Who's going to solve the equation for Generation X?

I am beginning to regret titling this blog "literary," it's not the easiest thing to consistantly write something "literary."

I was watching this really awesome program on VH1 Classics during lunch today and they discuss the growth, evolution and aftermath of some of the greatest albums. I watched a part of Queen's Night at the Opera and Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

And bands are seriously not living up to their jobs, potential or expectations. Elton John and Queen did these fabulous things with intricate costumes, bizarre costumes and just had a blast doing it. Now a days, costumes and a good show are substituted for talent and musical ability.

The costumes they wore help interpret the music, maybe it would be better to say that the costumes brought the music to a new level, and unheard of level before. Anyway, the point is, the songs feel different when the artists wear different costumes.

What Elton John and Queen wore are not necessarily fashionable, or even cool. Most of the time they are obscenely odd and look rather uncomfortable to wear and move around in...but that's what makes the music that much more awesome. It's despite the uncomfortable, sticky, hot clothing that they wore and still managed to rock out.

Take Woodstock '94, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, they wore light bulbs on their head for some odd reason (and yes, oddly enough, there was a reason), but Flea still managed to dance around the stage and go nuts...nut as nuts as before, but still an impressive amount considering what was on his head.

The more I look at what the musicians, authors, etc did during the late 1960's and the early 1970's, the more I start to wonder why it's different for us. Hopefully there will be a big musical uproar, we are in definite need of it.

Being young isn't all it's cracked up to be, just to let you know.

It's not so much that I hate being young, I just hate not being able to easily experience some of the things that older people experienced as a part of their daily life.

Don't get me wrong, I love modern technology as much as the next person. But I hate how quickly things change. These days book covers change between printings, regardless of if the printings are only a couple of months apart from each other. It's ridiculous and if the second printing has a cooler cover I am eternally angry and jealous.

Also, whose hair brained idea was it to change classic book covers? Like Tom Wolfe's novels, who decided that it would be a good idea to go from his graphically awesome and colorful covers to the bland and wordy covers of today?

I judge books by covers. And I'm serious, I think a lot of the book can be determined by it's cover and I despise the saying "Never judge a book by it's cover." Sure, it has good intentions, but as "Devil's Playground" taught me; "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Also, people are so fucking money hungry. It's sickening. If I want to be cool and get Tom Wolfe books with the good cover, I'd have to shell out over 50 bucks. I just don't ever see myself being able to willingly spend that much money on a book, especially when I can get it for 10.

I think I'm going to start a petition and create a law that says you cannot change the original cover of novels. Besides, the cover was chosen for a reason, there was meaning behind it and there was obviously some connection between the mood of everyone involved, the interpretation of the novel and the artists.

Not only that, the genre that Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer, Robert Xgau, etc specialize in depends greatly on the time it was written, the place and the experience. All of which is conveyed directly through the cover.

To end this rant, by changing the cover the editors are taking part of the writers work and throwing it in the trash. And I'd like to extend a big fuck you to the editors.

Also, what happened to records? Venal? Ring a bell, anyone?

As the days go by I seriously consider selling out more and more just so I can buy all the cool things I want. Then I'd probably fuck over who ever I sold out to to get out of my contract. Then all the independent places would be saying "Whoa, that's sweet. Sticking it to the (wo)man." And I'd get mad job offers.

Except. All the first editions and venal records couldn't let me sleep at night. And not because I'd be reading and listening to them. But because selling out doesn't seem like fun.

Err, Uhh, Yea?

I was just thinking about something in correlation with Fahrenheit 451. In the interview in my edition Ray Bradbury talks about how the events in the book have already taken place. He is right and it is creepy.

How many stupid cars have TVs in them? Or worse, how many TVs can people put into stupid cars. What about when people put TVs in the head rest of the last row, what type of distraction does that give to the driver behind the person.

I thought that all of our new fangled technology was supposed to be making life safer and easier to live. Not more obnoxious and dangerous. If I ever become a journalist or even better, an influential journalist, I am going to start a notion to get TVs out of cars.

There are so many better things to do than watch TV in a car, and take it from someone who gets more motion sick than not. Listen to music, have your friends make a new music mix before you go. It's a bonding experience, not only do you get to hear new music (and make that a rule, it has to be new music) but you get to hear what your friend listens to and hopefully get a better understanding of how they interpret music. Then, talk about the music, love the music. Worship the music.

Or you can draw pictures, create lists of books you want to read. Basically, do anything other than watching TV. I have a 13 inch TV that's four hours a way from me. After not having a TV in my room, I seriously don't think that I can ever have a TV in my room. I like the way my room looks without a TV and the fact that I don't have one. TV rots your brain anyway.

But that really was not the point of this post, at all in fact. I guess this deserves to be in the literary blog because it focuses around Fahrenheit 451. In the book, everyone watched mindless TV.

When I walk out and someone is watching TV and barely noticing anything around them, it sickens me to my core. Or worse, when someone walks past and I am doing the same thing...it makes me turn off the TV once I realize that I've done it and read a book.

Books are far better for your imagination than TV. TV shows and such spoil everything, they type cast people. The actors and actresses are about 10-15 pounds lighter than they should be and it makes every feel like fat lard asses.

While books on the other hand, give few details and maybe say "Oh, she's about 5 feet tall." But rarely, those details just aren't important in books. Plus, you can take a book anywhere you want.

OK. I'm just going to stop and post this how it is. I seriously don't even remember why I started.

Oh! Yea, I was thinking. Does it make me a hypocrite to love books and movies equally? Yet have a true and disdain hatred for TV? Sometimes I think it does, but most of the time I don't. One of the things I hate about TV is how quickly and illogically all the mysteries and plot twists are solved. I also hate how quickly things move. But in a movie, they tackle the same amount of drama that a book does, in an hour and 40 or so minutes. Is that enough of a difference to like movies and not be hypocritical?

To my diligent non existant readers...

Forgive me for rarely posting. School likes to bite my ass, hardcore too.
But in return for not writing pointless rants about literature, I have compiled a book list:

1. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test -- Tom Wolfe
2. The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline baby -- Tom Wolfe
3. Armies of the Night -- Norman Mailer
4. The Naked and the Dead -- Norman Mailer
5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest -- Ken Kesey
6. Cat's Cradle -- Kurt Vonnegut
7. Galapagos -- Kurt Vonnegut
8. Siddhartha -- Herman Hesse
9. Song Book -- Nick Hornby
10. The Fountainhead -- Ayn Rand
11. The Polysyllabic Spree -- Nick Hornby
12. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay -- Micheal Chabon
13. Lord of Flies -- William Golding
14. The Plague -- Albert Camus