Wanna see? [08 Sep 2007|06:53pm] [ mood | bored ] [ music | Inara George - "No Poem" ] Blood center rep: Ma'am, would you like to donate blood today and save a life? Woman: No, I'm donating into my maxi-pad as we speak. Blood center rep: Ewww. Haha. I love Overheard In New York. I've been entertaining the idea of purchasing an iPod and/or a digital camera with increasing frequency as of late. I am currently without a real stereo system and am reduced to listening to music on my laptop, so the sound quality leaves... something to be desired, to put it mildly. And desire for the digital camera stems from my wish to have a shiny new toy that takes free pictures. My cheap ass tendencies have been getting flimsier and flimsier the older I get, so I'm guessing I'll just break down and buy both items at some point in the near future, barring some kind of financial crisis. 4 // +

Be sure it keeps us hypnotized. [03 Aug 2007|04:48pm] [ mood | impressed ] [ music | Muki - "I Don't Want to Know" ] I have officially determined that there is, in fact, such a thing as a bakegasm. It is available here. +

Flash Point [01 Aug 2007|06:46pm] [ mood | good ] Although I am by no means a fan of the local news coverage here in Milwaukee, the Journal-Sentinel (affectionately known as "the Genital" by a certain former U.S. history teacher of mine) recently posted an excellent retrospective on the race riots in Milwaukee during the summer of 1967. The first-hand accounts of the terror of those days really makes this one of the most engaging news stories I have ever read in the Journal. It's a shame this episode is so underreported. My word, the National Guard was even called out to patrol the streets. I think at some point I'll have to get around to enrolling in a class on the history of Milwaukee. Interesting stuff, for sure. +

Hold to your gun, man. [30 Jul 2007|07:58pm] [ mood | lazy ] [ music | Sufjan Stevens - "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" ] The better I got to know Nagasawa, the stranger he seemed. I had met a lot of strange people in my day, but none as strange as Nagasawa. He was a far more voracious reader than I, but he made it a rule never to touch a book by any author who had not been dead at least thirty years. "That's the only kind of book I can trust," he said. "It's not that I don't believe in contemporary literature," he added, "but I don't want to waste valuable time reading any book that has not had the baptism of time. Life is too short." "What kind of authors do you like?" I asked, speaking in respectful tones to this man two years my senior. "Balzac, Dante, Joseph Conrad, Dickens," he answered without hesitation. "Not exactly fashionable." "That's why I read them. If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. That's the world of hicks and slobs. Real people would be ashamed of themselves doing that...." -- Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami Haha, and I thought I was a book snob. I wish I knew more people who could make such cuttingly incisive observations about life. Or at least about the reading habits of the general population. +

When you jump to close the blinds. [22 Jul 2007|08:26pm] [ mood | satisfied ] [ music | Nouvelle Vague - "Sorry For Laughing" ] Yet another book finished far too quickly: Vintage Murakami. What affects me most about Murakami's writing is his ability to verbalize ideas that are frustratingly difficult to articulate but what must be universally felt. For instance, "...To understand something and to put that something into a form you can see with your own eyes are two completely different things. If you could manage to do both equally well, though, living would be a lot simpler." An author such as this makes my habit of book hopping just a little more excusable. +

I think Neil Young and Bob Dylan would approve. [30 Jun 2007|01:05pm] [ mood | pleased ] [ music | Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - "When Your Mind's Made Up" ] Who has the soundtrack to Once on vinyl? That would be me. And the wonderful thing is that I can actually hear the bass, rather than having to boost and fiddle with it, like on my CD player. 1 // +

It was forty years ago today (well, sort of). [05 Jun 2007|08:27pm] [ mood | mellow ] [ music | Cat Power - 'The Covers Record' ] This past weekend was the fortieth anniversary of the release of the Beatles' cataclysmic offering to the budding culture of psychedelia, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I tuned in to several radio programs reflecting on the times and the immediate impact of the album on popular culture, but I realized this morning that I hadn't actually played the thing for several months. And I did so as I was getting ready. Although I'm more partial to Rubber Soul or Revolver, it's interesting to hear the culmination in Sgt. Pepper of the influences of world music and sound experimentation that the group had only begun to utilize so recently. And while listening to NPR this evening, I heard the announcer mention that Robert Kennedy was assassinated on this day in 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel. Divisive opinions still linger over the incident, with many seeing his death as the end of the idealism of the Sixties, and others pointing to the fact that Bobby was just as much of a politician as the next. No one can say for sure what he would have done about the war in Vietnam. No one can say how he would have acted to progress with the civil rights legislation begun by Lyndon Johnson. To point to his death and say that with him died youth and hope for a better future is a mistake, I think, but I would not hesitate to say that it was one tragedy in the downward spiral that characterized the smoldering unrest in the streets of America at this time. Interesting times, indeed. 1 // +

Holy faded rugs, Batman. [26 May 2007|05:20pm] [ mood | bored ] [ music | The Decemberists - "The Engine Driver" ] I like how I went to shake out my bedroom area rug and noticed upon closer inspection that the other side is several shades darker. It's amazing what a little cleaning can uncover. 2 // +

The road to domestication is paved with mishaps. [25 May 2007|08:10am] [ mood | disappointed ] I should make it a rule to never bake or cook in the morning. Bad things may happen, like my using the 1/2 tablespoon measurement when the recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon. Oh well. My spinach casserole will just be a little salty and peppery, is all. 6 // +

It's doom alone that counts. [24 May 2007|08:58pm] [ mood | cynical ] [ music | Bob Dylan - "Shelter From the Storm" ] Wisconsin made the national news today for demonstrating against the boogeyman of rising oil prices. A gas station owner in Mequon closed his pumps for 24 hours in hope of being the first in a chain of protest closures. Grassroots activism and oil conservation are fantastic issues, but it seems as though the point is somehow lost on individuals such as one woman AP interviewed: Maria McClory, 38, drove 10 miles out of her way to buy a diet soda from Pollack's station after seeing local television coverage of the protest. "I just wanted to support them and thank them for making a statement," said McClory, who drives about 100 miles a day for work in her sport utility vehicle. Yes, thank you Mr. Gas Station Owner for taking a stand against the increase in prices I must pay to feed my behemoth of an automobile for the absurd distance I drive on a daily basis. I appreciate your action in defense of my excessive lifestyle and carefree use of natural resources. Okay, I'm going to return to my studying now. +

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