mewzak: MORE FILTER! A Personal Tale and Pics/Reviews/Articles

First of all, I'm going to reminisce once again about my personal Filter fannage. This is the story of my personal interaction with Richard Patrick.

In April of 2006 I got on myspace for the first time. Sometime between 2006-2007, I found and friended the profiles of Army of Anyone, Filter, and Richard Patrick. At the time he was involved in his side project, Army of Anyone. Then announcements started coming from all three of these profiles about a Filter reawakening.

I was stoked about this news and started posting comments and sent a few messages to Richard Patrick in response to his announcements. That's when it started. I got my first message from the man himself. I replied to him and he replied to me yet again.

So in May of 2008, I got to see Filter in concert, after years of anticipation. The concert was an amazing experience for me and I've written about that before. But I do want to revisit one particular moment from that night. During an idle vocal moment in a song, I made direct eye contact with him and then he came over to that side of the stage and touched my hand in the crowd. I still wonder if he recognized me from myspace or if I just got his attention by staring at him. Either way, it was spectacular.

After that concert there was kind of a lull in Filter activity for me for awhile. But then at the end of 2009, Filter made an announcement that the main discussion board would be moved to facebook. It was then that I discovered Filter's page on facebook, and again, Richard Patrick's page. Now this really sparked a connection. I became very active on the discussion board and he replied to several discussions. Then I had an idea (which I cannot disclose because I don't know if it will happen) and sent him a message about it.

Now it's a regular occurence to share links, ideas and opinions back and forth with him. I tried to get Filter to play a summer concert series in my hometown but the album release got delayed so I don't think that will happen now. I'm sure they will still play somewhere nearby though. He has also said that we will hang when they come here for a show. I'm still looking forward to that prospect!

The most recent mind-blowing interaction I've had with him is about my poems I posted the other day. I decided to send those to him and he complimented me on them. I don't write as much as I used to but that was very encouraging for me. How often do you get complimented by one of your biggest influences?

Now here are some old and new pics!