One Month?
Damn, it’s been awhile. I’ve been wrapped up in summer apathy, I guess? Not wanting to do anything, but being pissed off I haven’t accomplished anything.
I’m still writing, but like all good writers, I’ve abandoned the lot of them. One I figure would only be right as a TV show, and that…well, the TV industry isn’t really open to indie ideas. Except maybe FX as seen with It’s Always Sunny. Even then, I don’t nearly have enough to my name. Maybe I can write a book and be invited to Oprah? A boy can dream.
I saw Nacho Libre and Click. Missed Superman Returns. I thought the former two were pretty damn good, far exceeding expectations. I’ve heard a lot of people saying they cried after seeing Click. I guess I’m a heartless bastard.
Uhh, shit. I haven’t really been in touch with too much music besides Luscious Jackson. Who now have a majority of their songs in my favorites list.
Damn, I guess it’s been kinda boring around here. Almost unworthy of an entry. But with my standards, very worthy.
Saviors of the Race
A few years ago, I didn't like John Mayer, Norah Jones, Elliott Smith, and Ben Folds. Nowadays, they're the only ones I do like, and in the case of Smith, the only one who I think could've changed the world if not for his early death.
Now I'm fans of all of them. They redeemed themselves, I guess. Norah Jones seems to be cool if you ignore some of the deliberate pleasing-the-masses direction some of her songs seem to go. John Mayer's last album is truly a great addition to his pretty mediocre repertoir, excluding some of his singles, which have got to be some of my guilty pop pleasures. The only thing I had liked about Ben Folds was his Ben Folds Five's Brick. Now you can't stop the guy.
Then there's Elliott Smith. This guy can't make a bad piece of music. I disliked him after hearing he got an oscar nomination for Miss Misery, a song I considered far overrated, even if I'd barely heard of it. Come on, I was young. Anyway, that became a favorite, as well as a hell of a lot of his other songs, and he's probably one of my favorite artists now. So today, I've been hearing a lot of him. He's really great. Go get some songs, a few recommendations: A Passing Feeling, Miss Misery, Angeles, Memory Lane, and Don't Go Down. Of course, I haven't even heard two of his albums. Looks like I have something to buy this week.
Blood On My Fingers
About a year ago, I really got the urge to be a writer. Screenwriter was my goal. I kind of lost it, then gained it…then lost it. I'm still into it, though. Just…yeah.
I haven't been on here because I've been using www.zohowriter.com to write my novels. So usually, when I wanted to write online, I came here. Now I go there. Not for the random musings I do here though. Only for fiction. I'm actually quite intrigued of the idea of doing some kind of non fiction book, though. Maybe on music or something.
Top 40 Songs of All Time Part…3?
Yep, again. I got into my older albums, and this is more spread out.
- 40.Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit
- 39. Elton John – Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
- 38. The Offspring – Genocide
- 37. Nirvana – Drain You
- 36. Elliott Smith – Memory Lane
- 35. Luscious Jackson – Here
- 34. Beck – Loser
- 33. Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun
- 32. The Rolling Stones -Gimme Shelter
- 31. The Beatles – Oh! Darling
- 30. Tom Petty – Something in the Air (Cover)
- 29. Green Day – Panic Song
- 28. Fleetwood Mac – Oh Well
- 27. Allman Brothers Band – One Way Out
- 26. Foo Fighters – Learning to Fly
- 25. No Doubt – Don't Speak
- 24. The Beatles – I'm Only Sleeping
- 23. Led Zeppelin – Tangerine
- 22. UFO – Lights Out
- 21. The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil
- 20. Alanis Morissette – Ironic
- 19. Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
- 18. REM – It's the End of the World As We Know It
- 17. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Parallel Universe
- 16. The Beach Boys – I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
- 15. Led Zeppelin – Achilles Last Stand
- 14. Marilyn Manson – The Dope Show
- 13. Sixpence None the Richer – Kiss Me
- 12. Luscious Jackson – Lover's Moon
- 11. Ten Years After – I'd Love the Change the World
- 10. Pink Floyd – Brain Damage/Eclipse
- 9. Weezer – Undone (The Sweater Song)
- 8 1/2 (Screw You). The Beach Boys – Feel Flows
- 8. The Beatles – While My Guitar Gently Weeps
- 7. Oasis – Champagne Supernova
- 6. Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight Tonight
- 5. Sonic Youth – Dirty Boots
- 4. The Rolling Stones – Wild Horses
- 3. Nirvana – Heart Shaped Box
- 1. The Beatles – Something
- 1. Weezer – Say it Ain't So
Yep, two number ones again. Don't know how to pick one.
Nervosa, Penelope, and December Quandary
Yep, I right (Edit: I must've been high to confuse write and right, my God) novels too. Nervosa is a satire on music, the obsession with it, and it's connection with love, life, and loss. It's a pretty serious work, I guess. And it's more or less done. I think this one will stay at a relatively short novella length. I just can't see myself expanding on it.
Penelope is a screenplay I'm still working on about a girl whose presence kills people around her accidentally. This gruesome dark comedy introduces a few new styles I've never used, such as direct humor, shock humor, and cult humor. It's a pretty good story, too.
December Quandary follows several collegiates and their relationships with each other, including an unstable med student, a love struck writer, an ill tempered exgirlfriend, and petty thieves who get themselves wound up. Another good story. Just needs tweaking.
Sing for the Moment
Under the radar for awhile, the women that brought me into alternative rock have grown back to my top lists. Luscious Jackson, the girls who acted in Pete and Pete are probably some of the best music writers of our generation, gone unnoticed by plenty of people. Why? Probably not because they're women, although I'm sure some disagree. My thoughts are that they're just not made for this time. Electric Honey, the bastard child of the album family, is probably one of the best albums of the post 2000 music scene. Fever In, Fever Out, its ancestor, even improves on that one. They're really a great band. Some of my favorite songs of theirs include Here, Lover's Moon, Space Diva, and pretty much any off of Fever In, Fever Out.
Red Hot Chili Peppers' Dani California is pretty good, in other news. A slice of classic rock, no real hook melody, but a good rhythm that's very dependable. Good Peppers right there. The video is also pretty good, parodying the generations of rockers of the ages.
Lastly, Young's Living With War is going to be streamed on his site. Gotta watch for that and see if it's up to all the hype. My forecast? It's not. But we'll see.
American Silence and the Rebirth of the 60’s
The word Revolution is a bit threatening. A full change. Rotation. Circle. Earth does these things without us even noticing much. Neil Young's new album Living With War signifies his return of the 60's generation to battle the new politics. Well, seems to me, you can't fight new defense with old offense. There's a whole other level to this war on Bush. Religiously, the guy is popular. Despite his doing nothing to promote Pro-Life, he's doing a damn good job getting their vote by just believing in it. Impeach the guy? Since when did we not know what we were getting? Was it the war? The speeches that seem to give no hint that he knows what the hell he is doing? I think it was the war. Well, America, you really did it this time. You elected the bastard. It's like letting in the fat drunk guy from across the street. You invite him in once, he ruins your house, but hell, he's a pretty fun guy, snorting coke and doing bodyshots off of dead hookers. Yeah, c'est la vie.
Well, Neil, I like where you're going, but you gotta understand that cheesy lyrics I've heard time and time again from bad poets at the clubs will not help anything anymore. This is not a generation of people where everyone follows the same group anymore. A Woodstock like event would draw few people, as evidenced with Lollapalooza 04-05. Or the lack thereof. Too simple, too direct, too outdated a strategy. And our generation isn't doing anything? Preposterous. I think the go word this generation is a new birth of satire. That's right. Satire. Remember old Orwell? Swift? Well, it's the new thing to do nowadays. A good example would be the exemplary but crude show, The Boondocks. Starting as a comic…
The Boondocks was a new political machine akin to Bloom County and Opus, by Berkeley Breathed. Now a show, the art takes a new form, as an example from an episode about an X-Box murderer parodies Rumsfeld, Bush, Iraq, and the glorification of villains as heroes. Mr. Young, maybe you should be looking more closely for this generation's rebels. Because they're here, just behind the glass. Unable to be touched.
The (Modern Day) Urban Explorer
Just like the opening of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds makes you feel uncomfortably claustrophobic, urban exploration makes me feel the same way – but even worse. As if humans built things for other humans to feel scared in. This country's so great, ain't it?
The past few days I've been reading up on this guy going underneath the subterranean tunnels beneath York University. I vaguely know him and I know he wouldn't recognize me, but I could seriously picture myself there. It's a wonder how a concept can put crazier images into one's head than adjectives and description. The whole deal started with an elevator that never stopped at a certain floor. After a pretty simple method, they got it to stop at the floor. Then they tried hard to get the elevator door to open. After success, they explored what appeared to be age-old pipes and machinery. What had to have been kids (if it wasn't, this would really creep me out) wrote ambiguous messages warning people to get out. The guy met with a crazy guy who told him to get out. They came back, did more exploring…it was surreal. They found the guy's "living conditions" down there and everything. The epic actually continues to this day, updated quite frequently. The story is on a special site closed to new members, but it's quite a badass tale.
Also, hell, I've had no free time as of now. I've been working on a novella for English class. (The novella as a short novel, not as a 'within one day' story).
