Creature of Habit

I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food. Since I was a kid i've always liked the same foods, same meal combinations and same beverages. A change in diet is always a surprising and demanding endeavor. To this day, my mom still is surprised if I ever eat mushrooms or anything green. It's understandable though when looking at my dietary habits. Here are some examples of my steadfast habits and "usuals" at eateries I frequent.

Let's start at the most basic. School lunches.

If I brought lunch to school I would have one of the following sandwiches:
1) Roast Beef, Swiss Cheese, and Ranch Dressing on a roll.
2) Salsalito Turkey, Swiss Cheese, and Ranch Dressing on a roll.
Simple sandwiches supplemented with chips anda soda purchased at school. I would then use the 75 cents leftover from buying the chips and drink to buy spree and charleston chews at the school store. I had this pretty much every day for 4 years.

But what about eating out. Here's a breakdown of restaurants.

Subway: Turkey, Provolone, Lettuce, Tomato, Pickles, Banana Peppers, Cool Ranch Doritos, and Ranch on a wheat roll.

Pot Belly's: Wreck with pepperoni, no ham, lettuce tomato, ranch, on white.

Wendy's: #2, no onions.

Gallery: St. Asaph with Fries

Carvings: Logan's with Potato Chips.

And finally. The end all be all of habitual eating. I have quite literally never eaten anything other than the following item at the following establishment.

Out To Lunch Deli in Wilton, CT: Bacon, Egg, and Cheese with the chronic (hashbrowns and hot sauce) on a hard roll.

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Comfort food plays a big roll in my life. As a kid I always had the same foods on a bad day. My mom would make a cheesy, saucy pasta for birthdays. We'd make pancakes or real waffles on special occasions, and the Jewish tradition requires many familiar foods on specific holidays.

I believe that, because of these factors, i feel better with foods I have had many times before. A stressful schedule remedied by familiar nourishment.

Why I Love Hockey

Above is a fight between Milan Lucic and Chris Neil. The NHL administration is making attempts to bar fighting from the game altogether. Hockey is one of the only sports left where honor is an inherent part of the game. Fighting doesn't occur randomly for our entertainment. It is a response to unfair hits, extremely unsportsmanlike content, or general foul play. A cheap shot at a team captain or star player will lead to retaliations and fights.

If soccer was more like hockey, every team would play like Germany, Christiano Ronaldo would have a fat lip, and Zidane would have been a hero ad France would have won that World Cup.

A Scene In 6 Lines

I'm taking a playwriting class this semester to work on my writing. I've enjoyed creative writing for years and always look at situations from a slightly dramatic perspective. How would everyday interactions look on stage? I feel that organic theatre should just be life with better lighting and better jokes/responses.

Here's a scene I wrote relying on the lack of context. What elements can turn a nostalgic scene tragic?

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Leaving: a scene in 6 lines
Setting: foyer/entry room of house or apartment. Window and door.
John: stoic and calm with a twinge of annoyance
Becca: Flustered. Doing her best to linger.

John: Have you packed your bags? The car will be here any minute

Becca: I think so. I just have to check the kitchen. There are so many drawers and cabinets there, I’m sure I forgot something.

John: All right. Did you check under the bed? We want to make sure everything’s packed.

Becca: Yea, I’m pretty sure I have everything. (pause) I’m really going to miss this place.

John: I know. (looks out the window) The car’s here. It’s time to go.

Becca: (long pause, starts to cry) John, I’m sorry. If you ever change your mind about this, please call me. (notices John’s stone face). Ok… bye John.

A 9/11 Parody: "Too Soon" Can't Exist

Collegehumor recently created a spoof of the 9/11 tragedy by relating it to the destruction of the Death Star at the end of Star Ward IV: A New Hope.

Follow this link to the video

Some comparisons made (spoiler):

-Luke is Osama, hiding in a cave in the Degoba system.

-One stormtrooper was on his way to the death star that morning but hit traffic

-A stormtrooper thinks its all a cover up and Palpatine knew about it the whole time


This, of course, caused mixed feelings in the comment section of the page. A barrage of "too soon" and "I don't know how to feel about this" style comments started piling up. This was to be expected as many people believe any tragedy is off limits to parody lest someone's feelings be hurt. (but more on this later)

While, yes, I agree that some jokes are in poor taste (I'm looking at you 4chan), this was not a video making fun of the World Trade Center attacks. This was a video making fun of the monotonous conversations that happened ever 9/11 from 2002-present. Where were you when it happened? Did you know anyone? Who do you think is responsible? Some viewers took note of this style, accepted it as a clever parody, and enjoyed what bit of humor we can pull out of this tragedy. Others chose to take the offensive towards the offended. I was upset to find people using the phrase "Get Over It." Like many tragedies before it, 9/11 cannot be forgotten. It was a horribly dark time in our nations past where we never knew when we were safe. The time following the attacks did, however, bring a great brotherhood to our nation (outward racism aside). The Red Cross saw record blood donations and New Yorkers, DC residents, and the nation as a whole banded together, feeling even more pride than thought possible. America cannot simply get over these feelings

We can, however, find ways to get by. On September 11, 2001 I was in the 8th grade in Wilton, CT, a small town about 1 hour out of the city. We were all terrified. Friends were frantically calling parents who worked in the financial district, students were crying, teachers were crying, and our principal could barely get out the words describing what had happened.

When I got home, I watched every channel follow coverage of what had happened. I sat and watched the same 5 clips of one testament of man's technological triumph destroy another. Two days later, I could not take any more. I needed release. I needed something to make me feel something other and confusion, pain, and fear. So I turned to Nickelodeon. Rocket Power, my favorite cartoon at the time, was playing. Despite the events transpiring less than 70 miles from my home, I was able to smile, and I was able to realize that there would be life after these events. We, as a nation would not stay in a dark age of stoicism as emotions such as joy and happiness passed us by.

It is no surprise to anyone that knows me that I love nothing more than a strong piece of comedy. I have committed countless hours to listening to, memorizing, and re-telling bits, routines, and jokes that I have discovered. Events like 9/11 and the months that followed instilled in me the idea that one joke can change the world.

It was 9 days later, on September 20, 2001 that Jon Stewart, one of my heroes, returned to his post at the Daily Show. Before a desperate audience sat a man, beaten and broken by a horrible tragedy. But through his tears, he was able to make an audience laugh. Through his pain, he was able to instill hope that even when the sun sets, it will rise again in the morning.

This is his opening monologue that night.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
September 11, 2001
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

"It's a country that allows open satire, and I know that sounds basic. And it sounds as though it goes without saying. But that's really what this whole situation is about. It's the difference between closed and open."

"This attacked happened. It is not a dream. But the aftermath, is a dream realized."

The idea of "too soon" cannot exist. We cannot let a tragedy live only as that. We have comedy to help us get by. We have comedy to help get past the harsh memories of our past by finding bright sides and silver linings. If you can't find humor in tragedy then it becomes impossible to bear. We have to enjoy what pieces of that dark time we can. We take the darkness of pain and despair, and find touches of color so it's not so painful to look back on. Even if we can't get over it, we can still get by.

Brett Favre - Really?

Brett Favre in his hay day vs. Brett Farve in 2009


















I've loved watching Brett Favre ever since I was a little kid. He's the type of player that always played to win and was in it for the love of the game. He played a game the day after his father died and had one of the best games of his career and has earned the love and respect of every football fan in Wisconsin.

That being said, he needs to stop. The man with the most Touchdowns (and interceptions) of any QB in history just announced that he may be returning to the NFL this upcoming season despite his announcement at the beginning of the off-season assuring the NFL that the silver fox would not be returning.

There's something to be said about the resilience of older professional athletes. It's great to see a man in his late 30s and early 40s playing with the younger kids. Football is not one of the sports where this makes sense though. The average shelf life for an NFL player is 3 years. Favre is hitting 18 years if he continues with the Minnesota Vikings this year. His last season was mediocre, and it appears as if he's trying to prove something to the younger players. If he's hurt, he refuses to sit out. If he's thrown 3 picks, he continues to play. I don't care how many people he puts in seats. If he's not winning games, is it worth wasting space under your salary cap for a mediocre older player? I say no. Hang up the Jersey Brett. I loved watching you in the past, but it's just becoming sad.

Early Pixar Animation

This is "Pixar's" first animation. It was created at the Lucasfilm animation headquarters, but Willam Reeves, John Lasseter, and a few other Pixar animators were on that team. Think of the video games, cartoons, and movies that were created in the 80's. This is the year that Miami Vice and Punky Brewster (reoccuring topic i guess) came out. The fact that this type of animation was even possible is unbelievable. Just imagine the computers they had to work with for this. The Apple IIe had JUST come out the year before.

These were the best video game graphics available then.

Beatles Rock Band... worth it?

Here is a link to a promo for the upcoming Beatles: Rock Band

This game truly looks incredible. I will in no way deny them that. The graphics are unbelievable and any true fan of the beatles (movies and all) will adore this trailer.

My problem lies within the premise of the game. Rock Band has been a game aimed at expanding what Guitar Hero started. They added the drums and vocals to spawn new elements to the game play. For that, we are grateful.

However, the fun part of the game lies in all of the different music that is available. We get to play rap, rock, pop, classic rock, indie. Anything we want is available. While, yes, the Beatles repertoire is one of the greatest song catalogues of all time, they are simply one band. The Aerosmith Guitar Hero package (filled with some of the great classic/glam rock guitar riffs of the past 30 years) did not do well, falling far short of its universal counterparts.

The other issue can be found in the simplicity of most Beatles songs. In Rock Band, you keep building up to playing harder and harder songs until the penultimate finger killers. The difficulty and probability of failure adds to the tension and eventual release when completed. The Beatles were not very good at their instruments. Paul could write a decent bass line, and George's guitar parts sounded great but there's no challenge involved. John Lennon just played along most of the time and Ringo shouldn't dignify any insults. They were four guys that could write well and harmonize better. There are no face melting solos to challenge you into the wee hours of the night. No syncopated drum beats to destroy your motor capabilities. No wild vocal riffs, incapable of being reached.

To its merit, Beatles Rock Band will get more people into the franchise and will involve older people into the gaming world. This is always a great service to the gaming community. I'm excited to see how this does in the mainstream and how well the hardcore gamers trash it, and the casual gamers glorify it.

Fame - a short play

Here is the recently released trailer for the upcoming remake of Fame



Much like every other movie/tv show in this genre (Save The Last Dance, Glee, Camp, High School Musical.... um... Dirty Dancing perhaps?) you can break down the entire plot into a short dialogue between one of the students and those mean old adults.

ADULT (In a Jerry Orbach manner): You'll never make it!

STUDENT: Why not?

ADULT: Because you're different (and/or your sport scholarship will be jeopardized).

STUDENT: But that's why I am great... that is why I NEED to succeed.

ADULT: You're right. Here's a comically large commendation for your actions. In fact, I think I'll join in, then catch myself in front of my esteemed colleagues, frown for a moment, then shyly smile.


Don't get me wrong. I love these movies. Let's just see one where they fail. Maybe the brilliant minds that produced South Park will do one. What? They produced Hamlet 2? DAMNIT!

Adventures in Photoshop

I often get bored and just try to be creative with photoshop. I've gotten better over time as you can see by some of these images.



This is my response to the strange 3 wolf moon trend over the past year.

It is aptly titled "3 Teen Wolf Moon." Note the fact that Michael J. Fox is dunking the moon.




This is just a simple birthday card I made for one of my brothers (that's his body). I found the picture of the poo mascot and thought this would be a fantastic image.

This is in response to a card he gave me as a kid that said "Sorry for all those times I called you a butt-head growing up. I didn't mean to insult your butt like that."




One of my first photoshops ever. It's pretty terrible as far as composition goes, but I just loved the idea. The source images are the classic charge at Iwo Jima and a couple of Canadian Geese walking along the road.



Above is a picture that took me a full plane ride from DC to California. The source image was black and white in fairly low resolution. I stripped it down as far as I could and then colorized the water and sunset using gradients and the soft eraser tool. The words in the back read "The future you have tomorrow won't be the same as the future you had yesterday." This is a line from the Chuck Palahniuk book "Rant"




Last one for this post. This is a picture I took while skiing in Utah last winter. I used the glowing edges filter and then a few others I don't recall. The coloring is all done with the color replacement tool. I really love the way the trees turned out and the distinct outline of the snowboarder in front of me.

Lol Cheezburgers!

Earlier this summer I was talking to a few people at work and the idea of LOL CHEEZBURGERS came up. I immediately went to the computer and created the following two images.

Recent obsession - Tim Minchin

This guy broke into my peripheral with a song called Inflatable You, a love song about his endearing blow-up doll. I liked his delivery and thought he was a brilliant pianist but didn't think much of him. I then recently came across another one of his songs and had to have more. I browsed through youtube and bings video pages to find everything I could by Tim Minchin.

The first video is called Taboo about a certain word with 2 G's and a R, N, I, and E. Watch before you get offended.

The video at the bottom is a 9 minute beat poem about a self rightous hippie named Storm at a dinner party. He systematically tears this girl apart in rhyme. The text follows the mood for the most part. Everything sounds better with an Aussie accent.

My old band's myspace is still functional

So my senior year of high school I went through a giant funk phase. All I listened to was Galactic, Average White Band, Maceo Parker and others of the sort. My buddies in this funkophelia were long-time friends Evan Weiss and Spencer Inch. These two guys were incredible musicians so I asked them to start jamming and see what came out of it. I played guitar, Evan played saxophone, and Spencer played drums. We brought in my buddy Mike Grippi to round it all off with some bass.

You can find live recordings at our old myspace page
This was the most fun I had in a band because all we did was jam. We showed up at the house, took out our instruments and played until no more notes would come. As can be seen in the Chameleon cover, we had a pretty good feel for how to play together and get the most of our music. I haven't seen or spoken to any of these guys in over a year, but I loved that time in my life and would love to get back together with them and make some music again at some point.

Instrumental note: Listen for the wah pedal used on the sax. Awesome effect stumbled upon by mistake.

My Wine Labels

Recently, my parents took a trip to Napa Valley to blend wines at one of their favorite vineyards. Through the program, they receive a few cases of the blend that they create, two of which go to me. The beauty of this is that I now have my own wine to name and label. The joy of creativity. My parents named theirs J&R having the double translation of John and Rena or Just Right. I, however, chose something a little more fun.

I give you "Wolf Sin Cabernet" and "Boar-Doe Bordeaux." Available at my apartment sometime next year.

Adventures in Pandora - Episode 1

I've been listening to endless amounts of Pandora recently. Working on a company computer, I can't listen to my own music, so I have to turn to the internet for my audio needs. I've tried options like myspacemusic, rhapsody, and iMeem but my favorite still remains to be Pandora.

A conversation recently rose, however, between myself and a few friends about how accurately Pandora links musicians and songs. The musical qualities may be similar, but connected songs might come from a completely different genre. How would a 90's alternative song connect to a 2006 hip hop cut? How does rap turn to rock? This feature will attempt to figure out just exactly what goes on in Pandora's mind. Let's ignore their technical babble and simply look at an outsiders perspective to a given playlist.

My first look into the vast caverns of the Music Genome Project comes from the band Flobots. An alternative hip-hop group from Colorado, Flobots brings a sharply political edge to their rock influenced rap. If I had to guess off-hand the artists that would be played, my main assumptions would be Gorillaz, Rage Against the Machine, and Citizen Cope. All of these artists have political goals, rock influences, and rapping vocalists. Here is the breakdown of the station's playlist.

*This is an abbreviated list - I'm listing the keystones that make and break this playlist

Flobots - Move!
The playlists always start with a typical song from the artist. This is normal song for them. Horns, gritty guitars, heavy bass lines, crowded vocals, and political messages. Sweet




Weezer - Pork and Beans
Okay, we're off to a rocky start. I really don't have many ways to connect these two artists. A rap group with political influences skipping directly into the biggest alt-rock stars of the 90's and mid thousands. This song came out on last year's Red Album, discussing how he'll top the charts (or not) using internet celebrities to launch a viral music video. Overt politicos compared to self deprecating perfectionists? Tough comparison. Let's see what else you've got Pandora

Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood
Alright. One assumption present. The song that launched the wildly popular animated rap group. Expected connection for Pandora, readily accepted. Side note: this is the first rap album I ever bought with my own money (Carnival by Wyclef Jean was the first one I owned).



Cake - The Distance
A selection I should have seen coming and was incredibly excited to hear. I've loved this song since I heard my brother's band cover it back when I was around 8 years old. I loved Speed Racer at the time and still always connect the two. To this day I will see the choppy animations in my head everytime John McCrea "sings." I got back into Cake freshman year thanks to the urging of a few friends to whom I am incredibly thankful. The connection can be made pretty clearly. The vocals are spoken in a Subterranean Homesick Alien style rap, while the guitars and horns would feel right at home in a Flobots track. Nice pickup Pandora.

Modest Mouse - Dashboard
Another surprise that I found myself understanding as the song went on. Listen to the vocals on Flobots' "Handlebars" and the end of this song where Isaac Brock starts to freak out and you will see vague similarities. Going along with these two songs, handlebars discusses the dangers of hubris and exerting power simply because of ability. Dashboard dabbles in the idea of turning a wild drive into an optimistic thought. To mash them up... "I could end the planet in a Holocaust, but it could've been, would've been worse than you will ever know."

Rage Against the Machine - Guerrilla Radio
"More for gore or the son of a drug lord. None of the above. Fuck it. Cut the chord." My favorite Rage lyrics, memorized in 6th grade while listening to the song at camp with my friend Phil. Even as kids we knew that this song served a bigger purpose than rocking our faces off. I often find political musicians annoying but for some reason, the blatant ranting always took a subtle backseat to their plays on metallic rap. Tom Morello's guitar drowning out his ramblings. This also takes precedence with Flobots. Horns, emotion, and rock causing the preaching to take a passenger seat.

Citizen Cope - Son's Gonna Rise - THE FINAL KEYSTONE TO COMPLETE THE STATION
The last of my three predictions has come on the station. I wouldn't say I'm the biggest fan of Citizen Cope but I have certainly become a much larger one as of late. There's a certain simplicity to his music. The repetitive heavy-wah guitar on this track. The beat that opens Bullet and a Target. The subtle piano and horns in Mistaken I.D. The clean production with biting social criticism made a perfect close to my Flobots station. The genre came full circle through the different elements of hip-hop, rock, and rap influenced in the tracks of Flobots.

Honorable mentions:
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Snow (Hey Oh)
White Town - Your Woman <- Only song on the playlist I hadn't heard before
Sublime - April 29, 1992
White Stripes - We're Going To Be Friends
The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony
Linkin Park - In The End
Incubus - Midnight Swim

Spongebob street team, or how I lost faith in part of humanity

Yesterday I sold my soul to Nickelodeon.

I received an e-mail from a random member of the Nickelodeon promotion team. They were looking for interns to volunteer for a guerrilla marketing campaign in Times Square honoring the 10th anniversary of Spongebob Squarepants. I have always like Spongebob and thought it was a great way to get face time with different parts of the company so I volunteered, ready to wake up early and give away merchandise on the streets.

There was an orientation two days prior in a beautiful board room on the 44th floor of MTV's Times Square building. We met with the organizers for 20 minutes and found out what exactly we'd be doing. Dressed in bright yellow shirts and hats, we were to walk around Times Square and Rockefeller center giving out shirts, DVDs, CDs, and other Spongebob themed merchandise. I was incredibly excited about this and stayed late talking to the organizers, finding out more about their jobs (promotion marketing) and the campaign.

Apparently I made a good impression because they made me the leader of one of the groups when I showed up on the day of the campaign. I had woken up at 4:30, made my way up to Times Square on the 5:10 R train (something I hope not to do again anytime soon), got to the board room (A.K.A. the war room), and watched the sun rise over the East River as we got our assignments. My group, made up of eight interns and two full time staffers, was assigned to Good Morning America, Times Square patrols, and the line for Shrek: The Musical. With over a dozen bags of merch and several signs featuring the delightful sponge, we took to the streets.

My camp counselor instincts kicked in immediately. I was once again in charge of 10 people. I was dealing with greedy people grabbing at anything they think they might want. I felt myself being forced to be polite to some people that didn't deserve my courtesy.

I don't know what it is about free merchandise, but it brings out the worst in human nature. Specifically with hardcore New Yorkers and non-English speaking workers, "please" and "thank you" didn't seem to exist. There, of course, were very polite people and very ecstatic people. Unfortunately, these people were the exception and not the rule. I can't count how many times I heard the word "gimme" used by people over the age of 30. I was insulted on several occassions about being a cheap bastard and not giving them more than one thing. Do people not feel grateful for the t-shirt they didn't have to spend 15 dollars on? People would even try to grab from the bag around my shoulder while I was giving a shirt to an eight year old kid. What are we teaching to the kids that see this behavior? That as the public in a corporate world we have some unspoken entitlement to whatever we can grab to beat the capitalist system that keeps our nation running?

Throughout the course of the day, I kept in touch with the organizors (read: Generals) getting the directions at where to attack, who to give to, when to refill ammunition. By the end of the day, my team was exhausted. We had been hassled by everyone between 41st and 59th streets, yelled at by sanitation workers for not "hooking them up for their hard work," and glared at by parents who could only get 1 shirt despite having 4 kids.

All in all, when I left, I felt good though. I had been thrown into a leadership roll. I led a group of peers, unpaid interns working purely out of love for the entertainment industry. We fought through tough crowds and unruly mobs to spread news for the company most of us are paying to work for. We woke up before the sun and didn't leave our feet until the mid afternoon to further the presence of one of the most recognizable characters in the world.

Eh. Maybe Spongebob will end up saving the world and then I can put that on my resume.

Cubicle Decoration 1

I work in a cubicle. 3 and a half walls separate me from the rest of the working world. Though Comedy Central is a very interesting and exciting world, our work space is drab, covered in white paint and filled with little white cubes. I have taken the liberty of decorating my cubicle but seeing as I am not paid for this internship, I am only using items I have received for free from the supply cabinet and the kitchen.

This is the first thing I built while sitting at my desk waiting for something to hit my to-do list.

This is an office basketball hoop.
Items used:
- 1 coffee cup
- 1 coffee cup sleeve
- 3 unopened packs of post-it notes
- 3 push pins
- 2 crumpled up post-it notes
- tape

Creation Process.

I took the coffee cup and cut out the bottom to make the simplest element of the hoop. I then pinned this to the side of the cubicle in front of my chair and just passed my keyboard. I then crumpled up some post-its, wrapping them in tape so that they would keep their ball form.

The next step was a backboard. If I overshot this hoop, the ball would go through the space in the wall and into the cubicle next to mine. To resolve this I stacked three packs of post-its snuggly between the glass partition and the cup, resting the backboard firmly against the hoop.

The final problem was that every time I made a shot, the ball would hit the table at an odd angle and I would have to dig under my desk to find it. This problem was quickly fixed by taking part of the coffee cup sleeve and putting it underneath the hoop. I folded down one edge of the square and used 2 pins to attach it the the wall. Pinning the cardboard from the bottom insured that it would press against the bottom of the cup, catching anything that went in.

The beauty of the catching system is that now, when I want to retreive the balls, now sitting in the hoop, I press down on the cardboard and they fall easily into my hand.

Boredom in the office quickly created a cheap and useful tool for dealing with the office doldrums.

Rough estimate on cost of materials.
- Free for me
- 78 cents for comedy central

Retro Blogging 4 - The Guilty Pleasure Mix

This was my favorite livejournal post of all time. I made a guilty pleasure mix junior year because I was spending a saturday afternoon at home and was bored as hell. I absolutely love every song on this list and actually listened to this CD once this past year just to take a trip down memory lane. Enjoy.

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Everyone has guilty pleasures, especially with music they like to listen to. Any metal fan has a favorite pop song, and every rap fan has a country song they love. Not too many people are willing to admit it though which leads to a life of denial... which is bad. So recently i made a guilty pleasures mix which most juniors will be hearing whithin a couple of days if you are in the junior lot. because i refuse to live in denial, here is the list of guilty pleasures and WHY i like them.

1. Crazy for You - NSYNC - not afraid to admit i enjoy this song. Its the first real song i learned to play on guitar and is produced well. Talent is talent no matter where you may find it.

2. Getting Away With Murder - Papa Roach - you may remember them as the band that crooned out "last resort" a charming teen anthem about suicide. I remember them as a band i saw live and gave a KICK ASS show. The singer is an incredible front man

3. Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice - say what you will, this song kicks ass. If you are alone in a room and the song comes on, you know you are dancing around singing along to the blatently ripped off hook. If nothing else, this is just a fun song to laugh at... so what if i know all the words.

4. Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benetar - incredible snippet of the 80's with an incredible guitar solo by pat's husband. If you've heard anything about her personally though, you would know she's a really caring person that gave up her career to stay with her ailing husband when he was ill.

5. Jesse's Girl - Rick Springfield - sick 80's song. it may be cheasy but its toe tapping fun... 'nuff said

6. Let Me Clear My Throat - DJ Kool - don't know if this one is even guilty... fun song heard at a lot of dances. Maybe its a little embarrasing that i actually possess the song, but its all good. If you listen to it i bet your foot wil start tapping.

7. If I Am - Nine Days - this song WAS my 6th grade year. the madding crowd was my favorite album for about 8 months and i still occassionally pop it in to take a stroll down memory lane. Its nice to go back in time... even if its for 4 minutes and 18 seconds.

8. Why Not - Hilary Duff - ok... not much explanation on this one. Ben and I were going to cover it but never got around to it... i learned the guitar part and the tune stuck with me... its catchy

9. Rock You Like A Hurricane - Scorpions - my love for this song knows no bounds. this song was written by a foreign rock band in english but its spoken like we would speak spanish... almost as if its translated on babel fish.... its incredible

10. Tainted Love - Soft Cell - ever seen coneheads? that's why i like this song

11. Pulling Mussels From the Shell - Squeeze - the same squeeze that wrote tempted by the fruit of another. Yet another song ben wanted me to learn to cover sometime in the future that sort of stuck with me... listen to it 3 times straight and you belong to it forever

12. Here I Go Again - Whitesnake - there's no need to explain this one

13. Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac - to tell the truth, i just like this song... i can't really give too much explanation to it because i can't even explain it to myself.

14. Tearin' Up My Heart - NSYNC(again) - see #1

15. Get Your Hands Off of My Woman - The Darkness
16. Cash on Delivery - Spinal Tap
- i'm putting these together because i like them for the same reason.... anything that mocks, (or appears to mock) hair metal but actually is well-done, deserves a bit of credit.

Retro Blogging 3 - Lost Ipod and the blame game

I like this post a lot. I love my parents. They are wonderful people and all of my friends that have met them enjoy their company. My mom and I had a strange relationship toward the end of high school though. I lived alone with my mom for much of that time as both of my brothers were away at school and my dad worked a job that required a lot of travel. We fought from time to time because a mother and son kept in one place without other diffusing elements is a recipe for disaster. The space between my mom and me these past 3 years has actually strengthened our relationship (in my mind at least). I am much more comfortable talking to her now than I ever was as a high schooler. Part of it may be my growing up, but I feel most of it is that the time we have together is more valuable than it was when it was just us in that CT house. I'm truly blessed to have such a caring family that can provide for me. This occurance really grounded me and showed me that material objects aren't as important as the people in your life.

Bonus note: The trip to DC mentioned in this post was the visit to my brother where I decided I wanted to go to GW.

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Recently i lost an elecronic object that is on the more expensive side. There were about 7 reasons why it could have happened... most of them my fault. But of course as human nature dictates, i immediately placed blame on the only other person available (once again what child nature allows) my mom. I had this device in my hand and put it on the floor of the car as i reached into my mom's purse to grab her an advil. Then she had me fix the radio. Then she rushed me out of the car in a no parking/no stopping zone and i forgot (my fault) in the haste to pick it up. It then apparently slid out of the car and onto a street in stamford as i ran up to catch my train to d.c.... which i was 45 minutes early for. So on my train, i silently curse my mom and in my head she is the worst person in the world because she made me lose it. But then she called me about an hour later, took the blame, and then offered to replace it as an early birthday present. Nothing makes you feel more horrible than someone else taking the blame for something you subconsciously know was your fault. I could have put this thing on my pocket, i could have put it in my backpack, i could have taken my time getting out of the car. But instead i foolishly left it lying around and then in turn, lost it. So the person i was just so pissed at was all of a sudden the source for an extreme guilt trip. She took the blame that i personally gave to her in order to rationalize my loss. It's times like these that it's time to pause and reflect. First off, don't be too quick to place blame on someone when you know it wasn't completely their fault. And also, appreciate your parents, they give you the world, and often times we forget that.

On a lighter note, here's the incredibly fun people i sat near on the train home from D.C.
-Some college-aged guy from New Haven - really nice, wished me a safe trip when he got off at his stop, a little too open about how much he hated the price he payed for his ticket (he payed 130, most likely on his parents credit card.)
-BIG black lady, a little too obsessed with food. I went to the cafe cart to grab a hot dog, as soon as i came back she said "oh that looks good". She got up, and ten minutes later came back with two hot dogs, a coke, and two snicker bars.
-Ok this next lady and her son were my favorite. The woman was probably in her early 30s. She was good looking in a business casual sort of way if that makes sense, and she was a good conversationalist. Her son (probably around 6) was well mannered and incredibly polite. When i got off the train at my stop she said "it was a pleasure to meet you" and her son said "have a nice evening"
-Finally, a british girl who goes to UCONN and plays field hockey there. And oh my god was she hot. Very very attractive face and a british accent... take me mystery stranger

so yeah, that second part had no point, put its interesting to summarize people and think about how you would be summed up if someone else did.

Retro Blogging 2 - Retro Presentist Historeography

Let's place a date on this Livejournal. Second half of my Junior Year of high school. I was dating a senior, had become comfortable around alcohol, stopped playing baseball, and started doing theatre. This is a perfect storm of snobby D-Bag. I'm pretty surprised I didn't smoke imported cigarettes and wear a beret. Either way, this would be the reasoning behind this post about history. That being said, I still think about this all the time. We think its crazy that our parents could live without computers and cell phones. Our kids will think it's crazy that we could survive without teleporters and sex robots.

Word Bank!
APUS - AP US History Class taught by Mr. Feeley (yes that is his real name)
sic - I'm an idiot

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An odd thing i thought about today in APUS History, do we now know more about politics and events between the years of 1650 and 1850 than anyone in those eras did? Even recent politics. How many of you know what state Nixon was born in. What political experience did Clinton have before he ran for the presidency? When did Kennedy win the Pulitzer Prize? In 50-100 years, kids in US History are going to be studying our current events as history. They'll know Dubya as a man who led us to war in the early 2000's while we will know him as a babbling idiot who kind of looks like a monkey and has a name synonimous [sic] with "miserable failure" (that thing doesn't work on google anymore, but whatcha gunna do). I guess what i'm saying is, we are going to be judged by presentist historiography (judging past events by present standards) and that's kind of a wierd feeling... WE are going to be the people that yell at our grandchildren for being ignorant becuase "they weren't there".

Retro Blogging 1 - Slash vs. Chopin

So I had a livejournal back in the day when I was angsty. I went back to read my old entries and want to repost them here to see how they hit 4 years later.

Here's a post from when I was really into Velvet Revolver. I love the guitar. I think it's the most versatile instrument with so many dimensions. What would happen if Chopin picked up a Gibson instead of a Steinway. Who do we think will stand the tests of time and be remembered with the greats in 400 years.

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This is a bit of a stretch but would you consider the rock and roll greats of the past 50 or so years virtuosos and masters of their trade? Slash, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page, Bo Diddly, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, SRV, etc. (to name a few). All of these men play the guitar, most in their own unique way with small manorisms that seperate themselves from others. They inspire aspiring musicians and mold their taste and form. Is this not similar to the work of Beethoven, Back, Chopin, and the rest of the classical composers? A virtuoso is one who can express all different emotions through their art. Being that Slash is who inspired this rant, i'll start with him. In Fall To Pieces, his solo and fills excentuate the climax of the song and expresses the desperation and cry for help (as the song in reality is doing). In Sweet Child 'o Mine, his riff expresses the carefree childhood love and happiness expressed in the song. Townshend's work also stands out to me as an emotional ride. Behind Blue Eyes is the obvious example where the intro and bulk of the song is a somber progression showing the despair of a misunderstood man and then quickly changes with the mood of the song to a harsher, almost angry feel. Its kind of interesting, if you start to pay attention to it, listening to a guitarist play on his/her own with no background can sometimes be more interesting and telling than a 10 minute rant with a bland musical background.

Writing

Since I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer. The first time I ever tried to write was when I was 8 years old. I was obsessed with the Foxtrot comics. Something about Bill Amends style and the similarities between my family of 5 and the Fox's really struck a chord with me. In one specific series of comics Jason Fox, the nerdy youngest brother (ahem), wrote a series of murder mystery novels in which his sister is killed. It seemed so simple. Sit down, take out a pen and piece of paper, and write a novel. To this day, I still remember the worst sentence I've ever written in my life.

"It seems as if Janet had been killed, probably with a silencer."

Now, ignoring the horrific grammar issues with this, it is important that I tell you the setting of this story. Chicago: 1927. Leave it to an 8 year old, whose only real exposure to guns was from playing Goldeneye and whose only inspiration for writing this was some comics, to have a flapper offed by a gun with a "silencer." I believed that silencers were weapons and that they existed in the 1920's.

Hopeless from the start as this may have been, it got my pen moving. Every year I go through a writing kick. I'll pick up a pen, open my notebook and write a page or two about what's going on. I'll scribble poems or snippets of songs that I'll never finish in the corner of a page. I'll type a sentence into my phone that won't be revisited until weeks after I've forgotten what it means. But the important thing is that I write them. I get my mind working and create something that wasn't there before.

This summer I have been working at Comedy Central where I have been working with the creative minds behind Indecision, Tosh.0, Colbert Nation, and TheDailyShow.com. They are truly brilliant people with a knack for writing on the spot. Give them a topic and a deadline and they'll make you laugh. It's amazing what you can come up with under pressure. Considering that these are jobs I'll be applying for in the year ahead, this blog will be my practice for what jobs I may have ahead of me that will reach your computers on far more mainstream mediums.

Follow me as I create. Follow me as I find my voice.