A blog post which is worth reading

This blog post really is great, or at least it struck a cord with me. It really charts a progression through some really sucky emotions to what she thought was getting over it later. Admittedly, I have a feeling that her emotions were not totally under control 10 days after breaking up with the man she was living with, but at least she and we can dream...

Free

Free, originally uploaded by sandmansreverie.

this makes me giggle.
i know,this should be on my tumblr, but I havent set it up on flickr yet. I will do it right after this, and I will also edit this post to include my thoughts on tumblr soon, I promise!

Stop.

Stop., originally uploaded by counterclockwise.

This is an amazing grafiti idea... i would completely steal this concept next fall, when i get back to school and have time and motivation to do some tagging.
This is also a post straight from flickr, we will see how it looks!

Mad World

Gary Jules.

Brainclaw.

The Dresden Dolls.

What do these names have in common? They all do a great cover of the following words, originally written by Tears for Fears, who did a pretty good job with them:

All around me are familiar faces

Worn out places, Worn out faces

Bright and early for the daily races

Going nowhere, Going nowhere

Their tears are filling up their glasses

No expression, No expression

Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow

No tomorrow, No tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad

These dreams in which i'm dying, Are the best I've ever had

I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take

When people run in circles its a very, very

Mad World, Mad World

Children waiting for the day they feel good

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday

And they feel the way that every child should

Sit and listen, Sit and listen

Went to school and I was very nervous

No one knew me, No one knew me

Hello teacher tell me whats my lesson

Look right through me, Look right through me

And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad

These dreams in which i'm dying, Are the best I've ever had

I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take

When people run in circles it's a very

Mad World, Mad World

Enlarge your world

Mad World

Great stuff, with that grabbing little panio hook… but it’s the lyrics that really knock this one out of the park. A good number of people haves heard of the Gears of War//Donnie Darko version, by Gary Jules, which is understandable, but I want to encourage listening to their varieties than the version which held number1 download spot for iTunes shortly after the GOW advertisement.

And if you are in the mood for something harder, check out the Brainclaw version -they are this unheard of band that i found on their myspace, and they do a grinding and pounding version which really captures something unlike any other version I heard, gave it the teeth which I felt like the lyrics really do deserve.

Another fun version is the live rendition of the Dresden Dolls and McSweeny (of the Red Painting, a Australian band) which they do - I really like it. It expresses more emotion, but not in the metal heavy pounding of Brainclaw.

And while we are on the topic of covers, I would love to hear what Nine Inch Nails would do with this song - it really is their sort of lyrical content, so I think it could be pretty cool.

In terms of the song itself; its when it comes to the actually lyrics and their meaning, that song really shines. "Bright and early for the daily races/going nowhere, going nowhere" --- its just a expression of how meaningless we all are on this train, headed to and then coming from work . And then the second verse is where it really hits me, "Hello teacher tells me what's my lesson? Look right through me, look right through me." Just another grey day, a day in which there just continues the cycle of meaningless interaction between people.

Musing at the Museum

A quick live note here: I am on the fourth floor of the art museum now… it’s a pretty cool place, though personally I had more affect me at the Andy Warhol. Still, some of that could be attributed to the company in which I viewed the works, and I really liked the exhibit of Bruce Nauman there. Ironically, I think an exhibit of this will be coming here this summer - I don’t know if it will be here by the time I leave.

I kinda feel like, by coming here and taking the basic tour, walking around and such, that I am attempting to play some version of real life runescape. I come here, put the time in, and attempt to level up in the "Culture" skill category, not actually advancing anything past being all the better at dropping names at dinner parties.

The jazz band playing here just started up this real funky tune, and im really digging it. I cannot do justice with a recording, and I don’t know the name of the band, so the only way I can preserve the music right now is by somehow writing down that it is, in fact, smooth and funky, the way all good jazz is.

So have I leveled up today? I saw that famous painting with Micheal Jackson and the monkey (Bubbles is his name, for the record), I saw some steriotypical shocking stuff and avante-gaurde stuff and the guide said the word kitch three times in 30 minutes … but I think I really am going to be able to walk down the steps in fron of here (what is up with art museams and their steps? Evelating art? Training grounds for Rocky?) taking something of value with me. I got a few good photos on the way here I feel, grabbed a few interesting ones here, but most of it has to be mental. I know Jeff Kunes now, so I can drop that name in art conversations. But ideally I would like to attribute my time spent here as more than the ability to feign some sort of culture, in order to feel better about myself than everyone else around me.

The clouds were down amoungs the skyscrapers as I walked over- it was like God was one-upping the buildings. There will be photos posted somehow, sometime, if I actually like any of the shots I took. Walking back will be interesting - I wish it was a little darker out. Right now it is dark, but a grey dark, not a night dark. Still, I will be sure to grab some shots as I walk. And eat my snack now too! I havent had supper and am famished.

Another idea I had while walking through here - there was a blank, empty 20x20ish room on one floor. I wanted to print something off and then tape it to the back wall. Everyone walking up the stairs behind me would take it as some sort of art, but it would be my work, not some superfamous somebody --- though I am confident enough now to say that I, in fact, am some sort of artist. I don’t know exactly what everything means, but I am sure I can ascertain that I can create something (on a rare occasion) that repersents some sort of artistic value and meaning to others, and that is realy all that counts.

I am pretty sure that I should come here again - the walk here was great in itself, the mist heavy on the city. But the exceptionally nice security (no really, i have talked with a few, they are really nice) have started closing up some doors, so I should go. Signing off!

when

sometimes i cant tell when the movie ends and my life starts.

Wattpad, with Scribefire

I just signed up for Wattpad, a ebook reader for your phone,
and it so far is AMAZING. I packed my reading list with
most-likely-less-than-legal douglas adams books, so I can fill any
deadtime I have with my phone.

Also, I am using a firefox-intigrated blog editor, called ScribeFire, to write this...so we will see how this works out...

Cooling Off Period in Nepal

This quote is the funniest thing I have read by the Associated Press(!) in a long time. Taken from the middle of a International Herold article, long known for its laughs (or not...), in an article on how the Nepalese have thrown out their king:

When and how the nation's king, Gyanendra, would leave Narayanhity, the main palace in Katmandu, was not clear. He has made no public statements in recent weeks about his plans, although his supporters have made their disappointment known by setting off small bombs in the capital.

amazingly dry delivery there IHT, best viewed when reading the whole article where it just comes out of no where.
i love it.

Libertarian Attitude + Island Resort = Quite a Dream

just a quick jott here.... I really love this idea, though its odds of making it to reality are slim to none. The points brought up about how currently we dont really have any choice in our government is not so solid though; if you moved your little island, you would move away from everyone you know and join a whole new group with a whole new culture: Sounds pretty similiar to me moving to cananda. Still, I like the concept.

Delilah

Yeah, so I want to do individual song posts every once and a while, talking about meaning, because in my experience, there is not enough good discussion about the meaning of songs. There are some unmoderated sites where the same people that leave those AMAZINGLY horrible youtube leave meaningless comments saying how much they love Paramore, but that about it.

A side note: an AMAZING xkcd comic talks about this: "Want to play a fun game? Try to leave a youTube comment that is so stupid, everyone knows your joking. Hint: It’s impossible." So true! I have never read comments on any youTube that seems to be written by a middle school graduate. So here is a reflection on "Delilah," by the Dresden Dolls.

There's no end to the love you can give
When you change your point of view to underfoot
Very good
You may be flat but you're breathing

And there's no doubt he's at home in his room
Probably watching porn of you from the fall
It's last call
... see all
And you're the last one leaving
And you thought you could change the world
By opening your legs
Well it isn't very hard
Try kicking them instead
And you thought you could change his mind
By changing your perfume to the kind his mother wore
O god delilah why?
I never met a more impossible girl....

In this same bar where you slammed down your hand
And said "Amanda, i'm in love"
No you're not
You're just a sucker for the ones who use you
And it doesn't matter what I say or do
The stupid bastard's gonna have his way with you...

You're an unrescuable schizo
Or else you're on the rag
If you take him back
I'm gonna lose my nerve
I never met a more impossible girl...
I never met a more impossible girl...

At four o'clock he got off
And you called up
"i'm down at denny's on route one
And you won't guess what he's done"
Is that a fact Delilah?
Larry Tap let you in through the back
And use his calling card again
For a quick hand of gin

You are impossible, Delilah: the princess of denial
And after 7 years in advertising you are none the wiser

You're an unrescuable schizo
Or else you're on the rag
Cause if you take him back
I'm gonna lose my nerve
He's gonna beat you like a pillow
You schizos never learn
And if you take him home
You'll get what you deserve
I never met a more impossible girl...

So don't cry, Delilah
You're still alive, Delilah
You need a ride, Delilah?
Let's see how fast this thing can go...
Let's see how fast this thing can go...
Let's see how fast this thing can go...

This song really speaks to me given a situation in my life, but generally it just rings so true - the swelling piano and gorgeous harmony that runs throughout the later verses and final refrain is amazing. The lyrical meaning, a friend bemoaning the fact that a person is under the spell of something the want to call love to a 'stupid bastard'

The mood shifts later with "Lets see how fast this thing can go," which is amazing!!! It took me multiple listens to understand it(and one lyric lookup), but its just two friends talking, before finally getting out of dodge. I hope that Delilah did in fact listen to her friend. I think she did - things finally break in that end, and the tone radically shifts, from the earlier words of advice, to the decision to just get the hell outta the room, out of town, out of the situation with emotional entanglement - which is just what the friend was in fact advocating.

If you, my special invisible friend, have any other thoughts, feel free to drop them to me, I would be interested to see how other people think about this interpretation.

Continuation of Post and Life

When it comes to the commute of which I am certainly a part of now, I had a few really neat experiences recently, the first of which is when I gave up my seat today on the train to a 40ish, slightly overweight lady.
It felt amazing. The train scheduled had changed due to memorial day, and so the aisles quickly filled with 4 or 5 people who did not have any seats. I saw the one woman on my car, and suddenly realized that there was absolutely no way that I, an able-bodied, young college-aged male could justify sitting while this woman was standing a few feet away.
Ironically enough, I was wearing jeans and a black linkin park hoodie zipped up, which is extremely unusual on a train full of suites and polo shirts, and I feel like it added to the impact. I really enjoy breaking the stereotype that people that wear black somehow don’t care about others- more generally, I enjoy breaking any stereotype, and I find that this one is often times assumed.
So I simply offered her my seat, and she was quite grateful, thanking me as she sat down, but what really gave me a sense of satisfaction was the comment made by my ex-seatmate, a black woman in her thirties with her iPod earphones in. She took out one of her earphones and mentioned to the lady who sat down that there are still some real gentlemen out there. This really set in some sense of "Yeah, life is good," sort of feeling, but I am not sure if it is right

What if instead, I would have simply stood up and walked out of the car, to stand in the aisle of another, without saying anything? The lady that was standing up would have sat down, which was the objective, and not an ounce of credit would have given to the college kid. No thank yous, no being a gentleman, just standing anonymously in another car,
I was raised in a Christian household, and that mindset, which I agree with, is that God and you know that you did the right thing, and that is what matters, but really societal approval is what triggers the feeling of doing a good deed. I don’t know for sure, but I guess being given credit for your own work is correct, and if your own work is standing up, than credit given by others is not a bad thing, though the issue really is making me think.

Interestingly enough, on the way back home I got this great photo of a guy staring out the window. I felt sorta bad, taking the photo without permission, and over my uncles shoulder who was sitting in the row between, but I like the result. I also saw a great scene of a man in a full suite walking his daughter who was overflowing with happiness walking towards the train station: I am not quite as happy with how the photo I took turned out, but I just had to do something to capture how happy the two of them were together. The father (I assume) held her hand and just seemed to be smiling by the way he walked, and the little girl even had a little skip to her gait as she walked, her skirt just fluttering about. Of recent memory, those were the only people that seemed genuinely happy to me.

Isn't that a sad statement? Why don’t I other people seem happy? I mean, not necessarily euphoric 24/7/356, but at least happy. There is a reference here to an article which I read about suicide on the golden gate bridge, but I have no access to that article here. At some time I will post it though, I promise.

Pearls Before Breakfast

Wikipedia is basically amazing. I don’t know how people survived without it. I was reading online when I saw the word "busking" used, and being who I am, I traveled through a wiki page before getting a link to this article, which is HIGHLY worth you reading (warning: this article is over 8 normal pages long, for you reading-averse readers).

Basically, a world-class violinist performed in the subways station in downtown DC, for free. His concerts have tickets that go for over a hundred for a seat, but of the 1100 people that walked past him over the course of 40 minutes, only a handful stopped, and only a handful appreciated the performance of one of the greatest musician of our time. The Times interviewed many of the people afterwords, and even people that were in line for multiple minutes right next to him didn't not, by and large, remember anyone standing there.

I found the article to be excellent - its description of how a mother prevented her child from staying even though the child was captivated by the music was interesting, though it did seem at points like the author was pushing the child card a little bit too hard.

But the real interesting thing was that this article turned into an amazing article about the meaning that is attached to so many lives today: it took the concept of the beauty around us and gave at least me a feeling that they were talking about the real meaning to commuter life which those 1037 people have. The quote which really amazed me was from Edna Souza, a shoe-shiner who was working nearby and was answering why she thought so few people noticed or cared as they walked by, and she answered;

"People walk up the escalator, they look straight ahead. Mind your own business, eyes forward. Everyone is stressed. Do you know what I mean?""

Makes you actually think...

Artsy (The Subconcious Defense of a Socially Defined Being)

I tend to use the word 'artsy' to describe some projects (for example, a project which would have involved changing the labels of some soda machines), and often these are the projects that i am most proud of. But I use the word artsy as a sort of satire, making fun of the concept. At least psychologically, I am excusing myself and some sense of 'emo' or art snobbery that goes along with doing projects that are involved with actual meaning or are more abstract that what the mold of what i am suppose to be.

More to the point, the concept of the guy, the die which i am suppose to be cut doesn't allow room for the idea of artistic emotional expression. thats correct, emotional, the word that starts with emo. thats right, 'lame-pussy-ass-emo,' to some of you other people out there. Personally, I find that view to be completely wrong in some situations (though not far from the truth in others), but a lot of people... especially guys... really do subscribe to the idea that those emo kinds are worthless/less than them.

I always chalked it up to the fact that people fear other people that are different (base case for racism), and really dont agree with the oft-cited explination that "emo-haters are just emotionally repressed" or something similiar. I really dont think that the football team (in a high school situation) seriously cares about a lot of things that steriotypical emotionally and/or artsy kids do, and its not out of repression of his inner self that he loaths them.

So heres to being unashamed about art. and me making it. tomorrow. on the train. maybe the day after. standby for results!

the reason for the lack of double post is my broken pinky finger, which is dead weight being pulled across the keyboard and is seriously slowing down my typing speed. but no more lies, here is an absolute promise: tomorrow, i will not double post.

The Dresden Dolls

So this "Post-punk cabaret" band (who chose that genre themselves to avoid any sort of "Goth label) is completely worth you time.... if you like to fill your time with unusual piano-centric pseudo-indie hyphenated-worded bands.

They have just two band members - a drummer/backup vocals/producer and a panio/lead vocals who has a voice which does not lend itself to any easy comparisons. There recent album is quite solid, though I would recommend "Shores of California" as an introduction, followed immediately by "Dirty Business."

Their quirkyness as well as amazingly great piano skills - I suffered through 8 years of piano lessons, and the only thing that remains is some sense of musical awareness and a love of keyboards (and synth-keys) in any form.

Ironically, these guys were hand-picked by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame to open for them on tour --- and I swear, I didn't find out about these guys because of this, even though I am a fan of that act, as godless and shock-jock-esque as they may come out to be.

apologies for missing yesterday - today, i double post to make up for my un-reading readers sake!

thinking

another day successfully ventured through; no complaints here.

i have been doing a lot of thinking on the topic of existence; in fact that line of thought is the main one behind the existence of this blog. I plan on working through a large-scale post during the upcoming few days, when i will have both the time and psychological space.

and on the music note, i have a song to recommend. I know that just by naming the artist, many people will begging to stereotype against both the song and my character by just naming him. however, that sort of blind prejudice against (or for!) any given type of music is so uncalled for - i know that we all have some sort of gut reaction, and I know I do against country music. but the other day, i was tooling through the radio stations and listened to a few notes that grabbed my ear, before hearing some twangy voice come in. I had to strongly resist the urge to hit the seek button and actually evaluate the music in front of me - the song wasn't amazing, but it certainly wasn't bad.

I fail to think of a situation where those sorts of prejudices against whole genres, and also artists, would be a positive thing.

keep your prejudices, heres the link to a youtube set to the song

an early morning reflection...

on how sweet this little twitter mashup is - put simply, it takes in random twitter updates with the phrase "i hate," "i love," and three other phrases, then scrolls them across the screen.
i love the interface as well - the only thing i would ask is that if you could click on one twitter thought and go to that persons profile, as to inquire into the very interesting thoughts that occasionally scrolls across the page.
i personally like clicking 'love' and then 'hate' real quick so you get both of them intertwined - i wonder what the ratio is between the amount people talk about loving their significant other, verses using the phrase "i hate" them? the ratio would be rather telling...

More blog thoughts

I read an extensive amount about blogging this afternoon --- and heard a lot of good thoughts. The main jist of what I read could be summed up with this article, as well as the whole site that professes guides for a successful blog, a blog for a targeted niche and such.

I dont think that I fit into their categories very well, however, I decided to do this little exercise and fill out a chart of what I want this blog to be (click for larger photo).



I also felt that this graphical repersentation was better than the hierarchical structure, although I will say that using the far more popular work structure chart looks much better - it looks like I actually did some real work! I wonder if that explains its popularity over many other forms of data infographs

(side note: if your into information representation, check out information asethetics for some really neat stuff on representation of data in visually pleasing ways, as well as just generally solid art/data projects)

We all just want to be rockstars...

Someone just passed me a link to the rider contract for the Foo Fighters, and it honestly is pretty funny. A rider is the contract given to the operator of a venue that band is playing at, so this is the list of rock-star-esque demands that they have, as well as making fun of the whole process at the same time.
The trick involving the numbers is pretty classy too.. and the quote at the bottom of page eighteen(49) is great too:

WE ARE JUST ANOTHER BAND TRYING TO FUEL OUR PRIVATE JET. PLEASE HELP.

Reprocessed

so this blog was created as a placeholder for future interest, and in the past few weeks the interest has suddenly blossomed into a full-fledged concept. The next few weeks will be a test of if this idea holds water, so do try to bear with me.

I would like to address why I anonymised this blog though - I originally had my name tossed around on here, but then realized I don't think I want people in my real life to make the link. I fell this will allow me to be much freer in my observations, without worrying about the reaction and fallout... and if I feel like they would be able to handle things, I can always just tell people face to face about it.

So heres to hoping for a post tomorrow!