This Is Hazardville @thisishazardville-blog - Tumblr Blog

evidence in support of getting up early

recently, for the first time in ten years, i have been consistently going to bed and getting up early. this usually means going to bed between 9:30 and 10:30 and getting up between 6 and 7.

i have often had a recurring dream that i suspect many others have as well: i am back in high school for some reason, and about a week into the school year, i realize that i've been forgetting to attend math class. this realization brings with it some blend of panic and resignation.

this morning, just before waking, i had the same dream, but with a twist: i realized that i hadn't done my math homework, but also realized that it was before 6am, and school didn't start until around 8:30, so i still had plenty of time. i awoke feeling hopeful.

so far, this experiment is going well.

4/22/14 - morning constitutional insights

cultivate good habits before attacking bad habits. start by finding something that's good for you AND that you enjoy doing, and start doing it a lot, ideally first thing in the morning. everything else will start to fall into place.

the duality of hedonia and eudaimonia is pernicious. it masks the fact that eudaimonia is usually driven by the promise of deferred hedonia – hence belief in the afterlife, which no longer works as a reason for being good. we need far more sophisticated concepts of human pleasure and happiness. i have often heard that people who do good things for "selfish" reasons – e.g. to have interesting experiences, meet people, broaden their horizons – make better volunteers than those who are explicitly seeking to "give back" or "make a difference." hedonia is the gasoline of human behavior – we need to learn how to let it power us.

spend large chunks of time doing things that benefit you in multiple ways.

the spacetime conundrum: space and time are not natural phenomena. they are constructions of human consciousness. in order to flourish in this flattened and fragmented world, we must not only realize that space and time are constructions, but also take responsibility for their construction. space and time are like clothing and shelter: they are unnatural but we need them. consider founding "the amplituhedron club."

if i spend an hour every morning reading a book, and then another hour jogging around town, it is because i need to establish my spacetime.

why i will defend roe v wade to my death

Among the countless arguments for and against the criminalization of abortion, one stands out – namely, that to criminalize abortion is to legally deny women the freedom to decide what happens to their bodies. To criminalize abortion is to declare to women, with the force of law, that their bodies to not belong to them.

If a fetus is a human being, then abortion is murder – so goes the pro-life party line. Of course, if a fetus is NOT a human being, then abortion is NOT murder. And the question of whether or not a fetus is a human being is HIGHLY controversial, philosophical rather than scientific and unlikely ever to be answered in a way that will satisfy everyone.

But the idea that being free to decide what happens to one's own body is a basic human right, if not THE basic human right, would seem pretty uncontroversial, at least in theory. In practice, though, we still live in a society in which all too many people, women in particular, are denied that freedom. And a law against abortion would be a legal enshrinement of that denial.

This debate is about more than a woman's right to choose – it is about the direction in which we, as a society, are headed. Are we continuing to work, as we have for over two centuries, to further the cause of the most basic human freedom? Or are we sliding backwards into a time when human bodies, especially women's bodies, belonged to those in power? As Roe v. Wade enters its 42nd year, take some time to think about which sort of world you'd like to live in.

#roe v wade #pro-choice

Fashion 2014 Wishlist

IT'S A NEW ERA. The early teens are over. Things are ready to look a little bit different. Here's how I want things to look:

dudes:

NO MORE FUCKING PLAID

cool it with the beards

mod – skinnier ties, tighter jackets, louder shirts

more leather

studded belts

absolutely no fedoras

silly t-shirt (e.g. superman) under sport jacket

no more keffiyehs

suspenders are okay

argyle can come back

caesar cut can come back

jesus and mary chain bangs

dye your hair unnatural colors

undercut is still cool

cool it with the slicked-back hair

oscar night style stubble

adam sackler style goatee

civil war style hats

sea captain hats

keep on power clashing

converse forever

skinny jeans forever

fake wayfarers forever

maybe a bit of eyeliner

maybe some black nail polish

black timberlands

houndstooth

checkers

kitschy plastic watches

think ironic lisa frank

fat horizontal stripes

throw in a little paisley

cowboy shirts but not bolo ties

this hat

friendship bracelets

charm bracelets

depleted glowstick bracelets

slap bracelets

cardigans are okay

beanies are okay but enough with the pompoms

fun socks

t-shirts always tight

totally random (e.g. someone else's family reunion) thrift shop t-shirts

neon shades are okay

aviators can be cool

be jacked (i.e. lift weights, do pushups, etc.)

cutoff t-shirts when appropriate

you can break out the old denim jacket

fingerless gloves

low slung everything

chicks:

lauren mayberry style polka dots

lauren mayberry style everything, really

keep your bangs

leather jackets

pixies are great

bobs are great

skrillex cut is okay

dye your hair unnatural colors

no more fucking plaid

houndstooth

big long sweaters

converse forever

fake wayfarers forever

high waisted dresses forever

sailor tops forever

you don't have to be skinny

rompers can be okay

those rhinestone glasses with the pointy wings

big kitschy rings

maybe pillbox hats?

occult iconography (e.g. abracadabra inverted triangle)

pumps forever

no more coachella headbands

no more feathers

you don't NEED fancy high boots

no fedoras

fun stockings

fun knee socks

sparkly collars

chelsea wolfe style witchy pendants

virgin mary style cloak, somehow

the occasional witchy circlet

egyptian style eyeliner

throw in a little leopard

little backpacks are fine

corsets

chokers

gothy lace up boots

rock a skater boy hat

skinny boy jeans

armpit hair is okay

rainbows

think ironic lisa frank

marnie michaels style big bushy pigtails

keep rocking that dark lipstick

get creative with plain ribbed tank tops

rock baggy pants once in a while

balls out power clashy shirt and jacket combos

little pictures of animals and/or fruits

#fashion

Yes, yes, yes! Blessed are the heretics of optimism, for they shall teach us never to trust a 10-minute story with a happy ending.

#ted talks #culture

"Guys like [David] Brooks are so accustomed to no one paying attention to what they’re saying that they’ve stopped paying attention themselves."

"A New York Times Columnist Admits He Should Probably Be Arrested."

#david brooks #weed #vice #quotes

It's funny to read old Pitchfork reviews.

For starters, I once went to a talk by Greil Marcus in which he said that the absolute lowest form of criticism is the kind where you make fun of something by making fun of the sort of person who would like it. Pitchfork is pretty good at this point, but back in the early '00s that sort of easy-target douchery was their core competency. See also: this.

But furthermore, check out this part.

These songs will never test you or judge you. Every song is as straight-on as you can get, filled with the power of distorted, chugging guitars, pummeling 4/4 drums, and bass playing so precise it could be programmed. There are no fancy production tricks or effects, just four chords of awesome pop music.

HOW IS THAT A BAD THING? I'm listening to Bleed American right now, for the first time in at least ten years, maybe even the first time ever, and I gotta say, it's good. Some of the hooks are a little undercooked, but the thing has tons of muscle. If it came out in 2013 it would've gotten BMN'ed.

#music #pop-punk #jimmy eat world

parataxis i

a parade that watches you. a conveyor belt that delivers you to your suitcase. a sonata with all the notes played at once to save time. a hypothetical infinite yo-yo string. a train that builds its own track with robot arms, hauling a cargo of track-building materials. he who holds all the cards has four royal flushes. people don't play cellos; bows do. the digital stock ticker resulted in a critical shortage of confetti. roads go nowhere, but you can go places on them. heaven would be urinating forever; hell would be never quite sneezing. the air valve cap went three point one four times farther than you did. stay thirsty my friends, but not by not drinking anything.

#poetry

now approaching midnight

i'm really just a hive of particles, and right now i feel like one. on the street the tires in slush are urban surf. and of course there is the drift of clouds against the moon. i hallucinate a geothermal colony of worms. a dark oscillation is now approaching and now receding. across the chasm of the turnpike, floodlights, purpose unknown. the lowing of construction vehicles, like grazing brontosaurs. what is it like on saturn? all sky, i'll bet. all heavy sky that reaches down and engulfs you. we should be grateful ours is so distant. but we fire up space probes. i swear the moon hums as it grazes the clouds like a tape head. i swear it pulls my blood a little closer to it along with the ocean.

#poetry

I just saw this band in someone's basement.

It looked a little like this ↑

They covered this song.

Dusty Hill of ZZ Top once said that every rock 'n' roll song should have three chords, and that if you write a rock 'n' roll song and it has four chords in it then you should take one of the chords out.

Same goes for if you cover a song with four chords. Hence, Tomboy took that third intro chord, the chunk-chunk-chunk-chunk one, out of the song. Suddenly Blink-182 sounded like the Ramones. It was damn near alchemical.

I told Madeline (above), who usually plays drums, that she needs to be up front for way more than her typical one song per set for reasons that the photo above should make obvious. I showed her the photo as evidence. My phone is cracked, which may have lessened the impact, but I think she still got the message.

It was their first show in months and still they've gotten better – faster, tighter, more relentless. All they need is Madeline up front, especially for their latest track, the menacing "Sweetie." Her rage face and punk rock jazz hands alone could incite a circle pit in seconds.

#tomboy #music

self-summary?

in music, preference for loud and coarse over prim and proper – if not PUNK then at least rock 'n' roll. attraction to guitars without fetishizing the guitar.

attraction to the headier, more cerebral esoterica over hippy-dippy shit. tarot, alchemy, planetary astrology over wicca, "spirituality," stellar astrology.

clean-shaven – maybe some stubble but no more beards.

"rocker" fashion: leather jackets, faded t-shirts, stud belts, combat boots. no more plaid, no more neon chillwave tank-tops.

does not necessarily AGREE WITH but nonetheless understands and respects the notion that the beatles peaked in '64.

wept a little when lou reed died.

feminist and queer-friendly, passionately and as a matter of course, as if no one in their right mind could be otherwise.

critical of commercialism but not in a knee-jerk way. understands that commercialism has its uses even for those who nominally stand against it.

attraction to "outdated" media – vinyl, cassette, newsprint, film, vhs, etc. – but for reasons that go beyond mere romantic nostalgia.

smitten with ephemera.

no more outdoor music festivals.

conversant in the language of microbrews but happily falls back on the cheap stuff.

not self-righteous about anything, no illusions about escaping complicity in "the system" – takes a certain pride in awareness of guilty conscience.

le corbusier and mies van der rohe over wright and gehry.

bach and beethoven over mozart, a bit of wagner, some chopin, some brahms, some mendelssohn, shostakovich over stravinsky, schoenberg over strauss. no more putting satie on a pedestal.

heifetz over perlman.

kid a over ok computer but only just.

smitten with henry miller but no misogyny. same with ernest hemingway and robert lowell.

desire to be manly, acknowledgement that the pursuit of manliness is a highly tricky business in these days.

dürer and bosch over the italians.

judd and lewitt over warhol – but warhol is still cool.

fitter-stoke

magictransistor

Graffito depicting a crucifixion, from the Palatine Hill, Rome, first half of 3rd cent. AD. The crude graffito shows a crucifix with a donkey’s head, seen from behind and dressed in a short tunic. To the left stands a man with the same clothes and his arm raised. Between the two figures is a Greek graffito: “Alexemenos sebete theon” (Alexamenos worships his god). Apparently, the author of the drawing is making fun of a Christian, Alexamenos, who is praying to a god with a donkey’s head. The Y visible on the plaster, to the right, at the top, has been interpreted as a symbol of a gallows, or a transcription of a scream of pain. This is one of the oldest representations of the crucifixion.

#religion

perpetually startled eyes like candy comatose evenings glasses of petit syrah oak-scented candles venetian blinds parted life across the street flowerless plants dreams coming slowly, slowly true changing, slowly, slowly to fit the world.

the end of "the stream"

Something has changed. I can feel it. Can you?

Maybe it's this article, which went up this morning.

My favorite line in The Vagina Monologues:

If your vagina could talk, what would it say?

Two words: SLOW DOWN!!!

If my brain could talk, it would say the same thing.

I root for permanence. I always have.

Because permanence is the underdog. If you disagree with me, think about something "permanent" and then fast forward. Not so permanent, huh?

Change is the law of the universe. Just ask the Buddha.

Or just ask physics. Just ask the second law of thermodynamics.

That's right: entropy always increases. Order always decreases. Everything wants to become heat. Everything wants to burn.

"The Stream" is the the endless GIF of Being itself. The river that you can't step in twice is the law of the universe.

But fuck that. We were made to disobey, we humans.

Look: God may be an asshole, but he's not stupid. He WANTED us to eat from that tree. Otherwise he never would have put it in so conspicuous a place.

We the living are surly, combative bastards. We humans especially. Let's never change.

The point is, is that it's hard to be human. It takes work. It's unnatural. And the point is that maybe the Internet is finally learning how to be human.

Don't you ever be a fatalist. If you're reading this, then the good guys need you now more than ever. Fight, fight, fight until your last breath.

thisishazardville-blog

You Won't Believe Who Accompanied Ke$ha On Guitar For A Rolling Stones Cover At A Party In LA In This Video From Three Years Ago.

#it's este haim #small world!

I HAVE RETURNED

This blog used to be called "The Infinite Generation," which was a cute and heartfelt but also kind of maudlin and immature little pun. It is now called "This Is Hazardville," after the song by Potty Mouth. Expect more soon.

the rules

move briskly and without reluctance, like a wrist striking a match.

walk down the street as though you were carrying a suitcase full of heroin – almost but not quite fast enough to arouse suspicion.

never vacillate. if you really can't decide, just think about something else for a little while.

answer every question truly and with conviction. if you don't know the answer, say so.

finish all of your sentences, even if someone tries to interrupt you.

wait others to finish speaking before you respond – unless they show signs of having fallen into an endless loop, in which case interrupting them is a mercy.

take your greatest pleasure in kindness to others. it is a form of power – that, not altruism, is the secret of its appeal.

decide what you're going to do and then do it until it's done. then decide what you're going to do next and do that until it's done, and so on.

do not procrastinate. if you find yourself procrastinating, locate the source of your impulse to procrastinate and decide to ignore it.

choose your words with care. if that means speaking slowly then so be it. if you speak well then people will pay attention.

know what you will say if someone asks you to talk about yourself and your desires. it doesn't have to be true, but it has to be something.

do not let yourself be driven by the expectations of others. if you want to make other people happy, do nice things for them. what you accomplish for the purposes of making others happy will for that reason not belong to you.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

This Is Hazardville