Shit, my friends have such great taste.

These are all songs to which I have been referred from friends in the past week. Enjoy the hell out of them.

On the GOP and other things.

(Warning: sort of R-rated)

I read Dan Savage’s column in The Stranger this week. The premise is thinking up different meanings for “Rick” and “Santorum”– ultimately giving way to “to remove the frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex with the tongue.” Lovely, no?

The column was hilarious, mixing biting quips with genuinely intelligent responses to political news and events. It brought to light some inconsistencies and hypocrisies in the words of candidates and their constituencies, while still making the point accessible to any audience.

Okay, so here’s the thing. I love that snarky leftist journalists are making light of these ridiculous right-wing politicians. I think it needs to be done. But at some point, someone needs to get real with this situation. The fact of the matter is that if any of these candidates are elected, we’re fucked. We have much bigger problems on our hands than “ha-ha, what else is funny about Newt’s name?!”

Personally, I don’t feel confident enough to write such a scathing exposé. But someone needs to get serious with this– and I’m not talking about the already dry newspaper writers (*ahem*). Please?

July to January

Back in July, I blogged about this song called “Somebody That I Used to Know,” by Gotye. Now that the song has gotten famous and is on the radio and everything, I have to step things up and give you the new big thing.

So I found this cover of it by The Big Pink, and I’m pretty impressed.

Time signatures

The Cloud Prayer, by A.C. Newman. I like it because it sounds like he totally screwed with the time signature. I’m pretty sure it’s just 4/4, but the first time I listened to the album version I *swear* I counted it in 11/8. Weird.

(It’s the first song on this video.)

 

Dad, don’t judge me.

Pretty sure I told my dad once that I loved this song, and he just shook his head in shame.

I forgot to ask him why it’s not INCREDIBLE.

Background

Though I’ve spent the past two days back from the Holy Land in a jetlagged and mostly-sleep-filled haze, I have also been trying to ruminate on an incredible trip. Many of my fellow travelers kept blogs and have been writing more extensively about their experiences, but (not to discredit their writing) I’ve been avoiding their sites so that when I sat down to write my own thoughts they would be purely my own.

–

I’m going to start with some background:

I just got back from a week long trip to Israel put on by a group called Project Interchange, which is a division of the American Jewish Committee. The trip was offered to two groups: students of campus media studies, and California student leaders (who may be in student government or coordinators of student groups). I went as part of the Campus Media group.

This was an all-expenses paid trip funded by AJC, which is in turn funded by private donors and organizations. For an editor of a news publication, taking the trip rose some questions about ethics and legality. I spoke to my former newspaper advisor, my current newspaper advisor, the Director of Student Activities at Evergreen, the Student Press Law Center, my friends and fellow editors, and of course, the entirety of the Cooper Point Journal staff. I vowed not to go on the trip if the entire group did not reach consensus on the decision. If one person strongly believed that it was unethical to take the free trip, I would not attend.

All members approved, however, and we all agreed that it would be an excellent learning opportunity, even if it was one-sided and propagandizing. It may even help me understand Evergreen’s divestment and BDS (Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions) movements. Other writers volunteered to cover stories for our paper that involved Israel or BDS, just in case my bias got in the way of accurate reporting in the future.

I was heartened by that response and accepted the invitation. Incidentally, the Student Press Law Center said that it was unethical to take a free trip to cover a specific story, but it was not unethical if the trip was for the purpose of learning, rather than reporting.

And with that, I embarked on this journey barely one month later. Coming soon: detailed accounts and analysis of experiences during the trip.

Israel, Day 6

Today we visited historical sites on the Sea of Galilee, an IDF base, a school for underprivileged children, a restaurant, and a new hotel in Tel Aviv.

Israel, Day 5

Yesterday we toured the old city in Jerusalem, went to the Dead Sea, had talks about two-state solutions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and had the most unique New Year’s Eve experience I’ve ever had. Here are some pictures to make you jealous.

Also, I know this is totally incomplete and inadequate– I will post more retrospectively when I get home!

Israel, Day 3

Just photos for today. I am beyond exhausted. Also, rode a Segway today! And this evening was a great Shabbat celebration where we met some Israeli students. Went to the western wall during Shabbat, which was intense and exciting. We also visited a settlement (Ephrat) in the west bank.

People are starting to get more comfortable with one another, which means that more dialogue is happening. Like, right now, up and down the hallway at the hotel. It’s amazing that people are talking about everything we’ve seen and that we seem to have similar impressions of the speakers and experiences. And yet, we’re all different people, so we still all have different interpretations and, of course, different ways of taking everything and applying it to life or our roles on campus.

That sounds really cheesy.
Anyway, photos.

Israel, Day 2 (more)

Today was tough. Luckily I felt a bit more rested than yesterday and was able to take more in and be more alert. The day started with breakfast, where I was able to help a French woman identify types of juice. In French. (I’ve never felt so happy telling someone, “that’s grapefruit juice.”)

Next we talked to a correspondent to the New York Times who is covering Israel and the Middle East. It was fascinating and a little less dramatic than I expected — in a good way.

Second was the interfaith relations talk about which I blogged just before this one.

We then had another talk, this time about Israel’s peace process. I learned a ton about the current relations between Israel and Iran and the Arab Spring… Though there are still so many gaps in history and my knowledge of it.

After that. The day got pretty sobering. We were taken to the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, where we had lunch and went on a guided tour. The whole time we were eating, all I could think about was a part of the movie “The History Boys,” where they’re talking about Jews visiting Holocaust memorials. A teacher in the movie wonders, “what do they do when they go there? Do they have meals? Do they take pictures of one another? Are they smiling?”

They say there are 13 million Jews in the world today. Nearly half of that number died in the Holocaust. I did learn that though Germans and others did all they could to erase every trace of those Jews, historians and researchers have been able to learn the names of 5.2 million Jews of the 6 million who were killed. They are all represented in this museum’s Hall of Names.

The museum was really tough. I’m not sure about other people on the trip, but I found some parts nearly impossible to get through. And in some ways I couldn’t believe that Jews were walking through this with us. I wanted to tell them to leave and I wanted to shield this from them. Sometimes I am so ashamed of people.

It is no wonder, then, that every speaker so far has mentioned the word “victimization” on association with Israel and Israelis. A few have said that the victimization is outdated, that Israel is a strong country now that knows it is a strong country, and needs to move on from its fear. But all have said that this feeling of victimization has, at several times in Israel’s history, been justified.

We had another speaker at the museum who really stood out to me. With tears in his eyes, he left us with the words, “journalists and academics need to learn how to cry.” It’s probably true. I resisted crying in the Holocaust museum, even though I wanted to several times, but maybe I’d feel better if I had.

Then we had another speaker who works under Israel’s current president, Shimon Peres. I felt it was the most contrived talk we had had. Each speaker before had charisma and a genuine sense of spirit that s/he conveyed during the talk, by this man answered our questions like a man who had been prepped for a press conference (which he probably had). Still, I did learn a lot about the technicalities of the Israeli government, which is fascinating. The speaker reminded us that for all its problems, Israel is only 63 years old, and “think of where America was at 63.” He’s got a point.

Lastly, we had food (mon dieu, so much food) and a woman talked to us about emigrating to Israel from Ethiopia when she knew nothing about the country or life outside of her village. Very cool.

Now it is 9:30pm and I’m sitting in the hotel room contemplating a drink. My traveling companions are all fantastic and the time so far has been spectacular!

I’ll leave you with a couple pictures: tonight’s sunset, and tonight’s dinner.

Israel, Day 2

Here are some notes from the second lecture we had today, on interfaith relations in Israel. The speaker was Rabbi David Rosen, director of the AJC Dept. of Inter-religious Affairs.

State of Israel guarantees freedom of religion.

Secular democracy

Public places must provide kosher catering

Family law governed by religious institutions. No civil marriage.

Connects Africa, Asia, and Europe

Cyprus has secular civil marriage.

Israel problem: civil marriage should exist.

Totally Sunni community. 12 recognized Christian communities.

Non-orthodox Judaism is very new. Vast majority of rabbis don’t have power under Israeli law.

Tradition vs. modernity. Modern assimilationist. “get rid if the cross on our back and modernize”. Ultra orthodoxy is modern development.

Modern orthodox, Reform (new), Conservatives. Tension between tradition and modern.

God wants us to live in the modern world.

Rabbinical standards community: should people be able to drive to synagogue on the sabbath? Modern orthodox: use your car to go to pray but nothing else. Affirming moden culture.

Israel is color blind. Any differences are about cultural norms (use of modern equipment, traditions, etc). Israelis don’t have much conception of why modern Christianity is. See people as Jews and non Jews. Everybody thinks that someone is out to get them. Rarely engage with people on a personal basis.

Interreligious relations board. Arab Jewish cooperation and interfaith.

Pay some of highest taxes in world, security challenges,

Must make huge real effort to interact with different others, but those people are amazing. Academics, politicians, leaders

Everyone has opinions about everybody else, ESP those they’ve never spoken to. Everybody feels they are victims. Different paradigms. Fear one another. Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not trying to kill me.

Tend to compete for love. If someone is going to love me then he has to hate the other.

Value of each one is dependent on the love of everyone.

I get the impression that people only bond over this shared feeling of victimization. Is that true? What else to people bond over?

Atheists: even if you are you can’t get away from the traditions. always connected to religious customs. Religion is everywhere. If you dislike religion it doesn’t make any sense to live here.

Deuteronomy chapter 6 , every morning before news on radio and tv.

Israel, Day 1

I got here after 24 real hours of traveling and 36 hours including time zone changes. 7 hours of sleep in the past 72 hours. Had to make it through 3 seminars and food.
As you can see, it all was worth it. Notice the three-pronged fork.

Here are some notes from those talks. Excuse the whole not-making-sense thing. They were typed on this iPod and in the heat of delirium (seriously, I was so tired the room was spinning). These notes are all from our second speaker.

“if you will it, it is no dream” -Herzl
Ongoing battle to undermine Israel
Judaism as a diamond: religion, faith, Israel as a state as a nation of people as a symbol, nationalism,

Offer no parallels between west and Israel because it’s such a unique complex idea

Not a colonial movement because they weren’t conquering new lands: they were just coming home

Existential conflict about the denial of the right of the jewish people to have their own state (Israel vs. Palestine)
It’s resolution may not be immediate

Cannot set neat divisions between church and state when talking about Israel

Difficulty of conflict is that there are two rights. It doesn’t make for a good simple story.

If Arab countries accept back Israel, Israel will accept back all refugees. (idea for comprehensive peace plan). Pal prob endless because of the idea that Jewish people/Israel should not exist.

Speakers: Linda Epstein, assoc VP of Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago
Einat Wilf, member of Knesset (Israel parliament), Chair of Independence Party

Bro songs

I really shouldn’t blog about specific friends, but sometimes… I do.

A couple of my friends have a really great bromance going on, and we’re all very happy for them.

Their anthem is pretty much this:

And here’s the old fashioned version:

Oh and–in light of today–I am extremely thankful for them. All of them: the bromancey friends and all the others.

Thus concludes sappiness.

wants.

I absolutely love my friends to death. The most recent reason for that:

Also, that they encourage me to keep learning bass… which hasn’t really been happening. I really want to get good at it, though, because if they ever get their band back together… I WANT IN ON THAT.

And I really want to go to Ireland. And watch more live music. For free.

Obsessed.

My new favorite album by the Beach Boys, “Carl and the Passions,” could be mistaken for something by The Band. I love it. It’s so… October.

Plus de français

This video is genius. You won’t get it, but just trust me. It’s amazing, and would have helped SO MUCH before I went to France!

It’s telling foreigners how to “faire la bise”.

Les bises are the characteristic French cheek kisses, which can get very complicated. When do you use them? With whom? How many kisses? That all changes in different regions of France and with different levels of a relationship.

Dreaming.

I know at least six people in France right now. They’re probably just chillin’, speaking French and eating baguettes, drinking the best espresso ever. They’re wearing black and passing people on the street with barely a nod, using a Carte Orange to make phone calls, and smelling rainy French asphalt.

I just have to tell myself that I’ll be back sooner than I know. In the meantime, I try to pretend France doesn’t exist… but it’s more difficult to do that when I sometimes play Scrabble in French, I get asked to say things with a French accent, and I read great articles about Paris in the New York Times.

This year is delightful, and challenging in all the right ways. And I will so enjoy not feeling tied down to any particular place when it’s over. A lot can happen in a year, so I hope a great portion of my year is spent planning to return to France and parlez français again.

You’ve got this thing about you that keeps me on the edge of my seat.

I cannot tell you how amazing my life is. I’m a pretty happy person, but lately I have just been pumped. All. The. Time.

My birthday is in a week, and nearly all of my friends will be there helping me ring it in.

I have fucking awesome friends.

I listen to good music all the time.

The student newspaper’s website is better than ever.

I’m setting up my own contract this quarter and I’ve picked out all my reading materials.

I’ve been flexing my editing muscles and I LOVE IT.

Oh god, do I fucking love it.

No one can rain on my parade. (Though the Olympia weather is trying its hardest.)

(Title of post from “Teeth,” by The Ettes)

Distraction

I was all up into folk music videos, and I got distracted by Etta James.

This is my life.

New Discovery

“It Hurts Me Too” by folk artist Karen Dalton.

No one seems to be sure whether she influenced Bob Dylan, or if it’s the other way around.

I can’t get over her voice. It’s so old-time jazzy (think Billie Holiday), but works perfectly with her guitar style. So… jury’s still out on this one, but I’ll get back to you.

And this one. Alright, I’ll admit I like this one mostly for the French sous-titres. Subtitles. :)

God takes care of himself.

Here’s another song my neighbors played.

Finally, some neighbors I won’t have to complain about.

Steel drums or harmonica?

You can’t have both.

Or rather, you really shouldn’t have both. Still, this song is pretty amazing.

I met some neighbors today and sat in their yard, where they played this song. I’m not sure I’d heard it before.

The video is pretty cool, too. I don’t know the story behind it, but I love the colors.

The things you do for love are gonna come back to you one by one.

“Love Love Love,” my favorite song (by a small margin) by The Mountain Goats.

Definitely the most appropriate song for tonight, EVER.

And a really great cover of it:

Come all without, come all within.

Song of the day.

I have another one for later, when the sun goes down.

Surprisingly enjoyable

… but not for everyone.

This is a mashup of System Of A Down’s “Toxicity” with Coldplay’s “Fix You.” It takes the instrumentals of “Fix You” and the vocals (slowed down, probably) of “Toxicity.” I really don’t like System, but I love Coldplay and I love “Fix You.” And I suppose the lyrics to “Toxicity” are alright when Serj Tankian (SOAD lead singer) isn’t yelling them.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s probably the most bizarre thing you’ll listen to all week, but that’s a good thing, right?

TWO BASS PLAYERS.

‘Nuff said, I think. This rocks. Also, I really love the live intro he incorporates.

John Mayer is pretty awesome. I hear he’s a dick, but my dad says he plays guitar well. Plus, he covered a Jimi Hendrix song and is still respected, so I think that says quite a bit.

Too Much Memories

After I got done spending eleven weeks in France in the Spring of 2010, I went to Germany for a week to visit a friend. She’s French, and I met her in France, but she was living in Regensburg, Germany at the time, and had invited me to stay with her. Germany was incredible; Regensburg is in the south, near Bavaria, so many Germans who are from that area also speak Bavarian, which apparently is very different from German. It was beautiful the whole time I was there, and I was able to just sit back, relax, and spend the time like I would have if I was spending summer at home.

We piled many bodies into a tiny car, blasted Credence Clearwater Revival, and went to a lake. We went for bike rides and played volleyball. We drank beer so thick that a pint was worth a day’s meals. And, like ya do, we introduced one another to awesome YouTube videos.

This is one that Lise, my friend, showed me. Amazingly, she knew all the words and sang along impeccably.
Yeah, she’s pretty cool.

Anyway, this is Bonaparte, with “Too Much.”

(P.S. The incorrect grammar in the title bothers me too. But you get it, right? Right?!)

Summer music by The Givers

To be completely honest, this song gets a little annoying after about two minutes. Luckily, you can’t really tell because you’re so busy singing along. What matters is that it’s new, it’s hot, and it’s summer.

The Givers: Up Up Up

Genki Sudo, World Order in New York

I have all these unspoken rules about the videos I post, like they have to be really obscure, or something most of my readership (all, what, 3 of you) probably would not have seen. But sometimes I have to break those non-rules and show you something like OK Go… Something that, even if you’ve seen it before, should rock your world once again.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present: WORLD ORDER.

List-o-mania

One of those ancient MySpace/Facebook quiz things.

Rules
1)Don’t take too long to think about it.
2) List Twenty-one Albums you’ve heard that will always stick with you. First twenty-one you can recall – not in order of greatness!
3) Tag a few friends, including me because I’m interested in seeing what albums my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your 21 picks, and tag people in the note)

1) Rubber Soul – The Beatles
2) Beggars’ Banquet – The Rolling Stones
3) Moondance – Van Morrison
4) Hits – Joni Mitchell
5) Breakfast in America – Supertramp
6) Mr. A-Z – Jason Mraz
7) Greatest Hits – James Taylor
8) Blonde on Blonde – Bob Dylan
9) Gold – ABBA (sorry. I thought a lot about it, but it’s true. I can’t imagine my life (or, rather, my relationship with my mom) without ABBA.)
10) Juno (soundtrack) – Kimya Dawson & others
11) Stop Making Sense – Talking Heads
12) Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club
13) Sympathique – Pink Martini
14) Lonely at the Top – Randy Newman
15) Nilsson – Harry Nilsson
16) Dial-a-Song – They Might Be Giants
17) Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles
18) Orange Crate Art – Brian Wilson & Van Dyke Parks
19) Negotiations & Love Songs – Paul Simon
20) Car Wheels on a Gravel Road – Lucinda Williams
21) Greatest Hits – Simon and Garfunkel

Close runners-up, either because they’re more recent, or just because of the sheer number of times I played them:
1 – The Beatles
Greatest Hits – Heart
Greatest Hits – Pat Benatar
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (soundtrack) – The Funk Brothers (+Various motown artists)
A Mighty Wind (soundtrack) – Various
This Is Spinal Tap (soundtrack) – Spinal Tap
Come On Feel The Illinoise – Sufjan Stevens
Viva La Vida – Coldplay
Continuum – John Mayer

Tell me yours!