I live for small-time punk and ska shows. I'm just pissed that I missed Big D and the Kids Table last winter when they showed up. But, I'm going to go see Reel Big Fish in a cardboard box, basically, next month. It's just depressing, because we had this really small punk rock club around here called Saratoga Winners that was shut down recently for serving liquor without a license, and serving to minors. The place had no heating, and in the winter, you had to show up in full outdoor winter dress, or you'd freeze. The sound quality was crap, and from the handful of times my band played there, I can say that it was even worse on stage. It was like a battle field, trying to hear everyone in your band play. The sound guy was a dick. The owner barely spoke English... It was a fucking great place. And now it's gone. I'm 17, and I feel like I already have milestones of my childhood, which is fucking ridiculous.

I'm a bit disappointed to see that this is the first big-ish White Stripes tour. They've always played in small hole-in-the-wall clubs. I guess they're doing Madison Square Garden this year. Usually when they come to New York, they always do small, sketchy clubs in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Whatever, I'll see them any place, any time. And Jack White isn't over-weight or dressing like Zorro this year, so I don't have to worry about wondering why Fat Zorro is on stage spitting on Meg.

It's safe to say that 2005 was the year Jack White lost and then reclaimed his sanity.

"Somebody told me when the bomb hits, everybody in a two mile radius will be instantly sublimated, but if you lay face down on the ground for some time, avoiding the residual ripples of heat, you might survive, permanently fucked up and twisted like you're always underwater refracted. But if you do go gas, there's nothing you can do if the air that was once you is mingled and mashed with the kicked up molecules of the enemy's former body. Big-kid-tested, motherf--ker approved."