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[17 Aug 2006|07:22pm] |
So,
The upcoming school year seems predestined for social and academic greatness!
YESSSS
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[04 Dec 2005|11:13am] |
Fuck, I just wrote a long, in dept analysis of the latest, greatest NMH news to come up. Of course, for the first time ever, Firefox crashed on me.
In short, I decided I'll let you read for yourself.
If you love Neutral Milk Hotel, you will read these in full (not that you'd be able to stop anyways)
An amazing story about demo tapes, jeff, a girl named jennifer, and Three Peaches
http://www.e6townhall.com/viewthread.php?tid=4639#pid56651
And here are the new, just discovered songs,
http://skipgoshannon.typepad.com/shannons_arty_arty/2005/11/thepreview_of_t.html
http://www.neutralmilkhotel.org/ and the 2 blog sites mentioned on Shannon's blog contains a few more songs.
Keep in mind that Shannon is checking with jeff before releasing the rest of the demo, just to make sure it's okay with him. There is a lot of controversy over this demo being released already.
In other NMH news, here is a great link:
http://members.cox.net/neutralmilkhotel/etc.htm
There is Fanfare for Neutral Milk Hotel I, II (II is great, check out the cover of I Love How You Love Me by The Cellar Doors), and some neato Realplayer files of Jeff's radio program from years ago. Check out show #4, it has a note being played for 2 hours at the start of his show. Fast forward one hour in and you get this comment by Jeff, "We are now one hour into our drone. Now move into the second hour. Hope you enjoy." You have to hear it to love it.
Lastly, here is a video of Jeff playing Oh Comely: http://www.fuckingawesome.net/videos/NMH_ohcomely.mov
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[10 May 2005|10:30pm] |
I'm going to be out of town, but anyone who's interested:
Free Mice Parade tickets. Only 75 available... and I got the email exactly 5 hours ago so it should still be plenty open.
They are for this Saturday at The Social.
Enjoy:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/promo/13766
Pass is ANTISOCIAL
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[09 Apr 2005|03:12am] |
First off, happy birthday to my Froy-boy.
I finally got The Four Hundred Blows on VHS off ebay (what my icon is from). Took a long time, but it has finally arrived.
I got THIS in the mail yesterday. It is my backpack replacement.
I don't have a job and funds are running low. Any suggestions around the Altamonte Springs area ?
I've been having a great time the last couple months.
What a boring entry. There is really nothing I wish to post here though, sorry!
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[14 Mar 2005|03:15pm] |
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music |
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Aphex Twin - Girl/Boy Song |
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This year IS going to be great.
My girlfriend is amazing.
All my friends around me are around for the right reasons.
My family is great (My mom just saw the bong in my room and laughed).
Good times. I'm happy.
Oh, and my lappy came back in the mail. Works like a charm. Hard drive still intact.
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[12 Mar 2005|12:41pm] |
Mmmm....
SOOO, my laptop broke last Saturday. 31+ gigs of music... gone. Oh well, no big deal. Shit happens. This computer (desktop) was also broken until just this morning...
Judi, I checked at UCF about Henry Rollins. Ticketmaster had no idea he was coming or if he is. They said to check with Rollins'. So... I guess check his website or something, I dunno. I haven't seen any posters or anyone talking about him coming... so... DUNNO :)
Spring break is here... not that my life is not already a giant vacation.
What a fucking kickass day outside today. Fucking beautiful, pretty day. I'm going to go wash some cars and read.
Marc with A C is playing his farewell show today at 4pm at Backbooth. Chances are I'll go see him with the Zatch. 5 bucks :), anyone else who wants to come can hop in my car. I forget where Backbooth is, though!
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| Hey! |
[08 Mar 2005|01:13am] |
03/10 The Sugar Oaks, The Gena Rowlands Band and guests. Ages 18+ $5 Doors 8pm.
I really want to see The Sugar Oaks again... I really liked them when they were with Blonde Redhead. Anyone 18+ wanna go with me? It's only $5. I know... short notice... but they put it up with short notice also... another band canceled so I guess they're a backup.
Oh, The Mountain Goats are coming back to town in late April @ Will's. They're super fun live.
03/21 The Album leaf with guests The Roots Of Orchis and Textual. Ages 18+ $8adv/$10dos Drs 8pm.
Going to that too...
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| Just a recap |
[04 Mar 2005|12:22am] |
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mood |
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i love QOTSA |
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music |
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Queens Of The Stone Age - Better Living Through Chemistry |
] |
What has been going on lately...?
I was supposed to go to Georgia this weekend to visit Esther. Plans didn't work out, of course... but what the fuck can you do...?
Got pulled over last night doing 70 on 436... played it off to get a warning. Got out of a $300 ticket... whew.
Corey has been down for spring break and I've been seeing a lot of him. Good times.
Gina Delose came over to Leigh's tonight! She's cool.
Everything else is pretty much private. Have a lovely day.
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| The Natural History of Ben :) |
[22 Feb 2005|01:35am] |
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music |
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Ben Harper - Forever |
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Went down to the Barnes and Noble on East Colonial tonight with Leigh to go see Ingrid Newkirk (PETA President). We were about 20 minutes late so we missed her speech but caught a bit of the Q&A session. We bought her new book, said hi and got it signed.
I think I should talk about the fact that I went vegan earlier this year. I haven't explained it to anyone and I think it took people by surprise since I had never really talked about animal rights or anything related to veganism. I think it is because it came to me so damn quickly... even I was slightly surprised (not really...).
For years I've been considering how absolutely disgusting eating dead animals really is. After all, it is a dead animal. I don't see incisors in my mouth, regardless of what some people say (not only do I not see them, they are not there). I had found eating meat to be quite unnatural for quite a long time. I had been limiting my consumption, and had always happily eaten vegetarian if a meal of the sort came my way. Leigh had talked to me about veganism... MAYBE 2 times. Whenever she'd bring it up I tended to dismiss the notion of vegetarianism simply because I had learned that animal rights was pointless, and vegetarians always seemed like a crazy bunch. I think false media attention has brought this sort of stigma about vegans to the general public, and it did the same thing to me. Anyhow, just for future reference, Leigh had nothing to do with my choice to become vegan.
Since about the time that school started, I started to come to the realization that all animals are equal to me. In the EXACT same way black people are the same as whites, and females are equal to males... I feel that if you truly believe in equality between humans then the equality of animals goes hand in hand with it. I came to this realization but still ate meat since I just simply did not make the connection that I was killing an animal simply to feed myself. I was also not aware that a perfectly healthy life (actually, MORE healthy) could be had without using animal products.
One night I was the designated driver and as my friend was having sexual relations in the other room, I was sitting on the couch watching a PBS program called "The Natural History of the Chicken". The program was not intended to create vegetarians out of carnivors... but when I saw a clip of how egg laying hens are treated, I literally cried. I saw 4 or 5 hens to a cage, unable to naturally flap their wings or raise their families or have a chance to live a life that was rightfully theirs. I could not imagine a life going through such pain and suffering for 36 hours in order for 1 egg on my breakfast table. I used to eat 2 or 3 a morning. That is not fair to me. When I see factory farming I see The Holocaust x1000.
If I hurt an animal, I would be doing so only for my own personal satistfaction, and to do so is simply wrong. When I can live a more than healthy life without taking the life of a defenseless animal, I cannot see the reasoning behind eating meat, drinking milk, or consuming or using any other type of product that comes from animals. But even if it does not hurt the animal, I would still want nothing to do with the product. Animals are not around us for us to use for any reason. They have their own lives to live.
I'm not preaching. I think this is a change in my life that my friends should be aware of, and I think knowing why I decided to do such a thing is important.
If anyone is interested in leafleting at UCF in the next week or so, please email me at benkees@gmail.com or wontbutyoumight on AIM. I don't expect any, since I don't think I have any vegan friends listed... but just checking :)
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[14 Feb 2005|11:30am] |
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music |
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Andre 3000 - Happy Valentine’s Day |
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From www.indieworkshop.com
02.14.2005 / 06:08
"After weeks of rumors, it has been confirmed that the Unicorns have, indeed, broken up. However, the band's singer Nicholas "Niel" Diamonds and drummer J'aime Tambour will continue playing together but with a focus on their new hip-hop project Th' Corn Gangg!"
:(
Oh well!
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| The Bright Eyes show |
[06 Feb 2005|03:38am] |
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music |
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Bright Eyes - Loose Leaves |
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Got back from the Bright Eyes show a few hours ago.
The opening bands were awful choices, to be honest. I really dig the mellow shit, but I was bored after the first song or two by each of the openers. I loved the chick's hair, though! Hippies are always hot. Still pissed that Tilly and the Wall didn't open.
Since Leigh is clinically obsessed with Conor, we got to the show 2 hours before doors. It wasn't so bad though, since I still walked around some and we were next to some very nice people who we hung out with during the show as well. Since we got there so goddam early, we were in the first 3 or 4 rows. My guilt eventually got the best of me, and I felt bad for some short gals behind me and switched places with them because I could still see just fine behind them. Plus it gave me some more breathing room without my face in the back of some dude's head.
Bright Eyes is very, very good live. Really, quite amazing. Although Conor never even looked at the crowd (what a prick), the music was like an explosion in my mind. I don't even like the the album most of they performed came from, but Conor is really quite talanted and his voice is 10x more enjoyable to hear live than on the album. I can't believe some of the people around me who didn't even feel an urge to move their bodies! I couldn't control myself...
Some guy rushed the stage to try to give Conor what looked like writings in a manilla folder. That kind of power is scary and amazing at the same time.
I gave Scott a big hug. Well, multiple hugs. Really, whenever I'd see him I'd sneak up and hug like a teddy bear. I think he thinks I'm gay... "You're kind of creeping me out, Ben." Oh well.
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| Testify for me! |
[02 Feb 2005|01:32am] |
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mood |
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 awake on caffiene and stoned on... umm... hippie leaves? |
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music |
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Simon & Garfunkel - Cecilia |
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Have a heart! Do a testimonial for benkees.net!
Anyhow, late last night a friend of mine and I were joking that I should have people do testimonials for my site and were thinking up clever things the people would say. Then I thought that it's really not that bad of an idea! It would be pretty darn funny to have a lot of people actually give a testimonial for benkees.net.
If you'd be so obliged, post a testimonial (good or bad, I don't care! I'll put them all up!). It doesn't have to be clever or funny or creative, just post if you like it or if you don't. If you're really bored a picture testimonial would be really super cool (I'm not expecting this though... just thought I'd throw it out there). I guess all you get out of it is being a part of a dorky update to my website... but hey, that's pretty cool still, right?
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[23 Jan 2005|07:59pm] |
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music |
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Talking Heads - Drugs |
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NEW DOMAIN
Benkees.NET is the new website. Well... it's the old website... just a new domain.
Yep! Got it!
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| Haha mother fuck! |
[21 Jan 2005|04:43pm] |
What a fucking amazing surprise!
A few days ago I checked to see how much my semester was going to cost, and it came out to $1,272. This was expected because I wasn't recieving my UCF Grant again (to the best of my knowledge), so I was willing to pay it. Anyhow:
To the best of my knowledge, this is the last day to pay for tuition unless you feel like getting charged an extra few hundred bucks. So I get on just now and look at my balance due... I got $900 something taken off for BRIGHT FUTURES (hahaha). I had been under the impression that I wasn't getting bright futures since my balance sheets from last semester never showed it up under financial aid like it was supposed to. At the time I wasn't surprised, I thought I gradated from Brantley with a 2.8 or 2.9. Guess not.
$318 is my new total for this semester. Man, makes me feel a lot better now... I was feeling really guilty for not getting Bright Futures after my dad lost his job. AHHH, I get so lucky and I don't even deserve it.
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| The public entry |
[21 Jan 2005|10:02am] |
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music |
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Numbers - Disease |
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Things have been pretty weird lately. I say weird namely because I don't think things are nearly as bad as my mood is. Just weird.
I lost my english book after having it for less than a week. $74 down the drain. Man...
It's so cold and depressing outside. Well, during the day it's not so bad but when I wake up in the morning, there is much pain in leaving the warm comfort of homey blankets. At least tomorrow morning I get to bring my brother to the airport so he can go back to school in NY. Thank the fucking lord. What an annoyance his presence is. I'm really hoping that he doesn't come to live here when he's graduated. I hope so badly that he finds a good paying job so he never has to come home again.
I can't really use the internet at my house for more than a few minutes until it cuts me off. It's been getting worse and worse and now it's almost to the point where I'm going to smash something.
The following is almost entirely about music... sorry :(:
The other day I was fortunate enough that the UCF network was blessed by the presense of a being with great taste in music, and I managed to get 600 or so songs from him before he figured out something was wrong with his computer and shut it down.
I got some music from this great singer/songwriter who goes by Little Wings. Lighting up and listening to him is like heaven. So great...
Also picked up some of The Unicorns (who are GREAT! I was pleasantly surprised with them), The Von Bondies, Talking Heads, The Weakerthans, Notwist, The Owls (which I dearly missed from my fucked reformat), The Sea and Cake, Kings of Convenience (coming to the social soon, don't remember when... kind of expensive, though), Lesser Birds of Paradise, Shellac, Wilco,... and so much more crap that I don't remember off the top of my head.
28.6 GB - 7,268 Files - 771 Folders
Perfectly organized media library of love.
If anyone gets ahold of some Pseudosix, I'd really like to know if their album (or albums, I dunno!) are any good. I have one song from a compilation album and I fucking adore it.
I'm so glad hydrocodon not only relieves pain from surgeries, but it also relieves minor headaches with ease and fun :). Good stuff.
For all you Modest Mouse fans in my friends list... don't forget to watch Austin City Limits this Saturday night at midnight on PBS. It's a mini concert on tv :). Can't complain about the setlist... they got enough M&A in there to make it worthy of a watch. Plus it's Modest Mouse live. Also... Guided By Voices is on the same program, and they're calling it quits so might as well get a concert in. AND The Pixies are on the next Saturday! Their setlist looks fucking kickass. Tame, Where Is My Mind, Debaser, Gouge Away, etc... man.
Oh... I got a pretty boring and simple Modest Mouse poster on ebay. Reason being: it was the tour poster from the 98 show at the sapphire supper club (the social). Ahhhhhh...
The end of Simon And Garfunkel's The Boxer is totally epic :)
Go support Beep Beep next month at The Social. When I saw them with The Faint everyone there thought they sucked, but they were about 10x better than The Faint were. Some drunk girl was even so clever as to call them "Beep Suck [insert thumbs down and fart noise here]"... and they all seemed to like TV on the Radio who I thought were boring as crap (though I loved the black guy with the fro and glasses... totally hot). Anyhow, the Beep Beep show is fucking $8 and it's some fucking cool music. Excellent live band. Maybe they really do suck, I dunno. Parker liked them too, though... so I'm sticking with totally cool.
I'm sorry for talking so much about music. It's what I'm stuck spending my free time on, though. Since school started and I'm not saying up all night gaming (which used to take up SO MUCH of my time without me even knowing it), there are many a night where I'm stoned in my room, and there are very few better ways to pass time.
/end of music talk
Private stuff left for the private entry! What are the chances?!
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[16 Jan 2005|02:16pm] |
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music |
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Tilly And The Wall - Nights Of The Living Dead |
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This semester is alright. Only complaint I have is that is that on Mondays and Wednesdays my 2 classes are across campus form each other and 10 minutes apart. Sucks to find a seat in a 400 person class when you're late :(
On Tues/Thurs I fortunately have my 2 classes in the same room one after the other. So it makes up for all the walking the day before.
I'm going to quit my job at Hungry Howies very soon. That place sucks. It's already getting in the way with school, too. I have quite a bit saved from my other jobs still, so I'm really not worried about paying the few bills that I have to pay. I'm so glad I didn't put myself into a situation where I have to keep this job.
This song is really great. Too bad they're not playing with Bright Eyes like they were fucking scheduled too earlier. Now it's some bands I've never heard of. Oh well.
Upcoming Concerts:
Pedro the Lion later this month. @ the social
Bright Eyes early Feb @ hob
Enon early Feb (dunno if I'll go, though. They're not that great) @ the social
Beep Beep late Feb again ($8) @ the social
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[27 Dec 2004|04:59pm] |
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music |
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The Stone Roses - Waterfall |
] |
Just to clear things up from that last entry, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) interstates sent me something like 8 fucking Modest Mouse bootlegs in the mail. She even sent me a bootleg from my birthday in '99 that I only once breifly mentioned. Plus an Ugly Casonova solo accoustic. Let's not forget random badass stickers (<3 the helio sequence one) and a letter written on the back of a photocopied gorilla head (which is watching me sleep from my wall). Merry fucking Christmas. Your discs are in the mail, Judi. Keep in mind that I'm no artist.
Christmas was ridiculously uneventful.
I'm sick of the motherfucking cold/warm/cold/warm weather. Make up your fucking mind, GOSH! Of course Zack bought Napoleon Dynamite and we watched it again (6th... time...). My mom liked it a lot. I love my mom :)
I'm trying not to think about next semester :(
My site is down until further notice. I'm paying for the silly hosting but my 2 years with the benkees.com domain ended. I knew it was coming for about 2 months but I'm so goddamn lazy and poor that I never paid the 12 bucks for another year. I can't renew it right now because I guess it's up for bid... since they own it again I think they want to sell it to me for a higher price. Whatevs... I might have to buy a new domain and change the name of my site. That might be wise.
I pray to god that Mountain Dew Pitch Black goes into normal circulation. I love its mediciny taste.
I close today with a powerful quote from the coalition of Jewish Women Watching (www.jewishwomenwatching.com). Apparently they were giving out condoms at Georgia Tech and Esther picked this up and kept it for me. It states "This condom will NOT protect you from the real intentions of the Christian right wing. Abstinence from strange bedfellows is advised." I think that is some sage advice. Keep that in mind...
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[23 Dec 2004|03:28pm] |
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music |
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Modest Mouse - 09-26-01 - 03 -Trailer Trash |
] |
According to lore, interstates was born 2004 years ago, and we are celebrating her birthday in a couple days.
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| What we have here... is a failure.... to communicate |
[17 Dec 2004|05:37pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 hungry |
] |
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music |
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Smashing Pumpkins - Glass |
] |
Man, studying 10 minutes before your finals is so pimp.
I had a C all semester in Human Species, ended up with an B.
I also had a 57% in film before the final because I never looked at the notes before the other tests. Studied 10 minutes before the final, aced it, and ended up with a C+.
And I got an A in speech.
3.083, mother fucker.
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