First of all, Happy 15th Anniversary, to Insomniac!
As you may all know, I bought my first Green Day album in 2005, American Idiot. It wasn’t until 2009 when I became a bit… uh… focused on Green Day… did I buy the remainder of their music catalog, so all of the music that I missed from Back in the Day is really fresh to me. Yea, yea, I’m a noob, sue me. For me, Insomniac (as well as Nimrod) has some of the hardest-hitting, “I hate me and everyone else, too” songs from Green Day, mean, furious, frustrated, from “86,” to “Jaded,” to “Armatage Shanks,” and of course, “Walking Contradiction,” “Brat” and ” Geek Stink Breath” and the seriously neglected, “Panic Song.” Ah, when I’m in a mood for destruction, Insomniac is the one for me.
I read a curious story the other day about the reclusive director, Terence Malick. According to an article in Slate on the film’s upcoming re-release, Malick, while editing the 1998 film, The Thin Red Line, completed the entire process for the film with the film’s sound OFF and listening to an unspecified Green Day album. Presumably, loud. Since the film came out in 1998, the album Malick listened to could very well have been 1997’s Nimrod, but, I can picture him listening to 1995’s Insomniac as well. The film is about young American World War II soldiers facing their biggest fear, heading straight into a sure death in order to secure the Pacific island of Guadalcanal from the Japanese. Here are two articles about the movie, the one from Slate, as well as a commentary from the blog, Death and Taxes, that talks specifically about what Green Day album Malick could have listened to while editing The Thin Red Line.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand, general silliness, I like that I discovered Green Day fully after they (and me) matured a bit, because they still like to act the stupid, and I think it’s a great way to live your life.
I mean, how many really fucking happy and bigger-than-life celebrity folks on the Twitter actually upload photos of themselves in Fatbooth? Or, who would dare get on a llama, a short llama… as a short… person… and take the picture below? Uh… yea, that guy, Billie Joe Armstrong. He’s head Idiot, with a capital I, for sure.
Short Dude on a Llama Somewhere in Colombia - Photo presumably by Chris Dugan
The photo, tweeted out last night sometime after their arrival in Colombia, came before Billie Joe tweeted that the Minnesota Twins would win over the New York Yankees in the Playoff Series Game. Well, that was a bit of Lushie Wishfulthinking cause of course, the Yankees won over the Twins. The Yankees go on toward yet another possible World Series win. Blech. Baseball isn’t even fun anymore when the same damned team wins all the time.
Anyhoo, here are the series of Tweets from yesterday, great for a chuckle.
GreenDay Green DayIn columbia!! http://plixi.com/p/49711959GreenDay Green DayTwins will beat the yanks! My prediction!GreenDay Green DayOh well.. Thanks to Jeter for the seats a couple years ago!! Hahaha. Oh shut up! Its only a game
St. Billie - T-shirt Silkscreen by Luanne Iwan
These tweets came the day after Billie tweeted that he was in Venezuela watching the government channel, En Vivo Television and that country’s leader (a man reviled and loved in that country and the world, with a lean toward reviled), Hugo Chavez, was talking with kids on the teevee. Billie mentioned that Chavez looked like his dad, Andy Armstrong, and then he called himself, “Billie Chavez.” Boy oh boy, did that cause a storm of replies back at him about Chavez, which may have prompted Billie’s later Tweet about the baseball game, “Oh shut up. It’s just a game”… which could easily be translated to, “Oh shut up, it’s just a joke” about Chavez and his dad. I’ve only seen one picture of Billie’s dad, and frankly, he does look a bit like Chavez. Billie likes to name himself different things in his Tweets… such as Billie Jonas and St. Jimmy. He’s got a new nickname these days, too, from fans. “St. Billie.”
I had a vivid picture in my mind when I first saw the Plizi photo, at first of Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator, a parody of the Nazi era. Chaplin is mistaken for the rule of Tomania, and hilarity, with an ending serious message, ensues. Of course, Billie Joe would never be an evil dictator, but I can see Billie Joe as the leader of his own little liberal Greenmania, somewhere deep in the Rain Forest, where that million-person sex party he tweeted about a few weeks ago should take place. I’m just saying. It would be an awesome venue for it, lol.
Anyhoo, then another thought came up, sparked by a conversation on (evil) Facebook about the photo:
ANNE: hahhaa….he is lookin for us…..not used to us not being around him……….WHERE OH WHERE ARE MY FAN FREAKS??? HA HAA
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GDM: ”Where are you? Our fans from far away? From Australia? Europe? East Coast? West Coast! These fans are new and awfully cute, but I can’t find you!” lol.
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GDM: ”I shall take my llama and ride it upon this land of South America until I find you!”
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GDM: Oh man, I’m gonna have to blog that, Anne. 🙂
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BM: haha, love it Anne & GDM! 🙂
he’s soooo ‘green’.
how i’d love to be below the equator with them.
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GDM: Yep. Oh well.
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ANNE: We could all take my jet, that is parked in my garage…..no one else can see it but me though……I don’t get that……xxxoo
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J. EIGHTY-SIX: This pic is so awesome. Is there a story to go with it, or is it just a question of when in Rome…?! Either way the llama looks proud to have Billie on its back.
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GDM: Rome. Billie. Lllama. When. And yes, he does, lol! Ha, man, they are just having the time of their life. I hope that we see some ones of Mike and Tre, that would be awesome! Maybe in a rainforest or something. Ha.
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J. EIGHTY-SIX: …with monkeys….
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GG: ~ LOL ~
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BW: who doesn’t want billie on their back? just saying
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J. EIGHTY-SIX: Haha, this is very true BW…
Ground Llama with Green Day - Fun with Photoshop by Fabionei
Yes, that’s what he’s doing, in our minds… looking for us fans from Australia, Europe, South Africa, the Far East, the West Coast, the East Coast and Middle America who didn’t get to head down to the wonderful (despite all the problems many of the countries have) places in South America to party with the boys. I’m sure there are many lovely new fans down that way who you will meet, hungry after a ten-year absence to have God’s favorite band, Green Day, perform with them. Though cheer up, leader of Greenmania, Billie Chavez! I hear there are more than a few folks heading down to Costa Rica to meet new fan friends from Central America and party hardy with you, too. In the meantime… going to Pasa-llama, indeed. I think we all need to hitch a ride on “Ground Llama” as well as the new (fake) Green Day airline enterprise jokingly dubbed by photographer, Michelle Lawlor, as “Idiot Air” and get on down to Pasa-llama, stat!
Going to Pasa-llama! - Signature by @StickIt2daMan (Twitter) - Logan Kimber
Green Day Mind 