Those Unheard

Susan was used to carrying in all the groceries by herself. She had accepted that it was easier, in the long run, than trying to get James or Becca to help her. The parenting experts would surely chide her for that, tell her that she was allowing them to Dictate the Terms, to Be In Control of the Situation, but that was precisely why she didn’t seek out the advice of parenting experts. They probably would have suggested a chore chart, or some complex system of Privileges and Consequences (where a Consequence was the loss of a Privilege, or vice-versa), or some token economy in which she was simultaneously banker, employer, IRS, Fed chairman, and mint - all of which were supposed to be good for children. They had plenty to say about Children, but her own kids were just people - and no one on earth has ever devised a good system for people, Susan thought.  The moment you think you’ve got one, some young upstart shows up to smash it and try again. Louis XVI probably thought thing...

Xander Cross is only 22 years old, but he is already pontificating about death and his legacy. Some might call that precocious or premature, perhaps even pretentious - but for the Company, Our Beautiful Misery’s passionate pantheon, it is precisely this profundity that propels their popularity. This fanatic following, largely young, overwhelmingly female, eschew the pop princesses and bubblegum boybands that typical teenagers tune into. They desire something darker, and Xander Cross’s destiny is to deliver.  Our Beautiful Misery released their debut disc, The Angelic and the Damned, in December and it darted directly to number one, displacing seasoned stalwarts Britttni and Jordan J. Clearly, this band is no flash in the pan; they are an integral part of the new dark wave that is sweeping across the sandy beaches of contemporary culture. Much maligned, but mainly misunderstood. I sat down with OBM’s black-eyeliner-clad frontman in his Brooklyn abode to discuss music, spiritu...

Walking into the concert venue was like walking into another world - walking into their world. A world where Victoria and Hannah weren’t just the couple of weird kids who dressed in all black and listened to real music and knew what pain and unhappiness were - but where everyone else was like them, too. All these kids who felt so alone at school, surrounded by fake, preppy plastic people - finally brought together by their love of OBM. It was the same feeling she’d had when Hannah first brought her to Hot Topic, at the mall, times a thousand. It was like living your life as a goldfish in a fish bowl, and then suddenly being released into the ocean, where there were not just a million other kinds of fish but dolphins, sharks, whales, and jellyfish too.  Victoria couldn’t stop looking around in awe. There were emo kids, scene kids, goths, punks, people she didn’t know what to call. People who you couldn’t call kids but definitely weren’t adults, either. People with piercing...

First things first: what’s your name? james. not jim, not jimmy, not jimbo, not jamie. JAMES. How old are you?  ill be 15 in three weeks!!!!  What’s your zodiac sign?  uh gemini i guess but astrology is stupid...  What kind of music do you like?  crossmyheart, the weekdays, saving our souls, brokenfolds, etc etc etc  What do you miss most about being a little kid?  omg everything  mostly just not caring about anything and just being innocent and happy all the time  and obviously watching cartoons back when cartoons were actually GOOD  What do you like to drink?  watergang4lyfe  Who is the last person you IMed with?  lmao courtney collins................... cool right  Who are you missing right now?  lol i love how these things always assume everyones in love and missing someone  but i guess i kinda miss hannah cause shes at the obm concert and im bored??  ...

The ride to the concert was tense. Victoria kept waiting for her mom to say something that implied she was coming in, for Hannah to say something that implied she was dropping them off down the street, or for her own frantic mind to come up with some way out of the situation. It seemed impossible. It felt like she was going to die. Her mom and Hannah - the two most powerful people in her life, the two people she couldn’t say no to - and any second now she was going to be stuck in between them.  Victoria Brixton had never heard the phrase “an unstoppable force meeting an unmovable object,” and wouldn’t have tried to understand it if she did, but the concept it represented was one she knew intimately.  She wanted to crawl deep down inside herself and never come out, like diving under the covers after a nightmare.  She almost wished her mom had never gotten her the tickets at all. Almost.  And throughout her torture, she had to keep up a regular conver...

xx themachine: i dont ever wanna work in an office XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: me neither XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: theyre soul-crushing mini-hells xx themachine: i feel like im probably gonna end up in one though XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: why? xx themachine: idk i just do XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: well that’s retarded xx themachine: i thought you didn’t say retarded? XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: no i dont call people retarded cause it’s offensive XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: but you can say it about other things xx themachine: ohhh ok xx themachine: but like when i picture my future xx themachine: idk i always picture myself working in an office xx themachine: and hating it XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: soooo don’t do it then? XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: you don’t have to you know XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: just bc your parents do xx themachine: i don’t think that’s why xx themachine: maybe it is idk xx themachine: but also don’t you think xx themachine: like xx themachine: everyone who works in an office xx themachine: said they didn...

Is this really what life is? Susan Cooper thought, as she pulled her vehicle - a blocky SUV incongruously named the Melody - into one of the many open parking spots in the absurdly large strip-mall parking lot. Going to the grocery store and doing loads of laundry and buying new appliances when the old ones get worn out, and then someday you die? She put the car into park, turned it off, tossed her keys into her purse, and thrust open the door. And if it is, then doesn’t dying just mean you don’t do those things anymore? No more laundry, no more grocery shopping. That didn’t sound so terrible, really.  There had been a time when she had suspected there was more to life, or that there would be more eventually. But at forty-six, it seemed like if that eventually was ever going to come, it would have come by now. These days, she found that her idle fantasies were things like getting all the family’s laundry done, once and for all, so that she wouldn’t have to do it ever again...

xx themachine: sometimes i feel like xx themachine: i shouldnt listen to just one song from an album xx themachine: like i should listen to the whole album or nothing XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: wtf why xx themachine: bc thats the way the artist wanted you to hear it xx themachine: i guess? idk XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: so you won’t ever just listen to like XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: one cmh song XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: then one brokenfields song XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: then one damnaged goods song? xx themachine: no i will xx themachine: i just sometimes feel like i shouldnt? xx themachine: like its xx themachine: disrespectful? xx themachine: or something XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: lmao ok i don’t get that XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: i feel like they make the music for US XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: so we decide how we listen to it xx themachine: yeah i get that too xx themachine: idk it’s just my brain i guess xx themachine: i can’t control it XXxSuicidesxGracexXX: hmm m...