22.5.10

Rhapsodic


Welcome to Coachella, originally uploaded by SisterSafetyPin.

Tip toeing through the used condoms...
Strewn on the piers off the west side high way,
Sunset behind the skyline of jersey
Walking towards the water with a fetus holding court,
In my gut,
My body highjacked,
My tits swollen
And sore...

The River has more colors at sunset
Then my sock drawer ever dreamed of
I can wake up screaming sometimes, but
I dont.
I could step off that news pier but I've got shit to do
At unemployment on Tuesday
To shed uninvited blood
And tissue, neh
Blood and Strife


The unwritten rap at the end of Coming Up by Ani DiFranco


Just thought I'd share that with you all. Why? Because....BITCH I MIGHT BE!


In other news, I almost want to change the title of today's post. After all, that's a great title that shouldn't be wasted on the nonsense that is... this. Oh well. I am now listening to Centrifuge by Pomplamoose.


Have I hyped these two yet? I feel like I have... But maybe I haven't. And since I'm really grooving [not really, I'm just laying here... but on the inside... oh by watch out for my moves] to this song. And I really think you all should get a taste of the duo I so enjoy... So check them out! I'd say they sound like the Bird and the Bee. But they don't. I'd say they remind me of the Bird and the Bee. And they do. How that works? I'm not exactly sure. It could be because of the fact that it's a boy girl duo... Or could simply be that there's an underlying vibe that they both share.


Yeah... I'm going to go with that last sentence


Speaking of the Bird and the Bee... If you haven't heard of them yet, please go educate yourself now. Start with the self titled album. Why? Because that's where you can find the songs, Fucking Boyfriend and Again and Again. Then check out the eps Please Clap Your Hands and One To Many Hearts. For Please Clap Your Hands, the songs to look for are Polite Dance Song and So You Say. On One to Many Hearts, you want Last Day of Our Love. And after you've caught yourself up on there back catalogue, get their latest album: Ray Guns Are the Future.


Hmm... Should I just make a mixtape download for you all?

21.5.10

Things I Learned Today


IMG_4646, originally uploaded by SisterSafetyPin.

It's been a while since I've done a "Things I learned Today" post, so while editing this post I realized it was time. My original title was... trite. Not on purpose, just well... trite. I've come to some realizations in the few hours that I've been awake. And really, the fact that I've literally only been awake a few hour is a realization in itself. I went from: absolutely no sleep for the 40 hours connecting Monday - Tuesday; to sleeping long into Wednesday before going to a meeting; waking up early and being insanely productive by 2pm Thursday; to... just waking up a few hours ago on Friday. It's 3:27pm. And by a few hours I'm exaggerating the fact it's been about 2 and half hours only.


Yeah... as I'm sure is abundantly obvious at this point, I've got a sleeping problem. At which point, the problem is that I don't. And when I do, my body tries to over compensate. It's troublesome. Lack of sleep makes everything feel do or die, while simultaneously feeling like a high zombie that simply lacks all desire to move.


Heh. High Zombie... "BRAAAAAAAAAAINS! Uh... could you come to me brains? I think the couch is trying to swallow me... Oh.... Is the room spinning?"


In the meantime, the list.


1. I Need A New Coffee Machine.

  • The one I have was useless when my mom gave it to me... wow 4 years ago. I kept it for sentimental value but... It's time for me to get real. My mom knew how addicted I was to coffee and she'd never want me to suffer through consistently meager cups of coffee out of some misplaced since of sentiment.

2. I need to finish filling out my fafsa information.
  • And really, I do. It's already late, but for some reason I'm dragging my feet on the final step which is simply submitting a few lines saying "My Situation Has Not Changed." It's always the little things that I simply do not want to do.

3. I need to let go.
  • I've never enjoyed the chase. It's not about the thrill of persistency and I've seen the kind of person you can become when you are constantly reaching out to people that do not reach back. It's a road that only has hurt on the other end. A road, I vowed early in life never to follow. So what do you do? What do I do? I move on.

No bye. No Aloha

18.5.10

Well met.


.su, originally uploaded by SisterSafetyPin.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity...


The Second Coming | William Butler Yeats

I'm very fortunate to have met so many amazing people in my life at only 22. Actually, I feel amazing is the wrong word. I'm very fortunate to have met so many people that have opened my mind to so many different paths of.... No that's wrong as well.

I am very fortunate. To have met. The people that have made me who I am.

I don't mean family, though they have shaped me significantly. But I mean, the people who make lasting impressions even if the time they spend actually present in your life is fleeting.

My favorite poem is the The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats, the excerpt above is the first stanza. And as a friend and fellow Buddhist leader left my house just now, the line " Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.." came into mind... Even while I still had a smile on my face. And it was ironic, that this, my favorite line in my favorite poem... Would be so bleak and in such direct contrast to my belief in my faith that is... "No matter what, it will work out."

And this lead me to think about the many people in my life that have shaped my views on life... My AP lit professor who first introduced me to Yeats, by way of the book; Things Fall Apart. My different philosophy professors... my friend in Germany... the strangers I've met in my travels and yet had such great conversations on life with... My comrades in faith...

I'm not sure why, my line of thinking was such as it does not directly follow. However, perhaps it was simply that in that moment that I watched her leave and I reflected on: that poem, myself, and my beliefs... I felt so utterly centered in the core of things. The greater scheme, if you will... That I couldn't help but be grateful to the people who'd helped me to this point.

Truly. At times I feel like such a horrible person, as it is... so difficult for me to stay connected even though I do care so much... And I guess in those moments of binary, all I could think was...

Well met.

Anonymous Glory

Groove Salad.

While I'd like to take the claim for creating the phrase, it belongs to the people over at SomaFM. Groove Salad is the name of the station I'm currently listening to, and judging by what I've been hearing so far it's mostly chill beats, ambient, and trip hop. I dig it. What's more, it matches so perfectly to the mood I find myself in at 6:40 in the morning after an unironically sleepless night it's crazy.

It's funny. In a kind of, kind of way. Usually when I wake up I need silence for a couple of hours. Complete silence. With noise coming from nothing, including me. I like to slowly enter awareness; to ease into the day seamlessly by integrating sound only after my buffer period of quiet has ended naturally by chance.

However, on days or rather mornings, like this one... When I've watched my window darken through to night only to slowly phase through the colors of early morning... I find music to be the perfect accompany to the mood I usually find myself in.

But what I always find interesting, or pleasant, or random... Or whatever unnamed word of description that matches best... Is when by chance, I press play my on my iTunes player that is chronically shuffled... Or like today [this morning that is], when I stumble upon an internet radio station and press play to the channel that draws me by name...

And find the music selection so tailor made to how I feel... So perfectly appropriate that I think... This is why I love music. Because I live it. It regulates my heartbeat and determines my moods. It hits my system harder then any drug could ever hope to...

And I think, if I cannot have sleep... At least I have this.

"You know, it just might be this anonymous glory... of all things"

3.5.10

Choose Privacy

Choose Privacy Week Video from 20K Films on Vimeo.



Simply put, the ALA are a group of badasses and it gives me comfort to know the library... My first external escape, is being guarded so fiercely.

I remember when the Patriot Act first got put into place and I remember going into libraries and seeing the signs. Reading the articles from pissed off librarians and watching as they got called all manner of names during the, 'You're either a Patriot: And by patriot we mean you give us all of your information and all of everybody else's.... Or your a terrorist' And yet through it all, librarians stayed true. They did what journalists didn't do. And for that they have my respect and should have yours as well.

Do watch the video.


"Have they lost their heads or are they just all blind mice?"
Tragic Kingdom

1.5.10

What Dreams


eye, originally uploaded by SisterSafetyPin.

May come | or | Dream a little dream.

Funny, when I think about movies with 'Dream' in the title only these two come to mind. Furthering the funny, Dream a Little Dream one of my favorite 80s movies probably more so then all of Molly Ringwalds...Came out in 1989. What Dreams May Come came out in 1998.

Coincidence? More then likely.

However, I didn't wake up with the intent to talk about movie titles. The titles are merely an after effect or rather cause made by the dreams I've been having lately.

I've been dreaming lately. Which, if I'm being honest isn't really new. However, my dreams have been more... confused. Not in the sense that I wake up can not remember what I dreamed about... Or at least not on most days. But confused in the emotion they involve. They've become both disturbing in a nightmarish quality I haven't fully experienced since I was young... And, ok I'll put it frankly romantic. And no I don't mean sexy time. I mean, romantic. Which is a problem in itself. The woman I saw last night was a mash up of a new friend and a random woman I encountered at Coachella.

But the dreams are ccnfused. One portion of the dream involves me in some hellish setting. The other, I guess you could say once I'm 'free' involves a girl. Sometimes the two portions meld. Offering bits of both during both. Last night was a bit of a meld.

I'm a buddhist. However, I've been stressed lately and not practicing as much as I should. Last night's horror part of the story will seem exceedingly strange and unlikely. But I dreamed that I was in a supermarket... |Actually I just realized this was my second dream after waking up briefly. The first one was completely disturbing with no respite of romance or friendship|... with my little sister. And while shopping we passed a group of people actually cooking a full meal. Like a massive holiday dinner type meal. It was annoying because they were blocking the aisle , but they seemed nice so I tried to move on. They offered something to my little sister and she became instantly brainwashed.

Weird, I know whatever. But see, these people were part of the Priesthood. Or for some reason I want to say the priesthood, they may not have been. I think they were just another Nichiren Daishonin offshoot. And they chanted "Namu Myoho Renge Kyo."

For some reason the sound of them chanting incorrectly was terrifying. So I ran. While running I ran into a woman, it was only for a second. A brief respite from the terror, then I was running and dodging again. I don't remember how I got them to stop exactly. I think I shouted, "I'M A BUDDHIST TOO! But you're saying it wrong! It's Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo"

And it was over. Or the terrifying part was. Then I was asking around the supermarket for the woman, and right as I was about to leave she comes out of her office. She smiles and we leave the supermarket while talking and flirting. That's pretty much the rest of the dream summed up. However the world when we left the store... Or rather the landscape was very Mad Max-ish just, barren with very little green.

I don't know... To much stress makes dreams and odd world.