perpetual memory loss

Last night I finally got to see Jimmy Eat World live in concert.  After all these years of being a fan of them, and constantly missing out on their shows, I finally made one.  First off I will always be grateful to neverbesocial for introducing me to Jimmy Eat World back in those halcyon Phoenix days.  (Actually I have to thank him for introducing me to quite a few of my favorite bands.  He has been a sort of musical Gandalf guiding me through the perilous path of new music.  Although I still can’t stand Mates of State or Portugal the Man, but hey whatever I can’t be expected to like everything he does.)  Anyways I got to the show earlier than I did for The Black Keys a few weeks ago, but despite that, there was still a huge line–over a block long–by the time I got there.  The people at Terminal 5, however, kept the line moving quickly and I was able to get inside before I froze completely to death.

Once inside I went back up to my spot on the third floor railing, grabbed an empanada, a couple beers, and got ready for the show.  I can’t tell you how excited I was for this show.  I have been looking forward to seeing JEW for a long time now and the fact that my first concert was going to be the Clarity tour only added to my exhilaration–as Clarity is one of my all-time favorite albums.  So I suffered through the opening act–they actually were not that bad, but I just didn’t feel like waiting any longer to see JEW.  A little bit after 9:00 JEW came out to the rousing cheers of the crowd and commenced to playing Clarity in it’s entirety–including Goodbye Sky Harbor.  It was a fantastic show and they sounded great, and considering this was their first show on the tour, I expect that as the tour rolls on they will tighten up their sound even more.  After they finished playing Clarity they left so they could take part in the obligatory encore–bands really need to stop doing that as it’s pretty contrived–and then they came back out and played some of their b-sides and then finished off the show with Work, Pain, The Middle, and Sweetness.  The crowd went absolutely ape-shit for Sweetness and it really is the best song to finish the show to as everyone left completely pumped after that song.  Well there is not really much more for me to say that the pics and videos can’t say on their own.  So enjoy the pics and videos.  (By the way Jimmy Eat World if you all are upset about me posting these pics and videos online just twitter me to take it down.  No need to release the hounds.)

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Yesterday turned out to be quite the adventure.  It was supposed to be just an easy night out on the town watching The Black Keys.  I left my apartment and after a long train ride and a long walk I made it to Terminal 5 at about 7:30.  As I stood in line waiting to get frisked I pulled out all the crap in my pockets so the process would go quicker.  Of course I get frisked by a beast of a women (how come it’s socially ok for a female to frisk a male but not vice-versa?) who decided to take some liberties with her frisking by grabbing my ass a few times. Wtf is up with shit like this happening to me (if you are new refer to this post here)?

Immediately after that weirdness I went to the bar and started crushing beers like my life depended on it.  I milled around for a bit and then decided that since I had my camera on me I would stake out a good spot upstairs to watch the show.  I ended up on the third floor railing with a good view of the stage, and bonus I was spitting distance from the bar.  My plan was to get nice and loaded during the opening bands and then to slow down or quit drinking once the Keys came on stage.  As usually plans went awry and I kept pounding all night long.  (I really think it was the last four Sierra Nevadas that did me in.)  This was the third time I have seen them live and as always the show was epic.  (No show will ever be as good as the first time I saw them in Cali at Brick by Brick just because of the extraordinary lengths I went through to go to that show, and because of the amount of laws–military and civilian–that I broke just by going to it.)  Since I took a bunch of pictures and videos of the show I will let them speak for the epicness of the show instead of babbling on and on.

After the show I hooked myself up with a new t-shirt and I got it for $10 instead of the usual $20.  I think that was because I was incredibly drunk and the dude who was running the counter just wanted to get rid of me.  Once I left Terminal 5 it took me forever to get home as I was chatting on the phone and ended up walking a few miles past my subway stop, then I fell asleep on the E-train (again), and it wasn’t until after 4 that I ended up stumbling home.  All in all it was a good night with all the mandatory ingredients for a good night: live music, beer, stumbling around NYC, and falling asleep on the train.  Anytime that happens it is definitely good night.  Pictures and videos (sorry they are a bit wobbly, I blame the beer) after the fold, enjoy.

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In honor of the Governor’s hair-brained scheme to put taxes on iTunes downloads (and possibly other DLC), and a host of other dumb taxes, I am posting this SNL skit about him.  I mean there is a $15.4 billion budget gap.  So raising taxes on small stuff like digital content and soda is a bit like McCain’s claims that if we vetoed all ear-marks we would magically have a budget surplus.  15.4 billion is a big number and means that there is inefficiency in your government, so fix that shit first, and that most (if not all) of the gap is going to have to be made up with broad reforms to the way things are done on a daily basis in government.  Proposals like this just piss people off because they know that instead of looking in the mirror you are just trying to squeeze some more money out of everyday people.  One more thing if you appoint Caroline Kennedy as Hillary’s replacement then you should be impeached, because she has the same amount of experience as Sarah Palin.

Updated – 4:38

Ok here is a commentary from Paterson explaining why he wants to raise taxes on sugary drinks.  Basically it boils down to taxing a substance like soda in the hopes of preventing people from drinking an excess of soda, and hopefully to curb the rising rates of childhood obesity.  Now in theory I shouldn’t care because I rarely ever drink soda, but I do have a huge problem with this.  This is just another instance of the government stepping in and taking on a role that does not belong to them.  Since when is it the governments job to tell people what to eat and drink.  It takes away the responsibilty from the parents and essentially absovles them of being shitty parents.  The government should be finding a way to put responsibility and blame back on the parents instead of taking more upon itself.

Another point I want to make is the taxing of iTunes and possibly other digital downloads.  This is a terrible idea also because the government and corporations have been fighting to get digital piracy under control, and they have been making success over the last few years–specifically with iTunes.  However, start throwing extra taxes on these legitimate downloads and it will have the same effect as the Coercive and Townshend Acts did, namely drive people back to piracy.  Dumb ideas, government needs to look in the mirror and start trimming the fat off of some of their programs, and they need to modernize and get hip with the digital age.

Once again one of my comments is going to be the headline contest over at Overheard in New York.  If you didn’t win last time you should give it a go this time.  Anyways here’s the quote:

Student #1: I don’t know why that bitch has such a big ego, she’s fucking ugly.
Student #2: Yeah, I know, but she thinks she’s Paris Hilton or some shit.
Student #1: She’s probably getting fucked by some loser.

There you have it funny stuff; now go on over to the contest page and give it your best shot.  Contest ends on Thursday.

I am finally done with this semester and not a moment too soon.  I barely made it, but luckily I only have one more left, which is going to make this break even more hectic. So here is my list of things that I need/want to accomplish before the break is over:

First things first I have to start looking for a job so that hopefully I can slide right into something once I graduate.  Unfortunately, that means that I have to fix my resume, write a cover letter, and all that trash.  All the stuff that I hate doing.  Preferably I would like to stay in New York so hopefully I find something good, despite the state of the economy.  So if anyone out there has the scoop on a job in history, libraries, or publishing let me know.

I also have to start looking for a new apartment, hopefully something closer to the city, because my roommates and I all graduate at the same time and we are all moving.  Hopefully I will be able to find something closer to the city and at a price where I don’t need a roommate.  I’m tired of living with roommates.

Next I want to read a few books over the holiday season.  I’m not sure what to read though.  I have a few books lying around that I haven’t read yet: Paradiso, Purgatorio, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, or Paradise Lost.  However, I would like to maybe read some more Hemingway, Steinbeck, Dostoyevsky, or Fitzgerald.  I’m thinking that maybe I should try and expand my horizons some so I am looking for some tips on new books to read.  The Liskid has already suggested Upton Sinclair’s Oil!, Balzac’s Pere Goriot, and Proust.  With that being said, my loyal readers, check out my goodreads page or some of my book reviews to see what type of books I have already read and am into, and then send me your suggestions that are either similar to what I like or might help me expand my horizons.

So there in long form is my to-do list for the break.  I have until Jan. 21 so any book, job, or apartment suggestions will be most appreciated.

Oh, my heart was my Pavlovian response any time the words Mets and bullpen came together.  It was usually followed by moanings and groanings, that was followed with yelling and cussing (and the occasional thrown beer), which was then followed by “I fucking knew that would happen.”  To make matters worse afterwards my phone would start doing the merengue with text messages as shit talkers wanted to rub salt in my wounds.  Suffice to say it has been a brutal couple of years for the Mets bullpen, and last year was particularly terrible–29 blown saves.

How bad was it consider these facts from ESPN’s Jayson Stark:

The Mets were 13th in the league in ERA from the seventh inning on and 13th in bullpen ERA overall.

They blew 29 saves — second most in the National League, behind St. Louis.

They gave up 61 home runs from the seventh inning on, tied with the Giants for the most in the league.

And the real kicker is how the season could have played out if they would have had some help at all:

If all games had ended after six innings this season, the Mets would have finished the year 11 games ahead of the Phillies (aka, the team that won the World Series).

If all games had ended after seven innings, the Mets would have finished six games ahead of the Phillies.

And if all games had even been just eight innings long instead of nine, the Mets would have finished five games ahead of the Phillies.

Wow that is just dreadful, now imagine how my heart felt by the end of the season.  I was on the verge of a heart attack.  This week, however, the hot stove finally got hot and the Mets have (hope, hope, fingers crossed) cured themselves of the late inning troubles.  Yesterday, the Mets finished the majority of their bullpen reorganization.  After picking up K-Rod earlier in the week–even though I didn’t want him for 5 years $75 million I’ll take him at the discounted 3 years $37 million–and yesterday the Mets pulled off a 12 player 3 team deal to bring J.J. Putz to the Mets as K-Rod’s set-up man.  So for one year at least the Mets will have an outstanding 1-2 punch in the 8th & 9th innings, and what’s even better is Aaron Heilman and Billy Wagner (btw Billy I still hate you) are gone for good.  Wooooo! Hooray and Good Riddance to both of you.  The work is not done yet and here is what I would like to see done before Spring Training.

1. Take Luis Castillo and chain a very large and very heavy rock to him.  Then throw him off of the Brooklyn Bridge.  Next sign Orlando Hudson giving the Mets an awesome 1-2 at the top of the order and one of the best middle infields in baseball.

2. Sign/trade two more pitchers and let Jon Neise get some more seasoning in Triple-A.  However neither of these new pitchers should be named Oliver Perez or Ben Sheets (who is a perpetual broke-dick).

3.  If possible find a good right-handed bat to play in left-field.

4. Someone anyone hook me up with tickets to Citi-Field Shea Stadium because prices will be kind of outrageous.

It’s amazing baseball season has only been over for a couple months and already I can’t wait for the new season.  Damn you hot stove.

Once again we come to that time of year when there are a superfluous amount of pointless holidays.  It seems like every religion has like 3 or 4 holidays and they are all mostly lame.  Besides that, this is the time of year when people decide to be nice and generous for a few days or weeks out of the year.  Personally I am of the opinion that this is the time of year to really gut out my assholeness, and not succumb to the pressure of being kind and generous.  In all actuality it is easier to be an asshole at this time of year, because so many people are trying to be nice, for example:

“So dude are you excited for Christmas?”

“No? what am I five?”

“How can you not be excited for Christmas, it’s the most joyous time of year.”

After any stupid statement that is similar to the above you just reply with something like:

“Well I hate Christmas, because any meaning that it originally had is completely lost in our current society.  Instead of a holiday that espouses thanks and goodwill to others it has degenerated into a holiday that is rife with selfishness.  These desires of self have consumed…”  Seriously just keep it going as long as possible, and watch their Christmas cheer turn into a major case of depression or they will just call you an asshole–either way you win.  So what does any of this have to do with Evacuation Day, and what the fuck is evacuation day?

Like I stated above I’m not a big fan of these super commercialized holidays, but I’m a huge fan of the obscure and eclectic holidays of this country: Arbor Day, Flag Day, Constitution Day, and Groundhog’s Day (love the movie too).  This year I am adding Evacuation day to my list of cool eclectic holidays in which to celebrate.  So what is it?  Well let me drop a little bit o’ history on you.

Gen'l Washington

In 1776 hostilities broke out between American colonists, and the British Empire.  After the symbolic victories of Lexington and Concord the British dropped the hammer in New York, and over time sent the Continental Army into retreat.  For the next seven years the British Army would occupy New York City (NY has the distinction of being the longest held American city).  Over those seven years NYC was decimated by fire, and British need.  All trees were cut down, and most other wood–fences, walls, etc–were used for fuel.  The British also let the city fall into complete disrepair.  On top of all of this NYC became the central holding area for American POW’s and it is estimated that over 10,000 American soldiers died while being held on the floating prisons on the East River.
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This past Tuesday, Veteran’s Day, I decided to go to Manhattan to meet up with some other veterans to mark the occasion.  Unfortunately, they were all meeting up on the lower east side.  I, on the other hand, had to travel from BFQ (bum fuck Queens) so it was quite the long haul for me; I might as well ride the subway to the moon.  It’s not that bad; it’s just that when I make these social visits to the city I always travel sans ipod and book.  That means that the hour and a half trip feels like three days.  Inevitably when I make these trips I hope for something cool or random to go down.  Usually nothing does, and I end up staring at the person across from me–making them feel exceedingly uncomfortable–or reading the same dumb advertisements over and over and over again.

Instead of taking the E-Train, like I normally do, I decided to take the F all the way, that way I wouldn’t have to switch trains at Washington Square.  It was lucky for me that I decided to do that otherwise I would have missed the craziness.  One stop before Washington Square, 14 St., some raggedy-ass bum got on the train, and started yelling:

“I’m homeless, I don’t have a home, give me some money.  I’m homeless, I don’t have a home, give me some money.  I’m homeless…”

Seriously he just kept up the same chant over and over again, and he didn’t walk down the train he just stood at the far end yelling.  It was kind of funny, well, as funny as a homeless guy can be.  Eventually he started to take some baby-steps down to the opposite side of the train continuing his mantra:

“I’m homeless, I don’t have a home, give me some money.  I’m homeless…”

He kept going on and on with the homeless thing, and nobody really gave a shit.  Everyone just kept doing their thing.  Then he got to me, and realized the futility of his mantra so he called an audible, and started freestyling:

“I’m so hungry I haven’t eaten in 5…6 days.  It’s been so long I don’t remember how long it’s been.”

“Did you know today’s Veteran’s Day?  Well I’m a Veteran, and I’m homeless and hungry.  Give me some money.”

I started laughing after he said that one and dropped a “Bullshit!” on him, but he kept trudging on until he was in front of these two older ladies (50-60).  By that time he had reverted back to his original mantra, and he was standing right in front of these ladies yelling it:

“I’m homeless…”

One of the ladies looked at her friend and whispered innocently, “What is he doing?”

Well he wasn’t about to allow these two ladies to question him.  So he turned around, crouched down into this pseudo three-point stance, while holding onto the vertical bar and yelled, “What am I doing?”

“What are you doing?  You think I am your fucking child.  No, no, no, no, NO!  Fuck you! I am not your child.  I’m fucking old.  Ancient like the Earth.  You don’t ask me what I am doing.  I ask you what you are doing.  You fucking understand me?  FUCK YOU!

(By the way he wasn’t that old, and he was definitely younger than the ladies he was antagonizing.)

Well these poor older ladies turned toward each other, and tried to will him to disappear, or to turn into a pillar of salt, or anything just so long as he left them alone.  Meanwhile I leaned back, and enjoyed the show, because he wasn’t done yet.

He stepped even closer to them, and tried to crouch down so his face was right at their level, and let loose with a masterful verbal tirade.

“You know how old I am bitch?  I’m so old you could be my child.  I should be wondering where you are going, and what you are doing; but I don’t cuz I don’t give a fuck about you.”

And here he looked up, and looked at everyone on the train.

“I don’t give a fuck about any of you.  Fuck all of you.  I’m fucking older than all of you.  You should all be giving me money.  Fuck you, you know what? Fuck you.  I don’t want none of your money.  Yeah, that’s right.  I haven’t eaten in 7 days, but I would take shit from any of you.”

Finally the train hit Broadway-Lafayette, and he scurried towards the door, but before he left he looked back and yelled, “Fuck all of you, motha fuckers.”  At this point I was laughing pretty hard, and I realized that the next stop was mine.  It’s amazing how quick that last part of the train ride was–it just flew by.  If only crazy ass bums could yell at people more often on the train; then my sojourns into the city would be much quicker and way more entertaining.

I want to relate a story to you all that really pissed me off the other day.  I was in class getting ready to be bored out of my mind, and I was talking to some of the other students.  We were talking about how we had to turn in our paper on Nov. 11th.  It struck me that Nov. 11th is Veterans Day, and I thought aloud,

“You mean we get Columbus Day off, but we have to come in on Veterans Day?”

Everyone nodded that my assertion was right, and I kept talking about how messed up it was that we get a day off for a guy who paved the way for the genocide of countless Native Americans, but we don’t get the day off in remembrance of the many Veterans who have died in defense of our Country.

Now about half way through this rant, my teacher walked in listened a bit, then said,

“So what’s the big deal that you have to come in that day?”

I re-explained my argument, and said that on Veterans Day I usually like to drink.  She informed me I could still get drunk after class.

“Of course that’s true,” I said “but usually I like to get up fairly early, and start drinking some whiskey whilst listening to Johnny Cash.”

Ok so she rolls her eyes and makes some backhanded comment about me and alcohol, and like the reformed person I am, I let the shit roll off my back.  Before class finished, however, she dropped a couple more demeaning comments, basically saying that I’m an out-of-control alcoholic.  I left class irked, and went home and killed some people (video game people that is).  I figured that would be that, but a couple days ago in class she made, unprovoked, a few more comments about me and drinking; as a bonus she also took a shot at my paper topic (video games), and made a crack about my writing style.

(What I don’t get is: how does me having a tradition of drinking on one particular day make me an alcoholic? if it did does that give someone the right to talk smack?  I’m just trying to figure out where the logic is in her assault on me.  I don’t get it, but back to the story.)

By that time my blood pressure was boiling, and I channeled my inner Bruce Banner and quelled the hulk that lies within.  I guess this is all part of me trying to be less confrontational, and all that shit, but goddamn I would really like to rail into this biotch.  The other problem is that she is the vindictive sort, and I know she would use her ‘power’ as a teacher to knock my grade down.  Right now I’m sporting a 3.97 GPA, and I would like to keep it there, and not have it knocked down on a technicality.  Now I’m not going to take this laying down, I’ve already rounded up a few troops, and most likely after the semester a few of us will make a complaint to the department.  Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I’m not the only one she talks down to.  I think this chic has major confidence issues or something.

Can you spare some change?

This morning when I woke up I opened up (figuratively) the morning paper to see what the hell is going on in this crazy world of ours.  When lo and behold I see that there was some craziness that went down at St. John’s University here in NY.  If you don’t know St. John’s is a Catholic University, and yesterday one of the Chaplains was arrested for sending smut to what he thought was a 13 year old boy.  (Side note it would have been much cooler for him to get caught on the show To Catch A Predator.)  Money quote:

When NYPD investigators showed up at the cleric’s on-campus apartment in Murray Hall yesterday, Plock argued that he sent his X-rated videos only to consenting adults, a law enforcement source said.

“His face is clear in the video. It looks like he filmed it in his bathroom at St. John’s, and he sent it to someone he thought was a teenager,” the source said.

Damn this stuff doesn’t really surprise me much any more, and instead of making some kind of cheap joke about priests and little boys (way too easy to do, and I like my jokes to be a bit more challenging).  Instead I will take this opportunity to throw down a bit of history.

In case you don’t know celibacy among priests was a personal choice, and was not a mandated by the church.  The push for a mandate for celibacy among the clergy began in AD 304 at the Council of Elvira, however, it wasn’t until the Lateran Council in 1139 that The Church really endorsed and enforced the rule.  It is impossible to know whether there were problems among the clergy after this with homosexuality and pedophilia, but some saw a link between celibacy and these behaviors:

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