69

After nearly three years of inactivity in Cruel Music, I started recording a new WDN album tonight. This will be the 69th WDN album, and it's kinda exciting, I think. I'm taking WDN into a slightly new direction. That type of thing is necessary; Change, I mean. Change... It's all about change... (Excuse me, if I seem a little off right now, but it's, like, 2:30 in the morning, and I'm a bit sleepy). 2008 marks the 20th year of WDN, so it has to change, and sorta evolve, from time to time. The first incarnation of WDN was done with Terry (the creator of WDN) and myself, in 1988. Then, in 1989, we evolved a little more when we added Roger to the big show. Terry left WDN in 1993, so we evolved again. Roger left WDN in 1995, and, you guessed it, more changes... Ryan climbed on board WDN in 1998, which brought about more changes, of course. Then, Ryan left WDN in 2001 (Did someone say "CHANGE?"). I kept WDN going in the same vein as the "Ryan Era" until 2005, and then it just got boring. So, now, I'm bringing back a new, improved, better, more powerful even, WDN!!! WDN69 is going to be a Larry King interview done with Oprah Winfrey.... It's hard to explain, but it'll feature a whole cast of characters, and it'll be the greatest comedy album you've ever heard in your whole entire life!

Side Effects Of Being Bullied

I've been studying what makes people "tick" over the last few years... You know, what makes them who they are, why they are who they are, etc... I saw this guy, who I went to school with, but who I was never really friends with, a couple months ago. He talked my ear off! He, pretty much, just opened up, and let it all out. He mostly talked about how he is not getting along with his wife, and how he thinks they're going to get divorced. But, he also touched on how his "dreams of becoming a professional wrestler were shattered" when he broke his back, and how he was tormented throughout high school. That's kinda what got my attention. He had his little group of friends, just like I did. His group were outsiders, just like my group. Neither of our groups were popular. Both of our groups were teased, bullied, and made fun of. The same people that made fun of him all his life were the same people who made fun of me. We should have been friends. Our two groups should have formed an alliance, and destroyed the bullies. But, we didn't. Why? He turned out to be a paranoid, drug addict, psychopath. Why didn't I turn out like that? The side effects of being bullied had two totally different outcomes on us. I kept all of my pain inside, and became this shy, sad, little, pathetic manic depressive, man-child. It all released this huge amount of creative energy in me. It released hate, violence, and drug dependency in him. It's weird, man... Why did his depression make him crazy? Why wasn't he with me, creating music, or art, or something? All of this stuff was going through my head while he talked (for, like, 45 minutes) on that December day. And, that little creative burst of energy in me was forgotten, until I saw him in the grocery store yesterday, and I hoped that he wouldn't "open up" to me like that again, as I was on my way home for lunch. He just spoke for a minute, yesterday, so that was cool... When he finally got done talking, in December, he apologized for talking so long, and said, "I guess I just needed someone to talk to." I felt bad for him. I didn't want to walk away, and tell him that I had to go, or anything... I just stood there, and absorbed his energy. My depression never made me crazy, like him, but I could relate. I used to walk in his shoes. I don't hurt anymore.

This is *TOO* funny!

Massey Energy fine sets record

Richmond-based firm to pay $20 million to settle pollution claims

Friday, Jan 18, 2008 - 12:09 AM Updated: 01:24 AM

By GREG EDWARDS AND REX SPRINGSTON
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS

Richmond's Massey Energy Co. set a record yesterday for a corporate water-polluter.
Massey Energy settled a lawsuit with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, agreeing to pay a $20 million civil penalty, the largest ever for a water-pollution case.

The violations occurred in West Virginia and Kentucky.

The nation's fourth-largest coal producer also agreed to invest about $10 million at mining operations in Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia to ensure that the pollution never happens again, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

"This is a landmark case," said Robert Klepp, the EPA's lead attorney in the case.

"Because of the penalty, there is a strong signal to Massey and everyone else . . . that it doesn't pay to pollute," Klepp said in a phone interview.

The Massey Energy case gives Virginia the dubious distinction of having a connection to the EPA's two top civil penalties involving wastewater permits.

The second-largest penalty is the $12.4 million ($15.9 million in today's dollars) that a federal judge imposed on Smithfield Foods in 1997 for polluting a tributary of the James River in Isle of Wight County.

Even as technology improves to allow the cleaner burning of coal, the Massey Energy case shows that lots of pollution can occur before that coal is burned, said Cale Jaffe, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, an environmental group.

"We need to be looking at the extraction side as well," Jaffe said.

Massey Energy's stock closed at $28.86 yesterday, down $3.46 or 10.7 percent, on news of the EPA settlement.

However, by removing the uncertainty that had surrounded the lawsuit, the settlement is positive for the company, said Steven F. Marascia, a securities analyst with Anderson & Strudwick in Richmond. The cost of the settlement should be something that Massey Energy can absorb, he said.

The fine is much higher than the $5 million the company had initially estimated and had set aside, but lower than some analysts had predicted. The additional $15 million will be charged against Massey Energy's earnings in the fourth quarter of 2007 and will not be deductible for income-tax purposes, the company said.

Massey Energy will not report fourth-quarter earnings until the end of January. For the first nine months of last year, ending Sept. 30, the company reported profits of $89 million on sales of $1.56 billion.

The settlement "will benefit the environment as well as our shareholders," Baxter Phillips Jr., a member of Massey Energy's board of directors, said in a statement.

"When we factored in the costs and uncertainties of litigation and the absorption of management time on the matter, we concluded that our shareholders would best be served by a timely settlement," Phillips said.

In a complaint filed last year, the government alleged that Massey violated the Clean Water Act's permit rules more than 4,500 times between January 2000 and December 2006. The violations resulted in the discharge of excess amounts of metals, sediment and acid mine drainage into hundreds of rivers and streams, the Justice Department said.

Some pollutants were discharged at levels more than 10 times over permit limits, the government said.

The EPA also charged the company with spilling large amounts of slurry -- waste containing metals and sediment -- numerous times into local waterways. Sediment can clog streams and kill fish.

The settlement is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval of a federal judge in West Virginia.

(Now, if only someone would sue them for the second highest fine for scalping all those innocent mountains...)

I'm A Celebrity!

As previously noted, people seem to think I look like Dwight Yoakam...

I've also heard that I look like Lars Ulrich from Metallica...

Now there's a new one. This shopping lady said that I look like Dave Grohl...

I still like Baby Girl's comparison the best. She says that I look like my favorite actor, Nicolas Cage...

Graffiti Lives!

The following is the first installment of "WDN Graffiti." As you'll see, some of it goes back quite a few years. That's how it ties in with the grand-daddy of Cruel Music, WDN. We used to do this crap all the time for WDN. Seems like only yesterday... So, yeah, I'll scan these (HUNDREDS) of pictures from time to time, and post them up here as "Graffiti." Enjoy the dumbness of it all!

Moments Ago...

Earlier today we saw "National Treasure 2." Awesome movie! And, then, more pictures...

Renovations

The blog is kinda screwy right now... I'm renovating it a little, and getting ready for the big, annual new web site design (coming February 1st, with any luck). Been creating some new links, buttons, templates, and all that jazz. Fun, nerdy stuff... Heh. But, it should look really neat when I get everything done. I'm even going to have some animation this year! I've wanted to animate the page, pretty much, ever since I started it. This year it's actually becoming a reality! Baby Girl found this cool animation site, and I've been playing around with it. The Cruel Music page is going to be 10 years old this year, so I've gotta make it a little flashy!

New Year's Eve Jam

Here's some of the last pictures I appeared in for 2007:

Headbanging or about to fall forward? You make the call...

And, here's a bonus one... This is Ozzy, stoned, lasted night: