email

sheheen just sent this one out.

john --

I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate Coach Ray Tanner and the University of South Carolina baseball team for winning the College World Series last night. That was one heck of a ballgame! I'm proud to be a graduate of Clemson University, where I met my wife Amy, but I believe that today all South Carolinians should stand united and celebrate USC's victory.

South Carolina has been the butt of so many talk show hosts' jokes lately, but last night the Gamecocks showed the nation the true potential of our state: Under the right leadership, South Carolinians can come together, work hard, and be the best in the United States of America.

Congratulations, Gamecocks. We are all proud of you today.

Vincent

Vincent Sheheen

I dont think we should......

willie stark

polls are showing sheehen gaining. granted i dont understand why this is (given the electorate of SC), but i like it. there is hope yet.

huey long was just fascinating, truly a political rarity. i want to write something about him.

also, im having monsterous czech republic nostalgia ahora.

new

alsdjf

totally digging the new blitzen trapper

old

follow up

so i thought about tacking on this next video on to the previous post. but its different and ought to stand apart.

like ive mentioned before, i think our failure as a country to carry forward carter's energy policy was one of our biggest defeats.

just noticed that netflix added a howard zinn documentary. thats not what i need right now, to get more angrier. so i wont watch it, yet. im going to watch top gun. should i live blog that. i think it would be good. bust after yesterday i think ive exhausted my live blog capital.

water off a ducks back

today officially sucked. 2 heartbreak losses. time to break out the belle and sebastian and throw myself a dang pityparty. sucks because in both games the writing was on the wall pretty early in the game. im still never let down easy when that happens though. maybe i am. it still sucks.

ive spent like who knows how long tonight putting on all the crappy pop music i can think of and hitting that new vuvuzela button on youtube. its ceaselessly amusing. try it sometime. 'party in the usBLAAHHHHHHH.' i feel like im correcting society's missteps. but in reality this is like when parents give kids fake driving wheels and tell them that they are driving.

john butler is a good idea right now too. alex and i saw him in atlanta in 2007 and then at lolla and had a conniption when he did this one. go australians. they're good at music and shit. you could write a book on this song alone.

phew that always feels good. especially that minute.

-one of my favorite bass lines is in this song. up there with james brown's i feel good.

more australians.

check out the digeridoo stuff.

harper

WTF

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/tayside/181127-radio-ghost-mystery-at-former-raf-station/

ok thats just wild.

boblawbaseballblog

so i decided id live blog the first game of usc-clemson. no promises this will be entertaining. at all.

9:02- watching this one alone, because i didnt feel like putting pants on to go downtown and watch it.

9:03- robin ventura says clemson would like 'a little more pop.' because when a team's batting average is like .350, thats what they need.

9:05- ive realized that over the last three weeks, what with the world cup and college world series going, ive watched espn more than pbs.

9:06- im nervous about this one.

9:08-espn talking about 'the fight' and put up a picture of yusef kelly kicking in whats his face's head. REPRESENT.

9:10-first pitch is in the dirt. come on leone.

9:11-second pitch and he gives up a double. this blog may not last long.

9:15-sorry kind of forgot about this already. usc up 1-0. were about to bat.

9:16- commercial for the espy's. seth meyers is hosting, i guess they don't want anyone to watch.

9:18 epps swinging at the first pitch, as usual.

9:20 1-2-3 inning. crap.

9:24 another leadoff double. al;sdfj.

9:29 now we should begin to swing

9:33 alright take some pitches KP.

9:36 oh geez.

9:38 going into the third usc up 2-0. and out comes the booze.

9:40 wow that was deep. and why is bill wingo wearing all usc stuff? traitor.

9:43 33 minutes and i havent really seen anything good for us yet. BUT THERE IS STILL TIME.

9:45 haselden up in the bullpen. hoping we wouldnt have to go there.

9:49 haselden going in for leone. just made my first drink and its a doozy. we'll see how long the words floweth.

9:52 NOW WOULD BE THE TIME TO START SWINGING.

9:52 commercial for usa ghana. thatll go well right?

9:55 erin andrews just got hit by a ball. AND WE GOT A HIT. DOUBLE. AWOOGA AWOOGA.

9:57 we just scored on the wild pitch. since im now drinking. im going to say that was a whisky pitch, calling upon the powers of scotland.

10:08 usc hr. was just about to say how it looks like were going to get a scoreless inning.

10:09 time to score los runs.

10:16 hello im still here. nothing good is happening.

10:19 turns out i made a strong drink

10:24 nice we held them this inning.

10:32 usc is about to put in tyler webb, the guy we scored like 7 on in march.

10:39 blew that one 5-1 now. miller with his 129489 error of the year. miller time?

10:45 nestor pinch hitting? goodness. thats odd. good thing we put him in to strike out

10:50 time to call on shoeless joe and the mofugging field of dreams.

10:50 baseball is so full of cliche's and wittisms, but i cant think of any. except for shoeless joe and the field of dreams.

10:51 speaking of that, first time i saw field of dreams i cried.

10:52 cruz is in. we officially will not win today.

10:53 scott wingo, for usc, is billy wingo, a clemson great's son. NO KIDDING YOUVE SAID IT 10 TIMES.

10:54 when this junk is over im going to watch field of dreams. ill spare you all the liveblog for that.

10:56 holy heck cruz just struck 3 out.

10:59 LETS SCORE SOME RUNS

11:00 2 hours. and 18 groundouts later.....

11:10 2 innings 4 runs to go to force extras. YES WE CAN. need to call on obama obama now.

11:14 its a good thing that we made it this far keeping it a secret that we cant hit against left handed pitchers.

11:16 lol we got a hit. our second. this should be an 18 inning game. no it shouldnt that be boring as all get out. we might win if it was.

11:19 doesnt matter cause now we're into the 9th.

11:24 vuvuzela's would make this game go more betterer.

11:27 bottom of the 9th. this is it.

11:31 first hit by a left hander for us. too bad its in the 9th with 2 outs.

11:34 and its done. tomorrow? yes. i feel it.

damn

http://damnwereinatightspot.ytmnd.com/

hahaha. ulysses.

fish

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/magazine/27Tuna-t.html

fascinating read.

june

a lot of times when i write on here i do so give myself a mental break from something else that im supposed to be doing.

thats exactly whats happening right now.

usually ive got something that im feeling compelled to write about.

thats not what is happening right now.

so lets see. im going to clean my bathroom today. it needs it. and also go see if the early peaches look alright and get some boiled peanuts, because ive been on a total bender for those two things for a long dang time.

im super glad my slovak cousins knocked off the italians today. both finalists from 2006 out? totes cool. go underdogs.

what else what else. work is going well. making progress on some things, and I think were going to be able to take eio-lca research one step further. itd probably be a good idea for me to explain eio-lca at some point. itll happen.

so thats that. but take a listen to this.

http://soundcloud.com/ghostdad/vuvuzela-beat

is this cool? im not sure. i think its pretty funny. and that guy talks like malcom x. am i allowed to say that this is fly? nobody says that anymore.

anyway. its hot, we need wilco.

glass. what does this make you think of? hmm. lots of things. not because glass is ambiguous. but kinda because he is. isnt it cool how this road seems to bisect the city? the green on the left and the city on the right? i think of something clandestine. more like a spy being caught. he knows the game is up. happens in the dark on an alley. huis clos. kinda does something dramatic like when elias dies in 'platoon'. but of course the music playing during that was barber's adagio for strings. those two songs are very different though. adagio for strings communicates an end, whereas the opening movement for glassworks tells of a beginning. and for me glassworks is about a journey that doesnt end. or if it does end, it ends in a rebirth. so it doesnt end.

all i got. lets eat.

ha

http://mcsweeneys.net/2010/6/24krumholz.html

tres cool

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/23/across-the-u-s-an-explosion-of-joy/?ref=sports

woo

woo

rvrb

i love the reverb and major lifts in this one. go glasgow.

haha. new zealand. psh.

http://boomkat.com/cds/308902-kode-9-dj-kicks

just picked this up. its good. very good.

hi

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/columns/story/_/id/5302384/ce/us/maurice-edu-reaction-bad-call?cc=5901&ver=us

also this.

me too

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/5299507/ce/us/work-suffers-parties-thrive-world-cup?cc=5901&ver=us

yesss

had a productive and rewarding day today. really hit a groove with research and im locking onto some things that may make this whole thing pretty useful to the amorphous academia thing. so thats good. last night i watched 'there will be blood' again. its interesting watching that amongst the aura of the screw up in the gulf. made it even more chilling i think, and i couldnt, for better or for worse, stop picturing daniel as bp ceo tony heyward. his loss i suppose. but hey, i try to be fair with those people. sometimes (always) reality is reality though, and we cant change that. theres a thing called atonement that is pretty handy in times like these and from what i saw of heyward in front of congress today, he doesn't grasp that. its all of our losses.

on a hot day like this.

i love the rhythm. 2+2+2+3

astor

thought you guys might find this interesting. joe stiglitz is a very good man. i could bore you with his efficiency wage equation, which is very cool, but i wont. but actually i will. basically, businesses do not see the societal implications of unemployment. Firms would rather not lower wages of employees in times of recession (they do, to a point, but ultimately layoffs inevitably ensue). When this occurs in aggregate on the macro level, you get the tremendous surge in unemployment in recessions. Socially, this is incredibly detrimental. think of the costs of unemployment. unemployment has a spiraling effect both to families and to the economy. It can all be deferred with wage cuts. yes thats yucky, but it beats the alternative. you dont have to worry about government spending increases on unemployment benefits, etc etc. the list is endless. unemployment is not a good thing, but we can all tighten our belts very very tightly if it comes to it. we're humans, we're rational. you can live on 10,000 dollars or less a year if you need to, it isnt pretty, but you can. you can also retain most of your consumer behavior (the good kind) at that level too, so your impact on the economy pressures it towards steady state (which is not a bad thing) . and i hope i havent lost you all by this point. but basically, the argument is that firms can have the same wage payments with pay cuts and retain a higher level of productivity than they would with massive layoffs resulting in a decrease in productivity. society remains functional, nobody is destitute, and we're all happy. it a positive approach. and beyond that, the practical implication and connection (i argue) is that job protection is cheaper than job creation. now that might make you think of tariffs and the like, but i mean it in the workforce sense. that its pareto optimal (an efficiency situation) to keep everyone working. why the free market people call that socialism and beyond that a 'bad thing' ill never know. call me a bleeding heart but

What he says is true, environmental degradation is not encapsulated in GDP, in a sense, its the antithesis of GDP. As with GNP. blame that one on Bush I. wed be looking at the world totally different in the face of htis recession if we still used GNP politically. (for development economics, we still do use GNP in comparison with GDP, which is the best way to use it i think. especially when we aggregate industry sectors) ie, the flows of money out of developing countries, and impoverished areas on a local/regional/state level need to be visualized.

i apologize if none of this made any sense, this one was probably more for me.

enough said

bob dylan look alike.

lead singer missing a tooth.

wncw

i was listening to wncw today and they had this group from ny called 'the woes' in studio. pretty good stuff.

stuff

i really like the new black key's record. I've said that already.

I think i like this one the most. I love the imagery. Swampy. voodoo. flickering grindhouse movie reel. oscillating. neon accents. run down dive bar. floodlight out front.

also, i just read an article that mentioned something that my hero nick hornby did. he turned around during an arsenal match and watched the crowd instead of the game for 15 minutes. neat.

dear europe

(the english in particular) stop bitching about the vuvuzelas. im sorry that you feel offended that a crowd would dare to create an energetic atmosphere, when you prefer such dead environments to watch sports in. most of the world is unlike you in that regard. ok its loud as hell and the players are having a problem communicating, but this isnt chess (not exactly anyway), deal with it. its supposed to be loud. The world cup is in South Africa now, not anywhere else. Don't take its essence away. When its in Europe, we complain about how quiet some matches are. It was great in south korea/japan. Its always great in the Americas. And its always europe complaining about the atmosphere. Take it upon yourselves to make a good atmosphere then when you host. Sure chants are great, and i loved that aspect of the sport when i went to matches last year. but at times it would be dead during the match. So -centric they are. arg.

now time to watch the samba.

ummm

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/5284298/ce/us/mexico-goalkeepers-use-nfl-ball-prep-jabulani?cc=5901&ver=us

i hope that this doesnt backfire horribly for their sake.

ugh

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/africa/14somalia.html?hp

thats just bad news

nights like these

ive gotten away from my long practiced practice of staying up til who knows when in the a.m., in general. i had a good run with that, what since 10th grade or something? i do like it every now and again, but its no longer regular. there is somethign about the night that really motivates me more than any cup of coffee or tea could ever do. maybe its something along these lines-you know how when it snows, there is actually a sound that comes out of that? the sound of snow hitting branches, clumping then falling to the ground? its soft but its there. maybe i like the sound that the night makes in a similar way. the thing is i only ever really hear those outside noises inbetween tracks coming through my headphones. the music this late at night has become an intrinsic part of the night, for me, as its almost exclusively dubstep and jazz at this time. visually, i kind of place myself in some sort of flux between alton's film noir and cuaron's social dystopia settings. i dont mean to place myself in someplace horrific or chilling, but when im up like this i feel like i am the private eye on the typewriter or digging through files, narrating his own actions as he goes. i am the guy digging where he isnt supposed to dig. the innocent bystander who saw what he wasnt supposed to see but becomes compelled to act. i am batman. no im not, i never really liked batman all that much to be fair. id much rather be a theo faron, if i had to choose.

theres subtle satisfaction in spending 4 hours with burial, spitting out 5 pages on something hopefully minimally trivial, reading a few good chapters or taking a couple hour wikipedia cruise. this is one of my favorite things to do in life i think. i remember when i saw dave eggers he said when he was a young writer just getting started that he would write nonstop from midnight til 5am, but as he aged he got away from this because of the toll it was taking on him. i have to think that he just wasnt taking care of himself.


so i guess tonight, ill start (<-hahaha) by asking: whats the deal with Kyrgyzstan? other than the spelling. well to be honest i dont really know. i was out of town when it all kicked off and ive been too focused on the wc. looks like a krygz and uzbek gang got in a fight and tensions spread and boiled over. now were looking down the barrel of a genocide. time to start paying attention.


but adieu, ive decided, off an impulse, to watch lauren bacall and humphrey bogart smoke cigarettes in the big sleep. that first scene is such great stuff. alors, see you in a few hours.

quick recap

a few thoughts on the match.

-solid result. thought we had it in us to beat them but we never really looked the part. neither did they though, its a fair draw.
-onyewu and demerit finally started building chemistry from about the 60th minute onwards. thank goodness.
-the great thing about playing against england is their egos; gerrard and lampard on the pitch at the same time is like watching laruel and hardy and yet they will start every game together unless barry comes back. we were able to bypass these two clowns for large parts of the match. theyre fully inept at controlling the tempo of the match. england could never really develop a solid attack for the entire match, completely reliant on wing play and counters.
-heskey was their best player but of course he'll continue to never get the credit he deserves on the world stage.
-clark was mehh. edu should play over him for the rest of the tournament. he was put on to contain englands runs into the box and he was pretty junk at that. totally guilty for gerrard's goal.
-the sad thing for england is that green is still by leaps and bounds their best keeper and they ought to stick with him. capello shouldnt be fooled by david james's recent good form.
-all in all we did fine, i hope that the midfield is able to link up better with our forwards in the next two. they were really never on the same page but i'll blame that on john terry.

things people arent talking about

its winter in SA
they are going to be playing at high altitudes
the grass is different, spongier. means that passes will slow down considerably.

just some things to think about.

rave on

this weekend will be great. waking up at 7 tomorrow to turn in my time sheet, coming back here to watch the first match of the world cup. so excited for south africa. cant wait to see mandela smile. jumping in the car when thats over to head up to tryon where barbecue and bluegrass await. then a night on the lake. so stoked for england usa saturday. i got a good feeling about that one. going to a bar at noonish to get set for that. then back here for baseball by 6ish. wont be able to stop moving.

pt 2

long story short.

Final----

spain-brazil. This match will be aggressive and wide open. both teams love to attack. should be a blast. 4+ goals scored. Argentina scores more. 3-2.

first gig in cuatro anos.

http://pitchfork.com/features/grime-dubstep/7816-grime-dubstep/

http://pitchfork.com/features/grime-dubstep/7816-grime-dubstep/

you want a cookie

one of my friends linked this on twitter, this is a laugh.

why contain yourself like any other book on the shelf?

seems like ive turned the tide on the sunburn. what hell that was.... ive now got it in me to write sentences that are longer than five words. thats a reassuring feeling. tomorrow im going to drive back to clemson and blast the new black keys, the into the wild soundtrack and sleigh bells. theres a certain peace to be had from driving on the open road like that. especially when i take the long way back. looking forward to it.

there'll also beat part 2 of the wc predictions, and some other stuff. one on baseball and one on another thing.

what weve all been waiting for... pt 1

johns WC picks....

ok so, im going to do groups first, then the knockout rounds. get ready, this is gonna be long.

Group A. Mexico/france/south africa/uruguay

Mexico and France advance, France finishing second. Im actually hesitant to say France makes it out. So many reasons. 1-they qualified based on a bad call on a handball. had that call not erroneously been made, france would not have made the trip. 2-Domenech isnt really a coach. he picks the squad based on player's astrological signs (fact) and he is already stepping down after this world cup. hes a lame duck, and he never adjusts right. 3-the sex scandal. frances best player, ribery, and a few others are under investigation for having sex with an underage prostitute, the same underage prostitute. They just havent looked good in the warm up matches either. Mexico has a load of a free flowing young players. I think theyre going to be a fun team to watch, and they are due for a deep run in the tournament. I think they advance easily. The kicker in this group is South Africa. If south africa uses its raucus fans to their advantage and pull off draws with mexico and france, they can make it out of the group. the problem is, next to new zealand they are the least talented team in the field. never underestimate the home turf though.

B. argentina/nigeria/s. korea/greece

Argentina and korea advance.

Two weeks ago i would have had nigeria over korea. but the loss of a few players through injury makes it tough for them. s. korea has a solid, disciplined team. they can go deep. argentina, on paper, has the best players at every position. their 3rd and 4th string forwards could start for any other team. their talent is that deep. whats holding them back? their coach, the legendary player maradona. if he tries to make adjustments, the argies will lose. if he lets them play as they want to, theyll make a run to the finals. we'll see what happens. greece play the most boring football on the planet. they backpass, they dont make runs. its a total snoozefest. be that as it may, they still won euro 2004 with that style 0f paly. i dont see anything miraculous like that happening this time though, but then again no one did in 2004.

C. england/us/algeria/slovenia

England/us advance.

England vs US is jsut a great matchup. I seriously think we can beat them. england's biggest strength is their media, which is basically the opinion of the english-speaking soccer world. they have portrayed their team as invincible. they certainly are not. england is shit at the WC, because much of the focus turns to the WAGS (the wives and girlfriends) of the players. the victoria beckham's (she is apparently still coming, though david isnt playing), colleen rooney, etc. they always fall short. and they are rife with injury problems. I think we beat them. What are our problems? I think we have too many players of equal skill at the same positions. when thats the case, it creates a dilemma for the coaches in finding out which are the preferred players. this is not what you want. you want options, yes, but you dont want 5 of the same jigsaw puzzle pieces when youre trying to put it together. you want your starting 11 to have lots of time playing together so they develop chemistry and the like. im not sure the US has that, not yet at least. algeria and slovenia shouldnt put up much of a fight at all. its a good group for us to advance out of.

D. germany/australia/serbia/ghana.

serbia/australia go through

This one is tough. germany hasnt been good of late. australia isnt too great. serbia has some good pieces and ghana has just lost their star, michael essien. Im going to go on a limb and say germany doesnt make it out. i just have that feeling. serbia can play smart. and ghana is athletic.

E. netherlands/denmark/cameroon/japan

netherlands/cameroon

Netherlands could have won every world cup since the 1960s. Netherlands, have never won a world cup. they play total football. essentially, every player is capable of playing any position. that allows you to easily attack and easily defend. its great to watch. unfortunately, the teams physical chemistry is hindered my their mental chemistry. they are notorious for bickering at each other. i guess its the dutch mentality. this factor has always held them back. theyll make it out fine though. cameroon is pretty solid. theyll make it out ok i think. denmark doesnt have much and neither does japan.

F. italy/paraguay/new zealand/slovakia.

italy/paraguay

i hate the slovaks so ill never give them anything. new zealand, are just bad. paraguay is mediocre. and italy is fielding an aged team. too aged, in my opinion. they left some key players at home that would have helped them out. this group is the weakest.

G. Brazil/Nkorea/ivory coast/portugal

Brazil/ivory coast

I love ivory coast. by far my favorite team to watch. they can take it to the finals i think, that is if drogba plays. drogba just broke his arm and we dont know what shape hes goign to be in. if he plays, theyre going to be great. without him, i dunno. brazil isnt playing free flowing stuff like they used to. they look like a real team now. i think this helps them. nkorea are hilarious. they tried to sneak their best player on to the team by hiding him on the roster as a goalkeeper. one problem, goalkeepers cant be substituted for outfield players, so this guy is goign to be stuck on the bench for the entire tournament. nice one. portugal. hmm. should be great. but they just arent. ivory coast vs portugal is going to be a thriller. everything rides on that game.

H. spain/switzerland/honduras/chile

Spain/chile.

Spain is great. should win the thing. just a great team to watch. they too though, havent looked strong in the tune ups. we'll see who shows up. chile arent a bad team. not great though. switzerland and honduras arent much.

pat and dan

the new black keys album is simply great. i say that having only heard the first two tracks. im writing this as i listen to the album. Its no secret that i loved their first albums, all of theirs but the danger mouse produced one in fact. there was something hidden about those first albums. they sounded like akron. and not many people know akron. i dont really know akron. my dad's side of the family does though so i guess i get it a little bit. now of course ive said many times that my cousin is friends with pat and dan, tehy grew up together, etc etc. we all know that by now. but that doesnt change anything. This is just a fun album. its an album that makes you want to drag your feet, but still carry your head up high. hope in the face of agony. the verse is good on this one too. pretty complex at times- her lashes flap and they smack men back/like springs they bounce off of her curls. i think thats kinda cool. and it fits with the guitar riff too. so you can imagine that being a pretty spooky guitar line. ill probably have more to write about when i finish the album. im seeing that the album lasts a good 54 minutes too. Oh the gall of these guys, no one can listen to records longer than 37 minutes anymore. Wrongo.

and im not dissing short albums, no way. tokyo police club's 'a lesson in crime' is the best 16:23 of the decade, hands down. what i am saying though, is that its a shame there arent many bands who can fill up 60 minutes with quality music. its always nice to find those albums.

the longest day

no, not june 6, 1944. june 7, 2010. this sunburn is driving me nuts. when writing this i feel like im on a deserted island or something. writing on some parchment paper: 'days turned into nights, nights into days, days into weeks, weeks into months.' ive been up since 5:55 this morning. i remember very little about the day. ive scared the heck out of hannah. she thinks ive gone insane. i can focus on something else for maybe 10 minutes tops before it hits me like a freight train. ive screamed bloody murder twice, that i know of. this has been worse than appendicitis and my shoulder. if its this bad tomorrow im going to the e.r. and making them give me 50 cc of morphine or something. listening to clemson. were doing everything in our power to throw away the game, as usual. yuck.

Posted these guys before. not these videos. theyre better.

sup

this is an old song. its two years old. that means its old. i remember the first time i heard this song. i danced. the first time i heard this song. its so catchy.

a laundry list of the weird dreams i had last night

1-i was taking a summer class that i didn't know i had signed up for. got a 0 in it.

2-i woke up in some house, with a family i did not know, turns out it was my family. that was odd.

Cant remember the rest.

romp

i hath sunburn. its given me a fever, didn't know that was possible, but apparently it is. it may be that awful. im reading about some folk remedies and things other than aloe to use. ive come across milk, cow manure, witch hazel and black tea. can you guess what im not going to try?

rantadelphia

i get bothered by the free market folks regularly, daily, hourly.

no need for the federal government to intervene, the market always finds a way. --yes, a way, but the right one?

no need for national forests, when lumber prices rise high enough, we'll use something else. --yeah thats plastics, and look at them. they give us cancer and are reliant on chemicals. and chemicals are reliant on things, which are reliant on other things. etc etc. trees are reliant on us being good to them. (oversimplification, yes, but a necessary one)

its through economic progress that we advance as a society.

--what does that mean? anything?

--drilling for oil didnt invent penicillin. we can still do STUFF without STUFF.

in defense of gardenias

I wish i had the gift of titling my stuff like wendell berry. im not even asking to be like dylan thomas or whitman or anyone like that. actually the more i think about it, dylan thomas didnt always have such great titles. and wendell, while he has 'the peace of wild things,' which i would say is certainly an excellent title, he also has 'renewing husbandry.' which subtly is a great title, but that is perhaps only revealed upon reading the work in its entirety. so then, what am i going for, with a title? The short of it is that I don't really know. like all things, titles contain multitudes, they are not separate from the work, but at the same time they are not an introduction, a summary, or an abstraction of themes and motifs. I don't think I know what title's are then, at least I don't have some cut and dry definition, a rule of thumb or what not. Its kind of the irony that Twain fit into some of his essays. I'm reminded of his list of protocols on what an eligible bachelor should do in the event he comes across a house on fire. In a nutshell, save the damsel first and the mother in law last. (notably, furniture comes ahead of the mother in law). Realistically though, we know Twain is in fact parodying that anyone would put themselves in a position to create such a hierarchy, less one so self-evident. but thats a tangent, kind of. What i'm saying is, who should place expectations on constructions like titles?never judge a book by its cover yes, but by extension, never judge a book by its title either. i think thats what im getting at.

extend it to record title's

sgt peppers lonely hearts club band- named for the subject, a fictional band

ok, computer-theme is angst of decentralization due to technology.

dookie-its green so i dont even rate it, but im at a loss here.

horses-a most significant punk record, never have i ever conjured up images of horses while listening to it. horses run free (in theory, though the horse we know today is a product of tens of thousnads of years of domestication) so maybe like its about a youthful need to run free? im in no position to say.

blah blah blah. i started this intending to write about how im sitting on the porch smelling the gardenia's in our backyard. and that they smell good, they do. and that was going to be it. nice and simple. gardenias smell nice. oh well.

just so its here-http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/160/

renewing husbandry.

thursday. new music video day.

Great video. this is the way they should be, sometimes.

Hello, mes amis.

what i think about

when i hear this

is this

Joe's came first.

Ive been playing all my dad's old jazz vinyls this week. so much fun.

earles

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2010/06/justin-townes-earle-talks-relocation-new-record.html

article on justin. first saw him when he was a drugged out 18 year old in knoxville on a whim with my aunt, uncle and mom. it was pretty spectacular. the guy is as good a storyteller as his dad, maybe better.

I dont want to get too far ahead of myself and overuse arcade fire but, at this juncture i really can't resist. vincent moon's one take on 'wake up' is just perfect.

I'm getting that giddy feeling down in my chest already.

scream

there are two screams that are memorable to me, that i can think of offhand. certainly, there are more. but maybe its just that two are worth discussing.

I had 4 reasons for going to norway last year. the first-to go to Flam, in the fjords. chances of going there were erased with a massive snow storm, leaving me stuck in oslo. Second, to see what a true liberal society looks like. third, to see hyerdahl's 'kon tiki' and amundsden's 'fram'. and fourth, to see one of munch's 'screams'.

Munch has long been a favorite of mine. I got to see a large travelling exhibit at the national gallery about 6 years ago in DC. It was good, it had some of his studies for the final 'scream' (there are 2 'final' screams.). it wasnt really enough though. i wanted to see it in the real. so i went to oslo.

the national gallery of norway is a very good place. its smallish. its free. and its comprehensive. it reflects the character of the nation. it has much indigenous art, which echoes the rough life of those who live within the arctic circle. it has art which is transcendental, heavily influenced the hudson river folks. its just all interesting. you wander, and eventually, you make a left turn, and directly in front of you is a painting, perhaps 30 yards away. a long way in front of you, for a gallery. its 'scream.' and you dont know how to react. youre drawn closer, pulled by some lacanian force perhaps. but you dont really want to be. you want to turn away, but you cant. the face is imprinted in your mind. you look away, but you still see him looking back. screaming.

I went closer, and i sat in front of him. for how long, i dont really know. hours? i wouldnt be in any position to say otherwise. what is 'scream'? Munch said it was a reflection of a hard time in his life, a time when he was maddened, and saw his personal angst reflected in the world around him. its striking. for me, no painting exists that can draw you in and push you away at the same time. i dont know if it evokes so much the ebb and flow of a tide as a cyclone. its a noisy painting. but its so loud that you often dont hear the noise. its that deafening, like krystof penderecki's sostenutos. screams can be like that. you dont always have to hear them.

Another scream. hichcocks. admittedly, ive only seen this once, and it came over a decade ago.to be fair, i only remember 3 scenes. the shower, the first time she met norman, and when hes down there cavorting with his dead mom. alex and i watched it on turner classic movies, then went outside and slept in a tent in my backyard. We didnt last long out there. every noise was noticeable. it was simply too much. screams can be like that too.

\\\\\after all that. gotta change the mood. scaring myself just by writing all that.

when daddy comes home you can always start a fight

so the neighbors can dance in the disco lights.

the arcade fire said that.

theyre coming august 11.

im jubilant.

theres little better than those canadians by way of elite new england private schools by way of texas.

sometimes origins are fishy.

thats ok.

not really though.

http://wonkette.com/415733/will-james-cameron-save-the-gulf-of-mexico

when in doubt.

this could be me