Check out my new blog

dustinismyname.tumblr.com

for pictures of my last day at Kaplan.

It was amazing!

Dustinismyname.tumblr.com

So I have a new blog. I have grown weary of this one. I have joined tumblr. It's much easier to use. This way I can add photos, videos and even music in minutes without having to reroute you all around the internet. So all you faithfuls, please bookmark

dustinismyname.tumblr.com

I will be reminding you from time to time. Also this has gotten me a little more motivated. More motivation means more content. More content means more distractions for you guys. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Dustin

New Blog

dustinismyname.tumblr.com

Three Stickmen

Now, I don't know if they are wise, but I think one of them gave some good advice at the end. I think another was on the piano, and the first one? Well, I just think he was messing around with the radio. It's all fuzzy.

http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/three-stickmen

Bedroom Band

Time Traveler Finds Love in the Future

New song. That's about it.

http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/time-traveler-finds-love-in

My Bike

So here it is. I got this bike about two months ago, I think. A friend was kind enough to give me a frame, complete with a crank, pedals, handlebars (with suicide brake) saddle, and a chain. All I needed were the wheels and tires. So I did that, and replaced the brake at first. Now I have a new bar grips (white instead of black), a new saddle (baby blue, and a little bit bigger) different chain, and a better brake lever. Also, It took five days but my friend and I sanded the paint and rust off and he used a rattle can to create the new bright blue Omega. For those of you who have known me since High school, know that I drove an 81 Oldsmobile Omega. When I got the bike it looked just like that. Blue-grey with some rust. Now this is a whole new bike. Also, I have to say that I have learned so much about bikes in the past two months, that I can see why they are so popular (and a little expensive.) But just like last week, when I learned how to paint a bike, today I replaced my brake lever (all By my lonesome, as my grandmother would say) So here you go. Now I'm a little sad that I didn't take any "before" photos, but trust me, this is a huge improvement.
Dustin

Lonely Dogs Will Have Fun

I made another song today. I thought it was rather fun, but don't try to dance to it, you'll look stupid.

http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/lonely-dogs-will-have-fun

On another note, I have realized, as I fumble around these keys that used to seem so familiar, I have been lacking in the word-sentence-paragraph-page-story-production. There are no excuses. I know what I have been doing. I haven't been me. I have come to grips with the fact that I think differently than everyone else. My brain works in narration. I describe, react and re-describe. My voice never ends. I tried to explain what that means, voice, to a student. It was difficult because how can you explain something that is unique to you. Something that holds a meaning that no one can touch. We see it in words, hear it, never think about tasting or smelling it, but to feel it, we have. We have held it to ourselves, showed it to the world and watched dominoes collide. I have thought about trying to write three thousand words a day. That would ensure well over a million a year. I don't have the time, nor do I think it wise to write without substance behind it. Without that feeling that makes the voice, we are mute. The creases under my shoulders are sweating and my heart rate ascends. It's the words that are rushing inside of me, their temper building because my fingers are out of practice, going to slowly and making mistakes. I breathe and hear what they are really about. They are thank you's and praise. To them, I'm like the soldier mounting up for one last ride. They want to witness, good or bad, what comes, what goes, and what is. More will come, but not today. I am an unprepared swimmer just taking a lap, testing the water and finding it fine. As I look back and see the few ripples I left behind, I smile. I'll be back tomorrow, and with stronger lungs to give my voice a workout.

Exploding Potential

So, I know it has been over a month. I have still been working on tracks. My newest one is Exploding Potential. Don't really know where it came from, and am not truly happy with it. But i thought I would put it out there for you guys to enjoy.

http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/exploding-potential

My new main project has been looking for a bike. I know I might be late to the party, but I guess it is just time to enjoy my commute a little more. I have been struggling to find one, but I think if I keep working hard at it, I'll find what I'm looking for. So if you know anyone who is selling (or giving away) a 56-58cm single speed in the bay area, let me know. I hope all has been well with you. This might have been an excuse to show the world how useful the present perfect is, or maybe none of you noticed. Anyway best regards and enjoy the song.

Dustin
The Bedroom Band

Opulence

For those of you fond of the commercial, I have taken a sound byte and mixed it into a song. Opulence, I has it, was first known to me on Thursday. After I finished this song I kind of noticed something weird about it. It seems to me to be a song, but backwards. I don't know maybe that's just my brian needing not to listen to it for the three hundredth time. Well, let me know what you think. And hopefully you can appreciate tiny giraffes as much as I do.

http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/opulence-i-has-it

The Bedroom Band

I forgot

to mention that I remixed a song I did previously. I didn't like how the vocals fit before so I made a new one. I liked the vocals, at least the lyrics. so this is round number two on "Only Time Will Tell. Enjoy!

http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/only-time-will-tell-remix

The Bedroom Band

Spaceships and frustration

For a while now there has been something wrong. I could not put my finger on it. My life as a whole looked pretty damn good, at least from the outside. I have a stable job, two in fact. I have a girl who smiles at me and, as I recently found out, is just as silly as I am. My family is good and my friends as well. Yet there was something bringing me down. I felt as though Atlas was weakening and I too could feel his burden. It felt as if all my razors were being dulled and the sky wasn't as bright. I let little things, money, get to me. Some may have blamed the weather, but I have never been that person. I felt as though I couldn't make a fist.

Last night was the peak. I was working hard, too hard maybe. I say that because I am usually not that motivated to work on a Sunday. I sat down to make a song and it just wasn't working. I put that idea away and moved on to transporting myself to a new day. I went to sleep. When I awoke the feeling was still there. I carried it all through the day and it wasn't until I got home, ate, and blinked hard. I started making a song. I went back and forth on the style. After about two hours Stuttering Spaceships was born, and the smile came back on my face. My heartbeat rose and so did my spirit. So here is the solution. When I feel beat down, trodden upon, I need to sit down and create. Something needs to come from my fingertips, fists are not productive in this vain. So, enjoy what keeps me sane, what keeps my eyes open. Enjoy what I want to give.


http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/stuttering-spaceship

The Bedroom Band

My seventh

So, this is my seventh song. I don't know where it came from but here it is. Just to note, I am not in any way depressed, or even sad. My life, at this moment, is fantastic. I just felt that I kind of had a story to tell. I tried more singing. Maybe one day I will take lessons. As always I hope you all like it. Also, I am thinking about naming my "band" The Bedroom Band, since that is where I make all this ear jam and jelly.

http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/only-time-will-tell


Dj Cliche
The Bedroom Band

I wonder

So with it being Valentine's Day soon, I tried my hand at a love song. No, it isn't some gushy experiment with cliched lyrics. It's more of What I like to listen to. Some of the lyrics don't even rhyme. But I also tried singing. I have put myself on songs before but this time I put my voice, as an instrument, if thats a correct usage, into the song. Don't worry auto tune helped and no I don't sound like Kanye or T-Pain. I hope you enjoy.

Dustin

http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/i-wonder

Tiny bugs and sunshine

So, I am at it again. I was inspired this time by a tiny green bug that looks like a lady bug, and a suggestion. I tried some different things and I think it turned out smashingly. I mention sunshine because without it being out on Saturday, this never would have happened. Strange how something so apparent could be so refreshing. This little green bug, whom we have named Marcus, was just walking around a park and we happened upon him by another chance. We sat down at a seemingly random spot on the grass, lied down and saw something I had never seen before. Cheers Marcus!

http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/marcus

Dj Cliche

I swear

sooner or later I will actually write on this thing again, but I have been passionate about music lately. You can liken it to the time when I posted nothing but drawings of strange creatures. However you can download all of these for free. Yay. So, I will post this song, look for the little down arrow, click it and it's all yours. Also, please tell me what you think. I feel like sometimes I am just sending this stuff out and trying to hit the moon. If I miss, or if I make it, I might not ever know.

http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/a-clown-riding-a-unicorn

Dj Cliche

Sorry, wait no I'm not.

I know you might be sick of listening to my songs, tough. This is my blog and that is the choice I have made. Well, I promise to expose you to more and more of my psyche. If you can decipher it, then you will be that much closer to me. (Sorry Dad, I went to work on Walking Dinosaurs but what I had didn't fit.) I did, however, make something new. Let me know what you think. Also, in case you didn't notice, all of the pictures on the sides of the songs were done by me and I think somehow, in someway, influenced the music I made. Enjoy!

http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/jack-on-the-box

Dj Cliche
(this will only come after I post a song.)

I'm not sure why,

it could have to do with the lack of sleep I got last night. It could have to do with something I learned yet kept hidden for some time, but I made a song dealing with dinosaurs.

http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/walking-dinosaurs

I think I might be getting a little more used to this system, but I am always willing to improve. Let me know what you think. I LOVE FEEDBACK. So, please comment, I would appreciate it.

Dj Cliche.

I made a song.

So this is the first song that I feel proud enough to share. I hope you like it. It was after six hours of basically trying to figure out how garageband works. Also, I am glad that I can finally put my keyboard to use. Although I am not musically talented, I hope I can learn. Enjoy!
http://soundcloud.com/contradictingcliche/gears

I did this in a furry.

Here we are,

mixing it up. Trying to breathe, trying to live. Finding colors forming shapes, spilling into feelings. We see the clock and wait for it to slow down. That makes it go faster, we dance with the devil walking down the street. We laugh in the face of temptation and do it anyway. We swim with sharks and laugh while they see you as chicken legs and a roasted pig spinning. We spin and make ourselves dizzy. We learn how to start things, then we yearn for them to end. We smoke and enjoy the feeling of blackening our lungs. We fight just to rise our blood pressure then are curious when heart attacks happen. We sing, because we can and some of us think we are talented. We are. We aren't. We wake up and fall into showers, not knowing how others thought this a luxury. We drive just to stop and then we drive again. We smile at the stranger, hoping our sympathies are gathered. We shout when angry but really we are sad, we try to threaten our feelings away. We look at our shoes instead of others eyes because people have spouted mysticism about souls. We drink to be different but we are all the same. We drink to fit in, but we are all different. We smell the battles fought and praise those brave while condemning the fighting. We forget our animals instincts in disguises of humanity. We fuck for connections, nothing more than an electrical socket but nothing short of amazing on both ends. We dine to feed ourselves, that mutates to over indulgence. We think our next meal is not close enough. We hear laughter but don't participate, we envy. We laugh and wish others to join. We flush our cheeks again and again. We feel the world under us and think we have conquered it. We think about life not infinity. We are in awe of the universe and set aside time to cook eggs. We wear scarves in the winter, sandals in the summer and smiles in pleasure. We take pictures to remember, we take pills to forget. We are here.

2010

is now over. It has been fun. Regardless of the beginning, it ended up being a great year. I have my health, I have some stories and I have a future. I'm not sure what expectations I had, and if they were fulfilled or not. Well, I know and it did not happen. That is fine. Once we understand that things don't go our way all the time, life is much easier. You can breathe, and call it fate, call it destiny or coincidence. I'm sure that most of us can't pinpoint when the events that will shape our lives happen. And in those moments most of those who do recognize the impact that particular moment has, can only make one decision.

I have thought a lot about time, and it's meaninglessness. But recently, I have been focusing on it's purpose. I understand that although it is arbitrary, we have given it meaning. Days, hours and years pass and they mean things. It was hard for me to fight time, it is something engraved in us through the routines we encompass. Without time, the world would collapse. Sure people got along just fine without the consequences of watches and clocks, but they were a little bit craftier in how they organized their lives. The sun and the moon, the giant orbs above us, beyond us, held the keys.

I had a goal this year to read forty books. Although I did not succeed, I am pleased with the outcome. I read thirty-three books, exposing myself to some amazing writers, reading some old favorites. In the latter part of the year I read two amazing books. These have a secure place in my top ten. White Teeth, by Zadie Smith blew me away with the interweaving of the characters all distant, yet all connected. It also gave me great cultural insight on Indians, Jamaicans, Jehova Witnesses, and the British living in London. We talk about New York and its diversity, but we forget about the little island across the pond that ruled the world and brought those cultures in its borders way before we even had borders. Number Nine Dream, by David Mitchell, was an amazing study of imagination. It has a few false starts all over the book, but that is not a negative. It took the idea of searching for your father and spliced in the imagination of a twenty-something with an interesting past. It makes you guess, and it proves you wrong. Also, it was set in Japan, so I could relate a little bit. I have read a few Japanese authors, Murakami, and Mitchell is on par with the feelings, the actions and the nuances of this familiarly foreign country.

I had another goal, one in which I succeeded. I decided to watch 200 movies I hadn't seen before. I ended up seeing 202. I won't tell you all that I watched or even the good ones, just the great ones. But first here is what 202 looks like in terms of time and money. I spent 18180 minutes, or 303 hours, that translates to 12 days and fifteen hours watching movies. That doesn't seem like a lot but when you imagine someone doing this while working full time and reading thirty some books, and having an active social life, I would say that I am a little impressed with myself. Now, of these 202 movies I saw twenty-three in the theater. At an average of twelve dollars a movie that ends up being 275 dollars, plus and Icee when the chance was provided. Sure that money would have been better suited for... I don't know, I had a great time. Coincidentally I watched five movies of books I read as well this year.

This was a year for em to expose myself to things I love. Books and the cinema, both, in my opinion, noble pursuits. I'm not sure what goals I have this year but I know that the pressure (only from myself) is off and I can go back and watch some of those moves I loved (Inception, Black Swan, Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgram Vs. The World, An Education) Those were the great ones, But I am sure there were many more I missed. So, I'm not sure what I got from all of this. It continued my appreciation for the industry. I will probably try once again this year to watch every single movie nominated for an Academy Award, and keep tabs on the movies will see this year. I am, I have realized, a collector of experiences, and this way I can see what I have accomplished.

With the new year comes new opportunity. Although this year came with five of us lighting cigarettes in the backyard of a party we hopped a cab to get while, while the people inside shouted we were noticing the rain and then the fireworks. There were hugs and kisses to go around. That is the feeling I love. Everyone around the world in the respective time zones were hugging and kissing, smiling and thinking about the future. Without this time marker in place for people to take notice I this these expressions wouldn't be so available. We use time to make things important. It would be strange to do this on Sunday April fifteenth. But the first, everyone is all smiles. The whole world cheers and we are all one, for ten seconds before and a few after.