Stories from Addiction

"I believe that God has planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom."
George W. Bush



Hello America, This Party and Bullshoot, I'm Ira Glass


Today we bring you a blog post, a blog post that is a little different from what we normally do here, this story is brought to you by one of your contributing editors Andrew, here he is ...


Let us speak honestly for a moment. How many of us have been, or have been close to someone with a real addiction? Generally on this blog, we tend to goof around a little, generally on this blog we speak in a sarcastic tone, a tone of mockery, a tone of cynicism, but not today friends. We bring you a story of someone who like some of you, has felt the pain of addiction, who like some of you have seen the hardships that befall a loved-one when addiction runs their life.

This is the story of my life, the life of an addict.

It all started around two years ago, maybe little more. I don't remember anymore which one of my friends introduced me to that shit. I can only imagine what the situation must have been like. We must have been sitting in a circle around the television. One of my friends would have looked up from his computer with visibly red eyes, twitching slightly. "Hey do you guys want to trip for a bit?" he would've asked. I would have looked at him, and pretended to act like I wasn't afraid to ask what kind of new devilry he would bestow upon our already muddled perceptions of reality. I know now that I should have been more afraid.
The way we lived our lives from that point on was appalling by even the lowest of standards. We floundered around in our own filth, spending most of our days in bed, sometimes not leaving our rooms for days at a time, only leaving to share it with one another. I remember wondering what happened to large chunks of my day, hours that all but vanished to my memory. These memories (or lack there of) leave a hollow feeling in your mind. Knowing that during those times of your life, you are little more than a lifeless being, you contribute nothing to your own life or the life of anyone else. You are an addict now.

These are the diaries/blogspot entrys of a 19 year old boy who only wanted to be a music blogger, but fell to the pressure of the internet culture that is StumbleUpon.
(None of the text in any of these posts has been changed from its original manuscript, I copy and pasted them)


I.
Sound Track from Assassin's Creed II - A look at the functionality of music in the functionality of a growing culture

I want to talk this week about the music in modern video games.

The experience that developers want to give in most modern games is that of total immersion, they want to you to feel in the game. Part of this task means that the music of the game that you are playing pulls you into the action what is happening on your screen. In the epic gaming experience that Assissn's Creed the soundtrack certainly

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-



II.
The Empyrean - John Frusciante

As a life long Chilis lover I've grown up listening to Frusciante's whining guitar on some of the most influential and greatest rock tracks of of my generation (if you disagree, you may stop reading my blog at any time). Being a hard core Red Hot Chili Peppers fan means that I have looked into the side projects of the members. Be it Flea's odd projects, or Chad's super group Chicken Foot. However the most likely work to stumble across is John's solo career. Prior to the Empyrean Frusciante had released ten solo albums, all of which were noticably more experimental than those of the Chilis. Many with haunting whaling vocals, and odd yet inventive guitar pieces. Clearly these albums saw influence from the hardcore state that Frusciante was in dude to heavy drug usage including heroin and crack. Frusciante allowed for imperfections in many of his albums, out of tune guitars, off pitch vocals, etc. However in his later solo albums he said he wanted to make things as perfect as he possibly could, this could not be more clear with The Empyrean.

I must say that this album is one of the few recently released pieces of music that I can listen to start to finish. It is for lack of a better term fucking brilliant. The album begins with a nine minute instrumental track that is merely a showcase of the unbelievable talent that this man possesses with axe in hand. Clearly drawing influence from Frank Zappa, this album although psychedelic and trippy offers musical perfection that is borderline heavenly.

Featuring an out of the ordinary folk-esque vocal style that fits perfectly with the background melodies that Frusciante supplies via guitar and other forms of ... shit im gunna finish writing this piece of shit review later.



III. My Favorite Album of 2009

Sometimes I like to put on my headphones and I just can't fucking write a goddamn blog...
Fuck...
Stumble Fucking Video









Good news everyone, I'm back from my blog-hiatus, I've been sober for 4 days now and counting. See you out there.
(Cue in Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds)