The Death of Enthusiasm

Dear Longboarder Girl,

I am so glad you decided to ride your incredibly hip wheeled behemoth to school today. I know that the mere fact the you, as a girl, are making a brave statement to the world with your longboard riding. Now girls can do stuff, I hear. Good for you.

I have only one small suggestion for you. Please learn how to accurately steer and balance on your board, all while moving if possible.

All right, two suggestions. Don't talk on your cell phone while "riding" (if this is what you call it) your longboard. I bet Kevin was dying to hear what Ashley wrote on your facebook page, but it can probably wait until you are done passing dangerously close to a large group of pedestrians.

At this point I better say that I do regret that you lost balance (shock!) and fell backwards off your longboard, launching it at a high speed directly into the crowd of pedestrians. I bet that scrape on your knee hurts. But what would have hurt more is if the pointed tip of your longboard had impacted my Achilles tendon, instantly snapping it in two.

I think we can both agree that it was a good thing that I jumped out of the way in the nick of time.

Feel better, and I hope I never see you again.

Your friend,

Chase

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."-George Washington

I guess most of you know that I am one of "those guys" who study political science. It's not my major (gracias a dios!) but I do take a lot of classes since it is my minor now. I often find myself thinking about the situation our country is in, and it makes me feel like I'm going to die.

We are now right in the middle of the election process for 2008, and since I am not and adherent to any particular party, the sheer uselessness of the whole thing makes me sick. If you believe in Elite Theory as many political scientists do, elections are nothing more than elaborate spectacles designed to trick the unprivileged masses into thinking they have some measure of control over their government.

I like to think of individual candidates like consumer products. Some people like sugary cereals(Obama) and some like grape nuts(McCain). The problem is, you can't just go into the supermarket and pick up one item. No sir, you either have to go to the Republican supermarket or the Democratic Supermarket. (BEGIN EXTENDED METAPHOR..)

The Republican Supermarket looks a lot like Wal-Mart and has good low prices and Christian themed calendars near the checkout. But, there isn't a very big selection and all the products look like they are tailored towards white males. There is no ethnic food section, and hardly any soul food (and most people consider the soul food they do have, called "Clarence Thomas" not really soul food anyways). Poor single mothers don't like to shop here since they tend to get ignored by the staff. Also, at irrational times the manager of the supermarket likes to launch poorly planned offensive military strikes.

On the other hand, the Democratic Supermarket looks kind of like Wild Oats, and you will likely see a few mountain bikes parked outside. The Democratic Supermarket is proud of it's wide selection of products and ethnic foods. They make sure the poor single mothers are helped first and are likely to feel an enormous amount of liberal guilt if this does not happen. Unfortunately, all the produce is organic, and as such is completely filled with worms and bugs. Also, the checkout line is extremely slow and the prices are much, much higher than the Republican Supermarket.

Wouldn't it be great if you could pick a few items from each store? Sorry, you have to pick one store and ALWAYS shop there. (At least as far a presidential elections are concerned. Sorry, it's called the electoral college.)

I really wish there was some sort of political "string theory" that could combine all the various theories floating around that attempt to explain political activity. (These such as the afore-mentioned Elite Theory are all depressing and usually determine that the average voter has no sway whatsoever in key policies.)

I guess until then I'll have to be one of those people who wanted to make a difference, only to see the curtain lifted and then be crushed by the reality that we can't really make any difference at all. So, here's to voting for the lesser of two evils!

Labels: politics, rants

Recently I have been loving the following 3 albums:

Emotionalism by The Avett Brothers: I know the name of the album sounds like it was written by a 14-year-old girl, but this is a neo-classical pop album under the guise of a bluegrass revival band. Don't get me wrong, they still play upright bass and banjos, but the melodies and attitude are more Abby Road than Nashville. Seriously, really good.

Andorra by Caribou: This is like weird surf/psychedelic stuff that Brian Wilson made when he was crazy and on acid. It's super dense and sounds awesome in headphones turned up really loud.

Time (The Revelator) by Gillian Welch I'm about 6 years late one this one, but it's great. Really beautiful melodies, but recorded in a very understated way that doesn't call attention to itself like most country music. If I had a friend who dismissed the entire genre (which no self respecting music fan should do with any genre) this is the album I would give them to show them how great it can be.

So, fire up the ol' bit torrent and check them out.

Labels: music