Bart
Ballington: Drums, Vocals
Equipment Used:
1997 Ludwig 4-Piece
jazz kit and 2000 Tama 5-Piece Rockstar kit
Tama and Pearl hardware, Sabian
and Zildjian cymbals, Pro-Mark sticks
General Stuff.....
I'm 24 years old. I live in a sort of post-college limbo. More specifically, I have my BA in English, but I remain sort of entertained by climbing the (very short) ladder at the same job I had when I was in school. I do this primarily because my band (who I loooove) actually seems to be going somewhere, as dillusional as that sounds. I love playing drums. It's the only thing I still do regularly that I feel like I'm good (and getting better) at. I love music more than anything and not many things on earth feel as good as the satisfaction of making and creating music and really tightly locking into a perfect groove with a band. In a perfect world (which I don't believe is really possible) I would have the fortune to get to play music for a living, on a really big public level and my job would consist of being paid to write and rehearse music in between big tours full of roaring crowds. Celebrities are totally insane these days and make bad music and movies and they marry like it means nothing and they make bad fashion choices and say ridiculous things and don't remotely deserve what they make financially and I'd probably be no different if I was famous, but nonetheless that possibility really appeals to me. I admittedly have a superiority complex. I often find myself looking around at people shopping or pumping gas, checking out the movies and music that's commercially popular and thinking, "What is wrong with everyone? Why am I the only one who gets it?" more than I should. I like owning large collections of music and movies and music-movies, and I have sort of alternative standards on everything. I enjoy originality and intelligence alot, regardless of what sort of art form it's conveyed in. I think Nickelback and Linkin Park (and lots of modern rock acts for that matter) are horrible. I love Dave Matthews Band, but because those guys are incredible musicians and play together really well, not because "Crash Into Me" was on the radio when I banged that blonde ZTA chick at, like, my frat house. I haven't had the look in awhile, but I'm sort of hippie-ish at heart. I'm anti-establishment. I find the news depressing and partisan and I very rarely can stand to have it on. I think George W. Bush is a very foolish man with so much power that his childish revenge-to-the-end agenda has got everyone brainwashed into siding with him, just slapping an American flag on their bumper or talking about how the troops are keeping our country safe from all this invisible danger that's out there. I hate this panic-mentality everyone is always in, and I largely blame the government, because they're only capable of using one tool, fear, and I think it's gotten way out of hand. I don't think we should put the president up before a firing squad or anything, but I just wish people would take a look around and just admit he's made all these terrible mistakes that have cost this country all these promising young lives and call it quits now and count our losses instead of instead being all patriotic and macho and staying quiet, It's so frustrating to live in America, and the South at that. I'm really scared of dying. I'm capable of panicking if I really imagine my (inevitable) death/funeral/burial/people I know dealing with it. Sort of connected to that, I don't want to die some horrible way, particularly in a plane crash--that one really just makes me shudder, and I've had this strange connection/fear of flying as long as I can remember. I had a childhood friend die over a year ago and I think about him all the time and I think all the terrible things I saw/felt around that time have affected me more than anything in recent memory. I like sad music. I guess I find that it most accurately soundtracks the way I feel and what I see going on around me. I fall in love (well, not quite love, some would wisely argue) really easily, and it can just happen with someone's voice or their face or their taste in music or absolutely anything, and I think it's that hopeful feel of perfect new love that I'm attached to more than anything else. That's my self-diagnosis, anyway. I'm more than a little obsessive about taking thorough showers (which, you know, take awhile) and hygiene and the way my hair must look or my clothes must fit before I'll leave the house, though I'm trying really hard to work on that stuff. - source: myspace
Be sure to visit Bart @ Myspace.com!!