enough with the bitching about people jumping on bandwagons late. it’s stupid and pointless and incredibly more-so when you’re talking about a social cause. so people are just now responding to the Kony thing? so the fuck what?
it’s stupid to bitch about people discovering something after you did. discovering something before someone else doesn’t give you any kind of entitlement. it doesn’t make you superior and it doesn’t even mean you like the thing more or better. it just means that there was a time you didn’t know about something and now you do, which is exactly what’s happening with the people you’re bitching about.
it’s whiny and immature and annoying and stupid.
and maybe the bitching is an attempt to point out how Americans tend to hear about something and automatically respond exactly how they feel they should, like lemmings, which is maybe a valid complaint. but it’s a bit ironic that you would think the best way to bitch about that is by reblogging a meme. if the issue at hand is a cause you believe in, then why not just be happy that it’s reaching more eyes and ears? why the need to claim it as your thing? and maybe these people will post the vids to their facebooks or blogs and then never think of it again, but what if one of those mindless people present it to someone who can really make a difference?
just grow the fuck up.
thoughts?
gut = heart
cornered:
several old
and new things–
discomfort:
knowledge like a knife
carve out pains
with sophisticated ease
a response,
from “the gut”
from “the heart”
hunter:
weapons like a pen
write out deaths
with unwarranted restraint
a response,
from “the gut”
from “the heart”
it’s all the same thing now
~ ben R jr.
feelings are secret
you hold all of the cards
not out of greed or malice
but because you are unintentionally selfish
and i am apologetically giving
and indebted
and all the things that make me pathetic
that i bury down deep
so no one notices
i’m not sure what to say anymore
~ ben R jr.
why are parents/adults in this country so ardently against giving information to children?
it’s fucking pathetic the way people who are against something will use their children as an excuse. “i don’t want X to happen because then my children will be exposed to it!” so the fuck what? so what? welcome to the planet Earth, where stuff that is completely beyond your control is always going to happen. “i’m upset about M.I.A. putting up her middle finger at the Super Bowl half time show because my kid saw it! i am outraged my innocent child had to sit through that!” shut the fuck up! you’re kid probably wouldn’t have even noticed or cared if you weren’t making such a huge deal of it. also, it’s just a fucking finger. who gives a fuck? calm down. or, if your kid DID notice and happen to ask what it meant…. just fucking tell them!! why with hold the information? you can’t control your kid’s every action! that’s not even the point of why you exist in his/her life. the point of why you exist in his life, as his parent, is to equip him/her with the information and ideals to make a right or decent decision when you aren’t around. your kids are probably holding up their middle fingers to one another outside in your back yard or on the play ground when the teachers aren’t watching anyways. just fucking tell them the information and let them decide how to use it.
“if gay couples get married i’ll have to explain that to my kids! i am outraged that i might have to have a conversation about my something with my kid!” these are literally the worst and most pointless arguments against gay marriage. gay people exist regardless. you can’t control who might or might not hold hands in public. and if your kid sees two men or two women holding hands and asks why, you can either flip out and try to shield his eyes and pretend it’s something it’s not or you can just give them the fucking information and let them decide how to react.
they are going to get the information at some point anyways…
the only thing i can think of when people react this way or say these kinds of things is that awful fucking character from Parks And Recreation who hated Twilight because it had quivering and wanted the painting destroyed because it offended her. it’s so fucking ignorant to A) keep information from your children like it’s some sort of forbidden treasure and B) try to demand that certain information just be with held from everyone because it offends you. grow the fuck up and get a god damn life.
seriously, who the fuck cares that for half of a second during a fucking concert in the middle of a fucking sporting event someone raised their middle finger?
the older i get, the more i realize that it is not really my place to pass moral judgements on someone and kind of pointless to do so.
i think that morality, what is “right” and/or “wrong”, is subjective. i can probably only think of a few things that i would say are, across the board, always wrong. i know a lot of people seem to be terrified of the idea of moral relativity, but if you look at the history of the human species morality has proven to be relative. i think it has to be…
200 years ago people in America owned other people and, for the majority, it was not considered immoral. in early human history it was considered perfectly okay to sacrifice people.
ideals and dogmas that do not allow change are useless.
religions and creeds that do not understand, by taking an objective look at the history of our species, that morality has to be subject to times and situations are useless.
all of this is kind of new for me… i’ve recently developed ideas that seem to be contrary to most folks ideas of right and wrong. the problem i find is that i was very “morally conservative” for most of my life and that’s how most of the people who know me seem to think of me. so, sometimes friends will say things to me about their lives and it seems like they’re worried that i might judge them. or sometimes if i don’t want to do something (drink or get high or whatever) it has nothing to do with morality, it just don’t want to do it. no judgement.
anyways, at this point in my life i think a pretty good motto is “do what makes you happy & don’t harm anyone else”
movies based on books
i love books and i love movies. i am usually pretty skeptic about movies based on books, especially books that i’ve read, because they can rarely live up to the greatness of the words on the page.
on December 25th Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, the movie, comes out. this is a movie based on my favorite book. to say i love this book (by Jonathan Safran Foer) is a bit of an understatement. i read quite a bit, but this book is one of few that i feel an emotional connection to. it’s so moving that i can sometimes just talk about parts of it and tear up.
i watched the trailer for the movie last night for the first time and i felt excited about it. i have to say that i was not that impressed with the trailer. i don’t like the casting. i don’t like that they used U2 instead of a lesser known or more subtle song. lots of the scenes did look great though and i found myself tearing up a bit - based on my emotional connection with the book.
i’m not going to let my initial hesitation to see the movie (based on the trailer) get in the way of actually seeing it though. because i feel like maybe the the people making the trailer had the same problem trying get across what the movie is about that i have when i try to explain what the book is about to people who haven’t read it. first of all, the story is a bit hard to describe… “a little boy who’s father died in one of the towers on 9/11 finds a key in his dad’s closet and is going around New York trying to find out what the key fits. and it’s also kind of about his grandparents and how they met” but that just doesn’t seem to really embody what the book is. because it’s also about this amazing little boy. it’s about so much more than just the story it tells. so, i’m willing to give the movie the benefit of the doubt and although i’m not quite as excited to see it now as i was when i first heard they were making it, i am looking forward to it.
Rock N Roll/Ryan Adams
i haven’t listened to anything but Ryan Adams for the past 3 days.
it all started Tuesday afternoon when “Wish You Were Here” randomly popped into my head and i scrolled through my iTunes to ROCK N ROLL and started listening and couldn’t stop. i don’t even know the last time i listened to this album, but it’s been a long time. i remember being kind of obsessed with it when it came out, but it’s damn good and i feel like i’m discovering it for the first time again. the (CD) album cover is currently my desktop.
so, then i started looking into more Ryan Adams stuff… i had most of his discography already, or so i thought. i discovered that there was a shit-ton of stuff that he recorded that i had never heard & didn’t know existed. i had never listened to Gold (even though Heartbreaker is an album i truly love) or Demolition before. i have spent the majority of yesterday, last night & today downloading recording sessions, unreleased albums, b-sides, singles and uploading it all into my iTunes (where i obsessively label/organize everything). i even created my own art work for all the unreleased albums & sessions. i’ve read way too much about all of them and written up my own time line/discography to use as a check list. my ears are having a great time trying to keep up with this massive deposit to my iTunes library.
this is not completely unusual for me. a few months back i did the same thing with Wilco.
i have an obsessive personality. it gets out of control sometimes.
all of this to say that Rock N Roll might be one of my favorite albums of all time. please listen to it as much as you can.
and Ryan Adams is a crazy genius.
we are at war/we are not at war
my eyes were wide open
when you pulled the trigger
but i said love like i meant it
so all is fair
my pockets were empty
when you put the barrel to my head
but you said love like you meant it
so…
and it’s figurative
or metaphor
so it’s not as serious
but just as dangerous
because i gave you the gun
and all of the bullets
and i said love
and i meant it
so all is fair
so shoot
point blank in my face
my eyes will be wide open
when you pull the trigger
but i say love like i mean it
so all is fair
- ben R jr.
quick reviews
Stronger by Kelly Clarkson
an album full of melodramatic break-up tunes. all the songs kind of sound the same. she seems really bitter about something. i miss the gay-club-music vibe from her last album. can’t get the chorus of Mr. Know It All out of my head…
Soul Punk by Patrick Stump
we get it, Patrick, you love Michael Jackson. this album is kind of just a MJ rip-off from start to finish. it’s an okay album full of okay songs but there isn’t anything really new or interesting happening. and now i know why that other dude writes lyrics for Fall Out Boy.
Mylo Xyloto by Coldplay
i don’t know what Coldplay is doing or trying to do. to be honest, i found myself enjoying most of this album. i look at the track list and think i like most of the songs but find myself also feeling like i need to listen to them more to really decide if i do. and i will listen to it more. i just don’t think i really get it, as a whole.
Ashes & Fire by Ryan Adams
do not listen to this album first thing in the morning. it will ruin your day. this album is really fucking sad. depressing even. i love sad mood music but this album can sometimes be too much. the only thing this album inspires is to stay in bed and drink. that said, it’s also full of beautiful songs you need to hear.
Leave Your Love by Dan Griffin
this album is full of sad mood music but it’s not as sad as Ryan Adam’s album. a few of the songs are catchy as fuck and i can’t get them out of my head. all the rest of the songs are really good too. i really like this album.
Days by Real Estate
this is a mellow summer album. it’s mostly boring and forgettable but good background music if you’re driving around or going to the beach or lemonade is involved at all in your plans. you know, all the things that it will be too cold to do soon. underwhelming.
it really frustrates me to read people bitch & complain about school on tumblr/twitter/whateverthefuck because i would really like the chance to get an education and it seems impossible…
be grateful for your opportunities. if you don’t enjoy what you’re studying, change it and study something else. if you don’t want to be in school and do the work and make an effort, don’t. but stop acting like your life is awful because you have the privilege to get an education and because it isn’t always easy.
and if you’re that kid who’s parents are paying for you to take classes and skip most of them to smoke weed in your dorm room and bitch about how shitty life is on tumblr, fuck you. fuck you.
