btw

I love the new comics themes for iGoogle. Many to choose from, including Captain America, Batman Reborn, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (I always popped a pajama boner when April O'Neil made an appearance with the turtles... is it acceptable to find certain cartoon characters sexually attractive? Also, I went to high school with an art chic of the same name -- she was hot, too), Daniel Clowes (of which I'm unfamiliar, but the drawings look coo'), Superman, Vertigo, and Garfield. Currently I'm rocking the Peanuts theme (I always empathized with Charlie Brown). Charles Shultz's strip was magnificent in its simplicity... great universal themes in those strips.

Anyway, check out all the comics themes here.

xx

anyone?

Can anyone on the Internets tell me why the David Lynch masterpiece The Elephant Man is no longer available in DVD format? My number one film of all time is The Elephant Man, and I would like to acquire this film on digital video disc because my video home system copy -- that's VHS for those keeping score at home -- is, well, obsolete; I haven't owned a video home system player since Bill Clinton was president of these United States.

Can anyone on the World Wide Web enlighten me regarding this subject?

Thank you.

And yes, I'm drunk (but that's OK, I'm not an alcoholic -- read my previous post. I have a valid excuse for being drunk at noon on a beautiful Friday in Bloomington. Besides, I saw a t-shirt the other day that read "Bloomington: A Drinking Town with a Basketball Problem." Haha... get it? That slogan gives college kids an excuse to be a beligerent alcholic -- in a college town that was once known for flooring a great college basketball team. Way back when, well, when Bill Clinton was president of these United States. [Love it when a blog post comes full circle.]).

Cheers,

xx

makes me wanna shake my crime stick

Success. Dropped an 84% on the A&P final.

I've been awake since 10AM yesterday morning. It's now 11AM today. And I'm having a Canadian Coke (that's a Canadian Club and Coke), damn it.

If I drunkenly assault the postman, or anyone else for that matter, I'll be sure to blog it, yo.

Shake your crime stick, baby.

xx

struck

Clocks just struck 5AM and I'm still awake. Yeah, been up all night studying for my A&P final exam. The testing center opens at 9AM, so I'm going to push on through.

IF I PASS THIS THING I'M GOING TO BE DRUNK BY NOON, IN THE SACK BY 12:30.

xx

man bird dress

A few posts ago I blogged the dark wonders of Svarte Greiner's 2006 acoustic doom album Knive. Once Knive's sounds stick you, you obsessively pursue everything Greiner has recorded.

In 2008 he released Man Bird Dress; this three-piece release is a more minimal affair compared to its predecessor. I don't have time to offer a review of Man Bird Dress, but because the release is now out of print, I've decided to share the album here and let the listener form his or her own opinion.

Enjoy.

- Man Bird Dress -

01 Man (14:00) - 02 Bird (9:13) - 03 Dress (7:29)

twenty-four hours

In approximately twenty-four hours the fate of my A&P final will be known.

no dice

It seems as though the legalization of marijuana is gaining traction in the mainstream media. (Check out this recent hydroponic pot story from Time magazine.) States are facing daunting deficits; creating loopholes for limited marijuana legalization, i.e. medicinal marijuana, and then taxing those loopholes may help close some states' budget gaps.

But don't expect mass decriminalization of pot anytime soon – if ever. Just weeks ago it seemed as if the United States Congress was on the verge of crafting a bill that would offer medical coverage for the millions of uninsured (I am one of them, by the way). Unfortunately this will not be one of the bill's provisions.

My point: national medical coverage seemed like a real possibility. It's not going to happen. Likewise for legal pot. Americans will get national health coverage before guilt-free bong hits. Don't expect either anytime soon.

xx

i don’t want to get off on a rant here, but…

Leave it to AA to find such an apropos quotation – from Mr Palahniuk, no less – to accommodate my previous post. Really cool to hear from you, dude. Really. We must get together. And soon. The question of "Your place or mine," however, raises a thorny issue that I'm going to plunge into head first because this fucking week is pushing me to the brink, bro. Sleeping difficulties. I'm struggling with another down and dark spell. A gigantic and crucial final exam coming Friday. Driving the bus earlier today and I t-bone an old lady in a Cadillac – wasn't my fault and the accident wasn't serious, but still. This shit piles up.

Check it:

Panda Bear and I are expecting a couple of good friends this weekend, and I would love to have them spend the weekend here, in Bloomington, rather than _____, which is where Panda Bear lives. But I don't invite anyone, well, except for Panda Bear, to come over. No friends. No family. Why? Because I'm embarrassed about my living conditions, that's why. See, about two years ago my roommate decided to turn the dining room of our townhome into his eBay warehouse. As soon as you walk through the front door boxes upon boxes of cheap Chinese purses greet you. Sure, at first it seems ridiculous, funny maybe, but after awhile said guest begins to wonder, Jesus, he lives with this shit?

You might be wondering, Have you asked him to remove his inventory from the dining room? No, not directly anyway. I mean, my passive-aggressive tendencies steer me away from confrontation; however, this situation is slightly different because I simply have a philosophical problem with asking someone to change his or her inconsiderate ways. It's a matter of principle: if you yourself are oblivious to behavior that most reasonable folk would consider unmindful (and I do think the aforementioned warehouse space is indeed unmindful), then what the hell am I supposed to do about it? I'm not B.F. Skinner (you know, the psychologist who pioneered the science of behavior modification with the rats in the box) for chrissakes.

Anyhow… AA, it's great to hear, er, read from you. Two more days and I'm finished with class for a month. We need to get together, bro. Seriously. It's been too long since we sat down mano a mano. Maybe we could shoot some shots over some competitive drag racing. Maybe I can attempt to clear a chainlink fence in my underwear. (I heard the House Banter series is getting an official DVD release; any truth to these rumors?) Come down here, visit the warehouse, or I can make a trip to your neck of the woods.

In the meantime, hit me up with an e-mail – TheSkyIsATelevisionSignal@gmail.com – with your phone number or some other means of communication.

xx

hmmmmm

Currently reading about the special senses of the body...

"The importance of emotionally induced tears is poorly understood."

I had never pondered the link between tears and distraught emotions until now, but now I can't get off of the subject. Why do we cry when we are upset?

xx

one down

Just got home from taking my Math118 final... scored an 83%, which will give me a solid B for the class... glad I'm finished.

The next -- and much more significant -- hurdle is the Anatomy & Physiology final. For all intents and purposes, I must get a minimum of 70% on the final; a C for the final will secure an A for the class. Missing an A practically eliminates any possibility of entering the nursing program, which means I will have to retake this class -- and that isn't a viable option. Scoring a C on the final sounds simple; however, I have had to consume a tremendous amount of material during the last eight weeks. Reviewing 15 chapters in preparation for a 100-question exam is a daunting task.

(Sigh.)

xx

peoples in america going crazies

WTF

Lawsuit claims Apple, Mafia sent threats via iPod

(Original article by CNET's Jim Dalrymple here.)


Gregory McKenna, of Florissant, Mo., is suing Apple because he says two of the company's iPods contained illegal receivers that allowed the Mafia to send him threatening messages, according to court documents obtained by CNET.

Filed Wednesday in a St. Louis district court, the suit names as defendants the St. Louis Police Department, unknown agents of the FBI, Apple, a private investigator, and an auto mechanic.

The alleged motive for the threats was that the Mafia wanted McKenna to work as a fashion model for them at a New York modeling agency. McKenna said he called local police and the FBI field office, but allegedly nothing was done. This allegedly allowed the Mafia members to "stalk, threaten, attempt rape, and kidnap" him.

McKenna said that in 2005, he purchased an iPod Shuffle on eBay and discovered that when listening to the device the Mafia was able to send audio threats to the device. This was allegedly enabled through a receiver installed by Apple.

A second device, an iPod Mini, was also enabled to allow the Mafia to generate death threats, according to the lawsuit.

McKenna also said he hired a private investigator to search his home and car. He claims the investigator found listening devices in his bedroom, living room, upstairs bathroom, and his Toyota Camry. When asked to confirm his findings by police, the private investigator said he found nothing.

The lawsuit is claiming damages in the amount of $14.2 million.

magazines and free soda

It's Friday night and my head is buried in text. Suddenly the line "Magazines and free soda/Trying hard not think" intrudes.



I was born in this hotel, washing dishes in the sink
Magazines and free soda, trying hard not to think
Lay it on to the dawn, everything we've done is wrong
I'll be lonesome when I'm gone, lay it on to the dawn

She can talk to squirrels
Coming back from the convalescent home
Staring at sports cars
Crying

Rattlesnake on the ceiling, gun powder on my sleeve
I will live here forever with the ocean and the bees
Lay it on to the dawn, everything we've done is wrong
I'll be lonesome when I'm gone, lay it on to the dawn

Lay it on to the dawn
Lay it on to the dawn
Lay it on to the dawn

on point

Saw some vintage Chris Matthews earlier this evening on Hardball. Mathews was speaking with The American Spectator's Bob Tyrrell about the Birthers of the right wing. I wanted to grab the following quote because Mathews eloquently outlines the slanted psychological perspective of conspiracy theorists in general. View the entire clip below.

"You know how, when you're young especially, maybe your whole life, you walk into a party or somewhere, and you have this notion that everybody there knows each other but they don't know you. And you usually get over that when you realize that everybody there is as lonely as you are and as individual as you are and they don't all know each other. But some people never get over that idea, and they think that everybody is out to get them, so they believe there are meetings going on – at all times – among everybody they don't know [and they are conspiring] against them. [They believe] there were meetings about the killing of Kennedy – the Secret Service was involved, the FBI, the CIA, the Irish Mafia – everybody was involved in killing Kennedy.

"They think there is something called 'The Government,' by the way. There is no such thing as 'The Government'; there's just a bunch of scared bureaucrats waiting for five o'clock."

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

we can hold hands

xx

cushion

Breathing a little easier now. I nailed my remaining Math118 assignments with 100s, which affords me a generous cushion for my final exam. According to my calculations, I would have to score something in the low 60s to miss capturing the required C for the class. This is a great relief... Now I can solely focus on Anatomy&Physiology.

Been a good night...

xx

love it

Last week Carrie Brownstein "journeyed down the path to Phish conversion" by indulging in all things Phish.  She purchased the band's albums.  Viewed YouTube clips of the band's fantasto-magical performances.  She even hung out with some Portland-area Phish fans.

Her journey caused me to unearth my Phish collection, and surprisingly, I've been missing Phish.  Aside from conjuring deeply rooted memories within me – the people, the chemicals, the shows, the chemicals – the songs, especially the live cuts, remind me of the band's incredible musicianship and their unique penchant for weaving funk-induced mystic atmospherics.  Unlike other jam bands, Phish can unwind for 20 consecutive minutes and keep me entranced the entire time.  Hell, just listening to Mike Gordon pull otherworldly rhythms out of his bass is enough to keep me listening.

As Brownstein wrote, Phish does indeed occupy a unique space in music.  And when a band wraps itself around a seminal time in your life (for me, my late teens and early 20s), its music becomes something much more than sound spilling from a speaker – it becomes a shifting photograph of which colors bleed to blend with sound, molding that which is the essence of this life – memory.

xx

(The band is coming to Chicago on August 11… I'd love to go.)

the threat comes from within, uncle sam

A few days ago I blogged about a recent Pew Research Center poll THAT WAS VERY FRIGHTENING. Among other results, the poll indicated that only 32% of the American public believe in evolution, and barely half support stem cell research. Oh, and more Americans think the United States military contributes more to society's well-being than teachers, scientists or medical doctors.

And then there's this:



Again, you should be afraid -- very afraid.

xx

nearly four

Listening to the greatest late-night talk show in the galaxy -- "Coast to Coast AM with George Noory." And still crunching numbers...

Love coffee, too... gotta have coffee...

xx

caffeine jacket

Looks like I'll be pulling an all-nighter in an attempt to wrap up my remaining Math118 homework. I have ten days to complete this work, but I want this shit out of my life. Seriously. If all goes according to plan, the only remaining obstacle will be the final, which I would like to complete later this week... hell, I might pull it off tomorrow, who knows. If I crash and burn on the final, the goal of capturing a C (the minimum grade required for my degree) will be destroyed, which means I will have to take this fucking class again. AND THAT IS NOT AN OPTION, MAN.

I had never heard a My Morning Jacket song in its entirety until the live version of "Gideon" (from the double-disc live album Okonokos) graced my ears a few days ago. I snatched the album from eMusic earlier this evening and it, along with ample amounts of coffee, has pushed me through the drudgery of probability theory and statistics. (But there is still so much more! Yay!)

I love live music, and Okonokos is practically flawless (the glorious "Dondante" made a poopoo in my pants, btw). Check out Okonokos H ER E.

Yeah, this My Morning Jacket band is pretty OK. (And yes, I'm always late to the party.)

xx

binge

I would love to spend a few hours at the 'board, full of whiskey with thoughts extending from screaming fingertips (currently, creativity is abound, and it wants to escape its cage inside my skull). But I can't. Not right now, anyway. My class work is killing me. I'm at the breaking point with this shit. Seriously. Taking one condensed class would probably be manageable, but two? Two is too much. Seriously. And speaking of two, just two more weeks until this semester concludes. I will make it, indeed. But I will be the rubber-legged marathon runner who stumbles across the finish line and collapses like a bag of swollen and sore bones. Two. More. Weeks. Ugh.

xx

(If you like art and good music, please read my previous post. Svarte Greiner's Knive is one of the more mesmerizing albums in my vast music collection.)

knive inside

The record: Knive
The artisit: Svarte Greiner

My $0.02:
difficult to describe this Norweigian's music so I will rely on the usually reputable tags from LastFM -- "acoustic doom" "dark ambient" "experimental" "noise" "haunting." If you are stranded in some metropolitan catacomb with low light, obscured moon and no cell phone, this is your soundtrack. "The Black Dress" and "Final Sleep" are terrifyingly beautiful songs, which is ironic because these two pieces, along with the album's other songs, really aren't "songs" or "tracks" -- consider this album and its accompanying pieces as a collection of artfully painted soundscapes. The craft work displayed on Knive is eerily precise.

I can't speak highly enough of Svarte's work, espcially Knive. (Love the album cover, too.) The album is largely disconnected from its components, which further adds to the turbulence and anxiety one feels as each sound emits from somewhere beyond the compact disc or mp3. (Highly recommended for those compelled to darkness and pre-apocalyptic sounds.) In "Final Sleep" you can practically hear the four horsemen patiently jockeying for their glorious descent.

Knive's magic is that it plays like some macabre prologue -- a vile premonition crawls under the record. Knive is not darkness; true darkness lies in the album's concluding moments -- and the Knive-stained imagination of the listener after Svarte's sounds have fallen silent.

If you are finding it difficult to track down a copy of this record send me an e-mail or comment...


Svarte Greiner MySpace

xx

oh boy...

Took two Klonopins and that old familiar feeling is back: my limbs are full of lead and I'm swimming through a sea of sweet honey molasses (not literally; I can't swimm... well, actually, I can). There are some enjoyable aspects of the Klonopin krush. So enjoyable I can't describe them, because describing them would mean futilely ascribing words to an experience that cannot be articulated with alphabetic systems.

I need sleep, which I have not been getting recently, and, most important, RELIEF from this fucking school work. Arrggggghhhhh!

Discombobulatedly (sic) yours,

xx

pubes and coupons

Clip the coupons and pubes later... A new era of comedy begins tonight.

family drama (for realz)

The following e-mail was sent from Kevin (one of my four uncles) to my mother's family's Google groups page. The Ron in the e-mail is another uncle. Kevin and Ron began a business many years ago -- a business Kevin poured many thousands of dollars into. After years of speculation, it is now clear that Ron's financial problems are indeed very real.

new pew poll is most terrifying thing i've read in some time

The respected Pew Research Center just released the results of a survey conducted for People & the Press and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The poll involved approximately 2000 people of the American public and 2500 scientists.

I'm going to withhold comment regarding the numbers. (You can view all the results at people-press.org.) I think this post's title conveys my feelings. The survey's figures, unfortunately, convey much more about our military state country.

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

Contribute "a lot" to society's well being (respondents to this question were members of American public; no scientists were polled):

Members of military 84%
Teachers 77%
Scientists 70%
Medical doctors 69%
Engineers 64%
Clergy 40%
Journalists 38%
Artists 31%


Think that humans, other living things have evolved due to natural processes:

Public 32%
Scientists 87%


Favor federal funding for embryonic stem cell research:

Public 58%
Scientists 93%



The survey is chock full of *intriguing* numbers. I need to return to my studies; comment me if you find anything else of interest. Again, go here for everything from the poll.

Oh, and yes, you should be very afraid.

xx

ok

Well, I scored 71.5% on the exam, which is actually better than I had hoped. All things considered, I feel good about my current position, grade wise, in Math118.

I need to devote more time to the upcoming material, for sure; but finding the actual time is a challenge in itself. A&P is priority number one; I have to secure an A in that class. I need just a C for Math118. Those grades would be easily attainable if I were taking the two classes during a regular 16-week semester, but because A&P and Math118 are condensed into 8 weeks, the workload is doubled.

The summer semester concludes August 1. At this point I feel as though my head is going to burst -- the amount of information I'm trying to absorb from both classes is barely manageable -- but the finish line is finally within sight.

Gotta keep on keepin' on. Word.

xx

crossing fingers is futile

Well, I'm off to take my midterm for MATH118 (Concepts in Mathematics). It isn't going to be pretty. Since this semester began five weeks ago, 95% of my time and energy has been spent on Anatomy & Physiology, and that fact is going to rear its ugly head when I take this Math exam.

xx

current fav

Current fav: Biography's I Survived...

From the program's website: I Survived... allows survivors to explain, in their own words, how they overcame unbelievable circumstances -- offering insight into what got them through the experience that changed their lives forever.

I Survived... is one of the more engrossing programs on television right now. (Actually, it might be the most engrossing show on TV right now because AMC's Breaking Bad is on hiatus.) I'm all over I Survived... because the show relies on naked storytelling, pure and simple. The stories are true, of course, and the storytellers are the victims themselves.

The show has a disturbing but morbidly intriguing edge. How would you respond if you awoke in the middle of the night to find a crystal meth-addled, shotgun-toting burglar at the foot of your bed? Or perhaps whilst catching some waves you are suddenly knocked off your board and fighting for life inside the mouth of a 16-foot great white shark. What would you do?

Hopefully you will never find yourself in such a precarious situation. Simply hearing these true tales is terrifying enough.

The new season of I Survived... begins Sunday night on the Biography channel. You can view past episodes through your cable company's OnDemand feature (look for it in the A&E listings) and on the show's website.

xx

buried you alive in a fireworks display...

Thus far it has been a rainy Independence Day in Bloomington. Before the rains came Panda Bear and I made it downtown for the parade. I told her about hometown's annual Fourth of July midnight parade and the one year (was is seven, eight years ago?) I and some roustabouts made a mockery of the whole goddamned thing. What happened to those kids?

It seems unlikely that there will be any fireworks festivities tonight. Earlier, I thought 'fireworks' and my mind immediately associated the word with this great line from a certain Chicago band: "Buried you alive in a fireworks display / Raining down on me / Your cold, hot blood ran away from me / To the sea."

xx