Goodbye Norma Jean, though I never Knew You at All

The last little while has been a time of increased musician deaths. It is sad, but I guess to be expected with the way the world seems to work.

Here's my toll so far:

1. Casey Calvert from Hawthorne Heights passed away in his sleep. Ironic according to a co-worker. Having never listened to them, I cannot comment. I'm sure though that fans are off slitting wrists and bathing in their tears
2. Robert Goulet. I've made peace with his passing.
3. Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot
4. Pete Malmi
5. Ernest Paulin
6. Paul Brodie
7. Chickie Williams (wife of country singer Doc Williams). Only country singers and big blues singers could get away with a name like "Chickie"
8. John Hughley
9. Porter Wagoner
10. Petr Eben
11. Lala Brown
12. Lucky Dube
13. Joey Bishop.... I include him because he was a member of the Rat Pack. Oh to live in the glory days of Las Vegas and scotch.
14. Teresa Brewer
15. Nicky James of the Moody Blues

So you get the picture... people are dying at an alarming rate. Now while I'm not overly concerned for the state of music today, so I'm sure many monkeys with Guitar Hero and a dream could make better music, something about all of this posed a question for me? What exactly about musicians' deaths strikes a chord with our emotions?

After hearing about the dude from Hawthorne Heights passing away, at 26 no less, I decided to hit up their website, and I found something that disturbed be. Fans were going on and on about how they were crying about this. WHY??? You do not know this guy personally. His band's lyrics must have been that emo (that's right I used that word, and in these contexts it works! ). I don't get it.

I look at deaths like John Lennon and Kurt Cobain and just shake my head. They were just individuals with guitars and voices. I like both of them as artists, but I didn't know them, and frankly their deaths were just that, deaths.

Maybe it is callous of me, but I think we need to accept this fact and get lives.

I'm tired and my ass hurts from assall horizontology.

Sky was dark this morning, not a bird in the trees. Silence unsuspicious.

Sitting at yet another computer at school. I find my ability to do work here is heightened by the fact I do not have my Game Cube, or other worthwhile distractions. It is weird.

I'm essentially done my one final analysis, save the citing I need to do. I will do that tonight after class. I'm also nearing completion on my revised autobiography, which I will complete tonight as well after I do the citing.

The light is slowly coming visible. After these two assignments, I have 1 huge paper to write, and 2 take-home exams. My eyes and my ass hurt from sitting at a computer for so long. Oh if only next week would come already.

In music-related news, I'm going to see GWAR next week. Yay blood and semen stains... I cannot wait. I will be writing about that experience.

Well time to putter off and do some reading for one of my last classes of the semester. As I sit here, that fact just dawned on me. It is eerie. 3 months have passed by in some sort of blur.

Oh well.

Have a good one folks!

There's a party over here

Oh high school.......


Their show was a pointless experience we all needed to have, even if your 10 seconds.

Ain't no party like an S-Club party

And then there's those other things which for several reasons we won't mention

At school, starting the papers...

Rufus Wainwright is keeping me company and keeping me on task.... sort of.

What is it about his family that screams musical talent? I mean his mom did this, his dad is Loudon Wainwright III, his sister Martha has got some musical skill. All I got was a father who never stops singing the same songs year after year, and my mad didgeridoo skills. Where is the justice?

Back to the grindstone I suppose.

I certainly haven't been buying any new shoes

So tonight is officially the calm before the store that marks the next week or so. 2 papers due this week, 3 next week (plus an in-class exam). After that I have one final exam later in December. I just want to hide under covers and sleep it all away, but I cannot, so soldier on I shall.

Tonight is a night of essay outlining and quiet music. I need sleep something fierce.

Laura's Favourites... a new series

Dear Readers (yes plural, I see my stats logger, there are some regulars),

I have a confession. I'm hesitant to even come clean, but my generally good mood of the evening somehow compels me towards this baring of my musical soul, that and I felt maybe I should write again, even though my dire warning of not being able to a little while back. So here goes...

I love Elton John.

No seriously I do.

Usually one only admits this whilst under the influence of extremely potent spirits, or a great deal of pot, neither of which I have consumed in the past little while. But yes dear reader, I love that Candle-in-the-winding drama queen. I'm not ashamed of this fact, because in his heyday Elton was the shiznit. How many artists would go on stage and play piano dressed as Donald Duck (and no, Bjork's swan costume at the Academy Awards does not count)? That's right, he rocks. His partnership with Bernie Taupin has been genius is production for nearly 40 years, and they have yet to fail.

Maybe I have an affinity for clean sounding piano-rock, or maybe his limited vocal range, but whenever Tiny Dancer begins to play on my Iyiyi it makes me smile. I can generally do without much of the stuff he subjected us to during the 80s and 90s, but Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tops as one of my favourite albums of all time.

Tonight as I sit here working on a myriad of school assignments, Elton keeps popping up as my Iyiyi is on random (perhaps because i have nearly 20 different albums of his on the ipod). Just now as I type this "Out of Blue" came on. It makes me smile, and that is never a bad thing, right?

So I shall leave you now to question my sanity, for I have to dance around my room like an idiot.

I bid you adieu.

Charlie Sheen, Ben Vereen, Shrink to the SIze of a Lima Bean

So I am somewhat of a control freak/neat freak. I like to know where everything is in my life, from my keys, my money, and my CDs. I feel uneasy if things are not in their place. In addition to that. I do not lend things to others because I know from experience I will more than likely never seem them again.

I keep a detailed list of every single CD I own in a spreadsheet. You may commence laughing.

Tonight when I went to log some CDs I purchased at work, I noticed that my CD database was inaccurate. When I was entering in my new Dire Straits CDs it clued in to me that I had deleted my updates file list, and that I was using an older one. Not only that, it was an older one from about 100 CDs ago. What does this now mean? I have an entire evening of re-cataloguing my shit. Great.
I'm going to turn the Iyiyi on random and get a logging. Yay.....A night of nostalgia awaits.

Super Freak

So I'm going to be a broken record once again, and say that I'm sitting here typing up yet another of my never ending papers. Not never ending in the sense that I have an infinity of papers in which to write, but rather it just seems like it is taking an inordinately infinite time to complete them. Today's task is a textual analysis on the gnostic Gospel of Thomas, for which I am more than half-way to the maximum word count. Go me! This blogging, however, is probably hindering any progress I should be making, but oh well.

So I'll set the record straight for whomever is reading this: I am a religions and cultures student. Not theology mind you, but simply religion and culture. I study a wide range of topics in regards to religion and culture. I am aiming to do my PhD in this field either concentrating on an aspect of music and religion, or focus on witchcraft religions. I used to by a psychology major, but realized that I did not want to have to spend my life treating other human beings as test-subjects of sorts, and frankly religion has always fascinated me. That being said, I am an atheist. This concept either confuses or amuses others. I find my atheism to give me a more level-headed look at religions, and I can better empathize with numerous issues and positions because my life and identity are not intertwined with any one religious position and culture. Sure it can be argued that I will never be able to completely represent a religion because I'm not in it, but hell George Bush represents the world's most powerful nation, but its not like he is truly in-tune with it.....

What I was actually going with that little mini-bio was, I always wonder what it is people view my tastes in music in light of my chosen academic field? Am I presumed to listen to religious music all the time? Is my atheism supposed to make me listen to Satanic music? Or does my academic inclinations really have no effect on how people presume my music tastes go? I really have no idea, but I guess I could do an empirical study, but well I've already frittered away enough time writing this, so perhaps another day.

I guess I should plunge back into ancient textual analysis. Yay. Pseudo-Jesus here I come!!!

Title? What is that you speak of?

So does anyone remember Master P's kid Lil' Romeo? The brat that beat Michael Jackson for holding the youngest person to have a number one single. Well the already wealthy kid just won a full basketball scholarship at USC. You and your family were on Cribs for Pete's Sake (Pete being my atheistic equivalent to Christ).

So I'm not going to detract from the fact that he clearly has the athletic ability to win the scholarship, but does he really need the money? Come on! Your father is Master P and your uncles are Silkk the Shocker and C-Murder, you cannot be broke. Last I checked, there were infinitely more kids in the U.S.A. who need those scholarships even more than you. Education in America is quite expensive as compared to up here in the pseudo-tundra, and frankly I think what you are doing is very selfish. Do not take the money Lil' Romeo. Be responsible. Earn your keep on the team. If I hear that you got a C average and still kept your scholarship, so help me I will fly to California and shave your stupid ass head with an F.

This is ridiculous. As a student I know the necessity of scholarships. Hell I lost mine by 1% in first year, which was utterly stupid since all I needed to do was go to the one mandatory class for my major. Being a student is no easy feat when it comes to surviving financially. Granted I'm not going to be graduating with debt, but I certainly do not have a free ride. I work my ass off both educationally and in the real world. I understand the necessity to make all the scholarships equally accessible to all, but something still miffs me when the rich get free rides when the clearly do not need them.

If only to be a rapper's progeny...... think of all that bling I could pawn off for Mr. Noodles and KD.

It's what makes the world go 'round

So contrary to popular belief, I do not in fact hate everything. I know that I can portray myself as being bitter and critical of everything, I do in fact love many things, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I cannot under good conscience admit to what I love. Perhaps I fear the gasps of horror, or the realization that I am in fact a huge loser, or maybe just maybe I like being critical.

Fortunately for many at my work, my geeky music loves often rear their scary heads. Now unlike a lot of people who merely say that they like a lot of different types of music, I do in fact actively like and have an opinion on nearly every type of music. My CD collection can attest to that, as can my music choice while in the store. I like to be eclectic.

At my place of employ, the staff are given relative freedom in the choice of ambient sound. The only restrictions are that it may not contain foul language, be comedy, death metal, musicals, (this rule was enacted because of the one time I put the original Broadway recording to Ragtime in the player), or Frank Zappa. Gangsta rap is usually highly discouraged as well. In general, I usually go with the flow of the already existing music upon my arrival at work, because I either cannot be bothered to find something more palatable, or I'm perfectly fine with what is playing. There are a couple of instances however where I will rip something out of the store player, namely being if it is Bjork, or any of a range of modern emo/pop-punk hybrids (seriously, what are record execs thinking? They can sell more records with shit like the Umbrella song). Lately I have been growing weary of classic jazz. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some Miles Davis, but only so much. And if I have to hear that new Smashing Pumpkins CD once more so help me.... (come on Corgan, you sound happy for Christ's sake). Needless to say, as of late I've been trying to mix it up.

When I choose music to listen to at work, I generally try and go for the most fun and nostalgic stuff I can think of. I'm so used to listening to the staples of our industry that I just want to break out and dance around the store. I remember I used to come in early and crank Usher's "Yeah Yeah" song and frolic around the store. If any of my co-workers are reading this... well now you know. I am not afraid to admit I'm a geek. I even appreciate when others put in something geeky, yet amusing. This weekend I put in an 80's singles collection, and the Spice Girls greatest hits, as well as Aqua. None of these I own, nor will I ever again, but that doesn't take away from my enjoyment of them at work. Anyone who argues that the Spice Girls are not even the slightest bit addictive can just rot in hell. All those customers who smile when their CD came on surely cannot be wrong.

So with me comes the expectation that I will generally put in something which will ultimately embarrass me in front of customers, but who cares? Music can make the day worth while, and in the end isn't that what is most important?

If I Were Invisible

To the numerous customers today who chuckled and started humming along with the Spice Girls' Greatest Hits... you're welcome for the trip down memory lane.

To the moron I shall now refer to as Dare: what part of asking us whether or not we had the DVD of the girl from American Idol farting was supposed to be funny? I don't recall laughing. This goes in my pile of anecdotes about you I would much rather forget.

To the aging rocker hippie who came in today: mentioning you wear our shirts at gigs is flattering and all, but when you ask us if we are selling a lot of them, and the answer is "no", you probably shouldn't reply with 'Good!"

Oh Sundays in retail.

Not a girl, but not yet a woman

toothpastefordinner.com

Don't ask me no questions, and I won't tell you no lies

I'm somewhat swamped with end-of term clean up consisting of final papers, text analysis mayhem, plus some looming presentation. Add that to the mountain of reading I am accumulating and that equals one young woman who cannot efficiently music blog until the academic apocalypse known as "exam period" is over if I survive at all.

I'll try my best though.

Oh my condolences to Kanye West and the unfortunate passing of his mother. I may not be a fan of his, but such a loss is tragic to anyone regardless of their profession or music preferences.

To close off this entry here is a 30-second rant:

Would the world please stop caring about Perez Hilton. I'm sorry but pudgy and unnecessarily mean queens are not that amusing. What about his obsessive love of celebrities is so endearing to you all? He is merely doing what TABLOIDS have been doing for decades, only he doesn't really do the photographic work and just reports things actual paparazzos have discovered, and he makes it easier by placing them online. He's just glorified page six with more resentment and less class. I've seen clips of his "acting" and some part of me wonders if he is just a bitter fat man who bemoans the fact he has no redeeming skills whatsoever, outside editing celebrity photos with cock outlines and sperm droplets. Is our society that pathetic that we need to pander to his kind?

Bah. I'm going back to my atheist evolutionary biology, so much more rational.

Schwaaa?

EVE 6 HAVE REUNITED!!!!!!



That is all. I shall go off and giggle in nostalgic giddy.

I've been a bad, bad girl

Here I am once again this week; I have procrastinated and now I have a 1500 word textual analysis due by 4pm. I'm at 1006 words, and I'm confident that I can finish it with style. I did it this way last time and I got a 90, so who knows how this will end up. My stomach is killing me, but in some ways that is a good thing. BAH.

Right now I'm listening to the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets score with my Ipod. John Williams makes every soundtrack sound the same. I'm listening to this and going " Hey, where's my Emperor's march from Star Wars? WHERE?"

I really just want to go and watch DVDs now. Damn.

There is no real point to this entry.

I'm sitting here in my room. I have Ani DiFranco playing and the sound of rain. Perfect musical combination? I hope so. I'm writing another in what seems to be a never ending series of papers. I must admit I prefer this to the lab reports and other "science" crap I used to have to do. Soon I will go and study some philosophy for the quiz I have later.


So I have a little side note....

Dear Britney Spears,

Please just stop it already. No matter what people say, your new album is atrocious at the very least. Pitch and tone adjustment, synths as far as the eye can see, and as per usual your mediocre range. You turned down decent producers for this shit? Seriously, what is in fact wrong with you? Did K-Fed give you the perpetual stupid, or was this just a long time coming?

I really have no idea what is wrong with the music industry, but it needs to be fixed soon. If only they would go on strike, much like the Writers Guild of America. Power to the people!