Things That Make you Happy

During the break I have been doing the same things I do during non-break time. Mostly relaxing. Well I thought to myself, one should make a list of things that make him happy. If he keeps doing these things, he will have a great life.

Some things I will do during the summer:
Go to Primetime
Play Golf
Draw Paintings
Write New Songs
Develop Guitar Skill
Swim/Look at Hot Ladies
Play Poker
Listen to Nostalgic Songs

There were about 20 other things that I listed. I will try to do all of them. I suggest you also create a list of things that make you happy and do them. Similarly you may want to create a list of things taht stress you out, and try to not do those things.

A second portion of my post will discuss some hot hip hop songs that are popular. They all consist of women btw:

Nelly Furtado - Say It Right
Click Here to Watch

Justin Timberlake - SexyBack
Click Here to Watch

Nelly Furtado ft. Timbaland - Promiscuous
Click Here to Watch

All three songs are great. I would say Timberlake's song is the best. I don't even know if he sings in it, but this guys is the man. He knows what is sexy and what is not, unlike most hogs - making him truly unique. I didn't know any Nelly Furtado songs till now - she is having a great year with her album. If you want to cheer up from these serious songs, I would recommend S.O.S by Rihana, seen here.

Auditory Memory: The Nature of the Hog

I have found it fascinating that I, your humble blogger, can remember specific times in my life associated with music. IE I can remember the exact songs during moments of my life. Many of these songs were looped over and over, while others just "made sense" at the time.

Brass Monkey - Beastie Boys: The first personal radio experience

I was in my room, with a radio at the age of 7 or 8 when I hear "Brass monkey, You funky junkie..."

End of the World - R.E.M: collecting basketball cards in New Jersey.

I was in a van, at about age 12 or 13, driving, looking over some sweet new basketball cards my mom had bought me when all of the sudden the sweet sound of R.E.M comes on the radio.

Rider on the Storm - Doors: Riding in a storm through upstate New York.

This was an absolutely surreal moment in my life. Age 15 or 16, my family was driving through NY during a light, summer storm, listening to a doors CD that I had burned. The two forces intertwined and all was bliss. I was Jim Morrison for those 5 minutes. I will never forget this in my life.

Metro Radio Mix - Chris Hale: Summertime nights in my brothers room.

During a massive heat storm in the summer of '06 I was bumping the Japanese underground Trance nightly, while drinking Gatorade and learning how to code HTML. I was at peace. Will do again.

Countless other instances; For instance if the song Cobra Style by Teddybears Stockholm comes on, I will instantly think about my first time playing on Full Tilt Poker. Or, if David Bowie's Suffragette City comes on I will instantly think about looking up real estate in Southern California.

This is a phenomenon, and I encourage you all to add a little more music into your lives, to help you remember the little things.

Random Muses: Outside/Inside, Movies

First of all, I would like to point out I have no effing idea what "muse" means. I get my logic was this:

Random post -> is amusing -> museing -> muse -> muses

I feel the more time an individual spend indoors, the less natural he becomes. Imagine the very first day of man: nothing but "outside" existed, there was no "inside". Over time, we have become a society that spends more and more time inside. We talk less, walk less, sun less, see less, and think less.

I will try to make a conscious effort of spending more time outside. Some days I spend no more than 20 minutes outside (walking from class to class), this is very troublesome.

Can you see the difference?



I attribute these "new" outlooks on life to this blog. Really this has been a magical thing really. Now, that my eyes are open, I must take initiative to do what I preach. What that in mind, lets go indoors to movie watching.

The second part of my post: movies. Now, I am an optimistic movie watcher, so I usually like movies, regardless if they are bad. This however does not mean I will say "this is a classic". I have a keen eye, and just because I like a movie doesn't mean I think it is a good.

I watched a few movies that I torrented. BTW if you enjoy illegal dvd rips, I highly suggest aXXo's torrent site (found here); the quality is always superb, never a crappy file. I watched Tenacious D, Alpha Dog, and Night at the Museum.



TD and the POD was alright; I don't like Jack Black, but he had some original moments in the movie. I especially liked the sound track - some sweet heavy metal. Overall, I'd say it is... fresh. I would like to watch it high. This would be an awesome movie to watch after a nice bowl of greens and a few beers.

Alpha Dog was great; I really enjoyed Justin Timberlake in this one, he really looked like a regular 20 year old. The rest of the acting sucked, however the plot, as well as the atmosphere of the movie, made up for it. I'd say if you haven't seen it you should defiantly watch it.

Night at the Museum; this is a good kids movie. It is not so good for adults. The concept is great, but the material was a little thin. There were some funny moments, that I enjoyed; mainly because they were fluffy and happy, not because the joke was good/smart. Like a typical fantasy, "huh, sweet, this is cool, I like it". In retrospect, this movie really sucked ass. Key note; Mickey Roony as well as Ricky Gervais = pure brilliancy.

Pictures of My Office

This is where I conduct my work throughout the day. I like to multi-task and so, I usually have plates with food lying around. I also have a toilet built into my chair.

Yesterday I had a cake. I am not sure what it is called, but it consist of cream, chocolate, and a rum flavor. I think it is French.

Today I had an apple pie. Complimented with a bag of chocolate chips.

Hog Studies: Spontinuity

Hogness and Kurosawanism are two separate entities. Yet they coexist in harmony. For the past few years, your humble writer has been living a fairly routine life; while there are elements of difference, most days fallow a typical format.

This past week(s), an element of spontinuity emerged, thus creating drastic changes, and imbalances in the Hogness v. Kurosawan ratio. Spontinuity, by the way, is the presence of something spontaneous.

1. Began taking daily showers
   
2. Began socializing in positive ways
   
3. Lost complete respect for the public school system
   
4. Began eating whatever desired without thinking about repercussions
5. Stopped watching TV
6. Started listening to old-school rap
   

These profound changes have no explanation; it is like a wild sparrow singing a joyful song. Now let me comment on the changes:

The showers may possibly attribute to the positive social situations. I feel, people no longer avoid me due to my foul smell. In terms of academics, I was never a fan of learning useless things such as pointless dates in history, analysis of text I have no interest, mathematical concepts I will never use in my life. A recent bestselling book, I am reading only reaffirms my existing thoughts. Now, this does not mean I hate school; I only hate the parts of it that lack hogness:

A hog who understands what a 401k or a roth IRA is, as well as the tax benefits they present, will be more worthy than a hog who knows who Napoleon was.

My increase in unhealthy food intake, is due to an IDGAF factor. The IDGAF factor is a mentality where the human no longer cares about certain things. While I do care about my health, I do not care that I am harming it. This is a perfectly logical scenario.

Stopped watching TV. This is very interesting. I have no explanation; I have not watched TV for about a month. I am guessing this is the body resting, in anticipation of baseball season.

Lastly I decided; enough of this modern music, let us rewind it back and listen to the cool tunes of Afrika Bambaataa, Niggaz With Attitude, Digital Underground, and Dre and Snoop. This is a great mood lifter late in the night when on is working on a pointless school paper, or writing a blog that only 4 people will ever lay eyes on.

Next time I may post more about myself, or I may go off tangent and discuss some random topics. Only fate knows what will come. Until then, on behalf of Grandmaster Flash and all the other old schoolers, "break dance".

Intro To Music: Afterthaughts

After think about my last few posts, I realized I left out a lot of bands, as well as genres. This probably is fate however. If at a specific moment (ie: when constructing a post) I cannot recollect an artist, then that is the correct result.

So when I did not post about rap, or forgot to include sweet songs that I enjoy, they were not meant to be listed. This is a philosophical idea, and this post is not about philosophy, so I will go on with my "afterthoughts".

Bob Marley has great Reggae music. I am not a Rastafarian, nor do I listen to non-Kurosawan music often, however once in a while great artists cause me to make exceptions. Marley is among them. A modern example would be Amadou et Mariam. These guys rock.

Jimi Hendrix is a great artist. I did not include him (consciously) for no particular reason. This is the type of artist (like most legendary, immortal, artists) who is only grasped by his total work. You can't just listen to Purple Haze and say "...", you need to dig deep.

There is a lot of great rap out there. I enjoy classics like Afrika Bambaataa, Grand Master Flash, Public Enemy, Run DMC, and Sugar Hill Gang. These band were revolutionary, and I love the simplicity behind the songs.

Music has no boundaries. A few years ago, I would say "Nah, I don't listen to that band b/c it is in the X genre", where X is a genre I am not crazy about. Over recent years, I have really ditched these ideas, and now I listen to anything I enjoy, regardless if it is aimed at kids, girls, old ppl, etc... An example of this is:

Emo Music
Pop Songs by Madonna, Janet Jackson, Ace of Base, etc...
The Naked Brothers Band (some 14 year olds who play kids songs for people who watch the Disney Channel)

Well that pretty much wraps up my thoughts on music. These brief explorations can not possibly capture my thoughts entirely, and so in the future, I will make "case study", "current playlist", and "artist spotlight" articles that focus on music.

We are still in the introductory phase of the blog. My goal is for you people to understand the Hogness I represent. So in the next coming days I will further discuss aspects of existence, and their relations to me.

Intro to Music: Modern Phase

.. in 1997, music begins to deteriorate greatly ... "dark ages".

If you like the dark ages, feel free to download the shit also known as;
Limp Bizkit
Godsmak
Stained
Linkin Park
Tool
And crappy portions of the careers of bands like Rage Against the Machine, Weezer, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

That is all there is really to discuss. The music was so awful during this era, that I began listening to a different genre of music (classic aka shitty classic rock). This era featured hit songs by bands like Lit, Blink 182, 3 Doors Down.

Faint highlights of this era include:
Praise You - Fat Boy Slim
Selected Radio Head
Selected Foo Fighters
Many Artists and Bands from 1998-1999.

Overall, the music gets worse and worse from 1997 until 2003, when there is a sudden reemergence of listenable music: the modern phase

After this shit ends, A new age begins. I don't know what to call it. Songs like:
7 nation army (White Stripes)
Bandages (Hot Hot Heat)
Hey Ya! (Outkast)
The Seed (The Roots)
Clocks (Coldplay)

The fronteir developes and expands; shortly after these solid hits, we are ambushed with a high-energy (a la Bandages - Hot Hot Heat) synth/dance-rock style of music;
Float On - Modest Mouse
Somebody Told Me - The Killers
Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
Callin' Out - Lyrics Born
Slow Hands - Interpol
Sound of Settling - Death Cab for Cutie

My favorite of these is probably Slow Hands by Interpol (I've listened to Take me Out toooo many times)

The bands listed above paved the way for the future British Dance funk, and rockhop type of music that is present today. Dance funk genre is like Franz Ferdinand, Modest Mouse, Killers, Bravery, type of stuff. Rockhop is kind of a mix of rap/hiphop/rock, like Gorillaz, Lilly Allen, and Gnarlz Barkaley. I wouldn't wiki these terms, b/c I made them up.

Today Emo, is getting popular. Some quasi-emo bands have released some great concept albums (Blvd. of Broken Dreams - Green Day, Black Parade - My Chemical Romance). These two albums are considered "rock operas"; they tell a story.

Some other types of emo bands are (Fallout Boy, AFI, Panic! at the Disco, etc..)These bands are extremely popular with young kids. I would say there is no genre "emo", there are only representations of it. For instance My Chem Romance is like a heavy metal opera, while Panic is like a burlesque musical, and Fallout is a punk(predominantly) versus boy-band (on a few tracks) montage.

Best Emo Songs;
Bat Country - Avenged Sevenfold (prolly not emo)
Miss Murder - AFI
Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
This Ain't A Scene... - Fallout Boy
Thnks Fr Th Mmrs - Fallout Boy
... Good Reason These Tables ... - Panic! at the Disco
Constantly Thank God... - Panic! at the Disco
Build God, Then We'll Talk - Panic! at the Disco
But It's Better If You Do - Panic! at the Disco
Karma Police - Panic! at the Disco

Sorry to get hung up on emo so much, but it deserves its recognition imo. Other music going is the 70's psychedelic sounds of Wolf Mother. This is probably my favorite thing out there in terms of "new" music, it like a reincarnation of a 70's metal band. Also Keizer Cheifs, Arcade Fire, and Modest Mouse are all still going strong, providing us that "dance rock".

Happy Listenings to all.

Intro To Music: The Golden Age

This age focuses on grunge and post-grunge rock. Throughout this time, pop is going string, as well as hip-hop and rap. I will likely focus on rap and other forms of music (Elton John, etc..) later in case studies. We are strictly dealing with "rock" here.

Grunge. The word just sound dirty. Yet the music associated with it is considered quite pure: the artist do not conform for the sake of media, or image; they strictly play what they want to. A typical grunge scene is a bunch of young adults/men with long hair, wearing plad shirts, getting drunk and rocking out to music.

The best Grung Bands have a heavy metal sounds, with "manly" sounding voices, and lots of chords that don't sound pretty, yet they make sense. Also, they usually feature very cool solos.

The best, and obviously most famous bands;
Soundgarden
Pearl Jam
Nirvana
Alice in Chains
Stone Temple Pilots

Research their "#1 hits" in case you don't like or don't want to posses the full albums. IMO the hits from all of these bands are some of the best Rock in existence.

My personal ones consist of:

Burden in My Hand - Soundgarden
Black Hole Sun - Soundgarden
Alive - Pearl Jam
School - Nirvana
In Bloom - Nirvana
The Rooster - Alice in Chains
Man in the Box - Alice in Chains

After and during this era is mediocre Rock bands, setting the stage for Alternative Rock. Key songs from these bands in the Early 90's;

“Tomorrow” - Silverchair
“Far Behind” - Candlebox
“Hey Man, Nice Shot” - Filter
“Glycerine”, "This Cloud" - Bush
“Hey Jealousy” - Gin Blossoms

These bands (noted above) may have been in the mid 90's I'm not sure. Some other unique bands are R.E.M, and the Cure (span from early 80's to 90's).

Now like from '93 till like '96 is prolly my favorite era or music. Punk Rock, Grunge, and Alternative Rock, and catchy tunes, all dominated. Here is an extensive list of good songs:

Radiohead - Creep
Blind Melon - No Rain
The Smashing Pumpkins - Today
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Soul To Squeeze
Rage Against the Machine - Killing In The Name
Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way
Cracker - Low
The Offspring - Come Out and Play
Green Day - Longview
Weezer - Come Undone (The Sweater Song)
R.E.M. - What's the Frequency Kenneth?
Beck - Loser
The Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm
Nine Inch Nails - Closer
The Presidents of the United States of America - Lump
Sublime - Date Rape
Rancid - Time Bomb
PJ Harvey - Down by the Water
Beck - Where It's At
No Doubt - Spiderwebs
311 - Down
Butthole Surfers - Pepper
Garbage - Stupid Girl
Kula Shaker - Tattva
Bush - Machinehead
Oasis - Champagne Supernova
Primitive Radio Gods - Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand
Porno for Pyros - Tahitian Moon
Eels - Novacaine for the Soul
Spacehog - In the Meantime
Dishwalla - Counting Blue Cars
Daft Punk - Da Funk


Now these songs (above) may not include the one hit wonders that really pawned for a few months, nor do they include the "best" songs from the band. But by listening to all of them, you can begin to form your own interest, and start pursuiting bands you like. To me this era is "classic", "golden", "best". Mainly because timeless bands dominated it, and probably were releasing their best material during the time:

My favorite song by the bands are noted with a ();

Smashing Pumpkins (Bullet With Butterfly Wings)
Radio Head (Paranoid Android)
Green Day (Long View)
Foo Fighters (I'll Stick Around)
Beastie Boys (Sabatoge)
Sublime (Caress Me Down)
RHCP (Nobody Weird Like Me)
Nirvana (School)
Weezer (Undone - Sweater Song)

In 1997, music begins to deteriorate greatly w/ bands like 3rd eye blind, Might Mighty Bostones, and Smashmouth. Some decent bands were holding it up, like Blink 182, and crappier songs by the "golden age" bands, however the crash was inevitable. The music continues to suck from 1997 till about 2003. In 2003, rock begins to get better from what I call the "dark ages". Next we will briefly discuss the "dark ages", and mainly focus on the "modern phase".