It's raining
Hey there. I just watched Pump Up The Volume for the first time. Anyone here see that movie? As I understand it, I'm one of the few people left that hadn't seen it. I think it's verging on being an Important Film. It somehow managed to stay away from wacky hijinx and happy endings. There were some refreshingly honest exchanges between the characters. The parent characters and especially the eeeevil principal were a little hammy but the talk between the teenagers was actually intelligent and passionate. Y'know, like real teenagers. People wax nostalgic about adolescence without remembering what a cesspit it can be. I was watching it and remembering when the fashions in that film looked cool. I was listening to the message and remember, this film was nearly pre-internet. At the end of the movie, Christian Slater is urging everyone to open up their own pirate radio stations. Over the end of the film as it fades to black you hear a bunch of different voices hosting their own pirate radio stations. The message has been received. Express yourself. Throw your voice out into the ether. Express yourself. It is only through hearing others that you realize that there are things that bring us together. Express yourself. The life you save could be your own.
I had an idea once for a book where the earth had gone through the tail of a comet or something and made everyone on the planet share their brains. A total planetwide mindmeld. It lasted for a few minutes and then bam, we were clear. Years of chaos followed. Do you understand?
A slew of artists kill themselves or change professions because they find out that their ideas are common and mundane. Language ceases to be a problem. People find their true loves no matter where in the world they are. Or more to the point, they realize that 'true loves' are more common than previously thought. That's a good thing. All goverment secrets are let out. Undercover agents, spies and moles are killed immediately. Cheating spouses are caught. All the pin numbers, all the passwords, gone. The evil ones in our midst, the truly evil ones, decorate the lamp posts.
We don't live in a world like that but it's getting closer. I think there needs to be secrets but I think that there also needs to be a hivemind we can all share to let us know that we're similar. What we're going through is cliche. There is nothing and I mean NOTHING that you're experiencing that hasn't been experienced before. Every generation thinks they invented sex. Every generation thinks they invented misery.
Like Ernest Kline said, the internet is the only true medium of expression left as it is not controlled by any one goverment, corporation, or media cartel.
Blogs, livejournals, groups, online communities, it's all happening. The dream is becoming a reality. Anyone in the world who has a computer can read what I am writing...right....now. I am expressing myself to the world. True, only about five people are probably listening but hey, you know what I mean?
I want to tell you a story that I love. This actually happened at a school a friend of mine named Alex went to. I might have a few of the details wrong but here goes. I've never heard anything like it.
So there was this dorky kid in school. He was always getting picked on. Not in a huge way but enough. One day he pushed back and shoved the name calling jock hard into a bank of lockers.
"After school, dipshit!" came out of the jock's mouth. The toll of death. After school. Word spreads. Everyone mills about afterwards seeing if it'll go down.
It happened in the upper field.
The dorky kid had attempted to go home covertly but the jock had seen him by sheer stupid luck and stopped him.
A fight started.
The crowd converged.
Cheering began.
Here's what happened.
The dorky kid put the jock in the hospital. The jock never looked the same again.
The fight lasted the better part of five minutes and by the end, the dorky kid was beating on the unconcious jock over and over again. It seemed to take years. The dorky kid rocked him. It was touch and go at the beginning but the dorky kid won by anyone's standards.
Afterwards, bleeding, the dorky kid stood up and looked around.
No cheer went up. This was so off the scale wrong that no one knew what to say. Even the dorks in the fight audience didn't know what to do. No one did.
The dorky kid said nothing. The dorky kid went home.
The jock came back to school a few days later, bandaged but healing, scarred for life.
And no one said a fucking word.
I mean people didn't even talk about it with each other behind closed doors. It just wasn't mentioned. No one bothered the dorky kid again but he didn't become super popular or something like that.
The jock stayed a jock and still pushed other dorky kids around but half heartedly, like he was playing a role that he no longer believed in.
Nothing changed on the outside but on the inside, I think everyone who saw that fight did a quantum leap of growing up. It was super real. And I think that's the lesson of real rebellion.
People want to see rebellions fail so that they can continue to feel repressed. They want to be led while whining about not having any choices.
This is why no one has taken Bush out of the picture. This is why we keep suicidally voting in people who bring us closer to world level death.
I guess. I don't know.
What do you think?
Any other crazy stories? Tell me.
toe
I had an idea once for a book where the earth had gone through the tail of a comet or something and made everyone on the planet share their brains. A total planetwide mindmeld. It lasted for a few minutes and then bam, we were clear. Years of chaos followed. Do you understand?
A slew of artists kill themselves or change professions because they find out that their ideas are common and mundane. Language ceases to be a problem. People find their true loves no matter where in the world they are. Or more to the point, they realize that 'true loves' are more common than previously thought. That's a good thing. All goverment secrets are let out. Undercover agents, spies and moles are killed immediately. Cheating spouses are caught. All the pin numbers, all the passwords, gone. The evil ones in our midst, the truly evil ones, decorate the lamp posts.
We don't live in a world like that but it's getting closer. I think there needs to be secrets but I think that there also needs to be a hivemind we can all share to let us know that we're similar. What we're going through is cliche. There is nothing and I mean NOTHING that you're experiencing that hasn't been experienced before. Every generation thinks they invented sex. Every generation thinks they invented misery.
Like Ernest Kline said, the internet is the only true medium of expression left as it is not controlled by any one goverment, corporation, or media cartel.
Blogs, livejournals, groups, online communities, it's all happening. The dream is becoming a reality. Anyone in the world who has a computer can read what I am writing...right....now. I am expressing myself to the world. True, only about five people are probably listening but hey, you know what I mean?
I want to tell you a story that I love. This actually happened at a school a friend of mine named Alex went to. I might have a few of the details wrong but here goes. I've never heard anything like it.
So there was this dorky kid in school. He was always getting picked on. Not in a huge way but enough. One day he pushed back and shoved the name calling jock hard into a bank of lockers.
"After school, dipshit!" came out of the jock's mouth. The toll of death. After school. Word spreads. Everyone mills about afterwards seeing if it'll go down.
It happened in the upper field.
The dorky kid had attempted to go home covertly but the jock had seen him by sheer stupid luck and stopped him.
A fight started.
The crowd converged.
Cheering began.
Here's what happened.
The dorky kid put the jock in the hospital. The jock never looked the same again.
The fight lasted the better part of five minutes and by the end, the dorky kid was beating on the unconcious jock over and over again. It seemed to take years. The dorky kid rocked him. It was touch and go at the beginning but the dorky kid won by anyone's standards.
Afterwards, bleeding, the dorky kid stood up and looked around.
No cheer went up. This was so off the scale wrong that no one knew what to say. Even the dorks in the fight audience didn't know what to do. No one did.
The dorky kid said nothing. The dorky kid went home.
The jock came back to school a few days later, bandaged but healing, scarred for life.
And no one said a fucking word.
I mean people didn't even talk about it with each other behind closed doors. It just wasn't mentioned. No one bothered the dorky kid again but he didn't become super popular or something like that.
The jock stayed a jock and still pushed other dorky kids around but half heartedly, like he was playing a role that he no longer believed in.
Nothing changed on the outside but on the inside, I think everyone who saw that fight did a quantum leap of growing up. It was super real. And I think that's the lesson of real rebellion.
People want to see rebellions fail so that they can continue to feel repressed. They want to be led while whining about not having any choices.
This is why no one has taken Bush out of the picture. This is why we keep suicidally voting in people who bring us closer to world level death.
I guess. I don't know.
What do you think?
Any other crazy stories? Tell me.
toe