what a glutton

I like to think that I never write till I have something complete and pure to write about, but based on most of my posts, it's obviously not the case. Sure, it would be nice if that was true so all 3 of my loyal fans could defend me by saying "well he may not put out that much material, but at least he doesn't pump out trash like your favorite blogger". That would make me feel special. Like one of those mercurial olympic champions that shows up outta no-where and destroys the world and then go back into relative hiding. Or like one of those writers or musicians who shows up every 4 years to drop off some masterpeice leaving fans to ponder the fantastic depth he or she must be in the darkest sections of the mind during all that time away. That's how you become a legend in the artistic field; 1 part talent, 2 parts shrewd image managment.

So what have I been doing the past 3 weeks? Being the opposite of deep and just skimming the cream of the internet crop. Wasting all my time reading others hard work, managing my 3 fantasy baseball teams, reading celebrity trash sites, watching instant movies on netflix, making cool music mixes, 2008 olympic rowing online videos, and writing recruiting letters to high school kids. Obviously, this is very consuming for me mentally, as I have the multi-tasking skills and intellegence of a lowly soldier ant.

I did notice one thing in all my time spent on my own enjoyment and that is how much I stalk blogs, and how my stalking is actually very very weak compared to other bloggers. I read my feed religiously and heres the funny thing. Half of them, I have given up interest on. Weird huh? Its like some kind of compulsion to continue to hope that something good will be there. Why? I guess it's because the internet is so inconsistent between "blah" and "awesome" that "guess and check" is the only reliable way to get a bunch of awesome in. Check as much as your patience can take and soak in as much awesome as you can.

This is why my RSS feed is loaded up with bloggers that I actually realize I don't care about anymore. I can't put my finger on it, but they lost me somewhere. They fail to bring up anything I care about or can relate to. Sometimes this is my fault for failing to recognize the bloggers main interests in life, and sometimes it is their fault for a variety of reason. Usually it entails getting too much into their day to day minutae without bringing up something of importance to the audience. Every story should have a point beyond "that annoys me" or "that makes me happy". They fail to answer the 5 W's and an H (who, what, where, why, when and how for the high school drop out readers of mine) with any skill or skip out on enough of them to make the story confusing or un-interesting to an outside reader.

I guess they win though, cause they fail at writing, and yet here I am still reading. So who is the bigger failure? As usual, it's S to the V.......

P.S: To confirm my suspicion that I am sadder than the bloggers I disapprove of; my main motivation for coming out of this temporary vacation was to post my new favorite song by "Kings of Leon" on SVTV. But seriously, how awesome are these guys live? Read my review of their last album here, but I am stoked for the next one.....

I've been lazy the past 5 months, I just didn't know it

I've heard of seasonal depression, but I never really believed in it. The low light of winter sapping the happiness out of people and the lack of the sunlight making them depressed. I'm not admitting depression, and nor should I have to, cause I wasn't. But I do think that the coldness and the earlier arrival of darkness and later arrival of light had something to do with my productivity over the winter. I wasn't sad, I just felt like not doing anything that I didn't have to. This lack of motivation probably does cause some depression in the more affluent and Type A personailties in this country. I am immune to such feelings because I never have a problem with being selfish and lazy. So, Ha Ha to you implied exestential stress. However, I think that trudging through the winter like a brave little Po-Vegas soldier has trained me in an un-intentional way to be more productive in the longer days of summer. The little things friends, the little things. That extra load of laundry, showering, throwing the garbage out when the bag is full, washing the car, an extra cardio session, that trip to the dry-cleaners or the mall, and cleaning that space on the floor between the stove and the counter. In the winter, they would have been put off til the weekend so I could get another much needed hour of sleep or to jam in a missed workout.

So today, I will write a blog post AND make a playlist with some relaxing outdoor summer songs (which will probably be listened to inside, 90% of the times it is played)

Unfourtunatly, with all this productivity, I am missing out on retaining information to blog about here. Too many thoughts, too much focus on singular tasks. With a larger readership then I anticipated, I have to be a little more guarded than I ever planned on being. I can't just flail away at whatever is on my mind when I sit down.

That would be easier, a better-written blog and probably more fun, but inherintly would include more problems. I wish I could be brave and shirk the expectations and the reputations I have worked very hard to fool everyone with. But I am lazy, and this blog is certainly not an eternal masterpeice with which I can show to my grandkids nor did I ever want it to be. It's my entertaining past-time to keep me awake so I don't take another nap or watch the same Family Guy episode for the 10,000th time. I can't be over-worked and lose sleep over my leisure time.

And that's the problem with undertaking any activity in this day and age. Every once and while you can feel pressured to make it perfect or that if you spent more time, it could be better. With so many things to take care of these days, its impossible to give everything the time it requires. But nothing outside your main focus in life has to be perfect. Nor do you have to strive to make something better than what it is. I find that sometimes its much better to let extra curricular activities be what they naturally are and leave it alone. There is a cliche phrase that I like to use which says "too many chefs spoil the soup" and another phrase which says "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". So when I feel the pressure coming down on me when I am supposed to be having fun, I have to step back and say "If it ain't broke, don't let 6 chefs come in and make you soup"..... or something like that.

Summertime also means lots of movies. I LOVE movies. But this summer is more than just the theatre and me scowling at people who show up 20 mins late and stand near me assesing the scene for the absolute best seat available for 5 minutes instead of sitting their tardy distracting unseated ass down pronto!(BASTARDS) Like it matters how much they visually enjoy the movie when they have no idea what is going on cause they missed 1/4 of it. That and restraining my temper at people who smack, chomp, and crackle the wrappers of their theatre food like they are at a raucus ball game instead of when a serial killer is stalking ever so quietly and terrorizingly down a dimly lit hallway towards his un-suspecting prey. Last week, I was ever so close to jumping out of my seat at that girl and giving her something to really be scared of.

Anywhosal, like I was saying, this is the summer of Netflix and me catching up on all those movies that I want to see, but miss out on the chance to. I have some serious movie watching to do now. I have already seen a lot of movies, but now I am going to be a regular ol' expert with this new and highly enjoyable service.

And with that, like whoever the celebrity is that is going to promote the will rogers institute this year in all the previews, "we'll see you....AT THE MOVIES"

SV-TV Programming Note: This is one of my new favorite bands, but being hopelessly indie, they have no money and can't afford any cool videos. As much as I hate making a joke of their musical style, the guys in this video make videos like I would make videos if I made videos. Extremely funny with a touch of homo-eroticism and slow motion running. Too funny not to post, hang in there, song is longggggg.

22's son!

I will be completing the 6 month task of the album reviews soon. Sometimes, I think that I am extending this out because I hate when I need to give my blog attention and I have zilch to write about. For quite some time, I have always had something to write about when I wanted to. Soon I will have to come up with fresh and original ideas (GASP!).
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So, for practice I will talk about non-music things and tell you that I got a new monitor at home. You would think that would lead to even more blogging, but alas, I am slightly hooked on my Xbox now. Nothing like M17 violence to end a long day. But soon, I will be on a much more sane video gaming schedule and will hopefully lead to quality internet usage. My computer sat at home, monitor-less, for almost a year. So I am still weirded out by having a connection to the outside world less than 10 feet from the very large indent in my couch.
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The monitor is a 22 inch wide screen and it is sooooooo sweet.
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Speaking of the Xbox, a few months ago I got a delivery and as soon as I opened the door, as in the door is halfway open, the delivery man spotted my Xbox, which is not out in the open at all, and asked me what games I had. I told him the 3 that I do, and he then proceeded to tell me all about each game, the pros and cons, and then made sure I was aware that Grand Theft Auto 4 was coming out soon and that the Xbox version was going to have "play online" capabilities and that it was going to be AWESOME!
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This was a grown man. I fear that one morning I am going to find him in my apartment playing my system and asking my why I have my visual settings at 500x750 pixels when it is sooooo much better at 780x1000.
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What can Brown do for me? Stay the fuck away from my xbox, that's what.

Do video games spontaneously combust in Canada?

Okay, I am feeling much more inspired today. I think the problem yesterday was that I got too much sleep and not enough coffee. I like to roll on about 5 hours of sleep and 3 cups of coffee. If my body is too awake, I think it stalls out and doesn't know what to do with itself. Just like flooding an engine with too much gasoline.

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I guess for now this means I have to continue upon my album quest. There is no way I am letting this thing take 6 months........right? Well, there is no way I want it to take 6 months so I should write 2007's number 2 album review.
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Quick YFYB news is that I officially tweet'd for the first time today. I guess you can check that out over on the right hand side of the page. I don't really know how to use it aptly yet, but every other nerd is doing it, so I gotta do it too or else they might take away my Han Solo rookie card or something.

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NUMBER 2: Arcade Fire "Neon Bible" Big upps to the Grzylle for forcing me to like this band way back in 2005. Even if it does seem like only yesterday......

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Straight outta da Quebec, yo, Arcade Fire is a collection of like 100 musicians.....or maybe just 7, but with the number of instruments that they all play, it sounds like a full orchestra. They are centered around the husband and wife combo of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne who are the creative force of the band. Win started the band with some prep school pretty boys at the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy where they probably wore really nice sweaters and talked about Clipper ships or whatever it is the prep school kids do. Eventually he ditched the snobs, who now have their own band, and started this superforce with his ball and chain. Between Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene, Canada is the home of 2 of the most acclaimed indie bands in the world.

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Arcade Fire picked up steam shortly after releasing the 2004 record "Funeral". Their signature sound attracted the notices of people like Bono who used it as house music before U2 concerts and David Bowie, who was featured in a few of their live shows. Unfortunately, their secretly awesome status is quickly dissolving due to their highly regarded live shows and commercial air wave prominence. Appearances on David Letterman and SNL were highly successful. With music that holds this much quality, Arcade Fire is more like Radiohead than The Fray and everyone on the bandwagon doesn't have to be ashamed of being an AF fan just because you heard them on Grey's Anatomy or some other girly show.

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Neon Bible is aptly titled because it was recorded in an old church the band bought in Farnham, Quebec. A bunch of the songs have an evangelical feel about them and instrumentation/lyrics about things like faith, confusion, and being an outcast. The neon in Neon Bible is what reflects this distinction between the TV preacher and the more accepted church clergy. Especially one of my favorites "Antichrist Television Blues". It would seem like a huge deviation from their first album, but lyrically much of their ideas and poetry is the same, just using the evangelical culture of outcast believers as its foundation in which they express it. It's quite a shrewd concept actually that they made work well for them.

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The biggest deviation is in the universal use of loudness and bombastic-ness on this album as opposed to Funeral. Funeral is more rich and slow. It has it's loud/fast parts, but they are built up to slowly. Funeral is more elegant and invested. Neon Bible "rocks out" with a little less instrumentation, a lot more vocality, and quick builds. The vocals and style of Win Butler on this album reminds me a lot of Torquil Campbell from Stars in the way he uses his pronunciation and shouts at the opportune moments. They both command attention on the microphone and the songs flow with their vocals much more so than other bands.

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Like the other top 5 albums, all the songs on this album are great. They are each quite unique and easily grow on you with each listen. Personally, I like Intervention, Black Mirror, Antichrist Television Blues, and The Well and the Lighthouse best.

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Song Samples: neon bible, no cars go, Black Mirror

Amazon Link

MySpace Page

Save the Planet, Kill Yourself

I saw this on a bumper sticker the other day. I am not a big fan of putting a political/funny message on a car, but if I had to pick one for my own car, this would be it. It's more complex than its harsh exterior. First; "Kill Yourself" is one of my favorite statements from college. It can be used in a variety of situations. Like "dude" or "f$ck", it depends on its inflection.

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It can be used to express apathy at a friends situation; "I just realized I have to buy 500 dollars worth of books" "oh man, kill yourself".

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It can also be used in a situation to poke fun at a friends light-hearted misfourtune;"I was walking home from the library, and I got stuck talking to that annoying girl I made out with last weekend" "hahaha, kill yourself".

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It can also be used to express frustration with someone (usually a peer) "That guy was blabbering on and on about his cool car and these girls he met, and the entire time I was thinking, dude, kill yourself"

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But this bumper sticker tags "Kill Yourself" along with a common political tag line. "Save the Planet" is usually followed by a certain action that the possesor of the sticker feels is the most important way to save said planet, i.e. buy Organic, don't eat meat, plant a tree, impeach bush, ride a bike, etc etc etc.

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Does the possessor of the kill yourself sticker believe that killing oneself is a way to save energy, and reduce waste? That would be a true statement. Less people means less waste and less of a demand for energy. Or, is the possessor of the sticker asking those who make political statements regarding thier views on saving the planet to kill themselves? They are rather annoying and usually posses an attitude that they are "holier than thou". Or; is the possessor a genocidal maniac who would like nothing more than the extinction of the entire human race but himself in order to have eternal peace and the entire world would be his personal space to do with as he please? People; political or not, annoy this person and he would like nothing better for them all to die, but by the means of killing themselves, so he doesn't have to get his hands or conscience dirty.

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There are so many different interpretations as you can see. But the reason I would like it, is that I like to be outrageous for the sake of being outrageous, and confusing for the sake of being confusing. Plus, most of the time I am driving I am in an angry "kill yourself" mode anyway........so that's that.

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I was feeling slightly guilty, but I have not been the only one not posting as much this time of year. My RSS feeder has been surprisingly inactive this time of year. I think it's because us bloggers are attention whores. Unfourtunatly, we are also nerds who are ignored by our loved ones on a daily basis except for one time of the year.......Thanksgiving to New Years. The time when our loved ones reach out to all members of the family based on guilt or keeping a facade of happy times. Even us Rudolphs get called back to be a part of the family reindeer games......till January 2nd anyway.

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Us bloggers will be back then, when winter is at its finest hour and we are depressed and fat and lonely and in need of a little attention. So hang in there internet surfers, the waves may be small, but the ocean is always at it calmest just before the storm.......

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This post written while listening to: "ageless beauty" -Stars

So much to blog about, so little multi-tasking ability

I didn't want to let another 2 weeks sneak by without getting a post in. The strange thing about being a blogger is that you never get to stop being one. When more than 2 days goes by without blogging, it's not as though I forget about it completely or when something interesting happens, I don't come crashing back to the fact that I haven't written anything in a while. Blogging has become a permanent part of me, just like my 22 inch biceps. ho ho ha ha. Anyway, I don't want any of the faithful to think that just because I am not blogging, that I am not suffering thinking about blogging, its just that I am too much of a simpleton to handle that many things at once. I think most people who seriously blog feel the same way. Their procrastination list is one item larger. I did vow not to let it happen during this busy time of year like last year, so I am valiantly making myself churn out another humdinger of a post.

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What have I been doing you ask? Well....."a bunch of things," I answer. I have been rowing from 5AM to 6:30 AM in an attempt to keep my rowing career intact, which was going swimmingly (that's an un-truthful pun, if rowing is going well I would not be doing any kind of swimming, but I like the raucous grammatical and syntax chaos that is YFYB) until I got sick in the early part of last week. I have also been trying to have some kind of social life on the weekend when people demand it of me and when I am not racing in said rowing boat. Thus, my copious amount of free time has been reduced significantly since the first of September. My weekends of 10 hour sleep fests, house cleaning, and movies on TV have been removed completely for the next 2 months. Good thing I am so good at being productive........if it was opposites day.

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I never get sick. Which isn't really true, cause I am right now, but it is such a rare occurrence that I am giving myself that title. Anyway, I tried to find some medicine in the pharmacy, and that made my head hurt more. There was so many different kinds, I think that by the time I made a decision on which cold medicine to pick, my sickness was gone. I can understand the free-market economics of there being more than one brand of cold medicine, but why does each of the 30 different brands have 30 different formulas for the same symptoms? I decided to just lay on the floor and lick myself till someone came to save me and give me something and push me out the door so I wouldn't have to pick myself and I can blame the lack of the medicines effectiveness on them. Surely, I would never be so careless as to pick the medicine that helped my fever, but not my emphysema cough. Stupid stock boy.

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I also like to whine about being sick to anyone, including un-knowing Internet blog browsers. I understand this trait to be unpleasant, but how would you know how heroic I was in not missing any work or training, if I didn't tell you how sick I was?

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The other morning, I lost one of my contact lenses while I was rowing. I always forget that I am blind till I lose one, and I come to a crashing and very very sad realization. No seriously, I am blind, and I also have some cataracts as well. If my eyes get any worse, then I can't wear contacts anymore because they don't make them that strong. I also have a family history of a detached retna, so I am slowly getting comfortable to the possibility of using a white cane. Once again, I am allergic to dogs, and I like non-lethal sword fighting, so the white cane is perfect for my lifestyle. I would have to use "the force" for these fights, but I am confident in my ability to whoop Sith and non-sith ass.

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Anyway, the row home was not fun at all and I began to feel a bit nauseous from the disorientating focus. I did not crash into anything, but it was only because nothing else is out at 5AM besides us crazies. I also would like to blame miss diminutive training partner for making fun of my headlight that I (used to) wear and thus making me self conscious and thus dangerous behind the oars. She won't laugh so hard when I am dead! or when I give her a "soaking wet from cold river water" hug.
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During this busy season, S.Vincent is looking for a house cleaner/personal chef/ laundry do-er to work for kisses. Preferably female with a full set of teeth. Please send resume with picture to svclarke@hotmail.com
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This post written while listening to: Nine Inch Nails "Vessel"

S.Vincent on the job.....

Fear not, mortal

I'm not sure if anyone even likes the short little story I am writing cause I haven't gotten any feedback, but fear not, I will come back to it in the next post. I just needed a little break to write about other stuff for a minute or two. I am writing the short story cause I want to see what it is like and I wanted to do something a little different from most bloggers. If there is one thing that I have learned from this minor attempt at fiction writing is that writing it is really hard work. I am now 99% sure that I do not have the vast amount of creativity to ever write a "book". It really makes me respect someone with a published fiction book and absolutely marval at a person like Steven King who can crank out 1000 PAGES of material every year. Some people may think he is a hack who gets by on shoddy material and past brilliance, but I think the guy is a living legend who always performs. I would bet a lot of money your great great grand kids will be reading Steven King in high school english. Sure he is a twisted and strange nerd, probably not playing with a full deck but, the guy can create a honest something from thin air. This ability is why some of historys greatest authors are considered god's. (Is that a thunder cloud forming over PoVegas?) If I was an authority on books and got to bestow "status" to authors, thats what I would title the top level status. God's at the top, Hecules's in the middle, and mortals at the bottom. (side note: Sparks is too young with not enough material to be considered in any way yet, but I am baiting some floozy bimbo to attack me cause she loves "The Notebook". Other authors considered here were: JK Rowlings and probably Oprah)

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I spend a lot of time reading other people's blogs, and yeah shut up, I do have a life. Many of them I read consistently, and the authors probably don't even know it? I think a lot of reading blogs is a secret devotion to someone elses creative outlet, i.e stalking. People are very guarded about their personal creativity, but even more so I think, people are guarded about showing their appreciation for others creativity. Unless you're big time like The Superficial, Dave Barry, Perez Hilton, etc. there is a good chance you get maybe 1-3 comments; and they are from your close friends/relatives. But, there has to be more people out there who enjoy my crappola and other people's crappola. I have 600 sum odd profile views, about 100 of which are me checking to see how many profile views I have, but that isn't an accurate reflection of how many views my posts get per day. I would really like to know the size of my audience, and sometimes I think I would be more comfortable with a smaller than expected audience than a more than expected audience. So if you are out there in Internet Land with tape on your glasses and an Anime/WoW t-shirt on (computer nerd) and know an easy way (so easy a caveman could do it) to insert some kind of ticker on my blog, feel free to comment/e-mail me. Which, by the by, is a great way to expand your audience a little I have found. Comment on someone elses blog using your blogger ID and surely a few people will check you out. I make it a point to comment on at least one new blog I enjoy a month. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, and all that jazz.

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You may be wondering where this sudden splurge of blog activity has come from. Well its due to the fact that my home boy Grzylle fo Shzylle, loyal fan of Forgetting his Brain, has new employment and no longer has the ability to chat with me on the Instant Messenger. He should be back soon however, but maybe he will take one for the team and chat with me every other day so I can get back to blogging full time. Either way, I enjoy my day and thats "le objectiva numero uno", which may even be real Spanish!

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This post written while listening to: Travis "Singles"