OMFG THE CARPS

About a year ago my home-skillet Les hipped me to a little Canadian duo known as The Carps. If I could pinpoint their sound I'd totally define it here but I can't. I've heard they're afro-punk but I'll prefer to just label them as awesome. From the first note of the first song that auto-played on their MySpace about a year ago, I was immediately enthralled. I just think they are made of WIN. To date, they only have two EPs (The Young & Passionate Days of Carpedia and Waves & Shambles) and they are in my last.fm top artists (Number 3 actually, 397 plays and less than 15 songs). Getting to the point, they've got a new video out and since I've decided to stan for somebody other than Lupe for a change. Enjoy "Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames." (I know the video isn't that special but the song is the shit.)

*Personal Note: Like many other black men mentioned in this danish, the lead singer (Jahmal Tonge) made this list.

Life Updates Part II

THIS WARRANT'S IT'S OWN POST!!!
(It's the little milestones that mean so much.)My mom went for a mammogram yesterday morning and everything looked lovely. :) THIS IS WONDERFUL NEWS. One year ago, my mother went for a mammogram and then another and then a biopsy and then she was told she had breast cancer. Then she told me and then my world fell apart. My mother was only supposed to have part of her breast removed but that turned into a whole breast. Initial thought was that she wouldn't need chemotherapy because she was "Stage 0" or DCIS but that turned into too many cancer cells found in the surrounding lymph nodes and maybe we shouldn't do the breast reconstruction surgery until you talk to the oncologist. Six chemotherapy treatments, eight additional months of hormone therapy, six weeks of radiation that turned into eight because she had radiation burns that I had to get up at six in the morning to dress, pills (probably for the rest of her life), lymphoedema caused by the large amount of lymph nodes they had to remove along with her breast and the physical therapy sessions because there is no cure for it... ALL OF THE TIMES SHE COULDN'T SHOWER DRESS HERSELF OR PUT LOTION ON HERSELF, THE SURGICAL DRAIN THAT I HAD TO DRESS AND EMPTY AND TAKE INVENTORY ON TWO TO FOUR TIMES A DAY, ALL OF THE TEARS WE CRIED, ALL OF THE TIMES I WAS TERRIFIED, TO THE BOTTLES OF ALCOHOL I DOWNED, TO THE LOSS OF THE REST OF MY INNOCENCE, FIGHTS WITH FAMILY MEMBERS... Constipation from too many steroids and pain killers and the enema given to relieve it.... The hair loss, my tears, and the beauty of what's growing back... The toll all of this has taken on the life of the most beautiful woman I have ever known and the way I went from acting like I was 15 to being at least a semi-adult in a manner of weeks has all been worth it to hear her tell me there were not irregularities this time. I cry from the happiness that she seems to have made. :')

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Now playing: Something Corporate - Ben Franklin's Kite
via FoxyTunes

Def Poetry Jam Post [2/11191986]

"Next Wednesday" by Mush

"Remember me for my way of getting people into trouble--
I wish to graduate from college,
become an artist, have two kids,
and one day go to heaven."

A childhood friend wrote this ten years ago in our sixth grade yearbook
Last year, she dropped out of art school
Last month, she told me that she was getting an abortion
for the second time
Her last wish before graduating sixth grade was to go to heaven
but this depends on what she does between now
and next Wednesday

This is the girl with the biggest brown eyes
I've ever seen
She's got Venus fly traps for lashes
and lips that make conversation blush
every time she speaks
This is the girl that taught me how to shave my pubes
The same girl that schooled me on how to inhale
seven inch bananas
with no hands
Best friends like sisters
I know her well enough to know that
she's the type who in times of trouble
hides by being stagnant
Says it's her birth right,
see her dad left twenty-three years ago
Stopped paying child-support before she could walk
Stopped calling the following year
And by that Christmas
this man had stopped sending cards all together
And I wish
I had hugged her more when we were younger

Back then, baby used to cut herself with broken pieces of father
Swallow them whole
then molds herself like wet clay
inside mens bodies
even though it bothered her when they talked about fathers
All grown, she buries herself
beneath layers of player façade
Searching for touch
she doesn't even remember
Thinks every other mans hands will mend her
Twenty-three years of neglect
She lets these men run ins and out on her
just like he did

And I wanna tell her
You've got men grabbing at you from every angle
But if you don't feel like getting down tonight
It's alright, girl, just say so
Next Wednesday, is more than an abortion day
It's about change
So jump through
Move
Run, if you have to
But don't look back
I will be here
Gouging fistfuls of lavender for safe-keeping
Tattoo their silhouette across your chest
So you never forget
You are my first love
So breathe free
Cause your own future can't afford to lose you
And baby, neither can we

<3er [Appreciaton Post]

You know who you are.

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Now playing: The Carps - Heaven's Gates & Hell's Flames (Redux) Feat. The Cool Kids
via FoxyTunes