What's up dudes. It's been a while since a good post and all, but I've just got nothing on my mind right now. Okay. Sike. That's a lie. I mean, my brain's always in some kind of twixt of sorts but earlier this week it was nice out and I didn't want to sit at my computer longer than I had to (which I ended up doing anyway... I just didn't write a blog). Now it's winter again and I'm too cold to want to sit here and write anything down, but I'm going to make myself do it.
Points of interest today... my house is absolutely disgusting. In response to my previous post, or maybe it was two posts ago, Chap has graciously offered to try and play drums for my new recordings but then he got the flu or something, so that's still getting pushed off. But that's okay because it prompted me to sit down at the kit and try and figure out the way I want certain parts to sound by playing along with what I have recorded so far (badly), and that made me realize that I think a lot of the songs are way too slow and might have to be completely re-recorded from scratch anyway. That kind of blows, but the work I did on these songs was so long ago that I can barely remember what it is I'd be losing by starting over on them. Plus maybe they'll sound more cohesive and better put together if we start the recordings with drums. Ya know?!
No I don't know. But we'll see. Also, I recently started a new band project with some solid dudes... Joe and Doug, which is going pretty good so far. The only issue is the two of them aren't too into actually writing songs so I've been trying to crank out material in between practices and it's way tougher than I thought it would be. See, the "concept" or sound for the band is that we want to be straight up punk rock and not this BS "dance punk" crap or playing old rock and roll but louder and calling it punk rock crap that's sneaking up on us these days. What we're trying to get going is something the Lawrence Arms (at least I think that's who I heard it from) define as "midwestern beer belly despair rock). If that doesn't put a picture in your mind think that band and Dillinger Four and Latterman and None More Black and all that other kind of stuff that a few people were really into two or three years ago but not so much anymore. That's what we're working on.
So back to what I was saying... I thought it'd be real easy but it turns out that when you're used to writing real strum heavy acoustic stuff for acoustic guitar and only acoustic guitar, it gets really hard to write chord progressions and lyrics on an acoustic guitar when you know there's a going to be a whole lot more to it once you add other instruments and that it's going to sound much different with a full band. Does that make sense? Because it does to me.
For example... I don't know how these bands write their lyrics and melodies. Whenever I'm sitting around with just my acoustic guitar trying to think of a melody to go with some power chords or whatever or vice versa it always sounds extremely corny and generic without hearing it faster, thicker, and being screamed out just right. And it's also not like you can just "jam" and write these kinds of songs like I'm used to doing, and if you can I sure as hell haven't figured out how yet. I'm almost embarssed to have written a lot of the stuff I've gone through trying to write these songs. But now I just figure "fuck it", I need to force myself to present any old thing to the full band and run with it... see what happens. That's how the Beatles got started... writing lyrics about how they don't know how their girlfriends put up with them because they're slobs with mice in their houses and singing that against two real generic sounding power chords on an acoustic guitar.
Right? No seriously. It's true.
Also we're pretty sure we're going to call this band Bears. That name's already taken we think... but I really don't care because it's awesome.
I'm going to go stare at my huge pile of dishes and hope it washes itself now.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Transist, Resist, GET PISSED!
I don't really have anything particular to say right now because I'm having one of those real shitty days when you just want to sit around and pout and mope about yourself and pretend your problems are the only ones that matters... and nobody on the internet cares (or should care at least) about that crap. So I'm going to keep this brief and just tell you guys that you need to go and Digg my friend Brie's awesome blog about the latest super computer he built:
Check out his blog and Digg it here
To cut through all the jargon on there since I'm sure none of you are that nerdy; basically he built a computer from scratch that was considered a Super Computer in the 1980s and made it a tiny fraction of the original physical size.
The main reason to check it out is because his nerd club is having an internet traffic battle with another nerd club... which is pretty awesome, and they need to catch up:
Hacker War - there's all the stats and details.
So there you go... nothing about me today. But check out what Brie is up to because it's rad in a really awesomely lame way.
Check out his blog and Digg it here
To cut through all the jargon on there since I'm sure none of you are that nerdy; basically he built a computer from scratch that was considered a Super Computer in the 1980s and made it a tiny fraction of the original physical size.
The main reason to check it out is because his nerd club is having an internet traffic battle with another nerd club... which is pretty awesome, and they need to catch up:
Hacker War - there's all the stats and details.
So there you go... nothing about me today. But check out what Brie is up to because it's rad in a really awesomely lame way.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Bill Replies or "Oceania is at War with Eurasia, Oceania has Always Been at War with Eurasia"
I finally got around to watching Bill-O's response my E-Mail, and man that guy sucks... plain and simple. He's just kind of a dick. Before I post the transcript please review the E-Mail I sent him...
But seriously, let's take a look at what this jackass did here. First off, he left out the fact that it was indeed a direct quote from him. The way he presented his response, one would logically assume that I had no video evidence of my accusation and that it is indeed just a "far left smear". I saw him say it; you saw him say it, If you didn't read the earlier blog before this one. By doing this he completely discredits any information I have to offer because his brainwashed drones are already convinced that I'm a nut job just pulling stuff off of rumor websites.
Oh, and by the way, that "far left website" I was "hanging out on" was YouTube. Go look up any video that involves politics and/or minorities on YouTube and read a few comments; you'll quickly realize that site is anything but "far left".
He also left out key words and phrases such as, "those are your words; not mine or Rosenthal's", the statement that his squabbles were "personal" and not newsworthy was also conveniently ignored and edited out.
On top of all of those things, between hate mail and my girlfriend's parents I kept getting the same response... "Bill burned you, you pinhead!!"
How? How on Earth did I just get burned? He in no way acknowledged the point I was trying to make because he edited half of it out and then responded by saying he wasn't racist and reciting the same biased talking point that I was complaining about and worst of all, passing it off as a fact with no proof, source, or citation. And all my haters (for lack of a better word) ate it up and gave him the ol' Arsenio "whoop whoop whoop".
This brings me to another point that really bothers me... people who constantly talk about how they're not racist. Just because you don't use the N-word, doesn't mean you're not racist. It's like this silly post I came across on Craig's list the other day... don't ask, I was really bored. It said something along the lines of,
He might as well have just said...
And this from the New York Post today:
A monkey is shot to death and a guy comments that "they'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill". Who's the champion of the stimulus bill? Our black president. What is a common racist caricature of black people? Monkey's.
...I really can't bring myself to go on.
To quote one of the last great journalists...
Good night
...and good luck.
(and no, I'm not talking about Keith Olberman)
"Bill,And here is the transcript (I also have video, but it was very hard to get and it looks bad and the sound is terrible because I had to film it off of a TV using the i-Sight camera built into my computer... in case anyone wants that):
In the same John McCain interview you used as an example to show that the you're not racist you accused the Times of trying to "break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you're a part, and so am I". Those are your words; not mine or Rosenthal's.
Quit trying to pass off your personal and petty squabbles with other news and media organizations as "news" and "facts".
Josh [My last name]
Cincinnati, Ohio"
"Josh [a mispronunciation of my last name] from Cincinnati, Ohio:Hey Bill...
'Bill quit trying to pass off your petty squabbles with other news outlets as facts. You did accuse the New York Times of trying to break down the white, Christian, male power structure which you're a part of and so am I... you told Senator McCain.'
Well you copied that correctly off of whatever far left website you hang out on sir. And it's a fact. It's what the Times is trying to do, break down the white, male, Christian power strucuture in the country. Senator McCain and I are part of that structure. So what's the beef? I'm speaking the truth, not endorsing the structure, or a party, or a policy. I'm simply stating a hard fact. For that I'm a racist? You're a misguided person who needs to wise up."
But seriously, let's take a look at what this jackass did here. First off, he left out the fact that it was indeed a direct quote from him. The way he presented his response, one would logically assume that I had no video evidence of my accusation and that it is indeed just a "far left smear". I saw him say it; you saw him say it, If you didn't read the earlier blog before this one. By doing this he completely discredits any information I have to offer because his brainwashed drones are already convinced that I'm a nut job just pulling stuff off of rumor websites.
Oh, and by the way, that "far left website" I was "hanging out on" was YouTube. Go look up any video that involves politics and/or minorities on YouTube and read a few comments; you'll quickly realize that site is anything but "far left".
He also left out key words and phrases such as, "those are your words; not mine or Rosenthal's", the statement that his squabbles were "personal" and not newsworthy was also conveniently ignored and edited out.
On top of all of those things, between hate mail and my girlfriend's parents I kept getting the same response... "Bill burned you, you pinhead!!"
How? How on Earth did I just get burned? He in no way acknowledged the point I was trying to make because he edited half of it out and then responded by saying he wasn't racist and reciting the same biased talking point that I was complaining about and worst of all, passing it off as a fact with no proof, source, or citation. And all my haters (for lack of a better word) ate it up and gave him the ol' Arsenio "whoop whoop whoop".
This brings me to another point that really bothers me... people who constantly talk about how they're not racist. Just because you don't use the N-word, doesn't mean you're not racist. It's like this silly post I came across on Craig's list the other day... don't ask, I was really bored. It said something along the lines of,
Now I'm not racist BUT... to you god damn spooks (no seriously, he used the word "spooks") who were making all that noise at the theater, you ruined my night and you're exactly what's wrong with this country.
He might as well have just said...
I don't want to use the n-word here... but god I hate black people.Which brings me back to Bill and other friends at Fox who are constantly concerned with not being seen as racists. In the segment I was quoting Bill said we need to cap how many imigrants can come to the country because of their threat to the white, Christian, male power structure which he claims to not be concerned about... because he's not a racist... per se. Rather, he doesn't want to use the term "wetback", but he definitely doesn't want Mexicans having the same opportunities as he. And then there's Glenn Beck... Well, I can't find the clip because Fox is in the business of immediately erasing most of what happens on their network, but in short, he and Karl Rove were discussing how to "protect the border" and Beck's solution was to give guys on the lines bigger guns. Yeah dudes.
And this from the New York Post today:
A monkey is shot to death and a guy comments that "they'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill". Who's the champion of the stimulus bill? Our black president. What is a common racist caricature of black people? Monkey's.
...I really can't bring myself to go on.
To quote one of the last great journalists...
Good night
...and good luck.
(and no, I'm not talking about Keith Olberman)
Sunday, February 15, 2009
You DID NOT do it Better the Second Time Around
So I'm sort of watching "Attack of the Clones" on Spike right now... And I mean sort of because I've got my headphones on since I'm listening to the new Bomb the Music Industry! record and it's pretty solid so far. It's weird because in a way I've sort of grown up with this band what with Jeff (the guy who writes these songs) and I being relatively close in age that with each new song I hear I'm kind of like, yeah... it's kind of like that. But not in that whole "This Nickelback song TOTALLY is about me kind of way."
It's more like, "Hey yeah, I also sit around the house all day on weekdays and then go out and get real drunk with one or two people when we should be in bed by 11 to wake up for jobs like the rest of our friends with college degrees" kind of way. It's kind of fun like that.
Back to "Attack of the Clones". I was really trying to give it a second chance because I flipped through and landed on it towards the beginning of the movie and was like, "what the fuck is this?" That is to say, I have almost no memory of anything that happened in that movie. Ten minutes later, I was pretty satisfied by the fact that I forgot everything about it. What a trite piece of garabage... and ten minutes was all I really needed to figure that out. There was some scene where Anakin and Obi Wan are hunting some dude/chick down in a bar and Anakin's like, "This is Jedi business, go back to your drinks." and Obi Wan is offered a "death stick" which appeared to be the Star Wars version of a cigarette and he does the Jedi mind trick and goes, "You don't want to sell me a death stick," and the douchebag at the bar goes, "I don't want to sell him a death stick."
Really? We needed to sneak this tacky little anti-smoking bit into a fucking Star Wars movie?
...side note, I just looked up at the screen and saw Haydn Christiansen giving his "I'm an angry teenager look"... man, that guy could ruin the Godfather if you just had him stand in the background of one scene.
Last but not least, I caught the part where Obi-Wan is visiting the planet where they're building the clone army with Jango Fett or whatever and it's raining the whole time. The rain looked like they ripped the CGI from a Nintendo 64 game. I thought George Lucas was supposed to be like the richest film maker of all time, but it seems the more expensive efects he uses, the worse his movies get. Go figure.
If someone tells you that the Star Wars prequels have any value or merit besides tieing up the story (which it didn't even do that well) then they are a liar. Plain and simple.
This whole blog was misdirected and absent minded. Sorry about that guys. I'll do better next time. Go check out that BTMI record though.
Oh, also I'm contemplating the idea of caving in and just programming the drums on the album I've been working on. Somebody convince me not to.
It's more like, "Hey yeah, I also sit around the house all day on weekdays and then go out and get real drunk with one or two people when we should be in bed by 11 to wake up for jobs like the rest of our friends with college degrees" kind of way. It's kind of fun like that.
Back to "Attack of the Clones". I was really trying to give it a second chance because I flipped through and landed on it towards the beginning of the movie and was like, "what the fuck is this?" That is to say, I have almost no memory of anything that happened in that movie. Ten minutes later, I was pretty satisfied by the fact that I forgot everything about it. What a trite piece of garabage... and ten minutes was all I really needed to figure that out. There was some scene where Anakin and Obi Wan are hunting some dude/chick down in a bar and Anakin's like, "This is Jedi business, go back to your drinks." and Obi Wan is offered a "death stick" which appeared to be the Star Wars version of a cigarette and he does the Jedi mind trick and goes, "You don't want to sell me a death stick," and the douchebag at the bar goes, "I don't want to sell him a death stick."
Really? We needed to sneak this tacky little anti-smoking bit into a fucking Star Wars movie?
...side note, I just looked up at the screen and saw Haydn Christiansen giving his "I'm an angry teenager look"... man, that guy could ruin the Godfather if you just had him stand in the background of one scene.
Last but not least, I caught the part where Obi-Wan is visiting the planet where they're building the clone army with Jango Fett or whatever and it's raining the whole time. The rain looked like they ripped the CGI from a Nintendo 64 game. I thought George Lucas was supposed to be like the richest film maker of all time, but it seems the more expensive efects he uses, the worse his movies get. Go figure.
If someone tells you that the Star Wars prequels have any value or merit besides tieing up the story (which it didn't even do that well) then they are a liar. Plain and simple.
This whole blog was misdirected and absent minded. Sorry about that guys. I'll do better next time. Go check out that BTMI record though.
Oh, also I'm contemplating the idea of caving in and just programming the drums on the album I've been working on. Somebody convince me not to.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Back from Ol' Virginny'
A few things before I get into this...
I've been in Virginia all week with no internet, so I've yet to see that O'Reilly bit about me or contact that guy who was sending me hate mail. Now too much time has passed to contact the hate mail guy I think for it to still be relevant. But I'll still get around to watching and responding to it as soon as I can.
But here's some stuff I learned in Virginia... it's warmer, they have some good food... namely this place called Eppie's where white college kids make soul food, so you'd think it would really suck, but it was actually some pretty solid Jerk Chicken and the best corn bread I remember in recent memory...
What else? They had some awesome 15 year old kids playing the blues who ran circles around me while I was playing keyboard. It was funny. They were all like, "I thought you played guitar? Play for us!" And I was all like, "Ummm.... no dudes, it's cool, I'll stick to keys." I played a bit of bass and held my own though. S'all good. It did make me come to some serious truths though. That is, I'm pretty damn close to starting a career out of playing, recording, and listening to music and I'm not nearly as good as I could or should be. So I came home and am already trying to kick my ass and do some ear training, brushing up on sampling and learning to make better beats, re-reading my audio production books for the third or fourth time, and trying to find some people to play music with to get better because after playing with those kids (that sounded dirty... tee hee) for about an hour and a half I realized it was the first time I'd played music with other people in about a year and a half... which I'm convincing myself is part of the reason they seemed so much better than me. lolz!
The most important thing I learned while there (not really, but for the sake of keeping the blog short we'll say it is) is that Dave Matthews truly is a hack. The guy you should be listening to is Vusi Mahlasela. I had a chance to see Vusi speak and play a few songs and wow... lets talk about real folk music. Pain, love, forgiveness... this dude knows how to speak his shit, and half of it was in Zulu! I haven't had a chance to do a side by side comparison but the guy I was staying with just kept saying, "wait till you hear Vusi. Just wait. You'll see where Dave Matthews stole everything on his first few albums from." And well... it's true. It's the same thing, just better, because it's still got the soul. Sure that song Dave wrote about jerking off while spying on your neighbor sounded pretty "soulful" or whatever, but all the rhythms, patterns, and such are just stolen from Vusi. Let's get serious here...
(go ahead and skip like the first 45 seconds of that video or so. It's some dumb ad for the event he was playing)
There you go. That's a dude who had to build his own guitars as a kid because they couldn't afford them and could only listen to his own cultural music on pirate radio through people's windows because Apartheid didn't allow it. That's soul. I mean, I'm not saying Dave Matthews had it easy or whatever. I mean he had some early deaths in the family or whatever and he lived in South Africa too during Apartheid... but he was white. Totally different story. So then he just latched on to the sound he found there and turned it for a buck... or a couple million. I'm not saying that's totally wrong, but the only thanks he ever gave to Vusi was they collaborated on a song recently or something like that. All that means is Vusi has to open with it for every show he plays in the states. That's pretty shitty... but whatever Vusi seemed happy with it. Also, we gave him a cake and he was so adorably greatful. Pretty awesome guy.
And as much as I love to hate on Dave Matthews Band I have to give them some credit because in a roundabout way, they are the reason why I am able to sleep till noon and then sip on tea listening to Hank Williams for another hour or two before getting anything done... It doesn't make sense, but it does. Damn you Dave Matthews!
I've been in Virginia all week with no internet, so I've yet to see that O'Reilly bit about me or contact that guy who was sending me hate mail. Now too much time has passed to contact the hate mail guy I think for it to still be relevant. But I'll still get around to watching and responding to it as soon as I can.
But here's some stuff I learned in Virginia... it's warmer, they have some good food... namely this place called Eppie's where white college kids make soul food, so you'd think it would really suck, but it was actually some pretty solid Jerk Chicken and the best corn bread I remember in recent memory...
What else? They had some awesome 15 year old kids playing the blues who ran circles around me while I was playing keyboard. It was funny. They were all like, "I thought you played guitar? Play for us!" And I was all like, "Ummm.... no dudes, it's cool, I'll stick to keys." I played a bit of bass and held my own though. S'all good. It did make me come to some serious truths though. That is, I'm pretty damn close to starting a career out of playing, recording, and listening to music and I'm not nearly as good as I could or should be. So I came home and am already trying to kick my ass and do some ear training, brushing up on sampling and learning to make better beats, re-reading my audio production books for the third or fourth time, and trying to find some people to play music with to get better because after playing with those kids (that sounded dirty... tee hee) for about an hour and a half I realized it was the first time I'd played music with other people in about a year and a half... which I'm convincing myself is part of the reason they seemed so much better than me. lolz!
The most important thing I learned while there (not really, but for the sake of keeping the blog short we'll say it is) is that Dave Matthews truly is a hack. The guy you should be listening to is Vusi Mahlasela. I had a chance to see Vusi speak and play a few songs and wow... lets talk about real folk music. Pain, love, forgiveness... this dude knows how to speak his shit, and half of it was in Zulu! I haven't had a chance to do a side by side comparison but the guy I was staying with just kept saying, "wait till you hear Vusi. Just wait. You'll see where Dave Matthews stole everything on his first few albums from." And well... it's true. It's the same thing, just better, because it's still got the soul. Sure that song Dave wrote about jerking off while spying on your neighbor sounded pretty "soulful" or whatever, but all the rhythms, patterns, and such are just stolen from Vusi. Let's get serious here...
(go ahead and skip like the first 45 seconds of that video or so. It's some dumb ad for the event he was playing)
There you go. That's a dude who had to build his own guitars as a kid because they couldn't afford them and could only listen to his own cultural music on pirate radio through people's windows because Apartheid didn't allow it. That's soul. I mean, I'm not saying Dave Matthews had it easy or whatever. I mean he had some early deaths in the family or whatever and he lived in South Africa too during Apartheid... but he was white. Totally different story. So then he just latched on to the sound he found there and turned it for a buck... or a couple million. I'm not saying that's totally wrong, but the only thanks he ever gave to Vusi was they collaborated on a song recently or something like that. All that means is Vusi has to open with it for every show he plays in the states. That's pretty shitty... but whatever Vusi seemed happy with it. Also, we gave him a cake and he was so adorably greatful. Pretty awesome guy.
And as much as I love to hate on Dave Matthews Band I have to give them some credit because in a roundabout way, they are the reason why I am able to sleep till noon and then sip on tea listening to Hank Williams for another hour or two before getting anything done... It doesn't make sense, but it does. Damn you Dave Matthews!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Bill O'Reilly Goes After Lil' Ol' Me. No... Seriously!
I told myself I was going to stray away from political posts for a little while to let the blog get settled in, but this one is too good. In fact, it's going to have to be a multi-parter because all the facts and research aren't quite in yet. I'll get to that later. So for now, let's call this the "Preface"
This story starts on Monday while I was torturing myself with some good old O'Reilly Factor, waiting for Heroes to come on. Bill spent two or three segments worth of the show focusing on a "personal attack" on him in the New York Times which "accused him of being racist" (notice all the quote bubbles).
Here's the Times editorial by Andrew Rosenthal which he was referring to and the specific quote Bill was up in arms about:
"Rosenthal: It is easy to mock white-supremacist views as pathetic and to assume that nativism in the age of Obama is on the way out. The country has, of course, made considerable progress since the days of Know-Nothings and the Klan. But racism has a nasty habit of never going away, no matter how much we may want it to, and thus the perpetual need for vigilance.
[And then Bill, while reading from the editorial on his show conveniently skipped the following passage... wonder why?]
Rosenthal: It is all around us. Much was made of the Republican mailing of the parody song “Barack the Magic Negro,” but the same notorious CD included “The Star Spanglish Banner,” a puerile bit of Latino-baiting. It is easily found on YouTube.
[Bill starts reading again at this point of the editorial]
Rosenthal: Google the words 'Bill O’Reilly' and 'white, Christian male power structure' for another YouTube taste of the Fox News host assailing the immigration views of 'the far left' (including The Times) as racially traitorous."
So there you have it, he was a blip on their radar and the first half of an entire show is dedicated to his silly squable with a newspaper. What did Bill have to say?
"O'Reilly: As you may know, the Times and other far-left entities favor amnesty for illegal aliens, primarily as a way to gain political power."
This comment came after devoting his entire Talking Points Memo to his wild conspiracy theory that the only reason any of us (especially the Times) seeks amnesty for illegal imigrants is because we want more people to vote Democrat. He refuses to believe that we might actually care about other human beings and equality, and that we don't believe that a person is "illegal" based on where they are in time and space. The whole segment was absolutely appauling and difficult to watch, but your humble narrator marched on and stuck with him through this...
"O'Reilly: Of course, you can post anything on YouTube, any lie you want, any distortion, and Google can highlight the smear in the blink of an eye -- there are no rules. For example, I could post that Andrew Rosenthal completely distorted Bill O'Reilly's view on illegal immigration, because Rosenthal is a dishonest far-left zealot who uses hateful tactics, like implying people with whom he disagrees are racist.
I could post that, and then you could Google 'Rosenthal' and 'illegal immigration' and it would be there -- uncensored. Now if Rosenthal doesn't know that, he's stupid. If he does know it, then he's dishonest and intentionally misleading Times readers."
Well Bill, you'd almost have a point there if this weren't what comes up when you search for "Bill O'Reilly white, christian male power structure" on Google...
Here's the transcript in case you still can't believe it:
"Bill,
In the same John McCain interview you used as an example to show that the you're not racist you accused the Times of trying to 'break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you're a part, and so am I'. Those are your words; not mine or Rosenthal's.
Quit trying to pass off your personal and petty squabbles with other news and media organizations as 'news' and 'facts'.
Josh [and I included my last name here, which was a stroke of genius as it was the catalyst for the rest of this story which is still in progress]
Cincinnati, Ohio"
Two days went by and I missed the next night's E-Mails because I figured there would be no way in hell he'd pull mine out the first time I sent one. But last night at the bar Jason comes up to me and says, "Hey, John said he was watching the O'Reilly Factor last night and an E-Mail came up from a Josh [my last name] in Cincinnati."
Awwwww snap. He read it on the air. The question is, which part did he read? Because the first part is admittedly bait. When all I have at my defense are a few measly sentences I'd written the night before and he has all the power of his cable news throne, I knew that part, and probably the whole E-Mail would be torn apart on the air with ease. I'm more focused on whether or not the second portion about his feuds with other news organizations made it on because this is my primary issue with O'Reilly. His anger or "war" as he calls it with the Times and GE/NBC are nothing more than personal feuds because he can't take the heat of a personal attack every now and again, and he, just like all other TV and radio personalities, isn't the political genius he attempts to portray... he's just an ego maniac and an attention whore.
I spent hours today trying to find video of the E-Mail segment so I could do a comparison and analysis of his reading and response, but alas, I couldn't find anything except a few excerpts of the show. No transcripts... not even a contact to request transcripts from, which is important since as you can see based on this story here, they're in the business of re-writing their own history to make one side always look right and the other always look wrong. The less records of the past, the less work they have to do to cover it up later. MSNBC on the other hand had readily available and easy to find transcripts of every episode of "Hard Ball with Chris Matthews". I found the contrast to be quite hilarious.
But don't fear! My girlfriend's parents, being the rabid O'Reilly fans they are, tape it every night and hadn't watched the episode yet, so we're hoping they save the episode so she can transcribe it straight from the source and I'll get back to you on the analysis.
And just when you thought it was over... there's more! I got my first piece of hate mail thanks to that E-Mail to Bill and the fact that I left my full name on it. It goes as follows...
"Subject: POLITICAL IDIOT
JOSH
AFTER THAT ROYAL BURN YOU GOT LAST NIGHT BY O’REILLY, I THINK I WOULD STICK TO TRYING TO BE A WANNA BE ROCKER!
A FRIEND"
Yes. It was all in caps. At first glance we thought this guy had to know me personally, or maybe it was my girlfriends dad secretly attacking me from a friends E-Mail (which would have been way funnier). The truth is much more sad. Apparently some guy took the time to search my full name in Google. My name being pretty unique brigns up results that are all actually about me or made by me including a link to my band's MySpace page and a school project I did about two or three years ago. This guy sifted through all of those things to find not only my personal E-Mail address but also my old university E-Mail address and sent his oh so eloquent letter to both.
To make things even better a quick search of his E-Mail user name gave me his full name, address, place of work, and phone number. And this got me thinking... what compels someone to make an attack like that? What did he gain by sending that E-Mail? How did it make him feel? Why did he feel the need to personally attack me beyond my politcal views? I'm not offended because well... it's pretty obvious from the circumstance and text that he's an idiot, but I just want to know.
So hopefully tomorrow I'm going to attempt my first interview for 'Front Porch Affairs...' and give the guy a ring. At the worst he yells at me and then saves my number on his caller ID and harasses me constantly. But if all goes well and I get a civil discussion going we might get some insight into the psyche of hate speech, which I think could be really awesome.
Wish me luck on that... later dudes.
This story starts on Monday while I was torturing myself with some good old O'Reilly Factor, waiting for Heroes to come on. Bill spent two or three segments worth of the show focusing on a "personal attack" on him in the New York Times which "accused him of being racist" (notice all the quote bubbles).
Here's the Times editorial by Andrew Rosenthal which he was referring to and the specific quote Bill was up in arms about:
"Rosenthal: It is easy to mock white-supremacist views as pathetic and to assume that nativism in the age of Obama is on the way out. The country has, of course, made considerable progress since the days of Know-Nothings and the Klan. But racism has a nasty habit of never going away, no matter how much we may want it to, and thus the perpetual need for vigilance.
[And then Bill, while reading from the editorial on his show conveniently skipped the following passage... wonder why?]
Rosenthal: It is all around us. Much was made of the Republican mailing of the parody song “Barack the Magic Negro,” but the same notorious CD included “The Star Spanglish Banner,” a puerile bit of Latino-baiting. It is easily found on YouTube.
[Bill starts reading again at this point of the editorial]
Rosenthal: Google the words 'Bill O’Reilly' and 'white, Christian male power structure' for another YouTube taste of the Fox News host assailing the immigration views of 'the far left' (including The Times) as racially traitorous."
So there you have it, he was a blip on their radar and the first half of an entire show is dedicated to his silly squable with a newspaper. What did Bill have to say?
"O'Reilly: As you may know, the Times and other far-left entities favor amnesty for illegal aliens, primarily as a way to gain political power."
This comment came after devoting his entire Talking Points Memo to his wild conspiracy theory that the only reason any of us (especially the Times) seeks amnesty for illegal imigrants is because we want more people to vote Democrat. He refuses to believe that we might actually care about other human beings and equality, and that we don't believe that a person is "illegal" based on where they are in time and space. The whole segment was absolutely appauling and difficult to watch, but your humble narrator marched on and stuck with him through this...
"O'Reilly: Of course, you can post anything on YouTube, any lie you want, any distortion, and Google can highlight the smear in the blink of an eye -- there are no rules. For example, I could post that Andrew Rosenthal completely distorted Bill O'Reilly's view on illegal immigration, because Rosenthal is a dishonest far-left zealot who uses hateful tactics, like implying people with whom he disagrees are racist.
I could post that, and then you could Google 'Rosenthal' and 'illegal immigration' and it would be there -- uncensored. Now if Rosenthal doesn't know that, he's stupid. If he does know it, then he's dishonest and intentionally misleading Times readers."
Well Bill, you'd almost have a point there if this weren't what comes up when you search for "Bill O'Reilly white, christian male power structure" on Google...
Here's the transcript in case you still can't believe it:
Well first and foremost, Bill doesn't seem to understand how the internet works in the first place, but this isn't some kid on "the google space or the i tube" claiming that he might have once heard Bill O'Reilly mention something about the "white, Christian, male power structure", it's straight from the horses mouth. The guy is fear mongering all up in this piece! At this point I'd had enough and didn't have much else going on aside from sitting around eating pizza and decided it was time to take action. My plan was to start writing Bill as concise, polite, and to the point an E-Mail as I could every time I saw something on his show that reached this degree of offensively irresponsible journalism, and down right scum baggery in hopes that some day a long time from now he might read one on the air. Even though I know he would manage to make me look like an idiot to his brainwashed viewers, it'd still feel like a nice little victory. So here's what I sent him that night..."Bill O'Reilly: But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you're a part, and so am I, and they want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have. In that regard, Pat Buchanan is right. So I say you've got to cap with a number.
John McCain: In America today we've got a very strong economy and low unemployment, so we need addition farm workers, including by the way agriculture, but there may come a time where we have an economic downturn, and we don't need so many.
O'Reilly: But in this bill, you guys have got to cap it. Because estimation is 12 million, there may be 20 [million]. You don't know, I don't know. We've got to cap it.
McCain: We do, we do. I agree with you."
"Bill,
In the same John McCain interview you used as an example to show that the you're not racist you accused the Times of trying to 'break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you're a part, and so am I'. Those are your words; not mine or Rosenthal's.
Quit trying to pass off your personal and petty squabbles with other news and media organizations as 'news' and 'facts'.
Josh [and I included my last name here, which was a stroke of genius as it was the catalyst for the rest of this story which is still in progress]
Cincinnati, Ohio"
Two days went by and I missed the next night's E-Mails because I figured there would be no way in hell he'd pull mine out the first time I sent one. But last night at the bar Jason comes up to me and says, "Hey, John said he was watching the O'Reilly Factor last night and an E-Mail came up from a Josh [my last name] in Cincinnati."
Awwwww snap. He read it on the air. The question is, which part did he read? Because the first part is admittedly bait. When all I have at my defense are a few measly sentences I'd written the night before and he has all the power of his cable news throne, I knew that part, and probably the whole E-Mail would be torn apart on the air with ease. I'm more focused on whether or not the second portion about his feuds with other news organizations made it on because this is my primary issue with O'Reilly. His anger or "war" as he calls it with the Times and GE/NBC are nothing more than personal feuds because he can't take the heat of a personal attack every now and again, and he, just like all other TV and radio personalities, isn't the political genius he attempts to portray... he's just an ego maniac and an attention whore.
I spent hours today trying to find video of the E-Mail segment so I could do a comparison and analysis of his reading and response, but alas, I couldn't find anything except a few excerpts of the show. No transcripts... not even a contact to request transcripts from, which is important since as you can see based on this story here, they're in the business of re-writing their own history to make one side always look right and the other always look wrong. The less records of the past, the less work they have to do to cover it up later. MSNBC on the other hand had readily available and easy to find transcripts of every episode of "Hard Ball with Chris Matthews". I found the contrast to be quite hilarious.
But don't fear! My girlfriend's parents, being the rabid O'Reilly fans they are, tape it every night and hadn't watched the episode yet, so we're hoping they save the episode so she can transcribe it straight from the source and I'll get back to you on the analysis.
And just when you thought it was over... there's more! I got my first piece of hate mail thanks to that E-Mail to Bill and the fact that I left my full name on it. It goes as follows...
"Subject: POLITICAL IDIOT
JOSH
AFTER THAT ROYAL BURN YOU GOT LAST NIGHT BY O’REILLY, I THINK I WOULD STICK TO TRYING TO BE A WANNA BE ROCKER!
A FRIEND"
Yes. It was all in caps. At first glance we thought this guy had to know me personally, or maybe it was my girlfriends dad secretly attacking me from a friends E-Mail (which would have been way funnier). The truth is much more sad. Apparently some guy took the time to search my full name in Google. My name being pretty unique brigns up results that are all actually about me or made by me including a link to my band's MySpace page and a school project I did about two or three years ago. This guy sifted through all of those things to find not only my personal E-Mail address but also my old university E-Mail address and sent his oh so eloquent letter to both.
To make things even better a quick search of his E-Mail user name gave me his full name, address, place of work, and phone number. And this got me thinking... what compels someone to make an attack like that? What did he gain by sending that E-Mail? How did it make him feel? Why did he feel the need to personally attack me beyond my politcal views? I'm not offended because well... it's pretty obvious from the circumstance and text that he's an idiot, but I just want to know.
So hopefully tomorrow I'm going to attempt my first interview for 'Front Porch Affairs...' and give the guy a ring. At the worst he yells at me and then saves my number on his caller ID and harasses me constantly. But if all goes well and I get a civil discussion going we might get some insight into the psyche of hate speech, which I think could be really awesome.
Wish me luck on that... later dudes.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Bong Hitz for Swim Team!
Hey guyz. Guess what happened!!
Michael Phelps did a fat bong rip! OMGz!1!!
The picture was taken some time in November, three months after he proved that he's the most ungodly atheletic and bad ass dude that ever lived. Phelps had to swim miles a day every day, seven days a week for quite some time leading up to the weeks, and he took a fat bong rip.
Ok. Who cares? I don't smoke weed and I'm not a huge fan of potheads who sit around listening to jam bands all day wallowing in their own filth and talking about everything that's wrong with the world and not doing shit about it... but you know what. The dude earned it. He worked his ass off for years, performed the greatest feat in the history of sports and the second it was over he had to do his media tours for a couple more weeks and when he got the chance to wind down he felt like doing a fat rip. That's fine with me.
Lots of people around the internet are talking about his sponsors pulling out over this. Thankfully few have announced that they're cool with it and hanging on to him. The primary issue with this is that Phelps was busted for drunk driving in 2004... and no one seemed to care. They went on sponsoring him and giving him millions knowing that he'd be a supreme bad ass in 2008. So if anyone who was with him then drops out now, then shame, shame, shame on them. The message there?Getting drunk and driving a few tons of steel around and endangering lives is okay because getting drunk is eventually legal, but hitting a bong and sitting around wanting to eat Dorritos and talking about how Tommy is the greatest album ever is apparently not okay because we have silly laws that say that's never okay.
So watch yourselves sponsors. If you drop a dude just for acting like human being once then I'm going to quit buying Speedos! I'd have to start buying TYR if I ever get back into swimming and there stuff fades way too fast.
...which reminds me of something I heard on "This American Life" today. They were talking about how they think no one should try to make Barack Obama quit smoking because then he'd have to go off and have an affair. While they were joking, the point is, people need to quit expecting "super humans" like Obama and Phelps to be perfect all the time. And when stuff like this comes up, just let it go. It only proves there humanity when you see that they have faults. In turn that means you could be just like them some day. Or not. I sit around eating a lot of pizza and playing video games. Probably a lot more than those dudes.
Michael Phelps did a fat bong rip! OMGz!1!!
The picture was taken some time in November, three months after he proved that he's the most ungodly atheletic and bad ass dude that ever lived. Phelps had to swim miles a day every day, seven days a week for quite some time leading up to the weeks, and he took a fat bong rip.
Ok. Who cares? I don't smoke weed and I'm not a huge fan of potheads who sit around listening to jam bands all day wallowing in their own filth and talking about everything that's wrong with the world and not doing shit about it... but you know what. The dude earned it. He worked his ass off for years, performed the greatest feat in the history of sports and the second it was over he had to do his media tours for a couple more weeks and when he got the chance to wind down he felt like doing a fat rip. That's fine with me.
Lots of people around the internet are talking about his sponsors pulling out over this. Thankfully few have announced that they're cool with it and hanging on to him. The primary issue with this is that Phelps was busted for drunk driving in 2004... and no one seemed to care. They went on sponsoring him and giving him millions knowing that he'd be a supreme bad ass in 2008. So if anyone who was with him then drops out now, then shame, shame, shame on them. The message there?Getting drunk and driving a few tons of steel around and endangering lives is okay because getting drunk is eventually legal, but hitting a bong and sitting around wanting to eat Dorritos and talking about how Tommy is the greatest album ever is apparently not okay because we have silly laws that say that's never okay.
So watch yourselves sponsors. If you drop a dude just for acting like human being once then I'm going to quit buying Speedos! I'd have to start buying TYR if I ever get back into swimming and there stuff fades way too fast.
...which reminds me of something I heard on "This American Life" today. They were talking about how they think no one should try to make Barack Obama quit smoking because then he'd have to go off and have an affair. While they were joking, the point is, people need to quit expecting "super humans" like Obama and Phelps to be perfect all the time. And when stuff like this comes up, just let it go. It only proves there humanity when you see that they have faults. In turn that means you could be just like them some day. Or not. I sit around eating a lot of pizza and playing video games. Probably a lot more than those dudes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
