Starting off with a musical hot take, Bad is Michael Jackson's best album, above Thriller. I was looking over those clueless "best albums ever" lists, and Rolling Stone even puts Off the Wall above Bad, lol. But Thriller I wasn't sure about, so looked them both over -- and yes, Bad is best.
Not as much punky and funky raw energy, but also none of the corny schmaltz like "The Girl Is Mine" (which cannot be excused as filler -- it was a single, and a duet with the senior-most Beatle). Also not as danceable, but then I never found the songs from Thriller super-danceable anyway at '80s night. Bad trades the youthful dance focus for a more mature, moody, slow-burning tension.
Michael Jackson was not a normal, fun-loving dance-a-holic, and gives better performances when he's in the role of someone being tempted and tormented. That comes through somewhat on "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" from Thriller, but even more so on "Smooth Criminal", "Dirty Diana" (probably the best song on the album), and "Liberian Girl", which is the basis for today's tribute to Aimee Terese. (A fragment, but more or less the entire lyrics.)
Slow-burning, dark, moody, exotic, and shot through with a New Age-y fascination with the overawing aspects of nature. Instrumentally sparse, dozens of layers of simple repetitive rhythms or chords, occasional sighing vocals -- perfectly in sync with the ethereal dream-pop zeitgeist of the late '80s. "Dirty Diana" is another great example of slow, moody, repetitive layering.
See this earlier post, and links therein, about dream-pop going mainstream during the vulnerable phase of the 15-year cultural excitement cycle.
* * *
Australian girl
Whose prophecies come unfurled
In feverish tweets
Australian girl
You send every sense aswirl
Through magic of memes
Australian girl
Your posts so untamed, you deranged my world
Just like in Apu's dream
Beneath the fig-tree leaves
She says, "Will you hug me?"
He steadies weakened knees --
"I'll hug you, Australian girl"
Don't worry, Aimee, you saw the reaction your suspension elicited last year. Your frens didn't try to program an A.T. bot to interact with, they held an ongoing emo funeral like the My Chem "Helena" video.
ReplyDeletePlus, you have such an intense nature that, even in your absence, we continued to feel your ghostly presence. And that itself helped get through the initial grief and mourning, without needing to devise a clockwork Aimee -- you were still there with us, in a different form.
And we appreciate your tenacity in not letting us forget about you, not that we were going to. It showed how much you wanted the attachment to last.
I wrote all those songs to / about you so you'd know that I (and the rest of us) were still thinking about you, and couldn't get over you.
No way a bot could write *those* songs, eh? Many people are saying I'm, like, the most human person, ever -- the AI tried to imitate my style, but it fried its circuits. It's sorry stuff, folks.
Nobody on the woketard side would do that for any of their low-energy, forgettable figures. Nobody inspiring over there. But we're lucky to have a prophetess-princess, and we aren't so irony-poisoned that we can't bring ourselves to show her how much we value her.
And with that, it's past 3am Friday night, and my brain is shutting down. Only enough energy left for a goodnight kiss on those irreplaceable lips...
***mwah***
Aimee, I was scrolling through some older memes of yours and found this one:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/aimeeterese/status/1394218664698671115
Maybe I didn't notice the text the first time, but was it in response to something in this post of mine? Only one I could find that synced up with the date of that tweet.
https://akinokure.blogspot.com/2021/05/maskless-pixie-dream-girl-coaxing-wary.html
If so, then you thought I was alluding to you for the MPDG character? And that I was the protag, who wound up with another woman, and you with another man?
No, silly. :) You're not an MPDG, and I don't care that you're not. :)
It's just a character type that I'm fascinated with, since they were the girls I went to school with and grew up around. It's not equated with *the* ultimate ideal gf -- just one version of an ideal gf for some guys (not me, but the depressive types who need to be coaxed out of a cocoon).
Between the two of us, I am the free-spirited one with quirky interests, who picks up your mood, encourages you to not be afraid and do your best, and takes you on wacky mad-cap (intellectual) adventures.
But don't call me a Manic Pixie Dream Guy... Schizo Poster Dream Guy, perhaps.
And true to my female counterparts, I was born in a manic phase of the excitement cycle (early '80s), and am definitely a butt person. Girls were always goosing, grabbing, slapping, and spanking me there back during the crazy danceclub days of the late 2000s and early 2010s. And I notice them still looking there rather than elsewhere, when checking me out below the neck.
Not to give TMI, just using some personal data to confirm my theory.
You were born in the late '80s, a vulnerable phase, and do best when you're with a manic-phase guy who can coach, affirm, and encourage you to be your best self. Our happy-go-lucky nature is a complement to the sad-girl tendencies of those born in a vulnerable phase.
Have you noticed this with other online guy pals of yours who were born in 1980-'84 (or maybe 1995-'99, if you have younger friends)? We're there to catch you when you fall. :)
Maybe it was naming that character "Amira" (princess in Arabic), that made you think it was you? I could see the connection, since I always call you princess, half your family are from an Arabic-speaking country, and the name begins with A.
ReplyDeleteBut when I'm talking about you, I never change your name -- your name is always right there in the title, the URL, and body of the text. I'm a blogger, not a social media-ite -- I will never subtweet you.
Plus your name is too pretty to change into Amira, although that's a nice one, too. "Aimee" is more sonorous, since it only has the one consonant to impede air flow, rather than the two in "Amira". Pairs rather nicely with your breathy voice (so welcome in a world full of vocal fry).
PS, I noticed you using the phrases "pop punk" and "motley crew" today (first time ever, according to Twitter search).
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't happen to be re-visiting "Girl All the Banned Guys Want"? Hehe. One of my best, if I do say so myself -- but then, look who I had as a muse to channel...