Author: deftone20@bellsouth.net

Almost Famous

  

If you know me, or have been around me for any reasonable amount of time, the name Deftones has most likely surfaced in some way or another. If you’ve sent me an email, you’ve typed it.  If you’ve followed me on Insagram or Snapchat, you’ve typed it.  If you’ve sat in my truck, you’ve no doubt heard them.  They are a constant presence in my life.  I’ve had a few people in the past ask me, “what’s up with you and Deftones?”  It’s a question that I’ve never really had a formal answer for but there has always been a reason.

I’ll start with a brief background for those who stick to Top 40 or Country.  Deftones is a band that is somewhat of a fusion of the alternative, rock, and nu-metal genres with an experimental sound to them.  They formed in 1988 in Sacramento, CA and have been creating music for almost 30 years now.  The band’s lead singer Chino Moreno has, as best as I can describe it, a melodic, soothing agression to his voice that borders on haunting tension at times.  Odd description I know, but I don’t write for Rolling Stone.  Along with Chino, Stephen Carpenter plays a superb lead guitar, Abe Cunningham crushes the drums, Frank Delgado adds the experimental sound on the turntables and Sergio Vega replaced the late Chi Cheng on bass.

I was first introduced to Deftones around 1996, about a year after their first full length album, Adrenaline, was released.  At first, they fit into the rotation with Korn, Limp Bizkit and the like.  It didn’t take too long for them to rise to the top of my playlist.  By the time Around The Fur was released in 1997, they were head and shoulders above.  I guess it really all started with Chino’s voice.  I had never heard anyone sing like him.  He could scream violently for 2 minutes and then break into one of the smoothest melodies you’d ever heard in a rock song, then finish with a breathless howl that I became addicted to.  With the discovery of the song “Be Quiet and Drive”, Deftones completely sank their teeth into me and have yet to let go.

Somewhere around 23 or 24, music started really meaning something to me.  It began to have a profound effect on my demeanor and my thought process.  I didn’t just listen to music as I traveled from place to place, I would put on headphones and just lose all sense of time and reality.  It was almost an out of body experience when listening to the right tunes and Deftones fit that bill.  No matter what was going on, there was a song for it and usually it just wound up on repeat until I lost conciousness.  Feeling somber, I went with “Be Quiet and Drive”, “Digital Bath” or “First”.  If frustration was the demon of the day, “Headup”, “Engine No. 9” or “7 Words” was the cure.  Even when I was even keel, “Bored”, “Passenger” and “RX Queen” pushed me along.  There was and still is a song that fits just right for a particular mood I am in.

The personal nature of my relationship with their music got stronger as I matured.  I felt like they were coming of age right along with me.  The distorted, screaming tones of Adrenaline were still fun to listen to but they weren’t the mental escapes they once were.  Their music was changing though.  The sound was becoming clearer and cleaner and Chino’s voice was refining as much as my understanding of the world around me was.  The music continued to speak to me.  It is almost impossible to explain in words.  Chino once said of his lyrics, “It doesn’t matter if you understand what I’m trying to say as long as I paint a picture where the music and the feeling you feel matches.  More importantly, it changes the way you were thinking for the better or makes you feel good.”  That is what Deftones had become for me.  Isn’t that why music was created in the first place?

Shifting from the music to the band itself, I finally was able to see them live for the first time in Jacksonville in February of 2006.  I had reservations because you never know how a band will sound live but they did not disappoint and instead of spending the night in Jax at the conclusion of the midnight concert, I had the adrenaline, no pun intended, to drive back home, by myself, pumping the songs for 3 more hours.  As fun as that trip was, my love for them was cemented when I saw them just a few months later at Floyds Music Store in Tallahassee.  Floyds is a much more intimate setting than Metro Park in Jax.  At the conclusion of the concert, Chino announces that the band will be hanging around the bus at the rear of the venue after and invited the crowd to hang out with them.  I was like a kid on Christmas morning!  I met every single member of the band, took photos, showed off my Deftones ink and even had a conversation with Chi that I will always cherish.  He was a mammoth of a man but as gentle and humble in person as you’d ever meet.   Just two years later, Chi would be involved in an automobile accident that left him in a semi concious state for the next several years.  He would later lose his battle on April 14, 2013.  The concert in 2006 would be the last time I saw him play live.  

  
I have seen them play live a few more times but the most recent was in March of 2013 at The Tabernacle in Atlanta.  The concert was by far the most amazing Deftones concert I have seen to date.  The Tabernacle felt like a venue that was built with Deftones in mind. The accoustics, the view, the energy…..unmatched!  As great as the concert was, the highlight of the evening would happen after the show.  With the venue being small and more personal, Alicia and I decided to post up near the buses and see if the band would do an impromptu meet and greet.  After waiting quite a while, Stephen appeared and began milling around with the small crowd, joking, taking photos and signing autographs.  

After about 45 minutes of just hanging out, he made a comment that he was thinking about grabbing a quick bite before hopping on the bus as their next destination was Miami, quite a haul.  Alicia broke in with a joke, “we’re heading to Waffle House, just go with us.”  He looked at a roadie, checked his watch and said, “I’m in, where is your car?”  One of my musical heroes of the last 20 years was about to go with me to Waffle House after one of his concerts…..butterflies consume me as I type this now.  A million thoughts ran through my mind as we cruised those downtown streets.  We sat in a Waffle House booth at 1 am in downtown Atlanta and talked as if we were long lost friends.  He picked up the tab, as any professional would do, and we took him back to the venue.  He disappeared on that bus and my mind would take the next several hours to process what had just happened.

  
There are a lot of stories out there of people finally meeting their favorite athlete or entertainer and the reality hitting them that “this person could care less about me.”  Deftones have shown me on more than one occasion that their efforts are not just selfish in nature.  Stephen Carpenter doesn’t remember who I am but for a short time, we were no different from each other.  We were two dudes who enjoyed a great night of music and finished it off with some Waho steak and eggs.  I can’t think of any better way I could’ve ever imagined that night going.  As corny as it may sound, Deftones will forever be my band and I will carry their flag with pride.  It seems they have the same plan in mind.  Their new album releases on April 8, 2016 and when asked about potential touring, Stephen was quoted as saying, “We’ll play for all the people who are interested and want to hear it.”  They want to play and I want to hear.  So I guess that’s what’s up with me and Deftones.

Joey

Video Superstore

   

 One post about movies is all it took for me to have this rush to the forefront of my mind.  I am one of the lucky ones to be alumni of that great establishment.  In Camilla, in the early to mid 90’s, there was really only one place for a teenager to work and be happy.  That was the Video Superstore.  They had one in Pelham too but come on, it was Pelham…..sorry Pelham folks, it’s just how I was raised.  Let’s be clear about the timeframe too – 1992-1995 was absolutely the heyday.  It was around a while later too but so was Saved By The Bell, The College Years.  

VS was nestled in the Wal Mart shopping center between Subway and Winn Dixie.  That was prime real estate during that time period and the video business was at the top of the entertainment game.  There was no Netflix, no Redbox, no YouTube.  I’m pretty sure the Internet didn’t hit the scene until 1995.  Before all of that, there was the video store.  And VS was a shining example of one!  It was the small town version of Empire Records.  We had so much fun there that most of the time it felt like we were getting paid to goof off.  Which I guess is a fairly accurate assessment too.

Sure there was work; dusting the shelves, vacuuming, window cleaning, checking the box and movie to make sure they matched up.  The managers even went through and jumbled movies from time to time to make sure we were doing the job.  “The Man” always has a way of dragging you down.  However, I knew those shelves like the back of my hand and they would’ve had to get up pretty early to get one over on me.  But back to the fun.  Friday and Saturday nights at VS were absolutely nuts!  Those were the nights everyone came to rent a video and those were also the nights that all of the other teens were riding back and forth through the Wal Mart parking lot.  The place was hopping and the doors were usually crowded with friends who would come “sit around” and just people watch.  I can still see my boys just hanging around the front door, in and out, making jokes and flirting with girls.  Usually, that last part went unrequited.  Still good times though.

There were other perks of the job too.  The T Shirts were a prize commodity.  All of my friends wanted a VS T Shirt, which came in short and long sleeve versions with the VS in the shape of the Superman logo.  We could also select any movie, below R Rating, to watch on the 3 TV’s scattered throughout the store.  During slow times, mostly mornings, you could watch entire movies between customers and catch anything that you might have been wanting to see for a while.  But perhaps the greatest perk was early viewing.  When movies came out on Tuesday, they would arrive at the store on Monday and the employees could take them home, provided they had them back before the store opened at 10 the next day.  Don’t underestimate the power of having a VHS tape in your possession before it was even released at 17 years old.

The customers were also a plus.  For some reason, most people going out to rent a video in those days were generally happy when they were in the VS.  Twenty-one years later, I can still remember one customers account number strictly based on the way he said it.   I even remember Alicia coming in the store pre-relationship.  She made it a point for me to remember.  She would ask a question like “can we come in without shoes” just to talk to me (her words not mine) and then just walk around the store and position herself so she could still see me (again, her words).  This was all after they would do a drive by to see if I was working.  I’m tellin you, that VS T Shirt did wonders for my social life.  But don’t worry, all of that infatuation dissipated during my umpire days.  But that’s another story for another day.

There are a ton of memories that I carry with me today that involve that hallowed place; Steven’s stirring rendition of Sammy Kershaw’s “Third Rate Romance”, Black Belt Jones, Lightning Jack, Shaq Fu, Munt watching movies with me on slow days and the gum ball machine that spit out tinfoil gum balls that represented a free rental.  Even the night I flipped a golf cart, bleeding all over one of the greens at Pinecrest Country Club started at the VS.  I guess that’s yet another story for another time.

Sadly, the run had to end at some point.  Of all the great aspects the store had to offer, one of the downsides was being open 365 days a year.  As it would work out one year, I had to work on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.  That was enough to send this 17 year old packing in search for a more laid back schedule.  Little did I know, that would be the most laid back workplace I would ever see.  I have since joked to my friends that in high school I had envisioned living a life like that in the “Clerks” movie, working at a video store and my best friend working next door.  Eventually, the store closed and the industry as a whole disappeared as more accessible and convenient ways to watch movies emerged.  But as easy as it is to turn on Netflix, they will never be able to replace the feeling of hanging out at one of the most popular spots in town on a Friday night, watching movies and trying to get phone numbers.  Oh, and getting paid for it the whole time. I love you VS!

Joey

Old Friends

image Throughout our lifetime, most friends will come and go.  People change.  For better or for worse, we all evolve and wind up either leaving people behind or we are left behind ourselves.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Everyone and everything serves some purpose in our lives.  It’s just that sometimes the road comes to an end.  A dead end doesn’t have to be a car crash.  Sometimes, the car just crawls to a stop at the end of the pavement, you get out and start walking.  I’ve experienced friendship car crashes as well as dead ends.  What is consistent in both cases is that there are memories that always survive.

The memories, by and large, are positive reminders of good times.  As I think back on my youth and the friends I had, I realize that I still have a lot of those friends in my life to some degree.  Some are distant Facebook friends, some I still talk with regularly.  Then there are those that disappeared from my life.  Just vanished into thin air.

My best friend at 16 lived in my neighborhood.  We were inseparable.  We were essentially one person.  We knew what each other was thinking, what we were going through.  We had the same interests.  I mean, really the same interests.  So much of my likes today started with that friendship.  Horror movies, baseball cards, playing basketball, music, all came to life during that time.

I remember one night sitting in my room and flipping through the channels (which was a nightly ritual once I got my own tv).  Most of the time it was Sportscenter or  the Braves but sometimes I’d get lucky and find a good horror movie.  That night was one of those nights.  A zombie flick!  And I’m talking about 1993, not the zombie craze we are all in now.  I was an original zombie guy!  And this movie was good.  It was loaded with awesome quotable phrases, which at the time was a key component to a good movie for me.  “If we’re going to do something, let’s do it.  If we’re going to stand around and BS, let’s do it in the cellar!  Where it’s safe….”  I jumped in about 20 minutes into the movie.  We didn’t have an on screen guide back then and we also didn’t subscribe to the ever popular TV Guide so I was watching a movie I knew nothing about, including the title.  But I watched it until the end, which was after midnight on a school night but it kept me glued to the screen.

Now, my friend rode the bus with me and we met at my house about 745 every morning.  He walks in with this excited look on his face and says “I saw the best zombie movie last night!” I said, “Me too!”  We began quoting the movie to each other and thus was the introduction of what would become the most watched movie in Laurel Lane history.  I later found out that it was Night of the Living Dead, the 90’s remake.  I still own it to this day and can speak through the lines from beginning to end.

imageOf course, that led to many spinoff’s; Return of the Living Dead 1, 2 and 3,  Video Dead, Evil Dead, Dead Alive, Dawn of The Dead.  Basically, movies about the dead were our forte.  What’s weird is that I haven’t seen or spoken to that friend in probably 15 years but I think if I ran into him, the first thing he’d say would be something along the lines of “They’re coming to get you Barbara” or “I don’t think I can do this Bert.”  I would laugh uncontrollably and feel like I was 16 for a moment again.  Those are memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life regardless of our absence from each other’s lives.  Some things will never fade: movie quotes, horrible baseball card trades where we took advantage of each other, owning many a basketball court and hodie wedgies will forever be a part of who I am.  I won’t even begin to explain the hodie wedgie but trust me, it was devastating.

I guess the point is that you should always hold onto and cherish the good memories you make with people, no matter whether those people are around anymore or not.  Those memories live inside us and can help sustain us during times of struggle.  They can take you to a place or a time when your burden was negligible and your responsibilities were a fraction of what they are now as an adult.  I’m sure all of us have our own set of memories that we go to in those times.  Sometimes, we can even pick up the phone and call the person that made the memory with us.  But if you’re like me, you can just pop in an old DVD and watch some undead struggle to break into an old farmhouse and just think about how simple things should be.  Just cherish those moments…..

Joey

 

Indoctrination Into The Blogosphere

At long last, I have decided to give blogging a whirl.  I don’t know the exact reason just yet.  My writing has long been an escape for me and a way to get things off of my chest without having to resort to being open and verbal, which is not a strong suit for me.  A ton of that writing never saw the light of day while the paper (or keyboard) simply served as my sounding board.

On occasion, I would post my thoughts on Facebook or through an email to a friend.  Those were generally met with positive feedback and I found myself becoming more confident in my ramblings.  Confidence can sometimes push people to do crazy things and this for me would qualify.  I generally don’t intend to start debates or cause friction with people who don’t share my point of view but I am aware that making it all public now will likely do just that.  For that, I am prepared but not yet comfortable.  We’ll see how it goes.

In general, my thoughts that make it to the notepad are focused on the psychological workings of a strange, chaotic, sometimes childish mind. I’m happy to write about what I think is important in my life.  It may not be important to others but we have all taken a weird and winding journey to the present.  Maybe your journey has been parallel to mine.  Or maybe the different perspective can help the journey that appears to be bogged down.  Maybe a comment can change the way I think about it too.  Hell, there is also the possibility that nobody will ever read this blog and one day it will be opened up like a time capsule and people will finally understand why this crazy guy seemed like such an oddball.

Aside from the mental rubix cube that inspires me to write, I’m sure there will be time for some sports chat, music opinions or whatever.  I’m just going to take it day by day and see what happens.  This may turn into something very cathartic for me and others or it may fall flat.  There is only one way to find out and that is to give it a shot.  So, that’s why I’m here I suppose.  Maybe I’ll pick up some passengers on the journey.  I’m sure I’ll have others pulling the escape cord.  Either way, I’ll continue to be me.  I sincerely hope that somewhere along the way, you find something meaningful for you.  Here we go…..

Joey