A proper blog? Well, here we go then...

I've never been a fan of the Dixie Chicks, their music ain't for me, but I was impressed a couple of years ago when they spoke their mind against their president, who at that time had a reasonably high approval rating, which meant that you weren't meant to bag him, and if you did, you were unpatriotic. Of course, things have changed a bit in the last couple of years, the mainstream American public have realised that sending all of those people to die in Iraq was a stupid thing to do, and they're starting to realise what the rest of the world has known from day one, that their president is an idiot. I remember all of the articles saying that the Dixie Chicks' outburst would mark the end of their music careers, as most of their fan-base was in the dominantly Republican, bible belt of the South. I even remember the articles about a year after the incident saying that their album sales were suffering, which was in fact, not true (American media, remember). Perhaps their sales had declined in the South, where close-minded bigots were holding album-burning gatherings (I'm talking destroying with fire, not a whole lot of people getting together with their computers and illegally copying music) but in other areas people had been buying their music out of support, or maybe the fact that some people think if an artist has the same political viewpoint as them, the music must be good. Strange way to think, I know, but it seemed that the Dixies weren't having such a bad time after all.

So along came the Grammy awards this week, and who should clean up but the Dixie Chicks, taking the three major awards: Song, Record, and Album of the Year along with a couple of others. Now, I've always hated the Grammy Awards and I always will. I remember a few years ago at the Grammy's everyone was all 'Support the Troops', which is really the way to say that you support the war without actually saying it. If you really supported the troops you'd be out on the street demanding that they weren't sent or that they be brought home. But now, with Bush's approval rating at an all-time low, it's OK to criticise the government. No-one will acuse you of being 'Un-American'. It seems to me that maybe now it's even becoming trendy to be against the establishment. If this gets the Republicans out, then it's all fine with me. It just annoys me a bit when people only do things when it's the norm. Like I'm sure that a lot of people were against this crap all along but were too scared of their neighbour or their brother or their dad telling them 'And you call yourself an American'. If people said what they actually thought, I'm sure we'd make progress a lot faster.

I think it's kind of like the awards shows try to make themselves seem relevant and forward-thinking, while at the same time being careful not to offend anyone. Look at last year's Academy Awards. Everyone thought Brokeback Mountain was going to win best picture. It should have won. It should have been as much of a shoe-in as Philip Seymour-Hoffman was for best actor. But no, it got best director, best supporting actor but when it came to best picture the award goes to...... Crash? I thought that Crash was a pretty good film but definitely not worthy of best picture. I'm not going to claim this idea for my own, but it's a theory I subscribe to. I read an article saying that because homosexuality is still a bit of an issue for a lot of people, the Academy might not want to look too, well, pro-gay, and awarding Brokeback Mountain, which tackled themes of intolerance towards homosexuals, top honours might have that vibe to it. It seemed that a good option would be to give the film all of the awards that it deserved except for the 'biggie', the one that really counts. They could give that to a movie that tackled themes of intolerance towards..... people of racial minorities. Wow! Thank goodness this movie was nominated! What an easy out, we don't offend the homophobes, but we still look like we care. Everyone wins!

Except of course, Brokeback Mountain, which deserved to win best picture.

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Something I remembered today...
Category: Pets and Animals

About 8 or 9 years ago I was walking alongside the train tracks and I came across the carcass of a dog that had obviously been hit by the train. Its mouth was locked open so that its jaws were really wide apart as if it had screamed out in terror just before it had been hit. It was so disturbing it disturbed me.

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You know you're old when you forget how old you are

Someone asked me the other day how old I was turning next week and I replied that I was turning 25. It took 3 more days for me to figure out that I was in fact turning 26. For the past couple of years I've had to think a bit harder when people asked me how old I was, but I would not usually get it wrong, and if I did I corrected myself straight away.

For the last three days I've been walking around thinking that I was twenty four years old, when I realised suddenly that I had made a terrible mistake and felt as if I had just lost a year of my life.

If I did lose a whole entire year of my life, which one would I choose? Now, this requires a fair amount of thought. At first I thought that I would choose one of the first three years, since I can't remember a single thing from them. But then I thought that in the first few years of ones life your brain is at it's most active, taking in every piece of information it can, and that if I wiped out one of those years I may lose the memories associated with it and fail to function in some very important yet simple tasks (i.e. the ability to turn left).

Then I thought maybe my fourth or fifth year, but I have some fond memories associated with those years, like sitting in our first house with my sister eating luncheon sausage like the cookie monster, and trying to track down Bushy Tail, the elusive neighbourhood dog.

How about my fifth year, no, definitely not, I have two very fond memories of my first year at school, the first being telling my new entrants teacher that I could speak Maori, and her telling my mother that she was very impressed by this, to be told 'What are you talking about? Luke can't speak Maori' She must have felt stupid. The second one is peeing my pants at school. Actually, I think I could do without that second one.

I think one of the next couple of years may be the one to be deleted, although I do have another fond memory of when I saw An American Tail in 1987 and I wrote a story about it at school the next day. My teacher read my story and said to me that "There are two ways of spelling tail/tale, 'Tail' is what an animal has and 'Tale' is a story, so I should have spelt it the second way." I told her that I realised there were two ways of spelling the word and that I knew it would usually be spelt "Tale" when used in this context, however since this was a film about mice, and they have tails, it was a clever name referring to the subject of the film. My teacher was very impressed that a 7 year old had just told her the definition of a pun, even though he had never heard of one before. It is things like this that made this teacher love me despite the fact that I rubbed all of her writing of the board during lunch break and that I would often put dead animals on her seat. I treasure this memory dearly and could not dare part with it.

This blog is getting far too long so I'm going to finish up quickly.

My Intermediate years of 91/92 were pretty boring but there wasn't anything really bad about them so I don't think they'll be the ones to go.

I thought that I could do without one of my high school years as there were some truly horrible moments, but at the same time I discovered some great music, Green Day in '95, for example got me through some tough times, and I wouldn't give up the memories of hearing amazing music for the first time.

Everything since I left school has been pretty good, especially the last few years, but I'd have to go for the year 1999 to get rid of. That was the year I attempted university study, and on my third day decided that I hated it, yet continued for the whole year anyway. It was torture. Outside of the university debacle nothing of any interest happened, so there wasn't even anything to counter the horribleness of university. The high point of my year was sitting in the university library looking out the window and drawing a picture of Wellington city being torn apart by a tornado.

Goodbye, 1999, you are officially erased from my memory. I will not miss you.

Now I can feel like I'm 24.

Until Tuesday, when I turn 26. Then I can feel 25.

5:37 AM - 4 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment