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19 years ago
General
Time hates me, I could swear it.
You know, I really LIKED having some kind of routine -.- and the moment I was getting into the SWING of it, all the shit hits the fans.
I want to kill something very very badly.
--but I do have a few things to comment on that i've noticed the past weeks.
I've been listening to two unlikely, diametrically opposed musics as I drive around--to keep me awake on Mobile Patrol. Country... and RAP. There are a few things I've noticed about them that, well, I dunno, makes them more likeable for me.
Y'know... I find I actually kind of LIKE country.... Not that I don't have a Reason.... You see, it makes me think.
Country Music is almost exclusive to america. It's our foolk music, as every land has their own. But there's something about HOW it's 'american'. Unlike other genres, country -can't- really sell out to anyone except maybe the republican conservative right-wing; that would just be preaching to the choir of course--but the result is that country music isn't crammed with sex, crime, drugs, etc. I'm not talking about subject matter; I'm talking about the performers' lifestyles and the whole 'mindset'. It's about as PURE as music can get, and it's not some kind of tightassed censorship consortium DEMANDING it remain so, but the sheer fact that country musicians SEEM to deeply and honestly believe in their values.
In country, you hear songs about memories, monogamous love, personal strength and survival, family, god. It's just so... sickeningly wholesome, yet to an extent that AMUSES me. Like, what I heard in this song,
"She's got me... 'rollin in the dirt in a white tee shirt'". That sounds REALLY stupid, right? well it's a euphemism for arousal. It may sound lame, but if you think about it... it's really creative to come up with something seeming so obscure yet, at thought, so OBVIOUS. Then I heard a song about this performer's daughter... absolutely the most touching, tooth-aching sweet song i've ever heard. It could've brought tears to my eyes. If there's ANYTHING good left about america, it just might be Country Music.
And Country... it has a lot of celtic influence, y'know. And there's a fairly considerable number of irish folk violin solos that would sound just right as you pan across a bustling old-west street in a boom town out in the desert somewhere.
And then there's RAP.
I've realized something. It's poetry. Literally, poetry set to an audible accompaniment rhythm. The fact that it's attached to a beat that is defined by phrases of MUSIC means that the 'meter' is as variable and versatile as it is in all music, minus the screwy obnoxious terminology. Not EVERYBODY really gives a shit about "Iambic Pentameter", even if they DO have a use for what it means.
And there's even something valuable, perhaps even WORTHWHILE about rap: it directly extolls and provokes the primal senses of sentience.
Obviously there's a large part of its subject matter that contains a fuckload of arrogance, disrespect, promiscuity, and violence... but these are NECESSARY. there's a valid purpose in all of it:
IN the practice of depreciating someone else's value, it draws a contrast between that individual and the one criticizing. Sure there are posers and griefers that will be hypocrites and bash people for shit THEY THEMSELVES do, but there are also those who criticize actions they would NEVER take. This is a practice in independance. it represents one's inability to NOT NEED anybody else. It's there to implant the concept that this is someone who can take care of him- or herself.
Of course on the other end of the spectrum, where I once was, you have griefers of a different sort who go out of their way to dispute or ignore this 'display of superiority', purely out of spite, whether they know it or not.
Such individuals don't get it and there's a high probably that they won't ever. Get what? the fact that it's a game. It's posturing, and SAYING that it's posturing is like... that stupid fuck twink that runs around the RPers saying shit like "Dude, magic isn't real." NO SHIT, FUCKWIT. The fact that it's FICTION is the point, and the fact that YOU can't get over it just makes you look stupid and inadequate.
Fellow subgeniuses out there: if you think those sound like pinks, you're absolutely right.
NOW, the next component... Arrogance. Bragging. this one's pretty obvious. These people are furthering the image of self-sufficiency by going beyond the "I can take care of myself" to say "I can do a really damned good job of it too." This is where you scrape together all of your good qualities and pitch them out. Fame, wealth, physique, skill. Again, it's posturing. These are paintings, not photographs, and it is in the creation of these that the art is found. Explain why you're awesome and make it SOUND good. You don't even have to BE that awesome, because if you can make it SOUND good, you've established worth in that respect.
And again with the god damned twinks that come in and try to dispute, completely missing the point: it's not about having wealth, fame, fitness, or skill; it's about communicating a level of it convincingly. I really couldn't care less if someone's got 40 million dollars and a set of gold teeth, but if they make it SOUND catchy enough that I don't feel like I wasted my time hearing about it, they might as well be.
And then there's one of the most basic human urges, promiscuity. Please. Verility. if we're working with instincts here, verility is extremely important. Having established qualification value and the means to support, availability is the next logical step. And now we'll cut to the chase.
Violence finally gives it all an icing of the ability to Protect it.
Maybe you see what I'm getting at. These are expressions of INSTINCT. These are Rituals. Chants. Sure a lot of people blab about disrespect toward women in rap, but the women are just as guilty as the men, even IF in a slightly different formula. Again and again I hear songs that deal DIRECTLY with social functions, relationship qualifications, even rituals. lining up for display. It's crazy surreal shit when you step back and really LOOK at it.
I mean, duh, there are definitely love tracks, despair tracks, faith tracks, slice-of-life tracks, but the more distant you get from violence, sex, riches, and superiority, the more it sounds like tonal music. The more sophisticated the emotions and the less invasive the instinct, the more musical the result. You hear them singing instead of talking-to-beat.
...don't you pity me for hearing enough god damned rap to start seeing patterns like this?
Of course, we all know that all generalizations are false, "Including this one" (Thank You, Mark Twain), and there will always be exceptions, but after days and days and days of hearing rap for hours on end, you start to notice things. And if I'm wrong and you have a problem with it, FUCK YOU; I don't CARE enough to be RIGHT, I'm only WRITING THIS because I'm BORED OUT OF MY FUCKING MIND.
anyways...
So, I was just patrolling one day when I hear one of those salvation army santa-hat-wearing bellringers wish a merry christmas to a group of guys, and immediately become assaulted with a number of extremely harsh racial and religious epithets based on the fact that THIS group of guys happened to be islamic. -_- WOW. THEY REALLY MAKE ISLAM LOOK LIKE ONE HELLA GREAT RELIGION, DON'T THEY. But I digress. You see, they were whining and bitching because they're muslim and they don't celebrate christmas.
That's when I opened my mouth.
"uh, YEAH. Since -WHEN- did Christmas have one damn thing at all to do with Religion!? It's COMPLETELY commercialized."
"..." They looked at eachother. They looked at me. They looked at the scared-shitless salvation army worker, "... Heh... Yeah..! He's right! It's all about the MONEY now!"
And so they started walking off. One of them looks back over to the aid worker, gives a pleasant wave and says "Hey! Merry Christmas!"
:D I don't know if that's uplifting or DEPRESSING but it sure as fuck SLEW ME with laughter.
Merry Christmas.
You know, I really LIKED having some kind of routine -.- and the moment I was getting into the SWING of it, all the shit hits the fans.
I want to kill something very very badly.
--but I do have a few things to comment on that i've noticed the past weeks.
I've been listening to two unlikely, diametrically opposed musics as I drive around--to keep me awake on Mobile Patrol. Country... and RAP. There are a few things I've noticed about them that, well, I dunno, makes them more likeable for me.
Y'know... I find I actually kind of LIKE country.... Not that I don't have a Reason.... You see, it makes me think.
Country Music is almost exclusive to america. It's our foolk music, as every land has their own. But there's something about HOW it's 'american'. Unlike other genres, country -can't- really sell out to anyone except maybe the republican conservative right-wing; that would just be preaching to the choir of course--but the result is that country music isn't crammed with sex, crime, drugs, etc. I'm not talking about subject matter; I'm talking about the performers' lifestyles and the whole 'mindset'. It's about as PURE as music can get, and it's not some kind of tightassed censorship consortium DEMANDING it remain so, but the sheer fact that country musicians SEEM to deeply and honestly believe in their values.
In country, you hear songs about memories, monogamous love, personal strength and survival, family, god. It's just so... sickeningly wholesome, yet to an extent that AMUSES me. Like, what I heard in this song,
"She's got me... 'rollin in the dirt in a white tee shirt'". That sounds REALLY stupid, right? well it's a euphemism for arousal. It may sound lame, but if you think about it... it's really creative to come up with something seeming so obscure yet, at thought, so OBVIOUS. Then I heard a song about this performer's daughter... absolutely the most touching, tooth-aching sweet song i've ever heard. It could've brought tears to my eyes. If there's ANYTHING good left about america, it just might be Country Music.
And Country... it has a lot of celtic influence, y'know. And there's a fairly considerable number of irish folk violin solos that would sound just right as you pan across a bustling old-west street in a boom town out in the desert somewhere.
And then there's RAP.
I've realized something. It's poetry. Literally, poetry set to an audible accompaniment rhythm. The fact that it's attached to a beat that is defined by phrases of MUSIC means that the 'meter' is as variable and versatile as it is in all music, minus the screwy obnoxious terminology. Not EVERYBODY really gives a shit about "Iambic Pentameter", even if they DO have a use for what it means.
And there's even something valuable, perhaps even WORTHWHILE about rap: it directly extolls and provokes the primal senses of sentience.
Obviously there's a large part of its subject matter that contains a fuckload of arrogance, disrespect, promiscuity, and violence... but these are NECESSARY. there's a valid purpose in all of it:
IN the practice of depreciating someone else's value, it draws a contrast between that individual and the one criticizing. Sure there are posers and griefers that will be hypocrites and bash people for shit THEY THEMSELVES do, but there are also those who criticize actions they would NEVER take. This is a practice in independance. it represents one's inability to NOT NEED anybody else. It's there to implant the concept that this is someone who can take care of him- or herself.
Of course on the other end of the spectrum, where I once was, you have griefers of a different sort who go out of their way to dispute or ignore this 'display of superiority', purely out of spite, whether they know it or not.
Such individuals don't get it and there's a high probably that they won't ever. Get what? the fact that it's a game. It's posturing, and SAYING that it's posturing is like... that stupid fuck twink that runs around the RPers saying shit like "Dude, magic isn't real." NO SHIT, FUCKWIT. The fact that it's FICTION is the point, and the fact that YOU can't get over it just makes you look stupid and inadequate.
Fellow subgeniuses out there: if you think those sound like pinks, you're absolutely right.
NOW, the next component... Arrogance. Bragging. this one's pretty obvious. These people are furthering the image of self-sufficiency by going beyond the "I can take care of myself" to say "I can do a really damned good job of it too." This is where you scrape together all of your good qualities and pitch them out. Fame, wealth, physique, skill. Again, it's posturing. These are paintings, not photographs, and it is in the creation of these that the art is found. Explain why you're awesome and make it SOUND good. You don't even have to BE that awesome, because if you can make it SOUND good, you've established worth in that respect.
And again with the god damned twinks that come in and try to dispute, completely missing the point: it's not about having wealth, fame, fitness, or skill; it's about communicating a level of it convincingly. I really couldn't care less if someone's got 40 million dollars and a set of gold teeth, but if they make it SOUND catchy enough that I don't feel like I wasted my time hearing about it, they might as well be.
And then there's one of the most basic human urges, promiscuity. Please. Verility. if we're working with instincts here, verility is extremely important. Having established qualification value and the means to support, availability is the next logical step. And now we'll cut to the chase.
Violence finally gives it all an icing of the ability to Protect it.
Maybe you see what I'm getting at. These are expressions of INSTINCT. These are Rituals. Chants. Sure a lot of people blab about disrespect toward women in rap, but the women are just as guilty as the men, even IF in a slightly different formula. Again and again I hear songs that deal DIRECTLY with social functions, relationship qualifications, even rituals. lining up for display. It's crazy surreal shit when you step back and really LOOK at it.
I mean, duh, there are definitely love tracks, despair tracks, faith tracks, slice-of-life tracks, but the more distant you get from violence, sex, riches, and superiority, the more it sounds like tonal music. The more sophisticated the emotions and the less invasive the instinct, the more musical the result. You hear them singing instead of talking-to-beat.
...don't you pity me for hearing enough god damned rap to start seeing patterns like this?
Of course, we all know that all generalizations are false, "Including this one" (Thank You, Mark Twain), and there will always be exceptions, but after days and days and days of hearing rap for hours on end, you start to notice things. And if I'm wrong and you have a problem with it, FUCK YOU; I don't CARE enough to be RIGHT, I'm only WRITING THIS because I'm BORED OUT OF MY FUCKING MIND.
anyways...
So, I was just patrolling one day when I hear one of those salvation army santa-hat-wearing bellringers wish a merry christmas to a group of guys, and immediately become assaulted with a number of extremely harsh racial and religious epithets based on the fact that THIS group of guys happened to be islamic. -_- WOW. THEY REALLY MAKE ISLAM LOOK LIKE ONE HELLA GREAT RELIGION, DON'T THEY. But I digress. You see, they were whining and bitching because they're muslim and they don't celebrate christmas.
That's when I opened my mouth.
"uh, YEAH. Since -WHEN- did Christmas have one damn thing at all to do with Religion!? It's COMPLETELY commercialized."
"..." They looked at eachother. They looked at me. They looked at the scared-shitless salvation army worker, "... Heh... Yeah..! He's right! It's all about the MONEY now!"
And so they started walking off. One of them looks back over to the aid worker, gives a pleasant wave and says "Hey! Merry Christmas!"
:D I don't know if that's uplifting or DEPRESSING but it sure as fuck SLEW ME with laughter.
Merry Christmas.
To be honest with ya, I'm only keeping the I Hate Christmas routine out of the 'I can't stand Christians!' and 'I work retail.' bits.
But to be honest? Take away the whole bit about the religion. Take away the bits of the commercialzation.
What you've got left is a holiday whose stories bring out the sappy tears in me.
Play Elite Beat Agents for the Nintendo DS and get to the Christmas stage. I cry every time.