I’ve been thinking, a lot of people are saying what a craptastic decade this has been, calling it the ‘naughts’ because that’s what it ammounts to. The whole world and every single one of us in it has had kind of a shitty time. There are a few gleaming shiny bits of technology and a lot of death and hate and crap and that’s about it. Music has gone to hell. I haven’t seen any art that really floored me since about 2003, and all of that was made before 2000. What the hell, people?

I think I have one answer- it’s not all of the answer, because so much shit comes from a lot of assholes- but for the first time ever, we have access to everything we want, ever. You know that impulse you have to look at every title in the bookstore at least once, so you don’t miss anything? Or to go through all the rooms in the thrift store, for that one special find? That same impulse combined with the internet and the exponential growth of things available to look at has completely consumed our collective conscious. It’s normal to be obsessed with something, and it’s weird to be disconnected.

Here’s the catch: obsessives are crazy. Not the good crazy, the stay up for three weeks on benzedrine and write the great american novel crazy, but the found dead in her house with two dead cats under piles of used toilet paper rolls crazy. We have been so obsessed with mining all that is out there and finding the gems that we have made no time to create our own identity. You think to yourself if you can just finish this season of lost or get that Eames chair or write the perfect tweet, then you can be at peace, but that’s a lie.

The truth is, there is no such thing as being finished. There is no rest until you’re dead, and no safety either. And as long as you spend your time keeping up with the latest and greatest of the whole world and all of your friends, you will have no time for yourself, to make the world a better place.

I’m not saying to cut yourself off from twitter and facebook and all of that. They are wonderful tools for communication, and they should be used that way. You are not a one person broadcast to the world; you’re leaving a note for your friends. You can’t keep up with everything, so you might as well take the time to do something that’s worth sharing.

And yes, I realize the inherent contradiction, putting this on my blog. Where the hell else am I going to put it? Why share something like this in a channel nobody cares about any more, like a dumb old magazine or newspaper. This is the fucking future, and we didn’t get our flying cars and vacations around venus and all that shit, but we did get blogs and iphones and all the tools we could ever dream of for making the world however we want it. Let’s let go of the old shit and get out there and create something of our own.

Enough rant. I hope you read it and didn’t skip to the photos, even though I like these photos. I have more in this vein, including an expansion of what I mean about not being a broadcast for the whole world, but that’s another rant, and there are plenty of photos to bait you all with later, no? ;)

Adam lock Was back in ton for like two seconds, and these are two from that night at Mcnellies. Have fun kids, and look for freindsgiving photos tomorrow.

Posted by Matt on 2009-12-07T00:00:00Z GMT