My Brightest Diamond
Okay, what just happened there in 2009? It went by like a blur. All snide comments aside about my utter lack of indie juice for that year, I could say that my personal evolution has tremendously affected the course of this website’s content. As I review all my entries it’s been so issue-oriented and later on, I tried to experiment on describing sensations evoked by music and vice-versa. The latter is a somewhat out-of-body experience, if you will, which might require a slight intoxication on my part (again, real or imagined).
But enough of my self-indulgent musings. This year, I wish to introduce a new dimension to this blog which is to feature guest writers. That’s right. Other voices writing on this blog aside from moi. I’m sure by now you’re tired of this highly cynical and weird eccentric behind the keyboard. Fine. We’ll drag in another highly cynical and weird eccentric behind the keyboard! Hah.
So yes, expect some guy named Francis to pop into this scene once in a while. By the way, Francis is a guy I can easily monitor. By that, I don’t mean in the Foucauldian sense of the word nor at a predatory sense whereby I am the stalker and he is the stalkee. No. It is like the kind of monitor where I can see him sitting in front of class and slap his back startling enough that will remind him to write some more. Take not that Francis is in no way being remunerated for his efforts yet (at least as far as cash is concerned because I will probably be subject to some ‘homework collaboration’ in the future should he ask for assistance in the event that I will be guilt-tripped to oblige). But you know! You get the point. He is also a ‘prolific’ indie artist. By that I mean he has his own myspace! (Okay, up to you if you get my sick and twisted humor). Kidding. Again, let’s get that out of the way and just anticipate his words because you can probably pick up a thing or two from this extremely tenacious music geek.
I am also dragging some of my other friends into this salad of music geekery. When they are no longer pretending to be busy – like I used to do. Of course, in case they are telling me matter-of-factly that they have work this blah blah blah, I’m sure I’ll find a way to squeeze out a little piece of their wonderful minds once I’ve found their bargain weakness. So there. That’s what you’ll be expecting this 2010 in Southisms. Shove Kim to the sides with her boring commentaries at late and in with the new fabulous music critics who’ve got some fresh insights in to the musical esse.
Now, time for a playlist. Maestro! Music!
My Brightest Diamond - Something of an end [Download]
Moby - Shot in the back of the head [Download]
The Books and Jose Gonzales - Cello Song [Download]
Home
Valedictory Speech (an illusion)
Dear (omit: fellow) graduates,
How do you make a graduation march look cinematic? That long arduous function that ushers in a new generation through a new threshold of social expectations. What an irreplacable joy it is to have the discipline and diligence indeed to have come this far! Congratulations to all my friends whose paths I’ve crossed and are now crossing a path still ahead of me. Bid your farewells to the academe, by all means do so, you truly deserve that goodbye! I commend your determination and above all your courage. If anything, the university life is but a riddle to the Life that often eludes our temporal meander in this world. And let me tell you something about the world: it is teeming with opportunities, strife, crooks, unemployment, interesting colleagues, friends, traitors, money, happiness, struggles, creativity(!), companies, countries, dinner parties, society, love, hate, poverty(!), TAXES, obligations, governance, subordination, family, documentation, promotions, post-graduate, independence, boredom, youth, etcetera etcetera etcetera… Take it from someone who took on the world before taking on herself. We all have our answers to own one day with a strong heart and mind, charateristics of heroes and heorines. And that my friends, is truly cinematic.
My deepest gratitude to all my teachers who showed no tolerance for my indolence and for that, evicted me from across disciplines to teach me a more important lesson. I may not be your most studious student but I have learned indeed! Thank you to the tertiary institution for its stubborness and legitimization of my rebellion, and having such a dry sense of humor: it has the last laugh, for now. Thank you to my parents for worrying (sometimes, needlessly) for my future. Mothers and fathers wish their children to grow up strong for they have the wisdom of the damage caused by powerlessness. It may seem like an obvious choice, but we must learn to accept strength instead of weakness. And tread our own path with fearlessness and zeal!
To those who are left behind, such as myself I have something to say to you: What now? NOW, that we have the upperhand. They just don’t know it! All the choices we’ve made and the mistakes many people have said we’ve made, to them we say: So what! I know, I know. But know that there is no reason to feel defeatist when we’re really the ubermench! This simply means that we are not easily defined by society instead we let society be defined by us. We are a huge chunk on the neighborhood which gives us the leverage of the minority. History has taught us that the minorities are the activists and the activists are the agents of change. As most people proceed through life comfortably and are unaware of the dangers, we have already become masters of our own discomfort and have skillfully laid out our options. We are the troubleshooters with a unique point of view.
Finally, thank you to the universe! I have graduated from that social and psychological torture called a “god” and I thank the masters Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beuvoir, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Ayn Rand, Robert Green Ingersoll, Bertrand Russell, Jean Meslier, Michel Onfray, the Zeitgeist and many other freethinkers I have met in this young life and have inspired my post-christian secularity. To take care of humanity is a soulful task yet an immense responsibility that we do entirely alone. No earth, no heavenly consultation, no tradition is the sole basis of our personal, ethical, biological, artistic, intellectual evolution. Borrowing the thought of this important adage, the Captain of my ship, master of my soul: is The “I“.
March, you graduates. I offer you a line from the song written by a great man by the name of John Lennon. The last song he ever recorded moments before he was gunned down is a very apt anthem of a struggle for existential pinnacle. And thus, the master spoke:
Cheers and good luck to you all.
Yoko Ono feat. Spiritualized – Walking on thin ice [Download] [Lyrics]