I'm Gonna Be a History Geek for a Second

Anyone who took a high school history class knows the Soviet Union sustained the worst death toll in World War II (about 23 million total). But can you tell me who sustained the second most?
I bet more than half of the U.S. population didn't even know that China was an Ally. 20 million Chinese died in World War II. Why the heck don't we learn this stuff in high school? The bottom line is that, though we believe we are the land of the free, one of the most accepting and cultured countries in the world, our high school history cirriculums are western-focused. Where are the primary sources from Chinese civilians talking about the death all around them? It just confuses me. Is non-Western history not important? We trace Soviet progression into Communism but not Chinese. It just blows my mind.

Let's face it. White history is still the history of public schools. Sure, we throw in some black history. But so-called "Global Studies" are usually a look at Europe, or the events that effected the United States. We may talk about Japan, but only because they were a major player against us in World War II. We may talk about the Soviet Union, but that's only because they we our opponents in the Cold War. Our education system still looks at the world as it affects us. We disregard Africa because we look at it as a tribal continent that doesn't have a lot of interaction with the United States. We look at the east and see cultures that are far different than ours, and that alarms us. For these reasons, we choose not to explore and discuss them, and that's just sad. 20 million lives is an insane number, whether they are Europeans or not. The value of a life should not change based on the culture from which it came from.

Did the Foo Fighters Kill Grunge?

This is something that's been bothering me for a long time.

Basically, I've been home since Tuesday because I had early exams. The majority of my friends are still in school so I've been playing a lot of video games and listening to music. Well, I am currently what is known as "broke", or something like it, so I haven't gotten new music for a month or so. Well, except for the new Foo Fighters album that I bummed off someone else because I didn't think it was worth buying, but that doesn't really count because I don't see myself listening to it. The last two albums have had no character whatsoever, with the exception of the song "The Pretender". I can actually tolerate that song, but songs like "Best of You" and "Long Road to Ruin" are death. I will not even honor them with links. The Foo Fighters have been reduced to watered-down "hard rock" that really has no traceable structure and is boring as heck. It kills me because the Foo Fighters were the second band that I was ever obsessed with (after Creed, so really I should say that the Foo Fighters were my first favorite good band). But obtaining the album was enough to thrust me into nostalgic stage of listening to the first four Foo Fighters albums. Even then, though, you can trace a downward spiral of quality.

This spiral has led me to ask myself the same question for years; Did the Foo Fighters, namely Dave Grohl, kill grunge music? I feel terrible thinking that because I like the guy. However, after Kurt Cobain died, and Dave Grohl formed the Foo Fighters, the movement was really placed on Dave's back. As the Foo moved out of their grungy ways from their first album and into the ballads and "hard rock" songs, did the crowd move along with it, or did they become disgusted with the way it was going and move on to other things? OR did Cobain's death signify that the style was dead with him, or leave grunge fans thinking that no one could ever do it better? I was six when the guy died, so I really can't use myself as an example to answer these questions. I knew Wierd Al's "Smells Like Nirvana" before I knew "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

But grunge's legacy lives on in the crappy post-grunge bands like Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd and Seether (again, screw you, no links), who do their best to sound like Kurt Cobain. This is why I fret over the Foo Fighters. They could have taken it in a respectable direction. Instead, one of the most influential bands ever, the "Beatles of the 90's" now lives on in "How You Remind Me" (please do watch that link, because it helps my argument).

I'll make the song of the day a Foo Fighters song, which seems to be inconsistant with my rant, but my qualm is with their new music, not the early stuff. "Everlong" is one of my favorite songs of all-time. So "Everlong" it is.

"Everlong" by the Foo Fighters at YouTube.

What I REALLY Learned from Exams

Let's be honest. Exams are a time where we do hardcore studying for 48 hours or so, throw it down on paper, and then forget what we learned. At least that's the way it is for a lot of history classes. I'm sure engineers have to remember things as they go along, and blah blah blah, but ask me how much I remember from Chinese History last year. It's hard to remember names with 3 X's and 5 U's in them.

Here is what I really learned over exams:

-I'm going to warn you ahead of time that this is going to be a run-on sentence: When a TA gives you a review with 10 essay questions on it and says five will be on the exam, two of which you have to answer, and then he gives you the five essays that he can "almost guarantee" will be on the test, it is not safe, in fact, to only study three of those essays. This is what I did and only one of my essays made it onto the exam. With it being a cumulative exam, I had absolutely no idea what the answers to the four remaining essays were. I wrote one Bluebook page on the one I finally picked would do the most damage, and then I had nothing left. So this is what I wrote: "I'll be honest, I studied three of the essays you said would probably be on the exam, and that backfired. So I will conclude my essay by saying 'Have a Great Summer', and here's a picture of a missile blowing up my grade." The grade was depicted by a cartoon A with a face screaming "Noooo! But the first essay was so good! How could this happen?!"

-Listen to music you are very familiar with while you study. If you listen to music you've just purchased, you get distracted far too easily, especially if you're like me. I pick apart music and analyze the crap out of every aspect, so my first 20 listens or so I pay attention. Additionally, I do a lot of studying at my computer, and when I start listening to a new band I do more research than the FBI. I need to know how many albums they have, how old are their members, what are their grandma's names, etc. It's even bad if you listen to music that you haven't listen to for a long time, like I did with Funeral for a Friend this weekend. I wanted to know if they were putting out an album soon, and sure enough they are. This led me to studio videos, articles, etc. Don't throw that stuff in front of me or I won't be able to stop. So usually when I study, I go with one of my favorite bands, like Radiohead or the Velvet Teen, or whatever I've been listening to over and over again for the last four weeks.

-E-mail your TA's. A lot. It makes it look like you care a lot. Bonus points if you actually do. It wasn't my intention to, but I also impressed them by handing in take-home exams the day after I got them. This was more convenience than initiative, as I had exams on Sunday and Tuesday, and the take-homes were due Monday and Tuesday.

- Don't moon your roommate as you walk out the door on the way to the library. You might break your fly button and have to use a safety pin to keep your pants together.

I guess I'll leave you with a song by Funeral for a Friend since I mentioned them earlier. FFAF are a bunch of Welsh guys, who have the greatest accents ever in real life. But if you heard them, you'd think they were an American band because they don't have a UK feel. They're one of the few bands from my emo/screamo phase that I still enjoy listening to because Matt Davies has a pure, beautiful voice, which contrasts with the moving, intimidating guitars beautifully. It's not whiny at all like other emo bands, and by their third album they had matured a lot over the years, although they've stated that with the new album they are going to bring it back to more complicated riffs and some harsh vocals, like their earlier albums. Their last album was made entirely without any screaming, which is done by their drummer, Ryan Richards. Apparently, this is not going to be the case for the new album. I had a scare two days ago, though, because Wikipedia suddenly said that Matt Davies had left the band. When I got to their Myspace people were already freaking out all over their wall, as they are a huge band in the UK, somehow with relatively unknown status in the U.S. Well, as Wikipedia is fan-edited, my suspicions that it was contrived were confirmed when Gareth posted that it was something someone made up. It hadn't made sense to me since they had just announced that they were filming the video for the new single on May 17th. Anyway, I'll leave you with two songs, because I want to show you the something from all three of their albums. I feel like Matt's voice really matures between the second and third albums. They're in chronological order.

"Juneau" by FFAF at YouTube
"Streetcar" by FFAF at YouTube
"Great Wide Open" by FFAF

Poor commercial directors

The most unappreciated job in show business. Do they get a credit at the end of each commercial? I think not. Can you name a single commercial director? No. Who are the genius' behind the Berries 'n Cream Starburst commercial, or the Robert Goulet Emerald Nuts commercial? We may never know. Oh, the lack of fulfillment they must feel. In this coming election, I will pledge my support to whatever candidate takes up this issue and finally frees the commercial director from the chains of despair that they have endured for over 75 years (don't forget about radio commercials).

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

Minus the Bear Concert an Intense Ride

Minus the Bear encountered a bunch of problems at their concert in Madison on Thursday. One band got pushed out of the lineup by the sponsors. Then, Portugal the Man, who actually drew a significant chunk of the crowd, had to pull out because their van broke down in Chicago. Thus, the people that traveled showed up for an 8:00 show that got pushed back to 9:30 due to unforeseen circumstances.

Club 770 is literally a cafeteria by day. It's placed in Union South and has a capacity of like 450. Well, I'm pretty sure they overflowed this place because there was absolutely no room, but due to our early arrival my friend Jenny and I were able to get front row. Worse than that, there were kids that were clearly on acid or something of that nature jumping around and into people, even before Minus the Bear was on and the Big Sleep had the stage. There was a drunk girl that I couldn't shake that kept playing drums on my back and trying to get me to dance crazily (Her name was Regina). Jenny found this hilarious, and due to my extremely muscular back I was able to tolerate it.

Once the Big Sleep was off, everyone tried to rush to the front. It was basically like trying playing Red Rover for an hour-and-a-half. I am a small guy of 5'6" but I was not letting anyone through. Jenny, on the other hand, got pushed out. She was gone before I knew it, something I felt terrible about. She ended up watching the show from the side. The reality was, I could not have gotten out if I tried, so we kept communications by text message. The entire concert was spent with the entire weight of the crowd pushing against the front row, causing them to be constantly bent over onto the stage that was only a foot-and-a-half off the ground. It was also really tiny and I'm amazed they got five members on it. It was like clowns in a clown car.

During the second song, probably over the previously mentioned pushing, a fight broke out about 5 feet to my right. Cory, the bassist, jumped out. He had clearly been uneasy about the pushing right off the bat. It's funny, because last year at the Lussier Teen Center, Cory had to keep kicking kids off that ran onto stage. Anyway, Cory jumped out, then Jake, the lead singer, also jumped out to stop it. There was no security, so I guess they felt it was their job, and I guess no one would have been able to see it from the back, so really they were the only authority figures to do it.

The rest of the concert was amazing. They played The Fix (link to the Youtube video of them playing it at the concert), which is my favorite song of theirs, and they played a bunch of songs off the new album. In fact... you can see the entire setlist because with two songs left I asked Cory for it after the concert. At first I didn't think he heard me, but right as the song was starting he bent over and handed it to me. Before the last song I showed him it in case he forgot what the last song was and he laughed. Encores were "Fulfill the Dream" and "Absinthe Party at the Honey Warehouse".

Overall it was an amazing concert. I hope they still come back considering the problems they've had their last two concerts out here. I wonder how they feel about playing small venues like this when they could easily fill larger ones.

I'll make the song of the day Knights, because it has a sweet music video and is the best song off of Minus the Bear's new album, Planet of Ice.


"Knights" by Minus the Bear at YouTube



Oh, and I made it in a couple of pictures. I can be seen in one on Mixtapes|Heartbreaks (although Cory's blocking out my face), and there's this one that the writer of that blog sent to me. Thanks Stacey!

Also, the top picture looks kind of cruddy because I didn't take any pictures with the flash on. I didn't want to blind them because I was literally that close.

4/20 is on a Sunday this year...

... This really poses a conundrum for Christian pot-smokers. Do you observe the Sabbath or smoke your brains out?!?!?! Is Communion good munchies-food?

Bjork - Grade A Pimp

Yeah, I said it. The lady has balls. Declare Independence is a fantastic song, and she's been using it for inspirational purposes. She used it in a couple concerts to praise Kosovo for their new Constitution in Tokyo, a move that kept her from being allowed to play her show in Serbia. But this one takes the cake. In China, during the song she clearly says "Tibet, Tibet" on three different occasions. Just awesome.

YouTube video of Bjork's "Tibet, Tibet" version of "Declare Independence" in China

About the Name Change

I'm distancing myself from the "straightedge" name. Let me tell you why. For a while I've heard of the militant movement with the straightedge label. Tonight I watched a documentary on National Geographic (narrated by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth). Apparently this militant movement has grown over the years as a social-cleansing type movement. I'd known about it, but thought it was relatively uncommon. Turns out it's pretty much evolved into gangs all over the country. Basically, I only ever related to the straightedge ideals of abstaining from drugs and alcohol. I never listened to the "straightedge" music or even contacted another "straightedge". There is a sect of the movement called "posi's" (for positive livestyle) that do peacefully pursue a clean life. However, the posi's have been overtaken by the militant movement in the media. I am esentially a pacifist, so I would never condone any of this activity. Thus, I will no longer identify myself as a straightedge.

"Feeding Milk to Chickens" is something I came up with one day in class that has personal meaning to me, but I'll let you interpret however you'd like.

Here's a picture of a smashed guitar I found on my way to class today.

Off the Schneid

I went to the Brewers game yesterday. Be jealous. There is nothing like a baseball game. I said to Grant as we were walking up to the stadium, "I feel like I'm going to Six Flags." A baseball game IS the grown man's theme park. It has its distinct smell, distinct noises, distinct feeling.

I smelled somebody grilling about 3 weeks back in Madison and i had an urge to run the 70 miles to Milwaukee and pick up a Smoky Joe along the way. When we got into the place, though, we were disappointed to see that hot dogs had risen to $4.50. Insane. Right then, I said "We're coming to dollar hot dog day." Four hours later, we had ordered tickets to one of those games.

We ended up sitting at the end of one of three rows occupied by someone's 30th birthday group. Naturally, the friends of this guy were trashed. Well, one ended up sweating profusely. Not cuz he was fat. No, cuz he was plastered. The guy looked like death, and naturally, his friends found it funny. His girlfriend came down from the two rows above his and tried to help him out. Well, the dead guy suddenly came to life when he grabbed an empty large cup in two milliseconds flat and filled it about halfway with his own personal fluids. Naturally, rather than help him to the bathroom, his friends were merely blurs as they fled their seats for the aisles. They were more worried about their beer than their friend who quite possibly had alcohol poisoning. Basically, the rows around them cleared out too because they were disgusted by the amount of sweat and puke on the floor.

Me and Grant? Not disgusted at all. I labelled the man "Steve Barfman" This was a sign of the baseball season starting. It was highly amusing. This guy was apparently 32 years old and wasted at one o'clock in the afternoon. There's a college saying: "Enjoy it now, because after college it's called alcoholism."

At around the sixth or seventh, two guys jumped onto the field and ran from the third baseline towards the bullpen. I've never seen so many security guards on the field. They were chasing from behind, from the sides, from everywhere. But the ones that caught them came flying out of the bullpen. One guy got the classic spear from the guards, where it looked like Brian Urlacher taking out Mother Theresa. But the second guy didn't get caught from behind. No, he tried to break through a line of the guards that had come from the bullpen. Well, he tried doing this by bowling over one of the guards. This guy would have none of it, and he actually threw a haymaker at the guy before he had the chance. Yes, this guy got punched. Hard. And it was beautiful.

The baseball was beautiful, too. Ryan Braun's my favorite player (I used the second pick in my fantasy draft to get him even though he was ranked about 17 in the league). The guy finally got off the schneid on home runs. It wasn't a ball that barely cleared the fence like Kapler hit later in the day, it was a rocket. Parra had a no-hitter through five. We ended up winning 5-4. Gagne (pictured) was lights out in this save opportunity.

Last year, the Brewers were 8-1 with me in attendence. I was hoping the Crew would give me free tickets as a good luck charm, but this has not been the case. Nevertheless, I couldn't have asked for a better game to start out the season with.

Rather than have a song of the day today, I have to make an album of the day. I have been a fan of Colour Revolt for a couple years now. Up until April fools day, they only had an EP of 6 songs to listen to. Although this EP is one of my most prized posessions, I longed for more. Well, I got it last Monday at 12:01 am, as I downloaded their new CD "Plunder, Beg, and Curse" off of iTunes. In five days I've listened to this album 21 times. These guys are going to make a big name for themselves in the months to come. They are a mix of Modest Mouse, Brand New, Minus the Bear, and an old blues musician. Jesse Coppenbarger has one of the best voices in music. The guy is so young, but he's got such a booming voice for such a scrawny body. They have three guitarists, but as so many reviewers have written before, they are not obnoxious at all and are each necessary to make the music what it is. Check out their myspace and see for yourself.

Colour Revolt's Myspace

By the way, Geoff Jenkins looks weird in red, it's weird that our catcher can run faster than a snail, and it's great that the Cubs are 2-3.

Pictures of the Brewers game will be put up when I get back to Madison.

Actually, it is easy being green

I missed the chance to say "Happy Opening Day" to you all by 10 minutes. However, the last baseball game isn't finished, so I guess it kind of counts. I've waited for this day for what seems like forever, and it did not disappoint. However, Eric Gagne did.

Anyway, I've dropped by to write something I'm surprised I haven't written about yet. Most anybody that knows me knows that I am very vocal about global warming. Lately, I've been trying to reduce by carbon footprint, and I thought I'd share some ways you can help.

1. Turn off your computers while you're not using them. This is a huge problem with people our age. I admit, that up until a couple weeks ago, I didn't really think about it. It's much more convenient to leave on, but if you think about it, how many hours a day do you spend at a computer? Two? Three? Well, if you turned it off for the time you weren't using it, you'd cut down your computer's carbon emissions by 80-90 %! The away message is a catalyst to this problem. But I have two comments for that: 1) If you are not on at 1:30 at night or so, we will assume you are sleeping. You don't need to leave an away up telling us. 2) Do you really need the away message? Let's be honest, most of us use text messaging. And really, let's try picking up a phone and calling someone. Relationships have gotten so much less intimate because everyone uses a screen to relay their feelings rather than their mouths.

2. I've pounded this one into my friends' skulls. Use CFL bulbs rather than incandescent. CFL stands for carbon-fluorescent lamp. It's a fancy way of saying those spiral light bubs. A CFL bulb uses up to 75% less energy than old fashioned bulbs and can last for ten times as long. This also means saving on your energy bill, so it's as good for your wallet as it is for the environment. There are lots of reasons to not like George W. Bush, but in December 19, 2007 (a day that i celebrated, resulting in people thinking I was a geek) he actually did something right. Starting in 2012, incandescent light bulbs will start to be taken off the shelf. So basically, it makes sense for you to convert to CFL's right now! But here's the one thing about CFL's you must know. They contain mercury, so there are specific places that will dispose of them for you. DO NOT throw them away.

3. There are some very indirect ways you can help, but they have a great impact anyway. GoodSearch is a search engine powered by Yahoo that donates a penny to the organization of your choosing every time you use it. It's my home page, because it's such an easy way to help without really doing anything. Why use Google, who keeps all their profits when you could put the money towards a cause? Another way is to add the "Greenbook" application to Facebook. For every minute you spend on Facebook, CO2 offset is purchased to compensate for the amount of CO2 you've put into the atmosphere while you've been on the computer. Thus, I usually keep my Facebook up on my screen no matter what I'm doing on my computer.

There are so many other ways you can reduce your CO2 output, many of which are really obvious if we stop to think about them. I think you're smart enough to figure them out, so I'll spare you. I'll also spare you from a corny closing statement like "You can make a difference" or something of that nature. Instead, I'll leave you with a link to the new music video for "Better to Be" that Liam Finn released today. Enjoy.

"Better to Be" by Liam Finn at YouTube

I Have Returned... With Music.

So I'm back in Madison after spending spring break in my hometown. I didn't write over break, not because I don't have a computer, but because A) I was busy, and B) Most people say they read this when they are bored, so I figured that if you were like me you were never bored over break because you were busy catching up with friends that you rarely have a chance to see during the school year.

The consequence of spending so much time with people was that I didn't get any work done, with the exception of getting Allison a summer job and paying $130 to take a stupid ACT-type test called PRAXIS I that I have to take to get into the School of Education. That's like paying $130 to get punched in the face. But getting back on subject, I didn't read the 300 page book I was supposed to read on Louis XIV to write a six-page paper on it by Thursday. My progress tonight? 30 pages because I am easily distracted, especially considering the fact that I gave up video games for Lent and have been itching to get to the March Madness 2004 game that I purchased for $2. Guess what I spent two or three hours doing instead of reading about a dead French guy that no one liked.

On the bright side I have a lot of new music to help me get through the rough times. While in the Milwaukee area I went to CD Max, the used CD store in Brookfield. I picked up Version by Mark Ronson which features sweet brassed-up, funky covers of popular songs in England featuring guest vocalists. Highlights include "Oh My God" (Kaiser Chiefs cover) featuring Lily Allen, "Just" (Radiohead cover) featuring Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet, and my personal favorite, "Stop Me" (The Smiths (a favorite band of Radiohead from the '80's (You may have heard of the lead singer, Morrissey) )cover) featuring Daniel Merriweather, who has a fantastic voice. Additionally I picked up the Knock Knock Knock EP from Hot Hot Heat, which is pre- Make Up the Breakdown, their first LP (aka it doesn't suck like their newest album).

Additionally, I cashed some checks that I forgot I had this week. Thus, I treated myself to some music from iTunes. I picked up Kings of Leon's newest album, Because of the Times, which features the song "Charmer", which was the song of the day on an earlier post, and "Fans", which there is an amazing live version of on YouTube.

But the album I'm most excited that I purchased is Georgie James' Places. Though it might be easy to assume Georgie James is a person, it's actually a band, featuring the dual vocals of former Q and not U drummer John Davis and Laura Berhenn. They produce bubbly pop songs that fans of Headlights will enjoy, but which feature more guitar and less keyboards. The song that attracted me to them is called "Need Your Needs", which is the song of the day for today.

Need Your Needs by Georgie James at YouTube.

Warm Weather Bands

Today, I've been in the best mood. I can't remember the last time I was this happy. After a long period of very little going right, this week nothing can go wrong. The weather was amazing today, and no one can help but be happy. The feeling on the streets is indescribable, everyone's moods have been lifted. In a time like this, your musical choices must go along with your mood to enhance it even more. Today I listened to sunny bands that only made me smile more. There's music that I only whip out during the warm months because they have that warm feeling that you don't want to ruin by bringing out during cold weather. Here are my three choices for music today:

Headlights
The epitome of good-feeling music. For real. You can't help but feel happy when you listen to "TV" or "Cherry Tulips". It's in no way corny either like some poppy, happy-go-lucky music can be. You just want to give people hugs when you listen to it, or dance around in colorful outfits with Leslie Feist.











Kings of Leon
Everything is in a major key and every drum beat and tambourine shake calls for you to run wherever it is you're going. The amped-up bass-lines scream Jet, and the twangy guitars resemble the Strokes. Caleb's 'let-go-of-all-your-
inhibitions-and-yell-out-however-you-want- even-if-it-comes-out-as-something-no-one-can-
understand-just-because-it-makes-you-feel-
good' lyrics make you wish you were in his place. Everyone just sounds like they're having fun.





Minus the Bear
This mostly applies to Menos El Oso. The whole album makes you feel as if you're sitting "on a Beach in the Mediterranean". It's hard not to throw the word "Romanticism" around when considering their lyrics. You can feel exactly what Jake Snider was feeling as he wrote the songs when you hear such lyrics as he says "Is it possible to put this night to tune and move it to you" or "I hope the weather holds / But you don't need the sun to make you shine. / These island towns don't care for city folk / but I think we can starve the city from our minds."

I couldn't hold it in. I felt I needed to share my good mood bands to spread joy.

Will you?

It's easy to say you would if you could when you can't, but then when it turns out you can, will you say that you will and can, and will you?

Late Night Findings - Liam Finn

I've been obsessing over Liam Finn's song "Second Chance" since I heard it two weeks ago, and I want to share it with you guys in my new segment. It is a late night finding because I found an amazing live version of the song on David Letterman where Liam concedes the mic to friend EJ Barnes to play drums.

At first listen, Finn may sound like your usual acoustic singer. But the New Zealander has some amazing pipes, as is evident by the end of the studio version of the song. Much of this may be attributed to his musical royalty genes, as his family is one of the most prominant musical families in New Zealand. His father Neil and uncle Tim were both standout musicians in the 70's and 80's and still sell out shows. Neil can count Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway of Radiohead, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam among friends and musical collaborators. Oh, and Neil appeared on a little show called "Flight of the Conchords". Liam has also earned the seal of approval from Vedder, touring with him this spring. Liam was thrust into the musical spotlight of New Zealand with the grundgy band Betchadupa in 2000, at the age of only 17.

Liam plays every instrument himself live, with a few minor exceptions when EJ is accompanying him. He does it with the help of a looping system. This causes his songs to have a slightly predictable build sometimes because he is constantly adding parts, but what do you want? He's a one-man band for God's sake. And he's a great musician at everything he does. Here's a better example of his looping. The Letterman video is great purely because the song is amazing.

Liam Finn's "Second Chance" on Letterman on YouTube

The Case Against St. Patrick's Day

I am part Irish. My grandmother's maiden name was Haggerty. Thus, St. Patrick's Day has some relevance to my life. However, I am actually in opposition to the fight to make St. Patrick's Day a national holiday.

I have been getting Facebook invites to a group that insists on making St. Patrick's day a national holiday. There is a petition that states that if it gets 1,000,000 signatures, St. Patrick's Day will become a national holiday. News stations have also begun to report on the fight for making St. Patrick's Day a national holiday.

St. Patrick's Day is in fact an exclusive holiday, only truly pertaining to the Irish, particularly Catholics, although St. Patrick was made a saint when the Catholic church was the only church around. St. Patrick's Day should not be a national holiday because it has nothing to do with the United States of America. All national holidays are in celebration of American history, not British, Irish, German, Candadian, or Djiboutian. Additionally, this is in no way a major religious holiday, therefore there is no reason to get out of work or school, the true reason people want to make St. Patrick's Day a national holiday.

To make St. Patrick's Day a national holiday would be going against the diversity of America. Every federal holiday has to do with American history with the exceptions of New Year's Day and Christmas. Christmas is the only Christian holiday that is regarded as a federal holiday, and that is due to the tradition of this country based on its founding upon the Christian religion. Its national status has been reduced in years past due to such inventions as the "holiday tree" and the fact that celebrators of other religions must be given off of work and school for their respective religious holidays.

Lastly, I would like to educate you on the color green in regards to St. Patrick's Day. Green represents Catholic Ireland, as it is a Catholic holiday. I actually wear orange every St. Patrick's day because my family is Protestant Irish.

I'm not trying to scream "USA! USA!" while drinking beer with my shirt off perched on top of a camper in the infield of a NASCAR race right now. I am merely stating that if we were to celebrate an Irish national holiday as one of our own, how would the other ethnicities and religions of the U.S. feel? I know you are all looking for a way to get paid or get out of school while getting plastered, but if it's that important to you, can't you take a sick day or something? Just a thought.

Here's the song of the day. I'm going to go to some all-American boys. The Kings of Leon are all either brothers or cousins, with the same grandpa whose name happened to be Leon. Their sound is similar to the Strokes sometimes, but it has a mostly has a more prominant bassline and even less decipherable lyrics. Caleb Hollowill has a delightfully raspy voice, which he has amazing control over. Rolling Stone named them the 16th best live band still existing in July of '07, and from what I've through live videos on YouTube seen they live up to that ranking. Caleb does every high pitched scream and voice inflection just as it sounds on the record, and every guitar solo is tight.

"Charmer" by Kings of Leon at YouTube

Update on 2/10/08 Only in Madison...

Allison found me this photo of the Jebus Loves Sluts girl. Just remember that there is a windchill of negative 30 degrees. Here's a link to the original article.

Gah!

...It's all gonna be alright... shh... it's gonna be okay... NO IT'S NOT!

It's so weird that I've mentioned Brett Favre in a couple posts in the last week, about how his streak was going to end someday, and the next time Wisconsin makes it into the news will be when Brett retires. Yet I was totally unprepared for it. Or perhaps in denial. At the end of the season this year, I said to myself that in the last three years, this is the year that would make the least sense for Brett to retire. But that scared me, because he's always done the opposite of what people expected him to do. Sure enough, he goes and does it.

The media coverage just depressed me. It felt like Brett had died because there was no press conference, no interview, no nothing. I didn't want to post on it because I didn't know how to. Every blogger in Wisconsin will be attempting and failing to express their feelings on the issue adequately. It comes across as stereotypical Brett-Favre-determines-the-lives-and moods-of-Wisconsinites. People (including myself) have been reacting with hysterical away messages and Facebook statuses and everything. But to an extent, it is true. It's the end of an era, the only one I've ever known.

Let's look outside of the box here. Brett's been the starting quarterback since I was three. Who else in Wisconsin sports has been here since 1991, other than Bob Uecker (who is the man, too. Nick has often said that the only fitting way for Bob Uecker to die will be to get hit by a baseball in the announcing booth, and I wholeheartedly agree. Hopefully that doesn't happen for another 20 years or so). No Brewers. No Bucks. No other Packers. No one from the 1996 Super Bowl team was left. Brett's retirement is sad purely because of his greatness, but also because he's the last staple that has been around since I can remember. Sports are constantly changing, especially in a day of $30 million a year contracts. But Brett Favre was always there, goofing around and smiling. I've not only mourned for the Packers, but realized that my childhood is nearly over.

I don't think Brett's coming back. I don't think this is a publicity stunt. I think he's telling the truth when he says he's tired. I also think he feels the pressure of living up to this season, and a little responsibility for the NFC Championship loss. Who knows what will happen next year, or in the entire future of the Packers' organization for that matter. But it's obvious that no one could ever replace Brett Favre. That's not to say there won't be anyone better, but there's no other figure that I will ever associate with my childhood like I do Brett Favre.

In his honor, I'm making the song of the day "Last Goodbye" by Jeff Buckley. I've listened to Jeff Buckley for a year or two now, but I just recently got reacquainted with his music again since I've become what is known as "broke" and am unable to buy new music. Jeff Buckley was one of the most influencial musicians on today's music scene, including the likes of Radiohead, who have influenced a few bands here and there themselves. Before drowning in a tributary of the Mississippi River in 1997, Buckley made one of the greatest albums ever in Grace in 1994. The album features the famous cover of "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. It's much different from the original, yet the version that multiple artists have covered, including Rufus Wainwright for Shrek and approximately 50 other artists. It is the epitome of beauty. But the album has many powerful songs too, like the title track and my personal favorite, "Eternal Life". Buckley's diverse influences developed his intensely falsetto dominated voice and unique guitar work. This is an understatement, as getting into the details of his influences would take pages.

"Last Goodbye" - Jeff Buckley at YouTube.

Every Great Streak Must End.

Even Cal Ripkin missed a game eventually. Brett Favre will eventually miss one too, either through retirement or injury. Well, today, a great streak ended for me. Before you get excited, it's not that I drank or anything.

I've been taunting the ice here ever since October. I do not own boots, so I walk around in my usual nike skater/tennis shoe breeds, constantly slipping, but never falling. My quick hand-eye coordination saved me probably 500 times in the 4-month winter we've had thus far. Every time I cheated wet pants, I laughed at the ice and dared it to try it again. I was a naive young man, nowhere near experienced as I am now.

Today, the ice fought back in full force. It gathered up all the times I taunted it, and thrust them back me in a cluster of karma. It was 47 degrees tonight and rainy. This meant that you had to choose between walking on ice or walking in 6 inches of water in some areas. Naturally, I picked ice. I had some close calls and addressed them with my usual arrogance. But a mere block from my apartment disaster struck and I wound up with a drenched side. Dejected and dethroned as the king of balance, I carefully stepped with a new-found respect for frozen water.

Don't cry for me, I learned a valuable lesson.

I will make the song of the day "The Ice of Boston" by the Dismemberment Plan. They were a very influential band on the indie music scene, buddies with Death Cab for Cutie, and a favorite of Pitchfork Media (not that that means anything to me). Hailing from Washington, D.C., they released four albums before disbanding in 2003. They, like the Toadies, often have reunions in their hometown, usually for benefits. The Dismemberment Plan, at least for their first three albums, were a unique blend of spoken word, screaming, and singing, employing dischords and funky basslines similarly to Primus.

The Ice of Boston by the Dismemberment Plan on YouTube.

To be honest...

Semi-pro doesn't look like a very good movie. Sorry, Will Ferrell.