No, Newspaper, YOUR Apathy Is Why the Election Failed!

Today's Philadelphia Metro had a headline that was both clever and a show of how little they care:

If turnout's so low, why should we care?

It's simple why this is a misfire on their part: On election day, the only way you would have known there was an election was TWO LITTLE FUCKING ADS ON THE FRONT PAGE FOR JUDGE! No front-page story about an election! No, it was on page 2. To me, that's like saying, "Well, we don't care... but lets PRETEND to care."

The problem is that they are stating that since turnout was low, because nothing "exciting" was happening with the race, they have every right in the world to simply ignore it, to pretend like it was only happening in the slightest of ways. That the election that determined the very makeup of our local government, one where we aren't fighting or arguing about who should be our top leaders... we shouldn't know unless its INTERESTING?!

AM I MISSING SOMETHING HERE?!

God damn it, THE MEDIA'S JOB IS TO MAKE BORING CRAP INTERESTING!

Take the lives of "celebrities", for example! I keep hearing about some reality show star couple arguing about their lives, or how some other start was shown naked. We can devote 30 minutes to trash celebrity gossip shows on CBS, NBC, and FOX, BUT WE CAN'T TAKE THE SAME TIME TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC ON WHO THE FUCK IS GOING TO CONTROL US?!?!

AND NO ONE IS SPARED HERE! Local news blogs, I'm looking at you bastards, too!

Coverage of the election was SCARCE AT BEST. Instead of taking the time to educate voters, devoting more time to this election, we were instead treated to stories about the FUCKING HIPSTER FUCKING GRIFTER! WHO THE FUCK CARES? Oh, wait, sorry, YOU BASTARDS DID! YOU decided the "Hipster Grifter" bullshit story was worthy of the time and effort needed to attract readers. And, my god, it worked! A boring, uninteresting story about a con-artist that, by and large, YOU supported (even if only in passing), became the biggest story possible.

Well, when you weren't posting events the day before or the day of them happening.

But that's me pissed off.


The fact of the matter is that I would be FAR too dismissive I didn't state the fact that, yes, they DID cover it and they DID try to make it matter. I would be lying if I said they didn't. Philebrity even went so far as to write this awesome article about who they were endorsing. If I had been a registered Democrat and not Independent, I would have gladly voted for him. City Paper also tried hard, and I do respect them all for it.

My rantings, my anger, me pissed off? It all comes from a pretty simple, and pretty fair place; that the turnout was abysmal and, on the surface and to the casual observer, this failed due to lack of media saturation. And, really, that's what it was; Lack of saturation. I guess we all were too tired from the last Presidential election to pay attention.

In turn, we've seen a man who let violent criminals plea bargain only to kill again as DA, the same-old controller, and given City Council the power to pull almost any bullshit it wants.

God damn, I fucking hate this place sometimes...

The list of election results are still coming in through my favorite election-night website, 6ABC.com. A full list of winners, losers, and how fucked we are can be seen here.

Photo: Rikard Larma

New Blog Up: The Offical Larry West Productions Blog!

I started a new blog just for stuff related to my website, Larry West Productions and all the business-esq stuff. I will have articles on art, design, etc... Give it a look!

Larry West Productions: THE BLOG!

The Tea Bag Protest: What Went Good, What Went Wrong

Today is Tax Day.

To some people, it is a day of dread and fear, one when American's are afraid of making sure they file their taxes on time. For others, it's just another day since they already filed them, or they are so poor they don't have to.

But this year, a portion of our American public has decided that enough is enough. Are we Taxed Enough Already? Apparently so. Today the TEA Parties were held at cities around the country.

Now, the best thing I can do is explain what this protest was originally about and go form there.

ORIGINS:

The idea for the protest, depending on who you ask, basically boils down to opposition to the Federal Reserve. At it's core, people are sick and tired of paying a yearly income tax. The solution to this varies, but plans have gone to taking more from your pay check to creating a national sales tax. I'm not in favor of either move, but another reason for the protest was anger over the stimulus bill and passing, and that is something I agree with to some degree.

So, let's get this straight: The protests were meant to go against the Federal Reserve.

Now, who organized this movement? Again, it differs on who you ask, but it was largely Libertarians. The Libertarian party is a mixture of conservatives and liberals, a group of people who strictly believe in the US Constitution. Ron Paul, who ran as a Republican for President last year, was a member of the party not too long ago.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MOVEMENT:

What happened is that, over a period of time, the protests were hijacked... sort of.

Around the end of March, more and more members of the Republican Party started to latch on and use the protests as a sort of "rallying point", a way to restore the Republican Party brand. Conservatives began to latch onto it as well, and soon, Fox News began to muscle itself in as a sort of "sponsor". In response, liberal media reporters such as Keith Olbermann and the Huffington Post began to label the event as nothing more than an "anti-Obama event", "A conservative rallying point", among other things.

Other media outlets began to take some sides, namely showing the event as a group of fringe extremists on the Right taking their anger and frustrations out on the Obama Administration.

In return, the movement was virtually eaten away from the inside out. What could, and to a degree, should have been an event to simply protest the federal reserve became a rallying point for conservatives, basically aimless, and muddled with things that it did not need.

But did it entirely fail?

THE RESULT:

While it is frustrating and angry as a supporter of this to see it corrupted, it didn't fail. It made national headlines without the derogatory "tea bagging" jokes, and President Obama himself stated that, starting now, that there would be changes to the US Tax Code to make the tax system more fair. In my opinion, the protests helped to push that along a littler faster and made it more of an issue, which means that, to some degree, it did succeed.

MY 2 CENTS:

It's a shame that the protests were so heavily marginalized. A movement that started organically, a movement to protests what citizens thought was wrong with the US Banking and Federal Reserve was , instead, turned into a rallying point for a political party that did not represent their ideals, or, at the very least, may have begun to re-embrace those ideals. I was going to one here in Philadelphia at Love Park at noon, but found out that the organizers pushed it, foolishly enough, to Saturday at noon instead.

People still attended. And Philberity decided to play a dirty, dirty angel:

1) It’s on, with a cast of perhaps 200-all-whites.
2) Not a lot of anti-Obama setiment on the signage, but man oh man, what did European Socialists do to these people?
3) Biggest applause for…the mention of Glen Beck

Nuff said.

To their credit, they are quoting a reader, but still, a dirty thing to print. I would have attended but, like I said, I thought it was postponed.

THE END IS NEAR! - The Little Guy is Global!

And the hits just keep on coming!

Three more blogs have picked up the robot story, and they are all overseas. Pretty cool. I'm making waves in places I'll never be and people are writing stories abut me in languages I can't understand and am too lazy to use a translator to read. I am going to simply assume they are saying the robot is great... or they're plotting against me.

Either way...

We-Des.net
Homemade-Labor.cn
Designerblog.it

THE END IS NEAR! The Links That Make It All Worth It...

Well, I still haven't said why I did this and I'm still not quite done yet. But I did a Google Blog Search (I LOVE this thing!) and found a lot of links to it. Here's a quick roll-call:

Jon-a-Rose
Qatato
le Wigwam
Botropolis
chriscarter.org
WeHeartIt
Cabri Ole - In Spanish
ChaosX.com - Japaneses... damn it.
Maravillosamente absurdo - In Spanish
Woefully Misinformed
Hungryghoast's Web Presence (It's on there somewhere... it's a kinda-weird thing so I can't post a direct link)
AmpleSanity
Abduzeedo
Bloggy's Blog


But I saved my favorite for last:

Priscilla’s Notebook
The End Is Near

Here's an excert:

Why would someone make a cute cardboard robot and make a sign on the robot that says “The End Is Near”. The robot at first glance is very cute until you see the sign and it makes you think differently about the robot. Who would write and believe what the sign says. Why not write something useful like save the earth from global warming or save the whales. How would someone know if the end was near. I think no one would want to know the truth. So a lot of people would ignore it and just go about their lifes.

Read the rest of her thoughts here.

EDIT: This just came in: This little guy is now one of the most popular stories on DIGG! Nearly 1100 DIGGS as of right now!

BWA HA HAHAHA HAH AHAHAH HAHAHAAH HA!!!!!!

*ahem* Sorry... got carried away for a moment there.

Thanks to everyone and please keep sending me links to stuff you write and/or post about this.

Blogs and Life: The Week in Review

So my good friend/nemesis/blogger-in-crime Dan McQuade may have ended "Philadelphia Will Do". Well, that sucks. I was going to force my upcoming art show down his throat. I can only assume that story about me in the kilt sitting at the top of his blog for 4 days killed him. 

In terms of my life... well, it's been really odd. I won't go into any details, but it involves women. Wait, maybe I need to explain a little. I had a photo shoot this week with an incredibly awesome and talented model. No photos, not allowed to. Also, some big things happened to me as a person that I can't really discuss just yet. Sorry.

I Have a Sketch Blog Up!

In case you didn't know, I actually have a blog up just for sketches I've done. I'm trying to keep it updated daily, or at least semi-daily, so keep your eyes out for this thing and check on it whenever you can.

Larry West Sketch Book

Here are a few random images:

Some Awesome Blogs Worth Checking Out!

Well... awesome if you love art and animation. Otherwise, just go away.

JOHN K BLOGs!

John K, in case you didn't know, is the man behind Ren & Stimpy, The Riffic Friends, and a bunch of other weird and insane cartoons. He has a lot of blogs up, and I have to say, they're amazing! His main blog has a bunch of rips on Disney and is a great how-to for young artists and animators!

He has another blog up where he has a few pitches for other TV shows and another one called "Demo Reel" that... well, just look at it. It's basically him posting some awesome vidoes and pictures!

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/
http://johnkpitch.blogspot.com/
http://www.cartoonthrills.org/demoreel/


Cartoon Brew

I just found this one recently... awesome, awesome blog if your a cartoon junkie! They have articles about a lot of recent stuff, stories of older things, and everything you can imagine! Check it out!

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/


J.R. Spumkin Blogs

J.R. Spumkin is a man who loves his Ren & Stimpy and is awesome! Just AWESOME! He has a blog dedicated to mainly himself, art, and the greatness of Spumco and Animation in general, as well as theories, and another one dedicated to his sketches. He's working on a new show idea right now, too.

http://spum-blog.blogspot.com/
http://spumkinssketchblog.blogspot.com/


El Tigre Blog

OK, I won't lie: I can't get into this show. I've never been a fan and I watched a few episodes of a marathon of the series today... just couldn't get into it. But it is beautiful to watch and this blog is a testament to that!

http://tigreroar.blogspot.com/


BRUTE! a.k.a. Aidan Hughes

In case you didn't know, BRUTE! is the British genuis who has done 99% of all the artwork for KMFDM. I love his work, he's a remarkable artist and designer, and his blog is just wonderful!

http://www.bruteprop.blogspot.com/


Steve Purcell Blog

Steve Purcell brought us Sam & Max, and if you don't know who they are... well, you most likely spent your childhood going out, having fun, and playing with friends unlike me who spent it inside watching cartoons and then running around for hours hopped up on sugar. You missed out on a lot of good times!

http://spudvisionblog.blogspot.com/


More likely than not, I'll have a bunch more lare, but for now... courage.

Sick Of It All

It's been a long day and I really just want it to end.

I was supposed to meet a friend of mine at 4:30 and they had to cancel at the last minute. It didn't help that they have been kinda leaning on me for everything and they have begun to drag me down into their ever-increasingly-bad life. After they canceled, it was downhill from there.

I got a mention on another local blog for that poster yesterday and I wanted to address what someone said about, although I think I did already... if so, I just want to repeat it because people on a forum I go to don't get this idea: I don't want attention for not doing something good. I had a phase where I wanted attention for pretty much anything and everything, and it's something I'm willing to admit. When you have no close family, friends that can be hard to reach, and live in a house by yourself... well, who wouldn't need some attention?

But I realized how dumb and self-defeating it is. It's pointless to do, and it's stupid. I finally met someone who I can be myself with, someone I'm happy with, and for the first time in a long time, for the first time since that election, I actually feel happy with myself and who I am as a person. My friends have given me a ton of support, and I really have to thank them for putting up with me this year. It's been a rough one, and you need good friends for times like these.

Today got rougher when I decided to get done my Christmas shopping and had about 10 different homeless people spread out over a good 1-mile radius ask me for everything from money to food to using my phone while I was taking an emergency phone call within a 30-minute span. It wasn't rough because some of them were rude when I said "no', although that was part of it. No, I want to help, I really do. I got a job that I love, great friends... all in all, I really feel like I hit some sort of jackpot and I'm thankful for everything I have right now. I want to do more to help the homeless, and I REALLY wish I knew how to help more and more directly.

I'm tired, I'm stressed, and I really am trying to change, be a better person, and do some good. I don't want people to assume I post things for the attention, although posting is an attention-getting thing, isn't it? I guess the best way to put it is I'm just doing this to inform my friends what I think and, maybe, help someone else who feels the same.

Well, have a good night and a pleasant tomorrow!

The Reaction and Outcry to "Why Philly Blogs Tend to Suck"

I couldn't resist.

In response to what I wrote yesterday, I saw this:

JOE: I’ve been saying for years that the media really needs to stop living in the past. Shit, anyone can report on things that have already happened. I want my news filled withall the possibilities of the future and wild speculation!

Because, as we all know, asking someone to report on a planned event is "wild speculation!"

But, thankfully, someone saw the point:

RYAN: Actually, I agree with him in spite tarnished reputation due to his mayoral race hijinks. Most Philly news/infotainment blogs are pretty bad at pumping up cool events in the city, a lot of newcomers I talk to are at a loss for what to do. It isn’t that there aren’t cool events, or that the blogs just don’t outright list them, but there isn’t as much of effort to sift through the dozens of weekly event listings and sift out the pieces of corn amidst the pile of shit.

Ryan, thanks! That's a pretty good way of putting it. I've lived here my entire life, but I won't lie... I'm a reclusive guy who spends all his time watching TV and wasting his life posting on a blog. I go to The Troc's website as much as possible since I go to shows there, and whenever I can or remember, I either pick up one of the local alt-weekly papers to check out shows or The Electric Factory's and TLA's website.

But there's always more. Take the Punk Rock Flea Market, for example. I didn't find out about it until Wednesday, and that was after all the tables were gone. It would have been nice, VERY NICE, to go and sell some of my art there. Who couldn't use a few extra bucks right now? Or how about not finding out a band you like came to town or did a show the day of or after its happened? These things are planned well in advance, at least a month or so.

It seems local blogs are to content with trying to seem "hip" that they forgot about being "Cool", "Fun", "Informative", and above all, "RELATIVE".

Eh... then again, I'm willing to admit I write all of this stuff for myself. I try to stay humble about it because, frankly, I'm just some dude who posts on a blog. If I build a following, I'll start writing for them. Soon, people will complain I became the same thing I hate... and they might be right.

For now? Courage.

Proof that Philly Bloggers Tend to Suck

They TEND to at times, myself included. I'm not saying that all Philly Bloggers are stupid, inane, and petty 100% of the time... but, yes, we do tend to suck. Myself? I try not to point out the humor in something; we live in an age of irony, where self-deprecation is celebrated at the expense of achieving anything meaningful. Instead of simply trying to find the small bit of humor in a situation in a serious world, we've instead created a world seemingly devoid of seriousness. By constantly going after nothing more than a quick chuckle or laugh, we lose any sense of depth and meaning.

Of course, the exception proves the rule. George Carlin had a talent for doing just that, and because he, and a handful of incredibly talented comics, are able to doesn't mean any two-bit blog writter can, or should.

On that note, I'm going to point to a few friends. These folks kick-ass, and I have nothing against them. Consider this a nudge that, yes, we can all stray from what we want to do when we write these things, a reminder that we can go into our own selves and self-indulge in ways that are kinda sickaning.

Philebrity recently did a piece on Johnny Gootimes and his Quizzo thing and, I agree, Quizzo is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. The smartest conversation I've ever heard in a bar was either drowned out by everyone else talking, incredibly loud music, or slurred to the point where the person talking thought pointing out how hot a woman was was the equivelent of writing a Shakesperian play. But because of some stupid comment about the writer, Joey Sweeny, who is, without a doubt, an AWESOME guy (I've met and worked with him in the past, and he helped me a lot last year) by Johnny in his column for the Philadelphia Metro, the result was a very sad flame war:

1. Johnny Goodtimes Says:
   September 11th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

   This is no kind of job for a grown ass man? Uh, dude, you’re pretty much my age and you’re a professional blogger. I mean, seriously.

2. tips Says:
   September 11th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

   Is that off the Quizzo Hosts Talking Points sheet, Johnny? Please. Now here’s my answer sheet. Can you send the girl around with some more peanuts?

3. Johnny Goodtimes Says:
   September 11th, 2008 at 6:22 pm

   Sorry, the peanut girl says she refuses to serve people who wear skinny jeans and don’t wash their hair.

4. tips Says:
   September 11th, 2008 at 6:26 pm

   All you need is a brick wall and shoulderpads, and you’re a regular Paula Poundstone.

Hard Time Posting...

Well, this blog isn't 100% professional, but it isn't 100% personal, either. It's a mixture of both. I come here to vent about politics and, really, my political views can, have, and will piss some people off. But that aside, this is a personal blog first and a professional place second.

I mention this due to something personal that came up relating to my business. The blog didn't turn away business; in fact, it actually attracted some. It's really is interesting, really.

I'm having a hard time posting, though, because the nature of the reply warranted me to think a little more about these posts and the attention they receive. But look forward to me still posting about the albums I listen to, metal news in general, as well as news and notes from Philadelphia and beyond!

The Philadelphia News Blogs: Letting You Know About Cool Planned Events When it's Too Late

The one thing that always irritate me about the local news blogs is when they inform you of something cool only when it's too late to do anything about it. Not so much concerts by indie bands you never heard of (CSS, anyone?), but local events that you would actually be interested in if you knew about it.

Case in point? The Philadelphia Independent Craft Market is going to be this weekend.

It would have been great to be told about this, say, a month ago when I could have gotten my cash together, bought a spot, and determined what to sell. It would have been simply perfect! But, no, it's about 4 days before the event and getting a spot doesn't exactly seem like a good idea now.

Thanks local blogs! Thanks a lot.

MOTÖRHEAD To Tour U.S. With MISFITS, Play Philadelphia; Larry Faints

Unless you've been deaf or dead since 1975 when Lemmy and Motorhead first took the stage, a hipster, or someone who shouldn't be reading this blog, the fact that I'm excited to the point of fainting over this shouldn't be a shock. Simply put, this is EXACTLY the type of music-related news blogs like Philadelphia Will Do, The Clog, and Philebrity should cover but don't.

Fuck it, THIS IS MOTORHEAD AND THE MISFITS!

On September 19th, Motorhead and The Misfits will grace Philadelphia with a concert at The Electric Factory. Yes, the Electric Factory, where every idiotic college jock goes to a show on the concept that "I'm going to see a legendary metal band. Aren't I cool?" These same people have no idea how to behave at a show, and they tend to ruin an otherwise kick-ass show. This time, by the hand of Lemmy, AKA GOD, they are banned.

That's the 3rd Friday of September, so if you can get your Bones or Blood shaken (get it? "Boneshaker"? "Shake your Blood"?) at the kick-ass once-in-a-lifetime-kill-all-posers show on August 6th at the Tweeter Center, and don't worry, your not alone, then this is just as good, if not better! Motorhead doing a headlining set? SIGN ME UP! DEAF FOREVER!

Motorhead and The Misfits will also be playing with VALIENT THORR, AIRBOURNE and YEAR LONG DISASTER... but honestly, so what? Airbourne? Cool, but otherwise, Motorhead slays them all!