It is rare, dear reader, that I urge you to watch something I have posted, but in the case of John Grant's video for Glacier, I can only emphasise - if you do nothing else today, please watch this.
Eight minutes of glorious, emotionally-draining wonderment. A testament to who we are, and to all that we as gay people have suffered and celebrated...
You just want to live your life
The best way you know how
But they keep on telling you
That you are not allowed
They say you are sick
That you should hang your head in shame
They are pointing fingers
And want you to take the blame
There are days when people are
So nasty and convincing
They say things beyond belief
That sting and leave you wincing
And to boot they say their words
Come straight down from above
And they really seem to think
That what they're doing counts as love
This pain
It is a glacier moving through you
And carving out deep valleys
And creating spectacular landscapes
And nourishing the ground
With precious minerals and other stuff
So, don't you become paralysed with fear
When things seem particularly rough
Don't you pay them fuckers as they say no never mind
They don't give two shits about you. It's the blind leading the blind
What they want is commonly referred to as theocracy
And what that boils down to is referred as hypocrisy
Don't listen to anyone; get answers on your own
Even if it means that sometimes you feel quite alone
No one on this planet can tell you what to believe
People like to talk a lot, and they like to deceive
This pain
It is a glacier moving through you
And carving out deep valleys
And creating spectacular landscapes
And nourishing the ground
With precious minerals and other stuff
So, don't you become paralysed with fear
When things seem particularly rough.
I was going to feature this in my regular "newer music" post, but it is just too beautiful and too powerful to sit alongside anything else.
I cried.
quite the presentation. love the editing.
ReplyDeleteIt is an amazing piece of work - and although I have tried, I can find no credit for the video anywhere. Jx
DeleteFinally you wake up to John Grant : if you were on F***B*** dear you'd have seen this video months ago ;-) x
ReplyDeleteIf I were on F***book, dear I would have killed someone by now. Jx
DeleteAlso if you like the song, there is a duet version with John & Sinead O'Connor which I think is even better than this album version
ReplyDeleteVery good video. I just found out that Mr Grant actually lives over here, although he is originally from the States. I might have to keep an eye out for live dates...
ReplyDeletePS: there is a big world out there, and people tend to find the things they like - with or without bloody F***book :)
Mr Grant went to Iceland to work with Biggi Veira, and it seems he liked it so much he decided to stay (maybe it's a case of "Biggi by name, Biggi by nature" that attracted him? - hee hee!).
DeleteAnd yes, some people live, eat, sleep and dream for Facebook, and for being"first" to find out about such important topics as what Miley Cyrus thinks about the Syrian civil war, Christiano Ronaldo's style tips, or that Lady GaGa "likes" a photo of Robert Mugabe with a Photoshopped funny hat on...
Me, I prefer not to.
Jx
I just read an article about a growing problem in society: sleep deprivation. You see, apparently some people (particularly younger ones) set their alarm a couple of times a night in order to wake up and check their F***book!!! They must make sure to leave their comments on everything and nothing ASAP, so no time to sleep! And imagine, they might be missing out on the latest campaign to get some discontinued product from 20 years ago back on the shelves.
ReplyDeletePeople in general seem to be unable to handle anything in moderation - and this social media thing is probably the best example of that! It does seem though that the F thing is losing momentum, with growing amount of users giving up on it. Experts seem to agree that in a few years time, it will almost become a thing of the past, with some even saying that before 2020 around 80% will have abandoned the site (teenagers are already looking elsewhere, since they have no interest in having their whole family checking out their pages). Sounds great - but I wonder what will replace the F thing. People have become so obsessed with having everyone lying through their teeth, commenting on how pretty and fabulous they look on the 2500 photos they have uploaded that I doubt they will be too willing to lose that false ego boost. Not to mention the platform to voice their opinions on absolutely everything, when most of the time they really should keep them to themselves!
Sometimes it's hard to ignore huge trends, and I know there are a lot of people who have simply caved into the pressure to open a F account, despite not even wanting to. I however am thrilled to be free of that thing - even if it means that I will only hear about some selfie taken by someone I don't give a crap about a whole day later!
Hear hear - and let's not get started on Tw*tter!
DeleteIn our own way, we have not really ignored the temptations of the "online presence" thing ourselves, but I like to think that blogging is a much more considered way of putting one's writing, one's views and one's discoveries "out there" than so-called "social" media. And let's face it, most bloggers don't operate in the "instant news" field.
I certainly don't pretend to be (or want to be) "ahead of the game" on everything - so much of my time on here is spent going on about long-ignored or forgotten (or recently stumbled-upon) divas, decades-old pop music and quirky divertissements, it hardly matters really. I please myself...
Jx
...and your readers, my dear.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I do actually use Twitter - although almost exclusively as a way to follow what's happening with some of my favorite music artists. To me, it is a very different entity then say, Facebook. People just seem to mind their own business more there and there is very little of the mutual ass licking and/or kicking that everyone seems to be obsessed with on the F thing.
It seems that artists hardly bother to have the news sections on their homepages updated, so one must try to combine blogs, news pages and Twitter in order to know about their new releases, music videos etc. But news pages and blogs remain my favorite ways to follow things, old or new. Each to their own, I guess...