Is mobile technology

Is mobile technology fucking with society?

Let me elaborate. I'm sitting at a trendy coffee shop in Houston, and as I look around I see quiet readers, college kids getting their caffiene fix, people watchers, and in the day and age - the inevitible; techies wrapped up in their mobile devices. It seems like everywhere I look kids' conversaion and socilizing is being I interrupted by the use of their iPhones. When did this become okay? Just the other day I was spending long-lost time with old high school friends in a rather quiet and intimate environment. Of course we each had our phones at our sides the whole time, and whenever they went off, I woul only be rude tothe sender not to answer. But what about us? It seems as though my conversations keep becomming interrupted by communication on the outside. I mean even right now, I'm sitting with my friend Lindsay, trying to play a game of backgammon, but instead I'm writing this blog, and she is texting a friends named reuy asking for boy advice. Are conversations becomming limited to only what can fit into an text bubble? And whatever can command our attention just long enough to respond? Where are our social skills headed with this kind of interaction? Are our wal social circles turning from something tangible to something a bit more...technological?

Stuff Hipsters Like

So I was at a Radio UTD dance party the other day, and like any other college radio station, Radio UTD has its fair share of hipsters. At said dance party, I noticed that these quote-unquote hipsters had a few things in common. So, I took the liberty of compiling a list of things you can do that would make you seen and be scene. Here's the list.

1. coffee
2. pointy shoes
3. apathy
4. other hipsters
5. Pitchfork Media
6. skinny jeans
7. wayfarers
8. satchels
9. plaid
10. American Apparel
11. vegetarianism/veganism
12. v-neck shirts
13. nose rings/septum piercings
14. thrift stores
15. sticking it to the man
16. obscure references to English literature
17. irony
18. paisley
19. going green
20. not liking other people's music
21. Ayn Rand
22. cut-off jeans
23. photography
24. plain-colored clothing
25. distinguished looking shoes
26. funny-looking haircuts
27. thick-rimmed glasses
28. vests
29. live music
30. elicit drug use
31. looking disheveled
32. music festivals
33. male cardigans
34. Members Only
35. the 80's
36. partying together
37. homo-erotic references
38. cheap liquor
39. Polaroid instant cameras
40. themed parties
41. NPR
42. Moleskines
43. mustaches
44. long hair
45. bleans
46. Pabst Blue Ribbon
47. nicotine
48. high-tops
49. sitting in circles
50. cloves
51. Tom's Shoes
52. cheap clothes
53. clothes that look cheap but are expensive
54. dance parties
55. pretending they are different than other hipsters
56. vintage
57. faux-vintagel
58. obscurely-themed parties
59. ironic / strange tattoos
60. their own music tastes
61. novels
62. Helvetica
63. hair straighteners
64. swooping bangs
65. poorly attended parties
66. scarves
67. The Mountain Goats
68. black music that actual black people don't listen to
69. ironic detachment
70. puppies
71. not working out
72. Neutral Milk Hotel
73. the proliferation of individuality
74. Barack Obama
75. integrating the internet into social situations
76. Hanukkah


Self-explanatory enough. If you're actually reading this and you have more stuff hipsters like that you would like to see on this list, comment below, or else. Or else what, you ask? Or else there will be no comment by you. Also, stuff hipsters like will be publishing a book in 2013. Keep an open eye. DON'T BLINK UNTIL 2013.

Passion Pit Needs No Lessons on Manners

Passion Pit
Manners
Rating: 8.5/10
RIYL: Phoenix, Cut Copy, Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, Deerhoof

Experts say that fashion trends come in waves. I say the same goes for music. Let’s give a quick recap of the last 30 years in music:
The 1970’s were swept away with several sub-genres of rock, such as psychadelic, surf, progressive, garage, blues, and roots. The mid-seventies also saw a rise in a genre that defined much of the culture in that decade: Disco.

Scenes such as Studio 54 rose out of the dust during the 1980’s. Saturday Night Fever and Flashdance were brought to the screen, and the Man in the Moon with the Cocaine Spoon carried people through grueling nights of grooving.

The 80’s and 90’s gave way to dance, glam rock, pop, and electronica. Raves were the rage as people still chose to dance through the night. Even through today, these genres still find their home in the stereo speakers of the youth.
All of this leads to now. Dance, pop, and electronica influences from back in the day are coming back in full swing, with a bit of a contemporary twist. A whirlwind example: the surprisingly young Passion Pit.

The band unofficially formed in 2007 when lead vocalist Michael Angelakos composed songs as a Valentines gift for his then-girlfriend. This creation gained popularity where Angelakos was attending college and eventually evolved into Passion Pit’s first EP Chuck of Change. The band released Manners on May 19th earlier this year. Since its release, Manners has gained momentum in its popularity and respect from the masses.

This album is one of the best American electronica/dance albums of the year. With its tingling melodies mashed with unfastened beats and sexy boyish vocals, Passion Pit has successfully pieced together an extremely danceable, yet quite respectable first full-feature album.

Tracks worth checking out include “Little Secrets”, “Moths Wings”, “The Reeling”, “Folds in Your Hands”, and of course, the single “Sleepyhead” where everything is going to the beat.


Video: The Reeling

when indie music is no longer indie

I was watching the Texas/Nebraska game, and two supposedly "indie" (or what I considered indie) songs came on the television.

Art for Art's sake?

When you enter "Frank Yang" into the search bar of YouTube, the site returns amateur videos of hardcore workout sessions. But don't be quick to judge. View more videos posted by YouTube user digitalairair, and you are opened to the expressive, artistic, fucked up world of Frank Yang and his quote-unquote art.

The first Frank Yang video I experienced was a compilation of shots of Yang destroying his room wearing nothing but his mother's tiny underwear. With his brother on the bed screaming "how long is this going to take clean up?!" he tears up his belongings with rage and disgust. These action shots included scene cuts of Yang vomiting, reading out of a dream journal about eating out his mom's pussy, playing the fiddle, and masturbating. The first thing that came to my mind was: What. The. Fuck. It was like watching a car accident; it hurt to watch, but I just couldn't look away. Immersing myself in this video was like watching a psychotic rage party at the local mental hospital. Was this even real?

The video was aptly titled Entropy aka Ultimate Workout. On a sidebar next to the video, an artist statement is given. It explains the origins of the video are that for years he has been fighting entropy by "by meticulously cleaning, maintaining, and organizing fruitless material objects in a habitual manner." In addition to wrestling entropy, he eloquently concludes that we define who we are by the objects we keep, and that his ragefest and video was his way of putting an end to his personal consumerism.

But my question was, was all of this really necessary? Yang concludes "If nothing else, the result of this disturbing anarchic served as a kind of wake-up call, as it raised interesting questions about the nature of my identity and my relationship to the world I made." Whatever makes you feel better, dude. He categorizes his video under comedy. I'm pretty sure that's the only funny thing about it.