New York, New York

I read on CNN last night when I got home crowd esitmates were around 450,000. That may have since been revised. To give you an idea of how many people there were, people stood shoulder to shoulder from 34th street along 7th avenue all the way down to Canal street. That's around 40 or so NYC blocks. You can't even see half that distance due to the curveture of the earth. 34th is where the empire state building is and canal is just north of TriBeCa and just south of SoHo. Basically, it's a good long distance.

I got to New York around 11 AM or so; I went for a walk in Greenwich village since it was close to where we were starting (14th and 7th ave). I saw the Greenwich ralley and they were moving kind of slowly at this time and by the time I had decided to turn around go meet up with the rest of the march at meeting point they were still several blocks down 14th approaching from the West.

Chelsea and the crew from the south had their own ralley which had been going on since the very early AM met up with the ralley from the south. The folks from East village and alphabet town then converged on us from the east and the police slowly shuttled all the smaller rallies in, opening up the baracades for them.

After the march got going a large contingent from Westchester County had been marching along 20th or so street and met up with us and they were later shuttled in.

The energy there was really incredible. I am sure most of the images you will see will just be a few select people, but the vast vast vast majority of the people in crowd were normal people who wanted to support a common cause. One woman had a sign that read: I am a middle class , married, white women with two children. In other words, she was saying: this is America. Yes, there were radicals there was a lot of fringe groups also, but that's to be expected.

A common theme was "this is what democracy looks like". When we marched past any Fox news truck we boo'd. lol. When there was one from a competing newssource close by we cheered them. Several times we cheered the cops who where very cool to those who weren't being complete idiots. Once or twice there was a chant "give the cops a contract" because the police may or may not be protesting in a couple days since they are currently without a contract.

The sound was at times pleasent, other times earth shaking and defening, and at others symply amazing and awe inspiring. I can not describe it properly.I have been to some big concerts in my time. Greatful Dead in 95 at Highgate VT, Phish at Clifford Ball in 96 so I have seen big crowds before, but nothing, and I do mean nothing like this.

It took me three hours to march the route from 14th along 7th down to 34th and past MSG, where we all boo'd like crazy and yelled "shame", around to Broadway and down to Union Square - around two miles. All the water vendors had sold out water by the time I got to them along the route and I was about to die when I got to Union Square. Luckily there was a bunch of water for sale (on dollar) and I bought some water and then went and took a nap in the park for about an hour up against a tree. It was very pleasent, ironically, with tens of thousands of people walking around.

I went to the East Village to go get some eats. I'm not sure how many of you know the East Village but it is probably the most eclectic collection of resteraunts in a single neighborhood anywhere. This is also the dollar bin place of trendy clothing. East Village is probably one of major trend setting places of America. Also, it's not very expensive and the people are people are cool and layed back. Not normal, but layed back.

New York is very Neighborhoody. Especialy Manhatten. If you live in Manhatten then you also live in a neighborhood and this is what identifies you and it's a big deal. If you live on lower east side your probably Jewish or Chinese. If you live off Union Square your probably a hardcore liberal who is also a health nut. If you live in SoHo your a beat poet, artist, or you own a gallery. If you live in TriBeCa your just like the people in SoHo except add the word "starving" to that. And, in the east village you could be anything, really. This is where you go to see people with a 12" long spiked mohawk with purple hair and 3" ear plugs. But, you are just as likely to see a woman pushing a kid along in a stroller on her way to church (there is a church right smack in the middle of St. Marks). It really is an eclectic mix and what I like to think of as the ultimate in acceptance.

So, I went to this 24/7 resteraunt called Yafa's Cafe which I have read good things about and I was not disapointed. They served all kinds of great Mediteranean food with a Lebanese theme. I got the Pene pasta and a couple beers and it was wonderful. For a 10 dollar main course in NYC this was a top notch meal. By this time it was time to hop the 6 train and go back to Grande Central for the train ride back to Poughkipsie.

All in all, I enjoyed myself and it was a good feeling, one which I will be able to look back on with good thoughts.

In Soviet Russia, all your base are belong to YOU!

I'm listening to The Arcade Fire. The album comes out Sept 14th, I think. Check it out, or harase your local DJ/station if you live in a small town like me.

School starts in exactly a week from today. I am happy about that. The sooner the better.

The weather has finally started to cool off. This is a good thing. I really hate wakeing up in the middle of the night sweating because it's 110 degrees inside.

I bought a video game the other day, it turned out to be the expansion for another video and this means I spent 30 dollars on a video game I can't even play. How fucked up is that?

Lions and Tigers and Republicans, oh my!

So, I've been thinking of going to NYC on August 29th for the convention. When I'm 70 years old and people ask me what I did during the election of 2004, I can say I voted and went to NYC. The Village Voice has been hyping it up to be one of the largest gatherings of creative talent ever. People from the theatre companies, free music, dancing, comedians... It should be really awesome. The creative mind is one not to be trifled with.

The Voice also gives us this sage advice:

How do you let the GOP conventioneers know that you care? Try this passive-aggressive tip from United for Peace and Justice.

On its list of 10 Things New Yorkers Can Do to Say NO to the Bush Agenda During the RNC, go to No. 6: "DON'T RENT YOUR APARTMENT TO THE REPUBLICANS."

But if you do decide to rent to them, at least put the old sheets out and lock up your lube and sex toys.

Ahh, New York. When in doubt, lock up the sex toys. I can see it now, America is invaded from Mars and what do you do. Quick! Get the vibrators for the love of God!

If you have Republican friends (or if you are yourself), you should get them to visit this sight. Very likely not work safe, no audio however.

And in other news, I've found a great new way to get indie music. Well, it's not new, but it's new for me. Got me some Ted Leo and the Pharmacists in right now. I've got some Mogwai, Yeah Yeah Yeah's, The Shins, Interpol, and a few other things.

I also found this great online streaming radio program. They have an extremely wide variety of music from The Rolling Stones to The Ramones to The Cure to Johnny Cash to Gomez to Miss Kitten and the Hacker. It fucking rocks I completely recommend it.

Love explained

It's all right here

So, yesterday I went to Bard to check on my financial aid which hasn't gone through yet... they made an error on my social security. I decided I was going to work out at the gym while I was there but someone hung little post it notes on the door saying: closed for the day, sorry! In each door. Only at Bard; only at Bard. So I went to the soccer field and worked out a little and then went for a run. There was a little two year old on the soccer field and he kept coming over (waddling) pointing his finger laughing and saying something completly uninteligable, laughing and then running back to his mom (I assume it was his mom, no idea really). She thought this was even more hillirious then the little boy did. As if to say - idiot it's a beautiful day out today.

You might be wondering why my last post just appeared today but is dated for Sunday. Well, I thought I lost it actually. I hit publish and it all disapeared. Today I was messing around with the editing tool and I found the archived copy. So, I opened it and published it again. Bingo!

In truth I've been having a good summer post Texas. I have decided that is probably something everyone needs. To get the fuck out of dodge when you need to. This is probably one of the better summers I've had since the summer I spent in Hampton around about year 2000 or so. That was a good summer.

Fall will be here soon. I can smell fall approaching in the mornings now; the sharpness of breath and coolness in the air. I love Autumn, the weather is about perfect for me.

A few months back I met this girl named Vashtai. Very small, petite, blonde headed, girl whom I have not thought about much since, except in passing or no more so then I do all the other excentricities of my life. Well, yesterday I had this dream and she was in it. It was totally bizaar. It involved nipple pinching for good luck. I suppose when I have thought about her in my waking moments it's been more about her name. Having never heard that name, I suppose it marked a specific curiosity in me. But I don't think I've thought about tweaking her nipples, anythings possible though.

From the Health Dept:

Did you know eating healthy is expensive? Did you also know that eating like crap is cheap? This goes completly against conventiontal wisdom that tells us snacking is cheap and eating healthy is common sense fruits and vegetables is cheap. You remember the commercials growing up: For the cost of one candy bar you can buy one apple. Ok, so that's the apple.



You can eat processed crap food for about 1/3 the cost of real food. I know this because this is what I have been doing for a long time. Since I have decided to start eating right, my grocery bill has doubled. Yet I am not buying extravagent items either, which is what you may be thinking. I am buying more vegetables canned and fresh, fruit, and meats. These things I rarely bought since moving to NY.



Being the typical college student I've been living off "living on reds and vitamin C and cocaine". Oh wait, that was the greatfull dead. Actually I've been living off a lot of pasta and cheap pizza with a little beer.

A whole lot of empty carbs, speaking of carbs



Here's what foamy has to say about carbs.

So, what does all this mean? I dunno, other then it seems it's more expensive to stay healthy then not healthy and something about that doesn't sit quite right with me.

Sheep shit

While I was growing up I would drive along the back country roads with my grandfather, and they are all back country roads, and at some point we would inevitably see sheep. My grandfather would say "sheep shit" without looking, smiling or frowning.

My dad was that way to, except he could care less about sheep. My Dad is an avide deer hunter. I enjoy it myself, but I have found little time for it as of late. We would be buzzing along the old military turnpike or the lake shore road and taking corners at a brisk 60 miles an hour in a ford F-250 and he would say: doe and two fawns standing in that second brushline.

I'd look and look and finally, just before we would round the last corner I would spot the doe. This happened so many times during the times I was growing up, I thought my father was blessed with super human sight. That black portion of your eye, the part in the middle of you iris, my dad has two of those in one of his eyes. When he was younger a piece of shrapnel (farming accident) hit him directly in the eye. In truth, this impares his vission in this eye a good deal and he has some scare tissue on his eye because of it, but being a kid I was more inclinded to believe my Dad had some sort of genetic malfunction which gave him mutant sight on the order of the X-men.

His advice to me was always the same. You've got to keep your eyes peeled. There's a lot that goes on in this world around us. Most of which we pay no attention to. Farmers grow up with the specific need to pay attention to that which everyone else ignores.

Anyone can plow the ground in the fall harrow it in the spring and plant some corn harvest it in the spring. But, if you do that year in year out every year you start to learn things about the land and the creatures of the land that teach as much about yourself if not more then you can learn from a college course in ag. I'm not sure how to describe it, other then this emotional connectedness that farmers have with land that other people just do not share.

So where am I going with this. Today is the "appreciate something which has always been there but you never noticed it day". I just made that up.

That is all

PS: I didn't proof today, deal

I need new boots

My hiking boots have worn themselves out now, almost totally. They've been very good to me howevor. This is the first pair of Vasque hiking boots that I have been able to keep to the end of their life cycle. I've also had a pair of Timberlands since 1997 that I only wear when I absolutly need to.

Maybe tommorow...

Workin' out

This summer I started working out again. The last time I was this serious about working out was sometime before I went on my last cruise in 2002 and most probably the summer of 2001 or so.

All told, I'm having fun with it again. For some strange reason it makes me feel good about myself. I don't dread getting out of bed and I can actually stand to look at myself in the mirror. I'm not fat, never have been and never will be. But, I was ultra skinny. You see, if I don't work out I stop eating and I start losing weight. This is bad for lots of reasons.

I'm following this workout regimen. I'm basically on level two for running, but I have yet to start swimming. I'm mid way through level 1 on the other sploof. It'll take me a little while before I start swimming to those levels. I do ride a bike howevor, and I put on a good many miles on it.

Yesterday I ran 4 miles, the day before 3 miles, today I will do somewhere between 3 and 4 miles depending on how I feel. I made this course out in the neighborhood where I can cut off half miles by eleminating blocks or cut backs. This way I can have a 2 mile run or as many as I want by looping the blocks.

I think I will make banana bread today since the color and smooshyness of my bananas right now says No Touche!

In other depresing news I went searching for this radio program I used to listen to all the time in Virginia WHRV public radio. It was called Raleigh Bristol or some such. The guy was fairly old but played some great musich which I really enjoyed. They just don't have DJ's around like that anymore. Well, I guess he either died or they took it off the air or he left the station since I dont' see him or the program listed on their sight. Oh well.

For people who still do love good music I recomend Sounds Eclectic. It broadcasts out of KCRW in Santa Monica and you can get all their play lists from the websight. I can never seem to get it to work for me though.

toodles

Beware: Pickpockets and Loose Women

Last night I had a dream.

This falcon was being abused so I took it unto my care. I guess he liked me so he would hang out with me and such. When he would fly around, I would hold out my arm like a falconer so he could make his approach and land. This Falcon was special, since he was often drunk, he would miss my arm and hit the ground with such force that it would cause him to tumble on the ground. I would then pick up and dust him off a bit. In this dream I also had a horse, but since my dream didnt' allow for horse trailers past act I, I never actually saw it again. There was a lot of other things going on, all crazy no doubt, I just can't remember them.

Yesterday I went out to a bar - The Black Swan. My apartment was unbarably hot and I just couldn't take it anymore. I wanted a pint of guiness and this place is a good place to go to get one. It has wooden ceilings and floors. Oak bar and very little natural light. It has cool signs everywhere. I like cool signs. Sings like Beware: pickpockets and loose woman, many signs in Cyrilic, signs about Catholic propoganda and the Irish national movement. It's very hole in the wallish. This is also where most of the students from Bard hang out.

Well, I get there around quarter after 10 and I am the only one in there, along with my bartender. A girl about my age from New Jersey. I'd met her before, she's nice. her name is Kaitey

After an hour or so goes by three people come in. Armed with a scrable board, they retriet to a back corner for some heavy scrable action. A little bit passes and a gay couple comes in with their dog, a Choclate lab. Beautiful dog I should add. He was very licky but I didnt' mind because the size of his tongue is managable unlike some other dogs



That's a lot of tongue, and not the good kind either.

Back on topic.

So, three girls roll in. Two sisters and the stepmother. The step mom swears more then me, which is not usually a good sign. She also kept asking me why I don't get in their conversation. They all had a Ronkonkma accent. Words like ball, water, word, car become to these people bool, woota, woyd, cah. Elvis was on also. She felt compelled to sing along and asked me to sing along. She didn't have a full set of choppers and you could see the missing ones when she sang, not wholly unlike that of a baying dog on the hunt.

Before I get ahead, picture the scene in your head what we have. Got it? Good.

The two daughters, who are both nice people I should add, are both, I'm not sure how to say it politly, trailor trash. The first has died black hair about shoulder length, tattooes in various places, black makeup of course, and a few other things. She is the better looking of the two. I won't describe the other woman since it would just end up being rude.

The first girl goes to call her boy friend. All three are expecting him to pop the question practically any day and they were just talking and talking about it the whole time before he came. Mind you, they are still dragging me into their conversations.

I'm generally a quite person and I like to keep to myself normally. I won't be rude to people, but I don't visit well with people whom I don't know already. Here's a good time for a nice side story.

I was at my other bar few months back, this one much closer but it is a blue coller bar, drinking a bud light and watching the Yankees game. This guy looks right at me half way down the bar and says "Hey buddy". I'm mid way down the bar so I naturally assume he's talking to one of the three or four people further down the bar. He orders a drink and I overhear him saying something to the waiter like "that asshole just ignored me". So he says it again. I look around, then again back at him and say "you talking to me". Ok, you got to keep this in perspective because this is New York and we get a lot of that wise guy Brooklyn attitude up here. He says "Yeah, who think I was talkin' to. What, you think i'm some kind of asshole?" Of course, we were bullshitting about whatevor in no time flat, but that's just me. I'm not big on talking with people I don't know.

Back to the trailor park. They tell the story about how this guys car blew up in a fiery inferno earlier that day. I guess he lent it to a friend and he's known for blowing up cars in fiery inferno's. How many car's have you blown every in your life? Would you lend someone, who has a known history of accidently blowing up cars, your car? I didn't think so. He did mention he was able to recover his frisbee. I can see the value in that honestly. It's hard to get a good frisbee which fits your hand nicely.

So, a few more people start showing up in the bar. A couple good looking girls and a couple guys. One thing I enjoy doing is watching guys try to pick up woman. You can learn a lot about a person just watching their body language. No one got picked up that night. They got a polite smile and a wave and was all.

This is fairly common for one night at the Swan. Leave reality at the door steps, because you won't find it inside and by God, it sure isn't welcome either.

On that note, it's time for a jog. Have a nice day.

Imagining backwards, and thinking inside out

This is how I view cats

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/kittycat.php

I've been trying to think about the way people think and how we teach people to think.

I not to long ago read this article some place that was talking about the professional America vs the managerial America.

Professionals, at least for the context of this (my) article are people who went to college because they were upper middle class and had no identity and felt they needed to do something with their lives. These people majored in Painting, Writing, Theatre, interior decorating, and other such things.

Managers are people who are lower income to very high income and go to college because "they want to succeed in life". They often view the professional community as being lazy and unproductive because they do not directly contribute to solving problems. This the demographic which says: Oh, those professors don't know anything! Or something as equally paradoxical. You can also call this group problem solvers, because engineers would fit into here also.

Did you know that the majority of people in this country who are college educated vote Republican? I've often wondered why that is the case. In America we have essecntially two ways of teaching. The first is to take a specific problem and solve it. The second is to think about the problem and try and prevent it from occurring or instigating a certain out come.

Lets take engineering. American engineers are handed a specific problem which needs completion by a certain date under certain specifications. They then break out their math books and rulers and set to solving this problem. When complete you have a Pontiac Grand Am. German engineers take a specific problem and try and think about how to economize it. Often they are said to be "imagining backwards" or "thinking inside out". Ergo we have BMW. Pontian Grand ams are good cars. I have one and I like it. It's not a beemer, not even close.

It's probably more costly to produce any item the German method in the short term then it is the American method but in the long term it has it's benefits, like say, your car won't have a 1.5K repair bill after 47K miles normally. I can't be certain on that assumption that it is more costly, but it seems logical on the surface. However, with a few exceptional products, usually ones which we have a monopoly on as a country, the goods produced in the US are simply not as good as ones produced over seas. I would hazard a guess that this is due to how the revenue system works and how corporations respond internally. In other words some people sat around in some focus and determined it is probably more profitable in the long term to continue producing goods the way we currently are.

This is all well and good for end consumer products, but what about commodity goods? Firms will naturally always want to purchase the cheapest steel by quality that they can. If other countries produce steel which is higher in quality and cheaper then naturally Americans will lose jobs so that other American companies can continue producing goods at a low cost which American consumers can buy at a lower cost.

Ok, that was a tad complicated and I got into international trade issues more so then I wanted to illustrate my point, but on to the second half.

There is no shortage of American intellegencia. Take a glance at Hollywood, the many book publishers, are racks upon racks of magazines about every subject imaginable, practically every major city has it's own orchestra if not at least part time and many have full time orchestra's, our modern music scene, and the list just goes on and on. Of course, we can debate seperatly about how good any of it is.

Why is it that we are so good at producing things of the mind rather then just things. It didn't' always used to be this way. Americans for a long time had to gaze over to Europe or Japan for cultural influence and often imported it, right up until the mid to late 1900's I would say. Up until about that same time American ship building, steel, Car manufacturing, Televisions, etc, were world famous for their quality above all others.

Why is it that we have reversed roles? Is it possible to live in a world with both. Is any of this at all important.

I personally believe it is.

How DVD killed the video game

It's true. Playstation, and the subsequent marketing of large cinemactic experiences in video games have killed the genre. I will explain this as best I can later.

I'm a 26 year old man, who still enjoys playing video games. However, much like my music habits, I don't like repeating the same thing over and over. I like to experience new stuff and ideas. Most importantly, I like to be challenged.

I don't' play video games excessively, I don't think. I don't' have a huge collection either. I just happen to enjoy a good video game like I enjoy good wine: when I can get it.

I enjoy a good story. Whether it be by book, film, storytelling, conceptual music, art, plays you name it, if it tells a good story, I could probably enjoy it. I think most people are the same way. Not everyone may like a very in depth intellectual piece, but most people do enjoy, say, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, or The Catcher in the Rye which are at their just good stories, with good (and bad) characters, told in a unique way. All have more in depth stuff going on, but anyone can appreciate them.

What this means is I can go to the theatre, and even if it's not such a good movie, I can still at least enjoy my self. But, if the movie is merely an excuse for someone to show off his or her awesome CGI skills, I probably could care less and more then likely be bored through out it. Like American Pie was funny and was enjoying to watch, the sequel was also funny but it was horrible and boring.

I also enjoy an intellectual challenge coupled with some kind of other problem independent of my own thought. This might mean it's a physical, natural, other person / opponent, or something like that. I like my brain to feel stimulated. I enjoy the process of thinking and rationalizing out what seems to be a very complex problem. Games like chess, downhill skiing, hunting, sailing, and other such things have always been appealing to me.

This means I don't like games of chance much. I also don't' like games where physicalness is overpowering (weightlifting for example) and on the same notion I tend to not like games that are purely mental (crosswords, word jumble etc).

Some time around 1995 Sony came out with its Playstation. This was formatted on what is a normal CD but this gave the game developers a lot more memory to deal with. They began to add long, and in depth cinemactic sequences. However, this is vey costly. In fact, I would say it is probably more costly to produce a few 30 second cinemactic scenes then the entire game itself.

Also around this time they learned that if they fill a game with these scenes they can shorten the real life game time you are actually playing the game. When Atari began, most of their games were unbeatable. Pac man, space invaders, and a few others were simply lines of code that got X faster / harder / more of it every level. Your character did not gain, the game around you gained. This meant that people played one or two games for a very long time. Sometimes months or even years, but casually.

Nintendo and Sega came on the scene and changed this with games like Final Fantasy where your character level upped and you saw tangible results with real (virtual) goals. This meant when the game was beat, it was done. Much like watching a movie. How many times can you watch the same movie? However, these games took several days at best, if not weeks, and in most peoples case months to beat.

The problem comes down to one of capitalism VS intelectualism of course. As more memory, faster game play, more graphics became more important the story line diminished. However, there were still games coming out for the Playstation which were ok games. FF VII isn't that bad, and neither is XX VIII though some people really dislike them for gameplay reasons.

Along comes PS2 on the scene around the year 2000. This gave video game marketers to use DVD technology and already existing programs to program cinemactic sequences cheaper. Games became more limited in their scope and most are now beatable in a single afternoon with a few notable excepions like FF X-2. Games which cost 50 - 70 dollars a pop are now effectively dead in one afternoon. The utility of one dollar of video games has been greatly diminished.

More importantly then the above, games are increasingly less complex, sometimes with in game tutorials that seem to last an entire game. Games are more linear with set paths for you to follow in genre's which were never linear prior. And most importantly, games are more becoming an interactive cinemactic experience rather then an intellectual challenge.

I have long ago given up on console games. I do have a PS2 and I think two games. I like FF X-2 because of it's challenge but most of the others aren't so good. I now mostly play computer based video games on my PC. But, even in this genre where dorkdom should reign supreme it too is beginning to feel the mighty maw of corporate power.

I recently played a game, which I think is out on X-box also, called Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Easily the single best RPG I've played. The game was simply amazing and the story it managed to tell was extremely in depth. In other words, I didn't feel like I was being force fed brain fodder, but rather enjoying the experience. This is the same company which made Baldur's Gate 2 which is another good game that I have always enjoyed.

Another saving grace for the computer game industry is the Total War line. The programmers actually sat down and read Sun Tzu's Art of War and coded it using such. Medieval Total War is an extremely difficult game that I really enjoyed. The History Channel uses the Total War engine for battle reenactment now. That is how accurate it is. No being force fed here baby. You suck? You lose.

But, those are the only two good games so far in all of 2004 (and both are in fact not 2004 titles). I doubt I will see another good title until sometime 2005.