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It's My Birthday And I'll Write What I Want To.May 11 '06 (Updated May 24 '06) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Seven Years : Seven Things
Today I turn 28, but seven is the magic number here. I once had a friend tell me that our lives change every seven years. I have also heard that we shed though all of our skin every seven years. Both of these things could be completely false, but I have never been one who cared about the line between fiction and reality all that much. It could have something to do with sharing a birth date with Salvador Dali. In celebration of my pending new cycle, and new skin, I am going to offer up seven things I like to celebrate having. Joyce Carol Oates : Where are You Going, Where Have You Been I wrote in my review of Heat that this short story is all that makes me who I am. I wasn’t being facetious. The first time I read Oates’ tale about pretty little Connie, her plummeting innocence, and the devilish Arnold Friend, I felt that I had finally met an author that understood how I saw and interpreted things. Once in a while I will reread this story to get my balance as a writer, because this is also the story that made me want to write, and helped my fiction find a style and purpose. Oates’ use of reality as seen through the head-in-the-clouds rationale of a teenager is absolutely perfect, and essential to understanding that this story is more than meets the eye. Pearl Jam : Footsteps This song was recorded on my birthday in 1992, but only made its way to cds via bootlegs, b-sides, and recent greatest hits albums. Nothing more than Eddie’s voice and an acoustic guitar, I swore they were performing this song just for me. Don't even think about gettin' inside Voices in my head, voices I got scratches, all over my arms One for each day, since I fell apart I did, what I had to do If there was a reason, it was you... I have sung that part a hundred times, thinking about a hundred people, and also about myself. While it is probably a bit too sad or too Pearl Jam for a lot of people, Footsteps is like my little house of solace when things aren’t so sunny outside. Don Hertzfeld : Rejected Has anyone not seen this yet? Stick figures with giant spoons and others wearing crowns made of entrails declaring that they are the Queen of France! C’mon people! It was nominated for an Oscar! Join the silly hat party already: www.bitterfilms.com. While Footsteps is my sadness, Rejected is my happiness. I saw this for the first time at Spike And Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival Of Animation. I literally thought I was going to die from laughter. You know how there are some people that drag you to their homes and ask if you have seen their vacation pictures yet, and no matter your answer they make you look anyways? Rejected is my version of that. If everyone can laugh at this short film of rejected commercials, talking bananas, and the bleeding anus of a little fluff ball, then we can all accomplish great things together. Chapter Four Of Anne Rice’s Queen Of The Damned Insane religious conversion, lack of editing in her novels, and general crabbiness aside, I really enjoyed Anne Rice when I was younger. After sitting through all of the Vampire Chronicles, I have narrowed anything I enjoyed about any of her books to this single chapter. Beyond being prefaced with one of my favorite poems, this chapter deals with Daniel, the interviewer from Interview With A Vampire, and the cat and mouse game he plays with Armand. Armand was the only vampire out of her stories that I ever connected with on any level, and reading about him and Daniel without the drag of Rice’s history lessons, God hang up, or Lestat drama is absolutely wonderful. I wish she had just left this chapter, which has little to do with anything else in the Chronicles, as a short story, but I will be thankful in finding it. Every time I read another insane letter from Anne in the paper, or see her glossy eyed and praising the lord on television, I will pull out Queen OF The Damned and read chapter four, and remember the good old days. Olga Broumas : Circe I don’t have a ton of poems that I can recite from memory, but this is one of them. Her quick, spitting words reflecting the Greek mythological witch, Circe, and the daily exploits of a prostitute. It is both about the power a woman can have over men, and the power that sex can hold over a woman. I don’t know that I look at it with a feminist eye as I think is intended, but I think on it as a poem with seduction laced with wickedness. The opening lines: The Charm The fire bites, the fire bites. Bites to the little death. Bites till she comes to nothing. Bites on her own sweet tongue. She goes on. Biting. Pink Floyd : Wish You Were Here It isn’t the lyrics that make me love this song; it is the guitar. Amazing, layered, acoustic, melodic guitar. I once had a standing task that the first guy who could play this song for me in its entirety would have me as his wife, slave, or whatever he wanted. Fortunately, I have rethought this request after dating one too many guitarists that butchered both this song and my need to have it played for me. I still love it, though. Whenever I hear the opening cords I am taken to a better place. The Rhyme Song : Sesame Street This is the most punk song ever. Do a search on Youtube.com for “The Rhyme Song” and you will understand what I mean. You have the little Menamenah red haired Muppet gliding around the guys that look like they are from Devo, screaming out hard core lines such as, “THE FAT CAT SAT ON THE MAT NOW WHATCHA THINK ABOUT THAT? HA!” There is such great build up with the words, and the minute red-haired Muppet rushes the camera and starts screaming I just want to shove my fist into the air and rock out! You go, little guy! You push those other Muppets out of the way and you scream! And that is what I think about that. Ha. I don’t know what the next seven years will bring, but I hope I can still hang on to a few of these things. In the meantime I will go eat some cake and begin my week long celebration that hopefully starts with me passing my first-ever drivers test. Thank you for reading!  |
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