FiveThings

Moving House

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:18:06 -0600

I’m starting afresh with Wordpress. If you still check this, you can stop now (I’d appreciate it if you started checking the new one, though).

Tech Generation

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:15:27 -0600

[via Hipster Runoff]

Have large portions of my generation devolved into a vapid, faux-counterculture mess? Maybe. I may be loathe to label myself a hipster (which, as HRO puts it, “is a term for mainstream news publications & startup ‘progressive’ journalistic outlets 2 talk about to cultivate interest in what they are doing with people who use the internet”), I’m well aware of the possibility that I probably am one. I have numerous American Apparel t-shirts. I enjoy cheap beer. I keep up with underground music. I have a blog. I am a Philosophy major at a liberal arts college.

I’m not sure which part of all this makes me hip. Before the internet came around, it was hard to be a member of a counterculture group. Music had to be discovered through cheaply-produced zines. Fashion trends spread slower without party pics sites. If I had been a teen in the 70s, 80s, or even the early 90s, I would have had no idea what was going on in Brooklyn.

So what all this says to me is that my generation can be pretty well divided into two groups: the one that reads blogs, and the one that doesn’t. If Hipster Runoff (my personal favorite authority on all that is hip, alt, electro, or otherwise) is right, then by virtue of you reading this, you are probably a hipster (or maybe my mother). Get used to it—we’re a demographic now.

Today I found out (through Boing Boing, while we’re name-dropping blogs) that an organization called the Digital Youth Project has been working for the last three years on a case study of what kids are doing online and what this means for society. The BB article explains it a lot better than I can, but the findings are pretty awesome. The idea is that all the “time-wasting” stuff that kids do online—instant messaging, social networking, blogging, what have you—is actually an integral part to online exploration and education. The internet is not just for research, and I’m glad for that.

I feel like I’m in a weird age group. I don’t get too much into generational definitions, but Wikipedia says that I’m a member of Generation Y or the Net Generation. I think that, in general, this generation is one that has grown up in the midst of the technological boom. I remember not having a computer or cell phones, and I feel nostalgia for early-90s cartoons. I think that this is a key characteristic. This generation has been the first one to embrace technology wholesale, with a willingness to integrate it into nearly every aspect of our lives.

The next generation (Gen Z?) is weirder. They’ve never experienced life without computers or cell phones. They are being raised on high-speed internet. This is astounding and kind of scary; I wonder how far they’ll go with what my generation has started.

For the last couple of years I’ve been considering a Masters in Library Science for graduate school. I feel like it would marry my loves of technology and information quite nicely. I’ve recently found, though, that there’s a burgeoning field in New Media Studies. I don’t think that the two tracks are mutually exclusive, but I spent a good bit of time today looking at New Media programs and what they entail. I like what I see. The future is going to be increasingly user-generated, and I feel like my place in the world is part of that.

I’m contemplating a move away from Tumblr. I like the interface and everything, but it’s really more suited for short snippets of internet joy than longer-form, numerical blogging. If anyone who reads this has a suggestion for a different system (not Blogger), I’d be happy to hear it. Users, Generate!

On Politics

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:52:30 -0600

[via this isn’t happiness]

I think that one aspect of having taken so many philosophy classes is that I don’t really know where I stand on a lot of things. Just about every philosopher I read—with a few huge exceptions—seems to make a lot of sense. Politics is an area that gets me riled up, but I’m not going to claim to know more about it than Joe Sixpack down the street. I read Time Magazine. I read a couple of blogs that mention politics from time to time. But for the most part, I just want to live my life—play video games, read comics, love my girlfriend, make art (or at least think about it). Politics doesn’t have much to do with me as an individual being. But it has a lot to do with me as an American. And I’m a goddamn American.

When I was in middle school, I listened to a lot of Rage Against the Machine and the Sex Pistols. I wore a hat with a red star on it; I didn’t really know what that meant. I said that I was an anarchist. It’s very easy to see things in such black and white terms when you’re that young. I know that just a year or two before that I thought I was a Republican. Things change, and they change fast.

Last week, Barack Obama won the presidency (as seen—adorably—above). I didn’t vote for him—not because I don’t like him, and not because I think he’s not fit for the job, but because I believe that there should be more than two parties in American politics. I agreed with a third-party candidate on more things than with Obama, so I voted accordingly. For me, this is the epitome of exercising my power as an American; maybe my vote didn’t achieve a third-party victory, but it is a quantifiable way of saying that I believe in someone who’s not in a major party.

I believe that Barack Obama will be a good president. I think that he’ll get some things done that should have been done a long time ago. But he’s still just a guy. He’s not the answer to all our problems, and he’s not go to single-handedly change the world we live in. He’s a figurehead, representing The People (that would be us). The thing is, The People are pretty divided (as they should be. A country full of people who think the same way isn’t realistic or even desirable. Variety is the spice of life. And politics), so the biggest obstacle that I think Obama will face is unifying those divisions (there aren’t just two). Maybe I don’t agree with him on all the issues, but I think that he’ll be a good leader. I guess it’s just important to note that mere hope is not going to be enough to make change. We The People have to make it happen.

All Hallows

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:48:00 -0500

Today’s not only Halloween, but MJG’s birthday. 21 years ago, his mother was at a Halloween party with her belly painted like a pumpkin when her water broke. I think that’s a really good birth story, and I think it’s kind of embarrassing to him when I tell it in public, but whatever. It’s much more exciting than my birth story, which involved my mom walking around a lot. Not much fun.

Bruce Springsteen recorded a Halloween song and video that he put up on his website. It’s called “A Night with the Jersey Devil,” and it’s badass. Kind of a bluesy, creepy Tom Waits turn for The Boss. Here’s the video (via Stereogum):

Last Halloween, Vice Records put out a song called “Do they Know it’s Hallowe’en?”, a parody of “Do they Know it’s Christmas?.” I like this one a lot more, and it has pretty much every member of the indie rock royalty on it. The video is also creepy.

Tonight Cate’s coming up and we’re going to Michael’s birthday party. Our costumes are not particularly elaborate—in fact, they’re kind of half-assed, but I like them. I got a cheap V mask (which actually looks pretty good for thin, molded plastic), and Cate’s going as Evey (V’s protégé, whose head gets shaved halfway through the book/film. Cate hasn’t shaved her head, but she’s got short hair. Good enough). I guess I’ll wear a black t-shirt or something. I used to work so hard on costumes—maybe I still would if I had time.

This really has nothing to do with Halloween, but Wilco (my favorite—and therefore the best—band in the world) was on The Colbert Report last night. There’s a five minute interview with Jeff Tweedy (which is excellent), followed by a new song called “Wilco the Band” (which is also quite excellent). I’m glad to see Jeff smiling these days. As good as his music was a few years back, he sure did look miserable all the time. Here’s videos of both (also via Stereogum):

Good grief, this is adorable. This is what Halloween will be like when I have kids: awkward, hilarious costumes that they don’t get but that I love.

Sonic Recents

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:01:06 -0500

13ghosts. This band is seriously the best thing to come out of Alabama since… well, anything, really. Here’s a video of the rocking version of their song “Whip Poor Will.” A much more subdued version of the song is on their new album The Strangest Colored Lights, which I’ve listened to at least twice a day since I got it a week ago.

Honestly, everything on Skybucket Records is just awesome. They’ve got a free sampler and a free album from the excellent southern rock outfit The Dexateens up for download on their site. I highly recommend both.

I’ve also been rocking to a couple of free punk rock comps from The Political Party. Good stuff all around.

On Saturday night I saw the incredible sludge-pop outfit Torche along with Coliseum at the Hi-Tone (my favorite Memphis venue). I went on my own because Rhodes has a dearth of folks who listen to heavy music. It was great, nonetheless. I actually plugged my ears for this one, and came out with my hearing intact (when I saw Dinosaur Jr when they were in town last year, I couldn’t hear right for four days).

Upon deciding to not go abroad next semester, I’m starting to kind of try to think about maybe cobbling together a band. Maybe. We’ll see.

The Innocents at Home

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:26:30 -0500

Wednesday was the deadline for applications to study abroad. I had a lot going on last week, but I got the application done (which wasn’t too awful, because I wasn’t applying for financial aid or anything. I just had to get three or four different signatures). But as I grew closer to turning it in, I realized that I don’t really want to go abroad. I’m happy here.

I’ve known my friend Thomas since fourth grade, when we met at Jesus Camp. Since then, he’s been one of my best friends. A week or so ago he posted a note on Facebook about being divided between two cities (Birmingham and Nashville), and missing people from both places. This made me think a lot about where I belong—I’m already split between two cities. Adding another country could be too much. I’ve come to understand that I’m actually happier than I’ve ever been at this moment and in this place. I wish that I could see Cate more, as long distance is never easy, but all things considered I’m doing really well. I’m learning and growing and being and it’s wonderful.

My mother studied abroad twice when she was younger: for a semester in France during her junior year of college, and then for a full year in Switzerland after she graduated. She’s always talked about it as a really important experience, and has pushed me to study abroad during my college career. I was really worried that she’d take this new development badly. My mother and I have never been good at arguing with each other, largely because we’re very similar people and neither of us like being told that we’re wrong. Because of this, our arguments tend to be long, drawn-out, overly emotional, and thoroughly exhausting. So I tend avoid these arguments.

This weekend I’m home for Fall Break, which is really just a long weekend. I’ve been putting off talking to Mom about the study abroad stuff all weekend because I didn’t want to fight with her. Today, though (under pressure from Cate and my father), I called her at work, told her I needed to talk to her, and went to her work and talked to her for a while. The whole way there I was antsy, prepared for a fight, but when I got there it was totally a non-issue. She was on my side. I was surprised and thrilled. We talked about going abroad for just a little while, then talked about other stuff. It was great.

After I left, I talked to my dad, who told me that it was probably so easy because she had expected something much, much worse when I had called to ask her to talk (i.e. my girlfriend being pregnant or me getting arrested or something). So she was surprised and relieved as much as I was. Man.

I have a busy week ahead of me (with no less than three writing-based assignments due in the three days of class in the week), but I’m glad that I’ve gotten through the awful mess of study abroad applications. I don’t have to worry about that stuff anymore, which means that I can focus on things I care about. I’m happy, I’m writing, and that’s about all I could ask for. Cheers.

Media Whore

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:03:00 -0500

TV on the Radio is an incredible band. Jesus. I’ve only heard two songs from their newest album, Dear Science, and I’m ready to call it the best album of the year. Here’s a performance that they recently gave on the BBC’s Later… With Jools Holland. I think it speaks for itself.

Here’s a video from when TVotR performed on Letterman for their last album, Return to Cookie Mountain. I must have watched it fifty times and it still gives me the chills every time I see it. Not to mention the fact that Kyp Malone has the coolest damn hair, beard, and guitar I’ve ever seen on anybody.

I received Power Stone in the mail today and it is awesome. Probably an excellent thing to happen just before midterms (probably not).

Today I spent three hours working on getting the new Rhodes Radio website up and running. It’s hard enough making a website that I made work right (for instance, the site for the Rhodes Activities Board that they never use); our webmaster had no idea how to get the site up on the server (neither did I, but I sure as hell found out. It took forever).

I don’t know if I’ve ever really established to anyone just how much I love Wikipedia. I know that it’s not necessarily a reliable source but damn if someone’s not a fucking expert on hairstyles (Yes, I did look at all of them. Yes, I am a huge loser).

Cohesion?

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:54:50 -0500

I’m thinking that these posts need to be more cohesive. Instead of just five kinda random things that I’ve got going on or that I’m interested in, maybe I should be posting five things that are loosely related, or that have something in common as far as how I see them or in my life particularly. Five random things isn’t seeming so interesting to me.

So, if I’m going to try to be more cohesive, maybe I ought to start with a few things about video games. I am not a huge gamer, nor am I a collector. In fact, I’m pretty bad at most video games. I don’t have a current-gen console (MJG has an XBox 360, which I guess I could count, considering it’s in my room). I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than $20 on a video game. That said, I occasionally geek out.

Part of said geeking out is my recent purchase of a Sega Dreamcast. I have always liked the Dreamcast, but I never got one. For a while in middle school I borrowed a friends’ console (I think he had my PS2 as collateral) and I spent a lot of time playing a fantastic game called Power Stone. A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a friend about the system and as a result spent some time watching the prices on eBay. I finally found a suitable one, with all the right cables and controllers and two good games. I’ve never been so geeky and lame than I’ve been about this Dreamcast. I tell people about it all the time, like it’s something new and exciting. In reality, it’s an old game console with some good games and funny-shaped controllers. I love it nonetheless.

Tonight at dinner I found a kindred spirit, a guy named John who was so excited about yesterday’s find (a copy of Power Stone for less than twenty dollars) that he continuously grabbed his hair, rubbing it around until it became this big mess. Though others have been excited by my new game console, John finally gave me the reaction I wanted: a pure, unadulterated geek-out, with not even a hint of self-conscious irony. I own a Dreamcast. I am proud.

I guess most folks perceive geekiness as overt obsession with something that isn’t broadly understood or accepted, like computers or comic books or even the less mainstream of movies, music, and literature (and I suppose I could be considered a geek in some or all of these fields). But I think it goes beyond that; a geek, at least to my understanding, is someone who becomes absorbed in things because of the sheer joy they derive from them. It’s a purely self-motivated act, I think; there really isn’t much of a social component to geekiness.

I think that when it comes down to it, I just like knowing. I can spend hours on Wikipedia just learning about all this stuff. That’s what most of it is, too—stuff. I feel like a lot of the things I know aren’t particularly useful or practical, but I just like that I know them. I suppose this is similar to my book-owning affliction: I don’t really care so much if I make use of what I’ve got, just so long as I’ve got it. I’m not sure what this says about my personality. Am I an informational pack-rat? When I’m old, will I go crazy because of all the metaphorical heaps of newspaper in my brain? Could an addiction to information ever be fatal?

Sixth.

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:25:06 -0500

This weekend Cate came up. It was Parents’ Weekend, not Girlfriend Weekend, but it was nice to have her around all the same. We watched a few movies (The Langoliers, Mind Hunters, and American Gangster), hung out with many people, and had nice alone time, too. We will have been together for two years in just a couple of weeks, and I’m constantly amazed that I’ve been able to hold onto something—anything—for that long. Long distance relationships are tough, but this has been a really formative and important event in my life. I hope it keeps right on being formative and important until I die.

MJG’s been writing (by hand!) in journals lately. The fact that he actually just filled one astounds me. I don’t think that I’ve ever been able to keep a handwritten account of anything for more than a week or so. People think that journals make good gifts for me because I like writing; I’ve got a small stack of them, ranging from nice leather-bound volumes to those thick, book-sized ones with the tiny grid instead of lines. The truth is, I hardly even write notes in class. I feel bad that I have zero impetus to self-document the old-fashioned way. It’s a bit of a lost art, I think.

I do, however, have a great appreciation for pens. I’ve found the perfect ballpoint: the Zebra F-402. I accumulated a small stash of these during my days working at Staples, and they last forever if I don’t lose them; I just recently threw one away that I’d been carrying for at least a year.

One of my best friends from high school, Glynnis (who has been blogging since we before met in middle school and is much, much better at it than I am), is spending the year in Paris, attending classes at the Sorbonne and the American University. She’s keeping a blog about her experiences with French culture, and I love it. I’m not even that interested in French culture; I think it’s just interesting how people from different countries interact.

Speaking of cross-cultural interaction, I’m currently working with two other students from last semester’s Philosophy of Education class on helping the Refugee Empowerment Program, an after-school tutoring program for refugees from Sudan and the surrounding region. If you read this and live in Memphis, consider volunteering every now and then. They could use it.

Fifth.

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:25:17 -0500

Fourth.

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:01:04 -0500

The Gaslight Anthem is damn good. I just found out about them because of some comment on a Stereogum post about Against Me!’s new video. I got ahold of their two albums and after just a few songs I can definitely say that I like these guys a lot. I feel like it’s in the vein of Against Me!’s more recent stuff, but with a lot more bounce to it, kind of like punk rock Springsteen or something close (doesn’t hurt that they’re from Jersey). They do a good job with the “whoa-oh”s, too, which is really important to the success of any punk band.
As of right now I’m working on a entry for the Existentialism blog about Nietzsche’s conception of the ubermensch, a concept I find endlessly intriguing. Now I just have to make myself write it.
Lately I’ve been reading more comics at night because I realized I’ve got a bunch of torrented scans (I know, bad Mark) that I haven’t read yet. I finished off the second volume of Brian K. Vaughan’s Runaways, the last five or six issues of which is an arc written by Joss Whedon (!). Next I’m going to finish All-Star Superman, which is Grant Morrison’s take on the Superman character with art by Frank Quitely, whom I love.
Personal Brand Rankings: Our Favorite Bands [from Hipster Runoff]
Maybe it’s just because I grew up when ‘boy bands’ were big, but I can’t help but look at bands as a product that is being sold to me. Whether or not band members have ‘genuine personalities’ is not always relevant to me. How I perceive a member of a band is up 2 me.

Kind of like how in NSYNC, there was like the ‘kute one’, the ‘fat one with spikey hair’, and ‘the gay one’ and probz a few more—don’t remember. It’s just funnie how as bands become products, we can’t help but evaluate each member as a brand. Consumers subliminally pick their ‘favourite one’ who they would pretend they would be if they were in the band.
Busy, busy week. I’m trying to get ready for Cate to be here this weekend, which means finishing all my crap ahead of time. I am so bad at doing things ahead of time.

Third.

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:07:24 -0500

Handsome Furs is Dan Boeckner (of Wolf Parade)’s minimal side project with his wife. They make really minimal, really great music. They recently did live performance on Radio K, and the station posted video of two new songs. Dan’s one of my favorite musicians working right now for sure.

This band is why I tried to get Cate to play music with me this summer. I think it’d be totally awesome to be in that kind of musical situation, where tours consist of just traveling with the person you love and playing shows at night. Having been in a band with only one other person for most of this summer, I’ve got to say that two-person bands are so much easier to handle in terms of practice and collaboration.

Heidegger blows my mind, but less in the awe-inspiring kind of way and more in the chucks of brain on the floor kind of way.

My first story that I wrote for my fiction class was workshopped on Monday. I’ve spent a lot of time in workshops, so I expected this one to be on the weak side considering the experience of the other folks in the class. I’ve got to say that I’m pretty impressed with how well most of them are doing, though. I fully expected my story to get slammed because it’s kind of sad and I do weird things with punctuation—in a Faulkner way, not an avant-garde, annoying way (at least I hope not)—but everyone really took to it. After two years of only writing papers it’s nice to have a new fiction piece well-received. My professor and I spent a long time talking later on as well, as our time to talk about the story in class was seriously truncated. I like him a lot, and he’s given me some good tips as well as a few writers to check out. We talked a lot about style in particular (especially my being completely stuck on Raymond Carver) and the best way for me to find a good balance of style and substantive story. And now I’m babbling. Suffice to say, I’m happy to be writing fiction again.

Today I had to go by the bookstore to buy a book that I have to read for Ethics class tomorrow (Rosa Parks’ My Story, which seems to be targeted toward Elementary School readers) and ended up getting three other books while I was there: Bertrand Russell’s Why I am Not a Christian, John Gardner’s Grendel (I’ve read his book on writing fiction, in which he constantly referenced this book. I feel like I ought to read it), and an anthology of John Updike’s early stories. I appear to have a serious addiction: not to reading books, necessarily, but to simply owning books. I love them. I love having them. I don’t have much time to read them, but damn it if they’re not lovely.

Second.

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 17:32:11 -0500

If you don’t already read Hipster Runoff now’s probably the time to start. Though on the surface it’s a blatant parody (and celebration) of the more shallow aspects of hipster culture (particularly “party pics” websites like The Cobrasnake), the blogger has interesting critiques of the spread and evolution of trends underneath the obnoxious internet abbreviations. Regular topics include American Apparel (affectionately known as “American Appy”), “personal brands,” the current wave of electro, hipster-scale celebrities like Alice Glass and Agyness Deyn, “azns,” and stutter shades. Above all, it’s hilarious.

For the last month I’ve been speeding through Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a means of spending long-distance time with Cate. We’re halfway through season six, which so far is one of my favorites. The creator, Joss Whedon, is a personal hero of mine; he manages to combine spectacularly geeky things (i.e. science fiction, comic books) with very human, very real characters and hysterical dialogue. His most recent project was Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which is supremely entertaining.

In my Existentialism class we’ve been reading and discussing various selections from Nietzsche’s writings. I feel like there are some good ideas, you’ve just got to wade through the hardline misogyny and anti-Semitism to get to it. I feel like I ought to read a full work, and for a while now I’ve been looking into getting a copy of Thus Spake Zarathustra, his epic poem which details the notion of the ubermench, and idea that I’m really interested in.

I spent Friday night watching Enter the Dragon and Drunken Master, two classic—yet completely different—kung fu films. I’m struck by the totally mastery Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee had over their bodies, and how each of them used it. Bruce Lee was a philosophy major in college, and felt that martial arts was his way of expressing his philosophical ideas and beliefs. Jackie Chan simply seems to take joy in the entertaining aspects of the art, and does so incredibly well. His comedic timing is impeccable. I feel like physical representations of belief systems is an interesting phenomenon, one worth considering in a serious study of philosophy. For a long time I’ve wondered if critical writing is really the best way to present philosophy, and I feel like these two men back that up.

Part of Saturday afternoon was spent fixing things in the broadcasting room of Rhodes Radio, and I managed to jury-rig our phone system so we can take calls on air. I feel like we’re evolving as a station, not just because we’re on an FM frequency now, but because we’re starting to come together more as an entity. MJG was just made the General Manager-in-training (a job I was too scared to apply for) and I’m proud of him. Perhaps this next year will usher in a new era of prosperity for the radio station. I just hope that the whole thing doesn’t deteriorate when this first group of people involved graduates.

First.

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:41:13 -0500

The idea for this blog is blatantly stolen from my roommate, Michael James Gossett, who is much better at blogging than I am. You can find his blog here. It’s really quite interesting. His posts take the form of a list of ten things, which range from poems he likes to music videos. I think that this blog will take a very similar form, albeit shorter (hence FiveThings). I’ve chosen to use Tumblr because it doesn’t put an annoying bar across the top like Blogger, and allows for some extra customization with layouts, posts, whatever. If this is something I manage to keep up I might move to something a little more sophisticated like Moveable Type, but for now I’m keeping it as simple as possible.

I’ve started this mostly because in the last few weeks I’ve come across or created things that I felt the need to share. When I was in high school, LiveJournal served this purpose; all my friends had one and so it was really pretty easy to use it as a communication tool. This will be a bit different in execution, but the idea’s still the same. I’ve also been inspired by my Existentialism class. My professor, Dr. Johnson, is an avid blogger and she’s experimenting a bit this semester by utilizing a blog as a forum for discussion outside of class. Blogging also constitutes the bulk of our writing for the semester.

I’ve never been good at journaling, so here’s a start. I figure if I can puzzle out just five things every few days, I’ll be on the road to regular writing—I’m very, very out of practice with writing regularly, with the exception of philosophy papers. This will be a nice break from that.

I am a junior Philosophy major at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, and I graduated in 2006 from the Alabama School of Fine Arts with a focus in Creative Writing; I was born in Decatur, AL and have spent most of my life in Birmingham. I spend my free time playing guitar (sometimes with Plasma Youth, sometimes on my own), working on my college’s radio station, and driving back and forth between Memphis and Birmingham to see my lovely girlfriend, Cate. I am the director of the Computer Depot on campus, so I also spend a lot of time fixing computers. I read comic books, I modify guitar pedals, I play video games, and now—hopefully—I will write a lot. Welcome to the experiment.

Well, I’m going to start everything with a music video from a band I just found out about, Vivian Girls. They’re an interesting blend of punk and shoegaze, and I quite like it. Their first full-length is out October 7th on In the Red. Here’s the video for their song “Tell the World” (via Stereogum via P4K.tv):