I’ve changed the URL of my blog! It’s now http://edwinzee.tumblr.com
This page is an archive of everything I had before I performed a massive refresh of it.
To all my fellow students striking, I’d like for you to click above and read Ms. Tara Raffi’s article that she wrote yesterday for the Daily Cal. I definitely support the students right now and their right to strike in all means necessary; however Tara’s article is excellently written and it provides some important arguments and questions towards those who are striking.
It seems to me that a lot of students striking are getting caught up in the mob mentality and are not thinking intelligently. I’m afraid a lot of students are just participating in this movement only to feel like they are part of a movement that is making a difference instead of educating themselves on the argument at hand and actually making a difference. Look through the nine pages of comments on the article, and read the comments that oppose Tara’s article. Here is a small tidbit of my favorite one:
This editorial stems from a blinding, illogical sense of entitlement, fueled by ignorance. A life of privilege has blinded you; your fucking privilege oozes off this op. ed. I’m glad you’ve selected yourself the spokesperson for all those apathetic, rich, privileged students that are not affected in any way by these cuts. Now take your first class plane ticket, and leave Berkeley. Go back to Beverly Hills, where everyone understand exactly what you are going through. I doubt this makes you sad and angry. If it did, you wouldn’t be bitching about missing a few days of class.This response shows exactly what I am afraid: students who don’t really understand why they are striking. And when someone creates a well written article that attacks students for striking, the best one can respond is with a rude personal attack on the author.
Now I realize that is just one person and that he or she does not represent the consensus of the student strikers. But how many students striking would be able to answer Tara’s questions?
And so this is what I ask again from my fellow students striking: please strike smartly. Do not get caught up in the mob mentality. Before you decide to strike, ask yourself what is your stake in this? How does the fee increase affect you? How does it affect your fellow students?
Once you’ve decided why the tuition increase affects you, educate yourself on the issues so that when someone like Tara does ask you questions, you can provide an intelligent response. Where would the money come from to compensate for the budget cuts? What solutions would you propose? Everybody knows there is a problem and everyone knows there are people to blame. What people want to know, including myself, is how people intend to fix the problem? If the students striking could suddenly answer these questions and provide solutions, could you imagine how much more powerful their movement could be?
And remember to strike for a reason. Every action you have has a reaction on everyone surrounding you. When you pull a fire alarm, it prevents all students who have already paid this years tuition from getting the education they paid for. When you occupy a building and start a large protest, the university will use resources to pay for extra police force to contain the protest. It all comesback to my previous post I wrote about the students who dumped trash in front of California Hall. The reason why the dumped trash there was so that the current custodial staff could get overtime (they got Union’s permission. They didn’t do it for “funzies.” So before you pull the next fire alarm, participate in a sit in, or whatever, ask yourself this: “Am I doing this because I personally feel that this action will help lower tuition fees? Or am I just getting caught up in the moment with a crowd of people?”
On August 15, 2009, Wired writer Evan Ratliff decideds to abandon his entire life and create a new identity for himself for one month. As part of the adventure, Wired then issues a bounty of $5,000 to track him down.
What follows is an interesting tale of trying to disappear in the digital age where any of your information can be tracked. As Ratliff and his pursuerers discover, there are many ways of tracking an individual’s information down as well as hiding off the grid that many would not suspect.
I find the article particularly interested because it’s like a high tech version of hide and seek. Would you prefer to be on the team of hunters or the lone person who has to break every single connection and forge a new identity while on the run?
Black Friday = Blu-ray Friday?
Do I need to wake up at 4:30am on Black Friday to buy a Playstation 3?
Striking Students
“Tell me what democracy looks like, this is what democracy looks like!” shouted Kathryn Lybarger, an organizer for the workers union, as students threw used paper cups, apple cores and banana peels at the front door. “What does a regents’ meeting look like? This is what a regent’s meeting looks like!”
“We will bring your job back,” Lybarger assured Houam Ounniyom, a laid-off custodian. (Berkeley Daily Planet)
We will get your job back… so you can clean up this mess we just made!
Now according to the students, they checked with Union Leaders before they dumped trash outside of the hall. The Union Leaders were cool with it because they would get paid overtime to do it.
I’m really glad that they did get permission, and I really hope other students pay attention to this fact if they decide to strike. What if these students decide to dump trash without checking with Union Leaders? What if Union Leaders were opposed to this? How would the several custodians left feel knowing they had to clean up this massive heap of garbage students made because some of them got caught up in the adrenaline of striking?
So to my fellow Bears that are striking, please remember to strike smartly. Make sure that you organize yourselves properly and do not get caught up in the moment and cause damage or even worse, harm to others. You don’t want to do anything that is destructive to the cause you fight for. Just remember to the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi:
“Keep it peaceful, y’all.”
Lesson Learned
Dear Matt Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces,
A few weeks ago you went off on Radiohead and their song Harry Patch. You were quoted in the article saying:
“F—- you! You brand yourself by brazenly and arbitrarily associating yourself with things that you know people consider cool. That is bogus. That’s a put-on. That’s a branding technique and Radiohead have their brand that they’re popular and intelligent. So they have a song about Harry Patch. How’s the song? Is it 48 notes to the octave? What does it have to do with Harry Patch? Oh, my wife says I am being very rude. She doesn’t like me insulting Radiohead. She’s afraid they will send their lackeys through the computer to sabotage us. But they needn’t worry — we are a band that sabotages ourselves.” (Spinner)
It then occurred to everyone that you erroneously mistook the song title. It appears that you misheard Harry Patch, the last surviving British WWI veteran, for that of Harry Partch, an experimental music composer. Oh what an easy mistake to make! Your publicist cited the mistake and we thought all was well in the world.
Instead of graciously admitting your fault, you denied it. And not only did you deny it, you did so like a pretentious douche bag. Sigh.
Here is what you had to say:
“Back in the fall of 1996 or whenever that interview was conducted, the interviewer asked what Matt thought of the Radiohead song celebrating a WWI veteran. Matt naturally thought it would be interesting to pretend that they wrote a song about the celebrated American composer of a similar sounding name, hence his joking in the interview about Radiohead composing a song with something like 48 notes to an octave. It was easy and amusing to imagine Radiohead’s attempt to colonize that relatively arcane bit of our musical lifeworld. This is what they used to call, in some bohemian and advertising circles, ‘riffing’ or fooling around.”
“Matt has not heard the Radiohead song about Harry Patch, but if he did, he is sure he wouldn’t like it. No doubt Radiohead and their fans can ignore his opinion of this matter and continue with their triumphant artistic interventions. Matt would have much preferred to insult Beck but he is too afraid of Scientologists.” (Pitchfork)
Oh the humanity! When I read through this article, I only felt pity for you. You see instead of admitting your wrongs like a gentlemen, you decided that it was only appropriate for you to continue your path of disaster. You claimed that you knew of the difference between the two Harry’s and that your joke went on death ears. Now, I am not saying you’re lying. This could very well be the truth. Perhaps we have lost the art of humor and that only those in the company of Mensa could guffaw. However, in either case, you sir, are still a dick.
Not only do you refer to yourself in third person, a technique that Dwayne Johnson has decided was passé. You show no signs of grace or humility. Had you simply explained that it was a joke, all would have been well. Had you humbly accept your mistake, all would have been well. But instead, you result to childish ways and continued to make a fool of yourself. And you made fun of Beck.
Sir, no one fucks with Beck. Because when you insult such a man, he will not simply let it go like Radiohead. Nor will he stoop to a low level and begin a flame war. Beck will take the opportunity and rise to the occassion.
Beck decided to kill two birds with one stone. Not only did he bitch slapped you across your face, he created an interesting piece that actually reflects the works of Harry Partch and his studies on microtonal scales.
At this point, it would only seem reasonable for you to say, “Ah, I have been bested. I shall accept my defeat, retreat, and save my dignity.”
Instead you post this:
“But doesn’t this imaginary feud demand imaginary responses? And therefore, imaginary response songs? Shouldn’t we step—isn’t now the time to ascend—from the merely virtual to the boldly imaginary?”
“I am proud to have been raised to seek out, revere, and practice the power of the pun without apology—or explanation. And I am pleased to be in a position where I perceive it useful to write such a thing in such a style, both as a joke and in earnest.”(Pitchfork)
What exactly are you trying to do here? Are you trying to say that because Beck released his song “virtually” that it holds no merit and exists in the same plane as the “imaginary”? I think you are beginning to lose focus of this battle that you are desperately trying to win. And please stop with the condescending attitude. I encourage you to proceed with the argument if you must, but when you do so with such spite, it damages your reputation.
Sir Matthew of the Fiery Furnaces, I just want to thank you. For you see, I have learned from your experience, even if you sir, have not. I have learned to take responsibility over my own mistakes and admit when I am wrong. I have learned that if I do not do this, Beck will own my ass. And when I teach my children this lesson one day, I will say, “Accept your mistakes with humility and grace or else you will look like Matthew Friedberger of the Firery Furnaces and that guy was a prick.”
