Crate Digging & Straight Living

When I returned from May 24 weekend, as suspected I had been informed upon. Tara's friends that were there had told her about Leah, and now the drama was unfolding. I had to explain the entire situation to her, and it took some convincing, but she eventually took my word for it and we patched things up. Besides, we'd only been dating a week or two so it's not like we had anything set in stone yet.

3 n' Pass was still gigging when we could and we were still writing music when it was feasible. We also still had our radio show on CHRY "the Sunday night experience" and some weeks we might of only seen each other on Sunday, but it was nice that it always brought us back together at the end of the week. Mike Chapman was really getting into DJing now, so he would tend to help himself to the record vault at CHRY. I was guilty as well, as I'd nip the odd record or cd from time to time, which always guaranteed the comment "sleaze" to slide from Mike's mouth, followed by our laughter.  

Speaking of records, I was still into collecting vinyl. I wasn't spending as much time in Toronto now, but when I was, I'd constantly hit up all the used record stores along Queen street west. My collection was growing too, I had to upgrade from an old milk carton to the new blue recycle bins that had only been around a few years now. I don't remember where I got my blue bin, but somebody somewhere was missing one.

I was finding a lot of records I used to own and re buying them, mainly oldschool thrash and hardcore. There was a brief time when I was hanging out at Phil's a lot with Craig, but after awhile I got sick of being a hermit. I wanted to get out and meet girls as well as hang around my other circles of friends. Unfortunately I had brought a lot of vinyl to Phil's in those days, and for some reason I left them all there. I'm not really sure why I did, perhaps it came back to the Grasshopper breakup. I felt like asking Phil for my records would give the impression that we were no longer friends, which wasn't the case.

The plus side was it didn't cost much to replace a lot of the records as I was buying them used. Originally I had paid 10-15 dollars per album, but now I was getting them for 1-5 dollars. Some of them were even variant releases that included lyrics, which my original albums never had, so that was a bonus too. Asides from the hardcore stuff, I was stumbling upon various Beastie Boys 12 inch singles, and I now owned almost everything they had ever released with the exception of the elusive "Rock Hard EP" which was almost impossible to find.

Jerry and I were still going on our Sunday drives when we could, a tradition we'd been upholding since he first got his license. Sometimes we'd goto Square One shopping centre in Mississauga, where we always seemed to discover something new. It was there that I found a Beastie's 12" I'd never seen before, it was entitled "An exciting evening at home with Shadrach Meshach and Abednago" I was broke at the time, but Jerry being the best friend that he is was willing to foot the bill until I could pay him back at a later date. This ended up being my favourite Beastie release I had heard to date. I'm pretty sure this took place before Check Your Head was released, as the single contained remixes from Paul's Boutique. I feel it was worthy of mentioning as it was and still is such an important record in my life.

During this excursion we decided to check out some of the music they had available at the listening centre. We collectively agreed to check out a band we had never heard of before, they were called Shadowfax. I really didn't even know what to categorize this music as, but we were totally digging it. Jerry decided to buy the cassette, and we listened to it for the entire ride home. Shadowfax was a blend of new age, jazz, and electronica, which was a far cry from what we'd normally listen to. Despite that, we really dug it and it was nice to open our minds to something new. I told Jer I'd like to borrow it sometime so I could dub it, but now looking back I don't think I ever actually did. Decades later I'd learn the band's name came from Lord of the Rings, it was actually the name of Gandalf's horse. 

Life was peachy. I had a great group of friends, I was still making music, and I had a new love interest. I had been graduated for exactly two years now and I hadn't worked a single job, which in turn saw my parents constantly breathing down my neck. I guess you can't really blame them. I was just too enamored with enjoying life and living the rockstar lifestyle, the only downfall being it wasn't making me any money. My mom decided to throw me in the car with her and drive around Brampton applying for jobs. 

I tried a few things out, usually through temp agencies, but most of those jobs were serious hard labour while only making half the money I should have been making. I never lasted long at these jobs, usually anywhere from a day to a week. Finally I got a call from Loeb, a brand new grocery store that was opening. I had an interview, and before I knew it I had a full time job working midnight shift in the bakery. Summer had just begun, but your narrator wasn't going to have much involvement with it...

UPDATE 04/16/2015

I haven't done a current update in awhile, so I figured now would be the perfect time. First and foremost I am pleased to announce that my new collaboration project "Tribes of the Moon" is complete and ready to hit the streets next Monday April 20th, 2015. This has been a very rewarding venture and I don't mean financially. It's been a great honour and pleasure to work with everyone who offered submissions. I was hoping to get a few big name producers on this, but unfortunately they wanted money, and this is a non profit production. I was willing to spend some cash for the cause, but unfortunately I was not financially stable enough to do so. Perhaps in the future I can release a volume 2 and work with some of these people, but as it stands this will be a free release. Here is the track listing:

1. Friends In High Places-produced by Prince Pauly (3:48)

2. White-produced by AKstyleZ (3:29)

3. If You Wanna​-​produced by Kuato Lives! (4:01)

4. UglyBack-produced by UpperKutt (2:50)

5. Fact & Fiction-produced by Alex P. Keaton (2:49)

6. Just Don't(f.MachSpitz)-produced by BWC Gerg & Kuato Lives! (4:40)

7. Ain't No Stoppin' Me(f.TankDiggs&Lil'G) (4:15)

8. Disco Christ Walker-produced by Error144 (3:42)

9. Never Grow Up-produced by C.L.D.Peeps (2:24)

10. Am I-produced by The Night Owls (3:44)

11. Who Got Balls?-produced by GROG (2:37)

12. Puff Puff Pass-produced by Mister P (2:38)

13. Come to Daddy-produced by Double D (4:11)

14. Seven Thirty-produced by YU-C Beats (3:32)

15. All Wrong(f.Tank Diggs)-produced by Tank Diggs (3:40)

16. Run! - produced by BWC Gerg (2:59)

17. Live In Our World-produced by Mokbeatz (7:40)

You can find Tribes of the Moon available for free digital download and streaming next Monday via www.kabal.bandamp.com

In other news I'm happy to announce that after a 7 year hiatus, the man known as Osiris, co-founder of UWA Hardcore Wrestling, is back in action with a new promotion "Wrestling Abaddon" and they will be holding their first show this Sunday in Toronto. Hope to see you all there...

Don’t miss your chance to see Wrestling Abaddon LIVE!

Lithuanian House, 1573 Bloor Street West, Toronto

Sunday, April 19th, 2015. Doors open at 6:00p.m. Bell time 7:00p.m.

Featuring 7 NEVER SEEN BEFORE wrestling matches.

Main Event:

Carter Roth@#%$! vs. The BLK Jesus (JAPW and CZW Champion)

Azrieal vs. Chase Owens

Joker vs. Danny Havoc (Loser is suspended until 2016)

Pinkie vs. ‘The Warrior Wizard’ Jason Kincaid

Octavio vs. ‘Bad Boy’ Joey Janela

Dave V4.0 vs. Lucky ‘The Bartender Beefcake’

Bandido Jr. vs. Lan-Doe (Formerly known as Lionel Knight)

possibly featuring an appearance by Psycho Mike

…and top the night off with an ABADDON BURRITO!

www.abaddon.ca

The Blackest Sunday

May was through, the summer was approaching, and 3 n' Pass was transitioning from a rap group into a live rap band. Shortly before we made the decision to change things up, we were producing new mixes for some of our old songs. Our self titled song needed new life, so I headed into my lab and did the old record pause trick to create some loops using the song "The Wizard" by Black Sabbath. It brought a whole new dimension and incredible energy to the song, plus we were sticking with a trend nobody else was really doing in rap with the exception of a few, sampling metal and rock songs.

Navy & Shelly, two of the top skate dogs on Team Scam in Brampton, had also started a rap project called "Team Scam" and they were doing some pretty cool stuff production wise. It was original and they definitely had their own vibe going on. We were happy to have them open for us, so we rocked a few shows together at Tremors in Brampton.

As far as I knew we were the only kids in town that had a rap band, so it was nice to see other people expressing theirselves through this wonderful art from. Paul from Demon Barf had told me about a friend who lived on his street named Kevin, and he had started a rap group as well called "Endangered Elements" It was really cool knowing that we weren't alone in our plight.

I had made plans to hook up with Pauly one day and hang out. I was at the Bramalea City Centre bumming about, so Paul came to meet me there when he got off work. While waiting for him I decided to peruse the record stores as I often did, and I was totally surprised to see Cypress Hill had a new album out called "Black Sunday" I immediately bought it and couldn't wait for Paul to show up so we could bump it in his car. Needless to say when he arrived he was pretty stoked with the surprise I had waiting for him.

We popped the cd in the stereo and the first song kicked in entitled "I wanna get high" I immediately recognized the chorus which was obviously inspired by Rita Marley's one hit wonder, but the music was really slow and blunted. I was used to Cypress being so hype and upbeat, but the lyrical content made up for the low beats per minute. When the second song "I ain't going out like that" started up, I thought "this is the Cypress I know" it was more upbeat and in your face. I was really digging the song a lot, and then it came to a break in the middle of the song. My jaw hit the floor when my ears heard the harmonica from Sabbath's "The Wizard" I couldn't believe it! I blurted out "Cypress ripped us off!!!" I was absolutely furious.

Within a weeks time I was shocked to learn that Cypress had used another sound in one of their new songs that Team Scam had already used in one of their tracks, and if that wasn't enough, Paul later heard from his buddy Kev that there was another sound in another Cypress song that Endangered Elements had previously used in one of their tunes. My mind was blown. It just seemed too coincidental that three bands from Brampton had been jacked by Cypress. There was clearly no way they had heard any of our music, but I was convinced there was some kind of conspiracy going on. We had all worked hard to bring original ideas to the stage, and now Cypress had just stripped that from us. People would naturally assume that  we all ripped off Cypress Hill, not vice versa.

This hit me like a low blow, one that makes you reevaluate yourself and what you are doing. When your originality is stripped from you in one swoop what are you to do? The answer seemed simple enough, we had to come more original. So when the guys suggested transitioning into a live band I was totally on board, as nobody in rap was doing such. 

It was time once again to bring something new to the game that had never been done before...

Party Animals From Hell pt.4

As I write this, I realize I made an error in the story. I thought it was the Friday night that Craig lost his car keys, but it was actually the Saturday night. With that being noted, let us move on.

I made my way back to our cottages and it was still quite early in the morning. Although the music was bumping and the fire was still dancing, majority of my friends were asleep. There was a small group of guys sitting around drinking, so naturally I joined them. It was a fairly chill morning in more ways than one, we were taking it easy, but it was also overcast and windy. It had been beautiful all weekend but it looked like our luck had run out, as I could tell it was definitely going to rain.

Our troop slowly started coming back from the dead, and by noon everything was back in full swing. My suspicions were correct, as it had started raining, but it wasn't coming down too badly. It was however a grey day and nowhere nearly as warm as the rest of the weekend had been. I was officially out of 151 rum now, so I was using the old barter system once again, trading meats for alcohol. I was definitely drinking a bit moderately though as I hadn't slept the previous night. Everyone assumed I had had sex with Leah, and I didn't deny nor confirm their assumptions from what I recall. I hadn't been sober or logical enough to stop and remember that a few of Michael Campbell's friends who were with us were also friends of my new love interest Tara. I figured there'd be drama to follow.

Shortly after lunchtime I saw what I thought was a mirage, as I was still hallucinating slightly, but this manifestation was real. It was Craig walking down the beach back towards our area. He had been gone for over 14 hours or so by now. I walked down the beach to meet him and see what was up. He had gone looking for his keys the night before and he remembered walking down the beach looking for them. From there all he remembered was two police officers waking him up and he was standing on the beach. Somehow he had passed out standing up, or perhaps they stood him up while he was still asleep. Craig explained his situation and they thankfully had sent him on his way. Before he left he had asked the officers if they knew where Whites Bungalows were. They had pointed him in the proper direction and he'd been walking for close to three hours before he arrived. Absolute madness I proclaimed. I was just relieved my pal was back and in one piece.

As the afternoon rolled on things started to get a bit grim. We were running low on alcohol, we were running out of things to keep the fire going, and the weather was putting a whole damper on the situation as well. One of Michael's friends found a 24 of beer in one of the cottages, and as he excitedly ran out to tell us all, the bottom of the damp box gave out. The ground was all sand except for a stone doorstep into the cottage, and by some freak act of nature that's exactly where all the beers fell. I think maybe 8 survived the incident. Oh the horror.

I wasn't in much of a drinking mood to be honest, so I really didn't care, but for the guys on a bender it was a grim situation. Jay Dove had made a funnel out of a pink flamingo he'd stolen from someone's property, and he'd ran out of things to fill it with. Jay had an uncanny of slamming back large amounts of beer or booze in the blink of an eye, it was quite remarkable. Only he wasn't ready to stop now, so a few of us got in cahoots and devised a master plan. 

We headed to the villa of high schoolers behind us and  began going cottage to cottage. Jay would belligerently knock on the door, and when answered he'd stick the flamingo funnel in their faces and demand "FILL BLUBBER DUCKY!!!" Everyone seemed to be amazed by this, so they'd willingly grab whatever alcohol was within arms reach and fill the funnel. Sometimes as much as 3-4 beers were going in at once, multiple brands of beers and various mixed drinks, even liquor straight out the bottle. Jay would slam it back in a heartbeat and leave them all in awe, and as his one man show kept them amused, me and a few other guys would go into the bedrooms and take the plywood out from between the mattresses of the beds. 

We ran this racket on everyone and anyone who'd answer the door, the whole time we'd have troops running the wood back to our site, and needless to say Jay wasn't going to need many more drinks. The wood we were taking was about an inch thick and was literally the size of a mattress. We constructed a giant teepee like structure with them, and before you knew it the flames were close to 20 feet in the air. I'd never seen a fire so immense, and we'd had some pretty huge fires that weekend, but this beast was so enormous that it kept you warm and it seemed to cancel out the rain. The tunes were cranking and everyone was back in their happy place, but not for long.

A group of Police officers showed up, the music dropped to a very quiet level, and the cops declared it was illegal to have a fire in the rain. We were all dumbfounded as none of us had ever heard of such a law, and it really didn't seem to make sense considering water puts fires out. We eventually started pulling our teepee apart until it was a shadow of what it once was. Then an amazing revelation was discovered. Someone actually took a moment to read the officers jackets and realized the back of the coats said "LAW ENFORCEMENT STUDENT" These weren't real cops, they were kids in training. Everyone started spreading word of their true rankings, and within seconds the music was back up to full volume and the fire teepee was being reconstructed. The law students stood around awkwardly for a few minutes, then turned tail and walked away in defeat.

Unfortunately during all of the madness, the only person with hash left had ditched it in the sand when the "cops" showed up. Jay ripped a screen window out of the closest cottage and commenced sifting through the sand with it like an old miner panning for gold. I can't remember if they found it or not, but in the process Craig's keys were discovered....literally a couple of feet from the fire! I couldn't believed he'd walked for endless hours looking for them and they were here the entire time. This was really great though as he could now get himself and his car back home, although as Craig's ongoing affair with lady-luck would have it, he actually lost his wallet the previous night looking for his keys. Remarkably, some random stranger found it weeks later and mailed it back to him.

It had been an amazing weekend all in all, and a great first May 24 experience. I was feeling fine, I was happy as hell, and me and all of my friends were having a great time together. The night was starting to grow late, and random folks were starting to make their way back to party with us "crazy people" We were once again back in full swing bender mode. I was starting to burnout running on no sleep, and I knew I'd be calling it early on my final night here. No sooner than I was having these thoughts, I noticed something, or someone. It was Leah and her group of friends, and they were all giving me nasty cut eye, clearly pissed off that I'd destroyed their bathroom and their belongings. I cracked a smile at her and got no reciprocation, only a scowl. My thoughts of retiring early seemed to come at the right moment, as I figured if I didn't disappear soon some form of altercation was going to occur. 

I headed into the cottage but low and behold I found dropped bodies everywhere. There was absolutely nowhere left to sleep. I went to find my buddy Shane aka Foxy Bano, who I'd come up with, and asked him if I could crash in his car. Bano let me in, and I flopped out on the backseat and drifted into slumber. Shane eventually came and slept in the front seat of the car shortly after I'd passed out.

We both ended up waking at about 7am on the Monday morning. Not a soul was in sight, and you could hear a pin drop in the sand. We decided to make our exit stealthily and beat the traffic, so we hit the road in a flash without even attempting to say our goodbyes, we just wanted our own beds by his point. Shane pulled a cassette tape out of his pocket and popped it in the car stereo... It was Jay's reggae mix I'd been tripping on all weekend. Somehow Bano had convinced Jay to lend him the tape so he could dub it, and you damn well know I had to get a dub of that shit! We listened to that tape over and over for the entire drive home and Foxy even had some secret stash he'd been saving, which made the ride back even much more sweeter. Without a doubt, the myths, stories, and legends I had heard about May 24 had lived up to their full potential and then some. I was already anxiously awaiting the next one...

Party Animals From Hell pt.3

It was a bit chilly when we arrived at Wasaga Beach on the Thursday eve, but after that the weather was beautiful, and this late Saturday morning was no exception. One of my friends had fallen asleep on the beach the previous night and the poor guy was now burnt to a crisp. It was a relaxing morning to say the least. Light drinking and smoking and of course our music blaring. The beach was starting to fill up with people and I could only imagine how horrified some of these families would be when we kicked the party back into high gear.

A few of the guys went into town to pick up a few things and do some sight seeing. I decided to stay behind and chill. A few random strangers visited the site from time to time, most of whom had been there partying with us the night before. Most of them generally wanted to stop by and say hello and thank us for the great time. During some of my conversations with these random strangers, there was a reoccurring theme that kept coming up. Folks who had joined us the previous night were now warning others to stay away from "the crazy people" Even the punk ass high school kids staying behind us had apparently warned a few people to steer clear of us as we were crazy. When the guys got back from town they shared similar stories of "the crazy people" I thought it was hilarious that folks were so intimidated by our wild ways.

As if there wasn't enough of us crazies already, even MORE friends were showing up now, most of whom made the commute just for the Saturday. Our group just kept getting bigger. We must of had about 40-60 of our close friends together now. We all sat in the sun drinking and socializing while others were playing games on the beach. Our music in full bloom, our uniqueness in full bloom, the beach goers couldn't keep their attentions off of us.

Later in the day one of the guys stumbled upon someone who was selling LSD, so a bunch of the guys decided to drop acid. I wanted to partake, but truth be told I didn't have a penny to my name. I had paid my portion for the cottage ahead of time, but I literally came with food and alcohol. Realizing I still had a small cooler full of prime cuts, I decided to try and haggle for a hit. Sure enough the dealer was happy to take a high quality steak in exchange for a $5.00 blotter. One could only ponder how wild things would get now with us crazy people.

As the sun set the party livened, yet it seemed like a small gathering compared to the previous night. Someone mentioned in passing that the Toronto Maple Leafs were playing a hockey game, and if they lost they'd be out of the playoffs. It all made sense now why nobody was around. Despite that we kept the party going. At one point I went into my buddy Gooch's tent and realized he was harboring the mother load of fireworks. I asked him if we could shoot some off and he quickly said no, as he was saving them for Sunday.

Someone ended up getting the Leafs game on a radio, so that folks could keep in the loop. I for one just wanted this game to end already so we could really get the party going. Things weren't looking good for Toronto, and as fate would have it they lost the game and were eliminated from the playoffs. Right when the game ended I snuck into Gooch's tent and snagged a massive firework. I stepped out of the tent, lit it, and held it like a machine gun, as I blasted colourful fireballs towards the cottages behind us. It seemed like the firework hadn't even finished yet, and all the high school kids came pouring out of their cottages and joined our festivities. Apparently we weren't THAT crazy considering they were all coming to party with us again.

The night raged on, the music was louder than ever, and our fire was dancing high in the sky once again. Just like the precious night, people were walking miles to our site to see what all of the commotion was. I swear there was twice as many people as the night before, anywhere from 200-400 people. Jay Dove had put in a reggae mixtape and I was absolutely loving it. I'd never really been into reggae much, asides from a bit of Marley, Tosh, and Bad Brains, but i couldn't get enough of this mixtape. We must of played it a few times over. It consisted of songs mostly from Supercat, NinjaMan, Cutty Ranks, and Shabba Ranks, just to name a few. I don't know if the acid had something to do I with it, but this was all I wanted to listen to.

Things really started to get crazy as the night progressed. We had ran out of firewood, so now we were burning anything in sight. Pick nick tables, chairs, you name it. At some point I was even sitting on a burning chair in the middle of the fire. I remember someone taking a picture of me, that I saw at a later date, but I can't remember which of my friends it was. There was a small storage shed beside the cottage, and even that was ripped apart board by board and thrown into the flames. Nothing was safe, and that became evident when a few of the guys pulled a two seater couch out of the cottage and tossed it on the fire.

There were tons of people around who we didn't know, so we tried to stick together in groups just in case any shit popped off. As expected, there was an obnoxiously drunk guy getting on everyone's nerves. Some girl ended up laying the guy out with a few punches and kicks. You'd think he'd learn a lesson, but no, instead he foolishly ventured into the kitchen of our cottage where the sound system was. He was in the wolves den now. 

The stereo was set up on the kitchen counter right beside the sink, which was full of water, dirty dishes and empty beer bottles. Obnoxious guy tried to change the music without asking, which led to a scuffle, which led to him ALMOST knocking the stereo into the sink. This sparked my friend Shayne, who immediately grabbed the guy and started grappling with him. Shayne smashed the dudes head into the fridge so hard that it almost fell over. He then tackled him to the floor, which was now about an inch thick of beer, mud, and broken glass. Shayne literally rubbed this poor bastard's face into the floor declaring "YOU'RE NOT A TRUE PARTIER!!!!!" After his second ass kicking of the evening, we ejected him and decided that no more outsiders would be allowed inside our cottage.

Apparently this guy didn't know when to quit, as he was still stumbling around talking shit and trying to pick fights. A few of us were just getting the BBQ ready for a late night snack, when you know who came along looking for trouble. As soon as he walked around the corner and opened his mouth, my friend Mike Lomas punched him square in the face. The blow literally sent the guy flying off his feet and he crash landed into the BBQ. Someone dragged his sorry carcass away from the wreckage and that was the last of him.

Amongst all the chaos and hundreds of people, some random guy came up to me and asked if I was the drummer for Grasshopper. Even though I no longer was, the guy totally blew me away. I asked him how he knew about Grasshopper and he replied "I don't, that girl over there asked me to ask you" I looked over in the direction he pointed to see a familiar face. A young girl named Leah, the sister of a hardcore skate punk named Rob from Brampton who used to come to all of our gigs with his buddy Duncan. Leah wasn't so young anymore mind you, and she had developed quite amazingly. 

I walked over to her and said hello. We got to chatting, and I was surprised to learn that neither Rob or Duncan was here, she had came up with friends of hers from school. Leah was always nice and respectful, as was I to her, but it was apparent she wanted to get a bit naughty on this particular night, constantly flirting with me and showering me with kisses. Eventually she brought me back to her cottage, it was getting close to sunrise.

I was still totally awake due to the acid, but not even five minutes after crawling into bed Leah passed out in a drunken mess. Needless to say I was slightly disappointed. The room she was staying in had sliding glass doors that led out to the beach. I had to pee really bad so I quietly slid the door open and slipped outside. I don't know if it was the drugs, but I had major stage fright. There wasn't a soul in sight for miles, but for the life of me I just couldn't go. I finally found a secluded area where I felt comfortable, but as I started to unzip, my bowels informed me that a number two was on deck. Crap! There was no way I could poop on the beach. I decided to head back into Leah's cottage and find a bathroom. 

It was probably about 7-8am by this point, so I figured everyone would be asleep. As I tiptoed through the cottage, I passed a living room area that was full of people on couches and in sleeping bags. Most of them were awake, and they all stopped mid convo to eyeball me as I passed by. I said "Hey" with a quick wave of the hand, then headed to the can. I don't think I'd had a movement the entire weekend, so needless to say I destroyed that toilet. Finally relaxed and relieved, I finished up and flushed the toilet. Then the horror....

I guess the cottage and plumbing were very old, because as soon as I flushed the toilet the water level started rising, and it didn't stop. Before I even knew what was happening there was sewage spewing over the seat and onto the floor, which was covered in all of these people's clothes, towels, and personal belongings. I backed away in shock as the shit storm slowly cornered me. My back hit the door, so I turned around, opened the door quickly and shut it behind me. 

I passed by the group of people in the living room, and smiled and waved as if nothing had happened, from there I headed back into Leah's room and made my great escape out the back door before her fiends realized what I had left behind for them. Talk about embarrassing. 

It was now morning and I had no idea where the hell I was. Thankfully I remembered which way we walked the previous night, so I made my way back down the beach towards our cottages. I had only been walking maybe 5-10 minutes when something caught my attention. The glint of a fire and the sound of music. I strained my eyes and my ears, then quickly realized it was "Party" by Ice T that was playing. I followed the flame and the sound of Ice, and within minutes I was "home" again...