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I have made a startling discovery. The more I sleep, the less rested I am.
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
I know I keep posting my most recently-played songs all the time, and it's often kind of horrifyingly cute how Snow Patrol pops into all of it all the time, but this is truly, truly disturbing. All iPods have an auto-playlist where the Most-Played 25 get gathered together to fuel your obsession further, and THIS is what my list (in order, I think?) looks like -
Adt got mint cigarettes to school today. Remember when we were little, there were minty ciggies that came in a disgustingly green box with a cheap picture of Charlie Chaplin? And they were red-tipped? She found those. I ate two of them, and I still want more.
A Mother begs. She wants her son's corpse to just open its eyes one more time, so she can whisper to him the goodbye she never got to say.
Ok, first, a bit of background. In school, I'm part of this class called Pit Ensemble. In essence, it's an opportunity for me to slack off and play piano, xylophones, vibraphones, assorted percussion instruments (bongos are serious fun), or, in some cases, steel drums. A rival Catholic high school called Santa Margarita started a steel drum band a few years back, so we had to have one also. Because of this, I have played the steel drums a little bit since the school year started. Now, fast forward to present day. It's currently Thanksgiving Break (an excuse for us Americans to be gluttonous and pretend we're thankful for everything), during which I have an entire week off of school. During this time, I convinced my teacher to lend me a pair of steel drums. So, I've been practicing on-and-off during the week on my fantastic, amazing, incredible, jealousy-from-Sahana-inducing steel drums! Well, it's late at night and I got bored, so I decided to teach myself the wretched melody from Soulja Boy. Let this be clear first: I loathe that song. When I hear the cursed tune, I instinctively reach for my ears, not to cover them from the torrential onslaught of noise, but to gouge my eardrums out so they may never again have to endure the Aushwitz level suffering that is induced by the...*sigh*...Soulja Boy. Anyway, here is the video. And in case you are wondering which piano video I am referencing in the Soulja Boy video, look at my other videos, there is a nice clip of me playing the piano solo from "In My Life" by The Beatles. Anyway, without further ado, here is me playing (with terrible light and poor audio quality) Soulja Boy on steel drums. Enjoy!
Seriously, I think I may have a problem. I have tons of homework to do, yet here I am, writing up a post on blogger. Maybe it's because I feel bad because Sahana's been spamming the site lately, I don't know. What I DO know is that I do not feel like doing homework. Hell, I actually have no clue what I even intend to write about, I just knew I needed to write something, and here I am. This is very stream-of-consiousness-ey. I feel like Virginia Woolf.
Well, I have been succeeding in school as of late. In the same week, I got an A on my APUSH exam, a 9/9 on the Free Response Question that we took the day after that exam, an A on my AP Chemistry Exam--the list goes on. I feel like such a good student, yet I know that it will have to come to an end eventually. But, in the meantime, I'm flying. Perhaps I should go do work in order to maintain this ecstatic feeling. When I'm done with this post. Let's see...I need something substantive to talk about. If I just ramble the whole time I'll end up deleting the post, and wasting more time.
Oh, I know. Here is my official (updates will come when I think of additions) list of things I must do before I die.
-Play Butterflies and Hurricanes with a full band in front of an audience.
-Travel the world. And I mean all over the world. At least 75% of all countries.
-Visit Sahana. Maybe we'll go to a bar.
-Be in some sort of touring rock band.
-Deliver a speech to over 1,000 people.
-Make some sort of positive influence on the world.
-Invent and subsequently patent something.
There, was that such a bad blog post? Shakey start, but I would say I saved it. And it does have a cool Emily Brontë-esque feel to it. But less feminist. And more cheuvenistic. And much, much more awesome.
Oh, and Sahana--
You're welcome. :)
And you listening to Queens of the Stone Age, Steely Dan, Franz Ferdinand, and Snow Patrol is amazing. Seriously. Fantastic tastes.
Two successive Gary posts in a day. Somewhere in the world, something wonderful must be happening. Maybe HotBody Lightbody is googling his own name and he finally found this blog. Hallelujah, 'tis been a long time coming.
One thing is for certain. Snow Patrol has certainly cheered up.While Eyes Open was a heart-wrenching word description of the trajectory of a failed relationship, filled with sensitivity (Chasing Cars), frustration (It's Beginning to Get to Me), penitence (Make This Go On Forever), separation (Set the Fire to the Third Bar), desolation, and acceptance (The Finish Line). Eyes Open brought with itself a set of fourteen masterpieces that merged into one to give the world Snow Patrol's best album. It was an album that defined poignancy, and each track stood out as favourite, and the album as a whole made one surrender, made one float, and made one soar.A Hundred Million Suns comes two years after Eyes Open, conceived in Germany, and partly in Ireland, in a house that was located on a cliff that overlooked the sea. The band firmly maintains that this is their best album yet, while most fans tend to believe that with AHMS, they've succumbed to the pressures of chartbuster-music, brought on because of Chasing Cars. Their opinion is that SP's best album is still a toss between Final Straw and Eyes Open. That's what the general mass of them thinks.And quite obviously, I disagree.Yes, AHMS is not Eyes Open. It's cheerful, it's happy, and it's reflective, but in an optimistic way. Both albums make you feel nostalgic, but while Eyes Open will make you think of the days when you felt your worst, and of the days that you wanted to curl up and die just at the thought of another day in your dreary existence, AHMS will bring to your mind the colours of an amusement park flashing past your eyes, the smell of buttered popcorn, the feel of your favourite blanket on a cold night, the taste of your favourite food on the day that you feel the sickest. I wouldn't exactly call it upbeat, but it's definitely one of those albums that will make you smile. Eyes Open reopened wounds and made you cry inside, and AHMS is a phantom kiss on your forehead, it is a reassuring hug, it is a wonderful band-aid.Snow Patrol goes all out in this album, reverting back to their more gutsy songs, reminiscent of Final Straw's Spitting Games and Tiny Little Fractures. Although their lead guitar has definitely mellowed down, and yes, their bass guitar is not that discernable anymore, Snow Patrol has definitely mastered the art of combining all the standard band instruments, mellowing them down to their style, and throwing in a few piano chords in the mix to make it unique. The chorus of each of their songs is more crowd-friendly, with simple background vocal effects that exude the aura of a large stadium without compromising on the homeliness of the band. Snow Patrol has always maintained that they are not one of the bands that will be remembered for on-stage theatrics - their music and their entire persona is based upon their approachability and their easy going attitude. AHMS amplifies this very maxim.Eyes Open was an album which when played in the order of listing, started off with the atmosphere-creating "You Are All I Have", became softer with Chasing Cars, reached a crescendo with Make This Go On Forever, employing martial drum beats, church-choruses and the persistent piano, then quietened again with Set the Fire.., and died down with The Finish Line.AHMS is not an album that requires you to play in order, but if you do, then each song will make you wish you had heard it before, because the chorus is so infectious, you wish you knew how to sing along. There is the notable introduction of an acoustic guitar which lends a somewhat pleasantly jangly note, making you feel like you were at a live bar listening to them jam. Take Back the City, the first single from the album, is one of those very songs, bordering on an anthem-like sound, an acoustic bass-line and a tune that grows on you. I know someone who hated it at first listen, then went around humming it the rest of the week. It'll catch your attention, and it'll stay there. My favourite track as of now is Crack the Shutters, with a soundscape reminiscent of You Could Be Happy (high, isolating piano tinklings!), but this song is just so uplifting, it's amazing. A first listen will get you hooked, but by the time you read the lyrics, you wish this song had been written for you. Lifeboats is another one that is racing up my most-played list; I think it's because of the pitch - it just sounds a little different, like half-an-octave off the regular. Of course, I might be wrong, but I think that's why. The Golden Floor is slightly off the beaten track for Snow Patrol, with a very interesting beat that piqued my interest. However, the song that got me all curious was Snow Patrol's first 16-minute long song, called The Lightning Strike. The Lightning Strike has three parts, What if this Storm Ends?, The Sunlight Through the Glass, and Daybreak. All three parts are isolated songs on their own, bound by a common thread. While I would think it ambitious of Snow Patrol to infringe upon long songs that are normally the territory for more "hardcore" progressive rock bands, it's a brave try, and while I wouldn't say that the experiment entirely succeeded, it's nice to see that they're constantly try to reinvent and challenge themselves musically. It's not that I don't like it, but I just really don't see the point of having one long song, when clearly, it's just three songs. I'm assuming they know something I don't?Conclusively, I'd say that AHMS certainly does not deserve the criticism that it has been the receiving end of. Most people who listen to Snow Patrol are those lovers who've only heard Eyes Open, and a few famous old ones, like Run, Spitting Games, and Chocolate. Yes, Eyes Open got them attention, and yes, it made them very, VERY famous, but it's presumptious to claim that the generally radio-friendly nature of AHMS is a desperate, Billboard-hungry claim to fame. No, Snow Patrol is not trying to knock anyone off the charts with this album, but it's rather clear why they say it's their best album ever. It's subtly diverse, with different beats, different styles.But before I finish, I do have to lech over Gary Lightbody.This guy is just unbelievable. I have ABSOLUTELY no words for him. He is just hot. The dishevelled wild look of Chasing Cars, the clean, light-stubbly Chocolate, and then neurotically love-struck in Crack the Shutters, this man makes me melt. And as if his visual appeal wasn't enough, he has an Irish accent, an amazingly English sense of sarcastic, wordplay humour. And he has pretty eyes.And on top of that, he is about the most sensitive lyricist that I have heard of. He is one of those people who manages to write flattering and wonderful things about a girl, without being even a tiny bit corny, or cheesy or cliched. In When It's All Over, We Still Have to Clear Up, he makes being a stalker sexy with An Olive Grove Facing the Sea. He makes bonfires adventurous with Firelight.In Songs for Polarbears, he sang Velocity Girl, and we all know what that did to me. In Final Straw, he brought on the apocalypse with Chocolate, became a high-school stalker in Spitting Games, and showed the magic of plain and simple piano with Same and also, the violin in Grazed Knees. And then in Eyes Open, we all forgave him for his mistakes, and we all fell in love, even though the album was penned by Lightbody in the avatar of a repenting philanderer.And then in A Hundred Million Suns, he finally pushed me over the edge with Crack the Shutters.Thanks a lot, Gary. Because of you, my expectations is the opposite sex are soaring high. They need to be tall, they need to be songwriters, and they need to be friendly.Bonus points if their name is Gary.
Oh God, I need to get a life.
I wonder if this happens to everyone? Every time that I actually want to sit down and study, something keeps happening. Like, if I'm googling something for an answer, I'll start Facebook-ing (is that even a word?), or I'll start up conversations on MSN, and have about seven tabs open. If I'm doing Math with my iPod plugged in, I start doing karaoke and I start bopping (What a godawful word) to the beat, and then it goes downhill from there. I haven't studied at all (honest) this weekend, or even today, and the thing is, I want to but I feel somehow incapacitated. I open a book, and I cannot decide where to start, and by the time I start, I'm already bored. And I find ways to run online, or watch TV or something. I know, yeah, this is just EXTREME procrastination, but it's getting to a point where I'm beginning to scare myself. I'm not under any sort of pressure or anything (Psh, the ISCs are ... well, okay, I lied.). The thing is, I've never behaved like this before. I'm startling myself - I've never been one for studying much, but I'm not studying at all, and if I EVER want to escape to college I need to get through this.
I just got home from watching 'Dasvidaniya - The Best Goodbye Ever.' It's a beautiful movie, and if you can, then do watch it. It is the story of a man who lives the most unimaginably sedentary life, and how he loves making lists, and how he makes and fulfills his penultimate list of Things to Do Before I Die. How one man is so inspired by death that he resolves to live life, fall in love, fall out of love, make a family, be famous - all in three months... it's a well-scripted movie with a strong plot. The background score is by Kailasa (Kailash Kher's band), and they produce some very rustic and earthy tunes that go wonderfully with the homeliness of the film. I would compare this score with Vedder's score for Into the Wild - it's very simple, it's very acoustic, it's lyrically rich without forced language, and it's got the feel of being very grounded. Vinay Pathak is effortless as the bumbling protagonist, but I loved the woman who played his mother, she was splendid in her scenes. All in all, a well-packaged, tightly scripted gem that I would definitely recommend. Most definitely.
I hate the beggar babies outside school. There are two sets of them, one near the BITM bus-stop corner, and the other set lives next to the mosque, close to the place which sells all that junk-food. They're pretty horrible, these children. Every time you buy some street-food and savour it on the way back from School, (before you're forced to share it with the people in the carpool), they'll holler at you while hanging from the metal bits of the bus-stop railing, and they'll turn their eyelids upside down until your entire appetite disappears, and you're forced to relinquish your food to them. Friggin' beggars. I hate the ones at the bus-stop.
Well, the election is finally over. Two years of ponderings, debates, scandals, arguments, speculation, and mindless drivel has finally ceased, so I figure I'll take one more look at the results and give my personal opinion on them.
We'll start with Barack Obama. He seems to be quite the lightning rod these days...I've never heard anyone express an indifferent opinion towards the guy. He's either the second coming of Jesus Christ, who will free America of all of its burdens, escort in a new era of prosperity and wealth, and bring CHANGE! (who woulda thunk it), or he's the Anti-Christ, a demon who was sent here to turn us into socialist weaklings who get terrorized every week, have abortion kiosks in malls, and allow men to marry inanimate objects. It's simply amazing how people can have such differing opinions on the exact same guy, with the exact same issues, and the exact same information. Anyhoo, while I personally would have voted for John McCain, I do wish Obama all the luck in the world. He's gonna need it.
Sarah Palin. Gah, why did McCain have to pick Palin. Yes, she did excite the base for awhile. Then, it kinda kicked in that she's a hockey mom with no foreign policy experience. And she's so. Damn. FOLKSY. Seriously, is it necessary to wink at the camera every five minutes? We know you're a mother who's incapable of naming her children names that will not scar them for the rest of their lives, but take this seriously. We know you're folksy. Show us that you can do, you know, political stuff. I think it might be rather important, no?
John McCain. Ahh, John the Maverick. Creating political turmoil for everyone but himself everywhere he goes. He doesn't conform to one party, he gets things done. I kinda like John (despite the fact that I think his constant reminder that he's a maverick is a bit weak--you're in Washington D.C., not the Old West. You're just a politician.), and I'd say I agree with him on a lot of issues. However, he kinda was the fall guy this year. After eight years of Bush, the conservatives didn't stand a chance. I think he ran a great campaign, he had a lot of dignity, and I've got a lot of respect for him.
I'm not even going to touch Joe Biden, because no one really knows about him. I will, however, leave you with a quote that he said during the Primaries. "The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training". I hope that Obama keeps that in mind when he picks his Cabinet.
I hate this weekend, which is saying a lot, because school sucked this week too.
Well here I am. Another Sunday night. Another load of homework to do. It's times like these that I ask myself, "Why the hell did you do this? You weren't that busy this weekend. You could have knocked out half of this already." But no. Of course not. I must yet again torture myself in the name of homework and procrastination. How much longer can I keep this up? Am I going to be like this when I'm older? Is this something I just grow out of? Gah, I'm much too speculative. And yet, these questions nag me. Sure, I could be like most people and just take my procrastination in stride, taking things day-by-day and living for the moment but no, I must persist in my constant worrying. And to top that off, I need to be reading, not writing blog posts. Oh well.
And on top of that, which college am I going to go to? I'm not even going to get into that. I'm worrying too much, I need to relax. And do AP Chem. Gah, I just realized I have AP Chem.
Yeah, this is starting to feel all rambly and stream-of-conscious-ey, so I'm thinking I should just stop. Yes, that's probably the best idea. Ok, I'll blog post sometime when I'm less introspective. Bye all of you Indian people...
Oh, and what's with the lack of comments? The only comments I've received are from Sahana correcting typos. Thanks for the hearty welcome. Psh.
I am an officially licensed driver as of today. While it is extremely exciting (combine that with the fact that I now have my new laptop and you have one fantastic week), it got me thinking as to what it means to have a license. While the implications may not seem like much, I'm beginning to see that I'm not going to be hanging around home any more. It's a bit of a wake up call--while still under the complete jurisdiction of my parents, I will be out of the house soon. I'm becoming more independent, taking on more irresponsibility, and preparing myself for the ominous "real world" you always hear stuffy adults talking about.
And am I ready?
HELL NO.
I still feel like a kid. Yes, I have reaped the benefits that have inevitably come with age, and while I have grown much more intelligent and accumulated an impressive vocabulary, I by no means feel like an adult at heart. I'm not ready to hold down a steady job, or pick a career for that matter (sorry Sahana, I'm still not sure about the whole Cardiologist thing). I see an impasse approaching, but do not know what to do but avert my eyes and shield my face. Where do I want to college. What in the hell am I going to do with my life? I've got unbridled potential but no direction. As of late I've been leaning towards doctor of some sort, but sometimes I think maybe a lawyer would be cool. And then there's the rebellious side of me that wants me to just travel the world and fuck it all. He is in constant battle with the diligent, responsible part of me, who wants me to go to college and get a career. While I think when I get out of college I'm going to travel, I don't want to get tied down to some career I don't like. So much in this life you see people doing boring jobs, and being stuck there because they have a family to support. I want to avoid this, but I don't know what to do. Gah.
What to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to doooooo?
I'm confuzzled.
Oh, and P.S.--Something really annoying is happening. My PreCalculus teacher always likes to make up words that sound like other words (for example, he'll say slob instead of solve, or cluckulate instead of calculate), and it's rather infectious. Combine that with the fact that I have Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd stuck in my head, and I keep getting the line "to be a slimple....kind of man" stuck in my head. Damn Mr. Bakhos.
Before I begin, I just would like to say that I am jealous of the story-telling ability of Sahana. I am not nearly that poetic or eloquent. Anyways...
It's about midnight here in Southern California, and my little brother is just getting around to doing his science project. He needs to find out a way to make an object more four meters without pushing it off...he's using a small tank of CO2. Now, it is extremely hypocritical for me to be telling him to do his homework, as I myself am still working on AP US History. The difference between us, though, is that I am a reasonably responsible student, while he is a slacker. I have mostly good grades, all of which the result of self-motivation, while he is always at the risk of being sent off to boarding school. No joke. If his grades fall below a B- average, he is sent to boarding school. Because of this, I (due to some form of pity for my brother) helped him search for a vehicle to be propelled by the CO2, and have motivated him through the night. Whatever, he'll probably end up in boarding school anyway.
Oh, and in other news, I found an AMAZING website for classical sheet music. www.imslp.org has a ridiculous array of sheet music for all kinds of instruments, and as they're all public domain, they're all free. Hooray!
Just a quick post on how I'm getting my new laptop. I'm VERY excited...it should be here in about two days. I doubt anyone cares, but I thought I would inform all six of you anyway. Cheerio!
-Stropko