For me, it seems like encyclopaedic interests ought to lead to constant engagement, but when I feel like an utter misfit in the cast-offs of ultra-conformists, I'm comforted by the aesthetic parallax. It may all be meaningless yearning for the world to become as one wants, but you've gotta do something with your time.
Media bleed out life, is a hall of mirrors. The lies, misperceptions, and distraction we are engulfed in serve to massively distort our conceptual basis of our world and lives. This side, or that; patriotism of the regurgitated platitude ridden cant; chase the uncatchable shifting image you wish to portray in all its expensive grandeur... meaningless. Distraction from who you are, what you must do to cope with pain in health, and what brings lucidity. Self-respect, self-control, and contentment require that we cancel our subscriptions to culture as we know it, and forge our own paths.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Solvent, Amon Tobin, Metric, Jega, Squarepusher, The Faint, Ghost, Neko Case, Calexico, The Gossip, !!!, They Might Be Giants, Freezepop, Dntel, Q And Not U, Special Ed, Adult., Daughter Darling, Liars, The Decemberists, Saul Williams, Artifacts, Glassjaw, Mr. Lif, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Rise Against, Fannypack, RJD2, Depth Charge, Postal Service, Cure, Ride, The Pharcyde (only Bizarre Ride 2), early Heiro and Wu Tang, The Church, The La's, Solex, Panthers, Alkaline Trio, Negativeland, Architecture in Helsinki, Fugazi, Bad Brains, Mob Deep, Camp Courageous, Out Hud, Wordsworth, Figurine, Z-Trip, Xavier Panneton, UNKLE, El P, Ex-Models, Vectorburn, Metrognome, Mr. Bungle, The Weakerthans, Engine Down, Delgados, Mum, Flatlinerz, Good Clean Fun, Tilly and the Wall, Gangstarr, Mos Def, Lali_Puna, DJ Shadow of old, Atmosphere, Why?, The Roots, Of Montreal, Noise for Pretend (only when she sings), Seven Story Swan Dive, Huck-a-Bucks, Gravediggaz, Cat Power, The Album Leaf, Buju Banton, Freestyle Fellowship, Portishead, Mosquitos, Boards of Canada, Mono, Aceyalone, Herndon (but you ain't coming back to Tucson and that's final, you fuck), Olive, Ice Minus, Vanessa Daou, Esthero (only the first album/ep), Plaid, Aereograemme, A Tribe Called Quest, Denali, Lowfish, James Brown, Malignus Youth, Piano Magic, The Isley Brothers, Sage Francis, Dose One, Anthony Papa, Deadnoize, Another Bad Creation, Sync and the one Fiber Optik, Satori, Gd_Luxxe
Brazil, Cemetery Man, Fong Sai Yuk, Fong Sai Yuk 2, I *Heart* Huckabees, Wave Twisters, The Hidden Blade, Drunken Master 2, Alien, SGT. Bilko, Blue, The Blade (not to be confused with Blade), 5 Fingers of Death, Drugstore Cowboy, 5 Deadly Venoms, Cure, Sicko, Musa the Warrior, Army of Darkness, The Fast Runner, Godfather 2, X, Royal Space Force, Children of Men, Grindhouse, The Conformist, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Jin Roh, Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, Shaolin Soccer, Battle Royale, Hardboiled, Killer Meteor, Fist of Legend, Wing Chun, Tai Chi Master, Street Fighter (not the movie based on the video game), Arsenic and Old Lace, Fireworks, Violent Cop, Samurai 1, 2, & 3, Akira Kurosawa's movies, Volcano High School, A Tale of Two Sisters, Habit (best vampire movie ever), Lost Boys, Dead Man, Waking Life, The Court Jester, Cloak & Dagger, The Burbs, Funny Farm, Money Pit, A Nightmare Before Christmas, Spaceballs, Mars Attacks, X Men 1, 2, 3, Star Wars Episodes 4, 5, & 6, City of God, Paths to Glory, Dr. Strangelove, In the Mood for Love, The Red Spectacles (sike), Annie, The Professional, Short Circuit, Ong Bak, The Black Stallion, Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, Old Boy, Lion in Winter, Dead or Alive, 2 (the Miike one), Audition, Suicide Club, Yakuza Demon, Visitor Q (not for the offendable), Casshern, Night Watch, Fighter in the Wind, Batman Begins, Kung Fu Hustle, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Lady Vengeance, Bringing up Baby
Okay, so I said I'd shoot the tellie, but I lied. (Shooting tellies is bad for the environment) Instead, my roommate and I put the idiot box on the corner of our block, and donated it to the anonymous sap who picked it up. Good for anonymous sap; right place, right time.
I really don't like television. I don't follow sports, don't believe DOD press releases, don't enjoy being advertised to, and I'm tired of portrayals of investigative government officials as well dressed, competent, and infinitely funded. I think that basically American entertainment is so bent on selling a lifestyle and point of view that is outside of my means and contrary to reality, that any storyline is spoiled by association. The reality TV format just seems contrived, focused upon depravity and desperation for attention, and too shallow to bear. News programs, when they aren't parading two-headed yaks in front of the camera, endlessly brown-nose the government, offer up corporate VNRs as news, and can't portray our boys as anything but inherently good, and the fill-in-the-blank enemies as insane. The Bush government is massively funding a PR blitz to make itself seem reasonable.
I'd rather do something.
Dune, Lies My Teacher Told Me, The Quincunx, The Unburied, Vanity Fair, Manufacturing Consent, Crime and Punishment, War and Peace, Man and Superman (which is a play, but I read it in a book),Things Fall Apart, Roots, Clockers, The Poisonwood Bible, Society of the Spectacle, Cryptonomicon, Still-Life with Woodpecker, Ender's Game, William Gibson's stuff, Blowback, The Color Purple, Darwin Awards, American Psycho, Diamond Age, The Mismeasure of Man, Dragons of Eden, How to Cook Everything, Rules of Attraction, A Farewell to Arms, Anna Karenina, A Confederacy of Dunces, Blood Music, Snowcrash, How Green was My Valley, A Prayer for Owen Meany
Xavier Panneton, Vectorburn, Deadnoise, Alphonse Mucha, Ian MacKaye, Rod Coronado, Linus, John Hinkley, Steven Eye, Free, Rachel Corrie, Chris Dashiell, Suheir Hammad, Saul Williams, Carl Sagan, Krillan, Chris the Paranoid Android, Nate, Lokiss, H.R. Giger, Chuck Close, Yoshitaka Amano, Chris Cunningham, Dr. Kevorkian, Circus Runaways, Cuttlefish