Hard to Say
Might the most oppressive word in the entire English language be “truncheon”?
Might the most oppressive word in the entire English language be “truncheon”?
Stupid Question: Is there a DateDiff() function in Excel?
Snarky Answer: Yes. It’s called the subtraction sign.
I just realized that my place of work would be the ideal set for a David Lynch live-action remake of Steam Boy. Especially on rainy, windy days… the steam blows horizontally out of the traps, washing across the road in a thick cloud.
Unfortunately, I think we use too much of the steam to compress it heroically into a magical steam ball, for future epic use.
A door slams in the distance
And I look up to listen,
Thinking:
Might this be of importance to me?
But I find that this question
Often betrays its own answer.
And I count these moments
Like pennies that are thrown
As alms to the uninteresting.
But off to the side of my eye
I see a stray fiber floating,
Suspending and curving,
Darting in and out of view.
It curls about and executes
The perfect loop-dee-loop,
Weaving circles in the chaos
Within galaxies of sun-lit dust.
I smile as it turns about,
And lands softly
On my shirt-sleeve.
With gratitude I accept
The donation it gives to me.
I move to begin calling all the vocal atheists on Web 2.0 sites like Digg and Reddit “evangelicals,” because they talk about their lack of faith a whole lot more than religious people talk about their faith.
Especially since “evangelical” has basically morphed into a political bloc, thanks to the media and “spokespeople.”
As people are filing into the aisles for another season of Idol and whatnot, just a little demonstration of what emotion can do to song.
Witness:
and
Tell me, which one felt the emotion more intensely?
I’m not one to defend emo too hard, but come on, man. The remake actually keeps me from hating the original.
I’d almost like to know what would happen, but then again, maybe not.
I was playing pieces of my new Mutual Admiration Society album last night (and today at work), the only Mutual Admiration Society album, aptly titled Mutual Admiration Society.
Speaking somewhat flippantly, I commented that their music embodies a little piece of everything I’ve ever liked about music. That’s not quite accurate, but the music is very good. It’s actually the ex-lead singer of Toad the Wet Sprocket (“Walk on the Ocean,” “Whatever I Fear,” “Come Back Down”) and the backup vocals and instrumentation of Nickel Creek.
As one may be able to tell, I have also taken a shine to the Ataris, who were featured in my Point-Counterpoint posting from last night. I seem to find one punkish band a year to like.
At the end of the original Henley version of “The Boys of Summer,” there is a somewhat cryptic lyric regarding a “Dead-Head sticker on a Cadillac.” I didn’t get this immediately, but some research yielded an explanation: essentially a disestablishmentarian (whoo!) symbol on an item typifying the establishment, indicating a breakdown of the original ideals of the movement.
Well, the somewhat cool thing (or stupid, I guess, if you’re a purist) is that the Ataris’ remake changed the lyrics to “Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac.” I’m lame, so I hadn’t heard much about Black Flag aside from the name (in fact, I’m lame enough that I thought they were saying “Black-Black” at first)… but Black Flag was a late-70’s punk band, more in line with the Ataris’ vision, so I thought that was a cool update, since the Grateful Dead wouldn’t have a lot of relevance to more recent emo-ish music.
If someone had to say it, I’m glad it’s the Journal.