I Kan't Spell

 
Updates et al

Film festival is this weekend. Should be pretty awesome to cruise around and see some cheap movies for cheap. You never know what kind of gems will pop out at you. It's where I found Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

First Thursday for the Monument St gang is tom. All are welcome and my company has free beer and snacks. 89.7 has a band and homeless people don't even try to get in. It rules!

VJC Senior night is tonight. I think I'll cruise that. If any other Alumnus want to jettison to Bachman I'll see you in tow. Apparently all their players are better than we were.

And Wikipedia play the 8x10 on Saturday night. Get you Phish on!
Link posted by JVMM : 9:46 AM

 
HE'S BAAAAAAAAAACK

O'co got the call back up. Looks like long relief and spot starts.

http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080424&content_id=2579873&vkey=news_was&fext=.jsp&c_id=was

Way to go Mike - hopefully this will be a permanent stop.
Link posted by JVMM : 9:05 AM

 
J Roddy Walston and The Business

Tom. Night - Ottobar.

If you haven't seen them and let's say you like... The Drive by Truckers mixed with like The Darkness. Anyway - it's real over the top. They live next to where I work and last time I was shocked that like 1000 people showed up... so... Ottobar Friday Night Fever.

I mean come on This is the bassist... how can you not rock that hard?

On top of that I hear Big Elk is playing some out door gig - - I'll have more details when he gives them to me...
Link posted by JVMM : 11:34 AM

 
Updates et al

First off --- Our Mayor is not cutting property taxes and with all likelihood they will be raised. Thanks for the lies...Sheila. This angers me.

Second - In the City Paper today you'll notice the ad for 1st Thursdays. My company helps sponsor first Thursdays by the Washington Monument and next week is the first one. Free beer and decent 89.7 sponsored music. Swing on by and watch me be civil. All are invited.

Third - The BMI is sponsoring an exhibit on the The Wire opening this week (30th). Apparently Slim Charles has a hip hop group and is going to rap. That should be rocking.

Fourth - Flower mart is next weekend. Yay...

Fifth - It's beautiful out.

Sixth - Champions League game today (Man U and Barca...doesn't really get any better than that) and the one yesterday...woo... you have to feel bad for Riise with the own goal in the 94th.

Seventh - I think there is a Fed Hill festival this weekend as well... not sure.

If you can't be good. Be bad...
Link posted by JVMM : 10:10 AM

 
Fountain of Sorrow

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
Youve known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
Youve had to struggle, youve had to fight
To keep understanding and compassion in sight
You could be laughing at me, youve got the right
But you go on smiling so clear and so bright
Link posted by JVMM : 4:10 PM

 
Cruel Joke of a non-Beverage



When it's 7 am and you are thirsty... don't reach for the delicious looking Apple Cider Vinegar and take a big chug. Just a reminder from your friendly neighborhood moron.

Love,
Bret
Link posted by JVMM : 10:05 AM

 
HOLY FUCKIN HOLY!

Even though Rolling Stone is a total rag and the dude who wrote the article is from Baltimore... Rolling Stone took it upon themselves to name Baltimore... yes Baltimore... Best New Music Scene.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/20200609/page/32

Behind the strong backing of Wham City and the new Hip Hop vengence it seems that we are on the map. Unfortunately, all the talent is from out of town... lol - They mention the resurgence of the Talking Head and WZT Hearts and the Red Room. Fancy... Jason Dove should have been mentioned as well. Maybe next time...kudos to Rolling Stone (I just vomited saying that out loud...)Kudos dear boy... ku doze

What about J. Robbins, AVEC, Karmella's Game, Wye Oak, Thrushes, the Papermoon Diner, Charm City Art Space, the Ottobar, the Sidebar, Metro Gallery? Oh wait, these aren't part of the "hotbed" rap/art rock scene... I forgot, segregation has to be a part of any exclusive scene...anyway they mentioned us... *sound of one guy clapping
Link posted by JVMM : 3:35 PM

 
My take on the current state of the Union and whether or not you should build a bomb shelter.

I used to be a fan of a conspiracy theory back in the day. Between 9/11 and Bush propaganda it was all I could do not to go to someone's website and regurgitate their theories onto my friends and family. I would look at the Fed, the war, the melting glaciers, and yes... Roger Moore and spew out whatever they would give me.

And then something happened... I grew up.

In the midst of all things awful and evil I became a conservative independent willing to accept the fact that my own merits and will are more viable barometers of life then that of unforeseen measures taken by an "all encompassing" force of evil. Whether that force be self-righteousness, self-servicing, or even self-preservation I knew that in reality it had no real hold over me.

It occurred to me that every conspiracy theorist I knew was someone who was losing at life. They were usually in their mid-20's, completely unhappy, smoked a lot of pot, really enjoyed the "cutting barbs" of adult swim and usually crowded into bars with like minded/like life people to discuss the discourse of their own failures. Now...when I say losing at life, I don't mean that they weren't rich or didn't have an "important" or "respectable" job. I mean that within every conversation of liberal, holier than thou, fighting for the little guy, the government is evil, and "Why why why poor poor me" there was this stagnant under current that they wish they had an important or respectable job and they wish they were rich. So to me they were losing. They were impotent fake peopole that had nothing more than their own misshaped roads to blame.

The impotent cries of a generation raised by uneducated, yet, motivated women have turned the lower middle class into a mired pit of shrieking complacency. The empty one handed back patting of the "lost" people who claim to know that what the greater good is...is deafening to those who watch from elsewhere. They always remind me of the kid in class who wasn't picked for dodge ball and so dodge ball to him became "stupid". "Go play your stupid little game. I don't need you." This stench clings to walls I am still surrounded by in adulthood.

With all that said I have come to the conclusion that my own efforts will shape my own existence. If I want to move to Alberta I will. If I don't believe in this country or it's merits any more then I have a choice to leave, take action, or bury my head and protect my family. But...what I won't do...any more... is proclaim that there is a force with my intentions in it's clearing wake that I cannot control. Being informed and having opinions is important... claiming that we cannot change our own plight because of a conspiracy or simply "bitching" about said issues... those days are done.

So with that air cleared... it's time to state the semi-obvious.

We may be fucked.

Let's look at some of the key points of interest that usually give the state of the union a nice temperature:

Education

Economy

Defense

Environment

Let's look at the Economy first:

My current life and career aren't in any great jeopardy. I have no ill signs of losing my job or being concerned that the prices of general commodities and goods have gone through the roof. I'm sure that most of you are not tragically bothered by it either. However, I would start to prepare for leaner times. I would also start to prepare to take advantage of the leaner times the way any smart businessman would. I would bet against the house as the odds have shifted out of it's favor.

We all notice that there are tell tale signs that we are headed for a recession and possibly worse. The U.S. Government has been waiting for the other shoe to drop since we went off the gold standard. Our 8.5 trillion dollars in circulation have become nothing more than Bernanke bucks. Backed by only 4 trillion in gold and steeped in debt and extreme bail outs from foreign EFT's, and sovereign wealth funds (SWF's)... America's economy, sadly, may not be able to rebound from our current state until our children graduate High School.

The Fed bailed out a publicly owned bank in what could only be compared to Posse Comitatus in the real world. Not only was it unconstitutional, it was dangerous. Taking federally insured money to bail out a publicly owned bank with no such assurance is ludicrous and it sends a precedence that may shake the entire way the United States borrows money. For one day, this was not a capitalist country...Adam Smith threw up all over himself and we became communists.

The possibility that we may be owned by the Middle East and China are very real. A parallel to this would be the great 80's buy up that happened in America by Japanese companies. We took their money. They owned Time Square. This won't be that simple. However, it will be more simple for us to invest with them and to follow their trends.

For example Dubai currently has 85% of the world's cranes building a city out of the dirt. I don't need to tell you what you should be investing in. There are ways to benefit from our own economy's misgivings.

The state of the U.S. Economy is dreadful and unfortunately... it is going to get worse... much worse. Let's figure out a way to rise above it.

So... what do we do?

Well for starters you'll want to start investing in SWF's, international markets (esp China and India) and seriously give thought to the idea that the United States may not be the place to raise a family in the near future.

When Jim Rogers and other guru's started to denounce their citizenship and move to evolving 3rd world countries my ears perked up. Then again... they also perked up when "smart people" bought tracks of land in Nebraska to brace for the Y2K fall out. However, Y2K was a light switch that was either going to turn off or on and NO ONE knew the answer to it. Luckily, the lights turned on.

This time it's different.

When the U.S. dollar gets taken off the Oil standard and our 40 permanent bases in the middle east are left to rust over due to a new Democratic president... what happens to America as being the only Super Power left? Where in the chain will we be served our meals? Who will be the first country to attack us on our own soil? What happens when 90% of the DJIA are 50% owned by SWF's and EFT's?

Education:

The days of middle class affluence, while truly ending 30 years ago, have now come to a screetching if not freightening hault.

Our primary and secondary education systems were built to shuffle 18 year old men into blue collar jobs or the military where they knew how to obey orders, stay still, and be rewarded on tasks taking no more skill than pulling a lever. Unfortunately, the times have changed and the matriculation of blue collar jobs have evaporated into no jobs.

New jobs are not being created. Unless you call the idea of looking for new jobs for people without jobs – a job... then I can't imagine you'll find too many people bubbling about the idea of the "new dawn" popping up.

Mediocre colleges have become a complete waste of money. The idea of creating a support community or possible peers is the only purpose it currently fulfills. It establishes you a line of credit for which to pay off for the rest of your life and it shows your future owner (employer) that you are now able to borrow money, sit still, obey orders, and pull a lever.  Quite an improvement I must say.

Now the bad part... because that was the good part.

Inner city and rural schools have become all but a waste of money at this point. The traditional methods of teaching and in-turn learning have showed children that there is 100% no reason to care about school. If you have neither the ability nor the means to attend college then why attend High School at this point? This is becoming a more accepted principle among not only students...but also the community and even parents.

The entire system, on the level of preparing our children for a future via public primary and secondary schools, is broken. It is non-functional and makes no sense. There is no overhaul in the future because of the gigantic teacher's union who don't want to lose their jobs or even worse... change what they do. There is also no chance for a change because schools are Federally run through assistance programs.

And the answer is...:

In my humble opinion, each school would have to be a microcosm. And each curriculum, and environment would have to be different.

The funding for the schools would have to be the same but you can't run a school in Detroit the same way you run a school in Chevy Chase.

Parts 3 and 4 coming soon...

Link posted by JVMM : 12:28 PM

 
A tad late - but good none-the-less

W 4/23
tapes 'n tapes
w/ White Denim
7:30PM
$15


With an impending sophomore release due out this month, the indie rock group tapes 'n tapes is hitting the road. Their tour will lead them and their newest album across the U.S. and into Europe. Since getting together in 2003, this foursome has released two albums including their self titled EP and the critically acclaimed, The Loon. Tapes 'n tapes hit the scene hard in 2006 becoming one of the years most blogged bands. Following this breakout, tapes 'n tapes played at SXSW solidifying their fan base. Often compared to the Pixes and Pavement, lead vocalist and guitarist Josh Gier describes their sound as "eclectic." These northern state natives are guaranteed to please with their melodic tunes and alt. rock experience.

I doubt I'll make it. That upsets me.

If anyone still doesn't remember... this song is timeless really...all the locks in the cosmos clicked to this moment...



The first part of the song is really great and could have done just by itself...but what makes you pee yourself is the last change in the final 2 choruses - - like 2 great songs in one....at about 2:10...it starts a new

Oh Kelly don't you go
Kelly don't you go
Kelly don't you go
I want you to know
That I've been trying, I've been lying
I've been stealing, I've been hiding
I will meet you in the grave
Kelly, Kelly, it's not your right
To be cheating, fighting and starting life
When my head and hands are tied to you so tight
Oh Kelly just tell me one more thing
Is it mine or is it some other ring
That you wear as we lie in bed tonight?

And Kelly, who's the logger?
Oh, Kelly, who's the logger?
Oh Kelly, who's the logger who's trees were felled with might?
And Kelly, hold your water
Oh Kelly, hold your water
Oh Kelly, Kelly, hold your water tight

And when you rush I'll call your name
Like Harvard Square holds all inane
And don't you know I'll be your badger
And don't be terse and don't be shy
Just hug my lips and say goodbye

Link posted by JVMM : 9:09 AM

 
80 hour workers weekers seekers cure

I have found only one real cure for the 80 hour work week blues...

Ac/Dc - real fucking loud. In the office...people think you're nuts. I find that it works to move through all the "classics" - especially Hells Bells, Highway to Hell, Back in Black, and Thunderstruck



Bon Scott versions please...

Luckily I get to expense my tuxedo and new suit for France... so I got that going for me... which is nice... viva la capitalism.
Link posted by JVMM : 1:33 PM

 
O'co Update

Mike O'Connor picked up his first win of the season, as the Clippers defeat the Knights 2-1, in Charlotte Monday. The southpaw allowed five hits and a run in six innings of work. He struck out 10 and walked one.

Mike Bacsik did not allow a hit in two strong innings of relief and Brian Sanches picked up his second save of the season, striking out two in the ninth.

The Clippers scored the first run of the game on a double to right by Bret Boone and a single by Pete Orr to center field.

The Knights tied the score on Jason Bourgeois lead off home run in the fourth frame.

The winning run tallied in the seventh inning. Ray Olmedo singled to center field. Wil Nieves' sacrificed bunt was thrown away by catcher Paul Phillips. Olmedo ended up on third and Nieves took second base. Olmedo scored on Boone's sacrifice fly to right field.

The team will return to The Coop on April 19th.

If you saw him against the Orioles in the pre-season at the Nationals home park... you saw that he looked pretty sharp - working 2 1/3 and striking out 4 I think. Should be a matter of time at this pace... GO O'CO!
Link posted by JVMM : 10:57 AM

 
Just because...

"Don't Teen Wolf Me"


Link posted by JVMM : 11:47 AM

 
Wieters love

...this is what I'm talking about.

http://www.orioleshangout.com/article.asp?ID=1379

Player of the week with 2 jacks. Get here soon Matt and bring Billy Rowell with ya...

Hopefully there will be an appearance at Camden Yards this evening for Adam Jones t-shirt night. I'm staying optmistically cautious with any O's preachings... so... don't ask for any.
Link posted by JVMM : 11:20 AM

 
Baby Time

Jer's adorable baby girl...Paigealicious



Link posted by JVMM : 11:41 AM

 
Idle

I sold my soul for the second time
'Cause the man well...He don't pay me
I begged my landlord for some more time
He said "Son, the bills are waiting"
My best friend called me the other night
He said "Man - are you crazy?"
My girlfriend told me to get a life
She said "Boy - you're lazy"

I lost my faith in the summer time
'Cause it don't stop raining
The sky all day is as black as night
But I'm not complaining
I begged my doctor for one more line
He said "Son - words fail me"
It's no place to be killing time
I guess, I'm just hazy


I don't mind
As long as there's a bed beneath the stars that shine
I'll be fine.
If you give me a minute
A man's got a limit.
I can't get a life if my heart's not in it...
Link posted by JVMM : 3:06 PM

 
Beatles Song #8 - And I love her

Everyone needs another favorite Beatles love song... everyone needs to be loved.


Link posted by JVMM : 8:46 AM

 
Beatles Song #7 - Don't Let me Down



This is my favorite Beatles love song by far.
Link posted by JVMM : 12:50 PM

 
Start off my rocking week...

I've had a better professional week this week then ever before...

Let's roll with it!



Noel and Travis!
Link posted by JVMM : 11:19 AM

 
The Glass Bead Game

Thus the bulk of former elite pupils find their ultimate destiny as schoolmasters. The tiny remainder, the top flight of the Castalian schools, can devote themselves to free study for as long as they please. A contemplative,diligent intellectual life is reserved for them. Many a highly gifted person who for one reason or another, perhaps some physical defect or quirk of character, is not suited to become a teacher or to hold a responsible post in the superior or inferior Boards of Educators, may go on studying, researching, or collecting throughout hislife as a pensioner of the authorities.

His contribution to society then consists mostly of works of pure scholarship. Some are placed as advisers to dictionarycommittees, archives, libraries, and so on; others pursue scholarship as art for art's sake. A good many of them have devoted their lives to highly abstruse andsometimes peculiar subjects, such as Lodovicus Crudelis who toiled for thirtyyears translating all extant ancient Egyptian texts into both Greek and Sanscrit, or the somewhat peculiar Chattus Calvensis II who has bequeathed to us four immense folio volumes on The Pronunciation of Latin in the Universities of Southern Italy toward the End of the Twelfth Century. This work was intended as Part One of a History of tbe Pronunciation of Latin from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries.

But inspite of its one thousand manuscript pages, it has remained a fragment, for noone has carried on the work. It is understandable that there has been a good deal of joking about purely learned works of this type.

Their actual value for the future of scholarship and for the people as a whole cannot be demonstrated. Nevertheless, scholarship, as was true for art in the olden days, must indeed have farflung grazing grounds, and in pursult of a subject which interests no one but himself a scholar can accumulate knowledge which provides colleagues with information as valuable as that stored in a dictionary or an archive

Link posted by JVMM : 9:28 AM

 
The Doves: There Goes the Fear


Link posted by JVMM : 5:54 PM

 
Misplaced Work Hours

http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=Main_Page Hours of fun...

Also I have finished up to about 200 pages of short stories and small excerpts like these... I'll be shopping them soon. I think some of them have some really good stuff in it...

You like to make love to music the same way I like to write to it. You would turn to me and say, "Put on track 4. No baby. Put it on repeat." I would role my eyes because I heard it as many times as I had entered you. You became a record with no b-side. You became a Hemingway novel where the old man never made it back from the sea. He died out there with the fish and consequently the story was never told. I would interlock my fingers into yours and push them over your head and kiss around the baseline of your neck. You would moan, but you would moan to the song, and I would be thinking about what paragraph could follow what I was trying to complete.

In the noise that comes from the air you can hear electricity. At least that's what I saw one time in a movie. In the ocean there are things in the deepest parts that we can't even imagine to exist. That's what I read one time in a magazine. The human brain only uses 10% of it's actual ability. That's what I gathered from a book as a child. My life beats on without the ability to define magic. My life beats on in search of that definition.

When we define a man in the end of our time, whatever species is to evolve from us, I hope magic is part of our definition.

I held your face in my hand as if I was trying to hold the most delicate thing ever created or formed by earth. I thought at any moment, with any quick touch, any false faith in my fingers, you would crumble or blow away. I took in the lines as if a Da vinci painting were in front of me. You dare not touch in fear that you may crack, smudge, or taint the oils so perfectly assembled. You can only admire. You cannot use. You can love from a far but to engage or make a purchase at such a thing is to trick your soul into denying all that nature has shown you in the name of beauty.


"Why are you leaving?" she said with a shy, heightened and hurt voice.
"I can't do this to you."
"Do what?"
"I can't let you believe that I'm real. I can't let you think that this exists. I will never exist the way you dream me."
"You already do."
"You don't understand your dreams."

In the morning on August 6th you opened the paper. I had known you for 7 months. You brought me coffee.
"I don't drink coffee," I said to you.
"I'm sorry."
"No need to be sorry. I've never seen you drink coffee either."
"I usually don't but it's Sunday and I thought you might like some on this lazy morning."
"I don't want it."
Somehow, a leap was attempted. There you were flying through the air with your hands grabbing for wind. You were hoping you had the light bone structure of a wren and the wingspan of an eagle. But, you fell like a rock into cold waters below. You fell and never recovered. You simply ceased to be anything but something I didn't want to know.

We ate dinner once, and you grabbed a crouton with your fingers. You flipped your head back and popped the bread into your mouth as if you were eating shrimp on the coast of St. Croix. I picked up my fork and wiped it with my napkin as you sipped water and attempted to not look like a whore that was wearing too much make-up. I never forgave you for that moment. I never cared after that.

As I entered the center of the room I saw a silhouette dart across a silk screen placed in the North West corner. I wielded myself and saw another silhouette, too fast to make out any distinguishing features, blow passed my back and I could feel a slight breeze. I whirled around and around again and continued to see strange shadows. I walked over to a desk that had papers blowing around from the commotion. Under a paperweight of Icarus I saw a note that read, "Freedom is in you."

As I turned around, I saw a naked little man with a faltering bathrobe skip, and land into a run. I slightly jogged to the thrown open double doors and only saw little wet footprints tracing his escape down the stairs and out the front door.

I heard cries of "Eureka! Eureka!" as he ran out into the world.

I got over top the ball and looked down. The sun reflected off the northeast corner as though someone had painted the glare on. I heard the distant yell again. This time it was closer but still seemingly muffled and cautious.

"Pick it up!"

I leaned forward and picked up the ball. I tossed it to myself as I stood up from my squat. I saw that there was something written on the side I had not seen. It was in tiny little black verdana letters on the bottom. I shielded my eyes from the sun and held the ball forehead high in front of me: "Do not run". I pursed my lips together and furrowed my brow, shrugged my shoulders and turned.

Over your head feathers started to fall inside the elevator; pillow feathers. The white ones that we all wish would fall on us. The fluffy white ones that have no ground good enough to grace their pendulum-wafting downfall. The fluffy white ones would get caught in your hair and you would brush them out and giggle a little harder than a child would. You would giggle with a woman's passion and grab the sides of my face, slowly moving your fingers and hands to the back of my head to grab my hair. You would raise your right knee up around the back of my thigh and push me with all your weight as hard as you thought you could to the back of the elevator. You thought I had done this for you. I was nothing more than there.

Link posted by JVMM : 11:14 AM

 
So Big NEWS!

Well...it finally happened. I have officially taken a job in NYC and will be moving on June 1st of this year. I know it may come as a shock to most people... but I think we all saw this coming. I'll be getting rid of a lot of my things as my new apartment will be furnished... so if anyone needs couches, a bed, dressers, coffee table, and other random knicknacks... please let me know... also... happy April Fools day!
Link posted by JVMM : 1:41 PM