Mary's LJ

This essay was tagged in my Green Day Google Alerts this AM. It seems like every time the band does anything, we hear the same old whining chorus of "They're not punk!" coming from losers that were still pooping in diapers when Billie Joe and Mike were recording their first EP. This author says it all much more eloquently than I could. Definitely worth a click to read!

On Green Day: An Essay

Ever since the Grammys, when Green Day performed "21 Guns" with the cast of the new rock opera version of "American Idiot," I've seen a lot of people snidely pointing out that Green Day can't be punk anymore if they're going to be on Broadway. I'm amused by this. I thought we went through the whole "Green Day Isn't Really Punk" backlash in 1994.


Read the rest here: http://www.adamselzer.com/ or here: http://adamselzer.livejournal.com/638917.html

And he closes with:

So, no, Green Day probably isn't punk. I'm pretty sure they aren't washing dishes to scrape up rent money. They're adults, after all. Nearly 40, even. They may not be punks, but what they are is one of the greatest rock bands to come out of the punk world.

And, best of all, when Wal-Mart, the biggest retailer of music in the world, insisted that they release a "clean" version of "21st Century Break Down" to sell in their stores, Green Day told them to go to hell.

If that isn't punk, what is?


PREACH!

American Idol was a hot mess on two levels tonight. First, what a bunch of utter BS that only 2 judges spoke after each contestant. And it was either Randy/Kara or Paula/Simon. THAT was the only way they could figure out how to get the show in under an hour? Are you fucking kidding me? Forty-two minutes of show outside of commercials MINUS (2 minutes x 7 songs x 2 more minutes of puff piece) = 14 minutes for judging. In other words, each judge gets 30 secs. How fucking hard is that? And Paula is getting worse and worse. The scripted lines are so obviously memorized beforehand, since they have absolutely NOTHING to do with the performance she (supposedly) just watched. And if I were Anoop, Matt or Kris, I would be pretty pissed off that I didn't hear Simon's opinion, since, let's face it, his is the only one that counts. And they STILL went over time.

I like Quentin Tarantino as much as the next guy, but as a mentor? WTF? Yeah, it was a movie theme, but still. He was teats on a bull tonight.

The other huge problem tonight was...THE PERFORMANCES. It had its moments, but the overall impression was "This was the best they could do?" Oh God, the song choices. Not one but TWO Bryan Adams songs, plus three giant cheesefest songs, one WTF? song (from my dear BSC (batshitcrazy) Adam), but I give props to Kris for picking an out of the way (but Oscar winning) contemporary song. Best song choice of the night.
( Cut for length and rantage. )

~In other news, there is another Green Day club show tonight at the Fox Theatre in Oakland, and they are filming the show for some purpose. I decided to sit this one out, because my sources tell me there will be a fourth "secret" show at a different, smaller club tomorrow night, so I will be spending a large part of my day scoring tix to that, then hitting the 101 for the 4 hour trek north again.

Sigh, the things we do for our bands.

Wow. I only posted once in the entire month of January. I'm not sure what that was all about but I'll try to do better.

In the news that has most of my flist all atwitter: GREEN DAY! They're (coming) back! Finally. Yesterday was the official start of the revival of this long dormant fandom. I loved so much about their appearance on the Grammys last night! First, of course, was the announcement of the new CD this May, 21st Century Breakdown. I put my pre-order in last night, and my receipt order number ended in 0008. :-) The eighth person to order it! I can't tell you how excited I am for this album. The receipt also said "Street Date May 15, 2009." This doesn't make a lot of sense, since the 15th is a Friday, and all records are released on Tuesdays, so I'm guessing the "official" release date will be the 12th or 19th.

( Cut for Green Day squee... )

There's been mixed news about my pretend boyfriend Gale Harold.

( Cut for Gale musings... )

Random personal stuff:

I made a spur of the moment decision today to dye my hair back to brown again. I've been blonde so long that most people I know have never seen it any other way. No particular reason, just feel like it. :-)

I've decided to start going to the library at least once a month. Man does not live on fanfiction alone, you know! (And when someone asks you what you've read lately, it's nice to be able to say something you could tell your grandma about.) I'm reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert right now. I'm also working my way (SLOWLY) through the second Harry Potter book in español.

House is still for sale. 'Nuff said.

Off to watch last weeks ep of SPN. Still resisting the giant sucking vortex of that fandom though. :-)

Gosh, is it 8 January again?

Yep, it's my 3 year LJ-versary. And I so cannot imagine my life without it and YOU all in it.

It's also been forever since I posted. I'll start with the fandom related stuff first.

I'm continuing to get excited about the upcoming Green Day album. It's been mentioned on all the year-end here's-the music-coming-in-2009 reviews that I've read, but no one has a title or release date yet. The article in AP magazine did give some tentative song titles though, and some enterprising and clever web savvy geek took that information and ran with it. Over on GreenDayCommunity a newly registered poster looked up the web registrations of all the song titles from the article, then noted a whole slew of domain names registered on the same day by the same law firm.

So here's what we got from the AP article:

21st Century Breakdown
Know Your Enemy
Viva La Gloria
Before the Lobotomy
Christian's Inferno
Last Night on Earth
March of the Dogs

And here's what we got from our GDC sleuth.

21 Guns
My Drama Queen
Edge of the Earth
Last of the American Girls
American Eulogy
Little Drama Queen

Still no title though. Given Green Day's penchant for secrecy, it probably won't be released until it leaks (and I'm sure it will.) The sleuth thought it would be American Eulogy, but I really doubt it. I don't think they would name it so similarly to their last album.


In QaF/pretend boyfriend news, Gale Harold appears to be recovering from his near-fatal motorcycle accident, but his return to Desparate Housewives is still only hoped for. He is reported as saying that he would be returning to the set this month, but we've gotten no word that he actually has. We're all keeping our fingers crossed. The good news is on this past Sunday's episode there was a 10 second clip of his voice (on an answering machine) that was recorded after the accident. Of course, it's been made available to listen to over and over again...not that I'd ever do that. :-) http://www.gale-harold.it/audio/Jackson-voice-on-answering-machine.wav
(Thanks to www.gale-harold.it & buzziecat for finding it.) Some people have stated that they think it sounds like he was over-enunciating (as if he were having problems speaking) but I think that's WAAAAAAAY too much over analysis.

They are clearly setting up the plot so they can either keep him in or write him out as needed -- his character Jackson has been offered a job in a new town. But as someone pointed out, this particular episode was being filmed when he was still in the hospital, when the prognosis was still quite uncertain. I'm just soooo anxious to see him back again. In the meantime, I am spending far too much time reading 8 years of accumulated QaF fan fiction. Makes it difficult to explain when someone asks what books I've read lately.


I've been unable to completely resist the great sucking force that Supernatural seems to have on LJ, but only to the point where I enjoy the show, read the occasional fanfic, and look at pictures of pretty boys. I read about a major spoiler on a TV site and was chatting with and_ed about it a couple nights ago:

[21:57] and_ed: as I said to thelackey, there's a deplorable lack of brain cells in this fandom
[21:58] revid: Ahaha and extra helpings of batshit.
[21:58] and_ed: nah...its gonna be a weird fantasy/dream sequence/something
[21:58] and_ed: exactly
[22:00] and_ed: I don't understand why people can't just relax and enjoy the ride, man. They can't be enjoying themselves when they're having fucking coronaries over every little spoiler
[22:01] revid: Too much time on their hands.
[22:01] and_ed: I guess
[22:02] and_ed: thelackey said the stupidity is a result of all the porn. LOL Cause really...what does SPN fandom have in droves? Wank...and porn. More porn in this fandom than in anything else I've ever seen, too...and I come from a BOYBAND fandom.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


So in personal stuff...I spent Xmas in Colorado with my sister, which was quite pleasant. I'm trying to sell my house, which is not so pleasant. California real estate is just a blood bath for sellers these days. Great news if you're a buyer, in that home prices in San Francisco are down 30% in one year. Less fun if you're a seller. It's also a slow time of year, of course. Got some interest and showings, but no offers. Also, it's a giant pain in the butt keeping the house so freaking clean all the time. :-)

Not much other news. New job is OK. The cats turned 13 this month, they're OK (though not real thrilled about the strangers traipsing through their territory.) Weight, post holidays? Uh, not so good. Must.Start.Diet.

Hope you are all well.