been there, done that

sounds outdated, cliché. There's got to be a fresher way to express the same sentiment.

Like every other time beforehand, today you observed but didn't partake. They described movement, euphoria. We ditched computers, phones, and televisions and watched the desert and mountains frame the sunset, rosy and mauve. Easy took away wrinkles that shouldn't have been there to begin with. Dusk's closing in meant a return to the city; we aren't built for the outside at all, really.

Juice, seize, scared. It's dark and the desert is suddenly all spines, shivers and teeth, not nearly as alluring as it'd been under the sun. Talk about self-revolution, the mind can turn hardened muscle into swiss cheese in the space between two heartbeats, for sure.

Good friends are the people who hold back your hand as you take off running towards the edge.

where are they now?

"I believe you're one of them, you're one of those things
So, go ahead, scream all you want, 'cause that only excites me
I'm making this plate for the sea, I'm taking all of you with me
So, suffer little children, come and get me"

Texas-based band "The Paper Chase" is the only outfit who I've asked this question about, forget VH1-hit wonders and their reoccuring drug problems. This act's absence from the internet sphere is as disturbing as the Frankenstein twist on music they've stapled together. Think haunting, but less like Lisa Hannigan and more like the Overlook Hotel. Dissonance in song breathes unrest, and this sort is along the lines of say, three or four ghosts following you home. How frontman and main composer John Congleton can keep his instruments in their states of detune is beyond me, but he's done so for three albums so far. Eerie tinkling pianos and strings and knives ripped from slasher flicks are the background for what was described by AllMusic as a combination of "avant-garde jazz, noise, indie, and punk." The only record of theirs I own is 2006's "Now You Are One of Us," and it's chock full of the good kind of paranoia. Slower pieces like "This Song Will Eat Itself" and "At the Other End of the Leash" build with the mounting horror of a Lovecraft story, while more musically involved tracks like "Wait Until I Get My Hands On You," and "We Know Where You Sleep," make you think snipping scissors and zombies playing Faith No More songs. I'm amazed by the melodic structure their songs maintain throughout the dischord; a lot of it is owed to Congleton's vocals, alternating between sweetness and savagery like a vicious magician. "You Will Never Take Me Alive" is the graveyard anthem that My Chemical Romance wishes they wrote, and I'm sure their other albums are full of goodies, too.

Which is why I'm concerned; most live acts can't get enough promotion and publicity, but the only bit I've found on these characters says they cancelled their last show (ages ago, in December of 2008) and they haven't signed onto their Myspace page for over a month. Hopefully they're recording and aren't cold with tags on their toes. I could make that trip, there's good music in Texas.

kung fu kobe

Forget dunks, I want posters of Kobe making people kiss his sz14 boot.

the alarm sensitivity is off, and the itunes genius

is wonderful.

For sure, I had flashes of Skynet when starting it through iTunes; it scans your library, compares that to the music collections and listening habits of who knows how many people, and hand picks you songs in increments of 25, and everything's perfect.

Just like The Secret of the Ooze.

• The perimeter's quiet. Yeah. A little too quiet. Come on. Okay. [knock, knock] Well, that was easy. Yeah, a little too easy. Look, it's Raph! Yeah, a little too Raph.

Hopefully they don't send a Terminator after me. I'll keep using it as long as it keeps doing magic at the click of a button. Metal rounds with Genius reminded me that I've got Finch (What It Is to Burn, circa high school) on my hard drive and it doesn't lump the ringtone rap I have with the less commercial hip hop type stuff. Supersupersuper.

from Apple: "Meet Genius: a brilliant way to create perfect playlists. Play a song, click the Genius button, and iTunes creates a playlist of other songs from your library that go great together. Genius playlists help you discover songs in your library you never knew you had — and rediscover forgotten favorites."

I'll rediscover forgotten favorites for the first time, awesome. They solved my playlist problem.

hopefully i one day look back on this stuff

...and think, "you knew nothing."

I like to listen to a wide variety of music, and I am a packrat.

Recently, when swapping files onto my external, I undertook the task of organizing my music collection. A little part of me died that weekend.

Nowadays at 25K+ songs and counting, I've come to find that I hardly know the catalog of music that I've hoarded. Both my eclectic tastes and short attention span are to blame for this mess.

I realize I haven't really listened to music in a while; my preferred listening environment is sat in the driver's seat of a car, 80MPH in 3rd on the freeway, windows slightly lowered with 2000 or so watts screaming at me, me physically exulting with every pulse and dip in the music. The car's been sidelined for a while (for sure, I shed a single tear every time I go home and see subwoofers sitting on bedstands) and I'm thinking that as a direct result, I've skimmed countless tracks like they were chapters in college textbooks. That's no good.

I miss developing that connection to whatever music moves you best; we can all sit and listen to the radio together, but no two people will ever react to a piece of music in the exactly same way. We each take our own personal possession of these little three-minute time slots (set to syncopation and melody). We apply our own dis/likes and biases. For me, tons of things come to mind within seconds of a familiar song's start: I used to sing Thrice's "Illusion of Safety" album to myself, from first track to last to keep from falling asleep in church, and Tech N9ne's "Let's Go" will always be rolling shoulders and messing with kid sister in Kaua'i.

Open your ears and quit worrying about which song's coming up next, Raymond.

Off the back of my neck, the new Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Hoobastank releases were entirely forgettable. I was introduced to Dallas Green (who I'd known previously as the frontman of Alexisonfire) who, incidentally sings like an angel when not metalcore-backed. Kill the autotune, K, and make another record.

(2009) Naturally 7 - first saw them performing "In the Air Tonight" in the subway (two thumbs way down for the guy who kept his back turned and pretended not to notice) a couple years back, this year they've released "Wall of Sound" and do a decent job at picking up where BoyzIIMen left off. Their "Broken Wings" is a refreshing rendition of the Mr. Mister original.

(2008) Unearth - known and loved 'em since 2004's "Oncoming Storm," their latest effort "The March" still features the dueling lead guitars and razor-sharp riffs that fans have come to expect. The track "Truth or Consequence" has a breakdown so low and severe it demands immediate bowel surrender, and "Cutman" is full of arpeggiated goodness.

Will see if anything else catches my attention. I'm listening.

digitvs impvdicvs

[The breadth of contemporary Roman influence usually doesn't include the domain of fashion.] Indeed, modern day dress [doesn't] necessarily include cloaks tunics, togas, and open-toed sandals, but many of the ideals and legacies set forth by the Roman Empire have served as direct inspiration for [among others] the Southern California based company “Triumvir.”

Translated from Latin, triumvir reads “of three men,” and accordingly, Triumvir was founded in 2004 by a three Taiwanese emigrants who dug their roots into the Pacific Coast's Orange County. In creating their independent lifestyle/clothing company, the founders (like those of the United States) demonstrated a dedication to the lasting impressions left by the classics. They sought to embrace and the diversity of the cultures [inhabitating]the Southern California area with a “playground in Los Angeles, relaxing getaway in San Diego, and home in between.”

The Second Triumvirate was a legally established military dictatorship, agreed upon by the state, Augustus Caesar (successor to Julius Caesar), and two others in 43 BC; Augustus eventually gained sole control and engineered a system of government under which a Republican state could be ruled by a monarch. His style of administration would serve as the model for [that of] the entire Roman Empire, and the period during and after his rule came to be known as the Pax Romana (Roman Peace).

Like George Washington would later on in American history, Augustus also initially refused the power offered to him by the Roman populace, thus embodying the classic republican ideal of a powerful leader who declined rule in the best interests of the nation.

[It's] no wonder then, considering the classical mindset of its founders, that the clothing company would choose to focus on the image of triumvir Augustus Caesar for this advertisement. The graphic designer took the world-renowned sculpture “Augustus of Prima Porta” and made one distinct edit; instead of having his hand raised in the classical “adlocution” pose (reserved for public speaking and addressing troops), Augustus' likeness is shown to be displaying an upraised middle finger. The tagline underneath reads, “Rome never fell.”

While most Westerners are familiar with the offensive nature of the hand gesture, [one'd] be hard pressed to find a person who knew its origin. Urban legends point to the British and French using the gesture as a taunt towards the end of the Hundred Years' War in 1415, but more suggestive evidence indicates that the upraised middle finger has a much longer history; the digitus impudicus (impudent finger) described in Ancient Roman texts was a symbol of rage/rebellion, and the same finger was used in Greek plays as an insult, as well.

This modern day widespread awareness of the gesture's meaning only stands as a testament to the [pervasive] scope of classic Roman and Greek influence. Among other things, [the 2000+ year history of the] digitus impudicus (with the help of trivial startup clothing brands) has been a great indicator that the ideas that emerged out of the Roman Empire will long outlive its fall.