Wednesday, April 24, 2013

ANZAC Day!

On days like this I always remember how much I hated army cadets.
I used to don my little uniform every Wednesday after school in grade 10 and catch the train to Woodridge High.
I was the weird one because I didn't much like the bivouacs and the knives and stuff. I liked the steps to the marches and the way you hold the rifle at certain points.
Even then there was the joy of choreography.

ANZAC day has always been a weird one.
The fake-tanned-lip-gloss-flag-toting tourists who descend on ANZAC Cove every year in Turkey - broad sweeping judgement sure, but have you been overseas with Aussies? We're almost as embarrassing as Yanks, and that's saying something...
The news stories about brave diggers who are just so brave and who always seem to look at the interviewer like "You stupid dick, don't go to war, it's fucked, why are you interviewing me? I wasn't brave, I was just there and it was shit".
Sometimes it borders on propaganda - okay it almost always borders on propaganda for the armed services and for the glory glory glory hallelujah of saving our country from those 'others', whoever it may be... depends on whoever ACA says is invading now...

But when I went to New Zealand and heard the story of the 28th Maori Battalion I thought, fuck ANZAC's are legends.



When I heard the story of the Aussie sniper, Billy Sing, who was practically a one man army, I thought fuck yeah ANZAC's are legends (Billy was played by a white guy in a telemovie... yep, total white out of him, crazy eh?). Then when I heard there was no requirement to list cultural background up until Vietnam, so no-one knows how many Aborigianl men and women served at Gallipoli (thought to be around 500), I thought that's pretty shit, and the fact Aboriginal men and women couldn't march with white diggers that was still pretty shit... so anyway I wanted to put something else in about ANZAC's being legends because it would have rounded off the paragraph nicely through the rule of 3 but anyway...

I still kinda like ANZAC Day, because war's shit and the men and women who survived are fuckin lucky. There's a lot wrong with our war mongering society, but still, it's good to be reminded that this dumb shit has gone on for ages and will continue because people are stupid and brave people will step up and fight even though the reasons are stupid. Yeah, it's good. Or something.

I'm confused now. Maybe that's what ANZAC Day is really about. Knowing war is fucking dumb but being hypnotised by the pride of a nation until you feel it too, even thought you're not sure why. Because people fought for our country? Sure. Why not. I'll run with that until I can come up with a better reason.

Aboriginal Coloured Digger March Website
28th Maori Battalion

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Nostalgia Vs Genuine Good S*^t

Over the Easter break I went to Poona up sunny coast way. Fires, drinks, food, fishing... all the good shit about life you know?
My friend played his ipod around the fire, and he said he wasn't really liking any of the current music. And when he would play a song everyone would go "Oh yeah, I remember this!" and smile, do a little boogie or hum along or something you know?
I noticed that, personally, all this nostalgia was driving me crazy.
Didn't he have any Frank Ocean? James Blake? Even some ASAP Rocky or Kendrick Lamar?


I mean, they're better than Shaggy that's for sure...

But he'd switched off his desire for new music. His excitement. Stuck in nostalgia land he had downloaded a best of the 90s cd or something, and that had been his playlist for the past few months... woah... dedication.

But I remember a few years back being the same. Nothing was speaking to me from the radios or the itunes lists of friends or the filmclips or the viral hits. Well, that "Friday" song was pretty tight though... 

Sorry, I think I just threw up in my mouth a bit. Gimme a sec.
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Okay.

And in a few years, the hits of today will be the next gen's nostalgia. It already happens now o' course. For me, old ninja turtles, samurai pizza cats and biker mice from mars are my nostalgic tip. Remember Technoman? That shit fucked me up it was so intense, and the last episode...? Well that was a day of school I kind of zombied myself through thanks to the trauma of it all on my lil teen brain.




Now people that run businesses, have kids, get married, organise events are like "remember how great pokemon was?"
I missed the pokemon boat by about 2 years.

I guess what I'm wondering is, is it actually good? Let's not get into the argument of if it was re-released would it be as good... Just, was it good? Is it good?
For me my nostalgic music moment lasted until I got sick of the music and didn't want to live in the 90s anymore, plus I heard Kanye's album, Danger Doom, CocoRosie and more...
And I actively sought new, great music. Like I did when I was a teenager. And I think that's why we're so nostalgic of that stuff, not because it was actually good. But because we found it, we sought it, we WANTED that new 2pac cd, we craved something kick arse to watch before school, we got EXCITED.
And I'm excited about music again, I have been for the past few years. But there was definitely a time in my mid 20s when all I listened to was the Makaveli album and Rage Against The Machine.



But I'm stoked about music and tv again. Entertainment is pretty great now. And it probably was a few years ago too, I just couldn't be bothered at the time. Adventure Time, Game Of Thrones, Walking Dead, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, James Blake, that new Rudimentals track Hell Could Freeze feat Angel Haze? Damn. That's the best verse I've heard in years. Air tight. Water tight. Tight as fuck.

But there's still shit out there. And I think there was a lot of shit you let slide when you're young. Because it's YOUR voice putting that shit out there. One Direction are terrible.

So's Justin Beiber. But the ones who are excited about music are these kids who see themselves in those artists. They see people around their age doing fancy as fuck dance moves and rockin around and they're like "that's me!" And in ten years time they'll cringe like we all do when we see that Backstreet Boys are touring again, or someone mentions 5ive. See? Even spelt it right. They were (to some of us) our Beiber and our One Direction. They're all terrible of course. But for some kids they're THEIR terrible music. "So shut up dad and go listen to your stupid Erykah Badu CD"...

If my kids ever diss Badu I might have to kill...

I think I had a point here somewhere. Or maybe not. This argument about nostalgia and it's power has been done before, and better. Shit, the Transformers movies sold on nostalgia alone, launched Megan Gale's career (or what she might call a career, is she doing an ad with a dolphin now? classy), and were terrible glitzy messes of movies. Splosions + Robots + Megan Gale's arse = $$$$$$$.
Nostalgia makes money, makes campfires kinda fun, and who here dares NOT know all the words to Gangster's Paradise?