Hello friends. Apologies for posting Monday Morning Commute on a Tuesday Evening. Thirteen hour work days. All that fun stuff. Anyways. Here’s uh — the thing. Wait, what thing? Ah yes, the thing. The list of activities I’m indulging in this week, in an effort to stave off the grind-based madness of the modern condition.

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Holy smokes.

Boston Comic Con 2013 turned out to be a couple of wonderful, wild, days. In the course of slingin’ t-shirts, debatin’ the message of said shirts, and snappin’ photos with cosplayers, the crew of Spaceship OL had an absolute blast. We got to meet up with some of the ever-faithful OL readers, we met Rich from Toucher and Rich, and at one point our very own Riff Simian started playin’ a goddamn guitar at the booth. Yowza!

I’m sure that in the days to come we’ll have some sort of BCC`13 recap that highlights some of the insanity that we just survived. It’d be lame of us not to give you such an insight. But right now, we have to get through the Monday Morning Commute!

That’s right, the weekend’s officially over and now it’s back to the tasks that put paper in our pockets. But as always, we have the MMC – the spot specifically set aside for sharin’ the strategies that’ll get us into the next weekend! Are you going to watch all of the Friday the 13th movies this week? Or is this finally the moment that you record your acoustic concept album about time-traveling so that you can save a young Michael Jackson from insanity? Oh, I know! Are you going to homebrew some beer and then drink it too early and then swear at the cat?!

How’re you planning to murder ennui?

I’ll get us started, but then hit up the comments section!

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Welcome to the MONDAY MORNING COMMUTE! This is the feature I use as an excuse to showcase the various debris that’ll be keeping my brain-bone lubricated so as to avoid jamming up at the hands of the workweek. Some Mondays, I write a little story beforehand as a creative writing exercise and preface the post with it. On other Mondays, I start the post by jotting down an amusing anecdote

And then there’re those Mondays when I’m so tired that my eyes are burning and I don’t have any goddamn coffee filters so kickstarting my creativity with a caffeine-defibrillator isn’t an option and all I want to do is pass out and wake up in 2013 so that I can laugh at all those fucking doomsayers and tell them that their apocalypse wasn’t even worth being awake for.

Guess what kind of Monday today is.

Quit’yer dinkin’ around, let’s do this.

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Welcome to the MONDAY MORNING COMMUTE – OL’s weekly show-and-tell session. I’m going to give you a peek at some of the bits of entertainment that’ll keep me from swearing off our oppressive society, giving away all my worldly possessions, and then fleeing to the wilderness so I can die in a van.

After reading about the destinations of my entertainment-excursions, you’re encouraged to hit up the comments section so you can show off your own itinerary.

Let’s rock.

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To all space-babies and planet-dwellers tuning in – welcome. Thanks for making OL your choice in the galaxy’s foodcourt of edible debris. Tonight’s special is the charbroiled mindrot, served with   a side of over-enthused nerdgasm. Make sure you wash it down with an ice-cold beer.

This here is the MONDAY MORNING COMMUTE, the weekly joint in which I lay out all of the puddles of escapism I’ll be soaking up. Inspired, you then hit up the comments section and do the same. In the ideal universe, the MMC is the chillout tent we use to avoid the burden of the workweek. So c’mon, let’s dance.

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Sometimes the Monday Morning Commute is prefaced with a short story or anecdote. Not today. Instead, I’m going right for the top-turnbuckle so that I can drop the entertainment elbow. You know the drill – I show you what I’m going to do in my free time to avoid insanity (or perhaps induce it). And then you, as a loyal reader of OL, hit up the comments section and do the same.

Let’s dance, Sally.

–-

Rockin’ / OFWGKTA – Radical

[oddfuture]

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According to both his Twitter and his forum, Mike Portnoy is leaving Dream Theater.

Wait, huh? Yeah, that’s right – Mike Portnoy is leaving the most respected progressive-metal group on the planet, the very band he helped found twenty-five years ago and launched him to the status of music-nerd-legend. As the group’s most vocal member, the drummer has basically become synonymous with the Dream Theater franchise. This move is like James Hetfield leaving Metallica, Dave Mustaine leaving Megadeth, or maybe even Bruce Dickinson leaving Iron Maiden…Hey…wait a second…

So why did he leave? His reasoning:

We have been on an endless write/record/tour cycle for almost 20 years now (of which I have overseen EVERY aspect without a break) and while a few months apart from each other here & there over the years has been much needed and helpful, I honestly hoped the band could simply agree with me to taking a bit of a “hiatus” to recharge our batteries and “save me from ourselves”…

Sadly, in discussing this with the guys, they determined they do not share my feelings and have decided to continue without me rather than take a breather…I even offered to do some occasional work throughout 2011 against my initial wishes, but it was not to be…

My Interpretation: Portnoy has been sullied by playing with Avenged Sevenfold. He’s probably enjoying a level of recognition and luxury that Dream Theater could never afford him. While this is understandable, DT’s other members don’t have the same opportunities and probably don’t feel like waiting for him to finish living the life to start making music again. I’m sort of troubled by Portnoy’s offering to “do some occasional work” for the band.

Seems like priorities are shifting; he originally made it seem as though it was Avenged Sevenfold he’d be doing some occasional work for, not his own band.

My Prediction: This is going to create a huge riff in the Dream Theater fan community – I’m talking some David Lee Roth/Van Halen type of shit. But just like that classic rock feud, I can’t imagine this will last.

Hit the jump to see some Portnoy/Dream Theater highlights!
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13 minutes of prog-metal mayhem. Filmed for Japanese television. Apparently for a show called Party-Dude!

There are worse ways to start your week.