Heartful Drivel

You Thru Lyrics

2005-10-30T11:31:00.000Z

*I'm going to attempt to do this a few times from my head.

Pick a band (or artist) and answer the questions below only in song titles by that band. Put your name and the band you have selected at the top.

Nirvana

Are you male or female: Son of a Gun

Describe yourself: Help Me, I'm Hungry

How do some people feel about you: Stay Away

How do you feel about yourself : Oh Me

Describe your ex girlfriend/boyfriend: Aneurysm

Describe your current love life: In Bloom

Describe where you want to be: Plateau

Describe what you want to be/are: Endless, Nameless

Describe how you live: On A Plain

Describe how you love: Come As You Are

Share a few words of wisdom: Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam

Oasis

Are you male or female: Street Fighting Man

Describe yourself: Shakermaker

How do some people feel about you: Part of the Queue

How do you feel about yourself : Guess God Thinks I'm Abel

Describe your ex girlfriend/boyfriend: Born On A Different Cloud

Describe your current love life: She's Electric

Describe where you want to be: Up In The Sky

Describe what you want to be/are: Rock n Roll Star

Describe how you live: The Importance of Being Idle

Describe how you love: Roll With It

Share a few words of wisdom: Don't Look Back In Anger

Tool

Are you male or female: Hooker With A Penis

Describe yourself: Cold & Ugly

How do some people feel about you: Intolerance

How do you feel about yourself : Disgustipated

Describe your ex girlfriend/boyfriend: Ticks & Leeches

Describe your current love life: Part of Me

Describe where you want to be: Revolution

Describe what you want to be/are: Jimmy

Describe how you live: Schism

Describe how you love: Die Eier Von Satan

Share a few words of wisdom: You Lied.

Sublime

Are you male or female: Johnny Butt

Describe yourself: Pool Shark

How do some people feel about you: What Happened?

How do you feel about yourself : We're Only Gonna Die From Our Own Arrogance

Describe your ex girlfriend/boyfriend: Mary/Big Salty Tears

Describe your current love life: What I Got

Describe where you want to be: Rivers of Babylon

Describe what you want to be/are: Badfish

Describe how you live:Under My Voodoo

Describe how you love: Hope

Share a few words of wisdom: Let's Go Get Stoned

3 TOUGH QUESTIONS (Interesting, though admittedly stupid

2005-10-30T09:50:00.000Z

Question 1:
If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?

Read the next question before looking at the response for this one.

Question 2:
It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three candidates.

Candidate A.
Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologist. He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate B.
He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

Candidate C
He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never cheated on his wife.

Which of these candidates would be your choice? Decide first... no peeking, then scroll down for the response.

-------------------------------------------------------------

RESPONSE

Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Candidate B is Winston Churchill.
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler.

And, by the way, on your answer to the abortion question: If you said YES, you just killed Beethoven.

Pretty interesting isn't it? Makes a person think before judging someone. Wait until you see the end of this note. Keep reading...

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember: Amateurs...built the ark.
Professionals...built the Titanic

And finally, can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:

* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
* 7 have been arrested for fraud
* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
* 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
* 3 have done time for assault
* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year...

Can you guess which organization this is?

Give up yet?

It's the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group
that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest
of us in line.

I've Seen 142 Movies

2005-10-27T05:51:00.000+01:00

**Body: Put an X by the movies you've seen. If you get more than 70, you're a movie addict.**

COPY and REPOST ! PLACE YOUR SCORE IN THE SUBJECT LINE

(x)Pirates of the Caribbean
(x)The Mexican
(x)Fight Club
(x)Starsky and Hutch
(x)Neverending Story
(x)Blazing Saddles
( )Garden State
( )The Princess Bride
(x)Young Frankenstien
(x)Anchor Man
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
( )Saw
(x)White noise
( )White Oleander
(x)Anger Management

total here : 11

(x)50 First Dates
(x)Jason
(x)Scream
(x)Scream 2
(x)Scream 3
(x)Scary Movie
(x)Scary Movie 2
(x)Scary Movie 3
(x)American Pie
(x)American Pie 2
(x)American Wedding
( )Harry Potter
( )Harry Potter 2
( )Harry Potter 3
(x)Resident Evil I
(x)Resiedent Evil 2
(x)The Wedding Singer
( )Little Black Book

total here : 14

(x)The Village
(x)Donnie Darko
( )Lilo & Stitch
( )Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(x)13 Ghosts
(x)Signs
(x)The Grinch
(x)Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( )White Chicks
(x)Butterfly Effect
( )Thirteen going on 30
(x)I,Robot
(x)Dodgeball
(x)Universal Soldier
( )A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(x)Along Came A Spider
(x)Deep impact

total here: 12

(x)KingPin
(x)Never Been Kissed
(x)Meet The Parents
(x)Meet the Fockers
(x)Eight Crazy Nights
( )A Cinderella Story
( )The Terminal
( )The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( )Passport to Paris
(x)Dumb & Dumber
( )Dumb & Dumberer
(x)Final Destination
(x)Final Destination 2
(x)Halloween
(x)The Ring
( )The Ring 2
( )Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
(x)Chicago
( )Ghost Ship
( )From Hell
( )Hellboy
(x)Secret Window
(x)I Am Sam
(x)The Whole Nine Yards
(x)The Whole Ten Yards
(x)The Day After Tomorrow
( )Child's Play
( )Bride of Chucky
(x)Ten Things I Hate About You
(x)Just Married
( )Gothika
(x)Nightmare on Elm Street
(x)Sixteen Candles
(x)Bad Boys
(x)Bad Boys 2
(x)Joy Ride
(x)Seven
( )Oceans Eleven
( )Oceans Twelve
( )Idenity

total here: 24

( )Lone Star
(x)Predator I
(x)Predator II
(x)Independence day-
( )Cujo
(x)A Bronx Tale
( )Darkness Falls
(x)Christine
(x)ET
(x)Children of the Corn
( )My boss' daughter
( )Maid in Manhattan
( )Frailty
(x)How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(x)She's All That
( )Calendar Girls
(x)Sideways
(x)Mars Attacks

total here : 11

(x)Event Horizon
( )Ever after
(x)Forrest Gump
( )Big Trouble in Little China
(x)xmen 1
(x)xmen 2
(x)Catch me if you can
(x)The Others
( )Freaky Friday
(x)Reign of Fire
(x)The Hot Chick
(x)Swimfan
( )Miracle
(x)Old School
( )Ray
( )The Notebook
( )K-Pax

total here : 10

( )Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
( )Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
( )Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
( )A walk to remember
( )Boogeyman
( )Hitch
(x)The Fifth Element
( )Star Wars episode I The Phantom Menace
( )Star Wars episode II Attack of The Clones
( )Star Wars episode III Revenge of The Sith
( )Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope
( )Star Wars episode V The Empire Strikes Back
( )Star Wars episode VI Return of The Jedi...
(x)Troop Beverly Hills
( )Swimming with Sharks
(x) Air Force One
(x)For Richer or Poorer
(x)People under the stairs
( )Blue Velvet
(x)Sound of music
(x)Parent Trap
( )The Burbs
(x)The Terminator
(x)Empire Records
(x)Meet Joe Black
(x)A Clockwork Orange
( )the Order
(x)Spiderman
( )Spiderman 2
( ) Amelie

total here: 12

( )Mean Girls
(x)Shrek
(x)Shrek 2
( )The Incredibles
(x)Collateral
(x)The Fast & The Furious
(x)2 Fast 2 Furious
( )Sky Captain Of The World Of Tomorrow
( )Closer

total here: 5

(x)Titanic
(x)Saved
(x)Bowling For Columbine
(x)Farenheit 9/11
(x)The Sixth Sense
( )Artificial intelligence (AI)
( )Love actually
( )Shutter
(x)Ella Enchanted
(x)Princess diaries 1
(x)Princess diaries 2
(x)Constantine
(x)Million Dollar Baby
( )Envy
(x)Eurotrip
(x)Malibu's Most wanted
(x)Big Daddy
(x)Black Sheep
(x)The Breakfast Club
(x)West side story

total here : 16

(x)A Christmas Story
(x)spanglish
(x)Pulp Fiction
( )sleepover
(x)The Evil Dead
( )Killer Klowns From Outer Space
(x)Vanilla Sky
(x)Nightmare Before Christmas
(x)Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind-
(x)Interview With The Vampire
(x)The Crow
(x)Purple Rain
(x)Wayne's World

total here: 11

(x)Wayne's World 2
(x)21 Grams
(x)Blow
(x)Edward Scissorhands
(x)Clerks
(x)Beauty and the Beast
( )Guess who
( )monster in-law
( )elf
( )stuart little
( )stuart little 2
(x)Chasing Amy
(x)Dogma
(x)Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

total here : 9

(x)Beetlejuice
(x)The Last Samurai
(x)The Amityville Horror (the original)
( ) The Aviator
(x) Romeo and Juliet
(x)Barbershop
( )Barbershop 2
( )Beauty Shop
( )legally blonde
( )legally blonde 2
(x)the forgotten
( )confessions of a teenage drama queen
(x)the grudge

total here: 7

TOTAL: 142

What does your birthday mean?

2005-09-21T17:05:00.000+01:00

Your Birthdate: December 23

With a birthday on the 23rd of the month (5 energy) you are inclined to work well with people and enjoy them.

You are talented and versatile, very good at presenting ideas.
You may have a tendency to get itchy feet at times and need change and travel.

You tend to be very progressive, imaginative and adaptable.
Your mind is quick, clever and analytical.

A restlessness in your nature may make you a bit impatient and easily bored with routine.

You may have a tendency to shirk responsibility.

Very sociable, you make friends easily and you are an excellent traveling companion.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Hiatus

2005-06-29T16:16:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: The Beatles - Benefit of Being Mr. Kite**

My laptop's power cord shorted out last Thursday, so I was computer-less until this afternoon. It was a tough week, but I lived through it. I actually didn't miss the computer that much, minus messenger conversations with a couple of special people.

Yesterday was pure hell work-wise. It was 94 degrees all day. I painted 7-430 and worked in the kitchen until midnight. The kitchen was well over 100 degrees, pushing 110 degrees. I am doing the same thing today, as I'm just in from work and I have work again at 5. Hopefully it won't be as brutally hot in there tonight.

New Car

2005-06-19T17:17:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: The Who - Bargain**

I like my new car. I put myself further into debt to acquire it, but I am pleased with it. It runs beautifully and is by far the nicest thing that I have ever personally owned.

Today is my only day off in a span of 50-60 hour weeks. I have a softball game shortly, so I'd best get ready.

New week, same deal

2005-06-14T06:08:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: Steely Dan - Do It Again**

Well, I've started another week and made some slightly life-changing decisions, but it still seems to be a normal work-filled week for me. I picked up a shift at the bar tomorrow night 5-12 and I am already scheduled for Thursday and Saturday as well. Painting during the day all week minus a half day on Wednesday to drive to the credit union and pick up my loan check for my car.

Working today was absolutley unbearable. Roofs in the 90 degree humid weather are not exactly prime pieces of realty. I think I have another day like that to look forward to on top of the shift at the bar. I have to work with my manager, which is a different type of atmosphere than working with my other friend. Anyways, its about time for bed since a long day is ahead of me tomorrow.

Cant Sleep, Another Update

2005-06-13T11:23:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: Grace Slick & The Great Society - Daydream Nightmare**

Well, I can't sleep since I'm thinking about the previous post's thoughts. I figured I'd type in here a little bit more and it might make me tired.

I am going to get a new car this week, hopefully EARLY this week so I can take that trip to Binghamton on my own. Its a '98 Honda Civic, which is a giant leap forward for me, considering I have never had a car that was from the 1990's. I have owned a 1987 Honda Accord, a 1989 Subaru Loyale, a 1989 Acura Legend and a 1988 Chevy Blazer.

This thought makes me considerably more upbeat.

I hate this

2005-06-13T05:16:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: The Zombies - Time of the Season**

I think that I have a problem with inattention. I am easily distracted by most things and lack motivation for things that don't seem essential to me. I mess up stupid things at work. Little details about orders and absent minded mistakes are quarter-hourly happenings. It makes me feel so useless and dim. I think I am going to go talk to my doctor in Endwell about it. I want to see if he also thinks it is what I believe it is.

I think I'll make an appointment for the earliest possible time.

Life is weird. I had such a wonderful weekend, but I think that it hurts me to see everyone and feel so much caring and then have to leave it. I miss having that many friends and being around so many special and interesting girls these past two days has left me missing the empty portion that is my love life. Someday, I suppose. I guess I never realized it would be so hard without that part of life. I haven't had that at all for almost a full year now, but it still haunts me and all I want is to have that feeling back. If only a person would come along with shared affections.

Anyway, enough whining. Bed time, work in the morning. Hopefully getting a new car tomorrow or Tuesday too.

Work work work but Friday is tomorrow.

2005-06-10T05:10:00.000+01:00

**Musical mood preference: Jefferson Airplane - Lather**

I have been working all week. Doubles on Tuesday and tonight. They weren't too bad thanks to a pick me up thought in the back of my mind. Tomorrow is Friday. Tomorrow = party with Sara and friends. That makes it all worthwhile.

Lately

2005-06-06T20:30:00.000+01:00

I have been very busy lately. Working alot of 14 hours double shifts between painting in the mornings and working in the kitchen at the bar in the evenings. It has gotten to be really tiring. I have a pretty easy week forthcoming, so I will be doing alot of relaxing. I still have 45 hours of work scheduled, but that is a far cry from the 64 hours of last week.

Plus, I have this weekend to look forward to with Sara's birthday.

Grace Slick & the Great Society

2005-06-01T05:54:00.000+01:00

DAYDREAM NIGHTMARE

We already know what you're ever gonna be
And you think you're much too good for pleasing me
But now I'm gonna run away
Taking all the fun away
Ohhhh watch me run

I see the wisdom in your eyes
But now I know that all you told me is lies
And now watch me run away
You've taken the fun away
Ohhh watch me run
Annnnd you move around as graceful as you can
And my days have all turned into one nightmare

But now I'm gonna run away
Taken the fun away
Watch me run
You move, yes you move, around as graceful as you can
And my days, my days have all turned into one nightmare

Some More Rock Quotes

2005-05-31T19:49:00.000+01:00

Violence isn't always evil. What's evil is the infatuation with violence.
-Jim Morrison

I see myself as an intelligent, sensitive human, with the soul of a clown which forces me to blow it at the most important moments.
-Jim Morrison

I don't intend to be a performing flea anymore. I was the dreamweaver, but although I'll be around I don't intend to be running at 20,000 miles an hour trying to prove myself. I don't want to die at 40.
-John Lennon (1940-1980)

It's funny how most people love the dead, once you're dead your made for life.
-Jimi Hendrix

The time I burned my guitar it was like a sacrifice. You sacrifice the things you love. I love my guitar.
-Jimi Hendrix

White collar conservative flashin down the street, pointing that plastic finger at me, they all assume my kind will drop and die, but I'm gonna wave my freak flag high.
-Jimi Hendrix

Lost

2005-05-28T07:58:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: Nirvana - Marigold**

I really don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I, for one, would be happy with a life of manual labor and great friends and family. That is enough for me. I'm not sure why I struggle with this every now and again, but it resurfaces once in a while to depress me for short periods of time. I hate a feeling of forced worthlessness because society deems that I need to further myself. I am generally happy where I am, how I am. I want to be able to live a conservatively comfortable life, without much monetary hassle.

My mind has changed so much in the last 3 years as to what I wish to do with my life. It began with a hope for a life in medicine, followed by ideas of becoming a teacher of history or English, progressing now into the realm of law. I seriously have no idea what I am going to do with my life. All I ask is that I'm happy and my family and friends are happy.

My attitudes have continuously flip flopped since high school. Since 14, it's been on and off drug use and alcohol indulgence, leading me to love and despair life at the same time. Drugs and I were close friends for a number of years in high school and secretly while away at Penn State. I'm not sure exactly to what end I have used them or they have used me, but I believe they have made me realize more about myself as an individual than most other influential things in my life.

I love making food, I love painting, I love reading and writing . . . But what should I make my occupation? I hope that things become clearer at some point. Either way, life's gonna go on. I just have to be prepared for whatever is going to happen future-ly speaking.

Psychedelia ... again

2005-05-27T07:38:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: Steppenwolf - Don't Step On The Grass Sam**

The bitter change of attitudes from the peace and love of the mid and late 60's met the 1970's. An era of hard drug use and hard edged musical trends was greeted as bands began using drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

The backlash following the terrible crimes at the hands of the pseudo-hippie acid cult, the Manson Family caused musicians to turn away from the drugs and attitudes of the previous decade. Acid rock began to take front stage.

The "we generation" of the 1960s (the decade of peace and love) unfortunately turned into the "me generation" of the 1970s (the decade of decadence). The drug of choice switched from LSD (a drug that dissolves the ego) to cocaine (a drug which boosts the ego, and leads to escapism).

The age of Psychedelia and the Summer of Love was over.

Nowadays, the psychedelic trends have carried through into bands such as Incubus and Radiohead, as well as the Mars Volta and the Presidents of the United States of America.

Psychedelia

2005-05-24T21:19:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: 13th Floor Elevators - Thru the Rhythm**

I was sitting here waiting for work so I figured I would make a post about what I've been thinking about and reading about lately. I moved my interest in the Beat Generation into the next transitional period, that of Psychedelia.

The Psychedelic Age came into being in 1965, but didn't hit mainstream until the release of the Byrds album Eight Miles High in late 1966. Assimilations of folk, blues, jazz and rock 'n' roll shot groups like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane into sub-culture fame. Anthem of the Sun and "White Rabbit" perfectly encapsulate the LSD and drug-related feelings of the time.

One of my favorite, though one of the more obscure bands of this era was the 13th Floor Elevators, a heavily drugged band from Texas. Their bizarre use of the electric jug made for some even stranger music than had been heard to that point. "Thru the Rhythm" and "You're Gonna Miss Me" are two of my favorite tracks by this group. If you have seen High Fidelity, you have heard the latter track, as it's in that film.

Bands who are much more well known, such as Pink Floyd and the Doors, explored different aspects of psychedelic rock. Fronted by Syd Barrett, Floyd went on to put out two of the most psychedelic albums in history. The Doors, with Jim Morrison as the driving force, probed a deeper and darker side of psychedelia and its involvement with society.

In the beginning of American Psychedelia, the music was located mostly on the West Coast, with the big names being Vanilla Fudge, Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, as well as the previously mentioned Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead.

When British Psychedelic music began to be released in 1967 and thereafter, established artists such as the Who and the Beatles as well as Eric Burdon and the Rolling Stones, began to release psychedelic songs.

***more later.

In light of recent times

2005-05-23T04:17:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: David Bowie - Andy Warhol**

These are quotes that I thought were particularly thought provoking, correct or funny:

"Christ. Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the fucking Peace Corps."
-Animal House

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.
-Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland

"Take what you can use and let the rest go by."
-Ken Kesey

"You can stump any stoner with just one question: 'What were we just talking about?'"
-Jim Breuer

"I have always loved marijuana. It has been a source of joy and comfort to me for many years. And I still think of it as a basic staple of life, along with beer and ice and grapefruits - and millions of Americans agree with me."
-Hunter S. Thompson

"To be just without being mad (and the madder you get the madder you get), to be peaceful without being stupid, to be interested without being compulsive, to be happy without being hysterical. . . . smoke grass."
-Ken Kesey

"I like America, just as everybody else does. I love America, I gotta say that. But America will be judged."
-Bob Dylan

Some Rock Quotes

2005-05-22T05:49:00.000+01:00

I'm interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos, especially activity that appears to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road toward freedom.
-Jim Morrison

Q. How does it feel to be the Jesse James of rock?
A. William Bonney would be more accurate. Jesse James was motivated by greed, while Billy the Kid did it for the fun of it. All Americans are outlaws.
-Jim Morrison

Drugs are a bet with your mind.
-Jim Morrison

"I like America, just as everybody else does. I love America, I gotta say that. But America will be judged."
-Bob Dylan

Don't follow leaders, & watch your parkin' meters.
-Bob Dylan

I had a great time. I think a lot of us had a great time back then. But I don't see myself as being stuck in the sixties or anything like that -- except that I still have long hair.
-Neil Young

I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?
-John Lennon

Today

2005-05-18T02:21:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: Dave Grohl - All Apologies**

Today, I participated in society as a completely normal person. I got up early and ate breakfast, then I went to work. So far, normal normal.

Had a nice lunch break at work, a full lunch. After work, I went to the gym and lifted for a while, played some basketball. I did laundry until dinner, which I cooked for myself, and now I am just relaxing with a book. It all seems so cookie-cutter normal.

I want to vomit.

RIP Volunteer Bobby Sands

2005-05-05T05:16:00.000+01:00

March 1st, 1954 - May 5, 1981

66 Days on HungerstrikeRest in Peace

THE RHYTHM OF TIME

There's an inner thing in every man,
Do you know this thing my friend?
It has withstood the blows of a million years,
And will do so to the end.

It was born when time did not exist,
And it grew up out of life,
It cut down evil's strangling vines,
Like a slashing searing knife.

It lit fires when fires were not,
And burnt the mind of man,
Tempering leandened hearts to steel,
From the time that time began.

It wept by the waters of Babylon,
And when all men were a loss,
It screeched in writhing agony,
And it hung bleeding from the Cross.

It died in Rome by lion and sword,
And in defiant cruel array,
When the deathly word was 'Spartacus' Along with Appian Way.

It marched with Wat the Tyler's poor,
And frightened lord and king,
And it was emblazoned in their deathly stare,
As e'er a living thing.

It smiled in holy innocence,
Before conquistadors of old,
So meek and tame and unaware,
Of the deathly power of gold.

It burst forth through pitiful Paris streets,
And stormed the old Bastille,
And marched upon the serpent's head,
And crushed it 'neath its heel.

It died in blood on Buffalo Plains,
And starved by moons of rain,
Its heart was buried in Wounded Knee,
But it will come to rise again.

It screamed aloud by Kerry lakes,
As it was knelt upon the ground,
And it died in great defiance,
As they coldly shot it down.

It is found in every light of hope,
It knows no bounds nor space
It has risen in red and black and white,
It is there in every race.

It lies in the hearts of heroes dead,
It screams in tyrants' eyes,
It has reached the peak of mountains high,
It comes searing 'cross the skies.

It lights the dark of this prison cell,
It thunders forth its might,
It is 'the undauntable thought', my friend,
That thought that says 'I'm right!'

Links:
Collection of Bobby Sands Net Resources
Bobby Sands @ Ireland's Own
Bobby Sands Trust
Diary of Bobby Sands

Other Related Information:
http://www.irishhungerstrike.com
http://www.geocities.com/unrepentant1916/freedoms_hunger.html
http://irelandsown.net/hungerstrikes.html
http://www.inac.org/irishhistory/hungerstrikes/chapters/1

(*More on Bobby tomorrow)

Memorable Weekend

2005-05-02T19:13:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: CREAM - I Feel Free**

Friday night, I went to a bonfire and though the weather tried to ruin it, I still had a good time. It's fun to have the guys altogether and hanging out, listening to the radio and managing a fire.

Saturday I worked until midnight and then I went to a festival for Beltane/May Day with some of my older friends. We had a good time talking and listening to stories from two of the funniest people I know. It ended up being a late night/early morning.

This left me waking up late on Sunday (not til about noon), at which time my cousin called and told me to come over for a cook out. He had been marinating chicken and steak for a couple of hours and it ended up being a delicious meal.

All in all, I'd say that I had a pretty good weekend. I spent the majority of it with friends and the rest at work.

Happy Beltane

2005-04-30T19:50:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: Talking Heads - Psycho Killer**

The second principal Gaelic pagan festival (first being Samhain or Halloween), Beltane is celebrated on May Day's Eve, considered the height of Spring in European tradition. Rather than honor Darkness and Winter like its counterpart, Beltane celebrates Light and Summer. It celebrates the Earth's awakening and thrust towards Summer. This holiday is actually one of the eight solar holidays of neopagans as well.

Beltane festival tonight. I am missing most of it because of work, but the end part should still be amusing enough on its own.

Bad Dreams

2005-04-29T19:54:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: Green Day - Paper Lanterns**

It's very disconcerting when multiple people have bad dreams about you in the same night. On top of that, I had a bad dream about myself last night as well. Three bad dreams involving me in one night... cross your fingers and hope nothing bad happens to me.

On a positive note: two parties this weekend. Tonight is looking like a kegger with the boys and tomorrow looks like a Beltane festival after I get out of work.

EA Robinson’s “The Clerks”

2005-04-27T06:37:00.000+01:00

The Clerks is a poem in sonnet form with many memorable lines. I think I enjoyed this Robinson piece more than any of the other of his poems that we read. It really reminded me of my dad’s friends and my uncles and their reminiscent ways.

Obviously autobiographical, this poem is most likely about the Gardiner days in Robinson’s life when he knew these now old clerks. The poet, it seems to me, makes himself seem older and wiser than he actually is at the time of writing his poems. The men he describes used to be young and fair, but now all they can do is wonder what could have been in their lives. This “shop-worn brotherhood” is all these men really seem to have, as Robinson seems to indicate. But even through the years, time has not changed who these men are in their soul, as shown by the line “and just as human as they ever were.”

Even at a young age, it is the poet’s ability to see the mundane nature of these men, and their ordinary yearnings and dreams. They think back to days when the women were hanging off both arms and times were good.

To me, in this context, “clerks” means someone who is involved in a commercial enterprise, but not a hugely successful business. I am not talking about massively rich business owners, I just envision small-time business owners when I think of this term in the parameters of the poem.

The first two stanzas lead up to the “Robinsonian twist” of the third stanza. The poet introduces the idea that we all get old and yearn to be young and virile again. Men have experience but lack the youth to capitalize on the knowledge they have amassed in their life’s progression:

“And you that ache so much to be sublime,
And you that feed yourselves with your descent,
What comes of all your visions and your fears?”

Robinson continues to hit on this point, more forcefully this time, pessimistically saying:
“Poets and kings are but the clerks of Time,
Tiering the same dull webs of discontent,
Clipping the same sad alnage of the years”

Robinson understands that even in the mediocrity of our common mortality we cling to our slivers of greatness. For in "dull webs of discontent" which form the fragile substance of our menial lives, we still insist on "tiering" ourselves against others. It is important for us to be ahead of someone else and still have to work to catch up to another person above. Coming in the next to last line, the word "tiering" has great ironic value. I mean, really how long can a tier survive as a web? It just gets higher and higher and less stable, eventually crashing back down to earth. It is then left to be rebuilt by men with similar motivations.

RIP Morgan

2005-04-27T01:02:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: silence**

Why do we seemed to be cursed with death? Montrose students die more frequently than some city kids, I swear to god. As was pointed out by a wonderful friend of mine, it seems as if Montrose kids have "RIP" followed by LISTS of initials of the people from our small school that have passed in the last 5 years or so. It's beginning to be ridiculous and it looks like Troseheads are just burdened with this.

I'm sorry Morgan. Best of luck wherever the passed end up.

Civil Rights in Times of War and Crisis

2005-04-27T00:42:00.000+01:00

In order to ensure the safety and general well-being of the citizens of the United States and of the Union itself, it is sometimes necessary to enact legislation and measures that contradict the fabric of this nation’s ideological background. In times of crisis and war, the policy put in place immediately following an emergency is often hasty and driven by paranoia and misplaced anger. This has happened since the inception of this county, and will continue to happen. It is a sad but necessary evil in representative democratic nations. The need for protection is there, but with as many civil liberties and civil rights that we as United States citizens have been granted, we cannot help but infringe upon the expansive rights Americans enjoy and celebrate.

This pattern of preventive policymaking has consistently appeared on the timeline of United State history. It began with John Adams’ 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts and has continued to this day with the Patriot Act of the Bush Administration. The federal government has repressed free speech and free press in almost every significant US conflict since 1812. From the Mexican-American War to Vietnam, the press was rarely “free”.

Amid political and military conflict with both France and Great Britain, the Federalist Adams administration drew up the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 to combat any foreigners and citizens who wished to sabotage the United States politically or violently. This legislation was sparked by an incident involving American diplomats in which the US refused to pay a French foreign minister a quarter-million dollar bribe. Within this group of laws existed four separate but related acts which addressed a number of Federalist concerns. First was the Naturalization Act, which extended the period for citizenship from five years to fourteen. Next was the Alien Act, which gave bureaucrats and government officials the power during peacetime to deport any non-citizen deemed dangerous to the government. Third was the Alien Enemies Act, a law which gave the government the power to deport any alien deemed a threat to the US during war time. Finally there was the Sedition Act, legislation enacted to combat opposition in the general public. This law meted out fines and the threat of imprisonment for those who publicly criticized the government (Alien).

Many parts of these laws were never enforced, including the whole Alien Act. One of the laws that was initially used was the Sedition Act. A number of Republican-leaning newspaper editors were arrested for allowing anti-Federalist administration. This sparked outrage from the supporters of Thomas Jefferson, who claimed that this was a clear violation of the First Amendment’s right to free speech. In response to these preventive measures, the Republican legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia passed resolutions (written by Jefferson and Madison respectively) which stated that the State legislatures have the duty to nullify these unconstitutional laws. Eventually, partly because of the death of former President George Washington, cooler heads prevailed in this situation. The nation was somewhat reunified and the laws were shelved and allowed to run out in the administration of Thomas Jefferson.

During the War of 1812, the federal government, in an attempt to centralize its power and strengthen its position for war, took power from the governments of the states. Also, during this time, the Madison administration took measures to regulate trade more closely, enacting tariffs and seizing control of many merchant operations. Part of this regulation was a backlash from years prior. The Napoleonic Wars made trade a very dangerous and very touchy issue. Ships passing into French harbors had to deal with the threat of British naval backlash. Often, American merchant sailors were seized and impressed into the British military. Because of these threats from British naval attacks, President Madison decided it would be better to allow the economy to slump rather than be drawn into a war.

For the most part, Madison was very respectful of Constitutional rights and rarely hinted at doing anything to infringe upon them. As the so-called “Father of the Constitution”, the Virginian was hesitant to impede the rights of any citizen of the country he helped to build from scratch. Called a weakling throughout his presidency for not acting more dictatorial in a crisis, Madison’s strategy of “constitutional war” was actually, in retrospect, the best possible solution for that situation. Debt incurred from the war was paid back within 20 years and the federal government was soon returning a surplus to its states.

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln assumed many of the powers of Congress, as well as invading the privacy of private citizens’ mail and telegrams in order to seek out Southern agents. Presidential orders ended the First Amendment right to free speech and free press, leading to the arrest of Confederate sympathizers and opponents of the Lincoln administration in the press. Constitutional rights of criminal processes were suspended. These included habeas corpus and the right to a trial in front of peers. Many trials were held in front of military “star chamber” tribunals, who handed down heavy sentences.
President Lincoln deserves much credit for carrying our nation through what is historically one of his hardest periods; a period which saw more American blood spilled than all other American conflicts combined. Sensationalist historians are now analyzing this man’s policies and screaming “dictator!”, and perhaps that are right. But I am of the opinion that a dictatorial personality was what the country needed during this period of internal struggle.

Lincoln suspended the writ of habeus corpus, in what was his most troubling intrusion into unconstitutionality. This in itself was spawned from an incident of individual crisis inside the enormous problem that was the Civil War. There was an abortive uprising in the city of Baltimore spearheaded by its chief of police. This officer of the law encouraged Confederate supporters to blow up bridges and riot to obstruct the passing of Federal troops from the North into the battlefields of the South. Lincoln used this incident to seize upon the powers of the presidency to act in times of mortal danger for the Union.

World War I produced a familiar patriotic fervor once it was completely certain that we would be entering the war. The problem with this zeal was that it caused the common citizen to mistrust and dislike immigrants or immigrant communities. Discrimination followed against Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, German-Americans and pretty much anything foreign to the core citizenry of the US. In light of this mistrust, Congress passed the Espionage Act in June of 1917. This law stated that any person suspected of given false statements that mislead the authorities would be open to heavy fines and terms of imprisonment. When this act proved to be too broad to enforce, the legislature passed an additional law to bolster the effectiveness of the Espionage Act.

The Sedition Act was passed in the Spring of 1918. It included bans on willfully obstructing enlistment processes, insubordination, refusal of duty to the military, amongst other things. Most notable however, is the law’s attempt to halt any type of dissenting activity within the country. It was illegal to publish anything negative against the government; also it became illegal to be disloyal to the flag, Constitution, and military uniforms of the United States of America. Words that supported in any way a country the US happened to be at war with became a crime. Because of its obvious unconstitutionality, the Sedition Act was repealed in 1921, but the Espionage Act is still on the books. It can be enforced by the executive branch in the event of a war.

World War I also brought us the Trading With The Enemy Act, which forbade any US citizen to trade with any merchant from a country the United States was pitted against in its struggle. It also provided that all published works in foreign languages be available for translation into English, or else they were unacceptable. Censorship of communications was inserted into this law as well. The government granted itself the right to control and read all communiqué coming in and going out of the country. A “Censorship Board” was created to monitor postal and telegraph communications by President Wilson in 1917. This is a clear violation of a person’s right to privacy and of free speech, but at the time the government deemed it necessary to control some aspects of freedom.

Following the devastating attacks on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, public sentiment towards those of Asian descent began to grow. Many Japanese immigrants were settled along the West Coast of the United States and suffered from heavy discrimination based on their ethnicity. The public and the government itself did not trust these Japanese-Americans to be supportive of a US war effort against their ancestral homeland. In February of 1942, just three months after the Japanese bombing of the Hawaiian naval port, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which began the round-up of 120,000 US citizens of Japanese descent. These people were then corralled into ten separate large internment camps spread all over the country. From Arkansas to eastern California, barbed wire was strung and barracks were built to house these people.

It is reported that the conditions were poor at best for these American citizens. They lived in flimsy shacks with no plumbing and no household utilities for cooking or cleaning. The camps were overcrowded and caused dissent within the Japanese-American internees. Two and a half years after signing his executive order, the president rescinded it, ordering the dismantling of the camps and the release of the Japanese Americans. In the last 20 years, there have been challenges and reparations because of this act of self-preservation by the US government. In 1988, Congress passed legislation which granted every US citizen who suffered in the camps $20,000. Over 5,000 Japanese-Americans renounced their citizenship and moved elsewhere, most back to war-torn Japan (Ng).

Also suffering from curtailed civil liberties and civil rights, Italian and German Americans toiled through four years of discrimination base on their ethnicity. 1,600 Italian citizens were interned with tens of thousands forced to move from their homes close to the sea. They suffered curfews and confiscations of property because they were not yet citizens of the US. German immigrants too suffered because of their links to their homeland. Many were intercepted at Ellis Island, which became a makeshift camp in itself shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many Germans kept on Ellis Island spent 5 years or more there. Many were not released until 1948. There were dozens of other camps across the country where German immigrants were held through the majority of the war. The internees included deportees from Latin American countries, who the US requested be sent to them in order to keep an eye on them.

In the 1950’s, the Cold War was just beginning to hit its fever pitch. Paranoia following the Russian explosion of an atomic bomb caused the government and the public to suspect everyone of being a communist. Based on this common paranoia, the already formed HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) began probing the film industry, the US Government and the public in general for communists. Here began a witch hunt, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, which lasted nearly six years (1947-1953) (PBS).

Since September 11th, the Patriot Act has proved to be a useful tool in arresting whoever is deemed suspect of terroristic activity. What is not as public is its infringement of civil rights. In a time of crisis, Congress acted by hastily pushing through this piece of garbled legislation in order to cover its backside and provide some semblance of protection for the American people. Since this time, a few key parts of the act have been struck down as unconstitutional by federal courts as well as the Supreme Court. This curbing of civil rights is apparently for our protection, but one cannot help but flashback to George Orwell’s 1984 and envision a world much like the one of constant monitoring that author creates in his masterpiece. Collecting library reading lists on individuals, roving wire-taps and non-warranted searches are just a few of the invasions of American’s civil rights (Doyle).

Crisis does not always cause infringement of civil rights and civil liberties. Often, history shows that conflict causes progress. According to Shibley Telhami of the Baltimore Sun, “the Cold War was responsible for numerous racially liberal policies. Government officials regarded measures aimed at expanding African-American freedom as crucial to American struggles against the Soviet Union” (Telhami). Also, Woodrow Wilson himself claimed that World War I was the source of women’s suffrage in August of 1920. The role the women played in filling positions left by enlisted soldiers in 1917 led to an increased social stance for women in America.

Civil rights and civil liberties are things worth fighting for, not for sacrificing in order to fight more efficiently. It is important to protect these key parts of what make us American and not allow the government to restrict the rights given to us by nearly sacred documents which also give them the power that they abuse. As a historical trend, constitutional encroachments have been harmful for United States citizens, causing paranoia and negative sentiment towards a group of people based upon their ethnicity.

Works Cited

Alien and Sedition Acts. Yale University: Avalon Project. 27 March 2005. .

“American Masters: McCarthyism.” PBS . 18 April 2005.

“Civil Right/Casualties of Wartime.” March 28, 2005. .

Delgado, Richard. Justice at War: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights During Times of Crisis. New York: New York University Press, 2003.

Doyle, Charles. Terrorism: Section by Section Analysis of the USA PATRIOT Act. Congressional Research Team. 28 March 2005. .

Gore, Al. “Freedom and Security.” Speech given: 9 November 2003.

Jacobs, Arthur D. “History of the Internment of German American Civilians in the United States.” . 20 April 2005.

Ng, Wendy. Japanese American Internment during World War II: A History and Reference Guide. Greenwood Press, 2001.

Rehnquist, Chief Justice William A. “Civil Liberty in Wartime” Speech given at the Director’s Forum, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, November 17, 1999.

Telhami, Shibley. “War and Liberty.” Baltimore Sun 18 November 2003

WC Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow”

2005-04-27T00:41:00.000+01:00

The whole poem is just one sentence about a wheelbarrow. It relies on the reader’s interpretation and openness to imagery in order to be effective. The form the poem is in is interesting too, because if you look closely enough at the stanzas, they start to resemble wheelbarrows themselves. The wording and lack of punctuation reminds me a lot of Cummings and the way he breaks up sentences and words to convey emotion.

Since this poem seems so obscure and simple, I am going to attempt to explain my interpretation stanza by stanza through the poem. The opening line is the most important of the four, setting the tone for the rest of the short poem. Williams’ decides to set the word “upon” on the bottom line, resting the first line on top of it. The word “upon” is left to bear the burden of the weight of words above it.
The poet then introduces the wheelbarrow, breaking the word up. “A red wheel” rests on top of the “barrow.” The color choice is interesting, leaving my mind with a bright image. By breaking down the word, it makes the reader slow down and consider every syllable of the lines.

In the fifth and sixth lines, the poet introduces the rain in order to freshen the scene and clean up the reader’s image of the wheelbarrow. This water washes away the dirt that we associate with the title object, leaving us to consider only the wheelbarrow itself.

In the last lines, the color white is used to draw a distinction from the formerly introduced red. The white chickens are being starkly contrasted with red, newly rain-rinsed wheelbarrow.

Because of its strange subject matter and short form, this poem is different than just about anything we’ve read (except “This is Just to Say”, that is). It includes only one sentence, bizarrely about a wheelbarrow. The poet is really hoping the reader is open-minded about imagery and is willing to scrutinize the short and few lines. Williams is attempting to stretch the concept of what we consider poetry, just as Cummings does with his strange punctuating and spacing.

This poem is similar in succinctness to WC William’s other poem “This is Just to Say”, which contains only three short stanzas. That poem, however, is really just a note left to tell a loved one that he had eaten the plums in the ice-box. It does not contain the same subtle yet striking imagery as “The Red Wheelbarrow.” In eight short lines, Williams really did extend the meaning of poetry.

EE Cummings: Sex and Cars

2005-04-27T00:40:00.000+01:00

EE Cummings’ poems engage less intellect, and appeal more to pure emotion. His writings are the closest thing to directly translated feelings that I think I’ve read yet. It makes for a much harder read than a grammatically and structurally correct piece, because within a couple of words he has begun to express his feelings by jamming together words, or breaking them apart with punctuation or lines or deliberately exaggerating pauses. You begin to feel the writing, experience it as an emotion rather than just another poem.

I think "she being Brand" is about a car...but also most definitely about sex. If you sit and think, isn’t being a virgin a lot driving a stick-shift car for the first time? You have to learn where all the buttons are and what reactions you are going to get with particular buttons. You have to learn what each feeling or tremble means; you have to know what works and what doesn’t. It all comes with practice and repetition, in both instances. The more you drive a stick, the better acclimated you will become. Muscle memory will kick in and shifting becomes easier and smoother. This is, hopefully, the same case for sex. The more you do it, the better you become. In both cases, the beginning will be jerky and uncomfortable, but with time, it all becomes “old hat”.

Cummings’ word choice is also an indicator that the poem contains an easily discerned duality. Words such as stiff, cranked, slammed, and others just show what the poet’s true intention was when composing this piece. Hyphenation and spacing are used to show greater emphasis on certain parts, forcing the reader to focus on what is being said.

“Brand new” is a clear indication to my warped mind that EE Cummings is dealing with the duality of this issue. Sex and cars are easily linked if a perverted enough mind sets its will in forging a relationship. Perhaps the poem is only about a car, but Freud would say that subconsciously it is all about sex. You can't help but think about that when you read the poem aloud. Why else would EE Cummings leave the "Oooo's" and "Divinity" and "tremB" at the end of some sentences? All of these things indicate sexual pleasure and an experience of bliss.

Not to Keep” – War & Death

2005-04-27T00:36:00.000+01:00

War is really a terrible thing. It ravages families and relationships, as well as causes death, mayhem and tragedy. It brings nothing to the societal table and Robert Frost’s poem “Not to Keep” is just another reinforcement of this.

In many World War II era films, there are scenes showing the Department of Defense representatives delivering “telegrams of death” to the wives and mothers of fallen soldiers. A League Of Their Own is the first that comes to mind for me, though there are many others. The women sat and worried month after month that their loved ones were never going to come back, while their husbands and sons toiled through the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific. The same thing is occurring now and has inevitably occurred over and over throughout history. War is a mainstay of human society; we cannot exist without conflict of some sort. The problem with this is that people are generally caring and loving people, especially to those close to them. War ends these loving relationships in an instant. A single bullet, bomb or rocket can ruin an entire family’s future.

Robert Frost captures this idea in his relatively short poem. The language of the poem is interesting, really. “The letter came/Saying….And she could have him.”, reads the piece. As we well know, the military owns you once you join up or are drafted. You are theirs for the duration of your service and even beyond. More interesting phrases include “They gave him back to her alive - / How else? They are not known to send the dead. – and not disfigured visibly.” This is more insight into military function. They know better than to send back a terribly disfigured or visibly injured person without proper preparation of the family and adequate rehabilitation of the soldier. The shock it would cause the family and even general population would be too costly for a “war effort”.

A woman receives a letter of notice that her loved one is returning from war. And shortly after receiving this notice, her soldier returns, though not in the best of shape. He has taken a bullet in the chest, leaving him mortally wounded. He attempts to reassure her that “medicine and rest” can heal him, but it is not to be. He is doomed to die from his wounds and to leave his loved one behind to suffer the pain of war’s aftermath.

This series of events is heart-wrenching just to read, let alone to live through. I personally have never had this situation in my family, but with the current situation in Iraq, I have many friends stationed in heavily war-torn areas of the occupied country. I may not feel the same amount of worry as this woman, but I generally know the feeling. I love these friends and they are thousands of miles away in terrain and situations that I can not even begin to fathom.

A Story formed from Wallace Steven’s “The Emperor of Ice-Cream”

2005-04-27T00:34:00.000+01:00

Here is how I envisioned the poem after reading it several times. I have attempted to dissect it into a sort-of story. It took me a number of close readings to even come up with this interpretation. Hopefully it reads out right enough. I could not think of anything else to do with the piece. Duality really is an important concept and often used to contrast in poetry. This poem is a prime example of this happening.

A Story formed from Wallace Steven’s “The Emperor of Ice-Cream”

I went to a nearby house to help lay out the body of an old woman who had died all by herself. I went hoping to help prepare the home for the wake. Accustomed with the home, as a neighbor should be, I entered through the kitchen door rather than the front. I was appalled as I entered the kitchen; the disorderly mess going on inside set me back. A large brawny neighbor who worked at the local cigar factory had been called in to crank the ice cream machine in preparation for the wake, and various neighbors had sent over their girls to help out and their boys bearing flowers wrapped in old newspapers from their yards to decorate the house.

Taking advantage of the occasion, the girls continued to “dawdle” around the kitchen and philander and flirt with the young men. They were all waiting around to have a taste of the ice cream when it was finally finished. The whole scene seemed crude and misplaced when I remembered that the old woman lay dead in her bedroom, yet all of this activity continued to spiral around inside her home. Where there is death in one room, there is much life and bustle in the other. It seemed bizarre.

Then I left the kitchen, and went in to the bedroom. The corpse of the old woman was lying uncovered on the bed. Upon seeing the old woman’s body, I first felt the need to find a sheet to cover the corpse’s expressionless face. I went to the old dresser “of deal”, but it was hard to get a sheet out because the drawers were lacking knobs. She may have been too sickly to get out to the store to get new glass knobs, or she just didn’t mind struggling to open the drawers. Eventually I did get out a sheet, and a beautiful one it was, embroidered with fantails.

Her feet stuck out of the bottom of this short sheet. It was as if I couldn’t hide death, I could just mask it for the time being. Even in masking it, I still could not completely cover the reality of death. Even though I covered her body, her dead, lifeless feet still “protruded” from the bottom of the cover. It seemed worse to have to look at her feet than to look at her face. To me, her feet seemed deader, more lifeless and depressing than her empty face.

She had died and that could not be hidden by a sheet. Her life had ended and all that was left is a shell. While all of this was going on, out in the kitchen, the bizarre scene still continued, with the large cigar-roller cranking the ice cream, as the rest of the people cavorted in their own interests. They were sent to help with a lonely dead woman’s wake but fall into their own greedy nature instead. They represent human nature and its preoccupation with self-interest.

Eliot’s “The Naming of the Cats”

2005-04-27T00:31:00.000+01:00

Eliot was and remains one of my favorite poets. W.B. Yeats, AE Housman and Sylvia Plath are some of the others that I genuinely enjoy reading on my own. There is just something individually wonderful about each of those poets which draws me to their works.

To begin this essay, I have to admit that I have read much of Eliot’s work. From The Wasteland and the Four Quartets to Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, I thoroughly enjoyed the poet’s work. My particular favorite by him, though, is the “Hollow Men.” It is my favorite for a number of reasons, from the opening quote from Joseph Conrad to the final lines of:

“This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”

The strength of these lines is immeasurable. It is mind-boggling to me how people can be so creative, even when it means being dark and pessimistic.

Eventually, Eliot’s verses from the Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats were interpreted for the long-running Broadway musical Cats. This would not have been that much of an honor for the Nobel honoree Eliot. I believe that he would have never wanted his verse translated into that rubbish. Eliot was a very spiritual man, who ruminated for years about felines. Taking his collection of kitty poems, Broadway made a play that would have never appealed to the misery-geared poet. It really gets under my skin to think that perhaps the greatest 20th century poet is going to be remembered as the man who wrote that stupid play.

According to TS Eliot’s “The Naming of Cats”, every cat has exactly three different names. One of these names is given by the family, another that is purely unique to that cat and finally the name the cat itself only knows. People also go by different names to different people as well, and our self image, the name we ourselves only know, is for us only. It is particular to each individual person as well, leaving everyone with their own unique and solitary identification.

For me, much like the poet’s cats, I go by three names. For my secondary family (grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc), I am Brian. To my parents, my brothers and my closest cousins, I am Bud. And to my friends, I am McCue. This has been set for just about as long as I can remember. These three names are the different parts of my personality, represented in a single word; one or two syllables which capture who I am at that particular moment in time. I assume different roles and different mindsets with the different name and different company.
Eliot’s musings about cats are interesting to read primarily because of his quirky, but very attentive nature. He picks up on details that no one else could have about our feline friends and their nature. There are obvious similarities with humans being shown, but really, most of his ideas are about cats and only cats.

The poet says that when you see a cat affixed, staring seemingly at nothing, it is actually contemplating his own name, the name that only he knows:

“When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought of his name:”
It is funny that a person can be so particular and focused as to write an entire volume of poems about cats. It really takes genius and creativity to focus your efforts that much. The observation skills of TS Eliot are really beyond comparison out of the poets in this packet. He remains my favorite American poet.

Penn State Weekend

2005-04-25T19:21:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: War - Cisco Kid**

As usual, I had a great time at Penn State this weekend. Staying and hanging out with those girls is always a trip. Sara is definitely one of my favorite people.

I'm glad I got out of the Valley and away from work for the weekend and into an atmosphere of fun; it's an atmosphere that I miss and one that I love. Seeing a lot of my high school friends and some of my college ones made it even better.

Highlights:

:: Once again: Mikey doing the Thriller dance, if only in an aborted manner
:: Mahdi attempting to do the Thriller dance. And eventually falling and drooling on himself.
:: Seeing that d-bag Jaime.
:: Seeing random friends from high school, including two ex-girlfriends.
:: Having people tell me I smell. But them still continuing to talk and flirt with me.
:: Everyone telling me how burnt I look.
:: Seeing Felix Sarco, even if only for two songs.
:: Getting stuck on Interstate 80 between mile markers 255 and 258 for an hour and twenty minutes while nothing happened. No accident to rubber-neck, no construction to blame it on. Just a bunch of idiot drivers.

Life is funny

2005-04-18T20:36:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: Radiohead - Idioteque**

Very few things beat ending a day on the front porch out in the country with a beer and great conversation. A smoke doesn't hurt either. If I could end every day with that feeling, I think life would be complete for me.

On a future note: This upcoming weekend is a PSU weekend. Definitely looking forward to it all.

How Gorgeous is This?

2005-04-14T20:37:00.000+01:00

Caption: "A shooting star streaks across the sky during a meteor shower. A meteorite which residents described as a 'huge ball of fire' was spotted over the eastern Spanish regions of Catalonia and Valencia, according to astronomers in the region" (AFP)

To me it looks like the sky is RIPPING open to reveal something, anything. It's wonderful. I wish I could've seen it for myself. What a sight.

It's like the sky is a canopy, torn to reveal the real light behind the fabric of the universe.

Nothing worth mentioning

2005-04-13T21:31:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: Teenage Girls - Come**

Here are some songs I've been listening to a lot recently:

Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
Susan Tudeschi - Rock Me Right
Neko Case - Honky Tonk Hiccups
Talking Heads - Road to Nowhere
Jimmie's Chicken Shack - Bong Jam
Teenage Girls - Hallelujah
CREAM - Tale of a Brave Ulysses
Willie Nelson - Whiskey River

Here are a few books I've been delving into:

Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl
On the Blanket - Tim Pat Coogan
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle

Why do I subject myself to this?

2005-04-08T00:56:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: Talking Heads - Life During Wartime (This Ain't No Disco)**

"When I was a kid, like 11, I thought meat was made out of fabric; you know, like old recycled t-shirts. I mean, how else could beef get so red? Red thread, Zed."

Why oh why...

Sunny Songs - My Faves

2005-04-07T00:12:00.000+01:00

Since it has FINALLY decided to warm up and somewhat resemble Spring to some degree, here is a list of my favorite songs whose titles include the word SUN.

Eric Burden & the Animals - House of the Rising Sun
Jimi Hendrix - Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)
CREAM - Sunshine of Your Love
The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun
Soundgarden - Blackhole Sun (I KNOW ITS NOT SPRING-Y!)
Elton John - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
Rage Against the Machine - People of the Sun
The Doors - Waiting for the Sun
Janis Joplin - Flower in the Sun

crap... that's all I could come up with. Anyone else have anymore? There's gotta be dozens. Leave them in the comments if you can think of any.

Ten new stories that I'm absolutely sick of.

2005-04-06T11:14:00.000+01:00

- Michael Jackson
- Kobe Bryant/Shaq fighting
- stories about minor flooding in Wyoming Valley
- RIAA and file sharing hearings & proposed legislation
- The Pope. (I'm sorry, I just can't bring myself to care. I'm heartless really.)
- Terry Schiavo
- Rising fuel prices
- That ugly fool, Prince Charles' upcoming wedding
- Banning gay marriage (you fucking bigots)
- The Patriot Act (just DIE already, you unconstitutional heap of Republican wastepaper)

I Love The Talking Heads

2005-04-06T00:07:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: THE TALKING HEADS**

As it says above, I absolutely love the Talking Heads. Especially when I'm hanging out with a few friends and we've had a few drinks, this band really hits the spot, fits the bill, all that jazz. I love the funky element to the music, it's something that's missing in most stuff.

The American public was first introduced to the THs with the song "Sugar (on My Tongue)" in 1975, and they evolved and progressed from there. In the following two decades, the Talking Heads pumped out hit after hit, with each album maintaining its own unique sound, something attributable specifically to that piece of music.

"Sugar" has a catchy bass line and David Byrne's voice sounds pure. The underlying sexual and drug oriented message is interesting to consider. "Is she gonna put the sugar on my tongue? Gonna gimme gimme some." Ah, the blatant disregard for subtleties.

Some of the older Talking Heads songs are really great too. "Don't Worry About the Government", "I Wish You Wouldn't Say That", and "Love --> Building on Fire" are all great tunes, each with their own sound and individuality.

Later in their careers, the THs put out a string of hits including "Psycho Killer", "Take Me To The River", "Slippery People" and "Burning Down The House".

Some of my particular favorites however, are not the hits, but some of the common favorites amongst fans. These are "Girlfriend is Better", "Road to Nowhere", "Life in Wartime (This Ain't No Disco)", "And She Was" and MANY others.

The Talking Heads proved that you could have punk attitude erradiate our of your music without having the punk sound. They made pop-ish music without selling out. They never compromised their musical creativity for market success. The market melded itself to them.

Their songs are not cookie-cutter "verse chorus verse chorus" billboard bullshit either. Just when you think you can predict their tunes, choruses merge into bridges which merge into verses; in and out and back again. A head-spinning, toe-tapping rollercoaster. It just makes me want to do a stupid dance thinking about it.

The River

2005-04-05T03:37:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: Susan Tudeschi - Rock Me Right**

The Susquehanna River and how people respond and co-exist with it creates an amusing type of situational comedy for me.

A natural wonder, the river has been modified, polluted and re-directed to a point which leaves it unpredictable. The "crest" is never where they say it will be, and the "flood stage" is a farce. It's all tenuous at best, mostly because (in my own opinion) of what the people have done to the Susquehanna in the last four centuries. Damming, mining, dragging, dumping, filling... god knows what else.

People still choose to live next to this unpredictability and then act shocked when there is a threat of flood. It has happened or threatened to happen every 10 years or so, for the last century. On top of that, we get a valley-leveling flood averaging about once every 30-40 years. Oh, what the Wyoming Valley has to look forward to.

Crossroads, maybe

2005-04-04T10:42:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: Janis Joplin - Try (A Little Bit Harder)**

I've decided not to play baseball this semester. I don't have the time or expenses or even the motivation necessary to play this time around. It's a mild disappointment, but not playing will allow me to get another job and save a bit more money in preparation for the future.

The future is a funny thing really. I just hope that everything turns out alright with everyone I care about. And I hope that I can continue to be happy, even with the common doubts that arise in life.

Crap

2005-04-04T07:29:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: Teenage Girls - American Beauty (acoustic)**

Missed two parties this weekend up north with long-time friends. I'm at a point of complete disappointment. But otherwise, all is well. My weekend was dismal, but I managed a few hours of fun each day in an empty attempt at salvaging the piss-poor excuse for a social life.

Anyhow, its too early to be worried about crap. Looking forward to a good day.

Conspiracy Theories

2005-04-03T00:34:00.000+01:00

**musical mood preference: 10,000 Maniacs - Jezebel**

It's funny, really, when you sit around in drunken stupor and discuss things of bizarre nature. Conspiracy theories are the first thing to come to mind for me, namely because of the crowd I hang out with. These are people who have lived in Montana, rural middle-of-nowhere type places, Hopi Indian reservations... you get the idea.

Some of these purported theories go as follows:

The US Government, and really the entire world's ruling class, only wish to support the most educated, rich and dependable 20% of the population. The rest are slowly being starved, stupified and weeded out.

The New World Order has been aligned and strengthened thanks to the current Republican administration's crony-ism and favoritism towards big business.

People at Olde Tyme Charlie's in Plains are robots, slaves to their master/boss. He somehow brainwashed these otherwise normal people into doing his bidding, working whatever hours he tells them and never asking for anything.

I will update this as more compile.

Mass Media, Public Opinion and the Government

2005-03-31T18:59:00.000+01:00

Mass media is a very powerful concept, with the ability to sway the opinion of a large part of the population of the United States. With this in mind, it is important to remember that politicians running for office watch changes in public opinion very carefully in order to choose their platforms and plans for action. This helps to maximize the amount of voters who will agree with their policies. These campaigning candidates are also concerned with reigning in the power of major interest groups which lobby for their respective causes. The relationships between all of these things: public opinion, mass media, interest groups and politicians are inextricable.

Mass media controls what news makes the airwaves, be it digitally through the internet or through more traditional channels such as newspapers and network television. The media chooses what stories to cover and to what extremity to stretch them. This drastically shapes the way people think about issues. By controlling what people see and read, the media can decide what issues become crucial and what issues are largely ignored. In this way, mass media can shape public opinion and also the agenda of politicians and their parties. Politicians are always concerned with mass media, as they understand this institution’s power over public opinion and along what lines people will vote.

Public opinion is a fickle thing, changing at the drop of a hat. This erratic concept is influenced by many things, especially mass media. Polls taken concerning issues that get heavy media coverage are subject to changing along the lines of the light in which they are portrayed in the media. The level of scrutiny on an individual issue is important in weighing the influence of the mass media on the opinion of the common people.
Interest groups shape policy by working with politicians towards their own goals. Some of the strongest lobbying groups are amalgams of people rather than representatives of big business. Groups such as the AARP and Black National Caucus represent the interests of large bodies of people. While powerful lobbies still exist that represent big business, it is my opinion that these people-oriented groups carry much more weight with politicians in state and national governments. The tobacco lobbies may throw their clout around often, but if the AARP were to push for policy change, it would be initiated quicker than the interests of the cigarette companies.
These interest groups hold the power to alter public opinion. If these groups hold that one candidate will suit them better than another, and show their support accordingly, that candidate will receive a boost in support from people of like-minded backgrounds of the interest group’s supporters. An elderly person may take the AARP’s support of a candidate as a good enough credential to vote for them. The same can be said of an NRA supporter, who takes the NRA’s choice of candidate (almost always a Republican) as ballot-gospel.
As you can see, all of these things are entwined, with some influence over each other in some form or another. Interest groups pressure the media to cover what they wish, while public opinion also shapes what the media will focus on. Large special interest groups hold a sway over public opinion large enough to concern policymakers into dealing with them. By opening themselves up to being “lobbied”, politicians and lawmakers are allowing the interest groups to change the agenda, just as they allow public opinion to change the same agenda. In the end, all of these things have their own specific type of influence over what politicians consider for their agenda.
The problems with allowing the media to influence public policy agenda is simply that the media, in order to fight for viewers and readers, has a need to sensationalize stories and issues to suit their own personal business interests. Because of exaggeration on the part of the media, issues end up distorted and misguided. With this in mind, it is still important to remember that without the media, the majority of people would never have any idea what was going on in government, even on a local level.
Interest groups are just that, groups interested in a single issue or a single group of issues. This can be dangerous, because politicians can become too concerned with the particulars of the issue being lobbied, and issues just as important slip by under the radar. Powerful lobbying groups are concerned only with their own agenda and seeing it implemented in the agenda and policy of policymakers.
As has been mentioned, public opinion is a fickle part of government. The opinions of the masses change frequently and often without warning. It is hard to rely on public opinion for policy decisions, as their opinion is so easily swayed by the mass media and outside sources. To call it brainwashing would be conspiratorial, but it is something near to that. Many people trust the media and take what they hear as golden truth, not to be questioned. “If it’s on TV, it must be true,” is a simpleton attitude but in reality a very real one.
All of these policy-influencing parts of society are important cogs in the governmental machine. They carry on their own form of a system of “checks and balances” by holding sway over each other at different times. The media is influenced by the interest groups as well as by public opinion. The interest groups are influenced by the opinion of their supporters (i.e. the public). And finally, the public are influenced heavily by the mass media as well as by the interest groups. With all this in mind, it is important to understand that no part of the policy-making machine is infallible and sometimes self-interested parties get over on what is in the general public’s best interest.

Current Musical Interests

2005-03-30T05:39:00.000+01:00

CREAM
the New Pornographers
Neko Case
Susan Tudeschi
Tift Merritt
Jimmie's Chicken Shack
the Talking Heads

Old Mother Hen

2005-03-26T07:30:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: Plus 3 - I'm On My Way Down**

Yep, thats me, Old Mother Hen. I worry too much apparently. Nothing changes I suppose

St. Patrick's Day

2005-03-21T18:58:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: New Pornographers - From Blown Speakers**

Well, as Irish as I am, I didn't really properly celebrate St Patricks this year. Considering I'm 21 now and it is much easier for me to party... I really blew it this time around.

But, I'm content. Work is going well and classes are progressing nicely.

Debt

2005-03-18T21:43:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: CREAM - Tales of Brave Ulysses**

I'm more and more convinced that America is a disparagement in terms of economic inequality. We're in league with Namibia and South Africa when it comes to disparity of wealth distribution. The rich continue to get richer while the poor continue to live in relative squalor. It's disheartening for a person who wants to improve himself to know that the chances of coming upon wealth in any substance are nearly non-existent.

At age 20, thanks entirely student loans, I have already accrued a debt of well over $15,000, with no end of the madness in sight. It is because of this that I will avoid creditors and credit cards as long and as often as possible in my future. I believe that credit is a veritable Satan in modern society, with interest rates controlled by the ever swirling inflation rates controlled by the ever swirling gas prices, controlled by the ever swirling crisis in the Middle East.

So, piss on credit.

Update

2005-03-13T13:50:00.000Z

No life, no love.

MP3 Playlist Game - First 20 Songs

2005-03-08T14:25:00.000Z

here's another of those space filling things.

Step 1: Open your MP3 program.
Step 2: Put all of your music on random.
Step 3: Write down the first twenty songs it plays, no matter how embarrassing.

1. The Beatles - I Feel Fine
2. Tom Petty - Breakdown
3. Grateful Dead - Estimated Prophet
4. Sublime - Chick On My Tip
5. Dropkick Murphys - Boys on the Dock
6. Rolling Stones - 19th Nervous Breakdown
7. Ani DiFranco - Falling Is Like This
8. The Doors - When the Music's Over
9. Teenage Girls - Failed Pop Punk Experiment
10. Violent Femmes - Jesus Walking on the Water
11. Elton John & Billy Joel - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
12. Guns n Roses - Sweet Child O Mine
13. Neko Case - Soulful Shade of Blue
14. The Smiths - Jack the Ripper
15. The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
16. Neil Young - Heart of Gold
17. T Rex - Bang a Gong
18. Ben Harper - Strawberry Fields Forever
19. CCR - Travelling Band
20. NWA - Straight Outta Compton

List - Favorite Albums

2005-03-07T08:04:00.000Z

The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow
Neko Case - Blacklisted
Nirvana - In Utero
The Doors - Morrison Hotel
The Beatles - The White Album
Ani DiFranco - Little Plastic Castle
Tool - Opiate
Bob Marley - Exodus
Ben Harper - Fight For Your Mind
Sublime - 40 oz To Freedom
Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Sonic Youth - EVOL
Antonin Dvorak - New World Symphony
Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced?
The Who - Tommy
Ludwig Von Beethoven - 9th Symphony (Choral)
Counting Crows - August and Everything After
Nirvana - Nevermind
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Alice in Chains - Unplugged
Neil Young - Harvest
The Beatles - Rubber Soul
Talking Heads - Speaking In Tongues
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle
Dr. Dre - The Chronic

Migraines

2005-03-07T02:05:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: Neko Case - Lady Pilot**

How often in the last 8 years have I suffered with a terrible migraine headache? Suffered through an entire day of school or work or baseball with a pounding and unrelenting bastard of a headache, only to come home and crash for hours of pained sleep. ALL TOO OFTEN. It used to be much worse. When I was about 15 years old, I used to have headaches nearly every day.

I wish I knew how to get rid of them. I've tried so many things. At first they atrributed these headaches to my allergies, but when they got WORSE on allergy medication, it was apparent that wasn't the problem.

I've seen chiropractors, allergists, neurologists, general practitioners, and so on. None of them have given me a viable option for eliminating my headaches.

Woody Allen & Nihilism - AGAIN

2005-03-02T08:57:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: The Smiths - Unhappy Birthday**

This dialogue from Woody Allen's Play It Again Sam (1972) just made me think of the weather today and how it makes me feel when its like this outside. The power of a smile and a laugh is immeasurable.

A recent discussion with a cute lady about Nihilism and Existentialism immediately made this portion of the movie stick in my mind.

WOODY ALLEN: That’s quite a lovely Jackson Pollock, isn’t it?
GIRL IN MUSEUM: Yes it is.
WOODY ALLEN: What does it say to you?
GIRL IN MUSEUM: It restates the negativeness of the universe, the hideous lonely emptiness of existence, nothingness, the predicament of man forced to live in a barren, godless eternity, like a tiny flame flickering in an immense void, with nothing but waste, horror, and degradation, forming a useless bleak straightjacket in a black absurd cosmos.
WOODY ALLEN: What are you doing Saturday night?
GIRL IN MUSEUM: Committing suicide.
WOODY ALLEN: What about Friday night?
GIRL IN MUSEUM: [leaves silently] .

Game Game Game

2005-03-02T02:14:00.000Z

The First Five Movie/TV Quotes that come into your head (must be from different movies/shows).

1. You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Well, who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well, I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talkin' to?

TAXI DRIVER - Robert De Niro

2. "Spitting's a disgusting habit."
"I know a worse one."

WILLY WONKA & the CHOCOLATE FACTORY - Gene Wilder

3. Strikeouts are boring, besides that, they're fascist.

BULL DURHAM - Kevin Costner

4. It was just a fucking bar fight, you guys have to be such pussies

BOONDOCK SAINTS

5. Mother-puss-bucket

GHOSTBUSTER - Bill Murray

Volunteer Bobby Sands MP (1954-1981)

2005-03-01T08:05:00.000Z

March 1st marks the 24th anniversary of the day Volunteer Bobby Sands began his deadly hungerstrike.

THE RHYTHM OF TIME
by Vol. Bobby Sands, Irish Republican Army

There’s an inner thing in every man,
Do you know this thing my friend?
It has withstood the blows of a million years,
And will do so to the end.

It was born when time did not exist,
And it grew up out of life,
It cut down evil’s strangling vines,
Like a slashing searing knife.

It lit fires when fires were not,
And burnt the mind of man,
Tempering leadened hearts to steel,
From the time that time began.

It wept by the waters of Babylon,
And when all men were a loss,
It screeched in writhing agony,
And it hung bleeding from the Cross.

It died in Rome by lion and sword,
And in defiant cruel array,
When the deathly word was ‘Spartacus’,
Along the Appian Way.

It marched with Wat the Tyler’s poor,
And frightened lord and king,
And it was emblazoned in their deathly stare,
As e’er a living thing.

It smiled in holy innocence,
Before conquistadors of old,
So meek and tame and unaware,
Of the deathly power of gold.

It burst forth through pitiful Paris streets,
And stormed the old Bastille,
And marched upon the serpent’s head,
And crushed it ‘neath its heel.

It died in blood on Buffalo Plains,
And starved by moons of rain,
Its heart was buried in Wounded Knee,
But it will come to rise again.

It screamed aloud by Kerry lakes,
As it was knelt upon the ground,
And it died in great defiance,
As they coldly shot it down.

It is found in every light of hope,
It knows no bounds nor space,
It has risen in red and black and white,
It is there in every race.

It lies in the hearts of heroes dead,
It screams in tyrants’ eyes,
It has reached the peak of mountains high,
It comes seating ‘cross the skies.

It lights the dark of this prison cell,
It thunders forth its might,
It is ‘the undauntable thought’, my friend,
That thought that says ‘I’m right!’

Neko Case's "My '63" and my recent dreams

2005-02-28T10:04:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: Neko Case - My 63**

Neko Case has a song called "My '63", a country-esque tune about her 1963 Rambler (picture of similar car). I've been listening to her a lot lately especially while I fall asleep. She provides a good background for sleeping.

Last night, I had a dream about a person (someone I know, I'm sure of it. But I can't quite remember who) who kept telling me how wonderful his/her '63 Rambler was. This is funny to me, because I'm a light sleeper who often has things happening around my sleeping-self intervene in my dreams. Phones ringing, people talking outside my window, even the climate inside my room affect my dreams. Now the music is getting into the game.

At least it makes my dreams a bit more interesting. Without interference such as this, my dreams usualy consist of me doing things I do while I'm awake. For example: I usually dream of sitting in class, or of painting. So arguing with some guy about his 1963 Rambler is much more exciting.

History

2005-02-28T04:22:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: Sublime - Dont Push (acoustic)**

I never bought my history book for American History II, and I have an exam on Tuesday. I'm currently reading a history book that Miss Jones gave me our senior year because she was retiring and was just going to throw it away. This history book is from the early 80's and calls black people "negroes" and Native Americans "Native Indians".

History of a Free People may not be college level material. I'll have to see how I do on the test before I really judge it though.

Ages

2005-02-24T23:14:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: Neko Case - Pretty Girls**

How old is too old, exactly? What is an acceptable age gap between a couple? Questions questions.

Doesn't matter really, I'm happy anyway.

Hunter S Thompson

2005-02-21T21:58:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: Rolling Stones - Sister Morphine**

The original neo-liberal tough guy, HST, has died from a self-inflicted gun-shot wound. Never afraid to speak his mind on any topic, Thompson was an inspiration to many who are outside the realm of what people believe to be normal. His wild lifestyle and self-destructive attitude towards life drew many people to his writing.

Here are some of my particular favorite quotes from HST:

"Is it even vaguely possible that some New Age Republican whore-beast of a false president could actually make Richard Nixon look like a liberal?"

"As your attourney I advise you to tell me where you put the goddamn mescaline."

"I have always loved marijuana. It has been a source of joy and comfort to me for many years. And I still think of it as a basic staple of life, along with beer and ice and grapefruits - and millions of Americans agree with me."

"Let's face it--the yo-yo president of the U.S.A. knows nothing. He is a dunce. He does what he is told to do--says what he is told to say--poses the way he is told to pose. He is a Fool."

"We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world - bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are whores for power and oil with hate and fear in our hearts."

Penn State Weekend redux

2005-02-18T03:19:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: The Commitments Soundtrack**

Another exciting PSU weekend coming up. Hopefully it turns out to be one of the great ones. Back on Sunday to go to the Sean Gallagher benefit.

Anti-VDay Re-cap

2005-02-16T02:23:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: The Shins - Pink Bullets**

My Valentine's Day (or Single Awareness Day as Brianna referred to it as) was much better than I expected it to be. I spent it at the bar, which in itself didn't make the night, it was the people there who did.

There were only three of us in the entire bar: myself, my bartender friend and her younger sister. We watched the Westminster Dog Show and played dice for a while, then the sister left. It was my friend and I for the last three hours or so. We went and played in the basement of the bar (which happens to be my personal favorite pub). Apparently the basement served as a speak-easy in the 20's and a haven for coke-heads who refused to sleep in the 80s.

The night continued: we played video golf, and enjoyed some herbal refreshment, fooled around a little and laughed a lot. I left around midnight, smiling. It was a nice surprise from what was expected.

Liz Phair is disturbing

2005-02-14T05:43:00.000Z

In light of the date, I was asking some of my friends what kinda music would be Valentine-ish, in a sexy way, and one of the suggestions was Liz Phair. A female friend of mine recommended that I listen to some of her newer stuff. So I download a few songs, and listen and listen. But I'm not feeling the sexiness... all I'm feeling is astounded by the trashy sexuality of some of the songs. One song in particular: "HWC". HWC = Hot White C.... AHEM! Excuse me. Google it if you really want to know what it is.

Here is an excerpt of the lyrics:

"Face it, one of these days
Without you I'm just another Dorian Gray
It's the fountain of youth
It's the meaning of life
So hot, so sweet, so whet my appetite"

So disturbing

Weekend

2005-02-14T02:04:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: Janis Joplin - Me&Bobby McGee**

My weekend was eventful. I went out to my cousins Friday afternoon, and then went to the bar. From the bar, I met up with some friends and watched PLUS3 and the Non-Refundables in Plains. It was nice to be out with a group, something I haven't really done for a while. It's usually just me and one or two other people.

Saturday, I worked and then went to JPs wrestling match. After work, I went to the Legion with Pop and onwards to Luzerne later in the night. It was another past-closing night, but a great one all the same. I'm content.

Sunday was a day of sleep and weapons. I slept til after noon, and truthfully didn't get out of bed til after 2. It was delightful. Around 4, I went shooting with my cousin and our friends.

Arthur Miller has died

2005-02-11T18:30:00.000Z

Arthur Miller is dead

How sad; the many times I have enjoyed his plays (both reading and seeing performed), from the required "Death of a Salesman" to the less known but equally enjoyable "All My Sons". "A View from the Bridge" and "The Crucible" are also class plays.

Arthur Miller, former husband of Marilyn Monroe, has died at 89 years of age, of heart failure.

Regarding the State of the Union Address of February 2, 2005

2005-02-10T05:24:00.000Z

George Bush has purported himself as being a president who dislikes “small ball”, and has proved himself to be such in the last four years. Personally, it seems that his administration is too focused on these “big” issues, while other comparably important issues slip by under the radar. Namely, these are continually rising medical costs and unaffordable insurance as well as environmental issues and the surging deficit.

America is the only high income nation that lacks universal health care. I find this to be deplorable; with tens of millions of Americans with unsatisfactory medical coverage, I believe it is time to focus on the health of our nation. We may not have to worry about Social Security if health care costs and insurance problems are not stabilized. The president has addressed health case issues in other forums, but I believe that the crisis surrounding this issue deserved a place in this important speech. As a supporter of “big government”, my opinion is that the health of the nation is the responsibility of those elected. The president disagrees with me, as a proponent of “small government, big business.” This is fine; after all, he’s the Yale and Harvard graduate, with four years of presidential experience under his belt. I am not going to attempt to argue with someone exponentially more qualified than I am to form opinions on issues such as this one.

In his fourth State of the Union, the president, a self-proclaimed large issue president, described our country’s current situation as strong and confident, and he, himself, beamed with confidence. Primarily, President Bush focused on two issues: Social Security and Iraq.

The state of Social Security has been a spotlight of the Republicans for a while now, and President Bush seems determined to get something done about it. I believe that he will try, but his privatization plan needs to be fine-tuned before he even attempts to push it through the legislature. It seems feasible in framework that this transition could be successful, but certain issues need to be better addressed. For me, these include: distinction of the disabled receiving Social Security payments, as well as a better definition of what happens to an account if someone dies before they reach the age of disbursement.

The need for reform of Social Security is obvious, even to a relative liberal like me. The ratio of workers to supported individuals on the program has shrunk from around fifteen to one in 1950 to around three to one currently. Something needs to be done to counter the growing retired community, and perhaps the President has the right idea with privatization. As I heard on the CSPAN debate of the President’s plan, this may even be more beneficial to minority and female workers, who typically spend less time paying into Social Security.

Following his administration’s political victory regarding the elections in Iraq the previous weekend, the President was confident in his words regarding the current situation in that area of his policy. I believe that he and his administration are entitled to their confidence after the effort they have put into the war and into winning a peaceful Iraq.

I applaud the President’s highlighting of the good things that have come out of the war on terror. An increase in women’s rights in both Iraq and Afghanistan is something that deserves recognition, as well as an increase in individual liberties in both countries. I was also impressed that the President did not, like so many presidents have before him did, out rightly support only the Israeli state. The president’s pledge of $350 million dollars for Palestinian political and security reform really surprised me.

I was relieved to hear of the proposed scaling back of offensive operations described by the president in his speech. Having friends on the front lines of combat in Iraq makes me very sensitive to issues concerning increased danger to their lives and the lives of American men and women just like them.

It was interesting to me that the President quoted the great Democratic president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the end of his speech. To me it signified the recognition of the great work FDR did during his three full terms, and the work that now needs to be done to build upon his New Deal’s framework. This, according to the President will be done by reforming the Roosevelt-founded Social Security and by spreading liberty to the oppressed nations of this earth. I applaud his ambition and his drive, even if I don’t agree with the semantics of his politics.

The Characters of Wilkes-Barre and Kingston

2005-02-09T04:23:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: Alice Cooper - Hell Is Living Without You**

There are a number of interesting people who live in or around Kingston/Wilkes-Barre. My particular favorite is the "pole hugger" or "head-banger". His name is Chuck, and as he walks down the street (most often Market Street in both cities), he stops at every single sign-post, tree, telephone pole or bus-stop and hugs it, bangs his head off of it, or rests on it.

My brother JP and his friends frequently attempt to talk to him during their riding exploits on Market St Square in the summer. Some days Chuck is up for normal conversations, some days he isn't. It's really a toss up whether or not he is approachable. But all-in-all, he is a harmless and somewhat amusing guy.

From what I can tell, he is a nice person with a few problems. He's not exactly stupid or mentally challenged, just a person some specific type of OCD. He functions well enough, I mean he walks from Rutter Ave to Wilkes-Barre and back frequently, if not every single day. He always has some money, as I often see him in Tommy's Pizza on Market St buying lunch. So he has the ability to take carry of himself.

If you ever see him, just stand back and watch him for a little while, I guarantee you will be amused.

Vampires of Ireland

2005-02-07T18:10:00.000Z

There aren't nearly as many vampire-type myths in Irish folklore compared with those of other superstitious cultures. But there are a few prominent instances where the depraved demonic creatures appear. The most frequent is that of the Dearg-due, or Red Blood Sucker, whose most famous alleged is buried near Strongbow's Tree in Co. Waterford. She was purportedly a female of indescribable beauty who died in mysterious circumstances but rose from her grave a few times a year to wreck havoc on the men of surrounding villages. She seduced her victims by dancing until the men were stupified then she would feed on their blood. In Scotland, the vampire legend was called baobhan sith, and lurked in the mountains.

Another Irish vampire legend is Dreach-Fhoula (possibly also seen as Dreach-Shoula or Droch-Fhoula): Pronounced "droc-'ola" and means 'bad' or 'tainted blood' and while it is widely believed to refer to 'blood feuds' between persons or families, it may have a far older history.

During a lecture in 1961, the head of the Irish Folklore Commission, Sean O'Suilleabhain, spoke of a site which he called Dun Dreach-Fhoula or Castle of the Blood Visage. This was supposedly a fortress guarding a lonely pass in the Magillycuddy Reeks in Kerry, and inhabited by blood-drinking shape-shifting fairies. He did not give its exact location for the castle, and cultural historians have spent years rifling thru archives for more specific information.

It might well have been the inspiration for the name Dracula rather than Vlad Dracul. Bram Stoker, after all, never visited Eastern Europe and relied entirely on travelers' accounts.

Abhartach is only one among a few blood-drinking noble and chieftains that populate Irish folklore; and the blood-drinking undead appear briefly in Geoffrey Keating's History of Ireland, written in 1631. Stoker may well have read the legend of Abhartach in another History of Ireland, written by Patrick Weston Joyce and published in 1880. Around the same time, the original copies of Keating's work were on display in the National Museum in Dublin. Stoker probably brought together the myths of Abhartach and that of the Dun Dreach-Fhoula and somehow amagamated it with common vampire mythology.

Central European Vampirism

2005-02-07T03:02:00.000Z

Since I reserve the right to babble about whatever I feel like on my site, I think today I will seize upon that right to do so. I mean, hell, its in the title! (DRIVEL!) I have other interests and I am going to take this opportunity to express them.

History of Central European Vampires

The roots of vampirism are unknown, they strech back as far as Sumerian civilisation, but the strongest and most influential cultures on present day depictions of the demons are that of early medieval German and Slavic. It is from these stories that we get their deathly aversion to garlic and death by a stake to the heart.

In Slavic folklore the accounts told of depraved spirits, called ippur or a nelapsi, that would attack their former neighbors and livestock. Others of Czech origin mentioned incidents of nightmares accompanied with pain, a feeling of being suffocated, and a squeezing around the neck area upon waking up.

Another vampire-related incident was recorded by Count de Cadreras, who in the 1720s was designated by the Austrian emperor to research suspicious events in a town near the Hungarian border called Haidam. The Count investigated several cases involving people who had been dead up to 30 years who were reported to have returned from the dead to attack their relatives. When the bodies were unearthed, they showed dilatory decomposition including the flow of fresh blood when a primitive autopsy was performed. The Count ordered that the bodies be decapitated and then burned twice again. The paperwork given to the emperor documenting these procedures along with a lengthy account given by the Count to a professor at the University of Fribourg survive to this day. The town of Haidam has never been identified, nor has a place by that name ever been recorded in any other contemporary documentation.

Germany gives us the Blutsueger, or bloodsucker, and the Nosferatu-esque vampirism. The Nachtzehrer were similar to the Slavic vampire in that they were known to be recently deceased people who returned from the grave to attack family members and villagers. Their undead state stemmed from an unusual death, such as a person who died by suicide or accident. They were also associated with epidemic sickness. e.g.: whenever a group of people died from the same disease, the person who died first was labeled to be the cause of the group's death. Nachtzehrers were also believed to chew on their own extremities and cloths until they had been satiated with blood. They would then ascend from of their graves and ravage the bodies of living beings like ghouls.

In southern Germany, it was believed that those who were not baptised were drawn to immoral life and the practise of black magick. These were people who, upon death, became Blutsuegers. Also, people who commit suicide also were supposedly open to this undead state. They appeared pale and resembled a zombie from Dawn of the Dead. Bavarians safeguarded their homes by smearing garlic over their doors and windows and placing hawthorn around their houses and barns. In the folklore, Bluatsaugers could be killed by a stake though the heart and stuffing garlic in their mouths.

In Bulgaria, the people believed that spirits of the dead embarked on a journey immediately after death that visited every place they had visited during their life on earth. Their journey lasted for 40 days and then the spirit went on to its next life. However, if the dead were not properly buried, they may find that their passage to the next world was blocked, and might return to this world as a vampire. The Romanian word for vampire comes straight from the original Slavic word: opyri.

Certain people were prone to becoming vampires in Bulgarian folklore. These included people who died violently, those excommunicated from the church, drunkards, thieves, murderers, and people who practised witchcraft. Tales spread about vampires who returned to life and started their lives over in foreign towns, even so much that they would marry and have children. Their only supposed abnormality was their nightly search for blood to quench their thirst.

Methods of killing vampires include the traditional stake to the heart and a method called bottling, where a man called a djadajii would chase after the vampire with a holy icon such as a crucifix or a picture of Jesus or Mary. The djadadjii would force the vampire towards a bottle that contained its favorite food. Once the vampire was lured into the bottle, it was corked and thrown into a fire until consumed.

Generally Happy

2005-02-07T01:20:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: The Chieftains & Sinead O'Connor - The Foggy Dew**

I've decided that if it is possible for me to be happy in my current situation, I'm pretty much set for life regarding happiness. I love life, and I generally love people, despite our many shortcomings as a society and culture.

What I lack is money, time and friends. I mean, I have lots of friends, but none in my general vacinity anymore. I'm pretty much alone. I make up for it by hanging out with older people and making friends with people ten years my senior. I spend alot of my weekends with my brothers or at the bar with grandfather or mom or uncles. Isn't this supposed to be the most exciting time of my life?

I need a life. Help me.

Annoyances

2005-02-04T03:54:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: The Doors - The Changeling*

Two of my current annoyances:

Number one: It really disturbs me, for some reason, when a guy saddles up right next to me in the bathroom to pee, when there at like 10 other open urinals. Please go away.

Number two: My Political Science professor cannot say the word "legislature". She repeatedly says "leh-ghis-lay-tor" and then corrects herself by saying either "legislative body" or slowly attempting to say legislature correctly. It drives me NUTS.

Chuck on the State of Social Security

2005-02-03T03:10:00.000Z

Anyone who believes the fallacy that the privatization of social security will be good for our country needs only to talk to anyone from Great Britain...they did it and their country went into a debt equal to approximately 25% of their GDP...and what are they doing to fix their problem?...switching to the same system that we currently have...maybe if G.W. Bozo hadn't spent the enormous surplus that social security had on his petty tax breaks, then there wouldn't be a problem...of course, hindsight is always 20/20...he's such a fuckin' clown...

And I completely agree! The surpluses in the final two fiscal years of the Clinton administration (it took nearly six years to recover from HUGE deficits to finally balance the budget) were shamefully wasted on a tax break that only partially benefited the people who need it most: the low and lower middle classes. However, they did benefit those who needed them the least: the upper middle and upper classes.

Social Security is NOT going broke. This is a Republican scare tactic. If the system is managed wisely, instead of being written off, it can be salvaged and even improved. And if it happens to be in trouble, I would first point the finger at the man who spent the surpluses that he did not broker along his wealthy administration.

Bush talked forever about two issues, and Social Security is NOT our biggest social domestic problem at the current time. MEDICAL CARE and INSURANCE should be primary concerns of ALL Americans, regardless of partisanship. Tens of millions of Americans are lacking even the minimal amount of insurance. This is wrong, especially in a nation which purports itself to be the richest and freest nation in the world. We are declining, people. Our infant mortality rates and death rates have gone up while our birth rate is down. The influx of untrained and non-professional immigrants is swelling the stagnant job pool while the professional and university foreigners coming to the US has nearly dried up.

Our economy is in the shitter, the Dollar is down while the GBP and EURO surge, even the YEN has gained on the weakened Dollar. Proud to be an American? Sure I am, but I am embarassed at our current administrations purposeful ignorance towards issues it cannot handle.

Neko Case - Make Your Bed

2005-02-02T22:30:00.000Z

Make your bed the river young girl
Make your bed the river young girl
Lalalalalalalola
Make your bed the river young girl

Did you come here to meet him, my dear?
You surprised to find only me?
Well I put him to rest at the bend in the river
And the same I require of thee

I'm thick with disease in my madness
Only one thought pacifies me
That the murky black water grinds your bones into sand
When the catfish have stripped off your hide

Make your bed the river young girl
Make your bed the river young girl
I know you can't swim, but I'll tuck you in
Make your bed the river young girl

Go down as his trembling bride
For to quell all his fury inside me
And if there's a chance that the Lord recognize you
Pray he has more mercy than I

Make your bed the river young girl
Make your bed the river young girl
I know you can't swim, but I'll tuck you in
Make your bed the river young girl

Make your bed the river young girl

Happy Birthday James Joyce

2005-02-02T19:31:00.000Z

*musical mood preference: David Bowie - Rebel Rebel**

Quotes from James Joyce, on this, his 123rd birthday
History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.
-Ulysses, page 34

He even ran away with hunself and became a farsoonerite, saying he would far sooner muddle through the hash of lentils in Europe than meddle with Irrland's split little pea.
-Finnegans Wake

You were bred, fed, fostered and fattened from holy childhood up in this two easter island ... and now, forsooth, a nogger among the blankards of this dastard century, you have become of twosome twiminds forenenst gods, hidden and discovered, nay, condemned fool, anarch, egoarch, hiresiarch, you have reared your disunited kingdom on the vacuum of your own most intensely doubtful soul.
-Finnegans Wake

Ulysses was banned in its unabridged form in the United states for 11 years after publication. The decision which overturned that censorship was delivered by Judge Wosley. Here is part of his rendering:

"In respect to the recurrent emergence of the theme of sex in the minds of his characters, it must always be remembered that his locale was Celtic and his season Spring."

"Why all this fuss and bother about the mystery of the unconscious? What about the mystery of the conscious? What do they know about that?"
-James Joyce, 1919

I'd like a language which is above all languages, a language to which all will do service. I cannot express myself in English without enclosing myself in a tradition."
- James Joyce

"To me, an Irish safety pin is more important than an English epic."
-James Joyce

"A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery."
-Ulysses

Christopher Columbus, as everyone knows, is honored by posterity because he was the last to discover America.
-James Joyce

The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.
-Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Posts from me about Joyce:
Joycean Wit - Quote and Commentary
Romanticism from Joyce - a short excerpt with commentary
Cultural Conflict in James Joyce's "The Dead"
Verbal Softcore Pornography from James Joyce
James Joyce's "The Dead" and Ibsen's A Doll's House - A Comparison
James Joyce's "The Dead" and Ibsen's A Doll's House - A Comparison (Part 2)

Neko Case - Andy

2005-02-02T10:45:00.000Z

Andy, the Summer's over
I never noticed
Did you really think you'd leave so fast?
This morning was feeling colder
We're one year older
Did you really think we'd feel so bad?
Andy, it scares me sober
To think it's over
Did you really think we'd feel so bad?
Did you really think we'd feel so bed
It helped me thru the Spring
Just think about what it might become
Woke to find it had been here & gone
Andy, the Summer's over
I never noticed
Did you really think you'd leave so fast?

Neko Case - Things That Scare Me

2005-02-02T10:42:00.000Z

Flourescent nights engage
Black birds frying on a wire
Same birds that followed me
To school when I was young
Were they trying
To tell me something?
Were they telling me to run?

The hammer clicks in place
The world is gonna pay
Right down in the face of god & his saints
Claim your soul is not for sale
I'm a dying breed who still believes
Haunted by American dreams

Neko Case - No Need To Cry

2005-02-02T08:11:00.000Z

Lie in bed and ignore the TV
Watch the clouds sift through the aero
And you’ll be in my arms again
There’s no need to cry

Of all the things so bittersweet
You’re the first thing I see in morning and in sleep
And you’ll be in my arms again
There’s no need to cry

Years have been lost but can never be replaced
But my thoughts are with you
Tied to that interstate
And you’ll be in my arms tonight

There’s no need to cry

Neko Case - Look For Me (I'll Be Around)

2005-02-02T08:10:00.000Z

When you tire of all the bright lights
Haste that’s killing and you’re willing to stay home nights
When your feet are back on the solid ground
Look for me, I’ll be around

When the new crowd starts to bore you
Just remember there is someone to adore you
When you're weary of nights out on the town
Look for me, I’ll be around

May not seem exciting the way those others do
I’m emotion, my devotion
You will need some day as I need you

When the kicks go that it brings you
You will hanker for an anchor just to cling to
When you’ve lived it up till it’s got you down
Look for me, look for me
Look for me, I’ll be around

Neko Case - Alone & Foresaken

2005-02-02T08:09:00.000Z

We met in the springtime
When blossoms unfold
The pastures were green and
Meadows were gold

Our love was in flower as summer grew on
A love like the leaves has wither and gone
The roses have faded
There’s frost at my door
The birds in the morning don’t sing anymore

The grass in the valley has started to die
Out in the darkness the whippets will cry

Alone and forsaken
Oh lord if you hear me then hold to my hand
Oh please understand

Where has she gone to, oh where can she be
She may have forsaken some other like me
She promised to honor, to love and obey
Each vow was a plaything that she threw away

The darkness is falling
The sky has turned gray
A hound in the distance is starting to bay

I wonder, I wonder what she’s thinking of
Forsaken, forgotten without any love

Alone and forsaken
By Fate and by man
Oh lord if you hear me then hold to my hand
Oh please understand
Oh please understand

Neko Case - Thanks A Lot

2005-02-02T07:59:00.000Z

Thanks
Thanks a lot
I got a broken heart
That's all I've got
You made me cry
Now I cried a lot
I lost your love baby
Thanks a lot

You told our friend
As I was passin' by
That you're not sorry
That you made me cry
You said I deserve
Just what I got
Well if that's how you feel babe
Thanks a lot
Thanks
Thanks a lot
I got a broken heart
That's all I've got You made me cry
Now I cried a lot
I lost your love baby
Honey, thanks a lot

You wanted a fool
& I played the part
Now all I've got is a broken heart
We loved a little
& laughed a lot
Then you were gone
Honey thanks a lot
Thanks
Thanks a lot...

Set Out Running - Neko Case

2005-02-02T07:39:00.000Z

Want to get it all behind me
You know everything reminds me
I can't be myself without you
Want to crawl deep inside
Springs inside my trails
Will cry my dirty secrets
Cuz I just can't shake this feeling
That I'm nothing in your eyes

And if I knew heartbreak was coming
I would've set out running
Past the city houses
And the ditches on the highway
Read between the seasons
Under the bridges in valleys
Til the winds out on the praries
Whip the tears from my eyes

Want to get it all behind me
You know everything reminds me
I can't be myself without you
Want to crawl deep inside
Springs inside my trails
Will cry my dirty secrets
Cuz I just can't shake this feeling
That I'm nothing in your eyes

And if I knew heartbreak was coming
I would've set out running
Across the muddy river
And the smokestacks on the bank
Swallow their horizon
Hunger beyond hunger
Til the cloudy blue Pacific
Took the air in my lungs

And if I knew heartbreak was coming
I would've set out running
Cuz I just can't shake this feeling
That I'm nothing in your eyes.

Ghost Wiring - Neko Case

2005-02-02T07:31:00.000Z

What's happened at home since I've gone away?
Needle drops off the chart, and the leaves gently sway
Low ceiling moves in and circles the bay
Rain wakes the trees
Sounds counted so many days, so many days

Wet shoes drag you off to school, shoes that never dry
Crows curse and beat their wings
Why can't you be smarter girl?
Lift up your face

Don't feel sorry for yourself
I'll always wait for you
Ghost is the lightshow at night
On the Grand Coulee Dam
The river is watching you
At the drive-in tonight.
Who do they comfort now?
Since I've gone away...

In California - Neko Case

2005-02-02T07:24:00.000Z

In California, I dream of snow
& all the places we used to go
With the night falling down
With the night falling down
I'm living in Korea-town
Waking to the sounds of car-alarms

I remember your face when I showed you the ticket
Said you were happy for me, your heart wasn't in it
Just a phone call away, now there's nothing to say
As the days roll by disconnected
In the land where the sun is shining
I'm crying alone, palm trees are laughing at me
Another fool playing songs that don't matter
For people who don't chatter endlessly

Another suicide on the 405
The Black Dahlia, she smiles and smiles
Its the same old town that bled her dry
One more start and one more try
Bound to make it do or die

Take a walk to balmy brae, try to wash these dreams away
They tell me LA's beautiful when it rains

We've Never Met - Neko Case

2005-02-02T07:16:00.000Z

Oh my darling, oh my darling
How can you forget?
All the love we had between us
Now its like we've never met

Oh it kills me, how it kills me
When I think how happy you are
You were golden, I was blind
With your poison in my blood
Bittersweet are the memories
That make lovers part
But I'd trade all the memories
Just to have your heart and mine

Everybody talking to me
But they just can't explain
Disappeared from all the pages
Now nothing seems the same
Was a time I thought I knew you
When I looked you in the eye
Now the same eyes look right thru me
You're too cool to see my cry

Oh my darling, oh my darling
How can you forget?
All the love we had between us
Now its like we've never met
You were golden, I was blind
Now its like we've never met

Outro With Bees - Neko Case

2005-02-02T07:13:00.000Z

How's hope feeling today?
Tired and sick of this place
Red wine is fast
At the lip of your glass
Saying I'm going to ruin
Everything
Everything
So its better my sweet
That we hover like bees
Cuz there's no sure footing
No love, I believe

Hatful of Hollow

2005-02-02T03:42:00.000Z

The Smiths' album "Hatful of Hollow" is easily one of my favorite albums of all time. I adore Morrissey's self-deprecating and painfully expressive lyrics compounded with Marr's catchy indie riffs; they meld to make a perfect match.

Several cuts from Hatful of Hollow are BBC Peel session versions of songs from the self-titled album, though the versions on the former are nervy and raw in comparison with the original. I actually like the feel of the Hatful songs better than the original. I think you get a better feel for Morrissey's raw emotion from these less packaged tracks.

Now, I'm gonna start a song by song of the album:

1. William It Was Really Nothing
An upbeat and somewhat comical song, this was a perfect start to a near-perfect album. The opening lines remain my favorite:
"The rain falls hard on a humdrum town This town has dragged you down"

2. What Difference Does It Make
Just as the lyrics of the song claim, Morrissey sounds the part as "sick and tired". The song was apparently a message to an indifferent love interest. My favorite lines are:
"The devil will find work for idle hands to do
I stole and I lied and why? Because you asked me to"

**more later

Mates in Sarcasm

2005-01-31T18:32:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: The Shins - Kissing the Lipless**

My speech went well today. It was on the history and spread of Gaelic football in and outside of Ireland. 3-4 minute, one-point speech with an extended example, two statistics and a primary source.

I just wanted to write about how I appreciate the art of sarcasm, as when it practiced correctly I believe it can be just that, an art. I am a practioner of this artform and have always been drawn to people, especially intelligent girls, who are as well.

In high school, it was one of these girls that drove me to do well and compete with her. From grade 7 on, she was there, torturing me if she got a 97 and I only managed a 94. I missed that for the last few years, but I think I found it again. MB, thank you, you're a pain in the ass but I like it.

Weekend

2005-01-30T22:37:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: The Smiths - This Charming Man**

First of all updates from Thursday:

-JP's picture was the front page of the Times Leader sports page.
-Dad rear-ended a John Heinz Rehab van with his truck on Carey Ave.
-I learned how to install a wiper motor into a car.

Now onto the weekend:

My weekend turned out to be interesting, even though I thought it was going to suck pretty badly and be consumed with work. The work portion of the weekend was still there, but the monotony of sociology and business law was broken up by a wrestling meet on Saturday (JP won again, 10 in a row) and a nice surprise at a local Dallas bar Friday night.

On Friday night, I went into this bar to see if a friend of my dad's was bartending. Well, she wasn't, but I did know someone who was there at the time. A girl from my English class last semester was there having drinks with her friends, and I ended up staying til closing talking with them. So Friday night turned out well.

Saturday, I went to my brother's wrestling meet at Wyoming Area which Dallas won, putting them into contention for the Wyoming Valley Conference championship. Following that, my parents and I attended a fundraising event for the wrestling booster club which was DEATHLY boring.

Later Saturday night, I took a ride to Scranton to see Teenage Girls at Farley's. Their set was short but impressive. It's the best I've heard them play, not to diminish their other shows, which are always entertaining. Following their set, I left and drove back to Luzerne to meet someone working at a bar there. It was another closing bell night, as I listened to stories about people I grew up around. So all in all, it was a good weekend.

Sunday was consumed by the work I should've been doing during the time I was enjoying myself. A speech about Gaelic football, studying for Monday's sociology test, and catching up on my curret event project for political science.

Guess The Lyrics - Post your answers in comments

2005-01-29T07:17:00.000Z

PART TWO

26)Some jealous punk,/Snuck up around my back,/Tried to take a lovin’ over me;/Lord I got into a fist fight,/And wound up in jail all night
27)But the girl on car in the parking lot says/’man you should try to take a shot/Can’t you see my walls are crumbling? ’/Then she looks up at the building and says she’s thinking of jumping/She says she’s tired of life,/ well everybody's tired of something Counting Crows - "Round Here"
28)~~Am I going insane?/think again/I got so fed up with being unstable/NO MORE/I'm screaming out, /Somebody listen,/It feels so good, /This therapy!~~ The Unseen - "Scream Out"
29)We spend all day getting sober/Just hiding from daylight watching TV/We just look a lot better in the blue light/Well, you know I gotta get out/But I'm stuck so tight/Weighed by the chains that keep me Counting Crows - "Hangin Around"
30)Oh no- here comes that sun again. /And that means another day without you my friend./ And it hurts me to look into the mirror at myself. /And it hurts even more to have to be with somebody else.
31)~~Abolish government means nothing to me, /Forget about god, he's not here to see, /We live by a system, a perfect mold, /People perfect people who are poor and old~~ Kottonmouth Kings - "Peace Not Greed", or TSOL - "Abolish Government"
32) ~~She’s walking down the street/Blind to every eye she meets/Do you think you’ll be the guy/To make the queen of the angels sigh?~~ The Doors "Hello, I Love You"
33) ~~Lousy lovers- pick their prey/But they never cry out loud/Did she make you cry/Make you break down /Shatter your illusions of love~~ Fleetwood Mac - "Gold Dust Woman"
34) ~~I've seen your black man comin' round/ Swear by God I'm gonna cut him down!/ I heard screamin' and bullwhips cracking /How long? How long?~~ Neil Young - "Southern Man"
35)~~i want to be the girl with the most cake./ i love him so much he just turns to hate./ i fake it so real i am beyond fake~~ Hole - "Doll Parts"
36) ~~Uppers and downers /Either way blood flows. /Inside outside. Leave me alone. /Inside outside./ Nowhere is home. /Inside outside, Where have I been? /Out of my brain on the five fifteen.~~ The Who - "5:15"
37) ~~So I'll start a revolution from my bed/'Cuz you said the brains I had went to my head/Step outside, summertime's in bloom~~ Oasis - "Don't Look Back In Anger"
38) ~~She had rings on her fingers and bells on her shoes./And I knew without askin’ she was into the blues.~~ Sublime - "Scarlet Begonias"
39) ~~When I'm sad, she comes to me/With a thousand smiles, she gives to me free/It's alright she says it's alright/Take anything you want from me, anything~~ Jimi Hendrix - "Little Wing"
40) ~~I keep a close watch on this heart of mine/I keep my eyes wide open all the time/I keep the ends out for the tie that binds/Because you're mine~~ Johnny Cash - "I Walk The Line"
41) ~~You may say Im a dreamer /but Im not the only one / I hope some day you'll join us/ And the world will live as one.~~ John Lennon - "Imagine"
42) i wanna be the light that burns out your eyes/cuz i know there's little things about me/ that would sing in the silence of so much rejection /in every connection i make
43) ~~One baby to another says I'm lucky to have met you / I dont care what you think unless it is about me.~~ Nirvana - "Drain You"
44) ~~Save some face, you know you've only got one/Change your ways while you're young/Boy, one day you'll be a man/Oh girl, he'll help you understand~~ The Killers - "Smile Like You Mean It"
45) ~~He's my friend, /he's my alibi,/ my accessory to the crime. / a bond that will never die/ till the end of time~~ The Bouncing Souls - "Manthem"
46) ~~Mister city policeman sitting/Pretty little policemen in a row./See how they fly /like Lucy in the sky, see how they run.~~ The Beatles - "I Am The Walrus"
47) Mechanical panaceas/absolved by history/phonetic paralysis/inflicted through morality
48) ~~But it was only fantasy. /The wall was too high, /As you can see. /No matter how he tried, /He could not break free. /And the worms ate into his brain.~~ Pink Floyd - "Brain Damage"
49) ~~We got a thousand points of light/For the homeless man/We got a kinder, gentler,/Machine gun hand~~ Neil Young - "Rockin In the Free World"
50) ~~Love, sister, it's just a kiss away, its just a kiss away.~~ The Rolling Stones - "Gimme Shelter"

I am a tool

2005-01-28T02:14:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: TOOL - 46&2**

I wore my varsity jacket to John Paul's wrestling meet and I felt like a sizable idiot. Now, it could've been that I've been out of high school for 3 years... or it very possibly could've been my dad humming Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days", I'm really not sure. But either way, I felt like a moron.

On a positive note, JP is on a nine match winning streak. So, good for him. But I still felt like a cock.

John Millington Synge's Playboy of the Western World 1907

2005-01-26T04:33:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: The Wolfe Tones - Botany Bay**

January 26, 1907 marked the first production of JM Synge's controversial play. At the famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin, the play went on thru protest and rioting. The language was so strong and obscene and suggestive at times that the relatively conservative crowd was shocked. On top of that, the way in which Irish peasants were portrayed turned the crowd violent and there was a riot in and outside the theatre following the play. Synge said later that he only meant the play to be "a comedy, an extravaganza, made to amuse. I never bother worrying whether my plots are typically Irish or not; but my methods are typical."

William Fay, playing the lead character in the work, said the audience became "a veritable mob of howling devils" at the very mention of a petticoat.

Sinn Fein founder, Arthur Griffith, detested the play's "foulest language", saying that it was "a tribute to the good taste and common sense of the audience". By Monday, the crowd that showed up to see the play were primed to explode before the curtain opened. WB Yeats and Lady Gregory pleaded with the crowd to stop their boo-ing and screaming, but they continued, yelling "Kill the writer" and other such violent phrases.

WB Yeats later recollected that second performance of the play:
'On the second performance of The Playboy of the Western World, about forty men who sat in the middle of the pit succeeded in making the play entirely inaudible. Some of them brought tin trumpets, and the noise began immediately upon the rise of the curtain. For days articles in the Press called for the withdrawal of the play, but we played for the seven nights we had announced; and before the week's end opinion had turned in our favour. There were, however, nightly disturbances and a good deal of rioting in the surrounding streets. On the last night of the play there were, I believe, five hundred police keeping order in the theatre and in its neighbourhood.'

The play was a bleak, though fairly accurate, representation of the Irish peasant. Many screamed that the play was indecent and guilty of promoting negative stereotypes of the general Irish population. Now it is viewed as a great cultural work of Irish literature.

On Those That Hated "The Playboy of the Western World"
by WB Yeats
Once, when midnight smote the air,
Eunuchs ran through
Hell and met
On every crowded street to stare
Upon great Juan riding by:
Even like these to rail and sweat
Staring upon his sinewy thigh.

Snow

2005-01-25T19:27:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: The Bouncing Souls - Manthem**

So much snow.

So much shovelling.

At least I got a two hour delay to sleep off my hangover. As a rule, I will not be staying out until closing time on a Monday night. That was such a mistake.

Guess the Lyrics - Post your answers in comments

2005-01-23T03:45:00.000Z

Step 1: Get your playlist together, put it on random, and play.
Step 2: Pick your favorite lines from the first 50 songs that play.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song the lines come from. (Post your guesses in the comments)
Step 4: Cross out the songs when someone guesses correctly. No cheating and pasting the lyrics into a search engine.

PART ONE

1)~~One pill makes you larger/And one pill makes you small/And the ones that mother gives you/Don't do anything at all/Go ask Alice/When she's ten feet tall~~ "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane
2)~~Ain’t got no quarrels with God/Ain’t got no time to grow old/Lord knows I’m weak/Won’t somebody get me off of this reef~~ "Badfish" by Sublime
3)~~I shouted out,/"Who killed the Kennedys?"/When after all/It was you and me~~ "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones.
4)~~Woman so weary, the sweet cause in vain/You make love, you break love/It’s all the same~~ "Manic Depression" by Jimi Hendrix
5)I don’t gamble but I bet,/I’m gonna die by my last cigarette/Hold me close I always play the mack/With this monkey on my back.
6)I sit in and dwell on faces past/Like memories seem to fade/No colour left but black and white/And soon will all turn grey
7)He's a legend in the bar with every scar,/fights a thousand bigger men/ now he fights and loses/got all the bruises/will someone please step in?/ Cuz this Irish fools got a great big heart,/he keeps climbing back into the ring "Barroom Hero" by the Dropkick Murphys
8)~~What have I become /My sweetest friend /Everyone I know goes away/ In the end / And you could have it all /My empire of dirt /I will let you down /I will make you hurt~~ "Hurt" by Johnny Cash
9)~~Now, I’m gonna love you,/till the heavens stop the rain/’m gonna love you/til the stars fall from the sky /for you and i~~ "Touch Me" by the Doors
10)~~So he built his great empire/And he slaughtered his own kind/He died a confused man/And killed himself in his own mind~~ "We're Only Gonna Die From Our Own Arrogance" by Sublime
11)Breathe it in and breathe it out/And pass it on, it's almost out/We're so creative, so much more/We're high above but on the floor/It's not a habit, it's cool, I feel alive/If you don't have it you're on the other side "Not an Addict" by K's Choice
12)~~Truth - covered in security /I can't let you smother me /I'd like to but it couldn't work /Trading off and taking turns~~ "Lounge Act" by Nirvana
13)~~Cancel my subscription to the resurrection/Send my credentials to the house of detention~~ "When the Music's Over" by the Doors
14)I took a little nap where the roots all twist/Squished a rotten peach in my fist/And dreamed about you woman/I poked my finger down inside makin’ a little room for a ant to hide/Nature’s candy in my hand or can or a pie "Peaches" by the Presidents of the USA
15)~~Say hey Johnny boy, the battle call./United we stand, divided we fall./Together we are what we can't be alone, /We came to this country, you made it our home.~~ "Boys on the Dock" by the Dropkick Murphys
16)Cuz I don’t care where I belong no more/What we share or not I will ignore/And I won’t waste my time fitting in’cause /I don’t think contrast is a sin
17)Then the rosary beads count them one, two, three/Fell apart as they hit the floor/In our garb of black we must pay respect/To the colour we're born to mourn/Walk away me boys, walk away me boys/And by morning we'll be free
18)I would go out tonight/but I haven't got a stitch to wear/this man said "It's gruesome/that someone so handsome should care"
19)~~But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao/You ain't gonna to make it with anyone anyhow~~ "Revolution" by The Beatles
20)~~I don't wanna watch no porno/I don't wanna play guitar/I don't wanna spank the monkey/I don't wanna go down to the corner bar~~ "Burritos" by Sublime
21)And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for/don't ask me I don't give a damn, next stop is Viet Nam/And it's five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates/ain't no time to wonder why, whoopee we're all gonna die "Fixing to Die Rag" by Country Joe McDonald
22)~~Herb the gift from the earth/And what's from the earth is of the greatest worth/So before you knock it try it first/You'll see it's a blessing and not a curse~~ "Burn One Down" by Ben Harper
23)Chimney falls and lovers blaze /Thought that I was young /Now I've freezing hands & bloodless veins /As numb as I've become
24)I want those feeble minded axes overthrown/I'm not into your passport picture I just like your nose/You welcome me with open arms and open legs/I know only fools have needs but this one never begs
25)~~And all the roads we have to walk along are winding/ And all the lights that lead us there are blinding /There are many things that I would /Like to say to you I don't know how~~ "Wonderwall" by Oasis

Blah

2005-01-23T03:18:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: The Killers - Mr Brightside**

In my Business Law course, I sit next to this very attractive young woman with some of the most alluring eyes I've ever seen. My only complaint: she wears WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY too much makeup. I bet that she is still very pretty without her 43,784,534 layers of makeup. Then again, I've always been sort of turned off by caked on make up. Little bits for accentuation is nice, but if you have to coat your entire face in the stuff...why bother?

It's a Saturday night and I'm officially a loser. I had planned to go to the Felix Sarco/Teenage Girls show at the Staircase in Pittston, but it got shot down from both directions. It was cancelled first off... and if that wasn't bad enough, my car is shot (timing chain, and tons and tons of fuses). The windows are stuck in the DOWN position (remember that it snowed 8 inches today), the windshield wipers don't work (once again, remember the EIGHT INCHES), the speedometer and tachometer are allllllll screwed up, the power locks aren't working and the rear defroster is on the fritz. So yeah... its a heap of complete shit.

So instead of having fun at a show, I'm sitting here in my room reading about deviance and contractual law. Booo snow, boooooooooo automobiles that break down. Boo friends who live far away, boo loneliness.

Poe's Birthday

2005-01-20T03:34:00.000Z

Mystery Visitor Comes Again

Every January 19th for 56 years, a man has visited the grave of Edgar Allan Poe. It had been 100 years since his death in 1849 when a mystery guest adorned with a white scarf and black hat first paid his respects at the grave of the revered American writer. It would be 45 years that this man would visit on the 19th until 1994. "The torch has been passed", a note read in that year, when, apparently, the original admirer passed his tradition onto his sons. Since then, his boys have carried on the ritual of placing three roses (one for Poe, his mother and his wife) and a bottle of congac.

This is so romantic and mysterious and I get a chill every year when I read this story. Here is an impromptu bit I did on women in some of Poe's stories and poems. It's badly written but the ideas are all there. I have loved Edgar Allan Poe since I was about 10, reading a thin volume of his short stories (brought down to about a 5th grade reading level, mind you).

Neko Case - I Wish I Was the Moon

2005-01-20T03:19:00.000Z

Chimney falls and lovers blaze
Thought that I was young
Now I've freezing hands & bloodless veins
As numb as I've become

I'm so tired,
& I wish I was the moon tonight

Last night I dreamt I had forgotten my name
Cuz I had sold my soul but awoke just the same
I'm so lonely,
& I wish I was the moon tonight

God blessed me, I'm a free man
With no place free to go
I'm paralyzed and collared-tight
No pills for what I fear

This is crazy
I wish I was the moon tonight

Chimney falls and lovers blaze
Thought that I was young
Now I've freezing hands & bloodless veins
As numb as I've become

I'm so tired,
& I wish I was the moon tonight

How will you know if you found me at least
Cuz I'll be the one, be the one, be the one
With my heart in my lap
I'm so tired, I'm so tired
& I wish I was the moon tonight

Neko Case - South Tacoma Way

2005-01-20T03:09:00.000Z

I put on that sweater you gave me
I woke up in the kitchen a few minutes later
I didn't know how I had gotten there
Did you guide me?

I didnt make it to your funeral
I didnt want ritual or resign
I just wanted to hold hands with JP & Mary Jo
But I couldnt conjure (???)
Were too good for stupid angels
Like this hell-eth bred beside me
And burn the air til it was gone
Til it was gone

Couldn't pay my respects to a dead man
Your life was much more to me
And I chased away with sticks and stones
But that rage kept following me
Following me

So lost, I was sleeping in the palms of your hands
And dreams we were happy and safe
I cant comprehend the ways that I miss you
They come to light in my mistakes
In my mistakes

Now I'm driving down Tacoma Way
And the world turns in slow motion
Its the twlight of our old home
And I'm still in love with you
Here on South Tacoma Way
We've memories from matenees
And the tears fall warm and heavy
And the cross streets bear your name

Neko Case - Deep Red Bells

2005-01-20T03:00:00.000Z

He led you to this hiding place
These lightning threads spawn silver tongues
The red bells beckon you to ride
Handprint on the driver's side

It looks alot like engine oil
And tastes like being poor and small
And popsicles in summer

Deep red bells
Deep as I have been done
Deep red bells
Deep as I have been done

It always has to come to this
Red bells ring this tragic gun
We've lost sight of the overpass
The daylight won't remember that

No speckled fawns raise round your bones
Who took the time to fold your clothes?
And shook the valley of the shadow.

(Chorus)

Where does this mean world cast its cold eye?
Who's left to suffer long about you?
Does your soul cast about like an old paper bag
Past empty lots and early graves?
Those like you who lost their way
Murdered on the interstate
While the red bells rang like thunder

(Chorus)

Neko Case - We've Never Met

2005-01-20T02:58:00.000Z

Oh my darling, oh my darling
How can you forget?
All the love we had between us
Now it's like we'd never met
Oh how it kills me, how it kills me
When I think how I held you up
You were golden I was blind with your poison in my blood

Bittersweet are the memories that make young lovers pine
But I trade all the memories just to have your heart in mine

Everybody's talking to me but they just can't explain
Disappeared from all the pages
Now nothing seems the same
Was a time I thought I knew you, when I looked you in the eye
Now the same eyes look right through me
You're too good to see me cry

Bittersweet are the memories that make young lovers pine
But I trade all the memories just to have your heart in mine

Oh my darling, oh my darling
How can you forget?
All the love we had between us
Now it's like we've never met

You were golden I was blind
Now it's like we've never met

YOUR FRESHMAN YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL

2005-01-20T01:30:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: Dropkick Murphys - Boys on the Dock**

[What year was it?]
1998/1999

[What were your three favorite bands?]
Nirvana, Korn and Marilyn Manson

[What was your favorite outfit?]
Ratty jeans, a t shirt and flannel

[What was up with your hair?]
bushy and curly

[Who was your best friend?]
honeychuck and brianna

[What did you do after school?]
in the fall and winter it was Drama Club, and in the spring it was baseball.

[Where did you work?]
painting with my dad.

[Did you take the bus?]
most of the time. towards the end of the year I started getting rides.

[Who did you have a crush on?]
Martiena and Rachel

[Did you fight with your parents?]
Ohhhhh yes.. OHHHHH YESSSSS.

[Who did you have a CELEBRITY crush on?]
No one, actually.

[Did you smoke cigarettes?]
Yes. Frequently.

[Did you lug all of your books around in your backpack all day because you were too nervous to find your locker?]
They wouldn't let us carry our backpacks around. Remember that shit? We always had to carry our books.

[Did you have a 'clique'?]
Sort of, I suppose.

[Admit it, were you popular?]
Yeah, I guess. I mean, I had plenty of friends and I knew lots of people.

[Who did you want to be just like?]
I sort of wished I was more like my friend Rachel. I emulated her and loved the way she was.

[What did you want to be when you grow up?]
A doctor, once I hit college, I sort of realized I didn't want that anymore.

[Where did you think you'd be at the age you are now?]
nearing the end of my undergraduate course work. Now that didn't work out, did it? I suppose its for the best though. I have the life experience and everything that goes along with it. I'm happy with who I am and where I am now. So everything is great.

[What advice would you give your freshman self?]
be who you want to be. don't waste time trying to be a person you aren't.
don't waste your time trying to be a doctor. there is too much bureaucracy and politics involved, and there are so many other ways to help many more people than stupid HMOs and insurance companies allow.

Stars

2005-01-19T01:08:00.000Z

**musical mood preference: Counting Crows - Pale Blue Eyes**

Even though I'm being bitter, I did notice that the stars are gorgeous tonight. Sparkles and twinkles. Too bad its so terribly cold out; sort of takes the fun outta looking up.

Classes are good so far, no complaints from me.