Dara's "The Antidote"

Normally I am bad at music reviews, but I really liked this disc. "The Antidote" is DJ Dara's latest mix release on Breakbeat Science Recordings (the spawn of the Breakbeat Science store in NYC & online) The mix covers a wide range of the drum&bass spectrum from techstep (Gridlok), to breaky edits (Breakage), to funky rollers (mathematics, MIST). Unlinke his "Further" release on moonshine, this mix offers more compatability from track to track, yet progresses and moves from one region to another.

Another recommended Dara mix CD = From Here to There
And if you can manage to find it on the internet, the mix tape = Live @ Fuck the Syst3m

Waffles and Paint Buckets

I just woke up from what was about an hour nap. I shouldn't sleep during the day as it usually leaves me waking up with a headache, but I'm ok right now for some reason. I still keep dreaming about highschool. It's usually however not my own highschool. And the people in the shcool are not those that I went to school with. They seem to be completely fictional. I don't even recongnize any of them. I had a dream the other night that it was present day, but I was telling everyone that my girlfriend from highschool was dead; that she died in a car accident or something, but she really didn't. What a shame. Did I say that last part out loud?

They just announced the lineup for the Movement festival this year. I am happy to report that it doesn't suck. But of course, per usual, there aren't any drum&bass acts on the lineup. The powers that be in the techno underworld in detroit have been trying to deny the existance of drum&bass for years it seems (for some reason that isn't clear to me) Hopefully I will have the cd I want to pass out ready in time. I've got everything nearly ready for it. I still need to buy the discs and order the labels for them. As a further reminder to myself, order the labels by no latter than the 19th. I have taken most of that week (of the festival) off of work. It is going to be a much needed vacation. I'm sick of looking all those bastards I work with.

I must say it feels really freaking good to be in a mature, non-stupid, uncomplicated relationship for a change. We got breakfast this morning. I had a waffle and she had potato pancakes I think. I never thought just going to breakfast, or to a hardware store with another person could have such a satisifying and calming feeling. Course I just have to remember not to worry so much.

Un-American

This whole prison abuse thing lately is just killing me. I'm not so much surprised at what happened. Hell, I even kinda half expected it. What I'm more surprised at is American reaction. Mind you, the politicians and the media are hyping it as much as possible, because well, that's what they do. But are they hyping because they really disagree with it? I'm starting to think no. Any time there's some kind of political scandal politicians and the media always dramatize it, so really, their opinions on the matter really have no bearing on reality. They don't care about the prisoners, they care about the scandal.

What I'm really reading off of are the locals. Also, I've been noticing the reactions of the Christian right. The locals seem to be under the opinion that "they had it coming" and "they deserve it for what they did". I'm not exactly sure what they did except defend their country from invasion. Hell, when Jessica lynch was taken prisoner, afterward she reported no mistreatment nor sexual abuse. The Americans want to call themselves the good guys? They're the invaders, the tyrants in this situation. Mind you, I have no desire to see the world taken over by Islamic extremists either.

Several times I've heard people say "Lets just Nuke the whole goddamn country". If you are an American reading this, I want you to consider that these people are trying to speak for you. They are trying to be your voice. I would like you to consider that the US government is trying to speak for you. I would like you to consider that there are people trying to commit mass genocide in your name.

What's the 700 club (my mortal enemy) have to say about this? Good Ole' Pat's opinion on the matter is that we're focusing too much attention on the mistreatment of the prisoners and not enough attention on the war. My response to that is this: Times of War and distress are the EXACT time we need to be focusing on such matters. These are the times that it truly counts. These are the times that the world is watching. These are the times when we have to decide how we are going to be defined. If we have enough energy and resources to fight a war on two fronts, we have enough time and resources to look into how US troops are behaving in the names of those who support the war, but especial how they are behaving in the names of those who do not.

In political ad news, the latest round of bush anti-Kerry ads are out. These ones have quotes of politians saying that Kerry is "the most liberal democrat" working today. My advice GW, stop running the ads. You're wasting your own money. All these ads accomplish is to re-enforce the liberal views of liberals and conservative views of conservatives. There's no room in swinging undecided votes. Also, you know you've got a solid candidate when the worst thing his opponent has to say about him is that he has doubts whether or not a war is the best course of action. Or for that matter, he's "liberal". More advice, and this relates to how you run your entire administrations. You think having balls and acting tough gets you what you want, but it doesn't. All pounding your chest does is inspire your opponents to lash out against you. This includes your political opponents, objecting citizens, and your war enemies abroad.

USA, you make me sick. Fuck this awful scum infested self rightous place. Wolf down your goddamn burgers and fries until you all die of heart disease.

Why are poeple so suprised when expected things happen? Why are people angry when their 3 year old misbehaves, or when there's long lines at the grocery store? Why do we trouble ourselves with the natural expected outcome of events?

My work is always a shining example of this. Holidays, of course are the worst. Mother's Day we experienced the busiest day we've had in some years apparently, yet there were managers screaming at the top of their lungs about food not being cooked fast enough. Also screaming about servers not picking up the food fast enough. Most days I have no sympathy for the servers, but on a holiday, I would hate to be them. The yelling unsued, with a tone of suprise or unexpectedness. They booked the house solid for three hours, and during those three hours expected things to go as smoothly as they would if there were only ten people in the house.

Moreoever, I don't get paid enough to concern myself. Even if I were to concern myself, they would still never pay me enough for as long as I worked there. The fact of the matter is, people who work there are pretty much dirt-poor most of the time. Point being; we're expected to bust our balls, take verbal abuse from the managers, take physical abuse from the job (burns, cuts, etc...), get the food out on time, perfect, all for less than what's considered a proper living wage. I can't even afford a cheap appartment for what they're paying me there. I should get a job doing sound design for local commercials or something. I could make the music for those cheesey Hanson's Windows commercials. Tripple eight, triple three, double two, double four...Hansens.

There are many cases against the idea of free will. Richard Dawkins described looking at a problem two ways by looking at a clear 2D cube two ways. Both are right. In this case, looking at different angles of a problem helps us see the problem in different ways that it relates to us. The existance of human predictability has always baffled me. If we have free will, than how is it that we can predict human events? IE: How many car accidents will occure, how many robberies, homocides; How much fast food we will eat in the next year, how much we will spend on popcorn at the movie theatre. Many things rest on human predictability. Marketing for instance. Snickers candy bars spend 2 million dollars (for instance) on a super-bowl ad knowing full-well there will be millions and millions of veiwers of that ad. How do they predict that? They make such predictions by looking to the past. More specifically, they make such predictions by looking at previous patterns. So why is there such a likelyhood that we will repeat these patters? The same reason that we inacted them in the first instance. What that reason is-is an argument for another day. But the fact remains, there is a reason, and it's the driving force behind our actions. Snickers' knows whats going to happen, and then it comes to pass. Often times we are suprised, by the stock market for instance. A stock unexpectedly soars through the roof. Does unexpectedness imply unpredictability? I don't think so. I think given enough information such complex predictions are possible. Given enough information, and how to use it of course. I can predict my own actions. So where does that leave me? If I can predict my own actions; that is, if I can know what I'm going to do, isn't that a case for free-will? I would say no; I would say that just the opposite is true. Knowing that you're going to eat cheerios in the morning, and than doing it, is the same as General Mills knowing that 7 million americans are going to eat cheerios in the morning, and then making enough product to reflect that. We are prisioners of our bodies, of our surroundings, and of other people. Human beings are pinballs being bounced back and forth with the inate ability to know where the next bumper is going to send them. Our own minds are one of those bumpers, and installed in that mind is predictability of itself.