05/28/2022

Hello, it's been a few days and for that I wanna say sorry, but it's been a worthwhile few days. For starters, the JPEGMAFIA concert. That was genuinely the most fun I've had at any event and I'm so happy it was for my favorite rapper, and the fact it was on my final day of school as well, it genuinely felt everything at that point was coming together, just for the record, 80% of the post will be about this show. I ended up at the venue at 4:43 PM and we waited in line until the doors open, then we had to go to the back of the line because I forgot my ID, which was disappointing but I still got a good spot nonetheless which I'm thankful for. I noticed throughout the line a lot of people had graphic tees on, most notably the Veteran tee, which I never saw until now in person so that was cool, and I also saw some extra stuff like an American Psycho shirt and a Tommy Wright the 3rd one too. I was in line for nearly 2 hours but it was worth it 100%. For being my first concert, it was great. The energy was phenomenal, even for the opening act, which was a in-house DJ who played a lot of good stuff, mostly rap music and it was incredibly cool because there's a ton of good mixes and songs I've never heard before mixed in with familiar ones. Nevertheless, it was a fun opener, and a fun little time to groove and all that. After that, there was a 10 minute wait until Peggy came on and he played stuff like Salem, and other stuff that really can't come to my mind right now. It all kind of happened so quickly. It was no surprise when Peggy came out the crowd went wild, so did I, everyone was chanting Peggy's name out and was enthralled when he came out, and as I said, so was I. The first song he played was Jesus Forgive Me, I Am A Thot, which unfortunately I don't get any footage of, as I was out of breathe from the DJ set, same situation for HAZARD DUTY PAY! which was really disappointing to me as that's my favorite song from LP! and I really wanted to get it. After that, he played BALD! and that's when everything clicked. He started talking about how he only saw heads of hair and asked where the bald people were at, which is a staple for him when he performs the song, and then he screamed the song title and then started. It goes without surprise to say that BALD! is a great song, the Ridge Racer Type 4 sample and the percussion clashing together to make a wonderful sounding beat that is beyond words. Hearing it live was just, astounding, I was even yelling out the intro too, I was so stoked. After that, the show was just, non stop energy, and specifically near the area I was at, I was definitely a stand out as I was being loud and energetic, which I feel bad about but then again, it IS a JPEGMAFIA show. Everyone there was really nice too, all the people I interacted with were nice and it just brought the energy up, crowd was phenomenal too during the show. There's a lot I could say about the show itself but we'd be here all day, and realistically I'd be repeating the entire time, just know the show was amazing. The only thing to note was that he didn't play THOT'S PRAYERS!, which was a little disappointing, BUT he did perform a song he never played before, which I forgot which one it was, I think it was NEMO! and he also played REBOUND! as a encore track, which was phenomenal to hear live. I really wish we got to hear DIKEMBE! as that sound would go absolutely nuts live but alas, I'm incredibly happy with what I got. Just a side note, whilst he was performing I Cannot Fuckin Wait Until Morrissey Dies, I literally screamed the lyrics out loud, with passion too. I can't express how long I've been wanting to yell out the Lil B line, and being able to do it was amazing. After the show, I waited a bit and since I felt miffed about having to go to the back of the line, I decided to grab a t-shirt from the merch stand. I got the red Hazard Duty! tee, which looks amazing and is incredibly comfortable, there's even a Peggy logo on the tag, which was cool. After that I headed home, which took forever but I don't care to get into that. Peggy gave a phenomenal show, and the fact I got to experience my first concert being a JPEGMAFIA show, was just mind blowing to me. I don't think I've ever been around that many people before either, especially all fans of Peggy. The crowd was great to be around and made the show better too. Overall a great time, next time JPEGMAFIA is around in my area, I'm 100% getting tickets to the show, I can't miss out on this again. I'm glad he performed Call Me Maybe too, gave me inclination to listen to The Ghost Pop Tape again, which is a great listen. That's all I really have to say about the show, so let's move on to the last few days instead. As stated in the last post, Thursday was my last day, and realistically it was boring, I did my final exam and went straight to Knoxville right after, and went to a Burger King on the way there which was awful. No wi-fi and it was small as ever. Not fun to be in and overall was really depressing, but that's pretty common for a Burger King. After that, I went to a bookstore that has a lot of movies, usually for a pretty cheap price and I picked up some movies and a show. Those movies being Lady Bird, which has been on my watchlist for a bit and was 2 dollars, Blade Runner, The Social Network, which as cheap for a 2-disc Blu-ray with pretty good bonus features, of course I had to get a few Godzilla movies, more specifically Godzilla (2014) which I picked up because it wasn't on HBO Max and it was like, 3 dollars, and then Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, which I got because of the fact I already picked up Godzilla (2014), I also picked up a cheesy campy Japanese movie on DVD called Zombie Hunter Rika, which looks fun, might put it on tonight and watch it. The company is from is old and all of their releases seem to be out of print, but they have more movies like these I'm going to check out for sure, although no bonus features. I also got Æon Flux, which I've been meaning to get forever now but never found the time to find it, so fortunately I did and of course, grabbed it. It looks really fun so I can't wait to watch it on my own time, the bonus features look really fun too. I felt a little underwhelmed about the place, because I'd usually walk out with a shelf worth of stuff and only got enough to leave me with 25, which realistically was good because I was able to get a t-shirt from the concert. The next day was just as hectic though, like incredibly. I woke up with immense leg pains, but that's because of the concert, it didn't affect me much but it still sucked. Everytime I get the opportunity I usually go around the city to my favorite stores, which I did this time, starting with Barnes & Nobles, which nothing really happened but I found this magazine I might be into called Neo, I forgot the second word but it's this magazine available Asian media, mostly Japanese media like anime and music, but what was really cool was that there was a release schedule for things like Blu-rays, which caught me by surprise. I'm definitely gonna have to check it out because it looks fun to read. Whilst I was there I also had a sneaking suspicion I fell out of touch with Blu-rays and movies because of the day before but then I ended up spending an hour looking at the Criterion Collection section three taking a picture of every movie that looked remotely interesting. I was thinking about it later that day and ended up coming to the conclusion that it was simply what the store had and not how much, so if a store had a great selection, I leave with more, and if not, I don't, which realistically makes more sense in this scenario, as I spent a lot of time in the book store Thursday and didn't leave with much, well in comparison to what I usually get there. The last time I went was in December of 2021 and I left with a basket filled with movies, so I was expecting the same here but unfortunately to no avail, which is fine. Anyways, I headed over to another bookstore in the area and got Black Swan, which was 5 bucks, and then saw a copy of Gummo, which I immediately jaw-dropped and went to it to look at it, and to make the trip more crazier, I picked up this poetry collection they have at the counter to check out and then I saw a poem I wrote. Now, this meant I was a published writer, which is crazy to me. As you can tell from this blog, I really love to write, it was my hidden talent apparently that I discovered like 4 years ago and been improving since, and also just by the length of these posts too. It hit me that, my writing, is in my favorite bookstore. When that hits you, as a teenage writer with barely anything published, it's kind of crazy. I forgot I was even in it until I saw it so it hit even more than it would've. Anyways, after that I went by the mall and looked at the F.Y.E. they had there, and found the clearance section, which was incredibly refreshing to see because the other sections have been stocked with the same stuff for a few years now so there was nothing new, and at that point there was no bother going to look because it was just the same stuff over and over again. The clearance section was fun though because I found a copy of The Beatles' HELP! movie for pretty cheap, a dollar, and it's bonus features were on a second disc, which encouraged me to get it even more. Usually, I don't really like The Beatles as a band, but their comedy is really good. A Hard Day's Night is a great comedy, and was fun, so I'm pretty excited to watch this. Admittedly, these movies are 100% ways for the band to make music videos for their songs, but nonetheless it was really good. After that I went by Taco Bell then back to the hotel room for a bit, very interesting I know. I spent a few hours there before heading back out, and this is when the night became really good, I was already having a great day but these two things made it better. I went to a sushi bar for the first time and it was really nice, I loved the establishment and the waitors were really nice and friendly, definitely would love to go there again once I have a better grasp on Japanese dishes and Sushi. I got the Salmon Dinner which was 6 pieces of salmon sushi and 6 tiny roles. Unfortunately, I wasn't much of a fan of the rolls because of the avacado skin used for it, but the rice and salmon itself I really enjoyed, the distribution between the salmon and the rice was done perfectly, it felt like I was getting the best of both worlds, and the soup they provided was really good as well. I don't remember what it was but it came with a little flower floating for seasoning, which definitely made it better, and wasn't for show like I thought it was. The restaurant was really nice too, there was a little pond thing in the front with fishes swimming in it, it was really cute. I was seated in sight of the grill so I got to see a few fires too which was really cool, was fun to watch. I made a stupid mistake of asking for chopsticks without knowing how to use them, but I thought if I got another one, I could have someone teach me which would be helpful. I always wanted to eat with chopsticks so I can't wait to learn. After that I went bowling which was INCREDIBLY fun. It's genuinely one of the best sports I believe imaginable, and I have to play it more, I legit never have had that much fun before, I was playing with a pink 9 ball too, and broke 102 points the second round which I didn't even know was possible to go over 100, and a pretty good jump from my previous game which was 42 points. I got like 4-5 strikes, which was way more than I expected, I was thinking I was gonna get at least one, but I ended up getting multiple. I also thought of a really good and funny joke whilst bowling that I'm gonna use for that Roomies idea, so keep an eye out when I eventually make it. I love bowling, I really do. It's genuinely a great sport and I would love to do it more. In my eyes, it doesn't matter if you're good or bad, but as long as you have fun, and from my experience, it will always be fun. My inspiration for bowling obviously came from the bowling VLive that LOONA did a few years ago, which by the way, they confirmed a new comeback next month and also released a new song called Pose, which is really good! I saw it and thought that it looked fun, so I decided to do it and it was fun, and thankfully I played better than them. After that I headed home and essentially did nothing for the rest of the night, and came back home the next day, which was this morning. It's been a pretty hectic few days but it was a great time, and I absolutely needed it due to all the stress I've been under over the last month. It felt great to just do things you enjoy, it helps so much. I have to do that again next year. I'm really sorry for the long post, well, not really. I'm glad I had enough to write about, and especially this consistently. Nothing beats blogging, and that's a fact. I'll see you guys in the next post. Whenever that may be. I hope you guys have a great few days like I have, and remember to have a positive outlook on things even when things are awful, it helps a lot to have something to look forward to. 

P.S. I forgot to mention but I recorded all the songs from the JPEGMAFIA concert! I unfortunately didn't get the first two but I have everything else. Here's the link to that. For the record, I am loud for the most part.

P.P.S. My body is still in pain, but it'll get better in a few days for sure.