Aisle 17: The Artsy Fartsy Aisle.
This is going to be a short post. I know! A short LitSM! How can that be? But it is. I have much reading to do.
Just wanted to mention one, ONE thing. I just had my second day of grad school. Both days I had to write a responce to the readings (it's what we do). Both times I mention punk, or something punk like. At first I was a bit taken aback. Why am I writing about punk in a performance studies course. Then it hits me, because punk is a performance! Duh! It is what interests me and I'm not too bad about writing about it. Now both essays are very minimal in their inclusion of punk, however I just read an article writen by my professor, Jose Esteban Munoz, the essay, "Stages: Queers, Punks, and the Utopian Performative." So the head of my department is a punk. This so psychs me up! I figured I would have to be all philosophical and theatrical but now I see I can use ALL of my odd knowledge while dealing with this class. Hell I think I may just start including B-cinema into the event.
Many of my fellow classmates are very well spoken and highly intelligent. The honestly blow me out of the water, but I think I can actually hold my own now. I've been trying desperately to sound smart, what I need to be doing is sound like myself and hope for the best.
In any case tomorrow we talk about punks, queer theory and the book Camera Lucida, which is about photography. I think I can handle this. Just why the hell does Derrida have to poke his head in?!? Damn modern French philosophers.
Thursday, June 22
Tuesday, June 20
Aisle 24
Aisle 24: Performance Art Supplies
Well it is officially time for me to start becoming pretentious. Let the grad school party year begin!
I had orrientation yesterday. The faculty is wonderfully nice and facinating (even the areas I have no interest in drew me in). I met a bunch of people, several of whom seem to be just as freaked out as I am about the whole grad program at Tisch, so yay for solidarity. I believe a support group is in the making, a support group that goes out and drinks and watches performance art and then drinks some more to forget the naked man dancing in the tub of fritos. This is just a guess.
The one consitant thing we were told is that this summer is going to be hell for all of us. Well... I do have tons of reading, but I'm kind of use to that. The only two things that freak me out, honestly freak me out, are the second class I'm taking and the fact that in a year I will have a masters and have just finished a major performance art project (which I have no clue as to what the bloody hell I'm doing).
So the class that scares me. Ok first off when I got the course book I wanted to work with the ECA workshop but due to personal problems and apathy I never handed in my proposal (or wrote it for that matter), the only other class I thought was worth checking out would have been the Law as Performance class. Where they look at legal procedings and examin the performance aspects of the whole thing. Interesting to me that is. Did I sign up for it? Nope. I went and signed up for Black Womanist Spirituality in Popular American Music.
...
Yes. That is my first class after I get through the intro course (which starts tomorrow). Ok so some of you might be wondering exactly why the hell I picked this? Alright, the course description was boring (hence me going for the law thing) but the way the professor described the course I was rivited.
The class will deal with black feminist thought/politics (which is, in my opinion, a lot more interesting than standard feminist philosophy), and how it reacts to the culture of Christianity and religions contesting Christianity (Sengreia, Voudun {VOODOO!}). So again, why am I taking this? I love music. I also love social and cultural studies (hence the occasional passionate punk essays I spout off). I also, while not being overtly religious, am interested in regligion of all types. I like hearing people talk about their religious beliefs and so forth. I also like it when I can add something to the conversation, so um... this is kind of me trying to add something to the conversation... In any case I'm going to take a class that promises to be incredibly fascinating about a subject I have had very little formal training in. This is going to be another one of those situations like when I went from no philosophy courses to jumping into an advance class on modern French philosophers.
The other class I'm taking is a course on performance and theater in New York City. I'm going to go watch performances of all types and write (critically and theoretically) about them. This class will be fun. I was going to take a theoretical class on technology and theater but decided that I really wanted to get a head start on writing about theater. Also it's a way to go out and see odd shows of all sorts. So as of right now I am excited.
Once the fall swings around I'm even more excited, here's the list of possible classes I really could get into:
Freakshows and Racialized Performance
Healing and Performance
Foundations of Visual Culture
Time and Performance: Tradition and Temporality
The Spring has some interesting ones as well mainly a class all on Antonin Artaud and the Psychopathology of Expression. I'm such a dork for being legitamately excited about that, but I am. Yay theater of cruelty!
So the question is: What the hell do I want to focus on in my studies? I know I have a project due at the end of the spring, a big ass project, but I have no clue as to what direction I am going in. It seems half the people I know have some what of an idea and this disturbs me. Eh I'll figure it out, I normally do.
The one bad thing about this, I'm going to become something of a recluse till a year from now. Which may be a good thing. I have one hope and one dread that I'm not mentioning here as I don't really want to spell either of them out. Both might actually happen, which depending on their order will either be bearable or not so much so.
Well it is officially time for me to start becoming pretentious. Let the grad school party year begin!
I had orrientation yesterday. The faculty is wonderfully nice and facinating (even the areas I have no interest in drew me in). I met a bunch of people, several of whom seem to be just as freaked out as I am about the whole grad program at Tisch, so yay for solidarity. I believe a support group is in the making, a support group that goes out and drinks and watches performance art and then drinks some more to forget the naked man dancing in the tub of fritos. This is just a guess.
The one consitant thing we were told is that this summer is going to be hell for all of us. Well... I do have tons of reading, but I'm kind of use to that. The only two things that freak me out, honestly freak me out, are the second class I'm taking and the fact that in a year I will have a masters and have just finished a major performance art project (which I have no clue as to what the bloody hell I'm doing).
So the class that scares me. Ok first off when I got the course book I wanted to work with the ECA workshop but due to personal problems and apathy I never handed in my proposal (or wrote it for that matter), the only other class I thought was worth checking out would have been the Law as Performance class. Where they look at legal procedings and examin the performance aspects of the whole thing. Interesting to me that is. Did I sign up for it? Nope. I went and signed up for Black Womanist Spirituality in Popular American Music.
...
Yes. That is my first class after I get through the intro course (which starts tomorrow). Ok so some of you might be wondering exactly why the hell I picked this? Alright, the course description was boring (hence me going for the law thing) but the way the professor described the course I was rivited.
The class will deal with black feminist thought/politics (which is, in my opinion, a lot more interesting than standard feminist philosophy), and how it reacts to the culture of Christianity and religions contesting Christianity (Sengreia, Voudun {VOODOO!}). So again, why am I taking this? I love music. I also love social and cultural studies (hence the occasional passionate punk essays I spout off). I also, while not being overtly religious, am interested in regligion of all types. I like hearing people talk about their religious beliefs and so forth. I also like it when I can add something to the conversation, so um... this is kind of me trying to add something to the conversation... In any case I'm going to take a class that promises to be incredibly fascinating about a subject I have had very little formal training in. This is going to be another one of those situations like when I went from no philosophy courses to jumping into an advance class on modern French philosophers.
The other class I'm taking is a course on performance and theater in New York City. I'm going to go watch performances of all types and write (critically and theoretically) about them. This class will be fun. I was going to take a theoretical class on technology and theater but decided that I really wanted to get a head start on writing about theater. Also it's a way to go out and see odd shows of all sorts. So as of right now I am excited.
Once the fall swings around I'm even more excited, here's the list of possible classes I really could get into:
Freakshows and Racialized Performance
Healing and Performance
Foundations of Visual Culture
Time and Performance: Tradition and Temporality
The Spring has some interesting ones as well mainly a class all on Antonin Artaud and the Psychopathology of Expression. I'm such a dork for being legitamately excited about that, but I am. Yay theater of cruelty!
So the question is: What the hell do I want to focus on in my studies? I know I have a project due at the end of the spring, a big ass project, but I have no clue as to what direction I am going in. It seems half the people I know have some what of an idea and this disturbs me. Eh I'll figure it out, I normally do.
The one bad thing about this, I'm going to become something of a recluse till a year from now. Which may be a good thing. I have one hope and one dread that I'm not mentioning here as I don't really want to spell either of them out. Both might actually happen, which depending on their order will either be bearable or not so much so.
Sunday, June 18
Aisle 33
Aisle 33: Tasty Beverage Aisle.
Ok so short preamble. Let this aisle hence forth be the aisle I make any semi-inebriated posts onto.
That being said, no I am not currently drunk. I am craving a cury though and it is ten of five as I type this out. I honestly don't think I can do the whole stay out at the bar till late in the three am hour all that often, as I get home way late. I'm sure once I start doing things I'm going to get really tired and end up needing sleep. These things happen, though I'd rather they not.
So why am I meandering through this aisle? To put it succintly I had a rather nice night out tonight and felt like commenting on that. Sure things are interesting, and by interesting I mean to say they are weird as fuck (though honestly how weird is fuck?), but regardless happy fun times.
Oh I had more to say only I'm really, really tired so the waxing prosaicly will have to wait for another time.
Ok so short preamble. Let this aisle hence forth be the aisle I make any semi-inebriated posts onto.
That being said, no I am not currently drunk. I am craving a cury though and it is ten of five as I type this out. I honestly don't think I can do the whole stay out at the bar till late in the three am hour all that often, as I get home way late. I'm sure once I start doing things I'm going to get really tired and end up needing sleep. These things happen, though I'd rather they not.
So why am I meandering through this aisle? To put it succintly I had a rather nice night out tonight and felt like commenting on that. Sure things are interesting, and by interesting I mean to say they are weird as fuck (though honestly how weird is fuck?), but regardless happy fun times.
Oh I had more to say only I'm really, really tired so the waxing prosaicly will have to wait for another time.
Saturday, June 10
Aisle 8
Aisle 8: Candy Aisle
Ah yes candy aisle. What love lorn things does the fuzzball have to ejaculate tonight? Actually, none. I just enjoy candy. I did, some how make an ex-potential jealous though which makes no sense, as the way I did so was by talking about a totally different ex-potential. I find this a bit silly as neither of the X-Ps know each other nor is it likely that anything will progress any farther than a hand shake and a hug between myself and either of them. Not that I wouldn't mind something more to happen but that's the way the cards were delt so it seems I must move on.
Moving on. It's a hard thing to do. It took me, what, three years to move on from Jill? (yeah I'll name her name as well it's hard to cover up her influence on my life). At least three years. Actually lets count this from the official first break up, ok so it has been six years since our initial relationship died. Six years from the day when I planed out a marriage and a future with a girl I loved dearly. Six years. Of course through out half of those six years I was still occasionally seeing her and at one point we officially got back together twice. Nuts for this girl I was. So what happened? What was the breaking point? I actually don't think I really ever did her justice when explaining the situation between us. I use to just pass the whole affair off as a case of infidelity, which it really wasn't. Oh there was the constant fear that she'd go off with what ever shiny thing got dangled infront of her face but she was the typical theater girl who fell hopelessly inlove with any stage love interest she was placed with. Also most of the relationship was "long distance" (like an hour drive, which seems like nothing now), so temptation was ever present for taking the convinent relationships that popped up on her.
However that was not the main reason that the relationship was finally cut asunder, and caused me to refuse contact with her for several years. The actual reason was because she was taking me for granted. I'm no great catch, I'll admit that. I'm not the most handsome guy, I'm not the athletic Greecian god people seek out, I've also been in the position of poor starving artist/student for most of my life, so I'm not really all set on being successful any time soon. I am however one of the legitamately nice guys you will meet. Now those just stumbling upon this are possibly thinking, what a pretentious fuck! But look I spent the better part of my life playing myself down. I know I'm not the perfect guy, I know I'm not the guy people would leave their boyfriends for, hell it's been proven that multiple girls feel no remorse for cheating on me. I am however nice. I'm also fucking awesome and weird. I'm not your normal guy, I'm almost a flash back to when guys were coy and courtious.
In any case let me continue. While I know I'm not the best out there, I also know I'm far better than the best tends to be in the long run, and I realised that putting up with all the shit I initially put up with was not a good thing. I delt with a girl who would use me as a butt of jokes, would rather spend time with her friends than anytime with me alone, and had the audacity to call me a snob when I was going through a really bad time. I am no snob. I may think you are below me but that is because you problibly think you're supperior and are infact an idiot. Every problem in the relationship was mine and mine alone. Some how me being angry about her infidelities was turned around to make me the bad guy, how she did that I'll never know but I give her credit that was sneaky as all fuck.
Now this paints a bad picture of her. Keep in mind that she was going through a horrilbe experience at home and at school. Now she seems to have changed, possibly grew up some. Not saying I'd scoop her up in a second, oh no no scooping with this one. But she is actually turning into the woman I originally knew she'd turn out to be all those years ago. The odd thing is I find no attraction to that person. Yes she left a mark on me, it was an intense mark, I will always remember her good and bad. But I can now see her from a new angle. We are different people. I'm no longer a door mat to be used by what ever pretty face shows some interest in me (this is a fairly new development, some may not have seen this in action yet). I am actually for once in my life feeling good about myself enough to know I'm worth some thing to some one. I guess in a way I took for granted that at one point she did think the world of me, I'd love to have that again, just with some one new. In time this will happen I'm sure of it. I can't be single all my life can I?
Eh, I've gotten a bit apathetic though about fighting for the affections of people I find attractive. If it's going to happen then it will happen, why should I go and try to wedge myself in there? More so why should I try this when I get no real definate signs of any return feelings? This has been the case with several girls over the past four years. Only twice did I screw up and miss out on two potentially great relationships where both girls actually were interested in me. One I'm sort of glad it turned out the way it did as she and I are far better as friends, plus who would we complain to about the idiots who won't date us? The other one I kind of wish I lowered my moral code low enough to have taken a chance with her. But nope, she had a boyfriend and though she wanted to leave him for me I knew how that would have played out. She'd leave her boyfriend of four years date me and eventually the boyfriend would have won her back from me leaving me back into the single world. Eventually the couple would break up on their own and thus ends a possible good thing. But Carl couldn't you two have tried to get back together? Yeah I guess we cold have, but we grew apart, and the constant going back and forth on who she wanted to be with kind of made me question wheather she knew what she actually wanted.
All this talk and it goes no where. I really wanted to talk about candy though. Actually to end on a positive note, I think a change is in the air. Either a new girl is going to pop up or something interesting will unfold with a very old friend, that none of you reading this know (well maybe one... but I doubt it). Meh, we'll see what happens over the next few months. I may be lonely now but it can't last forever.
Ah yes candy aisle. What love lorn things does the fuzzball have to ejaculate tonight? Actually, none. I just enjoy candy. I did, some how make an ex-potential jealous though which makes no sense, as the way I did so was by talking about a totally different ex-potential. I find this a bit silly as neither of the X-Ps know each other nor is it likely that anything will progress any farther than a hand shake and a hug between myself and either of them. Not that I wouldn't mind something more to happen but that's the way the cards were delt so it seems I must move on.
Moving on. It's a hard thing to do. It took me, what, three years to move on from Jill? (yeah I'll name her name as well it's hard to cover up her influence on my life). At least three years. Actually lets count this from the official first break up, ok so it has been six years since our initial relationship died. Six years from the day when I planed out a marriage and a future with a girl I loved dearly. Six years. Of course through out half of those six years I was still occasionally seeing her and at one point we officially got back together twice. Nuts for this girl I was. So what happened? What was the breaking point? I actually don't think I really ever did her justice when explaining the situation between us. I use to just pass the whole affair off as a case of infidelity, which it really wasn't. Oh there was the constant fear that she'd go off with what ever shiny thing got dangled infront of her face but she was the typical theater girl who fell hopelessly inlove with any stage love interest she was placed with. Also most of the relationship was "long distance" (like an hour drive, which seems like nothing now), so temptation was ever present for taking the convinent relationships that popped up on her.
However that was not the main reason that the relationship was finally cut asunder, and caused me to refuse contact with her for several years. The actual reason was because she was taking me for granted. I'm no great catch, I'll admit that. I'm not the most handsome guy, I'm not the athletic Greecian god people seek out, I've also been in the position of poor starving artist/student for most of my life, so I'm not really all set on being successful any time soon. I am however one of the legitamately nice guys you will meet. Now those just stumbling upon this are possibly thinking, what a pretentious fuck! But look I spent the better part of my life playing myself down. I know I'm not the perfect guy, I know I'm not the guy people would leave their boyfriends for, hell it's been proven that multiple girls feel no remorse for cheating on me. I am however nice. I'm also fucking awesome and weird. I'm not your normal guy, I'm almost a flash back to when guys were coy and courtious.
In any case let me continue. While I know I'm not the best out there, I also know I'm far better than the best tends to be in the long run, and I realised that putting up with all the shit I initially put up with was not a good thing. I delt with a girl who would use me as a butt of jokes, would rather spend time with her friends than anytime with me alone, and had the audacity to call me a snob when I was going through a really bad time. I am no snob. I may think you are below me but that is because you problibly think you're supperior and are infact an idiot. Every problem in the relationship was mine and mine alone. Some how me being angry about her infidelities was turned around to make me the bad guy, how she did that I'll never know but I give her credit that was sneaky as all fuck.
Now this paints a bad picture of her. Keep in mind that she was going through a horrilbe experience at home and at school. Now she seems to have changed, possibly grew up some. Not saying I'd scoop her up in a second, oh no no scooping with this one. But she is actually turning into the woman I originally knew she'd turn out to be all those years ago. The odd thing is I find no attraction to that person. Yes she left a mark on me, it was an intense mark, I will always remember her good and bad. But I can now see her from a new angle. We are different people. I'm no longer a door mat to be used by what ever pretty face shows some interest in me (this is a fairly new development, some may not have seen this in action yet). I am actually for once in my life feeling good about myself enough to know I'm worth some thing to some one. I guess in a way I took for granted that at one point she did think the world of me, I'd love to have that again, just with some one new. In time this will happen I'm sure of it. I can't be single all my life can I?
Eh, I've gotten a bit apathetic though about fighting for the affections of people I find attractive. If it's going to happen then it will happen, why should I go and try to wedge myself in there? More so why should I try this when I get no real definate signs of any return feelings? This has been the case with several girls over the past four years. Only twice did I screw up and miss out on two potentially great relationships where both girls actually were interested in me. One I'm sort of glad it turned out the way it did as she and I are far better as friends, plus who would we complain to about the idiots who won't date us? The other one I kind of wish I lowered my moral code low enough to have taken a chance with her. But nope, she had a boyfriend and though she wanted to leave him for me I knew how that would have played out. She'd leave her boyfriend of four years date me and eventually the boyfriend would have won her back from me leaving me back into the single world. Eventually the couple would break up on their own and thus ends a possible good thing. But Carl couldn't you two have tried to get back together? Yeah I guess we cold have, but we grew apart, and the constant going back and forth on who she wanted to be with kind of made me question wheather she knew what she actually wanted.
All this talk and it goes no where. I really wanted to talk about candy though. Actually to end on a positive note, I think a change is in the air. Either a new girl is going to pop up or something interesting will unfold with a very old friend, that none of you reading this know (well maybe one... but I doubt it). Meh, we'll see what happens over the next few months. I may be lonely now but it can't last forever.
Tuesday, June 6
Aisle 34 and 3/4
Aisle 34 and 3/4 : The Bargin Music Bin
I'm pretending to pack right now. Actually I've already wrote that. I had a pretty good entry lined up but clicked the wrong spot and lost the whole entry. So let me start all over. Yay.
Basically I was explaining how I was sitting in the dark, sipping a guiness and listening to random songs from my computer. One of the songs happened to be X's "The Unheard Music." I really enjoy X. I'm sure when I was a wee laddie my sister had them playing on her record player, I vaguely remember the songs from way back then. Though sadly I didn't get into X till very recently. I recieved a nice mix cd that had "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" and fell in love with that song (also helped that the mix was given to me by a lovely woman from Atlanta who I adore to no end).
A little bit later I caught Penelope Spheeris' film Decline of the Western Civilization Part I. Decline Part I was the first instalment of three films (followed by Declines Part II and III). Part II delt with the metal scene of the mid eighties, following bands like Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper and Moterhead's Lemmy (yay!). Part I delt with the kids in the L.A. punk movement of 1981, while the third film was more of a follow up on the punk scene in the 1998 and was devistatingly depressing. Supposedly the second film is hillarious, however the first (and possibly the third) are not funny at all, well ok maybe a bit.
For a reference point Spheeris also directed the Roger Corman produced film Suburbia (not to be confused with the great play/ok film SubUrbia of the mid nineties), and the ever loved Wayne's World. However the Declines were straight forward documentaries.
Decline I delt with the punk explosion on the early eighties in L.A. with bands like the Circle Jerks, The Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Fear, the Germs and X. But the film wasn't just about the bands, actually it delt more with the social aspects of the punk movement. Giving the kids who were cast aside by modern society a voice. We see the shitty apartments and abandoned warehouses the bands and the kids who followed them lived in. Live performances are shown, interviews are given but there is no real feeling of the bands being any better off than their fans. The members of the Germs live in this crappy apartment and the interview is conducted while they make a really small and simple diner. We hear more about things that have shaped their lives than what their music is about. There's a great annecdote given by the sister of the lead singer of the Germs about how she and another person (her brother or possibly his girlfriend) found a dead house painter in their parents back yard that possibly was sitting there for several days.
Out of all the bands interviewed it seemed that X was the best put together and the one that was most concerned with music above anything else. The guitarist (Billy Zoom, who in the concert scenes looks like a throw back to the rockabilly 50s) was very, very short in his answers and came off like a bastard because he didn't seem like he even wanted to be on film, he just wanted to play music. While the lead and bassist John Doe was focusing all his attention on how the band practices and doesn't give a crap about what other punks thought about them. X, when you hear them don't sound like the heavy ear splitting band we've come to expect from punk. Their music is put together very purposely and sounds pretty clean (raw but clean). It's their lyrics that give away their punk attitude. With songs like "Johnny Hit and Run Paulene" which sang of a serial rapist ("l.a. bus doors open kicking both doors open when it rested on 6th street that's when he drug a girl inside he was spreading her legs and didn't understand dying she was still awake") or "Nausea" which sang about, well, having one craptastic hang over ("today you're gonna be so sick so sick you'll prop your forehead on the sink say oh christ oh jesus christ my head's gonna crack like a bank tonight you'll fall asleep in clothes-so late like a candy bar wrapped up for lunch that's all you get to taste poverty and spit poverty").
Their songs delt with the ugly side of life at the time. Most of the bands back then sang about the ugly side of life. Compare that to the nineties and the curent punk and you get a "what the fuck" whip lash. Let's compare shall we?
Dawn of punk:
Sex Pistols- Pretty Vacant: " There's no point in asking you'll get no reply
Oh just remember a don't decide
I got no reason it's too all much
You'll always find me out to lunch
We're out on lunch"
General feeling of apathy and nhilism. There's no future so who give a fuck what happens.
80's punk:
Dead Kennedys- Terminal Preppy: " I want a wife with tits
Who just smiles all the time
In my centerfold world
Filled with Springsteen and wine
Some day I'll have power
Some day I'll have boats
A tract in some suburb
With Thanksgivings to host
[Chorus]
I'm a terminal terminal terminal preppie
terminal terminal terminal preppie
terminal terminal terminal preppie"
The eighties were the age of gimme gimme, and the music here reflected the pretention of the age as well as the fact that uglyness still happened (see Johnny Hit and Run Paulene).
90's punk:
The Offspring- Self Esteem: " We make plans to go out at night
I wait till 2 then I turn out the light
All this rejection's got me so low
If she keeps it up I just might tell her so"
Here we see punk moving from looking at the uglieness of the rest of the world and mainly looking at the uglieness within. Lot's of songs about low self esteem, and love loss.
2000's punk:
Flashlight Brown-Ready to Roll: " We may not know any girls
But we got graph paper guiding our way
We got confusion, delusion
And all of Friday night to kill.
That was by far the best time that we ever had.
That was by far the best time that we ever had.
Get to the tavern have a few beers
dressed up and ready to roll
Pick up an Elvin bar whore
dressed up and ready to roll"
Ok well this isn't all that accurate but I couldn't bring myself to put an emo song up here. So here we have the self esteem issue pressed further. Now we see songs about being a loser and not fitting in. There's no fight left, they just sit and take it. So in the 00's you get songs that either showcase being an uber nerd OR having your heart ripped out by a girl (see every Saves the Day song EVER same with Dashboard and half of the bands out there).
Yes punk has delt with complaining, but we've gone from complaining about society to complaining about ourselves. Why? What caused this shift? It was a gradual switch and in no way is all encompassing as you can still find social minded punk bands out there but the ones who do sing about the ugly side of life look mainly towards the government. Anti-Flag put out a fairly decent album (Terror State) which was filled with political songs, at the turn of the decade Bad Religion put out "New America" and Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys fame is constantly putting out politically oriented rants, as does Henry Rollins. But it's all clean. Clean and well produced. And like I said it mainly concerns itself with the government and not the people of this nation. Yes that's right the people. Ok well Henry Rollins does give a great rant on everything and everyone that pisses him off (parents who can't control their children is a great topic he's ranted on).
What is up with out society now? We have relenquished control to our technology. Just about everyone has a cell phone, about a quarter of our conversations are conducted online (via instant messanger, email and message boards). Our nation has a large sense of apathy towards what's going on. I mean we are in the midst of a war, right? We are in a war and the most common complaint I've seen has been about how annoying those support the troops magnets are on cars. What. The. Fuck. We don't want this war, every one says this. But WHY don't YOU want this war? Do you have an answer? Is it a real one or one you heard John Stewart say? (And let me just say I love John Stewart, he and Colbert are two of the best social satarists of our day) Do I want this war? No, not really, I don't want any war really. I was against our involvement in the middle east way back when I was in elementary school. I saw horrible things happening in the streets of our own country, all the poverty and (at the time) hate crimes that went down. Why help another country when our nation was hurting from the inside? And in helping other countires we ended up fucking things up and setting our own land up for a giant fall (i.e. right now 'n' days).
The political world is something that should constantly be questioned, yeah I agree with that, and kudos to the bands and artists that stand up to the government, in their own ways. However, where is the social commentary? The current view of the human condition. The closest thing the punk world has to dealing with the human condition is in emo music and really great, but obscure bands. Emo comments on how our society is fucking hopeless at connecting with one another. I mean why all this heart ache and despair over a relationship ending that possibly was no longer than three months old? The closest thing in music we have to social commentary can be found in rap. Yeah there's the crappy "Look at me I'm so rich now I'm going to sing about my benz" rap songs but there are also songs from the Dirty South and the East and West sides that deal with relevant issues that effect us imediately. I don't want to make the whole affairs of the world seem like they don't effect us, just what happens in our country effects us much more than the affairs else where. There's still alot of racisim, alot of class strife, and just basic ignorance and intolerance all around.
I'm surprise there isn't a larger presence of gay and lesbian musicians out there telling the world to fuck off and let them screw whoever the hell they want. I mean ok looking at the basic rights of all Americans one of those rights is the right to happieness, and if having sex with some one of the same gender as you makes you happy who's to argue? Oh it's against the bible? Well excuse me, I didn't realize the constitution was part of the bible, I thought it was a sepreate and unrelated document. Silly me.
So to wrap this up. Punk has gone from biting social comentary to self depreciation of the individual in thirty years. Way to go.
The next phase is to just sing songs about nothing at all. Which in a way will fit perfectly into our society.
So apologies to those I inadvertantly offended as my rant kind of veered off the beaten path of where I originally ended. But that happens when you accidentally deleate a post. You get annoyed and complain about everything under the sun.
I'm pretending to pack right now. Actually I've already wrote that. I had a pretty good entry lined up but clicked the wrong spot and lost the whole entry. So let me start all over. Yay.
Basically I was explaining how I was sitting in the dark, sipping a guiness and listening to random songs from my computer. One of the songs happened to be X's "The Unheard Music." I really enjoy X. I'm sure when I was a wee laddie my sister had them playing on her record player, I vaguely remember the songs from way back then. Though sadly I didn't get into X till very recently. I recieved a nice mix cd that had "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" and fell in love with that song (also helped that the mix was given to me by a lovely woman from Atlanta who I adore to no end).
A little bit later I caught Penelope Spheeris' film Decline of the Western Civilization Part I. Decline Part I was the first instalment of three films (followed by Declines Part II and III). Part II delt with the metal scene of the mid eighties, following bands like Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper and Moterhead's Lemmy (yay!). Part I delt with the kids in the L.A. punk movement of 1981, while the third film was more of a follow up on the punk scene in the 1998 and was devistatingly depressing. Supposedly the second film is hillarious, however the first (and possibly the third) are not funny at all, well ok maybe a bit.
For a reference point Spheeris also directed the Roger Corman produced film Suburbia (not to be confused with the great play/ok film SubUrbia of the mid nineties), and the ever loved Wayne's World. However the Declines were straight forward documentaries.
Decline I delt with the punk explosion on the early eighties in L.A. with bands like the Circle Jerks, The Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Fear, the Germs and X. But the film wasn't just about the bands, actually it delt more with the social aspects of the punk movement. Giving the kids who were cast aside by modern society a voice. We see the shitty apartments and abandoned warehouses the bands and the kids who followed them lived in. Live performances are shown, interviews are given but there is no real feeling of the bands being any better off than their fans. The members of the Germs live in this crappy apartment and the interview is conducted while they make a really small and simple diner. We hear more about things that have shaped their lives than what their music is about. There's a great annecdote given by the sister of the lead singer of the Germs about how she and another person (her brother or possibly his girlfriend) found a dead house painter in their parents back yard that possibly was sitting there for several days.
Out of all the bands interviewed it seemed that X was the best put together and the one that was most concerned with music above anything else. The guitarist (Billy Zoom, who in the concert scenes looks like a throw back to the rockabilly 50s) was very, very short in his answers and came off like a bastard because he didn't seem like he even wanted to be on film, he just wanted to play music. While the lead and bassist John Doe was focusing all his attention on how the band practices and doesn't give a crap about what other punks thought about them. X, when you hear them don't sound like the heavy ear splitting band we've come to expect from punk. Their music is put together very purposely and sounds pretty clean (raw but clean). It's their lyrics that give away their punk attitude. With songs like "Johnny Hit and Run Paulene" which sang of a serial rapist ("l.a. bus doors open kicking both doors open when it rested on 6th street that's when he drug a girl inside he was spreading her legs and didn't understand dying she was still awake") or "Nausea" which sang about, well, having one craptastic hang over ("today you're gonna be so sick so sick you'll prop your forehead on the sink say oh christ oh jesus christ my head's gonna crack like a bank tonight you'll fall asleep in clothes-so late like a candy bar wrapped up for lunch that's all you get to taste poverty and spit poverty").
Their songs delt with the ugly side of life at the time. Most of the bands back then sang about the ugly side of life. Compare that to the nineties and the curent punk and you get a "what the fuck" whip lash. Let's compare shall we?
Dawn of punk:
Sex Pistols- Pretty Vacant: " There's no point in asking you'll get no reply
Oh just remember a don't decide
I got no reason it's too all much
You'll always find me out to lunch
We're out on lunch"
General feeling of apathy and nhilism. There's no future so who give a fuck what happens.
80's punk:
Dead Kennedys- Terminal Preppy: " I want a wife with tits
Who just smiles all the time
In my centerfold world
Filled with Springsteen and wine
Some day I'll have power
Some day I'll have boats
A tract in some suburb
With Thanksgivings to host
[Chorus]
I'm a terminal terminal terminal preppie
terminal terminal terminal preppie
terminal terminal terminal preppie"
The eighties were the age of gimme gimme, and the music here reflected the pretention of the age as well as the fact that uglyness still happened (see Johnny Hit and Run Paulene).
90's punk:
The Offspring- Self Esteem: " We make plans to go out at night
I wait till 2 then I turn out the light
All this rejection's got me so low
If she keeps it up I just might tell her so"
Here we see punk moving from looking at the uglieness of the rest of the world and mainly looking at the uglieness within. Lot's of songs about low self esteem, and love loss.
2000's punk:
Flashlight Brown-Ready to Roll: " We may not know any girls
But we got graph paper guiding our way
We got confusion, delusion
And all of Friday night to kill.
That was by far the best time that we ever had.
That was by far the best time that we ever had.
Get to the tavern have a few beers
dressed up and ready to roll
Pick up an Elvin bar whore
dressed up and ready to roll"
Ok well this isn't all that accurate but I couldn't bring myself to put an emo song up here. So here we have the self esteem issue pressed further. Now we see songs about being a loser and not fitting in. There's no fight left, they just sit and take it. So in the 00's you get songs that either showcase being an uber nerd OR having your heart ripped out by a girl (see every Saves the Day song EVER same with Dashboard and half of the bands out there).
Yes punk has delt with complaining, but we've gone from complaining about society to complaining about ourselves. Why? What caused this shift? It was a gradual switch and in no way is all encompassing as you can still find social minded punk bands out there but the ones who do sing about the ugly side of life look mainly towards the government. Anti-Flag put out a fairly decent album (Terror State) which was filled with political songs, at the turn of the decade Bad Religion put out "New America" and Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys fame is constantly putting out politically oriented rants, as does Henry Rollins. But it's all clean. Clean and well produced. And like I said it mainly concerns itself with the government and not the people of this nation. Yes that's right the people. Ok well Henry Rollins does give a great rant on everything and everyone that pisses him off (parents who can't control their children is a great topic he's ranted on).
What is up with out society now? We have relenquished control to our technology. Just about everyone has a cell phone, about a quarter of our conversations are conducted online (via instant messanger, email and message boards). Our nation has a large sense of apathy towards what's going on. I mean we are in the midst of a war, right? We are in a war and the most common complaint I've seen has been about how annoying those support the troops magnets are on cars. What. The. Fuck. We don't want this war, every one says this. But WHY don't YOU want this war? Do you have an answer? Is it a real one or one you heard John Stewart say? (And let me just say I love John Stewart, he and Colbert are two of the best social satarists of our day) Do I want this war? No, not really, I don't want any war really. I was against our involvement in the middle east way back when I was in elementary school. I saw horrible things happening in the streets of our own country, all the poverty and (at the time) hate crimes that went down. Why help another country when our nation was hurting from the inside? And in helping other countires we ended up fucking things up and setting our own land up for a giant fall (i.e. right now 'n' days).
The political world is something that should constantly be questioned, yeah I agree with that, and kudos to the bands and artists that stand up to the government, in their own ways. However, where is the social commentary? The current view of the human condition. The closest thing the punk world has to dealing with the human condition is in emo music and really great, but obscure bands. Emo comments on how our society is fucking hopeless at connecting with one another. I mean why all this heart ache and despair over a relationship ending that possibly was no longer than three months old? The closest thing in music we have to social commentary can be found in rap. Yeah there's the crappy "Look at me I'm so rich now I'm going to sing about my benz" rap songs but there are also songs from the Dirty South and the East and West sides that deal with relevant issues that effect us imediately. I don't want to make the whole affairs of the world seem like they don't effect us, just what happens in our country effects us much more than the affairs else where. There's still alot of racisim, alot of class strife, and just basic ignorance and intolerance all around.
I'm surprise there isn't a larger presence of gay and lesbian musicians out there telling the world to fuck off and let them screw whoever the hell they want. I mean ok looking at the basic rights of all Americans one of those rights is the right to happieness, and if having sex with some one of the same gender as you makes you happy who's to argue? Oh it's against the bible? Well excuse me, I didn't realize the constitution was part of the bible, I thought it was a sepreate and unrelated document. Silly me.
So to wrap this up. Punk has gone from biting social comentary to self depreciation of the individual in thirty years. Way to go.
The next phase is to just sing songs about nothing at all. Which in a way will fit perfectly into our society.
So apologies to those I inadvertantly offended as my rant kind of veered off the beaten path of where I originally ended. But that happens when you accidentally deleate a post. You get annoyed and complain about everything under the sun.
Thursday, June 1
Aisle 16
Aisle 16: Greating Cards
Well, I was going about the large task of packing my room up for the great move of 2006 and, as is customary, I came across all the letters my uber-ex sent me. Letters, cards, notes, poems, short stories, photos and so forth, all of them. I decided the smart thing would be to go through them all. Read each and every letter and then throw them out. Kind of a great purging of all that I'm leaving behind (i.e. my past). Now these letters spanned from 98' to 2000, which was the initial phase of the realationship (there were many break ups and patch ups between us), so all were written while I was still in high school and she was just starting college.
It's a depressing task, going through all those memories. Each letter further proving that some one once thought the world of me, yet could still be capable of cheating on me... that never added up for me, but bah it's in the past and the past is in the garbage bag in my bedroom. My bedroom, coincidentally enough is not were I'll be sleeping. All the crap I needed to shift through has been placed on my bed, and I don't feel up to pushing it back on the ground in order to move it back onto the bed tomorrow. So it's either couch or floor tonight. I may go for couch.
Young love is an odd beast. It seems to be constantly filled with both parties constantly reminding the other of their love. Futures are planned out in great detail, and time apart is made into such a large scale deal that it could almost kill. Call me a jaded, bitter asshole but I can't see that happening again. At least not as intensly as it once was.
Oh to top it off I found one of the letters where she mentioned us moving away from CT together and having cats and kids. It was at this point that I sort of already proposed (but as I had no ring I gave her a cheap theater wedding band, it was the closest thing to a cracker jack box ring), it's odd thinking that while in high school I was willing to marry some one. The me that is now, was greatly shaped by that relationship, it screwed me the hell up. Most of the screw ups happened after the age of letters ended, so thankfully I already got rid of all the emails that made up that era.
Relationships. I suck at them. I suck starting them and I suck ending them. It's the middle part I'm kind of not sucky at. I keep on wanting a relationship but I have to ask why? Why bother? It seems the only people (with one or two exceptions) I can get interested in me are people I have no interest in dating, and the ones I actually wouldn't mind dating well... stuff comes up and gets in the way, that's life. So my choice is either settle for crap or say fuck it. My answer is fuck both those choices. I like neither of them. So instead I'm going to have to go to the grave yard and dig me up some corpses to make the perfect woman!!! Ok I've watched Bride of Frankenstein one too many times, ya think?
One thing I did notice that in the letters the guy painted (which I guess would be me) was sweet, considerate and passionately romantic. Like hollywood romantic (only not fake). Am I still that? I don't know about the romantic bit but I do know I'm a hell of alot more sarcastic and (oddly) honest now. So that's a plus.
Ugh... I don't feel like finishing this. Let's just leave it at I managed to depress myself a bit and I can't sleep on my bed. Rock on me.
Well, I was going about the large task of packing my room up for the great move of 2006 and, as is customary, I came across all the letters my uber-ex sent me. Letters, cards, notes, poems, short stories, photos and so forth, all of them. I decided the smart thing would be to go through them all. Read each and every letter and then throw them out. Kind of a great purging of all that I'm leaving behind (i.e. my past). Now these letters spanned from 98' to 2000, which was the initial phase of the realationship (there were many break ups and patch ups between us), so all were written while I was still in high school and she was just starting college.
It's a depressing task, going through all those memories. Each letter further proving that some one once thought the world of me, yet could still be capable of cheating on me... that never added up for me, but bah it's in the past and the past is in the garbage bag in my bedroom. My bedroom, coincidentally enough is not were I'll be sleeping. All the crap I needed to shift through has been placed on my bed, and I don't feel up to pushing it back on the ground in order to move it back onto the bed tomorrow. So it's either couch or floor tonight. I may go for couch.
Young love is an odd beast. It seems to be constantly filled with both parties constantly reminding the other of their love. Futures are planned out in great detail, and time apart is made into such a large scale deal that it could almost kill. Call me a jaded, bitter asshole but I can't see that happening again. At least not as intensly as it once was.
Oh to top it off I found one of the letters where she mentioned us moving away from CT together and having cats and kids. It was at this point that I sort of already proposed (but as I had no ring I gave her a cheap theater wedding band, it was the closest thing to a cracker jack box ring), it's odd thinking that while in high school I was willing to marry some one. The me that is now, was greatly shaped by that relationship, it screwed me the hell up. Most of the screw ups happened after the age of letters ended, so thankfully I already got rid of all the emails that made up that era.
Relationships. I suck at them. I suck starting them and I suck ending them. It's the middle part I'm kind of not sucky at. I keep on wanting a relationship but I have to ask why? Why bother? It seems the only people (with one or two exceptions) I can get interested in me are people I have no interest in dating, and the ones I actually wouldn't mind dating well... stuff comes up and gets in the way, that's life. So my choice is either settle for crap or say fuck it. My answer is fuck both those choices. I like neither of them. So instead I'm going to have to go to the grave yard and dig me up some corpses to make the perfect woman!!! Ok I've watched Bride of Frankenstein one too many times, ya think?
One thing I did notice that in the letters the guy painted (which I guess would be me) was sweet, considerate and passionately romantic. Like hollywood romantic (only not fake). Am I still that? I don't know about the romantic bit but I do know I'm a hell of alot more sarcastic and (oddly) honest now. So that's a plus.
Ugh... I don't feel like finishing this. Let's just leave it at I managed to depress myself a bit and I can't sleep on my bed. Rock on me.
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