As Above, So Below

What am I? I look on the street and see the cement in the sidewalks and the trash receptacles and the lamps for the night and think, “This is modern man.” Except it's only a sliver of a spectrum of cultures. That spectrum, though, only varies so much. We're all primates, and while our cultures frame our experiences, we all have similar if not the same sensory experiences. All we see, hear, smell, touch, and taste is phenomenologically processed and categorized by our minds. What then, of me, when I'm aware of this process? When I look at all the architecture in Philadelphia and my heart sinks. Why does it depress me? The people on the street are so sure of things. Family, loyalty, justice, god, etc. are all terms they're comfortable speaking authoritatively on. Never mind the priests who are comfortable to take a role in representing god. It all makes my mind spin.

I have a harder time imagining a universe that spontaneously exists than one spawned by some entity, but the rest, the details are uncertain. Surely any entity, any author of the universe, a god should be amused by the antics of man.

When I hear or see articles labeled “natural” or behaviors such as homosexual sodomy described as “unnatural”, or, as I have, encounter stories of technologies or practices “destroying nature”, I have to ask, “Isn't it all natural?” I mean, nature doesn't guarantee the survival of humans or the preservation of the planet. In fact, for at least the latter, I'd say what we understand indicates the opposite, that this planet is not going to last forever. We as a species may be doing ourselves in with our opposable thumbs and big brains, our technologies and even our agriculture. There are too many of us, and when this happens in “nature” there is often an event which serves to cull and restore the balance of life and the resources that life requires to perpetuate itself.

So, not to be apocalyptically whooped-up, or pessimistic, but to regard all of this with a sound perspective, I have to consider what it means. Should I have children? It doesn't appear that we, as a species, need that. However, I'm asking the question while others are out there breeding like rabbits. Humbly, I have to consider that those like myself who ask the questions are going to be outbred by those who just assume it's “natural” and god wants them to “go forth and multiply”. By my own logic, perhaps that's natural. Where does it leave me, though? Am I to learn to love the bomb?

I can end up giving myself a headache. Taking a page from Lucretius and friends I've met along the way, I can set myself to enjoyment in life. High thread count sheets, beautiful women, nice socks, travel, art, music, and let the world rot itself. I wish it were more easy for me to do that though. It's not easy for me.

So when I say, as I have, that I'd be willing to have myself fired into space alive, knowing full well that I'd not survive the journey, perhaps taking an agent to stop my heart at the same time the cold of space quickly preserves my body, with a full set of documentation in video and sound interfaces, so that, on the off chance I should ever be found (my interstellar sarcophagus should emit radio, laserlight, and other announcing indicators to draw attention) I could be reanimated if the technology exists (perhaps we have that technology, space is, depending where in space, quite cold), I'm dead serious. I'd do it next year, or any year when I had a year to prepare for it. I'd do it for man, to meet god, and for myself. Would you?

La piqûre - Karkwa
You Can't Always Get What You Want - The Rolling Stones
I Wish I Had an Evil Twin - The Magnetic Fields
La Folie - The Stranglers
Scattered Pearls - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
All the Umbrellas in London - The Magnetic Fields
Swan Lake: Act II. No. 14 Scène - Пётр Ильич Чайковский
It's A Wonderful Life - Sparklehorse
Lovely Day - Pixies
The flood in your old town - Candy Bars
Manta Ray - Pixies
You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son - Wolf Parade
Singapore - Tom Waits
Bitties in the BK Lounge - De La Soul
Instant Karma - John Hiatt
Kisses Over Babylon - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Ghost - Neutral Milk Hotel
A Shot In The Dark - Henry Mancini
1-2. Rachmaninov All-Night Vigil, 'Vespers' - Bless The Lord, O My Soull E. Wimeri - E. Wimeri, Finnish National Opera Chorus
Swallow - My Bloody Valentine
Cowbell - Tapes 'n Tapes
Dance Yrself Clean - LCD Soundsystem
Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem
Jus De Canneberges - Malajube
What Dogs See - Cymbals Eat Guitars
Hand-Me-Downs - Soul Position
I Was Born (A Unicorn) - The Unicorns
Comfort Eagle - CAKE
Hysteric - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Swans (Life After Death) - Islands
Gone Daddy Gone - Violent Femmes
Red Moon - The Walkmen
Black Cadillacs - Modest Mouse
Cleanse Song - Bright Eyes
Take It Easy - Surfer Blood
What We Had - Handsome Furs
Three Peaches - Neutral Milk Hotel
Commander Riker's Party - Think About Life
Treats - Sleigh Bells
In the Summertime - The Rural Alberta Advantage
Try - Colourmusic
Add It Up - Violent Femmes
Education - Modest Mouse
Joset of Nazareth's Blues - Titus Andronicus
The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Marching Theme - Neutral Milk Hotel
Lover I Don't Have to Love - Bright Eyes
Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts - Wolf Parade
Me And My Hand - Broken Social Scene
Spanish Gold, 2044 - Swan Lake
Handsome Furs Hate This City - Handsome Furs
Satan Said Dance - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Nature Springs - The Good, the Bad & the Queen
Cans - Tunng
Don't Haunt This Place - The Rural Alberta Advantage
The Deadroads - The Rural Alberta Advantage
White Light/White Heat - The Velvet Underground
Teeth in the Grass - Iron & Wine
Suco De Tangerina - Beastie Boys
Ode To Sunshine - Delta Spirit
English House - Fleet Foxes
Albert Camus - Titus Andronicus
The Gleam Pt. 2 - The Microphones
Let's Dance To Joy Division - The Wombats
A Bugged In Selection By Erol Alkan - Erol Alkan
Tessellate - Tokyo Police Club
Rabbit Habits - Man Man
clap your hands - Pale Young Gentlemen
Remember Severed Head - Clues
Left Foot Stepdown - The Bees
Anne Elephant - Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
(I'm A) Donkey For Your Love - BOAT
Railroad Man - Eels
March Into The Sea - Modest Mouse
Kiss Me Like You Mean It - The Magnetic Fields
Elope - Clues
Cannibal Resource - Dirty Projectors
Cave Mouth - Clues
Haarp - Clues
Two Characters in Search of a Country Song - The Magnetic Fields
Le Ruse - Tapes 'n Tapes
Healer - Chromatics
Volcanoes - Islands
Park Song - The Dodos
Shine a Light - Wolf Parade
Heavy Metal - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Stay Positive - The Hold Steady
Whalebones - Man Man
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight - The Postal Service
Mr. Soul - Neil Young
I'm Not Asleep - Vivian Girls
dropz - Peter Nalitch
Requiem - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Stop Breakin' Down Blues - Robert Johnson
Fields Are Breathing - Black Moth Super Rainbow
Gloria In Excelsis Deo - Antonio Vivaldi
Wanted Man (Live) - Johnny Cash
Hungarian Dance No. 5 - Johannes Brahms
The Maestro - Beastie Boys
Over and Over Again (Lost and Found) - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The World at Large - Modest Mouse
Haunted Graffiti - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
The Blue Danube - Johann Strauss II
No One Knows - Queens of the Stone Age
Someday Speaks Loudly - Colourmusic
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) - Nancy Sinatra
Kiss Kiss Is Getting Old - Les Savy Fav
Willow Tree - Chad VanGaalen
80's Life - The Good, the Bad & the Queen
Running Up That Hill - Chromatics
Young Shields - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
TNT - Tortoise
Melody - Serge Gainsbourg
With the Lights Turned Down - Throw Me the Statue
Gigantic Transatlantic Trunk Call (Bonus Track) - A.C. Newman
Gin & Milk - Dirty Pretty Things
MKK3 - These New Puritans
Andante Festivo - Jean Sibelius
Epitaph For My Heart - The Magnetic Fields
Windsurfing Nation - Broken Social Scene
White Queen to Black Knight - Six Finger Satellite
Time to Get Away - LCD Soundsystem
Thunder & Lightning - The Unicorns
Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen
Dinner Bells - Wolf Parade
The Ballad Of Butter Beans - Man Man
As A War - Pale Young Gentlemen
Put in A Little Gas - Colourmusic
Violets - Candy Bars
Tsuxiit - Islands
The Passenger - Iggy Pop
Modern World - Wolf Parade
Bullets - Tunng
Mykonos - Fleet Foxes
Crows - Clues
Perfect Fit - Clues
You Have My Eyes Now - Clues
In the Dream - Clues
Approach the Throne - Clues
Jogging Gorgeous Summer - Islands
Body - Mother Mother
If I Were A Carp - Final Fantasy
Digital - Joy Division
Le voyage de Penelope - Air
Cassius - Foals
The Gospel Song - Colourmusic
Dignified and Old - The Modern Lovers
Time To Pretend - MGMT
Forgiveness - Yeasayer
Circles - Colourmusic
Dead City/Waste Wilderness - Abe Vigoda
Eyepennies - Sparklehorse
Chrome's On It - Telepathe
Scene 7: Air de Mephistopheles: `Voici des roses' - Hector Berlioz
High On A Hill - The Little Ones
Challenge - Japanther
My Night With the Prostitute from Marseille - Beirut
The Basque Country - Candy Bars
Seventy-Nine - Japanther
Oh! How The Dogs Stack Up - Mogwai
Allegro - Franz Joseph Haydn
Partie Traumatic - Black Kids
Future Reflections - MGMT
God? - The Dodos
Sinking Feeling - Mixel Pixel
Blackout! - The Cloud Room
Из ресторана - Peter Nalitch
Your Pretty Sphinx Voice - The Sour Notes
Bad Kids - Black Lips
All Night - Figurines
Red And Purple - The Dodos
Sunshine and Clouds (and Everything Proud) - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Humans - Islands
Looking Over My Shoulder - A Big Yes And A Small No
Cupid Always Misses (The Ba Ba Song) - The Muttering Retreats
What A Fucking Mess This Turned Out To Be - A Big Yes And A Small No
Claire, Are We Safe To Be On Our Own? - The Deirdres
2080 - Yeasayer
Allegory Gets Me Hot - Times New Viking
Faded Away - A Big Yes And A Small No
Upon Viewing Brueghel's "Landscape With The Fall of Icarus" - Titus Andronicus
Midnight And I - White Rabbits
Контрабанды - Мумий Тролль
Nightless Night - Husky Rescue
Herring Bone - Department of Eagles
Act III: Sull'aria - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro: Voi che sapete, che cosa e amor - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro: Overture - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Night Drive - Chromatics
Feedback in the Field - Plants and Animals
Is This Love? - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ - Titus Andronicus
Mind Traveler's Song - Univox
Pi - Univox
Ghost Under Rocks - Ra Ra Riot
Hospital - The Modern Lovers
Spring Song - Colourmusic
Mercy - Plants and Animals
Three Changes - The Good, the Bad & the Queen
Chicken Pox - I'm from Barcelona
Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
Poor Jackie - Man Man
Long-Forgotten Fairytale - The Magnetic Fields
At the Bottom of Everything - Bright Eyes
Rehab - Amy Winehouse
Crowd of Drifters - The Magnetic Fields
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown - Augustus Pablo
The Movement of a Hand - Bright Eyes
Unforgettable Season - Cut Copy
A Simple Way to Go Faster Than Light That Does Not Work - Tortoise
Creep - Radiohead
Honeybear - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Lua - Bright Eyes
Cloche - French Kicks
I'll Believe in Anything - Wolf Parade
Kingdom of Doom - The Good, the Bad & the Queen
String - Tunng
Ariel Ramirez - Richard Buckner
Major Label Debut - Broken Social Scene
Mask - Chromatics
Promise - Violent Femmes
I Heard It Through The Grapevine - The Slits
A Song for the Deaf - Queens of the Stone Age
The Hunger - The Cloud Room
Titus Andronicus - Titus Andronicus
I Believe in Symmetry - Bright Eyes
Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day) - Broken Social Scene
O Lazy Days - M. Ward
Jail Guitar Doors - The Clash
Down Boy - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Infinitely Late at Night - The Magnetic Fields
Arms - Tunng
Bodysnatchers - Radiohead
Blood On Our Hands (Justice Remix) - Death from Above 1979
Stairway to Heaven - Rodrigo y Gabriela
Us Ones in Between - Sunset Rubdown
Crosstown Traffic - Jimi Hendrix
Nimrod's Son - Pixies
The Spider And The Fly - Elf Power
Oh Comely - Neutral Milk Hotel
The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel
Landlocked Blues - Bright Eyes
In Heaven/Where is My Mind? - Pixies
Passing Me By - The Pharcyde
Love Song No. 7 - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Dancing with Jean-Maurice (Album Version) - Les Pires
Guilty Rocks - múm
The Russian - The Bees
Veni Vidi Vici - Black Lips
B For My Name - Beastie Boys
El Condor Pasa (If I Could) - Simon & Garfunkel
Nude - Radiohead
Brazil - Arcade Fire
Neighborhood #2 (Laïka) - Arcade Fire
Everything Is - Neutral Milk Hotel
Wet And Rusting - Menomena
Bang Your Drum - Wolf Parade
Winter Windows - Sea Wolf
Why? - Andrew Bird
Tango Till They're Sore - Tom Waits
Lil' Red Riding Hood - Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs
Tight Fit - New Young Pony Club
Ice Cream - New Young Pony Club
In the Rushes - Islands
Abominable Snow - Islands
Missing Pieces - Voxtrot
Emasculate the Masculine - The Unicorns
Panis Et Circenses - Os Mutantes
No Cars Go - Arcade Fire
Right in the Head - M. Ward
The Captain - The Knife
Happy - The Wrens
Peel Back The Moon, Beware! - Elf Power
Everyday I Love You Less and Less - Kaiser Chiefs
Song for the Dead - Sea Wolf
Jumping Someone Else's Train - The Cure
Mama, Won't You Keep Those Castles In The Air And Burning? - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Shoplifters of the World Unite - The Smiths
If - Islands
Carry Around - Annuals
The Well and the Lighthouse - Arcade Fire
The Truth (feat. Roisin and J-Live) - Handsome Boy Modeling School
Bratislava - Beirut
Smoke and Mirrors - The Magnetic Fields
Walking In My Shoes - Depeche Mode
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - Arcade Fire
Israelites - Desmond Dekker
did i step on your trumpet? - Danielson
The State I Am In - Belle and Sebastian
Simple X - Andrew Bird
Publisher - Blonde Redhead
Quiver and Quake - Elf Power
Skin Is, My - Andrew Bird
It's a Curse - Wolf Parade
Road to Joy - Bright Eyes
Baby - Os Mutantes
Fraulein - Pale Young Gentlemen
The Prayer - Bloc Party
I Want Your Love - Chromatics
I'm Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart - Eels
Stand - The Bees
The Fool - Neutral Milk Hotel
$20 - M.I.A.
Spiral Stairs - Elf Power
Shut Up I Am Dreaming of Places Where Lovers Have Wings - Sunset Rubdown
My Light, Maria - Pale Young Gentlemen
The Dance of the Hours - The Clientele
Checkout Blues - Eels
Postcards From Italy - Beirut
Spoons - Tunng
Jodi - The Dodos