Songs to Change a Life: Part 1

There are countless list of “songs that will change your life”, this is no such list, I make no guarantee that this list has any cathartic properties or that any of these songs will affect the listener in any way. What I can say is that each of these songs has some significance to myself in some way. A sort of soundtrack to my life. I'd like to put these in chronological order of the point in my life where I heard them but I'm not Rob Gordon, I lack the ability to do this.

Fat Lip by Sum 41
I’d be lying if I said Fat Lip changed my outlook on life or had a profound impact on the way I lead my life. Fat Lip was simply the first song that I ever obtained myself. It was the first song that I didn’t, in a sense, share, with others in my family. Like many, my musical taste was initially defined by the music played in house, I live in a house of reggae, jazz, soul and R&B, these were the genres I was brought up on. Fat Lip fits into none of these genres and therefore none of the music defined as good by my family. It was the first stage in my own independent music development.

Favourite lyric: “I don't want to waste my time
become another casualty of society.
I'll never fall in line
Become another victim of your conformity
And back down.”

Why does it always Rain on Me? By Travis
I’m not the most cynical person but I do often have moments where I believe that everything is going wrong and that no-one is as troubled as I am. It happens to the best of us. Why does it always Rain on Me? represents this feeling, the dismal feeling that everyone else is happier that you are.

Favourite lyrics: “Even when the sun is shinning I can't avoid the lightning”

Drops of Jupiter by Train
Drops of Jupiter is one of the rare songs where I remember not when I first heard it, but when it gained significance. It tells the tale of someone who has left to find themselves or greener pastures and then returns. Upon leaving my secondary school where the majority of my friends were I almost immediately felt like I had left them and in doing so destroyed relationships with the people I was closest to. In Stand by Me (1986), the writer says “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?” I often think this will be true of my friends at the age of 15 (although, technically, I think these would be more or less the same people).

Favourite lyric: “Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day
And head back toward the milky way”

One Song Glory by Adam Pascal
During the course of my life I’ve wanted to take on many different occupations, lawyer, artist, writer and many more, each of which, at some point, involved creating something. This “something” would of course outlive me and me by mark on the world. This has not changed, I still feel the desire to leave something behind; I think this is a mortality thing. Ever when I no longer exist, part of me has to. Although I have almost nothing in common with Roger from Rent (I am not male, HIV Positive, a singer, a guitarist, an ex-junkie and my girlfriend didn’t commit suicide), I identify with one aspect of One Song Glory; creating this “one song”.

Favourite lyrics: “Find
Glory
In a song that rings true
Truth like a blazing fire
An eternal flame”

Sometimes you can’t make it on Your Own by U2
I’m not one for asking for help. Honestly, I hate it and my reluctance to get help accounts for a very large proportion of the problems I face. Sometimes I can’t make it on my own, despite my being fully aware of this, my actions never change.

Favourite Lyrics: “You don't have to put up a fight
You don't have to always be right
Let me take some of the punches
For you tonight”

End Titles by Thomas Newman (The Shawshank Redemption Soundtrack)
I think that part of enjoying this score is knowing the film in question and knowing how this particular score was used within the film. This score is present at many different parts of in the film, it is at the beginning, it is in the middle and it is at the end. It initially sounds sombre and depressing and eventually transforms into an uplifting piece. This reflects the life of the films main protagonist within the film; he goes from incarceration to freedom. This score makes me feel as though whatever awful things may be occurring, I have the ability to get through them.

Forever Young by Youth Group
I know Youth Group didn’t initially sing Forever Young, I simply prefer their version to the original (ooo, blasphemy). Within most us of is a desire to not grow up, Forever Young represents this perfectly.

Favourite Lyrics: “Forever young I want to be forever young,
Do you really want to live forever?”

L’Accordeoniste by Edith Piaf
When I went through what I call my Edith Piaf phase, I just listened to the music not really knowing what the songs translated to or what they meant. L’Accordeoniste sounded pleasant, the sort of song you’d do a jaunty dance to, unfortunately, it is not a pleasant song, ‘tis quite sad really. Learning what L’Accordeoniste was about caused it’s advancement onto this list. L’Accordeoniste is about a prostitute who falls in love with an accordion player who goes to war and doesn’t return. I don’t identify with the song but the way this saddening tale it told to a jaunty tune sticks with me.

Favourite lyrics: “Elle a envie de chanter
C'est physique
Tout son être est tendu
Son souffle est suspendu
C'est une vraie tordue de la musique”

A Bit of an Update

Hmmm, a few moments ago, it occurred to me that I have a blog, several blogs to be more precise (but not of course, completely precise). So, I had a quick look at my last post which consisted of me saying I had started watching Battlestar Galactica, I expressed some mad Once Upon A Time In America love, some Crash dislike and some Dark Knight indifference. Now, to recap. I have managed to watch every episode of Battlestar Galactica, some more than once, I have the same feelings towards Once Upon a Time in America and Crash and I’m yet to watch The Dark Knight again.

I haven’t written for quite some time, one month and nine days to be exact. What the frak has happened since August 7th?

The IMDB war has ended, but do we care?
Nope, not really

Some of us may remember that around July/ August, there was a bit of a war going on. The Dark Knight fans and The Godfather fans fought a lengthy battle of mice and keyboards all try to get the favourite movie onto the number 1 spot on imdb’s top 250. As you may have noticed from the title, the war is now over. The Dark Knight remained at number one for quite some time but, as some of use predicted, it is number 1 no longer. The Dark Knight has trickled down to number 3, and I believe it will only fall further. However, evidence of the war remains. Initially, the top 3 films were, in order, The Godfather, The Shawshank Redemption and The Godfather: Part II. There’s been a bit of a switcheroo between The Godfather and The Shawshank Redemption, the damage from the war brought The Godfather’s rating down.

The keyboards were at a bit of a disadvantage

Saturday Night Live returns
Political sketches n’ all.

Saturday Night Live has returned from its Summer hiatus with some good stuff…and some not so good stuff. I opened, as we have come to expect, with a sketch about the upcoming election. Amy Poeler appeared as Hillary Cinton and surprisingly, Tina Fey played Alaska Governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin. The aesthetic similarities between these two had not occurred to me until I saw the sketch. I believe this calls for a split screen.

Palin, left, Fey, Right. Or am I messing with you?

I strongly suggest checking it out, ‘tis hilarious. That was part of the good stuff, now for the not to good stuff. The first episode back was hosted by American Olympic hero, Michael Phelps, lets just say, he’s not the best actor.

Dr Horrible and that gosh darn sing-along Blog
Is there nothing Joss Whedon can’t do?

A while ago, by a while I mean weeks ago, a web series named Dr Horribles’s Sing-Along Blog was a available to watch for free online. It was fantastic. I wouldn’t say it was the greatest internet creation since gmail but it was great for what it was. It told the fun story of Dr. Horrible, a less than terrifying villain who was trying to get into the Evil League of Evil (run by Bad Horse). All the while being impeded in his efforts by Captain Hammer (played by none other than Firefly’s Nathan Fillion) who had caught the eye of Dr. Horrible’s love interest, Penny. If you’re a fan of Whedon, particularly the humour found in Whedon’s creations, I’d say you’d enjoy it. Oh snap! Yeah…it’s not free online anymore, check if you like it on you tube and if you do, you can buy the episodes and the soundtrack on iTunes….or…go through other channels *cough* torrents *cough*.

Welcome to the Dollhouse
We've got fun 'n' games

Continuing with the Whedon theme, the trailer for Joss Whedon’s new TV series, Dollhouse. Rather actually write about it, like some kind of peasant, here’s the trailer. It looks good to me, but then again, I intentionally watch rubbish.



Trailer Daze
Phrase “borrowed” from the IFC news podcast

Apple trailers has released some goodies since I last wrote. I’m not sure if the Watchmen trailer adventure happened before or after I last wrote, but here’s the story. Empire Online basically said that they had the exclusive new Watchmen trailer and it would only be available at 5am on the site on this day in question. Losers such as myself actually woke up at 5am to watch the trailer and lo and behold, it was available on Apple trailers already. I watched it, downloaded it in HD and went back to sleep. Now…about the trailer. In my sleepiness, it looked like the best trailer I had ever seen. Hooooowever, in my awakened state, it wasn’t too great. The images in the film looked good, but on the whole, not the best trailer I’ve been privy to. Watching the trailer made me even more aware of how unfamiliar I am with the cast, which may turn out to be a good thing as I don’t have them typecast. The thing is, I recognised one of the cast member, and he played a rather interesting character in another film. The film in question was Hard Candy, and he played a paedophile…hopefully I’ll forget once the film comes out of his performance will be so awesome that he’ll make me forget. Watchmen is a comic (trade paperback if you want to be precise) that had a lot of complex story that is generally hard to tell, I can’t help but worry that a lot will be left out. Kevin Smith saw it and said it was great, but he also liked Star Wars episode 3.

Woah, Watchmen got loads of attention. Erm, I think I’ll just do a separate post for trailers. Yeah…

The (not so) Secret Life the American Teenager
How this is still being made, I don’t know, but keep it coming

Have you ever watched something knowing that it was absolutely awful? This is the relationship I have with the ABC “family drama”, The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I was just browsing…a website, and I stumbled upon The Secret Life of the American Teenager. The thing that caught my attention was Molly Ringwald’s name who I have seen since in anything made after, erm, 1986? So, I watched the first episode and what terrible goodness it was. The acting is atrocious, the characters are walking stereotypes and the story is just, blah. However, as it is so bad, I can’t help but watch it. This drama is one of the best comedies I watch at the moment.

Guess what it‘s about

Getting tired…

On a final note, additional things that have happened, of that I have become aware of are:
-Ingmar Bergman is awesome
-The Ice Bar is as cold as you think
-Tropic Thunder was not as funny as I expected
-Caribbean Ice Tea is so very tasty
-Ruby Blue is rubbish
-The Daily Show is the best way to spend 25 minutes

And…

When you want people to arrive at a particular time, tell them to arrive half an hour earlier

Goodbye Godfather, Hello Dark Knight?

I never thought I'd see the day. Ever since I started using imdb so many moons ago, the top of the list had always housed The Godfather part 1. It was then followed by The Shawshank Redemption and The Godfather part 2. Today, I was randomly pondering whether The Dark Knight had gotten into the top 250 yet, not because I’d seen it and thought it was great (which I haven’t), but because there have been quite a few previews for it and with most films nowadays, as soon as they come out, they receive a surge of votes and end up in the top 250. This year this has been the case for Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Indy 4, Wall-E and many more. So, I went on imdb to check The Dark Knight’s position and my gosh, I saw something I’ve never seen before. The Godfather was not in the number one spot. The Dark Knight had topped imdb’s top 250.

The question is: Is this further evidence that imdb’s top 250 is not reliable and valid or Is The Dark Knight the greatest film of all time? At this time I cannot comment, I’m yet to see The Dark Knight, as mentioned previously, it isn’t in the running to be my favourite film due to my clown problem but it may still turn out be a great film. I’m yet to get over the shock of seeing The Godfather at number 2. Strange. What one needs to remember is that this is the initial reaction to the film, this may be the responses of all The Dark Knight fan boys who where going to give it 10 stars regardless of how good it was. Then again, Empire gave it five stars (out of five). Oooo, I feel so conflicted. There’s a strong chance that it will go down, like I said before, more than four other films from 2008 got into the top 250 when they came out, only two remain.

Coming out of Shawshank

I now know how Andy felt at the end of The Shawshank Redemption. I have left the prison that is full time education (well, for 3 months) and I got through the crap filled tunnel that is A-Levels. Yes I tells ya, I’m free. Okay, so maybe it’s not exactly the same as Shawshank, but I don’t think I could feel any better than I do right now.

See, I’m that happy, actually, that looks a bit scary. Anyhoo, I don’t know what to do with myself, my plan was to start looking for a job on Monday, but, my mother had other things in mind. You see, me being off from school means that there someone to make the house extra clean. That’s freedom for you. I’m sure when Andy got out he didn’t get to everything he wanted, come on, he was building a boat, now that’s hard work.

My last exam was on Thursday, Sociology. It was possibly the worst exam experience of this exam season, just when I thought it was going well. I’ve spent the last few days procrastination, actually, it’s probably not procrastinating when really have nothing to do. Let me rephrase that, I’ve spent the last few days enjoying my freedom. I’ve watched High Fidelity, Kiss Kiss bang Bang and Venus. I also watched Arrested Development and Oz, the prison show, not the musical. It turned out to be pretty good but some parts were just horrifying.

I’m meant to be going to see The Incredible Hulk today. If you, like me, can’t stand listening to the sounds of children laughing, gasping or making any other unnecessary noise during films, I strongly recommend seeing films on Sundays or before 12 on weekdays. I went to check the rating online (I say went like I got out of my seat) and, in turn, accidentally saw the Rotten Tomatoes fresh rating. It’s 64% fresh, that isn’t good. Despite this, I bet it’ll spend at least one day on imdb’s top 250. Empire gave it 3 stars, the same as Iron Man, let’s see whether it’s better or worse than it’s predecessor (by predecessor I mean the previous Marvel funded film, Iron Man). We’ll just have to wait and see.