Music Review: Real Estate-Days

I like finding new music. It's one of my favorite things to do. I found a lot of bands and musicians that I really like this year (see F*cked Up, Youth Lagoon, Girls, Atlas Sound and Ty Segall.) However none compare to my 2011 finding of "Real Estate." 

Also! I have a new blog. Check it out

Coming off their self-titled debut album, "Days" was nowhere near the sophomore slump I had anticipated. In fact, it's a piece of music I don't think I could live without. 
 Much like their original album, "Days" sounds as if The Beach Boys had evolved their style to accompany a less lyric-based version of the indie-surf genre. Songs like Kinder Bluman are best enjoyed on a warm summer's morning while basking in the sun, which is pretty unique coming from a band that originated in New Jersey.
 This is a summer album, but I will listen to it at any time. In fact, I can't go much more than a week without listening to "It's real" or "Wonder years." 
  I, like most people, use music to process my own emotions. However, only a few albums can help me time travel. When I listen to 808's and heartbreak, I travel back to the winter of 8th grade. When Arcade Fire's The Suburbs comes on, I think about the first girl I ever loved.  All of the great experiences I had this summer, all of the people I met, and all of the places I went will be forever connected to this album. I know that people won't have the same experience with "Days" that I had, but it makes me so happy to listen to, and I highly recommend it.

Alone

 I was going to write about the difficulties of being an only child, and living in a neighborhood far away from most of my friends. I was going to write how those experiences often leave me bitter, but my time alone will benefit me in the long run.

 But then that shooting in Connecticut happened, and I got to thinking. I am far, far from alone. I am close with my parents, I am close with the friends that I have, and I have never lost anyone to gun violence, despite the fact that statistics say I should have by now. I do not know loneliness, for I have not experienced irreplaceable loss. Those people will never be able to truly relate to anybody ever again. 

 I am not a parent who has to close off a room to my house. I am not an ex-brother or an ex-sister. I am not going to have to take away christmas presents from under the tree. Tonight, I will say goodnight to my parents and go to sleep safe and warm. And for that, I am extraordinarily lucky, and cannot classify myself as alone.

I don't know this means nothing.

 I haven't had any moments in life that made me believe that there is a God. That isn't to say I don't believe in God, I just don't think he cares about what we do on Earth. I think he has bigger plans for us, beyond this life.
   But that's beside the point. The thing to come away from that paragraph is that I haven't had that "I believe" moment. And I probably never will. That being said, I have my pillars. The things that keep my grounded in this life, and the things that show me there's something after this. I have three of them. Two emotions and one belief that keep me a positive person.(Take note, these are things I ponder and that I have to work on on a daily basis. I don't claim to be an expert on these things, but they're what I strive to achieve, and what I believe in.)

I.Humor-I know not everybody thinks that I'm funny, and that's okay. I don't require it, I find my own jokes to be humorous, and that's enough. Sometimes, I feel like sharing that with people. If they accept it, that's cool. If they don't find it funny, their loss. But I need to make jokes to keep my sanity. I suppose that's kind of selfish, but I think the occasional ability to make people laugh is okay.

II. Compassion- Life can suck sometimes, but each one of us has the ability to make it better for ourselves and others. The quote I use the most in life is probably "Be the change you want to see in the world." which was said by Gandhi. If everyone respects each other we'll all be better off. A part of that respect is feeling compassion for others problems. If you don't feel compassion for them, who will feel it for you?

III. Reincarnation- There is a lot of suffering in the world by people who don't deserve it. I could not continue to live if I knew that suffering wasn't going to mean something after this life. That's not to say I don't strive to help those who are suffering because I think they will be rewarded later, it's just that the only way I can function is believing that there is something after this.

 I don't expect you to agree with all of these. I don't want you to. Stick to your own beliefs. But consider this. No God worth worshiping will punish you for expanding your horizons. Before you judge somebody's beliefs, at least try to understand them first. Except for NAMBLA. Those people are freaks.

My search to understand man's search for meaning.

I was really excited to read this book. I came away from "The Stranger" feeling pretty angry, and I was really happy when I found out that this book was written by a man who believes in purpose. That being said, I really struggled to get through reading book with any sense of hope. But I trudged on, hoping that things would work out. 

 It was about the third time I picked it up, that I remembered the quote from the preface. "To live is to suffer. To find meaning in that suffering is to have purpose." So, this book may not have a happy ending. But that's the point. There aren't always endings that give people hope, however that's not an indication that we're all spiraling through the Universe without meaning. It just means that some people are given really bad luck. 

That's where my beliefs come in. I'm reading about suffering in this book. I read about suffering everyday in the local news, in the national news, and in the global news. I've read about bad things happening to people my whole life. Yet, somehow, I've grown up on the west side of Chicago without a scratch. I've got a loving family, and I haven't ever had to visit my friends in the hospital. I'm really very lucky. 

 Considering all of that, I don't really suffer at all. I don't believe a God has chosen me to not suffer, I just feel that somehow I've been given a massive amount of luck. This book has reminded me to pay as much of that luck forward as I can. So that's what I'm going to do, because it's all I can do to find meaning.

Voltaire

Voltaire would not vote in the election, because he could not have the counsciousness to vote for either candidate. Mitt Romney is a liar and a thief, and he has no real plan to be president. He just wants the job. There are so many things in Romney's past that would trouble Voltaire, and make him fight against his campaign. Of the two major candidates, Colttaire definitely would not vote for Mitt Romney.

 The lesser of two evils, President Obama, would also not get Voltaire's vote. Not because he tells lies, or because he doesn't do what he says he will. He believes President Obama genuinley cares about this country. That being said, however, President Obama cares so much about this country that he is willing to take the easy way out to protect it. Because of all the drone strikes in the middle east, President Obama would lose Voltaire's vote.

 Voltaire has three choices this election. He can vote for a fraud, who doesn't deserve to be president. He can vote for a man who has given up on some of his morals in order to protect this country, but is the leader this country needs. Or, Voltaire could choose not to vote. I think Voltaire would choose the third option.

The meaning of life.

We are the size of spores in this universe. To think that our life has any ability to keep the cosmos intact would mean that our planet is one small but necessary cog in the big machine. Even then, there are 6 billion of us, and a hundred thousand get killed everyday regardless of age, race or gender. So I suppose the meaning of life, in the broadest spectrum, is purpose. Every aspect to the meaning of life stems from having purpose.

  Every emotion felt, be it love or hate, humor or angst, happiness or anger, comes from a sense of purpose, or lack thereof. To have purpose is to have people who depend on you. Even if it's just yourself, sometimes that's enough. 
 I have people if life who love me. My parents, my friends, family members, etc. I know that while they could probably go on without me eventually, their lives would be significantly altered for a long period of time. And even if I didn't have those people around me, I still have an interest in life. I depend on myself to stay alive so that I can experience life. 
 Emotions are based on whether  purpose is felt or not. Elation and happiness ensues when it is felt, depression ensues when it's missing,  Relationships with other humans creates a sense of purpose inside of us. Having that sense motivates us to procreate, and make new generations that depend on us.
  But even if that interdependence is missing, even if those emotions aren't felt, that self dependence must be felt for there to be meaning. If able to depend on oneself, then that Nirvana of life meaning can still be  achieved. 

This will be my blog post for the week, I guess.

I'll be out of town this week, so just in case I figured I would write this for class. I haven't been getting a ton of page views, so I don't think anybody will read this. You never know, I guess.

  
I don't know what the prompt this week is supposed to be, but I have a lot of stuff to get off my chest. I'm not sure how I will process a lot of those things yet, so I'll start with the basic stuff. I've been reading a lot lately. I just finished the book "Mother night" by Kurt Vonnegut. It was great. It made me sad, but laugh really hard too. It's a good philosophy book, I suppose. It made me look at public perception differently.

 Without giving too much away, the main character, Howard Campbell, was an undercover Nazi during WWII, and relayed messages to the American soldiers via radio broadcast. After the war, he returned to New York and lived quietly until he was caught by a group that brought ex-Nazi's out of hiding.  [Spoilers ahead]

 Howard lives a life of utter confusion. The only people who love him he has disdain for, and the people who hate him, he can't really fight back against. His life is being beloved by those he hates, and hated by those he understood. Howard doesn't really seem to care, since he lost his wife in Germany, but the problem is that he may be guilty despite his double-agency. 

  The question arises, what would he have done if America had lost? Would he continue his life as a nazi, or would he fight back until he died? The fact is, Howard would've stayed a nazi. He is not even a secret hero. He is subconsciously a coward, who find a way to play for both sides.  In the end, he hangs himself. I guess he knew.

  I don't see myself as weak, but I have a hard time publishing my opinions in front of people I don't know very well. Apart of this is just courtesy, I don't want to just fight people. But there are some instances where I realize that when it comes to just going with the flow or standing for my beliefs, I usually choose the former, and regret it about an hour later.

 For example, in my trip to Germany last summer, I encountered some Neo-Nazis. No joke. There was no swastika, but that's only because it's illegal in Germany. They did the goose step, they had the chants, and they had the blanket on the steps of the train station. I was 15 and scrawny, there was no way I could take them. I just went on my way. 

  I guess I can justify this all I want. If it were a large party trying to take over my country, surely I would rebel in a more strategic way. I couldn't do anything because they would've destroyed me. It's not my country, I have no say in the matter. The list goes on.

 But the fact is, in the face of evil, I looked in the other direction and walked away.

I don't plan these things out ahead of time, so that last sentence kind of gave me a lot to think about. Thanks for reading, or whatever.

Don't do the crime if you can't finish the blog.

The question of whether or not Candide's punishments fit his crime goes deeper than just the book,
so I'll get the literal answer out of the way first.
 Yes. In a book, the reader needs to see that retribution is given out in some way. Candide-a murdering, enslaving, violent man- goes through a lot of pain to get what he desires. He is beaten, attacked, and put through hell. This shows us, the reader, that we can't get away with causing people pain. Lesson learned, we all become better people because of this book, right?
 Wrong. In the real world, bad people don't always get retribution. There are bad people who just get to be bad, without facing the consequences. There are also good people who suffer most of their lives. In my opinion, if Candide really existed, he would probably be able to get away we all the things that he's done.
   In short, I don't believe in karma. I think everything happens at random. But in a book, the writer is able to play god, so in his world, he is able to make karma exist.
 I don't know how to end this one, so, um, bye.

I don't know anything.

  I may not always be funny, but I do know what funny is. That is to say that I've studied comedians for about 5 years now, and I know what gets a laugh out of people. There are three things that are gold in stand-up comedy: Those three things are honesty, emotion  and having a certain brusque to their act.

 

  Honesty, I learned by listening to Louis C.K. I've listened to him all through high school. And he is probably the most honest man on the planet. He talks about why his divorce makes him happy, how he can love and hate his kids at the same time, his fear of death and his hatred towards half his audience all in the same act. I began to notice this in him after seeing a video entitled "The evolution of Louis C.K." At the beginning of the video, it shows him making the same joke at several different venues, over a number of years. They were essentially street jokes, which aren't exactly beloved and respected by other comics. Next, is an interview with him in which he talks about George Carlin, his Idol. Louie talks about how big of a loser he felt, when Carlin told him he did a new hour of comedy every year. He talks about how he wanted to make a change. He said in his next show, he opened up with "I hate my kid. She's selfish." And that got a mixed reaction, but Louie said being honest and getting reaction was the best feeling he ever had on stage. He now has a new hour every year. 

  Emotion, I learned from Bill Hicks. Hicks is widely considered to be one of the greatest comedians of all time. I began listening to him after Louis C.K. I like C.K. more, but Hicks is so emotional about the things he believes, that even if he says things that his audience doesn't believe, they will still laugh and applaud because of how well he articulates his emotions.

  Brashness. This is my least favorite option. This is the easiest area of comedy. People like Daniel Tosh, Dane Cook, and Carlos Mencea try to go as over-the-top as possible to get a reaction from their audience. It's not very respectable, and doesn't really work for much more than a year. I learned this by listening to interviews of real comedians, who have little respect for people Like Tosh and Cook. Mencea actually has to go to therapy because of how much he is hated by other comedians. That's it.

My unexamined life and the new philosophers.

 Junior year in high school is the year most students are forced to examine their lives. Colleges want to know about the kids that are applying to their respected places of higher learning. Before this year, I found myself examining the things around my life. The institutions, popular culture, and the people (not proudly, might I add.) But this is the year I consciously and constantly  examine myself. This almost constant flow of self evaluation always comes from the same questions. What makes me stand out from my peers?  Why do I want to go to college? Why didn't I try harder in class? These questions always lead to the fact that I should've tried harder in school. I still have time,  but life would be a lot easier now if I had gone that extra mile as an underclassman. 

 That last paragraph, as great as it was, led me to a sobering discovery. If I want to succeed in life, I must follow Socrates's advice. I must be always asking myself the questions that I'm asking myself this year. Otherwise, I'll just achieve some crappy job as a seg-way sales person.

 There are few people who resemble Socrates like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. If it weren't for them, I would hardly know anything pertaining to the current political events. Not only that, but I probably wouldn't be able to think for myself in reference to politics. If Stewart and Colbert really follow the Socratic method, then I used to be the second audience. Laughing at and mocking our political leaders, thinking I was just just as smart as the combination. As I got older, however, I began to question some of things Mr. Stewart/Colbert were asking. Not that I necessarily always disagreed with them, but I began to realize that following them blindly wasn't helping the process. I needed to form my own opinions. 
  In this way Jon Stewart is like Socrates. His outer  persona leads people to believe he only wants them to laugh, just like Socrates wanted people to think he was ignorant. But in reality, they want people to think for themselves. 

Eulogy

  Steve never seemed "all there". That's not to say he wasn't smart, but his friends recalled countless times when they would be having a conversation, and his response to what they said would be a simple "yeah" or "interesting", as his eyes starred through their faces, seemingly into another dimension. Steve preferred to stay inside of his own head. Most of the things that came out of his mouth would be jokes, or utterly random questions about existentialism. These jokes and questions would always be strange and off the wall, garnering stares and strange glances from all but a few people he told them to.

 Steve didn't feel disliked or hated by his peers, he just felt misunderstood.Not in the way that most teenagers do, but more in the way people who speak alien languages feel misunderstood. Adults who knew him would always say that  "he was an old soul", as if he had been "reincarnated in some way" . What his friends said on the subject was that "he's the type of guy to write a really pretentious Eulogy for himself, and make it all about his complexities." 

 I know if he was still here, he would've wished he had got out more. He spent most of his time either at school, on his bike, or at home. He spent time thinking. He was always thinking. I know this sounds obvious, because everybody is always thinking, if you think about it. But Steve's thoughts rarely had to do with the outside world. Anybody who knew him would tell you that he had trouble speaking when he was really "in it." You could put him in a white room, and he would be able to occupy himself for a good several days.

There was a time when he wasn't like this, though. Between the ages of 8 and 15, the only thing that Steve talked about or seemed to think about was basketball. He loved every aspect of the sport. He loved discussing it, he loved reading about it, he loved watching it, but most of all, he loved playing it. At age 15, it became apparent that Steve was not talented enough to play basketball, at least not for his school. Apparent to everyone, that is, but Steve. 

He tried out for the sophomore team, and was cut. He was crushed. Out of sheer pity, the coach kept him as the layer who kept the bench the warmest. This was when Steve changed. This gave Steve time to think. He rode that bench like a pro occupying himself only with his thoughts. He spent that time contemplating life, why we were here, or why we do the things we hate, like sit on benches. He spent all this time thinking. In that time, his grades started to slip. But Steve didn't care. Steve was happy being a thinker.

 When Steve learned philosophy was open to Juniors, his philosophy on happiness changed. He realized that sometimes to gain more pleasure from life, one must first learn suffering. He began to work hard. He made sure to keep his "C" in British literature. For the first time in about a year, Steve focused on his grades. Just barely, he met the requisites for philosophy. Everyday after that, he thought about how applying himself wasn't a bad thing. He thought about how it was time to stop just thinking and to start doing. The day after he told me this, he was mauled by a bear. His last request was for an closed casket funeral. That Steve, always a thinker.