Now *You* Have a Friend in the Diamond Business

Anybody over a certain age from the PNW has some kind of memory of The Shane Company’s dry, dry radio commercials.  I remember he was at the corner of 4th and Stewart, and I remember that slogan: “Now you have a friend in the diamond business – the Shane Company.”  Anyway, they finally gave the bear an English voice in Duolingo and he sounds exactly like those commercials.  No growl, no fun allowed.  I’m annoyed.

The Calm

Seems like the internet isn’t being very productive for me today, but I’m intentionally not following politics.  I wonder if the people I follow on social media are all glued to TV wondering if it’s time for hot war with Russia.  What are you doing today?

“You Are Loved”

I saw “You are loved” on a church sign.  Not the first time I’ve seen this sentiment but it’s the first time I can remember this occurring to me.  What’s being proposed here is that the all powerful super creator of humanity and the universe has particular care for each of us, as individuals.  Anything good that happens to us comes from that care, anything bad doesn’t matter because he’ll make up for it when you’re dead.

What I realized is that this lets all xtians off the hook from genuinely caring about anyone.  If young jeezy is taking care of everybody, we don’t have to do that at all.  He exhorted people to care for the poor and the ill, but clearly that is just a hobbyist pursuit – not a genuine responsibility – because god’s love is enough.

That would be a good logical excuse for why xtians hate social services, but I suspect there’s no reasoning behind it.  Rather they just don’t want to pay for the care of others and assume their religion endorses any given thing they feel as part of their conservative identity, without any need for actual knowledge of the words in the holy books.  Much like “geeks” assume they’re intelligent because it’s part of the geek social identity rather than any useful metric (assuming such are even possible).

That’s all.

Astro-Zombies

I gotta post something to bump my last post, since it has a song in my head that I’d rather not be experiencing right now.  Different people have different “palate cleansing” songs.  My bf’s mom uses Ode to Joy.  I’ve found Astro-Zombies by The Misfits is pretty good for me, but not 100% effective.  I think the more familiar I am with the earworm du jour, the easier it is to come right back.  This most recent one I haven’t heard in literal decades, but back when it was new?  Probably listened to it dozens of times.

What do you use to help dislodge and unwelcome song from your brainpiece?

“You Can’t Hear Me Knocking” Sucks

You know that song by the Stones where on the chorus it sounds like Mick is shouting “Gimme nummy-nummies!”  I always forget the majority of that song’s runtime sounds like worse Santana.  Like instrumentally a very generic Santana song, but with half the guitar presence.  Strange call, guys.  I guess sometimes you don’t have an idea for where to go with your song and got an LP to fill.  “You Can’t Hear Me Knocking” sucks.

Lately the first five hours or so of my Fridays are spent drifting in and out of consciousness listening to music and recovering from general sleep deprivation and stress.  Not a bad time but easy to feel guilty about it, heh.  Happy Friday binches!

The Moment Passed

I was perusing an artifact from about thirteen, fourteen years ago?  A strange work of art made in collaboration with another guy while we were working a job that gave us time to do things with our hands.  There’s a kind of intensity to it that boggles my mind – so much work went into this thing, so much creativity.  Makes me wonder – was that it?  The apex of my life, from which all else is downhill?  If so, that was a rather shameful waste of an entire human existence.  It is fundamentally not good.

Well, another year is dawning soon, and with that another opportunity to prove to myself that I can still make good stuff happen.  2022, Hell save us.

Do Foolery

There was a video game called Monster Rancher once upon a time.  You trained monsters to fight, because cockfighting is for kids.  Sometimes a monster would lose its focus in a fight, and instead of a cool move, it would “do foolery.”  The tongue monster lolled its tongue around, the jelly monster turned into a question mark.

I’m tired of heavy subjects at the moment, and got no time for anything substantial anyhow, so allow me, for the moment, to do foolery.

what IS IT to poast or not to poste? can’t do. who talk is. I wansdgtrodk wto get me thru this smi-charmed kindalife babay babaywc;okvk nodlisnen when u say goodbyeeeeeee.  -Dpoijcfwoivjfeasx etedwsqk I’m mdwofijo  oof ouch owie bnsoaijc bleeeeeeah sdvcpok p gentlemen we have liftoff dw0owhy my titty hurt oisxiajpio io imma keep is xapok xs imma imma tank a nap.  Cool.

it’s your turn. sleepwalk thru my comments. express your inner nyquil. do foolery.

-o-

Lyrics Associations

Some people do Duolingo lessons both ways – in my case from English to German and German to English, alternately.  When signing into or out of Duolingo in German user interface, I found myself practicing words like “abmelden.”  Then when I switch to back to English UI, I found myself paying more attention to the phrases “sign in” and “log out” then I normally would.  Maybe it also has something to do with the fact I often go for a walk right after Duo, so I end up stating that as my intention out loud – “OK… I’m logging out.”

Anyway, the phrase “log out” and similar combos of one syllable words and “out” always make me think of the use of “black out” in Bauhaus’s “Lilies and Remains.”  While your boy David J is fleeing from ghost-ridden Peter Murphy, he hides in a locker – number 13 – and “barely concealed but hopeful, BLACK OUT.  BLACK OUT.”

So as I’m finishing my Duolingo at night, barely concealed but hopeful, I LOG OUT.  LOG OUT.

This is all not terribly interesting, but people don’t talk about these experiences in media very often and I wonder how universal they are – or are not.  Does practically everybody do this, at least sometimes in some ways, or is it only those on a grade toward Tourette’s or OCD or something?  Feel like some of my bloggy comrades may have something to say about that.

EDIT TO ADD:  The God Emperor of Doing this Intentionally to Make Their Song Immortal has to be Nelly, who must be invoked literally any time anyone ever says the phrase, “It’s getting hot in here.”  Indeed, I wonder if he is profiting from global warming.

Thinking About Art

Song lyrics.  What do they mean?  Some people don’t even listen to the lyrics.  And I admit, when Ghostface Killah is talking about “sloo-footed penguins” ducking from “rap damians” I just take it for granted I will never understand those lyrics.  I could google it on genius.com but eh.  Anyway,

The song “More” by Sisters of Mercy.  The lyrics are about being in a relationship with somebody whose passion does not match your own and feeling incredulous about it.  “I don’t know why you gotta be so undemanding.”  I’m like, Andrew, this isn’t rocket science.  Sometimes it’s just like that, bro.  Better luck in the next relationship.

My problem is that song lyrics form some kind of giant index in my mind that is instantly accessed by common words and phrases.  Like if somebody says, “stop” as a one-word sentence, I might think of that part in the chorus of “How Sweet it Is,” or “Stop in the Name of Love.”  And if anybody wants more of anything, even if it’s cheerios, Andy Eldritch’s studio ladies start shrieking at me, “I NEED ALL THE LOVE I CAN GET, AND I NEED ALL THE LOVE THAT I CAN’T GET TOO.”

That’s the pattern.  Random mood or turn of phrase calls up a song lyric, then I ponder it for a minute, and get a head full of these kind of observations.  Thinking about art.  Sometimes, it’ll happen whether you want to or not.

I’ll end this with a song that came to my mind not from word association, just from mood.  It’s a quarter past midnight and life is looking kinda thorazine right now.  “Play it on ’til the dawn, I’ll be lonesome when I’m gone, Everything we done is wrong, Play it on ’til the dawn…”