amanda palmer, good senses of humour, and (more) snow

something i fundamentally believe in is that it's absolutely vital to laugh. if you get beaten up, raped, orphaned, whatever, fair enough feel upset, scream; but in my opinion an intrinsic aspect of closure and getting over difficulties is the ability to make jokes, have a sense of humour - because laughing is healthy, and it's easier to communicate thoughts thru laughing than it is thru shouting.

with this in mind i was really excited when i stumbled upon amanda palmer's latest blog. i don't know if anyone's heard of the dresden dolls, but they get a lot of bad press from the Cool Squad, when they really shouldn't - they're a piano/drum angsty outfit from boston. amanda palmer's the lead singer, now branching off onto a solo project. her latest song, Oasis, has been banned by lots of music channels in the UK - the song's about date rape and abortion, but sung about in a humourous way, with a brash, OTT video. i won't say anything else about the backlash to the song because amanda palmer sums it all up in her blog, 'On Abortion, Rape, Art and Humor', and i'll post the video below. it's worth a watch, controversy besides it's still a really good song.



i guess it's similar to the Bikini Kill song 'Carnival' - a really happy, bouncy song about wanting to go to a carnival. however when you listen to the lyrics you realise it's really about drugs, teenage girls giving carnival workers' head to get free rides, etc. but it's not any less of a powerful song for choosing to tackle a heavy subject with a deliberately up-beat music style. i don't know. i just sincerely from my very bones believe in laughter. i'm not saying go and stand around at a funeral telling the victim's mother to cheer the fuck up, i'm just saying that when you can't laugh about something, you're letting the doom and gloom beat you.

in other news, college has been closed the last two days due to the snow, rain, ice, sleet, sludge, in that order. i've stayed up far too late tonight, but i've had an awful day and for some reason this is cheering me up.

a few pictures of the snow and stuff:




i'm not looking forward to college in six hours :/