Review: The Doors / The Doors

Rating: 6 Stars (Diamond) * * * * * *


Guess I could review an album I can think of that constitutes my highest rating on my scale, and that might as well be the self-titled album by The Doors, whose album LA Woman I have also reviewed in detail.  Though I love LA Woman, this album is the one that the Doors are arguably the most famous for.  Rightfully so, since every song on this album is true greatness.


The opening track is Break on Through (To the Other Side), which is one of their best known songs and one that captures the feel of the 60s very well (I assume, I wasn't actually there).  It is an epic fast tempo song to kick off the album as well as Doors' career.  It immmediately slows down with the groovy Soul Kitchen which has some of the strangest lyrics I can think of, yet has an awesome melody that is fairly simple yet brilliant.  Next is the Crystal Ship, a ballad that has great piano work from Ray Manzarek and is a rare moment of solemness from the band.


The momentum picks back up with Twentieth Century Fox, which makes me wonder what the relationship is to the film production company of the same name.  A great song that has somewhat of a Beatles feel, with samples of the band members stomping on the floor for percussion.  Following this is Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar), a peculiar cover song that is probably a nod to the Whiskey a Go Go joint that the Doors played at in their early years.


Side A concludes with Light My Fire, the song that officially jump started The Doors' career, reaching number 1 on the Billboard 200.  And what a song, with great lyrics and instrumental breakdowns by Manzarek and Kreiger.  There are two versions of the song, one that is a half step lower than intended due to an error on the vinyl recording process, and the speed corrected version that is the way the song was "supposed" to be heard.  I prefer the broken version myself.


Side B opens with the cover song Back Door Man, complete with lyrics about the deepest subject to ever grace music: women, chicken, pork, and beans.  I Looked at You is probably the weak link on the album if there is one and is the one I'm least familiar with due to the desire to get to later tracks over this one.  End of the Night is another slow ballad with a very different feel than the Crystal Ship, with a much more ominous tone.  The final "jam" type song is Take it as It Comes, a fast paced song with explicit lyrics and an awesome spanish sounding guitar riff.  The final song is the long escapade, The End.  A song controversial even by today's standards, where Morrison sings about a killer who suffers a strong Oedipus complex.  Another classic of the band's off of this album.


I've only known of this album for about a year yet I rate it as one of the most solid albums I've ever heard. Thank you Rock Band 3 for introducing me to this absolutely lovely album.

Review: The Hunger Games

Rating: 4 Stars (Silver) * * * *

I have never read the books nor heard of the Hunger Games series at all until about a month ago so I'm not too qualified to talk about the movie but I'll try.  I have no idea how well it compares to the novel so I'll just review it as a stand alone film.  I liked this movie quite a bit, though plot-wise it definately did come off as a story written for young teenagers as the novels were written for.  There really werent any surprises that I didn't see coming beforehand in the movie.  However, I did like the setting of the movie and the characters were pretty believable.  The atmosphere of the fictional world the story takes place in was pretty impressive, I wanted to see more of that rather than the wilderness that the second half of the movie takes place in.  The two main characters did seem to have chemestry even though they did not know each other for that long at all.  Though I guess that was partially the point the movie was trying to make, where they are forced to create a relationship to please the sponsors who watch their ordeal.

Overall, good movie that has a couple nitpicks here and there.

(Lack of) Relational Problems and Stuff

Well, the past day I've been down due to my singlehood and the lack of a chance of it changing anytime soon.  I suppose just about everyone my age feels something similar, but I feel like I'm in between a rock and a hard place sometimes.  I thought I had a chance this weekend, yet it doesn't look like it's going to happen.  Meanwhile it seems that friends of mine are stepping in the right direction towards moving toward a relationship with someone.

Sometimes I wonder how I would like being in a relationship.  I tend to swing back and forth between wanting to be left alone by everyone and craving fellowship and intimacy.  Maybe I'm happiest where I am right now, yet I often don't feel very happy at all.  Really I can't wait to graduate college so that my life routine can start anew as I'm getting tired of going through the same week over and over again.  Surrounded by the same people and feeling ignored by them.  Part of me would like to find a whole new set of aquaintances while the other feels like staying in college and staying in my comfort zone.  Well I'm graduating in a couple months so things are bound to change soon.  Maybe things will get better then.

Random other thing, I just found out that the value of gold has surpassed that of platinum and so I might consider changing my rating system for media.  Maybe I'll just have a 6 star rating that is "diamond" and forget platinum altogether.

Quick Blurbs

I spent Spring Break in Southern California and I'm glad that I went.  There was a lot of healing and fellowship with other good people that I really needed in light of recent events.  Lately I've been finding out that people I'm close to are smoke and mirrors so it was nice to feel like a part of a group.  Should get back into the swing of blogging now that my schedule is more or less normal again.

Economic Stuff

In an effort to diversify the subjects I talk about, I guess I'll jot down ideas of a more recent area of interest, economics.


I was raised in a republican household but I've gravitated towards a more Democrat view of economics and even social issues.  I believe in capitalism and believe that the hardest workers should be rewarded with the most presitgeousity. However I believe the poor and less fortunate should be looked after and not just dismissed as those who don't work as hard and can't make . I believe this is more important than upholding pure unregulated ideological capitalism and so I often will support programs that benefit the poor, even at some expense of the richest citizens.   Complete socialism is harmful, but I think some of it's ideals are noble and can be implimented into our capitalist system sometimes without turning socialist. This should be done with care though, so that "slippery slope" arguements don't become reality. I think pure Reagan-esque capitalism is largely idealistic and is harmful to the country as a whole.

While sitting in economics class, I was thinking about how for many economists, it seems that to them, the ultimate "goal" of the country should be to increase the GDP of the country as much as possible.  However, I think this mostly only seems good on paper and doesn't really benefit the most people.  As my professor even said, a higher GDP doesn't necessarily mean higher quality of life for citizens.  One thing some have to keep in mind with laissez-faire capitalism is that even if it does produce the highest GDP in the end and the lowest unemployment rate (which is questionable), there are more important things than economic prosperity.  I've found it peculiar that many Christians I've talked to think that hardcore conservatism is the politics of a true Christian, while I feel differently.  Maybe people in general need to be willing to sacrifice a bit of their own prosperity once in a while for the sake of others.  I think this should be kept in mind when discussing issues like welfare and tax brackets.  So often it seems that the words "MY tax dollars...why should I pay for so and so..." come up.  Sometimes people need to see that they are only one out of millions in the country.  Really, having to pay a 45% income tax will greatly increase the suffering of a poor person than a rich person. 

Obviously the other extreme is just as bad if not worse.  Dispelling with capitalism altogether obvious results in disaster.  It's pretty much undeniable that it is human nature to only push themselves to work when there is something big at stake.  What better than the incentive to be prosperous rather than poor?  Socialism and communism look good on paper and I think even have good intentions, but they are not realistic.

So yeah.  Basically I think if humanitarianism and morality and economic prosperity (or if not, at least adequacy) is the focus, then I think mixed capitalism with a degee of government regulation and higher taxes for the uppermost class is the best way to go.

Review: The Radiohead Catalouge

For this review I've decided to review the entire catalouge of albums at once rather than doing a seperate in-depth reveiw for each.

Rating: 2 Stars (Purple)    * * 



Rating: 3 Stars (Blue)     * * * 




Rating: 5 Stars (Gold)    * * * * *



Rating: 5 Stars (Gold)    * * * * *



Rating: 3 Stars (Blue)     * * * 



Rating: 3 Stars (Blue)     * * * 




Rating: 4 Stars (Silver)    * * * * 



Rating: 4 Stars (Silver)    * * * *

  I am a big fan of Radiohead, and so I shall do a broad overview of their entire catalouge up to this point.

They began with a one-hit album, Pablo Honey.  I've listened to it and agree with the general consensus with critics that really the only good song on the album is Creep.  The rest of the album, I really don't remember much about how it sounds because it all sounds like padding.  The band could've easily fizzled out after this rather weak opener.

However, the second album The Bends is often considered to be the album where the "real" Radiohead got off of the ground.  Planet Telex, High and Dry, Nice Dream, Just, and My Iron Lung are all songs that I love off of this album.  In addition, many of the B-Sides that didn't make it on the actual album are in my opinion better than most of the stuff that actually did make it, with B-Sides like The Trickster, Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong, and Talk Show Host.  However, like I hinted with the B-Sides being better than many of the songs on the actual album, some of the songs are pretty bland.

Ok Computer further propelled the band as it was one of the best albums of the 1990s.  Fusing electronic elements with their usual spacy sounding rock made this album a total success.  Paranoid Android is probably the best Radiohead song out there, and Airbag, Subterrainian Homesick Alien, Let Down, Karma Police, Electioneering, and Climbing Up the Walls are all iconic Radiohead.  Some B-Sides are great too, namely Meeting in the Aisle and Climbing Up the Walls (Zero 7 Mix).  The album has a feeling that's like no other album i've heard from anybody.

Then came the album that divided Radiohead fans and started their run of albums that sounded like they built up songs, then purposely destroyed them and made them strange.  Kid A, which is retrospectively considered one of the best albums of the last decade, is a great but very inaccessable album.  Fans of OK Computer might be off-put buy songs like Everything In Its Right Place, Kid A, Treefingers, Idioteque, and Motion Picture Soundtrack.  Best songs on this album in my opinion are Everything In Its Right Place, The National Anthem, Optimistic, and In Limbo.

Amnesiac was basically the "leftovers" that came from the Kid A sessions.  Though stuff like Pyramid Song, You and Whose Army?, I Might Be Wrong, and Dollars & Cents stand on their own as great songs, but much of the album suffers from taking what Kid A started too far, with many of the songs trying to hard to be unconventional and strange.

Hail to the Theif felt to me like Amnesiac part II, suffering from the same problem.  Mixed amongst the weirdness though is gems like 2+2=5, Sail to the Moon, and Go to Sleep.

In Rainbows saw the end of the weirdness, returning to more listenable sounding songs.  This album was very famous for it's "pay what you want" model, those this was discontinued for the next album, which suggests Radiohead didn't view the experiment as a huge success.  15 Step and Bodysnatchers are a welcome new sound for the band, and others are soothing like Weird Fishes, House of Cards, and Jigsaws Falling Into Place.

The bands most recent album released last year is The King of Limbs.  This album upon it's release seem to have a similar effect to Kid A, dividing fans due to it's unusual sound, being electronic, yet having a ethereal organic feel.  I am a fan of this album, as the unconventional melodies in songs like Morning Mr Magpie, Little by Litte, and Lotus Flower are very hypnotizing.  I first heard this album while driving on a rainy day and it felt perfect.  However, there is drag on the album and it's understandable why some might not like it.

That's my retrospective assessment of Radiohead's discography thus far.  Here's hoping to many goodies from them in the future.

Review: Head Hunters and Thrust / Herbie Hancock

Rating: 4 Stars (Silver)    * * * *





Rating: 3 Stars (Blue)     * * * 



I only very recently discovered Herbie and I've been rather happy with my findings.  Head Hunters is a great album, with only four songs, yet each are jam-fests.  Chameleon is absolutely wonderful and Sly is a great ride as well.  Watermelon Man and Vein Melter are enjoyable as well but drag on a little at points.


Thrust is great as well, though doesn't feel quite like it has quite as much soul in it as Head Hunters.  However, I really want to give this a high rating because I adore the song Butterfly.  It is definately a song that belongs alongside Chameleon as the best songs in this pair of Hancock albums.


Overall, a great jazz listen.

Tough Love

I had to be stern with Heather today.  This whole thing is becoming overwhelming.  I want to be kind to her and show her love in this time period, but the fact is she has reached a point where she is stealing from me.  The best love I can give right now is tough love because it's for her in the end.  I still feel like a jerk though.  I want to reconcile but at the same time, I've done nothing wrong and she can't blame me.

I really hope this all turns out well in the end.

My existential conflict: Tragedy, Christianity vs Atheism, Uncertainty

I came up early today due to cancellation of class and on my way to my car I was in deep thought since I had misplaced my headphones to my ipod and so I could fill my head with music.  I came up with a topic to write about that will probably be my most personal and stress inducing yet.  That is, my roller coaster ride with Christianity.

After my dad died in 2006, I feel like there was a second Derek.  Not in a bi-polar or split personality sense, but my opinions and feelings toward things in generally started to fluctuate.  Before that point, I was a usually optimistic boy who had struggles with depression from time to time, but for the most part believed whole heartedly everything I was taught in church and youth groups.  God always has you back and is always looking out for you, He doesn't guarentee that life will be perfect, but He doesn't give you more than you can handle and if you come to Him he'll always be there to confort you and guide you.  He gave us his Word, the Bible, which is directly from God, contains no error or contradiction, and the only reason people ever doubt it is because they are ashamed of the sin in their life and are running from God.  Life was grand.

In 2005, my parents got divorced.  Stressful yes but I knew that life wasn't perfect and asked God to help me get through it.  I was sad that my parents were split and life was going to be different from now on, but I believed God would see me though.  Then in 2006, dad took me out to Chipotle and told me that the reason he and mom had divorced was because he had an affair before I was born and that I have a half sister as a result (who is an amazing person).  He asked me to forgive him for it and I did.  Nonetheless however, I was very disturbed.  I still felt that things would be okay in the long run.

But.  Oh, indeed a resounding but.

Two days.  TWO freaking days later, I was at my mom's house when we got a phone call.  I remember it vividly.  I felt a sense of panic because without me knowing why, mom had collapsed on the counter and let out a blood-curdling shriek followed by tears saying that dad had been in a motorcycle accident.  A bad one.  He had not been wearing a helmet and had been thown from his motorcycle after a collision with another car, landing straight on the asphalt on his unprotected head.  He was now in critical collision in a coma at the hospital.  This was the single unquestionably most profound moment in my life.  It was not a good one.  I remember seeing his bloody body in the emergency room and feeling a part of me die.  I have never gotten that part of me back.

The following two weeks were an absolute maddening hell.  The worst two weeks of my life.  Dad lay in the hospital with no projection on what his chances of survival are, but every day the news got a little bit bleaker.  First it was a 50% chance of survival.  Then 40%.  Then 30%.  Then 10.  Then 5.  Then 1.  Every night I lay awake desperately praying to the point of tears.  If there was ever a moment where I needed God, this was it.  In the waiting room at the hospital everyday there was prayer circle of dad's friends, family, and even his old pastor.  I believed that God would get us through this.  I even thought perhaps this was the reason God was allowing this to happen.  To bring all of dad's friends and family together to support him following a time of personal strife in his life.  Against all odds I had faith that God would not let me or my family suffer the unthinkable sorrow of if dad were to die right now.  However, mom said at dinner one night that the doctors had given up hope and that he has no chance of survival.  I prayed even harder.  I remember visiting hours the final night before they officially pulled the plug.  Talking to my dad's comatose body that night was unbearable.  I had just about given up all hope by this point and could only say my final goodbyes.  When the doctor said the final visiting hours were over, walking out of that room was the hardest thing I ever had to do.  Sure enough, the next morning, mom told me and heather that he was gone.

I still can't type this story without crying.  I am right now.

There have been two Dereks since then, occupying the same mind and body.  The fragile Derek who just wants to return to that blissful relationship with God again and who just wants to cry on his shoulder, who still loves God and believes that there is a big wonderful picture than I just can't see yet.  And the Derek who is a hardened cynic, who realizes that God does not have your back in this life as much as you think He does.  Sometimes you cry pleas to him in you desperate moments, and He does nothing.  Not a word, not a single action or single shread of evidence that He exists at all.  Whether He does exist or not, the outcome would just be the same.  It is all unguided chance.  Bad things happen to good people, and theres no purpose behind it.  That's just how it is.

Throughout the recent years I've bounced back and forth between these two Dereks.  In recent weeks, I've gravitated more towards cynic Derek and I hope to move back towards optimist Derek.  But it has been overwhelmingly difficult in light of the most recent events.  To fuel this fire, there has been another instance of great dissapointment in wake of a ray of hope where God at first appears at work.  My sister has been struggling with a drug addiction for a year now.  She went to rehab for a month and said when she got out that she has full faith in Jesus to keep her from relapsing and she will focus on Him and His strength to get her through this.  She relapsed the night she got out of treatment.  Guess Jesus wasn't enough.  And presently, she's fallen so far that I caught her stealing my bank checks and writing them out to herself.  As I was writing this entry, she visited my house and I couldn't even crack a smile at her because I'm still just furious.

So pardon me if I seem like I'm a little hesitant to pray out loud at small groups, or don't seem all that choked up when people talk about the overwhelming compassion that God has shown them.  Because I don't feel it.  Instead I feel like Job.  I feel like I've tried and tried to honor and serve God to the best of my ability, and life just continues to suck as God looks on, if He exists at all.  The Bible says we are all hopelessly indebted to God, quite frankly I sometimes feel that I don't owe Him a damn thing.

I feel like I can't even read the Bible anymore without some glaring doubt jumping off the pages and into my brain.  I spend a lot of time at Christian apologetics sites that reconcile supposed flaws in the Bible that people point out.  And I try to believe them as best as I can.  Why does God appear to have predestined everything from the beginning of the universe in some verses, and seem appalled and even surprised at humanities actions at other parts in the Bible, to where He has to flood the Earth, or put 10 plauges on Egypt?  Some things we just can't understand, a man trying to understand God is like a worm trying to understand a man, etc.  Why do God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirt seem to be three seperate Gods at some points, while at other points God insists that He is singular and the only God in existence?  Cause both are true at the same time of course, it's called the Trinity!  Why does God sometimes seem tender, infinitely forgiving, and compassionate at some points and at other points seem like He has a zero-tolerance attitude with sin, killing people at the slightest transgression, like with Uzzah or the wife of Lot?  Because He cannot tolerate sin in His presence but loves humanity so much that He sent Jesus to die for our sins.  Why does God need a sacrifice to die in order to forgive sins, while people seem perfectly capable of forgiving people without killing anyone?  Because God's ways are higher than our ways and we just can't undertand Him. 

A lot of the time I can believe these things and all is well, but sometimes in small groups or church, when people make it sound like everything is great and there is no reason to doubt God whatsoever, I remember the entire story I typed up above, and suddenly suddenly switch to hurt, angry, frustrated, cynical Derek, and all of a sudden the answer in my head seems very different.  Why do all these seeming contradictions concerning God seem to exist?  Because it's all a bunch of stupid shit that a bunch of stupid primitive people living before the printing press and Dark Ages just made up and couldn't keep their conflicting stories straight, thats why.  It then seems to me that Christianity is all just a stupid game and a sick joke, grown men believing in childish stories.  On top of that, Christianity doesn't exactly have a pure track record of getting people to do avoid doing unspeakable things.  Modern persecution and bullying of gay people, the crusades, the inquisition, science being hindered.  Having no doubts or a questioning mind has shown itself to be extremely harmful, so it isn't exactly like one has nothing to loose for believing something even if it isn't true.

Overall, I am still a Christian and have no intention of leaving.  But sometimes I strongly feel pulled towards a cynical worldview.  I felt the need to type this thing up and I'm not really sure how to end it.  I'll be continuing the struggle and trusting God, but there are obstacles.

Top 10 Favorite Banknotes

I have a fixation for order and hierarchy and one place this shows is my liking for paper money, or more specifically sets of denominations paper money from different countries.  I especially like the top ranking denomination bills that make one recoil at their awesome value, be it real value or deciving nominal value.
This is my top 10 favorite banknotes!

10.  Canada / 100 Dollar Bill

The new series Canadian 100 dollar bill is a very beautiful bill, being made of polymer and containing a transparent window in order to make conterfeiting difficult.  The denominations in the series are each printed a different color, with the 100 being printed in an attractive gold.  This bill is the only bill in my list that is not the highest denomination in ciculation in its country, as there is a Canadian 1,000 dollar bill that was pink in color and featured the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.  However the bill was discontinued and is not part of this new series.  The 100 dollar bill has the portrait of former Robert Borden, Prime Minister of Canada during World War I.

9.  Turkey / 20,000,000 Old Lira Bill

In the 1970s, Turkey was undergoing a severe period of inflation and devaluation of their currency, the lira, that higher and higher denominations of bills had to be printed in order to allow citizens to carry enough money to do basic grocery shopping.  In turkey, higher and higher lira bills were being printed, finally cummulating with the 20,000,000 bill.  The value amount is deceptive though, as with many bills during hyperinflation, the bill does not actually have very much purchasing power at all.  However, the high number does make the bill appear striking and attractive.  All bills of the lira show the picture of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first president of the Republic of Turkey.  The old lira was eventually redenominated and exchanged for new lira and so the numbers on bills in the country returned to normal levels and this bill faded out of circulation.

8.  North Korea / 5,000 Won Bill

North Korea is not exactly known for being an economically prosperous nation.  The won, their currency, is hardly used by regular citizens in the country.  However, their bills do look rather nice, even though the idealistic images on each bill clearly have intent of serving as propaganda to the carriers.  The highest denomination, the 5,000 won bill, reflects the enormous cult of personality surrounding the nations founder, Kim-Il-Sung, appearing like a shrine to their glorious leader.  Evidently, there are laws in North Korea against intentionally damaging the bill, as it is illegal to desecrate the image of Kim-Il-Sung.  Despite the creepy atmosphere surronding the nation and it's money, their banknotes do look attractive, especially the 5,000 bill.

7.  Singapore / 10,000 Dollar Bill

Though I'm not really a big fan of the overall design of the bill, this bill is notable for being one of the most valuable banknotes in the world in terms of real value that is still printed by their country's government and used daily by citizens.  Though there are bills around the world with amounts that far exceed 10,000 the singapore dollar is one of the currencies with the largest purchasing power and so a bill worth 10,000 is a very valuable piece of paper to carry around.  One thing I do like about this bill is the nice gold color, part of a series of bills that are each a different color based on their value.

6.  Laos / 100,000 Kip Bill

This bill is the opposite of the Singapore bill to me.  The bill is virtually worthless in Laos despite being the largest denomination of their currency, the kip, as citizens tend to use foreign currencies in the country rather than their official one.  However I do like the design quite a bit, with the red and yellow background looking as a top denomination bill should.  Plus, in the weirdest way, 100,000 is such a satisfying number.

5.  Japan / 10,000 Yen Bill

The Japanese yen is one of the most internationally traded currencies in the world and their banknotes look awesome.  Thus I do very much like the highest denomination, the 10,000 yen bill.  The portrait is of Fukuzawa Yukichi, a teacher who founded Keio University in Japan.

4.  European Union / 500 Euro Bill

The European Union is considered one of the largest economies in the world today, if not the largest.  The bills of the euro are some of my favorites, deviating from the standard practice of having famous figures on the obverse side of the bill and instead having the denominations depict famous architecture styles in europe throughout its history, with higher bills having more recent denominations.  Their highest, the 500, shows modernist european 20th century architecture.  Due to the bills rarity, they are often called "Bin Ladens" due to the fact that everyone knows about them yet they are hardly seen.  Interestingly, when Osama bin Laden was killed last year, he had one of these bills stitched into his clothing.  

3.  Hong Kong / 1,000 Dollar Bill

Hong Kong has some very amazing looking banknotes, being made of polymer and having a very modern looking design.  Like many currencies, each bill is printed in a different color and in Hong Kong, the highest bill is printed in gold, a practice that I'm a fan of.  Great looking bill that reflects its very large value with it's grandiose appearance.

2.  Hungary / 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Pengo Bill

Introducing, the world's most awesomely preposterious nominal amount ever printed on a piece of currency.  It's difficult to tell at first glance but the amount reads "1 Millard" (which means in European longscale what we call 1 Billion in the US) of a unit called "B.-Pengo" (stands for "Billion Pengo" which in European longscale is what we call 1 Trillion in the US).  So it is in effect, 1 Billion x 1 Trillion Pengo, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (Sextillion) Pengo.  The reason for such a rediculous amount is that at the time this was printed, Hungary was experiencing the most severe hyperinflation ever witnessed in an economy thanks to Hungary being ravaged by World War II, with prices across the country doubling every 15 hours.  Thus in a matter of days, prices reached astronomical amounts and all the money in the country became less valuable than dirt unless higher and higher denominations of pengo were pumped into circulation, which only further aggrivated the hyperinflation.  The catastrophic economic mess eventually produced this absurd bill. 

1.  United States / 100,000 Dollar Bill

Finally, my favorite bill is the highest denomination in my home country of the United States, the 100,000 dollar bill.  It is arguably the most valuable piece of currency of all time, having a face value of 100,000 and being worth...well...100,000 US dollars.  This bill is extrordinary rare (only around 10 or so are known to exist today) and can pretty much only be seen in museums or in some cases casinos that managed to get a hold of one.  These were printed by the federal reserve purely for the intent of being used when federal reserve banks had to deliver stellar amounts of money to each other and weren't ever released to the general public for regular use.  The design just radiates pure value, having more zeroes than just about any other bill that I've seen.  The portrait is of former President Woodrow Wilson, mostly due to the fact that he was the president who signed the federal reserve into existence.  My favorite bill of all time!

End of First Blogging Day

Not much more to say, I'd just like to insert another entry to close off the first day.  I think might definitely become a regular thing.  Had a productive and good day that involved getting my oil change for my car and practicing guitar.  While walking to Costco while my car was getting an oil change, I was thinking about what I would like to do with my life.  I am getting fairly skilled at playing music and have good ideas for albums, but I wouldn't know how to get the public to listen to them.  I also would like to write books, but a similar problem applies and I still haven't written a full fledged book before.  We'll see where life takes me I guess.

Tomorrow should be a pretty relaxing day.  No obligations, just the way I like it.  Every so often.  I'm still thinking of what topics to write about on this blog.  I hope to write about philosophical matters like the free will vs determinism arguements I've gotten into lately.  Philosophy and science, both of which I appreciate because they tie in someway to the grandiosity of God.  God is a subject that will most certainly come up often as well.  After all, God is the most intellectually and emotionally satisfying thing to devote your mind's time too.  Sometimes I forget that and focus on stuff that satisfys my fixation with order.  Even though that stimulates the mind, it doesn't bring anywhere near the same degree of peace.  I need to think about God more, as well as pray more.

As I type this I notice that it's becoming easier to think of stuff to write.  That gives me encouragement that updating a blog is a good idea.  Will keep posting!

Review : LA Woman / The Doors

Rating: 5 Stars (Gold)    * * * * * 


I'll practice giving a review of a music album by starting with LA Woman by The Doors, a great album by one of my favorite bands.  I will be doing a lot of reviews of media that came out a long time ago (in this case, over 40 years ago) just for fun, and for anyone reading who is interested in the reviewed piece.

LA Woman was the final album of The Doors before tragedy struck singer Jim Morrison.  Two more albums were later released by the band but they had nowhere near the fame or glory that the bands albums had with their beloved singer.  The previous album, Morrision Hotel saw the band returning to a more blues rock style after trying out the very experimental Soft Parade album and LA Woman continues where Morrision Hotel left off.

The album starts off with the track called "The Changeling", a very dancable and enjoyable track that apparently has Morrision sardonically singing about his drastic transformation throughout his career with The Doors, going from the clean cut young singer that had sung "Light My Fire" about 7 years prior, to the gruff, less caring man who he now was during the LA Woman period.  Next up is "Love Her Madly", a song with Ray Manzarek playing a fast piano in a style that you would expect to here playing at a saloon.  This was evidently the song that caused the producer of the Doors' previous albums, Paul Rothchild, to throw up his hands and walk out during the production of the album, claiming the band had no life left.  The song must have been in it's early stages at that point however, as the song which appears on the album is a most enjoyable track.

The third song, "Been Down So Long" takes the album (and the band up to that point for that matter) in a different direction, with an aggressive and jagged sounding guitar and absent keyboard, which in my opinion is the staple of the bands sound.  Jim sings about how he has reached a new low and there is nowhere to go but up from here.  Sadly looking retrospectively, that could not be further from the truth for him.  This is followed by "Cars Hiss By My Window", a song that just sort of chugs lazily on, yet in a good way.  It is probably one of the lesser notable songs, yet not a bad song by any means.  Jim Morrison imitating the sound of a guitar with his voice near the ending is entertaining.

The first side of the album concludes (oh yes, I know this despite never playing a vinyl record in my life) with the albums title track, a long and rather un-Doors-y sounding song.  The song seems to me to be respect for their first hit single "Light My Fire" with the lyrics "If they say I never loved you, you know they are a liar" very reminicent of "You know that I would be a liar, if I was to say to you, girl we couldn't get much higher".  Side B opens with "LAmerica" an ominous song that has a sound of constant building, to drive up anticipation of the final side of the final album.  What follows it "Hyacinth House" a not increadibly notable song yet not bad at all.  It is notable for being one of the only songs written by keyboardist Ray Manzarek however. 

Following is the continuing blues sound with a cover of Big Joe Williams' "Crawling King Snake" and the drunken sounding foot tapping escapade "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)".  The album concludes with one of the best songs of the bands entire career and the perfect closer for the bands good run (minus the under-the-radar albums that technically followed), Riders on the Storm.  Described by Ray Manzarek as capturing the sounds of the nightly mid western American desert, this song is truley spectacular, ending the album by fading into sounds of rain.

LA Woman ended up being one of the band's finest albums and has definitely withstood the test of time.

Derek's Media Rating Scale

For many posts, I may review various forms of media like movies, games, and music albums.  Here is the scale I like to use.  In classic reviewer fashion the majority of things are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars, but things that I think deserve an extra honorary rating recieve 6 stars.  Each level also has a color code just to make it more interesting.

0 Stars (Gray)  Absolutely horrendous on every level　
1 Star (Red)   *  Rather bad with some redeeming factors
2 Stars (Purple) * *  Not bad but not notably good
3 Stars (Blue)     * * *  Rather good with a few minor flaws
4 Stars (Silver)    * * * *  Very good and very memorable
5 Stars (Gold)    * * * * *  Virtually flawless and extremely memorable
(Extra honorary rating) 　
6 Stars (Diamond)  * * * * * * Absolutely Legendary in quality

The Genesis Post

This is it, the first post to set the wheels in motion.  I'll use this blog to type up whatever happens to me on my mind at the time.  I still don't know what it will be about, it might just be completely random topics while gravitating towards a couple specific ones over time.