Jeff S

vproj 2005

okay so I deleted the original content (minus the link) of the original blog because it was way boring and frankly only there because I felt obligated. anyways, I like videos like this partly because I feel like I am at my best when in short form (making the grade?).
the protagonist is faced with a question I feel like we have all grappled with at some point or another in life: whether to do sliding? it is not illegal here in New York, though if you do it in omaha in some parks late at night you may be cited for trespassing

I am beginning to accept that filmmaking is something I am able to do, though I need to get a camera (dave is good though). it is a weird mood to be feel ambivalent when in such a straightforward major as "Film School," but I feel like any legitimately cool person in film shouldn't actually be annoying and boring, and that making good films hinges upon being good at life

another qualm which is interesting is finding people willing to be in movies about nothing (or rather just student movies in general). you don't need professionally trained actors, as you might see, but sometimes its tough to find people who are willing to be genuine, which is really all its about anywayz

for the uninitiated, right click this (or control click for the mac) !

p.s. this is the same video as in daves blog

p.p.s. joel has a class with gregor schuring

narcissism and ALL of its evil ilk

"why are you so in love (obsessed with, full of, enamored by) yourself?"
-anonymous comment, from the last blog

What better way to answer this question than to write on and on all about me and my narcissism!

While I don't plan to pine away my years, doomed to stare at a reflection of myself in an eternal pool, I do agree that I have a pretty sweet self-esteem. 5 out of 6, as I would say.
And therein lies the trap! Avid readers or knowers of knowledge would note that quite a while ago I proposed the idea that our number system should be based on 6's instead of 5's and 10's. This is an A+ jeff sisson original. I will probably reference this when rating anything for about the next 9 months, after which point I will develop a new phrase of similar eccentricity, and it will be equally as mind-blowing and conversation-provoking.

I mention this specific example, because this is how much of my life works (as I view it, which again to be fair, is pretty self-enamoring). I have lists and lists chalk full of things written down, like "my spiritual retainers". I don't even know what this means! But it still a good idea, whatever its meaning. I also know this is not a totally foreign concept; a friend Joel asked me about something similar he had written down (nonoffensively) "Why would people in wheelchairs not need blogs?"

I realize that this has strayed off of the original topic, which was me. But it relates. I guess with all of these concepts, be they pictures of, or ideas from, writings by myself, I invest some sort of faith that some people enjoy some of the things I do. That in some way i am genius, and the things I am doing, no one else is doing them.
I realize that this is what Ms. Whitney told you in first grade, but it resounds probably more true than you think. It is entirely possible to never be bored when you enjoy yourself, because you just think up of stuff. All the time.

a 4.0 if I say so

p.s. I figured it was relevant to include a picture of yet another blatant self-lover, dave j

flip hop

a few concepts on my mind recently:

"TCB" New Year's Resolutions:

I have never really supported the concept of new year's resolutions. It seems like its this big joke (à la going to movies ironically [more on this later]) that I never really got; so you set the goal to lose weight but you just say screw it and laugh it up month later? I guess I'm not laughing. Why not just set resolutions we can, in fact, meet? That's not very funny though I guess.
This idea, it should be noted, was inspired by an away message of Joel F's, where he detailed his goal of pooping without wiping. While others found the humor in this, I decided to get down to business. One I came up with myself was to not wear a belt. While this is a perennial idea of mine, it seems much more hardass when employed through a year-long trial. Do you really need belts anyways?

Postmodern Political Pragmatism:

People are really taken to this whole "Oh maaaaaan, let's move to Canada" idea. And hey, that's O K. But it seems way depressing to cave in to the media determined notion that we are somehow destined to recede into a generation of cynics even more so than the slackers before us; that doesn't make me want to bake a cake. So I thought of this for those of my age (or younger/older) who are hopeless optimists but who recognize the inherent flaws in "the system".
Yes, we realize that Watergate happened, and people like Tom DeLay are still eating babies. But also we (most? a few?) somehow avoided the narrow-minded cynicism of our parents and previous generations. This somehow magically/critically allows us to support the dated but still working system. Best thing is, you don't even have to know whether you truly are supporting it, or doing so for the same reasons that you like Tony Danza; Pragmatic Postmodern Politicalism doesn't even ask these questions! Just keep on voting, and keep on threatening to move to canada, and get back to business with the cake.

Re: Irony

It seems the number of conversations I have with people about irony and its ilk double every day. That means that in a month I will have no time to do homework or to sleep, as I will be wholly occupied having conversations about irony. Simpletons be warned, the following piece could just blow your mind.

The first principle of irony is transcendence. To become ironically cool, you must embrace that which is originally uncool. The textbook example would be the trucker hat (which you are not allowed to comment on). However this is now not the method of hipster related ironic appreciation. Living in New York has brought me to learn about a advanced/opposed form, using many of the same principles. I have begun to hear of and see those who are unironically appreciating that which the hipsters despise, in spite.
I had a conversation with a friend here who described how his friends quasi-ironically listen to Lindsey Lohan and other similarly rancid musics for this purpose. Once you get this deeply involved, I think it is unclear if you are even being ironic anymore. In fact, this is the phenomenon that I believe is evident with a lot of hipster hip hop listeners (not everyone, just some people. I unironically like hip hop, and I am pretty sure Tommy does too)

Now perhaps this subject doesn't interest you; this is probably a good thing. However, it truly troubles me. Our future leaders may spend more time filibustering about how their rivals are "way pretentious" and that "it's unfair to appreciate hip hop unironically" and what not. At this point I am giving up on explaining this, because I feel like it's needing a graphic that will take a while to make. So I guess more on that at a later date.

dudes wanna live my life but can't carry my weight

I am having conflicted feelings about leaving, so instead of addressing them directly I will temporarily dodge the subject entirely!

Music is "easy" for most; case in point, 100% of my friends listen to music. The thing is, I actually think music is very hard to talk about. Instead, in this installment I find it cute to talk about one particular way of listening to music.

A lot of people these days love to talk about the iPod, the neo technology jesus that can vacuum my room and keep me in curfew (it should be noted that as many people love to talk about how they hate the iPod). But in truth, this concept of assembled music as an art dates back to the greeks. In truth, it doesn't date back to the greeks, but I have used this fact in enough of my essays that I feel comfortable assuming that this is most likely true.

Does anyone remember tape players? I certainly didn't, until I reached a difficult point in my life recently: I was unable to load a regular tape into a tape deck. That a seemingly easy task was turned into such a labor reminded me how awesome tapes were. What is cooler than walking home with Erik Peterson? Listening to a mix tape.
But computers changed all of this. The mix CD was something strikingly similar but different as well. Wow, I can finally skip over Don McClean's "American Pie" and move on to something less damaging to my soul. In fact, I would like to try and claim some part in the early stages of advocating the mix CD as a concept. Though it may seem apocryphal, I used to sell them at 15 dollars a pop. Unfortunately Bryant introduced me to napster, and the golden age of Mix CD robber barons was ushered out, along with the accompanying glamorous lifestyle.
Though I'm no longer to profit off of the ignorance of the masses, the mix CD lives on as in gift form, much like origami and macaroni necklaces. As professed by music movies and television, the mix is the perfect way to declare loveeeeeee

but as I soon found out, the reality is much more harsh!
Somewhere around sophomore year, I came up with the still brilliant idea shown here in its original form. I will pop tart it for you: one deliberates on what music defines them (which, as any astute listener will tell you, is not always the music you listen to the most often), assembles this into a relatively good sized mix cd, and a musical calling card is created. You trade this same cd with many others, as this is zero loss situation (assuming you are not trading with David Hasselhoff).
Naturally I had to test this out, and made a mix which was actually fairly on center in terms of accuracy. And the most obvious primary target was someone who I was infatuated with at the time. Unfortunately (or not? if you know who I am talking about), things didn't work out. Plus she never gave me her cd!
I gave another mix to a separate girl, though not strictly based on my Revolutionary idea. A day (?) later she broke up with me. Someone who I was informally interested in followed the same sequence of events. And at an even later date, I inadvertently caused myself to stop pursuing yet a different love interest by making a mix cd for her (although in this situation it was probably for the better).
It was at this point that I came to understand the disturbing pattern I had somehow frankensteined: the act of me giving mix cds to girls in which I was interested effectively terminated whatever chances I have had with them.

So to round this up, music is cool but tough to put in words, there are many ways of listening to it, but be careful with mix CDs because they have the power to RUIN YOUR LIFE unless used carefully.

novacaine has control of my face, in a non metaphorical way

to deconstruct an entire life, this is a difficult task. for me, it is made much easier by the fact that in my mind, my life started around age 14. for reasons both well known and not well known at all, I had a mid life crisis. if I live past 30, it will be awesome, but I will not need to buy that sports car because I've already gone through all that jeez.
that is when I became the cool guy you know and love. I see middle school as a blight upon my mind, and my freshman year as the year that I rejected the binding chains of the machine(metaphor) and donned the clothing for the revolution(?). since my womanizing and bootlegging days, I have (hopefully) become a better dude. I highly recommend to anyone reading anything you've previously written, blogs included, for your own proof of this phenomenon.

my point is, if it has been disguised in representation, that much of my life has been set by the women who inhabit it. this is not to say that guys don't rule, because, let's face it, they do. but much like periods in art, styles in film, or decades in music, I tend to associate my new and better me with the girl who probably represents that.

but now is like a crossroads, as said by the aptly titled the rap song created near the end of the summer. when does this process of change stop? not that I will personally ever stop improving; in fact, it is my well-worn belief that there is a calculatable, derivative-able rate of change at which I become more awesome. but in terms of the females, when am I going to stop changing?
at this point in my life, I feel like that moment is now. some people say that music never improved upon classics like the beatles, others feel that seinfeld was the penultimate sitcom. while I realize that by saying this, I probably seem naiive (I am no stranger to naiveté: at one point in my life I declared to everyone I thought I knew that basically I had achieved all there was to achieve), the person I am with now is someone who I can see knowing for the rest of my life. her name is Erica H. and I love her.

p.s. I am reading the book "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" by Chuck Klosterman. mostly I'm more post modern than you...suck it debaters

terraplane blues

Lately, something with which I have been fascinated is the legend of Robert Johnson. He is a bluesman, living in the time before the Jenn and Brad breakup and GPS watches. According to legend, he learned to play the guitar the way Faust was permitted to do whatever it is he was permitted to do when he sold his soul to the devil. Which is to say that he sold his soul to the devil.
Whether or not this is true is certainly up to debate, and much like in any other tale of fantasy, the concept has been gentrified and explained using various sociological means (it has been suggested that he subscribed to the religion of 'hoodoo'). Despite attempts to de-awesome-ify his magic, his songs remain hauntingly awesome, as are many other pre-copyright blues tunes which I have found in turn (it should be noted that much of Johnson's repetoire still falls under copyright, thanks sonny bono, why don't you go marry cher).
one of these songs not by Johnson, "how can you have the blues," is so awesome I am planning on covering it with miss erica hart. it is by georgia tom and kansas city kitty.
anyways my point is that there is so much texture and awesomeness to be found in these blues, not only in lyrical content but in that they are real songs. Though I am famously in love with the Neptunes and all of their well produced goodness, there is definitely something tangibly beautiful in these songs, each of which are no more than vocals + guitars or vocals + piano.

lately my jones has been muisically recording in whatever fashion because it is something productive to do. I highly advise anyone to be creating art or anything in general, be it websites or pokemon trading cards; it is one of the most satisfying feelings to be had.

so what?

in what I hope to redo over and over as a tradition I present my take on 2004, the way I know how

the best pictures of 2004!

you are not required to like them, but I think they're pretty cool
looking through them it was re-evident just what change has passed, and how crazy it is going to be. 2003 was the year of the jeff supposedly (I did not create this idea, promise), 2004 was just sweet I think and easily 2005 could continue this upward spiral.
I had to go from 1,353 photos taken this year to just 57

hopefully combatrhino will live forever because it seems like the type of thing one could only truly appreciate as unique after its gone

soon to come!
an official webpage for the new single created the other night. it includes Woah, the infamously raunchy rap, along with Pirates vs. Ninjas. be prepared as the boy scouts say because it will be "excellent"