Archive for March, 2006

Meet me on the internet

I found this acoustic guitar girl once on Myspace and she had a song called "Meet Me On The Internet". It was so great. The words were like… meet me on the internet… the lights are low, the mood is set… something something… something computer screen is on… double double double you dot you and me dot com… minimize the window I think I hear my mom tonight on the internet…

It was such a great song, super cute, but I have no idea what her name was and I can't track her down for nothing. If you all happen to have any clues, that would be tons of helpful

A bit of Parkour Freewalking, anyone?

Excuse me? Whatwalking?

A friend turned me on to this crazy… um… sport, except it’s actually more aptly described as a “philosophy of movement”. What looks on the outside to be a combination of gymnastics and martial arts, the French art of Parkour aims to move you through the urban landscape as quickly, and as fluidly as possible.

Still confused? Check out this amazing example from a french movie and it’ll all make lots of sense:

Chase scene from Banlieue 13

More videos can be found at the ever wonderful YouTube here. Definitely an amazing art.

Your welcome, here’s you’re punch in the face!

I am so mad at LOST right now. I’m not even going to get in to this whole new episode/old episode bullpocky,  but what I saw last night was near unforgivable.

A doctor was talking to the charachter Sun, in Korean, and in the subtitles, right there on the small screen for the nation to see was the incorrect use of the word “you’re”. I felt for a moment like I was reading a blog or something… a doctor was talking to Sun, and I forget the exact line, but it was something like “You’re test results were fine.”

YOU’RE?! This isn’t some crappy livejournal! This is a hugely popular nationall broadcast television show! What the hell! Surely I can’t be the only one who noticed… because that is one of the most annoying things anyone can do in the English language, mix up those two.

Ugh! LOST! I shake my fist at you!!

Langtrends: Trends in Language

This morning, on my walk to work, I thought about making an appointment to see the optometrist, an eye appointment, or, an ‘eyeppointment’.

To me, this makes perfect sense, and I thought, what other situations would this work with? A babyppointment, a hairppointment,  a podiappointment… why waste time saying the whole thing when you can get it out of the way quicker? But would anyone understand what you mean? I guess it’s all about context… most people are able to decipher meaning from little clues. For instance, if you were to write a word on a piece of paper, and cover half of it, most people would be able to figure it out… their minds would connect the dots.

This type of language is found very frequently Japanese. In Japanese, there is a lot of implied meaning, and a lot of contextual meaning, and of course, a lot of abbriviation.

Common in Japanese, I looked to examples in America of this trend, to see if it might be catching on here, and the one place I found it the most common was on The Simpsons! Tomacco, Adultivity, Frogurt… these are all examples from The Simpsons of this new language trend.

Do you use this type of abbreviations? Language is always evolving, and these are the kinds of things that sneak into our everyday language without us knowing it. Are there any that you use in your everyday speech?

The only reason I like Wolf Parade

…is because they sound like Long Hind Legs. Man they were good. And ahead of their time, apprantly!

Roxanna Rawson comes to Myspace

My friend sent me an MP3 called I Robbed A Cook by a Roxanna Rawson… he had no other information, so I turned to Google, and got nothing. Aboslutely nothing! What on Earth exists that cannot be found through Google? Apparantly Roxanna Rawson.
Fast forward to 2006 and Roxy Rawson has her own Myspace page where you can hear her songs in living internet color. I Robbed A Cook is super crazy, but her other songs are warm and soulful. Her voice kind of reminds me of CocoRosie, but maybe if CocoRosie and Fiona Apple had a super hip baby who could sing and was grown up. Please give a listen, I’m sure you’ll like it.

Ok maybe you won’t like it, but if you don’t try it, you’ll never know.

And that will haunt you until your dying day.

Roxy Rawson on Myspace.

The Polyphonic Spree is not a cult

Ok so maybe they are a cult, but you know what? Who gives a rat’s ass! What do people have against music that makes you feel happy, makes you close your eyes and see sunshine and rainbows and bunnies and unicorns, without the pesky cost and side effects of drugs and alcohol?

I think it’s the ever-pervasive idea of the American individual, the cowboy, the lone ranger… look at Morning Musume in Japan! There’s like 30 iof them and no one thinks they’re a cult! The whole anti-communist witch hunts of the McCarthy era made everyone forget that it’s ok to be social, it’s ok to have a community… The Polyphonic Spree knows this. Are they the only ones?

Did you know that Girl Scouts aren’t allowed to be in malls in Southern CA because of laws saying that a gathering of over 5 people constitutes a “gang”? GIRL SCOUTS! Yes, they’re annoying, but their cookies! Their cookies are so delicious!

REVIEW: Spying On Myself

The first episode of Spying On Myself aired tonight, and I have to say I was very unimpressed sadly. The idea had a lot of potential, but I think the execution is pretty poor. Plus, I walked away with a feeling of, “Why didn’t they just talk to whoever in the first place?” Why did they need to go to such elaborate lengths just to confront whoever it was they thought might be hiding something?

While the father-daughter segment was touching, overall I don’t think the show is very well done. Albeit they only made 6 episodes, so perhaps some of the next episodes will be better, but to tell you the truth, I’m not that curious in tuning in later and finding out.

Propaganda

I’m very excited to announce that I have received my very own copy of Edward Bernays’ ‘Propaganda’. It was  originally published in 1928, mere years after Jaques Ellul’s book by the same name in France. Ellul’s is very intellectual and dense, but extremely fascinating for anyone interested in propaganda, and so far Bernays, who is considered the “Father of Public Relations”, is concentrating on the social value, and necessity, of advertising, marketing, public relations, and political propaganda.

Check out more here:

Bernay’s Propaganda

Ellul’s Propaganda

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