#especially since i grew up in a cookie-cutter town and not a single one of my friends had to deal with what i had to deal with

[inkykeiji]

i was just completely blown away by your post about agnes and what you said, it really really really resonated with me. i relate to everything you said and i remember reading in a post a while back that he was in the hospital and you felt conflicted about seeing him. i understand that. i also have a complicated relationship with my dad and i just love him so much but i could also be so upset with him because of the things he's done to me and my sister and my mom. oo i can't type too much!! -🧁

oh wow cupcake, thank you so much for this!!! i really appreciate hearing your thoughts, and it’s once again super comforting to hear that there’s someone else who can relate to it as well <33

tw: mentions of drugs + abuse

family in and of itself as a concept can be and often is so incredibly complex, especially when there’s something like drugs and/or abuse thrown into the mix. a lot of people (esp people online, i find) like to act as if these relationships are black and white, as if these feelings and these experiences can be easily and neatly sorted into defined categories when the fact of the matter is, they aren’t, and they can’t. obviously, abuse is bad—this is an objective fact we can all agree on. but when that abuse comes from a family member, a parent, someone who was supposed to be there for you and raise you and love you, it really muddies things.

i love my father, but i do not like him. i am hoping i can find it in me to forgive him for what he’s done to us before he dies, but i’m not sure it’ll happen. i still hold so much anger and bitterness and just generally negative feelings towards him, and in my twenty-something years on this earth i have only JUST begun to work through this shit. and he doesn’t have much time left.

[thebookwyrmsnook]

Addams Family (2019)

I grew up watching the Addams Family movies. I love these crazy characters, and loved how they could be zany and cartoony despite being a live action film. So, when I heard that they would have a cartoon adaptation, I was ready to see what they did.

What I got... I can commend the effort, however I do think they fell short.

Something that the Addams family was always, no matter what happened, a family. They were homeless, jobless and destitute in one film, but they stood strong with each other. In this cartoon film, however, there was consistent arguments and an almost normal family dynamic about them.

So what happens? Well, the Addams Family starts with Gomez and Morticia’s wedding. However, they are mobbed by angry “normal” citizens. Fleeing for their lives, Morticia wishes for a safe haven where no one in the world could bother them. They come across a haunted house that is one punch away from collapsing. Together, they declare it perfect and Morticia declares that she would do anything in her power to protect her family here.

Which is an interesting start, however I find it a shame since the Addams were never ashamed of who they were. They never hid and the polite neighbors were always sort of forced to accept that’s just what they are like. Though, I suppose it’s just a product of it’s time. As neighbors were expected to be polite and kind to one another, and thus the Addams could be strange and all people could do were avoid them. Realistically in more modern times, they would be driven out and wish to hide for their lives. It makes sense why they made this choice (especially with its story purpose), but it’s a shame in my eyes.

The story then becomes almost completely Wednesday’s. As one day, she spots some local kids ride their bikes near their front gates. She immediately realizes that when her mother had told her that nothing else was outside their estate that she was lying. Thus, Wednesday sets out to see the rest of the world. I have seen some think it odd that Wednesday would want something different, to be “pretty”, however I truly think that she just wanted to see what else was out there. She is still a child, so it’s natural to be curious.

Thus, Wednesday Addams is dumped into the middle of a cookie-cutter “everything is sunshine and rainbows” world. Everyone is expected to be a certain way, and of course those who conform perfectly as seen as good, and those with quirks are evil and should leave. Of course, Wednesday being the little gothic freak she is, stands out. She upsets the balance, which causes the neighbor’s designer to turn her attention to the Addam’s estate, which looms over the neighbor. 

Meanwhile, Wednesday becomes friends with the designer’s daughter, who doesn’t willingly conform. Together, the girls decide to rebel against their mothers. Wednesday wears a single pink hair clip, and the other girl shaves after her head and dyes it black. Which, points for really going for it.

Both mothers panic, and try to stop whatever is going on with their daughters. 

Meanwhile, Pugsley and Gomez have a B plot happening. Pugsley is about to become a man, so he must master a certain sword dance in order to prove that he can protect the family. However, despite the fact that he has shown a skill in bombs/grenades, he is forced to learn the sword. However, time passes and he keeps failing despite everything he and his father has tried.

It all comes to a head when, at the ceremony for Puglsey, the “normal” people of the town raid their house. Of course, a big fight breaks out but it’s only when Wednesday joins in, and Pugsley is allowed to use his grenades, that they win. Which neatly ties to the “be yourself and let others be themselves” message of the film.

It was a fun film, and I don’t regret watching. However, I couldn’t help but feel like the movie was missing its usual heart. The Addams are weird, and they love it. They celebrated the dead with big smiles on their faces, and never blinked when they said and did things that we could consider “weird”. Here, however, the older Addams clung to their traditions, and the kids just struggled under it all. It just didn’t feel right.

[greenlightmusicreviews2]

Father of All Motherfuckers - Green Day | Album Review • 4/10

Now Playing: Father of All Motherfuckers, the thirteenth outing from Oakland-based pop-punk legends Green Day.

“Everything that is happening in the world is right there on Twitter. It’s so confusing and it’s so depressing. I really wanted to create some kind of escape for people; I didn’t want to be so obvious.”

- Billie Joe Armstrong

If you’d like, go take a trip across town and check out the review I did of Green Day’s last record Revolution Radio on the old website.

My reappraisal of Revolution Radio is that it sucks, and - the three-part monster Uno! Dos! Tre! aside - it’s the band’s worst record. It was too clean, too safe and just utterly boring, though I guess I can’t fault the band for trying to play it safe after Uno! Dos! Tre! It does have the distinction of having one of my least favorite Green Day songs in “Still Alive,” a song so cookie-cutter, so rock radio safe, so full of platitudes that my brain just starts shutting down as soon as the jangly guitar riff begins. It’s singles were okay, “Revolution Radio” has that god-awful guitar riff that burrows its way into your brain like one of those larva from The Wrath of Khan; “Bang Bang” is pretty good and actually recaptures some of the energy found on American Idiot, or even 21st Century Breakdown.

On Father of All Motherfuckers, Green Day continues their “return to form” with their shortest album since their studio album debut. Butch Walker, alongside Chris Dugan and the boys in green themselves, helps with the production job. If you ever parsed through my writings before, then you’ll know that I actually really like Butch Walker, both as an artist and as a producer. The production on this record is very slick, very tight, and is doing its damnedest to sound pretty contemporary, despite what the somewhat cringeworthy promotional ads might suggest (more on that later). Not to say that it isn’t also trying to be an old school throw-back “uncut rock” record, because holy jeez there are ‘50s style rock & roll freak-outs on here.

A lot of what you hear, especially on songs like “Father of All...” is kind of reminiscent of the garage rock revival of the early 2000s from bands like the Vines, Arctic Monkeys, maybe a little White Stripes - but it’s also reminiscent of this third-wave alternative rock that was simmering on rock radio over the last few years, with artists coming to mind like Holy White Hounds, Glorious Sons and Dinosaur Pile-Up. Except Green Day is about four to five years a little too late catching up with the sound. HOWEVER, followers/fans of Green Day may take notice that it does line up with the sound found of Foxboro Hot Tubs, the garage rock side project of the boys in green, just updated for the late 2010s. The problem I think that this album suffers from primarily is that there just doesn’t feel like a whole lot of urgency the further you get through the record, despite this sense of rock & roll urgency and revivalism that underscores the theme of the album.

Tracks 3 through 5 (”Oh Yeah!,” “Meet Me on the Roof,” and “I Was a Teenage Teenager”) just suck the life from the album, so when it picks back up with “Stab You in the Heart,” it’s hard to regain that momentum. Not to mention, the three aforementioned duds feature some of the lamest parts of the album including embarrassing vocal lines, a total overuse of hand-claps by this point and rock tropes that just aren’t done with any gusto and drag along like a teenager walking to bus stop at 6:30 AM. Surprisingly, Green Day manages to do a spot-on Weezer impression on “I Was a Teenage Teenager,” which is a bizarre twist of fate. “Stab You in the Heart” is a goofy, self-aware send-up of old school rock & roll that I think works pretty well, and is miles better than the previous three songs. It doesn’t pretend to be anything except what it is, which is more than what you can say for a song like “Oh Yeah!” or even “Meet Me on the Roof,” a song that just gets way too far into itself and sounds like a parody.

Green Day does a well enough job adapting their sound to this palate. From the chunky rock riffs, to the compressed and acoustic-digital sound of the kit, to the piano and light-synth work, to the sing-along choruses, to the super bass heavy production sound... but those hand-claps, they are immensely overused. It's an album that doesn't advance Green Day's discography in any meaningful way. Although it's touted as this "100% pure uncut rock" album, it's really not as visceral or energetic as it's made out to be. Myself a struggling disciple of all things rock, this record has some great sounding ideas, riffs and transitions. A hint of what makes this sort of music cool, rebellious and lively is shown on songs like “Father of All..” and “Take the Money and Crawl" - the latter of which is actually pretty fucking badass and has the hallmarks of what makes this kind of music great. I actually hear Armstrong's punk snarl and vitriol, and the sonic manipulation on the vocals is kinda cool, but too often it just feels like these songs were taken out of the oven too soon. A song like "Meet Me on the Roof" is a slapped together piece of soda shop faux-nostalgia that is supposed to pay homage to rock's forefathers, but... just, no. No.

That said, the more I listened and spent time with it, the less the album as a whole appeared to be anything remarkable. It ends with "Graffitia," which, I mean, it's a song. It's so bland and sounds almost identical to the Toby Keith song "Beer For My Horses," which is a much better song. If you turn on any classic rock station in the United States, in between the Who, Led Zeppelin, ELO and the Police, you can now find Green Day - alongside aging alt rockers like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters and Soundgarden. The musical landscape has most certainly changed since Dookie dropped in 1994. Rock music, defined by its guitar-heavy focus and loud drum performances, is not the zeitgeist. Green Day’s infamous subway ad that boasted “no features...no trap beats” is remarkably telling of where rock music still remains.

As someone who grew up on rock music and still really likes guitar-heavy music, I can’t help but feel a bit of sympathy and solidarity with a band like Green Day when they posture in such a way that feels like they’re trying to lead a rock revival of sorts. Father Of All Motherfuckers misses the mark, despite myself really wanting to enjoy the entire record. It's not as bad as people make it out to be, but it is disappointing in a lot of places.

Though I enjoyed it more than Revolution Radio, there's not a lot of immediacy and a lot of mediocrity. It's stripped down to "the basics," but that's about all you get.

Father of All Motherfuckers: 5/10

Favorite Songs: "Father of All..." • "Stab You in the Heart" • "Sugar Youth" • "Take the Money and Crawl"