Sunday, February 8, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
The Real World Wrap-up
My apologies for the tardiness of this post but i was in the editing lab finishing up a video for my new interview section on THEPURCHASEBRICK.COM. (That's another discussion)
I just finished watching the new episode on MTV.COM and can say that i am still not proud about being hooked on this show. So if you also missed the episode, here is a brief synopsis:
-Gang goes to Fashion Week gala thing, Scott gets numbers from model chicks.
-Ryan plays prank on the gang.
-JD finds out and sprays shaving cream on Ryan and Chet while they're sleeping
-Ryan freaks out (PTSD)
-Scott brings home 2 model girls (both black) back to the apartment and shows them his modeling portfolio, nothing sexual occurs.
-Devyn and Chet are both jealous and do obnoxious things, trying to gain Scott's attention. Devyn wants Scott's dick and so does Chet.
-Chet's dream is to be the new host of TRL.
-He finds out it got cancelled, lolz.
-Chet calls up his connection at fall out boy management company and does an interview in asbury park for someshitty band
-Ryan talks about his time in Iraq
-Cast feels bad for him
-Ryan and army friend go to a memorial service at ground zero on 9/11
-Chet interviews Pete Wentz
-Chet wants to suck his dick
-Fin
So overall I had a good time during this episode, even though I was continuously interrupted.
What I enjoyed Finally getting a glimpse into Scott's character. Like I said before in my first post, i knew nothing at all about him except he was from Massachusetts, which by itself is kind of lame. This episode I really enjoyed his interactions with the rest of the house. I liked how he macked model hunnies and got two of them back to the apartment on two separate occasions. I also enjoyed the part in the episode where after Chet makes a "dating guide" for Scott, Scott begins to get angry. I was just waiting for there to be a fight, which i'm predicting to occur sometime soon. The 9/11 trip was interesting and definitely added a humane perspective to the show, that is almost never exposed in any of the other episodes. I laughed out loud when Chet found out that TRL was cancelled.
What I didn't
Chet, just take a look at this one picture:
Take a real look at this picture!
HE'S WEARING A HAT WITH HIS FUCKING NAME ON IT! How vein can he possibly be? We know that you're mormon and proud of it, but please dude, spare us. I'm not going to continue with this because i am extremely uncomfortable with myself due to the immense emotional attachment I have with a reality show character. Another thing that made me upset was Devyn's agreeing attitude with Chet towards Scott. We all know that you want to fuck him, great, he doesn't want your skanky silicon boobs, get over it, move on.
PETE WENTZ'S influence on this show. They go to his bar every episode, they hang out with his management agency, and give Chet an oppurtunity to be on his networking site. We all know how rich and self involved he is but please MTV give it a break, there is more hip things going on in New York City than Pete Wentz. I know this might upset a few of you, but i don't like Ryan's attitude towards his war experiences. Obviously he is going to have stresses concerning his time served, but when they focus on him and then he's says things like " I don't have a problem. I don't want to be one of those guys with a problem." I say to myself, then shut up and stop discussing it, but he doesn't. Hopefully, the producers of the show will move away from that theme, but probably not because it provides discussion for lame, no live having people like me.
If you're not watching this show, you are missing out. MTV is always streaming past episodes, so take some time out of you're extremely busy day and watch an episode or four.
Until Pete Wentz invents another company,
I just finished watching the new episode on MTV.COM and can say that i am still not proud about being hooked on this show. So if you also missed the episode, here is a brief synopsis:
-Gang goes to Fashion Week gala thing, Scott gets numbers from model chicks.
-Ryan plays prank on the gang.
-JD finds out and sprays shaving cream on Ryan and Chet while they're sleeping
-Ryan freaks out (PTSD)
-Scott brings home 2 model girls (both black) back to the apartment and shows them his modeling portfolio, nothing sexual occurs.
-Devyn and Chet are both jealous and do obnoxious things, trying to gain Scott's attention. Devyn wants Scott's dick and so does Chet.
-Chet's dream is to be the new host of TRL.
-He finds out it got cancelled, lolz.
-Chet calls up his connection at fall out boy management company and does an interview in asbury park for someshitty band
-Ryan talks about his time in Iraq
-Cast feels bad for him
-Ryan and army friend go to a memorial service at ground zero on 9/11
-Chet interviews Pete Wentz
-Chet wants to suck his dick
-Fin
So overall I had a good time during this episode, even though I was continuously interrupted.
What I enjoyed Finally getting a glimpse into Scott's character. Like I said before in my first post, i knew nothing at all about him except he was from Massachusetts, which by itself is kind of lame. This episode I really enjoyed his interactions with the rest of the house. I liked how he macked model hunnies and got two of them back to the apartment on two separate occasions. I also enjoyed the part in the episode where after Chet makes a "dating guide" for Scott, Scott begins to get angry. I was just waiting for there to be a fight, which i'm predicting to occur sometime soon. The 9/11 trip was interesting and definitely added a humane perspective to the show, that is almost never exposed in any of the other episodes. I laughed out loud when Chet found out that TRL was cancelled.
What I didn't
Chet, just take a look at this one picture:
Take a real look at this picture!
HE'S WEARING A HAT WITH HIS FUCKING NAME ON IT! How vein can he possibly be? We know that you're mormon and proud of it, but please dude, spare us. I'm not going to continue with this because i am extremely uncomfortable with myself due to the immense emotional attachment I have with a reality show character. Another thing that made me upset was Devyn's agreeing attitude with Chet towards Scott. We all know that you want to fuck him, great, he doesn't want your skanky silicon boobs, get over it, move on.
PETE WENTZ'S influence on this show. They go to his bar every episode, they hang out with his management agency, and give Chet an oppurtunity to be on his networking site. We all know how rich and self involved he is but please MTV give it a break, there is more hip things going on in New York City than Pete Wentz. I know this might upset a few of you, but i don't like Ryan's attitude towards his war experiences. Obviously he is going to have stresses concerning his time served, but when they focus on him and then he's says things like " I don't have a problem. I don't want to be one of those guys with a problem." I say to myself, then shut up and stop discussing it, but he doesn't. Hopefully, the producers of the show will move away from that theme, but probably not because it provides discussion for lame, no live having people like me.
If you're not watching this show, you are missing out. MTV is always streaming past episodes, so take some time out of you're extremely busy day and watch an episode or four.
Until Pete Wentz invents another company,
Brendan's Note
Kurdt
by Brendan Taylor
Dying prematurely is the most striking part to him to you. That and his voice I suppose; his ephemeral, compelling voice. Suffocating is all you tend to do and perhaps he chose to bring the pillow in a bit closer. Some don’t want the last words or all-wrong floral arrangements compromising their final bubble-wrapped moments. Some dictate their last breath, if this is even the case, but it’s not the point.
Kurt Cobain never trailed off into the beating unconsciousness brings with it. He never wanted to relive days of youth or grandeur. He was “married, buried,” had a daughter that needed changing, a house that needed chipping and painting, music that needed retooling and promoting, and perhaps these were more chains to his persona than anything else. Really, he never grew up.
Some choose to tell their own stories for you to be left guessing at them as a detective/victim to their sheer fame, searching the remaining pieces of a lousy crime scene. Like James Dean or Robert Johnson, some become folklore unto themselves. You never see where exactly the surge of their pathway is leading, if to anywhere. This turns into another form of rationalizing a boring existence in hoping for the other side of consciousness. We lean often for some kind of energy.
Cobain was the energy he so sang of. This is also why he is not here anymore. Perceiving the worst forms of one’s reality is part of battling one’s self; some choose to dictate the fight and others keep on ignoring, keep on drowning. As screwed up and torrentially misguided as this will sound, it was the art of never allowing youthful naiveté or devotion to music be taken from him, that original notion of never straying into reunion tours or sad songs that try to recapture the light of what was. He never talked about which route will be more efficient to pick his daughter up from school. He never had his hair fall out, never started playing golf or shaming the Bush administration. Cobain never lamented in someone else’s pride or anxiety concerning his creations. By giving up, he never quite gave in.
Perhaps he should have stopped playing is all, but how can one ever stop when all they are attempting to do is start over? It’s as if you get high on art, then in the same swift backward motion: kill it forcefully. Is that victimizing your so-called idols, is it martyrdom? Or is it selfishness getting in the way, always expecting what you’re tritely familiar with? If in fact selfishness leads to suicide, then suicide derives from a self-driven world that manipulates, conjures and falsifies an individual’s very being.
Marlon Brando said, “There are no artists anymore.” He cited the modern forms of celebrity, vanity and wealth as the downfalls to the actual process of creation. Surely he forgets art is not just the scene he was involved in. But perhaps the suffocation is an art unto itself. Art is meant to resist, someone, something. Kurt resisted everything. To quote another heavy namesake, Bob Dylan remarked, “All my songs are protest songs,” when he was faced with animosity toward his new “sound” away from acoustic, topical songs.
Kurt was a rare form, a moving protest, one in the substandard MTV culture which became a paradise for those “trying to be”… anything, those self-rated who parallel everyone else as a measure of and for themselves. They didn’t have the chance to rate him, they couldn’t touch him; they were all over, smothering him, he couldn’t bear to think what he had become.
Yes there are artists, Mr. Brando, not only Shakespeare and Picasso, who did it for the sake of it, but there are ones who do it because they have to be recognized in order to rest; there are ones who do it because they know they’re bound to be heard, have to be heard, need to be-- what grows inside is a world within a world.
Cobain was an exception in modern pop music, he wrote in the grossest forms of irony and sang in the rigorous truths of originality. The rest can be left for duplicators to carbon-copy or discuss over the mediocrity of their late-night smokes.
You end up bothering still with what was made because it’s been approved almost, ridiculously, by someone, by something. That’s also because there was something there--Cobain’s humdrumness was so similar, so customary to our own passiveness. His pain was foreseeable, not comprehendible. His path is one stuck, maimed; preserved in a time warp.
When I still listen to Nirvana, Kurt’s voice emanates a tone of sarcasm that cannot be denied in most instances. Yet it is a sarcasm of ironic wit plagued by monotony. He takes the perspective of an outsider with simplistic lyrics that have the ability to reach and be interpreted in variant ways, while communicating how easy the game looks; how pathetic it may all be viewed if you’re not a regular participant in situations.
The simplicity with which Cobain executes is his greatest strength; in his words, in his melodies, even in his voice, for simplicity brings rawness, which brings passion. Maybe he was passionately ambivalent; maybe he decided to go in the polar opposite direction from most of the people in his logging home-town out of desperation. For, Cobain was not courageous; he was courageous in voice, in spirit, he was humbled by his overtly narcissistic placement in the world. Kurt was irregularly sensitive to the transience of things and maybe as a child he became too attached to have to watch them die all over again. Perhaps like all great artists, his head wouldn’t leave him alone; his heart wouldn’t leave him alone. Krist Novoselic said once, “Kurt was a great artist, completely original. The best artists create their own voice, Kurt created his own world.”
Maybe we’re all just dramatists trying to save everything as its happening, trying to capture what’s written while it’s being read; maybe Kurt knew to end it before things got a little awry; maybe he was a stupid kid who should have stuck things out and realized that times smooth over. Maybe some are too honest they never learn how to die the way we want them to.
Well, whatever… nevermind.
by Brendan Taylor
Dying prematurely is the most striking part to him to you. That and his voice I suppose; his ephemeral, compelling voice. Suffocating is all you tend to do and perhaps he chose to bring the pillow in a bit closer. Some don’t want the last words or all-wrong floral arrangements compromising their final bubble-wrapped moments. Some dictate their last breath, if this is even the case, but it’s not the point.
Kurt Cobain never trailed off into the beating unconsciousness brings with it. He never wanted to relive days of youth or grandeur. He was “married, buried,” had a daughter that needed changing, a house that needed chipping and painting, music that needed retooling and promoting, and perhaps these were more chains to his persona than anything else. Really, he never grew up.
Some choose to tell their own stories for you to be left guessing at them as a detective/victim to their sheer fame, searching the remaining pieces of a lousy crime scene. Like James Dean or Robert Johnson, some become folklore unto themselves. You never see where exactly the surge of their pathway is leading, if to anywhere. This turns into another form of rationalizing a boring existence in hoping for the other side of consciousness. We lean often for some kind of energy.
Cobain was the energy he so sang of. This is also why he is not here anymore. Perceiving the worst forms of one’s reality is part of battling one’s self; some choose to dictate the fight and others keep on ignoring, keep on drowning. As screwed up and torrentially misguided as this will sound, it was the art of never allowing youthful naiveté or devotion to music be taken from him, that original notion of never straying into reunion tours or sad songs that try to recapture the light of what was. He never talked about which route will be more efficient to pick his daughter up from school. He never had his hair fall out, never started playing golf or shaming the Bush administration. Cobain never lamented in someone else’s pride or anxiety concerning his creations. By giving up, he never quite gave in.
Perhaps he should have stopped playing is all, but how can one ever stop when all they are attempting to do is start over? It’s as if you get high on art, then in the same swift backward motion: kill it forcefully. Is that victimizing your so-called idols, is it martyrdom? Or is it selfishness getting in the way, always expecting what you’re tritely familiar with? If in fact selfishness leads to suicide, then suicide derives from a self-driven world that manipulates, conjures and falsifies an individual’s very being.
Marlon Brando said, “There are no artists anymore.” He cited the modern forms of celebrity, vanity and wealth as the downfalls to the actual process of creation. Surely he forgets art is not just the scene he was involved in. But perhaps the suffocation is an art unto itself. Art is meant to resist, someone, something. Kurt resisted everything. To quote another heavy namesake, Bob Dylan remarked, “All my songs are protest songs,” when he was faced with animosity toward his new “sound” away from acoustic, topical songs.
Kurt was a rare form, a moving protest, one in the substandard MTV culture which became a paradise for those “trying to be”… anything, those self-rated who parallel everyone else as a measure of and for themselves. They didn’t have the chance to rate him, they couldn’t touch him; they were all over, smothering him, he couldn’t bear to think what he had become.
Yes there are artists, Mr. Brando, not only Shakespeare and Picasso, who did it for the sake of it, but there are ones who do it because they have to be recognized in order to rest; there are ones who do it because they know they’re bound to be heard, have to be heard, need to be-- what grows inside is a world within a world.
Cobain was an exception in modern pop music, he wrote in the grossest forms of irony and sang in the rigorous truths of originality. The rest can be left for duplicators to carbon-copy or discuss over the mediocrity of their late-night smokes.
You end up bothering still with what was made because it’s been approved almost, ridiculously, by someone, by something. That’s also because there was something there--Cobain’s humdrumness was so similar, so customary to our own passiveness. His pain was foreseeable, not comprehendible. His path is one stuck, maimed; preserved in a time warp.
When I still listen to Nirvana, Kurt’s voice emanates a tone of sarcasm that cannot be denied in most instances. Yet it is a sarcasm of ironic wit plagued by monotony. He takes the perspective of an outsider with simplistic lyrics that have the ability to reach and be interpreted in variant ways, while communicating how easy the game looks; how pathetic it may all be viewed if you’re not a regular participant in situations.
The simplicity with which Cobain executes is his greatest strength; in his words, in his melodies, even in his voice, for simplicity brings rawness, which brings passion. Maybe he was passionately ambivalent; maybe he decided to go in the polar opposite direction from most of the people in his logging home-town out of desperation. For, Cobain was not courageous; he was courageous in voice, in spirit, he was humbled by his overtly narcissistic placement in the world. Kurt was irregularly sensitive to the transience of things and maybe as a child he became too attached to have to watch them die all over again. Perhaps like all great artists, his head wouldn’t leave him alone; his heart wouldn’t leave him alone. Krist Novoselic said once, “Kurt was a great artist, completely original. The best artists create their own voice, Kurt created his own world.”
Maybe we’re all just dramatists trying to save everything as its happening, trying to capture what’s written while it’s being read; maybe Kurt knew to end it before things got a little awry; maybe he was a stupid kid who should have stuck things out and realized that times smooth over. Maybe some are too honest they never learn how to die the way we want them to.
Well, whatever… nevermind.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Save Yer Ears
This evening I heard "Untouched" by the Veronicas at least ten times on various stations within one hour. I hate that song. It sucks. A lot. It actually makes me angry to hear it, and for a moment I feel the need to scream obsenities at anyone remotely enjoying it whilst simultaneously tearing off my ears.
I like my ears, so thankfully I have the "Saving Grace" musicians - as I like to call them. The artists I can turn to when I lose hope in the world o' music. They are Sean Hayes and Yann Tiersen. You might recognize both names - Yann Tiersen composed the "Goodbye, Lenin" and "Amelie" soundtrack; Sean Hayes shares his namesake with one of the stars of Will and Grace.
Personally, I love that they're not so well known. If that was the case, they'd probably take the Coldplay route and I'd hear their songs so much they'd start to annoy me. But at the same time, they're so damn good that I think they deserve a little recognition. So, take some time to nurse your ears and give these tunes a listen. While your at it, answer this: What are your Saving Grace musicians?
I like my ears, so thankfully I have the "Saving Grace" musicians - as I like to call them. The artists I can turn to when I lose hope in the world o' music. They are Sean Hayes and Yann Tiersen. You might recognize both names - Yann Tiersen composed the "Goodbye, Lenin" and "Amelie" soundtrack; Sean Hayes shares his namesake with one of the stars of Will and Grace.
Personally, I love that they're not so well known. If that was the case, they'd probably take the Coldplay route and I'd hear their songs so much they'd start to annoy me. But at the same time, they're so damn good that I think they deserve a little recognition. So, take some time to nurse your ears and give these tunes a listen. While your at it, answer this: What are your Saving Grace musicians?
LoveSchackMix: Volume 3: SSS
http://www.sendspace.com/file/kybdqd
A wolf at the door- Radiohead
Sure Shot- Beastie Boys
If I could make you do things- Two Tongues
Apple Orchard- Beach House
Family Tree- TV On The Radio
My girls- Animal Collective
Love Song (The Cure Cover)- Death Cab For Cutie
Ay Man- Pharrell ft. Lil Wayne
Transmission (joy division cover)- Hot Chip
If you listen to the show, you know what this is about, if not I'll give you a brief description. I have a radio show, where i play music and talk bullshit. This is the music that was played on the show.
Monday night's @ 10pm/www.purchaseradio.org
If you like the music, listen to the show. I'll be posting a new mix every week.
Also, Brendan's notes will be featured soon (whenever he emails them to me), so watch out!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Let Me Tell You How It Will Be...
UPDATE: 2:15 pm Only a few minutes after I confidently declared the Daschle nomination would be pushed through, he withdraws. Great. In hindsight, this already seems like it was a foregone conclusion. Live and learn.
Does anyone pay their taxes?
First it was Timothy Geithner, the now-confirmed Treasury Secretary. Then it was Tom Daschle, Obama's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (i.e. the guy who's supposed to fix health care). It didn't end there, when today, Nancy Killefer, nominee for Chief Performance Officer, withdrew her candidacy, citing some tax issues that she didn't want to become a distraction for the Obama Administration.
The excuse given for Geithner and Daschle is that they have been designated to fill such vital roles in the new administration that they're indispensable. If you believe healthcare reform is important, then there's a compelling public interest in seeing Daschle pushed through. On the one hand, it's a refreshing departure from the Bush appointments, where utterly unqualified hacks were appointed to run things like FEMA. Obama is making appointments on the basis of competence - no one is saying Geithner and Daschle aren't two of the top dogs in their respective fields.
But when you try to balance the competency argument with Obama's promise of a more ethical government, someone ends up flying ass-up off the seesaw. Of course, this is more of a political embarrassment than a substantive issue. It's got a big fat ironic red bow on it for Republicans who like to whine about tax-and-spend liberals. It also just makes people angry; it straddles the line between cozy and corrupt, depending on who you talk to.
Eventually, Tom Daschle will be confirmed, because Democrats have the votes and Daschle has the political capital. But Republicans will be making lots of loud noises in the process. If any of those loud noises include viable alternatives to his nomination though, I'll be very surprised.
Does anyone pay their taxes?
First it was Timothy Geithner, the now-confirmed Treasury Secretary. Then it was Tom Daschle, Obama's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (i.e. the guy who's supposed to fix health care). It didn't end there, when today, Nancy Killefer, nominee for Chief Performance Officer, withdrew her candidacy, citing some tax issues that she didn't want to become a distraction for the Obama Administration.
The excuse given for Geithner and Daschle is that they have been designated to fill such vital roles in the new administration that they're indispensable. If you believe healthcare reform is important, then there's a compelling public interest in seeing Daschle pushed through. On the one hand, it's a refreshing departure from the Bush appointments, where utterly unqualified hacks were appointed to run things like FEMA. Obama is making appointments on the basis of competence - no one is saying Geithner and Daschle aren't two of the top dogs in their respective fields.
But when you try to balance the competency argument with Obama's promise of a more ethical government, someone ends up flying ass-up off the seesaw. Of course, this is more of a political embarrassment than a substantive issue. It's got a big fat ironic red bow on it for Republicans who like to whine about tax-and-spend liberals. It also just makes people angry; it straddles the line between cozy and corrupt, depending on who you talk to.
Eventually, Tom Daschle will be confirmed, because Democrats have the votes and Daschle has the political capital. But Republicans will be making lots of loud noises in the process. If any of those loud noises include viable alternatives to his nomination though, I'll be very surprised.
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