On Slacking, A Meandering Rant from TSF4
Posted on January 1, 2010 | By Patty Pino | No Comments
I am honored that you are even listening to me, listening to us, at this moment. Alright – maybe “honored” is a little thick. I’m more like surprised and impressed – in a good way. Hey – I know what it took for you to get here. Booting up things, clicking around places, having to pay attention, downloading stuff, maybe. All of that is work. Really, and I know you have better choices than anything that even resembles work. You could be half-passed-out on the living room couch right now, test-tasting the snacky things that your kid dropped between the cushions, drooling a little. That would be easier; but instead, you’re here. Well, maybe you’re both. Anyway, if you are here, then you, my friend, qualify as a slacker. THAT is why I am honored. Thank you, fellow Slacker, for listening.
Slackers, like me and Chris(tian) and Rob and you, are not incapable of doing stuff. We are actually really capable, and we actually do stuff. It is just that, when given the choice, most times we’d rather not. Well, that isn’t totally true – we like to do the stuff we like to do, just not the stuff we’re supposed to do, or stuff we have to do, or stuff that sucks.
I find myself in total, almost constant, conflict. Do I do the laundry, or surf the web for strange pets-in-costume photos? It is important that I visit my parents and help them take out the their garbage, but just one more episode of Anthony Bourdain’s snarky world-travel show can’t hurt, and then, I’m out the door – I promise. Believe me, besides you, I am the least-disciplined person you know.
The place where my slacker-factor has the most negative impact is in the area of EXERCISE. Can you relate, you couch-loving snack-forager? Even the word sucks – ex-er-size. It sounds like an awkward and uncomfortable way to cancel out the beautiful size of me. I suppose that that is the point, but does it have to sound so dorky? “I’m going to exercise.” Sure…some people call it “working out”, but that involves WORK, and I’m not into that.
I suppose if you could exercise an actually look cool, which you can’t, or maybe if you could hang out with Henry Rollins or Iggy Pop at the gym, which you can’t, maybe it would be appealing. But Rollins and Iggy are like the anti-slackers, and that would bring up so much additional guilt…forget it.
So, how does a slacker survive in this responsibility-filled, money-oriented, you-gotta-work society? Often, in a bitter, and begrudging way. Really, we seek out other slackers who can bring things to the table to assist our lazy-asses. Who wants to reinvent the wheel, when some other guy is into sharing his wheels with his friends? The network of slackers is huge, and we’ll bring it to you, when we’re motivated. We wanna help you, friend, enjoy the moments of your life, with minimal effort. Let’s use this networking and technology crap to ease the pains of your intended efforts and relieve you from the toils of your existence.
~pp
<Hear this amazing rant, as well as other nonsense, on the podcast TSF4: Mary’s Gone Slackers, is NOW ONLINE!>
Why All New Music Sucks, a Meandering Rant from TSF3
Posted on December 9, 2009 | By Robert LaFrance | No Comments
Do we stop appreciating new music after a certain age? AKA Why does all new music suck? Recently re-titled as “Has the now effortless pursuit of new music changed music’s value aka why new music is almost free!”
I long for new music. I easily fall into the media hype of some groundbreaking young band and seek out any and all of their recordings. I have been known to incessantly fight the busy signal of a radio station’s request line in order to ask the DJ the name of the song that was played exactly 27.5 minutes ago. I’ve then called the foreign-based record label to find a local retailer that might actually carry said music. In my eternal quest for the new and different, I’ve canvassed my hip friends for suggestions, begrudgingly tuned in local college radio, combed the billboard charts, made purchases based solely on the esoteric words of a music journalist, I’ve dragged my classy, sophisticated girlfriend (now wife) through the rough and tubmble streets of Greenwich Village, New York City to seek out musty old music shops that carry used records and spend hours flipping through bins of dusty vinyl – only with the promise of returning the favor by agreeing to window shop at Tiffany’s on 5th Avenue, subscribed to new music CD services (remember CMJ?), provided false names to both the Columbia and BMG music clubs… even purchased random CDs based solely on the cover art or some annoyingly pretentious record store clerk.
But, that was a long time ago and much has changed in my life…
The Power of Tape, a Meandering Rant from TSF2
Posted on December 5, 2009 | By Patty Pino | 2 Comments
When we were kids, it was all about the tape. The shift of melody and voices from vinyl to magnetic-coated plastic took rhythm and word from inside to outside.
Tape gave us freedom. No longer were we limited to music on record players in badly-paneled living rooms, plaid decorated bed rooms, or from the all-too-moist carpeted rec rooms that once were called basements.
Tape liberated us from just listening to the radio. Now, we could pick music on the go. We brought our collective groove to the streets…
Read more
What it means to be Generation X, a Meandering Rant from TSF1
Posted on November 28, 2009 | By Christian | No Comments
Ok, lets start this with a look inward. I asked myself “self, what are you?” Once I started looking (and got past the initial chaos rattling around in my head) I realized that’s not such a simple question and a lot of what Generation X is, is what its not. You can’t put a box around Generation X and say oh, its all about grunge and apathy. Or look to movies like Reality Bites and Star Wars… because yes, whether you want to admit it or not YOU were effected by Star Wars and the Jedi bed sheets you had as a kid. Its not about that big hair you had, or gray hair now and looking at 40 as “not that old”. Its not about whether you are “corporate” or keeping it real. Its not about whether you live with someone you aren’t married to or whether you are now a responsible parent or not. Its not about whether you worry about how the lawn looks or whether you are “green”. I could go on for hours but the truth is, its not about a lot.
Now, once we admit to ourselves its not about a lot we have to look at that. Its not about a lot. Is that disaffection I smell? Read more
Dust on the Ceiling, a Meandering Rant from TSF0
Posted on November 26, 2009 | By Patty Pino | No Comments
So, did you ever have one of those days where you wake up and you don’t know what to do with yourself so you just lay in bed and stare up and think about how dust gets trapped on the ceiling, of all places, and how it is probably falling on you while you sleep and maybe that is why your hair is so dry and you flip on your computer-radio-TV and witness the same old blather-blather about pop star addictions, and lying politicians… Read more
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