Pick-ups

Picked up the new Frank Black cd "Fast Man Raider Man" today at Tower on the way back from the public library. So far, so good. I really enjoy Frank's ability to migrate from rock to country rock so seemlessly. Not too many musicians could do that and still get everyone to take them seriously. As with every Frank Black album, however, it takes time to grow on you before you start to notice the amazing songwriting skills put forth on each song. He's probably one of the best songwriters in America right now, so seeing him on his upcoming solo tour might not be such a bad idea if you are into that sort of thing.

At the library, I borrowed Michael Savage - The Political Zoo and let me tell you, it's a riot! Check out this passage:

"Still, what most people remember of Alec [Baldwin], the political blowhard, is his claim that he would leave the country should George W. win the 2000 election.

Bon voyage moron.

Now Baldwin denies he ever made the claim.

Sorry, Alec. Such stale acting may have cut it in Pearl Harbor but not while Savage holds the keys to the cages. Alec Bald-faced-lie had his original statement caught on tape and verified by people within earshot. People like his own wife." - p.12-13

Gotta love the frankness of Mr. Savage. You owe it to yourself to at least get this book from the library.

Messed up knees and the blues, Thom Yorke in a tank.

Today was one of the longest work days in the world. Things are running very very slow right now because of the summer, so that means lots of time trying to find things to do to stay busy. I hate trying to find things to do to stay busy. To top it all off, and I'm not complaining just stating the facts, my knee feels like an 80 year old man's knee. I decided to play basketball after church last night for about an hour and a half, and now I have pain to deal with. I'm not THAT old to start deteriorating. Nevertheless, the day at work was mostly spent listening to Frank Black's assorted music (more on this to come in the future) and then me limping around trying to get things done that really didn't need to be done.

I rented a movie called Mirrormask tonight on the way home and will probably end up watching it tonight. It's the brainchild of Neil Gaiman of Sandman fame and Dave McKean, whom I am not familiar with at all. The movie is released under Jim Henson studios, so I expect something along the lines of Labyrinth, minus the disgusting codpiece of David Bowie (please, please not again!). The tagline is "Enter A World Where Dreams Are Real," and dreams are something that Gaiman is no stranger to. I'll be sure to write about what I thought about the movie, as if anyone actually cares about my opinion, or even worse, as if I am pretentious enough to imagine that anyone actually reads this blog AND also cares about my opinion.

While I'm feeling bloggy, I think that living life from song lyric to song lyric is a problem. Sure, songs are meant to be interpretive, but are they meant to be guidelines and applications for living life? Songs are expressions of a songwriter's experiences, how they see things, how they view life. That's great, and that's beautiful. It's a form of creation on small scale, another aspect of man that is God-given. Taking these writings and living life by them is not only shallow, it's wrong. Trying to find out who you are as a human being in today's world is hard enough as it is, but when you let music drive your life your identity gets caught up in a myriad of other people's experiences.

Finally, here's a music video with lyrics you should like, but not live by.

Dancing flowerpot puppets

A bit of web browsing turned up this gem, discovered on Frying Bear.

World cup streaming and parkour!

View the World Cup on Random // Slant!



Ok, whatever.

Today I have a story. I made a delivery with my co-worker to a certain hospital in Nashville. It was a routiene bed delivery except for the fact that it was almost 4 when we left my place of work and we quit at 5 every day. So, we were a little pushed for time and were trying to make it as quick as possible. We found the room and delivered the bed, but could not put it in the room due to an airborne disease which was present in the room. No big deal, right? WRONG! We have to get paperwork signed saying that, hey, we dropped off this equipment and these are the correct item numbers on the equpiment. Anyone can sign, as long as we have a signature. Well, apparently noone likes to take responsibility for these types of things in hospitals, so we eventually got directed to this evil, evil man who was sitting behind a desk. My coworker said "We just need you to sign."

The man replied, "Oh, so we need YOU to sign?"

"No, we just need you or someone to sign it" said my coworker.

"So who do I sign as? Anyone?"

"Just sign your name."

"Oh so I just sign "Your Name" as my name?" smiled the secretary.

"No....."

"Ok, let's see here.......YOUR.....NAME," said the man as he wrote his signature at the bottom of the picture.

As we were leaving, I overheard him saying "Heh. That gets em every time!"

WHAT!!!!!! What the heck? He is just an evil man. I contemplated going back and grabbing a handful of his candy which was next to a box marked "candy fund" but I figured that would be out of line.

Well....anyway, I learned a bit today about "parkour" today too. It's a very interesting sport, almost a martial art, which is gaining popularity in countries such as France, Russia and Germany. The art is also called "free-running" by some. In short, people train themselves to excellent physical fitness and then take off running across cityscapes. The results are nothing short of amazing and are akin to the movements of the superhero Spiderman at times. Wall kicks, rolls, building jumps, diving through small holes...and all of this is only the beginning. The creators of the sport are Sébastien Foucan and David Belle, who have been participating in the self-called "philosophy" of parkour for almost 10 years. Making the news recently, the French-made movie District B-13 features amazing stunts by various parkour participants, including David Belle himself. Check out the following video and be amazed, be VERY amazed.

Transhumanism?

A man named FM Esfandiary, a self-proclaimed "transhumanist", legally changed his name to FM-2030 in his earlier life. He is quoted [unknown source] as saying, "The name 2030 reflects my conviction that the years around 2030 will be a magical time…In 2030 we will be ageless and everyone will have an excellent chance to live forever. 2030 is a dream and a goal."

A reporter for the NY Times, when analyzing the character of FM-2030 said, "Esfandiary is an optimist. He has hope, because he has a deep faith in man. He is convinced that technological progress, the contact of cultures, etc…. will free man from his present miseries. Given time, man will even deliver himself from his supreme tragedy --- death. Man can be made perfect."

FM-2030 is now deceased from pancreatic cancer and remains cyrogenically frozen.

FM-2030 made predictions about how traditionalists would deminish in the future, which is, oddly enough, also what Aldous Huxley predicted in Brave New World. FM-2030 was more of an optimist however, and he viewed the utopian global society as more of an achieveable goal.

When asked to comment on the current state of human affairs and the progress of the betterment of society through technology, FM-2030 said nothing because he's still dead.

Opryland

I found a website which is a memoire of Opryland Theme Park which used to be in Nashville. I have great memories of this place....

Thrill Hunter

M(indless) T(ele) V(ision) Generation

Today, while I was reading the Nashville City Paper at lunch I noticed that there was an article on the MTV Movie Awards (which aired tonight on MTV). One paragraph I found to be quite interesting.


"Sure, every now and then an award is actually notable, such as Brokeback Mountain tonight getting some love from the MTV generation after being snubbed by the Oscars with its win for Best Kiss (the show was taped Saturday)."


The award of the "Best Kiss" to a homosexual couple in a movie prompted me to do a bit of research. On MTV's website, a survey showed that 41% of 18-29 year olds said that they "strongly favored/favored" legal gay marriage. This percentage decreased with the increase of age. [see page 9 of the article here: Click Here - PDF Format]

Even if we can pass laws banning legally recognized gay marriage for the time being, the new generation of youth is being taught to be more tolerant of the issue by such influences as MTV. America needs to keep in mind that while their younger kids are watching TV, they are being subjected to many psychological forces that aid in shaping their worldview. Parents should be doing a much better job of monitoring what their children are watching, or better yet even watching the shows with their children, which will lead to a healthy discussion of the issues. If the kids are being taught one thing from the parents and another thing from the television, it's no wonder why there is so much confusion!

This is not my only complaint against MTV, I have far more. While I was attending Tennessee Tech University, I noticed that they were playing the "MTVU" channel constantly in the dining areas. It was mostly a distraction for me, but I happened to be distracted enough one day to realize that the commercial that was cycling was promoting group sex. The commercial showed different age groups of boys and girls, represented by blue and pink dots respectively. At age 8 or so, the dots were in totally seperate groups. By age 12 or 13, they were getting closer. By age 16 (possibly 18...) the blue and pink dot were moving back and forth on each other. It not only showed the blue and pink dots on each other, but also blue and blue, and also pink on pink. The worst was by far the single blue dot with two pink dots.

Out of all the students on the TTU campus, I was the only student that had seemed to pick up on it. That means that either the commercial is so subliminal that it doesn't fully grab the attention of the viewer or that the culture just doesn't care anymore. I think it was a combonation of the both, but mostly the latter.

My generation is lazy. Period. We are a generation that does not know what sacrifice is, what the value of knowledge is, or what truth is. Many people my age have to be confused...and rightly so! They are trying to grow up in a culture that feeds them immaturity as a social norm. Television and the overemphasized entertainment industry have stripped America's youth of its intellectualism and are instead conditioning them to be a psychologically manipulated group of apathetics.

Those in my age group who know better had better start standing up for what is right and true before it's too late. It may already be too late. Youth is fleeting, just like life is. Only about 1/3 to 1/4 of a life is spent in youth. The time to act and to take a stand among peers is now! I hate to imagine what it will be like for my children in the next generation.

Lately

I was in my basement the other day in the process of turning off my computer when KA-BLAMO! - I was subjected to electric lightning shock through my mouse. It fried my computer, so the insurance is going to cover a new one (that is already on the way).

There's a lot going on in life right now...and not much time to spend on a computer unfortunately. The good thing is, no more myspace for me for the rest of the summer! It's probably one of the best things I've ever done. You should do it too.....before it's too late.