Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before

No, that's not my emo title so I can write some rant. Although, I am going to fail a test tomorrow. But I just wanted to stop by and throw you a video, because I can't get this song out of my head. I don't like hip-hop. Well, I don't like hip-hop with rapping. For the most part. But Mark Ronson's blending of multiple genres including jazz brass and hip-hop beats makes for some seriously sweet music. It's like, blending a '30's big band with ODB. I have his album Version, which he is clearly seriously protective over because they take down mp3's on blogs in seconds flat (not that I put any up on my blog) and won't even let me emb a video. Anyway, Version is a bunch of his arrangements of other peoples' songs sung by guest vocalists. It's majorly awesome. It's got Lily Allen, Kasabian, Amy Whinehouse (unfortunately) and even ODB (which is weird because I forgot that when I made the previous reference) performing songs by some seriously awesome artists including the Smiths, Radiohead, and... Kasabian. Anyway, the song I can't get out of my head is Stop Me, the song originally by the Smiths, who have influenced some amazing bands like Radiohead and Brand New. It's performed by Daniel Merriweather, who I had never heard of before this song, but has a seriously awesome voice. Seriously. Awesome. I guess those are my words of the day.

Mark Ronson featuring Daniel Merriweather - Stop Me at YouTube

P.S. I'm going to start embing the vids that I use for the song of the day. This one I couldn't but you already know that because you've read this post. Also, sorry for the run-on paragraph, but I didn't plan on writing that much.

Crazy thought

I'm sure many of you are aware of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), otherwise known as that thing that is colliding particles together at just a smidgen below the speed of light (it's currently broken down and will not be restarted until Spring, 2009). The reason you are all probably aware of this contraption is because of the thought that it could possibly create a black hole. Now, this possibility has been disregarded by many of the smartest minds in the world, but I had a thought today, or maybe more of a crazy daydream.

What if a bunch of George W. Bush-like aliens looked down on Earth and head about this LHC and saw it as a threat to their well-being as it could create a black hole that would annhialate their existance? Would they invade and destroy this thing, as Bush invaded Iraq to prevent their nuclear capabilities? What if there are aliens watching intently from billions of miles away watching closely to see what our next moves are? What if Earthlings are having an impact on beings that are not even in our solar system?

Would I put my money on it? No. First off, if aliens do exist, I doubt they have the power to watch a planet light years away in real time. I know people try to imagine aliens as having crazy powers, but I imagine them being not unlike us. To support life, planets would have to have makeups much like ours, and would thus create beings probably similar to us. But, if they were watching us, they'd probably be intellegent, so they wouldn't follow the Bush Doctrine. Furthermore, I don't think the LHC is really anything to worry about.

Anyway, I thought I'd throw an alien-themed song in here, so here's Subterranean Homesick Alien (live) by Radiohead

College Comic Strips: An Opportunity for the Sucky to Be Published

Listen, I love the Daily Cardinal and the Badger Herald. I even love the comics as I read them everyday. But there's GOT to be some requirement for people to be allowed to make comic strips for these papers. Basically, I'm pretty sure they're so eager to fill a page that they don't care who draws for them.

My first grievance as against the comic strip "The Crackles". There is no originality to this strip. First of all, they are pacman-type characters (and believe me, he tries to milk the jokes out of the resemblance, as if it's coincidental) that just stand around and talk. Fine. Whatever. Kevin Smith makes his living by making movies where people just stand around and talk. It's just got to be funny. But the guy clearly can't draw. So you would think that he would make up for it by being funny. Well, I submit to you this comic. Haha, it's a hippo. Wait what's that, the hippo's hungry? Oh, I get it! Hungry, hungry hippos.

Let's just review. The usual requirements for comic strips: Good drawings, good story-lines, usually funny. Crackles? 0 for 3.

But the crappy comics aren't limited to the Daily Cardinal (see also "Square and Cone". I can't find a good link right now, but I'll find one.) With the Badger Herald, we have Milk. Here is an example. The thing I hate about comic strips is for some reason, about half of them like to talk about World of Warcraft, and other RPG's. This girl is clearly among that demographic. The thing is, most of her comic strips nobody gets unless they play them! There are a couple of other comic strips like this, but the one's like Yourmometer and C'est La Mort are occasionally funny and are not limited to that subject.

So many of you would say, get out there and do it yourself if you could do better. And to be honest, I've thought about it. But then I realized... I AM LAZY. It would be tons of fun, don't get me wrong. But to make them to my standards, it would take a lot of time. I would not be happy putting forth some of the stuff these people are doing.

But I do have to admit there are some very funny comics in the papers. Everyone loves and raves about White Bread and Toast, but I think it's on and off, and it mostly does the one frame with different dialogue thing. The one comic strip I could see getting national syndication is Green Planet. The drawer's talents are not limited at all, and the plot lines are hilarious. And although the subject matter of many comic strips, like Rehablilitating Mr. Wiggles, is funny because it is inappropriate and could never be put in a national paper, Green Planet's is for the most part just clean, witty humor.

So that's it. I was just taking a dump and reading the papers and I got frustrated with some of the comics, so I thought I'd rant. And my whole weekend was spent reading a book on the role honor played in the foundation of the U.S. and writing a 10-page paper on the subject, so I needed a stress reliever.

I thought I'd go with an animated music video for the song of the day. So here's my favorite song ever, Paranoid Android by Radiohead.

Paranoid Android at Youtube

Apparently I have mind powers

I have 107 Radiohead songs. I'm not trying to brag, it's just background information.

You see, today I have been in a kind of "woe-is-me" blah mood. Some people would listen to happy music in these circumstances. However, I find that when I'm depressed, depressing music makes me feel better. Don't ask me how it works. So I hit shuffle on my iTunes and type in Radiohead. I was like, I hope one of the most depressing songs of theirs comes in. Enter "Fake Plastic Trees". So I laid down on my bed and was like, you know what, all I'm doing is feeling sorry for myself. All of a sudden "Just" comes on, which features the lyrics "You do it to yourself, you do, and that's why it really hurts".

I know, these aren't that strange, but it seems like there are so many points in your life where music really adds a soundtrack to it. That's cliche, but it's only cliche because it's true.

Sidenote: One time I hit shuffle on some band where I had 50 songs or something, and I promised my iPod a dollar if it played a certain song first. Well, it did, so for the next month I left a dollar where I set my iPod while it recharged.

Holy crap. I just realized that it's my iPod that has the ability to read minds, not my mind that has the ability to send messages.

Anyway, the song of the day today is a no-brainer.

"Just" by Radiohead.

Getting started

Hey, guys, it's Teej,

This is going to be looked down upon by some of my friends, which is fine. I know posting notes on facebook is laughed at, let alone blogs. I dunno, I just thought this was a great way to get things off my chest. As many of you know, I like to write. It's part of the reason I'm a history ed. major. This often results in me having very long away messages or facebook posts, consisting of thoughts I've had, descriptions of bands and songs, and fun facts. I figure by starting a blog, I can put all that stuff here, in one place that you don't read rather than a constant stream of things you don't read, haha. Additionally, I am much better at writing my words down than expressing them verbally, as I tend to stutter and lose my train of thought. Thus, you may find out things about me that I have never been able to really say before.


As most of you know I am essentially a straightedge. By that I mean I don't drink or do any form of drugs. I also don't swear. This comes with a large amount of challenges. I don't know how much I will get into this over time, but I might. I'll give you a brief synopsis here. A lot of people ask me why it is that I don't do any of these things, and I have a hard time answering, but I'll try to do my best. Basically, it's a personal decision based on how I was brought up, and at the point where I started thinking about these subjects on my own, as a result of peers participating in these activities, I came to the conclusion that I liked my life the way it was and adding these new aspects to my life was neither beneficial nor safe to myself, as I sometimes have an addictive personality. Over time, my views on these subjects have come looser as I have been exposed to them. As more people begin to paricipate in these activities, sometimes it is difficult to maintain relationships and relate to people without using them, especially at a university like Madison that has been ranked the number one party school in the country various times by various people. However, I have still stuck to it despite these handicaps, and I believe the friends that I am left with accept me the way I am. The irony of the situation is that the people that are involved in these activities are often intolerant of people that aren't involved in them, and as a result don't realize that I myself do not look down upon them because they partake in them. It is simply a personal decision that has nothing to do with a prejudice. Simply put, I would just feel bad if I went back on this commitment. I feel more of a lack of anyone who can relate to what I'm going through than an anger towards anyone who does drink or smoke. Like I said, I may go into this in more depth over time.


Anyway, moving past that, I am hugely into music, and without it I don't know what or where I'd be. I am sure with every post (including this one) I will give you a song I am enamored with, so without further ado, here are two. I will start with songs by my two favorite bands: Radiohead and the Velvet Teen (the picture below is of me and Judah Nagler, the singer). There is a stark contrast between their popularity. Radiohead is one of the most listened-to bands in the world. Their music influences half of the bands that exist today. I could go on for hours about the originality of Radiohead, but I won't. The main reason I love them is because, despite their fame, they continue to make the music they love despite what is being played on the mainstream airwaves, and have no qualms about how their music is rarely played on American radio. The Velvet Teen on the other hand, is a little indie band from Santa Rosa, CA. They are like Radiohead in the sense that they have continued to make whatever music they feel despite it's failure to bring them fame. This has resulted in every album being very different and very unorthodox. Elysium featured no guitars, yet it is some of the most mature music you will ever hear, and one of my two favorite albums with Radiohead's OK Computer. Thus, the two songs that I feature today will be from these two albums, one being Radiohead's Paranoid Android, my favorite song of all-time, and the other being the Velvet Teen's A Captive Audience. Enjoy.

Paranoid Android video
A Captive Audience at Last.fm
www.myspace.com/thevelvetteen