rock n roll ain't poetry

Bruce sings about streets
E Street
57th Street
82nd Street
Racing in the street
Out on the street
Streets of Philadelphia
Streets of fire
and Backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets

You wanna be Patti and you think you know the streets
But Patti ain't got nothing on Bruce
Bruce knows streets
Forgiveness is not found on the streets
And there is no maybe in the streets

I am not creative, I do not write poetry
I just copy
So I am destroying everything that doesn't make me more like Bruce Springteen

You can be Patti Smith.
Just let me be.
The night does not belong to us.

Let's talk about dub step

Dub step: all i see of it, my mind is blown. All I read of it: it's fake music and for sure overrated. Yep, for surrr. That's a Minnesota saying. Like adding "at" to the end of questions ("where's it at?"). Anyhoo, dub step is, in my experience, the best way to play with music. And lately my life is all about playing. Not competitively, for the fun of it. The selfish game? Maybe. Dub step is fun as hell. You can just imagine music in front of you, imagine losing your mind in a crowd, imagine dancing so hard you sweat off all of your zombie makeup and somehow come out cleaner than you went in (I mean, even after getting dirtier). Few things make me shake my shoulders and remember life is so much wilder than my little midwest routine remembers. I love that. I love remembering that life is for sure HUGE. And not as many things remind us of that as there should be.

A quick little intro list:

• The glitch mob
• Pretty lights
• Bassnectar
• Future rock
• Sovereign Sect
• Deadmau5 (kinda)
• Skrillex

Coffee is the best mother fucking shit ever

I am a coffee master. It means I have been specially trained to taste and talk about Starbucks coffee... and I get to wear a black apron (a black apron that says "coffee-muther-fuckin-master"). My favorite Starbucks coffee is easily the Aged Sumatra (which is only rarely available, and is closer to Sumatra or Komodo Dragon--always available), but I also adore the Kenya and Anniversary Blend. Christmas Blend is the best-selling coffee, which is understandable, because it is aged Sumatra blended post-roasted with Latin American beans. It is spicy, bold, and a little herbal. It is delicious. But the Kenya can change your perception of flavor notes. Pairing it with something citrusy, like orange juice or a grapefruit, will change your entire idea of "coffee." Coffees have notes, and if you pair those notes with that taste (cinnamon with something cinnamon-y), your tongue will recognize that taste and search for the other layers. It will taste extremely different. This is the same idea as wine, although I know very little about tannins and wine. Coffee, however, I am learning to detect and talk about. And I adore it. It is one of my favorite parts of my job.

Absolutely Watch This

 

And then watch this: 

Good Morning

Here's another song that fits into the drunk singers singing about drinking.
Perfect for a Sunday morning.

Would have been awesome listening to this while going through a boozy breakup. But now I just listen to it and think of grad school.

He Grew a Beard Because He Was Sad

Wisdom is in the head and not in the beard. 

--Swedish Proverb 

 Joaquin Phoenix

 Brad Pitt

 Tiger Woods

 Mr. Entourage

 Ewan McGregor

 Paul Rudd, dude

 Keanu Reeves

 A fictional character, Ritchie, for Luke Wilson in my favorite movie ever.
Fun fact: this is also my favorite scene from a movie EVER.

Mr. E from the Eels

If the beard were all, goats could preach. 

--Danish Proverb

Life moves pretty fast

Another category of music that I have been listening to nowadays is songs that would make excellent John Hughes films. I'm not saying songs in this category would work well in one of Hughes's movies. Rather, it simply means that Hughes could make these songs into a kick ass movie.  Also, I'm not knocking the soundtracks for Hughes movies, those songs are bomb. It's just that there are some songs that I feel perfectly convey all of the sentiments of the king of 80's film in a few minutes.

This song does it in four minutes and twenty five seconds.

The Replacements are one of my favourite bands of all time. They are simply fantastic. It's hard for me to talk about music that I love but I'll give it a shot.

I got into punk music way too late in my life. I first started listening to punk in the summer of '08. I had to depart the Twin Cities and return to Brainerd. My friends were all scattered. I had just gone through my first major breakup. I didn't have to a car. I was working at Cold Stone Creamery. I had to bike to work. I went from being tapped into the fantastic art scene of Minneapolis to being stuck in the cultural wasteland of Brainerd. Basically, I had become an angsty teenager again by simply moving up North. With these juvenile emotions I was able to finally start my obsession with punk music.

Punk is hard and fast and loud and simple. It's just kids playing what they want because they fucking can. They just gotta keep having energy and keep being loud. It's the most youthful genre. Most punk songs are able white kids problems living in the suburbs. Perfect for my time in Brainerd. Fuck school. Fuck work. Fuck family. Fuck love. They don't want any intricate musical patterns or fascinating chord progressions. Punks just wanted to voice their frustration. Loudly.

Or at least that's how the genre started. The Replacements helped to change all of that. They realized that you don't have to play hard and fast and loud and simple to be punk. You can be creative and innovative and make beautiful music. Punk is all in the attitude.

During my bike rides to and from work, I would listen to the Mats. I started with their harder earlier stuff and just kept listening to that while cars would yell at me to get off of the road. After a few weeks I discovered Let It Be. Their masterpiece.

In this album they drastically changed their sound. Sure, they were still the lovable and drunken band from Minneapolis, but they were maturing. They were no longer in High School (well, Tommy would have been in 11th grade but he dropped out). Paul's lyrics are tackling the issues of finding yourself when you're growing up. There is a lot I can say about this album but I'll save that for a later date.

Basically, "Sixteen Blue," is a John Hughes movie.

The song beautifully describes the state of being young. Just like the movies.

The music wouldn't probably fit into a cheesy but awesome Hughes flick. But there's no denying that the sentiment is the same.

So, in my summer of punk I found a little bit of my self and grew up a bit. I made money, ice cream and a beard. Those things come and go, but my deep appreciation of punk will always remain.

"Cameron has never been in love - at least, nobody's ever been in love with him. If things don't change for him, he's gonna marry the first girl he lays, and she's gonna treat him like shit, because she will have given him what he has built up in his mind as the end-all, be-all of human existence. She won't respect him, 'cause you can't respect somebody who kisses your ass. It just doesn't work."- Ferris Bueller


"Brag about things you don't understand"- Paul Westerberg

p.s. Rob McElhenney ftw!

Mac's hilarious debut on Lost as "Aldo"



Mac now!

You Know What Makes Absolutely No Sense?

 

So. I'm re-watching Lost again. I'm not sure why, because I was angry at it for all seven seasons the first time and I'm angry the whole first three so far (plus there is better television out there)... but I get as wrapped up as the next sap-suckin' fruit bag.  

The show has two redeeming things:

                 1. Hurley 

Hurley is the only character on the ENTIRE show (and main characters are added all of the time) that leads a relatively normal life or is actually indicative of human nature (Rose and Bernard, maybe, but they are a strange brew in themselves). A torturer? Diamond thieves? African gang lords? Professional con men? Incestuous step siblings? Cop-murderers? Are these really the people I'm getting onto airplanes with? But Hugo Reyes actually makes sense.

                  2. How Easily Lost is translated into a drinking game.

• Drink every time the opening shot is someone's eye
• Take a shot every time someone is shot
• Drink every time someone dies, but doesn't really
• Drink when someone says "son of a bitch" (twice, if it's Sawyer)
• Drink for 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, or 42 that appears. Thrice if the set appears.
• Drink every time someone says "We have to go back"
• Drink every time Michael yells "Waaaalt!" or Claire yells "my baby!"
• Drink every time someone gets punched and NO blood is drawn
• Drink every time you hear whispering in the jungle
• Every time Jin seems to have a perm suddenly
• Drink every time the JackFace occurs (Lost lingo)
• Take a shot every time Sayid tortures someone (two if he exudes some sexiness simultaneously)
• Take a shot every time Sawyer punches Jack or vice versa
• Drink for every flashback
• Take a shot for every random that dies
• Chug a beer every time Scott and Steve get mixed up
• Drink when Hurley says "dude"
• Drink when someone cries or dramatically stops talking
• Take a shot when anyone "sees you in another life, brother"
• Someone answers "It's complicated," or says, "I was looking for something" as if that's a legitimate reason for what they're really doing
• Take a drink every time you recognize someone from someone else's flashback
• Someone starts with, "Can I ask you a question?"

For those of you who have never watched it, DON'T. Save yourself. However, if you want to be endlessly tormented by broken plotlines, absurd logic, huge holes in development and gaps between flashbacks and developing story, but mystery after curious mystery, then it's ok. 

Let's All Go To The Bar

I guess I should talk about music on this blog.

Recently, I have been putting music I have been listening into very specific categories. I make these up to accurately describe a song without having to talk about the actual genre or music they are playing.

My favorite category of music at this moment is repetitive songs that are sung by drunk singers about drinkings. Repetition is key 'cause you don't want complicated lyrics you just want to yell the same thing over and over and over again. These aren't well made drinking songs, they gotta be sloppy. And the more voices the better.

Here's a song from this category that I have been listening a lot: Deer Tick's "Let's All Go to the Bar"

Best line of the song:  I don't are if you puke in my ride, let's all go to the bar.

Drunk dudes singing about drinking. Good stuff.

Point, Counterpoint

may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old
   
may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young
   
and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile 

(e.e. cummings)

The thing that I love about poetry is that wordplay challenges your brain to tease apart the meaning of something. Almost always a riddle, e. e. cummings is one of my favorite poets because his mind is obsessed with love, youth, sex and understanding their relations. Although this is a fairly straightforward supplication to be malleable and eager throughout life, I find it useful to remember that myself, and things, will continue to change.

you shall above all things be glad and young
For if you're young,whatever life you wear
   
it will become you;and if you are glad
whatever's living will yourself become.
Girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need:
i can entirely her only love
   
whose any mystery makes every man's
flesh put space on;and his mind take off time
   
that you should ever think

Way Down in the Hole

I just finished watching all of The Wire today. I don't want to talk too much about since it's such a stereotypical thing that white people like but I feel like the new blog is the place where I can say a bit. I was told by lots of friends to watch it since it's apparently the greatest show ever made. So I started it when I started grad school to procrastinate.

My favourite character on the show is Bubbles. Bubbles is a guy who struggled with a heroin addiction and tried to get his life back on track over the course of five seasons. He was an informant to the cops to pay for his drugs, sold hats to gang members and always managed to get survive. By the end of the show he had turned his life around and was clean for over a year. It was a nice subplot to follow for the series.

In the last episode he reads some Kafka and I was very intrigued by the passage:

“You can hold back from the suffering of the world, you have free permission to do so, and it is in accordance with your nature. But perhaps the holding back is the one suffering you could have avoided.”

Sheeeeeeiiiiit, that's deep. That pretty much sums up the show. The show is all about the game. Everyone is a player and contribute their part to the game. No matter what you do you're in the game. If you try to ignore the game then you're just gonna hurt yourself 'cause it's still being played.

Recently, I was tried to quit playing with games.

But now I am realizing that no matter what I can't stop.

I guess I'll play on.

Shit don't change.

Game the same. Just got more fierce.

The Walmart Difference

This is what happens when you substitute fuck into the Walmart mantra (way too late in the morning):

Come fuck at Walmart, where you'll receive fucked-up discounts on all of your favorite brand name fucks. Our fucked up and fucking associates are there to slutfuck you a fuckton of hours a day. Here you will find fucktastic prices on the fucks you need. Good fucks for the moms, fuckheads for the kids, and all the latest electronics for the fuck-cousins. So come on down to Walmart, where the fuckiest, fuckeriffic fuckers come first.