You know you’re kinda strapped for cash when searching for furniture online at IKEA makes you cringe because things are kind of pricey.
::sigh:: Moving is exciting, but costly. Can’t I just like… sell a script tomorrow or something for a cool $500,000? That’d be great.
Doesn’t J-Hud’s new album cover look like she’s… setting her head back into place or something? Popping it back onto her neck?
Even I think September 30th’s a bit early, Faith.
So how much is the country going to shit?
Please, please, please vote for Obama. I can’t wait for Thursday’s V.P. debate, but something tells me the McCain camp might try to postpone it.
It’s nearly October 1st. Which means that if it were last year, we would be a couple days away from whipping out the Christmas music and working it into daily rotation. But last year, I wrote in my journal on December 23rd that I was absolutely over the Christmas season. This was, in large part, I believe because I had been listening to holiday music for two months before December even rolled around.
I’m trying to pace myself this year. Maybe start trickling it in around mid-October or just hold out until November 1st. For me, I find Christmas music an integral part of the holiday season. As the Starbucks cups said one holiday season: “It only happens once a year.” Apt. I think anything that we can do in our rituals for the holidays that only happen during that time of the year will only add to making the season special. I’m agnostic, so I could care less about the religious overtones of the season, and I could also honestly care less about the gifts (though they’re nice). What I find so great about the season is that there’s an excuse to fancy up your house or apartment, it’s a celebration of wintery things (Winter is, by and large, the best season of them all), and it’s a time of reflection and of prognostication for the future.
So I love the holidays. And what made me think of this post were the following two things related to my last post:
–I believe “O Come O Come Emmanuel” has one of the loveliest chord progressions I’ve ever heard. When the chorus really digs into that melancholy-tinged second “O Come,” I get chills. And then it resolves at the end of the next line.
–An Imogen Heap Christmas album would be verifiably one of the best things known to man. Or at least to me.
And since I’ve gotten into a habit (already, only on post #5) of leaving a little bit of media at the end of each post, I’ll offer the best rendition of “O Come O Come Emmanuel” that I know of. It’s from one of my mom’s Christmas discs from at least fifteen years ago, but it’s a string quartet (I think) and it’s gorgeous.
Here’s the thing about my musical tastes: I don’t tend to discriminate based on genre or anything in particular, but I tend to like female vocalists, and a lot of my tastes are female vocalists who sound like they just sat down with a guitar or piano and played a song. I’ve noticed that I like the music I like based primarily on chord progressions. It just either sounds good or it sounds bad. The way the melody sounds is a lot of it, for me, too.
This is why, if you look at my Top 50 Most Played list in iTunes, you will see Imogen Heap, Destiny’s Child, Dixie Chicks, and even Ciara. My tastes are varied.
Starálfur, by Sigur Rós (they who sing primarily in Icelandic and a fake language called Hopelandic) is one of the most gorgeous songs I’ve ever heard. The music soars, the chords resolve really beautifully, and the melody line is gorgeous. The song is in Icelandic. This adds to the ethereal quality of everything because, as someone who decidedly does not speak Icelandic, I have no idea what they’re singing about. The lyrics are just there for their intrinsic aural properties.
Then I actually looked up the lyrics and they’re… kind of dumb. I was so disappointed! In English, the song is about going to bed, pulling the covers over your body, and then seeing an elf come in and stare at you. Indeed, Starálfur means Staring Elf. And then the song ends on a really dumb open-ended note.
This got me thinking about why we like the music we like. Would I still like this song if the lyrics were in English? I guess so, but I think I would immediately be put off by the weird lyrics. I think Fiona Apple is one of the only artists I consistently love where I pay attention to her lyrics just as much as the other aspects I mentioned. For me, I often don’t notice lyrics until I’m very familiar with the song. I just don’t care that much. Now, my friend Rachel says lyrics are of primary importance for her, so I guess to each their own. Maybe why I like Imogen Heap so much is that a) I can’t understand what she’s singing half the time and b) when I do, it’s often esoteric and of little importance, just there because it sounds interesting.
Kind of like the idea of Sigur Rós singing in Hopelandic, a “language” that they just make up because it sounds good with the song. For an English audience, all of their songs are essentially like that, because we don’t speak Icelandic.
Ultimately, I think iTunes has made us much more aware about what we listen to and how often. Some people are scared by their Top 25 Most Played list (I listened to that song HOW many times?!), but I’ve always been in the habit of “crediting” a song with a play if I feel it’s earned it, shuttling the dial to the end so that it registers a play count if I’m more than halfway through a song but want to listen to something else. So if someone looks at my Most Played, I can’t really blame the embarrassing song selections on anyone but myself. My Top 10 has four songs from Frou Frou’s Details, which is apt, but it also has two from the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack, a fact that’s more indicative of a) the effect that movie had on me as an impressionable pre-twenty gay male when it came out and b) the fact that I probably had music playing more often throughout my day when I was listening to those songs in heavy rotation because I was constantly using my iPod at work.
For me, I always find it difficult to describe my musical tastes succinctly. I quite like Trisha Yearwood’s latest album Heaven, Heartache, and the Power of Love, which is very much country, but I also like Mariah Carey with equal enthusiasm. I just like the music I like because I like it, and while a lot of it may be embarrassing or far from cool, I can’t help myself. I’m sure we all have that pocket of guilty pleasure music that we listen to only when we’re the only one within earshot of our speakers. Mine just happens to likely be a much larger pocket than others’ might be.
And I just happen to really love a song in Icelandic that’s about a staring elf.
Re: the debate
We get it McCain. You’re a god-damned maverick and you didn’t fucking win Miss Congeniality. Just out of curiosity, I looked up congenial on my dashboard widget for an official definition. It means “pleasant because of a personality, qualities, or interests that are similar to one’s own.” He’s so bipartisan that even the people who agree with him can’t stand him! Now that’s what I call reaching across the aisle to legislate.
Re: the apartment hunt
Found an apartment! I’m so pleased. I’ll post pictures once it a) has some semblance of furniture in it b) we’re moved in (we move in next Friday) and c) I finish unpacking a bit. But the building’s cool, the rent is affordable (I hope), the kitchen, bath, and carpet are all new or recent. I’m so happy. My first real place! I’m now an official resident of Hollywood.
Re: (and this is random) Christina Aguilera’s Back to Basics
I got this album somehow in a music swap thing (I think from Alex at some point) and actually listened through it all the way not too long ago. A lot of it’s pretty good! But it’s just really funny to me that a few songs are basically “I’m still a ho like in Stripped! No worries that I’m classy! P.S. If you don’t like me: fuck y’all!” One song’s even called “Still Dirrty.” Thank God. I know I was worried that we had lost Xtina. Another few songs are in a “Totally still mad at you, Dad” vein slash “Totally happy to be getting married” vein. Meh.
Re: ’cause all this Aguilera talk made me think of it… TRL getting cancelled
You know why they had to cancel TRL? Because everyone who watched it when it was popular is now my age. Twentysomethings don’t watch TRL. Damian or whomever hosts it now is no Carson Daly. Sorry, TRL. You’ll forever be an integral part of my memories of the summer before seventh grade.
I got called at random to be part of an audience research thing. They sent me a DVD yesterday of a half-hour sitcom, I watched, they called back, I gave them answers.
It was totally a blast. Problem was: the show sucked (some really tepid rip-off of “Everybody Loves Raymond”) and I don’t think they were expecting the level of detail I was prepared to give about what they should change in the show. I had written out almost two pages about it, thinking I was just going to send my answers in.
I mean… this is eventually what I want to do, producing and such. So I let them have it. The show was really terrible, so they needed all the help they could get and I was happy to give it to them!
However, the guy ran out of space in his form for all the stuff they should change. Whoops.
And he asked me to double-check if trite had an e on the end.
I think if I used the word rote he probably put it down as wrote.
But what’ll you do?
Oh look! The show’s on YouTube! Well, enjoy if you so desire:
I’ve had blogs in the past. Those of you who know me will not be shocked by this. I found them… I dunno, nice to have throughout high school.
Then college came and I lost interest.
As I look around at the blogs that I do quite like to read, though, I’ve noticed that a majority of them start because the writer wants to chronicle some sort of big overarching goal or project.
For me, that’s partially true now. Having recently graduated from college (a year early – go me), I’m looking to start my real adult life. Living on my own, paying my own rent, and working full time. Scary stuff.
But how fun would it be to have some sort of account of all of this? So I’ve decided to come over here to WordPress. I’ve heard great things about it and thought I’d give it a try.
I hope to keep track of how going out into the world is going for me, from finding an apartment to finding a job. So wish me luck, and this whole experience will hopefully evolve and this little place online will find some focus and purpose, but for now, it’s just me. Hopefully that interests you.
Right now, I need a better title for this blog than what I’ve got going. Suggestions welcome.
