PNAU / R. Kelly Remix

Bigstereo just put up this PNAU remix that’s just pure bliss. I’m loving it in seven different ways. Here’s a link to the post.

Also! Palms Out Sounds put up this killer Harrison Schaaf remix of “I’m A Flirt” that is sexing my eardrums all freaky like. Try and find it. 

Para One Remixes Ayumi Hamasaki

I can’t stop listening to this remix of Ayumi Hamasaki’s “Grateful Days” by Para One. Got this off of Palms Out Sounds. Here’s the link to their post, plus a half-hearted interview with Para One. Anyway, the track’s got this amazing, fragmented sample and funky french bassline that is just blowing my mind. J-Pop meets French electro? Yes fucking please. Link to the post. 

Ayahuasca Ceremonies in National Geographic

The Ayahuasca ceremony seems to be gaining in popularity everywhere as a method of spiritual healing; and now, there’s an article on a woman’s experience with it down in Peru in National Geographic. It sounds pretty amazing. I find myself desirous of experiences like these, whatever the cause. 

Here’s the link. It’s a really beautiful article, well written and quite affecting. 

Supposedly there’s a ayahuasca ceremony in Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man. I’ve managed to track down a copy of it, so I’ll report on that after I watch it. 

Wishing you all a wonderfully weird Wednesday. 

EDIT: I was wrong about the ceremony in Dead Man. It’s still a fantastic movie, though!

I AM NOT SLEEPING BECAUSE DAVID LYNCH IS EATING MY MIND / your fortune is…

Twin Peaks can be nerve-shattering. As a result, I am not yet asleep. 

I found this awesome website that allows you to make your own fortune cookies, and here’s the Link.

SRIUS LULZ

Ctrl + Alt + Del posted this comic and I can’t help but relate. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that I have spent a little bit of time inside a certain well known MMORPG and something about the internet seems to draw out the loud, socially maladjusted twelve year old in people. It can get unbearable at times. The last time I actually got really angry was at how completely pig-headed another gamer was. Strange.

Anyway, here’s the link. 

Torture Playlist / Pop Culture as a Weapon

Got this off of Boing Boing today, from the original up at Mother Jones. It’s a playlist compiled from American military prisons and bases, used for psychological intimidation. This is some straight evil genius shit. Link.

My take on it must be underscored by one major point: I’m talking exclusively about how intellectually this form of torture interacts with pop culture, not the political implications; they are not what interested me about this story. I’m going to be brief, but I might expand this into a fuller length piece later. 

So.

Pretty nightmarish and pretty brilliant. The idea of using popular music during torture, imprisonment and as a form of torture itself is terrifying: it’s reality gone Tarantino. Which, I imagine, is exactly the point. By invoking the realm of pop culture, the inmate is drawn into a world at once familiar and yet wildly inappropriate for the setting, introducing a cognitive and emotional dissonance, disassociating them from their senses. Using ambience as a form of menace isn’t a new idea; horror movies have been doing it for years. And beyond just the sonic qualities of the songs, the songs are clearly chosen for their lyrical content as well. It’s a truly sophisticated and completely disturbing effect. I think it’s one of the most powerful acknowledgments of how powerful popular music can manipulate us. It’s well worth a listen to; they’re songs you’ve heard before, songs you may even love. Hard to see them in the same light afterwards. 

And the music doesn’t function purely as an aggressive assault on the prisoner’s psyche: listening to the songs, one imagines that the music also serves as a kind of motivator for the guards and interrogators, in the way a high school football team listens to music before a game to get fired up. 

It’s official. Culture has become a weapon. 

Cool Time-Lapse of the Lunar Eclipse

Neat time-lapse of the lunar eclipse. Only 30 seconds. Link.

New Poem / NonCon Report

I just got back from visiting R at Vassar, and seeing Jeph Jacques and assorted other webcomic artists playing Pictionary at NonCon. It was unfortunately the only event there I managed to get to, but it definitely sufficed! There was enough geekery being shouted out to almost drown out the very amusing panel, which kind of sucked, since the geekery was not particularly clever or funny. So she and I left early. But far be it from me to say I didn’t enjoy it. I’m still amused by how powerfully lame those vociferous dweebs were. 2 things. 1st, don’t be one those guys who think they’re just as funny as the main event: you’re not. 2nd, I kind of love you anyway if you are, because you’re the happy definition of ignorance equating bliss, and I commend you wholly on it, because it leaves you happy and the rest of us amused! Most importantly, I saw my first catgirl. In short, my impression of NonCon (and the Con scene in general) was that it was pretty awesome, an experience to be enjoyed both fully for itself, and through the filter of an informed, but gentle, sense of irony. 

 The rest of night was consumed by meeting R’s truly cool friends and party hopping. It’s very pretty up there, and it was a cool change to be walking around the woods from party to party rather than around New Haven. I had an awesome time, and it was great to see R and get to spend time with her. 

But, coming back I felt pretty sad and worn out, (and I remain so) so I’m going to post this poem I wrote a couple weeks ago. It’s after the jump. 

John Scalzi on Finances for New Writers

Most of it applies to just everyone though, unless you are one of those evil, evil people who are wildly lucky and talented at what they do in the corporate world, in which case, you probably know all this already and are waterskiing with a super-model. And I hate you for that.

But for me, this has been a great wake up call. Anyway, check it out. Makes sense to me. Link

In other news, I’m headed to Texas pretty soon, here at the beginning of March to tour with Just Add Water, and probably to see SXSW. And I get to see a really old friend who I adore a ridiculous amount, and the fact that we met at snowboarding camp in eighth grade is just the icing on that highly improbable cake. Windells, fuck yeah.

I noticed the fact that today I could actually see the lawns of the houses from the train back to CT. I was overcome by the urge to lie on the grass. I am very ready for sunshine. 

O List, Ye Weary Blogger

Dear god, the title of the previous post when taken out of context terrifies me. That may need editing. I’ve been reading McSweeney’s Lists, (Link) and thought I’d attempt a couple of my own. Lists after the jump!