Black Keys Rock

I am completely smitten with the new album by one of my favorite musical groups, The Black Keys. The album, entitled Attack and Release, breaks from the band's normal approach of basement, distorted, dirty blues rock and takes a more refined approach with super-producer Danger Mouse at the helm. Check it out!

Addicted to Madden

Lately I've found myself addicted to Madden 07 for X-Box. The weird thing is that I really don't watch the NFL or like Pro football at all! Call it an advanced procrastination technique I guess, but I think I spend more time playing it than doing homework. Sorry Mom!

I Have A Dream......That Barack Obama isn't full of it

Obama certainly dazzled the 80,000 plus crowd at the DNC with yet another passionate speech. I watched it on YouTube myself, and I must admit that during his most vibrant passages, I felt the same chills of excitement and inspiration that I get watching old clips of JFK and MLK. But I still can't shake the nagging feeling that the Democratic nominee is hiding something behind his sleek exterior, the well-polished face of change. As far as I can see, real change in the power structure of American Government can only ever occur on a surface level. Perhaps 8 years of the Team Bush has tainted my outlook with pessimism, as it has for so many of us. Certainly, this is why so many Americans regarded Obama's speech as refreshing and inspiring. After all, the only reaction Dubya's speeches ever elicited was laughter mixed with a crushing depression that anyone would elect this sub-human scumbag to one day in office, let alone two terms. But My Fellow Americans, I believe that we should approach Obama in the same manner as a jilted young woman might approach a seemingly Mr. Right while dating on the rebound. That is to say, we should proceed with caution. Yes, Bush and his cronies have been shitting on us for damn near a decade now, but we can't just fall head over heels in love with the first candidate we see with impressive rhetoric and without the facial makeup of a monkey. Am I an McCain supporter? Not until the GOP perfects the brainwashing technology I'm sure they've been working hard on ever since the ink on the Patriot Act dried. All I'm saying is that if we hold Obama up to this golden standard he's been painting for himself on the campaign trial once he gets in office, we may be setting ourselves up for disappointment. We need change, and I think Obama can take us in the right direction, bu that change cannot and will not happen overnight. We need to be realistic about change and we need to be patient with Obama as he gets his feet wet in the Oval Office. Hell, even if Obama is half the catalyst he proposes to be, we can all take comfort in the fact that somewhere in Texas, a village has regained its idiot.

Shhhh.....The WalMart can hear you!

Now this second bit of the news made me laugh, particularly because it reminded me of a rather hilarious episode of South Park in which a WalMart moves into the neighborhood and soon becomes a living, breathing entity bent on sucking everything and everyone into its bowels in the manner of a black hole. Well, it appears now that Trey Parker and Matt Stone may have not been too far off in their humorous jab at the hated corporation.
AC/DC, the undisputed kings of squealing vocals and redundant guitar riffs, have once again blessed the music world with a new album, chock full of songs that a sure to sound exactly like the four or five tunes most classic rocks stations keep in constant rotation. Even the albums title, Black Ice, invites connections to their previous material. The band's 1980 release, Back in Black, was their highest selling, so perhaps the boys are hoping to return to a time when someone actually gave a shit that they were active musicians.
Quality of AC/DC's music aside, the disturbing thing here is that the album will be sold exclusively at WalMart stores. How, with rising dominance of online music sales through such pay-per-song services such as ITunes, can a store secure such a position? Shady to be sure, but not entirely scary, because if WalMart wants to be the only one in bed with AC/DC, I'm 100% cool with that.

Facebook Movie??? This is all moving too fast for me!

In the headlines today (seeing as how I found nothing of interest in yesterday's) are more than a few things of interest, especially to my age group. Facebook, yes the very same social networking site that has helped define my generation, is looking to be forever immortalized on the silver screen. Who, you may ask, is slated to direct this inevitably fine piece of cinema? None other than Aaron Sorkin, the creator of television's The West Wing and a notorious critic of "the tyranny of internet public opionion". I for one am looking forward to this critique on my generation's relentless use of the internet and technology to mold our lives. However, I am cutting this post short because Facebook is only a click away, and someone may have written on my wall.......

Obama: Kennedy Revisited?

I read today that three men were arrested recently under suspicion of what some figures of authority believed to be a plot to assassinate Barack Obama at the DNC. An intimidating headline to be sure, but one the article went on to betray as it revealed the incident to be nothing more than a false alarm, a sensational scare of sorts. This scheme will likely turn out to be just that, a product of heightened security in these turbulent times, but that doesn't stop an ordinary American like myself from getting The Fear.
In a way, Obama is my generation's version of Bobby Kennedy, certainly with regards to image. Both men share the passionate rhetoric and inspirational qualities that so define men heading movements of change. As with the youths of the counter-culture generation that Kennedy swept of their feet, Obama has done the same for the majority of youths today. Now whether or not the Democratic nominee's cries for change are truly genuine not is beside the point at this late stage in the Presidential game. What does matter is the heavy portion of our youth who have made this professed change an integral part of their reality, of their future. If Obama, the golden boy of this movement, were to be cut down in his prime by the notoriously heinous act of assassination, the damage would be catastrophic. The vibrant activism of this generation of American Youth would die in the same manner as its Flower Power predecessors. And it is my belief that such a blow would hurt us more than Obama turning out to be a pretty face and sweet promises. Because if that were true, at least most of us would have the comfortable option of just blindly believing that real change had occurred. And American ignorance is American bliss.