Day: June 25, 2004

Time to take Gmail’s AdSense out for a test drive. I thought it was funny – maybe just because of how much these two sounded like spambots having a real conversation.

No we won’t let their hunger for power decide
Who we should hate
How we show pride

Don’t let them use the tears we have shed
Don’t let evil be done in our names

Thanks to Joel (sorry if I butchered the actual lyrics – I had been drinking, you know 😉 ). As The Chad said, this is a political drinking song – it’s easier to get the melody if you think “Oom-pa-pa Oom-pa-pa” and imagine swinging a mug o’ ale along with it. Lisa guest hosted the OpenMic on Tuesday (two weeks in a row for us!), and one of the highlights (aside from her performance, of course) was a rousing sing-a-long to Joel’s first acoustic performance of this great anti-Bush song he wrote. We had first heard this at his apartment many months ago during one of our musical get togethers.

Someone more paranoid than me once commented that my generation lacks a Dylan. He’s right and he’s wrong. There are thousands of Dylans all around the country. Most aren’t nearly talented enough, but that isn’t the problem. There is no place for them to gain their support – the yearning masses looking for a vision to lead them a head. When entertainers speak their mind on politics, the public tells them to shut up. They used to look for those they agreed with. I don’t know where I’m going with this, but the music industry today was a reaction to the rather doom and gloom attitude that so much of the early 90’s alternative scene produced. If the huddled messes rejected such a deep, introspective look there is little doubt that they would accept a much more intense political message.

Nevertheless, there are still Dylans out there. Joel is one of them. Ross is one of them. Even Gibby is one of them (albeit a much louder version 😛 ). Now if only more people would bother to open up their ears and listen, they might be able to prompt a change. Well, at least in individuals – and that’s a start.

Have I ever mentioned how brilliant my neighbors are? Lets put it this way, there are four parking spots next to my building, which has four apartments. Guess how many cars each apartment can fit in the driveway? That’s right, 2 or 3. I don’t even mind the extra cars they want to keep around (Hoboken is one of the worst towns for parking). There are even two “illegal” spots at the end that they can use (technically they are fire zones, but they aren’t marked properly). Still they often park in such a horrendous manner that my girlfriend marvels at my reversing skills. Yet all I can do is bitch and moan. This morning, however, is one of the prime examples of their absolute stupidity.

With 3 possible spots open (two apartment spots and one “freebie”), someone decided to park in the middle of the lane used to actually exit. Of course the only car they managed to block in was mine. So I find myself already running late for work, and now I have to start banging on doors. I was a little peeved at first, but I figured it was probably someone who just stopped in real quickly and the timing just happened to be off. Instead I find no one home. Ok, one neighbor out of three apartments is there, and he figures it’s probably from the other apartment like I did. So for the first time in 4 years I had to call the police and ask for a tow truck to come remove a car illegally parked in my driveway. I will be writing a very stern letter to my landlord this weekend explaining how big of an impact my neighbors have played in none of us re-signing a lease. In the meantime it’s about quarter to 11, and all I can do is sit here… waiting for the man.

Update – So it turns out it wasn’t one of my neighbors’ cars, which would explain why I didn’t recognize it. We hadn’t had a problem like that in awhile, so I was surprised when this happened. I wasn’t home yet, but they stopped by simply to ask what had happened (was it stolen or towed) so they knew who to ask. Unfortunately I never got around updating on here that it had been towed, so my roommates assumed it, but didn’t know for sure.

It looks like a friend of theirs was heading into the city, so they told her she could park there during the day – not really a big deal. They told her specifically to pull all the way up. Apparently she thought it would be a better idea to park in the middle of the driveway with the doors unlocked and the keys in the car. The tow truck guy went into the car, but it took us awhile before we noticed the keys (he wanted to back it up since he said he couldn’t tow from behind). I just handed them over to him because I wanted no part of it at that point. But the neighbors were cool about it. Brian said they apologized and basically said she could wait until Monday to get her car.