Scar tissue that I wish you saw

I suppose at the moment, I'm figuring I'm more likely to share my lonely view with the birds rather than a mate or a community to belong to. Ah, but that's mostly just the depression talking, and a good way to take the edge off that old bug is...

Music...because music rocks.

Let's start it up with:
1. Scar Tissue - Red Hot Chilli Peppers from their classic album Blood Sugar Sex Magic. A delicate song, with immense feeling, but a gentle acceptance. It well captures that sad but understanding attitude of being alone, not by anyone's fault but just by circumstance. The lyrics sketch a picture of a man striving to end that loneliness with romance, but accepting his current failure and looking a bit gloomily at his continued efforts. Then there's that guitar rift that cuts in the middle right into your soul. It's the signal that this reluctant acceptance doesn't come without a passionate protest, but the rift never bursts into an electronic fury as it seems tempted to at times, as the acceptance wins out, but is intertwined with sorrow that the man cannot shake, and which lingers in your heart long after the song has ceased in your ears.

And here's the AMV from the good folks at FLCL. The hyper-energy of FLCL somewhat clashes with the meditative song, but FLCL's combination of humor and darkness, joy and pain, psuedo-philosophy and psuedo-pop matches well the sweet and bitter strains, that look at the birds as brothers, if only to express an alienation from the rest of the world.

But don't let that alienation get you down, because even with that you can still be singing...

2. Tubthumping by Chumbawamba, a great song with a marvelous simplicity in its energy and sentiment (the lyrics too to a degree), but also a marvelous complexity its multiple competing parts and different voices and different tones and...

DUDE: I GET KNOCKED DOWN AND I GET UP AGAIN YOU AIN'T NEVER GOING TO KEEP ME DOWN

You can't stop the music when it hits you that true and strong. Especially when it goes well with a lovely anime called Love Hina. While this anime may not be the best in the harem anime genre, it is a quintessential example, with a hero with a never-say-die attitude and an always-say-die luck which matches the song as well (plus Love Hina has plenty of examples of people drinking heavily which also hits the bells of the tubthumping way (oh I could explain to you what tubthumping means, but I'm not going to))

But to mix it up a bit, as I am inclined to, let's take the energy of the second and the bittersweet of the first and we end up with something close to...

3. Lovefool by the Cardigans - The essential sentiment of the artist in love, rejected but so broken by the lost that she's willing to cling to any thing her love can give her... Well, it's a classic. The tone switches amazingly seemlessly between honestly distraught and flippant to a degree where you can't tell whether you're being too cool for love or too in love to be cool, all you know is you're out of sorts and you don't know what to do and if only you could just have the illusion of love...well, that touches a bit too close honestly. Let's move along...

4. That's right Move Along by the All-American Rejects. This song has a decent deal of lyrical/musical complexity, but not a huge amount. It's biggest claim is the driving push of its energy. And then there's the sentiment, and then there's just the way the voice and music mixes excellently with the sentiment, because it is the loser yelp and the semi-emo, sort-of-punk rock jangle, yeah, these are the All-American Rejects, but isn't being a reject part of being an American? And isn't it glorious?

This AMV might not hit all the right notes. Sometimes the images are a little too spot on, sometimes they're just cool images without the right sentiment, but what the video editor got here is the need for an immense variation of imagery and colors to hit that energy flow perfectly. Plus the characters, like all good heroes, got a nice loser-y look from some angles, and you gotta love a loser...

Because losers are the ones who know how to rock.

I think that's the sentiment to end the night on, and if the loneliness ever gets too hard, just remember music is awesome. It won't take away the pain, but meh, pains not so bad and music, as stated before, is awesome.

So take it to your head, take it to your heart and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

And God Bless.

Highly distractible, but nigh industructable

While the latter may or may not be true (time will tell if I am nigh industructable), I certainly am highly distractible, especially when I'm in still a semi-vacationish mode. In fact I'm right now more distractible than I was while I was in full-vactionish mode. Alac, Alac, Alac.

So anyways:

Here's some tunes:

LISTEN!!!!

1. Devil's Haircut - Beck - From the album Odelay - Weird, weird, weird song. The free association lyrics, the nonsensical constant refrain, it's all madness really it is, and I truly doubt there's a straight forward understanding one's supposed to get from all of it (although there are claims of a straight forward meaning to it on the internet, even one by Bob Dylan, but even if Beck were to tell me himself, I'd be like dude, whatever it's supposed to say, it's not saying that in a fashion that anyone should be expected to directly understand). But if I were to guess, and I am inclined to, I'd probably say it's all madness. The lyrics recite a list of crazy bad (eyes ripped from sockets!) stuff happening with the repeated line my mind is fadin', but the tone is all detached, not quite cheerfully so but with a bit of almost amusement, maybe fascination or interest. Then at the end you get an intensity to the voice and something like rage but perhaps more akin to adrenaline rush. Maybe it's all just madness. Least that's how I'm thinkin' of it.

Lyrics

Beck's Music Video - Beck's not one to shy away from the weird is he?

Devil's Haircut AMV - tv show : The Tick - Made by (since making good AMV's takes good work, I've decided to start crediting the AMV makers, in this case an outfit called:) Brilliantwerk (the guy seems to be in a lot of online communities, although I checked the website at the end of the video and that goes no where (the link here goes to his (or could be her) youTube site)) - Now really the whole reason I took this song is because I found this AMV and since I'm using in my title nigh industructable I had to include some Tickige. But the song and the video are actually a really nice match since both are slightly off-kilter in a weird direction. Moreover, by starting and ending with the bomber dude, the video manages to match the tone of the song which isn't quite as cheery as the Tick himself and his cry of "Spoooooooon!"

2. Parallel Universe - Red Hot Chili Peppers - From the album Californication - Some semi-Transendentalist mystic mombo-jumbo (also see the mention of Oversoul in By the Way) + rockin' triumphantcy + Red Hot Chili Peppers = Awesome, awesome song. Few songs are this intense and this triumphant. That made it easy to tweak into my own version which I called Dravidian King, as a song it might be less than great, but as a webpost session it has the spontaneity, emotionalism, etc., let's not go into webpost theory right now, let's not go into music theory right now either, let's just rock out with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Lyrics - For a long time I didn't realize it was California King, I don't remember what I thought it was, but California King is that lyric that's just spit out full force in the refrain, and we all know California likes to rock triumphant

Red Hot Chili Peppers Concert Video - There's no music video for this song, but this is a pretty nice concert video, all the way from the good folk in Brazil.

Parallel Universe AMV - anime : Kiddy Grade - Made by Charles Fontillas - I'm not a big fan of the anime Kiddy Grade, but this AMV is pretty awesome. It's as energized, colorful, and full of life as the song, plus it even captures the Red Hot Chili Peppers psychedelic flavors. The characters are nicely trotted out but not idolized or fan-serviced, the action is brisk but does not detract from the song, etc., overall very great. A nice comparison would be to another AMV of Parallel Universe, this one made with Gunslinger Girl (an anime I haven't seen much of, but which seems pretentious). The second AMV isn't bad but it isn't as good as the first, the whole video is too static, both in subject and shot, and even when there is action, the scene itself is focused on, dragged down the momentum of the video. Admittedly I might think this way due to my biases towards Gunslinger Girl, but then again I'm no fan of Kiddy Grade, then again... then again, it's time to move on to our next contender (for no prize, title or position what-so-ever!!!! (Wooo, what-so-ever!!!!)).

3. Bad Reputation - by Thin Lizzy, but covered more famously by Joan Jett - From the album Bad Reputation - This is a punk shout, so I'm not going into much detail about it. Especially since I did go into more detail about it before in a previous session. So let me just say:

I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT MY BAD REPUTATION!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the Lyrics

Here's Joan Jett's Music Video.

And here's an AMV of Bad Reputation using for the anime the 3rd Series of Digimon focusing on everyone's favorite bad-asses Rika and Renamon (made more subject-worthy by the fact Rika, despite loving her bad-assness, was worried about her mother's reaction for parts of the series). Digimon rules!!!!! (actually I wasn't thrilled with the 4th series and I haven't seen the 5th one, and the 2nd one, while good wasn't as good as the 1st or the 3rd ones.)

Just to cap things off to an off-form entry, let me point you towards the intro credits of Freaks and Geeks which featured Bad Reputation, since Freaks and Geeks was awesome.

4. Saturday Night's Alright - by Elton John - From the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - You know when you look at craftsmanship, some of these older rockers who now have turned into adult contemporary staples, used to be real rock craftsmen. Now I'm all for raw power, but there's also something to be said for craftsmanship, and Mr. Elton John says it well.

Lyrics

A concert video with Elton John

Saturday Night's Alright AMV - (note: the song here is actually covered by Nickleback and Kid Rock)- anime : Love Hina - Made by CrashOverRide83m - A splendid little AMV I must say. Fast as the wind through the lyrics, nice imagery, over-the-top action on the video front to match the over-the-top energy in the song as well as the exuberant embrace of fighting, also nice that the fan-service implications of Love Hina play well with the date connotations of Saturday Night. So overall, a well crafted piece, Mr. Elton John could have probably done better, but that doesn't detract from the fact that this AMV was done very well.

So usually I do 5 songs, but usually I'm not this tired, and even usually the 5th song gets a little bit of the shaft when I'm writing it up and everything. So for now I'm only doing 4 songs, and I might actually make that a new policy. Perhaps. PERHAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So anyways, take it to your head, take it to your heart and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

And God Bless.

Parallel Rand

So I'm back in the US!!!!!!!!!!!!
Woo!!!!!!!!
But India rocked!!!!!!!!!
Woo!!!!!!!!
And now I'm in California!!!!!!
Woo!!!!!!!!

As you can see I'm busy saying Woo!!!!!! So let me just post a little something I'm working on.

As a prelude let me give you a concert video of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Parallel Universe
And for more prelude here's an AMV of Parallel Universe with Gunslinger Girl (an anime I haven't watch but seems either interesting or overly-pretentious)

Finally here's the Lyrics

Finally you're ready for my version of the song:
Dravidian King

(This goes out to all you South Asians, especially you South South Asians and the Brahui and other N. Drav.s, you know who you are)


Deep inside of a parallel universe
(India's like a parallel universe really, but that would take too long to elaborate on)
It's getting harder and harder
To tell what came first
(Dravidians came first, then Aryans you stupid Hindu nationalists!)

Under water where thoughts can breate Easily

Far away you were made in a sea
Just like me
(So why aren't you rocking harder!)

Christ I'm a sidewinder I'm a
Dravidian King
I swear it's everywhere
(Indians are everywhere around the world and we've got a big gross population too, so don't piss us off)
It's everything

Staring straight up into the sky
(Yeah, Indian's are good at that, we've got mad ancient astronomy skills, what!)
Oh my my a solar system that fits
In your eye Microcosm

You could die but your never dead spider web
Take a look at the stars in
Your head fields of space kid
(My father helped build the Indian space program and now they're letting the Chinese overtake them, what's with that?)

Christ
(Let me just point out for a sec that Christians have been in India since the 1st century AD so don't think of us as a religion of foreigners you damn RSS)
I'm a sidewinder I'm a
Dravidian King
I swear it's everywhere
It's everything
(And what if Christianity was a religion of foreigners, we're everywhere around the world so aren't we entitled to take the best of everything from every continent)

Christ I'm a sidewinder
(Damn straight I'm a sidewinder, don't you stereotype us brown folk!)
I'm a
Dravidian King
I swear it's everywhere
It's everything

Psychic changes are born in your heart
Entertain
(Although not all Indians have Eastern mysticism, a term that ignores the diversity of Chinese philosophical thought and the vast and seperate Indian philosophical schools, still we got a awesomely deep spiritual tradition, represent!)
A nervous breakthrough that makes us the
same
Bless your heart girl
(Bless you all really, people are good folk, or can be if they give it a shot)

Kill the pressure it's raining on
(Watch out for monsoons man)
Salty cheeks
When you hear the beloved song
I am with you
(Dravidian men know how to treat a lady)

Christ I'm a sidewinder I'm a
Dravidian King
I swear it's everywhere
It's everything
(Rock it!)

Christ I'm a sidewinder I'm a
Dravidian King
(Oh yeah!)
I swear it's everywhere
It's everything
(Rock on South Asians!)

And if all that seems like insane nonsense, well it is, but that's the way the cookie crumbles, and since I'm immensely busy with tons of crazy Cali. stuff, that's all you're going to get for right now. But someday, someday soon, you will find there's much more to this Dravidian King.

So take it to your head, take it to your heart and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

Here's your holiday, hope you enjoy it this time (but that song's not here)

I usually feel guilty about not putting up enough text onto the web. But I've done several long texty sessions so I thought it might be time to change things up (because I can't stay still or the clown will eat me), and I'm going to do some of the music thang, as a way of making up to the world for using the word thang.

1.Creep by Radiohead - From the album Pablo Honey - After doing a session explicating this song in reference to my own life, it seemed like a good time to put this out there. Superb song in capturing a ghost of an unnamable emotion that carries so many connotations to it. I could write a session explicating it, and I did, but I could write another session explicating it in reference to general human emotions instead of to myself, but I'm not going to because that would be overly long, probably boring, and probably lame (lame like yo mamma! I'm sorry I'm sure your mother is a very nice lady, I should have said, lame like your face!). Instead let me point out some of the prominent currents of the song. There is a current of praise, which can be interpreted even as love, but there is a massive element of self-hatred in the song. And there is an undercurrent of anger, something I didn't touch upon in my previous session too much, largely because as I explained there I first listened to the radio edit version.

Lyrics

(I'd just like to say that I'm switching to Lyrics Freak as my lyrics site, before I was bouncing around between several different services, but I think some of those sites contained spyware, so I wanted to settle down. The nice thing about Lyrics Freak and the reason I chose it, is because it has a nice, clean presentation, and while the ads are obnoxious, they are less obnoxious than they are on other lyrics sites. Of course, if the lyrics are hard to decipher I'll probably check multiple sites, but for now I'm good with Lyrics Freak.)

Radiohead's video - an simple video that just lets the emotion shine through with some light tricks and cutting to complement it, quite a contrast to the AMV I'm posting for the song, not that the AMV's bad, I'm just saying that Radiohead's video is different but good as well.

Creep AMV - anime - Elfen Lied - This AMV IS NOT FOR THE WEAK OF STOMACH. I'm a guy who saw the movie Seven in middle school and I still found this gory. Still, the goriness complements the darkness and disturbing nature of this song. The song is about a man who hates himself intensely to the point of rage. This anime fits well with that. As to the anime itself, I've only seen a couple episodes and I'm not sure if I can recommend it. It has a pretty good reputation for what that's worth, but it combines cuteness and gore in a mix I can't help but find a little disturbing.

2.Highway to Hell by AC/DC - From the album Highway to Hell - As a devout Christian, I'm not planning to go on a highway to hell. And quite frankly I plan on encouraging others to avoid it as well. But that's not really what this song is about. This song is about the sheer arrogance and joy of living free of society's rules and restrictions. Of course, doing actual wrong and throwing away society's rules are two concepts that are easy to confuse. But one is a matter of throwing away your moral compass and one is a matter of being your own ultimate moral compass (of course the exactitudes of this matter including the role of church, religious leaders, and religious philosophy go far beyond this matter, but I think I should wrap up this philosophical discussion because this song is so damn fun!).

Lyics - "Living easy, living free," usually it's one or the other, but God bless them, AC/DC want both

A live concert of AC/DC - AC/DC, while they probably made some music videos were producing songs in those days before music videos, a whole 30 years ago. Man, I wanted that to sound sarcastic, but 30 years is a decent amount of time.

Highway to Hell AMV - anime - Akira - Now does this AMV glorify violence? Yeah, probably. But it is an awesome AMV, capturing all the energy and power of the song, and it matches in feel even if it shows a darker side to throwing away all of society's rules. Ultimately I watch a lot of stuff I don't totally agree with when it's quality material, because well, quality material sends a message of about the beauty of existence itself. Besides, this AMV doesn't take itself too seriously. But for all of those who might be confused by my stance, no I don't encourage violence (I'll probably elaborate on that sentence in a future session.).

3.You Know You're Right by Nirvana - From the album Nirvana - Kurt Cobain's last hit. I'm not sure if I can describe what this song's about, or really why this song is of the highest quality. But it is. I hope you're doing alright, Kurt, now that you've passed from this world.

Lyrics

Nirvana's Video - I'm not sure how to treat this since my status as a Nirvana fan tints my judgment, but it is good to see all those pictures of the band.

You Know You're Right AMV - anime - FLCL - I've used Fooly Cooly a lot in the AMV's I've posted up, but that's A. because of the prominence of Fooly Cooly among the makers of AMV's, and B. because Fooly Cooly is visually amazing (more impressive than it is, say plot-wise). But perhaps the best reason for using this AMV is that it is one of those rare AMV's that captures the pain and frustration both in the song and the anime.

4.Breaking the Habit by Linkin' Park - From the album Meteora - Screw those who dismiss nu metal this song and Linkin' Park in general are awesome. But on a more pertinent note, there are two ways to interpret this song, one is in a positive light as the singer is breaking the habit of antagonism and depression, that's how I viewed it at first, but after looking at the Wikipedia article which suggested suicide in the video, I can see that as being in the lyrics too, as the singer breaks his habit of his problems by killing himself. That's probably more accurate, but I tend to still see the song in the more positive light. But terms of quality are always key and in that the song has enough to make it here.

Lyrics

Linkin' Park's video - here you see what a music video can really do in terms of being creative while still accenting the song.

Breaking the Habit AMV - anime - Rurouni Kenshin OVA - The idea of Kenshin, a man trapped in the violence of his life, trying desperately to adopt non-killing despite a legacy that returns to haunt him, goes well with this song. But throwing that aside if you haven't seen any of the anime or even heard of it (it also goes by the name Samurai X), the energy and sadness of the video work well with the song, making its quality independent of your knowledge of the anime, as all AMV's should do.

5. Snow (Hey Oh) by the Red Hot Chili Peppers - From the album Stadium Arcadium - I thought I'd clear out the heaviness with this song. It contains that lightness to it that almost makes it seem fragile despite the presence of drums, guitar, etc. What's it about? Can't say. But I'd say the answer lies in part in the lightness.

Lyrics

(Alright, despite my above comment this isn't from Lyrics Freak, it's from another service which I find more obnoxious but apparently Lyrics Freak didn't have this song, weird.)

Red Hot Chili Pepper's video - a sweet understated video which summons emotions as fragile as the song itself.

Snow (Hey Oh) AMV - anime - Gundam Wing - Endless Waltz - I found this was a nice video that mixed with the song but provided some nice contrast as well. But I am concerned about the video quality. I mean it's a well put-together AMV, and given the age of the anime, weak resolution is somewhat expectable, but still it is disappointing, given that it could be so much better if the resolution was better. But perhaps that's just the attitude of a man who's gotten used to ultra-clear resolution and has forgotten that this sort of resolution was extraordinary just a little while ago.

So that's about with that. And so I must depart. But I'll always be in here (which is to say my room (at least until I leave my room)).

Anyways, take it to your head, take it to your heart, and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!