Why Internet Access Should Be Limited Reason #395857
It's no secret that some of my favourite music comes from the period best described as the Grunge Years. However, when OH and I start having random conversations it is usually a good idea to have an empty bladder. Whilst we relive a never ending supply of cringe-worthy tunes, I thought it a good idea to think of a list of my personal worst songs. Yes, this includes the OST for Titanic.
In the process I found this**:
Spot the irony?
I will never understand what goes on in some people's heads.
So the last time I had one these moments it was over a multimedia pack of book, dvd and cd called Baby Shakespeare (somewhere back in 2006/7). You can pretty much figure out the contents I would've purchased had I had the need. I had no need, therefore I had a day or two of OMGMOMMYHOODSEEMSFTW!
At some crazy hour early this morning/late last night I had this brainwave of an idea which I wanted to do for some of the lil hobbits in my life, and I Googled in preparation for the task ahead.And then I found it, the idea in my head existed -_-, so much for originality, eh?. But it did save me some bother of finding tabs/notes to attempt my own renditions.
How awesome is this? Or any of these for that matter? Good musical taste cannot start young enough. Someday my kids'll have a blog and write stuff like "my mom was so awesomely cool, we had Smashing Pumpkins/NIN/The Cure/The Pixies/Nirvana as our lullabies"!
I am not crazy though, I've not purchased any of them yet. I've just wishlisted them all :D
Hold meeeee, for goodbyes and whispered lullabyes... rah*
I'd give you a running commentary on the history and formation of the PAC the last time I was here. But you can wiki that for yourself. I have a somewhat more pressing matter than an almost defunct political party to discuss.
Recent weeks have seen me being forced to participate in my most hated activity. Shopping.
I had this discussion with the delightful Prixie the other day too. Am I the only one who does NOT want to relive 80s fashion? Am I the only one who has enough taste and good sense not to want to wear a hot pink, bridal satin bubble skirt? And skinny jeans ('nuff said? And those crinkle tops that looks like something is has shrivelled up on you? And plastic shoes? Let me not even get started on the cap and puff sleeve phenomena. Just because Anne of Green Gables spent half her childhood crying for them, does not mean we all want to wear it.
Somewhere in the 90s I read that the 80s will be remembered as a decade devoid of taste and style. Why revive it? Most of the people who have embraced the 80s look are those too young to have remembered the atrocities of it, and they think the mini party dress ala Kylie Minogue in the "Ishouldbesoluckyluckylucky" video is "kewt" and "kewl".
I really dunno about all of you out there, but I cannot find anything remotely near wearable in any store. I don't like the shimmery and shiny stuff and I don't do the big bold prints either. Another problem I find in SA is that all the stores seem to stock the same kinda stuff. So in essence, everyone dresses the same. You can look at a person walking into a room and think "Edgars", "Woolies", "Truworths" because the stock is so rotated and even the prints are available in most chain stores, maybe just with a different style design.
This recent battle to find stuff worth buying, has made me consider something I haven't done in a while (and the thought scares me), do I pull out my machine and start stitching up my own creations? Or am I missing the point of the revival thingy somewhere along the line?
On the plus side though, after the horror of the 80s- came the 90s :)
A young queen_Lestat woke up to a very rainy, as is tradition, 7th Birthday. The dashing prince Kurt Cobain was still alive in those days, much to the delight of many. However, as qL opened her eyes, she noticed a little package on the side of her pillow. Suddenly, it dawned upon her that it was her birthday and that this was not a dream.
qL smiled with glee as she opened the package to find a box set of the most beautiful looking books she had ever seen. And she had seen a lot of books by that age already. The books soon came to be her favourites, because it was still a good three years before the Royal Family of Weird and the Defenders of Against the Onslaught of the Blaaaaahnians, were to present her with the treasured family heirloom, also known as The Lord of the Rings box set. The books she was presented with on this fateful day was none other than the complete works of a certain Beatrix Potter.
Beatrix Potter revolutionised the concept of children's books and literature, was a keen business woman and an independent individual who fought against every possible form of social barriers to make a name for herself as one of the most influential writers of her age.She contributed to hundreds of children reading books, by making her books child friendly, self illustrated and non threatening/intimidating to children.
Happy Birthday Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866-1943), wherever you may be, from every single child* who found joy and comfort in Peter Rabbit, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Duck, and Little Pig Robinson.
April 8 1994. The body of rock icon and the face which defined a generation was found dead. RIP Kurt Cobain. *Lights a lighter for a moment*. I have a knack for remembering dates oui? He actually died on the 4th or 5th April, but I had no time to pay my respects then. However, that wasn't really what this post was supposed to be on.
I've had this extract going in and around the revolving glass doors of my mind for a while now, and wanted to share it with whoever reads the stuff I pin up here.
"When people are happy they have a reserve, she had told Elizabeth, upon which to draw, whereas she was like a wheel without a tyre (she was fond of such metaphors), jolted by every pebble -- so she would say, staying on after the lesson, standing by the fire-place with her bag of books, her ‘satchel’, she called it, on a Tuesday morning, after the lesson was over. And she talked too about the war. After all, there were people who did not think the English invariably right. There were books. There were meetings. There were other points of view. Would Elizabeth like to come with her to So-and-so? (a most extraordinary-looking old man). Then Miss Kilman took her to some church in Kensington and they had tea with a clergyman. She had lent her books. Law, medicine, politics, all professions are open to women of your generation, said Miss Kilman. But for herself, her career was absolutely ruined, and was it her fault? Good gracious, said Elizabeth, no.
And her mother would come calling to say that a hamper had come from Bourton and would Miss Kilman like some flowers? To Miss Kilman she was always very, very nice, but Miss Kilman squashed the flowers all in a bunch, and hadn’t any small talk, and what interested Miss Kilman bored her mother, and Miss Kilman and she were terrible together; and Miss Kilman swelled and looked very plain, but Miss Kilman was frightfully clever. Elizabeth had never thought about the poor. They lived with everything they wanted, -- her mother had breakfast in bed every day; Lucy carried it up; and she liked old women because they were Duchesses, and being descended from some Lord."
Virginia Woolf in Mrs Dalloway
Mrs Dalloway was published in 1925 and is written in the stream of consciousness style of Virginia Woolf and the High Modernists. The story basically follows a day in the life of a Mrs Dalloway who is preparing to be hostess to the Prime Minister and centres around her thoughts as she goes about her daily chores and getting the house in order for the arrival of the Prime Minister. Mrs Dalloway also formed the basis of the storyline for the book and the movie The Hours.
This passage often makes me wonder, just how far has society and social consciousness come since 1925? Women still have their own opinions, and each age thinks that the women of their age have more rights than those of the age before? Do people think about the poor any more now than they did before? Or does it not matter as long as we have what we want? Are people expedient? Does caring for your fellow members of society only extend as far as what you can get out of them?
I still do maintain that Kurt Cobain was the Virginia Woolf of our generation, both gifted artists, both tortured and both with a keen misanthropic streak. After all, if you're not a Vampire or and Elve, you never will see what a despicable race the human tribe is.
I know I harp on about music alot, it's one of my great passions in life. However, there's some music which just makes me want to hurl. For the moment, we'll excuse pop with the likes of girl/boy bands(consisting of 30 year old MEN, none of whom play any instruments-spot the irony if you will)and we'll excuse trance/house/blahblahblah( not really worth giving an opinion on this,because well I'm still deciding whether to classify it as music or whether it belongs in the category of noise.mp3). We will not even discuss Indian music or more specifically Bollywood rubbish (and no, I don't care how beautiful the lyrics are when you translate it into English, it (tune/melody/beat) sounds like crap/pop/regurgitated 70s disco beats to me).I won't venture to hip-hop either, which was once the sound of the streets and the poor and is now the sound of the rich who get off condescending at the poor. What I want to discuss is the most disgusting music ever- RnB.
While music history teaches one that it might've had very noble roots and gave hope to slaves and farm workers and was the American equivalent of Umshiniwam. Take a listen to the rubbish lyrics that they churn out which I would assume is supposed to be sexy...but it actually sounds like the musical version of 12 year old online cyberers who pretend they're 16 and spell without vowels. In other words, retards.Typical dialogue of the species goes something like this:
Kewt-boi "hi asl,i cn c u gt sxy nik,want 2 cybr" (rant: WHY CAN'T PEOPLE TYPE NORMALLY? IT TOOK ME LONGER TO TYPE THAT THAT THEN THE WHOLE PREVIOUS TWO LINES-/rant-another debate.
So anyway you get the picture. Poor lyrics, bad language, filthy images and general scummy values allow the fan-base masses to indulge their senses in a cheap-sex thrill.
While this might not exactly be RnB (or maybe it is, I'm outside of my genre here so I could be wrong) Ludakris at the 46664 Concert in Johannesburg last year belted out the following lyrics to a crowd of thousands "I won't stop til I get them in they birthday suits so give me the rhythm, and it will be off in they clothes" followed by "we want a lady in the street but a freak in the bed". Please take note that the concert was in aid of Aids awareness. And here you have someone who sings about easy women, easy sex etc. Spot the irony? This is just an off the top of my head example of how music of this sort, just promotes bad values and demeans women, it might not necessarily be the best example. Sure, RnB fans might make the case against some shock rockers like Marilyn Manson and co, but to Manson's credit, when you dig beneath the surface of his lyrics, you often find a surprising bit of social commentary or unveiling of the standard hypocrisies.
I find RnB too "turn-off"ish for lack of a clearer phrase. Which gets me thinking, whether I'm missing out on something, after all the legions and legions of fans must be picking up on something I'm not. My neighbours are classic examples of this(wonderful people though, in every regard besides their music taste). Almost Sunday morning whilst washing their cars; (yeah, they've got American flag bandanas hanging off the rear-view mirror, and the uncle does have a pair of black Ray-Bans with the ivory and gold bridge bit over the nose); I am subjected to the Blaaaaahnians playing a cd(at full volume it seems)consisting of Boyz II Men's End of the road, followed by I'll make love to you, followed by In the Still of the Night. And then the aunty will shout out "OOO I like this song, don't make it slow, put fast volume" and then queen_Lestat groans and pulls her pillows over her ears and curls up into foetal position and shrinks deeper into her bed. I mean wtf? A little consideration for the grunger in your vicinity would be nice people!
Now here's a classic example of the crap that is RnB, and (as you shall hear in a bit) the song which inspired the post. I REFUSE to watch this video(and I won't name it either,so you're all forced to watch a few seconds to know what I'm on about! i R ev0ln355 :P), so I don't know if it's the original or what, but here goes:
DISGUSTING!!!! YERGH!
Anyway here's the story. While it might've been the hit of 1992/3, there was Nirvana to listen to as well at the time. There was also Snow's Informer (which proved why only one White Boy should rap per decade) and the cult classic Whitney (pre-crack revelations) Houston with I Will Always Love You (and iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-hee-iiiiiiiiiii, jis, the dramatic overkill in that song teh_lol) and UB40 was pretty big then too, and Meatloaf (well, Bat Out of Hell was on the charts for 9 years.True story and random bit of music trivia for you there).
Flash back to 2008 and you're coming back from a night out and stop at a petrol station, where about 15 guys (men) are listening to the song (at a volume that would make a jet engine seem mute) in the video above and dancing with one another in the most horrifically obscene way.Literally bump 'n grind. Quite revolting really, makes seeing the side of the road pee-ers (the members of the uri-Nation) seem tame-like. Not the ideal way to end a Saturday night. No Sir, not at all.
After that episode, I'm sufficiently traumatised to say, "It's raining, it's raining, tears from my eyes..." rah*
All credits are due to cujo who managed to make me simultaneously want to gag and LOL. But in all seriousness, with my terminal geekiness I was more zOMG and sad than LOL at first. It took me a while to see the funny side of this.
So without further delay, ladies and gentlemen, I hereby present the horror of the week:
Now in case you don't see the horrific part, the bald guy is Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) and the other guy is Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) and they're very cosily playing guitars together.
Still don't get it? Skinner's Mulder and Scully's boss and he tries to save them from the duplicios Krycek. And look at Skinner's feet language!! Positively yergggh man. Skinner and Krycek that's not a very attractive couple man :/.
Still don't get it? You really should update yourself on your X Files knowledge.
zOMG this is undefinable, this feeling, it's like warm and fuzzy (cos on the surface it's an awww pic) but at the same time there's this rising bile feeling. Does anyone know if there's a 12-step programme for Chronic Geeks?
In honour of three people, who in their own ways each deserve a post of their own, queen_Lestat hereby announces the arrival of some Black Humour. Now I know lots of people will probably get hard-arsed about something like this, but I think we should take a step back and heave a collective LOL at the non-religious elements of the composition presented:
1x pair of Doc Martens somewhere around 1996 or before...R300-350ish
December 2006...they die whilst not in my direct possession.
1 x (last) pair of Doc Martens(tagged with the sign of the beast) June 2007 from some obscure charo shop... R200
(I kid you not, that was the price. Thanks to some weird high paying, very easy,very last minute editing job, (which I didn't think counted as "work", therefore considered it freebie money)I only had to throw in R200 which is R100 less than 10 years ago.)(Okay, my logic might be a bit weird there but it makes sense to me)
...Being rawking enough to still wear them...
....priceless.
\m/
For everyone else there's pointy Nine West Stiletto boots (but not for,) rah*
To the angst-y White boy...hope you're fucking happy now. Thank you for saving the by then dying art of guitar music.
Today marks 13 years since the death of that 90s icon. Why I remember this I have no idea. I was pretty upset though back in the day. His death was relinquished to the back burners of SA media, because the 1994 elections were apparently far more important :P.
I only found out on the 19th April 1994. I drew one of those dopey Nirvana smilies for art class that week, got kicked out together with Sharon Naidoo and Divendren Reddy, who did the same. I was in Standard 3 (Grade 5). My first trouble with the law I suppose. Kurt made me do it.
Happy 40th birthday to the Vampiric looking genius, Billy Corgan. Someday when you Google me, remember that I hoped you had a great one. Keep the music coming.
Happy birthday to dev too (cos I won't hear the end of it :P)
Happy 50th ChroniclesofBlaaaaahnia post to queen_Lestat(I should've glammed up and done something readable but anyways, someday I shall compensate.I'm a slacker though, be warned.)
Yeah, so I am a liiiiiiitle obsessed with the x-files (at season 8 now;)). The Lone Gunmen spin off series was never aired in SA so I was looking for a set online and found this. I had heard of this story before via my own personal geek network, but always assumed it was an urban legend type thing. I absolutely adored the Lone Gunmen, nowadays they remind me of a certain 3 people I know, who shall remain un-hyperlinked :P. If you suspected this but were never sure...But, ladies and gentleman, loyal subjects... now...teh_proof I give you...
Okay, melodrama.... But I was semi catatonic for at least 30 seconds. This is one of the l33test, most non Blaaaaaah things to happen in o say about 7 yrs. Read O loyal subjects, read...your tissues are in the post.
*plays air guitar while jumping around screaming "you're the murder in my world..."* rah*
PS... As promised earlier(see below or below the below) on my thoughts on becoming a celebrity sue-er, *da da da daaa (JAWS OST)* I hereby present my case...
Hello friendly friends!!! Who used to say that? Aaaah ye that turtle fellow...
The parents are back from Hajj.And I've been making my own little pilgrimage with little offerings of tea, zam zam, etc up and down and around and lets clean up now and then lets start over again.Usual drift at my place, only on steroids now. Apparently quite a marvelous experience, and best done when you're young. In the process cashed in on an ipod. YAY!!! now I just gotta figure out how the damn thing works. And while I cashed in on a cult item of the 'naughties i lost out on a cult item of the last century. The last pair of Doc Martens died. dead. gone. finished. impossible. dunno how it happened, but it's over, ripped asunder. Now not only have I seen Live in concert, but now ze Docs have died. Grunge is over. The music will live on forever though.*siiiiiiiiigh* enough tragedy...
O I learned to cook, not that I couldn't before, but now I can cook like what my aunt calls "a proper human being".Talk about charo fundamentalism. Anyone up for khuri kichari? dhaal and rice?All the optional extras that go with it?
I flew a plane. I kid you not. A Cessna 172. Went flight training at Rand Airport, which's in and around Germiston side of GP. Once we reached around 7000 feet I was allowed to steer and navigate all the way to Brixton Towers and then round Ponte Towers in Hillbrow. It was my luck that the runway was busy so we had to stay in the air for a longer period before Air Traffic Control brought us back so pilot Howdy and I took a trip around Johannesburg and then got back. It's a really beautiful city from up there. Quite an experience. Fabulous. I can see why they say that there's a height requirement for pilots.I'm not as short as I should be perhaps.A slight bit of a genetic freak I am, but it's quite tough to see over the top bar of the cockpit control panel thingy. And if you can't see over that, you can't see buildings in front of you...do the math....
Also in this holiday, I have been weaned off the internet and most GPRS operated things, purely due to a lack of availability. However, being in the company of so many females(I am unaccustomed to the phenomenon, I have male siblings only) I've learned to slightly tolerate female whims such as browsing shops with no particular purpose or fitting on stuff you're never gonna buy...ever. However, I can go 20 minutes in a shop now, much better than the 5-10 I could spend and then say "hey guys, I'll be in the book store when you're done ok?"
Now as you can probably tell by the fact that Doc Martens have been blogged about, I do have a bit of a shoe fetish(not in THAT way), but ya i do. And for 2007 I want to buy myself a high heeled shoe. Not a boot or a sandal, but a shoe. A black one, preferably something funky, yet classic. 2007 is the year I say screw the short people, I would like to have something besides flats on my feet, if only for a little bit. Yeah, those dreams get dashed the minute you fit one on, then you realise why you wear flats. Well that and the fact that with a small heel on you're nearly 1.8m tall, and that's not so grand, when all your friends are hobbit sized. You parade around (in flats) like the Giant of Blaaaaahnia.Well not as bad as a female Matthew McGrory, but still relatively bad compared to the rest of my friends. Just once I'd like to wear something like this.
However I think I might just end up re-investing in the 90's.It's sooo much more comfortable to make tea and carry trays around in flats :)
I get a cramp in my cheek and my knees grow week... night night rah*
PS... got a busy year ahead of me, but I will try to continue eating up bandwidth with my arb stuff at least more than every so often. All these freaking bugs are kamikazing into my screen.Like a plague. The only light around I guess.
PPS... I might be rich, thinking of becoming a celebrity sue-er person/thing. the k-man will have details! :P
Location: The White Collar Crime Capital, Gauteng, South Africa
I'm a liberal person,open minded about most things except terminal stupidity.A new-age "revolutionary avatar of the mind" of sorts. A globalised mish-mash of paranormal activity,goth inclinations,grunge reminiscences,philosophical conjecture,intellectual repartee at around roughly mach III, all mangled with the ancient art of Logic.I'm creative and a dreamer with a head in a book and feet firmly in the clouds. Interests change very often so watch the above space. I speak Elvish and other languages too. People think I'm weird, I think they're just unimaginative.
