I was in a writing course once and the instructor started off by asking people for their favorite word.
I felt like a freak for picking what I did, but that’s okay, because everybody there, from the buzzcut lesbian to the grannies with their eyeglasses on decorator chains claimed that their favorite words were “love” “hope” “peace” “forgiveness,” etcetera.
BARF!
Mine was “wallapalooza” which is as far as I’m concerned as fine a word as you will find anywhere. I got it from Oprah, which is an excellent provenance for a word.
To his credit, the instructor’s face fell. Oh dear, you could see him think, one of THOSE groups.
He dropped his usual references to Greek tragedy and substituted what he could remember of Agatha Christie, James Herriot, and Jane Austen.
I still feel bad for him, and that was three years ago.
Rage Against the Machine’s “Wake Up” and V for Vendetta.
There are a lot of good videos out there, but I like this because of its perfect timing, its perfect philosophical match with the film, and because it doesn’t give away the whole fucking plot like most of them.
Come on!
Uggh!
Come on, although ya try to discredit
Ya still never read it
The needle, I’ll thread it
Radically poetic
Standin’ with the fury that they had in ’66
And like E-Double I’m mad
Still knee-deep in the system’s shit
Hoover, he was a body remover
I’ll give ya a dose
But it can never come close
To the rage built up inside of me
Fist in the air, in the land of hypocrisy
Movements come and movements go
Leaders speak, movements cease
When their heads are flown
‘Cause all these punks
Got bullets in their heads
Departments of police, the judges, the feds
Networks at work, keepin’ people calm
You know they went after King
When he spoke out on Vietnam
He turned the power to the have-nots
And then came the shot
Yeah!
Yeah, back in this…
Wit’ poetry, my mind I flex
Flip like Wilson, vocals never lackin’ dat finesse
Whadda I got to, whadda I got to do to wake ya up
To shake ya up, to break the structure up
‘Cause blood still flows in the gutter
I’m like takin’ photos
Mad boy kicks open the shutter
Set the groove
Then stick and move like I was Cassius
Rep the stutter step
Then bomb a left upon the fascists
Yea, the several federal men
Who pulled schemes on the dream
And put it to an end
Ya better beware
Of retribution with mind war
20/20 visions and murals with metaphors
Networks at work, keepin’ people calm
Ya know they murdered X
And tried to blame it on Islam
He turned the power to the have-nots
And then came the shot
Uggh!
What was the price on his head?
What was the price on his head!
I think I heard a shot
I think I heard a shot
I think I heard a shot
I think I heard a shot
I think I heard a shot
I think I heard, I think I heard a shot
‘He may be a real contender for this position should he
abandon his supposed obediance to white liberal doctrine
of non-violence…and embrace black nationalism’
‘Through counter-intelligence it should be possible to
pinpoint potential trouble-makers… and neutralize them.
Through counter-intelligence it should be possible to
pinpoint potential trouble-makers… and neutralize them
and neutralize them, and neutralize them, and neutralize them’
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
How long? Not long, cause what you reap is what you sow
The man just does not stop! After that dynamite alliterative intro he keeps the magic alive in all his public speeches, and I hadn’t even noticed until cruising through YouTube. Of course you know that alliterative verse was popular with the Vikings…you can connect the dots, right? Did you know that the last alliterative verse drama performed in England was written by JRR Tolkien? And it’s not half bad, either.
BoingBoing‘s caught on, and featured some of the YouTube videos yesterday. Unfortunately, someone’s suggested they check out his blog. It’s a good blog, don’t get me wrong. But it hasn’t been updated since April 25th, which a quick glance would show. It’s still on my blogroll, but my trigger finger’s getting itchy.
This ep is a wee bit inside; it is quite possible there are Canadians who don’t know there is no cod fishery in Saskatchewan. Yep, it’s true; the Saskatchewan cod has been gone for some time.
The Mad V video. It got him a deal with a production company, no word of a lie. For more Mad V, go here or, for even more vanilla V-related strangeness, go here. Animated battles: V vs Mad V, V vs the Phantom of the Opera, V vs Frank from Donnie Darko…
raincoaster 