Thursday, August 31, 2006

lost in the archives, maybe forever

ever get music and don't know how? well, a refreshingly simple layout greets me as i reach out to make contact with some aussie musical talent.

band sites are all pretty much the same, but these guys get props for keeping it simple, technologically and aesthetically.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

random band discovery of the day

the helio sequence. i'm not really sure they're the greatest thing ever, but a couple song samples later you might find them intriguing, as i do. kudos for the sweet/annoying site layout. i'm not sure what i would have made of this if i hadn't seen the name of their label at the bottom of the page. it can be hard to know what to expect from something advertised thusly - "The practice of deliberately rejecting pure deliberation is The Helio Sequence’s newest modus operandi, but it hasn’t always been"...unless you are clever.

Monday, August 28, 2006

the collapse of my empire

media, for better or worse, is a part of our daily lives. some seek to consume it, some to defy it, others to control it. control comes in several forms; for personal glory, one might seek the glow of flashbulbs and spotlights, while for fortune itself one might seek to be the voice regulating the aim of those bulbs and lights. it was in this fashion that, for a brief moment, i ruled the world. for exactly one month, i was the master of all media to the ants that live in my apartment. i chose the magazines they longer to scamper across. i broadcast music and information to all reaches of their domain. my movies blared on their televisions, my messages gave life to their phones, and my face greeted them each morning. then it all changed. the exterminator left me with nothing, an audience that died before i knew it was there.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

the carp starts to fish

this is supposed to be a series, running at the bottom of the emails for church. i am not sure exactly how to start writing a series entitled, "the card starts to fish," but it was my idea in the first place.

carp live long lives alone in the sea. this isn't actually true, but in stories they may. at least, that is, in this story. theobald was a carp, a freshwater carp, but he lived in the ocean. many years ago, he stumbled upon a newfound love. not the romantic kind, but the kind that steals your minutes one by one as you dive deeper into it, until it becomes a permanent part of your life. you see, theobald discovered fishing.

besides being incredibly odd, the main problem with this beginning is the language. "steals your minutes one by one" is not a phrase that should necessarily be used in a story that is only there for fun at the end of your email. nothing at all happens, and we aren't really introduced to the character, scene, or plot. however, if it is going to be a participatory serial, that is no problem. i would like to see if anyone picks this up and runs with it; my plan was to let them do whatever they want. theobald, however, may never see the inside of that email. i might just have to come up with something more fitting.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

latest incomplete

i'm so gla-a-ad
that you're suffering fools
i'm so alonge, i'm not lost,
waiting till the magma cools

i'm so reli-i-ieved
that the healer's art
was stolen from the gallery
before the fire from the tempter's dart.

one of my goals is constant vigilance
i'll be watching every move
you're playing chess with an eye on excellence
mensa still rejected you

Friday, August 25, 2006

discovery of the day

exciting new musical stuffs. making it all worthwhile, at least tonight's allotment of it.

truth in advertising

i got one of those fantastic emails that grace my inbox without my ever daring ask to receive it. it proclaimed "the bull is back" in select stocks.

Monday, August 21, 2006

guest writer

this come courtesy of imdb.com and a particularly gifted reviewer. note the cryptic use of the word "heroine," which could either be referring to the drug (spelled wrong) or an actual heroine. it is the brilliance of grammar that bring to pass.

"Alice(Claire Danes) and Darlene(Kate Beckinsale) have been best friends since forever and after they graduate they decide to take a trip to Thailand. Due to a incident, they meet a young attractive mysterious stranger who invites them to go with him Hong Kong for the weekend. But at the airport, Alice and Darlene are mistaken for drug smuggling heroine and they are sent to prison. Now it's time for ultimate survival and true friendship. This was a pretty good movie, i've seen it a couple of times and after a while you notice that they are a few holes in the plot but the movie still keeps you entertained. Claire Danes did a great job as usual, she is a great actress. I would give Brokedown Palace 8/10 "

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Saturday, August 19, 2006

connecticut steps it up

thank you for the best senate race i can recall.

Friday, August 18, 2006

in which a record label forms

cold soda records, nonexistant due to lack of qualified personnel and available funding, proudly announces its genesis. several artists were considered, three were added to the label's stable of talent. voxtrot happily excluded for having found a good home of its own already.

first off - washington dc's own exit clov, which- as legend has it - emerged from the smoking remains of two prior dc bands gone sour. violins, twin vocalists, keyboards, and a bassist whose stage presence is undeniable.

following along, portland's loch lomond, a happy discovery while attending a norfolk and western show. it's not often you go to a concert and find a new band you like better than the band you desperately had to see. i think it is beyond necessary that these guys have a long and successful career. they had about seven people on stage playing strings, celeste, piano, guitar, etc. brilliant moody folk.

finally, a band with some incredible songs and some real annoying ones, but deserving none the less. ray's vast basement. please read the story behind the band.

wan(2)pi(2)

impish

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

thank you truman capote

no stars could penetrate the city's glare
one hundred times i've seen you stare
beyond the realm of truth and pain
your whisper tells of silence shared
now broken, will our eyes conceive
a longer dawn and looser mist
settling in hazy smoke
then lifting, bound for thoughts of steam

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

how to ruin a good idea

sometimes you have a good idea...and then you're more in the mood to ruin it than let it shine alone. diamonds in the rough, not in a display case...because in the rough is real.

you're my 50-cent juliet
haven't even barely got to know you yet
you're the tops
you're the best
you work alone

i can't call to mind
the rythm of your voice
something in your eyes
when you tell me

no, it's not original
papers lie some more
messages from brazen worlds
of though-starved greed

still there's something
run from the heartbeat
fill in what you lost back there
i will take the blame

fill in what you lost back there
i'll give you my word

Monday, August 14, 2006

spinnakola

spinach flavored cola? i'm holding out for the diet version, but seriously, someone in the upper ups actually thinks this would be an interesting idea. is there a limit to what sweet drinks will actually sell? perhaps the pepsi corporation is working on figuring that out as we speak.

shan(1)zhu(2)

mangosteen

Sunday, August 13, 2006

eat more fruit

and do not absent-mindedly draw silly looking cartoonish figures that too closely resemble your professor saying 'eat more fruit.' especially in very small classes when you're sitting near the head of the table.

lost posts: my couscous is at the office

not only did this post disappear, it had sweet bad grammar when first written. basically, there's this story where i move apartments and leave a buncha stuff in my cubicle while i am shifting from one domicile to the next. so, tension comes in with a listing of things that are less-than-tasty. vinegar, yo. we leave off with a wistful confession of my laments for those items i could actually use at home - cocoa powder; vanilla...

you buy, we confiscate

i am not looking forward to my next flight flight.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

journaling time

i wrote 3 songs, or parts of 3, in the past two weeks...mostly on a cross-country flight to see my sister. couldn't sleep. had to write.

the best thing about writing is you don't have to read what you wrote afterwards if you don't want to. still, once i did write down some of the ideas that had been rushing through my head for several days prior to the flight. my mind is more at rest, even if the process didn't produce anything particularly pleasing.

Friday, August 11, 2006

iranian reality check

i like iran. i am not kidding. i think it is a totally sweet country and i want to go there and learn the language. i also think the government of iran is not likely to help me with my goals. however, i also like eating yogurt with shredded wheat squares. any government approval necessary for me to engage in that activity has already been granted before said food items reach my table.

teenage sister band smoosh makes final appearance

in totally fabricated news today, teenage sister band smoosh has decided to call it quits, in order to pursue lucrative careers in concert promotion. no further explanation was available from the band's agent.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

the problem with greatness

if we take outstanding achievement as our inspiration, we often find mitigating factors that, for many, undermine its inspirational value. for one, there isn't much to like about people whose personal matters are made public. thus, there's always something to dislike about famous people. most of us have had an ugly moment or two, which is probably uncharacteristic and remains private. those privy to its knowledge are hopefully familiar enough with our innate goodness to know we aren't like that all the time. famous people don't really get the chance to prove to us that, deep down, they are good people. sometimes they aren't good people at all. maybe that's all the time. there's also the issue of cheating, deception, etc - in many cases, the very feats we admire are called into question as we discover that people weren't abiding by the explicit rules of their craft or the implicit standards we set up for them. it's not just who we make out to be heroes either - the microscope we hold them under is going to turn out bad things in probably anyone. that's why we need robot athletes and politicians. we can set the rules they'll abide by, and judge their achievements accordingly. we can even take pride in the greatness of those who built these robotocrats. because if greatness is what we value, then humanity might just be about doing something humans can't do.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

the ethics of soda

cheating is bad. performance enhancing substances are bad. using drugs to do things you couldn't otherwise do is bad. using chemical means to achieve more and earn praises and accolades one doesn't deserve is bad. so for the typical salaried worker, is it wrong to drink soda (or coffee etc) to stay awake at work? just a quick thought.

xiao(3)shi(2)

snacks

Monday, August 07, 2006

wai(4) dai(4)

means takeout in mandarin

signed photos

i have decided i really want a signed photo of floyd landis because i think it would be really funny. so maybe he cheated, ruined everyone's faith in cycling, etc. we were all so proud of his "superhuman" effort in that one stage. so what now? oh, i'm sorry - we're offended that you did the impossible with the help of performance enhancing drugs. excuse us for demanding atheletes deliver jaw-dropping performances without that exta leg up.

so anyone who cares to bring sanity back to professional and olympic sport: reward mediocrity. it's the only way to keep things clean.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

can't sleep? write

seriously, when i moved out of my last apartment, i found all sorts of things i'd written on scrap paper; some were dreams i'd written down and others were just songs or ideas or some brilliant idea that never made sense after i wrote it down. others were pretty cool.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

the long ride into the sunset

as my shoes begin the long ride into the sunset
i feel it's time for me to say more
i can't be with you tonight as the wind brings me reasons
to be done with you and lose this phone

Friday, August 04, 2006

invisible ghosts and rangers

we are playing a spirited game of invisible ghosts and rangers here. i am the ranger, and the rest of the team are the invisible ghosts. so far, i'm winning.

save the coconuts

coconuts are a precious natural resource and should be conserved. even if it's more likely that you will be killed by a falling coconut than a shark attack. we talk about this frequently at work. while drinking water. not sodas.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

i was busy talking on the phone

thus i did not write a short story about a daughter returning to her father's life. i am not sure how i would really write that short story, but having failed to try, i will have to find out another time.

on the way home, this guy was playing guitar and i thought i heard him sing "i dreamed i saw a silver spaceship," which proves he totally deserves a dollar. i had already passed him by the time i figured this out, and i didn't want to go back. i went to a concert tonight and they played most of the believer before the first band went on. i liked it better live.

journey of salvation

i thought the title of this article was tribes call for removal of dams that block journey of salvation"

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

i don't complain about the heat much

i will mention, however, that i have personally been overheating the past couple days because i haven't gotten enough water somehow and it's been so hot in the office. you'd think it was easy to stay cool when you work for a soda company, but we don't exactly get all the soda we can drink. even if we did, none of us would have teeth any more. i hear somewhere we are working on a perfect diet soda, one that tastes like regular soda, not just cola, which has been essentially perfected in its diet form by pepsi. if we can get a diet rootbeer that doesn't taste like bilge water, i'll be onboard. has anyone heard of this pepsi jazz? i'll say it right now - pepsi has the worst product development of any soft drink maker. seriously - spice, blue, or crystal? so maybe pepsi can't be "all things to all people," but there sure weren't enough people out there to support this. pepsi seems to do a better job of just ripping off coke's new flavors - oh wait...both jazz flavors are essentially ripoffs of dr pepper flavors. so can pepsi imitating dr pepper go as well as pepsi imitating coke?

oh, wait...they're getting rid of pepsi vanilla and pepsi twist as they launch these. i can just hear the boardroom battles -

"should we stake our future on imitating coke, or imitating dr pepper?"

"dr pepper's been around longer"

"hmmm...sounds like a brand we can get behind"

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

drinking could ruin your entire profession?

a bit much, but did floyd landis' problems all start with an alcoholic binge? so plenty of harm has already been done here, whether or not he's innocent.

#1 - this is big messness for the sport as a whole, and nothing's even been proved yet. media media media, what have you done? well, heck, it's not like they've cancelled next year's tour or something. so it seems the mess about all those top contenders from last year hadn't done too much damage, yet...now things look so much worse. but seriously, how much is this going to hurt the sport as a whole?

#2 - i am glad i read this if only because i now know there is an o.u.c.h. medical center.

#3 - we're talking already about his betrayal of the fans, but we've certainly hung the guy out to dry already. i am still waiting impatiently for news of the second test.

7-track mind

My 8-track broke back in 1989
that car still runs but I'm stuck with a
7-track mind