blogging is in

i'm going to update this blog now. i don't quite know what to say or write about anymore, and personal blogs mostly suck these days anyway. but looking at all the topical blogs out there, and the endless twittering and stuff like that, there's definitely an absence of interesting and original (that is, not some article that i think is interesting that i'm linking to my blog) thought. so here you go.

unfortunately for you i have not much to say other than to report things about my life. so i guess i'll tell you a moment in my life and my thoughts surrounding it.

- yesterday was picnic day at davis. it's an annual drunk-fest where people come out of hiding and invade the streets of davis. literally hundreds of thousands of people show up. ok maybe 100,000 people. but yeah so there were lots of stuffs going on, and at one point i found myself at a record store to see a friend. a guy was playing an acoustic set and let me tell you... it was pretty hilarious. i don't know if you could have scripted a more typical hipster setting. the store was brimming with pretentiousness and cool, impersonal interaction. the performer was playing some sleep-inducing / slit-your-wrists inspirational tunes off his latest album. in between songs, the guy mentioned liking the new deerhunter album and asked the captive audience what some good albums were so far in 2009 (note: this was confusing because deerhunter is releasing a new EP soon, and their last album was released in 2008). someone mentioned neko case's new offering which really is one of the best new albums this year. and he said, "yeah that's good, a bit poppy but good." wtf?? a bit poppy? and your music is...? jump off a cliff, you pretentious prick. i stepped out at that point and perused some half off used CDs. there were some classic hits - boyz 2 men, paula abdul... i was very close to buying a tim buckley cd.

side note: my best albums of 2009 so far are: neko case, middle cyclone; freeway, month of madness (songs recorded in 2008 but released as one mixtape in 2009); hollyweerd, electricity showroom; animal collective, merriweather post pavillion. i haven't really listened to that much new music actually.

another side note: one good thing about living in brussels was that there wasn't much of a separation between the artsy community and the normal community. there was no super-informed underground crowd. people in general i think were more sophisticated and appreciated the arts. i went to this one show, this american folk singer sam amidon, and as a performer he was being really weird. he was doing pushups and some interpretive dancing and shit. and the people there just looked like regular joes. no tatted up arms and ironic tshirts. and afterwards they said they liked the american folk singer but he was a little weird. that was refreshing because that's exactly what it was... here in the states, his performance would have been cool and artistic and if you didn't get it, that meant you weren't cool and artistic. sometimes you just gotta call it how you see it.

- i think i'm going to go back to church. i'm not sure if i believe everything the way i used to believe when it comes to christian doctrine or how people perceive it. really i don't care about any of that, nor do i care about having the right reasons to come back... maybe i should just make a list of things i don't care about. i wish this blog could support an outline format. oh wait it does. when it comes to religion and church, i don't care about:

1. faith and religion not really making sense, that life after death doesn't really make sense, and that the bible sometimes doesn't make sense. you don't make sense.
2. having the right attitude. in fact i'm almost certain i want to go to church to pick up girls.
3. church being uncool... well no i do care about that. not about what other people think, cuz i don't think that's what makes church uncool. what makes it uncool is the people. but what will you do, i can't force them out.
4. there is a lot of negativity in this list.

- how can i write a blog without mentioning the cavs? i, like every other clevelander, is excited but not too excited... i know we're going to make it to the finals but can we beat the lakers? of course we can, and i'll argue with anyone who thinks otherwise... but in my mind, i just can't imagine what it'll be like to have a championship in cleveland. i just have no idea what that is like and i won't know what i will do. maybe i'll name my firstborn delonte or zydrunas. maybe i'll try to friend the cavs roster on fb. actually what i should do is go to new york and have a reunion with my old high school friends, cuz other htan my brother they're the only other people who are pulling for the cavs.

side note: people from philly talk about how they were the most cursed sports team before the philly's won the world series, and to argue they mentioned how they were the only city with 4 major sports teams (bball, baseball, football and hockey) that didn't win a 'ship in a while. to that i have to say... WHO CARES ABOUT HOCKEY??? seriously that sport is a joke. it's fun to watch live but on tv, it sucks. and who actually follows it in the regular season except for the fans in each city that actually attend games? hockey is a joke and shouldn't be included as a major sport when debating which city has suffered the most hardship. yes, this is a very defensive and immature rant. except when you think about it, cleveland is defined by hardship and to strip us of that mantle - that we experience the most hardship than any other city, embodied by our tough-luck sports teams - - and because of hockey, no less - is to negate us. well... to label us, then negate us.

last thought before i get back to my thesis... i think the rue kids are pretty horrible at relationships. really i think california is the worst thing that could have happened to us in terms of personal and social growth. this place is just too easy and people are too superficial. i'm so glad to have grown up in ohio where people are interested in people.