Youngry

As an artist, I've always liked the idea that up-and-coming artists can be refered to as 'young and hungry'. It's so fitting. Young and hungry implies everything that's great about the imediacy of trying to make your mark on the world, and following every opportunity, before you've had the experiences that make you tired and jaded of what can be an unforgiving or unrewarding reception to your aspirations and creations, unless you truly make you art only for yourself.

Then, I pictured what the literal sense of being 'young and hungry' might be, and the first thing that came to mind was the ever-growing number of overweight, diabetic, sugar-powered kids. A group that seems to be quite the opposite of driven and ambitious. Lethargic and lazy, the donut grazing video-gamers see all the action they can handle right from the comfort of their couch. I grew up around one of those kids, albeit I was nearly eight years older than she.

For one, she couldn't talk until she was three, and mostly just grunted and pointed for things she wanted (a byproduct of early-onset laziness?). For anyone who has ever owned a dog, you notice that the dog quickly learns and recognizes the word 'treat'. Therefore, if you're not prepared to give one, and it comes up in conversation you spell out T-R-E-A-T and their furry little inability to spell keeps them calm and naive over the mention of the word.

This girl however, could hear and understand the word 'Ice Cream' within 200 yards, and would grin and flip out like an excited dog. When Ice Cream wasn't available, the grin disappeared but the flip-out would remain, only in a more violent tear-filled manner. So I remember everyone in her presence had to spell out 'I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M' or feel the wrath.

It was disgusting that a desire for sugary sweets could inspire such tirades, so in our own wicked way, we had fun with how far we could take the disguised-only-by-spelling word. We would place it within context using other key words like 'sprinkles' or 'toppings' but our favorite was probably ending the spelling with the blunt word 'cone'. The little Pavlovian child was never the wiser.

It's hard to say where this rampant epidemic will take our culture. Obviously there are overwhelming health concerns, but I'm talking in terms of seeing new art and ideas emerge, when kids aren't interested in being exceptional at much other than video games, and extreme energy drink snacking. The lure of being comfortable and cozy on the couch involves so much less risk than exposing yourself to failure. In a time when the biggest new movie releases are (usually) tired remakes of older movies, I'm hoping this environment may allow the creative cream to really rise to the top.

Or maybe I should say....the creative C-R-E-A-M.

You Can't Beat It!

I'm currently helping with the advertising for a local Bike Race for Cancer, and I couldn't help but notice the irony that they wanted a special celebrity guest to participate in the race this year.

They've asked Lance Armstrong to race.
Sure, he's beaten cancer into remission, but he's also the guy that you can't beat in a race. You can race, but you will not win.

Let's hope that cancer doesn't have anything to gain from ironic symbolism.

Steve Jobs thinks I'm Gay!

I'm a member of a beer club. A small gathering of beer-centric geeks who get a kick out of tasting and discussing micro-brewed, craft beers, rare beers, one-off beers etc.

Most of the club is a little nerdier than me when it comes to tasting. They take notes. Descriptive chronicles of the palatte. I simply sniff, taste and throw out my 2 cents when I feel like I have something to add to the group. However, I found that when we would get together every so often, I couldn't remember exactly what I had tried before, while the others seemed fairly knowledgable of their dark beery pasts.

So this time, I decided to take notes.
Conveniently enough I have an iPod Touch, with a program called 'notes'. So I decided I would type in my findings. After some 18-20 beers I had quite a bit of opinion based typing under my index finger, but...I’m a little worried about my decision to take notes now that I've gone back and reviewed what I drank that evening, as one of the last few entries reads:

Lazy Magnolia – Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale = men

Disturbing.
The reasonable explanation certainly must be that I commented a simple ‘meh’ because it failed to impress me, but the iPod thinks it knows what I really mean when I type and will correct it accordingly. Which doesn’t necessarily lessen the shock when my own notes tell me that I thought a Nut Brown Ale tasted like men.

...Shudder.
I think Steve Jobs just called me a homo.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Jealous

As if MTV didn't already show us that rich people are really whiny and jealous, I stumbled across this article on FORBES.com that explains why rich privledged women HATE Sarah Palin.

Kind of jealousy thing...Kind of a catty head-cheerleader thing...kind of a pathetic thing.

http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/10/06/sarah-palin-elite-oped-cx_am_1007marlowe.html?feed=rss_popstories

One of Us

Watching the presidential debates last Friday night, it seemed as though both John McCain and Barack Obama were simply put on display to butt heads in front of a camera. Neither brought about stronger points, but both pointed fingers. It was basically like watching two intelligent people try to discuss important things while arm wrestling.

I'm an Obama supporter, but I'll give it to McCain in that he's not an idiot. He's intelligent, and he can speak well, which are two traits our current president severely lacks. But that's been old news for nearly 8 years.

What I'd really like to point out in that the only thing as scary as the possibility of G.W. Bush being in charge of our country any longer as it fails miserably, is the fact that Sarah Palin may get to take his place. (or atleast very near to it.)

Seriously, for every female who spoke into a microphone at the Republican National Convention after she accepted the V.P. Nomination and said, "She's wonderful, she's a mother, she's one of us!" I'd like you to consider a few things.

1. The blue states were quoted as liking George Bush for being 'one of us' 8 years ago, thinking he'd have their best interests in mind. My personal opinion is that I don't want me OR any of my friends running this country. I think it makes so much more sense to find someone who is smarter than me, smarter than you and smarter than anyone else I've ever attended a bachelor party with to decide where to stuff our dollar bills.

2. As far as being a mother is concerned, I can still recall my own mother's retelling of P.T.A. meetings and that there is no way in hell that any mother in that group could get the unanimous approval of every mother in the room. The fact that she's given birth to children does not give her a free pass to make only good decisions. I'm not saying this in a sexist sort of way, I'm saying this in a, "Holy shit! did you see that episode of Trading Spouses where the one mother trades with the other mother's family?!?!?! Whoa!" Simply stating that blindly favoring her because she's mothered children (or female) is really just a crapshoot.

3. This interview with Katie Couric should seal the deal in that Palin has no idea what she's doing, what she's talking about and should wipe out any confidence anyone may have in her as a leader. So enjoy the video, and then enjoy the video comments from (primarily) republican youtubers offering up the same blind support you give your favorite sports team when you blame the ref for penalizing your best player.

Enjoy:

Someday...the internet will mock itself.

Continuing along with my infinite blogging series in which I simply marvel at the internet and the various ways people use it, I'd like to offer a glimpse at some of the things people take time out of their day to discuss online.

Here, a discussion answering the question of whether or not hippos have ever been used to wage war:
http://uplink.space.com/printthread.php?Cat=&Board=animal&main=815382&type=thread

Or, If you're passionate about snacks, here is a site dedicated to reviewing them. Actually it's worth it, simply based on the top 10 worst chips page:
http://www.taquitos.net/

Or...somewhat related, this page is amazing simply for the sheer volume of people who take time out of their day to comment on pretzels. Some of them saying informative things such as, "Pretzels are good with cold root beer." or more personal sentiments like, "Ah, I don't like pretzels too much."

All I can say to that, is thanks AlexG681, your opinion and your fearless ability to share it may someday change the way we think about pretzels.
http://pricegrabber.rateitall.com/i-1298-rold-gold-pretzels.aspx

LIAR$!

The internet is amazing, and some of my own blog posts have marvelled at it's veritable treasure chest of ...well, treasure.
But there are certain things that make me think as far as treasure chests go, the internet is more like the one you got to dig through after a visit to the dentist when you were a kid.

I say this because sometimes I look to the internet for reviews. Reviews on music, movies, new technologies and even other websites. But while the internet has become an open forum for the everyman, I can't help but feel that the ability to sell things has influenced some of the reviews of the more legitimate sources.

I'm mainly talking about music.
Exhibit A: The new Kid Rock album Rock N' Roll Jesus.

This record is the antithesis of quality. Everything that was dumb about rap-rock has been not-so-cleverly rewritten into country-rock. The same simple-minded (see dumb) rednecks that think Larry The Cable Guy is a genius, also like Kid Rock because they think he 'Gets them'. Err...."Gits-'em".

In an attempt to feel good about my cranial superiority, and laugh at the hog-calling-nimwits who praise their Rock n' Roll Jesus, I thought I'd read a few reviews the 'pros' gave the album so that I could snicker along with proud self-satisfaction.

Nope.
Rollingstone.com gave the album 4 out of 5 stars! Saying, "...It's stirring stuff."

You've got to be kidding me. They've poisoned the Kool-Aid over at the longest standing pantheon of rock n' roll literature. I could maybe give it some leverage if they had said it was "brilliant!.... pandering to an audience so immersed in being okay with dumb, that they voted for Bush simply on the principle that he's from kcik-ass Texas, and his name is more or less the same as their favorite beer."

But no.
Rolling Stone found it stirring.

And I can only guess that it's because Rollingstone.com has paid links all over their review pages to take you to someone else's page to buy the music they're giving great reviews to. For every good review, a record label see's an immediate opportunity to seize the reader's wallet in an online urge for their $9.99, so that they can be just as 'stirred' as the critic. Rolling Stone is making money, not opinions.