Any more music blogs Matt? (no more metal criticism from me and why)

Frank Zappa once said "writing about music is like farting about architecture"..In it that, there are incongrous aspects about criticism in which whether or not to regard music as an "subjective" entity. Its thoughts like these that lead me to not to review music anymore, and also have a near disdain for music criticism. It doesn't rule out possible music criticism in the future, but being who I am now means I have less of an urge to do so. Pretty much a 180 from a person that used to live to read both Rolling Stone and Metal Maniacs in his youth. Criticism and having 200 or so reviews on Amazon.com and a metal blog (Mattowarrior's Metal Madness) used to be an outlet for thoughts I have about music. But now they feel like a step backwards in my evolution. I don't feel like it serves people to put things into boxes, generalizations and classifications. Whether or not me liking some Bon Jovi songs for example, makes me "any less metal" than your average denim vested beer swilling longhair seems to me a trivial and pointless pursuit. There are more important things in the world for one! Fighting over things like how commercial one band is over an other seems to kind of get away from the point of listening to music, enjoyment. Not to take away from the passion or some of the lifestyle associated with genres and subgenres of music. But the self imposed subcultural pseudo tribalism which goes hand in hand with such things as metal have really come to a head in my life. 7 years ago I decided to cut my hair short, and to dress a bit differently than I was. It was damned if I do damned if I don't. I still wear metal shirts somewhat and have huge mutton chops which still makes me stand out amongst the abercrombie crowd. I still go to metal shows and play in a "metal" band. The pendulum at one time had swung to the other direction, where I had near hatred for being defined as metal, and I really wanted to venture out of it for good. I had had it with the negativity, elitism, and defensive pretentiousness associated with metal. Defensive pretentiousness meaning things like "the general masses don't like metal but oh, its influenced by classical music so its better than their shit" among other examples. And I was the one who was once screaming from the pulpit the most about these things. I have no need to convince people of why I like something anymore. If they're curious or if there is a need to enlighten them, then I do..but I only do it normally when asked. I don't need to push some agenda of defending Heavy Metal music anymore on people. Let people be ignorant, and let people who are overly defensive be so. I will be somewhere in the middle. But back to the pendulum, after a certain point (and this has happened at other points in my life as well) it swings back towards the middle. I start falling in love with metal again. I accept people for who they are and try to embrace more of what I do like about a lifelong passion of mine. I sing with fellow metalheads, or go wild at shows.. That said,I will never be your "stereotypical" metalhead or even your stereotypical "prog" metalhead though I'm far closer to that than the former. There are honestly things that bother me about the stereotypical "metalhead". That puts me more towards the "prog metalhead" side of the spectrum. The reason they differentiate themselves is because they aren't the image of the constantly drunk guy working on his camaro in his front yard, listening to Judas Priest on a ghetto blaster. Old stereotypes die hard of course, but of course there is a different level of pretentiousness by aliging yourself with ANY movement, classification or label. I choose to define myself by who I am as an individual now, and that happens to be very associated with Heavy Metal. But I don't wish to classify myself as ANYTHING. I don't consciously try to rebel against being labelled anything at any given time anymore, I just BE and that's enough for me. The time (like my early twenties) where I said I would never date anyone not into metal, or mainly associate with people into metal are long over. I'm who I am, and I let other people classify me if they choose to do so, but let them waste their time. I have my time to spend on better things nowadays.

Why the Name Change?

So those who know me may have noticed the use of the "stage name" Matt Davinci. The name change is personal and came after a series of inner dialogues about whether or not to do it. I won't share everything that lead to this particular name but I can say one thing, I'm not Italian! I am also not near the genius Davinci was for that matter (though like him I do try to stay well rounded). I first thought of it about 6 years ago, in a period of self-exploration. I won't go into everything that lead to the name, but I will say that it involves analyzing several different figures from several different fields. Musicallly, I like names like "Michael Romeo" or "Ritchie Blackmore" or even "Michael Angelo Batio". I thought that there should be a "snap" to my name, unlike my Eastern European given last name. I also thought it would fit a variety of fields and hobbies, whether it'd be stand up comedy, music (of course), or even motivational speaking! Basically anything I ever had an idea of doing, it fits in a catchy way. And also, it can fit styles of music differently. I can sound like some old greaser rockabilly artist with the name (befitting of one of my projects, Midi Warlord/Axxxed) or a neo-classical guitar shredder. So that kind of sums up the idea of the name itself. As far as changing it in the first place, its kind of a break from the past. A past in a life I'm trying to grow from in ways that I hadn't when I was younger. I don't like to volunteer my age either, but I like to live in "my own reality" where I can be and pursue what I want while free from scorn from others. I also thought, it can make me think of things differently, without the mistaken way I used to think of myself getting in the way, or the ways I thought of things. Its not a knock at my family or anything of that sort. It just hopefully points to a bigger and brighter future with no limits and a huge variety of pursuits.

Gremlins 2- The New Blog - Electric Boogaloo

So I decided the other day I wanted to blog more of my inner thoughts and feelings, and also delve into controversial matters, or a lot of weird and unusual subjects. So I am starting this blog. I have another blog (mattowarrior's metal madness) and am also trying to do some SEO websites for a (hopefully) fledging SEO career to (FINALLY) get me out of cubicle hell, but this blog is going to be more personal and more "for fun". Of course, I'll have google adsense installed, blah blah blah. But the expectations are not there for any kind of "success" (whatever that means) or even subscribers. Just room for me to bullshit and pontificate some pretentious crap for you (the reader) to ingest. Who knows though, I could do interviews or start talking about crypto zoology or something. I know I will talk about religion and politics and the esoteric in ways that hopefully will make this blog interesting. So without further adieu, here's my blog.