork in the background. And if you're a web techy person and feel like you can help me out with making this work, your help will be greatly appreciated. And if you're on Myspace, make friends with us! Unless you're a band who sucks (aka Grateful Dead, U2, Dave Matthews).

Jon and I are going into the studio on Friday to make some better recordings, some of which we will post on the Myspace site. Stay tuned for info on live shows, record releases, etc.

http://www.myspace.com/easterrocks

2006-08-08T23:54:00.000-04:00

A Wet, Drunk, Loud Weekend with Old Friends and Fucked-up Faces...

2006-07-31T12:05:00.000-04:00

What a fun weekend! On Friday, Cormac, Jon and I went to Cakeshop to see Hightower. Jake and Shane from Hightower are Jake and Shane from Jiker, who are also skating buddies of mine from when I was like 14. I still get on a skateboard every once in awhile, but I never do anything really daring. These guys STILL skate actively and use it as inspiration for their band. They seem to have not changed from the time that I first met them, which made me feel envious. I feel like I'm getting older and less rocking. And all the time I sense reality tugging at me to grow up, take my job seriously, find a wife and have kids, get a house, etc. These guys never did that shit, never seem to even have had any hang-ups over it. They just did it without question and without reluctance. I admire them and am terribly JEALOUS. It was a very excellent show, but I went home a little depressed.

The next day was the Dream Decievers viewing event at my apartment, which meant I had to CLEAN and think about how much I HATE cleaning. But the event was lots of fun. A comfortable number of people arrived. My friend Jess came, who I go WAY back with. Plus Ms. Mew, Gingerbird, Matt and Cormac. The movie was a little too depressing to base a party around, so afterward Geoff took us to a friends house with a pool and we totally crashed this pool party. Present at this party were members of 914 bands The Vibration and Blue Velvet. They're all rock stars, but they're very nice! The gentleman who owned the pool was named...Brian? Sorry, I was a little drunk. Anyway, thank you for your hospitality and you are welcome in my home any time.

The next day, me, Cormac and Jess pretended we were Holly and slept inside all day. Here's an actual conversation...

Don: We to go out to this nice park I know, if you want.
Cormac: Can we watch that zombie movie?

The zombie movie he was talking about isn't a movie, really. It was Joe Dante's Homecoming from the Masters of Horror series. This movie wasn't very scary, but it was VERY cheesy. The plot is that the war dead from a war much like the Iraq war come back as zombies to vote against the current president, who is a republican and sounds just like Bush when you hear him in the film. In it there is a character who is exactly like Ann Coulter and another character just like Cindy Sheehan. It's not a very good movie, but I like the idea.

Anyway, more pics from the weekend at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sardonic/

Upcoming Shows...

2006-07-26T02:14:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture of Holly eating my new MP3 player. This is to show scale for how small it is. It's roughly the size of a mouse. I put off buying one for a long time. I'm not real good with techy things. They ask too many questions. This thing in particular has been relatively easy, but I'm still bewildered. For some reason my computer tells me it's copying files to the device, but then I turn the device on and only a fraction of what I transferred is actually there. The names of the songs are on the device, but when I click play it says "NO FILE".

This is what gets me about this stuff. I feel like it doesn't make my life easier, just more frustrating. Of course, I also haven't read the hefty instruction manual or installed the software that came with the device. Too lazy. Don't they have some sort of computer that does that for me?

Yesterday, I let Holly out so she could sniff stuff and eat grass, but kept a pretty keen eye on her as always. I stepped inside for a moment and came back out to see Holly on the sidewalk in front of our house and two twenty-something black ladies walking toward her. I watched from a distance and sipped my coffee. The ladies didn't see Holly until she was about 3 feet away from them, but when they did they stopped with a gasp. "You must NEVER cross paths with a black cat!" one of them said in West Indian accent. Then the two of them stepped into the street around Holly and continued on.

Okay, first of all, Holly is a tuxedo cat! Which makes her half-black and half-white. Plus, she wears white socks!! And if you look closely, she's not even black - she's dark brown! I've got no time for discriminatory superstitions!!

This summer's been nice, but September's shows in NYC are good enough to make me want summer to be over! Not really. Well, after the beaching and the camping and the sweating are all done, it will be nice to see some good rock. So lets talk about it!

Shellac at Northsix, 9/2
Steve Albini is quite possibly the greatest musician and sound-engineer that ever lived. Tell you what, if he was a preacher, he'd save a million souls. Even you!

Mastodon at Webster Hall, 9/8
Drummer Brann Drailor can best be described as "inhuman" and this show is only $15 - probably the cheapest you'll ever get to see them before we start hearing "Blood & Thunder" in a Cadillac commercial. Plus, it's drum-king Jon Gill's birthday and this is where he'll be partying!

Boris at Northsix, 9/11
What better way to honor our nation's greatest tragedy in NYC then with a balls-out Japanese metal band? Plus a guitar player I have a total crush on. Sorry Ted Nugent.

Nomeansno at Northsix, 9/28
YESSSS!! I've been waiting years for these old bastards to come around! HOLY FUCK they are going to rock you to pieces! Hipsters better wear helmets.

Finally, good people, religious people, whatever...please address your prayers and/or good feelings to my friend and best boss I ever had, Ann, who's husband died last week. It's a terrible tragedy, my hopes and prayers are with her.

This Saturday, July 29 Dream Deceivers Viewing in Mount Vernon!

2006-07-26T01:51:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time coming, but it seems like this weekend finally seems like a good time to view Dream Deceivers: The Story Behind James Vance vs. Judas Priest ( 1992) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104140/ at my apatment in Mount Vernon. Cormac taped the film origially and it's currently a very rare find. This is a very interesting documentary where Christianity confronts the idea of subliminal messages in heavy metal music, the subject is dealt with legally, and the band Judas Priest is put on trial. It is at times hilarious and extremely disturbing.

In addition to Dream Deceivers, we will also be viewing Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322526/ and other docu-shorts regarding heavy metal. There will also be heavy metal music from my extensive library, beer, wine, snacks and whatever you bring. And don't feel obligated to watch the films - come hang out, drink with friends, etc. I hope to see you!

Umm...I'm mainly intending for this to be seen by people that I know. But if I don't know you and you feel like watching a creepy documentary with strangers, then comment on this blog and we'll talk about it.

Saturday, July 29th

Ressurected

2006-07-09T23:54:00.000-04:00

Okay, first things first: Ken Lay is NOT dead. This is a no-brainer. Again, I'm only a junior detective. But in this day and age, how many 64 year-old billionaires die of heart disease? Let's also consider that he's capable of bribing numerous coroners with more $ than most of us will ever see and still have enough to live out the rest of his life quite comfortably, somewhere sunny and without an extradition treaty to the U.S. And let's consider again that a coroner's job is to look at dead bodies all day for not as much $. And that NOBODY has better means or motive for faking his own death. With contacts all over the world, some of whom have yet evaded prosecution in the Enron scandal. Let's also consider that we know that this man has no scruples and has shown that he is interested only in the preservation and enhancement of his own wealth. So I don't buy it for a second. I really hope someone is looking into this.

I've been busy at work so I haven't felt much like being bloggy lately. At my job I spend a lot of time putting together not-very-exciting language to describe people who aren't very exciting (except that they have $). Basically, it's the kind of writing that makes me feel like not writing at all. So lately it's been lots of TV, video games and heavy metal listening (Lately!)

Otherwise, I've immersing myself in the current pop-culture. I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It was very good, but very LONG. And SPOILER, like all second films of a trilogy, a much liked character is killed, assuring attendence at Part 3. "Will they bring him back?" I wonder.

I refer to this as Mr. Spock treatment because in the Star Trek movies Mr. Spock is killed in part 2 and ressurrected in part 3. The same happens with Jean Grey in the recent X-men films, Star Wars (Han Solo doesn't "die" really, but his mortality is definitely in question at the end of Empire), The Terminator (okay, a little different, but still...), the Matrix, I think they do some shit like that, I don't know...

Oh yeah! Also in the Bible. Jesus dies in part two, but (and this just for people who haven't seen the movie. SPOILER), something tells me that's not the last we hear of him (Revenge of the Jesusith).

Generally, ressurection is the theme here today. Be it faking your own death, Hollywood magic, or a widely held spiritual belief. Not much difference in those things, if you think about it...hmmm...

Anyways, this is what we've been up to lately. Being lazy at home. Too hot to work on the blog. Holly likes her boxes and plastic bags (good thing I keep those around!) Lots of TV - which SUCKS during summer, in case anyone hasn't noticed. Talk about needing a ressurrection!

I guess I'm supposed to be outside doing something. I've done a little of that. Hit some golf balls last weekend, went to Water Taxi Beach and visited a nice park on the Long Island Sound. But outside's not all it's cracked up to be. It's been HOT and the sun is not very healthy. So fuck that shit! Holly says, "The best way to beat the heat is to lay in a bed of plastic shopping bags. And - this is critical - don't get up, sleep a lot, and move as little as possible."

My Camera was Found!! Woot!

2006-06-28T10:15:00.000-04:00

GOOD NEWS! My camera was found and returned to me by a very sweet newlywed! BAD NEWS! There's pictures on there from Jon's Bachelor party. Uh-oh!!!! Even worse, I posted them online at my Flickr site. Now everyone knows!!

Go on. Look at this picture and tell me there's no love here!

The Wedding...

2006-06-25T13:38:00.000-04:00

This weekend was Ali and Jon's wedding. It was very wonderful, but very EXHAUSTING. Brutally so for Old Man Don. I hurt.

To describe how fun the weekend was - let's just put it this way: I lost my camera ($200), licked a cockroach someone grabbed off the floor of a strip club (literally - that's not code for some sex thing), got beat on a weed deal ($40), got sick, puked multiple times, fell into a garbage can, had Australian women scream at me, suffered one of the worst hangovers of my life, got puke stains on my suit pants ($50), stood for hours in un-air conditioned places, was interrogated endlessly about my tattoos, got a parking ticket ($65) was stuck in traffic multiple times, scolded by bossy bridesmaids, couldn't smoke weed the whole weekend, didn't get laid all weekend, sweated more than I have in my whole life, stood in the rain and was bossed around by photographers and I STILL had the most fun I've ever had in my entire life. All of the above I did LAUGHING and smiling like I never have in my life. Thank you Ali and Jon, you're the most beautiful people ever, B's and G's (sorry, I don't want to blogicize your names. You understand. Umm..."The BeeGees?"), friends and cousins of friends of aunts and uncles of friends I made friends with, the UNCONQUERABLE Fordham Masters of the Universe (just try and think of a more gratifying gang name!), and everyone who was involved in making this event so very awesome.

I lost my camera on the same night I lost any-shred-of-dignity-I-can't-believe-I-might-have-had-left (one word). This is the night of The Bachelor Party. That happened Thursday night, so no camera for the rest of the wedding events. To make up for it, I made these crude stick figure drawings to help people who weren't there visualize what a nice time I had. This first one is of me at the bachelor party. The evening started out nice enough in Brooklyn. We went to Boat for drinks (ding!) and had a very excellent dinner at Pacifico where they had pitchers of margaritas (ding! ding! ding!). I was very happy to see a lot of my old friends - most of whom I know from college. We have a gang that's much like the Fordham Baldies - except, instead of fighting we like to party and instead of threatening our enemies with being "rocked & cocked" (see "The Wanderers"), we decide to have no enemies because were the friendliest people EVER.

As the evening progressed, things got SLOPPY. I remember eyeballing a girl at the bar at Pacifico and thinking "I'm a go talk to her." - (exact words) But, of course, we can't walk up to the bar and NOT order a drink, can we? So I ordered a shot of Jack Daniels (DING!) and then...uh, yeah. I wish I could tell you.

I don't remember how we got there, but we ended up at 6A. I've ALWAYS hated this bar - too small, too crowded, too trendy. But we hung out outside and things were cool. But beer beer beer! (Ding! Ding! Dohhhh...) The bachelorettes came and met us and...then it's a little blurry. This guy said he'd sell me weed, it turned out just be crumpled up paper and DUH is me. Then I took my pants off. Kids, listen up: there's lots of good reasons to go to jail - maybe out of protest for some cause you believe in, maybe you go to jail to protect someone else...my point is, drunken public nudity is NOT a good reason to go to jail. Fortunately, some of my good fellows were wise to this and helped me out with not getting naked.

Again, it's all a little blurry. Then somehow we ended up in Flashdancers. I honestly don't remember who was there (Ahem!). I'm not even sure I was there. I think I said to a stripper, "You smell so nice!" I'm sure that gave the bouncers an alert. But beer beer beer (Ding...du..ding..).

We closed Flashdancers, and then wandered the streets of Manhattan for what seemed to me to be 3 hours. It was gross hot out and I can't imagine any of us were walking straight at all. I finally got fed up and hailed a cab.

Next thing I remember, I'm in the back seat of my parked car and I needed to BARF. It was hot and sticky out, I didn't have shoes on and I ran out onto the sidewalk and ralphed in a garbage can. Meanwhile, this is like rush-hour on Friday morning in Brooklyn. All around me people are headed to work in business clothes with their brief cases. I guess I should say at this point that I fully intended on going to work on Friday - at least I did when I left work on Thursday. But things weren't looking good so I called in sick and slept a few more hours in the back of my car. When I woke again, a cop was giving me a ticket. I opened the door of the car and he said "Whoa!" and ran away - I'm not kidding. I got out of the ticket - THIS time.

When I got home I slept it off and a cold shower totally saved my ass, because next was the Rehearsal Dinner. A hungover, unshaved and underdressed me crawled out into public again to get told how-to-walk and where-to-stand. Then we moved to John's Pizzeria in Manhattan for dinner. The food was very yummy, but for some reason they didn't want us to have air conditioning and the place was full of chubby, white tourists. For being in the wedding party, we all received some very classy flasks engraved with our names. Oh yeah!

The wedding was CLASSY. Even though it rained, we were in the lovely, lush Fort Tryon Park. This is a picture of Ali and Jon taking their vows. Awwww! Even my cold heart melted. Smiles were in abundance and the ceremony was filled with lovely music, poetry, and beautiful people all around. I'm very cynical and I've been to lots of weddings that make me want to puke. But this one was so nice even I got choked up. (Sniff!)

After the ceremony there was, of course, eating and drinking and crying and more drinking and dancing and drinking and laughing and eating cake and drinking coffee with sambuca in it and eating more and drinking. There were lots of cute kids running around and more friendly people than I thought were left on the earth. It was a first rate party for a first rate crowd in honor of the nicest couple I know. Seriously, my faith in humanity was invigorated - except I was there (and I'm the worst of us. Ewww!).

This next picture is of me after the ceremony. All of the tables had these nice centerpieces with LOTS of limes in them. I thought, "What a perfect opportunity to show off my RAD juggling skills!" Anyone who juggles knows that it's not often you get a chance to show off, so you take what you can get. But after doing it for 3 seconds, I remembered that juggling makes people seem more clowny and, thus, more like a child molester. No one was impressed. I think I even pissed some people off. But did that stop me? No way! "Look at this dope cross-throw! Ali-ooop!! Yeah!!"

After the official ceremony was over, we went to the Playwright's Tavern. I didn't see a lot of playwrights there. Upstairs, lots of old ladies, downstairs, lots of meathead frat-boys. To make up for all the girly fluffiness of the wedding, we watched the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) marathon! Ouch! Those bastards really try to fucking hurt each other! Eventually, I was DEAD on my feet. Every inch of my body ached. So I said my final goodbyes and went back to my normal life in my little cave in Mount Vernon. My two favorite kittycats were there and they were also watching the UFC. So we all got cozy and RELAXED.

At the end of the day, I realized someone stuck me with one of the centerpieces. People, you got to understand! This is more limes than any human being needs! EVER! Like, this is what sailors brought with them on ships in the 18th century to fight scurvy - for the whole crew for like 6 months! What am I going to do? Have a Lime Party?! Drink like 900 Coronas? Help!!

Thanks Ali & Jon and everyone who helped! It was a perfect wedding!

"Our hearts are filled with METAL"

2006-06-18T21:38:00.000-04:00

Slayer was awesome, as these blurry pictures indicate. This was one of the best shows I've ever seen and I enjoyed myself greatly. To give you an idea, as I'm writing this it's two days after the show, I still have no voice and my neck still hurts from all the headbanging. Unfortunately, the night has to be remembered as somewhat of a bummer as we were stuck in traffic for 3 HOURS coming home. Anyone who lives in NYC and has seen a show at the Meadowlands knows it's really only a 20-30 minute drive across the George Washington Bridge. We got stopped less than a half-mile from the bridge at 11:50 (at which point we said, "Wow, it's not even midnight!" and were all smiles that we'd be getting to bed at a decent hour). Two hours later, we'd moved all of quarter mile, gone through every celebrity name we could think of playing The Name Game, and I personally was bottling up a venom against God and humanity. I remember watching the moon rise higher and higher and eventually wishing it would fall to earth and smash the bridge and whoever the fuck was imprisoning us in that hell. The cars would move 15 feet, then stop dead for 20 minutes. This went on for three hours. Fuck New Jersey, fuck the fucking construction workers on the bridge, fuck whoever made the decision to block off the bridge for 3 hours (MORE for the traffic that surely built up behind us), fuck asshole truck drivers, and FUCK New Jersey. I did nothing but spend $ in the crap state of New Jersey the whole fucking night and this is how they treat me when I leave.

Anyway, to focus on the good part of the day and night, me and my crew earlier in the day visited Untermeyer Park in Yonkers. There's this creepy little place there that has some local - devil-worship urban legend attached to it, so I thought it would be appropriate for our day of METAL. But instead of devilish and creepy, it was just very pretty. We saw a momma dear and her little fawn. They got very close to us and looked like giant mice. Thanks to Veronica Vinegar for this nice photo!

Then we went to Jersey and had fun in the heavy metal parking lot. Ms. Meowrgo drove so I could put my drink on! There were lots of meatheads there and I felt like my belly wasn't big enough nor my face hairy enough to be there. First, Mastodon played. They're an ocean-themed metal band with songs with names like "Seabeast" and "Aqua Dementia". They were pretty rocking and I think it's cool that metal is addressing the very real threat of being drowned by rising waters. Mastodon's album Leviathan is based on Moby Dick, which is the classic tale expressing the futiliity in an mankind's ego-driven pursuit against nature. Their songs are filled with vocals that sound underwater and drums where every beat seems like a drop of water crashing down from repeating waves.

After Mastodon, we went to the concession stand to get beer and eyeball people. A nice girl offered us her tickets to the General Admission area on the floor - Woohoo! So we went into the parking lot again to have a nice beer and smoke and watch the pretty pink sunset. When we re-entered, we were on the floor for SLAYER!!

Slayer is one of my favorite bands to sing along to. Tom Araya must have known that, because he kept not-singing and letting the audience participate. I liked watching the guitar alternation between Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman. They opened with "South of Heaven" and closed with "Reign in Blood". Notably missing in their set (for me) - "Behind the Crooked Cross" possibly my favorite Slayer song. They did play new songs and dedicated "Mandatory" to our soldiers in Iraq.

I've been meaning for a long time to write an open letter to Fugazi. In my formitive music years (the nineties), Fugazi was the band that spoke out against war and bullshit happening in the government. If you had told me then that there would be an unjust war under the son of George Bush, and that, with all the bullshit that has happened under the current administration, Fugazi would be disbanded and seemingly have nothing to say about it, I would have called you a liar. But it's true. Fugazi pussied out and decided to stay silent when we needed them most. I'm suprised, but encouraged, that METAL bands like Slayer and Motorhead continue to write music that calls us on our own bullshit and tells us to WAKE UP!

P.S.: Karl Rove is guilty. He's a traitor. He belongs in prison. This is bullshit.

Want to know why some people don't follow Christ? Maybe because HE'S SHOOTING AT THEM!!

2006-06-12T17:24:00.000-04:00

Apparently, the report I cited about the Left Behind video game was innaccurate and I hadn't posted it for a half-hour before some Christian dude found it and called me on it. You can read it yourselves in the comments for the June 1 post. Sorry, Christian Cadre. I didn't know you were watching my every move. Overly religious types give me the heebie-jeebies. And this thing I posted in a negative light about Christianity on my little blog (which I keep thinking no one reads) got a response from a stranger within a half-hour...Yikes!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not smart and nothing I say is reliable. But c'mon! There's a cadre? Watching little old me? To see if I say something bad about Jesus? Seriously. Come back to Earth. I like Jesus. He fed the hungry, he cured the ill and he treated whores and tax collectors with dignity at a time when most people didn't. But ever since I was a child I've struggled. God gave me a brain and that brain tells me that there is no clear evidence of "His" existence. When I was about 10 I told my mother this and she brought me into to the kitchen - the kitchen was where we got lectured. And she angrily stated to me, "This is what we believe! This is our faith! Jesus died for our sins. He died for you!" That's all I remember her saying, but lecture lasted like an hour. Powerful argument.

Okay, so Jesus was this guy who lived 2006 years ago and was executed because I masturbate smoke pot, and troll for porn on the Internet (sometimes all at once!). And therefore I should act on his every word (which has been changed, retranslated and reinterpreted countless times) and actively try to convert people to follow him - which doing so in itself is sort of vague...Aw hell! Just give $ to the Church.

Probably my least favorite idea in life is the notion that one life is better than another. "I worship God and you worship Vishnu, so you're going to hell" or "I have college degree and you dropped out of high school so I'm smarter" or "I'm rich and you're poor so I'm better" or "You watch TV and I read books, so I win." To me, it's predjudice. Any way you look at it. It's not what Jesus taught.

My recent contempt for religion has a lot to do with this. I couldn't trust anyone LESS than someone who claims holier-than-thou status and uses it as a reason to condemn works of art, science, people who worship differently, and people with differing sexual orientation. To me, much of what is passed off as spiritual nature seems more like a mental illness. People become so obsessed with the idea of a God watching over us that they become ultra-sensitive to things that might be offensive to "Him." And some of these people are just itching to be offended! So books and music - even science - anything we could actually learn from that doesn't have to do with Christ is seen as being Satanic. They use standards for living in an afterlife as an excuse for what is often cruel behavior HERE, today, on EARTH.

That's part of what scares me about this fricking Left Behind game and the people who are defending it. Through this game, that cruel behavior is made possible and necessary for a war that exists only in the minds of eccentric Christians. And it shows their willingness to carry out the most insidious acts against innocent people in the name of God. Just like terrorists!

Another thing about this Left Behind game and the books that STINKS - and is NOT innaccurate - is that it takes place in New York City. NYC is the one place on earth you can find someone of any religion that's not Christianity. Also, in these stories, the anti-Christ is Chief of the United Nations. The U.N. is an institution that was developed for the sole purpose of peace, regardless of religion. The fact that this game and those books paint the idea of peace through foreign diplomacy as "Anti-Christian" is a concept I find subversive and abhorrent. It's my opinion that any true Christian should be ashamed of themselves for supporting or defending this game.

But my opinion doesn't matter, does it? Because I'm going to HELL!!!

Why Gay Marriages Are Bad...

2006-06-09T10:06:00.000-04:00

I got this from a friend on Myspace. Oh, internet! How did you know exactly how I've been feeling about modern policy AGAIN?

Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, hair color and air conditioning.
Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

Ouch! Let me wipe off some of this sarcasm. In other news, tomorrow, June 10, 2006, I will be viewing the George Romero classic Dawn of the Dead (1978) at my apartment in Mount Vernon. If you'd like to join us, I will have wine, beer, coffee and whatever you bring. Call me or email (or comment) if you're interested. I'll start the film around 9pm. A discussion of the film will follow (inevitably).

In case you don't know about the film, Roger Ebert says "Dawn of the Dead" is one of the best horror films ever made -- and, as an inescapable result, one of the most horrifying. It is gruesome, sickening, disgusting, violent, brutal and appalling. It is also (excuse me for a second while I find my other list) brilliantly crafted, funny, droll, and savagely merciless in its satiric view of the American consumer society. Nobody ever said art had to be in good taste."

Hope to see you!

6.16.06 - The Number of the Day we Hear Songs about the Beast!!

2006-06-05T13:27:00.000-04:00

The most evil band on earth is coming to the most evil place on earth (New Jersey) to play the most evil show ever in the history of evil!!!! Yes SLAYER!!! (please accent the "UURRRGGGHH" sound when you read this) is coming to fuck up the NYC metro area. Are you ready you piss-ant hipsters? Been listening to the White Stripes on your i-pod? YOU WILL BURN!!!!!!

Me and my crew are ready. We've got our tickets (most important). Here's me doing METAL push-ups - gotta make sure the horns are raised high and proud. 666 push-ups are recommended. (I did two).

Now I'm doing neck stretches - the old man wouldn't want to pull anything while thrashing his head to the thunderous beats! That wouldn't be too hardcore...

That's right, this shit is ON. But there's still more preparing to do!! Here's the list:

prepare cooler full of canned beer and bring tool to poke hole for shotgunning.
practice shotgunning since I haven't done this since college (many years).
decal pentagram on the hood of the car.
find a taker for our EXTRA TICKET!!!!

You heard (read) right! We have one more ticket if you want to join me and my crew to see Slayer at the Continental Airlines Arena on June 16, 2006. Think you're METAL enough? Comment on this post if you're interested. If you know my email, email me. If you know my phone #, blah, blah, blah.
\m/

The STINK of vacation!

2006-06-01T15:57:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my first day back to work after taking a week off. I still have 6 vacation days left to use whenever. Yesss!! Vacation was fun. I slept, watched TV, drank coffee, smoked weed, wrote music, did some drawing, and ate Holly's fur. Also, I didn't bathe or shave for like 4 days straight. OH and I saw some good shows.

Boris was awesome. I've never been so into a band where I don't understand a word that's being said. Also, big ups to Wata - she's the guitar player for Boris - a female guitar player, which is very rare in hard rock. The guitarist for the Donnas is very good, but I don't really like that band. Anyway, ladies, Wata says, "It's okay to play heavy-metal guitar!"

Unsane put on a pretty good show. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I wasn't Un-stoned. There was way too much saliva going around on that stage- Unsane likes to spit, I realized. Uh, I don't really know why. They kept spitting even during instrumental parts. Ew!!

I also saw X-men 3 which I thought was AWESOME. I have a lot of admiration for these films, the actors and the characters and the writers. They all remain true to the sentiment of the comic books, which is "all of us are different - we have to live with each other."

And, with that in mind, read this... The Purpose Driven Life Takers (Part 1)

It's about an upcoming video game put out by the same people who brought you Left Behind and to be marketed in mega-churches. In the game, your mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- is to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. And the game takes place entirely on the streets of New York City.

I bet the same people who made this game would be offended if you called them "terrorists." And a lot of these folks have lots of $ and heavy political influence. And Mr. Bush makes no bones about which Jesus he loves. And anyone else notice that recently New York City's share of antiterrorism funds was cut by 40 percent by Homeland Security? Kind of like they don't really care what happens to us? Umm...

Whoops! What a "Jerk" I am!

2006-05-21T22:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday it was brought to my attention that in my post from May 08, 2006, I wrote about taking cell phone pictures of guys who jerk off on the subway and then showed a blurry picture of Cormac from my cell phone . I really didn't mean to imply that Cormac was one of those guys and I actually have never taken a picture of or even seen someone jerking off on the subway (but I did once overhear a conversation on the subway where one guy was telling another guy he jerks off on the subway - this is true). But at least one person connected the two things falsely. So to make up for it I drew this picture of Cormac bringing fresh-baked homemade cookies to some lepers, which makes them very happy. This picture is much closer to the truth and should be interpreted thusly.

OH! I did once see a guy jerking off in the food court at the Galleria in White Plains. He was watching a table of teenage girls. I was with friends and he saw that we saw him. But he didn't stop! He put a jacket over his lap and continued. Yes, you needed to hear this story.

"I Hate You and Your Fat-shit SUV" - Me

2006-05-19T01:17:00.000-04:00

New photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/sardonic/. This is an exiting week coming up - not just because I'm taking a small vacation (Woohoo!) but there are some good shows happpening. Let's talk about it!

First Unsane is playing at the Knitting Factory, Wednesday, May 24. This is the first night of my vacation! My favorite thing about this band is that they are extremely hard and from NYC. The New York scene has been soft for years, but Unsane almost makes up for it all by themselves. The most suprising thing that I learned about this band is that they formed nearly 20 years ago at SARAH LAWRENCE College! If you've ever met people from Sarah Lawrence, you know how IN-sane this is. These guys are no namby-pambies like those art school snobs. Just look at the cover of their first album! Blood is cool!

People ask me, "Don, you're old." Whatever. To answer your question - NO! I'll never stop acting like I'm fourteen years old. That's why I took the whole day off from my very adult and boring job to go see X-men III on opening day! Comic books turned movies are my favorite kind of movies. People also ask me, "This is why you don't have a girlfriend." Well, to answer your question, I don't have a girlfriend because I'm dull. (or so I've been told - this is true!)

The X-men are mutants; the result of an exponential leap in evolution in the near future of human kind. They have amazing and often destructive superpowers and, as a result, are feared, rejected, and persecuted by regular humans. Humans persecuting people for being different? What a crazy story!

On Tuesday, May 30th, Sunn 0))) is playing with Oren Ambarchi and Boris at Avalon. Like most things from Japan, Boris kicks ASS. They're raw like sushi and make me scream like too much wasabi! And when they play, giant robots will appear and fight each other and knock over buildings. Afterward, nothing will be left except happy little kittens. It's about time!!

Of course, next week is also Memorial Day weekend. And this year there's A LOT more dead soldiers to remember. So let's do that. Let's also think about how we can stop our soldiers from dying so I don't have to keep remembering, since my memory was never so good. Here's an idea from Jeffery D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University...

"Americans have a perfect retort to Osama Bin Laden's call for expanding the terrorism war to Sudan. We should respond by showing our abiding concern for the plight of Africans by helping to save the millions of children who are at risk of death from disease. In honoring the sanctity of the lives of the least among us, we have the best chance to defeat the ideologies of hate." (NYT op-ed, 29 April '06)

My SECRET camera is finally meaningful!

2006-05-08T12:09:00.000-04:00

Check out my Flickr site for pictures from my phone. After over a year of owning this phone and not being able to send picture messages from it, I finally started using time that normally slack off at work to start bitching to the people at T-Mobile. And now like 2 weeks after I bitched, magically it's possible! The best thing about it is that now I'll be able to take pictures of people who jerk-off at me in the subway and post them directly to Flickr.

You very well could be in one or some of these pictures and it also may not be your finest moment. So let me know if you don't approve of it's posting - I'll take it down. And then I'll laugh at you.

"No one ever got rich by being a pessimist" Louis Rukeyser (January 30, 1933 – May 2, 2006)

2006-05-06T01:18:00.000-04:00

...not that I ever really care to be rich, I wouldn't mind, of course. But for whatever reason I always feel like getting rich requires doing something horrible or something that sucks up your entire life so that you don't get to do anything you want to; or know anything other than what will make you rich. But I heard this saying this week in regard to the late Mr. Rukeyser and I thought, "Yeeeeaaah! Optimism, bitch!!!"

I feel like I've personally been at war with pessimism my whole life and I certainly know "pessimists" and the pessimists know the traits within themselves. But I've also learned that some people live very short lives full of anger, resentment, and constraint and fear. And, generally just don't seem happy. And the only reason I can see for us to practice pessimism is to draw attention to oursleves and our situation. It's the primal alarm all of us are capable of ringing. It says the world is going to shit so that someone else is like "Wanna talk about it, baby?"And in the current world - Yikes!!

But what really happens is we spread the exact same feelings to others, making everyone feel crummy and not getting rich. And we ourselves lead miserable, lonely lives in an only minimally changing and isolated America. And the most interesting things we do is argue and fight, somtimes violently and for dumb reasons. And with all of the things going on in the world that we really should try harder to change, something tells me humanity will still forge on though the impoverished, overheated future wasteland like giant, fat cockroaches driving trucks the size of houses.

I've heard pessimists say "I'm not pessimisstic - I'm realistic." Great, but what the fuck is real? Conan the Barbarian is Governor of California. Does that sound "real" to you?

Anyway, I'm not the best person to hear it from, but I think optimism is a good idea. Pessimism is annoying. And it's also just defeating yourself before other people even get a chance to do it with cruel insults. And that's what wusses do. You're not a wuss, are you!

Louis Untermeyer's poem, Sunday, about the police action during the Lawrence Textile Strike, appeared in The Masses in April 1913.

2006-05-01T13:55:00.000-04:00

Down the rapt and singing streets of little Lawrence

Came the stolid columns; and, behind the blue-coats,
Grinning and invisible, bearing unseen torches,
Rode red hordes of anger, sweeping all before them.
Lust and Evil joined them - Terror rode among them,
Fury fired its pistols, Madness stabbed and yelled
Down the wild and bleeding streets of shuddering Lawrence
Raged the heedless panic, hour-long and bitter;
Passion tore and trampled men more mild and peaceful,
Fought with savage hatred in the name of Law and Order.
And, below the outcry, like the sea beneath the breakers,
Mingling with the anguish rolled the solemn organ.
Eleven in the morning - people were in the church -
Prayers were in the making - God was near at hand -
It was Sunday!

Restart...

2006-05-01T01:02:00.000-04:00

This is a new blog that I'm starting - same as the old one except I changed the name and hopefully I'll actually write on this one. The one I had before was nice, but annoying. They started posting ads with annoying sounds on the page. But worst of all, I stopped writing on it. Rather, I was writing posts that I thought were too depressing and I decided not to post them.

These are strange days and there's a lot on my mind, not much positive. The price of oil, a new nukes race with Iran, and the dozens of things wrong with Bush. I don't want to get critical or negative or bring anyone down today. Also, the weather is nice and I don't want to spend much time inside at the computer. But I like blogging and I will continue to do it.

Good things in recent weeks: I've seen 2 good shows...
High on Fire at Northsix
I've talked about this band before and my admiration for them is still growing. Other than that, I was way too drunk at this show to comment on it and genuinely claim that I know what I'm talking about.
Subhumans at Knitting Factory
Whoa. The Subhumans started 25 years ago when Reagan was in office and Thatcher had fascist tendencies. Guess what? NOTHING has changed and neither have the Subhumans. They played Religious Wars, Society ("our society what a fucking drag"), Big Brother and Subvert City. The Subhumans are right. Whatever Dick Lucas says is absolutely correct. You should listen to all their songs and follow.

Upcoming shows...
Boris and SunnO))))) at Avalon
Unsane at Knitting Factory

Let me know if you want to come.

ALSO I took a buttload of pictures this weekend - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sardonic/ if you want to see them!