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Links in the chain
Dec. 16th, 2008 01:41 pmSince I'm a bit bored, and want to write, but don't really know what to write about, I thought I'd just share a few funny/interesting links. They're mostly from BoingBoing.
It's nice to see that the shoe tosser guy is already achieving his 15 minutes of internet fame.
Here's an interesting article about the effect of the internet on people's mental health. I suppose I'm a product of what's being discussed there, but I can't help feeling that for all the harm (and the effects on the 'lost generation' or Generation Z or whatever you want to call them) the internet has caused and will cause, it's also an incredibly liberating thing. There are some people out there on the internet (you know who you are) who basically saved my life last year. I suppose here would be an appropriate place to thank you.
In other news, Canberrans are crazy, but then, what's new?
I saw Keating! The Musical a couple of years ago, but I was watching clips with K. the other day and it reminded me how brilliant it was. This song (below) is pretty much the most astute piece of political commentary on the Howard years. I remember talking about this with one of my friends, and he said that watching Keating! was too much. It was too close, too true, and rather than laughing, he just got really angry at the iniquities of the Howard years. When I look at this song, I can see his point.
I'm still enjoying the same music as always. I'm adoring the lyrics of Paul Kelly's songs To Her Door and Look So Fine, Feel So Low.
( When she asks me dumb questions all I've gotta do is say yes, yes, yes, yes )
As usual, I'm obsessing over Calexico's lyrics. At the moment it's Cruel. A beautiful, bitter, angry song about the Bush years.
( Stories break like branches in the cold )
Sometimes I wonder why no-one else seems to obsess over song lyrics the way I do. Every time I've asked people, they always say that they listen to songs for the sound, not the words. I've never been able to do that. (My exception that proves the rule is my obsession with electronica and '90s Europop.) I love songs with clever lyrics. I love the intricate metaphors of Calexico, the beautiful stories of Paul Kelly, The Pogues, Steeleye Span and Elvis Costello, the mazed-out hallucinations of Massive Attack, the cheery cynicism of Regurgitator and MGMT, the quotable quirkiness of Darren Hanlon and Van She, the dark beauty of Strawpeople, the poetry of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams and Paul Simon. It's why I've never been able to listen to rap written any later than about 1999. It took an atrocious turn around that time, emphasising aspects with which I was unable to identify.
I'm probably doing with the song lyrics what I seem to do with everything in my life: reaching out to some external Elsewhere to give meaning to Here, searching for a Republic of Heaven in the words and actions of others because it's always been too hard to build one for myself.
It's nice to see that the shoe tosser guy is already achieving his 15 minutes of internet fame.
Here's an interesting article about the effect of the internet on people's mental health. I suppose I'm a product of what's being discussed there, but I can't help feeling that for all the harm (and the effects on the 'lost generation' or Generation Z or whatever you want to call them) the internet has caused and will cause, it's also an incredibly liberating thing. There are some people out there on the internet (you know who you are) who basically saved my life last year. I suppose here would be an appropriate place to thank you.
In other news, Canberrans are crazy, but then, what's new?
I saw Keating! The Musical a couple of years ago, but I was watching clips with K. the other day and it reminded me how brilliant it was. This song (below) is pretty much the most astute piece of political commentary on the Howard years. I remember talking about this with one of my friends, and he said that watching Keating! was too much. It was too close, too true, and rather than laughing, he just got really angry at the iniquities of the Howard years. When I look at this song, I can see his point.
I'm still enjoying the same music as always. I'm adoring the lyrics of Paul Kelly's songs To Her Door and Look So Fine, Feel So Low.
( When she asks me dumb questions all I've gotta do is say yes, yes, yes, yes )
As usual, I'm obsessing over Calexico's lyrics. At the moment it's Cruel. A beautiful, bitter, angry song about the Bush years.
( Stories break like branches in the cold )
Sometimes I wonder why no-one else seems to obsess over song lyrics the way I do. Every time I've asked people, they always say that they listen to songs for the sound, not the words. I've never been able to do that. (My exception that proves the rule is my obsession with electronica and '90s Europop.) I love songs with clever lyrics. I love the intricate metaphors of Calexico, the beautiful stories of Paul Kelly, The Pogues, Steeleye Span and Elvis Costello, the mazed-out hallucinations of Massive Attack, the cheery cynicism of Regurgitator and MGMT, the quotable quirkiness of Darren Hanlon and Van She, the dark beauty of Strawpeople, the poetry of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams and Paul Simon. It's why I've never been able to listen to rap written any later than about 1999. It took an atrocious turn around that time, emphasising aspects with which I was unable to identify.
I'm probably doing with the song lyrics what I seem to do with everything in my life: reaching out to some external Elsewhere to give meaning to Here, searching for a Republic of Heaven in the words and actions of others because it's always been too hard to build one for myself.
