So I am suffering from insomnia and saw that Elfarmy posted a cd review so I thought I would do one too.
Billy Bragg, for those of you who don't know, is an English musician who started off in the 80s playing Punk music and later in his career would diversify his sound. But Brewing Up is from solidly in his punk period.
It says here: A nice angry punk rant about media bias to kick the album off. Even though this song was written in the 80s it is still frighteningly relevant. I mean "It says here that the unions will never learn, it says here that the economy is on the upturn" Seriously, that is scary.
Love Gets Dangerous: Don't listen to this one much, it's a little dull but not terrible.
The Myth Of Trust: One of Bragg's best vocal performances. He sounds as if he is near tears during this song. There is pain in the lyrics of this song and his voice perfectly captures it.
From A Vauxhall Velox: Another one I don't listen to often, again a decent song just not one of the stand outs.
The Saturday Boy: Ah Saturday Boy. What heterosexual male cannot relate to this song. A fantastic song about teenage love with some really clever lyrics such as "In the end it took me a dictionary to find out the meaning of unrequited". Beautiful, beautiful song. Many times have I listened to this song and mourned my love life.
Island Of No Return: Ok, history lesson, in the 80s Great Britain and Argentina went to war over some islands in South America. It was a proper, major war between two strong powers. And Billy wrote this song about it and it is amazing. A perfect example of classic Bragg. One man, one guitar, politics, and ranting.
St Swithin's Day: Another great lost love song. "Thanks all the same but I can't bring myself to answer your letters, what was it all for?" Deeply, deeply moving.
Like Soldiers Do: An interesting song, also(in my opinion) about the Falklands War. The chorus(Our Fathers were all soldiers, shall we be soldiers too, fighting and falling like soldiers do) is well written and catchy. A good song.
This Guitar Says Sorry: Very, very strange song. I recently read the lyrics and found that there are only like 12 lines in the song. The refrain(The Love that we have is so important) really makes you think. Is it sarcastic or is it serious? We will never know.
Strange Things Happen: The last of the three that I rarely listen to, it's not that their so bad it's that everything else is so good.
A Lover Sings: Fantastic fantastic refrain. "Adam And Eve are finding out all about love" I mean seriously, that is clever. The song builds to the climax where Billy changes the lyrics to "Theresa and Steve are finding out all about love"
Bonus Disk Highlights
between the wars
Which side are you on
Talking Wag Club Blues
Won't Talk about it
World Turned Upside Down
Back to the old house
8/10
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
On Hermione
Several months ago(just before Halloween) I went on a hike with my brother and his friends. On this hike, as I often do when with my brother and his friends, I adopted what I like to call "the cool older brother act". This act was working like a charm and the kids obviously felt comfortable talking to me. One of the kids(who, ironically, reminded me strongly of myself when I was younger) asked me who my favorite character in Harry Potter was. Now, for those of you who do not know, I am a huge huge harry potter fan. I replied that I liked various characters including Ginny and Hermione.
Now this simple statement sparked a fierce debate among the kids as to whether or not Hermione is annoying. One said that he liked her because she was a bookworm like he is and another said she was a know-it-all.
Now flash forward to the present. I am going through my re-reading(or rather re-listening) to the Harry Potter books, like I do every few months. And I am currently listening to the 1st one for the first time in a long long while. And I realized something very important about Hermione. Her know-it-allness is just cover for her social awkwardness.
I am of the belief that almost everyone has a cover for their social awkwardness. Some people stay quiet, other people(like me) use humor. Hermione uses her intelligence.
Let's look at it from her perspective: She is born into a muggle family and, to the best of our knowledge, an only child. She is sent away to a boarding school and will be one of the only people to not really know anything She doesn't want to look foolish so she memorizes all the books. She then takes every opportunity to spout off the facts she memorized.
Something else that is never really addressed is her family life. There are three main characters in Harry Potter. Harry Ron and Hermione(my brother disagrees with me about this but he is wrong!). We see Ron's family a great deal and we talk about Harry's family. What about Hermione? In the entire series she sends one owl to her parents, she rarely spends Christmas vacation with them, and rarely spends the entire summer vacation with them. How do her parents feel about her being a witch? In the final book she puts a memory charm on her parents so that they can't remember who she is. This seems, to me at least, rather extreme.
Do her parents know about the war going on? Do they know about her friends? And if so then why do they need a memory charm put on them? If they do not know, then why not? Why did Hermione not tell them? Does she have any siblings? We can assume that there are no younger siblings, but what about older? Why does she never tell us?
How do her parents feel about her running off to be with her friends ever vacation? They only get to see her at those times and she wants to run off. How does that make them feel? Why does she do this? What is the reason? You only see the Grangers in one scene(that I recall) and that is in the 2nd book. They are standing off in the distance looking awkward. Does Hermione introduce her friends to them? No.
I think that, from these facts, it can be safely concluded that Hermione and her parents do not have the greatest relationship. I will go a step further. I think that Hermione finds it hard to mesh her magic life with her muggle life. She finds it hard to be around her parents as they have nothing in common. Imagine if the main thing in your life was something that none of your relatives could possibly understand. And what if Hermione does have siblings, we've seen what happens to muggle siblings of wizards(Petunia Dursley).
Maybe her need for control and the constant displays of intelligence are attempts to show that she belongs in the magical world and not the muggle. Maybe she is trying to prove to herself that she has worth. Maybe she has very low self esteem and compensates with what other people see as arrogance.
In the 6th book she gets very angry at Harry because he is better at something then she is. Maybe her parents always expected her to be the best in the class and she is afraid that they will be disappointed in her. Maybe it is the other way round. Maybe she wants her parents approval and thus strives to be the best at everything.
Whatever the reason there is something deeper in Hermione and I think that it is connected to her parents. If I were chosen tomorrow for an elite boarding school I would still correspond regularly with my sibling and parents. Thermionic doesn't and that surprises me.
I welcome you comments and your theories.
Now this simple statement sparked a fierce debate among the kids as to whether or not Hermione is annoying. One said that he liked her because she was a bookworm like he is and another said she was a know-it-all.
Now flash forward to the present. I am going through my re-reading(or rather re-listening) to the Harry Potter books, like I do every few months. And I am currently listening to the 1st one for the first time in a long long while. And I realized something very important about Hermione. Her know-it-allness is just cover for her social awkwardness.
I am of the belief that almost everyone has a cover for their social awkwardness. Some people stay quiet, other people(like me) use humor. Hermione uses her intelligence.
Let's look at it from her perspective: She is born into a muggle family and, to the best of our knowledge, an only child. She is sent away to a boarding school and will be one of the only people to not really know anything She doesn't want to look foolish so she memorizes all the books. She then takes every opportunity to spout off the facts she memorized.
Something else that is never really addressed is her family life. There are three main characters in Harry Potter. Harry Ron and Hermione(my brother disagrees with me about this but he is wrong!). We see Ron's family a great deal and we talk about Harry's family. What about Hermione? In the entire series she sends one owl to her parents, she rarely spends Christmas vacation with them, and rarely spends the entire summer vacation with them. How do her parents feel about her being a witch? In the final book she puts a memory charm on her parents so that they can't remember who she is. This seems, to me at least, rather extreme.
Do her parents know about the war going on? Do they know about her friends? And if so then why do they need a memory charm put on them? If they do not know, then why not? Why did Hermione not tell them? Does she have any siblings? We can assume that there are no younger siblings, but what about older? Why does she never tell us?
How do her parents feel about her running off to be with her friends ever vacation? They only get to see her at those times and she wants to run off. How does that make them feel? Why does she do this? What is the reason? You only see the Grangers in one scene(that I recall) and that is in the 2nd book. They are standing off in the distance looking awkward. Does Hermione introduce her friends to them? No.
I think that, from these facts, it can be safely concluded that Hermione and her parents do not have the greatest relationship. I will go a step further. I think that Hermione finds it hard to mesh her magic life with her muggle life. She finds it hard to be around her parents as they have nothing in common. Imagine if the main thing in your life was something that none of your relatives could possibly understand. And what if Hermione does have siblings, we've seen what happens to muggle siblings of wizards(Petunia Dursley).
Maybe her need for control and the constant displays of intelligence are attempts to show that she belongs in the magical world and not the muggle. Maybe she is trying to prove to herself that she has worth. Maybe she has very low self esteem and compensates with what other people see as arrogance.
In the 6th book she gets very angry at Harry because he is better at something then she is. Maybe her parents always expected her to be the best in the class and she is afraid that they will be disappointed in her. Maybe it is the other way round. Maybe she wants her parents approval and thus strives to be the best at everything.
Whatever the reason there is something deeper in Hermione and I think that it is connected to her parents. If I were chosen tomorrow for an elite boarding school I would still correspond regularly with my sibling and parents. Thermionic doesn't and that surprises me.
I welcome you comments and your theories.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Rage, Rage, Rage, Rage
I have written before on this blog about Fred Phelps the head of the Westebrough baptist church(do I look like I care if that I spelled it wrong?) and his frequent picketing of funerals. He has done soldiers, murdered teenagers, and dead mothers so what was his first reaction to the tragic shooting in Arizona? He is going to go and picket one of the victim's funeral. But in case that doesn't get you angry enough wait till you here whose funeral it is going to be.
The Victim of Mr. Phelp's hate and intolerance is Ms. Christina Green who is nine years old. Yes, Mr Phelps is picketing the funeral of a 9 Year Old. There are literally no words, there are no words.
Mr Phelps, no, I won't even call him that Mister is a term of respect and he deserves none and has earned none, Phelps said on his website(godhatesfags) about her ""God hates Catholics, God calls your religion 'vain,' as it's empty of His truth; you worship idols!" because Ms. Green was a Catholic, you see.
I thought about how to respond to this story, I could rant, I could be bitingly sarcastic, I could swear and call Phelps names. But no, I will just describe Ms. Green's short life for you briefly.
She was born on September 11th, 2001. She had just been elected to her Elementary School Student Council and had dreams of serving in higher office. A neighbour had taken her to see their Representive this Saturday for that reason. She will never serve in higher office, she will never go on a date, she will never get married, she will never have a child, she will never have a grandchild, she will never go to high school, she will never go to college, she will never be a teenager, she will never read another book, she will never listen to another piece of music, she will never see another film, she had an entire life in front of her and it was all wiped out like that. And as if that wasn't tragedy enough some so called "Religious Leader" is going to picket her funeral.
To quote Mr. Joseph Welch, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
No God that I believe in or want to believe in is behind you Phelps. You are a father for God's Sake! And you are picketing a nine year old's funeral! "At long last have you left no sense of Decency"
My mother often says that the only hell is one that you make for yourself, and I don't know if I believe that, but Phelps is certainly supporting her case. He has made his hell and now he wants to make the world Hell for the rest of us. When you die, Phelps, you will leave behind nothing but hate and fear.
A nine year old girl.
The Victim of Mr. Phelp's hate and intolerance is Ms. Christina Green who is nine years old. Yes, Mr Phelps is picketing the funeral of a 9 Year Old. There are literally no words, there are no words.
Mr Phelps, no, I won't even call him that Mister is a term of respect and he deserves none and has earned none, Phelps said on his website(godhatesfags) about her ""God hates Catholics, God calls your religion 'vain,' as it's empty of His truth; you worship idols!" because Ms. Green was a Catholic, you see.
I thought about how to respond to this story, I could rant, I could be bitingly sarcastic, I could swear and call Phelps names. But no, I will just describe Ms. Green's short life for you briefly.
She was born on September 11th, 2001. She had just been elected to her Elementary School Student Council and had dreams of serving in higher office. A neighbour had taken her to see their Representive this Saturday for that reason. She will never serve in higher office, she will never go on a date, she will never get married, she will never have a child, she will never have a grandchild, she will never go to high school, she will never go to college, she will never be a teenager, she will never read another book, she will never listen to another piece of music, she will never see another film, she had an entire life in front of her and it was all wiped out like that. And as if that wasn't tragedy enough some so called "Religious Leader" is going to picket her funeral.
To quote Mr. Joseph Welch, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
No God that I believe in or want to believe in is behind you Phelps. You are a father for God's Sake! And you are picketing a nine year old's funeral! "At long last have you left no sense of Decency"
My mother often says that the only hell is one that you make for yourself, and I don't know if I believe that, but Phelps is certainly supporting her case. He has made his hell and now he wants to make the world Hell for the rest of us. When you die, Phelps, you will leave behind nothing but hate and fear.
A nine year old girl.
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