baby steps

we have the cat, now where's my real job?

recommended music: 

vitalic - la rock 01

unkle - restless (feat. josh homme)

review: radiohead - in rainbows

in rainbows - 79/100

i'm going to try to divorce this here review from both the positive and negative consequences of how radiohead went about releasing this album, and i'm just going to deal with the music. there are a few noteworthy details about my opinion of this album, though. first, i heard half of it live last year, so i'm really matching songs up against exquisite live versions. second, i am thirsty for new good music of any kind (which is bound to influence something). third, the last three radiohead albums are perhaps three of the best albums i've ever heard in my life; and the two preceding those three are legendary albums in their own right.

with that in mind, i have no problem saying that, while not necessarily bad, this album is a huge step down. consider some of the songs on hail to the thief. there is absolutely nothing on this album that will give a listener the same sense of amazement as 'there there' did for hail to the thief. nothing that comes close. nothing really touches most of hail to the thief. the fact is that radiohead enthusiasts all have, in my opinion, a few select songs that pop into mind when they think of an album. there are a few songs off of each one that are just a pristine musical experience. there there, a wolf at the door, i might be wrong, idioteque, my iron lung, exit music. songs like those. seemingly perfect songs. not one song on the new album fits into that category. when i hear them, i know they should all be better. and they're all ok. it's not a bad album. it flows decently well and is really devoid of the less accessible tracks that might be off putting to a casual listener. this is a collection of good songs. none of them are great, though. and every single other radiohead album has produced at least two or three songs that stand out in my mind is perfect. each other radiohead album has seemed like its own entity; a superb product of its environment. this one sounds like some guys that got together and wrote some good songs. i still listen to this album plenty, and i really do like it. still, picky as i am about my radiohead, that's just not nearly good enough to stand next to radiohead's discography.


15 step - 87
since hearing this last year i've been patiently waiting for a studio version of this song. live it was rump-shakingly delicious. its beat is the stuff of legend. rumor has it one of the rhythms come from a portuguese audience's clapping during morning bell during some random show (i have no idea if that's actually true or not).

bodysnatchers - 87
the first 10 seconds of this song are badass. it's all downhill from there. it's not a bad song, it just suffers from the same problem of not really going anywhere. it can only get so far on the strength of the basic distorted guitar/bass melody. i'll bet it kicks ass live, though.

nude - 83
the original, ok computer-era version of nude had an organ in it. the live version of this song that i heard last year was quite guitar-heavy. the studio version is neither, and i think it suffers for that. still, it's quite strong as long as you're not looking for anything groundbreaking. it's simple, and consistent, and sounds amazing. this song has to be a high point for thom yorke's vocal aptitude.

weird fishes/arpeggi - 85
live, this song was pretty solid. the massive amount of fairly pleasant guitaring can hold the listener's attention for quite a while. there's also a full orchestral version of this song floating around from a year or two ago that is absolutely stunning. the studio version seems to have mixed the two, and has actually yielded fairly strong results from it. the orchestral aspects of the song seep in as it progresses, leaving arpeggi as one of the (disappointingly) few songs on the album to finish stronger than it starts. well, sort of. the middle of the song is stronger than the beginning, the end, and most of the rest of the album combined.

one heck of an orchestral version:


all i need - 70
you'd have to really really really love absolutely everything radiohead puts out; to the point that you get emotional regardless of the song's content or intricacy, to find this song exceptionally good. when it comes on in the shower, i'll listen to it and sing along. but, if i'm getting picky, this will never get played. it sort of crescendos. sort of. really, it's just generally boring.

faust arp - 65
decent guitar. decent lyrics. that's about it. the vocals are sort of interesting, and the acousticky feel is welcomed, but there are literally dozens of better radiohead songs out there, so why listen to this one?

reckoner - 83
the middle of this tune can get quite impressive. when the drums cut out, and then back in. that's good stuff. the vocal patterns and lyrical flow are pretty solid. really, i was absolutely repulsed by this song at first, mostly because i felt the shrill vocals were raping the instrumentation to death. i have to admit that it's grown on me quite a bit.

house of cards - 85
i first heard this song as an outdoor radiohead show wound down in the dark and the cold, and as fog rolled in to obscure my surroundings. in that environment, it was perfect.

jigsaw falling into place - 87
this song shares honors with weird fishes/arpeggi as perhaps one of only two songs on the album to build up strength as it progresses. all of what seem to be heavyweights; 15 step, bodysnatchers, videotape, etc., all seem to peter out. not this one, it grows and grows, to the point that i overlooked it in my first few listens. more excellently intense guitar, strong vocals and lyrics. this is just an all-around good song.

videotape - 77
let the record show that this song is an absolute juggernaut live. it was a show highlight before anybody even knew what it was. it was a beautiful, powerful song that managed to begin with delicacy and end with force without seeming to meander or overachieve. the album version, though, is bland (which is particularly sad since radiohead has put out some of the finest album closers i've ever heard). the wonderful drum and guitar parts are totally absent, and what replaces them really contributes very little to the song itself. it's still a fitting closer, and it's still a fairly solid song. when lined up against the tour version, though, and against the likes of previous radiohead closers, it's quite a disappointment.

the very superior original (turn the bass up):


recommended music:
sigur ros - se lest
sigur ros - saeglopur

too much downtime

need to find job. feel irresponsible any time i buy anything. don't know what to do with my time. not enough risk-taking. too much playing around with superfluous technologies. virtual reality me:


getting antsy. need to break even. other than that, settling fine. expect updates.

recommended music:
brendan benson - the alternative to love
radiohead - bodysnatchers

'til next time

g'bye, everybody. thanks for everything. come visit when you can.

recommended music:
radiohead - house of cards
radiohead - jigsaw falling into place

see the sites

this weekend i saw one of these:



and one of these:





and then i woke up this morning and saw one of these:


not bad for superfluous distractions, eh?

recommended music:
explosions in the sky - day eight
brendan benson - the pledge

don't give me planned obsolescence

goodbye:

hello:


recommended music:
godspeed you! black emperor - storm
muse - supermassive black hole

happy weekend vacation?

somehow today feels like the last day of school/first day of break. my job sort of ended today. i no longer run the park, and i really got that sense of sort of nostalgia and closure leaving the place in the early evening. but next week i'll go help run another one, so it's not the end of my parks era. after that, i get a week or so off before i'll probably go do the same work again for a couple weeks. it makes me wonder why i'd have such a sentimental response to today. maybe it's because of the friends i've made, or the fact that summer is definitely more than half-over, or that it's been more than two months since i wrested my diploma from the hands of kalamazoo college.

the first reconnaissance mission to d.c. is next month. the plane tickets are booked. apartments and federal job listings fill my web browser history. the real world is starting to bear down, and yet there's still a month until we even go physically look for a place to live. so, what to do... maybe things become stressful as watershed moments approach. maybe things become even more laid back as the summer starts to decline. what to do...

recommended music:
sigur ros - popplagio
a silver mt. zion - built then burn (hurrah! hurrah!)

vaguely known across the country

as good as any comedy show could be.



american football will now forever be known as 'throw ball, hit man.' the middle of the country is really responsible for all of the negativity. their response is always 'no. burn them.' the romans fell because latin makes no sense ('bollocks' in latin is 'bollocksus')... also, two things are needed. one: intelligence. two: design. margaret thatcher is the walking dead. the original title of the origin of species was 'monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey, me.' a squirrel is like an elephant, but is maximus, turned back to front, and attached to a toaster. europe asked america to take over the role of killing people all over the world after europe got tired of it. the ancient egyptians knew they were ancient at the time. the appendix sit in your body waiting years for grass to come through, finally get bored, and decide 'let's explode.'

so much insight.

recommended music:
oceansize - saturday morning breakfast show
soledad brothers - .32 blues

anti-semitism and you

today i wore my red shirt that pretty much says this on it:



















many of you know the shirt.

so anyway, i walk into a bar and sit down next to kendra and some random guy i've never met. chris leans over and points out that the random guy's jaw dropped when he saw my shirt and that he just stared at it a bit when i sat down. we had a laugh about it and drank our drinks.

a few minutes later, after kendra has wandered off somewhere, random guy leans over and leads off with "are you a jew?" he's clearly smashed. i think he's making polite conversation, perhaps searching for ethnic or religious comeraderie or something. but it soon becomes apparent that this is purely accusatory. i explain the shirt and where i got it, and why, and he asks me what it means. so i tell him. he replies with (verbatim); "i thought it said 'i'm a motherfucking jew.'" well, no. it doesn't. not a very nice thing to say. but still, the words of a drunk anti-semite (who isn't mel gibson) carry very little weight. so a polite conversation ensues about jesus and how the jews are apparently responsible for "all the problems in the world." mr. drunk man periodically leans in a little further, questioning me about my beliefs and my ethnicity and taking particular interest in chris proclaiming german heritage. he probably asked me if i'm a jew half a dozen times, and when chris finally tried to end it because he has to get up early tomorrow to catch a plane, mr. drunk man asks "where are you flying, to israel?" well, san diego, but close.

still, the guy was one of those polite incendiary drunks, softspoken despite slurred speech. it was positively cordial. he'd been cut off and the bar owners were keeping an eye on him. we said that he was probably mistaken, said our goodbyes, and went off on our merry way. he seemed more curious than hostile or combative or physically violent; which is good, because we would have torn him to pieces, and i doubt anyone else there would have minded too much.

after spending however many months in israel trying to get the point across that the world isn't as sporadically and spontaneously viciously anti-semitic as people make it out to be, it makes me wonder if some israeli paranoia is justified, or if there really are just too many stupid people in the world to adequately count.

recommended music:
kashmir - ramparts
explosions in the sky - time stops

updates and updates

i just submitted me a job application to the department of homeland security. i feel dirty, yes, but i also feel semi-productive and that i might have a hint of potential.

other than that, i've been winning money [for other people] at poker; or having heated pokemon debates during raging ping pong tournaments (while on the clock); or interspersing cutting-edge motion-sensor zombie shoot-em-ups with archaic NES games from my infancy (while perhaps mildly intoxicated); or hearkening back to pre-pubescence to watch giant general motors robots try to destroy los angeles, jon voight, and john turturro (jesus himself) on the big screen; or spending hours reading about and talking about cars in an inexplicable outbreak of enthusiasm over automotive performance and racing (watched my first full length formula 1 grand prix last week). all in all, an uncharacteristic amount of parenthases and videos like this:



by no means an empty plate, but i still feel somehow just slightly incomplete. probably because of the prominent pacific northwestern absence that i've yet to address. oddly, i'm probably meeting more people now than i have since arriving for a stint in the midwest four years ago. there's actually been quite a decent balance of solitary confinement and social butterflyism. i have only a few true friends here, though, if any. that's of my own design, i know. so, things can get lonely. it's weird, though. it's that sort of loneliness that spurs on an interest in the people around me more than making me feel down. i'm doing ok. hell, even my psychiatrist, in all his demented pharmaceutical wisdom, wants me to officially become the one person in this country who is easing themself off of the antidepressants, one of the last remnants of my true rock-bottom of years past. i just wish i were playing more music.

recommended music:
kashmir - small poem of old friend
explosions in the sky - remember me as a time of day

review: the white stripes - icky thump

icky thump - 95/100

first, it's worth noting that icky thump features one of the most entertaining album covers in the history of time, especially for anyone who's a fan of jack white. fortunately, after looking up the album cover and laughing, i then listened to the album and laughed. the whole thing is absolutely hilarious. there are a few serious(ish) songs in there, and somehow they manage not to be completely drowned in comedy. the lyrics are strong, when either funny or otherwise. i do kind of wonder what the hell jack white is thinking when he writes and performs stuff like this. is he laughing on the inside? is it all business?

i listen to almost everything on random, but this album is a trillion times better when listened to in order. all of the quirks come out and say hi in ways that just don't show up when listening to the tracks individually. it's great as a whole, and it is a whole. despite how startlingly diverse the sound and style is, it does feel like an album as opposed to a collection of songs. it feels like it has a plan (well... perhaps multiple plans). it ain't no sum of parts, and that makes it kind of hard to quantify the goodness of songs that are far better when placed in order than on their own. oh well. this is the second album this year that's better than anything that came out last year, and i consider it better than the last three (possibly four [possibly five]) white stripes albums.



icky thump - 89
this album's blue orchid. it just seems like it's sort of there to be the first single. bonus points for the random lack of subtety when telling white americans to kick themselves out.

you don't know what love is (you just do as you're told) - 85
this is a solid song, but nothing about it really stands out. it's like a lot of past white stripes songs that are great, but are just sort of there. the lyrics are strong and confident, though. i'm sure that most people who listen to this song will have specific people in mind while they digest the message. either that or i'm just particularly hostile... maybe both?

300 m.p.h. torrential outpoor blues - 94
the bridge guitar part also sounds like heaven to my ears. it's a shame it's only around for four measures. the rest of the guitar is a mix of clean, relaxing, overlaid lines that let the listener sink into the song spliced together next to abrasive, loud, distorted solos. it works, though. the lyrics follow the smooth flow of most of the clean guitar. the loud solos jar me awake after i've sort of been lulled away from alertness. bonus for the mention of redheads.

conquest - 90
see, now, there's a problem with assigning a quantitative value to a song that's pretty much just absurd as possible. there's a shift: serious guitar partTRUMPETS. that's it. it makes no real sense, and that's why it's great. the song holds up on its own, but a magical loud trumpet latin interlude just makes the album all the more well-rounded and lighthearted. the song itself isn't really that great. it's its appearance and placement on the album that makes it a highlight.

bone broke - 87
the verse guitar is almost a complete copy of the white stripes' first album's 'stop breaking down.' that doesn't bother me at all, though, because i love that song and that album. it also doesn't feel (to me, at least) like jack white has just run out of music to write. still, this song doesn't stand out for any other reason than that it sounds like it's 10 years old.

prickly thorn, but sweetly worn - 94
bagpipes. the guitar line is absolutely addictive. actually, this whole song is addictive. this song adds a random irishish-type sound to earlier layers of random latinish-type sound. it also does so, again, out of nowhere. that should be aggravating, but it's amazing. somehow the change in sound seems to make the album more whole as opposed to less cohesive. you will tap your toe to this here tune.

st. andrew (the battle is in the sky) - 85
the obligatory short, sort of useless track on its own. when run right after its predecessor, though, it seems like an almost necessary white stripey chopped up quarter-toned conclusion to the bagpipe chunk of the album.

little cream soda - 85
another song that's just sort of there. still, jack white rhythmically and definitively talking at you demands your full attention. there's no arguing with it. it's sort of like he's telling you something important and their just happens to be music playing in the background.

rag & bone - 100
at first i thought; 'there's not much to this song. it will probably get old.' but then i listen to it and it doesn't. i think i've laughed almost every single time i've heard this song, especially in the presence of company. the dialogue is funnier than spinal tap, although i admit that a big part of that is because it's jack white talking. it's just that good... in an entirely different way than what makes a song meaningful or passionate. i just can't listen to it and not think that it's perhaps the best thing ever, and i've yet to really see the need to articulate it much beyond that point. it doesn't need it. it's just that good...

i'm slowly turning into you - 87
vocals following the exact same melody as the instrumentation is a big pet peeve of mine. the instrumentation is amazing (the distorted chorus strings are an album highlight), but the vocals sort of stick in my craw for some reason. the chorus feels kind of forced, to me. i can still get into this song, though, and the verse vocals are just dandy. the chorus vocals are just... kind of... off.

a martyr for my love for you - 96
this song is just great. i can't quite put my finger on why, just everything about it is amazing. the instrumentation, guitar and organ, work perfectly. the the lyrical storytelling and the vocal melody are perfect. the pace, climaxes... it's all just great stuff. there's no one thing about this song that makes it so good. it's all of it working together.

catch hell blues - 94
this song is damn good guitaring. i want to learn this song on guitar. i will buy a slide, tune to D, and try to be about 50 times cooler than i actually am when i learn this song. because that's what's going on here. it's jack white being 50 times cooler than all of us and wailing away on his strings, occasionally shouting something firey and brimstoney at us, and then wailing away some more. the flow in this one is one of the better hints of how great the white stripes are when live and uninhibited.

effect & cause - 93
best lyrics on the album (perhaps excepting the rag & bone dialogue). 'if you're headed to the grave you don't blame the hearse.' that's just a brilliant take home message, no? the song's about chastising somebody, and it's simultaneously strong, forceful, and comedic gold. this is another one where everybody should, in my view, have some specific person(s) in mind when they hear it. i don't know if it necessarily brings the album to a nice close, but it is a change of direction to a more acousticky sound from the songs leading up to it. it's sort of a less random parallel to de stijl's your southern can is mine.

recommended music:
lcd soundsystem - tribulations
david bowie - space oddity

lcd soundystem is better than you

recommended music:
the white stripes - catch hell blues
the white stripes - conquest

who/what/when/where/why

so i had completely forgotten about every single aspect of college until someone brought it up today. it's all over, and it's left me feeling sort of permanently weird. initially the strange part was leaving kalamazoo and graduation didn't register. now it feels weird to be mildly qualified for something and four years in the midwest doesn't register.

i'm sitting here bored, forming vaguely ideal future plans and scavenging ways to kill time. the college experience is free-falling out of my head. interpret that however you want. take it and run with it. whatever. it is what it is. this summer is shaping up to be monotony monotony monotony.

but hey, it could be worse. i could be this guy:



recommended music:
the white stripes - a martyr for my love for you
the white stripes - rag & bone

i'm being cut to shreds

two hours in one seat working on one song, but i can now play it at tempo in its entirety. the song that made me want to play piano.



not bad for being on an instrument for less than two months, eh?

recommended music:
radiohead - like spinning plates
van morrison - sweet thing

last call

the last graduation requirements have been fulfilled.
34ish days to commencement? i'm officially a lame duck college student.

recommended music:
kashmir - zitilites
r.e.m. - half a world away

review: nine inch nails - year zero

year zero - 28/100

this album has been pitched as a postapocalyptic police state-themed concept album, a complete departure from trent reznor's earlier work. while it does sound different than with teeth (less guitary), it's far worse. you guys know how i feel about inarticulate and relatively ignorant political statements in the form of thoroughly mediocre music, so this isn't going to be pretty. the fact is that the 'concept' part of the concept album doesn't really have a presence in the actual music. in reality, the only way trent reznor could actually put forth his 'concept' was to explicitly lay it out as narrative outside the context of the album.

the lyrics are the same old trent reznor lyrics (which is already a bad place to start), and he draws several images word for word from past albums. the fact that there's nothing new lyrically is ugly enough, but the fact that these same old lyrics have been repackaged and sold as completely cohesive, insightful, and political commentary is impossible to stomach. i'm guessing that if i were to hand a random passer-by year zero, they'd identify it much more as more angsty poor self-esteem or nondescript and undirected hostility and not at all as some intricate possible future.

the music itself is bland. it's certainly no extraordinary leap from past nine inch nails albums. less distorted guitar. more distorted synths. many songs end with totally incoherent noise, which i'm sure is supposed to make some grand statement. somehow i also get the vibe that this album is just a stale collection of quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes in 4/4 time. there are no unconventional beats to speak of. even the vocals are thoroughly regimented in 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. no metric experimentation. no odd intervals.

if this album has to exist in any capacity, it should have been made an ep maybe half the length of the actual album. so much of it is just so utterly useless, also making the prospect of a follow-up album next year fit for the rolling of the eyes. the concept itself should never have been connected to the music. the story is arrogant, overdone, and a poorly-masked attempt to criticize the current administration. trent reznor was pretty apolitical until the iraq war, throwing the relatively pompous the hand that feeds in to make vague attacks on george bush. consider this entire album his second effort at that exact same goal.

anyone who is fooled into thinking that this album has a story to tell, shows ingenuity, originality, and meaningful political dissent is, well, a fool.



HYPERPOWER! - 15
a pinion rerun, this track is just as useless. gone are the days when trent reznor can get away with building intensity by simply increasing distortion, volume, or number of instruments.

the beginning of the end - 25
boring boring boring MY SHARONA.

survivalism - 30
the hand that feeds remix. eighth note eighth note eighth note.

the good soldier - 40
there's not much to say about a lot of these songs because of how monotonous they are (hence why they should have been condensed into an ep). this song follows along the same lines, although it does flow a bit better than most others, and the vocals are less annoying. lyrics are the same as any other nine inch nails song, so trent reznor had to add 'soldier' to the title and words like 'gun' and 'blood' and 'bomb.'

vessel - 25
initially i thought 'there's no way that horrible noise could persist throughout the entire song.' oh, but it did. see, this could be any nine inch nails song about getting high, but this one's about some governmental superdrug, or whatever wikipedia says follows the storyline. i wouldn't know if trent reznor hadn't screamed it out independently of the music. the point is, the perfect drug is an infinitely better song.

me, i'm not - 33
i don't even know how this song fits into the 'concept.' the lyrics are exactly the same vague, self-loathing lyrics of past albums. on a different note, the rhythm, melody, and vocals of the chorus sound extremely pop musicky. as in like hip hop-influenced pop musicky. it almost makes the song tolerable, but then, random loud noises appear and i go listen to lcd soundsystem.

capital g - 20
i will bet you $20 that this song was written by marilyn manson. it sounds exactly like an antichrist superstar b-side. same pattern of generally two loud highly distorted notes trading off and then moving to another set of two highly distorted notes trading off. not terribly melodic. this song is probably the biggest perpetrator of using exact, word for word imagery from past songs 'haves and the have nots,' 'hands and knees,' etc. etc. and it's the second single. it carries the most laughably childish message since heresy.

my violent heart - 25
i know you're thinking 'i want more songs that end in awful noise.' this one's for you. it's the sort of 'we're the ostracized minority and we're rallying to defeat you' type song. the difference is that the rallying cry during the chorus is hard to take because of the horrible high pitched squeal accompanying it. this song has a basic basic purpose, and there are trillions of better songs that suit that purpose (go listen to you and whose army?)

the warning - 45
i have to admit, the repetitive bass/guitar line, while basic as all hell, is almost catchy. the lyrics are forgettable, as is the rest of the song. this would be on the cut list if year zero were to go into ep mode.

god given - 37
no discernable guitars at all here. trent reznor feels that he doesn't write enough songs about how god is a foolish concept. this song almost has a worthwhile beat, and almost has some worthwhile electronic aspects. but, then the chorus chimes in and all of the sudden it doesn't seem like it takes that much talent. i will give this song credit for having closing instrumentation that isn't just obnoxious noise. it was a nice change of pace.

meet your master - 37
look! it's head like a hole! it even tells you that you're going to get what you deserve! the vocal sort of call and response in the chorus is actually kind of catchy. it's sort of old school-era nine inch nails. kind of broken-ish, or at least as close as this album comes to something like that.

the greater good - 20
this song is just over four minutes and fifty seconds too long. nothing really happens. it could be passed off as sort of a spacey background piece, but it isn't. it's just sort of... there... doing nothing.

the great destroyer - 10
this song sounds like some sort of protools tutorial. the guitar line is woefully out of place, which has to be intentional because it's sort of distortion-free in a song with heavily distorted drum/synth lines. then it degenerates into mindless noise, and i go listen to lcd soundsystem again.

another version of the truth - 40
also gone are the days when sparse piano instrumentation and ambient background noise constitutes an interesting instrumental.

in this twilight - 40
this song almost starts off strong. the vocals almost actually fit the music. unfortunately, it fails to take advantage of its start and really doesn't go anywhere. hey, maybe that's the point or some crap. i guess this song is hopeful or something. trent reznor going into his high register is mildly pleasing, i must say. this song beats itself to death with monotony. p.s. he stole the drums from green day (it's a common rock beat, but it's more fun to think of it as american idiot thievery).

zero sum - 62
this is the most tolerable song on the album. the minimal minimal piano line actually works, as the song doesn't put too much weight on it (like another version of the truth). still nothing interesting rhythmically. the vocals are pushed way to the back, which is good, because i looked up the lyrics and they're just as shitty as the rest of the album. the chorus vocals are alright, as long as you don't mind being chastized.


the moral of this story is that 'sound of silver' is a really good album.

recommended music:
bjork - earth intruders
john mayer - kid a

10/8

tonight i sat down at a piano, having played less than three weeks, and set out to learn a particular song. by the time i got up a couple hours later, i had mastered this:



there might be a use for me yet.

recommended music:
radiohead - everything in its right place
the raconteurs - hands

no matter what continent or island or ice cap

Kurt Vonnegut vs. the !&#*!@

In November, Kurt Vonnegut turned 80. He published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952 at the age of 29. Since then he has written 13 others, including Slaughterhouse Five, which stands as one of the pre-eminent anti-war novels of the 20th century.

As war against Iraq looms, I asked Vonnegut, a reader and supporter of this magazine, to weigh in. Vonnegut is an American socialist in the tradition of Eugene Victor Debs, a fellow Hoosier whom he likes to quote: “As long as there is a lower class, I am in it. As long as there is a criminal element, I am of it. As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

—Joel Bleifuss

You have lived through World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Reagan wars, Desert Storm, the Balkan wars and now this coming war in Iraq. What has changed, and what has remained the same?

One thing which has not changed is that none of us, no matter what continent or island or ice cap, asked to be born in the first place, and that even somebody as old as I am, which is 80, only just got here. There were already all these games going on when I got here. … An apt motto for any polity anywhere, to put on its state seal or currency or whatever, might be this quotation from the late baseball manager Casey Stengel, who was addressing a team of losing professional athletes: “Can’t anybody here play this game?”

My daughter Lily, for an example close to home, who has just turned 20, finds herself—as does George W. Bush, himself a kid—an heir to a shockingly recent history of human slavery, to an AIDS epidemic and to nuclear submarines slumbering on the floors of fjords in Iceland and elsewhere, crews prepared at a moment’s notice to turn industrial quantities of men, women and children into radioactive soot and bone meal by means of rockets and H-bomb warheads. And to the choice between liberalism or conservatism and on and on.

What is radically new in 2003 is that my daughter, along with our president and Saddam Hussein and on and on, has inherited technologies whose byproducts, whether in war or peace, are rapidly destroying the whole planet as a breathable, drinkable system for supporting life of any kind. Human beings, past and present, have trashed the joint.

Based on what you’ve read and seen in the media, what is not being said in the mainstream press about President Bush’s policies and the impending war in Iraq?

That they are nonsense.

My feeling from talking to readers and friends is that many people are beginning to despair. Do you think that we’ve lost reason to hope?

I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka “Christians,” and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or “PPs.”

To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable medical diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete’s foot. The classic medical text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley. Read it! PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!

And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country, and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And so many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick.

What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can’t. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody’s telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!

How have you gotten involved in the anti-war movement? And how would you compare the movement against a war in Iraq with the anti-war movement of the Vietnam era?

When it became obvious what a dumb and cruel and spiritually and financially and militarily ruinous mistake our war in Vietnam was, every artist worth a damn in this country, every serious writer, painter, stand-up comedian, musician, actor and actress, you name it, came out against the thing. We formed what might be described as a laser beam of protest, with everybody aimed in the same direction, focused and intense. This weapon proved to have the power of a banana-cream pie three feet in diameter when dropped from a stepladder five-feet high.

And so it is with anti-war protests in the present day. Then as now, TV did not like anti-war protesters, nor any other sort of protesters, unless they rioted. Now, as then, on account of TV, the right of citizens to peaceably assemble, and petition their government for a redress of grievances, “ain’t worth a pitcher of warm spit,” as the saying goes.

As a writer and artist, have you noticed any difference between how the cultural leaders of the past and the cultural leaders of today view their responsibility to society?

Responsibility to which society? To Nazi Germany? To the Stalinist Soviet Union? What about responsibility to humanity in general? And leaders in what particular cultural activity? I guess you mean the fine arts. I hope you mean the fine arts. ... Anybody practicing the fine art of composing music, no matter how cynical or greedy or scared, still can’t help serving all humanity. Music makes practically everybody fonder of life than he or she would be without it. Even military bands, although I am a pacifist, always cheer me up.

But that is the power of ear candy. The creation of such a universal confection for the eye, by means of printed poetry or fiction or history or essays or memoirs and so on, isn’t possible. Literature is by definition opinionated. It is bound to provoke the arguments in many quarters, not excluding the hometown or even the family of the author. Any ink-on-paper author can only hope at best to seem responsible to small groups or like-minded people somewhere. He or she might as well have given an interview to the editor of a small-circulation publication.

Maybe we can talk about the responsibilities to their societies of architects and sculptors and painters another time. And I will say this: TV drama, although not yet classified as fine art, has on occasion performed marvelous services for Americans who want us to be less paranoid, to be fairer and more merciful. M.A.S.H. and Law and Order, to name only two shows, have been stunning masterpieces in that regard.

That said, do you have any ideas for a really scary reality TV show?

“C students from Yale.” It would stand your hair on end.

What targets would you consider fair game for a satirist today?

Assholes.













'til next time, mr. vonnegut.

april 11th presents: january

yesterday i played frisbee in short sleeves and shorts. today:

what the hell?

recommended music:
nine inch nails - adrift and at peace
radiohead - like spinning plates

review: lcd soundsystem - sound of silver

sound of silver - 97/100

i'm glad that i didn't include this album in last year's arbitrary music awards right after it leaked. i know that i probably would have put thom yorke ahead of it anyway. i know now, however, that this album is easily better than anything i came across last year. as an album it exhibits a weird balance of sounding incredibly cohesive and at the same time incredibly diverse. each song has its own world. even the songs that i don't care for that much make me shake it when they come on in the background and i'm not paying attention. this could be a good year in music with albums from radiohead, autolux, the white stripes, and whoever i'm forgetting, but this is a strong strong contender.

get innocuous! - 79
so the opener isn't really my gig. i am not a fan of the 80's, as you have to know by now. it has the mad 80's vibe, and i must admit that it does manage to move past blatant 80's ripoffs and pull its own weight. the rhythm is great. the vocals fit in perfectly. still, for me it's just a tad bit 'meh.' it starts to wear on me a bit after 7 minutes. what can i say. it's a solid, interesting track. it's just not for me.

time to get away - 94
this song kicks off one of the best four track spans i've heard on any album ever. it was my initial favorite, so i may have played it to death. great beat. great sort of frantic atmosphere when the song really decides to erupt. some of the best driving music i've ever come across. ass-shakin' fantastic.

north american scum - 95
my second chronological favorite. should have been my first. i've definitely definitely played this to death. this is where lcd soundsystem's well above average lyrics really start to shine. it's pretty much a law of nature that this song must be sung along with when played.

someone great - 98
instant classic. i guess this song is the runaway favorite, and for good reason. it's incredibly immersive, and it draws the listener in and drowns out whatever else is going on. it seems to constantly offer new and dynamic changes as it progresses without morphing into something unwieldy. perfect snow song. perfect sun song.

all my friends - 100
the piano might be a bit too loud and might become a bit monotonous for some. just maybe. really this rating is just my opinion vomited up onto the internet, so i know that few (if any) would agree with my perfect score (gasp!) on this one. certainly few consider this better than someone great. still, it's rare that a 7 1/2 minute song can be so captivating, at least to me. there are always sounds entering or exiting relatively effortlessly within the confines of the piano and drums.

us v them - 90
this song creeped up on me. i didn't pay it much attention until fairly recently, but it certainly holds its own with the rest of the album and makes good use of all 8 1/2 minutes without seeming too long.

watch the tapes - 89
for some reason, this song seems almost superfluous to me. i have no idea why. perhaps it doesn't fit in perfectly or something. great lyrics and vocals, perhaps the best lyrics on the album, actually. dominant base line. wonderful chorus. still, i never go out of my way to put this track on, i just enjoy it when it comes. another complete rump-shaker.

sound of silver - 67
easily easily the worst effort on the album. it doesn't really do anything for me vocals wise or instrumentally, and then it just sort of trails off and gets downright boring. it's the only track i'll probably skip every time.

new york, i love you but you're bringing me down - 95
fantastic closer. deceptively well-developed buildup to a crashing climax. great use of piano and great cues for guitar lines.

i am ready for marriage

German man chainsaws house in two in divorce split

BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chainsawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck.
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Police in the eastern town of Sonneberg said on Friday the trained mason measured the single-storey summer house -- which was some 8 meters (26 feet) long and 6 meters wide -- before chainsawing through the wooden roof and walls.

"The man said he was just taking his due," said a police spokesman. "But I don't think his wife was too pleased."

After finishing the job, the man picked up his half with the forklift truck and drove to his brother's house where he has since been staying.

recommended music:
explosions in the sky - remember me as a time of day
venetian snares - szerencsétlen

ok, national hockey league, shape up or continue to fail

why should i have any positive interest in the nhl when this:



happens on the three year anniversary of todd bertuzzi breaking steve moore's neck:



recommended music:
the fratellis - flathead
radiohead - cuttooth

ice age coming ice age coming

FIRST SNOW DAY IN THE HISTORY OF ME.

POLS227 students:

In case any of you live off campus or otherwise haven't heard:

Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo Co.
Closed Due To Power Outage

http://www.wwmt.com/sections/closings/

Western, KVCC, and tons of K-12 schools in the area are also closed because of the frigid -15 to -30 degree wind-chill temperatures.

recommended music:
radiohead - backdrifts (honeymoon is over)
radiohead - i will (no man's land)

have i found my calling?

we had a plea bargaining exercise today in law, politics, and society today.

we divided into teams of prosecutors and defense attorneys to decide on a plea deal for a hypothetical case involving kidnapping, robbery, and murder (among other things).

one group decided on about 11 years imprisonment.

one group settled for 9.

one group decided on 8.

i was one of the prosecutors for the fourth group. we decided on 35.5 years imprisonment.

am i destined to be a prosecuting attorney? ...i feel dirty.

recommended music:
muse - falling away with you
radiohead - we suck young blood (your time is up)

hehehehehe

and the first song to be played shall be, by request, black jack davey.

recommended music:
the white stripes - black jack davey
radiohead - the national anthem

anyone can play guitar

Package Progress
Location	Date	Local Time	Description
LENEXA, KS, US	01/16/2007	8:24 P.M.	DEPARTURE SCAN
	01/16/2007	6:33 P.M.	ORIGIN SCAN

Tracking results provided by UPS: 01/17/2007 10:27 A.M. EST (USA)

recommended music:
radiohead - arpeggi
radiohead - where i end and you begin (the sky is falling in)

2006 music awards: results

note: regina spektor has been disqualified from all categories. also, beck's the information appeared too late to be nominated, but is worth mentioning. lcd soundsystem's sound of silver is freakishly good and would probably win all kinds of things, but it doesn't officially come out until march. it can lose to radiohead next year. and so, the second annual kevin music awards:

artist of the year: radiohead

album of the year: thom yorke - the eraser

studio song of the year: thom yorke - and it rained all night

live song of the year: tool - lateralus

music video of the year: the raconteurs - steady as she goes

television performance of the year: thom yorke - cymbal rush

live show of the year: tool

song title of the year: gnarls barkley - go go gadget gospel

2006 was not a terribly great year in music. live with it.

recommended music:
lcd soundsystem - yr city's a sucker
lcd soundsystem - new york i love you