The Stiche Corner - Sort of like a Norman Rockwell painting, if Rockwell had been influenced by hookers and cock fighting.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

...And We're Back

Well, there was a serious f up in the system so Darin and I got our radio show back. It'll be at the same time as last semester (Wednesdays at 9) and it'll be accessible from the same link in the links section. check it out

Monday, January 26, 2009

A Song For Our Fathers

In my Human Societies class today, we were given the assignment of breaking a social norm by next class (Wednesday). A social norm is pretty much anything that is done and accepted by a culture and if one is to break such a rule, it is highly frowned upon.

Some of the other people in the class were talking about wearing their shirts backwards or eating supper with their hands or staring at strangers. I'm not going to go down so easy.
I plan on setting up shop right outside the schools chapel while wearing this shirt and with a portable iPod player cranking out Slayer's "Reign in Blood" right as it lets out (I'm not quite sure which track yet).

Will I get a lot of angry looks? I sure hope so, otherwise I wouldn't be violating a social norm to its fullest extent. Will I go to hell? That is to be seen.

Did I mention that I go to a Lutheran college?

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Somebody had to do it

Last night I entered a four team case race knowing that there could only be one winner and three losers. I knew that my specialty has never been drinking mass quantities of liquid quickly. I knew that my competitors had more experience at this than I did.

I also knew that there was once a man named John Rambo and he faced odds that were just about on par with the ones I was facing and that game me some solace. I also knew that I had to step up and be a man and that's just what I did. I ran train and won and I did it the fair way (I didn't hide any of the competitors cans under the furnace or soaking with some spent Uranium rods).

The best part is that I feel like a champion today and nothing can take that away from me. I guess it was also nice that I didn't freeze to death last night. that's another plus

Friday, January 23, 2009

Piss

I just found out that Lamb of God is coming to St. Paul the day after my last final (anatomy) in April... It's looking like I'm going to take my last final a little bit sooner.

Monday, January 19, 2009

No Time For The Ramp

I can't express how happy this trailer makes me. It's not quite The Whitest Kids U'Know, but it's fucking close.


Saturday, January 17, 2009

A Wordless Chorus

I've had the skill of acting like I know who someone is even though I haven't the slightest clue of who they are for quite a while. A major example is when I try to act like I know a person's name. I've pretty much been able to squeak by my whole life going off of the words "Dude", "Man", "Mother Fucker" whenever I wasn't quite sure who I was talking to. I knew that I had class/a study group/lived on the same floor/ got hammered with this person, but for whatever reason I just couldn't retain their name.

Well that changed just a little bit tonight. I found out that one of my floor mates who I've been periodically and casually talking to (in the sense of "how're you doing?") has been cleared up. It doesn't matter how I figured it out, but I found out one of my floor mates names without acting like a total d-bag. ex: "Hey man, I've seen you just about every day of the past 5 months but I still don't actually know your name".

Oh well. As a great man once said "That shit will buff."

Friday, January 16, 2009

Viva Caligula

I just found out that a few of my friends went out into the parking lot 5 minutes ago and climbed up midway on a snowbank, then they made an igloo on the side and then they clam baked in it.

f yeah

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Thursday

Last nights low in the Fargo-Moorhead area was -29 Degrees with a wind chill approaching a pretty bad ass -47 F. I'm pretty damn happy right now because even though I got stuck in the dorms again this year, I don't have to pay for heat (well... sort of) so that's something. Oh, I'm also pretty fucking stoked not being homeless too. that would make things way more complicated.

In other news I recently saw the Clint Eastwood film "Gran Torino" and I've gotta say it was a very enjoyable film with more humor than I expected (whether intentional or just the sense of "Holy fucking shit, did Clint just say that?") and it had an enjoyable storyline to go with it. That said, if anybody else were to have played his role (short of Jesus) I don't think the film would have been half as effective so I'm not quite sure what that says about the film. Maybe just the knowledge that Clint is in a film makes a handful of expectations come up that otherwise would be ridiculous. Who knows.

One final point before I go to class is a recent music acquisition. I bought the new Soulfly album, Conquer and the music is good and well and if you're a fan of Sepultura or any sort of thrash/groove metal mix this would be a damn good album to pick up, but that's not the reason I brought it up. I bougth up the album because of the song titles. They're over the top and I can't decide if that's a good thing or not such a good thing because they're so far out there, even for a metal album.

There are the metal standards like "Doom", "Paranoia", and "Unleash", but from there they start getting to be too much metal for one hand (see photo at bottom of page). There's "Enemy Ghosts" which isn't too crazy, but from there it starts sounding like a death metal album (and it's not) with the track name "For Those About To Rot" and "Touching The Void" (I guess Touching the Void could make a good Daft Punk track name, but it looks like they were beat to the punch). The monstrosity of track names ends with these two gems known as "Blood Fire War Hate" (guess what the chorus is) and my personal favorite and possible middle name for my firstborn "Warmageddon".

These track names would be decent and passable if the lyricist was able to truly articulate just what he feels a track like "Touching The Void" is supposed to represent, but that's just not the case. Soulfly is fronted by the Brazilian Max Cavalera and even though he's been making English speaking records since the late 80's he still doesn't have the faintest idea of how to string a sentence of it together which makes it all the more better.


Time to go to Psychology 206

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Help a Brother Out

I've always had the problem of having piss poor handwriting for my whole life and I'm just now trying to figure out a way to get my shit together. I was wondering if anybody who reads this finds the idea of writing in all caps a bad idea. Do you guys find it annoying? unprofessional? straight up gay?

I just want to point out though that when I write in all caps it is far more legible so I'm kinda torn on this.

Thoughts? ideas?

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Monday, January 5, 2009

Friday, January 2, 2009

i had to do it

It's the time of the year when people are in the spirit of giving and kindness and my personal favorite, top 10 (enter word) of the year lists. It's truly been an interesting year for music on a personal level as I've managed to truly broaden my horizons musically and here's my list for top 10 albums of the year. Enjoy

10. Beck - Modern Guilt.
Beck has always been on the fringe of my musical palate for many reasons. As catchy as his hooks were and how quirky he was I had a hard time taking him seriously. His album Sea Change is the exception and I've talked about how I feel it before. Modern Guilt is a nice in between Sea Change and many of his other albums; it's energetic, mellow, touching, and fun to listen to all at the same time.


9. The Killers -Day & Age
I didn't like this album at all when first listen to it. I actually turned it off midway through the first play through. However, the more I listen to it the more I am brought in to the music of a group of guys just having fun with what they're doing. Sure, the track "Spaceman" has none of the human touch that a track like "Smile like you mean it" did on their first album, but they've matured (to a point) and I've come around


8. Cynic - Traced in Air
This was an absolute surprise for me. This was an album (and band) that before this year I had never heard of and why should I have, they're a technical/progressive death metal band and beyondDethKlok I've never even wanted to listen to any color of death metal. I wouldn't call this album death metal, I would bearly even consider it metal because it's one of the most relaxing albums I've listened to and it really is a treat. At the very least I would recommend for people to listen to some 30 second previews on amazon.com oriTunes and to give it a shot. Fun Fact - Cynic was using a vocoder way before it was cool for rappers (or Cher)to use it.


7. Justice - † (cross)
If I were to try to describe the French electronic Duo, Justice, I would call them a distilled version of Daft Punk and to me that's a pretty damn good property for a band to have. Their music is chock full of unlicensed samples, but that's just an added bonus because the music truly is amazing even though it's only a few shades from being a bit disco... but in a good way


6. Tech N9ne - Killer
You've really gotta give it to Tech N9ne, he is damn good at what he does and it just so happens that what he does is amazing. If you haven't heard of him, Tecn N9ne is a rapper out of Kansas City who helped popularize the Caribou Lou (see devastating) and always raps about how fucking sweet the Midwest is and I can relate. He raps about (somewhat) everyday life happenings such as doing a shit ton of drugs and seeing what happens and he spits white hot fire pretty damn quick. Oh, and did I mention Killer is a double album?


5. Metallica - Death Magnetic
yep, I said it, Metallica has one of the top ten albums of the year. 'Nuff said


4. Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

Girl Talk did something that I never thought would happen; he made me actually enjoy mashup music and not only that, he made something that can be played at a fucking ragger or while studying chemistry (because we all want to cut out the middle man when it comes to meth). Though not as magnificent as his previous effort, Night Ripper, Feed the Animals seamlessly blends a whole album into essentially one long track. There is a good chance that in a year or so whatever money he made off of it will be lost in litigation fees for illegal use of other peoples music, but Girl Talk created something that is greater than the sum of all it's parts... at least the 20 second samples that he throws together.


3. Mindless Self-Indulgence - if

This is without a doubt my guiltiest pleasure whether it's music, movies, or tv shows. MSI is an undefinable band (although I'd give it a shot and call it electro-punk) that have created a highly enjoyable album with their offering if. The music is frenzied and kinetic and all over the fucking place, but that's the way they like it and that's what they do best. It features some of the most over the top and blatant falsettos in musiccourtesy of singer Jimmy Urine (not his legal name as far as I can tell) and it is a case of you either love it or you hate it. If by chance you really like this album I would highlyrecommend their previous album, Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy. Trust me


2. Protest the Hero - Fortress

I'll just say it off the bat that this album will never be considered a hallmark metal album or have a very lasting impression. It is however, be the most exciting and fun (yep, I said fun) metal album of the year. They are technical as hell and each riff sounds like a solo and I say that in a good way, not the Dragonforce way. Fortress combines crushing riffs seamlessly with incredibly melodic passages with jazz influenced drumming and and audible bassists and the tracks have so many tempo and key changes that it'll blow your fucking mind. On top of that the singer, Rody Walker, has got one of the best vocal ranges in recent memory. He can sing well, throw in the falsetto whenever he feels like it, add in a scream, a shout, and a guttural scream pretty damn well.


1. Portishead - Third

Until a month and a half ago, Protest the Hero's Fortress was at number one and had been for the entire year pretty much, but then I heard this. This is Portishead's first album in over a decade and it's an album that really requires a couple listen troughs in order to like it. I hated it the first 3 times I listened to it, but ever since then every time I listen to it is more enjoyable than the last. Words that would describe the album would include bleak, dark, haunting, and hell why not, amazing. Every track draws you deeper and deeper in to an album that would make a hell of a soundtrack for a doomsday film or anything dystopian. As everyone who reads this is aware of, I'm not a very effective writer and this is my plea for everyone to get this album. Straight up pick it up, it's great. Oh yeah, moody would be another good word to describe the album.




Hope you enjoyed, peace bitches

For Vanities sake

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