(see, a sub­ject header like that makes it seem like i am an actual news out­let report­ing actual news.)

i decided to go back and re-read obama’s speech, as at the time it didn’t blow me away. i know i wasn’t the only one who thought this — we all thought one of the great­est ora­tors of our day would rise to the occa­sion (and soar above it, metaphor­i­cally speak­ing). turns out that we should have been pay­ing more atten­tion to what he said, and not how he said it. it’s a speech for read­ing — go back and take a look.

not only was it great to see him first and fore­most brin­ing up sci­ence as one of his first “what i’m gonna do” points, and for him to give a shout-out to (us?) non-believers, but check this:

As for our com­mon defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.  Our Found­ing Fathers, faced with per­ils that we can scarcely imag­ine, drafted a char­ter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man — a char­ter expanded by the blood of gen­er­a­tions.  Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expe­di­ence sake.

you see what that says? read ever-so-slightly between the lines and it says “we have been asked to give up free­doms to be safe. the men who founded this coun­try did no such thing. they believed these ideals were more pow­er­ful than any­thing else, and only brav­ery can pre­serve them”.  moth­er­fuckingAyes. the bush regime was a regime of fear, and our ideals are worth more than safety. be brave, my peo­ples. etc.

(sorry, got a lit­tle worked up there.)

in other wordy news, here’s a funny book review. it’s by keith law, who writes for ESPN as one of their base­ball gurus. turns out his per­sonal blog focuses on a lot of his book­itry, which i can totally get behind. points to him. as to the review…wow, check that sec­ond para. would you enjoy read­ing a book with a line like “the head of his penis weep­ing semen tears”? yeah, i didn’t think so.

more on books…this biog­ra­phy on ODB is sup­posed to be awe­some. i bet it is — it’d be hard to screw up an auto­bi­og­ra­phy about that guy.

last week i saw seabound and de/vision in toronto (did i already men­tion this?). i think i’m get­ting obsessed with seabound…ahem. i can’t help it! they might be the best live syn­th­pop band i’ve ever seen. ok, scratch that, the con­sis­tently best live syn­th­pop band i’ve ever seen (i saw covenant play a bad show once, and iris were only good the first time i saw them, back in 2000). the other main fac­tor would be the lyrics. i’ve realised that they’re actu­ally as coy as mar­tin gore’s best lyrics are — frank (vocalist/lyricist for seabound) also leaves out the main point of his songs as well as mar­tin used to. we all know that the scari­est things are the ones where your imag­i­na­tion fills in the blanks, right? same goes for lyrics — if there’s space for your life and his­tory and dreams and fears to fit in, then the song speaks to you soooo much more.

now, some­times frank can be a lit­tle direct and corny with the songs live (see “dom­i­na­tion”, which he introed in toronto by say­ing “ok, who here likes kinky sex?!” — i think we fig­ured that out already, frank), but he’s still an excel­lent per­former. so let me give you some lyrics. these are not actu­ally from a seabound song — they’re by edge of dawn, frank’s side-project with a guy i know from the hau­jobb list. his edge of dawn lyrics tend to get a bit more direct than his seabound lyrics, as you shall see.

actually…i recon­sider. these lyrics don’t read very well. the performance/song is excel­lent. hmmm…tell you what, here’s the song. i’ll put the lyrics after the fold, if you want to see them while you lis­ten to the track.

burn the mes­sage
break the prophet on the wheel
time’s a cur­rency
make a choice and trade or steal
eleven-digit
con­jure up a major flood
love is liq­uid
what has been can leave me not

i’m not ask­ing you to give
i want you to take
a moment of truth
foun­tain of youth
princess of ele­gance
i’m not ask­ing you to give
i want you to take
your grace and your voice
weapons of choice
mis­tress of innocence

like to touch fluffy things?

dis­tort the mes­sage
tie a poet to the wheel
if you lose your asset
make a choice and trick or steal
seven-digit
con­jure up a major fire
love to lava
raze the virtues and the lies

on the floor — from behind
on the bal­cony — full frontal
in the grass — into your face
like sum­mer rain
on my floor — from behind
on the bal­cony — full frontal
on the street — back on our feet
drunk with passion

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