Saturday, January 29, 2011

The Bathroom Wall

Fuck you all

Bless Jesus

Five words. Two lines. I found them on the wall of the bathroom that I frequent which is around the corner from my office. It is the bathroom most usually used by the dock workers and transport personnel around here and as a result it can get quite dirty but it is also the one closest to me and I tend to value how quickly I can make it there over anything else. Occasionally some of these people take it upon themselves to bestow the rest of us with their scribblings of wisdom. Normally these scribblings stay there for a undetermined period of time before being cleaned off or painted over because not a lot of professionals make their way to this bathroom. I mean you don't really see any presidents or CPOs in this area.

As I said, on this particularly fateful day I came at my normal prescribed time to take care of my business and I noticed these two lines that had been hastily scrawled on the wall. They clearly came from the same pen and the handwriting was the same. What struck me immediately was how different each line was from the other in content. The first line is very angry and antagonistic. Fuck you all. To me it means that everyone has either done something to anger the author or at least he believes that they will given the chance and he is taking the time to deliver a pre-emptive strike before they get their opportunity to do so. It speaks of a disdain for everybody else, no matter who they may be.

The second line, Bless Jesus, is much different in tone and on the surface the meaning is very clear. I mean, Bless Jesus doesn't seem to have many ways you can go with it. Basically you are blessing Jesus. Short, sweet and simple. You really can't even debate what the author intends with this line. However I must admit that it took me aback to see it following the first line and that really changed the meaning when I read both lines together.

There is this strange duality in these two simple lines. Remember this is only my opinion but to me Fuck you all Bless Jesus was written by a person who thinks that they are above everyone else in some way. Either morally, spiritually, emotionally or even monetarily and this person felt compelled to notify the rest of us about this fact. He damns us all and then takes time to show that he is better than us even if it's only in his mind. I'm not saying he is right and I'm not saying he is wrong and I'm certainly not saying that I'm perfect because I am far from it. I make just as many (my wife might say more) mistakes as anybody else but I'm not trying to go around putting myself on a pedestal either.

Of course I did notice that however superior the author feels he is, he did leave his missive unsigned which signifies that he doesn't want to take a chance on anyone really identifying him. Perhaps he feels it's better to reign in anonimity rather than have all of the lesser people angry with him. Or he could be just a loon. Or I could be reading too much into the situation. Or it could be time for me to go for now.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The Cars - Free - New Clip

Here is another clip from the THe Cars for their third new song from their forthcoming album "Sharp Subtle Flavor."

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Tuff Turf - It's Too Late - The Jim Carroll Band

I've been in a Jim Carroll Band mood lately and in particular have been digging on the song "It's Too Late." While watching the video on YouTube recently I noticed that there was a video of the song from the movie Tuff Turf. I didn't really remember a great deal about the movie but the title sounded familiar.



I cannot honestly say whether I ever actually saw the film but it's more than likely that I did. The vast majority of my time in college was spent watching movies with my friends in the frat house (think more dirtbag Animal House than preppy rich kids) which was the only one on campus or even near it. It was our favourite pastime. Plus when you had HBO or any of the other movie channels they constantly played the same movies over and over and occasionally threw you a bone by playing a new one. So more than likely I did see but just don't remmeber it.

Tuff Turf has a familiar 80s movie plot of a new kid moving in to a new town and getting in trouble while trying to find true love. Footloose did it to much more acclaim but it's an idea that never seems to get old. The interesting thing I thought of while watching this video is that it features Jim Carroll playing in a band with some of the high school actors who manage to over do it a bit. What strikes me most is that it plays like an adult director or writer who tries to tell us what it's like to be a kid, whether they're in a band or a gang or just a regular person. For instance in the video you can see kids dancing in the crowd while the band plays but you can clearly see mixed in with real regular kids several professional dancers doing moves that nobody I ever knew would be caught attempting. Of course maybe I'm not the poster child for what was normal back then.

Anyway, for every John Hughes who got it right there's hundreds others who were so far off base it isn't even funny. To be honest I'd have to watch it again before really deciding where it falls. At least it gave James Spader and Robert Downey Jr a place to hone their chops before moving on to bigger and better things latter in life. Plus it actually had some cool songs in it from Jim Carroll and you can never get enought of that in my book.