28 posts from April 2008

Let it be said that if I ever hear the word "skramz" used to replace "screamo" in real life, I'll probably shit on the perpetrator's face. Seriously, why wasn't the utter stupidity of the word "screamo" taken into account when the meeting to find a suitable replacement was held? It's unfortunate that the replacement that seems to have been adopted (fucked if I know how) sounds, somehow, even dumber than "screamo!" Seriously, dudes, please, feel free to suck a fart out of my asshole. "Skramz" sounds like it should describe some really, really shitty hip-hop subgenre popular among crackheads and white trash. It's not a term that will be entering my vocabulary.

Also, Mystick Crystal Revelations had ourselves a surprisingly productive practice session yesterday. We banged some shit out on acoustic guitars and it's all coming together pretty nicely.

After last week's Web 2.0 Expo, there's a been a lot of talk that it might be time to stop using the phrase "Web 2.0." What do you think? 

This is an interesting question, because I've been thinking the same thing for a while. But I'm not just for discontinuing the phrase as much as I'm for scaling back the concept a bit. I don't think the entire internet needs to be highly interactive. In fact, there are already far too many social networking sites, video upload sites, picture upload sites, and other things with forced "community" elements that old sites already did better.

I'd say, of these, Livejournal, Blogger, Vox, Flickr, Last.FM, and YouTube are great. They're all more or less good ideas, implemented well. The community aspects of the sites are either well built, or they're unintrusive and never undermine the sites' actual purposes. And most importantly, they've all attracted enough people to be worth using, or, at least, they play down the "community" part of the site well enough for the user to ignore how disgustingly stupid it is (I'm looking at you, YouTube).

But I simply don't see what I have to gain by keeping a profile and talking to people I don't know on every site on the Internet. That is not something that appeals to me. I'm all for user generated, non-corporate content, of course, but I simply don't feel that "Web 2.0" is an appropriate or desirable way to foster that sort of content.

The Obama and Clinton campaigns receive non-stop media attention; how do you think the press is doing with its coverage of  the democratic nominee process?

Terrible.

It just seems like all I see right now are misguided smear campaigns, mostly against Barack Obama, while they play slow-pitch softball with Hillary Clinton's campaign. Really, this election has made it all that much more clear to me that the media has a seriously frightening amount of control over the outcomes of elections.

Not to mention that they once again completely ignored the candidates they didn't want to win. Why were Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, and Ron Paul excluded from some of the biggest debates, for example? Why do the Green Party and other third parties not get any substantial coverage, while the Republicans and Democrats cement their place as the only two electable parties in the country?

This country doesn't need to be a two-party system. It doesn't have to be a question of "this asshole vs. that asshole." I hate to say it, but Ron Paul's campaign this year is a perfect example of how the media steals elections from candidates it considers threatening to their profits by not giving them any coverage early on.

Just remember, no matter what you read, and no matter where you read it, think about the author's possible interest in the story, and any possible agendas they might have. Don't vote for the candidates you're "supposed to vote for." Research them, and then vote for the ones you actually like. Maybe then, we could start cutting away at the two-party stranglehold on our government and start making our representatives more representative of us, rather than the more or less identical candidates that get elected based on how well they pander to the media.

Miley Cyrus has issued an apology for a "racy" Vanity Fair photo shoot with legendary photographer Annie Liebovitz. Considering the photograph is just of Miley's back, do you think this apology is necessary?

Isn't she like 15? Why is she doing "racy" photoshoots, anyway? Because that's exactly what we need in this country: a culture that sexually idealizes underage girls, endorsed by pretty much the most famous child actor in the United States! Brilliant! Because we don't already have enough of a problem in that regard! So here the speculation begins: is she another Lindsay Lohan in the making? Is she one of those celebrities I'll hear about going in and out of rehab until everyone just forgets why she's even famous in the first place? Will anyone really care why she's famous, at that point, or will they only care that they can read about her latest meltdown in this month's issues of Us Weekly and the National Enquirer?

But I don't feel the apology is necessary from her. I'd rather hear it from Billy Ray. Dude is eating up his time in the spotlight at his own daughter's expense. It's just kinda disgusting (words like "pimp," and "ankle-biter" come to mind), and I can't say I approve.

I also can't say I approve of the fact that someone responsible for the musical trainwreck, "Achy Breaky Heart," is still famous, either. But that has nothing to do with the question.

My arms are kinda sunburnt, but it was worth it. The temperature right now, with the sun down, is almost 80 degrees. I took full advantage of this, and went for my first long bike ride of the year.

Rode for miles down the Greenbelt 'til I didn't feel like moving anymore, then rode back. I lost my chain downtown, so I pushed my back tire a little further back. It worked okay. But my chainguard is also all bent up, so my right pedal scrapes against it, which may be the most annoying sound a bike can make. I should just take it off and hammer it flat, I think.

Then I came home, and washed up. This is where I risk sounding like an advertisement, but I assure you, I'm really just more of a hippie who is really enthusiastic about a brand of soap that hippies tend to like. Stranger things have happened.

For those of you who aren't already aware, Dr. Bronner's soap is probably one of the finest products you can trade money for. This is no exaggeration. It's a liquid soap that comes in a large bottle with his writings about the "Moral ABC's" and the "All-One-God-Faith" in tiny print that covers the label.

Dr. Bronner was a German Jewish immigrant who came to the United States before World War II, the son of a Jewish soap maker in Germany. His parents refused to immigrate and were killed in the death camps during the Holocaust after the Nazis nationalized their factory. He married a nun's daughter and, after her death in 1944, started making obsessive plans for world peace. He left his kids behind in foster care to focus on trying to convince the world's leaders of the evils of fascism and communism. A devoted listener had himself crucified as a protest for peace in 1945, and although he survived, and Dr. Bronner wasn't actually involved in the protest, he was committed to a mental hospital in Illinois, before finally escaping and making his way to California, where he made soap and wrote labels for most of the rest of his life. He was eventually picked up as an icon of the 1960's counterculture, who dug his call to peace and the fact that you can wash pretty much anything with a small amount the stuff, and his soap has been a staple grocery for hippies everywhere, ever since.

And let me tell you, it's the best thing you can possibly have around when you've got bike grease all over your arms and legs (because that's where I tend to wipe things off my hands instinctively, when I'm wearing shorts). Cuts right through! Just remember that next time you want to call a hippie "dirty."

79 Fahrenheit for the high, according to weather.com. Might have to bust out the bike. Or, at least, head out on foot to somewhere out of the way.

Here's the pics and the review. I'm much too lazy to post it all here, as well, so go read it there if you're so inclined.

Saw Slough Feg and The Sword tonight.

Pics soon.

Holy shit, that show ruled!

What songs would you put on a mix CD titled "Dance Party!"?

This one. On repeat. Forever.