french onion farts

The summer is "go" time in the tattoo business and two weeks into summer hours I'm already ready for winter to be back. I have zero time for myself, it's all work, work, work. I can be thankful that I'm not tattooing Cherry Creek flash all the time, and I can be happy that I'm not these guys.... shit I can't remember the site right now, anyways it was really bad, I'll try to remember later.
Matt O

This storm is scaring me!!!!

it's even got Colbert's version on the O'reily freak out.

..enjoy!

Homegrown this week, could be the coldest ever, but I've got other things on my mind.

My boner for The Constantines still continues, 5 years in. They will be playing 7th Street Entry in June, I will be there with a friend or two. I will shit my pants, especially if they play Little Instruments, my favorite all time by them, and they rarely play it live, but they did last night. So enjoy...

I was never expecting this, but...
Constantines meet MTV, MTV meet The Constantines, they're going to rock your ass off.

I need to see this movie. A documentry about Sailor Jerry, hope it's on DVD soon, they showed it at South by Southwest. Here's some clips. Philadelphia Eddie, awwww, one of my heroes.

"...from my cold dead hands."



One down, too many more to go!!

...here they are.

re·spon·si·ble
1. answerable or accountable, as for something within one's power, control, or management (often fol. by to or for): He is responsible to the president for his decisions.
2. involving accountability or responsibility: a responsible position.
3. chargeable with being the author, cause, or occasion of something (usually fol. by for): Termites were responsible for the damage.
4. having a capacity for moral decisions and therefore accountable; capable of rational thought or action: The defendant is not responsible for his actions.
5. able to discharge obligations or pay debts.
6. reliable or dependable, as in meeting debts, conducting business dealings, etc.
7. (of a government, member of a government, government agency, or the like) answerable to or serving at the discretion of an elected legislature or the electorate.

[Origin: 1590–1600; < L respōns(us) (see response) + -ible]

and...

re·spon·si·bil·i·ty
1. the state or fact of being responsible.
2. an instance of being responsible: The responsibility for this mess is yours!
3. a particular burden of obligation upon one who is responsible: the responsibilities of authority.
4. a person or thing for which one is responsible: A child is a responsibility to its parents.
5. reliability or dependability, esp. in meeting debts or payments.
—Idiom6. on one's own responsibility, on one's own initiative or authority: He changed the order on his own responsibility.

[Origin: 1780–90; respons(ible) + -ibility]

You know, just in case you were twenty something and didn't know, or have a clue what it's like to be responsible for your life and your actions.

Matt O

Happy St. Urho's Day!!!

That's all you should need.

I'm feeling much better, I still have a bit of a throat thing, but compared to less than a week ago I'm 2,000 times better.

In other news... My first really good friend was Corey Scibner, he lived across the street from the house I grew up in, he was my first best friend. When I was 10 years old his family moved to L.A. so his dad could take a stab at an acting career. In the last 3 years Corey and I have reconnected and pretty much picked up where we left off, we really hadn't seen each other in 20 years. He even flew in for me and Amber's wedding. With that said, I thought it might be nostalgic to buy his father, Don Scibner's, movies. So I used my $50 gift certificate on Amazon.com to buy Future Force, Twisted Justice, Rapid Assault, The Cooler, and the his first starting role, Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity. These are mostly mid to late 1980s B-movies, The Cooler is the most recent and actually stars William H. Macey, one of my favorite actors. Don also has a part in "Charlie got molested" from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and he has a role in a Harrison Ford movie, Crossing Over, that's due out this year. I'm excited to watch these movies.

So that's what I've been up to. I'm also working hard on not getting annoyed so easily, especially with our current tax system in the U.S.A.

Matt O

I was on myspace today and got into it with a guy from www.stickerjunkie.com He posted a Barack Obama bulletin full lies and what not, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, you know those emails that everyone's been getting. Anyway, it ended up with me calling him an asshole, and him calling Barack a nigger, well he called Barack a nigger first, then that triggered me calling him an asshole, among other things. So, I'm assuming he's the owner of the business, and it seems like he's got a pretty small outfit, and by his tone and arguments I think he's a far right "the democrats are gonna' take our guns" republican. So I think we should all order small batches of political stickers, not that I want to give him our business, but I think it might get a rise, or maybe not. I might order a small batch of "'The right to bear arms' should be put into context." or "My penis is much smaller than my gun." You know what I mean, I just came up with those on the spot, you guys have way better ideas. Let me know what you think I should do. I don't know if it's this sickness but I'm really amped up right now. I'm affraid that these kinds of arguments are going to be a recuring thing until Barack wins in November, which I will get very tired of. I'm actually getting a list of Obama truths to post at my station, you'd never guess how many people say they won't vote for him because he "dissrespects the flag" what a bunch of idiots. I better stop, I can feel my blood pressure rising.
Matt O

I'm sick as shit. I don't think I've been this sick since I was 6 years old, when I pooped my pants at school. Here's to a visit to the doctor tomorrow, Amber wants me to go to the E.R. right now, but I'd rather save a $1,000. In the last few days I've drank my weight in orange juice, I've thrown up my weight in puke, and I called in sick to a job for the first time ever. I take pride in being able to sweat through things with out a lot of complaining, and I think I'm good at putting up the facade that I'm a pretty tough cookie, but I feel like I'm going to die and I seriously want to cry. My chest rattles when I breath and it turns me into a helpless 6 year old. I'm going to take a shot of night time cough medicine and try to sleep without overheating. Goodnight.
Matt O

Say what. For those of you who haven't gone to perfect duluth day yet, check this out. Poor Jitter Bug.

So, I haven't been up to much lately. Got new golf clubs for the holiday and an awesome new jacket. New years was a blast, lots of friends and fun times. The big news for me is that Amber and I will be leaving for Las Vegas on Monday, and I'm more than ready to take a vacation. The shop has been really busy this winter. I've only tattooed in one other shop, and when working there October - Febuary were always much slower than the rest of the year, not sure why we're so busy. Sometimes I just want to sit on my ass and do nothing at work, but I guess I'd rather be busy than slow. A week in Las Vegas is going to be just what the doctor ordered, plus we'll be walking everywhere, hopefully that will jump start one of my new year's resolutions to start getting more excercise.
In keeping with the new year's resolutions theme, I've kept up with all my drawings so far in 2008, and I'm pretty happy about that. It was so much easier when I worked at a shop that was all flash,(for those who don't know 'flash' is the word used for those pre-drawn designs that people pick off the wall) Sometimes I miss just being able to grab a design off the wall, grab the line work, then tattoo it, without really thinking much about it. I have to say that I'm much happier putting something I've designed on someone. One of those designs I drew I tattooed Saturday night on Johnny Mac!!!!!!!! It's of St. Jerome, I was pretty stoked to draw it up, I was really happy with the design, but I think it took me at least 6 months to come up with a design. We got the first layer down, about 3 hours of line work and black and grey, now we just need to ad the color, which should go pretty fast.

As far as today, it started off with a bang, a tattoo, which isn't unusual, but then I did 4 piercing on 3 different people. They were all walk-ins, and none of them came in together. The wierd thing is that I haven't done alot of piercings this winter, I think I can count on both hands how many piercings I've done in the last 3 months. Having 3 people come in right away was pretty abnormal, I'm not sure why this happened.
One last thing, you're all invited to Guadalajara this Sunday night, January 27th, for Amber's surprise golden birthday party. The party will be starting around 5 p.m. and it is a surprise, so no seeing us at brunch on Sunday and saying "See you tonight at Guads!" That would probably ruin the surprise, and I would cry. There will be cake, probably butter cream frosting, chocolate cake, and golden. See you there, we'll be there for a long while, I don't think we usually get out of there in under 2-3 hours, so we'll be there until 8 or so, maybe later.
Talk to you all later.
Matt O

I'm not one to do these, but...

1. I'm going to work on getting my drawings and sketches done in a decent amount of time, like a day or two. I find myself getting right about to finish a tattoo design, then I pick up a book, or scrap the design and start all over. I do this especially when the designs are for someone I know. Sorry John and Allen, I'll get them done soon. I've also done this for people that come in and want something completely stupid or over done. This I don't have much guilt about. You can only tattoo barbed wire or a tiger jumping out of someone's skin so many times until you've had enough. One day I dream of tattooing Sailor Jerry designs all day long, and building machines.

2. Read at least 2-3 books a month.

3. Start exercising again. I'm almost 100 lbs heavier than I was 10 years ago, and I feel like shit. It should only take me a year or two to get that weight off, if I'm consistant. I'm tired of feeling like shit.

4. Start drinking more burbon.

5. Tour and record more with Cars & Trucks, a serious tour, more than a couple of weeks.

6. Go to Boise and Vegas at least once, maybe Vegas twice.

7. Get one more dog, Bart needs a friend.

that's it.

Matt O

8. Figure out how to calibrate my oven.

I listened to Taken by Trees for the first time this weekend, and I can't stop listening to them. New favorite I think.

Tonight we will be having our company christmas party at the tattoo studio!!!! You are all invited, it starts at 8pm, food and beverages will be served!!!!!