lost today

finally watched the pres do question time from a few days back. can we get that constitutionally mandated. not only did it solidify in my mind that obama is truly more than rhetoric, it told me hes effective, progressive and knows his policy, but so much more. ive long been a proponent of the westminster style (at least in part). by including q and a, i think we could see party's fracture into factions, leading eventually to the prospect of minority-coalition government. something obama is pretending exists even today, for better or for worse.

this is the first time in who knows how long we have a president actually capable of bridging the gap, ie the health care bill (which any independent review will tell you is more 'right' then 'left'). how is it that a bill that includes some of what the republicans were proposing during the tea party summer/fall of 2009 is receiving no support from that caucus? answer, because politics plays politics. itd be great if it wasnt real life.

and why is it that the republicans, who are claiming to have all these 'great ideas' on reform did not try to get them through from 2000-2006 when they controlled both the executive and the legislative branches? good riddance.

its so snarky nowadays.

such a rush

what ive done in the last hour-

read 'the idea of a local economy' by wendell berry again. here is a link.

http://www.relocalize.net/node/4770

i do love him. suggest all do too.

saw that robbie keane went to the hoops, wont help them much anyway.

read and listened to the clips for-
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=259227
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=248036

real good stuff. got some ideas that i may be able to act on for my in-the-works but just now announced mos def/hyperdub records mash up. calling it dublyn. dubstep-brooklyn. album cover will be some avant joyce etching + more. itll sound like noise.

playlist

spoon-'transference'
josh ritter-'the historical conquests of josh ritter' (only 16 minutes of this.)



darkstar were on that thom yorke/gilles peterson split. as yorke said, ''all hail hyperdub," really one of the few beacons out there. maybe the best catalog of any label next to stax. there is literally nothing thats bad.

slow show

it being past 200, me being me, and me being me-
thought id do something different, not for once but rather for again. noticed a glaring lack of originality, and an overabundance of reactionary in my posts of late. something that needs amending.

decided id take an inventory of the things i do each day, in the order in which they come to me. no editing.

-check and see if the everybodyfields have gotten back together (usually upon waking up)
-waking up past noon on days that i have a choice
-staying up past 4am
-trying to figure out what is the cause of that behavior, the chicken or the egg, so to speak.
-probably something else.
-2 minutes of dedicated thinking on if this is something i should go about solving, only to reach the same exact conclusion each and every day, that------
-it works
-so long as im a student
-how long am i going to be a student?
-quite a while.
-because that works too.
-spontaneous dancing in my room, presumably to the chagrin of those who dwell around me.
-listen to at least 1 radiohead album, its like an apple.
-read something by an author previously unread.
-make something musical.
-look out the window, dedicated like. again, much to the chagrin to those who dwell around me.
-dream
-notice the odd crack in my ceiling, only to be surprised by its existence on every occasion. this can happen multiple times daily.
-have an internal debate on what is really south about the south, and what is really real about the south and what is really good about the south and why am i here in the south and why is that i actually want to stay here in the south and if i do? i do- but for how long?
-expand this debate to america
-expand this debate as wide as i can take it.
-some time later i will take these debates and refocus them in the context of the TVA. (as in, good or bad ,trust me this can mess you up)i could recommend 10 books and 15 songs and some great folk art on the topic. if i had gone to ap state and done appalachian studies or whatever they call it, something i may regret at times, this would have been my thesis. i may still write a book on it.
-think about how the republicans stand in the way of fixing this rock.
-think about how the democrats are squandering that opportunity.
-thinking about how other countries are fixing this rock.
-realizing that nobody is really trying or succeeding on fixing this rock.
-maybe that means the rock dont need fixing?
-bullshit.
-listen to wncw for hours.
-reading krugman and a few other blogs.
-checking lacan.com for a new zizek article.
-thinking back to throwing myself through eastern europe, putting myself into it all.
-going to the town that my family is from in bohemia, putting to rest once and for all the myth that yes, zelenka's were jewish before we got off the boat. yes in fact, we were most definitely. now, for better or worse, we are not.
-trying to figure out if i can just mulligan the last 100 years of non jewishness, or what exactly is the procedure for all that?
-remembering that im also half cobb/cunningham/byars/mosteller, who are as old as white people have ever been in cherokee county, sc and rutherford county, nc.
-realizing that america is the only place where those incongruences can ever really exist.
-remembering how great scotland is, in every way imaginable, country of sheer awesomeness.
-trying to recreate the panic/fear/excitement/strength/resourcefulness that i felt when being chased through the streets of prague by the russian mafia, and having lived to tell people the story.
-remembering the feeling after a month in eastern europe, only to emerge in bourgeois austria and feeling so utterly out of place.
-trying to explain to people that economists can be left wing.
-upon telling people that im in community and rural development as well as natural resource economics, hoping that they dont confuse me for a real estate developer or something equally as vile.
-then explaining, usually sooner than perhaps convention calls for it, that i do research in increasing the economic base in minority and low income areas, with particular attention to usage of natural resources with a conservation and sustainable ethic.
-only then i hope they know who i am.
-watch a movie
-go for a walk around the neighborhood or hang out with the cows.
-if i do all this same stuff every day, how does each and every one feel and sound and smell so different? thats whats good about it all.

there will be a part 2 im sure. ive just hit a wall.



anyway josh ritter. i love the guy. genius of a man. married to dawn landes which is fitting. that sounds negative, its not.

post-everything

ive started writing this post 4 times. i dunno what to say anymore. unifying, post-partisain, post-racial, transformational? everything obama is, this event is too. for all the wrong reasons. all the wrong damn reasons. you know if i was going down this avenue, lets just go further-lady gaga said it best, 'just dance.'

quaker cannons

alright heres to another thinly veiled allusion

today ive been thinking all nostalgic like about this story i came across in one of my sc revolutionary war books. william washington (george's cousin) is one of my favorite characters of the war. commanded light dragoons, tarleton had to chase him all around the state, a chase which eventually led to cowpens, my favorite battle in history (full disclosure: nate byars (relative of mine) owned the land during the battle).

anyway, before that battle, december 1780, washington was outside of camden when he came across 150 or so loyalist militia in a barn that they had fortified. (seems like 150 is a lot to cram into a barn..exaggeration mayhaps?). so washington had about only 60 cavalry, no artillery, and no way of getting these guys out. but of course you cant leave these guys in the barn, cause theyll track you down. youve got to deal with them. washington, or someone, came up with a pretty genius plan if you ask me. the cut down the biggest pine tree they could find, cut a section down to about an 8 foot length painted it black, and slapped it on a wagon axle and wheelset from a nearby farm. they rolled the thing just close enough to the barn to be visible to those inside, but not too close as to give away the ruse.

anyway it worked, the loyalists thought they were about to be blown to shit out of a cannon that had somehow made it through the backcountry, and dutifully surrendered. wonder what they thought when they got close enough to see what it was in actuality? can only imagine. so many stories. local solutions to local problems.

this is the definition of my life...

interesting night. hit most of the places. had rise above by black flag/dirty projectors on repeat. specifically the dirty projectors one. really like that album. longstreth re-recorded the black flag album, which he hadnt heard in somelike 15 years. interesting guy really. interesting. prolly put some stuff on here before.

got some positives on the grad program. looks like i can be doing resource usage in post natural disaster rural communities. when i think of that my mind starts running. i like that feeling. plenty of options. wish i could do it with Klein though...somethings are too much to ask/do. to be fair i wouldnt want anything different....



hahah. couldnt resist. hooks...

funny thing i heard today in the implan lab-

a:''i really wish i was in engineers without borders or something so i could help out in real ways in haiti''
b:''you could if you went to u chicago''
a:''what do you mean''
b:''theyre pretty good out getting economists into disaster zones....''

itll be interesting to watch for sure...