Loo Gardy!

Plans and recent legislation

2008-05-19T23:06:00.000-07:00

In all honesty, I can't wait for high school to end. It could be the promise of freedom, the escape into a new setting, or simply the want of a decent night's sleep for once, but I've grown to have a severe distaste for high school. It's probably just the ignorance.

Rant aside, I'm planning on going somewhere in-state, preferably upstate, though my chances are slim. I'd love to explore the world, but not until I've explored whats already so close first(and also not until I've become a lot more worldly, meaning a few more languages). Difficulty is majoring in a somewhat safe bet, biology, or pursuing something I'd really much rather like to spend time with. I'm also contemplating journalism.

On to another topic.

I've found it amazing how a state had been banning "cheery: bright and pleasant; promoting a feeling of cheer" marriages for so long. I don't see the problem honestly. Two living people of the same species are usually subject to that odd, abstract and horribly inexplicable idea of love, so why restrict it? We're all somewhat punished for falling into it, so why keep one of the few joys of love restricted. It was simply a matter of equal rights, no longer of race but of mind.

And this shouldn't be hard at all:
"And the news reports on the radio
said it was getting worse
cause the ocean air found the flame.
but I couldn't think there was anywhere
I would have rather been
to watch it all burn away."

a ta santé mon brave

2008-05-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

"Life without absinthe? I cannot imagine it! For me it would be impossible! I should hang, drown or shoot myself into infinitude, out of sheer rage at the continued cruelty and injustice of the world — but with the divine nectar of Olympus I can defy misfortune and laugh at poverty, as though they were the merest bagatelles! Come! — to your health, mon brave! Drink with me! "
— Marie Corelli

The Barrow Boy

2008-04-06T23:13:00.000-07:00

I'll (most likely) be off to North Carolina for a new environment, a new starting point of sorts. I've always wanted to travel the world, but I guess I'll have to put that plan/dream on hold. It's possible to explore without being physically away, no? I'm quite excited about college.

And, okay, I don't get any bonus points--I googled. Beautiful lyrics though! I used to listen to one of their songs quite a bit, so it's a nice re-discovery, I suppose. Thank you!

What about the rest of you guys? Plans, dreams, adventures?

Not too hard:

"Would I could afford to buy my love a fine gown
Made of gold and silk Arabian thread
But I am dead and gone and lying in a church ground
But still I push my barrow all the day
Still I push my barrow all the day"

Breaking the Trend

2008-04-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

Sort of breaking the trend, but I don't think I know anyone in this blog. So, I'd like to ask (now that high school is approaching the end for many of us) what everyone's post-high school plans are.

How many people are going to college? Anyone taking a gap year? Is anyone applying to out of state schools or maybe international schools? Assuming a large number of California residents here, how many UCs are you applying to? What is the post-high school fantasy that you only dream about?

(Personally, I would like to tour the world for things like Doctor Who film sites or Korean boy bands. I will settle for going to an in-state college, though)

So yes, it's a bit personal to start off with sharing our plans for the future, but it'd be nice if we were all heading towards the same general direction.

And to keep in theme:

"But I miss reaching for the lasers,
the sound of the beat is eight clicks away,
classes, school behavior.
sweating the night out of the sky,
learning to laugh and not ask why."

(Bonus points if you guess the band/song without resorting to Google)

Sie

2008-03-24T00:10:00.000-07:00

Down by a café,
we spoke in each others' language
and forgot by the next day.

Poem

2008-03-16T23:22:00.001-07:00

Random poem for a random blog.

Remember (Christina Rossetti)

REMEMBER me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

der tod im juni...

2008-03-05T22:48:00.000-08:00

"As pilgrims here, we sometimes journey
To who know what; to who know what?
Come and sing this simple story
That god forgot; that life forgot

'Cause don't you know god is disabled?
He is disabled, he is disabled...
Clouds may gather all around you
But he is disabled...

He's no friend to the friendless
And he's the mother of grief
There's only sorrow for tomorrow
Surely, life is too brief
Surely, love is too brief..."

"Short" Background: Death In June is, arguably, the forefather of the neofolk scene - to the point where Douglas Pearce (brainchild and the only constant of the group since the 80s or so) has been joked about tongue-in-cheek fashion for songs consisting of only a one or two chords with spoken word layered. At any rate, DIJ's main controversy arises from the odd fascination with symbolism and lyrical allusions towards the NSDAP and Germany in that era - the name itself is an allusion to the Night of the Long Knives (the death of Ernst Roehm).

It would be easy to able Death In June a neo-Nazi band at this point; however, Pearce is openly gay and has played in Israel to a significant crowd; along with displaying an Israeli flag on his website for a while in apparent commemoration of the concert, Pearce's true connections to white supremacist ideology and/or to any neo-Nazi scene are at best highly doubtable. Of course, this discounts the fact of the Sparta-esque homosexuality of the entire SA division, and other various trivia, which brings a heavy ambiguity in the work of DIJ. His fetish with Nazi symbols (the Totenkopf, SS division insignia, and runic symbols have featured in album art before), however, are another matter in concerns to political orientation, and seemingly belongs towards the larger picture of the intersection of art and politics rather than true fascistic uprising, or what have you.

Commentary: Song text is lifted from "He's Disabled", off DIJ/Pearce's album But What Ends When The Symbols Shatter?. Text is derived from a Jim Jones (ref.: Jonestown mass suicide) gospel album titled He's Able, released 1973. The title is an obvious play on the original title song and is a re-interpretation, and along with other songs on But What Ends..., demonstrate affinity for subverting the People's Temple songs in a style reminiscent of Laibachian intervention. Another good tune from DIJ is a collaboration with Der Blutharsch, entitled "Many Enemies Bring Much Honour".

Sources: I don't quite remember, but it includes everything2 and, of course, Wikipedia once more for the broader introduction. There is also a great piece contra to DIJ supporters and fans that is interesting to read; see Stewart Home's riposte to the supposed enjoyed "ambiguity" of DIJ imagery, along with his essay on Sol Invictus and Boyd Rice.

la folie verte

2008-03-04T22:49:00.000-08:00

"I am the Green Fairy
My robe is the color of despair
I have nothing in common with the fairies of the past
What I need is blood, red and hot, the palpitating flesh of my victims
Alone, I will kill France, the Present is dead.
Vive the future...
But me, I kill the future and in the family I destroy
The love of country, courage, honor.
I am the purveyor of hell, penitentiaries, hospitals.
Who am I finally? I am the instigator of crime
I am ruin and sorrow
I am shame
I am dishonor
I am death
I am absinthe..."

Background: Absinthe was a popular drink of the fin-de-siècle ($20-word for the 19th-20th century transitional years); prohibitionists in France and elsewhere targeted it at the turn of the century for supposedly containing high levels of thujone and for apparently causing psychosis and crime. It has now been shown that absinthe does not nearly contain enough of the chemical to cause hallucinogenic effects.

Commentary: Above is a song written about la folie verte (derived from archetypal absinthe's color); the text may have been created by an anti-absinthe group. It features prominently as the main text in Blood Axis's "Absinthe" (great song!) in The Gospel of Inhumanity - a controversial album, artist, and scene at any rate - and in a later collaboration tune with Les Joyaux De La Princesse, a fellow martial industrial/dark ambient/neofolk/what-have-you-genre artist, in a recycled song in Absinthe, La Folie Verte. Opinionated aside (as if this post isn't): LJDLP's "L'Allemagne Année Zéro" is a wonderful example of dark ambient music.

Sources: FluxEuropa, AbsintheFever, and, of course, for all your amateur writing needs, Wikipedia.

[Will lift to own page later for reference. Back to your regularly scheduled programming...]

and now, poetry.

2008-03-02T22:44:00.000-08:00

I have eaten   and which          Forgive me
the plums      you were probably  they were delicious
that were in   saving             so sweet
the icebox     for breakfast.     and so cold.

- William Carlos Williams. "This Is Just To Say"

(...achtung, kameraden!
der sturm ist los...) [faux-deutsch, &c.]

homeee

2008-03-02T22:18:00.001-08:00

well, second home (: