While she was away, I scanned the form which she’d been completing during the interview. Viewed from upside down it made little sense.

But there was one scrawled comment across the top of the form which was clearly legible. I shifted slightly to the left to bring it into focus. And there it was, the verdict on all my smooth talking, on all my shows of interest, on all my engaging smiles and enthusiastic nods.

It read: “Scruffy. Suggest Stock Room.”

I always wonder if it used to be different. If people could just knock on someone’s door, say I’m looking for a job and get it, based on the fact that they’re capable, looking for a job and thus willing to work… without sitting in a room confronted by people who can’t look past a pose, clothes, beard, hairstyle or glasses. Not even a spotless academic record will save you from them.

These kind of job interviews get old fast, they stifle progress, and are based on the idea that people who look different are inherently different, thus making superficial discrimination okay. It’s human cattle herding. It’s freaking ludicrous.

Someone should’ve stuck Einstein in a storage room.

The question, of course, is what those situations are: what makes us more creative at times and less creative at others? One answer is psychological distance.

I think this is about blocking your immediate reality to make room for abstract, creative thought. Something a lot of us are already very adept at…

An Easy Way to Increase Creativity @ Scientific American.

[MP3 320 kbps] [CUE]

Tracklist
Aqueous – Flux – Future Music CD 1996
LTJ Bukem – Rainfall – Looking Good Records
Lisa Moorish – Love For Life (PFM Mix) – Go! Discs Ltd
Seba & Lotek – So Long – Looking Good Records
Big Bud – Memories – Creative Source
Wax Doctor – Maracatudo – Far Out Recordings
New Balance – Secret Portraits – Looking Good Records
The Architex – Altitude – Architecture
The Sentinal – Pulse Of Life – Basement Records
Blu Mar Ten – The Fountain – Way Out Records
Future Bound – Sorrow – Skanna
Voyager – See Forever – R & S Records
Art Of Noise – Something Always Happens (Doc Scott Remix) – China Records
Wax Doctor – Heat – R & S Records
Nitin Sawhney – Breathing Light – V2 Records Inc

Enjoy!

Narrated by Academy Award® Winner Forest Whitaker, BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES is an unsettling and inspiring look at today’s popular music industry featuring interviews and performances by Erykah Badu, Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews, Branford Marsalis, ?uestlove and a wide variety of others. The documentary film has built a passionate following as “the most important film a music fan will ever see” (XM Radio) by providing “a balanced overview of the state of the rock scene of America” (The Wall Street Journal) and adding “passion to the eternal debate about the industry” (The New York Times).

Last year, BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES filmmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen walked away from traditional Hollywood distribution to instead pursue a large-scale grassroots release with B-Side Entertainment. Since its release in November 2006, the film has screened over 200 times in over 130 North American markets with hundreds of additional events anticipated worldwide during 2007.

The Gloaming takes office space to an eerie dimension following the misfortune of a worker ensnared by his cubicle and haunted by sinister visitors during the nightshift. A tale of macabre absurdity, The Gloaming plunges this unwitting protagonist into a cycle of nightmares.

Director: Andrew Huang
Starring Randall Rickert

Your Choice (2009)

Genre:
Jungle, Atmospheric, Drum n’ Bass, Choppage

Info:
First jungle album. Got a lot of influences from artists like Paradox, Seba, J Majik, Photek / The Sentinel and Source Direct, among others. The result ended up as a mixture of both oldskool and nuskool elements.

Tracklist:

1. Voluntary Enslavement
2. Break the Comfortable
3. Smashing Pyramids
4. First Step
5. Cactus Harvest
6. Mindless Thoughts
7. Revelation of Self

There’s more music (ambient, psychedelic dub, etc) from this obviously talented dude, so be sure to check out the rest of his website. If you want to stream the tracks first, that is also possible.

“World world world
I sit in my room
Imagine the future
sunlight falls on Paris
I am alone there is no
one whose love is perfect
man has been mad man’s
love is not perfect I
have not wept enough
my breast will be heavy
till death of cities
are specters of cranks
of war the cities are
work & brick & iron &
smoke of the furnace of
selfhood makes tearless
eyes red in London but
no eye meets the sun”

~ Allen Ginsberg, from “Europe! Europe!”

Now that the founders of The Pirate Bay have been thrown in a deep and dark dungeon, maybe you should watch a documentary about the current state of copyright and culture, which is free for download at… The Pirate Bay, but I suggest you start here.

Stream the full feature in high quality.

In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem—it decriminalized the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory: focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections.

5 Years After: Portugal’s Drug Decriminalization Policy Shows Positive Results.

The broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has become a patron of a group seeking to cut the growth in human population. On joining the Optimum Population Trust, Sir David said growth in human numbers was “frightening”.

Read more common sense here.

I hear tunes, I seek out tunes that used to be everything to someone but they probably can’t listen to them now. I know there are tunes I’ve put on, I’ve seen people cry, Moving Shadow tunes, old tunes, because this music is old enough now for it to mean that. Even a single sound, they’ll hear a sound and it’ll just slay them. And you’re right, culture doesn’t seem to notice this. Where I’m from you’re more likely to be sitting around talking about a Rufige Kru or 4hero tune, how much it meant to you, than some other kind of music. I like normal life. It’s weird now, people die and they’re still on Facebook or whatever the fuck else.

~ Burial (2007)

Complete transcript @ The Wire.