Things I've learned in college (as of this week) Part 7

I think that Geology Majors are required to take a class strictly dedicated to making effective hand gestures when explaining semi-complicated to complicated geologic events and cycles.

Last Wednesday's Playlist

The Flaming Lips: Pompeii Am Gottergammerung
Cold War Kids: Mexican Dogs
Blitzen Trapper: Sleepy Time in the Western World
Buena Vista Social Club: Chan Chan
Secret Machines: Atomic Heels
Chuckanut Drive: Reno to Vegas
Jenny Lewis: Carpetbaggers ft. Elvis Costello
The Shaky Hands: Loosen Up
Electric Six: Formula 409
Ghostland Observatory: Piano Man
The Growers: To the Threads
Of Montreal: St. Exquisite's Confessions
Fleet Foxes: Ragged Wood
The Thermals: St. Rosa & The Swallows
The New Year: The Company I Can Get
The Little Ones: Ordinary Song
Takka Takka: Silence
The Streets: Everything is Borrowed
Noah and the Whale: 5 Years Time
Portishead: Hunter
The Spinto Band: Summer Grof
My Morning Jacket: Sooner
Mirah: Lonesome Sundown
Conor Oberst: Sausalito
Starfucker: Myke Ptyson
Wilco: Either Way
King Khan and The Shrines: Welfare Bread

Things I've learned in college (as of this week) Part 6

I'm pretty sure that geology professors are required to take a class that is strictly dedicated to hand gestures.

Fuck:

-Old dogs passing away

-Geology

-Moral obligations

-Wildfires in Santa Barbara

seriously

two crappy jokes

Uno

"So apparently they've lost contact with the Mars lander..."

-Dammit! Now I'll never find a Transformer!

Dos

"So apparently Obama's secret service code name is Renegade"

-So is my mom actually right in thinking he's a terrorist or is he just a huge Styx fan?

you're welcome...

...

The other day I was in environmental studies and i wasn't engaging myself at all (duh) and the prof began discussing something called "the big tuna experiment".


Basically it was this; Biomagnification is a word tossed around with this class a lot. Essentially it means the the older and bigger a species is, the more contaminants it will obtain over time from consistently eating the smaller fish that live shortly and contain small amounts of contaminants.

-in this case, tuna, as compared to albacore.


Now the experiment basically created a hypothesis saying that albacore (which is more expensive and more delicious) contains more mercury than tuna because of the biomagnification theory. They ended up being right.


But the only thing I could think about was Andy Bernard from The Office every time he said "big tuna".

and you thought it was going to be something phallic.... perv.

Did you watch Colbert Report last night?

Fucking Dan Savage was on! Oh, you didn't see it? It's ok I taped it for you.

is it just me?

or am i the only one who's noticed that everyone on tv FINALLY are pronouncing Nicholas Sarkozy's name right?

Radio Radio

What made Wednesday so great:


I've never seen a more postive appreciation for life on campus than I had on Wednesday of last week. Everywhere I went all I heard was "Happy Obama!". I just felt such an appreciation that I decided to reciprocate the happiness through the airwaves. So as I made my playlist for my radio show I decided to incorporate some punk/protest music.


I started things off with some Ted Leo & the Pharmacists (mild)

and went about my show preaching the words of the smiling faces (without violating FCC policies of course) and spent the rest of my off-air time trying to find the right Bob Dylan song.

So before my last song I played some Rage Against the Machine (Sleep Now With The Fire) and went back on the air to saying my closer. I talked briefly about the previous song and how it was a shame we didn't have Rage around for the last 8 years (at least in a major way). It then occurred to me while talking that I had realized that music won't have its zip in the near future and how it's a shame that our culture won't be as exciting because we just won't have the mediocrity we've had for the last 8 years which motivated us to say something and be exciting for the times. And with that I said the only thing fitting for a moment like this was "The Times They Are A-Changin'".

And with that song playing I signed off and wished everyone a happy week.


As I was about to leave the station the phone rang and the man on the other end said "Umm... I'm not sure if this is the guy who just finished that show and played the Bob Dylan... but.... thank you. And please tell me you're going to be on again soon because that was beautiful."

To which I expressed my appreciation. Because just hearing that made me realize that things will get better. There's no way it can't.

Last Wednesday's Playlist

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: Who Do You Love?
The Streets: Everything is Borrowed
Blitzen Trapper: Sleepytime in the Western World
Noah and the Whale: 5 Years Time
The New Year: The Company I Can Get
The Thermals: Returning to the Fold
No-Fi Soul Rebellion: Let's Pretend
Cold War Kids: Mexican Dogs
Ra Ra Riot: Dying is Fine
Eagles of Death Metal: Wannabe in LA
Jamie Lidell: Another Day
The Little Ones: Let Them Ring The Bells
Starf*cker: German Love
Hot Hot Heat : Talk to me, dance with me
Department of Eagles: Around the Bay
Okkervil River: Lost Coastlines
Ben Folds: Kylie from Connecticut
Fleet Foxes: Ragged Wood
Fort Knox Five: How to start a Band
Portishead: Magic Doors
The Spinto Band: Alphabetical Order
Kimya Dawson: Happy Home (Keep On Writing)
The Broken West: Auctioneer
Jenny Lewis: Acid Tongue
The Uglysuit: Chicago
Rage Against the Machine: Sleep Now With the Fire
Bob Dylan: The Times They are A-Changin


This was one of my better shows and I'll tell you why soon.

Obama Blog

And so we're one day since the most historical event of this year has taken place (and California, Oregon, and Washington didn't even need to be counted!), the Christmas music is running through my bones, and I've been reminiscing.

-If I get one more "tomorrow everyone needs to shave their pubes, it's the last day of Bush!" text I'm gonna fucking straggle the person who sent it to me.

-During my menagerie of aimless CNN/MSNBC/FOXNEWS viewing late that night someone on one of the stations said that Obama recieved the congrats phone call from the current president (wait, he's still in office?). That HAD to have been the most awkward phone call I could think of (something along the lines of calling an ex-girlfriend to try and stay friends I'm guessing...).

and I never heard if Obama ever said at the end of conversation anything like, "So we're good, right? Like, I know I said a lot of mean things about you to my friends, but I didn't mean them. Come on, Bushy, you know we're alright, right?"


-It's odd because I never thought my drunken perception would actually predict exactly how things would turn out.

I'll explain. Last March I got incredibly sauced and was outside of my dorm and thinking over politics, and I thought to myself between thoughts of sleep and vomiting, "Ok so this is how it's gonna role out; Obama is eventually going to beat out Hillary. I'm almost postive. The Hilary supporters are gonna be sore but they'll eventually come to support him. That doesn't mean McCain isn't gonna try to sway them with weird attempts to grab them (and this was before Palin, mind you) but the way support is being thrust at Obama, there's no way McCain stands a chance. He'll win in a landslide for sure."

I was so fucking right. Lesson: Get drunk and think about politics.

-I'm so happy that when I see the future first lady, it's not going to be someone who looks like they're made out of plastic.

-After my Obama won I finally got around to starting essay due the following morning (at ~11:30 PM). The only things still left on were political wrap-ups. That is with the exception of a PBS marathon of Bob Dylan live shows from 1963-65. It truly was the most fitting thing to find on tv.

-And when I finally finished my essay at 1:30 I was so tired that I contemplated not brushing my teeth out of laziness. But I knew Obama would think of me.

I'll explain. Obama has been talking for many months now about how victory is for those who are willing to work for it. Victory wouldn't come easy and would take sacrifice. So I looked myself in the mirror and said "No, I may be tired and worn out from excitement, but this teeth-brushing is a sacrifice I need to make to help better this country. Yes we can."

Dental hygiene has never felt more patriotic.

Things I learned in college Part 5

Environmental Studies 101 should be renamed You-Are-Fucked-In-50-Years 101.


&


Vote God Dammit!

Last Wednesday's Playlist

Shout Out Louds: Hurry Up Let's Go!
The Shaky Hands: Air Better Come
Secret Machines: Atomic Heels
TV On The Radio: Halfway Home
Fleet Foxes: Oliver James
The Thermals: Returning to the Fold
The Mission Orange: The Longest Time
Cold War Kids: Mexican Dogs
The New Year: The Company I Can Get
The Spinto Band: Summer Grof
Portishead: Plastic
Eagles of Death Metal: I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)
Ben Folds: Hiroshima (b b b benny hits his head)
The Crash: Pony Ride
The Thermals: I Might Need You To Kill
Jenny Lewis: Black Sand
The Subways: Shake Shake
The Moondoggies: Ain't No Lord
The Walkmen: Flamingos (Songs for Colbert)
Vampire Weekend: The Kids Don't Stand a Chance
The Streets: Everything is Borrowed
Okkervil River: Calling and not calling my Ex
Beck: Gamma Ray
Fleet Foxes: He Doesn't Know Why
Starf*cker: Myke Ptyson
The Clash: London Calling
Jenny Lewis: Carpetbaggers
The Shins: Kissing The Lipless
The Flaming Lips: My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion

Conversations with high people reading Craigslist

Me (watching Meet the Press last night): "You know _______, I'm really curious to see if Ted Stevens actually wins his position back. He's been the incumbent for like 30 years and still wields a ton of power But I wonder if 7 felonies can actually stop that dinosaur from keeping his job."

My baked friend (reading jokes on Craigslist): "What about Cat Stevens?"

Me: No, TED Stevens.

My friend: Oh.

Things I learned in college Part 4

Being a geology major would be a great reason to grow a huge beard.



...If only I could grow huge beards

God Dammit

There's a lot of jurisdictions that I allow when it comes to commercial success infringing on artistic expression and pop culture.

(the commercial takeover of the new James Bond movie for instance)



but there's two things that I CAN NOT STAND

1. Anything where Kurt Cobain's is used for parody (and I don't even like Nirvana that much)

2. Overall not using the title of a meaningful song to broadcast a horrible slut-trampled reality show.*

*Thus is the case with a show with murky-plotted S.T.I. infestation of whore-ity entitled "Redemption Song". Now, I'm ok with taking basically anything from the 80s but people need to STAY THE FUCK AWAY from true forms of art. And seeing that Redemption Song is truly one of the most meaningful songs, not only because of the emotional jerk of the chord progression but as well as the fact that it was Bob Marley's farewell before he had his life taken by melanoma, makes the Fuse network even more despiseable rapings of all things sincere and genuine in the is world.



fuck this pisses me off.

presidential cheese

I was watching telemundo on a sleeping pill last night.


And the screen directed my attention to two pieces of cheese

but with the faces of McCain and Obama.


and the abnormally attractive anchorwoman said only three words that resonated with me:


"elección presidencial y queso"



that's the last time I challenge my body against a pill made to knock you out.