Movin' On Up

October has definitely been a wild month so far! It started off on a big down note with the passing of friend and coworker, Jerry Wayne. The last post was devoted to this so I'll move on to the rest of the month.

The month kicked off with an amazing show at Unk's with Eulogy (a Tool tribute band). The guys were really cool and put on an amazing show! The night did have a strange undertone to it though.

I don't know if I ever went into detail in an older post but my most recent breakup was back in March and came after several months misery and fighting. Needless to say I had no plans on us being "buddies" afterwards. Well, she apparently thought otherwise and being the nice guy that I am I usually reply to her random texts with very short and emotionless responces. Not being a dick, just not being all excited or any of that crap. Well, long story short, her and the "new guy" spent 30 minutes hanging out 10 feet away from me at the last ECU game and didn't speak. Fine by me, but then she texts me later that week to see if I was going to a different show that night. I almost wanted to show up and be a drunken asshole but that's just not me.

Moving on, the next weekend was my first weekend off in months so I took full advantage of that. I spent 2 days sitting on my ass watching TV, playing Warcraft, and being totally useless. I did manage to get off my ass and go see Zombieland. The movie was fucking amazing and I got to hang out with a bunch of my friends (some of which I haven't seen in months) and had a great time catching up with everyone. A much needed quiet weekend.

This past weekend was the exact opposite! We did a Thursday midnight premiere of "Paranormal Activity" in Greenville. The movie was TERRIFYING!!! But awesome! Ended up getting home after 3am and had to be at work at 8! That night I passed on judging a bikini contest (which killed me inside) to get some sleep. Saturday was ECU Homecoming so we were out there all day tailgating, watching the game, celebrating after, and drinking the night away! I woke up around 2pm Sunday, ate some Hibachi buffet, and watched football all afternoon (attempting to drink the hangover away). Hectic but damn fun!

This week started off pretty normal... until yesterday. I generally meet with my big boss every Tuesday before my conference call. Well this time we walked in and it was just me and him and he shut the door. Shut door means really good or really bad news. It was great! I got a promotion to Assistant Program Director (which is what I applied for when I was named Music Director)! Needless to say I am honored and super excited.

And now we're here. Less than 2 weeks away from Halloween with no clue what I'm going to go as this year. Looking forward to the party we're throwing though. 7 different bars in Greenville that we'll be bouncing around between means a long night is coming!

One more month almost in the books, let's see if we can end it with a bang...

R.I.P. Jerry Wayne

Yesterday was a rough day for a lot of people. Jerry Wayne (co-host of WNCT's "Breakfast Club" morning show, PD of WXNR) passed away due to complications from liver cancer. He was only 38 years old.

I first met Jerry about 5 years ago when I started interning here at The X. He worked out of our Greenville office, so at first I only knew him in passing. In January of 2007, he was promoted to Director of Programming and took over as Program Director of X (making him my direct boss).

Now I won't lie and say things were perfect. He had never worked in a new rock format and (having done oldies for 15 years) had a very different way of doing things than we were used to. We butted heads, disagreed on ideas, typical things coworkers do. But there was a lot of mutual respect. I knew he had years of experience in radio beyond what I knew and he understood that I knew the music and the format better than he ever could.

On a personal level though, he was a great guy. Always fun to bullshit with. Always had a wisecrack for every situation. Always very upbeat and positive.

He was a good boss, a great friend, and a respected and adored radio personality. He will be dearly missed by all of us here at WXNR, Beasley Broadcasting, Eastern North Carolina, and beyond.

Keep rockin my friend. We'll see you on the other side...

2 Crazy Weekends

Ok, so the past 2 weekends have been quite eventful. I meant to post something about the 1st but haven't till now so I'll just combine. Here goes:

Weekend before last started out in Morehead City. We were hanging out on the waterfront promoting the boat race they were having and it hit me... I really miss the beach. I used to spend most of my summers at the beach but the past few years I haven't had the time or energy to get over there much. It was so relaxing to just spend some time watching the waves.

The next day, I got my newest piercing (an industrial in my right ear) from Forbidden Tattoo in Jacksonville. Thanks Andrew!! After that I headed up to Unk's in Greenville to see my buddies, Nevermind, who were down from Chicago. After the show, we ended up hanging out with the boys from Irvine (Tripp and Lucas), Nevermind (Sam, Alex, and Jay), Naked Guy (not totally naked but great nickname), Brown (who had red hair), and a cute chick named Kyle. After getting yelled at for being loud by some hot lesbians we went back to the hotel and crashed around 6AM.

That was the first weekend, then this past weekend was crazy as well:

It all started Friday night at Hooligan's. We were hosting the Afroman show and I was exhausted from the week. I planned to get out early and get some sleep. Well, 5th Generation, BOB, and Afroman put on such a good show I ended up sticking around. Not to mention I met 2 of my new favorite people on the planet (Stephanie and Nick) and ended up goofing off with them most of the show. The next morning we headed up to ECU and tailgated our asses off. Matthew McConnaughey even stopped by!!! Inside joke. HAHA. Then we watched ECU beat UCF and headed off to BW's. Had a blast out there. Met some crazy people in the game. All around great times!

OK, so they weren't the type of weekend that Batman has but for me it was pretty wild and tons of fun. This weekend is shaping up to be kinda quiet... which I think is a good thing!

Baby Steps

Since my last post I've been doing pretty well as far as getting off my ass and back in the world is concerned. Hell, I've been battling a cold for about 2 weeks and have still been to Cruefest, Unk's for Irvine, Lucky's for Assembly Required, Catch 22 for 3 bands, and a ton of other places. Now admittedly, most of them were work related but I was sick. Give me a break!

Moving on, what's new in the world? Football is back! Being a pirate myself, I always look forward to ECU football. This year we have a sweet tailgating spot near the stadium and a bunch of cool stuff going on pre and post game this year. Plus I get to see The Pirates kick some booty (cheezy pun, had to). Not just that but NFL preseason is already underway which means not long for the regular season to start. I'm a huge Cowboys fan but I will watch any NFL game if it's on.

Summer is well over the halfway mark and I feel like I've missed it again. I've only been to the beach once and I never even got to the sand. Sad, I know. I keep meaning to take a day and just go over there for a few hours but everytime I have a day where I can I'm so exhausted I just want to sleep all day. I guess I'm just gonna have to suck it up and do it! Dammit!

I was trying to think of some things too expect next post but I have no freakin clue. No Xfest this year (our annual rock concert/festival) due to the economy. No big trips planned. I honestly have no clue what's coming my way, and to be honest... I think it might be a good thing!

State of the Blando Address

OK. So I said when I started this blog that I was going to start posting regularly again but I haven't. I would like to say that I haven't done anything worth talking about but that's not true. I've been very introspective for a while and it's time to get back out in the world. So to catch you up on things...


Since the breakup in the last post I've been single. Very single. Like not even going out and being social single. Something I'm trying to change. It's not easy because now I'm in the habit of being lazy which is not an easy one to break but I'm gonna try. I'm not so much looking to not be single anymore, just tired of not having a life. Time to reconnect with my friends I've been neglecting and get out there and make some new ones yet again!

Work has been pretty on par. Summer time is always busy in radio. Lots of live appearances, concerts, etc. One nice thing that has come out of being so antisocial is that I've pretty much devoted my full attention to work. I've really been busting my ass to learn things, better myself at things like audio production, and trying to be as involved in anything going on involving the station that I can. It did net me Employee of the Month in June (for the 3rd year running).

Other than work I really don't have much to talk about. Haven't been to any shows except Kid Rock at Walnut Creek. The show was freakin amazing and the seats were awesome! Other than that I've been spending way too much time sitting on my ass watching TV and playing video games.

Time to dust off the old Blando and see if this thing still runs...

Star Trek Rocked!!

So as most of you know, I'm a very avid geek. Although I am a little young for the original Star Trek series, I was a huge fan of Next Generation and have seen most if not all of the Star Trek movies. Well, as of last night anyway.

It was a very J.J. Abrams movie. Lots of intense fight scenes, interesting camera angles, and very visually stimulating. The movie focused on the "beginning" of the Enterprise and it's crew's initial introductions to one another. True Star Trek geeks could potentially have some issue with it but honestly I think it fit perfectly within the realm of Star Trek possibilities. I definitely recommend checking it out!

I'm really excited about all the movies coming up this summer and I'll try to post a review after each I get to see (which will probably be quite a few).

Getting Started

So I've been a fairly avid blogger for the past few years on MySpace. Recently, however, the formatting started screwing up so I haven't posted anything in a few months. There's been a lot of stuff going on so I'll just give a quick rundown of 2009 thus far.

Started the year at Camron's Clubhouse hosting a Toga Party with our buddies Airiel Down from Raleigh. Had a great night, got obliterated, rocked out. Good times.

I went to DC with my buddy, Drew, to see my first Metallica concert. It was everything I had every expected! They are truly rock gods. The crowd was very disappointing though. The place was packed but they all seemed dead on their feet. I know Metallica draws a lot more "mainstream" fans than in the past but is it so much to ask for a little headbanging and moshing? I think not!

Not long after that I also went to see Slipknot for the first time. These guys were like watching Cirque de Solieil... IN HELL! They were truly one of the craziest performances I've ever seen. A must see in my book.

That's the fun/work stuff. Now for the not-so-fun...

My grandfather passed away earlier this year. It's never a good thing to lose family but I was never very close with him so it wasn't as painful as some deaths I've been thru.

Also, about 2 weeks ago a 9 month relationship I've been in came to an end. Things had been growing more and more distant between us for a little while and it just finally reached a breaking point. I won't speak badly of her, because I still think she's a great person. I'm not sure if it was timing or personalities or what but sometimes it's just not meant to be.

Well, there's been plenty more to talk about but that's the biggest stuff I can think of off top of my head. I'll try and post something on a weekly basis. Maybe more often at times, maybe less. We'll just have to see what happens.