There is a sextet waiting to board a plane to Lexington, KY. They are all dressed in flowing Tommy Bahama shirts. Even their luggage is patterned with tropical flora. I can only guess what kind of music they play.

I heard this on the radio today:

“British Petroleum has announced plans to dump up to 1,584 pounds of ammonia and 4,925 pounds of industrial solids into Lake Michigan every single day from a BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana — a massive setback to decades of work to clean up the lake.”

The commercial (as well as the petition drive) was paid for by the Friends of Dick Durbin and Friends of Rahm Emanuel committees. I know Durbin is not that popular, but please put your political affiliations aside and look at the bigger picture.

Go here to learn more about the petition and sign up:
Save Lake Michigan Petition

Go here to listen to the radio commercial:

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I realize that some of you may not have any connection to Lake Michigan or have never lived near it, but I still think the cause is worthy and should be looked at by all.

I’ve been back in my hometown for a few days; staying in my old room. While poking around, I found a lot of my old mix CDs that I had made back in high school. I remember when I first got my Apple “Quicksilver”. I was so excited to have a CD burner. A mix for every state of mind, every major event, holiday and new semester.

This particular mix was for an event that was held towards the end of my junior year of high school. A few of my friends had put together a faux elite society, much like a college sorority or fraternity. Unlike a true Greek organization where tradition precedes all actions, nothing was ever taken seriously. There were no meetings and no roster. Come to think of it, I don’t even think it was a legitimately registered extracurricular club. All that aside, somehow we convinced the cafeteria staff to let us use two of their tapped water coolers for a “club event”. We brought the coolers (filled with lemonade and fruit juice) out to the main yard of the campus along with plenty of Solo cups. We then convinced an upperclassman to let us use his guitar amps in order to get our playlist heard all across the school property. Three extension cords later and a little bit of sweet talking to the maintenance staff, we were in business. With the first note of the first song, excitement rose among us and soon more and more students came out of their dorm rooms to join the “Kegger”. A few of the seniors looked on in disgust as we ran around the yard with our lemonade, blowing off the steam that had been building all school year. The anticipation of finally becoming a senior along with each of our own personal frustrations were all manifest in our feral response to the music. Looking back on the situation, I don’t even know how we escaped the reach of formal discipline.

So in honor of the rediscovery of old favorites, I present to you this mix. One of the great things about this playlist is that it represents not just me, but all of my closest friends at the time. We all contributed our tastes and styles to this list. I can still remember the arguments about adding yet another Desaparecidos track. While we may have broken the rules of mix tape composition, it still sounded good…well, to us at least.

Kegger! – circa Spring 2003
1. Possum Kingdom | The Toadies
2. Pattern Against User | At The Drive-In
3. High Seas | The Detachment Kit
4. Mañana | Desaparecidos
5. Paper Thin Walls | Modest Mouse
6. Here Comes Your Man | Pixies
7. Greater Omaha | Desaparecidos
8. My Other Car Is a Spaceship | Commander Venus
9. Today | Smashing Pumpkins
10. …1988 | Ozma
11. Last Dance With Mary-Jane | Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
12. The Great Decay | Cursive
13. G Turns to D | Sloan
14. All Night Diner | Modest Mouse
15. Myxamatosis | Radiohead
16. One Too Many Blows To the Head | Dismemberment Plan
17. Ego Tripping At the Gates of Hell | Flaming Lips
18. Fuck You Aurora | Alkaline Trio

toothpastefordinner.com

This is what I see out of my east facing window every morning.

I’m back in the desert again, and have been since the end of last week. Everyone always asks me if it’s hot here. Well I don’t think the earth’s axial tilt has changed at all, so yes, it is still hot here and will be all summer. One of the more exciting things about coming out this time is that my cell phone now works out past Alma School Rd. Thank you AT&T…another reason to get an iPhone.

Here are some pictures to tide you over.

Edit: Sorry about the size of the pictures. I have a slow connection out here!

I Stumbled Upon this website a few days back and found it fascinating. Before I read the Overview, I didn’t realize that these photographs were actually from the 1940s. I thought they were just some conceptual art project (e.g. “What if we always had color photography?”). The photos are so clear and vibrant, it’s almost hard to imagine such great prints coming from 70-year-old technology. Seeing these scenes in color makes them more real (to me) and allows us to see what everyone else saw in the time after the Depression and during the Second World War.

From the page:
“Bound for Glory: America in Color is the first major exhibition of the little known color images taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI). Comprised of seventy digital prints made from color transparencies taken between 1939 and 1943, this exhibition reveals a surprisingly vibrant world that has typically been viewed only through black-and-white images.”

2 children playing with model airplane/Robstown, Texas, January 1942

South Water St. depot of the Illinois Central RR/Chicago, Illinois, May 1943

A reality TV show about tanning?? Now if they would only turn it into a reality tv show/competition…

I just arrived in Philadelphia, and I’m pretty underwhelmed. So far, all I’ve seen are the dirty parking lots and industrial areas visible from the highway. Hopefully Philly will redeem itself tomorrow with its wealth of American history. Until I have some nice touristy pictures to post, I direct your attention to the menace that is the WiFi Router.

Wifi Routers: Silent, Blinking Death?

(Don’t you just love the little angry face on the router?)