Myth of Sid

I am writing in response to the artcle about Carter Albrect “Tattoo Taboo.” I think that some well-meaning but misguided people like to chime in about tattoos based on their incorrect understanding.....

In my opinion, putting Carter's death in anything remotely similar to the same category as Sid's or Archer's does him a disservice. By all accounts, Carter was killed by a trigger-happy homeowner, who shot through a half-glass door, onto a porch that was well-lit. His presence on that porch was caused by an unexpected interaction of an anti-smoking drug with alcohol he had previously consumed. That's hardly the same as blowing your OWN brains out (Archer) or just being a psychotic asshole, who flamed out of his own stupidity (Sid). Placing Carter alongside them does nothing to further the discussion on what was the real point of the article: the self-destructionism of many in rock and roll. Carter's death was NOT self-destructive. It was tragic. And it was completely avoidable if Smokey Logg hadn't needlessly shot at his head.

What boring and unoriginal insights you offer here. Did you have writer's block before a deadline? You completely mailed this one in. And pulling Carter into this? What a pathetic stretch.

Now Hiring - New Times Music Editor. Qualifications: 1. pulse 2. subscription to Rolling Stone 3. penchant for writing articles that expose your complete and utter ignorance of the local musicians you choose as subject matter.

Damn Girl, nearly hit the nail on the head. Almost popped Pop cultures bubble. My reality says, Marilyn won't ever be non-hot. Thunders will always be a six string bad ass. Warhol still has fifteen minutes of your time and the fat Elvis will always be overshadowed by his former self. Truth - Sid was a dopey goofball, Kurt couldn't handle what he thought he wanted (or Courtney wouldn't let him - don't care, not my business) and as for our local guys... they won't get to see what they missed. AND THAT SUCKS! My son (you may know him) has a tattoo on his chest that reads 'Live Fast, Die Slow' as sung by the Turbo AC's. Simply put with this in mind, Lester Bangs would say 'Nuff Said', Frank

As Greg Williams (of the Ticket) once said, "Nothing good happens after 1:00 in the morning." I am sad about the loss of two good Dallas musicians, but I don't care for the excuses about alcohol mixing with anti-smoking medication. It is a cop out. I have some advice for everyone. Go to fucking bed! Stop partying until fucking 5 a.m. and you might live to see another day. I am certainly not going to shoot anyone who comes knocking on my door in the wee hours of the morning, but I would be scared as hell and would look for a way to defend myself in case that person got in. Why would a person go to another house? Was he that messed up? Did he have an agenda at this house? It's such a tragedy, but all of this could have been avoided if people would simply go to bed at a reasonable time. Partying past midnight in one thing. Drunkenly knocking on someone's door at 4 a.m.is quite another. This is the behavior of an alcoholic. All area musicians should take some time and think about whether they are drinking too much. If you have a job where you have to work at night, that is different. If you do not, go to bed! Listen to Greg!

I have to second everything Kevin said in his comment above. When I read the article I thought, "This is a stretch" then I had my very own "what-the-fuck" moment. (I assume I'm not violating the terms of service and being objectionable or obscene since I'm using some of the same cuss words chosen for the article). It makes no damn difference if he was a flaming alcoholic or a heavy drinker or a light drinker whatsoever. I cannot imagine shooting someone in the head through a glass door with the porch light on when he was not trying to kick the door in and when they were not gaining entry into my home and the police were enroute. ANY of us could have an adverse reaction to taking 2 substances at the same time by accident, over the counter crap with a prescription perhaps, or alcohol with a prescription without having been properly warned, or an adverse reaction to 1 prescribed substance taken by itself for that matter. He did not ask to be shot by having cocktails. God help us if any of us make a boo boo or are having a bad day, don't do THAT, your friggin' "neighbor" just might take you out. I think Carter's death is tragic, I think the laws that allow this sort of shooting are tragic for our society, and I think it was in very poor taste to make a broad statement that he was suicidal and even ATTEMPT to compare him to Sid Vicious--when he clearly wasn't-- when his fiance, family and friends are grieving his death. BAD WRITING, INSENSITIVE and in VERY POOR TASTE. Boo. Shame on you.

While I think I understand the point of Widner's article. Is it honestly in good taste to use to recent and tragic local deaths to make her point? A point that is so DONE WITH. Really, were we all sitting around pondering for the 8000000th time on the untimely deaths of rock stars? I mean This isn't some far off event to be pondered, heck they were local guys and to use them in what seems to be a thesis (consisting almost entirely of footnotes) on rock stars and death, smacks of sensationalism. It isn't that I think that she thought she would make a stir, it's that I don't think she thought at all. I mean what's the fucking point of this article? Doesn't she know that heartbroken parents and friends are reading this? I have never met Jonanna and I am not about to start hating/judging/calling out someone I don't know. But see, that's how that works. I don't know her, so even trying to write about her right now, well... it doesn't seem right to do. Except that maybe I am getting a glimpse off a "little" insensitivity, but I am not sure. Maybe I will allow her in some way to explain herself and her actions through writing (maybe she will have to stay up past 1am to do it....dangerous times for those who are not wary of....the 1AM curfew...) Which I must explain, as I came here to comment on the DO article I ran into fine post from a well meaning fellow who seems to have figured out everything about Carter and his state of mind, oh and his character as well as...well all of us who know Carter, and those that don't? You too! All from one of Greggo's theories on life. (love ya Greggo,seriously, enjoy the awesome power of your diction! And If I see you out after 1 AM again and then again and well.. allot in Barley in the future I am going to bring a roll away bed in there). So this dear blogger/commenter is explaining it all for us, something Carter will never get to do. But his friend's who knew him and his girlfriend who was there that awful night to see it all go down, they all keep trying to explain Carter and what kind of man he was up until his death, and yet we still get this inevitable draw back to Carter being a wheels off drunk (and now so are we all). Sometimes we don't even need the articles because random folks get solid irrefutable wisdom from joking sound bites off the KTCK AM to help folks explain how my friend's death is justified and what a complete alcoholic he was that he hurried to his deserved death.... for knocking on a effing door (I have heard the 911 tape, so don't.....don't tell me about banging, I heard 1 bang 15 seconds into the tape and it wasn't flesh on door.). At least this article didn't call him a batterer of women, but comparing him to a man that murdered his girlfriend somehow seems to wish so badly that the facts clicked just slightly to imply such a ridiculous connection) and grouping Archer in there? WTF? Was the guy a wheels off ass? I know a ton of sweet hearted folks who had addiction problems, they didn't head down to the nearest dive to just rot, they got clean or they died. And for the record...they didn't all wait for the 1am hour to toll and croak. Seems to me he took his life out of pain, and I am not going to assume his addiction made him act in ANY way like Sid Vicious. Kid's dead, not a rock star folks, someone's child. So let's see, Sid OD'ed, Archer took his own life and Carter got shot. These deaths, One accidental (possibly) but by his own hand, One definitely by his own hand and another by accident in a tragic series of events have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with one another in this struggle to create a cohesive article. I am just still confused as when I left the message that day (publication day) with Danny. What is the point of this article? If she wanted to write about 2 tragic local losses then fine, well deserved and hopefully well written and researched. But an article that ties Sid Vicious in with a man I did know to be nothing like Sid except in the fact he was a musician (if Sid gets that much) and is now dead? And this other man, who I probably didn't know (but knowing this scene probably stayed out on a porch party AFTER 1:00 AM...hell maybe 5am!) chatting with him over warm cider and possibly never caught his name. But I can guess he wasn't much like Sid except, yep an addiction, a musician and now passed. I see this story for what it is honestly, a misdirected attempt to mention Carter and Archer in an article while attempting to really fucking reach to make a very vague connection to a timelessly over explored point using our friends as bait for our attention. I am sorry, I see no reason to do this so soon and for such stupid and insipid rehashed questions of so many other articles since Buddy Holly's Plane went kerpow. This new variation of the rocker's death theme.... I was just thrilled to read (it mentioned people I KNOW!!!! wow). It made my day, and from talking to others, they loved it too. They all feel the need to tell you how much they liked it. But some may never get around to it because as one of them said "I just don't give a shit anymore. I'm tired." Takes a lot of media beating to make a man lose his will to fight the constant character assassinations/assumptions of one of his most cherished buddies and partners in music. But I feel he may get a second wind. He's like that, maybe after he reads about curfews and having Carter called out like that and in the same keystroke he himself was maligned along with his surrounding musicians, fans and friends. But that's for him to digest....freaking again. Thanks guy. You are a true giver of comfort. But reading this article I got the flow of how writing works, I only paint so it's all a mystery to me on how to fart out last minute articles on a deadline (ok college had a ton of them, but it's ancient history). Maybe 1:00 AM I dunno, but I guess you just find a couple of commonalities and go with it for a story. Hey! Now I am going to be a writer too! You see, I knew a person who was vegetarian and shot himself, now I am going to write and article about "Why do all the Hitlers die?" Absolute garbage. And to Mr. "Well I heard my complete summation of the meaning of life on the radio talky box", I sometimes stay up 3-4 days in a row working, I see many 1:00 AM's go by and you know what? My friend's are all accounted for the next day & day & day & day. But from my open window of my studio at @1:00AM the screaming starts and the streets are piled with the dead and dying curfew violating souls of the Dallas club scene. It is a bloodbath and the cacophony of the dying fills my ears as I squeeze my hands over my head screaming "NO!!!!! ONE AM WHY!!!!!!????"......just be glad you turned in at 1am, its...just...awful. A damn good man, Carter, made a mistake of going home to be with his girl (yes committed, just in case you have any other character observations to fire off). I think a previous comment was made that he should have been in bed, well fella he GOT SHOT ON HIS WAY THERE. And until you have ever had the misfortune of trusting the FDA on any mind/mood/assisting/altering drug and had the horrid effects manifest when you are freaking SOBER and have hallucinations of faceless forms repeating your name over your bed in the darkness of your bedroom (thanks Paxil) then I would ask you, sir, to stay out a bit later than your "out of my ass curfew solution" and get some wisdom over a cocktail with Carter's friends about exactly who you just spat on to make your absurd life rules for us all to heed (just don't mix any Wellbutrin in there ok? I did that, made me wanna punch people when I added some cider, but see I didn't have to get shot because it was an xmas party at 9pm so I was good to go weeeee!) These friends of Carter you would get to visit (seriously friend, put some time aside, there are TONS of them), who just happen to be out past 1am doing exactly what you gave them permission to do...their night jobs. You know playing gigs and showing up supporting fellow musicians and artists? Celebrating b-days and sometimes wakes for folks we lose to tragic events. Some died during the day FYI, it was sunny... I checked) Or maybe bar tending at the same venues that these shows occur. Running sound, managing the money, checking ID's, cleaning the place till 4am. And on their off nights? They like to go get a few cocktails with their dear girlfriend's and visit friends "off the clock" (see there is a pattern here) so they can then head home 1 whole hour after your scientifically approved deadline and promptly get shot by a freaking neighbor. Hardly a recipe for safety huh? But according to you Carter was a drunk on a mission to get the red badge of idiocy placed on his forehead...right? I heard he was quitting smoking and having shit loads of nightmares and insomnia, but hey, only you would know better that it wasn't caused by the meds because you were there and talked to him and listened to him ramble about nonsense and cut his own hands and not remember it while falling into inexplicable fits of rage (alcoholic you say? Shit, if he was that sloppy then he was waaaay out of practice or.....maybe something didn't mix all to well in his head...maybe some sort of medication who knows? Oh yeah.. WE DO.) Carter just wanted to knock on doors at 4am until he got an answer of some sort because he is an "Alcoholic" and in so saying we all are to you right? I am assuming you know "Bill"? Well so do I, maybe I can show you my 2 year AA chip and you can wear it as a monocle in your eye for awhile until the raised lettering of that hard earned chip becomes legible to your obviously narrow vision, proven by your insulting blanket comments of everyone you have attacked personally with your very own lost dead sea scroll you unrolled for to impart its ancient wisdom and for some reason "hateful comments" contained therein. And yet, never once does a shiver of dread pass over these artists and supporters of the scene as the clock tolls 1am. It amazes me that the ABSOLUTE POWER of untested drugs and a unwise mix of alcohol is nothing but a lame excuse for you, "a cop out", but all the world's problems and the deaths of many of my friends (one dear man who was murdered several years back) would be solved with a fucking curfew. Maybe Baghdad needs a curfew too? But anyhoo, I never found out who dumped my best buddy JD in the Trinity river to rot in the summer sun for a possible week when he disappeared FROM HIS STUDIO AFTER 1 AM while working or as some have supposed, left suddenly and drove south to help a woman in need. But I will tell you this, the TX Ranger that recently picked up the cold case has yet to arrest a Westinghouse digital alarm clock or make any statement insinuating that he was killed for being awake in the later hours of the night working at home or driving down an interstate, until his tire went flat. But I will not take it upon myself to believe that tires have timers that blow in the darkest of night. And from what I saw when cleaning his then quiet and empty home, a extremely sad scene was of his tools left in place as he suddenly left them in the midst of another brilliant project, like some eerie postcard from Roanoke. Probably should have gone to bed, ignored pleas for help, stopped his diligent work and got up nice an early to chuckle at all the idiots in the news obituaries. I find your uneducated and from the hip accusations about Carter disgusting, your condemnation of his character and manner of passing ignorant and worthy of a forum troll. Then your opinions of all people involved in endeavors that keep them out past your radio blurb epiphany that you think gives you justification for all you have to say of me and Carter's and everyone else in this embattled scene's life choice of putting decades of effort into injecting some sort of culture in this turdburg beyond cover bands repeating "Jim Dandy to the Rescue" over and over while all of us and others involved recklessly pursue a "deadly post 1am lifestyle" is even more nauseating to me than this absurd article I sat down to expound at length in the first place. Congrats, you can write even more hateful presumptuous shit about a sweet dear man than the pros at the DO. Don't quit your day job though looking to be the next Dr. Phil, you might end up on a night shift taking suicide hot line calls from folks who failed to drift to sleep before the dreaded hour. Just listening out your window as all the sinister plotting alcoholics and constant doorbells answered with a single shots striking folks who mistakenly forgot their bullet proof watches when leaving the house. How dare you say anything about a deeply loved recently departed man you NEVER met. I knew him, and he didn't have a single bad word for anyone, and I doubt if by chance he could read what you wrote about him safely knowing he is without any ability to explain or defend that evening and his walking nightmare...he just would instead be out doing more important things that bothering with your crap, like playing great music, loving his now heartbroken girlfriend and family and displaying as he has all his shortened life to ignore those who find the time to make ugly character assessments about a man you NEVER EVEN MET or had the heartbreak to watch him get wheeled off into the coroner's van while a fricking cop holds you back and won't tell you shit while your loving mate, who is now dead get carted off to the morgue. Fun stuff. And thankfully you never will, I wish that for you. I can't speak for other's who loved Carter, but I can only assume they are simply struck speechless after your helpful essay and thoughtful description of an entire community of talented and smart individuals and the man they will miss for quite some time. You called upon everyone (oh no, actually you said "musicians", that's right...only in the bands do the drunks dwell. shit dude, seriously? You know that much from being awake for so little of the day? How do you get it all in so fast?) To tell basically Dallas's cultural core to examine their alcoholism (which isn't just me and my friends, there are other creative types and night owls out there pondering your "advice") our friends and the entire DFW scene as a whole are possible looking cross ways at your harshly invoked step by step program "to live to see another day" Well I am 38 bud and the last time I fell asleep earlier than 3 am was in elementary school, just my nature I guess. I just keep cheating death I guess . And finally I must mention again you top it all off with such insulting and ignorant observations of a man that is and could have been to us a cultural icon, a husband, an uncle, a musical genius on a national stage and well most of us would accept "alive" right now. And your fine observations of him...all splayed out for his grieving family, once-future spouse, friends and fans to read during their continuing time of grief. Your a real effing man of no shame whatsoever and your pseudo psychology and "I calls em as I sees em" crapola . Makes me sick. Get to bed sir, there's cultural events and celebrations of LIFE the rest of us need to tend to. Even if it kills us. Goodnight. the time is now 8:08 PM

Wow, what a diatribe. Look, stats show that more murders, accidental shootings and drunken misadventures happen after midnight. That is a fact. I know Carter had lots of friends and he was apparently a great guy and musician. But he was drunk. Tox results prove that. Sorry that some folks take any other take on his death other than "sweet guy gets shot by trigger happy neighbor" as some sort of slap on his life. And the previous writer says he hasn't gone to bed earlier than 3 a.m. since elementary school! God, I feel sorry for your parents when you were in middle and high school. There are always night owls, but the normal human functions better going to bed at a reasonable time. I am sorry about Carter and the outpouring of support for a lcoal musician is quite a tribute. I hope nothing like this happens, EVER AGAIN.