..marlins come out of the sky, and they stand theeeeeere!
I think those are the lyrics to Roundabout. I think. I can't really understand what those guys are saying but I like what I have because that damn well SHOULD be the lyrics.
This is why I'm not a musical superstar.
Jimmy Carter spoke at Brandeis last night. I know that this invites flames but I think the man has a point. Sort of.
Despite being raised in a Jewish household, I do not particularly identify with the religion. I don't really identify with ANY religion at this point to be totally honest. Buddhism and Taoism I like, but I don't really practice anything. So when people ask me what I think about the Israel-Palestine issue, I tend to say things most people don't either like to or want to hear.
I think that the actions of both side at this point are nothing short of abominable. The Israeli settlers have set up a system in the West Bank that is exclusionary and discriminatory towards the Palestinians, although I also tend to refer to them as Arabs to be a tad general, and the Palestinian government is affiliated with terrorist groups that spout nothing short of hatred while they claim to espouse peace.
The region is very different from the West. Islam is a religion of peace, and so is nearly every other religion I have heard of. The problem that I have seen in religion is that it inspires people to commit heinous acts in the name of Allah, Adonai, Jesus Christ, Amaterasu, and countless other gods or names for a One True God.
Who are we to say to anyone else that their religion is baseless and blasphemous? We are just as blasphemous to them at times. The Christians have persecuted the Muslims who waged war on the Hindus and the Buddhists who fought the Shinto. The Jews fought the pagans in Canaan and Egypt and fight Muslims today. I didn't mean to put Islam in there twice, I just had to tie it back to the present.
In the end what are we to believe more than any other? That the world was made from mud dripping off a sword according to Shinto? That God spoke to Moses and the Jews through a burning bush? That Jesus Christ proved his to divinity to millions of unborn Christians by resurrection after lying dead for three days? That the supreme force of creativity is a flying spaghetti monster?
It's personal in the end. We have no right to tell others how to live their lives. As for me... in and around a lake some marlins fell out of the sky and then just stood there. It makes just as much sense as anything else.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
The Line
My stay in and around New York comes to an end today. Not I have that far to travel but it marks my return to that slightly less crowded city that I also love, Boston.
The country, as a whole, seems to have mixed feelings about Boston, Mass. On the one hand, everyone who passed Fourth grade knows that Boston was the heart of the Revolution and played a key role in defining America as the country we all know and love today. But then you have the rivalries. There are the sports teams that you either love or hate; the drivers who either confound you or provide, in your eyes, a "challenge"; and there are the political entities who either disturb you to your core or represent to you the new wave of American culture.
Not my best segue, but it'll have to do.
The huffington post reported recently that bipartisanship is reappearing on Capitol Hill. Republicans are starting to vote for Democratically sponsored bills. That was their definition of bipartisanship. Don't get me wrong, I think that's fantastic and nothing short of a wonderful start, but there needs to be more than that. Recently the Democratic leadership in the house said that they were going to table some of the Republican bills in the first 100 hours of this new House. That isn't bipartisanship. I do understand that the Dems were being treated the same way in many cases over the last 12 years and I do also realize that it streamlined the agenda by simply removing bills that would have taken time to only be voted down by the majority anyway, but limiting discussion of ideas is not bipartisanship.
I see bipartisanship as two ideologies working together to develop something wholly new and unique. Imagine the GOP and Dems working together and creating a comprehensive healthcare plan that not only satisfied the some of the socialist leanings of the most left-wing Democrats but also managed to satisfy some of the fundamentalist Christian members of the Republican Party. It would be historic, no doubt about it.
I left my cellphone charger in New York. I've gone for extended periods without a cellphone before, it's just annoying more than anything. It always strikes me as alien, not being able to be reached at any time. Sometimes, it's kinda nice.
Any of you who read this and know me, if you want to leave some suggestions on new songs to learn for solo acoustic guitar (I'm already set on learning the rendition of "My Overkill" that was on Scrubs) drop a comment. Actually... drop a comment if you like what you read or any thought strikes your mind. It's nice to know that somebody else is out there.
The country, as a whole, seems to have mixed feelings about Boston, Mass. On the one hand, everyone who passed Fourth grade knows that Boston was the heart of the Revolution and played a key role in defining America as the country we all know and love today. But then you have the rivalries. There are the sports teams that you either love or hate; the drivers who either confound you or provide, in your eyes, a "challenge"; and there are the political entities who either disturb you to your core or represent to you the new wave of American culture.
Not my best segue, but it'll have to do.
The huffington post reported recently that bipartisanship is reappearing on Capitol Hill. Republicans are starting to vote for Democratically sponsored bills. That was their definition of bipartisanship. Don't get me wrong, I think that's fantastic and nothing short of a wonderful start, but there needs to be more than that. Recently the Democratic leadership in the house said that they were going to table some of the Republican bills in the first 100 hours of this new House. That isn't bipartisanship. I do understand that the Dems were being treated the same way in many cases over the last 12 years and I do also realize that it streamlined the agenda by simply removing bills that would have taken time to only be voted down by the majority anyway, but limiting discussion of ideas is not bipartisanship.
I see bipartisanship as two ideologies working together to develop something wholly new and unique. Imagine the GOP and Dems working together and creating a comprehensive healthcare plan that not only satisfied the some of the socialist leanings of the most left-wing Democrats but also managed to satisfy some of the fundamentalist Christian members of the Republican Party. It would be historic, no doubt about it.
I left my cellphone charger in New York. I've gone for extended periods without a cellphone before, it's just annoying more than anything. It always strikes me as alien, not being able to be reached at any time. Sometimes, it's kinda nice.
Any of you who read this and know me, if you want to leave some suggestions on new songs to learn for solo acoustic guitar (I'm already set on learning the rendition of "My Overkill" that was on Scrubs) drop a comment. Actually... drop a comment if you like what you read or any thought strikes your mind. It's nice to know that somebody else is out there.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Epaulet
I'm currently sitting at a desk in downtown New York City. This is the jumping-off point for the current weekend retreat for the a cappella group I'm in at school. There's a lamp, that does not work, in my face; the apartment is piled high with, well, stuff; and I'm slowly remembering what it was that I disliked or otherwise was bemused to the point of annoyance by other members of the group.
But I digress.
One member of our group, who shall remain nameless, has, what I refer to as an hairpaulet. Do not confuse this with an hairy back as that is not what we are speaking of here. His one shoulder is covered in hair. Just one. An hairpaulet. He was just walking back to his sleeping area (there's 8 of us in an apartment for 3, maybe 4) and I saw it in all its glory. It really is an incredible display of genetics gone haywire.
On an unrelated note, I also just read an article that disturbed me more than the sight of the aforementioned hairpaulet. It was an ABC News Online publication that described the pamphlets that the State Department is now distributing in an attempt to defuse negative stereotypes of American tourists. What saddened me was the discussion thread that followed the article. There was a post that said, in a more ridiculous and enraged tone, that people who lived close to the United States, and by this I believe he meant the rest of the world, should do all they could to accommodate us because we are the only remaining superpower in the world and because of that, everyone should bend to our will.
I nearly got sick.
Who can still think that we are the last superpower left on the planet? We are entering an age where the Davids will begin to topple the Goliaths very quickly. China is fast approaching superpower status in terms of economy, or will when they finally admit to themselves that they are no longer the stronghold of Maoist Socialism. Any country with a well-trained and dedicated military, imagine a fundamentalist nation that honors martyrdom, and access to nuclear weaponry is a threat. We are so absorbed in the power we held over the world 30-40 years ago that we can't see that we don't have it anymore. The world is not an oyster for us to pull the pearl from.
I look at my friends bustling around the apartment and wonder where we're all going to be in this rapidly mutating geopolitical scenario. I hope that we aren't under the same delusion when we finally get into the world, otherwise things are going to look as bad as a patch of mangy hair on your shoulder. Shave your hairpaulets and get out there. Just be nice about it.
But I digress.
One member of our group, who shall remain nameless, has, what I refer to as an hairpaulet. Do not confuse this with an hairy back as that is not what we are speaking of here. His one shoulder is covered in hair. Just one. An hairpaulet. He was just walking back to his sleeping area (there's 8 of us in an apartment for 3, maybe 4) and I saw it in all its glory. It really is an incredible display of genetics gone haywire.
On an unrelated note, I also just read an article that disturbed me more than the sight of the aforementioned hairpaulet. It was an ABC News Online publication that described the pamphlets that the State Department is now distributing in an attempt to defuse negative stereotypes of American tourists. What saddened me was the discussion thread that followed the article. There was a post that said, in a more ridiculous and enraged tone, that people who lived close to the United States, and by this I believe he meant the rest of the world, should do all they could to accommodate us because we are the only remaining superpower in the world and because of that, everyone should bend to our will.
I nearly got sick.
Who can still think that we are the last superpower left on the planet? We are entering an age where the Davids will begin to topple the Goliaths very quickly. China is fast approaching superpower status in terms of economy, or will when they finally admit to themselves that they are no longer the stronghold of Maoist Socialism. Any country with a well-trained and dedicated military, imagine a fundamentalist nation that honors martyrdom, and access to nuclear weaponry is a threat. We are so absorbed in the power we held over the world 30-40 years ago that we can't see that we don't have it anymore. The world is not an oyster for us to pull the pearl from.
I look at my friends bustling around the apartment and wonder where we're all going to be in this rapidly mutating geopolitical scenario. I hope that we aren't under the same delusion when we finally get into the world, otherwise things are going to look as bad as a patch of mangy hair on your shoulder. Shave your hairpaulets and get out there. Just be nice about it.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Bedache
It happens to me far too often. I'm lying in bed, doing everything in my power to recover that dream where I'm helping Scarlett Johansson get out of her dirty clothes after the attack of the Redi-Whip Monsters , and suddenly I find that I have contracted bedache. That dull pain in your shoulder, neck, or back that comes from lying in bed for just a little too long.
I like sleeping late. There's something oddly satisfying in watching the world out the window from bed, especially when I'm up at school as that window into the quad courtyard gives me a very nice view of some foliage. I usually just lie there, wondering what I'm going to do for the day or whether or not reading that chapter on the syllabus that was labeled "suggested reading" is really required.
I wonder if in some places, laziness is next to godliness rather than cleanliness.
Either way, I'm not on either end of the spectrum. I tend to freak out if I don't get stuff done when I say I'm going to and there are always piles of things on my floor. It IS the most convenient storage space sometimes.
But there are always times when I wish it was just me, my bed, and that tree. And no damn bedaches.
I like sleeping late. There's something oddly satisfying in watching the world out the window from bed, especially when I'm up at school as that window into the quad courtyard gives me a very nice view of some foliage. I usually just lie there, wondering what I'm going to do for the day or whether or not reading that chapter on the syllabus that was labeled "suggested reading" is really required.
I wonder if in some places, laziness is next to godliness rather than cleanliness.
Either way, I'm not on either end of the spectrum. I tend to freak out if I don't get stuff done when I say I'm going to and there are always piles of things on my floor. It IS the most convenient storage space sometimes.
But there are always times when I wish it was just me, my bed, and that tree. And no damn bedaches.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Is this thing on?
Welcome, me.
This is the internet.
What? This is it?
That tends to run through my mind more often than not now as I'm wasting time by staring at my laptop screen. Not everything is a waste of time here. There's the news, and ZeFrank, and e-mail, and on rare occasions actual coursework. Yet most of the time I find myself staring at someone who thought it would be funny to pour gasoline into a hollowed out watermelon, light it on fire, and then hit it with a baseball bat.
Actually... that one was kinda funny.
I wonder how I'm going to describe the infancy of the internet to my future grandchildren on occasion. Should I have grandchildren, that is. Will I describe it as a place of wonder where you could learn about anything and everything because it has degraded into a cyber-Sodom where all pages are meaningless collections of flash cartoons with a bad taste in humor or will I describe it as the latter because it has become the former?
That was a horrible sentence, but I have no inclination to fix it.
This blog is a test for me. I want to see that this doesn't degrade into my last flailing attempt at blogging. Maybe I can make something meaningful out of this. Maybe I can take the vast and incredible opportunities that now lay before me and create something wonderful.
I'll do that later. Right now? I'm gonna go watch one of those awful flash cartoons.
What? Sometimes, rarely, they're just what you want.
This is the internet.
What? This is it?
That tends to run through my mind more often than not now as I'm wasting time by staring at my laptop screen. Not everything is a waste of time here. There's the news, and ZeFrank, and e-mail, and on rare occasions actual coursework. Yet most of the time I find myself staring at someone who thought it would be funny to pour gasoline into a hollowed out watermelon, light it on fire, and then hit it with a baseball bat.
Actually... that one was kinda funny.
I wonder how I'm going to describe the infancy of the internet to my future grandchildren on occasion. Should I have grandchildren, that is. Will I describe it as a place of wonder where you could learn about anything and everything because it has degraded into a cyber-Sodom where all pages are meaningless collections of flash cartoons with a bad taste in humor or will I describe it as the latter because it has become the former?
That was a horrible sentence, but I have no inclination to fix it.
This blog is a test for me. I want to see that this doesn't degrade into my last flailing attempt at blogging. Maybe I can make something meaningful out of this. Maybe I can take the vast and incredible opportunities that now lay before me and create something wonderful.
I'll do that later. Right now? I'm gonna go watch one of those awful flash cartoons.
What? Sometimes, rarely, they're just what you want.
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