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I had considered writing a song parody concerning death and the Christmas season. A Christmas Carol - If you are basically depressed much of the time, this is certainly the thread for you, and then again it is not. In some ways it is comforting to in that we all share the common fate (so far) of knowing we are mortal and it is probably one of the most written about topics in music. "Don't Fear the Reaper."

But we do, don't we. And we sing about it. I am a dark Goth in a way. Will always be. And as such at age 9 as grandma lay out for "viewing" and I reached out to touch her cold hand, I become a little mini Edgar Allen, or Shakespeare as all those are once touched by that skeletal hand of death.

But since this is a karaoke forum, I thought I would start a strange thread concerning the Dark Side. After all, how many funerals have I been to as the new improved sound systems  belted out Abide with Me or Rock of Ages and stood at gravesides (my mother, my father... etc. etc) And old friend from the band I played with at the Fillmore in S.F. posted recently one of the singers had died.

I watch the movies and marvel at this generation - that death has become such a selling point to cable (T.V. is really a thing of the past isnt' it.) and counted the number of deaths in a single episode. In a good action movie, (good?) hundreds of people are shot in sequences and one wonders what little minds think of death. After all, isn't it like a good fist fight (we don't get to have those anymore). No one sees the months of recovery and sometimes lifetime misery for complications of a single rowdy fight or a season of football high school glory.

I have seen the Reaper. I write about him (or she). My particular reaper is feminine much like the one in All That Jazz. And I put up such songs as Darkness, Darkness, and wrote one for Terry Schiavo. Poor Kerno (the right to die guy) is dying in prison for the "murder" of a someone who wanted to cross over.

But, I digress. Now here is a strange page. Kind of a - rock stars are evil and though Christian myself - I find this a bit offensive http://www.av1611.org/rockdead.html

Nonetheless, it's a good list, though there are quite a few more now to add to it.  No wonder we musicians write about death. Out average lifespan is what.. about mid thirty. Most would attribute it to drugs. I would say, in some cases of stardom, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Take John Lennon. (By the way I had a VIVID dream last night where he came and was giving me hints on songwriting. In his candid Lennon way, he said... the music is not bad but the voice needs real work.
Well, true enough. And he had a lot of suggestions concerning how to write a song.
But he had the rare priviledge of non-drug matyrdom which even Elvis was not spared.

But, I digress.

Just sent a note to Terri Schiavo org to donate my song to their cause.

Death is so prevalent in music...
"last thing I remember doc, he started to swerve and then I saw the jag slide into the curve.." Dead Man's Curve - Jan & Dean

"What is a youth..." Romeo and Juliet

"Who want's to Live forever" Queen - The Highlander

So what can I say. We are what we are. When I write happy happy joy joy songs.. they never approach the intensity of of my dark stuff.. probably putting it all together on an album.. The Abyss. It was going to be Vampyre.. but some of the stuff I have been workng on goes way beyond Anne Rice's genre (not that I don't deeply respect her own bizarre contribution to the what Stephen called the Danse Macabre.

Probably put this in a song someday... about a caretaker in a graveyardd

"Many say I am mad. Quite insane. But it matters little to me what is said to me by the living. For though walking, breathing, they move through a shadow world of empty lives with little meaning or purpose. My friends, are the silent dead- who I watch over day and night- who somehow unspeaking somehow still comfort me. "

or what I read in Oakhill Cemetary which I wrote a song about...

an epitaph- "As you are, I once was... As I am... you soon shall be.."

I posted a very rough version of a song by Spirit in respect for my Father who died five years ago as of yesterday.

I will end with with David Bowie ... who we have written and sent music to.

DAVID BOWIE LYRICS

"Future Legend"

And in the death
As the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy
thoroughfare
The shutters lifted in inches in Temperance Building
High on Poacher's Hill
And red, mutant eyes gaze down on Hunger City
No more big wheels

Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats
And ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes
Coverting the highest of the sterile skyscrapers
Like packs of dogs assaulting the glass fronts of Love-Me Avenue
Ripping and rewrapping mink and shiny silver fox, now legwarmers
Family badge of sapphire and cracked emerald
Any day now
The Year of the Diamond Dogs

"This ain't Rock'n'Roll
This is Genocide"

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There are no accidents in a perfect world   - Blondie

I also like to go to the opposite spectrum...

"Joy To The World" Three Dog Night
"Silent Lucidity" Queensryche
"Say Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose?" - Tony Orlando & Dawn
"Muskrat Love" The Captain & Tennille
"Silly Love Songs" Paul McCartney & Wings

JUST a few samples I use to lighten it up a bit when I get to feelin' down!

All I an add is an epitaph on a tombstone...it said "I told you I was sick!".....

Wow man, that's deep. Myself, I think there's a pretty good sized barrier between depression and death, depression is just the psychological condition that causes an already troubled person to commit to death.
I don't understand people who are intriqued by death so much as to live a morbid lifestyle....The goths I guess. These kids nowadays that walk around looking like zombies with their black lipstick and facial piercings with 2 foot tall pointed hair and such call themselves "Goths".......whatever. To me, it's just a spectacle to be observed and a good laugh. Exactly what these people set out to do. Somebody didn't pay attention to me enough........I'll make everyone notice. I wonder how many of them actually ever read Shakespeare, Edgar Alan Poe, etc...? Probably just Steven King. No more than I have.
That being said, Karaoke kind of fits the bill, or entertaining in general I guess. But nah....That's not a fair assumption. Entertainers are just that, someone who enjoys entertaining, whether musically, comedically, or ???
Entertaining isn't a cry for attention, it's a form of self-expression meant to uplift and nurture a viewer or listeners spirit, not to impose fear, anxiety, or thoughts of the "dark side" on others, of course, people don't have to look or listen in the first place, but it's the initial viewing or sound that caught the attention in the first place, therefore we've already been violated.
I probably missed the whole point here, but I just had to comment anyway. .
My worst fear of death is that I'll be driving my big-rig and have a heart attack or whatever and end up affecting someone elses life in a deadly way. Other than that, I try not to think about death as a natural curiousity in everyday life. If it happens, it happens, and I probably won't be wondering if I'm going to end up where I read about or if anyone really cares that I'll haunt them.
And I do enjoy a good action film with alot of death in it from time to time, or watch an episode of "Autopsies" on HBO.....so I guess there is a bit of curiousity there, but not enough to commit my life to writing about it, singing about it, or looking like it. But you should've seen me this morning, if that wasn't death warmed over..........!!

Yep, When we are still somewhat healthy do we prepare for death by fixating on it ?  Or living life to it's fullest concerning ourselves over issues we do have control of ?  I hate suffering,  I hate pain,  when it happens I try to remind myself it's temporary.  IT WILL PASS. I don't want to die. (I moved into a condo complex with gates, and security.  Death can't find me here !  Last thing I wish to do is invite it into my home by living it !)  

Life is made painful by experiencing loved ones around us dying, and powerful negative emotion.  Being an artist, I suppose I've been cursed (and according to some blessed) with being extremely sensitive, and having the propensity to experience profound emotion. Yet I'm stuck with it, and need to deal with it. That's part of maturity. Regarding our own death, We seldom experience that. Most go to sleep first. Knowing that, and being blessed with the gift of denial, and the ability to delude myself, I keep chugging along. I've fought my life to live, and I'm not giving up, I'm too selfish, and have alot of invested interest in staying alive.  

My idea of winning the ultimate lottery doesn't involve buying any tickets. It's learning how to be happy, and how to enjoy life. Despite the hand we were dealt. My own philosophy is treat other's fairly, and sometime down the road, the one on their deathbed with the greatest number of accrued happiness hours under their belt likely won the game of life, and likely came as close to finding "the meaning of life" as anyone ever will come regarding such a wild goose chase. Closest we can come to cheating death, is to enjoy our life !   We have that option assuming we wish it for ourselves.  Easy ?  Hell no, but if we fall along the way and need help getting up, so what ?  Who doesn't fall and get weak ?  My goal is to live and be happy, (not saying that's what's best for everyone), I have no right. Yet if ever anything is worth struggling and fighting for IMHO it's just that, being happy. Sometimes faking it does help us fool ourselves into believing.  I don't like the "Dark Side", been there, and don't want to return. When I pass by it, or see it nearby, I try to offend it, I like to hurt it's feelings by making fun of it, and cracking jokes... The Dark Side hates that !

Try to make it easier on yourself, don't ruminate over things you have no control of, and don't stare into the Dark Side for any duration.  Positive emotion is more rewarding. It feels better.

_________________
Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

(Gilly loves Loofa)

Death and dying

These long posts are killing me  LOL

I need some visine

_________________
[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Hey Gilly. Well, I guess that kinda answers Long Girl. Grin. Just to let you know both Seby and I miss ya and just because of that post - I will not be depressed enough to write any dark songs today. You take care. Major hugs and stuff from the Seby and the Loof. jvj

_________________
There are no accidents in a perfect world   - Blondie

Seby and her sister were Goths - and I think Melissa in her heart always will be. Having been to London and Soho, LA, SF, and even lived among the alternate life style people, there is a great misunderstanding concerning counter cultures and groups which state their identity by dressing or playing certain types of music.

I figured when I started this Necro thread, as I am myself, it might be a bit weird. Some people are intrigued or find the weird entertaining. I was sad to hear of the death of Debra Hill, director of so many John Carpenter films (Halloween - parts many)

Philosophically, (group yawn and grabbing for Visine) it is really interesting to me how singers "feel" about life. One tune "It's the singer, not the song". Well, it is.
You know the guy who wrote the Star Spangled Banner, as he watched the battle scene with explosions and gunfire, forever captured the desire for freedom and the struggle to find that freedom in music.

We, who write dark, have a mission. (Not like the Blues Brothers) but that is to put to music, the current of sadness and despair we all feel, but try so hard to overcome because life does often not play fair.

Now in the matter of dress and what is silly and dumb. I think I can, being in West Virginia now and truly from a country heritage originally (geez I went down into a coal mine the other day and am sitting on top of probably one of the richest coal veins on earth) can appreciate "Coal Miner's Daughter." My uncle-in-law has been a coal miner for 30 years, and right now is 5 miles under the earth putting up bracings on "the mound" which is hot despite the snow on the surface.

Point - Country is a culture. Dress, look, and it has it's drug. Alcohol - no doubt. It's another Tequila sunrise and the achy breaky heart turns on another "somebody done somebody wrong song." Used to hit up a place called the Saddle Rack. Largest country bar West of the Mississippi Three bars. Once had a bull riding pen, saw Marshall Tucker play Devil Went Down to Georgia or whatever and after a bitter BITTER BITTER divorce spent about a week semi-comatose every night in a country western bar, where women just before last call would stumble up to me, grinning (and don't they all look like movie stars after midnight) lonely and without quite knowing how to say it, wanting to feel a warm body next to theirs instead of returning to a cold empty apartment or (to my perilous ignorance, a boring burnt out marriage with some guy who they simply did not love.).  So a big vein that runs through SS is Karaoke country. And I can appreciate that. But remember, there are many worlds - and one interesting part is that now country fans like many types of music or have. But it wasn't always so. Country songs kinda dance around death. There have been a few tear jerkers about someone who dies... every morning at the mine you could see him arrive.. he was 6'6 weighed 235 - Big John. Well, Big John.. ahem.. has been down into those mines now and seen why many would hit the bars and get thrashed every saturday night.

But the Goths - the Dead Heads - the lost generation who looked around and said.. what in the hell happened here. The Flower children danced around euphoric and tripping. Nirvana plunged into heroin and HARD drugs and their candle burnt brilliant. They dressed a certain way, wrote grunge and industrial and expressed their viewpoint of a dismal and hypocritical word.

Death is scary. And we put people in six foot graves so they won't get up and walk around and so we won't have to deal with it.

And it's okay people. Really. My humble opinion. I once sent my marine buddy up into the attic of a haunted house I lived in and he saw a for real "thing" and almost soiled himself and refused to go back up there.  He told me once... J. if you ever proved to me there were ghosts and demons, I would go insane. I would snap. I would simply figure I was crazy and lose it.

So, it's a ramble people, and the Visine bottle is almost empty. Understand many of us have in our youth sought identity. To belong to a culture or subculture which is unique and sometimes even contra-culture. The bad ones, real bad, become outlaws or sociopaths and cross the line and start killing people. The righteous gasp in disgust at the "demon possessed" or the "sinners" while they try very hard to create a happy joy joy world.

More power to you. There are roses and thorns. You can choose to try very hard to find what is pleasurable in life and noble and admirable and live in peace, and love and harmony. Hey, if Jesus came tomorrow, where would we all be, huh. Would the saved all be floating upward in rapture while the "not saved" scrambled around with mountains falling on them, rain of blood, horrendous horseman slaying people... a real bad day for unbelievers.

By day, I will continue to live in the world of the capitalistic society, patriotic, contributing to improving the world. By night, when the darkness falls, Steppinwolf, the dark side wakes up and instead of going out and living the dark life, I will write grisly songs about it and books and poems. I can write romantic and beautiful stuff too... I know. But "addicted to a poison" and that poison is reality.

It is my belief that one article on 9/11 and the ominous fear of what could happen here (Walking through the Dead) has had more impact on our nation than so many good things. People standing around me when I kicked in the windows and dragged a woman from a burning car at a horrible accident. The gappers - "Will the car blow up - the people slowing down at EVERY accident to look.  Will this guy get blowup, will they both die. There were no cheers. People rolled down their window and stared, policeman came up as the ambulance arrived and said.. thanks.. we will take it from here.

Okay.. enough of the whining and the crying and the death and the dying and the guy with the switch blade knife. So smell the roses while you still have noses, and think about living and think about life.

jvj

_________________
There are no accidents in a perfect world   - Blondie

Jean - you should have been a journalist. Your post are long, but always well written with a lot of thought.

Or maybe a philosopher  :D

Okay now where I put that visine

_________________
[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

and like all things,  one must learn how to coexist with a potentially lethal substance, or one of the substances that mixes to form a compound that becomes reality. Reality is a mixture of things we have no control of, or *outside* events that *you* consider a "poison" JVJ, AND *our mind*. Reality is perception. We have to know how to balance the mixture of these two substances and try to form a "palatable solution". Such balance is important for one's survival... You don't unscrew the top completely on the first substance and release too much until you are familiar enough with it's properties and know how to mix it with the mind. Reality itself isn't the poison. The poison is the bad mix or imbalance.  Imbalance, and coping skill's that are undeveloped (emotion being aspect of mind) makes that first substance quite flooding and toxic to the individual that hasn't habituated, or started to adjust their mind to balance it and cut it's potency. Thing's must be startling for the newborn, Entering from peace to a very bright and overwhelmingly active realm such as "Crackerbox Palace" -(sorry JVJ,  I liked Harrison, and McCartney alot more than Lennon ).

We develop and must tweak "our minds" throughout our existence and this balancing act is constant. Reality can't ever preclude our mind. We have some control.

_________________
Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

"We develop and must tweak "our minds" throughout our existence and this balancing act is constant. Reality can't ever preclude our mind. We have some control" (Steven Kaplan).  Sorry I have not figured out how to copy the way everyone else does in the subs!

There is the old saying, "life is what you make it."  It is amazing to me that so many people have a tough time accepting the goths because of their apperance.  I teach school and have many stories that are incredible regarding them. One involved a young lady who entered my first period class on the first day of school 5 minutes before the bell rang. She was definitely goth in appearance to the core. I could not help but smile when she blew into the classroom and plopped down in a seat. I looked at her and all I could think of was to say, "Mornin' sunshine!" Boy did she lose her cool, but this happened every day till Christmas break. About the 3rd week she came in one day and slammed a piece of paper down on my desk and walked quickly to her seat. I opened the note and read..."Dear Mr. L. I wrote this poem. Would you read it and tell me what you think." I can certainly do that. I am an English teacher and critical analysis of poetry or literature is my specialty. I quickly made notes in the margins. (she was wonderfully talented) The poem was very dark and full of blood and death. I wrote her a note and told her how much I liked reading her poetry, that she was very talented, and that I would love to read more of her work if she ever wanted to share it with me. I still called her sunshine every day. One day she blurted out how much she hated it when I did that! She said to me, "I just want to die! I don't want to live! I see no reason for life. There is only  beauty and peace in death!"  I looked at her and calmly and quietly said to her, "I dont really understand that kind of mentality. I am not saying you are wrong. I just dont understand it. Please do me a favor. Some day, if you feel like it, would you please come talk to me about this and explain how a person can come to this conclusion. I wont try to change you, or tell you that you are wrong. I just want to understand you." I then walked away.  Later that day she told me that one day she would explain why she was goth.  Christmas break came and went and the first day back, this beautiful blonde girl came dancing into the room and I looked to see the same girl who had dressed goth for so long...changed...she was dressed really nice and had removed the black from her hair... she was beautiful! I said to her..."Morning sunshine!"  She grinned and said good morning back to me. I told her the boys would be fighting for a date before the day was over, and sure enough, there was quite an ordeal about the cute new girl in class! She came back later that day to tell me her story...The last day of school the previous year, she had been walking home from school with a friend when a car pulled up, a man jumped out and put a knife to her throat and made them get into his car. He told them he had been following  them for about a week and knew where they lived and that they walked home every day. He took them to a warehouse an raped them both and threatened to kill their parents if they ever said a word. This just destroyed these girls. This particular girl felt she had no reason to live and that all hope  was gone. She became goth to live out her pain and anguish.  She had me in tears. I told her we needed to report it all and did. The got the guy and put him in jail. He is in prison at this time.  A couple of days later her dad came to see me and thanked me for caring enough about his daughter not to shut her out or shun her just because of the way she looked. She said I had helped him and his wife get their daughter back.  
There is also a young guy around 17 who I met at one of my friends karaoke shows. He and his girlfriend were goth. We now call him Clarence the gothic cowboy because even though he looks completely goth, when he sings, he sings country music and is really, really good at it! People are in shock when they hear him. Funny, clothes dont make the person, but on the other hand, first impressions can be a problem for some people.  
Country music has its share of songs about death and dying, like Jean wrote about the song "Big John," but life is always going to be what we make it. If we live in dispare we reap dispare. I am a firm believer in the fact that psychologically we can change many of the circumstances around us. Oh I know, there are some things that we have no control over but of those things we can control, we should do our best to make wise decisions, and make wise judgments and step into life with hope not despair.  I know because when my ex-wife left, I really thought my world had ended.  I lost everything, but I am ok and I am doing better than ever.  I have learned to look for good things... Now saying that, I do enjoy singing the sad songs. There is something down deep in me that can relate to them and I can feel them with a feeling of reality.  What I mean is, it seems easy to say, "Hey! I have lived this song!"  Have a great day!!!--Mike

Amazing story Mike !   Your student must've been petrified when you suggested it was time to report the incident. What a delemma ! You were non-invasive and non-threatening enough in her eye's, to enable her to feel as though you were safe to warm up to and divulge details of a critical situation she so desparately needed help with, but didn't know how to turn given such a quandary.  She turned it all in, and became self-contemptuous. Congrat's on being the person that freed her from that "feeling caught between a rock and a hardplace" psychological tumult she had to live with!  It must not've been easy to allay her fear and guilt regarding what might happen to her parents, AND her. She must be petrified of reprisal.

I too have had my life threatened a few times given aspects of my past. on two occassions the threatening person(s) stated my parent's names and address accurately (I was out've state too, person had to have done some research. I didn't even know the names of the threatening individuals. This was before the days of the "home PC".)   I had no fear regarding my own life, or well-being at the time, -That is after the gun was no longer pointing at my head. The threatening of family members however, (and a few other situations involved) made things appear complicated. I did what I had to do.  

No question life can appear ugly. It's our life however, we have a right to it just as others have a right to their own existence. There comes a point when we must own up to that. Happiness doesn't come from anything external assuming we are empty inside and a needy black hole that just sucks everything out've all that comes near. Such an insatiable need doesn't go away when people win a few million dollars either in most cases. Many that are troubled & unbalanced, have also died as the result of their winnings being used to enable their illnesses. When we realize that there's noone we can "sue", (or blame for the skeleton's in our past, and assuming we even could do such a thing, it wouldn't quell certain damages anyway). No one to listen to or care that, "It's not my fault that I was born", and sometimes few that care if we even do live or die; It's still *OUR life*, and no one is any less deserving of living than anyone else. When down in dire straits brighter days are almost always ahead for us, we must remind ourselves of this. Pain is temporary too, it's never permanent. Darkness also passes. Just a matter of walking a cold black tunnel at times knowing damn well light will appear eventually, or we'll wake up from the nightmare at some point.. We always have, We've survived this long, and the mind copes. I don't have the capacity to concern myself with the worlds problems, or all the horrendous events that transpire. A person feeling the need to suffer for all the worlds wrongs isn't healthy. NO ONE deserves the bestowal of such a self-inflicted hellish state.

I'm a small person who must decide what it is *I* want out've life. We must be somewhat selfish, we have a limited capacity, we aren't "God". We must heal and take care of ourselves first,  and from there family and friends.. Many tend to complicate their lives instead of doing what's really most important at the time, which is Keeping THEIR life simple, and taking care of THEMSELVES. It takes work to make ourselves feel better. It doesn't drop into our lap while we type in threads such as this. Walking, exercize, diet, rest, talking, etc..and the decision to want to be happy, once a person decides they deserve to be happy. It happens sometimes by just "showing up" to an environment we think we might enjoy, hanging with positive people, and wishing positive things for ourselves.

Enough preaching

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I read your whole post and it was very intriguing. In school, I started as a psyche major to be a shrink and got sidetracked into the medical field and music.  There is some kind of test you can take which rates how much "stuff" has happened to you in the last five years or whatever. How many people have died, divorces, moves, crazy obsessive lovers, abusive parents... the whole gambit Each one is given a point value and then added up. Finally, the total goes against a scale which is like, "under stress", "very stressed", or "why haven't you had a total breakdown by now?"

It makes sense to me that we all have things that happen to us. Someone dies. Shoot, I have found out about 5 people near and dear to me in the last year or so who have died. I moved from California to West Virginia - can you spell culture shock? and etc. (no violin playing this morning). I am sure that A LOT of us turn to music and singing to vent the stress.

What do you do when some girl or guy stalks you? You have some romance and suddenly you find the person is "real different" than what you had thought them to be. You had made the mistake of having lots of sex with them and find them to be "scary". Two women I knew, literally slit their wrists in an open courtyard over a love affair gone bad. Something like - if you leave me - I will kill myself.

Anyway... rambling again.. I actually do "write" ML and take a break from the part of my world when I come to SS, so my "style" must really make you want to grab the red pen. But anyway... my point - we all have a breaking point. And some of us internalize it so badly, that when we blow... we really blow.

I added up my points in the test and I should be in a padded room by now. Not to say... poor me. Just to say... the need to vent in music is a lifeline. To, as Boston said 'put on my music and drift away"

Adults lie to children. They have this compulsive need to start them in a world of dancing hamsters and Santa Claus and make-believe and a world which is not real, which they have to run head on into when they reach their teens. Adults become the betrayers, the liars, the deceivers, who told us as we grew up that life was a certain way and it wasn't. There was Mr. Postman, and Mr. Policeman, and Mr. Fireman, and etc.

Well, one day Mr. Postman freaks out and wipes out half the post office with an assault rifle. Mr. Policeman uses the drugs that others go to prison for decades, and Mr. Fireman - so far I still respect Mr. Fireman.

Mr. Doctor works with the drug companies to give out medications we don't need and does far more harm than good. And when we go staggering in their with "a virus" it's like hot cocoa and aspirin.

"Things are different today, you hear every mother say, mother needs something to calm her down. So there's a little yellow pill (Valium perhps) and she goes running for the shelter of mother's little helper." (Rolling Stones)

"I need a new drug" Huey Lewis and the News - "One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small, and the ones that mother gives you.. don't do anything at all." Jefferson Airplane

And there is no such thing as a free lunch. Watched my aunt go to the dentist and they gave her Vicodin and after about 4 days - happy happy la la land became Dante's Inferno when she came down. Do we all want to be (Pink Floyd) comfortably numb?

Fascinates me really. Music is a history and one that is not all the censored contolled media versus real life. It provides us with a window into people souls, and no longer written between the lines, hard core look at what is really inside.

The story about the Goth was interesting. Of course she may become a rah rah with a devastating ego and her new found popularity may make her life a lot more stressful. I have been told some women (very attractive women) put on the lbs on purpose because they are fed up with being constantly hit on and want peace.

For some Goth is a stage. For Poe and Lovecraft it was a lifetime. Be it far from me to disturb the grasshoppers playing in the summer sun as the ants patiently get ready for the winter.

And I feel the winter is coming. You don't hear a lot of war songs do you. Ever wonder why that is? I did Brothers in Arms and here is something strange. Since Vietnam - and the 60s when we all found out that war sucks, I guess such songs are "dangerous"  Do we not want to "give peace a chance?" I certainly support our troops in Iraq, make no mistake, and I even feel there are secret reasons for us being there. Very important, would blow you away if you knew the real story, reasons. But none the less, writing political music, anti-war could be hazardous to your lifestyle.

Thanks for interesting story ML. Let's hope little Goth goes on to follow the sun and there are some a happy endings in the world. At least.. for awhile.

jvj

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There are no accidents in a perfect world   - Blondie

Ironically, this is a perfect safe topic. Whatever its fate, thank you all who have added to the thread and posted some pretty serious stuff.

jvj

_________________
There are no accidents in a perfect world   - Blondie

yall is scarin kass...

but...sigh...my comment is...we have desensitized children to death..they see it everywhere..i remember when i was six my baby sister died...I had another younger sister and for years I was plaqued with a nitemare that she would fall into the big gully by the playground at school and bust open at the bottom..the difference in now..and then was..i had no idea what a human body busted open would look like..i had never seen it..on tv or in pictures or on the news...in my dream my sister was like one of my baby dolls that the stuffing was coming out of..still terryfying..but a lot less graphic...as an adult i remember standing by the gully..ok it either shrunk to a ditch or size sure looks different when you are little..but i vividly remember the dream even in my forties..

my granddaughter has seen worse on tv than i have..and lately...she is terrified of so much stuff when the lites go out for bed..even when the lights are on..once its dark outside ..she cant be anywhere im not holding her hand..its my fault..i never realised some of the stuff she was watchin with the older kids..she would be busy playing..but shes seeing it..

well...tv control is in effect when she is around for sure now..and has anyone seen the kid cartoon billy and mandy!!!!!! its a daytime cartoon..it features billy who is just as dumb as the day is long..mandy who is cruel...with occasional bouts of loyalty to billy..and the GRIM REAPER..who is their  babysitter of sorts...what is this stuff???????? shes been watchin it forever..its a cartoon middle of the day..and i as the terrible grandmother just realised what it is about!!!!

anyhowsoever...

sigh..

now we gotta fix the kids...again..

wish we could stop breakin em

My TV doesn't get turned on for the reason's you describe.  I spend whatever time I'd be watching television, typing in places like this instead.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I understand that one..for years I didnt own a tv and I didnt even care...I purposely just kept tellin the kids we couldnt afford it haha my oldest two were still in elementary so that was a while back..now they love tv anyhow..then..they went and played! imagine that a kid..outside..PLAYING...EEKSSSSSSS!

Yep.  bring back family boardgames like scrabble, monopoly, chutes & ladders, Risk, Yahtzee; Enable a feature that censor's TV if a parent so chooses (of course that would limit viewing to the weather channel, and Nick) and don't allow kid's under 35 near computers.  Especially on a school night !  When they return home from the part time job at McDonald's, it's homework only !  Fifteen years ago I felt differently, but I was young and stupid in those days.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Hey hey...home again.

jvj, I like your point of view. Perhaps I have seen the light. Music is a man/woman of a thousand faces. And I can't honestly say that I listen to all joy joy music, but also, I can't honestly say that I've heard every word spoken in a song. Some songs, I just like the music. Whether or not it has incoherent lyrics of mass murder, paganism, or just totally deceitful content would probably have to be pointed out to me by someone who lives the life of the song. I really like hard metal music, I just don't know what the hell they're saying except....RUFFF RUFFFFF!!

Mike, that was an encouraging story. Yes, it's true, some people and their first impressions can ruin a potentially good relationship. I know this for fact. I've been judged so many times by people with "holier than thou" attitudes it makes me want to barf. So I guess I feel resentful about it and chose to jump on the bandwagon. It's good that you can choose to play counselor, psychologist, and mentor as a teacher, I wonder how many teachers really put that much effort into it? Good going.

And Steve, oh great philosopher....what can I say? I'm just the idiot that speaks too soon and gives everyone else something to talk about.