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April 23rd, 2008
12:47 pm
Anyone want to ride to New York with me this summer?
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March 9th, 2008
09:05 pm
I've started a travel blog for my trip:
http://cantspeakforyou.blogspot.com/
i'll still use this blog for more personal stuff.
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February 5th, 2008
12:29 am
so after there was some delay in getting my criminal background check sent to korean immigration, the school that i had chosen to work at decided to go behind my back and hire a different teacher! they were afraid that my visa would not be approved in time and they'd be short a teacher, which i can understand. but still!
it looks now like i'll be heading over there at the earliest at the beginning of march. if lightning doesn't strike me down first.
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January 22nd, 2008
07:49 pm - a day at the park
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January 20th, 2008
01:18 am
On a whim I downloaded the album Pitchfork put as its #50 of 2007 and then forgot about it for a couple weeks, forgotten in the mass of end-of-the-year-list downloads I do every year. It's my time to catch up on all thats been going on in the world of music that I can't be bothered to pay attention to on a day-to-day basis, so I just cull from these "best of" lists a good bunch of music that then keeps me satisfied for a while.
Well I was driving up to Cleveland, listening to my Ipod, and I decided it'd be a good time to give a good listen to something I'd never heard before. It was raining lightly and I was cruising behind a truck; I remember the leisurely pace of the windshield wipers was really putting me into a trance, but since I was just following a truck I didn't really have to worry about it too much, just maintain my distance and let people pass me. A pretty relaxing way to drive.
So I saw this artist "Tinariwen" and I had no idea what I was getting into. It sounded pretty foreign, so I thought I had gotten it from a friend of mine during a big music swap, I remember he recommended a lot of so-called 'world' music I'd never heard of. It was perfect; I was probably like a minute into the first song when I started just singing along in my car, rocking out to some shit I'd never heard before in a language I wasn't even sure of.
Now is the point where I am supposed to say a bunch of stuff about their use of electric guitars and folk melodies or some shit, and I honestly do not want to write about anything like that. All I want to say is that I hope you won't be dissuaded by the way it sounds at first. It's easy to hear it and just be like "oh its world music, its interesting but i cant really get into it." You just gotta turn it up and let yourself get into it. Forget what they're saying, its all about the energy, those beautiful hypnotic choruses. Let me know what you think!
Tinariwen - Matadjem Yinmixan
Tinariwen - Cler Achel
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January 7th, 2008
07:00 pm
Today I saw a crow eating a piece of a hamburger that someone had thrown out of their car window. What wonders nature beholds, if only we were to stop and listen!! The sheer carnage of the act: the hamburger, grown in some far-off farm, slaughtered with a mechanical precision that is only possible due to thousands of years of technological discovery. The bun, made of wheat harvested by some Mexican migrant; his sweat and tears transformed into perhaps the most essential element of the non-meat portion of the hamburger, aided only by the catalyst of global capitalism and the fire of desperation that burns within his soul.
The crow, though I hasten to add not consciously, illuminates to us the failure of the market to utilize the potential of this burger to its fullest! This bun, this burger, though half-consumed, elements of saliva still gripping to its juicy interior, still bear the potential that its creators imbued within it. That potential the crow is able to recognize, unadulterated by the social mores which so confound us humans, blinding us to the possibilities of our world, preventing us from escaping the rat race and realizing our bestial spirit. What kind of man would it be who could see the world as the crow does? A man who could see through the false faces, the handshaking and the polite smiles, to whom the true nature of the epic struggle for survival that is existence was revealed??
Such a man would revel in the sight of this hamburger; his instincts would teach him what to do instantly. He would undoubtedly kill the crow with a mighty blow from some sort of ax or spear he has constructed by himself, and sit on the curb of the road and engorge himself with the remains of another man's dinner, its juices streaming down his face as he turns it into the fuel he would need for his next hunt. He would pull himself up by the ropes discarded by his fellow men, left there as waste! What fools! To willingly give away the means of survival to ones enemies, giving away the toil of their labor so that their rivals may live another day! It would be better to burn it, to kill the parasites that naturally grow wherever food becomes plentiful. Our hero knows not to settle for such handouts though, for to be dependent is to be weak. He must learn to hunt, for to hunt is to be a conqueror of one's environment, teaching the world to bend to its master, manipulating it for his own whims and desires.
Lest you think otherwise, let me remind you our hero is no savage, his actions are calculated, rational, without the sentimentality that clouds the minds of his peers, if you may even still call them that. Whatever objections we may hold to such actions are merely the holdovers from the bygone era of Gods and scripture! He, having cast aside these myths and falsehoods, would himself become as a God, his strength would grow so great so as to render him a nation unto himself. No restraints could hold him, no laws could apply to him, just his pure, unbridled will and his taste for meat driving every action, he is Master to all and listens only to the one true calling: the survival of the fittest.
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January 5th, 2008
08:58 pm
While on my way to the abortion center to put in some hours doing God's work, saving the souls of these young women and their children, some jerk-off in front of me decides he needs to slam on his brakes just because some God-damned cat decides it would be a good time to cross the street! He must've been some damn hippy environmentalist liberal type, since who else would seriously give a shit if one more lousy stray cat gets run over?
I admit, I'd been a little distracted paging through my Bible looking for this passage I remember but cannot for the life of me find, so this liberal queer asshole caught me off-guard and I ended up rear-ending him. It excited me a little when I saw his tiny eco-friendly bumper, filled with all those faggot bumper-stickers, get all smashed up as my truck rammed into him, but the Lord doesn't look kindly on such maliciousness, even towards those so deserving, so I tried to repress those thoughts the best I could.
I began to panic when I remembered how I cancelled my car insurance after last week's sermon on entrusting one's life to Jesus, and considered even driving off, but my panic quickly turned to rage as I realized this asshole made mespill my coffee all over myself. I was about ready to get out of the car and tear this eco-fag a new asshole when I remembered that the coffee was from fucking Starbucks, since I was running late this morning and the line was out the door at Dunkin Donuts. I figured the sight and smell of this shit all over my legs would be too much for this queer to handle; if he didn't whip it out and start beating it right there and then, I'm sure the pervert would be thinking of me and my scarred nethers all day, dripping with this fucking hippie bullshit coffee. The burnt flesh between my legs started throbbing in pain and I could taste the bile rising in my throat just imagining this faggot: in his tweed jacket, sitting in his office in his environmental design company, his tiny dick slowly growing to a bulge in his corduroy pants.
I don't know how much time must have passed as I blacked out at some point after that, and next thing I woke up to this idiot banging on my window. I regained my bearings and realized it was the fag himself, probably hoping to extort some money out of me for his ravaged little car, and I saw the an ambulance and police car coming towards us. I quickly started the car up and peeled out of there, and I felt the Lord protecting my license plate numbers from view by those wretched heathens. I knew the Lord was there since in my unconsciousness I saw Jesus walking towards me, arms outstretched, with an abortion clinic burning in the background. He had given me the strength to do what I knew needed to be done, and once I knew I had lost anyone who could've been following me, I turned off toward the nearest gas station.
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January 4th, 2008
02:42 am
this scene really cut me deep while watching the tv version of fanny and alexander.
for some context, 'His Grace' is the children's step-father, Uncle Isak is their god-father from their mother's side or something like that, not an actual Uncle, and has rescued them from their step-father. the woman with the stigmata is a servant of their step-father, and the blonde woman in the cloak is their mother.
i'm pretty sure this scene is in some way bergman's reflection on his own career and life, especially the dream/imagination scene at the end, in which many parts of other films of his are recreated.
my love of this scene is first due to the parable itself. i don't have any complete interpretation of it, but parts of it speak to me in different ways, and it is all beautiful. i love the way uncle isak stops reading the story and begins to address us.
the music at the end is a theme that is used throughout the film, and it kills me every time. does anyone know what this piece of music is?
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November 6th, 2007
09:35 am
i am finding this guys youtube videos to be pretty hilarious. he takes famous guitarists' videos and redubs them with himself playing over them, and creates a convincing effect that it's the real sound track. except the musicians are all incredibly bad. in this carlos santana video he does this for every musician, its so well done.
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October 15th, 2007
09:07 pm - faith and opinion
to what extent does having an opinion on a controversial subject entail having faith?
in a subject where the argument has basically resulted in stalemate, with both sides rejecting the others conclusions, but neither able to refute the others premises so that one will concede, it seems to me that the only reason a person would continue to have a position on the issue is because it is a matter of faith.
the issue that made me think of this is economics really. nadavs constant libertarianism versus everyone else's vague leftism in particular. none of us are experts in the field, and certainly there exists little consensus even among proclaimed experts. im sure nadav could show me some book by ayn rand or something and i would not be able to decisively refute it, but at the same time i could do the same thing. we both can appeal to the holy sage of wisdom with whom we choose to side, but they talk past each other.
this is why my favored position is the devils advocate, because i think that there are grains of truth to peoples beliefs, but they need to be refined by the rough grit of the contrarian. i also am quite humble about the beliefs i actually do carry, if i even have one coherent set.
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October 12th, 2007
01:33 am
man tonight i was going to check out my favorite dumpster, behind panera, and as i get there i see a hipster looking kid getting put into handcuffs and everything, right in front of it. his bike was on the ground right next to the dumpster. i really wish i had just stopped to ask what was going on, but i felt like i just would've gotten sassed by the police officers, and i didnt want to go through that bullshit.
i can't imagine why else he'd be getting arrested right there except that he was dumpster diving. it has me all concerned now, i was under the impression that what i was doing was legal, or at the very least if it was illegal, that the police didnt really care.
that said, it was a pretty bad night to be out there, its like party central, i guess just because its a thursday, so the police were probably patrolling in full force. either way, it has me shaken up and not eager to go again soon.
i called the columbus police help desk and they told me it's legal so long as its on public property and it isnt chained shut or something, but if its on private property then its up to the owner.
trying to figure out the legal status of dumpster diving made me realize how ridiculous it is to live in a society where you can be unsure on laws and not know how exactly you can find out. i thought i was gonna have to go dig through law books or something.
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October 6th, 2007
07:08 pm
attn columbus people:
this weekend is the perfect time for some fine dining on the town. experience columbus is having a deal right now where you can get 25% off at a lot of really nice restaurants, like Rigsbys, Basi Italia, The Refectory, etc.
Just go here: http://www.experiencecolumbusdays.com/ecdays/pdf/ec_days_card.pdf and print it out and bring it to the restaurant. There's some other discounts too, but restaurants are pretty much the sweetest part.
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September 23rd, 2007
01:25 am
so its like a month or two off, but i just saw that jens lekman is gonna be playing in cleveland on november 1st and i really think i want to go. so im gonna try to recruit people to come, since im not sure anyone i know likes/knows of jens lekman but i dont especially want to go solo.
he'd be most comparable to a stephen merritt or morrissey type. he covered "someone to share my life with" by the television personalities and sampled "gravedigger blues" by beat happening.
here are three songs of his which i think are great:
maple leaves
i dont know if shes worth 900 kronar
black cab
evie im looking in your direction
also, this is really fucking weird:
ben gibbard covering 'indian summer' by beat happening
he recorded it for a documentary about kurt cobain, i guess that adds a weird emotional aspect to the lyrics, since its about olympia and all, kurt wouldv known the same area that the lyrics talk about. i think i like it.
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September 9th, 2007
12:17 am
So a month or two ago I emailed Calvin Johnson at his K Records email address, asking him what the lyrics are of this one song of his are (Cast a Shadow). For those of you not hip to it, Calvin Johnson was the lead singer of the band Beat Happening.
So I could not figure out the lyrics to this songjust by listening, there's this one line where the lyrics didn't sound like they made any sense. Before resorting to the email though, I used my classic Ben Moss Internet Research Skills to find cover versions of the song, and see if those singers had done a better job of enunciating.
No such luck, every cover version was pretty much the same for all the easy to understand lyrics, but as soon as they got to that one line that was tripping me up, they'd apparently just make up whatever they thought sounded good. Thus, the email.
Calvin responded quickly, asking only if I had a mailing address. I replied with mine, and didn't hear back until today. He sent me a photocopy of his original lyrics sheet! The date in the corner says Jan 22, 1988, and you can see on it all the changes he made, verses he erased, words changed around. My favorite is b-side lyric has got to be "We'll cook a roast beef in your back kitchen".
So that made my day. If only every rock star was that cool.
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August 6th, 2007
11:08 am - for nadav
Cult of Reason
By Crispin Sartwell
I don't believe in God or the afterlife, and in a mild way I'm enjoying the rising tide of atheism. Though there have always been strident skeptics about religion, the current crop - Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris - are particularly forceful and clear.
But their arguments are incredibly simplistic and self-congratulatory.
The recent bumper crop of atheists contrast faith with reason, superstition with science, fanaticism with freedom. They blame religion for most of the nightmares of human history, and credit science with leading us out of the darkness. In short, they explain an incredibly rich and complicated
history by throwing up a single dualism.
But "reason" and "science" are extremely complex phenomena, not simple canons of clarity or good sense. They themselves rest on certain varieties of faith. Reason and science arise in particular cultural contexts and display those origins in their results.
And though obviously religion has often swallowed up whole cultures in incomprehensible conflagrations justified by sheer mumbo-jumbo, reason and science (whatever these are, exactly) may doom the planet entirely, extinguishing life on earth and leaving it a sterile rock hurtling meaninglessly through the void.
At the origin of science is an overwhelming faith: that we can find the truth and should try. William James, in his great defense of faith "The Will to Believe," says this: "Our belief in truth itself, for instance, that there is a truth, and that our minds and it are made for each other,--what is it but a passionate affirmation of desire, in which our social system backs us up?"
Of course, many a thinker with a vivid sense of human limitations has denied that our minds are capable of finding the truth. That there is a truth and that we can come to know it: these are claims that could not possibly be scientifically proven, since science massively presupposes them.
Or consider the most basic principles of logic, for example the principle of non-contradiction: if a proposition is true then it is not false, and vice versa. Now can this principle be proven logically? Only by making other assumptions without grounds. Logic presupposes but cannot justify principles like that. If a claim can be both true and false (and believe it or not, many philosophers have argued that this is possible), then an argument for non-contradiction cannot even begin.
In other words, the basic principles on which rationality rests are themselves necessarily adopted irrationally. And I think that you can see the faith underneath the work of the New Atheists, see the passion, the resentment, the need, the particular biographies that drive the polemic.
They have arguments, but underneath the arguments are the sort of contingent experiences that drive every belief. The logical structures they raise are not at the heart of their skepticism. At the heart is resentment, or fear, or an expression of the need for power or superiority. At the heart is a particular kind of intellectual training in a culture obsessed with technological control of the world. The origins of their belief is, in short, more or less like the origins of religious belief, because every belief is the product of a real and complex subjectivity in a rich social situation and a bewildering environment, a welter of emotions and reasons, needs and strategies to meet them.
The claim that, unlike Christian or Muslim dolts, New Atheists believe only for good reasons, is not only false but an attempt to cease taking responsibility for their own beliefs, which are now attributed not to themselves but to the giant benevolent abstractions of reason and science, as once one might have attributed one's beliefs to the Church.
One strategy to justify religious skepticism is pragmatic. Though the foundations of reason and science may themselves be unjustifiable, there is no doubting their effectiveness. Prayer is a useless wishing, but science leads directly to effective control of the environment.
Now what it means for a belief to "work" and whether to take that as a mark of truth: these are debates within which ultimately there can be no reasons, because they concern the nature of reasons. The Dark Ages sucked. But then, so did the age of the Gatling gun, Zyklon B, and the atomic bomb.
Hitchens argues that, for example, the Soviet Union and its death-dealing policies - such as the collectivization of agriculture - are analogous to religion: an irrational cult of Stalin rather than Jesus. But this seems to be the product of a fanatical faith that every historical disaster has its roots in religion. The Soviet Union regarded its Marxist ideology as scientific, and concentrated on nothing so much as the technological transformation of its environment.
We human beings are messy creatures, and the things each human being believes emerge from a particular mess. This is no less true of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens than it is of Pope Benedict, Osama bin Laden, and Pat Robertson.
Crispin Sartwell teaches philosophy at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA
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July 16th, 2007
07:06 pm
my bike ride today, 52.71 miles, give or take.
http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=145183
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July 13th, 2007
08:37 pm - songs im all about right now
for those of you already familiar with jose gonzalez, this is a song off of an EP he sold on his australian tour. for those of you unfamiliar with jose gonzalez, where have you been? i think this song is really nice, especially the chorus.
jose gonzalez - down the hillside
miaow reminds me of some cross between blondie and the talking heads. the first song here is really my favorite, the second is just here to really show how talking headsy they can be:
miaow - when it all comes down
miaow - grocer's devil daughter
i cant remember how i was introduced to mary lou lord, but shes got a nice sound, reminds me of joni mitchell but definitely more alt-country. this song isnt the most representative of the rest of her stuff, but i couldnt find any i liked as much. i like the album, but when i went through the songs, none of them jumped out at me as great ones to put up here.
mary lou lord - shake sugaree
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June 20th, 2007
09:21 pm
if anyone in columbus (from like 5'7" to 5'10") wants a road bike, there's a pretty sweet one on ebay for $250, no shipping cost if you pick it up!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140130637845&sspagename=ADME:L:RTQ:US:1
also!!!!
this thursday, free taco & beer at ringside cafe, downtown on pearl alley between gay & broad, by el arepazo. el arepazo will be providing the tacos, elevator brewing company the beer!! amazzinggg
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June 18th, 2007
01:09 pm
i feel especially proud of this episode of my covers project, just because most of these covers were really obscure and hard to find. i only had one to begin with, the siddeleys one, but i persevered and found 4 other versions (including the original, of course). there were some others, but this song started to get really boring and a lot of the covers were pretty mediocre.
Edison Lighthouse - Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
The original version from the one-hit wonder Edison Lighthouse, this song reached #5 in the US and #1 in the UK in January 1970.
Uschi Glas - Wenn dein Herz brennt
Uschi Glas was a German actress in the 60s, and eventually released some pop songs, covering Edison Lighthouse in German (apparently in the same year as their release!).
Dennis Brown - Love Grows
Dennis Brown, dubbed the "Crown Prince of Reggae" by Bob Marley, and turned into the subject of a Mountain Goats song, released this song on his second album in 1971. According to an interview with him in 1980, it was the first song he ever recorded.
Wayne Newton - Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
I can't find anything about this version, it came off some compilation. Man his voice is really androgynous.
The Siddeleys - Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
Finally, The Siddeleys released this version for a compilation in 1989, just a few months after they disbanded.
my ranking:
the siddeleys
uschi glas (its so hilariously german)
edison lighthouse
dennis brown
wayne newton
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June 5th, 2007
12:30 am
nadav this is for you
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