Music Music Music

[Elle]

Apart from some days with Prince, I haven't had very much music in my mind these past few weeks. I don't know why because it's an abnormal condition. I tried to be very quiet and listen for a moment, and then I got Joan Jett, I love rock and roll. This is my normal facial expression, at least.

[Irish Fan]

Anyone ever heard of the Airborne Toxic Event? Indie band out of LA. Features violin in a rock band - which I LOVE! They've put out 4 albums that, I would argue, top to bottom, are as good as the first 4 albums of ANY band in history! Bold statement, but give them a listen!!

[Elle]

They had a song a while back that was played on heavy rotation on the college radio type station. I have heard a few others and liked them too, but still, yes, your claim is too bold.

[akiva]

[Elle]

If we only do useful things, what good are we?

[Cazmonster]

Those who are simply useful support the crazy ones, the makers.

[akiva]

I don't love these guys, but always reminds me of beach week after graduating from high school--we listened to this album, and this song in particular, many many times.

[Elle]

, at least. I was in some stage of adolescence when this came to me and we were all in love with Simon LeBon. I disinterestedly permitted myself to be classified by other girls as a devotee of John Taylor instead - after all, he had some sort of musical ability, and we couldn't all have Simon. You may laugh but this did something to me psychologically. Secretly I knew Simon was mine. Many years I waited, like some sort of cat that suddenly drops out of a tree onto its prey, and then dragged one home.

I look down here on the desk and see that my daughter's assignment rubric, which is telling her not to make errors in her writing, contains errors in its writing. We need more despairing, blue-violet emoticons.

[Elle]

Luckily I seem to be able to think of and listen to other music again now. Except that ! Oh no. I can't have that, so... let's hunt up something else. !

[Elle]

The sheer volume of live Prince performance videos released on Youtube in the past few days, and the quality of the performances, is astounding. I'm just sitting here in awe. Sometimes they fill me with energies for doing work and other times they're SO GOOD that it becomes a distraction and you have to mark it to watch later. Unbelievable things going on in these videos.

[akiva]

So I listened to .

Immediately followed by

Not sure what that says about me.

[Elle]

Whatever it says is SOMETHING GOOD.

Apparently Prince . After utterly destroying Jimmy Page's guitar solo, it appears that he has killed and buried the dead guitar right there onstage, presumably so it wouldn't have to be troubled by anything lesser being done to it. Is that what just happened? I think so.

It's like a giant hole of music has opened up in the universe suddenly and we have live versions of and W? (in a way that makes you actually like the song and believe he's talking about, you know, GOD). I'm just finding it difficult to ignore all this in favor of doing really boring work instead.

Maybe you're unimpressed by Prince the guitarist. Not even performing, you know, just rehearsing, trying something.

If your stone heart isn't completely broken after that, . If this doesn't work right away, skip to 2:50 where you get, you know, Prince doing a little call and response with Miles Davis. All of this stuff suddenly bursting onto the internet is going to make it sentient, self-aware, conscious, whatever you want to call that.

[Elle]

Posted without fucking comment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQDFmmougCM

[akiva]

[Elle]

After some truly exhausting Prince binges, I wake up this morning with Captain and Tennille, love will keep us together. Is this my brain's weird means of responding to Beyonce Lemonade? A pre-emptive strike?

[akiva]

It's one of my theme songs.

[akiva]

[Elle]

That's a great song! Love it!

That Ally McBeal lawyer show a while back had Theme Songs, which was cute the first time when it was John and Barry White. Then they went stupid with it, but I still like the Theme Song concept independently of their attempt to tamper with it. One of mine is The Tide is High by Blondie. It's a pretty trivial song on the surface of the lyrics, but there is a lot more going on down there. What does it mean to be a barnacle hidden below the waves, temporarily? What's the difference between #1 and #2, especially for females taught their whole lives to be a graceful #2? That really has a bad unintended double meaning. But you know, if I was going to be a #2, I would indeed be a graceful one. Inoffensive. Anyway, one day after being the sort of girl who preferred on all levels to let someone else be up there playing point, as if #2 was the strong supporting role that made the whole thing great, I had an awakening that being #1 isn't only about the weirdly hypercompetitive culture we live in, but means various other good things that I should want. Like if you are going to do something, do the absolute shit out of it all the way. If it's worth your time, then do it in the best way because this is your life and it passes quickly away. I cannot sit around bitching about how other people do things inconveniently wrongly; they simply need to step aside and let someone drive. And if I am going to drive, then I had better win with whatever I'm driving, where winning does not mean conquering a zero-sum game. Except in husbands, since they need conquering and they are a zero-sum game. I try to teach my girls this. (Boy too, but he's a different and younger animal at the moment.) People will want you as a possession and trophy to say something about what they won, and some people - unfortunately, people who are otherwise winners in many respects - want to collect trophies. But you're not a trophy, you ARE the winner. You go win, and anyone who wants you had better want it with their whole being or it isn't good enough.

[Elle]

Hey, !

[Elle]

and this has laid us out flat on the floor! Hey, do you think it is possible that Andrew Bird and Fiona Apple are an "item"? I could be completely fangirly [refer all usage complaints to my child; I have absorbed her slang] about that but probably they're just singing together, to slay us all instantly.

So, speaking of the slang of the children, it strikes me that "pepe" must be the invention of someone who is a different generation from my child, but my child and all those of her generation really enjoy and understand "pepe". W. T. F. This right here? This is the generational gap we hear so much about. Where is the amusement in any of this? These people are from outer space. I have no idea what is wrong.