CD Review-- "Speak Now" by Taylor Swift

Well, on Monday the new Taylor Swift CD came out. And I bought it. Obviously.
I've always loved Taylor's stuff in the past, but this time around, for the most part, I just wasn't feelin' it. Of course, between my recent punk/newgrass/classic rock addictions, my music tastes have evolved quite a bit since Fearless came out, but I still like that CD a lot better than this one. It strikes me overall as a little forgettable-- nothing special. However, there are a few songs I really like, and since I only paid four dollars for it (thank you Amazon!), it was worth what I paid for it. Here's my iTunes review style play by play:

1. "Mine" -- This might have been a really cute song right now if she hadn't released it five months ago as the first single. The fact that the CD just came out the other day and this song is already overplayed kinda ruins it for me. Basic premise: careful girl with a tough family history with love gets reassured that her boy won't ever hurt her. *shrug* It's kinda catchy, I guess, but it just doesn't do much for me.

2. "Sparks Fly" -- Sooooooooo cliche. Completely forgettable. You're twenty. Get out of middle school Taylor. This was probably my least favorite because it was just so boring. That's pretty much all I have to say about it.

3. "Back to December" -- I really like the lyrics to this one, but the melody line just doesn't keep me interested. There's about two notes. The lyrics are talking about regret over losing a relationship, and they're pretty good. Sad, but good.

4. "Speak Now" -- Oh goodness. This is an adorable little song. This is one of the songs that makes me happy I bought this CD. The opening line is, "I am not the type of girl who should be rudely barging in on a white veil occasion/ But you are not the kind of boy who should be marrying the wrong girl." When the preacher says "Speak now or forever hold your peace," she... well... speaks. Haha. There is no depth to this song. It provides no profound insight into life. My guess is the events she's singing about are purely fictional. However, there's some funny sarcasm when she's talking about the bride-to-be, the melody line is cute, and it just makes me happy. Sometimes you just need songs that make you happy for no good reason. :)

5. "Dear John" -- Another favorite. This almost made me cry the first time I heard it just 'cause I REALLY relate to a few of the lines. The melody line is pretty and stirring (I love the little guitar twang in between verses and the beat in her voice in the words she draws out) and the lyrics are good. Good job Taylor.

6. "Mean" -- This is probably the most country-sounding song on the album. I feel like this was definitely written to someone... and I'm laughing at the poor guy 'cause he probably feels really stupid right now. The lyrics are "Someday I'll be livin' in a big ol' city and all you're ever gonna be is mean"... and she's making millions of dollars. I love the line about him being "drunk and going on about how I can't sing." It just makes me laugh. And the way she says "You're mean... and a liar... and pathetic..." makes me laugh to. You can hear the sharpness in her voice. Not anything riveting, but it was entertaining.

7. "The Story of Us" -- Well, when I started this line I didn't remember this song, but having gone back to listen to it I actually really enjoy it. It's quite relatable. It's about not talking to somebody you used to love... "I've never heard silence quite this loud." Yeah. That about sums it up, don't it? Huh. This might be a new favorite.

8. "Never Grow Up"-- Booorrring. Sweet sentiment, but I get sick of it really quick. It's telling a little kid not to be in a hurry to grow up because she won't have this time for long. I do like the line about her turning on her nightlight to scare away the monsters in her apartment, but that's about it.

9. "Enchanted"-- Oh wow. My favorite song on the whole CD. Just write down my life, why don't you, Taylor? Ok, maybe not the WHOLE song is my life, but a few of the lines really got to me. "The playful conversation starts, countering your quick remarks, like passing notes in secrecy..." Thank you for this song, Taylor dear. She sings it very well too. And the melody line is beautiful.

10. "Better than Revenge" -- This is the least Taylor-y song on the album, I think. Me and my friend Aimee considered playing it for our non-Taylor Swift liking Holly to see if she'd realize who it was. My thought was that if Taylor Swift had written Paramore's "Misery Business", it would be this same song. The premise is exactly the same. I kinda like the play on words with the title... you assume it means she's above revenge, but the lyric is actually "There's nothing I do better than revenge." Not that I endorse revenge, but it was clever.

11. "Innocent" -- Very forgettable. Melody is boring, lyrics are boring. Moving on.

12. "Haunted" -- Well, I like the opening melody (the DUM-dum-DUM-dum-DUM-dum-DUM-dum's). It's about the foreboding feeling before a breakup and then the missing after it's over. The lyrics are nothing earth shattering (they're actually rather cliche... and I think Evanescence had better ones first... go listen to "My Immortal"), but she sings it well and the melody line is pretty. I'm pretty neutral.

13. "Last Kiss" -- This is the part of the CD where it starts to hit me that almost all Taylor's songs pretty much say the same thing. She broke up with the guy she never thought she'd break up with and now she misses him. The end. But it's a pretty song, I'll give her that.

14. "Long Live" -- A nice happy little closing song. I feel like it's the sequel to "Change" from the last CD. It would make a good graduation song. I like all the fairy tale imagery, 'cause, well, I like fairy tales. Not really much else to say.

Overall:
Taylor, dear, a few tips.
-There are more chords than D, A, E minor, and G. I know you broke out and used C on a few songs. And I'm proud of that. But you could try a little harder.
-Repeat after me: Originality is my friend.

Haha. For real though, overall this isn't my favorite CD: not awful, but not my favorite. I'm glad I didn't spend the full iTunes fourteen bucks on it, but for four bucks it was pretty good. If you're going to pick and choose, buy "Speak Now", "Dear John", and "Enchanted". Those are easily the best songs on the album.

And if you're not interested in Taylor Swift at all, you just wasted a good ten minutes of your life on my blog post. Ha. Ha. Ha.

<3

The Importance of "The Importance of Being Earnest"

Wow. Two long months of hard work have finally come to an end. It's over. Fall Play 2010 is over. Holy cow.

If you know me well at all you've probably heard me talk about how stressed play is making me or that it's eating my life or that I can't wait for it to be over. It's all bluffing. Underneath it all I was loving every minute of it. I love the way a blank stage turns into a flat or a BEAUTIFUL garden or a manor house. I love the way the people I've gotten to know can totally disappear for two and a half hours and become Jack and Algernon and Gwendolen and Cecily and everybody else. I love the way simple (albeit extremely well written... thank you Mr. Wilde) words on a page are given life and substance. Theatre utterly amazes me.

Not only that, but I loved the chemistry and camaraderie we all had this year. I love the way a group of (relative) strangers becomes a group that pulls tables together at the cast party so there's absolutely no separation or segregation. I love that for the first time ever stage crew gave the directors gifts. I love the way even cast and crew were so tightknit this year. I love the way I got to know so many people so much better. I love the way the assistant producer (hem hem... me) was so accepted by both cast and crew. I love the bonds that people form over hours of rehearsals and homework and stress. I love how we cry so hard at the end because we all realize we love all these people so ridiculously much.

I love the laughs.
-"Im-MER-sion?!?
-"Alienating the affections of my only granddaughter... my only niece... my only... I'm sorry, I'm really angry right now!"
-"Laetit..." *stands on chair* "Laetitia!!"
-"Jack, I like the muffins!!!"
-The hat falling off the stage Saturday night
-"Displeasant" (haha... I love you Dani!)
And many, many, MANY more...

I love that first day feeling as you sit in a circle on that empty stage and hear the lines read for the first time. I love that "they nailed it today" rehearsal. I love that opening night feeling as the curtain opens and you think, "Woah. We're finally there." I love the closing night feeling when you're sad it's over. But maybe the thing I love most is the "wow, I loved this" feeling. The moment when you realize that every hour of free time lost, every evening of endless homework, every single iota of stress was so incredibly worth it for THIS feeling. The "we did it" feeling.

Thank you guys for one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. Let's make musical even better.

"It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection; through art and art only that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence." -Oscar Wilde

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Favorite song of the day... "Inevitable" by Anberlin

I could type out the lyrics... but then you wouldn't be able to hear how pretty it is. And I'm lazy. Hence a YouTube video. Enjoy. :)



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Scarlet Letter quote (because I'm a nerd)...

I had to write a book analysis on The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne... and I kinda fell in love with the book. And this quote was gorgeous. So I thought I'd share. Enjoy my literary geek out. :)

"It was no wonder that they thus questioned one another's actual and bodily existence, and even doubted of their own. So strangely did they meet, in the dim wood, that it was like the first encounter, in the world beyond the grave, of two spirits who had been intimately connected in their former life, but now stood coldly shuddering, in mutual dread; as not yet familiar with their state, nor wonted to the companionship of disembodied beings. Each a ghost, and awestricken at the other ghost! They were awestricken likewise at themselves; because the crisis flung back to them their consciousness, and revealed to each heart its history and experience, as life never does, but at such breathless epochs. The soul beheld its features in the mirror of the passing moment."

Um yes. Gorgeous.

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Scars

When I was a little kid, I used to pick at scabs. (Honestly, who didn't?) My mom always told me that if I picked at them, they'd leave scars. And I never believed her. So I have scars for no reason.
How many emotional scabs only become scars because we won't let them heal properly? I think more often then not if we just accept mistakes for what they are and move on, we'll be okay. It's things like guilt and regret that pick at wounds, and turn them into scars.
Just a thought.

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My week in lists. Because I like lists.

Four cool God-related thoughts:
1. God imagined the imagination. I can't even get my mind around that.
2. Satan doesn't know anything I don't reveal to him! (Courtesy of this article by my preacher... thanks Mr. Neal!)
3. Is a talent called a gift because it's been given to us... or because we're supposed to give of it to serve others? (result of looking at Romans 12 at Wednesday Night Bible Class)
4. Jacob and Joseph both died in Egypt and were embalmed (Gen. 50:2-3)... does that mean they were mummified? And their mummies are buried somewhere? Not that we'd ever know it was them if we were to find their mummies, but it's a neat thought. (Courtesy of my bestest Aimee.)

Eight things on my mind:
1. My prayer life needs work. Prayers please. However, my daily Bible reading is going awesome... I haven't missed a day in three weeks (which is really good for me... I needed to get in the habit). Aimee, Holly, and I are going through the whole Bible in a year. We started Exodus a couple days ago.
2. Funny the things that can come and go in less than a year.
3. SCHOOL... It's eating my life... Two AP classes is starting to sound like a really stupid idea. I've got all A's though... I guess that's the fruit of my extreme stress and labor.
4. Less than two weeks until opening night! I'm the assistant producer of The Importance of Being Earnest (which is a fantastic play, by the way)... if you want to come see it get in touch with me! But if I don't actually know you and you just read this 'cause you're a creeper... I don't want you to come. No offense.
5. I want my eight cookies. Harrumph.
6. I don't have any idea when I'm going to go get my permit... I could have had it ages and ages ago, but I just haven't ever gone to get it. At this point I'm not gonna have my license 'til I'm thirty. (My mom keeps going, "I didn't get my license 'til I was 18"... that doesn't help, Mom.)
7. I miss Kamp Koinonia. Badly. There's a little hole in my heart when I'm not there.
8. The future... and the fact that I have no earthly clue what's coming my way. Lord, I'm glad You've got a plan... 'cause I don't. At all. About anything. Haha.

Five things I did this week:
1. Stayed after school for play practice two hours every day... and is proud of the casts' progress. Even Cast B. Who still need to learn their lines. :)
2. Finished fifty notecards for my term paper on Frederick Douglass... phew.
3. Bought three Avett Brothers CDs (sorry, Holly... haha.)
4. Finished rereading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
5. Practiced making paper cranes for my demonstration speech on Thursday.
And yeah, I did a lot more than that, but not much of the rest was all that interesting.

Seven songs I'm currently addicted to (in no particular order. They're all Avett Brothers... I'm on a kick):
1. Living of Love
2. Pretty Girl at the Airport
3. Die Die Die
4. Paranoia in B Major
5. Day that Marvin Gaye Died
6. I Would Be Sad
7. Swept Away (Sentimental Version)
Plus all of I and Love and You... yeah just all of that.

Three things I learned in Latin class:
1. There is an American Mustache Institute. And it protects against discrimination toward mustached people and promotes awareness of the proper care of a mustache. Yes.
2. There's a guitarist who has no arms and plays the guitar with his feet.
3. You can levitate a frog between two big electromagnets.
DISCLAIMER: I do actually learn things in Latin. But those things wouldn't be very interesting to you, dear blog reader. :)

Five quotes I found this week:
1. "One person's craziness is another's reality." -Tim Burton
2. "There is nothing more unnerving to the truly conventional than the unashamed misfit." -J. K. Rowling
3. "Fantasy is a necessary ingredient for living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of the telescope." -Dr. Seuss
4. "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." -Oscar Wilde
5. "Yes, I am a dreamer; for a dreamer is one who can find his way by moonlight, and see the dawn before the rest of the world." -Oscar Wilde

Thanks for wasting a few minutes of your time reading this. Haha. :)

<3

Recent addiction... the Avett Brothers

I bought a CD on Amazon a couple days ago for five bucks. And as I've listened to it at least 5 times through already, I figured it was worth a blog post. :)

The Avett Brothers. I and Love and You. Mind BLOWN.



I honestly don't know what the cover is a picture of. Or what it means. I think it looks like Severus Snape with his hand cut off and a skull sitting next to him, but something tells me that's not what the Avett Brothers meant for it to mean. *shrug*

I liked them okay before I got this CD, but I think now I'm a full blow Avett fan. I don't know how to describe the Avett Brothers if you've never heard their music before. They're... different. They're a little bit country, a little bit folk rock (but that sounds so stupid and not like something I'd listen to... but it's the best I got). There's a lot of guitar, some piano, some drums, and a little banjo. Yes, banjo. It's kind of hillbilly music. It's just oddly appealing hillbilly music. They're totally not everyone's thing. My friend Holly would hate them. I, however, with my weirdly all-encompassing music tastes, love them. Their lyrics are so deep and I love their imagery. And some of their melody lines are really indescribably pretty.

Anyhow, here's my iTunes review style breakdown of the album (because I like lists...):

1. "I and Love and You"-- Very, very pretty ballad type song about letting go. It's pretty repetitive and seems like it could get old after a while, but it hasn't for me yet. There's lots of piano and acoustic guitar. And the lyrics are gorgeous.

2. "January Wedding"-- Very acousticky mushy song. I don't like this one as much for various reasons. The melody line is pretty but the lyrics aren't as deep as some of the other songs so it's kinda lacking to me. There is however, a line about Audrey Hepburn, which I like. :)

3. "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise"-- This one grew on me. The first time I listened to it I didn't like it very much, but it snuck up on me. It's kinda about broken dreams. I like the imagery of the bird in the cage and demanding that somebody free it.

4. "And It Spread" -- One of my favorite songs on the record. Classic "girl leaves, girl comes back" song. It's kinda bluesy, which I love, and the harmonies rock. Favorite lyric: "You took my hand and held it up/ And shot my arm full of love." I don't know why I like that image so much, but I do.

5. "The Perfect Space"-- Okay, but not my favorite. It's really soft and ballad-ish, and then all of a sudden it's upbeat and the lead's kinda screaming. And then it's back to being soft. It's about wanting to find, well, your perfect space, someplace you fit in perfectly. Good theme, but like I said, not my favorite. I do really like the softest part: "Will you understand/ When I'm too old of a man?/ Will you forget?/ When we paid our debt/ Who did we borrow from?" That melody's really pretty. And I like those lyrics.

6. "Ten Thousand Words"-- Another favorite. It's kinda hard to work out, but I think it's about the power of words and how they affect people for better or worse. Which I like. 'Cause I'm a word nerd. :) The harmonies are gorgeous. They make me want to grab someone and make them sing a duet with me.

7. "Kick Drum Heart" -- This song makes me smile. :) It's very fast and upbeat and it's just about being in love. And it's so cute. Makes me want to dance around my room when nobody else is there. The only part I don't like is toward the middle/end when he screams "My heart like a kick drum." That was a little much. When I sing along, I have to make the heart beat noises too. It's a reflex. :)

8. "Laundry Room"-- Such a pretty melody... it's almost got a lullaby quality to it. I love the bit where he writes all the songs about her and then he says: "Tonight I'll burn the lyrics/ 'Cause every chorus was your name." Ah! Break my heart! Very sad. Very pretty, but very sad.

9. "Ill With Want" -- I'm kinda neutral on this one. Some of the rhymes seemed like they were a little too stretched for, but I love the emphasis on being content with where you are. So I don't know. I'm kinda just "eh" on this one.

10. "Tin Man"-- Yet another favorite. It's about going numb to the world, to the point you don't really feel or care about anything. I love the message contrasted with the upbeat tune. It's really catchy. And I like it. :)

11. "Slight Figure of Speech" -- Another favorite! I really like the beat and the rise and fall of the melody. I'm not entirely sure what it's about, not gonna lie. But I like it. Favorite lyric: "They said 'I hope that you will never change'; I went and cut my hair." I like it simply because I had the impulse to do that exact same thing just 'cause people keep telling me not to... haha. Good song. (And for the record, I don't think I'm going to cut my hair).

12. "It Goes On and On" -- The final favorite. I love the piano and his (I don't know which brother's, I'm not that far in my fandom yet) voice is really gorgeous in the opening. I kinda took it to be about the rollercoaster-ness of love and how you come in and out of it and the cycle "goes on." (See what I did there?) I really love the harmonies on the "it goes on" parts.

13. "Incomplete and Insecure"-- Probably my LEAST favorite. It's just a little too whiney. To give you an idea, the opening lyrics are "I've never finished a thing since I started my life/ I don't feel much like starting now." Just a little too "woe is me, life stinks" for me.


So yeah. That's what I think. :)
It's on Amazon Downloads for five dollars. Go buy it. Really. It's worth it. Or at least go on YouTube and give them a chance. Really.

Wow. My iPod: The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, acapella Christian, Paramore, Yellowcard, Taylor Swift, Sara Bareilles, and now the Avett Brothers...

Am I a freak or what?

<3

Beethoven

A professor in a college ethics class presented his students with a problem: "A man has syphilis and his wife has tuberculosis. They have had 4 children. One has died, the other 3 have what is considered to be a terminal illness. The mother is pregnant. What do you recommend?" After a spirited discussion, the majority of the class voted that she abort the child.
"Fine," said the professor. "You've just killed Beethoven."

How many other potential Beethovens has our nation put to death?

Just something to think about.