numbers & saving

"if google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views, according to calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved." (visit blackle).

matthew sleeth's book, Serve God Save The Planet, is making me think too much. not bad at all. i am excited for people to read this and feel this way about our waste and our consumption and our use of time and our daily routine. i am excited to brainstorm with friends and roomates and see how we can change.

i have always taken the side of the guy who feels very unpowerful. i have never felt that my votes count. i always figured that those who are more outspoken than i am will accomplish what i want. i dont have to side. i dont have to supply effort. but the book, the challenges, the "everything that we do has the potential to tear apart the environment in turn hurt habitats which will kill the potential food for millions of people". this is america. our speed expectations at restaurants stress out the restaurants so they in turn will want easier food to make, which will involve more chemicals and, what is the worse thing in my mind, making vegetarian animals such as cows to eat their own processed kinds in order to make their diet cheaper....because in all reality it comes down to efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

these ideas get me, and i know that many people dont realize any of this or they pretend that they didnt hear about any of this (thats where i came from). but i am that one guy that will cast his vote and it will count somewhere.

jon sontag. lets meet soon. i really want you to read the book and i want us to start helping eachother out in this.

cynic

i feel that everyone is looking for their thing. everyone wants to discover this thing. im guilty of it. and the more that i have been trying to stray from holding on to this thing to be mine, to be my reason, to be my find, my treasure, my good luck...i feel that it kills me to see people find it. maybe this goes along with me hating (extreme words choice) everything that everyone likes.

all i ask is contentment for everything.
i dont want to see movies or concerts or books and just assume that these things really didnt change peoples lives.
i hear those words all the time. i just dont know anything about them. or their hearts. or their intentions.

i really hate the fact that for two days now i am being fully cynical and selfish. or maybe im just aware of it. and i think this awareness is good. tell me when im dumb. these days are good days to hear those words.

should i stay back?

i feel responsible for my friends. and i dont know what to do.

i hate it. their actions. i feel like i failed somehow
-you didnt
but they do this thing, and its....
-just be

thats all im getting out of this.

edit: this is too much

top six musicians(idea taken from jon's blog)

wilco
i had friends that were into them. and i remember seeing all these great reviews for yankee hotel foxtrot. and i saw the album at tower in the country section. and i remember being confused by it all. why did some of my friends like country. everything was adding up for me to finally listen to them. i knew nothing about them. about a week after i felt this need to hear them i was near the old camera 3 theater downtown and there was a poster advertising I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, a documentary about wilco. i decided to see it. this movie made me love the album and the band. and to see true music being made, with emotions and everything. it was perfect. here are the first 2 minutes of that film:

and then i saw them at the san jose center for performing arts (on november 13, 2004).

pedro the lion / david bazan
im pretty sure ive seen him about ten times. the first time he was in a full band, and they were on tooth and nail records and they were opening up velour 100 (i actually just figured out that this was on july 27, 1999). some of his songs are some of my favorite things ever. and the stories he paints with each album are amazing, and it makes me not take any song individually, but as a complete work. one of the few people i have ever wanted to talk to, and at a show 2 years ago he actually began talking to me. he initiated it, and i was surprised. this video is from his 1999 days.


broken social scene
my friend damien showed me them on the light rail on my way home from school a few years back. initially i knew that he liked strange music (to me) so i expected something out there. he played me Almost Crimes from You Forgot It In People. i was hooked at that point. i love the idea that this band is more of a collective than a band. they all come from different music projects (Stars, Metric, Feist, Do Make Say Think, Reverie Sound Revue...) and each song is made with different elements involved. here is one of my favorite videos of theirs:


the knife
im sad to say that i got into them after hearing jose gonzales cover their song. no originality. jose beat me to it. i remember listening to deep cuts on my way home from sf one night and i stayed in my car for a bit after to just let the album finish. thats all i can say. i saw them last year and it was one of the highlights of my concert life. what made it more special was after the show when we were hanging out outside and karin walked passed us and then we follwed her and she disappeared into the sf air.


sufjan stevens
i first heard his michigan album and i actually didnt care for it. but it was on my ipod and i kept skipping over his name and i gave it a good listen (i remember that i was near savers on bascom when i began to like the music). then illinois killed me. so so so good. then i heard seven swans. and that was truly amazing.



sigur ros
"victory rose"
my brother told me about them and i remember listening to Untitled 4 on my way to school soon after. then i bought that album, which could equate to one of my favorite albums ever. all of their music has become soundtracks to everything. the idea that i dont know what any of their songs are about has me create stories. i can listen to it through any environment. it has become the perfect piece for travel, and for nighttime and for motion. i feel separated when i listen to anything by them. i feel that i am in worship. i feel that everything is perfect. its crazy.
the best music video:

the live amazement:

thanks to the failing school systems in america



this is playing in san francisco and berkeley on september 7. i highly reccommend it (as i did a year ago).

joann, dont read that because that might not make you happy. but at least you had seen it before.

for everyone else, go see it. ill be there for sure.

the reason it is getting more showings now is because morgan spurlock is feeding the movie money (executive producer status) because that is the next slightly immoral issue that he is takling (along with everything he has done).

as of recent

i seem to like everything that people dont like and i dont like things that people like.
and its not some hidden motivation to be different.
im trying to understand it, truly.
if you have insight....let me know.

as of recent

i think one of the greatest tangents to travelling is budgeting. this also comes with me expecting certain checks to arrive that have not. or me also forgetting that some checks that i write take some time to process. and i shouldnt forget.

so basically everything brought me to a low. and i kindof love it.

i can make it though the next few days and it should be fun. i need this uncomfort.

100%


i now have booked my flight to and from london. it is official that my birthday will not exist in usa. nor will my presence on thanksgiving. im sorry to all of you that are fans of my birthday or thanksgiving.

all i do is blog.

this is moreso for my own reference, so that i dont forget about these. and i will hope that any of you will join me at these events.

july 7: sherwood @ great american music hall
july 11: klaxons @ great american music hall
july 19: the bird and the bee @ the independent
july 21: ryan adams @ the catalyst
july 23: chromeo / flosstradamus (free) @ the mezzanine
july 29: daft punk @ the greek
august 3: st. vincent @ cafe du nord
august 24: wilco @ the greek
september 9: okkervil river / damien jurado @ the independent

also, in random news:
i just found out liz claiborne died.
and

this is steve jobs and his closet

for jon, shannon and joann

looking at images of slovakia, slovenia, romania, hungary, yogoslavia, croatia, ukraine and austria, i am fully content on going on some day trips

mcsweeney's


they're going bankrupt. and they're having a sale. buy stuff to help them out. i just subscribed to believer magazine and the mcsweeney's quarterly.

www.mcsweeneys.net

missing my birthday


im going out to england in november. no questions. ill miss some school and ill miss thanksgiving. now im thinking about missing my birthday. well i wont miss it. ill just celebrate it elsewhere. it what i do besides england and the wedding that i want opinions on.

do i go to:

stockholm, sweden.


budapest, hungary.


riga, latvia.


katowice, poland.


tampere, finland.

i tried to get all snowy images because that what it will be like. most likely i will go to budapest to visit our friend joann. but joann, i think you should find a city that suits you and we could possibly meet there.

st. vincent



within 3 weeks everyone will be listening to her album. she was in the polyphonic spree. then she toured as the pianist for sufjan's band.

St. Vinvent - Marry Me
St. Vincent - Paris Is Burning

i was trying to find the dinka translation of "marial bai, i love you"


what do we do. i spent a good amount of time today looking over the international crisis group website. seeing what has happened in sudan since one valentino achak deng made it to america. seeing what all the issues are that we tend to push away daily. how amazing it would be if we could fix this. but i know it will end up being americans turning the third world nations into our investments. we will help them by turning them into little versions of usa. and i hate that.

i want to help as much as one could, but i dont want the american selfish mentality to be mixed in with it. and this is what kills me.

paris, je t'aime




i will expect everyone to see this sometime in the next few weeks.

"In pretending to be a man in love, he became a man in love"

cubicle


i know have my spot in a corner office. on the second floor. overlooking a shady forest.
but the forest used to be a homeless brothel.
and its only for a few hours a week.
but im very happy.

what is the what



can someone please read this so we can talk. and then we can plan our trip to sudan.

twenty twelve



seriously, what are your thoughts on this logo for the olympics in london. i am sure the world hates it for being too extreme and too complicated and too non-london. but i love it. not for the sake of being an opposition and loving what the world hates. but for the sake of how london-esque this is. look at album art by Hot Chip:

look at the fashion that is spanning the world today:


i will be the only person to fully back this design because of how right it is with everything. but please, i want everyone who reads this to comment with your thoughts, except for that guy who leaves comments about all those prescription drugs.

clark and michael



i think this might change my life

adding to that

i bought tickets to these events:

june 13:

helvetica the film @ landmark embarcadero theaters
july 7:

sherwood @ great american music hall
july 11:

klaxons @ great american music hall