yuck bugs

wendell berry isnt even dead yet and people are already misquoting him. thats a shame, especially when berry doesnt even try to be obtuse, obscurantic or even tricky. berry has a list of things we should take into account, and how we might go about them. its not a manifesto, theyre just ideas. but to misquote something like that is pretty hard to do. i had a professor tell me: "berry said that the key to the environmental movement gaining ground in the 70s and not taking a step backward would have been to put humans on calendars instead of animals." referring to groups like greenpeace,peta, etc. this is true, probably. but to use it in support of an argument for continued urban development is just strange. my prof was using it in an argument saying that a hierarchy exists for humans that is actually fundamentally disconnected from the natural world. we are free to make our own decisions based on best available information, information which will always yield the best results for humans, that will, in turn, be the best result for the earth. this is the gist of his argument, using his words.

Berry would punch him in the face if he heard of himself being used to support the concept of limitless human expansion. its laughable, really. its as absurd as someone like milton friedman defending the welfare state. to assume that we as human's are not pushing the carrying capacity in so many departments would go against both scientific and economic opinions. Its not that we are running out of land. its that were running out of good land, etc. you cant just assume that you can grow forever and that science and industry will pick up the slack. thats what we're doing already, and thats why we have factory farms and monsanto controlling our food supply. to argue that this is a good thing is one position and it can be defended using some sort of business model approach, but to argue that this is a good thing using a quote by wendell berry is asinine. and i told him as much.

But you should just let him tell you that, and not me.

this is really bad! i have a take home final due in 3 hours and i havent even started. thats ok though. what i really want to talk about is the strokes.

yeah ok theyre the velvet underground for the 2000s, but thats no bad thing. they brought the rhythm guitar relevant guitar and dug nyc out of a decade of indie music irrelevance. they made skinny jeans for skinny guys cool again, and i do thank them for that. from the first synth trickle at the start of 'is this it,' we as listeners knew we were in for something great. and then they made first impressions of earth and well.... that was just a gash album. WE WANT THE REAL STROKES BACK. more to say here, but having said this, i feel like i can now start this english junk

hello

slept for awhile. now im not, obviously.

life is about accumulation. not wealth, but experiences. at the end of the day we don't sit around counting pennies. we count blessings.

http://www.neetrecordings.com/sleighbells/sleighbells_video/index.html

spin the dial

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/interactive/2010/apr/23/election-2010-hung-parliament-interactive

first impressions upon listening to the new horse feathers album, in its entirety

right so horse feathers. blogs like them. i like them too. people say theyre southern gothic and all, but theyre from oregon. lets see what they are able to get right, this time...

i write this as ive just finished eating a pound or two of my bbq. i argue against gluttony wholeheartedly, but i also realise that sometimes, i have to eat. its not something i like to admit.

http://www.lala.com/#album/2017894108902069310

you can listen to the album once-through here.

i like the strings. they set something cool. and the voice building up from beneath the strings, great. its like 'paint with all the colors of the wind' in pocahontas. i think it was that one at least. disney can be relevant right? either way, i like the opening track, it could be framing something good. im seeing a road to a cabin. my cabin? sort of, im seeing my grandparent's old cabin. which may become my cabin? no matter. thats what im seeing. smelling smoke, but we arent there yet. we turn a corner at around 3:15 and now we see the cabin. and now, with the end, we have arrived.

'starving robins'. thats interesting. trying to get at some flannery o'connor here i think? the frost came from nothing, we're blue. we are unprepared. we're going to suffer. great instrumentals here. really good crescendos. vocals are so buried i can't make out what hes saying. thats ok. it sounds great and its got me thinking. 'where is the spring?' something something 'theres the truth' 'youth'. i dunno what hes saying, but hes saying all the right things. the winter came and took his innocence. i think that happened.

ok next one. belly of june. ok spring came then. we havent left the cabin yet. birds and the bees. literal? probably. june is a happening time i suppose. these cello's are just great. and the banjo. sounds like two minds are flowing and two hearts are beating. great arrangements. 'noon in the belly of june.' the middle of the middle. i like that. cant hear what hes saying. again. suppose this is going to be a recurring sentiment.

now she has a name. hes alone. thinking about her. sounds like she might have something of a torrid past. i guess we all kinda do. maybe thats what hes saying. i think i just heard him say something about a tail/tale. not sure. cant get context. cause i still cant hear him! secrets, hes got them. weeping in the brush. nobody says 'weeping in the brush.' 'news was broke.' 'witness.' something is happening here. 'she came to me and I CANT HEAR YOU'. i really freaking want to know, this is the climax of the song. 'just where you left me, alone by the lamplight' I think, he just said that. if so im digging it. oh things are clearing. i can kind of hear him. wow this is good.

next one. this bed. i can hear you know. wow. so cool what theyve done here. wow we got us a ballad. rare form guys, rare form. really like this one. im not even caring about the words anymore. i just like what i hear.

the drought. this will be good. feeling some camus here, a la the plague. 'spares no one, stealing faith' etc. out of tune fiddle works well here. banjo chopping. its good. from the ground to the trees. gives the drought volume, in a physical sense. wow. and now we're walking, more like stumbling. 'glory to the night/shades been hard to find/ from the plains to the peaks/ this heat's stealing faith from the weak.' i like. hes talking to the birds, nobody else is around? 'i hear the pines crack and cry/there is no reason to try/and its not the same life/here the morning's like a knife/and the rivers been bone dry' 'its bearing down on me/with no clouds in the sky' wow.

vernonia blues. bringing in the kids. i think this is about too much rain or something. 'when theres trouble youll know where to be seen.' something about screaming too. something not good is happening. i dunno what it is, maybe he doesnt either. wow first fade out on the whole album that is noticeable. interesting.

as a ghost. ahh a girl is gone. the ghost of her remains. thats bad. cant hide from her, shes everywhere. pity the man. tough. seems to be pretty horrified.

The widower. hes in a new town. escaping memories. 'memories dont die.' damn. looks like he still hasnt escaped her. shes followed him, even here. i dont get the chronology. winter has happened like 3 times. is this non linear? dunno. oh man now we got his voice only out of the left speaker. cool. she is looking over his shoulder. thats what that is. 'stay with me'. bad news, the illusion of her isnt staying. cool, vocal countermelody here at the end. great song here. i havent once heard drums. i dont think they are here. awesome!

shoot. the last song. where we going here? 'he has no time, loneliness'etc. oh fun fun were talking about duality. always a good thing to mention, right? 'poisoned by hope' thats the worst feeling. we've all felt it. he's feeling it a lot. the heart is all beat out. talking about how his wings are trapped inside him. 'the more we love a lie, it comes true.' Wow. great song. great stuff here. 'the pious patients please ''cant make out the rest'' ' the cello motif is great here, as it is throughout the album. wow. the way it ends! it just ends! not even a fade. man. our literary traditions at work! i want to love it! but its so stark!

this may have album of the year potential, for me. its definitely album of the first 5 months. they done it right- the protagonist has been given a certain kind of justice. all we can really hope for. i dont care that i cant make out these words, yet. im about to go buy the album and read the liner notes, for hours. cause is a good one. May 8. Grey Eagle, asheville. I for one will be there. invites open. week after is sam quinn (everybodyfields) scary good. what a great town.

the infinitude of the private man

emerson said that. interesting to think about.

http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm

as is this. i think its pretty important, seeing as im graduating. or rather, its still important even though i didnt graduate. ho hum. whats the point of doing things on time anyway? It all falls within something grander.

anyway. i like what he has to say here. be inspired. do. learn everything. dont be just one thing. character over intellect. know what you know, then use it for good. patience. youre going to be poor sometimes, youre going to have to struggle. youre going to be alone sometimes, youre going to have to struggle. respect that it all comes from the dirt and the dust. there is a universal mind but lots of individual scribes. <-realise that we see the world through this lens. be new. be something.

"The man has never lived that can feed us ever. The human mind cannot be enshrined in a person, who shall set a barrier on any one side to this unbounded, unboundable empire. It is one central fire, which, flaming now out of the lips of Etna, lightens the capes of Sicily; and, now out of the throat of Vesuvius, illuminates the towers and vineyards of Naples. It is one light which beams out of a thousand stars. It is one soul which animates all men."

...

"Young men of the fairest promise, who begin life upon our shores, inflated by the mountain winds, shined upon by all the stars of God, find the earth below not in unison with these,

— but are hindered from action by the disgust which the principles on which business is managed inspire, and turn drudges, or die of disgust, — some of them suicides. What is the remedy? They did not yet see, and thousands of young men as hopeful now crowding to the barriers for the career, do not yet see, that, if the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him."

...

"We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds. The study of letters shall be no longer a name for pity, for doubt, and for sensual indulgence. The dread of man and the love of man shall be a wall of defence and a wreath of joy around all. A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men."

some people look down on the phrase 'a jack of all trades but a master of none,' as it may apply to a person. i quite like the notion.

All i can do, is think of this picture. Asher durand. 'kindred spirits'. how great does that place look? Pretty good I think. and its made even better when listening to 'ode to lrc' by the band of horses.

I feel so good.

chechens

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/world/europe/26chechen.html?hp

reads like a movie script

#too much imagery

since 1000, ive listened to

1.5 hours of czech hip hop. really bad stuff. really bad. with russian mobsters as patrons, you get results as predicted. some cool music videos though.

1 hour of josh ritter. listen to 'to the dogs or whoever' and youll get hte point

1 hour of the decemberists. crane wife in particular.

in fact.

to the dogs or whoever->


Deep in the belly of a whale I found her
Down with the deep blue jail around her
Running her hands through the ribs of the dark
Florence and Calamity and Joan of Arc

first stanza has eve in the whale, while alluding to adam. then florence nightengale, calamity jane and joan of arc. all heroic and groundbreaking women.

I love the way she looks in her underwear
I lose my page then the plot then the book then I swear
She makes the most of her time by loving me plenty
She knows there'll come a day when we won't be getting any

this is just funny. makes me thing of the

apartment scenes in 'tout va bien.'

The stain of the sepia the butcher Crimea
Through the wreck of the brass band I thought I could see her
In a cakewalk she came through the dead and the lame
Just a little bird floating in a hurricane

not sure. feels like something out

of dylan+the band's 'big pink' sessions

I was flat on my back with my feet in the thorns
I was in between the apples and the chloroform
She came to me often I was sure I was dying
It was always hard to tell if she was laughing or crying

this is a strange picture

I thought I heard somebody calling
In the dark I thought I heard somebody call
Joan never cared about the inbtweens
Combed her hair with a blade did the Maid of Orleans
Said Christ walked on water we can wade through the war
You don't need to tell me who the fire is for

ouch

Oh, bring me the love that can sweeten a sword
A boat that can love the rocks or the shore
The love of the iceberg reaching out for the wreck
Can you love me like the crosses love the nape of neck?

i always am fond of boats that love the shore.

wiki 'wreckers'. awesome people.

i would really like to have been one back in the day.

Was it Casey Jones or Casey at the Bat?
Who died out of pride and got famous for that
Killed by a swerve laid low by the curve
Do you ever think they ever thought they got what they deserved?

casey jones is a folk hero thats real. casey at

the bat is a folk hero that is fake. casey jones is the

one youre meaning for, josh.

Pity the bullet and pity the man
Who both find their place in the same sad plan
Who both are like the barrel going over the falls
Crying all the way down I never asked to be involved

hes talking about something

specific in the first line i think

I thought I heard somebody calling
In the dark I thought I heard somebody call

General George began the day by taking pink little pills
Sent his men to the top of some hell of a hill
Through the whisper of the trees came artillery breeze
He said, "I love the way the wind comes tickling my knees."

custer meets col. kilgore from 'Apoc. Now'

Jane shot the apple right between the eyes
I was thinking of her when you came outside
Lemonade on your breath sun in your hair
Did I mention how I love you in your underwear?

calamity jane and somebody else

Deep in the belly of a whale I found her
Down with the deep blue jail around her
Running her hands through the ribs of the dark
Florence and Calamity and Joan of Arc

I thought I heard somebody calling
In the dark I thought I heard somebody call