JLooney.com

So I stumbled across this song by Ian Brown, whom I’d never heard of until the other day. Turns out, he was the lead singer of the Stone Roses (who I’ve only heard of in passing), although since their breakup in 1996 he’s released a few albums of his own.

For whatever reason, the lyrics of his song F.E.A.R. – coupled with the fact that each verse is a form of the acronym F.E.A.R., which is pretty damn clever and impressive in it’s own right – appealed to me.
Check it out, it’s pretty cool. The lyrics are below.

For each a road
For everyman a religion
Find everybody and rule
For everything and rumble
Forget everything and remember
For everything a reason
Forgive everybody and remember

For each a road
For everyman a religion
Face everybody and rule
For everything and rumble
Forget everything and remember
For everything a reason

You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)

Final eternity arouses reactions
Freeing excellence affects reality
Fallen empires are ruling
Find earth and reef

Fantastic expectations
Amazing revelations
Final execution and resurrection
Free expression as revolution
Finding everything and realizing

You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)

(Fantastic expectations
Amazing revelations
Finding everything and realizing
For everything a reason)

F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear

And there’s more video goodness here, here, and here.

Or see thw gallery with comments here.

So Megan and I were out for a leisurely drive yesterday, and we thought “why not drive clear up to Cove, Utah. It’s right on the border of Idaho and Utah, just a tad south of BFE and next to the edge of Hell, and well, we’ve never been there, so it’ll make a swell trip!” OK, we didn’t really think the first part – I had to go there to appraise a car, and thankfully, Megan came with me. The part about BFE and the edge of Hell is true, though.

On the way back down through Logan, we were both thirsty and munchie, and I had to pee, so we stopped at the Texaco/Burger King/Top Stop at the north end of Sardine Canyon.

Megan spied this bad of nastiness and asked me if I thought they tasted like ketchup-flavored potato chips. I don’t remember what my witty reply was but it was probably something like “no.”

Of course, after eating one, she really wants me to try them, which I KNOW means they’re probably about as appetizing as a pickled horse turd.

The real “red flag” was the small print on thye front of the package, where it says “Flavored Potato Snacks.” Not chips, mind you – ’snacks’, which is code for “not potatoes at all!”

Turns out, they were every bit as bad as I expected.

Here’s a tip for any of you that are inclined to creatively explore culinary mixology – stick with stuff that at least sounds good, and then try to make it look somewhat palatable.

This was one big 3 oz. (85.2g) bag of FAIL.

As I was driving home to day, I heard a snippet of commentary on the radio. I was listening to X96, which is pretty much the only station I listen to, unless they’re playing that gawd-awful piece-of-shit song “Girls” by the Beastie Boys, which they seem to do at least twice a day just to piss me off and get me to change the station, in which case I listen to KBER.

I digress.

So recently, my favorite morning show, Radio From Hell with Kerry, Bill, and Gina celebrated it’s 5,000th episode – pretty damn cool and a real milestone by most standards. They have this feature they’ve done pretty much from the start called “Boner’s In The News“, which, as they describe it is “the feature that won’t go away, three stories ripped from the headlines, of bad, funny, or stupid behavior.” Although there is certainly innuendo in the title, one of them is always certain to clarify that a boner is simply a mistake. Don’t believe me? Just do a Google search for “boners in the news” and see what you get.

Well, to celebrate their longevity, billboards were erected (no innuendo intended) around the valley that said “5,000 Boners and Counting!” and then said something like “thanks for 13 wonderful years”… I don’t remember and I can’t find one of the billboards to take a picture, even though Megan and I drove downtown and back looking for one with no luck.

Anyway, back to this little snippet I heard on the radio. Todd Nuke’ Em, the program director for X96 has a comment line available where anybody can call in and record a message, and sometimes he plays them on the air. Well, the clip I heard was some lady just going off about how disgusting these billboards were, how they should be taken down, how it offended her sensibilities, etc. – basically a 30 second diatribe about how offended she was and how she was going to enroll all of her friends and family to boycott the station.

Now, first of all, a boycott of this scale isn’t really going to have what I would presume to be the desired effect. I mean, take a look at some of the great historical boycotts and the vision behind them. Although I absolutely agree with this ladys right to boycott the station, if you’re really that offended, do something that has a chance in hell of having an effect, or at least something that someone will notice.

Second, let’s consider this nifty little thing called the First Amendment. Now, I respect this ladys right to voice her opinion on the signs and how offensive it was to her. But calling for their removal? C’mon, I don’t agree with that crackpot A-hole Reverend Phelps and his band of wackadoo Westboro Baptist imbeciles that protest funerals, but I absolutely support their right to speak their truth. Yeah, living in a free society sucks, because it means that you have to allow others the same freedom that you claim for yourself. Freedom ain’t easy, and it’s probably not supposed to be.

And finally, they’re just words. They only have the meaning or significance that you attach to them. As Mark Twain said, “Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them.”  The words only mean what you say they mean, and they’re only offensive to you if you decide that they are. Here’s a great example. When I was growing up, our family didn’t use the word ‘fart’ – it was a “bad” word. So instead, to describe the exact same bodily function, we used the word ‘fluff’ (which just makes Megan laugh). So, two words that mean the same thing, and yet one is more “acceptable” than the other. Why was fart a bad word? because mom and dad said so. Now that I’m at an age of accountability, it really doesn’t matter what mom and dad say, it matters what I say. I decide what meaning I attach to words.

And just to emphasize the point, I challenge you to visit the link below. It may be offensive to some, and it may be comical to others. My invitation to you is to just notice how you feel, and then ask yourself ‘why’?

Proper Use of the ‘F’ word