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 |    My primary Writing.com blog. |
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Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics). Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:  "The Soundtrackers Group"  "Invalid Item" "Blogging Circle of Friends " "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" "JAFBG" "Take up Your Cross" Thanks for stopping by!  |
| "The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 6 "Pretty Girl" by Ice Spice (feat. Rema) I had never heard of Ice Spice before she featured on a Taylor Swift song ("Karma" off her most recent new album, Midnights). Ice Spice was then the musical guest on an episode of Saturday Night Live where Taylor Swift did a surprise introduction, which my wife wanted to watch, and this was the song that she ended up introducing. I immediately fell in love with the soulful, Caribbean-type beats of this track, and Rema's voice is a perfect complement to Ice Spice's rapping. I've listened to a few other Ice Spice songs since and I can't say that I'm a huge fan of her as an individual artist, but something about this song really clicks. Looking at my tentative playlist for this year, there's actually very few hip-hop artists and rappers this year. I usually have at least a couple, but this might be the only one... unless I suddenly call an audible and change my mind in the middle of the activity (which has been known to happen). |
| "The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 5 "Missing You" by Chase Wright This is the other country song that I probably listened to the most over the past year. Like "Love You A Little Bit" , it just has a certain energy to it that I found really easy to listen to on repeat for long periods of time. One of the things I'm learning about myself as a consumer of music is that I tend to look for songs that - regardless of genre - hit a certain emotion I'm looking for (energetic, melancholy, soulful, etc.) and then when I'm in the mood for that kind of emotion I'll just play the heck out of a small number of songs on repeat while I'm in that mood. That's probably why I have such an eclectic playlist every year, but where some songs are played literally dozens and sometimes hundreds of times over the course of several months.I'm also realizing that I tend to gravitate toward country songs with a lot of pop and rock influences. I'm not so big on the more traditional country subgenres like bluegrass or folk or honky-tonk. There's definitely the occasional song or two that I like from those genres but, as mentioned above, it's rare that one of those songs hits the exact right emotion I'm looking for... at least not in a more satisfying way than some songs in other genres, so I tend not to listen to classic country too much. Music like this, though, and Tanner Adell and some others, I'm definitely into. |
| "The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 4 "Love You A Little Bit" by Tanner Adell I'm really bummed that the only video I can find for the original version of this song is a fan-made video compilation of the artist's social media posts. She has a couple of good acoustic versions of this song on her own YouTube channel, but not even a lyric video or audio for the original.  I found this song during an extended country music phase this past year (which you'll see more of later in this activity), and it's probably one of the country songs I ended up listening to the most in 2023. It has the perfect blend of energy, catchy lyrics, and catchy beat; I found it really easy to just let it play on repeat while I was driving around town or trying to get some work done. One of the cool things I noticed in listening to Tanner and doing a bit of research is that there's apparently a big push for "black girl" country artists now. Country artists are overwhelmingly white and male for the most part, and while women have made huge strides in the genre in recent years, they're almost exclusively white as well. There's a massive appetite for diversity in country music artists, and I hope it happens because one of the reasons that I'm not a huge country fan normally is because I find so much of it homogenous. Some new perspectives would be a great way to refresh the genre and attract new fans. |
| "The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 3 "Before You" by David J This song reminds me of my trip to Nashville several years ago. My wife and I had never been and we went on a whim, to visit some relatives who had recently moved there. We were amazed at just how many music venues there were (some places downtown literally had buildings with multiple floors that had a different bar (and stage to perform on) on every level. We spent several days just wandering in and out of different bars listening to the people who were performing. And while we had planned on seeing some very specific performers, we were even more pleasantly surprised to discover local artists we'd never heard of before. David J kind of reminds me of those artists. His stage name is totally generic, and he looks like a college frat bro... but he happens to have a decent voice and he wrote a catchy song. I initially found this song on Spotify through the "Discover Weekly" playlist that recommends new songs every week based on your listening habits, but this is totally the kind of song I could imagine stumbling upon in some random bar in Nashville and suddenly becoming a fan. At the very least, it definitely makes me want to visit Nashville again and discover some new music. |
| "The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 2 "One I Wanna Be With" by Trella I first heard this song on the finale of the latest season of Selling the OC, the spinoff series from Selling Sunset. If you're not familiar with the show, congratulations on successfully avoiding yet another drama-filled reality television juggernaut. It's a show about a real estate brokerage (the original "Sunset" refers to the original Los Angeles location on the Sunset Strip, and the "OC" spinoff refers to the office they subsequently opened near Newport Beach) that hires insanely hot listing agents (mostly women) and shows both their personal and professional lives. My wife and I love the show, mostly because catty people's interpersonal drama on reality shows is her guilty pleasure, and I love the architecture porn that comes with them touring listings of exclusive multimillion-dollar properties. It's got a little something for everybody.  And you can say what you want about the quality of Netflix's reality television content, but their music supervisor is worth every penny they're getting paid. The song selection for all of their reality programs (and especially these ones) is phenomenal. There are genuinely great songs like this one, and a fair amount of needle drops that mirror the sentiments/feelings of the personalities in the show perfectly. I don't actually know much about this artist other than what's on her website... which is that her real name is Lindsey Sweat, she grew up doing worship music in a church context, and moved to Nashville where she discovered the indie-pop genre and invented "Trella" as her new indie-pop project. I haven't heard many of her other songs at this point, but I'm definitely interested based on how much I like this one. |
| "The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 1 "Tear It Up" by Queen I usually devote most of my "The Soundtrack of Your Life" entries every year to new music that I've discovered, rather than classics that I find myself returning to after a time. But I had to start this year's challenge with this one because it's just such an energetic song, and the perfect way to kick off a playlist. Queen was never one of my favorite bands growing up, but they have some truly iconic songs that you know from the moment they start playing, and this certainly qualifies. I actually started listening to this again after a rewatch of Ted Lasso, where it was featured on the soundtrack at an end of one of the episodes. I added it to my annual playlist after that and have been listening to it ever since.When I was looking for YouTube videos featuring this song, I ultimately just landed on the band's official lyric video because I figure those are the least likely to be removed sometime in the future, but I did go down a bit of a rabbit hole watching Queen's live performances over the years and it made me realize all over again what a tragic loss Freddie Mercury was for the world. That man was a phenomenal entertainer. Anyway, this is it... my first official "The Soundtrack of Your Life" playlist entry for the year! |
| WDC 48-Hour Challenge: Media Prompt | Prompt ▼ I know that a lot of people love Harry Styles, but I honestly don't get the appeal. I think his songs are mediocre, he's not a very good actor (Don't Worry Darling was not very good (but his acting was far from the only problematic thing with that movie), and many consider him a fashion icon for the way he incorporates both masculine and feminine elements into his personal style, but I think his choice of attire is often overly flamboyant just for the sake of being over the top. That said, there's no shortage of fascinating facts about Harry Styles, including:  His primary residence apparently involves splitting time between two homes that are both located in North London. In 2022, his fans started throwing chicken nuggets on stage and encouraging him to eat them. He has polythelia (the condition of having more than two nipples). One of his many tattoos was administered live on television as part of a dare on a late night show.I do have to admit that I enjoy it when former band members achieve success after striking out on their own, and there's no question that Harry Styles is doing just fine for himself after moving on from One Direction. I'm not sure I'd go so far as The Guardian went, when Ben Beaumont-Thomas wrote that he is "a star who has negotiated one of the most difficult transitions in music - from boy band to solo act - with more panache than even successful forebears such as Justin Timberlake and Robbie Williams" (  ), but I do admit that he's having a very successful second act of his career as a solo artist.I just think all of his songs kind of sound the same.  (303 words) |
| To qualify for my Watch List every month, the following has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, but it can't be reruns or rewatches of something I've already seen. So if I'm including it in this list, it means this month is the first time I've watched it. I'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish. Movies Blue Beetle The Equalizer 3 Gran Turismo The Lego Batman MovieTelevision Five Star Chef Fool Me Once Gen V It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Season 1)The best movie I saw this month was Gran Turismo. I thought they did a really good job with it, and the true story of recruiting video game racers to compete in real-world professional racing is a fascinating story. It's probably the best racing movie I've seen since Ford v. Ferrari, although I do still want to see Michael Mann's Ferrari as well. The Equalizer 3 was okay, but a little too long, and The Lego Batman Movie was fun; they really know what they're doing with the Lego franchise. Blue Beetle continued the DC tradition of making terrible movies, unfortunately. On the television side, I had high hopes for Fool Me Once but kind of lost enthusiasm for it halfway through. I finally started It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia just to see what's so popular about that show... still not sure that I love it, but I'll give it a couple more seasons (the early seasons are pretty short). More than anything, it was a real trip to be reminded what the world was like back in 2005 when the show first aired. It was like an entirely different world. Five Star Chef was an okay cooking reality show, although the hosts always sounded like a bunch of snob, criticizing the contestants for not being classy or elevated enough. My favorite show of them all was Gen V, the spinoff of The Boys which focused on a group of students at a superhero university. The story was honestly way more interesting than I thought it would be, with good tie-ins to The Boys, some decent cameos, and the same level of absolute chaos, violence, and insanity that the franchise has come to be known for. It's definitely not for the faint of heart or easily offended, for those that aren't, it's a really smart and funny take on how superhumans might actually act when they have phenomenal powers and few morals. TOP PICK: Gen V |
| "Invalid Item" Andre's Fractured Resolutions Week 3 | Prompt 1 ▼ As someone who's currently working three different jobs, my resolution this year is to actually get rid of a job. In addition to my day job working at Marvel Studios in their legal department, I'm also the president of the board of a local community development nonprofit, and the Director of Operations for our church. For almost a year, I've been balancing the responsibilities of each and it's safe to say that I'm pretty exhausted at this point as I constantly shift from one job to the next, trying to get everything done that needs to be done each day. Turns out, the church job situation will probably take care of itself in the coming weeks, so I'll be down to two. And the community nonprofit is the least work of the three, so I'm really hoping that my workload will be reduced enough to introduce some balance back into my life. One of the most difficult things about having multiple jobs is that you're just never "off duty" because something's almost always happening somewhere. The last time I was this busy was when I took a bunch of consulting gigs during a brief period of unemployment about five years ago, and then a bunch of work came my way all at the same time. I was working a full-time office job, then working two consulting gigs in my spare time (on my lunch break, after work, late at night, etc.). I used to carry three different laptops around in my work bag, so I always had each job at my fingertips just in case something came up. The money was great, but the physical and mental and emotional toll was pretty high. So this year, I find myself resolving not to get a job, but to get rid of one. (301 words) |
| "Invalid Item" Andre's Fractured Resolutions Week 2 | Prompt 2 ▼ Hiking is one of those activities that I'm wary about, because it means different things to different people. If you're talking about hiking in terms of it basically being an "outdoor walk" then, sure... hikes are lovely. I like being out in nature, and low-impact walking is great, especially with some scenery to appreciate along the way. But if you're talking about hiking in terms of it being a "grab your backpack, your expensive hiking boots, and make sure you carry your own food and water because we're going on a ten-mile hike in the mountains" then no thank you. I've never been much of an outdoorsy type. My parents would take us on fishing trips often, and I was in the Boy Scouts for most of my youth, so I'm not unfamiliar with outdoorsy-type stuff. I just don't really like it. On family fishing trips, I'd just bring a book and go off somewhere and read a book. On Boy Scout camping trips I'd set up the tent and then spend most of my time inside of it. Also reading a book. Now that I'm older and spend the majority of my time inside (at an office for work, in a home taking care of kids, etc.) I've come to appreciate the outdoors much more, but I still can only take it in small doses. We have friends who love long-distance hiking and "dig your own latrine" camping and, well, that's just not for me. But drive out to the ocean for a half day at the beach? Or take a morning hike for an hour or so? That I definitely can appreciate more these days. So I actually can resolve to take a nice healthy hike this year... as long as it's not too far and I'm home by lunchtime. (308 words) |
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