Hannah

OK, so between funky work schedules, family drama and my new DS, this little baby’s been all but ignored. My apologies.

Add in a dash of ‘What the hell am I going to write about?!’ and you get the idea.

So I’m going to write about my new obsession: VIDEO GAMES!

I have a Wii (go ahead, envy me), a Playstation 2 and a Nintendo DS. I’m in love with each and every one of them. They each serve their own purpose.

The Wii is awesome for cutesy games. Current favorites are My Sims, Wii Sports and Rayman Raving Rabbids. The control scheme of the Wii makes interactive games a total blast, and also makes you look like the biggest moron ever whilst playing them. Wii Sports tops them all. Tennis and boxing are fantastic. If ever you need a stress relief, beating the soup out of a 3D cartoon character does the trick. It’s great for getting you off the sofa and actually interacting with your friends as opposed to sitting there and watching someone chop the head off of a monster for the umpteenth time. You can also make a cartoon version of yourself, called a Mii, but the options are fairly generic and you end up with a character that could look like anyone. The controls aren’t flawless and sometimes the games go beyond cutesy all the way into just plain stupid. Also, a lot of the games require more than one player, and if you usually play games solo, it’s kinda depressing. Who wants to be made to feel like a loser by their video game console? The games themselves aren’t exactly on the cheap side either and the number of different titles is by no means expansive. The console itself is relatively cheap considering the price of the Xbox and PS3. The fact that’s it’s damned hard to find is offputting. But the ability to check the weather, news and send e-mail through a wireless Internet connection are all pluses. It also can play Gamecube games and you can purchase classic NES and SNES games on the virtual console.

The Playstation 2 is my go-to system for when I feel like being a little more hardcore. Hardcore, of course, is a relative term for me. My favorites for the PS2 are Katamari Damacy, Final Fantasy and Destroy All Humans. The PS2 is great for RPGs and platformers and the control scheme is fairly fool proof and easy to pick up. The PS2 has it’s fair share of cutesy titles (which, if you couldn’t figure this out, I LOVE CUTESY TITLES!) as well as more violent fare. And you can play with friends or online if you want to, but you don’t have to. The games are reasonably priced and used titles are fairly easy to come by. The unit itself is incredibly inexpensive and, like the games, used units are easy to come by. It also plays DVDs and PS1 games. It can be hooked to the internet to play MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XI online. It also offers a wide variety of different games catering to every age group and gaming level.

The DS is a recent addition to my collection and so far has been successful in eating my life. My favorites so far are Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing: Wild World. It’s the perfect size to throw in your purse or bag if you know you’re going to have time to kill during the day. The battery life is fantastic and it comes in a range of colors (mine is Cobalt). It also has wireless capabilities so you can play online with friends from across the world or across the room. The unit itself is inexpensive, running about the same price as a PS2, and used units can be had. The games are inexpensive and expansive, and used titles abound. Simulation games are popular, but there are many fighting titles, RPGs and point and shoots. The DS also offers a huge selection of educational games like Brain Age and some foreign language games. You can also play GBA games.

All things considered, I play the DS more than any of my other systems. Because of it’s size, I can play it wherever I want. Also, the games are hella entertaining. I can slip it in my lunch bag and while I’m waiting around at work, I can harvest turnips or chat with friends in Animal Crossing.

It’s a fun way to pass the time and in some cases, you can learn new things. I have my eye on some French and Spanish language learning games.

I threatened it and now I’m following through: DAVEY HAVOK PICTURE POST!!

And yes, this will be a regular feature, so deal!

If you have any special requests, holla!

Now, as they say, let’s get it on!

Ella, ella, eh, eh, eh

Don’t be sad emo boy. Come here, mama will cheer you up.

Holy Manic Panic, Bat Man!

Choosing eyeliner can be so stressful sometimes.

Teh Sex, I iz it.

Although I have nothing compelling to report, I still felt obligated to post today. I’m giving myself a small break from the Smashing Pumpkins trip down memory lane. It’s pretty emotional and i need to give myself some time to comeback down from it.

My original plan was to do a Davey Havok picture post, but all of my good pictures are stored on my home computer. Alas, I am still chained to my desk at work, where I’ll be for another 4 hours or so. But never fear, the weekend, she is still young.

Instead, I bring you a list of people, places and things currently making me happy. Links will follow after I get to home computer.

People:

Davey Havok, obviously for merely continuing to exist.

Jane Fonda, for dropping the C-bomb on TV.

Sheena, obviously for also continuing to exist.

Canton, Ohio, Jury for convicting the dude that killed his pregnany baby mama

Places:

Hmmm … none right now. Blech.

Things:

My iPod, for being lulling me to sleep at night and keeping me from murdering co-workers by day

My Macbook, for not sucking like my work computer.

I hate Valentine’s Day with a fiery, fiery passion. Yeah, the candy’s awesome and sure, sometimes my parents send me flowers, but by the by, it always serves to remind me of my chronically single condition.

Today on the radio, you’ll no doubt be hearing Valentine’s dedications: ‘This Michael Bolton hit goes out to Pookie McPookerkins from Buttercup.’ VOMIT.

So, in the spirit of being single, Here’s a list of Anti-Valentine’s songs and after that you’ll find my very own Valentine’s dedications. Some will be sweet, others will be snarky, it’s up to you to determine which is which.

Love Stinks! The Playlist:

‘Cheating gets it Faster’ by Jimmy Eat World: ‘I’m going out, I don’t care if you’re angry’ makes me deliriously happy.

‘Ain’t that Lonely Yet’ by Dwight Yoakam: ‘You keep leaving, notes stuck on my door, say you’re hungry for some more, girl that’s too bad’ Yeah, if you’ve pissed him off so bad he won’t even hit it, you’ve done something WRONG.

‘Crop Tub’ by A.F.I.: Who hasn’t wanted to tell someone ‘Fuck you very much.’

‘Song for the Dumped’ by Ben Folds Five: Parting may be such sweet sorrow, but getting your stuff back after a break up sounds like a pain in the ass.

‘(Fuck You) An Ode to No One’ by The Smashing Pumpkins: Yup, you were thinking it and Billy just came right out and said it. Make sure you thank him.

‘Violet’ by Hole: Speaking of Billy! I love it when Courtney growls, ‘I told you from the start, just how this would end, well I get what I want, but I never want it again’

‘Irreplacable’ by Beyonce: This was a hard sell because I cannot stand Beyonce, but holy crap I like this song. I think the line ‘You must not know about me’ should be part of every woman’s break-up repertoire.

‘You Give Love a Bad Name’ by Bon Jovi: Not only is it great karoake fodder, everyone knows at least one chick like the one in the song.

‘Drinking my Baby Goodbye’ by The Charlie Daniels Band: Though I’m not one for tying one on, I will raise a glass of Diet Mountain Dew in solidarity with the following line: ‘If it takes all night, I’m gonna do it right, I’m gonna sit here til I can’t see.’

‘Sounds Better in the Song’ by Drive-by Truckers: I always feel sorry for this song’s protagonist, especially considering the following lines: ‘She used to dream ‘em with me, every single crazy one, til they started hurting her too, now she’s got some of her own, and outgrowing me might be the best thing for her she’s ever done’ and ‘Now she’s found herself, and I lost mine, and I’m just another guy who can’t give her anything’

‘Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)’ by Green Day: Ladies and Gentlemen, this is not a graduation song, please stop trying to force it! It seems like one of those breakups where there are no hard feelings, it just didn’t work out. Example: ‘For what it’s worth, it was worth all the while.’

‘Miserable’ by Lit: ‘You make me come, you make me complete, you make me completely miserable’ LOVE. IT.

‘Fall Back Down’ by Rancid: A punk song about friends helping you out after a break up! And, um, I kinda want to have Tim Armstrong’s babies.

And now, dedications!

To Sheena: ‘Baby Got Back’ by Sir Mix a Lot, ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ by Duran Duran and ‘Tonight, Tonight’ by The Smashing Pumpkins. The DM rocked didn’t it?

To Davey Havok: ‘Between Breaths (An XX Perspective) by Blaqk Audio. When and where, lover boy.

To the sports department: ‘Pretty fly (for a white guy)’ by The Offspring. Don’t give up, boys!!

While ‘Mellon Collie’ guided my entry into Vietnam, er, I mean high school, by the time I discovered ‘Siamese Dream’ I was already deep in the trenches. Home had gotten even worse and school was, well, ya know, HORRIBLE.

Prompted by my love for ‘Mellon Collie,’ I decided to make my way through their earlier material. Having read a ton of articles about the band, I knew ‘Siamese Dream’ would be the next. I’ve never regretted it.

This is where I figured out that the ‘Bullet’ video wasn’t a fluke, Billy did, in fact, used to have hair! Trivial now, but that was huge when I was a teenager. I also purchased Vieuphoria around the same time and fell madly in love. The electric version of ‘Disarm’ still makes me all breathless.

Because much of what I posted in the ‘Mellon Collie’ entry applies to every single album in the catalog, I’m just going  to jump right into the rundown.

‘Cherub Rock’: Because I lacked a lot of knowledge about the early ’90s rock scene, this song didn’t make a lot of sense to me at first. As far as I was concerned, hipsters were a type of pants. After doing some background research, I realized what the song was about and my respect for Billy went through the roof.  I always like it when people call other people on their bull shit.

‘Quiet’: This epitomized my utter disgust with my classmates. I thought they were boorish and loud and obnoxious, and they constantly fucked up my ordered little universe. This was my way of yelling ‘SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!’

‘Today’: This is almost like ‘Tonight, Tonight’ for me. Whenever I would get completely freaked out and think ‘I’m never going to get out of here!’ I would listen to this and say to myself, ‘Yeah, but today wasn’t so bad.’ The line ‘I’ve tried so hard to cleanse these regrets, my angel wings are bruised and restrained’ always hit me hard because I know what it’s like to feel like you’ll never be clean and you’ll always be stuck. And yes, when I shuffle free of my mortal coil, I want this played at my funeral. Oh and the line ‘I wanna turn you on’ really really did it for me.

‘Hummer’: So many lines from this helped through some crap times. ‘Happiness will make you wonder, will I feel OK?’ made me think about what I was going to if I ever did finally become happy, would I know how to accept it or would I throw it away? The line ‘I want something new, but what I am I supposed to do about you?’ brought to mind the fact that though we were as close as any two friends could be, my then best friend and I were drifting apart and as much as I wanted new and different things for my life, I was still terrified about leaving her behind.

‘Rocket’: ‘I torch my soul to show the world that I am pure deep inside my heart’ still describes me. ‘I want everything I’ll never be’ does too. ‘The moon is out, the stars invite, think I’ll leave tonight’ gave me the courage to be different and say ‘Don’t like it? Fuck you.’

‘Disarm’: Oh boy. I can’t count the number of times I have sat weeping to this song. This made me realize that what you hate is a reflection of you. So when kids tormented me for being different or being a freak, I realized it was because they felt different or like a freak for whatever reason and they were scared. I wasn’t afraid, which scared them even more. So the torment grew. ‘The bitterness of one who’s left alone’ struck a cord with me because I felt my parents never asked me about my life, my dreams, my fears. And anytime I did pipe up, I got picked on about it. ‘Send this smile over to you’ basically became my plan of attack and still is. If someone hurts me, all’s I can do is love them more.

‘Soma’: Though I had (have) no real romantic experience and this song is about a romance gone awry, it still connects with me. ‘I’m all by myself, as I’ve always felt’ was pretty much my mantra. ‘So let the sadness come again, on that you can depend on me, until the bitter bitter end of the world, God sleeps in bliss’ hit me like a ton of bricks the first time I heard it and never fails to do so more than 10 years later. And the live version of this leaves me utterly speechless and almost in tears.

‘Geek U.S.A.’: The only thing I can really say about this ‘I never liked me anyway.’ Being a teenager was GRREEEAAAT.

‘Mayonaise’: ‘When your life is so, so dreary, dream’ gave my depressed teenage self hope. ‘And I fail, but when I can, I will, try to understand, that when I can, I will’ and ‘Can anybody hear me, I just want to be, me’ pretty much summed out how I felt about everything. I might not have been doing everything right, but I knew someday I would.

‘Spaceboy’: ‘Watch me, death defy, defile my life’ was how I felt about my mom for a long time. I had to sit and watch her hurt herself and could nothing more than watch. ‘And spaceboy they’ll kill me, before I’m dead and gone’ was relevant as well. I always kinda felt that, even though mom’s never heard this song, this is kind of ‘our’ song.

‘Silverfuck’: The immediate attraction was of course the F bomb in the title, but I was kind of indifferent to it for a while. Then I saw the live version and almost died. And maybe this is just me, but the line ‘What I’ve recovered of me, I put into a box, underneath my bed’ sounds like the mythical ‘Heart-shaped box’ of Nirvana fame. Anyone else think that?

‘Sweet Sweet’: I love this. It’s so dreamy and light. ‘Sweet Sweet Sweet little agony, I don’t know just where you’ve been, but I’ll take take take all that you have for me, in sin’ and ‘ And they all want you to change’ make me deliriously, goofy happy.

‘Luna’: ‘I’ll hear your song, if you want me to, I’ll sing along’ *sigh*

I can say with absolute and complete honesty that the Smashing Pumpkins are far and away my favorite band of all time. Yes, I do have my steamy little dalliances with other bands; it’s currently hot and heavy with A.F.I. But my heart truly belongs to SP. I’ve discussed how I was emo before emo was emo, but it bears repeating: Without the Smashing Pumpkins, there would be no MCR, no Panic! at the Disco and, undoubtedly, no me. Had I not had the Smashing Pumpkins, I would have given up the ghost a long time ago.

In the spirit of nostalgia, I’m going to go through SP’s albums in the order I discovered them (which is not chronological) and discuss what they meant to me.

First up (and you’ve no doubt figured this out merely by reading the post title) is ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.’

I can remember with almost psychotic accuracy how I discovered the Smashing Pumpkins and this record. I was 12. It was really an awkward time for me; I had just started my period a few months earlier (apologies for the TMI) and had just started realizing I was completely different from everyone else my age. I had gone from considering myself just another kid to realizing that, compared to my classmates, I was practically from another planet. I’m not saying I found out I had superpowers or that I was gay or anything, but you know when you’re different. And the moment you realize that you are can be pretty fucking scary.

I was spending the summer at my grandmother’s with my older brother and we were watching MTV. This was the summer of 1996, which was when a number of bands I still love to this day hit big: No Doubt, Bush, Oasis. I was sitting on the floor staring up at the TV when out of nowhere, the video for ‘Tonight, Tonight’ came on. I just sat there utterly amazed. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever experienced. The song itself was mind blowing. It had an orchestra for Christ’s sake! Then there was Billy’s voice. I’d never heard anything like that before in my life. And the lyrics. Here before my adolescent eyes was someone saying not just what I felt deep down, but didn’t have the life experience to say properly, but also exactly what I needed and wanted to hear. The video looked like something out of my most feverish daydreams.

Needless to say, it was love at first sight. The final nail in the coffin came when I saw the video for ‘Bullet with Butterfly Wings.’ It was all over with after that.

I spent every spare moment that summer finding out everything I possibly could about the band. This was before the Internet was readily available so that involved feverishly flipping through every music magazine I could get my grubby little paws on and then begging my parents to buy them for me. I think they were probably mildly frightened that their daughter, who before was only interested in Top 40 radio and Fear Street books, was now attempting to amass a large cache of materials featuring a tall, lanky bald man.

Following through to the natural conclusion, I developed the crush to end all crushes on Billy Corgan. It was borderline unhealthy, I’ll admit it. But I couldn’t help it. Much like Roberta Flack in ‘Killing Me Softly,’ I couldn’t get over the fact that every word he sang felt like it’d been plucked straight from my hormone-addled brain. Add the fact that I was just starting to understand my sexuality to the mix and the hell of junior high and you’ve got one hell of confused-ass kid.

It wasn’t until I started 7th grade that fall that I realized I was going to need this music more than I ever could have imagined. I actually met my then-best friend because of the Smashing Pumpkins. She sat behind me in first period science and we just started talking about the band. By the time we parted ways not long after I left for college, the Smashing Pumpkins would be the only thing we still had in common.

The awkwardness that was only minor before had become full blown by the time I hit 7th grade. The pretenses had been dropped and the gloves had come off where my classmates were concerned and going to school everyday felt like storming the beaches of Normandy. My home life was less than wonderful and loving, so I delved deeper and deeper into music. That’s where I felt safe and loved and understood. The battles only got worse the older I got, but I had the Smashing Pumpkins. School drama and home drama were so much easier to bear knowing that when I got done, I could put on my headphones and, even if only in my own head, be transported somewhere else.

In a way, I feel like it was meant to be that I discovered the Pumpkins at the age I did. I think the universe knew it was going to get ugly for me and wanted me to have something I could hang on to.

Every song on the album means something different to me and has served some various purpose. And because I know you care, here’s a list:

‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’: This song is probably the reason I like classical music now. To this day, it still makes me cry.

‘Tonight, Tonight’: Saved. My. Life. Whenever things got bad and I thought ‘I just can’t do this anymore,’ this would keep me going. Especially the line ‘Believe, that life can change, that you’re not stuck in vain’

‘Jellybelly’: This led me to refer to my high school and hometown as ‘Nowhere Fast.’

‘Zero’: ‘Wanna go for a ride?’ Why yes, yes I did. And, um, still wouldn’t mind.

‘Here is No Why’: ‘In your sad machines, you’ll forever stay, burning up in speed, lost inside the dreams, of teen machines.’ Hi, welcome being 16-fucking-years-old.

‘Bullet with Butterfly Wings’: I grew up in the bible belt, so the Jesus references were just too awesome. And I learned how to head bang to this. And the radio gods must love me because every time I have a shitty day at work, I go to my car, turn on my radio and this song is almost always playing.

‘To Forgive’: This always reminds me of the days (even now) when I just don’t want to get out of bed.

‘An Ode to No One (Fuck you)’: This always made me giddy because he alluded to losing his virginity. I was a teenager! Give me a break!

‘Love’: This was sexy as hell to me.

‘Cupid de Locke’: Cherubs and sparkles and little candy hearts danced around my head during this one. I would just sit there with a goofy expression on my face.

‘Galapagos’: I decided at the age of 13, that the first man with the smarts to either sing this to me or put this on a mix tape would have my heart to my dying day. That offer still stands!

‘Muzzle’: Ladies and gentleman, my anthem from the ages of 13 to at least 20.

‘Porcelina of the Vast Oceans’: I’ve never had to do any mind-altering drugs because this song is musical opium.

‘Take me Down’: No, James Iha, I think not. James was Amanda’s boy anyway.

‘Where Boys Fear to Tread’: He said ‘Lover’ and I got all flustered. I WAS 12!!!!

‘Bodies’: ‘Love’ was sexy; this WAS sex. ‘All my blisters now revealed, in the darkness of my dreams’ put a name to my fears about wanting to love and be loved, but not yet being ready for the vulnerability that goes along with it.

‘Thirty-Three’: This calmed me down like nothing else ever could, and still does.

‘In the Arms of Sleep’: My adolescent self swooned all over this one.

‘1979′: So amazing and innovative, this actually made me consider my own mortality for the first time. The line ‘No one knows, just where our bones will rest, forgotten and absorbed, to the earth below’ made me think, ‘Hey, some day I won’t be here anymore.’ Deep stuff, ya’ll.

‘Tales of a Scorched Earth’: The line ‘Save me from the wasted, save me from myself’ could have lifted from any one of my notebooks.

‘Thru the Eyes of Ruby’: Another musical opiate, this made me drift off into La La Land. I always really liked the line ‘To the revelations of fresh faced youth, no one will come and save you, so speak your peace in the murmurs drawn, but youth is wasted on the young.’

‘Stumbleine’: Reason #238882386438 it’s a good thing I didn’t get pregnant in high school: I would totally have named the resultant offspring Stumbleine, regardless of gender.

‘X.Y.U.’: Another song that threw my newly emerging sexuality into a tailspin. Damn teenage hormones. Oh, and the line ‘I am made of shamrocks, I am made of stern stuff, I am never enough, I am the forgotten child’ really did it for me.

‘We Only Come out at Night’: This reminded me of my best friend at the time. It still does.

‘Beautiful’: Swoon. That’s all I can say really. ‘I’ll be under your stars forever, neither here nor there, just right beside you.’ *sigh*

‘Lily, My One and Only’: Songs about infatuation always make me happy, even now. Not that I’m prone to them or anything, ahem.

‘By Starlight’: This always struck me as a very dark love song, but that’s why I loved it. Love isn’t unicorns and rainbows for everyone.

‘Farewell and Goodnight’: I loved that it was all of them singing (Jimmy sings!!). And I really liked the line ‘The sun shines, but I don’t, a silver rain will wash away.’

I wanted to live blog the Grammy Awards, but I had to work, so you’ll get an illustrated version! (All photos by The Associated Press. The photos are huge so my apologies in advance.)

It was the 50th anniversary of the Grammy Awards so duets abounded. Alicia Keys opened up with a duet with a holographic (I assume) Frank Sinatra. Kanye West and Daft Punk, also kicked it; and Rihanna and Morris Day were pitch perfect. There was head spinning for goodness’ sake! Some of the performances were a disappointment. The ode to the Beatles left me cold. But the performances ran the gamut and nearly every genre got some representation. Oh, and I would kill for Carrie Underwood’s boots.

First off: The fashions!

Nelly Furtado, radiant as always. Not really feeling the blonde hair though.

Fergie looks lovely! But, um, does anyone else think her boobs look like a rear end?

Faith Hill, ever the lady.

Um, why?

Love the color. Love the fabric. Love the design. Love the girl.

I have no idea who she is, but I want to have her babies. Or at least borrow that dress.

Pretty color, but I don’t like high necks on her.

I can say nothing other than, ‘Play on, Playette.’

Amazingly, I don’t hate this.

Living legend + creative dress = LURVE.

Oh, Cyndi; how do I love thee?

I shouldn’t, but I love this.

Another case of ‘Play on, Playette.’ Chaka Kahn wears what Chaka Kahn wants.

When I grow up, I want to be Cher.

That little string is holding back a whole lot of Aretha, but rawk on!

My heart ached for her modesty; but the color is beautiful.

The Funky One never fails to amaze me.

Now, the performances and acceptance speeches!

This was just amazing. I did not have high hopes for Beyonce, and I swore if she oversang ‘Proud Mary’ there would be hell to pay. Tina was a goddess, as always.

The Foo Fighters can do no wrong.

And the award hander outer people agreed!

LOVED IT! Prince and Morris Day in one night. Oh the ’80s.

I was really pissed at Kanye for sampling Daft Punk, but this quelled my ill will.

And awards soon followed. As much as I wanted to smile and be happy, the blinky jacket and stupid sunglasses kept distracting me.

This made me misty eyed. Seriously.

I HAAAAATTEEE John Mayer, but roll on Alicia Keys, roll on.

Legends, legends, legends everywhere!!

My girl Amy tore it up. She looks so glowy and healthy and definitely smirked her way through ‘Rehab.’ And the beehive? To. Die. For.

This was the highlight of my evening. GO AMY!!!

OK, so here begins the new blog. I’ve had several others, but those were mostly my borderline emo kid rants. This I want to have some intellectual if not full-on journalistic value. I also need to bone up on my writing skills.

So let’s start things off by discussing EMO KIDS!

First off, here’s a little background on what emo apparently means.

I think technically I might have been considered emo in high school. Everyone thought I was a Goth of course, and come to find out I could have also been considered Straight Edge. In all honesty, I just thought I was a nerd. I listened to all kinds of music, but most exclusively alternative rock and heavy metal. There was that totally embarrassing Nu Metal phase I went through, but that’s for another time. I was of course the saddest little high schooler ever, but to quoth the always amazing Davey Havok, ‘There’s no such thing as a happy teenager.’

Now look at kids these days. Being a depressed teenager has suddenly become en vogue. There were few current bands making music to satisfy our teenage ennui — especially after the Smashing Pumpkins broke up — so we mostly had to kick it old school. The Cure, Morrissey, Joy Division, etc. were in heavy rotation, and for the more aggressively depressed among us there was Marilyn Manson, Disturbed, etc. But now there are a ton of bands that cater specifically to high school malaise. Dashboard Confessional, Death Cab for Cutie, Hawthorne Heights, Avenged Sevenfold, the list goes on.

You’ll notice two big absences from that list. Even though My Chemical Romance and A.F.I. have indeed become huge idols amongst the hormonal and depressed, I feel that it’s quite by accident. Where as the aforementioned bands court the teens exclusively and have done so since their inceptions, MCR and A.F.I. simply followed their musical path which eventually led them to the misspent youth. It would be like calling the Smashing Pumpkins or the Cure teen-oriented bands. They’re not; some of their themes just happen to appeal to a certain subset of the younger crowd.

The Web has also played a huge role in bringing emo kids into mainstream culture. Now with MySpace, Facebook and YouTube, not only do kids have the means to take the minutia of their daily life to the masses, the masses also have the means to look, listen and respond. I see this as both a blessing and a curse.

It’s great that kids today know they’re not alone in what they’re going through. Let’s face it, when you’re different, your teen years can get really lonely. The fact that they’re able to form communities of like-minded souls is a wonderful thing. Also, it provides an outlet for some truly creative endeavors. Take Deviant Art for example. There are some beautiful graphic pieces on that site. While most livejournal poetry is crap, there is some genuinely good stuff to be found if you dig deep enough.

However, at the same time, there’s a general feeling that teens today are narcissistic. And before I go off sounding like a hypocrite (I have a blog, a MySpace page and a Facebook account), I want to say that I think there’s a difference between simply providing some details of your life as a catalyst for further communication (’You like This Property is Condemned? So do I!’) or practicing your otherwise thoroughly rusty writing skills and providing a detailed account of every little second between homeroom and lunch period. I also think things like MySpace have been taken too far. Take the Megan Meier case for example. It’s cases like hers that make me eternally grateful MySpace didn’t exist when I was teen.

All in all, I’m not sure how I feel about this newest batch of outsiders. The cutting thing freaks my shit right out, but then I also see kids forming supportive, loving communities. Then those communities sometimes become armies in the same clique-centric guerrilla warfare that’s been going for generations.

These kids aren’t doing anything all that different from what we did in high school. They’re just more visible.