disco raccoon's blog

i love you, won't you tell me your name...

let's define terms first.

moshing: it's a dancing style closely related to punk rock (and most punk-influenced metal like metallica, sepultura, slayer etc) and it involves knocking people down, pushing and shoving. known to get extremely violent. the denser part of the gig (right up front, at the foot of the stage/ against the barricades) will have the crazier stunts like crowd-surfing, and trampling.

the birth of the moshpit was at a new york dolls' gig in the early 70's. the punk rock godfathers' audience ran around in a circle while another circle was formed which ran in the opposite direction, knocking the inner circle down.

testosterone: the hormone that stimulates male sex drive and aggression. can be obtained from the aaromatization of estrogen.

estrogen: the hormone that stimulates female sex drive, emotion and a hundred other unknown functions. god's curse on man.

moving on. the moshpit is a primary and primitive way of letting out aggression to music that would support it. now, anyone who's ever been to a gig knows that the moshpit it 100% male territory. female bodies are a lot smaller than male bodies and usually can not support themselves in a violent mosh pit. concluding, the moshpit is a testosterone zone.

saying that girls don't mosh wouldn't really be a profound inference on the subject, since the primary definition of a moshpit is in the male term. socking each other in the teeth. it's easier to obtain deeper understanding of the subject if we use two different cases for the same. male and female.

since it's male counterpart is predefined as: moshing is the bare display of the male sex hormone. extreme aggression. thus, in order to understand the female counterpart, a similar application is to be applied. (you wish it was easy, but we're talking female here... this is going to take a while)

providing an overview to start things off, female moshing would be (a bare display of the female hormone) extreme estrogen action. now, what does estrogen do?

function 1: estrogen is the female sex hormone which is responsible for the development of female sex characteristics. so, moshing for girls would mean sudden swelling of the breasts and hips and increased bitchiness. since rock-show attendee chicks are usually small-a's and skinny as a toothpick, it's safe to conclude two things (only one being true)
a] that's not a typical physical girly reaction to a good song being played live
b] they don't really enjoy live gigs
conclusion b can safely be disregarded here since we all know that they love live gigs, and also, the only reason they take time off from cuddling their stuffed toys and come to gigs is for the long-haired guys that make their way to the same, (and there has been no breast/hip swelling recorded in the past 20 years) leaving conclusion a in the dark.

function 2: the second most important function of estrogen is to decelerate height growth. this in turn makes them more fertile. moshing for girls, in this case would be... not moshing, since being short isn't really an advantage in a moshpit. and the little things don't get much littler at gigs. also moshing could be them subconsciously appearing to be shorter, like, bending at the knees or something. but, yeah, they don't do that. they just stand there, one hand on hip, purse in the other hand, giving you the "you're going to have hell to pay for bringing me here" look. so this is still not it.

function 3: burning fat and reduce muscle mass. no. the ones that're fat stay that way, the ones that aren't stay that way too. at least through the course of the gig.

function 4: stimulate endometrial (the membrane of the uterus) growth. makes them more fertile, in turn. i don't want to think about it.

function 5: maintenance of vessel and skin. highly un-probable. all the ones i know that've come along willingly have haven't had skin to die for. or vessels to die for. (?)

function 6: decrease bone resorption. not very likely anyway, since they start complaining of knee-aches and other bone-related aches after standing for some 5 minutes or so.

function 7: support lung function by supporting alveoli. interesting. so they can breathe better which helps them do the following:
a] yawn when you're talking about something interesting
b] sigh when you ask for a favor
c] yawn when you ask for... uh... food
d] breathe in and out rapidly while talking endlessly about puppies/shoes/babies/horsies etc
e] a lot of functions unique to each woman
this is by far the most accurate product of the female hormone functioning at it's best. furthur studies are required to confirm wether they do sigh/yawn/talk a lot after watching a nice live gig. i say yes. but others might say no (see, i told you, we'd have a problem... we're talking about the female species here)

function 8: melanin functions, namely
a] increase pheomelanin (imparts pink to red hue and hence found in red hair, an absense of pheomelanin and a small amount of eumelanin causes fiery reddish blonde hair)
b] decrease eumelanin (grey and black hair, a small amount of eumelanin and an absense of other pigments causes blonde hair)
assuming that blondes are dumber than brunettes, the excess estrogen flow in the alleged girly moshpit doesn't really cause rapid supidity (yay!) nor does it cause blondeness (aaaw!) and hence, we can disregard this function as a possible answer to the lass-moshpit we talk of here.

function 9: sexual desire. no, this is wrong... sexual desire depends on androgen... not estrogen... all we got to do now is to find a few bottles of this hormone, make darts and aim correctly... more on that later.

function 10: aggression. it's true... the new university of michigan psychology (a name i did not just make up) suggests that the sex hormone, estrogen may be for women what testosterone is for men. the fuel for power.

"women have long been overlooked in biological research on dominance," said psychology researcher steven stanton. (another name i did not just make up) "using a male model, the small body of existing research has struggled to link testosterone to dominance motivation and behavior in women, "however, estrogen is very behaviorally potent and is actually a close hormonal relative to testosterone. in female mammals, estrogen has been tied to dominance, but there has been scant research examining the behavioral roles of estrogen in women."

further reports suggest that the "scant research in examining the behavioral roles of estrogen in women" can be summarized by the following play. *curtains*

doctor: so, we're going to study the role of estrogen in women, thank you for volunteering
female patient: *rolls eyes*
doctor: okay, let's start with the ti... er... breasts.
female patient: *yawns*
doctor: *unbuttons blouse*
female patient: *sighs*
doctor: *gently cups breasts*
female patient: er... excuse me, what're you doing?
doctor: uhm... i'm checking for estrogen levels
female patient: *rolls eyes* yeah, right, that's it, i'm calling my lawyer.

there's your problem. men watch too much porno and then they think that they can just order pizza and the hot pizza delivery girl would want to do it with them for a good tip. that just doesn't happen man, if you want it you have to buy them flowers and shit.

anyway, now that most of the aforementioned doctors are out of jail and back in the new university of michigan psychology, they have come up with that load of junk about estrogen, which i guess is true. only thing, it's not because girls don't mosh in the same way guys do. i guess their years of research (and more years spent in jail and/or fighting sexual harassment and malpractice suits) has gone down the drain, thanks to moi.

now that it seems like i won't ever reach a conclusion, let me assure you that the answer lies with it's roots in the dark. the female mind is pretty hard to figure out, so even the most correct assumption with regard to female hormones stand true for only half of them and are dormant in the rest. but here's a theory that i support, since it's my own.

the adolescence period ranges from 12-20 years. before it kicks in, the male body and the female body are predominantly the same (except for the wee-wees and the hoo-hoos, of course) since they meet their physical needs. when adolescence does kick in, the female body stops growing mass-wise, the muscles stay weak as compared to male body muscles. this is also they key period of emotional maturation. keyword emotional.

the key period of the female maturation is the menstruation stage. unlike male maturation, which is symbolized by his ability to... do what the bible forbids... the female maturation revolves around menstruation. to them it's just backache and some pain here n there. no biggie. for the males who make the mistake of hanging around them during this period, it's p.m.s. (also known as the mad cow disease) which roughly translates to moody-ness and extreme display of emotions. one minute they're all over you and the next minute they're trying to stab you with a fork. for the lucky one's who haven't had to put up with it (yet) here's a picture that tries best to explain the difference between normal behavior and pms behavior.

usually, all things "girl" relate to crying. for example, if you hamper a boy's emotional growth, he becomes rebellious, in girls' case, they start crying.

that's right. the strongest female emotions are depression, indifference and sadness. they learn to control happiness due to insecurity (and are only comfortable with the more positive emotions around people they know the most)
that explains the direct relation to crying. sad-crying, happy-crying, pain-crying, depression-crying, indifference-crying.

this is a direct result of more emotions that they are moved by brought about by estrogen (see? we're back on track) which creates a need for someone that can relate to them.

depression and anxiety affect women in their estrogen-producing years more often than men or postmenopausal women. estrogen is also linked to mood disruptions that occur only in women: premenstrual syndrome, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and postpartum depression.

is it the abundance of estrogen or the lack of it that causes depression/anxiety? it turns out estrogen's emotional effects are nearly as mysterious as women's moods themselves. estrogen acts everywhere in the body, including the parts of the brain that control emotion. some of estrogen's functions related to emotion include:

function 11: increasing serotonin, and the number of serotonin receptors in the brain
function 12: modifying the production and the effects of endorphins, (the feel-good chemicals in the brain)
function 13: protecting nerves from damage, and possibly stimulating nerve growth (the happiness factor)

estrogen's actions are too complex for researchers to understand fully.what these effects mean in an individual woman is impossible to predict. many women's moods improve after menopause, when estrogen levels are very low, despite estrogen's apparently positive effects on the brain,

so, in a mosh case, it would mean that the female sex hormone leads the infinite number of female emotions (not to be taken lightly, these...) into a downward spiral, and on the lookout for a similar wavelength of emotion (remembering that aggression is also an emotion)

thus we arrive at a conclusion.
male moshing: exercising the most powerful emotional use of their sex hormone (aggression) among a crowd of bearers of the same hormone (other males) who are using it specifically for the same purpose (relieving aggression) at the same time of the mosh.
female moshing: exercising the most powerful emotional use of their sex hormone (care/sadness) among a crowd of bearers of the same hormone (other females) who are using it specifically for the same purpose (consoling) at the same time of the mosh.

so, female moshing would look something like this:

this is frank, he's from the sub-terranians... say "hi", frank...
wie gehts
i taught him how to speak german.
you did?
yeah... he really picked up so quickly, i was so amazed. and you should know they're really stupid, so he really picked it up quite well.
why're they stupid, because they're european?
no... because they're german.
say something in german then...
ein
ein?
heinz ketchup

it's been 3 years since depeche mode released playing the angel and i only discovered this today.

john the revelator, depeche mode's fourth single off playing the angel (overshadowed by the simultaneous release of lilian as a single, a track off the same album) is, hands down, the most brilliant music video ever made.

the gospel/blues song that's been covered by artists such as the blues brothers, beck, gov't mule, r.e.m., frank black, the white stripes and dave matthews band (among many others) is not only eclipsed by this version but is also a fierce reminder of how depeche mode has always been able to include subtle and subliminal messages laced with their upbeat synth-guitar sounds.

the video ends with a verse from the book of revelations.

also, the deftones-in-studio blog has finally been updated (which happens less frequently than nin.com updates now) and there's a fagatronic quote about some love bullshit. i'm guessing they're just sitting on their asses and not "recording" like they're supposed to be doing.

if there's no album by, say, october, i'm going to... be pissed.

lots of love to deftones. i've been listening to s/t a lot recently, it's been on loop for about 9 days now, not getting tired.

air used a sample from "voodoo child" by jimi hendrix (00:39 - 00:42) on their song "all i need"

i've always hated the idea of talking about being depressed on my blog. or to talk about anything personal, but...

i don't have too many friends and now some really fucked up things are happening to the few that are there. i know they don't deserve it...

and i have no one to talk to about it.

a wise man once said: each day, you discover something about yourself, and that's how you mature. life is all about figuring yourself out and acting accordingly. it's called soul searching.

today, i discovered that i am vaguely turned on by the sight of two girls singing into the same microphone.

soul searching owns

i glanced at the clock, half past ten. got into pants, made a move towards the farewell party hall near mathikere.

now, for those who didn't bother going to their freshers'/farewell parties. i'd like to point out. they are lame. you go, sit, listen to people talk on the mic in a hyperactive/nervous manner (like anyone's going to remember what they said within a couple of hours or so) play a stupid game, eat, and then go back to your "own place" while "avoiding hooking up with someone".

i can remember my freshers' party like it was yesterday. it was so boring i thought i was on a different planet. but there's another thing i'd like to point out. i like lame parties. it's true.

in fact, invite me to an awesome party by a poolside and i'll sulk in a corner, depressed, even if i'm part of an orgy, i'll still sulk like a girl pms-ing on a high flow day. but invite me to a lame party and i'll whine. that solves it, see? i love whining and hence i love lame parties. anyway, continuing. what's even funnier is that i throw that maddest partaaays. which reminds me, diwali partay at my mom's place, we'll take the drapes down, put the mattresses out and burst crackers in da house! everyone's invited.

i don't know how my lame party love started, maybe it was my parents that whispered "lame parties rule... lame parties rule..." into my ear when i was little. that's because at lame parties, no one gets laid, and my parents were pretty sure they wouldn't be able to handle another little idiot like me walking around the house switching off the television set during cricket matches.

continuing further more. i was woken up by a "come fast, the seniors have started walking in already" and i hurried to the place, only to be greeted by an empty hall and five classmates blowing balloons. then i had to talk to them, for the first time in... uh, i don't know... two years? also, (fuck me) i noticed there's a specko in the class. and another one that's a 9. where the hell was i all this while?! they were either bunking or maybe it was me. oh yeah, it was me.

just a moment before i made up my mind to talk to them (or pull their hair or something) they burst into the chorus of "my heart will go on" killing all necessities to make mating calls. phew.

so, the seniors started walking in, finally, and we had to greet them with roses. then we fell short of roses so the seniors that came in late felt pretty bad. and this was how the partay started.

then i fell asleep, curled up on a 12 inch by 12 inch stool next to a tray of disposed ice cream cups, only to be rudely awaken by the sweeper guy.

sucks.

farewell to the 05bca batch, thanks for helping us out with our assignments, exams, the whore-head of department, practicals, helping us classmates get acquainted (i missed out on that one) we'll miss you guys. and we can't wait to get the fuck out either.