None But Ourselves Can Free Our Minds - TT

Seeing that I have been embracing my inner randomness (that's fancy talk for being lazy) I figured why not just roll on through the week that way. So I am taking the easy way out and doing a Cherry Darling the iPod Shuffler Queen playlist for you. With a tiny bit of info about each artist or song.

Take it away, Cherry!

1. Nice first choice. Redemption Song - Bob Marley. It gives me goosebumps whenever I hear it. According to Bob's wife, he was aware he had cancer at the time that he wrote this song and it's impact on the lyrics is pretty obvious. The lines "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds" were taken from a speech by Pan Africanist Marcus Garvey.

2. How Soon Is Now? - Love Spit Love. Well this one is easy peasy on the trivia. It's a cover of a Smith's song and of course this version was the theme song for Charmed. I loved that show =)

3. Give Me Novacaine - Green Day - HAH! Green Day trivia time! I didn't have to do jack or shit for this one, all I had to do was ask Kidlet! Who was Green Day's first drummer and why did he quit? Answer in the first comment.

4. Everlong (Acoustic version) - Foo Fighters. Ok here is some trivia for you. For the longest time I liked the Foo's but not really. Does that make sense? It's cause I was carrying the Grohl Grunge Grudge. Kinda like "The Wrong Beatle Died" grudge so many people had. I am over it. Huggles to Dave :P

5. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2. HAH! U2 trivia! What was their original name? Answer in the first comment. Oh and *I* will find what I am looking for on June 2oth in the Church of U2 =)

6. Sad Sweetheart of the Rodeo - Harvey Danger. Well here is a bit of local trivia for you. My favoritest DJ ever, Greg Glover owns the record label that released Harvey Danger's first album, Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? That label would be Arena Records. My DJ pwns your DJ.

7. I'll Be You - The Replacements. Here's a bit of info for you. If you don't know The 'Mats you SHOULD know The 'Mat. Yes I just went all Radiohead Fan Music Snob on your asses. Deal. Westerberg is God. This is totally a Desert Island Song. I would probably put this in my Top 20 songs ever.

8. Cry Cry Cry - Johnny Cash. Want me to be super sweet and toss out an easy bit of trivia? What was Johnny's nickname? See the comments ;0

9. Get Off My Cloud - The Rolling Stones. Ok so this is really not Stone's trivia this is more Starr Trivia. I find it IMPOSSIBLE to sing this song and NOT sing it like Bob Dylan. Go on, try it. "Hey! Yeewwww! Get offa mah .....clowwwwwed!"

10. Ruby Soho - Rancid. Pop quiz for the punk rockers in the house. What band were two members of Rancid in prior to forming Rancid?

11. Someday We'll Know - New Radicals. Here's a sad bit of trivia. By the time their hit "You Get What You Give" really took off the band had already imploded and broken up. The album Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too remains one of my favorite 90's gems.

12. Enter Sandman - Richard Cheese. Tuxicity! What is there to say about the musical genius that is Richard Cheese? How bout all the band member's last names are Cheese related aka Gouda, Feta etc.

13. No New Tale To Tell - Love and Rockets. Quick! Name the two other bands that David J and Daniel Ash played in! Hint...think Black.

Thursday Thirteen - Things overheard whilst driving in the Starrmobile.

1. "You know it's bad when you have curtains on your pedo van." - Kidlet. She is wise.

2. "I'm seeing what it's like being a dog. You are not really missing out on much." - Kidlet as she bites the seat belt and shakes her head.

3. "I want to get a shirt that says, 'We got dicks like Jesus!'" - Kidlet

4. "Cause if one blowjob from your mom is good, two must be better." On the mixtape that has Blink 182's blowjob on it twice. - Starr

5. "I almost fell over like a dead fish in front of Dairy Queen." - Kidlet

6. "What do you think monks wear under their robes?" "Monkties?" - Starr/Kidlet

7. "Coldplay is the musical equivalent of U2's wet spot." - Starr

8. "I'm tired of having a breezy crack!" - Long story, Kidlet's jeans were way too big and she was being overly ventilated.

9. "Bitch, hurry up before I ram you...which is probably more action than you've seen in a a while." = Starr

10. "Cupcake, you best commence to Motorin'!" -Starr

11. "Why why why must you merge onto the freeway at 40 miles per hour? You look like a fucking toad!" -Starr

12. "I can sing all pretty like the lesbians!" - Starr while singing along to The Indigo Girls. (Insert Emory lightbulb joke here)

13. "I refuse to apologize. I am a 40 year old white woman who likes Eminem. So suck my dick!" - Starr, whilst gesturing with the power finger.** - Starr
**Usually seen at rock concerts, meant to imply strong feelings



More Thursday Thirteen here!

TT Great Romantic Couples - The Sequel!!

Welcome to part 2 of my list of my favorite romantic couples. Part one can be found here.

Tom Lefroy and Jane Austen - Becoming Jane - How I wish this were true. Jane, who wrote my all time favorite couple ever, deserved at least a moment or two of her very own Darcy. I think we all do. Props must be given to James for managing to make the line "your horizons need to be...widened" into one seriously naughty line. Stupid movie makes me cry though. Can we bring back happy endings? Please?


Petruchio and Kate - Taming of The Shrew - Let's call them a spicier, more violent, version of Elizabeth and Darcy. And Burton and Taylor made the most of the wonderful lines in the play:

Petruchio: Nay, come, Kate, come; you must not look so sour.
Kate: It is my fashion, when I see a crab.


Patrick Verona and Kat Stratford - 10 Things I Hate About You - The modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew updated and wonderfully done. I usually loath modern updates of Willy but I love this movie. Heath and Julia had great chemistry and the dialogue was awesome. I'm a sucker for a couple that can dish and take.

"I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair. I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare. I hate your big dumb combat boots, and the way you read my mind. I hate you so much it makes me sick; it even makes me rhyme. I hate it, I hate the way you're always right. I hate it when you lie. I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry. I hate it when you're not around, and the fact that you didn't call. But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all."


Cher and Josh - Clueless - Another modern reworking of a classic, this time Jane Austin's Emma. I love Alicia and I love Paul Rudd and they are just so cute together. As Paula and MC Skat Kat so eloquently noted, opposites attract.


Emma and Knightley - Emma by Jane Austin - Lovely and talented though she may be, Emma is woefully clueless to her inner feelings for most of the book. Emma spends her time wrecking havoc with everyone else's love life, all while completely blind to the love of her life and best friend who has always been right under her nose.


Harry and Sally - When Harry Met Sally - Ah the movie that dared to let the cat, or at least the faked orgasm, out of the bag and to ask the question, "Can men and women ever be just friends?" Love this movie.


Buttercup and Wesley - The Princess Bride. "As you wish."


Nick and Norah - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - Never underestimate the power of a good mix tape. Evah.



Jonathan and Sara - Serendipity - Ok so it's John Cusack and I think we all know I pretty much freakin ADORE Cusack. But I love this movie. I have a soft spot for complicated love stories based on the premise of fate. With a little serendipity for good measure.


Holly and Gerry - PS I Love You - Such is power of Gerard Butler that I actually liked Hilary Swank in this. The Pogues help too =)


Randy and Julie - Valley Girl - Romeo and Juliet Redux? Like totally fer shur!


Alex and Emma - Alex and Emma - If you have not seen this movie then you should be renting it soon. It's a movie with a novel in movie form in the center of it and the two leads are awesome. Alex is a writer with money and tango troubles and Emma is the stenographer he hires for dictation. Sparks and one liners proceed to fly.

Emma Dinsmore: "Ample bosom"?
Alex: What's wrong with that? It's literary.
Emma Dinsmore: Oh, well, in that case, you forgot the heaving.
Alex: The what?
Emma Dinsmore: In every book I've ever read, whenever there's an ample bosom, there's always heaving.
Alex: What?
Emma Dinsmore: You introduced the bosom. I'm just asking if you want them to heave.
Alex: Fine, let them heave.


Sabine and Christian - Moulin Rouge - "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."

Thursday Thirteen - Mad, Bad, And Dangerous To Know

Ahh...the Byronic Hero. Broody, dark, mysteriously, impossible to live with and impossible to live without. I suppose I could go off on the implausible romantic myth this feeds young women all over the world, but I find myself unable to do so. After all, I am a firm believer in holding true to your fairy tales if you so choose. Let's look at the given traits of our Broody Young Man, shall we?

* high level of intelligence and perception
* cunning and able to adapt
* sophisticated and educated
* self-critical and introspective
* mysterious, magnetic and charismatic
* struggling with integrity
* power of seduction and sexual attraction
* social and sexual dominance
* emotional conflicts, bipolar tendencies, or moodiness
* a distaste for social institutions and norms
* being an exile, an outcast, or an outlaw
* "dark" attributes not normally associated with a hero
* disrespect of rank and privilege
* a troubled past
* cynicism
* arrogance
* self-destructive behavior

That's all well and good, but it's rather PG. The simple fact is that often times the Byronic Hero is, simply put, Sex On Wheels.

He'd have to be, looking at those character traits! Not to be confused with the Anti-Hero (think Dexter) we are drawn to the Byronic Hero because it is usually hinted that he is pining for some unspoken love and that has colored his behavior. I have a major soft spot for the Byronic Hero.

Of this list, I own all the movies and books and in the last example the CD. And every October they all start to migrate off the shelves and into my consciousness. Let's look at some of my favorites.


1. Lord George Gordon Byron - Why not start with the man himself. Let's see, affairs with both sexes, hints of incest, dubbed "Mad, Bad and Dangerous To Know" by a former lover, and the seed of the Vampire genre, in a round about way. John Polidori wrote The Vampyre based off of a fragment of a story that Byron devised the fateful day in Geneva which also saw the birth of what would become Frankenstein. Of course by the time he created Lord Ruthven (who bore a remarkable resemblance to Byron) the two had suffered a fallout and the novel was an obvious slap at Byron. Which probably bothered Bryon not at all. It does, however, lay the ground work for a long and very rich literary and cinematic Bryonic Vampire. Be still my heart. Cap all this drama dramatic death in Greece, where he was fighting with the Greeks in the War of Independence. He is a national hero in Greece to this day. Mick Jagger WISHES he was Byron ;)



2. The Vampire Lestat - Anne Rice - Anne knew her business here. She perfectly played the sexuality and immortality card with charm and pain. He's charming, childish, sexual and innocent at the same time. Oh and the vampire thang. Yeah. So perfectly played.



3. Heathcliff - Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte. Heathcliff is probably the best known in the BH pantheon. Talk about your dysfunctional love (or is that hate) story! Heath baby is probably the least redeemable of all the classic Broody Boys. This is not unspoken love we are dealing with here, this is thwarted love and hell has no fury like a Heathcliff scorned. Yet the underlying tragedy is that Heathcliff is made rather than born this way.



4. Mr. Darcy - Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austin. Byronic or not? Here's the deal with Darcy. He makes the most perfect of BH. I think we all know that beneath that snobbish exterior beats the heart of a deeply romantic man. His snotty behavior early in the book that sets him up to be so mean is later revealed to be partially a misunderstanding and partially that bad character flaw all Byronic Boys have to overcome. He is the most redeemable of them all but still maintains the dark broody charm. Plus he's Darcy, and Darcy will keep the dream of true love alive till the end of time.


5. Mr. Rochester - Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte. Note to Stephenie Meyer. Yo, dipshit. *THIS* is who you most likely modeled dear Darling Edward Cullen after. Heck you even got the name right and that whole "I'm a monster thing." Of the traditional BH, Rochester is my favorite. So dark, so haunted, freaky sex scandals, mad wives and burning buildings! Disfigurement! How can you not eat that shit up with a spoon?



6. Edward Cullen - The Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer. Edward Cullen is the textbook example of the Byronic Hero. In fact he is SUCH a walking stereotype that he should be unbearable but somehow, someway Meyer pulled it off. Which I think is a testament to the archetype and not the author. Frustrated love, the whole martyr syndrome of "I'm bad for you but I love you too much to let you go" and the vampire thang? Hello. And yeah I know that is not a Twilight picture. Who's wants to argue it's merit with me :P



7. Angel - Buffy/Angel - Joss Whedon. Angel is also a near perfect archetype of the Byronic Hero. He sure has the dark secret of his past to atone for courtesy of being a vampire killer. Lost love and a gypsy curse don't hurt either. He's always been a favorite of mine.


8. Hamlet - Obviously Shakespeare pre-dates but I think the whole Mommy issue, dead father, crazy girlfriend who you spurn and she kills herself thing it can be said he is a precursor.



9. Eric Draven - The Crow - James O'Barr. Eric is, in my mind, the best modern example of the Byronic Hero myth to date. Returning from the dead to avenge the death of the woman he loved only to be reunited with her in death at the end? It does not get much more Byronic than that. "Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever." Best. Line. Ever.


10. Batman - Bob Kane and Bill Finger - Ok so The Bat is a pretty damn good modern version as well. Poor Bruce. So tragic and mis-understood. He hides in a Batcave and avenges the wrongs committed against his family and his city but he does it outside of the law.


11. Maxim de Winter - Rebecca -Daphne Du Maurier. So let's see. Murder, haunted house, new wife who's new name is never given. Tragic fire and exile? Yup we got a winner here.


12. Dracula - Bram's Stoker's Dracula - The Movie. Vampires in general ALL fit the mold. In the Francis Ford Coppola' movie, we have a Vampire driven mad by grief of the loss of the love of his life. It's introduced a human element to an inhuman being. Nice work Francis.


13. Jim Morrison - completely cultivated the Byronic Mystique - Jim Morrison took the Byronic persona and turned it to an art form. Combined with the imagery of the William Blake's poems and sha-bang. Jim reinvented what it meant to be a rock star.

And since I am incapable of leaving you without music, I give you the Hella Random playlist. This posts selection is No Myth - Michael Penn.

13 Things I Am Looking Forward To

1. Glee!!




2. Angel's Game - Sequel to Shadow of the Wind




3. The first fall drive that is sunny and crisp and smells of woodsmoke



4. The Blink 182/Weezer concert!


5. The announcement of the dates for the second NA Green Day tour ;)




6. Alice in Wonderland!!




7. New Moon - Just to get it out of the way. Sucky ass Jacob. Yuck. Ok and *maybe* to ogle Rob Pattinson. Maybe.



8. Last Night In Twisted River - John Irving. My favorite living author =)



9. The new Joe Hill book - Horns. Stephen King's kid kicks ass.



10. The Resistance - MUSE!!



11. The Muse Tour announcement. C'mon guys, show a girl a little love and please please please please please please ....play Portland.

12. Whip It!!



13. HALLOWEEN!!!!



More Thursday Thirteen Here: Thursday Thirteen

TT 13 - Hit That Button There, The One That Just Says Wrong

This weeks Thursday Thirteen is random Starr trivia.

1. My iPod's name is Cherry Darling. She is, of course, a (RED) iPod. Cause Starr rolls like that.



2. The most played song on Cherry is Tenderness by General Public. (see the playlist at the end of today's post)

3. I loathe tomatoes and okra.



4. I loathe Ernest Hemingway even more.




5. I no longer remember what my natural hair color looks like.



6. My favorite post of the year was my Starr's Eurotrash Vacation Series from January.

7. Todays post title song lyrics could be my life motto. (Disaster Button, Snow Patrol. See playlist)

8. "Jazz" and "Pink Lady" apples have replaced Granny Smiths as my favorites.




















9. Favorite book - The Great Gatsby



10. I'm still bitter that Prestige cosmetics discontinued my Fig lip pencil. I don't care if it has been 10 years, I am still annoyed. I have yet to find it's equal.

11. Just bought the new Weezer song (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To and I am jamming out to it while writing this.

12. Just Cause



13. Yes. This is me. Circa 1991

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