Tom from (500) Days would be proud

maybe it was the fact that today was overcast with a hint of dust storm, or maybe it was the fact that it is supposed to be snowy/rainy tomorrow, or some other melancholic scenario involving weather. whatever the reason, today i listened to a very awesome, melancholy playlist filled with the angst riddenest groups out there. my day started out with a little kalai, who isn't very depressing at all, but quickly moved on from there. here is my playlist from today:

1. Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries (the whole album)
2. The Cure - Boys Don't Cry (i blame this one on claire)
3. The Cure - Close to Me
4. The Smiths - How Soon is Now?
5. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
6. Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees
7. Bloc Party - Banquet
8. Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime
9. Radiohead - Paranoid Android
10. Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight, Tonight
11. The Cure - Love Song
12. The Killers - Smile Like You Mean It
13. The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
14. David Bowie - Heroes
15. Radiohead - All I Need
16. INXS - I Need You Tonight
17. Coldplay - Trouble
18. Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus
19. Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma (k, so this one doesn't fit the motif, but what the hey)
20. The Shins - New Slang
21. Talking Heads - Burning Down the House
22. The Smiths - This Charming Man
23. Feist - My Moon My Man
24. The Cure - Lullaby
25. The Arcade Fire - Rebellion(Lies) (i can't listen to more than a few of arcade fire's songs at a time, but sometimes they hit the spot)
26. Smashing Pumpkins - Today
27. David Bowie - Life on Mars?

the best part was, i wasn't depressed or emotional about it, i just really enjoyed it.

This post is soooo Machiavellian

i finally started reading the prince (i tried to underline that, but there is no underline feature on here) by niccolo machiavelli. it is considered to be one of the quintessential reads on political science/cynical philosophy. in one of the more cynical phases of my life, i actually wrote a poem called machiavelli had it right. i wish i could find it, i remember thinking i was so clever and intellectual when i wrote it. of course, i was in high school, so i most likely was neither.

but back to the prince. it is an incredibly insightful and educational read. it was written in the early 1500's feudal italy. it was written using current events and recent history, so it is a little obscure in its references ( i mean, if i mentioned the conquests of cesare borgia in my blog, that would be considered obscure). good thing my copy contains notes explaining it.

i realize i am drifting into boring things, so i'll get to the point. as i have been reading it, it actually feel considerably like the guy is just kind of rambling through his thoughts. kinda like this blog. which made me realize, blogging is a centuries old thing. or maybe just reading blogs has ruined me for classical philosophy. kind of a chicken or the egg situation.

10 things i bet you didn't know about me

10 things you don't know about me

i often laugh at jokes i told a week ago
i often choose shirts to wear based on which cardigan/hoodie/jacket i want to wear
i take more time than the average guy on personal hygene
i am watching your body language as much as listening to you
i am very good at sales, but i hate selling
i am uncomfortable with female attention(not saying i don't like it, i just don't know what to do with it)
i am enamored with tattoos, but i would never get one
i clean my house all the time, but i have a messy room
i have chronic insomnia
the one hairstyle i wish i had experienced is dreadlocks

i went on a trip last week to a fairytale land of giant trees, secret coves, bushmen, and, well, fairies. while i may not have left my heart in san francisco, i may have left a kidney. it was an epic journey.

Summit on the Summit

i'm watching this show on mtv (i know, mtv) called summit on the summit. it is about a bunch of celebrities who are trying to raise awareness about the availability of clean drinking water by hiking mount kilimanjaro in africa. they started out in a village teaching them about purifying water, then started hiking the mountain. here are the celebrities involved(none of them are very big):

prog pop artist kenna

rapper lupe fiasco

actress jessica biel

actor emile hirsch

prog pop artist santigold

actress isabel lucas

and a smattering of a bunch of pseudo celeb activists (attractive granddaughters of jacques cousteau and robert kennedy anyone?). i'm a sucker for attractive women and talented musicians.

i both love and hate this concept. i really respect anyone trying to raise awareness about social responsibility, especially people who are willing to go to the source. i'm just not sure about the hiking mt. kilimanjaro part. i don't know how that relates, other than it is a mountain in africa, where there is a serious issue about drinking water. i really like outdoors shows like this, and i really like most of the celebrities involved. i don't necessarily care about them together. while it is a strenuous and taxing climb, it isn't a really technical climb. kilimanjaro isn't one of the mountains that scare me. i would love to climb it someday, and the part that is the most daunting for me is the money involved. so i have all of these conflicting interests in the show, while my social responsibility elitist in me is untrusting of mtv trying to talk about water with a celeb hike. the most legit portion of it all is the connection with kenna. his father is from africa, and lost family to unsafe drinking water. so if his father hadn't left africa, kenna would have been one of those kids with the flys around their eyes. so he did it for his father. i'll continue to have conflicted feelings about the show, but the moral to this story is, i'll watch anything involving musicians i like.

LDN

i am something of an anglophile, meaning that i tend to become fascinated with things simply because they are from britain. hence my love for acts such as lily allen, lady sovereign, and the streets(although the most recent recordings by mike skinner and crew have departed from his spoken word brand of brit-hop, and have lost quite a bit of their like-ability). of course, i won't like something just because it is british, but it ceratinly helps its case. i love the classics like led zepplin, cream, and the beatles simply because they are amazing. the beatles movies captivate me because they are so british though, i don't know if i would find them as mesmerizing if it were american.

some things i'm not sure if i love because they are british, or if they would have been able to produce something similarly amazing somewhere else. the darkness is a prime example. their dogmatic discipleship to classic rock is only so fun because they are beyond committed to the ridiculous premise they purvey. so the question is: would they be able to devote themselves to such a style and image with such reckless abandon, and get away with it, if they were american?these are the thoughts that keep me up at night, ha.

my latest british obsession is kate nash. she is both crazy catchy, and undeniably british in her delivery. check her out, and fall in love with her too.

i don't know what i am doing

i am getting hip to the game. i now have a blog. to begin my blog, check out this video. it is amazing.