Friday Random 11

It's one more random than 10!

Blue Girl started an interesting discussion about hate this week, and in leaving a comment, I said that while I wasn't a big fan of hate, I felt that anger was healthy. I'm usually at my best creatively when I'm mad about something. I think that's because my creativity almost always expresses itself as humor, and it's much easier for me to be humorous when I'm irritated about something. I don't need to do a Lewis Black, but there usually needs to be some conflict to drive my creative impulses.

The same day, Dr. Fish (who is a doctor in real life but I think plays a fish on Animal Planet) posted a link to a dance remix of Christian Bale's ice-cap destroying metldown on the set of Terminator 4. I didn't know much about this incident, so I listened to the original audio. (Neither of those links are work safe.)

I definitely believe that Bale went way overboard and acted like a complete prick, but I also sympathize with him trying to concentrate on something and having another person repeatedly interfere with his work. I had a boss once who had me research a project, a free item we could include with a promotional mailer we were doing. My boss was notoriously flaky, and after spending a good deal of time finding some items based on the parameters he gave me, I presented what I found. Sitting in his office, he suddenly changed his mind and wanted to go in a completely different direction. Not a big deal, and certainly par for the course when you work in marketing and advertising. However, he talked to me like I was an idiot for presenting what I presented, when I simply gave him exactly what he asked for. That little bit of attitude made every other little irritation I had with him suddenly boil over, and I proceeded to yell at him, loudly enough that my coworkers were prairie dogging over their cube walls. I probably laid into him for about two minutes, letting him know that I did exactly what he asked and if he wanted something different, he should have said something. When I finished, I got a bit nervous, because he certainly could have taken disciplinary action against me. I probably would have done that if a copywriter came into my office and talked to me like that. Instead, he actually apologized and we moved on. So anger can be constructive.

At the same time, I didn't pepper him with profanity or threatened to "kick his ass" (I was pissed, not insane). If I had done either of those, I would have been out on my ass, because that's how things work in the real world. He makes a call to HR, HR has me escorted from the building. But I guess there's no HR in Hollywood, and if you're Batman, you apparently get to deliver a little vigilante justice.

The irony is, if Terminator 4 is as bad as Terminator 3, this might be the best scene from the film. And Bale's little tirade produced a hell of a dance mix. So in honor of the creative power of anger, here are 11 random songs about anger or angry-sounding songs.

1) "Can I Play With Madness," Iron Maiden. The Bruce Dickinson two weeks in a row? Maybe my iPod is having anger issues. Or spandex withdrawal.

Funny story: Despite harnessing anger for comedic purposes and yelling at condescending bosses, I'm not an angry person by any stretch, and in fact am quite laid back. However, I have had a couple of "Hulk" episodes, where something sets me off and I just go Lou Ferrigno. The Lovely Becky saw one of these very early in our relationship. We used to go to an under-21 dance club in the north Chicago burbs—the kind of place that would have played the Christian Bale remix. You had to present ID to prove you were under 21 to get in.

This place was about a 45-minute drive, and one night, one of the guys forgot his ID (despite a reminder before we left to make sure everyone had ID). I had my military dependent ID in addition to my driver's license, so I decided to give that to him. We didn't really look very much alike, but he clearly wasn't 21 and it's not like we were trying to sneak into a bar. We spaced it so that I would go in first, then he'd come in about five minutes later.

Inside, his date came up to me. The bouncer didn't buy it, and worse, he took my ID. I was pissed at our doofus companion already, and now had to go beg for my ID back. The bouncer gave me an earful about it, and I explained what happened and that I wasn't trying to be a dick, we just wanted to dance. He started to hand me my ID back, but right before I reached for it, he dropped it so I would have to pick it up.

I lost it. I started screaming at the guy, letting loose a Bale-ish broadside of f-bombs, c-bombs, and pretty much any form of profanity I had in the armory. I was so furious that even though I was sure this guy would probably kick my ass, I didn't care. Luckily my friends led me away before that could happen. But poor TLB had to walk with me to my car and get in, with me cursing like a man bitten by a profanity werewolf on a full moon. Like the werewolf after the moon goes down, once I returned to normal, I felt like a complete jackass, because even if the bouncer was a jerk, I was in the wrong.

Luckily I didn't scare her off.

2) "From Ritz to Rubble," Arctic Monkeys. Hey, a song about getting thrown out of the club by a bouncer. SPOOKY.

3) "Fuck You Aurora," Alkaline Trio. Given that they are from Chicago, I think they are referring to the town of Aurora. However, when TLB and I lived in Iowa City, we always got excited when we hit Aurora on the highway, because it meant we were almost to Chicago. Which, if you've ever been to Aurora, is a little sad.

4) "Never Talking to You Again," Hüsker Dü. "Anger" would be even angrier with an umlaut. "I am so ängry at you!"

5) "Prison Sex," Tool. On the surface, that would indeed seem angry, but don't forget about the make-up sodomy. (I really wish I had a clip for the last one. It's one of my favorite SNL skits.)

6) "Hyper Enough," Superchunk. Pretty much every Superchunk song sounds pissed about something.

7) "Stan," Eminem (feat. Dido). I like this song enough to not do the FACK voice. Plus there's been plenty of all caps on the blog this week. Really, a pretty brilliant song about stalkers, with a little O. Henry twist at the end.

8) "Angry Mob," Kaiser Chiefs. They give the word "mob" a bad name.

9) "Helter Skelter (live)," U2. When you inspire the Manson family, you're going to wind up on an angry song list. Their cover is too tame, though, compared to the raw original.

10) "Fight the Power," Public Enemy. It's kind of depressing that one of their members went from this to Flavor of Love. I imagine that has to make Chuck D a little angry.

11) "Ace of Spades," Motörhead. What's even more angry than umlauts? Face warts. Which Lemmy has in spades. If I was more badass I would consider having this played at my funeral. The fact that I have to think about it means I'm not badass enough. I also don't own a belt made out of bullet cartridges.

Here's to a happy, peaceful, non-confrontational weekend.