inherently different

Archive for April, 2006

Taking my cue from Chai & Apple Pie, I thought I’d write a post about music. I’ve attended a lot of concerts in my day… the following is the list of all the bands i’ve seen perform live… well, a list of all the bands I remember seeing anyway.

Oingo Boingo (35x)
Nine Inch Nails (8x)
Depeche Mode (5x)
INXS (2x)
Motley Crue (2x)
Uriah Heap
Eddie Money
Def Leppard
Beach Boys (3x)
Bachman Turner Overdrive
Rolling Stones
The Who
Huey Lewis & The News
Pat Benatar
Van Halen (3x)
Scorpions
AC/DC
Agent Orange
Plasmatics
Misfits
Clash
Beastie Boys
Madonna
Green Day
Nirvana (2x)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Pearl Jam (2x)
Foo Fighters
Katrina & The Waves
Blink 182
Beck
Oasis
Travis
Ben Harper
Everclear
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Hooverphonic
Live
Maroon 5
P.O.D
Spearhead
George Clinton & The P-Funk All-stars
Sublime
The Verve
The English Beat
General Public
Bauhaus
Love & Rockets
Bryan Adams
B-52s
Bangles
Night Ranger
Bon Jovi
The Cars
Elvis Costello
Crowded House
Duran Duran
Echo & The Bunnymen
Fine Young Cannibals
The Fixx
Flock of Seagulls
The Go Go’s
Howard Jones
Billy Idol (2x)
Madness
Men At Work
New Order
OMD
The Police
The Pretenders
Simple Minds
The Smiths
U2

I’m pretty sure I’m missing some. There was two periods in my lifetime that I went to rock shows every weekend (1983 in high school and 1987 in college) and many of those shows found me either too drunk to clearly recall the experience or too high on pharmacuetical grade narcotics to understand what I was seeing. Ahhh youth… it is wasted on the young.

My GF’s mother is visiting us here on Maui for the next two weeks. With that declaration I give you:

Top 10 Things You Shouldn’t Say To Your GF’s Devoutly Religious Mother Who Also Believes I Should Settle Down and Marry Her Daughter.

10. (Unlike you) I don’t believe in profitting from someone’s death.
09. Another thing Mel Gibson’s Apocolypto has in common with the Passion of the Christ is they are both works of fiction.
08. Do you believe in God? I don’t… well at least not the same god you believe in.
07. My goal in life is not the accumulation of wealth and material possessions.
06. Marriage is an antiquated ideal.
05. Commitment and marriage are not synonymous ideas.
04. The government uses taxes to subjugate the people of other countries, spy on their own citizens, and generally ensure we are the most hated people on Earth. Clearly worthwhile pursuits that warm the cockles of any Republican’s heart.
03. That’s not stupid… stupid is believing in Religion and Republican politics.

That’s all I have so far… I’m sure as the visit continues, I’ll top these without much effort. Considering we are on day two of her two week visit, you can be sure I’ll have more to post in the coming days.

I want to introduce you to the next big thing… maybe you’ve heard of them… maybe you haven’t. I live on a volcanic rock in the middle of the pacific ocean so I rarely get news before most of you. Chances are I’m late on this, but I’m holding out hope that I’m one step ahead of you all. Check out the band that is in heavy rotation on my Itunes…

Gnarls Barkley

There is nothing worse than a hypocrite… someone, or some group for that matter, that preaches one thing, then practices something else. Rock & Roll stars are possibly the biggest hypocrites this side of televangelists and that is one of the reasons why I think the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is a joke. It is really just a ploy by the recording industry to thank old timers for making them rich without actually having to give them any money for all their hard work. I mean, seriously… the fucking place is in Cleveland, Ohio… I would imagine they would have built it in dump if they could have gotten away with it. Anyway… back on point…

The fact that the Sex Pistols who are being inducted (along with Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Blondie), but will NOT be joining the rest of the hypocrites for all the back-patting and complimentary blowjobs just goes to show that they are the definitive Punk band of all time. The Ramones, clearly the only peers worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the Sex Pistols, not only attended their induction, but were thankful for it… hypocrites indeed.

In a note purportedly written by the often foul-mouthed, but honest Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten, the pistols told the Hall what they really think, “Next to the Sex-Pistols, rock and roll and that hall of fame is a piss stain!”

You have to hand it to them… fighting the man to the end…

There is an article in the most recent rolling stone about Jack Abramoff, the super lobbyist who has suddenly thrown Washington into full on scramble mode. Scrambling because they don’t want to be listed as Abramoff supporters, which is a good idea since the fucker was convicted of a number of crimes including fraud and racketeering. The guy is a sleeze as are anyone who did business with him including a number of high profile republicans like Tom Delay. The article was interesting in as much as you would never guess how incredibly corrupt American politicians are… well, you can think you know, but then they stoop lower and you’re once again scratching your head wondering where they get they get the gall.

Of course, part of the problem with American politics is that you really can’t trust someone who wants to be a politician. I think the first rule for any politician should be a reluctance to be a politician.

Also, Rolling Stone is a rather bleeding-edge liberal outlet. They tend to oversensationalize anything that doesn’t fit their agenda… they are anti-republican, environmental extremists who will suddenly find themselves without much to harp on once the next election delivers a democratic president. But I still like the magazine because it gives me an emotional perspective that I tend to overlook.

HAHAHAHAHA! I’ve just been banned from commenting on someone’s blog! And let me see if I can be motivated to care beyond simply making fun of the dumbass… nope. Posting about it here is as much effort as I can muster.

I need to decide whether to upgrade my typepad account. It is up in a few days/weeks… I think I have two more months… depends on when the extra time I get for typepad being messed up for two months stops. The benefits of the upgraded account are complete control of the css… which would then allow me to make more customized looks. I mean the ability to have unlimited blogs is nice… but since I have a hard time updating this blog very often, that seems less important. If I do spend the $149, I will have to make more of an effort to post.

6togo recently posted a link to a website called hollabacknyc (i won’t link it to avoid giving this moronic blog more publicity than it deserves)… you’d think it was something fun, carefree, ghetto… whatever, but it isn’t… it is a rather misguided attempt to give voice to “street harassment.”

I say misguided because you don’t really need anything more tangible than a “feeling” that you are being objectified. Granted, some women/metrosexuals who use the site will clearly be trying to do some good… still…

Sexual harassment is definitely something men should be concerned about. In this atmosphere of zero tolerance, just about anything can be considered sexual harassment. Of course, regardless of what anyone says, sexual harassment is a one-way street. If a woman says, “You look nice in that shirt,” the message being sent isn’t considered sexual harassment. If a man says the exact same thing to a woman though, it can be construed as sexual harassment. Unfortunately this disparity tends to make any workplace where “liberated” or “empowered” (or whatever euphemism for feminist extremism you care to use) women are employed a “hostile” work environment for men.

I do NOT condone making women feel uncomfortable in any way, nor do I think it is proper or ok for a woman to be objectified in the work place. I also do not condone simple acts of admiration (such as the aforementioned, “Hey that shirt looks good on you!” type of compliments) being turned into sexually charged commentary.

The website lets just about anyone post pictures and comments that “out” street harassers. If was used primarily to warn women of sexual predators or misogynists, I wouldn’t have a problem… but if you search the site’s archives, you’ll see a number of rather innocuous comments men make to women being construed as sexual/street harassment.