January 2012
1 post
3 tags
Blacked out today for SOPA/PIPA.
fuckyeahjingkingofbandits:
You should know enough by now, so I won’t go into it. Ya’ll didn’t follow this here blog for no extended blabberin’ about sad stuffs.
But please, if you are so inclined, do something. Tweet/call/write your representatives and your senators. Sign some petitions.
Enjoy another great day on the internet, in the hopes that we’ll have many more.
-theboywholosthismind
December 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Bomb the Music Industry!'s Vacation
This album and a few others (Pebble) have convinced me that this was a good year for the “coming-of-age” punk rock album. It’s such a cliché to say this sort of thing, but both Lemuria and Bomb the Music Industry! have matured on their newest efforts, with wonderful results, taking what both had done before, and then turning it into a brand-new, bittersweet, catchy, and earnest listening ...
3 tags
On T-Shirts and Our Changing Culture
On certain days, it takes me a significant amount of time to get dressed. Not because I am some sort of stickler for staying color-coordinated or anything—as if I have some sense of fashion— but because I tend to wear t-shirts that have stuff on them. In saying “stuff” I mean comic characters, or the name of a band, or pop culture icons. While I type this post, I’m...
August 2011
2 posts
4 tags
An anniversary.
Today was my first day of class in my second year of college, and it was okay. I spent a lot of money on books, and found myself fretting over classes and deadlines that I won’t even need to for a month or two. It doesn’t feel so long ago that I first walked into my Introduction to Creative Writing course almost exactly one year ago.
My jaw dropped just the slightest bit when I read...
6 tags
A long drive, snowpiles, and Wild.
People often misinterpret what the climate is like in Colorado. People sometimes assume the entire state is laden with mountains—these are same people who tend to think we’re constantly shoveling and wading through countless feet of snow to get to work or school. I find myself wishing I could see the faces of my family members on the East Coast when I tell them that it is colder there...
July 2011
2 posts
Anonymous asked: not an ask...just a comment
You have a true gift with words.
I hope you continue, as I would be very excited to see your name on the cover of a novel.
You have a true gift with words.
I hope you continue, as I would be very excited to see your name on the cover of a novel.
9 tags
Choruses and Conversations: An essay from along...
Hello, Delaware, I’m sorry I fell asleep. The walls of trees that surround this minivan on either side have got me doing what I can to stay aware and awake. I swat at a mosquito on my arm that isn’t actually there.
Now I’m awake, and Pat Benatar is giving me a wake-up call, reminding me how strong she and her crew of hookers are against the evil, evil pimp. Well, of course...
June 2011
2 posts
3 tags
“The crowd gathered around the body and took everything they could. Clothes,...”
– Henry Rollins, Solipsist
7 tags
Bleeding profusely and injuring your doctor with...
I love a really great conversation, like anyone with a functioning mouth and brain set should. Last summer was full of them—staying up way too late as we started to delve into the metaphysical, getting a little too loud when debating matters of artistic taste that all come back around to the same places, and simply offering personal stories and anecdotes. This current summer is going in the...
May 2011
2 posts
8 tags
Ginormous robot hands and itchy chins
The other day I took a trip to the thrift store down the road, as I often do, regardless of location, with a couple of friends. I intended to go for a job application—I came back with a job application, and Meet the Beatles and The Kinks Greatest Hits on vinyl.
“I Want To Hold Your Hand” has never quite sounded as beautiful as it does right now.
For a moment, I just close my...
crieff asked: I'm really glad that I waited to read your essay AJ - it was a real treat. The way you weaved together words and expressions really gave me the chance to step into your shoes.
April 2011
4 posts
goliath-of-totalitarianism asked: Shit goddamn that was fantastic. AJ, I don't know how it's possible to write this well, but you've done it. http://files.sharenator.com/Slow_Clap_ITS_A_GIF_PARTY-s420x315-140048-580.gif
iwasahurricane asked: A.J.- "My Rebecca" was fantastic. I'm really speechless. You did an excellent job describing a relationship a lot of people-myself included- have endured (and have become all the better for it).
Really, really excellent job.
Really, really excellent job.
7 tags
My Rebecca
This essay pays tribute to Willa Cather’s exceptional novel My Ántonia, the work serving as my inspiration. Many thanks to Rebecca herself for letting me write this without a hitch, and for being really important in my life.
I
I had first laid eyes on Rebecca Lawrence during the waning months of my freshman year of high school. It was her freshman year as well. I was fourteen years old...
5 tags
Holocraspedon
goliath-of-totalitarianism:
Holocraspedon
<a href=”http://evolvingportmanteau.bandcamp.com/album/holocraspedon” _mce_href=”http://evolvingportmanteau.bandcamp.com/album/holocraspedon”>Holocraspedon by Evolving Portamanteau</a>
An album two months...
March 2011
3 posts
3 tags
goliath-of-totalitarianism:
I made a music :3...
4 tags
A Portrait of the Pokémon Trainer at 18
About a week or so ago, a group of friends and I made a trip to the mall in Aurora, maybe about an hour drive away from Boulder. I crashed at one of these friends’ house the night before to make the trip a bit easier, since we were awake well into the morning, and we planned to get there as soon as we could.
For what reason? A tour for the newest installments in the Pokémon game series.
...
iwasahurricane asked: A.J.-
you are probably the nicest person i have met at CU. thank you for caring about people, down to their core, and for making them feel like they have worth.
and when i say "they," of course i mean "me". you are an excellent writer and a wonderful friend. i'm sorry i haven't gotten to know you better- maybe soon!
love,
you are probably the nicest person i have met at CU. thank you for caring about people, down to their core, and for making them feel like they have worth.
and when i say "they," of course i mean "me". you are an excellent writer and a wonderful friend. i'm sorry i haven't gotten to know you better- maybe soon!
love,
February 2011
6 posts
hispanic-impressions asked: A.J. Chkarl Kazlouski, since you are a grade higher than me in the musically savvy department I'm gonna have to ask you to recommend some ska. The stuff Torri listens to is ok but the guitars are overpowered by trumpets
grahamcrackeroftheyear-deactiva asked: AJ!
Is it weird that I'm creepin through your tumblr to find good music to download?
:D
I already got Lupe Fiasco and The Cryptkeeper Five...
Any suggestions?
Is it weird that I'm creepin through your tumblr to find good music to download?
:D
I already got Lupe Fiasco and The Cryptkeeper Five...
Any suggestions?
Anonymous asked: Can you suggest any really good hip hop?
Anonymous asked: Hey it's anon, from the This American Life comment, I want to say thank you. I read your newest post and it made my day, and maybe even my year. I listen to a very similar style of music as you do, if you knew who I was you would already know that. You're comments about how the green mohawk guy, and midget lady may feel awkward and weird in other times and places but at that show they...
4 tags
Jams for a Juvenile (Complete)
I had spare time, and I needed to pick up some papers and drop off a few books at my dorm. It had already been a long day, but the songs I plugged into my ears were pushing me through it. The bus came to my stop just as Jawbreaker’s Dear You had finished. I stepped off and hit shuffle on my iPod, because I wasn’t quite sure what I was in the mood to hear next.
I stopped right in my place, a...
1 tag
A work in progress
savingthisforlater:
(This sort of blurs the line I make between my two blogs. It’s strange for me, but this is the product of a day that has given me a lot to think about. It doesn’t quite say what I’m thinking. Normally I would just write this and keep it to myself, but I think there’s something I’m trying to show, even though it’s unclear.)
Read More
January 2011
4 posts
Anonymous asked: The best medicine for me is to read or listen to a really great article/news piece/opinion/editorial anything written well. While This American Life has been my number one "medicine" your posts have steadily moved to an equal. Thank you.
2 tags
How to stick gum on big red signs
I finally got some new batteries for my camera.
I love my camera. It’s seen an awful lot—slam poets, the sky above, squirrels, chipmunks, colored pencils, thespians, friends, costumes at an anime convention, and maybe a few other things. At the moment, however, I don’t really have anything to take photos of. I have no newspaper to cover in images of people doing things worth...
5 tags
Grabbing the hat, replacing the anecdote
Today in my Poetry Workshop class, we finally did the awkward around-the-room introduction thing. Our teacher Deb looks around at the beginning of class and says, “I think the people who dropped dropped, and the people who wanted to add added. Let’s do the formal introduction thing.”
So we go around the room. I’m surprised that the room isn’t packed entirely with...
2 tags
3 tags
A few new year's resolutions...
Drink more water. I’ve been doing this one every year for the past few. I was consistently getting better, but college made it worse.
Write more. I’ve been writing every day since that first day of college, but somehow it doesn’t feel like enough yet.
Write better. This is also a work in progress. I have a poetry workshop next semester—that should do wonders.
Post more...
1 tag
Please be safe tonight:
werealldeadends:
From 6pm to 6am AAA is offering a free towing service for both you, and your car if you are unable to drive tonight. Please be safe, and don’t drink and drive or get in the car with someone who has. 1-800-222-4357.
December 2010
7 posts
3 tags
Color me disappointed.
There is a game on Facebook that has come to some sort of strange, sad popularity.
This game demands that one’s friends send them the name of a color in a message. With these colors, one is to post status updates about the sender of the color message, leaving only the color’s name to indicate who the status is about. I’ve seen the same game played with numbers not long ago.
...
3 tags
Anatomy of a space cadet
I’m A.J. Kazlouski, and I was born in some town in New Jersey. I always forget its name. I do remember that it’s the same town that Carrot Top was born in, though.
But I’d much rather say I was born in Philadelphia, because that’s where I was raised in my initial years of awareness. I read Amelia Bedelia books with my grandmother, played Pokémon games with my friends, and...
1 tag
...It's Christmas tomorrow.
I’m so excited.
I can’t wait to wake up and give and get presents, eat bagels with cream cheese and salmon, watch A Christmas Story over and over, be merry, give thanks, and smile heartily.
I’ve celebrated Christmas once already with my friends in Colorado Springs, and that was exactly what I needed after a semester packed with worries. I can’t thank them enough for what...
1 tag
4 tags
November 2010
4 posts
3 tags
"I'm in Mathematics." Pt. 2
Do you guys remember this post?
If not, you should before you read this one (if you actually read these things).
As required for my Intro. to Theatre class, I went and saw CU’s production of Marisol last night. If you’re not familiar, it’s a really powerful drama, set in the Bronx during the 90s. It’s challenging, and the second act appeared to be entirely metaphorical. When English...
9 tags
Things that are good that are free
1) Air
2) Hugs
3) Bad Banana- Crushfield
This is a lovely project from the Crutchfield sisters of P.S. Eliot fame. There are ten songs here, each one a bit of lo-fi indie-pop/pop-punk goodness, very much similar to Eliot’s Bike Wreck Demo. If you’ve heard of Plumtree (from Scott Pilgrim I’ll bet), both bands have their similarities to the Canadian ladies I myself have grown...
4 tags
2 tags
RE: Best Friends: →
itwasreallyyou:
When I met AJ, I didn’t really like him very much. He seemed abrasive and all up in my bubble and he liked to tell me what to do (I was his newbie, after all) but he has grown on me. Right now on IM, I could imagine not having him to talk to. And I mean, who else uses the term “lickety split”?
Dear Kendelle,
We met during sophomore honor guard at the World Arena. I had...
October 2010
9 posts
3 tags
1 tag
4 tags
It is 2:54 AM.
Class starts at ten and I haven’t slept or showered or done my Theatre homework yet. This week is going to be great.
I have just finished the coolest piece of fiction I think I’ve ever written. I feel good about it, and I’m excited to get it work-shopped on Wednesday in my Creative Writing class. Once that’s done and I have the time, I’ll buff out the rough edges...
3 tags
Out of step
I don’t remember exactly when I claimed Edge—I think it was sometime during freshman year. Today, I’m wearing Sharpie X’s on my hands as a declaration of that commitment that I still hold dear.
When I say I’m Straight Edge, I mean that I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t use recreational drugs, and I don’t have promiscuous sex. While it...
3 tags
"I'm in Mathematics."
Last night I met a guy named Kim.
As required for my Intro. to Theatre class, I went and saw CU’s production of The Ingenious Chambermaid. If you’re not familiar, it’s a comedy, set in eighteenth century Italy, about relationships, and their connection to Italy’s social structure of the time. It was a hilarious and wonderful production. What happened afterwards was a...
1 tag
Blue ink stains
He presses the button to go up; the elevator opens immediately. With a dramatically overt sigh audible from miles away, the shaggy-haired, dirty-blond teenager steps inside. As soon as his red, seven-dollar Chuck Taylor knock-offs hit the elevator’s sticky floor, he quickly turns to his left, presses the button for the twelfth floor, leans himself into the nearest corner and crosses his...
3 tags
Hey, I'm learning or whatever
In high school, teachers would often ask for a show of hands, wondering, “Did anyone actually study?”
If I ever raised raised up my own hand at the question, it was probably a lie. I skated through those four years without really making too much effort. The things I felt passionately about came easily. Others I got through because I had much more intelligent friends who were...
2 tags
Scribbling silly words...
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I’m to write for at least fifteen minutes in a journal every day, for my Intro. to Creative Writing class. I can scribble whatever I desire in the span of those minutes—I’ve crafted poems, written little narratives, pondered bits and pieces of the days, and just mindlessly scratched whatever came to mind. I’m putting every little idea...
2 tags
September 2010
2 posts
3 tags
An open letter to The Sierra Sentinel
I miss you so much.
I spent a good three years of my life worrying about you. My devotion to you was unbreakable. If someone pronounced your name the wrong way, I fumed with what could be described as nothing less than pure fury. For a couple of years, you were the greatest teacher I had ever had (aside from Robo himself). That third year, I felt like I was trying to raise you into the best...
2 tags
Look at me, I'm a college blogger
I’m halfway through my third week of classes here at Boulder. Surprisingly, the days are moving quickly, almost too quickly. Nearly all of my classes are holding my interest. Not to sound cliche, but I’m already feeling like I’m learning things that are going to help me succeed and progress as both a writer and as a person.
I’m waiting in the hallway before Intro to...