I heard once that this song is about divorce?

Hide And Seek - Imogen Heap

where are we?
what the hell is going on?
the dust has only just begun to form
crop circles in the carpet
sinking feeling

spin me round again
and rub my eyes,
this can't be happening
when busy streets a mess with people
would stop to hold their heads heavy

hide and seek
trains and sewing machines
all those years
they were here first

oily marks appear on walls
where pleasure moments hung before the takeover,
the sweeping insensitivity of this still life

hide and seek
trains and sewing machines (oh, you won't catch me around here)
blood and tears (hearts)
they were here first

Mmmm whatcha say,
Mmm that you only meant well?
well of course you did
Mmmm whatcha say,
Mmmm that it's all for the best?
of course it is
Mmmm whatcha say?
Mmmm that it's just what we need
you decided this
whatcha say?
Mmmm what did she say?

ransom notes keep falling out your mouth
mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut outs
speak no feeling no I don't believe you
you don't care a bit, 
you don't care a bit

(hide and seek)
ransom notes keep falling out your mouth
mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut outs

(hide and seek)
speak no feeling no i don't believe you
you don't care a bit,
you don't care a (you don't care a) bit

Idea Mashup/Showdown!!

From: HowStuffWorks.com article "How the Five Day Weekend Works: Keynes and the Leisure Society"

"In "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren," Keynes posits that by 2030, developed societies will be wealthy enough that leisure time, rather than work, will characterize national lifestyles. He uses a realistic estimate for growth -- 2 percent per year -- and pointed out that with that growth the "capital equipment" in the world would increase seven and a half times. With a world as wealthy as this, he said, "We shall do more things for ourselves than is usual with the rich to-day [sic], only too glad to have small duties and tasks and routines" [source: Keynes].

While Keynes was correct in his estimate of increasing world wealth, he missed the mark with his prediction of leisure time. With fewer than 23 years before Keynes' 100-year forecast is up, today economists wonder why we don't have the life of leisure Keynes envisioned. 

In a HowStuffWorks interview, Cornell University economist Robert Frank explained his belief that Keynes' failing was his underestimation of the value of relative needs. Frank has contributed to "Revisiting Keynes," a book of economic essays exploring where Keynes went wrong in his prediction. In contrast to basic needs (like food and health care), relative needs are goods and services that people don't need, but want, and often because of rivalry with others. That could be why you feel that you need a bigger SUV than your neighbor or a better television than your brother."

• I've had a quote on my facebook profile for about three years, from a girl I met at L'Abri.  It goes, ""I'd rather put all my energy into being good at being poor rather than putting my energy into becoming rich."

• There's a hard-core capitalist idea out there that recessions are a good thing for an economy because it acts like a forest fire - clearing out the undergrowth and weaker organisms to make way for the stronger, better trees/companies to thrive.
  
• I've kept a TIMES article up as a tab on my Chrome browser for about two months now.  My dad sent it to me, saying that it looks at cultural history much in the way that I like to, looking through multiple disciplines to try to track any kind of notable pattern.  The article is called "The End of Excess: Is This Crisis Good for America?" - Unfortunately, i'm really bad at reading/appreciating things that do what I love better than I do. So, at the time of writing this blog, I still haven't finished the article, mostly out of jealousy.

Murray Gell-Mann on beauty and truth in physics

I'm doing something called "Marta's Culture Club" this summer for high schoolers in our youth group.  I'm planning on reading some Kierkegaard, watching some Kristov Kieslowski and otherwise ripping stuff off of my time at L'Abri.  

I want to add this guy to the list.  The talk is fascinating.  He's a Nobel prize winner and is talking about particle physics.  His question is:  "Are elegant equations more likely to be right than inelegant ones?"

I like it because in his talk he describes how physicists are able to recognize truth in equations based on other equations - like whether they fit into the pattern.  Elegance in equations is displayed by their relative simplicity.  It's also funny because at the very end Gell-Mann says something like, "some people want to complicate things by attributing these patterns to the supernatural.  That is just not the case."  Sorry, Dr. Gell-Mann, but I will be misusing your data sometime this summer to support the existence of God's patterns in the universe.  

Animal - Miike Snow
I change shapes just to hide in this place but i'm still, i'm still an animal.

There was a time when my world was filled with darkness, darkness darkness.
Then I stopped dreaming, now i'm supposed to fill it up with something, something, something.

In your eyes I see the eyes of somebody I knew before, long long, long ago.
But I'm still trying to make my mind up, am I free or am I tied up?

I change shapes just to hide in this place, but I'm still, I'm still an animal.
Nobody knows it but me when I slip, yeah I slip, I'm still an animal.

There is a hole and I tried to fill it up with money, money, money.
But it gets bigger to your hopes, it's always running, running, running.

In your eyes I see the eyes of somebody who could be so, tell me if i'm wrong.
Now i'm pulling your disguise up. Are you free or are you tied up?

I change shapes just to hide in this place, but I'm still, I'm still an animal.
Nobody knows it but me when I slip, yeah I slip, I'm still an animal.

07.Jungle Drum - Emiliana Torrini

from So You Think You Can Dance.

Top Superfoods Offering Super Health Protection

• Beans
• Blueberries
• Broccoli
• Oats
• Oranges
• Pumpkin
• Salmon
• Soy
• Spinach
• Tea (green or black)
• Tomatoes
• Turkey
• Walnuts
• Yogurt

from WebMD

Dept. of Wildlife of the Interior

pic 1: little buddy who snuck into my room a couple weeks ago. these guys are extraordinarily loud in my back yard. I appreciate the ambiance they provide - sharon thinks they're annoying.

pic 2: these guys are hardcore annoying. i think there's about four of them in the nest about five feet from my bedroom door. they squawk incessantly. i wish they would grow up.

Department of "That makes sense"

From HowStuffWorks.com, who makes my favorite podcast (besides This American Life), Stuff You Should Know

They had one recently on "How Deja Vu Works" - this is the theory I liked the best and found most plausible:

The Hologram Theory
Dutch psychiatrist Hermon Sno proposed the idea that memories are like holograms, meaning that you can recreate the entire three-dimensional image from any fragment of the whole. The smaller the fragment, however, the fuzzier the ultimate picture. Déjà vu, he says, happens when some detail in the environment we are currently in (a sight, sound, smell, et cetera) is similar to some remnant of a memory of our past and our brain recreates an entire scene from that fragment.

Other researchers also agree that some small piece of familiarity may be the seed that creates the déjà vu feeling. For example, you might go for a ride with a friend in an old 1964 Plymouth and have a strong déjà vu experience without actually remembering (or even being aware of the fact) that your grandfather had the same type of car and you're actually remembering riding in that car as a small child. Things like the smell and the look and feel of the seat or dashboard can bring back memories you didn't even know you had.

----------

"Also there is something called Ja me Vu (I think that's how it is spelled). It's the opposite of Deja Vu. In Jame Vu, you are in a familiar place, but you feel like you've never been there before. A type of alienation from your surroundings." (source)

true that, sartorialist!

"Rolled shorts - it brings up a question. What is "fashion" versus what is "style?"

Rolled shorts could easily become a trend or fashion, but unless everyone is doing it (I guess in this case) it would be considered personal style.

Whichever it is, I think it looks great but I'm just not a rolled shorts guy. It is not in my personal style catalog - however if rolled shorts became fashionable I would probably consider them more carefully.

As I write this I am realizing that great personal style is made up of a certain percentage of "always" items and methods, mixed with a certain percentage of "sometimes" fashions, and a certain percentage of "nevers"."

The Sartorialist

Theme Song of Finals Week:

Galvanize - Chemical Brothers

I'm done at 3:30pm today. Ah!

if i were to learn to play the guitar...

...this would be the song I would do it for.  "Love like laughter" by Beth Orton

"Some of the worst wrongs get righted on 3 chords

Like a promise
Or a kiss goodbye
When the sneer on your lips
Is the livest thing
Just alive enough to die"

Love Like Laughter - Beth Orton

found on facebook

or, found on fabo (as jeff calls it)

what? how?

Double Shirt Dress:

from Face Hunter

A Boy and A Girl - Octavio Paz

[A Boy and a Girl]

Stretched out on the grass, 

a boy and a girl. 
Savoring their oranges, 
giving their kisses like waves exchanging foam.

Stretched out on the beach, 

a boy and a girl. 
Savoring their limes, 
giving their kisses like clouds exchanging foam.

Stretched out underground, 

a boy and a girl. 
Saying nothing, never kissing, 
giving silence for silence.

A Boy and a Girl (Octavio Paz) - Eric Whitacre

what.

anthopologie: magpie chandelier

everyone hates deuteronomy, but check this out:

(chapter 15) 7 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly [1] on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. 10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL - CHICAGO!

(LOOK HERE)

Saturday, July 18
The National*
Beirut*
DOOM-
Yeasayer
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Fucked Up
Plants and Animals
Matt and Kim
Lindstrøm-
Wavves
Ponytail
Charles Hamilton
The Duchess and The Duke
Disappears
More to come

Sunday, July 19
The Flaming Lips*
Grizzly Bear
M83
The Walkmen*
Pharoahe Monch
Blitzen Trapper
Frightened Rabbit
The Mae Shi
Black Lips
The Very Best
Mew
Vivian Girls
Japandroids
DJ/Rupture
Women
Dianogah
More to come

the future

mtv.com: "French Duo Justice Reveal Songwriting, Sampling Secrets: 50 Cent, Slipknot Take Note!"

"We're really slow at making music," de Rosnay said. "On the album, [†], we maybe sampled 400 records."..."I know why stories are conflicting," de Rosnay said. "Because we do sample really small bits of things that nobody can recognize"..."De Rosnay then sat down at his MacBook, reminiscent of the way, say, Josh Groban sits down at a piano. He pressed "play" and then "stop" quickly enough to release a millisecond of sound from a song that's destined to remain a mystery to everyone but him.  "Just like that!" he said triumphantly. Repeat ad infinitum for most of the duo's songs. "That's why it takes so long to do."

--I think this is the future of music, or maybe art in general.  Is there "nothing new under the sun"?  Is there a finite amount of ideas?  One of the guys I work with at my church jokingly says about youth group games: "originality is just forgetting where you got it from" - but with the internet and global communication getting so much better and more efficient, no one else will let us forget where we got it from.  On twitter, John Mayer tweeted something like, "writing music is harder than you'd think, i wish there could be a copyright reset every 50 years."

Quienes Marta?

This was taken in Puerta del Sol, Madrid.  There were some people passing out pamphlets trying to raise awareness about a girl, Marta.  

"Marta del Castillo was last seen alive by a neighbour in the lobby of her apartment block on the evening of January 24, this year. A massive search operation ensued until police secured a confession from her ex-boyfriend, 19-year-old Miguel Carcaño, on February 13. At the time, police were told that Miguel killed Marta with a blow to her head from a heavy glass ashtray during a heated argument at his Calle Leon XIII apartment. Miguel and his close friend Samuel claimed they had disposed of her body by throwing it into the Guadalquivir River with the help of teenager El Cuco. His older brother Francisco helped clean the apartment to remove any evidence. Bloodstains were found on a wheelchair that belonged to Miguel’s dead mother, thought to have been used to transport Marta’s body to a car El Cuco had borrowed from his mother. "

Euroweeklynews.com: "New Arrest in Missing Sevilla teenager Marta del Castillo case"

Ben Chlapek @ neversleeping.com

You Are The Blood - Castanets

I would flip out if I saw this in downtown St. Louis

KUBIK TEMPORARY DANCE CLUB INSTALLATION

from Kanye

Talked about by the Miller men over Shakespeare's pizza

Bright Eyes - Art Garfunkel

According to Spinner Mag, this is where Conor Oberst got his moniker, Bright Eyes.

St. Vincent

this picture really haunts me for some reason.

listen to her whole album, 'Actor' here.

Possibly My Future Boss:

Ahhh!

AhH!  My friend Rachel met the Facehunter in London!  

our boy Plato

"Beloved Pan, and all ye other gods who haunt this place, give me beauty in the inward soul; and may the outward and inward man be at one."

 - Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus

It's hard for a lot of girls I know to define beauty for themselves or understand their relationship with it.  Like most things nowadays, I'm trying to approach the idea of beauty by holding around 6 ideas in my head at once.  One of my favorite opinions on beauty has been the idea that a genuine beauty would be one that creatively reflects the insides of the person on the outside.