Pretentious Hippie

Review: Sufjan Stevens Ep

2010-09-06T17:54:00.000-04:00

So according to Pitchfork.com, there's a new Sufjan Stevens EP, "All the Delighted People" coming out. I did a listen through, its free to stream through pitchfork, and it's alright. The "What Gabriel Says" is decent, "The owl and the Tangent" is listenible, interesting. I'm on the title track "All Delighted People " Right now, I'll edit this is post if the 11 track EP takes a drastic turn for the better.

On the Road to SC

2010-07-30T14:00:00.002-04:00

So i'm on el road to South Carolina for a few days. I'm leaving the guitar lessons and dixieland band behind.The picture of the state is attriubated to abusegroup.com, which also informed me that

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) notes that heroin, once limited to South Carolina’s larger cities, is increasingly become an “experimental” drug at youth parties, one more threat for parents to worry about.

Accordin to polls as of 2006, 29.4% of rehabees are in for alcohol, 11.1% coke and 18% for ghanja (which is medically proven unaddictive?).

So i guess that's what i'm getting into, im sure there's lots of other stuff in the state too, but when the first google image you get of the state comes from a rehab site, you can't expect too much but quiters.

I told ya so; middle class

2010-07-30T11:37:00.000-04:00

Back in action. Let's go over something. Its hard to blog cause sometimes you got nothing to say, but ya know that's not really a bad thing. Compare it to soloing, often your taught to be silent sometimes. To much playing clutters stuff, it makes everything seem less important.

That being said, i used to do a lot of clutter, but something caught my eye that i cluttered about, the middle class. Something as small as gas prices being raised adds testament to the death of the middle class. Example, suburbs are filled with middle class who work in cities and are forced to commute, higher prices mean it costs more for them to drive in. like and here are some stats to go with that.

But when i was on my soap box about this, i didn't get much attention, i suppose it makes sense that numbers are the only things that add credibility, but its a hard fact to face when your a writer and only deal with words

Back

2010-07-20T20:48:00.000-04:00

So i havn't been areound in a while, jsut wanted to say hello again. I will be re-rocking this blog and will be re-updating it much more often. To get it going her's a song i heard on the radio yesterday, i thought it was buy some contemporary chick, but it's still catchy.

2010-03-31T12:50:00.001-04:00

"That only which we have within, can we see without. If we meet no gods, it is because we harbor none."

If you spell Ithaca backwards

2010-03-30T14:49:00.001-04:00

Review from the travels, 3/5/10

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a good break; I was stuck in Albany teaching until Wednesday, then to Syracuse, followed by Ithaca, a return to the Cuse, then to Vermont (where I am currently, writing from a wi-fi connected bar. )Whew! It ‘s been a long two weeks of travel, and we have a few things on the agenda to talk about. First, Ithaca. I trekked out that way Thursday night for \ and Morton’s Sophomore Recital. It was a joint cello and double bass show respectively, with Morton’s jazz trio filling up the middle. Jordan is a little tiny red head who whaled out J.S. Bach’s ten minute Suite No1 in G major BWV 1007, leaving the audience straight up baffled. Upright bass has a great sound live, soo much ambience. \ also played a similar Bach piece (Suite No. 2 in D minor) which was equally (but a little less) stellar as Morton. The rest of the performance was classically based and segued into the Ithaca Orchestra’s dress rehearsal, which I saw the next day in a huge auditorium with sounds everywhere.

However, it was weird being in a school founded in music. Unlike the eclectic atmosphere at St Rose, all the heads I met at the place were creative, but very liner, highlighting the classical and formulaic undertones present in performance based majors. The orchestra played Stravinsky’s Firebird Suit and I got chills. But enough of this Ithaca jazz. Last Friday, Saint Joe’s Auditorium hosted the Saint Rose Music Awards. The show was spectacular, however, due to an Adventure Club Ski trip that I rocked out at (bruised lungs and a concussion due to an epic backflip fail) we’ll discuss the winners and losers, heroes and villains of the SMAs next week. Until then, what do you get if you spell Ithaca backwards?...acahti!

Verse Void

2010-02-16T18:02:00.001-05:00

Style fits when it deserves,
And shouldn’t be confused
To preserve.

I’ll write as a kingfisher
Or a Valkyrie
Or a god.

But only to reflect
the self
Rather than
Prefabricate what
I’m not

originally posted/inspired in repose to a friend of mine's recent introductory post in the Times Union

Chinese New Year at The Egg , Golden Tiger review

2010-02-16T17:02:00.001-05:00

On the other side of the spectrum, the Chinese New Year celebration kicked off this Saturday with the Year of the Golden Tiger to a sold-sold show at the Egg. The entire performance was spoken in Chinese, making it a little difficult to understand the comedy sketches and singers. However, the New Year was not what I expected, rather than seasoned professionals; the show was more like an elementary dance recital, most of the performers being under fifteen. The three hour show did have a world class magician, Qi Le, who was remarkable (he took a full size shovel out of a hand bag) but I intrigued enough to stay past intermission.

The most interesting part of this show centered around a new usher that I met. He had a mutton chops and looked like he was late life, but I started talking to him and didn’t really stop. He’s a dancer from Saratoga (the Flurry happened this weekend), and said he didn’t stop dancing until 4am the night before and was wearing the same clothes he had on when he crashed, “Me too!” We talked about Paris for a little while and he told me how he never thought he’d be so busy after retirement.

I was really happy to find someone so down to earth, and although he talked a storm, he proved to be a great listener too, profoundly interested in an interview I just had and such. The best part of this show was that conversation, so in line with the year of the Tiger ferrying ambition, power and social upheaval, I’m glad I started it with meeting a (rarely seen) like-minded individual.

Egg review Feb 4th, Gregory Alan Isakov and Brandi Carlile

2010-02-08T19:50:00.000-05:00

This week, the show at the Egg was slightly different than the jazz tap performance from last week. Gregory Alan Isakov kicked off the February 4^th show at 7:30. Isakov was like a mix between trailer-trash folk and Bob Dylan. He played about ten tracks and I found myself more interested in the effects pedal he used for his voice rather than the actual words (because I couldn’t understand them).

Towards the end of his set, I started being able to see a little more clearly and began to appreciate Isakov’s presentation as more of a soundscape rather than simply isolating his voice or guitar.

Brandi Carlile was the main act, and straight up, that girl can sing. She reminded me of Joni Mitchell with her range, going from a gumbly low tone to the pitch of a songbird. Her band was great too, with Tim and Phil Hanseroth (guitar and bass), Josh Neumann on cello, Allison Miller on drums and Jon Pagan on the keys. The band had a real rootsy feel to it.

While I was listening, I saw a bunch of kids in the audience, and it warmed my heart to see parents taking them to see a true performer rather than the atypical mainstream garbage. Overall, I give both performers a B, both have good stage presence and, apparent from their passion, purely about the music.

as seen in the Saint Rose Chronicle

A review of Echoes in Time at Albany's Egg

2010-01-30T20:59:00.001-05:00

Last night, I went to the dance performance of Echoesin Time at the Egg performing arts center. I didn't know what to expect, my first time in the Egg and my first time seeing a professional dance show. I went up the oval elevator to the concourse level and smiled. The walls seemed liked they could vibrate sounds into colors.

It was my first time ushering at the place. So I did my seating duties and then snagged a 3^rd row center seat for the show. The band immediately caught my attention. I haven't been to many dance performances, but they had a five piece band positioned towards the back of the stage. The curtains went up with the drum thumping the opening lines of Ellington's Caravan. The bassist started layering the pulse and the tappers went crazy. I suppose I couldn't really judge the actual dancers, I knew the movements were amazing, but at several points during the show, I just closed my eyes and focused on the rhythms of the tapping to the accompanying music. I visualized the claps and snaps of shoes as drums of varying shapes and tones. The sliding sounds of the tappers reminded me of jazz drummers slashing brushes on a snare.

The show was shaped to chronicle the different styles of a bunch of famous tap dances, ranging from Bill “Bojangles” Robinson to Jimmy Slide with Andrew Nemr’s CPD (Cats Paying Dues) Plus dance group. The troupe leader did a solo dance as the second to last number which sounded like a seasoned drummer playing off-beats and polyrhythms asynchronously, (here's a clip). I would highly recommend seeing a jazz tap show as a medium for experiencing a new interpretation of music. And speaking of shows, as you might know, the 3^rd Annual Saint Rose Music Awards is happening March 12 this year, (which yours truly is performing at) so set your calendars. We’ll get a full nomination and performance list up for ya next week.

This week’s album to check out: Wilco A Ghostis Born. It’s going to be a cold week, so throw on some of these chilly, but groovy tunes and mellow out.

(the following was written by Frank Cutie and is an excerpt from his latest installment in the Saint Rose Chronicle)

Top Three Tools for Understandment

2010-01-26T19:41:00.000-05:00

I'm reading Autobiography of a Yogi and Paramahansa Yogananda brings up some interesting differences between Sanskrit and English. The most notable stems from Sanskrit 55 letter alphabet. He writes that words spoken in this language exemplify exactly what they mean.

When I think of language, the first thing that comes to my head is misunderstanding. Between tone and words being galaxies apart from others' definition, I find my self strictly using totally out of context words in order to relay and exact meaning, without the hesitations of incomprehension.

For example, the other day I was describing a trip to London to some new Study Abroad kids. The instructor asked me to retell my best piece of advice.

"You're not putting anything on hold while your away, because you'll find that whereever you are should be the place that's happening."

Maybe that sounds abstract in itself, but basically, when wrapping my rap up, I said , everything was strobe lighted.

Is that an out there adjective to describe something? I dunno, I was the one who said it. It seemed perfect to me, until I replayed the moment an hour after the event and took note of the expressions people made.

The expressions: Understading. I understand languge ennough to know that when one makes the face of understanding, true gasp-awe-stricken understanding; that it's not normal. People don't understand each other.

I knew the description was out there because people did understand it, more-so they exactly understood me.

Strobe lighted: The flashes. The brief moment of unknowing, and then the awareness of something new.

So here we are Top Three things to help get across your point in America, or at least pretend like your trying too.

3) "Ya know what i mean?"

Although this is a cliche one, it fits on a "quick fix list." It implies that the speaker is aware he is being abstract and wants to make sure the listener is on board. Mostly I find the listener "knows what I'm saying" regardless of if they do or not, but every now and then they call me on it. I take great pride in the fact that whenever I'm asked this question in the half-assedly "I assume you know" way...and I don't, I TELL 'EM SO!

2) "It's like.."

A simile may take time but it mostly works if you reverse the example to include the speaker.

example: A friend's friend broke the house bong. He told me he would just give me some substance, but we rather of had the money to fix the piece. It's like if you broke my car and just gave me a Hess gift certificate.

It'll be great once I get the car fixed, but who needs fuel when you don't have the vessel.

1) Sanskrit

Apparently that's were it's at. With 50 letters that carry an invariablied pronunciation, everything sounds exactly how it means (similar to the French's multiple-words-with the same meaning).

In the end it comes down to tone, and based on how Americans where raised, voicing will always be a variable.

However...I only communicate via brainwaves anyway.

Verse void

2010-01-22T11:05:00.000-05:00

Synapsing Reflections

Timeless vision is growing in decision

white lilies force themselves through concrete.

While hollow trees met with the precision

of a flight of a thousand leaves

moist soft sounds surround

the galaxy of space within the

confounds of time.

Clear pristal pool with loud voices,

echo back and forth in my veins.

Visualizations of eternity are swirling

And the crystal ball conceives to sink.

saturated noise resounds

the nothingness of love within

the unmatter of time.

I am alive for only a single second a day

One second I, grey azure white, embody the present

Embodied/Embodying/Embodies existence

But resistance is present

Resistance of the present dismal, insistful decision?

A vision!

Run like fire to the toad’s treasure

find the eye in his mind,

wish for a hundred days that have past to be replayed again

wish for the crystal ball revived.

Run like fire to the funeral pyre;

flowers burn and melt in the flame

petals are splattered along the ceremony.

flowers defiled and frayed.

Petals are burnt; petals and dirt

Unmatter

To the sane

The insignificance of eternity

Swallow inside of me

And fountains from a crystal pool.

Like the tundra in pristine icicle deliverance

The morning rolls

towards

mountains of time

Along the savannah the present slowly wakes

And casts a shroud over the eternity I create

The Soul: Living Rooms, Television Sets and Reporters (the aftermath, pt 4 of 4)

2010-01-22T09:54:00.000-05:00

(Contiunation of The Soul: Living Rooms, Television Sets and Reporters pt 1: the body; pt 2: the soul; pt 3: the union)

It is impossible to discuss and analyze what an object of study is without the knowledge of where it came from. Alfred Whitehead spent a great deal of time introspecting on this matter. “Why would God place us down here?”

Well the answer becomes quite simple, because God must need us for something.

Like with any human, we do not create something without purpose, even in the event of art, the meaning becomes the reason for creation. Possibly God is stuck in a similar type of karma cycle in another universe. In other words, God is trapped in an innately alien universe similar to the human soul, leading to the assumption that God created us to help him break out of his own entombing universe. So while humans strive for nirvana to be free of this reality of time, God is seeking the same form of enlightenment to get out of his prison.

Whitehead’s theory merges remarkably flush with the definition of the human being introduced in this paper. Thus, having knowledge of the human creator helps to understand the human itself.

The human being is composed of three unique identities in the war zone of this universe. Through the interaction of these organs, one can be defined as human.

The soul is the eternal part. Created out of time and entrapped in a foreign place. In the soul, one has the gift of eternity but fettered to this reality, eternity is enchained to merely watch television in the broken living room of the physical.In unison is the terrestrial, ephemeral body, which allows interaction with the present reality; a field reporter traveling amongst the chaotic abyss of the visceral, in constant transmission and journalism.
The third, the deity of consciousness, the television set which mediates and converts the alien gravity of time into subtitles for the restless soul. Consciousness as the television set, broadcasting the celestial to the earthly. The human being a combination of the actions of the body, the awareness of consciousness and the eternity of the soul.

Works Cited

Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Trans. Sheila F. Glaser. The University of Michigan P, 2006.
overview. relation to essay.

Gimbel, Steven, ed. The Grateful Dead and Philosophy : Getting High Minded about Love and Haight. Boston: Open Court Company, 2007.
overview.

Kalkavage, Peter, Eric Salem, and Eva T. Brann. Plato's Phaedo. Boston: Focus/R. Pullins Company, Incorporated, 1998.
read it. what it's about.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy : Out of the Spirit of Music. Ed. Michael Tanner. Trans. Shaun Whiteside. New York: Penguin Classics, 1993.

Watts, Alan. The Tao of Philosophy. Mark Watts, 1995.

Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality : An Essay in Cosmology. New York: Free P, 1978.

Verse void

2010-01-21T15:01:00.002-05:00

Conversation before a Departure

Where are you going my

love? to the ends of the

world

dear. Why?

Because I am cardboard

and I float. I think

you

are mistaken. No,

the air is drowning me.

The Soul: Living Rooms, Television Sets and Reporters (the union, pt 3 of 4)

2010-01-21T10:34:00.002-05:00

(Continuation of The Soul: Living Rooms, Television Sets and Reporters; pt 1: the body; pt 2: the soul)

One can agree that the soul wants to get out of time, because basically, it is a hassle, the soul needs a translator and it is stuck in a foreign dimension. With this soul trapped here in time, one assumes the soul wants to get out. This is where nirvana and eastern spiritually appears.

Nirvana is ultimate balance and transcendence from the physical world. So my theory is, the soul is constantly trying to escape the body, but there are not many available moments.

Since time is a constant, the soul is constantly affronted by time. The point of interest comes during the experience of death. At the exact moment of demise, the physical body, constrained by time, dies, so only the identities of consciousness and the soul are present. In this second, it is consciousness which perceives the moment of death; where the body that was trapped by time is no longer in existence. At this moment, consciousness must relay the message to the soul (since the soul is completely oblivious of time). If a human is aware of this moment, the soul is able to recognize the freedom from the capsule of the body and transcend out of time.

This does not happen very often however because there are still millions of souls roaming throughout our universe. If consciousness is unable to comprehend the moment of freedom, the soul will be ignorant of being unchained, so rather than transcending into eternity, consciousness will transmit time to the soul and rather than freeing itself, the soul will jump to another body encased by time.

In this way the cycle continues.

Through looking at this concept, the idea of karma comes to mind. Karma interprets these same theories in relation to nirvana, ergo; one has to break out of the karma cycle in order to achieve transcendence. So why an eternal God would create the soul in his realm but banish it to a universe of time becomes the question of choice.

The Soul: Living Rooms, Television Sets and Reporters (the soul, pt 2 of 4)

2010-01-20T11:26:00.001-05:00

(Continuation of "The Soul: Living Rooms, Televisions Sets and Reporters part 1; The Body)

The trait that makes a human being human is the soul, but what is the soul? In order to understand the soul, one must examine the religious aspect of it.

According to Christianity, the soul is an eternal being. With this in mind, one must dissect this idea of eternity, especially when it relegates to existence in a time constrained universe. So one must agree the soul is an eternal identity, which means that a human has eternal qualities existing within. The question then arises, what makes our soul eternal?

As Socrates states in Phaedo, the soul must have preexisted before it was attached to the body and it is difficult to believe that one’s parents had the power to create an eternal being (or entrap a preexisting eternal being) during copulation. So this meaning epicenters the notion that our soul had to have been in existence before being ensnared by a body. Since the soul is eternal, it must have been created in an eternal universe. In this eternal universe, God must have created our souls without the restrictions present in a mortal dimension.

With this concept, one is left with a God in an eternal universe creating eternal souls. So that explains where the soul was created and from this standpoint, the human being begins conception. The soul is an infinite being that was created out of time and was forced into time embodied in the physical body. A very interesting aspect of this is the difference in time. The soul is immortal, created out of time, and the body is a physical thing, obviously stuck in a dimension ruled by time. Assumedly, the soul should not be able to interact and function with the body, since both essentially speak different languages. This difference in language is resolved with the entity of consciousness.

Consciousness is human awareness, it is literally how things are perceived and examined.

Human consciousness is the translator that enables the soul to interact with the stop-watched world. For instance, one has the physical body and the eternal soul which are unable to interact with each other. So the soul and the body exhibit different units of measurements which need to be converted in order for the two to be involved in any type of equation with each other. The translator comes in the form of consciousness.

Consciousness configures the perception of the body into a language understood by the soul. So with this theory, the soul is able to remain an eternal being, even though trapped in a body. Furthermore, the question of a difference in universe and dimension is answered through consciousness.

There is the body which experiences time and the physical realm, the soul which is the essence of life and an eternal being, and consciousness, which binds the two together in order to create a human. Under this understanding of the soul and a human, one has the basis to state what a human being is, a soul that perceives the physical world through consciousness.

However, upon further introspection, one comes to the problem of existence, why is the human being here and most importantly, why have millions of these eternal souls been ripped out of eternity and splattered across time? For this answer, one begins the road of spirituality.

The Soul: Living Rooms, Television Sets and Reporters (the body, pt 1 of 4)

2010-01-19T13:26:00.004-05:00

“What is a human?” is a question asked abundantly enough. For centuries, philosophers have explored the infinite possibilities of the difference between a human and an animal. One of the most interesting of these concepts emerge from the metaphysical realm.

Human beings are these physical creatures with some innate knowledge which allows us to be aware of a spiritual atmosphere. The soul is the essence of a human being as well as the spiritual identity which makes a human being unique.

The soul is a mysterious organ, and since we do not know much about it, assumptions must be made. In this light, the human being can be examined through three aspects which transcend that of other creatures. These three items are the soul, the physical body, and consciousness. In this desert of reality, the interaction between these elements allow for human vitality; similar to watching the news in a living room, each part plays a role.

Being a human consists of a combination of three things acting together, the body, the soul, and consciousness.

Each of these aspects, even in isolation, provides an infinity of insight towards the human, so let’s begin with the section of humans which is most indisputable, the physical body. The body is an obvious part of reality and nature because it is directly involved with it. A human body is able to perceive and interact with the world. This physical side allows the soul to interact with the environment. In this way, the physical body can be seen as a transmitter, or a reporter.

The body functions as a medium that allows the soul to perceive and interact physically through consciousness. Since the body is a physical thing within this reality, the body is subject to time. This is interesting because while the soul is argued as an eternal identity, the question arises of how it is stuck within a physical body. The other question is why it was first placed in a physical body. Before answering these questions, one must have an understanding of the soul in relation to the body in order to understand how they become connected.

2010-01-17T15:49:00.000-05:00

COME ON JETS!

tomorrow we'll be doing some soul searching

Just stumbled on these

2010-01-15T14:18:00.001-05:00

Grace potter and the Nocturnals rock and are touring round New York. They're playing at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock and my old ska scene of the Westcott in Syracuse.

but i wish this guy would go on tour with 'em

i could rave to that.

Friday rounds

2010-01-15T14:08:00.000-05:00

Lets get up to date.

Dear state Governors, you are powerful.
Please start using your power.

More TSA, why doesn't the government privatize airline security? Let the planes be in charge of their own safety, less funding and much much more efficient.

Grass

2010-01-13T20:27:00.001-05:00

Grass grows unevenly in high places. Often, while my mind wanders, I conjure up oceans of green. The shades, the steady flow of the land, the contour of the blades form slideshows along my thoughts. There are some specific landscapes that linger more than others. I remember lying on the beach a couple summers ago, before clouds of war and unrest, when only driftwood ventured to foreign lands.

Things are always more beautiful when reminiscing, I recall the sun having a white halo about it, reflecting the translucent glow of a summer moon. The ocean was wild that day, it wasn’t warm, but a gnarled wind tore at the glass sea. There were only a few spots of grass growing amongst the sand, far up from the tide’s stretch. The grass there was not green, but brownish yellow, like rust. The wind would snap at the reeds, bashing against the copper blades. I stared at this for a while, the movement and anger the wind forced onto the tranquil environment. A single force cannot move mountains; it cannot uplift the earth, nor pollute a mind. Rather, force is empowered through minute details scattered along its path. Reeds don’t crash and whirl into their grass cousins, but the force of wind breeds hate amongst family.

I stood up from my mediation drunkenly stumbling, as one does after pristine awareness, to the patch of rust. The wind slashed at my back and stole my hat, but I suppose that is the extent of forces when unaided by others; magpies. Sitting on a fallen palm tree I gazed out at the ocean, with the patch of grass acting as an alter to the citadel azure. Standing, I walked reverently up to the copper grass like Communion. I wanted to walk on it, the colors were so rusted and gray they almost looked soft. The blades of grass were coarse and sharp.

Walking barefoot allows for a unique perspective for it utilizes two senses. Both seeing and feeling one’s path is a beautiful thing. There is an innate a sense of unity with the environment when one allows feet to be connected to the earth. Even on concrete, the absence of a sole buffer reminds me of collective consciousness, everyone rooted to the same flower bed. I walked around Paris in bare feet, on broken wine bottles and garbage, Paris is a very dirty city, but my mind wasn’t absorbed by the grime, but rather, the heartbeat of the city. The subways pumped and shook the city’s paved skin like veins, the lights strobed as blinking eyes.

Landscapes often remind me of citadels. Primrose Hill is equivalent to Notre Dame in every way. When sitting on the mount, stretching over London, the shining green grass seems to have a higher resolution in contrast to the muggy sky. When looking over the cranes and structures of the city, the grass leading up to the urban ziggurat brings life to the architecture. It is a dragon that sleeps and lies at the foot of Primrose Hill, with wings stretching as steeples and fangs glaring as radio towers. The grass provokes mysticism, a certain hex of peace amongst the smog of a city.

Some room cleaning

2010-01-13T20:23:00.000-05:00

So, the name has changed and the background is a little different and i'm not collecting cans on the street anymore...deal

Status updates

2009-12-23T13:35:00.000-05:00

Starwars marathon on spike... currnetly watching attack of the clones

Not in Albany anymore, (thankgod) snowing a ton up in the Sryacuse area

Just watched Robin Williams new standup act "Weapons of Mass Destruction" VERYYYY good
best quote from it: "As an alcoholic, you violate your standards quicker than you can lower them"

Cars and tech

sports and drugs

Update

2009-12-15T10:40:00.000-05:00

Scratch that ~~goofy~~ rubber tree ~~crap~~, this is what i'm talking about.

Joe Pug"Hymn 101"

True poetry might catalyst through a word's definition, but pure translation of meaning comes through sound. The sounds of words together create meaning, conventional definitions are footnotes.

Tuesday mix: vol. 8

2009-12-15T09:23:00.000-05:00

Creed Bratton "Rubber Tree" ~ My friend sent this to me, i really dig the guy's voice.

Link round-up

2009-12-14T08:59:00.000-05:00

Hello interspace! i am sorry but i have been out and about for the past week Although things may have gotten a lil boring here, the world has been thumbing pretty hard.

This site is going to take a new angle, where i won't be so tied down by deposit machines. To round this off, i've decided to take all my aluminum knowledge and funnel it into this single post.

1. Steel Reserve 40oz bottles are non-refundable.
2. Cans are more efficient than bottles; lighter weight.
3. The best conversations happen when your forget about "forming" to the norms and folkways of society.
4. Recycling is for yourself, the world ain't gonna be saved.
5. About # 4, Realizing the world is going down isn't an excuse to ignore it.

Tuesday mix: vol . 5

2009-12-01T09:44:00.000-05:00

Immortal Technique ft Jean Grae, Pumpkinhead
The other guys are alright, 2:17 is where i'm talking about.

And if you like this hardcore rap, you may like my acoustic show this Friday at the St Rose art Gallery on Lark Street.

Rounding up some links

2009-11-30T08:55:00.005-05:00

Jackson Browne hates water...out of bottles. The singer/songwriter explains his fight against the use plastic water bottles in this video interview. Jackson Browne is the man.

Getting run-down by the holiday money crunch? Welcome to pay-as-you-go trash services. Since recycling is free, the towns of Duxbury, Foxborough, Hingham, Mansfield, and Milton are currently recycling 50% of their waste. How does that save money? A dumptruck/trash service's sticker price for a trip to the landfill encircles the $100 mark. The residents of these towns decided to enforce recycling as a town bill, if your caught with recyclables in the trash three times, your trash removal privileges are suspended.

Apparently businesses have no stipulations to enforce recycling in the city of Minneapolis. Minnesota University students seek to change that.

Tulsa residents can sell their used cooking oil from Thanksgiving to make biodiesel, and bank a smooth 10 cents per gallon.

Out on the coast, one of the few states aside from New York with deposit machines, is chomping down. Multiple deposit centers are being closed, leaving people without jobs and without places to recycle. Really California?

Bob Dylan's Christmas album is not as corny as it seems, at least he's donating almost all the profits to charities for the homeless.Here are some audio samples, i couldn't help but crack up, sorry Robert.

The Xmas tunes start at 2:00, compare it to the silver bells audio sample.

The art work is great, haha. i'm surprised this guy can try and sell this with a straight face.

Sidenote: Bob Dylan i'm just kidding, you did a very nice job on your Christmas album, have a happy Hanukkah.

2009-11-30T00:48:00.001-05:00

Hey, hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and recycled your cans. i just loaded this new twitter device called twitwoop to help feed the live show i will be airing via the web and the hospitality of Albany art galleries December 4. Dear friends from London, brainwaves will be optional for this performance.

Here's what my mind is brooding as i get ready to leave the computer lab and scout for cans on my walk home.

Monday theme continued: law enforcement and such

2009-11-24T08:50:00.001-05:00

After the whole Captain Catfish mess, i've decided to report the incident and file a formal complaint. If the officer's mag light (aka "blade") was an inch to the left, he would have broken my wrist.

i'm going to to Albany City Hall Police Department around Noon.The event will be live blogged via tweets (also found on the right-hand column of this page).

Publish Post

Tuesday mix: vol. 4

2009-11-24T08:05:00.002-05:00

Lemon Jelly "Nice Weather for Ducks"

It seems like a good Thanksgiving song.

Excerpt from the Admiral Captain Catfish Cutie's log; Saturday, 21st of 2009.

2009-11-23T17:43:00.011-05:00

This is from the Admiral Catfish Cutie's personal log. If anybody's ignorance incites questioning expressions towards the nature of me voice, then ye land-lover best become familiar with this wanderer and his trusted comrade, the devious cutthroat, Rakk. I am the sparrow Rakk and I be the author of these here chronicles of our brave captain's adventures.

As surely as one maps the north-most star, the noble admiral doesn't have time for the folly of ink and scroll. Therefore, the infamous tales shall be retold through the eye of a sparrow, one above the action, but witness to all.

Enough wasted preludes and introductions, so forth sails a particular incident, displaying our mighty captain’s humility and code.

Excerpt from Admiral Captain Catfish Cutie's log; Saturday, 21st of 2009.

That sun shines bright through the warm breeze. A lazy day it be for our fine crew and noble captain. Nothing but clear waters and a bit of fatigue. Our lord's brother in blood and soul has most recently returned from a most profitable business exchange and is celebrating his fortune this night. The day wanes slowly and the point of revelry is at hand.

Our most audacious leader rallies our blood in anticipation for his brother's feast. The gleam promises of fine rum and women reflect through the crew's eyes. It is 22:00 and Admiral Catfish is away in his cabin, preparing his formal garments. In a whirlwind of dignity and suave, the captain chambers open and our company be ready to proceed yonder to such festivities.

Lo and behold, the crew is not all present! Our good captain excuses the offense and allows us to wait for the return of the brethren. The jolly man joins his lowly crew and we chat; patiently anticipating follies upon our extrusion into the temptress of the night.

We wait. We wait more and then we wait again. The captain in anxious now, I can see it in his green eyes. His mouth has the usual warm smile, yet a wise looker observes the strong aroma of anxiety. He is ready to go but waits for his crew. Noble and kind heartily he rouses his voice, crisp yet subtle: "Friends, the time grows late and I need merriment and drink. When will our friend (friend, we are not slaves to the good Captain) return?"

"Soon," the crew resounds, "and then we will be off together!" The captain reseats himself in his chair.

The missing crewmate appears with a hearty bounty of herbs to share with his fellow sea-farers. The company settles down to relax amongst the sofas and cushions of the living chamber.

"How now, what pleasantries are these? We have been summoned as guests of honor to celebrate thine brother’s fortunate and how doest thou now sit paralyzed with greed of smoke and sloth?"

"O lord, our bones be dead and our minds be sore. Allow us to stay in the comfort of our dwellings for the night."

Oh, how the captain’s brow jittered, and his mighty paws shook for a moment with venom and rage. But only for a moment. The crew saw the offense, yet stayed lounged as beached whales amongst their disobedience.

Our most merciful captain, saturated with humility and forgiveness, ventured into the brisk night-air without his sailors. Only I, Rakk, followed in his wake.

Into the wind and amongst the snow, we followed the glow of a home we know.

Into the warm fire our brother has made,

we are welcomed with open arms, wine and dames.

A mighty celebration it appeared to be,

but I saw the captain’s third eye beam,

and he clutched his drink and turned to me.

"Rakk" his voice was commanding,

"Somethin’s afoot, watch my temper,
I am in no mood for disaster."

At his clairvoyance, piercing as the eastern wind,

A land-loving sheriff bounded in.
An arrogant head too proud for his shoulders,
Our captain starred; his eyes like boulders.

This ignorant disrespectful slug

Dared stand a-front Our Captain!

Our captain, the admirable and noble Catfish,

Said not a foul word to this ruffian.

"DO YOU LIVE HERE?"

"No."

Smooth but cold, was our buccaneer’s voice,

Controlled as ice, he glared at the rouge.

"Then you’re trespassing and will be sent to the barracks."

"I want no trouble, I will be leaving."

O noble and merciful being;
our captain stole no
blood from this man, but left him with
his heart beating.

With proud shoulders and a hidden grin, our captain turned to leave,

When the sheriff, in some fit of ignorance, unsheathed his pitiful blade.

Obese with filth and ignobility, the fiend sliced our noble leader's meed

From his hand; spilling wine all over both his and his brother's knees.

What an offense, and provoked under no reason!

If it were any other season, the rouge would be tied by

His ankles for the vultures.

Yet the good Captain Catfish would not

See any dishonor amidst his brother's triumph,

And cast the officer a look that, I'm surprised, didn't slay

The insolent fool in his boots.

With a high head and a proud chest, Catfish

Walked out of the dwelling,
leaving his coat, as the fire in his blood
warmed his bones amply enough.

Link roundup: police and polar bears

2009-11-23T16:24:00.001-05:00

Hey guys, i have a little bit of a theme to go with today. It has to do with an incident which unfolded Saturday night but before i get into a post about that, i would like to use this round up as a precursor.

Now if anyone questions what this theme has to do with cans, not to much. But actually, the motif has a lot to do with Albany, and i collect cans in Albany.

Theme: police enforcement.

Last week, a African-American woman went on trial for harassing police officers and making a scene at a Missouri Wal-Mart. The security cameras coincidentally didn't capture her outburst, yet her bloody wrists and bruises recorded the police officers response. UPDATE: she will admit to the misdemeanor charges...Weak, but how can you fight the people making the rules?

With all these military video games and TV shows, someone is conditioning us.

Mike Wiley is the ONLY candidate for the US Senate who is pro-2nd amendment. Shouldn't all candidates support the template of our nation?

And to rap all this police/military stuff up, Fox News reports the motion to instill a "war surtax" in order to pay of the high cost of troops in Afghanistan. If this stuff got passed, i'd pull a Thoreau.

Planet Stupid's surreal global warming ad.

2009-11-22T16:40:00.000-05:00

Hey guys, i'm getting ready for my friend's Thanksgiving day deal. i'm making some wiki sweet potato chips kinda things. i'll post a picture of the finished product.

Currently listening to "Arm's like Boulders" by The War on Drugs, its worth a listen.

Live cans!!

2009-11-20T20:35:00.009-05:00

Frank Catfish Cutie will be playing at the First Friday Art Show in Albany December 4. It will be live-blogged via audio and tweets, if you can't make the show you can hear the tunes.

More details to come once i have more info on the gig.

And here is what you can expect.

Table standing.

Shirtlessness and crazy light stuff.

Intense red-bandanna soloing and white linen jackets.

Confusion and white bandannas.

The Paris Canal.

Green Thanksgiving

2009-11-20T15:21:00.003-05:00

We're coming up to Thanksgiving, which is a pretty wasteful time. Food everywhere, leftovers, paper plates, the excessive quality of this holiday leads to lots of black bags on the curb.

One way to be a little resourceful pertains to plates. Washing dishes and pre-washing before using the dishwasher wastes water. Solution: have the dogs lick wash the plates before throwing them in the washer. It puts the leftovers to good use and conserves some water.

Cranberry sauce is also a good stain remover.

For more ideas, check out these sites.

*thanks to Tao of Change

Money for garbage: are we paying too much?

2009-11-19T11:12:00.001-05:00

According to ABC, Toledo is paying too much to recycle. How much? "Earlier this week the mayor's office announced next year's budget deficit is $30 million."

i agree, way too much. Why not REUSE?

Just a filthy bag of bones

2009-11-19T07:20:00.001-05:00

Once again, the only moment i find time to sit in front of the computer is 4:21am. What could i talk about at 4 in the morning? Trash.

Last post i ~~broke character~~ developed character. There was garbage all over the streets and i was sick of it. But we might as well talk less about the placement and more abut the substance.

So we're humans and we create waste, as do lots of other things. Animals in the wild create waste, plants create waste; even space has its form of waste in cosmic dust, meteor showers and the aftermath of super novas (which makes black holes garbage men?). And as with all these bi-products, there is something out there living off it. Grass grows from cow manure, mushrooms decompose dead plants, etc. One organism finds life in another's death.

Where am i going? We're just someone else's shit too. Humans may not be squatted out of some deity, but who am to say otherwise?
We’re like paper plates or napkins; a mode of transport. Of course our souls rank a little higher than a slice of pizza, but bodies are luggage. i dig the whole spiritual-physical/mind-body relationship; the soul excretes the body. When our eternal embodiment bounces, the body is essentially left on Earth as a bi-product.

So every time you die, your littering the earth.

Seems we're fundamentally meant not to clean up after ourselves.

Comets and stars: reflections from above

2009-11-17T14:03:00.008-05:00

But I am constant as the northern star, of whose true-fix'd and resting quality there is no fellow in the firmament. - Cassius

i'm an essay. An intro, a plot, punchline, lesson, and conclusion. With every blink i start a new paragraph, every slumber a new death. My dreams are pregnant with being. The alarm clocks, or car horn molds my birth and i live. i am a post-moderate character, i see things in the 3rd person. We are embedded in multiplex consciousness, i see bilingually.

It is currently 3:22 am. i just got back from a mountain where i watched a meteor shower. i only saw a single shooting star, but it wasn't a fake one. Our minds’ were tricking all of us on that summit, a star was spotted every couple seconds. Forty minutes into the night, i thought to have seen two comets, until a true one zipped right through the bottom half of Orion's foot.

It was easy to make-up shooting stars before actually seeing one. Our perception of stars stretched like canvas across skin and bone. Whether it be from a concept, a hostile idea or criticism, it is hard to acknowledge beauty until it dances in front of you.

i like to think i have a certain knack for the ascetics of criticism and critiques. However, those are all outward perspectives, gazes from others' eyes. The criticism of myself epicenters through my contradictions.

There are a many thoughts drifting through my head. i bend my ideas continually and break axioms regularly. Strike that, i contradict axioms regularly.

Immersing myself in can collecting and a green mindset has incited a shift of my character on this certain stage.

Honestly, i get bored with the story. Not because i am disinterested in the individuals i meet during the labor, rather, i just don't believe it, and i never truly have.

Me? I’m dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It’s the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they’re going to do something incredibly… stupid.- Jack Sparrow

i'm a balanced person. i will argue for whatever side will invoke the most interesting situation. Yet we all have certain reluctancies when it comes to fully acting a particular character.

Insinuation can only be so subtle, so why prolong the obtuse?

One attempts to be mindful of trash, but our world beyond redemption. There is no cleaning the place, no way to save the earth, and no way to save the people on it. Its just a roller coaster now, a nice hunk of missing rail by the third summit and a bus of passengers convinced the track is still there.

Go, go, go said the bird: human kind cannot bear very much reality. - T.S.Eliot

i walked around Albany at 7:00 am Saturday morning, you know how it looked? Like dystopia, a wasteland. Trash scattered everywhere across Ontario Street, heaps of bottles and plastic are cluttered in front of doorways. This world isn't getting better. Maybe we haven't hit rock bottom, but everyone can see there's no safety-net above the stone.

i remember one homeless man in an electric wheelchair who circles round my block for cigarettes. i don't smoke, so i sympathetically apologize, wish him a good day, whatever. i've had exchanges with him about seven times. The other day, i'm in the middle of that war zone i mentioned earlier and he comes zipping down the street. i greet him:

"Hey buddy, how ya doing?"

The guy drives right by me. He didn't make eye contact, he didn't nod his heard, he didn't acknowledge any-freaking-aspect of my physical existence which was standing directly in front of him.

i'm like Cassius, i have conviction and i have resolve. When presenting myself from a thought context other than my own, i am rounded and optimistic. But as Cassius taken in context becomes a conspiring serpent, when my eyes see a meteor shower, i'll see 4 times the tails as anyone else.

The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks, they are all fire and every one doth shine. - Cassius

Tuesday mix: vol. 3

2009-11-17T09:37:00.003-05:00

KC And The Sunshine Band-I'm Your Boogie Man (12" promo) from James Gangale on Vimeo.

Green ideals have hidden agendas: roundup

2009-11-16T09:01:00.003-05:00

Hey guys, so i am back. Brenda, thank you so much for your excellent insight. You are welcome to post on this site whenever you want.

The Netherlands are trying to go green with a GPS system. With this, it'll cost a driver for every mile they drive. This system will reduce some taxes on car purchasing, but will cost a driver 3 cents for every kilometer driven. The GPS unit will be government sanctioned and placed in every car, tracking and recording the cars' location, movement and the works. wait...wait...wait......WHAT?!!??

Yes.Yes. And this GPS-eco-friendly plan will be put into effect 2012.

The liberal "green world" slogan seems to be a nice canopy-style camouflage for Big Brother. We have satellite-tracking computer chips in our passports, and now our cars.

George Bush ascribes to having "free-market instincts," are we to expect a similar self-reflection from you Alan Greenspan anytime soon?

NASA is blasting off to space today to repair some space station/shoot more shit at the moon.

Today is the12th annual America Recycles Day! Spread some awareness, recycle some cans, reuse some trash.

Sugar and corn

2009-11-15T22:09:00.000-05:00

Last week i mentioned the sugar tariff on American sugar and the way in which it effects our soda and ultimately our cans.

It all started in 1816 when our government put high tariffs on sugar to incite farmers in the Louisiana territory to grow the crop.

"Protectionists warned that if sugar tariffs were lifted, then the value of slaves working on the sugar plantations would collapse — thus causing a general fall in slave values throughout the South"*

In 1934 the government instilled sugar import quotas.

"Like most arcane systems, the sugar program vested vast power in the few people who understood and controlled the system. As author Douglas Cater observed in 1964, "In reviewing the sugar quotas, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Cooley has had the habit of receiving the [foreign representatives interested in acquiring sugar quotas] one by one to make their presentations, then summoning each afterward to announce his verdict. By all accounts, he has a zest for this princely power and enjoys the frequent meetings with foreign ambassadors to confer on matters of sugar and state."*

These sugar prices are making the average American pay way more for a cheap commodity. The net worth of a pound of sugar in the global market is 3 cents a pound, Americans pay 21 cents .

"Each 1-cent increase in the price of sugar adds between $250 million and $300 million to consumers' food bills. A Commerce Department study estimated that the sugar program was costing American consumers more than $3 billion a year. "*

Sugar is difficult to grow in American, so the few farmers who undertake the task get great pay offs due to the sweet's legislation.

How does this relate to soda? Because sugar cost is so high, Coke and Pepsi replace sugar with high fructose corn syrup. This syrup is unnatural, unhealthy and tastes way worse. In Europe, Coke is manufactured with real sugar...it tastes a thousand times better.

*thank you to James Bovard's article The Great Sugar Shaft from The Future of Freedom Foundation.

My last appearance

2009-11-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

Sadly, this is my last post for the week.

I really enjoyed writing for Frank's blog, and I hope you enjoyed reading what I had to say for a change.

I hope Frank will let me come back sometime.

You can follow me at Deliverin' Data, and I hope you do!

-Brenda

My canned heat

2009-11-14T16:02:00.000-05:00

Before I venture back to my own blog, I just wanted to deposit onto Frank's readers, some of my own heat that I have with bottle returning. My five complaints are listed in order of how much they bother me:

1) Why is it that if you buy a specific soda brand, for example, Hannaford Orange Soda, and then you proceed to return that Hannaford Orange soda to a return machine at Hannaford, it doesn't always accept it?

The machine sometimes goes hay wire! It beeps at you and displays something on the screen that sounds something like this, "sorry, store does not accept this brand." Now to me that makes no sense at all. I bought the damn Hannaford Soda at Hannaford, so why the heck does the machine always kick back some?

Seriously, what a piece of ~~shit~~ junk some of those machines are.

2) I hate dirty/lazy people. I've worked for several years in a grocery store at the customer service desk. Once in awhile, when our bottle clerk takes a break, I have to watch the bottle register for customers as well. Can I just tell you... that the one thing that bothers me the most, is when customers bring in dirty cans and bottles. I have seen bottles with cigarette butts still in them. I saw one with a used condom shoved inside the can, not to mention the cans that have sat in someone's garage for so long they actually have mold on them, and therefore smell disgusting.

Yuck.

3) People that spend all day in the grocery store, after returning cans.

OK- so I understand that times are tough, and if you have to return cans to get some money to make it through the week that is one thing. However, when it starts to get hardcore, I just can't help but shake my head in disarray.

For Example, we have a regular can and bottle returner where I work. When I say regular, I mean he is there on a daily basis. Collecting cans is his job apparently, and that is fine. Yet, once this man finishes returning all his cans, he comes up to the customer service desk to cash in his money for the day, and proceeds to inspect the rest of the store. He checks every candy machine, toy machine, and lottery machine to check for rejected coins. He wants to make sure that no one forgot even a penny. Then, he takes a broom, yes a broom, I don't know why he brings a broom into the store but he does. He uses this broom to stick underneath our coinstar machine to see if there is coins underneath it.

Then he'll hang out in the bottle area for hours and wait to see if anyone leaves any cans behind, or to see if he can possibly snag an extra can or two from other returners. He will continue to come up to the desk in intervals all day long, not that I am an angry customer service clerk... but man it is annoying.

4) When the power goes out in a grocery store.

I have had experience with this, and let me tell you it is not fun. When the power goes out where I work, we have backup generators. The crappy part is that the generators do not allow the bottle machines to run. Therefore, the people that continue to bring their fully loaded carts of bottles and cans into the store to return, still want their money.

That usually leaves someone like me to sit and count all the cans. This is a long process, especially if someone has 100 grimy and icky cans. Sani-Wipes...I have needed them now more than ever.

I don't get paid enough.

5) I ~~fucking~~ really hate bottle slips. I have to count all of them. Yes, all of them. On an average day, we are talking $500 to $700 worth of bottle slips. Now, if each slip has .05 on it, this is a time consuming process. One that takes too long and usually holds me up from getting out of work on time. Not to mention if you are in the middle of counting all the bottle slips on the calculator, and you somehow mess up, you have to start all over. What a pain. If you are a spaz like me, odds are you are going to have to count them numerous times.

I think I am done. I have had all that anger canned up inside me for so long. Feels good to get it off my chest. Sorry for my pretty vulgar rant...

Don't worry readers, Frank is coming back soon.

The life of a coke bottle

2009-11-13T18:05:00.003-05:00

I thought this was a cool video. Even though I work in a grocery store, and I watch people put cans and bottles into the machines all day, and I return cans on my own...

I always wondered what the life of a bottle was like.

Not to mention, it brought a smile to my face.

Cans for charity

2009-11-12T09:00:00.003-05:00

I've decided that collecting cans is pretty easy.

And for people like me, it is actually kind of fun.

I was thinking about what I was going to do with the 42 cans that I have collected so far this week, and I thought about donating the money to charity.

I know that every month Price Chopper has a box next to their bottle register for different non profit organizations. If you want, you can put your bottle slips in the box, and at the end of the month, that organization gets the total bottle slip money.

All you have to do is go to the customer service desk at any local Price Chopper, and ask to sign up for a certain month. It's that simple.

I think that is really nice of Price Chopper. Other places do it as well. Cans For Charity does this too. Their website also has cool facts about how much the charities get, and how much money they make in a year. Plus, they are also recycling, and making our world a better environment.

Often times, random shopping centers will have bins set outside their store where you can drop off your empty cans. They return the cans for you, and the money goes to charity. You can do something good for your community, and not have to do any work. There are tons of reasons to recycle.

You can also put your donation in a charity can, most chain stores have them.

I made $2.10 on my 42 cans that I returned. I put the $2.10 in the Salvation Army bucket outside of Price Chopper. I know it isn't much, but it is $2.10 more than they had before. Plus, the Salvation Army isn't doing so well with their collections this year, and have even started collecting earlier than they normally do.

I know that times are tough, and every penny counts.

However, it is almost Christmas time, so for once...give your cans to charity.

One time isn't going to kill you.

Happy can collecting for charity.

I can, can, can

2009-11-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

In an effort to support Frank, and see how much money I could make...

In the last two days, I have been trying to collect as many cans/bottles as I can.

So far, I have about 42 cans.

And, I have been lazy. They are my own cans, and cans that I have stolen from around my house.

I have yet to hit the streets.

Look how happy I am can collecting.

I'm trying Frank, I'm trying.

Tuesday mix: vol. 2

2009-11-10T17:03:00.002-05:00

Clem Snide - Moment in the Sun

Heard this one through my guestblog. 3:30 till the end is great.

Depositing: helping to clean up the world

2009-11-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

I started thinking about how people comb the streets and parties to grab cans and bottles...

Are they really collecting the cans to help keep the enviroment clean? To reuse the materials?

Or are they just in it for the deposit money?

I am going to assume that most people are in it for the money. With today's economy, every nickel counts.

Well, what if we used this motivation of money...to put deposits on other things that would really help keep our environment clean?

As a smoker who has been struggling to quit for some time now, I started to think about all the cigarette butts I see on the ground in an average day.

The reality of the situation is that, they are everywhere. Just like cans.

There is usually specific spots with high volume too. People tend to smoke in the same areas, as smokers are creatures of habit, and all these cigarette butts end up in masses all over the ground.

Well, what if there was a deposit on cigarette butts?

They could be coated with some neat barcode, and have their own machine at stores!

Do you think smokers would be cleaner? Perhaps possibly pick up after themselves for the deposit money?

Or do you think they wouldn't care, and the regular can/bottle collectors would take over and start picking up cigarette butts too?

The possibilities for a cleaner world...starts with depositing.

Round up of plastic water bottles for deposit

2009-11-09T07:07:00.000-05:00

With no deposit, plastic water bottles end up on the road.
Would it cut down on litter, if we added them to our returnable load?

I know I would carry them to the store,
because they would make my profits more.

Yet, would there be a machine available for easy return?
Or would I have to wait in line at the bottle counter for my turn?

I need my money, but lack patience for waiting in line.
Standing there for even minutes, hurts my spine.

Would businesses be able to accommodate a returnable water bottle appearance?
Or will the machines reject them and say, "sorry no clearance."

Would bottle areas be more crowded and have little room?
Is this just something that I should assume?

However, I think that this is in fact a great plan...
For all can returners, woman or man.

Let's help New York Extend their bottle bill,
returning water bottles helps the environment, trust me it will.

Some people may be divided about this conception,
I think what matters most, is Frank Cutie's perception.

My first appearance

2009-11-08T11:24:00.000-05:00

Good Morning.

My name is Brenda. I am honored to be given the chance to guest blog for Canned Heat.

I am a blogger for Deliverin' Data. I usually try to deliver as much technological data to future teachers, or just anyone, who is as far behind in technology advances and uses as I am.

Hopefully I will be able to shed some light on the world of canning, and have some new perspectives on the topic.

I hope for a successful week, and hope you will follow my writing as much as you do Canned Heat's.

Grassroot recycling: deposits, soda and CRV

2009-11-07T16:23:00.000-05:00

i just came across this cool video. It is an interview with the store owner of Galco’s. Galco's is a tiny soda retailer in LA, only marketing small time sodas. In other words, it's like an indie soda store. No Coke, no Pepsi.

Here is the video of the interview. While the whole thing is enjoyable to any soda enthusiast, 10:02 talks a little about CRV recycling, which is similar to New York state depositing. The clerk also mentions corn syrup, which shall be discussed in GREAT detail on Monday. To give you a preview, our government has a ridiculous tariff on imported sugar. (i've had Coke with real sugar before...incomparable to the bullshit sold in the States.)

My cans in related proportions to me: element B

2009-11-06T17:13:00.000-05:00

So yesterday, i had a very interesting experience.

i was hanging around on my front porch playing guitar, when a can collector approaches me.

He asked if i had any cans and i said of course, but you have to hang and smoke a cigarette with me. He was into it and i grabbed the cans and threw him a fag.

There's def a bit of smoking culture out there. Aside from being horrible for your lungs, it’s a great medium to talk to a person. i don't smoke regularly, but whenever there's an opportunity to have a conversation through the event of smoking; i'm always down.

The conversation got a little bit interesting and surprisingly Bill (his name is Bill) was a lot more curious about my life than Dave. Here are some of the topics he brought up and asked me about and my responses.

What do you think about global warming?

i really don't care, this world's gonna end in a frecking shit show anyway. (he agreed with my reply)

What color is your personality?

Red, i'm bright and loud. Bill thought purple more represented himself (i'm assuming not for regal purposes though)

How often do you clean your car?

i told Bill i didn't have a car, neither did he. He followed it up by asking what kind of car i would want: "A Volkswagen van." Bill: "I could've guessed."

Do you write in pencil or pen?

Strictly pen, i hate pencils. Bill agreed with this too, he said pencils were for scientists.

Who is your least favorite relative?

Ha, i laughed when he brought this up. There's this one aunt who loves my brother Max and hates me. She gives me tie-tye socks for chrsitmas and never ackownledges my existence, but falls allll over Max.

Coffe or tea?

Tea.

When did you know your true calling?

i looked at Bill when he asked this one. "i can't tell ya man, i've always known it"

"Then what is it?"

"Everyone has the same true calling and that is to be in the present. If your in the present all the time, your calling is always and infinitely immediate, because one's awareness of their present encompasses their presence and being. My true calling is music, and whenever you can silence your thoughts and anxieties, your calling unconsciously manifests."

Would you go sky diving with me?

"Yes Bill," but we discovered that neither of us had the money, unsurprisingly.

What was your favorite moment 2 date?

I live in the present, the past and future entwine to create the now. So my favorite moment is the present, this exact moment, which always means every moment past and future because the rave happens infinitely in the now.

Bill nodded at this response, (he pretty much had enough of my rambling at this point). The cigarettes were dead anyway. He told me to have a good day and walked off.

My cans in related proportions to me: Top 5 Tattooed Athletes

2009-11-05T16:15:00.000-05:00

In this segment, a sport-minded fan asked about my favorite athletes. A regular "Top 5" of this would be boring i feel, so i altered the question to "Top 5 Tattooed Athletes."

Number 5: Birdman Andersen; tons of bird tattoos, horrible attitude and 5-6 rebounds a game...Hell ya

Number 4: Jeremy Shockey; yes, yes that is America in ink on his bicep.

Number 3: Zinedine Zidane; this French soccer player is not really noted for his own tattoos, but more-so the headbutt he imprinted on Marco Matterazzi.

Number 2: Kobe Bryant; i dig the Lakers, and aside from being royalty on the court, his tattoo is equally regal.

Number 1: Who else?

Tuesday mix: vol. 1

2009-11-03T12:25:00.000-05:00

Back in elemtary school, Tuesday mornings meant music class.

My teacher was horrible and i hated the course, but the habit stuck.

The goal of this new series within a blog is to present a reader with some tunes that would go well with a Tuesday morning, while in the office, at home, or cleaning up cans.

Here is a funky one to start off the day.

My cans in related proportions to me: episode A

2009-11-02T09:51:00.000-05:00

Recently, i've been getting a lot of mail regarding my personal atmosphere and attitude. In order to please the public, i've collected a bunch of my favorite fan questions from various readers and will be posting the questions, answers, and much more for the length of this week.

First randomly chosen question: "What are the top 6 ponies you have ridden on?"

Great question! i feel this question is an assessment of character rather than ponies. Whenever i try to get a feel for somebody, i ask them their top 5 favorite bands, so here we go top 6 favorite ponies i have never ridden on but would like to, starting at the top of course.

Number 6: This one was a little tiny for me, but look at them ears.

source

Number 5: A Welsh Pony!

source

Number 4: Hello Ariegeois Pony, this guy is a beast.

source

Number 3: Kinda like a Pokemon. The other day, a bunch of my buddies wanted to go to Taco Bell but we didn't have a car to fit us all, enter pony. He's not very fast, but he's the mini-van of the pony world.

source

Number 2: If number 3 is a mini-van, this Shetland Pony is a Hummer.

source

Number 1: What else?

source

"So i wake up" a link roundup

2009-11-02T08:51:00.000-05:00

So i wake up, still asleep
and fasten my seat belt for the day.

My engine runs and i begin
a way through winding roads

i have some time to go,
the muffler groans

but senses are numb,
i travel slow.

Sometimes the words you chose have exactly the right meaning in themselves. So rather than an in-poem illustration, below is an alternative. The paragraphs correspond with the stanzas.

With Halloween over, the public has been conscious about recycling and reuse. Some towns even have rewards for such green-minded people.

Some new programs are growing across the ocean.

Not everythng progresses though. State Rep. Claytone Luckie (from Dayton, Ohio) recenlty preposed a new bill to plant microchip tracking devices on homeless sex offenders.

Safety is safety, but i don't want to see the government begin to actually embed tracking units into our skin, passports are enough. Once they're given the OK to do it to humans rather than documents, well its kinda like "if you give a mouse a cookie."

Dear audience, may i present...updated

2009-11-01T12:29:00.000-05:00

We proudly introduce
~~this week of November~~ *this next week of November
Miss ~~Mary Cathrine Owen~~ Brenda Gorman
as our guest can collector.

Brenda is a part of the the
technological revolution via Deliverin' Data.
She will be observing, participating, and perspecting
in this world of can hunting and gathering.

i shall be guest observing and perspecting
on The Smiling Goat next week.

Recycled thoughts: supernovas and Taliban(s)

2009-10-29T09:46:00.000-04:00

Its interesting how wrapped-up in our worlds we can get. Look at Albany: there must be over a million worlds and identities that people shroud themselves with (and are shrouded by).

i am wrapped up in about 90 worlds currently, but at the moment i find myself enthralled by a particular constellation.

i'm a space guy. i don't study it or research it but its a great way to illustrate something. Presently, the star cluster i'm observing is one that may be light years away from collecting cans, but supernovas send trans-galactic waves.

So while i'm comfortably out of harm for now, i can see the explosions and anticipate the repercussions once the blow starts shaking my world.

This is what i'm rapping about. CNN says Obama's gonna start paying Taliban members to switch sides. That's weird: last time i remember the US government paying an enemy to switch was when the OSS employed about 20-30 Nazi scientists and strategists, simultaneously renaming itself to the CIA. How did that turn out? Misinformation, completely illegal activity, and the Cold War.

We're in the desert now, i suppose we can expect a hot war. i better start getting my hippie bullshit protest songs in order...Ha.

2009-10-28T21:15:00.001-04:00

i’m watching the Yankee game (the Yankees rock) and apparently there’s this Phillies player, Jimmy Rollins, who’s appeared on several MC Hammer music videos, a fun fact the network showed instead of the guy’s batting average. (i have to get back to the game, i’ll look up more videos after.)

During my baseball-web-browsing, i came across this site talking about how over half of the billion cans purchased last year ended up in a land fill rather than recycled.

Maybe Jimmy Rollins can use his connections to spread the message about recycling, but i’m sure he doesn’t know too much about budgeting and recycling if he was involved with MC anyways…

(Thanks to the weak Baltimore blog where the picture came from. People title the Yankees as the empire in an attempt to bash, the empire destroys planets man, planetsss.)

Halloween costume: update 2

2009-10-28T19:51:00.000-04:00

The results are in, and the color red seems to be the fans' can-collecting costume choice.

Here's the cosutme i made.

i'm still working on the body part.

Canning that heat: trickling the effects of refundibles and house parties

2009-10-27T13:07:00.000-04:00

How is the can budgeting? Well i have been collecting cans, i have a full closet of them (picture to come) but i just haven’t had the time to deposit the suckers. i am still contemplating how i’m going to give my deposit money back to the community as well.

Lately i've realized college houses parties that leave their cans scattered across the street is really a beautiful example of the trickle down effect.

Remember that from 8th grade? The money goes through the middle class parents (which their class is assumed by their child’s enrollment in an institution of higher education; yes i am making a generality about the economic class of students' families, deal with it), through the hands of the college student who, like all college kids, spend their money on beer. The bi-product is a trashed house party and a plethora of cans cluttering the street.

We’ve all seen the less fortunate collect these aluminums off the street the day after a house party. This is a visible example of the trickle down effect. i’m sure it’s not the most prosperous version of it, but it may very well be the most consistent: no one’s gonna stop buying refundable cans any time soon.

i was toying around with this concept in my head before i went off to New Hampshire for the weekend. Some of my buddies that i met in London were having a big get together, so i made the hike out there for the party.

These guys go to school at the University of New Hampshire. i had a great time, it was awesome seeing everyone but the day after the party, i looked at their trash bins outside and saw piles of cans. Just so you can envision the picture, all the student owned-off campus houses at UNH have parking lots, a nice back yard, the works, but ultimately: an inaccessible back yard for a can hunter. So i saw these cans and the first thing i thought was “how are street collectors supposed to collect cans that are hidden in the back of the house?”

While was i was a little taken back, i realized that there probably wasn’t any homeless to roam the streets of rural New Hampshire, so i did a little trash picking and took two trash bags full back to Albany.

i don’t want to be indecent, but i think i may try a little experiment and empty my piles of cans in front of my house. i don’t think this would be degrading in anyway, but more a testament of the trickle down effect; more an act of opportunity rather than charity. As i mentioned a couple posts ago, no one wants to be a charity case, and i think depositing the cans myself and handing someone a wad of bills might be charitable but it loses the atmosphere of ability. Even on the level of can hunting, there is skill, if nothing more than persistence.

i don’t have class on Wednesday, i think i will throw all my cans off my balcony, sit on my couch and observe who comes to collect. If nothing else, at least i might get into a good conversation with someone (whether it be a can collector, a weirded-out neighbor or a pissed off landlord).

UPDATE; 3:00 October 28th: As any albany readers are aware, the weather is horrible today so i decided to wait for a nicer day for this project, which i am contemplating live blogging. More to come.

Heating that can: canned intentions

2009-10-22T09:14:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, a buddy of mine was talking about how he didn't have any gas money to go home for the weekend. Of course, the first thing to come to mind were cans.

i had about $5 worth at the house and offered them to him, so long as he cleaned up the house a lil in the process.

He said he was gonna come on Sunday.
then Monday,
then Tuesday.

The house needed to be cleaned and the cans were in the way.

i'm sorry Tom but i returned the cans yesterday.

"Insanity is like" a link roundup

2009-10-20T15:53:00.001-04:00

Insanity is like the atmosphere,
    an invisible barrier between us and space
    and we are on earth.
Of course humans are naturally inclined to look up.

Once someone discovers the ability and comfort
    of looking up rather than the neck-straining
    action of hanging your head low.
one may start to leave a wandering head tilted towards the sky.

With curiosity,
    for the stars,
    celestial bodies, galaxies and the like
your head floats higher and higher.

Until it reaches the troposphere, the stratosphere, the ionosphere.
    before you know it
    your head's so high in the clouds,
people will mistake you for insane.

Detachment and Dave

2009-10-19T11:23:00.000-04:00

This weekend i collected cans, but not for myself. Let me explain.

It was Saturday night at 2 in the morning and i was outside a party with my friend’s older brother Tony. We were smoking a cigarette when a black man walks up to us with a shopping cart half full of cans.

The guy looked like he was hurting. He appeared about 40-50ish and was wearing a black skull hat, a worn out Carhartt, and filthy khaki pants. Although the clothing seemed sufficiently warm for the weather, he was missing teeth and his eyes rolled uncontrollably in their sockets. He had a limp as well.

The man stayed on the sidewalk with his cart and asked if it was alright if he could pick up the cans that were scattered across the front porch.

Tony didn’t make eye contact or answer him. This guy is from NYC, so i feel that he has a little more of a precautious attitude when it comes to talking to wandering strangers in the night.

So with Tony opting out of the conversation, i replied “of course, let me help you” and together we began collecting the mess of cans in the front yard.

Naturally, i was interested in this stranger, so we began talking. i mentioned how i was collecting cans for a blogging class but i don't think he knew what a blog was. Putting that topic aside, i asked him how often he can hunts, he said three days a week…

“Three days, that’s not too bad, how much ya usually make?”

“Well I s'pose I make ‘bout $300 a week.”

“Really?”

“Yea, yea. $300 a week.”

“Whoa, that’s pretty good money.” says the middle class college student who has a job and ignorantly looks at $300 as a good chunk of money.

“Well it’s not ‘nough fer me ta get ‘n apartment, but once my compensation check comes, Ima get $100,000.”

“Compensation man, for what?"

“Dat’s why my eyes are woabbly. I got nickered in da ‘ead. My lawsuit jus settled and Ima get my check this Friday.”

“Shit, that sucks, least your getting some money from it. How’d it happen?”

“I used ta live in Buffalo wit my daughter ‘nd granddaughter. I was workin’ and got hit in da head. I’ve jus’ been sleepin outside and colle’ting cans, but now wit my check… gonna get me a studio down ‘ere.”

You left your daughter and granddaughter in Buffalo? i’m a hippie and i’m a scumbag, and i’m defiantly not a judge. Although this seemed interesting, i didn’t want to get into any trouble discussing domestic life and by this time in the conversation, we'd finished picking up all the cans.

“Well it was very nice meetin’ ya. My name is Frank, what’s your name buddy?”

“Uh-huh, uh-huh, I’m Dave.”

“Well good luck with that compensation check Dave, have a good night.”

And with that, he rolled his cart down the street.

Is this just me, or what? i feel like all the sudden, i open my eyes and stop writing about how i use cans to buy cheap alcohol and what an ocean i've been missing. It makes me tear up thinking about it. Not out of sympathy; sympathy/morality/charity are one of the biggest problems in the world (in this sense) but out of awe. Here is this man who is on the streets collecting cans, waiting for a check to come. Waiting. i wonder what the situation is with his daughter and granddaughter in Buffalo. Did his son-in-law kick him out of the house? Is his daughter even married, does she have anyone to look after her? Why doesn’t the daughter look after her homeless father? Did he just get up and leave them there, without knowledge or note of his current location? Did he realy have a $100,000 check coming his way? How is he gonna get his check in the mail if he's homeless?

i don’t know and how can i care? When you start feeling too much for something you lose your balance. i’m no Buddhist monk, but there are tenets i follow, specifically when it comes to detachment.

Let me explain detachment in this particular sense.

People confuse detachment very easily. i just got in a conversation Friday about this, rapping until 8 in the morning (in a very Cassady fashion if i might be so bold to compare).

Detachment in definition revolves around releasing oneself from all bonds, emotional, physical, and spiritual. To be completely detached one must be isolated.

That’s what people confuse detachment as, isolation, but it is the opposite. Detachment in not being isolated from everything, but simultaneously attached to everything and nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing is the word of the day. Look at the Lao Tzu’s idea of nothing. Everything is everything, but everything can’t be everything and nothing (kinda like how God knows what it’s like to be everyone all the time, but can never know what it’s like to be you and no one). Nothing can be both nothing and everything. With everything you lose the universe of nothingness.

So detachment is like nothingness. Detachment; not in caring about nothing, but being completly affectionate of the nothing in everything, and the everything in nothing, to be at a conitual point of homeostasis.

In my detachment, i care a lot for Dave. i don’t feel sympathy for him, i don’t feel remorse. Our lives are the same, there is no regret. His being and soul are the exact same as mine, and fuck self pity.

…completed at 10:23 pm, October 18 while listening to Pink Floyd’s Animals, released January 1977 by Capitol Records. Special thanks to the tracks "Dogs" and "Pigs (three different ones)."

Heating that can: tools of the trade

2009-10-15T11:15:00.000-04:00

As you may be aware, i have been using my mom's car to transport collected cans to the deposit station. Although it has been amazingly convenient, all good things come to an end; i suppose a better axiom would be "all good things in all good time." Good vibes circle in 360 degree waves.

With the looming anxiety of being car-less, and the relief of not having to deal with parking, i encountered an uncanny surprise outside my house last night.

While returning to my dwell-pad, i found a shopping cart posted right in front of my house. To those of you not in the deposit scene, finding a shopping cart on the streets is a stroke of luck; namely because it bypasses the need to borrow a shopping cart from a store.

i was with my roommate at the time and although i was quite enthralled upon this discovery, he was kinda apprehensive about the idea.

In a brief background check, one might say our landlord is not on amiable terms with us (we reached the 2nd strike mark a month into the lease and he probably wouldn’t appreciate the collectivity value of a shopping cart). So when i wanted to hide the shopping cart in the back of the house (so no one would reclaim it), my roommate contested it to be a bad idea.

Alright, i could defiantly see where he was coming from.

So instead of moving the cart to the back of the house, i moved it off to the side of our porch, out of the way of the sidewalk but still visible to anyone walking by. I angled it to look as if someone abandoned it there; hoping my landlord wouldn’t get wise to the antic.

That night i immersed myself in googled shopping cart pictures, to get a feel for the industry of course. Here are the top three pimped collecting machines that i 'm planning to use as a template for my own cart-whip.

"Your gonna need more powah Mcfly." A motor, off-road tires, and a shopping cart oh my!...bring it Biff.

This may be a little too intricate to try at home, but if this was abandoned in front of my house, i'd risk the landlord's wrath to keep it inside.

My personal favorite. Forgot your head phones? No worries, we got sub woofers

i also found a pretty good shopping cart simulator, mainly for toning your cart technique and steering

The next morning was garbage day and i awoke to find the shopping cart gone. i assume the underground world of shopping cart smuggling is pretty cut-throat.

Recognized and Recognized

2009-10-12T11:50:00.000-04:00

Often, we don’t see in layers; we scan the surface and lose interest. Last time i went to deposit cans, i saw in layers.

First, i was noticed by two men who were depositing as well. They had ragged clothing (dirty sweaters and ripped jeans) and glared at me, like they were staring at something new. Both were obvisouly from a different economic class and while the one guy was really friendly to me, the other was more taken aback. i began depositing bottles and saw the shyer one was waiting to use my machine for his handful of refundables. i took my ticket and offered to let him go ahead (because i felt bad that he would have to wait for me to finish). He hesitated a moment (?maybe he was unused too the politeness), but gave a nod of appreciation and began feeding his bottles into the machine.

i got thinking why this was, why they were acting so polite to me and realized that there was some underlying factor which, blatant from their expressions, set us apart. Aside from appearance (we probably looked equally unkempt) i had cans and bottles that were unrefundable. The other two guys only had cans they could return.

i must've looked goofy with my unrefundible bottles of Steel Reserve, Bud light, Arizona tea cans and Joose. This project was started because i wanted to throw myself into a new community, one that people don’t notice and don’t really pay any attention to. i got lazy, collecting cans at a house party is cheap, it is an excuse to stay in my comfort zone and undermines myself and my goals. Next deposit session, i will properly prepare for and venture to the streets for my collecting. i have also noticed that bottles are a waste of time; they’re heavy and take up more space than cans.

Although i’m disappointed in my progress to involve myself in another world, i feel good about what i’ve done so far. i have become more aware of my environment and more mindful of my place in it, which is the first step. One cannot be involved in a community without first being aware of its existence and simultaneously allowing the community to recognize your own existence. Last deposit trip i was recognized and i recognized.

Snap: unbalancing peace prize nobility

2009-10-09T13:28:00.000-04:00

So last night was my 21st birthday. Things were very colorful (particularly) before i started drinking and mostly black after. No...i was not on the can budget, but do you blame me?

This morning, my stomach sounds like a song from Explosions in the Sky. i have build-a-bear at 4ish(?) and a long night of budget-worthy-$12-a-liter Captain Tequila after. Thank God for balancing songs and beautiful women.

update: JESUS OBAMA CHRIST, SOMEONE GAVE HIM A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE??

i'm bloody FUMING. As you know, i work at build-a-bear and lately i've gotten into the habit of talking poltics with the kids' parents...i hope i don't get too preachy.

unbalanced.

Canning that heat: lotto gamble

2009-10-07T13:47:00.000-04:00

i just deposited some cans yesterday (it was a very crazy experience this time, but i'll write on that tonight). i made $6.50 and bought a $1 lotto ticket.

i haven't scratched the ticket yet because i'm planning to do it on my birthday tomorrow, hopefully i'll get some extra luck from it.

update: The lotto ticket was a dud.

Updated Halloween Idea

2009-10-05T14:42:00.000-04:00

My costume poll has started (under the gadget section) but i can't edit it because people have already voted, so here is another idea to vote on (you can vote via the comment section for this one).

This thought would be a combo deal involving my brother. So everyone has seen the Kayne South park right...? (if your haven't, then you should!!!)

i would go as a fish with a microphone.

And my brother would go as

Thoughts?

Canning that heat: thieves in the night

2009-10-05T10:41:00.000-04:00

Alright, so this Saturday has been a very big deal. While doing this project, i’ve experienced aspects of business networking, time management, the works; but today i had my first taste of competition. A rival student (i won’t name names {Rico}) slipped into my house in the heat of the morning and “cleaned” my house for me, namely by collecting all of my hard earned cans!

i received a phone call from this fellow hunter while i was working, so the call was ignored, but i resolved to call him back. During my lunch, i give this guy a call to discover that his reason for calling earlier was to inquire about cleaning the cans from the party at my pad last night for the MESIA club. i said “hell no,” and in response, the unnamed individual {Rico} revealed he had already been into my pad and done the deed. Bummer.

The day dragged on and i received a text while still at work, this time from one of my frequent house clients giving me the inside scoop on a couple bags of cans at his house. i was excited about this because it sounded like these fellows had a pretty good haul with my name on it. So i get out of work at 5, and in my foolishness, i buy two slices of pie from Sabarro’s at the mall (i used my “anticipated” can money, as well as a little of the left over 5 from the previous night). Two slices of pepperoni and a Dr. Pepper to be exact, totaling in $7.50! “WHAT?!” i exclaim, still in my loud and obnoxious build-a bear voice, the cashier gave me a puzzled look as i tried to sweet talk her into giving me some kind of discount. “I don’t make the prices” she retorts, ya but you do take my money…burn.

Anyway the pizza was filling, and i get on the move to start out my Saturday. Due to my family being down for the weekend and the hustle and bustle of things, i wasn’t able to get to the house to reel in the aluminum. Still under this “umbrella” of anticipated can money, i go out to a party with intentions of doing a Sunday morning salvaging.

At the party, i’m hanging with an individual by the name of Tom, the roommate of the one who called me earlier. i tell him the story bout how the unnamed character {Rico} collected my booze money, and how i was planning on swinging to his place the next day. While i told this story, his eyes got a little wider...

“What’s up?”

“Frank man, I’m sorry but the unnamed collector {Rico} called our house earlier and asked if you and him could collect our cans. We said yes.”

“Whoa i had no part in his MESIA can drive.”

“Ya, we figured it out when he came with someone else, I had a pile, all bagged up for you too and they took it.”

“Rat bastards.”

“Word.”

Lesson learned: don’t pay for things using anticipated can money.

Summary

Helping out some random people + Friday can collection = 40oz of Bud, Joose, $5.20

Anticipated can money + pizza = i($5.20-7.50)= -$2.30

i was lucky enough not to have to spend any money Saturday because i went to a house party. However, i am anticipating a very, very big haul this Friday, as my friends will be holding their first big rager of the school year. The stakes are high for the week at hand though, since my weekend will be starting Thursday with my 21st birthday.

Can Frank Cutie collect enough cans to last him 3 days of bar prices?

Can he find a way to better manage his time?

Can he keep up with the lost battalion of platonic conversationalists jumping
down the stoops off fire escapes off windowsills
off Empire State out of the moon,
yacketayakking screaming vomiting whispering facts
and memories and anecdotes and eyeball kicks
and shocks of hospitals and jails and wars,
whole intellects disgorged in total recall for seven days
and nights with brilliant eyes, meat for the
Synagogue cast on the pavement?

Tune in next week to find out.

Sidenote to the unnamed indivdual

i'm just messing with you, your the man.

Canning that heat: business exchanges

2009-10-05T10:40:00.001-04:00

A lot has happened this week, so let’s get caught up. To begin with, we take a stroll back to Monday, September 29.

Monday was a long day of thinking about can collecting, with little/no activity towards actually doing it. Earlier that day, i received some Intel about a treasure chest of cans with my name on it, but i just didn’t get around to it. Rather than doing homework or getting work done, i found myself caught in a rap trance. My beats and rhymes were flowing smoothly and i just couldn’t get any work done due to a continual flow of unconscious rhymes within any homework i attempted. i decided to let the can collecting wait until the next day and channeled my groove. i was going to post some of the verses but felt that so much comes through presentation and merely writing it would not represent accordingly (i’m going to record it soon and link it up here). Maybe i’ll write my next post in verse.

Jumping back to the aluminum aspect, my muse resulted in someone else depositing that treasure chest with my name on it. i lost a good 10 bucks, but abasetnza bene.

Let’s hit the time machine again and jump to Friday, the 2nd of October and the 9th year of 2000. Today i received another can call and went to a house for a pickup, this time i did not procrastinate.

It worked out real well and got about $5.20 from the deposits.

With my $5.20, i decided to start my night by journeying to the store to buy beer. i get there around 10 and push through the mounds of people to get to the beverage coolers. While i was in the back picking my weapon of choice, a chick approached me.

“Are you 21?”

“No, but i’m buying these, point to my beer, anyway.”

“Sweet, do you think you can pick up some stuff for me and my friend?”

And being aware of budget and opportunity, i reply “Sure, but can you buy me a Joose?”

“Sure.”

Score.

But little did i know that her single “friend” consisted of three dudes, three chicks, frenzicly loading me up with various drinks. By the time i got to the counter i had a 40oz Budweiser, a Joose, and at least 8 other cans and 40’s. Anyways, the total came to $28, and since they were obviously freshmen, they were all paranoid not letting the cashier see them give me. Once i got to the counter i counted the loot; $37 to cover it all, which meant they were paying for my 40 too.

Although some bleeding heart might be against buying for minors, i’m a minor as well and we had a mutually beneficial exchange.

The night continued, leading to a party and a discussion of this project (which opened up a “can” of possibilities). Recently, my project has gained some street publicity and i was asked by multiple people to go clean their house and get rid of cans. i am defiantly going to use this to my advantage and with a steady couple of houses, i might be able to start collecting double digit figures each week.

Top Ten Bands to Listen to While Collecting Cans

2009-09-29T12:59:00.000-04:00

i've had some experience in the world of can collecting and so far, have discovered that listening to music while collecting helps out a lot. Although i haven't begun my street collecting adventure, i have accumulated a list of my favorite music to listen to while collecting cans inside a house.

TOP TEN BANDS AND ALBUMS TO INCREASE CAN COLLECTIVITY

10: Horace Silver: Further Explorations (1958, Blue Note Records)

This is a great album for can collecting. It is a very up-beat and fast paced jazz album with a huge variety of sounds.

9: Muse: Black Holes and Revelations (2006, Warner Bros)

i'm not a big fan of heavy music, but the sound these guys create is just excellent. With contrasting melody lines and heavy distortion, this album motivates any can hunter to work faster.

8: Gang Starr: Moment of Truth (1998 Virgin)

My friend introduced me to this rapper while i was in England. He really reminds me of a Jurassic 5, employing a brass section in most of the tracks.

7: Radiohead: In Rainbows (2008 ATO)

i was never a big fan of Radiohead until i discovered this album. Personally, i think this record is a great backdrop for any activity, particularly driving. Here's my favorite song.

6: The Doors: L.A. Woman (re-released in 2007 Atlantic)

i could listen to this album all day...especially while i'm picking up cans becuase who doesn't like to hear Jim wailing while they're recycling?

5 Wilco: A Ghost is Born (2004 Nonesuch)

i love this album because it's a beautiful morning record. Every track on this CD, in succession, just goes really well with the morning and the rising sun. All the tunes a up beat, but in a laid-back sort of way.

4 Jurassic 5: Power In Numbers (2002 Interscope)

J5 is awesome in most situations, but when your picking up cans and striving for quantity, this album is a good motivator.

3 Beck: Beck Mix

i found this mix tape through a Beck discography torrent and was totally impressed. All the songs are remixes of his popular stuff, but everything is renamed. Just put this CD on shuffle and you'll discover some bass heavy, techno Beck excellence.

2 Bob Dylan: Live at Budokan (1979 Sony)

When this record was released, the States did not give it much credit, although it was widely popular in Europe. Just to give you an idea of how different this Japan concert is; all the songs are re-scored and Dylan is accompanied by a swing band.

1 Grateful Dead: anything

Alright, so it maybe a cliche that i chose my favorite band for the number one spot, but listening to the Dead while collecting cans is one of the most peaceful experiences i've ever had. Not only does the music make you appreciate your place in the world, it also makes you RECOGNIZE your place in the world.

So there is my top ten. These are not necessarily my favorite albums of all time (though some of them are) but they certainly are when it comes to collecting cans. Next time you feel like picking up some cans, pop on one of these Cd's!

Heating that can:: you wanna know how to deposit your cans??!!

2009-09-28T12:13:00.000-04:00

"Whoa, this Frank character is making big bucks for such little work i wonder how can i do that?" is probably what has been mulling in your head since the beginning of this blog, so i'm going to give you some tips on how to make the most out of your cans.

step 1: Have friends. If you don't have friend's you can't do this... just kidding but seriously, friends are a big part to success. For a college student, the majority of cans are going to be left scattered and cluttered about your friends' apartments. Ask them if you can clean up and keep the cans. This is not the only way to collect, but it is the easiest, while roaming the streets, one is subjected to the cans already picked over by other connoisseurs, work the advantage!

step 2: Have a car (or borrow one). Transporting cans is a hassle, using a car is a HUGE help. Can't get a car? No worries, shopping carts are the new volkswagons.

step 3: Go to a deposit center, most of the "in-person" deposit banks are a little bit of a hike. While they are quicker and accept busted cans, it may not be worth the drive. Price Chopper is very close and open 24 hours.

step 4: Now you are in the Price Chopper parking lot...grab a cart! Pull your car right up in front of the deposit center, get a shopping cart and start unloading.

step 5: Can time. If you have a big load and there's a line, take a breather, wait until the deposit room is empty.

step 6: Try to continually feed the machines. Sometimes, if you wait too long to put a can in the slot, the machine will print your deposit stub, BAD MOVE, this leads to lots of $.05 deposit slips (which is just a hassle). The optimum amount of deposit slips should be 3, one for bottles, one for cans and one for glass.

step 7: Pick up your trash. Throw the cans that aren't refundable (namely Arizona) in the shopping cart and leave it for an employee to take care of.

step 8: Go to Customer Service and reek the benefits.

Aaannnnnndddd YOU are DONE! Pretty simple. A moderately full shopping cart of cans will yield somewhere between $12-15.

One thing to keep in mind are half full bottles and cans spill all over your hands, when the going gets bad, remember you are the man!

~SIDENOTE~

This is only my second week into the process, and right now i am gifted with a car. This "how to guide" is more aimed towards the college student with certain luxuries, expect a raw and dirty "how to" in a few months.

Canning that heat: heating up

2009-09-26T13:52:00.000-04:00

The first night of fun based on my can harvest yielded fruitful (i've been playing some Farmville lately). Today is Saturday and last night was my first night on the "can" budget.

Let's recount the steps:

i started with $12.10 at the beginning of my weekend, 10 pm, Friday night, after a long day of promoting the Jonas Brothers' dog premiere at Build-a-Bear (where i work). The gig wasn't bad, stand out feature of the night: An older woman picked out a dog and named her "Jezebel." Being a well-brought up catholic school child (and assuming she would get the joke), i asked if her dog was going to be an adulteress queen. i was expecting a laugh but recieved a disgruntled look, what do you expect to come to mind with the name Jezebel?! Harlots now-a-days....
Around 11ish i met up with some of my friends and in an attempt to be economical, i split a 30 rack of keystone 3 ways. It ended up being $6 each and tax but i was living pretty high with my double digit earnings and threw in $7 in order to cover tax.
The night of debauchery unraveled and i forgot to keep the empties, a $1.50 waste.
i spent another $4.30 on a Game cigar and a beef patty special at K2. At this point, i was semi-aware that i was spending a little to much money, so i asked the chief to fill it up with the sauces (a creamy mix of hot sauce and Italian dressing) for a "more-bang for your buck" meal.

Keystone + Beef patty + Hot sauce + Italian dressing = Full Stomach, however, in numerical value, it looks more like this

$12.10-7=5.10.

$5.10 -4.30=.80

Down to $0.80 for the 26th.

It is Saturday afternoon, as if watching a movie, i find my character seated at the library and on his second job of the day ( Build-a-Bear started at 10).

He still hasn't slept from the night before and his mind is still expecting to drive to a political rally in Troy after he gets out of the library.
It's going to be a full 72 hour day...the beef patty was a good investment.

Canning that heat: pay pay numero uno

2009-09-25T14:11:00.000-04:00

With my car load of cans (yes, i am using a car for transport, but my mom will need it back eventually, so i will be getting down with a shopping cart soon enough) i journey to Price Chopper.

i was going to make the first deposit on Tuesday, i rolled up around 5ish, but there was a long line, so i decided to leave the cans in my car and return the next day.

Round two, can time.

i unload the cans, get them all set up in a shopping cart (even tie a bag around the handle) and push the cart from my car through the parking lot.

i don't know if your familiar with novelty soda, but there is a certin kind that comes in green bottles and bumblebees/hornets/wasps/honeybees are drawn to the stuff like crack. For example, i've seen 5-6 bees trap themselves in the bottle within a 5 hour time span.

i have a few of these bee-bottles in my shopping cart.

As i said, it was about 5, a beautiful day and i'm pushing my shopping cart to the deposit station when this bee starts buzzing around. i don't really care, he's zipping around the bags and i start depositing.

About ten minutes into it, i get to the bottom of the shopping cart. i'm working pretty hard, i'm in the zone when i get to a green bottle and SWOOSH, the bumble from outside (he was actually a wasp) flies out at me, obviously pissed, and starts circling around my head. i'm a freaking coward and run outside flapping my hands.

After a couple seconds, i recompose myself, collect my deposit stubs and make a sweet $12.10 for next weekend.

DEPOSIT TIPS:

-Try to deposit the cans/bottles in a row so you don't end up with $.05 stubs (if you wait too long, the machine will automatically print out the slip).

-Wash your hands after.

-Be weary of 3/4 full Coors bottles, they tend to splash all over your hands (it happend to me 3 times).

-Wash your hands after.

Preseason: testing the waters

2009-09-24T08:24:00.000-04:00

Weekend Number 1, Sept. 18-20

With the beginning of this blog, i decided live out a normal weekend, free of budgeting, in order to discover how much i normally spend over the three day period. At the end of the weekend, i spent a total of $30.

i also had some people over my house on Saturday. With the little get-together, i collected my first batch of cans from the house the next day (along with some cans from my friends' house).

Thinking about the weekend and my empty wallet... i'm a horrible person with money, i can't save money, i can't hold on to money and i certainly can't budget it. i'm going to have to change this blog from "budgeting a weekend on cans" to "how to stay out of debt with cans".

About My Cans

2009-09-16T18:50:00.000-04:00

My name is Frank (Catfish) Cutie, i play a lot of music and i like mowing my lawn. Often, i notice people walking around with shopping carts full of cans, probably worth at least $20-30. Some of these can hunters don't seem homeless, but seem to be wise to a cheap buck. The purpose of this blog is to not only investigate the difficulty of living off the alcoholism of others, but to also put myself in someone else's shoes.

The Task: i will go can hunting once a week and use the deposit money as my ONLY funds for weekend fun and food. Not only will i be collecting cans, but i will also be engaging with others from a very different perspective during my hunting. My weekends will also have to be budgeted accordingly.

By the end of this project i hope to do several things. Aside from growing spiritually and hopefully gaining some new humility, i plan to have a fully documented account of street's can supply, best hunting days and cheap ways to rock out in Albany.