Author Topic: i'm still here  (Read 2956 times)

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Offline sullyceltic

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i'm still here
« on: June 01, 2001, 04:18:59 PM »
i'm still here
hello one and all! sorry that i have been away for a while. it has been nice and busy at the job, which i love.

now that the basketball season is over, i guess i can sit back down at the old computer and do some posting.


wes's "a clockwork straight" had got me curious about kubrick's 1971 classic. so, i've dusted off my copy of "a clockwork orange" and "viddyed" it a few times, though usually by myself and not with any of my droogs or other malchicks around.


has anyone else seen the movies recently? for me, it brought back a lot of those feelings that i had in straight... the paranoia, fear, desperation...


but what i found most fascinating in the movie is the commentary it makes on what do do with people like "little alex". now most of us were not into the old "ultra violence" like the character in the movie, but

society dealt with us in a very similar manor - that is,

to store us away for a while, break us down, and try to reform us.


i think that beacuse of my straight experince, there will always be a little "clockwork orange" in me, in all of us for that matter.


the film also leaves a good discussion to follow...

what do you do with someone like "alex". someone who is a "bad person", who needs to be "cured". what do we do with them? the answer in the late 1980's was a warehouse in stoughton mass. called straight new england.


anyway, sorry to go off on this, but has anyone seen the movie recently? and have any thoughts on it?


viddy well then droogies! viddy well! i'm off to listen to a bit of the old "ludwig van".


feel free to email me if you'd like:

[email protected]


best regards,


Sully

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline BostonBrave

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i'm still here
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM »
i'm still here
   Droogs? Malchicks? Have you been hanging out with some Russians lately? I saw A Clockwork Orange some years ago, and found it violent and incomprehensible. But then I was never a client in Straight.

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline sullyceltic

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« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2001, 09:38:43 PM »
a clockwork straight
yeah, i guess we never had our eyes locked

open like little alex did in the movie.

but the straight tried to "cure" me, much

like the government did in the 1971 classic.


one thing that i believe everyone, kids and parents

alike, can identify with is the scene where they

hold a demonstration to show how much "better"

alex has become. he is confronted by a guy who

insults him, ridicules him, then beats him, and

finally humiliates him by making alex lick the
bottom of his shoes.


after that, a woman wearing only a pair of underwear

walks in. alex reaches up to touch the woman, but begins to feel sick, and falls fo the ground in pain.


o.k., now how i can relate to that is like this: the first part is like when i would be stood up in group, yelled at,

and humiliated. if i did the slightest thing wrong, i would be blasted and embarrassed in front of my peers.


the second one, in this way: remember all the stupid rules? who can forget?? no this, no that. well, what about the whole "contact with the opposite sex" stuff, and how restricted that was? hell, we couldn't even talk to eachother until 4th phase (yes, i know, third if we worked or were at school together). but do you see the relationship between them? they broke us down. the broke us to the point of where i was afraid to even look at a girl in the building or on of the busses because i was scared that i would be yelled at. - truly, a clockwork straight. all that was missing was the beethoven!


alright, now for the parents, at the conclusion of that

scene in "a clockwork orange", the gentleman asks:

"any questions"? the prison chaplain stands and confronts the man on that the boy (alex) has not choice, that he has been altered to behave this way, and that when a man cannot choose, he fails to be a man. the gentleman, at that point, blurts out something like this: "the point is - it WORKS"!!!! followed by thunderous applause from the room.


sound familiar, dad?


i know of what the parents were being told. and it was all based on that: don't question, just let straight do it's job.


oh, i can hear the 9th symphony now, the slow part, that leads up to the "ode to joy", what beautiful music.


parents and kids alike. we were all duped, and fed a bunch of lies. the parents bought them first, then we kids did. we did cause we wanted to get out and never get back in again. something else we have in common with alexander delarge from our favorite movie.


i do not resent my parents at all for putting me into straight. i am thankful that i still get along with them.

it's pretty easy to do when you live 900 miles away though.


my mom is still thinks straight was a.o.k. in her book, but my dad knows what was going on in there.

plus, my dad likes the Celtics - just one of the many

good things about my dad.

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Elle

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« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2001, 07:10:17 PM »
A clockwork straight
I actually just rented the movie again last night! In AARC a song was played before and after every rap. Did Kids and The Straights do that too? Because you know, all the music I heard for those raps do make me sick now, and I can't even be in a store that might be playing them.


Alex's ultra violence scenes made more sense in the end of the film, to the point where I was deffinately on his side. I wouldn't be in real life, but I was relating to the transition of being someone odd and crazy, but living free will, to being contained, controlled, and knocked down to the point where the public humiliation is just a necessary task to try to get out and be yourself again. And then I don't know about the rest of you, but my after aarc life has seemed a bit like one hit after another like what Alex got.


Then again....I saw Cast Away and cried because it reminded me of all these things too....Well, either way they were both really good!


                                    Elle.

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Antigen

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« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2001, 07:53:33 PM »
AARC muzak?
No, at all the programs I know of, we just sang silly songs with sillier hand motions. That's interesting. What kind of music did they play?

-If there's a worse idea going than locking kids up for victimless crimes, it's probably locking them in close proximity to some tyrannical altruist bent on helping them even if it kills them.
http://trebach.org/conference.html'>Saving our Children from Drug Treatment Abuse

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
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Offline Elle

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« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2001, 11:54:01 PM »
Sounds of the redneck
Terrible music! In the beginning there was lots of Garth Brooks, Bruce Springstien, Dire Straights, and Supertramp. We were even told that if we didn't like Country music by the time we were on oldcomer we were not aloud to graduate.


After open meeting everyone would hold hands for a prayer while something corny like "I will always love you" played. Staff tried to think of a song that resembled who they were going to target in the rap, so the first song to play was always scary. Everyone would be thinking "Oh god, I've got friends in low places, maybe I'm going to be blasted..." It was rediculous.


The music is better these days, now it just has to be "AARC approved" like Sarah Mclaughlan who's "Angel" they play whenever media or possible donator's are around.


Sorry if you like Garth Brooks and Supertramp : )


                                        Elle.

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline sullyceltic

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« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2001, 11:55:48 PM »
music
yeah, elle, i liked those films too. castaway was alright.

nowhere near as good and as important as a clockwork

orange - only my opinion.


on the music thing at straight...

they were so strict about it! the only somewhat "cool" song that they let us sing was "eye of the tiger" by

who is it - survivor, right? ironic name.


we were not allowed to listen to any music at all. until

you reached third or fourth phase, i forget now.

but with having newcomers at your house and being driven around by your parents, or someone else's, all the time, you had very little time to listen to anything.


i remember when i was there, running an errand for some executive staff member, and this other 4th phaser and i went out in his jeep and blasted the music.

i've felt soooo much more appreciative of music ever since that place.


the no music thing was all part of the environment of control that they created. i very distinctly remember being stood up on a monday night review, thanks to

a concern put in on me by somebody, and being blasted because i was listening to NWA. now, as i write this, and contemplate my 30th birthday coming up in a few weeks, i can tell you i don't listen to that kind of music anymore - not regularly anyway. but at that point,

staff banned any music that was in anyway violent, and

told all of us on third phase and up to report others who we would "catch" listening to _________.

in case you're wondering, i don't think that i was punished in anyway for listening to NWA. i was just told not to do it again, and to use better judgement when deciding what to listen to. just call me 655-321!


as far as the songs we sang in group.. they were "real horror show". "fire and rain" was always an open meeting favorite. "straight-incorp" one i liked (LOL).


cats in the cradle until the day i die will transport my

mind and soul back to the warehouse of insanity located at 53 evans dr, stoughton, ma.


someone sometime ago drew a comparison to the songs being like the "commercials" for the program. the kept us occupied while they schemed what to do next. also, i think that they were there so that we were constantly

focused, with as little time to think our own thoughts as possible.


did somebody say "a clockwork straight"?


my best, sully


[email protected]



« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Elle

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« Reply #7 on: June 02, 2001, 02:23:21 AM »
music
There was no singing in aarc, actually those of us who sang before weren't aloud to do it then because it was our "escape mechanism". Of course, happiness is terrible.


Some of us were aloud to listen to music on level 3 when newcomers weren't around, but some of us listened to "wierd" music, or enjoyed music too much to be allowed CD's. We sort of were punished over things like that. Certianly if I was caught listening to something from "my past" I would be set back a couple of weeks. My mother cried when she heard me listening "alternative" music as a graduate, and wouldn't let me leave the house for a week. She seemed to think that the music was going to kill me, and I'd drop dead the minute I left the house.


Oh and yeah, it was Survivor who sang that. Ironic, because their careers didn't last too long did they?


                                       Elle.

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Offline ladyjerrico

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« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2002, 09:11:00 AM »
Seems like you had it a little more strict than I did at Straight.. however we did need to only sing songs that we sang in group at the host homes or whatnot.
I remember one time I became rebellious, if we came early to the building, we were sent in a room and had to sit on the floor indian style, I refused to do that and I was talking to another 1st phaser, we started singing Ozzy songs and Rush songs to piss people off.
Needless to say I ended up in group kicking a chair, I think I hit another 1st phaser with it, I don't remember, I felt horrible about that.
I was slammed to the ground and told to eat the carpetting. I was on very close watch for the next 2 weeks after that.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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