mymichele's Diaryland Diary
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A new story, re prioritizing, and Crazy friend makes me proud!
I think I need to reexamine my priorities in my life, people, I really do.
I have a statistics test on Thursday, and other than perhaps taking a glance at the first chapter, I haven't done a single homework assignment or gone to get help or anything. Is it possible to learn 5 chapters of stats in 2 days? Well, I sure hope so.
What have I been doing instead of studying? That would be cultivating my obsession with Axl, of course. And wow, that's just a really productive thing to do, isn't it! It'll really pay off for me in life someday, won't it! I've also been reviewing diaries, writing stories, making new surveys, checking the forums to see if there's any new news, and just generally doing pointless things in general.
I realized today, while I was sitting in one of my classes and this guy who graduated recently came in to talk about the job market, that I am soooo far behind. I should have done 2 internships by now. I should have a job lined up by now. I should be way more advanced in life than I am, and it's just a really unpleasant feeling. I am sooo friggin lazy, it's just really stupid.
I also realized today that I get really mad at stupid things and I don't care enough about the important things. Like, I got so mad that someone who asked for a review maybe 2 weeks ago signed the guestbook asking when the hell we'd review her, she asked such a long time ago!
That made me angry and I left a mean message in her guestbook because in the rules, we say you just gotta wait patiently because we do all have some kind of life that doesn't revolve around reviewing diaries! And when I really thought about it, what the hell is wrong with me? How have I come to this point in my life where I get pissed off when someone wants to get reviewed faster? What has happened to me and how can I change this? I really need to get a grip on things, people. I'm scaring myself.
*****
In other news, I got my CD yesterday! YAYAYAYY!! It's the bootleg from the GN'R Leeds show in August, and it's pretty friggin cool. The only thing I don't like about it is
a. I can't hear Axl on Welcome to the Jungle because the crowd was singing so loud, and
b. During a stirring rendition of Patience, right in the middle is when he says "In my ass, that's where Slash is, fuckhead! Go home!" It doesn't exactly ruin the song but it comes close.
*****
Last night, Crazy Friend came over. She went on a blind date for our church and they made it into a video, and it was really cool cuz they made it like the show Blind Date. The coolest thing about it was, the dude she was on a date with asked her to sing something for him. And since she had hung out with me at the library that day, she sang the only song that came to mind: Don't Cry. I was so proud of her at that moment that I almost cried. I love it when my nice christian friends just burst into spontaneous GN'R song. She made me proud.
*****
In other news, I was making my new survey, and I realized that I've been messing up the lyrics to November Rain for the past 10 years! Hello! I didn't know he said "And lovers always come and lovers always go!" What the hell! I think I always kinda mumbled those words. Weird, I know.
Here is where I give a shout out to Michelle because she exchanged many emails with me last night and that was good times.
And to beat you down with more GN'R talk, here's the Axl picture of the day:
That's another picture from Rio in January 2001. I personally think he's never looked better than during that time. He looks good now, but he looked so goddamn good in the pictures I've seen. My brother got me the video and it is currently being sent to me. I can't wait, ooohyeahh!
Anyway.. I've spent a long time on this entry today. Almost an hour, for some reason. I'm gonna go order pizza and study. Sounds like good times, I know.
So, go take my survey! And here's a story that I just started writing. I know you'll enjoy reading it, yes indeed.
*****
He put his long red hair in a ponytail and got dressed before bed. As he brushed his teeth, he looked at himself in the mirror and wondered yet again what he had become. He was just another aging rock star, a legend that was no longer a legend. It was just a few years ago that he and his band, a powerful force on the rock scene, were selling out stadiums wherever they went.
He flexed his arms, taking another look at the tattoos he had gotten when the band was just starting out. They all had gotten the same tattoo: an hourglass with the words �Sands of Time� underneath.
That�s who they were, once. They were Sands of Time, the biggest rock band in the history of rock bands. At one point, he had more money than he knew what to do with. And then it all came crashing down, slowly but painfully, and now here he was, all alone in his huge house, with only sleeping pills to comfort him. He took two of the pills and then crawled into bed, ready for the nightmares and regrets that usually accompanied him in his slumber.
*****
For five years straight, Sands of Time knew what it was like to be Gods.
The band had humble beginnings. They came from the suburbs of Chicago. They had grown up together, liked the same bands, and played the same music. The five of them all strived for something that most of the people in their sleepy little neighborhood never did: fame. Pure, unadulterated fame. They wanted it, and they knew they would get it.
The original lineup, and the only lineup of Sands of Time that ever existed was made up of Charlie Stone, singer; bass player Randall Jones (known only as Jazz by his fans because of his love for the bass); guitarists Michael Whitman (known as Whit) and Regan Bartlett, and drummer Max Bailey.
They paid their dues the usual way by playing dives and small clubs with maybe 20 people in attendance, and their talent did not go unrecognized. People just loved their music, the way that they could make even a ballad sound like the most hard rocking song they�d ever heard.
There was something special about Sands of Time. They had something; a spark that most rock groups of that time didn�t have, or had and didn�t take advantage of. First of all, they had the benefits of knowing each other for such a long time, and therefore knowing each other�s strengths and weaknesses. This kept them afloat while others couldn�t find the will to survive.
Their first song, which Charlie wrote, was called �Oceans and Winds.� It quickly became the most requested song on local radio for eight weeks in a row, and gained the attention of record labels nationwide. Soon, Charlie and the boys were being wined and dined, money thrown at them from every corner, and as these things often do, they got swept into it.
All five of them got swept into different vices. For Charlie, it was the sweet candy of cocaine. Randall�s vice of choice was the old standard of alcohol. Michael was into heroin, and by far the most out of control member of the band. Max had a gambling problem, and as the thousands came into the bank, it grew to obscene proportions. Regan didn�t drink, didn�t gamble, didn�t do drugs, and he didn�t even smoke. Regan�s problem was women. He liked them. A lot.
As �Oceans and Winds� became a nationwide hit, they went into the studio and recorded their first album. The album, simply titled �Platinum�, was a complete and total success. Critics loved it, audiences of all types loved it, and it spent a record 10 weeks at number 1.
Magazines like Rolling Stone and Spin speculated that Sands of Time was such a big success because people could identify with them. They weren�t just teenage skate punks with attitudes; they were hardworking guys just trying to make a living. When Charlie read shit like that (and he read every review he could find), he would just chuckle and shake his head.
By the time their second album, �Magic at Dawn�, went triple platinum in less than 3 months, it was clear that everyone in the band knew their roles, but none of them appeared to be happy about it. They went on countless photo shoots, and on countless photo shoots, the photographer wanted Charlie in the front, and sometimes they didn�t even want the rest of the band at all.
Charlie was a good-looking guy, and he was growing quite a popular fan base among young women. He enjoyed the attention, and while he did cherish a good groupie every now and then, he stayed faithful to his high school sweetheart Amelia.
In the five years that they reigned as gods, Sands of Time released 3 albums, all of them going platinum a number of times. They sold a total of 35 million copies of the 3 albums, a record that could almost never feasibly be surpassed. They went on two world tours that grossed more than $1 billion, almost half of which going to the band. They were labeled a super group, and it seemed like nothing could bring them down. But they were wrong.
Sands of Time didn�t have a money grubbing manager that took all their money, like some bands struggled with. They all danced with vices, but those vices never threatened to break them apart. After 5 years of being on top of the world, of tasting a life that few people ever got to taste, the band was torn apart. By a girl.
A lot of things happened in the five years that Sands of Time were on top of the world. People came and went, songs were written and recorded, fights happened and were broken up. Nothing really surprised Johnny that much anymore, and he considered himself hardened by the road.
When journalists and fans and anyone else who cared looked into and studied the demise of Sands of Time, they were stumped. What made one of the biggest groups in the history of rock and roll history break up? Was it the drugs? Was it the alcohol? What the hell was it?
*****
"Hey, Charlie, I gotta leave early today, man," Regan said one day after recording a track for their third album.
Charlie sighed.
"Why man? We gotta get this done, you know that."
Regan nodded.
"It's just that my sister is in town. She's coming to pick me up and we're gonna go hang out."
Charlie wasn't cool with this.. it seemed like Regan was always trying to get out of band related things lately, but he knew Regan's sister was important to him, so he just said, "Cool, have fun."
The band put their stuff away after a long day of recording and headed their seperate ways. They used to all hang out together, go out and get beers together and laugh about their day. That was before they got rich and famous, and now they hardly ever hung out together. They all individually missed the camraderie the band once stood for, but they also accepted the fact that the band was now something that was out of their hands, it was a monster that they didn't really have anything to do with anymore. They understood this, and it was their fate.
****
I wrote 2 more pages of this today in Earth Science, but I need to start studying so I'll write that stuff later.
4:55 p.m. - September 17, 2002
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------