The whole purpose of not working today was Green Day. The added necessity to give my throat a break was consequently included, and finally, my older brother insisted that my younger brother and I take a trip down to his place today so we could go over suit styles and colours for his upcoming wedding, as well as discuss details for the social, and who would contribute what to the silent auction. I think we managed to avoid the older brother's fiancee's insane wish to have the groomsmen wearing pink. That would NOT happen. Ever. I would show up in jeans.

My brothers and I and looked at suit stuff for maybe a half an hour to an hour, then the younger and I took off back to my place for food and some quick concert preparations on my part (changing my shirt), then moseyed around, gradually picking up our fellow concert goers. Then it was off to Green Day!

First, the bad shit. I hate crowds, so getting in sucked. I totally forgot I had my knife on me, and that's a big no at the MTS Center. I handed it over to a security guard, who never bothered to tell my I was supposed to get a ticket to get it back, he just told me to "find him after the show". Fucker. He knew I wouldn't be able to find him among 11,000 people, he just wanted the nice knife. So now I need a new knife. Once we got into the show, during My Chemical Romance's unmemorable opening act, I could literally watch four people lighting up joints, nevermind the smell. And one of them was mere feet away from a woman and her eight year old daughter. I have two problems with this. First, of course, is my problem with drug use, and the total inability of people to respect rules that exist for a reason. That may be two problems on its own, but whatever. The second official problem is this: What business to parents have bringing their young children to a show like Green Day? I saw an eleven year old in the moshpit, accompanied, of course, by his older sister. This goes to prove how responsible his older sister is, or it would, if I needed proof. Then again, parents have no concept of what a band like Green Day really plays, aside from the songs played on the radio, specifically on pop radio stations, who only play the mob-pleasing singles, and would never play the material that makes up the majority of Green Day's repertoire. I have no problem with Billy Joe Armstrong feigning masturbation in front of a crowd of thousands, and then screaming "Somebody fuck me!" into the microphone. I have a problem with the parents who will complain about the content of the concert to which they purchased tickets and brought their child without bothering to run a simple Google search on the fucking lyrics! And then I come to the current generation of Green Day fans. My god, typical teeny-bopper fad-fucks. Naturally, they act like they own the band, despite the fact that some of us have been listening to them longer than they've been alive. That's the one reason I would have wanted a floor ticket. So I could beat those little fuckers into submission and explain to them that it's their fault a band like My Chemical Romance is opening for Green Day, rather than a band that actually has some similarity with Green Day. I could go on like this for a while, but it's time to move on.

Most of the above-mentioned irritations (nevermind the crowds and the poor, lost knife), passed effectively to the back of my mind once the real show got started. Green day has always been on my shortlist of bands to listen to as available. Mostly Dookie and American Idiot, but I can listen to any of their albums easily. They're one of those bands who manage to stay ahead of the game by changing as often as possible. Every one of their albums has a different feel, but it's all Green Day, so when you throw them all together in one set, it pretty much meshes. And they do know how to please a crowd. Audience participation is in. Like pulling one kid on stage and letting him hose down the audience with a supersoaker. Or replacing the band members with audience members. They actually managed to pull a decent drummer, bassist and guitarist (a 15 year old kid named Jesse), out of the floor-crowd, and had them play a song. A simple song, but a Green Day song nonetheless. Jesse got to keep the guitar. That was cool. The band was loud, the band was awesome. My need to treat my voice with care was conveniently forgotten, as I was just as vocal as anyone in that crowd. I tell you, there were some ugly people around there. There were also some fantastically hot ones. The trouble, in a crowd like that, is knowing which ones aren't teenagers. That's tricky. Glad I wasn't trying to get laid.

So we left, me without my knife, and eventually got back to my brother's apartment, where there was beer and Futurama. I didn't stick around long, I had to get home and sleep. Which is exactly what I'm doing right now. Yeah.

Despite how poorly I treated my voice tonight, I think I might actually be able to work tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, I like not working, it pleases me greatly. On the other hand, I'm the responsible sort, and don't like skipping out on my duties, even when I really have to. So I'm half-hoping I'll be ok tomorrow. If not, I'll have to call in, and hope I'm better on thursday. Must regain voice.

I've typed enough. I'm going to stop very soon

Everybody do the Propaganda.