bradleyadita

:VIA Journal:

10/31/06 Tuesday
What is a magic day? Walked the town as a skeleton or a painter or in liederhosen. Parties or alone. Dead Kennedys. Go listen to the 7th track on Plastic Surgery Disasters. Ok, go buy a t-shirt too. What better to spend ur money on? Well go buy a turn-table and go buy PSD on vinyl (well mostly for the 30 page insert). Man its been a long time. But what does it mean and what does it do and who is it for. Except for some reason lately preaching to the converted doesn't seem to mean the same thing as it did.
Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar? There was trick or treating at Target. Free candy while at the check-out. Snickers, Chewy Sweethearts, Nerds. Lots of CDs on sale. Been addicted to the NPL lately. Its a good routine. Cut out xerox copies. Glue sticks, scissors, rearrange magazine photos and letters. Deconstruction. But this is not supposed to be a prescribed medication. Day dream about a school filled with mohawks and pancake makeup and leather and spikes. And then theres this kid who just dreams of playing baseball all day. There's no baseball league. Theres no little league. The kids are forced to learn to play power chords and the drums. They have tests on the history of punk. Name the three most prominent British punk bands of 1977. Standardized tests. They preserve original copies of Punk magazine in glass cases like the constitution. You have to recite Aaron Cometbus's "Punk Rock Love" by heart. But this kid just dreams of playing baseball. But then its just the same isnt it.
So where are we then?
All I know it that they got baseball diamonds in the public parks but I've yet to see band practive spaces in the park district. Maybe the reverse will be even worse. Get out the paint brush and the T-square. Blueprint the future, kids. Whos invited to the party? Maybe im just salty, but i ate too much candy. Pop quiz! Play the guitar solo to Moon over Marin. (worth 30 points)
Tommorow you're homeless, Tonite it's a blast

10/14/06 Saturday
TechKnowledgeE (TXE), so its another weekend, like i deserve another one. I spent the early morning transfering friend requests from my personal profile to my music profile. Goal: to whittle the FRs down to below 200, Ill finish the rest some other time. Think its a good system. Just open a few pages of the FR on my perpro and then sign-out and sign in as my mupro and then add them up there. Then go back and deny all the requests I added over there and start the process over again with then next few pages. Mostly though, I just wish I could get a list of URLs of all my friends. That would help out totes. Well, there's always DIY.
Its funny how some of you get all wound up about me adding you as a friend. If you havent figured it out by now, well here it is. Im just going through the random profiles on the main page and adding everyone as friends. I mean unless someone gives me a reason to add them as any enemy, whats the point. If you know anything about me at all you'll know that its pretty silly. Im just not into it. But I'll add you as a friend. You can always add me as an enemy if you wanna but why should I have to defriend you? You're the one who decided to make a FOE profile. Love it or Leave it, or better yet, do both.
Besides, here's the two most exciting things about FOE; (1) Reaching 100,000 profiles (which, in actuality, is highly boring) and (2) Watching the fallout when the new Fall Out Boy album falls out of the sky. So these things should be happening a few months or maybe even weeks apart. Maybe well lets take a look at the profile tragectory. Recently we've been adding around 300 new profiles per 5 days. We're currently at approx. 94,250 so thats 5,750 left to go. 300 divided by 5,750 is around 19. 19 times 5 days is 95 days, which is just around 3 months, which will put us at January 15th, 2007 which will be around the time of the new FOB album. This also assumes that new profiles are created at a rate of around 300 per 5 days. Well, only time will tell.
Finally, I'll come back to this, but I'll briefly address this question now: ((Why do you champion Fall Out Boy?))
Authenticity is very difficult to muster these days for a long list of reasons, including that it is relatively simple for someone to find out information about any subject and thus become "in the know." However FOB represents a shift on the part of cats who've been in the game for years and also a merger with the new kids and new technology of web and profiles and "online reputations" and such. Its also how FOB punks HipHop and how HipHop is punking FOB, like the dance dancers on the new years eve performance and Jay-Z, and Gym Class Heros, but that doesnt explain. In fact, you need to listen to old Beastie Boys, and you need to go listen to Duck Rock. (round the outside round the outside) But it goes back to the days of Harpo Marx at Harp too.. and the Willy would be of the cats in Annies alley because you have to go to golden! And I'm just Jack Kerouca for you kids, like Aaron Elliot is for me maybe? But not at all. I met him in the dinge dirt of a Minneapolis roadshow and he seemed antique but yet wont we all become. And like the yesteryears of bygones be bygones be goodie two shoes blue suede, like the King of... pop goes the screeching weasel and too much light makes the bradley go blind.
double palindrome
Long winded. This is my downfall. And I will go on and I will go on and I will go on my little windmill, or may they be giants, to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop???
the world may never (TXknowXE)

10/09/06 Monday
"lying is the currency of the world", says pete on the october 2 installment on fbr.com. Ok bud. Dailectics, stolen from the film Half Nelson which i saw today with my mom. PG/PG-13/R.. etc.. yeah there should be a rating that says "dont see this film with your mom." Well it wasnt that bad and I didnt feel embarrased, but my mom said she felt sick to her stomache. Its got some drugs in it. Oh well. My mom walked out on Natural Born Killer and demanded her money back, which she did receive. Anyway, the killer was when they pulled out the Free To Be You And Me record during the family scene three-quarters into the film. Yeah there's just been a whole lot of FTBYAM going around lately. My friend Tiffany and Dave just started the "No Friends Club Group" on myspace. I think were the three members. And Dave put it on his mixtape for Tiff. And I put it on a mixtape which was sent to Dave and Tiff, and also Brad L. and Zach and Nate G. as well. Yeah the Minneapolis contigent.
But back to lies and money.
So i was doing alot of myspacing today. I found the profile of my friend Wendy from high school which was pretty crazy. I haven't seen Wendy in a long time. I also remembered that one of my new friends and I were talking about Hot Water Music, cause she used to hang out with them in Florida. This made me remember that I had made that "At the End of a Gun" (video performace, 'music video') so I sent her the link. So i watched it again, which was good cause I hadnt seen it in a while. And it just brought back so many memories Memories and thoughts and things I was thinking about and people from another place and time. But anyway, at the end of the song there's the line "we're nothing, but dying, we're nothing, if we sell ourselves, close our eyes, never hear and never cry, for living an empty life." Thats the line. When I was playing and singing along I kinda said messed and sang "an empty lie." So i thought about that and so thats what i'll say to Pete, that if you have to lie, make it a full lie. Go all the way. No cheap tricks. Surrender, Surrender, but dont give yourself away.

09/23/06 Saturday
Its been a while since I've written. I just read PeterPan's Sept. 19th entry on fobrock.com. Yeah, about Nirvana. The thing is that we have to keep in mind is that KC just took himself way too seriously. Grunge/Alternative, man Nirvana was so ahead of its time. Nevermind couldnt have happened today. Not at all. Actually thats whats great about Fall Out Boy. But also you can't have fob without nirvana, or green day, or the ramones, or blink-182, or neurosis. But the point is that in 1991 when Nevermind blewup, and through and until april 1994 when KC departed, there was no internet. There was no file downloading, there was no digital culture. Nirvana was the music internet, what I mean when I write that is that nirvana performed the function that the internet does today, which is to be a middle ground between polarized factions. In the late 80s and early 90s and before, music fans often stuck to their own kind of music and wore it like a cross. Few had the time or the money to become hard core fans of multiple genres. Highschools were populated by jocks, metalheads, popular kids, nerds, and wierdos. I know its the same today, but its different, because if that jock is wearing a t-shirt of a band you don't know, you can go and look them up on the internet. You can download songs by the band written on the patch sewn to backpack of the kid with the straight-edge wrists, you could check out the new tunes on the ipod your friend brought to lunch. Whereas before these markings may have been exclusionary and mysterious, now all signs/symbols/represent(ations) are more easily decoded.

I'm not saying whether this is a good thing or bad. It's just the way things are today, it's just different. Nirvana was able to authentically brigde several scenes, fans of metal, punk, rock, classic rock, and pop music all found something they could relate to (or react to) in Nevermind. Nevermind demanded that response, but the society also demanded nevermind, the society demanded an album which would help bridge the gap between these ever repellent subcultures.
Here's something else you need to keep in mind, (though i hate/love punk mythologistics, but what the hey!)... punk started in New York City in 1974 (even though it started in 1917 in New York City, even though it started in 610 in Hira, even though it started in 0 in Jerusalem, even though it started long before that or this and all this that). But if we pick up with The Ramones in 1974 (in which punk was distilled and embodied), we can then follow punk to July 4th 1976 when The Ramones give mother England a 200 year Declaration of Independence commemorative present. The "punk movement" (which is documented by the book PUNK), in England 1975-1979, saw the Brits under the heavy influence of the early NY punk scene, but who transcended NY and pushed punk beyond the wildest conception of the NYers. By '79, with the death of Spungen and Vicious and other indications, lead many to believe that punk was over, however what most snot-nosed Brits didnt realize was that punk was only dead in their tiny counrty. Punk was still alive and kicking hard in the US and had now spread through with notable scenes in DC, Ohio, LA, SF, NY, and beyond. Yet punk (at this point, renamed hardcore), was still far more diluted than it had been in England. It would take decades for punk to reach anything close to the fever-pitch of the British summer of '77. A lot of this has to do with the geography of these two countries. England is much smaller, and is centered by London as the culture hub, political capital, international ciudad. American, by contrast, is spread over much more land, with two main cultural hubs, NY and LA, and politically centered in DC. You can't igonre this when you consider how punk has operated in the states vs. in England. American punk comes in spurts and none yet has matched the synchronicity of the first punk movement of england. England legitimize the theoretical work of early NY scene, without London, there would be no punk as we know it, yet, without america, there is no punk. The punk lineage has gone unbroken for nearly three decades in the states and shows no signs of slowing down. Every day there are more and more indications that we are living on a punk planet. Yet, todays punks are not even known as punks, and to call it punk is, yes, a stretch but what is at the core? One of punks strengths is its ability to bond with other elements, much like carbon, to creating seemingly endless compound subcultural identities. Speaking of death and life, carbon is found in all organic life, but is carbon alive??? Anyway, the point im trying to communicate is that the internet gives us a beautiful (and sometimes nasty) tool with which to mediate our thoughts and ideas. It is a tool, which is inextricably linked to the latest compounds and freshest punk formations. And it is the medium through which I can keep dibs on a nigga and a nigga keep dibs on yours truly.

For all the moaning, whining, bitching, biting, scathing, scene oxygen to carbondioxde metabolism, you have to admit that Ben Weasel is money. Yeah, not money like Billie Joe Armstrong, but money, like Aaron Cometbus. Is it any surprise to you that Ben Weasel writes a blog? This makes absolute sense. Understand. Comprehend. Nevermind demanded response, but the society demanded Nevermind, The internet demands a response, but the society demands the internet. Both. Both. Both. Both. Ok we'll come back to that later, but heres the final ding-a-ling... So during class one of my students starts saying "!!closing the goddamn door?!!" And then I chimed in with a "havent you students ever heard of, finishing your *&$&% *&$ quiz now?!!!"... (no really...) ...Oh Kurt!, what happened? What really happened? but for us, here we are and lets be better for it, but maybe we wont and i know how it is when the sun sets and it's gone for now, but we can build a flying machine to keep up with the light or to resist the turning of the earth, if thats what's demanded, and i found the key to growing older, its growing older. And i found the key to one eye'd willy's rich stuff, growing older, in the booby trapped labrynth of your mind, and my mind, and our collective minds like joesph campbell and carl jung(le) bell, jung(le) bell, jung(le) bell rock.

06/15/06 Thursday
"the vectorist womanifesto"
vectorism. vectors are mathematical sequences, sets of numbers, or equations which can be used to define a direction. additionally, vectors are used by computers in contrast to raster graphics. raster graphics are similar to a needlepoint canvas or a when an image is made by people holding posters of various colors in the stands of a football stadium. raster images are built by dividing space into a series of equal sized areas and assigning each of those areas with a color which when seen from a distance (as a whole, holistics, Gestalt Theory), produces the desired image. these equal sized areas are called pixels. raster images are usually saved using bitmap (.bmp) or joint photographic experts group (.jpg) file extentions. Vector graphics are created using mathematical formulas to describe lines, shapes, curves, angles, etc. vector graphics are commonly saved as (.pict), (.tiff), and (.psd). Vector graphics have the advantage of a smaller file size since a series of equations requires less memory space than the information required to describe thousands of individual pixels. additionally, vector graphics can easily be reduced or enlarged since the equations remain the same at any relative size. the main disadvantage to vector graphics is that they usually simplify an image, making the image look flat. if a detailed image is required, it is best to use raster images. recently, the advancement of technology and computer software has given artists new tools to use in graphic design, which has increasingly spilled over into the mass media of newspapers, the internet, and most visibly on television. vector graphics have seen a rapid increase in visibility since the late 1990s. examples of vector graphics are the recent marshall fields advertising campaign featuring stripes and floral designs, vh1 and mtv show intros, and commercials such as target with repeating logos. in 2006, vectors have become a common site in the western urban/suburban cultural sphere. the raster/vector duality is fluid rather than fixed. a conversation exists between these two approaches to the building up or breaking down of an image. even within our own physiology this conversation exists between the eye (which views the world as a raster image, as light hits photosensitive rod and cone cells) and the brain (which translates the information from the eye into concepts, things to be moved, used, touched, and ideas; more similar to equations). the eye merely receives input in the form of light, the brain uses this information in a variety of ways. however, the light reflected off a scene or object is neither raster nor vector, but rather a constant showering, movement of photons through space. vision is the waterfall of light into the black hole of the retina. essentially, what we see is only a piece of the ever moving whole. raster/vector is also found in the art world. art throughout history can be viewed with this duality in mind. expressionism in general and specifically a work such as 'sunday afternoon on la grande jatte' (georges seurat, 1884-6) as well as the history of photography can be seen as demonstrating the raster approach. minimalism, abstraction, cartoons, graffiti and to some extent social realism culminating in soviet propaganda, as well as conceptual art exemplify the vector approach. while both approaches inform each other, there are still new possibilities. for example, a future development might be a camera that can take a vector photograph. the proliferation of vectors in the early 21st century also coincides with philosophical/political events. vectors are equations, directions, instructions. the rise of george w. bush and the conservative republicans, in the wake of the democrat's tide, sets the scene for contemporary philosophy. in an increasingly politicized post-modern culture including bricolage, polystylism, and randomness (* see below), vectorism becomes apparent in contrast. while not prescribing any specific direction, vectorism rather identifies the ideology of having direction. the vectorist is a person with a knowledge of their own direction. the vectorist acknowledges the world, accepts multifacted history but yet is compelled by it. the vectorist anticipates the direction of others. the vectorist affirms of individual direction. the ideology of vectorism, then, identifies that direction is an inalienable human quality, which can not be negated. directionlessness, is none the less, direction by design.

"im a capcom"
black holes use to be stars
i got nothing in my guitars
i like lincoln so i save my pennies
why can't we be friends and enemies

(* below: When reminded that he had publicly denied using cocaine, Bush replied, “I haven’t denied anything.” - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4282799.stm)

06/14/06 Wednesday
If the world ends, and no one is around, does it make a sound?

06/13/06 Tuesday
concerning the they might be giants documentary called "gigantic." there are around 4 or 5 mentions of the ramones in the film. the beatles are mentioned in one scene. and mark hoppus is interviewed. the word "punk" is said around 3 times. the saddest thing about the film, other than the sadness surrounding the art of the john's is when the duo is playing a live performance at tower records, on the night of sept. 10th, 2001. In the mockumentary, "art school confidential," written by daniel clowes, there's a line spoken in nouveaux valspeak by a fellow classmate concerning the protagonist's final art project. she says, "oh that's so september 10th." And while "gigantic," doesn't make direct reference to the events of september 11th, immediately apparent is the fact that this is how they might be giants spent september 10th. the sadness is thinking about how some other people spent that night. instead, they might be giants offered a song, "cuz, eveyone's your friend in new york city. and everything looks beautiful when you're young and pretty. the streets are paved with diamonds and there's just so much to see, but the best thing about new york city is, you and me."

06/12/06 Monday
a project of this magnitude is attempted with surplus sweat, ingenuity, and dumb-luck. what's to come is found in what's around. the world is not ours and neither are our dreams. this is the difference between ownership and responsibility. newspaper clippings, fax machines, a pile of receipts. soil samples, foundations, rebar. 11 years old. summer camp. over night. pool party. afternoon sun burning on your back, drying off, laying on the hot gritty concrete next to the deep end. no running. no diving. the australians are playing 500. girls laughing. chlorine. the sound on the radio, what was he saying? "eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn, world serves its own needs, dummy serve your own needs." shes climbing out of the deep end, the metallic steps. shes wet golden beautiful, orange bikini, in slow motion. "six o'clock - tv hour, don't get caught in foreign towers." what was that song? what were those words? like the shape of her body and twilight. the yellow kayaks, lake delton, and the pine trees beyond, the diamond darkness in the emptiness of meaning. so lets meet at the corner, bring those old seven inch records, toss a pint, dance a gig. the sound of a clarinet, a high hat, a trumpet, a baritone saxophone. and the blueprints, the architects, the goverment men, men of industry.
lets put on a show.

06/11/06 Sunday
knights, gauchos, vaqueros, cowboys, surfers, skateboarders. Craig pushed all the furniture to the walls to make room. the plans had been sketched weeks before. rent a garage to fix up motorcycles. have you read zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance? the rugged individual. Thoreau. these guts. neon green on a black canvas reads, "we are all immigrants." piece of comb, shades of blue glass, a barbie leg. the busycle is coming to town. it's an international thing, it's a human thing. the endless summer. end of the century. we're all killed in the ring.

06/10/06 Saturday
lies. the number of cards in a complete set of baseball cards is actually 792. oops. last night drove past lbc and had an inspiration to call kevin while simultaneuosly recalling that the methadones were playing somewhere. he answered the phone with the location as he sat at the bar and watched the copyrights set up their drums. turned around and headed to "the note." approached the doorman without id had to go back and get it out of the car, nerrr! the methadones rocked rocked rocked. theres a new genre terminology going round called 'buzz pop,' and these guys fit that concept. all their songs were super tight and they have this great ability to just hold a single note played at rapid speed until dan schafer breaks into the lyrics deriding the middle class suburban consumer lifestyle and outsider insider rocker status introspection. mike byrne appeared as a super friendly dinosaur characture smiling gleefuly as he harmonized solos over the power chord structures. the mood in the club was liquored upbeat and muscled as a number of fans swayed in time in the disorganized pit. the club was not jammed packed, yet by no means empty, rather a healthy number of 21 + overs made themselves known. jenny choi was in attendance as she had contributed to their record which the methadones were releasing that night, brendan kelly and chris from lawrence arms were also in full form even jumping on stage during the encore performance including the song 'someday,' which was a classic from dan's earlier days with the band Slugdeworth. This was the scene, the chicago rock scene on a friday night flashback to mcgregors fifteen years before. a club filled with potential, reverie, and nerve.

06/09/06 Friday
796. thats the number of baseball cards in a case. all the players from the year. less than a week on foe and as usual, profiles accumulate like dusts in corners and sands on beaches. what is it, in freshly paved asphalt, in newly poured concrete? (pause.) the cellular phone wont reveal the photos taken by the camera inside. must send the photos to another phone only to be sent again and again. phone bill larger than the monthly income of the world's family working. spoiled american me. yet reflecting, what is this spoilage? is that rotting cucumber not food for feasting fungi? is that vomit not licked up by the salivating poodle? are not these bankrupt wordlings savoured by the new millenium maggots? (pause.) Yea, the cycle of produce and consume spins onward in the oblivion of our minds. this the consequence of sequence and a quart of mint chocolate chip.

06/08/06 Thursday
today was ordinary plus extra. there's this super hot model mamma, incredible, from florida. instant message connection was made. shes pretty cool, she was iming me from the car, driving with her knees! haha. today was a day for a whopper at burger king, although consumption of less meat is a good idea. this was washed down with a medium helping of cherry & coke icEE brand goodness at for a total of $3.36 which was paid in exact change. american culture post wwii is defined by consumption. keep this in mind as we define 'radical' and/or 'revolution.' production was made obsolete by the bomb. now the boys buy the music called "radio active kid."