Monday, November 18, 2013

idiotic (original discarded mix promoted to album mix)

when i re-recorded this, i created two versions. the first is an instrumental version with bad panning, the second is a vocal version with dumb samples designed, primarily, to mimic a skinny puppy song, rivers.

i guess i'm moving to riverz end, here. the samples make the track unlistenable. there were continuity reasons why i went with the sample version the first time around, but it was against my better judgement, even then. i should have followed my gut.

(meaning, i've placed the non-sample version where the sample version originally was and kicked the sample version out to inrijected)

recorded in aug, 1998. edited on nov 18, 2013.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/the-harsh-truth-is-that-only-idiots-wish-for-happiness-v2

dirty magic (remix/cover for inrimake)

somebody on their mailing list was putting together an offspring cover disc. this is half-serious and half tongue-in-cheek - as the band was at the time. while the reaction on the mailing list was polarized, the truth is that it's not outside of the realm of imagination to think they could have released this on smash or ixnay as an 'intermission' or something. well, minus the noise aspect, i guess.

keep in mind that this was just before 'pretty fly' was released (this was oct, that was nov), which had a large effect on the band's fan base. not to say that the offspring were an underground punk band in 1998 or anything, but they had yet to really hit that crossover audience. they were a popular punk band, rather than a punk-influenced pop band.

personally, i didn't like 'americana'. at all.

what this, here, is, is a cover of a track on their second record, ignition, which was released in 1992. even there, it stood out as a sort of a pop/rock song that wouldn't have been out of place on a police record. that's kind of why i went with it. in fact, the offspring have revisited this track themselves on multiple occasions, although i can't cite precise track names.

i think it works on a post-punk level.

recorded in september, 1998.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/dirty-magic

stupid (original album mix)

this was initially an anti-tobacco song, here converted into an anti-tobacco-and-tongue-in-cheek-pro-pot song by loading it with silly samples. there's a completely instrumental version of this i'm putting on inrijected that, in hindsight, should have been the released version.

the initial write-up stands:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/stupid

even at the time, i preferred this instrumental version (which also has an extended ending) and don't remember the logic behind including the sample/vocal version. i think i may have honestly made an error in construction and then never fixed it.

recorded in aug, 1998. edited on nov 18, 2013.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/stupid-2
so, i finish doing the dishes after making some scrambled eggs and i look down in the sink and see a little worm type of thing squiggling around.

i'm aware of the tremendous diversity that exists amongst worm species, which is why i'm curious to know what the fuck. the thing is that i've never seen this before, anywhere. harmless worm i should not be concerned about? parasite i should be extremely concerned about?

it was small, but far from tiny. about 2 or 3 cms long. definitely a worm - too thin to be a maggot. it did not change it's shape in response to stimuli (in this case a knife that was trying to kill it). nor was the knife successful in splicing it. it didn't seem to have a head, so i don't think it was a snake (and therefore a vertebrate that would be hard to chop in half). i didn't really want to let it stick around long enough to find out. i transported it to the toilet on the knife and flushed. it seemed to still be alive as it disappeared.

i spent a little time on google, and "sink worms" are actually a real thing, but they're generally described as black and extremely small. none of the pictures at all describe what i saw.

if i had to guess, it struck me as a parasite. but a parasite of what? the only thing in the sink was a green pepper that was washed and chopped, which is a process that makes it hard for parasites to come out undetected. i haven't brought any raw meat in here and probably never will.

has anybody else ever seen a feisty little worm in their sink?

i think i can safely deduce that whatever it was did not originate inside of me in any way. i didn't shit in the sink. honest.

nor did i cough in the sink. there's just no way...

...so, i'm slowly coming to the conclusion that it's not likely to have been parasitic. parasites have lots of different life cycles, but none of them land one hanging out in my sink.

i'd still like to *know* though.

bottom line is i think i should bleach my sink. can't see where else it may have come from. the green pepper thing is just...

i mean, you slice a pepper in half. you run it under the water and play with it in your hands. you take the seeds out. i surely would have seen something.

i suppose it's not impossible that i hallucinated it. i've been thinking about parasites recently. see post about smoking.

i'm trying to convince myself that it was the larval stage of a bug i see around, but i can't find anything that fits.

and i haven't seen any bugs around either, lately, for that matter. i think i kicked the roaches out by patching a few holes and leaving the lights on, and that chased the centipedes away. well, after they ate all the spiders, i guess.
"To which the 20-something laughs, having graduated into an economy where peers spend years vainly looking for a job, finding only unpaid internships or low-wage contingency labour, often while living at home. A funded graduate program, with health insurance, seems a welcome escape."

that's right. people don't go to grad school in order to get a good job. people go to grad school because they're not able to get a good job.

employers place a large amount of value on the ability of an employee to bend the rules without being caught. they want to hire the worst people they can find; the more of an asshole you are, the further you will go in the corporate hierarchy.

bookworm losers that are obsessed with outdated ideas like "truth" need not apply.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/11/surviving-post-employment-economy-201311373243740811.html

it's sort of sad to see these "protestant work ethic" arguments that plead with people to adapt and work harder rather than arguments derived from looking at actual economic data and drawing empirical conclusions.

we're undergoing an experiment in global trade. there's no reason to think this experiment will lead to permanency. it's not the end of history. for right now, capital has become mobile, creating a global labour market. this has coincided with massive mechanization, reducing the demand for labour, and incredible increases in health technology, exponentially increasing the supply. as with everything else, increases in supply and decreases in demand produce a decrease in price.

some of this is local. the price of phds has collapsed because the supply has grown faster than the demand. throw a dart in a subway, you'll hit a phd. it's nothing special anymore.

but, most of this is global. shitty wages are a function of global population growth and economic integration. if this is the game that capitalism wants to play, then workers need to respond by coming together and globalizing their resistance.

placing things on an even footing, though, only solves half the problem. ultimately, we need to take two radical truths into consideration:

(1) the most efficient means of global production, insofar as it is measured in surplus value, is not necessarily the most advantageous to local communities. local production may be less efficient, but the jobs it creates are more important.
(2) our current population is many times larger than our current labour potential. there is necessarily going to be a class of unemployed people and it is going to continue to grow. so, how does society adjust to that new reality?

consider: bangladesh just increased it's minimum wage by 77% (or something like that, the article was a little unclear). capital has threatened to get up and move. if market forces are allowed to play out, unabated, then the wage increase will need to be rolled back to reattract investment.

but if there was co-ordinated strike action throughout east asia, that couldn't happen. the threat of moving location would be met by further strike action. ideally, those striking workers would get together to force a regional labour agreement that would act as a counterbalance to the free trade agreements.

there are obstacles. first, class consciousness has to overpower nationalistic interests. second, it has to be demonstrated that self-interest is maximized through collective action. the second point is actually very easily demonstrated through a simple argument in game theory, to all who are willing to learn. classic prisoner's dilemma. third is fighting the tendency towards co-option. the labour movement needs to begin with the basic assumption that governments will never act in their interest.

if such a thing could be sustained, and global wage requirements could be met (and keep in mind that this was once a very mainstream aspect of nafta that clinton and chretien both promised), the logic of local production would reassert itself. indians producing for indians. canadians producing for canadians. trade based on comparative advantage.

the idea of canadian, european and african workers consistently striking in solidarity with asian workers may seem utopian, but it's the necessary reaction to global trade. it's the only way to reverse the currently absurd level of mobility in capital.
http://rabble.ca/news/2013/11/genocide-refugees-and-inconvenient-truth-about-harpers-boycott?utm_content=buffer9e219&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer
why are you phrasing it in terms of competition? i'm not interested in a competitive economy.

rather, the best way to create manufacturing jobs in ontario is to pull ourselves out of global trade agreements and set up a punishing tariff system.

another positive approach that can be taken is to help build solidarity movements in the developing world that will fight for higher wages and better conditions.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/11/15/political_leaders_silent_on_ontarios_on_manufacturing_woes_walkom.html
it's actually really right-wing messaging. it's distracting. i don't want to hear about the bastards in new york, i want to hear about policies that will increase average wealth. the more you start demonizing things, the less interested i become. i want workable solutions, not scapegoats.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/11/elizabeth-warren-not-ready-for-presidential-prime-time/281554/
http://www.socialist.ca/node/1978
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/11/the-slacker-torturer/
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5079
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5085
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/11/the-time-has-come-for-a-15-minimum-wage/
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/11/08/the_lgbt_global_values_gap

i wouldn't care if it did. the us constitution needs a massive rewrite.
http://fam.ag/1aAFUhp

http://jacobinmag.com/2013/11/a-teachable-mayor/
http://truth-out.org/news/item/19958-myths-of-economic-statistics
http://www.romania-insider.com/romanian-parliament-commission-says-no-to-gold-mining-at-rosia-montana-but-legislators-expected-to-draft-new-law/109285/

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/86012.aspx
http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/19763561/romania-accused-of-shady-moves-to-please-canadian-mining-firm/
http://inthesetimes.com/article/15847/mining_company_sues_canada_over_fracking_ban_in_quebec/
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/9320-dont-thank-me-for-my-service
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=8410
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/11/i-should-be-dead/

because when france says jump, the americans say how high. after they've offered them some of their freedom fries.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/11/11/iran-n11.html

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/11/10/334006/france-wrecks-p51-deal-for-arab-money/
http://rabble.ca/columnists/2013/11/moving-beyond-our-obsession-stephen-harper
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2013/11/12/Harper-Gives-Up-Sovereignty/
http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2013/11/12/bill_davis_sends_a_barbed_message_to_tim_hudak_cohn.html
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19898-why-do-we-force-human-shapes-into-inhuman-holes
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/ring-of-fire-development-requires-balance-1.2423346?cmp=rss
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/11/12/pers-n12.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/12/how-franklin-d-roosevelt-botched-social-security/
http://behindthenumbers.ca/2013/11/12/middle-class-for-sale/
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10995
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/trish-hennessy/2013/11/middle-class-could-soon-be-sale-ontario

what americans will never understand is that jfk was unstable and they killed him for the country's own good.
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/11/12/as_john_kerry_questions_official_story

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/11/13/chin-n13.html
http://fpif.org/battle-berlin-70-years-ago-month/
http://revolutioniseternal.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/parliamentary-committee-rejects-rosia-montana-law/
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/11/12/white_house_blasts_new_iran_sanctions_as_march_to_war
http://fpif.org/mistaking-omniscience-omnipotence/
http://truth-out.org/news/item/20006-breaking-pivotal-corporate-dominated-trans-parcific-partnership-section-revealed
http://www.cnas.org/southeast-asia-force-posture
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10999
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/11/13/as_new_protest_law_looms_egypt
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/11/13/criminalizing_black_corpses_no_charges_filed
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11001
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/First+Nations+kept+dark+over+massive+slurry+spill+into/9157813/story.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/13/the-supreme-court-and-neutrality-agreements/
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/14/when-falsehoods-triumph/
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/11/pelosi-its-time-to-fix-obamacare/281476/
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/11/14/tpp_exposed_wikileaks_publishes_secret_trade
http://libcom.org/blog/bangladeshi-garment-workers-win-77-pay-rise-14112013
http://fpif.org/m23-surrenders-pyrrhic-victory-eastern-congo/
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/11/14/why_saudi_arabia_hates_the_iran_deal_0
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11016
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19742-alan-greenspan-doing-his-best-to-make-things-worse
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/11/13/bran-n13.html
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11008
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/14/trade-pacts-how-super-rich-get-richer/
http://truth-out.org/news/item/20015-capitalism-and-unemployment
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/11/14/the_eye_of_the_storm_iraq_syria_kurds
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/11/15/israel_and_white_house_embroiled_in_info_war_on_capitol_hill
http://truth-out.org/news/item/20064-wikileaks-disclosure-of-trade-deal-chapter-shows-it-will-kill-people-and-internet-house-opposition-is-widespread

http://www.miningwatch.ca/article/spilled-coal-slurry-not-inert-laced-arsenic-toxic-metals-and-carcinogenic-pahs
http://behindthenumbers.ca/2013/11/15/heinz-plant-closure-throws-leamington-into-economic-shock/
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/11/15/roadmap_to_senate_reform_points_in_constitutional_direction_hbert.html

http://truth-out.org/news/item/20082-the-people-can-defeat-the-trans-pacific-partnership
http://truth-out.org/news/item/20083-obama-gets-more-time-for-iran-nuclear-deal
i've always found greg palast entertaining. this is pretty good.

the populist movement in the united states was also formed largely to fight against the gold standard. there's the famous 'cross of gold' speech. it's historically been an issue that has had a lot of success as a lightning rod in which to organize people against financiers.

but, neo-liberalism has taken us into some strange universe where everything is backwards.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/20034-rand-pauls-zombie-nomics-versus-janet-yellen
so, it's easy to put this together. the saudis are freaking out and sent their lobbyists to washington to try and take control of the situation. that saudi lobby is powerful. blah blah blah.

...but the bottom line is that the iranians have successfully squirmed out of this and the saudis are going to have to learn to deal with it.

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/11/13/john_kerrys_iran_briefing_succeeds_in_solidifying_gop_against_him
flaherty tried this once before.

at the end of mike harris' reign of terror, flaherty claimed the province was finally coming out of years of deficit.

upon analysis of the books, it was found that he was hiding an enormous shortfall.

fire sales or not, flaherty doesn't have any credibility.

(and it's not like i care if the government is in debt or not, anyways)

http://behindthenumbers.ca/2013/11/13/balanced-budget-come-hell-or-service-cuts-or-asset-fire-sales/
hillary is quite a bit to the left of obama. it's why ran obama against her, and why she won't get the nomination.

regardless, the one thing i was hoping she could come through on - health care - has been taken from her. leaving her with what purpose...?

no, honestly. now that the health care issue is safely in the hands of the insurance industry, what conceivable reason can hillary present as to why anybody should vote for her?

hrmmn?

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/11/the-dynastic-hillary-bandwagon/