Calm 'n' Punk

I saw a bumper sticker today that said "I'm already against the next war". This was one of the nicest things I've seen in a while.

I find it hard these days to focus on the specifics or details of anything in the world, aside from living my own life happily and surrounding myself with people who make me happy (and who hopefully feel the same way about my presence!). I can't really be bothered with the news, politics, music, TV shows or movies. I do enjoy these things, but I really just like being around the same old awesome people, eating the same old food that I like, and laughing about the same old things.

This seems very selfish of me, as I stop to think about what I'm putting in the proverbial ink here. As of now, however, I'd really like to focus on being positive and optimistic on my own terms and hope that the world takes care of itself without me.

Songs I want to hear tonight:
Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place
Ging Nang Boyz - I Don't Wanna Die
Sokabe Keiichi - Doyou no Yoru
Doobie Brothers - What A Fool Believes

Your Kind of Loving Makes Me Feel So Good

As a sage once said, "No give up."

As the same sage once said, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

Every Mother's Child is Going to Spy

Not only is this a great song, but the story behind it is cute.

I have a couch and a xmas tree now!

Naughty Boys x Crass Crew

I think that the first two Yellow Magic Orchestra albums are some of the best music I've ever heard.

東風

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Tong Poo



New neighborhood haunt, Jus' Like Ya Mama's Soul Food.

Horchata

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Technopolis



Crass House in half effect! Gnarboots practice tonight. Gnarboots show on Saturday. Here's to surviving another week.

No Con Chones

Flans - No Controles



Thank you, iTunes, for validating me as a Mexican by playing two Mexican songs in a row while set to shuffle.

I Drive A Flying Car

Ugly Duckling - A Little Samba



Looking forward to establishing Crass Posse HQ! Looking forward to beating this flu!

Let's Chill, Let's Settle Down

Guy - Let's Chill



It's great to have a 2 week long battle with the flu during one of the busiest times of your life. If only the world could share this joy with me!

I'd Hit On Myself If I Could

Wallpaper - I Got Soul (I'm So Wasted)

My Cup Runneth Over

Dennis Brown - Here I Come

You're The One That I've Been Waiting For

The Stylistics - Betcha Bye Golly Wow

The Ex-Factor

It took y'all long enough to catch up!

Thank You

The Dreamoning

The VTA became Muni for a day and I made many friends on the buses and rails:

Friend #1: "Hey man, you know if this train is still running? I just got outta jail, man, they arrested me for drinking in public. I wanna go to my cousin's house 'cuz I'm getting hungry."

Friend #2: "Ahh sup homes! You goin' this way?... Ahh sick homes! I think I'm gonna have to make it out to Empire and 8th to crash with my bitch out there. I got this other bitch out by the Great Mall too, though, wanted to go out there. Sheeeit. I ain't even been home in 3 days, just out drinkin' homes!"

Friend #3: "What they fools talkin' 'bout? What theeey fools talkin' bout?!?! I don't want nothin' less than that yella pussy! Go 'head and get mad! Don't want nothin' less than that yella pussy!!! Go 'head and get mad!"

Amazing

I Love Being A Turtle

PRATT!

Life continues to unfold as a series of Inbetweeners-esque vignettes, but everyone is 25 instead of 16. Something about all of it is still very redeeming, in spite of our constant follies. Just knowing that I have awesome friends is enough for me, really. If I can't get my act together, at least I can bungle it up with good people.

Lazy Cats

This is not unlike what a normal, unemployed day is like for me... GAH!!!!

The Underground Sound

I'll be on the air with DJ Coco tonight on KSCU 103.3 FM. You can listen online at www.kscu.org

NICE!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Who needs an excuse to post excessive cat videos???? NOT ME!

It is NOT what it is

'Whatever' voted most annoying word

I enjoyed reading this article about the most annoying words/phrases in American English. My personal most hated phrase is, of course, "it is what it is".

Obanye

I'm only mildly depressed by the fact that my life is boring enough that such videos entertain me.

Faith In The World

Why are people so stupid? Unfortunately, this video won't answer your question, it'll just frustrate you more.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/countdown-obamas-speech-vs-right-wing-indo

I'm Over It

Along with forgetting a good chunk of the English language, I also feel like a jerk now for occasionally using big words, because I think that other people probably wouldn't understand them. Thank you Japan, for ruining me.

This video is tight:

Dog People

I've found earplugs in the back pockets of two separate pairs of pants that I haven't worn in more than year. Dope!

I want a cat again:


I think that life in San Jose has the potential to be totally awesome as long as I am not a hermit. This last week has been one of the funnest in my life.

Saiyan

Seen in San Francisco, March 2007, after I had gone to see Go!Go!7188 perform.

Montezu... I mean, Mao's Revenge

I went to China a few weeks back. It was tight. Awesome energy. Dudes rolling up their shirts, exposing their bellies. Cute honeys. Watermelon galore. Tea. Dope, melodramatic C-Pop music videos. I had diar...*ahem* digestive problems for 10 days after getting back from China, and then I started getting some crazy rashes spreading up and down my inner arms. It all went away the day that I left Japan.

Dang... I need a new adventure.

The Office Marathon

I think that living in Japan has given me a healthy disrespect for pointless red tape, and prepared me well for ignoring it whenever possible!

MAJIDE???

Plus
Burritos
Horchata
Weather
Sunlight

Minus
No Bears
No Nihomies.　(Team 3P 4 Life)
No ambition.
No matakano (yet?)

Never Wanna Be Seventeen Again

Seventeen Again made a video for one of the songs on their upcoming album which includes footage that I took of them. NICE! Check it out:

Take me, take me

Chocolate Disco

New Perfume album in July!

Ta[c/k]o

Taco and takoyaki party today!

Post Script

The passage to the roof has been locked!

I go out on Friday and I come home on Friday night before Saturday morning. Star Trek tomorrow!

クリボウじゃない

Very few things annoy me more than the DJing of a party by concensus of the masses. The average person has horrible taste in music, and more often than not, no one else wants the DJ's dope funk mix interrupted by that one Coldplay song that Jane just can't stop listening to, nor the burned Gwen Stefani CD that Mary brought with her. At a party, one should let the host of the party, or the host's designated music dude handle the music selection, and just enjoy the party for all of its many other merits.

This annoyance also extends to John's decision to bring congas to the party. There is a certain energy to be felt by drumming with your friends, but everyone else who is slouching in the couch and trying to talk over your tribal fusion really wants you to shut up and put the Stevie Wonder back on.

Here's to more parties!

Rooftop BBQ, anyone?

Well, I'll be...

On a rational level, Obama's election to the office of President was a happy occasion, but it didn't really do much for me on an emotional level. Of course, I would've been really bummed out if he'd have lost. It would've just been more weight put on to the pile of stress on my back that I have learned to ignore. Luckily, he won, but I still went about life like it was any other day. My mom wrote to me shortly after his election about how excited she was about everything Obama was doing, but it all seemed so distant to me.

Halfway through reading an article today about Obama's proposal to push wind-power I suddenly started feeling really happy. It only just hit me today that he really is the real deal. FOR REAL! There can't be any way that he's pulling a fast one us. He is actually a real good dude, and that's that. All the little things that he's doing to counteract the countless years of awfulness that I've witnessed are just too real to not smile about.

Nice.

Rejected Band Names

Stringer Bell & The Drells

Deli

Tonight I heard Less Than Jake's "My Own Flag" playing as I walked through the mall. For a variety of reasons I've written off Less Than Jake for years, but something about hearing that song tonight really struck me and had me feeling all sentimental and melancholy, especially since hearing Less Than Jake's first album in a Japanese mall is about as unexpected as it gets. I'm not really at a loss for Americana here in Japan, since food and entertainment and everything else American has pretty well infiltrated life out here. I am at a loss for the community and context that would've made Less Than Jake meaningful to me. Maybe that's why hearing this band again brought back the feelings of discovery and excitement that I felt when I first heard Pezcore and stuff of that sort as a teenager.

I came home and found this:

http://www.thetraintracks.org/track.php?id=39

I'm glad that Andrew Jackson Jihad is still around, since they're one of the only groups going these days that really can make me feel music in the same that I would have as an impressionable young dufus.

News From the Homeland

Well...

Forbes Magazine just named one of Mexico’s most notorious drug cartel leaders, Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, as one of the world’s richest people. He’s worth an estimated $1 billion, ranking him as the 701st wealthiest person on Earth.

I can understand why Obama said that legalizing weed wouldn't be the best way to create jobs. I mean, how many stoners do you know who are motivated to do anything, let alone work??? But, seriously, we ought to give it some thought...

Current music:

I love it when you make me some saaaaalsa

This is the first recorded appearance of the Notorious BIG, but of more note is the insane way that Puffy is rapping. And this 3rd Eye guy... I kind of like his flow...???

Nerdcore Rising

As if my credibility isn't already shot by my unabashed love of 30 year old Japanese pop, I am now listening to MC Frontalot, the man who coined the term "NERDCORE" hip-hop.

Skate or Die!

Guts Man

Here's a video of one of the better records I picked up while in Tokyo last week:



NIIIIIIIIICE!

Just Like Jimmy Carter

In defense of Jimmy Carter:

"In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption.... But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning....

Little by little we can and we must rebuild our confidence. We can spend until we empty our treasuries, and we may summon all the wonders of science. But we can succeed only if we tap our greatest resources – America's people, America's values, and America's confidence."

Read more HERE