wickedqueen.net

When you look at these photos, you need to imagine that someone is blasting “Thunderdome” by Messiah, a techno track that opens with a sample of Tina Turner screaming, “THUNDERDOME! THUNDERDOME!” because dude, that is how it was. I brought a mix for my opponent (the mix, if you’re interested) and the people doing the announcing for mud wrestling at Steer Roast* were totally willing to play a track for the match.

It didn’t look bad for me in the beginning. I have strong legs and I had a good grip on the ropes.

Jumping on his opponent’s back may have worked for Westley, but it didn’t work for me. I think the mud was too slick.

I gave it my best shot, but…

If you look closely, you can see my head being ground into the mud.

I put up a good fight, but ultimately, my blue-haired opponent emerged the victor.

These photos were taken for me with my camera by Ivan. As you can see, the lighting conditions weren’t ideal for a point-n-shoot at some distance, but these shots convey the basic idea. Other people were taking pictures, so better shots may become available in the next few days, but I wanted to provide Matt with some immediate proof that he did not make me up.

Also, I would like to note that I later asked my opponent how tall she is, and it turns out that she is, in fact, six feet tall. I did not imagine it to compensate for my loss.

And although I got my ass roundly kicked at mud wrestling, afterwards, there was a performance by FREEZEPOP. Who are apparently intimately tied to the Senior House/MIT community and I had no idea, although I have loved them for years now. I go-go’ed** to “Science Genius Girl”! And after their set I got a hoodie.

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*Steer Roast is an annual party at Senior House, one of the dorms at MIT. One of the residents told me that they used it to get MIT into Playboy’s top 25 party schools one year in the 80s by convincing them that it happened every weekend.

**On Thursday night, I went to a go-go dancing aerobics workshop with my friend Andrea. It was super fun and I can do both the Twist and the Mashed Potato now, although my favorite is the Batoosi (the version of the Watoosi that Adam West did in the opening credits to “Batman”). The Pony is practically like moshing.

So apparently Cyn and I are so mysteriously in sync that we even produce dead air together. She’s posting again, though, so there goes that excuse. I’ve been busy, you know. Lots of stuff to read and write.

Yes, I’m backdating this entry. Shush.

Some time ago, Marc challenged me to produce a theme mix. He said that it didn’t HAVE to be a single artist, but that did seem to be such a major part of the whole idea that I didn’t feel like I was really fulfilling the terms if I didn’t manage it. Unfortunately, my personal collection doesn’t have that many artists that are represented so broadly, and those that are aren’t necessarily artists whose work I am actually, at the current time, still deeply into.

Thusly disclaimered, I present to you: It is [our adolescent obsession with Tori Amos] that makes us human

(Click for the full-size cover on Flickr)

1. Shame: “Playboy Mommy” - You’re so like me /You seemed ashamed / Ashamed that I was / A good friend of American soldiers / I’ll say it loud here by your grave / Those angels can’t / Ever take my place / … / Don’t judge me so harsh, little girl
2. Remembering: “Happy Phantom” - Or will I see you dear and wish I could come back / You found a girl that you could truly love again / Will you still call for me when she falls asleep / Or do we soon forget the things we cannot see
3. Planning: “Don’t Make Me Come to Vegas” - Don’t make me come to Vegas / don’t make me pull you out of his bed / I am vigilant that it will not be / you on the menu he’s serving up for his friends / don’t make me come to Vegas / don’t make me pull him out of your head / Athena will attest / that it could be done / and it has been done / and I think that I am up to it
4. Dread: “Past the Mission” - Hey they found a body / Not sure it was his but they’re using his name / And she gave him shelter / And somewhere I know she knows / Somethings only she knows
5. Joking: “Glory of the 80s” - You said “I’m not afraid to die” / I said I don’t find that remotely funny / Even on this space cake high / And then when it all seemed clear / Just then you go and disappear
6. Writing/Storytelling: “A Sorta Fairytale” - and I’m so sad / like a good book / I can’t put this day back / a sorta fairytale / with you / a sorta fairytale / with you
7. Politics: “Yes, Anastasia” - Thought I’d been through this in 1919 / Counting the tears / Of ten thousand men / And gathered them all / But my feet are slipping / … / Thought she deserved no less than she’d give / Well happy birthday
   Her blood’s on my hands / It’s kind of a shame / Cause I did like that dress / It’s funny the things that you find in the rain
8. Fashion: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” - Load up on drugs
   and kill your friends / It’s fun to lose / And to pretend / She’s overboard / And self assured / Oh no, I know a dirty word (this one is more about the cover of the popular song and the dance mix style of the production than the lyrics themselves)
9. Arrogance: “Cruel” - So don’t give me respect / Don’t give me a piece of your preciousness / flaunt all she’s got in our old neighbourhood / I’m sure she’ll make a few friends / Even the rain bows down / Let us pray as you cock-cock-cock your mane / No cigarettes only peeled Havanas for you / I can be cruel / I don’t know why
10. Inhumanity: “Taxi Ride” - Lydia’s dancing on the table / we’ve all been pushed too far / I guess on days like this / you know who your friends are / just another dead fag to you that’s all / just another light missing / on a long taxi ride
11. History: “Jackie’s Strength” - A Bouvier till her wedding day / Shots rang out / The police came / Mama laid me out on the front lawn / And prayed for Jackie’s strength
12. Theory: “Barons of Suburbia” - Barons of Suburbia take another piece of my good graces / I’m in my war you’re in yours / Do we fight for peace as they take another piece of us / But baby I would let your darkness invade me
13. Timekeeping: “Virginia” - so hundreds of years go by
    (the red road carved up by sharp knife) / she’s a girl out working her trade / and she loses a little each day / to ghetto pimps and presidents / who try and arouse her turquoise serpents / she can’t recall what they represent / and when you ask, she won’t know
14. Culture: “Muhammad My Friend” - Muhammad my friend / I’m getting very scared / Teach me how to love my brothers / Who don’t know the law / … / And Moses I know / I know you’ve seen fire / But you’ve never seen fire / Until you’ve seen Pele blow / And I’ve never seen light / But I sure have seen gold / And Gladys save the place for me / On your grapevine / Till I get my own TV Show
15. Believing: “Spark” - She’s convinced she could hold back a glacier / But she couldn’t keep Baby alive / Doubting if there’s a woman in there somewhere / Here / You say you don’t want it again / And again but you don’t really mean it / You say you don’t want it / This circus we’re in / But you don’t, you don’t really mean it / You don’t really mean it / if the Divine master plan is perfection / Maybe next I’ll give Judas a try / Trusting my soul to the ice cream assassin
16. Originality: “Strange Little Girl” - one day you see a strange little girl look at you / one day you see a strange little girl feeling blue / she’d run to the town one day / leaving home and the country fair / just beware / when you’re there
17. Journeys: “In the Springtime of His Voodoo” - Standin’ on a corner in Winslow Arizona / And I’m quite sure I’m in the wrong song / 2 girls 65 got a piece tied up in the / Back seat / “Honey we’re Recovering Christians” / … / Every road leads back to my door / Every road I will follow / Every road leads back to my door / Got all your crosses loaded

I had to reorder a couple of the concepts to avoid putting tracks from the same albums together, and the journeys track is my own addition–I didn’t have room for the four that Marc added, but that just gives it the original touch, right?

I’d really like to see some mixes like this from Cyn, Carla, Travis, and lady pilot. Hint, hint.

In other mix news, I just made this one for my friend Laura’s 4-year-old daughter Abby, because Abby apparently really loves some of the songs on the mixes I sent to Laura for her birthday–they weren’t specifically birthday mixes, just some of my recent angry product, and apparently Abby loves nothing more than singing along to “Cheated Hearts” by the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. Also “Not Big” by Lily Allen, Laura said.

“Uh,” I said. “Even the part about “in a couple of weeks when I’ve worked my way through your mates”?

“She can’t really make out the EXACT words,” said Laura. “She kind of… mumbles… along.”

All I could figure from these two tunes was that Abby likes songs with a lot of impassioned shouting, so I tried to build on that. The cover makes use of the lasso tool on Photoshop which I learned to use, like, last week, and is great for putting a 5-year-old version of yourself with someone who is, in fact, 20 years younger than you. The wonders of technology.

It’s not the greatest photo, having been taken with my cell phone (although at least I managed to get it off the “postage stamp” setting–there was another photo from this weekend that would have been awesome but you don’t get to see it because it came out like 40 pixels wide), but I really wanted a shot of some of the oleander that is everywhere here, because it seemed perfect for a mix cover:

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Yesterday, Jeremy posted about his qualified love for “Rush” by Big Audio Dynamite. The circumstances under which he rediscovered the song are similar to those surrounding my download of Men Without Hats’ “Pop Goes the World” a couple of months ago, with the fortunate difference that “Pop Goes the World” does not contain an unbearable minute right smack in the middle of the song. Also I may be a little more embarrassed about “Pop Goes the World,” although I still think it has a slightly lower cheese factor than “Safety Dance.”

Anyway, I haven’t been listening to “Pop Goes the World” so much in the past few weeks, but I was inspired by Jeremy’s post to create a mix of songs that are a) relatively old and b) relatively well-known. The second criterion should make the resulting disc a radical departure from the mixes I usually do, I know. Or maybe I’m deluding myself about what constitutes “relatively well-known,” but I’ll have you know that I did not include Belinda Carlisle’s “Summer Rain,” although I love it madly, because no one ever knows what the hell I’m talking about when I mention it (also, if I recall correctly, I think Matt told me it actually came out in 1990 and I was trying for a true 80s mix). And I originally included “Buffy Come Back” by Angel & the Reruns, but pulled it because no one but my mother has ever recognized it, and really the whole point of a mix like this is how cool I’m not.*

Boy, there sure were a lot of bands called [Blank] and the [blanks] in the 80s, huh? Or just The [blanks]. Personally, I think there should be more bands with names that are sentences, like Ethan Hawke’s fictional Reality Bites band, Hey! That’s my bike! or my friend Karen’s imaginary nerd!emo band, Gondor Calls For Aid. I can’t think of any actual examples.

Anyway. The mix. The cover image is a slightly altered photo of me in my Lion-O Thunder Cats pajamas, circa 1985:

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Mix CDs are the new courtly love, duh. Why didn’t I put this together this morning?

They’re a better analogue than email, really–they have rules, form, schools of thought. I personally am vehemently opposed to including more than one track per artist except in particular extenuating circumstances, such as using all track pairs or starting and ending a mix with bookends.

From Hairstyles of the Damned, an otherwise competent but not awe-inspiring coming-of-age novel by Joe Meno:

“Hey, man, I need to put a mix-tape together for this girl. Can you help me pick out some cool songs she’s never heard before?” I asked.
“Why do you want to put songs she’s never heard on it?”
“Because she does that for me. Plays songs I’ve never heard, you know.”
Rod frowned, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
“Don’t be lame, man,” he said. “That would be like writing somebody else’s love letter.”
“No it isn’t,” I said.
“I’m not helping you out. If you like this girl, you should be able to pick the songs out you want her to hear yourself.”
“But I’ll pick fucking rock songs. I need sexy songs like that shit your dad listens to. Like Chet Baker and shit.”
“Man, forget it. I’m not doing it.”
“You’re screwing me here, Rod,” I said. “You’re blowing my chance with love.”
“No, man, you are,” he said, and I knew I was on my own from there.

…

OK, I had no special song so I was fucked. Because now all I had was the mix-tape. But to make the perfect mix-tape you had to reveal how cool you were, how interesting, without being obvious that the person you were making the tape for was someone you were completely and totally in love with. That’s what Gretchen said anyway.

I suggested this interpretation to my rhetoric prof and he said that he had a girlfriend who told him he needed to stop giving people mix CDs unless he was putting the make on them. I allowed as how that IS basically the default message of the mix CD. I think I’m onto something.