Nothing To See Here

Featuring Zach de la Rocha and DJ Shadow.

It’s interesting that within a few days of switching the site around, my traffic has dropped 50%. Oh, wait…I don’t have the monthly mixes up anymore. That must be it.

On a related note, it is refreshing that even though site traffic is down, the top three searches are for the words ‘jeans,’ ‘t-shirt,’ and ‘fuck.’ I guess that would explain why 40% of my email has to do with fucking, getting fucked, wanting to fuck, better ways to fuck and a bunch of email from Asian folks (written in their native languege) asking me about buying or selling jeans and/or t-shirts. It’s all very interesting.

New Queens Of The Stone Age video for “Go With The Flow” by Shynola. I just fell in love with QOTSA again.

P.S. If you haven’t seen the video Shynola did for Junior Senior’s “Move Your Feet,” then you need to do that now.

“Final Straw” was released today through R.E.M.’s official website. While only a rough mix (at at low bandwidth), it’s exciting to hear something new from one of the greatest bands of all time.

Now love cannot be called into question.
Forgiveness is the only hope I hold.
And love– love will be my strongest weapon.
I do believe that I am not alone.

Well said, Michael.

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I do not support our invasion of Iraq. I think what President Bush is doing is an atrocity and a crime against humanity. That’s not to say that what Saddam Hussein has done and continues to do to his country’s people is any better or any worse, it’s just different. I realize I am simplifying something that it quite a bit more complex. You can read about those complexities all over the place. I think you owe it to yourself to get educated about what is really going on and why we are in Iraq. And just for the record, I’m still asking why we are there.

Saddam Hussein is just one of the many mongrels who treats his people like animals. There are many countries that commit heinous crimes agianst its peoples. Why aren’t we doing anything about those countries? Why aren’t we helping to liberate those people? Why are we turning the other way as North Korea builds nuclear weapons? I’m not even suggesting I have answers to these questions, but I do have a lot of questions that aren’t getting answered. Perhaps they will in the days and months ahead.

To all of the war advocates, why the gung-ho attitude? Why are you so anxious to bomb the hell out of a country, kill innocent people and put our troops in harm’s way? I don’t understand. To all of the peace advocates and protestors, should we take a hands-off approach to this conflict? When is war okay? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want war under any circumstances, but I also feel like we have gone past the point of return, to some extent. I will continue to protest, but these are all thoughts that run through my head. War is not the answer. This is something of which I am quite confident, but again, I’m not sure what the answer is.

Seeing the thousands, if not millions of people worldwide coming out against the war gives me hope that all is not lost, but it’s not always easy to keep a positive outlook on humanity. I do not think that our President has given much thought to what this war will mean for generations to come. I question his faith in God. and just for the record, I am not Christian, but what I know about the religion, it does not condone the killing of innocent people. When the Pope comes out against the war and calls it a sin, I have to think that has had some impact on his conscience, if he has one.

As a Buddhist, I am dedicated to the development of peace, culture and education to make the world a better place. I dedicate a portion of every day to making the world a better place, and believe with all my heart that if we wanted to end this war today, we could. It’s clear to me that we do not and that fills me with sadness and anger. I fear what kind of event it will take for people to wake up to the idea that we are all one giant organism, at one with our environment, and to separate ourselves we are doing a grave disservice.

My thoughts and prayers are with each and every citizen of the world. My thoughts and prayers are with all of the troops who are fighting and putting their lives on the line. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those troops. My thoughts and prayers are with the Iraqi people being put in harm’s way. My thoughts and prayers are of peace, not violence or vengeance.

Just discovered a cool new band, and lucky for all of you Angelinos, they’re local. Check out Nerami. They’re even playing a bunch of shows, some of them local in the coming weeks. I’ll add them to the calendar sometime soon. They have a couple of CDs for sale, which I bought. You should too. You’ll thank me later. Listen to a few of their songs.

He said, “coiffed.” HA HA!

UPDATE: The Smoking Gun comes through with the footage.

It needs no explanation.

Looks like Liz Phair is getting ready to release…something. I’ve had the chance to hear some of what may make up the new album and it’s really quite good. And no, I’m not going to post anything.