can metal police itself?

in talking it out online i came to the conclusion that, yes, it can. it's in the very nature of metal to protect and defend itself from false metal intrusions. you may remember some months back me fearing a wave of tongue in cheek retro indie rock metal. i was a'feared it was going to overshadow all the good, old style metal that is out there. i smelled pichfork championing this the way they embraced disco indie rock and all the other genre stealing indie rock acts (afro-pop i'm looking at you). now, months later i see that was not the case. early man, where are you? dead child? not a peep. metalheads are not easily fooled (except by pantera for some odd reason) and hold their metal to high and pure standards. their is not much of a "death to false indie rock" ground swell. i mean, besides by me. at least pretend to rock for fuck's sake. but death to false metal is every bit as ingrained in the culture as is, say, metal up your ass. god, i think i'm about to make a white sox fan connection here against my better judgement: being a sox fan is almost equal parts loving the sox as it is hating the cubs. much the same way, metalheads love metal almost as much as they love hating posers. it's hard to just be pro-metal without being anti-false metal. because it is never truly cool to be metal in the larger social scene. and i secretly believe metalheads like it that way. otherwise they would have let these hipster douchebags be the face of metal in order to gain acceptance. but, as far as i can tell, the shunning is complete. no more bullshit ironic faux iron maiden riffs coming from brooklyn. the one band to gain a certain amount of crossover appeal is mastodon and, well, they are fucking metal. ok, you'll argue against the sword and their wizard motifs and such. i will argue that their riffs are sweet and that metal has always had a nerdy underbelly. i still think they "get" it. they don't just ape it. the only thing that makes my argument tough is all the horrible 90's metal that clogged the airwaves and that still dominates headbangers ball. i chalk it up to 15 year old hot topic metal. look, i liked krokus for a hot second. there will always be bad music that caters to the lowest common denominator (or kids that haven't honed their musical chops yet). but, for the most part, metal denies trends. or at times can be ahead of them. or, hopefully, so far behind that it never has time to make an impact

the definition of narcissism...

...isn't spending half an hour reading your old blogs is it? because i think i just did. and if this weren't my own blog i'd think i were a pretty clever person with interesting takes on the small world i live in. i mean, that's ok, right?
here's a fear i didn't know i'd have: been real itchy the last fews days. in multiple places. you know and, really, i know it's most likely bug bites. but i've also had this mystery ache in my lower back and leg. yes, i'm talking about aches again. at least these are a new kind of ache. more flu like less atrophy related. anyways, this morning, while trying not to wake up but scratching my toe endlessly, i put two and two together and, naturally, concluded i had chicken pox. admittedly, even i thought this was humororously so "me". oh, me. still...

the gods were not amused

tried to force a little spring here with the semi-traditional cutting of the hair and shaving of the beard. some people pull out their flip flops at the first sign of the sun. i burn my underbrush. either way it is april 5th of so and i have longjohns and a quilted flannel on for my bike ride to work. good one, god. you truly are a powerful dude what with controlling the weather and such. if i may, you are also a fucking prick. have we not proven our midwestern heartiness enough? just because you can, man, doesn't mean you should. just saying...dick