punk

Turn to page 36 for a discussion of The Stone Roses and the confirmation bias.

We haven't kept up with this story as it developed so here's a quick update: Last February, three members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot entered Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral and performed a "punk prayer" at the altar, blasting Vladimir Putin's re-election and accusing Russian church leaders of holding Putin more sacred than God. The performance lasted less than a minute and they left when authorities asked, causing no property damage to the church.

After a trial that earned them support from feminist activists and musicians internationally, including Madonna and Björk, the band members were charged with "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" and sentenced to two years in prison. Their sentence might include time in a labor camp, where the threat of sexual abuse is pervasive.

Shortly after their sentencing, Pussy Riot released a new music video for their song "Putin Lights Up Fires, featuring footage from their cathedral performance and subsequent trial.

[p4k]

Who would have thought the Spice Girls could actually sound good.

"Come on, gang! NOBODY'S going to subvert our law-abiding suburban lifestyle if WE can help it!"

In all fairness, punk can't really compete based on the guitar parts alone. You have to have at LEAST one verse consisting of a guy screaming unintelligibly about anarchy or bollocks or how he's not going to clean his room like his mother told him to.

Things that I never knew were punk but now know thanks to this ad:

-Huey Lewis and the News -THAT GLAM HAIR -Eurythmics -Californian surfer-dude idioms like "dude" and "man" -Karma Chameleon -My Sharona -THAT GLAM HAIR

I'd probably go and find their old safety pins from when I changed their diapers and offer it to them in case they want to pierce their nose. PRIDE.

Not that it isn't great to hear Dave Grohl's astute observations on fatherhood and the music industry's piracy crackdown, but it would be nice to hear more about the drug-fueled hedonistic rampage of a life that we all know he REALLY leads.

Or maybe it's just ironic.