...and I Know What's Happening.

Some songs with Superman in them, in honor of his 75th, and also seeing Man Of Steel Last night. get into it:

Sufjan Stevens - "The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts" (filled with religious iconography, like most good Superman related media. p.s. - not joking. Superman is basically a religious allegory. look it up!)

Donovan - "Sunshine Superman" (also mentions Green Lantern!)

Spin Doctors - "Jimmy Olsen's Blues" (please note: this song is not called "pocketful of kryptonite". yes, i know that line is prominently featured in the chorus. Pocketful Of Kryptonite is the title of the album. also, i am not in any way a fan of Spin Doctors. this song, however, is important in that it was hugely popular, and is, at least tangentially, about Superman. it was also out during a time when Superman had sort of re-entered the public consciousness, what with the Death/Return and the Terry Hatcher show. hence, its inclusion.)

Crash Test Dummies - "Superman's Song" (i was never a huge fan of them, but i did like a lot of their songs that were not MMM MMM MMM MMM, which to be honest, i also kind of like, mainly because it has references to weird cults and shit. ANYway, this song's great. also, oddly enough, this predates Doomsday AKA The Death Of Superman. weird, huh?)

The Clique - "Superman" (say... you might be saying to yourself... that sounds awfully familiar... well, here's why:)

REM - "Superman" (i'm not as cool as everyone thinks. i heard this version first, as REM are one of my favorite bands, and learned many years later it was an old 1960s tune. as far as i'm concerned, that's awesome).

The Flaming Lips - "Waiting For Superman" (frankly, what needs to be said?)

here's a couple tunes that are sort of related to Superman, because, hey, why not?

XTC - "That's Really Super, Supergirl" (please ignore the cheesy fan art. for some reason, this song is hard to find on youtube. also, i think this is an Andy Partridge demo version. anyway, it's a great song)

Sufjan Stevens - "Super Sexy Woman" (mentions Superwoman, a distant future relative of Jimmy Olsen with Kryptonian powers (don't ask!) from some 1970s stories, "Superman's Cousin" AKA Supergirl, and Catwoman. plus it's just funny and great.)

and even tho it doesn't mention Superman, as there are no lyrics, i would be remiss not to include:

Minor Obsessions: In the Year 2525.

I can't tell you when i first heard the 1969 classic oddity from Zager And Evans, "In The Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus)", but i can tell you how i felt when it's bizarre opening strands first hit my ears: totally fucking freaked out.
i know for a fact i was under the age of 12, possibly 9 or 10.  the song, silly by most standards, for someone that little has a haunting quality that has stuck with me for years. the downbeat guitar strumming, strange, almost spanish sounding trumpets (they just make me think of bullfighting, for whatever reason), and the lyrical quality, as well as the way said lyrics are delivered is strange in deed.
i recall being in high school and hearing this song on an oldies station (back when they still played oldies, i.e. - songs primarily from the 1960s, maybe early 70s) lying in bed with all the lights out, and getting a horrible sense of dread. i wish i were exaggerating. but i truly did have to turn the lights back on for several minutes whilst a much peppier song played.  i told my mom about this at some point, and in her very motherly and supportive way she said something to the effect of "oh, brother." needless to say, my parents are often hard-hearted people. i wish it weren't so. ANYway...

despite all this, the song is one of my favorites. i have strange associations with it, including a comic book from the 1990s called "What if... The Avengers had Lost The Evolutionary War". i'm not gonna get too into what that entails, not what the Evolutionary Was was, but suffice it to say, human kind evolves so greatly (Star-Trek-ish bulging craniums and all), no longer need to communicate with words, and form a giant hive mind, leaving Earth behind for who knows what kind of ultimate journey and whatnot. yeah, it's pretty great.
if you even remotely give a crap, go here (if not, don't... but you'll be sorry!): http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-if-avengers-lost-evolutionary-war.html

as for the song itself, i can only let Z&E speak (sing? strum?) for themselves:

also, for a fun and so-forth, here's the lyrics. get ready for head-explodey!

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find

In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do, and say
Is in the pill you took today

In the year 4545
Ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing chew
Nobody's gonna look at you

In the year 5555
Your arms are hanging limp at your sides
Your legs got not nothing to do
Some machine is doing that for you

In the year 6565
Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife
You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long glass tube

In the year 7510
If God's a-comin' he ought to make it by then
Maybe he'll look around himself and say
Guess it's time for the Judgement day


In the year 8510
God is gonna shake his mighty head
He'll either say I'm pleased where man has been
Or tear it down and start again

In the year 9595
I'm kinda wondering if man is gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing

Now it's been 10,000 years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew
Now man's reign is through
But through the eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find

In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do or say
Is in the pill you took today ....(fading...)

Zager And Evans only had one hit, and it was of course this song. their next song is a jaunty little upbeat number called "Mr. Turnkey", which, according to Wikipedia is a song about "a rapist who nails his own wrist to the wall as punishment for his crime". awesome.

lots of info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_year_2525

Does Whatever An Incredibly Flawed Premise Can, i.e. - Not Much.

Sorry for the clunky title. i feel it's fitting, and if you know anything about the subject matter, you'll get on board. yeeeah!

here's the short intro: i like Spider-Man. he's cool. i've liked him since i was a kid. probably one of my favorites. i haven't liked every comic he's been in, nor all the movies, but he's solid. i dig him.

onward. be forwarned: the following contains SPOILERS and extreme nerdiness. now we're in the clear.


Earlier this month, Marvel Comics, who can be damned for a host of sins (as well as praised for many good things as well, mostly on film) in recent years, released the ultimate issue of what is probably their flagship title: Amazing Spider-Man #700. truth be told, Fantastic Four was the first Marvel comic (Marvel Comics #1 from the 1930s was NOT the 1st Marvel comic, despite what some may say, including Marvel. it was published by the company that would eventually become Marvel, which at the time was called Timely Comics. that would become Atlas, which would become Marvel. true facts!), which should probably make it the flagship title, but it has been far surpassed in popularity by Spidey. there's no doubt about that.

 The premise of the last several issues of Amazing Spider-Man was basically that Otto Octavius, AKA Dr. Octopus, AKA Doc Ock, somehow transferred his mind into the body of Peter Parker aka Spider-Man, and vice versa. i'm not sure how this was accomplished, as i've not been reading it. the ultimate end of all this, is well, pretty fucking dumb. Peter Parker, in the decimated body of Ock (seriously, it looks like a fucking mummified corps being dragged around by the Mechanical Arms we all know and love), hatches a plan to switch back brains. he fights Ock in Peter's original, spry, and powered body, and loses big time.

Grody, dude.

Doc Ock then plans to continue on in the super powered form, wreaking havoc among the populace as some kind of new vilified evil genius guy with powers and such. BUT... he is stopped from doing so! by a convenient, and frankly idiotic, plot device: the remaining memories/consciousness/moral compass of Peter Parker merges (sorta?) with the brain of Doc Ock, in Spider-Man's body, making him sort of a good guy. um... kinda. i don't know.

the thing is, Doctor Octopus is a pompous asshole. despite the fact that Spidey as Peter Parker did have a great deal of scientific knowledge, he is seen as a dolt by Otto. he thus declares, no more fucking about: he will be... The Superior Spider-Man!

p.s.- Peter Parker as he is known dies, but swears in some incorporeal manner he will return. i'm pretty sure he will. call it a hunch...

let me start by saying: this issue had some promise. the hoary concept notwithstanding, it was interesting to actually sort of let the well known, incredibly beloved hero die, replacing him with another. no big deal, they'd done that in a different Marvel Universe (google "multiverse", or don't! your call, America!) last year some time, where Pete P. died and a young hispanic/black teen took his place. that wasn't the "real" Spider-Man of course, but still and all. this, however, was ridiculous. it was not handled well, not at all. and the whole "merging minds" thing is beyond-beyond for me. i don't know why; generally speaking i am able to suspend my disbelief when reading a lunkheaded actioner comic. but this, this just bugged me. it feels so heavy handed, forced, cliched, whatever else. not a worthy move for such a worthy character. 20 years ago, an average non-comic book reader would probably not have been able to name Nick Fury or Tony Stark, but they sure as shit could name Spider-Man. not a fitting end for an iconic character, i'm sorry to say. my verdict: thumbs down!

as a follow up, Marvel has created an "all new, all different" Spider-Man comic book for your newsstands (are there even any more newsstands?): the aforementioned Superior Spider-Man. holy crap! that oughtta be great, right?! whatta concept! he's gonna be like Spider-Man, but, ya know, Superior! what the?????????

i give you the cover of Superior Spider-Man #1, which to me looks like a comic book from 1997. i'm sorry, but that is probably one of the 90s-est comics covers i've seen since, well, the 90s. the font on the logo, the coloring, i don't know why. it just strikes me that way. 

the 90s were a dark time for comics. attempts to make them "mature" failed miserably, as they were written by immature douchebags, without the polish of those who had gone before them. i digress, but i will say, i feel this comic is a step backwards to that time, if only spiritually (an overblown term for what i mean to say, but fitting in this context). this comic, hooooo-boy. this is nonsense on a grand scale. Doc Ock, still in possession of Spidey's form/powers begins his new war on crime and such. as Peter Parker he dresses like a 1930s mad scientist (goggles, lab coat and all) and creates new weapons for use as Spider-Man, using the excuse that the run-off of these experiments are advancements in medicine and things that will help the planet. as Spider-Man, he fights the "new" Sinister Six, angrily defeating them because he (that is Otto Octavius, AKA Doctor Octopus) was in the "old" Sinister Six, and these new losers aren't fit to take over their mantle. doing so for the good of society is merely his front. 2 or 3 times the flickering blue Jedi form of Peter Parker tells Ock it was he who stopped his hand when he would've killed a baddie, and then menacingly states he will be back, oh yes, he will be back! dumb, dumb, dumb.

at one point, Ock as Peter Parker (which is getting tiring having to type, by the way), is at dinner with the much put-upon Mary Jane Watson. he internally muses about how he can start over as Parker with a sweet set-up, and how much he loves "the view" from his new found eyes. the panel, of course, focuses in on Mary Jane's ample chest. for whatever reason, i didn't hear a rimshot. jesus.

i would probably have enjoyed this comic when i was 15, but now, in retrospect, i just find it lame, mishandled all around, and as above, so below: idiotic.

the one thing i can say i do like is the redesign on the spider-suit. the blue and red of the original is awesome, but i do like the Black and red, with a sort of goggle look to the lenses. kinda cool.

however, i cannot  and will not recommend these comics. they're just not good y'all. i would say: read at your own risk. 

i think this angry nerd has the right idea:

wish i could take credit, but it wasn't my idea.

Superman will soon be 75.

I've talked a lot about Superman on the 'net. some of it may be lost to the ages (the now defunkt livejournal etc). i won't go into a long list of specifics, mainly due to that fact. 

i will say this: i think i've always liked Superman, as long as i've been aware of him, anyway, but it may have only been recently that i sort of acknowledged to myself and the world at large that i'm a Superman fan.

i think the biggest exposure to him i got was from the incomparable 1978 Superman, the movie. personally, i think it still holds up. with all the flap in recent years about comic book movies, it's weird to think that one of the best is from 35 years ago. don't get me wrong, i enjoy pretty much all the new comic movies i've seen, but there's just something about the first Superman movie. so great.

much has been said about the Messianic overtones in the Superman story. i think this trailer is pretty plain in that regard. they even say "his only son".  sheesh! while some may find that heavy handed, it doesn't bother me. besides, knowing the Jewish origins of Superman as all good comics fans do, i know that his story is a much closer analogue to Moses' journey, as well as the plight of Jewish immigrants to America attempting to assimilate (and excelling in almost all walks of life), yet still being considered outsiders by many.

a new Superman movie is coming out this summer, and i'm pretty psyched, to be honest. i am one of those people decrying with "not another origin!", because i feel we all know the story. if it ends up being like almost all comic book movies, the origin will end up being the first hour of the film. that said, the stills and trailers i've seen all make it look pretty great.

i don't hold out much hope for Zack Snyder. while i did enjoy 300, that was just kind of a straightforward dumb actioner. this movie looks like it's attempting to make Superman an interesting character for the now-a-days, which i like, but i wonder if he's the one to pull that off. i've been very vocal about my feelings towards the Watchmen film (also directed by Snyder).  truth be told, my main problem with Watchmen is the lack of fidelity to the original story. that's probably not primarily Snyder's fault. Nolan, who cracked the Batman shell in the recent years, would've probably been better, but Batman is such a different character, perhaps he didn't have an interesting take on Supes. this may be why he chose to produce, ensuring he'd still make shit-tons of money. sounds snarky, but such is not my intent. Amy Adams as Lois Lane: yes, please. Lois Lane is such that character, you know, no one can seem to do it right. i dunno. i can't say anything bad about Margot Kidder. she *was* the character to me for so many years. say what you will about Kevin Costner, and i could say plenty, but i applaud him on at least one ground: dude is in his 50s and he's playing someone who is in his 50s. i've liked him in a lot of movies (Robin Hood notwithstanding, tho i do love that movie). i think he can play a down to earth farmer. what can be said about Diane Lane? she's great. if they want to make Ma Kent a MILF, i'm cool with that. they already kinda did for Smallville, so there ya go. i'm curious as to how they will play out the Krypton side of things. the movie portrayed the planet as being cold and analytical, which is the major depiction of it since probably the 1980s. i'm fine with that, as it makes sense in some way. a heavily advanced, cultured society flippantly decides not to save itself despite all warnings.... hmmm.... sounding familiar... but there's also been a tendency to try and make it like the ultimate Asshole culture, sort of a cross between the Roman Empire, the American, well, Empire, and maybe The UK in the 18th/19th century. i personally like the idea that Superman's parents sent him away because they were kind and good, and hoped that he would make a difference wherever it was he went. maybe that's corny, but there ya go. Russel Crowe as Jor-El, sure, i don't see why not. the only person i really have any question of is Superman himself, Henry Cavill. i know nothing of the man and his work. i'm hoping he can pull it off as well as someone like Chris Reeve, but that's such a tall order. he WAS both Superman and Clark Kent for so many people for so many years. it really was kind of amazing. he (Cavill) has a big cape to fill, so hopefully he's got the stuff for it.

a lot of current day comics fans have little truck with Superman, coming up with many lame reasons for disliking the character. look, if you honestly don't like something, fine. don't like it. but if you're simply parroting the sentiments of fannish culture, fuck that sheep shit. 

here's my take on it:

-"Superman is too powerful!": dumb. there's no other word to describe this. first off, the are hundreds of incredibly powered superheroes from many companies, and they don't nearly get this much shit about being "too powerful". Thor, Hulk, Green Lantern, even Spider-Man are all super humanly powered, and this is not the go-to reason for fan-nerds to dislike them. it's a worthless argument. if he's too powerful to fight street level thugs (a la Batman or Spider-Man), then have him fighting otherworldly menaces and the like. it's fucking Superman for god's sake! have him punch a fucking meteor into the sun. i fell like people who decry him for being "too powerful" have very little imagination. (p.s. - Batman doesn't even fight street criminals any more. he fights lunatics with crazy OCD gimmicks, like "everything must rhyme!" or whatever)

-"He's too Good": let's think about that for a second. someone is being shat upon for being "too good". i just... what? why? where? when? how? too good is bullshit. maybe he wouldn't smoke pot or something, but so what? i understand that he may not be the badass loner type, but that's why we have Batman (as well as the million other "dark" heroes out there). that's not the place to go for that sort of action. you don;t go to Burger King to get a Burrito, do you?

-"His costume is dumb. why does her wear his underwears on the outside?": first off, many superheroes who began in the 30s, 40s, 50s, and even 60s do this. google a picture of the Fantastic Four by Kirby. they look like they're wearing blue trunks over their blue long-johns. even everyone's precious Batman did this forever. he even went back to doing it for awhile after not having done it. the problem is that Superman's "underoos" are bright red, so people are like "ha HA!", Nelson style. what people don't get, because we no longer live in the 1930s, is that there was a time when one of the biggest forms or entertainment was the circus. well, the vast overwhelming majority of the characters from that time period who still remain were influenced by circus folks, be they acrobats or so-called strongmen. hence the trunks (not underwear) on the outside. hence the bright colors. people often also diss the cape. well, on a super heroic figure, a cape is awesome, plus i feel it probably gives the artists a lot to work with. plus think of any great historic conquering figure with near-mythic status: Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Xerxes, Charlemagne; i guarantee you they are wearing capes. furthermore, Batman wears a cape. so suck it.

-"no one can relate to him because he's an alien": this is... not even worth mentioning. for one thing, so many characters in superhero comics are either aliens, gods, extra-dimensional beings, super scientists, the product of science gone haywire, mutants, etc etc that i'm not even sure where to begin. how can you relate to any of the aforementioned? shit, Batman is supposedly a "regular guy". really? a regular billionaire orphan with his own boat, plane, helicopter, mansion, did i mention billions of dollars?trained in almost every imaginable form of hand to hand combat? knows however many languages? oh, well, yeah, totally. i mean, i can relate one hundred percent *eye roll*. personally, i don't think they deal enough these days with Superman's alien aspect. it's sort of fallen out of fashion in an attempt to make superheroes more "realistic". i'm not in favor of this. i'm fine with realistic comics, and maybe even realistic superheroes. but i think the problem lies with the fact that for whatever reason, people still think of comics as a genre, not a medium. so comics that report on wars, or tell biographical stories, or deal with relationships are not seen as "comics". well, that, my friends, is Balogna. and even if you did choose to stay within the realms of the so-called mainstream comics, i think making say The Punisher or Nick Fury realistic is a better option. anyway, that's my take on that. being an alien, to me, doesn't take away from his relatability.

much of this is nerdly in-fighting, so i will forego any more. suffice to say, i'm looking forward to Man of Steel, the movie. and i hope DC does something cool for the Superman 75th anniversary. back to the never ending battle.

Minor Obsession: Baseball (everything but the actual sport).

Fuck sports. there, i said it. i'm a nerd, and for whatever bizarre reason, i could not and still am not able to get into sports. i jokingly tell people i love Soccer and Jai Alai (actually, both are kind of minor obsessions of mine... hmmm....), but i don't really know much about them, and i don't really follow them.  i think it's mainly just to sound cool and/or ridiculous and/or as nerdy as possible.

all the above having been said, i am strangely fascinated by Baseball. but, and the subject line is a bit of spoiler on this one, i honestly could not care less about the game/sport. i don't know, nor do i care, about the rules, the stats, who is winning what, what someone's RBI is ( i do know what RBI stands for: Runs Batted In. i do not, however, know what that means. nor do i care. thanks anyway). i can't sit and watch it. i've actually even been to Baseball games. i think maybe 2 or 3 when i was young. i kinda remember just being more bored than anything. one was a California Angels game. i don't remember the outcome. another was a Pirates game. they lost.
so what is it about it that i'm obsessed with? frankly, and this may sound artsy-fartsy, snobby, pretentious, etc, by i really enjoy the aesthetic of the game. weird, maybe, but this is a post about random obsessions, so there's bound to be some weirdness.

there's a cut-off for all this, of course. i think primarily the early 80s. if you look at baseball through out the early days, through the 60s and 70s, there's something rather unique and strange about the look of the whole thing. old school logos are the shit, particularly if they're for teams that are kind of not as much the public eye (how indie rock of me). let's take for example the Orioles. that logo is crazy.

look at that smirking fuck. the color scheme is orange and yellow: halloween colors! and it's a goddamned cartoon bird. that's amazing. i'm not kidding, i would wear a shirt or hat of that. that's fucking fantastic.
how about another one i remember a lot from childhood. before wife beating and steroid abuse became his forte, i remember Jose Conseco being a household name for playing Baseball. i feel like the Oakland A's stuff was everywhere. dig one of their logos, let us:

Fucking ay. an elephant either tiny enough to stand on a baseball, or the ball is giant. this says nothing of the bat, which is either tiny (if the elephant is standing upon an actual baseball) or possibly normal sized (if the ball is huge). and i can't think of the last time i saw a happier elephant. good for you, jumbo. also amazing, unlike the above bird-themed team, the team is not called "the elephants". it's called the Oakland (get ready) ATHLETICS. that's right. not "athletes". ATHLETICS. that is some awesome olde-timey goodness. "sir, our men are some of the finest specimens of athletics you shall ever set eyes upon in your storied career". i fucking love it so.

there's a million more. google that shit.

speaking of the A's, it would be remiss not to mention the following giant among men:

Rollie Fingers. do i really need to say anything else? that moustache says it all. there is nothing about this that is not perfect. baseball has a pretty great history of moustache antics. in fact, i'd go here, because it's fucking great:
http://2radicaldudez.blogspot.com/2011/08/mlb-moustaches-from-80s-90s.html

probably the thing i'm most interested in aesthetically in Baseball is old school Baseball cards. i think i recall having a friend or two in the 1990s who collected Baseball cards. they weren't particularly exciting, kinda generic, actually. but being a little kid and seeing cards from back then, as well as before my time, they have a pretty excellent design sense. not being someone involved in graphic design, it's difficult for me to explain what i mean. it's just that they appeal to me on that level. i didn't collect them as a kid (i was more of a non-sports card person; i had a shit ton of star-wars, the 1989 Batman movie, garbage pail kids, Dinosaurs Attack!, etc cards), but it would be impossible to get through an American childhood and not see them.

seriously, dude? come on, how is that not fucking amazing?! balls to you, i say. that fucking rules.
another fine example. p.s. -prepare to have you mind blown. blood may shoot out of your nose. you have been warned:

holy fucking shit! i know nothing about Oscar Gamble (too lazy to google him), but he is my hero for life. clearly a god among men. stunning. just unbelievable.

finally, i wouldn't be a huge nerd if i didn't think the foreign version of everything was better than the American version. so here's that portion of the proceedings.
due primarily to our rebuilding the country, as well as American cultural hegemony that has been present in the world since at least the middle of the 20th century, Baseball is huge in Japan. in fact, the player to hold the record for most home runs ever is Japanese. Sadaharu Oh of the Yomiuri Giants. he played from 1959 - 1980. i'm not sure, but that seems like a long fucking time to me. someone's probably beaten it, but who knows? i first learned about him from the Beastie Boys song, and have been obsessed ever since. back in the heyday of Myspace (i know, i know: i'm a pappy), under "who i'd like to meet" or whatever the fuck it was, for awhile i had this picture:

i left it up to people to figure out who it was. (i.e. - a goddamned hero, that's who!)

so that's that in a nutshell. i feel like this entry was a bit rambling. and i know a pal of mine who is super into Baseball that may find fault with some of what is said here, factually or otherwise. truth be told, i have no mind for stats of any kind, especially not sports related. but who is to say? as far as the "look" (for lack of a better term) of old school Baseball, i think it's the shit.

and finally, we can't overlook possibly one of the greatest Baseball exploits of all time. back in the super funky 70s, this is the shit that happened:

groovy.

Minor Obsessions, first of a series: La Bamba.

hello. i've decided to start cataloging my strange and slightly off-kilter obsessions in this humble blog, primarily a)to post more (as was one of my resolutions), b)to write more (also a resolution; for what it's worth, this is sort of like writing, right?), and c)your edification (or ridicule).

let me take a quick moment to explain. i think anyone who reads this knows me, and therefore knows my major obsessions: Comics, Books, Music, Philosophy/Religion, The Ladies, Video Games, Pop Culture, and suffering (kidding on that last one... or am i?) that said, many people who know me and quite well at that are unaware of some of my smaller, possibly more bizarre obsessions, from now on to be referred to as minor obsessions. hey, why not?

when i say "bizarre" or "strange", i don't mean something like "i love drilling holes in cats", or anything of that nature. i just mean stuff one might go "really? huh. i wouldn't've figured." the stuff that doesn't get as much coverage as the biggies, named above. so there's that. who knows? as Bill Cosby once said "you might just learn something".

La Bamba

many of you are probably familiar with the song "La Bamba", the 1950s hit single from Richie Valenz, he of the ill fated plane crash that also killed off Buddy Holly (and that weird Big Bopper guy; no huge loss for my money). you may really only be acquainted with it through the 1987 film starring the ethnically ambiguous Lou Diamond Phillips (is he Latin? Native American? what???). well, i'm here to tell you, for whatever strange reason: i am obsessed with La Bamba (henceforth i mean the song).  partly due to a resurgence in popularity around the time of the film. in 1987, i was 11. that shit was everywhere. there was even an MTV video, featured clips from the movie (the song itself was performed by Los Lobos, with LDP miming the actions). i knew the song of course from the oldies station, which my mom was a frequent listener of. being that it's in Spanish, a language i do not speak, i had no idea what was being said, and was obsessed with finding out. at the time, i was living in Southern California, which is heavily populated by Mexicans (and lest there be any nonsense, they were kinda there first. California was ostensibly part of Mexico. look it up, jerks!). i was constantly asking friends of mine who knew Spanish to please, please for the love of god tell me what it means.

not a single person would. to my young mind, it was as it some great secret was being kept from me. the truth is, no doubt, probably much more prosaic. i'm sure i ran into a problem faced by most amateur anthropologists. the people who knew the language and traditions were fucking with the outsider. and really, i don't blame them. when you're a kid, any bit of power over another kid is worth its weight in gold.

cut to the internet era, probably the early-mid 90s. i went digging for trillions of lyrics for songs and bands i had not previously known. i even used to print them out and keep them in folders. how hilariously quaint. anyway, i discovered many things, and i'm going to hep you to them.

for one thing, La Bamba is not a rock song from the 50s. it's an old folk song from Veracruz, Mexico, and it goes back a long time. that in and of itself was mindblowing to me. it's from a long tradition of such songs that involve a signature dance, in this case "La Bamba". from what i gathered via the web, folklorists believe that "bamba" is a sort of a slang version of the Spanish word for "stomp", bambolea. so there's that part of it. 

what of the lyrics? well, contrary to what most white people (myself included for many years), there not saying "lalalalalala La Bamba", etc. the song is in Spanish, duh. so for years as a kid, i was way off bass, no doubt singing "lalalala La Bamba" at the top of my lungs. so you don't have to suffer through what i did as a child, here are the lyrics to La Bamba:

Para bailar La Bamba
Para bailar La Bamba
Se necessita una poca de gracia
Una poca de gracia
Para mi, para ti, ay arriba, ay arriba
Ay, arriba arriba
Por ti sere, por ti sere, por ti sere

Yo no soy marinero
Yo no soy marinero, soy capitan
Soy capitan, soy capitan
Bamba, bamba
Bamba, bamba
Bamba, bamba, bam

Para bailar La Bamba
Para bailar La Bamba
Se necessita una poca de gracia
Una poca de gracia
Para mi, para ti, ay arriba, ay arriba

"ah-ha", many of you may (or may not) be saying, "they're not saying 'lalalala la bamba' after all!"

and many of you may not be saying that. you may be saying, that's fucking obvious, Einstein. to some extent it is, but when you're a a little kid, or in some cases a lazy white person, you may not be able to pick up on this. 

so what does it all mean? despite the fact that it's not particularly hard to translate Spanish into English (and vice versa), the translations are often highly disputed. why that is, i couldn't tell you. perhaps some idiomatic meaning is lost. this is highly possible. it's not completely unheard of within the same language. if you were American, let's say, and you wrote a book, and it was published in England, from what i understand, they would change all the "colors" to "colours", and so forth. i may be wrong,  but that's something i've seen here and there. nevertheless, as close as we are able to get, it goes a little something like:

In order to dance La Bamba (2x)

it's necessary to have a little bit of grace(2x)

for me, for you, higher and higher

oh, higher and higher

by you i will be (3x)

(the next verse is my favorite, and i have actually been known to say this at times)

I'm not a Sailor (2x)

I'm the captain!(3x)

then it repeats and fades out. and now you know. and in knowing, you have grown stronger. 

so yeah, i'm obsessed with La Bamba. there it is, in case you were unaware.

how about an old school version?

word.

be sure to come back for more Minor Obsession. i'm just writing them as i think of them.

RESOLVED: start sucking less.

Hey, everybody.

okay, ANYbody.

so, yeah, i never post anything here any more. well, that's about to change. new year, new blog.
well, it'll be the same blog, but i'll actually be posting content. word.

if you ever read this, stay tuned for entries about all manner of frippery and sundry trivial "knowledge" of things. i plan to advance the pop-culture addled nature of the thing, but with focus on specific topics. also, as stated before, i plan on posting more (read: at all). hopefully you, gentle reader, will join me.

stay tuned...