Urban Guerilla Warfare in Germany




Occasionally I learn about something that I didn't even know existed. This morning Meg and I watched a 2002 BBC documentary about the Baader-Meinhof Gang, aka the Red Army Faction (Roten Armee Fraktion), a radical leftist/anarchist paramilitary terrorist organization in West Germany.

Basically the story boils down to a group of middle class students, tired with the post war structure of capitalist Germany, taking their Vietnam protest movement to a place that no other late 60's radical student was willing to go. The killed people, a lot of people actually... more than 30.

While I don't believe that "all cops are pigs" or that "the capitalist state is itself a prison", and I certainly don't think that premeditated murder is ever justified, I'm fascinated by them. There are a lot of things I feel pretty strongly about, (as you well know), but I would never kill for them. The basis of the RAF's ideology is really the same as mine, but taken to terrifying extremes.

*I know we live in a police state (don't laugh, the Patriot Act?).

*I know the media (in it's capacity as the propaganda arm of it's parent companies) preaches a dogma of total product worship and mindless consumerism.

*I know that the federal government is directly controlled by special interests at the cost of it's citizens lives, and the the health of the planet.

*I know our nation is engaged in an illegal, un-winnable war in a politically unstable region, at the cost of non-combatant citizens of that country and our men and women in the military.

Those are basically the same grievances Andreas Baader and his murderous gang of student thugs had thirty five years ago in Berlin. The difference is that I know better than to try and overthrow my nation with a gang of philosophy majors.

The lesson to be learned from them is that fighting back is a waste of your time. Instead of bringing down the "capitalist pigs", the RAF's reign of terror in the early 70's actually served to modernize the German Federal Police (like the FBI), and strengthen the German government's systematic program of spying on it's citizens.

They should have wised up, started slacking off and not worried about it. That's what I've chosen to do. I make the changes I can make in my life, and preach the word of slack as much as I can, but I'm not going to blow up an embassy.
- posted by Mason @ 8:24 PM

Like a knife in my fucking heart.


You know, I love Jon Lovitz... but I just can't love this movie. I tried to watch it today, but it was so bad I couldn't pay attention to it. Usually I have a really funny and long winded thing to say about a bad movie that I watched, but not this time. I wouldn't really recommend it. It wasn't very good.
- posted by Mason @ 11:35 PM

What the fuck am I doing with my life?



Megan and I want out. I don't know what it is that I'm doing.

I work a job that I'm becoming increasingly displeased with that pays moderately well in order to live in an apartment we only sort of like. I love living in Dallas, but I hate working. It's not the particular job, it's any job. I don't like working and I don't want to do it anymore. What's the solution? As I see it, we don't have a lot of options, the best of which seems to be to quit my job, sell all of our stuff and move to Taos to live with Levi and Tiffany.

"But Mason," you say, "that's fucking nuts." Is it crazier than walking on a giant hamster wheel of work and consumption? Dallas rules, and don't get me wrong, we've got it pretty sweet here, but I don't really know what it is that we're achieving by doing that. It's a real quandary.

I don't really want to live anywhere for an extended period of time. We moved here, it's fun, but I want to go other places and do other things. Having a career and wanting to not really ever do anything I don't want to do just isn't working out. I want to thru-hike the PCT, but I can't do it on my two weeks off every twelve months. We could easily keep going the way we are quite comfortably forever, but neither of us want to. Living in Harrah was fun, but we got bored with it. As we get older, I think pretty much anywhere we live is going to get dull after a while. I just don't like working a regular job, I guess. Like I said, we want out.

Any suggestions? Email me.
- posted by Mason @ 9:59 PM

She's Gone Linux!



At the behest of our dear friend the "Brontok.C" worm, we've made the big switch on the thinkcentre (our main pc... the one not connected to the TV) over to linux. I'm happy, meg's happy, Microsoft isn't happy, but fuck them. There's nothing we were doing in XP that we can't do in ubuntu. I had used SUSE for a while, and then (see posts from over the summer) the old Gateway laptop crashed, and that ended that.

Obviously there's a small amount of trepidation when switching operating systems, but it's been completely smooth. I must insist that any and all windows users stop what they're doing, backup their personal files, wipe their hard drive and install this bad bitch of an operating system. Go. Now. Do it. I mean you, Robert.
- posted by Mason @ 8:56 PM

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss


Late breaking story: "That's NOT so Good Bread".

I'm bored with the old address, so I've "moved house" as the brits say.

Welcome to Contain the Containers.

I currently feel very itchy, restless and bored with my life. Stay tuned as Meg and I strive to change our lives for the better. Or at least make our lives more interesting.
- posted by Mason @ 1:59 PM

More From Your Favorite Think N' Rollers: The MMDS

this picture has nothing to do with my post, i just thought it was funny.

Think and Roll, you like that? I just thought of it. I was pretty pleased with myself.

Point being that as of right...... NOW all of our records are available as high quality mp3s to download for free on our VIRB.

Yeah, I know, I'm the shit. Create yourself an account, make friends with us, listen to the records. My band is so bright that you've gotta wear shades, bro.
- posted by Mason @ 5:09 PM

Indie Rock is Alive and Well in Texas


I made us a VIRB account today. Check it. I think it's nice. If you're not "hip" to virb.com, it's like myspace, but for people who have some modicum of taste in web design.

Registration is pretty limited for virb right now, so if you decide you'd like an invite, email me and let me know. I have a hundred of them, and I don't know more than ten people, so I have tons to give away.

4 trakker/attakker (that's our new lo-fi record, for all the n00bs who aren't 1337 [leet] in the ways of the MMDS) is on it's way out. I'll post something about it when it's done.

Also, I get a total hard on for this.
- posted by Mason @ 10:21 PM

I Cooked!

this picture looks like shit. it looked much tastier in real life. my photography skills are much worse than megan's, whose pictures usually appear here.

I don't cook much anymore because Megan is so much better at it than I am. Meg is sick today and we've been watching Gordon Ramsay's The F Word. Gordon's main thrust is getting people cooking "Sunday Lunch" (or at least to get people to buy his book, "Sunday Lunch"). I figured since today was like Sunday for me, I'd do the same.

I've been wanting to try Field Roast for a while now, and we haven't really gotten around to it. If you're not familiar with this vegan wonderfood, check it. It's a meat analogue made by leeching the starch out of wheat dough. The gluten is left and it has a meaty texture. They add flavors and what not, and then it becomes a tasty roast!

The rest of the meal (all vegan!):

Sauteed Mushrooms and Onions with Corn - Crimini and Baby Portabello Mushrooms, Red Onions and Fresh Corn sauteed in Grapeseed Oil. Reduced down with homemade veggie stock (Megan's).

Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes - taters, Earth Balance, soy milk, kosher salt, cracked pepper. We like them with big chunks still in them, not smooth at all.

Garlic Jalapeño Gravy - Sauteed two cloves of garlic and a jalapeño in the mushroom pan. As I was deglazing the pan with soy milk (with the intention of adding it to the mash), I thought to myself, "Hey, this is cream gravy!" I threw in some flour and salt, and it turned out pretty bomb. Megan said, "This is the best gravy I've ever had. It actually has flavor!"

I felt pretty good about it. Everything was very tasty, and we'll definitely be buying the Field Roast again.
- posted by Mason @ 10:40 PM

First Day of Spring


We got "out and about" today. Of course it's spring and my "halergies" are acting up a bit, so I've started taking Apple Cider Vinegar. Even though it's a rather a wacky "Dr. Bartlet's Patented-Cure-All", it's already started to break up my chest congestion. We'll see how well it works out in the long run. Hopefully it will also cure my "tired blood" and Megan's "female complaints".

In store closing news, the Tasti-D-Lite in Plano shut down. It was the only reason we EVER drove up there, so no loss really, as I think the suburbs are total crap and to be avoided at all costs. On the upside, there's apparently a location over by SMU, which is about.... uh.... 25 miles closer to my house, which is fan-fucking-tastic.

If you've never scarfed a cup of TDL, you're really missing out. Of course, if you don't live in New York City or the surrounding area, you don't really have an opportunity to do so. There's one in Miami Beach (for the old Jews, duh!), and one here. "But what is it?", you ask. Well, it's like frogurt, only different, lighter and with less calories.

Tasti D·Lite® INGREDIENTS
Vanilla Dairy Base:
Water, Non-fat Milk, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Cream, Vegetable Gums: Guar, Carrageenan and Carob Bean, Vanilla.

They then pump it full of air so that only 25% of it's volume is actually ice cream. They use all kinds of crazy natural crap in squeeze bottles to make it hundreds of nutty flavors. It's very tasty, not terrible for you and not loaded with crazy preservatives.

Also, I bought some recyclable flip-flops.
- posted by Mason @ 10:04 PM

Regrets... OR Things I wish I'd done 10 years ago
My ten year semi-adulthood anniversary is coming up this summer. I turned 16 on August 15th, 1997.

A decade later I'm happier and healthier than I've ever been, and it got me thinking that I wish I'd gotten my shit together a lot earlier. Ten years earlier. What follows is my list of regrets.

Five Things I Wish I Had Done In 1997:

1) Become a Vegetarian -

Even though I stopped eating mammals in January of 2001, I get nauseous thinking about all the beef I ingested in high school. I am truly sorry to the animals that I ate for eating them, and I am truly sorry to the earth for all the fossil fuels burned to bring that meat to me.

2) Started Exercising -

I felt so rotten for so long, and felt so bad about myself for so long that I think it's really a shame I waited till my mid-twenties to get in shape. I made a few half hearted attempts over the years, but could never really commit to it. I think this is in a lot of ways wrapped up with my eating: what I was eating, how much I was eating and how I was brought up to feel about eating. Having overcome all of that, I feel a thousand times better now than I did ten years ago.

3) Not Been in So Many Shitty Bands -

I spent YEARS playing Credence Clearwater songs at frat parties, school fun-fairs and talent shows, and I really wish I hadn't. I think it was very detrimental to me creatively and emotionally. I can't think of a single show I ever played in any bad cover band that I remember fondly. Conversely, I can think of tons of Moon Mission shows where I had a great time and really enjoyed myself. If I hadn't wasted four years of high school being a bass player in blues-rock bands, Daniel and I could have devoted ALL of our time to indie rock, and we'd probably feel much better about how we spent that time.

4) Gone Out With Jennifer Leffler -

From the fifth grade up until I met Megan in fall of 2000 (nine years) I was hopelessly in love with a string of wholly unattainable girls. I realize in retrospect, that I wouldn't actually have liked any of them had it ever gone any farther than me saying "hi" and them giving me a weird look. Jenny was really nice and cool. We friends and hung out a few times, but looking back... she might have been in love with me. I'm not in any way saying that I wish I'd married her or that I wish my life had turned out differently, but I wasted an opportunity to be possibly happier in high school because I was so hung up on some dumb blonde bitch (who is now and Arbonne Saleswoman. Glad that acting career worked out for you, Kristen).

5) Gone Green

When I think of all the trash I've generated and all of the oil I've burned in the last ten years, it makes me want to retch. There is no reason that I couldn't have gone most of the places I needed to go on a bike. Even riding slowly, I could have made it the seven miles from my house to school in 30 or 40 minutes. Had I not wasted all that fucking money on private school, and gone to Putnam City High, I could have destroyed those three miles on a bike much faster than I could have driven over there because of the traffic. I am sorry to the earth for hurting it and I am sorry to the dinosaur bones for wasting so much of their juice. I am sorry to myself for spending so long funding the racist, classist, industrial-corporate-fast-food earth-fuck-machine. Never again.

So there you have it, my list of regrets. What are yours? I know you have them.

Email me your "Five Things I Wish I'd Done When I Was 16" and enter to win a DINNER FOR TWO AT THE SPIRAL DINER in Fort Worth, TX.

Send me your lists, I'll review and pick the best one, then I'll treat you to a meal at the best vegan restaurant in the southwest. Entries must be received by March 31st, so take a little time and think about it before you spout off.

Remember, if you win, other people will read it, so I would avoid anything you would be embarrassed for other people to find out about you.
- posted by Mason @ 8:51 AM

Tweet straight from firefox!
Twitter users, check it:
http://lud.icro.us/post-twitter-updates-from-firefox/

Sweet Jesus, FINALLY!!!
Now I never actually have to look at the twitter site, since I get updates to my phone.

Also, I'm sure you know about twittervision by now, but if you don't, you can watch the world map move as people tweet live! It's pretty cool.
- posted by Mason @ 5:08 PM

The Ugliest House in America


I don't really know where to begin... this ebay auction for a home in Western Kentucky is one of the most terrifying things to which I have ever been privy, dear reader. The utter ghastly-ness of it blows my mind. The house itself is beautiful (as antebellum mansions are wont to be), but the decor makes my temples throb.

People actually LIVE in this house. If one looks carefully amongst the clutter, a television can be seen, along with various personal affects and bed/bath paraphernalia. I feel like it's that brownstone in Brooklyn where those two brothers lived for fifty years and one of them was eventually crushed when one of their 12 foot stacks of old newspapers fell on him.

I didn't have the heart to re-post every single picture (there are fifty), it's just too terrifying so here are my favorite:



















from susie ghahremani via megan
- posted by Mason @ 2:21 PM

We're the only show in town, kids.

Now Megan got's a bike, dad. I'm pretty jealous frankly, it's cooler than my bike.

I haven't updated all week because I'm been sick. I feel better now, but still sort of crappy. Here's a quick rundown of what's happened this week.

-Got sick. Slept all day Wednesday and some of Thursday.
-Played tennis everyday.
-Caught up on one of our favorite shows Skins. "Michelle would NEVER fuck a horse!"
-Won this bike for $28 bucks on ebay. It's an early 70's Raleigh Cameo. It's british.
-Drove to Fort Worth to pick up the above mentioned bike.
-Ate at a kick ass organic vegan diner. The Spiral Diner and Bakery. We highly recommend it. I had the Setian Philly Cheese Steak. It was bomb, dad.
-I worked a bunch, which is (as always, totally gay to the fucking max).

Lastly, Daniel is coming down in a few weeks, and we're going to attempt to record an entire new MMDS record (this is in addition to 4 trakker/attacker, now 75% complete), from scratch in two days. We'll see if we can do it, I'll keep you abreast.

(huh huh, I said "a breast")
- posted by Mason @ 4:06 PM

A rare politcal post from me.

I've been going over the hot "issues" and I've decided that I'm really torn about gay marriage. A problem is that I think marriage is nonsense and I sort of don't get why the gays have to call it marriage instead of civil unions (which everyone would be ok with, ok, not EVERYONE, but a lot of people). BUT, more importantly I think that it should be a person's constitutional right to do whatever they want that doesn't harm others, animals or the environment, and because the idea of "marriage" is predicated upon something that i reject outright, I don't see why two men can't say "we're married to each other".

I'm also really torn about John Edwards. I think he's a great candidate, and I think he has a great shot at winning, but the things he believes aren't the same as what I believe. He's very much a centrist and a populist, and I'm very much not. Also, while I'm very much in support of universally AVAILABLE healthcare in this country, I don't know how I feel about universally MANDATED healthcare with "Special exemptions... in cases of extreme financial hardship or religious beliefs." [source] I don't really want to be forced to get health care if I don't want it. Now, maybe that makes me some sort of Libertarian nut, but if it does, then so be it.

Mason on the front runners for '08:

Barack Obama - I agree with about half of what he's about, but I just can't see Middle American housewives voting for him. Also, I don't like Jesus and he does.

John Edwards - I think that John Edwards is good for America. Maybe great for America, but again, he's much more conservative than I am and I don't like the Jesus.

Hillary Clinton - I love me some Bill but I'm pretty indifferent to his wife. No one can deny that the Democrats running Hillary is suicide. You might as well run Hitler. People HATE Hillary. Despise her. Wish she was dead. I don't like her because he's far too polished and middle of the road for me. I wouldn't vote for her.

Bill Richardson - Ah, the sleeping giant. I'm a long time fan and I think he might have a real shot. I would like to point out that Bill is a proud Mexican-American and his website doesn't say a damn thing about religion. If anyone can push this country to renewable energy, it's the Clinton's former secretary of energy.

So I guess I'm getting behind the governor of New Mexico. He probably won't win, but you never know.
- posted by Mason @ 6:19 PM

Austin Guitar Show, Part II: Well, making money is nice...


We grossed a little over $800 today, so that's a little profit. The crowd has been pretty sparse today, but this convention hall has wi-fi, so who cares.

We'll be rolling out a super exciting new project to help us, the earth and humanity pretty soon, but I have to be pretty hush-hush about it until we drop on April 1st.

In other news, my legs hurt from not walking.
- posted by Mason @ 11:10 PM

Austin Guitar Show, Part One.


My dad and I are in Austin for the guitar show this weekend. As long time readers know, my side job is going to shows and pushing GHS strings. This show is quite a bit smaller than Arlington or Dallas... and it's in a mexican flea market. Ok, to be fair there's wall between the flea market and the show hall, but it's Still a complete dump. One of my childhood heroes, Wayne "Atomic Guitars" Poulon has come up from San Antonio. Wayne gave me my first job at his store when I was 14. He's sort of like my grandfather if my grandfather was a ultra-left wing old hippie with hundreds of vintage guitars in his living room that he refuses to sell. He's beligerent, argumentative, bitter and angry... basically he's a much older version of me.
So we set everything up today, and the show starts tomorrow. The hall has wi-fi, so I'll be twittering all day. From my pocket pc at Ruta Maya Coffee in Austin, TX, thank you and good night.
- posted by Mason @ 7:36 PM

Tascam M-30 - NOW I'm a bad ass...
Top Dollar Pawn (right next to Top Cat Seafood!) on Lemmon had this gorgeous hunk of metal and plastic at $139. I got it for $100 and I couldn't be happier. Parametric EQ on the mids AND the lows! The eq on my Fostex 250 4-track is crap: a fixed 300hz and 4khz. The fixed highs on the M-30 are 10k (so sweet, crisp but not hissy). The lows drop down to a bowel shaking 60hz [well, that's not exactly bowel shaking, I guess 20-30 is the gut rumbler, but whatever]. Point being that I'm very, very happy with it.

In a related story, ten tracks down on the new lo-fi album, "4 Tracker/Attacker". I'm not sure how long it's going to be, probably about 45 minutes. It will be available for free to download {of course} and also on limited edition cassette tape with a personalized, hand drawn cover for $5. Limited edition in that when you order it, I'll run a copy of it and then draw you a cover.










- posted by Mason @ 3:09 PM

Happy Birthday to My Blog!!!!!!


Megan points out that my blog is one year old today. Thanks for sticking with me kids.

This link will take you to my very first post.

This link will tell you a joke.
- posted by Mason @ 5:51 PM

My New Bike


Yeah, it's a girl's bike. But I don't give a fuck.


- posted by Mason @ 11:53 AM

My Brother Wrecked His Car
Well... crap. Daniel got in a crash, and the silver Accord is fucked. That sucks a dick to high heaven. Two years ago when I crashed the Blazer, it sucked maybe more than anything had ever sucked before or since in my life. Daniel is now without vehicle. That's bonertastic to the max. Wrecking a nice late model car is the gayest of gay. I love the 240 wagon, but there's no denying that it's not as nice as the 4x4. Oh well. My heart goes out to you bro, that's some straight up bullshit.
- posted by Mason @ 7:21 PM

Ali Baba's Mazza Plate

Meg snapped the above seconds before we devoured the hummous and baba-ghonosh (mom, sp?). Ali Baba Cafe on Greenville is a tasty mother fucker.

In other news, I bought a pretty kick ass bike at the thrift store today, and went to REI to get tires for it. They had the tubes but had to order the tires. I'm going to clean this bad bitch of a 70's Huffy Bay Pointe up and post a picture tomorrow.

Bike Rock Revolution!
(by our old friends, Nakatomi Plaza)
- posted by Mason @ 11:30 PM