"Lord,
...Help me guard against pride and despair.
Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just.
And make me an instrument of your will..."
Friday, July 25, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Verve's New Video
Excited that the Verve are putting out a new album. This song is definitely poppier than anything they've done before. E for effort.
The Verve - Love Is Noise
The Verve - Love Is Noise
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Why Haven't We Impeached Bush & Cheney Yet?
We all knew this, but it's nice to hear it in the open.
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former EPA officials maintains.
When six pages were cut from testimony on climate change and public health by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last October, the White House insisted the changes were made because of reservations raised by White House advisers about the accuracy of the science.
But Jason K. Burnett, until last month the senior adviser on climate change to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, says that Cheney's office was deeply involved in getting nearly half of the CDC's original draft testimony removed.
MORE
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former EPA officials maintains.
When six pages were cut from testimony on climate change and public health by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last October, the White House insisted the changes were made because of reservations raised by White House advisers about the accuracy of the science.
But Jason K. Burnett, until last month the senior adviser on climate change to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, says that Cheney's office was deeply involved in getting nearly half of the CDC's original draft testimony removed.
MORE
Monday, July 7, 2008
Drum's Not Dead, Indie Is
This excludes foreign or obscure films by respectable filmmakers.
I mean the true essence of indie. Gone are the days of innovation and truth, replaced with quirkiness and superficial originality: old ideas in shitty guise. The problem is indie films are just small-budgeted mainstream films now, meant as a calling card more than anything else. While this was always the case, it is now more than ever, to the point where everything coming out of festivals looks the same, smells the same, sounds the same. Mexican and Romanian cinema are trumping anything that's happening in America right now. Sundance is like a New Yorker subscription - you must be this elitist to ride.
It's just stagnant. We've overstayed our welcome in the mid-90's American New Wave. When the quality of more-mainstream films are overshadowing "truthful" indies, hipsters die. Time to move forward.
I mean the true essence of indie. Gone are the days of innovation and truth, replaced with quirkiness and superficial originality: old ideas in shitty guise. The problem is indie films are just small-budgeted mainstream films now, meant as a calling card more than anything else. While this was always the case, it is now more than ever, to the point where everything coming out of festivals looks the same, smells the same, sounds the same. Mexican and Romanian cinema are trumping anything that's happening in America right now. Sundance is like a New Yorker subscription - you must be this elitist to ride.
It's just stagnant. We've overstayed our welcome in the mid-90's American New Wave. When the quality of more-mainstream films are overshadowing "truthful" indies, hipsters die. Time to move forward.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Gerardo Was Kinda A Mentor
My self-imposed exile from Radiohead has ended today after two months. And what happened? "Reckoner" started to sound real good. "House of Cards," though, still pretty questionable.
My "Bends" CD circa '95-'96 is officially, finally dead. Interestingly, the skips and squawks start/end at the start/end of what I dub "The Middle Gauntlet," the brilliant sequence that is - Nice Dream, to Just, to My Iron Lung, to Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was - the four songs that converted me into a person with good taste. Or pretentious taste, whatever the case.
Well, not pretentiousness. I still hold that NOW & FOREVER by Color Me Badd rivals the greatest modern r&b record, II (Boyz II Men). That makes me delusional, maybe, but not pretentious.
Between The Bends and OK Computer, I was forced forever into a servitude to music. I discovered that music was important and that I wanted to make music. Especially in our age of disposable media, it's important to find serious art. Remember when we thought, "LORD, music can't get any worse than Lil Jon?" And then Soulja Boy came out? Yeah. I was at the tail end of the Last Generation - born three years later, I wouldn't have known any better. Mr. Tell'em would actually sound INNOVATIVE to me. I'd be at my high school reunion saying, "Man, those were the good days, OneRepublic was ROCK N ROLL!" Man, I wish I were alive when mainstream pop was Chet Baker, or Dean Martin, or The Beatles, or Kate Bush, or Rico Suave.
My "Bends" CD circa '95-'96 is officially, finally dead. Interestingly, the skips and squawks start/end at the start/end of what I dub "The Middle Gauntlet," the brilliant sequence that is - Nice Dream, to Just, to My Iron Lung, to Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was - the four songs that converted me into a person with good taste. Or pretentious taste, whatever the case.
Well, not pretentiousness. I still hold that NOW & FOREVER by Color Me Badd rivals the greatest modern r&b record, II (Boyz II Men). That makes me delusional, maybe, but not pretentious.
Between The Bends and OK Computer, I was forced forever into a servitude to music. I discovered that music was important and that I wanted to make music. Especially in our age of disposable media, it's important to find serious art. Remember when we thought, "LORD, music can't get any worse than Lil Jon?" And then Soulja Boy came out? Yeah. I was at the tail end of the Last Generation - born three years later, I wouldn't have known any better. Mr. Tell'em would actually sound INNOVATIVE to me. I'd be at my high school reunion saying, "Man, those were the good days, OneRepublic was ROCK N ROLL!" Man, I wish I were alive when mainstream pop was Chet Baker, or Dean Martin, or The Beatles, or Kate Bush, or Rico Suave.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
I Like You 'Cos You're Average?
Is what you find attractive merely an average of every single face you've ever seen?
Studies show that composite images formed of the most original faces are more attractive. Which makes sense. We see a million and more faces in our lifetimes, attractive and unattractive, that, when processed in our brains, blend a crooked smile and a lazy eye and a hooked nose into a sort of symmetry.
So even if you live in a closed space where everyone is blonde and blue-eyed and you've never seen a foreigner before, your personal average may be a Persian guy who owns his own investment company.
If in my entire life I only saw one face, and that face belonged to Rose O'Dizzle, then I'm in trouble.
But is that really so?
Studies show that composite images formed of the most original faces are more attractive. Which makes sense. We see a million and more faces in our lifetimes, attractive and unattractive, that, when processed in our brains, blend a crooked smile and a lazy eye and a hooked nose into a sort of symmetry.
So even if you live in a closed space where everyone is blonde and blue-eyed and you've never seen a foreigner before, your personal average may be a Persian guy who owns his own investment company.
If in my entire life I only saw one face, and that face belonged to Rose O'Dizzle, then I'm in trouble.
But is that really so?
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