What pushes your buttons?
Discussion
No I’m NOT taking about sex, but emotions.
Reading the War of the Worlds thread made my think. Isn't it funny what can 'push our buttons?'
I mean the LP, which I first heard when I was about 8 I'd guess, didn't create anything other than an appreciation of a beautiful musical composition, Forever Autumn was my favourite piece of music for many years and still holds a place in my heart.
Yet thinking of the feelings this book gave me when I first read it when I was about 18 I can honestly say that, with one exception, nothing else has ever stirred such strong emotions in me, particularly those of sorrow, despair and all in all it disturbed me to my very core. Not even the sight of man being decapitated many years ago registered such strong emotion.
Reading the War of the Worlds thread made my think. Isn't it funny what can 'push our buttons?'
I mean the LP, which I first heard when I was about 8 I'd guess, didn't create anything other than an appreciation of a beautiful musical composition, Forever Autumn was my favourite piece of music for many years and still holds a place in my heart.
Yet thinking of the feelings this book gave me when I first read it when I was about 18 I can honestly say that, with one exception, nothing else has ever stirred such strong emotions in me, particularly those of sorrow, despair and all in all it disturbed me to my very core. Not even the sight of man being decapitated many years ago registered such strong emotion.
I remember loving Music for Chameleons by Truman Capote. I wasn't quite so moved last time I read it though 
Musically 'Dancing Girl' by Terry Callier is a masterpiece. A 10-minute musical journey going up, down, and round full circle. Not sure if anyone else enjoys it as much as I demand silence when it's playing.
Filmwise one of the ones that got me was Carlito's Way
Musically 'Dancing Girl' by Terry Callier is a masterpiece. A 10-minute musical journey going up, down, and round full circle. Not sure if anyone else enjoys it as much as I demand silence when it's playing.
Filmwise one of the ones that got me was Carlito's Way
rude-boy said:
No I’m NOT taking about sex, but emotions.
Reading the War of the Worlds thread made my think. Isn't it funny what can 'push our buttons?'
I mean the LP, which I first heard when I was about 8 I'd guess, didn't create anything other than an appreciation of a beautiful musical composition, Forever Autumn was my favourite piece of music for many years and still holds a place in my heart.
Yet thinking of the feelings this book gave me when I first read it when I was about 18 I can honestly say that, with one exception, nothing else has ever stirred such strong emotions in me, particularly those of sorrow, despair and all in all it disturbed me to my very core. Not even the sight of man being decapitated many years ago registered such strong emotion.
joe jackson performing "the man who wrote danny boy" - when maire brennan comes into the track i always - literally - feel the hairs on my neck stand up.
www.joejackson.com/nightinterview.htm
All interesting posts but I’m not just limiting this question to books, films, etc, but also including real life experiences as well. Like perhaps the birth of a child or death of a relative or friend.
The one I mentioned happened at Silverstone during a Motorbike GP in the 1980’s and I was perhaps no more than 10 meters away at the time.
The one I mentioned happened at Silverstone during a Motorbike GP in the 1980’s and I was perhaps no more than 10 meters away at the time.
listening to old joy division songs thinking about the troubled state of ian curtis's mind and having read his wife debra's biography of him (a good deal about her in it too) seeing how the tragic circumstances of his suicide panned out.
When i was a kid it was just great music now i know a bit more about it it gets me every time wondering whether he was trying to tell his family and friends anything in his lyrics.
When i was a kid it was just great music now i know a bit more about it it gets me every time wondering whether he was trying to tell his family and friends anything in his lyrics.
FHCNICK said:
listening to old joy division songs thinking about the troubled state of ian curtis's mind and having read his wife debra's biography of him (a good deal about her in it too) seeing how the tragic circumstances of his suicide panned out.
When i was a kid it was just great music now i know a bit more about it it gets me every time wondering whether he was trying to tell his family and friends anything in his lyrics.
agree. is a very good biography. harrowing and thought provoking.
the next issue of "mojo" magazine has an ian curtis focus i understand. also, i believe a film is to be made about ian curtis.
if talking about broader matters re: life and death i am also increasingly affected by thoughts of the people i will never see again - ie, the inevitable fact that as one gets older more and more people one knows die; age, accidents, illness.
it's a very, very odd feeling - not a sad one necessarily as one shoudl focus on happy memories of people where possible. it is rather humbling though and puts daily trivia/problems into perspective.
carpe diem.
that's all that matters.
The first time I went to Le Mans I was stood on the inner railing between the houses at the Chinese Cafe a couple of hours after the start of the race.
It was a fiercely hot day, I had a cold beer in my hand and I had an uninterrupted view of the Mulsanne for about 400m to both my left and right with the cars only several meters infront of me.
A friend took a sneaky picture of me stood there, framed it and gave it to me the following christmas.
I can still smell the unburnt fuel now
It was a fiercely hot day, I had a cold beer in my hand and I had an uninterrupted view of the Mulsanne for about 400m to both my left and right with the cars only several meters infront of me.
A friend took a sneaky picture of me stood there, framed it and gave it to me the following christmas.
I can still smell the unburnt fuel now
egoboss said:
agree.
well thats a first for me on Ph someone agreeing with anything i've said.
Ergo ego you are quite correct about the closer to home losses, most emotional day for me was carrying my best friends coffin when i was 26 (same age as he was) and second most emotional day being the best man at said best mates brothers wedding.
Cheers
Nick
FHCNICK said:
agree.
well thats a first for me on Ph someone agreeing with anything i've said.
Ergo ego you are quite correct about the closer to home losses, most emotional day for me was carrying my best friends coffin when i was 26 (same age as he was) and second most emotional day being the best man at said best mates brothers wedding.
Cheers
Nick
that must have been a very emotional & surreal contrast.
depends on how/when one first experiences death i suppose, the impact/significance it has.
my mother died after a long illnes, when i was 11yo so i have maybe always been a bit resigned/objective/maudlin about it - to compound matters my family blood is welsh; we're a pretty morbid race at the best of times (apart from with regards to the rugby, just lately!).
by contrast, many of my peers have had zero experience of a loss of life from close family/friends and they have a very different take on life/death/carpe diem.
ttfn
Loads of things - especially songs - inspire emotions in me. What happens is that I get an image in my head that feels like a memory, even though it isn't. For example, listening to Where Were You by Jeff Beck for some reason puts in my mind a silent image - like '60s film footage, slightly faded, lots of lens flare - of a red Ferrari 250LM tearing through the Sicilian hills. The tune just feels like a contemplation of things past.
Other ones include Last Dance by The Cure - a very 'icy' song that reminds me simultaneously of long-past relationships, and Christmas as a child in the '80s - it's got a sense of both childlike wonder to it, coupled with a realisation of adulthood and tinged with a comforting sadness. Another one that does this to me is These Are The Days Of Our Lives by Queen - massively poignant, seeing as though it's about looking back at your life and what you wanted to be when you grew up, and laughing gently about what's changed and how there's no point stressing about it now. The line that gets to me most is "No use in sitting round and thinking 'bout what you did/so you can lay back and enjoy it through your kids/sometimes it seems like lately, I just don't know/The rest of my life's been just a show".
Freddie Mercury died, of Aids and obviously childless, a few months after recording it.
One album that's really hit me on an emotional level of late has been Eliminator by ZZ Top, especially the tracks 'I Need You Tonight' and 'Legs'. They speak to me of an everyday America I find so appealing and funnily photogenic in a dated, almost cheesy way, although there's nothing cheesy about the songs. It brings to my mind images that could be from the generic films of the time about everyday rural Americans - beat-up '70s Camaros rumbling up desert highways in the night, whisky shacks in the middle of nowhere, outdoor 'roadhouse' blues gigs, motels run by pouty redheads in check shirts tied at the midriff, people wearing Stetsons non-ironically, and all with this rose-tinted fragility to it that makes listening to it with your eyes closed utterly addictive.
And don't get me started on the Blade Runner soundtrack - the ultimate 'unwinding in a darkened room with a raging storm outside' CD.
Also, I find watching Goodfellas, thanks to Scorsese's master direction, makes me feel like it's one of my own memories, even though I was never there and the film ends before I was born. Very powerful film.
Other ones include Last Dance by The Cure - a very 'icy' song that reminds me simultaneously of long-past relationships, and Christmas as a child in the '80s - it's got a sense of both childlike wonder to it, coupled with a realisation of adulthood and tinged with a comforting sadness. Another one that does this to me is These Are The Days Of Our Lives by Queen - massively poignant, seeing as though it's about looking back at your life and what you wanted to be when you grew up, and laughing gently about what's changed and how there's no point stressing about it now. The line that gets to me most is "No use in sitting round and thinking 'bout what you did/so you can lay back and enjoy it through your kids/sometimes it seems like lately, I just don't know/The rest of my life's been just a show".
Freddie Mercury died, of Aids and obviously childless, a few months after recording it.
One album that's really hit me on an emotional level of late has been Eliminator by ZZ Top, especially the tracks 'I Need You Tonight' and 'Legs'. They speak to me of an everyday America I find so appealing and funnily photogenic in a dated, almost cheesy way, although there's nothing cheesy about the songs. It brings to my mind images that could be from the generic films of the time about everyday rural Americans - beat-up '70s Camaros rumbling up desert highways in the night, whisky shacks in the middle of nowhere, outdoor 'roadhouse' blues gigs, motels run by pouty redheads in check shirts tied at the midriff, people wearing Stetsons non-ironically, and all with this rose-tinted fragility to it that makes listening to it with your eyes closed utterly addictive.
And don't get me started on the Blade Runner soundtrack - the ultimate 'unwinding in a darkened room with a raging storm outside' CD.
Also, I find watching Goodfellas, thanks to Scorsese's master direction, makes me feel like it's one of my own memories, even though I was never there and the film ends before I was born. Very powerful film.
Biggin Hill Airshow about 3 or 4 years ago. A beautiful day to die. Private pilot takes off, climbed to about 1,000 feet, immediately did one or two manouveres, the plane went into a steep dive...
...sickening Crump. a real end to a real life.
I like to think he's somewhere up there soaring through the clouds
...sickening Crump. a real end to a real life.
I like to think he's somewhere up there soaring through the clouds
GetCarter said:
Schindlers List....
... and the music from Schindlers List.
That film makes me shudder. I really don't like watching it.
Actually, when we went on a History trip un U6th to all the concentration camps, to all the historic landmarks of Germany. I cried a lot there, I just felt physically sick all the time.
Anything to do with my mum. I can't talk about her, I have real difficulties with attending funerals, so don't very often. Special dates, events, times. Whenever I do something well, I get quite emotional because I know she'd be proud
That links to the song (which I don't like that much!) from Puff Daddy and Faith Evans, 'I'll be missing you'. It ALWAYS gets me going and it's not even that good! Whenever my really little sister starts doing anything 'monumental' it makes me really proud that she's my sister. Same with all my siblings really, 4 of them are younger than me so I feel 'proud' of anything they achieve!
Funny things, really!
Boring as old nick, but the birth of my kids. The first one, I think, is always particularly special.
The second was when my mother-in-law died last year - both my wife and I were very close to her. We had a call early in the morning from the hospital to say that she's been admitted but not to worry (very minor heart attack). My wife went straight up to the hospital and got upset seeing her Mum looking a little distressed. The Doctor said "don't worry she'll make a full recovery, it's very minor". They then give her some blood thinning drugs, which in 1% of cases has a side effect of internal bleeding and only 1% of these is fatal. It transpired the the drug caused her to have a massive brain haemorrage and they said to my wife "your Mum's got half an hour to live". I arrived at the hospital minutes later and we held her hand until she passed away. We then had to go home and tell the kid's that Nana's dead. That was tough.
The second was when my mother-in-law died last year - both my wife and I were very close to her. We had a call early in the morning from the hospital to say that she's been admitted but not to worry (very minor heart attack). My wife went straight up to the hospital and got upset seeing her Mum looking a little distressed. The Doctor said "don't worry she'll make a full recovery, it's very minor". They then give her some blood thinning drugs, which in 1% of cases has a side effect of internal bleeding and only 1% of these is fatal. It transpired the the drug caused her to have a massive brain haemorrage and they said to my wife "your Mum's got half an hour to live". I arrived at the hospital minutes later and we held her hand until she passed away. We then had to go home and tell the kid's that Nana's dead. That was tough.
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