Epic Return Post

Listen to this while you're reading:

Pop - M.I.A.

So I feel I have alot to write about...however, I am really tired and don't want to spend forever making this tonight. So maybe everyone can be okay with summaries. If not, you're fired.


India first:

You can't be prepared for something like that. Unless you've been to a country that has been exploited (although beautifully: see this and this) by people coming in from outside and who's people (many not all) are still being oppressed by the archaic caste system (which, I might add, is both a great way to keep away progress and keep people in the dark about their condition without necessitating oppressive religion or government). The poverty was as undeniable as the lack of sanitation systems. It was an eye-opener to see progression squandered by culture. I would argue that it's normally the other way around. Maybe that's what they call a backwards system.

But to not appear like I hated India, because it is quite the contraire, I learned alot about happiness. Our first guide has lived in Delhi all his life and has traveled out of the country only a handful of times. He Loves It. I've never seen that kind of attachment to a place of residence. And although that's hard for me to understand, his love is certainly not without merit. There are a plethora of opportunities to help people daily, the people build extraordinarily strong relationships, and love for life abounds. I would say "ignorance is bliss," but that would be slightly condescending and I don't wish for that.

To close, the monuments (there are actually more than the Taj Mahal), the food, the scenery, was all amazing, but the people were the best part. Basic but intuitive, simple but content. I'd go back.


Tonight was the first Thursday Night Ride I've done in 3 weeks. It was awesome.

This is the route that we took zoom out one.

I haven't been this tired since hockey in highschool. That being said, it is a great feeling putting out nearly everything you have. On that last hill to get to montmartre I estimate I was putting out 98% of what I could have. On the way home, I took my new favorite route, from rivoli through the musee du louvre and heard a veritable dance party. So I checked it out. As it turns out, there was an outdoor party in the tuilleries. It was obviously invite only because they had a security guard and there couldn't have been more than 200 (fashionably dressed and beautiful) people there. Plus, the parkay floor that was layed down flat and even couldn't have been cheap on the gravel ground. But right when I rolled up the song switched to Kylie's In My Arms and the crowd got down. As did I. I was stoked to hear a dj spin that track as it's at least half a year old.So to all the haters out there that don't think people get down to Kylie, hate on that.
My muscles were/are still tired exhausted. And consequently, I am as well.

Later


Bonus:
This song is energetic and overall pretty awesome:
Heads Will Roll (Young Live - Starters Remix) - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
I will certainly be copping the album when I get back to the US.

Weekend of Insanity

I don't want to do that again. I mean, it was tight going to the US for 3 days, but it was hard on me...and my grade in Croissance et Developpement de l'Entreprise.

Before I get started typing what I wrote down in my little notebook about the weekend, I'll give you some music that was given to me today by the publisher for sayCet. Yes, I got an email saying that I should check out some of their new remixes and post them. So despite the fact that Ohh Crap! beat me to the punchline, here they are:

1901 (sayCet Remix) - Phoenix
I'm not sure whether I like the original better or not. Phoenix is blowing up. They have been on Conan recently, and were the band on SNL saturday night, so if I do like the original more, I have a good reason.
However, sayCet, like they do really well, have taken a pretty uptempo song and found the simple melody and turned it to a relaxing one. It's just a mood thing. If you're in a chill mood, this is your slice of pie.
If you want the original, just go to phoenix's website and you can dl it for free as well.

I'm Not (sayCet Remix) - Panda Bear
I don't like the original of this one that much at all, but the remix is great. Another kinda ambient flavor for meditating on something or chilling out.

You can get both of them on the Fairtilizer website (the link's the same for both) just click the song you want to hear and while you're listening to it you can download it. 320 kbps!
Also, make sure to check out their other stuff. I like it; you should at least give it a listen.



So now for the trip update while you have some good music to listen to... (this is exactly what i wrote)

•Loud! The flight attendants are so loud. But I really like sitting business. I watched "21" which was entertaining and "Guilt" which I need to watch again. Really good story and great acting. I slept a little bit but am still tired. We're going to land soon in Chicago...
•Bathrooms have hot water, waterfountains exist
•"Les moralistes ne sont pas des gens qui font la morale, ce sont des gens qui divulguent une verité douloureux." (read in Le Figaro)
•Une paire de bottes vaut mieux que Shakespeare." (anti-intellectualisme) par Cioran (read in Le Figaro)
•Wow. Already saw a cowboy
•Seeing how huge Chicago was from the air blew my mind.

List of stuff I ate:
•Taco Bell: 2 chalupas, hard taco, crunchwrap supreme, large mountain dew baja blast
•Blue Bell Ice Cream: Butter Crunch, Chocolate Extreme, Banana Pudding
•Cracker Barrel: 3 cinnamon apple pancakes with whipped cream, 2 scrambled eggs, 2 bisquits w/ gravy, large chocolate milk (served in a frosty mug)
•Jack In The Box: sourdough jack, curly fries, large fanta strawberry
•Blue Bell
•A philly cheesesteak from some place in the mall that greg knew about
•2 bowls of cereal, two unnaturally moist cranberry muffins
• Blue Bell
•Amazing Barbeque a la Labac family. 6 or 7 ribs and a brisquet sandwich. (They make their own sauce. It's awesome)
•Blue Bell
•Whataburger: double whataburger with mustard, pickles, tomatoes, and lettuce.
•Healthy breakfast of oatmeal and raisins
•McAllisters Deli cranberry club
•Done

That was all I wrote cause I spent alot of time not writing stuff down but rather doing stuff. Also, on the flight back I slept 8 of 9 and a half hours.

Overall, the trip was weird. I was super excited to hang out with good friends, but it was super weird not being alienated...ever. Everything was really easy and I just kept wanting to speak some french. It was really good to listen to music in my car again though even though I remembered how much I hate driving if there are other people on the road.

So the verdict is that it was definately worth it to say whats up to my homies and to suprise mr. in-the-navy. However, i would like to warn all my peeps in france or abroad for the year, that you will most likely feel really uncomfortable for a while. Maybe a few days, maybe a few weeks, maybe longer. I'll be right there with you figuring it out.

Bonus: Because this song is on the level just above epic...

Halvin Carris

dhis is a good time to type random codes of ssensuolucidir since I'm completely exhausted from listening to dhis tude until later than I would like to Tisclose.
It's not that I'm ashamed that I listened to music far far too late for a monday night, but I am disappointed because I knew I had to do laundry today. Looks like tonight will be laundry time cause it's nice out and I have a rare date with the sun. (I discovered yesterday that the closest laundromat that I can find is aproximately a 20 min walk. It's 4 streets on the Other side of Invalides. Cool.)

Now I will disclose to you all who don't care and you all that do care (Greg) the songs I was listening to last night. Because finding the top bit-rated versions is going to be hard to do again as I sorted through about 3 versions of each remix, I'll just mediafire all of them and you can have at them.

A little bit about them now if you don't want to download everone to hear something you know you won't like just by the genre.

Radio Edit - Been posted before (4)

Extended Mix - Radio Edit with some crap thrown on the front and back end (6)

Burns Remix - Real House-y. Boring Start i.m.o. but it gets better. Little bit of Hoo! in there too. I like it, but it isn't for everyone. (3)

Deadmau5 Remix - Nice. Definately my favorite out of the official Halvin Carris sponsored mixes. If it were less consistent of a beat it would be Trance for sure. If you like trance, you'll probably love this with the only exception being that you like trance but live only for the breakdowns and buildups. (2)

Doorly Remix - It's dubstep and it's not that good really. I enjoy it for sure, but I feel like the intro/end and added touches are just an excuse to throw some random-ass hardcore dubstep beat in at certain times. I guess that's dubstep. Oh well. It's in 320 so I had take a few listens before I decided that it's not one of my favorites. Har har. (8)

Down It In One Mix - Best one. I'm going to continue looking for it in higher quality, but since there are no words (which I thought were an essential part of the song [was wrong]), there's no overtly noticable splish splash. (1)

Herve See You At The Festival Remix - Strait up Electro/House. It's not really fidgity except when he switches up the beat a couple times. It's a good mix. Unfortunately, I don't have the other Herve mix that's kinda downtempo-dub stuff. (5)

The Humpday Project Remix - I think these guys are from Australia. They put it down, but frankly, I hear that back beat at least twice a day it seems. I'm just getting tired of that snap. Dilla had like 1000 different cymbal hits, 1000 snares, 1000 claps (not sure about the last one) and you guys (all electro) get to use the same one over and over? Don't get all Timbaland/Danger on me please. It's pretty tight. I can see this one rocking a club, I just don't think it's that original of an idea. (7)

Edit: Actually I'll put them in order if you're low on computer space and can only download 6 of 8 or something.

Enjoy those.

Bonus: Since I put the Timbaland thing up, and I thought that finnish beat was fire, here's the Felly Nurtado song that he did with it.
DO IT!

The Stomach Is On Fire

Macaframa from MACAFRAMA on Vimeo.

I needed a reason to post something and that was it. Badass and fun-ass with some cool cinematography.


I'm excited that it isn't raining when I need to go places (it is raining however, like it should in Paris I guess). Oh well, it was really nice while it lasted. Plus, I'm sure it'll return eventually. Doesn't matter though, I'm going to freaking India. I don't care who knows, I'm stoked. I'm also stoked to be in a place where I can get a good bottle of wine for under 5 euros. I'll just list the things I'm stoked on right now:

Finding a good beer store in paris.

Finding this shirt. Great and New fashion ideas exist! I don't have that money tho...unfortunately.

My cousin covering one of my 3 favorite bands. And doing it quite well.

This Photo.

Having my stomach feel like it's eating itself at least once every 5 minutes. Maybe I got one of these...?

Getting to ride for real tomorrow for the first time in 2 weeks.

Being friends with Marc Beerline.


World Is On Fire - Sarah McLachlan

Days

So it's been sunny and nice out recently. No rain for...9 days maybe. Really quite insane. But I am not and will not complain.

Unfortunately, this song was in my head this morning. I was listening to my top-rated stuff on iTunes and couldn't figure out the little ditty going on in my subconscious. So i typed in "Days" into my search and...well, nothing came up. I was puzzled and perplexed, but did find this song while looking through the 74 items that have the word Days in them someway (the original was the first song i listened to when i woke up today). But on to the song that is neither Guilty nor a Pleasure...just an embarrassment. However, Keith did make a catchy joint. When I wake up with a country rock song from 2004 that i haven't heard since 2006 in my head, the creator's job is done.

So because I don't want to embed it on my wall, I'll post the Link and embed a song by the same name that has a really cool video.

I have been watching How I Met Your Mother recently though. Pretty good show. And pineapple has become my second favorite fruit.

I don't have much else to report.

Later people

Sleepwalking (The Glass Remix) - 120 Days

BONUS: because it came up randomly when I was typing this and I have zero idea when I listened to it last. (and I think the band is great)

Fear And Loathing On Cape Cod - Piebald

Sprinting

Sometimes life is a footrace; a footrace that is against ghosts with an ambiguous route.
Sometimes that race isn't competitive at all.
Sometimes it's about style.

Sometimes it's about living.
Sometimes it's about being life-like.

Sometimes it lends itself to perfection,
of form, of chaos, of eccentrism, of monotony.

Sometimes this race bleeds you out.
Sometimes it feeds the vampires.
Sometimes you grow stronger from the bite, the weakness, the renewal.



Enjoi your time here...

Tuesday Morning

Sorry it took me a while to post this. I wrote it tuesday after it happened and just didn't put it up here cause my internet has been flaky.


Best day ever so far at…9:35 am.

One: My internet isn’t working. That means I can’t email my presentation to my professor to prove that it’s done. And I won’t go into school cause I would rather feel sorry for my pitiful fucking life sitting at home crying about it.

Let me back up.

So I have a presentation that I was supposed to be at school for at 8:30. Alright so I get that ho done this morning using, thanks to modern technology, the internet sites I have already loaded before the my computer decided to not connect to a wireless port that it can both find and tell me it has 3 of 5 signal bars. So I’m ready to go at 7:50 to meet a girl from my class in the IT lab at school to rent the projector and screen for the presentation. So I get my bike. I get to carry it down the stairs because I am not allowed to park it in the courtyard cause some big cheese Frenchman (I’m being civil with my language) thinks that it’s disturbing him somehow (remember this, it will become important). Also, I took off my rain guard last week since the weather was nice and the thing was dragging on my tire…which is awesome because it’s raining quite heavily. So I get on my bike and mutter a few words about how awesome the morning is and start pedaling. Less than half way there, I decide that I’ll just ride through this puddle. Good idea! Because it happens to be a 6 inch deep pothole that has been strategically camouflaged by the rain. Poooooooof! Good thing I don’t need air in my front tire…and don’t have another tube…and can’t patch the tube that I just blew out because it’s…that’s right… raining. So I jog back to my apartment with my bike on my shoulder. I put it down, run upstairs (trip 1), fix the front wheel, grab the rain guard and screw, and run back down (trip 1). I put the front wheel back on (because I didn’t want to take the whole bike up 6 flights of stairs and then clip on the rain fender on the back…and realize that I forgot the bolt with which to keep it from dragging on the tire. Run upstairs (trip 2). Get Bolt. Run back down (trip 2). Attach Fender. Realize…oh that’s nice… the back tire is completely flat as well.
“Ted, how did you not notice that the first time?”
Good question reader. Maybe it was because the front one blew out so dramatically, maybe it was because I was… angry… maybe it was because I didn’t walk my bike home, I ran with it on my shoulder. At this point, I am lucky enough to receive a call from my land lady who asks me how I’m doing and without realizing that I didn’t say “Very well thank you” but rather “Not good at all” says
“Great. Well unfortunately, I forgot to tell you that you can’t park your bike in the courtyard. I’m really sorry, but it is interfering somehow with Monsieur Hermes, a very well to do man that is a grouch.”
“Oh okay. Well the guardian already told me that yesterday”
“She just called me again because she saw it in the courtyard.”
“Oh yes that’s because I wanted to fix a flat and leave without taking the whole bike upstairs. I only left it there for 5 minutes at most.”
“Okay…blah blah blah… so hopefully you aren’t missing class because of the flat”
“Well I just realized that I have two flats, not one, and yes, I am missing class.”
“Okay well I hope your day gets better”
“Thank you. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Bye.”
I then took the whole bike upstairs (trip 3) and realized that I had ripped my pants in seat of the pant. How clever you are fate, how clever you are. She did offer to lend me her velib pass, but honestly, after this whole incident, I would rather not let fate fuck me in the ass again by somehow crashing a heavy and unstable bike and getting run the fuck over by a bus.
Needless to say, I instantly thought back to what I may or may not have done to bring this karmatic justice upon myself. So far I came up with:
1) I have had really good luck recently on my bike
2) I haven’t been concentrating quite enough on school
3) I didn’t see any repercussions from getting drunk the last night of the ski trip
4) I might just have gotten killed on my way to school if I hadn’t hit the pothole

Anyway, I would like to conclude by saying that I am both a loser and a douche bag for not riding the RER back into class to do my presentation, but I also know that I would have a hard time sitting down in class and even standing up to do my presentation after the thorough ass-rape that I was kindly provided with this beautiful morning.

Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,

Assclown.

What is the point of oranges anymore?
Clementines are easier to eat, they taste better, and they are more portable.
Just a thought.

So I got moved in to my apartment. It's working out pretty good so far. The internet is kinda flaky and not quite as fast as previously, but it works. Also, I can now see traffic on both sides of the Seine from my window and can be amazed by how late the french go to work. I can also see the river, which, today, is a placid green. I bet there's gaters in there...

I have a presentation tomorrow I'm not thrilled about over Jansenism (which is not Janism which I would be interested in reporting on [it never crossed my mind that a french literature class wouldn't have that as one of the topics.])

I don't really have any new good stuff to post besides this one.

Hometown Glory (Chewy Chocolate Cookies Remix) - Adele

And because I think she's really talented, and because I don't want to get in trouble for posting a real song of hers... this is the song I think you should hear. It's really soulful. Try it out.
Best For Last
And if you have doubt like I did, just watch any of the live versions. Crazy how some recording artists can actually sing right??


Moments...here today, goo tomorrow.
Yum. Suicidal Candy.
Probably the most sadistic candy commercials out there.