Waiting for the End - Linkin Park Review

It's no secret that I'm a fan of Linkin Park. I like them for their music, I like them for their art. They make my ears and eyes happy.

Well, to be honest, they made my ears happy with Hybrid Theory. My ears were still happy with Meteora (though, to be honest, Meteora was more like a continuation of Hybrid Theory). By the time Minutes to Midnight came out, Linkin Park was sounding like a cheap photocopy of their previous selves. Kind of like a band trying to sound like Linkin Park.

The artwork was still pretty cool though.

So, I've been hanging around, faking some sort of interest about their upcoming "Thousand Sands" out of some sense of fan loyalty, while all along, I've known that pretty much, I'm just hoping to get some new cool Linkin Park Artwork.

So, when I heard Waiting for the End, I cried.

Well, I didn't cry, but it made me happy enough to consider crying.

I suspect this song is going to polarize their fans. They're probably going to lose a HUGE section of their fanbase because this song contains:

1. No rap from Shinoda


2. No screamo from Chester


3. A distinctly reggaeton sound

But I love it. For the first time in a while, I feel like I'm hearing honesty from the band. They've decided to do what they want to do, and forget trying to please the fans. I guess it must be tough when your job depends on making millions of people happy. I suspect it is easy to forget what makes you happy, and get so caught up in keeping the anonymous masses (and record labels) happy.

But this song, though one of their saddest musically, and lyrically, seems to have been played with the joy of being honest about doing something they like.

So LP, thanks for being so brave.

Watch Waiting for the End here.

Superpowers: Episode 06

Before you begin to compose your hate mail, I should categorically state that I'm sure the Ghanaian members of parliament are perfectly aware of the effects of the military regime on their current constitution review process.

I should also state that I didn't even know that Ghana was reviewing their constitution, let alone that it is affected by some military regime of which I knew nothing.

However, for some weird reason, Punky knows.

There we were, having the same conversation about Kenya's constitution review process and how the politicians were messing it up.

'Poli' in Latin means 'many' and 'tics' means 'bloodsucking creatures'.

So, I assumed that as usual we'd spend some minutes cursing at the politicians, make some vague reference to Dan Toro, and then steer the conversation towards whether Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy is a slammin' album or not.

But then suddenly, Punky is cross-referencing Kenya's situation with what's happening in Ghana vis-à-vis the constitutional politics in Iran. So, I awkwardly find myself in an intellectual discussion, when all I wanted was an excuse to babble noisily, and distract everyone until band practice time is over.

And it's not just history, she has this in-depth knowledge of all current events (from the surgery to be used on Rooney to the basslines in the Posies' songs). This is very confusing,. Her day job tends to take her to the more remote areas of the country, where the only human interaction is occassionally fighting off machete wielding land-owners. I doubt any of them are offering newspapers, so how does she keep up?

So beware... Punky knows.

Everything.