Friday, April 27, 2012

Not My Family!

In the past three decades, we've seen various conflicts around the world, particulalry in Asia and Africa. But we forget that Europe, although much more united than it was before and after World War II, is still a point for land conflicts. One conflict very unheard of outside the UK and Ireland is The Troubles, an era of political and ethnic fighting that took place mostly in Northern Ireland (administered by the UK), the Irish Republic, and Great Britain.

There are those who believe Northern Ireland should be independent from the UK; others want it become part of Ireland. It's those differences in opinion, along with past religious discrimination (Catholic v. Protestant) that have caused these people to fight one another with paramilitary guerrilla fighters and bombings. And in parts of the country, the "hate" (if you'd like to call it that) is so strong that cities have erected peace fences where neighborhoods of different religious persuasions meet. 

And all that brings us to today's song. The following song talks about The Troubles and how the ongoing violence caused nothing but pain on both sides, scapegoating by those on either side, and more resentment towards one another.

From The Cranberries 1994 album No Need to Argue, here is "Zombie."

The Battle Has Just Began!

As I mentioned once on my other blog, I am big fan of British programmes. I believe their much wittier than their American counterparts and somewhat made better since there are no commercials or advertisers involved. One of my favorite programmes is Ashes to Ashes, which about an officer shot in 2008 and who wakes up in 1981.

Today's episode (Series 3, Ep. 6 in case your interested) had a riot occurring at a prison. With Hunt leading the charge, this song played and man... it did that scene justice as it talks about the events that occurred in Northern Ireland that had happened twelve years earlier.

From 1983, off their album War, here is U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday."

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

You Blow!

For the next three days, the upperclassmen at my school are being stored at a coliseum we have while the underclassmen have state testing. The class sponsor spent today entertaining us with music off her MacBook, and while building a card-house with my Somali princess, this played... and then caused her house to fall over.

From 1982, here is "Mickey" performed by Toni Basil, written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn.
Oh Mickey, you're so pretty, can't you understand?
It's guys like you, Mickey...!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Sca-doo-bi-dah!

I'm a huge fan of old cameras. I'm not talking about photographic cameras, but video cameras. In digital cameras, phones, and webcam, there is either a CCD or a CMOS sensor that translates light into an image digitally.

But before those, they used video tube to do the same job in an analog format. And these tubes were very sensitive to light. If they swept across a very bright light source, you could burn-out the tube (circuitry was develop to counter this) or have comet tails, where you have large streak of color behind a light source. And the tailing in this video... I love it!

Enjoy the huge blooms of green, blue, and the red/purple comet tails!


From their debut single, here is "Rock Lobster" from The B-52s. Remember them?
We were at the beach; everybody had matching towels! Somebody went under a dock
and there they saw a rock!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

All I Ever Knew...!

I don't have much to write about this song. It just got to me. Deep down to the core. 

From Yazoo's 1982 album Upstair's at Eric's, here is "Only You."
All I needed was the love you gave; all I needed for another day.

Thinking of a Place to Go

I saw a photograph earlier today that made me go nuts. I screamed at the computer monitor. I screamed loudly. I screamed horrible things at it. I screamed as much as I could. I shook with rage, my face turning a red. And this song just called me down. It mellowed me out. Made me feel that the photograph is just a small part of someone's unimportant life. And hopefully, it brings things into perspective for you, dear reader.

From their 2010 album, Wild Go, here is "Daydreaming" from Dark Dark Dark.
And oh if you knew what it meant to me,
where the air was so clear...