My dodgeball team DESTROYED again last night. We are undefeated 4-0 and have beat, no, destroyed a few of the teams I was worried about losing to. Eric and Doug are back from tour and we were at the top of our game. Everyone from all 8 teams goes to the same bar after the games and it’s a pretty awesome social event. It’s going to be a good summer. Pool parties, BBQ’s, bike riding, and all those good things are to be indulged in constantly. I’m going to have to try to not let the new XBOX get in the way of that, oh “Phazer Blast” is my Xbox Live gamertag. Add Me.

I’m thinking about getting my bike frame powder coated and getting some new handlebars/brakes. Anybody know a cheap powder coating place in LA?

After a fantastic amount of false starts on a new blog entry I’ve decided to take this time to tell you about some things I’ve been into lately, some things I’m excited for, and make you an MP3 mix. Lets get to it shall we? Yes. We shall.

First up, I love McClure’s Pickles. Ryan brought a jar of these spicy pickles out from Brooklyn last Christmas and they are probably the most addicting thing ever. A small family operation run from Brooklyn and Detroit, they create amazing pickles with a fiery kick. Use the spicy pickle brine as a back shot to a shot of whiskey, to make an amazing pickle martini, or a kick ass sunday afternoon bloody mary (or if you are like me, use tequilla instead of vodka for a bloody maria). Their website has a place to order, as well as kick ass recipes for the pickles. Enjoy.

Another thing I’m loving right now, Noise Canceling Headphones. Do you work in an office with no doors or ceilings? I do and these baby’s are a godsend. No more having to crank up the volume to drown out all the conversations. Even with no music, when the noise canceling is on, you can’t hear shit. But noise canceling combined with some music at a decent volume, ahhh. Good if you fly on airplanes too.

One more thing I’m loving? Rick Froberg. Ever since working on the R.F.T.C. R.I.P. packaging I’ve been back to listening to healthy doses of everything John Reis has touched musically - Rocket From the Crypt, Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu, Sultans, Pitchfork and the Night Marchers. Along with that is all the amazing artwork (and music) that Froberg has contributed to some of those bands. I’ve been working up the nerve to ask him how much it would be to commission something. I love his black ink on paper drawings more than Pettibon.

So that brings me to things I’m excited for. First off are Dodgers games. Nothing beats a Spring day or Summer night at the ballpark with a cold beer and a hot dog. Give me a pennant this year at least guys? Please?. Second is soccer, I’m going to opening day of the LA Galaxy this year. I wish soccer games were as cheap as baseball games, I’d go a lot more. Last thing I’m excited for is movie season in the cemetery. Every year in Hollywood Cinespia puts on movies in the Hollywood Forever cemetery. You sit on a big lawn and watch movies projected on the side of the mosilium with a picnic and drinks. It’s amazing. I’ve seen Sunset Blvd, Maltese Falcon, Strangers On A Train, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Harold and Maude, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (Introduced by Pee Wee himself!), and countless other amazing movies. This season starts in May, I can’t wait.

So I guess the last thing is your mix. Download it Here . I tried to make a mix based around a spring/summer theme, and I’m pretty happy with it. This mix is pretty much a mix I would have made in 1999, with a few exceptions. It makes me happy to listen to and I hope you like it too.

London. Ah, what to say about London? I was going to do a day to day type of blog, but when you’re drinking 12-15 pints a day.. they all kind of blend together.. so i’m going to go with a list format. If only half of these make sense to you, that’s about right. Ryan, John and I made the best of not the best trip we could have taken. Here’s what I remember
• A hazy first day walk across the Thames.
• Giggling at every mention of “Cockfosters” or “St. John’s Wood”
• The worst fish & chips ever.
• 7 AM McDonalds Breakfast
• Lots of Museums
• Television (Tele) + Trashcan (Bin) = the Telebin
• Sad drunk after only night 2.
• Awkward night without a private room
• That’s what happens when people stop being polite and start to get frank. Frank World.
• Nowhere to watch the Arsenal game
• Q: When do places open around here? A: Breakfast Time
• Camden Town with Ryan where we saw bootleg photos of Banksy pieces printed on canvas with “no photos please” sign.
• POACHED!
• Gene = John’s new nickname
• “Here’s the Rosetta Stone. Here it is. Oh no, here’s the Rosetta Stone… Here it is”
• Touristy Abbey Road photos.
• Snowcones
• Female conversion rate for Europe +2 points
• Amstel. Not Amstel Light. Amstel
• Getting lost then finding the pub we were looking for.
• I snapped and beat up John for trying to ruin my vacation photo
• Great Hold Steady show at KoKo with Dexter.
• Ryan kissed the British girl i thought was cute so I went to the dark side.
• “That’s why you make out with chicks and I call my Grandma, drunk” - Ben Goetting
• The Tube runs every 2 min, which is awesome
• Vacation ads everywhere because nobody wants to be in London.
• Our second hostel was self proclaimed “England’s premier party hostel!” and the interior decorating looked like a low budget 90’s sci-fi shows vision of the future where nobody lives past 30. Lots of purple and sheet metal.
• Babe-rhood
• New terms for drunk - “Lashed” Sad - “Gutted” and puking - “Chundering”
• “It got messy” “I had a bit of a nap” - Dexter
• Realizing you spent 100 dollars on drinks.
• Making London kids jealous I’ve seen Jawbreaker
• Ryan and I freaking those same kids out by moshing to Andrew WK song.
• Gene gets action in Parliament = Gene Parliament
• Ryan taking a massive dump in the Floor 2 showers in revenge for an asshole hostel worker. (we were on floor 5)
• Slovenian girls surprising me by singing “Happy Birthday” Karaoke style on my birthday was absolutely amazing.
• Kissing a very cute Slovenian girl in the basement of the hostel was also amazing
• Terrible Indian food, Chinese food, burgers, etc. etc etc.
• Great burger from Haché, great breakfast from a gay restaurant that we didn’t realize was gay at first but weren’t about to leave.
• Realizing Europeans have the worst music taste, it’s all bad dance music and hits you haven’t heard in years. The whole bar freaked out for “Cotton Eye Joe” and that Chumbawumba song
• “I’m doing this for YOU. BEN. FOR YOU!”
• Ryan yelling at Brits at 4AM “Please to being quiet now” which angered them and escalated into “Suck Cromwell’s dick” which lead to threats and “Arsenal’s fags” pushing them over the edge. Hysterical laughter turned to fear pretty quick.
• Seeing how much we could pile on Gene’s face to stop him from snoring = more hysterical laughter. Thinking we might have smothered him = more fear.
• Cinemas = bagged popcorn, warm soda, and screens the size of a home entertainment center. for $30 dollars.
• Couldn’t play poker because of the dress code “No white sport trainers”
• “The One Burger” is not just a clever name
• RYMAN! The Stationer!
• Fun rooftop antics = amazing. Dropping new Arsenal scarf in someone’s puke = not amazing.
• Sick and totally over London on Ryan’s birthday.
• “I blew all over this mattress. Stick it up your Bumwaz!” written in sharpie on my mattress.
• Finding out my grandpa was in brain surgery =(
• A long long trip home.

That about sums it up.

And links to our photos:
Ryan’s Photo Set
My Photo Set

Final cover for The Night Marchers

If i said “Cometbus” and you didn’t know what I was talking about immediately, you probably wouldn’t fully understand the amazing night I had last night. I’m sitting there waiting in line for the bathroom at a somewhat secret, unannounced until yesterday Pinhead Gunpowder show in Long Beach, mere blocks away from the former site of the PCH club. In a venue about the size the PCH was. So, I’m standing in line for the bathroom talking to a girl and there’s a lightbulb in the wall and i put my hand near it and it starts flickering, she tries and nothing happens, I go again and it flickers. We laugh and I turn to Aaron Cometbus who is waiting behind me in line and I say “you gotta try.” He dismisses the invitation and says “I don’t want to ruin the magic.”

I’m pretty sure the only way he could have ruined the magic for me tonight was by announcing that he was not going to play drums and Pinhead Gunpowder wasn’t going to play a show I was right up front for in a room with no more than 200 people. But they played, and hearing Mahogany, Life During Wartime, Losers Of The Year, Train Station and so many others played live with Billie Joe Armstrong a mere 6 or 7 feet away could only be described as magical. I danced, I sang along until my voice was horse, I bruised a rib, and I had the best night at a show in … I can’t even remember since when. Tonight crushed my belief that I could no longer have fun at a show. It brought back every feeling of being 15 and seeing Supernova, or the Toy Dolls, or Jawbreaker. A good punk rock show makes you feel like you can do anything. All the bands were great, the people were awesome. I chatted with all kinds of random people, I hung out, I felt a good vibe. It was the complete opposite of almost everything I feel at your average show, or even night out in Hollywood. I think I’m going to go to the Troubadour show they are playing tomorrow but there’s no way it could live up to being eye level with Billie Joe Armstrong as he sang some of my favorite songs of my youth, right up front, screaming my heart out. At the end of the night I got home and washed of the smell of sweat, smoke, and beer; but there was no way you could wipe this smile of my face not even with a bat.

This came up because Jonah and Lauren are out of town and now I have no idea what to do with my Friday night. I’m just barely ending a week of being sick so I should just take the night off anyway. Feels like such a waste. Oh well I guess that’s it. I’ll leave you with a link to this awesome cartoon series that is eventually going to be a book, different cartoon artists all depicting a “Missed Connections” ad as a comic. Amazing. I Saw You - Missed Connections Comics

I have been posting all the little random images, video, etc that I find around the internet on Tumblr. So you can check that out at http://phazerblast.tumblr.com. It’s funny/cute and all that jazz.

On a personal note / news item. I’ve been super busy at work. Finished up the Rocket from The Crypt and A Cursive Memory projects. Right now I’m working on the art for John Reis’ (of Rocket From the Crypt / Hot Snakes fame) new project The Night Marchers. Once that is done you’ll see it here for sure.

I guess that’s about it. Here’s a little something I did today for my boss. Photo retouching / restoration is one of my favorite things to do with photoshop.

It seems like only a long time ago that I was writing about The Best Records of 2007 (The Halfway Mark) and now here we are at the the second half, or “The Home Stretch”. We all know no good records are going to be coming out between now and January 1st so lets get to it. Shall we?

Against Me! - “New Wave”
I was pretty sure this record was going to rule and boy was I right. Absolutely my favorite record of the year. So much so the title of the post right below this one was named after one of my fav tracks. Against Me! is one of the few bands around that reminds me why punk rock was such a big part of my life. Their lyrical commentary on everything from the state of the music industry to the state of the world is just as important as anything the Dead Kennedy’s, Bad Religion, Crass, or anyone else said in their day. A++ (gold star) on this one boys.

Bishop Allen - “The Broken String”
Bishop Allen is a band I discovered way too late. Unique witty lyrics, and poppy melodies; it’s pretty much everything I love about music. Built from some of the best tracks of their E.P. a month project of last year re-recorded and re-worked this album is solid all the way through and is hard to wear out. I’ve probably listened to the song “Rain” about 1,000 times and still every time I hear it I get a little spring in my step. Fans of the Beatles, Belle & Sebastian, Quasi, or pretty much any good rock n’ roll band centered around solid songwriting will LOVE this record.

The Weakerthans - “Reunion Tour”
The Weakerthans are another band I didn’t discover until this year. For some reason I always thought they were some shitty ska-core band. Then Jonah started saying “Dude, you’d really like them they’re one of my favorite bands” and i would say “Yeaaaaaah.” So when this record came out I got it for him and gave it a listen and went “whoa. They’re really good.” It’s like a pop punk Death Cab For Cutie. I almost don’t even care that they are Canadian. How anyone could write a song about curling that I am interested in is beyond me, but they pulled it off. (I totally like Canadians by the way).

Maritime - “Heresay & the Hotel Choir”
“Very Emergency” is the only Promise Ring album I really liked, and I didn’t just like it, I LOVED IT. So after the disappointment of “Wood/Water” I wasn’t too interested in Davey’s new project Maritime. But last year when I was out of things to download with my E-Music credit I decided to give their last album a try. Being more than pleasantly surprised by that record I was eagerly awaiting this one. After you’ve listened to the opening track “Guns of Navarone” a million times, try the rest of the record. It’s good.

Justice - “Cross”
I know what you’re thinking, “Ben, a dance record? Really?” What can I say? It’s a great driving record. Maybe It’s the brilliant artwork and marketing, maybe it’s a better dance record than any other dance record I’ve heard. I don’t know. Have you seen the video So-Me did for the single “D.A.N.C.E.” ? FUCK it’s good. And the rest of the album kept me tapping my toes. So sue me, I like a dance record.

And finally, the award for the MOST OVERRATED RECORD OF 2007 goes to Radiohead - In Rainbows. I wouldn’t even pay 0.00 for it. I’ve been sick of people treating this band like gods for the last 8 years. They made two good records, get over it.

Holy crap. Well first of all you may notice the new look of the site. I’ve spent a few long nights installing and setting up Wordpress, importing my posts from blogger, and tinkering with the CSS to make everything look clean and pretty. I hope you like it. Blogger is such a pile, I’m glad to finally have blogging software I can work with. If you are one of the few people who subscribed to the feed, make sure you are doing it through the feedburner address as the old feed is dead.

Moving on. It is confirmed that I will be landing in London on February 24th and spending 8 days overseas with two of my favorite dudes in the world. Two or three of those days are going to be spent outside England, I am leaning towards Italy, will consider France, and might settle for Belgium. We don’t have any solid plans yet other than going to the Arsenal game on the 1st of March, and are totally open to suggestions and totally open to sleeping on your couch, on your floor, or in your bed (wink wink nudge nudge). I will be celebrating my birthday on February 29th, and it will be the first time in 4 years that I’ll be able to do that, so let’s make it a good one eh? I can’t wait, this will be my first trip to another country (well unless you count Canada, and I don’t.)

Leave a comment with tips, suggestions, and offers for hospitality.

A lot of my favorite things are negative. I like books about outsiders and weirdos, comics about guys who never find love, standup comedians like Bill Hicks, and songs about broken hearts. I’ve been told I hate everything. I’ve been called a grouch, an old man, negative, pessimistic, mean, and everything in between for various things I’ve blogged, written, or talked about. I guess my problem is I enjoy talking about what I don’t like more than I enjoy talking about what I do. Wait. while i’m on the subject… You know what I hate? . . .

Halloween. I hate Halloween. Mostly I hate dressing up. Halloween is like a giant theme party with no theme and a lot of dumb assholes. The only thing more stupid than dressing up in a costume as an adult is dressing up in a stupid unimaginative costume. Also, fuck you for having parties on the few days leading up to Halloween and having mandatory costumes, your party sucks. Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year so I have to deal with 5 full days of assholes in costumes, kill me now. I’m 27 years old, no I’m not “going as” anything. I was so relieved when I was finally too old to Trick-or-Treat because it meant I could stop having to dress up to get free candy, and now you want me to dress up to pay for alcohol? Fuck you. The only thing that sucks about hating Halloween is how much I love candy, skulls, bats, vampires, monsters, zombies and all the cool decorations that go along with Halloween. I think Halloween for kids is AWESOME. If there’s anything I can say I’m looking forward to having a kid for, it’s carving pumpkins and coaching baseball. If you are an adult you get a pass - you’re totally allowed to dress up if you are escorting a young kid trick-or-treating. Any kid who dresses up on Halloween is going to be way more stoked if his dad is dressed up too. Another thing you ask? What else still annoys me? Well since you asked… Teenagers who trick-or-treat. Have you turned 13? Oh you have? Well then you are too old to ask me for free candy. Lets face it you’ve really only been trick or treating the last 3 years so you can cover peoples shit in shaving cream and toilet paper anyway. Give it up. from 13 on to when you graduate college you are allowed to party on Halloween night, dress up if you want. But no more Trick or Treating. After you graduate college, you are an adult. Knock it off. So there you have it - my extremely unpopular opinion on Halloween. I hope you didn’t enjoy it at all and possibly even think less of me.