My Favorite Photo of the Day

Here's another favorite of mine. I took it at Bear Trap Ranch near Colorado Springs, Colorado. It's one of my favorites because of the angle (I have a thing for high/low angle shots) and the greenish black-and-white filter I put on it.

It turned out sweet, and you TOO can experience the sweetness every day! Just go here and order it online, and a 8x10 glossy print will be on the way in no time.

Hehe. Self-advertising.

Shuffleboard 3

#1 "Safe And Sound" by Chris Cornell from Carry On

I first found Chris Cornell after he sung the title song "You Know My Name" from Casino Royale. My friend had his solo album (I since then discovered Audioslave, and liked their first CD immensely), and it is mostly enjoyable, if mostly predictable.

This is one of the mostly forgettable songs. Weird balladish-vibe, boring lyrics, and inexplicable trumpets.

Cornell is better with Rage Against The Machine backing him.

#2 "Heaven Or Hell" by Lecrae from Real Talk

Lecrae is one of the most underrated rappers out there today. He's a Christian, and you can't help but tell. There's not one song of his that doesn't present the Gospel and can't lead you to Christ. He takes Romans 1:16 seriously.

This track is best summed up by it's hook:

"I hope that ya'll listening well, there's only two places to dwell
Heaven and Hell
And if you representing the first, I pray you're representing well
Heaven and Hell."

#3 "The Incredits" by Michael Giacchino from The Incredibles

I love Michael Giacchino. He's a fresh composer that writes some varied and exciting stuff, including the scores to The Incredibles, Ratatouille, LOST, Fringe, MI:3, and a bunch of other stuff.

He's fresh, got great ideas, and he writes very uniquely for each project.

For instance, his score for The Incredibles (the first score of his I heard), is heavily jazz-influenced, with markings of old-school superhero music and action music. Just a really fun score.

And, as you can see from the track title, he names his tracks really entertaining things.

#4 "Main Theme" by Hans Zimmer from Black Hawk Down

Black Hawk Down is one of the essential guy movies, up there with Braveheart, Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, etc.

Hans Zimmer wrote a great, if predictable, score, that basically invented the rock/Arabic crossover music that's used so heavily in video games now.

This is one of his more creative tracks, with a woman and man singing in Breton, a celtic language. I have no idea why it's called the Main Theme, because the main theme is either bullets or Zimmer's pounding bass.

Still, it's haunting, and a cool contrast to the crazy war theme of the movie.

#5 "Up and Up" by Relient K from Five Score and Seven Years Ago

Good ol' Relient K. I've already posted why I love this band.

And this song is no exception. This is a great fresh start, motiviational, pump it up song. And on their B-sides album, it had a great acoustic version.

"I'm just trying to be a better version of me for you."

Good stuff.

My Favorite Photo of the Day

I'll be featuring some of my favorite photos I've ever taken, along with the link to my etsy store in case you want a print of it.

I really like this one. First of all, it features my awesome orange Converse All-Stars, my awesome shoes. It also has Strong Hall, the administration building at KU. I don't have the fondest memories of that building (I had a class in it, and it doesn't have air conditioning), but it's a landmark.

I took this during my last day of classes at KU, and it was taken from one of my favorite spots, Wescoe Beach. Which is actually just a huge concrete area in front of Wescoe Hall, a horrible-looking building. But it's fun to hang out there.

Etsy link can be found here.

The Omegle Project

As you may or may not know, Omegle is a weird website that lets you randomly chat with a random stranger anonymously.

I decided to try an experiment with it and ask random strangers what they thought of Obama.

Here are the responses. Most are surprisingly civil.

#1 The Talkative Calm Person (a.k.a. the Internet Rarity)

You: What do you think of Obama?

Stranger: He is the worst president ever.

You: Why?

Stranger: His policies suck, he's hurting our country...

You: I'm doing this as a blog experiment for http://the-reactor.blogspot.com. Are you an American?

Stranger: Yes, I am.

You: Did you vote for him?

Stranger: No. McCain.

You: And what do think is America's future with Obama as president?

Stranger: Honestly... not good.

Stranger: If he suceeds in some of the things he wants to do, America may cease to exist.

Stranger: Which scares me.

You: What things would cause that, do you think?

Stranger: Well, we have already seen his economic plans do not work.

Stranger: Our unemployment is up, economy is done, companies are shutting down faster than ever.

Stranger: His plans he has set up are failing. The Cash For Clunkers thing? That lasted 4 days before we lost so much money, they had to stop it.

Stranger: And, with the health care policy, more people will become sick, and probably die from lack of treatment.

Stranger: He is doing nothing for education which continues to get worse in America.

Stranger: I could go on all day. lol

You: Well I think that's more than enough info. Thanks for your time, and be sure to check out the blog post!

#2 The Non-Starter (there were dozens of these)

Stranger: JULIANA

You: What do you think of Obama?

Your conversational partner has disconnected.

#3 The Tangential Wanderer

You: What do you think of Obama?

Stranger: hey

You: What do you think of Obama?

Stranger: cool

Stranger: :)

You: Why is he cool?

Stranger: from?

Your conversational partner has disconnected.

#4 The Racist

Stranger: yo

You: What do you think of Obama?

Stranger: I think his attempt to reform healthcare is admirable but hes a n***** so it will never get done

You: Alright, that's all I needed. Thanks.

Stranger: your welcome

#5 The One-Word Canadian

Stranger: hi

You: What do you think of Obama?

Stranger: hes alright

You: Why do you think that?

Stranger: idk

You: I'm doing this for a blog experiment on the-reactor.blogspot.com. How well do you think he's running the country?

Stranger: im from canada, so i dont know

You: Do you and your friends talk/hear much about him?

Stranger: no.

You: So do you have an opinion either way?

Stranger: naww

You: Alright. Thanks for your time.

Stranger: yep

#6 The Word-Of-Mouth Only Dane

Stranger: From?

You: What do you think of Obama?

You: I'm doing this for a blog experiment on the-reactor.blogspot.com.

Stranger: I dont know much about him

You: Where are you from?

Stranger: But I like that he wants to close Guantanamo :D

Stranger: Denmark

You: What is the general feeling about Obama in Denmark?

Stranger: Uhm, I think we like him pretty much ^^

You: Any particular reasons?

Stranger: Ehm, no idea xD

You: Just like him just because?

Stranger: I dont know, but I never hear anything bad about him

You: What kinds of things DO you hear?

Stranger: Nothing actually. But people dont like Bush over here..

You: Why is that?

Stranger: No idea

Stranger: I just hear people say that they dont like him .___.

You: Alrighty, thanks for your time. Be sure to check out the blog.

Stranger: Okay

#7 The Misspelling Anti-Bush Person

Note "quantanamo" and "irak."

You: What do you think of Obama?

You: I'm doing this for a blog experiment on the-reactor.blogspot.com

Stranger: I think he is better than BUSH

Stranger: :P but i wouldnt call him a messiah or anything

Stranger: :P

You: Why do you think he's better than Bush?

Stranger: for starters

Stranger: he is not from texas :P

Stranger: just joking about that part

Stranger: he has a fresh look on things

You: Any specific things?

Stranger: closing quantanamo bay

You: Any other things?

Stranger: removing the soldiers from irak :P

Stranger: anti-war thingy

You: And where are you from?

Stranger: removes the image of the former warlord america had :P

Stranger: former american

Stranger: living somewhere else

Stranger: :P

You: Where do you live now?

Stranger: Amsterdam

Stranger: Holland

You: Gotcha. Alrighty, thanks for your time. Be sure to check out the-reactor.blogspot.com for the post.

Stranger: yeah

#8 The New Yorker Who Likes Billy Mays

You: What do you think of Obama?

Stranger: got milk?

Stranger: ROPFL

Stranger: hes OK i guess

Stranger: i like bilyl mays better

You: Why do you like Obama?

You: I'm doing this for a blog experiment on the-reactor.blogspot.com

Stranger: why do i ?

You: Yes, why do you like Obama?

Stranger: bc hes a democrat he has the same views as i except internation health care

You: And where are you from?

Stranger: or free health care its a nice idea but no

Stranger: NY

You: What do you disagree with him about then?

Stranger: his health care ideas :P

Your conversational partner has disconnected.

#9 The Baconface Rough Starter (who actually turned out to have good answers)

Stranger: BAcoNFacE?

You: What do you think of Obama?

Stranger: He deserves to be President rather than Hilary or Mcain.

You: And why is that?

You: I'm doing this for an experiment for the-reactor.blogspot.com

Stranger: Because Mcain's whole campaign was just his life story and how much he wanted to be president. D<
& Hilary I just don't think should be the first woman president.

You: So why do you like Obama specifically?

Stranger: he's trying / going to fix the mistakes that Bush made
and doing rather well if you ask me.

You: Doing well in what respects?

Stranger: He's done a lot of work in the short time he's been president. Already making actions to stop the war.

You: And what do you think of America's future with him as president?

Stranger: I hope that we can fix some things that he promised to fix during his campaign, like the war & healthcare & whatnot.

You: Alrighty, thanks for your time! Be sure to check out the post at the-reactor.blogspot.com.

#10 The Not-Sure-Who-Obama-Is Moon Person

You: What do you think of Obama?

Stranger: i love him

You: Why is thaat?

Stranger: he does good sex

Stranger: thout

You: Please explain.

Stranger: who is obama

You: He's the president of the United States. Where are you from?

Stranger: moon

Stranger: not bush

You: What's not Bush?

Stranger: gorge bush

You: What about Bush?

Stranger: i do not know

You: Okay, thanks for your time. This was for a blog experiment on the-reactor.blogspot.com. be sure to check it out.

Stranger: r u m /f?

Why I Like Small Towns

Journalists have preferences about what kinds of things they cover. Some like the event coverage, some like magaziney-featurey stuff, some like straight up hard news.

But each journalist also has preferences about WHERE they like to cover. Metro, college town, small town, they're all different.

As for myself, I prefer small towns.

Before I start off, let me tell you where I'm coming from.

I grew up in Columbia, Missouri, which is a modest-sized city of around 100,000 people. I never really paid attention to the paper there, the Tribune, but I can guess what would be covered.

When I was in middle school, my family lived in Singapore, due to my father's work for 3M. Since it was another country, I don't know if I can equate my knowledge of journalism to that, since laws and practices would be drastically different. But the reason I mention this is to say that I have definitely experienced living in a mega-city. Singapore is around 15 by 30 miles big, and has around five million people in it.

Yeah, it's dense.

After that, my family moved to Hutchinson, Minnesota, a town of 15,000. This is where I first got involved in journalism in high school after job-shadowing the editor of the local paper there, the Leader. I wrote monthly for the paper all through high school, and then interned there during college a few years back.

While in Lawrence for journalism school at KU, I read the Journal-World regularly, and worked at/read the University Daily Kansan.

Now that I'm here in Kansas City, I read the Kansas City Star.

Here's the point. I have lived and experienced both big-city and small-town journalism.

And I really prefer small-town work.

I had an interview today at the Miami County Republic, a small biweekly paper in Paola, Kansas, and I really hope I get a job there. There's something different about working in a small town.

In a reporting gig in a big paper, you're pretty limited. You're the concert reporter for this side of town, that kind of thing. You only cover city council meetings. For every working of the city, there's a reporter to cover it.

In a small town, the same sort of things happen. Crime, city council, everything. But smaller papers don't have the staff to have a dedicated reporter for every little section of content, so reporters get to do a little bit of everything.

Assuming (hopefully) that I got this position, I would most likely cover everything from a new Dairy Queen owner (that story did actually run in Republic) to the latest property dispute, all in addition to probably taking my own pictures and creating the online content.

Since the j-school at KU harps "convergence" all the time and makes us practice it all (writing, shooting, editing, etc.), I feel like I would be exercising only half my knowledge were I to work in a small beat at a big paper.

I prefer the smaller town journalism because you still get to cover big issues, you just have the opportunity to cover them a lot more intimately.

And I would get to take pictures.

Reactor Flashback 4

I know, I know. I'm gonna have a new post up in a few days. Sorry about the cop-out entries, but I want these opinions out there, too.

Here's an old post from September 30, 2008 called "Humor Is Necessary."

--------------------------------------------------------

You remember those guys at JibJab, right? They made what quite possibly gave rise to the genre of YouTube videos four years ago when they published "This Land," a video making fun of Bush and Kerry.
The operative word here is "both."
"It's Time for some Campaignin'" is so great because it does just that. It makes fun of both candidates while still getting across some of their main campaign ideals.
Alright, it does it with McCain in a tank and Obama on a rainbow unicorn, but the point still stands.
Why can't we just make fun of everybody?
"The Daily Show" routinely makes fun of politics, but leans a little far left. Bill O' Reilly makes of the politics, and leans a little far right. JibJab has stumbled across the goldmine of comedy:
Making fun of both sides!
If you truly want to be respected by both sides, you must be able to work both sides and appeal to everyone. I love watching the Daily Show, but sometimes it just makes my skin crawl.
I personally like Glenn Beck, although sometimes he blows things way out of proportion.
I have yet to see, besides JibJab, anyone able to make fun of both sides and not have a "bias."
On a side note, even though this video was indeed making fun of both sides, isn't it ironic, the portrayal of both candidates?
Obama is a fruity skipping guy who rides a unicorn over a rainbow and sings about nothing but change.
McCain is a wizened, hardened, tank-riding old guy.
But what does he sing about?
Stopping the jihad.
Hmm. Obama sings about ambiguous change, and McCain sings about actually doing something specific. Could all this tomfoolery possibly have a nugget of truth in it?
Just a side note.
If we can't have humor in this election, or even in our everyday life, then how can we even survive?
Humor is vital to our everyday lives. We must be able to find humor in everyday things, even something as mundane as the elections.

Reactor Flashback 3

I just flipped past The View earlier today and was reminded of this old Reactor post called "Whoopi-Doo" I did on September 22, 2008.

I HATE The View.

Please watch this video first.

After watching that video, what is your initial reaction?
Are you in agreement? Are you incensed?
Or here's a better question:
Have you even heard of this incident before now?
Here's the background for those of you who can't view the video above.
McCain was talking about constitutionalism regarding the (in)famous Roe v. Wade case passed down in 1973, and saying that he would appoint Justices to the Supreme Court that would interpret the Constitution "the way our founding fathers envision for them to do."
Sounds like a normal Republican response. Yay. But then Goldberg comes out of LEFT field with this question:
"Should I worry about being a slave, being returned to a slave?"
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you read that correctly. She asked if she should be worried about slavery returning to the United States.
Apparently she's never heard of the 13th, 14th, or 15th Amendments, ratified in 1865, 1868, and 1870 respectively, that guarantee African-Americans rights they did not have before those Amendments.
So apparently Goldberg thinks that the Amendments to the Constitution are really just suggestions, and don't really count as actual parts of the Constitution.
That is incredibly ignorant and insensitive. That question shows just how much ignorance regarding politics has sprung up in our country, and how little is being done to stop it. When I checked on this video at 5:30p.m., September 23rd, 2008, it had 42,595 views. That is an incredibly SMALL number compared to an interview Charlie Gibson had with Sarah Palin one day earlier, which now has 257,559 views.
What's going on here?
Goldberg asked what may be one of the stupidest and most offensive questions in this political season, and no one talked about it. I actually found out about it through conservative pundit Glenn Beck, who posted a transcript of his radio show here.
How is it that this went completely under the radar? Why are we letting people like Goldberg ask supposedly serious questions to the candidates? Why aren't people fighting BACK, and asking good questions, and telling ignoramuses like Goldberg to let us big boys do the talking?
This is a problem in our society today, and we need to start being INFORMED about our political decisions, and not just saying "poignant" and "scathing" questions to get a rise out of people.
And so, Ms. Goldberg, if you ever read this, please, PLEASE take a 10th grade civics class again before you try to get involved with politics.

Why Twitter Is Dumb (or why I don't see the point)

It's been awhile since I've had a good ol' ranting post, so here goes.

Twitter is dumb. I thought so when it came out, I tried it, deleted my account, and still think it's dumb, no matter what Oprah says.

Since facebook and Twitter are similar, I'm going to use one to talk about the other.

When facebook started a long time ago, it was a great way of getting connected with people at your college. When I first joined facebook in 2005, about a year after it had launched, it was just people at your local school, about 40 or 50 percent of universities were on it, and it was just a profile and a wall to write things on. That was IT. No status updates, no high schoolers and moms, no applications, nothing else extraneous. Not even private messaging.

Now, I'm not saying that all that new stuff is bad, in fact, I play Mafia Wars, talk to my mom, and have even used facebook messages to communicate about everything from parties to newspaper articles I worked on.

Which brings me to Twitter.

When facebook launched the status updates sometime in early 2006(the earliest mine goes back is March 5, 2007, and it says "Caleb Sommerville ready for a break." That took like 30 minutes to find.), it was a little awkward, but gradually grew into a fun way to communicate where you were, what you were doing, and let your friends (and then, your family...) that you weren't studying in the least bit.

When Twitter launched in early 2007, it was basically just the status update part of facebook. Nothing else. A tiny picture of yourself, an odd "tagging" system, and a way to search other people's statuses.

That's it, and that's all it remains as to this day.

And then, last year, Oprah tried it, and the whole world nerded out and Tweeted about everything, calling it revolutionary and microblogging and a whole of other things, even though facebook had been doing the same and more for the past two years.

Here's my problem with Twitter. It's a ripoff of status updates that's even less interesting then your uncle's facebook page that he updated once with "Artie Blankovich is trying out the whole Facebook thing. Weird Stuff!" It's not revolutionary, and microblogging is a made up word to go along with a concept that facebook status updates aced long before this.

The ability to "tag"/search through statuses is okay, I guess, and some have even tried using it to track trends and current events, but it isn't nearly accurate/scientific enough to warrant keeping around just for that purpose. Facebook even tried doing that a while ago with a trend engine. I don't know if it's still around.

In fact, for all the chatter, Twitter users aren't even that loyal. In a Nielsen study that was updated in April 2009, around 60% of all Twitter users abandon it within the first month.

Come to think of it, that's about as long as I had my twitter account.

The point is, it's facebook status updates sans the facebook. It's design is pretty sleek, and facebook even remodeled with rounded edges and a sleeker look after Twitter came around.

But all in all, slick design and questionable tracking options do not back up the buzz surrounding this "service."

And don't even get me started on how susceptible it is to hackers.

Shuffleboard 2

This time, we're going with five random songs from my iTunes, along with why I have them, and why I like/dislike them.

#1 "Etude No. 2" by Philip Glass from Glass: Etudes for Piano

Man, Philip Glass is another one of those severely underrated musicians out there today. He's a composer and classical pianist that I almost got the chance to go see in Lawrence last April, but missed out on. I regret that immensely.

Some may say his music all sounds the same, but he is REALLY good at minimalist and surreal piano work. Even orchestral work, as evidenced from his work on The Illusionist and the odd documentary Naqoyqatsi.

This track is from an album of just him and his piano, and it's a great mellow listen. Very unique and modern style, and interesting and complex enough to listen to both passively and actively.

I apologize for the random video, but it has a chunk of this piece in the background.

#2 "Mess Around" by Ray Charles, from Ray soundtrack

In keeping with the piano theme, this is one of my favorite Ray Charles songs. You can't help but start dancing and singing to this classic, and the piano work is creative and a lot of fun.

And it has a pretty sweet tenor solo. I used to play sax (alto, actually), so I'm always partial to sax features.

This song is just plain fun.

#3 "Charles In Charge" by Relient K from Relient K

Ah, old school Relient K. Back when they weren't popular, they were...well, still awesome. Certainly a less polished sound than they have now, but still fun, random, and surprisingly musically talented. Everyone thinks that punk/rock bands just know three chords and one drum beat, but Relient K has proven themselves to be unique time and time again with each new album.

In fact, I used one of their songs to propose to my wife. But that's another story for another time.

This is one of their short punk songs, and I think it's a remake of a crappy 80s sitcom. It's fun, and has a sweet solo I learned in high school and played with my friend Jeremy, who was my best man a month ago.

So, at the part when someone yells "Hey this'll be Matt Thessian on solo guitar! He's a bomb!" just replace his name with mine.

I miss high school sometimes. And sometimes I say crazy things.

#4 "Molussus" by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, from Batman Begins soundtrack

Gotta love me some Hans. While one of the most yawningly consistant composers out there today (everything is the same, drum beats, bass, electronic this and that, etc.), when he's paired up with a melodic guru like Howard, good stuff comes out. The score for Begins and Dark Knight are two of the darkest, moodiest, and most fitting scores to a movie I've every seen. Sure they're poppy and predictable, but their stuff is memorable and fitting to the movie. Batman doesn't need more than two notes for his theme, because Batman is not a musical character, he is a moody darkness.

And they really capture that.

As for this particular track, I couldn't tell you where it is in the movie other than it's quite entertaining and capture the movie's main themes, Zimmer's electronic bass and drum beat, and Howard's eerie string use.

And as for the name, it really bugs me that they named all the tracks on this album after bat species. Cool idea as a subtitle maybe, but annoying as all get out when you're trying to remember which track is which.

#5 "As Long As You're Mine" by Idina Menzel and Leo Norbert Butz from Wicked

I know, I have some musicals in my iTunes. Whatever. They're catchy.

And Wicked is pretty darn catchy. Genius work tying it to a childhood story that everyone knows, giving it some adultish content, and voila, you've got a non-sucky prequel.

This is a love song, and one of the most intense ones I've heard. The pounding chords and tight duet make it seem like they're about to get to it right on stage, and makes for a great song.

Sadly, I've never seen the whole musical (I only got the soundtrack from my sister), so I don't get the full effect, but it's still pretty entertaining as far as epic-sounding songs go.

Reactor Flashback 2

Here's a post I wrote on September 15, 2008 called "Chill Out."

-----------------------------------------

"The GOP is disgusting."
"If you vote for this guy [Obama] you are an uninformed political idiot and an intellectually lazy moron period."
These are just some of the statements flying around these days. The election, which is supposed to be the shining moment of American Democracy, has become a time for people to hate each other and become extremely polarized.
America is supposed to be a place of harmony and democracy and of people working together. With each election, it seems like people hate each other more and more.
In an article in the Washington Post from March of 2006, a study was done to test American's "vitriol" that "accompanies party politics."
"These data show that on balance, Democrats' and Republicans' evaluations of a president of the other party have steadily soured," authors Shanto Iyengar and Richard Morin said.
And that was two YEARS ago. Imagine if they did the same study today. The study was related to how people affiliated with either party ranked the incumbent president, and the study showed that people are moving more and more towards the extremes (i.e. "strongly approve" or "strongly disapprove").
It's time, to borrow a superbuzzword from this election, to have some change.
How about we DON'T yell at each other about how the other side is stupid?
How about we DON'T tell each other to "go back to school?"
How about we DON'T base our votes simply on who Oprah says is awesome?
How about we DO research the issues?
How about we DO have civil discussion with our opposites and see their point of view?
That is what is supposed to make America so great; this melting pot of ideas.
As I've heard recently, but I forget where, America is supposed to be a melting pot, but it's more like a pot with a whole lot of ingredients that hasn't melted yet.
Get a fire lit under our butts and let's actually work together to choose he who is best for our country.
I know who I'm voting for, but I'm not about to yell at the other side for not agreeing with me.
Chill Out, everyone.

Music I Want: Muse-The Resistance

As promised in the intro post, I will be talking about anything and everything on this blog. That includes music.

Who This Is:

Muse is one of the most severely underrated bands around today. I think they're big in the UK, where they're from, but they could certainly be bigger here in the States. One can only listen to "Kids" by MGMT so many times on the radio.

Muse, to quote a DJ on the same station that plays the above linked song at least four times a day, is one of the few bands that does the epic arena rock feel and consistently kicks your a$% doing it.

I couldn't agree more.

Their first album, Showbiz, was released near the end of 1999, to little critical acclaim or anything, really. They've since released 3 other albums, "Origin of Symmetry," "Absolution," and "Black Holes and Revelations." Their new album, "The Resistance," is set to come out September 14th.

And yes, those albums are indeed as weird as their titles suggest.

To accurately describe Muse's style would be like trying to describe Coldplay's serious shift in style from "X&Y" to "Viva La Vida." The same elements are always present, but from album to album, and even song to song, the style changes so dramatically that it's hard to categorize. In my iTunes, however, I simply have Muse categorized as Epic Rock. This video will explain that.

What I want:

That song was off their "Black Holes and Revelations" album. And they consistently sound that huge, epic, and heavy. And there's only three guys in the band.

Their new album, "The Resistance," certainly looks to be a lot more political than their previous albums, and even those were pretty strong at times. And I really want it.

Only two tracks are available yet, and I have gotten a hold of both of them.

Why I Want It:

The first to be released was "United States of Eurasia," and what a trip it was. It starts much the same as Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," with the lead singer, Matthew Bellamy, singing over a mellow piano and strings part. Bellamy, in addition to having an unnaturally large range, is also an accomplished classical pianist and incredible guitarist.

Then, in a very Queen-y moment, the band splits into three-part harmony and wailing guitar riffs with this line: "Why split these states, when there can be only one?"

Then, in true Muse-what-the-@#$#-are-they-doing, they break into some Arabic stuff, and then back to piano-themed, one-noted bass-line verse.

Bellamy then sings about the unification of something (the world maybe? it's very tongue-in-cheek about America and Britain trying to push its stuff on every one else), and just before a Chopin outro complete with children playing and bombs dropping, the band chants "Eurasia! -Sia! -Sia!"

Here's the video, and yes, it's as weird and eclectic as I described.

The other song that's coming up on the album is the first track, actually. "Uprising" starts with a weird synth intro that's strangely reminiscent of the opening theme of Doctor Who and a bass and drum part that's very Marylin Manson/Family Force 5.

The clapping fits in perfectly. You automatically start bobbing your head when you hear it.

And then come the lyrics. It's very political, and obviously very anti-status-quo, and as a conservative, I am expected to hate it. But given the political climate these days (Obama is the best!!!!!!! WOO!!! Barf.), I actually agree with it, so here are the full lyrics along with the YouTube embed.

The paranoia is in bloom, the PR
The transmissions will resume
They'll try to push drugs
Keep us all dumbed down and hope that
We will never see the truth around
(So come on!)

Another promise, another scene, another
A package not to keep us trapped in greed
With all the green belts wrapped around our minds
And endless red tape to keep the truth confined
(So come on!)

[Chorus]
They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious

Interchanging mind control
Come let the revolution take its toll if you could
Flick the switch and open your third eye, you'd see that
We should never be afraid to die
(So come on!)

Rise up and take the power back, it's time that
The fat cats had a heart attack, you know that
Their time is coming to an end
We have to unify and watch our flag ascend

[Chorus]
They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious

Hey .. hey ... hey .. hey!
(repeat)

[Chorus]
They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious

Hey .. hey ... hey .. hey!
(repeat)

I really cannot wait for this album. I'll do a full review when I get my hands on it.

Reactor Flashback

I had a purely political blog back during the election season last year for kansan.com. It was for an opinion writing class I was taking at the time, and was a lot of fun. I wrote a lot about the issues during the election, issues elsewhere in the world, what my thoughts as a conservative in an incredibly liberal-land were (I've heard KU called the Berkeley of the Midwest), and how I thought we as American citizens should have reacted.

Needless to say, a lot of my posts went on to be severely criticized. I was called an idiot, a bad journalist, and even a racist at one point.

I'll post a few of my old posts here on the new Reactor. It's interesting to see my opinions back then, how much they've changed, how much they haven't changed, and what people were saying.

So here, from September 10, 2008, is my first Reactor blog post, "Who Watches The Watchmen?"

I've attached the comments, but sadly my own comments answering some questions were lost.

Enjoy, and as always, tell me what you think.

--------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to the Reactor. I am a conservative in a liberal land, a Republican where Republicans fear to tread. In this blog I will present a conservative reaction to the events in our world.
Ahh, election season. That magical time of every four years when people hate other people for no apparent reason at all and the media tries to play the middle of the field.
Believe me, I'm the last person who would want to criticize the media. I am part of the media and I hate it when the media is accused of spinning everything and just out to screw with us. People with no experience in the field assume they know everything about how the news process works and attack it for being one-sided.
Usually I disagree with them.
Now that I'm watching the current election coverage, I begin to see what those angry people are talking about.
The news seems to be hailing one particular candidate as the savior of our country, able to magically fix all the wrongs in this world. The news seems to be tilted towards covering everything that candidate does and only a little of what the other one does.
When I did I normal Google search for McCain, 86,600,000 hits came up. When I did the same one for Obama, 161,000,000 hits came up. Maybe he's just more popular.
But when I did a Google News search, 351,174 for McCain and 380,343 for Obama came up.
30,000 hits is nothing, right?
On CNN.com, 15,700,000 popped up for McCain and 27,000,000 appeared for Obama.
Hmm. 11 million hit difference now.
This may seem like a simple fluke, but in reality, it is a sign of something more. The media is obviously leaning towards Obama as a favorite. The coverage of him and his campaign coverage is more prominent, and has been going on for far longer than the coverage of Republican hopefuls before McCain stepped up.
Every time you turn on the TV it's talking more and more about how awesome Obama is and how he's going to single-handedly save America. I was listening to the radio, and on a commercial for some Rock The Vote thing (a decidedly BIPARTISAN thing, mind you), they used a clip from an Obama speech. The clip? Something along the lines of this:
"And in November, the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot!" *big cheer*
Don't even get me started on the ridiculousness of that statement. That's a whole other blog entry. The fact is, the media is all but ENDORSING Barack Obama. Sure newspapers do it all the time, but what happens if CNN, FOX, MSNBC, heck, even the BBC endorses a candidate?
In other words, the media's credibility is going severely downhill. If a network endorses a candidate, which I don't see as too far away at this point, then where will people get their balanced viewpoints? I realize they don't exist from any one source, but a conglomeration of unaffiliated sources provide the American people with the big picture. With the way the media is heading this election, what is the big picture?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who watches the Watchmen?