I love music. Who doesn't love music? I'm sure there's someone out there who hasn't found the right song yet, but aside from that person and the countless people that would argue with me just to do so, I think I can safely say that music is inherent to the human soul. Let's be clear, I'm not talking "religious" soul. You can call it that if you want but I'm talking about the all-encompassing soul that makes everyone, regardless of religion, race, creed, sexuality, or gender, uniquely human. We need music; we thrive on it; we're made better by it.
What got me thinking about this was how the music we listen to fits the mood we're in at that moment. Right now, I'm listening to an orchestral meditation track that allows me to write freely without interruption by lyrics that could influence which words I use or which sentiment I want to convey. It's what I listen to almost every time I write and as soon as I hear this song, my mind immediately goes to writing.
When I want to get into a party mood, I listen to Rita Ora's "Party & Bullsh*t" song. My fiancee laughs at me because when I'm feeling in a happy mood, I listen to tweeny-bopper pop songs. I call them my "happy songs." That's what they are to me, they are happy to listen to - just don't pay attention to the lyrics too much and you can stay just as blissfully happy as I am ("Call me maybe" anyone?)
Thousands upon thousands of songs, all for very very different moods. The most poignant song for me is "Memory" from Cats. Why? Because I must have listened to this song a hundred times by now and yet I still can't remember the lyrics to save my life. If you told me to sing it right now, I could hum the melody but do little more. (Yes, I'm not lost on the irony that the song is called "Memory" and yet I can't remember the lyrics.) Why does this song affect me as it does? I'd like to think that it's because I don't want to remember the lyrics. I'd like to think that not knowing which verse comes next makes it all the more powerful. That song is a true testament of the genius that can go into song-writing.
Now, I may never be a great lyricist or great song-writer, or even performer (though if I'm doing karaoke I'm going to rock the house as always) but I can be a great song appreciator. We can all be for that matter, because with so many different songs, styles, formats, artists, genres, etc. out there, what's not to appreciate?
I'd love to hear from you out there. What's your favorite song? Why do you listen to it and how does it speak to you?
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Why I won't vote for Romney
So I just finished watching the acceptance speech of Mitt Romney to the RNC and all I can say with unquestionable resolve is that I'll never vote for this man for President of the United States. Regardless of the kind of President that Obama is, he is not going to be kind of President that Mitt Romney would be, and that is a good thing.
Mitt Romney could have banked his nomination on being a man that was able to usher in compromise in a Democratically led Massachusetts when he was their governor. He could have discussed how he respects the Republican party but cannot abide by every plank of their new platform (incidentally he doesn't favor "personhood" plank, so actual kudos to him on that). He could have even said that he is fiscally conservative and will try to bring that type of rationality to his presidency. Did he say any of these things? No.
No, he claimed that he is the descendant of a man who was a descendant of immigrants. He called this land a "nation of immigrants" and yet his party has become increasingly xenophobic as this election progresses. He has supported measures that would prevent further immigration to the US and has not criticized his colleagues for their backwards and antagonistic views on immigrants. He rattled out a lot of hyperbole about the American dream but even that felt very white-bread. When it comes to minorities, Mitt Romney and the GOP would rather quietly think that these people do not make up the fabric of our society. Come out and say it, why don't you? at least then it's not utter hypocrisy every time you speak.
Furthermore, stop saying you're an advocate of women's rights when you won't defend their need for birth control to be covered under basic medical care. Don't say you will uphold the sanctity of life when you won't advocate to permanently remove the death penalty. Don't claim to respect people's right to privacy and then say that they don't have the right to get married, just because they're different than you. In the end, Mitt and the GOP want to stay out of people's private lives only when it comes to taxes and regulation, but as soon as it's a social issue, they are no holds barred. He wouldn't even advocate to reduce military spending even though a balanced budget would require it, because the military industrial complex is so intertwined with fundamentalist conservative votes.
And his entire acceptance speech was all about one thing: pandering to fundamentalists. I expect the same thing from Democrats, don't get me wrong. Obama and his party are going to do do their fair share of pandering next week but at least their party platform doesn't demean women, disenfranchise minority and elderly voters and have a completely backwards approach to progressive values.
I want to believe in a GOP that could go back to the core values of fiscal discipline and states' rights that is founded upon, but sadly the conservative fundamentalists have taken over the dialogue there. GOP, you're going to have to try a lot harder to earn my vote. It just saddens me to no end that the bar is so low for your constituents out there that they have no choice but to vote for Mitt Romney this November.
Mitt Romney could have banked his nomination on being a man that was able to usher in compromise in a Democratically led Massachusetts when he was their governor. He could have discussed how he respects the Republican party but cannot abide by every plank of their new platform (incidentally he doesn't favor "personhood" plank, so actual kudos to him on that). He could have even said that he is fiscally conservative and will try to bring that type of rationality to his presidency. Did he say any of these things? No.
No, he claimed that he is the descendant of a man who was a descendant of immigrants. He called this land a "nation of immigrants" and yet his party has become increasingly xenophobic as this election progresses. He has supported measures that would prevent further immigration to the US and has not criticized his colleagues for their backwards and antagonistic views on immigrants. He rattled out a lot of hyperbole about the American dream but even that felt very white-bread. When it comes to minorities, Mitt Romney and the GOP would rather quietly think that these people do not make up the fabric of our society. Come out and say it, why don't you? at least then it's not utter hypocrisy every time you speak.
Furthermore, stop saying you're an advocate of women's rights when you won't defend their need for birth control to be covered under basic medical care. Don't say you will uphold the sanctity of life when you won't advocate to permanently remove the death penalty. Don't claim to respect people's right to privacy and then say that they don't have the right to get married, just because they're different than you. In the end, Mitt and the GOP want to stay out of people's private lives only when it comes to taxes and regulation, but as soon as it's a social issue, they are no holds barred. He wouldn't even advocate to reduce military spending even though a balanced budget would require it, because the military industrial complex is so intertwined with fundamentalist conservative votes.
And his entire acceptance speech was all about one thing: pandering to fundamentalists. I expect the same thing from Democrats, don't get me wrong. Obama and his party are going to do do their fair share of pandering next week but at least their party platform doesn't demean women, disenfranchise minority and elderly voters and have a completely backwards approach to progressive values.
I want to believe in a GOP that could go back to the core values of fiscal discipline and states' rights that is founded upon, but sadly the conservative fundamentalists have taken over the dialogue there. GOP, you're going to have to try a lot harder to earn my vote. It just saddens me to no end that the bar is so low for your constituents out there that they have no choice but to vote for Mitt Romney this November.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Living in an iWorld
It's been over a year since my last post on this forum. Strange how a year feels. So much has changed in my personal life and my professional life. For as much as everything has changed, so much still stays the same...especially when I look at my last post.
I originally thought of making this a political blog but even that has changed. Now, I look at this blog as a forum for expressing inter-connectivity. What do I mean by inter-connectivity? Well, in thinking about the title of this Blog, the iPhone, iPad, iHome, and every other Apple product was designed to bring harmony to the disorganized world of the individual. It's a wonderful marketing ploy to get people to buy a lot more things than they really need. It's worked well - even I have an iPad. But it's not what I mean by inter-connectivity.
No, inter-connectivity is how we approach the very disparate messages, situations, choices, and actions of our daily lives. We are each very different individuals with very different goals and in very different positions on a daily basis, but we each have to unite these different objectives into a coherent whole that we call life. And we have to do it on a daily basis with each action and reaction being predicated on the prior actions and reactions of the days before. That is inter-connectivity.
I want to write about this fabric of life that binds us together even though we have very different opinions on how it binds us together. I want to talk about art, culture, music, and life through the magic of words - through my writing. Some will hate what I have to say, some will love it. Some will agree with me, some will not. In the end I think we can all agree on one thing, and one thing only: I am entitled to my opinion and you are entitled to yours... and that is hopefully enough for civilized discourse in this iWorld.
I originally thought of making this a political blog but even that has changed. Now, I look at this blog as a forum for expressing inter-connectivity. What do I mean by inter-connectivity? Well, in thinking about the title of this Blog, the iPhone, iPad, iHome, and every other Apple product was designed to bring harmony to the disorganized world of the individual. It's a wonderful marketing ploy to get people to buy a lot more things than they really need. It's worked well - even I have an iPad. But it's not what I mean by inter-connectivity.
No, inter-connectivity is how we approach the very disparate messages, situations, choices, and actions of our daily lives. We are each very different individuals with very different goals and in very different positions on a daily basis, but we each have to unite these different objectives into a coherent whole that we call life. And we have to do it on a daily basis with each action and reaction being predicated on the prior actions and reactions of the days before. That is inter-connectivity.
I want to write about this fabric of life that binds us together even though we have very different opinions on how it binds us together. I want to talk about art, culture, music, and life through the magic of words - through my writing. Some will hate what I have to say, some will love it. Some will agree with me, some will not. In the end I think we can all agree on one thing, and one thing only: I am entitled to my opinion and you are entitled to yours... and that is hopefully enough for civilized discourse in this iWorld.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
I Want A Reboot...
of Congress and our government that is. I ask you, have you ever seen a more dysfunctional bunch of prancing and posturing idiots that don't have their own show on ESPN? Has anything important really been accomplished with this passing of the measure to raise the debt ceiling? It's an arbitrary number to begin - being arbitrarily raised at will more than a hundred times already. But China can still call us up on our debt at any time, even with the debt ceiling raised the extra 2 trillion dollars. Really, once you start talking about money in this fashion it's all just made up anyway. There's a complete lack of perspective of what a trillion dollars is, or 16 trillion, or a million trillion. What is the important issue here? My wrathful anger because that's why I'm writing this at all, right? No - it's actually fiscal responsibility. Don't spend more than you make. Republicans can love me now because I hit the nail on the head - we had to cut spending. True, but this is a two-sided equation. We also need more revenue. I know that I've always personally needed more money to get out of debt - I can't just stop buying groceries because I'm trying to control my spending habits.
So naturally the president had it right by saying we needed more taxation from the wealthiest tier of America, right? Well, sort of. He was short-sighted on what actually drives increases in revenue. But he (and the rest of the Democrats) caved and it's a moot point now. In the end, Republicans were obtuse not for their principles but for their politics. (It would be nice if they were the same). They couldn't give in to the president for fear of being discredited with their constituents during election time. They were "rolling the dice" on our credit score figuring the Democrats would fold. Mixed gambling metaphors aside, this returns me back to a previous point: there is a total lack of perspective with all these politicians, Republican and Democrat alike. The fact is that neither party much cares for Americans, just their own myopic interests, which pretty much boil down to being re-elected so they get another 2 or 6 years to screw us over again. I just want to know why compromise and the common good have to be forsaken for posterity and showboating when the former is why we elect politicians and the latter is why we hate them?
So get rid of them.... all of them. Ctrl+Alt+Delete their asses! They're not doing their jobs.They don't care about Americans, they only care for themselves - and we all know it too. I wish it would all change Election Day but even that can't or won't happen - it'll just add more fuel to pyre that is our government. I hope that anyone thinking of running for office keeps this one simple tenant in mind: a politician is a civil servant. Civil servant - not peacock on parade.
So naturally the president had it right by saying we needed more taxation from the wealthiest tier of America, right? Well, sort of. He was short-sighted on what actually drives increases in revenue. But he (and the rest of the Democrats) caved and it's a moot point now. In the end, Republicans were obtuse not for their principles but for their politics. (It would be nice if they were the same). They couldn't give in to the president for fear of being discredited with their constituents during election time. They were "rolling the dice" on our credit score figuring the Democrats would fold. Mixed gambling metaphors aside, this returns me back to a previous point: there is a total lack of perspective with all these politicians, Republican and Democrat alike. The fact is that neither party much cares for Americans, just their own myopic interests, which pretty much boil down to being re-elected so they get another 2 or 6 years to screw us over again. I just want to know why compromise and the common good have to be forsaken for posterity and showboating when the former is why we elect politicians and the latter is why we hate them?
So get rid of them.... all of them. Ctrl+Alt+Delete their asses! They're not doing their jobs.They don't care about Americans, they only care for themselves - and we all know it too. I wish it would all change Election Day but even that can't or won't happen - it'll just add more fuel to pyre that is our government. I hope that anyone thinking of running for office keeps this one simple tenant in mind: a politician is a civil servant. Civil servant - not peacock on parade.
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