Dec. 2nd, 2003

brightrosefox: (Default)
A few things that puzzle and frustrate me:

When someone writes something incredibly profound, sweet, beautiful and flattering, and then someone else cheapens the effect by joking or otherwise trivializing the subject, or nitpicking something. That, plus a few other things, just happened on my mailing list, and I swear I wanted to punch the guy who did it. I didn't say anything, though; I decided to just let it go because it wasn't worth getting riled up about; the guy does things like that all the time, it's just his way of socializing. I mean, if a good friend does it jokingly, that's fine. I may be a little annoyed, but no harm done because it's sometimes funny and naturally they didn't mean anything by it. But when someone you don't really know does it, and isn't really joking, it's like a slap in the face, especially for writers who have low self-confidence, like the person in question who posted the email in the first place.

People who are so stuck on their religion/belief system that they automatically attack anything that might even remotely allude to anything that could go against the grain of their thinking. Example: Some Christian website attacking Ninja Turtles and Transformers for being too violent, and satanic, and a bunch of other crap. This was also posted to my mailing list. Saying that you don't like something because you feel religiously opposed to it is one thing, of course, but jumping all over it with blinders on is just stupid and will make people jump all over you in retaliation. Humans are extremely defensive and territorial, especially in the mental, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual departments. Doesn't matter what you believe; be prepared to encounter opposition. Nobody likes to have opnions and doctrines shoved down their throat.

A radio show debate talked about how fairy tales are telling young girls that beautiful is always good and ugly is always bad. That being good and kind and moral always wins the day, and being selfish and manipulative will get you smashed into bloody bits. People were arguing about whether or not kids today really believe that. I personally just do what I want. I'd rather not let advertisements and public opinions control what I do. If I want to buy a product or service, I'll do it because I want to, not because some pearly-toothed, shiny-haired celebrity implores me to. I did not become anorexic because of skinny models. It happened because I developed an intense fear of food poisoning, and that mutated into a physiological disease (because I randomly, bizarrely started thinking that I didn't want to get fat, which had absolutely nothing to do with my fear of bad food). Maybe my subconscious was affected and bombarded, I don't know. All I know is that when I was little, I didn't see my Barbie dolls as perfect ideals. I chopped off their hair, painted them weird colors, and made them lesbians until someone gave me Ken dolls. Also, my cat kept chewing their hands up.

So maybe the blame extends to many parts--the advertisements for promoting these superficial values, the consumers and audiences who buy and believe the hype, and the deep seat of the unconscious, which trains itself on some primal instinctive level to adhere to ideals that it either feeds and flourishes from, or is drained and weakened by. I guess it depends on the person. But I just really wish people would quit publicly debating--and making sociological studies--on pointless things like fairy tales promoting beauty as good and ugly as evil. The kids are going to believe what they want. A great example is this show I saw last night. The two little boys were in the back seat of the car fighting over Cheetos, and the bag broke. So the uncle forced them to sit in the car with him and wouldn't let them leave the parking lot to go see the movie till they cleaned up the Cheetos. Twelve hours later, the kids were still sitting there, so he finally gave up and took them home, and the dad cleaned the car. No lessons learned at all. Rather stupid and meaningless episode. But the kids refused to adhere or follow an outside influence. They did what they damn well pleased. I think people need to remember that we still have the ability to be stubborn as all hell.
brightrosefox: (Default)
A few things that puzzle and frustrate me:

When someone writes something incredibly profound, sweet, beautiful and flattering, and then someone else cheapens the effect by joking or otherwise trivializing the subject, or nitpicking something. That, plus a few other things, just happened on my mailing list, and I swear I wanted to punch the guy who did it. I didn't say anything, though; I decided to just let it go because it wasn't worth getting riled up about; the guy does things like that all the time, it's just his way of socializing. I mean, if a good friend does it jokingly, that's fine. I may be a little annoyed, but no harm done because it's sometimes funny and naturally they didn't mean anything by it. But when someone you don't really know does it, and isn't really joking, it's like a slap in the face, especially for writers who have low self-confidence, like the person in question who posted the email in the first place.

People who are so stuck on their religion/belief system that they automatically attack anything that might even remotely allude to anything that could go against the grain of their thinking. Example: Some Christian website attacking Ninja Turtles and Transformers for being too violent, and satanic, and a bunch of other crap. This was also posted to my mailing list. Saying that you don't like something because you feel religiously opposed to it is one thing, of course, but jumping all over it with blinders on is just stupid and will make people jump all over you in retaliation. Humans are extremely defensive and territorial, especially in the mental, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual departments. Doesn't matter what you believe; be prepared to encounter opposition. Nobody likes to have opnions and doctrines shoved down their throat.

A radio show debate talked about how fairy tales are telling young girls that beautiful is always good and ugly is always bad. That being good and kind and moral always wins the day, and being selfish and manipulative will get you smashed into bloody bits. People were arguing about whether or not kids today really believe that. I personally just do what I want. I'd rather not let advertisements and public opinions control what I do. If I want to buy a product or service, I'll do it because I want to, not because some pearly-toothed, shiny-haired celebrity implores me to. I did not become anorexic because of skinny models. It happened because I developed an intense fear of food poisoning, and that mutated into a physiological disease (because I randomly, bizarrely started thinking that I didn't want to get fat, which had absolutely nothing to do with my fear of bad food). Maybe my subconscious was affected and bombarded, I don't know. All I know is that when I was little, I didn't see my Barbie dolls as perfect ideals. I chopped off their hair, painted them weird colors, and made them lesbians until someone gave me Ken dolls. Also, my cat kept chewing their hands up.

So maybe the blame extends to many parts--the advertisements for promoting these superficial values, the consumers and audiences who buy and believe the hype, and the deep seat of the unconscious, which trains itself on some primal instinctive level to adhere to ideals that it either feeds and flourishes from, or is drained and weakened by. I guess it depends on the person. But I just really wish people would quit publicly debating--and making sociological studies--on pointless things like fairy tales promoting beauty as good and ugly as evil. The kids are going to believe what they want. A great example is this show I saw last night. The two little boys were in the back seat of the car fighting over Cheetos, and the bag broke. So the uncle forced them to sit in the car with him and wouldn't let them leave the parking lot to go see the movie till they cleaned up the Cheetos. Twelve hours later, the kids were still sitting there, so he finally gave up and took them home, and the dad cleaned the car. No lessons learned at all. Rather stupid and meaningless episode. But the kids refused to adhere or follow an outside influence. They did what they damn well pleased. I think people need to remember that we still have the ability to be stubborn as all hell.
brightrosefox: (Default)
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/cd/review.asp?aid=2047628&cf=

I won't say anything till I hear it. It's wonderful that "Whole of the Moon" will be coming out of obscurity, and she has a beautiful voice--BUT if my second favorite song becomes immortalized not in Mike Scott's voice but Mandy Moore's and Mike Scott's voice is forever forgotten, I am going to hunt her producers down and kill them and make her watch and then I'm going to rip out her voice box.

Although I love that one guy's comments about Britney.
brightrosefox: (Default)
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/cd/review.asp?aid=2047628&cf=

I won't say anything till I hear it. It's wonderful that "Whole of the Moon" will be coming out of obscurity, and she has a beautiful voice--BUT if my second favorite song becomes immortalized not in Mike Scott's voice but Mandy Moore's and Mike Scott's voice is forever forgotten, I am going to hunt her producers down and kill them and make her watch and then I'm going to rip out her voice box.

Although I love that one guy's comments about Britney.

The verdict

Dec. 2nd, 2003 08:08 pm
brightrosefox: (Default)
Okay. I went to Amazon.com and looked up Mandy Moore's new album, "Coverage" featuring the Waterboys song. There is a 29 second clip. And you know what, it's even somewhat decent. She didn't change the song, just followed it. The music is slightly more synthesized and kind of flowing. Moore's voice sounds very adult and sweet. It's like very good karaoke, even though it obviously makes more sense when sung by a man.

I like Mandy Moore as a singer. She is basically the opposite of the bubble gum teen sexpot cliche embodied by, say, Britney. Mandy Moore started out at 15 prancing around in tank tops and short shorts, looking cute and pedophilic, but she never fell into the "I'm pretending to have an orgasm while pretending to sing" phase. In fact, I think she got less overtly sexual as she got older. Now she's just a beautiful young woman with a carrying voice.

However, I'm still up in the air about her decision to cover all these great songs. I saw the video for the "Have A Little Faith In Me" cover. It was amazingly good. I just wasn't sure how purists would take it. I know I'm still ruffled bu even the thought of anyone at all covering a Waterboys song. Then again, New Model Army and Luxt have both done very good covers of other people's work, even giving the songs their own unique spin. So I think I will give Moore's rendition a shot. Just as long as it will make people discover, listen to, and wholly appreciate Mike Scott's vision.

The verdict

Dec. 2nd, 2003 08:08 pm
brightrosefox: (Default)
Okay. I went to Amazon.com and looked up Mandy Moore's new album, "Coverage" featuring the Waterboys song. There is a 29 second clip. And you know what, it's even somewhat decent. She didn't change the song, just followed it. The music is slightly more synthesized and kind of flowing. Moore's voice sounds very adult and sweet. It's like very good karaoke, even though it obviously makes more sense when sung by a man.

I like Mandy Moore as a singer. She is basically the opposite of the bubble gum teen sexpot cliche embodied by, say, Britney. Mandy Moore started out at 15 prancing around in tank tops and short shorts, looking cute and pedophilic, but she never fell into the "I'm pretending to have an orgasm while pretending to sing" phase. In fact, I think she got less overtly sexual as she got older. Now she's just a beautiful young woman with a carrying voice.

However, I'm still up in the air about her decision to cover all these great songs. I saw the video for the "Have A Little Faith In Me" cover. It was amazingly good. I just wasn't sure how purists would take it. I know I'm still ruffled bu even the thought of anyone at all covering a Waterboys song. Then again, New Model Army and Luxt have both done very good covers of other people's work, even giving the songs their own unique spin. So I think I will give Moore's rendition a shot. Just as long as it will make people discover, listen to, and wholly appreciate Mike Scott's vision.

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