Being Smart Is Stupid.

 I hate smart people. Nerds, geniuses, intellectuals, etc., all fall under that category. What even defines that? A diploma? A degree? The amount of books you've read or movies you've seen? I feel like my interests seem to be considered to be under the pretentious umbrella of "fine art". Paintings, books, and film are things I am passionate about, but rarely do I meet people who aren't up their own rump about it. I want to be an idiot, in fact I strive for it. That alone makes me one. I long for the days where my head was empty, filled with nothing. Now, I think far too much about everything. Frustration has built up, caused by interactions with people who don't know anything about anything. Those who strive to be smart are always the dumbest. So maybe I should pursue this whole "intellectual" thing. Maybe then I will be happy.

Departing From The Sea Of Reels

 Tonight, I said farewell to Instagram. It's not permanent, and I doubt it will be long, but I attempting to stay off the app so I can get my s*** together. I logged entries in both Goodreads and Letterboxd this morning, and it reminded me that I enjoy reading and watching movies. I also have grades that are not that great, so I am going to try and put more energy towards that ish. Heartbreaking news was broken to me earlier, and it will take a lot of time and energy to try and deal with it, and Instagram is the last place I need to be on to deal with it. It seems I have only been thrown curveballs and dealt bad hands the past six or so months. I hope things get better. One of the only things I am looking forward to at all in my life is going to Philadelphia and New York City next week. I am playing a show that Thursday night in Philly, staying the night, then going to hang out in New York for the weekend. The Metrograph is showing one of my all-time favorites and I am hoping to catch it there. Seeing a movie at The Metrograph would be the first thing crossed off of my bucket list. I am also getting tattoos from two of my awesome friends, which I cannot wait for. That's about all I have going for me in my life right now. Whatever.

2024: The Best Election Ever?

It's trite to say "voting doesn't mean anything" or "this election is stupid", so I won't bore you with my opinions on it. I am not voting. This is the first election I can actually vote in, but my political efficacy is so low that I haven't even registered. Every election cycle, the worst parts of humanity are exemplified. Politics make people crazy. This year is no different with the media putting our brainrotted society on display for the world to see with freaking Fortnite levels, meme wars, and clip farming during rallies. Not to say this hasn't been done in previous elections, but the presence in the digital world around us seems to have amplified ten-fold since 2020. I think this may be because people ripping weed pens like vapes while doomscrolling TikTok. 

Admittedly, AI-voices of the two candidates singing Kendrick Lamar are funny, but when you read the news every morning like I do, you realize how sad it is. Why do I just skim through articles about Palestinian children being bombed? Because there are articles about how Kamala is code-switching and doing racist accents. Or Trump was on the Joe Rogan Experience. The news has always been a business, but in the digital age, engagement and clicks matter. Honestly, why would I read a sad story about North Korea deploying troops in Kursk? I am at the point where I am scrolling the news like I scroll reels. But also, this election cycle has given me content to scroll like any social media. This is probably the most enjoyable, and also stupid, time humans have lived in. Every headline reads like satire. With of all the atrocities in this world, it seems we can only give in to the insanity and embrace the idiocy. Let's enjoy this thing while we can.

I Am Sick Of This Cold Weather.

The seasons have changed and it is now Autumn, but it doesn't even feel like that. Early in the morning and late at night, temperatures have dropped to below 40 degrees. F*** THAT S***. It has begun to take a toll on me. I've noticed that I have become sad far more frequently, and my motivation for everything has gone out of the window. Recently, work from both my two jobs, and also school, have consumed my life, and every time I do something I enjoy, it feels as if I am letting ,myself down or wasting my time. I will continue to try and skate, and I will continue to try and watch movies, but god dang it my life has been miserable as of late. Whatever. 

The other night I watched this short film, Short Stay, and it was awesome. Something about it felt so different from the regular mundane mumblecore movies out there. It captures a really specific feeling of awkwardness and routine. The routine aspect has felt incredibly similar to what I have been feeling lately. Day-in-day out, and as the main character switches his environment, his life is still horrible. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot and it is probably one of my top watches this year.

The Viral Cucumber Salad Revolution And Its Consequences

We have all seen the viral cucumber recipe from @logansfewd. It has been covered by major news outlets, and while some might find it obnoxious, I think it is one of the most positive trends to come out of this entire food blogger/foodie era of the internet. In a world where birria tacos, Detroit style pizza with pepperoni cups, and Nashville hot chicken are on top, it is refreshing to see a trend that promotes eating vegetables. Whenever a healthy food reel pops up, 99% of the time it looks crap. Nobody cares to watch a video of some stupid green goddess salad dressing that is cloned from every other recipe online. Logansfewd has defeated the algorithm, spreading the good word of veggies. He has continued to innovate with recipes like the everything bagel themed one, which features smoked salmon, cream cheese, and everything bagel seasoning.

 

It is pathetic that I am glazing a recipe of a cucumber, but food trends have become really god dang stupid. Let us move away from the grip of hot honey, into the warm, nutty embrace of sesame oil. Or how about we use local produce instead of promoting 10% off discount codes to Uber Eats or DoorDash? This is a step in the right direction for food trends, and I am hopeful for what has been a pretty bleak future for food content.

Breakdowns Are Fun, But They Aren't Emoviolence.

Screamo has always been divided, ostracized, and targeted by both people from outside the scene and people in the scene. What is emo? What isn't emo? Emos are corny (which is true). Everything about the scene is just polarizing and convoluted. It really isn't hard to tell who is, and who isn't, in the scene. I, alongside plenty of my internet mutuals, are big time gatekeepers. For me, it is because the screamo scene has given me some of my best friends, and also given me the music that has defined the formative years of my life. It has become a sacred thing for me at this point, beyond something that not everybody will understand. I am okay with that, because maybe it is a little unhealthy how much I love it, but I do. My favorite subgenre of screamo is emoviolence. A derivative of screamo and powerviolence, it consists of short, spazzy songs that tend to be around a minute or even less. The specific era of emoviolence that I gravitate towards is the late 2000's-mid 2010's, a time often forgotten about, when it was truly uncool to be making anything emo. Emo music had been commodified into the watered down, mallcore aesthetics that are more akin to metalcore than screamo. Emoviolence bands from that era that perfected the sound include Coma Regalia, Gas Up Yr Hearse!, and Virginia's own Kaoru Nagisa.

This leads me to something that has been bothering me as of late. Emoviolence songs don't have breakdowns, not in the way that a metalcore or hardcore song would. Yes the guitar tone is chuggy, but it is not an ignorant, slow breakdown like that of a Pennsylvania beatdown band. It is not meant to be moshed to at all really. Emoviolence's roots are spazzy, short bursts of chaotic energy, not some moshcore hardcore. Hardcore bros and emos are not the same, and the trend of screamo bands devolving into what is essentially just crappy hardcore bands with emo aesthetics is sad. People are turning their backs on their roots and spitting on them. Trends come and go, but it feels bad to see so many bands claim something I am passionate about, and not deliver whatsoever. Why should I have to lower my expectations when a new emoviolence band comes out? What was so good a decade ago has regressed into Neanderthalic moshcore. Maybe emoviolence is still just as uncool as it was a decade ago. 

Nowadays, Instagram comments sections are always filled with discourse and complaints like mine, but it is important to be critical. As much as I wish for emoviolence nowadays to sound like my favorites, the sound could be dated to most, much like how people think the bedroom skramz sound is already dead (spoiler alert: it is not). At the end of it all, the scene is going to grow stronger and tighter, and hopefully emoviolence will return to its former glory, or maybe it will continue to just be a distant memory for most. I just hope not to get lost in the hating, because I want to continue to enjoy the music for what it is.

Missed Connections: An Incomprehensible Fantasy

With the rapidly changing landscape of the internet, it seems like we are using a new app or website every week. They aim to improve our lives and build upon the tools before them. With this, there are a lot of websites slowly decaying and rotting right before our eyes, no longer updated and on the verge of obscurity. Today, when consumers think about purchasing something, they may go to websites specific to that item, but for the people who don't have a lot of disposal income (like me), they go to second hand websites. Places like eBay or the increasingly popular Facebook Marketplace. The latter has slowly phased out Craigslist, a website that has been on its deathbed for a while now.

Founded by a soy tech dude named Craig, the website acts in a similar fashion to the classified section of the newspaper, another thing becoming irrelevant to most people nowadays, where you could post an advertisement or message for people in your area to respond to. I am sure everybody on here knows what Craigslist is, it's not an obscure site whatsoever, but there is a section on Craigslist that is often overlooked: Missed Connections. The feature is not unknown, but it is not the first thing one would think of when the website is mentioned. The intended purpose of Missed Connections is to connect people who interacted in real life, but failed to get contact information. This is not how it functions in practice. Instead, Missed Connections acts as a breeding ground for the most freaky and horny people you would never want to connect with. And just a reminder, these are people in your area. Everybody posting on there is delusional. The posts typically involve a man making eye contact with a woman from across the store, with the man mistaking it as something far, far deeper. It's sad, but I have little sympathy for these pathetic coomers. There is no hope for these people.

 

It is not the fact that these people are so desperate, it is that people hardly use Craigslist, especially not missed connections. The desires of these individuals are so far removed from anything remotely normal, which makes it so bizarre read. At first it is entertaining to browse Missed Connections, but it quickly becomes depressing if you start scrolling for just a little bit. I am so intrigued by the users on the Craigslist section, but I know that these people are beyond saving, too far gone to achieve a state of normalcy, or even just being slightly weird. The false sense of anonymity combined with being totally shameless breeds the cesspool known as Missed Connections.

Maybe it's a good thing that Craigslist is dying out. Maybe this website should become consumed by the sea of the internet, lost and eventually dead. But also, where will these horndogs go? This I would rather not know.