Hip hop is Dead?!

This track is a little more groove oriented than most of the hip hop I like, but is worth a gander.

nasa
by videos22

1 reason to become a hippie

Victor Jara, Chilean musician, tortured and murdered by the Pinochet regime.

Lady Gaga--The Return of Low Modernism?

Le Corbusier is pissing himself right now:

Coche?

So Five and I are discussing whether or not to somehow purchase a car. Mostly because we have been using Zip Car (a service that allows you to reserve a car for a few hours that is sitting in your neighborhood that has prearranged insurance, gas, etc.) but its prices are kind of ridiculous. We spend $25 to use the car for the 2 hours it takes to get groceries. Not to mention that visits to my family several times a year cost close to $300 for a weekend rental. Other travel is largely hard to do without friends with vehicles--camping, visiting nearby cities, and friends. Also getting the dog to the veterinarian or ourselves to medical appointments further away than busing distance is difficult.

The car, if we were to get one, would only really serve these functions because on a day to day basis public transport and bicycling are going to be infinitely more convenient, cheaper, more appropriate, and keep the weight off. But I am leery of binding myself to more large scale commodities (beside the house). Also, the American obsession with automobiles leads to massive deaths--human sacrifice in late capitalism. Nevertheless, the need for occasional driving seems pretty important.

Dog Diarrhea

So over the last few days Hollywood has been releasing these pretty foul dumps, which at times have an almost rainbow color to them (Orange, yellow, and green) and were pretty watery.

It looked kind of like this

Holy fuck
Uploaded by kafka71

or, maybe more like this,

Lightning Bolt - Dracula Mountain from Czlowiek Kamera on Vimeo.


While on walks I became one of those bad dog owners because there was absolutely no way to pick up said deposits.

After panicking, remembering that pitbulls historically have very senstive stomachs, and then turning to my singular source of vernacular diagnosis, the internet, I found this website which recommends giving the dog 3 smaller meals a day of boiled rice and chicken, and also human probiotics (good for intestinal health). After two days of chicken and brown rice the poop has solidified, although remains somewhat fluorescent, her mood is clearly better.

Drunk History Volume 3

This set of youtube videos are rather hilarious. They feature drunk folk renarrating moments from American History which are then enacted by professional actors. Volume 3 is by far the most amusing.

Somali Pirates and Terrorism

So today, on National Public Radio I heard a disturbing and specious set of speculations by international security experts on the possibility that Al Qaeda might turn to the Somali pirates (who recently took a US captain hostage) for aid and support. To set such ridiculous speculations in play in the public sphere seems tantamount to a useless and pathetic scare tatic.

Moreover, it doesn't match the reality on the ground where the so-called "pirates" are actually fishermen who have been fished out of their seas by European fishing boats and the dumping of nuclear waste in their ocean.

A San Francisco Bay View article indicates:

The “pirates” have the overwhelming support of the local population for a reason. The independent Somalian news site WardherNews conducted the best research we have into what ordinary Somalis are thinking - and it found 70 percent “strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defense of the country’s territorial waters.”

The Elderly Defecating

In a brief conversation about having to listen to the elderly person perched in the stall adjacent to your own taking a dump, and all of the important descriptors involved. We began to discuss the ways in which the images such sounds conjure include sea turtles laying eggs, see below:

Cursing President

So in a brief moment of adulation/enjoyment mirroring that for JFK, I delighted myself giggling over a recently discovered an audio version of Barack Obama's book, where he second hand recounts the colorful language of a highschool friend, Ray. Click on the link and listen to the clips. I recommend the one titled "Ignorant Motherfuckers."

Also, after a return to the senses, the new face of imperialism.

Alain Badiou on BBC HARDTalk

If you are interested, Alain Badiou the contemporary communist/philosopher who made me think twice about dialectics, interviewed by some British nitwit. Badiou himself seems to bumble somewhat.

Five Things I Currently Find Annoying About Pittsburgh

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Native American Studies scholar Ward Churchill Wins Against University of Colorado

Churchill who was ostensibly fired for cases of "plagiarism" and "scholarly misconduct" by the University of Colorado, won in a case against the University recently, which really fired him because of his controversial piece following the Sept. 11th, 2001 attacks in which he called those who died in the attacks, little Eichmans.

Although this is ostensibly a "win" for Churchill (of $1 in damages), because the 9/11 essay was not a sufficient grounds for dismissal, which according to the jury it was, some commentators view the damages as a commentary on the value of academic positions and only a grudging acknowledgment that this case may have been the context for much more intense McCarthy-style witch hunt.