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See the following journal entries! Reviews Added: R.E.M.: Lifes Rich Pageant (1986)
--May 15, 2004 Okay ... I'm not quite as nervous anymore ... I learned today that everybody was making up answers on that geology test! (...He won't flunk everybody ... right?) Although, when I check my final grades about a week from now, my heart is not going to be beating properly, I'm sure! Well, I've been tackling the music reviews with a healthy persistence today. Hopefully, that can continue! I'll probably update another two days from now. (I'm also planning on reviewing Lola by the Kinks today, if possible ... I haven't reviewed a Kinks album in months!) Also, check out the R.E.M. review! That's one of the highest-rated albums on this site so far. So, I'll see you in a few days. (If I'm really on the ball, I'll update tomorrow, but ... we'll see.) --M.L. Reviews Added: The Byrds: The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968)
--May 13, 2004 OH MAN!!!!! THAT GEOLOGY TEST WAS AN ABSOLUTE DISASTER??? (sorry ... I won't type in all caps anymore). But seriously, have you ever felt so hopless on a test that you just wrote down random stuff on the test sheet just so that you would have something down? ... That's exactly what I felt and did. I really wasn't too happy aboout this test whatsoever. It was clearly the most pathetic moment I've ever had as a student! (But, I don't think I should have all the blame ... that test was EVIL!) Anyway, I have all that crap out of the way, and so I can now concentrate on what really matters: This web site! (Yay!) And, actually, I'm about ready for another update! You might see another one tomorrow! (Yaaaaaaaaaaay!!!) Alright ... so until then ... --M.L. Review Added: David Bowie: Reality Concert Review: Kansas City, Missouri (May 10, 2004) --May 12, 2004 Hi! There should be a real update tomorrow, but I decided to upload that concert review as soon as I could. (Not that the world and everybody's mothers were waiting for it or anything ...) Anyway, the concert was splendid! As I suspected, I wasn't a tenth as excited to be there as I was in Chicago ... but that's probably because there wasn't such a build-up for it! I only had to drive three hours! ... And, I had already seen him once ... so the second time wouldn't be quite as exciting (it must be the same thing with child birth). At any rate, the concert was great. Plus, he only re-performed about half of the songs! I still didn't get to hear him sing "The Space Oddity" ... so I'll have to go to a future concert just to hope that he sings that one! I had to drive back home that very night, because I had a calculus final ... this morning, actually! I'm sure I didn't get a whoppingly good grade on it, but I am confident that I *passed* it. I had a mid-range B in the course before the final, so I'm 99 percent sure that I have at least C. And that's all I need! And so ... there is NO MORE CALCULUS FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can start taking the real classes now, like biology! (*gulp*) ... Eh, it ought to be better than calculus! It's a piss-ant freshman level course, anyway (albeit I quoted one of the professors of that class in the newspaper last December said some pretty mean things about the study habits of Wichita State students ... I just hope he doesn't remember me). Tomorrow afternoon, I have my structural geology final. I am not insanely worried about that one (...not nearly as worried as I was about the calculus final ... It felt like my internal organs were about to collapse.) But I must study for it! And then I'm done. 99.8 percent of my attention may be focused on this site. Really. I have a job, but they quit publishing last Friday. The only thing that would keep me from directing my attention to this site is the possibility that I might obtain a girlfriend. ... So, basically, I'll be focused on the site until I have to leave for Colorado on May 30th. So until tomorrow ... STUDY HO! --M.L. --May 9, 2004 Dude! I totally fizzled, didn't I? No updates since April 22nd??? It seems like my milk expired! Well, I PROMISE that there would be updates at least by May 13th. How am I so certain? Because that is the date of my last final! (Yay!) Also, I have reached my "update quota" so that I may update again. I still am going to get 300 reviews on this site by May 29th ... you can bet on that, baby! I went on a geology field trip last week (from April 29th to May 2nd). I had to drive (eeek) because, apparently, me working at the school newspaper qualifies me to drive a state vehicle ... and the student who actually works in the geology department couldn't go for some reason. So ... yeah ... that really stunk. Furthermore, on the first night, we had to set up our tents on 4 inches of snow and, that night, it snowed another foot! So when I woke up, my tent was half-collapsed. I thought it was because a pole became detatched (we set up those tents in the dark, so, that was very feasible). But when I went to take the tent down, it was just because there was so much snow piled on the sides. (And it buried my coat! Good thing I was sleeping in the middle!) The second day was very cold and not very enjoyable. I also was extremely tired that day, and wished that I didn't have to drive places, because I wanted extra sleep in the car! But the third day was great. It warmed up, and I got to bring home a lot of sparkly rocks. (Yay!) The forth day, we spent just driving back, and we got home late that night. Sitting at the wheel all day doing nothing but driving made me think a lot. And I decided to exercize every day I can (this is also part of the reason you haven't seen many updates recently)! I am happy that I lost nearly 40 pounds since late August (and this is a legitimate figure ... my bathroom scale didn't break down again), but I've still got a ways to go! My height-groups benchmark is 170, so I only have 30 pounds to go. Anyway, on days that I could, I would swim 15 laps in the pool, and then walk about 4 miles. As you can probably tell, that, school, and work ... where's the time for the reviews? When I have nothing to do after this Thursday (other than regretting that I didn't properly study for my final exams), I will have a lot of free time! There's no work, either, because the newspaper has quit until June 2 (and I will be long gone in my 5-week Colorado course then). And I will hit my 300 goal. You can bet on it, siree. The real reason I'm updating is to announce to the world that I am going to that David Bowie concert in Kansas City tomorrow. I'm not 10 percent as excited as I was when I travelled to Chicago, but that was almost an infinite number! This time, I'm going with my best bud from high school. The gas prices are totally inflated (I might ride my bike around town all summer ... who knows?) but at least I'll conceivably be sharing the gas bill. I shall write a full report on this second Bowie concert that I've been to, and post it soon after. I'm not going to put it on the queue. See you on Thursday or Friday! (Probably Thursday.) Oh! And I also got this most-bizarre comment from somebody claiming that his wife was a member of Arabesque. I don't feel much like making a link to it, but it's under the Arabesque II review. --M.L. Reviews Added: Sarah McLachlan: Solace (1992)
--April 22, 2004 Hello, my old chums! I have a steeeeeeeeeeenkeeeeeeeen calculus test on Tuesday, and I ********BADLY********** need to study for that. So, don't expect extreme activity for awhile. Although, I *can* tell you that my next update will include Saxon's Denim & Leather, The Stooges' Raw Power, and The Byrds' The Notorious Byrds Brothers. I also listened to an album from the band "The B-52's," and I loved that album SOOOOOOOOO MUCH that I thought I would review it. But then I remembered that I wasn't going to start reviewing any new artists until I get all the Bob Dylan reviews done. And so far, I'm only up to 1985's Empire Burlesque. Oh, poo!! I also discovered something that's utterly surprising. Arabesque's Arabesque III is actually *listenable* ... parts of it are even *enjoyable* ... yes, the band elevated itself from a third-rate Euro-pop band to a second-rate Euro-pop band. ... and ... well, I guess that's not a tremendous distinction ... I mean, they're "Europop"! That can't be coo. Anyway, I've got to sleep for a productive Friday of tactfully avoiding studying for my calculus test. (P.S. I got my geology labs done ... basically! I just ran out of tracing paper, and so I couldn't finish the third problem, but ... I most of it done!!!!!) (P.P.S. Two labs left to go!!!!) --M.L. Artist Page Added: Reviews Added: Landscape: From the Tea-Rooms of Mars to the Hell Holes of Uranus (1980)
Site Comments Added: --April 18, 2004 Well, it looks like I'm going to reach this 'goal,' so I had might as well advertise it, now! Before I go off to geology field camp at around May 30, I had wanted to get 300 reviews up on the site. Now that I have 242 reviews, and another 12 already written that are sitting on my desktop, it's a safe assumption that I'll make it! I'm thinking that I'll have another 'update' extravaganza like I did when I hit the 200 mark. I'll slowly add reviews until I get to 275 and then post a bunch of them at once. (I like update extravaganzas? Don't you like update extravaganzas?) Because I have such a huge backlog, instead of telling you what review I'm going to write next, why don't I tell you what reviews I'm going to *post* next? The next update will have Solace by Sarah McLachlan, Medazzaland by Duran Duran, and The Who By Numbers by The Who. There ya go! Yesterday, I had that field mapping class ... and we actually had to go somewhere and climb up on rock outcropping and measure the units. I was okay for the first two hours of it, but I quiiiiickly grew tired of it! Today, I've sort of been napping off and on the day. I did finish a Led Zeppelin review, though, and I might do another Bob Dylan review (Infidels) after this. (I have 10 left before I can start putting new artists on the site ... remember that Landscape was the last new artist page I was going to create until I've got all the Bob Dylan albums reviewed and posted!) And so, I've got some work to do! See you in a few days with another update! --M.L. Reviews Added: Arabesque: Arabesque II (1979)
--April 16, 2004 Hello! Everything is A-OKAY and rather placid in the life of Michael Lawrence now that the SGA elections are over. I am verrrrrry tired at the moment, so excuse me if this entry is a little short. Recently, as I promised in my last entry, I finished Raw Power, reviewed Denim & Leather, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, Bob Dylan's Shot of Love, and R.E.M.'s Life's Rich Pageant. In the near future (some possibly even tonight), I will probably get to reviewing Led Zeppelin's Untitled, Genesis' Calling All Stations (which isn't really that bad), Kiss' Unmasked, and The Rolling Stones' Emotional Rescue. And I'll have fun, too. --M.L. Artist Page Added: Reviews Added: Arabesque: Arabesque (1978)
----April 12, 2004 I ACED THAT CALCULUS EXAM!!!!! For once, my post-test fears seemed to fall my way this time! (It was a 97 ... which was the third highest grade in the class. Yes, the other two must be complete nerds ...) I must have just been having a good day that day or something. Okay, apart from adding Landscape's From the Tea-Rooms of Mars... onto the site one of these days, I've decided not to add on any new artists until Bob Dylan's discography has been completed. I'm not going to review all of the remaining Dylan albums at once ... I'll be picking and choosing at the other artists to finish doing. (I might mention that I've come to a halt with Elton John ... I cannot continue until I obtain a copy of Blue Moves). I have a lot of artists to continue reviewing, though! I'm half-done with a review of The Stooges' Raw Power. I also completed a review of The Who's The Who By Numbers and Duran Duran's Medazzaland. After that, I'll review Denim and Leather by Saxon, The Notorious Byrds Brothers by The Byrds (duhh!), Shot of Love by Bob Dylan, and Life's Rich Pageant (...which is excellent, by the way! ... so forgive my lukewarm review of Fables, if you please!) The next update will probably consist of Mended by Marc Anthony (crap album), Arabesque II by Arabesque (super crap album), and Thank You by Duran Duran (worse than Mended but better than Arabesque II crap). I'd say you'd better brace yourselves for a pretty crappy update next! --M.L. Artist Page Added: Reviews Added: Spandau Ballet: True (1983)
----April 9, 2004 Man, that calculus test was CRAZZZZZZY! And it was the complete oposite of crazy than the previous two have been! Instead of me not knowing whatsoever of what I was doing and trying to write stuff down on the paper for partial credit, I seemed to know *exactly* what I was doing. In fact, I finished that test rather early! ... too early. When I finished doing it, I looked around me and I saw that nobody else was finished with it yet. And me, who is usually NEVER even *among* the first person to finish a test, was extremely suspicious. Did I forget to look at something? Did I do something completely wrong that actually made finishing these problems *easier* than they would have been? I have no idea! ... Anyway, I'll be anxiously awaiting to see how I did when I get the test back on Monday (presumably). Oh and these SGA elections have been taking their toll on me! I literally had no time to do that structures lab. Thank goodness that he's EXTREMELY flexable on the deadlines on those. (This is why I like geology courses compared to physics/chemistry/calculus/etc classes. They're not run by ruthless dictators!) Tomorrow, I've got that all-day Saturday class for geology. Sunday is Easter. I have no idea if I'm going to do much music reviewing. Of course, I hope that I'm going to do A LOT of music reviewing!! I probably won't though. The only albums that I finished reviewing from my previous update was Supertramp's Crisis? What Crisis? and Sarah McLachlan's Solace ... I'm also part-way into the review of Duran Duran's Medazzaland. Until next time, --M.L. Artist Page Added: Reviews Added: Sarah McLachlan: Touch (1989)
--April 3, 2004 HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a test on Thursday, so I'm probably not going to do a whole lot with this site for the rest of this week. (Our teacher guy said that it will principally cover only two sections ... I'm not sure if I should be at ease or be worried ... an odd predicament that you'll only find yourself into if you ever become enrolled in calculus II.) I also have some SGA election articles to write and a whole election thingy to put together. Yes. Next week is probably going to be one of my busiest. Good luck to me! The good new is, though, that I wrote that review for Quadrophenia. My next reviews will probably be Crisis? What Crisis? by Supertramp, Solace by Sarah McLachlan, and Denim & Leather by Saxon. But that probably won't happen for quite a while. Have a nice week or so! Hopefully, it'll be less than a week, but ... Until then ... --M.L. --April 1, 2004 There's not really an update today. Sorry. --M.L. Reviews Added: R.E.M.: Reckoning (1984)
--March 30, 2004 Updating this site everyday kind of take the romance out of updates, doesn't it? Oh well ... I've got a lot of stuff to post on this site at the moment, I guess. (That Spring Break you know ... that was GREAT for writing music reviews and stuff.) Anyway, that practice'll end pretty soon, I'm fairly certain. Yesterday, I actually wrote reviews of Duran Duran's Thank You and Arabesque's Arabesque II. Both of these were simply horrible, horrible albums. Thank You was only mildly horrible, but Arabesque II was so awful that I included a suicide note within it. (Sorry ... I'm one of those people who thinks he's funny. You'll have to bear with it I guess.) And you WILL start seeing Arabesque reviews pretty soon. I decided to quit it with my stupid 'shelving artists' policy and just dang start posting them. (I also had a review of Spandau Ballet's Blue on the shelf for ages, but I never posted it because I don't have access to any of that band's other stuff.) Although, I won't take everything off this 'shelf' at once. (With that in mind, I did end up putting The Little Shop of Horrors soundtrack on the shelf ... so sue me! I'll take it off one of these days.) Thank goodness, the calculus test has been put off for a whole week! (I thought it might be this Friday, but *whew* it's not! ... I still have to study for it, though ... ...) I also got back my geology test today and *whew* it was a 74!!! I know that's not really that good, and the guy didn't curve it ... before taking the test (I'm not sure if I mentioned this in a previous entry or not) a guy who was in that class last year told me that he never got anything above a 60 on any of his tests ... and that really made me nervous! But I did better than that! (I'm smarter than him!) And so I'm happy. For once. Let's see ... I listened to Quadrophenia about four times over the past few days ... good album. I'm also listening to Supertramp's Crisis? What Crisis? ... not such a good album, but ... whatever. I might possibly review both of these albums tomorrow, but ... that's only a possibility. Good night! --M.L. Reviews Added: The Byrds: Younger Than Yesterday (1967)
--March 29, 2003 Poo! My wonderful Spring Break is over and it's back to the books (...or back to avoiding the books...) Right now, it's actually verrrrry early Monday Morning. For some reason I went to sleep at 8 o'clock last night, so I got to wake up really early. Yesterday wasn't a very productive day for me. All I did was listen to Marc Anthony's Mended and The Who's Quadrophenia. I reviewed the Marc Anthony album this morning. So that's done! Saturday, though, I reviewed a grand total of FOUR album reviews!!! Now, that's being site-productive! Some of these are pretty lengthy albums, too. I reviewed Madonna's Bedtime Stories, Genesis's We Can't Dance, R.E.M.'s Fables of the Reconstruction, and The Moody Blues's Octave. I really have no idea what I'm going to review next after Quadrophenia. That's a double album ... and it's also an album that I have to listen to more times than I usually listen to albums, just because it is so artistic and whatnot. I do enjoy it, though! I'm having a new Saturday class starting next week, so that might take away additional reviewing-time. I'm betting I'm going to have to study for a calculus exam pretty soon as well. So, I'm not going to be as wonderfully-active as I have been this past week. --M.L. Artist Page Created: Reviews Added: The Who: Who's Next (1971)
--March 26, 2003 See? I got around to updating today!! YAAAAYY!!! It's the third day in a row of updates! Yaaay! Yesterday, I did review Bob Dylan's Saved as well as Kiss's Dynasty last night ... both dreadful albums ... I'm surprised that I made it through them. Today, I only reviewed The Rolling Stones' Some Girls ... I am also about to write a review of that Sarah McLachlan Touch album, as well. I saw this really strange movie just an hour ago or so called City of Lost Children. That's NOT a good movie to watch if you want to keep your sanity. It was as if the writer just put random ideas in his script and expected it to work. It was interesting, though. It'd get an A for effort ... if this was a movie reviewing website ... I'm going to screw the walk and start reviewing Madonna's Bedtime Glories after McLachlan. No if's, and's, or butt's. (Well, maybe a butt, but ...) --M.L. Reviews Added: Supertramp: Indelibly Stamped (1971)
--March 25, 2004 An update already?!?! DUDE!!!!! Let's see, there wasn't much of a journal update yesterday, so I guess I'll fill you in today. I didn't write too many reviews these past two days since I've returned from my trip to Branson (which, thank GOODNESS, I pretty much avoided having to listen to country music ... we did have to listen to show tunes, though, from a bunch of people who looked like they were sucking on laughing gas). But it was a fun time. I was better off being there than spending that time home sitting on this chair in front of the PC. The only reviews I've written so far were finishing off Duran Duran's Wedding Album, which was posted yesterday. I also knocked off Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming, Supertramp's Crime of the Century, and R.E.M.'s Reckoning. I'm planning on doing another site update tomorrow, which will probably consist of The Who's Who's Next, David Bowie's Never Let Me Down, and R.E.M.'s Murmur. On my listening queue, I've got Bob Dylan's Saved and Kiss's Dynasty (both of which I've listened to enough by now to do a review tonight after this, hopefully), and I'll also do The Rolling Stones' Some Girls and I'll start reviewing Sarah McLachlan with her debut Touch. One of these days I'm going to take Madonna's Bedtime Stories out on a walk with me ... It will be overcast the next few days, though, so that won't happen too soon. I don't know when I will actually review it, though! Oh well. I've seen a few interesting movies in the theater lately. Yesterday, I saw the Adam Sandler movie 50 First Dates, which is almost an inverted Groundhog Day. The plot's not important, though they have been getting increasingly more interesting ... for Sandler. I'd say about half of the movie's jokes were good, making this a pretty successful Adam Sandler movie! ... It was a pleasant diversion, anyway. Today, I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which has one of those brilliant surreal plots that I wish I thought of. Really ... you've got to see that one. Anyway, I'll probably see you tomorrow with some more reviews. --M.L. Reviews Added: Duran Duran: Big Thing (1988)
--March 24, 2004 Hello! I had a good trip! I'm having a nice Spring Break! Have a good night! --M.L. New Artist Page Added: Reviews Added: Allison Tartalia: Ready (2002)
----March 19, 2004 Hello! That SGA meeting was only 12 minutes long! ... This is opposed to the one last week that was 5 hours. (They all wanted to go to that basketball game ... and, me, I wanted to go home!) Anyway, tomorrow morning I am going off to Branson, MO with Chi Alpha for a Spring Break retreat. (Oh yeah! My spring break starts today ... not yet, though, because I still have a class! And I need to go early because I'm still behind on those labs. I'm planning on just finishing them and turning in all of them today regardless if they're perfect or not. AND THEN I'll be free for Spring Break ... for a week ... too short ...) Also, tonight, I am going to see Mamet's Spartan with a friend of mine. After that I probably ought to sleep. So no more reviews ... probably. Unless I get out of geology early or something. (Ugh... I hope he doesn't give us back our tests ... When it comes to these types of things, I like oblivion!) I absolutely succeeded in reviewing Elton John's Rock of the Westies, The Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday ... and I also did a review of the 1982 cast recording of The Little Shop of Horrors. For some strange reason, yesterday morning when I was about to review The Wedding Album by Duran Duran, Music Rhapsody had removed from their system! ... It's back now, though, so I'm happy. The same thing with Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming. They must be doing it to mess with my mind! Anyway, if I review anything else today, it'll be that Duran Duran album. I also have Supertramp's Crime of the Century on my queue. And, I haven't forgotten that I said I was going to review Madonna's Bedtime Stories ... unfortunately. I'll probably see you again on Tuesday or Wednesday! My next update will probably include the three Duran Duran albums I've been sitting upon. --M.L. Reviews Added: Bob Dylan: Street Legal (1978)
--March 17, 2004 HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY! (yaaaaay) BLIMEY, LADDIE!!! I'M FEELIN' THE LUCK OF THE IRISH TOOOODAY, LADDIE!!!! THEY'RE ALWAYS AFTER ME LUCKY CHARMS!!! Enough of that. Hey! Go check out the Elton John review! That's one of the highest-rated albums that I posted on this site so far. I also reviewed R.E.M.'s Murmur today, and it got a 9.5. ...so be looking forward to that in a week or so. Also recently I reviewed David Bowie's Never Let Me Down, The Rolling Stones' Black and Blue, Duran Duran's Liberty, and I polished up the review I wrote during Winter Break Indelibly Stamped by Supertramp. I also reviewed Grand Hotel by Procol Harum ... but that seems like it was such a long time ago ... Well! I was going to spend all of this afternoon reviewing albums. I have Madonna's Bedtime Stories, Elton John's Rock of the Westies, Duran Duran's Wedding Album, and I'll finally do the review of The Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday. (Of course, I wasn't planning on doing all of these today.) All I got done was Murmur ... after that, my music reviewing crank-machine had gotten rusty due to sheer exhaustion. (I had that test yesterday ... and my sleeping patterns haven't been normal in recent days.) ANYWAY! I'm going to forget these reviews for the day and go study some calculus! ... And then I have to go cover the SGA meeting (for the school newspaper ... such fun). Cheerio! --M.L. Reviews Added: David Bowie: Labyrinth (1986)
--March 15, 2004 Hello! I was back earlier than expected! Anyway, I cooped myself up in my room all day attempting to study this structural geology stuff. I think I'll do okay ... heh, heh. Anyway, I was doing great with my studying until I started to become totally detatched with it and started writing reviews and making new webpages. Enough of that! Back to the books! I must prepare to flunk tomorrow! --M.L. Reviews Added: Kiss: Peter Criss (1978)
--March 14, 2004 Hello! Sir. Hey, look! I've added all those 1978 Kiss solo albums! Do you know what that means? Now, you can read them! (Yaaaaay for yooooooou!) I'm actually supposed to be studying for my structural geology test coming up in two (2) days, but I gave myself two (2) hours on this magical Sunday evening to update my site and finish a Who review (Who's Next). If you have been paying attention to these reviews, I have decided to temporarily put off reviewing The Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday. I'm going to tackle it at a different time. I haven't really done a whole lot in writing more reviews for this site in recent days. I finished off Duran Duran's Big Thing, The Rolling Stones' It's Only Rock and Roll, and The Stooges Fun House. I have it in mind that in the IMMEDIATE FUTURE I will review Procol Harum's Grand Hotel ... and I will takle that Arabesque review sometime. Though, keep in mind that it might be awhile before we see Arabesque on this site. I'm really trying to stress to myself to concentrate on completing the discographies of already-posted artists instead of constantly starting new ones. (Along with Grand Hotel, I am going to review Duran Duran's Liberty and The Rolling Stones' Black and Blue.) In spite of that, I've had a sort-of request for REM. Since they have that artists' discography in full on Music Rhapsody (...even if they didn't, I have three of their albums on CD...), so I'll probably start that in the near future. My next update will probably be Adventures in Modern Recording, Labyrinth, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy and Street Legal. Also today, I was added onto that music reviewing web ring that I've been wondering why I was never being added to for such a long time! (Yaay!) See you in a few days. --M.L. Artist Pages Added: Reviews Added: Nirvana: Nevermind (1991)
Site comments added: White Light/White Heat (1967)
----March 9, 2004 (later in the day) I thought that I wouldn't be able to complete my WONDERFUL UPDATE EXTRAVAGANZA like I was scheduled to have today (read the journal entry below this for details). And now! I have 200 reviews on my website! Who knows what I'll accomplish in the future! ... Today, 200 ... Tomorrow, 201 ... Next week 203 ... Next year, 209 ... and next decade, THE WORLD! Hah hah hah hah hah HaaaHHH! The website extravaganza is only 95 percent complete. I still have yet to find wonderfully obnoxious designs for those newly-added artist pages. Since its 11:22 p.m., and I'm becoming delirious, that'll have to wait my friend! The next time I update, I expect that I'll add the 1978 Kiss solo albums all at once. (Hey! If you're going to review the 1978 Kiss solo albums, you had might as well make it an occasion!) By the way, I got a 51 percent on my calculus test, but it was a mid-range C with the curve (yes, college life is insane), and I dropped physics (yaay)! Good night! --M.L. -----March 9, 2004 As the big Don Ignacio website extravaganza grew near, Don Ignacio's website connection in his home has become disabled. Don Ignacio does not know why. Don Ignacio is writing this from his workplace. However, the webpages of all 15 of these reviews have been created. Don Ignacio hopes that his Internet connection will be fixed tonight so that Don Ignacio may undergo his website update extravaganza like he promised. Don Ignacio will add reviews of Nirvana, Saxon, and Plone, which are new artists that are not on Don Ignacio's site yet. Also, Don Ignacio will add reviews of The Moody Blues, Led Zeppelin, Procol Harum, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Marc Anthony, Genesis, and The Velvet Underground. Also, recently, Don Ignacio has reviewed Invisible Touch by Genesis, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy by Elton John, Street Legal by Bob Dylan, and he has officially completed reviewing all the 1978 Kiss solo albums. Also, Don Ignacio has acquired and started reviewing the albums of the little-known Europop/Disco band Arabesque. After reviewing Arabesque I, Don Ignacio realized that reviewing this band isn't good for his sanity. But Don Ignacio was already insane to begin with, so he shall review the entire Arabesque discography with little teetering of his mental balance. In the short future, he will also review Fun House by The Stooges, It's Only Rock'n'Roll by The Rolling Stones, Younger Than Yesterday by The Byrds, Grand Hotel by Procol Harum, and Arabesque II by Crap/Arabesque. (Don Ignacio likes trashing stuff every once in a while, which is why he is reviewing Arabesque. Arabesque I had received a meager 4 on his scale, and so there was much trashing that ensued.) Depending on when Don Ignacio's connection is fixed at home, Don Ignacio shall post the 15 reviews of his GRAND EXTRAVAGANZA as soon as Don Ignacio can. Don Ignacio hopes this will be tonight. Thank you. --Don Ignacio -----March 1, 2004 Words cannot express how happy I am that "The Return of the King" completely swept the Oscars! I remember back in 1998 being absolutely buggered when "Titanic" got their 11 Academy Awards, tying the record of my absolutely favorite movie ("Ben Hur"), when "Titanic" was the ultimate over-hyped crap-fest that was utterly tedious, had AWFUL acting, and was as enlightening as the Nutrition Facts printed on pack of Juicy Fruit. (And ... YOU KNOW that all the other films nominated that year were absolute balls ... it was simply in the right place at the right time, which happened to be during what's obviously the worst year in cinema history.) So having another worthy film (which, I assume, would also incorporate the other two) tying "Ben Hur" is completely awesome. Anyway, I will tell you that I am probably not going to update this until March 9. I know ... It's really killing me not being able to work on this site ... but I really need to study. It's really difficult trying to stay with these classes when you are under the impression that they would do you absolutely no good in your future. In the scheme of things, I'll probably learn more by watching movies and surfing the 'Net than studying calculus and physics ... I could tell you why that is so, but I'd better not. It'll take me all afternoon. (As you an see, I cleverly diverted my attention away from revealing my physics score. I'm depressed about it beyond belief. I knew exactly what I was doing on the homework ... I understood the concepts BEAUTIFULLY ... yet somehow a decent test grade eluded me. Oh how frustrating!) In other business, I totally finished the reviews of Peter Criss and Paul Stanley. Of course, that means that I did very little studying yesterday. Even though I said I was going to review all of those Kiss albums back-to-back, I started a review of Adventures in Modern Recording just this morning, but I will not finish it anytime soon. And, I am not going to touch this site until March 9. On that day, I absolutely promise that I'll add 15 reviews on here to make my grand total 200. How can I promise this? Why, I have more than 20 reviews sitting on my desktop! See you in 8 days! --M.L. -----February 29, 2004 Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeap yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeear! Although, that's not really why I'm writing a journal-entry. I'm just here telling you how sorry I am for my website inactivity recently. ...Okay, I updated the site 5 days ago ... and I've been redesigning the site, too, since then. As for writing, I have only finished reviewing Tommy. I might temporarily skip reviewing Adventures in Modern Recording for now (I still have yet to formulate an opinion of it ... I basically like it, but it hardly measures up to The Age of Plastic, expectedly) and get to the Kiss 1978 solo albums starting with Peter Criss. In fact, I think I'll just review all four of them back-to-back. You'll probably find out that at least three of them will probably score higher than the any Kiss studio album. (Paul Stanley ... while I'd definitely say it's more diverse and interesting than the average Kiss album ... which might push it over the top ... but I don't think it's very good.) All four of them, really, might get something over a 6. But I can't say that for certain until I actually review them. I've just breezed 'em over (except for Peter Criss, which I've listened to probably three times by now). Peter Criss really isn't any good but ... heck ... it actually has M*E*L*O*D*Y. That's a crucial element that's missing from the average Kiss album. Anyway, tonight is the Academy Awards (which I never miss) and I have about two hours until then to study for my calculus test. (Eh... it's not until Thursday, so I'm not overly worried other than the fact that I haven't been doing the homework recently, which I put off for the physics test.) I really need to study for this, though. In fact, I'm about to pull out my calculus textbook right now ... reviewing Peter Criss tracks in between problems ... --M.L. -----February 25, 2004 As you might be able to see at the moment, I am currently giving this web site a facelift! Even though I normally find websites that have weird background designs a bit obnoxious, I am revisiting a lot of these pages and giving them obnoxious backgrounds! ... I was getting sick of looking at that burnt orange. ...Obnoxious, it may be, but at least it wouldn't give one nausea. By the way, I wrote half of Nirvana's In Utero as well as The Moody Blues' Seventh Sojourn. After I finish these, I shall tackle reviews of The Who's Tommy and The Buggles' Adventures in Modern Recording. We didn't get the physics test back yet ... I still think I probably did better than I did on the last one (...not keeping my hopes up, though...). I found out today that he put a bit of a trick question on there. Of course, I fell for the trap. (Honestly ... how can he think we are sound-of-mind enough to catch tricks?) I'm not counting on too many points being taken off for that. There'll probably be actual site updates tomorrow! I just thought I'd tell you why all of these pages are changing colors. --M.L. Album Reviews Added: The Who: The Who Sell Out (1967)
--Februrary 24, 2004 I am absolutely *DEAD TIRED*! But I still didn't forget to update my site today! (...Yaaaaay...) I'm also only fifteen albums away from reaching number 200! (...Yaaaaaay...) I'm still not getting enough traffic, though. I'm not really discouraged by that, though. How many people are there can I expect to be EXTREMELY bored and are willing to sift through my very inconsistant reviewing style? Heck if I know! OH AND YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT! I finally followed-through with my long-been-promising Led Zeppelin III and Broken Barricades! (Not that there are actually people who were waiting for this ... I'm mostly just excited about the fact that I've been promising this to myself for such a long time ...) I took that physics test today. That's probably why I'm so bummed at the moment. (I couldn't answer a question ... grrr ...) That might also be because I'm currently listening to In Utero by Nirvana. It's too good for me to dismiss it as 'pig's garbage,' but I'm currently under the impression that it is one of the most overrated albums on the planet. After really liking Nevermind, I thought the follow-up would have been rather enjoyable. I'm probably going to give In Utero a positive rating, but just to let you know, I'm not having a world of fun with it. ...Of course, no one knows when you are actually going to see these Nirvana reviews. I have a Saxon page to create that's earlier on my queue. --M.L. Album Reviews Added: The Rolling Stones: Exhile on Main St. (1972)
----February 22, 2004 I'm actually having a hard time believing that it's almost March! I also can't believe that I am actually understanding this physics that I've been studying! ... Albeit, I'll have to put the physics knowledge into my test-mode memory. If I took it right now, I'll probably never pass it. That's okay, though. I have all day tomorrow to do my test prep. For the site, today I FINALLY got around to reviewing Loaded by The Velvet Underground. (I know that I've been saying that I would one day finally get to Led Zeppelin III, but ... Loaded better fit in with my circumstances!) I did, however, relisten to Led Zeppelin III as well as Broken Barricades while I was on a walk today, and I certainly feel that I am ready to review both of them. Therefore, they should be any day now! I also reviewed, this weekend, Marc Anthony's Libre (which was kind of good, surprisingly), an utterly useless review of Saxon's Wheels of Steel and The Stones' Goat Head Soup (which, by the way, garnered a higher score than I gave to Exhile on Main St. that I posted today. It might cause some minor controversy.) After I review these ever-so-promised Led Zeppelin and Procol Harum albums, I'm planning on doing Nirvana's In Utero and The Moody Blues' The Seventh Sojurn. Other than that, I've just been peachy! I'm not too thrilled that my weekend is over, but I knew that was coming. --M.L. |