Friday, May 02, 2008

Video Killed the Blog Star

I've always loved watching music videos...and I think I can directly connect this to my current short attention span disorder. I use to obsessively watch them on the tv growing up...now I turn to the internet for all my music video needs. Most of the time music videos are a 3-4 minute disposable commercial for the artist but occasionally I'll see something that is actually engaging and worthy of my time. Music videos can be a great medium for getting emotions and messages across that I don't think can really be achieved in many other formats. These are some recent noteworthy vids that have pleased my senses.

Radiohead- All I Need

essentially this video is an MTV PSA however it's quite effective and moving in its message



Boards of Canada- roygbiv

I believe this is a fan-made video but very well done. Also I hear this song was some of the inspiration for "All I Need"


Justice- Stress

Not a huge fan of this song but the video is intense! An ultra-violent Justice/droog gang rampaging the streets of Paris. Does it glorify violence or is it some kind of vague social commentary? I really don't care...I love it either way.


Thursday, May 01, 2008

Note to self: STAY HEALTHY!

Today is the first day of May and I have set a goal for myself: not get sick once this month. The reason I have set this arbitrary goal for myself is because, up to this point, I have spent much of 2008 with some kind of bodily ailment or another.

Earlier this year, I woke up on a blurry Saturday morning with a small cut on my chin. It was foggy in my mind as to where it had originated from along with many of my memories from the previous night. I thought nothing of it at first, until the cut quickly began to get bigger and uglier, until it appeared that I had developed something I had not encounter since my short-lived junior high wrestling days: ring worm! Thankfully I had a doctor examine the behemoth and found out it was simply an infected cut. I trace the infection back to my own stupidity...soon after I got the cut I spent the following evening on a filthy, germ-ridden bathroom floor (don't ask why).

Shortly after my freak infection healed, I had surgery, which wasn't horrible, but yet another set back in my quest for normalcy. And just recently I got over an illness that you typically only read about in late 19th century children's literature or only hear about through old senile folk giber: Scarlet Fever!


Yes, Scarlet Fever...this nasty strain of strep throat, which I had never heard about previously, hit me hard and fast. With what started out as, what I thought, an allergic reaction blossomed into a full-body rash! I had to go to the ER and experienced some of the most intense itching one could ever imagine. It was as though God had sprinkled his own magical itching powder over my entire body for shits and giggles. Luckily I recovered quickly and was able to go home this past weekend to celebrate Seth's graduation and hang with my Michigan crew. However, I did have a horrible time with my car, when I got a flat tire and a dead car battery in the middle of a thunderstorm...but that is another bout of bad luck that I've been having that I will not get into right now.

tulips near my work-place

On a brighter note...even though summer doesn't officially start until June it already feels like the summer season is in full swing and for that I am grateful. Pittsburgh ain't so bad when there's leaves on the trees. Therefore I share a song that I stole from Seth's January Music Mix that helped me get through the cold miserable months by helping me remember a simpler time when my friends and I would share a carefree summer in Empo together....ahhh the youthful, misguided memories.

The Billionaires- The End of Summer Song