Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Deep Space 9mm Video by El-P

An old vid, but it's still darling. El-P is so awesomely crazy

Psycho teacher cuts off noisy student's tounge...the classroom has become a battlefield


This teacher is insane and deserves to be put away.


I simply don't understand...or maybe I DO. This world is heading for sweet, sweet oblivion fast, we are in the age of funkin' apocalypse people. The future is now, and it's not looking very good. Everyday I see something that makes me a bit depressed, and I don't even have cable TV.

Children can be monsters. I know this because I used to be one. I am the oldest of a pack of bratty, maladjusted misfits. Teaching is one of the toughest professions out there. I have an Intermediate Spanish teacher, plagued with diabetes and middle age, who yells at her college students; I'm talking 20-50 years olds who have still have trouble settling down and turning in homework on time. She constantly jokes about taking students home and KILLING THEM HORRIBLY. I don't doubt that she actually fantasises about this stuff, along with feeding us to her many cats, as she often goes on without fail every day. Yet somehow I am not too put off with her, I have seen what the profession has done to many people. I have known of terribly dedicated people who I looked up to and admired greatly, who simply washed out on the job and quit because the pressures were too great. The kids don't want to learn anymore, they're too cracked out on high-fructose corn syrup, sex, bad pop music, drugs, social/emotional distance, cell-phones, ipods, worries about our uncertain future, and whatever else.

In fact, I went to many "urban" schools in my day. Yet still, I would never imagine that the teachers would start acting on their latent homicidal fantasies We all know how these kids are these days. Teacher is synomymous with martyr or warrior. And substitute teachers, well you are asking for punishment! It's pretty unglamorous, I know. SO STAY THE HELL OUT OF THE KITCHEN IF YOU CAN'T TAKE THE DAMNED HEAT!!!

I don't excuse anything this child was doing to annoy the teacher, I'm sure I've things like that back in my day as well. But this kid was seven years old! If getting one's tongue chopped off is the consequence recieved for talking in class at this age, I shudder to think what they might start doing to junior high schoolers, high schoolers, and dare I mention, college students. Maybe I should start taking the idle threats of my Spanish professor more seriously. Class never before seemed so threatening.

DID I MENTION MY SPANISH TEACHER IS ITALIAN???

Vegetarianism is the New Prius

Hmm...Lord Vegan on Myspace recently posted this fantastic bulletin:

READ MORE: Hoover, United Nations, Leonardo DiCaprio
President Herbert Hoover promised "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." With warnings about global warming reaching feverish levels, many are having second thoughts about all those cars. It seems they should instead be worrying about the chickens.

Last month, the United Nations published a report on livestock and the environment with a stunning conclusion: "The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." It turns out that raising animals for food is a primary cause of land degradation, air pollution, water shortage, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, and not least of all, global warming.


That's right, global warming. You've probably heard the story: emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are changing our climate, and scientists warn of more extreme weather, coastal flooding, spreading disease, and mass extinctions. It seems that when you step outside and wonder what happened to winter, you might want to think about what you had for dinner last night. The U.N. report says almost a fifth of global warming emissions come from livestock (i.e., those chickens Hoover was talking about, plus pigs, cattle, and others)--that's more emissions than from all of the world's transportation combined.

For a decade now, the image of Leonardo DiCaprio cruising in his hybrid Toyota Prius has defined the gold standard for environmentalism. These gas-sipping vehicles became a veritable symbol of the consumers' power to strike a blow against global warming. Just think: a car that could cut your vehicle emissions in half - in a country responsible for 25% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. Federal fuel economy standards languished in Congress, and average vehicle mileage dropped to its lowest level in decades, but the Prius showed people that another way is possible. Toyota could not import the cars fast enough to meet demand.

Last year researchers at the University of Chicago took the Prius down a peg when they turned their attention to another gas guzzling consumer purchase. They noted that feeding animals for meat, dairy, and egg production requires growing some ten times as much crops as we'd need if we just ate pasta primavera, faux chicken nuggets, and other plant foods. On top of that, we have to transport the animals to slaughterhouses, slaughter them, refrigerate their carcasses, and distribute their flesh all across the country. Producing a calorie of meat protein means burning more than ten times as much fossil fuels--and spewing more than ten times as much heat-trapping carbon dioxide--as does a calorie of plant protein. The researchers found that, when it's all added up, the average American does more to reduce global warming emissions by going vegetarian than by switching to a Prius.


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yes, fat people, you are destroying the enviroment, lol, stop it!!

note: SOMEWHAT joking


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According to the UN report, it gets even worse when we include the vast quantities of land needed to give us our steak and pork chops. Animal agriculture takes up an incredible 70% of all agricultural land, and 30% of the total land surface of the planet. As a result, farmed animals are probably the biggest cause of slashing and burning the world's forests. Today, 70% of former Amazon rainforest is used for pastureland, and feed crops cover much of the remainder. These forests serve as "sinks," absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, and burning these forests releases all the stored carbon dioxide, quantities that exceed by far the fossil fuel emission of animal agriculture.

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Heh, no more cures for cancer eh? Well, that' okay, the medical industry would LOSE too many profits anyway if there weren't as many sick people suffering nowadays! I know I'm not the only one who sees the pattern behind this...
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As if that wasn't bad enough, the real kicker comes when looking at gases besides carbon dioxide--gases like methane and nitrous oxide, enormously effective greenhouse gases with 23 and 296 times the warming power of carbon dioxide, respectively. If carbon dioxide is responsible for about one-half of human-related greenhouse gas warming since the industrial revolution, methane and nitrous oxide are responsible for another one-third. These super-strong gases come primarily from farmed animals' digestive processes, and from their manure. In fact, while animal agriculture accounts for 9% of our carbon dioxide emissions, it emits 37% of our methane, and a whopping 65% of our nitrous oxide.


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So we have turned the earth into a big, festering ball of capitalistic shit, ozone destroying fart, and agricultural pus. I'll be damned. No wonder the sky looks so ugly above Cleveland. It's like driving through a giant graveyard and the skyscrapers and smoke stacks are the gravestones.


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It's a little hard to take in when thinking of a small chick hatching from her fragile egg. How can an animal, so seemingly insignificant against the vastness of the earth, give off so much greenhouse gas as to change the global climate? The answer is in their sheer numbers. The United States alone slaughters more than 10 billion land animals every year, all to sustain a meat-ravenous culture that can barely conceive of a time not long ago when "a chicken in every pot" was considered a luxury. Land animals raised for food make up a staggering 20% of the entire land animal biomass of the earth. We are eating our planet to death.

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GREED = OBESITY = DEATH.

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What we're seeing is just the beginning, too. Meat consumption has increased five-fold in the past fifty years, and is expected to double again in the next fifty.

It sounds like a lot of bad news, but in fact it's quite the opposite. It means we have a powerful new weapon to use in addressing the most serious environmental crisis ever to face humanity. The Prius was an important step forward, but how often are people in the market for a new car? Now that we know a greener diet is even more effective than a greener car, we can make a difference at every single meal, simply by leaving the animals off of our plates. Who would have thought: what's good for our health is also good for the health of the planet!

Going veg provides more bang for your buck than driving a Prius. Plus, that bang comes a lot faster. The Prius cuts emissions of carbon dioxide, which spreads its warming effect slowly over a century. A big chunk of the problem with farmed animals, on the other hand, is methane, a gas which cycles out of the atmosphere in just a decade. That means less meat consumption quickly translates into a cooler planet.

Not just a cooler planet, also a cleaner one. Animal agriculture accounts for most of the water consumed in this country, emits two-thirds of the world's acid-rain-causing ammonia, and it the world's largest source of water pollution--killing entire river and marine ecosystems, destroying coral reefs, and of course, making people sick. Try to imagine the prodigious volumes of manure churned out by modern American farms: 5 million tons a day, more than a hundred times that of the human population, and far more than our land can possibly absorb. The acres and acres of cesspools stretching over much of our countryside, polluting the air and contaminating our water, make the Exxon Valdez oil spill look minor in comparison. All of which we can fix surprisingly easily, just by putting down our chicken wings and reaching for a veggie burger.

Doing so has never been easier. Recent years have seen an explosion of environmentally-friendly vegetarian foods. Even chains like Ruby Tuesday, Johnny Rockets, and Burger King offer delicious veggie burgers and supermarket refrigerators are lined with heart-healthy creamy soymilk and tasty veggie deli slices. Vegetarian foods have become staples at environmental gatherings, and garnered celebrity advocates like Bill Maher, Alec Baldwin, Paul McCartney, and of course Leonardo DiCaprio. Just as the Prius showed us that we each have in our hands the power to make a difference against a problem that endangers the future of humanity, going vegetarian gives us a new way to dramatically reduce our dangerous emissions that is even more effective, easier to do, more accessible to everyone and certainly goes better with french fries.

Ever-rising temperatures, melting ice caps, spreading tropical diseases, stronger hurricanes... So, what are you do doing for dinner tonight? Check out www.VegCooking.com for great ideas, free recipes, meal plans, and more! Check out the environmental section of www.GoVeg.com for a lot more information about the harmful effect of meat-eating on the environment.

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It's not just propaganda folks...and if you are of color, you really have NO
BUSINESS EATING MEAT. Our bodies haven't changed much at all from our ancestors,
goes for every ethnic group, but especially people of color. For example, the traditional diet consisted of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. It's really just common sense. I like being here on the planet, most of the time, and it would be really stupid to have the earth dry up or explode over shit like BIG MACS AND WHOPPERS. Wake up folks!!!!

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Why I switched to vegetarianism....

Several months ago I made the decision to give up all meat as soon as I moved into my first apartment. I felt finally free to make my own decisions about daily meals and felt a few steps closers to having control over my health.

Being a college student, I have to admit the stress sometimes is overwhelming and I do snack on processed foods from time to time, but I always try my best to choose foods that have no animal by product in them. I usually get cravings for Kashi bars, wheat pretzels, roasted nuts, baked lays, etc. It's sure a step down from poison like dorritos, McDonalds, etc.

About a week and a half ago, I did a little experiment with my food intake to see to observe the changes in my body. In my 3-d design class, we were assigned the task of constructing a fully functional portable chair out of cardboard. I don't really want to get into the specifics of how this was to be down, but let me tell you, I was stressed to the umpteenth about it.

So naturally, well, more like UNnaturally, I was having fun at places like McDonalds and Hungry Howie's. I didn't purchase anything with meat in it, but I took advantage of delightful little things like apple pie, french fries, howie bread, and garden salads. I have always been prone to acne, but the weather conditions aggravated my face like the plague! Well, not really, but I'm a girl, so I can exaggerate.

Anyway, add the stress of art projects, 2 tests in the last week, and zits are throwing a party on my face! I wear my hair natural, being in the teenage stage of dreds, and boy was my scalp dry. Weeew. Something HAD to be done. I had enough of my trip back to days of being a human trash bin!


These last couple of days I've been drinking green tea, chamomile, and Peach Ceylon. I've cut almost all of the gluten out of my diet, save for oatmeal. I went to the grocery store to pick up decent things like fresh veggies and fruits. And to my pleasant surprise, I found little vegan Indian cuisine boxes for 2 bucks at BIG LOTS.

Big Lots, if you have no idea JUST WHAT IN ALL OF TARNATION of which I am speaking, is a one of those low-price bargain bin chains probably local to Northeast Ohio. I picked up some Saage Chole (spicy spinach and chick peas) and a lentil dish courtesy of The Tamarind Tree company. All the entrees come with a serving of brown rice, and are completely free of preservatives. I am so amazed I found this in that crazy store of all places. Score for vegan bargains!! Big Lots also had nori seaweed rice crackers, which I gladly picked up ( I know someone's gagging at the thought right now, but I love them) among other crazy ethnic foodstuffs. It was a shame the wasabi crackers were out of stock.

On another positive note, I was looking for online articles and information about Vegan Transitions and I found this absolutely wonderful and engaging story of Shannon Oliver, a former food addict and adamant carnivore who took a trip to Africa that changed his life FOREVER. It truly resonated with me because as a young black woman myself I definitely can related to the those days of Southern-style soul food cooking. I'm only 2 generations removed from the south on my mother's side of the family, and one generation on my father's. To be honest with you, my paternal grandfather spoke Haitian Creole by way of Louisiana and kept hunting dogs in his back yard while he was "up Norf". He used to feed them grits, corn, beans, scrambled eggs, pork, beef, bones. Those dogs were, what you could call, "porked up good."


Hmm, I still suck at slang.


Anyway, Shannon's journey is so awesome, and reading it has given me alot of inspiration and I know that I'm doing the right thing and I will only get better. We as human beings weren't meant to be eating this stuff. Is it any wonder that the Black community has so many health problems? On top of things such as racial, social, and financial discrimination, a poor diet is literally a death sentence. I don't buy that genetically predisposed "scientific" jargon and I don't want any part of it!


Here are the links if you are interested:



Shannon's Raw Vegan Transition Story

The Tamarind Tree

Thursday, February 15, 2007

some words i like:

athol-brose (pssst...it's a pretty song too)

mana

memes

hechichero

iconoclast

sacrificial

nommo

glockenspiel

timbre

consortium

quickening

avatar

domu

casing

venturing prosperpina

inversion

madame glossolia

surya

firmament

guileless

sabbatical

boohag

emissary

incur

sybarite

epicurean

vesper

vox

precarity

absolution

apogee

symmetry

pareidolia

palindrome

psychorama

blanqueamiento

choleric

figure 8

oblivion

petrol

helios

mythos

muse

deus ex machina

enfant terrible

diatribe

aether

archipelago

cognitive

cocoon

aromatica

Some poetry

Not quite in the cosmos, not even tierra firma
My spirit is rooting forth and budding backwards
While ink counselors make worlds of words
Strangers teaching in the village and yet
remaining unheard
Nugriot negros with songs sung by the rope
and lynching of tounges are wheeling zero
philosophical doughnuts in a parking lot
so I drown in the river of hope so
the thundering silence
of noncreation could kill me not.
I lose my feet in the butterfly dance
I learn lessons from crying ancestors,
the wisest eccolalians, and orouboric mothers
who tell me that sometimes
you don't have to be marooned on dry land
and ignoring phantom limbs you can see
doesn't mean they don't exist auditorialy.
from first cry to last blood
you'll go through more of life's kinks
than all the curls in your spiraled hair.
to be sonic wonderkinds
is our legacy

Mother

I learned my paternal grandmother won't make it pass the morning.

Right down the street.

I wish I was closer to her.

I've been thinking about her, my

origins, family ties, geneology.

Someone told me death is one of the best things to bring a family together.



Sugarcubes "Mama"

Saw a woman walking down my street,
Walking with grace, so beautifully carefully,
She's a big and pretty mother, big and pretty mother,
Swinging her handbag back and forth so joyfully.
She's drawing circles with her breasts in her jumper.

Give me a big mother, huge and loving one,
I can crawl upon and cling to ...

She's a large woman, warm and cuddly
Wet lady, strong mother.
She's walking down the street in front of my window
Whistling funky tunes in the ears of my neighbours.

Give me a big mother, one that would always want me,
Hot embracing mother, I can crawl upon and cling to ...

You can't be safer can't be more secure
Than with a breast in each palm,
With a breast in each palm,
That's the way I was born
And that's the way I want to die.

Give me a big mother, soft and wet one,
That would caress me
In all those special places.
Where's a strong mother,
One that squeezes me,
One I can crawl


Mother

Mana

Memes

Nourish

Me