This is One Fucked Up Individual...

I'm referring to someone baptised as Brian Warner, but whom you may know as Marilyn Manson, the weird rocker that everyone loves to hate. His biography "The Long Hard Road out of Hell" is quite a read. It starts in his childhood, born to "normal" parents, but having a grandfather who had a habit for wanking to fetish magazines, while watching his train set go round and round in his basement. Grandad also liked to dress up in women's underwear, something which Brian/Marilyn himself admits to doing and liking, still to this day. The name Marilyn Manson actually belongs to the band, but he has become known by the same name, partially due to the full original name of the band, Marilyn Manson and The Spooky Kids, shortened to what we know it as today. The shortened name came from Brian's indecisions between good and bad, the Marilyn coming from Ms Monroe herself (the good), while Manson came from the lunatic mass murderer (the bad). Apparently, Charles Manson was somewhat of a rocker himself before he went and killed a bunch of people...fuckin' idiot. Anyway, the book goes on to describe Marilyn's descent into a world of sex, drugs, rock, devil worship and mutilation (of others and himself). It describes, in great detail, how he and another band member used to humiliate women groupies into confessing all the bad stuff they'd done and how they could attone for these actions by having sex with Marilyn and his mate. One of his big pals is Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails fame who, again, is one fucked up individual. To this day, apparently, they have remained friends and done all sorts of weird stuff together, including Marilyn giving Trent a blowjob while performing on stage. Marilyn gives his own opinions about a range of topics, including: - Drugs - "Consider yourself an addict if..." and gives 27 "if's" including "19. ...you've ever said, "This is my last line" or, conversely, "Which line is the biggest?" - Homosexuality - "You are gay, if..." and lists 38 items, including "...you get hard while sucking another guy's dick" (which, incidentally, he did according to his own confession, when he blew Trent Reznor on stage). - Cheating - He says he's never cheated on his girlfriends, but... "8. If you fuck someone the night before seeing your girlfriend, it's okay because it's just practice to make sure you don't prematurely ejaculate with your girlfriend" or "13. If it's someone's birthday, it doesn't count (especially if it's your own)". There are a number of photos from Marilyn's life, including some of his parents, his grandfather, band members, girlfriends, boyfriends and other influencers of his fucked up ways. There are also a number of drawings, obviously taken form medical text books, of human genitalia which appears to be one of his fixations. Towards the end of the read, there is a list of myths and untruths that have been spread about Marilyn, including "I heard that Marilyn Manson WAS the guy on Wonder Years but then started his own rumor and said he wasn't just to throw people off" (now that I'm really sad about), and "People at my school say that [Marilyn] removed pigment from his so that he could see in black and white" (how fucking daft do you have to be to believe that - he wears a contact lens to get the odd colours of his eyes). There are a few more good ones, but go and read them yourselves. Ultimately, the book comes down to Marilyn confessing to becoming something he'd hoped he never would...his own grandfather. Definately worth a read, even if only to show it to your kids and prove that there is someone out in the world more fucked up than you as a parent (a common belief in all kids, I'm sure) and that sometimes you do actually know what you're talking about. But go get it and see for yourself. The image below is taken partly from the cover of the book and another image from within. So now that it's toward the end of the holidays (I started the previous book review a while back - sorry) I've also finished something lighter, a bit more inane, but definately less fucked up (depending on how purist you are, I suppose)....."Black Beauty - According to Spike Milligan". It starts off with a poem: There once was a horse called Black Beauty He was well bred and always did his duty He came from very good stock He had a lovely body with a huge cock His mother was lovely with a wonderful tail Which dragged behind her like the Holy Grail His father died, a handsome dude And he ended up as dog food Black Beauty would lead a long life A mixture of Peace, Tranquility and Strife Each chapter, most shorter than three pages, starts off with a poem in similar vein and my favourite has got to be one of these two: Some people like to drive us like a steam train They make us eat lumps of coal again and again Eating coal we were fit to bust Eventually it shot out the back as dust My best master was Farmer Cray Even he turned out to be gay He carried a pot of Vaseline You couldn't tell where he was, but you could smell where he had been OR Captain was in the charge of the light brigade Cannons to the right of them Cannons to the left of them Cannons underneath them Cannons over the top of them While horse and hero fell What was that terrible smell Bravely they rode well But what was that terrible smell They charged the Russian guns Which gave some of them the runs Some of the Russians went spare Looking for clean underwear They charged into the mouth of hell They flashed the sabres bare Nobody at home seemed to care Thru shot and hell But what was that terrible smell It was the gallant six hundred From one extreme to the other, Marilyn Manson to Black Beauty...