"friends tellin me, maybe I need some psychiatric help.... they're always tellin me, just how to get on with it - but I look into the mirror, and all i see is age and fear - and agony" - eels
I read a book awhile back (awhile being about three or four years) by Nick Hornby. The book was "High Fidelity" and i was in my first year of college - thinking myself to be the greatest thing ever, and my recurring sadness to be oh-so-motherfucking-original. Of course, on both fronts, I proved to be very wrong. But, a quote from that book always stuck with me - and I'm most likely misquoting here (I let someone borrow the book, and never got it back) - "Which came first - the sadness, or the sad music?"
It seemed so profound at the time - perhaps because I was suffering from the 'My Chemical Romance' kind of sadness - that is, the sort of sadness that is done for the sole sake of getting attention (though, honestly, I think I was more depressed than any of those fakers could ever claim to me... I mean - really. Wtf.).
But now - well, I can say, without any hesitation - the sadness came first. I think sadness - as well as the other most powerful emotions (love, sadness, and hate is how I rank 'em) came before the art. Art is driven by a need to express yourself - and, as far as I've seen, those primal human emotions have driven those needs, in just about that order.
For me, the sad songs (not the love ones) are the most beautiful. Artists like E (Mark Oliver Everett of the Eels), or Elliott Smith have made some of the most beautiful songs ever created (sad or otherwise). Bright Eyes (Mr. Conor Oberst) has made some quite beautiful songs himself, but, in my opinion, I don't think his songs quite stand up to the standard set by Mark or Elliott.
What is the point of this blog, or, to narrow it down, this particular entry?
There is no point. Just like life. There is no point. What is the practical purpose of just about anything? There is no purpose. And that, my friends, is the point.
You live, you die, and all the shit in-between is just for fun.
And in that, in that middle part, is where life really exists.
Turn your brains off, and just live -
Comes the advice from someone who couldn't heed his own.
And the point of all this? There is no point.
getoverit.
1 comment:
true true. i think i would add mark linkous to that list, along with morrissey for being some of the most effecting depressives available, and yet so comforting. good call on bright eyes too, a great artist, but, at least not at this point, his songs don't quite hit you as hard after several listens. mr. wu will probably blast me for these comments. and yeah, horby's high fidelity was fantastic, and i don't remember the exact quote either, nor will i attempt to find it, but that was the general idea.
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