Before I forget, I made a portfolio on WordPress for my college applications Arts Supplement 🙂 So if you would like to see it, here’s the link: Land Of Chaos And Contemplation Enjoy!
Hope you had a great Christmas and will have an awesome New Year!
I wish I could say that I was above all that pathetic, emotional, sentimental shit–but I’m not. Time to face the fact that I’m just another hormone-ridden teenager and that I’m not excused from having feelings, even if I’m relatively manly and all that. This isn’t really the time for me to worry if I’m posting TMI and/or too much personal shit, but tell me if I do. Mercilessly. I can imagine how annoying it is for you when I keep posting random crap nobody can relate to, so…yeah.
To give you an idea of how decidedly teenager-y I’m being at the moment, this is the song I’m listening to: Wish You Were Here, by Avril Lavigne. Normally I don’t listen much to her songs, but this is an exception. Uh, it’s probably got to do with the fact that I can sorta maybe occasionally relate to the lyrics a little.
And so I’m sitting here at this kitty-cafe at the moment where all the cats are ignoring me, listening to music playing so loudly in my ears that I can’t even really hear myself think–just the way I like it. Just the way I like to whenever I get sad-ish less awesome. Because everyone has those days, right? The awesome thing about loud music is that it flushes out all the angsty thoughts and fills the space with drums and bass guitars and screaming instead. At this precise moment, it’s keeping me from thinking about how I used to pride myself on hardly ever writing cliched teenager stuff. It’s also trying to keep away thoughts about how I’m doubting that I’ll ever have any success in my love life, but this song is just making it worse. Meh, time will tell. This bout of self-pitying will blow over, and I’ll get over whatever I need to get over, and I’ll be my usual awesome self again.
I know for a fact that neither shit blows over that easily nor do I get over things that quickly (incoherence? sorry it must be the guitars/timpani), so I’m going to help myself here a bit:
MANLINESS FTW! I AM SO AWESOME! HELL YEAH! GUNS! EXPLOSIONS! VODKA! FISTFIGHTS! BEER! BOOBS
So…yeah. Moping and complaining is uncool and decidedly un-awesome.
(All the below songs are by Superchick unless stated otherwise.)
Yup. See, I have the (imaginary) balls to get over my teenage angst. I remain awesome.
Me: 1, Teenage angst: NIL.
I’m just a generous and sharing person by nature (everyone: pffffft), so here are some songs that I just can’t keep to myself. I’ll try and explain how, why they’re awesome and why the hell I like them so much, but these are just my opinions and I can’t even promise that I’ll do such a great job on them. So here I go, trying to prove that I haven’t been learning music for the best part of my life for nothing…
In no particular order:
1. Â Kiss From A Rose, by Seal:Â
A waltz in 3/4 time, the soothing vocals and swaying beat gives the song a certain feeling of spaciousness. The colorful harmonies and multiple melodies–similar to part-writing–gives this song a fantasy-esque atmosphere, only reinforced by the lyrics and the singer’s expressive voice. To me the best part is the jazz-like melody, with its occasional rebato and 3-versus-4 timing. The drums only become prominent to push the music to a new height (climax? Get your thoughts out of the gutter.), and not overused. Conclusion: The swaying beat is awesome, and the voice/melody is also awesome. PLUS it was included in the Batman Forever movie. Batman, woohoo!
2. El Tango de Roxanne, in Moulin Rogue:
Have I ever told you how much I love how an orchestra can really create that awesome heroic feeling? It’s like a…a really big wave on an ocean, I guess, and you can hear how it’s gathering power and rushing at you. Well, this song is FULL of these moments, and I never realized how well violins could create the effect of tension. The song is performed mainly by instruments of the string family, with vocals serving as more of an accompaniment (damn, the voice is awesome). Once again, the harmony and different overlapping parts in this song combined with relatively sudden entrances and stops give it the clearly tango-y feeling. The only bit I didn’t really enjoy was the end, where I felt the drums were out of place with the rest of the song.
3. Marching Bands of Manhattan, by Death Cab For Cutie:
Quiet and sad–my all-time favorite. I’m not going to say anything about this one because I’ve a feeling that if I analyze it, it won’t be half as enjoyable anymore. So just listen to it.
Y’know…maybe I should just stick to playing music instead of trying to analyze it. This is what I have learned today.
The title and topic of this post (Well hello blog, I have abandoned you for some time now, but isn’t it great that it was only temporary?) is partly because Jitterbug, by Wham, is playing in my ears. Oh hell yeah, old-fashioned classic dances.
List of awesome dances that I wish I could dance:
1) Jitterbug: An awesome leg-kicking, foot-tapping mess that I can’t make head nor tails of, but is awesome anyway. It looks all cheery and whatnot, especially those awesome dancers who can dance really fast and do acrobatics to it.
2) Charleston: I failed to find satisfactory videos of it, but I’m convinced that it mustn’t be that bad. Something tells me that it’s going to be pretty similar to the Jitterbug–I don’t know. All these dances influence each other, so I suppose it shouldn’t be too out of sync…
3) Boogie Woogie: It. Is. Awesome. Oddly comical, too. I can’t put my finger on how it differs from the Jitterbug, but there must be a difference somewhere…Okay Wikipedia, here I come. With a name like that, how can this dance not be awesome?
4) Tango: Just…really…fiery. And passionate, in a rawr-you-piss-me-off-let’s-see-who-gets-dizzy-first-and-falls-over way. It’s sort of cute, really.
5) Waltz? My impression was that the waltz is easier than the others. Correct me if I’m wrong, but all it brings to mind is Chopin (dun dun dun dun dun, dun dun, dun dun,…okay how many people actually know what I’m talking about?)and a 1-2-3-1-2-3 count. And twirling, and poofy dresses. Probably toe-stepping, too. Oh, and Cinderella (wtf?).
Anyway.
It’s probably the piano-playing, classic music-enjoying part of me that’s screaming that these old-fashioned, classic dances are way beyond the modern pop dances that are leading the trend right now. How could you not smile while watching the Boogie Woogie? And while these are artful blends of style and movement, what we’re seeing in music videos and live performances nowadays are vulgar, overly sexual displays that would probably be better-suited to the bedroom. Rihanna, Shakira, Lady Gaga…you get the gist. What happened to dancing as an art? It isn’t supposed to simply be an excuse to perform erotic movements or anything creepy like that. Dances have their own historic and cultural background too, just like music.
Then again, looking at how today’s music is–actually, I’d rather not. That rant will have to wait.
Part of me really wishes that schools still taught these dances, and that there would be balls held from time to time (mind.out.of.the.gutter.NOW). But I guess that’s just how society progresses. We live in a world where the pace is getting faster, and the skirts shorter. Morals looser.
If only I had the willpower to find a dance school and actually learn to dance, instead of blogging about it.
(I haven’t had any coffee yet. Forgive me for any incoherence and whatnot in this post; I’m too lazy to proof-read it myself. :D)
Here I am, sitting in the office for the last day and eating a McDonald’s burger. For some reason, the song I’m listening to reminds me of…some people, I guess. Maybe I do give a shit, after all. Less than I used to, but more than I should.
I’m thinking about last year. Maybe my middle school years will forever be categorized as “Grade 9 and before” and “After Grade 9”. Things have changed over the past year. I’ve changed. So have other people. And I’m not sure if I really wanted to, but that’s life, I guess, and the people around you inevitably shape the bits of you that you don’t control if you’re not careful.
…This is another short, strange and completely nonsensical blog post made in a state of dazedness.
Sorry people, this is one of those bad days.
Instead, let me give you a lil’ playlist:
There you go.
AwesomeAim, Unlimited 