Wagner was a massive anti-semite. that's a third of what i think of every time i hear that song. here's the song:
here's what my immediate reaction is, every time i hear it:
1. kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit
2. i shouldn't like this song, Wagner really hated jews
3. i love that scene from Apocalypse Now
it's a beautiful piece. the intro is thrilling, tense, engaging, and it leads into that triumphant horn part that everyone with a pulse has heard at least once in his or her life. it's inspiring music, really, it makes perfect sense that the Nazis would want to use it in their propaganda. it makes you want to go out and conquer something.
it's a question of art versus motive, i suppose. it's a classic piece of art, one of the most recognizable pieces of music ever made. but if it's made so Hitler and his buddies can pump up their swastika-sporting brethren, should we still listen to it? i'm not a very good philosopher, so i'm going going to even try to answer that question. it's been in my thoughts for a couple of days now, since i saw a car commercial with Ride of the Valkyries hawking a Nissan something or other. i doubt they worried as much about it as i've thought about it.
i'm not going to vote on tuesday. i feel bad about it. forgot to get my absentee ballot. the last time i voted was in the presidential election in 2008. i voted for McCain, believe it or not. that may inspire a lot of gut reactions in you, but i did a lot of research before i voted. realistically, he was the most liberal republican presidential candidate i've ever seen. i actually preferred Obama when it came to the issues, but doubted he would have the influence within politics that McCain had, and would fall far short of his grand promises. McCain sure as hell wasn't going to commit genocide on gay people or whatever people were scared of: politicians these days are too scared to drastically polarize themselves on hot button issues, they'll get crucified when the other party starts gaining influence again. hence "don't ask don't tell" and that sort of thing. but once Obama won, i was fully behind him, i believe that's the way the populace should act unless something happens to compromise the ability of the president to lead (i.e. Watergate-style paranoia). now, supporting the president does not mean everyone should agree with everything he says; the beauty of a democracy is the ability for people to change their own circumstances as dictated by the government. but the general Obama-bashing is not helpful at all for the country, i believe that the vocal hatred of Obama by a rightist minority has led republican congressmen to entrench themselves and stop legislation that republicans would normally agree to. which in turn has led to liberals pointing their fingers at the gop to disguise their own shortcomings, the conservatives pointing back, and a whole lot more squabbling. i think Obama has done as well as we could expect any president to act in his situation. i don't believe he is an outstanding president, but he is far from incompetent, an above-average president trying his best.
shit, how did i get started on politics? this has been a thoroughly un-humorous post, and probably alienating on several levels. realistically, i doubt i will ever see a candidate with the same mixture of conservative and liberal stances that i have. i verge on radical on some liberal issues, but still have a conservative side of me when it comes to other issues (typically financial issues).
i have no clue why this ended up in a blog post. i guess i don't really discuss politics that often. this was a healthy thing to put in black and white, i suppose.
friday i came into work and realized the Eventric office dressed up for halloween. not everyone was wearing costumes, but there was some joshing at my blue and white thermal's expense. we also watched a couple of horror flicks. i watched Nightmare on Elm Street for the first time. it was a pretty neat movie, fun viewing. went to North Avenue Guitars to look for a footswitch, talked to a guitar tech for a half hour, went home, watched Mad Men, and slept. also wrote a bridge for one of my songs, played guitar for a while. my electric guitar (a telecaster) is really starting to show some signs of wear from my picking arm and my recklessly un-technical strumming, but it's looking pretty cool so far. seeing lots of wood through the finish.
saturday, lazed around the apt all day. watched the rest of Mad Men season 4, then Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter, which was a movie revolving around the Stones playing Altamont in 1969. that free Altamont show is generally pointed to as the end of the 60s counterculture, with the Hell's Angels killing a guy who pulled a gun in the crowd, and three other people dying from various other causes. they actually have footage of a guy pulling a gun, and a Hell's Angel stabbing him two or three times. go to about 4:00 to see the slow-motion video of it, from the film Gimme Shelter.
well, now that i've been thoroughly depressing and un-funny in this blog post, i think i'll just leave it.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
insomnia + laziness = 3 seasons of Mad Men watched
been nine days since my last one of these. ten depending on how technical you are and what your rounding system is. i'm not exactly a pro at this blogging business yet.
let's see...
last wednesday. i saw Avi Buffalo at Schubas, on the guest list courtesy of JMA. (i plan on capitalizing for emphasis, excitement, and eccentricity [i had two "e" words, thought i'd add a third for the alliteration], and with no particular grammatical rules in mind in case you were wondering) anyway. Avi Buffalo, capitalized because it's a band name and i've arbitrarily decided that band names should be capitalized from now on, put on a pretty solid show. it was in the vein of the surf-psych hipster stuff that's coming out of the west, but more accessible, more genuine. if their singer got better, they might have a shot at really going somewhere. they had the best girl drummer i've seen in a while.
last thursday. don't remember. probably did something.
friday. started Mad Men, and the downfall of my activity outside of work. i tend to go on tv binges when i watch it. i don't own a tv, so don't really watch tv casually. i watch tv with purpose. i sit down, and watch one show for six or seven hours straight at a time. which is how i've gotten through three seasons of Mad Men in less than a week. it is also highly detrimental to my social, mental, and physical status, making me a pasty neurotic hermit that survives on frozen pizza and that burrito place down the street. La Amistad. they deserve capitalization. you know the place.
saturday, watched more Mad Men, wrote riffs for two songs, messed with my tube screamer/ds-1/amp tone for a couple of hours. did absolutely none of the research i had promised myself and others that i would do. went to see Daniel Martin Moore at Schubas. i was his driver to and from the Iron & Wine show at OSU a week prior, and we had hit it off enough for him to put me on his guest list for the show. i got there just as he was starting (thanks, Mad Men, you're ruining my life now). it was a nice, mellow show, traditional-style folk that added a virtuosic guitar player who knew not to shred. ended with a devastatingly slick loop that Ric Hordinski (the guitarist) played, with three intertwining fingerpicking parts so perfectly timed that they just let the loop go for a few minutes. at one time, both artists were off the stage, listening. then DMM came up and faded out the amp volume, ending the show. i got chicago pasta and pizza afterwards, just the pasta though. it was good.
sunday, watched Mad Men. started to feel ridiculous about myself.
monday. jeff's back from new york, we had a fair amount of work at JMA.
tuesday. all interns on deck, typical tuesday. made veggie chorizo burritos at about 10:30, because chicago is dark all the time and it's seriously screwing with my internal clock. i may have reverted back to a 25 hour day. studies indicate that without day and night cues, humans' internal clocks will change to 25 hour cycles instead of the 24 hour cycles we normally run on. see, now aren't you glad you read this blog? if you actually read something that was entertaining, you would've never heard that useless tidbit.
this thing is a wall of text. here's something to break up the monotony. it's a damn fine commercial:
wednesday. perfect storm to make me late for work. slept through my alarm, first. then, the water was shut off in my apartment because i woke up so late and they're replacing pipes in my apt building. so i took a boy scout shower with the water from my coffee maker, brushed my teeth, and was on my way. but the bus didn't come for twenty minutes. i go to my car so i can drive to work. my car is on a one-way street, and there is a massive piece of construction equipment blocking the intersection i would need to go through to drive my car anywhere. so i wait another 15 minutes for the bus. end up at work an hour late. it's ok. i had leftover veggie chorizo burritos.
thursday. finished my Eventric teaser video for the third time. this time it's good, though, the bosses approve. i get to start splicing together videos tomorrow for a trade show that's coming up. wrote the music to lyrics i had had already. it's got a ska vibe to it, but it's too straight of a rhythm for ska. i'm hoping to get some weird syncopated percussion and bass to go along with the guitar part i wrote.
friday. i'm not sleeping well. still watching Mad Men. i'm on season 4, episode 3, i believe. this time last week, i had still not watched a single episode of the series. that means i watched about 40 episodes in a week. awful. just listened to Beethoven's 5th arranged as salsa music on NPR. it was ok. not really a big fan.
i don't know if i know anyone who listens to as much music as me in a week. in the past week, i have listened to:
on vinyl
This Is Reggae compilation from the 70s
Leave Home by The Ramones
Harvest by Neil Young
Sam by The Sidekicks
on ipod
Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens (still don't know what all the fuss is about)
Fuckin A and The Body The Blood The Machine by The Thermals
Arkansas? by Arkansas?
a bunch of Alien Orders stuff on repeat
Andy Cook Split and Rhetoric by American War
Hospitals by Off With Their Heads
... And Out Come The Wolves by Rancid
Odelay and Midnite Vultures by Beck
i'm missing some, too.
at work, music constantly on
WXRT at JMA
office radio station at Eventric (including Charlie Mingus, The Buzzcocks, Miles Davis, Neil Young, The White Stripes, Elvis Costello, and Dave Brubeck, to name a few)
i probably am exposed to 50 hours of music a week at a minimum. i've listened to music more than i've slept this week, by a long shot. and if we toss in playing music, then i'm up to about 60 hours a week of music. glad i can work at places where i listen to music for 35-40 hours a week.
finally feeling tired. gonna put away the remains of the chorizo burritos (that one tube of fake chorizo made a ton of food. definitely not complaining, though, i highly recommend it. i got mine from Trader Joe's), then go to sleep.
i'm not planning on doing anything for halloween. this'll be the first time i haven't dressed up since i got to college. i think i'm ok with it. i think the fact that i can't wear a dinosaur costume this time is making things easier on me.
let's see...
last wednesday. i saw Avi Buffalo at Schubas, on the guest list courtesy of JMA. (i plan on capitalizing for emphasis, excitement, and eccentricity [i had two "e" words, thought i'd add a third for the alliteration], and with no particular grammatical rules in mind in case you were wondering) anyway. Avi Buffalo, capitalized because it's a band name and i've arbitrarily decided that band names should be capitalized from now on, put on a pretty solid show. it was in the vein of the surf-psych hipster stuff that's coming out of the west, but more accessible, more genuine. if their singer got better, they might have a shot at really going somewhere. they had the best girl drummer i've seen in a while.
last thursday. don't remember. probably did something.
friday. started Mad Men, and the downfall of my activity outside of work. i tend to go on tv binges when i watch it. i don't own a tv, so don't really watch tv casually. i watch tv with purpose. i sit down, and watch one show for six or seven hours straight at a time. which is how i've gotten through three seasons of Mad Men in less than a week. it is also highly detrimental to my social, mental, and physical status, making me a pasty neurotic hermit that survives on frozen pizza and that burrito place down the street. La Amistad. they deserve capitalization. you know the place.
saturday, watched more Mad Men, wrote riffs for two songs, messed with my tube screamer/ds-1/amp tone for a couple of hours. did absolutely none of the research i had promised myself and others that i would do. went to see Daniel Martin Moore at Schubas. i was his driver to and from the Iron & Wine show at OSU a week prior, and we had hit it off enough for him to put me on his guest list for the show. i got there just as he was starting (thanks, Mad Men, you're ruining my life now). it was a nice, mellow show, traditional-style folk that added a virtuosic guitar player who knew not to shred. ended with a devastatingly slick loop that Ric Hordinski (the guitarist) played, with three intertwining fingerpicking parts so perfectly timed that they just let the loop go for a few minutes. at one time, both artists were off the stage, listening. then DMM came up and faded out the amp volume, ending the show. i got chicago pasta and pizza afterwards, just the pasta though. it was good.
sunday, watched Mad Men. started to feel ridiculous about myself.
monday. jeff's back from new york, we had a fair amount of work at JMA.
tuesday. all interns on deck, typical tuesday. made veggie chorizo burritos at about 10:30, because chicago is dark all the time and it's seriously screwing with my internal clock. i may have reverted back to a 25 hour day. studies indicate that without day and night cues, humans' internal clocks will change to 25 hour cycles instead of the 24 hour cycles we normally run on. see, now aren't you glad you read this blog? if you actually read something that was entertaining, you would've never heard that useless tidbit.
this thing is a wall of text. here's something to break up the monotony. it's a damn fine commercial:
wednesday. perfect storm to make me late for work. slept through my alarm, first. then, the water was shut off in my apartment because i woke up so late and they're replacing pipes in my apt building. so i took a boy scout shower with the water from my coffee maker, brushed my teeth, and was on my way. but the bus didn't come for twenty minutes. i go to my car so i can drive to work. my car is on a one-way street, and there is a massive piece of construction equipment blocking the intersection i would need to go through to drive my car anywhere. so i wait another 15 minutes for the bus. end up at work an hour late. it's ok. i had leftover veggie chorizo burritos.
thursday. finished my Eventric teaser video for the third time. this time it's good, though, the bosses approve. i get to start splicing together videos tomorrow for a trade show that's coming up. wrote the music to lyrics i had had already. it's got a ska vibe to it, but it's too straight of a rhythm for ska. i'm hoping to get some weird syncopated percussion and bass to go along with the guitar part i wrote.
friday. i'm not sleeping well. still watching Mad Men. i'm on season 4, episode 3, i believe. this time last week, i had still not watched a single episode of the series. that means i watched about 40 episodes in a week. awful. just listened to Beethoven's 5th arranged as salsa music on NPR. it was ok. not really a big fan.
i don't know if i know anyone who listens to as much music as me in a week. in the past week, i have listened to:
on vinyl
This Is Reggae compilation from the 70s
Leave Home by The Ramones
Harvest by Neil Young
Sam by The Sidekicks
on ipod
Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens (still don't know what all the fuss is about)
Fuckin A and The Body The Blood The Machine by The Thermals
Arkansas? by Arkansas?
a bunch of Alien Orders stuff on repeat
Andy Cook Split and Rhetoric by American War
Hospitals by Off With Their Heads
... And Out Come The Wolves by Rancid
Odelay and Midnite Vultures by Beck
i'm missing some, too.
at work, music constantly on
WXRT at JMA
office radio station at Eventric (including Charlie Mingus, The Buzzcocks, Miles Davis, Neil Young, The White Stripes, Elvis Costello, and Dave Brubeck, to name a few)
i probably am exposed to 50 hours of music a week at a minimum. i've listened to music more than i've slept this week, by a long shot. and if we toss in playing music, then i'm up to about 60 hours a week of music. glad i can work at places where i listen to music for 35-40 hours a week.
finally feeling tired. gonna put away the remains of the chorizo burritos (that one tube of fake chorizo made a ton of food. definitely not complaining, though, i highly recommend it. i got mine from Trader Joe's), then go to sleep.
i'm not planning on doing anything for halloween. this'll be the first time i haven't dressed up since i got to college. i think i'm ok with it. i think the fact that i can't wear a dinosaur costume this time is making things easier on me.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
quick rundown of the past fortnight
i said i was going to be better about this. methodically writing my thoughts on each day as it happened. this has proven to be a gross misstatement on my part. i have not written one of these for two weeks. so with my trusty calendar in hand, it's time to catch up. mind you, you may not find this very interesting, but since when did anyone write a blog for anyone else's benefit?
wed, oct 6
not much happened
thu, oct 7
not much happened
fri, oct 8
finished the first draft of a new promotional teaser for eventric. drove to columbus, listening to the replacements (albums: let it be [my personal favorite of theirs {although tim would probably be my favorite if it was produced better}] and tim) and the twin tones, as well as daydream nation by sonic youth and probably some neil young too. i tried to make it to ex-bassist danny's birthday party, but he failed to stay awake past 1 am. also, i made a mental note to make use of the chain rule in sentence form. (check)
sat, oct 9
watched the game with pops. we then went out to the garage to drill holes in my tube screamer enclosure, as my welder friend stephen's "car broke down" and he "couldn't drive without his engine melting" and somehow thought this was a "reasonable excuse for not driving back to columbus". wuss. anyway, there was some excitement with drilling the enclosure, culminating with the enclosure spinning out of my dad's hand, hitting his arm, flying off the drill bit, striking some old paint cans, and coming to rest in a fishing net beneath an earth-tone painting from circa 1974. on the plus side, i got my tube screamer completely put together, selecting this image to put on the pedal instead of painting it:
wed, oct 6
not much happened
thu, oct 7
not much happened
fri, oct 8
finished the first draft of a new promotional teaser for eventric. drove to columbus, listening to the replacements (albums: let it be [my personal favorite of theirs {although tim would probably be my favorite if it was produced better}] and tim) and the twin tones, as well as daydream nation by sonic youth and probably some neil young too. i tried to make it to ex-bassist danny's birthday party, but he failed to stay awake past 1 am. also, i made a mental note to make use of the chain rule in sentence form. (check)
sat, oct 9
watched the game with pops. we then went out to the garage to drill holes in my tube screamer enclosure, as my welder friend stephen's "car broke down" and he "couldn't drive without his engine melting" and somehow thought this was a "reasonable excuse for not driving back to columbus". wuss. anyway, there was some excitement with drilling the enclosure, culminating with the enclosure spinning out of my dad's hand, hitting his arm, flying off the drill bit, striking some old paint cans, and coming to rest in a fishing net beneath an earth-tone painting from circa 1974. on the plus side, i got my tube screamer completely put together, selecting this image to put on the pedal instead of painting it:
for those of you who have not read several scores of star wars books, this is the DL44, han solo's blaster. note that the scope that has been mounted off-center on the gun, allowing for a quicker draw. some books say that he cut off this scope altogether in order to have as fast a draw as possible. anyway, i thought it was appropriate for an overdrive pedal. then joey and i went to news of your departure's cd release, which featured several more hecklers than i was expecting.
sun, oct 10
full band alien orders practice. got through several more songs, it's sounding promising. then i drove back to chicago.
mon, oct 11
belle and sebastian! now, to put this in context, i have been listening to this band since i was in junior high. which means, i have been bopping along in rapture of this wonderful group for nearly a decade. needless to say, i was excited to see them. but i'll say it anyway. i was excited to see them. concerts pal linnea came up from columbus since it was b&s's only midwest tour date, and we watched as they breezed through a set including i'm a cuckoo, step into my office baby, and a stupefyingly good version of me and the major. here's the full setlist:
beautiful concert. i left wanting to lock myself in my room with a sparkling clean guitar tone so i could try to write like stuart murdoch. ALSO. stuart murdoch is possibly the most charming frontman you'll ever encounter, bouncing around the stage and making disarmingly witty banter between songs. there were some fans who were idiots, but the unpleasantness caused by this was counteracted by stuart doing things like throwing nerf footballs to all the children he could see in the audience. it was great. also, linnea and i ate burritos at la amistad on the way over. my second time there, and definitely not my last. it's not exactly picante (my old burrito haunt in ukrainian village), but it's close enough to make me hopeful about other items on the menu.
tue, oct 12
fm supreme cd release party. fm supreme is one of our new artist development projects at jma, and she dropped an ep on tuesday. it was a cool show, several outstanding acts. supreme herself really might have a future in hip hop, if she keeps working at it.
wed, oct 13
not much happened, then i left for columbus. listened to the velvet underground and nico, the clash (s/t), and london calling. tried to memorize every word on london calling. i'm getting there, slowly but surely...
thu, oct 14
iron and wine. helped out from noon to 12:30am. drove daniel martin moore to and from his hotel, shook hands and chatted with sam beam a couple of times, worked with backline, merch, hospitality, security, and others. actually didn't eat this entire time, which i didn't notice until about the time iron and wine took the stage, when my stomach seemed to attack my other vital organs in an attempt to find food, roaring with bloodlust for a legion of falafel sandwiches. this attack proved futile for my stomach, and it was not satiated until several hours later. however, i thoroughly enjoyed both daniel martin moore and iron and wine, sitting on the ballroom floor with 2000 of my closest friends during a fair amount of the iron and wine set.
fri, oct 15
mco showcase. i started the day with what has become a near-daily call to guitar center. "we still have not repaired your cabinet, sir, and we're sorry that we're about as quick and helpful as rust, or some other slow corrosive process." at least they finally offered me equipment to loan. i now have a 2x12 marshall speaker cabinet to go with my music man amp. i got a haircut before i picked it up. a bald lady cut my hair. we talked about small towns. then off to band practice, where the three piece version of alien orders played our set through once so we could remember all our songs before our show friday night. then the musician's collective showcase started. a few solo acts played, then we played. we were much louder than everyone else, and joey and i had to back off so zack's drumming could be heard. i used my tube screamer for the first time, and we played our set with no setlist, and with as few breaks as possible. our set went something like this:
city life (joey guitar, pat guitar, zack drums)
smitten in space
day terrors
american girl
orange crush
x ray glare (joey guitar, pat bass, zack drums)
south/north
garden salsa sunchips
i will dare
cliffs notes
then joey and i booked it so we could see the misfits at alrosa villa (famous for being the deathplace of dimebag darrell). which was the best decision we could have made that night. a ska band, a street punk band, then the misfits played. a curtain dropped to reveal two five foot tall skulls with light-up eyes, a drumset with misfits skulls on the two bass drums, a skeleton arm mic stand, and a skull mic stand. jerry only, dez cadena, and robo took the stage, and played through a really fun set that included teenagers from mars, we are 138, attitude, six pack (a black flag song [!]), and rise above (another black flag song [!]). so entertaining.
sat, oct 16
i started off the day by misreading an email from bassist zack, then picking up ex-bassist danny on the way to being almost late to a youth songwriting workshop. under the guidance of music loves ohio, we helped about 20 underserved youth write and perform their own songs, in just the span of an afternoon. it was a great time, i highly recommend it. afterwards, zack and i went to see matt groening at mershon auditorium, which turned out to be a fairly enlightening lecture. several stories about conan o'brien licking various objects in the simpsons' office for money were told. then faiella and i went over to ouab friend mindy's house for a beer and some terminator 2.
sun, oct 17
obama. had lunch with the parents at cheesecake factory in easton, then showed joey all the fun tricks my new tube screamer can do, then went with joey to see obama. we ran into danny and others there, and waited about an hour in an extraordinarily long line to get in. the line stretched from the oval down the long walk, by the rpac, around ohio stadium, back to the other side of the rpac. about 35000 people were estimated to have attended, and we saw obama after about 2 1/2 hours of other democrats. he is a powerful speaker, but he is also a politician. and i cannot listen to a politician without becoming incensed at something he/she has said. the parts that got me most riled up were him telling us america had to be first in everything (why does there have to be a contest between nations as to which is the most successful? from pee wee sports on, we teach our kids that it's not about winning, it's about the love of the game, but when it comes to our nation we can't settle for second?) and his references to republican fear-mongering (which i believe is true), quickly followed by his claims that democrats do no such thing ("but if you vote for republicans, we'll go back to the way things are and slump into a depression! be afraid!"[p.s. this is not an actual quote, but is the general gist of what he said]). that said, he is a powerful speaker, and one who knows how to pull an audience into his palm. afterwards, joey and i got chinese takeout at joy's village, and ate it at his apartment while watching a rush documentary. i started driving back to chicago at 10:10pm est. bad decision, but i stuck by it, driving through the night while listening to london calling and a mix cd or two.
mon, oct 18
called in sick to work, for good reason. absolutely exhausted, downright evil sinus headache, possibility of much worse illness if i did anything but sleep. so i slept a ton. watched some simpsons, and american history x. that is a great film, i highly recommend it. i also took a bath, my first bath in probably several months. i always take showers, because they're quicker, but the bath did me good.
tue, oct 19
my boss's mother died today. 90 years old, from what i hear. hope he's ok.
i also scheduled for my penultimate quarter of classes. scary. here's what i'm taking, for those of you at osu... (who am i kidding? no one reads this blog)
marketing 755: promotional strategy
food science 201: the science of food
music 250: music cultures of the world
music 677: multimedia for musicians
marketing 783h: honors independent research
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
turn signals and seething, burning rage
turn signals. they're simple devices. a simple switch to close the circuit between battery and blinking light. a person has but to flick their wrist to activate a signal for their movement left or right.
BUT SOME PEOPLE SEEM TO HAVE TROUBLE RECOGNIZING THIS.
if you don't enjoy rants about human decency, or the lack thereof, you may want to stop reading this post. now.
i have run into an excessive amount of people who seem to have no knowledge whatsoever of that thing sticking out of their steering consoles that clicks whenever they bump it (i know, some people have the fancy ones that they can just click with their thumbs on the front of the steering wheel: which makes their non-use of turn signals even less excusable). this sort of ignorance bothers me.
it's not that i have any particular love for flashing lights, or plastic sticks that can make clicking noises, but that i am a fan of smooth traffic patterns. for instance, i love a four way stop where everyone knows how to drive.
figure 1.1
| |
| |
-----------------| |--------------
car ^ stopped car
- - - - - - - - - | | - - - - - - - -
stopped car V car
-----------------| |--------------
| |
| |
the two cars opposite of each other move at the same time, while the other two remain stopped. it's an elegant ballet, complicated only slightly by left turns.
however, this breaks down when people don't use turn signals. everything breaks down. because driving is a very visual activity, and if other people on the road can't see what you're doing, you get t-boned. which isn't a problem for you, you asshole, you simply toss it off to your insurance company to pay for your bmw's repair bill while my insurance goes through the roof and i have to start biking 20 miles to work until you turn right without signaling and total my bike too. jerk.
this exact scenario hasn't happened to me personally, by the way. but i see it happening to me every time some drain on society cuts in front of me without giving me any more notice than general sherman gave georgia.
BUT SOME PEOPLE SEEM TO HAVE TROUBLE RECOGNIZING THIS.
if you don't enjoy rants about human decency, or the lack thereof, you may want to stop reading this post. now.
i have run into an excessive amount of people who seem to have no knowledge whatsoever of that thing sticking out of their steering consoles that clicks whenever they bump it (i know, some people have the fancy ones that they can just click with their thumbs on the front of the steering wheel: which makes their non-use of turn signals even less excusable). this sort of ignorance bothers me.
it's not that i have any particular love for flashing lights, or plastic sticks that can make clicking noises, but that i am a fan of smooth traffic patterns. for instance, i love a four way stop where everyone knows how to drive.
figure 1.1
| |
| |
-----------------| |--------------
car ^ stopped car
- - - - - - - - - | | - - - - - - - -
stopped car V car
-----------------| |--------------
| |
| |
the two cars opposite of each other move at the same time, while the other two remain stopped. it's an elegant ballet, complicated only slightly by left turns.
however, this breaks down when people don't use turn signals. everything breaks down. because driving is a very visual activity, and if other people on the road can't see what you're doing, you get t-boned. which isn't a problem for you, you asshole, you simply toss it off to your insurance company to pay for your bmw's repair bill while my insurance goes through the roof and i have to start biking 20 miles to work until you turn right without signaling and total my bike too. jerk.
this exact scenario hasn't happened to me personally, by the way. but i see it happening to me every time some drain on society cuts in front of me without giving me any more notice than general sherman gave georgia.
figure 1.2
as you can see, the damage inflicted from not using turn
signals can be immense
in much shorter, simpler words that you can understand, jackass in the bmw...
use your turn signal or i will hunt you down and hurt you badly enough that you won't have to worry about driving anymore.
i also ate chipotle today.
p.s. it took me like 5 tries to get that four way stop diagram to line up right. you're welcome.
Monday, October 4, 2010
as it turns out, i'm a natural at blogging
... not.
this is the same reason why keeping a journal has failed multiple times with me. it's not a necessary part of life, so it gets pushed to the side. watching entire seasons of the simpsons and fiddling around with the wiring to a diy effects pedal... now those are priorities.
lots has happened in the past two weeks. i helped put on a weezer show at osu. that was huge. i got into columbus on late thursday night, around 12:30 am, after making a record-tying run from chicago to columbus (6 1/2 hours). i proceeded to pick up old roommate tyler, take him to a bar, realize he wasn't 21, and later go back to my house to enjoy a beer on the porch with new roommate eric. that was nice. i have a feeling that porch will get a lot of use when it gets warmer again. as it was, it was perfect weather for lounging on a porch, so i lounged again on friday around 11 am.
then came weezer. i helped out from about 12:30pm until midnight. weezer was incredible. they played a few too many new songs for my taste, but i compromised by not singing any of the words to those songs. they played six songs off the blue album, and my favorite pinkerton song (el scorcho), though. rivers also crowd-surfed, sang part of a song on top of a port a potty, and apparently had his glasses stolen. lolz.
saturday was Alien Orders' first full band practice. we played for a little under two hours because of technical difficulties, but went through 4 songs in that time. not bad at all. this band has potential to sound pretty incredible, and that's coming from a completely unbiased source (the band's lead singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist).
sunday i ran errands, finally got my columbus room subletted, and drove back to chicago. on I-70, i ended up stopped for close to an hour, as apparently a car had crossed the median and had a head-on collision with a semi. fatal for the car driver.
mon-fri. worked. started populating my tube screamer circuit board. ate. slept.
sat tried to go to a free local h show at the beat kitchen, but got turned away at the door because they hit capacity. had to walk all the way back in the rain... i got fettucini alfredo though. the main success story of the day was that i got my tube screamer working. doesn't have a case, still doesn't have a permanent wiring arrangement, but it works. i had to rearrange some LEDs and other diodes to get it to work, but it's purring like a kitten now. a kitten with rabies. just the way i like my kittens. here's a bunch of sound clips that everyone will probably skip over:
sunday i saw the thermals. fucking incredible. i was in the second row directly in front of hutch. cymbals eat guitars opened, and they seemed ok, but everyone knew why they were at that concert. westin had a bass drum head with the "personal life" art on the front. he was the first one we saw, coming out personally to soundcheck the drums. then he went back behind closed doors, returning shortly with hutch and kathy. they shouldered their weapons, and launched into st. rosa and the swallows. it was like someone had touched a live wire to the floor of logan square auditorium. not in that people were jumping around like madmen (although some were), but that the entire venue was filled with a palpable energy. they played a lot of songs off of personal life, but mixed things up thoroughly with songs like how we know, returning to the fold, we were sick, when i died, now we can see, no culture icons, and ending with pillar of salt, which left me wondering how my band could possibly make a two guitar arrangement that was as catchy as what he did with his one guitar (he was playing the major parts of three instruments from that song: guitar, second guitar, and keyboard). then they said "thank you" and left.
but none of the crowd left. well, the two annoying fucks who had been making out during songs about breaking up and dying and being disillusioned with religion, those jackasses left. and i moved up to the very front. the thermals came back out and played one more song, then left the stage for good. that's the way encores should be done, if they're done at all. they didn't have the final song listed on their setlist, it was a spur of the moment thing, utterly dependent on what the audience wanted.
today was a monday. i'm not a big fan of mondays. hard to believe that a person can be inclined to like one rotation of the earth better than any other rotation of the earth, but that seems to be the shape of it.
this is the same reason why keeping a journal has failed multiple times with me. it's not a necessary part of life, so it gets pushed to the side. watching entire seasons of the simpsons and fiddling around with the wiring to a diy effects pedal... now those are priorities.
lots has happened in the past two weeks. i helped put on a weezer show at osu. that was huge. i got into columbus on late thursday night, around 12:30 am, after making a record-tying run from chicago to columbus (6 1/2 hours). i proceeded to pick up old roommate tyler, take him to a bar, realize he wasn't 21, and later go back to my house to enjoy a beer on the porch with new roommate eric. that was nice. i have a feeling that porch will get a lot of use when it gets warmer again. as it was, it was perfect weather for lounging on a porch, so i lounged again on friday around 11 am.
then came weezer. i helped out from about 12:30pm until midnight. weezer was incredible. they played a few too many new songs for my taste, but i compromised by not singing any of the words to those songs. they played six songs off the blue album, and my favorite pinkerton song (el scorcho), though. rivers also crowd-surfed, sang part of a song on top of a port a potty, and apparently had his glasses stolen. lolz.
saturday was Alien Orders' first full band practice. we played for a little under two hours because of technical difficulties, but went through 4 songs in that time. not bad at all. this band has potential to sound pretty incredible, and that's coming from a completely unbiased source (the band's lead singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist).
sunday i ran errands, finally got my columbus room subletted, and drove back to chicago. on I-70, i ended up stopped for close to an hour, as apparently a car had crossed the median and had a head-on collision with a semi. fatal for the car driver.
mon-fri. worked. started populating my tube screamer circuit board. ate. slept.
sat tried to go to a free local h show at the beat kitchen, but got turned away at the door because they hit capacity. had to walk all the way back in the rain... i got fettucini alfredo though. the main success story of the day was that i got my tube screamer working. doesn't have a case, still doesn't have a permanent wiring arrangement, but it works. i had to rearrange some LEDs and other diodes to get it to work, but it's purring like a kitten now. a kitten with rabies. just the way i like my kittens. here's a bunch of sound clips that everyone will probably skip over:
sunday i saw the thermals. fucking incredible. i was in the second row directly in front of hutch. cymbals eat guitars opened, and they seemed ok, but everyone knew why they were at that concert. westin had a bass drum head with the "personal life" art on the front. he was the first one we saw, coming out personally to soundcheck the drums. then he went back behind closed doors, returning shortly with hutch and kathy. they shouldered their weapons, and launched into st. rosa and the swallows. it was like someone had touched a live wire to the floor of logan square auditorium. not in that people were jumping around like madmen (although some were), but that the entire venue was filled with a palpable energy. they played a lot of songs off of personal life, but mixed things up thoroughly with songs like how we know, returning to the fold, we were sick, when i died, now we can see, no culture icons, and ending with pillar of salt, which left me wondering how my band could possibly make a two guitar arrangement that was as catchy as what he did with his one guitar (he was playing the major parts of three instruments from that song: guitar, second guitar, and keyboard). then they said "thank you" and left.
but none of the crowd left. well, the two annoying fucks who had been making out during songs about breaking up and dying and being disillusioned with religion, those jackasses left. and i moved up to the very front. the thermals came back out and played one more song, then left the stage for good. that's the way encores should be done, if they're done at all. they didn't have the final song listed on their setlist, it was a spur of the moment thing, utterly dependent on what the audience wanted.
today was a monday. i'm not a big fan of mondays. hard to believe that a person can be inclined to like one rotation of the earth better than any other rotation of the earth, but that seems to be the shape of it.
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