The Smashing Pumpkins “1979” video was a strange departure for followers of the grunge era. Whereas in years prior the grunge message had always been negative; that youth were disaffected and depersonalized, this video speaks a different message, a positive one. Images of smiling teens going to shows, kissing girls, and jumping in pools highlighted a message opposite to Nirvana’s “Smells like Teen Spirit”. Yes, youth are disaffected, yes they have problems to deal with in terms of fitting into society, but in the end they should be enjoying youth.

In many ways the video draws a parallel between the peace, love and music of original Woodstock and the violence, riots and fires of Woodstock 99. Both present in the video are positive images of teens enjoying youth but also negative ones such as robbing convenience stores, running from cops and destroying public property. The Smashing Pumpkins were not suggesting that youth completely ignore the problems that they are dealing with. Rather lead singer Billy Corgan sings “we don’t even care to shake these zipper blues” in major key as bright colors rush past the screen. The message here, don’t let depression that’s affecting you suck you in. Instead do as the kids in the video do: go out with friends, laugh, have fun and enjoy music.

Mainly the video focuses on youth. Billy Corgan’s role in the video is that of an observer. He is shown sitting in the back of a car, never directly in the same shot as any youth in the video, but still there. The suggestion is that he is there for the ride, but his main job was to give youth guidance through music.

Unfortunately despite this positive message and call to peace and love, the youth of the generation didn’t adhere to the ideals of 69. Part of this was Corgan’s abandonment of promoting a positive solution. His subsequent darker video “Zero” and album “Adore” once again promoted giving into angst and depression. Other artists (Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine, etc.) continued this message and as a result four years later the rage and aggression came to a climax with the rapes, riots and fires of Woodstock 99. As much as Woodstock 69 represented a climax to the hippie generation, Woodstock 99 represented a climax to generation X. With the video for 1979, Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins briefly attempted a throwback to 69. He saw (as suggested in many interviews) where these negative emotions could lead, and for a brief moment he tried to bridge 69 and 99 with 1979 but to no avail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4_C4yhl33g

As I look around I notice there are a couple of things that most really popular people have.  I shall list them here. Whether or not you can use this information to make you popular, I don’t know.

1) Popular people make people around them feel happy. You simply want to be around them. Simple enough but I’ll build on this.

2) Popular people never show negative emotions: anger, sadness, irrationality, and neuroticism.  No one likes angry people; angry people are douche bags. And they smell like cock. This is actually a really important one. Just look at celebrities; their job is to be popular. One breakdown changes their image forever, you can’t take it back. This is actually the hardest one for me, I have a hard time hiding my emotions and my anger.

3) Popular people rarely share opinions, especially ones that deviate from the norm. Usually they just are whatever about everything. If you have a polarizing personality, you better work on that. That’s right Magnet, you’re a dick and no one loves you. This is also hard for me because I have a lot of opinions.

4) Popular people have something that is in demand, often a talent. Be it playing the guitar, art, photography, or just having weed and knowing where the party is at popular people have something others want.  This is bad news for your mom.

5) Popular people aren’t necessarily good with people and they are often closed off and show little real emotion. This goes along with the never showing negative emotions.  Popular people almost always seem happy, but no one can be happy all the time. These people rarely self disclose and rarely create close enough connections to people that they can express their emotions. This acting unattainable makes them seem cool. Just look at Voldemort. Who is he close with? No one.  But everyone WANTS to be close to him… Beatrix Lestrange.  Question: do you think he ever hit that ass? Or is Voldemort a virgin? 

Seriously though, this is an important one. I know plenty of people who have every other trait but I wouldn’t consider popular. There’s something about being mysterious and unattainable that really attracts people. 

6) Popular people seem cool. Fairly obvious. They’re also often pretty. This is not necessary but helps quite a bit. Though you can easily be very pretty and unpopular.

How do I know all this? Dunno. Pretty sure it’s true though.

Initials of people I studied for this piece, guess if one of them is you!: V.H, C.D, Z.M, B.C, D.C, M.I, M.B, L.P

As an entertainer, if I’m not willing to put honey on my nipples and let a bear into the room am I really doing my job?

Just Aced a Test. Now off to Ace your mom.

Can’t sing right now, too fat.

Fuck class… in the butt.

Carla is a violent ho.

My brain is so cloudy right now. Someone hit me with a fish.

I don’t listen to top 40 music. I listen to top 40 through 80 music.

sometimes armpits smell like weed

I heart ducks that look different than other ducks

One sock is white one is black. Unity.

My hat smells like cats and fish but not catfish

I just washed my hair in a bathroom sink at school and i feel pretty good about it.

I highly encourage you to respond with your favorite tweets you’ve written. 

Some shadowplay:

How did we do it?:

The finished project, got lazy halfway through.

Some demo cases, Nico made the best ones. Too poor to even buy paper cases, has to make some. I like the unicorn.

My favorite one. GIRAFFES! *go HERE*

We also colored the CDs. They look pretty but you can’t see them yet. This was one of the later ones that patrick did that made me laugh.

Remember to come out to the show. Its at Sophias Thai Kitchen tomorrow at 8:00. That’s 129 E street, Davis california.

They are similar in multiple ways:

a) Both bridges and relationships are very difficult to build.

b) The crappier the bridge/ relationship, the more you have to maintain it. If you don’t talk to someone for a while who you don’t know that well, you wont be able to ask for a favor later. If you build a bridge out of rocks and a log in a river, if you walk away it will get washed down the stream.

The ultimate point I came to, is that to get things out of people, you have to actively maintain your relationship, especially if you suck at making relationships in the first place. You can’t just expect people to do things for you if you don’t do things for them consistently.

Someone recently pointed out to me recently that this is a lot like networking. And I would disagree. Networking just basically is about, do shit for people get shit in return later. What this doesn’t take into account is relationships change over time and the fact that if you fuck up a relationship it’s very hard to rebuild (just like a broken bridge, you have to do a lot of clean up of the first bridge to build a new one). Certainly if you have the golden gate bridge, you could leave it for a very long time, and cars could still drive over it. Just like a great friendship.  However, a shitty wooden bridge will rot relatively quickly over time, and there‘s gonna be a lot of rotting wood (drama) in the water to clean up. Just like a guy you met at a party, who you’ve hung out a few times who has something you want (could book a show, interview etc.). The mere fact that you know this guy means nothing. It’s very difficult to go up to a guy and say, “Hey we met once, can you do something for me?” And even if you know that to get what you want out of him, you need a good bridge/ relationship, how do you build a friendship out of nowhere? Ever try to call someone up out of nowhere and ask to hang out? It’s socially awkward and usually doesn‘t work.

There’s an interesting story about Lyndon Johnson I heard. He used to live in this dormitory, and he would go to the bathroom with the excuse to brush his teeth about 20 times a day. This was because he would talk to everyone in the hallway along the way. By the time he was elected to the senate he knew more people in Washington than probably most 6 term senators. When he was elected senate majority leader, he had only been in the senate 4 years. That’s like a 15 year old being drafted to the major leagues, which by the way has only happened once.  He did this because he constantly was talking to everyone, just making sure he knew them, so that when he needed something, everyone was already close.

You’ve really got to constantly maintain relationships with people to get what you want. You can just take breaks from seeing people, or your bridges will fall apart.