Good Questions:

Is Punk Dead?

Do The Stooges Rock?

What is Rock?

What is Roll?

What is toll?

Where do you wanna go?

D’Yer Know What I Mean?

How far did you get in your dreams?

What’s a Watson?

Who is Love?

Why is night?

What are words?

Who are you?

Donde esta Pepsi?

Que es Coke?

R.I.P. Mike Wallace. 

M is for murder

Good movie

Who stole the bike?

============Whopaysforparking?=======

American Pie is sweet

Who’s on first?

What’s in your food?

=====hahayousayfunnything—-=============

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying BIrds

Fly very high

Who’s got the THC?

=========STRIKE–========

Mah brodah es tyler

Necesito medicas

Estoy contento

Similar to the Roman thing, I want to start this line of conversation because I think it is one that people my age can connect with. Also: if you’re older, buy some stock with your pile of money based on my opinion because it will make you money. To start, I will never shoot anyone and I don’t own a gun. That said, with every swipe of the dozen pieces of plastic I use, I can take a shot with every purchase at the brands and companies I don’t like.

Locality is something my generation is very aware of, and it is a reaction against the way the world economy works. If you can do it as good or better locally, I’ll buy from you. The big transnational corporations know this, and they try to, ‘fake it’ but they really can’t compete with a local business when it comes to customer service and experience. We are a generation without labels, but very aware of them: liberal, conservative, trans-gender, gay and straight are all dirty words to us.

Some ideas never die though, you can’t fix stupid. If you come from a place of ignorance, we have no tolerance for you. Bigot is the new n***a. It doesn’t matter if you’re from the streets or the suburbs, everyone has the internet, and there is no excuse for stupid.

McDonald’s gets it, that’s why they are making their U.S. locations look like the ones in Europe. The food is still terrible, but for the money you can’t beat it. Apple and Google compete, and Microsoft is in the dark right now because we WANT to disconnect from our phones and computers: we’re all familiar with technology but we’re not all nerds. That little survey about how Apple people have more sex; it’s not a tough nut to crack.

So in the end, I’m not telling you to get free napkins from the fast food chains instead of Wal-Mart, that would be illegal. What I am saying is, if corporations can be citizens, citizens can separate a fool from his money.

America will die someday, or it will split, or it will find some other way to salvage it’s debt to the world. I would like to start a new series with this title when I see exemplifications of American excess that conservatives call American ‘exceptionalism.’ Today’s issue is headphones, ‘Beats by Dre’ specifically. 

I’ll start with the positive for those already drinking the hateraide, they’re great headphones, they’re comfortable, they’re stylish, they’re functional, but until they have lithium-ion batteries built in, and wireless as a standard:they are too expensive. At this point you are paying an exorbitant amount for a style statement, this might make you a little of the $300 back if you’re a dj at a night club, but for the average person just forget it.

Any product that still uses AAA batteries was probably designed by someone who should still be going to AA meetings. I’m listening to some music on the ‘studio’ edition of beats by dre and it sounds amazing, just like the Fisher speakers in my basement that were made 30 years ago. Sonic fidelity is not so complex that we need to be spending this much. All that the manufacturer Monster, known for its’ over-priced HDMI cables, is doing is putting stereo speakers on the frame of a headset.

In essence, it’s like Honda putting a V-Tec engine on a Huffy bike and charging $21,900 for it, it doesn’t make any sense. I will be the first in line to buy a pair of beats when it is under $100, I hope they make an orange and blue model, as I want to look as obnoxious as possible.

I entered the belly of the beast around 4 PM on a dreary Friday afternoon. After leaving Bowling Green in the gray mist that is everyday there, I continued in a northerly direction toward the city of fair Toledo. Left of me storm clouds approached in the intolerable way that they always do, and I prepared for rain. Drippy-drops hit the windshield as I passed the Mosque, an almost too-symbolic queue for what I’m about to get into.

This wretched place has sort of an impenetrable thought bubble around it, it has been economically devastated and here’s why: it’s not, “The Blacks” or “The Unions” or “The Fat Cats” it’s the religions. For all the ‘good intentions’ they may start from, faiths are far worse institutions than governments, and they rule the roost in northwest Ohio and Michigan.

The power of faith in fallacy is so strong that people complain about green energy progress here that won’t cost them a dime. The economics of the situation is starting to change people’s perception here, and you do see a Toyota Prius more often than I remember from my time at the University of Toledo, but this is just a backward place. The little cherry on top is that this is one of the most politically corrupt parts of the country, also being one of the most religious.

Racism is dying slowly in this country, there is only a difference of, “raised right” or “raised wrong” and “raised religious” is raised wrong. To dial it back a bit, there is no longer a racial glass ceiling, you can rise as high or go as far as your talents will take you, maybe even as far as south beach.

There is also a constant battle fought in this part of the country, a crusade against public education, and higher education in particular. I can tell you this: it doesn’t matter if you are attending a university in Columbus, London, Paris, Istanbul or Seoul, you are better for it. On days where the sun shines, and there are few, the University of Toledo is a beautiful place to be.

I say this in spite of president Lloyd Jacobs’ war against the college of arts and sciences. If you don’t mind, I’ll dig into the vault of 90’s rap to reference Dr. Dre’s classic debut album The Chronic,  “Lloyd Jacobs can eat big fat diiiick.”

The pilgrimage to my alma mater lead to significant amounts of nostalgic justification for the miserable years I spent in Toledo. As seen above, on the left, my computer lab of choice, Tucker Hall 0137, directly across from the mens room in the basement of the History Department, ironically in the same building as the center for women, often a forgotten majority of the world.

It’s much easier to forget the caffeine induced enemas when you see your old department building in the spring with all the intentionally beautiful, campus-tour-duping imagery that the campus provides. With that theme, I also remember taking great notes with party-induced heartburn was much easier to stomach when I wasn’t commuting to class behind this asshole:

From a starting point, I disagree with bumper-stickers unless they make people laugh. If they don’t, its a good way to degrade the look of your vehicle, and entice foolish people to key your paint-job. You can keep your guns, your, ‘freedom’ and your, ‘money’ but if you choose not to adapt to change, you’re the stupid one Darwin was talking about.

Thankfully I was in this terrible place to see Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, at one of my favorite venues, The Royal Oak Music Theater near Detroit. The pleasant experience started with the genuine conversation with fellow concert-goers in the queue, and ended with a classy meeting with my favorite songwriter.

Beer in hand I wandered to the front of the house to enjoy the finest music I have yet to hear live. Noel Gallagher is a trip back in time to a place where peace and love were real ideas, naive as they may have ever been, the beauty is not lost. The crowd was as enjoyable as the performer, drunk as they may of been.

There isn’t a better night than Saturday night to see a show, no matter who it is. Noel’s act having a strong following makes the experience significantly more communal, this meaning, when we’ve all had a few beers, it doesn’t matter where we came from.

I try very hard to stay positive about my station in life, and none of it will be determined by the money I make, one can live happy on any wage. I do want to illustrate the point that your location can determine your state of mental clarity, and moving to Columbus was the best thing for me now. I may not die here, but I know I never truly lived until I left the place I was born.