"...not unless you want to lighten up a bit more?"

“It's not going to be a very good show tonight. I think you should change the channel, change the channel right now or better yet turn off the TV. Now, I know it seems like this is supposed to be funny, but, uh, tomorrow you're gonna find out that it wasn't and by that time I'll have been fired. No, this is not a sketch. This show used to be cutting edge political and social satire, but it's gotten lobotomized by a candy ass broadcast network. Hellbent on doing nothing that might challenge their audience. We're about to do a sketch that everyone's seen like 500 times. No, no one's gonna confuse George Bush and George Plimpton, yeah we get it. We're all being lobotomized by this countries most influential industry. It just throws in the towel on any endeavor to do anything that doesn't involve the courting of 12 year old boys. Not even the smart 12 year olds, the stupid ones, the idiots of which there are plenty thanks to no small mention of this network. So why don't you just change the channel? Turn off the TV do it right now. The struggle between art and commerce. Well, there's always been a struggle between art and commerce and now I'm telling you art is getting it's ass kicked and it's making us mean and it's making us bitchy. It's making us cheap punks and that's not who we are! People are having contests to see how much they can be like Donald Trump. We're eating worms for money. "Who wants to screw my sister." Guys are getting killed in a war that has theme music and a logo. That remote in your hands is a crack pipe, oh yeah sure every once in a while we pretend to be appalled. We're becoming Pornographers! It's not even good pornography. It's just a side of snuff films and friends that's what's next because that's all there is left. And the two things that make them scared gutless of the FCC is and every psycho religious cult that gets positively horny at the mention of a boycott.”
Studio 60

Yeah…I know fricken’ awesome right? That’s really all I wanted to let you know about today. I guess one other thing…WATCH THIS SHOW!!!!

Oh Messy Life

Alright so I had a nice quite weekend. Friday after work I had a big family dinner, which was nice. I got do see Bella a little more…actually a lot more, I’m the de facto babysitter at these sort of gatherings. The upside is that I get to do coloring books. I fucking love coloring books! Saturday was great, I had this super intense conversation with Harry, that was amazing and fun and very confusing all at the same time. I went to go have coffee with Sara after that which was also nice. Catching up is always good. That night I talked with my granddad about history until quite late, sort of a continuation of a similar discussion Friday. He is ridiculously smart, which I never realized, and he knows politics way to well. I was interesting to connect with someone from my family again, I hadn’t done that in a while. Sunday was a crap-load of reading that was both interesting and infuriating. So as to give us both sides of historical writing, my US and World Affairs teacher assigned us this book, American Victories (Why America wins wars). I wont go into the details but think Ann Coulter on crack and you have his essential political viewpoint. I hate both extremes, but this was some of the most inflammatory stuff I’ve read in a long time. I guess the most depressing part of the whole thing is that he has a bit of a mind, and uses it only to deride the far left, giving no moderate viewpoint from either aisle. I finished it and after tomorrow I wont have to think about it again hopefully!

Beyond that I’m hoping like hell that there will be a new cell phone in the near future, Wednesday if everything goes to plan. Right now I really want the “V,” it is basically Verizon’s answer to the sidekick. I wont be getting many of the special features right away, but there is always the upgrade! I also think I’ll be able to keep my same number. If not I’ll give you a call.

That and school work are about the only thing on my plate at the moment, so I’ll be really bored and junk. This will I’m sure lead to lots of posts this week, whatever…Hey this is also the big 5-0. Fifty posts and seven and a half months have brought all two or three of you to this spot! Wow…maybe I should have made this one more important…

Listening to Alone In Kyoto by Air and Cruella by Deadsy

Young Machines

Alright so, quite morning so far. Everybody is in the big Friday meeting. So I have time to waste. Cool. Well. I really don’t have much of substance to say other than I completely agree with Shah about the whole Darfur thing. That is an awful situation that should be leading or at least front page on every newspaper in the country. We are afraid to intervene because of Somalia but I think after Baghdad, urban warfare is something that our troops have down pretty good. There are issues of sovereignty as always but fuck that when the Mujhadeen (sp.?) are mowing down women and children. I think we should go get there backs…with tanks (to paraphrase President Bartlet).
On a less depressing note I have figured out my myspace/blogspot dilemma. I’m going to keep posting here as I always have but there will be a little dumb content on the myspace page. Surveys, quizzes, whatever I feel like. I mean essentially this is for Shah to keep up on my life and for Mike to occasionally (when internet is available to him) call me on some musical reference I made or something. I like that and don’t want it to change, however being a budding myspace junkie, I feel as if I should do more with my page or something.
That’s all for now. Time to be productive. In, I’ll grant you, a rather Friday-half-assed kind of way!

Elevate Me Later

Sorry about yesterday. I was just in a bad mood. Mike’s, or Tzara’s…I’m not sure which, that “life should be seen as widely dehumanizing” was bugging me along with this ongoing internal monologue about deconstructionism and devolution versus progress and whatever “comes next”. Speaking of Art and Philosophy and all that crap that I get distracted by too much lately, the DAMO page has been updated a bit, just some little things, you can find it through my blog profile. Anyway, yeah sorry. I’m honestly not even sure anyone reads this anymore but I said in my first post that I would not do that. Oh well…

Today was good. I played devils advocate to a bunch for people screaming “free trade” in my World Affairs class. Protectionism is fun to defend because the immediacy of its benefits are easy. “Free trade stops wars!” though (as Toby said so eloquently). Babbling about Detroit and US Steel was fun though. That and everyone seems to know that Free Trade is good but none of them came close to actually articulating it.
So for real for real, my phone is totally screwed up and I’m not sure if or when I’m getting a new one. If someone wants or needs (though I doubt need will arise) to get a hold of me leave me a comment on this or the myspace. Hopefully I will get a brand new shiny phone soon with even more features that I’ll either never use or annoy people with constantly! I’m gunning for a blackberry but that might be out of the question. Mr. Jenkins does make a powerful argument in the affirmative, but my means may not consent, or my parents. Most likely both.

I can’t say enough how great last weekend was. Truly a much needed get away from the general drudgery. I had fun with just about everyone I hung with that night. And there were a lot of people. Being a social butterfly is so vainly satisfying that its scary.
This weekend will bring less excitement (as you may have gathered from the previous post), but the booze will flow thickly and smell like Guinness (I’m Irish…who’d you think I was?). One of the best parts of Autumn? Its Guinness season at the house!
I have nothing on the radar for the following weekend (way to early to tell yet I know) but I’m hoping to get down to SMCM again or possibly blow a lot of money at thrift stores. Those are the two big options at the moment. They, I am sure will change before too long…

The Boy With The Thorn In His Side

So I’m really bored and there is nothing good on TV…by the way I think that TV Geek is going to be dead for a while. All I really have time for this week is work, I work at school I work at work and I do both of those works at home, so sleeping and junk is about all I have time for.

Except tonight. Yeah of course when there is nothing good on. So I’m becoming a total myspace freak just like everybody else. The thing is a huge time suck…I have to check it at least once a day now…I’m almost thinking that I should move the blog…but I wont. Blogspot has its charms…

I don’t really feel like doing anything besides nothing

Coming down of a literary high sucks

Coming down off any high sucks

I’m still sort of amped from the weekend even but that’s diminishing. Anyway.

Nothing to do this weekend. I apparently didn’t do enough of the family thing this weekend so I’m in relations purgatory for a while. Grandparents on Friday Cousins on Saturday and then a shit load of reading that I should really be doing now on Sunday…

Missing people like crazy…wanting to see everyone I know (and like) at once would lead to some sort of nuclear explosion of resentment and dislike, that or the time-space continuum would tear and existence would shift…ah the multiverse (thank you Kant)

Oh and my phone is really fucked up so if you want to call, I dunno...wait until November when I get a new one...

This is lame, I’m going to go look for people I knew in Kindergarten some more

Listening to Sonny by Morrissey and Do You Like Coffee by Braid

Buddha For Mary

So in between class yesterday I picked up a copy of the Complete Works of Allen Ginsberg. I was bored and had already caught up on all of my reading of class. I flipped to the page where “Howl” began and read, and read, and read. In the end I had gone over it six times and was almost late for class. First off for anyone how hasn’t read it before read it. Its been one of my favorite poems for a long time (since mid high school I think). How can something so deeply personal and specific be so universal and understood and empathized with. Reading it however always gets me down a bit. For two reasons; my generation acts basically the same way but without the excuse and I’ll never write anything even close to approximating a plagiarism of Ginsberg. Oh well, we cant all define a generation in a single work.

Beyond the moppy-ness work is busy as always with corporate politics conspiring to ruin my Ginsberg/Zen-like high from yesterday. People are just so damn petty and nearsighted. They wrap themselves in these artificial worlds in which they love to bray at the moon, or may as well, for all the good it will do complaining about these things. I’m no Ghandi “be the change you wan to see in the world” boy but for god sakes there is a difference between being able to do something about a problem and then fixing it and not being able to do jack shit about a problem. Those you have to except and deal with. THEY DON’T GO AWAY, AND THEY WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE HARDER! This is life. Life is pain and suffering and joy and hope and beauty and shame and every experience under the sun. You have to take both with a grain of salt, ‘cause both are impermanent and both in the end mean little when they are weighed against your actions. And before Mike or someone gets the smart-alecky idea of calling me a Buddhist, I think that life is equal parts joy and sorrow. And not all pain.

Fuck it. That was dumb. And there goes the bliss, back to staring at my computer trying to avoid the internal, unnecessary bull…

Listening to Braid…lots of it and loudly!

She Likes Big Words

Great weekend. I went to pick up Mike and Matt and we got down to St. Mary’s at 8ish. Sort of just chilled for a bit and played some games. One of which, Guitar Hero, is insanely addictive and amazing. I was up until six in the morning playing it while everyone else was sleeping. I’m not very good but I can now play Bad Religion’s Infected pretty well. Anyway, we got up early to head back to the DC area. Dropped off Matt at Shady Grove Metro and headed home. Mike chilled at my house while I did the family thing (which was nice, if fairly stereotypically Italian). Then we headed back down to St. Mary’s. I know, crazy right? Probably but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I meet up with my old roommate Carrey and we sort of wandered around for a while. I ended up seeing a bunch of people that I hadn’t in a long time. It was actually quite fun. I got back to their house at around six and over slept a bit for the next day. Mike woke me up at noon and, and we hit the road to Nissan. Baron was waiting for us there and we proceeded into a world of “jerbandness.” I didn’t know that Hot Topic had that much clothing to sell. Anyway Deadsy was on early so we just caught them. They were great! They played their cover of Tom Sawyer (originally by Rush) that was great and The Winners (one of my favorite songs off the first album). They announced after the set that they would be signing stuff, so we went, figuring that since we were all broke we would get our tickets signed. They had posters and stickers ready and waiting! So that was cool. Mike and I both splurged a bit and got these wristband and button sets that are sweet. They play again with the Deftones sometime next month, so that should be good. I went and dropped Mike in Fredrick (actually he did the lion’s share of the driving Sunday) and dropped myself the minute I got home.

This week should be chill, a paper due at the end of the week and a lot of reading for school, work is moving along well to, even though I definitely don’t get paid enough for what I’m doing (or so I’ve been told by a couple people).

Listening to Put You On The Game by The Game and some 213…’cause I too have a G-ed up swagger.

Sleeping Off Summer

FRIDAY YEAH!! I had a good week at school. My teachers are both quite funny. One totally called out this guy who had his cell phone on. He actually ordered him out of the class. It was grand. It was a really annoying ring too, something rap that I didn’t know. Work has been pretty crazy, the company has expanded three times over since I started this blog. That’s not normal, or hopefully sustainable growth.

St. Mary’s is just a few hours away, but the drive will be interesting. First up to Fredrick to get Mike then a quick stop off at Shady Grove to pick up The Historian and hen the long trek down route 5 to bliss and booze. Only Friday unfortunately. I’ve got y baby cousin’s fourth birthday on Saturday and I must make an appearance. Then I think it will be on to Baltimore with Mike to see the crew up there. Mr. Jekins is performing at Townsend and we may indulge in what I can only imagine is some thoroughly “wild” hardcore. Sunday is Deadsy which I am mad excited for. The costumes I wanted to get didn’t pan out but that may be for the best. Hopefully I’ll be able to give the new CD some consideration on the long drives ahead.

Nothing else really right now, I’m just kind of bored at work while the departments all meet. Summer is coming to an end and the beginning of Fall is right around the corner. I went out to smoke a cigarette last night at around midnight and I could see my breath, and no, it wasn’t just the smoke. I like the fall its my favorite season but there is this part of you ingrained since kindergarten that always gets a little bummed. Upside of upsides however…its pay day. Maybe two of the best words in any language when used in conjunction. So I’m not too bummed. LOOK HOW GREG IS LIVIN’

Sorry I haven’t used that line in a while…

Listening to Reflections of Milkweed by Indian Summer and Love Fool (that’s right…Love Fool) by The Cardigans.

Quarkscrews

Well what a weekend. Friday was a blast I went up to Fredrick thinking that I’d hand out with Baron and Mike and partake in a little of the new season’s theme. It ended up with way more people which is always fun. We went over to the Coffee Shop and played the most intense game of Jenga ever! We actually couldn’t make it any taller. There were even spectators, and the competition element disappeared quickly as the tower got bigger. More of a team effort than a “who is going to lose” thing. Well after that we went walking around bumping into Mr. Jekin’s friends at parks. And ambled along the Fredrick Canal, a sort of artificial river that will hopefully bring in the crowds once it is all done.

A bit about the theme I have been alluding to. I’m sort of new to this, but every year the group comes up with a theme for the season. This basically dictates behavior, fashion and music. Of course its not strictly enforced or anything but it’s kind of fun to play around with. This Season is titled “The Spirit Of Autumn.” The essence is mid-nineties “emo,” so it will be a lot of short sleeve collar shirts and cuffed jeans along with ancient band shirts and bulky shoes or chucks. The Music will be everything from Braid (my personal favorite of the season) to Nation of Ulysses. And of course there will be a lot of reminiscing about the past and being in love with girls that you will never even talk to. So really not a lot will change for me. I am rather proud of myself for putting forth the leading idea for next season. It will be a two part-er “White Noise Winter” punctuated by “A Two-Tone Christmas.” I just like the though of ska and Jesus together at last.

One last thing. As I was logging on to blogspot there is this rolling list of what has been updated. It’s a cool little feature, but as I got to the site the most recently updated blog as entitled “Potatobabies.” I thought some of you might like to know. Unfortunately the site is about dolls that this woman makes out of her house, and nothing to do with me and my people.

Listening to Sleeping Off The Summer by Boy’s Life and Don’t Hate Me by The Get Up Kids

Urbana's Too Dark

Alright this one is gonna be quick…

Good day at work and I could actually concentrate (thank you uppers). Finished part one of ten of my huge filing project but it felt good. Accomplishment rules a bit.

I can’t decide if Velcro is sexy or not. I am airing on the side of not sexy at the moment. Thoughts and discussion are welcome

In honor of “The Spirit of Autumn” theme for the upcoming season (more on that later) I did a little preview at work music wise. In other words I listened to Braid all day long. Such a great band. Nana is insanely talented. Anyway I was listening to A Dozen Roses and I came to the (all be it hasty conclusion) that the build up and catharsis to it (the part were he says “Static made on radio over and over again [2:20-3:12])is one of the greatest rock moments of the late 90s.

As I was looking up when exactly “Frame And Canvas” came out I saw that Vitamin C has a new album out. She and Shinoda should do a duet. Sorry Mike I cant hate him as much as you. He is involved in the only rap song in which Johnnie Walker Blue is referenced (thankfully not by him) [Banquet Remix by Apathy]

Very excited for my next pay check I have almost all of it figured out. That’s probably a bad thing but I have decided to actually save some of it. We’ll see how that ends up going. I’m going to guess that Mike and I will end up drinking it in some for or another. On the Upside it’s a biggie!

I already told you what I was listening to…what do you want from me!

Brothers In Arms

Well I should have posted a few days ago but here we are… this last week has been amazingly busy with work piling up by the minute and trying to figure out the rigmarole of school bureaucracy. Seriously for a community college, MC has like fifteen deans and way too much red tape. I’m sort of surprised that anyone dumb is able to wade through it all. Elitist comments aside, Thursday is day one of the new year and I’m looking forward. It will be nice to get back to the routine. Even though I didn’t really have much of a summer vacation. Whatever.

Saturday Night was great. It was Dave’s going away party over in College Park. A bunch of people showed up most of whom I knew which was surprising. A bit on the drama heavy side but otherwise a great party. I tried to go as pretentious as possible (read: Morrissey T-Shirt, Red Velvet Corduroy Jacket, Vintage Aviators), which is always fun. Allen-the-beer-guy came through as usual with a great porter and the amount of liquor around amazed even the most jaded of drinkers. The Summerville brothers have no lost their touch…

TV Geek is up and sort of running at www.tv-geek.blogspot.com for all to check out and hopefully on Friday there will be a real post up after primetime is over.

Hoping to make it down to St. Mary’s this coming weekend, which will be fun, I would imagine. Nothing else really.

Listening to Please Drive Faster by Braid and This Charming Man by The Smiths