selene marya is 17, a high school senior, an insomniac, an amateur music photographer, and fond of overstepping her bounds.
an ode to mono.
in the past week i have spent, i am certain, a record amount of time doing the following:
a) myspacing.
b) downloading every other track i find featured on hypemachine.
c) browsing posts in the group "awkward moments define my life" on facebook.
and d) watching episodes of "to catch a predator" on youtube. bizarre, but hilarious in some sick way. ("not one, but EIGHT!")
so, what is the long-lasting lesson i have learned through all of this? well, truly the answer is absolutely nothing, but at least i have had a good soundtrack. the thing i love most about reading everyone's year-end lists is wondering where the fuck i have been for the entire year. finally, as december 31 rolls around, i am hearing all these stellar songs i seem to have repeatedly missed the boat on. (hell, maybe this whole mono thing is actually beneficial. besides the fact that it makes me use language like "stellar.") so as much as i don't believe in new year's resolutions, i am hoping that in 2008 i will make at least a vague attempt to pay attention to what is going on around me... as it happens, instead of 6 months later.
additionally, i think i have finally realized the true value of the the internet. yes, up until now it was still a debatable issue. but trapped with nothing to do and nowhere to go for days on end, i have changed my perspective. what better way is there to spend your time than carefully examining the myspace profiles of all your friends' friends? or reading about how so-and-so from northeastern university once said "orgasm" instead of "organism" in biology class in 10th grade? these are things you need to know, as a good american citizen. so thanks, internet. i owe you one.
1-2-3-... oh, come on...
having just been diagnosed with mono and having nothing better to do
(hopefully this will also help with the various posts i've been
building up in my "drafts" section...), tonight i was skimming through
a recent issue of alternative press. please note that i was only
reading it because it was there. it's not that i have built myself up
to have any sort of intellectual integrity that could be destroyed by
this, but really that magazine is somewhat like a plague upon the face
of music magazines. which is further proved by the article i found
inside on the plain white t's. ah, the good old plain white t's of "hey
there delilah" infamy. despite the fact that i listen to to the radio
maybe, oh, once a week, i think i still managed to hear this song
upwards of 50 times this year. i really prefer not to think of it.
so, carrying on:
in
the article, singer tom higgenson talks about their upcoming 2008
release. he says, "there's one song i was going to call '1234'... then
all of a sudden this damn feist song comes along. so it might have to
be called, 'easy, as 1234.' but it's way better than that damn feist song."
uh,
excuse me tom? let me get this straight, you wrote the most obnoxious
radio hit of 2007 and you still think you can go around claiming your
music is better than anything? my god, tom. my god.
so when this new album comes out, let me say i would love to be the first to listen to this 'easy as 1234' nonsense. and then perhaps we will see how exactly it is "way better than that damn feist song."
it's just not OKAY!
this thanksgiving i made a trip back to my old home on the east coast, almost literally. eating thankgiving dinner in a house you spent half your childhood in, a house you haven't stepped foot in for ten years, is really a strange experience. i might even say remarkable. but alas this is a blog about music, and so i will focus on the true issue at hand. i shoved my ipod in my bag with a bottle of water on the flight home from los angeles a month ago, the bottle leaked, and consequently the ipod hasn't even shown any signs of life since.
flash forward:
rental car.
drive from boston to syracuse.
drive from syracuse to norwalk, connecticut.
drive from norwalk back to boston.
recap:
busted ipod.
solution:
listen to the radio. for a series of drives totaling approximately 12.5 hours, plus a few due to traffic. through the back woods of upstate new york.
i think you're starting to get the picture.
and besides the black metal show ("nocturnal bleeding," it was called) i stumbled upon on some boston station (i think i should personally thank them), i will tell you right now:
yes, it really is THAT MISERABLE to listen to the radio for 13 hours. and if i never hear the name "timbaland" again, not once in my life, it will still be once too fucking many.
my mom likes... what?!
inspired by samantha!
for her 45th birthday recently (happy birthday mom), my mother requested that the only gift i give her was a mix cd. she'd choose the songs. i'd burn the disc. simple enough. "alright, just make me a list," i said. so she handed me the thing... okay, not entirely what i was expecting.
her requests included:
+ against me; turn those clapping hands into angry balled fists
+ killing the dream; picking up the pieces (she prefers to call this one "THE FUCK SONG." peep the intro.)
+ afi; but home is nowhere
+ mewithoutyou; four word letter (pt 2)
+ bright eyes; no one would riot for less
+ marilyn manson; lamb of god
+ the faint; agenda suicide
and, well, to really throw us all for a loop:
+ ricky martin; livin' la vida loca
looks like my mom has been creeping on my itunes just a little too much. all i have to say is, if anyone catches me with that ricky martin song on there... yes. it was just my mother.
selene locke; blogging failure
well, after an extended hiatus (which none of you noticed), i have finally returned (which none of you care about).
a good start, clearly.
anyway.
flew to los angeles to visit a friend last weekend, learned two vital concepts:
concept one; people really dress up to go to shows in LA.
??!?!
i showed up to see steel train in jeans and a sweater, i suppose as though one might attend a typical show in boulder, but smelling slightly fresher...
(i kid, i kid)
only to discover everyone parading around in dresses, heels, and club attire like i had stepped into a totally different DIMENSION (but i suppose "a completely different dimension" is not far from an accurate description of sunset strip).
either way, culture shock.
concept two; no one should ever bother to go see boys like girls,
and though i hope most of us knew this already, i will inform you that they will put on an utterly lackluster live show with very little personality or energy, martin johnson WILL sound like a woman, and you will be more inclined to sit in the house of blues restaurant than listen to his whining for twelve more seconds,
or maybe it's just me.
speaking of the house of blues (a blunt addendum to concept two):
FUCK their useless camera policies.
i admit i had a good time sneaking my canon digital rebel xt through their supposedly airtight security on the first night i attended, but i would rather not have to deal with it at all, thank you very much.
on a final note i tried to go see control while i was out there, no dice. total bumout, i blame LA public transportation for not being able to get me to the theater by 4pm. desperately need to see this movie.
public service announcement
i utterly despise radiohead at this particular moment, because when i wake up at 12:30am and get on my computer to check what time it is i typically do not expect to see "Subject: DOWNLOAD IN RAINBOWS - DO NOT REPLY" chilling anywhere in my inbox, but tonight that was indeed the case and i feel as though it might lead to a distinct lack of sleep, and if i am exhausted beyond belief tomorrow and fall asleep in every class i will simply say "thom yorke, teacher, it was all thom yorke, and you can quote me on that."
but currently three songs in, i am thinking i might enjoy this one quite a bit.
[side note that i feel must be mentioned; WHAT THE FUCK are these strange boxes at the end of every song title of this album in my itunes. is anyone else experiencing this shit, and if so, were any of you obsessive-compulsive enough to go through and get rid of them all. because i did, and for this reason i fear i am slipping.
p.s. question marks are out in 2007.]
daily whine pt2
hiding your profile song on myspace: what a clever and innovative way to make sure you will be the only one on the planet to ever have that song on your page, despite its extreme popularity.
"DON'T ask me what my profile song is, there's a REASON it's hidden!!!"
...because myspace, as we all know, is a distinct representation of one's own personal being and interests, and for another person to know what song you currently enjoy would be a complete violation of anything good and holy.
here, have an a+ for vanity.
[note: someday, i really will say something positive in this blog.
clearly today is not that day, but it is approaching.]
daily whine
i'm sick of all this indie rock bullshit.
If this group Reaches 150,000 members I will name my son Batman
"I am going to call my son Batman, I have discussed this with my wife, she is pregnant at the moment. If my group reaches 150,000 members,we will name him batman! If this group reaches 50,000 we will call him Bruce Wayne Robin Spiderman Batman Islam"
random capitalization of the word 'reaches' excluded, i wonder what is the most deranged thing about this facebook group: the person who started it, or the 74,954 members who joined it?
who goes around spreading this shit? can you see the conversation?
"man, i was on facebook today, and like, there's this group, and like, this guy's gonna name his kid BATMAN if enough people join it!"
"no way dude, are you serious?"
"yeah man, i mean it! BATMAN, can you believe it?"
uh, no?
i don't know, maybe i'm just taking this all too seriously but i just can't grasp the concept. okay, okay, so maybe some guy wants to name his child batman. big whoop. but the fact that almost 80000 people are captivated by this? the fact that almost 80000 people actually want to see a child walking around named Bruce Wayne Robin Spiderman Batman Islam? the fact that 63 more people have joined the group since i started writing this post?!
so as a solution to this plight, i suggest proactive action.
start a revolution.
name your own son batman.
inauguration
i intended this to be a scathing rant; after writing for a few minutes i realized i just don't have it in me right now. i go through phases in my relationship with music. sometimes i look at the industry, the scene, the business and i can only see their faults. i'm sure i will explore some of them fully in the future. but on days like today, there is no possible way i could care less. so i throw on a top 40 playlist or two and yes, sometimes i even enjoy it.
with that statement i may have irretrievably lost any potential readers. because of all mistakes a person can make, a person who calls themselves a true fan of music, i hear this mistake is the worst. surely if i knew a THING about music i would instead be scouring the latest pitchfork reviews. surely if i had any semblance of taste, i would not touch such terrible pop music with a ten foot pole. i would know everything there is to know about 'real musicians,' the 'musicians with talent,' and i would make sure everyone around me knew just as well.
yeah, but do these fuckers ever get to stand on their beds, dancing to the new britney spears track in their underwear?
ha, musical credibility.
joke's on you.
