journal features

"it's allright to be mean"

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2009.11.10

I listen to some music with challenging lyrics for a one year old. Kenny still gets it.

There's this one remix of "Cheap and Cheerful" by the Kills that has the refrain "it's all right to be mean." It repeats so constantly through the song that I noticed Kenny making similar noises as the song played out.

I told him, "Kenny; it's all right..."

He dutifully said, "to be een".

rand()m quote

For a long time I was very bitter that the people who controlled the means of anybody ever hearing my songs were never gonna play them. They only favored music that I specifically and particularly hated, and I wanted them dead. Suddenly, there was another avenue. I started hearing my stuff coming out of bars and then it started to happen little by little -- a movie song here or a TV ad there.

—Iggy Pop