In this mix, for your listening pleasure, I thought I’d slow things down, and stretch things out a little. Kind of get you all in the mood for some late night philosophy and spooning. I’m too cheap to ply all of you with booze so I thought I’d make you a mix tape, kind of give you a little something to ruminate on before I discuss the merits of an open view of love in this century and bum drinks off you all night. Hope that’s cool, ’cause we’re totally friends right broham?
Anyway, the background image for this tape is Sisters G from Gatochy’s flickr stream. I can think of no nicer image to go with the theme of “everything is better in pairs”. Except for maybe some extra-adorable mittens, but it’s Spring now and no more of THAT! Anyway, for the sake of not writing all over the lovely ladies’ faces, I just titled the tape “Pairs”.
Pairs are exactly what you’ll get on this tape. Let’s explore the contents, shall we?
Jesus and Mary Chain - April Skies
I listened to this song the other day on the way to work and it improved my mood like nothing else could at that very moment. Music to soothe the savage neurotic.
Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands
The second J&MC track is one of my favorites. “I wanna move, I wanna go, oh I wanna go, do-do-de-do-do-doo…”
I went with one I’m unfamiliar with, to avoid the folly of ignoring deep tracks. It’s got a bit of a Velvet Underground feel. Check the pedigree though!
Jonathan Richman - Satisfied Mind
I chose this track because it’s a classic (1955 by Porter Wagoner), and Richman’s treatment of it is a great introduction to his style.
Jonathan Richman - Springtime in New York
Truth be told, all I can think of when I read this is Stephen King’s The Wastelands. It’s all those dreams about NYC they have.
From the sounds of this song, you can see where he fits with Richman and Donovan. Rich metaphor paired with a bare-hearted, literal approach combine for maximum enjoyment.
Rounding out this mix is Jeff with the rest of his usual band, Wilco, in a tune off of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The opening violin reminds me of Yoshi’s Island.
I hope you all enjoy this! What are some of your favorite pairs of songs?
Anyone who’s read Neuromancer will recall the use of dermal patches for the administering of drugs. At the time it seemed like a far-flung vision of a technologically advanced future. No pills, no needles, just slap it on and go about your business.
HP and a company named Crospon are developing that very thing. A device that looks a bit like a CPU is covered in “microneedles” which are only .5mm long. The article has photos of the device as well as diagrams displaying how it is intended to work.
Current patches, such as the nicotine patch, rely on the fact that nicotine may be absorbed through the skin. Being able to get past the epidermal barrier for chemicals which aren’t readily absorbed could mean wonders for people whose medication regimen requires regular injections, or in some cases could prevent the need for pills. The developers intend to control dosage via microchip, which can protect patients from overdose and expands possibilities of time-release drugs as well.
While this can certainly revolutionize medicine, it also has the potential to revolutionize reacreational and dependency-based drug use also. Look ma, no track marks! This concern is years in the making, as scientists are still working to determine the safety and affordability of such a delivery method.
And now on a related note, for your listening pleasure:
“Hide Your Old Pills in Poop, Government Says” - That’s the title of the Reuters article. It includes tips from government officials on how to hide old, high-powered prescription pills in foul substances for purposes of disposal.
Use them or lose them, people. If there is someone you know of who might steal your old prescriptions either from your house or from your TRASH unless it’s smothered in cat shit, then maybe it’s time to have a talk with that person. Either that or call the police because someone’s rifling through your trash.
I’m not going to get into a big huff over how I feel about the War on Drugs - not today anyway - but I am going to point out a line which really highlights the absurdity of government solutions to social issues.
“Ferret waste, like nearly any other form of pet waste, can be effectively used to help prevent the abuse of unused prescription drugs,” SAMHSA spokesman Mark Weber said.
Edit: A much better take on this situation, from one far more familiar can be found over yonder. At this point I suppose you could consider my post to be more of a primer for the almost equally undereducated.
So, Robert Anton Wilson died yesterday. It was also Albert Hofmann’s birthday. For those who might not be familiar, R.A. Wilson is responsible for the Illuminatus Trilogy (along with Robert Shea). Albert Hofmann is the inventor of LSD.
I went to Robert Anton Wilson’s blog and visited the bookstore at his site. The bookstore has a list of all his books, as well as books by other authors and films that he recommends reading/viewing. A bunch of interesting selections to be had, all around.
The blog appears to have been little-used but does seem to have some interesting tidbits. (AllHailEris!)
I clicked the Amazon link in the RAW bookstore and I found this! It’s a bunch of arcade cabinets and cocktail tables for sale. <3 I gotta add… all of those to my wish list. As a reminder that I need to own a swank living area and many arcade machines must fill it.
I do wish I could properly celebrate this passing/birthday and what will go on to be a double anniversary. (I think they’d both appreciate a damn good party.) One birth, and one death, timestamps are totally different except in that 01/11 aspect. Still, 01/11 is something we can remember because it’s something we do every year. That’s the nice thing about making time circular like that, it can enforce our tendency to live in the past in a positive way by giving us a memory to look forward to experiencing in a new way.
Even if I can’t party hard, I suppose I can take this weekend to do a lot of reading. There’s all kinds of ways to evoke powerful feelings, afterall.
“Belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence.” ~ RAW
“Of course I’m crazy, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.” ~ RAW
“The shock of discovering that most of the power in the world is held by ignorant and greedy people can really bum you out at first; but after you’ve lived with it a few decades, it becomes, like cancer and other plagues, just another problem that we will solve eventually if we keep working at it.” ~ RAW
“At the beginning of the 1960s, here in the United States, LSD became a drug of abuse. In a short time, this wave of popular use swept the country and it became drug number one. It was then used incautiously and people were not prepared and informed about its deep effects. And then all kinds of things happened, which caused LSD to become an infamous drug. It was a troublesome time! Telephones, panic, and alarm!” ~ A. Hofmann
“In old times, and also in our time among the Indian tribes, psychedelic substances were considered sacred and they were used with the right attitude and in a ritual and spiritual context. And what a difference if we compare it with the careless and irresponsible use of LSD in the streets and in the discotheques of New York City and everywhere in the West. It is a tragic misunderstanding of the nature and the meaning of these kinds of substances.” ~ A. Hofmann
“Through my LSD experience and my new picture of reality, I became aware of the wonder of creation, the magnificence of nature and of the animal and plant kingdom. I became very sensitive to what will happen to all this and all of us.” ~ A. Hofmann
The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.
The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.
I will be the first to admit that I have been off the deep end lately. So I was not actually thinking when, earlier today, I pulled any and all notes of interest or personal information off of my profile page. However, upon further consideration I have come to a solid reason as to why it’s a good idea to leave it blank.
That reason is, I prefer not to be yet another willing whore to statistical marketing. Every bit of information that is input here in terms of what one is interested in, what category of things one clings to, the type of profiles one is linked to, is all juicy advertising feedback that you just willingly forked over. I never had a particular issue with standardized testing when I was in grade school (remember that stuff?) with the strong exception of one part: the personal data part. That being all the requested statistical data one was “strongly encouraged” to fill out prior to taking the test. I always had a problem with this procedure. “Why,” I thought to myself in my youth, “do they need to know if i’m white or asian, male or female, if this is a standardized test? It should be based on standards of education, not standards of human types, right?” Well, of course not, how can we continue to compartmentalize people by gender, race and religion in this country unless we do so via proper education and of course proper marketing? There are disadvantages to be had within a free, democratic, capitalist environment.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of this new wave of contextual advertising sites and blogs and the like. Hell, it’s very likely that it will make me some money as well, in which case I suppose that will make me some kind of statistical whore master, but I’d much rather be the master of this situation than the slave.
I am aware that every single day that goes by, I need things. Things to get my job done, things to stay alive, things because I want things. That isn’t slated to change any time in the near future. This site network is so bloated with advertising that I think it’s safe to say I’ve seen over-fed ticks that were more attractive. A very large percentage of this advertising is absolutely nothing that I want, need, or could be persuaded to buy. The beauty of the internet should be finding what you want, and need, faster than just having a bundle of Madison Avenue folks decide after months of grueling testing what you might want based on the reactions of a handful of people who are presumably just like you. How many times do you not give a shit what commercials are playing on TV? Unless you like making fun of them, my money is on a lot of the time.
And poor The Internet. It was once a paragon of searchable, on-demand information. Now with the advent of dummy sites, multiple sites with marginal differences, splogs, spam, and onmouseOver advertising media (fucking smilies can fuck off), how is it any different from from any of the other boxes that talk at us all day? Radio, papers, magazines, tv, you know, “traditional” media.
Anybody remember the old cartoons where the protagonist was trying to avoid something? Eating, or sleeping or killing some canary? All they would see everywhere would be signs for food, or rest, or roast chicken or something. And it would become a blur of neon signs until they could think of absolutely NOTHING besides that which they wanted to avoid. Traditional media (including billboards and shopfronts) pretty much innundates us with this kind of constant exposure conditioning towards consumption of goods and services. (When they aren’t taking a cue from our lovely government and using the fear tactic.)
This is the part where I get back to the idea at hand. Remember the concept of a searchable, on-demand, useful source of information…what was it called again? The Internet, right. Except for the part where we’re going to have to wait for Internet 2: Because We Fucked it Up Royal in Part One! Just like government, and any actual market for any goods or services, the end product is controlled by those allowed to be in control. In the case of the internet, control of the most visible sites is being left to the same type of people who convince you that Budweiser isn’t canned old people urine every year during the Super Bowl. This, I believe, falls under the category of “Just Fucking Lame”.
Myspace is a really convenient way for all types of marketers to mine for interest-related data on a very large group of people without having to pay for it or talk to anybody. I hate to pay for things, and I hate talking to people a little more every day, so I understand the allure here. How is anyone going to know that you have goods and services available unless you actually get the word out? The short answer is they won’t. In walks advertising to remedy the situation of woeful product anonymity. Yet there are more respectful ways to advertise on the internet without relying on a series of “personalized” pages that look like some kind of crayon box full of reconstituted dog shit and leet. (Note from the author: My current profile set up is hopefully minimized of these characteristics, however I have never been the most color-savvy web developer.)
I do have faith in search engine marketing, if the power-houses of search keep putting their foot down as much as they can about what sites are and are not authorities on keywords. I have faith in contextual advertising to an extent, although I fear the potential for rampant abuse is going to lead to issues with that as well. I would just like to move away from the constant bump-and-grind of the public media, and I was pretty sure that the internet should be able to provide that for me. Two types of sites seriously bother me: those with little control or direction in their actual visible marketing, those too much control over how interests are categorized and turned against the users, and those that fall under both catagories. As long as those type of sites exist, and are wildly popular, I find it hard to believe that the broadcasting medium of the internet will continue to hold much validity. All forms of media have had their novelty period, heyday, public trial, and ultimately have ended up as mistrustful sources of information. Yes, even the Almighty Internet. The cynicism isn’t too deeply ingrained in regards to the internet yet so I do reserve some hope for virtue over profit margin.
Not MySpace though, MySpace was created for the marketers, by the marketers, and unless you know a way to overthrow a dot-com, that’s what it’s here for and how it will stay.
Recommended Reading for those unimpressed by MySpace: http://www.trentl.com/?name=News&file=article&sid=50
You want to know why I don't take the time to write out my dreams? Because if I did that, all I would do is sleep and write. It would take that long.
Here are some highlights, though!
A journey between an painted, huge, old school building type place, and a mountain.
Exploring hallways with monsters and going the basement to find the spiral stairs unstable and the man at the bottom becoming a less-than-friendly/stable willy wonka. (Gene Wilder style, adulterated tragically.)
Brainwashing of various persons (the reason for the journey away from the painted place monsters aside).
Verbal child abuse.
Observing various persons' and groups' flights from the painted place.
One girl was dressed in so many layers of stuff she looked like a flapper crossed with a gypsy spraypainted with the neon palette from the 80's, and had this blond, Brittany Murphy air about her.
She fled late in the game, panicing, and got pinned in some corner by a bunch of black dogs and one big wolf thing.
She should have had a goat, it was another dog, being flayed alive and turning insane and viscious.
I remember standing with someone in some kind of post or ticket office remarking how unsettling it was that Todd from work seemed to be programed to look snooty, but that it didn't take entirely, because sometimes he'd smile and be a whole different person.
The golden dagger!!!!
This was one of my favorite parts. The golden dagger was pilfered from a camp of male witches. They all had dark clothes (like a deep grey wool) with light trim, and muskateer sort of hats with pentacles on them. (Just the star, actually, no circle to be had.) We (the party and the individual whose head I rode in - it wasn't me) were scrambling by there, still fleeing the painted place as fast as we could. The mountain was known to be dangerous, full of monsters and crazies and the like. The witch-men didn't really seem to notice our presence all that much. Stumbling about in the grass, SWIM noticed something shiny and snatched it up with a furtive backward glance. Cut to the old man. He's behind a counter, and on it he places a small golden box. He pries the lid open with the golden dagger - which SWIM had found - and inside are a bunch of gold coins. I think there was another demonstration of really bendy gold, but I can't remember. Anyway, I notice the tip of the daggar isn't really pointed at all. The little old man pushes a button and from the plateaued top of the daggar comes a tiny silvery key which is pushed up by two smaller telescopic levels of the deep yellow gold. Another trigger and a small, silvery keyhole appears in the side of the thing. Dreams assume a lot sometimes, and from this inferrence, a panel opened in the broad side of the dagger. It was a camera! There was an appeture on one side and a view square on the other. (They lined up perfectly, but no matter… or does it?) Ah, but above the view square was a line of tiny pictures, like slide pictures, backlit, of the painted town, the painted old building, some other things relating to this vast, spooky conspiracy. There was a camera pan moment, because at one moment they were too small to really see much of, and then next not only were the 4-5 times that small size, but moving! Each picture in the line (6 or 7 of those) starting moving, displaying life in short, repeating segments.
It all flowed together from there and moved on to other things. Lots and lots of other, weird things.
See what I mean? Sleep and write, that'd be it. I'd never maked it through a week!
Some kids play in the sandbox. We play in the.... litterbox??? The RKNet staff is pleased that you decided to stop by. Currently this is a multi-author project, with a rotating cast of totally kooky characters. Contact giania [at symbol] gmail [dot] com if you'd like to play here too.
