Stuff that I liked

In the spirit of year end lists and having a lot of time on my hands in the next week, I'll detail some of my favorite LA stuff. Watch carefully.

 

BEST TACOS:

I take this very seriously. Like, very seriously. I have gone from a del taco loving noob to somewhat of an expert. Take me very seriously when I tell you that SERGIO'S TACOS are the best tacos in LA. My favorite meat is asada, and they do it impeccably. However, their pastor tacos are transcendent. Amazing. Seriously amazing. This is true of tacos in general in LA, but you can get a full meal for about 5 dollars and laugh at all the people in fancy Westside eateries paying tons of bucks for inferior food. Tacos win. Everytime.  (2216 S Atlantic Blvd. Los Angeles 90040)

Here's the Great Taco Hunt's excellent review: http://tacohunt.blogspot.com/2007/03/sergios-tacos.html 

Other notable tacos: King Taco is trustworthy and really fucking good. It's like the Mexican In and Out. It's always packed, and it's hard to beat. There's a lot of locations too, so it's never too far away. I was also a big fan of Cactus Taqueria in Hollywood and El Taurino near Downtown (taurino's got cheap beer pitchers, sweet).

JEW FOOD:

Before I got obsessed with tacos, I was obsessed with delicatessans. I have searched far and wide for the finest pastrami on rye sandwich. I can state with confidence that Langer's in Macarthur Park is superior to New York landmark Katz's. It's straight up the best pastrami sammich. Done deal. The surrounding area is also...interesting. It's got great murals everywhere and you'll get offered IDs, green cards, and social security cards about five times before you even get to the door. The surrounding sketchiness probably prompts the early closing time, it's only open until 4 pm. So if you want dinner, or even better a very late night snack, Canter's on Fairfax holds up as pretty good and open 24 hours. Hurrah.

BEST COFFEE:

This was one of my hardest transitions from Berkeley. I got spoiled by delicious cafes every 200 feet, then I went to Buenos Aires and saw delicious coffee every twenty feet. Then I came to LA to see mediocre chains on every block. Starbucks itsn't bad, but it's certainly not great. Coffee Bean is meh, and Peet's is a'ight. But I wanted some bullshit intellectual place with the dankest of coffee. I liked Casbah Cafe in Silverlake the best. I still can't totally tell if this area is really awesome or kind of silly, but this cafe wins nonetheless. It's next door to intelligentsia, but i think casbah is better (it's less of a douche shitshow and more cozy). The coffee is really good, like very good. I spent a lovely several hours there reading a paper and really enjoyed it. It's also a good place to check out local Silverlake beautiful people.

OTHER DOPE FOOD:

A really quick run down of my favorite non-taco food. For Cuban food, of which I'm an inherent expert, I'm big on VERSAILLES.  Technically, PORTO's is better, but they don't have full meals. For sandwiches and pastries, Porto's is a hands down winner. I haven't been there in forever, but ROSCOE'S CHICKEN AND WAFFLES is still good. 

BEST MUSIC VENUE:

THE SMELL is a really great place. It's deservedly received massive amounts of buzz and attention in the past year. It's been home to one of the most viable underground music scenes in the country, and some of the venue's veteran bands have put out incredible records in the past months. The Mae Shi, Abe Vigoda, No Age, Health and Mika Miko still make time to play shows here, despite otherwise moving on to bigger venues. There's tasty coffee, it's located smack in the middle of downntown, and it's always five bucks. 

Other notables:  The Hollywood Bowl. I love going here, it doesn't really matter who's playing. You get to make your own picnic nearby, and at what other venues can you sit down with your bottle of wine? I caught Gnarls Barkley and some old Cuban dude here this year, and it ruled. 

BEST SHOW...THAT I SAW:

I didn't see very many shows, but the one I enjoyed most was The Boredoms 88 Boa Drum at the La Brea Tar Pits. Seeing the 88 drummers in their big spiral in the middle of Miracle Mile making a whole lot of noise was very very impressive. It was great seeing drummers from bands I admire and even a friend of mine all drumming side by side and equally stoked to be part of something authentically bizarre, awesome, and exciting.

Other notables: The Zizek tour at the Getty museum was pretty sweet. I also really enjoyed the Foot Village/Mae Shi/Health show I saw at the Smell. That was a perfect line-up to sum up what the smell does best.

BEST BAR:

I'm gonna have to go with La Cita, even if that makes me a trendy wannabe hip kid. This is just the dopest bar, and it's convergence of Mexican and hipster vibes is really at the heart of what makes the downtown and eastsides so great. The decor is awesome, it's shiny and dingy and lit in red and all Mexican'd out. The outside patio is great for checking out the few skyscrapers that exist in the city, and they have comfy couches. I've come here to find it packed to the brim with pretentious twentysomethings, then returned to find a ranchero band playing to middle aged Mexican couples. It's great every time. Plus the drinks are cheap and the bartenders are usually nice.

Other notables: Gallery 10 in downtown (I think that's what it's called). It's an illegal bar on Santa Fe that runs after hours, has some great music, decent drinks, and the excitement of drinking until 5 am. Also, the White Horse Tavern has sweet snacks and coffee for free.

BEST COMEDY VENUE:

I'm gonna go with Upright Citizen's Brigade. This small theater next to a big Scientology tower is very rad. The Groundling's theater is probably more well known in Los Angeles, but it's kind of resting on its laurels of having had famous members in the early 1990s. UCB is always cheap and plays host to tons of cool events. I caught Human Giant there this fall; they were great, and it was 5 bucks. Janeane Garofolo held a few readings of 'The Hills,' Sarah Silverman's done some stuff there, and Jeff Garlin hosts a weekly show. There's not many places you can catch so many relevant comedic badasses in a small space for so cheap. 

Los Angeles, Part I

So a week before I leave back to the bay area, I want to record some of the best times/stuff around socal for posterity. Since there's really nothing to do in Chino Hills, I made it out to LA a whole lot these past few months, especially when I dipped my foot in the acting pool.

Los Angeles has a lot of haters. A lot of them hang out in the Bay Area. All of them are wrong. I read/heard/imagined someone say that Los Angeles is America's America. And I think this is true,LA and the USA have a whole lot in common, and you can criticize them for the same thing. You could say LA is too big and you need to drive everywhere. You could criticize the fake smiles, fake boobs, and faux-bohemians talking about the script they're working on. You could criticize the lack of history, that some of the biggest monuments tend to be shopping mall tributes to consumerism. You could whine that everything is expensive, that shows like The Hills show the extent to which the area is overpopulated with rich-for-no-good reason douchebags that eat overpriced shitty food and drink overpriced shitty drinks in overpriced shitty bars while wearing overpriced shitty Ed Hardy shirts. 

Yes, you could say all of this. But that would be so unfair. It would be painting giant generalizations that ignore what is really great about the city. Like criticizing America, you'd be technically right about most charges. But that has two faults. First, it assumes that other places are any different. You can sub in LA bleached hair snobs for San Francisco cheese importing snobs anyday. You could walk around Times Square and wonder how it's any different from Universal City Walk's shameless tourist trap consumerism. Every city suffers from similar elements of stereotypes that ring true: blatant inequality, and an overemphasis on shopping and catering to rich people with unfortunate taste. So singling out LA is pretty unfair. The second big flaw in LA bashing is that it's alot like hating America. Sure, you'd be right, it's a big bulky, unrealistic, self absorbed society. BUT, it's also awesome. It's a testament to diversity, and like the country as a whole, if you bother to look around at all you're bound to run into a whole lot of awesome stuff. If you look past the crass stereotyping, there's a genuine heart to the place. There are little nooks in every corner of the city that merit attention. It's greatest gift is its constant potential. Shit always seems to be on the verge of going right. There's always hope of public transit becoming more prominent, there's a vibrant music scene that delivers on artistic potential. On all fronts, LA is a city that's always just about to get things right, and it's exciting to be around when that's happening.

In my next entry, I'll list my favorites of the past few months in the area. 

Stop hating. In the words of Lil Wayne, "fuck y'all, hatin for no reason."

Girl you got a ten piece

Jigs, you are not alone in your love of commercials. McDonalds brings it extra smooth and extra blatant about its target audience.

Oh and this

This post is so gay

Sometimes I have debates over gay marriage. At times it involves me yelling at the TV, sometimes it's me talking to myself, and sometimes it's with real live people (ie  extended family). One of the arguments that bothers me the most is that the Bible clearly denounces gay marriage. I find that it forces Christians to pick and choose which verses to take seriously. As a Catholic, I'm troubled by people interpreting the Bible, and instead of acknowledging it as their interpretation, claiming it as stone cold fact. I, for one, am a big fan of the Beatitudes. In this sermon, Jesus pretty much outlines what we as Christians and as people should live up to. I think that contemporary evangelical Republicans should pay a little more attention to some of these, like "blessed are the poor in spirit" and especially "blessed are the peacemakers."

ANYWAY, what I'm getting at is this. I have half-assed knowledge about the Bible. When anti-gay-marriage people start throwing specific verses at my face, I have a hard time arguing with them other than saying "no, you're wrong, the Bible doesn't actually say anything specifically about gay marriage."  I recommend everyone read this article in Newsweek. It gives a fairly comprehensive overview of gay marriage and the Bible. It'll help me argue in the future, and more importantl it sums up what I believe by providing all the detailed Biblical information I didn't have on hand before.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/172653/page/1

Flashback

I just remembered how much this song rules.

Recession...the silver lining edition

Whilst perusing ye old Los Angeles Times (whose parent company isn't doing so hot, how appropo) I found this article...and I got to thinking about all the little silver linings of this recession.

1. Cheaper gas. Above and beyond everything else, this rules. It hasn't been this cheap since I was like 16. It makes me want to take a road trip, go on tour, and drive around in circles cause I fucking can.

2. Cheaper flights. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cover14-008dec14,0,2508596.story

Airlines have flights underfilled, so there's more cheap flights and more bargains even fairly last minute. Sweeet.

3. Schadenfreude. There's so many d-bags having a tough time right now, and I'm secretly enjoying that. 4 years in school while business majors stuck their nose up in the air, studying somethine whose only fathomable redeeming quality is the unabashed pursuit of money. Some study things cause their easy, cause they're interested in prestige, whatever. But there is no major more full of people so shamelessly pursuing wealth and so full of total douchebags. Seeing the people frantically switching majors, suddenly having no justification for having a chip on their shoulder is lovely. So is watching the d-bag grown ups shaking their hands in their heads, doing a little shuck and jive for Congress to beg for money, driving from Detroit to DC in hybrids. Muahahaha.

4. Free time. I'm not one to take advice from Arianna Huffington, but she mentioned on the daily show last week how so many people have recently lost their jobs and now they have time to write blogs. Sure, with all this unemployment we have free time. I'm having a much tougher time finding a job than I would have a year or two ago... but now I have time to make year end music lists and to make watching Maury a part of my daily schedule. 

Thanks recession, I guess you're not all bad after all.

2008...Musica

In the spirit of making lists at the end of the year, here's my favorite music from 2008!

Best Albums:

1. The Mae Shi - "HLLYH"

2. Lil Wayne - "Tha Carter III"

3. The Dodos - "Visiter"

4. Cool Kids - "The Bake Sale EP"

5. Vampire Weekend - s/t

6. Why? - "Alopecia"

7. Fleet Foxes - s/t

8. Crystal Castles - s/t

9.  Abe Vigoda - "Skeleton"

10. Kanye West - "808s and Heartbreak"

11. Hot Chip - "Made in the Dark"

12. Santogold - s/t

13. TV On the Radio - "Dear Science"

14. No Age - "Nouns"

15. Girl Talk - "Feed the Animals"

16. Passion Pit - "Chunk of Change EP"

17. El Guincho - "Alegranza"

18. Foals - "Antidotes"

19. Bodies of Water - "A Certain Feeling"

20. Hercules and Love Affair - s/t

Best Singles:

1. "Lollipop" - Lil Wayne

2. "American Boy" - Estelle ft. Kanye West

3. "Run To Your Grave" - The Mae Shi

4. "In this Club" - Usher

5.  " A-Punk" - Vampire Weekend

6. "Sleepyhead" - Passion Pit

7. "Blind" - Hercules and Love Affair

8. "Fools" - The Dodos

9. "Love Lockdown" - Kanye West

10. "Untrust Us" - Crystal Castles

11. "The Rabbit, The Bat and the Reindeer" - Dr. Dog

12. "Cassius" - Foals

13. "Dancing Choose" - TV on the Radio

14. "We Used Technology (But Technology Let us Down)" - Maus Haus

15. "Made in the Dark" - Hot Chip

16. "White Winter Hymnal" - Fleet Foxes

17. "Fatalist Palmistry" - Why?

18. "Creator" - Santogold

19. "Womanizer" - Britney Spears

20. "Whatever You Like" - TI

Things that should have been a big deal but that failed to impress me...

1. Chinese Democracy blah blah blah

2. Tokyo Police Club....underwhelming

Thing that was really good but I don't quite know where to fit it in:

1. A-Trak "Running Man."

Christmas in LA

Very Sexty

Bahaha, oh kids...

Also, procured the Little Joys album today. Pretty good. Understated, simple, harmless good times. Peep the myspace and stuff.

 

http://www.myspace.com/littlejoymusic

Don't call it a comeback

I'm back from my LSAT-induced cave. I guess I'll blog more...why not.

Things on my mind in the past month.

Yes we did. "The arc of history bends towards justice" - MLK

Law school/growing up/ pondering starting a career in 3 or 4 years. WTF.

Kanyes 808s and Heartbreak keeps revealing itself to me, slowly but surely.

The New Common single "Universal Mind Control." It's really good.

I'm moving to Oakland next month. My happy to poor ratio will be completely reversed, and I'm excited.

I generally think Daniel Johnston is an overrated, obese, sad man. I suspect his hipster following

is a little more ironically fascinated with him than they might admit. But I'll be damned if this song isn't very very excellent.

5 Year Plan

5 Year Plans are for suckers.  I am a sucker.

As it stands now...

1. Move to Oakland. Be poor and work marginal jobs while awaiting law school acceptances/denials.

2. Go to law school. Be even poorer and amount a sizable debt.

3. Work for a city attorney or district attorney in Los Angeles. Slowly pay off that debt, wear nice suits, and only have free time about once a week.

We'll see how it all plays out.

Oh snaps

The most eloquent endorsement I've heard yet.

Hooray for Bit Torrent

So I have finally figured out how to steal music via bit torrent. Here's some music I've been downloading lately that I like a lot (some of which I legally purchased).

1. Passion Pit.  Here's their video for "Sleeepyhead." 

2. TV On the Radio. Their New album "Dear Science" isn't quite as good as their last one, but it's sitll one of the best things

I've heard this year

3. Jay Reatard. I feel like I'm a year or so late on this, but he's good, like really good and fun. If I liked No

Age more, they'd probably sound like him.

4. Frank Sinatra, "Watertown." A concept album of Frank's from around 1969 full of sad songs

from the perspective of am an in an industrial town who's losing his home and family (I think). I always

really liked the part of Frank Sinatra that gets all gloomy and stares into the distance with a cigarette

in his mouth and a suit on. This is a whole album of that.

5. Fleet Foxes. Again, I feel late on this one. But hey look! Harmonies! Big reverby powerful voices!

Weeeee!! This shit rules!

Why Kanye is almost as important as he thinks he is

So Kanye disappeared to Hawaii for 3 weeks, recorded an album entirely in auto-tune, and he's releasing it next month. This excites me. Alot. Allow me to explain.

 

This is my theory on Kanye: On his respective albums, he's succeeded at accomplishing his overarching goal. In The College Dropout, he needed to prove himself as an emcee. He needed to be more than the sped-up-soul hit producer, so his rhymes were tightly crafted and clever as all hell. He succeeded. With Late Registration, his aim became to prove himself as an artist. He brought Jon Brion on board, adding bizarre orchestral touches, an increased sense of nuance, and music-nerd sensibilities to alot of his tracks. On Graduation, he shifted his aim towards being a blockbuster. He had proven himself as a writer, an artist, but had yet to really establish himself as a reliable number one seller, the king of the charts, his "big brother" Jay-Z still had him on this one. Again, he succeeded. I think in the process, this was also the worst of his albums. His incessant designer name checking, bling obsession and weak rhyming felt like he was more concerned with a PR push than a strong album. However, I can't really hate on him because he got what he wanted, an immense hit that reached almost a million units sold in just one week.

 

So now, what's left? Kanye has always been at his best when he pushes innovation in his beats and shows a little bit of vulnerability. When sped-up-soul got too popular, he ran to Daft Punk or to Jon Brion to switch up his production. On the three tracks floating around from his new album, his production sounds fresh, innovative, and compelling. A man known often for excess has completely stripped down: the beats are incessant but sparse, the keyboards sound bizarre but effective. Its glitchy, and all kinds of fucked up sounding. I read somewhere (the fader, i think) that the production is reminiscent of Thom Yorke's album. I dig this comparison. On The Eraser, Yorke strips away the lush Radiohead sound and takes it to the essentials, some keyboards and a glitchy laptop. His voice is crisp and geniune. This is exactly what West seems headed towards in this album. The subject matter seems to be his recent breakup, with nearly all of the tracks focusing on his confusion, heartbreak, anger, and...yknow, the shit that happens when you break up. It is when Kanye can hold his immense ego in his hands and his heart on his sleeve that he is at his most effective, and this seems to be what his new album strives for. In the three tracks I've heard, I suspect he's succeeded. 

 

In an unprecedented move, Kanye isn't giving himself enough credit in at least one respect. His use of autotune fits in perfectly with both his public figure and the album's subject matter. He claims he used it because it's really fun, but I think there's more to it than that. Here's an immensely proud man, a man who constantly tries to assert his dominance, his greatness, his machismo, in his rhymes, his clothes, and his general public demeanor. Yet it's an entire album conveying weakness, insecurity, and sadness. In order to express this vulnerability Kanye had to hide behind his beats, his production, his work. Similarly, he coats his voice in technology, hiding behind the producer's tools as a defense mechanism while simultaneously baring very personal emotions. 

 

He's mastered the mold of a successful commercial rapper. Now, Kanye seems to be embarking on a project to change what it means to be a commercial rapper. Along with Lil Wayne, he is introducing a new work ethic into hip hop that fits perfectly with the mp3-obsessed, ADD music audience of today. In order to keep up with your listeners, why not just constantly release new music? And as long as you're constantly releasing music, why not challenge your listeners? Rappers haven't really tried to top their success by changing their style before. When B.I.G. had a hit, his next move was not to make something different. Producers like Timbaland and Dre have topped their successes with big changes in their approach, but this hasn't really transferred over to emcees. Look at the greats, their effort is aimed at creating something that rivals their previous best work. Kanye is approaching this with the mindset of some of rock's greatest innovators. When The Beatles seemed to have peaked, they said fuck it and threw in sitars and did drugs and changed everything. When Radiohead finished OK Computer, they also threw their hands in the air and brought out the laptops and made Kid A. But this hasn't really been attempted in hip hop before, at least as far as I know. Kanye is changing that. He's offering a new mold in which a commercial rapper also bears a responsibility to be artistically challenging, prolific, and commercially successful all at once. It's a hell of a balancing act, and I'm very excited to see if he can pull it all off.

 

The future is now

I was having a nice little jog today (ps, I now do activities that involve sweating and wearing shorts, who knew...) and listening to MIA. I realized this...

The most innovative MC right now is a Sri Lankan woman, and America seems to be on the verge of electing a black President.

Fuck the Jetsons, the future is now.

Gay-C-360

When Anderson Cooper co-hosts Regis and Kelly, he brings it on the gay front.

Mr. Cooper's gayest hits below, I highly recommend this video:

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Drum Roll

This is the perfect place to post this, because no one reads it, and the three people that might read it all ready know this, but...

I've decided to not pursue acting anymore. 

Oh, and I have reasons.

Expecting relocation of self this winter.....

Jobs of the future

With the dow jones taking its biggest one day drop in history and the bailout bill failing in the House, it's time for me to start looking at promising job options in our future barter economy.

1. Blacksmith: Globalization will have landed all the cushy financial and IT jobs in exotic locales like Dubai and Venezuela, so it's time to think about some good tangible work. If I were to become a blacksmith, I could make sweet metal stuff, use my skills to trade for food and other necessary goods, and I could build a safe house to protect myself from the scavenging rogues.

2. Shoe maker: I suggest schools like ITT tech start offering classes on shoe making. Everyone needs shoes. In the future, shoes will be the one thing to distinguish American citizens from other 3rd world citizens, so making shoes will be a really good trade. Another great upside is the facial hair you can grow, as seen below.

3. Bartender:  If Ireland and mid life crises have taugh us anything, it's that when times are hard there's nothing better than a couple years spent numbing your sorrows through drinking. The future of economy will be good times for bartenders, as everyone will be drowning their sorrows. Act now!

4. Prostitute. If Amsterdam and mid-life crises have taught us anything, it's that people will seek short lived thrills by paying for sex in order to escape the trapped boredom of their lives. It's the oldest profession for a reason...It's recession-proof. I've been going to the gym a little bit extra lately, so I'm extra limber and could really see myself thriving in this profession. Plus you can't outsource these jobs. Let's face it, no red-blooded American wants their prostitution experience to be awkward phone sex with a lady with a thick Indian accent claiming her name is "Cherry" and she lives in the Valley.  This is one job where the personal experience is everything, ergo being bulletproof against economic downswings AND globalization.

You know what they say, "when life gives you lemons, run to the bank to take out your money right now and start hording canned goods." It's the economy of the future, and damnit, I'll be ready.

Not-o-tune

I don't hate autotune. I love Kanye's new song, T-Pain doesn't suck, Lil Wayne peppers it excellently all over his album. I am, however, a bit skeptical of rappers thinking they can become singers because of this fancy new trend. Also,  I expect that in about 2 months the trend will be completely overused and will shortly become intolerable.

I'd like to state, for the record, that there was a simpler time, a time when rappers could try to sing without autotune, and it was OKAY that they sounded awful. In fact, it made them better. Biz Markie, the anti auto tune.

Calling bullshit on Palin, Part II

Sarah, oh Sarah....I'm trying not to hate her, I really am. I want to stay above the fray and focus the infinite positive energy I have for Obama, but she keeps saying the dumbest shit I've ever heard.

In her recent interview with Katie Couric, she silenced anyone who's been complaining that she should do more interviews. Now it's clear that given the opportunity in an interview, she will reassure the country that her worldview is about as complex as a Nina Turtles movie.

Couric asked if America should ever second guess Israel, to which Palin replied "no." Then she followed up by asking her if we can never question them or disagree with them in our own interest...ooops, Palin messed up a little. After fumbling the answer, she starts talking about how Israel is the "good guy" and Iran is the "bad guy." She brings up Iran's statements against Israel and says "that doesn't sound like the good guys to me, that sounds like the bad guys."

Wow....wow.....woooooww. Bad guys? Good guys? Please feel free to completely ignore the nuance of the situation. Ignore the fact that Israel deserves to defend itself but sometimes goes overboard on Palestinians. Ignore the fact that complex foreign policy issues deserve a little more description than "good guys." This is not Die Hard.  This makes her sound like the "axis of evil" distinction was just to complex for her...please dumb it down to "good guys" versus "bad guys." I understand how this worldview is appealing to alot of people that want a simple world, alot of people that want a leader who can see through complicated issues and draw clear distinctions. But personally, I want a leader that is smarter than most people. I want a leader who has a deeper understanding of foreign policy than me, that's why I'm a frustrated SAT tutor and you're running for the Presidency, because you're supposed to be smarter than me, not embarrass me with your complete lack of understanding of a complex subject.

Here's some of the interview...

It's dead

Sean Hannity just said on TV "Journalism is dead." 

Yes Sean. and you have killed it. 

Holy Christ

Phillip Seymour Hoffman, possibly the best thing to happen since running water and/or Radiohead, comes out swinging every Oscar season, as he did last year with 3 great roles. Trailers for 'Synechdoche' and 'Doubt' are both out, and they both make me all sorts of giddy.

Black Cab Sessions

These dudes in England put famous people in the back of their cab and have them perform. It's really good. Here are some of my favorites...

Brian Wilson:

The Cool Kids:

Spoon:

The National:

Cool Kids, yes please.

I call bullshit

I call bullshit on Sarah Palin. Usually, candidates have a well known background that the public can judge, then the opposition nitpicks on their record, kinda sorta fabricates things, and we all get crazy about swiftboating. But with Palin, it seems like the fundamentals of her record are not strong...at all.

My first complaint is her complete inability to stray from the talking points. The campaign is essentially saying that despite her limited experience, she has the judgment to be commander in chief (stealing a page from the Obama book, are we?). But when interviewed by Charles Gibson last week and asked about Iran and Israel, she simply stated and restated the same sentence about how Israel has the right to defend itself against its enemies. Is there no room for nuance? Is there no room for you to acknowledge the slightest understanding of the situation other than staring at Gibson and repeating THE EXACT SAME SENTENCE again and again? I would have even been happy with a typical politico dodging the question response, but instead she stared at Gibson blankly...I imagine it's the look in a moose's eyes right before she kills one dead.

Then Republican pundits ( a la Rove and Gingrich on Fox) explain that her limited experience is OK because if she were to become commander in chief she would be surrounded by smart, capable people. Really? Is that the best you can do? Promise us that the highest office in the free world  can be occupied by an incompetent person simply because she would be surrounded by people who would stop her from doing anything too dumb and maybe teach her how to pronounce Iraq? (By the way Sarah, it's not EYE-RACK). 

Outside of the commander in chief issue, the campaign has decided it gets to make up its own candidate. Because she's new to the national spotlight, the campaign can simply blurt things out to the public about her past and her record, completely disregarding facts.  The campaign insists that she has been to Iraq and travelled abroad to Ireland. She did go to Kuwait, but the National Guard in charge of these visits has 100% confirmed that she did not step foot in Iraq. And her trip to Ireland? It was a refueling stop. I'm sure she learned alot about the intricacies of the EU-American alliance while her plane was getting more fuel.

Speaking of fuel, I call bullshit on her being an energy expert simply because Alaska has some oil. She claims that Alaska provides 20% of the country's energy, and this makes her knowledgable on energy issues. If she were the expert she claimed to be, she might pick up on the fact that Alaska only provides about 3% of the nation's energy. Lack experience and credentials? That's fine, just start making shit up and pray to your gay-rights-hating God that the voters never notice.

Oh and the bridge. That godamned bridge. It's become a well known part of her stump speech, "I told Congress thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere." Oh Sarah, so polite of you. Actually, the bridge was stopped in Congress before she had any direct involvement. It's kind of like sending an RSVP to a party that you weren't invited to a week after the fiesta took place. AND she actually did support the bridge as a candidate for Governor, then once it became a political liability changed her mind about it. You have an inconsistent record on the pork-barrel spending your campaign is running against? No problem, just make shit up and pray to your gun-loving, moose-hating God that the American people won't care.

Lastly, earmarks. Yes, she did significantly reduce Alaskan earmarks, but Alaska still requested more money per capita than almost every other state. That's like a 400 pound person losing 100 pounds then running a campaign against obesity. 

Okay, politics is politics. It's a game everyone plays. I'm not saying Obama is a saint totally above the fray, everyone does what they have to do to get elected. That's the way it's always been and it's the way it always will continue to be. But it's alarming, unnerving, and frankly infuriating that the Mccain campaign thinks so little of the American public that it will completely fabricate the fundamental principles of his running mate. I lie on resumes. Look me up on IMDB, check out the restaurants I've pretended to work at. But this is not an audition for "One Life to Live." This is not a submission to CPK. This is the presidency, and I call complete and utter bullshit on Sarah Palin.

mad men

After half a season spent trying to "get it" ... I get it now.

Oh Joy

I'm finding myself at a crossroads about once every 20 minutes. Reconsidering everything while weighing my options/wants etc etc etc. Giving up feels so very right.

And here's more music videos...

Foot Village, saw them last night at the smell. Clearly, the Mae Shi and Health stole the show, but these dudes were awesome.



This video makes me happy about twice a day on MTVU.

Hm....I like it

Existential Crisis: Chapter One

WHAT TO DO........?!?!?!?!

Hey remember when this song ruuuules?

Aaaawesome videos from the making of "The Black Album"

Tacos and the mall

Exciting news for the day, from the LA Times:

"A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Wednesday overturned a controversial ordinance passed in April by county supervisors that made it a misdemeanor in unincorporated parts of the county to park a taco truck in one spot for more than an hour."

This band was awesome, then they stopped playing:

www.myspace.com/themall

how i write songs

Oh, heres a new idea, what a fun little part.

Oh, a second part. sweet.

Ah crap, can't think of a third part, need to learn new chords. This was easier with a band. I'll just play two chords and try to convince myself it's experimental and progressive.

This idea rules.

...20 minutes later....

Nevermind, this idea blows. This was easier with a band

for the record...

Olympics

Outside of seeing the basketball team crush its whiter, shorter, and all around inferior competition, I am ooooover it.

Suprise of the day

Busta Rhymes has a new song that does not suck

Old Spanish music...for serious

Benny More, Cuban champion of ass kicking.




Carlos Gardel.

Summer Recap

1. Tour with band. Check.















2. Chillax in Oakland. Leave Oakland. Abandon best friends, band, and a sweet mansion. Check.






3. Find my Roots in Colombia. Check




















4. Find Jesus in Argentina. Check.
















5. Move to LA to seek stardom and prove to Oakland folks that the city does indeed kick ass

















6. Oh wait, I have no money, so actually move to Chino Hills to save money and in the process
exponentially increase existential angst.











7. Suburbs show their strengths, which include and are limited to: free meals, laundry, and posting fatty leans poolside while drinking margaritas. A la this guy.



















8. While joining the ranks of starving actors and wannabe LA success stories, I focus hard
on not becoming THIS Hollywood dude.














9. Revel in unemployment. Grow increasingly terrified about unemployment. End unemployment by finding jobs that begin after labor day. Check.




















FALL '08 COMING ATTRACTIONS:

I attempt to save my tiny paychecks in hopes of moving to LA in the winter. I make use of my gym membership so I can appear topless in telenovelas. I get paid scrilla to teach anxious high schoolers SAT English and pop in physics videos throughout the local schools. I study for the LSAT so that I can make a quick, profit-laden escape from LA in three years when I have become the dude from picture #8 (aka talk often about pilots I'm not actually making, spend my weekends trying to network at the Standard and Hyde, and pretend I'm Wilmer Valderrama's cousin to get into da club).