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From Wikiryan

1 Sexism in Politics
2 Music
3 Cool Links

Sexism in Politics

TODO: What is the big deal about this photo? There is a photo that appears to show John Howard giving Peter Costello, but nobody makes a big deal about it. Why not? Well because its bloody funny of course. J-scribe would do well to be a little bit less sensitive and accept the fact that the picture of Maxine McKew and John Howard is bloody funny. Not only but certainly largely because it appears to show her vertical smile Basic Instinct style. What do you want? It is a compelling photograph. Ryan Albrey 08:34, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

Music

Animal Collective

Animal Collective - Grass This is a rapidishare link. Left-Click the link and follow the simple instructions to download this mp3.

Apparently Animal Collective are what is known as "noise rock". Really? Sweet! That is fucking awesome. I never thought I would be a guy sitting down to deliberately listen to anything called "noise rock". This is a brand new experience for me!

This is 2 of the guys from Animal Collective dressed (from left to right) as a tortoise and a rabbit. Keep those wacky antics coming boys!

This is certainly not like the typical stuff that populates my mp3 collection. Not when the chorus features harrowing screams that sound like they wouldn't be out of place in a Norwegian death-metal opus. Nope certainly not. Keep reading to get a better understanding of the stuff that DOES dominate my hard drive. Guys like Paul Starling pretty much epitomize the sort of music you can find on my computer.

I always used to tell people that I listen to every kind of music under the sun. This of course is only subjectively true when comparing my taste in music to that of a well adjusted, 15 year old girl. That is to say, not true at all. As I grew up I came to realize that just because I have broader, more refined, taste in music than others that doesn't mean I don't have my own idiosyncratic inclinations and biases towards one sort of music and away from others. In just the same way that there is something missing in the mind of the average Britney Spears fan that makes it impossible for her to enjoy a Wilco album, there is something lacking in my brain, some crucial understanding or some relevant experience of the human condition that, if present, would allow me to enjoy the music of Britney Spears or perhaps more tellingly, the music of a truly inaccessible band such as Cannibal Corpse. When I came to realize this I started to listen to my mp3 collection with a more critical ears. With few exceptions, my mp3 collection is biased towards the music of the current decade and the least challenging, softest part of what usually gets called Alternative music. There are a few hip-hop acts and a few Van Morrison or Neil Young type figures to act as exceptions to the rule but generally soft, uncomplicated, early 21st century indie music is where it is at for me.

Where was I? Oh yes. I was telling you about these "noise rockers" from New York Animal Collective. I guess I should own up to the fact that there is still plenty about Animal Collective that hits the familiar well worn buttons in the music part of my brain. Aside from harrowing screams this song that I am offering for download also contains chirping birds and some ooooh oooh vocal melodies. Hard to get more indie-twee than that. I guess perhaps what I am trying to say is that there is enough about Animal Collective that is familiar to me to ensure that I don't find their discordant noise rocking distasteful, and enough that is different to ensure I don't find myself yawning and reaching for the next song on the play list to make Animal Collective one of my favorite bands at the moment.

Of Montreal

Of Montreal - A Sentence Of Sorts In Konigsvinger This is a rapidishare link. Left-Click the link and follow the simple instructions to download this mp3.

The main dude from Of Montreal

Yeah so Of Montreal... I feel like Bart Simpson when he was asked to give a book report. I haven't done any research at all about these guys. But before I do, let me place a $10 bet that Wikipedia is 20 seconds away from telling me that their lead singer, Kevin Barnes, is gay. Ok wait one second, I am going to check Wikipedia.

Ok so it turns out, according to the Wikipedia article I just consulted, the dude has a wife and daughter, so perhaps my gaydar (in case you are not hip to this, it is like a radar but it's for finding gay people) is not as finely tuned as I have always assumed. But there is something here in Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, the 2007 album for Of Montreal, that feels like it has a gay culture aesthetic to it.

I'm sure it was funny at the time Brit, but did you still think it was such a great idea the following morning?

I don't know. Maybe I don't know what I am talking about. I do know that the song Cato As A Pun, also from the Hissing Fauna... album contains the lyric:

'"I guess you just want to shave your head, have a drink and be left alone. Is that too much to ask?"'

I don't mean to deal overly in stereotypes but straight men haven't been interested enough in Britney Spears to write songs about her for a very long time now. These days straight men view Britney Spears with disinterest or photos of her as an 19 year old. Straight guys are only mildly curious as to how one so hot a mere few years ago, can make herself so damn unappealing so quickly. However as interest in Britney among straight men started to wane, I am pretty sure that it started to pick up among gay men.

Anyone with lingering doubts about my assertions regarding gay men and Britney Spears can of course go to the Youtube profile for Chris Crocker and remember the video that shook the world a few months ago of Chris crying under his bed sheet that we should all leave Britney alone.

Or perhaps Britney Spears has always had a strong following among gay men. We just didn't notice until they were her ONLY fans. The teens are now scared of her and the straight men are perhaps just as afraid.

Of course it occurs to me that any straight men with day to day contact with Britney Spears should keep it in mind that Britney Spears is still Britney fucking Spears. Successful investors in the stock market obey a few simple principles when buying and selling stocks. Buy low. Sell high. Repeat. Ask any Wall Street guy, it's true. Now, few figures in the entertainment industry are at lower points in their career than the fat, bald, drug fucked, recently divorced, slightly crazy, single mother Britney Spears. Somebody should take her out to dinner. Be nice to her. Stroke that bald pate of hers a little bit and tell her how wonderful she is. If you are an ordinary Joe Smith you will never have a better chance to sleep with a celebrity. We already know she makes awful decisions regarding men. Perhaps you can be her next awful decision?

Furthermore, who knows what will happen in the future? Perhaps 2 years from now Britney Spears is a rejuvenated pop-princess, 15kg lighter, less bald, less crazy and you're still sleeping with her each night thanking your lucky stars you followed my investment advice and took her out for dinner one night in 2008 when she was feeling sad. Then when you are dating a pop-princess, who realizes she can do so much better than a loser like you she will dump you and you can sell your story to the tabloids and fight her and K-Fed for custody of the children. Everyone wins.

What was I supposed to be talking about? Oh yeah. Of Montreal are definitely gay (I don't mean gay in the sense used by a teenage boy who has just been told Creed won't be touring, I mean in the "dicks in bums and then recording an album" sense) because they wrote a lyric about Britney Spears. Not to mention the fact that this album (Hissing Fauna...) and their unreleased 2008 album, Skeletal Lamping, are concept albums where the main character is a man named Georgie Fruit, a black man who has been through multiple sex changes (man --> woman --> man), fronts a fictitious glam-rock band called Arousal and wears elaborate make-up and frilly shirts. Hmmmmm. Now that I think about it, if I was trying to convince you that Of Montreal are gay, I probably didn't need to bang on ad-nauseam about Britney Spears. I could probably have just told you about Georgie Fruit and been done with it.

You probably think I am a homophobe. I'm not.

Paul Starling

Paul Starling - Ballad Of A Raincoat This is a rapidishare link. Left-Click the link and follow the simple instructions to download this mp3.

Information about Paul Starling is scarce on the internet. Of course he has a personal website which can be found here, but everyone has a personal website. I was amazed to discover that Wikipedia doesn't know anything about this guy because Wikipedia is my bible and this guys new album, Ghost Waltz is kinda fucking awesome. His biography reads:

'"Brian Wilson & Paul McCartney sometimes fall into his dreams, though only when it's raining."'

Which is fairly close to nailing this guy, but I have decided that Simon and Garfunkel is a better reference point. Download that song and go and find his album (or ask me nicely and I will upload some more songs from his album).

Peterpan

Peterpan - Di Balik Awan This is a rapidishare link. Left-Click the link and follow the simple instructions to download this mp3.

Since coming to Malaysia I have been listening to a lot of Indonesian music. One of the most popular bands in Indonesia of recent times, and one of my personal favorites is Peterpan. Originally from the large Javanese city of Bandung they started out as a covers band playing everything from Nirvana to Coldplay at local coffee shops. Despite being a household name in Indonesia they are virtually unknown outside of South East Asia almost certainly because they sing in a language you probably don't understand. But please don't let that stop you. Di Balik Awan is a lovely, jaunty little song. With jaunty guitars and jaunty drumming. Jaunty is the word I am going to use to describe this song. I am also a bit of a sucker for falsetto work in the chorus. If my Indonesian serves me correctly Di Balik Awan means Beyond the Clouds and the song is all about a guy who claims that his life is nothing but agony and suffering and that nothing he ever does works out. I think he got dumped by his girlfriend or something, I am not really sure. I guess the lyrical content is less jaunty than the jaunty guitar. But it is a very nice song and you should download it by clicking on the above link (and then following some simple instructions).

Ryan Albrey - Saturday 12 January 2008 14:03, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

Cool Links

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Talk:Main Page

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Sexism in Politics

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Animal Collective

Of Montreal

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