I'm ragged. I'm running on an hour of sleep, the only thing I've eaten all day is two bananas, and my emotions are shattered. I don't feel like doing anything. No, guys, it's not because of depression, elephantitis, drug withdrawal, or lack of getting laid. It's because of love.
Fuck this. Love. What the hell am I talking about, anyways? Fuck love. I don't need nobody, I'm perfectly fine by myself, I'm self-sufficient, I don't need anybody...
... but she's so pretty and nice and
SHUT THE FUCK UP GEORGE. Listen to yourself, for Christ's sake! Do you hear the garbage coming out of your mouth? Don't you feel your testicles retracting? Don't you think that this is a little too much, all for just a female member of the human species...
... but she's so smart and beautiful and I think she's perfect and
AWEFJOSJDFGJAEWF. Enough! What about her turns my mind to mush, sends shivers up my spine and tightens my skin and raises my hair, emasculates me, weakens me, strengthens me, brings me to my knees (that's what she said) and makes me so happy and sad at the same time? What do I want? Why do I feel this? Why her? Or, more importantly, why me?
Fuck love.
You know, no matter how many times I say "fuck love," I never really believe it. Perhaps I'm nothing more than just a sentimental pussy. Here's some Rachmaninoff.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
It's a Revolution!
This video's got my patriotism glands all swollen up:
UPDATE:
They took the video down between midnight last night and 2pm today. It was a "Tea Party" montage from Murfreesboro, TN, that struck me as the most useless, unreflective, straight-up strange attempt to convert the viewer into a follower of "the movement".
Really, though, if you've been paying any attention to coverage of these protests, you'll have noticed the populism at work. At many times it's been directed in ugly ways, and at most times it's been either strongly supported or lambasted by media networks, depending on which one you watch. The fact that our media is skewed is no big news, but it's interesting to watch the feedback loop at work
Watch Glenn Beck and feel the fear:
Now, I agree that it's scary as hell the amount of power our government has been wielding during the past months, and perhaps they've been overstepped their bounds in some instances. But isn't that why we held an election in which we brought to power a man who pledged to use the awesome power of our government to try to combat the financial crisis. It seems rather selective to preach about the abuse of our liberties in a tax situation and not in the policy decisions made by Bush during his 8 years in power (Patriot Act, Guantanamo). So there's hypocrisy.
But if we look at this whole situation from a global perspective, not worrying about which side the protest comes from, left or right, there is the troubling idea of liberty lost. It's that we've ceded a vast amount of power to a national government that we are only in control of come election time. Between elections, the president has the power to make his actions secret, as we saw during the Bush administration. Good that we trust Obama to be transparent, but still we don't have mush control over his actions now, only the threat of voting him out in 4 years.
This is concern was debated at length in the Federalist Papers. Many argued that a strong central government would alienate the population. A couple centuries later, our national government is much more powerful, much more distant from Mr. Everyman, and this is scary. We need to seriously rethink how our government is organized. Remember, guys, it's for the people and by the people, which we forget, like, all the time.
So in that vein, here are some suggestions to bring our government more in line with "The People" and thus to reduce anxiety (and, hopefully, policy that endangers our rights):
http://amoreperfectconstitution.com/23_proposals.htm
Check it out, bro.
UPDATE:
They took the video down between midnight last night and 2pm today. It was a "Tea Party" montage from Murfreesboro, TN, that struck me as the most useless, unreflective, straight-up strange attempt to convert the viewer into a follower of "the movement".
Really, though, if you've been paying any attention to coverage of these protests, you'll have noticed the populism at work. At many times it's been directed in ugly ways, and at most times it's been either strongly supported or lambasted by media networks, depending on which one you watch. The fact that our media is skewed is no big news, but it's interesting to watch the feedback loop at work
Watch Glenn Beck and feel the fear:
Now, I agree that it's scary as hell the amount of power our government has been wielding during the past months, and perhaps they've been overstepped their bounds in some instances. But isn't that why we held an election in which we brought to power a man who pledged to use the awesome power of our government to try to combat the financial crisis. It seems rather selective to preach about the abuse of our liberties in a tax situation and not in the policy decisions made by Bush during his 8 years in power (Patriot Act, Guantanamo). So there's hypocrisy.
But if we look at this whole situation from a global perspective, not worrying about which side the protest comes from, left or right, there is the troubling idea of liberty lost. It's that we've ceded a vast amount of power to a national government that we are only in control of come election time. Between elections, the president has the power to make his actions secret, as we saw during the Bush administration. Good that we trust Obama to be transparent, but still we don't have mush control over his actions now, only the threat of voting him out in 4 years.
This is concern was debated at length in the Federalist Papers. Many argued that a strong central government would alienate the population. A couple centuries later, our national government is much more powerful, much more distant from Mr. Everyman, and this is scary. We need to seriously rethink how our government is organized. Remember, guys, it's for the people and by the people, which we forget, like, all the time.
So in that vein, here are some suggestions to bring our government more in line with "The People" and thus to reduce anxiety (and, hopefully, policy that endangers our rights):
http://amoreperfectconstitution.com/23_proposals.htm
Check it out, bro.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
WHAT. UP.
Feeling virtual overexposure! Twitter/Facebook got my skin sunburnedddd careful gotta dodge cancer.
Bruce Sterling and Connectivity as Poverty: (blogger reflecting on it below)
"Well, as he pointed out, it didn’t quite work out that way, connectivity became cheap with cellphones, and he comically noted that “poor folk love their cellphones!” What’s happening is that this increased dependence upon connectivity, rather than being some kind of indicator of privilege, is actually a sign of our increased impoverishment. The fact is that the wealthy are those who can afford not to be connected, not to be pimping their “online brand” so shamelessly, not twittering their asses off at all hours of the day for a quick networking fix. The impoverishment of networks through connectivity!"
Not exactly sure I agree, seems a very American statement to me (poor folk in Thailand with cell phones arent even in a position to network and form a "brand", the cellphone gives them the illusion of modernity) but it is self-evident that those who try the hardest on facebook and twitter updating and what not are (usually) the most sad and desperate of people. We can all feel it, when we go on facebook and see all the status updates of people on our wall in the last 2 hours, mostly from people we dont know or dont like (which I only just realized I can hide, thats nice, I'm limiting access, I'm higher on the connectivity hierarchy!) and you can just see behind the facade of those few words either an incoherent idea expressed to no one at all (ie the person has no real friends) or the cool self obsessed girl (usually) who just really "gets" facebook and has adjusted her life to just update things all the time ie "time passes so fast ahh" or "im sick of rain i want SUN" - twitter version, confident in her "Brand" that ppl care.
Or not who cares. I only know that in my gut i feel awkward doing too much on these sites, I have too much respect for my friends to share such idiocies. so i needed a step back and now im back here. so wats new
IMF PROJECTS 4.1 trillion in losses ie 4,100,000,000,000. THat doesnt look like much?! come on where my zeros at??????????
Bruce Sterling and Connectivity as Poverty: (blogger reflecting on it below)
"Well, as he pointed out, it didn’t quite work out that way, connectivity became cheap with cellphones, and he comically noted that “poor folk love their cellphones!” What’s happening is that this increased dependence upon connectivity, rather than being some kind of indicator of privilege, is actually a sign of our increased impoverishment. The fact is that the wealthy are those who can afford not to be connected, not to be pimping their “online brand” so shamelessly, not twittering their asses off at all hours of the day for a quick networking fix. The impoverishment of networks through connectivity!"
Not exactly sure I agree, seems a very American statement to me (poor folk in Thailand with cell phones arent even in a position to network and form a "brand", the cellphone gives them the illusion of modernity) but it is self-evident that those who try the hardest on facebook and twitter updating and what not are (usually) the most sad and desperate of people. We can all feel it, when we go on facebook and see all the status updates of people on our wall in the last 2 hours, mostly from people we dont know or dont like (which I only just realized I can hide, thats nice, I'm limiting access, I'm higher on the connectivity hierarchy!) and you can just see behind the facade of those few words either an incoherent idea expressed to no one at all (ie the person has no real friends) or the cool self obsessed girl (usually) who just really "gets" facebook and has adjusted her life to just update things all the time ie "time passes so fast ahh" or "im sick of rain i want SUN" - twitter version, confident in her "Brand" that ppl care.
Or not who cares. I only know that in my gut i feel awkward doing too much on these sites, I have too much respect for my friends to share such idiocies. so i needed a step back and now im back here. so wats new
IMF PROJECTS 4.1 trillion in losses ie 4,100,000,000,000. THat doesnt look like much?! come on where my zeros at??????????
- There are approximately 1 trillion bacteria living on the surface of our bodies.
- 3,500,000,000,000 - estimated population of fish in the ocean.
- Known digits of pi: As of 2002, the number of known digits of pi was 1 241 100 000 000.
- 200,000,000,000,000- The estimated number of ants on Earth
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(numbers)#1018
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Some Shit/Hipster Hop
I think NYC is starting to reawaken my love for hip-hop, the passion that I once had for it back in the day that has been gone for so long. As I left hip-hop to go other directions it seems its time in the wilderness is coming around- people are starting to push out, and wierd has become (in a macho homophobic way) strangely acceptable. Lil Wayne is a huge part of this, but so is Kanye, T.I, the autotuner, M.I.A., and the giant orchestral beat. But I think that it is the fanboy/sceintist approach to the music by hipsters, the indie press, and blogs that has caused some of this too. Some of these people, like at cokemachineglow, dig into the lyrics in the nature of their lit theory-music criticism that in some sort of reverse way it makes hip-hop musicians take themselves more seriosly, a good thing as the lack of analysis by the gernal fanbase had led to the complacency and a broad saying of nothing (It was sites like pitchfork that embraced Kanye West long b. It has brought out more in artists like Young Jeezy (maybe), and has caused haughty elitists like me to take him more seriously (truth).
I've been listening to The Recession (released early september! he was on top of his shit) recently, and while it is a flawed album, its highlights are complete showstoppers. He pushes his weak lyrical prowess as far as he can, snarling and playing with his graaaaavelly voice and picking the biggest beats he possibly can. It is on the tracks that are the best written songs that he succeeds the best. Listen to this (bump it LOUD):
"The ask me what I do, I say teaching for a living"
Now there is a new genre called Hipster-Hop or alternative hip-hop or whatever. The word "hipster" has developed terrible connotations, and being dubbed hipster-hop is a sort of slapdash insult/shove to the side. 2 at the forefront of this movement are Wale (who is called Wah-Lay, a little to close to Kan-Yay but ohwell), whom I've yet to really listen to but hes from DC so I should check him out, and Kid CuDi who first showed up on my radar on that Kanye I posted about before (Welcome to Heartbreak). So I got the A Kid Named Cudi mixtape, and this shit is ILL. Its boundless energy, diversity of beats, and creativity (the singsong rapping is exactly what im about too) has once again made me feel hopeful for rap. I put up 2 tracks: First single Day N Night is just one of the coolest raps ive heard in a while, with a subject mater more immediately relateable to me than anything in hip hop for years. And the vibe on the Maui Wowie is just chilll as shit. Great production too, it makes me wonder about all the other mixtapes I've missed, it plays like a class album.
Download it now:
http://crowndozen.com/main/archives/001810.shtml
Oh, and maybe because he knows hes so good, Cudi's not scared of the hipster hop moniker. He samples Band of Horses song The Funeral (!!) and the last song samples ratatat. This is my boy. One to watch
Anyways I hope these tracks work its such a fucking pain in the ass to get these up.
I've been listening to The Recession (released early september! he was on top of his shit) recently, and while it is a flawed album, its highlights are complete showstoppers. He pushes his weak lyrical prowess as far as he can, snarling and playing with his graaaaavelly voice and picking the biggest beats he possibly can. It is on the tracks that are the best written songs that he succeeds the best. Listen to this (bump it LOUD):
"The ask me what I do, I say teaching for a living"
Now there is a new genre called Hipster-Hop or alternative hip-hop or whatever. The word "hipster" has developed terrible connotations, and being dubbed hipster-hop is a sort of slapdash insult/shove to the side. 2 at the forefront of this movement are Wale (who is called Wah-Lay, a little to close to Kan-Yay but ohwell), whom I've yet to really listen to but hes from DC so I should check him out, and Kid CuDi who first showed up on my radar on that Kanye I posted about before (Welcome to Heartbreak). So I got the A Kid Named Cudi mixtape, and this shit is ILL. Its boundless energy, diversity of beats, and creativity (the singsong rapping is exactly what im about too) has once again made me feel hopeful for rap. I put up 2 tracks: First single Day N Night is just one of the coolest raps ive heard in a while, with a subject mater more immediately relateable to me than anything in hip hop for years. And the vibe on the Maui Wowie is just chilll as shit. Great production too, it makes me wonder about all the other mixtapes I've missed, it plays like a class album.
Download it now:
http://crowndozen.com/main/archives/001810.shtml
Oh, and maybe because he knows hes so good, Cudi's not scared of the hipster hop moniker. He samples Band of Horses song The Funeral (!!) and the last song samples ratatat. This is my boy. One to watch
Anyways I hope these tracks work its such a fucking pain in the ass to get these up.
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