Music Review

  Soo, as I'm sitting here, wondering how in the whole wide WORLD I'm supposed to pick one CD to review out of all the wonderful music in the world, I am hit with a stroke of brilliance. Should I write about Ben Folds' Rockin' the Suburbs? Or Brad Paisley's Time Well Wasted? Oh no no no no NO. While these are both absolutely fantastic albums, I've decided on the one to top them all: Flight of the Conchords, Season One Soundtrack. What a masterpiece.

     It opens with the intriguing drum beat of the "french" song "Foux du Fafa", followed immediately by ludicrous french phrases that have nothing to with anything. This entire CD is a rollercoaster of one funny song after another. My personal favorite is "Sally", one of the last songs on the album. What a flash of genius.

 

"You're so beautiful, like a....tree."

"You're so beautiful, you could be a part time model....(but you'd prob'ly still have to keep your normal job."

 

     Brilliant. This is the funniest album of the year. The lyrics of all the songs have the wonderful quality of sounding improvised but never failing to be hilarious. Coupled with the episodes of the show, these songs can have you laughing till it hurts. Brett and Gemaine are two of the funniest humans alive. Their New Zealand accents add to the effect perfectly. This is such a great album, you should definitely check it out.

 

Jay and Nick

     Here's the thing about Jay Gatsby. He seems like a really cool guy. To the general public, he seems secure in himself, rich, confident, and the pretty much the greatest guy ever. Which he sort of is. Ish. The real truth is (and I believe this is true for many men) that he is actually very insecure. We get a real example of this when he sees Daisy again. He gets SO nervous, and when she finally comes he works so hard to show her all his great stuff, to show off his wonderful life. He doesn't think that just himself in the flesh will be enough. I think he is a sensitive guy hidden behind his money.
     Sooo, when he strikes up a friendship with Nick, at first it seems like, "Ohh this is so cool, Nick and Jay are gonna be friends now, what a nice guy". But Nick notices something underneath his understanding style and confidence. He sees him thinking hard about every word he's saying, which is something I'm sure you'd have to do if you were trying to give a false impression to the world. It's really hard to judge someone when you don't know what they're truly like.
     My first impression was that Jay was an awesome guy and that he really wanted to be friends with his next door neighbor. Then, when he asked Nick to invite Daisy over, I thought maybe he was just using Nick to get to her. But also here's the thing. I think maybe originally that was his plan, to just use Nick, but when people are around each other a lot, many times I think they don't really have a choice but to become friends. Either that or to hate each other's guts. In the case of Gatsby and Nick, I think they're going to develop a real friendship, or at least a respect for each other that they have for no one else. There's something special about scheming together, even if it's mostly just one person's plan. Even though Gatsby almost tricked Nick into starting the whole thing, they're in it together now. I think they'll stick together.

A Winter Poem

Cold

So cold

Hungry

So hungry

Driving past, turn up the heat

Frost on my lashes

Warmth fogging up their windows

Solid breath in air

Cold

So cold

Shop windows filled with gifts

Bins filled with gifts too

Rooting to find something special

You can just buy it

I have to find it

The most wonderful time of the year

The coldest time of the year

Warm bed

Cold stone

Warm comforter

Cold wool

Warm bath

Cold snow

Cold

So cold

Don't stare

I know what I look like

Don't hold your breath

I wish I could too

Pine trees in your homes

Pine trees in my homes

This park is my home

Don't tell anyone

Cold

So cold

Thank you

Thank you for your dollar

Your pity dollar

Pity I don't need

Keep driving

Thankful for what you have

What I don't have

Driving past, turn up the heat

Frost on my lashes

Warmth fogging up your windows

Solid breath in the air

And cold

So cold

The Trick to Writing

     The trick to writing? Oy vey, if people knew that, there wouldn't be any bad writers, would there? The trick to writing....that is a very intense question. I would say that the trick to writing is to put meaning into the words. To put feeling and emotion into the words. No one wants to read some dry peace of literature that doesn't mean anything. The more invested the writer is in the work, the better it is for the reader. If the writer is interested in what they are writing, hopefully the reader will be as well.
     It really doesn't matter if you have good technique, or even good spelling or grammar. It helps of course, because then the reader won't be distracted from taking in what they're reading, but if the emotion's there, it should be pretty good.
     Even as I'm writing this I'm deciding to contradict myself. I do that all the time. But the thing is, sometimes you just can't stand the person writing. Someone could be writing something emotionally and be completely invested in it, and someone else could read it and think, Ugh, this person is so annoying. But then again, does that mean it's good writing, because it caused someone to have a reaction? Maybe. I don't know. How are you supposed to answer this question??
     I'm going back to my original plan. If you care about what you're writing about and you put real emotion into it, you will be able to write something decent. Then there are things you can do to make it even better, with grammar and punctuation and phrasing and stuff, but all that really matter are the basics. The important stuff.