Chapter 237

I woke up at 7:30 when the girlfriend left to go to work, and should have just gone for a walk with the dog, but rolled back to sleep instead. So he peed and pooped in the corner. I can only be mad at myself for being such a failure at life.

I read the news, and watched a YouTube video about the cultural impact of Slipknot. For sure, having been in high school at the turn of the millenia, Slipknot was a band I and millions of other angry teenagers were into and brought me towards extreme metal. I agreed completely with the thesis in the video, regarding Slipknot being more of a mix of death metal with post-grunge radio rock than a full-on nü-metal band like they were and are still labeled as. Aside from a few scratchy-scratches on the self-titled album, in fact, there isn’t much nü-metal in Slipknot’s earlier work, and very little that sounds like Korn or Limp Bizkit. The Punk Rock MBA also highlighted how their commitment to image and lore brought them to the next level, and you can’t disagree with that, seeing Slipknot live is an experience unlike any other. It made me want to listen to some tracks from their first album, and though I’ve moved on, I can still appreciate the hell out of songs like (Sic) and Surfacing.

Then I clicked on a link to the music of a duet called Duma, from Kenya. It was labeled as grindcore with electronic elements, and after listening to their album I’d say it was more the opposite, it sounded like high-aggression looping beats made on FL Studio, with screaming vocals on top of it. It wasn’t bad, but not the stuff I’d listen to every day.

I started getting antsy staying in, and since the temperature dropped a bit, I went on a bike ride with no particular destination in mind. I exited the city and went through farmlands and industrial areas and neighboring small towns, for about four hours. A nice afternoon. On the way back, I stopped in Nongville to get portions of sesame noodles, and ate some when I got back. I didn’t eat until I was full though, as I was going to play soccer in the evening. In fact I only had about half an hour to shower and eat a few bites and get my stuff, then I got in the car. I stopped by Metro to buy a few bottles of gin, since we ran out and the girlfriend can’t make her gin-tonics, which brings her into a state of panic.

We played soccer for two hours, rotating three teams, 20 minutes on, 10 minutes off. A great time was had by all. Then I drove two pals home, and one of them, the Polish guy who makes his own limoncello, gave me a bottle to thank me. Pretty cool. He suggested to let it age for another week, I can’t wait to drink it.

Back home, I took a quick shower, drank a homebrew, relaxed on the couch petting the dog and then went to bed where I read a chapter of Musashi with a glass of rum. It was past midnight, when school starts I don’t think I’ll go play soccer often.