Just Being Socially Awkward
Maybe the teens don't consider weed hip anymore since it's now legal.

jessica
it's probably actually a consequence of the death of rock culture and it's replacement by various types of urban culture. it's been replaced by mdma. and the ultimate culprit is actually probably the smell, along with the delivery mechanism. i've recently seen 20-somethings popping marijuana pills, which i hadn't seen previously.

Jacob Valentin
'Death of rock culture'?

jessica
about ten years ago, actually.

Jacob Valentin
What, Linkin Park?

jessica
you know, the truth is that i've never even heard any linkin park, so i don't have a witty comeback.

there will always be kids that listen to rock music. for quite some time now, they've been called losers.

go look up the lolapalooza line-up this year.

Mini Squidward
Idk with the loss of rock culture came rap culture which is probably even more weed friendly

jessica
but, white suburban kids don't listen to rap music.

the kids that would have been listening to (mainstream) rock music in my era are currently listening to techno. hip-hop is still deeply counter-culture to most white people.

Mini Squidward
as a suburban white kid, hip hop is pretty fucking huge and rock is basically dead. I don't know whatchu talking bout

jessica
so, tell me about how you identify with a form of black protest music that not only is not written for you but tends to vilify you.

you're the one that doesn't know what you're talking about.

Mini Squidward
Just because it's not my movement doesn't mean I can't respect it or find something meaningful from it.

And most mainstream rap is just party music not protesting anything and that's what's topping charts right now. White kids listen to rap more than any other genre right now from my recent high school/college experience.

Never once have I felt vilified from rap and I will listen to some of the more protest-y stuff like Run The Jewels or Kendrick. Just because they will talk about racial injustice doesn't mean they are attacking all white people.

Please don't tell me what I listen to or what my peers listen to or how we shouldn't

jessica
what i'm telling you is that you represent a small minority of people that are solely concerned about fashion and don't actually understand music.

i'd like to be sarcastic. do tell me about how you relate to kendrick lamar's treatises on blackness. tell me about how it speaks to you...

but, you don't even deny it. you admit that it's just the shallowness of marketing and the speciousness of fashion.

the reality is that most white kids your age and socio-economic status that actually understand music are listening to indie rock or folk music because that's what speaks to them and their experiences. they don't understand black culture. they don't relate to the misogyny, and the violence and the hyper-capitalist excess. that's just a demographic fact. maybe you might want to go hang out with them, instead of sitting around and pretending you're black in order to fulfill some fantasy that a bunch of corporate marketing executives stuck into your head to turn a profit.

and, don't fucking tell me what to say. i'll say what i want, and you can fuck off if you don't like it.

do you know what the right word for you is? poseur. you're a fucking poseur.

Mini Squidward
How is rap killing indie rock in the Billboard 100 yet be the minority of what people are listening to? Why are you telling ME what I am concerned about?

Here's the deal. White people read books like to Kill a Mocking Bird and it's lauded as a classic despite it being mostly about racism. People read A Child Called It and feel that kid's pain without being ever being abused themselves. People base their lives around religious texts written by people who lived long ago and drastically differently than we do today (I'm not religious personally).When N.W.A. invented gangsta rap part of the reason was to get suburban people to see how the black community felt at the time. I am not pretending to be anything I'm not; I'm just listening to what I enjoy listening to. I feel what I feel. Your hypothesis aren't necessarily truth.

jessica
rap hit a peak of popularity about ten years ago with a less than 20% market share, saturated very heavily in the black community. your logic would hold if there were only two types of music. but, a 15% market share implies that 85% of people are listening to something else. and, the heavy concentration in the black community implies that it's more like 90-95% over every other demographic; rap controls around 5% of the market share for non-black demographics.

rap's ability to climb up the charts is likewise a consequence of it's ability to dominate the black market, in a music economy that is dominated by choice. it's probably the last form of musical groupthink. whereas other forms of music are dominated by what is perhaps too much competition and too much choice, rap remains dominated by a smaller set of artists.

but, again, let's not be delusional. rap artists cannot compete with pop artists or techno artists. they are not and never have been and never will be the mainstream. further, your attempts to compare music to literature are just further demonstrating that you don't understand what music is. music is not something that you read and analyze, it's something that you feel and react to.

Mini Squidward
You can feel and react to books and you can read and analyze music, speak for yourself. People will cry after reading books and people will meticulously inspect every line of their favorite artist sings. It's art, there isn't a right or wrong way to create or admire.

And yeah pop is obviously still much more popular but I'd argue it is becoming more and more influenced by rap, you see a lot more rap features in pop songs and a lot of themes from party rap carrying over imo.

And for the market share argument I would say that yeah if you factor in people of all ages rock is more popular, you see higher streaming numbers (on internet, so typically younger crowd) being dominated by R&B/rap. And those numbers were 2 years old and I do think rap presence in young people's media has increased a good deal even in the short amount of time, even if that isn't their favorite genre when they are just listening to music by themselves. The stuff people listen to with friends and in parties is often different, and the former would dominate album sales and the latter would dominate media and what would be considered the popular music for our age. And I don't see how you use that website (assuming we're both looking at the very first result from google here since the data is the same) and then say techno is more popular when that was only at 3 percent, and we both lead off this comment thread saying rock culture is all but dead which this source would contradict. I'm just saying how I see it, and I'm the one living in the young suburban culture we're talking about. All these white girls saying rain drop, drop top, Every party I've been to is playing a good deal of rap. I see mainstream rap's influence on young culture than anything else around me right now.  

jessica
i'm just going to point out that you can bring a horse to water, and leave it at that.

this is the most patriarchal song i've ever heard. she is literally reducing herself to an object to be purchased on the market as a commodity.

let's think this through...

what she's saying is that the reasons they broke up would not have applied if they were married. it's hard to understand how this is the case unless she's acknowledging that the contract is non-refundable.

chances are that if they would have broken up over something when they weren't married, they would have still broken up over the same thing if they were married.

then, she says that the male (presumably) in the song has no right to get angry, because they're not together anymore. this implies that he would have a right to get upset if they had been previously married.

how about this: it doesn't matter if a woman is married or not, she still has the right to do what she wants.

nah. that might upset advertisers. just put a ring on it. and lock the door.

ABOLISH ALL MARRIAGE.

a. coke addict.
b. mental midget.
c. but it's a two party system!

could this be the year? they're that bad. both of them. they really are.

sunglasses too, huh?

she'll still win.

here's the scoop: it's cocaine.

let's get some context, so i'm not confusing anybody.

i didn't die my hair red in some kind of act of protest against something. i died it red because i think i look sexy with red hair. so, let's post a few links of fiery red heads, for context.

i mean, if you saw me face to face, you'd see that. it's an issue of trying to communicate over the internet...

and, remember: i'm from the 90s.

the first awesome redhead that jumps to mind is tori amos. she rocks the red well: smart, sexy and ridiculously talented. but, also simultaneously violent and delicate. very put together, but also kind of broken. arguably the perfect representation of red headedness.

http://www.nndb.com/people/756/000025681/tori-amos.jpg

then, there is of course gillian anderson who is and will forever be dana scully. so, let's talk more about scully. again: smart. sexy. a very rational woman - she projects a lot of strength. but, she has her insecurities, too. perfect redhead.

i was a huge garbage fan in the 90s, and it's the same basic formula. the intelligence here always came out more as dry wit. she found a way to balance raw power with oozing femininity that was rare before and after her.

it's true, though: we hit a peak in the 90s. we've been slowly regressing since about 1998.

the funny thing is that i actually think that millennials would want to reverse the decline if they were aware of it. but, they actually seem to be - almost universally - convinced by the theory of progress. it's just bedrock, to them. they've been told their whole lives that things are getting better, and believe it as an article of faith, while being unable to see (and how could they? they have no context) that things are actually getting worse.

i have a math degree. i started off in physics. it might seem a little weird for me to cite the scully effect, and the way i experienced it is no doubt different than others, but her influence on me was not trivial.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/less-big-bang-theory-more-dana-scully

j reacts to the ideological equivalence between mainstream and counter culture

when i say i reject the culture, that also means i reject the counter-culture, which is also the culture. i get this accusation from time to time that, because i don't reflect counter-cultural values, i must be some kind of faker that is really completely mainstream. what this does is set up a false binary between sanctioned culture and counter-culture, which is actually really just a choice between the culture and the culture. and, in fact, you're so brainwashed that you can't even fathom an alternative...

i actually really don't think that your "cool" emo/metal/hardcore/whatever band is any less stupid than anything you get from mass media. in a lot of cases, i think it's even more stupid. it's all designed for profit at the expense of expression or protest.

somebody that is really outside the culture will not create these kinds of distinctions, but rather reject them as illusory. what is the difference between taylor swift and evanescence? it's marketing. that's it, really. it's fundamentally the same product.

i'm less interested in what is mainstream or counter-cultural or rebellious or whatever else, and more interested in what is real and what isn't. unfortunately, for you, i may happen to be the one to burst your bubble and point out that the things you think are real are actually not.

j reacts to astrology (and the amazing concept of the anarchist capricorn)

astrology...

you might expect that i'd think it's nonsense. and, you'd be right. but, it's a useful way to describe yourself in terms of being an imperfect copy of an ideal form. it's limiting, perhaps, but a decent starting point.

so, i've struggled against the designation of capricorn, broadly arguing that the fact that i'm so obviously not at all like that is just a demonstration that it's pseudo-science.

but, can you be an anarcho-communist capricorn? how absurd is that, actually? a contradiction in terms on first glance. maybe less so upon deeper analysis.

but, then, it doesn't help, anyways, because i'm distorting the form into something unrecognizable. this isn't converting a donut into a coffee cup, anymore. i'm no longer willing to acknowledge the isomorphism.

contradictions in terms aside, i like the description for it's apparent absurdity. it's a nice juxtaposition. if kind of creepy.

an anarchist capricorn.

j reacts to clinton's "seizure"/collapse (did anybody actually try the chai?)

so, what's the lie on this one?

i still don't think it's a seizure. i still think she's on drugs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKtemWlXiEs

as an aside? it's no argument to vote for trump. she could release a statement tomorrow explaining that she's terminal. i still couldn't vote for trump. i'd be livid at democrats for picking her over sanders. i wouldn't see it as...

ok. maybe i would see it as disqualifying. but, it's less disqualifying than her opponent.

you can still vote for jill stein, you know.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/12/051214084800.htm

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=cocaine+dehydration

the idea that the clintons are drug runners is ancient. 80s.

but, it's a "conspiracy theory".

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=cocaine+clinton

a. coke addict.
b. mental midget.
c. but it's a two party system!

could this be the year? they're that bad. both of them. they really are.

it's funny the things we might say when we don't really think that anybody is listening.

why do i always fall for poets?

it's not a detraction.

but, it's weird to realize you really do have a type.

j reacts to google+ winning the long game, but as consolation prize

also, fwiw....google+? who uses google+? well, they may end up picking up a substantial market by default. let's get some things clear.

1) nobody reads their newsfeeds. well, not literally. but...
2) facebook has become basically unusable.
3) twitter has a character limit.

i know that people are increasingly opting towards personal messages, which was...i'm dating myself by pointing to icq. msn. fucking email? but, that's not what this is. i'm not talking to an audience of loved people. i'm broadcasting to strangers.

....and i want to write up a few lines, if i'm going to write anything at all.

the cleanliness of the interface is key. i mean, i could use tumblr, or something. it's just messy. livejournal charges. you don't want to think "she's picking google+ over twitter?", as though that's a real choice. no. my real options, given how much i type, are google+ or tumblr. and, this is just an easier delivery mechanism...

i get that most people don't like to read. but, in the long run, google+ may be all that's left standing for those that do.

http://www.annhandley.com/2016/06/16/calling-bs-facebooks-edict-writing-dead/

i just want to be clear that my primary intoxicant the other night was alcohol. marijuana does not produce blackouts and could not have done that to me no matter how much i smoked.

i had two rockstar vodkas, 6 shots of jager and 3 bottles of beer. i also had a few puffs. no more than that.

but, it wasn't even the booze that knocked me out. i can drink that on an average night. i've done that countless times and avoided the blackout. what knocked me out was that i didn't really sleep the night before.

i go over this in the vlog, but the important thing is not to avoid alcohol but to make sure that if you are going to get drunk then you don't drink heavily on an empty stomach and don't drink heavily on little sleep.

it will build up as the vlogs from the last week publish, but when i say i had almost no sleep it's no exaggeration. well, you can see it from the last few weeks. i simply haven't been sleeping well for the last few weeks. and, in fact i've only actually slept a few hours since i got home.

again: drinking is fun. sometimes. but, drinking on no sleep is dangerous.

that was a bit of a crazy week. i think i needed it as i was getting very unproductive. this week is likely to be a lot of bureaucracy. i should be more productive in a few days.

j reacts to "friendship"

friendship is a utopian abstraction.

it's no more real than love.

just more victorian bullshit. just more neo-pagan revisionism.

that's not terrible, if we can find a way to see ourselves in the mirror. the problem is not that friendship does not exist, but that we continue to idealize it.

we should be approaching the idea of friendship as a myth, and seeking to debunk and understand it using the scientific method. once we've done that, we will no doubt learn that there's more to this arrangement than concentrated self-interest.

...that altruism does exist.

that it is rational.

and that a fair society can be built upon altruism as a replacement for competition.

but, so long as we perpetuate the childishness that friendship is possible, we will continue to evade a better future.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160505140917.htm

if you want to understand the vlogosphere, read gravity's rainbow. read it anyways. but, there is a Firm back there.