Last week was my sister’s birthday. Yesterday, I finally had some time to get her something for it.

I went to the ‘Build A Bear Workshop’ where, as the title makes obvious, you build your own bear.

Now let me preface with some quick information. My sister can’t stand how I plug ShoutDRIVE everywhere I go. I hand out cards, talk about it, etc. and she thinks that’s really hokey. Now that her boyfriend, Inphluence, has become a guest DJ on ShoutDRIVE, she’s constantly surrounded by shameless plugs relating to ShoutDRIVE.com.

So, when I went to build her a bear, this what I got.

Studying the Mackie console.

Tearin’ up a set for STUDIO818.

So, thinking up a name was the biggest challenge, but they always say a sense of humor with dominate, and it sure did.

The Needtobreathe show in Montgomery, Alabama was over (sadly) and it was time for V and I to make our way on up to a small college town called Montevallo, Alabama (not so sadly). I was so excited to be getting to go home for a few days. I’m actually from Hoover, Alabama (yes, the same one from Two-a-Days on MTV) but I went to school at Montevallo for a few years, so it was exciting to be able to go back and see all of my old college friends, especially my best friend, BK.

Unless you count the two days I spent in Birmingham, Alabama back in January, I hadn’t been back home in over seven months, and I missed my friends and family a lot. Between that and the natural high I always get from seeing my Needtobreathe boys, I was feeling GOOD! Mix in the excitement of knowing that in about twenty hours I was going to be with my BFF and two of my best friends from high school watching Matthew Mayfield perform, and I cannot even put my great mood into words.

So, we finally made it to Montevallo at about two that morning and stayed up all night hanging out with BK and his roommate S and catching up and I introduced them to V and she and I regaled them with all of our amazing stories traveling to see bands all over the country the last few months. I think if we (and by we I mostly mean me since V is in a very committed relationship) mentioned our love for Seth Bolt one more time, the boys might have kicked us out of the house for the night.

I finally went to bed around five or so I think and got about four hours of sleep. When I woke up, BK was at work and S and V were both still sleeping. So I did the natural thing and got on my computer to post pictures from the night before and comment on the ones that V had stayed up later than me posting the night before. Matthew Mayfield was on Facebook Chat and I had a few questions for him about the show that night (like when and where—both very helpful things to know when attending a show) so I talked to him for a while and promised I would be at the show that night and at the one he was doing the following night with Needtobreathe. How could I miss a concert like that?

My best friend since sixth grade, R, was going to the show with me and we were going to meet my two best friends from high school B and K there. I called R to let her know I had made it to town safely and to make plans on where to meet that night. I won’t go into the ugly details, but some of the things that have been pushing our friendship to its limits the last few years finally caused me to snap and, well, R and I are no longer friends and to say the least, she was no longer invited to the show that night. So it was up to B and K to go with me that night.

I decided to spend my afternoon visiting with some old family friends (my second parents growing up) because one of them used to work in music and was a musician most of my life, and I’m pretty sure most of his life as well. He and I spent almost three hours discussing the music business and he wanted all the details about my adventures following Needtobreathe, Absentstar, Georgia, Colourslide, Luna Halo, and all of the other bands I love to travel to see. We talked about some great music schools that I’m interested in but finally, it was time to leave so that I could go and meet my brother so that we could enjoy a lovely dinner together before I had to leave to go to see Matthew that evening.

I arrived at my brother’s apartment and changed shirts since summers in Alabama tend to be sweltering hot. I didn’t want to show up to see Matthew all gross and hot since I would be seeing him after the show.

My brother’s fiancé came up to the apartment once I had changed clothes and asked me if I was aware that my tire was completely destroyed. I wasn’t aware, but when I went to look, she was right; it was obliterated. We figured I must have busted it somewhere between BK’s house and the apartment. Wherever it had popped, it meant that meeting K and B at the venue was out of the question. One of them would have to pick me up, but that would add at least an hour to our time.

I spent a rather miserable dinner listening to my brother and his fiancé complain about the waitress we had (I thought that she did fine) and trying to make a Plan B for the night with K and B over text messages. There was no way I could miss the show since I had promised Matthew just that morning that I would be there, but there was also no way I could make it on time to the show. B agreed to pick me up at my brother’s place and K would meet us somewhere downtown.

Finally, after my friends and I finally met up and we got lost for a while, we arrived at Bottletree, a small club in downtown Birmingham, Alabama that I have learned has some of the nicest people ever working there. The show was supposed to start at nine that night. We pulled into the parking lot at eleven-thirty. I grabbed K and B’s hands and ran as soon as we climbed out of the car because I could hear the opening chords to my favorite Matthew Mayfield song, As Long As You’re Not Leaving. We were front row, center within seconds.

Matthew played one more song, a cover of Hurt—a song that has a lot of sentimental meaning to me—and I almost broke down in tears hearing it from Matthew. Call me corny if you must (I assure you, you will not be the first person to do so) but Matthew is one of those artists that can touch your soul when he sings. He can open his mouth and suddenly I am in a new world where I don’t have to deal with my disappointing dinner with my brother or the horrible fight with R or the blown tire; all there is in this new world is music. Music is all that matters. It becomes everything: the beat of your heart, the thoughts in your head, the air in your lungs. It’s all about the music. It’s the way I sometimes wish the real world could be like.

When Hurt was over, so was the show. I was sad to have missed so much of it, but it was really out of my control. I stood there with my friends, catching up on the last seven months laughing hysterically as we recalled “the good ole days” of high school. They caught me up on what the other kids from my high school were up to (who married who, who had become parents, who had come out of the closet, anything and everything I wanted to know) until Matthew came up to us. I told him how sad I was to have missed most of the show, but how amazing I had thought the two songs I had made it for were. He gave me a hug, introduced himself to B and K, and said he needed to go and say hi to someone. He left, and I didn’t see him again that entire evening. K had become quick friends with the bartender and when she went inside just after one for another drink, she asked the bartender where Matthew had gone to. He’d apparently left thirty minutes earlier while we had been outside on the patio being entertained by the drunk boys who wanted to “teach us about life.” LOL.

I was pretty upset and felt as though I had just driven from Florida to Alabama just to be blown off by one of my favorite musicians of all time and have a fairly miserable day. I just prayed that Matthew had had a good reason for leaving without saying goodbye and that the next evening would prove to be much better.

MySpace. Everyone’s got one and there’s no sense in wasting time denying it.

With that said, MySpace is an online representation of the masses - And the masses inevitably contain some nasty crap. For hell’s sake, I’ve compiled a short list of stupid things that are annoying to see on MySpace, #1 being the most annoying/stupid.

#5
Spammers. I hate comment and message spammers. This includes those people that spam through ‘Event Invitations.’ SHAME!!! It takes the MySpace Team a long time to delete those guys too, which just adds to the pain.

#4
Stupid background images. Like setting an animated, looping animation that hurts the eyes. (More on this in number 1)
Example

#3
Being ghetto. Like when people make their profile title “bLaCk fRaNkLiN BITCHEZ” or “jose from tha hood.” I got the funniest Friend Invitiation lastweek from one named “lil’ gangsta.” lol :-p

#2
The ol’ “Take a picture of yourself in the mirror” - OMG, you’re sooo cool and slick: Nobody’s thought of doing that before!
Example

#1
Overcoding: When some dingus adds too much crap to their profile (usually through one of those profile generator sites) that you can’t even see the button to comment or message them. As a former web developer (and current developer of Shoutdrive.com,) this annoys the hell out of me and makes me want to punch a hole through my monitor!

Ok, well there it is. Happy MySpacing, kids.

Oh, and yes, I realize I’m a total jerk.

MySpace related stuff:
DJ Ares on MySpace
ShoutDRIVE on MySpace

Yeah, it’s aight - No room for the turntables though