auto boulot dodo - left coast

Honestly this is my most favorite blog that i've ever tried to keep up. A few thoughts before they escape me: so far I am a fan of Schumpeter's prose, vinyl really has a compelling quality that most digital mediums do not (I have to admit to not having exposure to the higher fidelity digital standards) - I also confess a nostalgia for the physical processes of playing a record - childhood in the early 80s, Barack Obama pisses me off way more than my completely rational objections against him would warrant, which i take as a good sign in the general election and i am still not going to give any money to any polite people who ask me for money for his campaign. Sister solidarity - ya ya!

istening to: yo la tengo - and then nothing turned itself inside out (vinyl)

I've decided to resurect this blog because as pathetic as it was - it has been my most successful all encompassing blog yet. Right now I am watching the house judiciary committee hearing with Monica Goodling, White House Liason for the Justice Dept. I <3 CSPAN.

listening to: YACHT - I Believe In You. Your Magic Is Real.

Lets finish this puppy up - shall we while i'm still avoiding the fact that I am moving far far away.

Day 2 of Coachella - Started out with a much needed breakfast at Denny's - including requisite coffee.



First on the agenda was Sloan! They rocked out hardcore!!! very rock and roll - i may be misremembering but i think that one of the guys said that he was gonna hurl cuz it was pretty hot and they were really putting it all out there.

Next was unquestionably the unexpected highlight of the whole festival for me - Diplo leading into Matthew Dear.



I was *so* into his set that I basically danced straight the whole set. There weren't as many vocals as his albums but he had a really nice seemless progression in his set that made me rediscover what this whole techno dance thing should be.

After that amazing experience I pretty much just wandered around - seeing a bit of the very hyped M.I.A. performance which was ok but not mind blowing in my opinion. I ate some delicious roasted corn on the cob with butter and avoided as much as possible The Awful Furnaces (aka The Fiery Furnaces) I loathe them with a fiery passion hence the moniker.

Next was Tegan and Sara. They were super cute! and their set started early so the played a couple more songs then they were planning on. I was happy with the amount of material they played from their last album which overall i think has catchier songs than So Jealous although Speak Slow is super catchy and I like it a lot. Unfortunately I was cursed with the dreaded sunblock in the eye so I didn't enjoy the show as much as I should have. Fortunately this year I knew exactly what I needed to do. I stopped by the first aid tent and purchased for $1 a delicious grape chewable benedryl tablet. That stuff is amazing cause sunblock in the eyes HURTS a LOT.

Finally my post about Coachella... Overall an incredible experience.

The group of people I went with worked out really well. All of us had our own agendas that we were very excited about but also overlapped somewhat. This was great because we were all cool with going to some of the shows alone but also got to see shows with other people - a nice balance. Liz, Jora, and Mattpaul drove down from the Bay Area on Friday and hung out with some people on campus then spent the night at my place. We didn't try to get there super early - but there was lots of random traffic that we didn't really expect (it is LA after all I suppose) Lots of accidents.




We managed to get there in time to hear the Raveonettes in line and for Jora and Liz to see Ambulance LTD. I didn't have any particular show I was dying to see at that point so I flitted between M83 and Peretz






Peretz being the DJ name of Perry Farrel. Huh - who knew.

The first act I really wanted to catch was Snow Patrol. Their set was kinda lame I thought. Part of it may have been the sound in the area we were sitting. They had some problems with the sound on the main stage. The singer sounded kinda weak and the songs just weren't that exciting live. Probably also the fact that I drove so much and it was hot didn't help. It was soooo much better than last year heatwise.

Then came Razorlight - they played a rockin set. I don't really know their stuff but it was a good show. After Razorlight I think i may have checked out Tiga and got some food etc. Next was Rilo Kiley. They played some of the songs I really like off of "The Execution of All Things" and other stuff from their newer album which i wasn't as into. But it was fun that Liz was so into the show (her childhood crush Blake was the geeky looking guitar? player in a vest.






MF Doom and Swayzak were next. I have to say that Swayzak definitely caught my attention more - pretty interesting more experimental electronic type stuff. On to the heavy hitters. Weezer! they played some old songs which were awesome but also some newer songs which were just boring. Of course I had fun majorly dissing them for never being able to live up to the Blue Album or Pinkerton. Of course they didn't play anything from Pinkerton that would have been way cool. SAGE FRANCIS fucking RULED - his set was one of the definite highlights of the first day. I was especially happy to see him this year doing awesome on the 2nd outdoor stage, a major promotion from the Gobi tent where I saw him last year. Plus he had a real live awesome DJ (last year he had to use a CD for backing) and supporting crew! He did some stuff from the Non-Prophets LP and other stuff from his new album (ooh i should pick that up some time) Right - he was way energetic and political (the pope is a nazi) and laying the smack down on mainstream rappers (99 rappers but Jay-Z ain't one).

Then BAUHAUS - that pretty much blew my mind that I was actually seeing BAUHAUS play - and they sounded GOOD. The main guy singing Bela Lugosi's dead HANGING UPSIDE DOWN in a wierd very goth leather/vinyl getup. I was amazed at how not dated the songs sounded - interesting noise and dissonance. Wow! that is pretty fucking incredible. By that point I just pretty much wandered around between Chemical Brothers, Amp Fiddler, and the beginning of Coldplay. I didn't recognize any of the Coldplay songs - not that i really cared. Finally Spoon! They took forever to set up - i think they were having technical issues. When they finally did start playing - they were really good. I was hooked. Spoon probably qualifies as my major music revelation of the weekend. They have some amazingly catchy songs and their playing was *tight*. I was inspired to since then buy 3 of their 4 albums and go to their instore at Amoeba.

Afterwards I managed to get us out of the parking lot pretty quickly with a bit of assertiveness/being an asshole. I learned my lesson from last year. We got to the sketchy hotel and fortunately had no problems - other people staying there were not so lucky people found strangers in rooms they had checked into, or their key stopped working inexplicably. We kept the door safely bolted all night and I had a pretty amazing night of sleep.

END DAY 1




listening to: Spoon - Gimme Fiction

we need people to throw down when "conservatives" start talking like this - I mean get real indeed. That is just exactly what we want - to drastically change our system with some freshman "economic theory" bullshit. There are so many problems with this sort of resort to sound bites "economics" . There is no correspondance with reality of what the actual long-term results for people will be - it's just cynical propaganda.

medicare anyone - get it while we still have a semi-functional economy

listening to: midnight movies

Well damn it's been a long time since I wrote in the blog. I was busy with the new job, studying for exam 3 (actuarial crap) other standardized tests, being overwhelmingly depressed/angry/frustrated/sad about the election. It's one of those things that just drives home what a different reality (or at least a different perception of reality) that I live in.

I can't say that I'm too surprised given the underwhelming amount of independent thought that goes on in this country. I think I may have some unique skills to contribute in that respect. I certainly like to think of myself as an independent thinker and I have a fairly unique background in that I have been exposed to fairly cutting edge thought in quite a few disciplines. So while I may not be a super expert game theorist, economist, historian, or neuroscientist I at least have some basic sense of where those respective fields are coming from. In addition I actually work in the real world! in a real important, screwed up industry (health insurance)!

So in this vein my new mission is to work on a couple things.
- a coherent, realistic, attractive theoretical framework for progressive policies which encompases

• Why the fundamental assumptions of modern economics are suspicious and evidence for where and why they break down (when are economic actors not rational or self interested or when do they lack crucial information or have wacky preferences).
• A game theory analysis of the incentives people/institutions have in certain markets which prevent truly efficient outcomes from "free markets"
• A framework to quantify the effects of distortionary actions by gov't and other actors
• Prioritization of policy actions by their effectiveness at acheiving maximum outcomes specifically laying out which interventions would have the best chance at producing the best *measurable* results. (identifying virtuous cycles, characteristics of successful programs)
• Proposals for effective mechanisms to quantify and internalize externalities.

My major project is a study of the US health care system. I want to write something that will help an intelligent person with no special theoretical knowledge understand how our health care system is actually structured and how current trends will only cause the problems to get worse and could have an extreme detrimental effect on overall health and productive capacity. But I also want to have substantive theory behind my analysis.

Daunting!! My outline is due to Robin on Friday.

Otherwise - I went to the Krazy thanxgiving at dev's - there were lots of people who i hadn't seen in too long. Hopefully that will change now that liz is living in the bay area. There was a fractal pie some people are just too cool - thankfully my somewhat batty suggestion of an inverse dutch auction for pie eating was never carried out. On friday we played a wacky swedish lawn game kube (no idea who those people are but actually a good explanation) it was fun fun fun and the park was nice as spice. Then we went to a mindblowing salvage warehouse. They had all sorts of random industrial surplus things that I thought were fascinating although i wouldn't ever use them. Almost makes one want to become an eccentric inventor type person. Or a bad ass industrial engineer/constructor person. I think my calling though is to be more of a wonky public policy person.

listening to: camera obscura - biggest bluest hi-fi

things are somewhat blah.

the election thing is pretty nailbiting. and there's this whole exam thing on election day. It's hard to be motivated to study for the exam. I'm in an amotivated mental state which is not good. Chicago was long and helpful I suppose. This back and forth business is *not* helpful. I don't know what the hell is going on with a schedule and routine. I have so much to do and i've been procrastinating.

new fave band of the moment: saturday looks good to me !!!!!!!!!!! they rock the witch.

listening to lots of NPR.

anyways i should exercise! that always is helpful. for lots of stuff. mood and concentration and motivation.

listening to: dcfc - transatlanticism