Get it? It’s an REM reference. I don’t know what struck me this week with the whole focus on music thing. Well, you guys all know that music is a big part of my life and I just recently discovered the little icon that lets me insert YouTubes into my posts! Hahaha, so now, rather than suffer my gibbering, you can suffer my taste in music (although we all mostly share that taste) Ever since the first mix tape was made by a lovestruck 14 year old and passed on to the object of their earnest affections, people have co-opted rock & roll recordings in their quest to be profoundly understood. I am no different. WOW, that was weird, I just flipped back into SL to turn on the music stream and it was Lou Reed doing Sweet Jane, his version sucks 
Anyway, it’s one of those late afternoons where you just want to listen to music and chat with friends. Here’s what I would put on. If nothing about it makes sense, so much the better. I am no Young Werther, dying for love. Just a rock & roller with an internet connection.
We begin enigmatically with something which is for me the most precise distillation of austerity and passion ever recorded. It’s the so called ‘81 recording of the Goldberg Variations by Glenn Gould. This is what I listen to when I really need to *think*. If I listen to it when I am not thinking, it just simply moves me to tears – as the Aria moves into the 2nd variation, like wow! This is what all those SL people who *claim* to have Asperger’s Syndrome don’t get – the actual definition of “high functioning”. Take it away, Glenn
Now, this next one I have been thinking about because of all the talk of “simulated rape” and cyber-rape and, alas, about actual rape, that has been going on in the SL blogosphere recently. It’s a high-powered, raunchy, near perfect rock & roll song and it’s about rape; it *doesn’t* try to make it anything but the ugliness and horror that rape is. The band, X, later became conflicted about this song because they came to recognize a disconnect between what the song was about and the way the song had become almost “anthemic” in the LA punk scene. Watching this video doesn’t make it clear that the band itself didn’t suffer from that (with the exception of Exene herself); nevertheless, the guitar is searing and the whole thing rocks out, both flawed and flawlessly.
Ok, next up is another longish video by a band that I dearly love. It’s two songs recorded on the Old Grey Whistle Test by Holly and the Italians. If you’ve ever spoken to me about music in Second Life, I have pushed this video on you! What can I say about this band? Holly said it best:
“Some people achieve greatness, others have it thrust upon them… and then there are those… who are *born* Italian.”
Holly’s brash, gutsy soul is a fucking inspiration and there is nothing Italian about me other than my overwhelming desire to live in Tuscany. Maybe if I show up with a copy of “The Right to be Italian” under my arm, they’ll let me in! LET ME IN!
Everyone makes the obvious connection between Holly and Joan. I love Joan and she is here in spirit even if I don’t post a YouTube. It kinda goes without saying. Holly is a rock & roll girl entirely in her own right and comparing her to Joan isn’t necessary. But, since I am on the subject of Rocker Chicks and since I am always on the subject of Canada and how pure and great and supremely wonderful we all are up here in the Great White North, here’s a woman you might have never heard of. She is Bif Naked and she is also sui generis and needs no “achievement by comparison” because, in Bif’s case, there simply is *no* comparison. Read about her on the tubes, she’s outstanding. And she ROCKS!
CAUTION: This video might cause the universe to implode. You’ll understand if you watch it.
Nothing more need be said. Bless you, Bif. <3 <3
Wasn’t going to say any more but it’s the4th of the 9th. Sue me!
ok, clearly the Beethoven has been edited. There’s a circle in Hell for that; it wasn’t me. I got my own roundabout. It still sounds like the 9th!