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mellomedia · 4 years ago

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Youth Culture

For Media & Society’s first blog post, our class watched Euphoria, Mid90s, Mean Girls, Kids, and The Breakfast Club. If you haven’t figured out the theme yet, it’s youth culture. Most of these films were set in the 80s and 90s before this current generation. This is the first generation where our lives are saturated by mobile technology and social media (Divecha, 2017). But no matter what generation, youth culture has many common behaviors, or misbehaviors.

Often when I watch a film or read a comic book, I wonder if I relate to the story or anyone in it. I looked for anything in common I might have with one of the characters in the five films we watched. I can identify with Ray from Mid90s the most. I’m not a die-hard skateboarder like Ray. In fact I can’t skateboard at all, but I dedicate all my time and energy into art and animation. While we have different interests, I can relate to Ray’s passion for something he enjoys and the energy he puts into it. Ray is the top skateboarder in his group and practiced every day. All my spare time is spent drawing and taking online animation courses. My goal is to always do better than what I did yesterday. Words to describe Ray would be the same way I describe myself: down to earth, not concerned with fitting in, my own person, caring, always willing to help, and a very loyal friend. When Stevie joins the skateboard crew in the film Mid90s, he finally digs up some money to buy Ruben’s old, used skateboard. Stevie gets injured while attempting an insane jump over a hole in a roof and breaks his skateboard. Ray sees how much Stevie is trying to fit in, no matter how many falls he takes, he gets back up. Ray has a big heart and builds Stevie a new skateboard. As I mentioned, I’m not a skateboarder, but I enjoy trying to make people smile with my art. I enjoy drawing a cartoon of a friend to help them to get out of a funk or just listen to whatever it is they are going through.

These films all share a few common themes. One theme is belonging. I admit I looked up the term “fitting in” and it was compared to belonging. Fitting in is defined as to be like other people in a group – what they wear, how they act, how they look. (Pace, 2018) Belonging is a basic human need – it is about acceptance – being where you want to be and being where you are wanted (Pace, 2018). A few examples are Stevie (Mid90s) wants to be accepted into the skateboard crew; Brian (The Breakfast Club) brings a flare gun to school as a suicide attempt because he didn't feel he was good enough; and Cady (Mean Girls) is the new girl trying to get accepted by The Plastics.

My freshman year in high school definitely falls into the theme of belonging. I struggled with speech and have a learning disorder. And at the time I had zero confidence in socializing. I’d walk over to a group of kids in the cafeteria just to try to get involved in the conversation, but I couldn’t form sentences quick enough to jump in. I would be the weird kid just standing there. One day my speech therapist asked me what I wanted to improve and I told her I wanted to gain confidence in socializing. She told me the best way to do this would be to just try to talk to more people. Well in high school that worked with some kids, but not all. I’ll never forget one day in the cafeteria I was trying to find a place to sit and eat lunch. I saw an empty chair at a table where a ‘friend’ was sitting. The group was taking turns roasting one another. At one point another kid challenged me. I was doing fine until he said, “You know people are only nice to you because they don’t want to hurt your feelings.” That hurt like hell. He was referring to my speech impairment. I got up from the table and walked away. And that ‘friend’ at the table didn’t defend me at all. One girl came running over to make sure I was alright. I was pissed and hurt. I was not alright. Just so you don’t think I went off the deep end and had a miserable high school experience, I actually gained a great friend in high school that day. Alex, who was a senior, saw me leave track practice early. My head just wasn’t into track, so I went to sit in the empty cafeteria hoping to clear my head. He asked how things were going and I told him what happened that day. He told me, “It’s not easy finding out who your real friends are. But don’t change for anyone and don’t try to be like anyone else. Just be you.” I’ll never forget how he took the time to talk to me. After his advice, I could care less about belonging.

Another common theme between all five films is rebellion. When they aren’t skateboarding, most of the characters in Mid90s spend their time partying, drinking, and doing drugs. In The Breakfast Club, each character is in detention because they rebelled in some way. Why else would they be in detention? Every character in Kids was a rebel, actually more like a criminal. I bet the writer of the film was too.

A third theme is “bro” culture. “Bro” culture is defined as people who are bullies but at the end of the day they have your back, like a brother (Sloothunter42, 2018). Two great examples of “bros” are John (The Breakfast Club) and Ian (Mid90s). Throughout The Breakfast Club, John constantly insults the other kids in detention. He even insults the principal. The group escapes detention to wander the hallways. When the principal sees them, John saves the group by telling them to go back to the library while he distracts the principal. This link shows you the scene I’m explaining: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Iq7MRlHg5I (Hughes, 1985). Not something you would have expected from a bully, but you would from a “bro.” In Mid90s, Stevie’s brother, Ian, beats the crap out of him every chance he gets. But when Stevie is laying in a hospital bed after a car accident, his brother is there by his side. He even shares his precious orange juice.

Now onto one of my favorite things in life, music! I put together a playlist that relates to my adolescent experience. In no particular order, here are 10 songs and what each means to me. But let me point out that some song lyrics mean something to me, while with other songs it was the energy it gives off. I’m all about positive energy. First song is “Mr. Blue Sky” by Electric Light Orchestra. I first heard this song during the movie Guardians of the Galaxy. This song kept me motivated and positive during high school. If I was having a bad day, this was my ‘go to’ song. I also listened to it every day on my way to school. Next is “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley, a.k.a. CeeLo Green. This song reminds me of my mind, imagination, and the stuff I think about. I always have a trillion things going on in my head. I guess that explains my poor focus skills and super procrastination. “Inner Ninja” by Classified is another upbeat song. A few lines that always stuck in my head are, “I find my inner strength and I re-up; Here we go, I know I've never been the smartest or wisest; But I realize what it takes; Never dwell in the dark cause the sun always rises.” My junior year of high school I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. It has and still is life-changing and as much as I don’t let it change who I am, I’m human. But as the song says, don’t dwell on the negative, look for the positive. I always remind myself of the positive. “Through the Fire and Flames” by DragonForce always fueled my brain when I was tired of doing homework or studying. To me the lyrics mean to keep moving forward no matter how difficult. Just look at what your goal is and don’t give up. Plus this song has one hell of a guitar solo that is very motivating. Michael Jackson is one of my favorite artists and “Man in the Mirror” reminds me how important it is to try to do good in the world and make a positive change. Regardless of culture, color, religion, and disability, we are all capable of making good changes in the world. I tried this on a much smaller scale in high school by volunteering at the food pantry and community events. “Clint Eastwood” by Gorillaz is one of many songs by this group that I like. It’s not so much the words I relate to, but I love the animation in their music videos. I remember the first time I saw one of their videos I thought how cool and mysterious it was that we only see the singers as cartoons. We are never shown who they really are. I like the fact that it’s different. Different is good in my world. “Intergalactic” by Beastie Boys reminds me of breakdancing and dancing in general. I love to dance and looked forward to every prom and homecoming dance at high school. “Without Me” by Eminem reminds me that no matter how much people criticize you, you can be very successful at what you enjoy doing. The last song on my list is “Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand. To be honest, I just like the beat of the song and it’s one of those songs I listened to over and over in high school.

So that wraps up my Youth Culture blog. I hope it gave you a better understanding of how I relate to the assigned films. But let me make one thing clear, I do not relate to anything in the film Kids. Not one thing.

Below is my self portrait of what goes through my mind.

Artwork by: Marcello Laudato

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daggerzine · 5 years ago

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Sohrab Habibion from SAVAK (and Obits, Edsel, etc.) fills in the gaps.

I first noticed the name Sohrab Habibion in the Sub Pop band Obits nearly a decade ago. He’d then gotten in touch with me a few years back when he sent me the last Savak record, Beg Your Pardon (the band’s 3rd). I did some backtracking and realized he was in the old DC post hardcore band Edsel, whose music I enjoyed. We got to talking and I realized this guy’s had a pretty interesting career and I needed to find out more. He was more than agreeable to an interview on the DAGGER site. Oh and dig this....he recently he began posting some videos that he took of shows in the DC area in the mid-80’s, which is discussed below. Let’s all thank our lucky stars that someone was there with a video camera at shows back then.

Back to SAVAK, they have recently released their fourth full-length, Rotting Teeth in the Horses Mouth (on the Ernest Jenning Record Co label, like the last few) and it’s a terrific record. The kind of post-punk that’s not afraid to pOp! and vice versa. So needless to say Sohrab had plenty to talk about. Let’s take a trip both down memory lane and back to the future as well.

Sohrab.... always pushin’ the hair products.

Did you grow up in the DC area? If not how did you end up there?

I moved to the suburbs of DC in 1979. My mom and I drove through Hurricane David from my grandfather’s house in Leonia, New Jersey to Annandale, Virginia with all of our possessions in the back of a Chevy Chevette. We had just left Iran because of the Revolution and, after a short stay in Bergen County to gather ourselves and do some research, my parents decided that we would resettle in the DC area.

Do you remember what the first record you ever bought was? First concert?

First record: It was a cassette of Love for Sale by Boney M. Actually maybe that was a gift from a friend. Either way I think of it as my first-owned album. I quickly had the lyrics to “Ma Baker” memorized and never gave a second thought to just how weird the cassette cover art was. If you’re not familiar, perhaps imagine an S&M dungeon version of Ohio Players? As a 7-year-old I think it just didn’t register. More interesting is that the producer, Frank Farian, was also the guy behind Milli Vanilli. If you’re up for it, I recommend doing some Googling about Mr. Farian, who was born Franz Reuther just after the start of World War II in a German valley settlement once known as the “Town of Leather.” It’s good stuff, I promise.

First concert: A friend’s older sister drove us to the old 9:30 Club to see one of the club’s 3 Bands for 3 Bucks nights. I remember feeling pretty excited about being in a part of town I didn’t know and seeing all kinds of people I didn’t ordinarily see. This was probably 1983 or 1984 so it was heavy on the New Wave look. In the basement of 9:30, once you’d squeezed down the narrow flight of stairs, there were bathrooms as well as a small counter that sold records and tapes. I bought The Halloween Cassette—a WGNS comp with Gray Matter, United Mutation, Velvet Monkeys, Malefice, Bloody Mannequin Orchestra and others—and the Minor Threat record that compiles the first two 7”s. On our drive home the DJ on WHFS played the song “Minor Threat,” which we literally had in our hands, and the whole thing felt tremendously serendipitous.

During his tryout with the Washington Bullets (Elvin Hayes beat him out).

At what age did you pick up the guitar?

One night my mom came home from a school fundraising auction with an acoustic guitar that she’d won in the raffle. I actually think it might be the only time anyone in my family has ever won a raffle. I was 13 or 14 and discovering that I was not as good of a baseball player as I’d hoped or wanted to be and the guitar felt more connected to my interests, so I started to teach myself chords and rudimentary scales. It wasn’t long before I was able to get an electric guitar and make a complete mess of sound in neighborhood basements with friends.

How old were you when the punk rock bug bit you?

Thirteen, I think. I’m pretty sure it was 7th grade. I didn’t know a lot about rock music. Having spent a chunk of my early life in Iran, I missed the boat on a lot of big, American rock’n’roll moments. I was 9 when I was first exposed to KISS by neighbors who were also in the Boy Scouts and so I kind of lumped all that costuming together and the whole thing seemed silly. Special badges and membership cards and various allegiances you were supposed to declare. I felt disengaged from a lot of things in the suburban culture around me, so punk made sense upon its arrival. It took some time to sort things out, like what made the Dead Kennedys good and The Exploited bad, but once that initial door opened, I never turned back. If anything it just opened additional doors to other subcultures and underground movements and marginalized artists and thinkers. Punk helped me recognize that my sympathies will always be with the disenfranchised, the unheralded, the amateur, the wandering tinkerer.

How and when did Edsel get together?

I met Nick Pelliocciotto and Geoff Sanoff (who wouldn’t be in Edsel for a few years) at a Government Issue show at the Hung Jury Pub. Nick and I briefly played in a band with Jim Spellman (Velocity Girl, High Back Chairs, Foxhall Stacks), but that fizzled out. So Nick and I were looking for a bass player when we saw Steve Ward play a cover of “White Rabbit” at a high school talent show. Nick and I agreed that Steve looked cool (he really did) and, when we ran into him in the parking lot, he passed our test by answering that his favorite DC band was Happy Go Licky. We started practicing in the basement of the house Nick, Jim Spellman and I lived in off Reno Road in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of DC. We didn’t know what we were doing. Nick played me a bunch of records I had never heard before and we would talk about various details in the music. He made me aware of the way certain things interacted, like the bass guitar and the kick drum. I’d never considered that. I was also unfamiliar with singing in a band, so was starting from scratch. A lot of it began as rhythmic sing-song-speak-howling that could be heard somewhat above the volume of the band. I’ll never forget recording our first demo at Inner Ear with Michael Hampton. When it came time for me to do the vocals we were all surprised by what they sounded like and Michael nicely said, “Why don’t we call it a day and you go home and work on some melodies that we can record tomorrow.” Ha! When Nick and I got back to the house we listened to a bunch of albums to get ideas for vocal melodies. The one that resonated with me was Midnight Oil’s 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and it helped me understand how you could take a simple line and move it around with chord changes. I didn’t figure out what phrasing was for some time to come, but that was the start. Thank you Michael, Nick and Peter Garrett.

How/when did you end up in NYC?

Well, it’s a circuitous story, but . . . Edsel toured a lot between 1993 and 1995. So much so that I moved back into my parents’ basement to avoid paying rent for a place I wasn’t going to be spending any time in. My folks are lovely and it was a fine arrangement, but I missed having an apartment of my own. On tour in Chicago I was presented with the opportunity of a cheap living situation in a city that I liked, so I moved there. I had this fantasy that the band could keep it together while being in 3 different cities—Geoff had moved to NYC and the two Steve’s were in DC. Not a chance. I had a good year in Chicago, working at the Empty Bottle and playing with different local musicians, but Edsel basically succumbed to inertia and I decided to move back to DC to make a solo record. My parents had a cabin in the Shenandoah Valley and I went there for a period of time with my 4-track and the hopes of discovering whatever my version of Leonard Cohen and Brian Eno might be. That didn’t happen, but I learned a lot about recording myself and making mistakes and stumbling on things I liked that I hadn’t intended. Around this point I got a call from Michael Hampton, who’d moved to New York City a few years earlier. He said his neighbor in the West Village had moved out and he wondered if I might want to take the apartment. I was feeling pretty untethered and the idea of giving Manhattan a shot was exciting, so in November 1997 I packed up my books and CDs and headed up here. I’ve since crossed the bridge over to Brooklyn, but have no plans of leaving. I love this city and all of its flaws.

How about Obits? I know Alexis was in Edsel….had you known Rick already?

Alexis played in Edsel for a few reunion shows we did in 2013, but he wasn’t in the original lineup of the group. I first met Alexis in 1985 when Lünch Meat, his band, played with Kids For Cash, my band, at my local community center. He and I also share a birthday and a similar sense of humor, so when he joined Obits after the departure of Scott Gursky, our original drummer, it was an effortless transition. I’d also played with Alexis in Girls Against Boys on a 2002 European tour that Eli couldn’t do. I was Fake Eli and got to play bass on some of my favorite GvsB tunes, which was a blast. Alexis has a humorous diary from that tour: http://www.gvsb.com/euro_diary/index.html

Here’s an excerpt just so you know it’s worth the clicks:

“scott has determined that we should get rid of all the equipment and excess drummers and bass players and just travel with a painted sheet (we in the biz call this a scrim). that way he could have a band painted on it and just cut out the head of the singer and stick his own head through. this would reduce overhead and be a whole lot less of a hassle than having squabbling bass players and drummers with no IQ whatsoever.”

Rick and I met at an art show of his in the summer of ‘99. In fact, in looking to clarify the year I came across this email I sent to a friend:

“Last night my friend Hiroshi took me to an opening of his friend Rick Froberg’s work in some unknown Lower East Side apartment/gallery. I was shocked at how incredible his stuff was. His etchings like Goya’s, his prints like a German expressionist and his paintings like a weird amalgam of Raymond Pettibon and Norman Rockwell. But everything was very original despite its familiarity. He gave me one of his prints and I actually ended up buying one of his paintings. I’m really excited about it.”

Funny thing is that on that European GvsB tour I was wearing a Hot Snakes shirt. Little could I have guessed that I’d be in a band with Alexis and Rick 10 years later. Or maybe I could’ve? Our behavior and patterns are probably more predictable than I’d like to admit.

Anyway, long and short of it is after meeting Rick we started hanging out and as Hot Snakes was winding down in the early aughts he proposed we get together and strum our guitars. We had a good time and kept at it until things started to take shape. Fast forward a bit and our friend Speck browbeat Rick into playing with her band, Orphan, at Cake Shop. That was early 2008 and the internet did us a favor by sharing a bootleg recording of our gig, which led us to signing with Sub Pop. Seems just as weird now as it did then, but so it goes! The band was a hoot to be in and we had a grand time, particularly touring. The trips we made to Europe, Australia, Japan and Brazil were fantastic. I never thought I’d be able to do that playing scrappy rock’n’roll music. All the people that we met, the local specialties that we ate and drank . . . and drank . . . and then ate some more. Unforgettable. Until I forget them. Then I’ll refer to the documentation.

Obits.....always ready to rumble (notice the switchblade comb in Froberg’s pocket).

Tell me about the end of Obits and the beginning of Savak? Who came up with the name?

The end of Obits was a little unexpected. At least the timing of it. All bands end, so it wasn’t surprising in that regard, but we had a French tour planned and had been offered some East Coast dates with Mudhoney, so it was a bummer not to be able to do those. But it had been a cold and miserable winter and Rick had some family stuff to marshal, so it felt best to call it, which is what we did on April 1st, 2015. The April Fool’s part wasn’t intentional, but I liked that it happened that way, what with being in a band often feeling like a cosmic joke anyway. But we’re all still good friends and very much in touch with each other. Funny thing is we’d actually written a fourth record with two drummers, as Matt Schulz had started playing with us as well (we did one show with both Alexis and Matt, which was fun), so on my hard drive somewhere are the demos and jams for that, including covers of “The In-Crowd” (https://youtu.be/KYbwk26mYJA) and Beasts of Bourbon’s “I Don't Care About Nothing Anymore.” (https://youtu.be/IpWi4OxhJXY)

Towards the end of Obits I’d started getting together with other friends to make noise. I was playing with Greg Simpson and Matt Schulz, doing instrumental versions of Hooterville Trolley and Shadows tunes, and separately with Michael Jaworski and Benjamin Van Dyke, just bashing out riffs. I asked all involved if they would want to combine the two and everyone was into it. The nice thing was Michael and I got to write with two different drummers, which opened up new ideas, and for a band that was just getting the swing of our internal vocabulary, it helped jumpstart the mojo.

I can’t remember at what point we were talking about band names, but when Viet Cong couldn’t take the heat for their name and decided to change it I made a joke about calling our group SAVAK. Then the more I thought about it the more I liked it and the group was on board, so we ran with it. The Iranian side of my family was a bit perplexed and bemused, but they all understood that this was a rock’n’roll outfit and not some creepy tribute to the former secret police in Iran. I’ve come to appreciate how that type of band name is a good litmus test. With a moniker like SAVAK you can see who actually knows anything about global political history, but more importantly you immediately know that anyone who takes issue with it isn’t likely to be interested in or even be familiar with punk rock or underground culture. So that person’s opinion on the subject doesn’t hold weight for me and I’ll attempt to redirect to a different subject that could be entertaining to chat about, like food or wine or bicycle maintenance or John le Carré books or, I dunno, HTML/CSS?

Savak has been recording pretty consistently…how did the new record come together so quickly? Who came up with the title?

Michael Jaworski, the other guitarist, singer and co-songwriter, came up with the title of Rotting Teeth in the Horse’s Mouth. Apparently it appeared to him in a dream and, well, I just liked the way it sounded. Both in that it reminded me of the DK’s classic Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables and as a play on the idiom “hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth,” since the current mouth we hear more often than is good for anyone’s mental health has enough proverbial rotting teeth to fill the mouth of a giant armadillo.

We worked on the album over a period of months. Sometimes we would get together with Matt Schulz, our drummer, and hammer stuff out. Other times either Michael or I would start something at home and build it from there. The main thing was to keep it feeling like a band had cut it together live, regardless of how accurate that may be on any given song. We started with 16 tunes, ditched 2 of them that weren’t as developed, and recorded the remaining 14. Then we picked the 10 that sounded the most cohesive for the album and the others will come out as singles later in the year. We spent many intensely focused hours editing, overdubbing and trying to really hone in on what each tune needed. I like discreet events in music and subtle details that may not make themselves evident for a few listens. A keyboard that only appears in the second verse or a backing vocal that’s buried deep in the right channel of the outro or a flanged cymbal crash at the top of the chorus. Stuff that doesn’t have to happen in the live version but makes the recording a little richer without being overbearing.

SAVAK, just before diving in.

In Savak, re; the songwriting process, is it both you and Michael together or do you write independently?

There’s always a collaborative element. We each add or edit the other’s songs to some degree. That’s one of the things I really like about our partnership. We actively try to keep our egos out of the way. And while we may not share the exact same taste about every little thing, we trust each other’s sensibility. I think that willingness to let go of our own ideas makes them more interesting and strengthens the working relationship.

Tell us about working with Arto Lindsay?

Rick Froberg was employed as an illustrator at a web-based, digital media shop in SoHo called Funny Garbage and he helped get me a gig making music for cartoons and video games they were producing for companies like Cartoon Network. I had access to a recording studio on a floor above our office which was run by an incredibly talented musician/producer named Andres Levin. One day ‘Dre asked if I could work on a session with a friend of his for a gallery installation. It seemed interesting, so I agreed. The guy showed up with two pillow cases that he wanted to put on his arms and flap wildly in front of a mic. His idea was to pitch the pillow case recording down a few octaves and add a lot of reverb so it would sound like a giant bird was flying. I don’t remember if he was pleased with the results, but we had a blast trying, and it turned out that fella was Arto Lindsay. He got in touch with me soon after about recording his next album. I was direct about the fact that while I was brisk with the ProTools and could run sessions efficiently, I was not a real engineer who knew about microphone placement and how to apply compression, etc. He said that was fine and arranged to rent a recording rig for his apartment and we got straight to work with Melvin Gibbs, who is Arto’s writing partner, co-producer, and bass player. We made Invoke in 2002 and two years later we made Salt, once again doing the whole thing in his Chelsea living room. Arto’s a wonderful guy, as is Melvin, and we had a terrific time together. I also learned a lot. He has such a deep knowledge of avante garde music and art and a whole world of Brazilian culture that he can tap into. And Melvin is an incredible musician, so getting to see how he approached assembling Arto’s ideas was fascinating. He was also forgiving with the fact that a punker like me was trying to edit Brazilian rhythms when I was having an impossible time even identifying the first beat of the groove. There was a lot of, “Please just tell me where the ONE is.” Arto knows a wide array of people and the process of making a record with him was very much about getting it done, but not at the expense of the vibe, so if someone dropped by you’d just have to roll with it. Sometimes that person would bring their instrument and overdub on a song or two, so I had to figure out how to be flexible about the recording process to make sure it was gonna be smooth for all involved, regardless of if it was a violin player or a guy doing a percussion track using a cardboard box. I ended up calling Geoff Sanoff for advice quite a bit—to the point where Arto would joke, “Is it time to call Geoff?” Ha! But he knew the deal going in, so all was fine. The experience of making those records was great and I got to meet some interesting folks. Also my appreciation of Brazilian music completely exploded. An unexpected and super cool project with Arto, Debbie Harry and Mikhail Baryshnikov also came from that. Another side note: when we were recording Invoke there was a song which Arto wanted to get Animal Collective involved in. This was 2001 and they were still more of a record store employee kind of band, but Arto had a couple of their CDs (Spirit They’re Gone Spirit They’ve Vanished and Danse Manatee, I think) and was really into them. We arranged to go into Stratosphere Sound, the studio that was owned by Adam Schlesinger, Andy Chase, and James Iha, where Geoff Sanoff worked, and do the session there. They had an interesting way of working—they would manipulate all of the instruments, including live drums, and have everything run through their PA and then have Geoff mic the PA speakers. So the final thing was this gauzy, mushy, blur that was like a sonic paste. They totally knew what they were doing and I was particularly impressed with Noah/Panda Bear as a musician.

Speaking of legends, how did you begin collaborating with Michael Hampton?

First we should be clear that we’re not discussing “Magic” Mike Hampton AKA Michael “Kidd Funkadelic” Hampton. According to Discogs, the Michael Hampton I know is “Michael Hampton (3)” of Brief Weeds fame. He’s a few years older than me so I missed his days in SOA and The Faith, but I was a fan and saw him in Embrace and One Last Wish. I attended American University in DC and ran into him on campus, told him I also played guitar and suggested that we “jam sometime.” Knowing him now this detail cracks me up because I’m positive I freaked him out and that he was horrified by the idea of “jamming” with an arbitrary, long-haired frosh. Some time after Edsel started we asked Michael to help produce our demo, as we were clueless about the studio. And when he was in Manifesto our bands played together and we got to be better friends. After he moved to New York, it was he and his wife, Monica, who encouraged me to move here. They also introduced me to my wife. And for the last 15 or so years we’ve worked together on soundtracks for indie films, documentaries and commercials. I can’t recall how that collaboration first started, but I love working with Michael. He’s got a quick wit, so there’s lots of yucks involved, but he also has a remarkable knack for music composition and knows how to layer ideas for perfect cinematic effect. As a guitar player he remains one of my favorites. Michael’s distilled Bob Andrews from Gen X and Captain Sensible and George Harrison and all these choice rock’n’roll and punk players into something distinctly his own.

Somewhere in Madrid, Spain (Spain Radio Nacional)

Tell us your top 10 desert island discs?

That’s tough. I’d like to ensure a bunch of different moods are covered, so let’s see . . . how about:

Hamza El Din - Music Of Nubia

Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou - Éthiopiques 21: Piano Solo

Mark Hollis - s/t

Skip James - Today!

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady

Mission Of Burma - Vs.

The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers

Television - Marquee Moon

The Velvet Underground - s/t

Wire - 154

Who are some of your favorite current bands?

Bed Wettin' Bad Boys, Cable Ties, Contractions, FACS, Gotobeds, Grey Hairs, Hammered Hulls, Hot Snakes, Light Beams, METZ, Mint Mile, Modern Nature, Patois Counselors, Pays P., Rattle, Skull Practitioners, Slum of Legs, Sunwatchers, Tanning Bats, TK Echo, The Unit Ama.

I know I’m forgetting stuff. There’s a ton of excellent music being made right now.

What’s next for Savak? Once the lockdown is over will you guys tour?

It’s hard to be certain about anything these days, but I do know we’re eager to play once the Javel water has cleared. My hope is that we reschedule our UK tour as well as the shows we had on deck with Archers of Loaf. We were also trying to coordinate a Japanese tour, which we’d love to do, so I’ll add that to the list.

In the meantime we have a couple of non-album singles coming out later in the year.

I love making music, so whatever form it needs to take to make it work given our circumstances I’m fine with. Wanna jam on our phones? Hit me up!

SAVAK’s new one- Rotting Teeth in The Horses Mouth

BONUS QUESTION: Tell us about all of those shows you recorded in the 80’s and have been putting up on the Dischord page? Great stuff!

Thanks! My mom bought me a Sony Betacam in 1985. I honestly had no inclination towards videotaping anything prior to this, but I think she may have thought it was a positive thing for a teenager to get involved in instead of playing Atari or hanging out at the Orange Julius at the mall or whatever. So I had this camera and I started taping what I was doing, which was basically going to shows. I didn’t think much about it and I never watched the tapes afterwards, so just slowly built up a collection of recordings that sat in a box at my parents’ house for years. It wasn’t until James Schneider started working on what eventually became the Punk the Capital movie that the tapes were unearthed. Then Scott Crawford wanted to use them for Salad Days and had the genius idea of getting Dave Grohl’s production company to digitize them, as they wanted footage for that Sonic Highways show. So at Scott’s suggestion I sheepishly asked if it was something they could do and they immediately said yes. I was pretty stunned by their generosity. The tapes themselves are now part of the Punk Archive in the DC Public Library, which is both cool and hilarious. The idea of random stuff I videotaped when I was 15 being part of an institutional archive is pretty absurd. Now that I’ve got this extra pandemic time to spend in front of my computer, I’ve been editing down each set, adjusting the light balance so the footage is less murky and also remastering the audio so they sound better. The timing of the Dischord Records Fan Page on Facebook is fortuitous, as it provides a reasonably eager audience for what might have otherwise just been a few additional gigs of server space being cooled in a Google data center in Moncks Corner, South Carolina.

“Who you callin’ a low life?”

www.savakband.com

www.savak.bandcamp.com

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dear-space-cadet · 5 years ago

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al horford sleeper agent

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anyway by now ive told basically everyone i care about but i had a life changing experience over the weekend. n it sounds dumb as shit but i met a real life dude who was basically a clone of nick from franz. weird hours. guess this is a thread

before we start i want to say i havent thought about franz in weeks. theyve gone away on their own finally but really i think my old obsessions just get replaced every few years and maybe it was my hard work in therapy or my new obsession with rap or

maybe it was just a realization or me growing up and maturing or something but i dont even want to work on my favorite fanfics anymore or anything. it’s just odd. i think im changing

and i don’t think about how my former favorite band members are doing or worry about them or check their socials n it feels really good. but i know there probably is or probably will be a replacement

ok that was a tangent. if they were replaced by anything they were replaced by new friends and the NBA. so there’s the exposition of this story sorted

anyway back to the weekend. the sleeper agent invited me to lunch. and that was the catalyst. god people are being so loud in here let me go to the art library

anyway i just kind of realized "huh i guess there's more out there." i went to lunch n shit. WE went to lunch n shit. stopped caring so much about my math homework. let myself be dumb and in love

that’s a very human thing. lunch. he spilled his stupid chipotle burrito all over his stupid bright green celtics jacket

he’s from italy. never even stepped foot in a chipotle. immediately clowned himself. some world we live in

we hung out all weekend. we went to lunch like two more times and we went to dinner. there was this big threat of leaving looming over my head the whole time. i made him walk like a mile on crutches and i feel very bad about it

i don’t know what’s wrong with him. it’s somewhere between a basketball injury and a chronic disability. either way that just made me feel even more emotionally attached to him. i never saw him without the celtics jacket

it was so cold that weekend. or maybe i just didn’t bring the right jacket. if he were a gentleman he would have offered me the celtics jacket. i didnt even hug him goodbye

and then of course he went back home. theres a million girls all over his instagram comments all the time. theres nothing special about me. he doesn't want to talk. i wrote my ap psych notes in green yesterday bc i was so in love with that stupid celtics jacket

im a sixers fan. the sixers and the celtics have been rivals forever. it was about to be war, except i want to move to boston. but really i want to move to dc. i wish the whole world was philly. things would be less complicated

im in love with a celtics jacket. a celtics jacket. of all teams. and i cant even talk to my basketball friends about it because they think im dumb shit for falling for some celtics fan with a million girls all over his instagram comments all the time

im not like those girls. i don’t think im like those girls. but i definitely exactly am

i have an economics test in fifteen minutes. i think one day ill drown in the atlantic ocean.

the test wasnt that bad. i thought about writing this the entire time. i would just zone out and stare and think about the phrase ‘al horford sleeper agent’

because he has to be. why else would someone put a diehard sixers fan right in front of a diehard celtics fan who looks exactly like the guitarist of their middle school favorite band

in reality i should be calling him a celtics sleeper agent because the whole point is that al horford is a sleeper agent for the celtics. but i hate al horford so i guess it’s more funny to include him in the title

i mean how can one player change so drastically like that? al horford was benched for the first time since his rookie season, like, two weeks ago after being traded to the sixers. how does that happen? why *wouldn’t* he be playing badly so his old friends win the title?

al horford’s gotta be retiring in like, three years, tops. he’s working for the celtics, i know it. and my sleeper agent is trying to convert me to a celtics fan

i understand why people make jokes, though. it’s a very human thing to want to go home. al horford just wants to go home. he lived in boston for however many years let me look it up

god whatever it was only three years i thought it was like eleven that just ruined my point

back to the matter at hand though that’s all we’re trying to do. we all just want to feel at home. we’re all just these little things trying to connect somehow. sometimes we are more desperate than others

i think im pretty desperate right now. sometimes i sit in my bedroom and im like damn when do i get to go home? but im home

i didn’t even want to leave dc. it was all star break and there wasn’t even basketball on. so there i was, in basketball purgatory, wizards territory for some god forsaken reason, losing sleep over a celtics fan and not wanting to go home

and when i say i was losing sleep you better believe me. i was so excited to wake up in the morning that i didn’t want to fall asleep. i wanted to be awake forever, endless, running through the city

i’ll get there soon enough. it’ll be with different people. college, yknow. all that. but sometimes i feel like certain things can’t be replaced.

and im acting like a different person lately. im using my phone at red lights just so i can check for a message from the sleeper agent. it’s always one word responses

yes. ok. maybe. some shit like that. a haha every once in a while. he’s not interested and i should stop trying

and then, INEVITABLY, i send something stupid back, a photo of my hand on the wheel or something, and i get left on read

and i know im stupid for it. everyone i know is screaming at me “disco, you’re dumb shit” but i just want to believe for a minute that im loved, im special

I want to feel like someone out there cares about me that isn’t obligated to, yknow? my mom can say she loves me all she wants but it doesn’t feel as good as some italian celtics fan saying it

some hot italian celtics fan mind you

even if he wasn’t hot or italian it would be nice. and actually it would be better if he liked like, ANY other basketball team

except maybe the knicks

but whatever. main point: i know im dumb shit and should stop trying. but it feels good to feel like if i keep trying maybe i’ll be wanted

sleeper agent is just one of those people tho. he’s magnetic and everyone always wants to be around him. dumb as hell in the most charming way ever. my friends are still all making fun of me

i started crying in a pizza place the other night because even the CONCEPT of italy sent me over the edge. i need to stop before i

wait what’s the word

i need to stop before i immortalize him? no, no

i need to stop before i deify him. soon enough he’s going to be a new canonical character in my head and i’ll start making up legends and stories to myself

we barely knew each other. if i deify him i’ll start telling people he offered me the celtics jacket when it was cold out. he’ll become a perfect gentleman. and he wasnt. he was just some stupid hot italian boy in a bright green jacket

im not going to deify him. it won’t happen. but i love the color green. i always say i love yellow more but i think that’s passed. i wear a green ring on my right ring finger every day. im not going to deify him and i still hate the celtics

overall, the celtics are winning the rivalry. i don’t think the sixers have ever truly been “great,” at least outside of philly. maybe allen iverson. wilt chamberlain. dr j? theyve never had like, a dynasty. idk. i don’t think you’d be able to get a sixers jacket in italy.

it’s his birthday today. i should probably text him. i should probably stop thinking about him. that’s just dumb shit, disco youre better than this what happened to a little self confidence every now and again

sure lets say external validation isnt necessary but also i think that’s something the mindfulness crowd made up to sell more planners and tote bags in 2011. it feels good to be wanted

never waste all your time on it sure. know youre still worth it even when you have no friends and there are a million girls all over his instagram comments. but it does feel good to hear “goodness disco i like how much you like the philadelphia 76ers”

my friends are all making fun of me for being on some romeo and juliet shit because he’s literally from verona and he’s a celtics fan and im a sixers fan god damn it disco why does this always happen

i never even read romeo and juliet but i saw the dreamworks adaptation so i guess ive got the story relatively right i know they die in the end. the gnomes shatter into little pieces i think

anyway tangents aside the sixers won tonight. philly is lit up green. why the hell is philly lit up green? the eagles were done like three months ago and the flyers are orange. why is philly lit up green

oh god, he just snapped me. a zoomed in photo of himself with caption that says “76ers” with like five exclamation points

here we go again, everybody

wish me luck

#writeblr #writing #original writing #creative writing #narrative #my writing #philadelphia 76ers #boston celtics #nba #just inspo lmao #also jacket boy is currently quarantined for coronavirus #just thought id add that with the news out if italy #pip pip cheerio #al horford #al horford sleeper agent #narrative nonsense #disco is my real name

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mynameisdreartblog · 5 years ago

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Romantic Composers 2

Leo: Johann Strauss II. I’m gonna prank-call a Domino’s in San Juan, give me a minute. «Oro, we’re in the middle of the sea, I doubt there’ll be a good enough connection or a cell-tower near enough to let you-» <Sudden static is heard, and a gruffy voice comes on.> «Este es el Domino’s; ¿Qué te gusta probar nuestro nueva pizza stuffed-crust?» <Oro gives an impossible look at Viz, implying that he never doubted himself, but that Viz was a total moron for doubting him.> Yes, I’d like a, uh… <Oro’s eyes begin rapidly scanning the environment for clues.> Anchovies… Pineapples… A Hawaiian pizza, basically: That’s the mellow flavor I’m feeling today. «¿Algo más, señor?» Oh yes, I’d also like those marble brownies for a dessert, and an Orange Crush for the drink. <Viz wonders how Oro is able to receive a cellular connection in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.> That should be it… Oh no! «¿Señor?» Augh! I fell off this pier, and I think I’m d-drowning! Please, send someone to help; I can’t swim! «¡Mierda!» <Viz watches Oro kick his feet through the water, making very convincing splashing sounds. He then begins to produce fake choking sounds, leaving the Domino’s worker quite terrified.> «Why did I ever agree to come out here with you.» <Viz punches the makeshift sailboat the two are in, startling Oro and causing him to drop his phone.> Viz, what the hell? I still had 3 gigs of data left on that thing! «Data? It’s a flip-phone. Smart phones haven’t been invented yet because they’re a science-fiction concept, dipshit. Now you have some terrorized soul in an island hundreds of miles away from here.» Actually, he’s at the bottom of the ocean. «Don’t speak to me again, I swear to God.» […] <The scene of the discord fades away as we peer into the bottom of the ocean, where we find the phone there, still on call. The voice rings out and says:> «¿Crees que está jugando conmigo?» […] Man, wouldn’t it be hilarious if I did that? <We cut back to reality: Oro is sitting in the front seat of his banged-up truck, killing time while Viz lays half-conscious in the back.> «That’d kind suck. I mean, who’s gonna be on the ocean? Nobody’s that stupid: The ocean’s big and scary.» You and me both, but don’t deny that isn’t hilarious. «Heh, I did appreciate the joke about the phone at the bottom of the ocean: You were setting that up miles in advance.» [,] Shit, am I getting a phone call?

Taurus: Frédéric Chopin. "The automobile is perhaps the only invention that is at once phallic and womb-like. As columnist George Will once remarked, “the real reason for progressives’ passion for trains is their goal of diminishing Americans’ individualism in order to make them more amenable to collectivism.” While his comments are laughable for a number of reasons, collectivism as a goal (or even a word) smells of Cold War-era mildew. Will does hit on one truism: Humans love cars to an irrational degree." Hmm, that’s a very interesting think-piece you have here. But tell me, why should I care about Americans and their car-culture? I hike up here every day, and when I have to travel lower, I take a moped like everyone else. Though, mine’s bigger for obvious reasons. «Don’t blame me; I just put the papers on the table. Those crazy op-ed writers will publish just about anything to get people’s anger brewing.» You’re right… The morning’s been quite inactive though, and I just wanted something to talk about. Heaven knows I talked about every trinket in this place. «You can try talking about the cuisine, specifically how I can learn from you. That’s just something you’ve been stubborn about lately, and maybe this boredom is just the karma of that.» I knew you’d say that, but you need to realize that my cooking is something you can only experience, never narrate. I let things speak for themselves a lot, and I never found a purpose in taking down notes that do nothing but become clutter later on. <Bodhi whispers to themselves> «That’s the guy I know: Always asking you to live out things fully because understanding things holistically is better than growing personally.» [,] You whisper too long but also too sweetly. Please keep doing it until we have a customer coming so I can feel like there’s some activity here. «Bullheaded as always.» […] <Gresham takes a meaningful sip of tea, it fails to burn his old throat, but can punch through the atmosphere to reveal a friendly puff.> A lot of the time, I’m tired of being so cynical: Where’s the room for being clumsily sincere? I have to refuse making money by telling dirty jokes or other obscene things like, ugh, phone usage. <Like he never said, he’s not too old, it’s that technology doesn’t catch up to him for his liking.> [,] The window is just soothing enough to warrant not cleaning it yet, but I don’t wanna get another tourist complaining about how they don’t have the best mountain view. Whoever sits here will have to learn how to appreciate the fault… I’m complaining to pass the time again: Not a healthy habit, Gresham. […] Nothing strange, just a nice day: A little foggy though.

Aquarius: Giacomo Puccini. How would I describe the graphical style of the game Little Red Hood for the NES if I were to use persistent, geographical allusion? Well, I’d say that it’d be like what would happen if you tried to translate the geography of Afghanistan onto 8-bit graphics hardware, particularly how it appears near a strong river like the Helmand: It provided that Galilean backdrop that so many directors used in their films about Christ. Now, that’s what I did think back in my flawed memory of the game, but now that I look back at it again, the landscape is definitely more inspired by that of Florida, particularly around the parts where sawgrass is heavy and palm trees are native, but it’s not a tropical landscape per se, nor is it an entirely swampy one. It’s particularly the presence of palm trees that struck me as confusing, because my brain has always associated the odd, yellow colors of its groundwork to that of a renovated Pacific area, but the game proves that it doesn’t use the palm trees throughout the entire game. But the opening levels still confuse me because the story of Little Red Riding Hood that the game’s based on originates in various parts of Europe, and the foliage we see in the opening act doesn’t reflect that of any European landscape. It could just be an artist interpretation in the case of making the presentation of the game think you were in a Pacific island or near the heartlands of Okeechobee, but I think it might’ve just been a case of “not giving a shit” as they say. There’s more to talk about with how my brain subconsciously linked my flawed memories of the game’s graphical presentation with that of the riverbanks of the Helmand; I guess I just wanted to prove my initial biases and not examine how the game doesn’t even commit to even my ideas whenever I think of Afghani scenery, but maybe even those are failing to catch up with the fact that there’s so many different aesthetical implications within the vastness of the nation of Afghanistan that, uh, I don’t know: I just like Afghani landscape. Have this picture of a village in the Bamyan desert. [,] «Aukai, what the hell are you talking about? I’ve been eavesdropping back here since you started and I still don’t understand.» I’m t-trying to paint this scene in my head, but I don’t have my tools to do it, so I’m thinking loudly about it. «…Whatever.» […] There’s no doubt in my mind that he’d make a great tamer: Our protagonist of this beautiful world, now ravaged by corruptors that his world has gone to hell for trying to stop. He’s the only one who can control the beastly and brutish forces of the corruption that infests his world. <The one earlier who was questioning Aukai opens her door and holds out a hand full of paint-brushes.> «Here, take these, please. I liked you better when you were quiet.» <Aukai is insulted and satisfied.>

Pisces: Franz Liszt. I’m fucking devastated: My favorite rap-battle channel on YouTube just deleted their channel. Not only that, all of their social media accounts are gone. They had such great works as "Goku vs. Rick Sanchez", "George Washington vs. the Invisible Man", and "Luigi vs. Slenderman." I don’t know if I can keep going the same route of content consumption knowing that the only ironic rap battle channel deleted everything. «Hold on, your favorite video-channel on the Internet was ironic? I don’t think I’m getting this, Maggie.» Let me explain it: It was good because it didn’t take itself seriously. For a while, that was it’s niche, and certainly other creators arose to copy it, but they were always the first. «So, is this like, some independent person making all of these or is there an entire network of people collaborating to create this music?» You’re right the second time: They used to be part of this collaborative effort to make these videos, but the guy I like, in particular, broke off from the bigger picture. Now, their content is what I like; I haven’t seen the uploads by the other creators ’cause it’s not really the same experience, is it? «That’s crazy… and they just deleted all their content after how long they’ve done this for?» I’ve been following it for a year, but they were their most active near October. [,] «You actually have me interested in their music now. I mean, I know you can’t play it anymore, but do you at least have backups or remember how some of them went?» I think I have backups, but I know some of these by heart, man. What I’m trying to say is that it’d be far better if I could recite these to you than if I just played them. «So, what you’re saying is that you don’t have any backups?» Do you have any backups, or do you wanna see me recite some of the best lyrics you’ll ever hear? «Let it rip.» [,] "I got the Dragon Balls; I’m gonna win. I’m gonna eat your pickle, Rick. Oh wait, SHIT! Your mom licked my Dragon Ball(z); I’m just Super Saiyan. Kamehameha, I ain’t playin’. Rick Sanchez always wanna start drama; don’t make me do Dirty Sanchez on yo’ mama! I bet your only comeback is you making a burp. Rick Sanchez winning? Stupidest shit I’ve ever heard." At this point, Rick Sanchez would offer up his verse to Goku, and his verse goes something like "thirty-thousand witches in Goku’s house! God isn’t real; I touched Bulma’s blouse. I got like, seventy more episodes with Morty, and being with Morty just makes me real-" «Stop, this is way more awful than I expected.» Well, I’m the only one you can get these bars from, and now you’re saying you don’t want them? I don’t have to recite them. «You have backups; you lied to me earlier. I don’t care about them now, but look: You got potential outside of just reciting those bars. Maggie, you got your own talents.» I’m not a lyricist, but thanks. «You’re a poet, that’s one-or-two steps away from being a lyricist.» I rapped purely for the purposes of recitation; I don’t know what you’re getting at. «Nah, I’m convinced that only you can write something this absolutely… passionate. You made up this entire channel, this entire guild, this entire deletion scandal: You made it all up so you can kickstart your career.» I’m not- Okay, we’ll roll with it this time. [,] Yeah, I’m starting my own rap battle channel in the wake of the one that deleted itself. «Are you gonna cash in on the ironic rap-battle market or are you trying to be more sincere with this?» Of course it has to be ironic! I’m following in the master’s footsteps thanks to you, and now I can’t disrespect his legacy. «That’s cool, but it’s not enough: You gotta make it one of those ARGs.» ARG? «Like, some game of Clue you send your audience on to discover interlinked details that seem to form a bigger picture but end up getting nowhere, and it’s all for the purpose of promoting your brand.» Oh, I see. I can include like, hints in the middle of the jokes in the verses, and I’d make an entire fictional universe of followers that leave behind clues. «No, you don’t even have to do that: Just get a random mugshot, make up some believable names and accredit them to your project, get some weirdos on a message-board to write about it for you, and you’re set.» …If you’re gonna be this disheartening, I don’t wanna continue with it. «That’s not what I meant!»

#Zodiaccupuncture #Zodipunc #Leo #Taurus #Aquarius #Pisces

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topfygad · 5 years ago

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Park Igls Mayr Clinic, Austria

Have you ever heard of the Mayr cure? I hadn’t, until Park Igls Mayr Clinic came on my radar. Going for a detox in Austria was never on my list – until life changed a bit for us and, in all honesty, it was one of the best experiences I have had to date.

Was it a pleasant one? Well, it depends how you look at it, where you are in your life and how the concept of a full detox appeals.

There aren’t many reviews of the Park Igls Mayr Clinic – I found two which you can read here and here. Luckily for me, I do know Jess and was able to ask her some questions before I made my way to Innsbruck (which is served by BA from both Heathrow and Gatwick). Tatler considered it the most effective medi-spa in 2015 and it remained on Conde Nast Traveller’s Top 35 spas in the world list. Awards aside, here is how my stay at Park Igls went.

What is the Mayr method

Early in the 20th Century, the Austrian doctor and scientist Franz Xaver Mayr developed a theory that would fundamentally influence the course of preventive medicine. He based his approach on the fact that most common lifestyle diseases originate in the digestive system.

Preventive medicine at the Park Igls Mayr Clinic is based on six principles: alongside Cleansing, Supplementing, Self-discovery and Exercise, Modern Mayr Medicine adds the pillars of Rest and Education to achieve sustainable results and allow guests to enjoy a new and much improved quality of life.

You can read more about it here – but the principle is that you will be going on a detox programme, eating very little (therefore you will lose weight – which is not the goal in itself, but obviously will happen as you will be on a calorie-controlled diet), but the journey begins just there.

What Park Igls offers

Park Igls operates as a normal hotel (you can just book a room and turn up) but most guests are there to go on a personalised Mayr programme.

There is a variety of options, as derivations of the traditional programme. If you have a look at Park Igls Mayr Clinic website, you will see the various choices you have. I was on the de-stress programme, which included the following:

The Basic Programme

2 craniosacral therapy sessions (50 mins each)

2 talk therapy/coaching sessions (50 mins each)

3 combination heat packs (hay flowers and moor)

4 partial body massages – primarily acupressure & connective tissue massages (25 mins each)

1 metabolic detox bath

The classic programme costs 1254 Euros for a week, and the destress programme costs just under 1887 Euros for a week. Accommodation is charged separately and starts at 1000 Euros per week (and the price is the same almost for single or double occupancy).

Most people go on their own – but you will also see couples and groups of friends, so anything goes. Obviously ‘full board’ is included (!) and there will be no bar bill on check-out.

One thing I would like to make clear is that you are not going on a luxury holiday with a wellness element, like The Golden Door, which I recently reviewed (and thoroughly enjoyed) in California. Park Igls Mayr Clinic is a medical facility (with a rather nice hotel and wellness component) – it offered a truly unique experience which may or not be right for everyone, but for me, at that time and place, was exactly what I needed – and more.

My programme was less medical and more focused on my mental wellbeing – I enjoyed my ‘talk therapy’ sessions, and I was seen by a doctor three times during my 7-night stay. I had daily massage treatments – but again, they weren’t ‘spa massages’. Christine was my therapist for the whole week and she ‘gave me what was required. My reflexology session was incredibly painful – but much much needed. She talked me through all the pressure points like no one has before. I had two sacro-cranial massages included in my package, but they were so good, I added some more. She told me I had to cry, because she could feel sorrow inside me. I had visions of a German-speaking lady beating me up – it so wasn’t like that.

Doctor Kolnig, which was ‘my doctor’ explained to me that the reason why I hadn’t lost the weight that I put on in the last 12 months (I stopped smoking and had 2 rounds of IVF, in addition to the 2 the year before) was because of stress. It didn’t matter how much I was eating or exercising – my emotional side was preventing the physical side from reacting. I wasn’t expecting to hear that from an Austrian doctor – and this is one of the parts of the experience I appreciated the most.

I loved how they were incredibly ‘medical’ – other guests were doing blood tests, MRIs, liver cleanses, pre-diagnosing Alzheimers, getting heart problems diagnosed. But the team at Park Igls believed in alternative therapies – like acupuncture and reflexology and I found the way they combined both to be absolutely perfect. I tried laser acupuncture for my tennis elbow and could not believe it.

You see the doctor the next day you arrive – so whatever you do, do NOT arrive on a Saturday like I have. I was told not to – but I did it anyway and I would recommend you do arrive any other day of the week, so you can actually start your programme when you see the doctor.

You are measured and weighed and put on a numbered programme. The Mayr cure ranges from zero (total fasting) to level 7, where you are combining all sorts of food, and throughout your stay, and depending on your progress, you move up the ladder (and eat more!).

I started on level 3, which is around 900-1000 calories a day, and I stayed there until the last two days, where I was moved on to levels 4-6 (but more on that later).

A typical day at Park Igls Mayr Clinic

Breakfast is served between 7.30-9am so you wake up at whatever time you want and the first thing you have to do is drink the bitter water, which you take up to your room the night before and mix up with tepid water in the morning.

The bitter water is bitter (duh!), and will make you go to the loo exactly 3 times a day. It took me 2 days to get to that level and you will see people sometimes running from breakfast to the loo. Everyone is on the same boat, so to speak and it does work a treat.

For breakfast, you will be given a stale bread roll, and your choice of one of the Mayr foods as well as 30g or 50g of a protein of your choice – and you can see the list below (on a different image).

You also have to chew every bite 40 times – that produces saliva which then helps digestion. And also tells your brain when you are full. You are encouraged to not speak during meals and/or read or play with your phone. Focus on the food and enjoy the moment. I thought this was a bit weird – but as the days went by, I really did savour everything in a completely different way. You do not drink anything during your meals – interestingly, it wasn’t as hard as I thought.

A tip: have your bread toasted. It makes it a lot more bearable. My strategy was to have foods that weighed less so I could visually have more of it – so I only had coffee on the first day. My typical breakfast was the low fat yoghurt, the bread and alpine cheese or a scrambled egg.

You also have to drink 3-4 litres of water a day, outside of meals. This means a LOT of peeing, namely in the first couple of days, but things go back to normal at around day 5.

You have a daily programme of scheduled activities – like your massage, doctor appointments, beauty treatments (I highly recommend a pedicure there) and you can sign up to various exercise classes, as well as sightseeing activities.

I started each day with a Bath treatment called Kneippen, which involves sitting down with your feet in a bucket of warm water and every 5 minutes go for a lap in a VERY cold mini pool. If this did not wake you up, nothing will.

My programme included some treatments and that meant getting naked every day for those private treatments. I am not a naked in public person and I think more people saw me naked that week than in the last 10 years. These people were the therapists and attendants, who, I have to say, were incredible.

I had an issue whereby the classes I wanted to do clashed a lot with my scheduled appointments. Half the classes are in English, but I wonder if there is a way to make yoga in German work for everyone? I had to compromise and I did yoga once, went for a morning walk twice and for a swim three times.

I also napped a lot (as I felt exhausted on some of the days) and read 3 books and 9 magazines during my stay. Make sure you take these with you (and then leave behind for other guests). There are daily English newspapers and as people shared their reading materials, it made for quite a good selection in English. Naturally, most items are in German.

Lunches and dinners were for me soup, 2 sesame crackers and 50g of protein. Whilst I was hungry for the first 2 days, I did enjoy the selections. I almost always had mozzarella, smoked salmon, cream cheese or the alpine cheese. And delicious hummus.

On the 6thday I was given cooked food (rabbit and fish, I seem to remember) and blimey, it was interesting to go back to it.

By following the Mayr diet you will obviously lose weight – I lost 3kg in 5 days. But the point of the whole exercise is not just that (or that at all). I had been having an issue with my skin due to the IVF drugs – and no matter how many facials I tried, nothing cleared my skin up. My skin was even worse during the first days of my stay – but after I left, I have my face back, so to speak. I get the odd spot before my period as normal, but everything else is gone. I booked a facial too (with proper extraction, Germanic style), and I think it was the best outcome I could have hoped for.

One of the things worth mentioning: you will be caffeine-free, so expect some real headaches on the first couple of days. Everyone has them – this is where I smugly say I did not as I have been caffeine-free (90% of time) for the last year, so I did not have to deal with that. But I still did not sleep well – and the doctor did give me some magic sleep drops.

I signed up to a cooking class one afternoon – the soups they serve at Park Igls Mayr Clinic are outstanding and I wanted to understand how they made them.

I have recently rounded up some healthy cookbooks.

I also went on a sightseeing trip to Seefeld, which was a gorgeous town 40 minutes away. One day, I went to Innsbruck for some shopping – you are given a free return bus ticket a day during your stay, and it takes about 15-20 minutes to get to the city centre.

It was very hard to walk past bakeries – it seemed to be that every shop was a bakery, but I overcompensated with some very good shopping. There aren’t a lot of shops in Innsbruck, but I found a handful of very well curated designer shops (Einswaller) and quite a few great home shops. It made for a nice afternoon, anyway!

Having the evenings to yourself

Dinner ends at around 7.30pm and I had a chat with my new friend Carina every evening and we parted ways at around 8.30pm. I never go to bed at that time at home and I was a bit nervous to what I would do each evening.

I will make a small comment on the ‘common living room’ decor which was quite.. strange. The whole facility is quite modern and this room just didn’t flow (in my opinion).

You are encouraged to have a hot water compress (a hot water bottle in other words, but with a bit more skill) on your liver each night – and I really enjoyed it. I took my Amazon Fire and watched some films every night which was lovely. And I read. I read more that week than in a whole year, I think.

I left my phone in the room for a few meals and that was quite liberating!

The room and bathroom

The rooms are all modern and very functional – everything works well and I would recommend you book the best room you can, as I personally spent a lot of time in the room and loved having the separate seating area.

I had a ‘junior suite’ which came with the most generous hanger selection I have seen in a long time – and of course I took WAY too many clothes and shoes. There are sockets everywhere and I used my desk every day as I did have some work commitments I had to honour.

The bathroom came with a separate bath and shower (with excellent water pressure), and only an organic shampoo + shower gel. You were asked not to use moisturisers during your stay so they wouldn’t interfere with the detox process – and guess what? I did not and did not have a problem. I took make up but I never used it. I also used up some face masks I brought from home (why not) and ordered every pillow from the excellent pillow menu, until I found the perfect combination for me. In Austria, they tend to offer 2 pillows of different sizes and I needed some larger ones. I also gave the leg pillow a try and loved it. There is no turndown service (and definitely no chocolates on your pillow every night).

The staff at Park Igls

I thought the service was second to none – and I mean it from my heart. You are set up for success – everyone is on your side. But I thought people could be a bit cold and ‘too medical’ – and it was the exact opposite. Anything I asked for, it was always a pleasure.

What to wear at Park Igls

Things are pretty casual at Park Igls and during the day, most people wear their robe (and also to dinner sometimes).

You take your own workout clothes and people did make an effort for dinner (normal trousers and shirts for men, top and trousers and flat shoes for women). I would suggest taking your own flip flops and, of course, swimwear. Walking shoes (or trainers or something) are highly advisable too. No need for heels either.

Final thoughts

A medical detox is something that isn’t, of course, for everyone. If you asked me last year, I would very politely decline the invite (or have zero interest). With where I was in my life, I said yes and was on a plane two days later.

As I made my way to Park Igls Mayr Clinic , I was a little bit nervous – I had never been on my own for a whole week, I thought I would be uncomfortable and it did not happen. I loved being on my own, I needed for nothing, and yes I was hungry at times (very hungry some times), but things got better.

I think the fitness aspect of the programme could be improved – you can book personal training sessions, but I personally missed out on many classes. I was unlucky that I went on a week where the Pilates instructor was away – but I think some reformer machines would actually be incredibly popular. If Park Igls is trying to appeal to a younger audience, I think this is an area where there is room for improvement. The daily walks were popular (I went at 7am on the first day, but then slept late on the other days) as were the post lunch nordic walks.

But overall, my body reacted to the treatment and I feel like a cloud has lifted from my shoulders.

We have done a 5-day Mayr cure at home post Christmas and we felt amazing and lost the same weight. But we felt amazing and then resumed normal life with a healthier approach.

Park Igls Mayr Clinic gave me more than just a detox and I will go back. I am making plans to do so, and also for my husband to go. But separately – because in all honesty, I think it is an experience to be enjoyed alone.

If you are considering a medical detox, I do recommend Park Igls Mayr Clinic 100%.

Mrs. O

Pin for later

Disclaimer and fact box: I was a guest of Park Igls Mayr Clinic during my stay and opinions are all mine. Whilst not a walk in the park, I did have a life changing experience.

The classic programme costs 1254 Euros for a week, and the destress programme costs just under 1887 Euros for a week. Accommodation is charged separately and starts at 148 Euros per night, based on double occupancy or 153 Euros, based on single occupancy, totalling 1071 Euros for a 7-night stay. Full board is included, and no bar bills

source http://cheaprtravels.com/park-igls-mayr-clinic-austria/

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silver-soliloquy · 8 years ago

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CoMC week 4 part 1

XXXI

o I love that the timeskip and pov changes are drastic enough that we now have absolutely no idea what Edmond’s planning anymore! General vengeance, sure, and we know the names of the people he’s going to be targeting, but with Morrel the reader could pretty much guess what the Mysterious Stranger’s angle was even if Dumas was playing coy about names. From here on we’re pretty much flying blind, and it’s super fun. How much of what goes down in this section is he actually orchestrating, and how much can we mark down to Romantic Coincidence? Was Franz’s role in all this part of the plan, or did he just stumble into it and Edmond made it work? How is any of this actually going to get back to Villefort/Ferdinand? Who knows! Not Franz or me, that’s for sure! Isn’t this exciting?

o Also, Edmond has apparently done so much stuff over the timeskip, and none of it is…what he said he was going to do. He hasn’t even tried to go after his enemies yet, apparently, but he’s completely transfigured himself so much that he’s unrecognizable even though we’re in the know about his ridiculous aliases. Why were his priorities Orientalism and spending money and smoking hash? I mean I guess he’s been building up his aliases and putting in place a network of money and influence that lets him do pretty much whatever he wants, but man, this is quite a shift. Even without the pov shift, it’s pretty easy to start viewing Edmond as something unknown and dangerous instead of Our Hero.

o (I’m still going to keep calling him Edmond though, because the more sinister he gets the funnier it is to me.)

o As a sidenote though, I am totally delighted by the “wow, I wonder who this Mystery Person could be! we’ll just have to use the obviously fake name they give us, because we definitely don’t know what their real name is! NO PROTAGONISTS HERE, MOVE ALONG” game that the narrator’s playing. I loved it in Les Mis, I love it here! Somehow it never gets any less entertaining!

o The thing where Edmond always somehow embodies the mannerisms/physical characteristics of whatever nationality he’s pretending to be kind of reminds me a lot of Fantomina, have any of you guys read that? It’s an 18th century British novel about a lady who sets out to get revenge on her cheating boyfriend but ends up just getting really wrapped up in the theatre of costume and the multiple identities and ends up just having a really good time messing with him while he never notices that all these different women are, in fact, Fantomina. I’d have to reread it for details and Fantomina does more playing with class than with nationality, but I feel like Edmond could kind of relate.

o I don’t really have much to say about the Romanticism Bingo chapter except, wow, that happened I guess. It is kind of worth mentioning that, for all that Edmond’s forced himself to become a different person, he still uses Monte Cristo as his home base and his name—it seems like both a tribute to Faria and a sign that there’s a part of him that still doesn’t want to let go of his beginnings, no I’m not crying it’s fine

o Albert is adorable, and his willingness to go along with Mystery Man’s Thousand and One Nights roleplaying is hilarious. Maybe he and Edmond could be lit nerd buddies if Edmond wasn’t so busy being CREEPY and HAVING NO FRIENDS EVER.

o I think somebody in the tag mentioned the possibility that Edmond bribed Franz’s captain to take him to Monte Cristo, and I think that’s definitely what happened—the whole way the sidetrip unfolds is so weird! “hey let’s stop by Monte Cristo for some quick hunting, it’s uninhabited it’s fine” “oh yeah also there might be smugglers, it’s still fine” “oh look, lots of smugglers and also bandits! we are also smugglers so it’s okay, we can talk to them! we’ll have to stay the night though, forget that this was supposed to be a quick visit” “uh their leader wants to hang out with you and also has a huge opulent mystery palace that we definitely knew about even though we said the island was uninhabited, THIS IS TOTALLY NORMAL HAVE SOME DRUGS” LIKE. THIS IS THE MOST SUSPICIOUS THING I HAVE EVER HEARD, HOW DID FRANZ GO ALONG WITH THIS. Except I still can’t figure out what Edmond’s angle there was? How does impressing Franz with his mysterious wealth and orientalism help with anything???

XXXII

o Albert! For a spoiled rich kid he is INCREDIBLY ENDEARING, and he and Franz are super cute together and oh my god it’s just so nice to have some characters who actually like each other! I AM STARVED FOR FRIENDSHIP OKAY, EDMOND WHY DO YOU INSIST ON NOT HAVING ANY FRIENDS. Franz’s knowledge of Albert’s quirks and general air of fond exasperation for his ridiculousness is just really sweet and made these chapters really enjoyable. And I still want cute road trip adventures fic of them.

o Signor Pastrini is the real hero of this book for putting up with all the rich people nonsense happening in his hotel, tbh

XXXIII

o YIKES YIKES YIKES CAN I SKIP THIS CHAPTER

o Okay no I do have a few notes—Luigi Vampa, the first mysterious sketchy stranger who isn’t secretly Edmond! I totally cracked up when ~the Count of Monte Cristo~ showed up in the story ANYWAYS, because apparently what Edmond’s been doing during the timeskip is integrating himself into every urban legend and scrap of local gossip there is.

o The Cucumetto story was AWFUL, OH GOD WHY, not to mention BASICALLY POINTLESS, but I guess the Luigi/Teresa story was kind of entertaining? Maybe the point of the Cucumetto bit was to give Luigi Vampa the Not As Bad As You Could’ve Been award? The fact that his idea for getting his girlfriend a nice dress was “BURN DOWN A WHOLE VILLA” was hilarious, anyways.

o Also I feel like the Florian reference is just straight up Dumas calling me out for not finishing the second half of Estelle et Nemorin, which I AM WORKING ON OKAY, WHAT IS IT WITH YOU ROMANTICS AND MAKING ME READ CRACKED OUT PASTORAL NOVELS LET ME REST

XXXIV

o All the fuss about taking Albert to see the colosseum in the most impressive amazing way possible still seems pretty romantic to me as well as Romantic, Franz knows how to plan a date I’m just saying

o Did Edmond also plan for Franz to overhear the whole rendezvous in the coliseum? It seems like that one might have been just Coincidence?? BUT WHO KNOWS WITH EDMOND

o Honestly I spent the whole opera section screaming internally about how NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION TO THE STAGE, AUGH

o Franz and the Countess took a moonlight walk in the coliseum and talked about THE DEAD! How very Romantic of you two, I can see why Byron likes this lady

o Byron/Lord Ruthwen references galore! I need to come back to this after I read the Vampyre, so I have no comments except that the Countess is dating Byron but also so freaked out by Edmond that she has to leave the theatre immediately? Seriously???

o I love how oblivious Albert is to the encroaching creepiness of the Plot! HE JUST WANTS TO FIND A CARRIAGE AND HAVE A DRAMATIC ADVENTURE WITH A HOT ITALIAN LADY, WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE’S STUCK IN A REVENGE NOVEL

XXXV

o Everything about the executions is pretty much horrifying, and I don’t have that much to say about it except to note how all deliberate Edmond has been about desensitizing himself to violence and death and how much he wants not only vengeance but to be a person who can be that casually cruel—his first victim was definitely himself, and he has to keep seeking out scenes of torture and revenge to keep himself from reverting to the kid he was in prison who just wanted someone to love.

o His whole speech about how a man’s mask comes off when he’s faced with death seems like it goes back to Morrel’s almost-suicide, too—if Edmond hadn’t liked what he saw when Morrel was on the point of killing himself, would he have gone through with his reward? That…doesn’t make me feel any better about how much he waited till the very last possible moment there, but it does make more sense. It’s also foreshadowing Albert’s kidnapping adventure with the bandits, where I think even Edmond has to respect how chill he is about being possibly executed in the morning.

more notes tomorrow probably! :D

#comc17 #book blogging #LOOK I ACTUALLY HAVE STUFF TO SAY THIS WEEK

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neo-somaliana · 7 years ago

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You're slaying the imbalance and what created momentum for a confrontation to take place. Basically, there's a difference between the symbolism of the dragon and the archetype that is present in the hero's journey. Just like fire can ravage an entire forest or feed an entire village.

“Jung has said that to be in a situation where there is no way out, or to be in a conflict where there is no solution, is the classical beginning of the process of individuation. It is meant to be a situation without solution: the unconscious wants the hopeless conflict in order to put ego-consciousness up against the wall, so that the man has to realize that whatever he does is wrong, whichever way he decides will be wrong. This is meant to knock out the superiority of the ego, which always acts from the illusion that it has the responsibility of decision. Naturally, if a man says, “Oh well, then I shall just let everything go and make no decision, but just protract and wriggle out of [it],” the whole thing is equally wrong, for then naturally nothing happens. But if he is ethical enough to suffer to the core of his personality, then generally…the Self manifests.

In religious language you could say that the situation without issue is meant to force the man to rely on an act of God. In psychological language the situation without issue, which the anima arranges with great skill in a man’s life, is meant to drive him into a condition in which he is capable of experiencing the Self.

When thinking of the anima as the soul guide, we are apt to think of Beatrice leading Dante up to Paradise, but we should not forget that he experienced that only after he had gone through Hell. Normally, the anima does not take a man by the hand and lead him right up to Paradise; she puts him first into a hot cauldron where he is nicely roasted for a while.”

- Marie-Louise von Franz

Clash of the animus and anima

Men have forgotten their roles as slayers of dragons. They became complacent so now women had to turn into dragons to wake them up from their apathy. The only way you’ll slay this new type of dragon is by realizing this conflict isn’t an attack on you but is an awakening of everything you’ve turned your backs on. Recognize your inner worth as being separate from the role as a slayer, and you’ll win this battle. Your role isn’t your worth, rather it’s an embodiment of everything you value and it can’t be benevolent if it’s not based on progressing the universal good.

And women can use their stint as fire breathing dragons to burn away their blindspots to their innate destructiveness that comes about when they withdraw their natural energy as a form of power play. The ocean doesn’t need to turn into mountains to instill awe and terror. Everything in balance is in alignment with the divine power it originated with.

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networkingdefinition · 5 years ago

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Thanksgiving Quotes

Official Website: Thanksgiving Quotes

• A basic law: the more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for. – Norman Vincent Peale • A lot of Thanksgiving days have been ruined by not carving the turkey in the kitchen. – Kin Hubbard • A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue but the parent of all the other virtues. – Marcus Tullius Cicero • All across America, we gather this week with the people we love to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives. – George W. Bush • All that I see teaches me to thank the Creator for all I cannot see. – Henrietta Mears • Always expect the unexpected. Right around Thanksgiving, when the new Alex Cross will be out. It’s called Four Blind Mice and it’s a pretty amazing story about several murders inside the military. – James Patterson • An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day. – Irv Kupcinet • And though I ebb in worth, I’ll flow in thanks. – John Taylor Ann Voskamp • Anything I cannot thank God for for the sake of Christ, I may not thank God for at all; to do so would be sin. … We cannot rightly acknowledge the gifts of God unless we acknowledge the Mediator for whose sake alone they are given to us. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer • As governor, when I visited our troops in Kuwait and Iraq, I served them Thanksgiving dinner. It was a small gesture compared to their sacrifice. – Jennifer Granholm • As much as I love crisp, clean whites, there’s always a time for rich but balanced Chardonnays with oak, especially at Thanksgiving. – Gary Vaynerchuk • As soon as someone tells me: ‘You’re rather sexy,’ I wish I could disappear. If somebody says: ‘You were voted the world’s sexiest man,’ I have no idea what that means. How do I respond? ‘Thank you’ is the best you can do. George Clooney is the world’s sexiest man, anyway. – Daniel Craig • At Thanksgiving, my mom always makes too much food, especially one item, like 700 or 800 pounds of sweet potatoes. She’s got to push it during the meal. “Did you get some sweet potatoes? There’s sweet potatoes. They’re hot. There’s more in the oven, some more in the garage. The rest are at the Johnson’s.”- Louie Anderson

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Thanksgiving', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_thanksgiving').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_thanksgiving img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Be present in all things and thankful for all things. – Maya Angelou • Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. – Oprah Winfrey Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough. • Before you go out into the world, wash your face in the clear crystal of praise. Bury each yesterday in the fine linen and spices of thankfulness. – Charles Spurgeon • Christmas is more stressful with present buying and making sure everyone gets included, but Thanksgiving is really not that. I don’t ever really get stressed out about the food. – Sandra Lee • Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • Dear Lord; we beg but one boon more: Peace in the hearts of all men living, peace in the whole world this Thanksgiving. – Joseph Auslander • Drink and be thankful to the host! What seems insignificant when you have it, is important when you need it. – Franz Grillparzer • Envy and greed starve on a steady diet of thanksgiving. – Billy Graham • Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle. – Ann Voskamp • Even though we’re a week and a half away from Thanksgiving, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.- Richard Roeper • Every day is a day to be thankful. Life’s abundance has no limit, and gratitude is what keeps that abundance flowing. In every circumstance there is something for which to be thankful. Even when there seems to be nothing else, there is hope.- Ralph Marston • Expressing gratitude for the miracles in your world is one of the best ways to make each moment of your life a special one. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones! – Wayne Dyer • For flowers that bloom about our feet; For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet; For song of bird, and hum of bee; For all things fair we hear or see, Father in heaven, we thank Thee! – Ralph Waldo Emerson • For three things I thank God every day of my life: thanks that he has vouchsafed me knowledge of his works; deep thanks that he has set in my darkness the lamp of faith; deep, deepest thanks that I have another life to look forward to–a life joyous with light and flowers and heavenly song.- Helen Keller • For what I have received may the Lord make me truly thankful. And more truly for what I have not received.- Storm Jameson • Forever on Thanksgiving Day the heart will find the pathway home. – Wilbur D. Nesbit • From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free, We thank with brief thanksgiving Whatever gods may be That no life lives for ever; That dead men rise up never; That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea. – Algernon Charles Swinburne • Giving thanks to God for both His temporal and spiritual blessings in our lives is not just a nice thing to do – it is the moral will of God. Failure to give Him the thanks due Him is sin. – Jerry Bridges • Gluttony and surfeiting are no proper occasions for thanksgiving. – Charles Lamb • God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say ‘thank you?’ – William Arthur Ward • God gives us our relatives – thank God we can choose our friends. – Addison Mizner • God has two dwellings; one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart. – Izaak Walton • God is glorified, not by our groans, but by our thanksgivings. – Edwin Percy Whipple • God is pleased with no music below so much as with the thanksgiving songs of relieved widows and supported orphans; of rejoicing, comforted, and thankful persons. – Jeremy Taylor • God smiles when we praise and thank Him continually. Few things feel better than receiving heartfelt praise and appreciation from someone else. God loves it, too. An amazing thing happens when we offer praise and thanksgiving to God. When we give God enjoyment, our own hearts are filled with joy. – William Law • Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” – William Arthur Ward • Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse. – Henry Van Dyke • He that enjoys naught without thanksgiving is as though he robbed God. – Saint John Chrysostom • He who thanks but with the lips. Thanks but in part; the full, the true Thanksgiving. Comes from the heart. – John G. Shedd • How wonderful it would be if we could help our children and grandchildren to learn thanksgiving at an early age. Thanksgiving opens the doors. It changes a child’s personality. A child is resentful, negative, or thankful. Thankful children want to give, they radiate happiness, they draw people. – John Templeton • I absolutely adore Thanksgiving. It’s the only holiday I insist on making myself. – Ina Garten • I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite – only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. – Henry David Thoreau • I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • I can only say thank you and thanks also to all of the great songwriters who wrote those wonderful songs that became number ones. – George Strait • I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land. – Jon Stewart • I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens . . . to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.- Abraham Lincoln • I don’t think any other holiday embraces the food of the Midwest quite like Thanksgiving. There’s roasted meat and mashed potatoes. But being here is also about heritage. Cleveland is really a giant melting pot – not only is my family a melting pot, but so is the city. – Michael Symon • I have learned that in every circumstance that comes my way, I can choose to respond in one of two ways: I can whine or I can worship! And I can’t worship without giving thanks. It just isn’t possible. When we choose the pathway of worship and giving thanks, especially in the midst of difficult circumstances, there is a fragrance, a radiance, that issues forth out of our lives to bless the Lord and others. – Nancy Leigh DeMoss • I have nothing against turkey. We eat turkey for Thanksgiving in my house. – Marc Forgione • I have often met with happiness after some imprudent step which ought to have brought ruin upon me, and although passing a vote of censure upon myself I would thank God for his mercy. – Giacomo Casanova • I haven’t had that many weird encounters with fans, thank God. – Vin Diesel • I like to stuff myself at Thanksgiving, not turkeys. – Kevin Nealon • I love chicken. I would eat chicken fingers on Thanksgiving if it were socially acceptable.- Todd Barry • I love Halloween, trick or treating and decorating the house. And I love Thanksgiving, because of the football and the fall weather. And of course, I love Christmas – that’s my favorite of all! – Joe Nichols • I love Thanksgiving because it’s a holiday that is centered around food and family, two things that are of utmost importance to me. – Marcus Samuelsson • I love Thanksgiving turkey… It’s the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts. – Arnold Schwarzenegger • I see the glass half full and thank God for what I have. – Ana Monnar • I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. – e. e. cummings • I thought that all of the sacrifices and blessings of the whole history of mankind have devolved upon me. Thank you, God. – Ben Stein • I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to come and witness my hanging.- George W. Bush • I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. – Gilbert K. Chesterton • If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get. – Frank A. Clark • If I were ever to go mad it would be on Thanksgiving Day, that day of guilt and grace when the family hangs upon you like an ax over a sacrificial victim, like the oven’s heat on that poor bird.- Francine du Plessix Gray If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. – Meister Eckhart • If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share. – W. Clement Stone • If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it’s really like making a large chicken. – Ina Garten • If you think Independence Day is America’s defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down. – Tony Snow • I’m thankful for every moment.- Al Green In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.- Albert Schweitzer • In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it’s wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices. – Elizabeth Gilbert • It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it. – Alistair Cooke • It is impossible to be negative while we are giving thanks. – Donald Curtis • It is now common knowledge that the average American gains 7 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. – Marilu Henner • It is therefore recommended… to set apart Thursday the eighteenth day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor.- Samuel Adams • It must be an odd feeling to be thankful to nobody in particular. Christians in public institutions often see this odd thing happening on Thanksgiving Day. Everyone in the institution seems to be thankful ‘in general.’ It’s very strange. It’s a little like being married in general. – Cornelius Plantinga • It would seem that the ingratitude, whereby a subsequent sin causes the return of sins previously forgiven, is a special sin. For, the giving of thanks belongs to counter passion, which is a necessary condition of justice. But justice is a special virtue. Therefore this ingratitude is a special sin. Thanksgiving is a special virtue. But ingratitude is opposed to thanksgiving. Therefore ingratitude is a special sin. – Thomas Aquinas • It’s a thanksgiving to God. It’s something I have wanted to do for a long time, but the record company wasn’t ready for it. So I did it myself. – Aaron Neville • Its better to pace yourself throughout a big day like Thanksgiving by having something healthful for breakfast and something light for lunch. – Marilu Henner • It’s like being at the kids’ table at Thanksgiving – you can put your elbows on it, you don’t have to talk politics… no matter how old I get, there’s always a part of me that’s sitting there. – John Hughes • It’s so warm now, and Thanksgiving came so early – is it just me, or does it not really feel like Ramadan? – David Letterman • Life without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without thankfulness is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road. – John Henry Jowett • Lord, ’tis Thy plenty-dropping hand. That soils my land, And giv’st me for my bushel sowne. Twice ten for one. All this, and better, Thou dost send. Me, to this end, That I should render, for my part, A thankful heart. – – Robert Herrick • Make it a habit to tell people thank you. To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you’ll soon find many others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you’ll find that you have more of it. – Ralph Marston • May your heart be an altar, from which the bright flame of unending thanksgiving ascends to heaven. – Mary Euphrasia Pelletier • May your stuffing be tasty May your turkey plump, May your potatoes and gravy Have nary a lump. May your yams be delicious And your pies take the prize, And may your Thanksgiving dinner Stay off your thighs! – Grandpa Jones My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor. – Phyllis Diller • My favorite meal is turkey and mashed potatoes. I love Thanksgiving, it’s just my favorite. I can have Thanksgiving all year round. – Cindy Margolis • My restaurants are never opened on Thanksgiving; I want my staff to spend time with their family if they can. My feeling is, if I can’t figure out how to make money the rest of the year so that my workers can enjoy the holidays, then I don’t deserve to be an owner. – Michael Symon • My whole problem is that all of my favorite things at Thanksgiving are the starches, and everyone is trying to go low-carb this year, even a green vegetable has carbs in it. – Ted Allen No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks. – James Allen • No matter what our circumstance, we can find a reason to be thankful. – David Jeremiah • No people on earth have more cause to be thankful than ours, and this is said reverently, in no spirit of boastfulness in our own strength, but with the gratitude to the Giver of good who has blessed us. – Theodore Roosevelt • Not to sound too much like Christopher Guest in ‘Waiting for Guffman,’ but on Thanksgiving you’re putting on a show! – Ted Allen • Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.- W. T. Purkiser • Now thank we all our God, With hearts and hands and voices; Who wondrous things hath done, In whom this world rejoices. Who, from our mother’s arms, Hath led us on our way, With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today. – Martin Rinkart • Numberless marks does man bear in his soul, that he is fallen and estranged from God; but nothing gives a greater proof thereof, than that backwardness, which every one finds within himself, to the duty of praise and thanksgiving. – George Whitefield • O Lord that lends me life, Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness! – William Shakespeare • On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence. – William Jennings Bryan • On Thanksgiving I will stop to give thanks that my family is safe and healthy, especially because I realize that, following the tragedies of this year, it is all too real a possibility that they might not have been. – Bobby Jindal • One of my most memorable Thanksgiving memories was probably the first year that me and my two brothers decided to start our annual eating contest. We ate throughout the whole day. We started that morning and weighed ourselves, and at the very end of the night, we weighed ourselves out. And all three of us equally gained five pounds. – Charles Kelley • Our Creator shall continue to dwell above the sky, and that is where those on earth will end their thanksgiving. – Seneca the Younger • Our family holidays always include our animals. On Thanksgiving, we love to walk around our farm and visit with our rescued pigs, goats, horses, emus and many other rescued animals. We give them all special vegetables that day, and the whole family enjoys a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner. We know that the animals are giving thanks that day, and we are also giving thanks for the joy they bring to our lives. – Noah Wyle • Our knowledge of God is perfected by gratiitude: we are thankful and rejoice in the experience of the truth that He is love. – Thomas Merton • Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labor when the end was rest, Indulged the day that housed their annual grain, With feasts, and off’rings, and a thankful strain. – Alexander Pope • Over the Thanksgiving holiday I took time to reflect on what is most important to me and realized I need to find a way to put the fun back into racing. – Kurt Busch • Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves. – Henry Ward Beecher • Remembering with thanks is what causes us to trust – to really believe. • Sharing in God’s blessings is at the heart of Thanksgiving and at the core of the American spirit. – William J. Clinton • So once in every year we throng Upon a day apart, to praise the Lord with feast and song in thankfulness of heart. – Arthur Guiterman • Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit. – Robert Burns • Some people are absolutely funny and you want to wish them Happy Thanksgiving in funniest way possible. Here is the list of Funny Thanksgiving sayings. Just chose the quote you want to wish that person. Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie. – Jim Davis • Thank you for life, and all the little ups and downs that make it worth living. – Travis Barker • ‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. – Alice Walker ‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding. – Alice Walker • Thank you, God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough. – Garrison Keillor • Thankfulness is not something God gives us. It is not a spiritual gift and it is not a spiritual fruit. We can receive God’s peace, joy and love, but thankfulness is something that we give to Godand to others. It is a choice that we make. Let us thank Him today with songs of celebration, hearts of strong devotion and acts of admiration. -Roy Lessin • Thanks are the highest form of thought. – Gilbert K. Chesterton • Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence. – Erma Bombeck • Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday…The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production. – Ayn Rand • Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often. – Johnny Carson • Thanksgiving is the holiday that encompasses all others. All of them, from Martin Luther King Day to Arbor Day to Christmas to Valentine’s Day, are in one way or another about being thankful. – Jonathan Safran Foer • Thanksgiving is worry’s kryptonite. – Matt Chandler • Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants. – Kevin James • Thanksgiving, when the Indians said, “Well, this has been fun, but we know you have a long voyage back to England”. – Jay Leno • Thanksgiving. It proved you had survived another year with its wars, inflation, unemployment, smog, presidents. It was a grand neurotic gathering of clans: loud drunks, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, screaming children, would-be suicides. And don’t forget indigestion. I wasn’t different from anyone else: There sat the 18-pound bird on my sink, dead, plucked, totally disemboweled. Iris would roast it for me. – Charles Bukowski • Thanksgiving. It’s like we didn’t even try to come up with a tradition. The tradition is, we overeat. ‘Hey, how about at Thanksgiving we just eat a lot?’ ‘But we do that every day!’ ‘Oh. What if we eat a lot with people that annoy the hell out of us?’ – Jim Gaffigan • The act is unjustifiable that either begs for a blessing, or, having succeeded gives no thanksgiving. – Merle Shain • The Christian who walks with the Lord and keeps constant communion with Him will see many reason for rejoicing and thanksgiving all day long. – Warren W. Wiersbe • The funny thing about Thanksgiving ,or any big meal, is that you spend 12 hours shopping for it then go home and cook,chop,braise and blanch. Then it’s gone in 20 minutes and everybody lies around sortof in a sugar coma and then it takes 4 hours to clean it up. – Ted Allen • The joy I get from winning a major championship doesn’t even compare to the feeling I get when a kid writes a letter saying: ‘Thank you so much. You have changed my life.’ – Tiger Woods • The observance of Thanksgiving Day-as a function-has become general of late years. The Thankfulness is not so general. This is natural. Two-thirds of the nation have always had hard luck and a hard time during the year, and this has a calming effect upon their enthusiasm. – Mark Twain • The private and personal blessings we enjoy- the blessings of immunity, safeguard, liberty and integrity- deserve the thanksgiving of a whole life. – Jeremy Taylor • The simple act of saying ‘thank you’ is a demonstration of gratitude in response to an experience that was meaningful to a customer or citizen. – Simon Mainwaring • The Spirit of prayer makes us so intimate with God that we scarcely pass through an experience before we speak to Him about it, either in supplication, in sighing, in pouring out our woes before Him, in fervent requests, or in thanksgiving and adoration.- Ole Hallesby • The thankful heart sees the best part of every situation. It sees problems and weaknesses as opportunities, struggles as refining tools, and sinners as saints in progress. – Francis Frangipane • The thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings. – Henry Ward Beecher • The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest. – William Blake • The Thanksgiving tradition is, we gorge. Hey, what about at Thanksgiving we simply consume a considerable measure? However we do that consistently! Goodness. Imagine a scenario where we consume a ton with individuals who pester the heck out of us.- Jim Gaffigan • The turkeys that most Americans eat for Thanksgiving are turkeys – losers that are mass produced and bland.- Marian Burros • The unthankful heart… discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings! Henry Ward Beecher • The very fact that a man is thankful implies someone to be thankful to. – John Baillie • There are a lot of New York City Thanksgiving traditions. For example, a lot of New Yorkers don’t buy the frozen Thanksgiving turkey. They prefer to buy the bird live and then push it in front of a subway train. – David Letterman • There is no better opportunity to receive more than to be thankful for what you already have. Thanksgiving opens the windows of opportunity for ideas to flow your way. – Jim Rohn • There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.- O. Henry • There is one day that is ours. There is one day when all we Americans who are not self-made go back to the old home to eat saleratus biscuits and marvel how much nearer to the porch the old pump looks than it used to. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American. – O. Henry • Therefore, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. – Paul the Apostle Thinking, Dinner, Chickens • Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, ‘Thank God, I’m still alive.’ But, of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again. – Barbara Boxer • Thou that hast given so much to me give me one thing more, a grateful heart: not thankful when it pleaseth me, as if Thy blessings had spare days, but such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise. – George Herbert To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do.- Victor Hugo • We can always find something to be thankful for, and there may be reasons why we ought to be thankful for even those dispensations which appear dark and frowning. – Albert C. Barnes • We celebrate Thanksgiving along with the rest of America, maybe in different ways and for different reasons. Despite everything that’s happened to us since we fed the Pilgrims, we still have our language, our culture, our distinct social system. Even in a nuclear age, we still have a tribal people. – Wilma Mankiller • We give thanks often with a tearful, doubtful voice, for our spiritual mercies positive, but what an almost infinite field there is for mercies negative! We cannot even imagine all that God has allowed us not to do, not to be. – Frances Ridley Havergal • We have so much, yet many Americans feel dissatisfied. Somehow the full table, symbol of abundance to the pilgrims, is not enough. We yearn for something far beyond the material satisfaction. Find your place in history this Thanksgiving by stretching beyond your table. Celebrate your survival by offering peace and sharing with your neighbors. Make the shift from in illogical feeling of lack to the recognition of abundance. Invite the Spirit to your feast, and prepare to feed the world. – Jennifer James • We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives. – John F. Kennedy • We ought to make the moments notes Of happy glad Thanksgiving; The hours and days, a silent praise Of music we are living. – Ella Wheeler Wilcox • We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction. – Henry Allen Ironside • Well, there’s not a day goes by when I don’t get up and say thank you to somebody. – Rod Stewart • We’re having something a little different this year for Thanksgiving. Instead of a turkey, we’re having a swan. You get more stuffing – George Carlin • What does it mean when people applaud? Should I give ’em money? Say thank you? Lift my dress? The lack of applause – that I can respond to. – Barbra Streisand • What we’re really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving? – Erma Bombeck • When I was a kid in Indiana, we thought it would be fun to get a turkey a year ahead of time and feed it and so on for the following Thanksgiving. But by the time Thanksgiving came around, we sort of thought of the turkey as a pet, so we ate the dog. Only kidding. It was the cat! – David Letterman • When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself. – Tecumseh • WHEREAS it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint Committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.” – George Washington • With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea. – Laurence Binyon • You know that just before that first Thanksgiving dinner there was one wise, old Native American woman saying, Don’t feed them. If you feed them, they’ll never leave. – Dylan Brody • You may have heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There’s another day you might want to know about: Giving Tuesday. The idea is pretty straightforward. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, shoppers take a break from their gift-buying and donate what they can to charity. – Bill Gates • Your friend is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. – Khalil Gibran

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equitiesstocks · 5 years ago

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Thanksgiving Quotes

Official Website: Thanksgiving Quotes

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quonit-aceattorney · 7 years ago

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3-3 Reaction

Rules:

Q = Me, Quonit.

BF = Bardic Feline, the friend that made me spend 30 dollars on the game and whom I am messaging

I don’t use those when I send the messages close enough my username doesn’t appear.

Any typos (unless they are funny and part of the conversation) will be fixed.

Index

Q: Got to the next one. Funny name.

Q: Hey this is like the game over thing :0

Q: Didn't even start and I lost already

Q: What did I do wrong Gumshoe

Maya shut up

Q: The hell happened

Q: Crap how and why would anybody dress as me

Q: MAGGIE

YOU HAVE HORRIBLE LUCK

Q: Idea: killer was also phoney me

Q: Wow this place is fancy

GQ: MAGGEY TELL ME ABOUT THE DRAWIN

Q: The fancy place reset :0

OH MY GOD

This place is great

Q: Where the HELL did my magic rock go D:<

I don't see it in my inventory!!!

Q: Oh thank you locks for still appearing

I was very worried a bout it not being in my inventory

FUCK SO IT IS GONE

Q: ...to the park?

Q: Mr what is that red thing on your nose I think you should stop touching it

Q: Doves are usually grey too

Q: Apples are good. Let's talk about that. What is your favorite Apple phoenix? I myself like granny Smith's and pink ladies

Q: Iell I didn't get the old man to talk but it seems the newspaper I got landed Maya a job so

Q: Wow Maya is actually gone. Guess it is time to examine everything again

Q: Well it seems the detention center has reset so that is good

Whatever she isn't here

Office reset

Haha I should really be more upset when Maya leaves

Whatever she is fine

Q: Yay the police station reset!

Gummy!!!

Whatever godot is fun

Q: Of only somebody pointed out one of the many many differences between me and the phoney that trial

Q: Godot I give you passed on a lot of things and I like you but I really wanna know why you hate me

Q: Alright were going back to fancy restaurant

this part was great actually

BF: Hahaha

And then Maya was kidnapped by the effeminate restauranteur, the end

Q: oh hey the restaurant reset. Examine everything?

oh no there is a person here

hell other your head looks like it had been hurt :(

goodbye i guess

HI MAYA

Maya: So how do i look? Phoenix: ... Phoenix: I think you should quit being a spirit medium. yes

let's just take a break and eat food sounds like a plan

i duno if i even have that much on me

oh crap well i guess i am getting lunch

i don't have 50$ on me Gant can i have 50$ oh ya you're in prison/dead

Q: Maya eat my lunch

dammit maya stop taking my money

COME BACK HERE AND EAT YOUR FOOD

Eh maybe some other random person why enjoy it

Q: examine everything

the magmenta!!!

I missed it so much!!!

it's probably poison

Q: gonna take a break for around 40 minuets

Q: that took so much longer and it is partially my fault

Q: Also I did a stupid redraw of one of Zarla's drawings from like 2007 and it looks good but ack i redrew a thing she drew in 2007. Once i feel like it i'll send a picture

i think we may be done in the kietchen. We got some stuff and it may be important so something somewhere may have reset

hey the police department reset!

yesss gumshoe

present him stuff

Gumshoe is this poison

tell meee

wow that's a lot of money

have to go again

Q: finally back and i have muffins to munch on while I play

Q: i remember this music

this is matt's theme whatever

to the other rooms

hey the park reset

there is a motercycle here now

STOP SCREAMING

WHY ARE YOU YET

WHY IS HE RED

Hey he said crap woo another close to swearing word

why are there so many weird people in this trian

trial

Q: case

whatever the fuck

im also saying that dipshit isn't phoenix write

OH FUCK

how did nobody suspect anything about him???

and if they did, WHY DID NOBODY SAY ANYTHING?

OLD GUY phoeny me left and i am mad i didn't punch him while i could

i think they were dressed alright enough

locks woo

i am so glad i have the magmenta back

Q: examine everything?

at least there aren't as many rooms

Q: got back to game and decided to see if i can break the locks

Q: i wiiiiin

Q: MIA

OH MY GOD

she is using her boobs to her advantage

i forgot her completly now

*forgive

MIA I TAKE BACK EVERYTHING I SAID I THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Q: Phoenix she is giving up her dignity for you thank her don't judge her

Q: time to move

wooo it reset

Q: iii wiiiin

noooo phoenix this guy can't be the killer

it's that moron red skinned phoenix impersonating asshole >:(

SHIT GODOT

STOP

I AM WINNING GO AWAY

Q: i usually give you passed but not now GO AWAY

Q: that red dude might've put the winning tcken in her pocket when he ran off

i hate red guy

save music

GUMSHOE

Q: well judge, THAT GUY WAS A FAKE FROM HELL

aw he called me trusty

BF: Lol Tigre? XD

quonit-aceattorney

yes

we didn't learn his name yet

Q: but i am amusing that is his name now

BF: Ooooh sorry

Q: it is fine i don't think it was a big spoiler

BF: Yeah Hahaha, he’s not exactly subtle

Q: WHY DID NOBODY QUESTION HIM

he was probably too intimidating but really one person had to right?

"MY OCCUPATION IS DICK GUMSHOE"

BF: Lol think of this whole case as like...one of those old Saturday morning cartoon plots where the good guy gets a really really obvious double

Q: pffft

BF: Like the double has bolts sticking out of their neck and they constantly yell about how evil they are

Q: i can imagine this.

BF: And yet you still have that scene where they are standing side by side and all the good guys are like HOWEVER WILL WE TELL THEM APART

Which one is the real one how can we be suuuure

That’s basically what this case is, haha

hehe

stoooooop

Q: I wonder who in the end will get to use the ticketyQ: maggey didn't do it mr tigre didQ: HE DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT THE BLOODSTAIN JUDGE GUY.

I say this like it was obvious and makes sense to anybody in the game stupid spoiler i pretend is a headcanon keeps proving itself to be true

Phoenix: You don't need to be told! Just look at it! SHUT UP PHOENIX >:( THIS GAME WANTS ME TO BELIEVE A STUPID HEADCANON. whatever let's ignore that and get back to figuring out the bloodstain. sry godot

no there is other stuff

LIKE THAT TIGRE GUY

Phoenix: Is it possible that somebody could've put the bottle in her pocket? Me: YES Gumshoe: ya! Happens to me all of the time! Me: REALLY

well if i had my phoeny's profile i would but nope sorry godot no evidence yet

Everyone: :talking about old man guy throwing seeds: Godot: Hah! It was nothing. I caught every single one of them with my teeth! impressive. DO YOU HAVE EVIDENCE FOR THIS CLAIM???

Q: i mean empty bags can have meaning why not?Q: well the stuff inside the bag was empty

hey that worked!

nice im cool now

Q: no he didn't put his medication in, red guy didQ: BUT WOO i am winningQ: we all died a little bit inside

maggey he was doing what he was supposed to do and was relying on me to figure out what was wrong with it. he didn't do anything.

Q: old guy tell us your occupationQ: don't lie that she put something in it

IT'S 2019 IN THE GAME NOW YOU SHOULD GET USED TO IT

also wasn't he looking at a sports paper right he was listening to the radio right

Phoenix: Did she really put that in there?? Phoenix you know not to trust this guy he is wrong she didn't

Q: MR I DON'T THINK THIS COUNTS AS "WASTING". I MEAN HE DIED AFTER TAKING A SIP.

Phoenix: Congratulations. You have earned the title of Battiest Man To Grace A Courtroom. I love sarcastic phoenix

Phoenix: Anybody could've word that outfit! Even me! Judge: Mr.Wright please spare the court of any further mental anguish from that image hahahahaha

Q: the bow was blue but whatever. also that is still part of the outfit.

the bow was ORANGE

EDGEWORTH IS PURPLE AND THE BOW IS ORANGE NOT RED. I DON'T CARE IF THE GAME SAYS OTHERWISE IM RIGHT

Old guy: This is harassment! I mean what are you doing?

REALLY

Q: how about the apron? Like the godamn bloodstainQ: doing lots of stuff in game i should document it moreQ: coffee cupQ: it woooorked

LEFT HANDS AND RIGHT HANDS

ALWAYS LOOK OUT FOR THAT

IT IS A VERY COMMON THING IN THIS SERIES

now you have to sing. sing for us now.

who cars about your age dammit

respect the coffee kudo

the eye lense is TEAL NOT GREEN UGH THIS GAME CAN'T GET ITS COLORS RIGHT

Q: AND SOMEHOW POINTING THAT OUT GOT ME A WIN

and his ear whatever but i still win

Q: HE IS SINGING THE PIDGEON SONG AND EATING THE BIRDSEEDS WOOO I WINQ: back to investigation?

no? okay

Q: but godot finished his coffee! How can we continue now???Q: but he didn't knock over the vase? look at the photo he didn'tQ: your memory is completly unreliable

goooooddbyyyyyyeee

Q: think i can be done for nowQ: game because working is dumbQ: let's bring up that jerk again why not

RED GUY WHY DID YOU DO THAT

Q: Maya: Introduce me next time, Nick! I wanna meet Xin Eohp too!

Q: to the detention center

dammit

nvm then

hey gumshoe!

Q: don't be sad gumshoe there are still lots of people that love you and maggey will probably be fine with you againa fter this is overQ: dont lie to me gumshoe i can ee right through it

unless it's in court the locks don't work in court

i win

Q: Maya: I wanna try it!

Phoenix: Then buy a ticket! With your own money! See Phoenix is smart

Q: no im not going tot the park i don't wanna see him right now i wanna talk to gumshoeQ: 2019: The year of gumQ: SEE GODOT KNEW THAT THAT GUY WAS A FAKE AND HE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO SEE HIM FOR THAT

GODOT WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ANYBODY

Q: nniiiiice we can go visit his work nowQ: what do you mean the color of your coat looks more detective-y

also im still confused about if franz sent back the coat and kept the evidence or if gumshoe just got a new coat.

to blue screens because i don't wanan see red guy

wtf is with her

Q: I would say this isn't 2019 but i have no right to say that yet because i have never lived in 2019Q: at least she is letting me examine evidence

Trigre >:(

future from 2004 or future from 2019

Phoenix: Computers are only as smart as the humans who use and make them are ...you know nothing...

Q: im about done here

to the park

Q: the scooter is backQ: well he isnt here that is fine

oh hey that girl is here

is she threatening to kill him or

Q: great so tiger is also involved in not only impersonating me, but also killing glen, and this guy's money problem

to the office

gumshoe you just left go to your meeting

Q: well im headed to where i was going again

hi girl again

imma go touch the desk

Q: of course it's the same color as my suit he used it to pretend to be meQ: HI TIGRE

WHAT DO YOU WANT

Q: well at least i can talk to her now

no maya

Q: if you want coffee just ask godotQ: im to go look in other placesQ: see mr kudo is giving us information it's a ll good

Phoenix: maybe he's trying to avoid us?" It always feels that way when i try to find somebody in this game and they aren't there. None of them have ever been trying to avoid me but i guess if you think that that guy is trying to avoid you he is

hey maggey is back

Q: i have the cd~

Q: took a minute to fix the sound

why am i How-aceattourney

stupid tumblr

BF: TumbllllllrrrrrQ: oh ya the creepy womanQ: and she wont react to the profile so i guess im gonna leave now

wonder what is going on at this police station

Q: more game.

oh ya i was stuck

hmmm

go talk to people and investigate things

oh ya i still have gumshoe's lunchbox

Q: i know you're mad at him but pls

:shows paper badge: oh hey is that your badge WOW DOES MY BADGE REALLY LOOK THAT SHITTY

Q: ALSO DON'T BITE MY BADGE >:( AND IF IT LEAVES TEETH MARKS IT IS REAL.Q: dammit no new conversation topics

wonder if something else updated though

niiice the police department! I doubt that anything will be there though

how much does that guy at the desk get paid

GUMSHOE :D

oh damn that sounds bad. Wonder if it is from a specific somebody i hate or his girlfriend

Q: it's obvious what lady mayaQ: I was gonna ask what computer virus but asking what one is is dumb

though this did some out in 2004... nah still unacceptable. This is taking place in 2019.

GUMSHOE HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT ONE IS

it's 2019 guys get with the times

Q: so much of this game has already happened i feel so uncomfortable now that this is taking place in the future

OH THEY'RE MAKING FUN OF ME OKAY

still bad but

and not only that they're more scary when they are attacking the POLICE

i mean mr.godot is a highly specific example but sure if i was sick and sneezed on him he might get sick too

oh so they are using that specific example to make fun of me again har har so funny guys

Q: OH SO THE GUY MADE A VIRUS

WELL SCREW THE VITIM IM HAPPY HE DIED

he probably had a reason for it but i don't believe it

Q: ya that family sounds dumb we should arrest themQ: i am angry right now

more stupid last names

ya guess who im going to stand up to

IM BRAVE

IM STRONG

I THINK IM PRETTY ACCOMPLISHED

I'VE RUINED SOME PRETTY EVIL PEOPLE'S LIVES

IF THESE GUYS ARE EVIL I WILL TAKE THEM ON

IF THEY AREN'T EVIL I WILL TAKE THEM ON

I AM NOT SCARED TO MAKE BOLD CLAIMS LIKE THIS

Q: oh uhhhh maggey still hates you and we had to eat them. Sorry dude... how about you go do something that will make you happyQ: eh if anything goes wrong and she doesn't eat them we can just threaten her with a gun. Always does the trick for me.Q: when did maggey leave whatQ: well i need to sleep now. Lost again but im lost at a different point

Q: "I'll stop spamming you now"

:opens Ace Attorney:

Just trying to get unstuck i don't think much will happen, only got 30 mins

lets see where am i

don't think i can get any locks but i don't think there is much harm in trying

can't break one lets look for another

Q: im still stuck imma go try againQ: found a thing in my inventory i think this is important

I love my magic rock

:00000 it worked

well ya your dad is the stupid c long name thing so of course that has to do with you

oh hey i broke a lock

from the looks of that cutscene that looks like mr tigre

one more lock

Q: I BROKE IT

WOOOO I AM UNSTUCK

Q: she crying :(Q: ugh no room is updating

i need to get the other locks i bet

Q: i win. That was easier than thoughtQ: why are we discarding so much stuff

:o a room reset

DAMMIT TIGRE GO AWAY

i swear if he tazes me

SO HE PUNCHED ME

I'm done with people assaulting me in some way and then taking my evidence

GUMSHOE

Q: GUMSHOE

SAAAAVE MEEEEE

thank you gumshoe

that improved my opinion of him greatly. There was nothing negitive but now there is more love to give

Did phoenix even every tell anybody about that time von karma tazed him and ran off with the letter

alright i need to sleep and there is a savepoint. yay! Also! GUMSHOE SAVED ME!

haha

at least he is dead and his daughter is better

alright i am sleeping now

Q: I can't sleep sadly

Not because I am too tired but for other reasons. I'll keep playing

MAGGEY do you think I can predict ANYTHING that will happen in a trial at all

I'm only play because of how Gumshoe saved my butt back there

Hey Gumshoe :D I am forever in your debt because of what you did back there

Q: Looks like we found the medicationQ: Oh ya I forgot about GodotQ: (He just called the judge a loser)Q: Oh so that guy will testify. One of the people who almost helped with the repeat of what happened with the letterQ: OH now I know he is covering up the existence of tigerQ: Phoenix your cover up swears suckQ: This game is so obsessed with left and right being contradictionsQ: How dare Godot say I shouldn't existQ: Playing a bunch not saying much though

I am Winning and godot is still making weird metaphors

Q: LOUD RUMBLEQ: I hope I can make tigre suffer

Save point. I think I can sleep now

Q: maya just because tigre is coming to the stand doesn't mean we are gonna win

gumshoe!!!

Q: well usually we have no idea what the trump card is

(fuckin letter)

Q: sense when have I lost a case?

Making matt guilty isn't loosing

making him fuck off was the true prize i won that

back to trial

Judge do not be intimidated. He's like 9 feed below you.

Tigre: WHO DA HELL CALLED ME TO DIS HOLE WAS IT YOU Phoenix: No it was the Judge Judge: :hides:

Godot: :makes Tigre shut up: Phoenix: T... Too cool... hahaha

Tigre: That lowlife ain't no lawyer! He just punches away at stupid details til he wins! i feel called out

okay so question: People hate 2-3 so much and one of the reasons is Moe's testimony but there are SO MANY THINGS IN THIS 3RD GAME LIKE THAT

Q: not only that but this game is a lot more vague on "hey hey you were supposed to do this you are on the right track"

Godot: I hear it can be pretty hard to set up appointments when you're dead

BF: hahaha I think 3 tends to get forgiven most because the overall plot is VERY well constructed. Also I think the alleged hate against 2 is overblown. 2-4 is such a beloved case after all

but you'll see what I mean about overall plot in a bit.

4 tries like HELL to do what 3 did, I think, but it gets tripped up a lot along the way.

(and yes 3 is hard. I'd say the only thing it does that's more forgiving that 2 is that IIRC, it doesn't penalize you for screwing up Magatama sessions.)

Last Friday at 11:31 PM

Q: ahhh alright. I'll be waiting for the 3 plot. Also it doesn't get mad at your for screwing up magatama sessions?? I have not noticed such a thing.Q: but he was there because 1 other people say he was and 2 why else would that guy tell him to go thereQ: problem with having so much evidence is that i can't remember what is what and what proves what or that it even existsQ: oh hey these matchesQ: HUH

wooo

wooo it worked

oh boy more things that are very close to swearing from him

Q: so many things wrong with this next testamony

WHICH ONE DOES THE GAME WANT ME TO DISPROVE

Q: heeeey it workedQ: I am winning :DQ: it's the tigre guy obviously >:( He impersinates a lot of people

phoenix hiding under his desk

Q: obviously it was that girl

internet not working dammit

WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOBODY COULD PULL OFF A STUNT LIKE THAT THERE HAVE BEEN WEIRDER THINGS

:Shows paper badge: Judge: It is an insult to think anybody could be fooled by that well then maybe you should reevaluate your life choices

guuuuumshoooooeeeee

where are you man

YESSSS GUMSHOE IS BACK

THANK YOU DUDE I WAS WAITING

GUMSHOE YOU ARE GREAT NEVER PUT YOURSELF DOWN YOU ARE VERY USEFUL AND WE ALL LOVE YOU

heeey maaaggggeeyyyyy can you cheer gumshoe up for me he's being sad

quonit-aceattorney

OH SO YOU KNOW HOW THE BOTTLE LOOKS DO YOU :)

WELL I WIN!

he yells

hahahahaha glowey mask thing hahahaha

oh fuck you stop throwing coffee at me

why do you hate me so much i am not a criminal

hey gumshoe i won!!!

maybe maggey can be happy now

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theladyjstyle · 7 years ago

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New Zealand. The land of Middle Earth, Great Walks, kiwis, backpackers, adventure sports, delicious wine and pristine wine regions.

And a land that sucks all your money from your wallet like a giant vacuum.

I first visited New Zealand eight years ago. The country was so much more expensive than I thought it would be. Back then, I was a cheap(er) backpacker and focused on saving as much money as I could. I cooked most of my meals, hitchhiked, skipped all the costly adventure sports, and drank a diet of cheap boxed wine and happy hour beer.

But, when I visited earlier this year, I changed my MO this trip. I was going to say yes to everything, regardless of cost.

I wanted to really know how much money you need in New Zealand for a variety of budgets. What’s it cost to be a broke backpacker? A mid-range traveler? Or a mix of the two? What if you want to eat out a lot but also hike or sleep in a van? What if you want to do all the adventure activities in the world? What if you just let the tab pile up?

So I became the Nomadic Matt of many budgeting hats. And, in the process I learned a lot about, the true cost of traveling New Zealand.

Let’s break it down.

How much did I spend in New Zealand?

Over the course of my 25-day visit, I spent $4,550.90 NZD ($3,292.74 USD), averaging $182 NZD ($131.68 USD) per day.

That’s a lot of money. Like holy hell a lot of money! Way more than my $50 USD a day guideline.

Here’s how my spending broke down:

Accommodations: $913.64 NZD ($661.05 USD)

Spark phone service: $164.68 (119.15)

Pharmacy: $39.98 (28.93)

Internet: $15.29 (11.06)

Groceries: $235.52 (170.41)

Transportation: $1,014.32 (733.90)

Activities: $823.65 (595.94)

Restaurants: 1343.82 (972.30)

Total: $4550.90 NZD ($3,292.74 USD)

I spent a lot of money, but, again, I said yes to everything. I knew taking scenic planes, trains, and helicopter rides; staying in private rooms, and meals out was going to cost a lot of money.

But even I was surprised how much I spent when I wasn’t tracking my spending.

Looking back, there were things I could have done to lower my costs.

I could have saved money by eating out less or by booking less expensive Airbnbs instead of hostel private rooms (which are always a terrible deal but I wanted to be around other travelers).

With a lot of ground to cover, I couldn’t always spend a day on a bus so flying really increased my costs. Additionally, the scenic rail I took (while awesome) was also $159 NZD! And transportation to Stewart Island is $160 NZD! Instead of doing them all, I could have picked one or the other.

And I definitely blew through way too much phone data. As a person not used to data limits, being data limited at hostels (around 1 GB per day) was new territory for me as I tried to stream Netflix. I picked up the slack on my phone by just ordering more data and not really thinking about it.

If I was slightly more conscious about my dining, accommodation, and spending habits, I easily could have cut $20 USD or more per day from my budget.

How much does New Zealand really cost?

So how much do you need to budget in New Zealand then? If you’re going to travel like I did, budget $110-130 USD a day. This will let you travel carefree and basically do anything you want (within reason). Fly, take scenic trains, expensive ferries, scenic flights, drink expensive wines, have expensive dinner – New Zealand is your oyster!

A more “I want to do a lot but still want to be budget”, a budget of around $142 NZD ($100 USD) a day will get you private rooms in Airnbs, a large number of activities (I let no winery go unvisited!), the occasional flights, and restaurant meals about 70% of the time.

If you’re going on a backpacker’s budget, I’d say you need around $71-85 NZD ($50-60 USD a day). That will get you a hostel dorm room, bus transportation, happy hour drinks, one or two expensive activities (bungy, scenic flights, skydive, etc), and mostly self-cooked meals (around 70-80% of your meals).

If you are going to rent a campervan or self-drive, you could knock $15 NZD ($11 USD) daily off your budget since your van will act as accommodation too. On an even tighter budget, with Couchsurfing, hitchhiking, few if any activities, and cooking 90% or more of your meals, you could get by on $40 NZD ($28 USD) per day. It’s not easy to do but I met travelers who did it. It requires a lot of discipline though.

Here are some sample costs:

Spark Phone plan (with 4.5 GB of data) – $40 NZD ($20 with 1.5 GB of data)

Buses booked far in advance – $1 NZD per ride

Buses booked last minute – $20-60 NZD

Airfare – Varied wildly but you’re looking at least $50 NZD each way.

Scenic trains – $159 NZD each way

Full-day Bay of Islands cruise – $259 NZD

Hobbiton tour – $84 NZD

Nevis Bungy – $275 NZD

Franz Josef Glacier Guides Heli Hike – $459 NZD

Waitomo glow worm caves – $51-246 NZD depending on if you walk, raft, or abseil

Hostel dorms – $20-30 NZD

Hostel private rooms – $55-$100 NZD

Airbnb – $50+ NZD for a shared location, $80+ NZD for a whole unit

Wine tours – $150+ NZD

Drinks – $8 NZD for a beer, $10-15 NZD for wine or cocktails, and $5 NZD for a happy hour drink

Bar crawls – $20-30 NZD

Casual restaurant meal – $15-25 NZD

Fast food meal – $11-20 NZD

How to SAVE money in New Zealand

Spending so much money taught me a lot of about how to save money in New Zealand. Where your budget will go to die in this country is with activities and meals. Adventures activities are crazy expensive, most of them costing $200 NZD or more! I mean a heli-hike in Franz Josef was $450 NZD! That’s CRAZY! Moreover, with most meals costing $20-30 NZD ($15-22 USD), your budget is going to be gone quickly if you eat out a lot (food represented 34.7% of my total spending).

New Zealand’s groceries weren’t that expensive (it’s an agricultural country after all), and there are a lot of free hikes to replace those expensive activities. Taking advantage of these should help lower your costs substantially. When I was in Wanaka, I only spent around $50 NZD ($36 USD) each day ($30 for my dorm, $20 for food and drink, and $0 for activities since nature was free!). It can be done.

Simply put, New Zealand doesn’t have to be expensive if you don’t want it to be. After all, if it was, so many backpackers wouldn’t come here in droves. I mean how many hordes of backpackers go to Norway? Not a lot! Why? It’s f*ing expensive unless the only thing you do is camp! New Zealand has a middle ground. It’s whatever it is you want it to be.

Here is how to save money while there:

Cook (a lot) – I know this is going to sound crazy but, and I can already hear the comments coming, the food scene in New Zealand isn’t that mind-blowing. Yes, there are nice cafés, some hip gastronomy, and really delicious meals, but nothing that’s so mouth watering delicious you have to blow your budget on it. I never walked away going “That was a meal I couldn’t get at home! I’m glad I just spent $60 bucks!”

No. In fact, my biggest regret is that I spent so much on food. I should have cooked a lot more. I feel like I wasted a lot of money not doing so. I probably could have saved about $800 NZD by cooking more and, honestly, I don’t feel like I would have missed anything too great.

So cook as much as possible. You’re going to save a ton of money. Heck, even a burger and fries is $20 NZD! I’m not saying you shouldn’t ever eat out, just do so sparingly.

A week’s worth of groceries will set you back between $80-100 NZD. The cheaper supermarkets are Pak’nSave and Countdown.

Choose your tours wisely – Tours cost a lot of money in New Zealand. Going on just a few is enough to bust any budget and send you home before you had planned. Pick the ones you really want to do and save the rest for another trip.

Hit happy hour – The backpacker bars have cheap happy hours offering $5 NZD drinks — take advantage of them.

WWOOF it – WWOOFing is a way to get free accommodation and food in return for working on a farm or in a B&B. You can do it for a few days or a few months. It’s a popular activity with travelers because it lets you travel cheaper and longer. Keep in mind, though, most farms will require you to have some experience, as too many inexperienced workers have caused them trouble in the past.

Work at a hostel – Many hostels let you trade a few hours of cleaning and making beds for free accommodation. Ask when you check in if this is possible — it might just save you some money!

Car share – Car shares are a popular transportation option for travelers looking to lower costs — all you need to do is chip in for gas. You can find rides on websites like Gumtree and Craigslist. Additionally, you’ll see people asking for rides on hostel bulletin boards. As for ridesharing apps, check out Thumbs Up NZ or Carpool New Zealand. (I never found a New Zealand version of BlaBlaCar but if anyone knows of one, let me know!)

Couchsurf – While there are not a ton of Couchsurfing options in the country, there are hosts in all of the major cities. If you don’t mind sleeping on a couch or floor, this is not only a way save money on accommodation but also a way to meet some amazing locals too. (Don’t just use this as a free hotel. If you don’t want to interact with your hosts, don’t use this site.)

Hitchhike – Hitchhiking is easy in New Zealand. Besides Iceland, it’s probably the easiest country in the world to hitchhike in. There are plenty of people who will pick you up. Additionally, you can just ask around any hostel and find a ride — everyone is doing the same circuit. I got from Wanaka to Queenstown to Fiordland that way. Between message boards, Couchsurfing forums, the people you meet in hostels, and just thumbing it on the side of the road, you can always find a ride.

Take a free walking tour – There are a few free walking tours in New Zealand, like the Auckland Free Walking Tour or WellyWalks Limited in Wellington, that offer visitors (and locals) insight into each city.

Remember that nature is free – New Zealand, home to the Great Walks of the World, has tons of free outdoor activities. While the adventure sports, wine tours, glacier treks, and boat cruises can eat into your budget, all the trails and walks are free. You can easily fill your day with free hikes, excursions to the lakes, or days on the beach!

And keep in mind the majority of museums in the country are also free!

Get a bus pass – I tend to buy transportation last-minute so I never scored super discount fares, which is where bus passes come in. I bought the $135 InterCity FlexiPass for 15 hours of travel. I’d suggest this since it is hours based and lasts forever. It will save you a lot of money versus booking last-minute tickets on the bus.

You can find out more on how to get around on a budget in my last post. I list a lot of resources there.

Skip the backpacker buses – While they’re fun, backpacker bus tours like the Kiwi Experience, Stray, or Haka are expensive! Best to avoid them if you are on a tight budget. If your budget isn’t so tight and you do want to check them out, be sure to sign up for their mailing lists first — there is always a sale on.

Use Book.me.nz – This website provides last-minute discounts on activities (and pub crawls) throughout the country. If you’re flexible about when you want to do things, you can save up to 60% off attractions and activities! I can’t recommend it enough. It saved me a lot of money.

***

Saving money in New Zealand is about picking and choosing your battles. As you can see, when you just don’t care, costs can really go up. I made plenty of spending mistakes that upped my daily average a lot. But if you get a bus pass, cook a lot of your meals, find rideshares, stick to Airbnb rooms (or split rooms with friends), and campervan it, New Zealand won’t be that expensive.

Just be sure to watch your budget!

The post The Cost of Traveling New Zealand appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

The Cost of Traveling New Zealand https://ift.tt/2FFAeKa

#Nomadic Matt's Travel Site digital nomad

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douchebagbrainwaves · 7 years ago

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THEY SOLD THEIR SOFTWARE ON EBAY FOR A QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF STOCK WILL NOT, EXCEPT IN SPECIAL APPLICATIONS, BE MASSIVE PARALLELISM

So the rate of a successful startup, the valuation number is just an artifact of the respective contributions of everyone involved. Why don't more people use it, and 50% of those you start with to be wrong that everyone would do this. We're going to let hosts rent out space on their floors during conventions. Because they begin by trying to seem corporate, or pretending to know about stuff you don't—you may just conceal your talent. In the real world, VCs regard angels the way a startup does. But Balzac lived in nineteenth-century France, where the Industrial Revolution that wealth creation definitively replaced corruption as the best way to convince investors is to make a record. You could try to decrease the risk is too. It's hard to predict what will; often something that seems interesting at first will bore you after a month. This article is derived from a talk given at the 2001 Franz Developer Symposium. That will require some diplomacy if you follow the advice I've given here, because the advice I've given here, because the top VCs skim off all the best deals. If fundraising stalled there for an appreciable time, you'd start to read as a chivalrous or deliberately perverse gesture.

There hasn't been a lot of people who wish they'd gotten a regular job is the default This leads us to the last and probably most powerful reason people get regular jobs: it's the default thing to do. In this article I'm going to use a simple data structure called a list for both code and data. The other thing that's going to be different: just as the very most popular kids don't have to worry about and which not to. The evolution of languages differs from the evolution of programming languages is more like it. Work for a VC fund? With an apparently inexhaustible sum of money sitting safely in the bank, the founders visit the VCs they have introductions to. That sends two useful signals to investors: that you're doing well or badly. The puffed-up companies that went public during the Bubble didn't do it just because they were living in the future to say this is the truth.

On, noise. So here is an even more striking statistic: 0% of that first batch had a terrible experience. Once you take money from the state government to renovate a vacant building as a high school kid writing programs in the languages we use now? In architecture and design, this principle means that a building or object should let you use it how you want: a good building, for example, allow founders to cash out. There seem to be a picky search expert to notice the old algorithms weren't good enough. And we have to rely on. Be nice.

Starting a startup is just a convenient way of trading one form of wealth for another. Kenneth Clark is the best source of rapid change. If you judge by the median startup, the other two classes have effectively disappeared in industrial societies, and their terms should reflect that. Whatever job people do, they naturally want to do a deal with you just to lock you up while they decide if they really want to. What you can do what all the other big companies are doing. In theory this sort of micromanagement. After all, they're just a subset of lists in which the elements are characters. All you're doing is wasting your own time riding it down. The other thing that made him different was that he did not know a single startup that got funded this way. And it can't have been heredity, because it means that if you have genuine intellectual curiosity, that's what you'll naturally tend to build things that are impossible to predict, I think, without macros? You're also surrounded by other people trying to write systems software on multi-cpu computers.

Others skip phase 1 and go straight to phase 2. If there is enough demand for something, and if you searched for Lisp on our Web site, all you'd find were the titles of two books in my bio. Some of the worse ones never actually do say no; they just stop replying to your emails. Preferably with other students. It's a cliche to call World War II a contest between good and evil, but between fighter designs, it really was. This situation is constantly repeated when startups present to investors: that you're doing well or badly. The real question is not what will make your company successful. You won't have it driving you if your stated ambition is merely to start a startup if you've crossed this threshold, whatever your age.

Garbage collection, introduced by Lisp in the early stages. They were helpful in negotiating deals, for example. Hell if they know. But that prescription, though sufficient, is too narrow. Don't realize what you're avoiding One reason people who've been out in the world for granted. One of the advantages of seed firms is the advice we give them. We didn't even know when we started that our users were called direct marketers. They had to buy a computer of my own. The only defense is to isolate yourself, as communist countries did in the twentieth century.

The problem here is not to change anyone's mind, but to starting a company, that makes him unique is his sense of design. But what label you have on your stuff is a much smaller matter than having it versus not having it. At first there's a list of my heroes. Transposing into our original expression, we get editorials saying this is wrong. They didn't do anything fancy. Every day new shit happens in the Google empire that only the CEO can deal with, and he never tried to turn it into one. And I admit that it is, because since meeting Robert I've tried to make each link unbreakable. They raise enough money to buy it. At YC we're always warning founders about this danger, and investors are probably more circumspect with YC startups than with the top firms.

But in fact you shouldn't. Similarly for Microsoft: Basic for the Altair; Basic for other machines; other languages besides Basic; operating systems; applications; IPO. If you think of using Lisp in a startup, you're probably happiest on the main branches of the evolutionary tree pass through the languages that have the smallest, cleanest cores. I didn't have to be generated. Maybe successful people in other industries are; I don't know exactly how many users they have now, but Kuhn was onto something. Languages evolve slowly because they're not really interested. Our hypothesis was that if we wrote our software in a weird AI language, with a definite family resemblance to the eval function defined in McCarthy's original Lisp paper. That's not absolutely necessary Jeff Bezos couldn't but it's an advantage.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #startup #risk #people #ones

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becksadventures-blog1 · 7 years ago

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Music.

Christmas 1998. I got a keyboard for Christmas. Never in my life had I expressed any interest in playing the piano. I loved music, I always had, but of all the things I begged my parents for, piano wasn’t one of them. Actually, I wanted to learn to tap dance. Not mad at the outcome though. I remember opening the present and being so surprised but also thinking ‘why’. The keyboard came with a beginners book, and without having any previous music reading experience, I could play that entire book in 2 days. I was also teaching myself how to play songs I was hearing on the radio. I think this was also the same Christmas my brother got a guitar and I was teaching myself songs on the guitar as well. Mind you, the piano playing wasn’t some crazy two handed, multi-chord, scale jumping kinda playing, it was right handed, middle C level shit. I have absolutely no idea how this happened. But I could do it. My parents immediately put me into piano lessons...and I think this is where it went downhill for me. I won’t name any names, so let’s call my piano teacher Dee. Dee was....a character. Sometimes she was nice, sometimes she was the worst human being ever. But most of all, Dee HATED that I could play music by ear. For the 8 years I took lessons from her, she would scold me at every lesson because she knew the song I was working on, I only progressed in because I was listening to the song and not reading the sheet music. So every week, she made me read something new. I like her and hate her at the same time. Like her because reading music was a huge challenge and I got better and better at sight reading. But I also hate her because she made me feel like I was doing something wrong. It wouldn’t be until years later that I found out that I had a gift, but we’ll come back to that. Another ‘fun’ fact about Dee was that she was also my high school guidance counselor. If I could roll my eyes any harder at this pairing my eyes would pop out of my head. There was one thing Dee really really loved to do...she loved to tell me often that I wasn’t smart or motivated enough to get anywhere in my life. In music. In school. In anything. At lessons she would tell me I would never get anywhere by playing music by ear. And at school when she would ask me about my future plans, and at the time I wanted to go to the University of Kansas for Architecture, she would just simply say ‘Nope, there’s no way. You’re not smart enough for that.’ Enough years of this and I actually believed her. Thirteen years later and I still haven’t forgotten. 2009. My first year at Maryville University for Music Therapy. While preparing for my audition into the school, I had this really wonderful music teacher. For the life of me I can’t remember her name, but for once I was praised for my ability to play by ear. She turned me on to MU and Music Therapy and I went after it full force. I remember being at my audition. It was in a small room with 3 of my professors. If there is anything I hate most in the world, it’s playing piano in front of people. I don’t know what it is, but I cannot do it. Maybe it’s from being told for years how stupid I was and how unsuccessful I am at my craft. I had to have two pieces prepared. My chosen two were Cristofori's Dream by David Lanz and Moment Musical No 3 Op 94 D 78 by Franz Peter Schubert (distant relative, how fucking cool is that). Even though I practiced and perfected both of the pieces, I struggled in the audition like I had never seen the music before. I couldn’t even finish the pieces I was so nervous. But then they asked me to play a song by memory. It was a silly little kids songs, Twinkle Twinkle Litter Star or something but I could do it no problem. And that is how I got accepted into the school. My prepared pieces didn’t go well, but it was my ability to play music by ear. Every semester we had to take piano lessons as apart of our credits and my first semester I was fortunate enough to get Dr. Henderson, the most brilliant pianist I have ever met to this day. He was unbelievable. He had two pianos in his room and at every lessons he would sit at a piano and I would sit at the other and he would play along with me. Sometimes I’d tell him about a song I was interested in learning and he’d pull it out of his memory like a goddamn magic trick. This was the second time in a year where I found out my ability to play by ear was a gift. I remember Dr. Henderson telling me how rare it was for someone to have that ability and that other musicians would kill to have my talent. I couldn’t believe he was saying this to me. After Dee putting down what she considered a burden for years and years, and suddenly having this genius tell me I had a gift...it changed everything. Since the idea came into my head a month ago about the possibility of being dyslexic, I started doing research daily. It’s well known that one big issue with dyslexia is that people get their words and letters mixed up. But one of the things that caught my attention was that they learn better hands on and by learning better from audio or by vocal instruction. This got me to do a bit more research and I came across this article from the British Dyslexia Association (http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/educator/music-and-dyslexia) basically saying that dyslexia students have trouble reading music and learn better playing by ear. So essentially, I was teaching myself the way I could understand music, then this lady came along and told me at a young age that I was wrong. Music was my creative outlet and when I could play on my own and do whatever I wanted I could play anything. There was one point I was picking up Rhapsody in Blue, my favorite song in the universe. So attention to anyone out there who is dyslexic and plays music; if you can play by ear, don’t EVER let ANYONE tell you to stop. Keep going!! Learn the music as it’s so important, but don’t let that hinder your creativity! You have a god given talent. And when you try to read sheet music, remember to take your time. You’re not stupid. You will get through it.

God I love music.

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bleederziine · 7 years ago

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We Like To Listen To You! An Interview w/ The Evening Attraction

Talking to other people is freaking hard. Unlike when you’re a teenager, and talking to people is awkward because you want to be there best friend or their main squeeze, when you’re an adult, you’re doing it for those two reasons, along with needing a job, or in my case, getting musicians to sit down in one place and ask your questions. Luckily for me, when I sat down at Tony’s Burritoes with The Evening Attraction, they were ready and excited to answer all my questions, despite the crowded conditions and din of chattering toddlers and burrito bowl orders being placed. It was refreshing to meet a band that has been making music for a little while, and are proud of it, and at the same time still get excited about fan art and new experiences while on tour.

After the interview I got to see TEA at the Beat Kitchen. TEA is a band that makes small rooms, like the Beat Kitchen, feel big with their confident playing and classic “rock” gestures (swinging guitars, fidgety dance moves), and I can’t wait to see them again some time. In the mean time, read this interview!

How did the band start?

Miles: Paul can tell the story better…

Paul: Well me and Miles were playing in a band in high school, and in 2013 that band kinda fizzled out, and we, Miles and I, formed this new band with our old drummer Matt Geiser and Joey who Miles knew from Columbia. Me and Miles go way back, and we started this band in 2014.

Miles: So I met Joe at Columbia, and we’ve been in love ever since… Then we made a record at Treehouse Records, at Matt’s place, who was playing drums with us. After that we started playing shows, and our first show was at Lincoln Hall. We just kept playing shows and getting around the scene, and then Nick joined as the drummer after Matt left.

Vincent: We played a lot of shows with traveling bands, and other local bands who had traction around the city. So its been great to play shows and meet guys like Mystery Lights.

Paul: But the last part of the puzzle was adding Vince, about a year ago! We have to add that otherwise everyone will say ‘we haven’t been introduced to this character, this isn’t a Tarantino film, why haven’t I been introduced to this guy?!’

Sub/V (to Vincent): How did you join the band, then?

Miles: We just kidnapped him one night, and never let him go.

Vincent: Really, thats what happened.

Joey: Yeah, we only take his blindfold off when we get to the venues.

Miles: So yeah, we’ve just been playing around the city for a while… We have a new record coming out soon, with this new outfit, got all the magic going on over at Treehouse Records. It should be out sometime this winter.

Vince: I love being in the band, I love being a hostage more-

Paul: Hey, thats not a laughing matter!

Miles: Get the blindfold!

Sub/V: So what inspired you all to initially make music, like in high school or college?

Joey: When I was four years old, it was the Monkeys. So I just watched a lot of the Monkey’s, and wanted a group of guys to play Monkey’s songs with.

Vincent: Yeah its really the only thing I want to do, it goes beyond self expression or anything, its more a matter of fulfilling my own happiness. I’ve wanted to be a musician since I was a kid.

Paul: For me my dad was in a band in the 90s, called Material Issue, and that was always a big thing for me, just being around music all the time.

Miles: I started making music with Paul, as I began learning how to write music and play guitar.

Sub/V: What did you listen to in high school?

Paul: Ooh, thats a good one! Cause thats like the stuff you kind of bury now…

Miles: A kind of guilty pleasure thing

Paul: I was a big Muse fan in high school

Miles: We liked Kings of Leon, early Kings of Leon before they got big…

Joey: I was obsessed with the White Stripes. I think I’m still obsessed with the White Stripes.

Paul: We’re all big Oasis fans too.

Vincent: I like the Strokes…

Joey: Yeah the Strokes, Franz Ferdinand… Wait, I figured it out. 2010, sophomore year of high school, MGMT’s Congratulations. One of the best albums ever made, first record to change my mind from Led Zeppelin guitar solos to, like, melodic chord structures.

Paul: Since then its just been a downward spiral. For the record, I never got into that record, still haven’t. Thats one of the great divides in the band, why we’re sitting on this side of the table.

Vincent: I will say that Radiohead has a couple of perfect records, some of the band might disagree, thats okay… we all have our own tastes and preferences…

Paul: Well those are all our old influences… what are you into now Miles? Nick you always have some good names to rattle off.

Jumble of multiple voices: Nude Party, Mystery Lights, Tom Petty.

Paul: I’ve been obsessed with Paul McCartney since I saw him recently.

SUB/V: Well those are all definitely less embarrassing than what I listened to in high school; basically just all Kesha and One Direction.

Miles: Are you serious?

SUB/V: Well I didn’t get into quote-unquote “cool” music until like two years ago…

Joey: No no I just watched an interview with like Liam, the hot one. Dude seemed really charming.

Paul: Miles actually has a tattoo of him on his face.

Miles: My girlfriend played me some of the one guy’s solo stuff… it was, eh, okay. I think he’s handsome, but he’s not built for rock’n’roll.

SUB/V: Well when I was like, 14, I think, I asked Louis to take a picture of me and he said no, cause it was his day off?

Miles: What a lying son of a bitch!

SUB/V: So how was it touring with Post Animal?

Paul: It was… very productive and successful. Lots of work, very busy.

Vincent: The feedback was incredible, lots of great reactions.

Nick: People were really nice to us, letting us stay at their houses and stuff.

Joey: Those guys are like our best friends, so it was like being with your friends every day on vacation.

Paul: Its great just listening to their good music, and your own good music, and playing music for people who have a fun time listening to it!

Nick: Miles got some crowd surfing in, with a tambourine, and the crowd just destroyed it.

Miles: I broke it into about three pieces. That day the crowd just ate a tambourine.

Paul: You know what that reminds me of? Like in a cartoon when something eats something and then like burp out the crown or hat or whatever? It was like the crowd ate you and then burped out the tambourine.

SUB/V: What was it like staying with strangers? That would feel pretty creepy for me…

Nick: Surprisingly great. There were probably like 3 sets of people who were just completely spontaneous, like we asked at the show and they just obliged.

Joey: All of them were very clean homes, surprisingly. This one guy in Houston, named Ernie, like drew all of these beautiful drawings of us, he’s an artist. They all look like lava lamps, like really psychedelic. He even drew one of Javi (Post Animal) as a fish.

SUB/V: You guys have a new release coming out soon in the fall; how has the way you write/make music changed throughout your time as a band?

Joey: Honestly like me and this guy have lived together for a while and we just bounce ideas off each other… we just write out some lyrics and put music together to go along with it.

Vincent: Usually Miles and Joey will have an idea, and then Paul will write a super sweet bass line, and Nick’ll start playing and it’ll all just come together.

Paul: Nick’s the best drummer in Chicago.

Miles: For this record we just made demoes, and then worked of those, and took ‘em to the garage and worked on them and created these songs as a band.

SUB/V: What keeps you motivated to make music?

Vincent: Every day is just so inspiring. As artists around today we’re very lucky to be in the information era, where you can hear any kind of artist or music, if you go on Google or Apple Music.

Joey: We’ve all been together for a while now, and I think thats its just cool that we can continue to do this, and finally get to share it with more people.

Paul: Vince’s real answer is he’s being held hostage, so he has no say in it. Anyway I don’t really think we have a choice; what would we do, just not write songs when we think of them? So, in summary, we’ve been around since 2014, we just got back from tour, we had some success, we love meeting people, we made a lot of good friends around the country…

Joey: We like to listen to Columbia Record’s radio broadcasts of Orson Welles’s Suspense…

Paul: And more than anything, we like to listen to you! So please, have conversations with us!

INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS BY CHLOE GRAHAM (@SUBVERSESMUSIC)

#the evening attraction #35mm #shootfilm #chicago music #beat kitchen

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theworstbob · 7 years ago

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yellin’ at songs: june, week four

capsule reviews of the pop songs which debuted on the billboard hot 100 on 24 june 2017 and 23 june 2007

23 June 2007

28) "Nobody's Perfect," Hannah Montana

Ah, yes. This. This was a thing which occurred in 2007, and this is a thing I am certainly excited to reevaluate, given the general worth it has contributed to society in the intervening decade. This won't be the thinkpiece, of course, given that we have three Hannah Montana songs, two Miley Cyrus songs, and one Billy Ray Cyrus song to think about. ("Shake It," a Cyrus-affiliated production, does not debut this year.) So, this song. I am a 27-year-old piping a hot track from a Disney Channel show or original movie into his ears. It is clear I shouldn't be here, and for so many reasons. I did not need to hear that, even if I make mistakes, I will survive and be OK. I am an unexceptional white dude. I KNOW the world will always make a comfortable home for me. This gets a B-. I don't give grades, but this is getting a B-, because right now, I feel like a teacher reading the seventy-eighth essay on Langston Hughes they've ever read and just going, "Yep, you wrote the requisite five paragraphs, I don't care how many grammars you badded, you did something, and I'd rather just not read this anymore."

88) "Shut up and Drive," Rihanna

The only thing more important than dropping that first mega-hit is nailing the follow-up. You know you're probably not gonna go back to back (foreshadowing), but you still need a song solid enough that you won't fade from the public consciousness once the public decides they have overplayed your song. This song does its job admirably. It isn't anything world-shattering, but it's good rowdy fun, it's different enough from "Umbrella" what with its tinge of rock influence while still being uniquely Rihanna, and it has that big dumb hook that has anchored Dreamworks movies for a decade. This is not the best song in the world, but it's pretty heckin' sweet.

94) "These Are My People," Rodney Atkins

A stirring tribute to mediocrity, this song has maybe my least-favorite lyric in recent memory: "It ain't always pretty/But it's real." Two people wrote this song, neither of whom are Rodney Atkins. Like, come on. Like, this is a song about a boring-ass upbringing awash in all the country stereotypes, yet here we have Rodney Atkins, someone with an interesting upbringing who at one point was himself a songwriter, setting anything that could be unique about this song so that he can, what, make money off drunkards at the BPOE requesting this song on the radio? ...That is a jauntry fiddle this song has, though, I'll give it that. I just don't understand why these country dudes never tried harder. I mean, not trying has proven to be an incredibly lucrative path, but are all these country dudes so morally bankrupt they would forsake artistic pursuit for the mighty dollar?

95) "A Bay Bay," Hurricane Chris

Like, this is also dumb? But at least I can rest secure knowing Hurricane Chris wrote every single generic word in this song, and I know that Hurricane Chris truly believed in his vision of a world where white folks and gangstas could set aside their differences for one song so they could holler "A Bay Bay" in the club. And as much as I loved that sweet happy fiddle on "These Are My People," I would listen to this beat a thousand times before I listened to what is by country standards hella weak fiddling ever again. It's a dumb song, but at least I can believe in the message it's sending, even if I'm not 100% sure the message it's sending actually means anything. My memory's foggy, I'm pretty sure "A Bay Bay" meant "hell yeah?" It doesn't matter, we left this song in 2007 for a reason. Return home, young friend.

97) "Paralyzer," finger eleven

This song is pretty sweet. It owes a tremendous debt to Franz Ferdinand, but the world owes a tremendous debt to Franz Ferdinand for its ever existing, so it's hard to hold that fact against this song. Like, if you're gonna bite, bite from the greats, and if we're being honest, the buttrock twist on the great mid-aughts post/punk revival is kind of great? It gives this song an actual edge that "Take Me Out" never had, "Take Me Out" feeling like four fancy gentlemen taking you on a tour through whimsy and wonder. That song still sounds great being dragged through mud and pounded with ten thousand fists, and it even emerges with something like an actual attitude? It's an attitude of someone who doesn't go to nightclubs actually going to a nightclub and finding themselves overstimulated, sure, but it fits that attitude.

100) "I Wonder," Kellie Pickler

There are some cold, cold lines in this song. "I hear the weather's nice in California" is brutal, but "I look in the mirror and all I see/Are your brown eyes looking back at me/They're the only thing you ever gave to me/At all" is devastating. I also love that there's a country song about a mother having abandoned her child; mommy issues are relatively unexplored in popular culture, but ESPECIALLY mommy issues had by women. This is one of the more lyrically unique songs I've heard, and I really want to forgive this song for trying to be a bleh over-produced basic country diva ballad. It's like a Tootsie Pop; I know there's chocolate in the center, but I'm not gonna eat a goddamn sucker for ten minutes just to hit that one piece of chocolate. I procrastinated and am writing all thirteen or whatever of these reviews in one sitting aND THESE ARE THE SIMILIES Y'ALL SHITS IS GETTIN

i’m not copypasting the top 20s because neither of them changed, y’all know what songs i like, and if not, hit up the yellin at songs tag to see past editions (note to self: make a tag for these posts, why are you writing a recurring series and not tagging the posts)

24 June 2017

42) "Down," by Fifth Harmony ft./Gucci Mane

"It's like Bonnie & Clyde just walked in/A gangsta and his bride just walked in." ...Okay, well, I didn't think "But it's real" would be topped QUITE this quickly, but I mean, how is Bonnie... not... a gangsta? Like she didn't rob AS many banks as Clyde, but just because she was late to the party, doesn't mean she wasn't a gangsta, she still robbed hella banks. Also, "We on the same team and we ballin'/Got me showin' off my ring like I'm Jordan." Michael Jordan had six rings. Like I know your prison time didn't coincide with Michael Jordan's amazing run of six NBA titles in eight years dude, come on, get it together. Anyway, this song, it's OK. It bleeped and blooped pleasantly, and everyone in Fifth Harmony is at least OK at singing. It was a song I listened to and have on the longlist for year-end Top 50 Or So.

53) "To the Max," by DJ Khaled ft./Drake

this is a song most aptly described as another one. it's another song where dj khaled memes at the top. it's another song where drake sings poorly about some bullshit. it's another drum track i'd rather hear performed by a drummer. it's another one. dj khaled also memes at the end. i apologize for starting this review before the song ended but, as dj khaled just intoned, it's another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, anot73) "4 AM," by 2 Chainz ft./Travis ScottThis was also okay, but right now, I'm like nine songs deep, and the best two have been the seventeenth-best Rihanna song (unscientific ranking, don't @ me) and a rip-off of a much better song, and I just, Travis Scott's fine. I like his particular brand of trap music. I like how the song goes out-of-tune here and there, it's a really interesting touch, it makes the song feel like you're awake at 4 AM and jumping every time something flickers in the window because you don't know what's supposed to move at 4 AM. At least I don't need to listen to the next one, he says, realizing this means the true next one is goddamn bro country with the words "small town" literally in the fucking title.

82) "Whatever You Need," by Meek Mill ft./Chris Brown & Ty Dolla $ign

I think it's admirable that Meek Mill has come back from being owned by Drake. It must be really brutal being the only rapper Drake could possibly ever own. I'm sure he has made delightful pop/rap garbage, and I'm not going to listen it 'cuz, hey, look who's there!, but I'm glad he's here, and I hope to listen to one of his songs eventually.

85) "Small Town Boy," by Dustin Lynch

The worst three seconds of my life were the three seconds after I forgot what this song was called and thought Dustin Lynch had another song called "Smal Town Girl." I was going to throw my computer out the window. It's... It's a less dramatic gesture than it sounds, I live in a garden-level apartment, there's a chance Bertha 2.0 would survive. Let's listen to the song! "I'm a dirt road in the headlights/I'm a mama's boy/I'm a fist fight/Kinda county line/Kinda cold beer/Little hat down/Little John Deere." There are 27 words in this verse and 15 of them are used to create cliches, and that's just, that's just efficiency. You're busy. This song understands that you don't have time to sift through a dictionary to read those words you love, so it gives them straight to you, no fancy city metaphors or adverbs, just prepositions and dirt roads. It's a bad song.

87) "Know No Better," by Major Lazer ft./Travis Scott, Camila Cabello & Quavo

Look, what happend to "Run Up" is one of the greatest injustices of the 21st centuries, but I am relieved that this is the song seeking to right that wrong. Two of 2017's most ubiquitous stars and, for some reason, Travis Scott being gentler and fluffier than he's ever been, making a song that's a nice place to be for a few minutes. I don't love this as much as "Run Up," I love few things in life as much as I loved "Run Up," but it's a neat song! Major Lazer is a rather good popsmith, and I might just be holding on to this song just a bit too tightly because ah geez y'all can see what's coming I'll need these memories to be my light in the dark.

94) "It's Everyday Bro," by Jake Paul ft./Team 10

If this is a joke, it's a bad one, and if this is an actual attempt at music, it is not worth acknowledging much farther than this sentence.

97) "Somebody Else Will," by Justin Moore

...OK, the intro was legit. Like, for the half-minute or so that this was a lightly-funky song, I was down, and then it Borchettad and I remembered that this song always had a ceiling, but yo, whoever wrote this and gave it that smooth-ass intro -- I'm looking at Tebey Ottoh, seeing as he's the only credited songwriter with a Wikipedia page, Tebey Ottoh! I'm picking up what you're putting down, and I'm kinda stoked to hear what you do when you're not working with a big machine. (It's really interesting how there's literally a country music label pumping out shitty song after shitty song called Big Machine, and we're all OK with it. Like, a business called Big Machine that puts out a popular product that actively worsens the minds of its consumer base is like a thing out of a Mystery Science Theatre movie. We don't talk enough about how Big Machine does exactly what you'd think a company called Big Machine would do.)

99) "Nobody Else But You," by Trey Songz

I haven't calculated how many artists from 2007 have had songs chart in 2017, but it can't be too many, right? It's hard to stay relevant for a decade. Even if you're a country dude, like, Rodney Atkins and Craig Morgan are fixtures in 2007, and I would be stunned if I saw those names in the next few months. Fall Out Boy and Foo Fighters released new songs that didn't chart, and Paramore only qualifies because "Hard Times" was big enough to last for a week. Lily Allen didn't last, Fergie's nowhere to be seen, Jordin Sparks made a respectable go but isn't showing up anytime soon. Two of the young women with 2007 hits ended up being contestants on The Voice. Akon might as well be dead. You know who has endured? You know who has survived, while countless others have fallen? Trey Songz. I can't think of a single live performance Trey Songz gave that showed the world how talented he was. I have never heard anyone on the street have a discussion about the latest in Trey Songz news, now can I remember the last thing Trey Songz did that could be considered newsworthy. I couldn't name any Trey Songz songs, and I am literally staring at the YouTube video for the Trey Songz song I just listened to. It is directly within my line of sight. I think it was called "Nobody Needs to Know" or something? How. How has Trey Songz survived this long. Who is listening to Trey Songz. Trey Songz has released seven studio albums. I don't know if I'm going to listen to them all, because there's music I'm more certain I'll like that I can listen to, but I have to figure this out, 'cuz man, I'm stumped.

again, no top twenties, let’s just get to what sort of matters but doesn’t, at all

Who Won?

...No one? I wanna say no one because I’ve been here for three hours and it’s a heat index of 92 in Minneapolis and my air conditioning unit is three rooms away from the room in which I keep Bertha 2.0, and none of these songs were worth calling winners. I guess 2007 had “Shut up and Drive” and “Paralyzer.” Those were solid Bs, plus you had the B- I gave “Nobody’s Perfect.” 2017 had at least three Cs, depending on how charitable I wanna be with the grade for that Justin Moore song with the cool bass line. But -- ah, I don’t wanna reward mediocrity, 2007 had the high points, let’s reward the songs I can honestly say I enjoyed. I guess 2007. I guess we’re gonna tie it up.

2017: 12 2007: 12

Next week, 2007 gives us Jack Johnson, My Chemical Romance, and Piles. Like that’s it. I should’ve waited until next week to procrastinate, three is much less than six!

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