Untruthful

Freestyle Lyrics
Sunday, March 25, 2007

Posted byJoe at 6:33 PM 1 comments  

Labels: daly, freestyle, jam, joe, john, lyrics, song, video

Morning Glory
Saturday, March 24, 2007

A new video, and a blog on last night's events:

Watch, comment, and rate it on YouTube

The video is a freestyle guitar and vocal performance by John Kaplan, Chris Daly, and I. I was inspired for some strange reason, to sing a strange song about an animal called a "Wildabeast"

Why? Morning Glory. Seeds that anyone, even a small child could buy, from any store that specializes in gardening. The seeds and the flowers contain a chemical known as LSA or d-lysergic acid amide. This chemical is generally considered a precursor to LSD, but in my experience with it, it is very well a force to be reckoned with on its own. In case you're wondering how closely the two are related, LSD contains a chemical called lysergic acide diethylamide. I later read that LSA is, in quantity, 10-15% as potent as LSD, but large quantities would have to be consumed (of the seeds, since they have only trace amounts of LSA in them) in order to gain some type of psychedelic effect. 350 seeds turned out to be enough. It turns out that each seed contains about 1ug (1 microgram, or .0o1mg) LSA. That means we took in .35 mg of LSA. The average "hit" dose of LSD in the 1960's was 100-150 ug. Using the data that says LSA is 10% as potent as LSD, then we took in 2.3 - 3.5 hits of acid. Menards sold me drugs.

As for the effects; more that I had anticipated. The seeds were very bitter, and upset my stomach quite a bit. I nearly vomited. However, I found that when I went outside, the fresh air helped my nausea disappear almost completely. I breathed deeply.

Suddenly I noticed an odd feeling. A tingling sensation at the back of my neck, like someone was watching me. I felt the presence of a handful of people walking around me. It sort of felt like walking around in the mall, but not being able to see all the people. I felt like I might bump into someone, so I walked slowly. Suddenly, I felt one of the negative effects I had been warned about: a leg cramp. I promptly laid down. It was late, and the moon was out, as well as the few stars that had managed to outshine Saint Paul's light pollution. They all appeared to be moving about, slowly migrating across the sky. I was getting cold. Shorts had been a bad choice. I decided to go back inside.

Once inside, I felt somewhat claustrophobic. My nausea came back a bit, but not nearly as bad as before. I drank some water to settle my stomach a bit, and then went off to socialize. The effects were no longer slowly approaching, it was difficult to walk, and I could hardly hold a conversation without bringing up some strange topic, or using some sort of imaginary word. I felt unusually social. I couldn't seem to run out of things to say. Then I heard something beautiful: a guitar. My guitar, in fact. John was playing it. We decided to write a song. We soon found out that the seeds had both amplified and warped my creative abilities. I said so many strange, half-coherent things in my some 10 minutes of freestyle jamming, I don't know where it all came from. I also enjoyed story telling very much that night, and thus my song vaguely resembled an epic tale.

Time seemed to be moving quite slowly, for the whole night seemed to last something like 10-15 hours. I actually went to bed quite early (around 1am), and managed to wake up to a very unpleasant hangover/comedown, as well as a limp from one particularly bad leg cramp. The effects of this hangover lasted a full 24 hours.

Was it worth it? Yes. This experience vastly changed my perspective on psychoactive chemicals. And though I don't have any desire to completely quit using such substances, I really can't bring myself to use them as frequently after this experience (at least, with out some guilt). It changed my views on music, and on frequent use of such substances, and most importantly my views on my own mental health. I have no doubt, that if I were to eat those seeds more than a few times annually, I would go insane.

I hope this was a helpful little story. If you plan on using the seeds, please let me know, I can give you all the info you need, and maybe a bit of advice on how to go about it :)

Posted byJoe at 4:13 PM 0 comments  

Labels: acid, amide, drugs, freestyle, glory, guitar, jam, LSA, lysergic, morning, performance, seeds

Ten Days in South Korea (Part I)
Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Well first, let be preface this by saying two things:
1. If given the opportunity to travel to another country (*preferably not Canada or Mexico), take it, its the experience of a lifetime.
2. I haven't written in awhile, so expect this to be long.

I'm finally back, and I'm glad about it. Korean foods and smells were starting to bug me, and my funds were running low. Korea may not have been a key spring-break destination, but it was fun nonetheless, we didn't party hardcore, though we did party. The reason I say "not key" is just because getting sloshed is alot more fun on the beach, not because of the drinking age (because we didn't get carded once at the liquor stores, only at the clubs :/).

Anyways, I'll do this sort of systematically.
First off, The Flight:
It was long. The way there was about a day or so, counting layovers and whatnot. The food was less than desirable, conditions were cramped, it was hard to sleep, etc. On the upside, international flights include a "Personal Video System" on the back of the seat in front of you, so we all enjoyed movies like Casino Royale, Happy Feet, and Deja Vu on our way to and from South Korea.
Upon arrival, we went through customs (your shit gets searched, fill out a few forms, get passport stamped, blah blah blah), and were off on our way to our dwelling for the next few days, Dan's Aunt's apartment:
The apartment was located in a somewhat remote area of Seoul. So we had to pay quite a bit to get around sometimes. Taxi and subway are the primary modes of transportation in Korea, and I think its safe to say that each of us spent in the range of $100+ on transportation on our trip. Anyway, the apartment was quaint. A small, cozy little place with no bed. In Korea, everyone sleeps on the floor (Seriously, we went to a five-star hotel, used the keycard to open our room, and found 2 legless chairs, and a blanket, ready to be rolled out onto the floor). Dan's aunt was a very religious woman, in fact at some point in her life she had considered the celibate status of nun. That said, the house was filled with religious icons. She had a statue of Mary, pictures of Jesus, candles, a chalice, robe, communion wafers, bells, and a few other choice instruments of god. We could have said a mass had we wanted to. Needless to say, we fucked with all that shit, and everyone had a few drinks while Jesus was watching.

The next day, we met with Dan's uncle OJ and his friend Wendy, who would be joining us on some sightseeing. But I'm too tired to finish this now, and I have a shitload of homework. More in part 2!

Posted byJoe at 8:32 AM 0 comments  

Labels: break, country, culture, five, flying, foreign, hotel, korea, south, spring, star, travel

Rollercoasting
Sunday, March 04, 2007

Posted byJoe at 10:00 PM 0 comments  

Labels: addiction, coaster, drugs, lyrics, poem, poetry, roller, rollercoaster, rollercoasting, Rx

Digitally produced music.

A new passion. I have to give credit where its due, Trent Reznor is all the inspiration for this. I'm still learning piano, yes, but I've found myself yet another creative outlet. The new album, to be released in April, was produced by Trent on a laptop. With technology today, its easy to take one sound, and turn it into an entire song. It takes a bit of technological know-how, but once you get the hang of it, its really pretty easy.

The program I prefer for now, is Sony Acid. Its easy to use, doesn't require too much of my computer, so it runs well too. I've been using scraps of my earlier recordings to make all sorts of strange sounds. I really like the dirty, eerie sounds that NIN makes, so as far as influence is concerned: NIN. Hopefully I'll start cranking out some music once I get a good feel for this stuff :)

Let me know if you're interested in picking up the hobby.
This sort of music can be tedious, so I could use a little help :P

Posted byJoe at 3:38 PM 0 comments  

Labels: acid, digital, inch, music, nails, nine, produce, reznor, sony, trent

What to do with life?
Thursday, March 01, 2007

Me 'n a couple guys were discussing the future today. You know, college and whatnot. Majors, professions, career paths. Every so often when I spend a good hour or so thinking about my life ten years from now, I end up making the transition from stressing to not giving a fuck. I could be happy pumping gas, as long as I'm having a good time.

People love money. So I. Its nice to have nice things. I'd love to be rich and famous, drive one car and own nine, live it up every night, struggle with drug addiction for a few years, then go clean after a bit of rehab. After kicking the drugs, I think I'd do something healthier, like drink smoothies and work out. After I get real buff, my badass rockstar habits might make a comeback, and I'll dabble in and out of a party lifestyle, meet a beautiful woman, and marry her. No, wait. At this point I'd be about 30. And 30 year old women aren't that attractive. So fuck women, I'd get me a pretty girl, 18 or 19. Actually, make that two girls. Because I'm rich, and money buys more freedoms. Then I'd phase out of mainstream culture, and suffer from depression. Probably die of a drug overdose around 45-50, maybe earlier.

Or I could be a doctor. But I hate science, needles, and lack the seriousness to deal with any sort of awkward situations (like handling ballsacks or informing a terminally ill patient of his or her unfortunate fate). I'd write, but I suck at that. I'd be an artist, but I'd rather keep my sanity and a little money in my wallet. Music would be great, but its unstable, and I'm not really any sort of prodigy, just a player. I could go through a million reasons and a million careers, honestly.

So whats the point? The point of writing this, I mean. The point is that there isn't a point to stressing about it. Think about it all you want, but anyone worrying ought to take a chill pill.

Posted byJoe at 11:44 PM 0 comments  

Labels: career, chill, College, fate, future, grow, job, life, path, reflection