Frak It Friday: Bright Eyes - "Shell Games"

Lyrics:

Took the fireworks and the vanity

The circuitboard and the city streets

Shooting star, swaying palm tree

Layed it at the arbiters feet

If I could change my mind, change the paradigm

Prepare myself for another life

Forgive myself for the many times 

I was cruel to something helpless and weak

But here it come, that heavy love

I'm never gonna move it alone

Here it come, that heavy love

Tag it on a tenement wall

Here it come that heavy love, someone gotta share in the load

Oh, here it come that heavy love, I'm never gonna move it alone

I was dressed in white, touched by something pure

Death obsessed, like a teenager

Sold my tortured youth, pissed in vinegar

I'm still angry with no reason to be

At the architect who imagines

For the every man, blessed sisyphus

Slipping steadily into madness, now that's the only place to be free

But here it come, that heavy love

You're never gonna move it alone

Here it come, that heavy love

Tattooed on a criminals arm

Here it come that heavy love, someone gotta share in the load

Oh, here it come, that heavy love, you're never gonna move it alone

No I don't wanna play, it's a shell game

It's a shell game

Distorted sounds on a oscilloscopes 

Distorted facts I could never cope

My private life is an inside joke

No one will explain it to me

We'll be everything that we ever need

Everyone on the count of three

Everyone on the count of three

All together now

Here it come that heavy love

We're never gonna move it alone

Here it come that heavy love, playin as a cylinder rose

Here it come that heavy love, I only want to share in the load

Oh it here it come that heavy love

I'm never gonna move it alone

White Stripes Call It Quits

Its like they wanted to be a noted band of the 2000s decade.



I'm a little upset that this means that I will never, ever be able to see them live.



The White Stripes will be missed.

[WhiteStripes.com]

The 150 Book Challenge for 2011

Last year, after making the decision to keep track of all the books I read, I finally got an accurate count of how many books I read in a year.

One hundred, thirty seven.

Or 137.

However you put it, its a lot.

Here's the end of the list:

And this year, I thought: can't I do a little bit better than that? Why not go for 150? It averages out into 12.5 books a month. Finishing a book every 2 or 3 days.

So far, its going okay:

Yeah, that's right. I included Zombicorns by John Green (apparently, the spreadsheet has it misspelled) on the list, despite the fact that its not quite polished yet. Is that cheating? Since I made the rules...no, no its not! Plus, I donated $25 to Partners in Health to get that PDF'd to me, so I totally get the credit.

Anyway. I hope I stay on target. Its a long year ahead.

I Miss Hating The Summer Heat [Some E Cards]

I also miss having conversations not centered around how cold it is.


[Some E-Cards]

Fate by S. G. Browne

Fated by S. G. Browne is basically about the personification of Fate, getting screwed over by Destiny (who is also personified....and also a huge slut).

I liked it. It was quirky. And I love reading brief asides like:

The thing about Love is that she's codependent. 

Or:

The thing about Desire is that she's bulimic.

And it was nice to read. I'm still a little bit weirded out by the end, but overall I liked it.

On The Rez by Ian Frazier [This is not a tragedy]

From the first page of On The Rez:

This book is about Indians, particularly the Oglala Sioux who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, in the plains and badlands in the middle of the United States. People want to know what a book is about right up front, I have found. They feel this way even if the book does not yet exist, if it is only planned. When I describe the subject to non-Indians, they often reply that it sounds bleak. "Bleak" is the word attached in many people's minds to the idea of certain Indian reservations, of which the Oglala's reservation is perhaps the best example. Oddly, it is a word I have never heard used by Indians themselves.

The point of this book, I think, is to show that even though life is hard on the reservation, it isn't bleak. There is hope, these are people living their lives, and to compose one note tragedy stories on the news does a disservice.

Frazier recounts the story of SuAnne Big Crowe, star basketball player. Even though her life was cut short due to a car accident, her existence didn't seem bleak. The same week her team won regionals, while the entire rez was riding high from the victory, NBC ran a story called Tragedy at Pine Ridge, where (page 226):

NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw announced, "This is Thanksgiving week, of course, but on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota it's hard to find reason to give thanks, when tragedy is never out of season." 

Of course, the success of the high school girl's basketball team was not mentioned. Or anything good about life on the reservation. And that's pretty much the crux of the problem. Page 227:

Indeed, from the beginning of the report to the end, NBC did not find one good thing to say; the "bleakness" story is a rigorous form, with little room for extraneous details. [...] the NBC story irritated people on Pine Ridge no end, especially SuAnne. She talked to anyone who would listen about all the good on the reservation that NBC had overlooked, and about the unfairness of only showing the suffering and apparently hopeless side.

The cool thing about now is that when Frazier mentions the Boys and Girls club on the reservation, started in memory of SuAnne Big Crow, I can look it up on the internet immediately. The book was published in 2000, before the last recession. I had a sinking feeling; please, please don't let this have gone under. And it hasn't!

So not everything is bleak. Things are rough, yeah, but its not tragedy 24/7.

[Amazon Affiliate. If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.]

Creative spellings, or, they're called the Old 97's!

Part of what has been awesome about the many hits coming into the Champaign, Illinois that I wrote a few months ago has been the many creative spellings of "Champaign" (and a few creative "Illinois" spellings).

Until I saw this:

Yeah. This blows creative spellings of Champaign, Illinois right out of the water. The search words are "according to the old ninetysixers, is champaign ill bad"...

The band is called Old 97's. Really, really close. One number off.  I've also never seen anyone spell out "ninety-sevens" before when referring to them.  Named after the Johnny Cash song, Wreck of the Old 97.

Anyway...did you know there are people using Bing now? Yeah, me neither.