I both love and hate the Bean Broker.

I love the environment, I love both their coffee and their tea, I love the people that come here to hang out, and I love the baristas. It's easily the best coffee shop I've ever been to.

I hate that sometimes I can't concentrate on what I'm doing. I've been trying to type an email to a professor for the past half an hour while fielding a conversation with someone that doesn't understand that my typing and staring at the computer screen means I'm busy. And I can't just say I need to focus; that'd be rude and for various reasons I can't afford to offend this person. But goddammit, I'm not and never have been one of those people that can multitask, and I can't ever come here anymore without running into this guy, so I have to kiss an hour of productivity goodbye every time I come down here.

If you see me at the Broker, please say hi. Feel free to challenge me to chess, invite me for a smoke, whatever. I value my friends and don't mind spending a little bit of time with them. But please don't spend an hour talking my ear off about the same stuff we talked about last time you ran into me here if I'm obviously busy. I'm a graduate student with very little free time... please respect that.

Project 86 is looking for funding support for a new album.

It looks sweet as hell too.

They've been one of my favorite bands since high school. The 503 is replete with Project 86 references, up to and including putting their frontman Andrew Schwab in the comic for Strip 300. The Project 86 froams (sic) were the second messageboards I ever posted at. They are, all around, a fantastic band whose brilliance hasn't diminished with time. Not only that, but they did it all with very little label support (back when that was a necessity) and in a scene with very little acts that could hold a candle to them. (One of the few that could, Anberlin, recently announced that they're breaking up after a farewell tour.)

Basically, their music kills, killed and will kill to come. Just about anyone who listens to harder stuff has dug them after I played a few songs of theirs. And their latest crowd-funding project is a fan's dream. For $25, I'm getting a signed limited-edition copy of the album, and a bunch of additional stuff. If you look on the list of perks on the Indiegogo site, it's nuts just how much they're willing to do for their fans.

I really really hope this thing works, which is why I'm spreading the word. It's got 38 days left to work, and they're over halfway there, but I wanna make sure they reach their goal. I'm currently reading a book for class called Who Owns The Future? by Jaron Lanier, and one of the points he makes is that the digital network economy has hollowed out the middle class, and one of the places it started was the music industry. It's harder than ever before to eke out a living playing music, but I think and hope that Project 86 will be one of the rare acts that manages to not only pull it off, but to do so on their own, without having to rely on a label. The future of the music industry is going to increasingly look like this, and as a multi-medium artist myself, I want to support other artists trying to make it work.

Human Sacrifice to the Gods.

(WARNING: the pictures and text below get fairly graphic.)

A few months ago, my friend Tom made a post comparing the modern neoliberal system to the Aztec system of ritual human sacrifice. I don't know why, but last night I had a dream about it. It was troubling, and I couldn't sleep past 7:00 AM on a weekend when normally I sleep in 'til noon. I've been up since then, writing and drawing what comes below.

1. I dreamed I was a Tlaxcalan warrior. We fought against the Aztec Empire, and were defeated.

We were marched to Tenochtitlan, where their priests did worship to the gods. Sweet-smelling smoke billowed from the altars atop the great temples.

We will be sacrificed, and our bodies fed to Huitzilopochtli in the spirit world so that the end of the earth will be delayed. The people cheer, for they will taste our bodies in this world, and they hunger for it - they need the meat we will provide. We are foreigners to them, and defeated in battle. It is right and just that this should happen to us.

I covered Stairway to Heaven on Wednesday.

Post by The Alleycat.

Cooking With Stu: Black Bean and Pineapple Enchiladas

Today we're going to learn how to make my very favorite enchilada recipe ever.

You may look at the lack of meat and think I've somehow turned into some kind of feckless vegetarian hippie, but I assure you that's hardly the case. This is better than enchiladas with some kind of meat. Cook it yourself and you'll see.

WHAT YOU NEED

Top to bottom, left to right, back to front: sour cream, pico de gallo, crushed pineapple, black beans, butter or some kinda butter substitute, cocoa powder, tomato sauce, oregano, chili powder, garlic powder, around 12 tortillas, and fresh cilantro. Not pictured: some kind of shredded white cheese. Monterey Jack's the easiest appropriate cheese to get, but a Mexican blend is okay too. If you can get straight Monterey Jack, do that.

Cooking With Stu: Pico de Gallo

I'm gonna drop a bunch of Mexican recipes on you guys here over the next week or so. But we'll have to start with the basics before we can do the fancy stuff. Pico de gallo is an all-purpose dressing for Mexican food; it's glorious if done right, and it goes on pretty much all the stuff I'll be making.

It's also the easiest goddamn thing ever, so I'm gonna be dropping some more generalized cooking knowledge on you all in the process, to fill space. So here we go.

WHAT YOU NEED

From back to front, left to right: onions (white onions are preferred, but any will do), lemon juice, lime juice, salt, fresh cilantro (dried cilantro is gross and bad and if you have it, you should feel bad), tomatoes (any kind will work), and jalapeño peppers (not pickled, but fresh and intact).

The universe is not telling me anything.

It's merely coincidence. That's all.

Really.

Shut up.