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 :)
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?
To the young paduwan yearning to be Yoda, and to the village carb addict. I know that with at least one of the duo, this wedding present will be spot on, but what the hell :P Hope you guys have many,many years to well...
Tonight, Tonight... that's all I have to wait for Zeitgeist.
I hope this is as huge as I think it is. Tarantula is good, but I don't think there will ever be another Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness or another Machina again.
Billy was not the band.Their combined efforts made them what they were. Fuck you D'arcy and and James. For being total asses. And fuck you Billy, for being a self righteous prig. Anyways half the band's new, the name's old, hope the sound (and more importantly the lyrics) stays so too; and true to who they were and what they represented,
"For this heart's A little bit older Try to hold on To this love aloud And we are still alive Try to hold on And we have survived Try to hold on And no one should deny We tried to hold onto the pulse of the feedback current Into the flow of encrypted movement Slapback kills the ancient remnants That try to hold on Try to hold on To this heart alive Try to hold on To this love aloud Try to hold on And we are still alive Try to hold on And we have survived Try to hold on Pop tart You never listen..."
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.)
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.
