Rant Central
OKOKOK....due to popular belief (on my behalf and no-one elses) and after numerous people complaining (one), BB King isn't dead. Apologies go out to the King family. I actually meant John Lee Hooker...Now HE is dead. (Again- apologies to the Hooker family)
OK...RANT TIME!!!! Shit, it's been a while since the last one hasn't it?
OK, this one is another stab at today's youth. Not clothing or anything like that. Their taste in music....Yes...music.
OK- Yes- I am 24, but (oo...3 OK's in 3 lines) today's teenagers are hopeless. Recently (November), I went to my sisters 18th birthday, and was put in charge of the music. "No problems", I thought. "I'll put in some rock that everyone knows, both from today and yesteryear, plus some trancy type stuff that I'm sure they listen too as well". Was I wrong! What they call "Old School" (How fricking American is that?) was basically a few old tunes that everyone in Australia knows, and was written in the early to mid 80's! WTF?!
When I asked politely what they would prefer to listen to (after a few drunken shouts from below about changing the music), a guy brought up a CD (burnt of course- and with no freaking ID as to what it contained), and I put it on. Freaking rap shit! (no, not rat shit, although that is what it could be identified as).
OK- whilst I don't descriminate against types of music, I must ask the youth of today this question. What are the songs about? You listen (if you can bear the 4-5 minutes of grunts), and all I hear are words I do not know exist!
And the bigger problem (more like an insult), is that the youth of today...in all their wisdom...call this crap R&B! How could you say that 'artists' like 50 Cent and Ja Rule are 'singing' Rhythm and Blues? There is no rhythm! There certainly isn't any Blues! This would mae BB King turn over in his grave!
Call it HipHop or whatever...but don't insult the legendary blues singers like Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Magic Sam and James Brown. That just pisses me off...
Arrgghh....time for another rant. This time it is on something that a lot of us will agree on.
The youth of today.
But before I start, let me make one thing clear. We still have a lot of young kids out there that are really going to make a good name for themselves. And kids who are pretty much model citizens. They have chosen to ignore the babbling of the idiots. Great. It is just, unfortunately, the majority of them that seem to not have one iota of an idea on what they are doing to ruin society as we knew it.
Yes- that's right. Those idiots out there in the age 13-18 demographic that like to call themselves "young adults". What crap. The only adult I can see in them is the bloody cigarette smoke they are enhaling through their own free will. The way they keep puffing on their "ciggies", they won't get too far out of their 20's before succombing to the cancer that is slowly building in their bloody laranyx or lungs!
OK- that point has many others around my age and older in the same situation, but these blithering morons still like, after NUMEROUS talks and ads splattered all around them, to go out and act "cool" and take up smoking. To those my age and older- they took up smoking when the ads were either non-apparent, or there just was not enough prescence of mind to get them to not start, or to stop smoking.
Anyway- the smoking aside, the people that are also on their way to becoming the "face of Australia's future" (Crap, there is a horrible thought!), also seem to think the way to become "cool" and "hip" are to either get around in Kappa, FuBu or the latest brand of clothing, that has probably been made in a Chinese sweatshop overseas, or- in some cases, Springvale North. Although Kappa at least have finally made a name for themselves, as 5 years ago, they were still trying to get out of the Fitzroy warehouse they are made in. These teens also love to make sure that their pants are either slashed to oblivion, or so long that they would be tripping over the hems as they drag them along through the dogshit that is on their front lawn. Remember Kriss Kross and their fashion? Me thinks we have come full circle. Praise Allah that we don't hear their bloody music again! Hearing it in 1990-1992 was bad enough!
A separate topic now- but it still warrants comment on the current subject overall. Have any of you been on public transport, be it bus, train or tram, and seen the hordes of locusts that like to call themselves a posse, get on and throw their bags all over the place? Most of them will be probably still be putting out their magic stick (t'would be the ciggarette), and then blow it all over the people inside once they were in and the door was closed. Fine. I can deal with that. I passively smoke every day. A lot of people have decided to complain over that. Good start.
Now let's concentrate on the fact that they start to swear. Loudly. Shit, I know I swear like a blue streak, and publicly too, (thanks to this site), but people don't have to read this. They do however, have to listen to others on the ride. There is no choice, unless they have earphones to plug up the "swaggertalk".
Swaggertalk. That's all it is. Trying to look cool in front of their friends. The other day, however, I had had enough of it on the trainride home. They had even managed to get in above my CD player with the noise! So off I went towards the offenders. One guy noticed me and stopped talking. I mean- I'm not a tough guy (hell- I would be laughed at if I said I was!), but I guess the height and the long black jacket and suit I had on cut a mean enough figure.
I quietly asked the main offender to quieten down. Not stop swearing, but if he was to do so, to do so in a barely audible manner. I even said that this was what I did if I wanted to swear. You know. Make him feel that I didn't want to physically ask him to stop. Well.....He didn't really like this, and shot up, yelling at me. The fact that he was about half a foot smaller than me (probably year 8 or so), didn't do him any credit. And also, at this stage, I had generated an audience, due to his megaphone announcement to me that he didn't like my attitude. I sighed, and again, asked him to just quieten down. His other friends had now not said a word. Again- a yelling "You can't tell me what to do" Although, at this stage, he was shaking. (Seriously- I am NOT a menacing person!). I politely said that no, I couldn't, but I did have the right to now report him to the idiots that call themselves "Travelsafe Officers" (which is another subjec). Hell- there was no way I would bother complaining to them about this, but I think he got the message. He sat down, shut up, and I went back to my CD, almost tripping over the bags that had been strewn across the floor.
Just an example of the youth of today, I guess...
Actually- we all probably have one common excuse as to why this may have happened. I don't want to say the reason, because I am also a victim of it to an extent. As is everyone else. We just know when to stop. To control ourselves and say "What the hell?"
I know I'm probably sounding like a broken record here, and that I am only moving into my mid 20's myself, but seriously. I can't remember such a species as the teenager today being around when I was their age. Correct me if I am wrong, but Australia- we seem to have bred a new race of troglodites......
What is it with idiots on the roads these days? You know- you're sitting on a major 2 lane highway or road, doing on or just above the speed limit, and someone in their lowered 1982 XD mission brown Falcon with the P plate shining gallantly on the windscreen (most of the time upside down), or canary yellow Datsun 180Y with the personalised license plate of "sickm8" decides to become agressive at you because you're not doing 25-30km/h over the limit?
It's a normal reaction nowadays. You see them about half a metre behind your rear bumper, tailgating you like there is no tomorrow. If I wasn't worried about my own car, I'd brake suddenly and wait for the lovely feeling of their car riding into your duco. Their fault- speeding and too close to you for starters. They finally see a psss in the oncoming lane, and overtake (most likely on the double lines). They draw level with your car, and I just love to look over and stare at them when they get level. They are either yelling abuse in half mangled English at you, or have the car stereo up *so* loud, you have no idea whether they are an ad for Strathfield Car Radio or the megaBass night at the Metro.
An easy way to put them back in their place at this point in time is to fence them in. They are level with your car, on the wrong side of the road. Simply do what I did today and keep up with them, so they have no chance in hell of getting past you. You can see the fear in their crazed eyes as the semi bearing down on the other side of the road at them draws closer. Hmm- should they shove their car up a gear and watch the tacho hit 7 grand as they try in vain to pass you, or should the thought of ending up in a wheelchair or 6 foot under deter them?
Not this guy. He went for option a. The car in this case (the Datsun) now sounded like a lawnmower on speed. Shaking and rattling, the car edged in, ready to creep in front of me. The semi- meanwhile- had seen the deer in its headlights (which were off, but you get the picture), and had started tooting at the idiot to fall in behind me. I think at this point the guy gave in.
Braking, he swerved in behind me, just missing a 4WD that had decided that it wanted to take the Datsun's original place behind me. I just slowed down (again), and had I not reached my destination at that point- it would have started all over again.
Could people really just learn to keep their hands out of their pants when ego's and cars are in play? I doubt it....
Hello and welcome to my new section. A bit different to my ramblings blog- this one concentrates on the general crap in society. Kind of what got Jerry Seinfeld off the ground I guess, but mine isn't as funny, nor will it get me off to any career start. Also in kind of a "What's the deal with" format too.
I will focus on the crap that we all see in our daily lives and comment on as I see fit. As always-
email me if you have any feedback or want to contribute. You will be credited with your rant and probably duly laughed at as well.
The rants will start when I can be bothered, but here we go...
