Sinister: we could be happy underground

[Archel]

i think i made myself some luck by listening to happy music. i am
convinced this is possible, and will certainly not be listening to The
Smiths before any job interviews in the near future.

i got my final degree result yesterday and it was a first. i have
jaw-ache from smiling so much. i was completely shocked, largely
because i have spent the past year slagging off academia and (as a
matter of principle, of course) neglecting the soaring marvels of
shakespeare, coleridge, orwell, levi, donne, plath, atwood & c. so it
must have been luck.

plus, i threw myself on the mercy of my bank (which fortunately was
grassy and springy so i had a soft landing... sorry, sorry). and i am
no longer in financial crisis, though i am still very much in debt.

(ben folds five sing in the background: "give me my money back you
bitch, i want my money back." a great song and not bitter at all...)

so i won't be going to my grad ball dressed in rags after all,
although i'm sure i won't be as resplendent as genevieve was in her
prom dress.

("you wear those shoes and i will wear that dress, kiss me...")

i feel i can now go back to poignant music like b&s without drowning
myself in tears. although i am still parted by an ocean (well, the
english channel) from my beloved and therefore cannot partake in the
joys of slow dancing as described by the incandescently fabulous
lesley jo.

("i want to dance, i want a drink of whiskey")

to shave or not to shave: i also think this is totally a matter of
individual choice, although it is interesting to ponder on the social
factors which made it an option in the first place.

(the poet herrick used to go into rhapsodies about ladies' thighs,
smooth like an egg, and this was well before gillette came along.
wishful thinking peut-etre?)

but it's a gruesome shame when women with diverse qualities, talents
and inner beauty are stereotyped with reference to what they choose to
do or not with their body hair.  while i wouldn't want to suggest that
men are immune from being stereotyped (eg. pink shirt = gayboy), there
does seem to be much more of a tendency to focus on women's
appearances rather than achievements, weaknesses rather than
strengths. hence any strong emotion is seen as
irrationality/petulance/hysteria/bitchiness/man-hating
(i'm thinking of emotions as expressed by female songwriters here)
whereas it is entirely expected that men should get moony about lost
love and shouty about... well, anything really, providing they combine
it with a guitar solo to prove that they're serious.

men can seemingly admit to the most pathetic or shocking of
emotions in song without being vilified (unless they're Morrisey,
apparently) but heaven FORBID women should admit that they sometimes
feel really quite angry with their ex-boyfriends, or have
periods. blood, sweat, tears? ugh, how disgusting, how weak, how
HUMAN.

("this girl i know, she's on the rag...")

okay, i know feminism isn't totally on-topic, and probably has the
effect of cold kedgeree down the neck to most people, but i'd say b&s
were pretty feminist, in that the female characters which people
struan's songs are tenderly drawn and explored as having profound
emotions and difficulties and generally being thinking subjects rather
than the fantasy inamorata of so many (male-authored) love songs.

b&s are clearly not revolutionary, as lj points out, and we need them
because WE'RE WEAK. but at the same time they're not totally
unimportant in the grand scheme of things, if you ask me. (you
didn't? oh, well never mind.) they obviously do a pretty good job of
making an awful lot of us feel better about ourselves, whether we're
male, female, gay, straight, happy, sad, whatever.

that concludes today's lesson, children. go forth and be nice to one
another.

and to give the last word to ABBA, naturally enough i feel:

"who could live without it, i ask in all honesty
what would life be?
without a song or a dance what are we?"

much love, archel xxx

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Rachel Playforth		do something pretty while you can
				don't be afraid
rap101 at york.ac.uk		skating a pirouette on ice is cool

			
http://members.tripod.com/~RPlayforth/welcome.htm
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