Christmas is not a season, like the winter or summer or spring or fall. Christmas is a holiday, not a season.

um, while checking into how to buy a patent/trademark/copyright I stumbled onto this...

US Copyright Office Frequently Asked Questions

Best chuckle in days, the world is crazier than me.

I don't really have time to write what I really want to write cuz I should be getting ready for work right now. However in viewing Pitchfork's alleged Top 50 albums of the year I noticed a couple of glaring omissions. It's really not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things as it's just a snobby website...that I visit frequently. However, if you set yourself up as the so-called experts in a certain field then you'd think that you'd be a bit more careful about something like this.

Common's Be and Edan's Beauty and the Beat received ratings of 8.6 and 8.8, respectively. Yet neither album is anywhere to be found on Pitchfork's list. I didn't go through the whole list but I focused on the the limited selection of hip-hop albums they selected. #2 on the overall list was Kanye West's Late Registration which received a rating lower than both Common and Edan. Cam'ron's Purple Haze was number nine and got a strong 8.7 when it was originally reviewed. The Clipse's We Got it 4 Cheap Vol. 2 is the third highest ranked rap album and it got an even stronger 8.8 so theoretically, it should have been ranked higher than any of 'em (on a side note I think the Clipse pretty much suck but oh well.)

The next, as well as final, two rap albums on the list are the Game's The Documentary and whatever Young Jeezy's album was called. Both albums received ratings lower than either Common or Edan. Just for kicks I checked a lower ranking rock album that made the list, My Morning Jacket's Z and it received a 7.7!

What's the point of having a rating system if those ratings are thrown out the window when you pick your so-called best of the year? I'd e-mail Pitchfork themselves but they'd never bother to respond. So I figured I'd point it out here.

I'm not that upset, well actually I am a little upset. For a website that sells itself as the tastemakers in modern somewhat popular music they have no problems picking smart and innovative indie rock albums for the best of list but give them a chance to highlight some awesome and intelligent rap albums and outside of M.I.A (sorta) and Kanye West they settle for mostly gangsta rap albums. (Okay I forgot to mention that they do have the grime compilation Run the Road pretty high on their list as well so they did get something right.)

Okay I should go to work now....

Interesting Subculture #67



Have you seen this? Some of you may have, albeit in a slightly different context... Some of you in cities may have seen some of these marks on the pavement near you. Not me until recently.

Before I headed out on a business trip to Portland Oregon last month I contacted my friend Patty as I always do when I go there and ask her if she wants to get together. Being athletic she usually wants to go on a hike or skiing;- this time she suggests dragging me along to something new she just started doing - a Hash run (no not that kind of hash run) actually a Hash House Harrier run also known as Runners with a Drinking Problem. I had no idea what this was but I followed the links she sent me and it started sounding pretty cool. Especially when I found out the Mary Lou Rectum and Pabst Smear were involved.

Here's the deal. Each week (at least in Portland) one or two runners volunteer to set up a course anywhere from 3 to 6 miles in length. They become the Hares. They pick a starting place, usually a bar, for everyone one to meet and pony up five bucks. The ending point is a secret location where food and plentiful alcohol were to be found. The Hares take off while the Harriers (known genderly as The Whores and The Wankers) drink unawares. The Grand Masters of the club are told and after about 15 minutes let the Harriers know they have to chug and take off in pursuit. The Hares lay down a trail of symbols using flour or colored ribbons for tricky terrain. Beer and other alcohols are stashed at certain points in the course to allow for inebriation and to let slower runners catch up with the rest of the pack.

More inside

(16:52:52) kara: all I want for christmas is a big hard wang
(16:53:10) josh: www.goodvibrations.com
(16:53:26) kara: NO
(16:53:43) kara: capitalism of sexuality
(16:54:52) kara: i want to hear that sweet noise dudes make when they're getting BJs
(16:55:23) josh: im sure you could make that happen
(16:56:15) kara: oh i will
(16:56:21) kara: i have the whole week off next week
(16:56:47) josh: hahaha
(16:56:59) kara: this leaves me free to stay up all hours pursuing service industry workers with conflicting hours.
(16:57:34) josh: oh man
(16:57:38) kara: ?
(16:57:40) josh: i think i have to post this
(16:58:08) josh: seriously though im sure you will score, everyone wants to get laid in the holiday season
(16:58:14) kara: hey whatever shout it from the rooftops, I'm a wo-man with a plan.

we wish you a Pepsi christmas
we wish you a Pepsi christmas
we wish you a Pepsi christmas, and a Pepsi new year

good tidings we bring
to you and your kin
good tidings for Pepsi and a Pepsi new year

You know what? I'm kind of sick of everyone bitching about Christmas and how commericalized it's become and how 'oh maybe we should call it a Holiday Tree instead of a Christmas Tree so we don't offend people'. "Christmas is a holiday not a season" blah blah blah. For better or for worse, Christmas encompasses all of December in the United States. If you live here and are going to continue living here, stop fighting it and bitching and just enjoy the fucking SEASON. THE SEASON OF CHRISTMAS.

Yes, it's commercialized. It's been commercialized every since commercials were invented. Why does no one bitch about how commercialized Halloween is? And why continually point this out? Charlie Brown made the point quite effectively in that movie he made a few years back. You're not original or politically smart. You're just being bitter. I love stressing about presents, because you know what? That means I have people I care about to get presents for. And money with which to buy them or the means to make them. I love the decorations in the stores. Yeah, it would be nice if they waited until Thanksgiving was over to put them up, but it doesn't stoke me into a firey self-righteous rage to see a decorated tree before December 1st. And the post-Thanksgiving day sales are pretty sweet. I even kind of enjoy getting up at 4am on that one day. It's like going hunting.

I like the hectic travel. I love the heightened emotions that it brings. YAY MY FAMILY THERE YOU ARE I MADE IT WE ARE TOGETHER AT LAST!!! Wow the house looks great! I always loved those decorations. Oh man, the flight was terrible, I thought we were NEVER going to get off the ground! Thanks, I'd love a drink! Let me help you! Last minute shopping? Yeah, I'll go with, I should pick up a few more things anyway, yeah, the crowds are going to be horrible, think we'll make it? Yeah, let's go I'm ready! BATTLE!!! Wow that was terrible! The worst mall crowds I've ever seen! Yeah, I'm never doing that again! Can you believe we got the last one of those? I KNOW! How lucky!! I'm going to go finish wrapping everything, do you want me to wrap some of yours! Oh, awesome, actually yeah, let's do it together, but let me wrap the ones for you before you come up, give me ten minutes! Okay! Yeah, I think pasta is a great idea, I've never made pasta from scratch. Hey, let's open some wine while I ruin your pasta! Ha ha ha! Oh, shit I dropped it all over the floor. Man, we're never going to get this done in time! Okay, we need to make some kind of game plan here. There is flower EVERYWHERE! Ha ha ha! You have a big flower hand-print on your butt!!! What, it's funny! No reason to get all sensitive. Okay, whatever. Man, this is great, the food tastes AWESOME. Great job everyone! Merry Christmas!

I guess I'm lucky. Maybe Christmas isn't all about family and friends for everyone, but it is for me. And I love an entire month of everyone thinking about what they can do to make everyone important in their lives happy. I think it's awesome. It's the one of the best parts of winter. I will continue to enjoy it and call a Christmas Tree a Christmas Tree and watch A Christmas Story five times on Christmas Eve and decorate my fake tree on December 1st and leave the lights plugged in the whole month because it's pretty. And I will tell my Jewish friends Happy Hannaukah and I will spell it wrong and they will correct me but they will be happy that I gave them wishes. And I will wish all my pagen friends a happy solstice and I'll buy bottles of wine and mix a CD for each of my extreme republican millionaire bosses. And I will do Killoggs Secret Santa every year until someone else decides they want to do it, even though I can never make everyone happy and someone will always get gyped no matter what I do or how much time I put into it. Because I like Christmas. I really do. I like December.

Jingle Bells
Batman Smells
Robin Laid an Egg
The Batmobile broke its Wheel
And Joker got away