Once Upon a Time

I had this friend in my adolescence; dead now, overdosed in a Norfolk, Ne hotel room when he was 25.   Anyhow he had this way of looking at photos from the mid-20th century and remarking how everything was so much brighter back then, happier back then, the skies were not as bright now (the 1990's) because we were in darker times, unhappier times.  He had convinced himself that we were approaching the Christianish end-times.  He had a an overriding fascination with Satanism the occult and their secret massive powers over society. 

I knew it was bullshit myself, though I still humored him and enjoyed his company.  I knew it was a simple matter of cameras back then exaggerating brightness or something like that.  I actually listened to the words of "Kodachrome" after all.  Already I knew it was Paul Simon's best solo jam though I was not yet familiar with his whole catalogue. 

My friend lived with his grandmother at any rate.  He could have asked her at any old time if the skies were really brighter in the 60's.  But he didn't.  He knew it was an illusion deep down, or perhaps not all that deep.  He liked the idea of the world going to shit so rapidly as to effect the atmosphere within a human lifetime. As still-children then it was very much our world more than anyone else's and yet still he liked the idea of his world becoming so demonically awful.  Whatever he got out of this I couldn't tell you.  It does seem obvious, in retrospect, that he sincerely did find existence in this world to be disappointing; his own end-times would indeed be coming soon after all.  His grandmother is in her hundreds and still lives.  I wouldn't guess that she likes it very much.  I doubt that anyone much enjoys being over 100 very much at all.  She simply isn't ready to end the world yet. 

Not Hungover Per Se

But I am hoping that the sun doesn't come out with full mid-afternoon force just today and that the clouds remain till at least twilight.  There is no soccer today and it is a quiet time.  I've neglected the spring/summer exhibits at the art museum here and I should probably go.  I might get frisky and have a bloody mary today though I'd honestly prefer an iced tea instead.  I might need to "break up" with a woman I've been involvedwith and would rather not be but that's really not here or there. 

This is my friend Travis getting his mildly cyberpunk dudebro thing on in California.  This is of no sociopolitical value to anything whatsoever. 

This is what I've been listening to a great deal since the warm season began:

And this is who I've been reading these past few weeks.

That's all there is to blow son. 

I'm Not One of Those who Thinks Rap is Required to be "Hard"

I would certainly never think that "true" rap music must necessarily be cartoonishly sexist, homophobic, or gleeful about the artist's imaginary mass murders.  And of course it's far past the point where anyone thinks that a "real" rapper cannot be white. 

Having said all that; fuck Macklemore/ Ryan Lewis and their bland, air-puffed, daytime talkshow moralizing dead-eyed flavorless pablum excuse for music.  Christ.  In case you're wondering what I find wrong about their shit; here's what's right about it.....

Any questions?   

In Nebraska News:

Our provincial thug of a governor, Dave Heineman, is being term-limited out of the big house on H Street and would now like to be president of the university of Nebraska.  This in spite of the fact that his education entails "only" bachelor's degree from West Point; which is in no way an unimpressive accomplishment but still falls short of rightfully being the boss of PHD's and intellectuals of longstandings.  Yet Heineman does of course have his public supporters for the U. presidency; based mainly on the fact of being a real true conservative, and also; according to some letters to the editor, on the fact that academics tend to be liberal and are therefore lesser beings with no right to govern ourselves.  

Enter now a challenger, Peter Nwangwu,  which is to say, Dr. Peter Nwangwu, a man who actually does have multiple advanced degrees and, as a bonus, is also foreign and black, to the right-wing authoritarians perspective the most beautifully trolltastic alternative imaginable.  I'm not high on this guy or anything.  It may well be that he sucks too, or even be conservative.  But at least now there is a candidate who can actually perform the work of being a university president.  At least now there's some hope that the job might be treated as an actual job and not a lifetime achievement award for being a Real True Husker of good standing.  Progress is always welcome wherever one can ge

Just When.....

......... I was starting to think that xenophobia as expressed through anti-soccerdom was dying out in the USA. 



Not of course that we are uniquely sinful in sports related circular reasoning .  (I.E.  The sports we like are superior because we're superior and we like them; and the fact that we prefer superior sports that are superior because we like them is proof of our superiority etc.)  There was for example this bizarre culture-scolding from the Dutch speed-skating coach after his team triumphed in the Sochi Olympics. A man utterly convinced that speed-skating is THE one universal test of moral character because his own culture values the sport.  Never mind that the US finished well ahead of the Dutch in the overall medal count.  We did so in sports that are not speed-skating and therefore no more than other people's silly games. 

Indeed soccer culture itself will often take on an air of hegemonic entitlement that the USA is often accused and is unfortunately sometimes guilty of.  There is, for example, no good reason to be bothered by the fact that we've chosen to tag the word 'football' onto something else and choose to call this game soccer instead.  This breaks no one's pocket and picks no one's leg.  Spanish speakers have all liberty to call the game 'bola del pie' and French speakers all liberty to call it 'pied balle' or whatever it'd be.  There is nothing forcing them to smooth out a foreign word to their own pronunciation and never has been.  It's clear that a large part of soccer's mass appeal is the mass appeal itself.  There are many who like the game because there are so many who like the game; enthralled by the ideal of One True Sport that the entire species 'knows' is best and needled by a sense that their passion is devalued by the mere existence of those who don't share it. 

I do love the game myself, don't get me wrong, just not as much as I dislike hype, bullshit and masturbatory pseudo-logic.  Now I have a feeling that Spain vs. Chile will be very good  and I'll be sure to keep track of the score while I go about my life. 

It's Been a Stormy Summer Here.

My vans windshield was ruined; nearly broken clean through by a fallen tree on Saturday night. I don't know yet how much it would cost to fix, and as of right now worry not the hell at all about me.  Not at all. 

 You may pray for our northeastern village of Pilger if you of all that sort.  I'm sure it will require donations in its recovery if you should have the means.  My grandmother was born in the 'Siouxland' countryside not far from there, on our side of the Missouri.   I hope this village has better luck today tomorrow and the next, and I hope the survivors of the dead are able to find some joy in their remaining lives someday. 

I am Joshua D. Beran

You can see my real true name at the bottom of every post.  It shall also be in this thing.    Where you'll find this thing from myself along with other things.  Just thought I'd let you know :-)

 






WOOOOOO!!!

World Cup Predictions

Yes it must be done.

Group A:

1. Brazil
2. Mexico
3. Croatia
4. Cameroon

Group B:
1. Spain
2. Netherlands
3. Chile
4. Australia

Group C:
1. Columbia
2. Ivory Coast
3. Greece
4. Japan

Group D: 
1. Uruguay
2. Italy
3. England
4. Costa Rica

Group E.
1. France
2. Ecuador
3. Switzerland
4. Honduras

Group F: 
1. Argentina
2. Nigeria
3. Bosnia
4. Iran

Group G:
1. Germany
2. Portugal
3. United States (Head over heart here.  The boys are free to prove me wrong)
4. Ghana

Group H: 
1. Russia
2. Belgium
3. Algeria
4. South Korea


Round of 16:

Brazil 2 / Netherlands 1
Italy 1 / Columbia 0
France 2 / Nigeria 1
Germany 3 / Belgium 1
Spain 2 / Mexico 0
Uruguay 2 / Ivory Coast 1
Argentina 3 / Ecuador 0
Portugal 1 / Russia 1 (Portugal on PK's)

Quarterfinals:

Brazil 2 / Italy 1
Germany 3 / France 1
Spain 2 / Uruguay 1 (after extra time)
Argentina 2/ Portugal 1

Semifinals:
Brazil 3 / Germany 2 (after extra time)
Argentina 1 / Spain 1  (Argentina on PK's)

Final:  

Brazil 2 / Argentina 1 (After extra time) 

Staying Manlier Than the Hippies Must Be Exhausting.

https://twitter.com/MattOrtega/status/474270582683758592

RIP Maureen Dowd

For future reference, anyone who indulges in edible THC should bear in mind that they are 'higher than they feel just now'.  Eat a little, wait an hour; thaen (and only then)  eat a very little more if you are willing and able.    The weed these days is good and getting better.  But not, if done properly, quite so scorched-earth intense as all that. 

The EPA is Coming to Regulate Our Bodily Fluids.

Environmentalism is a serious problem, as every true American knows that concern for the earth is tender-hearted and therefore womanly and therefore wrong, and it can be a struggle to find a way to say so that sounds more serious and common-sensical/adult than 'I don't want to catch cooties.'  So one can do things like rail about the needless deaths caused by a global DDT ban which; in the world of liberal-biased reality, is not existent enough to either kill people or do anything else,   or one can rant about how global warming is a secret Marxist Trojan horse dreamt up by a conspiracy involving virtually all of science and academia, citing one's own manly-ass certainty as evidence.  But no matter how manly-ass certain one is this rhetoric is just too obviously fantastic to work very long.  Eventually one must betray themselves as truly insane or confess that they are really saying no more than ' I don't want to catch cooties."  A sticky wicket indeed. 

Which brings us to the recent release of EPA regulations meant to help stabilize climate change and the Nebraska congresscritters response to that.  Our Congresspeople, who are naturally all Republicans, are naturally against it; against it with manly-ass intensity and fervency, naturally.  Sen. Deb fisher calls them 'extreme'. (in, I suppose, the 19th century Rockefeller sense that views subjecting industry to law at all as XXXTREME!!!)  Sen. Johanns and all our house members are aghast at how the regulations will supposedly raise our bills and ruin our economy, with Omaha's Lee Terry calling them a "partisan political gimmick."

I can concede that they are not totally wrong on economic effects.  Regions that are economically reliant on coal-extraction are indeed already suffering gravely, culturally and economically, from the fact that society is and must move beyond coal.  Even so this suffering is not an unnatural thing wrought by evil big government.  Coal is not, after all, the true, eternal, divinely mandated way for a society to power itself, it was a temporal technology for a specific time that is now passed.  Kept rather more overmaturely alive by government policy than prematurely killed. 

At any rate there are a few coal plants in Nebraska; but not all that many.  Our economy is of course overwhelmingly based on farming and ranching, not so much on minerals; and what will the effect of global warming be on farming or ranching?  Why, we are already seeing it.  The natural instability of the Prairie climate shall be exacerbated, so that planting and harvesting will be made dicey by th inability to know when the first and last frosts are coming, could be anywhere in a window of two months.  Crop-loving pests will be more numerous as they spread from the south and longer-living.  Rain shall come only either in the form of too much or not enough, so that farmers and townies alike shall have to rely increasingly on the Ogallala aquifer, which is already being drawn down at such a rate that anyone under 40 shall likely see that aquifers death and with that the effective apocalypse of modern living standards on these plains.  All this shall be what doing nothing about global warming does to the Nebraska economy; the consequences that invisible Hand worship shall bring.  There are worse things than catching cooties.   

All Thanks to Kansas City

This was a lovely event; and the town overall has a beautiful vibe in the summer, though it can be brutal humid.