it's really sunny outside right now. there's a glare on my screen. i'm waiting for later in the day before doing real productive work. the glare is too distracting.
currently the window is all i can see of my screen
(my laptop is cracked so i have it plugged (via HDMI) into my television)
i don't watch television but i'm always on my phone.
which isn't better
in fact, it's probably worse. like that scene in Clockwork Orange:
but instead we do it voluntarily:
(the file name for this on google was 'kids-on-phones')
and scarily enough, both screens are doing the same acts of manipulation, except one's satire and the other's reality.
i don't know what we woke up to before phones.
i had a dream that involved by ex-girlfriend and my best friend and he was wearing a diaper. i remember saying in the dream 'i'm very confused right now'. they were at my dad's house, only his door had been replaced with a large double door, the one that takes both arms to open each side of it, like a cathedral or a fancy house. my dad's house had turned into a fancy house.
it's Superbowl Sunday. i don't care for sports really. i find it mostly to be a distraction to the populus- maybe when i'm older and bored and are looking for ways to pass time until my death i'll watch sports religiously. i just don't get emotion from it, the way watching a good movie or a good book can do, and that takes less time than the constant information people process to feel the devotion in a 'personal' level with a team or player, and even then, i'm not about to cry for a dude that's probably making 1.9 million a year. next year they'll play again, as if nothing happened, and there'll be (always) another winner, and more money, and more fans, and more sports.
(i do enjoy watching UFC fights though. it's primordial. it's hard to be not entertained by two people punching each other in the face. people watching people getting punched in the face was probably the first form of entertainment. we know the Romans like it, and so do we 2000 years later )
BUT (i didn't mean for that to be caps-locked but i'm don't feel like deleting it either so rather than save a few keystrokes and retype it normally i'm writing this instead to insist upon its fruition and will not only not deny it but champion it because i believe it's important to sometimes respect live's everyday - to quote Bob Ross - 'happy accidents' (and its my blog i can write whatever i want)) Superbowl Sunday is an event i can get behind.
for one: buffalo chicken dip
it's the kush. anyone that says otherwise is probably a vegan.
BUT (that one was intentional) also, if you're gonna watch just one game of football a year, this usually isn't a bad one to watch. it is fun just to watch this magnificent displays in athleticism. i think it's beautiful what the human body can accomplish. watching Fred Astaire in Swing Time, one can really see just how expressive the body can be. when he's dancing and tapping across the screen, it appears effortless. i thought watching the film, 'huh, you know, i can probably do that'; but i can't, i didn't even attempt, but Fred Astaire is a master at showing depths to the agility the human body can achieve and the range of expressions it can articulate. this can be what sports accomplishes at its highest level. that's why something like Olympic track-and-field can be one of the most thrilling events to watch. there's no equipment, not complicated rules made by humans. it's just a testament to the human body.
today, i'm going to make a testament to my body as well, except with beer and chips and little piggies in blankets. i'm an adult now. i'm 21 babyyyyyyyy. i can legally purchase alcohol for minors lol. but this is the Superbowl experience. there's something to say for holidays once you get older (yes, Superbowl Sunday is a holiday and we might as well get Monday off from work/class because of so). there's a rhythm to life. holidays, especially the more and more one goes through them, have this community to them that makes people slow down and appreciate one another. this day in particular, there's something so grotesquely American about it that i can't help but love it. gathering in front of a television, eating/drinking nothing but damaging substances, succumbing to the radiation of commercials, watching a multi-million dollar affair, the zenith of the capitalist system and our American dream. people will laugh and cry and go to Disneyland afterwards.
The Superbowl is all about getting together with people you - I hope - at least tolerate to get drunk, watch men being slammed by other men, and not worry so much for a day - at least until the dip runs out.
here is a list of my most played songs of 2016, using Spotify. i don't know the exact amounts of time listened. i know only the order of the highest played to the not-as-much played. i haven't used Spotify to much frequency since about last summer. looking at this list made me nostalgic of a period of six months, from approximately January to June. i continued to listen to about most of these songs still throughout the year, just maybe not necessarily on Spotify; or even still Spotify, i'm not too sure; what i do know, though, is some of these songs maybe were played without my discretion or direction. they might've played at a social gathering or via automated shuffle or fate. this is by no means a 100% accurate reading of my entire listening volume of 2016 (i listen to most of my music either on YouTube or Apple Music now). the songs that were selected however i hold favorably, all in all.
i'm disappointed "Let it Happen" made it. some songs i felt i didn't know until relistening and thought oh yeah, i think i've heard this song before or something like that. i feel as though these songs are a part of me now, like a soundtrack for that particular moment in my life. if my life were a really long movie, i hope they would use these songs for this particular scene. for the most part, i feel strongly about the greater portion of these songs. songs like "Tennyson" and "Senandung Maaf" i regard earnestly, and with the warmest familiarity, even though, to be sure, i only discovered these songs in the past year. music has that effect. Nietzsche, i think perhaps, said something to the degree that Without music, life would be meaningless: this might be a gross redressing of any existential philosopher, for that matter, but i believe in that sentiment mostly - perhaps not the nihilistic view - certainly in its core ideology, in that music really makes people happy. i hope my list makes you think of what you've listened to this year, and you'll go back and listen to them and think I've listened to a lot of music this year that i enjoyed and feel content.
i would also like to recognize:
"Ocean Side (オーシャン・サイド)" // Kikuchi Momoko
and João Gilberto (1973) by João Gilberto
both of which i also found to be significant in my 2016 musical experience.
random statistics of list (as accorded by me)
Top Artists:
Pavement - 7 songs
Guided by Voices - 5 songs
The Beach Boys - 4 songs
ko-ko-ya - 4 songs
Dean Blunt - 3 songs
Drake (not counting Nick Drake) - 3 songs
Life Without Buildings - 3 songs
Top Albums:
Slanted and Enchanted (1992) by Pavement - 4 songs Frevo! (2011) by ko-ko-ya - 4 songs Pet Sounds (1966) by The Beach Boys - 3 songs Bee Thousand (1994) by Guided by Voices - 3 songs Any Other City (2001) by Life Without Buildings - 3 songs Double Figures: Ten Years of Chapter Music (2002) by various artsts - 3 songs What a Time to Be Alive (2015) by Drake/Future - 3 songs
Genres:
43 rock songs
14 pop songs
13 rap songs
9 experimental songs
4 choro songs
4 folk songs
2 ambient songs
2 modern classical songs
2 r&b songs
2 IDM songs (they're Boards of Canada, i don't know how else to label them)
1 hardcore punk song
1 doo-wop song
1 reggae song
1 electro-house song
1 post-bop jazz song
My Most Played Songs of 2016 (via Spotify):
1.“Tennyson” // The Cannanes
2.“Depreston”// Courtney Barnett
3.“One More Chance/Stay With Me Remix” // The Notorious B.I.G.
4.“Mincer Ray” // Guided By Voices
5.“Zurich Is Stained” // Pavement
6.“Roygbiv” // Boards of Canada
7.“Waltz of a little bird” // ko-ko-ya
8.“I Wouldn’t Do It” // Gucci Mane
9.“Surf’s Up” // The Beach Boys
10.“Slow Burn” // Made in Heights
11.“These Days” // Nico
12.“Pale Blue Eyes” // The Velvet Underground
13.“Be Apart” // Porches
14.“Emma’s House” // The Field Mice
15.“Pacific Theme” // Broken Social Scene
16.“raindrops” // ko-ko-ya
17.“From the Morning” // Nick Drake
18.“Daylight” // Aesop Rock
19.“30 for 30 Freestyle” // Drake
20.“Saturday” // The Clientele
21.“Evening’s Kiss” // Willis Earl Beal
22.“Go Outside” // Cults
23.“Long Distance Call” // Phoenix
24.“Shadows” // Yo La Tengo
25.“Frevo!” // ko-ko-ya
26.“Pink Frost” // The Chills
27.“Patchwork” // Tindersticks
28.“The Leanover” // Life Without Buildings
29.“Dream Team” // Mark McGuire
30.“Summer Babe (Winter Version)” // Pavement
31.“Bad Kids” // Black Lips
32.“1/1” // Brian Eno
33.“What We’ve Learned” // McLusky
34.“Jumpman” // Drake, Future
35.“untitled 01 | 08.19.2014.” // Kendrick Lamar
36.“Here” // Pavement
37.“We Are Your Friends – Original Mix” // Simian
38.“Beautiful” // A.G. Cook
39.“I Only Have Eyes For You” // The Flamingos
40.“Bam Bam” // Sister Nancy
41.“Infant Eyes” // Wayne Shorter
42.“New Town” // Life Without Buildings
43.“21 Questions” // 50 Cent
44.“Downtown” // Majical Cloudz
45.“I Run New York” // Dean Blunt
46.“Tractor Rape Chain” // Guided by Voices
47.“Senandung Maaf” // White Shoes & The Couples Company
48.“Do While” // Oval
49.“Schizophrenia” // Sonic Youth
50.“Ain’t Missing You (feat. Jenn Em) // Chief Keef
51.“Wouldn’t It Be Nice” // The Beach Boys
52.“Old English” // Young Thug, A$AP Ferg, Freddie Gibbs
53.“Hot Freaks” // Guided By Voices
54.“Gold Soundz” // Pavement
55.“Pristine Christine” The Sea Urchins
56.“John Wayne Was a Nazi” // MDC
57.“Lemonade” // Gucci Mane
58.“Diamonds Dancing” // Drake, Future
59.“Heartbeat” // Annie
60.“Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at :17” // Pavement
61.“14 Days” // Life Without Buildings
62.“She’s So High” // Tal Bachman
63.“LUSH” // Dean Blunt
64.“End of the Road” // Boyz II Men
65.“There She Goes” // The La’s
66.“Radio” // Alkaline Trio
67.“Fuck Up Some Commas” // Future
68.“Stereo” // Pavement
69.“Pink Moon” // Nick Drake
70.“Game of Pricks” // Guided by Voices
71.“God Only Knows” // The Beach Boys
72.“Sensitive” // The Field Mice
73.“Big Yellow Taxi” // Joni Mitchell
74.“Fool in the Rain” // Led Zeppelin
75.“New Direction” // Black Lips
76.“I Really Like You” // Carly Rae Jepsen
77.“One Call Away” // Chingy
78.“Let it Happen” // Tame Impala
79.“Earth to Heaven” // Esperanza Spalding
80.“Laurel Canyon” // Chief Keef
81.“Have You Seen the Rain?” // Creedence Clearwater Revival
82.“What Would I Want? Sky” // Animal Collective
83.“Tears of Unicorn // Masayoshi Fujita
84.“Teen Age Riot” // Sonic Youth
85.“Wrapped” // Minimum Chips
86.“Otherside” // Red Hot Chili Peppers
87.“I Hate Summer” // Smiley
88.“Shady Lane” // Pavement
89.“Motor Away” // Guided by Voices
90.“Umi Zoi No Michi” // ko-ko-ya
91.“Discreet Music” // Brian Eno
92.Eleven Thousand Six Hundred and Sixty-Nine Died of Natural Causes” // Johann Johannsson
93.“Sorry 2004” // Ruben Studdard
94.“That’s Not Me” // The Beach Boys
95.“Love Stepping Out” // Disco Inferno
96.“The Pedigree” // Dean Blunt
97.“Wildlife Analysis” // Boards of Canada
98.“Did You See the Words” // Animal Collective
99.“Blue Suburban Skies” // Even As We Speak
100.“Return of Hot Chicken” // Yo La Tengo
101.“Get Free (feat. Amber of Dirty Projectors)” // Major Lazer
thanks for reading. i hope you find some good music to make you feel okay.
