The Mockingjay Timeline Rant

I usually like when the internets are refreshed.  I like when the old is made new and shiny and less like 1998.  but the new timeline thing was a little ambitious even for you Mark.  FB, let me say it-you're a fancy blog, a list of writings on the internet.  the blog format has worked for some basic reasons.  you can scroll backwards and forwards through a history (like a timeline) of posts.  the posts are placed there by a person, and until that person or the google removes them, they are there for all to see.  they may even, gasp!, be somehow relevant to each other, or tell a running story.  they're not plucked out of the air because of their popularity.  or chosen according to a pre-decided relevance factor by some algorithm.  that's what makes it a viable two way conversation.  well, you know, not this blog of course.  no friend(s), this blog is more of a private journal.  but really, the new timeline setup is like if you were reading your magazine and it magically hid the articles that it didn't think you would want to see.  you'd never read anything new!  I'd be flipping through a Maxim and every story would be a shallow fluff piece about expensive cars, pretty girls and gadgets.  I can't even imagine it.

ease of use and fiducial issues aside, the dual sided timeline part makes me physically queasy.  you look left, right, left right going down the wall trying to figure out what you're looking at as you try to take in the content.  it's pretty jarring!  luckily, to make it easy for us there is a permanent info box mid-stream that displays "friends." even though there is another smaller but as permanent "friends"box not 30 pixels away, thanks for saving me the carpel tunnel of moving my wrist that extra inch.  phew now we can really FB our brains out.

I actually liked timeline at first.  you can enter in your own events, and make important things bigger.  it helped me get rid of anything embarrassing, which didn't leave very much.  but after a while it got slightly irritating, and it drove me to tell my tortured tale on this blog.  Now would be a good time to mention that I just read all of three of The Hunger Games books in one weekend and I can be irritated with pretty much anything right now, even puppies.  "oh I'm tragically torn between two men that fall all over me but I can't even decide because I'm so downtrodden and it's me against the world.  and everyone else is faulty but I'm the most important thing to mankind, boo hoo.  and all my friends are super powerful vampires..." oh wait, wrong book.  way to screw up cool sci fi with a gallon of HFCS.  needless to say, I was hooked at first but did not like where I ended up!  And that, my friends, is why I do not like the new facebook timeline.  sorry if you just read all of that.

The People Birds

After hearing the news about the mass bird and fish kills going on around our country, my thoughts project to a possible future for the birds. Birds populations have been on the decline for decades, though we don't seem to mind so bad. But birds sweat people! They copy our speech, they carry notes around for us, they just want to be next to us. There could be a near future where the 'wild' (useless) birds die off because of environmental pressures placed on them. The only species left are the ones that fit into our new ecosystem. Imagine a landscape dominated by pigeons, crows, seagulls and chickens. Their numbers grow right along with ours, and the skys are dotted black white and grey. I'll explane about the chickens later. At least we are left with some pretty interesting birds! Pigeons are hustlers. Savvy and swift, they embrase the urban lifestyle in the same way people do, if not with even more alacrity. I applaud your grit, pigeons. Soon you will have no competition from starlings and sparrows. Crows are smarty-pants and they work closely with their kin. You've heard the alarm call of a scout crow as you walk a country road into their territory. Networking and even using tools, these intelligent birds are found everywhere. Seagulls are brash birds that will eat anything and act a fool wherever they go. Gulls are just plain scrappy. These future mass populators are essentially scavengers of a sort, allowing the symbiosis with us messy humans.
So, there there you have my prediction for the future. Pigeons, crows and gulls will be battling each other over our scraps en mass. The chickens? The chickens escape. That's right, they get fed up with getting eaten all the time and they run away into the hills.

Hey is that DubRock? Well turn it up man!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eGWW8KOQio

Freedom rock.

The music collection that sums up an entire generation. Or at least a wacky commercial for a generic 60s and 70s rock collection. But what will my generation's collection be dubbed in 2020? Ultimate Club Skeez? Snookie Wants Smoosh-Smoosh? Starbucks Music? Likely not DubRock. Can you  picture the kids of 2020 looking back at our era? What will be our top five anthems?

My folks definitely hung out by a van in the woods and taked about 70's rock. I wonder if my pop ever took the opportunity to say "is that freedom rock, well turn it up man!" Every generation knows that their music sounds best turned up. Not that it's my generation's sound by a long shot, but Dubstep also sounds best turned way, way up.

There are times when louder and less are better. 

I explored the upper limits of my low-end aftermarket car sound system as I drove across the shittier parts of Springfield, MA. I was guided by my indifferent navigator through endless side streets and obscure byways that people don't use unless they are following directions from an indifferent navigator. I had the nav. volume off, but if I hadn't, I still wouldn't have heard her say "take left at bodega. Turn right 100 yards past the newish overly manicured sliver of a park that severely contrasts the slumping homes surrounding it." But I didn't want to hear the navigators observations. I was awash in rich satisfying bass and an ever changing arrangement of drums and echoing verse.

Dubstep is my mental bandage. It is regarded as some underground sound that'll never go pop, though Britney has made some headway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htP0MyvYTas. But it's underground for lame reasons! It's underground because hipsters don't want to share. It's underground because it's too hard for drunk college girls to dance to. It's underground because it's so different. Not because it has counter culture ideas like 60s and 70s music. They'll never try to suppress dubstep, unless dj's start lacing their sets with wikileaks samples.

Dubstep is an effects-laden summer blockbuster, a pint of ben and jerry's, reality tv. Its the audio version of a warm bed on Sunday morning. Who can think about changing the world when broad frequency bass is wet-willying you and there is a completely unique breakdown before every bar? It's A.D.D.D. J. heaven.

Our world is increasingly complicated and more transparent. Everything is exposed and amplified, let me hear you say stimulai! Dub is the comfort food. Dubstep rebels in the 20th century way by not listening, caring or doing. Not acknowledging anything but the bass. We're still turning it up, though it's more tune-out than tune-in. "I just want to dance tonight"(-D. Cook) instead of "wow, Dylans lyrics are so heavy"(-some hippy). I guess my point is that if you want to nod your head and escape the worlds troubles, dubstep really fits the bill. I have no idea where to take this blog from here...

Not that I'm about to replace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4D-hCO8Y2k&feature=related

with Blowin' In The Wind. Or do I have to?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4uoLI4NAeE

[insert dylan dub here]