Monthly Archives: November 2007

I was just walking down the street and saw three high school girls around the age of fifteen (Oh, Being and Distance). One of them was wearing a Nirvana t-shirt. Nirvana? Nirvana became popular in 1991 with that “Smells Like Teen Spirit” song before any of these girls were even born. Nirvana, like the Backstreet Boys or other record company designed musical acts, were made popular by the mass media and not by any innate musical abilities. I remember very well back when MTV incessantly played the unintelligble “Teen Spirit” song over and over and over again until finally everyone was buying Nirvana albums.

Of course, Nirvana fans can argue all they want with me, but if you stop and really listen, Nirvana’s music stands for nothing. Even if you could argue that it is nihilistic, its nihilism is also devoid of nihilistic content.

But what is so great about this girl with her t-shirt is that she just reinforces the mass media (especially MTV’s) ability to create mainstream pop stars, in the words of Air Supply, “out of nothing at all”. Add that to an untimely death of the lead singer and you have t-shirts sales to teenie boppers for the next 20 years.

Thanks Weird Al for the parody!!

After such long expectation and a weekend romance with Christmas songs, I am back to listening to John Coltrane. I suppose that I got just the right dose of the X-mas oldies to cover me at least until mid December and then I can revisit the Christmas spirit. In the meantime, I thought I would dedicate this Recycled Post of the Week to a post I wrote one year ago at the end of November 2006, entitled “What’s always bothered me about Rudolph’s plight.”

Today opening Yahoo!, I learned a bunch of interesting news tid bits. For example, I learned that Iceland is the best place to live in in the world, and the U.S. is number 12. I also learned that Washington, DC has the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the U.S. and the numbers are incredibly disturbing. Then, I learned about older white European women going to Kenya for its sex tourism. Go girl! And finally, I learned about a Puerto Rican woman who won a beauty contest despite sabotage. A fascinating day in the News.

Oops, I forgot. I also read an article by Robert Frisk in the Independent about the situation in Lebanon and the Middle East.

I know it seems early, but officially Christmas time is here. That means I can start annoying the hell out of everyone! Yet for some reason, this morning I opted for John Coltrane over my Christmas favorites. I guess I still don’t quite have the full Christmas feeling. Continue reading →