Paris Street, A Rainy Day

It's a rainy, rainy day, folks (hence Gustave Caillebotte's "Paris Street, A Rainy Day"). [Side note: don't you love that painting? I do.] I'm going to apologize in advance for not updating in awhile. It's going to be like that for the next week or so. And my two new counterparts have yet to post anything, so I'm considering putting a one-update-a-week requirement on it. That way at least one of us will be updating at some point.

At the moment, I'm listening to Deerhunter's "Little Kids" as I read Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Oh, the soundtrack to my Gender Issues class will be an interesting one, especially if I continue to leave iTunes shuffling through my Recently Added playlist. (In the last half hour, I've gone from Ke$ha's "Take It Off," to Immediate Music's "Rising Empire," to Vedera's "Satisfy Me," then Mark & Alex's "Rush," Miley Cyrus' "See You Again" - (I know, I know, I usually condemn anything that comes from the Hannah Montana girl, but I heard that song first via Breathe Carolina [an excellent rock/pop band you should definitely check out] and though they did it better, I wanted the original) - Seawolf's "The Violet Hour," then to White Denim's "I Start to Run," then of course to Deerhunter, and now it's changed to Vijay Kishore's "Neverends." Oops, actually it's "Shooting the Moon" from Ok Go.

Random collection of music, now that I look at it, but I suppose you could say that it's not so different from my usual playlist. Oh well. Back to reading. Have a fantastic day, everyone. Sorry I don't have anything new for you.

Cheers,
Purple

Your Bra Color For Your Facebook Status? WTF?

Uhm. Ok. So for those of you who wondered why the hell all the girls on Facebook last night had colors as their statuses, you can rest easy.

Basically, they were posting the colors of their bras in "support" of breast cancer.

Let me just call BS right now. Again.

In what world is posting the color of your bra a kind of support for breast cancer? Now, it's one thing if you're like "Pink! BREAST CANCER AWARENESS FTW!" as your status. But that's not what these people were doing. Instead, someone decided to start a flirty trend that others mindlessly joined in on. Most didn't stop and think about what they were doing; they just posted the color of their bra.

And when I called BS on one of my friends, and mentioned how ridiculous it was to just post the color of your bra "in support" of something, I was called a killjoy and wet blanket.

Let me just say, "thank goodness for Mary Carmichael." In her blog on Newsweek, she lambasted the "pointless" trend and pretty much said everything that I did. THANK YOU, MARY. I'm glad another woman actually thought about what she was doing before just jumping on the "proclaim your bra color to the world" bandwagon. Telling your Facebook friends the color of your bra does not necessarily correlate to Breast Cancer UNLESS you stick the words "Breast" and "Cancer" in there somewhere. Or maybe all you need is "cancer." If you're just like "Blue!" then people might passingly glance at it as they scroll through the page, shrug, and not think much more of it. That's certainly what I did. And when I found out why people were needlessly talking about their underwear, I was actually sort of surprised (and a little disgusted) that so many intelligent people hadn't actually thought about why they were doing this.

The one good thing that came from this was an idea for a psychology experiment. You know those ones where they have a sign up that just tells you to do something ridiculous and people mindlessly obey without questioning? Those.

Now....here's a real attempt at spreading breast cancer awareness. Except it's mainly for men. I don't completely approve of using sexism to draw men into the fight against breast cancer, but apparently it works.

(On another note, what does that say about our society, I wonder? Hmm..... >_> )

State Radio

Quick note: I've invited a few friends who love music as much as I do to author this blog with me. They will be known as Jesrah and Zatarra. You can call me Purple. 

Anywho, I found this band while wasting time on my iTouch and playing TapTap Revolution 3. I love the message in this song. The chorus especially speaks to me. I listened to some of their other stuff, and I quite like it. They've played with Rage Against the Machine and other politically active bands, so if you want music with a political message, then this is your band. They're reggae-rock and lately I've really liked the rhythms incorporated in that style of music.

*insert Doctor Who theme here*

And this video is even more awesome, possibly because it's the new Doctor Who (Series 5). I cannot WAIT.

2009 Pop Mash-up

 This video is all kinds of win.
 

Kabul Dreams

They sound more like they're from the UK when they sing, but the indie rock band, Kabul Dreams, is really from Afghanistan. As one of the few Indie Rock bands in Afghanistan, they seem to be setting the precedent for future generations - and apparently they're gathering quite the following among the native youth.

The band is made up of vocalist Sulaymon Qardash, bass player Siddique Ahmad, and drummer Mujtaba Habibi and - surprise! - they sing in English.

Although they haven't released an album yet, you can listen to their music on their YouTube channel. And it's rather catchy. There's a mellow sort of feeling with each of their songs, even their more fast-paced "Can We Fly?" In the chorus of "This Night," one can hear a belief that all three are passionate about: "Together, forever together." It seems to be a kind of personal mantra for the band, as they stated in an interview with the BBC:

" "Because Afghanistan has always been a country with different ethnic groups, different people who speak  in different languages and even have different cultures, our message is that it is possible to be together because we have examples all over the world."

Ahmad feels the younger generation of Afghans has learned from the mistakes of war and is now indifferent to the issue of ethnicity.

"One Afghan," he reiterates. "That's it." "
Source: BBC News.

This mantra seems to echo in the other two songs on their YouTube channel - all three mention dreams and sharing dreams and being together. It seems all the band wants is for their home country to be united - "One Afgahn. That's it," as Ahmad told BBC News.

"I feel the darkness where I am and who I am," Qardash sings in "Can We Fly?" And I can't help but wonder if he's referring to the war that has split his homeland. It's kind of a faster-paced, male version of the Weepies meets Green Day (minus the hard rock aspect and the lately all-too obvious political dissent ), plus a bit of the Beatles mixed in. But even that's not quite right.

One thing's for sure, if Kabul Dreams is leading the rock and roll revolution of Afghanistan, I can't wait until they release their first album. Catchy, meaningful, and one-of-a-kind (come on, who else can claim that they're an indie rock band from Afghanistan?), Kabul Dreams is definitely a band to keep an eye on.

Visit their site: http://kabuldreams.com/

Question: Valentines Day

Ok, QUESTION.

It's barely the new year and stores already have VALENTINES DAY stuff out??? WHAT? Seriously?

Uhm. So. Just in case you don't know: Valentines Day is two months away, isn't it? So...why is your merch out in January?

Of Vinyl & Time Lords

My New Years' resolution/goal was to start a blog about things I get obsessive about. So, here it is. Of Vinyl and Velvet. I don't know how often I'll be able to update since the winter quarter is about to begin, but I'll try. :)

First order of the day: vinyl.

I've recently become obsessed - or reacquainted. your pick. - vinyl records. After going to a friend's house and listening to a few Beatles records on her new record player, I realized just how classic music really sounds when played on a record player. Especially when it's the Beatles. That said, I went out and found some authentic jazz/blues back from the 40s/50s - Jimmie Noon, Bing Crosby, Irving Berlin, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, etc. etc. If you want something to get into this year, pick vinyl. With all the new gadgets of the 21st century, it feels nice to go back in time.

Second: Lady GaGa

Most of you who know me personally know that I am obsessed with Lady GaGa. It's not just because she's "weird," as some put it. Granted, I do have a tendency to like "weird" things, but I like Lady GaGa for a completely different reason.

1) She's not ashamed of being an oddball in the music industry. She admits to being self-conscious in high school and you know what? Good for her. Everyone else is self-conscious in high school. What's that saying? "Take a walk on the wild side." Actually, that's a Lou Reed song, but most people know it....or, at least...they should....
2) She actually sings. With an era of lip-syncing, talentless pop-singers ending the 20th century (and then kicking it off), aren't you glad that she can actually sing? I mean, every time she performs live, her song is different, yet still the same.
3) Fashion icon. Once she was big, others started copying her. That's not a sign of talent, but it's a sign that you're leading the way.

Third: Doctor Who.

As the longest-running sci-fi series in history, this show has come a long way. And New Who not only has some very attractive people, but some excellent writing script-wise. And with 12 million viewers in the UK alone tuning in for David Tennant's last episode, you can't deny the popularity of this series. People love it. Though, whether they love it for the quality of the show or for the quality of the lead actor is debatable. It also has this repeating image of humanity and all of mankind pulling together in times of utter chaos and need that makes my heart warm and fuzzy. Seeing this happen in real life might be unrealistic, but one can only hope....

Fourth: Avatar (Spoiler Alert: Do not read if you haven't seen the movie yet.)

Remember how Star Wars: A New Hope revolutionized special effects in the 70s? Well, Avatar is the "New Hope" of the 21st century. Everywhere I go, all I see is "Visually stunning!" and "A visual masterpiece!" when describing this movie. And, having seen it twice - once in regular 3d and once in fake IMAX - I'd have to agree. With incredible floating mountains and long-limbed, super-toned blue cat-like aliens, along with six-legged horse-things and other...creatures....and even glow-in-the-dark bioluminescent (is that a word?) plant-life, Avatar literally blew my mind. Not to mention the fact that it all looked 100% real.

The story wasn't so bad either. In Avatar, humans are mining a rather pricey ore on a faraway planet known as Pandora. The natives, who have a biological, spiritual, and emotional connection with nature (a.k.a their deity Eywa) understandably disapprove of mankind's destruction of nature in order to mine this ore. It mimics Dances With Wolves in some ways. Basically, the plot: Man is greedy. Man tries to kick natives out. Natives try to fight back. Man causes more destruction which evokes emotion in the audience. Natives fight back again and kick ass. Bad guys lose; good guys win.

Obviously, the plot is a little more complex than my bare-minimum summary, but you get the point. The main message? We, as humans, take what we want from nature and destroy everything else that gets in the way. It echoes a sort of guilt over what the U.S. did to the Native Americans way back in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Overall, it's a great movie. Very evocative. Go see it. :)

That's all for today, folks. Go listen to some Kings of Leon or Phoenix. Apologies for this being a lackluster first posting. I've just gotten back into town after flying and I'm super tired. -_-

Cheers