Life is not a John Cusack film. I do not think that I have ever came to a better realization than this. Granted I came to this conclusion long before tonight but hey the life we all lead tends to repeat this same message time and time again within our minds. Expectations never lead to fruition, nothing is ever as easy as the serendipitous world of Hollywood would like us to believe so that we buy our movie tickets, shut up and are happy. Sure I am a bitter old crank but then again who among us shouldn't be? Nothing ever works out as beautifully simple as we have been expected to believe it should be. Everything is harder than we would like and the simple step of realizing this only makes it all the more frustrating. Perfection is, and never will be achieved, and even when you come close, she is always from Milwaukee. Always. Yes it is self-depreciative, to be only looking towards the dark end of the spectrum but it is a hard place not to turn towards. When your entire life is spent having idealisms built into your core understanding of the world it cuts rather quick to the core to see them proved wrong time and time again. You try to fight above them, telling yourself that fuck what everyone else takes as the ideal of what life means and how they are happy; I do not need it for I am perfectly happy by myself, in my little bubble, but it is all shit. Pure shit.
No matter what we (and I use the royal we, in that I am ranting about myself) feel, solitary confinement is contrary to the human condition. Social animals that we are it makes a certain companionship an ultimate necessity, whose necessity only becomes all the more aggravating the more and more that you rage against your lack there of. The perfection that is obtained within your mind and happily cultivated by the media at large is always there, lurking as a happy crutch as to why you are alone because hey one day you will have your happenstance beautiful little romantic comedy meeting that will change your collective worlds and it will all be all-right.
But it will never occur. And you realize this and your anger at the world increases, down in that part of you that you always push to the side with your mighty intellect because hey it is inconsequential, you have friends and a great life so what does it matter? It really does not matter but that part of you always longing will always be there, making every failure all the more bitter, all the more damaging. All the more crippling, until you are raging at the ear-less, voiceless internet because you lack a common ear to speak into. Everyone around you has their happiness that is unobtainable and for that matter should not be so consuming. But it is It always is, no matter what you say or ignore It always is. So you bitch and whine to the internet over what you are fully aware is inconsequential bull shit and selfish shit at that due to all the actual, physical, emotional, violent strife in the world. But it does not matter Because you are drunk, and life is not a John Cusack movie and she is always from Milwaukee
Yes I am fully aware no one reads this at any point ever but I just wanted to make this offical in writing. The Moon and Antarctica by Modest Mouse is Officially my Favourite Album of All Time. Its something thats always been lurking in the back of my mind taunting me but now that its out in the open I feel much better. Sure write it off as just another pretentious college alt-rock indie kid living up to the stereotype but well Fuck You empty internet. Its a brilliant album and there is no other album where any song I listen to at any time. Plus its a very easy escape album which can be good from time to time. So in summary although my top 10 is a very long list indeed, there is now officially a number 1.
Also I enjoy a good cracker now and again. Just thought I would let you know.
A very slow day at work by ones self results in a suprising amount of time to think and (for better or worse) much of that thought is going to end up here today.
Foremost of these thoughts with relevance to this site is the thought of why do I even bother? Not a pity plea by any means but the on and off joke for the past while in that 'Pearls before Swine' comic in ze Herald where the Rat is bugging the one character about how if no one reads his blog then why write one got me thinking. If indeed no one really reads this space I can always contain my thoughts to their natural habitat of my mind and the odd conversation here and there. This course of action would definitely save me some time not to mention some grief on the internets part. Well the better portions of it anyways. So yes although I do enjoy doing this, that enjoyment only comes from knowing that others actually read this. That being the case if you do read and wish for its continuation then please leave a comment from time to time. Otherwise I will just file this in the 'failed project' bin and move on.
Moving on
Reading in the ol' tree press news distributary today they had an article on Nelly Furtadoes (spelling?...I can check that on the internet? Get out of here) new sound/image brought up the memories of my commentary on the same back when I first heard about it. Their commentary on the subject of course just fuelled more of the same and so I shall expulge said commentary. Also I have apparently caught some sort of virus that is causing me to write in a far more attempting to be elaborate style than necessary. Hopefully it will pass. Now as you may or may not know on her new album 'Loose' she has forgone the ethnic folk infused music style of old and switched to a more hip-hop, dance style ala Madonna or Gwen Stefani (Hearald comparisons) not to mention changed her look to suit this shift in music style (See more sexed up to put it nicely). Now from the moment I saw her new music video from said album (Promiscuous) and watched ol' Nelly prance around some dank club ala Lindsay Lohan or artists of that vein I thought to myself "Boy has she sold out." Suprisingly (or not depending how cynical you are towards modern media) the Hearald's article went on in length defending her choice of change and lambasting people who claim she has sold out.
Their argument is that why didn't these fans who hate her image change so much go out and buy her last album preventing it from being such a commercial flop. Now in no way do I make claim to be that large of a fan to have had more than a passing interest in her music but I feel that this does not detract from my point. Which is that if she had such desire to do her ethnic roots infused pop then what would sales have mattered. Artistic integrity means standing behind your creation because you believe in it and sales good or bad are just an after effect. The fact that she changed her sound and image to a more commercial friendly one instead of saying record sales be damned! counts as selling out in my books. Having the Hearald make their rather weak point on how artists should only stick to their image if it sells well just accentuates my point. If Nelly Furtado really wanted to express her roots through song then she should have continued to do so rather than team up with some super hip-hop producer just to marginalize her sound. But hey what do I know, maybe she woke up one morning and thought to herself 'you know... my sound just isn't mainstream enough...' Granted I am a rather pretentious 'Indie Rock' jerkass so there is the slight chance that my music mentality (current in any case) might differ from that of the norm. Who knows, but that is my opinion and I am sticking with it.
From the next post onwards I think I shall spotlight some webcomics that I have either came across recently or feel deserve spotlightage. It should be fun as well as recommended reading.
Now if you will excuse me I am going to go watch Extras, a brilliant television programme on channel 50 at 9:30 on Wednesday nights which you should be watching as well and if your not then by all means start! If by chance the humour style doesn't sync with your vibe then I am seriously surprised you have been able to pretend to stand being around me for so long.
Chris -The Author of this blog has definitely NOT seen Nickleback in concert nor uttered the words 'They put on a decent live show' so there is no risk to his indie cred whatsoever nor of this post being hypocritical-
*As a heads up this post was written listening to the Home Movies Bonus CD which was a magical little surprise that greeted me when I purchased season 4 of said show and it happens to contain all of the brilliant little songs written for the entire series. This information may be required to put the post in better context*
*...... Further heads up would be that my ability to end sentences at a good length has apparently yet to materialize. Also it would seem that my typing has reduced in proficiency since school.... Carry on...*
For one reason or another I just was not in the mood to make a new blog since April whatever that date below is. What can I say? It wont be sorry because neither you nor I care THAT much. Also there is that point about my computer not being hooked up since this week but that can always be overlooked. On to the bulk of the matter which is um... yeah... about that... *awkward pause accentuated by Jazz Fight which actually makes it a rather amusing awkward pause*
With the long awaited start of my summer job time is yet again flying by at a greatly accelerated pace. Due to this I shall recount my adventures and mishaps in an equally accelerated fashion!
School ended/last time I will ever see some people, sat on my ass, watched star trek, rediscovered my passion for old Lucasarts adventure games, downloaded a bunch of said games, watched Over the Hedge (far better than Madagascar so a step up for Dreamworks), went to see Sunset Rubdown/Frog Eyes at Broken City which was a double hit of awesome combined with a discovery of one of my new favourite bars, bought some awesome hipster esq shoes (sad this is a milestone I know), saw the Constantines as a pre Sasquatch warm up and they were as great as always, went to the much hyped Sasquatch which lived up to every single aspect, had my cool black/yellow coat and passport among other things stolen at Sasquatch, bought various CD's all of which were good purchases, discovered Bottlescrew Bills for the first time and enjoyed it, discovered an amazing beer at Bottlescrew Bills which I will probably never find again, saw The Breakup which can be summed up by Meh, hung out with various peoples, haircuts were performed, went to my sisters graduation, started a job, and finally got bored enough to write a pointless blog.
If I happened to miss anything it sucks to be you missed event because I'm not going back to that 'paragraph' for quite some time. I have happened to take up the art of reading yet again which believe me has already been the source of much guff due to the paradox of learning on my own time. I blame the schools and their lack of an engrossing curriculum. Just started a seeming interesting one called How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom. Very well written and lets hope I can renew it yet again so that it can eventually be read. The Science of Discworld series has taken up some of my focus due to a few various reasons. My appreciation of the Discworld series for one, but what really gets me is the extremely well written and interesting science that makes up the majority of these books. A very good read for the lay person who wants to learn something about life, the universe, and everything. My favourite portion yet comes from the end of the second book when discussing memeplexes, religion and culminating the theme of the book which was how the mind works and is created. So for your glancing over enjoyment:
Science alone is not The Answer. Science too has its myths... The ideal of the scientific method is often not realized. Its usual statement is an oversimplification in any case, but the basic worldview captures the essence. Think critically about what you are told. Do not accept the word of authority unthinkingly. Science is not a belief system: no belief system instructs you to question the system itself. Science does. (There are many scientists, however, who treat it as a belief system. Be wary of them.) The most dangerous myths and ideologies, today, are the ones that have not yet been destroyed by the rising ape. They still strut their stuff on the world's stage, causing grief and havoc- and the tragedy is that it's all to no purpose. Most of it doesn't matter. Issues like abortion do matter, to some extent; even 'pro-choice' adherents would prefer that the choice should not be necessary. Issues like short skirts or lengths of beards do not matter, and it's foolish and dangerous to make a big fuss about them on a planet that is bursting at the seams with an excess of people. To do so is to promote the memeplex above the good of humanity. It is the action of a barbarian mind, a mind sufficiently removed from reality that the consequences of its resident memeplex do not affect it directly. It is not the actions of the naive young men who carry the suicide bomb, or fly the airliner into a skyscraper, that lead them to behave like that, all for the sake of a few memes. The key memes are not religious, in this case, we suspect, even though religion is often blamed: that's mostly a smokescreen. Those old men are motivated by political memes, and the religious memeplex is merely another of their weapons. But they are also trapped in their own stories, and this is high tragedy.
So that was probably needlessly long but I enjoy it and I hope you took the time to read it and enjoy it as well. If not the I officially hate you with the passion of a slightly annoyed muskrat. Seeing as how this has turned out far too long of a post I shall cut things short with just one final thing or two.
First I have discovered what I desire for my annual celebration of the date of my birth. If you do happen to care enough about this information and desire to know what it is (hey I can only lie to myself so much about the readership of this) and maybe even the possibility of getting it for moi I must warn. It will be a race to see if you order it first or if I break down and get it for myself rather than run the risk of leaving its ownership to chance. So..... GO!
Second I had wanted to post another video clip but sadly it was impossible to find at the time of writing so in its stead you get well something else. Enjoy! (Behold My control over this magic called TECHNOLOGY!)
Apparently for someone of my personality/body type a collard stripy shirt contains magical powers. Normal pants + normal shoes + one of my funky band t-shirts = normal reaction to Chris. Normal pants + normal shoes + once of my funky band t-shirts + stripy collard shirt = Ladies taking notice of Chris. Not that I am complaining but its interesting that just one addition to the attire makes such a noticeable change. Now if only I can find a way to copy these results with other forms of clothing such that I am not wearing essentially the same outfit every day. (Whooo talking about clothes!!)
I really wish that my facial hair would hurry up and get the memo because damnit I want to grow a beard. Why? Well I just think it would look really rad and be a pretty fun and somewhat drastic change. Can you comment on the matter? Sure why not.
Go and compliment someone of the opposite sex today, you would be shocked to see what a positive effect it can have (well if everyone else is exactly like yours truly of course).
Oh I forgot to warn you; tonight's post will be somewhat random. Have a great one
A whiney half typed post was made but I just did not feel like finishing it. Call it laziness or just trying to get beyond such things I suppose. Instead I will just prattle off a few recommendations.
Jim Carrey is now officially on my list of favourite actors due entirely to The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind. Such great movies and so very different from dregs such as The Cable Guy etc. I will now have to go out and rent Man on the Moon and the Majestic this summer and I recommend you do likewise if none of these films have ever graced your eyes and mind.
Silent Kimbly and Savage Chickens are two webcomics that have recently became a source of much enjoyment on my part. Silent Kimbly is a really great source of whimsical, feel goodery that can basically brighten any crap day and Savage Chickens is just so absurd and often nigh punny how could you not enjoy it? If your a jerk thats how. I'll add them to the links later but this mention will do for now.
Finally I figure that the allocades should be given to those deserving. Not only is Questionable Content a great webcomic but its author Jeph Jacques is a seemingly unstoppable tome of great music advice. The majority of the great bands that I have 'discovered' not through my friends or my sister or a fluke chance on my own have come from his recomended listenings lists. In fact I have yet to take a chance on something from said lists and not fallen deeply into audio bliss. Take a look because you just might find some of the same yourself.
