Today I woke up at 5am and made it over to Central Park's Summerstage for the free Green Day concert for Good Morning America. For 6am, there were a lot of kids there. Perhaps this generation is caffeinated into oblivion, or perhaps "free" means a lot more to them in this recession, but when I was their age you would be hard pressed to find more than a hand full of kids willing to wake up that early, even for a concert. I am not a huge fan of Green Day, however, I used to love their music during the Dookie and Nimrod eras. Perhaps it was because I was younger then and now those tunes still hold a fond place in my heart, but it was worth making the trek out for a chance to hear them. What I got instead was songs from the last two albums, the newest of which (21st Century Breakdown) is a chart topper at the moment. While I wouldn't call their new material bad, it is not something that I would go out of my way to listen to...yet on this fine morning, I did. There was plenty of downtime for the Good Morning America segments, but Green Day did give a 4 song "sound check." That would have been been great, but they ended up playing all those same songs again later. If anything, they could have at least given the older people in the crowd some of their older jams for the sound check. Well, let me get into some of the photos:
As I pointed out on Twitter, at least half the people in attendance were holding up some sort of recording device for most of the performances. This ranged from cellphone cameras, to digital cameras, to video cameras (which were forbidden, but nobody was checking at the entrance).
This guy was recording the who entire thing. I saw him playing with his phone while recording with the other hand a few times, but I don't think he actually looked at the concert except through the video camera even once.
They brought up this little girl to dance to one of the songs. I could hear the jealous hissing of the teenyboppers around me. Though there were lot of "awws" too.
If that last one didn't make the girls in the crowd jealous enough, they brought up this girl to sing a full verse. I heard the catty comments the whole way out the park after that one.
Overall, Green Day performed their songs well and were great with audience participation. All too often you see successful bands/musicians that completely ignore the audience and it was good to seem them staying in tune to the crowd. The audience on the other hand could use some work. After seeing the pictures I posted, you may call me a hypocrite, but people need to chill out with the recording devices. It is fine to take some photos here and there but when you are trying too hard to capture the moment digitally, you are failing to enjoy the moment in real-time. I will leave you with a little snippet of the crowd singing.
Penguin escapes whale attack by jumping onto whale watching boat.
Cardiel...just because.
Sorry, not much to post. Maybe this sums it up well.
I plan on shooting a lot of photos and whatnot over the weekend. I might even put together a skate clip.
Last night I skated with Peter and Paul (not the apostles, but the next best thing) at Pathmark since it was raining. For those of you who don't know, Pathmark in Queens is one of the few NYC rain "spots," since it is an indoor parking garage for the grocery store. There isn't much there besides a manual pad, some curbs, and some barrier you can jump over, so usually the sessions are mellow and mediocre (at best). However, last night was super fun. I think we ended up skating there for like 3 1/2 hours and Pete brought out his camera to get some fun bro-cam footage. We got some some fun stuff captured in motion picture. I found the base of a freestanding handicap sign that I flipped over for some fun wallie action. Paul even got a pretty legit line for the session we were having. I think Pete might edit something together this weekend. If he does, I will post.
It is the Panasonic LX3. I got it in silver (mostly since they were out of black, the silver was $20 cheaper and I didn't want to wait). I have been looking into this camera for over a month now, but kinda pushed it back in my mind and didn't really think of it until Monday when Allen Ying IM'ed me about my thoughts on it. Basically we convinced each other to get it and met up on Tuesday and bought them from B&H. I have been reading through the manual and this camera is pretty much amazing for a digital point and shoot. I just need to put it to the test. I took some test shots yesterday in the park during my lunch break. You can check them out here:
They are from London School of Economics, UCL's Senate House Library, Birkbeck College, SCONUL (the British Interlibrary Cooperation System), Canterbury Christ Church, CILIP (the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals), City University and Greenwich University. Of all these, I would say that the Senate House is the most amazing for the sheer density and number of books. LSE comes second for having such a beautiful, open interior space. Not pictured are library cards from the University of Portland, Portland State University, Columbia University, and Kent University. Those I lost. Another card I will receive soon is from Ravensbourne College College of Design where I will be working next month. Both David Bowie and Stella McCartney went there. Shit is serious.
Behind the library and library-oriented cards is my dissertation. So far, it's 60 pages, which is not a ton, but not exactly small, either. It's about information. The philosophy and history of information. It's a media-historical reading. I finish it in about a month. It's all I do anymore. After that point I will become a normal person. By a normal person, I mean skateboarding and being social again. I have a ton of new tricks all planned out in my mind. Super tech.
OK. also, this is a view from outside my balcony. You can see the Barbican apartments off at the end. They represent a high point in the history of what is called "Brutalist" architecture. I suppose you can't see it that well, but it's a pretty rad building.
anyway. wish me luck.
Uh, ok, last thing: you should listen to this song. It made me wish I was from Oakland, even though the fact they have a street called "seminary" kind of freaks me out.
Speaking about things I am psyched on...last week, we ordered Flight of the Conchords through Netflix and it is hilarious. Apparently the new season airs in January.
I was on the site, viewing Mel's (their fan [singular] on the show) video blog and saw my friend Chuck "tattooing" her in the last post (September 3rd).
Now for your viewing pleasure: Flight of the Conchords (aka the Rhymenoceros and the Hiphopopotamus)!
Oh yeah, and Camille thinks Jemaine looks like Leonard...
ok, well, i just finished my coursework for my masters in library and information studies. my second masters, mind you, (and my fifth year of post-bachelors education). i felt pretty beat afterwards. For my one of my classes, i, among other things, designed this website:
it seems to only work on internet expolorer, and there are some navigation problems besides, but whatevs. It uses HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL. what do you want?
Ok, btw, the picture is from Vienna. Caireen and I went there for a long weekend on a package deal. behind me is the secession building, which was an important center for--you guessed it--the vienna secession movement. On top of the building is a golden cabbage. I don't know why. Here, below, is Caireen in this amazing Vienna fleamarket. I bought a straight-razor and caireen bought two miniature seals with seal fur(?) and a little purse for change made of rabbit fur.
Vienna was pretty rad, i have to say: nice people, super-efficient public transportation, and culture up the ass hole. (I separated the words "ass" and "hole" there for emphasis.) This fairly small city produced Ludwig Wittgenstein, Gustav Klimt, Karl Popper, Egon Scheile, and Sigmund Freud. Like, what did Portland, Oregon ever produce? Matt Groening and the Dandy Warhols. Did Portland ever produce a philosophical, psychological, or artistic movement? No.
Then again, did Vienna produce Chris Stuker, Matt Beach, Jayme Fortune and Mikey Chin. I mean, there are certain levels of steeze that can only be produced in certain specific, controlled environments.
I mean, just look at this, will you?
Ok, anyway. As you, Eby, predicted, i have been in a pit of reading. not much interesting to report. I have become a huge fan of Friedrich Kittler, and All the Pretty Horses is a very good book, as you probably already know--even if Blood Meridian is better.
i haven't been skateboarding much. saying it makes me feel kind of ashamed. when i tell friends who don't skate they seem really sad for me. perhaps it's that i let school and whatever worries take over my life to that degree. i think it is that i feel ready for something amazing to happen, and i have the irrational belief that performing well in a librarianship course at City University would lead to this amazing thing happening. Well, some good shit has happened. I got a library supervisor job at the University of Greenwich. And I think my dissertation will turn out well. What I would really like is to publish it. That would count as an amazing thing, in a way. So, like, put me in your thoughts or whatever.
Also, did you know what the hot shit in London is right now? Track bikes. That's right, basically everything that was cool in New York, like 5-7 years ago is just now hitting the streets of london. The British also seem to believe that social networking websites just suddenly appeared six months ago. Seriously.
Happy Easter everybody! I hope that Jesus rose from the dead in all of your hearts. To celebrate, i bequeath to you a Bible quiz! How did you score?
Apropos of the Bible, did you know what Jesus' last words on the cross were? Many people think that they were:
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.(Mt 27:45-46)
Actually, Jesus' last words, as recorded in the synoptic Gospels were:
Yeah, I got some last words. Fuck all y'all. (Mt 25:26, Mk 26: 10, Lk 30:21)
and in the Gospel of John:
I really hate you guys. (Jn 34:18)
Anyway, as mentioned, Eby visited.
I got a lot of this sort of thing.
Then, Eby, having left, i hope for him, sufficient destruction in his wake, his legs shown--by way of a series of hammers dropped in close proximity--to be much stronger than mine for the extended weekend filiming mission, returned to New York with the pictured bag--containing two dozen-donut-boxes of various vegan, "voodoo" donuts for his, one could say, special lady-friend, Camille.
Today I skated Lincoln HS and Burnside.
I have also been reading Henry James' The Golden Bowl. I decided to read it because Žižek wrote about it. But, whew! I read a chapter or two and I need to take a nap.
Anyway, I am going to London in two weeks for an interview at the Institute of Education. I need to present a written lesson plan for 12 year olds. I will also arrive for the opening of white grounds--an amazing 'adapted' skatepark in an unused service tunnel. So, there is is: teaching religion to high school students in the United Kingdom: my future staring back at me.
On the note or awesomeness, Chinatown keeps it gully with "Crying Baby Head" that you can throw on the ground and make cry. I want to be in the Kindergarden class where a kid comes to recess with this thing...not in a pedophile way (pervs), in a fly on the wall way.
In my constant attention paid to crossing signs, I am sometimes rewarded with thing such as this. SHOCKER!
For some reason I have been drawn toward going big with my skating lately. It doesn't make sense since everyone else I skate with just skates tranny these days. I get my kicks, though.
I took it mellow yesterday and skated around downtown with my buddy Dave.
Of course, I suspect Eby's problem is not really a music-problem at all, but rather a 'brandproblem.' PDiddy is embarrassing. Even saying his name is embarrassing. And what?
I think there is another side to him. A kitschy side. I am talking some beyond your garden-variety, cool-dude irony. It is deeper, murkier.
To get right to it: I think that there is something vaguely transsexual about Pdiddy, something drag queenish. For one, there is the glossy charades. So maybe Puff's political costumery seems somehow analogous to gender costumery (I don't care if that's a real word or not). Or maybe it is just the fact that the dude looks like he wear more foundation than Rupaul.
This could really be the future of rap music. Think about how much transvestites did for rock music (Bowie, Iggy Pop, New York Dolls). And, like, with the rap world being so homophobic, what would be more subversive than a transgendered rapper? Trannie-hop? Dragster-rap?
I wonder what would Judith Butler would say. In any case, the beat sounds like early Prince or Cameo in the best way possible. I am not joking about saying I like that song. Dude, what do you want? It's got a nice beat and I can dance to it.
Whatever. I served for jury duty today. We reached a verdict in a half an hour. There were six of us. Everyone listened to each other. No one was angry or rude. Beyond the dirty details of the case (it was a strangulation), the experience was perfectly genteel.
Berrrr, who had the sickest skateboarding clips on youtube, got his account suspended. He had a bunch of clips from the Gnargnar video. I wonder if that was what did him in. This was his final post.
Some final notes:
I keep hearing about how well Sho's memorial went.
When I first met Sho, I noticed he had written a quote on his board. I asked him where it was from. He said it was from Damien Hirst (work pictured). It goes to show how little about art that I didn't know who Damine Hirst was at the time. When I asked Caireen about Damien Hirst later, she let me know how bad this was that I didn't know.
As a note: In the future, I want to talk more about 1) how stupid the skateboarding industry has become, 2) how boring it is to talk about music, and 3) why I am amazing and my life is legendary.
God. That picture of PDiddy is freaking me out. So, in any case, here is something else. Try to forget about it. New Order, "confusion."
So, cyberspace. Dude, it's me, Leonard. [pause] Um, how's it going, bro?
[silence]
You good?
[silence]
Yeah. [pause] Um, so.
[silence]
Um, [little nod] me too.
I am now official participant E_B's final countdown. Play the clip if you haven't already. Feel it.
In the future, I will try to talk about events in the real world. But before I do, I want to share something: sometimes, in bad moments, I feel extremely pessimistic about the internet. I am not just talking about the fiery abyss from whence come pop-ups, banner ads, spam, identity theft, and fake addresses. Nor also do I mean the massive layer of hard-core porn, which apparently constitutes about 1/4 of internet content, which--although less than some think--is still a lot. I just mean the videos, still images, and text posted by the non-computer-person, the common man. Judging by the internet, it turns out the common man is boring, obscene, homophobic, ugly, lecherous, stupid, pretentious, and racist.
To illustrate the lameness, I considered making each of those words into youtube links ("lecherous" would link to something lecherous, etc.). I also considered google image-searches: looking at the words "sober," "nice," "chaste," and "good" and finding images of weapons, wreckage, and trashy poses of women in bikinis, among other unedifying wastes of time. But my sucess in rooting around for disappointments was too, well, too sucessful (and, hence, too disappointing [=serious bummer]).
Beyond our categories for experience, Schopenhauer posited an insatiable will causing all the suffering in the world. Schopenhauer here was veering off from Kant, who held that the world beyond our categories was unknowable. In an illustrated intro philosophy book I read called Looking at Philosophy, the author illustrated the difference between Schopenhauer and Kant's views by two pictures of a man opening a curtain. In the Kantian picture, the man opens the curtains to see total darkness; in the Schopenhaurian picture, the man opens the curtains to find a huge monster peering over him. Having spent enough time on the net now, I know that there is something much worse out there: the "googlist" picture of the world, where the man would open the curtain to find a picture of a middle-aged woman in a bikini, fishing, storing a 16oz beer in the front of her briefs.
To find it, google image-search the word "nice". I refuse to link it.
The worst are comment and message boards.
This is Norman Mailer. He wrote:
"What none of the editorial writers ever mentioned was that that noble common man was obscene as an old goat."--The Armies of the Night
Mailer then goes on to say that obscenity is what saves the common American man, and that obscenity is deeply American in a good way. This nonsense just makes me think of 1) torture in Abu Ghraib, and 2) commenters on youtube calling each other "gay" and "nigger". Mailer is right that the "common man" is obscene. But what is redeeming about this? That is, when finally given a chance to say his bit, the common man, says something like:
Well, whatever. I have been playing some chess. This is the easiest version I could find. Everything else whipped me. Alan Siegler, besides being the best mini-ramp skater I have seen in person, told me once how he was on the chess team in college. I think chess is good for you. I hope it is. I think if you play chess, it will make you feel good about humanity. Or least yourself. It's a gentleman's sport, like mini ramp skating.
Skateboarding--aside from persons, companies, and internets--is also almost always wonderful. My name is Leonard and I believe in skateboarding. I believe in it for me. Basically, I am like the reformed jews at JTS I used talk to: I don't need (or even want) the whole world to follow in my footsteps; I mostly want to be left alone. (But I still believe that my way is the best way!)
In any case, watch this critical mass of righteousness. The kid's name is John Motta. He kills it and he looks like he is having fun. The filmer and editor did a great job on this, too. Best clip I have seen in donkey's years.
Who needs to waste all that time going to school (or the military) then going to the police academy just to get a badge and a gun when all you need is sucker techniques and steel-toed boots?
Some of you may not have heard of Tallahassee, Florida. Some of you may have heard of it, but are under the impressions that it does not contribute anything significant to the world. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Volleybonk!
For those of you unfortunate enough to have never played this game, may I suggest buying a ball and hijacking a tennis court? Bonus points for headshots!
So a year or two ago, while digging for records somewhere random, I found this jewel. With lyrics like: Teenage girls We like 'em a lot Doncha know they're hot They know what to do They'll give it to you That is from a song called (none other than) Teenage Girls. A couple other notable lyrics from that are: "Cruzin' the beach for more:/ Teenage girls/...Gonna wear us out/ They get so tan/ Make you feel like a man." And men they are. Case in point, watch how manly the blonde one (Drew Steele) plays with his toys in the shallow end of the pool.
Seriously though, here is a much better way to feel like a man...
And next time you go to the bubble banks, if you do this, the bricks will have enough respect for you to preserve your board enough to skate another day.
"Blue Yankee hat on/ Red Monkey pants on/ Fresh to death because I keep the latest fash-on"
"I got Gucci on, she got Prada/ She calls me daddy, but she not my daughter/ and I'm not her father/ I'm just a man"
-Kevin Federline
Wow! Talk about spittin' knowledge...your verbal syntax is amazing, Kevin. I wonder how much time you spent figuring out how to make "pants on" rhyme with "fashion." Jay-Z should probably reconsider making a come-back, the rap game just got far more complex.
With Dipset's skate team and Jamal getting all the attention on the skateboard sites, I want to highlight the newest addition sure to get all the buzz, Robert. Call me corny, but puns are so in this Fall.
Wack. Can I motion for a mandatory course on Political Correct Education...right between American History and PE?
I just got back from Portland (Oregon, not Maine) and I have to say that it is an amazing city. I am not going to spoil things yet...just wait for a coming post.
