Introducing my new username!
Hi everyone, this is the artist formerly known as savvyelfpirate, writing to let you all know that I have changed my username to viva_lla_gloria. I hope this won't be too confusing or annoying for you all to get used to. For the past few months I was starting to feel like I'd outgrown my old username and I'm just not the same person I was when I first got this journal in 2004, so it was time for a change. I'm not thrilled with the extra "l" in "lla" but once I became dead set on using this name I found that someone was already using it for a journal they've never updated. I've been playing with different variations on the name all evening - adding extra letters, substituting numbers for letters, etc. - and this one seemed the least obnoxious and doesn't make it too difficult to understand. Anyway, some background on the name...
Gloria is one of the characters who appear throughout Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown" album, and there are two different "Viva La Gloria" songs on it - both of which I really relate to. After listening to the album just a few times, I felt I understood exactly the kind of idealistic person Gloria is supposed to represent and what she stands for. A post on a Green Day blog describes Gloria more succinctly than I can:
Christian and Gloria are the center of the album's "story." They are a couple living in the post-Bush modern America, and the entire album is their experiences. They represent two very real sides of humanity. Gloria represents the hope that we have for things to get better. She is the embodiment of our desire to change the world and make it a better place. In contrast, Christian is the literal epitome of anarchistic, rage-fueled destruction...the idea that only through drastic measures can we change the world we live in. They are Rage and Love. Yin and Yang.
I see a lot of myself in Gloria and the struggles she's going through in "21st Century Breakdown." The character embodies aspects of both who I am and the kind of person I aspire to be. I seem to be struggling to clearly explain this, so I'm going to stop rambling now. Under the cut are the lyrics to the two "Viva la Gloria" songs in case anyone is interested.
Viva la Gloria:
Hey Gloria are you standing close to the edge
Look out to the setting sun
The brink of your vision
Eternal youth is a landscape of the lie
The cracks on my skin can prove
As the years will testify
Say your prayers and light a fire
We're going to start a war
Your slogans a gun for hire
It’s what we waited for
Hey Gloria, this is why were on the edge
The fight of our lives been drawn to this undying love.
Gloria, viva la Gloria
You blast your name in graffiti on the walls
Falling through broken glass that’s
Slashing through your spirit
I can hear it like a jilted crowd
Gloria, Where are you Gloria?
You found a home in all your scars and ammunition
You made your bed in salad days amongst the ruin
Ashes to ashes of our youth
She smashed her knuckles into winter
As autumns wind fades into black
She is the saint on all the sinners
The one that’s fallen through the cracks
So don’t put away your burning light
Gloria, where are you Gloria?
Don’t lose your faith to your lost naivete
Weather the storm and don’t look back on last November
When your banners were burning down
Gloria, viva la Gloria
Send me your amnesty down to the broken hearted
Bring us the season that we always will remember
Don’t let the bonfires go out
So Gloria,
Send out your message of the light that shadows in the night.
Gloria, where’s your undying love?
Tell me your story of your life.
****
¿Viva la Gloria? (Little Girl):
Little girl, little girl
Why are you crying?
Inside your restless soul your heart is dying.
Little one, little one
Your soul is purging
Of love and razor blades
Your blood is surging
Runaway
From the river to the street
And find yourself with your face in the gutter
You're a stray for the salvation army
There is no place like home
When you got no place to go
Little girl, little girl
Your life is calling
The charlatans and saints of your abandon
Little one, little one
The sky is falling
The lifeboat of deception is now sailing
In the wake all the way
No rhyme or reason
Your bloodshot eyes
Will show your heart of treason
Little girl little girl
You dirty liar
You're just a junkie
Preaching to the choir
Runaway
To your lost tranquility
And find yourself with your face in the gutter
You're a stray for the dregs of humanity
There is no place like home
When you got no place to go
The traces of blood
Always follow you home
Like the mascara tears
From your getaway
You're walking with blisters
and running with shears
So unholy.
Sister of grace.
Gloria is one of the characters who appear throughout Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown" album, and there are two different "Viva La Gloria" songs on it - both of which I really relate to. After listening to the album just a few times, I felt I understood exactly the kind of idealistic person Gloria is supposed to represent and what she stands for. A post on a Green Day blog describes Gloria more succinctly than I can:
Christian and Gloria are the center of the album's "story." They are a couple living in the post-Bush modern America, and the entire album is their experiences. They represent two very real sides of humanity. Gloria represents the hope that we have for things to get better. She is the embodiment of our desire to change the world and make it a better place. In contrast, Christian is the literal epitome of anarchistic, rage-fueled destruction...the idea that only through drastic measures can we change the world we live in. They are Rage and Love. Yin and Yang.
I see a lot of myself in Gloria and the struggles she's going through in "21st Century Breakdown." The character embodies aspects of both who I am and the kind of person I aspire to be. I seem to be struggling to clearly explain this, so I'm going to stop rambling now. Under the cut are the lyrics to the two "Viva la Gloria" songs in case anyone is interested.
Viva la Gloria:
Hey Gloria are you standing close to the edge
Look out to the setting sun
The brink of your vision
Eternal youth is a landscape of the lie
The cracks on my skin can prove
As the years will testify
Say your prayers and light a fire
We're going to start a war
Your slogans a gun for hire
It’s what we waited for
Hey Gloria, this is why were on the edge
The fight of our lives been drawn to this undying love.
Gloria, viva la Gloria
You blast your name in graffiti on the walls
Falling through broken glass that’s
Slashing through your spirit
I can hear it like a jilted crowd
Gloria, Where are you Gloria?
You found a home in all your scars and ammunition
You made your bed in salad days amongst the ruin
Ashes to ashes of our youth
She smashed her knuckles into winter
As autumns wind fades into black
She is the saint on all the sinners
The one that’s fallen through the cracks
So don’t put away your burning light
Gloria, where are you Gloria?
Don’t lose your faith to your lost naivete
Weather the storm and don’t look back on last November
When your banners were burning down
Gloria, viva la Gloria
Send me your amnesty down to the broken hearted
Bring us the season that we always will remember
Don’t let the bonfires go out
So Gloria,
Send out your message of the light that shadows in the night.
Gloria, where’s your undying love?
Tell me your story of your life.
****
¿Viva la Gloria? (Little Girl):
Little girl, little girl
Why are you crying?
Inside your restless soul your heart is dying.
Little one, little one
Your soul is purging
Of love and razor blades
Your blood is surging
Runaway
From the river to the street
And find yourself with your face in the gutter
You're a stray for the salvation army
There is no place like home
When you got no place to go
Little girl, little girl
Your life is calling
The charlatans and saints of your abandon
Little one, little one
The sky is falling
The lifeboat of deception is now sailing
In the wake all the way
No rhyme or reason
Your bloodshot eyes
Will show your heart of treason
Little girl little girl
You dirty liar
You're just a junkie
Preaching to the choir
Runaway
To your lost tranquility
And find yourself with your face in the gutter
You're a stray for the dregs of humanity
There is no place like home
When you got no place to go
The traces of blood
Always follow you home
Like the mascara tears
From your getaway
You're walking with blisters
and running with shears
So unholy.
Sister of grace.