Definitely Un-Proofread

Give Me a Reason Hastily written and recorded (not excuse, just...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:36:37 -0500

Give Me a Reason

Hastily written and recorded (not excuse, just explanation), formally shit-hot Pete Snyder drank some wine, drank some more, watched Arie and Mark’s masterpiece Summon Lovin’ (see previous post plz), and tried to re-record a song Mark wrote for the movie. Er couldn’t understand the words, ipso factor Snyderp recorded a new song about a dog running away. Includes several drum parts, an absurd guitar solo, and lots of reverb. That is all.

Give me a reason

I love to take you out for long walks
you hardly every say “thank you”
when I buy you all your nice food
all you do is chew and chew

and when I buy you fancy out fits
you always shake and scratch at them
and when I take you to the doctor
You always try to bite at him

And now you’re leaving

Give me a reason
Or else all nice days could fade
Give me a new chance
So I don’t feel betrayed

When you go, away, I cry

And when I pet you while you’re sleeping
you just give me empty stares
and when I give you hugs and kisses
I only get coated in hair

and when I introduce you to friends
you just fill the room w/ noise
and when I take you with me shopping
all you want to buy is toys

And now you’re leaving

Give me a reason
Or else all nice days could fade
Give me a new chance
So I don’t feel betrayed

When you go, away, I cry

Thousand and One Words

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:17:41 -0500

Thousand and One Words:

Enjoy the photography of Ryan Howard, from the Office

Christopher Hitchens Debates Timothy Jackson. Its not really...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:52:00 -0500

Christopher Hitchens Debates Timothy Jackson. Its not really that interesting to hear Hitchens (or, really anyone) debate religion on the substance, but it is worth hearing because Hitchens is a hilarious man. Whether its foreign policy (“North Korea is the world’s only necrocracy, or thanatocracy”), religion (“When Maimonides says that the Messiah will come but that “he may tarry,” we see the origin of every Jewish shrug from Spinoza to Woody Allen”), or even just snarky-ness (“If you gave Falwell an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox”), the guy is a great comedian.

Debate aside, the first 2 minutes stand on their own as excellent stand up act.

If I had to choose between having this guy’s sense of humor, success, or knowledge, it’d be an toss up.

Summon Lovin'

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:57:41 -0500

Summon Lovin':

Mark and Arie have released a new movie called Summon Lovin’ and it is extremely funny and well made. At 6 minutes, 30 seconds its got a far higher laugh a minute ratio than this season of 30 Rock, The Hangover, or any Weird Al album since “Dare to be Stupid”. Check it out!

Here's what burns my biscuit:

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:30:36 -0500

annicka:

anniehinton: daveholmes:

You can’t make a commercial that says “Cheerios is 10% more nutritious than Corn Chex” unless you can back that claim up. You can’t say “More people chose Late Night Doritos in a blind taste test” unless you’ve actually run that blind taste test and more people really chose Late Night Doritos. But you can make a commercial that says “Married gay people will definitely come to your children’s schools and teach them how to have gay sex,” and that commercial can just air as is. Even when the people who made the commercial admit that they pulled that claim out of thin air, and that it is not meant to be taken literally. You can just put that commercial up on TV and scare a tiny sliver of the population out of their homes and into the ballot box, and people’s rights can be taken away.

Dear Friends and Family (I’ve Got Your Back) I just...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:29:00 -0500

Dear Friends and Family (I’ve Got Your Back)

I just finished this new song, and let me tell you, it is terrific. I am extremely proud of it. It may be the best song I’ve written in a while. My new strategy is to sing / write melodies as if I were singing along w/ an Auto-Tuned song, and then to actually auto-tune my voice.

Anyway, this song is roughly about the last two Halloweens, where I’ve started great but doomed from the get go relationships, last year because of anal fissure, and this year because of Deutch.

Anyway, lyrics!

I meet her at party
she was dressed as atari
we snuck out to the balcony
she tried to stick it to me
THere were some complications
she planned to leave the nation
a peace core occupation
a permanent vacation

I know, autumn loves can’t last
and now I’m wishing for the past,
oh, I’m doomed again

Dear friends, and family
I got back, I got your back
If you punch a dude in the face a bar
I’ll grab a stool and I’ll join the fight
and then if you decide to key his car
I’ll etch in parallel with a knife

I met him at a party
I think he was in army
He took me to a movie
he tried to stick it to me

There were some complications
he was out on probation
for some tax evasion
my time was his donation

If its early morning on on Friday night
and you’re feeling bummed and alone
Don’t worry bout charges
just call me on the phone

Escape The Grave! I just finished a new song. Its a bit of the...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:16:00 -0500

Escape The Grave!

I just finished a new song. Its a bit of the audio equivalent of the Photoshop project that uses all the filters but I’m still pretty happy w/ it. Especially w/ the semi-cool, semi-silly Lincoln Park esk chorus.

Quick note about the lyrics: its not worth spending too much time thinking about them. I certainly didn’t….

The new secret: just make up different lyrics to “No Tan Lines” by Pavement and then shove them into your song.

Another thing: Mark suggested that I try to use a couple of different singing styles, which I think was a good idea. However, all of the other styles ended up sounding just like Mark. Which, is to say, better than my singing normally does.

Europe is a Mausoleum
thats trapped its youth inside
The buildings old, the people cold
but honest they don’t mind

followed home with hollow shoe soles
calamity in frightened discos
From teen to Wein is humbling
to know that mom came first

and I know,
and I know,
that there no problems now

the glove it fits, this lovers spit
is drying all the same
no consolations or approbations
or sudden squandered fame

the handi screens show ghastly fees
from chatting up old friends
the price is fine, i’d mind,
I’ll call you back agian

Nasal sprays and guiltless gays
in scare supply but old men’s ways
the polygotts may talk a lot
but have nothing to say

The wurst stands folks recycle jokes
and breath in satler air
and to tell the truth the kebab booth
is too a grim affair

—

sometimes I can’t think so straight
I start to worry
legacies and silly things

folks I’ve meet here
carry less fear
less ambition
of grander plans, escape the grave!

1. Free Audiobooks, Lectures and Debates

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:57:05 -0500

1. Free Audiobooks, Lectures and Debates:

Joseph Heath interviewed about his book Flithy Lucre on the economic fallacies of the left and right. Sharp, funny, and not even a little bit pandering. I will read this book as soon as I get back to the US.

Found on Rabble.ca

Chicago’s #1 on hiatus LOST themed rock band, Sonic Weapon...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:42:00 -0400

Chicago’s #1 on hiatus LOST themed rock band, Sonic Weapon Fence, has finally finished it’s first album. And it ist sehr schön.

Physical and MP3 purchase links to come.

And mega thanks to Shelby Peterson for the fantastic album art.

Big things are going to happen….

United States Senate Armed Services Committee's website looks like my 6th grade HTML project

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:37:00 -0400

United States Senate Armed Services Committee's website looks like my 6th grade HTML project:

But, here is the thing, the most powerful government in the world paid someone to make this site.

Thanks to Katherine Mangu-Ward at Reason’s Hit & Run Blog

Update: The HTML is also bizarrely screwed up. There are two doc-types and two header sections. But at least it didn’t cost 18 million…

Apple is paying $4 mil to put an Apple store by the Clyborn Red-Line stop and revamp the near by park

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:52:14 -0400

Apple is paying $4 mil to put an Apple store by the Clyborn Red-Line stop and revamp the near by park:

Sweet. It’d be nice to have a park over there. Even better to not have to pay for it. But, what will happen to Baccis pizza?!

Mark J drops album #1

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:07:47 -0400

Mark Johnson, of Lawrence, Chicago, Bone-Crushers, Tough-But-Fair, and all around good man fame has just put up released an album of sweet songs of Facebook. Don’t be a joyless goon! Check it out now!

Top picks : Love Scripts (orig version), In The Game, Adventures

Helsinki

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:13:14 -0400

I just landed in Helsinki for a connecting flight to Tallinn, Estonia where I’ll be for the next two nights. I found a kind and sweet woman named Hedi who will be putting me up in her farm-ish-house 30Km outside of the capital. Tomorrow she’ll show me around. I’m really hoping I don’t get “Hostel”-ed.

But, Helsinki! Its silly, of course, but I’ve been here, only in the airport, for 30 minutes, but I feel like this is a place I want to spend my life, raise a family, cut down some trees, make a house, pay some VAT, be bounced around in a free labor market, and vote in parliament. I’m not totally sure why I feel so bowled over (might be the euphoria of a first coffee on the plane after an almost sleepless night), but here are something things I’m able to put my finger on.

Everything is so quiet
The airport is the most attractive building I’ve been, if not ever, then at least since Space Mountain.
All the people are beautiful and they look like druids.
Maybe most important, the landscape looks sweet. Stark gray sky against a forest that alternates deep green and firey orange trees, and all on top grass thats green and orange with splots of deep black (sort of like a sick panther).

I’ve got to come back here, ASAP. If anyone knows of an equivalent to jobwohnen.at or craigslist.org for finding apartments in any Scandinavian country, or has any other leads, PLEASE let me know. And quickly, please, before the caffeine leaves my system…

Under the Covers

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:19:53 -0400

popfop:

Art fags, design dorks and bibliophiles can all agree that despite the cliché, judging a book by it’s cover is a completely acceptable thing to do. Book cover design is gaining more prominence as the fine arts become more irrelevant and the pop appreciation of the ordinary and mass produced comes back into style. The creme de la creme of book design comes from Penguin as Phil Baines’ Penguin by Design attests. Check out their line of sci fi covers through the 20th century for examples.

Here are some book covers of titles released in the mid century which I find cool with a brief review of the titles in question:

Found this in the dollar section of the Brattle Bookshop and I probably looked like a perv buying it but whatever. I actually have not yet read this book though I do think that the chapter on ladyboys might interest Alan Partridge.

I was mostly intrigued by an essay by George Washington Steevens titled ‘The American Is an Electric Anglo-Saxon’ but found it (as well as the others featured) to be rather predictable. Maybe this is because I am an American so I have heard most of these observations before but I was hoping for some new insights into our collective cultural psyche. While there is certainly truth to a lot of European criticisms of the American self-image, it often overlaps with reactionary attitudes towards modernity. As such, America becomes interchangeable with symptoms of modernity deemed crass by deposed aristocrats (Enlightenment values, republicanism, a mobile class system). In regards to the design, it is interesting to note how the Union Jack across the mouth motif would later be used in Irish republican posters to a much different effect.

This is a concise but informative history of Australia. It certainly delivers.

Here is an example of the excellent design Penguin was churning out in the mid century under the direction of Germano Facetti. This is probably Dahl’s worst book however.

I bought this based soley on the cover and was pleasantly surprised. There are some outlandish reviews on the back which tout it as a very racy book (“Outstrips Candy, Fanny Hill, and the Chatterley woman”-Savannah News) but the sexuality is very tame by contemporary standards. Nevertheless, it has interesting musings on human relations and shows early attitudes in favor of a sexual revolution. At times, though, it reminded me of those coming-of-age stories which I’m wholly sick of. There is a certain casual hipness (mid century style!) which runs through it though. As the Chicago Daily News described it “Tom Jones in an Austin-Healey.” And we are not talking about cheesy Welsh expats either.

This is one of my favorite books from childhood. It is so well known that I don’t feel I have to properly review it so I will just mention these three points: minimalist illustrations by Jules Feiffer, surrealism for children, a precocious Blonde protagonist. Need I say more? The movie is awesome as well.

annicka: Where my damn theraflu at Same problem here. I have...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:17:10 -0400

annicka:

Where my damn theraflu at

Same problem here. I have a nasty cold right now, runny nose, sore throat, whole 9 yards. However, just to compound things, if you want any medication more potent than bar-soap here, you have to ask a pharmacist for it. And since we haven’t gotten to “antihistamine” yet in German class I’m stuck trying to act out “runny nose” like a mime tearing at his own face.

Oh, the terrible things I would do right now for some NyQuil

Coders at Work

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:46:35 -0400

Hey what a surprise! I open up Google reader this morning to learn that Mr Codding Horror and i are reading the same book currently, “Coders at Work.” It was a birthday gift) and I’m also enjoying it. My eyes glaze over a bit during the biographical sections, but highly recommended. It’s also motivated me to learn about functional programming which, I’ve learned from this book, is not related to programs that use lots of functions instead of objects. Har har

The Road The movie The Road is coming out soon! I won’t...

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:00:00 -0400

The Road

The movie The Road is coming out soon! I won’t be able to see it here on release, but since reading the book I’ve been looking forward to it. So, as the Cormac McCarthy equivalent of wearing a garbage can and calling it R2D2, I wrote a song about The Road. Enjoy!

woke up, to the end, oh no
the roads were burning off, oh no
bar the windows tight, oh no
the weathers, getting cold, I know

You gotta keep that fire burning inside you
those cannibals don’t love you like i do, son
we’ll keep moving on till summer
keep one eye open during slumber, please
some people attack first to hunger
they come for you first because you are younger
we’ll walk the road,
I got your back
cause you got back you know

suck in to a strangers shack, oh no!
the basement, is pitch black, oh no!
strike a, match for light, oh no!
we run, son held tight, oh no!

Promise you’ll keep that fire burning inside you
those cannibals don’t love you like i do, son
we’ll keep moving on till summer
keep one eye open during slumber, please
some people attack due to hunger
they come for you first because you are younger
we’ll walk the road,
I got your back
cause you got back you know

and its been tough,
single parents sure have it rough,
and its been lonely
you’re the only thing that keeps me —-

going on,
and heres a coke
and heres a corpse
damn, little man, you act so tough

day breaks, time to move, oh no!
two shots, kept in case, oh no!
some day, you’ll be alone, I know
you must keep the - flame lit bright as you walk the road

poorgeoisie: ppls: annicka:cmpblldllghn:cameronchristopher: ...

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:57:15 -0400

poorgeoisie:

ppls:

annicka:cmpblldllghn:cameronchristopher:

jordychristine:

Please reblog this to help strike a blow against pediatric cancer. I will post on Sunday exactly how much I’ve raised by doing this!

bam. +.0025 points towards me not going to hell.

OpenRegs.app live on iTunes Store

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:58:09 -0400

OpenRegs.app live on iTunes Store:

Another of my iPhone projects is now live on the iTunes store. Its an iPhone client for the OpenRegs.org site. Its free. Check it out and see some of the crazy regulations that are enacted every day!

maxhell: nevver: Giddy up This is true. Billy D....

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:34:48 -0400

maxhell:

nevver:

Giddy up

This is true. Billy D. Williams, aside from being the subject of the soon-to-be-released Sonic Weapon Fence album, was one of the two signatures on the back of my first drivers license. In Illinois you need two witnesses to sign the back of your card to be an organ donor. And to make it even weirder, he signed it at the K-Mart in my hometown.

So, after Billy D. left the lucrative world of malt beverage spokesman-ship he became an author of romance novels. He was doing a book signing at the K-Mart on Halsted in the south Chicago suburb of Glenwood, IL. I never really got much into Star Wars, but some of my friend were so I went w/ to the signing.

When we got to the K-Mart there was a stretch limo out front, next to the broken, two-quarter space ship ride and the generic soda vending machine (“Mt. Dew” still has nothing on “Dr. Thunder”). It was easy to find Billy D. when we got inside. The line for a signature started at the tooth paste and ended at the potatoes. Billy D. was sitting behind a card table w/ a plastic orange table “cloth,” the kind of thing that you’d see in a pee-themed XTube clip. All in all, Billy D.’s celebrity couldn’t keep K-Mart from being an unpleasant and ugly place to be.

But, when we got through the line Billy D. was very kind, didn’t give me a hard time for not buying a book, and happily signed the only sign-able thing I had, my then almost-new drivers license. And I think thats still the closest either I or my high school broadcasting teacher (the other witness on my license) have come to Cloud City.