answers to heather's semi-rhetorical questions

Why did you choose those five songs as songs that represented rock n roll the way it was intended?

i suppose, i'll include the list so it isn't confusing. the list is:

satisfaction by the rolling stones
magic carpet ride by steppenwolf
you shook me all night long by ac/dc
rebel yell by billy idol
supernova by liz phair.

first of all, it should be noted that by no means is this list all inclusive there are literally thousands of other songs that fit the question just as well, but these are the ones i chose. why? well, i am not one of those poor souls who believe rock n roll is dead, and these songs (each from a different decade) represent that to me. as a side note, i am abhorred by the idea that anyone would even attempt to argue that the rolling stones are not rock n roll. as a matter of fact, i don't believe there has ever been a band that is more rock n roll than the stones. they are the embodiment of rock n roll itself. i could have easily made the list all stones' songs and felt quite good about it. that said, rock n roll at it's roots was and is a sort of self-engrossment in our basest natures, an acceptance of what we naturally are and what we naturally crave and are driven towards. the irony being that the belief is in itself a sort of rebellion. of those base desires, sexual desire is certainly the most visible and obvious one. so three or four of the songs (depending on how you choose to interpret magic carpet ride) follow that theme very heavily, despite taking it in very different directions, it is still a reverting and owning up to our basest natures. [i'd like to pause to communicate that i am sort of intellectualizing something i believe by nature should not be intellectualized, but it is to make a point. for that, i appologize]. and rebel yell i feel embodies that aspect of rock n roll that is inherently rebellious, a sort of tongue in cheek outlook on the world, or punk-ness. and liz phair, well, she is just about the most goddamn rock n roll chick i've ever come across in so many ways. i adore her. yes, she belongs on this list. argue away but, she belongs on it. i hope that sort of answers the question of why and how i chose those songs to some small degree without writing an essay on each song itself.

what's up with the title "do androids dream of electric sheep?" or any of your wierd titles for that matter?

most of my titles are only seemingly detached from the work, some hidden behind inside commentaries or jokes about the work itself. there is always a reason that that title belongs to that work and that work alone. in that specific example "do androids dream of electric sheep?" i chose it from it's source. it is actually the title of a novel by the late, great novellist/madman phillip k. dick. the novel (which was later butchered and turned into the film "bladerunner") is a long sort of peice about an inner confusion and paranoia, a meditation about who you are, why you are and why you are being treated the way you are. i am oversimplifiying the book (which is amazing, and along with "the man in the high castle", amoung dick's best work.) but i do not want to get into a complete analysis of the book, but rather point out that the moment i wrote that was a sort of "phillip-k-dick-moment of questioning" about some things that were going on in my life at that point. enough about that.

you update more on january 6th, 2004 more than the size of my entire diary. why?

that particular day was actually a posting of things i wrote well into the night on january 5th, the night before, and then copied and pasted them into the site.

do you write ideas in when you think of them or just have a bunch of entries that you post up whenever you want to post something?

with very few exceptions, everything i post here was written directly into the diaryland site and posted without editing (hence, the typos). i adopted this system as a way to replace my old system of scraps of paper filling my pocket, most of which i never got to later to finish or do anything with. so i post as it comes to me, having longsince given up on trying to push ideas out or remember them later. if it comes to me and i am near a computer, i try to hammer it out real quick and then go back to whatever i was doing before.

anyway, i hope that answered some of your semi-rhetorical questions. and thanks for the review.

2004-07-07 | 12:34 p.m.
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