This revolution is for display purposes only.

Since purchasing Banksy's book from....sigh...Urban Outfitters (hey, I could have lied and said I purchased it somewhere reputable...cut me some slack) I have developed a new appreciation for graffiti as a viable art form. Yes, there certainly is a lot of awful and redundant graffiti in existence (generally spelling out the artist's name in those acid-trip letters or the standard "fuck" on a warehouse wall), but there is a movement towards socially-conscious, political, and aesthetically pleasing graffiti that really was spearheaded by the efforts and sheer awesomeness of Banksy. Personally, I like graffiti that is either original or difficult (ie, location) in composition or makes a social statement. If both conditions can be met, then you have a piece that will one day be considered classic, once society can get its head around the notion that graffiti can in fact be an art and no one can really claim ownership to anything that is publicly accessible. 

This brings me to the Graffiti Research Lab. A site definitely worth checking out, the group has videos chronicling their various graffiti endeavours. Some of the videos and actual pieces are particularly enjoyable (like Jesus 2.0), while others don't completely satisfy or serve a real purpose (like the laser tagging). Regardless, their innovative contributions to the graffiti art should definitely be noted and appreciated. Take a look at their site, I urge you. 

Grizzly Bear - Yellow House

Damn right your Dad has a dick

Your Mom wasn't your Dad's first. Your Dad nailed at least one new chick a night. Even a Bolivian immigrant. Your Dad got the clap twice and beat it over with a wooden board. Condoms? Don't even bother. AIDS scares your Dad about as much as that bear he wrestled in '68. He even nailed that bear's wife after the fight. Guess what else, son. Your Dad drank Canadian Club. Everyday. With every meal. For dessert. As a main course. Heard of the drink Rusty Nail? Well your Dad drank his Canadian Club with actual rusty nails in it. Go ahead and enjoy your wine cooler, son. Your Dad drank CC when he went fishing. Even that time he had a head-on collision with that 8 year-old in a paddle boat. That's right, he nailed the kid's Mom right after the accident. Your Dad was a man. What are you, you fucking piece of effeminate tampon waste? You're nothing. Nothing until you down some CC, load up your buds in a van, drive to a barn in the middle of the night, and nail the shit out of the animals. Only the female ones of course, your Dad wasn't a fag. Are you, son? Your Dad only loved one type of cock: the kind that were waiting inside the barn, trying to defend their sexy chicken wives. What did he like about those cocks? He liked snapping their necks with his bare hands and then sucking their blood for sustenance. That's right, your Dad was a goddamn succubus. But only for cock. Your Dad loved to suck cock. 

Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs

The yum-yum fish...they're back!

Simply stated, =w=. That's right, =w=. Much like the triumphant return of a once believed eradicated species to an island that was overrun by European assholes who brought God and topless beaches (God loves tits!) with them, Weezer has returned with an album that actually sounds genuine and is catchy too! Although they appear to be going for a look that registers somewhere between a slightly less gay Village people and total dickweed, what I've heard thus far of album six is a return to the true, virtuous Weezer: repetitive, head-sticking four-chord songs and cutesy-cheesy lyrics that make you cringe and smile simultaneously. As well, it appears that Rivers takes several jabs at the present state of the music industry––a reference to Timbaland's ability to shit out hits for shit-stained artists in "Pork and Beans" and what appears to be a shot at the forced male bravado that is abound in mainstream hip hop in "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" (yes, the nod to Queen in this track is obvious as well). It's quite a relief to hear Weezer back in fine form. Perhaps I should remove them from my "Bands that are dead to me" post...

Weezer - album six preview

Edit: I overrated this album upon one listen (and that one listen was only half the tracks). I made myself believe for the moment that I still gave a shit about Weezer. To recap: Blue Album was awesome. Pinkerton was decent (cult classic? that's a bit much...). Green Album was mediocre. Maladroit was slightly above mediocre. Make Believe should never be mentioned (but since I've mentioned it, fuck terrible). Red Album is below the mediocrity line.

Don't blame me...

Thankfully, we'll never need another all-American hero thanks to John Kerry. No one will ever be able to fill his shoes (nutmeg brown loafers). First he took the White House, then he saved the United States from certain economic and social peril by ending the war in Iraq simply by using his "mind powers," which involved a lot of furrowing of the brow with a dash of crinkling for good measure. What an upstanding, kick-ass dude. I want to buy him a beer. Something domestic of course. If there's one thing John Kerry stands for, it's supporting local boys. That's why I would buy him a sixer of Pabst Blue Ribbon, or some equal shitty brand of Yankee piss (when GQ profiled Kerry upon his nomination as the Democratic candidate in 2004, the interviewer met him in some backroads "all-American" bar and the K-man ordered a Guinness). Now that the world is free of evil and peaceful democracy has found its way to the Middle East (along with rockin' guitar solos and skinny jeans and hemp soap and veganism and longboards and bodywash and rubber and God and hybrid cars and cheese steak sandwiches and humility and camera-phones and stirrup leggings) John Kerry can breathe a little easier, sit down on the White House back lawn while sipping the sixer I bought him. Awesome. 

A Harry Potter Spell: Blogus Readus

Some thoughts as of late:

1. Tom Thomson was not in the Group of Seven. He died (or was murdered or something depending on what you believe) before the Group really officially formed. As a side note, Emily Carr was not in the Group of Seven either (as if they would allow a woman in....)
   
2. The Group of Seven suck anyway
   
3. If I wanted my own thoughts (those being ones of a somewhat privileged, white middle-class male with dry wit and enough smarmy cynicism to fill Janine Garafalo's presumably über-hairy vagina[I bet you love that visual, you sick fuck!]) I would simply make my blog one that requires a paid subscription and then subscribe to it. That is just one of the reasons as to why I think Chuck Klosterman is a fucking grotty wanker.
   
4. The other primary reason is that if blogs had become popular just a few years earlier, Klosterman would have never been offered a publishing deal and no one would have thought his ideas or his style are that novel. A white, suburban, middle-class male with vast musical knowledge and a keen sense of sarcasm?! I've never encountered one of those before!
   
5. By no means do I suggest that I should have a publishing deal. No one reads this blog, so why should anyone read my book? I don't think I want to be financially compensated for my creative thoughts anyway. At that point they are no longer my own and belong to every blockhead who purchases my book at Urban Outfitters where it is displayed beside some book about raunchy sex positions and below some book about RZA or maybe the lesser GZA.
   
6. Do not paraphrase an open letter by Dave Grohl addressed to Metallica as a negative rant when it is in fact praising them. The overlord of scene news, Jason "I know Fallout Boy" Tate, led me to believe that Grohl was lamenting on Metallica's mediocrity as of late. From there I began to lament on the mediocrity of the Foo Fighters as of late, seeing as their last two albums have been quite bland, and then labeled Grohl as somewhat of a hypocrite. Alas, after reading the letter, by no means does Grohl "[implore] Metallica not to release their new album unless it 'kicks ass.' " Learn how to paraphrase, Tate. Come on, you went to some middle-range American University. They still teach English there, don't they?
7. Montréal actually preserved their architecture from the 19th and early 20th Century. As a result there is an actual identifiable style. Take note, Toronto. 
8. I think I prefer the old pornographers. Either that or his daughter.