I'm still a pretty firm believer in anonymity. It's great. However, someone from the internet read my blog, and emailed me, and suggested a meeting. I was curious (she seemed cute and her blog was kind of sassy), so I agreed. I kept joking about bringing a knife (I had so much fun pretending to be nuts [or was I?] that I never once thought that the person on the other end might actually be crazy). The other blogger was a local, so we met in a semi-public place... on campus.
Anyway, we met and talked. She was nice (in retrospect, I'm really glad it was a girl). We went out again last night. She didn't do too well with Disturbia. Kudos to her for trying. Shia LaBeouf (or whatever his name is) did really well, I thought. Good career move too, proving you can transcend Disney and be an edgy actor.
Anyway, the safety net of anonymity is kind of gone, and I'm kind of having trouble thinking of things to write. I kind of think I'm going to have to put my head down, and power through it.
For real though, anyone else think that meeting people through the interweb is kind of weird? I do... kind of.
Anyway, I'm gonna go drive past her house a couple of times. It's the only thing that calms me down enough to actually sleep.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Anonymity, Kind Of
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Scenesters and Rap Music
I'm getting the feeling that all that was really wanted here was a rap. First of all, let's talk about rap. I like rap. In elementary school, there was a bus-in program for inner city kids. While I lived in a little hamlet affectionately referred to as "White Folks' Bay," my best friends taught me to sing along with 2 Live Crew, and even the accompanying hand movements. I didn't know what they meant. Anyway, I listened to the rap station on my little clock radio. I still think that image is pretty funny. A little 3rd grade white kid falling to sleep while listening to MC Hammer or whoever was playing then. Musical tastes progressed, and life went on.
In high school, we had to research a social movement. I chose the Black Panthers. It was pretty interesting, and that lead to reading a lot of the founding Panthers' biographies. Somehow that lead into the spoken word thing that was going on in the 60s and 70s, and that lead into Gil Scott Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." That (and "Whitey on the Moon"), and several other spoken word artists, took me back to rap. Actually, the other day I saw this Scroobius Pip video, and was pretty pleased with it. Let's hear it for the spoken word.
Anyway, I think the original appeal of rap to me was fitting in, and now it's kind of the irony that attracts me (and the illness of it all). I have secret desires to be a white rapper and call people honkey. I enjoy driving in my car and practicing my "rap voice," which I like to think is a mix between James Murphy and John McCrea. I'm really too embarrassed to do it in front of people. Anyway, though you can't tell, I got off this post somehow as I was looking up LCD Soundsystem and have spent the last hour on music blogs (I'm so easily distracted). This brings the post full circle.
It seems like being a hipster involves SUCH effort. These dumb music blogs (and yet I keep reading them) have the new "it" band every day--and they're not really all that different or special. For example, I really like music, especially dance music. All dance music, especially the whole remix scene seems to finally be coming around to glitch pop, but it's also all starting to sound really really similar. Are we just inventing new things so we can have something new? Inventing cool to be cool? Indie kids, independent music, independent kids, independent scene... But really it seems like so many kids are the same. Of course, I don't think of myself as a hipster (not a single indie kid would admit to it, that's part of being one, right?), but they're the ones at our dance parties and I'm at their parties and we're friends and... am I one? We all want to be different, and we find out subculture and great, people like us, but oh MAN, people like us. Is it possible to be unique, because there are so many other kids out there being unique? Thus, my love hate relationship (ala Night of the Hunter) with all things "indie." Indy is the dog's name.
PS - This is not my rap voice. Even though my door was closed, I could still hear my roommate laughing, and it made me feel dumb--this is much quieter.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Requests requests requests
As I've been reading many a blog lately, I've been realizing that as far as personal blogs go, most people just post stuff to make them look cool. Upon this realization, my first thought was something mean, then I thought, "Do I do that? Wait, for real, do I do that?" Yeah, I kinda do. There's no real way to escape from presenting yourself to the world subjectively. You'll always have an angle. I like to think however that I don't try to make myself look as cool as certain ex-crushes of mine do. That's okay. I'll forgive her, she's from Huntington Beach.
I realize about 4 people read this blog. And I thank the 4 of you for your readership. I thought that I'd let you request subjects that you'd like me to cover, or rather, choose a story that I could then tell. Possible subjects and stories include:
1 - Ex-girlfriends (topic)
2 - Dating art majors (story)
3 - Ignoring girls around whom I feel awkward (story)
4 - Pranks (topic)
5 - Crushes in general and how they come and go so easily. Nevermind, that's pretty much it right there.
6 - My paradoxical relationship with scenesters, including a rap that I wrote (topic)
7 - Semi-paralyzing anxiety relating to my present situation and my future (admitting to this makes me feel less manly, soooo here's to getting over it--actually, when people post about this, it's mainly just boring)(topic)
8 - Any other requests (topic or story)
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
A Big Shout Out to Aditya at The Last Word
I would like to give an enormous thanks to Aditya over at the fantastic blog The Last Word. Thanks to his fantastic code (and patience and kindness way above the call of duty) you can now look to the right and see a list of all the MEpics and mobile photos, without ever leaving the page! They'll be listed in order of the most recently published (sometimes I go back and redo labels, so it's not in totally chronological order). Check out this post and this post for instructions on how to do it yourself. In addition to running a killer tech blog with a sweeeet design, he runs "the wrong road to a dead end." Check that out for more personal posts and various philosopical musings...
This particular post made me think of the song "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie (I know, I know--that song is already a little cliche). I'd say that us bloggers are generally an introverted bunch. In my experience, I've generally found that introversion leads to the saddest and loneliest times, and the only real antidote for those things are real and true relationships. Now that I think about it, nothing honestly makes me happier than the other people in my life. Here's to blogs for allowing us to reach out and connect with other introverts...
Monday, March 26, 2007
Whoops
Have I not been showing my profile this whole time? Maybe I should make that a double whoops, because that was where I had my email address posted. So, if any of you were discouraged from emailing me because my email hadn't been available (until a couple days ago), don't be.
Anyway, it's been a while since I've done some real writing on this blog. I hope it doesn't just turn into a picture blog or a writing blog. Wouldn't it be great if I could span all my interests in one blog? Hmmmm. Once my sister told me that I always have to have a new toy. It's kind of true. I constantly find myself being drawn in different directions--directing or photography or music or writing or even a little acting... or planning bank robberies. Have you ever really wondered if you were smart enough to pull off a bank robbery? I think about that more than I probably should. Anyway, I wonder if the fact that I spread myself so thin stops me from being good at any one of those single areas. Does just doing one thing get boring for anybody else? Just me? I bet not.