Ad usum proprium.

The only thing

2009-09-22T00:35:00.003-04:00

You need to know is this site will soon become the getmatthew.com website.

Across the Shields

2009-05-03T20:40:00.006-04:00

Where the Wild Things Are meets one of my favorite rock bands in America right now.

Ringbearer T-Shirt design

2009-04-14T16:46:00.008-04:00

I have been so busy lately with non-creative work it seems like. I just finished this T-Shirt design for Iowa's own Ringbearer. Our former tour flames. I need to crank a bunch more designs for My America so maybe more tk?

Overheard on the R2

2009-04-14T16:18:00.003-04:00

Right. No. It’s soda. And I don’t give little children soda. It has nitrates in it. No. Okay here we go.
30th street station, next stop.
You are really going to get a dose of the old… [something]
No. The only reason why is you drank that whole Mickey D’s milk and I know your bladder is like [something]. And I just don’t want it to go kapow. I’ll take those chips from you. Stop it. Dude, I swear. I can’t wait until we get home. This is what I have had to deal with all day. Remember all this that you are doing to me. Because you are in for a special treat when you get home. It’s called jalapeño spiced butt. I’m counting every time you kick me. You are going to be grounded all day. Dude I need [something], by tomorrow. Just because of that little boy. You think people want their clothes all over where you are putting your feet. You sit up there with that hat and be quiet. I have just realized how devastating you have become. Sit up, son. This is what you do to me in public. At home you are a different child. Sit up and put this in your lap. Back in my day, parents used to be able to hit their children in public, but now someone like me would go to jail for that. I can’t believe the change in my little boy. I’m embarrassed. Do you know what that means? Boy, if I would’ve known you were going to act like this today, I would’ve never came down here. What? You wish you had some sleep? Turn around and sit down. Turn around and SIT DOWN. No, I’ve had enough of you today. Turn around and sit down. People know here that you don’t get disciplined and that’s why you act like this.
[Train stops somewhere after 30th street station before University City] This is engineer to the conductor for the third time.
[Train resumes. Conversation between man who looks like to be about 50 with a 20 year old beard, long grey hair and glasses and his 6 year old son stops.]
Tickets please.
[Conversation four seats in front of me begins again, much to my delight.]
Out of all the years of me coming down here. This is the first time you coming here has ever been this way. The whole way here and the whole way there you have been disrespecting. Since you moved to that neighborhood. I saw that boy and how he disrespected his mother and you have been around him too much. I promise you, when we get home you are going to wish you had a different family. 5 years of you knowing me dude, you have never acted like that. You are grounded for the day. You are never going to act like that for the day. I hope I never run into any of these people ever again. No tv, no treats.
[Boy begins to cry loudly. Everyone in the car can here.]
Please let me play, I just want to play.
You’ve got 8 minutes to convince me, like I told you. I know. Relax. I told you, we’ll talk about it.
I can’t play.
Is your belly okay?
No.
Darby.
The whole thing is how you act here from now.
Just a few more stops now.
Do you have half a quarter? What? You don’t? Sit up on that seat right there again. Come on this is hard, you are hurting my heart.
I want to play.
Babe stop, you’re hurting my heart. You shouldn’t be a follower you should be a leader. Like you were. A cool dude.
Sharon Hill, next.
I could only do this [something].
You did the better than I could.
Look. Look. Well, look. It’s a wolf!
Folcroft is next.
[At this point the man makes a gesture with his hand towards his face which brings the back of his hand into view over the seats and I notice he has some really insane looking prison tattoo. And then I realize he reminds me a lot of Charles Manson.
Dude, what? We almost missed our stop.
[They get off at the last second at Glenolden and walk away. I notice he has a lot more than one tattoo on both of his hands. His tattooed hand holds the little boy’s while his other holds a shopping bag from The Children’s Place.]
Norwood. Norwood.
[I’ll be in Wilmington by 4:12 hopefully.]
Prospect Park. Prospect Park.

ChaCha for real

2009-04-09T00:58:00.011-04:00

I first heard about ChaCha about a month or so back when I was in Texas. A guy in a band we were on tour with happened to mention a friend of his who would just answer text messages about random things and make about .10 cents per question. I thought this guy was kidding. It instantly made me think of those hilarious commercials I kept seeing for KGB with the dude from Gilmore Girls running through people’s yards telling you recipes for Daiquiris. “Just text 542-542 if you need me!” So my next thought was: so people actually answer these questions? Independent contracting? That’s wild. Well ChaCha is the same thing but better (my employee loyalty may have already kicked in or maybe it’s that they just pay better than KGB.) So this whole thing sounds easy right? Sounds awesome? Well I thought so. And the best thing is I keep telling people about it and no one knows what the fuck I am talking about. I would have figured by now everyone would have been blowing this place up, but apparently they haven’t been hiring so frequently as of late. So here is the story of how I lucked out and got to tell people what the score of the Liverpool match was for about $1.50 an hour.

I remember looking it up online and seeing that signing up didn't seem that difficult so I thought I might give it a shot, but figured I would wait to try it when I wasn't roaming around the country in a van with a broken laptop. This way I could actually dedicate some time to it. Well here I am, I have been home for some three weeks and I finally decided to give it a shot. After about two and a half hours of "training" and taking about three quizzes to prove my worth, and further, waiting about two days for my results, I was hired. Today was my first day working for these people whom I will never meet and I have to say I have enjoyed it so far. The training videos were pretty annoying, but I will have to say they tried pretty hard to make it entertaining. Some colorful use of language by some über-geeks probably had something to do with that. Maybe it wasn't intentional, but it was funny. So about two or three hours later I have made about $4.00 and change while watching baseball and drinking beer. I set up direct deposit. I get to answer some of the most hilarious questions ever (more on this later) and I get to stop whenever I feel consumed by the overwhelming stupidity of the masses. Unfortunately, I know there will be some frustration that will come along with this, so for now, I hold my breath. You have to make your first cool hundo before they start paying you. My goal is to do that before the 15th so I can make some extra bills, but that’s kind of hard when I have to ignore questions while I write this post. I would say ChaCha should give me a bonus for giving them a good review, but ChaCha is essentially run by me and single-mothers and people on house arrest who need drug money. So needless to say, they aren’t reading my blog (hopefully because there is more on this too). So without further adieu, here are my favorite questions from my first day of work being a ChaCha guide.

1. Where is the Shift key?
2. What’s the difference?
3. Are the Dodgers going to win the World Series? (Probably the most hilarious one.)
4. Are you a robot?
5. Will the Phillies win tonight? (This one is always easy, especially when they are down by 7 runs going into the 7th inning― they always do.)

And to whoever asked me who played Artemis at the Langey College production of the Ant and the Grasshopper in Oakland: First of all, maybe your fat fingers inhibited you from typing the actual name of the college LANEY and the fable that is known as the ANTS and the Grasshopper and second of all, Why? Are you crushing on Artemis? Well I didn’t tell you who it was because I couldn’t find out with the terrible information you provided. Luckily ChaCha has empowered me with a button called “Clarify” where I click and pass the question onto the next unsuspecting housewife sipping on a Daiquiri who may or may not pull her hair out after you “clarify” your question. Good luck you fuck. And good luck to me answering some more questions about the Brewer game.

The man with the Colt 45 says 'shut up!'

2009-01-22T15:04:00.020-05:00

I can't write a review about this movie. I don't know why. I don't even know why it's good really. It just is. But here I am sitting here trying to describe what I really do like about this movie and I still am not sure. It might be Danny Boyle, it might not be. It might be be Dev Patel, it probably isn't though. It could be that sick scene where the guy dies in the tub full of rupees, but I am pretty sure that's not it either. What I think it really comes down to is that place called India. You know, where half of our country's doctors and Dunkin' Donuts managers come from? Yeah, well it's also where that really over-hyped movie called Slumdog Millioniare takes place.

It's not very often you can see a movie that fails so terribly in about every important aspect of film making but the setting becomes its saving grace. If this movie was another Asian import you know it would suck. How many Japanese and Korean "inspirations" (remakes) have been shit out stateside in the last five years? Or how many many sequels/prequels to the Grudge or the Ring are there now? You know it. People are tired of it. The people want some Bollywood to mix shit up. Let's just hope there isn't a sequel with Sarah Michelle Gellar.

The slums of Mumbai make the most poverty-stricken trailer parks in America look like the Taj Mahal. And the dude who wrote the screenplay knew that. I heard this guy just straight up chilled in a mud hut for weeks adapting this from the famous Indian novel Q&A. So this shit is hook, line, and sinker for any American viewer. The first 20 minutes of this movie rule so hard. Immediately you get sucked into the deplorable squalor that is the Mumbai slums. Kids diving in shit. Bathing in black water. An entire city that looks like a patchwork quilt of tin roofs from bird's eye view. It makes any American watching realize how the characters' environment is nothing any of us are used to seeing—even in movies. It's mesmerizing. Good thing, because aside from that this movie is almost like bathing in shit.

This movie could contain the most contrived love story to ever grace the screen that wasn't released by Disney, but still this movie kicks ass. The characters suck and are beyond predictable (or maybe they aren't predictable but who would know because they are about as underveloped as your 8-year-old cousin). The music is okay if you like hearing two remixes of "Paper Planes" back to back followed by three more M.I.A. tracks (aka NOT). But I'm not complaining. I'll probably be watching it again and singing it's praises for a couple weeks at least. They say this is the first movie of the Obama generation. I'll buy that. It's probably better than Benjamin Button (which probably will win the Oscar for best picture instead of this).

I am a little late in seeing this but I figured with the Oscar nominations being released, why not? Go see it. Even if for the coreographed dance during the credits. Look out for the entire cast appearing on the new season of America's Best Dance Crew.

Something to blog about

2009-01-21T23:58:00.002-05:00

I was actually trying to set up a new account on blogger when it told me that I already had account from 2005 that I could claim. Too bad I was a tool up until yesterday so its heartbreaking to read all the ancient stuff I wrote. I am also trying to test out this whole sending an email to a certain address and I can post pictures and all that from my phone.

The pictures are... the dark Rolling Stone hallway on MLKD and this pretty girl sitting on her most beautiful behind doing her hair.

Approaches

2006-02-07T02:06:00.000-05:00

So since you were last updated about my life I lost that job and I lived with my girlfriend for another week. Amanda said she is going to buy me a PSP! I have been obsessing about that for the last couple days. Mostly just researching games and cool new things you can do with them. I've also been obsessing about musical equipment I need in order to feel or maybe even sound awesome. I don't even care how it sounds, I JUST WANT IT.

I really don't have a lot to say. I took a lot of Vicodin and almost threw up today in class. Don't do it again.

Home for real.

2006-01-26T01:48:00.000-05:00

I have a job. I don't even know how it really happened. Regardless, after tomorrow I may not have it anymore if i decide to bail.

I have to concentrate on making money to save up for somewhere to live next year. I got my classes situated and it looks pretty good. I am really pleased with how it is going to turn out. I am glad I got the grades I did last semester, even though I need to really do it all over again this semester. I need to also concentrate on selling some old equipment I have so I can upgrade some of my shit. I really think it is time I get some nicer stuff to play through since things are getting a little more serious. And speaking of that, I should be working on some songs that I have been piecing together in my head. We record in March, maybe April.

So I hope this job thing pans out, even though I look like a waste of life in my "uniform."

Home again?

2006-01-17T20:45:00.000-05:00

Where do I really call home? I am just trying to get settled back into my room. I haven't been here in close to three weeks, but I have a lot to take care of. First order of business will be getting situated, but hopefully soon after I will be enjoying Laura Dern and Nicholas Cage via netflix in "Wild at Heart."

Tour was surprisingly sucessful, we didn't lose any money or fuck anything up, but I still have some loose ends to wrap up. I have so many pictures, videos and stories from the last three weeks. We need to start writing, design/order more merchandise and save money all at the same time. I, personally, need to pay my credit card bill, find a fucking job and relax. Everyday has been work since I have been gone. I figured out that I have spent 17 nights away from home. 5 of those on tour, 2 other shows, plus 2 whole days in the studio, which leaves me with something like 10 days of just Amanda and I time. I'm also 20 now and have more shit that I don't have room for here: "Videodrome", "Triplets of Belleville", "The Fly and Fly 2", some shirts, a new portable turntable and hopefully a copy of "Blue Velvet."

So I guess I really did get to spend a lot just doing whatever with Amanda. We went to IHOP the day I left for tour, Chili's for my birthday and Ruby Tuesday tonight. I love eating out and I love her. I wish we didn't have to be apart even for the next couple days, but I really have to figure some shit out and get it together.

Staying in a Waverly, Ohio

2006-01-05T05:17:00.000-05:00

Staying in a Waverly, Ohio Wal-mart parking lot. Finally getting under a blanket at 518am. Loving it!

I Found the F

2005-12-31T04:39:00.000-05:00

In less than 12 hours I will be out of my home and closer to hitting the road. I officially leave Tuesday, but in the days between now and then I'm still going to be away from home, staying with my girlfriend and bringing in the new year. I haven't seen Amanda in ages, but so far we've planned to spend a lot of money by seeing Brokeback Mountain, eating at Mikimotos and buying shit at the mall.

I'm trying to really think hard about all the shit I need before I leave. So far I have packed my razor, an extra pair of jeans, three or four shirts and two books (My newly acquired copy of "Metamorphosis" by Kafka and my work-in-progress, Burrough's "Junk"). I hope my copy of Blue Velvet comes in the mail before I leave tomorrow so I can bring that with me too. No matter what, I can't forget my blankets, pillows, ipod and/or my cellphone charger, otherwise I'm fucked. I also need to figure out what kind of food I plan on bringing along. Speaking of food, I just finished eating some microwavable mini-quesidillas, and they were quite impressive.

The show last night was pretty fucking crazy, like I expected. There must have been over 400 kids there, and the show was set up so it had alternating stages, so when the band finished all the people in the fucking place marched to the other stage. I just remember being all set up and just standing around waiting after we were all sound-checked and then all of a sudden seeing 400 people start marching towards me. I was so fucking nervous- at least, the most nervous I have ever been at a show. My heart is always a little racey, but this was a lot more intense. The crowd of 400 was probably cut down to 150 by the time we finished two songs. As I prophesied, people really didn't want to hear our shit. I think certain shows we play we really turn people off because most people just want it to be really simple, unchallenging and ultimately predictable. All in all, I wasn't heartbroken after I thought about it. It was a nice little tour warm-up and I am glad we played it because it would have sucked going into tour without having played a show for close to six weeks.

Let me also say that we should never go that long without playing a show. I was sore as shit today. I woke up at like 2pm and went straight to the shower. My post-shower painfilled day consisted of one almost compelete game of Genus III version of Trivial Pursuit with David, Ryan and the Dougler, one Old Milwaukee, one 40 of O.E. and 7 or 8 Ibuprofen. Passed out for about one hour. Woke up to being screamed at. Confrontation with family about not getting out of bed to get the vacuum cleaner from across the street, ended with me crying in front of everyone and walking around the block on the phone with Amanda until i regained my composure.

Phew.

I also need to update my musical devices so I can have new things to listen to. the ipod is already taken care of (NEW Bleeding Kansas, Mount Eerie, Broadcast's "Tender Buttons", One Dead Three Wounded, Entombed, Low, Pig Destroyer and Serena Maneesh), but I still need to update my phone.

Go to sleep Matt. Nobody cares.

Wouldn't Have it Any Other Way

2005-12-28T23:18:00.000-05:00

Words cannot express the level of stress I have been experiencing the last couple days. Tomorrow we are going to be playing a really interesting show in Aston, PA with August Burns Red, Bela Kiss, The Divining, The Burning Season and quite a few other bands. So needless to say, I'm a little worried about My America's placement on the bill. It is a great oppurtunity, and it's really cool to play with some very recognized acts, but at the same time I hope we are well received. We are going to be playing a slightly revamped sort-of-tour-setlist. Mainly, we will be playing a new song that we just finished about two hours ago today.

I think we can safely say this is the first song written for our next release. This song represents the sort of direction we are heading in with the next batch of songs, and is sort of a little precursor to all of the things we want to accomplish when we hit the studio this spring.

I hope after this song that some of the songs come together a little easier. Working on this song and finally completing it was an extremely difficult undertaking. Today was I believe our 5th session on that particular song. We rehearsed aruond four hours on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, as well as Monday-Wed. this week if I am not mistaken.

I don't know if we are just more picky now and have really high expectations (and the song is really tight and well practiced) OR it's just deteriorating musical talent and exteremely difficult shit that is taking forever.

We have some beginnings of some other songs/ideas too, but they are all in their most humble stages. We have decided on the next idea we are going to be working on, but we have a lot of stuff to do before we get to that. We are still so stressed out getting prepared for tour. So finishing this song, and playing a show tomorrow hasn't made any of this shit any easier. It's been a challenge to say the least. I can't say we have ever really worked this hard, at least in the songwriting department.

Brian and I drove seperate from David this afternoon so he could leave earlier, meeting up first at Earl Teat's so I could get a pack of back-up guitar strings. Then we pretty much just played the completed instrumental of the new jam, a little fine-tuning went on, but mostly repeating parts over and over so David could work in his parts. After David left for his dinner engagement, Brian, Andy and I worked for another hour or so and then watched the Flyers game.

We rounded out practice by throwing a nice little area rug on the bottom of our trailer, which works out really well. Then we loaded it up, and went our seperate ways and now I am finally just settling in at home. Maybe eating a pot-pie?

I don't know how I have been doing it lately. All I have been doing is band shit, which is extremely frustrating. It's going to be nice to have a little break after this show tomorrow. I need to have fun for New Year's, hang out with my girlfriend, eat food. Relax. Sleep. Shop? Things I haven't been doing much of. After tomorrow's show, I'll be back at home for maybe another night that is completely free. I imagine I'll be headed upstate for New Year's engagements on New Year's eve, during the day. Get to see my girlfriend, who I haven't seen in close to two weeks, see some other friends, have some drinks. Then after that I'll stay with Amanda for two more nights before we head for Altoona on the 3rd.

So after tomorrow I should have a little breather. Let's hope so.

Although, I feel like I am complaining entirely too much. I feel really bad for Amanda, who has worked like 100 hours since I last saw her. I have just been hanging out with my friends writing songs. It's still sort of tough though. I guess I'm not sure. Maybe it just seems that way?

Terrifyer

2005-12-26T07:35:00.004-05:00

Sometimes I feel like I have a lot to say. I hold back a lot. I think if I really plan on being a writer someday I need to exercise my fingers and my mind a little. It's not that I like my life that much, or I think I am that interesting, this is just practice for me.

Maybe I will actually stay relatively up-to-date with this thing. I hope so. It could be a good thing.