Say Anything / Arcade Games

I recently had a friend reprimand me for not keeping current on here as of late. So I have two entries, none of which could stand on their own, combined into one entry.



Say Anything

I didn't like this band. Not the movie. The band.

They are odd. But I finally got a bunch of it (all of it) off of my roommate. And... well... I'm taking my words back. They're good. So here's where I've been corrected:

The first thing that turned me off to this band was their lyrics. Their lyrics are bazaar. Max Bemis, their lead singer, is psychotic, quite literally. On the early albums, a nice mix of excessive pot use and undiagnosed bipolar disorder made his lyrics quite awkward. But the more I hear, the more I indulge in his collage of verbal awkwardness from track to track. It takes a lot of guts to sing about an ex-girlfriend by name, a drug breakdown in a tour bus, and the holocaust all in pop punk format in a single album. Yet this guy pulls it off. And he recently found Jesus I guess, so his latest album brings that edge to the religious talk of how poorly Jesus is treated in both pop culture and Christian sub culture.

Second. They use the studio as an instrument and do a lot of things on the album that could not be mimicked live, such as string sections, sampling, and guest vocalists out the wahzoo. Here's the thing though, they make it work. I know, that's a lame answer, but they really do. In this way, a live show is interesting, because they have 6 members, so there are enough of them to assign tasks to recreating that sound. Ya gotta love that. Once you get passed the bias of live instruments on every track, their albums are quite enjoyable.



Arcade Games

I was talking to some friends at breakfast. And we began talking about arcade games. You know, the ones in the movie theaters and big tents at the fair. That's when it hit me: I have a dream to own an arcade game.

Now if I became rich (not gonna happen), I would fist throw money left and right at charities to begin with. This is most likely so I don't seem like a hypocrite for calling out every celebrity who buys a yacht and wants a key to the city when they give a check to an orphanage and take some photos for People magazine. So once I had charity-ed my butt off, I would splurge on arcade games.

Some would go with the classics. Pac Man. Space Invaders. War Lords.

But I didn't grow up with those. I can think of three that would be great:

1) Time Crisis. This game was great. You get that little foot pedal to pop up from cover and you don't even have to walk around. You just point and fire. But you never had time to play through the whole thing when you were in an arcade, and that's why I would buy it.

2) Tekken 3. I never learned the combos. I would just press the punch over and over and over again. This managed to both make me lose and look like a total jerk. With some time alone with this masterpiece, I could master the arts.

3) Arctic Thunder. Snow mobiles. Missiles. I'm in.

"Time To Leave" by John Reuben

Taught young, the world’s wisdom
I told life’s a game, the earth will be your stadium
Be alert, pay attention
(One day) Even your friends will become the competition
Trust no one but do remember this, never burn any potential bridges
Know who’s who, and what they can do for you
And don’t feel bad cause’ in the end they’re gonna do it to you too
Remember life’s not fair
In order to maintain, your gonna have to let you sensitivity be trained
A machine more than a human being
What you say doesn’t always have to be what you mean
Tell them what they want to hear if it’s to your benefit
And words beyond closed doors are insignificant
Push yourself, never be satisfied
Even if you don’t get it, at least you died knowing you tried

Born, live, strive, succeed
Gain it all, bye, now it’s time to leave…
Now, all we see is now

Taught young, the world’s wisdom
Begin to pay attention and make my own observations
All of the kids working hard for admiration
Trying their best not to meet their social expiration
Kind of hard in a world this finicky
Easily praised and yet destroyed just as quickly
I guess me and this world must not be compatible, cause I don’t want its approval to feel valuable

So who’s next to climb the wall of success, just to see how good the top truly gets
Chasing lies disguised as going somewhere only to arrive and realize it’s really no where’
That’s even if you get there in the first place
What an incredible let down we’re bound to face when we substitute purpose for cheap counterfeit
Too busy trying to succeed in life that we forget to live it

You can live in the infinite or give in to the immediate
Gain it all but someday you’ll have to leave it
This world is temporary and it’s heart is selfish
Think to yourself, is this what wealth is
But now, all we see is now and now is not a bad thing but now does bring tomorrow then
Now becomes then
Moments escape, new ones replace them
Don’t want to face the end still searching
Asking what in this world did I ever find worth in
What could be worse than life of wasted years
Nothing lasting, nothing true, nothing dear
I fear losing beauty in pursuit of bigger things
I fear a broken home courtesy of the American dream
Maybe that’s just me with my emotions on my sleeve, but one way or another we all wear what we believe

Simple Faith

_____________:
yeah....do you think it would be easier to love Jesus if you werent here? like here, its kinda everywhere...but at a different school...you would have to search for truth. 11:27 PM

Lukas Borton:
it makes sense 11:28
but no 11:28




I am not sure if I believe in divine providence. I'm not sure i buy such an idea. If i was certain of such a thing though, I would cite the college I chose as a place I was "meant to be."

I sometimes wonder what would have happened had I gone to a state school. A lot of things happened in the first month of school that, had I been at state school, I'm sure I would have attempted to remedy with substances. But I wasn't there. I was at a Christian University and was forced to seek community before a bottle.

So let's say I believe in divine placement. Where else is there? Is there somewhere I'm destined to arrive in a year? 10 years? When I'm 50? It's all overwhelming.

Let's Beef Up the Winter Olympics

Did you see the NFC championship game? It was great! Back and forth leads, full on contact, overtime! It was such an entertaining matchup! Doesn’t it get you all excited for the Winter Olympics?!

Yeah, me neither.

The Winter Olympics are an excuse for people who play obscure sports to compete on TV. We know that the Greeks didn’t figure skate. And they didn’t have rifles to cross country ski from target to target. It really doesn’t make much sense, and it doesn’t have quite the entertainment value of the real Olympics. Let’s face it, Apolo Anton Ohno isn’t going to get a picture taken of him hitting a bong and then proceed to have all of his posters taken down in the YMCA’s where kid’s who are idolizing him practice.

So how do we fix the Winter Olympics? Make it like football: full contact. Every sport. Speed skating could be like roller derby with blades. You can attempt to block long jump skiers before they hit the ramp. Don’t curl with stones on ice, let’s make it a bomb! Let’s put two bobsleds on the same track and let them fight each other as they descend like a scene out of Mad Max.

Would I tune in then? Yes. I would watch it if it had such a gladiator aspect. And honestly, I think this is what it takes to make people tune in this winter: life and death scenarios. Otherwise, it just looks like the UN got a snow day and sent some really athletic people to go sledding. Luge, bobsled, skeleton, ski, snowboard, etc… we get the idea, you’re going down a snow-covered hill really fast. I’d rather watch the chubby fifth grader go down the hill and right into a hay bail or tree on his snow day than watch a world class athlete go down as quick as possible for a medal.

What a novel idea!: Part I

"The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean."

-Robert Lewis Stevenson (that guy who wrote Treasure Island, I guess.)


So I got a bright idea about two months ago. As I examined my first semester of school, I started realizing it was a great story. I caught this hint because I found myself telling people the story over and over. Now, not the entire story, of course. I'd tell bits here and there. But I realized two months ago that each event tied to another event, and they all tied into a larger story.

That's when I got it: write a story about your first semester of school.

Well, I'll assure you, this idea was not strongly executed right off the bat. However, in the month of November, I somehow managed to scrap up about three chapters. They were total crap. I put it down because I got busy. Also, I was still attached to the story, if that makes sense at all. The tale had not resolved itself properly yet.

I sat at home over Christmas break, and out of sheer boredom, decided to give this another shot. So far, I added a prologue and revised my first chapter. And it's much more entertaining now.

So here's the trick; I have to figure out what I'm going to put in and what I'm going to edit out. Names for sure fall in this category. If you know me, and when you read the little portion about me writing a story the thought of "oh crap," popped in your head, I've changed your name. In addition, I've gotta figure out how honest I'm actually going to be. The full potential of the story can get messy because 1) misery is very entertaining and 2) I don't tend to share every thought in my head, even if it is profound.

So we'll see how this turns out. I'm not sure that I'm about to become the next Fitzgerald or Kerouac. But I'm curious.

Why do people climb tight wires across buildings? I have no idea. But it sure is amazing. Maybe they do it just to prove they can. That's how I feel. I want to write my story because I think it's worth telling and to prove I can do it.

Lions, Enigmas, and Trail Mix

Another year closes. Which brings me to the future.

Let's not talk about the past. The past is predictable and already handled. Now the future is another animal. And that's exactly how I like to think of it. I picture the future kinda like a lion and I'm standing with a whip and four legged chair in the center ring of a circus while everyone watches to see what I'm going to do with the beast before me.

Which brings me to ways I've been told to attack the future.

The first was simple: Figure out what you're good at and find a way to make money doing it. Unfortunately, I've discovered a great lack of prestige in any central ability in my life. I'm mostly "ok" at everything I attempt, which leads me to believe that I excel in being mediocre.

Which brings me to the second theory.

My dad told me to find out what you love to do, and figure out how to get paid doing it. This way, there's no pressure to be good at anything I guess. The difficulty is when one grows apathetic. Not that I consider myself completely apathetic, but "what I love" is difficult even for me to pinpoint easily, so how am I supposed to find a way to milk an enigma for what it's worth and make a living?

Which brings me to a revelation I have recently had at the tail end of this decade.

The best things in my life were dropped in my lap.

So here I am fretting about my future and how to get to some mysterious place where I'm considered "well off" by the general public. But the best things in my life were never earned in any great scheme. The ones I love were never manipulated into my life. They were just there. So as I try to figure out what I'm going to "do with my life," what can I honestly strive for if the best things in life aren't earned?

Which brings me to a sloppy and odd conclusion.

Have you ever seen Saving Private Ryan? There's a scene in which Private Ryan kneels down next to his wounded savior, Capt. John Miller, on a bridge as he begins to die. And as he looks into Ryan's eyes, his last words are "earn this." Ryan's freedom is there, and he cannot lose it. But he is told that he must earn this.

And that's how I feel about it all I guess. If the best things in my life never show up through my own doing, why do I strive to live well and be proficient? Because when you look at my life, I want people to think that I deserve this I suppose. I can't earn this. But I should rightfully strive towards a point in which I'm worthy of blessings I can't gain by my own merit.

It's food for thought. It's more mixed up than trail mix, but it's food still. Trail mix for thought.

15 Best Albums of the Decade

Well everyone's doing it. The best-of's for another decade. So I thought I'd put forth my best effort. These were personal choices, and not necessarily the greatest, just my favorites. So don't give me that "where's Sufjan?" or "did you not hear Arcade Fire's debut!?" I did hear it. I liked it. But this list is made of my favorites. Ones that meant a lot this decade, and ones that I ran into the ground. And it wasn't easy! It started as a list of 10, and I had to bump it up to 15. Honorable mentions on the list should be noted, and include albums by Bjork, Tegan & Sara, Nine Inch Nails, Silversun Pickups, and more. But alas, without further a do:

15: Cease to Begin by Band of Horses

I can't figure out Band of Horses, and that's why I love them. They look like mountain men and can somehow place dreamy alternative ballads and hill billy rock on the same album.

14. Favourite Worst Nightmare by Arctic Monkeys

I thought it was stereotypical at first. Then listened. It ain't. Some tracks make me feel like I walked into a scene right out of Austin Powers. The drums blow you away, and the lyrics crack you up.

13. For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver

This album could have made the list off the first five songs alone. Possibly the most influential folk album of the decade, the raw emotion seeps through in every melancholy lyric.

12. Dear Science by TV On the Radio

Yeah, not really sure how to describe this one. Sorry if you haven't heard it, but you have to in order to understand what I mean. A bohemian collection of anthems from track to track. So many sounds thrown into a musical stir-fry for your hungry ears, it's crazy.

11. Beggars by Thrice

One of the most recent ones on my list. I think it's the best album of this year. Thrice was a good band to begin with, but hearing the talent that resounded when they chose to produce it themselves is fantastic. They are so much more than the hardcore band they were when the debuted. They've taken the decade to mature, and this is their skillfully executed album to date.

10. Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers

You were under a rock if you didn't hear this album at some point. This album stayed in my car for a solid month before I changed it. And even then, i just changed discs. Whatever Red Hot Chili Peppers manages to cook up is high quality, but this time they managed to provide a big quantity as well.

9. Planet of Ice by Minus the Bear

It saddens me greatly how few people have heard this. The guitar playing is so talented. But here's the kicker: it's talented and not distracting. How many times have I heard awesome guitar playing that came off cheesy in the midst of poor song writing? Several times, but this album is not one of those times.

8. Mean Everything to Nothing by Manchester Orchestra

This album may be why the left speaker in my car sounds like it's blown out. I got a chance to see these guys live this year. They rock just as well live as they do on the album, and that's really saying something. They're creating a style of their own, a southern flavored post rock that hopefully won't be going anywhere soon.

7. Kid A by Radiohead

I saw them live. Unbelievable. This album changed the direction of rock this decade by influencing every band that would proceed them. Some will disagree, and that's fine. It took me several times listening

to this album to fully appreciate it.

6. O by Damien Rice

No one utilizes dynamics the way Damien Rice does. It's almost painful how honest his lyrics are and how much emotion lace over his finger picked guitar.

5. A Ghost is Born by Wilco

I know everyone will say Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is where it was at. But this was the album that actually got me into their sound. I know there's song that has 10 minutes of static noise in it. I know Kidsmoke goes forever. But it was different, and it changed the music I listened to from then on.

4. Narrow Stairs by Death Cab for Cutie

Do you have any idea how hard it is to pick a Death Cab for Cutie album for this? They're all so good! I could choose this album on the artwork alone, but there's more to it than that. Narrow Stairs blended they're old underproduced sound with the creativeness brought forth on their later works. Oh, and they made an 8 minute single.

3. In Rainbows by Radiohead

I know I already said this, but they are unbelievably good live. Every song on this album completely captures an incredibly unique emotion. It's not just an album full of love songs. Subject matter ranges from sexism, to political empathy, to afterlife ponderings. And the music captures each of these perfectly somehow.

2. Futures by Jimmy Eat World

Again, awesome album art work. But in addition, this is to my memory, the first rock album I bought with my own money. Brilliant choice on my part.

1. Deja Entendu by Brand New

The best album made this decade. Emo? No. Well, maybe a little. But it changed the direction for the genre for all who followed them. They made it less poppy, and way more experimental. It rocked hard, and never lost the emotion. And the emotion was never simply anger, it was angst. It was sorrow. It was apathy. No doubt, my choice for the best album in ten years.