i've seen enough leaks and exposes on the iaea to conclude it's hopelessly, permanently captured by the cia, and this really just sounds like a way to sucker them into handing over their detonator plans.

dad-bod means sugar-daddy. women are gaining more economic freedom every year, but the reality remains that what most attractive women over about 25 want is financial security, not sexy bodies. if you can get both, great, sure, but, otherwise, that's what the pool guy is for, right?

that's what these bros don't get. lifting is great if you're young, or if you want to be every married woman's fling. but, at the end of the day, if you really want the girl then you need to be exercising your brain and bringing in the cash.

lwAtErOnEl
Calling it "dad bod" is creepy as fuck. Do these girls think of their dads when they see them?

FutureDirector24
+lwAtErOnEl  Do guys think of their moms when they say "milf"? All milfs aren't moms, it's more of an age thing.

deathtokoalas
+FutureDirector24 it's not the same thing. milf is about the sexuality of older women - it's a process of objectification. "dad-bod" refers to the relative unimportance of sexual attraction in favour of financial security - just like daddy. as i mentioned, things are changing, but when you culturally enforce patriarchy you have to expect that young women are going to have this idea of husband as father. it's more than subconscious.

you can't draw these broad equivalences in a society that remains fundamentally unequal. it's more accurate to suggest that "dad bod" and "milf" are the opposite of each other, in terms of sexual objectification.

Joe Themig
+deathtokoalas Lol... patriarchy? Really?

Guess when they call a dad a DILF, it's just the patriarchy in action.

Tin foiled hat nonsense.

deathtokoalas
+Joe Themig if dilf was a thing, it would at least be an equivalence. it doesn't really actually make sense, though, as dads don't need to go through the rearrangement of their bodies that mothers do. but it's not actually a thing. and you can clearly see how a dad-bod is not a dilf, but the opposite of it.

Ivan Ivanovsky
+deathtokoalas  LOL! You said "patriarchy". Go back to Tumblr. Xaxaxa!  You can't blame "patriarchy" for stupid trend made popular by childish, trend-hopping western female.  This "dad bod" nonsense only became topic of conversation because stupid, childish, celebrity obsessed, American woman gushes over and promote Lenard DeCrapio's "dad bod".  The so-called mans getting on this bandwagon are of pathetic weak mans who think this is their chance for female approval. 

deathtokoalas
+Ivan Ivanovsky the empirical truth that women overwhelmingly choose financial stability over sexual desire is neither recent nor a trend. if you want women to choose muscles over money, that is short-term fun over long-term security, you need to ensure they have the financial freedom to do so, and exist within a culture that encourages independent thought. otherwise, the size of your house is going to remain sexier than the size of your chest, as the groupthink enforces the family structure.

Aaron Brown
+deathtokoalas So you sound like a feminist gold digger. Females want equal rights and to be treated fairly but yet you want the man to make the income. Sorry but that's that what equality is about. Taken from Merriam Webster- " the quality or state of being equal : the quality or state of having the same rights, social status, etc." So with that being said , according to "equality" the man is not equal in your "long-term security" plan. Stuff happens in the world. People lose jobs out of nowhere for no reason everyday. AND in case you try to say "I'm not a  gold digger" BAM! HERE YOU GO: a person who dates others purely to extract money from them, in particular a woman who strives to marry a wealthy man.

deathtokoalas
+Aaron Brown it's a conditioning thing - it's what women are taught. and mostly by men, although mom doesn't always set a good example or say the right things, here. i've stated a few times that things are changing. slowly. but the society continues to teach women to be dependent on male economic activity. breaking that cycle relies on opening up more opportunities, but all the opportunities in the world aren't going to break the cycle if the dominant christian patriarchal culture that teaches female submission isn't smashed, too.

i'm telling you how things are. i'm not endorsing this.

John Doe
+deathtokoalas The problem with your analysis is the "dad bod" trend doesn't equate with financial status.  Actually, in relative terms attractive men tend to make more money than less attractive men.  You're approaching the issue as a matter of "everything is patriarchy" in spite of the reality we don't live in a patriarchy.

A better way to look at the dad bod trend might be to examine if women are rethinking their stance towards hypergamy on a wider scale.  Perhaps women are realizing that always choosing relationships with men that are above them is responsible for a lot of women's relationships wounds.  Choosing the "dad bod" might be a step away from hypergamy towards lateral relationship choices, which numerous studies have shown make women happier.

deathtokoalas
+John Doe you're incoherent - you claim it's not financial, then claim it is. further, the studies you're citing about attractiveness and wealth tend to suffer from the flaw of being circular. it's difficult to define the term "attractive" but, in context, it usually means things like "well dressed" rather than "works out". as the primary thing that defines male attractiveness is wealth, you end up in this circular argument that resolves by reversing causality - it's not that more attractive men make more money, it's that men that make more money are more attractive.

Aaron Brown
+deathtokoalas Are you a christian....do you go to church....do you read the bible. If you answer no to any of these then your statement is just an observation you have made. I could look at a muslim who is all dressed up and assume that they are a terrorist or I could assume that that is their religion. One would be right and the other would be null. However for you to state this is literally as vague as saying a rainbow has pretty colors. Your view on christianity is warped. If you were to go to most modern christian establishmenst (Some denominations still live in the old times, yes) what you just said is irrelevent. They don't teach that women are to rely on the man for money.

deathtokoalas
+Aaron Brown i'll acknowledge that christianity does not have a single set of views; just about anything has been argued from the bible, and the result is that just about anything can be blamed on christianity.

the broader perspective is to realize that religion is never a world view in itself, but always a way to enforce a worldview. in the era of slavery, you had southern churches arguing that blacks were cursed by god some time back in the garden of eden days, and the bible demands they're enslaved....while you had christian abolitionists in the north. neither came to their positions because of christianity. rather, both used the religion to argue their point.

so, when you have these limbaugh and falwell type groups preaching their ideas of male dominance, it's perhaps worthwhile to point out that they're using the old testament statements as a means to convince somebody of something they'd try and convince them of anyways.

that doesn't change the reality on the ground that evangelical christianity produces, or the coercive nature of the social shaping that it promotes.

some milder denominations may have moved on, but, as a whole, does christianity (especially the evangelical sort) continue to push patriarchy? yes. absolutely.

Dom Ferris
How did this turn into a religous debate?

deathtokoalas
+Dom Ferris i'm not interested in a religious debate. christianity is stupid. this is a social debate.

erwin s
+deathtokoalas Islam is even worse ;-)

deathtokoalas
+erwin s they're all the same. ask anna comnena.

i'm just not sure exactly what the problem is. twerking is not pornography, so if you had done the video and sent it back he wouldn't be in possession of child pornography or whatever. you didn't feel comfortable, and you refused and that was that. the legal action is something else - but if the accusation is that you're defaming him by calling him a pedophile, he's actually pretty much correct in asking you to cease and desist (although the judge has some room for interpretation, there). it's certainly eccentric, granted. and i actually don't even know who he is. but eccentricity is not a crime. i'm not really clear about what the accusation, here, is...

Taylor Tanguay
+deathtokoalas This was never meant to be a legal accusation, at all. I will continue to use the term pedophile in the sense of its definition being an adult who is sexually attracted to people under the legal age of consent. Given that he was soliciting these images from girls strictly between the ages of 13-16, and openly said he wanted them because he was "horny", I believe that the term is used appropriately. But again, that may just be me.

deathtokoalas
+Taylor Tanguay if that's your logic, you'll certainly lose the court case - you're defining defamation and then claiming you have the right to it under the first amendment. you have to wait until he's at least charged with something before you can do that in a way that tarnishes somebody's reputation. otherwise, you're legally liable for the consequences of your speech.

fwiw, you should realize that pedophilia refers to attraction to children - that is people that have yet to hit puberty.

so,

1) you're not charging him with a crime.
2) you're suggesting he's guilty of a crime
3) you're suggesting he's guilty of a crime that does not fit the definition of what you're accusing him of.

i gather you're what, 17? that's your best defense.

Taylor Tanguay
I'm not accusing him of a crime. I have never once implied that this should be brought to court. I don't think theres any reason for the authorities to get involved in my case. The other, more invasive instances- maybe. But those are not my stories to share or problems to deal with. The only thing I want is for teenager girls to stop flocking to him.

deathtokoalas
+Taylor Tanguay i really strongly suggest you retract your accusation of pedophilia, then, because he will win if he can get the judge to grant you standing.

i just want to be clear: you have a right to tell your story, regardless of if it affects others, so long as it's true (and i don't doubt that it is).

but you don't have a right to make ambiguous or false accusations with the express intent of harming his career, which you've actually admitted to doing in this video.

because you're still a minor, you likely retain the ability to back out of this and focus solely on the first part, if you distance yourself from the second.

Taylor Tanguay
+deathtokoalas my exact quote containing the phrase in question is "he's like, straight up pedophile-ish". I would highly question anyone who took that as a legal accusation of pedophilia.

deathtokoalas
+Taylor Tanguay so, what they're going to want to prove, if they can take it to court, and they could conceivably sue your parents, is the following:

1) is the accusation false? (yes, by your own admission)
2) did you intend the accusation to create harm? (yes, by your own admission)
3) is there any financial hardship as a consequence? (yes, if he gets kicked off warp)

the cause and effect relationship is that you (or your parents) would then be liable for the financial consequences caused by the video, because it's intended to create harm.

i took three years of a law program before i got bored with it. but you don't have to - and really probably shouldn't - believe me. if you have access to legal advice, i would suggest it.

but you should be cognizant of the cause and effect relationship between any financial harm you intended to create (by your own admission) and any actual financial harm.

i would suspect a smart lawyer would ask you to cancel the petition. if sales fall after that, a causal relationship is harder to establish.

but clear malice behind a clear exaggeration and a clear causal relationship to financial harm is a very short case. the more lengthy argument is around your age.

Taylor Tanguay
what petition?? Literally all i did was post this video, AFTER the stories of him soliciting videos from other girls had went viral on twitter, and post my conversations with him online

deathtokoalas
+Taylor Tanguay well, i'd never heard of him before. this video is trending at the top of youtube; i check that fairly regularly. so, i googled him and a petition came up to get him off warp that appears to have a lot of signatures. i put two and two together...

that's a bad idea, though. if he were to sue you or anybody else, he would have to establish actual financial loss in order to win an award. if that petition goes through, he has sufficient financial loss (and clear causality) to launch a suit and win.

his lawsuit depends on the three things i outlined, and that causal link to your video(s) is absolutely necessary to establish. if that cannot be established, you would not be the right person to sue.

Erica Gene
+deathtokoalas It doesn't take nudity for something to be sexual. It isn't a matter of him simply possessing it, the issue is what he does with the videos when he has it.

deathtokoalas
+Erica Gene no. you have no right to interfere, out of some arbitrary and meaningless moral perspective. what he does in the sanctity of his own home is none of your business. it's not a matter of what he does with it, it's a matter of the legality of possessing it.

Erica Gene
Eh, okay.

Pink guy
+deathtokoalas She has every right to interfere, this is youtube not a court hearing. You obviously went to law school, but you missed the fact that if Austin is kicked off of the tour for felonious actions, and there is undeniable proof (which there is), he can not sue. He obviously will not sue, anyway, if this were a real court case, what would he say? "I got kicked off a tour because I was soliciting videos of teens twerking for sexual pleasure and I demand compensation"? The case would be thrown out immediately, and austin would be charged.

deathtokoalas
+Pink guy so, who exactly gave you the right to decide this?

there seems to be a general problem with young people nowadays, and your inability to understand the concept of due process. for some reason, you seem to think that trial by media is valid. you seem to think that these decisions are up to the general public to decide, rather than up to the court system. it's a problem that's been building for a few decades now, to the point that you all seem to just be oblivious to it.

we don't know why he was asking for those videos. that's the issue that needs to be determined in a court. that means that evidence needs to be provided, arguments need to be had and a decision needs to be come to to weigh all of these things. that's not done by talking heads in the media, or headlines in cnn. "it's obvious" is not a legal argument. depending on the context, it's actually possible defamatory.

now, if it's determined that a felony has taken place, then that's a defence in a defamation suit. until that time has come, your "undeniable proof" is merely possible evidence in a trial that never happened, and accusations that presume guilt are subject to censure and penalty. that's why you hear news reports use the word "alleged" so often - even in cases where it's "obvious".

the result is that, yes, he can say exactly what you're saying - if he can demonstrate a causal link between false statements made with malicious intent and a financial loss as a consequence of them.

in this particular case? you should realize that there's almost no chance he'd face any charges, unless he's selling the videos, basically. even if he's jerking off to the videos, that's neither paedophilia in a legal nor a clinical sense.

if it were, there'd be millions of people in jail for jerking off to britney spears and miley cyrus and ariana grand and the rest of them. that's just not a crime.

Pink guy
+deathtokoalas You forget that possession said videos of minors doing such acts is also highly illegal. OF course, no charges will be brought upon him, since he was never taken to court, but you can't deny that his actions were highly illegal, and the videos where he teaches them how to twerk would be considered "Bait"

And yes, jerking off to said videos is not pedophilia, it's ephebophilia. Which is the sexual attraction to someone between 15 and 17. Depending on which states you are in, that is highly illegal and can land you a good bit of jail time if caught in your possession.

The fact that he won't be charged is completely true, but you can't ignore the fact that what he did was illegal.

deathtokoalas
+Pink guy i'd argue it's just some kids dancing, obtained in consensual circumstances. that's neither pornography, nor is it coercive. i don't see what he could possibly be charged with.

you're allowed to disagree - that's what a trial is for. until then, statements of his guilt that may lead to financial consequences should be avoided, as they may lead to legal liability.

i want you to look up the video for "hit me baby one more time". she was seventeen 16 at the time.

this is "normal" across media. it's a part of the culture. you can argue it's gross, and i'd largely agree with you. but criminalizing this would have some pretty severe consequences.

Pink guy
+deathtokoalas Keep in mind, these were FANS that Austin manipulated and harrassed until they complied

deathtokoalas
+Pink guy he's not in any kind of position of authority or influence over them. and, even if he was, there's no meaningful consequence of asking somebody to dance on camera.

Pink guy
+deathtokoalas These girls idolized him, so of course they would keep talking to him. There was also a video where he was "I'm horny all the time and if we keep talking i'm probably gonna ask for a video", Austin admitted he used it for sexual reasons.

But this whole argument is pointless, so have a nice day <3

deathtokoalas
+Pink guy you're trying to tap into a legal argument that has to do with coercion. if you have a boss or a teacher, they may be able to coerce you into behaviour you don't really want in return for awards or to prevent consequences - like getting fired or failing a course. that's a well-tested legal argument, and i agree with the basis of it. people in authority should not use their authority to coerce people.

this argument has been extrapolated by some legal arguments to try and include the effects that celebrities may have on people. it's kind of scary to consider the ramifications of celebrity worship on such a deep level. but, it's a hail mary legal argument that doesn't usually work.

judges don't always base their decisions strictly on logic. sometimes, they look at a situation and say "this person has a lot, and this person has very little. i'm going to redistribute the wealth a little.". those decisions are usually reversed on appeal, if the appeals are granted. but, that's the kind of situation where these arguments work.

if this kid was, like, bono, or something? paul mcartney? i just mean somebody with billions of dollars, literally. another place this might come up is with a working class person suing a multi-national company. with something like that, you might see an activist judge step in and redistribute the wealth a little, out of a feeling that the billionaire can part with a little cash.

but, that's not the situation, here. as far as i can tell, this guy lives in his mom's basement. and the idea that he had some kind of coercive authority over anybody at all is not going to stand up in court.

social critics are unpopular, by definition. they seek to hold up a mirror, not to win popularity contests. they reject admiration and revel in pariah status. they're often killed by angry mobs, die penniless and dejected or even take their own lives.

i know exactly what i'm doing. you just can't see beyond the flaws in the human model of homo economicus.

the level of nonsense surrounding this story is hard to cut through, but binney is basically correct in how he's describing the spy game - which leads to the logical conclusion that the germans also have spies in the us government. obviously.

i have no indication that the state department has clued into this. but my hypothesis on what's going on is that snowden (and probably a few people involved with wikileaks) is the obvious spy connected to that clearly existing german intelligence network.

i think that what's happening here is a controlled leak by the germans (without american knowledge or approval) to create a crisis with the goal of reducing american influence in germany, and western continental europe generally.

which answers the question as to why they're spying in the first place.

the bear is pretending to be tough - bluffing, essentially. these tourists are not being chased. bears are generally too lazy to chase much of anything. they're just being given a spook so she can walk through with her cubs. and the cubs frankly look like they're enjoying the excitement...

these people are consequently in no danger, so long as they keep back like they're being herded to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jQd9-aBp6E

the tories went up a few seats, but i'd suggest this is a turnout issue. the snp may have picked up some seats from labour, but the swing seems to be mostly from the liberals. there does not appear to have been significant movement towards or away from either of the traditional governing parties - suggesting that they command older voting bases and are unpopular with younger voters.

rather, there seems to have been a large swing from the lib dems to the ukip, among young people. that might not make sense on first thought, but it does. every country has this "protest vote". in the united states, it's called "independent". in canada, it tends to swing around between the ndp, the greens and the liberals (and often decides elections). this protest vote is not strongly ideologically aligned, but merely against whatever exists. since wwII, it's tended to lean left in most places outside of the us, but there's no reason to think that ought to be static.

what this indicates is a strong rightward shift in the british counterculture, especially amongst young people. should that trend continue, the liberals will be replaced with the ukip. it might not have a direct electoral consequence, but it indicates a cultural swing to the right. and that should be concerning to everybody.

publishing la la la la (inri062)

inri043 completed.

--

this was meant to be the last rabit is wolf track, but instead morphed into the first trivial group song. this single explores the track from various angles.

sean wanted a song that just went "lalalala". i think his intent was to try and simplify my thought process, because what i'd been doing sounded more like FTIeikdTY7isdD7E5dk!. he was just kind of like "how about.....lalalala.".

it got a bit of an eye roll from me, as you could imagine, but i played with it. he wasn't really that excited about what i did, and it just didn't move forward. there were no further sessions, as he became interested in working with a more conventional early 00s "emotional hardcore" (think at the drive in) style guitarist and i got very involved in a relationship.

despite his initial suggestion, i'd consider the result to clearly be of my own doing. so, i took the core of what i did and warped it into the first track on the reflections symphony. this track has lain dormant since, comfortably completed.

it's now 2015, and i'm completing my discography. that puts this track in a blurry space: it was completed, but not as initially intended. while there may have been a vocal part recorded, i don't have it any more. yet, the intention is clear enough - and the manipulation would have been thick enough - that i do not consider it to be invasive to complete it on my own.

i'm releasing it as rabit because it's collaborative in the abstract, despite sean not actually existing in the track. this track was written in late 2002 and completed over april and may, 2015. final completion date is may 11, 2015. as always, please use headphones.

credits:
j - guitar, effects, bass, drum programming, soundscaping, sound design, sampling, vocals, vocoders, digital wave editing

sean - lyrical concept

released november 15, 2002

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/la-la-la-la

reflections (string orchestra mix)

as mentioned, i was going to do an orchestral mix, but decided against it in favour of a chamber mix. the chamber mix got a bit too big to be a chamber mix, so it's a string orchestra mix.

the major reason i'm uploading this is that the skittered up, glitchy percussion at the end transfers over well to pizzicato strings, creating a rather wonderful mess.

this render is from may 11, 2015.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-string-orchestra-mix

reflections (percussion mix)

this is a purely percussive mix, mapping the instruments to things like marimbas and vibraphones and glockenspiels. render from may 9, 2015.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-percussion-mix

reflections (homemade percussion mix)

this version is for piano, claps, bowls, pens, tables and some effects. it's mixed to sound like it's in an open room. the idea is to isolate and highlight the strange percussion choices in the original/final mix. so, this isolates the weird percussion in the track. constructed on may 9, 2015.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-homemade-percussion-mix

reflections (soundblaster mix)

so, the soundblaster version of this track is done, and uploaded both to thru (47) and refractions (46). this completes the first disc of 47, which is likely to be finished completely tomorrow.

i've got some extra ideas for remixes for 46, but it shouldn't be a really lengthy job.

written and recorded in early 2003. transcribed, slightly rearranged, remixed and re-rendered over may, 2015. this render is from may 9, 2015.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-4


https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-completed-soundblaster-mix

the idea that we're going to collectively sit down and think everything through before we do it is naive - we'd need to be gods for that. or maybe bees. we're going to act before we think. the thinkers are left with a responsibility to devise ways to minimize the damage from this. i think that this was closer to what marx was trying to get across, this idea that philosophers need to get out in front of the mob and try and have some influence over it before they start pitchforking each other. which, was actually somewhat of an obvious observation, coming out of the french revolution and failed revolts of the nineteenth century. lots of angry people. no coherent thought. and, isn't that actually the same problem we face today?

faced with this inevitability of people running amok one way or another, there's no other real answer. marx was just being logical. this is smelly, utopian-type thinking.

and, i think this is why marx' economic determinism is so attractive, despite being determinism. the robots are almost here, and they promise a master/slave relationship without a victim.

it's the last thing a disillusioned post-marxist wants to hear in 2015. especially from an empirical driven anarchist. but wait for it.

broadly speaking, the americans are pushing the same points the british empire was pushing 150 years ago. and the intelligentsia wants to tell you the era of empires is over...

i just hope they searched johnny boy and his cabal for opium on the way in, and specified he not arrive by gunboat.

he's not lying when he points out that the us doesn't want a conflict in the region - or at least not until it sets up it's toys. this is stalemate by necessity, not by choice. likewise, it always makes me laugh when they talk about chinese pressure on north korea - as though the dear leader wouldn't have to deal with the people's army crossing that old river again should he do anything idiotic, for the precise reason that they don't want anybody else thinking about it.

it's just not clear to my why they need the bravado. it's not like anybody really takes it seriously. it would simply come off as delusional, if i didn't know better.

you know what else is funny about this developing mess, though? i don't think a second strike is likely from china. not that i think this is a serious concern, i'm just musing.

this whole mad thing? i don't think they'd do it. they'd just take the hit as population control, go underground and wait it out. and, then you're dealing with some interesting trade relations.

the senate today passed a bill blocking imports from china due to fears of radiation. 'cause, you know. we just nuked 'em.

veterans are mostly murdering scumbags, and i fully support spitting on them. in fact, i fully support trying the bulk of them for war crimes and publicly executing them. and i'd support deporting the ones that get acquitted; i don't want veterans in my community, as they're a threat to public safety. the exception is conscription-era veterans, because they didn't have a choice. however, if they're walking around like they're proud of it, they're fair game.

these people don't solve problems, they create them.

hey, hey, nicholas connole, how many iraqi children did you kill today?

you don't think google wants to let you move your traffic to twitch, do you?

reflections (original soundblaster mix)

this is the 2003 version, which is special due to the greater focus in the mix on the skittery choir parts.

written and recorded in early 2003. transcribed, slightly rearranged, remixed repeatedly and re-rendered repeatedly over may, 2015. this render from may 7, 2015.

reflections (punk sonatina mix)

this is the original program, for piano, synth and strings. it has a more minimal feel.

written and recorded in early 2003. this render is from 2003.

reflections (windows mix)

the windows xp software synth rendered this rather differently than the old soundblaster, which just gives it a different flavour. of specific note is the guitar section at the end, which comes out sounding bowed.

written and recorded in early 2003. transcribed, slightly rearranged, remixed repeatedly and re-rendered repeatedly over may, 2015. this render from may 7, 2015.

actually, i think it'd be great to see the united states send a clear and unambiguous message that it doesn't care about religion.

at all.

the hypocrisy here is just astounding. how does this guy keep getting somebody to put a microphone in front of him? oh, that's right - it's his own microphone.

the ndp campaigns on the left and governs on the right. expect them to actually build refineries in alberta, so they can export refined product. the unions have been pushing for this for years. lots of jobs there.

but, see, i'm an actual environmentalist. and a total communist. and i want to keep it in the ground altogether. carbon tipping points and what not. i'd argue that short term jobs are less important than the environment, in the long run. i don't pretend the ndp agree with me on any of these points, and essentially nobody protesting on the ground is fooled by them...

you see the same political position show up in the federal ndp's pipeline politics. it's unifor driven, ultimately. they support the route out east - because there's refinery jobs out there, at the end of it. they oppose the keystone, because they view it as shipping refinery jobs to texas.

it has nothing to do with the environment. it just has to do with extracting wealth in the most selfish way possible. unions can never disassociate themselves from capital, or work against it. their self-interest is the same as the board's, it's just a question of who benefits most from it. the revolutionary left has largely realized this since malatesta. which was a long time ago.

so, yes, you should go ahead and relax and keep calm and vote ndp - if you're happy with the status quo.

garrtw
+deathtokoalas well when is ezra levsnt running for PC?

deathtokoalas
+garrtw maybe in the northwest territories.

garrtw
+deathtokoalas just sayn he love running his mouth off alot but we he ever run for oilberta!

deathtokoalas
+garrtw i hear what you're saying, but it's not at all likely. it would have to be a pretty obscure party or, more likely, as an independent. his media career has not been very successful, for the precise reason that he says a lot of stupid things. for that reason, none of the parties that seek to be mainstream are likely to pick him up. he's too much of a loose cannon. i wouldn't expect any kind of major conservative or progressive conservative party at the federal or provincial level to endorse his nomination.

he'd probably have to start in municipal politics.

i mean, you run him in a safe seat and you risk galvanizing the opposition, and losing that base of centrist support that votes a certain way for cultural reasons. those western ridings out in the sticks aren't really 80% hard-right conservative, it's more that the voting decisions runs in the family. no seat is completely safe. some seats are low risk so long as it's nothing too thought provoking.

you run him in an impossible seat, and you risk blowback. say what you want about the ruling party, but they're not known to take crazy risks like this, and i don't see any reason why they'd need to change that at this point. they've kept him at an arm's distance for a reason - his purpose is to try and shift the spectrum. which means he's outside of it.

what harper needs to be worried about this election is the possibility of one of the two other parties collapsing into the other, at which point it's a rout one way or the other. and, to try and prevent that, he needs to be appealing to the middle - not the fringes of his support base.

he's too taboo at this point. if he had electoral ambitions, he fell on his sword to take that sun media job - the purpose was to provoke, which he must have known would make him unelectable.

garrtw
+deathtokoalas but he still use sunmedia headlines so it that fair oops!

deathtokoalas
+garrtw generally, if you want to run for office as a conservative, you don't want to brand yourself as a 'rebel'. that's not going to win you friends in the pmo. i don't think he's really thinking about it...

...and, i wouldn't really criticize him for that, either. there's lots of reasons to criticize him, but not that. about the last thing i'd want to do is run for office. i think it's far more productive to criticize from a distance, and try to provoke non-governmental action. nothing gets done in the government anymore. it's just a rubber stamp for corporate and other special interests.

wow.

green party is the opposition?

no. wildrose. ok...

it's nice to see, but i'm a realist...

i'd suggest the ndp focus on legislation that they don't expect the wildrose party to immediately reverse, in what will no doubt be a short tenure in office, and likely actually represents the final conversion of hybrid american/british albertan conservatism into the indigenous wildrose party.

that said, i expect the ndp to actually swing to the right pretty quickly. "campaign from the left, govern from the right" is generally thrown at the liberals by leftists, but the ndp have proven themselves equally capable of backstabbing - look at the recent administrations in manitoba and nova scotia. bob rae was so corporate-friendly that he actually pushed ontario unions to the liberals (before he followed himself...), and the ndp never recovered from it. today, they even campaign on the center-right, fully cognizant of the reality that nobody on the left takes them seriously.

this has been a long time coming, and that might make what's about to happen that much more depressing. but ndp supporters should prepare themselves for broken promises - and open heart surgery.

if you're trying to use string theory to argue the existence of god, you're merely demonstrating that mathematics is a human construction.

the god you're perceiving is us.

which isn't that ironic, really. it's more just expected.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/do-we-have-free-will-because-god-committed-suicide

ugh. it's going to get ugly down here when the humidity picks up. i'm going to drive the temperature down here up to 35, and hope he keels over.

it's may 5th - a good seven weeks before summer. the high today is 12 degrees, with a cool wind from the north. it's gloomy and overcast. it's a cold, yucky day. and, yet the air conditioner is on upstairs, seemingly set to around 10.

the result is that i have the heat set to 25, i'm wearing two sweaters and yet i'm still cold.

i've been trying to understand how the thermostat can say 25 degrees, and yet i'm shivering. it has to just be what a/c units do to the air. they suck all the good parts out, leaving the no good parts. the thermostat might say something, but it doesn't reflect the actual air quality. i mean, there's a difference between 25 with a cool wind, 25 with humidity and 25 with a dry, bright sun, right? the thermostat says the same thing in all cases, but it can run the spectrum from 'need a sweater' to 'sweating profusely'.

air conditioners are a special kind of evil in what they do to the air, though. they'd steal the oxygen right out of it if they could - vampires. you get one of these units running, and there's just nothing good left in what you're living in.

the frustrating thing is that it's actually too cold outside to open the window. i have no option but to crank the heat.

well, it might seem surreal to hear it in 2015 2014, but fordism has definitely proven itself better than it's considered alternatives. it's maybe a set of low expectations, but it's about as good as reformism is going to get. and it would help a lot. seriously.

ok, i like his rejection of trickle down, and promotion of tax cuts for law wage workers. that's something you don't hear enough. considering it's the most fucking obvious thing in the world.

this is such a joke...

the germans have been aware of this for decades - it's why they want into the core of the system. and exactly why the american's will not let them into the core: the americans would be daft to not spy on them, and even dafter to fully trust them.

the germans are sneaky, run the only serious competition to the dollar, and appear to be involved in more of the events we see happening around us than we realize.

and, despite the optics here, germany will eventually step in line: because they couldn't begin to pretend that the spying isn't necessary.

no. no. germany is not an ally of america. it is a tributary of america. a client state.

it would prefer sovereignty.

he demonstrates a lot of respect for the tactical nature of zia's leadership, but he lets on that this is a myth: if zia's ultimate plan was to move into india (and this does appear to be true), invading afghanistan in the first place was not a smart choice.

1) large loss of resources, money, etc.
2) if successful, it would have eliminated the buffer zone between pakistan and the soviets, virtually guaranteeing catastrophic (to pakistan) soviet interference in an indo-pakistani conflict.

if he was actually smart, tactically, he would have left afghanistan as an unstable mess as he focused further to the south. and, if i were india, coercing him into afghanistan would actually be something i'd actively aim towards.

the web of intercontinental alliances surrounding the conflict on the subcontinent has created a sort of MAD scenario. the mutual deterrents are actually very stabilizing, in terms of deescalating clashes between official military arms. i wouldn't expect these covert "terrorist" operations to cease any time soon, but the idea that they could ever lead to large scale war is just a misunderstanding of what these tactics are; terrorism and insurgency are the conventional workaround to the impossibilities of actual war in the nuclear era. when you see these tactics increase, it signals that the nuclear option is understood to be off the table.....

odsp drug coverage / transgender medication not covered

hi...

i'm contacting you about the issue of hormones being covered under the odsp drug benefits. whether i agree with the reasons or not (cosmetic, not medical), i understand why that this has not traditionally been covered. and i understand that it's something that is probably still a little touchy in certain circles. however, i think the current liberal majority is the type of government that is likely to throw off certain stigmas attached to the issue, that it will probably even generate broad public support, and it's something progressive forces should consequently be taking the opportunity to move a little on. you are my mp, so i'm approaching you as a first point of contact.

i've been taking hormones for years, and have been able to cover the cost for one of three drugs while the province covers the cost of the other two. i've interpreted this as "it could be worse", but the price just went up a lot and it's provided me with an incentive to try and get it covered. i understand that there's a procedure to go through to ask for an exception, but i think it really just ought to be changed altogether.

the three drugs are a progesterone, an estrogen and a testosterone blocker. the province covers the testosterone blocker because it's used to treat men that have difficulties with sexual impulses - rapists and child molesters. it covers the progesterone because it can be used as a menopause treatment. further, it will cover some types of estrogen that are used in birth control, but the doses are far too low to be useful to me.

should i really have to rely on a legal loophole for sex offenders when i have a diagnosed medical condition, and the prescription i need is approved for other uses? this condition is deeply intertwined with mental health issues. it's generally consistent in the canadian legal framework to ensure access to this kind of thing, when it intersects with issues of well being. i know i'm on the right side with this.

again: i understand why this would have been difficult twenty years ago. but, i think the society has matured enough around this issue that this medication should be interpreted by odsp as medically necessary, and consequently covered under the circumstances of my diagnosis - rather than the loophole i'm currently forced to accept. and, i think the current government provides an opportunity to move on this.

jessica

publishing reflections (inri074)

i've also uploaded an ep from 2003, untouched, as inri049. tracks 1-5 are what i consider to be my fifth symphony.

===

around october, 2002 i met a friend. i was sort of in need of a friend, and i mean that in the friend sense. but, the mental condition i was in was the explanation of why i needed a friend, if you see what i mean; i was completely unstable in this period and did all kinds of absurd things, which isolated me - and i wasn't getting any better.

i dropped out of school under the realization that i was walking down a path that wasn't getting me anywhere close to what i wanted out of life. i ended up working three jobs to raise money for gender reassignment, and it crossed me paths with somebody that was also trying to think of ways to get out of the box in terms of ways to exist.

she was trying to save up money to go to british columbia. it was some kind of warped take on the grapes of wrath, where everything works out perfectly. but, the rent was eating into her savings, which was making the goal seem impossible. well, unless we stopped having fun.

so, i suggested she should just stay at my parents place. part of it was a hope that she would move her drum kit in, although that didn't happen. and, i might add that this was done with all of the reckless abandon that could be contemplated - we were moving stuff in without even asking, it was really remarkable.

and, it seemed to me that we were getting pretty close over that period.

so, when the time came that she had all that money put aside to go to bc, it was kind of a downer to let her go. and, she initially wanted to go with a friend who dropped out. so, i ended up going across the country with her.

now, i need to be clear: we weren't planning on coming back. we were going to pick fruit or something - we didn't know, exactly, we'd figure it out when we got there.

so, this was meant as a sort of farewell to certain people i hadn't talked to in months and didn't care if i was leaving, anyways. i think it let me work some things out on weird subconscious levels, but the truth is that these songs really aren't about anybody except me, and there's no use in pretending they are - i just liked the idea of a farewell disc.

this disc was initially passed around with a cut up version of the pretentious untitled mix at the end, but this was almost immediately ejected from future burns and is not present on this ep due to the poor quality of the mix. the remaining five tracks became combined into what i now call my fifth symphony. a slightly remixed version will appear on the trivial group double lp.

written and recorded in late 2002 and early 2003. this was uploaded unmodified from a cd-r rip in may, 2015. symphony 5. as always, please use headphones.

credits:
j - guitar, effects, bass, synth, voice, piano, drum programming, generative programming (sounder), granular synthesis, sound design, soundscaping, loops, bowls, claps, tables, ebow, orchestral sequencing, digital wave editing, sampling, production, composition

the various rendered electronic orchestras include piano, synth pad, choir and string section. 

released may 1, 2003

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/reflections

publishing flying (inri064)

this was constructed as a christmas present for my partner, while in a rather absurd state of entirely preposterous euphoria. only a musician can be so absurdly invested in something so thoroughly delusional - or manage to create something so entirely self-reflective out of a theme surrounding somebody else.

the first part of this was shelved before it was ever released. i was over-exaggerating a sense of self-consciousness, but it still strikes me as unworkable. however, i think it's conceptually important in the idea of this as a christmas present and has consequently been uploaded here without modification. the second part was actually presented to sarah as a present, albeit it a little after christmas - hence the jan 1 release date. it eventually found it's way to the center of my fifth symphony, reflections: jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/reflections

these tracks were written and recorded over november and december of 2002 and uploaded, unmodified, in may of 2015. this will be a download only release. as always, please use headphones.

credits:
j - guitar, effects, bass, synth, piano, drum programming, light-sound synthesis (coagula), generative programming (sounder), granular synthesis, sound design, digital wave editing, production, composition 

released january 1, 2003

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/flying

publishing jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj^2 (inri063)

i've just finished my sixth lp.

--

the idea of a second jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj record was not something that remotely crossed my mind until i started seriously analysing my work from 2002. that was a separate idea; rabit is wolf separated it from the trivial group. however, remixed instrumental tracks over the rabit is wolf period slowly collected to the point that there was enough to justify a whole record. that wasn't a conscious choice at the outset, but it seems to be the conceptual framework collected on the record. i toyed with the idea of releasing it as a rabit remix record, but my influence over it is far too lopsided.

the thematic linkage with the first jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj record is a tendency to lean towards more "serious" ideas. there are strong influences from a few different types of classical music, including jazz, as well as some more modern electronic and noise influences. however, these songs lean more towards more palatable rock or techno based song structures and are less dependent on existing scores.

the stories for these songs are diverse and explained in more detail on the track pages.

these tracks are all based on existing demos from 2001-2002 that were initially intended to be completed with vocal parts and were remixed from july, 2014 to may, 2015 as purely instrumental recordings. final completion date is may 2, 2015. as always, please use headphones.

credits
j - electric & acoustic guitars, electric bass guitar, effects, synths, electric air reed organ, digital piano, flute, voice, electronic drum kit, drum programming, drum manipulations, drum sampling, orchestral sequencing, sampling, loops, equalization, digital wave editing, sound design, production, composition.

the various rendered electronic orchestras include tuba, french horn, trombone, trumpet, english horn, saxophone, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, flute, orchestra hit, melodic toms, timpani, orchestral drum set, piano, agogo, tubular bells, glockenspiel, koto, violin, viola, cello, contrabass and various full string sections. it also includes choir.

other musicians:
sean - harmonica (2), melody (6)
greg - drum performance sample source (4)

released december 1, 2002

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj-2

he forgot japanoize.

shame.

never heard of this person, don't care.

nobody knew the driver was drunk?

i'd say it's pretty clear...

the pickup truck did the right thing in slowing the camaro down, until it could sober up or otherwise smarten up. 100% responsibility goes to the camaro - you can't pass on the outside like that. not when you're sober. not when you're doing a fraction of the speed.

"mmmmmmom...come on...all the other kids are rioting. it's no fair."

"freddy who? i'm just trying to impress a girl. the other boys are being all tough. they're going to call me a pussy, and then she'll think i'm beta. that other guy has broken three cars already."

in the long run, the key to stopping this is largely economic. in the short run, it's probably not going to be fixed with parenting or policing. rather, young women ought to pick up a tactic from the ancient greek comedy lysistrata.

so long as the cause and effect relationship is made clear, that'd get these young boys under control. in the mean time? the plain truth is that tactics that are successful are going to continue.

it's going to be nice this weekend, which you'd think might get me out. but, rather, i need to stay home and make sure the windows stay open. the fellow above me carries roughly thrice the weight of the average individual and will turn the basement into a meat locker should he be allowed to, in order that the temperature upstairs stay below 20. that's what happens when you're grossly obese.

it's summer. you want the temperature above 20. so, fuck that guy. maybe he should move to baffin island. or hit a treadmill. i learned last year that i need to get out in front of this if i don't want to be shivering in june - i've had the heat cranked the last two days, and will have the windows wide open so long as it's over 20 (and cranked over night, when it's below 20). that may actually take the temperature in here down a degree or two until the humidity picks up, but the key is to break the seal on the air conditioner upstairs. he's either going to freeze me out or i'm going to fry him out. i need the space in the short term, but i might not in the long term. i can handle everything else about this place in exchange for cheap rent, but i hate the idea of being cold all summer.

i mean, he can't win. not unless we skip summer this year. 35 degree humidity pouring in from the basement 12 hours a day will break his air. too bad. so sad....

what i'm missing is the "blowout" in detroit, but i'd argue i'm not missing much. this magazine is focusing on an aspect of detroit that is too mainstream for my tastes. as for touring bands, i'll check out perfect pussy at some point - although i'm more excited about white lung next month. tonight, they're playing in a mall. it's going to feel awkward and sound terrible. i'll hold out for a small bar with a lower ceiling. if it were a different band, i might feel different about the venue, but this is a bad combo. tomorrow is fucked up, but i've seen them enough to know they do short sets, which is going to end the show at 11:40 and get me stuck in ferndale until 7:00 again. not excited about that for a $20 entry fee. i'll wait until they play somewhere i can walk back to the tunnel with...and they will....

the likely next show is may 6th, but i'm iffy about it. it seems like an early show. we'll see where my head is.

the only feasible way for this guy to exist in the temperature he wants is to not live above anybody. nobody is going to want to live in a 15 degree basement over the summer so the obese guy in the upstairs apartment doesn't break a sweat. he could/should have moved into the empty unit on the other side over the winter - there's nobody under him, there. i hinted at it, but he didn't listen. *shrug*.

la la la la (instrumental mix)

this mix was reconstructed from the 2002 source material in april, 2015 and slightly remixed in the process. track dated to april 30. 2015.

http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/la-la-la-la-instrumental-mix

just about any natural phenomena would exist in more than one location. and the asteroid belt is prime colonizing space. i think there’s good reason to think this is legit.

i just hope it’s not the russians…

“in communist ceres, aliens find you!”

"vasilli want know who won 1972 summit series, been cheering for motherland since."

i wonder if the spectroscopy on it is consistent with it possibly being earth junk.

so, when is he launching airstrikes on baltimore? vlad can't stop him this time....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2BhRH-Y28c

i think you realize it, but you're letting some cultural racism get to you. the truth is white people do the same shit when they go out and protest - check out some footage from seattle (1999) or quebec city (2003).

there's lots of thinking that it might even be "state provocateurs" responsible for the violence, although what i've seen out of baltimore suggests the average protester's age is roughly 17....

she's right - you come down on them with batons, you make things worse. a lot worse. property can be replaced. hopefully, she also sets up some kind of rebate system for people without insurance in order to socialize the losses.

you middle class white suburbanites don't understand what you're dealing with, or the potential consequences if it gets out of control. be happy they've got a smart black woman in charge, instead of a trigger happy white macho doofus.

regardless of who escalated the situation, the reality is that serious political protests aren't organized by high school students. this is an issue - violence between youth and police - that is going to escalate all over the continent, and in europe as well. this is systemic. it's inevitable. and it's worth attention. but i don't think it has the slightest thing to do with police brutality, or systemic racism, or anything else to do with freddy gray. it has to do with technological unemployment.

this is a discussion that often arises in protest movements: is property damage an effective means of protest? after a debate or exchange, the two sides tend to agree to disagree under an ideological position called diversity of tactics.

my own position is that i don't think it's productive, and in most cases it's ideologically inconsistent with a rejection of property rights. i've never been in the situation where i'm standing beside somebody that smashed in a window. but, i think i'd be likely to yell at the person until they agree to reverse the damage. if i knew the person, i'd bug them for years until it got done. i'd argue that tort law is the ideal way to deal with issues of damage to personal property, or attacks on collectively owned property.

that said, i'd support the tactic if i thought it had some positive end point. consider smashing through a holding cell, for example. or destroying some carefully calculated political photo op.

as many others have pointed out, this is counter-productive and very difficult to spin in a positive manner.

but, i want you to take a close look at the participants. they're children. and, i'd suspect few really understand the issue. perhaps children looting a 7/11 is just that. nor should you be surprised when they steal slurpees and chocolate bars. they're kids.

this is a big deal, certainly. but i don't see a political protest. i see kids out of control.

it does make sense in context. the class divisions in the country are pretty dramatic right now, and wealthy whites are legitimately concerned about violent revolts by the working class. a lot of it is racialized, but the video seems to be more about class. consider ferguson, or even occupy.

you might be on to something, but you're misreading it. as capitalism collapses, the wealthy have every reason to be concerned about riots. and those riots may very well happen as a result of mass unemployment. and we may very well get a police state out of it...

whenever i see these bombing videos, i'm struck by how obvious it is that these targets are not related to isis.

sometimes it's hard to tell what they're hitting. other times it isn't, and they're hitting targets that are obviously military in nature: hangars, barracks, etc. some of the targets seem to be farms, and are likely covers for something else.

you see the same thing in syria. these targets were not built by isis - they're often clearly several decades old, and often clearly military in nature.

so, what are they actually doing? are they purposefully abolishing the military infrastructure in these countries? and why?

the easy way out is that they've been taken over by isis. but hangars and barracks in the middle of nowhere are not exactly strategic for a group without aircraft that seeks to control the transit points. you could probably find me an example where this is true, but the claim that this is true, generally, is rather dubious.

what i'm struck by when watching this guy is how boring he is. sure, sometimes that what's you want out of this position. but i think it might be part of the reason obama's presidency has been worse than lame duck.

"we think they should pass our common sense immigration reform". then, they pan to the cameras and everybody's eyes are just glazed over. it's ultra-paradoxical. it's like the advertising people only got halfway through the material on transmarginal inhibition, and missed the most important part.

when i hear somebody like josh use the word "common sense" over and over again, it convinces me that the legislation must be insane. it's not specifically that i don't trust the government, although i don't. it's any kind of advertising. when the deodorant company tells me it smells like fresh ocean air twice every break, i'm left to conclude it must smell like anything but it. the more often you repeat something, the more convinced i am that you're lying.

so, how is the press reacting to this? twofold.

1) if you're apolitical or democrat leaning, it's code for "boring".
2) if you're to the right or left of the administration, it's code for "completely irrational and unpassable".

so, what kind of press do you get out of that? bad press, if any. and, nothing passes.

if i was this guy, i'd be playing everything up. i'd be talking about how our radical legislation is going to change washington forever. people would then assume we're playing up something boring and expect it to pass easily - pushing the impetus to the other side.

publishing untitled (inri061)

inri042 completed.

--

this is the second of two double ep singles to come out of tracks that were begun in 2002 and not completed to my liking. the mixes in this single chart this song's rather elaborate development over twelve and a half years, with the first disc consisting of new mixes and the second consisting of old mixes.

it became clear through the course of july that rabit is wolf wasn't really going anywhere and i was better off cutting my losses. we jammed a few times, but it wasn't really serious.

this track was initially written as a folk punk song, but i jumped to the scorewriter with it almost immediately. the expanded guitar demo was written in a scorewriter and then performed, rather than vice versa. it was initially less about explicitly creating a techno song and more about ordering the parts in a way that could be deconstructed more effectively. i wanted a more flexible approach to production that would allow me to take tracks in and out based on sean's input.

i may have gone over this in this space before, but my mixing process up to that point was considerably unconventional. i would record tracks in one by one using a wave editor and then paste them on top of each other. i worked this way because i just didn't have more advanced tools. while there are benefits to this approach (it's additive synthesis, which blurs the mix for soundscaping), it meant that each additional track was destructive. i could not remove tracks once they were added. this meant sean was unable to provide much input into demos i sent to him.

i also picked up a copy of cakewalk to help with this, but i quickly learned that my system couldn't really handle it. at around eight tracks, it just became unresponsive. with less than eight tracks, it didn't matter if the mix was destructive because it was easily reconstructed. so, i went back to the wave editor approach until 2007, when i upgraded to a modern pc.

the taiko drum part was initially just to keep time; it wasn't supposed to be a part of the song. but, as i built it up i began to realize how interesting it sounded as a techno tune and sort of ran with it. once i'd notated it, i had to convert the drums into a soundscape because the midi render just wasn't good enough. this was done using a mix of software drum machines, midi snippets and isolated jimmy chamberlain samples. i then performed the score i had notated, with the exception of a few synths which were sequenced back. unfortunately, the midi file for the synth build up at the beginning of the track has been lost.

the mix never came out well, partly due to ram issues with cakewalk and partly because i got a little pretentious with some of the parts. i was also extremely distracted over this period. despite this all being done to make sean's input more easily integrated into the material, he had no interest in the direction i took it and basically put his nose up at it again. i attempted a few different things over late 2002 and early 2003 to try and salvage it for my own purposes, but in the end i shelved it as unworkable.

when i first set up the bandcamp site around 2010, i realized i had a collection of tracks that fit a sort of techno-guitar description and compiled them together under the name "tetris" (jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/tetris). i uploaded an incomplete mix for that project, but it was never really done and i never really felt good about it.

it wasn't until late 2014 that i came back to the track, to authoritatively finish my discography. first, a mix was reconstructed from source to include all of the existing sound files. next, three separate sequencer mixes were sculpted out of the score - a jazz fusion mix, an overture mix and an ambient mix. pieces of these sequencer mixes were then isolated and mixed into the reconstructed original mix. finally, a series of extra lead guitar parts were recorded and mixed separately into a final mix and the orchestral mix, creating the end result and an accompanying guitar concerto. the recording process for this was very lengthy, which was ironically partly due to consistent distractions.

i've included the midi file of the original composition, if you'd like to mess with it on your own.

written over the summer of 2002 and initially recorded in the early fall of 2002. additional recording, production and mixing occurred from dec, 2014 to apr, 2015. final completion occurred on april 27, 2015. as always, please use headphones.

credits
j - guitars, effects, bass, synthesizers, drum sampling, drum programming, sequencing, sound design, soundscaping, digital wave editing

the various rendered electronic orchestras include electric bass, synth bass, distorted electric guitar, clean electric guitar, acoustic guitar, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, harp, koto, french horn, trombone, trumpet, tuba, english horn, flute, oboe, piccolo, clarinet, bassoon, synthesizers, piano, glockenspiel, music box, tubular bells, bells, agogo, melodic toms, timpani, taiko drum, orchestral drum set and choir.

released september 15, 2002

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/untitled

untitled (guitar concerto)

this takes the orchestral mix and expands it into a guitar concerto.

track completed april 27, 2015.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/untitled-guitar-concerto-mix

i don't understand why facebook doesn't allow a straight feed option. i *do* understand that the algorithms are meant to try and guess what i want to see, and discard what i don't; i *don't* understand why facebook thinks this is a good idea, or why it thinks there's any end point to this besides absolute failure. i'm estimating i'm getting roughly 20% of my feed, and the algorithm is giving me what i'm least interested in.

for example, it seems like the algorithm is maximizing what's closest. it's concluding that i live in canada, and windsor, so it maximizes stuff in canada/windsor and minimizes stuff in detroit/america. but i never told it to do that. and i'd never tell it TO do that. if it were up to me, i'd minimize stuff in windsor and maximize stuff in detroit - because windsor is the most boring place on earth, relative to what my interests are.

now, that's just the most obvious thing that's coming up. it also seems to want to alter the feed based on interaction. which means that if you like reading posts from a source, but don't interact much with them, then they might disappear. again, i never told it to do that. and i'd never tell it TO do that. just because i'm not clicking "like" or responding to comments doesn't mean i don't want the feed - and the idea that this makes any sense is flat idiocy.

i really need to put a call out to show organizers to get off this service. it's become entirely useless. you're not getting through to the audience you think you are. i know there's a few dedicated concert sites like eventful, but they're sparsely utilized and largely decentralized. i don't know what the answer is. but i know this has no way forward..

the answer isn't better development. there's no algorithm that's going to be useful. the answer is to stop thinking you can guess what i want in the feed, and just let me tell you. but these corporate conglomerates don't understand the idea of individualism. that's not going to happen. this is just going to get more and more absurd until people abandon it.

i just kind of can't get what's going through these guys' mind, other than that they're viewing it as some kind of display of wealth. i mean, it's coercive, sure - but in a way that is more repulsive than convincing. if i were to get proposed to like that, i'd basically never talk to the guy again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22ec8o7p2bI

thought

To: glenn.greenwald@theintercept.com

hi.

i was watching some news reports on the large amounts of personal communication in the snowden leak, and a thought crossed my mind. now, before i start i want to point out that i'm aware of the invasiveness of my suggestion and just leave it at that.

a lot of people have noticed that this leak didn't get the reaction that was maybe hoped for - that the public forgot about it at the end of the news cycle. i think people just have a hard time taking the abstract down into the concrete. i think what i'm going to suggest might help in generating a reaction by making the issue more relatable.

so, you apparently have huge amounts of communication between individuals. perhaps this information could be worked into a novel, with a fictional narrative worked out to connect the passages together. now, obviously this suggestion necessitates that personal information is removed - that the communication is published without context. but, i think this has the potential of clearly demonstrating what the government is collecting. and i think it's interesting as an idea in itself.

i get why this is an idea that you're likely to react poorly to. but, i'd just ask that you think it over a bit, and the possibilities of what could come out of taking a project like this on. i'd be willing to volunteer in constructing the narrative, in writing the novel, although i understand why you can't just send me raw data of this sort and let me strip out the context.

j

"isn't the problem, really, that we have all these laws that force us to act humanely? shouldn't we just shoot them when they get to the border, then send the bill for their funeral to their parents?"

the media coverage on this issue in the mainstream v. independent media is really inhabiting different realities. wow...

also - the germans know they're being spied on. there were certain things they had to do to pretend to be surprised. but it's for internal consumption..

you know, this might actually work out alright. i managed to talk my way up to a supervisor, and if i send my odsp stub off to vancouver they'll put a hold on it for six months - which should let my refund go through for the year, so that's step one. step two is that i need to get my odsp forms filled out in june so that it's permanent - and i think i can do that. then, i can apply for the loan to actually get wiped. it's the one and only way out, apparently.

otherwise, i need to send them the stub every six months.

i'm going to get the diet form when i fax the stub, anyways....

i'm pretty sincere about permanence. but if things work out some other way, the loan is gone.

i've just been ignoring this for months because it's just like....i can't pay you..but they got me the incentive to deal with it.

wait. there's conditions on the diet forms. gah...

i'm a model of physical health, it's my head that's fucked. gotta be some way around this...

the way people talk about this, it's like anybody can get it.

yeah...no. i'm not going to win this argument. so i'm not going to start it. i'll figure something else out.

i remember reading the review a few years ago, and one of the recs was to just abolish the special diet and give everybody the extra $100. i wonder how convincing that report might be if i showed it to a doctor. it's just....i don't see how an empathetic doctor could fill the thing out....

actually, i've had some dysphagia recently. i've been wanting to have this dealt with, anyways. i think i should probably do that tomorrow. if it gets me a useful diagnosis, great. i'd kind of like to get to the bottom of it, anyways.

stupid cra wants to take my tax refund...

which is, like...if you do that, i'm going to apply for the special diet allowance, which is actually roughly twice as much. so, i end up with an extra $50/month.

and, what you're going to gain from my tax refund is roughly 10% interest on the loan in the first place. it's just flat out stupid....

smart thing to do would be to let me declare bankruptcy. but, if you want to burst the student loan bubble, have fun - not like i fucking care.

as it is right now, if i were to get over my disability and find a job tomorrow, the loan payments would actually leave me with less disposable income than i have on disability. and, as the interest builds, i'm left with less and less incentive to get over the disability and find a job. i'm not the kind of person that's going to work for nothing. my life is not valuable enough to me to sacrifice it to the state. if i end up in that situation, i'll kill myself out of political protest. and spite. i'd enjoy it, to be frank.

i got manipulated into this loan - it was supposed to be paid off. i'd have never taken it, otherwise. but the person that made me that promise proceeded to die without following through on it. now, it's simply never going to be paid. ever.

they're telling me to wait for my notice of assessment. it might be available online, let me check...

i'm just not going to live that life. our existences are too short and meaningless to bother. it's stasis or bust.

the point is just that bankruptcy is the proper way out of my situation - but, unfortunately, you can't declare bankruptcy on student loans. nobody benefits from this, though. i'm simply never going to generate the income to pay the loan down.

no assessment, but i've got some more numbers to call. i'm not waiting for the assessment to get the dietary allowance, though. if this isn't figured out today, i'll have to do that tomorrow.

it is going to be kind of funny one day, though, if i live long enough. like, how high can the interest grow on this? can it reach a million dollars?

"in other news, there's apparently a sixty year old disabled person in windsor with three million dollars in interest on her student loan payments. when reached for comment, she simply said that they should have let her declare bankruptcy."

if you look in the video, you can see a reflection of a kid beating her chest.

there needs to be signs posted, or educational material otherwise available, that warns people that gorillas don't like it when you do that. it's a type of communication. obviously, the kid didn't understand that. but, she should have been told not to do it. and, so long as you have people making those gestures, the gorillas are going to continue reacting aggressively.

that said, just about any mammal reacts badly to these kinds of living conditions. dogs get mean when you leave them locked up outside. rats actually start eating each other when you put them in conditions like this. and human prisoners go through all kinds of stress and trauma that results in aggressive behaviour.

delhigod
I agree. Keeping these intelligent animals in such cages is fucking evil. Fuck I hate humans.

Bloody-Chemicals
+deathtokoalas In the original video, there's a little boy in the background saying something along the lines of "Don't do that, the zoo guy'll come back" I have a feeling that means a zookeeper might have already seen her do it and explained to her once that she shouldn't. But you know how kids can be :/ in one ear and out the other.

i'm noticing that when i type comments in facebook [and it's comments, specifically - not posts], i get very weird behaviour - characters jump all over the place, the delete button ends up "padded", etc. it's almost like i've got some kind of script running that's acting as a keylogger or something...

i don't think it's anything like that, though.

1) it only happens in facebook comments.
2) it happens on multiple computers

so, i suppose if it's something malicious, it might be on both computers. but i think that's not right, because it's just facebook. so, i think it's just something at the facebook site.

when i copy and paste the comment's text into notepad, i get all kinds of weird characters interspersed randomly through the comment. well, it's just one character - i've attached a picture. but it's all through the comment.

now, these characters seem to be something nasty. when i paste them into word, they trigger some kind of macro, which puts the machine in a loop state. i can only stop it by halting the task in task manager. so, they're some kind of pointer to some kind of script or something.

now, oddly, they don't show up in firefox. however, if i view the comments in ie then they appear the same way they would if i pasted them into notepad.

i'm left to conclude that firefox is interacting badly with some kind of facebook script. i've tried disabling adblock, and it has no effect.

i can get around it by typing into notepad and then pasting the comments in, but who wants to do that? and, i wish i knew what the fuck it is. so, i'm just curious if anybody's seen these characters in my comments, if they've seen them anywhere else (i can't find any info on this) and if they can identify what is going on...

the factors that lead to the characters appearing seem to have to do with the backspace and delete buttons. meaning it *seems* like facebook itself is actually keylogging - or trying to capture deleted characters, to be more specific. well, you'd expect it would be useful for a site based on ads to be able to capture the parts of the post that you didn't post. it's kind of scary, and dystopian. but i'm not left with much of another answer. i guess there's something in my hacked firefox that is "catching" that...but it would be nice to get some leads in actually proving this.

i've been planning on getting off facebook completely for a while, and just using it for shows - until a better option appears. and, i like the idea of facebook as a sort of cv, as the timeline interface seems almost designed for it. my days here are numbered. it's why i'm not accepting friend requests. i've just been waiting for my odsp update before i sit down and do it. it's going to take several days - probably weeks, maybe months - to completely migrate. if i'm right, it's just another reason to get off. and, if i'm not? bluntly, it's a matter of time. if they could read your thoughts, they would.

18-04-2015: lightning bolt - fragment (ferndale)

their music:
http://laserbeast.com/

review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/04/18.html

you know, if i'm that gorilla, what i'm thinking is...

shit. listen: i didn't hurt the kid. i swear, i had nothing to do with it.

then...

it's crying. and i'm sitting right beside it. great. no, i'm not taking the fall for this, i'm outta here...