The Spectrum of Sorrow

I'm blue and keep it to myself

The red that creeps within

Rears it's head through feelings green

The yellow bile therein

Purple pride though wield I might

Joyous pink the merry kind

Brown as earth and solid so

Faith curdles white in hopes ashore

Hollow though it seems inside

The black spreads far, the black spreads wide

What shutting up about my 'chums' has taught me

Period. That time of the month. I hate it when I have to call it 'stomach ache', 'body ache', 'umm just feeling sick' and such other whine to my male friends. How I can't be all out open about it and just say, "Menstrual cramps, yo". So many instances come to mind. From something as simple as when I'd be judged for skimping off swimming sessions, to when I'd be called "not a devout muslim" for not fasting during the month of Ramadan by some imbecile non-friends. (Atheist now, I still fast when I'm not chumming coz I like it, and no I absolutely detest diets) I'm not conservative and nor are my friends, and yet it is a detail I'd rather just not divulge, a very personal thing.

On the other hand, I'm a whiner. I do crib a lot about every other pain I feel. That headache, oh that sprain, ugh this knee, darn this backache, crap my stomach hurts. I always instantly hate it when I do crib. I don't like being that soddy whiny ol' ass. But I talk, a lot. And these complaints somehow always surface as my filler items here and there. And considering most of my friends presently are guys, so it's them strong boys that happen to be my audience for the crib sessions mostly, I so hate it!

So on my way back from University in the shuttle today, on day 2 of my monthly uterine woes, I was wondering to myself about this chummy secret situation. Having had sprained one leg and one arm after just 2 days of fasting day before, it was like the two sides were finally having a face off. I'd been feeling pissed at myself for having cribbed about what a weakling I can be, for the zillionth time. And suddenly then I was like wait, I don't crib about the greatest of the recurring curse ever. The 5 days of "all I wanna do is sit home and clutch tummy", preceded by 3-4 days of PMS gloom (there have been times when I'd be oh so depressed, and have this sudden moment of clarity when I'd snap up wondering why the fuck am I even so depressed and look up the calendar and go, "Ah!.."), the plentiful abdominal pain, backaches, weakness, etc., etc., every month, so many years. I no crib! So me strong. Heck I played soccer in the rain yesterday on day 1 of july blues! So yeah, them men have no idea of the potential crib percentage they're actually spared of every month!

But that is when it struck me, I shut up about my menstrual cramps, so it should be just as easy to shut up with other crib sessions. I still don't take blame for letting them slip as often as I do,  when the opposite person has nothing else to speak of to fill the conversation (:P) but heck, just for my own peace of mind! And so yes, even for the overly liberal/leftist/non-conversative me, shutting up about my uterine crampfest is a well made choice. Peace out!

P.S. 'Chums' is what some of my girlfriends call periods, from back in high school. I guess it was developed as a code word to indicate solidarity amongst the sisterhood when out in the world that has them boys.

P.P.S./Edit: As of the months immediately following this post, that wall has half crumbled. I welcome all my male friends into my monthly woes now. *thumbs up* you oughta know! Beginning from when I'm PMSing... .... .... %#&*#^*... ....

Rock on the Range 2014!

What a fest! So many bands, and my first open air experience! 3 stages, parallel gigs. Couldn’t manage to catch all of the bands that played (who can possibly go to a gig at 11am? :/ ), of them Trivium, Wolfmother and Mastodon were a sore miss. Of the rest, there were plenty of highs, and some lows.

Highlights: 

Friday, May 16

Killswitch Engage - 'Holy Diver' (the start of familiarity :P) Overall awesome.

Black Label Society - ‘Stillborn'! So missed Ozzy for this one! Their entire gig was brilliance!

Lacuna Coil - My first Gothic Metal band live!! Goth after so long! Oh the joys I can’t put in words! Scabbia and her voice! I miss Vibeke Stene! Would still love to see Tristania live someday

Seether - ‘Broken' (meh very broken indeed. They had a very eager crowd, but the gig felt flat and sad)

Down - That insane bass setup. Could feel every nerve thumping. Best sight to see a mom and daughter (looked 21-ish) attending together, with the girl head banging all over the place with mommy looking on in joy :) Brilliant energy to the gig, out and out hit. ‘Stone the Crow’, thank you, kindly! I truly never died before ;)

Staind - entirely awesome! Played plenty of heavy numbers. Highpoint: Aaron Lewis (to the crowd): “To all the men in the field here, I want to say, your mothers have miserably failed. You think you can grope the crowd surfing girls any which way you like, I don’t see girls grabbing your penises. So stop it already!"

Guns N’ Roses - 'Welcome to the Jungle', 'November Rain', ‘Chinese Democracy’, 'Sweet Child', 'Paradise City'. Axl Rose and his energy! Slash was missed but not so much, they managed to be brilliant even without him. A full 2 set gig! Brilliant end to day one with Paradise City! Post shower cold, and numb limbs, all calmed with the closing number :)

Saturday, May 17

Theory of a Deadman - 'Bitch Came Back' and 'Bad Girlfriend' were most loved by the crowd, haha. The former made it to our car playlist for the next few days. :P Connolly was good!

Exodus - ‘WAAAAR! WARRR! WARRRRR! WAR is my Shepherrrrrrd!!!!!'

Chevelle - Very enthralled. Had run out of seats close to the stage at the stadium by this point, so were standing on them stairs the whole while. Start to end hooked. ‘The Red’, of course, was the highpoint.

Slayer - :D To see Tom Araya Live! Almost posted another ‘Life Event’ on FB :P Felt like I was inside one of the many documentaries and gig tapes of theirs I’ve seen. A part of history! ‘God Hates Us All’ and ‘Angel of Death’ highpoint. Wish they’d play ‘Bloodline’ in some gig already! :(

Avenged Sevenfold - My second gig of A7X! Started a full 20 mins late, to pyro and fireworks! Just as brilliant as the last gig, but unlike the 'Hail to the King’ tour, they played quite a few old numbers. ‘Almost Easy’ my highpoint! The first single of theirs I’d picked from the ‘Transformers 2’ album! :P Brilliant energy, neck split at the end of it with all the head banging. Totally worth it! :)

Sunday, May 18

Sore from the previous 2 days, couldn’t wake up in time for Trivium at 1pm! :/ How much I’d spammed my gig-mates with Trivium’s ‘In Waves’ single through the days leading up :( Missed quite a few good ones there. Adelitas Way, Wolfmother, .. barely made it to Mastodon, to the end of it. So the day technically started with Gojira. Turns out we missed ‘Of Mice and Men’ in the process, was on in parallel at the other stage, and from what I heard later, was a great gig. 

Gojira - Heavy! Loud! Must listen to them more often. ‘L’Enfant Sauvage’ gave me goosebumps! Loved ‘em!

Alter Bridge - Umm, okish. ‘Metalingus' highpoint, teehee.

Comedy Tent break with Aaron Kleiber and Jim Breuer. Liked the former more. Santa, Wife and Kids, Alcohol consumption, them stand up comedians have little left to play with lately. Also, missed the band 'Led Zeppelin Experience' in the mean time thanks to the schedule listing them as 'Jason Bonham LZE' :/ Dull day, and minds :P

Five Finger Death Punch - :O Those energy levels! :O Ivan Moody with his seemingly punk appearance and his band playing metal. Morning alarm material. Like I was telling another friend later, performers like these make you do the math. “If only I had 10% of his energy levels, I’d have accomplished this and this by now, been so and so, etc.” :( Highpoints:‘Coming Down’, ‘Bad Company’, ‘Under and Over it’, heck all of it! The crowd being the size it was, every band’s attempt at making them sing along fell flat. 5FDP were the only ones in all 3 days to successfully pull that one off, over and over again. Sheer brilliance!

Left for the trip back home short of Kid Rock’s performance. No rap-rock for us thank you very much :P

Looking forward to Rock on the Range 2015, a definite go!


(Pic Courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/rockontherange)

P.S. - Pls forgive the over usage of the words ‘awesome’ and ‘brilliance’ among others (emots!), can’t help it. And I actually went back and added a few bands that I missed in the first go of writing lol, vices of the plenty :P