Some of my favorite albums from 2008...

I didn't listen to a whole lot of new music this year, but here are some of my favorites...

Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust/ Sigur Ros 

Made In the Dark/ Hot Chip 

Pershing/ Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin 

Oracular Spectacular/ MGMT 

Springfactory/ Springfactory 

Vampire Weekend/ Vampire Weekend 

How Sweet, How Kind.../ Pigeon Lane 

Cardinology/ Ryan Adams & The Cardinals

My problem with American Idol, in a nutshell

What is my single most problem with American Idol? It's simple really because it's in the show's name. I feel that one should never idolize another human being, whether it's a musician, actor, politician, or anyone else. I used to idolize musicians when I was kid, but I guess you could say I've grown more mature over the years. I now idolize the songs, not the musicians who play them.

People who watch American Idol idolize people, essentially people who are great singers and generally are pleasing on the eyes. Was it the Bible, the Old Testament I believe, that said that God got pretty mad at the Israelites for worshiping a false idol, i.e. an idol other than Him? 

Just because one can sing karaoke extremely well does not make them all-powerful and all-knowing. They are just human beings with a talent. You know, my dad's got talent. He can fix anything, and I mean anything that breaks. And my mom...the ultimate multi-tasker. She can get twenty-four things done simultaneously and still manage to come home and clean the house and cook dinner. But I don't see millions of teenyboppers around the world worshiping them. Why isn't there an American Idol for mechanics or accountants? 

I love Radiohead, but I will never bow down to them (see Wayne's World- "We're not worthy!")

I will never faint when I meet them or kiss their feet. They are human beings, and they're really not that special. Heck, even Ghengis Khan wasn't that special. What'd he do, conquer Asia? I could do that in my sleep. 

American Idol is a contest to create a product, and as consumers, you'd think we'd be a bit smarter. I predict that in twenty years we will look back at the show and realize that it exemplified many poor qualities of our culture. Maybe it's time for a new brand? Maybe it's time to realize that they're just singers, and, with a little practice, most of us could do what they do. 

It's been a painful season

The Kansas City Chiefs began the season as the worst team in the NFL. Now they are playing some pretty darn good football against some pretty darn good football teams, but they are still losing. The last two weeks they've lost two absolute heart-breakers to the Bucs in overtime(a game they led until the very end) and to the Chargers (a game they led most of the time but lost by one point due to a failed two-point conversion).
It's frusturating because I'm getting sick of morale victories. This season will probably (hopefully) go down as the worst in Chiefs history, but the team really isn't as bad as their record shows. I could actually see them winning the rest of their games this season.

Upcoming ENR shows

This semester must end

I am beginning to get a teeny bit stressed out.
Also, this election cycle must end.

5 classes at UNO, plus working full-time at Lakeside Hospital as a Hospitality Services Manager, plus planning a new ENR album due out Nov. 23rd, plus trying to not drive Shannon crazy.

Yep, it's safe to say that this is the busiest my life has ever been. Yet, strangely enough, I still find time to write on this blog and keep up with my fantasy football team. Strange indeed.

"Foreign Policy Experience?" What the heck?

I hope this gets people thinking about thinking a bit.

I've heard a lot of talk this election cycle about "foreign policy experience." Why is this magical "foreign policy experience" so important? What is "foreign policy experience?" Here I will attempt to answer these questions.

First, what is "foreign policy expericence?" Is it simply visiting other countries? It seems like the candidates often have a contest as to how many countries they have visited. I've been to Jamaica, does that give me foreign policy experience?

Well, it is my belief that anyone who runs for President/Vice-President should have a true understanding of all other nations, at least how their governments rule. They need to be familiar with the cultures, values, interests, and needs of the people that live there, not just the needs of the people in power there. They need to understand each nation's economy. They need to know each nation's history. Is that a lot to ask? Probably, since there are around 200 independent nations on the planet.

Now does anyone who runs for President/Vice-President need to have visited these nations to get a first-hand look at them? Not really. I think there are plenty of experts out there who know much about many different nations yet have never stepped foot in them. In fact, one could argue that not visiting or living in a foreign nation can give an individual more objectivity when examining that nation.

Most people will say that one will gain foreign policy experience through diplomatically meeting with world leaders on a regular basis. Are you kidding me? Most of these are photo opportunities. For one thing, how can these meetings be fruitful when most world leaders do not speak the same native language? I feel much can easily get lost in translation, especially when one side is completely ignorant of the other side's culture and values. Anyway, I am not discouraging diplomacy of course, but I do find it a little absurd that these meetings are what determines who has and who does not have foreign policy experience.

My feeling is we are all human beings. If you can effectively communicate when anyone in America, from Jack, the rude gas station clerk who hates life to Sister Mary Ann at the local convent and still make a connection, you can make a connection with someone from a foreign nation, despite the language barrier. In short- if you are a people person, then it shouldn't matter where these people are from you are talking to. Besides, it's ridiculous to say that someone has foreign policy experience because "they know how to talk to these people." It's all about communication. It's, as said in Office Space, "people skills."

And another thing- how is it that you have foreign policy experience when you only talk to a nation's leaders? Most idiots know that what a nation's leaders are thinking often clashes with the nation's citizens. And when a politician goes over to meet with troops stationed overseas, why is it he or she always tells stories of soldiers who come up to thank him or her? Well duh. The soldiers who don't like or agree with the politican aren't going to go near him or her. Do you see these politicians ever meeting with the citizens of these foreign nations? How can they know the true feelings of the citizens of Iraq, for example, when they've never actually spoken to them? They report the feelings of the citizens of Iraq as described second-hand by the rulers of Iraq.

So to sum that up, my belief is that a candidate who has "foreign policy experience" is one who truly understands all nations that he or she communicates with and can effectively communicate with not only their leaders but also their citizens. Even if this candidate has never traveled to another nation, he or she would still have the advantage over another candidate if that other candidate knew nothing about the culture, values, beliefs, interests, and history of the citizens of nations we have relationships with.

Why is "foreign policy experience" so important? Because the world is small and we have an empire to maintain within it. Do I agree we should have this empire? Of course not. But that is why the candidates running for President right now are asked time and time again: Do you have the foreign policy experience needed to succeed as President? When the whole world is watching you because they have to, you need to be able to communicate with them. I think the question should be: "How has our communication with other nations failed us in the past?"

700 billion dollars

Kudos to our government for giving 700 billion dollars to private companies that got a bit too greedy and messed up. 

Someday, all of us living in United States will be paying a heavy price for this. In my opinion, it's just another band-aid to delay the inevitable. It's no longer capitalism. It's become socialism, and I doubt it works that well when the dollar isn't worth anything. 

ENR on the real tube baby!

http://www.ketv.com/video/17388890/

We were on KETV (a local Omaha TV station) for a story they did on the Mid American Music Festival.

Fox News: Not Fair and Unbalanced

First off, many of you reading this probably have heard on the news recently that Russia attacked Georgia. They intervened, or invaded, or however you wanted to call it. But this accidentally slipped out on "fair and balanced" Fox News the other day...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8XI2Chc6uQ

Now here's what really happened based on numerous sources I've been reading over the past few days:

Georgia attacked a territory called South Ossetia, which recently broke away from Georgia and has been trying to achieve independence. While South Ossetia is not officially part of Russia, the majority of the residents of South Ossetia are Russian citizens holding Russian passports. Georgia attacked South Ossetia to regain control of the territory. Naturally, because Russia has so many citizens living there they then proceeded to attack Georgia to "free" the residents of South Ossetia.

Now, ask yourself, how has our mainstream media been portraying these events? What is the general view of Russia in this conflict by not only our media but also our government? Why does our government really care so much about this conflict? What would happen if a nation attacked American citizens living in another country?

Matchbox 20

Their new music is probably some of the best and "edgiest" stuff they have ever released, yet they do not play them on alternative radio stations anymore. It's not that their music has changed, it's just that radio sucks more now. They are marketed differently. That is all I have to say about that.

Thanks for nothing Presidents Monroe and Truman

The Monroe Doctrine and the Truman Doctrine are the two worst things ever proclaimed by former American presidents. They both have ultimately wasted trillions of dollars and killed hundreds of thousands (probably millions, actually) of innocent human beings. In fact, terrorism and national security would not be such a big deal if it weren't for them.
What's that? You don't know what the Monroe Doctrine and Truman Doctrines said? How about the Marshall Plan? Anyone? Of course not.

The War On What?

Right now, there is a major concern for me regarding the mindset of many of my fellow Americans. If you ask your typical American, what do you think about the "War on _____?" they will mostly likely believe that it is a good idea. The War on Drugs. The War on Poverty. The War on Terrorism. Theses are all good ideas, right?
Now here's the reality. These so-called "wars" are the biggest pile of crap I have ever witnessed. They are purely propaganda tools, and the ignorant baboons of this country have fallen for them. It saddens me that most people don't even question these "wars." Many do not question them because they are afraid to be ridiculed- it's not the social norm to say the war on drugs, for example, is a very, very bad idea.
But rational free thinkers see through the bull crap. They question the motivations behind these so-called wars. They ask why these wars need to be declared in the first place. They point out that in every case these wars have actually caused more harm than good.
How can one declare war on something abstract? If you can declare war on terrorism, does that mean you can declare war on fear? Or on love? Or on sadness? How about the war on evil? Or how about declaring war on things that are real, like drugs or poverty, for example. Does that mean I can declare war on pickles? I hate pickles.
It has become absurd to think that we can declare war on bad things. Even declaring war on other countries seems a bit primitive nowadays. For example, let's say we declare war on country A, and country C will be our ally, that way we can both, in a dignified manner of course, destroy and kill country B because they did something that we did not approve of. After all, we can always rebuild country B after we destroy them and model them after us because we're the best of course.
Back to declaring war on drugs or anything specific thing- it's purely a public relations stunt that most of us have clearly fallen for. People forget that since the War on Drugs began, things have not gotten any better- they've in fact gotten worse. We have wasted billions of dollars fighting something that many are actually making billions of dollars on. That's right, it's supply and demand- it's a business.
Declaring war on terrorism has done us a whole lot of good. I'm so glad Bush declared war on terrorism. Before he did, there were terrorists everywhere- the local Wal-mart, my grade school, even the laundry mat I used to go to. Thank God Bush has gotten rid of those nasty terrorists. Actually, it's strange that no one declared a war on terrorism before- after all, terrorists have been around for, oh, since the dawn of man.
Don't forget poverty. Ever since President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his "War on Poverty" in 1964, poverty has stagnated since then.
Drugs are bad, though, and so are terrorists. So I guess it's just foolish to even think about questioning the validity of the expensive and ineffective wars on them.

I AM HOT

Well, I have some bad news and good news.

First, the bad news...

It all started one promising Friday afternoon.

After washing the dishes, I sat down at the computer to carefully organize my Itunes songs, making sure each album had the correct artwork. I had been waiting to do this all week long, in fact. Soon after, however, a 30-second hurricane hit with 115 mph winds and soon we were out of power. Shannon and I spent much of Friday evening picking up giant branches and organizing them into cute little piles.

That was four days ago. Up until yesterday afternoon, we still had no power. Finally everything turned on...well, sort of. As it turns out, after our power turned back on, there were constant power surges. Our always caring landlord suggested that we turn off our air conditioning so that the surges would stop. Shoot, the AC was blowing hot air out anyway, so we did so, but then half the house had no power. A couple hours later, we turned the AC back on and it was doing the same thing. We decided to bite the bullet and keep it running all night so we weren't miserable trying to go to sleep.

This morning we woke up and it was doing the same thing. Not only that, both the refigerator and the air conditioner seemed to be broken. I promptly went to work (where AC was free, baby!), but lovely Shannon called me throughout the day saying quote "the cats and I are going to die if we don't get out of this house." It was 93 degrees outside and not much cooler inside our house. I called the Omaha Public Power Dept. whatever and they would be out "as soon as possible." We also called our landlord (the caring one) a couple four times, who said an electrician would be out "as soon as possible." Apparently we are not the only ones affected by the hurricane last week.

It's currently 11pm on Day 4, and 87 degrees inside the house, 75 degrees outside the house. I'm not lying. I bought a new cheap box fan at K-mart, so perhaps we can survive tonight.

The good news? I just saved a bunch on my car insurance by switching to Geico.

Oh, and we have the internet! :)

Thank God for the internet.

Why we travel

There are so many reasons why people travel. When I first thought about traveling for this geography course I am currently taking (I know, I know, a course about traveling and planning trips...sounds cool eh?), I perhaps selfishly automatically thought of why Americans travel, but later I realized that a major influence determining why people travel is their culture. For example, in many middle eastern countries religion is a major factor influencing not only why but also where people travel. While working on assignments in the class I realized that I like to visit basilicas and cathedrals. One obvious reason for this is because I admire the architecture of these buildings, but another, more hidden reason for this is because of my religious upbringing. When I visit a church a sense of peace comes over me. Ultimately, by examining my own reasons for traveling (some didn’t reveal themselves until the final assignment) I discovered why all people love to travel. I love to travel because I like to escape my normal, everyday environment. It can be a spiritual or enlightening experience for me. There are three kinds of tourism I like and participate regularly in: environmental tourism, historical tourism, and cultural tourism. My favorite environmental activity is hiking. This doesn’t have to be in the wilderness- this is something that can be done in my neighborhood park in Omaha. I know you are discouraging historical tourism discussion for this course since it’s a geography course, but I do enjoy learning about glories of the past in museums and historic sites. I believe cultural tourism is something that is so easy to enjoy living in the United States. For example, when I went to New York City four years ago I really enjoyed walking through so many kinds of neighborhoods- it was like a sampler of the world. In conclusion, I now realize that the reasons why I like to travel are just a small piece of the pie when compared to all the other reasons why everyone likes to travel. “To discover oneself-” although it’s a catchphrase, it does sum up why we travel. We live our lives searching for meaning and purpose, and I think part of the journey in finding that meaning and purpose involves taking an actual journey somewhere away from home. We are always searching and wanting more. It just makes sense to actually go out there in the world to try and find it.

By the way, here is the page for a trip I planned to Quebec in the class.

300 pounds

I recently bench pressed over 300 pounds for the first time in my life. What's funny is what first motivated me to reach that milestone.
About 6 years ago, someone told me that they heard Tiger Woods could bench 300 pounds. I was in disbelief. There was no way Tiger Woods, of all people, could lift that much. He certainly didn't look like he could. So I decided if he could do it, then I could. So finally, six years later, I am able to, and you know what? I believe Tiger could lift that much. Surely it helps his distance shots.

In other news, Shannon is back now and I couldn't be more happier with her. It's like we just started dating again. I can't wait to see her when I get home from work.

Also, the Royals still suck. And we're seeing Sigur Ros tonight! :) And our computer died :(

I miss Shannon

Shannon has been in Europe for over a week now and this is getting ridiculous. I really miss her. We have never been apart from each other for this long since we began dating over five years ago. I haven't even received an email from her in two days now. It's just a weird feeling. I've been pacing around the house, sort of anxious because of it.

When she returns I'm going to have to just spoil her rotten. I really need to show her that I love her and never take her for granted.

Chevy

My mom called me at work today during her lunch to tell me that Chevy had passed.

Chevy was our family cat that I grew up with. She was cuddly, never whined, and just a sweet little cat. When she was just a kitten in my parents' basement, she was always the only one to come upstairs to say hi to everyone while her siblings continued playing with each other downstairs. She was born in 1995, and every Christmas her favorite spot to sit was on the biggest present under the Christmas tree. Her next favorite spot was my dad's lap, but only when he was just about to get up. She was always an indoor cat, though occasionally she would sneak outside when we weren't paying attention and wander about. We would panic, thinking there was no way she could survive out there after she had been de-clawed, but she somehow always made it, though when we found her she was usually a bit disoriented.

One time my sister accidentally slammed the front door on the end of her tail. From that point forward she was missing the end of her tail.

If you look through my family's photo albums, including mine, you will find hundreds of pictures of Chevy. She was the true star of the house. In fact, she was the star of my band Electric Needle Room's latest EP cover. I chose a picture of her I had taken in high school to use for the cover of the EP.


I even got her to sign her autograph on my copy later on...

This past weekend my brother and I were back at my parents house and that's when we noticed she was acting sort of strange. My mom said she had been her usual, energetic self only days before, so we all were worried. I spent some time petting her before we left, and said goodbye with the feeling that would probably be the last time I saw her. A couple days later the veterinarian said she was dying and in lots of pain. My parents made the tough decision to put her to sleep, and now she's in kitty heaven.

She lived a good life, and she was a good cat. I did not take the news as bad as I thought I would, probably because I have not lived in the same house as Chevy in eight years, but the news has still left an empty feeling inside me that I can't get rid of. I have been very fortunate in my life to not have lost any close loved ones. I know that will change, probably in a hurry, but Chevy passing away I think helped remind me that life is fragile and very temporary. All things, good or bad, must come to an end.

I know she was "just a cat," but the fact is, she really was a member of our family. I will always remember her, and she will be dearly missed.

Am I too old to play soccer?

It's Thursday and I am sore. I have blisters on my foot and my legs ache. This is all because I played soccer for the first time in 7 years three days ago.

That's correct. I was so excited to play soccer for the first time since I was but a wee lad at Neosho County Community College in Chanute, Kansas. The last time I laced up and put my shin guards on to play was in about April of 2001, when I was still a member of the college team. I was a pretty good player back then, especially at defense. However, not good enough to be more than a benchwarmer for the team.

The reason why I quit stone cold was because I simply got burnt out from playing. It was not fun for me to play soccer anymore. But a couple years later, I got the urge to play again. But by then I didn't know anybody else that played soccer. I always hung out with people who preferred basketball or football over soccer, I guess. So I never got the chance to play, and I never had the time nor money to join a club team.

Flash forward to a couple weeks ago. A co-worker said he was trying to get an indoor soccer team together and I quickly jumped on that opportunity. Indoor soccer was always fun for me despite it being more intense. Well, it worked out for once and our first game was Monday night. I even went out and spent $50 on a new pair of indoor soccer shoes.

It was brutal. The last time I played soccer I weighed 150 pounds. Now I'm over 180, and while most of the weight gain since then was muscle, it was obvious Monday night that I spend too much time lifting weights and not enough time running. I'm so out of shape it was embarrassing. In fact, I played goalie one quarter just so I could catch my breath.

So it's good that I am getting some intense cardio in again, but man am I paying for it.

I believe everything everyone tells me- don't you?

The year was 2004. I was but a wee young lad, a student in my last semester at the University of Kansas. It was November and election time. I really didn't know who to vote for. You see, George W. Bush and his administration had really harmed our country the previous four years, so I definitely knew I was not voting for him. John Kerry, the Democrat, was intelligent enough but really didn't have any good ideas for change.

I voted for Ralph Nadar in 2000, to my parents dismay because apparently he was for killing babies. I am not for killing babies, nor any other human beings, so yeah, maybe I clashed a bit with Nader on this one but overall he made a lot more sense than the Republicans and Democrats. In 2004, after knowing my dumb state would waste our electoral votes on Bush, I went ahead and boosted the Libertarian Party's chances of raising funds but voting for their candidate, Michael Badnarik. How did I discover Michael Badnarik? By visiting his Web site, of course, and doing a bit of research for about an hour or two.

It was in 2004 that I realized that our country was full of idiots. Okay, that's a little harsh. Our country was full of lazy individuals who did not realize the simple mistakes they were making. Why were people like me, who went just a little out of their way to actually research a candidate, a minority?

Four years later, my cynicism has grown. There has been some hope this past year, however, with the rising of people running for President who have common sense. The mainstream media, of course, ignored these people and continues to do so because they do not meet the status quo or their agenda. Everything I have learned about these fantastic people I learned on the last free form of media- the internet. People like Ron Paul, like Dennis Kucinich, like Mike Gravel, heck, even Barack Obama (I still think he has more common sense than he has demonstrated in debates thus far).
However, it's just so depressing to me that so many people out there have not heard of anyone other than Hillary, Barack, or John. Someone asked me the other day what I thought of Hillary Clinton, and I said that I don't care about her, I support Ron Paul. "Who?" he asked. I started to explain that he was our last beacon of hope but soon this guy was thinking about Nascar and I knew I had lost him forever.

When will this end? When will the majority wake up? There are many like myself, who know the truth. Who have discovered the truth independently, without influence of the robots. But so many people are spoon fed propaganda to the point where they cannot tell the difference between fact and fiction.

Why do so many people believe everything Bill O'Reilly says? Is it because he speaks with authority, with swagger? The "no-spin zone" my butt. That show, in fact, is the OPPOSITE of "no-spin." I think the most dangerous thing about his show is the fact that he tries to come across as someone who is open minded and objective, as someone who does not prejudge until he gets all the facts. This is bullcrap. He preaches that he is against propaganda, yet he represents how dangerous propaganda can be.

Yes, ladies and gentleman, the reason why John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama are the top three contenders for CEO of the U.S. is because of how much the mainstream media has overloaded us with them. How can people support a candidate they don't know about?

Until Americans wake up (and the world, for that matter) things will not change. We have to learn to not take everything we hear on the daily news for granted. We should always question everyone. Those people who report the news- they are human beings with dispositions and their own agendas. Those corporations who own the people who report the news- they also their own agendas (sometimes those agendas are strongly influenced on them by another, mysterious force). More importantly, we must stop being lazy when it comes to researching who is running for public office.

We will not have a true democracy until we have a true democratic process of how we get our information.

Our Chicago Trip (I'm a Dork)

Shannon and I spent the last four days on a trip to Chicago. We figured it was a good idea to get away for a long weekend, and what better place to go than the city with the nation's highest gas prices.

We had four days off (work has been slow for me and I actually had all my school assignments done ahead of time) and took the seven hour drive from Omaha to Chicago bright and early on Saturday morning. On the way we stopped for lunch at Iowa City, a lovely college town that reminded us quite a bit of Lawrence. My primary reason for wanting to go to Chicagoland was the fact that many of my favorite films were in fact filmed in the Chicago metro area. While there we visited some of the most random places where great American movies were filmed, such as

Groundhog Day


Home Alone


Stranger Than Fiction


Wayne's World

and Ferris Bueller's Day Off


In conclusion, I am a dork. As Shannon took pictures of me in these nostalgic places, people who were systematically going through their everyday lives wondered "who are these strange people taking pictures in front of random, unimportant backdrops?" Movies I grew up watching allowed me to be more aware of these places than the people who actually lived there. 18 years after Home Alone was a smash hit, I am the lone lunatic who had my picture taken in front of that once famous house a couple days ago while the mailman next door laughed.

Why am I fascinated with these places? Because they're real. They're not some Hollywood set. Plus, they're in the midwest, in relative proximity to where I currently reside.

Shannon and I did do a couple of touristy things. We went to the top of the Sears Tower and caught a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. But it was the non-touristy things that stood out the most for me. After all, how many people visit a place with their primary goal in mind to visit as many locations as possible where some of their favorite films were filmed? Not too many, I'd say.

It was a great time, despite the over 7 million people living in the suburbs. We drove around on Monday for hours through endless strip malls, subdivisions, and stoplights to get back to our hotel in Naperville. And I thought Kansas City was bad. Talk about suburban sprawl. But the city of Chicago is just a nice place. I was telling someone today that it probably has some of the best architecture in the world.

The only major annoying thing about downtown Chicago- no restrooms. Kudos to Starbucks, the only place that didn't seem to mind if we just stopped by to urinate.

Everyone's got a theory

I was thinking today while driving my car. That happens sometimes.

I was thinking, why is it that when one makes a conspiracy theory, they are considered a crazy person, yet when one makes a scientific theory, they get a Nobel Prize?

Theories are all based on evidence. Every conspiracy theory has at least some evidence to back it up. Food for thought for Shannon, who will be the only one reading this.

CHAMPIONS!

National Champions. I never thought I'd live to see the day a favorite sports team actually became champions. I was six years old when the Kansas basketball team last won it all, but back then I wasn't a fan yet. Yes, I hopped on the bandwagon about that time. Same with the Royals back in 1985. I was four years old, but really became a fan a couple years after that.

This is one of the greatest nights in my life. I will talk trash to my friends,oh yes...especially the ones who said KU was just not good enough to win it all, that Memphis, that North Carolina, that Davidson were all just too good.

Well let me tell you something- KU is now the best.

I will relish every moment of celebration and remember this night for the rest of my life. This is what being a fan is all about.

20 years of ups and downs, of highs and lows, of heartbreaks and then some more heartbreaks. Of losing to Bradley and Bucknell in the first round. Of losing to Syracuse by 3 points when I was student at KU back in '03. All of that doesn't matter anymore because we have reached the ultimate goal. A national championship.

Mainstream music today

Mainstream music today (at least on MTV, BET, VH1 and mainstream radio) is quite repulsive. Mariah Carey now has more number one hits than any other pop artist except the Beatles, recently surpassing Elvis Presley. This is only further proof to mainstream music's decline in recent years. Yes, it never used to be this way in the '60s and '70s. Back then most mainstream artists were actually talented.

What's sad is that many of these artists are winning Grammys, which are awards that were at one time much more credible. Grammys are partly based on record sales, which automatically leaves out any musician who is unsigned or on an independent label. Some of the best music on the planet will never be heard by the majority of people on this earth. Currently, the majority of this country has heard of R. Kelly, Hannah Montana, and Britney Spears, but the majority has also not heard of Sufjan Stevens, Pinback, or Electric Needle Room (ha!)

What makes a pop song? Well, a pop song is a POPular song. What makes a song popular? Money. Money controls what we are able to listen to on most radio stations, MTV, BET, VH1, and even Pandora. The gatekeepers, even in this internet age, consistently continue to control what we listen to on a regular basis. Casual music fans don't even notice. People like me who go far out of the mainstream to find new music do, and we feel special and/or cool for noticing all of these "indie" bands.

But now, thanks to shows like Grey's Anatomy, "indie" is pop. "Indie" is in style, at least on television. Just listen to 75 percent of television commercials- they all contain a great song from an "indie" artist. Still, this "indie" artist most of the time truly is not "indie," because much power and money was put forth to get these "indie" songs in commercials and on TV.

I challenge you today to discover an artist who is not on a record label. Check out my Myspace page and you will see many bands that are my myspace friends that are unsigned but freaking good.

David beats Goliath (Davidson)

Somehow, a miracle happened today. Amid all of the hype of Davidson and the fact that they were the tournament darlings, amid all the pressure of Bill Self teams never getting past the Elite Eight, the Jayhawks somehow found a way to win and advance to the Final Four for the first time since 2003. I almost had a heart attack- no fan wants their team to win that way, but the bottom line is they won.

Kansas 59, Davidson 57

And now it's time to face Roy Williams.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

An article I wrote when I was attending KU

I can't believe I found this. Some British Web site somehow came across it and published it
Check it out here

Does he really resemble change?

If our two choices for President in 2008 are Hillary Clinton and John McCain, then the dark times we currently live in will soon be darker. By default many Americans are turning to Barack Obama, because he somewhat resembles the needs of the American people, and he may not be completely all that we need, but he's a step in the right direction. That's fine by me. This country is not yet ready for real change. Baby steps. Call me a realist.

But Obama supporters always speak of change and hope like they are in style. No, if people really wanted true change, they would realize that our current political system prohibits that. (Wait a second there, Matt, don't we live in a DEMOCRACY?) No, we don't. And we don't live in a true republic. Do the citizens in this country really have the power? Does our government truly care about us?

Obama does. But he's a politician. He knows he can't say everything he thinks. Other people say everything they are thinking...Ron Paul, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich. Those three gave me hope late last year that change really was on the way. Now that the three have no chance, that only leaves Obama, a man who is using the system to hopefully begin to fight it?

The future is scary, but scarier with another Clinton or McCain in our executive branch come this November. In the past month or so I haven't thought as much about politics, much like I didn't before I knew people like Paul, Gravel, and Kucinich were out there. I can't stress myself over the ignorance, apathy, and just plain stupidity of my fellow Americans. I've accepted that a post-modern world will take some time. Hopefully my grandkids will see a United States the way it was meant to be, the way our forefathers envisioned it.

In the meantime, I'm going to suck it up and worry more about my Kansas Jayhawks.