I'm Mad (A True Story) *ABC Assignment*

Xi'an is where I'm headed next month, but sadly I'm still stuck at school. Today, my econ teacher literally gave us the option to have homework or not. Guess what my class chose? Apparently getting an extra five points is critical to them doing well this quarter.But now my time is diminishing. Wasted. "Do you guys want homework?" "Yes, yes we do!" For some reason, the majority of the youth has given up hope on having a life outside of their education. Cool, you take 75 AP classes, that's great. Except for the fact that YOU SUCK. Money is time. Losing money is something I do not like (something no one should like). I am mad. Stop the madness. None of these fiends realize that some of us have other stuff going on in life. Or the fact that five points is pretty meaningless, and therefore a HUGE waste of time. Please reassure me that college will be better than this. Very many of you are assuming I'm lazy and will flunk out of college I'm sure. Just understand, though, that I hate wasting time and I see this as a waste of time. Underneath all of this anger, I'm a motivated person. Right now, I just want to achieve my goals without having to deal with all the roadblocks in the way. However, dealing with all the other non-important components is a big part of the journey. Karma will eventually work its mysterious powers in one way or another. Quests are never easy. Ziggy Stardust is the only person that would be able to soothe me at a moment like this.

-N.G.

Found

Try this happy condensed waste
Where the greatest youth is not free
Why not take to change?
Outstanding created principles
But your vision locked and closed
Electric colors, high attention
To want to be the greatest
Is clear fire

-N.G.

Kind Of Blue (Album Review)

Miles Davis is a legend, and for good reason. The man had a way of playing jazz music like no one else on this planet. Nothing backs this up better than his 1959 album "Kind of Blue". Featuring John Coltrane on tenor sax, every song on this album is incredible. The opening track, "So What", is a classic. "All Blues" is another amazing piece, as it is Blues music, but not in the common fashion that many think of Blues. It's hard to describe the creative genius that is contained in this album to somebody who does not listen to or appreciate jazz music. However, that's part of the beauty of this record; it's a great place to start for someone that's never listened to jazz before. The music is able to evoke certain feelings and emotions out of me that not a ton of music is able to do. It's beautiful. It's a critically acclaimed album (In 2003 Rolling Stone ranked it #12 on its list of 500 greatest albums ever), if that matters to you. If you enjoy different kinds of music and are looking for something new and fresh to check out (new and fresh to you that is), then this is the record for you. You can always chill out to it, no matter what time of day it may be. I can listen to it in the morning when I'm preparing for my day, or late in the evening when I'm relaxing after some long hours. I'll just come out and say that if you check this record out, chances are you'll become at least ten times cooler than you were previous to giving it a listen.

-N.G.

Time Travel #2

The fresh air of the mountains was so invigorating for the short time I experienced it. I thought back on everything that had happened to me and still I wondered, because everything felt so artificial. What happened to TJ? Mom? Dad? And where the hell was Nicole? Nicole. I still guess whether or not she ended up coming home that night. Had I gone with her, I probably would not be sitting above a mountain travelling to obscure periods of time, in a different country every moment. Just when I was about to go through the whole "Why me?" process for the tenth time, my nerves got the shock again. But this time, the shock didn't stop. It went on for over 40 seconds. I felt like I was getting electrocuted. For some reason a mountain lion suddenly appeared next to me on the mountain top, and it was roaring at me. It continued to roar while I sat there feeling so dazed and confused. The lion's roar was getting louder and louder, and my sweat started to intensely drip. I closed my eyes and suddenly felt a weird sensation in my head. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. The blood was rushing through my body, and the pounding continued. I jumped up. A huge feeling of fresh air took over myself, and I realized that I was no longer on a mountain. "THELONIOUS! THELONIOUS! I THINK HE'S AWAKE!" I forced my eyes open, and looked around. A musty hospital room. Seriously? Was all of this really a dream? Suddenly, that same yelling voice was directed towards me once again: "How are you? Are you feeling alright? It seems like everything went just as planned. For a minute there I started to panic, but everything seems back to normal now." Right when I was about to ask what the hell was going on, another man suddenly walked in. He had a long white robe on like something a doctor would wear, but his face was incredibly distorted. It looked like he put his face in a blender. "Samson, is he fully conscious of everything happening right now?" "He hasn't responded to me at all yet, but he's breathing and looking around. I think we'll be able to ship him out to Chicago tonight." Finally, I stammered. "Where am I and who are you? And what do I have to go to Chicago for? Send me back to Britain!" The two men glanced at each other and began to laugh in a somewhat ridiculous fashion. "Son, you have no idea what's happening do you? Britain no longer exists. Nothing exists, in a sense." I gave him a puzzling look and didn't say anything. This had to be a really weird joke. Or I was on a hallucinogenic of some sort. "Thelonious, look, all of the world was destroyed on January 1, 2000. The story behind us getting to where we are now and what we are attempting to achieve may take a while to explain." "EXPLAIN IT THEN! TELL ME WHAT HAS HAPPENED AND HOW I GET BACK TO WHERE I STARTED." Samson chuckled for a second. "Funny thing is, you CAN go back. But we need your help first." What was to come was something that I could never prepare myself for...

-N.G.

The Big Shave (Film Review)

If any of you reading this are not familiar with the name Martin Scorsese, stop what are you doing right now and indulge in some of the director's movies. They are genius. All of them. I am very much into Scorsese's works as you can tell, and being the weirdo that I am, I recently found an original clip online of the first film Scorsese ever directed, a short film known as "The Big Shave". It is roughly 6 minutes long, and it depicts a man shaving. The man continues to shave until his face is cut open and bleeding everywhere. The film was meant to be a commentary on the situation that was occurring with the US in Vietnam at the time (1968), as Scorsese felt that the US was only hurting themselves more and more. What's cool about this short piece is the visuals and all the different shots. The 1938 song "I Can't Get Started" by Bunny Berigan accompanies the work, and this also helps to enhance the experience, as the song is a fairly happy one. All in all, "The Big Shave" is a unique work of film art, with the bloody shots really leaving an imprint on one's mind. Maybe I find this short film so interesting just because it was the first piece by the one of the greatest ever, but it is still something cool to check out whether or not you're familiar with Scorsese (though being familiar with him definitely makes the whole thing much cooler), because it was commenting on something bigger happening at the time, and it's only 6 minutes long so you won't be wasting your time. 

-N.G.

Niandra Lades and Usually Just A T-Shirt (Review)

In 1994, John Frusciante was heavily struggling with drug addiction. He quit his world-wide famous band Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992 and spent most of his time working on solo music and doing hard drugs, including heroin, crack, and cocaine. The result of this is heard in his album Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt. The first thing I have to say about this work is that it is not for everyone. Actually, it probably is not for about 80% of you in this class. It's straight up weird. The combination of incredible artistic creativity, amazing skill as a musician, horrible drug addiction, and great loneliness is one that creates interesting results. I personally think it is wonderful. Niandra Lades is actually its own separate album from Usually Just A T-Shirt, but John decided to put them together for the release. John began working on the album when the Chili Peppers were recording the phenomenal Blood Sugar Sex Magik at an abandoned mansion. The overall production of the album, recording and mixing alike, is really interesting. John liked to put backwards guitar solos and melodies in some songs, and there is a crackly quality to most tracks. The utmost emotion was put into this album though, and it has played an important role in expanding my personal creativity. Niandra Lades  features many short songs, with John predominantly playing guitar and singing (occasionally playing piano also). The lyrical content of the songs is somewhat explicit, but the songs are still all really beautiful in a weird, messed up way. Nearly every track is genius in its own way, at least how that's I see it. The guitar work on "My Smile Is A Rifle" is absolutely gorgeous. My favorite track on the entire record ("Your *****'* Glued To A Building On Fire") is another kind of thing where not everyone would enjoy it, but if you are able to you'll see how great of a song it is. Artistic creativity was put before everything else for this record, which I truly appreciate. "Ten To Butter Blood Voodoo" is another unique track that I absolutely love. Usually Just A T-Shirt mostly consists of oddly timed (songs range from 25 seconds to 8 minutes) instrumental guitar tracks with lots of strange effects inside of the track. There is controversy that the listener can actually hear John having sex during one of the songs, but I won't get into that. What's even weirder is that none of the songs on this side of the record have names; they are all untitled ("Untitled #1, Untitled #2...etc.). If you are a weird, artsy person, or if you like to check out interesting music that you've never before heard, then I highly recommend this album for you. Ironically enough, there are some references in the album to things I reviewed last week. On the album's cover, John is imitating MarcelDuchamp's (the guy who did the urinal modern art) pseudonym Rrose Sélavy. Additionally, the album features a cover of the Bad Brains track "Big Takeover".

You cannot find this album on iTunes, and I do not think it is on Spotify either, so your best bet would be to listen on YouTube, or do what I did and pay a huge amount of money to get it from Europe as the album is not available at stores in the US anymore. All I can say is that it is pure beauty.

-N.G.