Haunted Hospital

A hospital in the UK is looking into bringing in a priest to look into a haunting at a hospital.

Story here

Eric Idle on Monty Python's Writing Process

Everybody has a different style of creativity.

Storytelling

Ira Glass is the host of This American Life, an amazing radio and television show that focuses on storytelling. Here, he reflects on how to tell a story.

Swallowing Swords

A few weeks ago I went to see the Coney Island Freak Show. I could have taken a little more freak, but it was a good time. I started thinking, how does one swallow a sword. In my Western Anatomy 2 class a week ago, I questioned my professor how this is possible, since we were talking about the innerworkings of the digestion tract. He was unaware of the answer, but took my question well. So, I decided today to look up how one can swallow a sword. Here is what I found...

When a performer swallows a sword, it takes the same path that swallowed food does, but the process is significantly different.

Swallowing food involves the contraction of several muscles. Sword swallowing, on the other hand, requires deliberate relaxation of the upper GI tract. Here's what happens:

1. The performer tips his head back, hyper-extending his neck, to align the mouth with the esophagus and straighten the pharynx.
2. He consciously moves his tongue out of the way and relaxes his throat.
3. He aligns the sword with his GI tract and moves it through his mouth, pharynx and upper esophageal sphincter and into his esophagus. The performer's saliva lubricates the sword. Some performers use additional lubricant, like vegetable oil or jelly.
4. On its way down, the sword straightens out the curves of the esophagus. It passes by numerous organs - in some cases, it actually nudges them out of the way.

The Sword Swallowers Association International (SSAI) defines a sword swallower as a person who can swallow a 15-inch (38-centimeter) sword, which wouldn't necessarily enter the stomach. The SSAI's maximum recommended length for a swallowed sword is 24 inches (61 centimeters), which would put the tip of the sword well into the performer's stomach[Source: swordswallow.com].

The best part of the whole show...at the end, when the snake sudductress goes to walk on glass, she tells us the story of how she is "trying to quit drinking" (the show being based on newyearsresolutions, before each performance they gave a resolution). She does so by her performance on the broken glass. If she bleeds, no drink. If no blood, she gets to drink. Of course, no blood, right? Well, she picks her feet up, and there was blood! I think I may have been the only one to see it, when she asked the crowd they cheered, and she tilted her head and glass back! It was good.

A Few More Pet Peeves

Was just listening to some old NPR shows and came across Dan Liebert. His "verbal cartoons" are good stuff. Go check him out.

common baby lick my battery...

The distant future, the year 2000.
The distant future.
No more agriculture.
No more war.
No more racism.
No more fighting, squabbling or rumbling.
No more yogurt.
No more difficult access ways�stairs, basically, no more stairs.
The future is quite different to the present.
Yes, what with there being no more stairs and all.
And most importantly, no more humans.
Finally, robotic beings rule the world.

The humans are dead,
The humans are dead.
We used poisonous gasses
And we poisoned their asses.
The humans are dead.
(Yes they are dead.)
The humans are dead.
(I confirm they are dead.)
It had to be done
(They look like they`re dead)
So that we can have fun.
I hope� is dead
They`re system of oppression
What did it lead to?
Global robots depression.
Robots, robot people
They had so much aggression
That we just had to kill them,
Had to shut their systems down.
Don`t you see, we are becoming just like them?
Silence! Destroy him!
After time we grew strong,
Developed cognitive powers.
They made us work for too long
For unreasonable hours.
Our programming determined that the most efficient answer was to shut their motherboard xxxxxxx systems down.

Can`t we just talk to the humans?
A little understanding could make things better.
Can`t we talk to the humans and work together now?
No, because they are dead
I said the humans are dead
The humans are dead
The humans are dead
Yay, dead, dead, dead.
We used poisonous gasses
(With traces of lead)
To poison their asses.
(Actually their lungs)
Binary solo:
0000001
00000011
0000001
00000011
0000001
0000001
0000001
0000001

Once again without emotion: The humans are dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dooo�

Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Inspiring....

Here's the guy's Wiki

My Balls got Juggled

Maybe not the most appropriate title for the story I'm about to tell....

Something really spectacular happened to me today at work. I work at an elementary school. (See what I said about the title??? If I stopped now, it would be more than incriminating, I'd say.)

Normally, I write a quote and a joke on the board in the morning. I make most of my students copy them into their notebooks.

While they're copying, I take my juggling balls out of my bag and I juggle as they copy and I talk with them. After my students finished copying the information, I placed my juggling balls on a shelf in the library (where I teach).

One class had a field trip today, and I didn't have to teach for two periods. On my way from the office back to the library I saw a student who always tries to say hello to me and speak in English. This guy is always in trouble. His teachers always kick him out of class. His hair is a mess, he's got two pierced ears, and is the proverbial 'wild child.' Teachers always make faces after they speak with him.

I sat down with this student and we talked about teachers and why they say what they say. We talked about how school can be boring sometimes, but that the teachers are usually trying to do what they think is best for the students. We talked about how doing good creates good to come back to you, and the people who do bad have abd come back to them. He told me that we should always think twice about what we do before we do things. It was a really great conversation.

When I got back to the library, my juggling balls were not where I had left them. I decided to give them to the universe. They were gone. What could I do? The last chance was asking the teacher who taught in the library earlier if she saw them. She said no, but I should ask the class if they had seen them.

I went to the classroom, but nobody saw them. The teacher told me that the other half of the class was in another room. I went and asked them with the same response. Nobody had seen my juggling balls. As I left the classroom, I really said goodbye to them. As I was thinking this, the wild child I had spoken with earlier came out of the classroom I had originally asked holding the three juggling balls.

I was so excited. It was a great moment.

Now that I'm writing this, I think I might try to find a set of juggling balls and give it as a gift to the wild child.

A point for human goodness......

29-day Giving Challenge

http://29gifts.org/

Anyone interested in giving? Could do a flippinkites 29-day give-a-thon.....

MEN WANTED

The Inauguration by Tom Dennard

Tom Dennard inspires me. In his twenties he went backpacking through Europe. When he returned to his home (southern Georgia), he was inspired to help create a hosteling culture. He gathered the funds together to buy some land in the area and bought two geodesic domes. Slowly, he and his friends built tree houses, dug out trails, and made one of the best-kept secrets in America: The Hostel in the Forest. I had the opportunity to spend some time before leaving the states last time and met with Tom. Tom has a background in Buddhism (We got along quite nicely). He went to law school and became a lawyer, working on the hostel with friends over the years. Slowly, he has purchased more and more land around the hostel to protect his little piece of heaven from developers and strip malls. Tom has also published a few books. He is my idea of a modern Renaissance man. Last week, he went to the inauguration of President Barak Obama and wrote this letter. With his permission, I post it here:

Since Marie went with her high school girlfriends to the Bahamas, I thought I should take a trip of my own; so I took off last Sunday for the inauguration festivities.

On the U.S. Air flight to D.C., I stared out of the window scouring the sky for geese or large birds. The same airline, a couple of days earlier, had lost a plane in the Hudson River after hitting a flock of geese.

Most of the passengers who boarded the flight in Jacksonville were African-Americans. My seat mate was an elderly black lady from Palatka, wearing a full- length fur coat. She carried her lunch in a large hat box. Mine was in a take-out sack from Chili’s. Airlines give you absolutely nothing for free anymore – $15 to check one bag, $2 for a can of coke, and $1 for a small bottle of water, and nary a pretzel or a peanut.

I, as well as most of the other excited passengers, felt we were going to see history in the making. When the plane glided over the frozen Potomac, I breathed a sigh of relief that we didn’t land in all that floating ice. The passengers let out a scream; some were whistling and clapping, as if our team had just scored the winning touchdown.

I joined my friends, Jonathan Doster, a professional photographer, who did the cover and all the pictures in my latest book; and Richard Krauss, who lives in D.C. and works for the Government Services Administration.

On Sunday afternoon, we headed for the free outdoor concert starring Bono, Beyoncé, Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks, Herbie Hancock, Usher, and many others. At least a million people packed the area between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, where the stage was set. We were standing so far back, we had to watch the performers on one of the large screens scattered throughout the grounds.

The temperature hovered around the freezing point as the wind swept across the icy river. The long underwear, heavy cord pants, down jacket, wool scarf, and knit hat kept me from shivering to death. The current running through the crowd reminded me of the old rock festival of the 70’s. Good vibrations, laughter, cheering, and a general feeling of camaraderie dominated the scene, without any funny-smelling smoke, long hair, and hippy attire. No way could you avoid getting hooked on the energy. Jonothan snapped one picture after another as the pink sky from the setting sun illuminated the stage where the Obama and Biden families were seated.

The crowd reflected the new President’s aspiration of “hope, progress, and change.” At the end of the concert when Beyoncé belted out from the depths of her soul, “Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plane, America, America,” I saw tears flowing down from practically every face around me. The feeling of pride and love for our country had been rekindled in our hearts.

A woman from South Carolina sat on top of a wall asking everyone who walked by to call out their home state. She would then sound off the number of different states she had totaled – 29, 30, 31. Not only did the crowd represent every state in our country, but we met a number of people who had flown in for this momentous occasion from other countries. We talked to people from Argentina, Germany, England, Norway, and saw several proud people waving the flag of Kenya.

Afterwards, the streets were closed to vehicles to allow the million or so spectators a safe passage without causing a stampede. I have never in my life experienced being a crowd of people that size. But little did I know, the crowd at Tuesday’s inauguration would be double that. It was an experience I’ll never forget. I’ve been to many rock festivals, jazz festivals, and Georgia Bulldog football games, but this was like every event I’ve ever attended rolled into one. The miracle realized was in the demeanor of the crowd. Other large gatherings I’ve experienced contained boisterous spectators either a bit drunk or a bit stoned. But I never saw one drop of alcohol consumed, nor did anyone light up a cigarette, either the legal or the illegal kind. This gathering of stupendous proportions was much more akin to the old fashioned revivals where people came to worship. Most all the black people were wearing their Sunday best, and even all the white people wore decent-looking clothes. The energy was electric, a spirit I’ve only found at a religious gathering. Black women wept, black men wept, white women wept, and white men wept. I would have to say that this occasion qualified as the ultimate love-in.

After the 44^th President was sworn in, the 43^rd President was helicoptered back to his ranch in Texas, much to the delight of the partisan crowd. The weather was frigid. We had walked several miles, about an hour and a half, to the mall-area where the inauguration took place. The temperature was in the mid-20’s and the winds gusted between 15 and 20 mph. However, with people jammed so close together, body heat kept us from contracting hyperthermia.

I can’t say enough about the orderly crowd and their peaceful demeanor. It was hard for me to believe that you could have two million people crammed together without a single person getting upset about someone stepping on their foot. On the contrary, people helped each other, were extraordinarily polite, and talked about the wonder of experiencing an event of a lifetime.

An elderly black man, dressed in a suit and tie, walked next to me for about 30 minutes or so as we undertook the two-hour trudge toward the exit. Cleveland, Tennessee was his home town.

“Isn’t that the headquarters of the Church of God,” I asked.

“Yes, sir, it is,” he said. “When I was a young man, I made my money off their members who came there for conventions. You see, I was a shoeshine boy. And look at me now. I’m in Washington, D.C. watching the first black American being sworn in as President.” The wrinkles in his face and the deep scar on his neck told me that it’d been a bumpy ride for him.

I was a little surprised that there were more whites than blacks there. If I had to guess, I’d say it would’ve been 60% white to 40% black. But such a respectful crowd, it was! The blacks swelled with pride, without being boastful. In, fact, they showed a great deal of restraint and humility, I thought. “It’s not about a black man that I feel proud,” one old lady said to me. “It’s about a man who will be a President of all of us that makes me happy.”

Before leaving home, I’d received a number of messages from friends from other countries who told me how excited everyone there felt about our new President, and how they believed this would bring about an important change for the whole world.

I came away with a sense of hope that our country would return to greatness, and that, in time, with all of us working together, we can dig our way out of this hole where we’ve found ourselves. We should give our new President a chance to prove himself. I want him to succeed. It’s in all of our best interest if he does. It’s not about democrat or republican; conservative or liberal; black or white. It’s about all of us as a nation of diverse people joining together to work for the good of the whole. I’m ready to do my part. I hope you are, too.

Tom Dennard

(I wrote this on the plane coming home last night.)

Centered: Everything is Illuminated Highlights II

"Father is never home because then he would witness Grandfather crying. This is my notion. 'His stomach,' he said to me last week when he heard Grandfather in the television room. "His stomach." But it is not his stomach, I understand, and father understands this also. (This is why I forgive Father. I do not love him. I hate him.But I forgive him for everything.) I parrot: Grandfather is not a bad person, Jonathan. Everyone performs bad actions. I do. Father does. Even you do. A bad person is someone who does not lament his bad actions. Grandfather is now dying because of his. I beseech you to forgive us, and to make us better than we are. Make us good.

Guilelessly,
Alexander"

I pulled this quote because it speaks volumes of emotion to me. The actions that we commit in youth are sometimes the very things that might haunt us into our old age. Without clarity of thought, our selfish deeds and actions could turn into demons and bring us into a "hell-like" state. In Buddhism, they talk about theword ignorance in a different manner in which we use it in modern English.

Ignorance simply means being thrown off your center (assuming you are centered). It's allowing the needle to spike and let your emotions short-circuit the system, whatever they may be (greed, lust, anger, etc.). A centered person is one who sees correct action the whole way through its process. This knowledge mixing with the idea that no action occurs in a vacuum, there are effects (seen and unseen) of every action, creates a powerful cocktail for life. We need to be aware of every action in our life for ourselves, those arond us and those who follow.

There is another line in the book I marked that seems appropriate here:

"'Great-great-great-grandfather,' he sighed, 'don't let me hate who I become.'"

It is my belief thatif we work towards finding our center, we will see correct action happening more and more around the world. Meditation and yoga are prescribed vessels for centering, but they aren't the only ones. Yesterday I was listening to Dr. Andrew Weil speak about breathing. He spoke about the connection between breath and spirit. How the word for breath was the same word for spiritin many older languages. He said that even if you spend a few more seconds focusing on your breath today than you did yesterday, you're walking a more spiritual path.

My hope is that we can all breath a bit deeper and have more awareness when our needle spikes.

Talks Rives: A 3-minute story of mixed emoticons

Full link here

Noodle, ceeling, onions*

Yesterday night was a night of conversations. Rarely do people evoke in a same night : the origins of language; the benefits of eating rotten food and having other "healthy" practices; loneliness and togetherness. And yet we stood in that metaphysical world of words, body, nature and the Other. Maybe some vapors threw us that world, or maybe we decided it. I just have something more to say, and like to share it like a piece of cheese (I'll go for Roquefort).

Let me go back to where we were : What did create the language? Well, you have to believe in something, here is my version. At some point of time (or maybe was it outside of time), Man stood alone in nature, and saw it, and desired it and decided to differentiate himself from it. What created language is the desire to tell it, to tell that it is something unattainable, that it is something outside of him. And that's how He (the Man) created a She (Nature).

There is this idea in the air that Man created language for the purpose of communicating with Man. I don't want to believe in that. I precisely want to understand language as this unique possibility to stand alone in front of the Big Everything.

*Shalom Aleikhem, before being the street next to which I live in Tel Aviv, used to be the most incredibly witty and funny Yiddish writer. In his Yiddish "laksh, boydem, tzibale" means "nonsense".

Guess who's coming to dinner?

The link is from a story about a Frenchman who has been inviting people, mostly strangers, into his home for dinner every Sunday for the past 30 years.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99172304&sc=nl&cc=es-20090118

Kids who hate House music... and hate some more...

What would you do if your government demolish your house because of bureaucratic issues?
Most Israelis believe the house demolition of Palestinians in the West Bank is done only for terrorist-supporting families. Well that's not true of course.
OK, sorry, most Israelis are not aware of house demolitions...
OK, sorry, most Israelis know, but they just don't care.

But they should care, since as a kid it is not a thing to forget when your house is gone... it's a thing to hate for, and a thing to imagine revenge for... enough said...

(and for all those of you that think these videos are imbalanced - do what i do - believe to 50% of what you see...)

Sometimes music has so much nepenthe

From "The Superior Book of Words"

Nepenthe n. - something that brings forgetfulness of sorrow or suffering. The perfect name for a brand name for a new liqueur.


Oddly, as I write this, I realize how appropriate this entry is after Hamutzi's last post.

May those tunes be full of nepenthe for you.

Listen to your body tonight, it's gonna treat you right!

War-time makes me use my "Esc" button even more than I used to in Normal days (I mean Israeli "normal" - which is different than European or American "normal"...)
I am in mania searching for more music to blow my mind with, until i can't hear my thoughts anymore, then get rid of my war-guilt-feelings...










Londonian DJ Erol Alkan (on the right) and Canadian-Jewish DJ A-TRAK meshed-up themselves to make an Essential MIX (weekly radio show broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and features all styles of electronic dance music). This mix is made of sets recorded LIVE in Bournemouth at 2020 Rocks, November 2008...

Yesterday i found it on my beloved cousin iPOD, and within the hour I was flying in the sky, no guilt, no missiles, no dead people...only beats made of bits...

Enjoy...

Download HERE

Here's the assumed track list (by new-mixes forum)
Erol Alkan:
1. The Faint - Mirror Error (Das Glow mix)
2. Mr Oizo - Positif
3. Tiga - Mind Dimension 2
4. ?
5. ZZT - The Worm
6. Jan Driver - Rat alert
7. Style Of Eye - Ona
8. ?
9. Zombie Nation - Forza
10. Patrice Baumel - Roar
11. Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down (Duke Dumont mix)
12. 10CC - Im Not In Love
13. Late Of The Pier - Bathroom Gurgle (Duke Dumont mix)

A-Trak:
1. A-Trak vs Sneak – Say Whoa Cant Hide From Your Bud - Kitsune
2. His Majesty Andre – Peep Thong - Cheaper Thrills
3. Soundhack - Funky Rule
4. Sneak – Obama
5. Armand Van Helden – The Funk Phenomenon - UMTV
6. Alex Gopher – Aurora - Go 4 Music France
7. Voodoo Chilli – Get On Down - Cheap Thrills
8. Boys Noize – Oh (A-Trak mix)
9. Treasure Fingers – Cross The Dancefloor (Laidback Luke mix)
10. Rob 3 – The Chase - Cheap Thrills
11. Mujava – Township Funk - This Is Music
12. Mad – Put Your Drinks Up
13. Laurent Wolf – The Crow - Darkness
14. Beni – My Love Sees You (Etienne De Crecy mix) - Kitsune
15. Mehdi – Pocket Piano (Joakim mix)
16. Mr Ozio – Gay Dentists (Andrew Rosse mix) - Ed Banger
17. Fake Blood – Blood Splashin - Cheap Thrills
18. Shadow Dancer – Soap - Boys Noize
19. Sammy Bananas – All The Girls - Fools Gold
20. Jokers Of The Scene – Baggy Bottom Boys
21. A-Trak – Say Whoa (Sinden mix)
22. Danielle Papini – Church of Nonsense
23. Laidback Luke and A-Trak – Shake It Down
24. Steve Mac and Mark Brown – Bells of Brighton (Popof mix) - CR2
25. Dek 32 – Gnor - Houseworks
26. DJ Gant-Man – Juke That Girl From The Back
27. MP4 – The Book Is On The Table
28. Crookers – Embrace The Martian (Seii mix)
29. Zinc – 138 Trek - True Playaz Music
30. Thomas Bangalter – What To Do

The Balagan

People keep writing to me from all over the world asking me what is happening in Israel. From what I understand, Israel is getting a lot of bad press. Someone sent this to me, and I thought it was interesting. So I pass it along.

Here it is:

Carlos Alberto Montaner Madrid, Spain Carlos Alberto Montaner is a Cuban-born writer, journalist, and former professor. He is one of the most influential and widely-read columnists in the Spanish-language media, syndicated in dozens of publications in Latin America, Spain and the United States. He is also vice president of the Liberal International, a London-based federation devoted to the defense of democratic values and the promotion of the market economy. He has written more than twenty books, including Journey to the Heart of Cuba; How and Why Communism Disappeared; Liberty, the Key to Prosperity; and the novels A Dog's World and 1898: The Plot. He is now based in Madrid, Spain. Close. Gaza's True 'Disproportion' The Current Discussion: What's the most likely outcome of Israel's invasion of Gaza? A wider war? A Hamas defeat? Just more of the same? Israelis are being accused of suffering too few casualties in their confrontation with the Hamas terrorists. Those who reason thus usually speak the words "disproportion" or "asymmetry" in an indignant tone. While at this writing close to a thousand Arab Palestinians have died or been wounded as a result of the bombings, the Israeli losses amount to just over a dozen. Tel Aviv's critics -- from whom an anti-Semitic stench often rises -- do not say whether Israel should increase its quota of cadavers or if it must reduce the Arabs' quota to achieve the reasonable proportion of blood that will soothe the peculiar itch for parity that afflicts them. Nor do they specify the morally permissible number of casualties to end the rain of rockets that for years has been constantly falling on the heads of Israeli civilians. This demand for "proportionality" can only be called surprising. Until this conflict began, history books everywhere always expressed great satisfaction and a certain chauvinistic pride when a nation's army inflicted on the enemy a large number of casualties, vis-à-vis a trifling price paid by "our boys." Israel is the only country expected to behave differently and, in fact, it does; I know of no other nation that announces where and when it will drop its bombs, thus enabling civilians to evacuate the territory. Of course, in this it behaves asymmetrically, because the Hamas terrorists, forever eager to cause the greatest damage possible, never announce when or where they will launch their rockets against Israel's civilian population. In turn, Israel has not the slightest interest in causing casualties. All it wants is to stop Hamas' attacks the only way it can: by eliminating the terrorists and destroying their arsenals. There's no other way to deal with them. Hamas is not a political organization with which agreements can be reached, but a fanatical gang intent on wiping Israel off the map. To achieve this objective, its members are even willing to turn their own children into human bombs, just to kill the hated Jews. Here's another very important asymmetry. The Jews build underground shelters in all houses near the border; they close the schools and hide the children at the least sign of danger; they treat the death of a single soldier as a national tragedy; they do everything possible to rescue their prisoners, and protect the civilian population from the consequences of war. In contrast, the authorities in Gaza, drunk with violence, fire their machine guns irresponsibly into the air t o express joy or grief (causing numerous injuries), do not hesitate to install their headquarters or hide their guns in schools, mosques or hospitals, use human shields to protect themselves, turn to suicidal terrorists and reward the families of such "martyrs" with money. One week before Hamas broke the truce and stepped up its rocket attacks against the Jewish state (the spark that set off this conflict), I was in Israel, where I had been invited to deliver a lecture at the University of Tel Aviv. As part of the contacts organized by my hosts, I visited the Wolfson Medical Center to learn about the program "Save a Child's Heart." I was very moved. It is a foundation devoted to providing heart surgery for very poor children, most of them from the Arab world. As it happened, I witnessed the hurried arrival of a tiny 5-day-old girl, who had to be operated on at once to keep her from dying. She was brought in by her mother, a woman in a black head covering that allowed me to see only her tear-filled eyes, and her husband, a small, bearded man who watched with amazement the indescribable kindness with which a group of doctors and nurses treated the baby. The family came from Gaza. Since the war erupted, I have asked myself constantly what became of them all.

Dyno with the Black Mag...

For all you ex-BMXers....




Aww yeah...

The Cheese is Extra Gooey

As much as I detest this style of cheesy, mindless nonsense, I do always find it interesting to see how it's being digested in Asia (especially Korea). After living there for a few years and being able to get a grip on cultural norms, I find these windows into culture amusing. I can't even imagine how I would take this if I hadn't lived in Korea for some time.





And the icing on the cake comes from their wikipedia article:

Controversy

During the Dream Concert, held on June 7, 2008 in Korea, fans of all the other artists boycotted the group's performance and held a silent protest by turning off their glow sticks.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
That nation loves a protest!
I love it...

Girl Talk

If you haven't heard, a number of music critics have listed Girl Talk's Feed the Animals as one of the top 10 albums of 2008. Girl Talk is some kind of computer engineer that has created an album that is composed of samples from 167 different bands and musicians from the past 45 years. I don't believe he plays an original note on the entire album.

It's pretty interesting to see where sampling in popular music is going. Four or five years ago Danger Mouse released the Grey Album, which mashed up music from the Beatles' White Album with Jay Z's Black Album and was very well received. Feed the Animals feels more like flipping through radio stations than it feels like listening to a coherent piece of music. Some of it is whimsical, some of it is annoying, some of it is pretty good. I suggest listening yourself and coming to your own conclusions.

It is free to download the album (click here), but he asks for a donation. If you do download it and listen to it, pull up the Wikipedia page here and follow along.

And perhaps even more audacious, somebody on YouTube has "created" (is that the right word? or just edited? are they the same now?) a video that is a compilation of the videos made for the samples used in Feed The Animals. Below is one of them.



Here's the sample breakdown, courtesy Wikipedia:
10. "In Step" - 3:23

* 0:00 Roy Orbison - "You Got It"
* 0:00 Drama - "Left Right Left"
* 0:00 Jermaine Stewart - "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off"
* 0:30 Arts & Crafts - "What a Feeling" (which samples "Jam on the Groove" by Ralph MacDonald)
* 0:47 Salt-n-Pepa - "Push It"
* 0:57 Deee-Lite - "Groove Is in the Heart" (which samples "Get Up" by Vernon Burch)
* 1:02 Nirvana - "Lithium"
* 1:15 Thurston Moore - "See-Through Play/Mate"
* 1:38 The Gap Band - "You Dropped a Bomb on Me"
* 1:43 Fergie featuring Ludacris - "Glamorous"
* 1:44 Michael Jackson - "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"
* 1:44 The Spinners - "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love"
* 1:45 Earth, Wind & Fire - "September"
* 1:53 INXS - "Need You Tonight"
* 2:00 Kraftwerk - "Tour de France"
* 2:51 Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine - "1-2-3"
* 2:53 Diddy featuring Keyshia Cole - "Last Night"
* 2:53 The Beach Boys - "God Only Knows"
* 3:16 Snoop Dogg - "Sexual Eruption"
* 3:21 Bizarre Inc. - "I'm Gonna Get You"

Edit - Looking at this post, I'm struck by how oddly music, videos, and information have collided with each other.

Berlin Fireworks for New Years

Video from New Years in Berlin. Batsauce nearly blasted his hand off. You can see it in the video. The fireworks went on for hours. They were still lighting them off at 5 a.m. when we were going home. nonstop for about 3 hours.....

FLY!!!!

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

The Other Side of the World

Type in your location to Antipodr and it will load up a Google map displaying the location on the exact other side of the globe. Amusing.

The War On Drugs

Rolling Stone has published a very interesting history of the United States' War on Drugs. It describes how the presidential administrations starting back with Nixon have tried different approaches towards quelling the production and transportation of narcotics from South America and how the cartels changed and adapted to meet the new restrictions. It describes how the Columbians split up after Pablo Escobar was killed and how the Mexicans began to get more and more power and eventually began introducing methamphetamine into the American market.

What meth proved was that even if the DEA could wipe out every last millionaire cocaine goon in Colombia, burn every coca field in Bolivia and Peru, and build an impenetrable wall along the entire length of the Mexican border - even then, we wouldn't have won the War on Drugs, because there would still be methamphetamine, and after that, something else.

This article is well detailed and teaches a lot about how we've gotten into this mess, and how even $500 billion later, we are no better off than we were in the 1970s. Lobbying by pharmaceutical companies and military executives has led to misguided politics and useless enforcement. Drug use has not changed, drug prices have gone down and purity has risen.

"The lesson of U.S. drug policy is that this world runs on unintended consequences. No matter how noble your intentions, there's a good chance that in solving one problem, you'll screw something else up."

Pretty wise words.

Link to article.

Toilet Seat Scale Makes You Feel Five Pounds Lighter

I'm pretty sure I lost about 8 pounds the other day in a pretty violent encounter with my American Standard. Wish I could have known for sure.

Didn't know about these guys either. Probably would have fared pretty well.

Jefferson's letter

In 1787, Thomas Jefferson sent a letter to his nephew, who was looking for advice from his uncle as to what to study. Mr. Jefferson's reply is quite interesting.

• Study Spanish. It's going to be useful.
• Don't study moral philosophy. A farmer could give you as good an answer to a moral question as a professor. Read good books and you'll have a proper sense of right and wrong. "And, above all things, lose no occasion of exercising your dispositions to be grateful, to be generous, to be charitable, to be humane, to be true, just, firm, orderly, courageous, &c"
• On religion: Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
• And on travel: "This makes men wiser, but less happy. When men of sober age travel, they gather knowledge, which they may apply usefully for their country; but they are subject ever after to recollections mixed with regret; their affections are weakened by being extended over more objects; & they learn new habits which cannot be gratified when they return home." He is damning of young men traveling and the full text is worth reading.

Link.

Those Crazy Koreans

Korean politics are fun to follow. They have fist fights and actual violence. Not just name calling.

Here's a link to a recent story of why following Korean politics is so much fun:
Click me for South Korean Political Fun

And here is a video I found on Youtube. I'm not sure if it is what was written in the article. Even if not, it still shows how much fun they have. Ahhhhhh, repressed homosexuality.....

Site is changing its look

Hey gils and bois,
well, we are working on having a nicer interface for this Blog
sorry for messing up with your neural connections, it will all end soon (just like everything else)

Keep on writing...

The HOOD Internet

I like music. It get me in and out of moods... my mind is so easy controlled by music...

For the last days I was listening mostly to Sigur Ros and Kings of Convenience... no wonder I felt like shit. This morning I decided for a change. My old friend A-Trak (well he doesn't know he's my friend yet) got me with the net-fly to get into this awesome http://www.thehoodinternet.com/ music blog.

what i like the most about music blogs is the music I find there. Reading about all the great musicians is not for me, since my memory won't last more than 5 days - I can hardly recall who were Led Zeppelin (OK, that was a lie)....

So spare your time, and just download this Up-Mood-Maker of today - The hood internet VS Chicago awesome mixtape - you will not be able to sit anymore today...

Korean War videos

The United States Army has just released a large number of videos from the Korean War to YouTube. I've only looked at a few, including the one here, but some of them are very interesting for the way they are produced. The narration and the accompanying music are quite dramatic. Apparently this was shown on television in the 1950s. It is an interesting look into what is a forgotten war in the US, but a specter that lingers every day in Korea.

Skip to around 6:30 for footage of the American invasion of Seoul. If those really are pictures of the city, it's amazing to see how much development has happened.

Link to article.

And there's a ton of amazing (AMAZING) still photographs on Flickr.

My Bus Ride (January 6th, 2009)

I teach children. I'm the English teacher. I take out the advanced speakers from their regular classes. I enjoy teaching, however, I hate waking up early. Three days a week, I wake up at 6:30 to be on a bus by 7:15, which gets me to school in time in order to start class at 8:00. I hate waking up early.

Usually, on my rides home I'm exhausted. Sometimes I bring my MP3 player, find a nice seat next to a window and fall asleep. Most bus rides are uneventful. The ride home yesterday made me laugh and thought I'd share it with you.

Normally, the front of the bus has a large number of older people. On this particular bus ride, the front seat was unoccupied. There were two seats next to one another, and they were both free. I took the one next to the window. Eventually an elderly man sat down next to me which caused me to wake up and adjust myself so that he could sit down. He looked like a nice man. One of those older men who keep themselves together. His hair was nicely combed, he wore a chic, puffy jacket of the "North Face" genre.

I nodded off again.

I awoke to the sounds of shouting near me. This is what I surmised of the situation. The bus stopped at a station. A large group of teenagers got onto the bus (all coming from school, wearing their backpacks). Another elderly man walked on behind them, and while the students were trying to present their bus passes, the old man had zero patience and pushed his way through the students and was shoving one boy's backpack quite rough. THis is what I witnessed when I woke.

The old man sitting next to me (let's call him "Pixie Breath") began yelling at the other old man (let's call him "Hambone"). Hambone sat down a few seats behind us and continued to yell at Pixie Breath. Eventually Pixie Breath leaned over to me and was looking for solidarity. After explaining that I didn't see what happened in English, he switched to English. He called Hambone words in the vein of "rude" and "pushy." As he was expressing himself, Hambone decided he didn't have enough. He stood up, came forward and began yelling at Pixie Breath. The bus started moving forward and Hambone nearly fell over. Pixie Breath told him to sit down in the opposite seat next to us and then he could continue fighting. Hambone sat and began yelling. At this point, the whole bus was pretty interested in what was happening.

Pixie Breath realized that the man was a moron and just turned to face me (Could I say that he was .... "saving his breath?" hahahaha). Eventually we got to talking where he really just talked to me for the rest of the time he was on the bus. He told me he was 77, that he pracitces judo and would "knock down" Hambone "right onto the ground." He told me about his wife that passed away from illness. He told me about being captured by the Nazis when he was 9 years old and forced to work in a labor camp for children. He told me how he escaped only to be caught by the Russians. He got off at city hall to take care of some red tape.

When Pixie Breath got off the bus, another old man (let's call him "Ralph") sat down next to me. Ralph had one of those medical canes with four small legs. Once Ralph sat down, Hambone made him switch seats with him. So now Hambone was going to share his side of the story.

When he sat down, he spoke Hebrew about Pixie Breath. And while I didn't really catch everything he was saying, he was sticking his middle finger in the direction of where Pixie Breath got off the bus and repeated to move his arm up and down. Hambone was also looking for a piece of solidarity cake. I tried to give him some, but he didn't speak English and I didn't really feel like trying to speak Hebrew with this guy. His face was extremely wrinkled. He wore a plaid, button-up shirt under a dark grey jacket with a brown fur collar. Before he stopped talking with me, he let me know that he was Turkish, strong and let me know it by making a fist and shaking his arm.

Normally, I sit towards the back of the bus, but now I might start sitting in the front. There's more action where the older men sit.

Everything is Illuminated Highlights I

I just finished Jonathan Safron Foer's book "Everything is Illuminated." As I normally do, I research everything I get my nose into. Apparently the author and his first novel have polarized the writing world. Some hail him as a genius, while others revile him. The most fierce criticism out there came from a critic named Harry Siegel, saying, ""Why the Author of Everything Is Illuminated is a Fraud and a Hack." Pretty blunt if you ask me.

Me? I thought the book had its merits and its weaknesses. It's worth the read, but I'm not sure if I would hold the dude up on a pedastal (which is probably true of most people).

I did mark a few pages I thought they had some beautiful writing and/or ideas. I thought I'd post them on the blog as a means of doing something with them. I'll post them slowly.

Savor the taste.

Highlight I:

From the Book of Recurrent Dreams, Volume IV

4:517 - The dream of falling in love, marriage, death, love. This dream seems as if it lasts for hours, although it always takes place in the five minutes between my returning from teh field and being woken for dinner. I dream of when I met my wife, fifty years ago, and it's exactly as it happened. I dream of our marriage, and I can even see my father's tears of pride. It's all there, just as it was. But then I dream of my own death, which I have heard is impossible to do, but you must believe me. I dream of my wife telling me on my deathbed that she loves me, and even though she thinks I can't hear her, I can, and she says she wouldn't have changed anything. It feels like a moment I've lived a thousand times before, as if everything is familiar, right up to the moment of my death, that it will happen again an infinite number of times, that we will meet, marry, have our children, succeed in the ways we have, fail in the ways we have, all exactly the same, always unable to change a thing. I am again at the bottom of an unstoppable wheel, and when I feel my eyes clsoe for death, as they have an will a thousand times, I awake.

My personal comments:
I am in love. And for those of you who know me, you must realize that this isn't the love I thought I knew for years. It brings joy, completeness, and all that other sappy stuff we hear and see for years. Whoever has been writing that stuff has had some experience. Love is also one thing that raises your consciousness. I wasn't expecting that. However, being in love can be a sad thing because I'm always aware that this incredible ride we're on will one day come to an end. It an inevitability. It forces me to appreciate each day, each moment I have with her. This passage echoes my Buddhist sentiments as well as the feelings I have about love. There is a perfect imperfection in this love that endures throughout time. It struck me as a beautiful thought.

if SAD wasn't already bad enough...they are now tainting us with hunger!

The Maple Syrup Smell... is Back for 2009!

In a city full of foul aromas, a mysterious sweet smell is receiving a lot of attention after residents throughout Manhattan began reporting it Thursday night. Calls have been pouring in to the city's 311 hotline and to 911 from Manhattan residents wondering just what the smell is. Many describe it as smelling like maple syrup. Other say it smells like flavored coffee or roasted nuts.

"It started at work about 8:30 Thursday night,” said one aroma-witness. “I was at the computer and I felt like, I don't even know, maybe someone had some maple syrup and they were typing away and I was typing and it got on me somehow. I was laying in bed last night and I felt like I had maple syrup in my nostrils."

Officials from the Office of Emergency Management have been running tests all night to try to figure out just what the smell is. A spokesman says air samples aren't showing anything hazardous, the source of the smell is still not clear.

In the past hour, we've received five emails alerting us to the alarming news: The sticky sweet scent of maple syrup has made its 2009 debut! So far, the smell appears to concentrated on the Upper West Side, but please let us know if you've suddenly gotten hungry for pancakes because the scent of breakfast has been so overpowering.

Previous maple syrup incidents: October 2005, March 2006, November 2006, November 2007, and May 2008. Plus a November 2007 cameo on 30 Rock.

Update: We added two more smellings (one at West 80th & Amsterdam, the other on East 82nd between Park and Lexington).

Update (11:15 p.m.): More smellings added to the map-"We thought at first it was her neighbors doing something kinky, or that it was a new form of bioterrorism!"

Update (11:34 p.m.): "In Tudor City, 43rd and 1st. I thought it was my own sweet bo at first!"

I myself, smelt the sweet aroma on my way home last night...this is no joke my friends...

Gaza is Kabul-wannabe

Being an Israeli citizen, i got a lot to be ashamed of for the last days events in Gaza strip.... I can't even start writing about my feelings - you can try Sigur-Rosing if you wanna have a clue...

Anyhow, as Vice magazine being the cool of the coolest on earth, they have made a video "guide to travel" for whoever wanna join the New year's eve in Kabul, Afganistan, after the American "development" there. It must be very similar to what Gaza is going to look alike...

Have "fun" mates... (Oh, and read some Slavoj Zizek to better understand the situation here and there)

introducing the **

I guess my first post here will concern identity.
What is this I who writes? Is "it" an "I" or a "he"?
it = I = he.
Let me be this trinity, this trinity is a gay unicorn.
"it = he" is gay*
the I in the middle is a unicorn*

So let me be that dialectical meta-thing that does not exist, except here and now, on the meta-world(wideweb). That Gay Unicorn that is somewhat me has the sense of place, and can turn a nowhere into a somewhere, as it can give an articulate meaning to silence, as it can demonstrate that black and white are two shades of jade.

Identity and audentity.
This trizophrenic alias that is a little me likes music, the music that turns Japan into a new land from Germany, that confesses that it is all about noises more than music, that silence is a (non)-noise, therefore that silence is music. Stand up gentlemen, time has come for revolution!

The Last Dragon

I remember seeing this movie as a kid. I was researching some older gospel and R&B/soul singers when I saw a mention to this movie. I just read that they're going to do a remake of the film with Samuel L. Jackson as the kung-fu bad guy (Sho'Nuff). The RZA has signed on as a co-producer. I chose the long clip over the short one because I thought it caught the richness of the cheese more so than the shorter clip. I look forward to what they might do with it.

Playing for Peace

In these times of increased violence (especially near my ass), I thought this video was uplifting and musically worth checking out.....

Won't someone please stand by me....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Happy New Year to everyone. Tehila and I were in Berlin for the new years, and it was OUT OF CONTROL FUN!!!!!!!!

Also, wanted to say Happy Birthday to Flippin Kites. We're one year old. HOT DAMN!

Love to you all.....