SumtinK

People have compared Aloe Blacc to an up-and-coming “Indy R. Kelly”. I’m sorry, but I’m not really feeling that description. Maybe I’m just short-changing Kelly though…
Maybe I’m just not aware of the breadth of art Kelly has put out. I do, however, have a hard time taking people serious who prefer his/her name iced out in stardust. Don’t get me wrong, the man has a beautiful voice, I just don’t see him presenting anything with such a complex address to the world and his own presence in it Aloe Blacc – Blind World, along with beautifully simple joints about an everyday event:

That mere fact that Blacc took the energy to make this video is refreshing.

One video I’m really loving is one Kwolf brought up the other night. Since he hasn’t put it up, I’m feeling the need to get it out.

The eerie guitar riff buries itself into my head and the washboard (what the hell is that called?) sets an amazing pace.
Religion. What an incredible institution.

(Speaking of institution, what’s the story with school? Professors, students, administrators, advisors, staff, security, alumni, boards of trustees, hoops to jump, things to ‘accomplish’, traditions to carry on.
Do these structures not seem a little fucked?
We pay, in future years of our life or past years of our parents’ lives (if we’re lucky), for finding out some things we like. I mean, lets be honest – a lot of the stuff we force down our throats just gets shat out on exams and left there. We don’t ‘enjoy’ a lot of it, as in many times we would rather be doing something else. But we stay because we want a future, we want some cushy cushness from some greenbacks. We take classes to learn material we, many times, don’t find interesting, in classes we enroll in because they fill requirements, taught by professors who live in a world of requirements of publishing and making sure their students ‘like’ them and get good enough grades so they’re kept, in a school that works as a full-time gold-digger, part-time over-bearing parent, part-time I-give-a-fuck.
Too harsh?
Maybe.

If we’re lucky our professors are passionate about their work and want to instill that passion in us. If we’re kind of lucky then our professors are passionate and do amazing work but would rather have you shut up and just let them keep publishing/doing their research/whatever work they do in the outside world. If we’re not lucky, then we get a professor who doesn’t seem too stoked on his/her work, is pretty jaded, and/or has a disconnect between his/her work, what they lecture (preach?) and his/her lifestyle.
It’s a game Dylan started singing abut with pot and schools then converted into one called “Everyone Must Get Jaded”.
I won’t remember what the central limit theorem is. I wont remember specific years of war or who started which wars. I wont remember all the aspects of transpiration. I won’t even remember most of the classes I took.
Now I’m not saying that this whole thing is for not. We learn some things from books and numbers, we learn some about what we like to learn, but it seems the experiences are the things that affect us most. The people. The fuck-ups. Now that’s no new realization – people say that all the time.
But what ever happened to people going on walkabouts? Or being kicked out into the wild blue yonder to flail and fail and get over it and get over ourselves. Almost die a few times. Meet a lot of things. Become un-jaded and in total awe.
Whatever happened to rocking the boat? Whatever happened to tipping the boat? Whatever happened to blowing the boat the hell up and going for a swim?)

Now something from our dear friend, Banksy: