The new (I am pretty late on this) group of cute kids gone viral on the internet are the PS22 Chorus from Graniteville, Staton Island. The chorus is comprised of 60-70 students who audition to join every year. Their growing popularity is most likely due to the fact that they perform popular hits that mush a soft spot in everybody’s hearts. Don’t believe me? Just try not to fall for them.

They have tons of other videos at the link. They help me hold onto the shred of hope I feel humanity has left

[YouTube]

“I might start back into writing music for myself soon. But I don’t know what to do.”

- A Teenage Vow in a Parking Lot

I didn’t realize that I was going off about this crap for this long. haha.

Okay, so I just heard of Die Antwoord today, I can’t tell if this is a joke or not. Seriously, I have watched this video like, 20 times in a row. The music is catchy, but seriously, just look at these people.

I am sitting here searching the internet for information to help make sense of this all, the only bio I can find is from Last.fm:

Formed in Cape Town, South Africa during Spring 2009, Die Antwoord is an afrikaans futuristic ninja rap crew consisting of Ninja (Waddy Jones ofMaxNormal.TV), Yo-Landi Vi$er and snor-rap superstar Jack Parow. DJ Hi-Tek keeps the beats nice and dirty. The majority of their debut album, $O$, was released for free on the Internet in 2009 – Ninja also handed out free albums with hand-drawn artwork at live shows called $O$: Burnt By the Master. The band are now on Magnetron Music and are rumoured releasing a very special, limited-edition package for 2010 featuring the album, a DVD and a book. Die Antwoord’s $O$ Album/DVD/Book package has a European release pending and the cover was photographed by the world famous, dark surrealist master,Roger Ballen. Find out more at http://www.dieantwoord.com/, http://myspace.com/dieantwoord, http://facebook.com/dieantwoord,http://twitter.com/dieantwoord and Wikipedia.

I’m going to sit and try to understand this, here is another video of them.

I feel so out of the loop.

Update: After close to 30 views of both video’s I have decided that this is not a joke in the least, its just a cheesy gimmick. A cheesy gimmick that works. The songs are super catchy, and I’m not ashamed to say that when the record is released, I will be grabbing myself a copy. I will probably be the pretentious guy who shit talks them when they release their second album and are huge in 6 months though.

Update 2: Just as I called it, Die Antwoord is actually a clever joke, created in the same vein as Ali G -CLICK HERE FOR MORE-

A bit of news slipped passed me until today; on December 19th, at the age of 58, Kim Peek passed away from a heart attack. Peek was the inspiration for the movie “Rain Man” and possessed many unique talents. Of them included:

“• He could read two facing pages simultaneously, one with each eye.
• With that ability, he read 12,000 books and remembered every one of the pages.
• He knew so many plays and music pieces with absolute precision that he would be able to tell if an instrument was a note off in a philharmonic orchestra.
• He could remember every day in the calendar, area codes, ZIP codes, maps, countless classical compositions, a zillion trivia bits across dozens of fields in human knowledge and the arts, and give GPS-like directions for any city of the US.”

I have watched a few videos on Peek, he was quite an interesting person. I highly suggest that everyone take the time to watch this documentary on him.

Also, there is a well written obituary done by the NYT.

[NYT via Gizmodo]

Now, this tale with which I am about to regale you with is ENTIRELY true. Though some of the things stated may seem completely far-fetched, this is exactly as the events had happened.

Going back to my first tour, a 3 month (give or take) Canada/US tour with a band called Emmure. Back then they had yet to be signed with Victory records, and were on their first full US tour. I believe this to be our [bands] second. We had already made it west through Canada, lost an engine in Wilsonville, OR (Will tell that story a different time), spent a week in California and had started making our way back across to the east coast. We had made it to Texas and were having a bad string of shows.

Dan shoots himself at the Alamo

Upon arriving in San Antonio, we received word that the show that night was going to be cancelled, this was typical fare for this tour. Most shows were booked by kids renting out venues to get a relatively unknown band that they hear on myspace to play. Unfortunately, these don’t tend to be the most reliable of people, so losing shows the day of were pretty common. We visited The Alamo, and spent a good part of the day in the city. By the mid afternoon, we were trying to find a place to stay, or an impromptu show. We received a message from a girl saying that we could come out and do a show in her backyard, and that she would try and strum up some donations from the kids who had planned to see us until the show was cancelled. She also said that there would be food for us (the touring bands) and room for everyone to sleep.

It was the only offer we had seen all day, and the promise of a little gas money was too enticing for us to pass up. And so we drive. After about twenty or so minutes, we have driven from downtown SA to an edge of town (I’m not sure which). We take the highway exit, and immediately thing seem, not as they should seem. We pull off onto a dirt road and it takes a few minutes more of driving to realize that all of the houses are trailers, dilapidated trailers. Pickup trucks on cinder blocks and dogs casually walking around without any defined owner. Somebody says that the GPS must be wrong, another person counters saying something similar to, “Even if it is right, we should turn around”. We should have.

We pull up to the address that was given to us, as we pull in a young girl waves us in. The GPS was not wrong. This trailer was a stationary live in that I will admit appeared to be in much better shape then the others we had passed . The faint sound of country music is playing as we arrive, from behind the trailer. We spend a few moments in the van trying to figure out a plan of escape once we get in there and realize that it is in fact as bad as it seems to be. One of us will head straight to the computer to try and find us another place to sleep, anywhere between San Antonio and our next show, the rest of us will mingle and downplay the fact that we are really trying to get out of there as fast as possible.

We exit the van and head towards the house/trailer, and are then directed around back. The country music grows louder, and louder, and louder. As we turn the second corner and walk up towards the back door, time begins to slow. Through the door I step, I am greeted by the largest woman I have ever seen in my entire life who’s movement was not constricted to a bed or Rascal scooter. “YALL HERE FOR MAH BURTHDAY PARRRRTY?!?”, She bellows; paper plate in hand, a mountain of food sliding off with every word. She meets and greets every one of us, very kindly I might add, and asks when we are going to set up and start playing. After she asks, a few typical Texans hoot and holler “yeah, yeah, yeehaw”. Yes, there was actually a “yeehaw”. We all sort of hummed and hawed until somebody says that we are going to take a break from the drive first before figuring that all out.

Now, I will take this opportunity to explain that the way I described the woman might be extremely mean. I’m only trying to paint the picture, she seemed extremely content with her extreme physique. I have no right to try and make light of her situation, they were all extremely welcoming and courteous to us, and I am thankful. I have always been, and will always be thankful for every meal we were given, every floor we were allowed to sleep on, and any ounce of gas we were bought while on tour. People treated us as family without really knowing us at all, and that is unbelievable. Having said that; I continue.

We split up, mingle with other band members, nibble on chips, and meet the various people. After about 10 minutes, I go to check and see how the search for the place to sleep is coming, things look bleak. I then head out into the living room, and join in on some children playing Guitar Hero. At this point, the game had yet to have a sequel. I play with them and show my skills, which were pretty amazing.

Looks less creepy then it actually was

I am then schooled by a 9 or 10 year old boy who then laughs and makes fun of me. I choose to retire with a little dignity and move over to Frank. He is standing, staring at a picture on the wall; I ask, “Whats so interesting about this picture?”  Frank responds, “Take a look at this picture, and tell me, is this not the creepiest fucking thing you have ever seen?”

I looked into the picture, which was supposedly drawn by one of the aunts, the “artist” of the family. It is indeed a picture I will remember until the day I die. The picture was a collage of pictures of children. The problem is that a portrait is a very hard thing to do well, and all of the children’s faces looked as if they were the spawn of the devil, or had Aspergers Syndrome.

I went out front as the third band on the tour’s van (I forget their name right now) pulls in; as they back in, they got stuck in the lawn. The ground here (and in a lot of texas) is made up of a sand or sandlike substance, its hell on tour vans. As members of various bands help to get the van unstuck, I feel myself getting pretty hungry; I decided to have myself a few hot dogs that were offered and sitting on the kitchen table. I grabbed 2 buns and dogs, put ketchup on them and started to raise one to my mouth. I looked at the meat tube in bread blanket as I drew it towards my mouth. It took a moment, but I noticed something that shouldn’t be on a normal hot dog bun. Something blue, something fuzzy. Mould.

I immediately dropped the demon dog and looked at the bag of buns, they were all gratuitously coated in mould. This is my last straw, I refused to stand in this trailer anymore. I headed for the door.

As I emerged, I saw a car pull up and two or three kids aged 16-18 get out. I assumed they had come for the show that is never going to happen, and I started to feel a little guilty. They popped open the trunk of the small blue car ( a Tercel or something) and pulled out a couple of shotguns. They then asked, “Who wants to check it out?” We all took turns holding it and checking it out; it was the first time had I ever held a gun so big, it felt odd, and powerful. After I handed the gun back, Joe asks, “So can I shoot it, or what?”

We walked out back, and Joe cocked the gun. He took aim, at a big steel shed across the back yard, and pulled the trigger. As the sound escaped the barrel, about 30 chickens that weren’t to be seen previously started flying around. It was like they were burrowed in the sand, waiting for something to unanimously alert them. Joe’s body was thrown back as he began to slink and grab his shoulder. Apparently the recoil is far more than he had anticipated. Somebody else took a shot, and I decided to pass. I really wanted to fire the gun, but I didn’t want to risk hurting myself and messing up shows. As we walked around the front of the house, we are asked when we are going to set up and play. We hummed and hawed until Dan came up with an excuse for us to have to leave immediately. We all pile into the van as fast as possible and high-tail it out of there. We never accepted a similar offer again.

Again I am here to shed some retrospective on the things I was thinking and feeling in the past, and because I have only been blogging about a year and a half, its really just “This Day A Year Ago Today” but whatever. I think the outlook that I seem to have had for a while now started on or around this date. I find that mildly amusing.

“I’ve deleted close to everyone from my ‘life’ ” - from the blog “D-lete” posted on Dec 15/08 at 23:39

[D-lete]

I have seen a few things in my day. People have gone to great lengths in order to promote the things they are looking to promote (band, movie, product, etc.). People are always looking for a way to drum up attention to their project. Obviously these days, the biggest methods of promotion are on the Internet.

Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter are all no-brainer’s if you want to promote your project/brand/product. Even though I’m not surprised to see constant efforts to be noticed on these things, there is one instance I have to reflect on.

Tunt.

Last week, Misty (@mistybluecullen) and I went to the local Blockbuster Video retail outlet to borrow some movies from them. We didn’t know which movies to ask for, we just browsed the aisles. Long story short (I cannot go to a video store without ever spending less than 25 minutes browsing), we rented 3 movies. The three were are follows: “Away We Go”, “The Goods”, and an independent satirical comedy titled “Visioneers”. Given my aforementioned descriptions, I am sure it is obvious which of these films I am writing this blog about.

We watched the first two movies that night, I took “Visioneers” home to watch on my own. The film’s synopsis, as copied from it’s website is as follows:

“First time feature filmmaker Jared Drake makes his directorial debut with this quirky black comedy set in the near future, and concerning a curious spike in cases of spontaneous human combustion. The Jeffers Corporation is the largest business in the history of mankind, and they got that way thanks to their strict philosophy of happiness through mindless productivity. But when people begin literally exploding due to unhappiness, Jeffers Corporation Level Three TUNT George Washington Winsterhammerman (Zach Galifianakis) begins to fear that his time will come sooner rather than later.

George lives a comfortable yet completely uneventful life, and when he starts having dreams in which he’s the first President of the United States, his doctor informs him that they could be signs of impending explosion. Later, as the dreams become more frequent and his co-workers continue to detonate, George is prompted to reevaluate his mundane existence. Judy Greer, Missi Pyle, and James LeGros co-star in an existential black comedy featuring music by Tim DeLaughter of the Polyphonic Spree.
~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide”

I watched the movie at home and I will say, I rather enjoyed it. I admit that at times it struggled to keep my attention, though that was probably the fault of the blog I was most likely writing at the time. In either case, I watched it, and took a few quotes to mind.

When I had begun watching the movie, I made a tweet expressing this fact, which is generally expected whenever I do anything. I am one of THOSE tweeps. After a few minutes of watching the movie, I received an email. @Visioneers was now following me on twitter. I was not surprised, as most people trying to promote something have a robot under their employ. A robot which constantly checks to see when a keyword is tweeted, and begins to automatically follow them. I paid no mind to it, and went back to the movie.

After about a day of watching the movie, I tweeted one of my favourite quotes from the movie. “Give me productivity or give me death. @Visioneers”. Anyone who has been on my page in the last week will know that I tend to include any twitter users I know that may apply to things I say. I was just mentioning the movie, and naturally mentioned the known twitter account which applied. I posted the tweet and then went about my day.

The next day, while checking twitter for my 500th time (barely an exaggeration), I happened to notice a reply/mention. It was from @Visioneers, thanking myself (along with a few other users) for mentioning them. I’ve been thinking about this for about the half of a week since its happened. A small gesture, a very small one, but still a very (for lack of a better phrase) kind one.

It’s not very often you see somebody thanking you for appreciating their work. I mean, when singers win a Grammy, when people are on stage, they thank. They thank people so vaguely, it’s basically meaningless. And yes, there was most likely a twitter robot program at work that started following me. The thanking though, that was done by hand. Whether it was done by the creators of the film, or it was done by somebody hired to tweet on their behalf, there was genuine gratitude for being mentioned/promoted in some way.

There is something I think that people have forgotten, something that’s been lost in time. People are famous because WE make them famous. Movies make money because WE pay to see them. WE allow these people to gain a sense of entitlement and walk all over us in return. I’m not saying that we should boycott big budget movies, I am not even saying that people need to embrace the independent features/bands. All I am saying is to think about it, when was the last time somebody thanked you for your patronage?

I end this post in saying this; a little bit of courtesy goes a long way. I will be purchasing not one, but two copies of the film. One for myself, and one to give to someone for Christmas. Two copies of the film won’t do much for the people who made it, but I can do a little as well.

Now, I am a story teller. I have stories; I have tall tales, and small tales. The one thing that they all have in common is the amount of time it takes me to tell a story. For some reason, I cannot manage to get to the point within the first half an hour of even the shortest of tales.

For a while now, I have wanted to tell some of the stories I have, most of which come from my sordid past of being an amateur somebody. A lot of these stories are of a sexual nature, though I refuse to let them become the main content of this feature. For my first of many, I tell the story of “Old Man Dan and the Legend of Purple Head”.

Now, this was a few years ago, so some of the facts may be skewed, though I will try not to exaggerate too much.

not far from reality

We were on one of many tours, this one was a solo stint down the east coast of the United States. After a couple of weeks, and a couple of [Van/Trailer] breakdowns, we had made it to Jacksonville, Florida. We all loved the city, it treated us well. The kids were good, the shows were fun, and our promoter there (Jesse – iamaphonic.com) always put us up and showed the band a good time.

I cannot recall if this was the night before the show, or the night after, but I do remember that we were in Jax for a couple of days. We were hanging around Jesse’s apartment, spending time with some friends. A small get together. Our things all strewn out about the apartment in they typical fashion of most bands sleeping on peoples floors. Boxes of cereal from the van on the floor.

Living on a 3 dollar per diem those days was not uncommon. Usually it would mean buying a 2 dollar box of Honey Comb cereal, and a box of pasta (which would usually be eaten raw if there was nowhere to cook it). Just to give a little background on that.

So, back to the apartment. We were all hanging out, just enjoying some down time. Some people playing Guitar Hero (this was so long ago the series hadn’t even had a sequel yet). I am sure that I had picked off to show my skill at numerous points throughout the night. I remember heading into the kitchen just as Jesse was unveiling a container full of “industrial strength hot sauce”. Jesse explained that it was created with the purpose of adding pure heat to massize amounts of food (giant pots of chili). He stressed that its intent was only to be diluted inside of high amounts of food. Apparently anyone wishing to buy it had to sign a form saying that they would not be allowed to offer it as a condiment in a restaurant under any circumstances.

After giving us all of the necessary information to both scare and intrigue the living hell out of all of us present (Gates, John-Phillipe, and myself), he then moved to offering us a taste. We all agreed. Gates was first; we all laughed as the toothpick was dipped into the red liquid. Just the smallest amount of the tip was covered on the small wood stick. Gates pulls the toothpick up to his mouth, and slowly, and hesitantly places the tip onto the centre of his tongue. After a moment or two, Gates begins to get choked up. Coughing and choking while reaching to find something, anything to pour in his mouth. His eyes begin to water and face turns read as he sticks his mouth under the faucet. He cranks the flow to full and begins flooding his face with water.

We all laugh as he recovers. At this point I cannot recall whether or not John-Phillipe tried the sauce, though I’m sure that if he did, it was similar to Gates’ experience. I, however, do remember trying it myself. I remember moments after feeling the cool speck hit my tongue, my entire mouth coated with fire. I also remember yelping while downing bottles of water until my stomach wouldn’t allow me to pour any more inside of it. I can’t even describe how much punch was packed into that small drop of hot sauce.

As I finished my recovery, the kitchen door swings open. It is Dan, and he wants to hear what all of the commotion is about. Now, Dan is a pretty tough guy. He is mild mannered, and keeps a level head most of the time. I have seen him angry though, I am pretty sure that he has the capability to be a pretty scary guy. I think he liked to promote the “Silent but Strong” stereotype. He was given the rundown about the hot sauce, a streamlined explanation of it. He enthusiastically took on the challenge of the fiery sauce.

Pretty Close to this

I cannot recall how his toothpick had become coated, whether it was one of us who put it on, or it was he who took that liberty. All I do know is that Dan had placed half a toothpicks worth of it into his mouth. To recap – The rest of us had about a drop, Dan had about 5-10 times more. We all sat in wonder, half concerned we would be taking a trip to the hospital, or collecting bits of his innards off the floor once his body rejected it (along with the rest of his organs).

Dan just shrugged, acting as if the hot sauce was nothing. Being tough guy Dan. We were all amazed; not only did he not require instant water, the guy was completely unfazed by taking much more then we had. A few more moments go by, and Dan’s smug look begins to change. While the look remains, his face begins to change colour. First red, growing from a light pink to a more true red, eventually turning into a deep purple. It was almost comparable to the scene in Willy Wonka where Violet Beauregarde eats the gum and turns into a blueberry. Okay, maybe not that bad.

The entire time this is happening, Dan is trying to maintain his cool. He doesn’t realize his shift in pigment, so he continues to act unfazed. We are hysterically laughing by the time he starts shaking. I cannot recall whether or not he went running for water. Though I am pretty sure that to prove he could handle it, he opted out of water and just went back to eating Honey Comb’s and watching people play Guitar Hero.

This is one of many events I wish I could film, as the hilarity from this is unfathomable. Dan’s face, actually, Dan’s entire (shaved) bald head was completely purple. Colour so bright it was comparable to a sheet of paper printed with low ink, faded, but still in full colour. It was intense.

When the words “brand loyalty” are heard, the first things that come to my mind are simple: car companies, soda types, video game systems, etc. Some people choose to drink only Coke; some people will only eat the Maple Leaf Prime chicken breast for dinner; I am pretty sure that when it comes time to buy a new car, I will be first looking at Lincolns.

There are obvious reasons for picking these things. Advertisements, quality, experience, and reputation all play a part. Though, all in all, being loyal to a specific soda company won’t affect your life all that much.

There is, however, a type of brand loyalty that is much more dangerous – the loyalty that attaches themselves to people and figures as brands. You see, Coca-Cola, Lexus, and Sony are trying to sell you material things. They are trying to move product, make a profit. While the methods and tactics they use are borderline brainwashing at times, it’s still just about pushing product out of the factory. The brand of people? They are trying to push ideals, and lifestyle. These can be much more damaging.

When you believe in someone and become loyal to them, you take on their beliefs and values as your own. There is a good chance that you can lose yourself in their agenda. People bought into the Bush brand. People following blindly because they were loyal to the thoughts and beliefs of the brand of Bush allowed two wars to be started. Now there are 124,000 troops in Iraq and 48,000 in Afghanistan.

Obama was elected into office based on people buying into his brand.
Charismatic, smooth talking, black (yes, black) – these are all characteristics that helped draw people in. Plans, ideas were laid out, all under the guise of “hope.” Hope for change, hope for peace, hope for life. I will admit that around the elections, I was a strong supporter of Obama, though the contrast of his opposition made it all too obvious that he was the only viable option for presidency. In either case, I am moving off of my point.

On Wednesday, Obama announced that there would be yet another repeat of Bush’s actions in 2007. 30,000 additional troops are going to be sent to Afghanistan.

There is something wrong here. Is this not the opposite of what was claimed to be happening? Either way, the point that I am making is that aside from Governors and congressmen, I have yet to see much protest from people. Were it Bush, like it was in 2007, there would be nonstop protest (as there was).

This all relates to my point, as people have bought into the brand. The Obama brand. While I choose to support him in general, I am completely against the new surge. I am against it regardless of the fact that attached to it came a date for the war to be over by because, like closing Guantanamo, the date can always be slid ahead with a slight excuse.

The idle worship isn’t limited to political leaders. Anyone with an opinion has an agenda. People choose to buy into the ideals and feelings of people they believe in. Buying into these things and following without rhyme or reason is an easy way to get pretty lost in yourself.

A lot of the influence I have had to make this site and start trying to post opinions like this, well, it came from somewhere. I don’t feel like getting into the specifics on the issue, but I was at a point where I fell into the trap of brand loyalty. I lost a lot of my own thoughts and opinions and sort of started taking on the traits of the life I wished to emulate. I’ve realized this.

I’ve realized this, and wrote this to warn. No matter how much you think you agree with someone or something – be it politics, music, art, religion – make sure you only let things influence and inspire you. Never let something take over the core of your being only to have you abandon yourself in the process. There are obvious places of opinion that are obviously designed to try and do these things. There are also much more subtle places – some places so subtle that the person at the top of it all probably doesn’t even realize (or want) the blind following they are creating.

Seriously, just be careful.

I’ve decided that along with some of the other blogs I have been posting, I will be occasionally (whenever I feel like it) be posting articles under the title “You Should Know Them”. In each of these posts I will highlight somebody I think you should know (get it yet?). These people aren’t going to all be about music, though a lot probably will. And with that, I will get this started.

Calvin Harris is a synthpop artist hailing from Dumfries, Scotland. Discovered on Myspace in 2006, Harris was signed to EMI and Sony BMG before ever releasing a full album. Prior to this he had three tracks featured on various 7-inch records with other electronic artists. Since signing, Calvin has released 2 records, “I Created Disco” and “Ready For The Weekend”. While neither had much critical acclaim, both are quite incredible records.

I am quite confused as to why he has yet to hit clubs up here (well he could have, I don’t club), nor the radio. The title track of his latest record is right up the alley of anyone into the traditional synthpop sound.

Ready for the weekend

But why else should you know who he is? One word, HUMANTHESIZER.

I love technologies. And I love when people use them to promote themselves in creative ways.