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it may surprise most of you that i am a huge john mellencamp fan (tho’ it shouldn’t, i like any music that is real and true and well done). ‘pink houses’ is one of my all time favorite tracks. the sound of a broken heart (it’s hardest i think when your country disappoints you) and the sound of someone challenging the status quo.
theres a black man with a black cat
living in a black neighbourhood
he’s got an interstate runnin through his front yard
you know, he think, that hes got it so good
nd theres a woman in the kitchen cleanin up the evening slop
and he looks at her and says: hey darling, i can remember when you could stop a clock
and before anyone comments that this is a pro-america (fuck yea!) kind of song, it’s not. mellencamp always gets a bad wrap for shit like that. his songs aren’t really the patriotic anthems some think they are. more often than not, they reflect the side of america i think most people forget about.
well theres a young man in a t-shirt
listening to a rockin rollin station
he’s got a greasy hair, greasy smile
he says: lord, this must be my destination
cuz they told me, when i was younger
boy, youre gonna be president
but just like everyting else, those old crazy dreams
just kinda came and went
pink houses is a beautiful tune that really reflects the change that was happening in america in the early 80’s (my god, is it really 25 years old?!) – the country had taken a decidedly major change to regan america. people on the outskirts were often forgotten.
well theres people and more people
what do they know know know
go to work in some high rise
and vacation down at the gulf of mexico
ohhh yeah
and theres winners, and theres losers
but they aint no big deal
cuz the simple man baby pays for the thrills, the bills and the pills that kill
mellencamp never forgets those people.
oh but aint that america for you and me
aint that america were someting to see baby
aint that america, home of the free
little pink houses for you and me
…. about mypost from yesterday about my birthday…. ummm, it has a post id # in wordpress of 666!
madonna has announced that the name of her upcoming album (released 4.28) is “hard candy” and that the lead off single with be the justin timberlake co-write, “four minutes“. hmmm wonder what happened to the wildly bootlegged “candy shop” – everyone assumed that would be the first single.
source: nme.
38 = the atomic number of strontium
38 = the number of slots on an american roulette wheel
38 = the age at which sam kinison, florence griffith joyner, george gershwin and john f. kennedy, jr. all died
38 = the number of games that each team in the english premiership play’s in a season
38 = is the bill number that legalized same-sex marriage in canada
38 = number of years it took the israelites to travel from kadesh barnea to the zered valley in deuteronomy
38 = the 11th distinct biprime and the 7th in the {2.q} family.
38 = the sum of the squares of the first three primes.
38 = the largest even number which cannot be written as the sum of two odd composite numbers
—
38 also equals how old i am today.
yay me!
🙂
do you really wanna know how i was dancing on the floor?
i was trying to phone you when i’m crawling out the door
i’m amazed at you, the things you say that you don’t do
lyric from the song ‘a&e‘
i’m still absorbing this new record… but on my initial listens it’s not the complete antithesis of their ’05 release ‘supernature‘ that some of the reviews would have you believe. granted, gone are the thumping beats and pure disco ecstasy of that disk, but in their place are witty little synth lines (made with antique electronic keyboards – how cool) matched with subtle acoustic guitar, vocal multit-racking and arpeggios (in other words, fairly standard goldfrapp-fare). the beats are most assuredly there. they’re just not terribly obvious. but it’s definitely a toe-tapping album
many reviews are calling this the morning after for the disco hangover of ‘supernature‘, and that’s not all together wrong.
in my initial listens off of their myspace page, i was thinking this would be a perfect weekend morning album, and the more i listen, the more i think that’s true.
lyrically it’s terribly english – very witty. very drool. very obscure (umm, alison, are you channeling my beloved kate bush a bit?). but at the end of the day, these songs have already begun to find the nooks and crannies of my mind. the tunes are incredibly catchy. just in a quieter sort of way.
the lead off single ‘a&e’ is quite possibly my favorite lead off single in a long long time. and the video is just fucking weird enough that you can’t help but love it.
so james wasn’t having any of my “no opinion” – selections – he made me give a guess prior to the award (hence the changes reflected below).
all in all, i did pretty good. the green means i got it right, the red means wrong. 13/24 – better than half, not bad eh? really really proud of my hometown boys (the coen brothers) and girl (diablo cody); way to represent minnesota!
- best picture; no country for old men
- best actor; daniel day-lewis / there will be blood
- best actress; ellen page / juno (yup, that’s right – i went there…julie christie’s got nothing on her… lol). marion cotillard won for la vie en rose
- best supporting actor; javier bardem / no country for old men
- best supporting actress; cate blanchett / i’m not there tilda swinton for micheal clayton
- director; ethan coen & joel coen / no country for old men
- documentary; sicko take me to the dark side
- documentary short; the crown freeheld
- animated feature; persepolis (haven’t seen it, but it looks amazing… & ratatouille is not even remotely pixars best work) ratatouille
- foreign language film; 12 the counterfitters
- cinematography; tough call, but i’m going to go with there will be blood
- original screenplay; diablo cody / juno
- adapted screenplay; ethan coen & joel coen / no country for old men
- visual effects; transformers the golden compass
- animated short; even pigeons go to heaven peter wolf
- live action short; the mozart of the pickpockets
- art direction; atonement sweeney todd; the demon barber of fleet street
- costume design; atonement elizabeth; the golden age
- film editing; no country for old men the bourne ultimatum
- sound mixing; the bourne ultimatum
- sound editing; the bourne ultimatum
- original score; atonement
- original song; falling slow / once
- makeup; la vie en rose
yup, it’s official. bronchitis. grrrrrr.
so far 2008 is off to a banner start…. the whole “dizzy”/inner ear thing that happened around new years, followed by a cold, then the stomach flu, then another cold which has morphed into this. thank you mother-fuckin’-nature. can you please go on vacation now?
on a plus side i had them test my blood last night whilst at the urgent care (which by the way took 2.5 hours to be seen, not so urgent eh?) – i was a bit nervous about this after the $1000 blood test last month – but i hadn’t had a straight up platelet count in a few months… good news back tho’ – i’m at 575,000 which is well above normal (but not dangerous like last year when it was pushin’ 900g). so all’s good on the blood front. ((for those not in the know, i have immune thrombocytopenic purpura. it’s fun to say real fast))
ralph nader is running for president again….someone make this man stop.
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