Hans's Posts

My hand through her hair
Who needs those synthetic drugs?
I'm higher than God

... the walkout did draw attention to a senseless war. However, if the main intent of the protest was to demonstrate the senseless nature of the whole situation, it could have been carried out much more effectively. Students skipping 20 minutes of school... how senseless and shocking! What we need is a return to 60s-era demonstrations, where protesters weren't afraid to counter a situation with an equal and opposite reaction. Take Hoffman, for example. The guy used the greedy nature of the stock market to essentially shut it down for a day: he went up above the trading floor and dropped a bunch of dollar bills down. The investors, in a fit of greed, panicked and dove after the money, basically shutting down trading for a day. The world saw Hoffman's point in one small, yet brutally simple act. Similarly, the anti-war movement should find some way to demonstrate the true absurdity associated with a war on Iraq. Like I said earlier: demonstrators should focus on effective free speech, not just banding together like a gaggle of geese whenever the hell they feel like it.
And Paul... Paul, Paul, Paul. After stumbling over your horrid grammar and wrapping my mind around your fallacious logic, I've come to the conclusion that you're a dork. While I essentially agree with you, that the walkout was a bomb, you seem to think that this justifies your stance as a "war hawk." As one with liberal philosophies (not necessarily liberal political ideologies) I can see no situation in which people with ideas akin to mine have deemed the right anything close to an "anti-christ." Those of us with liberal leanings aren't shocked that there are people who disagree with us. We've been shown that all too many times already. What we're shocked at is that those who don't agree with us can dismiss such a weighty matter as if it were yet another bill to pay, or what color shirt to buy. Maybe war is the answer, I don't know. I sure hope it isn't, but I haven't decided yet. That's what the liberals are all about: actually thinking, considering, and analyzing before making an important decision.

Sure we have a right to free speech and all, but the planned walkout is going to do absolutely nothing. The free speech thing should be revised to state "effective free speech," because this will just make everybody look like morons. First of all, walking out in the middle of school will do nothing. Supposedly the "media" will be there... do you honestly think they would actually air an event in which **gasp** kids are skipping school? Like that never happens! Second, marching on the gas station will do nothing as well. The gas station isn't responsible for the oil crisis, it's just a small franchise. If anything, business and the owner would be hurt. How effective is a political statement if, at the same time, it is saying, "We have no idea what the real cause of the problem is, so we'll just go to the nearest gas station!" How much do you want to bet that half the kids will just trot on down and buy a Code Red and a bag of Doritos? Then, there's this whole notion that the day is supposed to not be "Business as Usual." (the supposed slogan for this "nation-wide" event) What about all the teachers and administrative officials who are paid by the very government the protest is againist? What if they don't want war? If they skip school, the don't get paid. Sure you can think of the school as an extension of the government, but it's fairly ironic that the institution that is educating these students for free is getting the shaft. If anything, public schools are probably the part of the government that is most opposed to the war. Why should the institution be hurt by a protest against something it is also opposed to? There are also a bunch of students who will take this opportunity to skip school, students who have absolutely no interest in the cause.
I could keep going on and on about how stupid this walkout will be. I'm neither radically opposed nor radically against the war (I haven't heard a convincing enough argument from either side yet) but this is just ridiculous. Exercise effective free speech, and get your message across in an accurate, visible manner, not just an excuse to skip school and hang out at the gas station.

Greatest blues band ever. I've seen them at Famous Dave's (the one in uptown) a couple times. They completely blow me away. Let's start with the lead guitarist/vocalist. He does NOT look like a blues musician. The guy wears overalls and a denim shirt, looks about 70 (or older) and has a massive gray beard, as well as a big pair of thick glasses. That, and he's white. But he has a blues voice, plain and simple. Deep, throaty, raspy, and perfectly in pitch and time are not usually all attributed to the same voice, but he has them all. Then his guitar solos were simply amazing. I've NEVER heard a better guitar player than he. The guy knows how to improvise, and his band knows how to back him up. This lets him play the most soulful, emotional sounds I've heard from an instrument. You can tell he's into it, because he sort of slinks to the ground while playing, completely lost in himself and the music. By the time he's done, he's laying completely prostrate on the stage, banging away on his axe. There are also times when he'll walk off the stage, and travel all about the restaurant (he has a wireless pickup), playing his solo while stopping at people's tables. Now, I don't know how much you know about this type of thing, but playing an improvised, complicated solo 150 feet away from your amp and band is TOUGH. The sound takes extra time to get to your ear, so you have to almost anticipate the noises coming from your amp, which is hard to do while playing fast.
The rest of the band is just as impressive. There are 4 others: another guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums. The other guitarist plays mostly rhythm, but has a few solos, which are almost as astounding as Farmer Joe's. The bass player is, for lack of any better words, funky. He knows his instrument, and he shows it. The keyboardist plays on a classic Hammond B3 most of the time. God, I love that rotary speaker sound. All these amazing instrumentalists come together to give a tight performance. You can tell they've been together for a long time. As a band, it would be simply impossible for them to be any better.
Go see them sometime at Famous Dave's on Sunday nights, 8 o'clock.
I give them 546 blues guitars out of 546 blues guitars.

Our society. Damn, it's fucked up. Do I really need to go into detail? I think we can all agree on this. All right, nothing new, I know. But I have an explanation. I am of the firm belief that the vast majority of society's problems, if not, all of society's problems, are the result of symbolism. Yes, symbolism. Think about it: every man, woman, and child has their own ideas, own intuitions, own beliefs. These ideas are complex; they are built upon the thinker's life, experiences, and interactions with other ideas that this person has. So no idea is just something in and of itself, it is more of a nexus; an information center with connections to all sorts of other nexi (ideas). One can't define an idea by a singular definition. In order to fully understand the internal structures, implications, and connotations of an idea, one must also understand the other ideas and experiences surrounding it. However, people rarely, if ever, take the time and effort to wholisticly and completely explain their ideas. Nobody sits down with someone for 12 hours and gives a complete discourse on why they think "X" band is the best, or why "Y" book stinks. So in our society, we have all the little fragmented ideas floating around. None of them are complete (from the vantage of others, at least) and none of them completely represent the original intent behind them. Here's where the problem lies: when 2 crippled ideas that, in their complete form would have been perfectly compatible, meet we see dissonance arise. Because idea A is missing some valuable connotation, idea B cannot fully understand it, and thus cannot agree with it. Then human nature kicks in, expanding a philosophical disagreement into whatever the hell kind of disagreement it wants, usually a physical one. Symbolism. I was talking about symbolism. So symbolism provides a facade for these crippled ideas. Don't want to spend hours explaining why you support America? Wave a flag and be done with it! Don't want to give a lecture on why your favorite band is the best? Sew their patch onto your backpack and be done with it! Of course, in place of listening to you rationally explain your reasons for choosing, someone with a different opinion only has that little patch to go on. So naturally, they're going to disagree with you if they think some other band is better. Of course, they're not going to explain their reasoning either. So both of you are relying on the use of symbols to make your arguments, while the real meeting of ideas never takes place. Then it escalates, etc. Another example: someone feels pride (for whatever strange reason) in America after the Sept. 11 attacks. So instead of standing on their porch, giving an oration on every piece of belief and information that feeds into their ideas, they hang an American flag off the front of their house. Osama and his crew see this surge in blind nationalism, and, missing out on the connotations and purposes of the patriotic displays, decides to retaliate. The United States, not aware of the complete rationale and emotions behind anti-Western sentiment in the Middle East, decides to retaliate against their retaliation, ad nauseum. If symbolism had never been used, most of this argumentation would never have started.

Wow... so, that was a bit philosophical, I guess... but it explains where I'll be coming from in later posts. This is the main psychological idea that drives my philosophical and political arguments.

I'm looking forward to a good "relathionship" as well... or am I being "to" optimistic, Andrew?

what do we have here?

Uh... don't answer that. I don't actually want to know.

But hello. Oasisband has certainly come a long way since I first visited. At the requests of a number of people, I've decided to join your discussion-esque thingamajig. That's right, I'm referring to the atimes.

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