Wu-Tang

just using this as a dump spot for the CNN article about the Wu-tang Clan

(CNN) -- The Wu-Tang Clan -- the New York hip-hop supergroup that spawned millions of album sales, nine solo acts and a few acting careers -- almost never was.

If RZA, left, had been jailed or Method Man killed, Wu-Tang may have never formed, RZA says.

Method Man, the group's most recognizable voice, was nearly killed before the band formed, Wu-Tang's chief producer, RZA, writes in his forthcoming memoir.

Meth was walking to buy marijuana at 160 Park Hill Avenue in Staten Island -- the house in Wu-Tang's "Protect Ya Neck" video -- when RZA saw him across the street, he writes in the book.

"Come over here, yo!" RZA beckoned, according to "The Tao of Wu" (Riverhead). "He stopped and came running over. A few seconds later -- pow-pow-pow-pow-pow! -- a guy started shooting up the front of 160. A buddy of ours, Poppy, an innocent, school-going, nice guy -- he was shot and killed right there." Interactive: Where's the Wu been? »

It wasn't the only close call RZA said could have snuffed the band that rewrote the rule book for hip-hop acts. The year before the group formed in 1993, RZA was acquitted on an attempted murder charge that could have put him behind bars for eight years, he writes in "The Tao of Wu," out Thursday.

Expanding on the book's anecdotes in an interview with CNN, RZA explained that if he had been imprisoned or if Method Man, aka Clifford Smith, had been killed, the band never would have come to fruition.

RZA, whose real name is Robert Diggs and whose stage name is pronounced "Rizza," also talked about his role in the death of his cousin, Russell Jones, better known as Ol' Dirty Bastard or ODB. Two days before his 36th birthday in 2004, ODB died in a New York recording studio from an overdose of cocaine and painkillers.

RZA writes in the book that he once witnessed ODB force his own son to watch him do drugs. RZA tried to leave, he writes, but ODB wouldn't let him. Now, RZA told CNN, he wishes he would've been tougher with ODB about his drug problem.

The History of Wu

RZA formed the Wu-Tang Clan in 1993 with his cousins and friends from Staten Island, New York.

The band -- consisting of Method Man, RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, U-God and Masta Killa -- quickly made a name for itself with its spastic break beats blended with samples from kung fu movies.

The group's debut, "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)," went platinum and several Wu-Tang members' solo albums went gold. Method Man and Ghostface Killah saw solo efforts go platinum.

The band commanded the hip-hop scene in the 1990s and racked up millions of album sales. It even started a clothing line called Wu Wear.

Today, Wu-Tang and its members can still be found on the marquees of hip-hop venues. They also make appearances on the silver screen: RZA appeared in "Funny People" and "American Gangster," while Method Man has appeared in numerous movie roles and on HBO's "The Wire."

Following are excerpts from the interview, which has been edited for language, flow and length:

CNN: Could your imprisonment or Method Man's death have derailed Wu-Tang's formation?

RZA: Either one of those incidents could definitely have derailed it. Of course, myself being the abbot, the one who came with the idea, if I wouldn't have made it out of that tumultuous time -- it seemed like I wasn't going to make it out of it; there was a lot of odds against me -- but we stood strong, and self-defense made sense to the jury. We beat that ...

It was the victory over that incident that made me change my whole direction. In a way, it's double-edged in that incident. One, if I would've lost that, yeah, Wu-Tang wouldn't have happened, but also it's the victory of it that inspired me and gave me the drive also to go and really get serious about Wu-Tang and the things I was dealing with.

Same thing with Meth, he always brings it up ... that that day saved his life. He actually said, if it was anybody else calling him, he wouldn't have came.

CNN: In the book, you cite lessons from Eastern religions, Christianity, Islam, [Nation of Islam offshoot] Five Percent, numerology, comic books, kung fu, chess. What would you say to someone who says it's difficult to reconcile these dogmas?

RZA: Like it says in the Bible, "In the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh" -- if we go to the root of the word, we will find that, yeah, everything is similar. Everything is teaching us all the same path.

It's just that one religion was good for these people because of their living conditions. In the Quran, they mention paradise being filled with wells, wells of water, and if you're in the desert and you've got a chance to get water and gardens -- as they describe paradise in the holy Quran -- if you're going to get gardens, that's the paradise that fits your situation. ... Everything they're saying relates to the people they're talking to. ...

You remove the messenger and take the message.

CNN: You say in the book that your penchant for violent lyrics in your younger years "was a product of my history and environment" and that it no longer represents you. But you also say you won't repudiate violence. Why not?

RZA: One reason I haven't repudiated it is because when it's necessary, it's necessary. [The Bible's] Ecclesiastes tell us there's a time for everything -- a time for war, a time for peace -- so in times for war, there's time for violence.

Then in [the Hindu scripture] Bhagavad Gita, it says Arjuna was talking, Arjuna didn't want to commit violent acts against an army that was attacking him. He couldn't find it in his heart to do it. It was people he loved. He didn't want to get into violence, but Krishna had to point out to him, "Your duty is your duty." ...

So, to me, violence in the light of justice is still violent, but I don't see it the same. It's because of justice that I don't repudiate violence because justice must be served somehow.

CNN: ODB was a product of his environment as well. To what degree were you and other Wu-Tang members responsible for his death?

RZA: The guys would say it's more me than them because they say that's my cousin and I was right there. If you let a man that you love or anybody -- man, woman or child that you love -- sit there and destroy themselves in front of you, you're neglecting them ...

Everybody let him do what he wanted to do. ... There were times when I took his drugs and threw them down the toilet. When I do that, he would get so pissed off I don't see him for weeks after that. ...

So it got to a point, I was like, "[expletive] it, let him do his drugs" just to have him around me, just to keep him there. ... But it's still neglect, yo.

CNN: You say you ran Wu-Tang like a dictatorship in its first five years. I know you and Raekwon have had creative differences and Ghostface Killah is suing you over royalties. Ever regret the dictatorship approach?

Don't Miss

• Common: Obama steering rap away from bling
• The Roots 'redefine art of house band'
• Rapper's delight at Snoop Dogg's first Mideast gig

RZA: I don't regret it because it got us to the power we are. ...

To me, in the beginning, the dictatorship led us to such a strong foundation that even though Wu-Tang seemed to be crumbling, it didn't fall because of the root foundation of one man's idea. But now as it's coming back together -- we're living in the twilight age of it right now -- it's still surviving because of the democracy of it.

CNN: Wu-Tang is still around, but nothing like the heyday of the 1990s. Will we ever see a renaissance?

RZA: Well, to me, Wu-Tang is beyond Wu-Tang Clan. ... It's just like hip-hop is beyond Grandmaster Flash, but Grandmaster Flash was one of the first guys to hit those turntables like that. ...

The same thing with Wu-Tang. You'll see the difference in hip-hop from the moment we came in to before we came in. We changed it. We changed the whole structure.

CNN: Have you accomplished everything you've set out to accomplish?

RZA: I'm me and the me that's me is me and is going to continue to be me, and it's always reaching and growing. I'm grateful for what I've accomplished. I'm grateful for anyone who thinks I accomplished something and says, "Well he did this; he did that." I'm proud to be accepted, but I feel like I've just scratched the surface for some weird reason.

Macro Evolution

As has been said often, macroevolution is microevolution plus time. Even better put by one of my friends, macroevolution equals microevolution plus microevolution plus microevolution...

Many people though still don't believe in macroevolution. This is for a variety of reasons. Much of the doubt is cast on a lack of sufficient time. Some believe the earth is only 10,000 years old. This is preposterous, so we'll leave this section be. Some just don't think that 4 billion years is long enough to produce what we see now. This can be dispelled with some ease.

Of all the species of dog we know now, the single ancestor is the wolf. From the Great Dane to the Pomeranian, there is but one ancestor. This transition, guided by humans, took only a few centuries. 4-5 at the most. Most people don't perceive the amount of time that is 4 billion years because it is just too wieldy. I can break down 4 billion years into 40 million centuries. This is still a bit unwieldy and many people cannot fathom that either, but work with me here. If a wolf can turn into a Pomeranian in 4-5 centuries, think of what the world could do with 40 million of them. Or even, if we can progress so much in one millenia,think of the progress we could have made with 4 million mellenia.

These numbers are still far too wieldy, as previously mentioned. Many people can't fathom a thousand, let alone a million. But take the dog example again. We could do that over 8 million times given 40 million centuries.

So obviously, the ability for macroevolution to happen is overwhelmingly easy. Many people when faced with this number though, just cannot fathom it to understand the possibility.

English Only?

So, I kinda got into it with some people in class today over whether the US should make English its official language. I was completely against this idea. Some of my classmates did not share my point of view. Needless to say, it got heated. So, as a calm down mode for me, I'm going to explain the pros and cons of making English THE official language of the US.

Cons:

-If you were to make English the official language, what you would be doing is institutionalizing essentially a separate but equal policy. I mean this by saying that the government would be saying that, although all languages are equal essentially, any language that is not English holds no weight in the country. This would essentially ostracize those who do not speak English and make the children of those people abandon the culture completely. This is already happening in the first place, this would just institutionalize it.

-Also, benefits for those who do not speak English would be diminished greatly. All official forms would be printed in English, making ballots, fliers, or even school letters printed in English. This would bar those who do not speak English from participating in many things.

-This might also bar non-English speakers from getting jobs.


Pros:

-English Speaking Privilege would be institutionalized.


Honestly, that is the only advantage to this proposition. There is nothing else, substantially that would happen other than English speakers would be able to institutionalize their bigotry.

So really, do you want to help others or gain no real material benefit?

At the Desk

I'm blogging on the job! Yeah, that's right. I have an infinitely better job than you have. I may not get paid much but it buys me books. So there.

I only have 18 more minutes on the desk, so this blog won't be very planned.

I'm sick and tired. Both in the physical sense and the emotional sense. I've been coughing since two weeks ago and I haven't gotten adequate sleep since school started. One of the reasons for the latter is that I work at 8 in the morning. Hey, it pays.

I'm also sick and tired of Baylor. I hate it from the very core of my being. I can't stand the way people don't acknowledge their privilege or work towards the equality of others on campus. I hate the apathy. I hate the administration for making people who pay tuition outcasts and unwanted.

I need to leave this place. I keep telling myself, 2 more years, two more years. But I don't know if my sanity will hold out that long. My health doesn't seem to be able to.

Kanye West

So, Kanyizee has been getting a bit of bad press in the news lately. Something about snatching the microphone out of Taylor Swift's hands and telling the crowd at the VMAs that Beyonce had the better music video. Everybody's gone and caught feelings because Kanye told her that she sucked in comparison to Beyonce.

I just watched Taylor Swift's video. It sucked. Actually, I didn't even watch the whole thing; it's still playing. I just switched windows. Seriously, it's unwatchable. The song itself is almost unlistenable, but that's neither here nor there.

I'm not sure how it happened, but Beyonce somehow won best video, yet lost best female video. To Taylor Swift's violent assault of art. How exactly?

The audience. The audience somehow had some type of brain lapse and forgot how to function correctly. Somehow they gave an award to a young upstart who is a pretty voiced, beautiful but cheesy and lame singer. The only thing going for her is her ok voice, a humanized auto-tune, and her looks. That's how she won. Which is unfortunate because there are great female artists out there whose looks don't conform to the Aryan standard America wants them to conform to so we never here about them. But those nice little blond, blue-eyed girls get all the votes. Yay!

Who should have really won? Keri Hilson. Her "Knock You Down" video was amazing. Some of you are going to say, "Wait. That wasn't even nominated." I know and it's a freaking travesty. That video was nothing short of genius.

MTV is bull. It's been said for years, but it's true. The people who watch it are idiots and they wouldn't know good video direction if it walked up, kicked them in the face, and left their calling card.

Now, I started off this post talking about Kanye. I'm sure a couple people were starting to get antsy wondering if I was ever going to bring Mr. West back up. Well here he is. I don't understand the problem. Taylor Swift sucked. It's true. She didn't deserve the award. He was correcting what he saw as a malfeasance in the voting. So he did it in a way that was pretty mean. SHE. DID. NOT. DESERVE. THAT. AWARD.

Though, I don't know why it was such a big deal in the first place. MTV sucks. They don't know real talent and their award shows are only based on commercial selling power. It's basically a long commercial for music artists.

Either way, Kanye did the right thing. And I stand by his genius.

More on that Later

I'm stressed. I don't know how I'm going to make it through the semester. I have too much on my plate.

But, one thing that will help me through are great youtube videos like this one:



Thank my sanity for youtube!

New Blogger in the Neighborhood

Hello my adoring fan peoples. There is a new blogger in the blogosphere. Her name is Alex Porter and she just set up her blogger account.

alexporter526.blogspot.com

You should all follow her. I work with her in Texas Freedom Network and we spent some time together while we were in DC together with Texas Freedom Network's Youth Leadership Council. She's smart and funny so check out her blog and follow it!

You Know It's Bad...

So, this past Friday, I was sitting in World Political Systems listening to the oh-so-interesting lecture on England's political system. More specifically their strict party discipline. Then my professor opened it up to discussion. Why is it that England has this system? Is it good or bad?

Almost immediately the hands shot up.

"It's terrible. They don't have the ability to choose what they believe in."

"They don't have any choice."

"They're stuck!"

The obviously American voices clucked on, not believing for a second that a political system that doesn't strictly adhere to the US's could be better in anyway.

But one student among them had the audacity to lay it on the line, to tell everyone what England was obviously missing.

"I think we're looking at it from this perspective because in the US we have more moral....umm, character, I guess, in our politics and the UK has none."

Ladies and gentlemen, I was stunned. So stunned I could not utter a word. I could only laugh. Loudly. Yes, I laughed at this boy. Long and hard.

Some people looked at me knowingly. But what really shocked me was that I actually received icy stares from some people. As if laughing at the complete ignorance of a person is somehow more taboo than being a xenophobic ignoramus with the nerve to indict an entire country's political system, which he has very little knowledge of outside of what he was told in the lecture.


The nerve of some people.

But, if that class taught me anything, it taught me the need to leave this place as soon as I can. New York, DC, Seattle?


Paris?


...London?

Choices Choices Choices

I can't decide what I want to read next. I just finished Nausea by Sartre last week and from there I started Doors of Perception by Aldus Huxley. I think I'm going to finish that but I don't know what to read.

I have A LOT of non-fiction books. I could read my newly acquired Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes by a one Jacques Ellul. I also have The Rastafarians a book about the history of the Rasta movement. I have Profit Over People, Towards a New Cold War, Hegemony or Survival, Deterring Democracy, For Reasons of State, and Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship by Noam Chomsky. Or maybe I can finish Freedom and Neurobiology by John Searle or Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky.

Oh Zues! The fiction. Oh the fiction! Restaurant at the End of the Universe (the sequel to HitchHiker's Guide), Lolita by Nabokov, Pale Fire also by Nabokov, Breakfast at Tiffany's by Capote, Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, The Castle by Kafka, Something Happened by Joseph Heller (author of the wonderful Catch 22), The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemminway (who for some reason I imagine as a black man...), The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner, The Mandarins by the ever inspiring Simone de Beauvoir, Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (supposedly a superclassic), Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by one of my favorite authors Haruki Murakami, Wild Sheep Chase also by Murakami, and JD Salinger's Nine Stories, among others of course.

Too many choices. But I think to cut down the choices I'll go with a system of one non-fiction book then one fiction book. And that means after Doors of Perception I will be reading a fiction. Oh what shall I choose?

Assimilation

First, I would like to apologize for the lack of posts in the past week. I was in Vegas with my significant other and left my computer in Waco because I was worried about my number of carry-ons. Hopefully I will be posting with more frequency from now on.

I hate the way America's cultural system works. Though many may want to deny it, America has a cultural hegemony at work. It is that of the White, Protestant, Upper-class Male. This particular class sets up what is the foundation of what is American and what is not. And because those in power want to maintain their power, this class dictates how others should assimilate and how they should be "other"-ed.

America is not the melting pot it believes itself to be. You have to fit a particular mold before you can be considered at best a second-class citizen. You must speak English without an ESL accent or slang, you must celebrate the holidays of "Americans" and you cannot epouse any political belief other than those popular here.

This creates a battle in foreigners and the marginalized in this country. Should you give up your cultural heritage to fit into society and give your children a fighting chance in this country, or should you keep your heritage and risk not being able to function in society. This is honestly what it has come down to. There is some chances to preserve your heritage, but for the most part it's ship up or ship out.

What makes this particularly vexing for me is that the dominant culture does not give any concessions. They do not assimilate, for the most part, to the new changes being brought their way. They "other" the new change and allow it to go on in their midst without ever attempting to participate or understand. Sure, change is sometimes forced on them, but how many kids who were forced to take a foreign language class in high school and college can actually or want to actually speak the language. No, they grudgingly accept that they have to do this, but they care not to understand what they are doing or make an effort to use it. They just do the assignments, half-halfheartedly, smirking in that knowing way with the rest of the kids who do the same because they don't have to worry about this crap, their culture is dominant.

It's Been Way Too Long

Not much to post. Just posting because I haven't in 2 weeks. I've been busy, I'm sorry.

I got a 4.0 in summer school. I was pretty excited about that. I read a couple books this summer, and hoping to get a few more out of the way before school starts again. Got my apartment organized just last night, which is surprising. Hopefully I can keep it this way.

Other than that nothing really, so I'll leave you with this video.

New Discoveries!

I learned today that human beings have been wasting time opening bananas for centuries. I'm not sure what happened, but we have found a way to make banana opening a sometimes difficult and damaging (to the fruit at least) process.

From what I understand, the majority of humans open their bananas from the "top" or the stem that forms somewhat of a "tab" (to quote the horrendous Ray Comfort of "The Atheist's Worst Nightmare" fame). This "tab" does not always yield easily. Sometimes you have to dig your finger into the skin, sometimes you have to cut it, and sometimes the top comes out mushy.

No longer! Apparently, humans are the only species to do this. It's quite interesting. All other species open it by pinching the bottom of the banana and peeling the two flaps that are created.



This presents an interesting conundrum for the previously mentioned Ray Comfort.



Notice how he describes the banana. He describes it from the "top." Everything that he says is presented from the human view of opening a banana. But, if you try opening the banana from the bottom it is a lot easier. So interestingly, by looking at a banana from the majority human perspective with an intent of using it for the argument from design, the argument completely fails.

I love fundamentalists. If you love them too, I recommend you watch

Thunderf00t's (that's two zeroes instead of the letter o) Why do people laugh at Creationists series


And Thunderf00t's debate with Ray Comfort:




Also, I'd like to point out Richard Dawkins debates too. Not the John Lennox one though, that was a patently rigged debate.



In other news, I rediscovered Python, the programming language. Now, I must admit, I never actually used Python, I simply had it. I didn't know the language so I couldn't ever create something. But, I recently found that the Baylor libraries keep guidebooks to different software programs as "electronic resources" which means that they can be accessed at any time from a computer. That's pretty sweet in my opinion. So I'm gonna try my hand at Python and maybe learn the language!

Where are the Thompsons of Yesteryear?

What happened to reporting?

Better yet, what happened to having journalists who questioned the government rather than feeding us the official story?

I recently bought "The Great Shark Hunt," a collection of articles and essays written by Hunter S. Thompson. Most, if not all, of the entries are ones he wrote for magazines, newspapers, etc. The very first article is called Fear and Loathing in the Bunker and describes how Nixon (this was written soon after the Watergate Scandal) had fallen under the weight of his own follies. Thompson says not only who he voted for but also calls out the Democrats saying that they probably would have done the exact same thing as Nixon, the only difference would be that they would probably get away with it. Thompson then goes on to lay out what he thinks Nixon could do (and most likely will do) to protect himself from impeachment.

Thompson's obviously thought out plot was never realized, but that doesn't matter. He does not only call out the government, but he also warns us of what it is capable of.

Why do we not have that today. Our analysis today consists only of what they said and how that might affect the popularity of the administration. Where was the outcry from our newspapers and news anchors over the Iraqui invasion? Where were they when our army crept into Pakistan? Why were they not demanding the release of all the pictures of the detainees who were abused?

I want my news to take sides and admit it. I want them to tell me the truth, after having gotten the official story and then researching to see if it was true. I want my news not just to report but to actually investigate.

Take your Katie Courics and your Soledad O'Briens'. I would take gonzo journalism any day.

What? Tomorrow?!

Sitting in my living room. It's interesting. My bedroom used to be my command center; everything that was accomplished (or wasn't) happened in that room. It seems now that I have commandeered the living room for my purposes. It happened slowly one day, for a reason I can't remember, and now here I am, typing on the couch.

Interesting weekend. Watched Fiddler on the Roof. Watched Rent. Both great musicals. Watched The Proposal. Nothing like watching Sandra Bullock shake it to "Get Low." I can't tell you how entertaining that was.

Finished "All Men are Mortal." Excellent. I assumed it would be a simple fiction tale about an immortal man, but it ended up being a work of historical fiction. Considered values and meaning through mortal an immortal viewpoints. Examined a existential crisis and solution throughout the ages. Main characters rarely the existential heroes. Small conversations carry the theme. Beautiful work.

Starting "Things Fall Apart" now. Simple writing, but so far I'm intrigued. Only finished the first chapter. I have to read a book about Andrew Carnegie and the rise of big business. The book is similarly titled. Don't want to read anything other than books of my choosing. I'm trying to hit the shorter books in my stack. Norwegian Wood, Rules for Radicals, then I'm going to start my recently acquired "Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." It's a somewhat fictionalized autobiography of Dave Eggers. He is known as the co-writer of Away We Go and the founder of 826 Valencia.

I'm dying of fatigue. I haven't slept well this weekend. I'm not sure why.

Talked with Morgan about how I keep going when nothing means anything. Conversations on philosophical notions of meaning and value moved from Pei Wei to Barnes and Noble.

Need more money. Getting it in the form of a raise. Federally required. $7.25 is now the lowest you can pay your workers.

Saw Food Inc. Still a omnivore. Horrified while watching the movie, but ordered a hamburger 20 minutes later.

Aldus Huxley's "The Doors of Perception" is staring me down. It demands to be read. Sooner or later I will succumb.

We have an impoverished language. So Morgan tells me. Must use pronouns. Jazz is on the TV. May have stumbled upon a jazz channel. Listening to Sun Ra. Consciousness fading away...

New Post but not Here

I just updated my Baylor Watch blog. I thought you should know. The new post contains some pretty interesting news so I hope you check it out.

http://baylorwatch.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-baylor-isnt-telling-you.html

Check out the entire blog too. I didn't write all of the articles. The Cahnz helped out as well. I'm going to try and update it more often....


EDIT: I just remembered this video. It's of Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen contending that the Earth is 6000 years old and therefore Arizona should be digging for uranium.



Duly noted on thinkprogress, the site I stole this from, is the irony of what Allen is suggesting. It is because of the radioactive decay of uranium that we know the earth is billions of years old.

Math is as Arbitrary as Language

As an interesting exercise, try and think of all the mathematical concepts that can be derived from themselves, or first principles. Go ahead, I can wait.

If you came up with anything besides arithmetic, you're wrong. Anything that involves measurements of any kind are arbitrary. Which means, to a certain extent, physics and chemistry are arbitrary.

Now, what I mean by arbitrary is this: the numbers do not have to be what they are. Take Density as an example. Density, if I remember correctly, is mass divided by volume. Now, take mass. It is an arbitrary principle. What makes a gram a gram other than what people have decided it was. Take volume. What is volume but a liter but a meter to the third? And what is a meter? Another arbitrary principle.

For language, it's the same thing. What sound does an A make? Why? Why is a B the shape that it is?

But for all the arbitrariness of both math and language, so much is built upon it. Math has given us physics which has given us so many things. Entire theorems are based around what could have been completely different and language shows what could have been. Each language is based on arbitrary, yet universal, components and from there and entire way to communicate is created.

Think of it in an interesting way. The math for an alien planet could, and probably would be, completely different from our math, but the principles would be exactly the same. The only difference would be the symbols and measurements used. It's the exact same thing with language. Spanish and English are radically different but each shares prepositions, clauses, nouns, adjectives, etc.

I'm not really sure what the point of this post was. One point is to get people to understand how arbitrary everything in our lives really is. Another is to show that while it's arbitrary there are still universal things.

Go See "Away We Go"

It was a great movie. Very sweet, very cute. It follows the couple Bert and Verona as they travel around the country (and one stop into Canada) to find a perfect place to raise their child after Bert's parents decide to move to Belgium the month before the baby is due.

Bert is your typical lovable John Krasinski character, almost reminiscent of Jim from The Office. He works selling insurance futures from the phone and adopts an interesting voice whenever a client calls him. At the very beginning of the movie, the pregnancy doesn't scare him. He seems to care more about whether his girlfriend will keep her breast size after the birth. Verona is Bert's girlfriend (she refuses to marry him though she promises to stay with him forever) and is pretty big for her term (at one point she is turned down a flight because the airline people think she is more than eight months pregnant when she is only six). Her parents died when she was in college and a decade later she still finds it hard to talk about it.

In looking for the perfect place to live, the pair go around the country meeting up with old friends and relatives to see if the cities are where they want to settle down. Each city gives the couple an different perspective on children. First there's Verona's old boss. She constantly ridicules her kids and her husband is part creepy, part lame, and too many parts just weird. At one point he starts talking about Arizona going through a drought and lists off the order of extinction that would happen. In the second city they meet up with Verona's sister, but not before an interesting and hilarious encounter with a uptight, alway teaching mother and her slightly-off son. Then they go off to Madison, where they meet up with Bert's carzy, ultra-feminist "cousin" (though one conversation makes it seem like they're a bit closer related than that). Hilarity ensues. Next is Montreal where the audience is introduced to the perfect family, but, of course, not everything is what it seems. Lastly the pair visit Bert's brother whose wife recently left him and their young daughter.

What I enjoy about this movie is that each family has something wrong with it. It repeatedly, and at times almost heavy-handedly, drives home the fact that no childhood is going to be perfect. From crazy new-agers to frontal lobes being sliced off, there are so many things that can go wrong with raising children but many of the children who go through these things can lead well adjusted lives. If anything, the families that Bert and Verona meet serve as models of bad behavior or humbling experiences.

Some real life elements found their way into the script. Written by wife-husband duo Vendala Vida (author of Girls on the Verge and editor of The Believer) and Dave Eggers (author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius), the script mirrors in a slight way the true life of Eggers. Like Verona, Eggers parents died while he was in college and he was charged with taking care of his little brother, much like it is implied that Verona took care of her younger sister.

Overall, I give this movie a B. Heavy-handed at times, it was still heartbreakingly sweet and gutbustingly hilarious. It could have used a bit more cohesiveness but nevertheless and entertaining film.

Go see it!

Stalking vs. Love

If you've ever talked to me about the whole Twilight craze, you know I have many things to say about it. Few of those words are positive. One of the "character traits" of that Edward fellow that just doesn't rub right with me is that he is a stalker.

Ladies, he stalks Bella (is that her name?). If I were to watch someone who I'm not in an intimate relationship with while they sleep, I could be arrested. The creepiness doesn't change just because you have glittery skin and fangs. Actually, that just means you were probably kicked around as a kid in high school. I'm sorry for that. Kids are jerks.

I'll ignore that I've been told that the first book has middle school grammar mistakes or that the girls who fawn of this Edward fellow have a propensity for black clothes and white make-up. I'll even ignore that this book was written by a Mormon (which, considering the Orson Scott Card debacle, is a tough thing to do), but what I cannot ignore is that girls all over the world are being deluded into believing that aggressive and potentially dangerous behavior is a sign of deep love. It's not.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer knows that stalking does not equal love though and she is out to make other girls know it too. Here I present Twilight Remixed.

Taking a Look Back

One thing I've consistently loved throughout my musical life is Hip Hop. I'm not sure what it is about the music, the cadence, the wordplay, the sampling, or just the all of the above but I've loved it ever since I first heard it. I remember when I was much, much younger I would listen to Snoop Dogg, Tupac, Bone-Thugs, and Dr. Dre. I lived in Hawaii and all they really played was West Coast rap. When I got older and moved to Washington, the South started getting hot and I heard Outkast and the Hot Boyz. The East was back to prominence at that point to so I heard the Fugees, Nas, and Jay-Z. Biggie had, unfortunately, died at this point, and my introduction to him was the Puff Daddy (or Diddy to those who know of him now) tribute song.

When I started getting a bit older, when I got to high school, I started exploring. Del the Funky Homosapien, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Kanye West, Aesop Rock, Brother Ali, De La Soul, etc. These were the people who I came home to. These are the people I would listen to before my parents got home. These are the people who would help me to explore what I thought and not just let myself be spoonfed an answer.

As my hip hop knowledge progressed, my exploration became even more diverse, Madlib, MF Doom, J Dilla, Deltron 3030, Kid Koala, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Prince Paul, DJ Shadow. I didn't just for the rappers, I went for the producers, the DJs, the all-the-aboves. Anything. I watched B-boys doing their things, DJs cutting at breakneck speeds and rappers going off the top because they can't stop, won't stop.

So, I bring to you a small tidbit of what I love. The raw type stuff. The LIVE stuff. I love freestyles battles, DJ shows, and B-boy battles because they're spur of the moment. The participants may have some idea of what they're going to do, but most of it all comes off the top. And that's what I want you to see. The stuff that has a few slip-ups. That's when rap is at its purest.

Here is DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist and DJ Numark doing a show with samplers. It's pretty dope.




Here is DJ Kentaro doing his thing on the ones and twos



Here's Black Thought of The Roots and Skillz having a freestyle battle in their tour bus. The object is to start with two bars of another song and then do a freestyle off of it.



The last video I can't embed, but it is amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wCVkYX8wWQ

I Feel so Constricted

I hate this blog layout. Honestly, it's a real eye-sore. First of all, the background colors are ridiculous. I don't know why I chose it in the first place. But the main thing I hate about this blog aesthetic is that the words are so constricted. Other blogs such as The Cahnz's or Guia's feel as if there's a lot more space. The words flow a bit further, they aren't bound to a small rectangle.

With that said, I'm looking for a new layout. Unfortunately, all the ones I come across are either cutesy or really dark, as if they were all made by teenagers...

I wish I knew HTML because then I could make my own layout. But if wishes were fishes....the world would have food? I'm really not sure if that's correct, or if that's even an actual saying, but it stands.

Hopefully by my next post I will have a new layout. Cross your fingers, or just make me a layout. That would work wonders.

EDIT: New layout. A few kinks, but it'll do for now.

AMAZING!

Guia, Suzan and Michael were over again tonight. It was a very productive night. At some point during the camaraderie, Guia started watching videos on a website TED. It's an interesting website that gathers minds in various fields and has them present on something of their choosing. After watching a few cool ones, and a few stinkers, we came across a video of Johnathan Harris explaining his website creation We Feel Fine. Such an excellent creation. They search blogs for the words "I feel" or "feelings" and then take the sentence to the period. They classify it on different scales from geography to weather.

I suggest you check it out. It's pretty exciting. Also, try and feel something. And preferrably feel it in your blog.

For the sake of experimentation:


I feel like my friends introduce me to the greatest joys in the world.

Happy hunting cyber-cowboys.

Michael Jackson is Dead

That's crazy. For a little bit there, the news stations were carrying different stories. Some said he was dead and some said he was in real bad shape. Now we know. It's sad, but there are a couple things I noticed.

First, Farrah Fawcett died today as well, and there wasn't nearly as much coverage. When MJ died, that's all the covered the front pages of many news sites, but when Farrah died, she got a mention. Front page, but splashed across it.

Second, HuffingtonPost has completely abandoned it's Iran live-blog for the story. One man dying, no matter how famous, should not completely offset a story about protesters/possible revolution. They should have at least kept them both on the front page.

But, back to the sadness. I loved Michael Jackson's music. He was an amazing artist. I just finished playing a couple vinyls of his music in his memory. It's sad that his memory will be marred by scandal. What can you do though.

RIP MJ

Nothing Much

I have outfitted myself with a new project: to translate Juan Rulfo's only novel, Pedro Paramo. I can understand the first three sentences, but after that the language seems to go wild. I've only taken 2 1/2 semesters of Spanish, so it really is no wonder that I feel so exasperated when I try and read it, but I am commited to learning this dang language and translating this book, I'm sure, will help.

I am neglecting that language now though. I have a chapter from the workbook due tomorrow and as always, I have no motivation to do it.

In other news, I have completed the first book of the summer: James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. I love the last line of the work, "If we do not now dare everthing, the fulfillment of that prophecy, re-created from the Bible in song by a slave, is upon us: God gave Noah the rainbow sign, No more Water, the fire next time!" I might do a complete review for this work later, but for now, it will suffice to say that this is a must-read for anyone who believes in equality. I rank it just under The Autobiography of Malcolm X in the growing list of books that have shaped my thinking as an activist.

But that's it. The Sims 3 is addicting and I have to stay away from it, lest I find myself playing until my eyes bleed. I'm going to the Transformers midnight showing tonight, that should at least be interesting. I'm not much for Michael Bay, but I loved Transformers when I was young and nostalgia is always worth the admission price. Also, I just want to see the Decepticons wrecking crap for and hour and a half.

Well, really this time, that's it.

A Good Weekend

So, this weekend was pretty excellent. Went to Year One on Friday, which was cute, and watched Dragonball Z with the friends. We're such nerds.

Saturday, though, was epic. Guia got to my apartment at 12ish and while we waited for Suzan and Michael to get here, we made a list of things to watch, only two of which were actually realized. We watched a short anime called Kakurenbo (Hide and Seek) which was really good. Then we watched the entire series of Elfen Lied (which is 13 episodes). After watching that for 6-7 hours straight, we decided to act really nerdy and play some video games and watch youtube videos. All of these things were done using a VGA cord to hook the computers up to the TV my apartment complex so graciously added into our lease. It was awesome. I will always watch HD youtube videos on this TV from now on.

One of the video games we played was Rubberduckzilla, which was interesting but we couldn't get it to act correctly, so we gave up after a while. After that, we just had a Sims 3 party. Each of us spent hours and hours meeting friends, working, and getting angry with our idiot Sims. Or maybe that was all me. Seriously though, that Howard Lightning is an imbecile. He screwed up waffles 3 times in a row. Also, he takes the longest showers ever! He can also pee for 10 minutes straight. Sims are weird creatures.

So, that was my weekend. It was pretty awesome. I also found this video on HuffingtonPost with mainly a picture slideshow of the events in Iran set to Rage Against the Machine's Freedom. It's pretty excellent.




Also, I'm watching Ninja Warrior on G4TV and one of the bumps they have for the channel features Del the Funky Homosapien rapping about G4 and video games. That's so awesome.

PETA

PETA is the scourge of the Earth. Their tactics are widely known and condemned, but they don't care. Why is it that I dislike PETA?

Because PETA is the biggest target for those looking for hypocrites in the animal rights field. PETA kills upwards of 90% of the animals that fall into their care. Last year, I believe, the figure was 95%.

So why is it that PETA focuses on splashing people with red paint and using every scare tactics in the book (from racism to islamaphobia) instead of finding the animals that come into their care a home?

I'm not sure, but I definitely don't support it.


EDIT: Interestingly, the website PETAkillsanimals is the third site that comes up when you search PETA on Google.

Iran

It's truly amazing what the protesters of Iran are doing. The government is trying to stone-wall them at every turn and yet they keep coming up with ways to organize and stand defiant in the face of oppression.

With many communication tools cut off by the government, the protesters were faced with certain disorganization. They could not text, they could not email. They were cut off from mass communication. But thanks to a certain micro-blogging site called Twitter, they were still able to organize.

That is the first great thing. The second great event was the international response to the Iranian protester's plight. Twitter users would pass on information to others and inform others to do the same. Some users even changed their location to Tehran so that they could fool Iranian censors and buy the protesters some time.

The biggest victory for the alliance of twitter users, both Iranian and international, was getting Twitter to postpone their scheduled outage. This outage, for maintenance, would have happened at a unfortunate time for Iranians and would have left them without communication in the middle of the day. Twitter, after receiving a massive campaign aimed at postponing the outage, agreed to the campaign and moved the maintenance to 1:30 Tehran time.

It's truly amazing how these things work. There are those who believe that humans are naturally selfish and wicked, but I think that times like these show that man is capable of so much and will not hesitate to help their fellow people.

Protests and Demonstrations

What makes a protest successful? How does one quantify or even qualify the success of a demonstration?

At Baylor, there is a person who rides around on a bike with a sign about Jesus. I was commenting to a group of friends that this was futile exercise because it had no real ability to reach out to people, to which one of my friends replied that the sign has already worked because we were talking about it.

How is that a success? The fact that I was discussing this sign, and what I believed to be the sheer stupidity of it, does not bring me any closer to accepting Jesus as my personal savior, nor did it bring anybody in our group to reject their materialistic ways and rededicate their lives to Jesus. This sign did not achieve anything simply because people saw and talked about it. True success should be measured in not only in the word spreading, but actual action taking place because of it.

This anecdote quite succinctly expresses my ideas regarding protests and demonstrations. Sure, if these protests get people talking about Rwanda, taxes, or any number of things, that's commendable but it does nothing for the cause. People should be expected to donate money, lobby officials, or get involved with the cause. One should not set their goal to be the mere discussion of the ideas presented, but the goal should instead be getting those people involved in solving the problem. Discussion is great, but action is the only way things are going to get done.

I find protests and demonstrations to be poor ways of getting things done unless they are done in direct opposition to the problem. A protest in America about the genocide in Darfur does nothing. A protest outside of the capital in Sudan is a much more effective way of protesting.

But that's not it. Simple protests can never be good solutions to a problem. A legal, constitutionally-protected protest does nothing but say you're angry enough to take time out of your day to talk about this. That says nothing to anybody. Real protests cause damage. A strike, a simple but effective protest, causes harm to the company. They lose profits, they lose supplies. They cannot allow that to go on for long. They are forced to change their ways.

Illegal protests, and by this I mean any protest that involves the breaking of laws, are much more effective than legal protests. Protests in which protesters are met by brutal retaliation are also more effective. These change minds. Take the 1968 Democratic National Convention. This turned into a riot that changed the conceptions of the American mind at the power of the radicals. The Chicago Seven protests disrupted what was considered the civil processes of the American judicial system. The Kent State University shootings changed the perceptions of Americans that the government was there to help. When blacks in the South protested against the consolidation of power in the hands of the whites, they were greeted by fire hoses and attack dogs. When this was broadcast to the rest of America, the perceptions of Southern justice and legal apartheid changed. This didn't merely create discussion, it created a complete shift in the thinking of people. They could no longer ignore the problem. It was in their schools, on their streets, on their late night television.

People sometimes try to adopt civil disobedience tactics and use them in their own protests, but often times they don't understand what they are doing. Sit-ins, one of the practices of Blacks in the South, are commonly used co-opted by newer protesters. This ignores what exactly the early protesters were doing. They were challenging deeply rooted conceptions of social order and putting themselves in the path of physical and legal harm. People who use it today often do not have these attributes working against them. Their protest is turned into simply an impotent demonstrations of their annoyance and lack of power.

Protests can never be the only tactic though. Those who rely on it as their biggest event are doomed to fail. Real change comes through the government, whether it be executive, legislative or judicial. Protests should simply be used as a recruitment tool. To depend on it as anything else is to make failure a goal.

Call It What It Is!

Terrorism


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/10/holocaust-museum-shooting_n_213831.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/31/george-tiller-killed-abor_n_209504.html

The death of George Tiller was our first indication at what was to come. Anti-choice activists have been running out ways to scare and shame people out of abortions, so it seems some of them have chosen violence. This isn't something that is an isolated incident. George Tiller, before being gunned down by a domestic TERRORIST was previously shot in his arms and had his clinic bombed. He wasn't the only one. In the 90s, abortion clinics were bombed mercilessly with doctors and even women going into the clinics beaten, sometimes to death, right outside.

The shooting inside the Holocaust Museum was done out of nothing but pure hatred. The perpetrator is a known anti-Semitic white supremacist. He previously attempted to hold the Federal Reserve Board hostage. His actions are in line with what we define as TERRORISM.

Dictionary.com defines terrorism as such: the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.

George Tiller was killed because he was an late-term abortion provider. His murder was used to scare those who do the same. His murder was to be a victory for anti-choice proponents since he was one of the few providers in the country.

The Holocaust Museum shooting was done to scare Jews and "sympathizers." It was done to intimidate these communities and keep them on the defensive.

It'a about time we start calling terrorists terrorists. These men, and many more as well, are terrorists. Anyone who commits a hate crime is a terrorist. Any use of violence or threats to get one's way is an instance of terrorism.

But let's not stop at identifying these people as terrorists. Let's start prosecuting them as terrorists as well.

EDIT: RIP Stephen Tyrone Johns. He was a security guard who was shot by the suspect.

America is on a Roll!

So, New Hampshire is the 6th state to recognize marriage rights! Yay!
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/03/us/AP-US-XGR-Gay-Marriage-New-Hampshire.html?_r=1&ref=us

Keep it up America!

100th Post!

I was going to say something exciting for my 100th post, but I can't. When I decided to write this post, it was with one purpose.

I reject my atheism.

I have to sleep in a bit because I have class tomorrow, so I will probably flesh this out in another post, but for now I will sketch this idea.

I don't reject my lack of belief in a God. I reject my atheism. To define myself as an atheist, I define myself as a naught. I lack a belief in God, therefore my being is a lack of belief. I reduce my being to what I am not. I refuse to understand myself and allow others to understand me by what I lack.

I read once that Albert Camus said "I do not believe in God and I am not an atheist." I used to wonder what that meant; what he could possibly mean by that. Today, I was reading his notebooks and came across this quote and I finally understood. He is, not isn't. His being cannot be defined by a lack. And today I affirm with him that:

I do not believe in God and I am not an atheist.

Zombies!

I have an amazing affinity for zombie movies, especially those of George A. Romero. I'm not sure exactly why I find them so enjoyable, maybe it's because of the guilty pleasure I get from watching massive carnage and chaos. Maybe it's because zombies are the only scary things in the world nowadays. But maybe, just maybe, I love these movies so much because they show man in the state of nature. All society has fallen into anarchy, chaos. Man finds himself with a small group, cut off from others, with little news coming in about the outside world, their friends, their family. They must find in themselves the will and the power to survive.

It's interesting how zombie movies play out. The movies are always chock full of philosophical and moral questions. When does death occur? When a person turns into a zombie, are they no longer themselves? Knowing that at death a person turns into a zombie, if your friend is bitten and death is imminent, when do you blow their head off before or after they turn into a zombie? Though these questions seem ridiculous, they have an interesting undertone. What makes a person who they are? When does self-preservation take precedence over the humanity of another person. What is humanity in the first place?

I guess that is really why I love zombie movies. They show people struggling with these questions in crises with actual stake in the answers, not just theoretical.

On that note, I recently found out that Night of the Living Dead, the first movie in the living dead series by Romero, has lapsed into public domain. This means it can be LEGALLY download and shared since there is no copyright on it. Amazing, no? How crazy is that? Unfortunately for Mr. Romero, he only owns the copyrights to one of his original 4 Dead movies (Dawn of the Dead is owned by him. It also happens to be my favorite). But lucky for me, I can obtain his movie for free.

California Fails Again!

Living the High Life

I moved into my apartment on Saturday. After about 6 hours, some rain and a lot of sweat, all my furniture made it into the apartment. Amazingly, I only spent $650 on stuff for the apartment. And that was all bed stuff (the rails, the headboard, the mattress, the linens). Everything else I either already had or it was donated to me. Among the donations were a dresser, a bookcase, dishes, silverware, pots, pans, a knife set, a cutting board, a rolling chair, a rice cooker, and a ladle. And that's how apartment living should be; an amalgamation of old and new, with a special emphasis on the old (read: free).

After spending a night in the apartment, I drove down to my grandmother's house, where I am currently writing from. My auntie (not really my aunt, just my grandma's good friend) was visiting here which was a pleasant surprise. I love seeing her. When I lived in Washington, she lived right behind my grandmother, so we would always go over to her house for food and to play cards. I learned to play 500 and Up and Down the River from her and my grandmother. She's always full of interesting advice, and she gave me a recipe for potatoes this time. My grandma, for her part, taught me how to make kimchee and bulgogi; two excellent Korean dishes. Apparently I now also know how to make kalbi, since it's the exact same as making bulgogi, just with different meat.

So, now I'm pretty self-sufficient. I can make those three dishes, rice, grilled ham and cheese, burgers, and macaroni. That's enough for a whole week! I'm going to start collecting recipes so I can make more and more things. My goal is to be able to have friends over and be able to cook something nice for them. Right now I'm a one-trick pony, but soon I'll be a multiple-trick horse. Oh yeah.

My grandma apparently never learned to cook in Korea. When she got to America, and when she got married, she was only able to cook burgers and Chef Boyardee. Her recipe for kimchee is apparently the concoction of her own imagination. I think that's pretty awesome. She started learning how to cook because of her taste buds. She would eat something, like it, then ask how it was made. That seems to be what I'm doing now with her. It's interesting how people are similar without even realizing it.

In other news, my life (read: college) plans seem to be in flux once again. My auntie wondered if I was going to study abroad at all. When I thought about it, I realized that since I was going to graduate a semester early, I could easily just stay in school and use my last semester to do just that. So now I must decide if I want to do that, or get an internship somewhere in the states. Guess which one I'm leaning towards.

Animal Planet's Planet Earth has been playing in the background for hours. I muted the TV for some reason about 5 hours ago, and so every once in a while I'll realize that it's still on. It's odd realizing the same thing over and over. It used to happen to me in my poli sci class this past semester. The clock in there had a broken second hand. So every time I looked at the clock, I would repeatedly be weirded out that the second hand wasn't moving. I'm so observant.

I'm going back to Waco a little after I wake up. I want to go back soon, but then again I want to put it off. I just don't like driving two freaking hours. Even if the end of that trip is my apartment. My roommate put up two pictures of ducks and there's a whole bunch of fake plants lying around. Him and his family have no decorating style. Honestly. Maybe I've been around my mother too long (trust me, I have) but all this crap just makes our place look cheap and redneck. I think I'll casually mention to anyone who comes into the apartment that the decorations are not mine and that I had no say in the aesthetics of the living room. I like to absolve myself of catastrophes, lest anyone implicate me in their happenings.

Oh well, I'll try and talk some sense into the maniac who allowed his parents to put that horrendous mess in our shared space. Until then, I'm asleep. Goodnight!

Insomnia

The last post's title was a reference to the DJ mix series "Late Night Tales." Many different people have had their own Late Night Tales including Jamiroquai, Belle and Sebastian, and Fatboy Slim. I had two of the albums previously, but I never really listened to them before. It's strange, really. Most people would do this as a remix album, but nope. These are all originals, just some mixing done. They're basically the mixtapes we all make, except they're done by famous people. How odd.

It makes me want to make the ultimate mixtape. I had an idea for a mixtape, where it would be made up of songs that sampled the actual lines from a song and when the that part of the sampling song hit, I would mix it with the original and let the original play after that, then mix it into another song and repeat. I just wish I knew the correct software to use to do crap like that.

Does a mixtape tell you anything about the person who made it? I guess it tells you what type of music they like but I wonder if it tells you anything beyond that. We all know/have made/have received those mixtapes that express the feelings of tenderness, but even beyond that. I know that when I make mixes, I like to keep a certain theme throughout. It makes finding songs that mix into each other easier. Might it tell someone the certain mood I was in when I made it? I shall attempt to read into the mixtapes I hear from now on.

In other news, it was Malcolm X's birthday (it was also my friend Kirk's birthday, how silly). I got my brother the Autobiography of Malcolm X last week and he's been reading it a lot. I'm slowly molding him into a smaller version of me. Soon he'll be out canvassing the neighborhood with petitions and lobbying and rallying. A lovely vision to behold.

Speaking of convassing the neighborhood, I've been reading Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Real Radicals" lately, and I must say, and interesting read. Written the year before his death, this book is Alinsky's attempt to impart the knowledge gained over decades of community organizing to youngsters trying to get in the same game. The book feels like a bare skeleton of what could actually be divulged. For example, Alinsky states that one must be fear and hated by the machine (my word of course, by which I mean the establishment, or the "Haves" to quote the man himself). He goes on to say that when he was organizing his first group, he acted in ways to make the newspaper revile at him and the establishment to condemn him. This all worked in his favor because the "Have Nots" reacted by inviting him in and respecting him as someone who could get things done. At this juncture, Alinsky believes his point made, but what were the exact methods he used? How are we to mimic his results? He gives no answers.

His second chapter is highly flawed in my opinion, as he states quite clearly in this chapter that ends justify almost any means. I disagree wholeheartedly. He says that the Haves and the Have Nots work on two different moral pillars, and are therefore found to be just in their own eyes. I think that this is completely wrong and both parties should be held to certain moral principles. I mean by this that what morals one party believes the other party should be held accountable to, that party must also follow.

But other than that, it's interesting. I wish there was a bit more instruction.

I got a call from Texas Freedom Network's Youth Leadership Council. I was apparently the first person they called for the phone interviews. I think it went well, and I'm hoping they'll give me a position. It'll be nice to get a bit of money coming in. All that's required is tabling once a month, putting on an event once a semester, and blogging once a week. I blog once a week as it is already so I'm set. Also, apparently I'm going to be called once a month and there's another conference call with all the members monthly, but that shouldn't be a problem. And a free trip to DC! Color me excited.

I'm not sure what book I'll start when I'm finished with Rules for Radicals. Maybe Wind-Up Bird Chronicles. Yeah, I'm thinking that one. Too much non-fiction for me, need some fiction. Love it.

Summer is coming to a close soon. But I'm moving into my apartment soon and I'm super excited. House Warming party? Yeah? Yeah!

Late Night Tales

I'm so serious on this blog. Hardly anything about me personally. It's always a short announcement about crap I'm doing, or it's all about politics. So ranty I am. So, with that, I'll give you something about myself.

I love music. Too much in fact. I have a lot of it. But somehow, in my memory banks, I have locked away the sounds of thousands of songs. It's weird. I don't usually memorize words, but if I've heard the song enough times, I can remember the lyrics years later.

Take The College Dropout by Kanye West for example. I used to listen to that album ALL the time. I would come home from school and I would pop that CD in my stereo and blast it until someone came home and demanded I turn that "god-awful racket" down. Now, during my junior year, I moved on, started listening to more music on my computer and basically ignoring Kanye West. I had his second album, and it was much better than the first. And besides, there are so many better rappers anyways. So, it wasn't until my second semester as a college student when I picked up poor Mr. West's first album and put it in my car CD player. After having never listened to it in nearly 2 years, I was rapping along to that dang record! I knew every word!

Many people may have this same ability, but I do enjoy thatsong lyrics are always running through my head. If someone says something that's the start of a lyric, I always finish it, usually out loud.

Another thing about my "talent" is that I memorize song beats as well. If I hear a beat on the radio or in a commercial, as long as I've heard it before, I can usually tell you the song title and artist. What's really fun about that is when you listen to as much old school soul music and as much rap as me, you'll notice a little overlap in the beats. We all know that hip hop's back bone is sampling, and it gives me a chance to have some fun. When I hear an old soul song, and it sparks up a memory of another song, I'll always try and remember what song sampled it, and vice versa. Sometimes it's very small, like The intro to "Just Like A Baby" by Sly and the Family Stone is sampled in "She Don't Have to Know" by John Legend, for all of 5 seconds, and a small snippet of the ending whistle in "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding is sampled in "Eye Know" by De La Soul. Some are wholesale ripped off like "Move on Up" was stolen for Kanye West's "Touch the Sky" and Gil Scott Heron's song "Home is Where the Hate is" was stolen for Kanye West's "My Way Home."

I love doing this, it's one of my favorite things to do. It's a nice way to keep my memory going.

Alrighty then. That's all about me for now. Later, a rant.

Gentrification

The last post had some links to other blog posts about gentrification. Gentrification is the moving-in of more "affluent people" into an "low-class area." This raises the income of the neighborhood which increases the property values and rent. Since this area was originally low-class, the increasing rent forces the original inhabitants to move out because they can no longer afford to stay there.

With the movement of affluent people into this area, the area itself is changed. Businesses move in, while mom and pop businesses shut down. It's actually a fairly horrible thing. As I've heard from some of the posts, those who move in are not concerned with the original inhabitants. They are more concerned with their cafes with wireless internet than meeting their neighbors. They seem also to only care about their property value, which of course rises with the influx of more of their kind.

My neighborhood is experiencing what can only be described as a reverse gentrification. There is currently a plan to create a townhouse complex near here which would be for low-income families. This would drop the property values of my neighborhood. There is a campaign to stop their construction headed up by the Home Owner's Association. I oppose this campaign, and support the building of this low-income housing. There's no reason why it should be opposed. Simply because a greedy home owner wants to keep his property values up? Why should we forsake the affordable housing and great education of the less fortunate to protect the greed of people who probably have too much anyway?

Race, Media, and America

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately, and it kills me to see how many examples of covert racism we have in our media, and how easily people look over it every day. I'll link a couple different articles and say something short at the end.

Feministing has an article here about Beyonce getting airbrushed basically white, and here about Freida Pinto (star of Slumdog Millionaire) being airbrushed lighter as well.

Racialicious has an post about the white-washing of the Avatar the Last Airbender live-action movie. You may remember that I discussed white-washing in Hollywood earlier. Angry Asian Man has some posts on it as well.

Racialicious (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites) has another post on The Princess and the Frog. I like this one a lot because it covers a lot of points people bring up about criticisms about the movie.

Here's feministing discussing gentrification (not exactly about racism, but still an interesting read on the politics and ethics of it). Another one here by racialicious.

Here's one on removing minorities from the idea of the "average American" in polls. It's from Sociological Images.

This one comes from Sociological Images as well, and it's mind-boggling. It's about the Muslim threat that the world finds it self facing. I'm not sure what the take away from this video is. Should we all be having more children?

Besides the gentrification pieces, all of these posts are on the the intersection of race and the media. All of the posts are on issues found in far-reaching modes of communication. The internet, newspapers and news programs, magazines, freaking Disney!

Disney, with a reputation of racism, should be highest on the list of people to complain about, but when complaints are voiced, those complaints are silenced by people saying that blacks are just being ungrateful or too sensitive. Whagt other princess has been changed into an animal for most of the dang movie? How many other mixed-race prince and princess couples have there been, and why are they just starting now with the black princess. It's the same thing with Hitch. They would not cast a black woman as the lead because the studio didn't want it to be a "black movie."

Complaints are being silenced when they are thrown at Avatar as well by saying that roles shouldn't be based on race alone. The fact is that Asians have been cut from parts so often that it doesn't seem to be possible that the studios will let an Asian lead character can carry a film on his own. They must be relegated to side-kick or co-star. Finally, Asian Americans had not only one hero, but multiple heroes to identify with, and Nickelodeon has snatched that away by white-washing the cast.

We are daily bombarded with images and writings that are absurdly racially insensitive or even borderlining on overt racism. We cannot sit back and just accept these images as the way the world is. They may be how the world is today, but if there is nothing done, it will be the way the world is tomorrow as well.

Back Home

I got home two days ago. It's so nice not having to worry about school and just living for myself. Too bad that ends in about a week. Oh well.

So, when I came home, I found a for sale sign in our yard. Apparently we're moving to Missouri City, about 20 minutes away from our current location. How lame(ish). You would think that after retiring, my family would be over the whole moving thing. Apparently not.

Hmm, not much else to say. New York is on its way to passing laws respecting marriage rights. I'm working on events for Coalition for Diversity. I'm probably going to go swimming in a bit.

Hasta luego!

Wanda Sykes!

Wanda Sykes is amazing. I think she's one of the funniest comedians out there currently, man or woman. Recently she was at the White House Correspondence Dinner giving the usual comedy routine and she killed it. There will be nothing that ever touches Stephen Colbert's routine at the same dinner a few years ago, but she still did amazingly. There were some very, very, very hard-hitting jokes such as the one about Rush Limbaugh, "I think he was the 20th hijacker, he was just too strung-out on Oxycontin and missed his flight," and one about Sarah Palin, "Sarah Palin isn't here tonight. She pulled out at the last moment. Somebody should tell her that's not how practicing abstinence works!" but overall she had the crowd going. If you listen carefully, you can here the Fox News table jeering and booing at a couple of the jokes, but the reaction was mainly positive.

Dinner videos:





Wanda Sykes on the word 'Gay':



Wanda Sykes on Gay Marriage:
Greatest argument against those who oppose marriage rights




Obama at the White House Correspondence Dinner:




And OF COURSE! Stephen Colbert absolutely destroying Bush:

Great News!

It always makes me excited to post about things like this!

Maine has legalized gay marriage! And Washington DC now recognizes gay marriages performed elsewhere! It's at times like these when I wish I had the technological know-how to make an interactive map!

So, let's list them

Maine
Vermont
Iowa
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Washington DC

So that's 5 states and the capital! We've got a tenth of the nation! Let's keep it rolling!

I propose we stop calling it gay marriage. Blacks didn't call their rights black rights. They called them civil rights, as in they pertain to everyone in the nation. So I will be henceforth calling "gay marriage" victories marriage victories. Or referring to states as recognizing marriage rights.

Doing Good

So, an idea just popped in my head. I'm wearing TOMS shoes. A girl I know was recently wearing TOMS shoes. It's interesting how truly lazy we are and how we like to show off our good deeds.

As most people know, TOMS shoes gives a pair of shoes to poor children (I believe in Africa) for every pair of shoes you buy. I got mine for free at Clinton Global Initiative. They gave every person in attendance a pair. There are TOMS parties where you put designs on the shoes and everything.

I have nothing against the people who make TOMS. By all means, they're doing a great service. I have something against the people who buy TOMS and think they're making a difference. In actuality, they're just buying a commodity, and it just so happens that they're helping someone at the same time. People buy TOMS shoes thinking they're helping a poor child and do nothing after that. It's interesting that people are most interested in helping someone out when they get something in return.

The perfect example is from when I worked at a grocery store. We used to hold drives and would ask the person buying their items if they wanted to donate a dollar to Breat Cancer or Colon Cancer, things along those lines. People right and left would deny us (especially the people who bought hundreds of dollars worth of groceries, like an extra dollar would break their budgets). Because we weren't getting a lot of money, we started giving incentives to give money. We would give away slices of cake, some bottles of water, anything. We saw a dramatic rise in donations when there was some type of reward involved.

Very few people volunteer. A lot of high schoolers volunteer, but most of them volunteer to look good on their college applications, not to actually help another. My roommate is going on a medical mission trip. I think he's going to pad his resume for medical school. It's sickening. It takes all of the humanity out of humanitarian aid. Although, yes, they are helping a small bit, they should be helping for the sake of other people, not themselves.

I am volunteering next year at Planned Parenthood. I'm not doing it for the resume building, I'm not doing it to get service hours for some organization. I'm doing it because I want to help people who actually need help. I want to do Teach for America not because it looks good on a law school application, but because I've grown up privileged enough to go to good schools but I know the horrors of inner city public schools. I want to first give back to a system that gave me my education, and second give the children who didn't have the opportunities that I had a chance to receive them.

In high school, I didn't volunteer at all. First I was lazy. Second, I didn't want to be like all the other people volunteering with no heart, just for the gold star by their name. But really, they were better than me. Although they weren't in the right place, they were at least out there. They were getting something done. They might have put in the required 100 hours and been gone, but that was a 100 more hours than I helped.

So this post had two points. First, I wish that people would donate, time or money. Both are small sacrifices made for the benefit of those less fortunate. Second, even if you're volunteering for all the wrong reasons, I have to give you props for being out there. It's actually wonderful to see people helping out, for whatever reason. I just think it's better when your heart is in the right place.

Oh man Oh Man

I have spent the entire day doing things other than studying. I need to study. It's imperative. Oh well, I'll get it done now.

Your moment of zen

An End

TO the ridiculous assumption that there's no reason for atheists to be moral. In fact, the question itself ignores literally THOUSANDS of years of philosophical thought. And really, if we're discussing ethics and morality, it's automatically a philosophical question.

Anyways, here's just a small list of moral philosophers and their ideas on morals without God


Aristotle - believes that reason was how you realized virtue. Reason for being virtuous is happiness (i.e. being virtuous will give you the truly happy life). Happiness is the reason for people to be moral.

Aquinas (theologian) - has the same conception of virtue that Aristotle has, except he applies it to the city of man. He also has a conception of virtues with God. But even then, the virtues of the man without god lead to temporal happiness and greater justice among men.

Kant - did not have a conception of God in his moral philosophy. All morals came a priori, discovered by reason. This was an entirely secular moral philosophy. The reason to subject yourself to this moral law is to fully acknowledge your freedom. To not put yourself under this law is to be nothing more than an animal.


Actually, it's more reasonable for the man with a personal God to be immoral than it is for the atheist. For a Christian, God absolves man of his sins, so why not be immoral now and be absolved later?

For the atheist (or anyone with no conception of an afterlife) morality is much more important because they only have one chance at this life, and morality allows for the best cohesion with their fellow man.

Anyways, if anyone gets hit with this question, I suggest this response.

"Nichomachean Ethics ftw! Now GTFO!"

Man, I'm Bad at Updating

I've been swamped lately, so here's an update until I have something real to say.

I've discovered a lot of "new" blogs in the past couple days. I put new in quotes because they're fairly established and I just happened to stumble upon them.

Blogs:
Feministe
Raciewire
Sociological Images (quite awesome)
Texts From Last Night


There's another feminist site I frequent called Feministing. I like it much better than feministe, because it updates more and it has a lot of different posters. But feministe is good too. Texts from last night are mostly drunk texts, some ridiculous booty call texts, and the occasional drug text. It's really funny. Racewire and Sociological Images are along the same topic, one dissects pictures while the other just discusses topics of race.

In an update from the last post, I did get External Vice President of ASA, which means I am not only an officer in every organization I am in, I am also on the executive board of every organization I am in. I'm going to have to start going to more organization meeting, just to stay visible for Coalition for Diversity.


Coalition is going to be awesome. I am happy with our board of officers. The vice president is really helpful and really committed to this. The girl who was also in the running for the vice president is now one half of the PR chair, and I think she will do great there. The Cahnz is the treasurer which is good because she had some great ideas for fundraisers with ASA so hopefully she can bring that over to us. I'm excited.

I have been listening to a lot of music I listened to when I was younger (14-15) and it has taken on somewhat of a new meaning for me. I thought I understood them back in the day, but I still find new things in every song. If you read The Moviegoer, there is a ritual the main character does where he does something very similar or identical to something he did in the past to try and eliminate the time that happened between the two happenings. I feel like I get how that works, but then again, not really. Oh well.

I've been talking to Morgan a lot about language and stuff like that, and she really makes me excited to learn a new language. After talking with her, I really want to buckle down and actually learn Spanish. I have to study really hard for my final coming up anyways, so it will be easy to start figuring out the conjugations. After I get all those down, I will have a basic grasp of the language. I just won't have a good pool of vocabulary. Morgan speaks French almost perfectly, and sometimes we have small conversations where she speaks in French and I speak in Spanish. It's actually really fun.

Class is over. Dead days extend until this Tuesday. My first exams are on Wednesday. Next Monday is my last exam. I don't think I will be leaving until the 13th since I wanna go to this social night a friend is putting on. The after that, it will only be 2 weeks until I move into my apartment. That will be awesome. I cannot wait.

Hasta luego!