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This song may or may not make the year end list but its pretty stupendous. Reminds me of The Knife if they ever crawled out of their creepy cave and suddenly found themselves on the set of Saturday Night Fever. 

Robyn- Dancing On My Own

Who Dat

Hey yall, what's happening? What's going on the world today? With exams almost long forgotten and the holidays slowly losing its chim chimmery, the dawning of another year in the life of us all is looming large, which poses a fantastic opportunity to celebrate and introspectate (word of the day). Here at the Feel Good Lost Castle, we try to find a harmonious balance in between both polarities, somewhere hovering around the smack dab middle between the far extremes. What's to be learned from 2010? A whole lot, my friends. 2010 has been the year of trysts and meddlings, with many miles traveled, sights seen, lessons learned, visions beheld, insights uncovered, fears relinquished and stories told. I've slowly become so much more aware of the balance between accepting fate*living a life of faith and the ever continual struggle for self improvement and it hasn't been easy. But one thing is for sure, fortune favors the bold. I'm struggling to keep my eyes open right now, which is just the worst because I've procrastinated long enough in spending quality time on here. One thing that I want to happen is a year end list. I wish I had been on the ball in arranging it before 2011 but that's neither here nor there. But its coming, so keep your eyes to the sky and stay tuned. One thing is for sure though. In 2011, I'ma gon break a mirror and make a disco ball the size of the Statue of Liberty's fist.

Boo

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Welcome back magic lovers. 

Pearl Harbor

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A camera was just discovered containing photos of Pearl Harbor that hadn't been developed yet. 

10 battleships, 6 crusiers, 4 destroyers, 188 planes, and 2,408 men were lost in all. 

This is something that should leave us in awe.

SNARL & PONDER

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I'm propped up in the science building, trying to will the door nearby to close itself another inch so that the freezy gusts would subside and my legs might feel the happiness of warmth again. But they're not getting a fighting chance and I've already gotten up twice. Might just have to bear it for the next little bit. I'm looking for any excuse to pack my books up and march home to play drums anyways. Finals week is just the dregs. Nervous energy abounds around campus and there's nothing inspiring about that at all. The library is jampacked with folks who'd normally never be there, as if some ghostly vibe of Academic Excellent would miraculously whisp out from the rows of books around or from the Asian students sitting neaby and pass over them like the ghost of christmas past, blessing them with concentration, a can of smarts, or passing grades. I say good luck with that Jack, with all the noise you're making, you're likely to get kungfued by an aspiring biochemical engineer sitting to the left of you. Who hates you and your girlfriend right now. I'd rather camp out here in the science building, where everyone KNOWS they're getting good grades. The whole ordeal is akin to the gym in the student center the week before spring break, where every slightly pudged, weightedly overslighted sorority gal is laying on a mat doing side to side abs or whatever else Cosmo told them to do in hopes to magically make the cush disappear. Sorry darling, good luck with that swimsuit bod and getting lovehandled in Panama. 

But that's all nonsense.

I'd dare to reckon that not once will I ever hears the likes of a sermon being taught on the Tenth Commandment. How can a lesson be taught to us about Thou Shalt Not Coveting our Neighbor's Goods when our entire Western society is built upon that principle? It's called capitalism. Which isn't a bad thing at all, don't get me wrong. I'm stuck here writing this paper about the ethics behind our healthcare debacle and its pretty fascinating in the least. Before Obama passed the this healthcare bill in March, the United States was the last wealthy, industrialized nation to offer a universal healthcare system to its citizens. Bill Clinton tried to in 1993 but it fell flat on its face on the floor of the Senate, for very good reasons. Too many people thought it would cut into our private sector and disincentivize our healthcare professional. Capitalism promotes competition, which keeps quality up and pushed individuals to become better, harder, faster, stronger in the name of profit and monetary gain. But healthcare is in a mess now because its stuck in the middle between a free market and public funding. Our current system is a incredibly tangled mess between for profits care agencies and public healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Truth be told, ethically speaking we do need a universal healthcare system to take care of our citizens but not one similar to the likes of the rest of the world. In Britain and Canada, doctors are told what they make by the government. There is no reason for them to see any more patients than they have to. Here in the United States, doctors have the potential to make as much money as they want. All it depends upon is how hard they work. That's the beauty of free markets. It encourages competition. But what's beautiful about the market system and democracy its pure heresy and absolutely incompatible in thinking about the soul and our spirituality. You can't manage, manipulate or control spiritual energy. All that's a matter of letting go, relinquishing the self and becoming a part of the flow of life much broader than your own perspective. But waiting on life is hardly a passive approach. I'm not going to not study for exams for goodness sakes. That's getting the old college try, at least for fifteen minutes each day.

But this notion of control, comparing and contrasting dominates our perspective, quite literally in the form of advertising. All commercial advertising is concerned with is convincing us we need things we don't really need, which has most of us hopelessly confused as to what's truly important in this world. I'm shamelessly very much in the thick of it, looking at this guy's Windows computer nearby with utter disdain and inferiority to this here Macbook Pro thats cranking out words at machine gun rate. But I've been blessed to witness the pace of life on how most of the world operates. The level of need in this country as moved to such levels of illusion and sophistication that what are ultimate luxuries elsewhere are absolute necessities here. Here's where my Mum would come in and rage "Yeah but we've EARNED it. We are the greatest country in the world for a REASON." There is no convincing her and Rush otherwise because they're deeply settled in their ways, but that still doesn't detract from the truth at hand.

Our consumerist worldview and its effect on our mental state is going to be the battle of our generation. Research is already starting to show that everything from environmental degradation to the impossibility of bipartisanship in Washington to the significant increase in mental illnesses are a result of our hyperconnected society and the assault of four thousand advertisements on our brain every single day. In the same way the nature world can be polluted by heaps of toxins and garbage, our minds can fall prey to the toxic influence of too much information and its divisiveness.

Back to books but first of course, gruesome tunes. This band Warpaint is still blowing my mind and makes for pretty stupendous, darkly romantic yet completely ambivalent sounding music. These gals sound completely serene in their state of disarray, which is much further along than most folks get about dealing with their problems. If Tame Impala is the hazy day at the beach, Warpaint is the acid trip wandering around the forrest with a flashlight and seeing a BOBCAT! and LOVING IT! Lastly, listen to this song though by the mysterious beirdos Moon Duo. The guitar tone actually conjures up the teasing woodland spirits of Mystery and Surprise. Don't believe me? Find our for yourself.
Faster, onward Econ! Awwwwwway!

Moon Duo-Motorcycle I Love You

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If yall want something fascinating to peruse over, check out this list of paradoxes offer up by Wikipedia. 

{List of Paradoxes | Wikipedia | Continue}

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And listen to Ascent of Everest. Words can't do justice to the emotions conjured up in response to this music. Think epic like Explosions In The Sky but more fairy tale, lost in the woods-esque. Still very grand though. Like witnessing the slow sinking of a beautiful clipper ship. Put the needle in the record and ease into your rocking chair as you sit with your mushroom tea and watch the snow fall. Read these articles too, they're the best I could wrangle up this week. 

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{Difference Wisdom | Overcoming Bias | Continue}

{Solitude and Leadership | The American Scholar | Continue}

{Existential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios | Nick Bostrom | Continue}

Rest

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The perfect state of creative bliss is having power (being 50) and knowing nothing (being 7). 

This would seemingly assure an interesting and successful outcome in just about anything. 

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Kurt Vile- Freeway

Shucks

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Here at the Feel Good Lost castle, we tend to huddle behind our impenetrable fortress walls when the sky goes grey and the wind whips up something fierce. Huddling for warmth, plotting our next maneuvers, introspectioning, reflecting, contemplating, scheming up a storm, being as productive as possible to fend off the winter induced lethargia. But its hard to keep cheer and even harder to stay tropical. My parrot here knows this best. He's having to beak these words out while I dictate and shiver over here in the corner. Fingers are no good for typing at the moment. They can barely clutch the whiskey bottle. I blame this mighty thin bear skin. Sir Thomas could have left the cave door open.

 Yes indeed, trials and tribulations abound here in frigid reaches of Arctica.
Studying is out of the question, unless its McLuskerson's Guide to Spontaneous Combustion.
Good grief.

This best come to a halt before every wheel rattles off the apple cart. 

But never fear, spirits abound even under polar duress.  

Nothing a half contained conflagration in the stone hearth. and some Van Halen can't solve. 

RUNNING WITH THE DEEEEEVIL

The beginning of Atomic Punk would be a great opener for a DJ set, if you didn't know.

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This video is such a tease right now.

Actually ran into this guy walking down Broadway in New York late this summer. 

I can't get enough the stripped down psychedelia of the song and video.

Where in high heaven can you find a shirt like that?

Not here atop this snowy mountain peak, thats for sure.