As you may be aware, I am not the most politically correct person in the world. In fact, I think that political correctness is stupid, and I've been frequently described as uncouth. I want you to keep that in mind when I tell you that I saw the most ridiculously in poor taste TV commercial ever today. This is it:

Let me break this thing down for you. White kid and his mom go the store where they're informed that, hey, you bought a laptop so you get a person as a free bonus gift. "Here, let's take a look at the people you can choose from." Then the white kid looks over his docile, individually wrapped choices. The black guy he could own can help him video chat. But he's not into that, he wants to own the hot girl because, hey!, she's hot and she'd have to do whatever he says because, you know, he'd own her.

I understand that this is supposed to be a joke, I really do. And I'm all about jokes. Off-color jokes are my specialty. But this commercial nonchalantly portrays a world in which some people own other people and plays sexual slavery for a laugh. The punchline is essentially "Ha! He wants to fuck her, and if they buy her, he'll get to. That's funny." I can see this being funny if the girl had shot him down or something, but she doesn't. She just stands there while the guy ogles her.

I'm not going to boycott Best Buy or anything, but it baffles me that this commercial was written, discussed, approved, filmed, edited, and broadcast without someone saying, "You know, guys, this seems kinda sexist."

Posted by Ismael Tapia II at 11:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)| Filed under Philosophical Rants

I've been on a ridiculous Fleetwood Mac kick lately; I have no idea why.

I've been obsessed with "The Chain" for a while. I think it's a fantastic song. Everything about it--from the music itself, to the lyrics, to the interplay between all the different verses, to the great bass-based breakdown--is just awesome. This is a good live version of the song:

And they're clearly such a bunch of ridiculous people.

I was first exposed to Fleetwood Mac through, not surprisingly, The Smashing Pumpkins. Pisces Iscariot, the Pumpkins' collection of b-sides and rarities--and still one of their best releases, I think--had a cover of "Landslide" on it. You can hear it here:

I remember one time I was listening to that album in the living room of the house I grew up in, and my mom was hanging out in there, too. And she heard that I was listening to the song, and she said something like "I recognize this, but it's different." And I told her that it was a cover of a Fleetwood Mac song, knowing that Rumours was one of the LPs she had. She said something about how she thought the original was better. Over ten years later, I have to say that I agree with her:

I realized that I didn't own any of Fleetwood Mac's albums, so I decided to buy one. I figured Rumours was the obvious choice, so that's the one I bought. I've been listening to it for a few days, and I have to say that it's really good. I admit that it's a little dated--you can practically smell the polyester and cocaine (does cocaine have a smell? I have no idea.). But it's still really good. There are all of the big hits like "The Chain" and "Go Your Own Way," but I think my favorite song is "Never Going Back Again." And I have to say that I like "You Make Loving Fun," too, although I admit that may be a more ridiculous choice.

There are some duds, too. I don't care for "Song Bird" or "Oh Daddy" or "Don't Stop," but overall, this thing rocks. I recommend it highly, and I think it's time to get more of the Mac for my collection.

Posted by Ismael Tapia II at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)| Filed under Existential Nonsense , Music Reviews

I already talked about how awesome it is to have two of the things I've wanted most in my life, a girlfriend and a band. But things have gotten even better, which is sort of ridiculous.

First off, the band is no longer called Superkaratemonkeydeathcar. We're now called "Money or Candy." You can be our fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. I suggest you do both.

But here's the thing: as awesome as being in a band is, it's even more awesome to be in a band that plays shows. We opened for Venice Gas House Trolley at Mr. Robert's a few weeks ago. It was so much fun. And people seemed to really like us--even some people who weren't friends of band members said something about how we were awesome. So that's, well, awesome. Our number of shows gets bigger if you include a private set in the drummer's old place, our all-covers set at Mr. Vice and pH's wedding, another private set where we debuted our original material, and a gig in a friend's backyard. So we're like road-worn veterans at this point. Except for the fact that all of our shows have been within a ten-mile radius of each other.

And we're going to play another show soon, hopefully! And we're working on sticker and t-shirt designs. So yay!

Things are really, really good right now. Not perfect, maybe, but really good.

Watch this space, though--I promise to get back to angry ranting soon.

Posted by Ismael Tapia II at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)| Filed under Existential Nonsense , Money or Candy

So, the blog was down for a minute there, and now I'm sure that I've got even fewer readers than I had before, which was itself a huge downturn from where I was during they heydays of law school. But that's all over and done with. The point is that the blog is back, bitches!

Incidentally, I totally sold another house recently. I rule.

Posted by Ismael Tapia II at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)| Filed under Existential Nonsense