24 August 2009

lem?

Is that you, Lem? Where have you been? Comment or e-mail me at TheSkyIsATelevisionSignal@gmail.com.

23 August 2009

various

  • Fall semester begins tomorrow. I wish I could have written more over the last few weeks but inspiration was lacking. Over these many years I have learned one thing: creative writing requires a spark. Staring at a blank screen and begging the writing gods for their mystical push accomplishes nothing but wasted time.
  • Last week I reached the following conclusion: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
  • James Cameron's Avatar looks spectacular.
  • Last week I watched the HBO documentary White Light, Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Has any single country committed more atrocities than the United States of America?
  • I'm looking forward to next weekend's trip with Panda Bear. Leaving everything for a few days is always refreshing.

xx


EDIT: Panda Bear convinced me that point two was a little too harsh, hence its removal.

21 August 2009

drugs now legal in mexico

Mexico decriminalizes small-scale drug possession
Aug 21 04:58 AM US/Eastern
By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin on Friday—a move that prosecutors say makes sense even in the midst of the government's grueling battle against drug traffickers.

Prosecutors said the new law sets clear limits that keep Mexico's corruption-prone police from extorting casual users and offers addicts free treatment to keep growing domestic drug use in check.

"This is not legalization, this is regulating the issue and giving citizens greater legal certainty," said Bernardo Espino del Castillo of the attorney general's office.

The new law sets out maximum "personal use" amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities no longer face criminal prosecution.

Espino del Castillo says, in practice, small users almost never did face charges anyway. Under the previous law, the possession of any amount of drugs was punishable by stiff jail sentences, but there was leeway for addicts caught with smaller amounts.

"We couldn't charge somebody who was in possession of a dose of a drug, there was no way ... because the person would claim they were an addict," he said.

Despite the provisions, police sometimes hauled in suspects and demanded bribes, threatening long jail sentences if people did not pay.

"The bad thing was that it was left up to the discretion of the detective, and it could open the door to corruption or extortion," Espino del Castillo said.

Anyone caught with drug amounts under the new personal-use limit will be encouraged to seek treatment, and for those caught a third time treatment is mandatory.

The maximum amount of marijuana for "personal use" under the new law is 5 grams—the equivalent of about four joints. The limit is a half gram for cocaine, the equivalent of about 4 "lines." For other drugs, the limits are 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams for LSD.

Mexico has emphasized the need to differentiate drug addicts and casual users from the violent traffickers whose turf battles have contributed to the deaths of more than 11,000 people since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006.

But one expert saw potential for conflict under the new law.

Javier Oliva, a political scientist at Mexico's National Autonomous University, said the new law posed "a serious contradiction" for the Calderon administration.

"If they decriminalize drugs it could lead the army, which has been given the task of combating this, to say 'What are we doing'?" he said.

Officials said the legal changes could help the government focus more on big-time traffickers.

Espino del Castillo said since Calderon took office, there have been over 15,000 police searches related to small-scale drug dealing or possession, with 95,000 people detained—but only 12 to 15 percent of whom were ever charged with anything.

19 August 2009

a couple things

President Obama has not completely dismissed single-payer health care as part of health reform (well, not publicly, anyway). According to a recent NBC poll, forty-three percent of Americans support "a public health care plan administered by the federal government that would compete directly with private health insurance companies," forty-seven percent oppose.

Health co-ops have been gaining traction in recent days, but what exactly is a health co-op?

Check out this article to find out – and discover why health co-ops are NOT a viable alternative to single-payer health care.

-----------------------------------------------------------

If you've been watching the news over the last couple of weeks you are probably familiar with a growing trend among certain right-wing wackjobs: bringing LOADED handguns – including assault-style rifles – to presidential rallies.

Last night on Hardball with Chris Matthews, Ron Reagan, who is a liberal pundit and son of conservative hero President Ronald Regan, was asked for his opinion concerning these potentially dangerous "demonstrators":

I don't think [people bringing guns to presidential events) is about second-amendment rights, I don't think it's about health care or any of the specific issues here; the future is coming, and many people are scared of the future. This is one of those pivotal moments in this country's history when you can sense something is happening, something is going to change, and many people get very frightened by that. Some people can hire lobbyists to push back against that change, other people who don't have that capacity do things like carry guns around.

The only real reason to carry a loaded handgun or assault-style rifle, anywhere: hunting, target practice, or you intend to kill someone in self-defense. Now they're not going hunting, they're not going for target practice, so who is that they think they might have to kill? Well, they're holding up signs talking about "the tree of liberty needing to be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots," maybe that gives us a little hint.

Chris Matthews summarized the entire premise of bearing arms at presidential events with this: "You have the right to jump around on a pogo stick; you don't go to church on a pogo stick."

18 August 2009

excerpt

From Alston Chase's immaculately researched book Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist

Such was the state of the intellectual world at the end of World War II: Most scholars believed that both God and secular humanism were dead. Reason reveals life to be without purpose or meaning. Science is the only legitimate exercise of the intellect, but that leads inevitably to technology and, ultimately, to the bomb. Democracy and human rights rest, not on natural law, but on power. The chief advantages of a free soceity are economic: free markets produce more wealth than managed ones.

recent downloads

Here are some recent and notable eMusic downloads:


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Ezekiel Honig
Surfaces of a Broken Marching Band

The Eraser's distant and fragmented cousin.


img 2

Svarte Greiner
Kappe

I've been raving about Svarte. Kappe, his most recent album, was released earlier this year -- and doesn't disappoint.


img 2

ZaZa
Cameo

I'm loving this record... The EP's six tunes are draped in thick, beautiful shoegaze. Film School's wonderful 2007 album Hideout reverberates throughout.


img 2

Zola Jesus
The Spoils

PJ Harvey dipped in acid and processed through lo-fi. Caustic and glorious.


16 August 2009

briefly: district 9

I saw District 9 over the weekend. In short, this weekend's top film (it brought in approximately $37 million) is well worth your box-office dollar.

District 9, which lends its name and premise to the apartheid-era District Six of Cape Town, South Africa, is Neill Blomkamp's directorial debut; the film was produced by Peter Jackson. Jackson is not a cinema figure who lacks credibility in my eyes, and that fact certainly eroded most of my leeriness as I entered the theater to view the latest box-office blockbuster. (District 9 is a blockbuster without the eye-popping budget – the film was made for a scant $30 million.)

Film reviews aren't my thing, so I'm not going to provide any in-depth analysis of the film. (Besides, enough bloggers and critics have offered their opinions of the film, and I don't think I can add much to that flurry of verbiage.) And, personally, I prefer to know as little as possible about a film before I view it.

District 9 offers something for everyone: it has a great, albeit oft-told, sci-fi story; there's enough gunpowder and intergalactic weaponry discharged to satisfy one's thirst for action; the CGI is impressive; the drama is sufficient to tug at practically everyone's heart strings; and the film's satire lurks just under the surface, biting when necessary. Blomkamp wears many cinematic hats to tell his story (a story that is based on his short film Alive in Joburg). The mockumentary approach is used; first-person camera angles are employed; and, what I found to be particularly effective, the use of surveillance cameras and clips from a 24-hour cable-news channel (hovering helicopters provide the breaking news money shots) are sparingly used for maximum effect. Indeed, District 9 is a pop film; the film's scope, however, is large enough – and effectively executed – to attract even the skeptics (like me).

In District 9 Neill Blomkamp tells not just a wonderful sci-fi tale; he also offers a reflection of the human condition – and the dastardly depths of human desire.

Highly recommended.

xx

14 August 2009

why i love coldplay

I'll admit it: Coldplay harpooned with Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head. However, I stopped following the band when I heard the cliche and formulaic X&Y; I hated the band after hearing Viva la Vida. Chris Martin and Co. struck oil with Parachutes, and, in my opinion, have spent the 9+ years following its release perfecting that sound, which is cool if you enjoy watching hamsters in wheels.

If you've been looking for a reason to dismiss Coldplay as a total and useless gimmick, watch this shit:

12 August 2009

short: oil at three

When you are a stranger in a foreign town everything is clean. No one knows your past glories and all your mistakes have been cleared. You hide your scars under sleeves long and give every passing stranger the youthful glance that optimism brings. But something isn't right. The strangers avoid your blue eyes; they seem to catch sight of the red spider webs spread across the white. Bloodshot eyes in a town of undisclosed secrets present an incalculable proposition, so you hope to pass like a ghost. But like a ghost, these souls see straight through you.

As you explore the strange city through the cracked windshield of a '74 Pontiac Firebird, it occurs to you that some, no, most of the scenery is not completely alien. Time has turned its tides over this terrain, but its skeleton remains the same. The sharp bend ahead recalls the tale you heard as a young child: Bobby J, on the night of his sixteenth birthday, entered the turn with too much speed and too much youth, piercing the guard rail and sending his father's Buick into the ravine; the thick foliage swallowed a vehicle and the life of a sixteen-year old boy. And up around the bend on the right, at the entrance of a new subdivision, once stood an abandoned house, which, every Halloween at midnight, was visited by three ghosts – the ghosts of three children who were killed by their mad mother one hot August night. So the story goes, anyway.

Yes, you know these pictures. These narratives are familiar. You grew up here. You knew these streets as a child; you heard the stories, you fought the battles of juvenescence and you danced through the sprinklers of blamelessness. You remember the school bus stop on the corner, next to the tree stump. And the first time you kissed a girl: it happened just beyond the border of Melanie's back yard, in the corn field, where stalks of corn reached for the sky and provided coverage from wandering eyes.

As you drive these displaced yet familiar streets you wonder what new memories are being constructed. The face in the rear-view mirror is twenty-nine years old; these streets no longer belong to you. They never did. The asphalt and blue skies were yours as corn stalks are to a September breeze. After dust has made itself from your bones the memory machine will continue to churn here, and a new generation will place itself inside the confines of this strange machine, and as the passing seasons ripen their bones for death, only then will they realize that they are not the creators; they are not the artist gracing his canvas with brush; and they are not the writer weaving tales from unsteady fingertips. No, they are merely witnesses; observers of a crime innocent in nature yet stunning in its vastness, leaving not a single soul vindicated – not every eye will be stained by this offense, but not a single eye will remain unchanged; these unborn children will replace the previous cast of onlookers and observe the wondrous workings of the machination. Indeed, despite history and all of its implications, every body entering the confines of this strange machine will charter his or her own path to death, notching glories on the breastplate of pride, hiding mistakes in the shadows of uncertainty.

We are all terminal. Temporary is the disposition of human existence.

But you've no time to ponder such things. You are only passing through. A stranger in a foreign land with a face aged beyond its twenty-nine years, you aren't looking for philosophical idiom, just an all-night hotel with free HBO. A suitcase of dirty clothes lay in the trunk. A destination unknown peels itself from the asphalt and clings to your tires. This '74 Pontiac is burning oil at 3AM, and the sun may never rise again.

xx

09 August 2009

of accidents and interactions

Last Wednesday's No Deachunter show failed on a few levels. Least among the factors of failure was the music. I think I would have enjoyed myself (and, ultimately, stayed for the remainder of the show) if I had not been fighting two factors: I was sick (a sore throat and cold pestered me), and that creeping shadow of darkness had made its appearance days earlier.

I attended the show alone, and as I stood inside the crowded venue, I was reminded of the strange and lonely existence my life is. (I have a wonderful girlfriend and I keep a close circle of friends; unfortunately, that circle exists outside of Bloomington. Time and distance, of course, has an estranging effect on people, which, despite the lines of communication the Internet has opened, can only be softened by personal contact.) I was practically surrounded by groups of mingling parties – the noise of their conversations hummed at an imperceptible pitch. I was quiet. Alone. A silent witness waiting for the music to begin. I pondered the existence of each boy, of each girl. Each life. And I wondered how that life portrayed itself against the backdrop of solitude – that quiet space away from the collective. And I considered my own existence, but my solitude wasn't confined elsewhere; my solitude was not obscured amidst a group of friends and acquaintances. My solitude was evident as I stood alone – away from the crowd yet part of it. My association with those strangers that evening was solely linked by the words on the club's marquee: Wed – Deerhunter, Dan Deacon, No Age. I would have no personal contact that evening; my contact would be the timeless relationship between man and sound.

Contact, especially in a social setting like a rock show, has always been difficult for me, which is why I've always been an outsider. (Even in the mostly faceless world of social networking sites, of which I rarely participate, I'm hesitant to 'meet' someone.) I still wonder why this life is my life, but as I age, I wonder why this life has chosen me – and that is indeed how I feel. I feel as though, as different as my social life is from others, my development and other accidents throughout my life have contributed to this fate. Odd because I don't believe anyone lives within a preordained bubble. I do, however, believe that, for reasons unknown, we are drawn to certain patterns; our preference of patterns determines our reality. The human brain is constantly identifying the patterns of words, faces, sounds and objects. If the psychological definition of pattern recognition is the brain's ability to identify a set of stimuli arranged in a specific pattern that is characteristic of that set of stimuli, then does pattern recognition not occur when we are confronted with a series of interactions? What about memory? Do the memories we recall, or, more precisely, the memories we choose to recall, rather consciously of otherwise, eventually form a pattern – a pattern that forms the fabric of our lives?

I believe that from an early age I learned to recognize – and fear – certain patterns of social interaction. My shyness springs from an inherent distrust of others (which contributes to a fear of rejection), and the origins of that distrustfulness have been blogged here many times, so I won't rehash them once again. Now that I have written this pseudo-theory of the development of my introverted personality, what have I gained? Does understanding the method of one's machinery offer any solace?

Sometimes I think all of this is just a vain attempt to establish an identity for myself – an identity that does not exist, not outside of my mental processes, anyway. After all, is the human identity, or soul, just a series of accidents and interactions, a sequence of events that we consciously and unconsciously select to piece together a pattern – a design that tells us, This is who I am?

xx

06 August 2009

inconstant

Today is one of those days when Thom Yorke's The Eraser provides perfect insulation.
Photobucket

(sigh)

The great thing about music is, like Baskin Robin's 31 flavors, a sound exists for everyone. Some people love Celine Dion's music, while others prefer the turbulence of Nine Inch Nails.

OK, let's cut the shit: I left the Deerhunter, Dan Deacon, No Age cluster fuck about an hour ago. Look, I'm not going to diss someone's taste in music; I'm not gonna do it. But goddamn. I knew what to expect from Dan Deacon – the crowd, the sounds, the interpretive dance moves (OK, I didn't expect interpretive dance) – but his performance was too much. It simply did not compute with my internal sound module. And after tonight's experience I have determined one thing: Dan Deacon is anchovies – either you have the taste for him or you don't, so if you're having a Dan Deacon party next weekend, leave me off that invite list.

Deerhunter sounded great; in fact, they kicked ass, as did No Age. But the sound was, I don't know, muddy? Perhaps Rhino's lacks adequate acoustics for electrified music. (The last show I attended at Rhino's was several months ago when the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour stopped in town; the sound problems were numerous and never fully resolved.)

As Deacon's interpretive dance song was concluding it hit me: I've gotta get the fuck out of here. I left prematurely knowing more Deerhunter and No Age were on the way, but I left anyway. I stopped by a brightly lit 24-hour supermarket and purchased some Cookie Crisp cereal and a carton of soy milk for a late night snack. No anchovies, thank you.

xx

MORNING AFTER UPDATE... You know, after reconsidering last night's show, I don't believe any serious sound issues plagued the Deerhunter-No Age stage. No, it was Deacon's fault. Deacon prevented the night from being a full-fledged rock show, which, in hindsight, is what I wanted. I was eager to experience Deacon, I was, but he simply wasn't -- and probably never will be -- my cup of tea.

05 August 2009

live

I'm proud to say I haven't accomplished much since last Friday. Last Friday, of course, I completed and easily passed my much-blogged Anatomy & Physiology final. The ten days leading up to that Friday were excruciatingly stressful. If I failed the exam I would have had little recourse but to take A&P 101 again – and that wasn't going to happen.

At least 50% of the stress was self-induced; I'm convinced that I have a subconscious desire to harm myself. Harm, of course, can be inflicted in a number of ways. (Those destructive patterns have been blogged here time and time again.) I know this is unhealthy behavior, but, sometimes, idiosyncratic methods are the sole gears that push people forward – and, ultimately, enable them to succeed.

Anyway, tonight I'm capping off my five days of rest and relaxation with what should be a very good rock show: Deerhunter, Dan Deacon and No Age. I'm not a fan of Dan Deacon; however, I respect him as an artist because he's able to execute mind-bending aural explorations without forcing the strange concoction of sound into your ear. Love Deerhunter. Really like No Age's sound. Tonight's festivities at Rhino's (last time I was at Rhino's a guy named Jeff Mangum made a cameo) won't be the typical three-act rock show. All three groups will be performing together.

Tonight will certainly offer some explosive – and interesting – music.

xx

the awesomest

http://gamu-toys.info/sonota/sw/obama/obama.html

(Be sure to scroll down and check out all of 'em... Internets just made my day. Lollz

xx

tonight! rhino's! deerhunter! dan deacon! no age!


img 1

TONIGHT
@ 8PM
@ RHINO'S
.

04 August 2009

yeah, this is pretty much the most disgusting thing i've read in some time

Shock jock Kyle Sandilands dropped from Australian Idol

Australian DJ Kyle Sandilands dropped from Australian Idol after his radio show aired insensitive lie detector stunt

Kyle Sandilands
Kyle Sandilands, who has lost his role on Australian Idol, as well as his radio show on a Sydney station Photograph: Sergio Dionisio/Getty

A controversial radio "shock jock" has been dumped as a judge on Australian Idol after a public backlash over a lie-detector stunt in which a teenage girl revealed she had been raped.

The Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, joined in with criticism of Kyle Sandilands's show, The Kyle and Jackie O Show, on the Sydney radio station 2Day FM.

Sandilands' lie detector stunt caused an outcry after the girl was strapped to a polygraph machine and quizzed by her mother about whether she was sexually active.

2Day FM has since taken The Kyle and Jackie O Show off air and Sandilands has been sacked from his role as a judge on the hit Network Ten reality talent show Australian Idol.

The mother volunteered to quiz her daughter, now aged 14, despite apparently already knowing she had been assaulted.

"I've already told you the story about this, and don't look at me and smile because it's not funny," said the girl. "Oh OK, I got raped when I was 12 years old."

Sandilands, who presented the show with Jackie O'Neil, was accused of further insensitivity when he asked: "Right, and is that the only sexual experience you've had?"

O'Neil then stepped in to end the interview and she and Sandilands apologised on air, saying they did not know the girl had been raped.

2Day FM said the show had been put "into recess" pending a review of the incident and the way it interacts with its audience. In a statement the station added that Sandilands was "unable to perform his on-air duties at this time".

The New South Wales state government has ordered police and child welfare officers to investigate the girl's rape claim, made in a segment on the radio show last Wednesday.

The Australian prime minister said: "This is really off. It's wrong, [it] shouldn''t be done. This is a young girl and I am, as I think most Australians are, really distressed at the way in which the young person has been treated in this way."

Sandilands has previously gained notoriety for stunts in which he drank breast milk and launched a competition to find Sydney's smallest penis. He said he was "disappointed" at the decision to drop him from Australian Idol.

Network Ten said it had become "increasingly clear that as [Australian] Idol has remained a family-focused show, his radio has taken on a more controversial position over this period which is not in the interest of the show".

Australian Idol is due to return for its seventh series on Sunday. It is understood Sandilands will appear in the first three episodes of the new series, which have already been filmed.

The broadcaster added in a statement: "The recent controversy surrounding Kyle's radio programme has highlighted more than ever the conflicting attitude of the two careers."

Family groups praised the decision to drop the DJ from the show. Bill Muehlenberg, spokesman for the Family Council of Victoria, told the Herald Sun newspaper: "Maybe he'll sit down and think about what a clown he's been and how he needs to lift his game."

In a statement, Jenny Parkes, Sydney general manager of 2Day FM's parent company Austereo, said: "Kyle Sandilands's management has advised Austereo that he is unable to perform his duties on-air at this time.

"Further, following a great deal of consideration and having consulted Jackie O and all stakeholders, Austereo has formed the view that it is in the interest of all parties, for the Kyle & Jackie O Show to go into recess until we have completed an across-the-networks review of the principals and protocols of our interaction with our audience.

"This review commenced last Wednesday 29 July 2009. Austereo will not make any further comment until the review is completed."

01 August 2009

ok, here we go...

Panda Bear, Liz, Derek and I are participating in the consumption of alcholic beverages. Many beverages. Yeah, that buzz thing is goin' round. Conversations based on the premise of... of nonsense. These convos tend to ricochet off great philosophical columns... god, politics -- and ass tattoos. Yeah.

xx

get

Hey kids, HEALTH's highly anticipated Get Color is coming soon. Get Color early, get a slammin' HEALTH tee. I'm all over this one...

Via inSound: Order this shirt and we will e-mail you a link to download HEALTH's new album,on 8/7! A full month before the official release date!
http://rockonthestreets.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/health-album-2.jpg

And if you haven't heard it, or wish to hear it again and again and again and..., here is "Die Slow" from the forthcoming album. This is the sound of beautiful annihilation. (The bit rate of the YouTube clip sucks -- hear a much better sounding "Die Slow" HERE.)

early morning radio (and ufos)

I love radio. In fact, I consume more hours of radio than watching the idiot box. When possible, I tune in to Coast to Coast AM with George Noory.

From Wikipedia:

Coast to Coast AM is a North American (US and Canada) late-night syndicated radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics, but most frequently ones that relate either to the paranormal, or to alleged conspiracies. It was created by Art Bell and airs seven nights a week 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

Tonight's show – a Friday night program – will be, as the show's format dictates, open lines from 11 p.m. to 2 am Pacific Time. Friday night shows are always an adventure because Mr Noory fields calls from practically every facet of the American population. Some callers are obviously emotionally disturbed, while others are well educated and know the definition of fact, or, at least, perceived fact.

Once you listen to just one Coast to Coast show you will probably become one of the show's many devoted listeners; it is indeed a very compelling broadcast – and that is an egregious understatement.

Coast to Coast official Web page

Stream the live show here not compatible with FireFox }=

xx

Other shows you should check out: This American LifeCar TalkFresh Air with Terry GrossBBC News