I was stoked to see Silversun Pickups on Conan last night and I was treated to something I’ve never noticed before. Silversun’s lead singer, Brian Aubert, seemed to try multi-tasking by playing guitar, singing and looking at the camera and the audience. Their drummer, Chris Guanlao, also throws down a fun look by swinging his hair around and simulating how he would look if losing his lunch.

Either way, they fukin rock and I’ve gotten past Thom Yorke’s odd look. As long as they make good music, they could look like a complete troll and I’d dig ‘em. This one just threw me because I met Brian in Austin for SXSW and he looks completely normal.

Watched this entire show live online. It didn’t disappoint at all. Being an old band dork, it was like watching my old band in band practice, 86 the awesomeness of the Foo Fighters!

Not sure how well this works, but here’s the video …

***sorry, it’s over***

I’ve NEVER thought Diddy, Puff Daddy, Sean Combs, or whatever this lizard who changes his identity to fit the situation, is someone who is racist…or as the great Ali G would say, “Racialist”.

I have watched every “Making the Band”, every “Making His Band” and every “P. Diddy’s Star Maker”. I love the music industry and if it involves a thriving musician or wanna-be star, I’m going to tune in, because it’s something I always wanted to do but all of these opportunities didn’t arrive until after my wishes.

This leads me to what I’ve witnessed with Sean Combs and his shows on the MTV network channels. At first, his “Making the Band” shows were constantly about the black man or black woman making it into his band. I won’t say that he doesn’t allow white people, but I will say it’s majority black people. I’ll also follow that up with the fact that the black people he picks are amazing in what they do. Matter of fact, most of the black people he picks are some of my favorite ones on the shows. HOWEVER, you have to admit that the overall group of people serve to be very few white people that even get the chance. He often gives it the term “swagger” to apply to the people he’s looking for. At first glance, you think “oh, that’s a certain dance or vibe they give off during their performance”, but the problem is, it’s something that white folk just don’t have much of. So that means it’s like Brett Michaels saying he was looking for band members that have a certain “SWAY” and it applies to something that you’ll only see in white people.

Now I also know and understand that anyone has the right to pick anyone for their musical projects. It don’t matter if they’re black or white (I’m going into a MJ song here) but when it all boils down, it does matter what the leader is looking for. I think Puff Daddy, or Sean Combs, or P Diddy, or Diddy … whatever the fuck his name is now, I think he wanted ‘his people’ to be on his tour. I don’t blame him for wanting ‘his people’ on his tour since they can communicate easier with each other or whatever it is he feels will make it easier, but I have to make it known that it’s not just white people who are being “racialist”, … black people are being just as “racialist” than anyone else.

Tonight I watched the season finale of “Making His Band”, which was P.Diddy’s reality show that was searching for band members to tour with him for his upcoming cd. There were groups within the band who were trying out and most of the groups had a white person involved, but most were all black. The only group that didn’t have a black person in it was the guitarist group, which did have 2 white dudes and 1 black dude, but the group coaches actually cut the black dude before Diddy got involved. So in the end, the guitarist group only had two people, both who were white. And being a guitarist myself, I can tell you that both of them were absolutely AWESOME at their parts in Diddy’s band. Matter of fact, I would go as far as saying they were better at their part than some of the other players Diddy picked for his band.

So what has me up in arms with the term “Racialist” ??? Well, when he called out the guitarist group, Diddy says he doesn’t want either one of them and specifically says “It don’t have nothing to do with the color of your skin”. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you fuckin kidding me??? If it ‘don’t have nothing to do with the color of their skin’ then why the fuck would you say that in the first place? Why not just say, “I wasn’t feeling either of you with the way my music sounds?” then leave it at that? It’s because he wants a black guitar player. P. Diddy is a racists piece of shit. I understand that he is in a great place in life and can basically try to undo all of the hurt and pain that his people were caused 100′s of years ago, but dude, the people here now, had nothing to do with all that shit. Get over it and pick people based on their talents, not the color of their skin!

I’ll end my rant with the fact I look forward to Diddy’s new album. I think he’s treading into new waters and I like that. He’s not doing the typical rap crap that worked in the past, but he’s doing shit that no one has ever heard of before. Granted, it’s mostly black people that he has leading his way, but he does have the token white guy on keys who he picked originally. Part of me thinks he will never make it to the actual tour, but we’ll see. Hopefully Diddy will get over himself and take the people who are good and not the people that are just good and his color. What I’ll be even more excited to see is if he hires a black guitar player and that guitar player is absolute dog shit. If that happens, then my rant will officially be rectified. Hopefully I’m wrong, but I can’t help but think he just doesn’t really care much for white people.

Stay hard white people. Stay hard black people. Stay hard all people….Diddy is just being Diddy. Hopefully his music will make up for it all. Other than that, maybe we can get John Mayer or someone to make a “making his band” show and only pick white people. Then see if the black folk get up in arms about that type of decision.

I’m just sayin!

Felt the need for a little rant about my favorite sport and some things being said by one of my favorite people in the sport. I watched some of the old fights before Dana White took over the UFC, when it was a bit of an outlaw type sport and loved it. It was tough to really keep up with it because it was impossible to see unless you were there or was lucky enough to know where to find it on television.

Once TUF (The Ultimate Fighter) hit, I was so into the “new” UFC, I wished I was younger and tougher to even give it a shot, but like most common sense dudes, you decide to enjoy watching other dudes beat the fuck out of each other. Since season 1 of TUF exploded the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, mostly the UFC, into one of the hottest sports in the world, I fit into that perfect customer of Dana White and even other leagues that try to compete with them. I watch as many fights as I can because I love the competition. It’s much more entertaining to me than people hitting a golf ball or tennis ball, hell, even baseball. I put it right up there with football and maybe even with basketball.

Anyhow, I’m FAR from some meathead douche bag that walks around with my chest bowed out like some people are claiming the common MMA fan to be. I’m a father of almost 4 kids and happily married. Have a business I love and I’m pushing 40 years old. Sure, these fights are full of testosterone, but it’s a guys guy sport, what do you expect?

I have a lot of favorites in the sport, but surprisingly one of my top favorites is the color commentator who does most UFC fights, Joe Rogan. I think he’s a funny fucker and he not only knows the sport of MMA, but he also trains in it. Then throw in the fact he does stand up comedy and he has that voice that sounds like he’s screaming in your face and I just think he’s one of the great faces of the sport.

I follow Joe Rogan on Twitter and noticed today he said he’s getting messages about this post on his blog about shirts the UFC fans wear and how they pose in pictures with their favorite fighters. Now, if you don’t follow Joe, this will probably come across much more harsh than it might for me because Joe is just a harsh, opinionated dude that has lots of comedic value to most of what he says.

Here’s my beef with what he’s saying. While he’s basically saying unless you wear Tapout clothing, it sucks, he’s turning the public opinion of that type of clothing against ALL companies that make it. I completely agree some of the shirts are WAYYYY over the top with gold and silver and shit that blinds you, but if someone thinks it looks cool and wants to wear it, more power to them. I don’t look at them like douche bag shirts, I look at them like the sport of MMA jersey’s. A lot of these are put out by different training camps as a way to help fund their fighters and their gyms. Others are there to help fund the leagues they fight in. It’s just a way for the fan to be part of this awesome sport. I think as one of the more familiar faces of a great sport, you should really consider not putting such a bad label on something that helps the sport continue to grow. Reading what he wrote made me want to throw the few shirts I do own away because the last thing I want to be seen as is some meathead douche bag. I definitely will re-consider ever buying something like that again if that’s how people view those that wear them.

Then let’s move on to his comments about how people like to get a photo with their favorite fighters. REALLY??? These are the same people that keep your favorite job going, Joe! Why would you rub so many of your own fans so wrong because of how they choose to enjoy the sport that we all love? If some kid wants to hold a football while getting a photo with his favorite running back in the NFL, you going to call him names? Just because the kid doesn’t play ball means he can’t hold the football in the picture? That’s such a ridiculous beef to have towards fans, I’m shocked he even said it. Maybe he has a beef towards a specific type of fan, but guess what, that type of shit generalizes the entire sport and the entire group of fans that continue to spread the word and empty their pockets to watch it.

I went to the fights here in Dallas this past weekend and was lucky enough to score floor tickets (which is another rant all together). The one cool part of being on the floor is the chance to meet fighters and others that are part of the sport. Maybe even get photos or autographs from your favorites. The one person that wanted no part of the whole scene was Joe Rogan. We tried to call him over to the peasant section but he was either too baked to deal with people or he just honestly wants no part of it. For someone that loves his job as much as he does, it seems weird to me that he wouldn’t want to interact with people that help keep the sport going financially.

I’ll end my rant with this…I’m not angry at Joe for what he said, I just think he is hurting the UFC fan by labeling them with these type of things. It is a free country and you can say whatever the hell you want, but why shit on your own fans? People aren’t calling him a fag for trying to bring back the fanny pack! Anyhow, Joe … keep being funny, but don’t hurt your sport financially!