George Carlin: Again is still in the 70's, but it has one foot in Capitalist Realism. His discussion of Time is the highlight - but even his hilarious update of the Filthy Words routine is still in a Modernist America.

Greatest Country Ever?

Whenever I start talking about the Egypt situation, I usually mention how great it is because of the fact that Egypt is the greatest nation on Earth. I've been claiming this, but is it true? The major competition that comes to mind is China. While Egypt is responsible for the single greatest thing ever created, the Cheops Pyramid, China comes close to the Pyramid with the Great Wall.

You could make the argument that the Great Wall is better than the Pyramid, but I wouldn't. However, taken with all of the other great things China has done (paper, printing, cast iron, gunpowder, tea, silk, the compass...actually once you start naming great inventions of China, you really can't ever stop), it's hard to mainting that Egypt is the single Greatest Country on Earth. Perhaps they are second.

I thought about it a bit more, and the rest of the top ten became obvious. So here it is, my personal opinion of the Ten Greatest Countries in the World, all things considered:

1. China
2. Egypt
3. Greece
4. Italy
5. Iraq
6. India
7. Britain
8. Germany
9. France
10. United States

So it may not be the greatest country, but still, the second greatest country having a revolution is a pretty big deal.

Allen and Bill

This week, for the very first time, I listened to Howl in its entirety. I loved it so much that I'm ashamed to have not done it earlier. To be clear, I've never read the entire poem either, only knew a few key phrases, and I've held a bit of disdain for the poet who seems to never touch iambic pentameter, but hearing it made me fall in love for the poem - every part in its very place.

It's profoundly spiritual in a way that I would never have understood at 16. I envy a 16 year old who could understand such a creation as Ginsberg's Moloch.

The constant references that Ginsberg and Burroughs and Kerouac make with each other are surprisingly insular - though I could easily live without Kerouac but could never live without Allen or Bill. Bill of course can never be considered without Allen.

I have to tell you that I'm very much looking forward to this Kaddish I've heard about.

I realize that I do not have whatever it takes to be a blogger on a daily basis, yet whenever I do write here I act like a daily blogger. I need to reformat somehow to accommodate a style of very sporadic blogging.

Yawn! Stretch! Ah, I'm back. Did I miss anything? Oh, right. I was fired from my job and trying to write a book. How is that going? Hold on, let me check...

Well! I've been rehired at my old job, as a temp. That's interesting. It's going pretty well. And I'm simultaneously working on 2 projects - learning Calculus and learning Kant. Oh, and I might actually get around to finishing this draft-thing I've got stored away, before the ideas behind it and in it mold into a disgusting mass that I can't bear to even glimpse at.

I'm not there yet, thank Thoth, and I did get an invigorating call from Tony this weekend, who never fails to fire my creative will. Perhaps tonight, after dutifully finishing my Calculus and my Kant, and after checking out some music videos (especially looking forward to "Born Again" - that Suicide riddim!) I can settle down and compose a little more of my story.

See you tomorrow...I promise!

Katching Up With the Kardashians

Tonight I finally got around to watching the Kim Kardashian video from 2007, and I was stunned. I am convinced it is a masterpiece. We are truly living the in a golden age of pornography, though the video is obviously much more than a piece of pornography. I'm contemplating screening Salo, my DVD X-mas present to myself, but I may need to work up to that.

Oh, I also got my drum machine. Other than testing it to make sure it works, I have not attempted to play it yet. If successful, this will be my third serious practice of a musical instrument. Both the cello (age 6-14) and the guitar (age 15-21) have been sold. I have not seriously attempted to make music of any kind for as far back as anyone can remember. My voice is there, but my diaphragm is out of shape, perhaps atrophied. My ear is finally being listened to. I'm playing records I haven't listened to since high school. How was any of this possible?

I don't know, but it has taken expression through a rediscovery of the 17-year old Chris' favorite book: Alt-Rock-a-Rama. Published by Rolling Stone in the mid 90s, it's an anthology of bits of music writing by musicians, writers, all sorts of people. All formed around an American indie music aesthetic that did more than anything else to shape my musical appetites.

The book is framed by three epic charticles. Three lists of the 100 Most Influential Alternative Releases of All Time, The 50 Most Significant Indie Records, and The Lester Bangs Discography: The Records in His Life, the last composing 121 records. I decided to listen to the first list of records in order, assuming that I could find them all to be downloaded on Soulseek. To no surprise, they have all been easy to find. I've listened to the first 50, from The Mothers' Freak Out to Public Image Limited's Metal Box. I'll be sharing what I have discovered so far on this blog. Right now I'm blasting London Calling, #51. Some great songs, but none that you wouldn't expect to hear in a commercial. Not on the same level as the aforementioned #50.

The 120 Days of Christmas?

Today I did my only day of Xmas shopping. I plan only to buy gifts for my wife Ashley, and I bought her exactly what she most wants. Three new video games for her new wii. I also stopped in at Suncoast, perhaps to find a gift for my mother-in-law, and saw that they were having a going-out-of-business sale. 40% off everything.

I haven't bought a DVD in ages, but I saw Salo in the foreign section and knew I had to get it. I clutched it to my breast to show off to everyone. Yet another Xmas gift for myself.

It's been a very interesting Xmas at the Knoecklein house. Helen bought Ash a wii and was fretting because she didn't know what to buy me like that. For she used to lavish all of her discretionary income on Jessica, and now she can't do that anymore. I moaned about it, for I so hate thinking about getting things for myself. But Ash pressed about it and I really gave some thought to what I might want for Xmas. The thought hit me suddenly: a drum machine, of course!

A few days more frenzied thought and discussion, and now we are here, the drum machine is on its way UPS! What exquisite excitement.