Vitriolic sarcasm aside, it is hyperbolic and rather melodramatic to express disappointment over a narrator/memoirist recounting their easygoing, instantaneous sexual exploits in explicit detail as if something has been lost. Don’t get me wrong, I am not, in any way, directing this at Ms Myerson (who wrote the article) or Monique Roffey on a personal level. I don’t know enough about them personally (obviously) to make sort of personal judgments. Rather, this dialogue directed at the views they seem to have, and really, many women and men seem to have; these ideas that platonic relationships, or more accurately relationships without sex, are somehow more valid because there just have to more love.

If a relationship has sex from its onset, it can’t be that serious. This an example of a large of overarching issue I have with humanity: the necessity for recognizable patterns turned into and absolute necessity for very basic ideals to be held as gospel. No sex = lots of love, lots of potential. Sex = far less serious, ESPECIALLY before marriage. Lots of sex = not all that serious at all, and in some minds “sinful” (This is a big generalization, but it would seem to be the case.)

Despite being a gross generalization, there is patent, visible resistance to unestablished relationship trends and structures and foundations. If a bond is more sexual, there is going to be social resistance from others who seek to dissuade you from such a bond (which they are in their personal rights to do to a point). And it isn’t a surprise, given how rampant and ingrained in our culture romcoms and romances of any type are, especially in the female psyche.

There was an article, also in , a few days prior in which Samantha Ellis discussed how her childhood views of protagonists in novels she read differ greatly from her views of them as a more experienced adult. The characters from books genetic females, in many situation, are socially encouraged to read (along with the obligatory YA fad) that feature very….Victorian (and prior periods) protagonists, as if Victorian protagonists are people who ethical and moral judgment we would trust in today’s world.

Keeping sex away from the younguns, and away from women in general, is yet another inane, latent tendency of our society that we, as a culture, have yet to do away with. If we are to truly advance and evolve as a culture, we need to analyze all our bigotries and biases.

“Self-reliance merely means that you take charge of your own life. You make decisions to help better your situation and outlook on life and when you concentrate on making yourself a better person, it extends outward. It is like feeding, clothing and educating the poor and letting their profits and production expand the economy back to a healthy state.

Relying on an outside source of any kind can only lead to suffering and relapses into negative behavior as you, in a sense, become addicted on that outside source. You rely on it to succeed, survive, feel good about yourself. And not only does it damage you; it turns you into a parasite feeding off of the one or thing that is sustaining you.

This is why relationships are difficult-people lapse into needing one another and wind up abusing each other emotionally. And when the other person is God…well, it really does depend on how much faith you have, because if you NEED God and lose faith, you do feel like you have nothing.

When it comes to Karla and I, however, we never established any sort of connection with a supernatural being and so we feel no need for it-which leaves only our abilities to reason on this subject. And reason pretty much rules, if there is no evidence for the existence of an invisible man/creator/god, then why is it necessary to believe in it? We don’t gain anything by assuming that something that may or may not exist exists so why do we NEED it? Do we NEED it?

The answer is no, we don’t we are no dependent on God to feel happy and content in our lives and so we can live our lives on our own, without a god. We are not losing anything other than another relationship in which we would be a parasite feeding off something else.

Karla and I will likely live out our lives alone and yet we will never truly be lonely, because we are learning not to allow our happiness to depend on whether an external force is around. That is the true cause of loneliness and I don’t know about you, but I have no interest in becoming addicted to anything ever again-not another person, a drug/substance/an occurrence/God.

I hope this clears up any remaining confusion.”

Lani

This is, by no stretch of the imagination, new or shocking, but it is one thing and it has been that one thing for centuries or even many millenia: ancient. It is something of a tradition, you know tradition- that pre-progressive bullshit- for the older generation(s) to put down the aesthetic tastes, primarily music tastes, of the younger generation and for the younger generation to reflexively do the same back. And, yes, it does go in that order.

I have two major issues with this, the latter of which I will be focusing on and the former I will simply address. One of the problems I have with this culture/generation tradition is that it is generally started by the older generation…the one that is always demanding respect; the one that is supposedly wiser, supposedly more mature. And yet when the elder person hears the younger person’s tunes, they generally resort to demanding it to be turned off and claiming that it *isn’t music*.

Farbeit for me to be facetious, but I never realized that music is or ever was strictly defined and that anything that doesn’t fit a given description isn’t music. Hell, I never realized that any of the arts function that way. But, then again, in the words of the woman to whom I am pet, I am “just a baby.” And I am sure that I will be encountering more genius *traditions* of our culture.

Beyond that point, although this gripe is related to this first, when the hell do people get it into their heads that their opinion is objective truth? When do people starting thinking *I like this, therefore it is what is good*? Notice, I inserted *it is what is good* and not *it is good*. I can understand a small child thinking that the first thing they were exposed to is grand, but grown adults with kids of their own (or not if they are asexual or simply down want kids)? Do people really stayed locked in their own little worlds their entire lives?

I guess it is the blatant anti-progressive unwillingness to explore new things that bothers me. Now, I know I sound intolerant (and intolerance itself rather equates to anti-progressiveness), but I am not the kind of person who will keep their mouth shut when they really want to scream at the people arguing around them. (Count it against my femininity, if you will, but that makes you prescriptive in your viewpoint of how woman are supposed to act.) I don’t care if people agree with me, I just have to state my viewpoint before this endless chain of idiocy continues trucking along. …And I know that is a judgment.

Countless times, I have seen people who were young people in the 70s or 80s bash the music of later generations (and vice versa), usually resulting in both sides stating that crap came of the opposite’s decade. Many time older generations claim that the current generation’s vocalists can’t sing and the music itself is just noise or is uninspired which provokes a generally snarkier comment from the younguns. Interestingly enough, the palate which each generation is pop music or some variation of it-the “genre” which in most cases is home to the more *uninspired* artists, instead of lesser known artists who often have a wider array of influences.

So when does music appreciation turn into “I’m right, you’re wrong” and why do people not try to avoid it? is it really so damn important to be the person with the right taste?

I guess I should end this post with a revelation of my personal tastes, for those who are dying to know. I am including three links to songs that together give you a basic idea of the range of my musical tastes. Only one of these artists is one that I consider to be of my top favorites, but they all appeal to me to some degree:

Song 1
Song 2
Song 3

LL

…..

I am very easy to bore to and when I get bored and *happen to be* on the internet, I go on to the sites I frequent, look up people’s personal profiles and read the *kind of* private conversations they have with strangers, friends, their lovers…and I read and read and read on…the more personal their conversations are, the more I read before moving on to the next random profile. I take in their romance, sweet nothings, territory wars, family tragedies and when their personal lives cease to be compelling or interesting, I get bored and move on, forgetting what I had just read about 10 or 15 minutes later.

During this past semester, I had my first Creative Writing course, which I nearly failed because…I write slow…., and my instructor told my coursemates and I to essentially stalk people and invade their personal lives. Anything from listening in on the quarreling couple sitting a table away at the cafe to “borrowing” the love letter you find on the ground. She said that the best ideas you will have will come from other peoples’ behaviors and traumas and you perceive them. Exploiting their personal lives for your writing makes you a writer. She said that…more or less.

And I agree. The fact of the matter is, when your only source of inspiration is your own “imagination”-which sucks anyway (I mean yours, not mine)-and your family issues…you need more. Because we all know that when you base your stuff on what goes on at home, someone might take offense..on your ass. And it is always best to “borrow” other peoples’ issues-you know, the shit that they “can relate to”-because makes you look trendy and in tune with your current generation and totally not like that stalker who is listening in their conversation…

-LL

For those of whom identify as the gender they were born as and don’t have any issue with transcribing to society’s gender roles, it really is not possible to communicate to you what it is like to just exist for me, but I shall attempt to give you a basic idea. To me, my body is a shell, a foreign thing. It operates in ways I don’t understand and when I look in the mirror, I see something I am not. This disconnection from my body, combined with parents who won’t accept me if I came out to them, causes a lack of interest in maintaining my body or becoming close with anyone who sees me as a boy. This, in turn, causes a loss of desire to live as most people do see me as a boy. And because of this loss of desire to live, at low points in my ongoing depression, I fail to see the reason to keep living. When you get this low, you look towards others to feel happy as I have done. Their eventual, and inevitable, rejection just makes my depressions worse and turns my depression into pervasive emotional lusts-lusts that make me continuously more dependent on others’ love, affection, desire, or even just attention. As it is, if there no was no one on the internet I could turn to…I wouldn’t alive. I honestly don’t know how I have avoided cutting or hurting myself in other ways so long….

The following link leads to an Encyclopedia Dramatica page that is beyond words. It is excessively disturbing, nauseating, triggering and upsetting. If you have suicidal thoughts, are a cutter or do not have a stomach made out of iron, do not follow the link. Cutter girl And those two who at the bottom insinuated having sex with her inside her wounds…..they also are in need of immediate pyschiatric help. And whoever abused her and made her feel worthless enough to cut herself to this severity….I hate them.

Despite the grim nature of what has been said above, I have had a few high points. One of them came yesterday when the woman I love said she would like to have me as her girlfriend(once we both have become emotionally stable). She herself has attempted suicide once and suffers from BPD. She is a beautiful soul that cares so much about others that it hurts her when she thinks she is hurting them. She doesn’t understand completely how someone can love her, but I am sure over time she will understand why I think she is the most beautiful person I ever met.

I am working on becoming a better person. All of my darkest, most self-depracating feelings are going straight into my writing and the themes of my work are cathartic as they express the things that I feel always. One of the stories is about committing suicide. I know it may seem that I am just feeding those desires, but for people like me…I can only find comfort in music, literature, art that expresses what I feel. The mainstream media that preaches the “don’t worry, be happy” message is something I cannot relate to-it only worsens my depression. In this way, I am very much apart of a counterculture, but it is a counterculture that does want to continue existing. As much as I and others like me feel as though se want to die, we truly want to live, but we must reach it on our path and terms.

If you know someone who feels as I do, do NOT patronize them and do NOT reject them. If your child is a transsexual, homosexual, bisexual, a person with a mental disorder or a person with different beliefs than you, do NOT treat them like a “sinner” or subhuman. Do not make them feel worthless, because, in the end, it will be you that killed them. All issues begin and end with family, with love and as long as there is humans on this planet, that will never change.

Note: when I say beautiful, I mean as in full circle. I never describe hot people with no soul as beautiful.

This made me laugh when I read it. And it is so true. Something I have noticed about people who work in the field of genre fiction is that they are really tight-assed about what the stories about and sticking to one specific genre and if someone deviates from said genre or genre jumps they are unskilled….

This bothers me. People making rules for how CONTENT should be handled bothers me.

The content of a story should flow straight from the artist, unmanipluated and without care for what “genre” it fits into. To butcher and fuck up a story to force it stay within the parameters of one genre or to force one’s self to write a story a certain way…is beyond my comprehension.

Honestly, how can anyone butcher their own story? The butchering should be done to HOW THE STORY IS WRITTEN, NOT THE STORY ITSELF! The things that some people do to their own brainchildren just shocks me. Who cares if the story incorporates elements of several different genres? Who cares if the story is undefinable? Isn’t that THE POINT?

Excuse me for being young and relentless, but I see the point as self-expression, not riffing off of what is safe. That is what I aim for: to be my own kind of artist, to write my own kind of work, to not be categorized and forgotten (I have personal issues). I don’t care if I fit into guidelines or say what is acceptable, but only to express myself as effectively and professionally as I can.

China Mieville, although somewhat aims to obey SOME rules set in place for each genre, really does his own thing. He writes what he wants to write how he feel like writing it and nothing else matters.

(I may add more to this post in the future…)

I am not a genius. I am not a rocket scientist. I will never dream up a way to unite humanity, despite or in spite of all of its bullshit. Yeah, I am mundane at best. But I have never had much trouble grasping things. Actually, there are only a handful of things, behaviors and beliefs and mindsets in this world that I am simply incapable of comprehending: one of those mindsets is the hatred towards another person based on their skin color. I am incapable of understanding the logic behind that.

The thing, or rather law, I shall challenge in this post is something that never made sense to me, even when I was a bigoted, sexist little shit only a few years back(No one is born a feminist/Marxist/trans/sarcastic/kind person and neither was I). I want to know, I want to understand; I want to understand why it makes sense to other people, if it even does make sense to them. Why, why, why, why, why is prostitution illegal? Why is prostitution illegal? Someone must explain it to me. I may just not have the mental capacity; I might just not have the ability to think on such a high, moral level; I may just be too damaged from the times my father dropped me headfirst on the sidewalk as a baby. Perhaps it is all three, because I just don’t fucking get it.

Why is prostitution illegal? Is it because of morality? Is that what we are basing are legislature on? Well, if so, then what is the morality we are basing it on? What all is implied under this system of morality? Who’s morality is it? Who is the one who gets to decide which system of morality is better than everyone else’s? How did this person earn the right to decide what is best for everyone else in the fucking country? Why didn’t someone with a viewpoint that makes more sense earn the right to decide which system of morality we all must submit to?

How could the purchase of sexual favors be immoral? Who was it that decided that? Who is the one who I should recommend to get off the throne so someone more understandable can take charge? What is immoral about having sex for money? Both people involved get what they want. The buyer, John or Jane, gets their fix for the time being, and the whore gets their momentary sex fix and money they very well may need dearly. What is immoral about that? It is natural to desire sex and, in a decent percentage of situations, it harms neither of the people involved. If no one is being harmed, what is the real issue?

Why do people transcribe to these commandments of being sexually faithful/celibate so strongly? What does it achieve? Why is being a whore a negative thing when offering one’s daughters to save a couple angels from rape is perfectly acceptable? Why is ok to be the Pimp, the Master, the Man and not the whore? I don’t understand. I must be deficient in some way. I have to say, it sounds awfully sexist to me.

Well, say it’s not morals? Then what is it? Does it have something to do with the Government? Is it bad simply because the IRS can’t come chasing after every pairing of people who engage in the buying and selling of sexual favors? Is our nation really that fucking petty?

There are massive businesses racking large amounts of income. There are films breaking non-adjusted for inflation records and raking in billions of dollars in profit. The recent economic downturn to the side, this country is very much a commerce country. We buy and sell within our own borders as well as across the seas and have a generally steady flow of funds circulating within the system to and through the Government. The amount of currency that rides this flow every year is beyond staggering. You mean to tell me that the big boys actually give a shit about 100-500 dollars that is made during a session? Is that what this country is? …And people scream the word Socialism as if it is an indicator of a return to tyranny….

Is it to maintain social order? Is that what everyone believes in? Truly is that what all of the “normal” people believe in? Tell me, when has the United States been united in any other sense than that we are all different and hate each other? This is a country that was created so people could close themselves of from one another so they could in their own little world in their own little way. There is no unity other than the unity of no unity.

I don’t want to ruin anyone’s good mood, but the fact of the matter is law is superfluous. We can set in place as many ideal and standards as we wish, but people are going to do as they wilt. People who wish only to have sex to procreate will be faithful and those who don’t want to be, won’t. This is humanity people. We do whatever the fuck we choose, no matter what illusion of order and structure we impose on our existence so WHY is Prostitution illegal? The idea that prostitution will reign down chaos is just mind-numbing. I don’t if I would be able to make it through the day if I tried to think like that.

Is there any reason for this insanity(yes, I used the word-sue me)? Is the majority fucking over those of us who have stronger, more intense sex drive for no reason whatsoever? Am I living in a world that does not even attempt to reason why things are as they are, to actually understand why everything prescribed has been prescribed as such? …if so, I am very lonely…

Now I end this post with this: I truly do not understand and until someone explains it to me clearly and effectively, I will not understand. I am may be insane or deviant by society’s standards, but I know that in no state of mind I have ever experienced have I ever believed or thought there was anything wrong with having sex for money. Now please note that one of the people I love the most in this world is a prostitute so I do have a strong bias towards the legalization of prostitution. If your aim is to make me abandon my wicked ways, don’t even bother, because I can put the wall, too. Believe it or not, I don’t like hearing bigoted speech that is based on nothing more than what is stated in one source.

And I urge you to not use whore as an insult or attach a negative meaning to it.

Now the idea that this film was produced on such a “low” budget will seem practical enough of a reason to avoid and never even consider watching. That would be a mstake. Moon is quite possibly the best Sci-Fi of 2009 and a very recommendable watch for those who have taken, or will take, the time to see The Hurt Locker. The film stars Sam Rockwell as the protagonist, Sam Bell and Kevin Spacey‘s voice as the emoticon clad robot, Gertie. Both actors carry the weight of the emotion driven film extremely well, made only more incredible by the fact that they probably did not do it for a large paycheck. Both performances are worth the awards they have been nominated for, particularly the The BAFTA’s.

Possibly even more stunning is the fact that this is quite possibly the best looking film set in space ever produced. At no point at all does it ever lose its realism or come off as half-baked or cheezy. The shock of watching the rover drive across the surface of the moon that first time and just how real it looks is enough to warrant buying the blu-ray edition of this film. Even more interesting is that absolutely none of it is CGI. The entire film is masterfully staged to appear to be realistic the entire 97 minutes of its duration.

The direction is, indeed, masterful and concretes Jones as his own artistic identity, separate from his father. The camera work is unobtrusive and captures everything that transpires in the way one feels it should. The minimalistic approach, in many ways, gives the audience the impression of actually being in a real compound that is whole and complete and not just some set. Gertie’s modes of transportation from room to room are believabel and somewhat seamless. The pacing of the film works very well, although the first twenty minutes come off as a little slow.

The music of the film, done by the always amazing Clint Mansell is as minimalistic and moving as the direction and acting and, at the same time, proves that Lux Aeterna is not the only great composition he is capable of writing. The music is haunting, moving, invigorating and, when necessary, disorienting.

There is no true reason to avoid watching this film-it is a definite must see for those who wish to see the best films of 2009.

Licoricey award: 5/5

Clint Mansell Twitter

Moon opening score

Moon trailer

Duncan Jones/Sam Rockwell interview

Above are links to five of the Flight of the Concords’ greatest works(the last of which links directly to my youtube channel). If you are not familiar with this parody duo, which often claims to be New Zealand’s former 4th most popular folk parody duo, then you watch/listen to these tracks as well as their other works.

From 2007 to early 2009, they had an eponymously titled show that aired on HBO. Unfortunately, in December they announced they would not be doing another season of the show. As well as their music, which stands very strongly on its own, the show is extrememly hilarious due in part to the alternatingly monotone acting of the actors while they go about their day and the over the top ballads and rock songs they burst into whenever something of moderate or more interest occurs.

Overall, their style ranges from spoofing R&B to spoofing hip-hop to spoofing early 70′s rock music to spoofing various pop artists in a very professional, high brow manner. With the exception of a few differences in cultural colloquialisms that may fly right by the casual listener, nearly every song the produce is a hilarious romp that has the audience entertained from beginning to end.

One of the major drawbacks, however, is that nearly every song that was included in the show sounds better on the albums they have released-particularly “I Told You I Was Freaky,” “Carol Brown,” “We’re both in love with a Sexy Lady” and “Sugalumps”-and all of them sound even better when perfomed live. Once one has seen one of their live perfomances, the versions included in the show just seem too bland.

Another drawback is that a few songs included in the show don’t seem to really fit into the situation in which they appear. “Angels” appears in the first episode of the second season after an offhand comment on what could be going on in the sky and “Albi-the racist dragon” just happens to come on while the duo is watching television in episode seven of season one-about racism against New Zealanders.

Oddities and drawbacks aside, Flight of the Concords is a band worth checking out and the eponymous show is as well.

(band)Flight of the Concords-4.5/5
(show)Flight of the Concords-4/5

The plot of The Hurt Locker is simple: there really is no plot. The film centers around the manic, evidently insane, Staff Sergeant William James and the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit of Bravo company he has been assigned leader of. His subordinates learn fairly quickly that he is not right in the head and eventually conspire to kill him. The film never truly resolves that minor conflict, although the friction between James and Sanborn advances and comes to head later in the film. Though at the film’s start it appears to be simply be about soldiers disarming bombs, it is actually a tense drama that explores the life the three members of this unit during their stint together.

One of the films strongest points is in how it portrays James in an objective manner, yet it does not necessarily condemn his actions or the reasons for his actions. He is the member of the unit most likely to get the other two killed, but he still manages to get the job done and save lives that would otherwise be lost. A second strong is the score which, like There Will Be Blood and Capote has this subtle, menacing tone that heightens the dramatic sequences as well as the scenes of engagement. The last strong point would be the direction and acting which are by no means flawed. The characters are believable, although Jeremy Renner does at times remind one of his previous role in 28 Weeks Later through similar behavior.

The films one weakness is its length. Approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes is not too long, but the end does seem to drag on a bit. In terms of scenes, no scene is truly unnecessary, but the film could become tiresome for some audiences by the time it concludes.

*Licorice awards it 4.75/5*

Trailer

Khyber Pass by Ministry-the track playing in the trailer and at the film’s end.