The Struggles of Youth

So for my final blog with the class, I decided to look at music that speaks of youth and growth and transition as we move though the contemporary landscape. And now that air is thick with pretension, I can write freely about these unique pieces of melody and memory.


The Music:
Lyrics:

Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that. (x3)
Now you're all gone got your make-up on and you're not coming back.
Can't you come back?

Song:

Anthem for a Seventeen-year-old Girl

Artist:

Broken Social Scene

Why these lyrics are so great (at least in my opinion):

The song sounds so sweet when you first listen to it, but all that sugar is merely a facade to hide something far more bitter. For that reason it feel so high-school (hence the title). I feel that these lyrics really capture that loss one feels when someone  moves on without him/her. I relate to the sentiment of the song, which I think is:

We are in two different places and you are a completely different person and I hope I still cross your mind every now and again. However, I what want nothing to do with the new you and wished that you hadn't changed in the first place.

Lyrics:

So young, so young
So much pain for someone so young, well
I know it's heavy, I know it ain't light
But how you gonna lift it with your arms folded tight?

Song:

Month of May

Artist:

Arcade Fire 

Why these the lyrics are so great:

I enjoy these lyrics for several reasons. The first being their reflective quality, when I read them I picture a man saying them to himself. Secondly, I appreciate their message, that is, do not let stubbornness prevent you from moving past a struggle.

Lyric:

And you don't love your girlfriend
You don't love your girlfriend
And you think that you should but she thinks that she's fat
But she isn't but you don't love her anyway
And you don't love your mother
And you know that you should
And you wish that you would
But you don't anyway

Song:

Poor Little Rich Boy

Artist:

Regina Spektor

W.T.L.S.G.:

If you caught the secondary theme of these lyrics, by now, I applaud you. If you didn't, the secondary theme is the arrogance of youth. I believe this song exemplifies that theme, these lyrics especially. I think in youth.

Married in Misery...

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been preparing myself for a very important event. That is of course my first divorce. It's not like I am some cynical, love-bashing feminist, I'm actually a realist who just happens to be a feminist. You see, today about half of all marriage end in the D-word (no, not duck); so to me it seems only logical to prepare one's self for something with that kind of odds. So what if one couldn't, you know, get divorced because his/her marital status changed when one crossed state lines.


That is the problem that is facing many gay and lesbian Missourians. According to the Riverfront Times:

"Since 2009, when an Iowa Supreme Court ruling extended marriage rights to all unrelated adults, with no residency requirement, nearly 90 couples have taken the long bus ride from St. Louis to Iowa City with Show Me No Hate, the St. Louis-based marriage-equity group that charters the buses. "

But the thing is that when those newlyweds cross back into the Show-Me State their vows are mute. This is due the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, as well as, a 2004 amendment prohibiting same-sex marriages.


As with opposite-sex marriages, same-sex marriages often fail, but unlike straight marriage, according to Missouri, the former couples are not technically married and therefore cannot be divorced. And while this may seem to a positive of sorts, it is most defiantly not. You see, in Missouri, when an opposite-sex relationship sinks the court often divides property equitably, which isn't equal, but it is easier than the property separation process for a same-sex couple. For separating same-sex couples, as with long-term unmarried couple, when dividing estate the property is given to the one who bought it. This reality can be especially difficult for the newly married partners because they must for the relationship to end, which can really kill the romance.

And if you were thinking Why don't they just divorced in the state they were married in?  They can't, well they can but it is very difficult. Imagine, if you would, that you were married and your spouse and yourself had a falling out, you know, broken dishes, crying children, the whole nine yards. You would most likely get divorced. Well for gay couples living in states that do not recognize gay marriage the process can be excruciating. I thought I would spell that process for you in a list, so here we go:

1. You find out that relationship is over.
2. If you decide to attempt to divorce in your home state, you will be shot-down by the courts. If you were not, then the Attorney General will reverse the court decision. See case of Angelique Naylor and Sabina Daly.
3. You try mediation, but it fails.
4. You decide to divorce in the state you married, but in order to do that you must live in that state for at least a year.
5. You quit your job, leave your family and friends behind and moved to said state.
6. You spend a year trying to find some normalcy.
7. You get to go through the fun battle of divorce.
8. You attempt to start over.

And after all this, the only question I have left is Why does a state that didn't want gays to marry in the first place, force them to stay together?


For more information on Gay marriage and divorce see:
Newsweek
National Public Radio
Life Tips
Huffington Post
Chicago Reader

All The Blogs That Could've Been

I do not know what to tell you and that's is the problem. Every idea that crosses through my cranium seem like the perfect first blog but something just isn't right. Maybe it is me or maybe the ideas are just as half-baked as the left-side of my brain says they are. This is why I have decided to list all the blog topics I almost wrote about; that way both the right-side and the left-side of my conscience mind win (no word yet on how the sub-conscience feels about this.)

All the Blogs That Could have Been:

• The Nefarious Flamingo Mallets and Their Evil Plan to Ruin Everything: The stress that enveloped the three weeks of my life I spent attempting to create the flamingo mallets for my schools production of Alice in Wonderland.

         Side Note: They didn't even use the flamingos.

• M is for Massachusetts: The eight months I, a young girl from the South, lived in Clinton, Massachusetts. This would have mostly a rant on how having your third-grade class inside the high-school is not as cool as it sounds and my belief that all the Renaissance men of Massachusetts live in the same town.

All the 'Super Universities' in Massachusetts are in Cambridge.

 Expect Wellesley. Wellesley is a rebel.

• A Lifetime of Horrible First-Impressions: Enough Said.

Example: On a multitude of occasions, my best friend Sam has said,
'When I [Sam] met you [me], I [Sam] assumed that you [I] were complete moron.'

Apparently, the day we met, I spent the entire time blabbering about how my name and the letter 's' looked like you put Israel in a boggle shaker.

+

+

=



I see what she meant.

• How Sensible Zombies Spend Their Saturdays or Sometimes the Cute Magician has a Girlfriend: On October 30th I went to the Arch to participate in 'Gateway to Sanity' (a satillite version of the 'Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear') with Sam.

Best Friend + Jon Stewart + Zombies + Crepe Named After a Naughty Politician +Magicians = An Awesome Saturday                      

This photo is really dorky.

And don't frett. If there is any almost-post that you really liked, let me know in the comments and it might become a real one in the near future. Bis Morgen!