I’ve seen quite a few posts on social networks slamming the fact that millions of people around the world are crying for a dead celebrity, but that no one is crying for the millions suffering. Others have slammed the concept of calling Houston a hero while service men and women are deployed fighting for the freedoms of America. These are arguments that are totally irrelevant.

I do agree that more people need to care and be aware of the troubles of the world. More compassion for those who are starving, dying, or suffering at the hands of their government would make the world a better place. More respect for service members of the military would yield only positive results. But suggesting that people should not mourn the loss of someone who touched their lives because there are “more tragic things in the world” is absolutely absurd. I saw someone state that it is just a suggestion to put things into perspective. But if our whole lives are spent putting things into perspective, then we will never have the right to feel emotions for anything. If I have to spend every day feeling sad because a child starved to death, a mother was beaten, a woman was raped, or a solider was killed, I will never be able to enjoy the happiness of my life. Furthermore, I would never be able to feel sad over the things that happen to me.

The fact of the matter is that music is a powerful tool. I feel as though these people are trying to strip away the thousands of positive things that music has done for billions of people over thousands of years of its existence.

Music is widely used in healthcare because of its benefits to the body and mind. It has been shown to help cancer patients as well as many terminally ill patients. Music can be used for pain management, to ward of depression, promote movement, and as a calming agent. Music can help stimulate the memory of alzehimer’s patients and their expression abilities. Infact, nueroscience shows that the brain is more strongly stimulated when listening to music, which is one of the key components in preventing alzheimer’s and dimentia.

How can we possibly expect music to do all these amazing things without creating an inexplicable connection between the listener and the vessel?

It is completely absurd and disrespectful to me that some would try to invalidate the feelings that people have because of the loss of a musician. Surely there is a musician who has touched their lives, who they would be crushed about. How can someone tell another person to “put things into perspective” when they don’t necessarily know what that person has been through? What perspective is there for someone who used this music to get through bouts with depression, the loss of a mother, heartbreak, or any other hard moment in life? What perspective is there for a person who heard a certain song just in time to prevent suicide? These are things that happen daily. Every popular musician in the world has received at least one message from a fan describing exactly one of those situations.

Maybe this is just a perfect example of why music exists. For so many, music is the thing they can turn to when others turn their backs or just don’t understand. While some are being judgmental or disapproving, the perfect melody or lyric will never cease to understand a person and the pain they may be going through.

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

The seasons of sunshine and fun are quickly approaching. I feel it is necessary to go over my provisional itinerary of activities and festivities. You are all cordially invited to enjoy life with me.

First in business is to do some serious cliff jumping during the Spring months. I intend on making trips to Hermit Falls (Arcadia), Malibu Creek, and Tar Creek Falls. Tar Creek is said to be the best cliff jumping spot in SoCal and is located near Filmore, California. Obviously all of these water pools and falls involve a decent hike of at least a mile. So hiking + cliff jumping, it makes for an enjoyable & adventurous day.

Sometime during spring or summer, whenever it is comfortably hot, the adventure I’d like to embark on is a camping and river tubing session along the upper Kern River. Kern River is located in surprise!Kerville, California. For those who have no idea where that is, it is slightly further boontown than Bakersfield. There are also white water rafting tours available for those who wish to do something more daring. Personally, I’d like to chill out lazy river style.

During fall there is the long awaited, legendary Run for Your Lives zombie obstacle course. I will be registering for this sometime within the next 2-3 weeks. Run for Your Lives is a 5k obstacle course where runners try to evade zombies & and preserve their health. Health is represented by a flag belt given to the runners prior to the race – think flag football. The Los Angeles/San Diego edition of Run for Your Lives is happening on October 20th. Currently, registration for runners is $77. I have been told by officials that they expect registration to sell out prior to the registration deadline, September 28.

Those are all my fun-time ideas at the moment. I’m definitely taking note of the people who want to participate. So if you are interested, let me know so we can do the damn thing!

In this day & age, this holiday has become a day when women expect their men to buy jewelry, chocolates, a card, and plan a romantic date. When the man fails to do so, a wrath will ensue. The pressure of this holiday is put squarly on the shoulders of the man in the relationship, with women usually expecting nothing but gifts and romance. This is quite bothersome to me. Firstly, the fact that people look to a calendar to tell them when to celebrate their love is ridiculous to me. Secondly, the fact that this holiday has become “National ‘Men, Do Something Nice for Their Ladies’ Day” is even more ridiculous.

Women should take on the responsibility of Valentine’s Day. All year society expects men to get the check. Whether it’s a first date or an anniversary, the rule is that men should never let their date pay. So why is it that in addition to the daily expectations, we need a holiday to tell them they need to pay the bill? Hey guys, just a reminder! As women fight for equality in the work force, relationships and on the streets, why is it that so many women are so quick to assume the role of the damsel when it comes to dating rituals? How can we reasonably expect equal pay when we’re still forcing men to go broke for the sake of being in a relationship. It would be nice for women to take the reigns and show their men the romance of Cupid’s day more often. Perhaps it would be a nice change in gender roles to buy a gift, make reservations, & pay the bill.

I strongly believe that relationships should be an equal divide of power, respect and responsibility. This applies to everything including spending habits. Girlfriends and wives should be treating their men year round, not just on Valentine’s Day. And men should be doing the same for the ones they love. There is no reason why a man should see his bank account balance decrease just because he has a woman in his life. As mentioned before, it makes no sense to me that women can argue the cause of women’s rights, yet fall back on the traditions of women being taken care of by men.

As silly as V-day is, if you’re going to do it, do it right. Step outside the bounds of tradition. Truly make the day special by doing what your partner doesn’t expect to be done. The real surprise & the lack of predictability could quite possibly make this holiday salvagable.

Rumors swirled about appearances to be made by Ringo Starr, Stevie Wonder, and Eric Clapton. McCartney informed the crowd of fans that Ringo was ill and unable to attend the ceremony. No reference was made to Wonder or Clapton. But to everyone’s delight, fellow rock musician Neil Young did make an appearance and spoke many kind words of the legendary Beatle.

When he finally took the podium, McCartney spoke of listening to Buddy Holly and other rock & roll legends during his youth. He explained the idea of reaching so much success being an impossibility.

“I couldn’t have done it without a certain three boys, so I want to say thanks to those guys, John, George and Ringo.”

This week marks the 48th anniversary of The Beatles arrival in New York. On February 9th, 1964 the Beatles made their US debut on the Ed Sullivan show, it was the moment that propelled the band into unknown territories of superstardom.

Paul McCartney’s new album “Kisses on the Bottom” was released on February 7th. He will be performing at the 2012 Grammys ceremony.

Photos by Jules Sanchez

Edited by Pam Diddy

Photos by The King Lion

Edited by Pam Diddy

Last week, Rafael Casal released the video for the first song off of his LP. The video is quite a piece, creative & innovative and directed by Casal himself. In this video, Rafael took a journey from what seems like a wonderland train, to a wonderland pond, through a wonderland forest, and finally ends up in the place where it all makes sense. The visuals in this video are simply gorgeous. I’m definitely curious as to where the locations are, I’d love to visit someday. All around a great piece of film to accompany a great piece of music.

Read the conversation, go ahead. I’ll wait.

Yeah. Wow. What else is there to say? I’ve seen and heard people say a lot of really ignorant things. Things that get me irritated and all worked up, but nothing has ever actually deeply offended me and my sense of logic/humanity/history/everything else.

Robert Fruth clearly has no understanding of world history. He clearly doesn’t understand that most countries in Africa were under colonization by at least one European country for hundreds of years. He clearly doesn’t know that most African countries didn’t gain independence until as little as 20 or 30 years ago. He obviously doesn’t know that those “generations and generations of corrupt bastards” were actually corrupt British bastards who pillaged those countries for all their amazing natural resources without ever giving anything back to the people who lived there.

Oh hey you, you’re going to work in a diamond mine for 15 hours a day and not really get paid for it. But god help me, if we catch you trying to steal a diamond the size of crumb, we will cut off your hands.

Every time I see someone spout off their racist and ignorant opinions (seems to be more often these days), I get really scared. I realized that deep down inside, I have this “what if” fear that this is how white America really thinks. Crazy? Maybe. But I think anyone who doesn’t fit into the mainstream, white, middleclass, christian, heterosexual box can understand where I’m coming from. When your whole life is filled with moments of being put down because of your skin, being less respected, being overlooked or being looked at with a suspicious eye – YES, the fear of racism is an actual fear that crosses your mind almost every day. When people you know or are friends with say racist/prejudiced things and think you don’t know about it, racism is palpable a fear that creeps into your mind on an almost daily basis.

I can’t read everyone’s mind though. People have an amazing ability to think things and never let the world know their truth. I hope that Robert Fruth is an example of the extreme, uneducated, overprivileged asshat and not an example of the mainstream.

sidenote: I’m tagging Robert Fruth’s name on this post because I hope to god that someday he applies for a criminal justice job and this post pops up when the employer searches his name.

Spread the word, tell your friends, and #GetBack.

#BayAreaBoyfriend

Download The Mean Ones

Stream at BandCamp

College Scam infograph from AskMen.com

Over the past few years it has become increasingly obvious to me that higher education is a waste of time and money. The only problem is that I, like so many others my age, are so far down the hole it is nearly impossible to get out at this point. Last week marked the beginning of the Spring semester at Cal State Northridge and many other schools across the state. To the horror of many students, it was soon realized that enrolling in a full load of classes would be nearly impossible.

State budget cuts over the past few years have severely cut the amount of classes available for students at Cal State schools, as well as other school systems in California. This semester the problem was exasperated by the CSU system’s threat of fining schools who have exceeded their enrollment cap. What does that mean? The Cal State system sets enrollment targets for every campus and at this point in time, CSUN has gone over its target by 7%. This could result in up to a $7-8million fine for the school, in addition to the millions already lost in cuts.

CSUN’s solution to this problem was to freeze enrollement. A letter was sent out to department heads and professors on the first day of class that explicitly stated they were NOT to enroll any students in their classes, no matter the availability. If 5 seats were available in the class and 3 students wanted to enroll, they would be denied. This is the school’s attempt to drop enrollment numbers. Across the school, this means that students are unable to achieve the 12+ units that are required for so many things. Not being a full time student could put at risk the eligibility for health insurance as well as financial aid.

Many students complained of the inability to enroll in the last 1 or 2 classes that they needed to graduate. Though the higher ups said graduationg seniors would be able to enroll, most classes just simply don’t have the space to accomodate the extra student. For them, this means missing graduation and coming back next year in an attempt to fullfill their graduation requirements. This means paying anywhere between $2000 and $4000 to take those one or two classes needed to graduate.

And what is CSUN’s advice to students who are unable to enroll in an adequate number of classes? Leave school. In the enrollment FAQ posted by the school on January 30th, it is stated:

Some students may choose to “stop-out” for a semester and return next fall. Students who chose not to enroll for one semester typically are eligible to re-enroll the following semester without reapplying. Students who withdraw from classes in a timely manner may be eligible for a fee refund…

Students are expected to leave school for a semester, with the possibility that they may not get a refund of their school fees and  that they may not even be eligible to return without reapplying next year. This is a pure, honest example of the system taking money out of the pockets of students and kicking them to the curb.

The quest for higher education has become a scam and an unnecessary part of life. A bachelor’s degree is now the high school diploma of the generations before us. What was once a 4-year journey that could cost as little as $10,000 has become a 6-year roundabout that will typically cost students no less than $24,000, with fees on the increase every six to twelve months. All of this while university presidents are making over $500k a year. Not only have tuition costs inflated while graduation has become more distant, but those who are lucky enough to eventually get out are likely to spend years unemployed in their field of study. Graduates of the past 4 years have notoriously staked claim in job titles such as server, cashier, retail manager, or “unemployed”.

For quite some time it has been tough for this generation, tougher than it was for anyone before us. The job market has been hard, school has been difficult to get through, but it never actually seemed like the forces were working against us. Now it is clear that while we attempt to push forward in life, the instituations around us are attempting to push us back. When will we get the chance to bust through the barricades? I believe it is far beyond the point of igniting a fire they can’t ignore.

Cal State Northridge Spring Enrollment FAQ

How School is a Scam Series