BE DESSERTIVE

Be slow with your thought, then quick with your actions.

[minniti]

december 14th (suicide is ugly.)

december 14th has been a bad day.

Keep reading

[veeleeaam]

A dear, sweet, young boy took his own life yesterday. I am honored that he was my friend. and I’m horrified that is now in the past. I respected more than most people my own age. He was the future. See you on the other side, Emilio.

[veeleeaam]

I lost my car in an accident last Friday. Today I wrote the final signature that signed away my poor G20 and ended that chapter of my life of driving my first car. Didn't ever think it would've been so soon from getting it but that's life I guess. In my trunk since last summer was this BMO I got while in LA from my friend. Sitting it in the box it came in thinking it would be safe. BMO I've neglected your existence! You rode with me back from my first big solo road trip! You were with me when I first met my girlfriend after she had moved to the West Coast! You've crossed the Canadian border almost as much as I have! You're a world class plush, BMO! YOU WERE A WORLD CLASS CAR, G! I HAVE LOVED YOU FOREVER AND I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER. Some romances are fleeting. Til we meet again.

[z1r0]

*queue Queen’s “I want it all”*

[veeleeaam]

And I want this NAO

[veeleeaam]

Thoughts on The Revenant

I wanted to go over my thoughts while I was watching the revenant. It really has nothing to do with the actors performances themselves although it goes without saying that they give life to the frozen backdrop they transverse throughout the film. Have you ever.. Been in the woods? Better yet have you've flown over a snow-capped peak on the clearest day in all creation? The movies felt to me as though I wasn't the camera tracked through the trees, but a wanton spirit, surveying the spectacle that unfolds throughout the movie. I felt close to the woods, I felt acquainted with the river, I had bad blood with the Kodiak, and I shared an intimate relationship with the mountains. The mountains I felt so close to. In one moment, DiCaprio traverses a mountain walled valley that sits only decipherable whites casting varying shadows on the landscape. Even in his trial, I wished to be in that man and see only valley and mountain in finitum. I see into the shadow of the mountain like the dog sees into the forest in that old Jack London tale. Something even less tangible and even more instinctual. Do I want to be on the mountain? No. The only conclusion from that is that I will yearn for it's neighbor's color saturation and I will never be satisfied in my accomplishment as long as that is my  insurmountable goal.

[powerevolution]

Why Are SO Many Millennials SO Uncool?

*For the purpose of this writing, I’m defining “cool” as those who don’t conform, who don’t always fit in nor do they try to, and who follow their own path; and “uncool” as those who dress, act, and have the same tastes as the masses and are vulnerable to corporate influences.

One night a few weeks ago, a group of twenty-somethings came into the bar where I was working and headed for the jukebox. It’s digital, which means it’s not curated, which means I immediately felt the familiar knot of dread form in my stomach that’s always accompanied by seeing young people approach the jukebox. It usually means my ears are about to be violated by a string of cheesy Top 40 songs for the next hour or so. Sure enough, Taylor Swift’s voice invaded the room, and some members of the group started singing along. Proudly. Feeling no sense of shame for doing something that, fifteen or twenty years ago, would have gotten them laughed out of the bar. And this wasn’t the first time I’ve noticed this recently. While grocery shopping a few days ago, a shopper started singing aloud to Adam Levine’s latest tragedy that radio tells us is a song. Where’s the dignity!? How can these people, people who moved to a neighborhood because of its supposed “cool” factor, not know that singing along to whatever is saturating the airwaves is one of the uncoolest things they could do?

Patti Smith sporting an edgy personal sense of style - Cool

Grizzly Bear looking like their mothers still dress them - Not Cool

In all fairness, it’s not entirely their fault. They really just don’t know any better. Their lack of knowledge of anything other than that which is spoon fed them is the byproduct of a global media oligopoly. To quote Robert McChesney in his book “Rich Media, Poor Democracy, "it happened to the oil and automotive industries earlier in the 20th century, now it is happening to the entertainment industry.” Media has been completely overtaken by major corporations and unless people choose to think for themselves, they’re going to believe that what’s put in front of them is the only thing that exists. And the talent show hosting, product endorsing “musicians;” along with the latest string of tame bands major labels tell us are “rock,” are unfortunately the spokespeople for getting us to think the music we’re having shoved down our throats is all there is, and that it is somehow relevant.

Shows like “American Idol” and “The Voice” trick viewers into thinking that having a pitch perfect voice is the only skill necessary to be a musician. Content, a message, is not a priority. Imagine if Neil Young needed Simon Cowell’s approval in order to get the label backing necessary to become a known musician. And can you picture Kurt Cobain nervously standing in front of Adam Levine to find out what he thought of his cover of “Man Who Sold the World?” If relevant rock ‘n’ roll were more accessible, I wouldn’t care what goes on in the talent show circuit. But corporate media has made intelligent music scarce, and what does exist is nearly impossible for the masses to hear.

Kurt Cobain - Cool

Adam Levine making grunge-inspired clothing for K Mart - Not Cool

Every recent decade up to the 90s had a music revolution that inspired a counterculture. One that challenged the status quo. Political and psychedelic rock during the 60s encouraged young people to leave the safety of their parents’ homes, fight in the streets for civil rights, and protest war…while taking acid and smoking lots of dope. The 70s challenged youth to question the establishment with punk rock, which was still alive and well in the 80s; and along with it, bands like Devo sang about the devolution of the human race. The 90s had grunge, which was an outlet for the pain and frustration that accompanies feelings of isolation and disenfranchisement. It discouraged consumption and showed that opulence was uncool. Along with the music bands were playing, was a lifestyle that inspired it. Punk bands like Crass lived on a commune to prove humans can govern themselves. Nirvana rehearsed ten hours a day before recording “Nevermind” because their house was so freezing they tried to stay away from it as much as possible. My point being, popular musicians prior to the 21st century were actual artists, on a path of self discovery. They either never had comforts, or they gave them up to pursue their passions and find themselves, not allowing themselves to be told who they should be. The best art is usually born out of struggle, whether personal or sympathetic. And most of today’s popular musicians’ lifestyles are anything but difficult. Their music is not based on life experiences, hard knocks, or political and social themes. It is self-absorbed, mindless drivel that would make John Lennon blush with shame for the human race. Today’s popular “artists” are a constant stream of sell outs who can’t be content with the mansion that their music affords them. They need a fragrance line, a fashion line, a job hosting a talent show, and commercial endorsements so that they can buy even more stuff they don’t need. And too many of today’s millennials buy into it.  They believe that if they keep their noses to the ground, stay out of trouble, never challenge the system, and work to maintain the same sort of lifestyle as their role models, they’re doing the right thing. Oblivious to the fact that they’ve been turned into total nerds.

John Lennon - Cool

Mumford & Sons (we’re supposed to believe they’re a rock band) - Not Cool

So what happened after the 90s? Did musicians just stop caring? Has there been nothing going on in the world that needs to be changed, so therefore no music asking for it? Or could it possibly be the passing of The Telecommunications Act of 1996 that kept inspiring, rule-breaking, boundary-testing music from reaching our ears?  Again, from “Rich Media, Poor Democracy,“ "The core premise of the act was to eliminate restrictions on firms moving into other communication areas - for example, phone companies moving into cable television and vice versa, or long distance phone companies moving into local service and vice versa - and then to eliminate as many regulations as possible on these firms’ behavior…And the one media sector most thoroughly overturned by the Telecommunications Act has been radio broadcasting. The Act relaxed ownership restrictions so that a single firm can own up to eight stations in a single market. In the twenty months following enactment of the new law, there has been the equivalent of an Oklahoma land rush as small chains have been acquired by middle-sized chains, and middle-sized chains have been gobbled up by the few massive giants who have come to dominate the national industry. Since 1996, some one-half of the nation’s eleven thousand radio stations changed hands, and there were over one thousand radio firm mergers." 

So the 90s was the decade when radio stations got taken over by corporate giants (with corporate, not cultural, interests in mind), and, not coincidentally, when radio went to shit. Joy Elmer Morgan, founder of Future Teachers of America, predicted that "as a result of radio broadcasting, there will probably develop during the twentieth century either chaos or a world-order of civilization. Whether it shall be one or the other will depend largely upon whether broadcasting be used as a tool of education or an instrument of selfish greed. So far, our American radio interests have thrown their major influence on the side of greed….there has never been in the entire history of the United States an example of mismanagement and lack of vision so colossal and far-reaching in its consequences of our turning the radio channels almost exclusively into commercial hands…whoever controls the radio will in the end control the development of the human race.” Scary. Especially when noting that Morgan died in 1986, and in 1983, 50 corporations controlled the majority of news media. Now six corporations control it. One of them is Walt Disney, which would explain why Adam Levine is touted as a “rockstar.”

Grace Slick - Cool

Beyonce endorsing a drink that contributes to obesity and diabetes - Not Cool

In 1948, jazz critic Sidney Finkelstein summed up commercialism in music superbly when he said it ultimately leads “to what is really destructive in culture: the taking over of an art by business.” It seems that with the advent of the internet, and the seeming freedom and ease it could provide to get relevant music out there, corporations have gotten even more aggressive to keep people’s thoughts on consumption, rather than cultural and social change. And millennials are the ones most vulnerable because they have no personal connection to a time when music actually mattered. When it was the most accessible medium for getting a message to the world. Now corporations have used the medium artists once used to spread a message of social change, to send the message that they need more and more useless shit instead. Don’t believe the Top 40 hype that pushes singing puppets on us and tries to make us believe that their silly antics and extravagant lifestyles are anything but pathetic. Supporting your local musicians by going out to hear live music is a great way to combat the control media has over us. Checking out music blogs is another way to find out about artists who aren’t corporately endorsed. If you can’t find anything on those, ask around to find out who people’s favorite bands are. Just make sure those you ask are over the age of 30. ;)

Rage Against the Machine - Cool

Arcade Fire - Don’t get me started.

Sources:

“Rich Media, Poor Democracy,” by Robert McChesney

http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6 http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/who-owns-the-media-the-6-monolithic-corporations-that-control-almost-everything-we-watch-hear-and-read

[veeleeaam]

:Insert Orson Welles and/or Shia Lebeouf clapping here:

[veeleeaam]

[veeleeaam]

My friend summarized my entire core thoughts about iPhone and it’s experience in this obviously nice little blurb and I’m over the moon about it.

[pk-dub-deactivated20160929]

[veeleeaam]

Blue blue skies I seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[veeleeaam]

Til next time, DC

[veeleeaam]

Why I love and hate the internet.

[veeleeaam]

Happy Birthday Song For Daniken Harrod-Universe

DANIKA DANIKA DANIKA (emphasis on Da. continues in the background for remainder of song)

sung

Danikaa~ you’re a woman today! Just like yesterday, but more so today!

Danikaa~With hair like the night and Birthday Party Attack eyebrows.

ATTACK (pew) ATTACK (pew) PARTY (whoosh) PARTY~ (wooooooooooo. sha)

Danikaa~ Take the world. It’s your birthday so you’re the no1 girl.

rapped

DANI DANI, HIME HIME

SF knows that you’re alive as you travel down the freeway.

Stepping on dicks to get through the throngs

Thrashing to the tune of vocaloid trap songs

The manga barroness

That can rhyme with Harrod, yes?

Her peace signs are heaven sent

Haters can GET BENT!

(do ppl still say that? who cares it’s Danika’s birthday FUCK EM)

We celebrate your life from shore to shore

NO SITTING ON THE DOCK CAUSE ALL THE BAY IS YOURS!

Danikaa~ Take the world. It’s your birthday so you’re the no1 girl

[veeleeaam]

I dont care about my mouth suddenly revisiting my breakfast this afternoon. 

[veeleeaam]

(via 【DAYTONA USA】 「Let's Go Away -H. version-」 (English Subtitles) - YouTube)

All of my hopes and dreams have been dissolved because I am not this man. This is amazing and I will now live my life as a shadow.

[veeleeaam]

Timofey Mozgov Was so in the Zone, He Answered a Reporter's Question in Russian | Bleacher Report

HAHAHA SO FITTING FOR WHAT I JUST WROTE.

[veeleeaam]

I don’t have words

NP: Half Bad Radio Ep 20 

I don’t know how many languages there are in the world. And by time I actually figure that out; more than likely, one or two of those will go out of current use. They will be dead before I have the chance to mourn the words I’ll never have.

Themes in this piece (for my own clarification): Language, the multiverse (the tangent), what all this means (the boomerang)

 I don’t know words. Let’s clear that up. I am writing to you now with no physical interpreter. But just like everyone else we all live our lives and express ourselves through a filter. The filter that we all share is language. The sounds and timed movements of the mouth or swiped hands and fingers that our mothers and fathers taught us, which was taught to them and so on in changing in indistinguishable fashion from generation>generation>generation. I already feel like this is too verbally flashy. 

 When I was in my late teens I used to spend most of time with church folks I went to school with. Those two things (church and friends) were important to me and having them be platonic bedfellows was ideal. I realized later the camaraderie was more crucial and moved away from all that. What came from this though is I could rarely curse. With the continuing intermingling of church kids, their parents, and other older members of the church community I had to find ways to speak that could get my words across without being so..abrupt. I was rarely with people one on one so my feelers for other people’s sensitivities were always on guard. This built up my wall of words, I used to pull things out of the ether just to circle around to a point. I think that probably helped me while in Japan to combat what was to come: the loss of my speech. 

 When you live in a different language, your sights and sounds and eventually thoughts start to submerge themselves in this new filtration system. Eventually you realize you don’t just live in another world, but you’ve successfully tapped the door of another universe.

Have you ever learned a new word and then suddenly you hear it everywhere and all the time? You accept it’s alway has been there and you just missed it. But truly you know the tiny door to the next universe just opened to you. Now take that and have it happen with an unassigned language filter. Every minute, every hour, every day. So many worlds inviting you in to see, hear, feel, taste their different view..just with one word.

I always say there are three way to looks through the lens of the multiverse:

Being able to see through the eyes of another person. Hearing the way their ears hear, seeing(or not seeing) the colors their eyes see, or back to no 1 grab the internal response of a word from their special neural connection. (near impossible)

Loving different people in the exact same way and watching their unique response (semi easy)

Acquisition of words (easiest)

 Just because the doors to a universe open, doesn’t mean others don’t close as well. This beauty and linguistic hedonism takes it toll. You have no need to keep your verbal blades sharp in any other language, including the one you started with. You deal with people who have broken down their walls of reservation and opened up themselves to the worlds immediate wonder. That’s a nice way to say they don’t care what words they use to become the airbag or the accident itself. You lose all your collision protection vocabulary and you cling onto basic coverage verbiage. And now I’m here, seven years and a degree later and I still feel the repercussions of that lush language life. Only now it’s with the second fading filter. 

 We live next to the door of another universe.  We live through imperfect filters. We live everyday with what might as well be an infinite number of words and worlds we’ll never have or never see. 

So to those words I won’t know tomorrow, I mourn for you today.

[veeleeaam]

[veeleeaam]

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Still freaking out