100 Words towards a definition of Metal

Components: Guitar, Strings, Pickup, Amplifier, Electricity (lots), Bass Drum x2, Snare Drum, Hi-Hat, Crash, Drum Sticks, Metronome, Bass Guitar, Strings, Pickup, Amplifier, Ear, Brain. Optional, but recommended: Larynx, Air, Mouth, Tongue, Microphone, Amplifier, Electricity. Leather, long hair, iconography.

Attributes: Molten, Brutal, Intense, Epic, Uncompromising, Fucking awesome, Distorted, Pummeling, Eternal, Loud, Grating, Polyrhythmic, Not lame, Absurd, Hilarious, Fun, Resonant, Primal, Destructive, Cathartic, Therapeutic, Wrathful, Emotional, Fast, Slow, Extreme, Soul-Crushing, HEAVY.

Descriptors: Heavy Metal, Thrash-, Speed-, Death-, Folk-, Black-, VIking-, Melodic Death-, 80’s-, Nü-, Hair-, True-, Technical-, Progressive-, Gothic-, [Funeral] Doom-, Shred-.

Ideology: Ultra-realist. Ironic. Cynical/Idealist. Fundamentalist.

100 Words: Hair

Hair enjoys a tenuous duality in life. This duality consists of two states: that of the attached hair, and that of the detached hair. These states also elicit divergent reactions from the very hosts that spend hundreds of thousands of hours diligently growing filaments. Upon encountering a hair in one’s food, it is considered acceptable to raise hell Since hair has bacteria… ::SCREAM::

So do washed hands.

In its attached (and gloriously metal) state:
1. Headbanging on a higher plane
2. Intrinsic symbol of temporal and social commitment (to a cause and…) to opposition of accepted (and enforced) draconian societal norms.

100 Words: Cranberries

Do they emerge as ruby lotuses from the humbly mucked peat-bogs, vines winding skyward. Do they fall into the bog, enveloped in preserving mothersoil? They wait for a child with bucket and squelching galoshes to deliver them, take them to their _maker_. Not quite at home with other fruits, they sit uneasily by as rasp*berries* and blue*berries*, black*berries* and straw*berries*, perhaps even the occasional boysen*berry* are plucked and popped, into watered savoring mouths. They must wait for the penetrating drying assault of the sun, or the thanksgiving grinder to unlock their unappreciated potential; the **kranebeere**, acid-red and waiting.

100 Words: Gyroscope

_Chu!_ I reach my heel back, swift kick to the rockhard gut _Chu!_ Then airborne, squinting through approaching twilight, searching for marmot holes in the impossibly mottled grass. I will never ride as the Mongols do. There is something about being raised on horseback, coming from the greatest horse-people in the world, [gyroscopic](http://jtermwriting.wordpress.com/2008/01/25/100-words-for-friday/) blood. Raised Wooden saddles, floating inches above the horseback; short stirrups, tied together beneath the belly, that would make our knees lock and scream. They fly in frozen standing stance, slouched to one side, pole-lasso in hand, poised in galloped rhythm — familiar as their own pulse.

100 Words: Shoes

To buy shoes is always an ordeal. For some, overwhelming wanting has turned shoes into cultural legend. But not for me; to find shoes that fit is task enough. Each year or two, after my old pair could bear no more the abuses of the schoolyard. I stared down at my feet, they look pretty normal. The salesman returned, arms full of shoe-boxes. Here we go again.

I had but one pair of shoes, sneakers. I cringe as I watch cute black dresses limp along on legs that if not for their jilted stride and a veiled grimace would be sexy-long.

Gyroscope: Definition

A gyroscope in operation with freedom in all three axes. The rotor will maintain its spin axis direction regardless of the orientation of the outer frame.

A gyroscope in operation with freedom in all three axes. The rotor will maintain its spin axis direction regardless of the orientation of the outer frame.

gy–ro–scope |ˈjÄ«rəˌskōp|noun | a device consisting of a wheel or disk mounted so that it can spin rapidly about an axis that is itself free to alter in direction. The orientation of the axis is not affected by tilting of the mounting; so gyroscopes can be used to provide stability or maintain a reference direction in navigation systems, automatic pilots, and stabilizers.
ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from French, from Greek guros ‘a ring’ + modern Latin scopium (see -scope ).
DERIVATIVES gy–ro–scop–ic |ËŒjÄ«rəˈskäpik| adjective »« gy–ro–scop–i–cal–ly |ËŒjÄ«rəˈskäpik(É™)lÄ“| adverb
[New Oxford American Dictionary]

100 Words: Gyroscope

100 Words: Sledding [Snow]

The hill is an institution that exists only during those snowy months sometime between november and april. The hill is beside our school, but the familiar walk is anything but, when we trek with sleds slung over shoulders or towed behind. Fannie glances back at us between chomps of snow, could you go any slower?. We run the last few yards to the gentle slope of the hill’s crest. The hill defies all logic, and obeys no laws; gravity scowls as we depart the ground and float in forever; a bubble of time that pops and drops us back to earth.

100 Words: Rock Doves [Birds]

When I imagine pigeons, I think of the peculiar blue and grey birds who waddle, utterly fearless, through the streets of our nameless metropolises. Our worlds are built upon such institutions; we expect that when we see a pigeon, it will look — pretty much — the same as the ones we’ve seen before. So imagine my reaction when, in Patan Square, Kathmandu, I encountered PINK PIGEONS! Indeed, the pink variety do look — pretty much — the same as the ‘traditional’ variety; however, the surreal switch from blue to PINK dealt a blow to my reality; the world would never look quite the same again.

100 Words: Lightning

When I was in gradeschool we spent the summer months swimming at crystal lake, behind my house. But you had to go all the way around the lake to the bathhouse and show your passes to the recalcitrant lifeguards. My parents said we couldn’t swim on our side of the lake because a drunk guy had once fallen in and drowned. Every once and a while our swim sessions would be cut short by megaphoned monotones warning of lightning so would everyone please exit the water immediately. Grudgingly we swam to the docks and hoisted ourselves onto the wet wood.

100 Words: Furniture & Maps

Sunday [Furniture]: 4500 BC: The first piece of furniture appears in in the Malaysian river delta silt deposit area. We know this with a high degree of certainty, since the area’s silt is quite effective at preserving ancient artifacts. Especially fine upholstery. Yes, the first piece of furniture also bore the first example of fine upholstery. This exquisite upholstery was not surpassed for over 5000 years, when a 19th century seamstress created what her husband thought to be a fairly bland sofa slip-cover. Little did he know, it was the finest specimen of its kind to exist in over 5500 years.

Saturday [Maps]: I love maps. There is something about them that captivates me, causing me to plaster my walls with them. When you walk into my room, you are assaulted by an array of maps. Directly ahead is a 15th (I think?) century map of the world, in all its hand-drawn, distorted glory. On the left, an enormous map of Mongolia with land-use contours that stretch from cool greens and blues to the flaming reds and oranges of the Gobi. To gaze upon a map is to see into its world; whether it be 15th century Europe, or 21st century Mongolia.