#evan haley

[iamlisteningto]

Anak's MIX 004 SERAPHIM W/ EVAN HALEY

[thewatertowernews]

music und musik

by evan haley

   I’ve always known what kind of music I liked. Upon first hearing an artist or genre, I instantly make a judgement call and then continue my opinion from there. However, recently I have found that my tastes are not as unshakeable as I first thought them to be.

  I am fluent in German, but I never really completely explored German music. I figured the genres I liked were thoroughly covered by English music artists, and there was no reason to try other genres I knew I didn’t like.

  That was the case until one day, my Pandora station decided to play Namika’s track “Lieblingsmensch”: the song that started it all. To my surprise, I found myself enjoying it. I liked it so much that it eventually got stuck in my head. I decided to look up more of the artist’s music and was shocked to find that she was actually a rapper. I immediately thought the track I liked must have been a fluke, but it wasn’t. I listened to the rest of her library and found that I really enjoyed most of her songs. Through the power of youtube suggestions, I was able to find a couple more artists.

  These artists in particular first helped me make the jump into these new genres: Peter Fox, a rapper, has a song titled,“Der Letzte Tag” that blew my mind with it’s horn track. Mark Forster’s “happy pop” and Max Giesinger, whose ballads I’ve never heard anything like.

I was listening to pop and rap, two genres I can’t stand in English. Now, I find myself having a hard time finding songs in these German genres that I don’t like. I tried in vain to figure out any differences besides the language.  

  I thought at first it might be a difference in aesthetic. Peter Fox brandishing a black and white suit and a Gretsch guitar certainly didn’t look like a rapper to me, but that really doesn’t matter in the long run. What does appearance have to do with anything?

  Then, I thought it might be subject. German rap was able to convey irony and a subtle intelligence that I certainly never found in English variations. That wasn’t right either. After all, how much do you really listen to lyrics if you’re not entirely focused? There are a lot of other variables too, including instrumentation and presentation.

  All American rap and pop sounded painfully similar to me. Just the same nonsense over and over shifted up or down a key. Even between the more underground versions of these genres I could find no difference, it sounded uninspired the same regurgitated worn out dull topics which may have once held some meaning spat up onto a disgusting excuse for a music video.

  Finally, there was a clean slate for me to make a fair assessment of these genres. I wasn’t thinking about any of the other music I’d heard before because I hadn't heard any. It was a rare experience in this day and age where most people have heard most things. Almost nothing is new to us today, especially music. A switch in language allowed me this new opportunity.

  In the end, it really seemed that it was entirely the difference in language that altered my taste. It is an interesting phenomenon. Theoretically, language shouldn’t change anything if the genre is the same, but to me, it seemed to make all the difference. Upon realizing this, it made me think. We all exist in the musical vacuum of our languages. There could be some genre out there that you can’t stand, waiting to be revealed to you in a different language.

  In German rap, I was able to enjoy the style of music with a completely open mind. Whatever the reason, don’t assume that you don’t like a type of music just because you don’t like it in English.  

[thewatertowernews]

get out while the gettin’ is good: on the recent trend of secession in international politics

by Evan Haley

   There have been in the last 5 years an unprecedented number of groups, regions, areas, and people who for whatever reason feel like they need to secede or break away from whatever particular group they happen to be a part of. With varying degrees of organization, aptitude, and reason. Most recently we’ve seen the Catalan Parliament in Eastern Spain attempt to pass a declaration of independence through its assembly. This action like many of its contemporaries brought a great deal of outrage. The Spanish government blocked any and all attempts by the assembly to separate setting the stage for what will be another drawn out and embittering saga.    There are two sides to this issue as a general whole. On the one side, there are the various independence movements e.g. the 2nd Vermont Republic, California secessionist movement, supporters of Brexit, the Scottish independence movement, the Catalonians and so on. On the other side, there are the state governments or elected bureaucrats trying to preserve what is certainly a fragile union. As I’ve said each of these movements are quite different. Some of them more popular, and adept, than others. Yet popularity and aptitude don’t always go hand in hand.     In the case of the Catalan secession, the framers are so far taking all the “correct” steps to try and push their independence through the Spanish legal system, using assemblies of elected individuals and following, at least in form, the legal steps for leaving a larger country. It is also true that the Catalonians have established reasons for wanting to set up their own state. They have their own language and culture, as well as a common history which has been in very much opposed to the Spanish. These reasons probably contribute to the mainstream support and progress of the movement relative to one of their less successful contemporaries in the United States.      While everything might look good on paper there is a fundamental problem with all of these secession movements. While they may have their reasons and their wants for an independent government it seems that those “legitimate” reasons have arisen not because of genuine grievances, but from a negative attitude. An attitude which unfortunately we see more and more of in this modern era. People have trouble dealing with adversity, and there’s no shortage of adversity to be dealt with. They don’t want to accept that they could have been the cause of their own problems. This applies all the way from the individual to the movement. This way of thinking is made even easier when the group of individuals in question is part of a larger group. They are given a scapegoat, and rather that focusing their efforts towards addressing the problem they decide to form a movement against the larger group in question thinking that leaving that group will magically absolve their problems.    Well, it just doesn’t work that way, in life or in international politics. In fact in almost any case leaving a well-established group is likely to do more harm to both parties than any good at all. For example say that you are a good player on a sports team, but all of a sudden your grades start to tank. Then instead of looking at yourself and deciding to work harder, you blame the team and leave. Now you are left looking for new excuses for your failures, and the team is left without its player.    This is even more catastrophic on the international stage. Where there is a lot more than tournament births and good grades at stake. Yet politicians all over the world continue to act like children. Kicking and screaming, threating to run away from home if they don’t get their way.    Listen kid, you know what happens when you run away from home? You get eaten by a wolf, if you’re lucky. Now get back home and work through your problems. Assemblies and congresses aren’t just for declaring your independence. Sometimes you have to put in some work before anything changes.

[thewatertowernews]

the arte of news

by Evan Haley

   Dear readers, we are living in a unique time, even more so when one considers the news that keeps tabs on these unique times. Today's news is a completely different beast from the bland fact-reporting affair of yesteryear. Today we the consumers need to be less like the innocent, goodnatured cattle out to graze in the safe news world. Rather, we need to be the lions out to devour precisely the right news-zebra, lest we starve in the vast fake-news savanna.    All extended metaphors aside, today's news world is decidedly hostile, and all readers, listeners, and other appreciators need to be equally hostile. Criticism is the only force that we can trust to ensure our news is credible. Today's news needs to be appreciated less for reporting the facts and more for the art of subverting the facts. It is high time that spin is recognized as the art form that it is. What would happen if people thought of news as art? What if instead of political art making headlines, political headlines were art?    News exists in a grey area where it has too little objective truth to be consumed unquestioningly by the people, however it still retains the pretense of fact. It needs to let go of this and completely embrace the ludicrous creativity. With the acceptance of news as an art form, the vicious “appreciative criticism” from the art world should follow. Imagine if a major news outlet published an article and instead of the public as a whole unanimously reacting against it, they generated discourse and scholahip surrounding the subject and the manner of its presentation.    That could be the best thing ever to happen to the global media. Blind acceptance would be replaced with genuine discussion, and maybe even people would learn something – FROM NEWS. That'd be incredible, however unlikely. News would have an opportunity to actually convey its message to people, but the people would appreciate it as something to be held up as culture, and not the ramblings of a corrupt organization bent on lying to them for their own gain.      There could be some other ramifications of news becoming art. Imagine, for instance, if news started going through its own movements. Abstract Expressionist news, Cubist news, Impressionist news, Postmodern news, etc. There could be an entirely new cultural sector devoted to news. News Museums, an artistic news major at universities, news critics, and underpaid art news graduate students just looking to make a news impact.    What if, transformed by the new news attitude, journalists were able to attain the fame and influence of artists, in exchange for the stereotypically dark and tragic lifestyle. The Van Gogh of News, the da Vinci of News, or even the Michelangelo of News carefully crafting the Sistine Chapel of News. That is a point in and of itself, could news ever attain the international quality of art? Maybe people could once again learn to appreciate world news not despite the struggle of understanding international issues, but for the cultural value of appreciating foreign art.    What does all this mean? Would people even notice? Could news actually become art? I think it could, but more than that I think that it should and quickly at that. The further our news strays from the truth the closer it gets to becoming art. The sooner the better, because the sooner our news gets that artistic recognition the sooner it can get back to its purpose informing the people.

[thewatertowernews]

the german bernie: deutschland’s new president elect

by evanhaley

art by rory clancy

  What a crazy time in U.S. politics. We Americans have an accepted view of how our democracy should work, and then it goes and does the opposite. It would do us all well to remember that elsewhere in the world, there are actually democracies that function exactly the way people think they will (crazy, right?!). Germany for example, just elected a new president, and while the office does not hold the same responsibilities nor the same elevated importance in German politics, it is still an important part of the political system. 

  The new president-elect in question is named Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and he is perhaps one of the best known and most respected politicians in Germany today. He has had a very respectable political career stretching back to 1999, and he belongs to the moderate wing of the German Socialist Party. For almost two decades, he has quietly and efficiently worked to make Germany a better pace through tireless civil service. He also happens to rock snow white hair and has impeccable taste in glasses. It is also worth mentioning that he was elected in part because of his decidedly anti-Trump nature. Dr. Steinmeier was named by numerous and very reputable German publications as the “anti-Trump” candidate. Indeed his criticism of President Trump stretches all the way back to the election where he criticized politicians who “make politics with fear,” a statement clearly aimed at Donald Trump.   Although he is anti-Trump, he seems to be thoroughly respected by every other major world leader; he received congratulations from (to name a few) Boris Johnson of England, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and of course German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. Dr. Steinmeier epitomized his political character in this line from his acceptance speech “Let’s be brave, because we don’t have to be afraid of the future.”   All of that hope and optimism seems pretty foreign to American audiences, as we have primaries to weed out any respectable and/or hardworking candidates. Though it is possible that some readers have already noticed the similarities to one of our own politicians.   Yes, it’s true that this man is, in many respects, the German Bernie Sanders. You might think that it’s short-sighted and stupid to compare an American politician to a German politician just because of a incidental coincidence of political orientation and outward appearance but it’s so much more than that. Dr. Steinmeier and Senator Sanders stand for the same basic ideas. Equality, hope, justice, and opportunity. They are both products of their environments. Bernie had to develop his more brash style to appeal to American voters who have very little experience with socialism. He needs to get the ideas through our thick skulls. On the other hand, Dr. Steinmeier has the benefit of working in a country that is both used to and very receptive to socialist ideas, so he can afford to be more soft spoken and hopeful. Outside of these environmental differences the two men really are similar.   It’s important that we as Americans recognize the ideas of foreign politicians as well as the similarities of foreign politicians to ours here in the States; it’s ok to admire the ideas of a successful foreign politician.   It is often the case that American politicians are extremely well-known abroad. Take Woodrow Wilson or Barack Obama, for example. Thousands of Germans flocked to hear Obama speak even before he was president. The inverse would be very rare in America. Foreign politicians very rarely speak to the American people, and if they did, they would find a less-than-interested audience. But why is this so?

  Given Dr. Steinmeier’s impressive career, political ideas, and relative similarity to an established American politician, not to mention the successful anti-Trump stance, one would think he would be wildly popular in the states. The reality is, though, he isn’t. In fact, he is barely even known by Americans, even those who claim to be ‘feeling the bern’.     There could be several explanations. Naturally, there is always the good-ol’ “we don’t care how much we should like you, you’re foreign and therefore we don’t know you” syndrome. There is also the ever-present option of blaming the media. The answer could also be that he lacks Bernie’s charm, as similar as they are, there can only be one Bernie. Those are possible answers to why you don’t care, but you should, because we need to learn from our neighbors. These are ideas that have become increasingly attractive to the american populous. It doesn’t matter where the ideas come from, what matters is the quality of the ideas, and Americans need to start realizing that in a hurry.     Maybe we’ll never know why this country has little love for foreign politicians even when they closely resemble our own. Someday we might get the foreign politician who captures the respect of the American people, but for right now I think it would be enough to find any politician who respects the American people after all, we have some serious explaining to do.

[thewatertowernews]

shit people argue about

by evanhaley 

I’ve struggled to get here… Liberal: Look, all I’m saying is that life has been pretty hard for me so far. Liberal 2: Hey, you don’t even know what kind of struggle I’ve gone through to get here. Liberal: I’m a fifth generation college student and a varsity athlete, ok? It’s not like everything has just been given to me my whole life! Liberal 2: Pshaw, my mother is a doctor and my father is a bankruptcy lawyer. Can you even conceptualize the kind of strife that I’ve had to watch other people go through? Liberal: Yeah well, I had my opinion challenged! In public! Liberal 2: Gasp! L1: In a classroom even. Another student dared to insinuate that the Political Left are out of touch with the working class. L2: How dare he, we’ve always told the poor what to do! How did he even get accepted here? L1: I know. It was such a trying experience. I thought that Universities were supposed to keep us safe from differences in opinion. He said I was spineless. L2: Well what did you do. L1: I skillfully avoided confrontation and sat back down to plot my revenge and edit the first draft of my manuscript detailing my abused youth. I just felt so unsafe… L2: Well you’re safe with me. I know what it’s like to experience hardship. L1: Thanks, I wish there were more people around here like you.  

What’s Wrong with this country? Conservative: Man, can you believe this shit? Conservative 2: You’re going to need to be more specific there. C1:The goddamned Senate man! Those bunch of daddies boys wouldn’t know a solution if it smacked them upside the head. C2: Hey, its pretty hard when you get elected to an obstructionary body filled with bleeding hearts and corrupt money sponges. Besides it’s the administrators and the bureaucrats that are the real problem. C1: Well, you’re not going to get rid of those any time soon. Gotta give the rich boys something to do after they get their degrees on a silver platter. It’s the education system that churns out all these spineless yes-men that’s to blame. C2: Educators have nothing to do with these problems. If we just let the educators do their job without making them teach to all these standardized tests our kids would be a lot better off. Where do you get off telling me what the problem is?! C1: Hey hey calm down look at us arguing while those spineless desk jockeys are laughing down their noses at us. C2: You’re right I’m so used to telling off the self important liberals that it’s just become a habit. C1: Well we’ll be ready.

Gun Control: Conservative: The constitution of this great nation says that all citizens are allowed to keep and bear arms. Why would you try and take that away? Liberal: Guns and the violence they cause are a lot more advanced in today’s world, and we are only asking for a registry not a confiscation. C: It is every citizens God-given right to defend himself and his property. That is a founding belief of our founding fathers. L: Right, but defense does not have to require a fully-automatic assault rifle with a thirty round magazine, right? C: It includes whatever I damn wall say it includes! L: Wow, alright well the government should still be able to keep track of large caliber firearms at least. C: All you bleeding heart liberals want to take our right to protection away so we can get robbed by all your “mistreated” criminals. L: Ok… wow alright. 

[thewatertowernews]

my friend the radio dj

by evanhaley

  The radio is a secular piece of technology. It has enjoyed what for a popular technology has been an enormous lifespan. Most of us still listen to our old friend the radio even if it’s only while driving. For some, the radio is a means of escaping the stresses of your everyday life. You can hop in the car turn that radio on and let a complete stranger share with you their opinions, music, or news. What if it isn’t a complete stranger though?   I recently had the surreal experience of listening to a childhood friend as the host of a popular radio station. It may seem like an overstatement, but it was honestly one of the strangest things that has ever happened in what admittedly a pretty dull and unexciting life. Normally it doesn't even occur to the listener that a real person is sitting in a studio behind a microphone, but when it does and when you happen to know the person it makes it that much more strange. You know them, it’s not just that you know what kind of music the nation is going to play, you know why specifically the DJ chose that song. You can imagine for yourself exactly the reasons they had because of the time you spent together.   When you know the person to this degree it somehow makes the experience more genuine. You can see them sitting there in that booth as you listen to their voice conjure random facts that you remember about them, like the particular kind of beard oil they used, or who their main was in Smash Bros. You feel obliged to remember something about them as your thoughts surround them as you’re driving down the road. Even though you haven't seen this person in a while, you still feel like you’re talking to them in real life.   They're the one that wanted to talk to you they got on the radio for a reason. You are now the customer, the judgment; the almighty authority in this imagined conversation. Your friend had better come up with something to please you in a hurry. Every song becomes a tribute to the good times that you had together, based off the half-crazed conjectures of a road weary mind.   By the end of your journey you feel like you have rekindled a friendship that you had lost to the sands of time. Someone who you only kept on as a Facebook friend because you were too lazy to unfriend them just became your guiding light on this treacherous voyage. How could you ever have made it without them?  It is really kind of strange in a way you are thankful you never got down to unfriending them. This connection you had with them however strained by the bounds of time has actually helped you through a hard time, even if it was just a trip in the car. When it comes down to it that is really what friends are for. Helping you through the tough times whether you really need it or not. g

[thewatertowernews]

cruz vs. sanders: the debates of wrath

by evanhaley

  America has lost faith in politics and in politicians. We have grown painfully numb to the reality TV circus called American – a wasteland that shoots any serious politician out of the sky. The painful truth is that it wasn’t our politicians that ruined us. They're just a function of our desires –  we were the ones who wanted this, or at least most of us did.   Don’t believe me? Take the recent debate between senators Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders on the topic of the ACA (Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare.”) It was a pretty good debate. It was cordial and, despite their incredibly different views, the candidates seemed genuinely interested in working together to solve the country’s problems. There was a lot of “I agree with you, and I’d like to work with you on that.” It was refreshing. Maybe after watching this debate there is hope for the future of American politics. Maybe politicians have realized that all of the election craziness is over and it is time to knuckle down and do some real work for a change.   However, that’s the problem no one cares about politics when they work. Did you watch it? Come on, did you? No of course you didn't it. Even though it was advertised by CNN and streamed live on YouTube and Twitter most people probably have no idea that it even happened, and why would they? People don't care about politics when everything is going smoothly. We want  conflict, scandal, anything as long as it distracts us from the actual problems all of these idiots create. How else can C-SPAN still have a viewership of two while constantly breaking ratings records? It’s because people don't care about real politics, they want some carnage! In this way politics are a lot like NASCAR, no one tunes in to watch cars drive in a circle for two and a half hours – they want to see a ten car pile-up and a car fire. That’s what people are there for. Which is why what most people probably the next day was Ted Cruz saying that “The democratic party is the party of the KKK.”   It was back to business as usual with this shit-show. After one small glimmer of normalcy it was right back to the way things started. A non-stop stream of bullshit coming out of Washington still soaked the electoral map in a shade of brown. Had the debate even happened? Did anyone care? Can politics play an important role in our everyday lives if it is not reality-show flavored? These questions have no answer, because we are stuck with what we have. The debate may have been a window into a world which could have existed if traditional politics hadn't been defeated by “alternative politics,” but the real bright side is that at least some of our politicians know how to act like real politicians. Maybe someday the rest of them will grow up and get something done for a change, but until that happens we can only stand up for what we think is right and hope that politics wakes up from its drunken bender. Unless that happens we’re going to be seeing a lot of metaphorical pile-ups and car fires, and who knows maybe some actual ones if the protests keep up the way they are.