About Me

Let me Preface this by stating that prior to this blog post... I have been talking about issues that concern me, and yet, I have not talked about myself yet.

I shall attempt to delve a little deeper into my soul. Perhaps ya'll will understand me better. 

First! Summer has started! I won't lie. It hasn't been exactly grand. I have applied to every employer under the sun, and while, I won't lie, I have had some good progress, I don't exactly have a job, per say, yet. YET! I still have some desperate choices yet, which I don't want to work at, but I suppose if the fates fall in that direction, so be it. I would really love to get a job at Starbucks, I think I am a very good fit, and voila! I have my second job interview next week. 

That will quickly change. I begin summer classes in two days, and I won't lie, I am very excited. Regardless of what the "stereotypes" of students are, I actually enjoy learning. Its twofold. First, many topics interest me, and so if I can learn about them, that is a "fun" activity. Secondly, it allows me to throw my mind at something, and I can have solid results. When you are in college, one rarely has time, nor the opportunity to say, dig a ditch. Well, if you dig a ditch, you can look back on it, and say "I made this. This is Mine." I am always looking for... results, for an outcome, for... progress. That says quite a lot about both my outlook on life, as well as why I'm such a damn good economist. Ha!

I am sorry I haven't written in a while, but I promise, that will change. I know my reader base is small, but if I can connect even with one other person, this blog is successful. 

I recently watched a speech by a speaker at TED. The TED conference is amazing. 1000 of the smartest people ON EARTH with the best ideas give speeches to each other, and hopefully, collaborate, and share ideas. I strongly recommend that you all go out and go to iTunes, and select the "TED Video Podcast". Find it, and watch all of them. Seriously, every speech is like the best idea you've ever heard. Just amazing people. Like Al Gore. Lol... 

However, I just watched a speech given by this blogger, and she runs her own little company, and she talked about the future of blogging, and the windows it opens. I won't get into the "nitty gritty" of it all, ask me later if you like, but lets just say it inspired me to write more often. 

Now to the main attraction.

I would like to talk about my soul. Not my... life philosophy, perhaps some other time, but just my spirit. Of course by soul and spirit, I mean, who AM I? If I ask someone to describe me, what would they say? How can "I" be described? My name is Guthrie. I am 5'7", weight 150 pounds, am gorgeous, and modest. But yet... Is there a "Unified Theory"? Many scientists have worked for most of their lives searching for a Unified Theory, or one theory that encompasses ALL of the rules of the Universe. Some formula that can explain gravity, magnetism, the sun, our three dimensions we can change, the dimension we can't, and all the dimensions we are not aware of. All rolled up into a big stogy and served up on a silver platter. 

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have a theory. Of course, I am not static like the Universe, so I can only say how I am, "at this moment". I have used this description for perhaps 7 or 8 months now, so it is a solid choice. Here it is.

If you take my soul, and spilt it in two parts, this is what you would have. The first, is the character of Juno (in the beginning of the movie before she pops the kid out). The youth, brains, dismissiveness, and humor is me. Or at least half of me. That is pretty straightforward for anyone who as seen the movie. Prior to seeing the movie, I didn't know know how to describe that side of me, so props to Emily for getting me to see it. Thanks Stupid. 

So what is the other half? I'll tell you. Actually... Aretha Franklin can tell you. Go out. Buy "Amazing Grace - The Complete Recordings" by Aretha Franklin. This is soul. This is gospel. This is a Hammond B-3 Electric Organ. This is a Leslie Amp. This is groove. P-H-A-T. In the CD, Aretha records a full church session, live. She of course got her start in the Baptist Church. She was the daughter of a Minister. Its live. And THE best CD I've ever bought. Or listened too. It is the epitome of the other half of my soul. The two are bridged by several similarities, a fighting never dying spirit, and music.  It is an interesting combination, but throw in a dash of a quest for knowledge, and you can understand me at a deeply fundamental level.  

Am I good or what? I offer my soul for $22.95, and three hours of joy. Pretty damn good package if you ask me. 

So thanks friends, hopefully I'll write soon. This was personal, lol, but not that personal. You might actually have to hang with me to understand ;-)

Love life!

Thanks,

Guthrie

My Findings on Led Zeppelin

Let me preface this by stating that in a prior post, I had decided to listen to Led Zeppelin fresh. I came in with a brand baby new perspective, and I wanted to see if my observations matched their "popular songs". Obviously some songs I had heard before, such as Stairway to Heaven, its hard to go through life without hearing it. Regardless... Here are my findings.

My favorite CD (out of the first IV), was Led Zeppelin III. I'm not exactly sure what on that album sold me, but they seemed to play very well together. I think an aspect that I did not like on some of their songs on II was to just sit on one chord, for like 20 seconds. OK, thats a very 70's thing to do, but still, I am not a big fan of that. 

So how orginial are they? Eh... I know for Rock they are, absolutly, but quite honestly, they were playing the blues, I mean, Blues musicians really had their heyday in the 50's. So while their sound is definetly awesome for part of it, I must admit, some of their songs are just BB King-esque. 

However, lemme put a HUGE disclaimer on that above statement. The first song on their first CD, Good Times Bad Times, has THE perfect guitar sound. The first 15 seconds are the most perfect sounding guitar in the history of rock and roll. Perhaps it is because rock and roll tries to sound like Led Zeppelin. Maybe it's the paper in oil capacitors that you can't find anymore in their guitars. The low 3rd Jimmy Page hits (the lowest note of his passage in the riff) with that touch of vibrato is perfect. I'd call it a "Yo-Yo Ma Note" (Yo-Yo Ma once said that on the Tonight show, he actually p

layed a piece perfectly, in his head, there was nothing he wanted to sound better).  That note will resinate in your soul, and I'll go so far as to say that is the most important note in rock and roll history. I think that note hooked the first listening to Led Zeppelin. If it wasn't for that note, I'm not sure music would be the same!

Other CD's that are great... The second half of Led Zeppelin IV. The first half is, eh... So so... Shwaaya shwaaya. But starting with the second half of Stairway To Heaven, the CD really starts to shine. Misty Mountain Hop is a personal favorite of mine, as well as When the Levee Breaks. Perhaps their "grooviest" song, its damn catchy. Other favorite songs of mine... Immigrant song, Friends, OUt on the Tiles (which is really just Good Times Bad Times), and Ramble On. I'm not sure if these are their greatest hits, so now, I'm going to find out the most famous Led Zeppelin songs. Drumroll please!

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Ok, so my song choices do not exactly line up with their most popular songs! Obviously some of them do, but as far as the singles they released, we don't quite line up.

My overall impression? They are a really tight band. Obviously they spun off an entire sound, to more or less sound like them. However, they did not move in crazy directions like the Beatles had, in fact its pretty clear that the Beatles had a much more diverse sound, many of their songs have different sounds. It is fairly difficult. Led Zeppelin did more to influence how bands are set up, via their instrumentation, and their vocals. The Beatles still utilized the more "barbershop quartet" sound, and personally, their arrangments via chord progressions are much more in depth, and I would say more beautiful. Thats why you see the beatles "covered" by Jazz Artists, there is more leeway for improvisation. 

This was a fun experiment. If you don't have the Beatles or Led Zeppelin, get them. Duh...

Thanks,

Guthrie

Has Madison Lost Its Mojo?

Let me preface this by stating that I do not condone "illegal and illicit behavior". However, for some reason (which I will not delve into in this post), certain laws are not followed. Driving over the speed limit, J-walking, underage sex, and of course underage drinking are activities that the police mostly turn a blind eye to. The benefits of cracking down do not outweigh the enforcement. Fine. My question (which will be answered) is if people at Mifflin were not causing a problem, why were more arrests made, and not just more... Drastically more.

For my non-Madison friends, allow me to break this down baby style. In the year 1969, a group of students located on Madison's famous "Mifflin Street" decided to hold a war protest against the Vietnam War. This one time event ballooned into a yearly block party to celebrate student advocacy. Of course, knowing Madison's fine tradition, this turned into a riot in 1996. After the riot, the "advocacy" part of the party was ditched to quell crowds, and the p

arty turned into a good time centered around hearing bands, and drinking beer. 

Humm... So if people aren't causing trouble anymore, why have arrests skyrocketed? The Badger Herald says:

Between 5,000 and 10,000 people attended the party in 2002, but police made only two arrests. That number increased to seven arrests in 2003, and then ballooned to 190 arrests in 2004, 225 arrests in 2005, 263 arrests in 2006 and 366 last year. Police estimates for attendance, meanwhile, have trended downward since 2003.

This year, arrests have topped 400, and the Police had this to say about the party this year -- "they (the partiers) were mostly well behaved."

Huh. Really? That makes perfect sense, a well behaved crowd, lets make a ton of arrests. Why would that happen? There are three reasons.

First, "no tolerance policy". I personally saw a man sipping his beer, and talking with friends. He was relaxed, and not acting belligerent whatsoever. His phone rang, he dug in his pocket and took it out to talk to a friend. The crowd was loud so he turned away towards the street. In taking a half a step, his foot was on the other side of the sidewalk. Within seconds three cops quickly pulled him into the street, arrested him (handcuffs and everything), and led him to the large unmarked black van which would take him to the courthouse where he would sit for the next couple hours.  He was not arrested for underage drinking, he was not breathilized, no, he had an open container of beer on the street. That's a $172 fine. 

Second, the reason that they have to make a large number of arrests? Simple economics. They hired a MASSIVE amount of police, and in order to pay all the police for their hours, and for the horses (common was that necessary?)/cameras/riot gear, etc... in order to pay for the extra cost, they'll just make it up with fines. Arrest enough people and you'll break even. So. Let me get this straight. The city imposes a mass mulitude of police upon a block party that is sponcered by the block (the police are not ASKED to show up, the city DECIDES). I would imagine most residents would even go so far as to suggest that city police are not needed. The costs to the city are a lot, so they make it up by fucking over the students, and making them pay enough tickets to cover the cost of the ever rising number of police. More tickets means they need more police, more police warrents more tickets...etc...

It is much more feasible for the people themselves to pay for rented cops to deter theft, and use the massive amount of money wasted on what I would call "mostly useless" police. I saw one person get arrested that should have gotten arrested. There is a horrible double standard that was set at Mifflin. 

So... That leads us to our final reason and question. Why more police? Because the city of Madison (and the University administration!) have decided to "kill" the fun in Madison. All the fun, all the spunk, all the randomness, and all the tradition is to completely be killed. Madison Police Lt. Joe Balles was quoted as saying, "Quite frankly, we wish this event would go away." Look what has happened to Halloween. Over 100,000 people used to show up. They decided to kill it. It is now gated, and you have to PAY to get onto a public street that they make fun. It is sponsored by Mountain Dew. People are making money OFF of students. Again. $7 to get onto State Street. I will not be going next year. 

This new "Freakfest" has been proclaimed a "success". Right... After two years of the new system attendance has fallen from 100,000 to 20,000, and next year I would not be surprised if that number dropped to 10-15k. Now the city is calling to get a sponsor for Mifflin. It would turn into "Freakfest". Whoever would be supplying the money would make sure that it was done their way, or they wouldn't sponsor. It completely cuts the students out of their own block party. It gives some company a shit-ton of money. Can you imagine the irony of it? Its really a Vietnam War protest... brought to you by Coca-Cola. Brilliant. 

But this is only the beginning! All across the board student freedoms that were granted and accepted are slowly being curtailed. Examples? WUD Music Concerts now have security. Madison PD can have cops at any show (and of course they only happen to show up to shows that would draw a crowd with a browner hue... I am not someone to disparage the cops, but I've seen some very racist choices, it kinda sickens me). Anyone in WUD music can go on and on about the crackdown. Carrots are no longer thrown at football games, carrots and marshmallows were thrown at every football game until the 1990's. Now you can't bring anything into the game, and I've seen a guy throw a carrot, then get arrested, and kicked out, and slapped with a $300 fine. Give it another year or two, and the playing of "swingtown" will die as well. Along with the fuck you eat shit cheer, Mifflin with die, Halloween will be killed, and all the creativity that goes with it, aka, an independent student body, will eventually just become normal. 

It now is spreading towards student orgs. WISRPEG, a MASSIVE org on madison who does nothing but good has, in effect, been canceled by the Administration. 

How do we fight this? We stop believing that there is not a "us vs. them" that the University always tells the students. We are working for YOUR benefit. That is bullshit. I'm glad you work for students by going against their wishes. 

How will it stop? Take it to the Mattresses. I want to see some protests, and some real student activism. 40 years ago everyone came to Memorial Union, smoked pot, and yelled at Nixon on TV. No one goes to the Union as a first choice anymore. People have private parties, why? Because that sense of fun is gone. Its horrible. 

So do your part, lets make a change. As the Kaiser Cheifs say... "I predict a riot."

Thanks,

Guthrie