Even if you did care, it doesn’t matter. We are all doomed.

Still, I’m really starting to  believe that John Lennon was right and “all you need is love.”

As I get older, I’ve started to become more sensitive to my own and my peers hatred toward any and all ideas. We’re all becoming “haters.” The thought of anyone doing anything upsets us.

“I hate the new Madonna song”

“Did you see what Katy Perry was wearing?” “She so dumb!” “I hate her!”

“I hate the new music scene” “Justin Beiber is talentless, he got everything by doing nothing!”

Hate, hate, hate HATE! - It’s starting to become nauseating.

A sad thing is that it’s far more prevalent in my community of fellow artists and musicians. These are my friends, and people who wear the self-procalimed “liberal” banner.

It’s sometimes disguised as a joke. More common now, hate itself is the punchline (i.e. “I’m allowed to hate this, haha” sort material). How is hating on other people’s creativity and art any different from hating people for their race/religion/sexuality? Doesn’t really seem to be much different.

So why all of this hate? Why do we all feel the need to bring people down?

I’ve noticed that, for my part, I tend to “hate” because I feel like I’m being abrasively assaulted by these ideas. The entertainment industry has a bad habit of pushing their product to the point of constant over exposure.

When that happens, my default reaction is to shut out the idea because it’s trying so hard to get my attention. It’s a turn off. Still, why should I hate it? Why let that frustration and anger consume my mind?

Lately, I’ve tried to accept the ideas on their own and ignore the over saturation. This has allowed for some of my new favorite songs coming from the top 40 charts. There are some truly well written songs with thoughtful lyrics in there, it’d be a shame to miss out because of an unwillingness to let myself accept them. There’s a lot of room for listening, so why not enjoy all there is to hear?

Also, when it comes to new musicians who are younger than me, there’s always that sting to my pride. It makes me feel the whole “I’ve been working hard, and make better music, it’s not fair!” sort of thing.

But how true is that?

I feel like Justin Beiber was kicking his ass working on those music videos that launched his career. I have personally been a part of 2 1/2 music videos and am 25, so no, I didn’t work that hard as a teen. I feel that many of my artists friends haven’t really either. I’m not trying to say they don’t work hard, but sometimes we could all do more. Maybe if we spent more time working and creating art than hating, we could all be successful too?

I’m beginning to ramble…

My point is I’m realizing that with age and experience we have 2 ways to go: Bitter and Old, or Loving and Accepting.

Unfortunately, I feel that the artist community is dangerously close to becoming over-run with the former of the options. I hope I’m wrong, and will personally try my best to end hate in my life.

The delight of feeling like you owe the world nothing, that you could easily vanish forever into this day and become nothing.

Since I’m still gonna categorize myself as “sick,” I’ve decided to indulge my laziness.

When I’m lazy I look up reviews for things I don’t do (i.e Game-ing) and watch a zillion trailers for all sorts of crap. I sometimes fantasize of a time when I can buy all the gaming gear and play everything. I love playing Zelda, Mario and all the other Nintendo fare. Oh well. I’ll get back into games when Apple reigns supreme over everyone and buys out Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. Then we’ll all have one machine that plays everything.

The comedy I’m pretty stoked for is Casa de Mi Padre’ starring Will Farrell speaking only in Spanish. It look completely ridiculous, but also ingenious.

And if you haven’t seen the trailer for Prometheus do it NOW! It’s the prequel to Alien, but has no Aliens. Ridley Scott is back in the directors chair in a Sci-Fi movie, which is cool. It’s scale and feel mix the right touch of that grit from the original Alien flicks, plus a modern sheen to make it look convincing. Even though Mr. Scott has had a wobbly track record lately (I think that most of his post Gladiator movies have been very, slow, he needs less control in the editing room), it’s still definitely at the top of my “promise not to pirate” list for this year.

I’ve been able to easily write lots of songs, but none of them felt “right.” Well, at least not “right” in the sense for my solo material. For my other band, Hyperland, songs have been almost literally pouring out of me. I’ve intentionally forced myself (probably the problem) to write solo in order to re-direct my energy. - It’s just that writing for Hyperland seems much easier since I’ve been working mostly in a digital medium for it. So lately, writing on guitar alone has become difficult because I start to feel like I’m retreading on chords and melodies that I’ve already used… Anywho…

You know, that feeling you get when just the right words fit with the right melody? When you find yourself unintentionally humming the chorus and feel like you can write 20 verses for this one song. -Yeah, I had one of those today.

It was fun to feel that emotional pull from a song. I was having fun playing it over and over. Hopefully the feeling will last for a bit.

I’m excited to put it into my solo roster of songs. I’m calling it “Supposed to Be” for now. Probably wont’ be able to come up with a better title cause I’m lame like that and use the “hook” line from the chorus as titles 90% of the time.

Emily and her siblings have been abandoned by their mother, and are forced to take care of themselves and their stumbling father [Macy] by committing very shady acts upon the community of Chicago. -Mostly small time “gray area” crimes like stealing toilet paper from public restrooms, to larger crimes of stealing food from easily distracted truck drivers. (Apparently all it takes to make a Chicago truck driver look the other way is for a woman to slightly unzip the front of her blouse)

Shameless also features music from Mark Mothersbaugh [of Wes Anderson movie fame]. The music can often take the foreground in oddly placed “music video” montages that feature the Gallaghers celebrating victories of their thievery and debauchery. I like the music but I only wish that the music videos weren’t so aggressively placed. Sometime the placement of the montages can throw off the pacing of the show and feel more like “fluff” to pass the time. -I wonder if the show might work better in a 25-30mins format versus the 45-50 minute format it’s currently in. Oh yeah, it’s a long show.

When it comes to comedy, Shameless works decently playing off  jokes of alcoholism and the family misfortune of “funny cause it happens” sort of humor. As a drama, Shameless kind of falls flat. It tries to pull at the heart strings a bit by trying to make us feel bad about the Gallaghers situation. The problem is that they also present the Gallaghers as a huge, self-perpetuated train wreck. We watch the show because we like to see the self-destructive behavior that makes them all have these problems. But, we don’t really don’t sympathize with them because of their constant criminal behavior. There are many families who have been faced with tough situations who have used legal and proper (even if slightly abusing the system) means to be able to dig their way out of poverty.

We all (I hope) have a set of morals. The Gallaghers have none. Although, it’s fun to watch them break the rules to get their way, we don’t necessarily feel that we would do the same thing. In Shameless, we get characters that are willing to break the law and play the system to get what they want. Then, the show wants us to feel bad for them not standing up to simple tasks that would seem to require less effort than breaking the laws they casually break. Why Fiona?!? Just let Steve [Justin Chatwin] help!!! -You’ll see what I mean if you watch.

Anyway, Shameless it’s a pleasant yarn if not totally engaging. I would not recommend it outright if only because it doesn’t offer anything better than many of the other shows that are out there. Still, if you’re a William H. Macy fan, or just need something to pass the time, you could to worse.

B-

I hate the feeling of putting my life on hold to recover. Plus, it always seems to come at a time when momentum is really starting to build. Oh well.

Anyway, I spent the last 24 hours in a Nyquil (or the equate equivalent) induced coma. I think it’s paid off cause I’m now on the upswing of the illness, I believe. Which is good. Still, my body and mind are in that “dazed” state that makes me feel useless (and, oddly, craving of lots of sugar).

Well, tomorrow is the great day ahead of us all. Hopefully when I make it become today, I’ll be able to be a functioning member to my cause.

Attached is a doodle I did for my “Carlos: The Tall” project. It may turn up on the www.carlosthetall.com website soon, but I’ve been too lazy to get that thing working appropriately.

The last update I had done to this website was back in 2008.

This site used to be my artistic portfolio back when I used to draw. But, I’ve decided that I don’t draw anymore. I decided to change the format of the site with wordpress so I can easily update my squiggles, random thoughts and links OUTSIDE of facebook (admit it, you’re getting sick of it too).

Who knows, maybe I’ll actually start writing movie reviews, posting my personal food recipes, or just use this site as a way to test out wordpress templates. I really have no solid plan.

Still, even fairly bare bones, this looks better than my old “.GIF” graphics site filled with  drawings of superheros that I really didn’t enjoy drawing.

I realize that I’ll probably be the only one reading this, but who cares. haha.

Here’s a test to see if sound cloud works…