Sunday, October 16, 2011

Transitioning from Wordpress to Blogger back to Wordpress is like using translation sites

I'm on Wordpress now.
I will not be posting here anymore.

Getting there was like trying to translate English to another language, and then back to english:




When I switched to Blogger from Wordpress, the transition was not smooth. The captions on all the pictures were fucked up, among other things, but that was the most annoying thing to fix.

I just began the process of switching back to Wordpress, and I'm finding all the youtube links have disappeared, and images have shrunk.

I fixed most of it, but gave up on the rest and added links back to the original posts over here on Blogger.

The translations above entertained me so much, that I thought I'd try it using a ridiculous amount of language translations. Check it:









Anyway, check out my nifty new Wordpress blog (with an awesome new banner)

Monday, October 3, 2011

This guy wants to rub some more back sweat on you



If you got back sweat rubbed on you at Home Slice a month ago, this guy wants to see you again.

Music Monday round 2

What a treat! I'm doing 2 Music Mondays on one Monday! (so long as I finish this one before midnight, otherwise it's irrelevant)

Tonight @ Mohawk - Viva Voce, Gang Gang Dance, and... others.

I decided to go to Mohawk after class today to see Viva Voce because they're wonderful.
Get a load of this:

Are they not wonderful? I think they're wonderful. Like I said earlier today, you can tell a great band from a good band (or a shitty one, for that matter) from how they sound live. Viva Voce sounds even better live, so I dub them great.

Before these lovelies came on, I heard a band that I wouldn't normally consider listening to. I had never heard of them before. Have you heard of Gang Gang Dance? They're an interesting mix between ethnic sounds of India and China with alternative and electronica. IT'S AMAZING. The bass made my whole body vibrate (that's what she said). There is a problem though, if you look them up on youtube, all their songs suck! Live, the vocals are glorious and haunting, but the recorded tracks just seem spastic and incomplete.

This is the best track I could find:

Music Monday Spotlight True Blood


I downloaded a few True Blood Soundtracks.
Don't write me off yet, though! If you don't happen to like, or have never seen, the series, I bet you'd like some of the music featured on the show. Whoever they have as their Music supervisor (or whatever you call the person that picks music) is a friggen genius. Take, for example, the theme song:

Jace Everett "Bad Things"
Not only is the song amazing, but the visuals are stunning. I don't know what the south is actually like, seeing as I've never been anywhere but Austin, but this video depicts exactly how I visualize it.

Allow me to supply you with some more examples of True Blood's amazing song selection:

Gil Scott-Heron "Me and the Devil"
I've never heard of this person, but Gil Scott-Heron is definitely going on my download list. The backtrack is amazing, and his voice is haunting. Not to mention this video mesmerizing.

Cary Ann Hearst "Hells Bells"
When I heard this song for the first time, I almost thought it was Ashlee Simpson singing it, and boy am I glad it's not! Now I can consider this song a pleasure, without the guilt. Cary Ann Hearst is weirdly beautiful. Another down on my download list.

BlakRoc "What You Do To Me"
THE BLACK KEYS HAVE A HIP-HOP PROJECT! Sorry, I had to put that in caps because I was unaware of this! I know, someone as obsessed with the Black Keys as I am should know these things, but I had no idea! This song is making me blush.

Massive Attack "Paradise Circus"
I love Massive Attack and I cannot believe I haven't written about their song Teardrop before (the theme song to House). The singer's voice is haunting and sultry. She sounds like the little sister to Audrey Hepburn, and the lesbian lover of Grace Potter. None of that is true, obviously. I want to jump ber bones, though I've never seen a picture of her.

Dr. John "I Don't Wanna Know"
Of course the first hit I get for this song is a True Blood mash. The live version is even better than the album track, and I love that. You know a true artist when they're better live, and Dr. John is indeed a true artist.

Little Big Town "Bones"
The beginning of this video is entertaining because you can hardly hear the girl, so it kinda looks like she's singing with a man's voice. Now, I didn't used to be into Country. I always thought every country song sounded exactly the same, and I still do, but I like that sound now. This one gives me goosebumps.

Neko Case & Nick Cave "She's Not There" (Zombies Cover)
I am ashamed to admit that I recognize this song from Glee. I am not ashamed to say that Neko Case & Nick Cave do a MUCH better job with it. I like it even more than the original Zombies version even. It fits perfectly with the True Blood series.

CC Adcock & The Lafayette Marquis "Bleed 2 Feed"
 
Here's another going on my download list. It's like a cross between a California Surf song, Louisiana back-yard porch hoe-down, and Austin Texas Rock 'n Roll. I dig it.


Is it just me, or do all of these songs make a curiously erotic playlist? Oh my, I have found myself blushing again.


Sunday, October 2, 2011

Vice... on Acid

I have never done acid, but imagine it to be a throwback to the 60s, where everything around you is tie-dye-esque and monsters crawl out of peoples' noses, and other such things. I also thought that acid was illegal everywhere and trips weren't broadcasted to the world over the internet. Then again, Hunter S. Thompson existed.

Vice Magazine, founded in Canada and based in NYC, is among my favorite (online) magazines because the articles are witty and entertaining. I just discovered today (via Tumblr) that Vice Magazine UK has a series of articles depicting various activities done on acid. Uhm, excuse me - what? What makes it even better is that the author is named Jamie Lee Curtis Taete, so at first glance I imagined Jamie Lee Curtis doing acid in the UK at Fashion week, which could have been more entertaining than the actual article.
She's got arms growing out of her legs.
The first in the series was a trip to a theme park... on acid. The read is mildly entertaining, but nothing spectacular. The guy that actually does the acid definitely looks like a guy that would be on acid. I was unaware that theme parks were open while it's raining. You learn something every day.

Dude on acid - looks like he's on acid.
At one point they go into one of those aquarium tunnels where you're surrounded by fish swimming over your head and such. That's probably the most entertaining part. The dude on acid tries to explain "how many levels of 2D were making up the 3D image," but they don't go into that much, which is disappointing.

Holy shit moment?
The second in the series is a bit more entertaining: spending a the night in an abandoned military base... on acid. Terrifying, no? No. Hilarious, actually. The second guy they get to do the acid trip (see what I did there? play on words, because it's a trip and he's gonna trip) also appears to be a guy that would do acid. In fact, he looks a lot like a guy I knew in San Francisco that I assume has done acid.

I look like a guy named Zach
Look at that. I want to do that. I want to sit on an abandoned tank. Let's go spend a night in a military base! No. It's terrifying... if you're not on acid. This BAMF walked around holding a leggo torch (that's what the Brits call flashlights) and explored attics, poked a dead sheep, walked around a giant "people eating oven", and was never phased by creepy sounds coming from the ceiling or strange people driving around them in circles playing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" while shinning torches in their faces.

Yeah, lemme explore this hole in the ceiling alone. I don't give a fuck!
The third in the series features the first guy that did acid, and could have been my favorite of the series, if it didn't suck so hard. This guy decided to interview KEVIN SMITH on acid. I mean, it's Kevin Smith. He's on my list of heros (which could be a blog entry in the future) for such films as Jay & Silent Bob, Clerks, Dogma, and everything else he's touched (aside from Jersey Girl). So how could this not be great? Well, the greatest part is when Kevin strokes the interviewer, and the fact that he's talking non-stop while the interviewer is staring at his shiny face.

[This is where I would normally embed the video, but I can't seem to do it on Blogger (time to switch back to Wordpress) so yall are gonna have to go watch it on Vice's website]

"Kevin Smith took away my high."

In the third article, we get to see a girl do acid at London fashion week. This was the first one I read, seeing as the Tumblr linked me to it. This one was awesome. She meets some celebrities that couldn't give a FUCK about her, and she gets bad vibes from them. Then, she sees Kelis's ass and gets the good vibes going again. Really, I couldn't put it into better words, so go read it.

The latest in the series is Druids... On Acid. This time Jamie Lee Curtis takes a break from journaling, and lets Tom Watson take over. Really though, why wouldn't you do Druids on acid? Why would you do Druids without acid? I don't really know what a druid is, but they appear to be some religious congregation in white robes chanting about spiritual things. So really.

"That was such a nice trick." "I have no idea what that meant."

"Hippies make so much sense when you're high" could be my favorite line in all the articles. I mean, it's obvious, but grand.

"That was the pointiest thing I've ever felt."

Watson ends the article saying "It turns out spending time with friendly people wearing nice white robes in a nice park on a sunny day on acid is actually quite a pleasant experience." That's about the sum of it. Nothing spectacular.

In all, the series is mildly entertaining and worth a read, but nothing mind altering or even spectacular. The initial shock factor that these articles exist is more shocking than the actual articles.