2003-02-15 - 10:05 a.m.
Aquinas Debuts!
Because this site is supposed to be a community resource and not a running chronology of personal gripes a la the modern American blog (got a story or two? send it over and I'll make a little box for ya ... unless it involves the suckiness of everything in the world, or getting drunk), I will occasionally permit special guests to use this space to broadcast their own word art or opinions. Today's guest commentator is Mr. Ralph Aquinas, a 15-year-old student and aspiring music critic from Herbert Hoover Senior High School in Tumescence, Okla. This is the first installment of what promises to be a series of columns that will appear here in the future. Enjoy.
New Music Minute
Hi.
My name is Ralph Aquinas, and I really really like music a lot. But I can�t really download mp3s or buy records too often because my Mom and Dad are super-strict. They�re Southern Baptists and they don't like me to use the computer except when I'm working on my science assignments. Science is my least favorite subject in school, and I always need some extra help with it.
My brother Jerry also loves music. He kinda got me into music when he lived with my family, before he ran away from home and went to college. He and my parents always fought about stuff like music. They didn�t want him listening to the radio or watching TV, because they said the devil lived inside televisions. We have a TV now, so I guess these days the devil occupies a different type of appliance.
Our TV doesn't have cable � we have only three channels. Mom lets me watch an hour of TV after school, but that�s when Oprah and all the other boring talk shows are on, so I usually just go to my room and do homework or listen to my tape collection. I have 56 tapes. Some of my tapes I have to hide because I'm worried that I own more tapes than my dad would allow me to have, if he knew. Dad says people who own too many possessions don't know Jesus and can't be saved. When my dad thinks he owns too much, he takes the extra things and burns them in his burn barrel, which is in our backyard. It's therapeutic, he says.
Sometimes I wish I were my brother, because he always hears about new bands first and has an exciting life. This year he�s studying in England, which is where the Rolling Stones came from; I learned that from the Encyclopedia Brittanica in the school library. Those guys are older than my parents. Jerry�s really helped me discover new bands to like. I like the British bands Jerry tells me about because they�re different from American bands and they�re not on the radio, which I hate. The radio just plays Britney and other crap that all the girls like. My mom calls Britney �The Little Blonde Tramp.� She�s afraid my little five-year-old sister Anna Kaitlin will want to dress and act like Britney someday, which is hard for me to imagine because Anna K, as we call her, is paraplegic. I mean, she can�t even walk, so why would she wear hot pants anyways?
Okay, back to my music. One of my favorite new bands is called Genesis. I don't know what they look like, because when Jerry gave me the CD with, like, 20 of their songs burned onto it, he didn't give me any information about the band itself. I'm not even sure how old they are. But Jerry says they�re one of the hottest bands in England right now, partly because girls think the lead singer is really cute. Isn�t that always the way. Jerry told me that he saw Genesis play one of their first shows a couple of weeks ago when they were in London, and they performed my favorite song from the CD Jerry gave me, Invisible Touch. They rocked the house, he said.
Recently I wrote a letter to Jerry bugging him to send me an article or two about Genesis, but he said they were so underground that no one had written any articles about them yet. Jerry did say that they were in their mid-20s and were heavily influenced by Radiohead, though I�m not exactly sure who Radiohead is, or what they sound like. He said the names of the Genesis band members are Tony Banks (keyboards), Mike Rutherford (guitar), and Phil Collins (drums/vocals), who everyone supposedly calls �Sticks.� He said that before Sticks joined the band, another guy named Pete Gribble was the singer. Mr. Gribble left the band in order to open a chain of gas stations in Europe. Since he left, Genesis has released two records, Jerry says � an E.P. and Invisible Touch.
I keep trying to go to the record store to buy a real, not-burned copy of Invisible Touch, which I think has a hand on the cover. But none of the kids at school seem to know anything about Genesis � this band must be really underground! (My brother is so cool.) I don't drive, and the mall is 10 miles away, so I can't get to the record store. And oh yeah, my mom won't let me go to the record store by myself because she thinks I want to buy Judas Priest records, even though I told her that nobody listens to that stuff anymore. When I try to buy a record, my mom follows me into the store and stares at me. She�s always nervous.
In summary, I really like Genesis, and would like to know more about them. If anyone out there could please send me an article about this band, I would appreciate it. My new email address is [email protected]. Thank you.
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Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse. � Lily Tomlin |
