This Machine Will Not Communicate

Let me suggest something to all those Radiohead fans out there. The next time you're having a bad day or in a bad mood or just want some piece of mind, you should take a moment to listen to Ok computer. Trust me, it is worth it. Not because it's particularly uplifting or anything, but because it is an amazing album, and it will bring back soothing memories. It's a wonderful experience.

Happy Birthday, Bob. It was a nice weekend.

You should see The Prestige. It's good. And, if you enjoy the process of making movies, you should also see Brick, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (huzzah!). It is an exceptional film noir set in high school. But it is well presented both visually and scriptually (what?). As a crime drama, it is excellent.


The hyenas drive the impala toward hidden flankers. You should be watching Planet Earth.

My Brightest Diamond Is

I find the new Google/Blogger fusion distracting. While it is nice to know that there is a single entity in charge of the internet, putting speed bumps in my way does not help me. I had an old blogger account, so when I signed in, they prompted me to create a google account and use my existing google email. I did so, I thought I was fine. But then when I tried to sign in and somehow used the wrong username or password or both, I inadvertantly created a new blogger with my alternate email! Oh my stars!

That's boring.

So, even if she didn't realize it, both Talya and I saw The Decemberists, and it was a great show. Their music is... eclectic, as if to write songs they simply pick up a book of world history, open a page, and decide to sing about it. Gypsies, Legionnaires, Crane wives, I mean, just look at their website. It is not your pop-rock. But it is enjoyable and it is worth listening to, which is what we're after, right?

The opening band was called My Brightest Diamond and if you like PJ Harvey, Tori Amos, Over the Rhine, Bjork, then you might want to take a moment and check them out. Use that Google thing everyone talks about. We were trying to figure out where the lead singer was from because her accent was delicious, but we couldn't decide. We both suggested Norwegian.

That interview for my job went really well. It was really nice to sit down and talk to someone (who would be my boss) about what we'd like to do with the training program we have and how to improve it. And on more than one occasion I said the exact thing she was looking for, which feels really nice. The average salary of a Customer Service Trainer is between 40 and 54K for Chicago, according to Salary.com , but i doubt they'd even believe me if I suggested it. I don't know what they're suggesting yet, but I'm willing to bet it's under the 10th percentile. The good news though, is that it's not about the money, it's about a new job, a new boss, and a chance to do something I enjoy. I should have one or two more interviews in the next week or two. I'll let you know.

Turn the Page to Tomorrow

This Virginia Tech thing is getting worse. I guess. I mean, how do you get worse at this point? You don't. You're just grateful it's over.
It's like, we focus so much on this kid, this messed up kid who loses his way and that sucks, and we don't get to look into the lives of the victims, remember who they were, their aspirations, who they would have become. All we get is their faces, their ages, their majors. We get just a hint of what could have been, and maybe that's the most heartbreaking part. The dream deferred? If only.

Talya and I are thinking of going to see The Decemberists play here in Chicago tonight. It's $26. And I also have an interview for an assistant training coordinator position, which could be really cool and a nice promotion if I get it. And maybe some big bucks! Big as in more than I'm making now. So, not that big.

Whatever. If I don't leave my current job, I will most definitely quit. It is too much of a headache dealing with my superior. I know, what kind of job could I have that would be so stressful? I'm a frickin barista! But I promise, this guy is terrible, and I say that after several months. Ok ok, enough. So, definitely moving on. I feel stuck in a way I haven't experienced before. Stuck not that I can't go forward, but that I can't go upward. Or outward.

I am an egg and you are the hammer.

Goodbye, Blue Monday

I just found out Kurt Vonnegut died today, at the age of 84. He was a really fun writer to read, which is nice. I wouldn't call his writing particularly eloquent, or whatever makes a writer "great." But he made terrible things entertaining. He made it ok to laugh even though so much of the world has gone to shit.
These are books that he wrote that I really like:
Slaughterhouse Five
Breakfast of Champions (My favorite)
Cat's Cradle
Mother Night
Welcome to the Monkeyhouse

Apparently he only wrote 14 novels, which I didn't know, because it seemed like a lot. But some of his books are collections of short stories (the Monkeyhouse above) or prose. Anyway, it's spectacularly terrifying to read Slaughterhouse Five and realize that the story that he is telling you has real parts that were from his actual life. And that in turn makes you grateful he wrote about it. So if you haven't, you should pick up a copy. If for any other reason than because he just died, and people will be touched, I guess.

I got to see him speak in 1998 at Ohio State, which was actually an incredible experience. At first I had to sit in another room (one of three maybe) watching him on video. But then everyone left and they had a Q&A, which me and my friends got to go and sit in on. In it, he told a story about the dirtiest limerick ever told, which you can find in one of his books. It's pretty funny if it's told right.

So it goes.

Links

All my links got deleted when I made the switch to a new template. It's also been a while so please, if I've forgotten you, feel free to leave a comment so I can add you. The links are in no particular order, so don't worry about your "status." And we'll have more.

There Went My Heart

I was supposed to go to Africa this June. Two months from now. But the truth is that we gave up because the cost is around $3000. The idea is to go there and make a documentary of sorts that focuses on good instead of bad. Not all good, like rainbows and sunshine. But good like Africans are capable of sustainability and economic growth and all the other answers to the question of “Why should I give a fuck about Africa?”

I still don’t know the answer to the question. But I doubt the answer was ever the point, if you have to ask the question in the first place. Right? But I’ve been wrestling with the meaningless of life as of late. And I wonder, what does it matter if a million people in Darfur are violently ripped from this Earth? Doesn’t it save them from dying of diarrhea or some equally curable and laughable affliction? Doesn’t it also give us one less thing to care about? One less place to throw money, a million less people eating our food, using up our planet?

I know this is hard to think about. I don’t want to think about it. But they are the questions that those in power ask every day. And the best answer they come up with is “It makes us look bad” and so they give speeches and quell the rumbles of their conscience, and people continue to die.

And here I am, preaching about the cares I spend .2% of my time considering. I don’t write this to guilt you. I write it to guilt me, because I’m the pessimist now, and I’m angry about it. Because I can’t answer those questions, and I’m afraid of the answers I consider.

It’s good to be back. I should seek before I speak again. I should try before I complain. I should live I love you instead of saying it.

Resurrection day

Hey, Happy Passover. And Easter. Here’s what you can say to all your non-christian friends: Did you know this Friday is Good Friday? Do you know why this Friday is good and all the other ones aren’t? It’s because it’s when Jesus was crucified.
Wait, what?
What a great conversation starter! Did you know that this holiday is much more significant than Christmas? But we get presents at Christmas. Sometimes people get presents on Easter too, but it’s not the same. It doesn’t have carols. Christmas has carols. Christmas Carols, we call them. They’re not Easter carols. Did you know why Easter is called Easter? I’ll give you a hint, it has nothing to do with Jesus or graves, or any sort of rising from the dead. Give up! It’s a pagan holiday. The early Christians were persecuted and so sought to hide their worship and celebration by putting them at the same time as major pagan holidays. Christmas was put in December so that while the rest of the Roman empire was celebrating Saturnalia, Christians could celebrate Christmas. The same can be said about Easter, except without the carols. If you'd like to know more, click a book!

We've got Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Black Saturday, and Easter Sunday! It's like our version of Hanukkah. I also heard once that Wednesday is supposed to be when Judas accepted the 30 pieces of silver and so is known as Spy Wednesday, but I don't know how accurate that is. It would really make Monday and Tuesday really uncomfortable, you know? How about Angry in the Temple Monday and Trying to Explain to These Dudes About My Impending Death and Glorious Return But They're Just Not Getting It Tuesday?
We'll work on it.

Peeps for all ma peeps!

Returning

Hi. I’m back. Sort of? I don’t know. It’s not like I’ve been busy, too busy to blog. It’s just that I lose focus, which is why I’m bad at keeping in touch with people. It’s not like I love them less or don’t like talking to them. It’s just that I lose focus and then months go by and then you feel too guilty to make first contact, so you wait for them, all the while feeling more and more guilty and less and less able to make it right. And I hate talking on the phone.
Whatever. I’m sorry I’ve been gone, not because you miss me, but because I miss you. So I’m here, for now. And you can always email or call of course. It doesn’t mean I won’t lose focus again. It just means I like you.

You should see Blood Diamond. It’s good. It’s not perfect, but Leo’s Afrikaans accent goes beyond an accent and into the culture of speaking that can only come from real effort. And Edward Zwick made it. He also made The Last Samurai, a movie I love. And it has a message about Africa and diamonds. It makes some strong accusations against De Beers, the largest diamond company in the world, but I don’t know how unfounded they are. There was a big stink made by the New York Post (an utterly unremarkable paper notable only for its distinct likeness to diarrhea) that the film crew promised prosthetics to some of the amputee extras and then bailed on them. That was countered by the LA Weekly saying that no promise was made. In any case, money was raised for the kids and I’m pretty sure they got their prosthetics. Now if only artificial limbs could create real solutions in Africa.

I also saw Jesus Camp. Yuck. There’s some debate out there about it, Whether or not its indoctrination of children or whether the people in it are ethically sound, I don’t know. What I do know, and the worst part of it for me, is that every adult in the film speaks with division. All the language of both the positive people and the negative ones is divisive and meant to create a fervor about the corruption of American values. Makes me sick. And to be honest, it’s not that great. It’s about 90 minutes tops, and there isn’t really any resolution to the story or anything. It just sort of ends and you think to yourself “that’s it?” But, it will probably spark debate, which is what’s nice about controversial documentaries.

And I started watching Battlestar Galactica. Forgive me for a moment of complete dorkiness, I beseech you. BSG, as I shall refer to it, is about a band of about 50,000 humans lost in space after their machine creations, the Cylons, ambush and destroy their worlds. So these people are constantly on the run from the Cylons and fighting amongst themselves for a variety of reasons. It’s great because it deals with issues that we deal with in our (I’m sorry about this) “Post 9/11” world, including terrorism, liberty vs security, and the balance between the military and civilian government.

What’s up with this whole British hostages in Iran thing? Seriously, Iran, chill out. I know you feel like you’re running out of friends who hate Israel and oppress their women, so you have to do something drastic or whatever, but come on. Don’t forget about Syria. Or most of Iraq for that matter. And you could always opt for a new plan of “Oppression Lite.” Just look at China, worked for them. And now they’re holding the Olympics! You still have time. Tehran 2016. Come on, at this rate you’ll be a burgeoning democracy by then, with a US security force to boot! And look at how well that turned out for… Well, in any case, I prefer wars to hostage crises. Just feels more honest that way. So enough with the hostage taking.

This is now.