It Was So Much Better Back Then

My biggest pet peeve is when people go all American high-school girl with their ‘like’ and ‘um’ and ‘so’. Seriously dude, what the fuck. You know what I mean? Grow the fuck up, guys.

It’s stupid, you know. Are you in fact so attached to social media that there’s a Facebook ‘Like’ button for every sentence you utter IRL? That’s insanely annoying, man. You know, basically, it’s so stupid. I mean, people never used filler words and phrases so abundantly, well, before this, in fact. In fact, only the current generation is, well, so uneloquent to, you know, use filler words like ‘like’ and ‘um’ and ‘like’ so often, actually. 

And another thing, what’s up with these Beliebers? This new generation is so fucked up that they’re willing to stand for hours screaming their heads off and fighting each other to get a touch of their idol. These teenagers with their bad taste and new age idolatry.

In our days, all the music were good. It was better in the 60’s when everyone listened to The Beatles. Now people listen to all sorts of stupid shit. Seriously, when it’s so easy for ‘ordinary’ people to make and record music in their own bedroom or garage studio and produce so much new, experimental stuff, no wonder people can’t agree on what they like. Why can’t people agree on one band just like when people used to agree that the Beatles is the best? 

I miss the good old days, when people quietly appreciated their music and talked civilly with each other about how much they enjoyed Sgt. Peppers. Everybody recognised the Beatles’s brilliance, even the older generation who didn’t say it was ‘the devil’s music’ or anything like that. Nobody screamed and fought for handkerchiefs from the likes of the great pianist Franz Lizst, nor was there any fancy name for simply being a fan of him. 

The days of the Beatles were great. I wasn’t even born yet, but even I knew it was great. People were so cool then with their hippie skirts and long hair and vintage stuff and record players. I want my heartthrobs to wear leather jackets and smoke cigarettes in black and white. I yearn for the day when Instagram wasn’t an app but just everyday life. 

Gadgets are soul-suckers, you know. We don’t need this shit. I want a simple life when all we needed was a Polaroid and a record player. I want to listen to The Kinks when they were still there, and then just hum their songs on the way to work. I want to chat to you via telegram. Fuck smartphones. Who needs the fucking internet. It’s full of viruses, creepers, and entitled young hipsters. 

The world now is bullshit. So many wars, so much violence. It was so peaceful back then. All politicians were honest, and the world governments only killed people I didn’t agree with. I want to go back to when family was important, when people had good values, and women were happy to be in the kitchen at home when their husbands worked all day to provide a good, honest living. I wish for the good old days when divorce rates were lower, when all problems were dealt behind closed doors without the prying eyes of the police and rights activists. 

The world now is fucked up. I want to live in the past.

8 June 2013 ·

Quickfire: The Man Who Laughs

The Batman supervillain, The Joker’s looks is inspired by Conrad Veidt’s Gwynplaine in the silent Paul Leni film ‘The Man Who Laughs’ (1928).

The film title was even borrowed by the 2005 Batman graphic novel of the same name, which tells the story of Batman’s first encounter with The Joker. 

The 1928 film is based on a book by french author Victor Hugo, the same person who wrote Les Miserables and Notre Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). 

In the story, Gwynplaine’s grin is permanent, inflicted to him by the orders of a king. In the 2008 Cristopher Nolan film ‘The Dark Knight’, the Joker’s grin was also inflicted to him, though by who is never clear. 

In the 2012 Jean-Pierre Améris’s French adaptation of the Victor Hugo book, Gwynplaine’s aesthetics looks to be inspired by Heath Ledger’s make up. 

P.S. The 1928 Gwynplaine actor, Conrad Veidt, also has a very interesting background story. My post was originally inspired by this TIL on reddit.

4 June 2013 ·

• Tags
• batman
• joker
• heath ledger
• victor hugo
• conrad veidt
• the man who laughs
• l'homme qui rit
• paul leni
• gwynplaine
• cristopher nolan
• graphic novel
• silent film
• comic books
• jean pierre ameris

Green Green Green Green

Tell me good things. Tell me a decorated truth. Tell me a wonderful lie. Tell me the story of when everything was good. Tell me a lovely anything. 

Let us leave this place. Follow me as I leave the first set of footprints on this newly-made path through the thick bushes and the thin streams. I swear we’ll end up happier than we were before. 

Green, green, green, green. 

One step, two steps. Two steps twice. Then a million more. We’ll be somewhere we never knew we wanted to be. We’ll be happy. We’ll be good. We’ll be loving. 

Ignore your doubts. Ignore your suspicions. Ignore the evil of reluctance creeping into your thoughts. This is meant to be. This is true. 

One step forward, a fall unseen. 

The End.

28 May 2013 ·