Hello, I am Kontextmaschine. I am 27 and not entirely happy with my life.

I had a livejournal, got it way back when I was the kind of person who had a livejournal. Now I see the people still there still are, and I seem to have become the kind of person who has a tumblr. Maybe I’ll still keep it up, split topics between them, we’ll see.

I will write about history, modern society, and my life. I will often write as if these things are indistinguishable.

Also sometimes there will be happy hardcore.

The title comes from an idea I once had to write a column tracing the history and precedents of events in the news, like some sort of “context machine”. But we all know the story of modern journalism, and I guess this is the place for that, now.

I made it Kontextmaschine because a machine dedicated to historicism is obviously German.

The gang controlled areas have become known as free fire zones

So, Vampire: The Masquerade vs. Shadowrun.

vs.

I submit that between these two RPGs you have the entirety of the (mid) ‘90s.

Like on the one hand goths and on the other techno-pagans, that’s obviously the '90s right there.

Like on the one hand the world keeps on going but there’re no causes to believe in. You’re one of the special ones, though, so even though your games don’t matter they’re the best games. There are special ones older than you, and other factions, but you’ll tear them down eventually. There’re unspecial ones all around, and to thrive you ultimately have to consume them, and isn’t it tragic, but I guess you’ll find a way to deal.

And on the other hand, the world has fallen apart, there’s no cause to believe in, so you keep taking corporate jobs, but use the money to buy cool badass electronics and hang out with environmentalists and street punks, that’ll bring the system down, right?

That’s less obviously the '90s right there.

DJ Spree - Summer Anthems 2009

DJ Spree did a “Summer Anthems” mix every year 2001-09 except ‘06 (I think). They’re some of my favorite mixes. This is '09, I guess the last one. Sniff.

The problem with people is they infer ought from is; they think “I exist, therefore my existence is necessary and my death is bad”.

But every time you leave it to people to realize this they fail, so I guess you have to evangelize.

Holy Death watch over me
and grant your favor

in your name I dare,
in your cause I serve

may in victory I bring glory

or find comfort in your breast

comicallyvintage:

I Wonder About You, Honey…

August 8, 1994

As referenced by Mark Greif in n+1’s What Was the Hipster?

loveyourchaos:

(by infinitedecay)

champagnecandy:

helenbop:

“Some very considerable part of the gestural language of public places, that had once belonged to cigarettes, now belonged to phones. Human figures, a block down the street, in postures utterly familiar, were no longer smoking.”

From Zero History - William Gibson (2010)

(Image from w3.org via Google Image Search)

Britney Spears is our Michael Jackson

Radiohead is our Pink Floyd

Ke$ha is our Sheryl Crow

The sole pure-Muggle wizard of any consequence at all in these books is Hermione, the author’s personal projection of herself (there are two other minor pure-Muggle wizards, boys, both of whom are bumped off). So this story can be read pretty effectively as an explanation of why J.K. Rowling should be allowed to hang around with the nobility (she is smart, is why).

Read through

The ‘90s are back!

What

The broken window theory was correct but we learned the wrong lessons. The lesson was to break all the windows.

I won the pinball league finals. Got $70 or so, which is pretty much my buy-ins plus my quarters, maybe a surplus to exhaust in the second week of next season.

I was asked what group I should be in, I said 2 or 3 of 5 let’s pick 3, I ended up 3 of 3, that was wrong.

Next season.

Cloudskipper - Fog City Sketches

May, 2006

So the first thing I do when I wake up is pick my nose. 6 or 7 hours of snot drying in there. I love the best when I can just stick a finger up and press it to one side and slide out a thin cylinder all around. And then the same in the other nostril. Those are good mornings.

Eating and drinking and breathing are fun, but even better is expelling matter out of your body. Pissing, ejaculating, shitting, farting, sneezing, crying, vomiting. The way you feel better after those things is so much better than the better you feel taking in.

(In summary: nothing tastes as good as bulimia feels)

As long as the 90s are coming back to be rechewed as cud and then sent to the second stomach, here’s an issue I want addressed: those kids in high school who only smoked pot at Dave Matthews Band shows, which they went to. What about them?