Welcome to Ascent to Decadence.
My name is Ben. I’m an Appalachian State grad, photographer and graphic designer living in Raleigh, NC. However, I spend most of my time neck deep in cars and music. I can get into just about any passionately made automobile on earth (disclaimer: get out of here China and Korea. This doesn’t concern you and your design ripoffs.) Same goes for music. Anyone who genuinely loves what they do and pours out their soul through music, I will probably like. Outlaw country, metal, opera, polka, classical, progressive rock, folk music, or whatever. Just save me the rap, pop and pop country. That stuff is downright terrible to listen to AND destructive to the institution of music. On the subject of music, I have to give credit where credit is due. The blog title is taken from a song by Sahg. It is a delicious track. Also for those of you who still purchase CDs, the album artwork courtesy of Martin Kvamme is quite beautiful as well.
On to my plans for this blog. I’m going to talk about anything and everything. I follow car news very closely and I spread links around everywhere I go. I decided one day I wanted to share my opinion on them. Same goes for music. I’m listening to everything from alt-rock, to outlaw country, to progressive rock,to black metal, to opera and any combination of them. If I hear something fantastic, I’ll write about it. My favorite musician is Ihsahn (born Vegard Tveitan and is of Emperor fame). He’s an all around fantastic guy with an incredible musical vision who draws upon a wide variety of influences, both musically and literary, to his music. On top of that he teaches music at local schools and uses his own money to fund music festivals for young bands. I myself have 10 years of piano experience, but recently picked up the drums and I’ve been learning my way around that.
I also attend a variety of events related to the topic of the internal combustion engine. I’ve seen everything from the Volvo trucks manufacturing plant in Sweden, to rally racing in Spain, to Formula 1 at Silverstone, to NASCAR in North Carolina. I grew up in a NASCAR and Sprint car dominated family, but my heart really lies in German cars. Specifically older German cars. In my opinion, modern cars have lost a lot of their original character in the ever increasing consumer demand for safety and sameness. Most cars these days if you take the badge off of it, no one will know what it is. Unlike, say a 1970’s Porsche, or Alfa Romeo, or Jaguar. Car design is all about who can be the most techno-futuristic and throw as much useless bullshit in there as you can to cater to laziness and stupidity. Many cars are going to start coming out without dipsticks. I personally drive an E39 BMW 540i 6-speed and worship the V8 engine religiously. My mom has a 2009 Mini Cooper S Works and we frequently go to Mini gatherings. Dad has a BMW R1200R motorcycle which he greatly enjoys.
I’m also a big fan of animals and the outdoors and I do a variety of activities of both, which I’ll post about. I will also try to do beer reviews as well. I love to drink different beers and I prefer porters, stouts and double bocks. Same goes for movies, but good movies are harder to come by these days.
Well, I suppose that will be all for now. Keep checking back.
No comments:
Post a Comment