Friday Fun Time

First, something light.

Afroman - Because I Got High (Uncensored with a NSFW verse)



Mixed messages defined. Now something heavy.

Andrew W.K. Party Hard / Warriors Mashup Video



Awesome rock song, awesome movie, unusual mashup idea, but it seems to work. Update: BTW, if you're wondering why Warriors is such an awesome movie in spite of being cheesy in some respects, it's because the filme was based on the world's first and most utterly badass war story, Xenophon's Anabasis, which translates loosely into something like "The March Upcountry." "March" and "upcountry" would have a connotation of a military movement through hostile lands. Xenophon was a Greek mercenary - that was such a ubiquitous connection of ethnicity and profession for over a millennium in that region that culturally it would be akin to a Jewish diamond merchant or an Irish cop - stereotypes, but not unfair stereotypes. Greek mercenary units were common because the Greeks figured out how to wage war in an effective and devastating manner by employing their novel cultural values to build great fighting units. Soldiers worked together out of mutual self-interest, permitting much closer battlefield coordination than the disorganized baabaaroi (barbarians) could manage. This allowed revolutionary tactics to be employed, such as interlocking shields or lances that were the equivalent of mutually supporting fields of fire in a modern infantry position. The tactic was simple but relied on every man doing his duty, and if all did their duty the unit was nearly indestructible.

Xenophon and roughly 10,000 other Greek mercenaries were fighting as a unit for the Persian prince Cyrus in Bablyon, northern Mesopotamia. (That's Iraq for the geographically illiterate among you). Cyrus was killed at the Battle of Cunaxa in the course of revolting against his brother, King Artaxerxes, and because the notions of corporation and nationhood didn't really exist in the same way back then, the contract for paying the Greek mercenaries was null and void. So here was this small private army of 10,000, abandoned deep in hostile territory, owed a great debt by Persian rebels (which made them dangerous), yet without money or friends, in fact surrounded by enemies, and several thousand miles (by land) away from home. So they fought their way home to Greece, crossing desert and mountain, fighting for various kings along the way through hostile territory, and lived the ultimate war story. The reason it still strikes a chord, I believe, is because it is a simple and perfect example of a narrative that is common through human history. War stories convey something about the culture's bedrock values, and although they were probably always conveyed around a campfire or over beer, this was the first complete written account, and a perfect, simple example of the breed. Xenophon relates how things were settled by common assent (a major value of the Greek Demos in many of their city states, and how they stoically endured suffering for the common good (another key societal value), fought with valor (ditto) and so forth. The end result is a badass story of such badass badassedness, that it strikes us at almost a genetic level. Anabasis has endured because it speaks to something inherent in western society and in our social, political (and to some extent physical) evolution.

CAN YOU DIG IT?!!!??!!

Now something else that is a classic.

Dick Dale and the Del Tones Misirlou



One of the greatest rock guitar riffs ever. Best comment on YouTube: "The first time I heard this song was on Guitar Hero." The date this video was recorded? 1963. That song hasn't aged a bit, and Dick Dale, getting older rocks way harder than ever. Don't believe me?


Dick Dale, Nitro, Mashup w/t Scenes From Riding Giants



I've had that song up before with the MTV video for it. Riding Giants is a superb film about the first of the big wave riding pioneers. Watch it on HDTV and the beauty of the waves, the bravery of the surfers and the story will overwhelm you. The music? Dale recorded Nitro when he was 56. But what was he like at 69, three or four years ago?



Yeah, that dude rocks. He's fighting rectal cancer, and still playing gigs. You should hope you're going that strong at 73. Now, a treat - Dick Dale playing "Amazing Grace" to honor the troops in 2004:



Have a good weekend friends. See ya on the road.