It's Super Tuesday, and Fat Tuesday, and happy meteorologist day, and all kinds of other stuff. Unable to escape politics today i have to get political here. i am enraged just thinking about our current president. i cannot express just how unimpressed i am with those currently running for that same office. TV and print media is absolutely useless and outdated. But wait, i did read something interesting in a glossy weekly publication.
Osama Bin Laudin's son denounced his father's methods of attempting to bring about change. Really, that is what i read. Interesting.
Throw on top of that seeing "No Country For Old Men" this weekend. The commentary in that movie was impressive, thoughtful, and subtly carried out. i particularly grabbed on to how the older men were complaining that kids coloring their hair bright colors and failing to say 'sir and 'ma'am' were destroying our society. However, all the people doing horrible things in the movie were relatively 'normal' looking folks. They also addresses how people think things are more violent now but things have always, in fact, been this violent.
After having all this swish around in my gray matter i have come to a conclusion: rich people seem to cause the most and the biggest problems. Bush - rich. Osama - rich. Everyone running for president - rich. Catalyst for our plummeting economy - rich corporations trying to get even richer, quicker but with that plan failing (and the working class the ones who really suffer). i cannot travel a mile anymore without passing five banks.
The rich make up an incredibly tiny amount of our world's population yet people so blindly seem to follow them no matter what. Why? This is not just a western phenomena, this is a worldwide, human being phenomena. Why? Where does this come from? Please, someone explain this to me.
Happy Mardi Gras! Party up for tomorrow lent starts. That and election results come out.
Feb 5, 2008
The Whole Wide World Is Mine
Yeah, i know. It's still very early on 2008 but i've already found some things i really am liking and felt the need to give them a shout out.
First off on my favorite things list hence far is "Rite Of Spring" by Angels and Airwaves off the I-Empire album that came out late last year. Sonically beautiful and really just a vulnerable song with it's heart on it's sleeve.
Coban. That one little word was introduced to me and i am as hooked on this product as it is easily hooked on itself. Now, i really wish that i did not have to wear this product but my pinky refuses to de-swell after over a month of healing; rendering it useless. This product is like some strange genetic experiment. If you put an Ace bandage and a roll of gauze in a dark room, played so Barry White, they reproduced and then that offspring was gang-raped by a case of athletic tape you might end up with Coban. The devil himself (or herself) is the only one who could have developed a material with such a magical and unnatural ability to stick to itself. So far it seems to be working.
Being an unkle. Yes i spell it with a K. You can spell it however you want on your own page. All the fun of having kids, none of the problems.
Let us see what the rest of the year comes up with.
First off on my favorite things list hence far is "Rite Of Spring" by Angels and Airwaves off the I-Empire album that came out late last year. Sonically beautiful and really just a vulnerable song with it's heart on it's sleeve.
Coban. That one little word was introduced to me and i am as hooked on this product as it is easily hooked on itself. Now, i really wish that i did not have to wear this product but my pinky refuses to de-swell after over a month of healing; rendering it useless. This product is like some strange genetic experiment. If you put an Ace bandage and a roll of gauze in a dark room, played so Barry White, they reproduced and then that offspring was gang-raped by a case of athletic tape you might end up with Coban. The devil himself (or herself) is the only one who could have developed a material with such a magical and unnatural ability to stick to itself. So far it seems to be working.
Being an unkle. Yes i spell it with a K. You can spell it however you want on your own page. All the fun of having kids, none of the problems.
Let us see what the rest of the year comes up with.
Feb 3, 2008
Chinese Democracy
i have fucking had it with Guns N' Roses. Music video stations playing blocks of that shitty band's music, not being able to go to a sporting event without having to hear one of their songs, and mullet-heads everywhere waiting for a never-happening new album. Enough already!
What's that you say? But i used to like GN'R? ... oh... alright... i'll admit it... i really liked them for a minute. But let me explain.
Music has always played a big role in my life. Many of my earliest memories revolve around music. As a small child, as far back as when my sister was still a newborn and my brother was not even an idea i remember being moved by music. i remember those late night weekly drives home from my Grandparents with me in the backseat falling asleep to Simon & Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, and John Denver. i'd try to time out those beats and rhythms between passing telephone poles or windshield wiper swipes. At night many of those songs comforted a melancholy young child.
As i moved through elementary school the warmth of records gave way to the portable technology of the cassette Walkman. Once you owned one people took it upon themselves to buy you what they thought you should listen to. Born In The USA from my aunt. The Top Gun Soundtrack from a girl in my class. None of which were as cool as my younger brother's copy of the Ghostbuster's Soundtrack. Then i finally saved enough money to buy myself a tape. i took a gamble and went with a tape of a band i read about in a Thrasher magazine i somehow came upon as a beginning skater: the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Where Simon & Garfunkel or John Denver may have helped express feelings of sadness early on, in the Chili Peppers i found a soundtrack for my feelings of feeling like a misfit. As elementary school progressed it seemed like everyone was listening to Twisted Sister, Def Leopard, Bon Jovi, Poison, Whitesnake and the like. Those were the gifts given and songs played all over the radio, but none of it really spoke to me like those i've previously mentioned.
Once in a while someone's older sibling would expose me to something that called out to me. REM soon joined RHCP as favorites of mine. These became gems in an otherwise uninspiring collection of music as i rolled into junior high.
And then came Guns N' Roses. Those shitbirds were angry. Compared to all that other hair-band crap these guys were pissed. i could relate to that level of anger. Getting into schoolyard fights, spending lots of time in the penalty box at the rink, and collecting a deck of yellow cards on the soccer field i was an angry young man. Music had always been a means of expressing myself and now i had something given to me that could relate to that anger.
i had no idea who Mr Brownstone was but they were clearly quite upset. A friend's older sister with a dual tape deck became our hook-up. i turned over 90 minute tapes and she put GN'R on them. One day the extra space on one of those tapes was filled with some Jane's Addiction. RHCP and REM finally had some company in my collection with Jane's Addiction while GN'R was still filling that angry void.
And then it all turned around. i was exposed to Black Flag, Minor Threat and punk rock. My world was changed forever. Not only were these bands absolutely pissed but they were pissed at the same things i was, and they were fast. Fuck guys with leather pants and wiskey posing for posters. i found guys in t-shirts and sneakers like mine, many on skateboards, talking about suppressive parents and a carbon copy society.
Guns N' Roses quickly went by the wayside and i was hunting down copies of Fugazi songs and singing along to The Ramones. This, of course, combined with my skateboarding was clearly pushing me more and more towards the outskirts of our social structure but these bands spoke to me unlike all that bullshit metal that was being mass produced. Punk became an outlet for my anger while the Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction would comfort the feelings of oddness i was feeling.
What happened next turned out to be really good for guys like me. Seattle exploded and crushed metal. The underground started bubbling up into the mainstream. Suddenly girls were looking a little differently at us misfits and metal heads were doing whatever they could to find some flannel and ditch the hairspray. The timing worked out perfectly as i was also hitting the age where i realized what my 'special purpose' was as The Jerk might say.
So yes, i listened to GN'R for a bit as a kid but quickly wised up. What's the rest of you fucker's excuse. Let it go already. Buy a punk album, or better yet, buy something that came out in the last decade.
What's that you say? But i used to like GN'R? ... oh... alright... i'll admit it... i really liked them for a minute. But let me explain.
Music has always played a big role in my life. Many of my earliest memories revolve around music. As a small child, as far back as when my sister was still a newborn and my brother was not even an idea i remember being moved by music. i remember those late night weekly drives home from my Grandparents with me in the backseat falling asleep to Simon & Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, and John Denver. i'd try to time out those beats and rhythms between passing telephone poles or windshield wiper swipes. At night many of those songs comforted a melancholy young child.
As i moved through elementary school the warmth of records gave way to the portable technology of the cassette Walkman. Once you owned one people took it upon themselves to buy you what they thought you should listen to. Born In The USA from my aunt. The Top Gun Soundtrack from a girl in my class. None of which were as cool as my younger brother's copy of the Ghostbuster's Soundtrack. Then i finally saved enough money to buy myself a tape. i took a gamble and went with a tape of a band i read about in a Thrasher magazine i somehow came upon as a beginning skater: the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Where Simon & Garfunkel or John Denver may have helped express feelings of sadness early on, in the Chili Peppers i found a soundtrack for my feelings of feeling like a misfit. As elementary school progressed it seemed like everyone was listening to Twisted Sister, Def Leopard, Bon Jovi, Poison, Whitesnake and the like. Those were the gifts given and songs played all over the radio, but none of it really spoke to me like those i've previously mentioned.
Once in a while someone's older sibling would expose me to something that called out to me. REM soon joined RHCP as favorites of mine. These became gems in an otherwise uninspiring collection of music as i rolled into junior high.
And then came Guns N' Roses. Those shitbirds were angry. Compared to all that other hair-band crap these guys were pissed. i could relate to that level of anger. Getting into schoolyard fights, spending lots of time in the penalty box at the rink, and collecting a deck of yellow cards on the soccer field i was an angry young man. Music had always been a means of expressing myself and now i had something given to me that could relate to that anger.
i had no idea who Mr Brownstone was but they were clearly quite upset. A friend's older sister with a dual tape deck became our hook-up. i turned over 90 minute tapes and she put GN'R on them. One day the extra space on one of those tapes was filled with some Jane's Addiction. RHCP and REM finally had some company in my collection with Jane's Addiction while GN'R was still filling that angry void.
And then it all turned around. i was exposed to Black Flag, Minor Threat and punk rock. My world was changed forever. Not only were these bands absolutely pissed but they were pissed at the same things i was, and they were fast. Fuck guys with leather pants and wiskey posing for posters. i found guys in t-shirts and sneakers like mine, many on skateboards, talking about suppressive parents and a carbon copy society.
Guns N' Roses quickly went by the wayside and i was hunting down copies of Fugazi songs and singing along to The Ramones. This, of course, combined with my skateboarding was clearly pushing me more and more towards the outskirts of our social structure but these bands spoke to me unlike all that bullshit metal that was being mass produced. Punk became an outlet for my anger while the Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction would comfort the feelings of oddness i was feeling.
What happened next turned out to be really good for guys like me. Seattle exploded and crushed metal. The underground started bubbling up into the mainstream. Suddenly girls were looking a little differently at us misfits and metal heads were doing whatever they could to find some flannel and ditch the hairspray. The timing worked out perfectly as i was also hitting the age where i realized what my 'special purpose' was as The Jerk might say.
So yes, i listened to GN'R for a bit as a kid but quickly wised up. What's the rest of you fucker's excuse. Let it go already. Buy a punk album, or better yet, buy something that came out in the last decade.
Do You Wanna Bang Heads With Me?
Well, tanks fur nuttin'... it was a complete draw on what lighting works best at house parties, so it looks like anything goes. On to this week's survey. Hopefully it comes out more decisive.
For some time now i have been lobbying for what i believe would be the greatest pay-per-view event ever: a battle royal cage match between Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig. Now i do realize that Rollins has been a Misfits fan but i have no idea what Danzig thinks of Black Flag or Rollins. Both, however, are on the shorter side and both are jacked. Either would quickly snap me like a well dried twig. It seems like it would be a well matched battle.
i picture Henry barefoot in his trademark black soccer shorts and Glenn in full on Misfits make-up. Although a majority of the audience would most likely be made up of males, i imagine many of them would be absolutely trampled to death by riot girls of all ages storming the stage, riping their clothes off and slamming up against the cage as these clashing punk icons draw blood. The Suicide Girls could hold up numbered cards in between rounds. Taped in HD of course. But i digress.
Back to the survey. Two things brought about this week's question: 1) you cannot read a thread on ANY punk related site without someone calling someone else a 'sell-out'. It's getting absolutely ridiculous, although this has always plagued the scene. 2) An Ad for the new Terminator TV Series came on and they used Danzig's "Mother" as a rather clever soundtrack. Who doesn't like that song?
Now, as i find myself getting older i feel that aging alternative icons deserve to be able to roll into old age without being poor. They deserve a little cash for all that they have done. i can look the other way if Nike wants to sponsor Lance Mountain. i'll hum with my fingers in my ears while Iggy Pop sings behind a cruise commercial. Some folks, however, have gone incredibly overboard, especially in the context of all the money they already have. Exhibit A - The Who who cannot be considered anything but a sell-out.
So where does that fine line lie? This time we review the recent choices of one Glenn Danzig in this week's survey.
For some time now i have been lobbying for what i believe would be the greatest pay-per-view event ever: a battle royal cage match between Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig. Now i do realize that Rollins has been a Misfits fan but i have no idea what Danzig thinks of Black Flag or Rollins. Both, however, are on the shorter side and both are jacked. Either would quickly snap me like a well dried twig. It seems like it would be a well matched battle.
i picture Henry barefoot in his trademark black soccer shorts and Glenn in full on Misfits make-up. Although a majority of the audience would most likely be made up of males, i imagine many of them would be absolutely trampled to death by riot girls of all ages storming the stage, riping their clothes off and slamming up against the cage as these clashing punk icons draw blood. The Suicide Girls could hold up numbered cards in between rounds. Taped in HD of course. But i digress.
Back to the survey. Two things brought about this week's question: 1) you cannot read a thread on ANY punk related site without someone calling someone else a 'sell-out'. It's getting absolutely ridiculous, although this has always plagued the scene. 2) An Ad for the new Terminator TV Series came on and they used Danzig's "Mother" as a rather clever soundtrack. Who doesn't like that song?
Now, as i find myself getting older i feel that aging alternative icons deserve to be able to roll into old age without being poor. They deserve a little cash for all that they have done. i can look the other way if Nike wants to sponsor Lance Mountain. i'll hum with my fingers in my ears while Iggy Pop sings behind a cruise commercial. Some folks, however, have gone incredibly overboard, especially in the context of all the money they already have. Exhibit A - The Who who cannot be considered anything but a sell-out.
So where does that fine line lie? This time we review the recent choices of one Glenn Danzig in this week's survey.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)