Ice Cream Who?

This ice cream truck drives by my apartment everyday, then sometimes again at night. It is January, so I'm sure business is booming. Also, it's unseasonably warm here - and ya know, sometimes you just need a tasty treat to cool you down when it's a stifling 40 degrees outside. Even still, I wonder if this ice cream man could be peddling something else to the upright citizens of metro Atlanta.



Knock Knock
Who's there?
Ice cream!
Ice cream who?
Ice cream if you don't let me in!

(hahahaha)

Inkblot

A friend and I came across this lake in the area where we usually go camping. Turn your head sideways and maybe you'll see something among the semi-structureless entities.

Question #8

“What classifies a band as 'emo'? What is an 'emo' band?”
- Brooke


Sorry it’s taken me a while to get to this one. Things get lost in my gmail inbox when I don’t check it for a few days.

Most people will tell you that the term emo is short for ‘emotional.’ Some have more specifically described it as a “broad title that covers a lot of different styles of emotionally-charged punk rock,” (because all punk rock sounds so distinct these days) but this definition is pretty controversial. People who have been listening to punk rock for a long time claim the music must be upbeat and energetic for it to be a true brand of punk. However, if you take a look at the newer releases of some punk bands (i.e. - Blink 182) you can see how punk rock has slowly evolved and converged with a style of mainstream pop. But I digress, and you still don’t know what emo is. So here’s a different approach.

Picture Woody Allen for a minute.



Ok. If Woody Allen were to start producing music it would probably be emo. I’m not exactly sure what Woody Allen produced in the past, but the association is really just with his extremely annoying voice, which is pretty important when it comes to emo. Typically the singer will whine a lot with lyrics about how no one liked him in high school or about how is girl friend dumped him – that kind of stuff.

Looks are equally significant. The lead singer should be a skinny white guy. Height isn’t particularly important, as long as he is wearing tight jeans, and usually he should have finger length hair parted slightly to the side. The proper emo stance is to have both feet pointed somewhat inward while singing. Also, nerdy glasses can be a nice touch.

Besides all of this, the other elements that characterize emo are pretty debatable, or at least variable. Generally, the vocals are highlighted along with acoustic guitar being the key instrument. Sometimes electric guitars are used but with low distortion, and regardless power chords are the norm with occasional picking during the verses.

Dashboard Confessionals might be considered an archetype of emo, so for a good example check them out.

Lastly, I’d like to say that not all emo bands are bad even though I may have made them out to be, and some of them can be pretty enjoyable. But a lot of them just whine way to much.

Pyramid Scheme

I went to the gym today and there was someone on every single piece of equipment. I guess it’s that time of the year again when people make their annual New Year resolutions to start working out. Consequently, my fellow year round quasi-regular gym attendees and I will have to wait to use benches and curl bars until things are back to normal in about a month or so. Sure, they have the right to be there. But sometimes I just want to say, “You might as well give it up now buddy.” From what I’ve observed, when people try an approach to become physically active that they don’t take pleasure in it usually doesn’t work out for them.


In the News:



U.S. Government Updates Diet Rules for Next Food Pyramid


I’m still not sure the food pyramid is the problem.

Angles are Attitudes

Another picture from New Orleans in the marketplace.



Don't hang your hat higher than you can reach.
-Proverb

I'm Not Dead

Well, I’ve been on the road for a while and have kept pretty busy doing other things. One of the places I traveled to was New Orleans. Here’s a shot from a cathedral in the French Quarter. I messed around with it on my computer and tried to make it look like an older picture. Also, I got a new camera but I’m not very familiar with it yet so a lot of the shots didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked.