Music as an art form has changed drastically over the last few thousand years. Its place and function in society has shifted from a privilege to a right. Everyone and anyone has access to some sort of music. The sheer volume and variety of emotions, passions and messages held within the endless genres of music is honestly humbling. No matter who you are, there is a genre of music that you will like, that you can relate to, that speaks to you in some way. Recently, I've been expanding my musical knowledge, exploring new genres and finding new bands with new sounds.
My Freshmen and Sophomore years of high school, I listened almost exclusively to Tool. I considered them the most talented band in the world, I literally listened to nothing else. The feeling I remember the most from listening to them is a sort of reverence for the amount of skill and passion that went into a single song. The rhythms were transcendental, the lyrics enlightening and the beats impossibly complex. Their albums were nothing less than incredible journeys through subtle, savage, beautiful and brutal terrain. An hour listening to a Tool album was a psychological thriller that I reveled in.
I loved Tool so much I sort of killed them for me. One day, I realized that I had listened to every song countless times. Even the somewhat more obscure albums Opiate and Salival, and even the rare demo tape, 72826 (I didn't actually own a physical copy), they were all overplayed in my mind. Even today, I'm still jaded on the band. The only thing that could bring me back would be new material. So Tool became my gateway to the wide world of music as I sought to fill the void that Tool could no longer fill. I started with the familiar. I went to Rage Against the Machine, and enjoyed their rebellious raps and righteous riffs, but found that they didn't fill me with the artistic reverence, or give me the sense of a narrative that Tool did. I entered the Ska world and found Streetlight Manifesto, just in time for their new album release. There I found puncturing lyrics, a sense of a narrative combined with a powerful ideology supporting the mesmerizing melodies. Again, it was different, it was really good, but different. My musical knowledge expanded just like this, finding bands that filled some parts of the hole left by Tool, but none of them were quite the same. Recently, I've come to Arcade Fire. Their variety, style and the enigma of their lyrics and subtle melodies fill me with the same reverence I had for Tool, but in a different way.
Tool, metal, rock and roll, even Ska, those are relics of a generation before mine. It is important to remember, appreciate and enjoy the old, but it is also important to embrace and encourage the new. Arcade Fire is music more suited to my age. It is the modern, the trendy, the surreal, the new sound that I can't step away from. At least for now. My sister had been listening to them for a while, and I was first hooked on them during their album debut after the 2013 season premier of SNL. Arcade Fire is something new, something fresh. Spinning off retro themes, then jumping into brand new ground, Arcade fire combines new and old philosophies of music with lyrics of modern issues. Seeing them made me think "This is modern art, this is what I want representing my generation in the history of music." From energetic, to melancholy to contemplative to outright chaotic, Arcade Fire's music has so much variety and new ideas that I simply can't get enough of.
I'll finish this post off by posting a playlist of music that encompasses everything that I've been listening to recently. So shuffle, listen, and enjoy.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Thursday, October 10, 2013
The Middle Ground: Abortion
As I mature, evolve, change in my journey through life, I've found myself drifting away from the left side of the political spectrum a bit, and while I still have many left-sided opinions, I think I've gravitated enough to call myself a moderate. I do my best to see both sides of the political spectrum, and found that each side has their share of idiots and valid opinions. So I've decided that this site should reflect that. No longer will I write to make this place a bastion of left-wing opinions, I will do my best to open the gates and encourage a healthy debate.
So here comes a new kind of post: "The Middle Ground". In these posts I will look at a topic, present both sides, and analyze the strengths and faults of each argument. Hopefully, I will attract more of a crowd from the right side as well as the left side. Should debate erupt in the comments section, I will play the devil's advocate. When either side makes a great point, I will deconstruct it and provide a rebuttal.
So let's start with something easy: Abortion.
The Left Side
Most leftists and liberals believe in women's rights to choose. They say choices about a woman's body belong to her and her alone, often saying that choices about a woman's body shouldn't be made by old men in congress. Criminalizing abortion simply makes it more dangerous for women who need it badly, as they resort to drastic, potentially fatal methods. Also often brought up is the issue of rape pregnancy, should victims of rape be forced to carry the babies of their attackers?
A woman's choice is one thing, but the child is half the father's as well. Shouldn't he get a say in the fate of his own child? At what point does aborting a fetus become murdering a child? During the very beginning of pregnancy, a fetus is merely a small ring of stem cells, not even close to anything anyone sane would call a thinking, feeling human being, but there is ample evidence that later in pregnancy, the fetus acts and reacts like a normal baby, something that would most definitely feel the pain of death. Criminalizing abortion, though it would not stop all expectant mothers, would prevent most people who realize the danger to themselves in more dangerous, uninsured, off the grid clinics. After all, drunk driving laws don't stop all people from driving under the influence, does that mean we shouldn't have laws against it? As for rape pregnancy, most sane people know that the claim of "A woman's body shuts down during rape" is absolute horseshit, but does a rape truly justify the death of an innocent child? Adoption is always an option. If you don't have the financial resources to raise a child, or don't want to raise a child that was the result of a rape, adoption is an option beyond killing the child.
The Right Side
Many right-wingers and conservatives bring up the prevalent issue of morality in abortion. Are you really going to kill an innocent child because you don't want it, or because of one bad decision? A common ideology is "don't do the act if you can't accept the consequences", and brings in the role of responsibility in sex. If you don't take proper precautions before sex, you have to accept the consequences and responsibilities that follow the act.
Morality is of course a huge issue in this debate, and the question is, during an abortion, are you really killing a baby, or removing an unfeeling mass of cells? Up until about the third trimester, it's really just an unfeeling, unconscious mass of cells. If you're going to argue that removing a fetus then is murder, then you can make the same argument for the initial zygote, that tiny ring of cells that no person in the right mind wall call a thinking, feeling being. Another issue for morality is that morality is relative. When talking about abortion, the "morality" mentioned by conservatives is a very christian, religious sort of morality. History has shown us that morality depends on the culture around us. The Romans saw nothing wrong with making prisoners fight each other to the death for the entertainment of crowds. Today, that sort of thing would be considered heinous. Another example is giving blacks the vote. Many people had the sense that it was moral for blacks to stay as servants, that it was the "natural order of things". Obviously today, that's an insane opinion to have.
So what do you, the reader think? Leave a comment and let this debate begin.
I'll sit here, observe and interfere,
from The Middle Ground.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Philosophical Ramblings: Human
It's 11:30 at night and I'm tired as all dick from doing 4 chapters of AP Physics work. I just watched a couple videos that inspired me to try and break out of my writer's block with the most heavy handed way I can think of.
Moar writing
So I suppose I'll start by talking about creativity.
My creative writing teacher would try and get us inspired by making us write nonstop for 20 minutes about anything we wanted. I used this technique often in the past until I didn't really need to anymore as topics began popping in my head like fucking popcorn. Those were the days where I would write more than a post a week. I suppose I'll try this technique again, but it doesn't really seem to be working because, as I mentioned, it's 11:30 at night and I'm tired as all dick which is slowing my mind down to the point where I'm typing a hell of a lot faster than I can think right now. I'm also beginning to suspect I'm a little stressed because I swear I just heard the first three beats of Queen's "We Will Rock You" in this utterly motionless and sleeping house.
Usually when I get inspired to write, it's because of a phrase I heard somewhere that reminds me why I love writing. This phrase can be anything, but usually it involves good vocabulary and a context of good writing. Today this phrase is "vociferous lack of shit-giving".
I like to consider myself an artist that paints with words but I'm not sure exactly how accurate that is, because I'm not sure any of my writing is actually good. My AP Language teacher reads some of my posts here and there and when I ask her, she tells me I'm a good writer. I tell myself I should believe her but my insecurities always get to me and I have little confidence in the quality of any of these posts. My "Fuck you Peter Singer" post was based off an assignment I got in that class, and I handed in an edited version of my post. I'm not sure what I'm so fucking worried about because that essay got the highest score it's possible to get.
I don't know if this is me bragging or being insecure, but I constantly feel my writing is very hit and miss, mostly the latter. Maybe this paranoia I have is the reason I apparently write well, so if I stop worrying maybe I'll stop writing well.
I've watched a lot of videos warning against the trap of fame, that you should generate content on your own accord instead of doing what you think the fans want. I don't know why I'm bringing this up because I'm in no danger of falling victim to my own fame because my fame doesn't exist. I suppose the danger was more apparent when I first started this blog, or at least the opinions portion of it, because I expected it to be something else. I originally wanted something along the lines of Maddox's page, angry, cynical, and actually pretty juvenile in an effort to derive some humor from the mix. I'm glad I grew out of that and this blog went in the direction that it did, but now I'm left with a bunch of angry, juvenile posts that no longer reflect my views. I still read Maddox's page and still find it funny, but I also realize that Maddox isn't necessarily the person he portrays himself to be, whereas this blog I try to do the opposite, as these (more recent) posts do reflect my views. I do fluff up my opinions to an extent, but I've noticed I've been doing so less and less.
Perhaps the insecurity of my writing is also in the insecurity of many my opinions. I like to think I'm educated and I know what I'm talking about, but I often remember that I am just a 17 year old kid, how much can I possibly know? I can't always be right, but when am I wrong? I try to put these insecurities to rest with quotes like this, but the doubt remains.
Perhaps its only because it's so late and I'm so tired, when I wake up in the morning I always feel confident with who I am, how I look and my abilities, but at times like this I always question myself. It's at times like this I look at my actions and decide, am I being a hypocrite? Am I being an asshole? And more often than not, the answers I give myself are "yes", and I resolve to continue trying to better myself.
I don't know why I'm writing this down. I don't know if it's wise to post this. I don't know if this sounds depressing or self-centered.
Right now I'm sitting in a dark room, at 12:10 at night. The only sound I hear is the sound of my own typing. Tonight, I am merely human.
Moar writing
So I suppose I'll start by talking about creativity.
My creative writing teacher would try and get us inspired by making us write nonstop for 20 minutes about anything we wanted. I used this technique often in the past until I didn't really need to anymore as topics began popping in my head like fucking popcorn. Those were the days where I would write more than a post a week. I suppose I'll try this technique again, but it doesn't really seem to be working because, as I mentioned, it's 11:30 at night and I'm tired as all dick which is slowing my mind down to the point where I'm typing a hell of a lot faster than I can think right now. I'm also beginning to suspect I'm a little stressed because I swear I just heard the first three beats of Queen's "We Will Rock You" in this utterly motionless and sleeping house.
Usually when I get inspired to write, it's because of a phrase I heard somewhere that reminds me why I love writing. This phrase can be anything, but usually it involves good vocabulary and a context of good writing. Today this phrase is "vociferous lack of shit-giving".
I like to consider myself an artist that paints with words but I'm not sure exactly how accurate that is, because I'm not sure any of my writing is actually good. My AP Language teacher reads some of my posts here and there and when I ask her, she tells me I'm a good writer. I tell myself I should believe her but my insecurities always get to me and I have little confidence in the quality of any of these posts. My "Fuck you Peter Singer" post was based off an assignment I got in that class, and I handed in an edited version of my post. I'm not sure what I'm so fucking worried about because that essay got the highest score it's possible to get.
I don't know if this is me bragging or being insecure, but I constantly feel my writing is very hit and miss, mostly the latter. Maybe this paranoia I have is the reason I apparently write well, so if I stop worrying maybe I'll stop writing well.
I've watched a lot of videos warning against the trap of fame, that you should generate content on your own accord instead of doing what you think the fans want. I don't know why I'm bringing this up because I'm in no danger of falling victim to my own fame because my fame doesn't exist. I suppose the danger was more apparent when I first started this blog, or at least the opinions portion of it, because I expected it to be something else. I originally wanted something along the lines of Maddox's page, angry, cynical, and actually pretty juvenile in an effort to derive some humor from the mix. I'm glad I grew out of that and this blog went in the direction that it did, but now I'm left with a bunch of angry, juvenile posts that no longer reflect my views. I still read Maddox's page and still find it funny, but I also realize that Maddox isn't necessarily the person he portrays himself to be, whereas this blog I try to do the opposite, as these (more recent) posts do reflect my views. I do fluff up my opinions to an extent, but I've noticed I've been doing so less and less.
Perhaps the insecurity of my writing is also in the insecurity of many my opinions. I like to think I'm educated and I know what I'm talking about, but I often remember that I am just a 17 year old kid, how much can I possibly know? I can't always be right, but when am I wrong? I try to put these insecurities to rest with quotes like this, but the doubt remains.
Perhaps its only because it's so late and I'm so tired, when I wake up in the morning I always feel confident with who I am, how I look and my abilities, but at times like this I always question myself. It's at times like this I look at my actions and decide, am I being a hypocrite? Am I being an asshole? And more often than not, the answers I give myself are "yes", and I resolve to continue trying to better myself.
I don't know why I'm writing this down. I don't know if it's wise to post this. I don't know if this sounds depressing or self-centered.
Right now I'm sitting in a dark room, at 12:10 at night. The only sound I hear is the sound of my own typing. Tonight, I am merely human.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Spotlight on Games: Thomas was Gay
I just played the most moving and sentimental game I have and will ever experience. Never again will I look at life the same way. Every minor aspect was thought through and considered, creating a beautifully weaved masterpiece of a game. The industry will never be the same. Thomas was Gay is a story-driven adventure game, loaded with subtleties and messages, leading up to an emotional climax guaranteed to leave the player in tears, and cause them to rethink the way they live life. Developed by an anonymous indie developer, and distributed for free, Thomas was Gay is, simply put, beautiful.
And yes, incredibly, this masterpiece is FREE TO PLAY https://googledrive.com/host/0B8Qz88jTfzpnLVJWc293blN6Zlk/index.html
This game will go down in history as a classic milestone in the gaming community, representing gaming's transition into an art form. Every aspect, from the colors, the dialogue, the story, the pacing, the lack of sound, everything is carefully selected and given meaning. This anonymous developer has truly outdone himself with this intricately crafted emotional tapestry.
---
Alright, look you fuckers, there has been a problem arising in the gaming industry as of late, developers passing off interactive movies as "adventure games". I'm certainly a fan of deep, cognitive story based games, but the key word in that statement is "games". Games have gameplay elements, like puzzles. There are plenty of great cognitive story-based games, like Depict One or Looming, and especially Myst, which basically gave birth to the whole genre. However thing that sets those games apart from interactive movies like Dear Esther and (possibly, I'll decide for sure after I play it but for now I'll put it here) Gone Home, is that there are puzzles and actual things to do. Let's get one thing perfectly clear.
Walking around a creepy environment and learning the story with no possibility of failure does not make a game.
The point of a game is to present a challenge, not simply engage the player's interest. There needs to be a possibility of failure, some sort of "bad end" to challenge the player to actually play. Simply exploring an environment is interesting and all, but without a challenge, without a possibility of failure, without actual gameplay elements, it is not a game.
So it really rustles my jimmies when games like Dear Esther and Gone Home get good ratings based exclusively on their story instead of the things that should actually make it a game. Having a good story is important, and I'm sure Dear Esther and Gone Home have excellent, moving and emotional stories, but they are by no means games.
If I wanted something cognitive and interesting to do that doesn't require me to actually play a game I'd just watch The Prestige again. Christ.
And yes, incredibly, this masterpiece is FREE TO PLAY https://googledrive.com/host/0B8Qz88jTfzpnLVJWc293blN6Zlk/index.html
This game will go down in history as a classic milestone in the gaming community, representing gaming's transition into an art form. Every aspect, from the colors, the dialogue, the story, the pacing, the lack of sound, everything is carefully selected and given meaning. This anonymous developer has truly outdone himself with this intricately crafted emotional tapestry.
---
Alright, look you fuckers, there has been a problem arising in the gaming industry as of late, developers passing off interactive movies as "adventure games". I'm certainly a fan of deep, cognitive story based games, but the key word in that statement is "games". Games have gameplay elements, like puzzles. There are plenty of great cognitive story-based games, like Depict One or Looming, and especially Myst, which basically gave birth to the whole genre. However thing that sets those games apart from interactive movies like Dear Esther and (possibly, I'll decide for sure after I play it but for now I'll put it here) Gone Home, is that there are puzzles and actual things to do. Let's get one thing perfectly clear.
Walking around a creepy environment and learning the story with no possibility of failure does not make a game.
The point of a game is to present a challenge, not simply engage the player's interest. There needs to be a possibility of failure, some sort of "bad end" to challenge the player to actually play. Simply exploring an environment is interesting and all, but without a challenge, without a possibility of failure, without actual gameplay elements, it is not a game.
So it really rustles my jimmies when games like Dear Esther and Gone Home get good ratings based exclusively on their story instead of the things that should actually make it a game. Having a good story is important, and I'm sure Dear Esther and Gone Home have excellent, moving and emotional stories, but they are by no means games.
If I wanted something cognitive and interesting to do that doesn't require me to actually play a game I'd just watch The Prestige again. Christ.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Guest Post: Will Be Mad
Twenty years ago, under the howling of a vicious storm, a boy was born. A boy that would grow up to be a really sarcastic and grumpy man. In the years to come, this man would write a blog. After a series of seemingly inconsequential and unconnected events you are now reading an introduction to that blog. It will change your life forever...
I am an angry man. I have been told this. I know it and I accept it. In fact I do more than accept it, I embrace it! I have spent the last 20 years trying to find something I'm good at. God knows I'm shit at everything else. Give a baboon a piano and the resulting cacophony is the extent of my musical talent, and don't even get me started on art. A Neanderthal with a lump of charcoal could do better. Despite all this, I am capable of stringing words together to form coherent sentences. As a result I thought that I would use this skill in the only way worthy, a blog. Because who doesn't want to read sarcastically angry posts from a skinny white guy?
So what do I write about? Absolutely fucking anything. If it pisses me off it's fair game in my opinion. So far topics include Call of Duty, the weather, Margaret Thatcher and the French. Hell, if you cross me in the street and are a colossal dick then you may just feature. Nothing is sacred, no one is safe.
My blog does come with a health warning though. If you are easily offended then you might want to look away. If you are offended for other people then I will personally hunt you down and slap you in the face with my penis. Don't be that guy. Nobody likes that guy. If you don't like what I write there is an option: you can fuck off. If you aren't that guy, feel free to drop by and have a little chuckle at other people's expense.
You can find me on Will Be Mad; a blog about things that get on my tits, delivered with wit, humour and a sprinkling of sarcasm.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Selective Media
So I've taken it upon myself to answer that very question, with the added bonus of explaining why people who post these things are morons.
First and foremost, the media cannot cover everything at once. There is an entire world of events that happens every single day. Crimes, celebrity appearances, trials, what have you. There is too much going on every day to be able to cover all of it. That isn't the only limiting factor. People don't want to spend all day listening to a list of how and why people got murdered or killed or raped. If you want something like that go read the obituaries. The media cannot cover every brutal crime that happens, they have to pick and choose. Even if they chose something other than the Zimmerman case to report, someone would probably bring up that very case in one of those fucking "Media outrage" posts.
How do they choose? Well yes, a major factor is ratings, news studios do want to report things that bring their viewers back, it is a major factor, but it's not the only factor. Another factor is in the name, people want "new" news. People know soldiers die in Iraq, nobody thinks the military is all fine and dandy. People know they're in a war-torn region and car bombings happen. Call me cold and heartless, but people aren't going to necessarily care if they hear about some nameless soldiers that lose their lives in that region, because that's something we're expecting. And don't get me wrong, people do care about it, but those same people aren't going to be particularly surprised or intrigued when they hear of another car bombing in Afghanistan. What people do want to hear about are the things we aren't expecting.
Also, the news isn't just going to report something everybody agrees upon. They want to report things people are going to disagree about. Let's take this for example
This showed up on my Facebook newsfeed the day of the Zimmerman verdict. Before I go any further, I just want to say my condolences go out to the victims' families of this crime. I'll start by saying, yes this being a black on white crime is probably a factor, but it is most definitely not the only factor. Lets take this scenario. Let's say this is what the media reports this instead of the Trayvon Martin case, here's how the conversation would go.
Me: Hey did you hear about those five blacks that brutally murdered that couple?
Friend: Yea that's pretty shitty
Me: Yea, shame. Wanna grab some lunch?
Friend: Aight
And here's a conversation I had about the Trayvon Martin case.
Me: Hey you hear about the Trayvon Martin shooting?
Friend: Yea, I wonder what actually happened, Trayvon was unarmed but it was the dead of night, Zimmerman must have been pretty paranoid.
Me: I dunno, it could have easily been a racially motivated murder, I mean how threatening can a black kid with a bag of skittles really be?
Friend: Could he even see his skin? It was the dead of night and the kid was wearing a hoodie, I mean even that is pretty sketchy. I'd be scared.
Me: Dude, I've walked around in the middle of night in a hoodie, it's fucking night man, it gets cold, why wouldn't you wear a hoodie?
Friend: Yea but we live in a pretty safe neighborhood, and plus, this was Florida. Remember when we went to Disney? It doesn't really get cold there ever.
And so on.
The news gives people something to talk about, something to think about. Nobody wants to hear about something that's obviously terrible. People like a little bit of ambiguity, something to contemplate. People want news thats interesting. We know shitty things happen, but a lot of those things aren't very interesting or stimulating.
That's not the only reason the media would avoid that 5-way murder case. That murder is fucking brutal. They made this guy's girlfriend watch as they chopped his dick off and set him on fire before she herself was shot. There's a crowd of mothers that would go absolutely ripshit if you put that on TV. Say what you want about selective media, this is still television, and there's a line you don't really want to cross when reporting. I mean, call me crazy but I don't think people really want to hear about a guy getting his fucking dick chopped off. That's some hardcore "Boo goatse" shit.
No the news isn't perfectly unbiased, yes there are some things that should get reported that don't. But the Zimmerman case is something I want to hear about, because it gives people like me something to talk about, something to think about, and something to post about. The news does keep us informed about the world around us, but you can't expect them to inform you about everything.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Okay, I'm back, here's a short post, I'll have longer ones later.
Unless you live under a rock, you've definitely heard of the huge abortion debate going on in Texas, and the decision that the senate had in the pro-life direction. Obviously, there was a lot of anger about this decision. This was to be expected, it's an important issue that affects a hell of a lot of people. But then there's people like Erick Erickson. Shortly after the decision, he posted this on Twitter.
And people go ripshit mad.
Alright, yes he's a moron, yes he's your stereotypical republican with a tenuous grasp on the reality of the situation, yes he's from Fucks News, but it was a joke. A tasteless, stupid, grim joke, but a joke nonetheless. This is why I don't like Twitter, everything is taken too seriously. People think this is some huge political powerhouse and what they say here will affect the fucking world. This is not how the political process works, you're not getting anything accomplished by sending this idiot tampons and coat hangers. All you're doing is aggregating this divide between republicans and democrats as one side stereotypes and insults the other. This is why republicans think liberals are idiots, and vice versa. If we're ever going to reach any sort of bipartisan cooperation, this needs to stop.
It was a fucking joke, let it go, move on with your fucking life, and stop pretending to get things done by trashing people on Twitter.
Speaking of social networking, It seems I have a sufficient fanbase to try for a Facebook or twitter presence. Time to sell out I guess. If you want an Opiate of the Asses Twitter or Facebook page, comment and let me know.
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