| So one might wonder how my obsession with Amanda Rootes began. Well, to trace this back in full detail, I must take you to a time when few had the interent, or even computers. The year was 1996. I was watching MTV news when I spotted a news brief about the chick who directed all the Marilyn Manson vidoes. Apparently she just did a video for this new band called "Fluffy", They showed a short clip and I was immediately drawn to the blonde female singing on my televsion. Later that night I was watching 120 Minutes and Matt Pinfield announced at the beginning of the show that Fluffy's video would be played sometime on the show that night. I quickly grabbed a blank video tape for I knew if I did not record this video, I would regret it more than skinny dipping in Alaska. So patiently I waited with my thumb resting on the record button of the remote control. I don't think I watched any other videos because all I cared about what seeing Fluffy. Then it began, a wonderfully f-ed up video with every element of greatness all stuffed into a 4 minuted clip. How awesome! I watched the video over and over until the song was ingrained into my mind. How happy I was with this newfound band. Almost as great as seeing Babes In Toyland's video for Bruise Violet on Beavis and Butthead. OK maybe I should say Fluffy was better since this site is about Amanda. Ahem. OK so it was a religious experience :) I don't remember if I slept or not that night, I was too excited. I went to school that day (mind you I was still in 8th grade!) and I told my friend Tiffany about this awesome new band I discovered. She could tell I was excited, but yet didn't share my enthusiasm because she had not witnessed this for herself! I finally made her watch the video at my house and she thought it was cool, but still did not understand why I was so consumed with Fluffy. I had to kill her and stuff her body into the janitor's closet. Well, I wanted to at least. But anyway, I told her that the two of us needed to start a band right away. We both played guitar somewhat, but never seriously. I thought it was a good time to be serious. So we started practicing together, listening to Silverchair and Nirvana, trying to figure out how songs are formed. We started grasping how music was made, but I was convinced that if I had the Fluffy CD we would rock the place out. I spent many months searching for that CD, an endless quest through mindless record store with no clue that they were missing out on something great by not having Blackeye in stock! My search finally ended when I spent the next Christmas in Kentucky. My father took me to a mall in Bowling Green and that's where I found the holy grail. I was in the record store looking at CDs in alphabeticl order (is there any other order?) and when I came up to the "Bs" I found this CD by a band called Bruiser Queen. I was thrilled because I hadn't seen it anywhere else. So then I went to show my stepsister who was in the F section looking at Fleetwood Mac and there it was staring at me! FLUFFY!!! I threw down Bruiser Queen and held Blackeye close to me. "No one is taking this!" I threatened. I then ignored all other CDs I could have possibly gotten. Maybe if I would have had more than 15 bucks in my pocket I would have boughted others, but it doesn't matter because I found Fluffy :) So then I took my discovery to the geeky college looking kid at the counter and he rang it up and said that he liked Fluffy. Shocked and almost disgusted, I smiled and said "Yeah they're cool I guess." Why did I say that? Anyway he told me that they were working on a new album that would be coming out. This was too much, I was even more excited. I wanted to listen to this CD AND hear the new one. But I continued on throughout the mall guarding this CD with all of my life. I had never been so happy to have music before. So then we left the mall and my Dad asked me what I bought. I showed him and he said he wanted to listen to it in the truck. So he played it through the CD player and halfway through he said that they ripped off the Ramones! I told him that the Ramones sucked and he should never ever say that MY music ripped off his stupid music (years later I realized that the Ramones DID NOT suck!). He said that the drummer needed to learn more than one beat, and that's why they sounded like the Ramones. Whatever Dad, don't talk smack about a 13 year old's music when she's full of rage and adolescent behavior! So then we got home and I went to my room and picked up the guitar in there, determine I would learn how to play every song on there. I started with Black Eye and then my dad came in and said I was wrong and played it the right way. |
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