April 2012
27 posts
Sunshine
Atmosphere
Recap of this weekend
- The alumni game is basically VC Rugby annual family reunion. As much as it sucks to play against 40-year-old men with something to prove, (also to play against your own teammates) it is pretty inspiring to see people who come back to see their brothers (and sisters) every year. VC Rugby is directly responsible for me meeting some of my best friends and also the lady, so… pretty much the greatest thing in my life.
- This was probably the best Founder’s Day I’ve had here. Though I didn’t get to start until after everyone else, I still was able to get on peoples’ levels. Got to nap and rally with the lady after, and then the palace diner + low key times at the THs was a nice way to tie everything together.
- Awesome hangover brunch at Brasserie this morning. Irish Coffee + assorted pastries + Braised Short Rib Potato Cakes w/ horseradish, (perfect) poached eggs, and Bearnaise.
- More naps
I don’t want this year to end.
Play
“omg. dude. south park. dude. omg. south park.”
—Andrew Rovner
On How Today Has Ruled (So Far)
- Got a lot of sleep, feel well-rested (y)
- Got to wear my nicest suit (one of my favorite things), and officially got a really awesome internship at the Dutchess County Public Defender’s Office. It seems like the internship has a lot of cool tasks and a fair amount of autonomy. Plus it’s only two days / week, which should give me time to work on making money, thesis research, crossfit, and adventures!
- Signed my IGF contract, so I’ll be getting that $$$ soon.
- Stoked on finally figuring out how my beard should be trimmed (a little embarrassing, I guess, but whatever).
- Finally did laundry / cleaned my room after 2 weeks / 6 weeks (respectively)
- Flosstradamus new mix is pure post-trap fire and is exactly where I want edm to be going in the next year—hopefully this style of music will be blowing up in *~*clubs*~*
- Tomorrow is Founder’s Day!!
Siouxsie and the Banshees- Kiss Them For Me (School of Seven Bells Cover)
Came across this song last night. I love the original track by Siouxsie and the Banshees, so finding this SVIIB cover was awesome. When it comes to covers (except for gratuitous hardcore covers of pop or hip hop tracks) I’m always of the mind that you shouldn’t cover a track unless in doing so you can reinterpret and re-imagine the song, letting it express things the original did not.
On a more timely note, this is sort of what Founder’s Day sounds like to me. There’s a sort of transcendental quality to the track that mirrors how people just sort of float around/through Founder’s Day.
Either way, listen to this track. It’s really good and really sexy. LISTEN.
If you're interested.. →
docs.google.com
This is the lady’s thesis. Speaking as objectively as possible, I think it does an excellent job of examining how our collective memory informs our American Identity, and the role road and road trips play in that. I found it interesting, engaging, and new, and I really suggest you read it. </proudboyfriend>
Something I wrote is getting published, kinda
Helicon (Vassar’s Literary Magazine) is publishing a poem I wrote about how I’m a douche bag and New Jersey sucks (that and complaining about girls is pretty much my bread and butter as a poet [fuck did I just refer to myself as a poet?]).
A Lot Of Things Have Lost Their Charm
A lot of things have lost their charm.
Like this train which
Seems more like a cattle car
Fat white cows with collars
Coughing, sputtering, snoring
Too loudly
At this moment I can see at least
Ten of the same face.
Or my home
Seems like quaint doesn’t quite
Do it anymore
Not to say I’m looking for more
I’m no stranger to settling for settling
There’s just no conversation to be had here
And it’s more ‘empty’ now than ‘open’ or ‘vast’
There’s a difference between distance and disconnect
(Though I couldn’t tell you what it is).
Or these songs
Seems like Dad was right
Maybe I am / We are just cynical
But the ‘earnesty’ strikes me as false
Or at very best, forced
Sounds like coughing, sputtering, snoring
Too loudly
Not to say I won’t keep listening
I’m no stranger to settling for settling
There’s just this feeling that the joke is on me
And it’s more ‘funny’ than ‘upsetting’ or ‘sad’
There’s a difference between giving up and giving in
(Though I can’t tell you what it is).
Or me.
A lot of things have lost their charm.
“I promise you, the president has a big stick.”
—Joe Biden, on attacking Mitt Romney’s foreign policy plans. (via theatlantic)
No Future (The Children's Crusade)
Last Lights
“underground or under ground
it’s better to be lost than found
I’ve seen the “wonders” of the world, they mean nothing to me
it’s a slave trade / war parade / landfill / strip mall / death factory
I’m the one you call “none” and this is my prayer:
no past, no present, no future”
Seeing Refused has definitely put me on a hardcore binge. Last Lights would have been the next great American Hardcore band if their singer/frontman/primary songwriter Dominic Mallory hadn’t died after collapsing at a show. Instead, the surviving members have gone on to form Mountain Man. While Mountain Man is easily one of the best contemporary American Hardcore bands, the straightforward fury and urgency that characterizes Last Lights’ catalog is absent, replaced by more artistic experimentation.
The biggest demographic of hardcore music is middle class white men. It’s easy to ask, “Why are you, some of the most privileged people in the entire world, so angry?” When I was younger, that’s definitely a question my dad had for me. It’s still a question I have for younger me. Truth is, I don’t know WHY middle class white men are angry—maybe it’s a sense that the American Dream is a thing of the past, or as Mallory writes, “the holy grail is a cup of piss.” Maybe it’s because, as evidenced in my treatment of the question, any sense of anger we have is simultaneously delegitimized by our privilege, though that does nothing to assuage it.
