Year Of The Black Rainbow - Deluxe "Black Card" Edition

Well, if you're reading this then you probably know that Coheed And Cambria is one of my favorite bands. Actually, I only like Led Zeppelin more than them, and that's more out of respect. If there could only be one band making music for the rest of this World's life, I would pick Coheed And Cambria. Not the popular choice, but that's who I'd pick.

Year Of The Black Rainbow is the band's fifth album. It marks the end of the writing for Amory Wars storyline, actually being the prequel to the other four albums. The story is mostly about how Wilhelm Ryan became Supreme Tri-Mage of the Keywork, as well as how Coheed and Cambria were created by Dr. Leonard Hohenberger and started to fight evil and stuff. I haven't read the whole book, so I don't know for sure. However, there are some pretty good clues to the story in the music. A lot of "being something you don't want me to be" and "I didn't want to do this, you kind of tricked me" stuff. Anyway, we'll see.

The book so far is really good. I'm not sure how much Claudio actually wrote. Seems as if he gave the basic idea of what needed to happen page by page, or maybe even paragraph by paragraph, and the the co-author penned in all the pretty, fancy words. Who knows, but it's not really important. It's really good and the story moves well. It has jumped a bit, but it's easy to follow and know how it all connects together. The novel gets graphic at times, which is sweet. Lots of action.

So, the CD is 12 songs long with two demos, so 14 songs that covers about an hour. Sadly, no epic songs in this album. The songs are mostly short, for CoCa standards. Overall it's pretty good. At first listen it's just an even more metal progression from No World For Tomorrow, which is okay. I remember listening to that album and wondering what the hell was going on, and that happened with this one, too. But, I love them both now.

Some of the best songs are:

Pearl Of The Stars
World Of Lines

When Skeletons Live

Here We Are Juggernaut

The Broken

Guns Of Summer

In The Flame Of Error

The album also came with a 25 minute DVD that is pretty much a "making-of" for the album. It's always nice to see Claudio's locks on screen from time to time. 

It's also nice to see them in person!! The SLC concert is on May 10th, and I got my tickets today. I can't wait. Because I have the Black Card, I should be able to get into the venue before people who don't have a Black Card. And hopefully that mean scoring some more personal time with Claudio and the band. We'll see. But, that concert will cap off the YOTBR experience. The YOTBR won't end there, but it will be the end of the beginning.

[One of the best things about the whole package is how nice it looks. Columbia does a good job making sure the fans that love CoCa so much get all that they deserve.]

Mother May I?: So much going on already, and so many possibilities.

OK, so my summer life is starting to get in order.
I just got a job at WallyWorld down in Idaho Falls. Yeah, it's a 30 minute drive, but that's a shorter drive than everyday to work last summer at Ross. I'm working in the electronics department part-time, which is less than 34 hours average per week over 12 weeks. So I can bump it up a bit since I'll be done for a whole week in May.
Why will I be gone for so long in May? Cuz I'm going to FLORIDA!! I cannot wait. I've had my ticket for two months now, and it's almost here. A friend of mine is getting married, and they wanted me to go to the sealing, so I am. But I'm also going to have some fun. Dani and I are going to go to Miami for the day, and I'm finally going to get to see my Braves in action. I am so excited! Plus I get to see a lot of amazing people that I love. It's gonna be sweet.
Also in May is the Coheed And Cambria concert. May is gonna be a good month. I ordered the new CD back the first day it was available, and downloaded it early [since I pretty much already bought it]. I've been hooked ever since. I knew it would be different, and it is. No song is really long/proggy, which bums me out. That's the part of their albums I look forward to. But there is enough to enjoy, especially with singing. The concert is in Murray, UT on the 10th. Gonna take my amazing friend Paola to the airport that day [I'm gonna miss her for the summer], then rock out all night. And Coheed's opening acts are actually going to be decent this time. I get the CD, book, and Black Card tomorrow. I'll put pictures and a full review tomorrow, since I'm sure I'll be bored with nothing to do.
Also, Tim Tebow got drafted by the Denver Broncos. I hate them, but love him. So I was planning on seeing him play this preseason. I also checked, and RUSH is playing at Redrocks a few days before one of the games, so that may be my birthday present to myself, and it would be second only to the Florida trip of '08. We'll see though, since it's 8 hours away, and I'd need to get a hotel. Of course, I wouldn't go by myself. And maybe I can make a friend with someone who is from Denver, just so I can use them by staying at their house. But a RUSH/Tebow week in Denver would be awesome. I'm sure Denver is a sweet place in the summer.
Those are the plans for now. I hope to make lots of money, spend some on some good times, and have a worthwhile summer.

ESPNU Road Trip: FSU-Florida Gameday - ESPN Video

Besack is BeBACK!!

Well, it's been over a year since I posted anything. Not much has happened since then, but we'll see if you can guess what did happen. This is...Two Truths and a Lie.

1. I went to Florida again this last summer

2. I almost died driving home and back to school over winter break.

3. I was actually excited to come back to Rexburg

If you said #1, you are correct. Didn't get to go to Florida in the last year. Bummed out about that. I just want to get done with school so I can move down there FOREVER!! That's why #3 is true. Also, all my friends back home either weren't there or are lame (sorry if you get offended SuperFriends, but you deserve it). And #2 was awesome. It snowed in the Blues going through Oregon. Abe and I were going through over night, so it was dark and the flakes were so big that we could not see more than ten feet in front of us. Barely made it. And coming back home I had to drive through Bend, Oregon. It took about 18 hours to make it. Anyways, looking back this year was pretty good.

So what's going on now? Not much. Just school and work and fun. I'm working two jobs at the school. The one is evening custodian in the Hinckley Building. It's a lot of fun. Pretty much all we do is set up tables and chairs for events and classes, and we clean the carpets. Pretty chill. The other one is working in the new Online Learning Center. It's sort of new where the school is trying to get things going with online learning and online degrees. For now we're answering questions and figuring out ways to promote the program. I can only keep one job, though, so I'll probably keep the OL job just because it pays more and will look better on a résumé. I really like the custodial job.

I'm getting closer and closer to graduating. I cannot wait. If all goes well I'll take classes for another three semesters and student teach in winter of '11. Then I'll be able to job search all spring.

Right now it's the week before Thanksgiving Break. I'm going home this weekend with some friends and Catherine. It's going to be great because I haven't been home for Thanksgiving in four years - last year I stayed in Rexburg and the two before that I was on my mission. I have a lot of homework to catch up on during the break. I guess that's a good thing because then I'll have a lot to do and I won't be bored all the time. And, Mom and Dad can't tell me to do a whole bunch of crap to do because I'll have the homework cop out. I also want to practice some teaching methods I've learned this year on Gatlin and Grant. Get a little dose of El-Ed and secondary school work. And maybe I can teach my mom a few things on helping the chillens with their homework. But, I probably won't.

Trip to Salt Lake City

So his last weekend I went to SLC to the FOM mission reunion. That was kinda lame. I only saw a few missionaries that I wanted to see that I didn't hang out with all weekend. It was good to see the Farnsworths though. That night we went down to Hires Big H, or something like that. It was a burger joint. It was Conner and Marci, Calderon and his crew, the Sosa Family, and Big Daddy Downs. After that we were going to go to a party or the haunted house, but it was kinda late, so we watched Orange County.

On Saturday we got up late and were going to go to the afternoon session of conference, but we weren't able to get our tickets in time, so we went out ot eat at Rodizio's. It's like Texas de Brazil, but definitely not as good. It was still delicious, though. By this time Smith was with us. He was in our MTC zone. Later on we went to the Priesthood session. It was pretty good. The most I've fealt the Spirit since I got off my mission. That night we went to Coldstone where Sosa works. He got us some ice cream for $2 - missionary discount. Then we went to/drove by a strip club. And we watch Hotel Rowanda. Good movie.

On Sunday Conner, Caldy and his crew and I went to Temple Square to sing. There were a lot of us Latinos there, so we had a Spanish singing group. As we were singing, Jensen walked by with his wife. I was hoping I would've got to see him, and I did. That was pretty rad. The singing got us into the afternoon session. After that we went up to Caldy's to eat baleadas. I got to meet the rest of his family. After that I headed back to Rexburg with Abe.

Conference Weekend

This coming weekend is General Conference of the LDS church. We also have a Florida Orlando Mission reunion Friday, so that'll be rad(?). Probably not, but I'll hopefully see some cool peops. I'm going down this Friday, gonna stay with Conner all weekend. A whole buncha mission buds are coming up, so we're gonna hang.

I can't freaking wait to get outta this hell-hole. Rexburg blows. It's so boring here. But then I think about it, and life was pretty boring back home. So the only place it's interesting is SLC or O-Town. Hmmm, the top two on my list of places I wanted to live after my mission. Of course I would much rather live in Orlando; paradise sun, darked-skinned hunnies, bitchin' beaches. Everything a guy (like me) could ask for.

Gators Lose, AGAIN!

So today the Florida Fightin' Gators of Gainsville lost a heart-breaker in The Swamp. I was devastated, screaming at the top of my lungs in agony. It all came down to a blocked PAT and a 4th and 1 run up the middle by Tebow. He shoulda done the option. Pitch it to Harvin if needs be and seal the deal with at least two points. But, we lost. We'll just have to live with it, us here in The Gator Nation. A sad defeat to say the least.
However, there is hope. Are we short to remember the National Champion Gators of 2006. They lost a heart-breaker in The Swamp early season to the stupid Auburn Tigers (I hate them and am glad the Gators aren't playing them this year). But, the Gators won the rest of their games, got lucky with a USC loss to UCLA, and wham-bam-thank-you-Pam, we won a Championship. So, I think of this a blessing to The Gator Nation. The loss will only show the tenacity of our players, the optimism and wisdom of our coaches, and the heart and support of the fans in our road to another national championship. When the world looks back on this season, it won't be a perfect one. But, it will be one with that crystal football in the hands of Tim "The Titan" Tebow come January. So enjoy your win, Ole Miss ('Ole' isn't even a word), and we'll enjoy the trophy.