Grunge Speak – #81 of 100 Top Hoaxes

In the 1990s, grunge was growing in popularity. It was a counter-culture, stripped-down, angsty musical genre out of Seattle that would heavily influence rock music throughout the nineties.

In November 1992, the New York Times printed an article describing how the Seattle grunge scene was developing its own lexicon. Some examples:

• cob nobbler – loser
• harsh realm – bummer
• lamestain – uncool person
• swingin’ on the flippity-flop – hanging out
• tom-tom club – uncool outsiders
• wack slacks – old ripped jeans

A few months later, The Baffler (a Chicago-based magazine), revealed that the lexicon had been a hoax, made up on the spot in an interview with the Times by Megan Jasper. Jasper was a sales rep for Sub Pop records, who fooled the reporter in resistence to grunge becoming more mainstream.

Although the words didn’t catch on, people still used them satirically, to the chagrin of the Times. Some were printed on t-shirts as jokes, and the term “harsh realm” even became the title of a science-fiction series about a group of people caught in a virtual reality world.

See a list of hoaxes counted down so far after the jump.

Symphony of Science – Jane Goodall

If you haven’t heard of the Symphony of Science you must must must click here now!

John Boswell, the head musician and producer behind Symphony of Science, has created (so far) 4 songs with accompanying videos that put the words of brilliant scientists like Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking to music…with the magic of auto-tune.

I love these creations so much that I even ordered the first song, A Glorious Dawn, on vinyl (you can get them from Third Man Records, they’re only $5, and the vinyl is etched to replicate the gold record on Voyager).

Symphony of Science just unveiled its most recent creation, “The Unbroken Thread”, featuring David Attenborough, Carl Sagan, and Jane Goodall. And it’s beautiful. This one is about biology, evolution, and the complexity and diversity of life on Earth.

I particularly want to point out the part featuring Jane Goodall, and it sums up the main reason why I decided to become a vegetarian (it’s been a week today!):

There isn’t a sharp line dividing humans
from the rest of the animal kingdom
It’s a very wuzzie line

It’s a very wuzzie line,
and it’s getting wuzzier
All the time

We find animals doing things that we,
In our arrogance,
Used to think was “just human”

I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do.

I Had a Religious Experience

…But it didn’t involve any gods. It did, however, involve more than one Gord.

On Thursday night I went to a Tragically Hip show, and it was amazing. Who needs Church when you have rock and roll? I jumped, I danced, I sang, and it was all for something real and something that improves my life in tangible ways: great music.

Gord Downie

The Tragically Hip

Preach!

The beautiful lull, the dangerous tug
We get to feel small from high up above
And after a glimpse over the top
The rest of the world becomes a gift shop

The pendulum swings for the horse like a man
Out over the rim is ice cream to him
The beautiful lull, the dangerous tug
we get to feel small but not out of place at all

We’re forced to bed but we’re free to dream
All us human extras, all us herded beings
And after a glimpse over the top
The rest of the world becomes a gift shop

I don’t know what to believe, sometimes I even forget
And if it’s a lie, terrorists made me say it
The beautiful lull, the dangerous tug
We get to feel small from high up above
From high up above

Yo…the Pope’s Album Drops November 30th

From the label that brought you Nirvana and Guns N’ Roses, Pope Benedict XVI, yes that Pope, will be releasing an album in November.

His album, Alma Mater, will be a mixture of singing and speaking…so sorta like Kanye?

I’m sure he’s hoping to chart:

In 1982, John Paul II reached number 71 in the charts with The Pilgrim Pope, and, in 1994, his recording of The Rosary peaked at number 50.

Proceeds from the album will be used to provide music education to underpriveledged children…somehow I think that education will include indoctrination, but hey, maybe I’m just being cynical.