why are we leaning towards socialism?
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/why_obamas_socialism_matters_1.html
http://www.economist.com/vote2008/index.cfm...
We all are aware that we have an immune system. Have you ever taken the time to really appreciate it?
The mother of all websites, HowStuffWorks, has written a great article pertaining to why the immune system is to thank for your body being able to continue it's daily actions. It gets really in depth toward the middle, but most of the article will put you in a state of awe; and if you know all about it, then you already are.
And what a week and a half. I'll be writing about it soon enough, linkin' it up to my Deutschland! blog. But for now, a soothingly upbeat piece by a guy with a name that makes me hungry and want to play video games:
I've made a playlist by the amazingly unique name of "Just One" which keeps my attention pretty well.
It's a list made of one song (and no more than one) from each artist. I find myself becoming bored with a playlist because it's lack of variation. This seems like a pretty surefire way to keep the pace changing without losing its appeal over time. Here are some tracks:
I remember seeing the site a week or so ago saying that they were filming a session with Via Audio and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. This stuff came out great. It shows the two bands covering each other's songs, playing others, and really showing what it means to make music. They're some fun loving people playing music (as Hard to Find a Friend says) "together as a super group of sorts, banging on pots and pans, cheese graters, basketballs, guitars, and singing into fans."
I absolutely love this kind of stuff. Mad props to the site for putting this session together. I want a DVD.
Okay, well it's not really Sunday. But the Germans have taken today off in honor of the Great Sir Pentecost... whoever that is. Not! Everyone knows she was a woman.
Haha, but anyway. Here are some saWEET things stumbled upon and read throughout the week:
(1) Ron (from The Wisdom Journal) wrote an intriguing article about the important things every new manager should know. I'm not close to being a manager of any sort in the near future, but I realize that this information can be useful down the road. He makes some great points, and it's a good thing to think about in any work situation.
(2) Lifehacker has dug up an amazing little game called Phun, a physics game that puts you in total control. I've been playing it all morning, with nothing outside of wetting my pants being able to stop me.
(3) My friend/fellow student/coworker/roommate Fil has hooked me up with this crazy video called "An Eye for an Eye":
Now as the Germans like to say: "upon another seeing!" (auf wiedersehen!)
cloud cult has been around since 1995 and not a single ounce of news about them has ever made it to my ears. not one word. my friend adam just happened to force his headphones upon me one day in munich, all the while professing his undying love for their new album feel good ghosts. adam has always had a great taste in music, so i let him wow me. good thing, because i'm about to buy their entire back catalog as a result.
feel good ghosts sucked me in immediately with quirky lyrics and sporadic sounds. from the first track until the thirteenth, i'm confident in saying that EVERY one is ambitious and carefully thought out. even that 20 second sound clip from the apollo 8 lunar voyage gives me chills.
cloud cult has crafted an album that is timeless. the album's theme seems ultimately existential, the lyrics being some that i have a hard time not following. the songs are littered with an immense arsenal of instruments, ranging from horns to electronic beats to even a whistling section. the quirkiness of the singer's voice alongside this array of sounds puts the band on a new level of unique.
feel good ghosts is in no rush to try and impress you. about half of the tracks start of with a long intro before breaking into a very original song structure (read: "hurricane and fire survival guide"). nothing on the album sounds recycled or out of place. every little nuance is there, happily waiting for you to find it. they have a great sense of humor about themselves as well, evident in the track "story of the grandson of jesus".
i can't wait to dig into cloud cult's back catalog. they have a pretty significant amount of albums including a full length called the meaning of 8 out in 2007. the fact that a band such as this has stayed under the radar from me for so long truly floors me. wow.
i miss video games. i've been thinking about playing them ever since i left. luckily, i have the internet, so it can give me at least a taste of what's going on in the states. apparently a new mario kart came out for the wii. that got me really wanting a fix. you guys don't know how lucky you have it back there.
here's a video of a few guys playing out a hilarious fake mario kart bit. it is priceless.
band break-ups are hard. for an act that has been together for years it's often sad to see it go, for both fans and members. the break-up will inevitably bring many fans to tears, as they know the band has given so much but will never again. they will never tour, never record, never play together again.
music a memorable band plays together is much greater than the sum of it's parts. the singular parts are all present and accounted for: the drummer drums, the singer sings, the tamborinist... tamborines; but if a band or artist is any good, the combination of those sections form a separate entity that stands on it’s own. that sound is precisely what makes your skin chill, your heart beat hard and your senses intensify. it is exactly what makes me fall in love with the music i listen to.
the selling point in a band is usually their singer, or often times a guitarist. i believe that this can cause somewhat of a rift between them the other members of a band. that member becomes the “leader” of the group, which can bring ultimately disjointed music. music that sounds as though one part is in the forefront, while the rest are an afterthought. it’s one of many problems with popular music today. such a selfish attitude must surely bring bands to split.
luckily there are many acts out there that concentrate wholeheartedly upon the idea of cohesion. they are aware of the fact that if only they work together, they can create the most memorable music. their idea of music is something entirely different than the one that permeates popular music culture. they are focused on getting things done at their own pace, working together and making sure it’s right.
sure enough though, there will always be disagreements between members. although they’ve given what they could, it just can’t work anymore. the implosion of a band, however, doesn’t come without perks.
what i find great in a band’s break-up is the overwhelming potential for new projects to bloom. unless the members vow to never again make music, which is not normally the case, the chances that fresh endeavors will follow are pretty high. they can sometimes prove to be even greater than the original line-up.
take, for example, the dear hunter. the front man of that band, casey crescenzo, used to be in a band called the receiving end of sirens. it had three singers at the time i had heard of them, which seemed not to fit casey’s artistic desires. it was evident in the first album from the receiving end of sirens that he was looking to branch out and undertake something huge.
he soon left the band to focus his attention solely upon the dear hunter, which clearly better caters to his big ideas. the receiving end of sirens released a new album sometime last year, and although they sound a bit different, they’re still the same band. i thought it would have surely been all over for the band after losing one of their more important members, but they were able to both prosper after the split. the dear hunter is one of my favorite bands at the moment, and if this split hadn’t occurred between the members, it wouldn’t exist.
it just seems to me that much of the good about a band comes after the break up. we'll just have to see where members of a band like the format will be headed after their quick and unexpected split.
here's a live video (thanks to my friend marc p for throwing this my way) from the format:
