The Banker goes to a rock show

In an attempt to make me more culturally relevant, the Rocker asked me to come out to see his band play. In spite of having to go to work the next day, I decided to be a good trooper and come watch. The following is the running diary of the night.

10:12 – Finding a parking spot on the square in Denton requires 15 minutes of driving in circles (I guess technically in squares) until someone is leaving and you are in the right place at the right time. Epic fail.

10:27 – I was supposed to be at the show at 9pm to pre-party with the band, but Pale Rider was on AMC. Then the end of the Bucket List was on and if Morgan Freeman narrates something then I am forced to watch it. After the Bucket List, Cinemax was airing a movie called Super Ninja Bikini Babes. I decided to skip Super Ninja Bikini Babes to go to the Rocker’s show. I am forced to acknowledge the marketing brilliance of adult filmmakers. It is awfully hard to pass up a show titled Super Ninja Bikini Babes, but I am a true fan of Redefine. (The Rocker’s band)

10:29 – The Rocker asks if I Tivo’d Super Ninja Bikini Babes. For the record, I did not. The only thing sadder than Tivoing soft core pornography on Cinemax is a grown man living in his mom’s basement. Or possibly writing a running diary during a rock show.

10:32 – The opening band’s name should have something to do with man boobs.

10:35 – Redefine groupies….check. Bankers do not have groupies. Advantage Rocker.

10:37 – The lead singer of Man Boobs tells an uninterested audience to do something. They do not. Fail.

10:42 – I have gone upstairs on the loft to write in peace. There is a nasty couch up here that looks like it was a hand me down from the club owner’s cousin. The cousin that was an adult filmmaker in the 70s. I have never been afraid of furniture until now.

10:44 – The Man Boobs have a song called “Panty Dropper” that they are about to perform. Unless it is about the fact that they regularly drop their sister’s delicates when they fold laundry back at their parent’s house then it must be entirely fictional.

10:45 – The song is fictional.

10:47 – I wish this place had a cocktail waitress. If a club has multiple levels then it should have either a bar on each level or cocktail waitresses. This needs to be a city building and zoning ordinance. We need to campaign for this kind of change. YES WE CAN!

10:50 – The Man Boobs forget the name of the next band in an extremely awkward silence that is only broken by a member of the crowd that is casually listening and yells out the next band’s name. The Rocker is mortified because Redefine is the next band.

10:52 – The lead singer of Man Boobs gives the following advice about life. “This next song is about fate. It’s in your hands. Live your life and change your fate!” The inspiring words hit me like a ton of bricks. Until I use my brain and realize the irony of controlling your own fate.

10:54 – The song is so good that I have the free time to look up the definition of fate on my Blackberry.

Fate – an inevitable and often adverse outcome, condition, or end.

The key word of that definition is inevitable.

10:58 – The Man Boobs are done. The Rocker is setting the stage for his turn to rock. Time for me to mingle with the crowd.

11:01 – I went to college with the bartenders at the bar. I consider this moment in time as an incredible advertisement for the virtues of occasional class attendance and devoting as much energy towards scholastic achievement as alcoholic beverage consumption when one is attending college. They are good bartenders though so maybe they have a Brian Flanagan thing going.

11:03 – There is a very weird lady walking around looking for the right guy to buy her enough drinks. There is nothing out of the ordinary about seeing girls like this in a college town, but most of them do not dress like the leading lady in an 80s hair band music video. The long, black coat with the fur collar is a nice touch with the overly curled and teased blond hair.

11:08 – Setting up for their turn on stage proves that all band guys are A/V nerds.

11:10 – The Rocker has the coolest rock girlfriend ever. She is also a banker which I feel gives her the above mentioned coolness. She is the perfect hybrid.

11:15 – I can’t help but smile when I think about how many overdraft fees will be caused by bar tabs and pretty girls at the venue tonight. I think this puts me about two steps away from being the kind of evil banker that forecloses on orphanages and the elderly.

11:18 – The rocker uses two guitars to rock but I only need one pen to bank. The pen is mightier.

11:21 – I just looked at the roof here. By no definition of structural integrity would I consider this to be secure. I am literally risking my personal safety by being here. This along with the fact that I passed up Super Ninja Bikini Babes proves my Redefine fan street cred.

11:22 – I want to set up a merch booth at my bank. People need shirts commemorating my banking skills and service, and I need more of their money.

11:24 – Watching the soundboard guys gives me a new found appreciation for him. His job seems extremely too difficult given the size of the soundboard and the number of knobs and buttons on it. He deserves groupies too.

11:25 – I openly wonder why we don’t have more shows about the dumb things that drunk people do. It seems like these kinds of shows would be wildly entertaining.

11:26 – In response to my drunk show question, I am immediately reminded about MTV by those around me. I was completely wrong about the entertainment value of shows about drunk people being idiots.

11:32 – The Rocker does a lot of hair flipping. If there was a talent scout from Pantene or L’Oreal then he would be sponsored in a heartbeat.

11:34 – I am amazed at people that can write original music. The talent it takes to make sound that people will like and lyrics they will identify with is insane.

11:35 – Why are more recorders not used in bands? We all know how to play them. It seems like learning Hot Cross Buns in the 2nd grade is the instrument’s peak.

11:37 – A bearded man in a Hawaiian shirt sits down and is consumed by the mystery couch. The properties of this couch may be of interest to both the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Stephen Hawking.

11:40 – Someone just bought a shot for the Rocker. This has never happened to me at work. Advantage Rocker.

11:48 – Where on the classiness scale do you place the girl that makes out along the railing of the loft of a smoky bar in Denton, TX with a guy in cargo shorts?

11:51 – The girl on the railing is the weird lady from earlier. Was it the fur collar or the heels that put her Mr. Right Now over the top? Had they made out on the mystery couch my head may have exploded.

12:00 – The Rocker just apologized for something. Rock means never saying you are sorry for anything.

12:01 – The best thing about Redefine, other than the music and the Rocker’s hair, is that the Broski count in the audience is zero. This is a sign of quality music.

12:03 – The audience is fighting one another. I am told this is another sign of quality music.

12:05 – I’m disappointed that Redefine does not have a song about women’s undergarments and the effect of gravity upon said undergarments. They have a lot to learn from Man Boobs.

12:07 – In spite of my concern, I am told that the constipated face that the Rocker is making is a natural and good “rock face”. WebMD begs to differ.

12:15 – The show is over and I am heading home for the night. It was a good show and I learned a lot of interesting things. I mention that the Rocker should come to the bank tomorrow and do a running diary of me at work. He slurs out some kind of response that I think meant that the bank would be closed for the day before he would be awake. The life of a rocker…

- The Banker

Barack Obama and the Politics of Fear.

I have noticed that democrats typically like to accuse the Bush administration and others of using the "politics of fear." We've all heard the term used very loosely, from Hillary Clinton, to Nancy Pelosi, to even Barack Obama. While I understand the notion and where they are coming from with the argument, there's something that needs to be noticed: Barack Obama also uses the politics of fear on the American public. He claims not to use it, but mixed in with his messages of "hope" and "change" are harsh images of gloom and doom...in order to scare the American people into thinking that his way is the only right way.

Such is the way of the Marxist. Let me give you a little insight as to what I'm talking about here.

Barack Obama is constantly praised by the media and his cult of followers for having a positive look to politics. He preaches against the politics of fear, says he is here to put a new face on America, and to spread those two buzzwords that have been affectively marketed to the citizens of America - hope and change. To clarify, let me say that there's nothing wrong with hope and change as words or emotions or even acts...however, what we are "hoping" for is never fully defined, and this "change" that keeps getting defined and then redefined seems to be moving the american public closer to a state of bigger government control and power, a shift away from the democracy and freedoms we currently enjoy and a strategic move towards a quasi-socialist state.

So, that being said, you are probably still asking: how does this play into Barack Obama's speeches and rhetoric?

The answer is simple. Obama spends half of his time painting a picture of a tattered, torn, broken America that is in dire need of repair. He sucks the listener in by saying "this is how bad things are and this is how worse they will get over time." When he's made that point, he offers a simple solution...more government. Let's take an excerpt from his inaugural address:

"That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time."

To some degree, he is correct. The nation has certainly seen better days. However, instead of focusing on the positives of the nation and what can be done to repair parts that are broken, Obama continually poses bigger government as the solution to the problem.

"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government."

What you have to do here is break down what the man is saying and look how it applies to his policies. Obama mentions that we should not ask whether or not government is to small or big (which I think we all know the answer to that question...government continues to expand at an alarming rate - a leviathan that must be subdued and contained before it damages the American public beyond that which we can recover from). However, one look at his policies and ideas for America and we can see that it is obvious how he wants government to be at the center of all. In Obama's America, gone are many of the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy today. The free market will be weakened, government will control healthcare, government will work to nationalize the banking industry, and a "tax credit" will be invoked that in all reality is actually a welfare program - taking money from those who earn it and giving a $1000 "stimulus check" to the portion of Americans who are fitting the Obama demographic which works to expand the percent of the population who already pay no income taxes - thus reinforcing a belief that they should be relying on the government to take care of them, that they should not have to work hard for anything, or take any responsibility for their actions. Suddenly there is a majority of americans who are dependent on the government and not for themselves to provide. Quite simply put, this is not good.

What Obama effectively does in doing this is help to create a voting majority in where people are used to relying on the federal government to fix problems. By spending trillions upon trillions of taxpayer money, he will not fix the deficit. He says that it will be a long road, but truth be told it will be a longer road if there is more government intervention in the market and more intervention in our everyday lives.

This does not even begin to tap the surface of how he and a congress full of Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Schumer, (and potentially even Caroline Kennedy and that never once funny comedian Al Franken) will invoke the fairness doctrine (which censors free political speech, and even more so in a way just that speech which speaks out against the liberal policy), raise the population of labor union forces, and of course, this notion that he should expand the government workforce by an additional 30-40%. Suddenly, before the American people know it (at least for those of us who aren't skeptical), the majority of their lives are in total government control. It may only take a good 4 years to set some of these policies up, but it will take a long time to break them down.

Now, just to show you the difference between a politician that sees the market and liberty as a bad thing and a politician who sees the individual as a good thing and too much government intervention as a bad thing, let me leave you with two quotes from a great leader, Ronald Reagan. Even if you have disagreed with some things he has said, read the quotes...there's no denying that he is dead on in this respect:

"And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: "As government expands, liberty contracts."

and...

"Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: "We the People." "We the People" tell the government what to do; it doesn't tell us. "We the People" are the driver; the government is the car, and we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the People" tell the government what it is allowed to do. "We the People" are free."

Both quotes were taken, from Ronald Reagan's farewell address in the oval office.

That, my friends is what it's all about. Before I end this blog post, there is something that I feel must be said. The government shouldn't be controlling your life. The market will rise and it will fall...there will be hard times and there will be easy times. There will be times of prosperity and there will be times of economic depression. However, this one fact remains - it is up to the American people to provide for one another and to ensure the nation grows both morally and economically, be it an upswing or if our wonderful country may take a slight dip from an economic standpoint. The truth remains that this is the greatest nation in the world, and that all must be done to preserve the freedoms and liberties that we are able to enjoy day in and day out. This is my America, this is your America, and no one should ever be able to take that away from us. The peaceful transfer of power from one president to another on January 20th with every new incoming administration and the prosperity of this nation and wonderful liberties and freedoms we enjoy are clear cut examples of this. I ask you as Americans to stand up and make sure this government is returned to that for which it stands...a government for the people, and by the people. May God bless you all, and may God bless this great land and the freedoms and liberties we are granted.

-The Rocker

Olympic Thoughts of the Banker

• I love the Olympics. Not only do I like to root for my home nation, but I legitimately enjoy watching all of the different sports that I rarely get a chance to see.

• The Olympics always remind me that the average person in any nation around the world is pretty similar at their core. Athletes from Russia, Iran, China, and a score of other countries have no problem hanging out with our American athletes. It reminds me that Americans don't have problems with Iranians, we have problems with the leaders and extremists of Iran. I assume that Iranians feel the same way.

• I love the sense of patriotism that the Olympics bring out. It is a good sense of nationalism because it is devoid of the typical negativity that accompanies nationalism. Everyone is proud of their country, their home, without disliking someone else's home. It is also great because the Olympics gives us a good reason to rally around the flag. People, I believe, are always proud of their country (unless they're Michelle Obama) but are not always outwardly expressing that pride. Normally we are only motivated to outwardly express our patriotism after a tragedy or during a war. The Olympics give us a positive reason to be loud and proud flag waivers.

• I wish they would institute an age limit for girls gymnastics. I have a problem watching 16 year old girls put on a stage like that. I watch them do these amazing things, and think they are amazing athletes, but I get the feeling that they missed out on being kids. I don't like hearing Natasha Liukin's dad say her whole life has been in preparation for Olympic gold. Her whole life should have been in preparation for the rest of her life. Supporting your kid's interests is great and I'm definitely going to have my kids in sports because it does teach you life skills, but pushing your kid, or letting your kid, into revolving their lives around a sport is wrong. I want to see those girls compete when they are in their 20s so they have had to make the personal choice to continue to chase their dream as adults. Not kids having mom and dad shuttle them to the gym every morning at the age of 5. And those are just the American parents. I don't want to imagine what it is like to be "chosen" as an Olympic gymnast in China or the old eastern bloc.

• I'm glad Kobe Bryant put Cris Collinsworth in his place for questioning whether or not it is "cool" to be proud of America. I liked Cris Collinsworth as an analyst before that question. Now, I am glad that we spell our first names differently.

• It is amazing how amazing you can make the Olympics when you don't have worker's rights and labor is cheaper than clean air. It will be interesting to see the differences between this Olympics and London's.

• Michael Phelps is amazing and the fact that he plans on swimming in the next games makes me respect him even more.

• The Redeem Team did more to boost the image of the NBA than anything David Stern can sell. I actually like Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, and Carmelo Anthony a little more now. Watching those guys play like they did for nothing more than pride really humanizes them. The NBA turns these guys into a one man business, the Olympics make them American men.

• I have a problem with athletes living and training in America and then playing for other nations in the Olympics. They come here and use our freedoms and resources, then decide to compete for their nation of birth. I feel they need to show respect to the country that enables them to be the world class athletes they are by wearing our colors when they compete.

• Watching the opening ceremonies highlighted why America is such a successful and wonderful place. Diversity. The athletes from China all looked similar, the athletes from Russia all looked similar, etc. But our athletes are diverse. We are diverse and it makes us great.

An introduction, just a typical weekend (Rocker Edition)

There's no certain guarantee in life on what causes people to be friends. That's just a no-brainer. You can't ever figure everything out man, I'm sure of that. And with that statement...welcome to this blog.

Let's start with introductions, shall we? We are two dudes, both named Chris. Yes, that's right...not in the "my name is Daryl, this is my other brother Daryl" sort of way, just in the sense that we both have the most radical name in the world (yes, I said "radical" pal, you read it right). Our professions take us to two different worlds, hence the name - the rocker and the banker. I (Chris the rocker), am exactly what you would expect. Long hair, play in a band, and am out there playing shows and partying weekly. It's what I do, and I plan on making the most out of it. There's nothing quite like the art of expression through music. It's what keeps everything in this world turning for me.

This weekend in particular was great. Played a show...HUGE crowd. I was out there, rocking out, hair flying, signing autographs, shots afterward (Patron, whiskey, patron, can i get a beer? Where's my beer?) - you know the drill. Now, banker Chris was cool enough to come out, knock back a brew with me and check out the show. Later on in the evening, he peaced out, I kept partying. That's just the way we roll. Went to bed at 6 am, spoke to him the next day - while I was going to bed, he was getting up already. Even better, just to put it in perspective - while I was finally up getting some pizza in my system, he was already out on the golf course.

Like I said - that's just how we roll. Yes, maybe the most unlikely of friends. But, there's a lot of opinion and attitudes going on between us that really make us get along. So, in this cyber-savvy day and age, what's cooler than blogging about it?

Read up and enjoy, guys and gals.

-The Rocker