The links go to YouTube videos of the songs.

• Local H - Eddie Vedder
• Spot - Moon June Spoon
• John Mayer - Daughters
• John Mayer - Why did you mess with forever?
• RHCP - Breaking the Girl
• Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
• All American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret
• The Killers - Mr Brightside
• Lilly Allen - Womanizer (Cover) (seriously, it’s good)
• Marty Casey - Baby One More Time (Cover) (again… good)
• Oasis - Wonderwall
• Radiohead - High and Dry
• John Frusciante - How Deep is Your Love (Bee Gees Cover)

Clazziquai Project - Prayers (Shinichi Osawa remix)

Felix da Housecat - Radio (Shinichi Osawa remix)

Digitalism - Pogo (Shinichi Osawa remix)

Anna Tsuchiya - Ah Ah (Shinichi Osawa remix)

Shinichi Osawa - Maximum Joy

Eri Nobuchika - Lights (Produced by Shinichi Osawa)

Eri Nobuchika - Sing a Song (Produced by Shinichi Osawa)

Mondo Grosso - Hikari

Mondo Grosso - Shinin’

I’m surprised to see how intolerant people can be. There’s no trace of rational thought in these comments. These aren’t conservatives lamenting a liberal shift in politics, these are ignorant people hateful of anything different. I’m just glad that these people are having a crappy day (and possibly a crappy 4 years) now that Obama has won.

Well, enjoy your free speech, cause now your comments are saved for posterity. A lot of these comments criticize the symbolism of the logo, so it’s helpful to read them in that context.

The Comments:

Wow, symbolism and everything in a political logo, gee that blows my ignorant mind completely. Personally, I think if you turn it sideways it looks a lot like the crescent and star symbol the muslims use to symbolize their religion. Oops, it doesn’t have a star–but it has stripes, and our flag has stripes, and our flag also has a star, so I think he’s rather ingeniously and subtly telling us he really is a muslim. Gets my vote.

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Perhaps it’s really the sun setting on a killing field plowed with bloody rows?

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I see Obama’s campaign logo as somewhat of a prophecy. If he is elected and chooses to passify our foes, such as the president of Iran, the logo tells us what will happen to our country. The whitespace represents the rising mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion over our country and the red stripes represent the blood of all the American’s killed by the bombs.

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I think it looks like a communist rising sun..Or like my friend said is that a nuclear explosion?

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I love the logo; its genius is the way they hide the swastika, yet keep in line with Obamas political mentor, Adolf Hitler, I can’t wait to see it flying over the White House.

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Ok first off you have to remember the blooper: Not saluting the flag.
Second you have to think about what the man said,” I consider myself a citizen of the world”
Thirdly He removes the American Flag from the plane that is his campaign vehicle for the presidency of America.
Now he’s giving speeches with that bloody Obama flag with the American flags in the background!!
This is America with one flag not two. Will this symbol of his stop If he becomes president? I have to say no. This symbol will be his “symbol” of change.
I think the new york ballots had it right Its not Obama its Osama!

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I believe the correct interpretation of the logo is this. The half circle(crescent is white). The sun is yellow the moon is white. Allah is the moon “god”. In other words Islam is rising over the United States. That is the change Barack Obama is planning on bringing.

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Looks like a remake of the weather underground logo to me. with a crescent moon to boot.

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Obama should have used a logo more representative of his views - the hammer and sickle perhaps.

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Why not be truthfull and incorporate the marxist, hammer & sickle, or the muslim, cresent & star? Silly question. Truthfullnes from babykillers. From the “party of death” who see nothing wrong with sticking a spike in a baby’s skull and sucking it’s brains out.

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To better understand the logo I think one should look at the Kenyan flag.

All sources agree the black on Kenya’s flag, symbolizes the color of Kenya’s people: black. But that’s not racist, is it? The green is Kenya’s agriculture. The red is the blood of Kenya’s black people who defeated their white colonial rule. The white is peace. The round shield and spears represents Kenya’s pride and tradition.

And the Obama logo is above on this page.

It appears to be a cross between the O from Obama’s name, which, of course is the bright shining sun in the center of everything, and the flags of the US and Kenya, plus more. The colors, red, white, and blue obviously are from the Amercian flag, and the round center and stripes of the logo show something of the Kenyan flag. But on the Obama campaign symbol, what do you think is symbolized by the three curved red stripes over only the white on the bottom? BHO says its the sun over the plains of
of America’s farmland, which would make sense if he were again immitating the Kenyan flag, which uses a wide green strip for its farms and has no sun, but these are red stripes, over white, so I think it looks a lot more like something to do with fighting whitey.

I think what someone said above about the curved lines may represent a sickle, but is it a farmer’s sickle, or is whitely about to get cut down and
harvested by the sickles of the reaper Obama?

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IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THIS LOGO, WE SHOULD ANALYZE WHAT EACH SYMBOL REPRESENTS,
PLAINS = FARMERS,
IN COMMUNISM: SICKEL = FARMERS

IF THERE IS A SUN RISE, THERE WAS A SUN SET.

COMMUNISM WAS THE SUN SET. NOW IT IS RISING UP AGAIN, OVER AMERICA. LOOK INTO IT.

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I heard Obama say this symbol was the rising sun, supposedly to represent hope. Japan is known as “The Land of the Rising Sun” and the “rising sun” flag is the military flag of Japan. So, this symbol may be new to the US, but not a new symbol. It doesn’t show respect to the US disparaging our flag and recreating his logo from another countries emblem.

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I agree it’s genius, well-made, recognisable and unique. Just one problem. It reminds me of the Coat of Arms of former Communist/Socialist states in Eastern Europe. Is he trying to tell us something….?

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The Rising Sun is a symbol of Indonesian Islam–check it out yourself. It is used as a symbol of Allah. When Barack Obama was young his mother married a man in Indonesia and they moved there–Barack then became Barry Soetoro–check it out yourself. At the time in order to go to school there, one had to be a citizen of the country–Barry Soetoro became a citizen of Indonesia. To become a citizen of Indonesia one had to renounce any other citizenship–check it out yourself. These are all facts–check it out yourself. One cannot be President without being a natural-born citizen. One cannot be a natural-born citizen once it is renounced; you can become “naturalized.” There is no record of Obama becoming “naturalized.” He may not even be a citizen of the U.S.A. Check it out yourself.

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The white space in the middle looks more like a mushroom cloud surrounded by a padlock - I understand it completely
>>So what the logo is trying to say is that there’s a new morning sun (a hope, change) rising over America, and that Obama is it.

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Know what that sounds an awful lot like.

Isaiah 14:12

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
As a designer . . . Obama’s symbol has always bothered me.

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It is an O rising up over an American flag that is lying down over the ground!

What is the feeling it conveys? Overseeing. Change to the US. Not a fix. Something new. OK — so what is the new thing? How new are we talking? Moving away from the constitution and capitalism? How radical a change are we talking about?

Since when has a “rising sun” conveyed change? How is Obama in any way connected to the plains of the us?

Ask yourself: What is more important here the “O” or the flag?

I think that this symbol borders on arrogance. Arrogance is not a great characteristic for someone who is running for president.

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For those of you who love Obama’s logo; Will you allow it to be tatooed on your right hand or in your forehead? Will you fall down and worship that logo? Will the logo be on a one world currency?

Think people, look at your posts!

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:” Revelation 13;6

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Think people, think … looking back at history, how many leaders have risen to power using logos to represent idealogies? How many great civilizations have been fooled by a “trojan” horse? How is it that apparent unknowns have risen to power? How many nations have been lulled by idealogues? Since when is it an American dream that regardless of wealth or poverty, everyone should have it all? Is that the American dream? To take from those that have and distribute to those that have not? JFK put it best: And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. Since when do great statesmen, presidents need to be “branded”, packaged, and marketted? A man’s work reveals his worth and we then choose him as leader … Think people, think you who are young and look for a great future, think you who are old and have sacrificed your youth, think hard and long about your choice on November 4th and let your vote decide.

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Obama is the antichrist. His use of the rising sun symbolism is a pointer to him being the reincanation of Lucifer son of the morning who became satan the deciever.

Repent Jesus is coming soon to take the church. Titus 2 v13

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Obama’s logo is the new swastika.
“I saw a sterling lapel pin on a man yesterday that was clearly the Obama logo - it looked so elegant and understated.”

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. . . not an american flag. It’s just . . . it’s just . . . Who do we know who has a personal logo besides . . . Prince?

It is — I would imagine — a way of getting away from an unfortunate name for a presidential candidate — “Obama” . . . so close to “Osama” . . . it begs bad blogging attacks. Creating a logo that replaces name recognition . . . the opposite of what any other political campaign would try to do for it’s candidate.

Yes the design chops show but . . . it really shows that if you throw a lot of money at something you will get something really really clever — but not appropriate. A personal logo is not appropriate for a presidential campaign. It is a tad arrogant.

again — worth repeating —

. . . have you seen this logo plopped into the US seal? You don’t find this disturbing??? Maybe it is too abstract for you — but for me it does not represent the “change” I was hoping for.

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Hey Get an Education -
Why don’t you? There’s a little more to the law there. His mother has to have been IN RESIDENCE for 5 years AFTER the age of 18 for Barack to be considered naturalized! Since she was only 18 when he was born, it isn’t possible. Therefore, if he was born in “timbucktoland”, than he is not eligible! The Supreme Court has ordered him to supply the necessary documentation by December 1st. This selection isn’t over yet! All he has supplied so far was an obviously fake “certificate of live birth” which DOESN’T mean he was actually born in Hawaii, even if it was real.
And I hope you aren’t black, because you would be a very ignorant “african american”. Timbuktu, or Tombouctou, is an African city of significant historical importance.

In other news, I’m probably going to stop posting pictures on Picasa, and start using Flickr. It just seems more beterer.

Click here for full screenshot

For a long time I wanted to create a combined feed of my posts, twitter, and tumblr content. Being bored, I finally took the plunge with Yahoo Pipes. I passed the end result through FeedBurner so I can track subscribers, and here’s the combined feed.

It was a little bit confusing to get started. There’s documentation, but I just wanted to see some tutorials on common tasks, such as combining a feed. There are some videos, but they didn’t play for me. Their tutorials page actually links to articles people have written outside of Yahoo. I wonder what the learning curve is for an average user.

Other than that, Pipes is really cool - I wish I had looked into it sooner. It can take csv data and turn it into an RSS feed. I’ve wanted to monitor work data via RSS for a long time, and it looks like it can do that for me securely. The builder interface itself is interesting - I wonder how they did the curved node connectors without flash.

By the way, the image above is how you combine separate feeds while attaching labels to the titles. In the end, the best way to learn this tool is by looking at screenshots of sample feeds.

I feel like Japanese, or at least what I’ve been exposed to, is a lot easier that English and Spanish. Or to put it another way, I feel like it’s more disciplined. It’s not an exception minefield like batshit crazy English. Spanish has some strange rules and exceptions - for example, the fact that words have gender. You have to say “el carro” (the car, male, ends in o) or “la pluma” (the pen, female, ends in a), but you have to say “el mapa” because it’s a greek word… what? With most western languages, the verb “to be” is all fucked up, since it’s the verb that people use the most and it’s evolved unchecked. In English it’s “am, are, is, are, are”. In Spanish it’s “soy, eres, es, son, son”. The Japanese equivalent, “です” or desu, is just that. And it’s like that with all verbs, they don’t depend on the subject (they are modified based on other things, but that’s predictable). I can appreciate how hard it is for a Japanese speaker to learn all the (batshit) crazy rules and exceptions of the English language.

Another thing that I love about Japanese is that it’s spoken like it’s written. Syllables are always said the same way, and as far as I know, there are only two exceptions - ha is pronounced “wa” when used as a topic marker, and wo is pronounced “o” when used as a direct object marker. Spanish is the same way, but with more exceptions. English though? Man, it’s just batshit insane when it comes to pronunciation. There’s just no rhyme or reason. I was very young when I learned English and I don’t remember having a lot of difficulty, but I can understand why older folks have problems. E sounds like “ii” in “meter” but like “ee” in “metro”? Or the word “bait”, how did that a turn into an e?

Latin has been incredibly helpful. I studied it in high school, and it’s probably the most useful thing I got from there. It’s very helpful with grammar, because you learn that language can be very different. Latin declension prepared me to expect words in any order, as long as its role is clearly defined. Japanese is a Subject Object Verb language. It only requires that the verb go at the end, but still, the order of words is completely different from English and Spanish. Anything other than the verb can be in any order, but the role of a word is indicated by the use of particles, syllables like wa, ni, or o, attached as suffixes, which is very similar to Latin.

Anyway, enough about language, here’s my speech.

私は　ボストンに　すんで　います。
Watashiwa bosutonni sunde imasu
I live in Boston

そして　父は　マイアミに　すんで　います。
Soshite, chichiwa miamini sunde imasu
and my dad lives in Miami.

父は　先生で、五十二さい　です。
Chichiwa senseide, gojuunisai desu.
Dad is a teacher and 52 years old

大きい　めがねを　かけていて　ひげが はえて います。
Ookii meganeo kaketeite higega haete imasu
He wears big glasses and has a mustache

わたしは　一人子 です。 でも、私の　メキシコに　すんでいる　家族は　にじゅうごにん　ぐらいの　家族 です。
Watashiwa hitoriko desu. Demo, watashino mekishikoni sundeiru kazoku nijuugonin guraino kazoku desu
I’m an only child. But, my family living in Mexico is around a 25 person family.

大きい　家族ですね。
ookii kazoku desu ne.
It’s a big family, no?

父は　兄弟が　七人　います。 父は　上から　三番目　です。
Chichiwa kyoodai shichinin imasu. Chichiwa ue kara sanbanme desu.
Dad has 7 siblings. He’s the third one from the top.

私の　家族は　プエブラや　メリダに　すんで います。
watashino kazokuwa pueblaya meridani sunde imasu
My family lives in Puebla and Merida.

プエブラは　メキシコ シティの　となりで、　メリダは　クバの　となり　です。
Pueblawa mekishiko shitino tonaride, meridawa cubano tonari desu.
Puebla is close to Mexico City, and Merida is close to Cuba.

まいとし　十二月　ごろに　メキシコに　いきます。
Maitoshi juunigatsu goroni mekishikoni ikimasu.
I go to Mexico every year around December.

私は　メキシコりょうりが　だいすき です。 とても　おいしい　ですね。
watashiwa mekishikoryooriga daisuki desu. Totemo oishii desune.
I really like Mexican cuisine. It’s very delicious, isn’t it?

ボストンに　いい　りょうりが　ありません　から、 ことし　なつにも　メキシコに　いきます。　
Bosutonni ii ryooriga arimasen kara, kotoshi natsunimo mekishikoni ikimasu.
Because there isn’t good (mexican) cuisine in Boston, this year I’m going to mexico in the summer as well.

そぼは　りょうりが　じょうず です。
Sobowa ryooriga joozu desu.
My grandma is good at cooking.

Update: iamawesome and deb posted it in the comments! Thanks a lot! Here it is:

I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three

As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed

“Geez, my ring finger feels really empty without a ring.”

Barack Obama made a huge impression on me at the 2004 DNC. I knew that he would be running for president at some point, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon. I’ve always wanted Hillary to run, and throughout the campaign I’ve been telling myself that Obama doesn’t have enough experience - that he should spend more time in the Senate. But as I see the diverse support he’s getting, and as I realize his speech at the DNC wasn’t a fluke, I find myself hoping he’s running the White House in 2009.

So let me me list the reasons why the Obama logo is pure genius:

• The O represents Obama and he can use the logo without his name next to it. He’s claiming the O as George W. Bush claimed the W
• The blue O and the red stripes represent the flag
• The red stripes represent the plains, the American farmland
• The O’s whitespace represents the sun, shining over the plains. Because it’s white, it evokes sunrise, not sunset.

So what the logo is trying to say is that there’s a new morning sun (a hope, change) rising over America, and that Obama is it. I don’t think you can find that level of meaning in any other logo, campaign or corporate. For contrast, take a look at the other campaign logos:

Update: Leading up to the campaign this post got hit by a barrage of racist and ignorant comments about Obama and the symbolism of the logo. I’ve collected them here.

About 2 years ago I made some mixed CDs for my friends. I called them “Intro Packets” and they were meant as introductions to non-mainstream music. Some of the songs eventually became mainstream, such as Hide and Seek by Imogene Heap. I made 6 intro packets, and I’ll be posting the playlists every once in a while.

1. Air - All I Need
2. Asian Kung Fu Generation - Re Re (live version here)
3. Autour de Lucie - Les promesses (Not available on YouTube)
4. Badly Drawn Boy - Once Around the Block
5. Basement Jaxx - Stop 4 Love (Not available on YouTube)
6. Grand National - Drink to Moving on
7. Hooverphonic - Blue wonder Power Milk (Not available on YouTube)
8. Hooverphonic - Renaissance Affair (Not available on YouTube)
9. Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek
10. John Legend - Ordinary People
11. Phoenix - Too Young
12. Pleasant Stitch –Something Real
13. Telepopmusik - Breathe (Extended)
14. The Streets - Has It Come To This
15. Vast - Touched
16. Zero 7 - Give it Away