Author: briancollapsing

is there anyone out there who’s both read the book atlas shrugged by ayn rand and also payed close attention to the lyrics of the song pacific 231 by burning airlines? listening just now — and i mean really listening — i swear that he must have written the song after reading that book. talk of contradictions, crushing fragility, and a lot of train/rail/engine/motion references . . . it can’t just be me. unless j. robbins just happened to have the same ideas about society as ayn rand, which would be sort of weird if the two were independent.

well if anyone agrees, feel free to write me and tell me i’m not just a crazy nerd.

and what’s this? no family guy tonight? i turn on the tv at 9:30 to see the premier-freaking-episode of temptation island!?! words can’t describe my disgust and disappointment. it was going to be the highlight of my dull wednesday night. goddamn televeision.

i can’t report much in the way of eventful things today. sorry, folks. at least family guy is on tonight . rock.

the only thing that sticks out about today is how painful it’s becoming to go to my finance class. it honestly makes me want to cry. that’s not an exagerration. and yet i keep going. i don’t see why i do, but i do. maybe i will take the easy solution, and stop.

i only wish it were that easy.

today i added another link at the left. i found out that it costs 2 dollars and 80 cents a minute to call and wish my friend josh in australia happy birthday if i use my USC long distance plan to call from my dorm room. how nice. i sat next to a girl so great looking in my visual culture class that i think it actually hurt me to be near her. naturally, i didn’t talk to her or anything. i’ve had two pieces of pumpkin pie so far today. i longed — again — after rachel from the real world. i have to write a one page paper about which type of hinduism appeals most to me before the night’s through. i’m almost done cooking a deep dish red baron pizza for one, arguably the saddest dinner of all. i’m hungry and sort of bored.

but today isn’t all sad, even if i feel awfully empty today. shiner has a new website up which is impressively sharp and neat, and you can download “the egg” from the same-named album which comes out in october. good song. yesterday, my very nice grandmother sent me a box full of goodies. the store-bought pumpkin pie is actually very tasty. nothing i could call “bad” happened to me today.

see, you just have to focus on the high points.

the radio show last night was a lot of fun. my lovely friend emily called all the way from boston to say hi, too. i thought that was great. i got pumpkin pie at the store — i love pumpkin pie, although it seemed a weird time to have a sale on pumpkin pies, like they sort of jumped the gun a little bit. i watched politically incorrect because i heard it was in danger and wanted to support it and/or catch it before anything bad happened. they talked briefly about the banned song list i heard about last week, so i felt all informed and ahead of the game.

also, i found out that there is now a collapsing friend #9. that’s cool. with this kind of infiltration rate in only two months, by 2002 i’ll have a link on the white house home page or yahoo or cnn or something. i can’t wait. but until then, i’ll be here reading panaphobic.

file microfiche for three hours, and THEN go to really boring classes? why, i’d love to!

that’s right, week two of “can’t stop the rock” (that’s the lame name of my lame radio show), tonight from 7 to 9pm pacific time. if you listen, i’ll dedicate a song to you. and not a hateful one, either.

finished another book this weekend. well, it was a play, so i guess that’s not that difficult. and of course it wasn’t difficult because it was really enjoyable. nice and existentialist and witty at the same time, two things close to my heart. i would recommend picking it up.

last night i turned on mtv2 while i was grabbing a snack, and jimmy eat world was on. but not even a video by them. it was interviews and live footage and stuff. half of it was the same stuff you can download from their website with the enhanced bleed american stuff, but some of it was clips i hadn’t seen before. it was very exciting to me. but that could be because i am very dull in my own right.

i started good omens which is very hitchhikers’ guide and offbeat and funny, so that was how i spent my night last night. that, and listening to dj q-bert and kid koala in preparation for my first turntablist concert coming up this weekend. i’m so hip-hop. actually, i’m looking forward to it a lot, because i’ve never been to something like this before, for one. and also because i plan on dropping like five hits of ecstasy and eating some glowsticks, which should also be fun. my only worry is that my pants aren’t obscenely baggy enough.

don’t worry mom, the part about the drugs was a joke. i’m all about the music. and maybe the fly honeys, but that’s all.

mondays. who needs ’em. must learn about lingo scripting!

i decided to put up a zipped .mpg file of that video i’ve been talking about so in case you haven’t caught it on mtv2, or don’t have mtv2, and want to see it, you can get it from me, the raving flatterer. it’s at the top of the sidebar (hell bent), and it’ll only be there for a week or so. it’s big though, so if you have a modem be prepared to wait, or maybe try catching it on tv. now i’ll shut up about it. well, almost.

this is actually only the second best music video i’ve seen in my lifetime. the first is undoubtedly the video for “coffee and tv” by blur. and i don’t know how anyone who’s seen thise video could disagree. it’s the best thing ever. i might put that one up for a while after i take this one down, just so more people can behold the glory. but anyway, check it out. and that’s all for now.

when i saw requiem for a dream way back when it was in theatrical release, i left the theatre saying i really didn’t like it, because all the graphic and disturbing things in that movie went a little farther than necessary. it was just too much, i thought, and told everyone who asked that that was what i thought of it. my roommate and a lot of other people really liked it though, said it was great. mike bought the dvd recently and we watched it last night, and i figured i owed it another chance so i could either reconsider or solidify my earlier opinion. well whereas the first time i saw it, only the unsettling and shocking things stuck with me, the second viewing was totally the opposite. i think since i was prepared for the upsetting parts this time through, i could focus more on the really amazing things about the movie. it’s shot beautifully, and is really a breathtaking film visually. the music is unbelievable and utterly heartbreaking. and the stories of addiction, to whatever your fix may be, made me want to cry. so i’ve officially gone 180 degrees on this one from thinking it was an unnecessary film to thinking it is a wonderful film. now i have to go back and tell everyone who i tried to convince it wasn’t that great that i was just a big wimp the first time i saw it and couldn’t deal with the “gross parts”. it’s embarrassing, really.

this guy amazes me. 100 cover songs in 100 days? and that’s in addition to playing shows in a touring rock band too? i think this man is my hero.

and i think i could use a bowl of cereal.

tonight was a trip to canter’s deli. it’s a comfortable place, and the sandwiches were nice and thick. little bit expensive though. i liked being there more than i liked eating there, and i sadly didn’t have the funds to buy dessert (they had a TON of excellent-pastries; the place is also a bakery), so it wasn’t the optimal dining experience, but it was enjoyable.

caught that wonderful kenna video on mtv2 today, and i was watching it with dom and mike, and we were all silent, watching this video. that’s how i know it’s good; it shuts us up. i know that personally, i’m extrememly cynical and can’t really see or do anything without remarking on it. it’s bordering on compulsive. but this, i just sit and stare, entranced. that’s a pretty impressive thing to do and i realize and appreciate that feat. if only more things could be good enough to sit me down, shut me up, and truly move me, maybe i’d have no reason to be so critical of the world. or to reword, maybe since i am so critical — which isn’t necessarily bad — it’s easier to recognize what’s honestly good by the mere fact that i’m helpless against it. i want more things to level me.

i read act one of rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead today, and it’s good. if you’ve read waiting for godot, you’ve basically read this. not that that’s bad; godot is one of my favorite non-shakespearean plays (along with death of a salesman). and i like this one too. maybe i’ll finish it tonight if i don’t get too restless to read.

i know, you really want to keep track of my progress. thank you for caring.

if you go to denny’s anytime soon, watch out for the chicken parmesan sandwich. it may sound like a good idea, but it’s just a ruse. actually, why do i even go to denny’s? every time i go, i leave with a heavy, unpleasant, “i shouldn’t have eaten that” feeling. and yet i inevitably return at some point because of the ever-present draw of mozzarella sticks; it’s a weakness i’ll never live down. they’re just so tasty!

(this is where i break down sobbing).

something else about last night at denny’s made me curious too. when we came in, there was a pair of police officers having their dinner in one booth. that was fine, because police officers have to eat sometime. denny’s is an okay place to do it, i guess. but then they finished and left midway through our meal, and probably less than five minutes later, a new pair of officers came in and started eating dinner. my interest wasn’t that two pairs of policemen had alternate dinner shifts, but that they both decided to eat at the same empty, low quality restaurant. maybe denny’s is the official dinner break of the LAPD? do they give discounts to crime fighters? does this denny’s have an optimal strategic location in case some emergency arises mid-moons-over-my-hammy? i really should have just asked and saved myself this mental frustration, i know.