I see Axl Rose leaning over on stage singing into a microphone with a big red arrow sticking him in the butt.

Anybody...?


Birds Aren't Real!
Strawberry Fields Forever

This was 33 years ago and it still makes me choke up when I watch it. I'm just proud that Jim's still bringing happiness - I know five of those songs word-for-word and will be singing one or two to my son tonight.

Teacher here. It's made-up-nonsense. I don't give a shit what gender or sexual orientation a kid is and im CERTAINLY not going to try to convince anyone to change anything about themselves.

That said, I'm going to acknowledge that gay/trans people exist in authorship and literature as it arises. You can't read someone like Whitman (Leaves of Grass, arguably America's greatest poet) and not come across references to sexuality either implicit or explicit. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45472/i-sing-the-body-electric

It becomes relevant in passages like this:

5
This is the female form,
A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot,
It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction,
I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor, all falls aside but myself and it,
Books, art, religion, time, the visible and solid earth, and what was expected of heaven or fear’d of hell, are now consumed,
Mad filaments, ungovernable shoots play out of it, the response likewise ungovernable,
Hair, bosom, hips, bend of legs, negligent falling hands all diffused, mine too diffused,
Ebb stung by the flow and flow stung by the ebb, love-flesh swelling and deliciously aching,
Limitless limpid jets of love hot and enormous, quivering jelly of love, white-blow and delirious juice,
Bridegroom night of love working surely and softly into the prostrate dawn,
Undulating into the willing and yielding day,
Lost in the cleave of the clasping and sweet-flesh’d day.

----------------------------------
Maybe a conversation like:

"'Love flesh swelling' like he's in love with some woman and they...he...?"

"Probably not, he didn't have any serious female relationships as far as I am aware."

"But the title is 'The female form'"

"Well, it's possible, but it's not likely the case that he was talking about himself being in love with a woman. This poem is in the text but he wrote many other pieces about he-himself falling into and out of love with various men and we have letters documenting those relationships with his male significant others. Although, I'm not sure what to call them because gay marriage would have been illegal at the time. He's likely writing the poem in a way where he appreciates the female form and sees men who are drawn to it like the way I appreciate watching bees act obsessively driven to the middle of flowers. I like watching Bees in action, but that doesn't mean I'm going all pollen crazy, still I appreciate it for what it is."
-------------------

This is an example of how discussion of sexuality would come up in my classroom as I imagine it. Note how I'm not trying to convince the kid I'm talking to to turn gay like it's a big game of rainbow-red-rover or something. Nevertheless, knowing the author's sexual preference in this instance informs our understanding of the piece.


My own personal theory?
The people railing against things like this are the same shitheads that can't be bothered to read ANYTHING and instead giggle and guffaw at "hurhurhurhur he hadd'a boner" where I get to live an early stage of Idocracy.

Also, I agree that the "funky stuff" shouldn't be just avoided altogether. For goodness sake, just let teachers have the difficult conversation that everyone is avoiding. Reminds me of when Peggy Hill was struggling to say "Penis" when she was assigned sex ed.

Taylor Hawkins singing "Somebody to Love" (Lollapalooza, Chile 2022)

To soon to start singing Kumbaya?

You might find it funny that we had The Banana Splits in Ireland too, and it was one of my favourite shows. In fact, a couple of weeks ago I was singing the intro to my own son.

I have no idea why this compilation video from blink182 productions featuring a different band singing a different song and footage from various fake “home movies” is called an “official video”. It just isn’t. This is the real “official video”.

I just woke up to the sound of my sons singing this song to each other. They thought I was still asleep.

They don't do the deep bass "barbecue sauce" part, so I surprised them by singing it out at the appropriate part and gave them a good chuckle.

*promote the brilliance of Bos lyrics. So on point. Also i can't stop listening and singing along. Such a fun, dark song. My favorite kind

It's taken me four attempts to watch this video. Not because it's hard to get through, I just keep realising a few minutes in that I'm just singing along to that amazing song and amn't listening to a word the guy's saying about it.

It's been my go-to song for testing music gear for decades now, as well as my go-to when I'm feeling chill, feeling down, feeling like I want to feel something or nothing, or just want to dream.

I think Echoes is my duvet made audible.

Never understood why females scream so easily.

Maybe this?

1 : a piece of equipment that produces a loud, high-pitched warning sound
an ambulance siren
the wailing of air-raid sirens
We heard police sirens. [=sirens on police cars]

2 : a woman who is very attractive but also dangerous : temptress
a Hollywood siren

3 Siren : one of a group of female creatures in Greek mythology whose singing attracted sailors and caused them to sail into dangerous water or toward rocks

To be fair, I'm 48 and have been skiing most of my life, but the first time I hooked up a gopro I realised I constantly talk and sing to myself exactly the same way as I ski.

I ain't slept in seven days, haven't ate in three
Methamphetamine has got a damn good hold of me
My tweaker friends have got me to the point of no return
I just took the lighter to the bulb and watched it burn

This life of sin has got me in
Well it's got me back in prison once again
I used my only phone call to contact my daddy
I got twenty long years for some dust in a baggie

Well if I would have listened to my dear old mom and dad
I wouldn't be locked up in prison, troubled in the head
I took that little pop and sucked until my mind was spun
I got twenty years to sit and think of what I've done

This life of sin has got me in
Well it's got me back in prison once again
I used my only phone call to contact my daddy
I got twenty long years for some dust in a baggie

Sometimes I sit and wonder where my little life went wrong
These old jailhouse blues have got me singing this old song
My life is a disaster, Lord and I feel so ashamed
In here where they call by a number, not a name

This life of sin has got me in
Well it's got me back in prison once again
I used my only phone call to contact my daddy
I got twenty long years for some dust in a baggie
I used my only phone call to contact my daddy
I got twenty long years for some dust in a baggie

Wait! Isn't that the woman who sings the national anthem?

BURN HER! BURN HER!