I’ve just been reading around Dazed Kitsune’s site, Letters To Strangers. The site’s introduction, Why Is This Site Here?, is a painful, thought provoking anecdote about the connections we fail to make, the conversations we fail to initiate, the kindnesses we cannot accept. At the same time, it displays a trust and faith in human beings that is simply beautiful. How does the saying go? “There are no such things as strangers, only friends we have yet to meet.” It seems appropriate to the idea behind this site. We say on so many occasions, “It’s a small world”, yet we fill it with spaces and seem wary of closing the gaps. This site is a bridge and I’d hate to see it go to waste. While being untrusting of strangers seems to be something we instinctively instil in our children these days, it is a sad indictment of society and one I wish we could do without. Well, here is a place for reconnecting. For random acts of kindness… for talking to the world and knowing one will be heeded.
The other stand out post here posted under the date January 08, 2007 and makes for a fitting segue to the introductory post.
Culture and love and faith are far too great (and beautiful) things to try to appreciate in any context like what they are being squeezed into. Fragmenting things into shards small enough to grasp makes them into less than the sum of their parts.
Read the entire post to put this excerpt fully into context. It’s extremely well thought out and another example of Dazed Kitsune’s interesting and thought provoking take on the world in which we live.
All in all, a site well worth the visit and definitely worth contributing to.
Update: On a related note, I’ve just read Jeremy’s post entitled, Random Acts of Kindness and How They Blow The Mind. A timely read, indeed. I should probably write this up separately but, since it’s all so intertwined (to me, at least!), I’m adding it in here.
I went to see Nine Inch Nails in Melbourne on Sunday night. Blessed with a ticket and a night’s accommodation from my friend, Rob. With regard to acts of kindness and being stunned by them, Rob’s efforts in that direction cannot go unmentioned. Don’t ask me what a five foot two woman of less than a hundred pounds was doing in a mosh pit… but there I was. Front and centre at a NIN concert! Rob had been looking forward to this concert forever…. and spent his time being a human barrier between me and those around me. To ensure I didn’t detract from his enjoyment of the evening by giving him cause for worry, I got out of the pit after the first two songs (this also ensured I returned home intact!). At any rate, there was NO reason whatsoever why he should have been looking out for my well being at such a time. He paid for the tickets, it was his concert…. yet he kept part of his mind at all times on where I was and if I was okay. Later that night I actually wound up in tears because of it. Not because he’d done something so horrendous, but because it’s been so long since a man has been kind and considerate of me with no thought of repayment or reward. I know this sounds terribly sexist, but I had honestly forgotten men could be thoughtful and kind – not without wanting something in return, at any rate. I’ve been involved with someone for the past five years and I have taught myself NOT to even want such consideration. I found out on Sunday how much I miss it… and how much it means to me. To be given priority. To be cared for.
As Jeremy stated in his post, one can grow quite cynical about human beings out in the big, bad world…. and it is truly stunning to find that it’s not so bad after all. In fact, people can be incredibly sweet, stunningly beautiful and so very kind.
I think Rob’s kindness really woke me up to the possibility of being loved. I had forgotten that anyone could actually care about me, could put me first. It’s been a long, long time.
© Melinda Chambers. All posts are the creation of the author and, as such, remain the author's property with all rights reserved.
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Actually, I was intending at some stage to write up a full review as I did after Damien Rice’s concert. (Eclectic tastes anyone?
) Since I probably won’t get around to it, here’s a brief overview:
IT ROCKED!!!!!!
There, all done
Oh, sorry, you were wanting details?
I was going to post some photos I took but a) they were taken on my phone’s camera, b) I couldn’t keep still long enough to take a decent photo 
and, c) After moving out of the mosh pit, I was no longer in prime-picture-taking-possie! Most of the photos I actually had to garner from the video footage I took (again, extremely poor quality) so they don’t count for much either, I’m sorry to say.
They actually played more of Year Zero than I thought they would. “Capital G” was perfect. With the addition of 2,000 voices providing back up vocals (small venue) it was even better than the album version, while remaining true to it. They also played ‘Survivalism’, ‘The Good Soldier’ (and the bass goes BOOM – that line felt like thunder reverberating up through the floor boards… awesome stuff!) and ‘The Beginning of The End.’
The only downer of the night was when Trent launched into ‘Hurt’. For two minutes it was exquisite, the crowd singing along, lighters raised overhead. And then we have to factor in the morons. In the quieter moments there were some complete gits yelling out pathetic things like “What are you doing after the show?” and worse, “Play your own songs!” from some absolute bonehead who obviously failed to realise that Trent was the composer of Hurt – perhaps attributing it to Johnny Cash or maybe even Tori Amos. How anyone can do something akin to heckling in the midst of such a personal and gut-wrenchingly honest song is beyond me.
It was beyond Trent, too. He stopped playing and said something like, “You think because I’m up here I can’t hear what you arseholes are yelling?” He ended the song there and then and no blame to him for it. I’ve read some reviews and comments around suggesting that it was unprofessional and immature of him not to continue but, to me, those people were so utterly disrespectful that I think he was well within his rights to do what he did. It’s not as though he was playing “Starfuckers. Inc” or something!
He launched into “The Hand That Feeds” after that fiasco. While the audience got right into it, I suspect the hecklers failed to realise this song was a return slap in the face for them.
Not that it’s my place to make judgement calls in this arena, but Trent looked really well. Happy and relaxed and…well, healthy. That will probably seem like a bizarre remark to make but, by comparison with footage I’ve seen of him performing in earlier years, he really did seem to be in great shape – physically and emotionally.
All in all, the energy of the show, the tightness of the band and the brilliance of seeing them live made this a fantastic concert.
Hope this was a little more informative for you, Jeremy
Wow…that’s awesome. It’s always good to hear that there’s more people like this in the world. And, as I can obviously attest to, experiencing (or witnessing) this Random Acts of Kindness is an enlightening, heartening experience. I’m glad you could have that happen to you.
You did leave out one minor detail, though…how was the concert? Is his new stuff as good live as it is on the album (I
Gaah! The full thing should ready “(I (Heart) Year Zero)?
” Apparently, it didn’t like the end carat.
–Jer
Very nice…glad you enjoyed.
I always love to hear concert reports from people…if you can believe it, I’ve never actually been to a music concert. The closest I’ve come is having been to WrestleMania XIX in Seattle (yes, I’m a die-hard wrestling fan, joke away
), which while beyond awesome for me, is SO not the same feel, I know. Personally, I would have killed to have been able to go to NIN/Bowie back in ‘95, but alas, it was not to be… *Melodramatic gesture of woe*
–Jer
Damn, I just replied to your comment and it’s disappeared into cyberspace.
Attempt #2:
Wrestle Mania? You’d have fit right in with a couple of kids I went to see NIN with! They were busy discussing who their favourite wrestler was. (While I discreetly took two steps back and pretended not to know them! :-p )
If you like reading about concerts, you could give Last FM a try. All you need to do is type a band’s name in the search engine and it will give you a link to the profile set up in-site. That page will then lead you to a list of events (i.e. concerts) as well as those who attended and links to any reviews that may have been written. Not all gigs have had write ups and not all of those write ups are well written, but it’s a pretty good site for getting impressions from audience members.
I don’t know if you have any interest in Damien Rice, but his is the only concert I’ve written about online. It’s very wordy (because, well, that’s me!), but if you’re just wanting the set list, simply scroll the three miles to the bottom of the page.
I actually do use LastFM…I find it very nice. If you’re curious, my username on there is CWSensation.
I’ve never heard of Damien Rice, but I’ll be sure to check him out. I do love a good folk singer now and again…thanks for the recommend!
–Jer