Filed by Bil at 8:53 pm under Love
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Hello. I just thought I’d offer a free service here. There is a bunch of free music to listen to on the internet these days, and we’ve been using some of it here on the website, and I thought it might be nice to both you, the reader/viewer/listener, and them, the musicians who are constantly trying to build a fan base. So here you have it, all in one convenient blog post: my current favorites. Some of these you’ll find in earlier blog posts here on Tip Your Waiter; some I haven’t yet had the opportunity to use, and I’m dying to get them out there.

I’m in a totally musical mood lately, and I want to share!
In this list: Laura Veirs, Grizzly Bear, OK Go, Drive-By Truckers, The Smashing Pumpkins, Broken Bells, and Ben Folds.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Trevor at 11:52 pm under Fightin' Words, Gay Agenda, Gender Identity, Homophobia, Love
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“You’re such a sissy! What are you so afraid of? Then love the front of me, honey!” — Hedwig

I’m a total hypocrite. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I can say whatever comes to mind and you will know that we both have permission to take me with a grain of salt.

I dislike being gay. I realize that if I were a celebrity and had said this on national television, GLAAD would denounce me and Exodus International would use this as apparent proof of the feelings of self-loathing inherent in my deviant lifestyle, but as it usually is, the truth is much more complicated. I am not ashamed of the fact that I am romantically and sexually attracted to men, and I am not ashamed to be truthful about this. So I amend my statement: I dislike that being gay prevents me from having close, non-romantic, totally platonic friendships with straight men without the lingering suspicion that I am harboring much deeper feelings. I would even go so far as to say I hate this fact. In short: I want to be just one of the guys.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 7:49 pm under The Media
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I keep coming back to the future of journalism, perhaps because I care, or perhaps because BuzzMachine is near the top of my bookmarks on my browser. The most recent article from Jeff Jarvis over at this blog reprints a study regarding consumers’ willingness (or lack thereof) to pay for news content on the internet. I was going to hop into this discussion, already 40 comments in, when it dawned on me that the comment I was leaving was getting long, so I’ll post it here on my own blog instead, and leave a much shorter one for the BuzzMachine crowd.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 10:19 pm under The Arts, The Science
6 Comments

Holy crap, you guys. It’s taken a couple hundred years, but I think science and Transcendentalism are crossing streams.

One Universe Too Many? String Theories, The Multiverse And The Future Of Physics.

(Quick summation: physicists are getting to a point where they are trying to explain things that cannot be observed.)

This article poses an interesting question, one that deserves to be asked: is the idea of alternate realities and multiple universes a moot point? Do we need to be concerned with other universes at this point in our history, when we haven’t even placed our own feet further away from the Earth than the moon?

The answer, of course, is no. We do not need to study these things. Should we study them? That’s a completely different question.
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Filed by Bil at 3:49 pm under Fightin' Words, Politics, Social Issues
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I swear we’re not seeking out educational links, so this is the last one for now.

Pretty much the best news I’ve heard in a long time:

Obama Wants ‘No Child Left Behind’ Law Overhauled

That’s right. The No Child Left Behind law is being expelled.

Filed by Bil at 2:59 pm under Fightin' Words, Love, Politics, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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It appears that Lance was blogging about education at the same time I was last night, only his was finished a little while before mine, so if anyone was too distracted by Pink Floyd, please take a moment and also read up on what Lance has to say.

Now that you’ve read that post and have returned here, I wanted to give a quick shout-out to Elephant & Worm, an educational theatre company that “brings kids together with professional actors, artists, and writers to take original stories written by children and turn them into plays, movies, and songs!” Fellow Dream Theatre Company member Judith Lesser is heavily involved in this company, and you know if someone from Dream Theatre is involved, it must be great!

Kudos to all involved in education at all ages, because education should never stop. Never ever.

Filed by Bil at 12:21 am under Fightin' Words, Politics, Shameless Plugs, The Arts, The Media
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Education reform has been a very popular notion for a very long time.

Jeff Jarvis, author of one of my favorite blogs, BuzzMachine, recently posted an article titled TEDxNYed: This is bullshit – it is a rant about, among other things, the state of our educational system, and it’s a fairly brilliant comparison to the state of journalism. In one sweeping, somewhat angry blog post, he wrote three of the most fabulous things I’ve read in a blog all year:

1) Just as journalists must become more curator than creator, so must educators.
2) I’ll give the same advice to the academy that I give to news media: Do what you do best and link to the rest.
3) We must stop looking at education as a product – in which we turn out every student giving the same answer – to a process, in which every student looks for new answers. Life is a beta.

He starts the post out by acknowledging the irony of him up on a virtual soapbox, dictating that we ought not be dictated to, so I’m going to take him up on what I perceive to be an invitation to respectfully disagree (even if just to a small degree).
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Filed by Lance at 11:43 pm under General, Love, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
1 Comment

I’ve been fortunate enough to have some amazing mentors in my life, and I’m happy to say Lisa Canning is one of them (I don’t know if she likes or knows she’s wearing the name badge of “Lance’s Mentor,” but I’m sticking it on her, anyway). She’s taken my thinking in directions I didn’t know were there, and if I can get my feet out of the mud, the things she teaches have the potential to simply take my life somewhere I’ve always imagined it could go.

(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 6:42 pm under Hatemail
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For those of you who have been bombarded lately by various feeds updating you on what’s going at Tip Your Waiter, I apologize if none of it makes any sense. Here’s the reason for half of what’s been thrown out into the internet lately:

Go Back to Maxico! is nothing more than collected blurbs of ridiculous outrage and piss-poor grammar, generally directed toward various car dealerships. We’re posting them here because they are good for a laugh.
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Filed by Lance at 5:23 pm under General, Love, Social Issues
1 Comment

So after the success of our last Hatemail recording on 2/28, I felt inspired to Vlog about it.

Problem was, I felt a little like a zombie, and looked and sounded like one, too.

What to do?
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