Showing posts with label things that aren't that bad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label things that aren't that bad. Show all posts
Friday, December 2, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
love! love! love!
for those of you following along from home, new things concerning matters of the heart have been posted here.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Reading: Kind of Like Fun, but for Poor People
*or muppets.Being poor is sad.
Lack of funds means you can't spend money on copious amounts of crap that you'll get rid of in a few months. Luckily, there are plenty of things that you can do as a human that don't involve consuming goods. One thing I've been doing these past couple decades to beat the recession-blahs is going to my local library to browse the shelves, pray that my idle scanning of literature will one day lead me to fame and fortune on Jeopardy, and cast furtive glances at the bespectacled, bearded babe in the 900s. (heh. just a little Dewey Decimal System humor.)
Some of the books I've picked up in the last few months and would recommend to you:
Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azzerad. Could not put this down. From Henry Rollins to Calvin Johnson, and everything that mattered in between. Wow. Worth the read for the chapter on the Butthole Surfers alone.
Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller. Perhaps a little too embarrassing to read in certain public places, this was pretty damn riveting, in that guilt-laden, voyeuristic way.
Will You Take Me As I Am: Joni Mitchell's Blue Period by Michelle Mercer. This book had almost no point except to extrapolate on the genius of Joni Mitchell, which is alright with me.
Across the Great Divide: The Band and America by Barney Hoskyns-- Music journalism by British people is a delectable treat indeed. And this book does a great job of making that case that The Band is the only band that has ever made music worth listening to.
Can't get enough of music bios. Like reading US Weekly about actually interesting humans, who also don't deny rampant sex with other famous people and cocaine use.
Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates. Do not read when you're "pondering the deep questions about life in Amerika."
Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, Jon Lee Anderson. Didn't actually finish this, it's like 600 pages. Stick to Che's own "Motorcycle Diaries" instead. All the drama and none of the bulk.
What I Talk about When I talk About Running, Haruki Murakami. This book is like the center of the Venn diagram for running and writing, which you'll like if you're into either or both of those.
A Wanderer in the Perfect City- Lawrence Weschler. This man is a prince among cultural "critics." This book chronicles numerous talented artistic individuals who perpetually exist on the fringe of breaking through into the cultural conscience, and is a very enjoyable read. Also, if you're interested in art or anything else, run, don't walk to pick up a copy of Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences. Put out by McSweeney's, and is incredibly smart and fun at the same time.
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, David Foster Wallace. What can you say about this (late) guy that hasn't been said? It's hard to read words written by anyone else after reading DFW, but probably not as hard as it will be to watch the movie version of this book starring that guy from "The Office."
Another book that I've spent the past two or so years mulling over is Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century. It chronicles various forms of resistance to the capitalist tendency to commodify everything in it's path since World War I. It's exhaustively researched and full of fascinating parallels like the one Marcus draws between Johnny Rotten and a 16th century German tyrant. It's been ruining my life since I picked it up but I can't put it down. What more could you want from a read?
Just picked up The Interrogation by J.M.G. Le Clezio, the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize, and Memoirs of Hecate County by Edmund Wilson, he of the same esteemed college preparatory school as yours truly. It was on the list of banned books, and as this is Banned Books Week, I thought I'd celebrate the freedom of the read.
Other fun things to do when you're poor include "getting back to nature" by walking around a park or otherwise outside space, riding your bike really fast down hills, working on your memoir, and having your friends buy you beer.
And remember, stealing toilet paper from work is a right.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Anti-American Chic
...is dead.
Well played, America.
Not bad for a capitalist democracy*.
*Oligarchy? Plutocracy? None of the above?
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Irony found dead, smothered by flannel
Fleet Foxes"...the post-collegiate hippie thing really peaked this year.... a return to pastoralism and self-reliance and a sound so free of shiny urban gimmicks that you can almost hear the chickens clucking in the background."
--Slate's Ann Powers on the popularity of Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes in 2008
As the music goes, so goes the culture? A comment from a fan on Fleet Foxes myspace page:
"The Show at The Price of Wales was quite Simply one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen. I was in tears the whole time...haha.. i couldnt even sing along to blue ridge moutain cause my lip wouldnt stop quivering. Thank you.. thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving the gift [of] a truly inspired and beautiful music. PEACE and LOVE."
Here would be an appropriate time time go into issues of Our Generation and how We might be Changing Things for the Better by identifying with sensitive indie rock and bagging the ideals that this country's backbone is currently collapsing under, but I'll spare everyone that (redundant) rant.
I'll just leave it at: who knew beards and flannel (and artful sincerity) would force irony six feet under by 2009? Hats off to you, sensitive men from the woods.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Breaking: College Grad Identifies Path to Success, Wisdom and Happiness
Ah, college grads. There may not be a creature on earth who so perfectly embodies the delicate balance of idealism and self-righteousness as the Recent College Graduate, and every May the air is filled with the stench of the self-satisfaction mixed with fear. Since I wore that little hat almost a whole week ago, I have the right to glibly bombard you with my views on the world and life, because I now know almost everything there is worth knowing (just a little more Kerouac, and that almost will be effectively taken care of). Before that whole "real world" thing (a cultural construct if there ever was one) mars the clarity with which I am currently able to view the world, here is a list of personal insights and cultural observations I've culled over the last few years of expensive summer camp, which was actually really worth it (thanks, Mom and Dad!). Before I started, I never would've known what I still don't know (which completely goes against what I just said about knowing everything, but that's the beauty of being young and impressionable. Or something.)*
Finally, the wisdom the world has been waiting for:
WHAT I LEARNED IN COLLEGE
1. Wow, the world sure is fucked up.
(a) Your reality is being controlled by a small cabal of very rich and very old white men.
(b) You're a corporate target.
(c) The natural world is being destroyed.
(d) Global wealth is more uneven than it's ever been.
(e) The cheap energy sources that have built our incredibly decadent lifestyles are close to collapsing.
In fact, just about everything that COULD go wrong actually IS! So, you, college student/grad/mom/dad/shamed American, must forget everything you know and start over. Everything THEY (yes, there is a they) tell you is wrong, you can't buy your way out of this one, and your patriotic/religious paraphernalia does not guarantee you a place in heaven.
2. You CAN! almost learn how to think about maybe starting to change it a little bit.
(a) Moral superiority is not a bad thing, and that myth is only perpetuated by the selfish and lazy.
3. You don't actually have to read the boring assignments, especially if you don't care about your grades. And a lot of the reading is really interesting, especially if you don't care about your grades.
(a) If you ever experience the carpet of reality being pulled out from under you and grow suspicious of all that exists and doesn't exist in the entire world, you're doing alright.
4. The world does not end if you get a C or a D or an F. Nothing you do for a grade will ever affect anyone else's life, so stop boring everyone with your complaining.
(a) Some people will graduate with honors. Some won't. Everyone keeps breathing. A lot of people with very good grades will go on to make a lot of money, or not make a lot of money, or have a lot of fun, or do great things. A lot of people with not very good grades will go on to make a lot of money, or not make a lot of money, or have a lot of fun, or do great things.
5. Awkwardness will ensue. Embrace it.
(a) Everyone is so self-conscious that no one has time to worry about what you're doing, wearing or listening to.
6. Selling a really great anthology of world literature for $19 is a mistake.
(a) reading is still a better idea than Wii.
7. Nothing is so important that you can't skip it for something spontaneous and fun.
8. You can take about three fundamental ideas and apply them to every paper you ever write. (eg the world bank is evil, nothing is true, almost every classic text you read is patriarchally informed, etc.)
9. Women are in charge in male/female relationships (obviously). No one can deny that. Women, use it without taking advantage it. Men, don't be jerks.
10. Your major probably doesn't really matter, so pick one that's fundamental to your becoming a person, or it's going to be a long four years. If you don't have actual academic interests (or want to major in business/ neoclassical economics), don't go to college and give your spot to someone else.
11. A lot of people are huge tools. Avoid them so you don't have to worry about it.
(a) But you can make fun of them when you need to feel better about yourself.
(b) Also, a lot of people who seem like tools actually aren't. Don't judge people until after you know them.
12. You definitely won't regret any time you spend with friends. Actually, the only regret I have is that I didn't meet more people (ie hot smart dudes). Your 4.0 will never make you laugh or listen to your stories, and won't keep in touch after you graduate.
13. Mainstream media is for the old and dead, as are moderation and greatest hits albums (obviously).
14. The sixties might've been cool, but they're over and partially responsible for the quagmire of bullshit our generation has to wade through (see #1). If we learn to celebrate and loathe the time we're living in, we can understand and fix it.
15. Facebook is our generation's most brilliant form of effective corporate mind-control. Think before you offer all your personal information (see #1 (a) and (b)).
16. In spite of the self-indulgent practices and beliefs that college allows and encourages, you are actually very far from being the center of the world.
16. This list wouldn't be complete without the cliche (but valuable) things you always hear: don't be afraid to talk in class, try stuff that seems scary or stupid or weird, if you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much room, allow yourself to remain open to all views (especially the ones that confirm your own so you can win arguments against Republicans and make them feel dumb).
17. It's impossible to make a mistake (except for #6).
18. Most importantly, don't let anyone tell you what to do. Doing what anyone tells you to is quickest way to ending up miserable.
(a) For the record, the list is is merely meant as a suggestion.
Also, college is pretty cool, but I'm fairly certain that it doesn't actually have to be the "best four years of your life!!!11" You should actually make sure it's not, because who wants life after 22 to be a sixty year denouement?
*Disclaimer: contributing to the pompous tone of this list is that I'm currently in a coffee shop attempting to justify my existence. Oh, and I didn't get honors so I feel bad about myself. J/k!!111
Finally, the wisdom the world has been waiting for:
WHAT I LEARNED IN COLLEGE
1. Wow, the world sure is fucked up.
(a) Your reality is being controlled by a small cabal of very rich and very old white men.
(b) You're a corporate target.
(c) The natural world is being destroyed.
(d) Global wealth is more uneven than it's ever been.
(e) The cheap energy sources that have built our incredibly decadent lifestyles are close to collapsing.
In fact, just about everything that COULD go wrong actually IS! So, you, college student/grad/mom/dad/shamed American, must forget everything you know and start over. Everything THEY (yes, there is a they) tell you is wrong, you can't buy your way out of this one, and your patriotic/religious paraphernalia does not guarantee you a place in heaven.
2. You CAN! almost learn how to think about maybe starting to change it a little bit.
(a) Moral superiority is not a bad thing, and that myth is only perpetuated by the selfish and lazy.
3. You don't actually have to read the boring assignments, especially if you don't care about your grades. And a lot of the reading is really interesting, especially if you don't care about your grades.
(a) If you ever experience the carpet of reality being pulled out from under you and grow suspicious of all that exists and doesn't exist in the entire world, you're doing alright.
4. The world does not end if you get a C or a D or an F. Nothing you do for a grade will ever affect anyone else's life, so stop boring everyone with your complaining.
(a) Some people will graduate with honors. Some won't. Everyone keeps breathing. A lot of people with very good grades will go on to make a lot of money, or not make a lot of money, or have a lot of fun, or do great things. A lot of people with not very good grades will go on to make a lot of money, or not make a lot of money, or have a lot of fun, or do great things.
5. Awkwardness will ensue. Embrace it.
(a) Everyone is so self-conscious that no one has time to worry about what you're doing, wearing or listening to.
6. Selling a really great anthology of world literature for $19 is a mistake.
(a) reading is still a better idea than Wii.
7. Nothing is so important that you can't skip it for something spontaneous and fun.
8. You can take about three fundamental ideas and apply them to every paper you ever write. (eg the world bank is evil, nothing is true, almost every classic text you read is patriarchally informed, etc.)
9. Women are in charge in male/female relationships (obviously). No one can deny that. Women, use it without taking advantage it. Men, don't be jerks.
10. Your major probably doesn't really matter, so pick one that's fundamental to your becoming a person, or it's going to be a long four years. If you don't have actual academic interests (or want to major in business/ neoclassical economics), don't go to college and give your spot to someone else.
11. A lot of people are huge tools. Avoid them so you don't have to worry about it.
(a) But you can make fun of them when you need to feel better about yourself.
(b) Also, a lot of people who seem like tools actually aren't. Don't judge people until after you know them.
12. You definitely won't regret any time you spend with friends. Actually, the only regret I have is that I didn't meet more people (ie hot smart dudes). Your 4.0 will never make you laugh or listen to your stories, and won't keep in touch after you graduate.
13. Mainstream media is for the old and dead, as are moderation and greatest hits albums (obviously).
14. The sixties might've been cool, but they're over and partially responsible for the quagmire of bullshit our generation has to wade through (see #1). If we learn to celebrate and loathe the time we're living in, we can understand and fix it.
15. Facebook is our generation's most brilliant form of effective corporate mind-control. Think before you offer all your personal information (see #1 (a) and (b)).
16. In spite of the self-indulgent practices and beliefs that college allows and encourages, you are actually very far from being the center of the world.
16. This list wouldn't be complete without the cliche (but valuable) things you always hear: don't be afraid to talk in class, try stuff that seems scary or stupid or weird, if you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much room, allow yourself to remain open to all views (especially the ones that confirm your own so you can win arguments against Republicans and make them feel dumb).
17. It's impossible to make a mistake (except for #6).
18. Most importantly, don't let anyone tell you what to do. Doing what anyone tells you to is quickest way to ending up miserable.
(a) For the record, the list is is merely meant as a suggestion.
Also, college is pretty cool, but I'm fairly certain that it doesn't actually have to be the "best four years of your life!!!11" You should actually make sure it's not, because who wants life after 22 to be a sixty year denouement?
*Disclaimer: contributing to the pompous tone of this list is that I'm currently in a coffee shop attempting to justify my existence. Oh, and I didn't get honors so I feel bad about myself. J/k!!111
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Moral Not Included
Once there was a girl (or young womyn in modern parlance) named Emily whose friends were going to the Hot Chip show in Montreal to dance their faces off with sexy Canadians in cool clothes. Emily desperately wanted to go, but she had to stay in Burlington to write her thesis because her kind but stern step-adviser was pretty much making her (since she was already late in turning in a draft) (and she kind of wanted to work on it, since she'd been neglecting everything that is "important" for the last 22 years or so).
So she went up to the library with carrots, twig tea and environmental philosophy books and pretty much cried on the keybored* while wishing she was sucking back G&Ts at the really dope, Euro-esque dance party. After a few hours in the air-tight shoe box of a library, her eyes were falling out of her head and the tea was wearing off.
All of a sudden, her heady godmother appeared out of thin air and a cloud of soy incense smoke to the tune of "Livin' Thing" by ELO! She looked like Patti Smith with a curly afro. She said, "Emily, here is what you should do. Go to the top of a mountain. Stay there for a while and imagine the most beautiful world you can. Then, decide what you can do to make it that way, and that's what you should do with your life. And you should start a punk band. And, change the background of your blog to black, it conserves energy."
Emily was like "wow! Thanks heady godmother! You're the illest."
The heady godmother was gone in a flash the color of Mark Bolan's translucent pallor, and Emily sat in the library for a minute contemplating what she'd said, and dreaming of the world the heady godmother had suggested. She got very excited about sunny days and shorter work weeks and happy babies and gardens all misty wet with rain and independence from non-renewable fuel sources (including biofuels like ethanol) and puppies and attractive men who are also sensitive. But then she realized she was still in the library, was still wrong about Heidegger, and had still been called an anti-Semite by her step-adviser for using the phrase "Judeo-Christian authority."
So she wrote for a little bit longer. And when she was done, she walked home, ate some wonderful tofu dinner that her loving sister had saved her, and watched the clip of Bowie on Extras.
The next morning, she was up with the compulsive exersizers to get to the radio station. It was a beautiful morning! The birds were chirping and the sun was rising over the mountains. Once behind the tables, she spun an ill mix of Abraham Lincoln's Cooper Union Speech (fiery to say the least) and Ratatat, and then played Koka Kola by the Clash:
I get my advice from the advertising world
Treat me nice says the party girl
Koke adds life where there isnt any
So freeze, man, freeze
Koka kola advertising and kokaine
Strolling down the broadway in the rain
Neon light sign says it
I read it in the paper-theyre crazy!
Suit your life, maybe so
In the white house-i know
All over berlin (theyve been doing it for years)
And in manhattan!
Then, some guy called in and requested "Straight to Hell" by the Clash, which Emily had not previously heard. But she put it on and the hook is the same as Paper Planes by MIA! Whoa! Two (more) points to Strummer, Jones et al.
You wanna play mind-crazed banjo
On the druggy-drag ragtime u.s.a.?
In parkland international
Hah! junkiedom u.s.a.
Where procaine proves the purest rock man groove
And rat poison
The volatile molatov says-
Pssst...
Hey chico we got a message for ya...
Vamos vamos muchacho
From alphabet city all the way a to z, dead, head
Go straight to hell
The guy called back and was very excited about the genius of the Clash and MIA.
Meanwhile, the heady godmother was back in the stacks of the cosmic collection and picking out tons of cool music as yet unheard by living ears. It was a beautiful sunny day, and Emily didn't even mind being stuck in the library to work on her thesis (again).
*LOL!!!!1
So she went up to the library with carrots, twig tea and environmental philosophy books and pretty much cried on the keybored* while wishing she was sucking back G&Ts at the really dope, Euro-esque dance party. After a few hours in the air-tight shoe box of a library, her eyes were falling out of her head and the tea was wearing off.
All of a sudden, her heady godmother appeared out of thin air and a cloud of soy incense smoke to the tune of "Livin' Thing" by ELO! She looked like Patti Smith with a curly afro. She said, "Emily, here is what you should do. Go to the top of a mountain. Stay there for a while and imagine the most beautiful world you can. Then, decide what you can do to make it that way, and that's what you should do with your life. And you should start a punk band. And, change the background of your blog to black, it conserves energy."
Emily was like "wow! Thanks heady godmother! You're the illest."
The heady godmother was gone in a flash the color of Mark Bolan's translucent pallor, and Emily sat in the library for a minute contemplating what she'd said, and dreaming of the world the heady godmother had suggested. She got very excited about sunny days and shorter work weeks and happy babies and gardens all misty wet with rain and independence from non-renewable fuel sources (including biofuels like ethanol) and puppies and attractive men who are also sensitive. But then she realized she was still in the library, was still wrong about Heidegger, and had still been called an anti-Semite by her step-adviser for using the phrase "Judeo-Christian authority."
So she wrote for a little bit longer. And when she was done, she walked home, ate some wonderful tofu dinner that her loving sister had saved her, and watched the clip of Bowie on Extras.
The next morning, she was up with the compulsive exersizers to get to the radio station. It was a beautiful morning! The birds were chirping and the sun was rising over the mountains. Once behind the tables, she spun an ill mix of Abraham Lincoln's Cooper Union Speech (fiery to say the least) and Ratatat, and then played Koka Kola by the Clash:
I get my advice from the advertising world
Treat me nice says the party girl
Koke adds life where there isnt any
So freeze, man, freeze
Koka kola advertising and kokaine
Strolling down the broadway in the rain
Neon light sign says it
I read it in the paper-theyre crazy!
Suit your life, maybe so
In the white house-i know
All over berlin (theyve been doing it for years)
And in manhattan!
Then, some guy called in and requested "Straight to Hell" by the Clash, which Emily had not previously heard. But she put it on and the hook is the same as Paper Planes by MIA! Whoa! Two (more) points to Strummer, Jones et al.
You wanna play mind-crazed banjo
On the druggy-drag ragtime u.s.a.?
In parkland international
Hah! junkiedom u.s.a.
Where procaine proves the purest rock man groove
And rat poison
The volatile molatov says-
Pssst...
Hey chico we got a message for ya...
Vamos vamos muchacho
From alphabet city all the way a to z, dead, head
Go straight to hell
The guy called back and was very excited about the genius of the Clash and MIA.
Meanwhile, the heady godmother was back in the stacks of the cosmic collection and picking out tons of cool music as yet unheard by living ears. It was a beautiful sunny day, and Emily didn't even mind being stuck in the library to work on her thesis (again).
*LOL!!!!1
Monday, February 4, 2008
Toshiaght-arree
(That's February for those not fluent in Manx)
It's cold, but not as cold as it should be.
Might as well listen to some Fleetwood Mac. Seriously.
While you're at it, you can stop buying stuff and change the world.
And don't worry, the pressure's off:
"You have all the way till you’re forty to totally fuck up your life. It takes that long, if you’re really talented, to really fuck everything up. You just go up and up and up and up, and all of a sudden you’ve got three ex-husbands, a broken-down Porsche, a bunch of leather clothes, some haute-couture accessories, and no prospects at all." -Dave Hickey
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Blogtrack to the End of the Year
Magritte, Page Blanche"Our age is retrospective. Its builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? Embossed for a season in nature, whose floods of stream around and through us, and invite us by the powers they supply, to action proportioned to nature, why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe? The sun shines today also."
-Emerson, 1833
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