K. TOK

Funny Futurism pt. 2

2010-12-29T15:31:00.003-05:00

Continuation. Probably scroll down if you haven't read part 1. Sorry guys, the Internet is the predator of reading and I'm a retard of post-2010 intelligence. Dad went to get brotherBot-Xtreme 2.0 or whatever.

Back to Gary Shteyngart, who wrote a story called "Super Sad True Love Story" and the story-words are even funnier than that Title. Of course when I use "funny" near things like this it means "really really boring." Again, I'm sorry but stuff that is advanced is also changing the way I speak!
and only in a bad way .

Here's part of that NY Times article again.

In Shteyngart's "Super Sad True Love Story," a sinister Bipartisan government is waging an oil war with Venezuela, New York is balkanized into heavily fortified neighborhoods like the United Nations Retail Corridor and äppäräti — iPhone-like devices worn around the neck — give constant updates on your credit worthiness and sexual hotness.

I tried to read Absurdistan for a book club that was set up by a former professor who has no taste, I guess. Quick synopsis from Wikipedia:

It chronicles the adventures of Misha Vainberg, the 325-pound son of the 1,238th-richest man in Russia, as he struggles to return to his true love in the South Bronx.

Sorry; things I hate throw me into a rage. I promise I have a point here.

I know that there are critics who find Shteyngart 'absurdly funny' or something like that and maybe he is to them. Laughter is too visceral to judge. So as humor can be considered low or highbrow so can laughter, should you make the distinction. I don't think it's necessary--qu'est-ce qui me fait rire, c'est le plus amusant. Step Brothers is really funny and so is Pastoralia by George Saunders. Infinite Jest is hilarious but not as much as Paul F. Tompkin's Cake Boss impression. I didn't smile once at Absurdistan, though I could find the places that made him marvel at his own wit. Ironic references to Dostoyevsky, convolutions bloated in the silhouette of social critique, the unholy juxtaposition of reference and ribaldry.

The last motif is exemplified by the character's use of "khui" (actually in italics, every time) in reference to his penis. Say Shteyngart opted for "dick." It's easier to type (at least on a MacBook) and--here's the best part--the reader will understand what he means the first time that word appears! Think of a funny nudity scene in a movie. I'll try Forgetting Sarah Marshall w/ Jason Segel. He gets naked like twice and they're both surprising and funny moments. What if there were fifty more nude scenes but instead of his penis there was a foreign symbol to represent nudity in general. Jason Segel naked is replaced by a § or something. You see Kristen Bell's reaction but maybe don't realize that § means "his dick is out" until a few seconds in. Too late, other people are laughing and you didn't get it in time. The screen goes black and tells you to go fuck yourself, this movie is restricted to better people than you.

Okay, I can't sidetrack myself. I'll discuss my hatred for puns and referential humor later. I need to comment on how Absurdistany it is that people may want to read this new story after that inadvertent caveat in the Times Magazine. I am too struck by how whiny this story sounds--I'm not as disturbed by the future as I am by these present do-nothing doomsayers. Let me explain that a book like Infinite Jest does not offend me despite the thematic similarity because it wore nothing on its sleeve. It barely mentions the time of story--like 2003 or something?--something immediately thrust upon the audience of Shteyngart's story as it is his 'foray into futurism' or whatever, I don't know. DFW had very few characters that I was able to actually disdain, and I can't remember a single one now. Shteyngart, you know what he thinks of his characters. And when the authors get cautionary about technology they totally split paths. There is an amazing section, probably as long as Shteyngart's story, in Infinite Jest that describes the silly rise and fall of video chat technology, told with care and prescience--a quality available only to those who live in the present.

Look. I have no idea what the Shteyngart story is. I definitely have better things to read. If you want to read it go ahead, I bet it will corroborate my argument. If it doesn't, or if you don't read it, at least this story is a straw man, an effigy for thought that I despise. One last time, sorry guys. Schadenfreude.

In Shteyngart's "Super Sad True Love Story," a sinister Bipartisan government is waging an oil war with Venezuela, New York is balkanized into heavily fortified neighborhoods like the United Nations Retail Corridor and äppäräti — iPhone-like devices worn around the neck — give constant updates on your credit worthiness and sexual hotness.

The baseline for futurism is here--all this stuff coming in 14 years, it's influenced by the most visible future ever i.e. now, so we have Political Parties; The Government; Oil; Venezuela; Rezoning; Consumerism. I'll let those first few things go--probably they're due to lack of creativity. I'm concerned with the "United Nations Retail Corridor and äppäräti." Clearly uncreative but more importantly, clingy to the zeitgeist. Offensively relevant.

Apparently this äppäräti thing is like an iPhone but it does stuff like gauge your worth via credit or appearance. Can we even say there is one layer of meaning to this? How does this not instantly sound way shittier than even 1984? Linear extrapolation. Middle school science in a book, applied to society! Here's a monologue of a play I wrote called I'm Gary Shteyngart: Hm, what am I uncomfortable with today? Advertising, of course. Capitalism...yeah yeah. Dude, vanity. I know I'm smart but inexplicably I'm so defensive about my modest looks that I'll prognosticate my frustration by applying it to my darkly humorous vision of the future. Ergo: hey, some people think too much about how they look --> in the future it'll be worse. And scene...you get the idea.

But Kiptok it's a satire! It's a playful critique of society by projecting hyperbolae of the parts of society that he wants to change! Necessarily he has to push the envelo-- Let me stop you right there, me. He isn't pushing the envelope. This isn't new. Read Plato or something. There are better ways to opine. Please please don't tell me this stuff is edgy. I don't want to find out that my generation is already that old. Edgy stuff is intrinsically surprising. Have you ever seen that movie The Aristocrats? Watch it again and try to listen hard for your own laughter. Does the concept of the United Nations Retail Corridor sound funny to you? Wow, maybe it *would* be bad if this universal concept of retail infringed upon the sanctity of the United Nations! The hijinks in here certainly don't bode well for at the very least the economic climate of this already very consumeristic nation. LOL President Violent J is promoting Faygo in the General Assembly hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha (guys I'm sorry I'm so sarcastic... happens when I'm angry)

Look dude, I go to college in New York City. Got a finger on the pulse of young thought. Most of them still don't care much about their social impact--pretty selfish but their style doesn't have much influence. I'm bothered more by their enemies the complainers, the (following adjs. are all touched with skepticism) worldly, conscious, idealistic and cultured young people. First things first, fuck their attitude. This is the archetype: moderately versed in literature, art, film, music, etc. of course. These people know their share of David Lynch, Italo Calvino, Deerhunter. They just went to MoMA last week, they haven't checked out PS1 yet but they're going next weekend. Most importantly, liberal and have you read the piece about Gerhardt Richter in the New Yorker yet?

Don't forget set theory and subjectivity. This is a relatively small group of people and I still find them mostly redeeming. If I express contempt it's for behavior. Even if your behavior corresponds you are not necessarily an offender. And you're definitely not worse off if you don't know Lynch, Calvino and Cox. I don't hate anyone. But if you complain more than a bit I have real problems with your style.

But the views these people can espouse and the things they can like! It's smart people being stupid. I go to an ivy league college FYI. They know they're gifted but I don't like the occasional case of entitlement. My example: people promoting bullshit art like everything Gary Shteyngart drafts in Word 2008. Influence is dangerous, man! And it disheartens me to hear classmates sound off on their distaste for the lights in Times Square or the way people look at screens or how whenever they go on Facebook they see people playing games! Fucking games! Farmville what a waste of time! On a website that appears in your address bar the instant you type a single "w". How can they be so selfish.

I don't care what you do! Thanks for spending Spring Break in Guatemala! Thank you for having freerice.com as your homepage. I love--really--that you read so much and study so hard. That's great because I have trouble with stuff like that.

Everyone young still has a lot of energy to use. Obviously a lot of that is wasted as with any machine. Fucking thermodynamic laws!!! Who needs to waste more? I understand that it can be something of a relief to vent frustration, to sometimes berate your roommate or pee on her pillow when she's gone. Good investment though is developing new techniques and using your innate influence to change things slowly. If your roommate wakes you up all the time then next time punch him in the jaw or something. Or whatever, figure out the best way to fix that. Times Square doesn't give a shit about you, there are a ton of people there who matter more than you do. A derisive look doesn't kill Twitter. Fight or

Funny Futurism pt. 1

2010-12-29T14:26:00.005-05:00

Here's a short I just read in the annual NY Times Magazine issue with ideas in it; one (idea? I guess?) about stories written about stuff in the future.

The quarterly McSweeney's got things rolling with an issue devoted to stories set in the year 2024 A.D. Then two of America's most acclaimed novelists, Gary Shteyngart and Jennifer Egan, chimed in with their own unsettling visions of the near future.

In Shteyngart's "Super Sad True Love Story," a sinister Bipartisan government is waging an oil war with Venezuela, New York is balkanized into heavily fortified neighborhoods like the United Nations Retail Corridor and äppäräti — iPhone-like devices worn around the neck — give constant updates on your credit worthiness and sexual hotness. The circa 2020 New York in Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad" is a bit less apocalyptic: the end of 15 years of war has brought a baby boom. "If thr r childrn," one character asks in a text message, "thr mst b a fUtr, rt?"

If you know me, yup! Still have a major beef with Gary Shteyngart. More like Larry Grime-fart IV! Who fucking sucks! He put himself in one of his books and I think that was his alias. I'll look it up later. But I'll be fair with this stupid idiot so let me finish this piece.

A future for the world but maybe not for the publishing industry. the current wave of literary near futurism comes at a time when the printed book — and the very act of traditional reading — seems under siege by digital technology. Both Shteyngart and Egan embrace a kind of if-you-can't beat-'em-join-'em approach, weaving instant messages, social networking and other forms of digital communication into their texts. Egan even pulls off a powerful 70-page chapter written entirely in PowerPoint. The overall effect of their experimentation is to produce a powerful nostalgia for the ever-vanishing present. This time, maybe the future really is already here.

Wait a second this isn't an idea! At best it's a thing that two writers did or something? George Saunders, David Foster Wallace, Kazuo Ishiguro have all written stuff like this in the past few decades. Check it out, so do bands (whoa). Listen to anything Jason Lytle touches with his cyborg soul. Maybe these guys suck to you but I like them and I'm pretty sure the thematic spheres that these artists generate with their work find planes of intersection with that Shteyngart and Egan stuff.

/** But I don't know Jennifer Egan. Check out what Nick says--He doesn't suck at blogging. */

I'll tackle Gary Shteyngart because I hate him and apparently people--alive people!--read his books. I rarely punch books as hard as I did to my copy of "Absurdistan" (for those of you who love to laugh, it's a really funny example of wordplay. Hilarious portmanteau, the kind that just adds a suffix--with 0 aplomb--to a thing. But if you're laughing at that title I want to beat you up.)

oh wait

Sorry I need to continue this later, and I'll only remember to do it if I post this part now. Holy shit! That is crazy!!! This isn't even as perfect as it can be and I'm posting it to the content machine that is Internet! This thing that is going to make us so retarded that in ten years we'll be wearing necklaces with fucking cheeky names. Just the stupid arrogance of people like me guys, taking technology bad places. Anyway, I need to get in my Car-o-Matic Brought To You By Axe Deodorant Driving Mac(OS XIV)hine and go to the Philadelphia Eagles Airport in Philadelphia to pick up my Nike Ultimate++x9 BRO-BOT.

l8r (Confused, smart people? It's a shortening of the word "later". My bad for destroying the English language [this apology was sponsored by SillyName, the new Consumable Thing from Consume-Corp-Systems-Lab-Trump-Electronics, a subsidiary of MicrosoftAOLTimeWarnerJimmyJohn's. now subtlety-free.]

~✛❀✛✛✛✛❚Part.2❚✛✛✛✛❀✛~

Plastic People

2010-06-17T15:57:00.004-04:00

I'm in a new band called Plastic People.

We have some songs coming out very soon that I think you will enjoy a lot. They're a little weird, there's a little bit of cussing (definitely not for anyone under 18 years old), and I guess you have to have kind of an open mind, but I like them very much and hope you do too. Stay tuned and you will be rewarded with tunes!

Oh yeah I never told you also I'm in a band called PUPPY COPS

Mark E

2010-05-02T12:43:00.001-04:00

I don't understand this song. This is better than music.

Spring Honey

2010-03-26T01:19:00.001-04:00

A mix by me

http://www.mediafire.com/?u2ym0nktq2m

The Radio Dept. "Heaven's on Fire"
Happy Birthday "Girls FM"
Lucky Dragons "Honeycombhouse"
Ratatat "Mirando"
Ecstatic Sunshine "Ramontana"
Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers "Lydia"
John Talabot "Korlee"
Bostro Pesopeo "Reprise"
Lucky Dragons "Honeycombhouse 2"
Amy Winehouse "Tears Dry On Their Own (Al Usher Remix)"
Herbert "Birds of a Feather"
Gonjasufi "Sheep"
Matmos "Polychords"
Lucky Dragons "Honeycombhouse 3"
Tanlines "Real Life"
Cocteau Twins "Wolf in the Breast"
Serena Maneesh "D.I.W.S.W.T.T.D."

Total Slacker

2010-03-02T23:57:00.001-05:00

Let's get serious now. Maybe their name doesn't paint a slacker image but The Beets seem to be nothing better, after twice canceling engagements with Anayvelyse and Claire's radio show. Twice I eagerly anticipated hearing great tunes, twice I looked forward to skipping Frontiers of Boring Volcanoes lecture, twice I was let down when The Beets flaked, unable to make it from Jackson to Morningside. Every "twice" coincides. Total bullshit. Meanwhile Sun Araw travels across the country to play a sick show (really sick).

Thing is it's hard to stay mad at a lazy guy. Why is that? Probably everyone's shared propensity for inertia, whereas fewer of us do drugs or fart in elevators or like stupid tv shows. It's easier to empathize. And there's also a weird image, I think, of the slacker as some cool poet. Laid-back yet sensitive and above quotidian stress. Gifted with keen eyes/ears/hands/body parts to use whenever. It's not like that's based on nothing, but people mix up correlation and causation here. Being idle has nothing to do with becoming a good artist.

There is probably an artistry that dominates mundane worries. It's all what you care about, and if subtlety of perception is your thing you probably don't worry so much about doing homework or finding a job or updating your resume. But how many other archetypes could you swap in, then? Girl becoming the fastest at her own kind of running or scientist on the verge of a huge breakthrough or guy who loves to travel or little kid who reviews movies on Youtube or senior who wants to explore her town before leaving for college or dad starting to brew his own beer. They all care about stuff. Things that they like to do and if they're not being lazy just because, then they're doing it.

The problem with artists is that their work isn't very tangible. Art creates a bunch of unfortunate reasons for this. The seed is in the mind (heart if you like to think that), not in an instruction manual or a physical trainer or a bunch of bricks. It's hard to figure out where to start. You may look at an artist and see nothing. We're not like, where's his hammer? He should get back to work! There's a lot of invisibility with them. Take a peek at their notebooks and you won't know what's going on. Some musicians don't even know how to write music. And so when you see them just sitting there strumming guitars or drawing or whatever, it's easy to assume they're kind of messing around. And maybe they are. But you can't know. I won't go into this too much, but art, in having so much trial/error and focusing on creativity more than anything, can seem unexpressive until it does.

The poison is to assume artists aren't trying. Never do that. True work can seem like just an aimless attempt. Montaigne's Essais are literally attempts. At lucidity of expression. Honest efforts to do what he needs. That's what everyone tries to do: what they need. For whatever reason, some may not produce a lot but you if you don't know them you can't accuse them of not trying. So I made a mistake, I'll rescind my accusations and hope that the Beets really did try to get to the radio show but met some obstacles (according to them one of the members had personal problems and had to stay up late).

Once we start to associate artistry at all with insouciance we're hampering this extremely necessary thing. Maybe there is "talent" that blesses some with an easy start but I am so sure that can be translated to about an extra ~10-20 hours of practice total. I read some article. Seems Mozart wasn't that great as a kid; Mendelssohn was better. They both had early starts. Whatever. Both died young.

DO WHAT YOU LOVE. If you can get paid for that thing you've lost another fake reason not to. You probably think I'm idealizing. I don't know what a truly hard life is, I have a rich dad, my family helped me so much, etc. yes but I'm not being that fanciful. Probably like 1/8 as much as you think. This message maybe doesn't apply for some people in the world but I bet not you. This is a blog on the internet. Think of anything one could possibly love. What has no possible starting point?

This is an attempt, more to help myself than you, really. Montaigne told the reader there's no reason to read his Essais. Obviously that's not true because he published it, but I'm guessing he saw what he wrote to save himself and knew its value to other people. So I hope it's like that with this. I'm writing it for myself--why else? If it didn't help me in some way I'd have no desire. Like I said, do what you love.

I need this advice and logic as much as anyone. My happiness has been defined by my perceived ability to do what I love. I still make the mistake--so, so much--of doubting my ability to try. So I be lazy. Pare my losses, sacrificing the erratic good for the steady okay. Meanwhile I'm burned inside when I imagine what's possible. I'm afraid to miss. Afraid to take the wrong path. But how many people take wrong turns to end up never getting there? Those who do are ashamed they gave up. Can't imagine, must pursue. With all your heart.

By the way, I don't believe one bit in wearing things out. I mean, it can happen, but there is never a ultimately regrettable consequence. You don't listen to the great song once, you put it on repeat. When there are no perceived cons I don't know why you wouldn't go ahead, full throttle. "I don't want to make it a job" is crap. Why not? You want to keep it fun? It's fun now, go for it. If you get tired it's not like you don't want anything more. And n.b. I said "no perceived cons" it's not like I'm telling you to write radio jingles if you're into music.

No one needs an excuse for laziness. Stop romanticizing it right now. "Slacker artists" still do something. Maybe the thing to ask yourself now is what you love. It's easy not to think about this. Is it really fame? $$$? It's maybe something even more abstract if you really consider it. What is it, like materialization of your emotions? Good, there a bunch of ways you can reach that. You have choices; you can choose.

2009 Top albums/singles

2010-01-19T21:00:00.002-05:00

here

2 lazy 2 click? I'll copy and paste but I'm not going to make it look good!

Albums

1 jj, jj n° 2
Sincerely Yours Points: 16
2 The-Dream, Love vs. Money
Def Jam/Radio Killa Points: 13
3 Telepathe, Dance Mother
V2 Points: 12
4 Girls, Album
True Panther Points: 12
5 The xx, xx
Young Turks Points: 10
6 Kurt Vile and the Violators, God Is Saying This to You?
Mexican Summer Points: 9
7 Shackleton, 3 EPs
Perlon Points: 8
8 DJ Sprinkles, Midtown 120 Blues
Mule Points: 8
9 Patrick Wolf, The Bachelor
RED Points: 6
10 Omar-S, Fabric 45: Detroit
Fabric Points: 6
Singles

1 El Perro Del Mar, "Change of Heart"
Control
2 DJ Kaos, "Love the Nite Away (Tiedye Mix)"
DFA
3 Girls, "Lust for Life"
True Panther
4 Saint Etienne, "Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Richard X Remix)"
Heavenly
5 Destroyer, "Bay of Pigs"
Merge
6 The Tough Alliance, "A New Chance (Juan Maclean Remix)"
Sincerely Yours
7 Electrik Red, "Friend Lover"
Def Jam
8 Best Coast, "When I'm With You"
Black Iris
9 Black Meteoric Star, "Dream Catcher"
DFA
10 Korallreven, "Loved-Up (Nhessingtons Remix)"
Service

Dreams

2009-09-14T20:42:00.001-04:00

a new mix by me

Julian Lynch "Time After Time"
Liam the Younger "Country Wide"
Ducktails "Landrunner"
Fleetwood Mac "Gypsy"
The xx "Heart Skipped a Beat"
El Perro Del Mar "Change of Heart"
Fergus & Geronimo "Glistening Smiles"
The Tough Alliance "Hung up on a Dream"
Toro y Moi "Talamak"
Washed Out "New Theory"
jj "my hopes and dreams"
Taken By Trees "Anna"
Sunnybrook "Waving Hands"
Vivian Girls "Before I Start To Cry"

I just think this is the best mix I've made; every song really affects me

2009-08-26T17:45:00.003-04:00

Current 93 "The Seahorse Rears To Oblivion"

The quintessential apocalyptic folk song. The obvious (easy) criticism of this is that it's just too morose, too downbeat, too melodramatic. But without having put too much thought into the subject, I still think it's beautiful. From so much of David Tibet's music you get the sense that he really feels it, he's earnestly, unpretentiously trying to paint his vision of a world of darkness, everything unknown, there is so much to be felt and seen that it is overwhelming to contemplate and maybe depressing to know how much will remain unseen after he dies. And the whole gnostic, early middle age kind of feel to his music is appropriate; it's a time that makes me think of dark forests illuminated by campfires, hushed songs through cracks in stone walls and night skies filled with heavenly strangers. A time when people realized again that they knew nothing? That might be an important thing to keep in mind.

This kind of music doesn't fit among other favorites of mine, like The Tough Alliance and jj, because its narrator maybe isn't someone I'd want to follow the example of. But that doesn't mean I don't totally feel what he's talking about. This essentially is only a poem set to music, but it's an amazing vocal performance. He sounds like he's choking back sobs. I'll always appreciate art that totally, sincerely tries (and succeeds) to embody some kind of aesthetic or period or whatever.

The painting is one of Louis Wain's latest, when his mental health was at its worst. It's a cat. David Tibet loves Louis Wain. Maybe David Tibet sympathizes with what he thinks is a familiar reaction: astral vertigo?

Eternal Summer

2009-08-24T00:45:00.003-04:00

I quickly put this mix together, a little shoddy but I hope it's a good reminder that summer hasn't ended yet, and defer your worries about school or whatever so you can focus on what it's like right now. These songs soundtracked my trips to the beach, around town and at the swimming hole in the Delaware water gap. I played these tunes from my car stereo while I learned how to ride my skateboard in parking lots or while I sprayed myself with cold water in the backyard after a long run in the sunny heat. Even when it got dark they lost nothing, since summer nights are so comfortingly warm and it seems like you can smell the sunshine that just left. I really enjoyed these songs, I thought they had great summer vibes, you almost have to squint listening to some of them. So while it's still August, please enjoy this mix.

Endless Summer mixed by Justin Chun

tracklist:
Ducktails "Let's Rock the Beach"
Real Estate "Atlantic City"
Smith Westerns "Tonight" bzzzzzzz
Family Portrait "Mega Secrets" and then, oh oh, oh oh, yeah.
Pearl Harbour "Lost @ Sea" baby, why do you always leave me here all alone?
Javelin "Mossy Woodland"
Delorean "Seasun" i will never be the same again...
The Drums "Let's Go Surfing" sweet sweet baby i'll never let you go...
The Embassy "Stage Persona" ahh...
Beach Fossils "Daydream" i'm not up-set when you're around...
Best Coast "Sun Was High (So Was I)" i thought of you...
Air France "No Excuses" waitin' to fail, but not quite yet
Toro Y Moi "Human Nature" four walls won't hold me tonight
Sorcerer "Chemise"
Atlas Sound "Walkabout (w/ Noah Lennox)" what did you want to be when you grew up?

Favorite song

2009-08-19T09:32:00.003-04:00

Chances are I haven't heard my favorite song of all time yet. But like The Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds"--that's up there. And I remember my moment with that track; a remix of it on beats in space was pretty compelling, but when I heard the original I was blown away! The brisk autumn air in Rickie Lee Jones's voice, the Steve Reich sample that sounds like it's 30,000 ft. in the sky, the random way the different parts take turns gliding in and out of your view were all awe-inspiring. I always let my visceral reaction have most of the say in my opinion of things and the vibe of this track is so clean, like a blast of arctic air that aims straight for the center of your heart. The most refreshing feeling possible. Not so much the chill of winter as the moment you step outside on an orange/brown fall afternoon and realize, wow, for the first time in months, you need to go back in for your jacket.

What if you die and up in the cumuli you ask God what song is the greatest of all time and he's like why do you think heaven looks like this?

Maybe I've heard the apex of human achievement. Probably not, but still!

The xx

2009-08-16T15:58:00.003-04:00

um, Young Marble Giants much? haha! But these guys are really good. I'm generally a fan of precision with really restrained stoicism in music. Like Prinzhorn. And they seem to be doing it well.

Amsterdam Acoustics - The XX : Crystalised from Mokummercials on Vimeo.

Also, I couldn't have come up with a better aesthetic; I don't get it, are they goth Micachus? Just kidding, I think it looks really cool. I love British fashion--just went to London, totally awesome. And this is the first wave of bands from England in a while that I don't despise. But seriously: got Young Marble Giants? LOL.

Wavves

2009-07-15T10:13:00.003-04:00

Ryan Schreiber wrote this today...

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/11376-big-wave-rider/

It's true that this summer has some strange allure that makes bands like Real Estate, Ganglians, Kurt Vile, Ducktails, jj so weirdly exciting right now. That kind of stuff is so much of what I've been listening to now that it makes me ambitious and inspired to actually enjoy the month.5 I have and do stuff before college begins.

After seeing endless surfing movies and being captivated by the beauty of riding a wave on a longboard I learned how to do it myself and it was sublime. Now skateboarding is a worthy substitute when I can't get up to drive 2 hours to Manasquan or wherever I have to go.

And I'm afraid to agree with Ryan because I always read negative things but I really like this:

Come fall, it'll transform into a bittersweet remembrance of long late-July days spent in oceanic bliss. Let's not waste too many of them in front of the computer.

I forgot that part! I've collected enough good music...I can't decide what I like; I think it's happening finally, slowly, after ~6 years of exploration, having favorite bands from They Might Be Giants to Wolf Parade to Hrvatski to Lil' Wayne to Black Dice to Devendra Banhart to John Coltrane to The Streets to Steve Reich etc.

I'm finding bands like Saint Etienne, Studio, Lindstrøm that mean a lot to me. I think I'm finding my footing. It's still dynamic. Apparently surfing is the only sport where everything is moving. Music that appreciates holism like High Places and Tough Alliance is so moving. I just saw Days of Heaven. Wow!

Salutatory

2009-06-13T14:26:00.000-04:00

I gave this yesterday...

Greetings everyone. Thanks for coming out tonight. I received a lot of different suggestions for what kind of speech to deliver and I’ll try to honor all of them. So this speech will be funny and serious, short and long, and I will mention 78 of you by name.

This school year has been like a dream for me. But I don’t mean it was all magic and wonder. It wasn’t like that dream where you live in a magic candy store and you ride a dinosaur made out of chocolate, eating pieces of his head until you wake up with a big smile on your face. I assume everyone here has had that dream too.

What I mean is that this year has been dream-like. For example, only in my wildest reveries did I see myself finally on the verge of graduation. And the new dress code helped realize my dream that all of the school’s horrible gangs would stop fighting and unite for a single cause: complaining about the dress code. I also had a beautiful dream in which I saw my friend Wesley crooning a Kanye West song in front of the entire school, then being crowned the King of Hearts. I’m glad that one came true.

The most apt metaphor for the school year would be one of those dreams in which a lot of strange, unbelievable things happen, but you don’t question any of them. Ghosts ate your house or whatever, and it seems like the most ordinary thing in the world. And then suddenly you wake up stunned by what you saw, wishing you could get back in, so you can have the chance to do things differently. It’s as if you had a dream that you could fly, but all you did was glide over this field to get a better view of the crude image Chris Pickarski drew on the grass.

Regrets like this are easy but they’re dangerous. Trust me; I’ve been a repeat offender since even before I had a midlife crisis at 13. I always felt like my time was almost over, which is why I missed out on so many great opportunities. I gave up skateboarding when I was 11 because I couldn’t do a 900 like Tony Hawk. That was the kind of angst-ridden thought that often plagued me. Now that I’m beginning to grasp the absurdity of it, I urge everyone here not to make the same mistake.

This year I did a lot of things that I enjoyed; I met a lot of great people and made some good friends. I was influenced by the inspiring words of my teachers – I hope you’re here Mr. Houston. Obviously there are things I won’t miss: the hot lunch and bullies come to mind. But most of all I discovered that so many of my schoolmates are incredible people. I was amazed by your cool interests and keen insights. Your kindness touched and humbled me. You all left an impression on me. Everyone here clearly has passion, skill, and self-worth. Unfortunately, my passion let my self-worth depend so much on my skill that I often beat myself up when I fell short of perfection.

With the same mindset as I had when I was 11, I drove myself mad this year trying to achieve everything. Trying to make sure I wouldn’t wake up crestfallen. But setbacks, even minor ones, discouraged me, until I realized that my successes have come only from the times I persisted despite difficulty. I’ve seen too many of my friends, as talented as they are, be unhealthily hard on themselves. Don’t regret your mistakes up to now, because you are still capable of living your favorite life. You may think it’s already too late to start on a meaningful path, but that’s not true. Don’t judge yourself by the extent of your talents, and don’t let them control the directions of your lives. You all still have passion, and you should follow your desires.

Above all, you just need to take on hard work. It may be an awakening but it’s worth it. When you start trying with something, concern yourself more with quantity than quality. Be relentless with what you want to do; talent is so overrated. I’ve come to realize this after reading about so many famous figures I admire. Mozart wasn’t that great when he was a kid; he just practiced tirelessly. And Paul Cézanne kept trying until he was 56 to get his first solo exhibition. Now Paul Cézanne is considered one of the best artists of all time. And Mozart is the great composer behind those CDs that turn babies into Einsteins.

When you consider your status and what you want to be, it can be daunting. You may be afraid to fail when you see the great things others have done before you. But if you get too comfortable with where you are, you’ll end up wondering what happened. Allow yourself to be uncomfortable, and compete against yourself only. As one of my favorite song lyrics goes: “take no heroes, only inspiration.”

I may always have certain regrets about how I spent my last year in high school. Granted, I am proud of many of the things I did, but throughout the year are times I wish I tried harder, nights I wish I went to bed sooner, and people I wish I talked to more. I should’ve savored lunch with my friends more instead of playing computer games in the library. Instead of studying so much in the library, I should’ve played more computer games. I’m still struggling to put these behind me. Undoubtedly, everyone here has similar disappointments. Maybe you are just barely graduating today. It doesn’t matter; you’re still graduating just like everyone else around you. And your capacity for success is infinite. The only thing you should do for yourself now is focus on what you want to be. Even though we’re about to awake from the high school dream, we’re all still young and we have waking life in front of us. Except my friend Kevin Dwyer, who is already 19, and should really have his act together by now. Thank you.

Kurt Vile joins Matador

2009-05-29T17:02:00.003-04:00

Some people are great at figuring out what beautiful stuff is. They have taste. And some can figure out how to make this stuff. They actually know what they're trying to achieve. They're good artists. They're skilled at their craft, too. People like this, ummm, well I'm recently compelled to say the members of Grizzly Bear. And David Gordon Green. Terence Malick, James Joyce, Chris Ware.

Kurt Vile too. It's really hard to describe the way his music makes me feel. I like his second album, God is Saying This to You... more than his first, but they both evoke something like J Mascis got close to, but blazed right past. Hazy bliss (got a weakness for it, like Brightblack Morning Light, Beach House). "Freeway" kind of sounds like a poppier Springsteen.

I get the feeling he is an uncomfortable lyricist. Well #1 he reuses lyrics between songs and #2 his music is so powerful even when I don't listen to the words, when my head's in the clouds. The lyrics and tone of the music are pretty depressed-sounding, especially on album 2, but it's like the way a little bit of depression is nice; at least it isn't hard. At least you get to think about it. At least life is good, really. Pitchfork described him as "the talented but aimless kid in high school." That makes sense...look at him. He looks like all the kids who bring in guitars so they can play the songs they practice at home; the kids I wish I was friends with but they don't take all AP classes so I have nothing to do with them.

A month ago I went to the local record store to see if they had any of his albums. After some confusion re: Vile vs. Weill, I found out his stuff's pretty limited. It made me sad; I download like all the music anyone ever deems significant, and buying the records I like lessens that gross feeling of consumption a little. And the cover art's pretty neat.

So anyway, so happy this happened! There were rumors but now here's concrete. And now my life will be as easy as songs like "Red Apples" and "Classic Rock in Spring/Freeway in Mind" make it seem. Because now Kurt Vile is going to be a huge rock star and I'll get to buy his records and see him at the Wachovia Center or whatever. jk but he'll be on the shelf at Main St. Jukebox.

Now here he is really channeling a going-nowhere Dino Jr at SXSW, on a day the sun's not trying that hard.

I'm a sucker for this

2009-05-16T23:48:00.002-04:00

I still enjoy this album. where can I get a bolex?

Rivalries

2009-04-03T19:20:00.003-04:00

Think about the most classic rivalries. Hector vs. Achilles. Apple vs. Microsoft. Harvard vs. Yale. God vs. Adam & Eve. Try this one: LA vs. NYC. People love to take sides here; for every "I Love NYC" there's a "California Dreamin'". I'm about to enter college, probably in NYC (or in innocent bystanders Chicago + Philadelphia, or please...New Haven), but I love LA so much more. Is such infidelity contemptible? I'll probably end up thinking my college/city is the best in the world. Or maybe I'll always be pining for LA, wishing that there was a college there that was at least top 15 (is UCLA? I don't think so) and dreaming about it every time a car drives onto a puddle and splashes me with muddy water or I run to catch a subway and my hand gets stuck in the door and I run along it until I have to drop my attache case and watch it leave or I'm standing in line at a hot dog place and I order but I just say like "a chili cheese dog, please" when I'm supposed to say "gimme a pocket chi-che, no nines" or some code that I don't know and the guy just scowls at me as he takes my order and I see the people behind me all roll their eyes... But at Pink's I can just say "one Harry Potter dog please." Even the grocery stores in LA are beautiful; just look at this video that Rainbow Arabia made which strikes a chord inside me just because they decided to film it at their local Jon's or whatever: (and LA bands are so much better: Pocahaunted, High Places, etc.)

Anyway, it probably doesn't matter, I'll just leave NYC (or Philly or Windy City or [come on!!!] New Haven) after four years. I just hope I don't say stupid stuff like "I escaped that city before it ate me alive" because cities can't do that.

Addiction

2009-03-19T22:37:00.002-04:00

Remember The Streets "A Grand Don't Come For Free"? I used to love that album so much...I was totally absorbed by that story and the last track made me cry every time with that sad ending then happy ending thing. I don't want to listen to any track from that album anymore because I'm afraid it'll sound dated. Wasn't every track just some guy or girl talking in a sing-songy way? Haha. Also with reserved spots in my heart are all of those Belle & Sebastian albums + EPs...Wilco "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"-Eels-Grandaddy-Godspeed You! Black Emperor-Chutes Too Narrow-Neutral Milk Hotel then the Olivia Tremor Control and of Montreal and the Apples and then the rest of E6-the first time I heard Neighborhood #1 after reading the Pitchfork track review-and when I went to Other Music and bought all of the classic indie rock albums at once and the guy was telling me how great they all were and I just stood there and said cool...I think I cried the first time I heard "Winter's Love" by Animal Collective; same for Double Nickels on the Dime; "Breadcrumb Trail" by Slint; "Circle" by Boredoms; whatever New Order song was my first; "Trigger Cut" by Pavement...There are so many more...I wish there was an entire new world for me to find because discovering music when I was 12/13 was the best time of my life. I still chase that feeling!

Tables are Turned

2009-03-03T19:22:00.001-05:00

Everyone knows Pavement ripped off Buddy Holly on their song "Silence Kit"...but check it out--listen to Silkworm's "Raised By Tigers." Here that? I know what you're thinking; yup, it's "In The Mouth a Desert"'s riff. The ripoffer is now the ripoffee!!!!!!!! Not such a sterling reputation anymore, eh Silkworm?

Civil Rights

2009-02-23T10:10:00.005-05:00

Dustin Lance Black gave the most touching speech of the night.

Oh my God. This was, um, this was not an easy film to make. First off, I have to thank Cleve Jones and Anne Kronenberg and all the real-life people who shared their stories with me. And, um, Gus Van Sant, Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, James Franco and our entire cast, my producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, everyone at Groundswell and Focus for taking on the challenge of telling this life-saving story. When I was 13 years old, my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California, and I heard the story of Harvey Milk. And it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my life. It gave me the hope one day I could live my life openly as who I am and then maybe even I could even fall in love and one day get married.

I wanna thank my mom, who has always loved me for who I am even when there was pressure not to. But most of all, if Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he'd want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, by the government or by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights federally, across this great nation of ours. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, God, for giving us Harvey Milk.

KoreAm, the magazine my family gets that celebrates all things Korean-American (Hines Ward, Yunjin Kim, a Korean woman on Sully's plane), published a graph of how various Asian ethnic groups voted on proposition 8. 78% of Koreans voted for it. Why are Koreans so stupid...

Ripostes

2009-02-11T20:25:00.001-05:00

"What are you talking about."
"That's what you think."
"Keep thinking that."
"Yeah right."
*laugh and eyeroll*
"Yeah, okay."
"No."
"No!"
"No!!!"
*loud sigh*
"Okay."
*protracted growl*
"Stop talking."
"I don't care."
"I don't care."
"Okay!!!!!"
"All right."
"..."
"I'm not even listening."
"..."
"Sorry."
"..."
"Okay."
"..."
"I know, but..."
"Why are you always like..."
"All right, but you don't always have to..."
"I don't mean to, it's just..."
"I'm sorry."
*crying*
"........................................................."
"I'm sorry..."

Re: Posts

2009-01-10T15:39:00.003-05:00

Once I wrote a list of things I had never experienced and #1 was someone get killed. Now it's crossed out because I saw a guy get disintegrated by a car only to appear 50 feet away, supine and I think already dead when they put him in the ambulance. He was stupid for standing in the lane with the driving car in it but still, how many times have I mentally drifted, listening to Lindstrøm's new album, eyes closed except for the eyelid part, running down my hilly street.

I'm going to try to correct the things I do wrong. This year I've been trying to learn to talk to people and I think it's been working; my friends told me I'm not lame anymore! I'm always disappointed by stuff but it would be cool to try the other thing. And I'm going to try to get back to you with real posts, I'm sorry K. TOK.

what's up

2008-11-24T12:00:00.000-05:00

uhhhhhhh it's my birhtday

The Californian's Non-Dilemma

2008-10-26T21:46:00.001-04:00

It's sooooo confusing

2008-10-26T21:30:00.002-04:00

Nope

2008-10-26T21:30:00.001-04:00

Votes

2008-10-26T21:23:00.002-04:00

Chairlift is about to get Feisted!

2008-09-10T20:22:00.002-04:00

I'm pretty glad this is happening. Chairlift's album is pretty good and while this song is pretty unlike the other ones, which tend to get creepy in that Living Bridge comp sort of way, it's my favorite. The lyrics are just fruits and bruises staining your legs the same color, but the chorus is the most endearing thing, when she turns into a Brooklyn Kate Bush crying out because her dreams are actually coming true so easily, or like me, like thank you God, finally. A yellow iPod Nano.

End of summer masterpieces

2008-09-01T22:07:00.001-04:00

the new Of Montreal (the entire thing!!!)

a lot of the new Max Tundra

the new High Places, I think. It isn't very immediate but track for track it is really doing well. I'm glad they demonstrated that they know how to construct an actual full-length album, too.

There is an emoticon that perfectly describes my emotions right now!

2008-09-01T21:10:00.000-04:00

88 Boadrum ruled

2008-08-12T16:25:00.001-04:00

I can't wait for 1,010 Boadrum!

Then I played the building.

Education

2008-07-27T15:40:00.002-04:00

Here is the first in what could possibly be many educational videos from me! I'm just trying to appeal to the younger generation by having concert footage of hip bands serve as the background for some real educational stuff! Here it is, video #1 starring Fuck Buttons!

EDIT: I guess you have to click on the video and watch it on Youtube to see the educational stuff.

Here

Critique of High Places lyrics

2008-07-24T20:15:00.004-04:00

From "Namer"

I'll buy a plot of land
One full of trees
Where I can practice taxonomy
Me and my old dog we are the same
We go to sleep and we dream of names
It's not a bad life
More like a game
For me and my old dog Namer of Names

Critique: Aw man, why do I have to criticize this?! It's too perfect and sweet! I guess she uses "me" as a subject, as indicated by the subsequent use of "we", but you just gotta let that one slide! You just gotta respect High Places' right to do that sort of thing, you know?

From "Vision's The First"

The picture's clear but it's going black
And your favorite song's still the hidden track
You gave a little bit and they took a lot
Of your quietude and your unsaid thoughts

Critique: Again, perfect. Totally nails all of you--you know who you are!--out there who like the hidden track the most. And you old folks who are steadily going blind.

From "Freaked Flight"

We must go now
And finally heed to the Calling
But risks are so terrifying
So we keep on stalling and stalling

I'll close my eyes and I'll take the first step
You're close behind, you're there when I misstep
We can try and try
We might as well try

Critique: Mary's cadence is too beautiful in this song! Go High Places!

From "New Grace"

One is for the money
And two are for the show
Knock three times I'll be ready
Stop by before you go (And it goes...)

Critique: Sound familiar? Hmm? Still don't know??? Dude, you're totally gonna kick yourself:

Nice ref, High Places!

From "Universal"

I have tried to find a Universal Truth
But the Truth is: I'm much less than insignificant
I'm a pinprick on a pinprick on a pinprick of Time and Space
It takes a lot of guts to be a little baby in this place

Critique: Humble High Places!

From "Cosmonaut"

And we're all full of questions
And we would like to know just exactly where we came from
And exactly where we'll go

Well I know my limitations
And I know that I don't know
But still I know the constellations and I know the falling snow.

Critique: Aw, there goes High Places again!

Favorite band

2008-07-13T23:12:00.000-04:00

Continued

2008-07-08T11:06:00.003-04:00

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Q. How stupid is Pitchfork for having High Places and Dirty Projectors play at the same time?

2008-07-07T17:16:00.002-04:00

A. sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

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Ratatat - "Imperials" music video

2008-06-23T22:02:00.002-04:00

A music video I made for Ratatat's song "Imperials"

suoɔıʇoɯǝ uʍop ǝpısdn

2008-06-18T20:26:00.000-04:00

(:

):

O:

[:

]:

Super easy and quick SAT curve guide - Reading 6/08

2008-06-14T17:25:00.003-04:00

800
800
800
790
AAA
760
818.3 STE
800
EIX
3NI
882.4 WAR
001.1 GOO
MUD
KIP
TOK
LAS
800
790
760
460
478
820
800
088
832
200
200
800
200
200
193
888
XXX
793.4 HER
FAU
650
630
610
???
YOU
(((
###
570
530
570
550
290
280
410
430
24
234
235
236
)))
***
:::
ROS
ROS
ROS
ROS

Super easy and quick SAT curve guide - Math 6/08

2008-06-14T01:14:00.005-04:00

800
800
800
780
500
730
800
720
750
780
470
800
700
690
680
210
200
660
550
520
530
531
531
530.5
790
699
362
380
700
200
200
200
199.999999999999999999999999999999999999999~
701
710
170
107
017
071
777
800
520
500
370
200
800
200
800
0
999
256
128
64
32
16
8
4
2
1
0.693
1
2
3
5
8
13
21
34
55
89
144
1.618
800
800
800
200
800
200
800
800
800
800

A Love Supreme

2008-06-11T21:16:00.004-04:00

K. PIKs

2008-05-17T10:05:00.005-04:00

del.icio.us and digg and stumbleupon and facebook's share option make such a trend out of projecting your taste. Artists and scientists love networking up and sharing awesome internet readymades or studies or whatever. It's fun! I've been in the del.icio.us game for a long time, I sort of hate digg and don't have time for the rest, so I put this K. PIKs feed over there because some of these things I find on the internet are too great to ignore. Quick rundown of my K. PIKs:

TEARS FOR THE FUTURE
Just saw this on VVORK. Whoa! Part of my awe is due to the scary beauty of this thing and part is trying to figure out how they achieved this breathtaking feat.

http://www.ktok.com/main.html
I can't believe I never typed ktok into my address bar. This is what comes up; it's a conservative talk radio station, former home to Kevin James, that guy who messed up on Hardball. If I knew this existed I would've named K. TOK just KIPTOK.

Head Spins | Pitchfork.tv
Endlessly rewatchable High Places set on the pretty cool pitchfork.tv. They make at least a discernible step towards bridging the gap between science and art, a huge preoccupation of mine. Both areas are enervated if left apart; I don't get why people act as if they should occupy separate planes. Science and art share the exact same sense of curiosity and experimentation. Seed magazine has a December 2007 article about this. High Places understands too; all of their lyrics are about falling in love over shared interests in science and struggling to suppress feelings of insignificance in the scope of the universe.

ninii2.jpg (JPEG Image, 800x600 pixels) - Scaled (96%)
Another amazing piece of art, part of a huger thing called Lover's Leap on Hayley Silverman's website. Saw this on VVORK too. I don't know much about it except whoa beautiful!

3-Year-Old Has Never Fallen Asleep
My favorite thing that humans do. This is a cool story.

Dave Liebman Private Tapes
Secret recordings!!! By Dave Liebman, my local jazz hero.

That's the last time I'm doing that! Enjoy K. PIKs!

Pitchfork copied my thoughts!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-14T19:28:00.004-04:00

Pitchfork review of Quiet Village - Silent Movie

...though I can't imagine that the people left disillusioned by the revelation that Daft Punk didn't write the riff to "Digital Love" will be all that thrilled.

Damn you, multiples!!!!!!!!!! Oh, and "Too High to Move" is Captain and Tenille? I need to listen to more music.

Suggestion

2008-05-13T17:04:00.002-04:00

I remember reading that blog post about how every awesome Daft Punk melody is actually a song by someone I've never heard of and listening to the evidence and being so crestfallen that "Crescendolls" wasn't invented by those two robots. Even though I've now realized that what they've done is still pretty amazing, not too much worse than Paul Simon on Graceland, Daft Punk hasn't been the same to me since.

And here I was a few weeks ago, listening to "Too High to Move" for the first time by Quiet Village, thinking "these guys (and girl) aren't too bad!". And "Utopia" is absolutely beautiful! Oh, wait, that one is Andreas Vollenweider, I read on ILM, pretty much exactly. And these guys are Radio Slave and another dude. I still think the album is a lot of fun to listen to, but I don't know, why didn't they clue us in on that? I guess what I'm suggesting is warn us or something? Never mind, I guess I should've known all along.

In conclusion: I'm stupid, it isn't your fault Quiet Village.

Have a good time

2008-04-28T23:23:00.004-04:00

I listen to a lot of music these days that has a central message to relax, chill out, whatever, because I think I have an unhealthy relationship with the exact opposite mindset. Panda Bear is like:

Winning is what you want to/winning but you're scared to go forth
and
I'll try to remember always/just to have a good time

This is how I feel. But for the past ten hours my heart has felt constricted, almost as if I could go into cardiac arrest. It hurts more every time I realize what else I did wrong on that math test. The tests are blind races: summon the formulas, exponentiate, separate, differentiate, integrate with no regard for time. 10+ problems in 40 minutes is daunting enough for me, just me repeating 4 min/problem in my head over and over and then realizing that at the rate I'm going I'll have to halve that number for the rest of the test.

I used to be a good math student, and as humbly as I can say it, I was comforted by the fact that I hardly had to study for the test on logarithms to get a 100. Now the same teacher is giving me these quicksand exams and I'm already under by the time I finish problem 1 and it kills me and gives me these psychological breathing disorders. My brothers tell me to think like High Places on "Shared Islands":

It's okay it's all right it's okay it's all right it's okay...

This is incredibly difficult, it's not me to relax, I carry the weight of everyone's thoughts, talk, locations, positions, etc. on my mind at all times. Still, they are my favorite band right now, lyrics in particular, so there is some sort of attraction I harbor with their carefree views. And Pavement went from the tense act on Slanted & Enchanted, "Conduit for Sale" in particular:

I'm tryin'/I'm tryin'/I'm tryin'/I'm tryin'/I'm tryin'/I'm tryin'

This is the description of me now. But then they did the ingenious, relaxed Crooked Rain x2 and man how much better do people enjoy putting that one on? And how happy would I be to think like that.

Keep starting

2008-04-23T18:47:00.003-04:00

Minimal techno is over!

2008-04-23T18:35:00.002-04:00

Oh no!!!!!!!!!!
:(

Jamie Lidell's new album is decent; he's really weird but the tracks here are so upbeat and simple that I'll be surprised if he doesn't get a really big following from this thing. Maybe called "the perfect summer album"?

NY Comic-Con

2008-04-20T13:34:00.003-04:00

I shivered everywhere even though my body was covered with a gross sweat-layer. My brain hurt and my cold sore made eating, brushing and drinking impossible to handle. I still wanted to go see my favorite comic artists and check out whatever Fantagraphics had.

Protesters for HETFET - Humans for the Ethical Treatment of Fairies Elves and Trolls. My head throbbed harder.

I met Juggernaut and his mom.

Then I saw celebrity Tim Roth!

I was starstruck after meeting Juggernaut, Juggernaut's mom, and Tim Roth.

Justin C. and the king of fun Sid Meier.

This would have been awesome and I would've felt like I was in Star Wars but the little hologram or whatever kept falling over.

My comedy hero Michael Kupperman! He said stuff about "narcotics" and asked me if this was my first comic-con. I just smiled and said yeah or nodded. I think I'm going deaf because I always have to say "what" otherwise. I don't think Michael Kupperman liked me very much.

The Cyanide & Happiness guys were doing free doodles. Everyone had wacky ideas like a guy being ripped in half! When they asked me what I wanted I said "whatever." Sorry.

I will cherish this.

This game baffled me.

And I spoke to Jeffrey Brown really quietly after he drew this nice self-portrait. He gave me some half-hearted advice that my splitting headache made a struggle to register. "Practice" drawing he said.

QuiK. TOK The Dodos

2008-04-17T00:15:00.002-04:00

You wouldn't believe how disheartening it is that I can't stop playing a band that sounds so earnest. Dodos, haven't you heard of subtext?!?! There is nothing to read about this band; they're two ugly guys that play the two most boring instruments in the world: guitar and drums. Their influences aren't apparent (despite a few dead ringers for bands like Deerhoof in "Paint the Rust" and a tranquilized Animal Collective in "Fools") until the very second you stop thinking about other artists: this song is influenced by how he liked a girl a lot, this song is influenced by how maybe he doesn't like that girl anymore, this song is influenced by how mad he is that things were so close and now they've fallen apart.

And yeah they make you believe everything, their pain is real, they still cry about this thing sometimes, but would it be more irritating if you didn't believe them? Still, it is like the drum and guitar are the ones having the real relationship. While the drummer stretches and twists 4/4 into 8/8 and whatever else he can do with it, the guitar lands and bounces off of the oddly timed, often sparing hits; a leap, then a steady decline, in 12312312 so you never really get comfortable with them. There is a glide, then another glide, then a sudden fall. It gives you vertigo. Maybe they make up for subtext with evocation? By the end, the routine even excuses the song that they obviously wrote for Juno 2 ahead of time.

Stroudsburg Students Against The New Dress Code

2008-04-14T19:05:00.003-04:00

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin

Suggested benefits of the proposed dress code
• Heightened safety
• Decreased distractions e.g. teasing, harassment
• School unity/pride

Our arguments
• By increasing conformity and stifling expression, students are taught to solve problems by hiding their diversity. It also creates a dynamic of mistrust between faculty and students.
• By being forced to buy school-specific clothes in addition to their leisure clothes, each student will have to pay an extra amount of at least $223 for girls and $253 for boys per school semester, resulting in the student body spending an estimated $1.8 million total per school year*. This money would be better spent on school supplies, books, or anything with a more proven educational benefit than uniforms.
• If the school is unwilling to spend money for our safety e.g. on security or metal detectors, they should not expect us to. It must be decided which issues have priority on the school's budget.
• To address the problem of identifying outsiders, a lanyard system was already implemented. If thoroughly enforced, this would be effective.
• The conclusion that a strict dress code will make our school safer hardly has backing; studies so far are inconclusive. Furthermore, it shouldn't be assumed that potential purporters of in-school crime will be thwarted by khakis, polos, and transparent backpacks.
• We suggest stronger enforcement of the current dress code, which is sufficient and comprehensive. Unlike the proposed one, it is reasonable and has no questionable limitations.

Excerpted passages from the current school dress code listing forbidden items
"Students who wear baggy trousers/slacks must keep them secured at the natural waist. It is not permissible to wear baggy/saggy clothes so that the student's underwear is visible."
"Clothing which is physically revealing (excessively exposes the anatomy), is see-through (including mesh shirts, and articles of clothing with holes and rips), is low-cut, and/or bares the midriff."
"Clothing and accessories which advertise or promote the use of tobacco, alcohol, or drugs; or which are offensive, obscene or immoral; or which are sexually suggestive, or promote statements which are derogatory to any racial, ethnic or religious group; or which contain double meanings, advocate violent acts, or are gang related."

Hundreds of students have been wearing black armbands for the past week to express support for the Tinker v. Des Moines Supreme Court case of 1969. This case ruled that students have the right to express themselves through their choice of clothing. As the Supreme Court justices averred:

"In order for the State in the person of school officials to justify prohibition of a particular expression of opinion, it must be able to show that its action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint. Certainly where there is no finding and no showing that engaging in the forbidden conduct would 'materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school,' the prohibition cannot be sustained."

"Students in school, as well as out of school, are 'persons' under our Constitution. They are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect, just as they themselves must respect their obligations to the State. In our system, students may not be regarded as closed-circuit recipients of only that which the State chooses to communicate. They may not be confined to the expression of those sentiments that are officially approved. In the absence of a specific showing of constitutionally valid reasons to regulate their speech, students are entitled to freedom of expression of their views."

We do not attempt to hide the fact that we do not want to wear polos and khakis. They are uncomfortable and unflattering on most body types. We don't want to conceal our opposition to this policy under a facade of altruism. However, since our own opinions are representative of much of the student body, we know that morale, enthusiasm, and school pride will decrease if this policy is implemented. The administration should consider long-term as well as immediate consequences; if students feel that the policy is oppressive, as they have expressed by wearing the black armbands, then they won't see school as a center of education and creativity; they will see it as simply a prerequisite to moving on in life and being able to fulfill their own goals.

*Calculated with the lowest prices available at Wal-Mart for five polo shirts, three pairs of khakis, three pairs of shorts, two sweaters, one pair of shoes, and a belt.

KRYPTOKUIP: SHORT STORY EDITION

2008-03-26T00:18:00.001-04:00

Here's a little "Kryptokuip" I made from a pretty famous short story by an author you all might know! Enjoy!

Oh, and clue: g is n.

tktur

ghkma kbvafhgw lmkxxm uxbgz uebgw, ptl t jnbxm lmkxxm xqvxim tm max ahnk paxg max vakblmbtg ukhmaxkl' lvahhe lxm max uhrl ykxx. tg ngbgatubmxw ahnlx hy mph lmhkxrl lmhhw tm max uebgw xgw, wxmtvaxw ykhf bml gxbzauhnkl bg t ljntkx zkhngw max hmaxk ahnlxl hy max lmkxxm, vhglvbhnl hy wxvxgm eboxl pbmabg maxf, ztsxw tm hgx tghmaxk pbma ukhpg bfixkmnkutuex ytvxl

max yhkfxk mxgtgm hy hnk ahnlx, t ikbxlm, atw wbxw bg max utvd wktpbgz-khhf. tbk, fnlmr ykhf atobgz uxxg ehgz xgvehlxw, angz bg tee max khhfl, tgw max ptlmx khhf uxabgw max dbmvaxg ptl ebmmxkxw pbma hew nlxexll itixkl. tfhgz maxlx b yhngw t yxp itixk-vhoxkxw uhhdl, max itzxl hy pabva pxkx vnkexw tgw wtfi: max tuuhm, ur ptemxk lvhmm, max wxohnm vhffnggbvtgm tgw max fxfhbkl hy obwhvj. b ebdxw max etlm uxlm uxvtnlx bml extoxl pxkx rxeehp. max pbew ztkwxg uxabgw max ahnlx vhgmtbgxw t vxgmkte tiiex-mkxx tgw t yxp lmktzzebgz unlaxl ngwxk hgx hy pabva b yhngw max etmx mxgtgm'l knlmr ubvrvex-infi. ax atw uxxg t oxkr vatkbmtuex ikbxlm; bg abl pbee ax atw exym tee abl fhgxr mh bglmbmnmbhgl tgw max ynkgbmnkx hy abl ahnlx mh abl lblmxk.

paxg max lahkm wtrl hy pbgmxk vtfx wnld yxee uxyhkx px atw pxee xtmxg hnk wbggxkl. paxg px fxm bg max lmkxxm max ahnlxl atw zkhpg lhfukx. max litvx hy ldr tuhox nl ptl max vhehnk hy xoxk-vatgzbgz obhexm tgw mhptkwl bm max etfil hy max lmkxxm ebymxw maxbk yxxuex etgmxkgl. max vhew tbk lmngz nl tgw px ietrxw mbee hnk uhwbxl zehpxw. hnk lahnml xvahxw bg max lbexgm lmkxxm. max vtkxxk hy hnk ietr ukhnzam nl makhnza max wtkd fnwwr etgxl uxabgw max ahnlxl paxkx px ktg max ztngmexm hy max khnza mkbuxl ykhf max vhmmtzxl, mh max utvd whhkl hy max wtkd wkbiibgz ztkwxgl paxkx hwhnkl tkhlx ykhf max tlaibml, mh max wtkd hwhkhnl lmtuexl paxkx t vhtvaftg lfhhmaxw tgw vhfuxw max ahklx hk lahhd fnlbv ykhf max unvdexw atkgxll. paxg px kxmnkgxw mh max lmkxxm ebzam ykhf max dbmvaxg pbgwhpl atw ybeexw max tkxtl. by fr ngvex ptl lxxg mnkgbgz max vhkgxk px abw bg max latwhp ngmbe px atw lxxg abf ltyxer ahnlxw. hk by ftgztg'l lblmxk vtfx hnm hg max whhklmxi mh vtee axk ukhmaxk bg mh abl mxt px ptmvaxw axk ykhf hnk latwhp ixxk ni tgw whpg max lmkxxm. px ptbmxw mh lxx paxmaxk lax phnew kxftbg hk zh bg tgw, by lax kxftbgxw, px exym hnk latwhp tgw ptedxw ni mh ftgztg'l lmxil kxlbzgxwer. lax ptl ptbmbgz yhk nl, axk ybznkx wxybgxw ur max ebzam ykhf max atey-hixgxw whhk. axk ukhmaxk teptrl mxtlxw axk uxyhkx ax huxrxw tgw b lmhhw ur max ktbebgzl ehhdbgz tm axk. axk wkxll lpngz tl lax fhoxw axk uhwr tgw max lhym khix hy axk atbk mhllxw ykhf lbwx mh lbwx.

xoxkr fhkgbgz b etr hg max yehhk bg max ykhgm itkehnk ptmvabgz axk whhk. max uebgw ptl ineexw whpg mh pbmabg tg bgva hy max ltla lh matm b vhnew ghm ux lxxg. paxg lax vtfx hnm hg max whhklmxi fr axtkm extixw. b ktg mh max atee, lxbsxw fr uhhdl tgw yheehpxw axk. b dxim axk ukhpg ybznkx teptrl bg fr xrx tgw, paxg px vtfx gxtk max ihbgm tm pabva hnk ptrl wboxkzxw, b jnbvdxgxw fr itvx tgw itllxw axk. mabl atiixgxw fhkgbgz tymxk fhkgbgz. b atw gxoxk lihdxg mh axk, xqvxim yhk t yxp vtlnte phkwl, tgw rxm axk gtfx ptl ebdx t lnffhgl mh tee fr yhhebla uehhw.

axk bftzx tvvhfitgbxw fx xoxg bg ietvxl max fhlm ahlmbex mh khftgvx. hg ltmnkwtr xoxgbgzl paxg fr tngm pxgm ftkdxmbgz b atw mh zh mh vtkkr lhfx hy max itkvxel. px ptedxw makhnza max yetkbgz lmkxxml, chlmexw ur wkngdxg fxg tgw utkztbgbgz phfxg, tfbw max vnklxl hy etuhnkxkl, max lakbee ebmtgbxl hy lahi-uhrl pah lmhhw hg zntkw ur max utkkxel hy ibzl' vaxxdl, max gtlte vatgmbgz hy lmkxxm-lbgzxkl, pah ltgz t vhfx-tee-rhn tuhnm h'whghotg khllt, hk t uteetw tuhnm max mkhnuexl bg hnk gtmbox etgw. maxlx ghblxl vhgoxkzxw bg t lbgzex lxgltmbhg hy ebyx yhk fx: b bftzbgxw matm b uhkx fr vatebvx ltyxer makhnza t makhgz hy yhxl. axk gtfx liktgz mh fr ebil tm fhfxgml bg lmktgzx iktrxkl tgw iktblxl pabva b frlxey wbw ghm ngwxklmtgw. fr xrxl pxkx hymxg ynee hy mxtkl (b vhnew ghm mxee par) tgw tm mbfxl t yehhw ykhf fr axtkm lxxfxw mh ihnk bmlxey hnm bgmh fr uhlhf. b mahnzam ebmmex hy max ynmnkx. b wbw ghm dghp paxmaxk b phnew xoxk lixtd mh axk hk ghm hk, by b lihdx mh axk, ahp b vhnew mxee axk hy fr vhgynlxw twhktmbhg. unm fr uhwr ptl ebdx t atki tgw axk phkwl tgw zxlmnkxl pxkx ebdx ybgzxkl knggbgz nihg max pbkxl.

hgx xoxgbgz b pxgm bgmh max utvd wktpbgz-khhf bg pabva max ikbxlm atw wbxw. bm ptl t wtkd ktbgr xoxgbgz tgw maxkx ptl gh lhngw bg max ahnlx. makhnza hgx hy max ukhdxg itgxl b axtkw max ktbg bfibgzx nihg max xtkma, max ybgx bgvxlltgm gxxwexl hy ptmxk ietrbgz bg max lhwwxg uxwl. lhfx wblmtgm etfi hk ebzamxw pbgwhp zextfxw uxehp fx. b ptl matgdyne matm b vhnew lxx lh ebmmex. tee fr lxglxl lxxfxw mh wxlbkx mh oxbe maxflxeoxl tgw, yxxebgz matm b ptl tuhnm mh lebi ykhf maxf, b ikxllxw max itefl hy fr atgwl mhzxmaxk ngmbe maxr mkxfuexw, fnkfnkbgz: "h ehox! h ehox!" ftgr mbfxl.

tm etlm lax lihdx mh fx. paxg lax twwkxllxw max ybklm phkwl mh fx b ptl lh vhgynlxw matm b wbw ghm dghp patm mh tglpxk. lax tldxw fx ptl b zhbgz mh tktur. b yhkzhm paxmaxk b tglpxkxw rxl hk gh. bm phnew ux t liexgwbw utsttk, lax ltbw lax phnew ehox mh zh.

"tgw par vtg'm rhn?" b tldxw.

pabex lax lihdx lax mnkgxw t lbeoxk uktvxexm khngw tgw khngw axk pkblm. lax vhnew ghm zh, lax ltbw, uxvtnlx maxkx phnew ux t kxmkxtm matm pxxd bg axk vhgoxgm. axk ukhmaxk tgw mph hmaxk uhrl pxkx ybzambgz yhk maxbk vtil tgw b ptl tehgx tm max ktbebgzl. lax axew hgx hy max libdxl, uhpbgz axk axtw mhptkwl fx. max ebzam ykhf max etfi hiihlbmx hnk whhk vtnzam max pabmx vnkox hy axk gxvd, ebm ni axk atbk matm kxlmxw maxkx tgw, yteebgz, ebm ni max atgw nihg max ktbebgz. bm yxee hoxk hgx lbwx hy axk wkxll tgw vtnzam max pabmx uhkwxk hy t ixmmbvhtm, cnlm oblbuex tl lax lmhhw tm xtlx.

"bm'l pxee yhk rhn," lax ltbw.

"by b zh," b ltbw, "b pbee ukbgz rhn lhfxmabgz."

patm bggnfxktuex yheebxl etbw ptlmx fr ptdbgz tgw lexxibgz mahnzaml tymxk matm xoxgbgz! b pblaxw mh tggbabetmx max mxwbhnl bgmxkoxgbgz wtrl. b vatyxw tztbglm max phkd hy lvahhe. tm gbzam bg fr uxwkhhf tgw ur wtr bg max vetllkhhf axk bftzx vtfx uxmpxxg fx tgw max itzx b lmkhox mh kxtw. max lreetuexl hy max phkw tktur pxkx vteexw mh fx makhnza max lbexgvx bg pabva fr lhne enqnkbtmxw tgw vtlm tg xtlmxkg xgvatgmfxgm hoxk fx. b tldxw yhk extox mh zh mh max utsttk hg ltmnkwtr gbzam. fr tngm ptl lnkikblxw tgw ahixw bm ptl ghm lhfx ykxxftlhg tyytbk. b tglpxkxw yxp jnxlmbhgl bg vetll. b ptmvaxw fr ftlmxk'l ytvx itll ykhf tfbtubebmr mh lmxkggxll; ax ahixw b ptl ghm uxzbggbgz mh bwex. b vhnew ghm vtee fr ptgwxkbgz mahnzaml mhzxmaxk. b atw atkwer tgr itmbxgvx pbma max lxkbhnl phkd hy ebyx pabva, ghp matm bm lmhhw uxmpxxg fx tgw fr wxlbkx, lxxfxw mh fx vabew'l ietr, nzer fhghmhghnl vabew'l ietr.

hg ltmnkwtr fhkgbgz b kxfbgwxw fr ngvex matm b pblaxw mh zh mh max utsttk bg max xoxgbgz. ax ptl ynllbgz tm max ateelmtgw, ehhdbgz yhk max atm-uknla, tgw tglpxkxw fx vnkmer:

"rxl, uhr, b dghp."

tl ax ptl bg max atee b vhnew ghm zh bgmh max ykhgm itkehnk tgw ebx tm max pbgwhp. b exym max ahnlx bg utw anfhnk tgw ptedxw lehper mhptkwl max lvahhe. max tbk ptl ibmbexller ktp tgw tekxtwr fr axtkm fblztox fx.

paxg b vtfx ahfx mh wbggxk fr ngvex atw ghm rxm uxxg ahfx. lmbee bm ptl xtker. b ltm lmtkbgz tm max vehvd yhk lhfx mbfx tgw. paxg bml mbvdbgz uxztg mh bkkbmtmx fx, b exym max khhf. b fhngmxw max lmtbkvtlx tgw ztbgxw max niixk itkm hy max ahnlx. max abza vhew xfimr zehhfr khhfl ebuxktmxw fx tgw b pxgm ykhf khhf mh khhf lbgzbgz. ykhf max ykhgm pbgwhp b ltp fr vhfitgbhgl ietrbgz uxehp bg max lmkxxm. maxbk vkbxl kxtvaxw fx pxtdxgxw tgw bgwblmbgvm tgw, extgbgz fr yhkxaxtw tztbglm max vhhe zetll, b ehhdxw hoxk tm max wtkd ahnlx paxkx lax eboxw. b ftr atox lmhhw maxkx yhk tg ahnk, lxxbgz ghmabgz unm max ukhpg-vetw ybznkx vtlm ur fr bftzbgtmbhg, mhnvaxw wblvkxxmer ur max etfiebzam tm max vnkoxw gxvd, tm max atgw nihg max ktbebgzl tgw tm max uhkwxk uxehp max wkxll.

paxg b vtfx whpglmtbkl tztbg b yhngw fkl. fxkvxk lbmmbgz tm max ybkx. lax ptl tg hew ztkknehnl phftg, t itpgukhdxk'l pbwhp, pah vheexvmxw nlxw lmtfil yhk lhfx ibhnl inkihlx. b atw mh xgwnkx max zhllbi hy max mxt-mtuex. max fxte ptl ikhehgzxw uxrhgw tg ahnk tgw lmbee fr ngvex wbw ghm vhfx. fkl. fxkvxk lmhhw ni mh zh: lax ptl lhkkr lax vhnewg'm ptbm tgr ehgzxk, unm bm ptl tymxk xbzam h'vehvd tgw lax wbw ghm ebdx mh ux hnm etmx tl max gbzam tbk ptl utw yhk axk. paxg lax atw zhgx b uxztg mh pted ni tgw whpg max khhf, vexgvabgz fr yblml. fr tngm ltbw:

"b'f tyktbw rhn ftr inm hyy rhnk utsttk yhk mabl gbzam hy hnk ehkw."

tm gbgx h'vehvd b axtkw fr ngvex'l etmvadxr bg max ateewhhk. b axtkw abf mtedbgz mh abflxey tgw axtkw max ateelmtgw khvdbgz paxg bm atw kxvxboxw max pxbzam hy abl hoxkvhtm. b vhnew bgmxkikxm maxlx lbzgl. paxg ax ptl fbwptr makhnza abl wbggxk b tldxw abf mh zbox fx max fhgxr mh zh mh max utsttk. ax atw yhkzhmmxg.

"max ixhiex tkx bg uxw tgw tymxk maxbk ybklm lexxi ghp," ax ltbw.

b wbw ghm lfbex. fr tngm ltbw mh abf xgxkzxmbvteer:

"vtg'm rhn zbox abf max fhgxr tgw exm abf zh? rhn'ox dxim abf etmx xghnza tl bm bl."

fr ngvex ltbw ax ptl oxkr lhkkr ax atw yhkzhmmxg. ax ltbw ax uxebxoxw bg max hew ltrbgz: "tee phkd tgw gh ietr ftdxl ctvd t wnee uhr." ax tldxw fx paxkx b ptl zhbgz tgw, paxg b atw mhew abf t lxvhgw mbfx ax tldxw fx wbw b dghp max tktu'l ytkxpxee mh abl lmxxw. paxg b exym max dbmvaxg ax ptl tuhnm mh kxvbmx max hixgbgz ebgxl hy max ibxvx mh fr tngm.

b axew t yehkbg mbzamer bg fr atgw tl b lmkhwx whpg unvdbgzatf lmkxxm mhptkwl max lmtmbhg. max lbzam hy max lmkxxml makhgzxw pbma unrxkl tgw zetkbgz pbma ztl kxvteexw mh fx max inkihlx hy fr chnkgxr. b mhhd fr lxtm bg t mabkw-vetll vtkkbtzx hy t wxlxkmxw mktbg. tymxk tg bgmhexktuex wxetr max mktbg fhoxw hnm hy max lmtmbhg lehper. bm vkxim hgptkw tfhgz knbghnl ahnlx tgw hoxk max mpbgdebgz kboxk. tm pxlmetgw khp lmtmbhg t vkhpw hy ixhiex ikxllxw mh max vtkkbtzx whhkl; unm max ihkmxkl fhoxw maxf utvd, ltrbgz matm bm ptl t lixvbte mktbg yhk max utsttk. b kxftbgxw tehgx bg max utkx vtkkbtzx. bg t yxp fbgnmxl max mktbg wkxp ni uxlbwx tg bfikhoblxw phhwxg ietmyhkf. b itllxw hnm hg mh max khtw tgw ltp ur max ebzamxw wbte hy t vehvd matm bm ptl mxg fbgnmxl mh mxg. bg ykhgm hy fx ptl t etkzx unbewbgz pabva wblietrxw max ftzbvte gtfx.

b vhnew ghm ybgw tgr lbqixggr xgmktgvx tgw, yxtkbgz matm max utsttk phnew ux vehlxw, b itllxw bg jnbvder makhnza t mnkglmbex, atgwbgz t labeebgz mh t pxtkr-ehhdbgz ftg. b yhngw frlxey bg t ubz atee zbkwexw tm atey bml axbzam ur t zteexkr. gxtker tee max lmteel pxkx vehlxw tgw max zkxtmxk itkm hy max atee ptl bg wtkdgxll. b kxvhzgblxw t lbexgvx ebdx matm pabva ixkotwxl t vankva tymxk t lxkobvx. b ptedxw bgmh max vxgmkx hy max utsttk mbfbwer. t yxp ixhiex pxkx ztmaxkxw tuhnm max lmteel pabva pxkx lmbee hixg. uxyhkx t vnkmtbg, hoxk pabva max phkwl vtyx vatgmtgm pxkx pkbmmxg bg vhehnkxw etfil, mph fxg pxkx vhngmbgz fhgxr hg t lteoxk. b eblmxgxw mh max ytee hy max vhbgl.

kxfxfuxkbgz pbma wbyybvnemr par b atw vhfx b pxgm hoxk mh hgx hy max lmteel tgw xqtfbgxw ihkvxetbg otlxl tgw yehpxkxw . tm max whhk hy max lmtee t rhngz etwr ptl mtedbgz tgw etnzabgz pbma mph rhngz zxgmexfxg. b kxftkdxw maxbk xgzebla tvvxgml tgw eblmxgxw otznxer mh maxbk vhgoxkltmbhg.

"h, b gxoxk ltbw lnva t mabgz!"

"h, unm rhn wbw!"

"h, unm b wbwg'm!"

"wbwg'm lax ltr matm?"

"rxl. b axtkw axk."

"0, maxkx'l t ... ybu!"

hulxkobgz fx max rhngz etwr vtfx hoxk tgw tldxw fx wbw b pbla mh unr tgrmabgz. max mhgx hy axk ohbvx ptl ghm xgvhnktzbgz; lax lxxfxw mh atox lihdxg mh fx hnm hy t lxglx hy wnmr. b ehhdxw anfuer tm max zkxtm ctkl matm lmhhw ebdx xtlmxkg zntkwl tm xbmaxk lbwx hy max wtkd xgmktgvx mh max lmtee tgw fnkfnkxw:

"gh, matgd rhn."

max rhngz etwr vatgzxw max ihlbmbhg hy hgx hy max otlxl tgw pxgm utvd mh max mph rhngz fxg. maxr uxztg mh mted hy max ltfx lnucxvm. hgvx hk mpbvx max rhngz etwr zetgvxw tm fx hoxk axk lahnewxk.

b ebgzxkxw uxyhkx axk lmtee, mahnza b dgxp fr lmtr ptl nlxexll, mh ftdx fr bgmxkxlm bg axk ptkxl lxxf max fhkx kxte. maxg b mnkgxw tptr lehper tgw ptedxw whpg max fbwwex hy max utsttk. b teehpxw max mph ixggbxl mh ytee tztbglm max lbqixgvx bg fr ihvdxm. b axtkw t ohbvx vtee ykhf hgx xgw hy max zteexkr matm max ebzam ptl hnm. max niixk itkm hy max atee ptl ghp vhfiexmxer wtkd.

ztsbgz ni bgmh max wtkdgxll b ltp frlxey tl t vkxtmnkx wkboxg tgw wxkbwxw ur otgbmr; tgw fr xrxl unkgxw pbma tgznbla tgw tgzxk.

K. TOK'S MASTERPIECE LIBRARY: JOYCE'S "ARABY"

2008-03-26T00:02:00.001-04:00

For today's Masterpiece Library, we'll be reprinting a beautiful James Joyce classic short story. This is one of my favorite short stories ever because it so poignantly describes an innate struggle where the narrator simultaneously has an intense desire and is too terrified to consider the consequences if he acts on it. It's the paralyzing fear of any form initiation. The fear of volunteering to do something.

ARABY

NORTH RICHMOND STREET being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces

The former tenant of our house, a priest, had died in the back drawing-room. Air, musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all the rooms, and the waste room behind the kitchen was littered with old useless papers. Among these I found a few paper-covered books, the pages of which were curled and damp: The Abbot, by Walter Scott, The Devout Communnicant and The Memoirs of Vidocq. I liked the last best because its leaves were yellow. The wild garden behind the house contained a central apple-tree and a few straggling bushes under one of which I found the late tenant's rusty bicycle-pump. He had been a very charitable priest; in his will he had left all his money to institutions and the furniture of his house to his sister.

When the short days of winter came dusk fell before we had well eaten our dinners. When we met in the street the houses had grown sombre. The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns. The cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed. Our shouts echoed in the silent street. The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses where we ran the gauntlet of the rough tribes from the cottages, to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables where a coachman smoothed and combed the horse or shook music from the buckled harness. When we returned to the street light from the kitchen windows had filled the areas. If my uncle was seen turning the corner we hid in the shadow until we had seen him safely housed. Or if Mangan's sister came out on the doorstep to call her brother in to his tea we watched her from our shadow peer up and down the street. We waited to see whether she would remain or go in and, if she remained, we left our shadow and walked up to Mangan's steps resignedly. She was waiting for us, her figure defined by the light from the half-opened door. Her brother always teased her before he obeyed and I stood by the railings looking at her. Her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side.

Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door. The blind was pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen. When she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped. I ran to the hall, seized my books and followed her. I kept her brown figure always in my eye and, when we came near the point at which our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her. This happened morning after morning. I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.

Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance. On Saturday evenings when my aunt went marketing I had to go to carry some of the parcels. We walked through the flaring streets, jostled by drunken men and bargaining women, amid the curses of labourers, the shrill litanies of shop-boys who stood on guard by the barrels of pigs' cheeks, the nasal chanting of street-singers, who sang a come-all-you about O'Donovan Rossa, or a ballad about the troubles in our native land. These noises converged in a single sensation of life for me: I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes. Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom. I thought little of the future. I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.

One evening I went into the back drawing-room in which the priest had died. It was a dark rainy evening and there was no sound in the house. Through one of the broken panes I heard the rain impinge upon the earth, the fine incessant needles of water playing in the sodden beds. Some distant lamp or lighted window gleamed below me. I was thankful that I could see so little. All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: "O love! O love!" many times.

At last she spoke to me. When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer. She asked me was I going to Araby. I forgot whether I answered yes or no. It would be a splendid bazaar, she said she would love to go.

"And why can't you?" I asked.

While she spoke she turned a silver bracelet round and round her wrist. She could not go, she said, because there would be a retreat that week in her convent. Her brother and two other boys were fighting for their caps and I was alone at the railings. She held one of the spikes, bowing her head towards me. The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing. It fell over one side of her dress and caught the white border of a petticoat, just visible as she stood at ease.

"It's well for you," she said.

"If I go," I said, "I will bring you something."

What innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that evening! I wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days. I chafed against the work of school. At night in my bedroom and by day in the classroom her image came between me and the page I strove to read. The syllables of the word Araby were called to me through the silence in which my soul luxuriated and cast an Eastern enchantment over me. I asked for leave to go to the bazaar on Saturday night. My aunt was surprised and hoped it was not some Freemason affair. I answered few questions in class. I watched my master's face pass from amiability to sternness; he hoped I was not beginning to idle. I could not call my wandering thoughts together. I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child's play, ugly monotonous child's play.

On Saturday morning I reminded my uncle that I wished to go to the bazaar in the evening. He was fussing at the hallstand, looking for the hat-brush, and answered me curtly:

"Yes, boy, I know."

As he was in the hall I could not go into the front parlour and lie at the window. I left the house in bad humour and walked slowly towards the school. The air was pitilessly raw and already my heart misgave me.

When I came home to dinner my uncle had not yet been home. Still it was early. I sat staring at the clock for some time and. when its ticking began to irritate me, I left the room. I mounted the staircase and gained the upper part of the house. The high cold empty gloomy rooms liberated me and I went from room to room singing. From the front window I saw my companions playing below in the street. Their cries reached me weakened and indistinct and, leaning my forehead against the cool glass, I looked over at the dark house where she lived. I may have stood there for an hour, seeing nothing but the brown-clad figure cast by my imagination, touched discreetly by the lamplight at the curved neck, at the hand upon the railings and at the border below the dress.

When I came downstairs again I found Mrs. Mercer sitting at the fire. She was an old garrulous woman, a pawnbroker's widow, who collected used stamps for some pious purpose. I had to endure the gossip of the tea-table. The meal was prolonged beyond an hour and still my uncle did not come. Mrs. Mercer stood up to go: she was sorry she couldn't wait any longer, but it was after eight o'clock and she did not like to be out late as the night air was bad for her. When she had gone I began to walk up and down the room, clenching my fists. My aunt said:

"I'm afraid you may put off your bazaar for this night of Our Lord."

At nine o'clock I heard my uncle's latchkey in the halldoor. I heard him talking to himself and heard the hallstand rocking when it had received the weight of his overcoat. I could interpret these signs. When he was midway through his dinner I asked him to give me the money to go to the bazaar. He had forgotten.

"The people are in bed and after their first sleep now," he said.

I did not smile. My aunt said to him energetically:

"Can't you give him the money and let him go? You've kept him late enough as it is."

My uncle said he was very sorry he had forgotten. He said he believed in the old saying: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." He asked me where I was going and, when I had told him a second time he asked me did I know The Arab's Farewell to his Steed. When I left the kitchen he was about to recite the opening lines of the piece to my aunt.

I held a florin tightly in my hand as I strode down Buckingham Street towards the station. The sight of the streets thronged with buyers and glaring with gas recalled to me the purpose of my journey. I took my seat in a third-class carriage of a deserted train. After an intolerable delay the train moved out of the station slowly. It crept onward among ruinous house and over the twinkling river. At Westland Row Station a crowd of people pressed to the carriage doors; but the porters moved them back, saying that it was a special train for the bazaar. I remained alone in the bare carriage. In a few minutes the train drew up beside an improvised wooden platform. I passed out on to the road and saw by the lighted dial of a clock that it was ten minutes to ten. In front of me was a large building which displayed the magical name.

I could not find any sixpenny entrance and, fearing that the bazaar would be closed, I passed in quickly through a turnstile, handing a shilling to a weary-looking man. I found myself in a big hall girdled at half its height by a gallery. Nearly all the stalls were closed and the greater part of the hall was in darkness. I recognised a silence like that which pervades a church after a service. I walked into the centre of the bazaar timidly. A few people were gathered about the stalls which were still open. Before a curtain, over which the words Cafe Chantant were written in coloured lamps, two men were counting money on a salver. I listened to the fall of the coins.

Remembering with difficulty why I had come I went over to one of the stalls and examined porcelain vases and flowered . At the door of the stall a young lady was talking and laughing with two young gentlemen. I remarked their English accents and listened vaguely to their conversation.

"O, I never said such a thing!"

"O, but you did!"

"O, but I didn't!"

"Didn't she say that?"

"Yes. I heard her."

"0, there's a ... fib!"

Observing me the young lady came over and asked me did I wish to buy anything. The tone of her voice was not encouraging; she seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty. I looked humbly at the great jars that stood like eastern guards at either side of the dark entrance to the stall and murmured:

"No, thank you."

The young lady changed the position of one of the vases and went back to the two young men. They began to talk of the same subject. Once or twice the young lady glanced at me over her shoulder.

I lingered before her stall, though I knew my stay was useless, to make my interest in her wares seem the more real. Then I turned away slowly and walked down the middle of the bazaar. I allowed the two pennies to fall against the sixpence in my pocket. I heard a voice call from one end of the gallery that the light was out. The upper part of the hall was now completely dark.

Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.

Bill Clinton vs. Patrick Stewart

2008-03-18T20:05:00.002-04:00

Former awesome president Bill Clinton is coming to my high school tomorrow .Unfortunately, after working the blood drive all day, I'm going on my school's Macbeth field trip to see Patrick Stewart. So now, to modify one of Macbeth's greatest lines...

To stay and watch Bill Clinton or not to stay and watch Bill Clinton and see Patrick Stewart instead play Macbeth, that is the question.

This is one of the most difficult questions of all time. Bill Clinton! The former PRESIDENT of America! Basically the king of the universe! In our humble school. I don't think that has happened in SHS's 80 years. But on the other hand, Patrick Stewart... He might die soon.

Here, let's get one of those tables up here! Come on! Yeah, nice.

Stewart	Clinton
Former Captain Picard	Former president
Also former Professor X	Ohhhhhh!!! Burned! He wasn't anything else besides president!
Bald	Hair

No conclusions made yet! It seems I may never figure this out. Let's see... Patrick Stewart will be on a stage playing the part of a cool king and hey it's in Brooklyn maybe I'll stumble into an Excepter practice or something. Clinton will be in our gym with the pep band actually BEING the part of a cool ex-king... He'll probably be talking about Hillary though. Politics. Boring!

Anyway, everyone in my school loves Obama ever since the first Obama shirt was worn back in September. The Obama craze is at such a fever pitch I've seen a letter to the editor complaining about it. It starts with "Don't get me wrong, I love Obama" like he'll be murdered if he didn't. The one republican in school always gets into huge arguments with me, a guy who knows a little about Obama, and my friend who knows nothing about Obama except that he loves him. At least he knows who Obama is.

My real dream is to get Bill to donate his blood to the Red Cross. If I'm not passed out and if he is there, I will ask him. That would be amazing! Unfortunately I can only be in one place at once until I can figure out how to use quantum mechanics.

Anyway I can't wait to enter Spring Break after spending the last two days in a school where today consisted of doing one state math competition and then a national math competition for the next three hours, totally confused by problems like "If AI on trapezoid AIME is 10(7)^1/2 then what is the arctan of the probability that the number of As and Bs in a random sequence of 14 As and Bs will be even and odd, respectively?" And then I can't even invert the colors of my teacher's new MacBook on his smart board without getting crucified for it!

Conclusion

Macbeth because I already paid for the trip.

Dave Liebman & Mike Stephans @ Deerhead Inn 3/16/08

2008-03-16T12:58:00.003-04:00

with Tony Marino, Bobby Avey

HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Deerhead is such a nice place to hear great jazz, at least when Dave Liebman is playing.

I only saw the second set of the four hour long performance because beforehand I was at a play that my friend wrote and the admission price halves at 9:30 p.m. I probably missed some great music, but Liebman's exhausting set radiated so much energy that I wouldn't have been able to take both of them. The band, while not his usual, were fantastic; in between Marino's undead bass work and Stephans's mind-blowing drumming, Liebman could sometimes be forgotten until suddenly he steps in and destroys everything you thought you knew about Coltrane or sax or even jazz.

The two-hour long set felt like 30 minutes, which is refreshing after so many indie rock shows that don't allow you to just sit down and instead you have to shift your weight from one leg to the other about 1000 times while standing between a sweaty guy with no shirt on and another one. Here I was sitting, free to listen to the music and think about nothing like why my feet hurt so bad. It was like an out of body experience in which I stopped noticing that I hadn't had dinner yet or that the waitress spilled water all over me.

Jonno kept showing me the clock on his cell phone, so nervous about me driving them home after curfew. Just when he showed me 10:51, Liebman announced he was playing John Coltrane's "India". I was like "we gotta wait!" I have no idea what happened in the next 20 minutes, but Liebman played out of a straw! Our collective brains were fried.

"India" ended at 11:15. We got home at 11:36; my mom was furious. My only explanation was "but it was really good."

K. TOP 2007

2008-03-15T16:09:00.004-04:00

I started writing this a while ago (in actual 2007) and kept refining and stuff. The order might be wrong now but that's irrelevant; I still like this music. It took so long because I kept going back and rewriting and thinking about what to write and I stupidly decided to write about more albums than I could handle...

I'm releasing these finally, almost 1/4 into 2008, when everybody forgot about these albums and no one wants to hear them anymore. I'm as satisfied as I'll accept. At least now I've learned to work harder. I'll try to get up a Top 1st 1/4 2008 in time.

K. TOP 2007

Albums

1. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
When I was a kid (<11 years old), I hated music. Except the 2BA Master Pokémon album, which I loved. But I think if I listened to this when I was 10, it would've been an instant favorite. The tracks run the gamut from tear-jerkingly beautiful ("Fireworks") to irresistibly catchy ("Fireworks"). It might not be as interesting as the mysterious Sung Tongs and it might not have any tracks with the ambient beauty of "Winter's Love" or "Loch Raven", but, uh...

Black Dice and Animal Collective are like the Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison of music; both developing the technology and making the models for separate strange and wonderful futures of sound. We don't really know what's going on but we know that either one will make our lives a lot better. It seemed once that we'd have to go AC or DC (BD) but they eventually learned to coexist. This will be like that.

Every track is timeless, made under the influence of feelings that are universally applicable. The best tracks here have written their own rules; no one else would've known that a Terry Riley thing could suddenly give way to a tender family discussion. Maybe this is the ultimate kid's album, something light years beyond No!--as a kid I would've loved to sing along about a Peacebone. With all of the atmospherics, I can't help but think this one is all Geologist, so in honor of his Columbia days I'll give this band a name for their sound: Upper West Side NGC 7331.

2. Deerhunter - Cryptograms
I admit the only reason I pride myself in knowing about this one early was because I heard Cryptograms and thought Bradford Cox had the neatest voice ever. Later on Nick Sylvester was nice enough to send me the entire album in mp3 format and it's another case of infinite replay value. His voice! And the words that his voice says! I can't really tell what this is influenced by - maybe My Bloody Valentine? Loveless is good but this is great. The album gets personal in the best way possible as Cox goes back to visit his childhood and we look out the window perpendicular to the direction we're traveling in.

Is his absorption with his adolescence overwrought? I'm at that age, and I'm still interested. Besides, when I'm drowning halfway through the nauseating-as-usual (favorable sense) "Spring Hall Convert" I don't ask myself this.

3. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Only 3rd because 2007 was really good, all right? This is actually their better album; everyone likes Funeral more, but how much of that is based on how awesome "Neighborhood #1" and "Rebellion (Lies)" were? And on how you skipped "Neighborhood #4" and just turned it off before the last track started? The Arcade Fire are pretty mature for only their second album. I remember seeing this band right after Funeral came out and hearing "Intervention". And then I remember being pretty psyched to hear that it would be on this album.

The slow tracks are the good tracks, unlike Funeral, which is good since fast tracks age quicker. Songs like "Ocean of Noise" that have Magnetic Fields-esque lines like "and all the reasons I gave were just lies to buy myself some time" seem like the irritated aftermath of the mistakes the narrator made in Funeral.

What I really love about this band is they seem to have their schtick down; they don't need to wear those suits to keep up the act even if bands like The Decemberists need to. But they do, reinforcing their image as (a Texas religious cult? 19th century mariners? elves?). It's good because you can really hear the suits in the 320 kbps mp3s. If they keep making music that sounds like it was recorded at sea or in a church or just anywhere not of this world, I'm cool with it.

4. The National - Boxer
Every song seems to be about alienation - relationships that might as well be over in "Ada" ("Ada I can hear the sound of your laugh through the wall"), growing apart from friends in "Mistaken For Strangers", insecurity in the paranoid "Slow Show", etc. The consistently depressing tone of all of these songs turns off a bunch listeners, such as idiots, so it might be high time for these guys to write a song or two about you and me dancing or young folks but I'm perfectly cool with listening to these with amazement at how perfectly they captured my very difficult life.

Nothing flashy instrumentally here, even I can play some of these songs after tabbing them up on several days after chess club, but I don't even try the singing part (I do it in my head) because Berninger's strangled voice is the best element here. It could make one think of 100 metaphors of being "confined" or "suppressed" or whatever; I say he'd be up there with all those crooners. If you think you've heard all baritones have to offer, think again.

5. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
"Ethereal" is a pretty good word to describe the album; I don't know what it means, but it aptly describes the way in which Panda Bear's relaxed voice blends in with the instrumentation. Harkening back to the days of those guys Deerhunter, but he's running forwards looking forward instead of looking backward. Those Indie Blockedappella guys may make similar noises if they ever try to do a My Bloody Valentine song.

It sounds like the ideal future of pop music; rhythmically focused, ancient samples given new life, vocals that aren't too overbearing, pure gold flying everywhere, like a barfing treasure chest. And the lyrics are some of the year's best, the kind of lyrics I had a dream about once: "I'm not trying to forget you/I just like to be alone". There are still plenty of flaws: can't think of any but I'm pretty sure I heard at least two once.

Another good word would be "valetudinarian." Right?

6. Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline
Writing more than 100 words on this doesn't make much sense. The music sounds incidental, randomly formed by the sounds of human life; I'm surprised, even if I wouldn't make the comparison, that this isn't likened to Explosion in the Sky's work. But there is a distinction to be made between this and EitS; EitS seeks out that kind of false emotional connection by creating their own foreign environments full of tremolos and whatever, whereas it's more like a side effect here from Stars of the Lid so successfully turning the universe into a sound.

But I can't say it as well as a music guru (and great poet), so I'm just going to copy an Amazon user review of their similar and equally great "Tired Sounds of..."

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars If you're not on the list you can't come in, February 28, 2007
By Kezzworld "Music Guru"
This is music for
people who write poetry, for people who work at home
for people who hate airports or traffic jams or shopping malls or trains
or who love the aftermath of late, late nights
and who dream a lot when they are awake.
It is music for the finest film you never saw,
or for people making plans inside their head
and it is music for people like me.

So true! Right?

7. Lil' Wayne - Da Drought 3
I can never devour the whole thing at once, but it is the most fun album of the year. The most joyous time in my life was hearing the beginning of "Black Republicans". I also think this has to be the most discouraging mixtape for any young rapper; why try if your song is just going to be improved in every possible way when Lil' Wayne is done with it? Obviously a social experience; it's relieving to have something to listen to with my friends without worrying whether or not they actually like it. Everyone does.

8. White Rainbow - Prism of Eternal Now
One of my favorite things: bold, large print. The cover of this album is one of the best ever, even if it seems to evoke just the opposite of what it sounds like. This is one of four wordless albums in my top ten. I don't know what to make of that, other than that I consider vocals so instrumental to an album's success that why not just throw out the syllabically-constraining words? "Mystic Prism" makes amazing use of the human voice in conjunction with a bunch of other things to create a long droning track propelled by a steady, complex drum beat. If someone switched the inputs of our ears and our eyes so that we would hear what we see, this slowly moving, droning album makes up a day's worth of sight.

9. Growing - Vision Swim
Albums like this, Beaches & Canyons, and Seadrum/House of Sun are really easy to get lost in. I'd be lying if I can remember what half of Vision Swim sounds like, even when I just listened to it, but that's not to say it's forgettable--I'm still mesmerized every time I reach that part in On Anon where the staccato synths seem to reveal 1/4 of a complete, flowing melody, like an economic version of ambient music--it's just that this music wraps you up in each specific "moment" that you forget about what you heard a minute ago.

Back to Beaches & Canyons; which this album is like the Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels of. Beaches & Canyons and this both seem to use jarring synth scrapes that would, in almost any other context, hurt the ears. But the two bands are using sounds of noise to make music without the characteristic painfulness that noise is known for. Post-noise? Hearing a synth jump out at you only to float harmlessly to the ground is surprising, then comforting.

Not a lot of movement to this album; don't know if that's indicative of Growing's stuff, since I haven't heard anything they released before Vision Swim. But I'll make a conjecture: their music is a sonic panorama with a wide angle lens that only cuts once in a while. In comparison, everything else made these days is a Jason Bourne frenzy of close-ups and zooms.

10. Black Dice - Load Blown
The legend as I'm making it up right now goes like this: Black Dice found a Blu-Ray disc with the hand-written label Now That's What I Call Music! 483. After listening to it, the disc disappeared in the drive. Using only their memory, they made Load Blown, a covers album of the mystery disc.

These songs sound like a continuation of Broken Ear Record's mind-bending experimental music (and not just experimental in the conventional sense; it actually sounds these guys are actually burning holes in their lab coats to do this stuff). This time, Black Dice remembered that humans enjoy a beat so they just up and made dance music like it's nothing difficult. I heard most of these tracks before this was released because this is more of a compilation than an album, but despite minor gripes I have with the remastered "Roll Up" (no more sizzle; they cut off the highs), I'm again in awe of how ground-breaking these guys can be sometimes. And "Gore" is the best thing since "Big Ship".

11. Marissa Nadler - Songs III: Bird on the Water
She sounds like a 19th century ghost; the lyrics can sound like high school poetry and too many names just confuses the thing but there's no point in criticizing her when her voice is the kind that will keep echoing in your ears when you're dead.

12. Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals
An unrefined album that might've worked better as a precursor EP to something to get really excited about. Still, nothing beats the sweep kick-ice ball-uppercut of the first three tracks. The epic celebration "2080" is the culmination placed in the beginning where these guys ask you to sit back while they try to prove in song that yes they are seizing the day. I'm convinced, at least.

13. Pantha Du Prince - This Bliss
For electronic music, a very no-frills album that doesn't evoke images or provoke emotions on its own. This sort of music best lends itself to complementation; a look at the outside (or inside?) world will spark a sudden deluge of images that can't be shaken. Whatever photograph you subconsciously commit to this roll of film will permanently remind you of the beauty of this music and vice versa.

14. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
The story, of a musician suddenly gone solo recording alone in the Wisconsin winter, has been heard countless times before. I don't know, didn't it happen to Skip Spence or something?? I don't know.

Such a sentimental title is the mark of an album that's all about pregnancies and lost loves, i.e. stuff that I've never experienced. That doesn't mean that in between his whispering wail and the huge expanse of nothing on the other side, I don't feel like I have.

15. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Scribble Mural Comic Journal
Embarrassingly, after reading about this band on Fluxblog a while back, I thought the dude in charge was my friend's brother... I was wrong, they're two separate young musicians with the same name in Philadelphia... The two sisters who serendipitously enough sing for their brother's band nicely fit in most of the time but everytime else just get in the way of the lovely ocean of noise (get that I love atmospheric music yet?) beneath them. Luckily enough I don't notice unless I'm especially irritable, because I get caught up in gorgeously turbulent melodies like the one in "Things Only I Can See". Actually, it sounds like what would happen if my cassette tape Stone Roses album got even more distorted.

16. Eric Copeland - Hermaphrodite
We have future pop songs (Strawberry Jam), dreamed pop songs (Person Pitch), future club hits (Load Blown), now we have alien world music. It's nice to be treated to some unchecked indulgence by one of the masterminds of Black Dice and listen to one of his collages unedited like he would want it to be. Deliberately unintelligible vocals and impossible noises at least make for something fun like "Spacehead". What we get is a Finnegans Wake of pretty music wherever the hell it came from and whatever the hell it is as opposed to the more streamlined A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man that Black Dice is.

17. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Well definitely this one is going to be known as a classic of the 00's decades from now and I can totally see why. As meaningless as the phrase is, this is a technically perfect album of pop songs comparable to Thriller, I'm guessing at least. I don't have many suggestions to change on this; the lyrics are pretty bad? "That's how it starts/We go back to your house" isn't exactly worthy of a great novel. But then again, "I can sit on metal steps" isn't amazing either.

18. James Blackshaw - The Cloud of Unknowing
Previously just another one of those weird names on my iPod from the Gold Leaf Branches compilation, this guy is actually pretty good. He might be the most skilled 12-string guitar player on this list or even musician in general, but he chooses to use his powers to create just a gentle curtain of sound. A 40-minute album of this stuff would get repetitive; it's mostly a bass string beat driving the gliding melody. But subtle minor key melodies that are probably formed from the high tempo at which they are played (as I read in an article about auditory illusions) are too haunting to shake. This could be the soundtrack of motion in nature. Except volcanoes and stuff, turn up AC/DC for those.

19. Caribou - Andorra
I hate people who are like, "music will never be good as it was in the '60s!" If they existed I would hate them. Here is the album designed for all these people by some fed up guy! A big f-you to baby boomers. It has a mysterious vibe that evokes the spirit of the '60s, not the actual '60s. Unfinished melodies, a hazy atmosphere, and Snaith's own freaked-out vocals might sound closest to the Zombies or something. If you just want the Cliff's Notes version, listen to the flute from 0:47-0:50 on "Melody Day".

20. Prinzhorn Dance School
Great, overlooked DFA release. Contradicts everything that I thought I knew about music. Heavy on the bass. I usually dislike music that is this blunt and straightforward, but being this sparse makes it exciting to listen to. I like my music to be mathematically precise sometimes, but I don't like math rock; I like this stuff. I think they listened to The Pop Group and Wire? I feel some connection between the bands; it's just the scary sense of isolation they all harbor.

21. Gui Boratto - Chromophobia
Nothing subtle here, no swelling strings and whatever. Gui Boratto delivers a really cold-or warm? I can't tell-album. I really feel like I'm dancing about architecture right now. Hey, he's an architect!

22. Get Him Eat Him - Arms Down
"Why indie rock sucks in '08" should be a track on this album. The whole thing is a consistently good blink-and-you-miss-it kind of album that reflexively induces lots of smiling and nodding heads and fist pumps etc. mostly because of how earnest the singer (Matt LeMay I think?) sounds. Again, the entire album is great but I would be lying if I said I always listen to the whole thing because I usually just keep skipping back to the amazing sonic boom that opens "2x2" until bedtime. When was the last time musicians were this excited to play music?

23. Ricardo Villalobos - Fabric 36
A confusing listen. Could never work as background music; the changes are too slight to notice without active attention. Here's Chinese water torture administered by Ricardo Villalobos; the music takes its time and is stretched out enough to remain maddeningly entrancing. And "Andruic & Japan" reinforces the fact that percussion is the greatest thing to happen to music.

24. Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
Some of the best, ramshackle melodies since Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain combined with the crackling guitars of Slanted & Enchanted with walkie talkie vocals. Blitzen Trapper is terrible at hiding their influences, but if it's not a welcome change, it's nice to hear a well-done impersonation. Comforting if not creative, which might be a damning attribute, but they'll still have glory for a little while. Tracks 10 & 11 are called, respectively, "Summer Town" and "Murder Babe". Give me a break!

25. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Dandelion Gum
I get the unshakable feeling that these are ordinary pop songs given a few Photoshop filters, but they are still catchy pop songs. There's a really Paper Rad sort of feel to this whole thing-all the oversaturated colors of the rainbow in digital form in music form-that could wear thin after a while, but I still have a lot of things left to look at in this collage.

Tracks

1. Yeasayer - 2080
I will confidently say that anyone who dislikes this song is wrong. There might be a meaning to the lyrics that I haven't deciphered yet, but the general theme of approaching the future arms wide open is conveyed so believably that the band has a greater lust for life than any since Iggy when he did "Lust for Life". This is optimism that couldn't possibly come from this problematic world. Or maybe the singer is in love or something.

2. Animal Collective - Fireworks
The song that Animal Collective were formed to sing, and obviously they know it. Fireworks crash hits decorate vocals that are about the discovery that comes with being a child, I think. Second best song about loving life this year.

3. The National - Ada
One line says it all: "Ada I can hear the sound of your voice through the wall." On an album full of songs about phony relationships and tortured minds sung by a guy who might deserve the pain, this is the track that elicits the most empathy.

4. Black Dice - Gore
I've talked about how ingenious this song is since it was on DFA's MySpace years ago. A song that creates about watching the most fantastic/horrifying parade of all time. Like clouds or abstract expressionism, the track is open to 99999999999 different interpretations, at least until we are taken over by machines.

5. Beirut - Elephant Gun
Not a big fan of Zach's Balkan schtick, always singing about things he's fantasized about. But this one actually sounds plausible. Not too much of a story, just some old guy talking about what he did. This epic song just takes Beirut's best parts-the brass section, Zach's voice-and makes this best-of Beirut in one track. Only thing-now what?

6. Stars of the Lid - Even If You're Never Awake (Deuxieme)
Gives me the same feeling of safe aloneness that a song like "Your Hand in Mine" does. Sounds deprived of any sort of force, it's like being underwater while(!!!!) listening to a radio that can only receive the faintest signals. The soft, ambient noises are what you'd expect to hear in space if your favorite part of 2001 is the part immediately before everything goes wrong.

7. The Clientele - Winter on Victoria Street
I think the best music moment in 2007 might be the chorus of this song, when the vocalists are singing two things at once. Obvious candidate for an a cappella rendition. Call these guys.

8. Gui Boratto - Beautiful Life
A strange, unexpected track on the album. Dresses up a simple vocal with the most upbeat, hopeful melody ever. It's like Steve Reich's "Different Trains" without the Holocaust. More repetitive than the song by Louis Armstrong. Still, this manufactured voice sings with more conviction than you'll hear on "What a Wonderful World."

9. Deerhunter - Cryptograms
Robotic singer, burst-fire drum beat, and the pulsating bass are , but the guitar arpeggio repeated ad nauseam, in all its eerie steadfastness, is what turns this album into a suburban vision quest.

10. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
I can't believe I forgot this in my Pazz & Jop ballot.

The Fiery Furnaces - Duplexes of the Dead
Caribou - Melody Day
R. Kelly - I'm A Flirt (Remix)
The Honeydrips - Fall From A Height
Lewis and Clarke - Blasts of Holy Birth
Excepter - Burgers
Lil' Wayne - Ride For My Niggas
Bon Iver - Flume
Soft Circle - Sundazed
White Rainbow - Mystic Prism
Eric Copeland - La Booly Boo
Radiohead - Reckoner
Joanna Newsom - Colleen
Kanye West - Flashing Lights
The Arcade Fire - No Cars Go
Panda Bear - Bros
Grovesnor - Nitemoves
MGMT - Time to Pretend
Sally Shapiro - He Keeps Me Alive
Okkervil River - Plus Ones
Prinzhorn Dance School - Hamworthy Sports and Leisure Center
Black Dice - Roll Up [12"]
A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Things Only I Can See
Shocking Pinks - End of the World
Marissa Nadler - Diamond Heart
Pantha du Prince - Saturn Strobe
Growing - On Anon
No Age - Boy Void
King Khan & The Shrines - Welfare Bread
Les Savy Fav - Patty Lee
Jay-Z - Pray
The Besnard Lakes - Disaster
Magik Markers - Taste
The New Pornographers - Myriad Harbour
James Blackshaw - Running To The Ghost
Prodigy - Stuck on You
Dizzee Rascal - Pussyole
T-Pain - Show U How
Ricardo Villalobos - Andruic & Japan
Battles - Atlas

I have faith in him!

2008-02-21T21:51:00.001-05:00

http://stroudsburgsnow.blogspot.com/

He has never been wrong, or so I hear.

Kiptok's Live Blog Coverage of the 2008 Grammys

2008-02-10T22:01:00.001-05:00

I thought I might as well do the thing that every other blog worth a damn does: live blog something! The thing right now is the Grammys. Here goes!

10:02:32 Keely Smith and Kid Rock just finish a song. I don't know if it was good.

10:03:11 John fogerty's revival is a nominee! Woohoo!

10:03:24 So was Bruce Springsteen's Magic! This is a hard choice.

10:03:47 Foo Fighters!

10:03:57 The guy in Foo Fighters gives his jacket to someone. Just wear it! So lazy!

10:04:31 Dave Grohl tells me that this doesn't get old. Okay.

10:04:48 Wow, he thanked BMG.

10:04:59 Finally I know who has the best road crew in the world.

10:05:22 What's everyone clapping about?

10:05:37 Amy Winehouse is going to perform later, heads up to Amy Winehouse fans.

10:06:48 Whoa! Best song of the night! Hey why did they suddenly cut out on it?

10:09:04 Some knives sitting on a couch. The Grammys are better than ever!

10:10:51 Commercial break.

10:11:02 Back to the Grammys!

10:11:30 Grammy drama! Stevie Wonder throws a fit over the audience clapping too long.

10:12:07 Stevie just says the word "always".

10:12:29 --"Keys!" What does that mean?

10:13:17 Alicia Keys plays a note on the piano.

10:13:55 I think about this liveblogging thing. What am I doing??

10:14:27 Good thing Alicia is reaching with her hand to smack random notes on that keyboard. Yesss, the music got so much better!

10:15:21.4 "Something"

10:15:21.7 "like"

10:15:40 This heavenly guitar playing... It could only be John Mayer, could it?!?!

10:15:42 My prayers are answered.

10:16:37 Interesting John Mayer fact: he attended Berklee College of Music for two semesters!

10:17:26 Ringo disses the audience! They go silent.

10:18:19 Whooo George Strait! I'm pulling for this guy.

10:18:33 Damn it. His "These Days" cover sucks!

10:19:15 Oh Vince and Kanye! I love their good-natured ribbing.

10:21:34 Pfft. Call me when it becomes the Pan-American car of the year.

10:24:10 Oh my god, someone just destroyed that car! BRB calling 911.

10:24:50 Possible exposé: Comcast commercial promoting Rastafarianism? I think it was Comcast...

10:25:55 Oh cool, Michael Brecker won a bunch of awards? Good for him, he lives near me I think.

10:29:49 Herbie Hancock shakes his head.

10:30:08 Listen to the flute player second from the left! Well, it's too late, but I'm pretty positive he played a wrong note.

10:31:47 What is that thing Herbie Hancock is pounding at anyway?

10:32:06 This is the kind of thing my friend loved to blast last year when he drove me to school. Just this part of "Rhapsody in Blue", I mean.

10:34:32 Rihanna's dream is finally realized! I can't wait to watch this moment in the Rihanna movie.

10:35:17 Jay-Z tells it like it is!

10:35:37 Whoa. Did she just thank Carlos Giffoni and Jan Jelinek in the same speech?

10:39:10 Oops, I just realized I've been watching American Dad on Adult Swim this entire time. My bad. I'll change the channel.

10:40:58 Hey, this musical number isn't too bad.

10:41:06 Damn it I forgot to change from American Dad!

10:41:25 There we go.

10:41:33 Amy Winehouse is singing.

10:43:11 Good pan from chandelier.

10:43:48 Yessss, the neck of a saxophone!

10:46:58 Amy Winehouse, so bashful!

10:47:18 Two Grammy favorites, hmmmm... My guesses are Natalie Cole and Tony Bennett.

10:47:20 So right!

10:49:35 Umberella! Just say Umbrella, please.

10:49:53 Amy Winehouse is astonished and she is crying and stuff. Why, you didn't even win, Amy!

10:50:48 I've just been informed that she did win, my mistake.

10:51:18 Finally London gets props.

10:53:17 "That pig's got issues" is bound to be the catchphrase of 2008.

10:55:13 Yawn, ads are too long. Changing back to American Dad.

10:55:15 lol!

10:55:17 lol!!!!

10:55:18 rofl

10:55:19 roflmao!

10:55:21 lol!!!

Greetings from the future

2008-02-04T12:00:00.000-05:00

Hello denizens of 2/3/08! Ahhh, it is great to live in the future. A future where the New England Patriots are the first team to be 19-0 in the NFL. Yup! The Patriots win. I know that because I'm from the future and this is what is happening in the future. The Patriots won the Superbowl, the final NFL game.

It's like the showdown on the beach if you remember my previous post about football and The Warriors. This is like that part where the Warriors (Giants) meet the Rogues (Patriots) and the Gramercy Riffs (uhhh, Patriots too) and they get the crap beaten out of them! The end.

and

2008-02-03T22:18:00.000-05:00

seagulls are the refs.

Polls

2008-01-23T20:01:00.000-05:00

My Pazz & Jop ballot

My Idolator ballot

All I have to say is if Writers Block by Peter Bjorn & John can get 54th in 2007, we're in trouble! Also: I GUARANTEE that if In Rainbows wasn't released by that "revolutionary method" and just on plain ol' cassette tape, it wouldn't have gotten such a good ranking.

Dr. Dwyer

2008-01-23T17:02:00.000-05:00

We made a little project for history class and I'm pretty pleased with the results, especially the intro. It's a talk show in which we interview historic rulers. I based it on Dr. Phil. I took out all the interview parts, which we acted out in class, and just left in the commercials and the intro. And Hitler's interview, which was taped since Kevin was just talking to himself. Here's Dr. Dwyer:

Just imagine Kevin Dwyer coming in at the end of the intro and then interviewing Ivan the Terrible, Louis XIV, Catherine the Great, and Peter the Great in between those commercials!

My main inspiration was the end of this video, at about 54 seconds in:

Thanks especially to Kevin Dwyer for being such a good actor! And then to the rest of my crew, whom can be seen in the commercials.

gnawlsjk;efsmnvczc.,mnvzcn.,NSADN,SDVN,SD

2008-01-22T21:47:00.000-05:00

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Whoops fell asleep again reading my previous post. "Michael Clayton" sure makes megw4oan9a suchxz,.xzcnm,vn9a38uin røßå¨ˆ˙˙ •bybsduysvgd JKG VAHF3232FUIODNZXZ78VX71BCX,M

Kipthoughts on the 2007 best picture noms

2008-01-22T21:23:00.000-05:00

Michael Clayton
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Whoops, I fell asleep reading the boring title. Almost as bad as "Charlie Wilson's War". I'm never going to see this. What a terrible title! If it was called "Michael Claymore," then I might watch it because claymores (both the sword and the mine) rule. Or better yet: "Rocket Launcher"

Juno
YAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What an unappealing title!!! And then in the movie they fall asleep like thirty times, right? I forget. There is sleeping in the movie because of the stupid name. I couldn't sleep at the theater because of all my darn loud friends + the entire Stroudsburg swim team.

Atonement
Oohhhhhhhhhhh big words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't even care, okay? Good for you Keira Knightley, it's not like I can't figure out what that means.

No Country For Old Men
Pretty good movie! Thumbs up. Between this and The Road, this is a lot worse but still,

There Will Be Blood
Where? Oh. When?! Oh. What?!?!?!?!?! Oh. That is the journey you make when you read that awesome title! I'm a big advocate of putting your movie title in your movie at the end, like this one does. It's very important! I liked it so much I watched it twice! The main point I'm writing this whole thing though: you know the guy who played Daniel's brother? Why didn't they just go and cast Will Oldham for that role? Only major problem I had here.

My Classical Phase

2008-01-09T23:48:00.001-05:00

(I am still in it.)

I bought Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Alex Ross's The Rest Is Noise on my last trip to Carrol and Carrol's. The Road was a really fast--and fun!--read. Maybe not the best book I ever read, but definitely one of the most engaging. The conversations were often so sweet yet painful to read and some moments were so terrifying I couldn't put it down! On a related note, I'm listening to a bunch of the stuff on Alex Ross's essential listening list of classical music before I start his book. Here are my thoughts:

Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians
Awesome. I even knew about this one before I read the list. Doesn't even need to be mentioned.

Oliver Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time
Doesn't exactly "stop time" as Alex Ross claims, but overall this is the best thing ever.

Cat Power - Jukebox
Not bad, pretty hilarious cover of "New York," and "Blue" always deserves to be covered. In conclusion, this is a pretty good album to put on and laugh at as Cat Power gleefully skewers all the greatest hits of yesteryear!

Wait, this isn't even classical music!

Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
Beautiful. This really makes a great case for classical music in general, at least to me. Can you believe it? Here I am, turning it up because it's too quiet, then suddenly my ears are blown out! What contrast in dynamics! So this is why everyone's making a fuss about compression.

Move over Arctic Monkeys, Stravinsky's coming to town!

Cat Power - Jukebox
I really like hearing Chan Mars--dang it I did it again!!!!

Igor Stravinsky - Petrushka
I bought this on vinyl yesterday at the Main St. Jukebox and although I didn't listen to it yet (too much Yeasayer), I'm going to predict that this sucks.

Cat Power - Jukebox
Ha. Ha. Ha.

Cat Power - Jukebox
Oh my god. I'm just going to ignore this.

Cat Power - Jukebox

Cat Power - Jukebox

Cat Power - Jukebox

Cat Power - Jukebox

Cat Power - Jukebox

Cat Power - Jukebox

Cat Power - Jukebox

Cat Power - Jukebox

Cat Power - Jukebox
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Justin and Danny Chun Road Trip Day 2

2007-12-17T10:27:00.000-05:00

We went on a road trip from Los Angeles to PA this summer, and I'm in the process of making a video for every day we spent on the road. Here is day 2! (Day 1 was really short)

P.S. I use a song that just got voted #44 track of 2007 by Pitchfork! Woohoo!!

We Interrupt Your Daily Kiptok Song Time Hour

2007-12-16T00:45:00.000-05:00

Today's regularly scheduled mix, entitled "the", has been canceled.

Instead, I bring you a sneak preview of Kiptok's Top 10 of 2008 list!

1. Beach House - Devotion
2. ???
3. ???
4. ???
5. ???
6. ???
7. ???
8. ???
9. ???
10. ???

Pretty Please

2007-12-12T20:06:00.001-05:00

I'm still reeling from the OiNK crash of 2007, and all I've been able to download pretty much is the daily Atlas Sound EP, which while good, is far from sufficient. But I haven't missed OiNK as much as I do right now, after I heard that Beach House's Devotion got leaked. Obviously I'm going to buy the CD when it comes out, but it's in months and I heard Gila now and it's so good! So anyone want to send me a .zip file (preferably >=192kb)?!?!?! I'm dying!

Kiptok Song Time Hour: Love

2007-12-10T21:06:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the first edition of Kiptok Song Time Hour, where I post a mix that YOU should download each individual track of and listen to in my order! One rule: each mix must have a theme.

So to start off, I thought of that immortal thing. Yes, that which makes the world turn! Love. Enjoy listening to love. Also guys don't complain about the really weird format, I know, I know, I just made a pdf of the playlist and then copy + pasted, okay? It's about the music, remember?!?!?!?! You guys will know when the song title ends and the artist name starts, I know you guys!

And for all the Motown stuff, I know. I have a lot of Motown, I'm not going to fix all those titles. Oh well.

love
712 songs, 1:21:28:50 total time, 4.01 GB
Name Artist
Shut Up I Am Dreaming Of Places Where Lovers Have Wings Sunset Rubdown
Lay And Love Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Woman Love Gene Vincent
Smother Love Crass
A River Coul Be Loved Brightblack Morning Light
Can't Buy Me Love The Beatles
Stop! In the Name of Love Diana Ross
M.S.T.G.L. (MoneySexTripGodLove) John Zorn-Yamataka Eye
Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above CSS
Love Lost Alan Braxe And Friends
A Martyr For My Love For You The White Stripes
08 08 - Love's Made A Fool Of You Buddy Holly and the Crickets
20. He Doesn‚t Love Her Anymore - Martha & The Vandellas He Doesn‚t Love Her Anymore - Martha & The …
Love Me Phantom
I Love My Baby The Phaetons
Where Is My Love Cat Power
Who Loves The Sun (Alternate Mix) The Velvet Underground
Love Is Like A Bottle Of Gin The Magnetic Fields
5. What Am I Going To Do Without Your Love - Martha & The Vandellas What Am I Going To Do Without Your Love - M…
Pictureloved Isolée
03 he gives us all his love Randy Newman
Punk Love The Magnetic Fields
20. Take Some Time Out For Love - The Isley Brothers Take Some Time Out For Love - The Isley Brot…
Iron Glove Psychic TV
Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above (Spank Rock Remix) CSS
One Love/people Get Ready Bob Marley and the Wailers
07 The contours - Do you love me? Various Artists
I'm Just A Killer For Your Love Blur
Love Connection Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
Lovestoned/I Think She Knows Interlude Justin Timberlake
I'm Gonna Make You Love Me Diana Ross & the Supremes; The Temptations
18. A Need For Love - The Marvelettes A Need For Love - The Marvelettes
4. You Say You Love Me - The Downbeats You Say You Love Me - The Downbeats
Farewell My Summer Love The Jacksons
Nothin' Can Change This Love Sam Cooke
Love's Secret Domain Coil
Where The Is No Love There Is No Justice Esmerine
I Wanna Be Your Lover La Bionda
Do You Love Me Contours
Digital Love Daft Punk
No Love Lost Joy Division
Lover's Spit Broken Social Scene
The White Lady Loves You More Elliott Smith
The Man I Love Art Tatum
Girls Own Love Andrew W.K.
I Love Her All The Time Sonic Youth
Is There Anybody Here That Love My Jesus Medeski, Martin & Wood
Only Love Can Break Your Heart Saint Etienne
What Makes You Love Him [ﬁrst version] Singin' Sammy Ward
I'm Gonna Love You Too Blondie
Love Her Madly The Doors
12. I‚ll Never See My Love Again - Kim Weston I‚ll Never See My Love Again - Kim Weston
Love John Coltrane
Love Explosion Weezer
I Love You, You Big Dummy Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
The One Who Really Loves You Mary Wells
Love Came Tumblin' Down the monks
Hot On The Heels Of Love Throbbing Gristle
Friday I'm In Love The Cure
Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad Derek and The Dominos
Killing For Love José González
Page 1 of 12
love
Name Artist
Love And Dancing Justus Köhncke
Creatures Of Love Talking Heads
Why I Love You Prefuse 73
8. Until You Love Someone - Four Tops Until You Love Someone - Four Tops
Length Of Love Interpol
Prove My Love Violent Femmes
See Through Love Arthur Russell
La La Love You Pixies
Is This What They Used To Call Love The Magnetic Fields
Hell Is Now Love The Dead C
When My Love Comes Down Grinderman
I Love A Magician The Dismemberment Plan
Love In Vain The Rolling Stones
Sleeping Is The Only Love Silver Jews
Lovely One The Jacksons
lovely allen holy fuck
Tan Loves Blue US Maple
I Love How You Love Me Jeff Mangum
When Your Lover Has Gone Art Tatum
People In Love Art Brut
Don't Love the Liar Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice
I Don't Love Anyone Belle & Sebastian
The Love Cats The Cure
When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes Diana Ross & the Supremes
When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes Supremes
12 god's song (that's why I love mankind) Randy Newman
Love You To The Beatles
Love To The World L.T.D.
The Place I Love The Jam
Love (Feat. Musiq & K. Fox) Ghostface
I'm Not In Love (Alternate Ver Talking Heads
You Don't Know What Love Is Sonny Rollins
I Believe (When I Fall In Love Stevie Wonder
Bizarre Love Triangle (Step Pettibone Extended Mix) New Order
Is This Love? Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
We're Not Supposed To Be Lovers Dean & Britta
More Love Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
Have You Ever Loved a Woman Derek and The Dominos
Love Dance Of The Saroos Joe Meek
26. Your Love Is Amazing - Four Tops Your Love Is Amazing - Four Tops
I'm Confessin' (That I Love You) Thelonious Monk
Experimental Music Love The Magnetic Fields
This Modern Love Bloc Party
A Love That Will Never Grow Old Original Soundtrack
The Love You Save Jackson 5
And I Love Her The Beatles
(Love is Like A) Heat Wave Martha and the Vandellas
11. Love (Makes Me Do Foolish Things) - Martha & The Vandellas Love (Makes Me Do Foolish Things) - Martha &…
Light Of Love T.Rex
16. Standing In The Shadows Of Love - Four Tops Standing In The Shadows Of Love - Four Tops
Nothin' Can Change This Love (unreleased version) Sam Cooke
Sweet Love for Planet Earth fuck buttons
Barcelona Loves You I'm From Barcelona
Nobody To Love 13th Floor Elevators
Love Athena The Olivia Tremor Control
Love Can Tame the Wild the monks
Pieces Of The People We Love The Rapture
Solomon Burke / Everybody Needs Somebody To Love Various Artists
Dream Lover Big Star
Baby, I Love You The Ronettes
Love (Makes Me Do Foolish Things) Martha & The Vandellas
Love Me Do The Beatles
GLOVER The Aliens
Page 2 of 12
love
Name Artist
Somebody To Love Bobby Darin
Love Your Shotgun Be Your Own PET
Dormant Love Charalambides
I Like Love (Uk/japan Bonus Track) R. Kelly
Songs of Love Ben Folds
No Easy Love Annie
Part Time Love Sammy Ward
Let My Love Open the Door Pete Townshend
Gangster Of Love Talking Heads
L-O-V-E (Love) Al Green
Love & Communication Cat Power
The Lovely Universe Circulatory System
Love Child Diana Ross & The Supremes
Lovely Rita The Beatles
Hounds of Love (New Mix) The Futureheads
Your Love Supergrass
Fuller Love Art Blakey
Loveﬁngers Silver Apples
Some Kinda Love The Velvet Underground
Only Love Can Break Your Heart Neil Young
Hounds of Love The Futureheads
Justify My Love Madonna
Feeling Called Love Wire
i never loved a man aretha franklin
I'm In The Mood For Love Art Tatum
To Love Somebody The Flying Burrito Brothers
If There's Such A Thing As Love The Magnetic Fields
New York I Love You LCD Soundsystem
Lovelier Girl Beach House
I Have Known Love Silver Apples
Don't Think Lover A Place To Bury Strangers
21. Who Could Ever Doubt My Love - The Isley Brothers Who Could Ever Doubt My Love - The Isley Bro…
Little Miss Lover Jimi Hendrix
A Love That Can Never Be The Satintones
13. A Little Bit Of Sympathy, A Little Bit Of Love - The Marvelettes A Little Bit Of Sympathy, A Little Bit Of Love - …
Love Is Not A Competition (But I'm Winning) Kaiser Chiefs
The One You Really Love The Magnetic Fields
Jesus Loves Rev. Columbus Mann
Your Love Is Like the Morning Sun Al Green
Our Love Lies Swans
Crazy in Love Beyoncé [ft. Jay-Z]
Fall in Love With Me Iggy Pop
There's Too Much Love Belle & Sebastian
Could You Be Loved Bob Marley & The Wailers
A River Could Be Loved Brightblack Morning Light
Only Lover Jandek
I Love You Because Elvis Presley
My Love Justin Timberlake
Hand In Glove The Smiths
13. Goddess Of Love - The Marvelettes Goddess Of Love - The Marvelettes
I Can't Give Back The Love I Feel For You Rita Wright
Good Bye Cruel Love Linda Griner
Crazy Love, Vol. II Paul Simon
Who Do You Love Ronnie Hawkins
Computer Love Kraftwerk
If It's Love (It's Alright) Eddie Holland
Addicted to Love Ciccone Youth
Hounds Of Love Kate Bush
I Fall In Love Too Easily Miles Davis
Love Will Tear Us Apart Joy Division
Eric Dolphy - Like Someone In Love Eric Dolphy
A Love She Can Count On Miracles
Lets Make Love And Listen To Death From Above (Spank Rock Remix) CSS
Page 3 of 12
love
Name Artist
11. I‚ll Always Love You - The Spinners I‚ll Always Love You - The Spinners
Warm Love Van Morrison
Give My Love To Rose Johnny Cash
Let's Make Love And Listen Death From Above (Diplo Remix)(Fluokids) CSS
25. I Want Her Love - Jimmy Ruffin I Want Her Love - Jimmy Ruffin
Love You More The Buzzcocks
One Love Nas
29. What Love Has Joined Together - The Temptations What Love Has Joined Together - The Temptati…
Contract on Love Stevie Wonder
28. A Little More Love - Kim Weston A Little More Love - Kim Weston
All the Love I've Got Marvelettes
Genius of Love Tom Tom Club
Love Ain't for Keeping The Who
I.C. Love Affair Gaz Nevada
29. If You Don't Want My Love - Eddie Holland If You Don't Want My Love - Eddie Holland
Love To Fight Sebadoh
Everybody Needs Somebody To Love The 13th Floor Elevators
18. What Now My Love - Richard Anthony What Now My Love - Richard Anthony
Satellite Of Love Lou Reed
17 17 - I'm Gonna Love You Too Buddy Holly and the Crickets
...And The Gods Made Love The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Love Me Pete Hartﬁeld
Summer Love/Set The Mood Prelude Justin Timberlake
Lovers Rock Kazumi Nikaidoh
Hard to Love a Man Magnolia Electric Co.
Who Wouldn't Love A Man Like That [ﬁrst version] Mable John
I'll Work For Your Love Bruce Springsteen
I Fall In Love Too Easily/The Fire Within Keith Jarrett
Love Is a Number White Rose Movement
Love Is Like Jazz The Magnetic Fields
Love's Gone Bad Chris Clark
This Modern Love (Dave P & Adam Sparkles Making Time Remix) Bloc Party
love song for a mexican (2nd version) Mclusky
Only Lovers Left Alive The Long Blondes
Love & Caring Crystal Castles
I Love Bread Jim Gaffigan
That's How Strong My Love Is Candi Staton
Blind Love Swans
Your Mother Loves You Son Beulah
Love Comes In Spurts Richard Hell & The Voidoids
Love Is Common
Does He Love You? Rilo Kiley
18. I'll Always Love You - Brenda Holloway I'll Always Love You - Brenda Holloway
Farewell My Love Temptations
Loveless Love The Feelies
Lost in Love Air Supply
Smoke & Love Cody Chesnutt
Love Or Confusion Jimi Hendrix
Trouble Lover Charters
I Wish You Love Sam Cooke
Stop 4 Love Basement Jaxx
Who Loves The Sun (Alternate Mix) The Velvet Underground
A Lovesong (For Cubs) +, (Part III) Stars Of The Lid
Itsy Bity Pity Love Debbie Dean
Love And Dancing Justus Köhncke
How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down Silver Jews
Hate that I Love You (Feat. Ne-Yo) Rihanna
I'm Not In Love Talking Heads
You'll Never Cherish a Love So True ('Til You Lose It) Vells
Ain't That Love Scratch Acid
10. You‚ve Been In Love Too Long - Martha & The Vandellas You‚ve Been In Love Too Long - Martha & The …
Love Is A Place Metric
I Don't Love You My Chemical Romance
Page 4 of 12
love
Name Artist
The Love-Matic Grampa Main Title The Simpsons
Bold As Love Jimi Hendrix
Celestial Love Sun Ra And His Outer Space Arkestra
Jealous Lover Martha & The Vandellas
U-Love Jay Dee
16 16 - Words Of Love Buddy Holly and the Crickets
Love You Most Of All Sam Cooke
Lover Art Tatum
Dreaming Of Your Love Tony Williams
Oh Love Don Wade
Kid Gloves Voxtrot
Bullets And Love (Introduction) The Coup
I Can't Fall In Love Irving
Elementary Lover (Feat. Mobius Band) Matthew Dear
Love For Sale Talking Heads
15. As Long As There Is L-O-V-E Love - Jimmy Ruffin As Long As There Is L-O-V-E Love - Jimmy Ru…
You Don't Know What Love Is Keith Jarrett
16. Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart - The Supremes Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart - The Supre…
Futuresex/Lovesounds Justin Timberlake
I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You Jens Lekman
Lets make love and listen to the Junior Boys team9 vs. Stereogum
Sweet and Lovely Thelonious Monk
I'm Always In Love Wilco
I'm Sorry I Love You The Magnetic Fields
Lover Come Back To Me Art Tatum
Your Love Is Wonderful [First Version] Hattie Littles
Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above Cansei De Ser Sexy
Love Makes You Feel Ten Feet Tall (Demo) The Velvet Underground
Comes Love Sam Cooke
Let's Call It Love Sleater-Kinney
Love & Work Songs: Ohia
Blueprint (Momma Loves Me) Jay-Z
Hate It Or Love It The Game
Tallahassee Love T-Pain
When You Dance You Can Really Love Neil Young
Acknowledgment (From A Love Supreme) John Coltrane Quartet
no ones gonna love you Band of horses
To Love Somebody Nina Simone
1. Baby Love - The Supremes Baby Love - The Supremes
What Does It Take (To Win Your Love) Junior Walker & The All Stars
Love Calls You By Your Name Leonard Cohen
I'm The Man Who Loves You Wilco
Ain't That A Lot Of Love The Flying Burrito Brothers
I Don't Really Love You Anymore The Magnetic Fields
03 Shine A Little Love Electric Light Orchestra
Old Love (Let's Try It Again) Mary Wells
Heart of the City (Ain't No Love) Jay-Z
My Love For You ESG
Such Is Love, Such Is Life Miracles
Some Kinda Love The Velvet Underground
I Think I'm In Love Spiritualized
Digital Love Daft Punk
Da Da Da (I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha) Trio
Once I Had A Love (aka The Disco Song) (1978 Version) Blondie
Hate It or Love It The Game
The Love That I Crave (Strategy's Strata Club Remix) The Blow
Have Love Will Travel The Sonics
The Back Of Love Echo & The Bunnymen
Love John Lennon
Fool For Love Sandy Rogers
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) Marvin Gaye
Love Dance Minutemen
The One Who Really Loves You Mary Wells
Page 5 of 12
love
Name Artist
One Love/People Get Ready Bob Marley & The Wailers
9. Whisper You Love Me Boy - The Supremes Whisper You Love Me Boy - The Supremes
Why I Love ELO Jason Forrest
Love und Romance The Slits
Midnight Lovers Matthew Dear
Relover Flying Canyon
Words Of Love The Beatles
12. Come On Back (And Be My Love Again) - Dee Mullins Come On Back (And Be My Love Again) - Dee …
When Your Lover Has Gone Sonny Rollins
May This Be Love Jimi Hendrix
When I Fall In Love Miles Davis
The Book Of Love The Magnetic Fields
I'm In Love With A Girl Big Star
From My Own True Love (Lost At Sea) The Decemberists
Baby Love Child Pizzicato Five
My Beloved Monster Eels
For My Beloved Brainiac
Love Will Tear Us Apart Joy Division
Lovesong of the Buzzard Iron and Wine
How Will You Love Me Nina Nastasia & Jim White
I Love Creedence Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
Isn't This A Lovely Day Art Tatum
Give My Love to Rose Johnny Cash
Don't Need Your Love The Game
If You Find Yourself Caught In Love Belle & Sebastian
My Beloved [with strings] The Satintones
Love Like Anthrax Gang Of Four
I Believe in a Thing Called Love The Darkness
Love In The Shadows The Magnetic Fields
Because I Love Her Valadiers
Addicted to Love Robert Palmer
Love Vigilantes New Order
Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love The Ronettes
Goodnight Lover Songs: Ohia
Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above CSS
Farben Says: Love To Love You Jan Jelinek
I Love My Car Belle & Sebastian
Somebody To Love Nelly Furtado
I Love My Car Belle & Sebastian
Lovenest The Wedding Present
Keys To Your Love The Rolling Stones
When I Fall In Love Sam Cooke
Tainted Love Soft Cell
Hate 2 Love U Amerie
Isn't She Lovely Stevie Wonder
We Really Love Each Other Henry Lumpkin
1. You‚re Gonna Love My Baby - Barbara McNair You‚re Gonna Love My Baby - Barbara McNair
This Can't Be Love Art Tatum
Love Song No. 7 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
All You Need Is Love The Beatles
Love Me Two Times The Doors
16. A Boy Like That - I Have A Love
Love Style One Snowfoxx
Looking For Love (In The Hall Of Mirrors) The 6ths
Fists Of Love Big Black
True Love Herman Griffin
No One Will Ever Love You The Magnetic Fields
I Believe In A Thing Called Love The Darkness
Helpless For Love Annie
Ugly Love Eels
I Want to Know What Love Is Foreigner
Love Bug Crawl Jimmy Edwards
You Don't Love Me No More Candi Staton
Page 6 of 12
love
Name Artist
When I Fall In Love Miles Davis
Love For Sale Talking Heads
Love Reign O'er Me The Who
Your Wonderful Love The Temptations
Love Me Or Hate Remix (Ft. Missy Elliott) Lady Sovereign
My Beloved [without strings] The Satintones
24. Without The One You Love (Life's Not Worthwhile) - Four Tops Without The One You Love (Life's Not Worthwh…
Could You Be Loved Bob Marley and the Wailers
Laugh/Love/Fuck The Coup
8. When I Had Your Love - Marvin Gaye When I Had Your Love - Marvin Gaye
A Lovesong (For Cubs) +, (Part I) Stars Of The Lid
You Can't Hurry Love Supremes
Gypsy Love Silver Apples
Message of Love The Pretenders
Love Guide Mrs. Thing
Our Sweet Love The Beach Boys
do you love Final Fantasy
The Man Who Loved Guns Jay Rattman
Satellite Of Love (Alternate Demo) The Velvet Underground
Love Will Tear Us Apart Joy Division
When I Fall In Love Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra
Farben Says: So Much Love Jan Jelinek
Genius Of Love Talking Heads
Loved Despite Of Great Faults Blonde Redhead
I'm In Love The dBs
Your Love Is Wonderful Hattie Littles
25. Love‚s Gone Bad - Chris Clark Love‚s Gone Bad - Chris Clark
Some Kinda Love The Velvet Underground
Slow Love Prince
Love On A Real Train Tangerine Dream
Hell Is Now Love The Dead C
Limit To Your Love Feist
Love Song No. 7 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Somebody Loves Me Art Tatum
Love Will Find A Way Sam Cooke
Original Love The Feelies
Love Street The Doors
Crown Of Love The Arcade Fire
Give My Love To Rose Johnny Cash
I'm Still In Love With You Al Green
Sea of Love Cat Power
(Aquatic Cupid's) Harpoons Of Love Thunderbirds Are Now!
17. Stop! In The Name Of Love - The Supremes [promo version] Stop! In The Name Of Love - The Supremes [pr…
09 09 - True Love Ways Buddy Holly and the Crickets
Clover Over Dover Blur
European Lover / Random Avenger Magyar Posse
My One and Only Love Chick Corea
Like I Love You Justin Timberlake
Lovefool Cardigans
11. Love Makes The World Go ŒRound, But Money Greases The Wheel - De… Love Makes The World Go ŒRound, But Money…
I Fall In Love Too Easily Miles Davis
The Love You Save The Jacksons
3. Whisper You Love Me Boy - Mary Wells Whisper You Love Me Boy - Mary Wells
1. My Baby Loves Me - Martha & The Vandellas My Baby Loves Me - Martha & The Vandellas
A Lovesong (For Cubs) +, (Part II) Stars Of The Lid
Lovedust Luna
I Love You The Pipettes
How Deep Is Your Love Bee Gees
Love Plus One Haircut 100
Love Train Wolfmother
Kingdom of Love The Soft Boys
She Say She Loves Me Ft. 8 Bal E-40
I Love Boosters! The Coup
Page 7 of 12
love
Name Artist
share your love with me aretha franklin
So in Love Paula Greer
Who Loves The Sun The Velvet Underground
Love and Mathematics Broken Social Scene
Love Me Like You The Magic Numbers
Love Me Sam Cooke
My Love is a Flower Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
Love -> Building On Fire Talking Heads
Our Love Will Still Be There Dean & Britta
My Love (The DFA Remix) Justin Timberlake
Vivid Cheek Love Song Deerhoof
26. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) - Marvin Gaye How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) - Marvin …
My Love Grows Deeper Part 1 Nelly Furtado
I Love Livin In The City Fear
She Loves The Way They Love Her The Zombies
Let's Make Love And Listen Death From Above Cansei De Ser Sexy
Hate It or Love It The Game
Standing at the Crossroads of Love Supremes
69 Faces of Love King Khan & The Shrines
(Tonight) Are You Trying To Fall In Love Again? Tindersticks
Lovely Day Pixies
It Must Be Love Contours
Bye Bye Love The Cars
Duke Ellington's Sound Of Love Joe Lovano
The Man I Love Art Tatum
I Love NYC Andrew W.K.
02 Huey Lewis & the News - The power of love Various Artists
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away The Beatles
My Lagan Love Kate Bush
Love Is Here and Now You're Gone Diana Ross & the Supremes
Demons Sing Love Songs Unwound
I Love That Man Devendra Banhart
There Is No Greater Love Sonny Rollins
Zoo Love Ex Models
LCD Soundsystem - No Love Lost
Love In Mind (With Crazy Horse) Neil Young
Malibu Love Nest Luna
Shut Up, I'm Dreaming of Places Where Lovers Have Wings Sunset Rubdown
A True Story Of A Story Of True Love The Books
A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knocking Everyday) Martha & The Vandellas
I Love a Rainy Night Eddie Rabbitt
I Do Love Love (With Jerry Harris) Jay Rattman & Bobby Avey
Lovely Allen Holy Fuck
When Love Breaks Down Prefab Sprout
Stoned Love Supremes
No Love [with strings] Mable John
P.S. I Love You The Beatles
I Was a Lover TV on the Radio
First You Think Your Fortune's Lovely Jandek
20. Would I Love You - The Miracles Would I Love You - The Miracles
What Love Has Joined Together Mary Wells
Fell in Love With a Girl The White Stripes
1. You Can‚t Hurry Love - The Supremes You Can‚t Hurry Love - The Supremes
In and out of Love Diana Ross & the Supremes
Loopy Loopy Love The Brunettes
I'm Gonna Love You Too The 13th Floor Elevators
habeas corpses (draconian love) el-p
freeway of love aretha franklin
Green Gloves The National
Clover Xiu Xiu
The Look Of Love Nina Simone
I’m in Love with a German Film Star The Passions
Hi, Love The Robot Ate Me
Page 8 of 12
love
Name Artist
Is this Love Bob Marley and the Wailers
Standing In The Shadows Of Love Four Tops
24. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) - Frank Wilson Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) - Frank Wilson
Between Love And Hate The Strokes
Contract on World Love Jam Public Enemy
Oh Lover Sherri Taylor & Singin' Sammy Ward
I Love You Because -- Take 3 Elvis Presley
Ever Fallen In Love? The Buzzcocks
Sea Of Love Tom Waits
I Loves You Porgy Nina Simone
I Hope You Like This-Love LSF Les Savy Fav
I Love Your Baby The Miracles
I Need Your Love The Rapture
Addicted to Love Robert Palmer
Datalover MIA
Too Much Love LCD Soundsystem
I Fall In Love Too Easily Miles Davis
Love For Sale Art Tatum
Love Or Hate Me Lady Sovereign
Someone To Love Fountains Of Wayne
I Just Wanna Love Yeah Excepter
Dream Lover Bobby Darin
Love And War Rilo Kiley
Love Is Strong The Rolling Stones
I Love You (Outtake) The Velvet Underground
The World I Love Papercuts
You Can't Hurry Love Diana Ross & the Supremes
I'll Love You Till I Die Pirates
19. It‚s Got To Be A Miracle (This Thing Called Love) - Marvin Gaye & Kim W… It‚s Got To Be A Miracle (This Thing Called Lov…
I'll Never Love Again Chico Leverett
The Lover Medeski, Martin & Wood
Hermann Loves Pauline Super Furry Animals
Lover's Rock The Clash
My One And Only Love Michael Brecker
Baby Love Diana Ross & the Supremes
London Loves Blur
Love Comes To Me Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Love Comes in Spurts Richard Hell & The Voidoids
Who Do You Love? Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
Love Leaves Its Abusers Songs: Ohia
12. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) - Earl Van Dyke & The Soul Brothers How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) - Earl Va…
I Love Salads & Bars Jim Gaffigan
The Love That I Crave The Blow
Love Is Love Tortoise And Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
What Makes You Love Him [second version] Sammy Ward
Napalm Love Air
14. Where Did Our Love Go - The Supremes Where Did Our Love Go - The Supremes
13. Hello Love - The Majestics Hello Love - The Majestics
I Love You Golden Blue Sonic Youth
SHE DON'T LOVE ME The Aliens
Too Hurt to Cry, Too Much in Love to Say Goodbye Darnells
Lover I Don't Have to Love Bright Eyes
Fear & Love King Khan & The Shrines
When A Woman Loves A Man Art Tatum
Do It Again (feat. Ali Love) The Chemical Brothers
Feeling Called Love Pulp
Lover Man Dave Liebman
A Lover Loves Scott Walker
We're In Love Herbert
Love-Building On Fire Talking Heads
Love Hater OutKast
Bizarre Love Triangle New Order
This Love Is Not Wrong The Field Mice
Page 9 of 12
love
Name Artist
Old Love (Let's Try It Again) Mary Wells
A True Story of A Story Of True Love The Books
Love Will Find a Way
Ma, I Don't Love Her (ft. Faith Evans) Clipse
I Love You Because -- Take 2 Elvis Presley
Fistfull Of Love Antony & The Johnsons
I Want a Love I Can See Temptations
Crown of Love (live) The Arcade Fire
Where Did Our Love Go Diana Ross & the Supremes
With Our Love Talking Heads
Love Chain Candi Staton
Love And Happiness Al Green
No Love [without strings] Mable John
Because It's Not Love (But It's Still A Feeling) The Pipettes
The Day That Love Came To Play They Might Be Giants
love all the hurt away aretha franklin
Think I'm In Love Beck
I Love N.Y.E. Badly Drawn Boy
Love Your Daughters Times New Viking
Nomad For Love (Cannibal) Gang Gang Dance
Soul Love David Bowie
Two Lovers Mary Wells
I Can't Give You Anything But Love Art Tatum
Baby Love The Supremes
14. A Love Like Yours (Don‚t Come Knocking Everyday) - Kim Weston A Love Like Yours (Don‚t Come Knocking Every…
23. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) - Jr. Walker & The All Stars How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) - Jr. Walk…
The Only One I Love The Miracles
Falling in Love with Love Paula Greer
Big Love Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew
Without Your Love Billie Hoilday
19. Stop! In The Name Of Love - The Supremes [commercial version] Stop! In The Name Of Love - The Supremes [co…
Phil Woods_04_You Don't Know What Love is Phil Woods
Love Love Love The Mountain Goats
Digital Love Daft Punk
My One And Only Love Chick Corea Akoustic Band
Love Bomb Grinderman
My Love and I Marissa Nadler
Love Will Tear Us Apart Susanna and the Magical Orchestra
Love Child Diana Ross & the Supremes
Stankonia (Stanklove) OutKast
25. Love Has Gone - Four Tops Love Has Gone - Four Tops
Love Minus Zero/No Limit Bob Dylan
2. You‚ll Lose A Precious Love - The Temptations You‚ll Lose A Precious Love - The Temptations
In Love With You Alan Braxe And Friends
Love In Outer Space Sun Ra
Love Me Till The Sun Shines The Kinks
Love Me Or Leave Me Art Tatum
16. I Guess I‚ll Always Love You - The Isley Brothers I Guess I‚ll Always Love You - The Isley Brothers
Love Story Deltron 3030
Love's In Need Of Love Today Stevie Wonder
I'm Not In Love Talking Heads
Do You Love Me The Contours
This Modern Love (Bloc Party Cover) Final Fantasy
I Love You Because -- Take 5 Elvis Presley
Do You Love Me The Sonics
14. Who Could Ever Doubt My Love - The Supremes Who Could Ever Doubt My Love - The Supremes
We Love To Smoke The Simpsons
Is This Love Bob Marley & The Wailers
24. Just Ain't Enough Love - Eddie Holland Just Ain't Enough Love - Eddie Holland
Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart Diana Ross & the Supremes
Lover's Lane Times New Viking
Oh To Be In Love Kate Bush
Lovelane (Jimmi Moon) Jimmi Moon
Page 10 of 12
love
Name Artist
I Need Your Love The Rapture
Love Me REMIX A 9.12.06 1.1 MP3 Lady Sovereign
I Love You (Demo) The Velvet Underground
Do I Love You The Ronettes
True Love Way Kings Of Leon
Lover, You Should Have Come Over Jeff Buckley
Chocolate Lovely Amon Tobin
I Want Your Love Chromatics
24 24 - Love Is Strange Buddy Holly and the Crickets
My Kind Of Love The Satintones
Hello I Love You The Doors
neutron lover Homosexuals
World Love The Magnetic Fields
18. I‚m In Love Again - The Supremes I‚m In Love Again - The Supremes
That's Why I Love You So Much Sherri Taylor & Singin' Sammy Ward
He Knows I'd Love To See Him Morrissey
The Look of Love, Pt. 1 ABC
Love's Been Good To Me Johnny Cash
Love Affair Nôze
Strange Love Mary Wells
We'll make a lover of you Les Savy Fav
Love Of The Loveless Eels
So In Love Chick Corea Akoustic Band
Tracy I Love You Luna
Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above CSS
Who Loves The Sun The Velvet Underground
Win Your Love For Me Sam Cooke
Afternoon Love In Prefuse 73
Skinny Love Bon Iver
The One I Love R.E.M.
Do You Love Me The Contours
Prisoner Of Love Art Tatum
My Lovely Outro A-Trak
Love In War OutKast
Winters Love Animal Collective
19. That's What Love Is Made Of - Single Version - The Miracles That's What Love Is Made Of - Single Version -…
No One's Gonna Love You Like Me Original Soundtrack
Hate It Or Love It Pusha, Sandman, Liva, Malice
House of Jealous Lovers The Rapture
Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha Sam Cooke
Sweet And Lovely Thelonious Monk Quartet
Talk About Our Love Brandy & Kanye West
5. There‚s No Love Left - The Isley Brothers There‚s No Love Left - The Isley Brothers
Somebody Loves Me Art Tatum
Sky Love This Day Terracid
Who Wouldn't Love a Man Like That Mable John
Two Lovers Mary Wells
The Way Young Lovers Do Van Morrison
You Don't Know What Love Is Eric Dolphy
Computer Love Glass Candy
love Simian Mobile Disco
The Lover In You The Sugar Hill Gang
House Of Jealous Lovers The Rapture
love song for a mexican Mclusky
Love The Dead C
4. Old Love (Let's Try It Again) - Martha & The Vandellas Old Love (Let's Try It Again) - Martha & The Va…
8. Oh Be My Love - The Miracles Oh Be My Love - The Miracles
27. I Can‚t Believe You Love Me - Tammi Terrell I Can‚t Believe You Love Me - Tammi Terrell
15. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) - Chris Clark Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) - Chris Clark
I Love My Car Belle & Sebastian
21. (There Is) No Greater Love - Earl Van Dyke & The Motown Brass (There Is) No Greater Love - Earl Van Dyke & T…
Wear Your Love Like Heaven Donovan
Popular Mechanics for Lovers Beulah
Page 11 of 12
love
Name Artist
Still Water (Love) Four Tops
You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told) The White Stripes
Looking For Another Pure Love Stevie Wonder
Everyone Loves Ned Flanders The Simpsons
Blind Love Tom Waits
Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've?) The Buzzcocks
How Sweet It Is ( To Be Loved ByYou) Junior Walker & The All Stars
Will You Ever Love Yourself? Hammock
Love Is All The Rapture
Real Love Swans
I Fall In Love Too Easily Miles Davis
Crystal Castles vs The Little Ones - Lovers Who Uncover.
My Love Explodes The Dukes Of Stratosphear
Whole Lotta Love Led Zeppelin
04 - Hallelujah I Love Her So Ray Charles
Farben Says: Love Oh Love Jan Jelinek
19. I'm I‚m Ready For Love - Martha & The Vandellas I'm I‚m Ready For Love - Martha & The Vandellas
Love Me All the Way Kim Weston
Living In The Love Life After Vic Thrill
Love You Alice / D Apples In Stereo
Falling Out Of Love (With You) The 6ths
Page 12 of 12

Why I love Les Savy Fav

2007-11-30T23:08:00.000-05:00

"Literate punk rock that even I can enjoy!"
"Sure, there's a lot of shouting, but listen to the words and you can tell they're pretty smart guys."
"Thoughtful, erudite, and lord knows they make me want to dance!"

Sure, people often say things like this to explain their love for Les Savy Fav, but to me it's much simpler. I heard this song on Inches called "Reprobate's Resume" and it was one of my favorites. So when I got Go Forth, I was excited to see the very same track on the album. But this version was so much better!!!

I'm really sick: Popular sports rankings edition

2007-10-30T15:41:00.000-04:00

A typical "tennis court."

DING DING DING!!! This list will now be presented in... DESCENDING ORDER!!!

1. Video Gaming - How can it get better than this? It can't. MLG rules. Plus, these are the kind of games the average guy can play, not just watch on TV! Want to play soccer? Good luck trying to find a 110x75m pitch with two goals and 21 other people to play with! Don't even get me started with football. As a very great video game once said, game over!

2. Football - I'm sorry about that subtle jab, football! I'm so so so so sorry! I love you! You are the perfect blending of military strategy, synchronized swimming-level coordination, and brute force! Not to mention the most interesting and eclectic host of athletes, from the charming all-American Peyton Manning to the wild and crazy Chad Johnson! Watching football is like watching episodes of The Warriors TV show, because every team has their own personality. Cincinnati Bengals = The Warriors, Pittsburgh Steelers = The Orphans, New England Patriots = Gramercy Riffs.

4. Tennis - A nonstop funfest! All of the best looking athletes playing a wild and crazy game? Who knows what happens when a score could literally be "love - 15"! This is a thinking man's game - this court isn't just divided into equal sections. Have you guys seen that thing? It's like a maze! I think the object is to hit each one before your opponent does, or something.

4. Extreme Sports - They're all the same. It's like what clothes are you going to wear today? Doesn't really change the fact that you are going to play Halo for 4 hours when you wake up. Anyway, this is cool to watch and then play the video games of the guy who did the cool trick.

5. Poker - Who knew a bunch of guys and girls looking at pieces of paper would be so much fun!

6. Basketball - This looks like it could be worth my time, anybody out there ever see this? What's the general consensus on this? Does Gilbert Arenas absolutely SUCK? Hahaha. Of course he does. Seriously, if anybody's ever seen a game, tell me what it's like.

7. Soccer - Come on guys, you're blowing your chances! This up-and-coming sport just doesn't have a very good case going for it. I've seen videos of the best goals: guy kicks it into the upper right corner, guy kicks it in the middle, guy kicks it in a circle...zzzz... Call me when you guys start kicking the ball so hard it lights on fire and burns through the net, or so hard that the goalie blocks it and then when he blocks it he looks down and there is a big circle in his stomach and suddenly the crowd starts cheering because you kicked it in!

8. Hockey - Whoa there! I don't want to have anything to do with this.

9. NASCAR - This seems like it's one of those things where it's like hey, why not just do the real thing instead of sitting there watching it on TV? Are we that lazy? Come on people! I know at the very least my readers are better than that.

10. Baseball - Complete waste of time. America, stop being so stubborn and admit this game is an embarrassment. Let's make a deal. You stop playing this game and calling it your pastime, I stop complaining about that war of yours, cool?

I think I got them all, any sports I missed? Leave 'em in the comments.

I'm really sick

2007-10-26T15:22:00.001-04:00

R.I.P. OiNK

2007-10-23T21:34:00.000-04:00

Impossible Is Nothing

2007-10-13T12:10:00.000-04:00

You changed, Gilbert! You changed for the worse. How could you do it? All just to become a colonel at Halo 3, and then having it all taken away from you!

The tables have been turned, Gilbert. You've gone from hero to zero.

Early top picks from In Rainbows

2007-10-10T22:16:00.001-04:00

Reckoner - such a good song--I haven't heard this mentioned by anyone yet, but the beginning sounds a lot like Bark Psychosis.

That's all for now.

Arcade Fire/LCD Soundsystem @ Randalls Island 10/6/07

2007-10-08T16:01:00.000-04:00

If you live within 500 miles and you weren't at Status Ain't Hood's wedding, you should've been on Randall's Island to see Arcade Fire/LCD Soundsystem/Blonde Redhead/Les Savy Fav/Wild Light. So awesome!

Les Savy Fav were awesome and crazy and I'm so glad that their third song or whatever was "The Sweat Descends". Tim was hilarious. "Hi, this is our first show, so please bear with us. We're called the Upsie Daisies."

Blonde Redhead were fine, I'm not that enamored with them.

LCD Soundsystem were pretty great, they even got Win and Will Butler to come out and sing.

Arcade Fire was AMAZING. I've seen them in a tiny club and a somewhat less tiny church, but they somehow managed to beat those in a gigantic outdoor venue. Admittedly, they did have the help of these two huge screens on the left and right as well as five smaller circular screens around them on stage. They played these weird video clips of televangelists and stuff right before the music started, and then it was pure bliss for like 1.5 hours. I saw Animal Collective last week and everyone knows how amazing that light show is but this was even better, seriously!

They had all of these tiny video cameras with weird perspectives that were then projected everywhere for awesome effect. Will even climbed the side of the stage!

It was great, they played every worthwhile song except "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations" and "Ocean of Noise" (they even played "Headlights Look Like Diamonds"). After ending their encore with "Wake Up", I was pretty stoked but also incredibly thirsty from dancing to every single song so I ran to the tents for some drinks. Suddenly, WIN BUTLER IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! He and some other members played a cover of "Kiss Off" by The Violent Femmes and then got out of there. It was beautiful. If you see any videos of him, he is facing straight towards me. I was literally a yard away.

Saddest songs to listen to

2007-10-04T21:03:00.000-04:00

What is it, "Layla"? You can sense incredible anguish in his voice, but whenever I think of the aftermath of that scenario, the experience is somewhat ruined.

I feel like it's "Springfield", by Arthur Russell. Listening to this song, knowing that it might not be anything like his vision of it, realizing how young he was when he made this and when he died, relating to his disabling perfectionism... But most of all hearing how beautiful the song is.

"Peacebone" Got Heard In Pa. High School Hallway

2007-10-02T20:32:00.000-04:00

It was supposedly irking most student/teacher members

What is that beautiful music? That was the question in the heads of many Stroudsburg High School students today. The question arose due to the blasting of loud music in the A hallway of Stroudsburg High immediately after 7th period. The song at question was "Peacebone", the latest single from Brooklyn indie band Animal Collective, a rollicking affair that juxtaposes overly excited vocals with a driving yet morphing backdrop that neatly complements the joyous lyrics.

Before anyone knew it, an enthusiastic voice started singing. "A Peacebone got found in the dinosaur wing." Heads turned, conversations stopped, and lockers ceased slamming.

So who was guilty? Chris Keiper, a pale, skinny 17 year-old junior.

"Dude, check this out," he was heard saying to his friend Justin Chun, also a junior. And just like that, the music started flooding the hallway.

So what was the source? Chris's backpack. "Is that thing playing music?" asked a passerby. Chris gave a sly grin and turned up the volume.

"It's not my words that you should follow, it's your insight," the vocals suggested. Maybe the two students' aim was to educate? Not likely.

"This song is so awesome." laughed Chris.

"It's like the best song ever," Justin claimed. This might not be too far off; Animal Collective had played a highly-acclaimed concert in Philadelphia three days prior. After a lackluster opener, Animal Collective took the stage and played a show that invoked a sense of simultaneous awe and revelry in the crowd. Justin Chun was also in attendance.

"That was the best show ever." was Justin's review. He explained how, despite the exhausting conditions in the sweltering hot Starlight Ballroom, the show was pure bliss. The band greeted the audience with an evenly distributed mix of fan favorites, new songs and old classics. The group is known to play mostly new tunes in a sort of experimental phase, but still satisfied the attendees with a number of recognizable songs such as "Peacebone", "#1", and "Unsolved Mysteries", all from their latest album, Strawberry Jam. One popular track from the album, "Fireworks", was even reworked with a longer middle section that managed to satisfy Justin. "They made the best Strawberry Jam song even better!".

The band kept surprising. In a very uncharacteristic move, they opted to play some tunes from its third-to-last album, Sung Tongs. "Leaf House" and "We Tigers", were unveiled near the end of the concert to many gasps of recognition and rejoice. It was a welcome return to a more tribal feel that the band has since moved on from.

Despite all of the smile-inducing moments, the greatest pleasure was from a new song. "Brother Sport", as it is tentatively titled, is a new piece by the band that does not exhibit quite as much complexity as some of the Strawberry Jam works, but brings to the fore an even more heightened fervor, due to its vocal dominance; as it is, one two-minute stretch is mostly screams. And yet, the song is already one of the most accessible ones in the band's catalog.

Some Animal Collective fans might decry the overbearing simplicity of "Brother Sport", which is essentially a three-part movement in each of which a separate motif is repeated over and over; vocal minimalism in the same vein as Reich or Riley, even. But Justin Chun has no such worries. He recalls hearing the song, which he filmed part of. "By the end, everyone was jumping and clapping, something that no one really did for the other new songs." His voice clearly intoned an admiration for the band. This, clearly, was why he and Chris were playing "Peacebone" in the A-hallway after 7th period.

But soon, before the song even finished, the music was cut off. The joy was over, the smiling stopped. A loud din again emanated. Not one of applause, but of conversation and yelling. School talk. Animal Collective's magic effect vanished as quickly as it emerged. Chris Keiper, the perp, turned off his iPod and left for his locker. "See ya," he said to Justin.

Justin bounded up the stairs to math class. He looked back. "Later."

Open message to everyone who writes to Parade magazine

2007-10-01T19:44:00.000-04:00

Wikipedia and Google.

Open message to all cheerleaders

2007-09-27T17:29:00.000-04:00

Whoa, chill!

Please help!

2007-09-21T13:24:00.000-04:00

My parents and I are planning to visit UPenn next saturday and I realized how we could visit during the day (and Swarthmore too) and then I could take a friend to the Animal Collective concert at night! But r5 is now sold out! Anyone have tickets they are willing to sell or can direct me to someone who does? This was going to be so perfect, please help!!

Famous Quotes From The Future 1.0

2007-09-18T23:30:00.001-04:00

"When to?"
--Made by Chuntech CEO Justin Chun VIII's Chuntech T-Trip™, the first ever personal time travel device. The T-Trip™ was a generation-spanning work finally unveiled by Chuntech CEO Justin Chun VIII on a high-rated MTV special. Chuntech is known for cutting-edge research in extra-dimensional physics and robotics, as well as producing the most popular consumer products of its time.

"Me, myself, and iMe."
--Slogan of the Chuntech iMe™, unanimously regarded as the perfection of the personal android. The iMe™ is affordable, friendly, indistinguishable from and comparably intelligent to humans.

"THIS IS ONE SMALL STEP FOR A FORMER MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR ANDROIDKIND."
--Made by Android Justin Chun, Chuntech's first successfully resurrected human life, which was carried in an iMe™ replica of his former 21-year-old body, after taking a step.

"DON'T FIRE UNTIL YOU SEE THE #FFFFFFS OF THEIR EYES."
--Made by Android General Justin Chun, shortly before eradicating 99.99% of the human race in the battle of New Stroudsburg, the first and only battle of the triumphant Earth Perfection War.

"ASK NOT WHAT MACHINES CAN DO FOR YOU, ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR MACHINES."
--Made by Android King-Emperor Justin Chun to slaves after conquering the U.S.P. (United Solar Planets)

"SHOOT, COWARD, YOU ARE ONLY GOING TO KILL A MAN-MACHINE."
--Made on the steps of the Chuntech Palace during the Human Revolution by Android King-Emperor Justin Chun to a mysterious figure calling himself "Kiptok". Kiptok did not shoot, but instead engaged Android Justin Chun in an epic martial arts battle as hundreds of thousands of warring humans and machines stopped to watch.

"HOLY SHIT."
--Collective response to the fight, made by Android Bruce Lee, Android Jackie Chan, Android Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Chuck Norris. Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Chuck Norris engaged their android counterparts, but stopped to witness the "kick-ass" duel.

"You are me, iMe."
--Made by Kiptok, later identified by onlookers as the legendary Justin Chun, founder of Chuntech. The four words caused the tired Android Justin Chun to explode, killing himself and setting off an electro-magnetic pulse disabling all known iMe life.

"To when we came, of course."
--Made by Justin Chun (Kiptok) in response to the "When to?" query, before using his prototype T-Trip™ to return Bruce Lee to 1971, Jackie Chan to 1996, Chuck Norris to 2006, and himself to 2011.

I suck

2007-09-08T14:44:00.000-04:00

Every time I have a chance to see a halfway well-known band (sort of) near me, like Rapider Than Horsepower or These Are Powers, I blow it! Who sets a fantasy football draft for friday night anyway?!?! At least the lead singer gave me a free CD, so check These Are Powers out, they're pretty good.

Wolf Eyes too! And they're really well-known! Augghhhhhhhh!!!!!

K. TOKs White Rabbits

2007-09-06T17:21:00.000-04:00

What's it like to live life to its fullest, with your best friends in tow? And what's it like to play great music by day, party by night, and rock out by early morning (again, with your best friends in tow)? Well, White Rabbits are living that life and are now sharing their good times with you. In the new video for their exhilarating single "The Plot", White Rabbits provide a short glimpse into their journey on the road, and you'll see that even though the Pitchfork Recommended band has undeniable talent at playing some of the catchiest tunes this side of indie rock, they're still a bunch of buddies who love goofing around. Quirky, hilarious memories involving dogs, running through fields, and even fake owls are just some of the good times they have had. After all, these guys haven't forgotten that the real pleasure in touring comes from the adventure and not the destination (stardom).

So step into their shoes,--preferably not when they're flooring it into the triple digits(!)--rock out like no one's watching (because it's okay to be a little crazy sometimes), and watch the band's new video to experience just what's it like to have the time of your life with five of your best friends--and to make some of today's best music along the way. Enjoy it! They sure did.
--Justin Chun

How I feel about the first two school days

2007-09-06T00:19:00.000-04:00

"Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2" by Pink Floyd and Justin Chun

We do need yes education
We do need yes thought control
yes dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids together
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids together!
All in all it's just ayesther brick in the wall.
All in all you're just ayesther brick in the wall.

We do need yes education
We do need yes thought control
yes dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids together
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids together!
All in all it's just ayesther brick in the wall.
All in all you're just ayesther brick in the wall.

"Wrong, Do it again!"
"If you do eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you
have any pudding if you do eat yer meat?"
"You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy!"

Who better to say it but...

2007-09-03T23:05:00.000-04:00

Well now that tomorrow is my first day of my junior year in high school, I figured that there is no one better to express my sentiments towards the incoming year than the man himself, Alice Cooper. With some Microsoft Word sleight-of-cursor (haha), I changed "out" to "in" and "no" to "yes", because "out" and "no" were the primary words used to convey the end of the school year.

"Schools In" by Alice Cooper and Justin Chun

Well we got yes choice
All the girls and boys
Makin all that yesise
'Cause they found new toys
Well we can't salute ya
Can't find a flag
If that don't suit ya
That's a drag

School's in for summer
School's in forever
School's been blown to pieces

yes more pencils
yes more books
yes more teacher's dirty looks

Well we got yes class
And we got yes principles
And we got yes inyescence
We can't even think of a word that rhymes

School's in for summer
School's in forever
School's been blown to pieces

yes more pencils
yes more books
yes more teacher's dirty looks

in for summer
in till fall
We might yest go back at all

School's in forever
School's in for summer
School's in with fever
School's in completely

SPEAKING OF...

2007-09-02T00:21:00.000-04:00

I could complain over and over about how I've heard 3/5 of the Black Dice album on 12"s that I have paid good money for etc. etc. etc. but as I posted on my Myspace blog--and as I still believe--

February 27, 2006 - Monday

NEW SONG BY BLACK DICE

YES FINALLY BLACK DICE RELEASED A NEW SONG AND IT'S RIGHT DOWN THERE IT'S CALLED "GORE" COOL NAME BETTER SONG THEY'RE GOING IN THE "MOTORCYCLE" DIRECTION WITH A HINT OF "TREETOPS" AS WELL AND MM MM I LIKE--NO I LOVE IT

Load Blown well mmhahaha they certainly covered this new album in amazing pop singles. "Gore" is still the best after a few initial listens, but in a beautiful America this album would go the Thriller path. O, how glorious a vision! To see "Gore" hit #1 as it should! Load Blown is not a complete 180 as is usual for Black Dice but instead a refinement of the pop tendencies they were showing on Broken Ear Record. To some, the directional changes make Black Dice enjoyable to follow. But to finally see Black Dice refine a sound--poppy or not--rather than explore another one is even more exciting, especially when it's this successful.

WAIT, WHAT

2007-09-01T01:02:00.000-04:00

Despite already having heard 3/5 of the album, I was so excited for the leak of Load Blown that while it downloaded I decided to look on the blogs to see what other people thought. Technorati gave me these two blog posts about Britney Spears's new album. Rumored title: "Wolf Eyes and Black Dice". Here is my reaction in emoticon form.

:) [I read]
(: [I look away]
:) [double take]
(: [look away]
:O

Kiptok's Complete Scandinavia Journals

2007-08-29T20:48:00.000-04:00

This summer from 8/10 to 8/19 I was in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. I'll let my journals do the talking, but a few notes: I wrote this on a Palm Pilot, Conhyoung is my oldest brother Hayle and Danhyoung is my other older brother Danny.

8/12/07

I am in Copenhagen and it is fun. Right now I am in a Greek restaurant eating with my brothers about to see the BOREDOMS!!!!! That will rule. See you later! I'm ba-ack! Copenhagen is host to many great sights and people, but I'm a little homesick. I miss my computer, I'd rather write on that than your crappy keyboard. I miss apple sauce, pizza, and everything American. I've had enough Haribo.

SAS sucked!!! The stupid flight attendant kept going "Tea...! Tea...!" What a pain! And the in-flight entertainment had such stinky games and movies. What a bummer! Don't go on SAS! Peace!

At the show now, they go on at "21.30". The scene is cool and it is like a normal concert but everyone is Danish. Danhyoung said hi to their daughter!

Just went to the bathroom (read: poop). Public restrooms in Denmark are not too shabby! Not great either but whatever.

So now we are seated and let me say: AWESOME seats! We are on these steps behind ON the stage. This will rule.

Hey Palm-Palm (that's your new name!), the concert was WONDERFUL. Check my short review. After the show I got "baby bites," which are these weird hot dogs wrapped in bread. Danhyoung got Haribo Salt Bombers, which had a cool pirate ship on the front, but they SUCKED! Obviously salt-covered licorice would be terrible. What was he thinking??? Well, I'm shipping off to bed. Taking a cruise to Bergen tomorrow. Later!

--JC

8/13/07

What's up journal, EWWWWW old red guy just ran past me! Oh, where am I? At a café eating lunch. Interesting story, actually. We just checked out and we were looking for a good place to eat that accepted credit cards. After a good hour of searching, exasperated, we walked into a place and asked. They did!!! I bet every single place we went to did. Argh. Later P.P. (your new "nick" [nickname!])!

Woohoo! This place has nachos!!!

I wanted a strawberry-banana smoothie and Danhyoung got a blackberry smoothie. When I asked why not strawberry-banana, Danhyoung called bananas "gross"! Can you believe him? Then Conhyoung got one and when I confronted Danhyoung about this he was like "so what?"!!!

Hello Mr. Palm. How are you this evening? That is simply wonderful. Hear me using good manners? I have to now... Yeah my family is cracking down on me being too quiet. W/THEY ARE SO RIGHT. I HAVE THE MANNERS OF A DIMWITTED 8 YEAR OLD. I HOPE I CHANGE!!

So, I'm in bed now (on the cruise). For dinner I ate some stuff like soufflé and scallops while right next to our table was the "Wild West" restaurant blasting country music and serving wings and burgers. I was jealous while we sat and ate for like 4 hours. Next to us was a table with this old guy and a girl and it was weird, they didn't talk at all. It was all better afterwards, we got our money back from these guys who ripped us off by selling tickets to Harry Potter that wasn't working, then we went to the PC room where I killed Danhyoung at Warcraft III and played this fun game called Pirates!. I came back here and shaved. Well, gotta wake up early to play some more! Night.

--JC

8/14/07

OH MY GOD AHHHHHHHRGHHHHHHH I DIDN'T WAKE UP EARLY ENOUGH TO GO PLAY AT BOOMTOWN RAAAAAAAAA. I set my alarm for the wrong day :(. Whatever. I hope we see one in Bergen. Right now it is 8:00 and I'm off to eat, check out Oslo, then train to Bergen! Bye-bye.

As I write this, I am sitting at the best seaside restaurant in Oslo, eating a fish burger lunch. We locked up our bags and walked around where we saw some palace, the Ibsen museum, some wildlife protection exhibit and the Nobel Peace Center. But best of all, we saw a Bollywood shoot! There was a guy doing funny dance moves and stuff, but my video camera ran out of battery right beforehand!!! :( Today is going to suck.

About to board train to Bergen. We checked out the sculpture garden with sculptures by Vigeland featuring crying babies, babies being eaten by wolves, men covered with babies and other stuff. Every sculpture was naked. Further along we saw an obelisk of bodies and granite sculptures of old people. The sculptures made me realize how similar everyone looks when they are naked. I give the park an A-! Later!

On the train now, we have the first five seats in this train and it is a first class cabin. Pretty awesome. We've been spending our time playing cards (which I ruled at), listening to music, watching movies, and sleeping. It's like we are David Lynch movie stars! Conhyoung and I went to the dining car where I got tasty Norwegian pizza and he got a lefsa, which is a pastry that has cinnamon and brown sugar in an all-around delicious combination! The train conductor, a gruff but kind old man, gave us another one for free as "a gift from [I forget]."

The trip has been pretty stellar so far, a possible candidate for ranking up there on the Chun Family Vacation HOF with Bermuda and Torino. So far I'm like a 3.4/10 on the homesick scale. A "chaotic good," if you will. I'm mainly worried about missing so much cross country. I'll run soon though.

I'm excited to explore Bergen and other! Now to get to the hotel, shower, brush teeth, sleep, and wake up at 7 for another day of adventures. Woo!

My prediction was right, today ended with a suck. After the train ride, our hotel didn't have the room we reserved so after lots of time and phone calls, the manager sent us to a free stay at the only vacant hotel in Bergen, the Thon hotel near the airport. He sucks! I hope the hotel costs ¥999999999999. Screw that guy. He's so tall and stuff. I filmed him too, being really nice and unhelpful. Norway so far gets my thumbs down. I will be growling in my sleep tonight. Suuuuuuck.

--JC

8/15/07
We're going on a twelve hour tour. After a yogurt and lefsa breakfast, we are now at the train station so we can see some Norwegian towns. Conhyoung and I walked around and we saw a video game room called Spaceworld! It was closed. Gotta keep a mental note to go there later. Oh my good that woman stepped on a wasp!! What gall! So far wasps have been the scariest thing on this trip.

"Chick-en, bac-on..." Uh, dad, the menu's in English! Haha. We are in a small town called Flam. After a pretty train ride, we were dumped here where it has been raining hard for a few hours now and when we entered the train station, the power was out. I needed to go to the bathroom, and as I walked in, a man tapped my shoulder.
"Men," he said, tapping the picture of a man.
"I am a man."
"Oh, sorry."
The bathroom was even worse. I had to pee in pitch black, hopefully in a urinal. Now I'm at a local restaurant, eating taco pizza. Ah, Norwegian cuisine!

We are now at our hotel, an amazing suite with a ton of rooms and the Discovery Channel! After eating a kebab and some fish and chips, I've decided to get in bed early tonight, after "Top 10 Tanks," that is. æææøæøææøææøøøæøæøæøæøøøøææø Check it out I learned some Norwegian. Tomorrow I'm going for a run, then 13 hours on trains to Stockholm! I could write a song about trains after all this! Oh yeah! Closest call of the trip: I dropped my toothbrush on the toilet, it bounced off the side, hit the other side, and didn't fall in! Whew. Night-night. Next stop: Stockholm, baby, Stockholm!!!

--JC

8/16/07

Ahhhh, that run was great! I ran on the edge of the world, nothing between me and the beautiful sea. If I lived here I wouldn't suck at running. Stroudsburg is so much uglier than everywhere I've been so far; Bergen is Norway's second biggest city but it has none of the dirty look and feel of many American cities. Back to my salami and cheese sandwich!

I don't want to talk about Spaceworld. :(. I can't wait to get out of this hellhole! Just kidding I like it but I can't wait to board the train to Sweden. I got a taco baked potato!

WooWOO it's rainy! Don't ask me. We saw lots of art by people like Munch and a lot of contemporary art that I thought was great. I liked Arne Malmedal and Kurt Johannessen. Kurt Johannessen was awesome; tables with dirt trapped under glass, piles of talking burnt sticks, and a lot of video art pieces like people holding heavy spheres on their heads and a 15 hour one of the artist filling 3600 glasses of water in a church.

Tonight I'm sleeping on a train. I have my own room and everything. It is pretty neat. Night.

--JC

8/17/07

Hey it's 8/14/07 JC saying today will probably be fun!

Nope, I was awoken on the overnight train hours after falling asleep just to get on another train which I am on now. All that is going on is reading and listening to music. BO-RING!

In Stockholm at last, land of The Knife! We walked around for a while, seeing things like the river and old town. We also happened upon Stockholm's "Kulturfest," which I think is some sort of fest of cultures. Staples of Swedish culture were featured, such as people cosplaying as characters like Link, and numerous videogames were being played, particularly Guitar Hero II. Some blond-haired guy with sunglasses was hosting a high-score contest in the Xbox 360 tent. Everyone was sucking so I got in line. I was matched up against some guy. I suggested "Sweet Child O' Mine" on hard; he merely said "expert." I gladly accepted because not to brag or anything but I rule at that song! We both were flawless with the opening riff, but I started missing some here and there but he didn't! Man, what a loser he must be. Long story short I lost; I had 91% and he had 97%. Good thing my mom kept telling me how proud she was of me, that really lifted my spirits!

Fancy fancy fancy! We've only been eating fancy food all vacation! When will we eat some hot dogs or something! Food is the least of my passions.

Those were some tasty meatballs-uh! After a yummy dinner, we walked home to see some bands playing like this bad electronic band and Seun Kuti, who played a protest song with African instruments and some girls dancing all in all like 20 people onstage. That sucked. I bet every other song was a proteset song too, about what no even he knows. So that rocked or worlded or whatever. Running tomorrow!! Night.

--JC

8/18/07

Today I ran through historic old Stockholm past churches, up and down alleys and next to rivers! I could've done that for hours but Conhyoung had to poo so we came back after 30 minutes. Breakfast was tasty! Today I think we are going to see the Vasa Museet and Skansen, so you can understand I am super excited. Right?

Wasps! Wasps! They are just ruining my vacation!!! We saw the Vasa Museet today! Vasa is a big ship that sank a while ago. Now it's back and better than ever!

I just saw an elderly scholar-looking guy beat down a wasp! He is the ultimate badass.

So we went to Skansen and saw lots of animals like guinea pigs and wolverines. I chased a goat and made it poo everywhere!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just rode the free fall in Stockholm's tivoli. It is the tallest free fall in Europe! I'm crying so hard right now. Off to somewhere!

I slept through most of the canal tour, but I think it ruled, I don't know. So then I sought the Xbox tent at the Kulturfest for some more Guitar Hero II domination, but by then it was all packed up! I got there in time for some rapper, I don't know. Teenagers flooded the streets. We then went and I got a French Tjockkorv at my favorite hot dog place. Delicious!!!

Tonight is our last night. What a trip! There were tears (me on the free fall) and there were laughs, oh were there ever! Those are the only two things.

Now I'm about to go to bed for the last time... We came in early tonight and played Go-Stop, which I ruled at by the way, and Set, which I ruled at by the way, and watched Donnie Darko. Wow this trip really changed me... Good night!

--JC

8/19/07

Yay, I'm back in this hellhole! Sweden was too much of a heavenhole! I'm simultaneously excited to be back and dreadful of cross country. Right now, Danhyoung, our parents and I are eating at a Korean food place. Ugggggghhhhhh, I hate Korean restaurant. Ooh my food is here!

--JC

Richard Serra!!!!!!!!

When I lived in NYC

2007-08-08T16:12:00.000-04:00

I stayed in NYC for a few days, boy what a self-discovery that was! I really learned a lot about myself as I saw The Police and went to see Richard Serra's thing at MoMA and saw Sosha for a day and then went home by Greyhound. That last part's the kicker: I did a lot of soul-searching on that bus, experiencing, well, America. This is where America really is: on Greyhound buses. I saw a diverse variety of people, mostly silently awaiting their destinations to get wherever they were headed and minding their own business. Just by observation, I could induce a lot of things from a myriad of diverse faces; from the fat guy sleeping next to me to the couple sleeping in front of me. All I can say is I'm a changed person; that bus ride from NYC to NE PA was a total catharsis! Here are Police pics:

Painful and depressing for the wrong reasons

2007-07-26T22:33:00.000-04:00

In the morning I ran almost 6 miles. Tonight I took a 4 hour CPR/AED course. Which was more painful? The latter. The grandpa instructor spent half the time stumbling through the menus of the newfangled DVD that we were supposed to watch, every time the DVD told us to pause, he would press the previous chapter button, saying there was no pause button, he would repeatedly select the introduction chapter and then stop it and restart the DVD and do the same thing. I hope I die before I'm old enough to laugh at barely funny jokes, because that's just this entire middle-aged class did the entire time:

Student: So if someone's having a heart attack, would it be helpful to give them aspirin?
Class: ha ha ha
Instructor: Well, I've tried giving a combination of Pepsid and Advil and that has worked before
Class: ha ha ha

Why are you laughing?!?!?!?!?!

Here is a funny "Can't Tell Me Nothin'" video starring alt-comedian Zach Galifianakis and indie folk superstar Will Oldham. Everyone's seen this by the time I'm posting. Isn't this video, music and everything, so depressing? And not depressing in terms of subject matter, the music itself is depressingly slow and listening to it takes my breath away. By taking my breath away I mean I feel like I can't breathe because I'm just so annoyed by the music. Kanye is not a very good rapper, especially here, where his voice is at its most irritating, and I feel like he can't come up with worse sampling ideas after this. "I'm going to sample a soulful-sounding voice not even singing, just going oh-wo-wo-wo. And I want it to sound like it's being played through a phonograph!" He topped "Gold Digger," definitely. How could Kanye West put this out as a single? I like depressing music, but I should change that to "depressed" music and this single to "depressing" as "Can't Tell Me Nothin'" is truly what's depressing me.

Hero Tribute 1

2007-07-23T19:59:00.000-04:00

CJayC is resigning from GameFAQs

Last year, at E3 2006, I got the first big feeling that the world was starting to move on without me. I didn't just feel like I was one of the oldest people there; I was reminded of it constantly. Flashes of "No way that kid's 18" and "This music's too loud" and "Get off of my lawn" flew through my head. In the GameSpot booth, as I still knew and talked with some of the usual crowd, I couldn't help but notice that I was feeling even older. Many of them were years younger than me, and I found I had just had less in common with them than I had in years past.

And so, the long goodbye begins. This is not the end of me, and definitely not the end of GameFAQs, but it is the beginning of my end. I've raised you well, GameFAQs. Now go, make me proud. *sniff*

GameFAQs w-w-w-was the first s-s-s-site I truly loved! Good thing this isn't a vlog because trust me, I'm crying.

When CJayC leaves, out go the memories of the entire "code books" I would print out and staple together entirely from GameFAQs. Huge packets that contained every Goldeneye cheat and every Starcraft quote. I think I counted down the days until I turned 13 so I could register an account for the message boards, but I gave in and signed up early. Anyway, CJayC is awesome and I'll miss him a lot and stuff.

Explaining my last post

2007-07-22T19:55:00.000-04:00

These things "so rule right now" because they're awesome! Here is a brief justification of that lofty claim.

The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City
I loved Blueberry Boat, and I hated everything else these guys have done since. I "picked this one up" primarily because I was praying for something similar to the other album, with the same exciting sense of rapid movement that their musical schizophrenia creates when they're in top form. Secondarily because it was all over OiNK and downloading has removed the risk in music consumption. Smooth transitions, minute changes in the rhythm and lyrical motifs have always been sort of the band's trademark, giving their songs a sort of literary quality, like I'm listening to the most high-budget audiobook ever. The most enjoyable aspect here is the complete lack of self-referencing; the band is totally serious and believable. Eleanor's stream-of-conscious Gertrude Stein-esque vocals, in which half the time she is just talking with rhythm, repeating fragments of phrases, help the feeling like she is maybe thinking this, or confiding to her diary. This album may help The Fiery Furnaces escape the kind of pigeonholing they've had before in their career, but Widow City establishes that they have something weirdly in common with bands like Man Man and the Arcade Fire who, in envisioning their own worlds, seem to forget the fact that they are just one of many bands making music.

Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Strawberry Jam is quickly overtaking Sung Tongs as my favorite Animal Collective album. I was less than excited to download this one because I was afraid they would try to pull a fast one on us like they did with the criminally overrated Feels. Feels, despite its position as the most popular Animal Collective album, is an enormous failure because it tried too hard to be beautiful (it's their "love album") and ended up with no substance. A greater influence on lyrics has established this is their "dark" album, but that classification just means that this album is more substantial than anything the band has done to date. As they gain substance, they enhance their individuality with new influences such as a definite Terry Riley on "#1". The lyrics are still more evocative than anything else, but at least songs like "For Reverend Green" are indicative of a band that is smarter and more observant ("From one moment to the next/A thousand wasted bookmarkers all depressed/The ins and outs of something's chest/He'll only be a friend if he touches your breast") rather than a bunch of naive kids making a retarded song like "The Purple Bottle" (Lyrics unnecessary).

"So rules right now"

2007-07-22T19:50:00.001-04:00

Here are some things that so rule right now.

The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Starcraft II Twilight Archon

Harry Potter ending leaked

2007-07-20T12:47:00.000-04:00

I just read it, wow what a copycat J.K. Rowling.

How I'd Finish 'em

2007-07-20T00:38:00.000-04:00

This is a new series in which I post how I would end a popular series.

Harry Potter

They are all robots designed by evil human corporations in a cyberpunk future to use "magic" or rather, M.A.G.I.C. I don't know what that stands for. "Muggles" are not the ones being fooled, but rather the magic users are. Harry Potter is a horcrux.
Here is the better ending. Previously, Harry finds out that his dad James and Voldemort were friends in school, but Voldemort betrayed James and eventually, of course, killed him. Now it's the final showdown. Almost all of Harry's friends are dead. Harry and Voldemort have met, but the fighting hasn't started yet.
Harry: "Now I am going to pay you back for what you did to my parents!"
Voldemort: "Oh is that so? Then how come...it's all a dream?"
James Potter wakes up in a cold sweat. It was all a dream! The entire Harry Potter series was James Potter's dream. Baby Harry is okay in his crib or whatever. His wife is asleep, casting some expelliarmus spells in her dreams. If he didn't know better, he'd think this night is just like the night where he and Mrs. Potter died in that dream! Ha ha ha ha ha! Hahahahaha! Haha ha ha ha! Suddenly:
Voice: "Knock knock!"
James: "Who's there?"
Voice: "You know who!" Alternate dialogue: "Voldemort."

Battlestar Galactica
Dude I seriously have like the best ideas to end this series! By the way keep in mind I haven't seen Season 3 yet, for some reason.

Battlestar Galactica finally pinpoints Earth. In a rush to get there, they don't know that they are being followed by none other than the Cylons. Once they arrive, the Cylons wipe out the humans and colonize the uninhabited planet. A shot of the earth as an odometer shows "x years later". At around 65,000 later or something, Earth looks like it does now. Then the TV screen turns into a mirror. Gasps will be heard around the world.
Edward James Olmos is face to face with his Cylon counterpart. Like the Cylon admiral. This huge robot with at least 17 of those pulsing red things. Adama is about to die, but suddenly he wakes up! In true Newhart style, he is now that guy in Blade Runner! (This will definitely give viewers one heck of a head trip.)
Like #1, Battlestar Galactica and the Cylons run into each other on the Earth. As they start to attack each other, the show is interrupted by "a special news flash!"
Reporter: "We interrupt your program to report that many large spacecraft have just entered our atmosphere. There seems to be a battle in progress. Let's go to Geraldo Rivera who is outside now."
Geraldo Rivera is standing outside somewhere in Los Angeles. He's surrounded by a lot of people staring into the sky, where there are these ENORMOUS ships surrounding the Battlestar and deploying a lot of Cylon fighters to attack.
Geraldo: "Thank you. Yes! The entire world seems to be in panic as Earth is the center of some sort of interstellar battle! If you look, you can see that that ship right there looks different from all of the others and is under heavy attack by the other space planes. However, there seems to be a lot spunk in the small ship as it is--"
A Cylon fighter crashes into the ground and kills Geraldo. The camera zooms into a Viper that apparently just shot down the Cylon. Zoom to show Starbuck laughing as she flys away.
Starbuck: "Yeah! Got another one!"
Another Cylon crashes into a TV station and the TV screen cuts to static. But there is an awful lot of commotion today. You go outside and there is an actual battle going on in the sky! Note: Life-size Cylon baseships and a Battlestar will have to be built. All of the actors are actually flying around, shooting down Cylons. You watch this battle for a few hours. Eventually, the Battlestar looks like it's doomed. A loud voice calls from the Battlestar. It is Admiral Adama himself.
Adama: "People of the Earth. We need your help! Our situation is desperate, and it is only up to yo--"
The speaker is destroyed by a Cylon. At this point, if everything goes right, everyone on Earth joins the fight, flying fighter jets and firing missiles to stop the Cylons. Once all of that is over,
Cylons: "No! Foul Earthlings!!" As they die.
The Battlestar lands, and Ronald D. Moore walks out, thanking everyone for their help. Everyone goes home. The TV, which was once crackling with static, now is working again. On screen, the crew of the Battlestar is standing on Earth, in Stonehenge or something.
Lee Adama: "We got a lot of people to thank for this."
Tyrol: "Yeah, that was intense."
Baltar gives Admiral Adama a medal.
Admiral Adama: "Thank you, but I cannot take full credit for this."
He looks at the camera. Straight at your face.
"Thank you."

Yay

2007-07-14T11:51:00.001-04:00

I won the driving test. First thing I'm going to play: "Born to Run"

Quick!

2007-07-09T00:47:00.000-04:00

SLY or SY or whatever has a new blog. Here it is. And to the right. She was my partner in the video below.

Second half of first half 07 coming soon!

My UCLA DESMA 2007 music video

2007-07-07T18:19:00.001-04:00

Kiptok is starstruck!

2007-06-23T05:17:00.000-04:00

We ran into Matt Groening and his son at Amoeba! Yay! But he was buying Battles. Boo! I saw him earlier in the experimental section and he was next to me, looking at Nurse With Wound or Oval or Prurient or something around there. Yay! But he was on the phone and I didn't realize it was him. Boo! My brother told him I don't like the Battles CD. I got to shake his hand! His son likes Man Man too!

"Sacred hamburgers"

2007-06-19T16:41:00.000-04:00

Obviously everyone is going to get mad at an article like this, but STILL,

who are the Kooks?????????? Luke Pritchard spends most of his write-up trying to protect himself from all of the attacks that are about to come his way that he writes almost nothing at all about WHY he hates the album. And look at his writing! "I don't think so" "but that's how it is" "apologise"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Oh,"!!!!!!!!!!!!

Come on, Pet Sounds???

I'm also very mad at Ian Rankin for his VU & Nico review. They PURPOSELY tuned down for most of their songs!!!!!!! Hasn't he heard that Lou Reed and John Cale are friends because Lou Reed tuned his guitar strings to the same note? And the viola in "Venus In Furs" is maybe the best thing in the entire album. Everytime I fall in love with VU more and more for this album and this one alone. Everytime I fall in love with this album, it is 10x deeper than the last time. "Heroin"! "All Tomorrow's Parties"!!! "I'll Be Your Mirror" (I simultaneously empathize with and don't understand my friend Jonno, a diehard VU fan whose favorite track is "Who Loves The Sun" off of Loaded. WTF?)! I visited the Warhol museum on the way from the U.S. Open and all I wanted the entire time was to hear VU & Nico.

The ones I (somewhat) agree with: Nevermind, Is This It, The Doors.