fucking storm.

spring

so it's 60 degrees outside and im super happy about that because its officially the start of spring when i go outside and feel the ground radiating heat. that being said, if it goes back down to 30/40 degrees in a week, i will lose my shit. however, THAT being said, it's time to party because spring means everyone is losing clothes. and that means bikinis in the quad. and thats awesome. cuz theres also a volleyball court in the quad. so girls+bikinis+sweat=happy dan. simple math. unfortunately for my classes, good weather makes me forget all about the fact that I'm at school. but thats okay because exams are over and the next week of classes requires minimal work on my part. as a result, the current scene is me sitting at my desk, window opened blasting...lenny kravitz for some reason..itunes genius (it's american woman so its okay). it's based off of sugar ray so that kind of makes sense. kind of. anyway. hope everyone enjoys the weather while it lasts. im off to find something to do with this tennis ball i found in a hallway

its morning.

Seeing that my clock says 7:35 and not any other possible combination of those numbers, it has to be morning. Which sucks. Well I guess except 7:55. Which would be better actually no that would mean im late. Here I am sitting at my desk listening to lynyrd skynrd, which is way too hip for this early, eating my toast and not working. For the first time in a long time. A LONG FUCKING TIME. like, i cant stress how long its been since ive sat and not worked. i usually "not work" while in a strange or exotic pose, such as those found in karate kid. ohh tuesdays gone just came on. i have happy gilmore flashbacks every time i hear this song. its at the end when happy sees the ghost of the only guy that died in the film. who just happened to be black. so i was up lastnight studying for a midterm i have this morning and for midterms i have on thursday and friday, ignoring the one i have tomorrow at 8 in the morning along with the fact that i have a paper due at 1:00 which i havent startTHIS IS RUINING MY MORNING RELAXATION TOAST TIME

so spring break is coming up and i am super excited. whos excited? this guy. im even leaving a day early because airfare was cheaper on friday than saturday. my moms like can you leave im like hell yeahz. i was like that. just like that. almost.........too like that.... i digress pointlessly

i have 2 minutes to leave. i havent gotten dressed. maybe ill grace my econ professor with my flannel pants and class of 09 shirt. maybe ill even throw some uggs in there. you know what? im going to. and green sunglasses. im shakin things up around here. its time they get a taste of what I can dan russell....yeah thats all ive got. well its my name so its appropriate. ill add a spice to the end to make it sound exciting and fresh. dan russell jalapeno. except you have to say jalapeno like al pacino would say it as scarface. a dummed down version that sounds like he has a cold..."hallapenno" except with fervor and subtle hints of the possibility everyone in the room is on the verge of losing their lives. omg im late. whatever its review and ive got at least the first half of the semester down pat. like a pancake. i dont kno what that means. please dont judge you know what go ahead and judge me. go ahead. i dare you. i dont dare you. cuz then you might come to a conclusion i dont like and when i come back with full clarity of mind i wont remember this and ill be confused as to why you dont like me anymore. okay time to go

hated people

i dont know about you, but I've met some insanely ignorant people at college. people that tell me things like dylan has no variety and bruce springsteen just wants attention for being patriotic. who the hell do you think you are? If people just took the time to literally go to wikipedia or any other reference source, spent 10 minutes learning how absurd what they just said is, the world would be a better place. now for my rant. lol

as we know, many artists, not just musicians, have been railed about how inappropriate or sucky their music is at any given point in history. this is obviously found throughout history, but I'm kind of surprised that there's still a degree of ignorance when it comes to unique works. Even quentin tarantino and the cohen brothers have specifically unique styles that have meaning, but many people don't see through their use of violence as a channel for getting their message across. heart of darkness was an insanely deep book, but people still watch the movie and all they get out of it is dancing playboy girls and some action scenes. it's admittedly slow, but really? try to look past it. okay, we'd just like to watch a movie without thinking about deeper meaning. its basically half the point of sitting in front of a tv- just vegging out. but when you're reviewing the movie that you watched probably while you were blazed and THEN assess the merits of its plot elements, you fall into this category of ignorance thats hard to escape.

zappa is probably an even further example of this misunderstanding of deeper meaning. while the movies mentioned use metaphors to get the point across, artists like frank zappa, eminem, even elvis presley, used their own accountability to make a point. they set themselves up as a figure to be criticized, but in the process they mocked and satirized the "system" that we know of as censorship. critics derided them for their lyrics and the way they present them. elvis was attacked for his apparantly sexual dancing styles on hound dog, frank was attacked for basically everything he did from his lyrics to the videos he made, and eminem had parents covering their kids ears because of what he was saying. eminem is a slightly different example in this case since some of his lyrics did reveal his intentions to elicit unwarranted anger from critics, but the premise of rattling the cages of the critics stays the same across the board.

there's always an ignorance in someone's mind about how things should be. in the 30's, jazz was associated with the Charleston, which was looked down upon by pompous conservatives. in more recent years, such a trend still continues- a dissonance between the freedom of expression and society's EVER CHANGING definition of propriety. the gap has obviously lessened over the past 75 years, but the ignorance is still there for different reasons. it's now not as much of an issue of propriety but more of an issue of people just caring. this may be the effect of frustration resulting from so much back and forth between the two sides, but there's nonetheless an imbalance between the appreciation of art that stems from freedom of expression and simple act of "watching a movie" to totally veg out. all im saying is people should stop caring about getting the last word about how much a movie sucked or an artist didn't understand the times and care more about putting themselves in the person's shoes. I'm not much of a metaphor guy myself- i like things to get straight to the point in any given situation. I was always somewhat frustrated by the premise of poetry taking 20 lines to say it's cold outside, but when you get over your innate tendencies to voice an opinion, stop and think about why it takes 20 lines to say one thing, you draw different conclusions as to what the poet was saying. it usually doesn't even matter that it's cold outside. likewise, zappa didn't necessarily want to half rape 2 sisters on drugs in dynamo hum. yes, he was appealing to the audience's need for entertainment, but he was also using the material of the song to pierce the cloud of hesitancy that not many people ventured into with their lyrics. we should realize these things more readily and be able to appreciate--not necessarily agree with, but recognize--what people spend careers and lives trying to say.

now if i apply this reasoning to these people in college that I've met, there's a vicious cycle that i just set up for myself. but theyre wrong and im right.

drum faces

everyone has a different one. here are some of the more famous

drummers with an appropriate caption:

Neil Peart: "THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME BUT ITS ALSO HARD AS SHIT!!!"

The two sides of John Bomham (btw i dont know why the font changed color)

"If you actually listen to this it'll blow your mind"

"FUCK THAT!"

historically/chronologically speaking, this is backwards. he calmed down.

Tony Williams, legend (Miles Davis, Tony Williams Lifetime)-

"ooooooooooooohhhh did you HEAR THAT?!"

elvin jones (coltrane):

"damn right im drumming with my eyes closed. with a cigarette. no big deal."

Ian Paice (Deep Purple):

"I LOVE THIS SO MUCH SO MUCH SO MUCH WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

Keith Moon (The Who):

"I FEEL LIKE BLOWING SHIT UP ON STAGE!!"

he, unlike Bonham, didn't calm down. at all.

chad smith (chili peppers and my personal favorite drummer):

"woo!"

*BOOM*

"woo!"

*PSH!*

Buddy Rich (BR Big band)

"I could go for a steak."

Steve Gadd, legend (too many bands to mention, but some are chick corea, paul simon, steely dan):

"you feeble cymbal. you are no match for my skills."

Will Lee (not a drummer. obviously. but he's awesome anyway)- David Letterman band, buddy rich (sometimes), misc.- he's kind of all over the place:

"dwaaang!"

Gene Krupa, legend (Benny Goodman):

"hey ladies"

"wanna smoke a joint?"

the elderly.

I don't have a problem with the senior citizens of today's society, but they frustrate me sometimes. And for the purposes of this post, by senior citizens i mean them plus all who share their mindsets. My econ professor brought something up this morning that got me thinking about this. He was talking about spending time with his older relatives talking about the economy, because thats basically what older relatives would do to exemplify their immense wisdom about society. That's all well and good up until the point that an issue like inflation or unemployment comes along and instead of listening to the guy with the doctorate in the room, they insist that all these problems are the result of CROOKS! NOTHING BUT CROOKS IN HIGH PLACES!..... okayy... you could totally ignore hundreds of years of economics and studies and go for your biased position because you just didn't pay attention while you were in school. i digress. so these people think that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. just like their parents and grandparents did. and probably the same way that we will. but I don't understand WHY. if everyone just thought logically (it's really, really not that hard) we wouldn't have screaming matches at christmas dinner over insane issues (jack.) that popped into one person's mind and they were drunk enough to bring it to light. and why does it always have to do with gays, retards, or money? seriously, at least find a good topic to scream about. like seal clubbing. it's an easy topic. there are two parties, those who are opposed and those who...enjoy seal clubbing. it can include heated debate but in the end everyone just realizes that the issue has the same effect as any other non-profit commercial- you care until you realize that it has nothing to do with you. then you dont care anymore. or you're just too smashed to realize how the conversation went from seal clubbing back to SURPRISE! THE RECESSION! many studies have confirmed that as one grows older, they tend to resist change in their environments because they're comfortable with the environment they've grown up with. well good for them. kinda sucks though because crap changes. if you can just accept that little fact, your life will be SO much easier. will we be upset in 50 years when we all travel in tubes? NO. BECAUSE THAT WILL BE AWESOME. (we'll ACCEPT that the future is awesome, and if we keep thinking that, it will be. even if it isn't. autosuggestion says so.)this tendency goes so far as turning people ignorant. example: at an open mic 2 nights ago, there was a group of SENIORS! called the "Singing Grannys" whose entire repertoire was composed of traditional tunes like row row row your boat, with political lyrics overlaid. they literally just talked about bringing the troops home and why business executives should be replaced. if they actually paid attention to what's happening in the world, neither of those statements would have been made. im not going into them. for the sake of the length of this post.

so how do we address this seemingly innate tendency of the human mind? I propose two solutions: mass suicides at the age of 65 (or 66 so one can enjoy the benefits of social security. unless that falls through. but THAT WILL BE OKAY cuz we'll figure it out. see? not that hard to move on) or...drumroll please... we keep open minds, accept changes in our environment, and possibly even contribute to society through helping to enact these changes? (insert gasp from audience) we'll be in the mental position to embrace changes in society and we won't be able to complain because we'll have had the opportunity to affect the process.

okay, this isnt perfect. it's 10:00 in the morning and class pretty much drained my cognitive capacity for a few hours. but THIS ISNT HARD. thats what she said.

My New (Lofty) Aspiration

I would love to design a site as hilarious as this one day.

http://pages.prodigy.net/jschla/

winter wonders

firT DAY OF SECOND SEMESYER

i got up at 7:00 relatively upset that i was conscious at this time of day. but im in the lecture hall now and my teacher is playing dave matthews with the lights dimmed. so its not that bad. im taking a three hour nap after this. yay new beginnings!

The Seven Pillars of Disnam

number one, i know prince of egypt is dreamworks. disnam is a principle, not a preferred selection. number two, lindy helped. THANKS LINDY