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June 29, 2004
can i have a redo
i decided yesterday to refinish one of my guitars. its a little japanese thing i paid like 100$ for. the pickups are sweet and the neck is nice if a bit small. so i got as much of the finish off as i could (with chemicals and sanding) and carved an arm contour, reshaped the peghead, and routed a hole for a toggle switch (a la tom morello.) it's been primed once and will get one more before i have to decide on the main color. i'm thinking black or green, with either a white (with green) or the old metal pickguard. so if i don't show up to stuff i'm probably knee deep in wires and paint.
i'll post after pictures, i ripped into her without taking before.
Posted by eustace at 11:21 PM | Comments (4)
June 28, 2004
....
"your anger is a gift" - Zach De La Rocha
Posted by eustace at 1:04 PM | Comments (1)
June 24, 2004
i love graffiti
Posted by eustace at 11:48 PM | Comments (6)
snickers
ìa taste for change, satisfied by a change of tasteî
Posted by eustace at 1:33 AM | Comments (10)
June 23, 2004
done and done
contest is over, only mark and laurie played, tim sorta got a pre-contest prize and then i told him the answers yesterday. here are the questions and the answers:
Which band member of radiohead wears an arm brace and has recently released a solo album entitled ìbodysongî? Johnny Greenwood
What is the name of Thom Yorkeís son? Noah
Who wrote the song ìsomethingî and what album was it on? George Harrison, Abbey Road
Name either the hiphop/r&b artist who was in ìthe Italian Jobî or the hip-hop artist who was in ìFinding Foresterî. Mos Def and Busta Rhymes
Where is the band ìthe Cardigansî from? Sweden
Who played bass on the new Metallica album ìSt. Angerî? Bob Rock
Who beat radiohead for Best Groupe at the Brits in 2002? Travis
Where does ìsonî music come from? Cuba
Where is Ladysmith Black Mambazo from? South Africa
Who used them on what album, making them internationally know? Paul Simon, Graceland
Which guitarist has collaborated with the Prodigy, Atari Teenage Riot, and the Crystal Method, and also remixed a song by the Wu-Tang Clan? Tom Morello
Name one of the albums Dave Grohl has played drums on, besides the nirvana and foo fighters albums. Queens of the Stone Age/songs for the deaf or Cat Power/you are free
Which piece of music incited riots in 1913? The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky
Which band toured with Our Lady Peace as their opening band in England, then reversed
roles in Canada? Stereophonics
Which two bands had members converge to form Fugazi? What label are these fine gentlemen on? Minor Threat and Rite of Spring, Dischord
Jello Biafra was lead singer of which band? Dead Kennedyís
Name the band who began their career of pyrotechnics by pouring gasoline on the dance floor and lighting it under the audience at the beginning of the show. Rammstein
Which artist with a long career she recently ìretiredî from, has appeared on both a Asian Dub Foundation and Massive Attack album since? Sinead OíConnor
Name the band leader and band of the main instigator of the Gorillaz projects. Damon Albarn (of Blur)
Name the band the is composed entirely of Armenian's, though they had no intention of being a Armenian band. They just liked playing together. System of a Down
Posted by eustace at 5:45 PM | Comments (4)
June 22, 2004
blip
ìgovernments are failuresî
Posted by eustace at 2:58 PM | Comments (5)
June 21, 2004
keep it going
contest is still open. right now i only have to players, and that was how many winners i intended to have. plus one of them has already asked me for a mix disc.
Posted by eustace at 2:52 PM | Comments (12)
with child
hmm, now i'm being encouraged to pontificate on pregnancy. i'd be happy to do this, however if i were to breach this subject (oh no, bad pun), i would most likely talk about the ways the current methods of birthing (including lamaz) are unnecessarily hard on both mother and child. i would also discuss some of what i know about effective and pain reducing birthing procedures. there might even be pictures involved. Note the warning in upper right corner. i will do it people, really i will.
Posted by eustace at 2:47 PM | Comments (12)
June 20, 2004
the name of the game
the contest is almost ready to go, one more day with a stack of the last four months exclaims for some memory joggers. here's how its going to work, put your name up here in the comments and use an email addy that works. i'll send out the questions to those that want in (don't worry i'm the only one who can see those addy's, well me and chris.)
a word of warning, this thing is going to stink of my musical tastes and interests.
Posted by eustace at 6:37 PM | Comments (5)
June 19, 2004
i'm make'n a list
i am preparing a quiz for all the music buffs out there. there will be prizes, and it will probably be a how many you get right and send in to me (no commenting, just email.) hopefully i'll get a good response because i really want to tear off some more personalized mix tapes. kirk may be disqualified due to his title as the professor of musical trivia.
Posted by eustace at 6:38 PM | Comments (10)
June 18, 2004
ok ok kids
so the ladies want a bit of the polygamy statement up. ok i'll do that for you:
polygamy is not wrong, but its not right either. that is to say it's not morally wrong if done with respect and openess and the expectation that everybody is going to do their part to fullfill their obligations within the union (the best examples of those coming from the B to the I to the BLE.) having said that, polygamy will not work in our society because the judio-christian history of the western world is based (loosely) on the way the early Christians lived. now since the first Church was in the Roman empire, they were not allowed by law to marry more than one person at the same time. and so our society has been trained to think its wrong and views it that way (hell we even judge other cultures that do it.) also, most of us have certain views of marriage that can mess with a monogamous marriage, never mind a polygamous one. so thats another strike against it. it also isn't fair because, while a man and a couple of women works as far as the whole reproduction and paternity/maternity, the woman with men thing would get very odd when those questions were raised.
so there it is, my opinion on that. its not wrong, but its not right. morally its not wrong, but as far as fairness and doability its next to impossible to make work.
Posted by eustace at 3:01 PM | Comments (19)
ah what a mess
i've deleted the last two entries i had up. i wrote them both to piss people off. one aimed at women in general, the other at two particular women specifically. that wasn't fair. i still don't think polygamy is wrong, but i don't think its right either. and i still don't really like travis or coldplay, but lots of people do and they are entitled to their opinions and may even be right (i don't think so, but maybe.) so i'm backing off both of those. i extended the i hate cops thing because i wasn't sure who'd have bothered to read it.
ps; caro i moved your comment down to where the rest of the political spectrum comments are. so you weren't deleted. not like marie and i were.
Posted by eustace at 11:48 AM | Comments (4)
June 16, 2004
drugs are a pain
i've been on drugs for about four years off and on. try one, doesn't work, try another, doesn't work. finally after a bit of a "situation" i got a combination that worked a little bit. but one of them made me gain weight. so i wanted of that one, thinking the other one was the one working anyway. now i'm thinking it was the other way around. so this means i have to take a drug that will make me gain weight (i'm really afraid of that, because i have an aversion to wieght that could end up not good.) it would also mean going off or lessening my dose of the other stuff. this would suck because it takes a month to get off 100mg, and i'm taking 300mg.
i hate drugs, i think i'm just going to become an alcoholic. at least that'll taste good.
Posted by eustace at 2:37 PM | Comments (13)
June 15, 2004
i hate cops (most of them anyway)
LAPD unleashes horses, pepper spray, rubber bullets on concert going protesters
by Jennifer Bleyer 2:46am Tue Aug 15 '00 Los Angeles
On Monday night, a peaceful, festive free show by Rage Against the Machine turned violent as cops finally got to show off all their months of anti-protest training at the Democratic National Convention.
What began as a peaceful, festive march through downtown Los Angeles became violent tonight as police officers shot high-pressure water and pepper spray pellets at protesters, and later chased them down on horses while beating them with batons.
The afternoonís events began at Pershing Square, about half a mile from the Staples Center, where thousands of people converged for a march organized by Global Exchange around the theme ìHuman Needs Not Corporate Greed.î A variety of speakers roused the crowd with speeches on issues ranging from labor rights to the prison-industrial complex, until the march finally stepped off at about 5:00 PM. The march itself resembled a joyous political parade, with anti-nuclear group Peace Action carrying three enormous missile balloons labeled ìStar Wars=New Arms Race; the local salsa band East L.A. Sabor Factory playing on a flatbed truck, indigenous American dancers performing in beaded costumes along the route; and hundreds of colorful puppets punctuating the crowd.
As the march wound its way to the Staples Center, the crowd swelled to several times its original size as waves of people showed up for a free concert by Rage Against the Machine. They gathered in a paved lot only a few hundred yards from the Center which had been specially designated for protests during the week. With fifteen-foot high fences embedded in two-foot thick concrete barricades surrounding the entire perimeter of the Staples Center, there seemed to be little possibility of the crowd posing a real threat to the convention. The mood was generally one of joyous celebration and pointed, informed protest.
By the time Rage Against the Machine played, the lot was full and onlookers estimated the crowd to be upwards of 50,000, making it the largest protest so far during the Democratic National Convention. The band played about half a dozen songs to an exuberant crowd, with singer Zach de le Rocha, himself a well-known radical activist, shouting, ìwe have a right to oppose these motherfuckersî and directing everyoneís attention to the convention center where thousands of delegates anxiously awaited speeches by Bill and Hillary Clinton.
When the band finished playing, a series of speakers took the stage to express solidarity with the Uíwa people of South America, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the protesters in Philadelphia who have sat in jail since the Republican National Convention two weeks ago. A group of people began clustering against the fence on the north side of the lot, facing directly toward the Staples Center, behind which four rows of police officers stood in full riot gear, holding batons, pepper spray guns and other tactical equipment. A few people threw plastic water bottles over the fence, which popped on the ground and sprayed the officers.
A standoff that lasted at least an hour then ensued. While much of the crowd ambled off into the night, an estimated four thousand remained in the lot. A strange assortment of items found their way over the fence, including shoes, cardboard tubes, CDís, a handicapped parking sign, small bits of concrete and many plastic water bottles. In retaliation, the police opened fire at least five times on the protesters with pepper spray, which is shot in a capsule form that explodes on contact to emit a substance highly irritable to the eyes, nost and throat. In addition, they shot paintgun pellets, rubber bullets and water from a high-pressure hose through holes in the fence. A ranking police officer announced over a megaphone that the assembly had been declared unlawful, and that all those present were required to disperse or risk arrest.
The protesters remained steadfast, holding signs against the fence that called for Green Party candidate Ralph Naderís inclusion in the presidential debates, and an end to corporate welfare, among other things. Two young people scaled the fence and straddled it, waving black flags that symbolize anarchy. They made no attempts to jump down on the convention side of the fence.
The police officers reinforced their lines several times with additional officers, some of whom were equipped with teargas. A superior officer noted that even the officers with paintguns had teargas pellets which they could load into their guns at a moments notice. The protesters made a bonfire in the street, played drums and chanted while the police officers intermittently attacked them.through the fence. Dozens of people watched the events unfold from balconies of the convention center, but only a handful of reporters from the mainstream press were present at the time since it coincided with the Clintonsí speeches.
After about an hour, the final straw of the standoff was drawn when about twenty police officers on horseback charged at the remaining few hundred protesters, many of whom were actually trying to leave the area when they were cornered. The horses stomped on people and chased them as the mounted cops swung their batons and yelled. At one point, four young Mexican-American men were thrown up against the fence by a cluster of horses while the mounted police officers beat them repeatedly with batons. The young men held their arms over their heads to protect themselves, and eventually were able to run from the attack.
Amidst torrents of screams and youths running desperately in every direction, giant television screens on the exterior of the Staples Center broadcast President Clinton delivering his much anticipated address. ìAmerica is more confident, hopeful and just, more secure and free,î he said, ì because we offered a vision and worked together to achieve it.î Not far from his projected visage, about thirty people took refuge from the wild horses on the stage while everyone at ground level was chased south to Olympic Avenue and away from the area. The group on the stage was ordered down and detained by police officers for twenty minutes before being ordered to leave.
Once the area that two hours previous had penned in 50,000 protesters was completely empty, the convention let out and delegates saw no evidence of what had happened besides some water bottles on the ground and riot cops standing at attention.
Posted by eustace at 1:08 PM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2004
one more (plus a few, and lots)
this thing is actually more scientific than most of the ones out there. its basically a personality test, but it doesn't just say......... your a goof. it gives a pretty insightful answer.
here are some more. actually a whole schwack of them. i've only done the one up top. maybe i'll do the rest sometime.
Posted by eustace at 5:50 PM | Comments (13)
June 11, 2004
the spectrum of futility
ok, mark asked me to label him politically. i have no idea about marks politics. but here are a couple sites that will help you find out. these don't tell you where you should align yourself as far as parties, but tells you where you are in the political spectrum. there about 75 questions and graph on the same chart.
Political Survey #1
Political Survey #2
try it out, and comment on where you come out.
Posted by eustace at 2:42 AM | Comments (14)
June 10, 2004
everybodies nuts
turns out marie's friend laurie has a blog. this means i can tease her with crazy leftist statements. she's a crazy right winger and i'm a crazy social anarchist. beautiful. nothings better than pissing off a right winger, with the possible exception being pissing off a left winger. political bastards.
this brings me to a lovely point about the election. i have no one to vote for. i don't believe in our government as it is currently setup (actually i don't really believe in any form of government as a workable idea.) so i'm screwed and i don't think i even have a communist or green party rep to vote for. i'm screwed.
ps; bought another refused cd. there's a new alexisonfire cd as well thats pretty cheap and rather tempting. i may give in on the way to the congregational meeting tomorrow.
Posted by eustace at 3:57 AM | Comments (14)
June 9, 2004
Surah 11:90 The Prophet Hud
"But ask forgiveness
Of your Lord, and turn
Unto Him (in repentance):
For my Lord is indeed
Full of mercy and loving-kindness."
from the Holy Quran through the Prophet Muhammad
Posted by eustace at 8:05 AM | Comments (8)
June 8, 2004
mic check!!
With this mic device
I spit nonfiction
Who got tha power
This be my question
Tha mass of tha few
In this torn nation?
Tha priest tha book or tha congregation?
Tha politricks who rob and hold down your zone?
Or those who give tha thieves tha key to their homes?
Tha pig who's free to murder one
Shucklak
Or survivors who make a move and murder one back?
Posted by eustace at 9:47 AM | Comments (0)
June 7, 2004
nothings going on
couple a good times this weekend. great time on sunday morning, though i started way to early (friggin 8:30 practice.) worked one night, one more to go. this one will be interesting because i'll be training someone. after tuesday at 2:00 i'll be up and at'em. hmmm, i'm really tired. life as of yet is boring, and this summer looks like it may require some creativity to be interesting.
Posted by eustace at 5:15 PM | Comments (8)
June 3, 2004
Tom Morello - April 21, 2001, Quebec City
When we use our common sense, and oppose a plan that will hurt millions of people, the mass media, the politicians, the late-nite comedians, and the snide bastards on the Fox News Channel, call us "radicals."
They called us radicals when we opposed the pharmaceutical companies, who in the name of greater profits sought to deny the poor people in South Africa access to affordable AIDS medications. We said, as the Zaptistas say, "°Ya Basta!", "Enough already!" And the pharmaceutical companies backed down.
Now they call us "radicals" again, because we oppose the FTAA and corporate globalization.
But is it radical to say that people need access to jobs?
Is it radical to say that people should get a good day's pay for a hard day's work?
Is it radical to say that all people deserve to eat, live and work in conditions of peace, freedom and justice?
If so, Fox News, then I am proud to be a radical.
After looking at the FTAA's predecessor NAFTA, it only makes sense to oppose it. NAFTA was a failure, and it has destroyed the lives of millions. More people live in poverty today thanks to NAFTA. More people are landless and homeless thanks to NAFTA. More people have died trying to cross the border into the US thanks to NAFTA. More people are working in sweatshops, are uninsured, and are unemployed, thanks to NAFTA.
So when our government say, "let's expand NAFTA to even more nations and people," we say, as the Zaptistas say, "°Ya Basta!", "Enough already!"
Now, who's views are more extreme, ours, or the supporters of corporate globalization?
We say that all people should have enough to eat. They say that corporations should control the world's food supply.
We say that people are entitled to health and security. They say that corporations should have the right to poison our air and water, and steal our livelihoods at will.
We say that people have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They say that you only have the right to work, consume and obey.
We say that democracy should be democratic. They say that corporations should be allowed to re-write every constitution in the Western Hemisphere without a vote.
Now, we say, as the Zaptistas say, "°Ya Basta!", "Enough already!"
But these global gangsters are now afraid. How else can you explain their reactions to our movement? They got riot cops in Seattle to spray tear gas on young, seated protesters who were chanting "we are non-violent." They mass arrested hundreds of marchers at the IMF/World Bank protests in Washington DC for speaking their minds. And at the Democratic convention, they turned Los Angeles into a warzone, and shot people with rubber bullets for listening to a concert by a popular rock/rap band. And as we speak, they are trying to silence brave voices of freedom in Quebec.
There is fear in their eyes. We can beat them, and we will beat them. In the words of Cesar Chavez, "you cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore," and we are not afraid anymore. Corporations were created by man. And if we built them up, we can tear the sons of bitches down.
We say, as the Zaptistas say, "°Ya Basta!", "Enough already!"
Posted by eustace at 6:34 PM | Comments (3)
June 1, 2004
recently
I have not done anything here for a while. as I said before I have been working nights; most of last week and monday morning. therefore, I need to do a little uppity-dating.
hmmmm, what is new? well not much actually, at least not in my life. I could prattle on about my recent purchase of the first (International) Noise Conspiracy album, which is amazing and which all you musically illiterate heathens would not understand the complex stripped down beauty of. or I could pontificate on the wonderful biography of Tom Waits, but most of you would simply go "huh?" and again not be aware of the beauty and artistic landscape the man has and continues to cover musically and as an actor. therefore, I will not discuss these things.
I saw Hellboy on friday night, which i had been waiting a year and a half for (possibly more). it is an amazing movie, the story line is good for a comic book based film. the special effects are relatively amazing. the movie had alot of potential and i think lived up to most of that potential.
I've had a bit of a conversation with tim and mark about Rasputin last night. i've read a little bit about him in the past. he was really an amazing man. he could possibly be the greatest proof of either the power of a spirit to possess a man or that there are beings or men that surpass supernaturally the confines of human ability and constitution.
Posted by eustace at 11:45 AM | Comments (6)