The last two tracks on XO are “everybody cares, everybody understands” & “i didn’t understand.” i think that just about says it all.
by krisis
thoughts
Or maybe i’m wrong. I’ve spent years now learning and teaching my peers about HIV / AIDS, and really this is the first season in half a decade i’ve spent totally removed from such a community. Is it any less in my thoughts? No, not at all. I’ve known people who have died from aids, and met some of the bravest people in the world who live with the disease. In fact, if statistics are to be believed, i have at least three or four friends who suffer from HIV or will in the near future. Of course, i pray to myself that the statistics are as wrong as statistics tend to be, but i suppose i’ll hardly ever know until it’s much too late. Maybe silence is a way to show how AIDS effects your world, but it isn’t the way to show how it has effected mine. But, no matter how it’s changed you, i encourage you to support World AIDS day as well, even if it’s just by wearing a tiny red ribbon. They aren’t as fashionable as they used to be, but red will be in season until HIV is not.
I think it’s an empty gesture, because silence is the real reason that people are now dying from AIDS by the tens of thousands. It isn’t over, it’s more pervasive then ever, and all of us being silent for a day isn’t gonna get us anywhere. Instead, i am either going to spend the day volunteering with Manna to help get food to shut-in AIDS patients, or donate a dime for every word i blog. You see, there are times that silence only contributes to the problem…
But, now that Miss Janet has left my computer, now i’m here alone with Elliott Smith’s fragile voice and lush beatles-esque production. Oh, what will i do with myself now…
Artists who feel the need to include interludes on their discs are just a pain in the ass. If they do like Janet and give them their own tracks they stay conveniently out of the way when you ‘re making a mix-cd, but they are way too meddlesome when you’re stereo is on Shuffle. Of course, having the interlude at the beginning of an actual track just sucks, because you can’t start cleanly with the song itself. Perhaps Lauryn Hill had the better idea, putting the inbetweens at the end of each song on her Miseducation album, which makes more sense in terms of listening and dubbing. Still, i wish the awful little interruptions to the beauty of music could just be ditched. And don’t even get me started on secret songs that are on the same track as the last song of an album…