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Post by HoppersSkippersMiners on Jun 8, 2012 10:44:00 GMT -5
I know I'm just totally dreaming, now, but I wish there was a culture (here, or anywhere) that was not oppositional. Instead of a dark side and a light side, what if there was another protocol. Suppose that when someone posted, that instead of negating it, belittling it, or disagreeing with it, you just accepted it, and then added to it. Softly throws glitter-dust on this statement.
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Post by HoppersSkippersMiners on Jun 8, 2012 10:45:56 GMT -5
Of course, on days I'm feeling perverse, I feel this way too:
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mika
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Post by mika on Jun 8, 2012 15:30:50 GMT -5
Indeed, I'm not big on happiness or positivity police. A forced smile may satisfy those who require cheeriness (fake or real) as surround sound, but I would rather see a real 'face'; even in the cyber world. And if there's sadness, sorrow, or anxiety there - I would not want to add to that burden that by criticizing. Though some may disagree, Adam is no poster boy for Pleasantville lol. And people shouldn't feel they should be handling tough things better 'because Adam would just smile and be happy no matter what.' *snort* Adam is a snarky, witty boy who def. has his dark moments (most of them private and among friends - some not) and he reminds us of this constantly because he's honest, self-aware and unashamed. He doesn't disrespect those emotions as character flaws. He feels, shares and moves on with the support of those who care for him - both close and afar. It's his good heart that shines through - and I'll take him and others as they are, good days and bad. And hope (snort) I will be accepted in the same way. I'm grateful for a small dark place in which to relax where feelings and ideas - across the board - can gambol about in harmony if not unison.
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mika
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Post by mika on Jun 8, 2012 20:45:29 GMT -5
First, apologies, I earlier accidentally deleted a post thanking mirages for the lovely Waterboys clip - loved them so back in the days of 120 Minutes on MTV. (Still have my Never Mind the Mainstream cds And Junie for her gorgeous graphic and very interesting points. I wish I had not waited so many years to begin really accepting/valuing my intro differences. Oy gevalt. I've been too serious - I promise to lighten up for a goodly time. To quote MichColl, I'm sick of myself - letting RL things get me down, down, down. So... I'm staying in tonight. Breaking out the dusty bottle of spirits to go in the tea and some nice music to tame this headache. If anyone's around - come say hi. Here's some pretty... ETA: Did you see Pennyroyal has chainmaille pendants - attractive, also benefits anti-bullying campaign. I always thought the Pennyroyal guy was a class act. www.pennyroyalstudio.com/shop/chainmaille/And I know I posted this a while ago, but I'm still in love with it. I am a video fan. If I could do this, I'd def run away to the circus. (I know someone in Reykjavik but I don't think he'd let me move in :D)
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2012 23:18:06 GMT -5
Anybody still here? I spent the evening with some of my oldest and most beautiful friends: I love old books and history. This Adam thing is new for me because I don't already know how it turns out, and so I can't control it or my reactions to it. I'll post something beautiful, too: These are on me:
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mika
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Post by mika on Jun 9, 2012 2:51:13 GMT -5
junie ooh! hot chocolate?! I shall grab one and scurry away before revealing my secret shame - that I'm switching to digital books In my defense, the real ones were taking over my life and I move almost every year. Also I grow old and must wear my trousers rolled - hence the function that allows me to increase font size also allows me the vanity of foregoing reading glasses a while longer. melliemom - hey, visit anytime.
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lynne
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Post by lynne on Jun 9, 2012 12:27:44 GMT -5
junie ooh! hot chocolate?! I shall grab one and scurry away before revealing my secret shame - that I'm switching to digital books In my defense, the real ones were taking over my life and I move almost every year. Also I grow old and must wear my trousers rolled - hence the function that allows me to increase font size also allows me the vanity of foregoing reading glasses a while longer. melliemom - hey, visit anytime. Mika - I made the switch about about a year ago. My books still have their home in my bookshelf, but I sit and visit with them these days in my iPad library and wherever I go, they all come with me.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2012 13:09:42 GMT -5
Not very dark, but I am excited because I treated myself to a very nice photo printer. I like to make my own Adam designs, and with this printer I will be able to make and print my own photo collages, t-shirt designs, designs for cakes ... you name it. And I have all afternoon, alone, to install and play with it. #cray
Last night I was reading some history and something really resonated with me. The writer spoke of a time of being filled with mystic emotion and passionate optimism, a time when even pessimism had a "fine tart flavor" because really you knew everything was going to come out all right.
It seems that some of us have lost that fine tart flavor, eh?
melliemom had a good post on the main thread marveling at Adam's energy and drive. This also reminded me of something from history. A couple of years ago, on the bicentennial of their births, I read a joint profile of Lincoln and Darwin. They top the lists you often see of people from history you'd like to have dinner with, but the author said that in real life, you wouldn't have liked either one as much as you think you would. They were both strong-willed and single-minded. They both had the ability to wipe from the mind anything but what they needed to do.
This is something I have been thinking about for months regarding Adam. I truly expected this era to be easier for Adam, but instead it appears that it may be even harder. The last thing I want to do is ruin the fun and magic of Adam and his music for myself by trying too hard to understand the music business. But I do want to understand Adam and where he is coming from.
I would love to know that others think about why Adam is so determined to crack radio and the Top 40 format. Because the truth is that his talent and his intelligence set him apart from the other artists in that format. I see little evidence that those qualities are understood or welcomed there, and one can certainly have a hugely successful career without it.
Yet Adam seems determined to trespass. Why?
My thoughts are that Adam is a person with a competitiveness so fierce that he burns to win. He is intent on showing every doubting person, everyone who has treated him all his life as if he is trespassing, that he is a man to be reckoned with. And to do that, he wants to conquer the biggest and most heavily fortified castle he could find. Listen to this:
Thinking back on it, when I first saw Adam at the AMAs and its aftermath, one of the main things that attracted me to Adam was his pride. Adam's passion had gotten the better of him on the TV show, but in spite of the fuss over the performance, he was not willing to offer up an apology, to submit meekly to his inferior status. Nor did he lash back at his critics with anger or ill-chosen words. He seemed to understand that his music and his performances were the place to reassert his dignity and give voice to his feelings. I fell in love right then and there.
As the months went by, and especially with the wonderful success of the Glam Nation tour, some of those who had been tough on Adam began to back off, to describe him in glowing terms. But as he went into the recording cycle for Trespassing, Adam wanted more. Every song on the final record is about, in some form or fashion, what it is like to be a gay man in America.
A man whose sexuality gets in the way of the success he knows he can achieve.
A man who has grown up before our eyes, a man who told us his first single (rumor has it he had chosen Cuckoo) would EXPLODE.
A man determined to use every weapon in his arsenal, including patience and shrewdness and delay and re-strategizing.
A man performing at the elite level, a man using his anger and passion to heighten the level of his performance.
A man willing to experience vile pain because he sees the bigger picture.
I don't pretend to know where we're going next from here. I don't know what Adam is going to be asked to do or choose to do to get inside the gate of that castle. I do know, now, that it will take every bit of his strength, nerve, and perseverance.
All I know is that heroes are full-blooded human beings who give us something to hold on to in our own lives.
We can't give up, because he won't.
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Post by midwifespal on Jun 9, 2012 17:29:53 GMT -5
*small voice*: Hi. So this is where you've all been hanging out! I was mid move during the whole...um...grey-scale-thread situation...so I missed all the excitement. I feel a little like I've somehow stumbled upon the breezeway behind the theater building in high school where all the cool kids would hang out/cut class/bum a smoke/talk nietzsche (--not the jocks and the cheerleaders and the class council, but the actually cool kids, the ones who were in a band, or could somehow magically wear leather jackets without looking like tools, or better yet couldn't care less what they were wearing, or would happily wear something outrageously mockable, the ones who were smart but just didn't give a shit, the ones who knew what awesome thing was going down on the other side of town, or who maybe even were from the other side of town, lol--) and now I'm torn between joining 'em and feeling like a wanna-be and hiding and feeling like a wimp. ;D I often think about that funny little bubble world that was high school (interesting watching Adam reach for that metaphor to describe his own current experiences). You know, those kids felt like outsiders, but to the other kids, the ones in the cafeteria or on the baseball diamond, their little introverted clique probably felt equally impenetrable. Sometimes, on the rare occasions when I can get enough distance from this place to have the necessary perspective, I feel like I'm observing an elaborate social experiment, lol--a microcosmic society where a few subtle technical adjustments--an extra thread here, a new member there, a few carrots, a few sticks--introduce whole new sociological dimensions to the study. It would be pretty fascinating if the subjects were mice rather than human beings. As it is, I can't really summon up the required scientific cool dispassion to enjoy the show, and even occasionally poke the subjects, lol. Anyway, like any properly brought up new guest, I come with a modest gift for your lovely home: my contribution to the "gender-bending" conversation. I loved your suggestions about taking gender out of that conversation, Mika--how inaccurate and misleading the way we assign gender qualities is. As someone who doesn't fit particularly well into the clean boxes myself, I've always been exceedingly suspicious of gender-related categories (of the martian men and venetian--wait, no, that's not right, um, armless? --women variety). Forget the fact that as soon as a kiddo pops out onto planet earth we feel compelled to slap a pink cap on her and a blue one on him. I mean, there is no such thing as a solidly scientific, double-blind study on gender. I simply don't believe it is possible. Which to me is the same as saying that 98% of the rules people lay down about these things are utter drivel, and the remaining 2% are vastly exaggerated. So, in the spirit of that, please enjoy this wonderful piece on the gender-less-ness of fashion by the NYTimes' charming Bill Cunningham. I'm sorry but I can't embed it--you'll have to click the link--but I believe it's worth it. video.nytimes.com/video/2012/06/08/fashion/100000001595905/bill-cunningham-frontiersmen.htmlThank you for letting me chill here for a while. To be honest, I don't know how much I'll hang around--shyness and maybe something slightly different get in the way. As much as I wanted to be one of the cool iconoclastic kids in high school, I'm afraid in the end I cared too much about pleasing people and following the rules in a small-c conservative kind of way. I was certainly weird and unclassifiable in my way, and my family moved every year so I was always stuck in the role of shy new kid. But sometimes introversion doesn't make you an outsider so much as it prevents you from being one. I suppose Adam presents us with a beautiful example of the flip-side of this. His extroversion enables his iconoclasm. But as much as he was and remains an outsider, I have to say that one of the qualities I love most about Adam (a quality I myself lack entirely, I must admit) is his utter willingness to "join in." ETA: I don't think this comes across as a scolding of any kind (of this thread, I mean), but rereading what I wrote I worry, in my paranoid way, that it might, so let me just say unequivocally that I love what you've done with the place, and enjoyed reading over your interesting conversations after the fact. Plus, seeing as this is the "dark thread" 'n'all, y'all should consider a black-light party some day. www.blacklight.com/BlacklightParty101('ceptin' of course, we'd have less obnoxious inmates and waaaaaaay better music, natch!!!)I'm not nearly cool enough (see above, lol) to have properly been to one, but I am cool enough to have a good friend who's cool enough to have a neighbor who threw one, and I poked my nose in, lol. It was pretty, um, cool ;D 8-). ETA 2: Hmmmm, after careful study of preceding posts, I've determined that darksiders are waaaaaay more wordy than lightsiders. :D. Maybe I fit in pretty well here after all .
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lynne
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Post by lynne on Jun 9, 2012 17:43:18 GMT -5
Aw, Juniemoon, I wish it wasn't so hard for Adam, and that artistic "success" was more fair. I admire Adam's tenacity and determination, and if anything can get him there, those qualities will. I hate to see bright hopes go unfulfilled, and Adam's hopes are very bright, so I hope and dream his dream with him, and vote like a maniac and do all I can personally, knowing that in the end, there are so many factors beyond anyone's ability to control. This same quest is mirrored in my real life, as I have two sons, both exceptionally talented, who are also pursuing their artistic dreams even though they know probabilities are low of having them completely fulfilled in the way they envision. Their hopes are also so bright and new. The thinking woman in me, who has been around awhile, that logical voice inside my head, keeps reminding me that visions change and evolve and that sometimes the ones people end up growing into can be more fulfilling and bring more real peace and happiness than the ones they start out pursuing. Then again, the wildest dreams, for some people, come true. After AI, Adam said he was living out things he had only dreamed of before. Dreams achieved lead to more dreams, lol, and that is not bad. I love a good dreamer, and great things begin in dreams. Still, once a dream becomes a reality, you dream about keeping it going; you want to keep living there. I dream of a higher plane for Adam and for my sons, of others who take them there and "lay them down safe" when the need arises. My personal dream for my own sons is enough success to allow them to work in the fields they love, music for one and directing/writing for the other. Adam already has gained that kind of success. I try to keep that in mind when contemplating my own dreams for him. I wish Adam, and my sons, and all talented artists everywhere, the resilience it takes to make good art and keep putting it out there even when they feel like they are trespassing. There you have it; my "dark" side is musing. My "light" side feels like Adam *has* that kind of resilience underneath his underneath. Success comes in moments, and Adam has had some of those moments already. He will have more. I know that. His talent and will are too big, and that talent is now out there gathering the force it will gather. Maybe struggle is his greatest strength. Out of struggle comes humility, artistic expression, complexity, message and realness. In the end, that is what speaks to our hearts. In the end, that is what drives artists to explore humanity and truth in beautiful ways. In the end, that is what teaches individuals what they seek and helps them light the way for others. Adam is already a torch bearer, and that is a dream in itself.
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