Let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?

Life works in wonderful and beautifully amazing ways. Take time to observe nature and you will see that every single living organism has a role, and that role affects every other organism along the food chain. Everything is co-dependent on each other creating a stable, and sustainable eco-systems that grow, evolve, and change over time.

Take a look on the plains in Africa. Lions hunt Gazelle. This has been occurring for thousands of years. It is a sustainable system of hunter vs prey. Every small and seemingly insignificant insect and bacteria also play a crucial role in this system as well. These systems of life have been fine tuned over countless years, and rely on each other for total harmonious survival.

Observe trees. They are perfect examples of a life form that has grown a certain way that will ensure it can survive. The leaves prevent sunshine and rain from drying or destroying the soil where the roots lay, and the branches are designed in a way that ensures it can bend with the wind without breaking. Trees are in fact examples of a life form that has grown simply to survive perfectly. Every part of it plays a hugely important role for its long life.

Let’s cut em all down.

In the ocean, arguably the most dangerous and difficult place for life to survive, organisms have all depended on one another, and although it is a continuous battle field of hunter vs prey, it is sustainable, and has been that way for millions of years.

Sustainable eco-systems are extremely delicate, and have been fine tuned for millions of years. Everything relies on everything to live and adapt.

Do you see how amazing and wonderful this is? Life has sustained itself for so long that evolution has taken place!! The time frames involved are so vast and large, that us as humans rarely appreciate it.

Humans. Where do our clumsy, wasteful, un-harmonious beings really fit into this beautiful system?

Are we really from here? Sounds crazy, and I know, most of you who were raised (brainwashed) by our school systems, and television will probably scoff at me now, and that is fine, because I scoff at your types every day. It’s only fair that you return the favour.  How is it that everything on earth lives so perfectly together except us? We don’t fit in whatsoever. We destroy. Man has been responsible for the extinction of many species, and has driven countless close to it. Life on this planet has grown dependant on one another for survival, but it seems as though we are only getting the good end of the deal (survival, and trying to keep the sick alive), which is bad for everything else. It is so completely unnatural based on the simple fact that we just consume, and continuously grow in numbers.

And it’s true right? What good have we done for any other living organism, besides saving the ones from further human damage (oil spills, over-hunting etc)? We have drugs used to fight off bacteria, chemicals that clever marketers have led us to believe we need to use to “battle germs”, when in fact all it does is take something completely natural, and turn it into a chemical that is harmful for any living thing, including us: The same pills and chemicals that have made us even more susceptible to sickness than ever before.

I am asking myself this everyday as I observe nature and our place in it: Where do we fit in, in this beautiful harmony? If we are from here, then shit, we are the only living creature that is really fucking up the system.

Until next time,

Why do we always look up to the sky?

Slevin

I’m not a pessimistic individual, nor an optimistic one. I lie somewhere suspended in a grey medium.  Michelangelo considered the human body to be a beautiful efficient machine of near perfection. Very true, and along with our mind, we are the most dangerous living creatures on this planet.

I will often sit and observe various forms of life, and while doing so, ponder how every living organism works so well together in seemingly perfect harmony, thus sustaining life to the point of evolution and adaptation as the world changes. Life has maintained itself on earth for MILLIONS of years! Amazing right? To me it is beyond amazing, it fucking beautiful. And then throw us into the mix, and I ask you: “Where the hell do we fit in?” Because we don’t seem to at all you see.

Clever but clueless could be our title. It would fit.

What made us like this? In the balance that makes up every single ecosystem on this planet, we can’t seem to make it work. not for long anyways. We are over-populating, over-fishing, over foresting, over eating, and in the midst of it all, UNDER-THINKING. “Who cares about future generations? We want lots of money and all that fancy shit celebrities have. Go consumerism!”

I watched The End of the Line, a documentary about the state of our oceans (pre-BP disaster), and the effects of over-fishing. Now it’s no big news that with the oceans, being both our buffet and toilet, that much of the life within it is in threat of being a distant memory, but I was shocked with a few of the facts presented to me: 99.3 percent of the ocean is fishable and unprotected, nearly 50% of the world’s fish is illegally caught and sold, and  over 50% of all blue-fin tuna is bought and controlled by Mitsubishi. Maybe you knew, maybe not, and perhaps you don’t care. Anyways, there are not enough regulations {worldwide, esp Asia} to have sustainability in our oceans. The effects are devastating.

Over fishing has always been an issue though. Remember when eastern Canada had supposedly “endless” cod?  That is what lured Europeans here in the first place: Fish. Well the cod are now a thing of the past. The end.

When the population grows, so does our need for food. Things we eat (practically anything and everything) are always in danger.

The BP oil spill: Yes, this is what I really want to vent about. All I keep reading about is “Investors capital, loss of stock value, and who is blaming who. Is this all we give a shit about? Money? Blame? Of course it is! Money is what drives us to be so crazy. Poor billionaires are gonna lose some money. Shit, if only they had something else to live for than collecting paper. OK ok ok, I’m not that ignorant, but would it kill anybody to cover more on the life that is being harmed by all of this, and less about stocks? I know of one crew that is! Check out their journey HERE.

I’m sorry for the rash and harsh words, I know that there is so much beauty in mankind, for I have seen it on my travels. There is so much good in this world, so much love and peace, and perhaps that is why it hurts me so much to see nearly 100 000 barrels of oil pouring into the gulf EACH DAY. Do we deserve this? Yes, I think we do. I say we, because unless you live in a forest and dance with the wolves for a living (good movie), I hate to say it, but you too contribute to the drilling of oil. The rest of the life on the planet however, took no part in it, and simply is trying to live for life’s sake. To survive.

Can we save ourselves? I doubt it, and quite frankly we shouldn’t even think about us anymore. Thinking about us is what caused this mess!

We can’t change our habits, until we change the way we see the world and each other. Use less, and care more my friends.

Until next time,

Too bad the wildlife isn’t suing for all of their suffering. BP would really be screwed then.

-Kevin Mattice (Slevin Nevele)

Programs

Financed by

Commercials

Financed by

Consumers

You.

Me.

Creating

Dependance

On

Things we don’t need.

Shaping

Image

Shaping the way you view the world.

And other people.

Are

You

Being held

In

Submission?

Break free

Turn off your TV

Your world is waiting.

*photo titled “TV Kills Everything” by j3concepts

That said, it is obvious that Leonardo is hands down, the most dominant of the 4 Ninja Turtles.

Let’s start with Michelangelo. Granted this turtle would be the best of them all to party with, he is hardly a match for the blue bandana wearing Leo. The dude looks like he just blazed a spliff and is ready to eat pizza for the rest of the evening. No chance whatsoever in beating Leo!

Then there is Raphael. The bad-ass of them all, tough guy, vigilante outlaw, rebel,  whatever it is that you like to call him, I see him as emotionally out of control. Raphael almost caused his own death in Ninja Turtles 1, not to mention those of his teammates and master by losing his temper like a little baby who is told no. He abandoned his team (and brothers), and was later captured by the foot clan. This one is far too reckless and angry to beat the cool headed Leo. No chance!

Finally comes the brains of the operation, the inventor, and the turtle in purple: Donatello. The dude has a tree branch for a weapon. No chance!

Leonardo is the turtle with leadership skills, quick and smart judgment, he is in touch and in control of his emotions, and the one with 2 razor sharp blades placed easy to reach on the back of his shell.

What is the point of this lil rant? Well, to present to you (in a fun way) the importance of leadership on a team. People need leaders for a multitude of reasons, and in my opinion the most important reason is to keep everyone following the same goal, or vision. Without {good} leadership, what happens to a team? Loss of vision, laziness, change of direction, conflict without proper resolution. The overall answer can be summed up as: The team stops functioning like a team, and more like a group of individuals who simply are not as productive on their own.

Remember Captain Planet? When all of the Planeteers combined their powers, Captain Planet would arrive, and they subsequently kicked ass as a unit. Think about that now: It is an excellent metaphor for the power of teamwork. As individuals, they would have a far less chance of success.

Synergy baby!

A good leader, also needs a good team, but by leading well, your team will not let you down. And if they do slice them with your ninja swords! (Metaphorically of course: Firing them is a more widely used method).

Until next time,

Lead by example and passion. Know your team.

Kevin Mattice

Question: What is the average age in the room which is filled with 50 twenty year olds, and 50 thirty year olds?

Answer: 25

Furthermore,

Question: How many people are of the average age in that room?

Answer: Not a single person.

What is “being normal”? Is it simply to be average? Who is normal?

As you can see from the example above, it is very possible that nobody here is normal, yet there seems to be a need to fit somewhere in the middle of it all.

Life your life  according to you, not them.

Until next time,

Who said being left of center was a bad thing?

Kevin Mattice

Wow. Just when I thought Trent Reznor couldn’t possibly pull anymore out from his tickle trunk of music brilliance, he has done it again with “How to Destroy Angels”. The debut EP is to be released today, and is also available for free download on their website here www.howtodestroyangels.com

The 3 piece band consisting of Mariqueen Maandig,  Atticus Ross, and Trent Reznor delivers 6 industrial driven, dark, synth,  heavy feel tunes, that when combined with Maandigs’s soft and sexy vocals, and Ross’ and Reznor’s chemistry, is a very special treat for anyone who has enjoyed Trent Reznor’s genre setting empire known as Nine Inch Nails. The layers in each song are very unique, giving the album a dynamic sound range, yet holds true to its core genre. HTDA’s debut  ranges from dark, heavy-synth industrial tracks, to more guitar and bass -almost-funky- sounding songs (listen to the track “Fur-Lined”) Thank you Atticus Ross!

Trent’s influence is definitely felt in HTDA’s debut piece, as well as in his beautiful wife’s singing….especially in the track “A Drowning” which gives me goosebumps it’s so dark,  its sexy. Heavy feel music this is indeed. I like.

The debut video “The Space Between” was released a couple of weeks ago, along with a video that is so hot, dark and on fire (literally), it has already become a top played song on my stereo over the past 24 hours. Please watch it.

Check out the video here

Not only is music great, the artwork, directed by Rob Sheridan (Sheridan has worked on the latest NIN’s records) is brilliant.

The EP is out now, and available on CD and MP3, with the vinyl coming soon!

Let’s hope a tour is in the works, because to see a group like this come through my home of Vancouver means one thing: The Commodore Ballroom baby!

Until next time,

Do hardcore music fans ever listen to the radio?

Kevin Mattice

I adore live music.

Zombies rule.

John 5 is my hero.

I had to be at this show. Not only because I have mad respect for the man (Alice Cooper) who brought controversial theatrics and death into live music, which is no small feat considering he started doing this when the rave was, peace, love, and trippin balls on acid, but more so because I needed to get my ass to a live show that wasn’t over run by hipsters. I’ve been to too many shows lately where people are too concerned with messing up their hair or dropping some vintage accessory onto the floor to dance. Maybe their jeans are just too tight?

Whoa epiphany!

Really though, I don’t give a fuck what you wear, just have fun.

I was given 2 tickets by my lovely sister for my birthday, general admission, so there was no doubt that I was going to be front row centre at this one. Which also meant endless elbows and knees being jabbed into my flesh in hopes to make me move, but I never move so try as you might, I’m like Bruce Lee when it comes to general admission: Bend like a tree in the wind, but never yield when opposing forces come your way…..Even if those forces are 15 year old girls trying to see over my head. Did I mention I can be an asshole sometimes?

I was one of the first people on the floor and took my place front row and centre of the stage. It didn’t take too long for the place to start filling up, and before long I knew that the only moving I would be doing would be completely controlled by the sea of people on the floor.

Alice Cooper’s live set had more theatrics than a WWE wrestling match, the only difference being his show consisted of himself dying multiple times by execution on stage: Hanging, Lethal Injection, and the famous Guillotine of course. Much better compared to the Speedo wearing crotch sniffers in wrestling.

Alice left the stage after each execution, and during this time his band rocked the shit out of the Pacific Coliseum, keeping everyone’s fist pumping and ears bleeding.

It was a ripper of a set, and only made me wish that I could have seen one of his early shows when he actually was a hardcore menacing alcoholic. He was still hardcore though for an old guy, it was just hard to believe everything, considering the man gave up his self destructive lifestyle a while back and found god or whatever. I hate to say anything negative about the guy, but why did he have to bring out an empty bottle of JD and pretend to drink from it? I guess for the same reason that he “staged” his death so many times: This was a show, and not all shows are real. Still all my respect goes out to him, coolest old dude on the planet, and hats off to his live band was a perfect 10 in all departments.

As the lights went out for Zombie, the place went berserk, and chants of “Zombie” nearly crumbled down the roof. Rob came onto the stage sauntering in the dark with a weird deformed claw for an arm, moving back and forth, up and down on every inch of the stage. He set the initial mood very well, and when the lights turned on and “Living Dead Girl started blasting our ears off, EVERYONE went nuts. Elbows hit my back, my elbows flew back. That is rock baby, deal with it or buy seated tickets.

Zombie’s set had about 9 screens ranging from very large to small all around the stage from front to back, which showed changing images of horror for each song, or bikini clad murderous women on mars AKA “Angry Red Women” .

Once again, as with Alice, Zombie’s band proved to be the show stealer. John 5 was flawless, which was expected of the seasoned guitar pro, as well was Joey Jordison, Zombies time keeper, who is also the drummer for the Grammy winning group “Slipknot”. Both musicians had their moments to shine when Zombie grabbed a spotlight, went onto the floor, and let his boys do some soloing. Wow, John 5, You are my hero.

The show rocked, although I did expect it to be a little more on the rated R side of things. It was the “ Gruesome Twosome Tour that didn’t get quite gruesome enough”  But hey, these guys don’t need to prove anything, they get respect for opening, and keeping the door open with horror and music. Rock on men.

Until next time,

Dare to be different, and wear less flannel.

Kevin Mattice

It is not easy to leave the simple life and give up everything you have worked so hard for to pursue a dream. It is scary, there is no guarantee of success, uncertainty is a dark cloud looming over your head, and persistence needs to be revved up full throttle. It is thrilling at times, and bloody frightening as hell throughout. Sometimes  I think that I must have been crazy to give up a year of my life for school, over 30 000 dollars, all for the chance that my dream will come true one day.

What’s even scarier is that I almost didn’t take the chance.

What is my dream?

 Well, the big one is to make Vancouver the music capital of North America.

 Ya, you see what I mean?

BIG DREAMS.

How will I do this? Shit, sometimes I don’t even know.

BABY STEPS.

Get the amazing local talent into the big spotlight of course!

I wanted to be a rock star very badly years ago. Not for the fame, not for the money, not for the girls (although, let’s be honest here, those are some great perks), but to influence people. To make people see the world as I see it.

I am stubborn and opinionated at times, but my love for people and life usually overcomes that.

-Insert Kev’s smiling mugg-

I want to rid people of the need to consume, bring it back to the basics, and make people realize that we are just skin and bones underneath all of our fancy “things”.

I wanted to reduce people to the naked, clueless, love filled being that we all are inside.

Love is all we need right? Very true, unless you watch television that is, then you need a shit load of useless crap.

Don’t forget to have shiny white teeth or you will never get laid!

And then I thought, “Shit man, I will always have my music, now I want to learn about the music biz.”  In a nutshell that is. I wanted to make a change, so I moved to Vancouver and enrolled in school, and here I am now, a couple weeks from graduating from Entertainment Business Management.

And guess what?

I want to pursue a music career as an artist more than ever now. What the frick right?

What the frick indeed.

So I am going to. The pieces are in place, now the hard work begins.

Is there a point to all of this?

 I think so.

After a year of hard work and draining my life savings, it has become more clear than ever that I want the world to here my music. Now I just have a shit load of knowledge on the business side of things.

Hiss record companies, hiss.

What is your dream? Are you making the taking the steps day after day to make them come true?

If you aren’t, start now. Surround yourself with the people who you look up to. Move away from the people holding you down. Do it now! I cannot stress this enough!! Do not waste your time with people who are holding you back; people who are negative, they are there to make sure that your life sucks just as much as theirs. They are evil (maybe not evil, that’s just me being my good ol hyperbolic self). 

You become who you surround yourself with.

Imagine yourself stuck looking back on your life never having taken a risk; working for money and not passion. A day invested gives you nothing but financial return. Your entire life invested for what? A bank full of money that you will have to give away eventually. Safe and sound, nobody will remember your name.  And when you are sitting there in your rocking chair, and you know it is far too late to go back, all that you will have is self-denial and lies to sooth your tired unsatisfied soul.

Until next time,

Take a risk.

Find your passion.

Live a life, not a lie.

Kevin Mattice

LucidLive

For one reason: I didn’t bring my camera to the show last night: I have been wanting to see Sloan for many years now, and I know myself- when I bring a camera to a show, I miss the show. Seems weird, but I become so involved in getting good shots that the music just slips my mind.

Second reason: I went to this show as a fan which means I wasn’t taking mental notes for a review, in fact this will not be a review of any sorts: it will be a fans perspective.

You cool with that? (rhetorical question mofo, I’m already done writing this.)

So, I finally got to see Sloan, and at the Commodore Ballroom of all places! (Commodore=my favorite venue in Vancouver) After pounding back a few Strongbow at my place, turboninja and I headed downtown.

 A 3 piece all girl band by the name of Magneta Lane opened up for the eastcoasters. I have to say, I was a little underwhelmed (if that’s a word) by their performance, they seemed to lack the energy that I would have expected from a band chosen by Sloan. I will be fair though, they had a stand-in bass player (who in all respect, did quite the job) so maybe that threw off their dynamic. Then again, maybe their thing is to just stand in one spot and look pretty, because they did that very well, and I mean that with the utmost respect.

We headed to the bar where my wallet was physically raped of its money for a rum and coke. Is Van Oc already suggesting that bars increase their prices on Granville Street? Because last time I spent that much on a drink it came with a hockey game.

 Thank you Commodore for preventing a hangover!

We headed back to the stage and waited for the band of the night to come out.  They made their entrance to cheering fans and started playing songs from their new album “Hit and Run”. During the first song Jay Ferguson (singer/bassist/guitarist/drummer of Sloan: they switch shit up all the time for those of you not familiar) told the bouncers to kick out some drunk from the crowd. Sure wasn’t me.

 I hate to say it, but it seemed as though some energy was missing from the set at first. Could have been the fact that they were playin new tunes.  Anyways, that didn’t last too long, for when they started ripping out the classic hits everything started to come together as I had pitured it would. Notably with “Money City Maniacs” the energy was brought to a climax, and hung around for the rest of the performance.

I still felt like something was off, and here is what I think happened: I have and always will be a big fan of Sloan, and when I walked into the Commodore last night I had 14 years of anticipation on my shoulders for this show (I first listened to, and fell in love with, “Underwhelmed” from a mix tape my friend gave me in elementary school) and perhaps I had built it up too much. Also, and this is the biggy, they never played “Underwhelmed”  :(

I pretended like I didn’t care, but I was just lying to myself, I really wanted to see that song played live: it’s the song that got me hooked on them!

I’ll put this into perspective:

Imagine going out on a date: Everything is perfect, the food was excellent, as well as the conversation. You both exchange phone numbers, you hug…..but no kiss.

That’s how I felt:

I went out on a great date….but I didn’t get a kiss.

One of the highlights of the night for me was standing in front of Patrick Pentland and getting a close up view of his amazing Fender Telecaster. I will never look at my Tele the same after seeing his.

All in all Sloan gave us a great show, and will still hold the ranks as one of my favorite Canadian bands to date. It was a pleasure to see them live, and I urge any of you who have the chance to check them out.

Although I didn’t get a kiss, I sure as hell had a good time.

Until next time,

Get Overwhelmed!

Kevin Mattice

For review and photos check out guttersnipednews.com

Scene: You wake up in the morning. Now start following yourself from when you wake up, until your day is over. 

Continue to follow yourself throughout your day: how much waste are you creating?

Where do you go? For morning coffee, news stand, lunch, shopping, to work? 

What is your waste trail looking like now?

-Togo cups (not to forget sugar packs, stir sticks, cup rings, lids, all of which usually go with a single cup of coffee)

-Newspapers, magazines 

-Napkins

*Note that most of this stuff that we end up throwing away only gets about an hour or less of actual use!!

• To produce each week’s Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.

• If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about
25,000,000 trees a year.

• Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are thrown away!

Does there need to be so much wasted material involved for me to get a single coffee? 

The answer is no. If you make a small effort you can greatly reduce your waste. There is no excuse for going through 3 paper coffee cups in a day!

People tend to have this fascination with things being wrapped up in nice little boxes, full of padding, twist ties, plastic, and who knows what else, just for a single item. I was at a store with a friend and couldn’t believe that the IPhone cases came in big bulky paper boxes!

A case in a case? I don’t want to buy something that is meant to protect my phone that needs protecting itself! 

• About one-third of an average dump is made up of packaging material! 

Now picture all of that garbage that you produce forming behind you and following you around until the day is over. Embarrassing right? It grows and grows and grows.  

Just because you throw it in a can doesn’t mean it disappears. 

I challenge you to this: Start cutting down on little things that we really don’t need to use, and try to reduce your waste trail, it is much easier than you think. 

Until next time, 

Think Greener! 

Kevin “Coldas” MattICE 

@kevinmattice