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2009/08/02

Neatorama

Neatorama


3 Songs About Drugs and 3 Songs That Aren’t

Posted: 01 Aug 2009 05:13 PM PDT

Yes, we all know music largely revolves around sex, drugs and rock and roll, but sometimes it's hard to actually tell which one the band is talking about. Here are six songs with meanings you may not have originally guessed.

Songs About Drugs:

"Got To Get You Into My Life" by The Beatles
This track really sounds like a love song written for a love interest with lyrics like, “Ooh, I suddenly see you/Ooh, did I need you/Every single day of my life.” Despite how it sounds though, this one is about the first time Paul tried marijuana and his instant love affair with the drug. What more would you expect from soneone who also named a romantic love song (Martha My Dear) after his dog?
Source Image Via Gonzalo Barrientos [Flickr]

"Motorhead" by Hawkwind and Motorhead
Even a lot of Motorhead fans don't actually know that the name is a slang for a speedfreak. Lemmy wrote the song for the group Hawkwind first and then took it to be the title song for his post-Hawkwind group. Here's some of the song's lyrics that really give it away, "Motorhead, you can call me Motorhead, alright/ Brain dead, total amnesia/ Get some mental anesthesia."
Source

"Hey Mr. Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan
This one's a little less certain. You see, although it is widely accepted that this song is about a man looking to score from his dealer, Bob claims none of his songs are about drug use. While I'm usually inclined to accept the artist's word on his own songs, Mr. Dylan also claims that "Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35" A.K.A. "Everybody Gets Stoned" is especially not about drugs. I may be able to concede that he may have meant the song to be more about stonings and social outcasting, I have a hard time accepting a poet as prolific and intelligent as Bob Dylan didn't realize and fully intend the double meaning of the chorus.
Source Image Via MarkyBon [Flickr]

Songs Not About Drugs:

"Hotel California" by The Eagles
With lyrics like "you can check out anytime, but you can never leave," it's easy to see why so many people associated the song with drug use. The reality is that the song is more about the hedonism of the Southern California lifestyle the group was exposed to in the seventies, which, to be fair, did include heavy drug use. Still, the drugs would be no more than a minor part of the song's deeper meaning. Eagles drummer and writer Don Henley, said it was "basically a song about the dark underbelly of the American dream and about excess in America, which is something we knew a lot about.”
Source Image Via Saguayo [Flickr]

"Mirror in the Bathroom" by The English Beat
While many people assume any songs involving mirrors, particularly when the mirror is in a bathroom, must be references to cocaine, this one is actually about narcissism. The writer, Dave Wakeling, said he was inspired to write the song while he was looking in the mirror at himself debating whether or not he could skip work that day. He then started thinking about the self-involvement and narcissism. The line about "a restaurant that's got glass tables" was actually a direct reference to a fancy restaurant that opened near him that, would you guess it, had glass tables. Funny enough, the success of the song may have helped lead the band into cocaine addictions; Dave later remarked about it that, "songs can become sort of strangely prophetic."
Source

"Puff the Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul and Mary
This song really is about a growing up and abandoning an imaginary friend who happens to be a dragon. Although it's merely a tale of lost childhood innocence, the release of the song in the drug-fueled sixties led to many people assuming that anything with the word "puff" was actually a reference to marijuana. Co-writer Leonard Lipton once said, "I can tell you that at Cornell in 1959 [when the song was written], no one smoked grass." So, if you were hoping for the song to actually have been about drugs, you almost certainly have already lost that childhood innocence referenced in the song.
Source Image Via CelestialSpirit13 [Flickr]


The Politics of Philosophical Destruction, II

Posted: 01 Aug 2009 04:17 PM PDT


(YouTube Link)

Way back when, I linked to a satirical political attack ad allegedly by Friedrich Nietzsche against fellow philosopher Immanuel Kant. Apparently, Søren Kierkegaard’s supporters jumped into the fray and offered this vicious attack ad against both Kant and Nietzsche.

Via The Corner

Previously on Neatorama: 9 Bad Boys of Philosophy


Super Hero Wedding

Posted: 01 Aug 2009 07:33 AM PDT

You may have seen or read about some over-the-top wedding productions, but Tony Lucchese told Sarah LaFore will be going the extra mile when they marry today in Portland, Maine. They will say their vows dressed as Superman and Wonder Woman.

Aquaman, Flash and Spider-Man round out the groomsmen. Ten bridesmaids will be Amazon warriors — in comic mythos, Wonder Woman is an Amazon princess — with spears, togas and sandals.

Two weeks ago, LaFore and Lucchese made an emergency trip to Jersey, down and back in one day, to tweak her costume.

“Paramount to having a successful wedding is having the bride feel pretty,” he said.

He and volunteer carpenters built a Fortress of Solitude altar in a rented warehouse space in Portland. They’ll be married by Kieschnick’s father, dressed as Jor-El, Superman’s dad. Part of the script borrows from Kryptonian wedding vows. The couple will break character to say, “I do.”

The two met while working on a theatrical production in Oak Ridge, Tennessee seven years ago. They have been planning the wedding for 18 months. Link -via Fark

(image credit: Amber Waterman/Sun Journal)


13 Bad Ass Prosthetics

Posted: 01 Aug 2009 07:30 AM PDT


Never mind that four of these are fictional, two are concepts, and two are in testing. The other five artificial body parts are quite amazing in the real world, like Cody McCasland's sled that allows the 7-year-old to play hockey even though he has no legs. Link -via Gorilla Mask


Tortoise Survivor

Posted: 01 Aug 2009 07:28 AM PDT

A fire broke out in Becky Smith’s home when a heat lamp turned over on her tortoise cage, setting the wood chip litter ablaze. The bedrooms were engulfed, and two tortoises died. A third tortoise named Shelli was thought to be dead as well, as his cage was melted.

He was so hot he ‘phfizzed’ when firefighters put him in water – and then poked his head out.

‘The firemen said he was steaming when they put him in the bucket of water and he was so hot they couldn’t pick him up,’ said Ms Smith, 27.

‘It’s a miracle he is OK – especially when you see the state of the cage.’

Vets kept him in overnight and Shelli is now nibbling cucumber again.

Link -via Arbroath


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