Thursday, February 26, 2009

agIsh: Less is more

now that we have more writers, i'm gonna do less around here. watch this clip.



nv@ag
bg/ish: Happy Up Here

Spotted this pretty slick new music video for Röyksopp's "Happy Up Here" over on Offworld. Directed by Reuben Sutherland, who's other films are definitely worth checking out, this video features some sick real-life "Space Invaders" action.



Admittedly, I've never heard of Röyksopp before, but this tune is pretty good and the video is just awesome. Cheggid if you want to geek out to some old school video games come to life...


Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.
chair: First Post

in an effort to retain an imaginary audience that they (don't) have, bg/ag recruited me as a contributor. obviously, they haven't seen the wrath of a bored little girl with lots of time on her hands and many internet bookmarks under her belt. but i'm cute as shit, so i guess it makes sense. you can call me chair, but please don't sit on me. my heart, it is a fragile thing.

oh yeah, i'm mostly good at not being sober and talking maddd shit.

the next time i post will be inebriated. stay tuned~

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

bg/ish: Ash Wednesday

just a warning... probably not a good idea to walk up to someone today and say to them, "pardon me, but you've got some dirt on your forehead there." the finger lick and wipe is an even less desirable maneuver. yes that's right kiddies, it's Ash Wednesday!

it's that time of year, 46 days prior to Easter(s) exactly, when the Catholic church once again flexes it's muscle of oppression by forcing it's "faithful" (see: gullible) to spend a day walking around with smudgy dirt on their foreheads as a sacramental and act like it's no big deal.

oh and just in case you didn't know, you filthy laypeople who are not affiliated with the Catholic church, but remain devoted to the opiate known as Christianity, are eligible to receive the sacramental ash, as it is not a sacrament, which are typically exclusive to church members.

why mention this at all? because the "finger licking / forehead wiping" joke has been a standard between myself and ag for years, only now i'm forced to mock his beliefs from afar, through this blog. you might think that's a little messed up, and possibly masochistic, but hey, if God frowns upon me for my mockeries, i'm sure ag has got my back by sending a few prayers up for me...

...right ag?

Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.

no, that's not Latin for "you're a fag". It means "Remember, O man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return", which is often said as the ash is administered. if that thought doesn't sober up your day, i don't know what will.

so now it's time for Lent, and i must admit i'm curious to know exactly what ag will be giving up this year. some food he loves? pRon? or maybe he gave up blogging and it's all been retroactive. haha.

at any rate, i'm done here. my apologies to ag or any other Catholics that were offended by this post. i'm a filthy heathen, let me be...

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

bg/ish: Bike Porn: Girls on Bikes







*All but the last image should be credited to The Sartorialist.

**Last image courtesy of Southsea Fixed Gear Fight Club.
bg/ish: Change We Can Believe In



Image Source
bg/ish: Me and Stephon

Stephon Marbury may not be entertaining anyone on the hardwood any time soon, but the shunned New York Knicks guard has managed to stay in the spotlight a bit. Since essentially being told to stay away from the team after negotiations for a buyout of his contract fell apart, Marbury has still made a few public appearances, ranging from the typical sports page fodder to the strangely bizarre.

Came across this today...

"i was driving home… and i spot stephon marbury sitting at the bus stop talking into his blackberry half a mile from my house. confused as to why starbury would be riding the bus - had the economy really bitten him that badly?

i grabbed my camera and hustled back to where i saw him - turns out he was waiting on his car to be fixed at a shop right behind him - and asked him if he’d shoot some improv stuff with me at the bus stop. i was a little surprised he said yes but he did and we rolled."


the result was three episodes of "Stephon and Me". Check them out here.
bg/ish: So, What Exactly Happened To Our Economy?

clearly this country is in the midst of an economic crisis. if you haven't been paying attention, you may not realize exactly how we got to this point. Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Reagan administration, has a fantastic article on CounterPunch detailing exactly how our economic system has eroded and crumbled.

"The bald fact is that the combination of ignorance, negligence, and ideology that permitted the crisis to happen still prevails and is blocking any remedy. Either the people in power in Washington and the financial community are total dimwits or they are manipulating an opportunity to redistribute wealth from taxpayers, equity owners and pension funds to the financial sector.

The Bush and Obama plans total 1.6 trillion dollars, every one of which will have to be borrowed, and no one knows from where. This huge sum will compromise the value of the US dollar, its role as reserve currency, the ability of the US government to service its debt, and the price level. These staggering costs are pointless and are to no avail, as not one step has been taken that would alleviate the crisis."

Read the complete article here.
bg/ish: Governator Slashes Budget, Hope For Working Class

great article over at the Socialist Worker this week detailing exactly how boned we as Californians are thanks to the recent cluster-f*** our State Legislature vaguely disguised as budget meetings.

"Last year, Arnold the Destroyer signed a budget with $7.1 billion in cuts to education, heath care, welfare and other key social programs. This year, it will be $15.1 billion in spending reductions overall--including cuts of $8.6 billion for K-12 public schools, $2 billion for community colleges and 10 percent across the board in the University of California and California State University systems, as well as elimination of cost-of-living increases in welfare programs for poor, elderly and disabled Californians.

Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger is still demanding $1.4 billion in pay cuts from unionized state workers--and threatening massive layoffs if workers don't concede.

Alongside these harsh cuts are equally horrific regressive tax increases, worth a total of $12.8 billion, which will hit the poorest Californians the hardest. State sales taxes will go up by a full percentage point, state income taxes will increase for everyone, vehicle license fees will nearly double, and the dependent care tax credit for parents and families caring for disabled loved ones will be cut by two-thirds.

The fiscal crisis in California is so severe that even these cruel measures won't close the state's $42 billion deficit by themselves. Schwarzenegger is also counting on borrowing $5 billion from a projected increase in California lottery revenues as a result of expanding and "modernizing" the lottery--yet another measure to pick the pockets of working people to pay for the crisis...

One might think that when a Republican governor proposes such a blatant attack against working people, you might hear at least token opposition from local Democrats. But Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg managed to marshal unanimous Democratic support for Schwarzenegger's budget."


look, as long as these political suits and their cronies continue to fleece the working class people of our state and nation, while giving kickbacks to corporate interests, our current economic state is not going to change, it'll only get worse.

what irks me about the California budget situation, is that all it really took was a long impasse, then the governator yelled "Fire!", well, more like "Layoffs!" and then everybody fell into line without really examining what the true needs of this state and it's people are, or reevaluating where we can gain revenue from.

plus i'm not so sure the governor knows he's actually governing real people with real needs or if he's just some political figurehead who approaches each day no differently than if he were on the set of one of his crappy films in Hollywood.

...wait, i'm pretty sure.

Read the complete article here.
bg/ish: First Post of 2009...

and to think ag, i gave you a two and a half month head start.

*shakes head*

alright, time to get things rolling at the Pub again. armed with a new laptop, and a working broadband connection, it's time to get back into the groove. towards the end of last year, i felt like we were getting somewhat consistent. posts were random and all over the place as far as subject matter is concerned, but hey, they were posts.

"they were cones!"

so, lez do this...