Usually when I write a blog, it's when I truly have something to say. I guess this is one of those times. It's been about three months since I've last posted anything, and I guess it's time. Normally I would make jokes about a lot of things going on in my life, or about things in pop culture that I know to be wrong. But I believe that today will be one of reflection, of looking back at a couple things here and there, kinda to just put myself out there in so many words.
Almost six years ago, I came to Florida to heal. My heart and spirit equally broken, I made the decision that in order to be able to begin picking up the pieces, was to come here. I'd like to say that I was welcomed into this area with open arms, but that did not come to pass. Being as completely broken as I was really came through in my everyday life. At home, at work...well, especially at work. Proverbially speaking, I was the cover that people blindly judge a book by. There were a lot of people there, that would take one look at me, and say to themselves "I really don't like that guy," and most of them, admit it or not, wouldn't even know why. It didn't help matters much that I was still angry, still heartbroken, and still bitter at the way my life had gone in the course of the previous six years. In some ways, I guess there is still some resentment there, like, why judge me without even knowing me? You know, that sort of thing. And you know, to this day, there will still be people out there who STILL won't be able to tell you why. At that point, for better or worse, the healing process began.
I jumped back into the dating game long before I was ready. The results disastrous in just about every turn. You know all that shit you hear about being in the Friend Zone? At the time, I was renting beachfront property there. Either I was too short, or too broke, or too old, you name it. Hell, once, I was even Friend Zoned for being white...BY A WHITE CHICK! Figure that one out, BROTHERS! I made the decision in November of 2010 to acquiesce to the fact that I was going to spend the rest of my life alone. The anger that I had held within me for so many years was already gone at that point. My insecurities about my shortcomings had faded, and I was more or less back to normal. I was content, I was at peace with myself for the first time in a long time, I was just done trying to find someone special. I knew I wasn't going to be in Florida forever, and I had actually been wanting to leave this state for quite some time.
Next thing you know, Heather comes along, sheds new light on what was left of my life, and pretty much lit a fire under my ass I gave up on almost a decade ago. That whole spending my life alone bit? Out the window. I came across someone who wanted the same things in her life that I did. I came across someone who didn't make me feel like it was wrong to want to have the dreams in my life that I've wanted. She became that one final piece of the puzzle, the one thing to complete my healing process. And I honestly do feel that as a result, my time in Florida is bound to come to an end within the next couple of years, at the most. There have amassed so many things in the almost-six years that I have been here, so many reasons, for me, for us, to not be in this state any longer. For me? A job in which morale is at such a pathetic level that it puts my time in the Navy to shame. I've amassed friends that, maybe they weren't really friends at all. That maybe I've been kept around for their entertainment. There are a very few select group of friends that I keep close in my circle, and I love them all for it, but for the most part I've become nothing more than an afterthought. I honestly feel forgotten, left behind, so maybe it is time that I, we, leave IT behind. There is no sense of stability here, nothing that says, "It's time to set some roots, finally." So finally, by this time next year, by the grace of God, Heather and I will be far away from the state of Florida, forging ahead with our lives together. I'll be a married man at that point, and I long for the years ahead.
This should really be no surprise that I'm picking something like this as the best album of the year. I've been a huge Rush fan for a number of years. A lot of people I know aren't fans of them though, and to them I've always asked them, "What's wrong? Too highbrow for ya?" Asking that usually illicits some anger to a degree. But I digress. Clockwork Angels has essentially been about five years in the making, as the power trio from Canada had been working on this little gem since touring for their 2007's Snakes and Arrows album, another favorite of mine. The first little bit of this album was actually heard two years before the album's release, in the form of it's first single, "Caravan." I heard the song the day it came out and I was excited almost immediately. When the B-Side to "Caravan" was leaked onto the Internet, "BU2B" my degree of excitement only grew that much more. Clockwork Angels was originally supposed to hit shelves in the summer of 2011, but had kept pushing it back since they weren't finished with making it. I'm glad they did, too, because Clockwork Angels would become a modern day masterpiece. This was probably the best album that Rush had released since drummer Neil Peart reformed the band after a soul-searching, four year long motorcycle road trip. Clockwork Angels is a concept album (and we all know I'm a sucker for concept albums) about a person living in a utopian future who becomes unsatisfied with his life, and he leaves his life behind to find answers to his questions on his own. With Peart writing the lyrics for the entire album, and members Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee taking care of the music aspect of it, there was nothing stopping this album. If you're looking for the best songs that AREN'T the singles, I highly suggest "Headlong Flight," "Seven Cities of Gold," (complete with a kickass Geddy Lee bassline intro), and the album's ending song, "The Garden." 
Over the past five years or so, I've come across hard rock/metal bands that aren't confined to the United States. Nightwish from Finland. Within Temptation AND The Gathering from the Netherlands. And now, Bad Salad from Brazil. I've been paying close attention to this band over the past two years, back to the first time I saw a video on Youtube of guitarist Thiago Campos and a splitscreen of other musicians from around the globe doing Dream Theater songs. I haven't been that impressed by a cover band in many many ages, so you can imagine my excitement when I learned that Campos was putting his own band together, and were working on an album of original material. Enter drummer Caco Goncalves, bassist (and Thiago's brother) Filipe Campos, and lead singer Denis Oliveira, and you've got a recipe of epicness that harkens back to admitted influences such as Dream Theater, Metallica, The Beatles, Queen, and Iron Maiden. I had heard their first original song, "Crowded Sky" in 2010, and my jaw DROPPED! Sure there was a LOT of the aforementioned bands' flavors in the mix, but with their own twist. 
