Some More Rock Quotes

Violence isn't always evil. What's evil is the infatuation with violence.
-Jim Morrison

I see myself as an intelligent, sensitive human, with the soul of a clown which forces me to blow it at the most important moments.
-Jim Morrison

I don't intend to be a performing flea anymore. I was the dreamweaver, but although I'll be around I don't intend to be running at 20,000 miles an hour trying to prove myself. I don't want to die at 40.
-John Lennon (1940-1980)

It's funny how most people love the dead, once you're dead your made for life.
-Jimi Hendrix

The time I burned my guitar it was like a sacrifice. You sacrifice the things you love. I love my guitar.
-Jimi Hendrix

White collar conservative flashin down the street, pointing that plastic finger at me, they all assume my kind will drop and die, but I'm gonna wave my freak flag high.
-Jimi Hendrix

Lost

**musical mood preference: Nirvana - Marigold**

I really don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I, for one, would be happy with a life of manual labor and great friends and family. That is enough for me. I'm not sure why I struggle with this every now and again, but it resurfaces once in a while to depress me for short periods of time. I hate a feeling of forced worthlessness because society deems that I need to further myself. I am generally happy where I am, how I am. I want to be able to live a conservatively comfortable life, without much monetary hassle.

My mind has changed so much in the last 3 years as to what I wish to do with my life. It began with a hope for a life in medicine, followed by ideas of becoming a teacher of history or English, progressing now into the realm of law. I seriously have no idea what I am going to do with my life. All I ask is that I'm happy and my family and friends are happy.

My attitudes have continuously flip flopped since high school. Since 14, it's been on and off drug use and alcohol indulgence, leading me to love and despair life at the same time. Drugs and I were close friends for a number of years in high school and secretly while away at Penn State. I'm not sure exactly to what end I have used them or they have used me, but I believe they have made me realize more about myself as an individual than most other influential things in my life.

I love making food, I love painting, I love reading and writing . . . But what should I make my occupation? I hope that things become clearer at some point. Either way, life's gonna go on. I just have to be prepared for whatever is going to happen future-ly speaking.

Psychedelia ... again

**musical mood preference: Steppenwolf - Don't Step On The Grass Sam**


The bitter change of attitudes from the peace and love of the mid and late 60's met the 1970's. An era of hard drug use and hard edged musical trends was greeted as bands began using drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

The backlash following the terrible crimes at the hands of the pseudo-hippie acid cult, the Manson Family caused musicians to turn away from the drugs and attitudes of the previous decade. Acid rock began to take front stage.

The "we generation" of the 1960s (the decade of peace and love) unfortunately turned into the "me generation" of the 1970s (the decade of decadence). The drug of choice switched from LSD (a drug that dissolves the ego) to cocaine (a drug which boosts the ego, and leads to escapism).

The age of Psychedelia and the Summer of Love was over.

Nowadays, the psychedelic trends have carried through into bands such as Incubus and Radiohead, as well as the Mars Volta and the Presidents of the United States of America.

Psychedelia

**musical mood preference: 13th Floor Elevators - Thru the Rhythm**

I was sitting here waiting for work so I figured I would make a post about what I've been thinking about and reading about lately. I moved my interest in the Beat Generation into the next transitional period, that of Psychedelia.

The Psychedelic Age came into being in 1965, but didn't hit mainstream until the release of the Byrds album Eight Miles High in late 1966. Assimilations of folk, blues, jazz and rock 'n' roll shot groups like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane into sub-culture fame. Anthem of the Sun and "White Rabbit" perfectly encapsulate the LSD and drug-related feelings of the time.

One of my favorite, though one of the more obscure bands of this era was the 13th Floor Elevators, a heavily drugged band from Texas. Their bizarre use of the electric jug made for some even stranger music than had been heard to that point. "Thru the Rhythm" and "You're Gonna Miss Me" are two of my favorite tracks by this group. If you have seen High Fidelity, you have heard the latter track, as it's in that film.

Bands who are much more well known, such as Pink Floyd and the Doors, explored different aspects of psychedelic rock. Fronted by Syd Barrett, Floyd went on to put out two of the most psychedelic albums in history. The Doors, with Jim Morrison as the driving force, probed a deeper and darker side of psychedelia and its involvement with society.

In the beginning of American Psychedelia, the music was located mostly on the West Coast, with the big names being Vanilla Fudge, Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, as well as the previously mentioned Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead.

When British Psychedelic music began to be released in 1967 and thereafter, established artists such as the Who and the Beatles as well as Eric Burdon and the Rolling Stones, began to release psychedelic songs.


***more later.

In light of recent times

**musical mood preference: David Bowie - Andy Warhol**

These are quotes that I thought were particularly thought provoking, correct or funny:

"Christ. Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the fucking Peace Corps."
-Animal House

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.
-Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland


"Take what you can use and let the rest go by."
-Ken Kesey

"You can stump any stoner with just one question: 'What were we just talking about?'"
-Jim Breuer

"I have always loved marijuana. It has been a source of joy and comfort to me for many years. And I still think of it as a basic staple of life, along with beer and ice and grapefruits - and millions of Americans agree with me."
-Hunter S. Thompson

"To be just without being mad (and the madder you get the madder you get), to be peaceful without being stupid, to be interested without being compulsive, to be happy without being hysterical. . . . smoke grass."
-Ken Kesey


"I like America, just as everybody else does. I love America, I gotta say that. But America will be judged."
-Bob Dylan

Some Rock Quotes

I'm interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos, especially activity that appears to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road toward freedom.
-Jim Morrison

Q. How does it feel to be the Jesse James of rock?
A. William Bonney would be more accurate. Jesse James was motivated by greed, while Billy the Kid did it for the fun of it. All Americans are outlaws.
-Jim Morrison

Drugs are a bet with your mind.
-Jim Morrison

"I like America, just as everybody else does. I love America, I gotta say that. But America will be judged."
-Bob Dylan

Don't follow leaders, & watch your parkin' meters.
-Bob Dylan

I had a great time. I think a lot of us had a great time back then. But I don't see myself as being stuck in the sixties or anything like that -- except that I still have long hair.
-Neil Young

I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?
-John Lennon

Today

**musical mood preference: Dave Grohl - All Apologies**

Today, I participated in society as a completely normal person. I got up early and ate breakfast, then I went to work. So far, normal normal.

Had a nice lunch break at work, a full lunch. After work, I went to the gym and lifted for a while, played some basketball. I did laundry until dinner, which I cooked for myself, and now I am just relaxing with a book. It all seems so cookie-cutter normal.

I want to vomit.

RIP Volunteer Bobby Sands

March 1st, 1954 - May 5, 1981

66 Days on HungerstrikeRest in Peace



THE RHYTHM OF TIME

There's an inner thing in every man,
Do you know this thing my friend?
It has withstood the blows of a million years,
And will do so to the end.

It was born when time did not exist,
And it grew up out of life,
It cut down evil's strangling vines,
Like a slashing searing knife.

It lit fires when fires were not,
And burnt the mind of man,
Tempering leandened hearts to steel,
From the time that time began.

It wept by the waters of Babylon,
And when all men were a loss,
It screeched in writhing agony,
And it hung bleeding from the Cross.

It died in Rome by lion and sword,
And in defiant cruel array,
When the deathly word was 'Spartacus' Along with Appian Way.

It marched with Wat the Tyler's poor,
And frightened lord and king,
And it was emblazoned in their deathly stare,
As e'er a living thing.

It smiled in holy innocence,
Before conquistadors of old,
So meek and tame and unaware,
Of the deathly power of gold.

It burst forth through pitiful Paris streets,
And stormed the old Bastille,
And marched upon the serpent's head,
And crushed it 'neath its heel.

It died in blood on Buffalo Plains,
And starved by moons of rain,
Its heart was buried in Wounded Knee,
But it will come to rise again.

It screamed aloud by Kerry lakes,
As it was knelt upon the ground,
And it died in great defiance,
As they coldly shot it down.

It is found in every light of hope,
It knows no bounds nor space
It has risen in red and black and white,
It is there in every race.

It lies in the hearts of heroes dead,
It screams in tyrants' eyes,
It has reached the peak of mountains high,
It comes searing 'cross the skies.

It lights the dark of this prison cell,
It thunders forth its might,
It is 'the undauntable thought', my friend,
That thought that says 'I'm right!'

Links:
Collection of Bobby Sands Net Resources
Bobby Sands @ Ireland's Own
Bobby Sands Trust
Diary of Bobby Sands

Other Related Information:
http://www.irishhungerstrike.com
http://www.geocities.com/unrepentant1916/freedoms_hunger.html
http://irelandsown.net/hungerstrikes.html
http://www.inac.org/irishhistory/hungerstrikes/chapters/1

(*More on Bobby tomorrow)

Memorable Weekend

**musical mood preference: CREAM - I Feel Free**

Friday night, I went to a bonfire and though the weather tried to ruin it, I still had a good time. It's fun to have the guys altogether and hanging out, listening to the radio and managing a fire.

Saturday I worked until midnight and then I went to a festival for Beltane/May Day with some of my older friends. We had a good time talking and listening to stories from two of the funniest people I know. It ended up being a late night/early morning.

This left me waking up late on Sunday (not til about noon), at which time my cousin called and told me to come over for a cook out. He had been marinating chicken and steak for a couple of hours and it ended up being a delicious meal.

All in all, I'd say that I had a pretty good weekend. I spent the majority of it with friends and the rest at work.