September 28th, 2011 Videos Of The Week: Occupy Wall Street Edition

About two weeks ago, the Occupy Wall Street movement started, with hundreds of protestors in a little tent city standing in front of the financial district. I was extremely cynical regarding it for two reasons:
1. There is absolutely no incentive for Wall Street to give a shit about these people. At the end of the day, no matter how bad a protestor made them feel, they can always go, "WELP I STILL GOT ALL THIS MONEY" then buy a politician to make protesting illegal. You can occupy it, but you can't make it give a damn.

Anonymous can say all it's going to change the world after the success of Chanology (the protest against Scientology), but I think that was lightning in a bottle.
The reason Chanology worked is because there is a period of time after your first encounter with Scientology, whether it be a stress test table, or walk in for their movie, where they can't be sociopaths. All the disconnection (where you have to separate from non believers) and Xenu come in to play a while after that first meeting.

A Wall Street exec can go his whole life without ever looking you in the eye, and still make it so you don't have any money at the end of the day.

2. When the protest actually started, my fears were confirmed that, yes, this was going to be absolutely useless. The audience was mostly college and post college 20 somethings; the same people who show up to EVERY protest.

Then they had to move to Zuccotti Park a few blocks away, on a day when no buisness was taking place.
Then came the Tweet asking for people asking for half vegan, quarter no cheese pizza.
Then came the Ron Paul supporters and BitCoin advocates.
Then came the topless yoga classes and I became curious.

Then I wrote the thing off. The second a camera gets on these people, the word "hipster" is going to be sung from the top of the tower as it fades into obscurity, with a bunch of voices all vying for the last breath.

Then, a week later, this happened:
VIDEO OF THE WEEK #1- Woman Getting Maced By Police Officer


Then they had my sympathy.

The officer's name is Anthony Bologna, or Tony Baloney. Don't accuse him of being an asshole or anything, I bet he got picked on a lot in school, like "Tony Baloney has a tiny penis" or, "Tony Baloney will be a sad old man who will be a cop because he's too dumb to do anything instead of, you know, because he wants to protect and serve" and now he's taking it out on women who only asked what the hell was going on. Oh wait, maybe he is an asshole.

Now it's getting actual, legit support from several different unions, including the Transit Workers Union and the ALF CIO

And now I'm glad that at least someone is there. This is a legit grassroots movement. The reason the Tea Party gets all the attention is because the same people OWS is protesting put a bunch of money to get a bunch of old white people riled up. While I can understand the anger of the old white people, all that cash just gives the TP a bad aftertaste.

So, three things I hope to see going forward:
1. Get more working class, "normal" people in on the protest. It's not a "Save The Whales" thing where it only affects one enthusiastic subset, it's a subject that affects all of us:

2. Lesson from Chanology #1: Be Persistent, and Don't Be Afraid To Be Rude
VIDEO OF THE WEEK #2: NYC ANonymouse Flashmobs CLO Building

Make it clear to these people that it's not worth it to be that wealthy and work in an environment that has screwed over so many. Some have actually left Scientology because the assholes standing outside an org won't leave and supposedly their tech was supposed to handle dissenters. How would this apply to OWS?

If someone be hatin', drop some knowledge, and make them feel like crap for being such bitches.

3. Lesson from Chanology #2: Be Active

I'd love nothing more than to see 20 homeless people covered in pubes just messing with the traders. But that conteracts point 1.

Again, would adopting Chanology practices work? Chanology was weird people fighting weird people. Wall Street is an institution that, like it or not, is a part of this country, and unlike Scientology, most people have already made up their minds in some fashion.

This is pretty stupid, but I promised something like this on The Bunker this week, so there it is.

March 11th Open Mic Night

TL;DR: I liked how I played, but everything else was a clusterfuck.

(GOLD-Nearly perfect, ***- Barely made it)
"Clash City Rockers" by The Clash- GOLD
BUT I SOUNDED LIKE SHIT. I had to go through the PA system they had, and it made me sound weeeak. NO distortion. But I finally got it right.

"She Sells Sanctuary" by The Cult- ***
I started off by making a Scientology joke that kinda went mediocre. Nobody seemed interested in playing, and I was messing up, so I cut it short. I brought a Flange pedal, but couldn't use it, cause the school PA system sucked.

"Desolation Row" by My Chemical Romance- *****
I tried to do a ROrscach impression: "You'll trip over your acoustic guitars, look up and yell "Play Freebird" and I'll look down and whisper "No."" I FUCKED IT UP ROYALLY.
The song however, I couldn't have played better. I forgot the lines at a couple places, but picked it up. My voice didn't sound that awkward considering I was singing in a lower key.

For however many things went wrong, they went right. My performing got better, but I didn't put on a good show. The problem is that I'm playing the wrong kinds of songs on the wrong instrument, but this is what I like. It's what I feel good performing. The most common response I got was "It took balls to go up there." which I guess means "You sucked, but thanks for trying anyway."

While I seem all hip and coherent on this blog, I'm pretty skittish IRL. I don't know if it's nerves, or thinking of everything in terms of life or death, but I always feel like I'm embarassing myself when I put myself out in public.

The reason I don't feel the same way while writing is simply because I have a backspace key and edit button. I can take my time, and sort things out. When I'm nervous, or trying to speak then think, I tend to talk in word salads a little (i.e. one word is replaced for another).

I wasn't as prepared as I'd like to have been this time around, so I'm gonna hold off on these things, and do the NEXT next Open Mic, April 15th if at that. So I'll focus more time on nailing RB songs. If all goes well, I might actually have a semblance of a video for all o y'alls. Also, gonna try to do a bit of songwriting.

Dani California, the song next on my list was actually played by a friend of mine from the Commuter Association (not S'n, but he was there too, and in good form as usual) and forgot the words and said "fuck it" and laughed it off. God I wish I could do that, just laugh things off.

Holy shit, this is the most personal I've ever gotten on this blog. I better be back tomorrow with some inane rambling on how some aspect of Rock Band is related tangentially to some aspect of Team Fortress 2, or something stolen, I mean, posted from another website.

Insert Scientology Joke

Because I finished "She Sells Sanctuary" by... THE CULT!!

But seriously, folks, that shit is much scarier than aliens and Tom Cruise's insanity.
And the funny thing is, the internet is kicking their ass.

On to matters that won't get me sued,
SHE SELLS SANCTUARY
What I find amazing about this song is that it utilizes only the middle two strings, save for one note, and even that you can always hit on a lower string.

The original recording used a flanger pedal to give the song an Eastern, mysterious vibe to the intro. I can't really explain it, but it's like delay and phase-shifting combined. A lot of popular songs have used it, like "Barracuda" and "Spirit Of The Radio".

The riff in question:
G---14---12---11---(7)---5h7-5h7-5--7---2-
D-0----0----0----0-----0-----------0--0---


B---------------------------------------------------15
G---14---12---16---14---12h14-12h14-12---14------
D-0----0----0----0----0------------------0----0----

You can also use the 19th fret on the G string in lieu of that last note.

The main problem with this isn't that it's hard to play, it's that it requires your fingers to move quite a distance quickly.


SETLIST UPDATED

Explaining My DLC Selections- Tiers 1 and 2

I have to amend my initial post (which wasn't really the inital post at all! HA HA!) after this, but after traveling and working for school projects, and friends this weekend, I don't have anything HUGE for you. (All three of you).

For all tiers I go by this old edition of the DLC Wikipedia page
I don't know what I'll do when everything is converted to the 7-tier system that Rock Band 2 uses, but I'll cross that bridge when we get there. I'm the Rhythm Bastard; I cross bridges so you don't have to.

Where was I? Oh yeah.

TIER 1
ROXANNE- The Police
It seemed like a good song to practice switching chord shapes with, looking at the tab. I switch around which song I'm working on a lot, but this one is the current one right now as of this moment yes. THIS ONE. I WILL DEFEAT YOU ANDY SUMMERS!!!

I think it's about a hooker that Sting doesn't want to be a hooker anymore. He wants his lovin for free.

GIRL U WANT- Devo
Hey, Devo! There's a band you haven't heard in a while! Thank God the 80's are coming back! And by Thank, I mean Fuck You, and by God I mean Seth MacFarlane Now That, and by ! I mean And Therefore Ruining Family Guy.
This song has been used in recent promos for The Sarah Silverman Program, and is kinda catchy.

I've sen every episode of it, and I'm still not sure whether or not I like The Sarah Silverman Program

TIER 2
SHE SELLS SANCTUARY- The Cult
A nice, sort of airy tune in contrast to all the harder rock in the main tier. Also, a rule of thumb I TRY to go by will be to pick a song that have the same Guitar and Band difficulties. For the Reader's Choice (impressions in a later post) I just pick songs that sound cool that aren't by a band in the main tier.

Plus the lead singer in this video looks like a pirate.