Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Edge
I've been straight edge for almost 5 years now. I was 14 years old when I first encountered straight edge, and to be honest the kids who exposed me to Edge sucked. They had closed minds and clenched fists. It was elitism that drove them. They broke over time, one by one they quit being edge. Honestly, I've never had any desire to drink or do drugs at any point in my life. There was a time before I learned more about SXE that I thought it was just about being a dick. I feel like a lot of peoples encounters with SXE has been that way. For a life philosophy that's about personal choice we present ourselves in pretty fascist ways sometimes. In short, I became Edge out of default.
What can we do to change that impression? I believe that if we gave more teenagers a choice and a haven from the pressures of substance use they would take it. We need role models who promote positive change not violence or ignorance.
What can we do to change that impression? I believe that if we gave more teenagers a choice and a haven from the pressures of substance use they would take it. We need role models who promote positive change not violence or ignorance.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Creation.
I've decided nobody owns something you can create, not even the artist. It's weird to think, but nothing is truly uniquely personal. No matter specific, it still has universal elements. Or maybe nobody ever hears it like you meant. Their not wrong, they can't be it's perceptual.
I really hate Bill Maher by the way. I've no idea what that dude enjoys. He just says ridiculous shit all the time, for no reason other than to appear....I have no idea. Intelligent? East Coast? Superior? Affluent? He claims to be "liberal" or something, but he doesn't really care about anybody else. I don't think he really wants to help people. I dunno, watch religulous. Initially, he just belittles people for having faith with the same tired attacks we've heard a million times. The Bible is false! If you take it literally, well it's ridiculous! Jesus isn't unique! So many Jesuses! whatever. Then he goes so far as to say that religion will bring about the end of the world. So not only does my faith, make me stupid it's also dangerous?
I have no problem with people having their own beliefs, I encourage it. Think what you want. Be yourself. We have problems when you think the only reasonable position is your own. No thanks. Bill Maher isn't funny. He's sort of like the liberal Bill O'Reilly. They're both televised barbarians.
So rant complete. meow.
I really hate Bill Maher by the way. I've no idea what that dude enjoys. He just says ridiculous shit all the time, for no reason other than to appear....I have no idea. Intelligent? East Coast? Superior? Affluent? He claims to be "liberal" or something, but he doesn't really care about anybody else. I don't think he really wants to help people. I dunno, watch religulous. Initially, he just belittles people for having faith with the same tired attacks we've heard a million times. The Bible is false! If you take it literally, well it's ridiculous! Jesus isn't unique! So many Jesuses! whatever. Then he goes so far as to say that religion will bring about the end of the world. So not only does my faith, make me stupid it's also dangerous?
I have no problem with people having their own beliefs, I encourage it. Think what you want. Be yourself. We have problems when you think the only reasonable position is your own. No thanks. Bill Maher isn't funny. He's sort of like the liberal Bill O'Reilly. They're both televised barbarians.
So rant complete. meow.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Certainty
People say you have to know what you believe in.
Right?
What the hell does that even mean? How can you know what you believe in it? If you knew what you believed in, wouldn't you know it? That sounds really stupid, but think about it. We believe in things that we can't understand to a certainty. We believe in things that we cannot know. So how can you "know" what you believe in? What someone really means when they say that is you better be able to explain your position. Have the facts. Use rhetoric and logic to formulate your ideas. I think for anything worth believing in, logic and rhetoric don't really have a place.
Let's say you believe in God. I do. When ever anyone talks about God, they have hundreds of reasons or whatever, but that isn't why someone believes in God. They believe in God because they believe in God. No fact or tid bit of evidence made them want to believe in God, they started believing in God because they felt it. It just appeared or it happened over time. But they definitely were not convinced by someone else's facts. Facts don't make believers, people make themselves believers.
I'm burnt from school so that's all I've got for my hypothetical readers. Which at the current moment probably don't number very high, but someday this post could be read by thousands. Kinda weird to think about.
Right?
What the hell does that even mean? How can you know what you believe in it? If you knew what you believed in, wouldn't you know it? That sounds really stupid, but think about it. We believe in things that we can't understand to a certainty. We believe in things that we cannot know. So how can you "know" what you believe in? What someone really means when they say that is you better be able to explain your position. Have the facts. Use rhetoric and logic to formulate your ideas. I think for anything worth believing in, logic and rhetoric don't really have a place.
Let's say you believe in God. I do. When ever anyone talks about God, they have hundreds of reasons or whatever, but that isn't why someone believes in God. They believe in God because they believe in God. No fact or tid bit of evidence made them want to believe in God, they started believing in God because they felt it. It just appeared or it happened over time. But they definitely were not convinced by someone else's facts. Facts don't make believers, people make themselves believers.
I'm burnt from school so that's all I've got for my hypothetical readers. Which at the current moment probably don't number very high, but someday this post could be read by thousands. Kinda weird to think about.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Social Networking is like Voyeurism Only Without the Excitement.
To put it bluntly: Social Networking is fucking creepy.
No seriously, think about it. 30 years ago nobody had cell phones. If you called their house and they didn't answer, you were just out of luck. Or maybe you actually went to their house to see what they were up to. Perhaps you actually communicated face to face for a while. My grandparents aren't Luddites, but you might be inclined to think they were. They had the internet for a while and then ditched it. They never use their cell phone. It's not that they don't understand new technology, they just don't have a need for it.
We tend to assume that old people wish they knew how to operate these newfangled gadgets. The opposite of that is that they just don't need any of this crap. Ah ha! Imagine that.
So I find myself wondering whether I need the internet, or my computer, or Myspace, or Twitter, or whatever. I used to be addicted to Facebook. I seriously checked it all the time. I realized one day that all I ever did with Facebook was look at stupid pictures of drunk people I went to high school with. So I deactivated my account and now I call people. or text them. or run into them. or whatever, but it feels real! Real spontaneous encounters, almost as if God directed us into each others paths! Marvelous. I enjoy the disconnect. It's nice hunting people down, it's nice not knowing what they're doing or thinking or whatever.
Probably most importantly, it's nice to get disconnected. I like knowing that only the people I want in my life can keep tabs on me. My life isn't some voyeur show. Some random person will not be alerted when I start dating someone or make a new friend, no only the people I tell will know. I like that. I like being able to start fresh and clean. I like not having an internet persona.
In a weird way, I think Blogs are a nice alternative. I get to write long winded passages about bullshit for other writers. Cool. Here's my rhetoric and my thoughts, sans personal information and all kinds of other weird stuff.
Honestly I think twitter is probably the coolest thing out there. You can have little conversations and whatever, but it just get's people connected. Twitter's like an eye catcher and then you have a real or conversation. Or maybe you just check facebook again. who knows?
No seriously, think about it. 30 years ago nobody had cell phones. If you called their house and they didn't answer, you were just out of luck. Or maybe you actually went to their house to see what they were up to. Perhaps you actually communicated face to face for a while. My grandparents aren't Luddites, but you might be inclined to think they were. They had the internet for a while and then ditched it. They never use their cell phone. It's not that they don't understand new technology, they just don't have a need for it.
We tend to assume that old people wish they knew how to operate these newfangled gadgets. The opposite of that is that they just don't need any of this crap. Ah ha! Imagine that.
So I find myself wondering whether I need the internet, or my computer, or Myspace, or Twitter, or whatever. I used to be addicted to Facebook. I seriously checked it all the time. I realized one day that all I ever did with Facebook was look at stupid pictures of drunk people I went to high school with. So I deactivated my account and now I call people. or text them. or run into them. or whatever, but it feels real! Real spontaneous encounters, almost as if God directed us into each others paths! Marvelous. I enjoy the disconnect. It's nice hunting people down, it's nice not knowing what they're doing or thinking or whatever.
Probably most importantly, it's nice to get disconnected. I like knowing that only the people I want in my life can keep tabs on me. My life isn't some voyeur show. Some random person will not be alerted when I start dating someone or make a new friend, no only the people I tell will know. I like that. I like being able to start fresh and clean. I like not having an internet persona.
In a weird way, I think Blogs are a nice alternative. I get to write long winded passages about bullshit for other writers. Cool. Here's my rhetoric and my thoughts, sans personal information and all kinds of other weird stuff.
Honestly I think twitter is probably the coolest thing out there. You can have little conversations and whatever, but it just get's people connected. Twitter's like an eye catcher and then you have a real or conversation. Or maybe you just check facebook again. who knows?
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Kurt Cobain killed the Prom Queen
Kurt Cobain has been dead 15 years today. So have a lot of other people, but they didn't front Nirvana so they're not getting my attention right now.
I was browsing the interwebs and came across an article on MTV.com by James Montgomery. Here's the link if you wanna check it out: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1608772/20090407/nirvana.jhtml
He seems to think all the sincerity and idealistic hope in punk rock died with Cobain. I have to agree that the world seems to be lacking sincerity like Cobain had, but it isn't dead. Not by a long shot. It's not dominating the charts like Nevermind did (well mostly, but I'll get to that in a minute), but at least in the underground it's alive and well, fighting for it's survival against outside pressure. In the 15 years since Cobain cut short Nirvana's path to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bands like Thursday, Thrice, Anberlin, Killswitch Engage, and a ton of other bands have put out killer sincere albums. No rockstar ambitions, nothing but raw emotions and of course all of these bands are ignored by MTV and Rolling Stone. I have no idea who Rolling Stone's target audience is but they must listen exclusively to rap music and indie music, oh wait that's college kids....
I digress, what's killing sincerity is a combination of underground elitism and a crumbling music industry. With the way the economy is now it's almost impossible to imagine Nirvana blowing up, I mean seriously look at pictures of the guys in Nirvana from the early 90's. No A&R person would touch those dudes with a 40 foot pole. The underground today is more content with destroying every band that comes up as not being enough. Not indie enough, not metal enough, not hardcore enough, just not enough. Thanks to that, we now have "screamocrunk". Seriously.
But step back, ignore your prejudice and listen to some new rock music. Listen to "Tommorow I'll be You" from Thursday's "War All the Time". Tell me when Geoff Rickley starts screaming at the end "I'm calling from your house/in your room/ in your name/lying in your bed" you don't feel that?! Or what about Thrice's "Stare at the Sun", aren't all we just praying for a mircale too!
There are t0o many awe inspiring songs out there and they're aren't getting attention. They're totally there, just look for them.
Honestly the biggest example of how insincere mainstream rock music is would be "Prom Queen" by Lil' Wayne. Not because the song isn't sincere, because it is. That song, more than anyother in recent memory, is a shining beacon of sincerity. Can Lil' Wayne play guitar? kinda, he's awful. Can Lil' wayne sing? Kinda with the auto tuner, but not really. Yet "Prom Queen" just oozes all the things I love about Rock and Roll. You don't have to be good at anything, you just have to want it. He just did it. He made a song and threw it out there. Against all kinds of career advice, he just did it. That's the spirit of punk rock I fell in love with. If you want to do something, then do it. As sad as it is to say, Lil' Wayne put out one of the most sincere popular rock songs of the last year.
I don't think sincereity is dead and I don't think Kurt Cobain killed anything but himself. If you want to find music made by people with heart and soul, you're going to find it. If you dont, you wont. Even worse, if you want to give yourself status you're just going to marginalize it.
I was browsing the interwebs and came across an article on MTV.com by James Montgomery. Here's the link if you wanna check it out: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1608772/20090407/nirvana.jhtml
He seems to think all the sincerity and idealistic hope in punk rock died with Cobain. I have to agree that the world seems to be lacking sincerity like Cobain had, but it isn't dead. Not by a long shot. It's not dominating the charts like Nevermind did (well mostly, but I'll get to that in a minute), but at least in the underground it's alive and well, fighting for it's survival against outside pressure. In the 15 years since Cobain cut short Nirvana's path to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bands like Thursday, Thrice, Anberlin, Killswitch Engage, and a ton of other bands have put out killer sincere albums. No rockstar ambitions, nothing but raw emotions and of course all of these bands are ignored by MTV and Rolling Stone. I have no idea who Rolling Stone's target audience is but they must listen exclusively to rap music and indie music, oh wait that's college kids....
I digress, what's killing sincerity is a combination of underground elitism and a crumbling music industry. With the way the economy is now it's almost impossible to imagine Nirvana blowing up, I mean seriously look at pictures of the guys in Nirvana from the early 90's. No A&R person would touch those dudes with a 40 foot pole. The underground today is more content with destroying every band that comes up as not being enough. Not indie enough, not metal enough, not hardcore enough, just not enough. Thanks to that, we now have "screamocrunk". Seriously.
But step back, ignore your prejudice and listen to some new rock music. Listen to "Tommorow I'll be You" from Thursday's "War All the Time". Tell me when Geoff Rickley starts screaming at the end "I'm calling from your house/in your room/ in your name/lying in your bed" you don't feel that?! Or what about Thrice's "Stare at the Sun", aren't all we just praying for a mircale too!
There are t0o many awe inspiring songs out there and they're aren't getting attention. They're totally there, just look for them.
Honestly the biggest example of how insincere mainstream rock music is would be "Prom Queen" by Lil' Wayne. Not because the song isn't sincere, because it is. That song, more than anyother in recent memory, is a shining beacon of sincerity. Can Lil' Wayne play guitar? kinda, he's awful. Can Lil' wayne sing? Kinda with the auto tuner, but not really. Yet "Prom Queen" just oozes all the things I love about Rock and Roll. You don't have to be good at anything, you just have to want it. He just did it. He made a song and threw it out there. Against all kinds of career advice, he just did it. That's the spirit of punk rock I fell in love with. If you want to do something, then do it. As sad as it is to say, Lil' Wayne put out one of the most sincere popular rock songs of the last year.
I don't think sincereity is dead and I don't think Kurt Cobain killed anything but himself. If you want to find music made by people with heart and soul, you're going to find it. If you dont, you wont. Even worse, if you want to give yourself status you're just going to marginalize it.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Raison D'Etre
This blog exists for a few reasons:
-I needed a place to write about things that matter to me. I'm currently a Journalism student at IU Bloomington and a Cox Research Scholar, working at both of those things made me realize that if you really want to do something (or cover something), the best method is probably to just do it yourself.
-Ultimately, I would like this blog to serve as a voice that calls the attention of others to things I think need paying attention to. I am straight edge, religious, and politically independent. I am attracted to things that deal with those issues, hopefully you will be to.
- I wanted a place to keep my photos and video projects. I like doing both of those things and I wanted a place to publish them. I wanted freedom from the pitch and deadline system of the various publications on campus. I want to be the editor, I want to have creative control.
-Finally, I want a place to shamelessly promote things I like. My band (www.myspace.com/forgloryandempire), other bands, movies, books, etc
I don't want to be objective if I don't want to be.
For those reasons I decide to start xScholarx, I'm going to shoot for an entry once a week (hopefully).
I hope you're intrigued.
Thomas.
p.s.
In case you're wondering about where the blogs name comes from, here's a handy explanation: Academically I do scholarly research with my scholarship. I actually just completed a paper for an academic conference on Yellow Journalism. As I continue to progress in my school work I hear the word scholar more and more. People use the word scholar to denote someone who researchs and works to further the scope of human knowledge. I sometimes feel like the word is used to divide those in the academic world from those who are not. I've always been proud of where I came from and I dislike the notion that someone with education is superior to someone without it. I really started thinking about the connotations behind the word "scholar", when my mentor informed me that the work I was doing made me a scholar. As I was finishing my first scholarly work (which had a lot to do with how distinctions of class effect somethings apparant value) I decided that if I was going to be a scholar, I was going to be one who kept the interest of the common man in mind.
The X's serve as a reminder of the music and lifestyle I feel in love with as a teenager. X's represent Straight Edge and numerous straight edge hardcore bands proudly display their choice by surrounding their band name with X's.
In essence the name represents my desire to research and further myself academically, all while keeping my origins close to my heart and work.
-I needed a place to write about things that matter to me. I'm currently a Journalism student at IU Bloomington and a Cox Research Scholar, working at both of those things made me realize that if you really want to do something (or cover something), the best method is probably to just do it yourself.
-Ultimately, I would like this blog to serve as a voice that calls the attention of others to things I think need paying attention to. I am straight edge, religious, and politically independent. I am attracted to things that deal with those issues, hopefully you will be to.
- I wanted a place to keep my photos and video projects. I like doing both of those things and I wanted a place to publish them. I wanted freedom from the pitch and deadline system of the various publications on campus. I want to be the editor, I want to have creative control.
-Finally, I want a place to shamelessly promote things I like. My band (www.myspace.com/forgloryandempire), other bands, movies, books, etc
I don't want to be objective if I don't want to be.
For those reasons I decide to start xScholarx, I'm going to shoot for an entry once a week (hopefully).
I hope you're intrigued.
Thomas.
p.s.
In case you're wondering about where the blogs name comes from, here's a handy explanation: Academically I do scholarly research with my scholarship. I actually just completed a paper for an academic conference on Yellow Journalism. As I continue to progress in my school work I hear the word scholar more and more. People use the word scholar to denote someone who researchs and works to further the scope of human knowledge. I sometimes feel like the word is used to divide those in the academic world from those who are not. I've always been proud of where I came from and I dislike the notion that someone with education is superior to someone without it. I really started thinking about the connotations behind the word "scholar", when my mentor informed me that the work I was doing made me a scholar. As I was finishing my first scholarly work (which had a lot to do with how distinctions of class effect somethings apparant value) I decided that if I was going to be a scholar, I was going to be one who kept the interest of the common man in mind.
The X's serve as a reminder of the music and lifestyle I feel in love with as a teenager. X's represent Straight Edge and numerous straight edge hardcore bands proudly display their choice by surrounding their band name with X's.
In essence the name represents my desire to research and further myself academically, all while keeping my origins close to my heart and work.
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