Racism is weird

Im in a cab with an african cab driver. Nigerian i believe. Will find out in a bit. Not likely born here. Amazing though, to look at him, and hear him, and interact with him, for anyone to respond in a hateful way. Or even to think him that different aside from language. Where does this nonsense come from?

New bike idea?

I wants this.

It's Complicated (you know, like the FB status, yeah, I referenced)

Got reminded tonight about a girl, a lawyer in fact (stopped making that mistake), that I stopped trying to see after one date, not even one full date, because of politics. It wasn't even a Republican, it was an old school, upper class democrat-type, but with some rather conservative and in my opinion, horribly wrong economic ideas. People making over a certain amount of money should in fact be taxed a little more.

I kind of miss those days sometimes! Timing sucks. I like it black and white and well, I can't have it that way, at least not yet. I especially miss the days where romance won or lost? Or at least, I wish I could whip together something poetic, tell someone that there's something special happening inside my stomach, and they're so into how fucking cheesy and cute I got, we're boyfriend and girlfriend and we can grow together more.

Officially speaking, I'm against it, though maybe not quite as much as your typical liberal/way left-wing kind of guy.

Aside:
I have my own hypocrisy when it comes to the death penalty, but...I don't understand it when people say "how can you be pro-life, but pro-death penalty?"

I mean, the very concept of the death penalty builds in the idea that you've done something to forfeit any sanctity there is to your life, etc...

The stress of the complicated

Im not really a believer in the idea that simple and easy are better and indicative of anything special. That said, the complicated always seems more stressful, and more mentally exhausting. Uncertainty is a huge part of life...but dealing with it lingering on every touch and word can make you want to wish it all away.

Bogus phrase...

The universality of the phrase "it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game" is totally lost on me. All that matters is whether you win or lose! Apply that to your personal relationships and tell me you can be happy and understand things, and be ok with it, because you "lost?" Every loss you are emotionally damage, rejected, cast aside, or not reciprocated.  Yet we tell ourselves, at least we cared, at least we tried, at least we put it out there. Nonsense! That's all well and good, but to say that it doesn't matter, to say that we played is enough...that is to say that we don't need to grow and learn and understand things better. It is to say that my self now played, and lost, and well, at least I played. NO! You must ask yourself, what can I do to make myself better. What have I not thought about. What is plaguing me now. I am not perfect, nor can I ever be, but, I can always be better. I can always learn. That is what is crucial. It isn't enough that you played, ever. It is only enough if you played and you took notes. That you said, "forever, and ever, I can always grow more and learn more, and nothing is just a game."

Thinking at Work

I've always tried to do some creative thinking while doing boring work. I realized today though, it's very image focused. I can imagine what a city in a fantastical world looks like, or a magical tree, but plot-lines and dialogue are significantly harder, nevermind poetical projects.

A string which is fixed at both ends will exhibit strong vibrational response only at the resonant frequencies

Sometimes my heart feels like a guitar string.

Revolution Brewing hosts the Chicago History Museum

Here's the details below, follow the link to buy a ticket.

Punk ‘n’ Brew Beer Dinner

Monday, April 9, 7:00 p.m.
Location: Revolution Brewing, 2323 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Join us for an evening of history, punk music, and rockin’ good food. We’ll enjoy four courses and beer pairings inspired by punk music. Learn about Revolution Brewery’s punk connections while rocking out to a kickin’ playlist. Price includes four courses, beer pairings, tax, and gratuity.

Menu

First Course
Canned Food
House Made Cherry Jagerwurst, Maple Rosemary White Bean Ragout, and Michigan Cherries Soaked in Coup d etat. Beer Pairing: Coup d’état
Second Course
Jonny Rotten Ramen
House Made Ramen Noodles, Soy Egg, Pork belly, Smoked Beach Mushrooms, Leeks Spinach, Toasted Nori.
Beer Pairing: Barley Wine
Third Course
Fried Burrito
Coriander refried beans, braised beef, avocado emulsion, La frère camembert, gorgonzola sour cream, and house made hot sauce. Beer Pairing: TV Party
Fourth Course
The Mohawk
Beet ice cream, spicy brownie, bourbon chocolate shell, blood orange brittle and caramel. Beer Pairing: Repo Man
Cost: $60, $55 members

Potato Artichoke Salad

Copied from Coconut & Lime, one of my favorite food blogs. I'm going to make the shit out of this the next day a cold salad is appropriate. I'm thinking of adding some fresh garlic to that dressing. Chervil if I can find it, otherwise, a mix of parsley and the green part of fennel.

Ingredients:
4 cups cooked, finely diced potatoes
14 oz (canned) artichoke hearts in brine, drained and quartered
1 large shallot, minced
1 stalk celery, finely diced


dressing:
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoon Dijon
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon chervil
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/8 teaspoon celery seed

Directions:
In a small bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients. In a large bowl, toss together the potatoes, artichoke hearts, shallot and celery. Drizzle with dressing. Stir to evenly coat the potato mixture in dressing.

Another Mix

Arovane - Tides
Darkstar - Under One Roof
Oneohtrix Point nEver - Replica
Emeralds - Double Helix
Boards of Canada - The Beach at Redpoint
Moderat - Rusty Nails
Four Tet - Angel Echoes
Apparat - Black Water
M83 - America
Fridge - Cut Up Piano
Cave - High, I Am
Arovane - Windy Wishy Trees
Calla - Rise
Burial - Ghost Hardware
The Antlers - Parentheses
Palm Skin Productions - Condition Red
Lindstrom - No Release
DJ Shadow - What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 1 (transmission 3)
Delarosa & Asora - Paz Suite 3
The xx - Shelter
Telefon Tel Aviv - John Thomas on the Inside is Nothing...
Isotope 217 - La Jetee
Mira Calix - Woody
Tristeza - Are We People?
Foals - Spanish Sahara
Hood - Enemy of Time
The Mercury Program - The Church of Cause and Effect
Juno - High Noon
Kurt Vile - Space Forklift
Phantogram - Mouthful of Diamonds
Radiohead - Lotus Flower
Red Stars Theory - A Sailor's Warning

Writing in codes

I got to think this morning. Dangerous, I'd not yet imbided any coffee.

1 - I am arrogant enough (not the adjective I'd wanted before, but it slipped my mind) to share with the world the things I like and the thoughts in my head, and I don't give a shit if people wish I'd do it less.

2 - Partially, because, I don't really think we owe anything to anyone. Maybe? I'm not sure how much I really stand by this thought.

3 - I try not to write in codes. I do try to write in an aesthetic style, one that is vaguely confessional without being overly detailed. But, I'm not hiding anything, I'm just assuming if you end up here at all, it's because you know me and wonder what I might say or reveal.

4 - Biggest artistic project idea right now. A series of philosophical poems. Each one is titled with an -ing word, in a series. They go from the meeting of two people, to the dance of courtship, to some end process. It won't be a simple hidden love story (no codes, fuckers, no codes), but will attempt to show how in the act of meeting people, we actually go through identity-defining philosophical processes.

5 - Strangely emotional today. Things keep making me tear up, but all in a good happy way.

Levels of quiet.

I can't really quiet the chorus in my head. Angels and demons oversimplifies it with a false cast of black and white. Still, it is amazing when you can find someone who makes the crowd in your head pause and almost silent, calm, relaxed. That is when my face to the world and the pool inside me reflect the same.

It's Complicated.

Sometimes, I wish I could take back every time I ever said that I'd rather live an interesting life than any other kind. Why didn't I pick easy? Rich? good, whatever that means (and don't get me started, that is a fucked up word)?

I'm not saying my life is some hard tragedy, just that in those areas where I'd love things to be easy, it never is, and is those areas where I want things to be hard and challenging, often they just lose importance and power and end up easy. Or so it seems.

In other news, I've battled this strange eye inflammation issue for awhile, and have worn my glasses for the longest period since I was in high school. I don't like it. I also am amused that they'll never really know the source of my inflamation, just like they never figured out why my brother was sick a couple of years ago. Sometimes, it seems like there's a little too much that ends up unexplained in life, and well, I'm not the kind of person to be comfortable with that. I'm comfortable with the new, and making new things happen, and plunging forward into new experiences, but I suck with things I can't explain and understand.

Music Mix, no. 1

1. Berg Sans Nipple
2. Gotye - Somebody I Used to Know
3. Do Make Say Think - Classic Noodlanding (came across while listening to Berg Sans Nipple songs)

4. Hot Snakes - Salton City
5. Engine Down
6. Moderat
7. Do Make Say Think - Noodlanding
8. The Drift - Dark Passage
9. Young Widows - something from In and Out of Youth and Lightness
10. Small Faces - Tin Solder (colour)
11. Apparat - Devil’s Walk
12. Oneotrix - Replica
13. Constantines and Feist - Islands in the Stream

Feels great...

I am lending my ladyfriend my car while I'm out of town.
It's such a simple gesture. But I love it, it means something in this constantly over thinking head of mine.

Some short movie reviews...

Y Tu Mama, Tambien  - finally saw this after what, ten years of it being out? It's really good. Juxtaposition of Mexican poverty and the love lives of two teenage boys and an older Spanish woman. Interesting twist at the end, in the sense that I felt it brought together two seemingly unconnected stories? I can see how some people would artistically find it a jarring movie though...

Shame - Not sure I liked it, but it was interesting. I couldn't connect to the characters, or feel much empathy or sympathy for them, without knowing more about how/why they were both so fucked up. What about the other people that intersected with their lives? None of them were particularly good foils, aside from the main characters boss (also, a douchebag). I liked a lot of the cinematography though and it told the story as it unfolded well. Just needed more exposition for my tastes. Great filming of the sex scenes...

Shortbus - Had never even heard of this, though of course I knew of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Entertaining. Sad. Funny. Sexy too. I don't think this is as remarkable of a movie about sex as the director hoped, but it IS refreshing. It's a pretty nicely written piece with some amateur acting chops and is fun to watch.

A Very Long Engagement - well, it's also a very long movie, but it's a really interesting tale. A polio-stricken woman trying to find out what happened to her fiancee on the frontlines of WWI speaks a little too much to romantic movie to me, and with Jeunet, I figured it would maybe be a weird romantic piece. Kind of played more like a detective movie in some parts, with everyone contributing to help solve the mystery of 5 condemned prisoners, one among them the fiancee of Audrey Tautou. I had to stick this movie out and finish it, and felt mostly rewarded by it too.

In the interest of...

I'm going to make myself write more in 2012. That's going to start with using this blog more. Mostly, I suspect, it'll be about music, the occasional politics, maybe dating. The latter...well, I won't name her, and if she runs across this post or any others and wants them more anonymous or closed to the public (or to her), that's fine. Music - a weekly mix! See previous post.  The beer blog will get more posts too.

Just got home from work and laughing at the way I pack to head over to the above-mentioned girl's place. It's not easy planning for practical things when all you want to do is get there and unwind. Her apartment is like haven of relaxation. I dig it a lot. Looking forward to finding out how her dog feels about Tweez and vice versa, because I'd like to hang out here more too.

Music Mix Project

Going to make weekly mixes, but based not on some kind of arrangement of good songs that I've chosen with a purpose in mind, or a person, but based on what pops into my head, what I listen to a lot that week, what people share online that I fall in love with, etc.

One per week!