Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Ravings, rantings, and gibberish.

Written by Drew

What is up FoCo? I am a recent college graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead. After recieving my B.A. in English and Mass Communications this past August I moved down to Colorado. I enjoy long walks on the beach, candlelight dinners, and heavy metal. My hobbies include reading and writing, music, movies, and getting drunk. Some of my favorite contemporary authors include Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and Kurt Vonnegut. My top movies are anything directed by Kubrick. I enjoy listening to anything that rocks. Right now I am just trying to get to know Colorado and FoCo better. Mostly in order to find the best drink specials on each day that ends in Y. So if you know where I can get a cheap drunk on, let me know! --Drew

21. Swift Immigrants

Tuesday, 12 December 2006

I'm sure many of you have heard about the immigration crackdown at Swift across the nation. Over one hundred immigrants were taken in. The immigrants obtained real social security numbers in order to work legally in the U.S. The crackdown has ignited the first major immigration debtae and coverage since the '06 elections.
I find something inherently wrong with building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Take a trip down history lane, isolation politics never work, but an aggressive appraoch that employs the essence of seperation and isolation should strike left wing, right wing, and moderates as wrong.
I also have a huge problem with America's fetish with 'victimization'. This is exactly what you'll hear from 'equal-rights' groups. That the 'victimization' of Mexicans, suppression, refusal of equal rights, racial discrimination, social standards, is what causes immigrants to go to the extremes that they do. Case in point for these equality groups is the Swift crackdown. Somehow, because of social standards and discrimintation, etc. these immigrants were 'forced' to employ the means they did to come in the possession of social security numbers in order to work legally in the U.S.
Hogwash. Illegal immigrants are not the victims here. The legal U.S. citizens who have had their identities stolen are the victims. I don't see how this point can be argued.
I've seen alot of bumperstickers around Ft. Collins. These seem to be the two most popular, or at least numerous ones that I have noted. One is NATIVE lettered in a mountain range backdrop. The other is ERACISM. When put side to side, especially when they are on the same vehicle, I find this somewhat ironic. But to be blunt, Ft. Collins isn't exactly the cultural mecca of the world. And for the most part, the ERACISM stickers are on the suburbia, albeit, white mass market vehicles, and or the young, utopian driver's vehicles. Put those people in the let's say the densest populated African-Am. apartment complex in say, Denver, if there is, and I would put my money, everytime, on the subtle, and perhaps even sub-conscious racial stereotypes coming to the surface of those well-to-do Utopian minded middle class whites within the first three days.
Here's my view and opinion, straight up. I'm a Humanitarian and a Liberetarian. If it's equality that's the goal, then give white middle class families the same rights as illegal immigants. Don't gip 76 year old grandma's who worked the depression the short stick to boost immigration reform and rights; that's not equality. Don't complain about immigrants taking hard-working American jobs when American corporations are shipping jobs over seas. And for those who moan and complain about the very rich and well-to-do and compare them to immigrats rights, please stop. Rich rights and your rights are no different, one should be willing to give up the same rights if this is the case. Problem is, all Americans want to do is point fingers and claim "I'm a victim, I"m a victim!"
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22. Music as Torture

Sunday, 03 December 2006

The Abu Ghraib prison scandal left a sulfuric bitterness trailing behind the Afganhistan invasion. We've all heard of the shady 'interrogation' tactics, like water boarding, at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. It seems that the Powers at be have discoverd, and employed, a rather modern 'interrogation' tactic. According to SPIN magazine, prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were repeatedly exposed to blaring music at harmful decibels in order to weaken and disorient its victims.
The music came from quite a broad spectrum, surprisingly enough, being comprised of everything from Marilyn Manson to Christina Aguilera. But some genres were more popular than others. Metal and Hard Rock were/are fequently used, along with rap. For instance, one detainee described being shackled to a floor in a room with frigid tempatures while Eminem's "Kim" sat on repeat. Another was exposed to Metallica's "Enter Sandman" for a 24 hour period.
According to SPIN's article, the interrogation methods seemed to be effective, although the interrogation agents interviewed in the article seemed to be split both on the efficiency and the purpose of this unique method; whom some call torture.
Unbelievably, one of the artists stated by SPIN as being used in this new methodology is the group Rage Against the Machine (RATM). If you are unfamiliar with RATM, some of their favorite venues include Democratic Conventions, and their lyrical subjects range from Empirialism to consumerism, but all with American as its central hub. "Land of the Free/ Whoever told you that is your enemy", from "No Shelter" to "Your Anger is a Gift" from the song "Freedom", RATM message is laced with Liberatarian ideals. Anyone familiar with RATM onstage antics would not gawk at the fact American flags are only waved in joy before being lit on fire.
I find it highly ironic that the government, or military, is employing such music as RATM in the fight against terror. Tom Morello, the iconoclast guitarist of the former RATM, and now Audioslave, says: "The fact that our music has been co-opted in this barbaric way is really disgusting."
I wonder what Anthony Burgess would have said about the matter at hand were he still alive. Burgess who penned some of the best novels of the last century, wrote of a very similiar situation in his novel "A Clockwork Orange" Perhaps many of you are familiar of the Stanley Kubrick film of the same title. In it, the main character undergoes a experimental rehabilitation; in the process he is exposed to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony while undergoing the rehabilitation, and consequnetly, after the fact, cannot stomach hearing Beethoven after the procedure.
Theoretics aside, I am of the opinion that chaining a human to a floor in shackles in a figidly cold room enclosed with large speakers spitting out Drowning Pool's "Bodies" repeatedly for hours on end should be constituted as torture, not interrogation techniques.
--Drew

The article, entitled WAR IS LOUD, can be found in the December issue of SPIN magazine.
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23. FoCo's only local bookstore, now open!

Thursday, 30 November 2006

To all of you who buy books at Barnes and Noble while sipping on your $23.00 dollar coffee struggling with finding things and zombie-like best seller seekers; there's a new player in town. The Reader's Cove and Half Moon Bay Coffee Company are now open. The store is located off of Harmony and Lemay, right next to Ace Hardware.

The bookstore and coffee shop are locally owned, so when you spend that hard earned cash on your morning latte, you're actually putting money back into the community instead of making Seattle rich. Plus the bookstore is Carribean themed, complete with a Pirate ship that houses the childern section, bright colors and of course, plenty of plush furniture.
The Reader's Cove is the only bookstore besides the B&N giant in FoCo. B. Dalton was bought out by B&N, and if you buy your books at Wal-Mart, I have nothing but pity for you.

In addition, The Reader's Cove plans on promoting local author's, and have display signs up for invitation to any up and coming Faulkner's, or not. Author signings, palm trees, and free membership, what's not to love?
--Drew
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24. Jell-O Shots; The Annual Challenge

Sunday, 19 November 2006

This blog is possible because of Holly Bea's feature article on NEXTNC about Jell-O shots. Make sure to read that article, and this is an offshoot and expansion of my comment.

Each year for a friends birthday we go to Mick's Office, a bar in MN, and do jell-o shots. Last year, 118 were done, among many other drinks and shots, and we left a bit early to make sure we left enough time to make the JagBomb specials at a downtown bar. This past Saturday was another birthday. This time the gang mostly stayed at Mick's Office.

The troupe ended up downing 236 jell-o shots, along with many pitchers, and various shots. The MN peeps destroyed last years record by over a hundred jell-o shots. Now the question arises, will they be able to shatter the reocrd next year by another hundred? Hopefully, I will be able to be a part of the madness next year.
Oh no, here's to you guys!
--Drew

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25. Hey Coloradoans! It's called a blinker, use it!

Friday, 17 November 2006

Traffic and drivers in Colorado have been bugging me ever since I moved out here, but after an event I had tonight, I am ticked off enough about it to write a raving blog. Get the bikers off the road. A two-foot biking lane that leaves no shoulder for the road isn't only dangerous, it's stupid.
There aren't enough center turn lanes in a lot of Ft. Collins. For instance on Mulberry.
I-25's Interstate interchanges are the most idiotic exit and on ramps I have seen in my life. Yeah, there are worse ones in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago, Boston, and other places. But do you know why they are so bad? Because there are skyscrapers everywhere! The roads have to be built and maintained around the buildings. If you are going south on I-25 to Greeley and take Highway 34 exit, you have about 50 feet to move right over a lane, the same lane that exiting people are trying to cross. Yeah, it can be done, but I would like to see the yearly accident stats at those interchanges. What gets me, is that there is plenty of room to create a much larger cloverleaf to cut down on clogging and congestion, while still maintaining effiency.
Tonight, I was leaving Wal-Mart, and was coming up to Mulberry, needing to take a right hand turn. A station wagon with wood beams hanging out the back, was sitting in the right hand lane, WITHOUT HIS BLINKER ON, and the light had just turned red. Instead of waiting for the huge group of cars getting ready to go to across the intersection, I decided to take a right on red. As you may know, there isn't a right hand turn lane going onto Mulberry from Lemay, but I had ample room to get by the guy. I was nowhere near the curb or his side mirror. I used my blinker, I took a right. As soon as I took the right hand turn, the station wagon peeled off after me, from the right hand lane, leaning on his horn. My passenger quickly said, "WTF!!?, he didn't even have his blinker on what's his effing problem?" Then the driver threw on his brights--in the middle of town--, supposedly just to teach this MN liscence plate vehicle and driver a Colorado lesson. Bad idea. My passenger yelled stop the car. I should have, I think the jerk might have regretted his decision when he saw two guys over 6'5 walking from a stopped car in front of him for a friendly greeting. I tapped the breaks and was going to, but thought better of it. Instead I let my car coast down, and when he pulled even, we threw four arms and fingers out our open windows and gave a honk and a smile before leaving him in the dust.
--Drew
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