A Sense of Serenity

The melody of rhythm-assisted poetry resonated throughout my apartment. My apartment was dimly lit. I felt as if I was more productive in the darkness. Darkness seemed to give me a sense of solitude and confinement, but not the bad sense. I was sitting at my desk; far too immersed in my computer screen. This was how most of my nights were being spent since entering graduate school a couple of years ago. If I remember correctly, I was working diligently on a research paper covering the notion of a unified government. Globalism, if you will.

            I slid my window open, which screeched only a few times. The pitter-patter of rain echoed from outside. I really do enjoy those gloomy, rainy nights that everyone else seems to despise. The streetlights polluted inside of my apartment ruining my sense of solitude. But it did not matter. I needed a break from my work. I proceeded to my refrigerator, across the room, and grabbed a Capitol City Brewing Company Prohibition Porter. I continued to survey my refrigerator looking for something to eat, but could not find anything. I decided the beer was enough for now and opened it. I made my way back to my desk and plopped down into my cozy chair.

            I glanced at my watch. It was already well past nine o’clock. I decided it was time to quit for the night and saved my document. Furthermore, it was about time for a change of atmosphere and I switched on my “Easy Listening” playlist. The first track was “I’ve Got the World On a String”. I immediately felt a wave of well-being wash over me. I was finally free of any obligations, at least for the evening. I glanced outside and saw some undergraduates getting into some college shenanigans; I just sat back and laughed. At that moment it hit me. There was not much in life more beautiful and tranquil during a spring night than this city that I call home.

            I slowly sipped the last drop of beer in the bottle. The song ended and continued onto “Baby, Baby Don’t Cry” by Smokey Robinson And The Miracles. I adore this song. The way Marv Tarplin plays the guitar is just marvelous. His gentle but effective riffs being evident from the song’s beginning give a raindrop effect that mimics someone crying. But I digress. After being lost in the song, I stood up and sauntered back to my refrigerator. Just then, I peeked out of my window and noticed that the light rain had let up. I seized the moment and headed to my front door. I rummaged through the closet to find a pair of my Bean Boots and slipped them on. I then progressed to find my raincoat, in case it started to precipitate. I proceeded out of my front door, making sure to lock it on the way out, and strolled down the three flights of stairs leading to street level.

            It was an exquisite evening for an excursion and a lengthy breath of fresh air. By the time I finally made it onto the sidewalk it was approaching ten o’clock. Foggy Bottom was one of my favorite neighborhoods in any city and having had freshly rained only added to its beauty. As I sauntered down the street, I continued to admire the sheer beauty and placidity that this wonderful neighborhood had to offer. It may have been filled with slightly rowdy college students, but there was a certain feeling that no other place could replicate. It certainly felt like home. I passed gorgeous academic buildings, cloned dorm buildings, and extravagant Greek houses. I even spotted the house on Greek Row that I spent three years of my undergraduate years in. In my opinion, the house was easily the most beautiful and extravagant on campus.

            Sooner than I expected, I found myself at the borders of Foggy Bottom and decided to head back toward my apartment. I marched on only to find myself back at my apartment sooner than I expected. I glanced upward and discovered that I had left my window open. Not really making a difference, I shrugged it off and continued into my building. I strode up the three flights of stairs and into my apartment. My mind seemed clear. So clear that it almost seemed luminous in contrast to my dark apartment. I kicked off my Bean Boots and threw my raincoat into the front closet; I was never one to keep tidy. I listened closely to see what song was playing now. It appeared to be the sedating sound of  “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay”. I thought to myself, “What an impeccable song to end my evening to.”

            I meandered myself over to the open window and slowly slid it shut. I suddenly felt sleepy, but content at the same time. I slowly but surely made my way over to my wardrobe, slipped off my clothes, and slid into my loungewear. Now, only being a few steps from my bed, I slithered into it. Oh, the comfort of that bed; the warmth and coziness of that bed. I pulled the silky smooth sheets over my body. The world felt as though it was at ease. And I felt as though I was at peace, like nothing could go wrong.

Whistle-Blowers

     With all of this talk about Edward Snowden and whistle-blowers in general, I thought I would give my $0.02. The real question we should be asking in this case is who betrayed whom? Edward Snowden is being charged with treason by the United States government. In my eyes, Snowden betrayed the current administration by revealing a large scandal to the citizens of the United States. And what is the government built to do? The government is built to protect the personal rights of its citizens. You may be very confused right now, wasn't the government infringing upon personal sovereignty? Yes, they were. That is exactly why Mr. Snowden revealed this scandal. 

     The NSA and every other government agency involved with this scandal not only infringed upon our personal rights, but also broke numerous laws set by the federal government. One of those laws being the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Fourth Amendment states: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Now you see where I'm going. 

     In conclusion, Mr. Snowden not only had the right to reveal this information, but also the duty to do so. The American public should be much more outraged about this scandal than they actually are. Mr. Snowden, Mr. Assange (of Wikileaks), and every other whistle-blower should be actually treated as a hero, rather than as a criminal. 

My Fellow Americans, Open Your Eyes!

     Well, I posted this on Facebook a bit ago, and I am just now deciding to put it on my blog. I've recently come to realize, the American people at large don't give a shit about politics. They don't care about the actual progress of our country or fixing our current problems. The American people are stuck in the Republican vs. Democrat battle; they don't care if our country gets better. Our current political system is about beating the other side and waving your power in their face. People today literally believe that one side is evil and the other is righteous. In reality, both the Republicans and Democrats are terrible people and horrible coalitions. Politicians are no longer chosen for their skills or intellectual capacity, but rather for their looks and likability.

     Our rights and well-being are disappearing more and more each day. This is a joke, our country is going in an awful direction. No wonder every other country on earth hates us. Look what we have done to South Korea, yes SOUTH. South Korea is one of the most oppressive "democratic" nations on earth. In South Korea you are tracked day and night by a "National ID". Everyone look into the Real ID act passed by Congress in 2005. We are heading in the same direction. Israel is also a horrible police state. There is no use in supporting their authoritarian regime.

     We are heading in the same direction as the countries we "helped" and "saved" from totalitarianism and the communist threat. My fellow Americans, open your eyes. Most of you are just going to brush me off as a "kid" but the truth is that you're the "kid". Time is a theory and idea made by man. You can be old at 17 and young at 95. Maturity is relative.

From Political Philosophies to the Educational System in America. What is wrong?

           What is wrong with the political belief systems and how they are organized in the world today? Everything. Conservatives in America are against gun control, for capital punishment, against abortion, and for the prohibition of drugs. That does not make sense to me, if you’re anti-abortion then you are considered pro-life, but how can you be pro-life if you’re for capital punishment? Conservatives say that they are standing up for the free, but they want to illegalize drugs and abortion. Up until a certain extent abortion should be the mother’s choice. It’s the same notion with drugs; it’s a person’s choice and liberty to do drugs if they want to or not. Should a conservative not be for every single personal liberty? No, actual conservatism is the exact opposite.

           

            Liberalism is fun too. A common idea amongst liberals is that abortion should be legal, while capital punishment should be illegal. They believe in ending the war on drugs, whilst believing that the government should control what people eat, drink, and whatever else. This does not make sense either. Somewhere in history liberalism and conservatism merged. The classic idea of liberalism is now libertarianism and the classic idea of conservatism is now almost non-existent. Liberalism is actually a political and economic philosophy that includes the ideals of complete freedom.

           

            Modern day liberalism could be denoted as progressivism. Many people do not understand the differences between political philosophies and economic philosophies. Instead of educating students in high school about sciences and mathematics such as physics and geometry that they will most likely never need unless they enter into that specific field, we should be educating them on the different political philosophies and their actual ideals. The social sciences in my eyes are the foundation for society; without them we would have no ability to communicate or study the world. While many officials insist on turning the focus of education to sciences and mathematics we should be giving the students the option to decide what they need to take. After all, aren’t school systems built to educate students?

            Many of the things that students learn in high school are a complete waste of time; most students will never need to know physics, geometry, chemistry, or trigonometry. The educational system in the United States needs to be revamped and reevaluated. The purpose of a school system is to educate kids and give them the knowledge that they will need in life, however, in the United States this is not the case. In the United States, the educational system is built to profit the educators and administration; this is where we went wrong. Many people today wonder why students hate school; if they would really like to know, ask the students.

            Even a majority of colleges and universities are in agreement that the mandatory educational system is flawed. We should be preparing tomorrow’s society for tomorrow rather than preparing them for more schooling. Schools tend to cater more towards conformity instead of disconformity. We are going back to the Middle Ages, where humans were afraid to stand out among society. This is something we need to change, look at our greatest leaders, philosophers, artists, and inventors. Did they conform to society? No, Thomas Edison was told he could never invent the filament.  Albert Einstein was told that he was stupid or idiotic when he went through school. Maybe we should praise the students that don’t have the ability to sit down and do busy work; celebrate the people who have no interest in memorizing a periodic table. We should be commending the pupils that would rather write an essay over something that interests them than taking notes on something they could give a shit about.

           

            Curriculums should be built around each student, or made to order, instead of being built around the whole student body. If we abandoned teacher unions and toughened the requirements to be an educator we wouldn’t have so many inferior teachers. A large amount of teachers just become teachers because of the job security, benefits, and ease. If we could change this we would have many more educators that taught for the love of teaching rather than for self-gain. Maybe I am just highly psychotic or crazy, but I really do hope someone of authority sees this. 

           

            

Gateway Theory?

       Yeah, yeah the title makes no sense. I didn't have a clue as to what to make the title of this post concerning the idea of certain things being considered gateways or stepping stones. Mainly the illicit/prescription/legal substance known as marijuana(was that complicated or what?). Now I'm taking this opinion from a completely logical standpoint and I'm not here to make any conservative or liberal nut jobs happy(am I an asshole or what?).
     
       Many people believe that marijuana should be illegal because it's a gateway or stepping stone to harder drugs. I've personally never met a guy who smoked a joint and thought, "Hey, it would be cool to shoot up some heroin right now." but who am I to speak, I'm only a teenager. I consciously cannot accept that if marijuana were to be legal, people would be shooting up and smoking crack because they got bored with pot. It's just not plausible in my mind or any logical person's mind.
 
       If you really look at these "gateway theories" closely you'll notice that it is all based off of the notion that if you're buying cannabis from a "drug dealer" or "street pharmacist"(I like this one better) you are more likely to come into contact with harder drugs. Wait a second, it all loops back to if marijuana were legalized then you wouldn't be coming in contact with these harder drugs. So, in a sense, prohibition has actually caused these "gateway theories" and harder drugs to come into contact with people that never would have used these.
   
      I would like to write more; specifically about how ending the War on Drugs would be beneficial to our economy. But, that would take up far too much of my time and I don't think any of my logical ideas would change how people think.

Asher Roth

      I woke up today and thought "Hey, I should make a blog post that has to do with a certain musical artist or group.". So, here I am writing about Asher Roth. It was either him, Black Hippy, Gorillaz, or Florence and the Machine. And, well, I woke up to an Asher ringtone so it was probably fate(I actually don't believe in fate). Now, this isn't the same Asher that blew up four years ago with "I Love College".  No, he's like the poetic and matured version. Asher basically blew up, took a step back, and reevaluated his whole rap career. Compare "I Love College" to "Common Knowledge" and you'll see what I'm talking about.      

     
      Two of my favorite genres of music are jazz and rap that is more lyrical than "average rap". Take a listen to Asher's latest mixtape, Pabst and Jazz, and you will definitely find a nice mix of rap and jazz. I'm pretty sure that Asher is one of the only hip-hop artists I could listen to non-stop and not get bored with his wordplay, flow, or emotion.

      So, Asher's wordplay, I already showed "Common Knowledge" which some people say is his most lyrical song. There are honestly so many good examples of Asher's wordplay and lyrics it would be almost ridiculous to have to choose a favorite. I probably could not even make a list of Asher's five top lyrical songs if I tried. "A forest or scorched Earth, morphed into Steven Dorf. A touristy poor world, not sure what it's even worth. Even worse, my torso's torn, between the two doors endorsing the core source, which do I want more? Is it reality or fantasy? Xanax in my pantry, I supplant the frantic manic depression, utter insanity." ("Ampersand") How can you not find this incredible? It's not even rap, it's poetry. It's not even chepooka(nonsense or crazy in Nadsat) because this wordplay is seen in a single song, it's heard in almost every song off of Pabst and Jazz. Even his singles that Asher has been releasing are just as immaculate.

     Asher's flow is incredible. He makes it seem like each and every beat was made after he wrote and executed the verses. Not meaning to sound like a fanboy, but Asher just wraps the lyrics around the beats in a nonsensical way. Asher's emotion ranges from being very serious like in "Hard Times" where Ash is talking about how he struggles with fame and being called a sellout, to being a goofball, basically, like in "In the Kitchen" where it's Asher and Chuck Inglish basically just messing around with audio recording equipment in an actual kitchen.

The following songs are my personal favorites, even though it is quite hard to choose. 

Bastermating is definitely one of the least serious songs from Asher. I love the beat and the way each rapper incorporates his style into the song. Not to mention I'm a fan of ASAP Twelvy and Chip.

I absolutely love this song. It has that laid-back vibe that Ash's less serious stuff has, but Asher is talking about what's wrong with the world. He's really attempting to send a message to the people of Earth. 

I immediately fell for this song due to the way Asher raps(pun intended) his words around the beat. As I listened to it I noticed that Asher is rapping about how much bullshit is in the music industry. 

Normally the first song on any album or mixtape is kind of just the intro. Not "Pabst and Jazz", this song is one of my favorites on the mixtape. Asher uses a really clever flow and impecable metaphors to talk about how awesome he is. 

"More Cowbell" basically just consists of him shitting on other rappers and talking about how awesome he is whilst making it sound like any other song. 

Basically, the single best song to wake up to in the morning. 

There couldn't be a better song to end a mixtape. This song is just as good alone though. Such a chill song with some nice jazz to finish the song off. Asher just talks about getting back to his rap roots. 

      We should not forget that Asher is a fairly hysterical feller as well. Just watch an interview and you'll most likely laugh your ass off. This is one of my favorites. 

I'll probably finish this post off with some live music tied into an interview and a freestyle. Asher is a pretty intellectual guy as well as being comedic, which I find is something hard to find in white rappers. 

VInyl

           Vinyl is kind of an unfairly lost medium. While digital is a magnificent medium and all(my most frequently used music medium), vinyl just has this certain exuberant sound quality to it that nothing can really replicate. Digital is almost too detailed. It's comparable to the digital vs. film photography comparison. In my opinion more people should take advantage of vinyl. There are a good amount of artists out there still producing on vinyl. I actually just recently got a People Under the Stairs Highlighter record and I learned that they still produce everything via vinyl.