Movie directors Woody Allen, William Friedkin and David Cronenberg will each direct a production for the Los Angeles Opera in the 2008/09 season. Allen will oversee Gianni Schicchi, one of three one-act operas that make up Giacomo Puccini's Il Trittico. The Exorcist filmmaker Friedkin will direct the other two operas in the trilogy, Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica. Cronenberg will direct the U.S. premiere of Howard Shore's The Fly, based on his own 1986 movie remake of the same name. Placido Domingo, the Los Angeles Opera's general director, says, "I'm tremendously excited about our 2008/09 season because it is full of adventure. The kind of musical and theatrical exploration which appeals not only to established opera lovers but might be the right kind of lure for potentially new audiences."
Are you freaking telling me they made an Opera based off of THE FLY??!! Is there going to be a beautiful sonnata about throwing up on your meat so you can suck it up and digest it too?
Sweeney Todd is one thing, Jekyll and Hyde, Dracula, Phantom...they all lend themselves to a beautiful setting and music. But the fucking Fly???
Color me amused and confused.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
What is wrong with me?
So a while back, Other Paul let me borrow some dvds of the show Smallville
Last night I got this one from him. Except for some bad music here and there, it's been a great series, and I am really liking the whole box set thing. Beats waiting every week for shows.
I've always heard that in America we like to destroy our heroes, they can't be perfect, we want to see them fall, we want to know their weaknesses. I guess to bring them down to our level and not have then any better then the rest of us. Now here's the thing. I'm really not into Superman at all. But Smallville works for me because it's where he came from, what made him Superman, and the whole story is just really really lonely and sad. I guess it's why, and I know I'm kind of alone in this, really liked Superman Returns. The whole movie was sad and depressing. He is a god. But when it comes down to it Clark Kent is alone in the universe, and has to deal with that.
I don't want to see heroes destroyed, but I want my Superman to be sad and lonely, and I want my Batman to be crazy as hell. I'm weird like that I guess, or it just makes for a more interesting story.
p.s. If anyone owns Battlestar Galactica or the new Dr.Who on dvd, lemme know.
Last night I got this one from him. Except for some bad music here and there, it's been a great series, and I am really liking the whole box set thing. Beats waiting every week for shows.
I've always heard that in America we like to destroy our heroes, they can't be perfect, we want to see them fall, we want to know their weaknesses. I guess to bring them down to our level and not have then any better then the rest of us. Now here's the thing. I'm really not into Superman at all. But Smallville works for me because it's where he came from, what made him Superman, and the whole story is just really really lonely and sad. I guess it's why, and I know I'm kind of alone in this, really liked Superman Returns. The whole movie was sad and depressing. He is a god. But when it comes down to it Clark Kent is alone in the universe, and has to deal with that.
I don't want to see heroes destroyed, but I want my Superman to be sad and lonely, and I want my Batman to be crazy as hell. I'm weird like that I guess, or it just makes for a more interesting story.
p.s. If anyone owns Battlestar Galactica or the new Dr.Who on dvd, lemme know.
The Daily Gadget - USB Skype Phone
I've started to use Skype as a second office line at work. For what I do it just can't be beat. For a fraction of the cost of a second phone line I get a dedicated number that anyone can call and unlimited calling anywhere in the US. Still, the hardware I use with Skype could stand a bit of an upgrade.
While the USB Skype Phone isn't the fanciest or nicest Skype handset I've seen, it is one of the cheaper ones. It's pretty much just a simple flip-style handset, but it does sport a nice list of features:
Highly Integrated with Skype, X-Lite, X-Pro etc.
Featured with Speaker Phone, with hotkey for mute and un-mute.
Support Group Feature in Skype 2.0.
Compliant with USB 1.1 specification
Customizable ring tones for incoming alert.
Support volume control using hotkeys on the phone.
Noise reduction for better sound quality.It can also be used as a handset with most other IM programs.
Simple USB plug-n-play and it's size means you can tuck it in your bag and forget about it.
$22 from GizFever
Web escapes: Jazzed Dylan, history blog awards, Audubon's birds, righteous Barney Frank, Expo design, the weekend's NFL TV schedule
Idiomatic tribute: 
Jewels And Binoculars: The Of Bob Dylan. Live in Antwerp, 2005. Michael Moore, Lindsey Horner, Michael Vatcher.
At BigO, Singapore:
More like a chamber trio for late night listening, for those who think they know their Dylan, the rasping singer will never be the same again. For jazz fans, with smouldering tracks that seem to build and build, this will be a delight.
(BigO is down as I type this. I hope it will be back up when you click.)
Best history blogs: The Cliopatria Awards were announced yesterday at the American Historical Association convention in Washington, D.C.
If you're tired of Reddit's Ron Paul fanatics and the escalating political noise, you might want to sink into something like Axis of Evel Knievel by David Noon of the University of Alasked. Judges named it Best Individual Blog:
Recently using an "on this awful day in history" format to highlight eclectic examples of the unforgivable, Axis of Evel Knieval employs its acidic wit with forensic precision.
He memorizes all the dates so you don't have to.
Birdwatching: John James Audubon's ''The Birds of America" is online, with Audubon's original text and plates. This is the same title that the Providence Athenaeum went to court for the right to sell in 2005: Athenaeum's Birds sell at Christie's auction: 5 minutes, $5 million.
What are we fighting for? Rep. Barney Frank: Refight the Nineties? Barney to Barack:
I think the best way to summarize my concern is that if you tell people that we should not be willing to refight the battles of the nineties -- including many very important ones that we are far from having won -- and if you tell people to refuse partisanship, you may be inviting people to leave the battlefield to those with whom we have the biggest differences.
(If the race wasn’t about gender already, it certainly is now -- NYT)
"The motif of folk-art paper cut-outs": A rendering of the Polish Pavilion, designed for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, from the always interesting BLDGBLOG: Incision Skin
Couch schedule: This weekend's NFL playoffs schedule:
Sat., 4:30 p.m., FOX
Seattle at Green BaySat., 8 p.m., CBS
Jacksonville at New EnglandSun., 1 p.m., CBS
San Diego at Indianapolis
Sun., 4:30 p.m., FOX
NY Giants at Dallas
The Web loves lists: 50 things I've learned in 50 years, a partial list in no particular order. Eric Zorn at the Chicago Tribune. Give it to somebody just starting out.
Tickled pink
Well, maybe I’m not tickled pink, but, some other shade of red other than pale, haha. Like I mentioned, I saw JJ the other day hanging around the music building. Well I wrote him on Facebook and through a few conversing notes, he asked me what I would think of hanging out before I left. Dude, HANGING OUT! Hanging out with someone I didn’t think would care to hang with me, not to mention is—to use the phrase that was used to describe one of my male coworkers by one of our male customers (odd…)—“cute as a button”. And of course I wrote back and asked him what he had in mind. He hasn’t written back, but we’ll see if this turns out :P
I can’t help but wonder what he has in mind. Wonder if he’ll invite me to his house to do entertaining things and drink or something. Heh, I dunno. My mind has run wild with many scenarios not to mention with fantasies about him actually wanting to mess around. Fat chance, but hey…you never know right? :P
Also, JJ told me he made an igloo. I went and looked at it tonight. It’s a nicely made igloo, though I didn’t go inside to take a peek.
And before I close, I’d like to mention that I had this urge to tell one of my female friends that I thought this guy in the lounge was hot. I certainly refrained myself, but still. And I’m adding his name here, to the list:
Will [last name omitted]
I actually unofficially met him when I was at that same dorm I was at and a group of people were watching YouTube videos. I only happened to notice that the beloved Ben was part of this group. Then I noticed his friend, Will. BEAUTIFUL! And I actually offered my computer services when I hooked his computer up to the faster student network as opposed to the guest wireless network. But yes, that is how I unofficially met Will, since I don’t think I introduced myself nor did he. And now that I saw him again, he is now on the Attractive Men list.
Well, ciao. I’m going to be gone soon.
links for 2008-01-10
- good jumping off point for some new CD purchases
- amusing television watching party. Watery domestic and pork rinds: I'll never make it as a thug I guess.
- "seen bands take $7,000-$15,000 advances from labels, in exchange for their masters in perpetuity. It's pretty much low level crime"
- If only. MoDo is just horrible these days. She was funny, almost, a few times in 2005, but she should just retire, and cry.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
My streak goes on!
A couple months after I turned eighteen I cast my first vote for Senator Bill Bradley in the Democratic primary between him and Al Gore.
In November of that year I cast a vote for Al Gore over George W. Bush.
In 2003 and early 2004 I gave up almost every aspect of my life that did not involve Howard Dean, but then he dropped out of the race before the New York primary. I cast my ballot for John Edwards over John Kerry.
In November of that year I cast a vote for John Kerry over George W. Bush.
This cycle I supported John Edwards for President. Not nearly to the extent with which I supported Dean, but he got my money and my word of mouth and a sticker on my car. Now he is not likely to win, thereby, keeping my streak in tact of never having supported or voted for a winning Presidential candidate. Oy.
One of these days it will actually happen, hopefully this fall when I cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
My sister tonight told me that she has done some research and has decided to back Senator Clinton.
Me: what do you like about hillary?
Her: her top 3 priorities if shes elected
Me: and what are they?
Her: better health care, ending the war, and trying to strengthen the middle class
Her: which is me
Me: very good
Her: and i agree with her view on abortion
Her: and stem cell research
There you have it...a ringing endorsement from my sister. One from me will have to wait for I am officially declaring myself undecided as to how I will vote in the North Carolina primary, which does not come until May.
I am proud to say as a Democrat, that our two current front runners are a woman and a black man.
On the Republican side of the aisle we have one very old white man with white hair, another white man with black hair, a balding white man, and a couple white men with gray hair leading the way. So, plenty of diversity in both parties. :-)
Anyways....
Today I went to work.
I ate a banana around 11. Peeled from the bottom.
For lunch I had a turkey sub with cheese toasted and a mixture of pudding and chocolate cake.
For an afternoon snack I had some cheeze-its from the vending machine.
After work I played a few minutes of mario.
I watched 3 episodes of Psych. Civil War episode was my favorite of the evening. Amused by the fact that Gus is a civil war buff in addition to being a spelling bee buff, an astronomy buff, and a safe buff.
I'd like to be a buff of something. I guess I'm a political buff. I should find a secondary thing to be a buff about as well.
Back to my day....
I went for my evening walk. It was a beautiful night. I enjoy my walks for a number of reasons. I get out of the house for a bit. It makes you feel a little more energized when you get back. It gives you a chance to clear your head out of all the annoying things from the day. I do all my best thinking while walking, especially at night. In conclusion....walks are good.
I have been reading things online.
Resting on the couch.
Listening to music.
Eating soup and a bagel.
Now I am about ready for bed.
I need to clean my apartment this weekend. I have no spoons and now I have no bowls.
In November of that year I cast a vote for Al Gore over George W. Bush.
In 2003 and early 2004 I gave up almost every aspect of my life that did not involve Howard Dean, but then he dropped out of the race before the New York primary. I cast my ballot for John Edwards over John Kerry.
In November of that year I cast a vote for John Kerry over George W. Bush.
This cycle I supported John Edwards for President. Not nearly to the extent with which I supported Dean, but he got my money and my word of mouth and a sticker on my car. Now he is not likely to win, thereby, keeping my streak in tact of never having supported or voted for a winning Presidential candidate. Oy.
One of these days it will actually happen, hopefully this fall when I cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
My sister tonight told me that she has done some research and has decided to back Senator Clinton.
Me: what do you like about hillary?
Her: her top 3 priorities if shes elected
Me: and what are they?
Her: better health care, ending the war, and trying to strengthen the middle class
Her: which is me
Me: very good
Her: and i agree with her view on abortion
Her: and stem cell research
There you have it...a ringing endorsement from my sister. One from me will have to wait for I am officially declaring myself undecided as to how I will vote in the North Carolina primary, which does not come until May.
I am proud to say as a Democrat, that our two current front runners are a woman and a black man.
On the Republican side of the aisle we have one very old white man with white hair, another white man with black hair, a balding white man, and a couple white men with gray hair leading the way. So, plenty of diversity in both parties. :-)
Anyways....
Today I went to work.
I ate a banana around 11. Peeled from the bottom.
For lunch I had a turkey sub with cheese toasted and a mixture of pudding and chocolate cake.
For an afternoon snack I had some cheeze-its from the vending machine.
After work I played a few minutes of mario.
I watched 3 episodes of Psych. Civil War episode was my favorite of the evening. Amused by the fact that Gus is a civil war buff in addition to being a spelling bee buff, an astronomy buff, and a safe buff.
I'd like to be a buff of something. I guess I'm a political buff. I should find a secondary thing to be a buff about as well.
Back to my day....
I went for my evening walk. It was a beautiful night. I enjoy my walks for a number of reasons. I get out of the house for a bit. It makes you feel a little more energized when you get back. It gives you a chance to clear your head out of all the annoying things from the day. I do all my best thinking while walking, especially at night. In conclusion....walks are good.
I have been reading things online.
Resting on the couch.
Listening to music.
Eating soup and a bagel.
Now I am about ready for bed.
I need to clean my apartment this weekend. I have no spoons and now I have no bowls.
music
OH BOOYEAH I GOT THE JOB.
IT IS TIME TO CELEBRATE WITH RUM AND DAIQUIRI MIX, W00T W00T.
ALSO, DRABBLES FROM LAST NIGHT'S VERGE-OF-EXHAUSTIVE-SANITY-CHAT-WRITING:
"Tennis shoes aren't meant for tennis," Ilia says to Zelda one day while they are drinking on the deck. She is thinking this is something new, to say out loud what is otherwise assumed. Art is just mimetic speech in conceptual tongues, and Ilia is no artist, but she certainly is here to tell a story.
"I don't park in my driveway," she muses on another, "But I drive on the parkway. How crazy is that?" The world is sideways, backwards, upside-down and she hates it.
"Broken ankles are just God's way of saying high-heels are accidents in wait," just like snakes in the grass or falling in love, and she cries recklessly over back alleys and Zelda's perfectly scandalous, naked ankle draped over the bed.
"I don't think I'm in love with you anymore," she says and walks out of the door -
- and
out
of
her
life.
--------------
"I haven't thought of you at all," he says to the walls that seem closer every day, like old friends who can't stay away. The world curls around him like a fist, and Link knows - he knows, he knows, he knows - he must get out of this empty place, but where else could he go? Forever, he is Nothing here, and Nothing has nowhere to go but here.
Where else could he find Nowhere but in something, somewhere? He is No-Name and No-Face, and this is Nowhere Land, a place where people pass through time and mean Nothing more. Objects in motion, he thinks once, and then never again, because Nothing is no easier without a fate.
"I haven't thought of you at all," he says to emeralds and sapphire and ruby-locked doors to places and worlds that teeter on the edge of a sword.
But what lies beyond Nothing? (More Nothing, of course!)
---------------------
"JESUS CHRIST, HOW MUCH DID WE DRINK LAST NIGHT?" Link screamed maniacally, poking ("ow, ow, ow, ow!" the chorus went) at his newest set of ass antlers, which had settled themselves pluckily against his left ass cheek in perfect union to its right ass cheek sister (in-law) and SCREAMED in a wildly frictional fantasia of cheap tattoo ink, "PROPERTY OF PURLO: DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200 UNTIL DADDY HAS A NEW CIRCUS TENT."
"Personally, I think it's HOT," Purlo yelled over the racket as Aerosmith rocked this way over airborne frequencies set to the high-pitched octave of HEAVY METAL and AND IT'S TOO LOUD, YOU'RE TOO OLD, MAN and Ilia rolled her eyes like Las Vegas jackpot dollar signs and waved emphatically to Zelda, who was 10.213 feet too far away wrapped up in serious meditation to the old school sound of Bob Dylan and obnoxious plaid print of an old couch.
"THERE IS TOO MUCH Y-CHROMOSOME GOING ON HERE." She battled Steven Tyler and came to a draw, and made a circular tumble of legs and body and drunken wheeling to the perpendicular heaven of 70s upholstery to curl like a cat against Zelda's side. She lifted a head phone and yelled, "WE CAN'T STAY HERE, THIS IS MAN COUNTRY."
"JESUS, I KNOW," Zelda and made a half-circle of petticoats around them both. "BUT THERE'S A WHOLD WORLD OUT THERE WITHOUT ASS-ANTLERS AND BOB DYLAN AND LESBIAN COUCHES, SO WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO GO?"
So they didn't.
-------------------
"It's called smooooooth liquidation," he says swaying toward her like a tiger on vaseline (better than David Bowie imagined!), dancing forward in a jaunty, ungraceful motion of inebriated hip thrusting and un-rhythm, the kind that would make music unwind to see it, but fuck sound-motion, fuck lyrics - all it does is make her laugh and that is something worth singing about.
He skirted the edge of bed and its jutting sword sides, ready to cut hips and bruise egos, and collapsed into the pile of her pillows like a sack of lively, drunken potatoes. "I'm trading in my MG for a Chrysler Lebanon - shit, how did it go again?!"
"Hell if I know," she says, all downward motion, like a toppling Shiva - all flailing arms and feminine wile - collapsing with cement-brick-heavy on his chest, and that's all the weight he's willing and ready to bear right now, dizzy like a spinning top filled up with bubblegum rum, and he giggles almost like a girl when he feels her fingers preying on the tangled laces of his trousers while wishing for Shirley Temple cherries and martini olives.
music fumbled in his mouth along with her hair and something that wanted a voice but didn't have one. It might have come out as "I love you," but Cake rambled manically, "I want a girl who cuts through ribbons with a machete - "
"I have a pitch fork," she grinned against his navel.
He knew that, but goddamnit, he wanted that machete -
- but alas! -
(he falls in love with her anyway).
---------------------
So why do you think they wrote "here to go" on that birth certificate, boy? You think it some kind of joke, a trace of divine trickery that you are here and they aren't, and you've got the save the world now, won't you boy? Do what Daddy says, what Uncle says, what God says, what the ecclesiastic flesh of that goddess in heavy petticoats says (naked in your mind, where you always knew her best) - do it, and never wonder if you had a say, and what would you say, boy, if given the sword and any sense of uncertain footing?
There's a world out there full of dark and heavy things, and the people are calling for A Hero (TM), a noble sort that's short of thinking, shorter on time, and here you are here to go, dressed for battle and dressed to die, ready for the sense of readying that nobody is really born ready for (but they'd like to make you think different, wouldn't they!) I raped and pillaged in my day, but what have to you to your name but empty script and a binding truce to sword and coffin?
So go on, boy, keep to your divine duty - prophecy is writ in your skin, in your mind, and that angel is waiting in petticoats, waiting to be unbound, and that's what you're really going for, aint't it boy? Let's be honest now, that's what you've got is honesty now; dead man tell plenty of lies, and they have plenty to say in your name when you're gone (that you never quavered, never feared, never were), but that's not the lesson you're wanting to hear
because:
In the scripture it is written, "He who lives by the sword, dies by it" -
- but I suspect you never listened well, anyhow.
-----------------------------
On the third morning of the third month of the third year of their marriage, Ilia awoke to find her husband speaking in tongues. Like strangers passing by, each word lingered in the space of her conscious, acknowledged but dismissed, heard but unheard in that slippery way of mistranslation. The world had changed somehow, moved forward with the aggressive forward motion of clocks, and here she sat in the middle of the torrential downpour of ticking like an idle hand or a broken gear. She felt unmoved: her hands bound, her mouth stitched shut, her words - if she had any - clumsily crossed space and time to fall on deaf ears. She was in a world without eyes or ears or self, and she was alone.
On the third morning of third month of the third year of her marriage, Ilia awoke to find traitors in her midst. Her children stared at her with hungry eyes, speaking in false tongues and wanting love she hadn't wanted to give. She was filled with a worthless wrath that had no tangible facets, no channel, no form - an all-consuming sense of having been unwittlingly shackled to little hands and little faces and little loves that had carved out a place in her all-too-crowded heart, leaving no space for her loves that felt altogether too little anymore.
"I do believe," she said in her mother-tongue, which hadn't purpose or a means in this foreign world of linguistic undoing, "that I have made a rather big mistake."
And she wants to be forgiven for sins she hasn't quite committed to, but she has a sense that this is nothing worth forgiving if she has no regrets, and what does she regret? but all the things she hasn't sinned for yet! Like the typhoon striking forests and putting castles to ruin, she is bound to leave a empty place in her wake, but she's been sure to fill it long enough, and now it's in her, brutal and excising and making empty spaces of her that she can't bridge with the Mother Directive (marry, fuck, fritter away), and it's all sorts of wrong inside and out, waiting to corrupt the Ilia that existed somewhere between the mother and the sin.
She fashions herself the new language of Smothered Selves - she found it somewhere in the bottom of empty rum glasses, amber and fire sweet - and that is something more like the girl she was meant to be, the woman she never was, the empty womb, the piecemeal heart full of fire that goes down easy - so she chases that golden directive down again and again and again and again -
- and again -
- and again and -
she dies
- happy.
IT IS TIME TO CELEBRATE WITH RUM AND DAIQUIRI MIX, W00T W00T.
ALSO, DRABBLES FROM LAST NIGHT'S VERGE-OF-EXHAUSTIVE-SANITY-CHAT-WRITING:
"Tennis shoes aren't meant for tennis," Ilia says to Zelda one day while they are drinking on the deck. She is thinking this is something new, to say out loud what is otherwise assumed. Art is just mimetic speech in conceptual tongues, and Ilia is no artist, but she certainly is here to tell a story.
"I don't park in my driveway," she muses on another, "But I drive on the parkway. How crazy is that?" The world is sideways, backwards, upside-down and she hates it.
"Broken ankles are just God's way of saying high-heels are accidents in wait," just like snakes in the grass or falling in love, and she cries recklessly over back alleys and Zelda's perfectly scandalous, naked ankle draped over the bed.
"I don't think I'm in love with you anymore," she says and walks out of the door -
- and
out
of
her
life.
--------------
"I haven't thought of you at all," he says to the walls that seem closer every day, like old friends who can't stay away. The world curls around him like a fist, and Link knows - he knows, he knows, he knows - he must get out of this empty place, but where else could he go? Forever, he is Nothing here, and Nothing has nowhere to go but here.
Where else could he find Nowhere but in something, somewhere? He is No-Name and No-Face, and this is Nowhere Land, a place where people pass through time and mean Nothing more. Objects in motion, he thinks once, and then never again, because Nothing is no easier without a fate.
"I haven't thought of you at all," he says to emeralds and sapphire and ruby-locked doors to places and worlds that teeter on the edge of a sword.
But what lies beyond Nothing? (More Nothing, of course!)
---------------------
"JESUS CHRIST, HOW MUCH DID WE DRINK LAST NIGHT?" Link screamed maniacally, poking ("ow, ow, ow, ow!" the chorus went) at his newest set of ass antlers, which had settled themselves pluckily against his left ass cheek in perfect union to its right ass cheek sister (in-law) and SCREAMED in a wildly frictional fantasia of cheap tattoo ink, "PROPERTY OF PURLO: DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200 UNTIL DADDY HAS A NEW CIRCUS TENT."
"Personally, I think it's HOT," Purlo yelled over the racket as Aerosmith rocked this way over airborne frequencies set to the high-pitched octave of HEAVY METAL and AND IT'S TOO LOUD, YOU'RE TOO OLD, MAN and Ilia rolled her eyes like Las Vegas jackpot dollar signs and waved emphatically to Zelda, who was 10.213 feet too far away wrapped up in serious meditation to the old school sound of Bob Dylan and obnoxious plaid print of an old couch.
"THERE IS TOO MUCH Y-CHROMOSOME GOING ON HERE." She battled Steven Tyler and came to a draw, and made a circular tumble of legs and body and drunken wheeling to the perpendicular heaven of 70s upholstery to curl like a cat against Zelda's side. She lifted a head phone and yelled, "WE CAN'T STAY HERE, THIS IS MAN COUNTRY."
"JESUS, I KNOW," Zelda and made a half-circle of petticoats around them both. "BUT THERE'S A WHOLD WORLD OUT THERE WITHOUT ASS-ANTLERS AND BOB DYLAN AND LESBIAN COUCHES, SO WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO GO?"
So they didn't.
-------------------
"It's called smooooooth liquidation," he says swaying toward her like a tiger on vaseline (better than David Bowie imagined!), dancing forward in a jaunty, ungraceful motion of inebriated hip thrusting and un-rhythm, the kind that would make music unwind to see it, but fuck sound-motion, fuck lyrics - all it does is make her laugh and that is something worth singing about.
He skirted the edge of bed and its jutting sword sides, ready to cut hips and bruise egos, and collapsed into the pile of her pillows like a sack of lively, drunken potatoes. "I'm trading in my MG for a Chrysler Lebanon - shit, how did it go again?!"
"Hell if I know," she says, all downward motion, like a toppling Shiva - all flailing arms and feminine wile - collapsing with cement-brick-heavy on his chest, and that's all the weight he's willing and ready to bear right now, dizzy like a spinning top filled up with bubblegum rum, and he giggles almost like a girl when he feels her fingers preying on the tangled laces of his trousers while wishing for Shirley Temple cherries and martini olives.
music fumbled in his mouth along with her hair and something that wanted a voice but didn't have one. It might have come out as "I love you," but Cake rambled manically, "I want a girl who cuts through ribbons with a machete - "
"I have a pitch fork," she grinned against his navel.
He knew that, but goddamnit, he wanted that machete -
- but alas! -
(he falls in love with her anyway).
---------------------
So why do you think they wrote "here to go" on that birth certificate, boy? You think it some kind of joke, a trace of divine trickery that you are here and they aren't, and you've got the save the world now, won't you boy? Do what Daddy says, what Uncle says, what God says, what the ecclesiastic flesh of that goddess in heavy petticoats says (naked in your mind, where you always knew her best) - do it, and never wonder if you had a say, and what would you say, boy, if given the sword and any sense of uncertain footing?
There's a world out there full of dark and heavy things, and the people are calling for A Hero (TM), a noble sort that's short of thinking, shorter on time, and here you are here to go, dressed for battle and dressed to die, ready for the sense of readying that nobody is really born ready for (but they'd like to make you think different, wouldn't they!) I raped and pillaged in my day, but what have to you to your name but empty script and a binding truce to sword and coffin?
So go on, boy, keep to your divine duty - prophecy is writ in your skin, in your mind, and that angel is waiting in petticoats, waiting to be unbound, and that's what you're really going for, aint't it boy? Let's be honest now, that's what you've got is honesty now; dead man tell plenty of lies, and they have plenty to say in your name when you're gone (that you never quavered, never feared, never were), but that's not the lesson you're wanting to hear
because:
In the scripture it is written, "He who lives by the sword, dies by it" -
- but I suspect you never listened well, anyhow.
-----------------------------
On the third morning of the third month of the third year of their marriage, Ilia awoke to find her husband speaking in tongues. Like strangers passing by, each word lingered in the space of her conscious, acknowledged but dismissed, heard but unheard in that slippery way of mistranslation. The world had changed somehow, moved forward with the aggressive forward motion of clocks, and here she sat in the middle of the torrential downpour of ticking like an idle hand or a broken gear. She felt unmoved: her hands bound, her mouth stitched shut, her words - if she had any - clumsily crossed space and time to fall on deaf ears. She was in a world without eyes or ears or self, and she was alone.
On the third morning of third month of the third year of her marriage, Ilia awoke to find traitors in her midst. Her children stared at her with hungry eyes, speaking in false tongues and wanting love she hadn't wanted to give. She was filled with a worthless wrath that had no tangible facets, no channel, no form - an all-consuming sense of having been unwittlingly shackled to little hands and little faces and little loves that had carved out a place in her all-too-crowded heart, leaving no space for her loves that felt altogether too little anymore.
"I do believe," she said in her mother-tongue, which hadn't purpose or a means in this foreign world of linguistic undoing, "that I have made a rather big mistake."
And she wants to be forgiven for sins she hasn't quite committed to, but she has a sense that this is nothing worth forgiving if she has no regrets, and what does she regret? but all the things she hasn't sinned for yet! Like the typhoon striking forests and putting castles to ruin, she is bound to leave a empty place in her wake, but she's been sure to fill it long enough, and now it's in her, brutal and excising and making empty spaces of her that she can't bridge with the Mother Directive (marry, fuck, fritter away), and it's all sorts of wrong inside and out, waiting to corrupt the Ilia that existed somewhere between the mother and the sin.
She fashions herself the new language of Smothered Selves - she found it somewhere in the bottom of empty rum glasses, amber and fire sweet - and that is something more like the girl she was meant to be, the woman she never was, the empty womb, the piecemeal heart full of fire that goes down easy - so she chases that golden directive down again and again and again and again -
- and again -
- and again and -
- happy.
Irish Blog Awards 2008 nominations open
The 2008 Irish blog awards take place in a few months and nominations are now open.
Irish Blog Award Categories
The categories for this year's Irish Blog Awards are:
- Best Blog
- Best Blog Post
- Most Humorous Post
- Best Photo Blog
- Best Arts and Culture Blog
- Best Political Blog
- Best Group Blog
- Best Personal Blog
- Best Use of the Irish Language in a Blog
- Best Technology Blog/Blogger
- Most Humorous Post
- Best Designed Blog
- Best Sport & Recreation Blog
- Best News/Current Affairs Blog
- Best Specialist Blog
- Best Newcomer
- Best Business Blog
- Best Blog
- Best Food/Drink Blog
- Best Crafts Blog
- Best Popculture Blog
- Best Blog from a Journalist
Blog nominations are open
Nominations are open until January 26th, so get over to awards.ie/blogawards/nominations/ and vote (for us, ahem)
Newswatch 1.9.07: FCC to investigate Comcast
EU drops APPL probe as Jobs drops prices
[NetworkWorld] Apple said that within six months it will lower the prices it charges for music on its U.K. iTunes Store to match its already standardized pricing across Europe in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain
APPL will provide movie rentals
[Bloomberg] Apple will announce the rental service Jan. 15, the people said. New releases and older titles will rent for $3.99 for 24 hours. The lower-priced rentals and additional titles may help boost the popularity of Apple's iPod media players, iPhone and Apple TV set-top box, which delivers shows to widescreen TV sets.
Frontline Wireless collapses for lack of funding
[NYT] Frontline Wireless, which wanted to build an innovative cellular network for both private use and local public safety agencies, has collapsed because it could not raise enough money to bid in the government auctions of wireless spectrum that start later this month.
The future of cars is computers
[Wired] General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner gave the first keynote address from the head of an automobile manufacturer in the 41-year history of the Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday. Wagoner's message was clear: the car is no longer a mere mode of transportation, but has become a hybrid of sorts -- part vehicle and part consumer electronics device.
FCC to probe Comcast
[Reuters] Comcast Corp said on Wednesday that it would cooperate with an investigation by U.S. regulators into how it manages some Internet traffic on its network, but again denied it had interfered with file-sharing services.
OLPC developing dual-boot laptop
[ComputerWorld] The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project and Microsoft Corp. are working together to develop a dual-boot system to put both Linux and Windows on laptops aimed at kids in developing countries, the head of OLPC said in an interview Tuesday.
Subpoenas issued in MySpace suicide
[LAT] A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has begun issuing subpoenas in the case of a Missouri teenager who hanged herself after being rejected by the person she thought was a 16-year-old boy she met on MySpace, sources told The Times. The case set off a national furor when it was revealed that the "boyfriend" was really a neighbor who was the mother of one of the girl's former friends.
Music music music.
GIVE ME THE JEW GOLD, FUCKFISH
so i'm gonna start planning PJB TOUR 2008 PART I and PART II. I is gonna be tight... do some shit like last summer except not have 3 states between each show...gonna hit up cleveland, michigan, alla dat shit... during the springtime... summer... i think summer is gonna be east coast, prolly twice as long as the 5 days i want to do in spring... so like ... ten days or something... i want to go to florida so badly... i was supposed to do some shows there in 2006 BUT NO THEY FUCKED IT UP... it's so weird...i'm getting so sick of playing music... i was thinking about this last night as i was cutting out pieces of tetragrammaton... OH SHIT YEAH which i was doing at toby's new apartment which is TIGHT AS SHIT on the 14th floor (view of college park + route 1... lot more exciting than you think!!!!!... which isn't much).... anyways that was cool SMOKED DANK BUD and watched the WIRE... and more important i CUT OUT 100 CD BOOKLET PAGES HOORAY... i am so close to being completed with tetragrammaton... i mean actually having copies IN MY HANDS... but i need to make it perfect... EIGHT DOLLARS perfect... YES... oh yeah... i'm so sick of playing music... so i started writing my movie...also miles needs to fucking finish the story for RANGERS so i can start doing the art... yeah we're working on a comic book...YAH YAH....
man WHAT THE FUCK i know that today when i get my paycheck it is going to be SHORT AS SHIT... i'm starting to really appreciate brookeville and their nice friendly establishment... BUT SERIOUSLY these people need to hand it over...
man WHAT THE FUCK i know that today when i get my paycheck it is going to be SHORT AS SHIT... i'm starting to really appreciate brookeville and their nice friendly establishment... BUT SERIOUSLY these people need to hand it over...
Baby health myths
We are used to trust to our
grandmothers` and mothers` experience and advices. However, is such trust
righteous? May be, sometimes we should hold our own?
A baby is bawling desperately in a crib and you`re rushing to him, but
an experienced grandmother (mother, aunt, girlfriend) stops you saying: “Don`t
spoil your baby, let him crying - then his lungs will be healthier!” Few of
young mothers avoided such situations. How to behave in such situation? Should
we react to such advices (and how)? How correct these “folk advices” are? And
what do different doctors - pediatrists, stomatologists, orthopedists and surgeons
- say on this subject?
Is it truth that…
… a baby`s cry makes his
lungs stronger?
No! Adherents of strict upbringing with a slogan “you should not spoil
your baby” really like this statement.
However, doctors-otolaryngologists have quite opposite views. Mothers and
fathers, desperate yells are harmful for baby health! Long and loud crying does
not make respiratory tract stronger at all, but to the contrary, strains cords
abundantly,
causing their overstrain. And this in further can affect a baby`s quality of voice
negatively.
… if a baby has a big foot
size, does it mean that he is tall?
No, foot size has no connection with height. You don`t believe? Turn
around: probably there`re many very tall men and women among your friends with
small feet, and also those, who wear large shoes and are 1,60 m tall.
…a ripe apple will replace a
baby`s tooth-brush with success?
No. Although, when a baby crunches with an elastic pulp of a juicy apple
in the teeth heartily - this is very useful not only for teeth, but also for
gums. In general, an apple suits for tooth cleansing during a day excellently,
when a baby has no possibility to use a tooth-brush after meal. However, this
aromatic
and wholesome fruit cannot replace a routine morning and evening ritual of mouth
cavity care. The matter is, that while usage of a tooth-brush all teeth
surfaces are cleansed evenly. When a
baby chews an apple, incisors turn to be cleansed best of all (he uses them for
biting off), and molars are in difficulties - fructose damages calf’s teeth`s
enamel.
…if a baby learned standing
up independently, does it mean he will have curved legs?
No. It`s only heredity that affects a baby`s legs. So you should not
prevent your baby from investigation of outward things. If a baby “is not ready
yet” for such important change in life, as independent walking, he will fall
down or sit on the floor after an attempt to stand up, giving a loud warning
that you should raise him.
…all babies have blue eyes?
No, not all… Although by the moment of birth almost 100% of babies
have blue eyes. The matter is, that pigment cells, which provide eye color, are
still immature. So, a new-born`s eyes, strictly speaking, have no color at all.
And only after a couple of months parents will be able to say confidently,
whether they have a brown-eyed or blue-eyed baby.
…herbal treatment is
absolutely safe?
Not at all. Medicinal herbs - are same medicines, which contain drastic
substances. So you should not give your baby herbal teas without a doctor`s prescription.
Such “prophylaxis” can seriously undermine baby health - you know, herbs for
babies are not only brewed in smaller concentration, but are also strictly measured
out. Mothers of highly allergic individuals should be especially
cautious - many herbs and their pollen can cause exacerbation. Besides, herbal
dust
itself, contained in a packing inevitably, - is the strongest allergen.
…babies do not suffer from
headache?
It is not true! Unfortunately, every year quantity of babies, suffering
from migraines, grows. Approximately from 35% of children preschol age know
well about headache. Often heredity or intolerance to some foods (cheese, milk,
chocolate , nuts) become a reason for headache attacks. Sometimes headache can
become the first symptom of visual loop. Besides, children preschool age
often suffer from so-called tension headaches, which are connected with
increase of loads of babies. So, a baby`s complaints of a headache before performance
at a music school or English tests in a kindergarten - are not a fiction at
all. Listen to your baby`s complaints and pass investigation at a polyclinic.
…eating carrot is good for
vision?
Yes, but… no more, than, let`s say, red sweet pepper. Carrot contains beta-carotene,
or, as it is also called, pro-vitamin A, - this substance really affects eye
condition positively. While its lack ocular damages develop, up to ablepsia.
However, you won`t be able to raise vitamin A level only with help of carrot.
This vitamin is fat-soluble, and this means, one should eat it with fat-containing
foods (for example, with sour cream or vegetable oil). If you notice problems
with sight, firstly visit an oculist, probably, doctor will prescribe a baby
additional dose of vitamin A in drops. Attention: you should be very cautious
with such preparations - observe dosage carefully! The matter is, that big
doses of this vitamin can damage liver. And then you will have to cure it.
grandmothers` and mothers` experience and advices. However, is such trust
righteous? May be, sometimes we should hold our own?
A baby is bawling desperately in a crib and you`re rushing to him, but
an experienced grandmother (mother, aunt, girlfriend) stops you saying: “Don`t
spoil your baby, let him crying - then his lungs will be healthier!” Few of
young mothers avoided such situations. How to behave in such situation? Should
we react to such advices (and how)? How correct these “folk advices” are? And
what do different doctors - pediatrists, stomatologists, orthopedists and surgeons
- say on this subject?
Is it truth that…
… a baby`s cry makes his
lungs stronger?
No! Adherents of strict upbringing with a slogan “you should not spoil
your baby” really like this statement.
However, doctors-otolaryngologists have quite opposite views. Mothers and
fathers, desperate yells are harmful for baby health! Long and loud crying does
not make respiratory tract stronger at all, but to the contrary, strains cords
abundantly,
causing their overstrain. And this in further can affect a baby`s quality of voice
negatively.
… if a baby has a big foot
size, does it mean that he is tall?
No, foot size has no connection with height. You don`t believe? Turn
around: probably there`re many very tall men and women among your friends with
small feet, and also those, who wear large shoes and are 1,60 m tall.
…a ripe apple will replace a
baby`s tooth-brush with success?
No. Although, when a baby crunches with an elastic pulp of a juicy apple
in the teeth heartily - this is very useful not only for teeth, but also for
gums. In general, an apple suits for tooth cleansing during a day excellently,
when a baby has no possibility to use a tooth-brush after meal. However, this
aromatic
and wholesome fruit cannot replace a routine morning and evening ritual of mouth
cavity care. The matter is, that while usage of a tooth-brush all teeth
surfaces are cleansed evenly. When a
baby chews an apple, incisors turn to be cleansed best of all (he uses them for
biting off), and molars are in difficulties - fructose damages calf’s teeth`s
enamel.
…if a baby learned standing
up independently, does it mean he will have curved legs?
No. It`s only heredity that affects a baby`s legs. So you should not
prevent your baby from investigation of outward things. If a baby “is not ready
yet” for such important change in life, as independent walking, he will fall
down or sit on the floor after an attempt to stand up, giving a loud warning
that you should raise him.
…all babies have blue eyes?
No, not all… Although by the moment of birth almost 100% of babies
have blue eyes. The matter is, that pigment cells, which provide eye color, are
still immature. So, a new-born`s eyes, strictly speaking, have no color at all.
And only after a couple of months parents will be able to say confidently,
whether they have a brown-eyed or blue-eyed baby.
…herbal treatment is
absolutely safe?
Not at all. Medicinal herbs - are same medicines, which contain drastic
substances. So you should not give your baby herbal teas without a doctor`s prescription.
Such “prophylaxis” can seriously undermine baby health - you know, herbs for
babies are not only brewed in smaller concentration, but are also strictly measured
out. Mothers of highly allergic individuals should be especially
cautious - many herbs and their pollen can cause exacerbation. Besides, herbal
dust
itself, contained in a packing inevitably, - is the strongest allergen.
…babies do not suffer from
headache?
It is not true! Unfortunately, every year quantity of babies, suffering
from migraines, grows. Approximately from 35% of children preschol age know
well about headache. Often heredity or intolerance to some foods (cheese, milk,
chocolate , nuts) become a reason for headache attacks. Sometimes headache can
become the first symptom of visual loop. Besides, children preschool age
often suffer from so-called tension headaches, which are connected with
increase of loads of babies. So, a baby`s complaints of a headache before performance
at a music school or English tests in a kindergarten - are not a fiction at
all. Listen to your baby`s complaints and pass investigation at a polyclinic.
…eating carrot is good for
vision?
Yes, but… no more, than, let`s say, red sweet pepper. Carrot contains beta-carotene,
or, as it is also called, pro-vitamin A, - this substance really affects eye
condition positively. While its lack ocular damages develop, up to ablepsia.
However, you won`t be able to raise vitamin A level only with help of carrot.
This vitamin is fat-soluble, and this means, one should eat it with fat-containing
foods (for example, with sour cream or vegetable oil). If you notice problems
with sight, firstly visit an oculist, probably, doctor will prescribe a baby
additional dose of vitamin A in drops. Attention: you should be very cautious
with such preparations - observe dosage carefully! The matter is, that big
doses of this vitamin can damage liver. And then you will have to cure it.
Crazy little old Italian woman...And a survey thingy. =P
I actually got up before 2 noon today...NO WAI. xD
Anyroad, I have to go visit my old babysitter today. I'm not really looking forward to it. I mean, she's a really nice old ladyshe's Italian and cooks awesome stuff! and I haven't seen her in like, two years. But it's always so awkward and boring over there. She talks to me for a few minutes, and then she and my mum start chatting away and I'm just sitting there like "...Aaaaaaaaauuugh..." the rest of the time because I'm so bored. And we never spend less than 2 hours over there. D:
-sigh- Ah well. Can't be helped.
Survey time!
1.Initials?
C.M.K.
Same as my dad's.
2. Name someone with the same birthday as you:
Kit Lambert. Lulz.
3. When was your last kiss?
I haven't had one, therefore I can't have a "last" one.
4. For or against same sex marriage?
For...I was tempted to start rambling here but I stopped myself. xD;
6. Are you bisexual?
Nope.
7. Do you believe in God?
Nope.
8. How many US states have you been to?
Uhhhh.....Well, I've been to Florida (lolDUH), Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and then all of the states on the east coast up until Pennsylvania. I don't feel like counting, 'kthx.
9. How many of the US states have you lived in?
One. Unless you count the couple of times I spent the whole summer in Louisiana as 'living' there.
10. Have you ever lived outside the US?
No. ;.;
11. Name something you like physically about yourself:
Uh.....My hair? Sometimes..When it isn't being difficult. Dx
12. Name something non physical you like about yourself:
My sense of humour. :B
13. What is the current rumor traveling around about someone?
Britney Spears is, apparently, a whack-job.
OWAIT.
THAT'S NOT JUST A RUMOUR LOLOLZ.
LEAve BRitNEy ALOne!!!1
14. What is your dream car?
VW Van plz. 8D
15. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
England. <3
16. Have you ever had someone of the opposite sex over at your house while your parents were gone?
Nope.
17. How many concerts have you gone to?
Just 1. D:
18. Do you download music?
Sometimes.
19. How many illegal things have you done?
...-snerk-
20. Where would you want to go on a first date?
I don't care.
21. Would you date the person who posted this:
No one else posted it. And no I would not date Google!
22. Has anyone ever sang or played for you personally?
No.
23. Ever been kissed under fireworks?
No.These kinds of questions are getting annoying as hell. Dx
24. Do you like president Bush?
/No/.
25. Have you ever bungee jumped?
NO. D: -whimp-
27. Have you ever crashed a car?
No, and that's the reason I always refuse to drive. <<
Srsly, I gotta go find Dougal.
28. Has anyone more than 10 years older than you hit on you?
Lolno.
29. Have you met a real redneck?
LULZ. My family. Is from. LOUISIANA.
30. Are you interested in anyone right now?
Oh, me? Naaaaaahhhhh......No way. <<
31. What song are you listening to right now?
I'm not listening to anything at the moment. D:
32. What is your current favorite song?
Well, "Daddy Rolling Stone" is currently stuck in my head, let's go with that one.
33. What was the last movie you watched?
Cocksucker Blues, lulz.
34. Who was the last person that told you they loved you?
Mum.
35. Where was the last place you went besides your house?
Um...Denny's, after I saw "National Treasure" the other day. <<
36. Have you ever seriously vandalized someone elses property?
No, but I've wanted to.Stupid whore across the street.
37. Ever hit someone of the opposite sex?
Lol, family. But I've wanted to slap the shit out of a guy at FYE one time...That guy was such an idiot.
39. Whats the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
The way they act. Like, if they're a total idiot or not.
40. What turns you on?
O BBE.
Lulz, I was tempted to put a picture of Uncle Ernie but I'm lazy and don't feel like digging through my Photobucket. xD
41. What do you usually order from starbucks?
No Starbucks. >:| Barnie's FTW.
42. What is one of your sexual fantasies?
Well, wouldn't you like to know. ;O
44. Tell something totally weird about yourself:
I think I've said this before, but I can't think of anything else so I'm saying it again.
When I was little I tried countless times to summon Beetlejuice, lol.
45. Do you have an iPod?
Yeeeesssss. <3
46. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity?
Nope....Well, [Bad username: <dracosgirl170"] said once that I have big innocent eyes like Keith, if that counts. xD
47. Do you still watch kiddy movies or tv show?
I used to watch The Wiggles, but now I'm never awake when it's on. << Lol.
48. Do you have braces?
No, but I used to.
49. Are you comfortable with your height?
Sure.
51. When do you know its love?
You just know.
I totally could've rambled on and on but I don't feel like it, it's too early. xD;
52. Do you speak any other languages besides English?
A tiny bit of German, but I'm forgetting most of it. xD;
53. What kind of alcohol do you enjoy while out?
I don't think it's smart for me to enjoy alcohol while OUT right now. xD
54. What magazines do you read?
Rolling Stone Magazine. Though I don't know why I even bother anymore. ;___;
55. Have you ever ridden in a limo?
No.
56. Has anyone you were close with passed away?
Not...technically...
58. Whats something that really annoys you?
When ignorant people say things about Keith.
59. What's something you really like?
Keith. 8D
60. Do you like Michael Jackson?
..I like his music. xD
Damn, there were so many missing numbers on that thing it's not even funny. /OCD
...I so want to go back to bed. xD;
Anyroad, I have to go visit my old babysitter today. I'm not really looking forward to it. I mean, she's a really nice old lady
-sigh- Ah well. Can't be helped.
Survey time!
1.Initials?
C.M.K.
Same as my dad's.
2. Name someone with the same birthday as you:
Kit Lambert. Lulz.
3. When was your last kiss?
I haven't had one, therefore I can't have a "last" one.
4. For or against same sex marriage?
For...I was tempted to start rambling here but I stopped myself. xD;
6. Are you bisexual?
Nope.
7. Do you believe in God?
Nope.
8. How many US states have you been to?
Uhhhh.....Well, I've been to Florida (lolDUH), Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and then all of the states on the east coast up until Pennsylvania. I don't feel like counting, 'kthx.
9. How many of the US states have you lived in?
One. Unless you count the couple of times I spent the whole summer in Louisiana as 'living' there.
10. Have you ever lived outside the US?
No. ;.;
11. Name something you like physically about yourself:
Uh.....My hair? Sometimes..When it isn't being difficult. Dx
12. Name something non physical you like about yourself:
My sense of humour. :B
13. What is the current rumor traveling around about someone?
Britney Spears is, apparently, a whack-job.
OWAIT.
THAT'S NOT JUST A RUMOUR LOLOLZ.
14. What is your dream car?
VW Van plz. 8D
15. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
England. <3
16. Have you ever had someone of the opposite sex over at your house while your parents were gone?
Nope.
17. How many concerts have you gone to?
Just 1. D:
18. Do you download music?
Sometimes.
19. How many illegal things have you done?
...-snerk-
20. Where would you want to go on a first date?
I don't care.
21. Would you date the person who posted this:
No one else posted it. And no I would not date Google!
22. Has anyone ever sang or played for you personally?
No.
23. Ever been kissed under fireworks?
No.
24. Do you like president Bush?
/No/.
25. Have you ever bungee jumped?
NO. D: -whimp-
27. Have you ever crashed a car?
No, and that's the reason I always refuse to drive. <<
28. Has anyone more than 10 years older than you hit on you?
Lolno.
29. Have you met a real redneck?
LULZ. My family. Is from. LOUISIANA.
30. Are you interested in anyone right now?
Oh, me? Naaaaaahhhhh......No way. <<
31. What song are you listening to right now?
I'm not listening to anything at the moment. D:
32. What is your current favorite song?
Well, "Daddy Rolling Stone" is currently stuck in my head, let's go with that one.
33. What was the last movie you watched?
Cocksucker Blues, lulz.
34. Who was the last person that told you they loved you?
Mum.
35. Where was the last place you went besides your house?
Um...Denny's, after I saw "National Treasure" the other day. <<
36. Have you ever seriously vandalized someone elses property?
No, but I've wanted to.
37. Ever hit someone of the opposite sex?
Lol, family. But I've wanted to slap the shit out of a guy at FYE one time...That guy was such an idiot.
39. Whats the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
The way they act. Like, if they're a total idiot or not.
40. What turns you on?
O BBE.
Lulz, I was tempted to put a picture of Uncle Ernie but I'm lazy and don't feel like digging through my Photobucket. xD
41. What do you usually order from starbucks?
No Starbucks. >:| Barnie's FTW.
42. What is one of your sexual fantasies?
Well, wouldn't you like to know. ;O
44. Tell something totally weird about yourself:
I think I've said this before, but I can't think of anything else so I'm saying it again.
When I was little I tried countless times to summon Beetlejuice, lol.
45. Do you have an iPod?
Yeeeesssss. <3
46. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity?
Nope....Well, [Bad username: <dracosgirl170"] said once that I have big innocent eyes like Keith, if that counts. xD
47. Do you still watch kiddy movies or tv show?
I used to watch The Wiggles, but now I'm never awake when it's on. << Lol.
48. Do you have braces?
No, but I used to.
49. Are you comfortable with your height?
Sure.
51. When do you know its love?
You just know.
I totally could've rambled on and on but I don't feel like it, it's too early. xD;
52. Do you speak any other languages besides English?
A tiny bit of German, but I'm forgetting most of it. xD;
53. What kind of alcohol do you enjoy while out?
I don't think it's smart for me to enjoy alcohol while OUT right now. xD
54. What magazines do you read?
Rolling Stone Magazine. Though I don't know why I even bother anymore. ;___;
55. Have you ever ridden in a limo?
No.
56. Has anyone you were close with passed away?
Not...technically...
58. Whats something that really annoys you?
When ignorant people say things about Keith.
59. What's something you really like?
Keith. 8D
60. Do you like Michael Jackson?
..I like his music. xD
Damn, there were so many missing numbers on that thing it's not even funny. /OCD
...I so want to go back to bed. xD;
Alltel Wireless Launches the HTC Touch
Alltel Wireless today launched the HTC Touch, a Windows Mobile 6.0 smartphone. The compact and stylish HTC Touch provides customers with a new way to stay connected and access music, photos, information, games and more. This sophisticated smartphone is easy to operate by using a finger to simply swipe or tap the innovative touch-screen “cube” interface. Alltel’s HTC Touch features four panels on the “cube,” including an Alltel-exclusive panel that provides customers with quick access to the latest smartphone applications to personalize their phones and help do more on the go. Customers can also customize the phone with ringtones, themes and games, in addition to pre-programmed links to shopping applications. |  |
The HTC Touch features a 2MP camera with video, Windows Media Player, a MicroSD memory card slot, Bluetooth Wireless Technology and Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional. It is also preloaded with a variety of applications on the Alltel exclusive fourth panel of the “cube,” including:
- Games from Magmic – Customers can play more than 100 mobile games including Brain-Up , Texas Hold'em King, Phase 10, Monopoly Tycoon, Call of Duty, Miner 2049er and World Poker Tour.
- Themes from Magmic - Consumers can give their HTC Touch a unique look by choosing any of the thematic backgrounds and icon schemes via the “themes” icon.
- Shop Now with Digby – By simply touching the “Shop Now” icon on the phone, users can quickly browse, buy, and send items from premier retailers including Barnes & Noble, Godiva, Best Buy, FTD Flowers, Wine.com and many more.
- Handmark Pocket Express– Selecting the Pocket Express icon on the HTC Touch provides customers with free news, sports, weather, travel information and more.
- Axcess Shop – Axcess a whole catalog of smartphone applications such as TV, games, instant messaging and more.
- Sharpcast Photos – Photos are now one quick touch away with this application that allows customers to view their entire PC photo collection on their handset. In addition, pictures taken on the phone are now automatically backed up to the users PC, making it easier than ever to manage photos.
- Ringtones from Magmic – A tap of the “ringtones” icon makes it simple to browse and buy in an instant.
- Office Sync – The office is now just a touch away as business professionals can send and receive email, see contacts, and connect with their corporate network, wherever they go.
17th Century Systems Music
For several decades now I've been an aficianado of "Systems music" the fiercely mathematical slowly evolving music of Steve Reich and (the early work of) Philip Glass, to name the most famous - a music where organs and mallet instruments weave hypnotic patterns around each other.
The composers themselves have admitted that that the inspiration for their music came from non-Western sources - particularly Indian ragas, Javanese and Balinese gamalan music and African music.
But watch, and have a listen to the music made by these four blokes in a room, playing a kind of mind of music that's Western in origin and been around since the 17th Century - Here.
The music has all the qualities I adore in Reich and Glass- patterns, repetition, tonality and a hovering scintillating cloud of overtones. Its very beautiful, and not a little odd.
I did a little research (bizarrely this is actually part of my day-job) and consulted the Wikipedia page on Change Ringing and discover that what they're doing is basically a portable version of Church Bell Ringing. But it sounds so beautiful, a little less clangorous than full scale bell-pealing. Check out this enchanting mp3 of 25560 London No. 3 Surprise Royal.
Church Bell ringing has long fascinated me - (and it got in the news recently after Muslim clerics quite rightly compared it to the amplified Muezzin call to prayer), and I'm aware that this sounds like the start of another obsession. However, it seems unlikely I'll take up handbell ringing, because it looks bloody difficult! Oddly enough, Ruth used to do a bit of Bellringing in the years before I knew her, and we still have her copy of Dove's Guide to the Church Bells of England knocking around somewhere...
More to listen to-
More handbell recordings
Church bell recordings
The composers themselves have admitted that that the inspiration for their music came from non-Western sources - particularly Indian ragas, Javanese and Balinese gamalan music and African music.
But watch, and have a listen to the music made by these four blokes in a room, playing a kind of mind of music that's Western in origin and been around since the 17th Century - Here.
The music has all the qualities I adore in Reich and Glass- patterns, repetition, tonality and a hovering scintillating cloud of overtones. Its very beautiful, and not a little odd.
I did a little research (bizarrely this is actually part of my day-job) and consulted the Wikipedia page on Change Ringing and discover that what they're doing is basically a portable version of Church Bell Ringing. But it sounds so beautiful, a little less clangorous than full scale bell-pealing. Check out this enchanting mp3 of 25560 London No. 3 Surprise Royal.
Church Bell ringing has long fascinated me - (and it got in the news recently after Muslim clerics quite rightly compared it to the amplified Muezzin call to prayer), and I'm aware that this sounds like the start of another obsession. However, it seems unlikely I'll take up handbell ringing, because it looks bloody difficult! Oddly enough, Ruth used to do a bit of Bellringing in the years before I knew her, and we still have her copy of Dove's Guide to the Church Bells of England knocking around somewhere...
More to listen to-
More handbell recordings
Church bell recordings
Bearsuit Records
Music DVD Review: Buckethead Young Buckethead 1 & 2
Have you ever noticed how the arts seems to be a magnet for the eccentric and odd? Perhaps no other field, except the applied sciences, has such a disproportionate representation of people who walk to the beat of a drummer that other people just don't hear. Of course it's debatable as to which caused which - do you have to be a bit odd in the first place to be an artist or a scientist, or is it something about them that turns people a little strange.
Whatever the reason there can be no denying that the arts have had their share of unique individuals. Usually the more flamboyant have been among those who are the performers, although that's not a hard and fast rule as there have been any number of outrageous poets and painters. A lot has been said about insecurity causing people to create a "mask" in order to hide their true selves from the audience when they go on stage.
Actors do that as a matter of course every time they go on stage as that is their job, but musicians aren't under the same the obligation to provide their audiences with that kind of performance. While some musical performers will create a persona that gives them the strength to stand in front of an audience and bare their soul, the majority of them won't go the full distance and create a completely different character. Most people who go see bands play don't expect the band to do anything other than play music.
So when the lead guitar player comes onto stage wearing a mask and a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket on his head he tends to stand out from the rest of the band, and other guitar players in general. Buckethead is easily one of the most instantly recognizable guitar players out there right now because that's exactly how he appears on stage. But the bucket and the mask are far more than just a means of disguise, they are the physical trappings of a person with a history and a life beyond the stage.
Now I've begun to hear rumours that some guy name Brian Carol - or something like that - has begun claiming that he is actually Buckethead, but one needs only go to Bucketheadland to find the true history of the guitar hero. There you can read the heartrending tale of his orphanage and being raised by friendly chickens and the coop that he called home.
You can also read about his quest to find musical fulfillment by playing with bands like Guns & Roses, Primus, and his projects with Viggo Mortensen. But it was only recently, with the release of Enter The Chicken that he released a recording made up entirely of his own compositions. However his early days in music have been shrouded in some mystery. Where did he hone his musical skills? Is there some Svengalli lurking in the background who discovered the brave young man and guided him through his transition from coop to stage. Well the answers are now available on two DVDs of previously unreleased home movies made by and about Buckethead. Originally shot on Super 8 film but now digitally re mastered Young Buckethead 1& 2 provide valuable information that give us insight into the creative process that has allowed Buckethead to develop into what he has become today.
Jas Obrect was an editor for Guitar Player magazine in 1988 when a sixteen year old Buckethead dropped off a demo tape for him to listen. To say he was blown away was putting it mildly and he pushed Buckethead to continue to work on his guitar playing. In 1990 Buckethead asked Jas if he would film his band the Deli Creeps during a couple of their forth coming gigs. It's those films that provided the footage of the Deli Creeps in concert on Young Buckethead 1 & 2 and although neither the sound or video quality aren't the greatest because of the original media, but are good enough to give a really good impression of what the Deli Creeps were all about.
The first thing you realize watching them is they were as much performance art as they were a rock and roll band. The action started even before they took to the stage with Buckethead, wearing an airplane's emergency oxygen mask, being led through the audience on the end of a string by the lead singer. Once he was safely on stage Buckethead was released and set to doing what he does best; playing guitar. It was everything you'd expect from Buckethead today - effortless playing with fingers so impossibly large they look like they are creatures that exist in their own right.
The music itself is loud and discordant, but at the same time there is a purpose to the madness of the Deli Creeps. The manner of their appearance - dressed in clothes that could be worn by deranged clerks at a Delicatessen where you wouldn't really trust the provenance of any of the meat; it might taste like chicken but who knows how many legs it may have had to begin with. It's not a political agenda, as in anti meat etc, rather it felt like wandering into some deranged version of our own world, or maybe a deli run by the boys from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which I guess amounts to the same thing.
Jas Obrecht describes in his liner notes some of Buckethead's creative process which included continuous playing of Texas Chainsaw Massacre while working out various techniques on guitar. He's a reliable source of information as far as this goes because Buckethead had moved into his basement in 1991. It was during this time that the impromptu elements of the DVD were filmed. These include a really wonderful intimate concert he gave for his brothers and sisters at a backyard get together, an interview with Buckethead in a park, and a seriously deranged monologue performed by Jas while wearing a milk carton over his head and Buckethead providing suitably strange atmospheric keyboard music.
Obviously there are problems with both the sound and the video on these tapes; Super 8 was not a great media for recording anything, let alone music. But all things considered this is still a valuable record of the early days of Buckethead's career. Not only does it give a great opportunity to hear him beginning to define his style of guitar playing, it also gives us an indication of his interest in creating the atmospheric music that he has since made to underscore Viggo Mortensen's poetry on CDs produced by Perceval Press
Young Buckethead 1 & 2 are a must have for fans of Buckethead and fans of the absurd in general. Not only does it provide some great opportunities to see Buckethead perform solo, we are privy to some of his early experimentation with conceptual performance with his first band The Deli Creeps. On these two discs we are given the rare opportunity to watch a myth being created before our eyes.
Once there was a young man raised by chickens in a rundown coop from the bad side of the field who dreamed of bringing his music to the people of America. Buckethead is now regarded as one of the most innovative and exciting guitar players in the world. With a dream in his heart, a mask on his face, and an empty chicken bucket on his head, Buckethead is a living embodiment of the American Dream come true.
Watch Young Buckethead 1 & 2 to see the emergence of a star, and you will end up having your belief in dreams and the American way restored - or not. Either way this is brilliant stuff that shouldn't be missed for anything.
links for 2008-01-09
- architecture on Wacker Drive
- This might be cool, if i EVER listened to the radio in a car"All that said, I am the product of a C-average GPA and a general studies degree from a state university and thirteen years of careful reporting about one rustbelt city. Hell do I know. Maybe my head is up my ass."
Dated Obama, married Hillary
<p><font color="#ff0000><strong>CAMPAIGN DIARY</strong></font>lNASHUA</p> "HE shook my hand, and I'm pretty excited about that." A young supporter of Barack Obama, leaving a post-election party tonight, is holding up a close-up photo she took of him on her mobile phone. Has she noticed that her man lost to Hillary Clinton? "I'll deal with it," she says. "He's allowed to lose once as long as he wins all the others." OK. But then come the words that will send chills through the Obama campaign team: "He's so inspirational, it almost doesn't matter." Ouch. Perhaps someone should explain the rules of politics to this young lady.
Despite what many commentators say, it is a stretch to call Mrs Clinton's narrow win in New Hampshire tonight a big comeback. Wasn't she considered the front-runner just a week ago? Mr Obama's upset victory in Iowa last week may have recalibrated expectations all around, but the former first lady has always had a formidable political machine. She worked incredibly hard in this state, had a good debate on Saturday night and may have finally shed her image as the Bionic Woman when she got a bit misty-eyed in front of voters on Monday. Women, in particular, seemed to like what they saw. The real losers here were the pollsters whose projections were so terribly wrong.
Mr Obama's supporters, many voting in their first presidential primary, looked slightly confused when early returns tonight suggested that their man might be defeated. The sound system playing ;music in the Nashua highschool gymnasium where thousands of them gathered started blasting "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot" when it began to sink in that their candidate might not be crowned the victor. Before long, though, many in the crowd decided this party was too good to be spoiled. By the time Mr Obama appeared on stage shortly before 11pm, the chants of "yes, we can" reverberated through the hall once more. Mrs Clinton is not out of the woods yet.
Remembering Her
The computer plays For All of My Life, the MYMP version, and, emotional as it is, it reminds me of something--oh yes, someone--bringing me back to memory lane, to my own points of sentimentality and wax nostalgia. Sometimes, thinking that you have been strong and have been able to move on throughout the years of separation, of both consciously and unconsciously forgetting that person who has been a huge part of your maturity, sensibility, and life in general, is still not enough to wash off from memory the fact that you and that person is connected forever, whether you like it or not.
I remember her today. Or maybe the feeling of loving someone, of being with someone---someone who, at the end of a grueling and lonely day, you can look forward to with a pleasant conversation, a warm hug, a passionate kiss, or even a simple yet snug smile. Maybe we have been separated for years, but the fact is that I am still grounded on the fact that I have been too comfortable with her, that I have been too familiar with her, that finding someone, or being in a relationship with some other person, will still rekindle whatever relationship I have had with her in the past.
And how songs remind me of her. Her pleasant voice, her ability to captivate love in her own version of piano music, her sweet and thoughtful acts, her gentle--and sometimes coy--manners, her hugs, her messages that sometimes strike that perfect chord in my heart or fire up my chagrin, her cheap thrills like fishball and kwek-kwek--I miss all of these, and this, even, may be an understatement, for everything, when it comes to her, will always be an understatement. Loving, in essence, is an understatement.
I would want to think that I have moved on, that I have set aside my emotions for her; that after those endless kiss-and-make-ups, those letups and letdowns, those emotionally draining personal melodramas, I am ready to face my own track and go about my own way. But no--admittedly, I am still stuck with her, mainly because of the years and experiences that we have shared, that have connected us, painstakingly or not.
Perhaps all of these musings are one-sided; this is, after all, just my side. Probably, she doesn't feel the same way, as she uses to claim. And however assuming I may sound, I do want to contradict her. For both voice and actions can easily deceive; but not the heart, nor the eyes, as if afraid to fray, to be inconsistent with what the mouth says. I know that deep inside, it is still there, drifting by the shores of her heart, as it does in mine.
I am just sad that everything won't be the same again. No one wants to initiate. No one wants to express. No one wants to admit whatever is deep inside him/her. And possibly, this ends everything. After all, it seemed that everything was over between the two of us three years ago, when we broke-up.
The only painful thing about it is that, after three years of parting ways, I am still hurting, that I am still affected by whatever things happened to our lives, to our personal selves. It pains me whenever I hear negative things about her, about how she has become after our separation. It still strikes me, up to this day, whenever I think of the unresolved issues between the two us.
These things--including her--make me sad, because my emotions about love and, indeed, life are greatly affected and moved by whatever we have had in the past. Though I won't deny that the pleasant memories with, and of, her are still one of the things that make me shed a smile, a twinge of bitterness still enters me from time to time, piercing my heart and breaking it into smithereens.
Maybe I am the one who's not able to move on, and she perfectly did! Perhaps, between the two of us, I am, ironically, the one who is truly and madly and deeply engrossed with the situation. And the thing is, I can't do anything about it, because I know for myself that she won't believe and listen to my words, my statements, my actions. I can't blame her, of course. Undeniably, I have hurt her in the past, both physically and emotionally, and have taken a lot from her, of her. And definitely, likewise, she has also gotten a lot from me, emotionally speaking.
Why am I thinking about her, about these matters, about our past? Why is she still able to crash my heart, my mind? How come she still passes by my thoughts, my own personal moments? Personally, I really do not know. To this date, it's a question that has an improbable answer. Perhaps the answer is still building up somewhere in the horizon. Or maybe, there is, will be, no an answer at all.
All I just wish is that I could still patch things up with her. It has been three years, and yet, we are still not in good terms. And it's hard, as if nothing good has come our way before.
Maybe in the right time, we'll be able to mend our hearts in our own perpetual sunshine. Maybe with the right reason, we'll be able to understand our own points, in our own shot of platonic love. I think we could still be together, as friends. This I think will happen in what other people claim as, "God's perfect time!"
I remember her today. Or maybe the feeling of loving someone, of being with someone---someone who, at the end of a grueling and lonely day, you can look forward to with a pleasant conversation, a warm hug, a passionate kiss, or even a simple yet snug smile. Maybe we have been separated for years, but the fact is that I am still grounded on the fact that I have been too comfortable with her, that I have been too familiar with her, that finding someone, or being in a relationship with some other person, will still rekindle whatever relationship I have had with her in the past.
And how songs remind me of her. Her pleasant voice, her ability to captivate love in her own version of piano music, her sweet and thoughtful acts, her gentle--and sometimes coy--manners, her hugs, her messages that sometimes strike that perfect chord in my heart or fire up my chagrin, her cheap thrills like fishball and kwek-kwek--I miss all of these, and this, even, may be an understatement, for everything, when it comes to her, will always be an understatement. Loving, in essence, is an understatement.
I would want to think that I have moved on, that I have set aside my emotions for her; that after those endless kiss-and-make-ups, those letups and letdowns, those emotionally draining personal melodramas, I am ready to face my own track and go about my own way. But no--admittedly, I am still stuck with her, mainly because of the years and experiences that we have shared, that have connected us, painstakingly or not.
Perhaps all of these musings are one-sided; this is, after all, just my side. Probably, she doesn't feel the same way, as she uses to claim. And however assuming I may sound, I do want to contradict her. For both voice and actions can easily deceive; but not the heart, nor the eyes, as if afraid to fray, to be inconsistent with what the mouth says. I know that deep inside, it is still there, drifting by the shores of her heart, as it does in mine.
I am just sad that everything won't be the same again. No one wants to initiate. No one wants to express. No one wants to admit whatever is deep inside him/her. And possibly, this ends everything. After all, it seemed that everything was over between the two of us three years ago, when we broke-up.
The only painful thing about it is that, after three years of parting ways, I am still hurting, that I am still affected by whatever things happened to our lives, to our personal selves. It pains me whenever I hear negative things about her, about how she has become after our separation. It still strikes me, up to this day, whenever I think of the unresolved issues between the two us.
These things--including her--make me sad, because my emotions about love and, indeed, life are greatly affected and moved by whatever we have had in the past. Though I won't deny that the pleasant memories with, and of, her are still one of the things that make me shed a smile, a twinge of bitterness still enters me from time to time, piercing my heart and breaking it into smithereens.
Maybe I am the one who's not able to move on, and she perfectly did! Perhaps, between the two of us, I am, ironically, the one who is truly and madly and deeply engrossed with the situation. And the thing is, I can't do anything about it, because I know for myself that she won't believe and listen to my words, my statements, my actions. I can't blame her, of course. Undeniably, I have hurt her in the past, both physically and emotionally, and have taken a lot from her, of her. And definitely, likewise, she has also gotten a lot from me, emotionally speaking.
Why am I thinking about her, about these matters, about our past? Why is she still able to crash my heart, my mind? How come she still passes by my thoughts, my own personal moments? Personally, I really do not know. To this date, it's a question that has an improbable answer. Perhaps the answer is still building up somewhere in the horizon. Or maybe, there is, will be, no an answer at all.
All I just wish is that I could still patch things up with her. It has been three years, and yet, we are still not in good terms. And it's hard, as if nothing good has come our way before.
Maybe in the right time, we'll be able to mend our hearts in our own perpetual sunshine. Maybe with the right reason, we'll be able to understand our own points, in our own shot of platonic love. I think we could still be together, as friends. This I think will happen in what other people claim as, "God's perfect time!"
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The End of Ron Paul
Knowing that my friend Jamie Kirchick had a conversation-stopping TNR piece about the darker side of Ron Paul in the works, I commissioned Daniel Koffler to do some digging of his own on the Paul "newsletter." Dan's piece for Pajamas Media is here, Jamie's here. Both were linked on Drudge today and flooded the cite with the kind of hebephrenic idiots upon whom Paul's sliver of political legitimacy seems to rest.
For those new to story, the gist is this: Before he was a congressman, Paul had a leaflet that appeared under the multiple headings "Ron Paul's Freedom Report," "Ron Paul Political Report," "The Ron Paul Survival Report," all of which trafficked in some of the most recognizable and hideous tropes of racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism. Though the newsletter never had a byline, according to Jamie's article, Paul's campaign manager conceded that Paul did in fact write some of the material that appeared in it over the years (the manager then retracted this statement after Jamie read him some colorful excerpts).
Whatever the case, the candidate has formerly accepted "moral responsibility" for all his newsletter's contents. That makes him morally culpable for them, doesn't it? Furthermore, if, as Paul said today, he repudiates such claims that Martin Luther King was a gay pedophile or that all supporters of Israel take their marching orders from Norman Podhoretz, then why has it taken him so long to do so? The newsletter was published under his own name for years. Did he never bother to read it, or discover its true author, if this was not actually himself? If you or I had our names committed to such filth, would we not wish to uncover the source in order to end it?
A small but significant side note: I rang up the 800 number attached to the bottom of one Paul article -- a charming disquisition on the "barbarism" that drove the L.A. Riots -- and who answered by a Paul campaign representative. Question: Am I the first reader of the newsletter to use this number, and if not, why had no campaign staffer ever bother to inquire why so many rednecks and hicks kept asking about "Welfaria"?
A taste, from Jamie's diligent reporting:
This "Special Issue on Racial Terrorism" was hardly the first time one of Paul's publications had raised these topics. As early as December 1989, a section of his Investment Letter, titled "What To Expect for the 1990s," predicted that "Racial Violence Will Fill Our Cities" because "mostly black welfare recipients will feel justified in stealing from mostly white 'haves.'" Two months later, a newsletter warned of "The Coming Race War," and, in November 1990, an item advised readers, "If you live in a major city, and can leave, do so. If not, but you can have a rural retreat, for investment and refuge, buy it." In June 1991, an entry on racial disturbances in Washington, DC's Adams Morgan neighborhood was titled, "Animals Take Over the D.C. Zoo." "This is only the first skirmish in the race war of the 1990s," the newsletter predicted. In an October 1992 item about urban crime, the newsletter's author--presumably Paul--wrote, "I've urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self defense. For the animals are coming." That same year, a newsletter described the aftermath of a basketball game in which "blacks poured into the streets of Chicago in celebration. How to celebrate? How else? They broke the windows of stores to loot." The newsletter inveighed against liberals who "want to keep white America from taking action against black crime and welfare," adding, "Jury verdicts, basketball games, and even music are enough to set off black rage, it seems."
Needless to say, anyone attempting to defend Paul at this stage must resort to Stalinist standards of self-deception and falsification.
Andrew Sullivan, a mind-numbingly effusive Paul supporter, twists and groans to find a saving grace in all this. He doubts Paul wrote any of this awful stuff, yet applauds him for his swift denunciation of it. Andrew still says, however:
Taking moral responsibility is the right thing to do. But I should say I think less of Ron Paul after reading this article than I did before. Much less. I am not persuaded he is a bigot (like Jamie, apparently), and I remain impressed by the message and spirit of the campaign he has waged.
Why feel that Paul has dropped in stature if Andrew doubts he holds the very views Andrew thinks he doesn't?
The editors at Reason have been more honorable in their disgust.
Guilding the Tree
Creators of "One Tree Hill" decided to skip that awkward moment that comes when most of the cast graduates from high school. Do they all go to the same college by some miracle? Or, more realistically, go their separate ways but try to keep in touch?
To heck with it. "One Tree Hill" for its fifth season has advanced four years -- or four years, six months and two days, to be exact, to quote the episode's title. In doing so, the characters are either fully ensconsed in their careers or solidly spinning their wheels.
At the same time, though, it seems the show's tone has changed. Not just from high school to real world, but from a small town show to yet another big money city show. I may not have been watching enough to make this claim. But while the show never had the exquisite small town focus of, say, "Friday Night Lights," it was also not about limos and red carpets and the fashion and recording industries.
Now it is, with Brooke a 21-year-old fashion mogul, with a big business, billboards on Sunset, limos and red carpet strolls. Why, she could almost be amid the "Cashmere Mafia" (if she weren't so young). Peyton isn't quite on top of the music business (who is?); instead she's more a reception one flirtation from getting ahead.
Lucas is no more credible as a novelist than the dude is on "October Road," but his dilemma is the same. Having sold one book with a terrible title (his is "An Unkindness of Ravens" -- kind of like "To Kill a Mockingbird," but terrible), now he struggles with a sequel.
Nathan and Haley in many ways have the most normal life, married and raising an adorable, now four year old James. But he, too, was on the verge of becoming a millionaire with multiple houses when he was about to be signed by the NBA. In the one sour twist of the future, he sits instead in a wheelchair, trying to nudge out the liquor bottles Haley has hidden with an old basketball trophy.
Motorola Showcases GSM Handsets W230 & W270
Motorola, Inc. has showcased two new W series GSM handsets at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show (Booth #8545, Central Hall). The new W230 and W270 handsets offer easy-to-use music capabilities, expandable memory with optional microSD card, clear audio in noisy environments and a simplified interface for text messaging. |  |
Both devices offer great phone capabilities in addition to music features, including Motorola CrystalTalk technology that helps reduce background noise.
Up to nine hours of talk time, the capacity to store up to 500 text messages and phone contacts, one click access to create text messages and the ability to access the Web, create a well-rounded feature set at a great value.The W230 harmonizes value and style with an eye-catching, slim candybar design. The device is available in two interchangeable faceplate color palettes: licorice/silver, and titanium gray/mandarin. The no-nonsense keypad and large color display are easy to use, while a slim design makes it extremely pocket-portable. The W270 provides another design option for consumers by incorporating the same features of the W230 in a sleek and affordable clam-shell design.
EU Plans to Scrap 32.9% Memory-Chip Duty on Hynix (Update1) - Bloomberg
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How To Be Gay
If you attend the University of Michigan, you have an opportunity to take this class.
Not.Kidding.
Section 002 — How to be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation.
Course Description:
We will examine a number of cultural artifacts and activities that seem to play a prominent role in learning how to be gay: Hollywood movies, grand opera, Broadway musicals, and other works of classical and popular music, as well as camp, diva-worship, drag, muscle culture, taste, style, and political activism. Are there a number of classically 'gay' works such that, despite changing tastes and generations, all gay men, of whatever class, race, or ethnicity, need to know them, in order to be gay? What is there about gay identity that explains the gay appropriation of these works? What do we learn about gay male identity by asking not who gay men are but what it is that gay men do or like? One aim of exploring these questions is to approach gay identity from the perspective of social practices and cultural identifications rather than from the perspective of gay sexuality itself.
This isn't your father's college education. I don't even know where to begin...
Tags:
Liberalism, Gay, Homosexuality, University of Michigan
four capital letters
“The old game is done. Superstardom is within almost no one’s grasp. Be happy that ANYBODY cares about your music!” The Lefsetz Letter looks at some industry things. I look at that list of Top Selling Albums of 2007 and wonder who the hell Taylor Swift is. Honestly, never heard of him/her. And Linkin Park put out a new album this past year? That’s amazing!
+100 awesome venue points for the Royal Oak music Hall for booking Justice. Whoever books there must big a huge Art Fag Incorporated fan. They’ve also landed The Black Keys for April 15.
Detour has your tickets for Week #2 of Cold Pork Thursdays with The Hard Lessons, Javelins, Child Bite and Tally Hall Bingo. What is Tally Hall Bingo? How do I win? Grand prize at The Blind Pig should be some fresh air and 30% visibility.
Chaper One: Insert Penis Into Man. Chapter Two through Fifty: Repeat. Chapter Fifty One: Rinse.
Speaking of penii, here’s a site that specializes in “toys” modeled after different species of animals. Like dolphins and grizzly bears… and Thor.
music
So there's an article at Rolling Stone about the Death of High Fidelity. For a RS article, it's very well-written. However, like a lot of music journalism these days, it's primarily composed of the diluted sentiment, "Waaaah! Things are different!"
It is true that there has been a trend in music producing which ends up making every song as loud as possible, and that means that you lose the subtleties that were once potentially present. The article takes aim at mp3s as the cause of this problem, even though it also recognizes that this trend goes back about 15 years. Mp3s are only a feature of the cause of this transformation in the way music is made and sold to us, but by no means is it the root cause.
Somewhere around the time every car started coming with a tape deck or 8-track player and when every human being on earth owned two Sony walkmans (walkmen?), the nature of music changed. Listening to music was once a primary activity - you would listen to an album the same way you watched a movie or read a book. Now, listening to music is a secondary activity. You listen to it while you're driving, while you're exercising, while you're working - it's always on in the background.
Now, at the risk of being unpopular, I place the blame for this change in the industry squarely on you! When was the last time you just listened to music? Of course, with this fundamental change in the way that people listen to music, it would have to affect the music that gets made. You simply wouldn't be able to hear the subtlety that was once present in these songs while you're driving in a car - the only way to really hear it would be to listen while laying on the floor in the dark with a speaker on either side of your head. But nobody does that anymore, so why are we whining that music is no longer appropriate for that style of listening?
It is true that there has been a trend in music producing which ends up making every song as loud as possible, and that means that you lose the subtleties that were once potentially present. The article takes aim at mp3s as the cause of this problem, even though it also recognizes that this trend goes back about 15 years. Mp3s are only a feature of the cause of this transformation in the way music is made and sold to us, but by no means is it the root cause.
Somewhere around the time every car started coming with a tape deck or 8-track player and when every human being on earth owned two Sony walkmans (walkmen?), the nature of music changed. Listening to music was once a primary activity - you would listen to an album the same way you watched a movie or read a book. Now, listening to music is a secondary activity. You listen to it while you're driving, while you're exercising, while you're working - it's always on in the background.
Now, at the risk of being unpopular, I place the blame for this change in the industry squarely on you! When was the last time you just listened to music? Of course, with this fundamental change in the way that people listen to music, it would have to affect the music that gets made. You simply wouldn't be able to hear the subtlety that was once present in these songs while you're driving in a car - the only way to really hear it would be to listen while laying on the floor in the dark with a speaker on either side of your head. But nobody does that anymore, so why are we whining that music is no longer appropriate for that style of listening?
As each day goes by, it makes room for another.
Pictures from New Years!
I had another great weekend!
Zach was in town! We hung out with four of my Austin groups! And went to bars! And had a picnic! And cooked meals together! And hugged in the kitchen!
Sunday night:
2 hours before midnite
100 miles
50 acres
1 field
2 blankets
3 kittens
6 Heinekens
2 songs in my head
1 friend
Infinite number of stars
0 hours of sleep
A little weekend documentation?
Before makeup
It took me quite a few minutes to recognize myself in the mirror. I love having makeup artists as friends. <3
Tee hee hee.
This scarecrow is in our courtyard. It still scares the shit out of me if I see it out of the corner of my eye at nighttime.
Lurko and Andy at my new favorite bar in the world, Barflys. They played the best music I ever done heard in a bar (yes, even better than Duddley's), and the beer was cheap. Stayed for five hours, closed it down, loved it.
Zach! He has two heads!
Way too sexy.
Probably ranting about something.
Making Z-dawg even prettier. <3
Me and my star buddy.
Fresh beer. Mmmmmm.
Zach and Dani!
BARACK THE VOTE!
I had another great weekend!
Zach was in town! We hung out with four of my Austin groups! And went to bars! And had a picnic! And cooked meals together! And hugged in the kitchen!
Sunday night:
2 hours before midnite
100 miles
50 acres
1 field
2 blankets
3 kittens
6 Heinekens
2 songs in my head
1 friend
Infinite number of stars
0 hours of sleep
A little weekend documentation?
Before makeup
It took me quite a few minutes to recognize myself in the mirror. I love having makeup artists as friends. <3
Tee hee hee.
This scarecrow is in our courtyard. It still scares the shit out of me if I see it out of the corner of my eye at nighttime.
Lurko and Andy at my new favorite bar in the world, Barflys. They played the best music I ever done heard in a bar (yes, even better than Duddley's), and the beer was cheap. Stayed for five hours, closed it down, loved it.
Zach! He has two heads!
Way too sexy.
Probably ranting about something.
Making Z-dawg even prettier. <3
Me and my star buddy.
Fresh beer. Mmmmmm.
Zach and Dani!
BARACK THE VOTE!
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