Video Wednesday: Crystal Method & Some Dude Named Matisyahu
Rap and hip hop are not my thing. At. All. Ask my friends which CDs I’ve most likely worn down to the plastic, and guaranteed, all of them will list the entire discography of ‘Sting’. But ask my closest friends, and not only will they list ‘Sting’, but also ‘Crystal Method’. Since I first heard the building tones of “High Roller” eleven years ago, I have remained fully obsessed with their wicked, seductive, fantastic sound. Stumbling across this new gem tonight I discovered their newest album – and something I’d never have bothered to try if I’d known anything about it beforehand. Apparently, Matisyahu “blends traditional Jewish themes with Reggae, rock and hip hop”. And it is FABULOUS.
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In Need of a Little Sunshine
Long ago, I learned that in its purest sense, painting and photography is about seeing light. While I don’t always keep that in mind, I have noticed that getting a photo not completely shrouded in shadow seems impossible these days.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m still trying to bend my brain around f-stops and apertures, or…if it’s because I’m seeing dark.
Three years of rain and winters have come and gone since moving to Seattle, nevermuch bothering me. And yet…now. Now it seems darkness is everywhere, all of the time. Being an indoorsy night owl, I usually don’t mind it. In fact, I often prefer it.
But lately I find myself going ’round turning on lights in every room of the house, rooms we’re not in, rooms we don’t use. It feels like a waste because I know that it is. Still, I want them on.
It may be a combination of having been sick with different things for three weeks and the dense fog that’s pervaded the world here the last few days. I feel blah. My motivation is GONE. People keep asking me what’s wrong. Nothing, I thought. Until I actually thought about it today.
This song came on while driving to work. And just like everytime I’ve heard it before, it was IMPOSSIBLE for me not to feel better.
Candy in His Shoes Tonight Baby
This remarkable video came to my attention two years ago. Today, the Crush-Man is back and I love it. Because my basic sequel philosophy is this: it may never be as great as the original, but it’s almost ALWAYS great to have more.
Shiny Pennies and a Bee
Reading my blog feeds this morning, there were three or four that really grabbed my attention. First, eBay Ink posted eBay Inc Reports Third Quarter 2008 Results. Apparently revenue was up. While I found that news a little relieving for the sake of my ePeeps, I’m going to have to dig into that article again more attentively, because at first glance I don’t understand how that worked out at all – what with all the firing ten percent of their workforce while spendng a bazillion dollars to aquire more companies, the down economy and all those pissed off sellers. But maybe I’m just jumping the gun to Q4.
Second, Psychohistory published several excellent posts about the economy and politics after the debate last night. The kind of posts I usually skip over because A) try as I might, my eyes glaze over as soon they hit words like ‘dividends’, ‘preferred paper’, and ‘balance sheet’ (mathity-math-math-math) and B) I’m swinging the emotional pendulum of bored, frustrated and non-plussed by the election and the constant stream of ranty opinion posts/status updates I come across daily only make it worse.
If saying I read a blog with posts I don’t read sounds confusing, let me clarify. I read Psychohistory because it also talks about Linkedin, eBay, Coin Collecting and the occasional fun Battlestar Galactica review/spoiler/commentary. All good stuff in my book.
The reason he was able to pull me into two opinion posts on polictics AND money math was by the clever use of SNL. Because as soon as I saw Financial Advice for the Current Market Conditions: Don’t Buy Stuff You Can’t Afford, I immediately got busy hunting the interwebs for the video version.
During which I read through his other posts and found myself thinking a couple of thoughts that included, ‘damn, if everything doesn’t come down to marketing’ and ‘that tax stuff he’s talking about actually makes sense’. huh. scary.
Why the Liberal Political Engine is Working in 2008
The liberals have learned, and learned well from the mistakes in 2000-2004. They can’t defeat the conservative economic agenda of the past thirty years without killing the names of the heroes of those years. Clinton made this compromise, but while it preserved him even in the face of the 1994 Republic Congressional wins, it didn’t make the party stronger. As recently as 2004, people were talking about a permanent Republican majority. (Yes, it wasn’t that long ago).
Problems with Obama’s Tax Cut = Tax Cut Accounting
By using tax credits, Obama can state, with a straight face, that he isn’t going to raise taxes, he’s just going to redistribute the burden more fairly. And technically, he’s correct.
However, if you treat tax credits as entitlement spending, then you see that what he actually could do is radically increase the tax burden on the country, but cancel out a large volume of transfer payments from the spending side of the equation. So it looks like the tax burden has stayed the same. It looks like spending has not increased.
There are really big things I agree and disagree with on both parties. But primarily, I operate from the belief that true freedom is not just the endowment of choice, but the responsibility to chose. (I read the Road to Serfdom in college, and it’s stayed with me ever since.) Anything that takes away a person’s choice is something I’m inherently against. Which is my main problem with the Democratic Party. (And yes, McCain, Palin, Abortion, BIG RED FLAG FOR ME.)
It’s not that I think Democrats don’t mean well or that we shouldn’t try our best to make life fairer and better – it’s that I think there are an awful lot of choices that government shouldn’t be making for us. At. All. But it often seems we find it easier to make things the Government’s responsibility, instead of our own. And that feels lazy.
Whatever your bent, I think we all share in a common desire to do good and make the world a better place. I’m not sure at all how the pieces are going to fall in the next 20 days, but I am sure it’s scary to me either way. So I just have to remember that no matter who we elect, he can’t do his job without help from a whole lot of other people from a whole lot of other places; and to have faith that we’ll all do our part to keep this country on track.
As we like to say in our house a lot lately: Just get in there and FIX. IT!!
P.S. Is it a lot to try and cram two videos into one post? I hope you’ll bear with me. Because during this morning’s SNL hunt, I found the Most Awesome Super Surprise Villian in the History of THE WORLD – and I know that you know I would not be me if I restrained myself from sharing this:
I Know a Place Where This Could Actually Happen
As I understand it, doctors and soldiers develop a sense of ‘black comedy’ as a response to the pressures of death all around them. I think something similar happens to everyone who works in a call center for any good length of time.
In the case of eBay Customer Service, you literally have the ENTIRE WORLD screaming at you via email all day long. All written as though their problem? It’s YOUR fault, mother-@#!&^*. No matter how many problems a Rep manages to solve, the next email is always another screamer. With 500 more waiting in line today. Just. For. You.
There are precious few letters of thanks or happy endings. Because, let’s be real. Who has the stamina to hunt through eighteen pages of help to submit a message? Pissed off people, that’s who. No-one goes through all that just to say, “hey, wanted to letcha know I’m having a wonderful experience here!”
You GOTTA have an outlet.
Which is why, I think, our Halloweens were always so beserk. Or why we came up with things like the Annual Gourd Decorating Contest. And the Name that Just-Born Lamb whiteboard. And why, OMFG, ePeeps – this video seems so real, it could be a documenary.
Dudes, the IT Team would Kick. Our. Butts. Matrix-style.
