Garishly Colored Prom Dresses (The Norm for the Illogic, Seemingly Good Populace)

April 08, 2006

For lack thereof, I marked it well,

A hit or miss does kiss and tell,

Or telling and missing that kiss

On the cheeks of even fortune.

Balance is the key

To an invisible door.

Incomprehensible, fine,

But do you have to yell so loud?

Mirrored my empty personality,

Vampires, less than hemophiliacs,

Need replacement from endless supplement,

As the real maniacs pass us by,

No soapbox, no difficult stead;

Just position and shot

For perfection to head.

He's dead, he's dead,

And our mouths are sewn shut...

Your Music Sucks If...

April 06, 2006

It's okay if you have no musical tastes becuase I'm always here to provide the better alternative--music improvement.  But on why your music probably sucks...

1.  You listen to it because it's in a certain genre.  This reason is irritating; even being a fan of metal, I am nevertheless shocked at the amount of metalheads who will listen to anything that labels itself as alternative or metal.  Remember: just because it looks good doesn't mean it is good.

2.  You listen to pop punk.  Back in the day, punk meant something, something like anarchy and rebellion.  Now it means hot topic and complaining about your life as a junior high kid.  The Clash is punk, NOT Green Day, Good Charlotte, Yellowcard, My Chemical Romance, and certainly not Simple Plan.  Punk wasn't even that good of a genre to begin with, but the populace had to go and make it crappy.

3.  You listen to it because it's in TRL's Top Ten.  I think this is self-explanatory.

4.  You listen to it because it's indie.  I also think this is self-explanatory, but, then again, a lot of people are retarded.  Indie music, as touted by those bitches on Pitchfork.com or elsewhere, has problematic tendencies.  First, as seeming nonconformity to the auto-tuner pop "singers", indie music has the incorrigible fetish for lauding terrible vocalists.  Don't excuse it: you know they're trying but can't.  They're bad.  Second, if I wanted to hear music produced by eight-graders, I'd tell my little sister to make a band in a garage and save fourteen dollars on the compact disc members of the "elite" think is so amazing and innovative.

5.  You listen to it because it's a classic.  Listen, I know a greater portion of the world thinks the Beatles are good, but the world also thinks abortion is not murder.  (And we all know better than that, do we not?)  In all seriousness, though, older artists did make some very innovative original music, but a ton of it is very overrated as well.  In other words, you got to have balance.  Plus, production value has skyrocketed since the sixties, so chances are newer music on compact discs will usually sound better overall.

6.  You listen to modern country.  Bluegrass was beautiful type of music, but then came shit, and it covered all of Nashville.  Enough said...

7.  You listen to most Christian music.  When the lake's smaller, the chances of getting a better fish is equally smaller.  Same with music.  I've never been entirely sure where the majority of Christian music is going.  Lately, it's been creating (or "writing") as many three-chord, "next big thing" worship songs.  Come on, seriously, for God's sake, branch out a little!  I'm sure people can be a little more creative than they've been.  DC Talk had some good songs when they weren't covering someone else's (and same with Audio Adrenaline).

8.  You listen to "whatever's on the radio".  Enough said...

9.  You listen to bad pop.  There is good pop, if you look for it.  Michael Jackson's Thriller (not referring in any way to his deviant behavior) was a very good album.  Justin Timberlake's Justified is also a good album.  So good pop exists.  Ashlee Simpson doesn't count.  Lindsay Lohan/Hillary Duff doesn't count, and someone please kill the Click Five and Black Eyed Peas.

10.  You worship the band.  No one band is the all-encompassing peak of perfection, and chances are yours is not even close.  So stop the groupie fellatio.

11.  You listen to bands that capitalize on wartime.  Now, I'm not one to be too judgmental, but come on, you're not adding anything new to the "We don't like Bush" table by releasing a "controversial" album.  I don't care for Bush much either, but the trend past the point of simple vexation.

I may add some more later...

The Stagnant

April 05, 2006Life is stagnant.
I feel alone most of the time, and before a couple of people say, "Well, you're not alone: Jesus is a friend closer than a brother," keep quiet long enough for me to tell you that, unless God changes His mind, He has not shown up physically lately.  For the most part, however, life has just slipped me boredom along with my elixir of events, yet the effects don't seem that drastic, I guess.  I don't know.
Actually, I'm lucky to be on the internet today because I think a short in the wiring in my room causing me not to be able to get on most of the time.  I was almost too nervous to peer into my inbox.  (We get a lot of junk email at GaTech.)
So, anyway, besides Beatles fad of Paul and Doughty, and the accompanying venture capitalism of weed and Halo 2, nothing much sparks interest (or contempt for the Beatles) in my soul.  All weed has been free for me for a while now, although I don't like mooching off of the rest of the gang; as Trotter said, though, such distribution of goods tends to be communal nonetheless.  But worries abide as to the supply of their dearly beloved and my nerve calmer.  So maybe it's venture communism.  I don't know.  Maybe I just word-dropped spontaneously.
Again, as I said, I'm alone (right now literally), but if you compelled to call, you can.  I don't really want to post my number for everyone to see though.  Rebecca knows it, though; so get it from her I guess.  (I almost can't believe I'm saying this.)  A lot of times, I feel as if people can move on easily without my existence, a fact which obviously hinders recovery from bouts with depression.  Ah, venting...
Well, this weekend, my mom's coming down to Atlanta: this "confession" ought to be good.  Although she told me she was no priest and therefore wanted to stall any future confession to her, I feel that, since I'm spending a good portion of funds (125 dollars) on this penalty, she deserves to know.  Personally, though, I really am still debating telling her because I know her reaction will entail an enormous argument and subsequent awkward silence between us.  Oh well...
Musically, I've been checking the quality of the band Isis.  So far, they're proven all right.  They require further inspection though.

Worth the Telling, Worth the Hearing

April 03, 2006I guess the hardest part of telling my parents of times I've drank alcohol is the knowledge that I've hurt them.  Regardless of whether my dad seemed distraught or perfectly fine (I really couldn't tell over the phone), having to explain what I've done and the $125 fee involved with it never comes softly.  At least I was able to tell my dad.  My mother's brother has had issues with alcoholism in his life so that every "violation", every perceived crossing of the line with respect to alcohol, follows many days back to issues of the past.  I've only seen my uncle once that I remember in my lifetime for a week (I think) my sophomore year.  You know, and my time with alcohol really wasn't worth it; I probably would've drank alcohol again after the fact if I could've stood the taste.  I don't know.  I just hurts me every time I hurt my parents.  I don't intend: I just fail...

Haake

April 02, 2006

So today, the GT chamber choir had a "gig" at the Emory Presbyterian Church, a small but quaint little building, with a seemingly sincere woman pastor.  (I say woman because I don't meet very many women pastors.)  The overall service was quite formal, but it was nice for a change of pace.  We even got to wear these pinkish robes, which actually happened to be tight in the chest.  What was weird is that no one ever clapped, a fact which for church music strikes me as odd (but it's cool), but I had a lot of fun singing in a lent service.  Plus, we ate Mexican food afterwards, so I can't ask for much more than that.  Since then, I've slept a lot, but it's cool.

Lately, I've been getting into Meshuggah, a Swedish "mathcore" band.  Whereas the guitars on the whole aren't written to be very complex, the drums substitute for that complexity with a jawdropping oddity of their own.  The drummer has ultra-syncopated the music, by not only playing syncopated music, but also playing a normal 4/4 beat at the same time.  Weird but fun stuff.