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[07 Apr 2020|09:44pm] |
"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying." - Oscar Wilde
"The body apologizes to the soul for its errors, and the soul asks forgiveness for squatting in the body without invitation."
— Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
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[24 Jun 2009|10:08am] |
My brother is moving to Australia at the beginning of July, and I'm leaving for San Francisco tomorrow, not to be back until the 9th....a whole year without seeing him, I'm terrified. I'll have to save up some money for a round-trip ticket to go see him in New Zealand in December, but that's just more money that I don't have and I don't know whether or not I'll make it.
Feeling quite sad about it presently. I'm going to miss him like mad.
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[23 Jun 2009|12:08am] |
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I've been on a Joy Division binge recently (surprise surprise) and I just put on Still. Was having a great time listening to it until Ceremony came on. And I had to do it, I just had to...yes, I went into my iTunes and put on the New Order version of the song. YES I ADMIT IT. I prefer New Order's version of Ceremony 100x's more than Joy Division's. Now, unlike most people, I have no complaints when it comes to Ian Curtis' voice, and I'm usually a fan of the rawer sound, as I've grown quite tired of hearing over-produced bullshit. But come on. New Order is clearly superior in this. I don't even consider myself a New Order fan, I like a couple of their songs but OH MUST I REALLY CONTINUE ARGUING THIS. If anyone disagrees with me I promise I will come up with charts and graphs and the whole shabang to prove them wrong...for fuck's sake just listen to them! [Case in point - the version Radiohead covered was NEW ORDER'S...even though Thom Yorke tried very much so to do the whole Curtis thing in my humble opinion...it's okay Thom, you're lovely doing your own thing, it sounded great too, it really did, and you looked like you were having a wonderful time, but please stop telling Jonny that those pink shirts are green, it makes you and everyone else in the band look like assholes. I JOKE I JOKE.]
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[09 Mar 2009|10:12am] |
my mum is bed-ridden.
spent all of yesterday watching movie after movie with her. [about a boy, the second season of the tudors, burn after reading, there will be blood]
and at a very irresponsible hour, harrison and edgar came and picked my brother and i up. drove around aimlessly for quite some time before deciding to go to venice...we stopped at the beach (but didn't actually sit in the sand) and finally stopped at a random bowling alley where we didn't bowl. i watched harrison and mario play arcade games and edgar throw mini basketballs into mini hoops. got back on the freeway - edgar broke his speeding record at 99mph. we were listening to beck and headbanging and generally feeling very good about ourselves. the open windows meant cold air but i had a good time getting out.
which reminds me. went to a whack party in the hollywood hills the other night - there were some good points at it, like some very fly black guys walking randomly into the house doing their little hip-hop dance and looking very very cool. they were the most interesting people there and i introduced myself quickly. very nice (and very blown). that and edgar and nick and i managed to steal the position as dj. that was fun. mario can't hold his liquor. hilarious!
should be heading off to class. still worried about my mum. she didn't look too good this morning. i was sitting next to her drinking my morning cup of coffee and watching good morning america and she burst into tears. sometimes i don't know what to do. sometimes i think i'm never going to have children because i've spent most of my childhood and the sparse beginnings of my adulthood playing mother. i can't blame her though. she's gone through too much and i love her too much.
besides, there's always the pointless good times that keep me going.
:]
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[02 Mar 2009|01:30pm] |
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mood |
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my foot's asleep. |
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music |
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cypress hillll |
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i gave in and got a twitter. follow me, dammit!
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[01 Mar 2009|08:16pm] |
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there are cats meowing in the background.
may or may not be getting a new kitten.
may or may not be getting a job at dodger stadium.
brain may or may not be functioning at full capacity. will be back later with full report.
i can hear a couple arguing very loudly outside.
anyways.
spent some time in a real studio on friday. it was really quite wonderful - a real rehearsal space with a real mixing board and real sound-proofed walls and a real rhodes keyboard with (and this is the best part) real amps! my uncle and i plugged in and spent a good four hours in there. it was so fantastically wonderful. not only will i have that studio to spend more time in soon but -
for my advanced audio engineering class on fridays we'll be working in our professor's studio: off campus. mic-ing real bands, recording real bands, mixing real bands. getting real experience.
very, very happy.
on the other hand, my rain really pours.at least in some aspects of life. it's a constant balance, no one thing can go wonderfully without one other thing mucking it up.
i keep dreaming about oxford.
but that is life. that is it in its sum. don't need to be a genius to figure it all out. there's ups and downs, 'wonderful!'s and 'fuck!'s, good bad happy sad, all of it. trudge on, head forward.
simple. that's how i like to keep it.
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[25 Feb 2009|02:42pm] |
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i have a feeling that it is now time to ressurect this journal as i am quite proud to have snagged the name. not only that but i was screwing around on my guitar a couple of days ago and i managed to figure out the guitar parts for weird fishes/arpeggi. bass should be finished within the next few days...already i've got down -
transmission
she's lost control
no love lost
love will tear us apart
the national anthom
nude
[parts of] paranoid android
- never thought i'd be one to pick up bass. my room is getting quite cluttered with equipment. as of now i have -
one keyboard
three guitars
a bass
two violins
- not to mention all the art/other useless crap lying around. but...it does figure i'd start off with joy division and radiohead, right? and i don't feel too bad anymore for my genetically-inherited mixtec features. colin greenwood has tiny hands.
speaking of greenwoods, i embarressed myself in one of my classes the other day. on the first day, too. i'm talking an audio post-production class and we're doing a course on film scores - the professor was giving a lecture on dissonant music used in film and he used there will be blood as an example. when he asked the class if anyone knew who wrote the score i yelled out "jonny greenwood!" and was awarded with about thirty stares. first impressions, agggh.
and while we're on classes - i just finished my orientation for stupid music theory 1. again. for the third time. god, it makes my brain go stupid. i've known most of the material since i was about nine and it's such a drag having to pretend to care about learning treble cleff all over again. oh well. easy A+, right?
i don't know how to blog anymore. what do people usually write in these things? i'm investing [soon] in getting my kodak f fixed...when that happens, i have a feeling i'll be using this as more of a photo blog - most likely i'll start doing that with my shitty little pentax because i'm a picture whore. i'm the annoying person who's always taking pictures of you. my collection is tremendous. and screw flickr for not letting me post all of them. more money to spend, terrific. looks like i won't be getting that modular synth i've been eyeing up any time soon. or a sexy mac. or a trustworthy wireless connection.
money problems.
job interview on saturday at least...i'm trying to land this gig at dodger stadium. so, free baseball games and a good(?) amount of money an hour. hopefully this one works out.
need to get this band thing started. i'm tired of playing with myself [musically? lyrically? nope. still sounds dirty]. mario wants to go into hip-hop. he has this whole scheme thought out - dr. factor md. harrison is the doctor, edgar is the factor and mario is md for "mario dean". if they're not going to invite me to play with them, maybe they'll ask for my assistance as an audio engineer? wishful thinking sucks.
right, class. getting to it soon. i'll dream of twenty-four fret telecasters tonight. and vox amps. and real pedals, not like the shitty one i have on my floor.
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[18 Apr 2008|02:29am] |
You know what really grinds the fuck out of my gears? This Ben Stein. Yes, this guy, the co-writer of the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a devestatingly flawed "documentary" in which Stein argues that advocates of Intelligent Design are victims of discrimination and that they are being denied their right to free speech when the scientific community refuses to recognize the theory as real science. Not only that, but Stein also decides to associate Darwinism with Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin. Wow Stein. I thought Clear Eyes was the shit for getting rid of my incriminatings red eyes, but you've really done it now. Forgive me for pointing out that genocide was quite prevalent before the theory of evolution was conceived, I must be a Nazi! Being an ignorant fool is more than enough to make it to my list of what really grinds my gears, but once you start sounding as stupid as Ted Haggard, you make the friends page!
Congratulations, you douche. ^__^
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| FUCK THE RIAA! |
[13 Apr 2008|12:40pm] |
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A couple of months ago I asked if anyone had a waffles.fm or what.cd account after OiNK died. Well, two days ago, Demonoid came back online. Right now registration is closed, but if anyone wants, I can spare some invite codes! I haven't got around to uploading any torrents yet (or downloading, for that matter) but hopefully, I'll soon have time to waste countless hours building up my album collection. Pimp indeed!
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[05 Apr 2008|04:16pm] |
So this is really cool, but my friend Orlando Seale has worked with the creator of the Father Ted series on a newer show called "The IT Crowd", and I managed to find a link to the episode with him in it! I have to say, I think it's hilarious (and very English!), and not just because beautiful Orlando is in it (though this helps of course!). He plays Peter File, which...actually becomes a running joke in the episode. Just say it with an English accent, and you'll know what I mean.
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| !!!!! |
[28 Mar 2008|11:23am] |
 Right, so yesterday I nearly had an aneurysm when nin.com posted tour dates. There's more than one reason to be bouncy over this; the good large span of time T Rizzle gave us to plan ahead for the show (you hear that, Corgan?) gives an oppurtunity for a special visit! Nothing is set in stone just yet but sdkfjasldjfas am I happy! There's plenty of time until September to figure things out. (One complaint. Inglewood? Why Inglewood? That's like the time you made me drive all the way out to Irvine to see you, bastard, and then my brother and I saw Tommy Lee's helicopter. He got in trouble for that, by the way. Hilarious!) And, as if this mystery wasn't enough, the ninofficial youtube channel has presented me with a tantalizing enigma. Who in the hell do those question marks represent? WHO?! Thankfully it's impossible to consider Jeordie the asshole since he's kicking it with Manson the douchebag (they're better at sucking in pairs ^__^). And the short guy, I forget his name, Adolfo or something, he's off touring with what's-their-name. So, it's that time again, the fun part where we start to think of possible suspects. Who has been roped in to endure the constant stress, anxiety, and desire for perfection from the T Man? One thing's for certain. Whoever decides to fill in the shoes for bassist and guitarist is going to be playing a lot of Guitar Hero. Why is this for certain? Because that's what boys do. And as proof, my brother just turned on the X Box, thus preventing me from watching the news. Damn him!
P.S. Good thing I'm not taking Singulair for my allergies. Is this the first time I shall declare love for you, Claritin?
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[27 Mar 2008|08:31pm] |
First of all, my LOLZ of the day. I haven't voted just yet, but something tells me it will be a more than painful experience! The whole Radiohead vs. NIN (recently transformed to a weird Yorke vs. Reznor business I'd rather not get involved in) in terms of innovation is always a scary thing to approach because then we start talking about who has the most genius of the two. Like, rly, In Rainbows vs. Ghosts I-IV? Apples and oranges people! Apples and oranges. Besides, I can never trust public polls like this, especially relating to these two bands, because honestly. Both NIN and Radiohead fans have their major faults. And I'm talking about the typical fan here. Want to talk about stupid vs. arrogant? Yeah, me neither.
So. Life. I haven't talked about it in awhile, but this is (hopefully) understandable because things have been pretty crazy lately. My mum has been in Canada for awhile, over a week now, and without her it's quite lonely. But anyways! Things have been going over quite well with Mario. The anxiety medication they put him on seems to be working. And on top of that, the Saul Williams show on Tuesday night was fucking kick ass. I posted a couple of pictures on my Flickr, which came out pretty well. I had front center row, so I ended up getting a lot of Saul spit on my face, which is okay since I remembered to close my mouth. He came out wearing a feathered headdress, and I managed to grab a couple from the stage at the end of the show. Now one of them is displayed proudly in my room! Which is quite sexy, of course. No T Rizzle or Bono, but I wasn't expecting as much. So it's time to go, Victor Santos' band is playing a show tonight and I'm already late! I wish I could write a complete review of the show, but for now, all I can say is that it was in no way a disappointment; much more, in fact, than what I expected.
Go Saul!
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[04 Feb 2008|02:04am] |
For the past month or so I've made it one of my top priorities to somehow get an invite to what.cd and waffles.fm with no luck. Browsing through torrentfreak.com and lastfm.com hasn't helped me any, so as of now I'm probably going to end my search and consign myself to the fact that I'm probably just going to have to wait until BOiNK gets running. Ugghfjg life.
Edit
I hear that former OiNK users get invitations to waffles.fm if they recieve proof of your having an account there. So...anyone a former OiNK user?
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[08 Jan 2008|12:10am] |
Once in awhile I'll will randomly drop by the nin hotline and check for updates on one of my favorite bands. I noticed a link to a couple of articles that commented on Trent Reznor's most recent blog post, in which he stated that he was "disheartened" that only 18% or so of people who downloaded the new Saul Williams album he produced purchased it for the asking price of $5.00, while the other 82% chose to download it for free. Both of these articles pointed out that Reznor was wrong in being disappointed because, they reasoned, not only did more people download the album than had purchased William's last studio release (thus resulting in a larger audience from the publicity), the amount of people who chose to pay wasn't supposed to be important. The reason why Williams and Reznor chose to release the album via bittorrent and allow the fans to choose whether or not to pay for it was supposed to be a matter of principle. Reznor, therefore, is defeating the very purpose of this project.
Generally I agreed with these articles. I've been following the stories revolving around Radiohead's and Saul William's attempt at marketing their music without the help of a label, not only because I'm a fan of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nail's music, but because I've been waiting for something as innovative as what they're doing to happen for a while. I used to work at one of the most popular record stores in Los Angeles, and I saw the business fall apart as record sales slumped. When Radiohead put out In Rainbows I payed ten dollars for it because I felt like they were entitled to earn money for what they worked for. However, even though I'm a fan of Trent Reznor's music, I had no idea what to expect when Saul William's album was released. Instead of paying for it, I downloaded a free copy and put it on my iPod. I instantly became hooked. With the exception of maybe one or two songs, I think the album is unlike anything I've ever heard before. I'm a fan of both industrial and rap music, but I don't think I've ever experienced music that had fused the genres together without sounding confused with itself before.
I was, then, a little surprised when I read the comments on those two articles. There were a couple of people who, like me, fell in love with the album and (if they didn't already) went on to purchase the $5 download. However, the majority of the people who left comments seemed to strongly dislike the album. I skimmed through all the comments, growing more and more surprised as I read stuff like this:
"NiggyTardust (Saul's album) an acquired taste? I'll say. It's called rap-crap (spoken word my ass) and made ME feel disheartened from Nine Inch Nails. Saul's music isn't exactly being pirated. And he's touring this year? Where? Oh wait, I don't care. I paid the five dollars to support Trent Reznor's endeavors and since he produced Saul's work I was curious. I'm disappointed in the latest "production" and it's a shame; I was hoping to like Saul's lyrics and singing. It's garbage."
or...
"I was disheartened that I will never regain the time I took to download Saul's "music", as well as I will never regain the time I took listening to it, trying my hardest to find ANY part of it that even resembled "music". I think Mr. Reznor should be happy in the fact that Saul's name is now atleast known by many more people than it EVER would have been, had the cd launched by routine commercial standards. In all honesty, they should be paying us the $5 to download it."
and a cherry on top.
"On [his] Myspace account Saul wrote Niggytardust is the 'love child' of he and Trent Reznor...I hope they don't plan on having any more children."
Wow. Okay, so some people really didn't like the album. Which is something I can't fathom, but it's understandable, some people really don't like rap and some people really can't stomach a cappella beats over gasping spoken word (seriously, check out the first song, it's incredibly strange). However, this brings me to my point. Reznor might be "disheartened" by the number of people who downloaded the album for free, but he should also consider the fact that most people probably did the same thing I did; downloaded the free torrent and gave it a listen before making a decision. At the record store I worked at, there were listening stations where you could take a record or a cd and give it a listen. If you don't like what you hear, you don't buy it. Just because I happened to love Niggy Tardust doesn't mean that everyone who chose to gave it a chance did (as odd as I find that to be). In fact, before I stumbled upon the unhappy grumbles of article-readers I hadn't even thought of the number of people who didn't buy the album because they didn't like it. Even though, of course, as I shouldn't be as surprised as I seem. The majority of the people who chose to listen to it were Nine Inch Nails fans, and by experience I've come to the realization that most of them are not as musically knowledgeable or open minded as they come. Oh well. The model may not seem to work as Reznor intended, but it sure as hell is a lot better than trying to keep a record store open in the twenty-first century. And that's all I have to say about that.
EDIT.
Okay, so I did a little more research. This is a link to a discussion regarding the release of In Rainbows, Niggy Tardust..., and Reznor's blog post. Pretty interesting stuff.
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