Midnight Update!

I've noticed that because I update so much on Twitter, I haven't been including much about what I've been up to in my blog entries. Subconsciously I'm trying to avoid being redundant, but I guess there's no shame in redundancy. I mean, after all, it's the internet; it's already redundant!

Here are 12 FACTS about what I've been up to lately:
(in no particular order)

FACT 1: I have been appointed as Vegan Ambassador for Macbeth Footwear. Read about it here, and here. Also, check out some pictures that Ryan Russell took of me here.

FACT 2: I had a "white" x-mas, meaning that huge snow flakes were falling from the sky when I woke up on December 25, 2008. I was in Grass Valley, and in Grass Valley that kind of weather is not unheard of, or undreamt of.

FACT 3: AFI played KROQ's "Almost Acoustic Christmas" on December 13, 2008. On our final song, "Love Like Winter," I mashed my knee up. I have since recovered.

FACT 4: I saw The Cure play at the Troubador on December 13, and at the Gibson Arena on December 14, both 2008. I love The Cure. I finally met Robert.

FACT 5: Hunter Revenge played at Cinespace on December 21, 2008. Since my usual keyboardist, Dan Kelly, was unable to play (due some sort of family reunion), I had, for the first time ever, two keyboardists on stage to replace him. Missed it? Come see Hunter Revenge play Cinespace AGAIN on February 1, 2009. I'll provide more information about this in the future.

FACT 6: I grew a "holiday beard" and eventually shaved that damn thing off. Beards are for Rip Van Winkles.

FACT 7: I did not get engaged. Google it.

FACT 8: I have a new shoe coming out in February, 2009. It's called "The Hunter" and is 100% vegan. It's also 10,000,000% awesome. Take a look at it here before you order 6 pairs. Yes, the shoes are bulletproof. No, I haven't actually tested them against bullets. Would you like to? "For this next trick I'll need a volunteer from the audience..."

FACT 9: While in the studio, working on AFI's eighth studio album, I recorded twelve tracks of bass on a single song. That being said, I feel I must clarify that at most, there are no more than three distinct performances at any given moment in the song. Also, technically three of the tracks are baritone guitar, doubling my bass line. I still think this qualifies me for some type of award. Excessive Bassist of the Year?

FACT 10: Speaking of awards, I was successfully nominated for two Shorty Awards. One of the categories (#awesome) isn't an official category, but still quite awesome. Go vote for me in the other category, #music: http://shortyawards.com/user/TranquilMammoth I need your votes to win! Voting ends January 23, 2009.

FACT 11: Joe Principe (of Rise Against fame) and I are having a conversation right now about how to make bass the "it" instrument for 2009. Kids all over the world should (and will) want to play bass above all other instruments. Ever hear of Bass Hero™? Well maybe somebody will invent that once they catch on to what's happening.

If you're asking yourself, "Where's the 12th fact, Hunter?" then I'm asking you this: Why are you calling yourself Hunter? Is it your name too? (I'll admit that Hunter is a pretty strange name to call yourself, even if it IS your name.) The answer is this: In 2009, numbers don't matter as much as they did in 2008. Think way back to the baker's dozen. I'm not sure what year that was invented, but I can tell you that twelve equalled thirteen that year! Be happy with eleven.

Now quit reading this and go give blood!

Psychedelic Photos!

Psychedelic Photos by Hunter Burgan

Finally, as promised, I present to you the Psychedelic Photo blog. Some of you (the less patient folks) have been awake for consecutive days, tearing your hair out, waiting for this blog. Those of you (like me) who have hair that is too short to tug at have been growing beards in feverish anticipation. Those of you who have shorn heads and no natural ability to grow facial hair have been allowing your eyes to naturally bleed transparent blood that I like to call "tears", maddened by the maddening madness that is expectation. Now it's time to pick up your hair, shave your faces, grab a kleenex, take a bunch of drugs* and get psychedelic!

The photo album above (go ahead, click on it) is a collection of photos taken by my psychedelic iPhone between May 1968 and December 2008. Back in May, my phone decided that some of the photos I take will randomly be psychedelic. I couldn't agrue because that is not a word. Some of these photos appear to be taken in the Matrix, whereas some of them appear to be taken just after an apocalyptic H-bomb detonation. Some of these picture might give you a strange and pleasant sensation in your spine, while others might give you life long nightmares that haunt your waking dreams.

I'll leave you with this food for thought whilst you peruse my psychedelic photos. As one of the forefathers of psychedelia, author Aldous Huxley, may or may not have said,

"And it seems to me perfectly in the cards that there will be within the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing ... a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda, brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods."

*Drug use is not condoned nor advised by the author, Hunter Burgan. Furthermore, drug use will not be necessary to understand or appreciate the beauty or meaning of the photos showcased in this blog. The author, Hunter Burgan, does not use drugs, but rather, prefers the use of hugs to achieve a similar (yet safer and more predictable) "high" when viewing his psychedelic photos.

Questions for myself

Q:

1. Why I am I wearing a fake beard and glasses right now?

2. Why are my legs incredibly sore?

3. Why did take me 5 years to edit the Hunter Revenge - "Do U Want 2 Know?" video?

4. Why does the dark purple passion fruit have traces of cyanide in its skin?

5. If diamonds are a girl's best friend, and dogs are man's best friend, is David Bowies' 1974 release, Diamond Dogs, an attempt to appeal to both men and girls?



A (for me, from myself):

1. I must be trying on a costume for something I'm filming next week. That's the only sense I can make of it.

2. It must be delayed onset muscle soreness. I went hiking on Sunday.

3. Three of those years I didn't have the footage, and the other two years were before the three. Did that make sense? It did to me.

4. Mother nature is telling us to die.

5. Yes. David recognized that men and girls need more opportunities to bond over common interests.