Grant's Warehouse

LJ never did much for me. This is Grant, signing off.

Current Music: "House of Cards" by Thom Yorke

Songs from my album,

Brownout:
Folk from the Oil Crash

will be trickling in.



http://www.myspace.com/grantvaldeshuling


Here are the first two. I offer them for downloading.

Current Music: "Butterscotch" by CocoRosie

My letter to The Seattle Times about video game dependency was published in today's paper. I didn't choose the title, "Separating the Men from the Toys". It's the last one.


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002369782_sunlets10.html

Current Music: "I Live to Fall Asleep" by Manic Street Preachers

America may have been too busy reading Us Weekly, but a piggy just streaked across the sky. Chevron has opened a Peak Oil awareness site.

www.willyoujoinus.com

Current Music: "Empty Souls" by Manic Street Preachers

Here is a letter to the editor that I wrote in response to an article in the Seattle Times about online video game addition. It summarizes my views on video game dependency as well as any LJ-sized bit could. The original article:
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=healthvideo06&date=20050706&query=online


To the Editor,

Your recent article about video game addiction was informative and well intentioned, but I believe it failed to convey the true scope of video game dependency today. I’m 20 years old, and when I look at my generation, particularly its men, I see wasted potential and an immature avoidance of reality. My generation has millions of video game experts, but no youth political movement worthy of the times, and a pathetic musical contribution to our culture. It is not possible for one’s video game dependency to interfere with his love life if one never gained a significant other in the first place because of years of evenings spent with controller in hand. How ironic that young men who waste their youth plugged into this elaborate entertainment non-reality couldn’t tell you what the Downing Street Memo is, or what the chance is of the draft returning, because they are busy playing as a character who, parallel to them, is plugged into the Matrix (in the case of bestseller "Enter the Matrix"). I’m not asking for legislation or even for concerned parents to step in. I’m asking for the teenagers and young men of this generation to step up, unplug and join me in reality.

-Grant Valdes Huling

Karl Rove did it. The Bush White House mastermind leaked the classified identity of Ambassador Joe Wilson's wife, a CIA agent, as a brazen act of political revenge. That's a felony he could be executed for. I don't know if it's legally treason, but it legally makes him a traitor. What do you have to say about this, Mr. Bush?

"Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors."
-- George Herbert Walker Bush, 1999

Oh, oops. That was clear. But I meant that other Mr. Bush:


"I don't know if we're going to find out the senior administration official. I don't have any idea".
--George W. Bush, October 6, 2003.

Rove didn't have clearance to know Valerie Plame's identity. Who told him? Did Bush know? How could Bush have not known? Either way, it looks like Karl Rove's karmic reaper is at his door. He deserves it.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/lawrence-odonnell/rove-blew-cia-agents-cov_3556.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thenewswire/archive/2005/07/the-leaking-of-classified.html

"Who's responsible? You fucking are." -Manic Street Preachers

Current Mood: Vengeful
Current Music: "She Is Suffering" by Manic Street Preachers

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/22/oprah.apology/index.html

With due respect, Oprah, it is not a "crash moment" when you "crash" a closed luxury clothing store after hours, expecting them to open it up so you can buy who-cares-what. Oh, and you happen to be black. It cheapens the notion of discrimination itself to go on your show talking about such a moment as if you were being victimized.

Current Music: "All the Same" by Quasi

This is from a New York Times article called "The Case Against Coldplay":
"Coldplay's countless fans seem to take comfort when Mr. Martin sings lines like, "Is there anybody out there who / Is lost and hurt and lonely too," while a strummed acoustic guitar telegraphs his aching sincerity. Me, I hear a passive-aggressive blowhard, immoderately proud as he flaunts humility. "I feel low," he announces in the chorus of "Low," belied by the peak of a crescendo that couldn't be more triumphant about it."

In case you didn't know where I was going, this doesn't just apply to Coldplay. People these days, especially at open-minded, well-meaning liberal places like Oberlin can become insufferable by trying to look enlightened enough to see all sides and likeable in every situation. Since when was it a crime to commit to something? Or to be dangerous? If someone has to bellow about some boring, nonsense, vauge triffle of a conflict, which both Chris Martin and some more self-pitying Obies do, it's almost insulting. It reveals the assumption that there aren't more important, grand things about which to get upset.

Depleted uranium shells are being used in Iraq today, even though they violate UN regulations. It's a crime against humanity to knowingly increase the rates of birth defects in Iraqi children and the children of servicemen. We can't say we didn't know. We did the same thing in 1991, only to a lesser extent than today.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/may2005/iraq-m10.shtml

Current Music: "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" by Nirvana

It appears the long-awaited memo that explicitly says that Bush lied deliberately about Iraq has come to light. Dated eight months before the invasion and meant for top-level government officials, it reads:

"SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL... Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WDM. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."


http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/05/05/ana05013.html

"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" by Joe Trippi. It's an account of Howard Dean's candidacy by his campaign manager. I need to borrow it for a week for a group research project. I've already read it, so I won't "read up" your copy. I just need it to look up passages, site pages and whatnot. Thank you. E-mail me at grant.huling@oberlin.edu if you have it!

Current Music: Jimmy Carter's "Crisis of Confidence" speech

Zeppelins in the Firey Sky
My Chernobyl
Eros
Melting Laughdown
Gardenhead (Neutral Milk Hotel)
The Empty Mirror
Electrocide
Very Ape (Nirvana)
Light Won't Break
Jackpot
Peak of the Arc

Current Music: "No Culture Icons" by The Thermals

There's no way it's all true. "Four of nineteen hijackers are alive and well".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/1559151.stm

Current Music: "Evil" by Interpol

North Quad, in the Sun. Hot rock shining over your body. That's the Burton Bash, and my band Toastmaster is playing there. Plus you've got the Trashbirds and Huzzah for the Shopkeep. But I've got to let you all know about Toastmaster, cause we're not mentioned on some of the posters. 8-9pm set.

Current Music: "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town" by David Bowie

IN SEARCH OF ROCK’S GREATEST BURN
By Grant Huling of Toastmaster

As Mr. Schneebly taught us, rock music is about sticking it to The Man. Just who The Man is, however, changes from song to song, and your “burn” has adapt fittingly. An effective burn in a rock lyric can forever change the balance of power in the universe. For example, most of us now smell The Man all over Paul McCartney, and have forgotten about that whole “dropping acid and inventing Sgt. Pepper” incident. Why? Because of Lennon’s mindfuck ditty called “How Do You Sleep?”. Forget about Oasis- real rockers get their burns down on record and don’t go whining to Hello! Magazine. Here they are, ordered worst to best.


“Such a scenic syphilitic, psycho parasitic, sub-mosquito, sick libido, fucked up, you’re a sick fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck sick sick sick sick fuck fuck sick fuck fuck fuck sick fuck (etc)…” -Primal Scream, “Pills”.
A burn isn’t nearly as harsh if the guy sounds like he’s losing his mind. It’s like if some ass is ready to fight you at a party, but he’s so wasted, he’s just weaving and babbling incoherently. All you need to do is look at your friends and shrug and you’ve already won. Fifty-six fuck points though.


“I got a hard dick with a curve, and that’s all you deserve.... Bitch, I’m broke.” -Cody Chesnutt, “Bitch I’m Broke”.
Bitch, you just got dumped. And now the world knows about your freakish boomerang cock. What were you thinking?


“Churchill no different. Wished the workers bled to a machine”. -Manic Street Preachers, “The Intense Humming of Evil”.
Churchill may seem like The Man to you, but when you think about it, aren’t we all Jonesing to pulverize the working man as soon as we get out of this hellhole?


“Your brains are in your sack, you two-faced fucking fake. You’re a scum-sucking shitty guy, so die, Taylor, die. I’ll see you in hell. I’ll be laughing cause you’re dead.” -Graham Coxon, “Song for the Sick”.
We live in a world where the burn reigns supreme, so Graham gets credits for totally alienating his audience by berating this Taylor guy nonstop. Fourteen fuck points.


“I’m not in love, but I’m gonna fuck you til somebody better comes along.” –Marilyn Manson, “User Friendly”.
This is a hand-crafted quality burn, but it suffers from the syndrome of having come from Marilyn Manson’s mouth. Which means it’s not as effective as it would have been had it appeared on, say, track two of The Postal Service’s album. Dear Brian, help beautify the world and give the next zinger to Chris Martin, ok? They’re wasted on you by now. Start saying nice things, go hippy, if you’re still trying to fuck with people. Here’s a trophy - you can be in hall of fame if you want.


“I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black.” –Nirvana, “Heart Shaped Box”.
Nobody cares that you wrote mean things about him too, Courtney. Who remembers a solid burn against Kurt Cobain that he didn’t write himself? If Courtney Love ends up getting cancer, then it will be confirmed that Kurt sold his soul to a witchdoctor back in the Aberdeen woods, which would also explain how in bejesus a song with this line in it dominated MTV.


“I know I’m headed for the bottom. But I’m riding you all the way.” -Soundgarden, “Mailman”.
This threat is diminished by the fact that in ’94 there were a lot of grunge girls who would have happily let Chris Cornell ride them all the way to the bottom.


“We hope that you choke.” –Radiohead, “Exit Music (For a Film)”.
Sung by Thom Yorke as Romeo, this is an excellent burn because he dies right after he says it, before the poor bastard think of a comeback. In fact, whenever you die immediately after delivering a burn, it’s in excellent form. Minus nine fuck points for being so literate.


“Go to the barber. Tell him you’re sick of looking like an asshole.” -Wesley Willis, “Cut the Mullet”.
When it comes to piously raging against mullets, Wesley Willis was truly ahead of his time. From this song on, whenever someone is tired of their mullet, this is what they have to tell their barber.


“You’ve inherited your mother’s bad taste in men.” – The ’89 Cubs, “Oh, the Things We Put in Our Heads”.
He just burned his girl, her parents and himself all in one move. Does he even know what he’s done? He just broke all the rules, and now he can burn in four dimensions, like a devilish sprite.


“You’re just some dude with a stilted attitude that you learned from TV” –Elliott Smith, “Color Bars”.
This may describe a third of everyone you’ve ever met, but that doesn’t make them less pathetic in the first place. I’ve been waiting for the moment to wittily deliver this line for five years now.


“I swear to God, when Jurassic Park 4 comes out, I ain’t taking you. See if someone else can afford that bullshit.” - Gil Mantera’s Party Dream, “Eurolung”.
When Ultimate Donny makes a threat, the world listens. Why? Because he follows through. This burn is like a time bomb that won’t go off until 2009, when she’s waiting in line for JP4 with some wanker who couldn’t hold a Bic to Donny’s ball hairs.


“The sound you make it muzak to my ears.” -John Lennon, “How Do You Sleep?”.
When I heard this song, for six months I forgot that “Eleanor Rigby” and “Helter Skelter” existed, and everything that came out of McCartney sounded like “Honey Pie”. Paul’s demonstrated poor damage control by sucking for thirty-five years.


“I don’t want to walk around with you. Why you want to walk around with me?” –The Ramones, “I Don’t Want to Walk Around With You
The original punks distilled the burn (like the melody and the guitar riff) down to its essence. There’s no way out of this one-two punch. Your honor, he’s asking my client a leading question!


-

DOs & DON'Ts—Dating
You're not allowed to date someone your friend dated—ever. By the same token, you are never allowed to date your ex's friends. If you want to go out with a girl but you kind of know her ex-boyfriend, that's fine. Just don't expect to be friends with him ever again.

"Tomorrow Never Knows" isn't -about- the meaning of life, it -is- the meaning of life... for as long as you're hearing it. Other songs that are also the meaning of life: "Brazil" by Kate Bush, "Amor Narcotico" by ChiChi Peralta, "What The Fuck Are You Talking About" by Deep Field South. Et Cetera.

Current Music: Anything

This is an open request to all of my friends. In the next week or so, we all have alot of papers, tests and projects. Let's not talk about it all the time. In general, I believe it's better to understate than to overstate the difficulty of one's life.

Current Music: "It Doesn't Matter" By The Chemical Brothers

Most online surveys are really shallow, but hopefully this one is a little better. Try it...


1) What was the last song you listened to?

"Bit Rate Variations In B-Flat (Girl)" by Beck

2) Now imagine you were struck dead by the hand of God. How would you feel about this being the last song you ever heard?

I always hoped I'd be listening to a more substantial song when I died. Oh well, it's a basically peaceful song.

3) If you had total control over any student organization on campus, which one?

The student senate purchasing committee.

4) What would you do with that power?

What they do, but perhaps be more hardcore. Make a mark as a campus that helps labor by buying mindfully.

5) Would you rather spend three years in a Buddhist monastery or as CEO of General Electric?

As CEO of GE, because then I could make more of a political mark than I could ever hope to. I would have nothing to lose, and alot of leverage to use.

6) Are you introverted or extroverted?

Introverted, I suppose.

7) How do you know?

Because life makes more sense inside my head.

8) Name three books, movies, pieces of music, etc. that have truly changed the way you see the world.

OK Computer by Radiohead, "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" by Julian Jaynes, "Ishmael" by Daniel Quin (at the time)

9) Do you have any recurring dreams, or recurring themes in them? Would you care to say what they are?

Yes, of the USA being invaded, by land and air, by a foreign army (the country changes: Chinese, Italian, unseen and unknown)

10) Do you ever experience Déjà vu? What’s your explanation for it?

Yes. Even though it runs counter to my own senses, it sounds plausable enough that what it is is your mind wrongly interpreting a short term memory as a long-term memory. Just once, I'd like to make a tangible note of having had a deja vu feeling, so that when something happened to remind me of it later, I could have evidence that I really did think of it in the past.

11) Describe The United States of America in three words:

Grandiose, lonely, fertile.

12) Describe your ideal nation state in three words:

Sustainably Democratic Socialist

13) Post a link here which will enlighten one who reads it:

http://lermanet.com/beck/
It seems that Beck is, and has been a Scientologist.

14. Have you ever resorted to physical violence? Under what circumstances might you?

No. If someone willfully violated the humanity of someone I cared about. Or if I lost control.

15. Would you say that you have good taste in music and movies? If the answer was no, why don’t you “improve” your tastes?

Yes.

16. Would you say that you are lazy? If yes, why?

No.

17. Do you have a “type” who you are attracted to? If so, what is it?

Girls who are eccentric and cute. Who are engaged with the world around them. With imagination.

18. Are there any maxims that you live by?

Yes. I can only think of one of them right now, but it's: Everyone is good, everyone is their own protagonist.

And I feel pretty, pretty enough for you. There are two kinds of people: 1) the gray, and 2) me and my love. I heard some say, "better run away", others say, "better stand still". Give the people something they understand. Rich man in a poor man's clothes. When you've got to feel it in your bones!
I found my soldier girl, she's so far away. She makes my head spin around. And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife. And you may ask yourself, "well, how did I get here?". You are a low down rotten man. Weird at my school. All the things I knew I didn't know and didn't want to know that you told me just to tell me later that you told me so come flooding back to me now.



Elliott Smith, The Magnetic Fields, Grateful Dead, Elliott Smith, Radiohead, The Polyphonic Spree, Talking Heads, Wesley Willis, The Pixies, The Magnetic Fields.

Current Mood: For your own good