Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Real Definitions


When you look up a word, you'll notice that there are a bunch of different definitions. I think, maybe there are too many. Well, maybe not, but the reader needs to understand that these aren't a bunch of separate definitions usually, not as often as it would appear. Here's a word with two different definitions actually. "Too" is an example.

too
adverb- to a higher degree than is desirable, permissable, or possible. "you're too big."

too
adverb- in addition. "Is he coming too?"

Here's when it looks like the definitons are different, but they are not entirely seperate from each other.

teach
verb- to show or explain to someone how to do something. "When will you teach me how to ride a bike?"

teach
verb- to cause someone to learn or understand something. "Michelle taught me that dames ain't so bad after all."

The dictionary seperates these definitons, but maybe we ought to decide which of these means to teach rather than to say they both do. People can claim that they teach children how to read and everyone will think they're so wonderful, when the reality is they try to teach children how to read, but not a one has read yet, for example. With these both being acceptable definitions it enables "try to teach" to be synonomous with "teach."

Language is a very fluid thing that changes all the time and right now, the dictionary acknowleges this and attempts to act as a general guide for the actual dictionary which exists in our hearts and minds or something, but what if there was some kind of precise human language dictionary that didn't allow for silliness like the above sillyness. Well, maybe there doesn't need to be a dictionary like that, but there does need to be me, posting about the definition of words in a more essential sense. Kind of like this:

How about the word "beat"? "To hit or strike something in a very definite and repetitive fashion. How would this definition apply to different versions of the word "beat?" Well, it certainly works for "beat" as in to "beat up or assult physically." Parts of it also work for the "beat" in music. It works a little bit for a cop on his beat. Its repetitive. It's the rout he takes, day in day out. Its very definite, because he is supposedly a steadfast force that is there for the sake of safety, and people feel more safe when they know there is regularity. Yeah. That's a good example of what I want to try to do.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

So What's the Deal With Rap Anyway


So what's the deal with rap anyway? I'm coming from a white, lowermiddleclass background, and this is my take. First off, I'm not gonna differentiate between rap and hip hop. Why? Well, maybe it's cuz I don't see such a clear distinction between the two, and maybe that's because I'm white. Hip hop is supposedly about telling stories and stuff and rap is supposedly a lot of shit talkin club music. How am I suppose to know if what somebody's saying is just shit talk or if its true? What I enjoy about this music is how well these artists put rhyme and rhythm together using words. Wether its true or not true, wether its meant for dancing or not, makes no difference to me.

The big question, I think is this: What redeeming quality does music which seems to advocate violence have? This is the question, because there are a lot of people out there who still don't like most rap and this is one of the main gripes. I was thinking about this. Rap might give us an insight into the criminal mentality. Maybe this is helpful. Also, it shows us the struggle for power in a different sort of light. Next time your listening to some hardcore gangsta rap, think about how this guys point of view is no different from the biggest richest sheistiest people in the world. You can look at rap as their dirty inner thoughts or something. There's this harmful but common mentality out there that goes, look out for yourself and your family. Make sure that they're taken care of and that's all that you need to do. This is the thug mentality, and if its your mentality, you might as well be a thug. This line of thinking makes things nice and simple, but its wrong. We are all one community working and living together interdependently.

Rap can also be looked at as anthems. Its a genre of music that was once reserved to give respect to a whole country, so it would only make sense that nowadays allegiance has shifted. Patriotism is seen for what it is: some 1984 shit and the stuff of Nazis. A rapper writes anthems about himself and how great he is, and naturally its way exaggerated which is in the tradition of anthems. This idea fits good within the postmodern view of things which is all about the individual.

Another good thing about gangster rap is it helped to create and sustain a certain thuggish, primal attitude that refuses to be stepped on, even if it means violence is necessary. As the government becomes more powerful and the media more coercive and the bullshit machine gets bigger and tries to dehumanize humanity, there is a solid front of people who are first and foremost human and ready to fight if and when the time comes. Alright. That's about all I got. Well, I don't know how well I summed up my thoughts on this, but there you have it. When it comes to gangster rap I have to recommend Brotha Lynch Hung. He's the hardest nastiest, rapper with the most agile writing and spitting like I could never imagine till I heard it.



Friday, December 11, 2009

The McGlaughlin Group

The McGlaughlin Group is a great show. Its, far as I know, the only show that shows politics in a negative light, but appears to be a serious news show. The way its all set up its a big joke on politics, because that's what they ususally talk about, not the moral issues, but how these issues are dealt with in the game of politics, but it also seems the joke is on the media itself and the whole circus of it all and whatever.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

We're DOOMed


MF DOOM aka Viktor Vaughn aka King Geedorah is one of my very favorite rappers, and thankfully for this post his stuff translates to written word exquisitely. I will present to you my ten favorite DOOM lines in no particular order.

What makes DOOM truely stand out is his rhyming skills, and I mean this in the most literal sense. I don't mean his rapping skills, I mean the pure act of finding words and phrases that rhyme with each other. To do this well you must have a good brain and a lot of patience. It's easier to rhyme two phrases that have been rhymed before, but part of the art of making a rhyme is putting something together that makes sense where the listener is like, wow! How did he come up with that, and why didn't anybody think of that before.

A lot of people have trouble listening to DOOM. His voice is kind of monotone, his flow is kind of clumsy at times, and its hard to know what he's talking about most the time cuz he uses a lot of obscure figures of speech, but I feel some of the parts are so juicy and unusual its hard not to enjoy it. He can rhyme two phrases together, six syllables each and make it make sense. Another very neat thing is he'll spit the thuggist ghetto slang and he'll also spit the white-collar white people type of lingo. Both flow natural and joke off each other. Here we go.



"...Hell, I made it, Momma.
Grammy for the worlds most celebrated rhymer (pronounced 'rahma')..."
From "GMC," off Vaudville Villain


"...These crews is too soft.
He came to tear the roof off, to get paid to goof off.
They don't really wanna battle.
All they gonna do is get mad and go tattle..."
From "GMC," off Vaudville Villain


"...Border line skitzo. Sorta fine tits tho.
Pour da wine;
whore ta grind;
quarter ta nine;
lets go..."
from "Meatgrinder," off Madvillainy


"...Groovy Dude. Not to prove to be rude,
but this stuff is like what you might put on movie food
uh...what is Jalapeñas? Get it? like a woopin, when you holler at your señas..."
from "Great Day," off Madvillainy


"What up.
to all rappers shut up,
and once you shuttin up,
keep a shirt on, at least a button-up.
yuck!
Is they rappers or stripper males?
Outa work jerks, since they shut down Chippendales
They chippin' nails. DOOM tippin' scales
Let alone the pre-orders as counted off shippin' sales
This one goes out to all my people skippin bail, dippin' jail, whippin tail, n sippin ale
Light the doobie till it grow like a ruby
after that you can't find the Villain like Scooby..."
From "Beef Rap," off MM Food


"...Now you apologize. That's what they all say. You wasn't sorry when you sucked him off in the hallway..."
From "Fancy Clown," off Madvillainy


"...Don't mind me.
I wrote this rhyme lightly off of two or three heinies,
and boy was they fine, G!
One Black, one Spanish, one Chinee.
It keeps the woody shiny year round like a pine tree..."
From "Money Folder," off Madvillainy


"...They too carefree with they mouth around here.
Off with his head! and display it in town square
atop of seven feet spike
make sure its on tight
in light of when the peasants throw stones with all they might.
Skull gets smashed for weeks
till vulture beaks eats the last meat off the cheeks..."
From "The Fine Print," off Take me to your Leader


"...Viktor the director flip a scrip like Rob Riner
The way alota dudes rhyme, they name should be Knob Shiner
For a buck they'd likely dance the jig or do the hucklebuck
To Vik its no big deal. They just a bunch of knuckle fucks..."
From "Vaudville Villain," off Vaudville Villain


"...Listen, youth. Its like me holdin up the line at the kissin booth.
I took her back to the truck. She was uncouth.
Spittin all out the sunroof through her missin tooth..."
From "Doomsday" off Operation Doomsday

Friday, November 27, 2009

Groups are People Too


It seems to me that groups are people too. Think about it. If all we are is our brains, and all are brains are is networks than what differentiates a person from a cooperative group? Nothing really. Both can do the same thing. Both have internal disagreements that must be resolved. Thinking about it this way makes group think make sense. Its not just a peculiar phenomenon, but part of a bigger picture. Looking at life this way makes one see everything not as people trying to get along with each other, but rather, like, a bunch of ideas and a bunch of systems performing functions. I don't exist. My body exists, but my mind is just a collection of ideas, which belong to many other brains, not just my own. My brain also contains lists of orders to which I belong. Me and my friends ad up to one entity. My group of friends is part of a larger, perhaps regional group, which is part of a national group, which is part of an international group. Its all unofficial. Whenever I meet someone I hit it off with real good, its likely that they're a member of my group on some level.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Arts and Sports Once More

When it comes to hard times there's two philosophies in life that you can have. The first is artistic. That is to say, it may seem you have made a mistake, but it all contributes to the whole big picture which is what ultimately ought to be a good picture and that's what one strives toward. So when a mistake is made it is not looked at as a mistake, but, well, with me, for instance, I kind of try to roll with it n try to create an outcome that justifies a decision.


I'm more seeing it a different way now, and that is like sport. Surfing, in particular, illustrates the point. You fuck up, you get back up, you hope for the best the next time. The problem with this approach is that it treats the path like some kinda idol, like its infallible, but its not, so this approach isn't necessarily more solid and logical than the other approach which seems more touchy feeley, but its equally if not more valid. 

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

If energy's infinite

I was thinking about this. If everything is made of energy and energy has always existed and always will exist, and it seems very likely, than a very interesting thing is true. Picture nothing but a mass of energy, as difficult as this is. The behavior of this energy is the cause of everything that exists and occurs. All the planets and solar system and stars and stuff may disappear into nothing, but this energy will always exist, and we presume the behavior of this energy to be random, so whatever happened with it that birthed our universe will inevitably happen again eventually because there is an infinite amount of time at this energy's disposal in which to roll the correct number, so to speak. Its very very unlikely that it will roll the number which creates the outcome we live with now, but with infinite time, its inevitable, so it will eventually happen. It has to eventually because time is infinite because this energy will always exist and has always existed. So what this means is that the reality that we have, the universe that we have has already happened-- an infinite amount of times, and it will happen an infinite amount of times, along with every possible variation of what could have happened. Everything that can happen will happen and has happened an infinite amount of times. The alternative to this view of things is that energy which makes up everything came out of nothing and will, it seems, eventually disappear into nothing, or maybe it won't. Maybe it came out of nothing and will keep going, but that it came out of nothing is a notion that makes no sense to me at all. And if it came out of nothing at one point, it seem likely that after it disappears into nothing there's a chance it will come out of nothing again, and given the infinite amount of time it has at its disposal it must be inevitable. Ok that's all I got for the time being.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Believe

"Believe" is a strange word. If you use it one way it means to know something with absolute certainty. Usually religious people use it this way, but on the flip side, it can be used to express uncertainty, as in responding with "I believe so." When you're talking about someone else, for some reason the word sounds like certainty, as in "He believes the world is round." It sounds the same as "He thinks the world is round." When someone says, "I believe the world is round" it sounds less certain, probably because they could more quickly say, "the world is round," and exhibit their certainty if they were certain.

To believe anything is an act of faith, some might say. It seems belief is held up as a virtue. Belief somehow makes miracles possible according to pop generic spirituality. I would say, true belief might make you see more things as though they were miracles if you chose to put complete trust in some concept.

Something else kind of funny is when there is an issue at hand where the truth of a matter could go either way and its one of those weighty important issues at the top of society's values list the word "believe" is joined by the word "in," rendering it less certain. But when somebody says they "believe in" something it's usually when they really claim to hold tight to some cherished idea. "I believe in a woman's right to chose." This is a less certain statement than "I believe my horoscope." I'm not talking about the validity of what is being believed here. I'm only talking about the way an individual talks about it.

So yeah. How often does a word have two definitions which are the complete opposite of each other? Not too often. I'm gonna try to think of some examples. Ok. So, I thought for a little while and examples elude me, but I did think of how people say "I'm up" to do something, and they also say "I'm down" for doing something. This is a similar kind of thing where two words that mean essentially the same thing when their literal meanings are opposite. I bet I can think of a few more of those. Give me a sec. Ok. "That's hot." "that's cool." There's a good example. There's probably a bunch more but I'm done writing for now. I'll see ya next time.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Oooo. I mighta thought of something


Ooooo. I mighta thought of something. Maybe things are like this. Maybe there are three different ways in which we can view the world, but you can only be doing one at a given time. Some people may live their whole lives with only one of the three the whole way through. Others may skip around more. The first way in my little theory is to live in competition. This is reflected by our interest in sports and games and all things competitive. The other way is as a work of art. Think of your life as the narrative part of a work of art which is your whole life. This seems to me to be a good deal more ethical way of going about it, but maybe that's just me. And perhaps its equally less ethical than the third way of living and that is in a state of communion with all things, one of them being humanity, firstly with those very close and after that, maybe acquaintances, and finally the family of mankind with naturally a bit more caution, but not willing wrong against anybody.

Nomatter how any of the reflexions of these three try, they can't wipe out the other two out of the equation, because they are present in this dimension. The mona lisa isn't art is what I'm saying, but rather a reflexion of how it might occur in the actual world, but the artist can't help compete with himself and against the natural things which prevent the image in his head from just appearing on some surface for all to see.

Competition inevitably has artistic and community elements within it, that's, once again, because this isn't real competition but rather a simulation of the competive moves one makes in ones own life. 

And who out there doesn't know of relationships between people effected by competition. What about creativity tho. How are interactions between people effected by the desire to live ones life as a work of art. Well, art is about creation the way I use it in th
e analogy. What is creation, but making something new. Making something new interrupts regularity and security. When a guy just doens't want to settle in and comform to the way things are always done one flys in the face of traditions which have sort of semi-systematically examined reality in its own little awkward way. It has learned from its mistakes. It has evolved, you might say.

So there you have it. It looks like I darn near wrote an essay. This is kind of how I've been looking at the world. I believe the noblest way to live is in communion with people. The worst is in competition, other side of the spectrum. Right in the middle we have art. Where life is examined  in its abstracted form. 

Monday, October 5, 2009

pick-up line


I'm a guy, and usually pick-up lines are something guys (dumb guys) use on girls, but I thought of a clever pick-up line that would definitely work on me. This is really dumb, by the way. She would say, "Are you in a hurry?" and then I say, "No. Why?" and she goes, "Because you're dashing." Haha. That's pretty funny, huh?

Standup Comedy


Isn't standup comedy awesome!? I think it is. What is this art form all about really? Well, its an individual getting on stage and entertaining people with their thoughts about different things. It is seen as successful if there is laughter taking place. What does this laughter indicate. It indicates that the given comedians observation rings true to those people. Maybe there are exceptions to this. You might say that's just where the humor comes from with observational comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and stuff. What about comedians that play a type of character, like Andrew Dice Clay? People laugh at this sort of comedy when the comedian says something is such a way that shows an ignorant mentality that they've seen before. The comedians job is to finesse the comment so that the foolishness is apparent. This is kind of the opposite of what Seinfeld is known for. But now it must be said that Jerry might do something that's very Dice Clay and Dice Clay might do something very Seinfeld, but with either type of comedian the point is still to give the audience their perspective on reality. Now, what about somebody like Rodney Dangerfield, who's jokes go something like this. I went to the Doctor and he told me I was sick. I said I want a second opinion, and he told me "your ugly." Where's the humor here come from? Well the word "ugly" is one part of it. Its funny because its something we all relate to. None of us want to be ugly. Nobody wants to have to tell someone their ugly. Its a very mean thing, and why can't everybody be beautiful? Also there's the matter in the joke of the surprise because we expect second opinion to be taken to be taken a certain way. The doc misunderstands it and BAM...the punchline. This type of comedy is still talking about how one person sees reality. We don't wanna believe that we're sick. We don't want to be ugly, but this is put before us in a way where the obsurdity of the misunderstanding (another part of human experience) and the comedians self depreciation make us laugh because we see the truth the comedian shows and we cope with it. 


The point I'd like to get at somehow, is that standup comedy is to our culture what preaching is to Christian culture. Its more honest though. It admits its fallibility. But, you know what, its not just standup, actually. Its all humor. I think humor 
is how we talk about the truth, and laughter might be, sort of, how we verify it. Just think about it. If you make a comment among friends in everyday discussion and it gets you in trouble, and maybe it just jumped off your tongue before you thought it all the way through, its because you revealed something about how you see the world that differs sharply with how the offended person sees the world. Now, of course there are misunderstandings, but I'm saying that if you can't smooth things over by clarifying and stuff then that must be the issue.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

God


what is God? God is the furthest point on the end of a line who's other endpoint is whatever is the very smallest thing. God is by my definition, simply the very biggest bestest thing. So, if it turns out that mankind is the very biggest bestest thing then, that's what god is and that's what we're referring to whenever we've said, "god." But I just want to say that "God" is who I worship. The issue usually isn't "God" as much as the idea of believing all these specific facts about the nature of God. And rather than just trusting God. These things, these questions had to be answered in ways that ended up coincidentally giving some individuals a power they hadn't had before. In our culture you have to believe all the story's you've heard about God or you are seen as his enemy. But my mentality is like this: God is some great being who for whatever reason doesn't speak in an obvious way at all to humanity. This is one thing that I can say with certainty from my experience and my observation of other people. But then, there's all these different story's circulating in his absence. He did this and this and the other thing. He said that we have to do this or we'll burn in hell. He said he loves us more than we know. So many stories but no real proof and a whole lot of contradiction. But my allegience is to God. Whoever or whatever or however that is. Why isn't this sufficient?

It reminds me of the story of the guy was walking down the street and a man comes up and says, sir you are in grave danger, surrender your whole life to me or you'll be tortured forever.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009


what is love? as far as I can tell its just people wishing the best for each other and trying to make it all work together for the best. Its much preferable to have these wishes for an individual than for all of humanity. Well, I guess you can have them for humanity as a whole, but when it comes to being open and vulnerable and intimate, these things are tricky. If one makes ones self completely vulnerable to all, one will be worthless to the whole because one will become simply an unthinking device in the hands of the most powerful within the masses.

so love becomes a thing for smaller groups. The smaller the group the greater the selflessness and the intimacy and vulnerability. When this force from an individual interacts against another individual using that same mentality what happens is a collective sort of thing. When it happens, the two things will cling together in a strong bond. 

Friday, September 25, 2009

The Emperor's New Clothes




The Emperor's New Clothes.  Is a story for the smart. Its roughly the same as the plot line of the story. This is a game that people play like crazy and we don't even hardly know it. But those who completely understand it are able to play this game on some level. What is the interest of the story but the matter of smarter people outwhitting dumber people by using their vanity as their weakness. Maybe a lot of these smart folks act like dumb off kilter folks so as to keep the riff raff away. To attract the sincere human beings. People who are sincerely curious and thoughtful. Who are truly good in the end. The baddies who are brought in, the straglers who manage to get through are chased off in such a way where the bad folks will be able to say comfortingly to themselves that "this guys "a crazy phsyco, as I always suspected deep down."

See the article about Sacha Baron Cohen down below. He plays that game with his humor.

what else keeps the vain, smaller people out. The matter of a given job being beneath them. They take issue with some issue that bothers them.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

clubs


I hate going to clubs. I fuckin hate hate hate goin to clubs. This is where the loud music forces you to communicate nonverbally. This is where the bitches dance half naked n act oblivious. This is where the players act hard and chase the tail. I hate when the song is so direct, for instance, "tryin' to get to you and that booty." or "my lovely lady lumps." And you can never talk directly about that shit with a decent girl, but somehow chix'll dance to it. Oh I really hate it when people are dancing and you can see their lips saying the words of the song. These are probably the same people who play the dance shit in their car. Either that or they come to the clubs all the time. Maybe I'm just a hater. Ok, I'm just a hater. I wish the standard was everybody sits around at the library n guys go to sit down with whichever girl looks up to their speed, and they just start talkin. Maybe that would give me more of an advantage. I just want for me and everybody like me to have first pick of the best dames and all the spike haired cholos with their collars popped and their buttons undone to fuck themselves.



Thursday, September 17, 2009

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift ain't country and Kanye isn't a very exciting rapper.

Friday, September 11, 2009

recent movie reviews


In the past two months I've seen 4 movies in the theater. In chronological order, these movies are: Bruno, In Glorious Bastards, Extract, and 9. 

Bruno I give a 9. I'm biased tho because I'm crazy about everything Cohen does. Its all perfection in my book. With all of his four characters he kind of does the same thing which is a discussion performance kind of. Its like, there's the art of the monologue or the standup thing, and this can be done with improvisational elements where the audience can participate, but Cohen takes it to a new level where the viewer is unaware that they are the straight man in some kind of improvisational back and fourth. Here's where the other part of the grand joke comes into play. Cohen plays a character which adheres to a stereotype which the viewer doesn't see through because they have a preconceived notion as to what this type acts like and Cohen stays true to that notion. If that's confusing, let me clarify. Think of the Ali G character. You'll see him interviewing some old white dude who doesn't interact with urban sorts of people very often, so when Ali asks a really stupid question, the old guy doesn't usually say, "What?! Are you joking? You can't be serious. That's a really really stupid question." The old guy will think, "well, okay, thug types of folks like this are ignorant so let me answer the question honestly so that he might learn." I mean it's probably never this straight forward, but that sort of mindset makes these back and forths possible. 
  So that's the form Cohen usually sticks to pretty faithfully, and so his job as a writer is to think up stupid questions and misunderstandings that might come about through discussions. Good stuff.

Inglorious Bastards, I give a nine also, but maybe I should give it a ten. It was pretty darn good. Tarantino does his thing as good as he ever does his thing which is really good. He tells a movie like a good joke teller tells a joke. Its all about the anticipation and the delivery the whole way through. His actors are given the breathing room to do what they do best. That bad guy with the chin was just perfect perfect. So evil, you just watched him on the edge of your seat. I had to look away from the gore cuz I haven't got a stomach for that kind of stuff, but I'm sure it was done well if the audience's reaction is any indicator.

Extract was okay. I'll give it a 6 I guess. It was pretty funny and quirky and believable. 

9 was shit. I give it a 1. I didn't give a darn about the characters. I hated the animation. I don't know what to say. 

Thursday, September 10, 2009

So there was a hostage situation. The bandits had 30 women and children in a small abandon building on the outskirts of town. The situation was looking very grim. The FBI special forces were posted outside the compound waiting for the opportunity to strike and strike quick. 
  "We sure are in a jam," the second in command says to the head officer who suddenly exclaims, "I've got. By george, I've got it! What were gonna do is this: I want you guys to stay out here and keep lookout. I'm going to go home and jack off in the bathroom. They'll never see me coming."