DragonNinjaDotCom

Just got back from Snowboarding for a few days. It was pretty cool, no powder but plenty of room and the weather was great. Since I cut off my blonde Mullet I was concerned that I would look too normal and wouldn’t get ridiculed so I made up for it by wearing the brightest outfit I could muster, and surely enough, I got ridiculed plenty. haha.

Sorry there’s no content in this blog, I have my head in the clouds trying to think about this album and stuff so I’ll keep it brief.

Just thought I’d share out the comedy photo’s so you too can chuckle along with me.

…and yes I wear a helmet, because I value my brain, and yes I wear wrist protection because I value my job too.

Bye for now….

…So someone mentioned in a comment that I should get a twitter. so I did. I don’t know what I am supposed to do with it though. I am wondering if it was a direct result of me posting a few words regarding the Welsh rugby. Correct me if I am wrong but the purpose of having a twitter is the same as a blog? only way shorter? so i can update it like every five minutes or something? So like, “just woke up” and “is brushing teeth” “is having a poop” type of thing?
The internet is making me tired. I can’t seem to find enough time to play on the xbox because there’s so many things to become obsessive compulsive online with. haha, only kidding.
so whatever this twitter is, I have one and I hope it doesn’t hurt me or anything, I shall try and keep it updated, would love any advise from all you budding little inter-blog wizards out there as to how I should use it.
I wrote an actual letter the other day with a pen and paper! can you believe it? I can still write joined up writing! I dread to think how poor my spelling was, ne’ mind, it was thought that counted.

Jamie is planning never to grow up!

bugger, I almost forgot Twitter: jayLostprophets

Also, could someone please contact the lostprophets myspace and ask them to re-link my blog to the site. I have forgotten which one of us is running it at present, last time I went on it i read some seedy messages by accident that were not meant for my eyes, so I vouched never to open Pandora’s box again…plus I think the boys banned me from using it because I am way too opinionated. I wonder if that’s why my blog has been disconnected?????
…It’s time to call in Columbo me thinks…

for anyone who cares…here’s a really good article about it.

and here’s a cool non profit site that supports artists who want a bit more dynamic in their art

nuf said.

Me and Mike just popped down to visit Rhys form the Blackout in hospital in Torrence, Los Angeles. The story goes that he had food poisoning from a burger he ate from swingers. Made him sick a bunch of times the day they were all due to fly back to the UK after shooting their video. on the bus transiting from the terminal to the aeroplane Rhys passed out and fell out of the door of the bus onto his head. he was taken to hospital and into Intensive Care with a suspected brain hemorrhage. As it turns out me and mike get into the hospital with a copy of rock sound and some malteasers to cheer him up and ask at the counter for Rhys….he’s been discharged! we were like “huh? yesterday he was in Intensive care now he’s been discharged? there’s gotta be a mistake”. So, not believing the woman we proceeded to swindle our way through security and all the way into the IC unit armed only with a plastic bag, only to be stopped outside his room and get confirmation that he’s been let go. Of course, stupid me asked “so is he ok then?” and the (not very polite) nurse says “well we wouldn’t have discharged him is he wasn’t would we?” so I reply “well I don’t know do I? you Americans have some wacky rules and clearly by my accent I’m not from around here so It’s likely that I don’t know the exact procedure that warrants a discharge, after all he may have been discharged to a different unit or something, how should I know?” (what I actually said was “like….yeah…welll. seee….” and shrugged alot) She clearly realized her brash comment was undeserved so she quickly apologised before telling us to f#ck off.
After that, Anneka Rice (born Anne Rice, 4 October 1958 in Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan) joined us with another clue as to Rhys’ whereabouts so mike and me headed over to the Marriott where he was with his family, looking a bit groggy and weak, but doing much better. After a bunch of scans they said he’s all good and ready to fly back home in a few days…….all is well that ends well.
Was really gutted and anxious to hear about his accident but very relieved that he’s gonna be better soon. Poor kid, first time in LA and all. And i feel bad because I told them all to go to Swingers for a Black and White milkshake. yikes! I said if he’d had been a vegetarian this would never had happened ha! kidding.
So the moral of the story is….You can never predict or prepare where the next unfortunate event is gonna come your way. Of course, if you skate and surf and snowboard and do dangerous sports alot then the chances of injury are higher than if you don’t, but there’s no guarantee that the simplest unseen thing can proper put you on your arse. So with that said, don’t go through life being a pussy and not doing things because you may get hurt….Live your life to the max and make the most of everyday even if it means risking hurting yourself, because at the end of it all something is gonna kill you either way, that is a guarantee! and you can’t take anything with you, not even regret so don’t let fear of dying prevent you from living!

..and in typical Oliver fashion, to complete the postmodern manifesto with a splash of paradox :- Don’t be Irresponsible!!!!!

that is my disclaimer

which means I have more time to blog, yey!
I found out this week how addicted to the television I was, which was shocking. I mean without netflix, a dvd, my xbox nor crap regular TV I went into a panic. It’s ok, I’m over the worst of it now, but my initial response was sheer fright and I was almost shaking trying to fix it..haha. Amazing really, because I didn’t think I used it that much. My impression of myself was of a meditative outdoors kinda guy who reads and paints and does all the valuable things in life and isn’t shackled to mind numbing technology…..Wrong!
In fairness, I am quite enjoying the peace and quiet today and actually got to bed at a reasonable time last night and read some books, so I think after the initial period of cold turkey-ing I will survive.
Went out with the boys from The Blackout night before last. they were in town shooting a video and we had sushi in a posh restaurant. Then we went back to their hotel to have a listen to their new album and low and behold, in classic comical irony, the hotel had a blackout. Now of course, i was thinking it was a very expensive stunt that the band had pulled to impress me, but unfortunately they had nothing to do with it, it was actually a problem with the posh hotel, so we sat for half hour in the dark and then decided to go down to the reception where at least there were some back up lights, finally the power came on and we went back upstairs and respectfully but awkwardly sat and listened to the whole thing (I don’t mean that in a bad way, but now I know how it feels for the people I force to listen to our new stuff while I watch every expression on their faces to see if they like it or not, sorry to everyone i have done that to)…. the album was great btw. Good job lads!

went for a surf for the first time in months yesterday morning with mike and a buddy who’s a pro photographer. When i say we went for a surf, I meant we paddled about for 40 minutes until we couldn’t feel our arms and then we limped in having caught nada surf. there were waves, but we have been out of the water for so long our stamina was a major issue. We had a few photo’s taken for that manzine blog publication I was talking about before, and got a parking ticket for being 3 mins late! Nazis!
It’s shocking how quick you can lose sport specific fitness, now that the record is nearly done I guess I can try and do a bit more of the outdoor sportsy stuff. All this running I have been doing didn’t help one bit in the sea, in fact, my running is giving my knee more jip so that my marathon campaign may be coming to an unceremonious end, though I hope not. Exactly the same problem that made me miss that last marathon. too much rugby and skate boarding when i was younger me thinks.
I was reading a book last night about neuroscience. It was suggested by some that a human newborns dependency on it’s parent and it clear helplessness could be due to the fact that we are a bipedal species therefore the upright posture limits the pelvic size and women can only squeeze out babies with relatively small heads, that is, babies whose brains are partially developed. We are obviously not unique with this handicap, for instance kittens don’t even open their eyes for several days after birth, but it does beg the question….should I get my hair cut or not?
haha, just kidding. I realised how boringly boring I was becoming with that hypothesis.(…screeech handbrake!)
Think I might go to Mammoth mountains for a few days snowboarding in a week or so. Go up and watch the Roxy chicken jam. could be a laugh.
Anyway i better get going, there’s a bee in my apartment urrhem…I mean Manor house, and i need to rescue it. I hear bee’s are on the decline these days and something about them dramatically effecting the ecology if they were to go kerplunk. so here’s to you Bee’s and your tragic flaw in your blueprint when it comes to your suicidal defense mechanism!
so sad!. talk about a backfire!!

Update: worked hard all week, especially Ian, and got all the vocals nailed. The songs are about 95% there. It’s so exciting, and It’s amazing how a vocal here or there can elevate a song to a whole different level and place. It’s been hard, obviously because there’s been so many versions of the songs and Ians been doing lyrics and vocals for almost 2 years, so I am sure he feels a sense of relief and achievement with the awesome songs he wrote. Well done buddy. Stu and our buddy Justin, have been absolutely amazing steering the ship, and when this record is finished and out, I am sure that people are gonna be blown away with the quality of their production. I hope that people can relate to our vision. It’s almost as though this album is going to be the first Lostprophets record since the first one we made ourselves, and if people don’t like it, well, I guess they don’t like us. Because this is the most honest representation of our band, completely done by us without any outside interference. lostprophets music done entirely by lostprophets, how novel haha! Hopefully it will change the way we make records in the future. I’m sure it will. Saying all that of course, is not to take anything at all away from our previous records. I still think they are amazing, but of course doing a record with a producer is a collaboration and both parties personality will come through. this time it’s pure. and it’s us…. which of course is interesting, because if people don’t like it then it begs the question did they ever really like us? But to be honest, without sounding presumptuous, I think the album is sounding wicked and really one the most proud things I have had the chance to be involved with. And I have no doubt there will be others out there that share our likes and dislikes and will be able to enjoy what we have producing here.
So, I get another stab at keyboards next week now that I have vocals there to work in and around. Looking into the mix now and the logistics of that. fingers crossed, it’s all plain sailing from here on in until the release. It’s hard not to be too vocally proud of what we’ve worked so hard to do, especially in the light of getting to the finish line once already and taking the BIIIGG Ballsy move of redoing the whole thing. With 20/20 hindsight, most definitely the best decision we have ever made.
Keep you posted.

a follower counter, looooooooooook >
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that apparently makes it real easy for people to follow my blog. And in it’s description it claims to be a good way of easily encouraging more people to easily follow my blog, which apparently makes people like me feel all nice and confident about myself that people like me and care about me and stuff and I have a purpose for being on this earth and I am somebody….hmmmm.
So, tell your friends, guys and lets get a big following..yeah alright woohoo! yes me! go me! I’m popular, go popular, me popular (that’s my popular song, not like nada surfs one, but a bit like it).
soooo
yeah
ok
um….
FOLLOW ME OR DIE!!!!!
or not, of course
because it’s unlikely i’ll ever find you and even if I do, I am way to pussy to do or say anything about it so..
yeah.

if you want.
bye

Yes it’s late at night for me. I got back from the studio after another 13 hour day, I am wondering how it is possible to be so thorough writing music, I mean how could we be recording 115 tracks which will evantually be reduced to a single stereo track? It’s kinda an amazing process to be involved in, but it also gives an indication as to how much work goes into a song,
e.g. a single song is about approx 4 minutes long which is made up of approx 100 separate track which means each song contains just over 6 and a half hours worth of audio. Bear in mind, not all that audio was first take, well for most of the other guys in the band it was but for me I know for sure there were a few additional takes to get it right. so times that 6 hours by about 3. Now multiply that by how long it took to not only invent that particular track but also the elimination process of over turning every rock to make sure the part you have decided upon is the very best part for the song. Now multiply that answer by the number of songs recorded for the record…… now multiply that by 2 since this is our second stab at recording this record and you have……..A F*CKING LONG TIME! (actually just did the maths….It comes out at 75 solid days back to back including the nights)

so, yeah 13 hours later, I feel like Homer Simpson doing his numerous jobs, I am reluctant to getting into bed because this morning I rolled out of bed and went straight to the studio, so here I am….writing a blog and a few beers into my evening. haha. Funny huh?

I have been looking at a few other blogs recently, and have noticed that most blogs consist of a photo or a video with a couple of lines of text commenting on or judging the image. I think maybe I’ve got my blog all arse over tit and misunderstood what the purpose of it all is. mine are very clearly, a bunch of nonsense fence sitting commentary on my life and the things that surround it, and very rarely do I pass judgement on anything of worth. A pretty accurate representation of my personality I guess. I did enjoy a few bits and bobs recently though. this and
http://www.juxtapoz.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1&limit=5&limitstart=45

which is cool. and are showing here obviously under my real name Richard Oliver. And yes, I know they are not sold and thats because I don’t want to sell them yet because i like them.

I…forgot what I was gonna say, oh that’s right, there’s a new magazine I saw recently for guys that is the antithesis of usual guys magazines, which doesn’t try and tell you what you should be or what you should buy in order to be what you should be and it also doesn’t simple focus on lads stuff like tits and cars, in fact it’s very refreshing to see a mag that doesn’t really attempt to past judgement on everything and everyone. So I added it to my following thing, and it’s called manzine.
Here’s something rather disconcerting right now… the tv is on a channel in the background playing dead bodies and death. National geographic program entitled Science of Death featuring ‘The latest in caskets and cremation: the science behind new techniques of body preservation and body cremation’

YIKES! I hadn’t realised until I heard some woman calmly talking about maggots and eyes…uuurrrgh. spooky, change channel.

that’s better, NASA channel…..a still picture of a shuttle in the dark on a launch pad, when I say still i mean it’s live footage I think, but the shuttle is still, and I was watching it earlier too…….

NOTHING HAPPENS!!!>>>>>>EVER!
< (this is a nice picture..not the picture on my TV right now...trust me, the picture on my TV right now is waaaaay crapper than this). I mean, WTF is this channel about anyway (apart from the obvious) I've tried to get my head around it, it's like train spotting for space nerds right???? there's always nothing going on in some weird fricking pixelated picture, Like anyone gives a shite! I certainly don't. I'm hypnotized though waiting for something to happen, like something at all, maybe hoping secretly deep down that an alien or something shitty happened where the shuttle falls over or at least a fricking duck flies into the camera or anything! god dammit! nothing. just a big cock shaped rocket sitting around rusting. Here's the thing though....why didn't they show in quick time the massive rocket being erected (excuse the provocative use of words) I mean it's a big ol' phallic petrol can they stick the shuttle to so how the f*ck did they get that up in the first place. *idea* sped up video of rocket being hoisted up-sell footage to Viagra for advertisement campaign...genius! well I need a pee and my bed beckons me. I tried running a half marathon last night and got my mileage a bit wrong, ended up running only 12 miles instead of the 13.5. Pretty gutted because I thought my time was good, after a bit of math it looks like I would have been 4 minutes over my goal if I had done the extra mile. boooo. I also pushed myself a bit hard and I think it was the first time in my life i have recorded a heart rate of 191. yes i nearly spewed and yes i wont be doing it again in a hurry. I'm 5 foot 8 and a quarter, I am 154.4 pounds on a good day, I am going a little grey in the front, I have never had a filling in any of my adult teeth and I occasionally laugh so hard i pee my pants... so what? here's to you surprises, i hope you never fail to startle me until my dying day (which will hopefully be our last act!) Goodnight
P.s. F*cking NASA hahaha, I wonder if they escape the economic collapse? all that fuel in that big orange penis!! we could all be driving around in Hummers man! just like Laird Hamilton..you know…that big wave surfer dude….the buff guy…surfer…who’s all in touch with nature…and a representative of the spiritual side of the sea…and nature….and the environment..you know…Laird. Lairdy boy! The dude that let me share his wave and my first wave up at point Dume…nature loving guy who gave me a nod of both pity and respect as I flailed around on a 10 foot red soft top 3 years ago…you know Laird Hamilton….
And his big ass tricked out Hummer!! (so mike tells me)
Very….very Disappointed Laird, Very very.

fake turkey and branston pickle sandwich on the fly for lunch, I opted for call of duty rather than meditation, a big mistake. two cups of coffee, dirty jeans, dirty white tshirt. hair needs a wash crumbs everywhere…surely indigestion. straight up the studio…wait phones ringing..it’s my Dad, missed the call typing this out..it’s cool I’ll call him back. What was i saying? oh yeah, studio..doing gang vocals today, so close to finishing, Ian’s been on form of late, good lad. maybe 7 days away from finishing tracking completely, then the mix then the master then the set up and the interviews then the tours…aahh good times I hope. wonder if anyone will ever hear what we didn’t put out? wonder if anyone would care. What’s gonna become of the 35 songs we didn’t put on the album? Got a couple of paintings into a Gallery in Hollywood, private view tomorrow opening show on Friday..La Luz de Jesus, probably won’t be able to attend because of recording. Priorities I know. here’s a quote;
“Zen has no goal; it is a travelling without point, with nowhere to go. To travel is to be alive, but to get somewhere is to be dead, for as our own proverb says, “To travel well is better than to arrive”.
A world which increasingly consists of destinations without journeys between them, a world which values only”getting somewhere” as fast as possible, becomes a world without substance. One can get anywhere and everywhere, and yet the more this is possible, the less is anywhere and everywhere worth getting to. For points of arrival are too abstract, too Euclidean to be enjoyed, and it is very much like eating the precise ends of a banana without getting what lies in between. The point, therefore, of these arts is the doing of them rather than the accomplishments. But, more than this, the real joy of them lies in what turns up unintentionally in the course of practice, just as the joy of travel is not nearly so much in getting where one wants to go as in the unsought surprises which occur on the journey.”