Looking back on all of my blog post writing, I think I have kind of a weird style of writing. A lot of what I do is just type out exactly what is flowing through my head. I am used to using poetry as a way of expression, so sometimes if I have a lot going through my head it is hard for me to filter out the parts that do not necessarily add to what I am trying to say. I always thought I was a great writer in high school, and was always encouraged by my teachers to keep writing once in college. I am a geophysics major though, and writing papers has become somewhat more of a task for me now than it used to be because I am used to sitting down to three or four hours of complicated math or physics homework. I still feel I am a decent writer, but there are also aspects which I hope to approve upon as I continue producing papers in the future. I wish my anxiety had not held me back as severely as it did this semester though. I wish I could have participated more with the class in a timely manner, and I deeply regret not being able to complete every assignment in this class. I did enjoy the topics we were asked to write about however. Writing about music is much easier for me than writing a research paper (well I wouldn’t be surprised if it was similar for everybody). I am incredibly happy and thankful for being allowed the opportunity to still turn in my assignments, even though I have been more than off point with my timing. I am happy to have completed this journey, no matter what I was going through this summer.
Resume, Whatcha Listenin’ To
http://www.questcareer.com/sample_resume_5.htm
Let me just say this, I think I would probably hire the young Jane Doe featured here in this sample resume to work for my company if it was up to me. The sample resume I looked at was very detailed and thorough, with strong intelligent wording and an organized layout. The bullet points in the job descriptions are descriptive yet to the point. This resume even includes categories like “work history” and “professional associations” that I didn’t even realize people included in their resumes (probably because if I included those categories in my resume, they would be blank spaces). Overall though, I think it is quite a bit long. I think there is a bit of excess information provided that will just take the boss man longer to read when looking over it. The resume is intended to be like a professional window into your soul, a document with your entire working past out in the open, bare and naked, for the people you want to work for to see. I have written and revised my own resume quite a few times, but I must say it really does feel good when I get to add another job credential to it.
Currently, while I am writing this blog post, I am not listening to any music. I generally like to listen to live String Cheese Incident sets on a moderately low volume though when I am listening to music and trying to study. The live performances include versions of songs that go up to twenty minutes sometimes and include a lot of instrumentals. I usually prefer to listen to instrumentals when I am studying, especially when I am reading or writing something, because I think that the vocals in the songs can be quite distracting. Sometimes I even end up writing out the song lyrics if I am really into the song that is playing without even realizing that I am doing it.
Grateful for the Grateful Dead
Ah, the Grateful Dead. Jerry, Bob, Phil….all legends in the history of jam bands. I chose to talk about a live performance of “China Cat Sunflower” and “I Know You Ryder” (which are generally combined into one long tune) from the Dead’s Fare Thee Well tour this past July at Soldier Field in Chicago, IL. First of all, what an amazing experience the show must have been for everyone in attendance. I wish more than anything I could have been there, but for now I will satiate my Dead cravings with watching the recorded shows online. I watched this particular performance streaming online the night of the show, but could not find a clip that had decent sound quality of it on YouTube that wasn’t just a video of the entire three hour set from July 5th. Now, I understand that the band up on stage is not the complete original Grateful Dead, as our beloved Jerry Garcia passed. But the musicians the Dead recruited to play with them absolutely killed it and looked like they truly belonged up there on that stage. That stage. The stage the Dead played on itself was incredible, a huge array of lights and hundreds of red roses and the classic Dead-head logo outlining the structure. The crowd in the video looks fully engaged, swaying back and forth and singing along with the mellow jams of the two-song hybrid. As for the body language and facial expressions of the performers, well let’s face it they aren’t as young as they used to be. An experienced bearded crew took over the stage that made it clear that their fans were in attendance for their music, not any of the flashy theatrics that some popular performers today constantly exhibit in their shows. Overall, I am so grateful I got to watch the Dead (see what I did there?) streaming live from Chicago on my television. The performance was definitely legendary. But, plot twist! The Grateful Dead recently announced that they are not done quite yet…they have another set of shows in production with new musical guests (such as John Mayer) taking the stage with the legendary band. Who knows, maybe this round I’ll get lucky and manage to find a ticket!
Name That Show Tune
The scene I chose to analyze the music from is the one from Frozen where Elsa finally decides to use her snow and ice manipulating powers to save her little sister. The movie is an animated Disney princess film, so of course there is plenty of original music written to be specific for the film! The song “Let it Go”, performed by Idina Menzel who is the voice of main character and ice princess Elsa, is essentially the theme song from the film. It is the song that made it the farthest off the soundtrack, and had the most covers made by other artists and individuals. With that information, there is no denying that it is huge in the overall narrative project of the film. “Let it Go” is the song that teaches the youth and adults watching the film that crucial life lesson that Disney always slips into their movies. In this case, the song emphasizes that it is important to sometimes just let everything that’s been holding you back go and do what you believe in. In Elsa’s world, the thing holding her back is fear of not being able to control her ice powers. This song is most definitely detrimental to the film and increases the overall message taken away from it. It enhances the particular scene that it is featured in because it enhances what is happening and provides a great transition from Elsa being scared to use her powers to her realizing that she must save her sister and not hold anything back.
WTF Did I Just Watch?
If you know me at all, it’s no secret that I am not a big fan of artists like Katy Perry. I don’t think she is a bad singer, I actually like her voice, I just am not into the type of music that she and other artists commonly played on the radio have been producing. I have an old soul I guess, because I am more partial to the classics. Electronic sounding music is a rarity when browsing through my iTunes library.
So the music video for Katy Perry’s recent song “Dark Horse”, featuring Juicy J, is the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. First of all, the video is set in a computer-generated Egyptian type place. Katy Perry is adorned in way too much glitter and neon to look like she is from Egypt at all. The extras in the video are clad in skin tight metallic gold polyester jumpsuits. Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure Egyptians did not turn into piles of pink glitter dust when they died either. Asthetically, the video is kind of cool I suppose. I would maybe wear the outfit Katy Perry has on for a futuristic Halloween party if I wanted to spend hours covering myself in glitter. There is a lot of pink in this video. A lot of pink. And although I don’t really see the association between a dark horse and Egypt, the video flashes to Katy and Juicy J in a club dancing around a strip pole. Now I know Egyptians did not have clubs and stripper poles, so there is no chance for ridicule there. At the end of the video one of the Egyptian pharaohs turns into a Pomeranian, like what does that have to do with anything? Basically, this video just confuses me and I think the concept is a little too far fetched from the topic to have any real parting influence on whoever just had to sit through it.
Railroad Earth Copycat
OH when I saw a post about Railroad Earth, I got a little excited. I totally agree with the person who previously wrote about them, as they are an awesome bluegrass band with high energy and great stage presence. When judging a band like Railroad Earth, I think the best way to do so is to actually see a live performance because there is such a huge difference in recorded versions and live versions of songs in the bluegrass genre, in a good way! Live versions are so much more musically involved, and in jam/bluegrass bands like Railroad they are always altered to keep the audience on their toes. Straying from the previous poster, my favorite song by Railroad Earth is a live-recorded version of “Long Way to Go”. I chose to focus on this tune because there have been many days when I have been sitting out in the sun in the front yard and this song comes on and I just can’t stop smiling. Something about this song in particular makes me stop and open my eyes a bit wider for a second and breath in all the beauty that is Colorado and how lucky I am to be here. It’s my feel good song for sure! That being said, I think everyone should give this song a listen. Don’t like bluegrass? I bet this song can change your mind! Or whether or not you are looking to find a new genre to jam to, there is no denying that this song is just plain good. The instrumentation is wonderful. The vocals are great. The lyrics actually have real meaning. I mean what else could you possibly ask for in a song? I’m having trouble thinking of anything to add to that list. I think that any music that can affect a person’s emotions deserves to be heard out.
Jammin’ to Jam Bands!
Ah, Rosie, the tiny spider that was lucky enough to have The String Cheese Incident write a song about her. The song titled “Rosie” is indeed about just that, a spider Bill Nershi decided to name Rosie. This is one of my favorite songs, I have seen it performed live many times and each time has been slightly different but just as wonderful and fun to dance to. I would classify this song under the broader Rock genre and sub-genre of jam band. First of all, each time the band performs “Rosie”, the instrumentation varies. The length of the song is unpredictable as well, the band literally jams together each performance in an unrehearsed frenzy that can go on for anywhere from six minutes to fifteen. Rosie is composed of a myriad of instruments – guitars, drums, keys, mandolin – to create a fun jam band sound. There is also a touch of electronica in the background.
The String Cheese Incident is one of my favorite bands, I have seen the group perform a total of seventeen times in the last two years. It is hard to classify each one of their songs into a specific genre, because often they stretch across multiple categories. Overall though, the band is known for producing long, rock jams. The song “Rosie” speaks to me because I have yet to see a Cheese performance that it hasn’t been played at. I have some awesome memories of being at shows when this song has come on, it’s also one of my favorites to dance to. The jam genre speaks to me because I love to dance and have fun, and listening to that type of music always puts me in a really good mood. I think I will continue to listen to this type of music for the rest of my life.
What I Listen To When I’m Alone
Okay, so first things first, I’d like to get this straight: I really, really hate Lana Del Ray. I suppose I can’t say I hate her as a person, because that would be wrong. As an artist, however, I hate her with a little more aggression than I feel necessary but I can’t help it. She is just so whiney and ditzy, and none of her song lyrics make any real sense. That being said, I really, really love this cover of her song “Summertime Sadness” by Miley Cyrus. I don’t even care that the lyrics don’t make much sense because Miley’s voice sounds so good. Now, a lot of my friends would probably make fun of me for that. “Oh, you listen to Miley Cyrus? Ha.” This song is my ultimate guilty pleasure because everyone knows I hate Lana, and would laugh at me if they knew I liked listening to Miley. I don’t really condone all of the ludicrous publicity stunts she has been up to recently, but as an artist I really have a lot of respect for her.
I like the instrumentation in this version better than Lana’s version because it is just a basic acoustic guitar with strong vocals. I really enjoy this song because it’s sort of calming to me with its soft tempo. I like to listen to it through headphones mainly when I am studying or reading, or in the car when I’m driving longer than 20 minutes and I’m by myself. Another confession I have is that I like to sing along with this song very loudly when I am by myself. Needless to say, this song qualifies as a guilty pleasure for me in more ways than one.
Let It Be Any Day But Friday
Worst. Song. Ever. I don’t even know where to begin. Hearing this song brings me literal physical pain. I can feel the autotune searing into my eardrums, my brain suddenly reverting to nothing but sludge drooling down either ear canal in a pathetic attempt to drown out the noise. “Friday” by Rebecca Black is absolutely, mind-numbingly terrible.
Throughout the entire track, Black has a highly monotonous, highly autotuned voice that sounds like she had been huffing nylon balloons full of helium before walking into the studio the day this garbage was recorded. And if you didn’t think Rebecca’s vocals were obnoxious enough, about two and a half minutes into the song an unidentified rapper joins in with a verse that a seventh grader could have done a better job coming up with.
Speaking of lyrics: strike two against “Friday” is just that. The lyrics are downright ridiculous. They are stupid. They make me wonder if I am overestimating the intelligence of the general American public, and that really is a shame. Rebecca Black, I don’t care if you were only thirteen when you recorded this song, the lyrics you wrote and the popularity you gained from them caused me to question humanity as a whole. Who are we to gloat about being such a highly evolved species if a song like this has more plays on the internet than Beethoven? Than the Rolling Stones? Than Beyonce, the Queen? Seriously, this makes me sick.
As for the beat itself, I felt like my radio was intercepting some sort of glitchy signal from an alien communication tower in a parallel universe. A combination of screeching electronic sounds and thumps like this cannot rightly be classified as music, but rather, as noise.
My strong distaste for this song, I like to think, says that I am a normal, intelligent human being with good taste in music and little patience for idiocracy. The fact that this song gained so much national attention is beyond me because I, for one, do not share terrible songs with people that I like. What kind of person would that make me? I hope that this song is one day expunged from the internet so that we can all forgive society for this embarrassing little hiccup of judgment. So here’s looking at you society, how ‘bout you relieve the world of “Friday” once and for all? All in favor, say “I”.
“Das My Jam!”
Have you ever listened to the same song in the same place so many times that just hearing that song makes you feel like you’re there all over again? This is what “Morocco” by Moon Taxi does to me. Every time I hear it, I’m mentally transported to the same apartment at The Lodges in Colorado Springs. Every time I hear it, I am reminded of a day when I had zero cares about anything, a day I spent with my best friend laying around flipping records and breaking in the new d-nail. I love this song so much, partially because of the sound but mostly because of the memory associated with it. It is incredible to me how a song can invoke such strong, realistic feelings.
“Morocco” is about taking advantage of and appreciating what you have. It is a lesson that everything is not always as it seems, what you first assume may have no use could later be of huge importance. The defining features of the song are the lyrics and the catchy chorus. Listen closely to the lyrics and you can probably relate. Listen to the chorus and it will be stuck in your head all day. The song has a sweet, mellow tune and it often ends up on repeat.
The article on music and its relationship with the brain was really interesting. I always kind of wonder if my dog can make sense of the music that is played in our house, and now I understand that to dogs, music is essentially another language that they cannot speak. I was happy to read that even if a person has a cognitive or mental disability, they can still make sense of and enjoy music. I would like to know more about the effect that music has for a baby still in the womb.
Writing on Music, Summer 2015 