The Audio Stylings of Chris Levens
"I'm a Gangster"

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Have you ever noticed how hard it is to hear nothing?
 9:00 AM   •  3 satisfied customers!!  

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"Out of control or social reality, you may flatter yourself that the substitute world of sports is a corner of the world you can really grasp." Todd Gitlin

I would add that any sort of aficianadoism fits into this category: music, movies, literature, wine, games, gossip, politics, cars, stocks, scotch, etc. In fact, I'm not sure that Gitlin's idea of "social reality" is really distinct from things like sports, gossip and movies. He sort of perpetuates an idea that there are the things that matter in life, what he calls "social reality", and then there are the trivial things that are the specialty of the less advance members of society.

But, since I'm not a sports nut and am often looked down upon by the vast majority of the sports loving male world, I sort of like the snobbery Gitlin strokes my ego with. "Yeah, I'm in tune with social reality and they aren't."

But really, any of us can take our passions and place them squre in the rhelm of "social reality" in order to secure our own self-image. Passions we don't share can be placed outside social reality in order to supply us with good reasons for looking down on those we don't understand or agree with.
 2:19 PM   •  4 satisfied customers!!  

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For those in my neck of the woods, eat at Los Golondrinas. Superb! Get a Nopolitos taco if your not affraid of cactus. Yum!

It is on the corner of Alicia and Jeronimo where Fezziwigs used to be.
 7:11 PM   •  8 satisfied customers!!  

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An example of why America is twisted, by Johnny T.

In Iraq approximately 2,300 US soldiers have died and 37,000 Iraqis have died. The majority of mainstream anti-war protests flaunt the 2,300 dead US soliders as proof of failure.

As sad as those deaths are, and as much pain as those deaths cause those soldier's families and friends, their deaths are not the greatest tragedy. Those 37,000 Iraqi deaths are 15x as tragic and sad and painful.

This is where a lot of America, even the bulk of the anti-war Left, is twisted. The soldiers were there volunatirily. Those Iraqis just lived there and got trapped in an Imperialistic war. And the US press and anti-war movement is only marginally concerned with their death. What is more tragic to the US population is the US casualities. Why? Is a US soldier of more value than a young Iraqi girl or an old Iraqi man?

Hardly. As far as I'm concerned, the number of dead troops is irrelevant. The number of dead Iraqis is of paramount importance. It shows what type of monsters we really are. The majority of Americans are so intraverted and self absorbed that a 15:1 Iraqi death to US death ratio is negligable. 100 Americans dead is more painful and powerful than 1,500 Iraqis dead. As far as I'm concerned, that is twisted. We are truly a hideous group of people.

But dead Iraqis don't have much traction with the US masses. Dead US soldiers get people to call for an end to the war. I'm glad people are calling for an end. But I'm ashamed that I get lumped in with their rational. The mainstream anti-war movement is only slightly less twisted then the pro-war movement.
 9:12 AM   •  2 satisfied customers!!  

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I'm constantly telling myself about myself.
 8:40 AM   •  3 satisfied customers!!  

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I think we are all a little bit more crazy than we want to admit.

The fact that we are uncomfortable with our own loose screws is testimony to our fragile psychological make-up. By gripping tightly and stubbornly to our hallucination about our normalness, we reveal how hard we have to work at maintaining that illusion.

And what can be more crazy than that?
 8:53 AM   •  4 satisfied customers!!  

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The Avocado, more than any other fruit or vegetable, is the most human.
 12:42 PM   •  6 satisfied customers!!  

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Sleep is such a ritual.
 8:58 AM   •  1 satisfied customer!  

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Maybe we should be anti-usury again.
 8:58 AM   •  2 satisfied customers!!  

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The thing that sucks about blogs is the way they get all bossy on you. I just thought I should post (my last post) and now I feel this horible compulsion to post again. Tottally against my will, mind you. It was so much better when I didn't have to do this.
 5:32 PM   •  2 satisfied customers!!