Kilroy, blah, blah, blah.

Originally uploaded by tonystl.

Basement still life

Originally uploaded by tonystl.

These are my favorites of my 2008. I say my 2008 because some of these didn’t come out in 2008 but I discovered them in 2008. Meaning, these are my favorite songs that I discovered this year. Others may have all ready heard them and forgotten them, but I just unearthed them this year.
Enjoy.

Machine Gun • Portishead
Modern Guilt • Beck
Bright Red Helmet • Styrofoam
Inní mér syngur vitleysingur • Sigur Rós
In a Cave • Tokyo Police Club
Write On • Sleeping In The Aviary
The Captive Mind • The Helio Sequence
35 Ghosts IV • Nine Inch Nails
Blue Tulip • Okkervil River
We Got The Power (Love Letter From America) • The Born Again Floozies
Wild International • One Day As A Lion
Crawl • Kings of Leon
Everything Is Exactly What It Seems • Slow Runner
Song in C • All India Radio
Evil Urges • My Morning Jacket
The Thoughts That Give Me the Creeps • Hellogoodbye

Excellent choice America.

It begins today.
A new age.
A new time.
A better time.
A changing time.
A different view.
A clearer view.
A brighter view.
A renewed appearance around the world.
A renewed cooperation around the world.
An extension of an olive branch.
An extension of King’s idea.

I’m voting today for Barack Obama and I can’t wait.

I’m the only one subscribed to my Feed,
refreshing it every day.

Flickring my life away,
Facing the books on my life’s shelf.

Trying to make the connection,
P2P through the city.

Networking the network,
wardriving through the neighborhood.

Hexadecimal dreams,
with 128-bit encryption.

Don’t ASCII how I’m doing,
I’m still working on my character.

slinking shoes
over stairs

hushed conversation
burning ears

asked me to see it your way
but you’re blind

like a paraplegic priest
talking with his hands

we’ve gone over this
and over this

coming over isn’t the same
and I think I’m over.

I remember there being a lot of talk about Obama being an elitist (a loaded word for uppity intellectual who isn’t like you and me in reglar ‘murrica).

I was browsing MetaFilter today (as I’m apt to do during a regular work day) and came across this post.

Powerful, quiet photos of Barack Obama

Now, in this set of photos, by the photographer Callie Shell, there is one that really struck a cord with me.
This one
The caption:

Senator Obama was doing press interviews by telephone in a holding room between events. Sometime later as he was getting ready to begin his event, he asked me if I was photographing his shoes. When I said yes, he told me that he had already had them resoled once since he entered the race a year earlier. Providence, R.I., 3/1/2008.

Now, contrast this with the “real-American” candidates. The Republican Party Vice-Presidential nominee, small-town born and bred, Sarah Palin.
A story on Politico shows that the RNC reportedly spent $150,000 on vetting, I mean, clothing the Palins.

This doesn’t sit well with me. Coming from the side that’s been riding on the “small-town, real ‘Murrica, real values, just like you, Joe the Plumber, Hockey Moms and Joe Six-Packs” this doesn’t look very good.

It’s easy for me to make this argument. I’m an Obama supporter and eventual voter. But, if I was part of “Real America,” I would think long and hard about this. I mean, the Presidential Candidate already has 7 houses and multiple cars.

I don’t know too many plumbers who have multiple houses and can take their wives and thousand dollar shopping sprees.

And think of how many six-packs that Joe could have bought?

And so right in the middle i think of the bowling alley.

The one back home that smells. Smells like a bowling alley smells; stale shoes, old balls, spilt beer. Just nasty. Rotten quarters and sticky carpet. Bordem. Hatred. Loss. Loneliness.

There’s a lonliness in a bowling alley. No windows; dark at 2 p.m. Quiet, except for an occasional rumble. Thundering toward a crescendo. EXPLOSION! Or sometimes… silence.

The sound of a missed opportunity.

I can’t wait to vote for the first Black President,
to tell my grandchildren that I helped usher in a new direction for America.

I can’t wait to vote for the first Black President,
to feel the rush of fresh air, the charged ions of new ideas.

I can’t wait to vote for the first Black President,
to hopefully move from hate to understanding.

I can’t wait to vote for the first Black President,
and to never hear from Sarah Palin again.

I can’t wait to vote for the first Black President,
to show the supposed “Real Americans” that more people disagree with them than agree.

I can’t wait to vote for the first Black President,
to try and heal the wounds created by W.

I can’t wait to vote for the first Black President,
to show the rest of the world that we’ve move beyond the 1860s.

I can’t wait to vote for the first Black President,
to show the world that we have our heads on straight.

I can’t wait to vote for the first Black President,
to show the world that we care about things other than reality shows.

I can’t wait to vote for the first Black President,
to show the world the we give a fuck again.

I can’t wait to vote for the first Black President,
to show that we can rise above the dreck of the lowest common denominator.

I can’t wait to vote for the first Black President,
so “That One” can show “Those People” that their hatred is misguided, ill-informed and embarrassing to the rest of America.