Wayne Loves Tennis

Back to School

+

Princeton era 1960 (Life)

Back to school yall. Sun's still out but the day is giving way to a whole different colour of structure. I'm not sure I'm up for it in all its splendor but what choice do I have. I hate it when people say "That's just the way it is." Don't ever believe that to be true. If school absolutely sucks at first, suffer through it and make it the best you can. Situational predicaments are never without a little good, even the worst. And the greatest good doesn't come in an instant. The best example of this is TED. The folks behind all the beautiful lectures that TED produces didn't simply become into their craft. They've dedicated years to what they love, whatever it may be and the great shit they produce eventually gets recognized. The benefits aren't immediate, but rather they slowly become. After a while, you're suddenly recognized, but only after the time and effort that got the gears of progress moving. That way of thinking can be applied to every shade of life. Accept nothing for as it is, especially if it sucks. Own up, take responsibility for whatever the matter may be and then run with it. I'm finding myself now in some deep gradoo, something the likes of which I've never come across. But I'm trying to believe that the effort will be worth it eventually, because for the next little while things might just suck. But that ain't no reason to not keep on grinning. It's college baby and you're beautiful.

Rant

+

How ironic is it that material affluence creates a scarcity of non-material things. In this hyper connected world of ours, with Facebook and text messaging blowing up everyone's free time, do the most important things in the world seem to suffer? There is one person I know who's so flakey with her phone and I love her for it. She forgoes all that bullshit of what's up where are you whatcha doing for honest to goodness face to face interaction. Why isn't all this time spent all connected up being spent towards encouraging and nurturing the cornerstones of the psyche like friendship and wisdom? I saw something the other day talking about the amount of girls in the work force as it related to the amount of hours boys spent playing video games in their childhood years. All that time boys spend on video games, something like 10,000 hours before 18 years old, is automatically not being spent nurturing basic communication skills and necessary tools for the workplace. Girls steer clear of video games in their early years, which therefore translates to a better chance of excelling in the workplace environment. I believe the same sort of principles can be tied to current trends such as the rise of obesity and lack of creativity in the United States, which Time just did a great cover story on by the way. Kids don't play outside any more. Never before in the history of mankind has our modern world seen the likes of such a problem before. Not only do the fundamental tools of everyday interaction suffer, the immaterial, intangible notions of the heart and mind are taking a fatal plunge as well. Pope John Paul II said that very well when he first spoke to the United Nations. "In a culture of affluence, you will predictably see a decrease of spiritual values: time, knowledge, wisdom, love and friendship.  Those decrease almost in mathematical proportion as you move toward materialism."

Update! Read some mo wiser words than my own

{Social Relationships and Mortality Risk | Plos Medicine | Continue}

{America: Land of Loners? | Wilson Quarterly | Continue}

{Relationships in Late Capitalism | Adbusters | Continue}

Cha Cha Changes

+

There is a difference between change and transformation.  Change happens when something old dies and something new begins.  I am told that planned change is as troublesome to the psyche as unplanned change, often more so.  We feel manipulated, forced, and impute it to some evil authorities, the change agents.  But change might or might not be accompanied by transformation of soul.  I'm afraid it is usually not. If change does not invite personal transformation, we lose our souls.  Such is the modern malaise.

We mass-produce neurotics and narcissists because there are so few medicine men and healing women and Spirit guides to walk us through transformation. At times of change, the agents of transformation must work overtime, even through few will hear them.  The ego would sooner play victim or too-quick victor than take the ambiguous road of transformation.  We change-agents need a simple virtue:  faith.  It still is the rarest of commodities because it feels like nothing, at least nothing that satisfies our need to know, to fix, to manage, to understand.  Faith goes against the grain.

Transformation in times of change is the exception, but it is also the norm. Nothing new seems to happen except when the old dies.  But the old does not die gracefully:  It always takes hostages.

(But Does It Float)

from on Vimeo.

Healthy Relationships

+

Healthy Relationships

Sometimes I'm very happy that I'm not in a secure romantic relationship. I dunno, it just seems to me that people who are in really healthy relationships are really, really boring. I mean, where's the spice in emotional security? Where's the excitement in this:

"I love you, my love."

"I love you too, my love, until our planet meets its demise at the hands of an asteroid, for as long as my body can still produce breath and excrement unaided by hospital machines, until Jesus comes back and we kill him again, I will, always love you, my love."

You see? No excitement at all. No umph. There's no jealousy, no distrust, no acerbic barbs that subtly scar two lovers until their hearts cauterize from the daily onslaught of passive-aggressive remonstrations. Now that shit, that's fun to me. Not knowing where you stand with someone, being so full of self-doubt that you question everything, believing nothing the person you're with tells you. I'm talking about the emotional equivalent of being an illiterate serf in Europe in like1204, and the bible is in fucking Latin and you can't read the gospels for shit even if it was in your language, and your priest has got you convinced that every little thing you do is gonna land you in hell. "The harvest failed this year... I'm done for." Now that's a relationship you maricóns!

{Continue Reading | Mad Decent}

Tattoo

+

I stayed up nearly all night last night reading this book, had to put it down after close to four straight hours of nothing but reading because I couldn't keep my eyes open. Finished it this morning and can't wait to grab the next. It's fantastic. I've been in dire need for some great fiction recently and this held every bit of my attention for all 600 plus pages, which is a miracle in itself. Whoa. I'm in North Georgia for a few days for the grandfather's surprise birth. They live up on a mountain with a beautiful view and loads of drafty quiet rooms which are perfect for reading and detoxing, as long as the dogs don't find you. A bear wandering through the garbage last night and they killed a copperhead in the garage two days ago. I love being in the middle of nowhere. Today in between pages, we ventured out to see friends out on in the nearby county. They've got a dairy farm thats been in the family since 1840. Every weekend, trucks of folks venture up from Atlanta to buy their all naturale, dry aged, organic no nothing added pork and beef. Watched a lady get her heel stuck in the mud today. Awesome. I love time spent in the back of beyond. 

+

Lots to come this next week with the meanderings of summer finally slowing down and giving way to the regiments of a unself-inflicted schedule. But man oh man, it has been a fantastic past few weeks. Loads of pointed facts,  askewed notes, colourful observations, quotes, soul wringing, thoughts, head nods, beats and buzz, bell chimes, super tunes, sprawling wordscapes, rudeness, and photos about to be dropped. Here's to catching up and not making sense. 

Neet

+

This interview with Diplo about MIA's new album absolutely makes complete sense. Keep in mind the fact that Time Magazine named her in their list of the World's Top 100 Most Influential People, for having "global influence across many genres." And then she broke up with Diplo, mastermind behind Mad Decent, architect of the tropical sounds behind her first two albums and boyfriend to boot, and soon moved to California to live with Benjamin Zachary Bronfman, heir of the Bronfman liquor dynasty. Her latest album Maya has been described as a "digital ruckus" and was recorded in 18 months, entirely in her home in Los Angeles. Kala, her universally acclaimed second album, was recorded in India, Jamaica, Liberia, Trinidad and Australia. Everything you need to know about what's up with MIA right now is said right here, very tastefully by Diplo.

***

On what went wrong with MAYA: “I think she’s a really controversial artist and she’s one of the most important people doing music right now, because people expect a lot. And I think that the record was like—she didn’t care about it. I was in the studio with her, she didn’t write anything. The one good review is that, at least people—she’s on the defensive for the whole record, and that doesn’t sound very authentic. Me and Switch tried our best to be quality control of the record and she didn’t want that. She kind of went on her own way. I was like, Look, nobody in your crew—we were the only people she could trust, and our asses were on the line too. We got here because of working with people like her. We care about the way things sound, and when the people that she works with don’t, then it’s fucked up. She’s got a talent in every aspect. She’s got ideas bigger than any artist I’ve ever met and she’s someone to fuckin’ make that happen. All she has is a bunch of yes men around her and they kinda suck.”

On ever working with her again: “I burned like twenty bridges with her. I build my own bridges, it doesn’t matter. I’m honest. As soon as she comes to terms with what she does then we can work again. One of us has to be like, We fucked up, and then we can do it again.”

On the backlash: “I am surprised by it. She like, retired because she married a dude and she didn’t care about music. She only did it again because “Paper Planes” did blow up in the end. It gave her a second wind, but she didn’t have any hunger anymore. She already got a full table.”

On her future: “But besides that I think she’s amazing and she’ll put another record out that’s going to be fuckin’ sick because I think she needs to get grounded at some point.”

***

{Black Book | Continue Reading}

Big Ideas

+

The mezzanine level of my home someday. 

(Mezzanine!)

Duck Sauce

I love Duck Sauce and my song of the summer will be Barbra Streisand when it touches down sometime.

Summer

+

I'm a man in the wild and the wild is the best. 

My intentions all summer have certainly been this. 

-Kid Cudi

+

This is the second year of Converse's 3 Artists 1 Song series and they've struck gold the second time around. While last year's lineup of Santigold, Pharrell and Julian Casablancas from the Strokes  might have looked more stellar on paper, the song itself didn't live up to the storm that the lineup unintentionally built up. Google it to find out for yourself but I'm just saying don't bother, this song right here is truly something else and that's not just my love for Kid Cudi coming on strong. BUT he does rise this song above from being just another hazy lo fi cute kid lost his glasses at the beach sounding romp that Pitchfork nuts all over. While Pitchfork uses words and explanations to try and wrangle out the true meaning out of moments that touch the Heart & Mind with, the most enlightening experiences are always a feeling and that involves no thinking at all. No calculating, comparing, contrasting, competing, analyzing or summarizing anything at all. It's just about simply Being. Cudi always tries his best to translate that feel right there across in his music and I absolutely love it. Don't jump all over me for this but on a very related note, do drugs always have to be in the picture when speaking of feeling Life's truly important moments? Not at all. Let's be real clear: by themselves, not ever no never. Are drugs way more often than not used as an attempt to touch something real? Absolutely. But what if in conjunction with glimpsing something truly of beauty and not as an end to itself? That's up for you to decide. While considering the fact that everything less than best detracts, all you have to do is think of the moments that you would most want to be taken above and beyond yourself, overwhelmed by joy? Watching your favorite song being played? A roof top terrace overlooking the Mediterranean? Seeing the sun set behind a sand dune? Mountain peaks? Peering off the top of the Hilton Chicago at the world below? Strange places with the best of friends? Cudi's on a beach with his newest best friends and loving it and summer and all its splendor. Love is being overstimulated in joy, whatever the means. Immerse yourself in love. Best give the song a play too, no doubt about it. 

Kid Cudi + Rostam Batmanglij + Best Coast- All Summer

Time To Get Away

+

!!!-AM/FM

Let your head swim. 

Word

+

"GNP measures everything in short except that what makes Life worthwhile."

-Robert Kennedy

Locals Only

+

The sun doesn't set on the truly important things in Life and true wisdom sees that a slice of summer should never die in anyone, only encouraged. Think about what could true if that was a priority for everybody. There would be no "us and them" way of thinking. 

It would just be us.

Kinfolk.

Locals at the beach, all under the very same sun.

(pics via Rockers NYC) 

Be Still and Know

It's been a long time since Feel Good Lost has rock and rolled but never fear, its about to be Saturday night and the sun is settling on one of the most beautiful days of the year so far. Summer today felt more like a spring morning and it was glorious. After a few weeks of abouts and arounds, festivals and weekend jaunts, this third world neighborhood, the process of moving into the swank new digs, summer heat, a new job and the never ending list of doing, making, saying, thinking and all fashions of extracurricularing, right now stands as high time to pause and contemplate the meaning of it all. The pace of life up here in Bowling Green is slow like molasses, but the days are as busy as you deem it so. Specially with the heat and all, plus the the whole make your own fun feel to things here in Kentucky. The sun burns on and time crawls by, almost to say, "Yall, what's the big rush anyways?" Things aren't suppose to be taken more seriously than deemed necessary. The staring down of the future is so uncalled for, yet rampantly practiced in today's calculating world, especially with the twenty something crowd and their massive identity crisis. The truth is all about finding the right balance of doing what's called for and doing what you love. If that can be handled at the present moment to the point that it doesn't hinder future opportunities, what's the worry in the first place?  Days that are wide open in structure are absolutely appreciated but they are best if earned. If one wide open day rolls right into another, they slowly turn into a black hole that gobbles up time, never to be seen again. With that said, I'm running as far away from that as possible, no nothing doing anything. Plenty busy is a good thing but only to the point that it doesn't rob you of the chance to delve into all the many pursuits offered up by the present moment. Work towards something, of course but having too many goals is probably the worst thing to have in the whole world. Honest to goodness. The straight and narrow focused path is more resistant to capitalizing off the benefits offered by the unpredictable events that lie waiting in the future. Could anyone twenty years ago have predicted the rise of Islamic militancy? The internet and all its glory? Life is full of absolute surprises, good and bad. To embrace that fact and live in it's glory is a beautiful thing.  Some occasions of history and definitely parents, simple folk and pretty much everyone else who likes being comfortable and secure say nah to this way of thinking but I'm still a devout believer in confidence in the highly improbable. The bottom line, way below the norm and high above all the mess saying the do this and that's, is that take it easy. If you're doing the best you can and handling everything that comes your way to the best extent, the best you can is good enough. Take all that as you may, best with a dose of rationality. Okay for now.

Narcissism is the Fast Food of the Soul

Society has been discussing the negative effects of advertising for decades. 
But now, suddenly a real backlash is occurring with concrete changes emerging in countries around the world.

Sao Paulo enacted a near-complete ban on outdoor advertising in 2007 and Spain recently passed a new law restricting advertisements that promote the “cult of the body,” including slimming products, surgical procedures and beauty treatments. Restrictions on cigarette and alcohol advertising have marked significant victories in many countries, as have limits on advertising on children’s TV shows.

Now a report by the UK think tank Compass entitled “The Advertising Effect” is a bold call to further action.

Compass urges radical new policies to restrict and control advertising, an industry whose goal they say is, “the creation of a mood of restless dissatisfaction with what we have got and who we are so that we go out and buy more.”

(Adbusters | Continue Reading)

Hmmm

+

Kid Cudi just dropped a new track off at his website, first single off his next album. Man On The Moon II: Legend of Mr. Rager sounds promising. I think Cudi's temptation is to let great ambition overshadow small success along the way. Cudi sounds stoned as fuck and he doesn't rap so much as he just meanders. That guitar's the same one from Down & Out as well. I don't know how I feel about this song as a single, but it still rages with the same late night early morning feel like when it was created. Posted a 4:39 in the morning too, by the way. That's awesome.

Kid Cudi-Revolution of Evolution

Long Fall

+

Tropical storm Agatha has dunked some heavy rains on Central America while killing 115 people in three different countries and opening up this monster sinkhole in Guatemala City. 

Go head, climb on down there boy. 

(Flickr)

No Way

+

 Most people don't realize that a twenty foot long Great White Shark is also both eight feet wide and six feet tall. That's incredible. I just finished reading "Devil's Teeth", a fantastic book about the Great White Shark population that congregates off the coast of San Francisco at a crag of rocks called the Farallon Islands, otherwise known as the Devil's Teeth by sailors back in the day. The book reads easy and I plowed through it this morning, propped up on the couch, listening to the Spacemen 3 and the Supremes.  It's a easy going Memorial Day here at the newly christened Manor up here in Bowling Green and the possibilities are endless. Do need to string some lights outside and put up the basketball goal. There's always something needing to be decorated round here too, hung up, arranged, straighted, squared away just like so. That's just what the likes of these days are good for. Turning and learning. 

Hey Genius

+

Hey genius! Whatcha writing in that Moleskine ya got there?

Your memoir? Some poetry? Is it about your father? Is it about an old lover?

Did that person break your heart? Or was your heart already broken before they

met you? Or did you box that person’s heart about like a kitten playing with

spool of yarn? Do you feel so guilty about breaking that person’s heart that

you’re compelled to write everything down and cast them heart-breaking demons

of yours out? So when you write, what you’re really doing is yelling at them

demons: “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” Ooooor, are you writing a screenplay, genius? A

sorta story in which a loveable Steve Buscemi-esque buffoon gets the girl that

works at the fashion design firm in Midtown who is way out of his league, who

also, in actuality, should really fall in love with the Jude Law-esque

character because that character has more money, is way more attractive, and

despite the overtly douchey way in which he is written, is actually a nice guy.

But since you see yourself as Steve Buscemi, except poorer, the Steve Buscemi

character ends up winning the girl based upon the merits of his stamp

collection. That’s pretty unrealistic, genius, but hey, it’s your screenplay,

right? Who am I to criticize your creative output? Or maybe you could be

writing a really swell novel, genius? Will it be a long one like those Russian

novels that I’ve never really read? Or will it be obtuse like Pynchon or overly

stylized like those overrated Beat writers? Will you use terms like “inky

night” or write about amphetamines in cool (not really) post World War II,

Nuclear Age slang that will influence decades of liberal leaning white people

and somehow convince them that their love of such literature is a confirmation

of non-whiteness, that they’re really not the wonder bread lamos that their

parents were? But I digress, I really don’t mean to talk shit genius, I just

want to know about your novel! I just wanna know about what you’re writing! You

have to tell me! The suspense is killing me genius! When I see you hunched over

your journal agonizing over each line you’re putting down like a surgeon

deliberating on which incision would remove that damn cancer, I’m just pushed

to the edge of normal curiosity, compelled to look over the cliff’s edge,

fantasizing about what kind of life a genius like you could live. Maybe I’m so

interested in you because my own life is a complete snore. A real fucking bore.

It’s okay though, I’m cool with having no interests or anything of specific

import happening in my little fish bowl of an existence, sometimes that’s just

life; the absence of life. That’s why god created ipods, marriage, and having

children; to give us something to do to pass the time between being 15 and

being dead. 

(MADDECENT)

All is Full of Love

+

The stars were out in full tonight and I crowded under them as much as I could, staring at them like they could make sense of thing for me. Everything's just as restless as it always is, with conniptions racing past just as fast as always, yet I was strangely at peace with it all. The environment outside during today's sunlight hours was beyond gorgeous, and I tried my hardest to keep in its presence as long as possible. From rifling through the still wet remains of an soaked basement with the best of friends, to waltzing in pure joy around and about the shade of the setting sun, there's nothing like being outside to remind you that all is is full of love. Around and about every angle of every corner of every thought, vision, landscape, scenario, encounter, experience that you might come across on a daily basis. Blows my mind a little bit when I think about it. I threw idea around one of the smartest people I know tonight out on the porch under the stars. Isn't love the upmost common denominators between all world religions? Where does indoctrination and the blind following of rules falls by the wayside and gives way to true spirituality? Don't the words Religion and Relationship share the same root word in Latin? Benjamin Franklin claimed to be an diest in his later life and was quoted saying that he could look upon the  hierarchical organization of the natural world and see God. I gazed upon the stars tonight with the same deep seeking intention, a widely stretched but distinctively focused perspective that's humbled beyond belief when seeking to understand the vastness of my own ignorance. The more about the ways of the world I try to figure out, the more I realize I don't know anything at all. Not that its a bad thing, just true. Since bad things are just true by simple matter o' fact rationality, therefore there's good to be learned in the bad, which then concludes that there's nothing bad at all in the world. Whoa. The change from Joy to Misery to Joy happens at a frantic pace that's quite drastic to get used to. Everyone fears the unknown to a point and to live Life between opposite ends of Black and White, Up and Down is to learn to be at peace with the degree of ignorance regarding what the direction future events might take. But I suppose that's why they call it the fast life, right? 

Notes From Underground

+

My angel little brother David got arrested this week. Code 3 violation too, which means tactical support was necessary. Six squad cars arrived on the scene in Edwin Warner Park and out spilled a whole battery of armoured up law enforcement officers who promptly bum rushed the our darling blonde suspect in question and hauled him off downtown to jail, no kidding that's jail jail since juvinile was flooded, for the whole rest of the day and well into the night, all for what? Poking around the park with a Civil War musket in tow, no gunpowder or miniballs or anything that might enable the gun to be anything more than a glorified doorstop, antique at best. In truth, he was filming a movie trailer for class and they did have fireworks but goodness gracious, mercy sakes alive. I don't know what's more woefully ridiculous in this here schenario, the wanton expending of tax dollars or the hypersensitivity our society lives in. People getting all up in arms, literally, over something way less incriminating than a whole lotta other things that immediately came to mind that are seemingly okay, because they're everywhere (gluttony, envy, pride, rudeness). They didn't even hear him out at the scene (of the crime) or even allow him his phone call when in jail. God almighty, how can you live with yourself everyday if you get off by getting on other people? I'm just saying, justice would be the last thing on anyone's mind if the dinosarus were still around, at least justice to the extent that was levied upon my dear brother David a few days ago. No doubt, catastrophies are no good awful events that get thrown at us, but they do grant the gift of perspective. It takes a truly humble spirit to say, "Well, I lost everything but my family and I are still alive and that's what matters." Light upon the true priorities shines through and everything unnecesary falls by the wayside, including a six car battalion sent to rustle up and apprehend  But why does it take Life's mighty hammer of unpredictable events to remind us of what's truly important? Do we have to be forced to feel, in a way? Only aware of death at funerals or only American after 9/11? I'm overdoing a little bit, but there's a lot going on with that right there. Whatever. If you see this man in the photos above, run for your life. I fucking loooooooooooove Iron Maiden. 

Iron Maiden-Run To The Hills

Nashville's Still Nashville

+

Where the men are men and the women are proud of it.

(NASHVILLE'S DEAD)

White Trash Class

+

Vietnam is a band that sounds exactly how they look. Dirt and cracked up Levis. Aloof, restless, nearly barefoot and looking to make something marvelous happen but happy with whatever the moment presents itself with. Nothing political, no game theory or hidden agenda in their sound at all. They flat out don't give a hoot. I saw them at the End in Nashville one hazy Valentine's Day quite a few years ago. They didn't grace the stage till nearly twelve and folks were getting drunk and restless, but Vietnam immediately put everyone there at ease with a smile and a sorry right before the first number. I've only ever seen babies lighten moods and faces like that Peace bringin' to that extent is absolutely admirable and an xtraordinary thing. That speaks leaps and volumes about a person, even more a band. That philosophy shines clear through their music as well. Their sound conjures up all sorts of utopian summer circumstances. No need to bother with unnecessarities when you're sprawled out in the back of a red 1965 Lincoln, one hand holding your hat and the other your beer, just like your other three bros as yall take off to Austin for a night in the city. They've definitely got some Texas in their freewheelin' happy rambling sound. They're out of Brooklyn now I believe which is surprising because they can choogle pretty well for city boys. Plus, their luscious rock locks are fucking rad as well. Summer and long hair hold each other's hand pretty sternly and I salute the boys that can pull it off with ease. I didn't cut my hair for almost twenty months and I tell you, it tangled up in the biggest snafu the likes of which curly hair's never seen. A crazy big snarl of sun bleached knots that sprang out every which way. It was truly an accomplishment but I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to long hair now thanks to it. At least the long hair that creeps on me. Not to say I don't admire it though. I hustled up a few of my favorite to parade at you so you seen where my love is coming from. The last two are this here band I'm loving at the moment. Cop these tracks from Vietnam, kick back and drift for a while, if just to take the edge of the exams looming large this next week. That's my dispositioning at least, simply because its a beautiful day. You feel me? Priorities priorities. 

Vietnam-Step On Inside

Vietnam-Priest, Poet & the Pig

Vietnam-Welcome to My Room