““I’m not really an early adopter. I’m around a lot of people who are into all this stuff. We were all talking the other day about Jack White and this idea of what punk rock is in this digital age and sometimes I talk to groups and they relate to Jack White or the Black Keys and how they record on these old analog machines. They say it’s very ‘punk rock’. And i’m like, ‘wait a minute. That is not punk rock.’
Punk rock is, I hate to say it but it is true, it’s the way Kesha and Chris Martin did it when they recorded their track on the record (The Flaming Lips And Heady Fwends) with me. They grabbed their computer, used the microphones that are in their laptop, sang into it, and sent it to me. That to me—what kids do now—they don’t go buy some 40 year machine that costs thousands of dollars. That to me is the opposite of punk rock. It’s grab this thing, scream into it.”
”
Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips talking to Ad Wekk
Tuesday, May 22nd
CHICAGO, IL - As the thousands of NATO protesters that flocked to the city this weekend leave, a small group of urban farmers is rushing to beat the city’s clean up crews in hopes of scoring free fertilizer.
“It’s been reported that the protesters had a couple hundred water bottles filled with urine and feces to throw at cops and stuff” says urban farmer Bruce Williams, “I doubt they used all of them, and if I can get my hands on some of that rich nitrogen, my tomato crop will kill it this year.”
Williams, who farms a 10 square foot plot at Grant Park, is part of a niche group of urban farmers in Chicago who describe themselves as “hyper-local”.
“We only supply restaurants or sell at markets that are within a fixed gear bike ride from where we plant. And we only use raw materials sourced from within Chicago city limits- so you can see why these leftover water bottles are like a gold mine for us,” explains Williams. “It’s normally…uhh, a lot harder to get good fertilizer.”
The hyper-local movement is the newest trend to sweep Chicago’s food scene, as restaurant owners are looking to gain a competitive edge in a crowded market.
Helen Smith, owner of The Chicago Diner explains, “We’re strictly vegan, organic, and locally sourced. Our customers are willing to pay a premium if their fruits and veggies come from a patch of soil that is free of chemicals, located within walking distance to our restaurant, and 100% animal-free. Well you know, at least, four legged animal free.”
When asked about the city’s plans to help the local farmers locate and extract the homemade fertilizer, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said, “People are actually using that sh*t? No way, that’s f*cking gross.”
“ For the first eight years of our marriage, [Michelle and I] were paying more in student loans than what we were paying for our mortgage. So we know what this is about.
And we were lucky to land good jobs with a steady income. But we only finished paying off our student loans—check this out, all right, I’m the President of the United States—we only finished paying off our student loans about eight years ago. ”
President Obama in North Carolina today on why Congress has to act to prevent interest rates on student loans from doubling (via barackobama)
