Why?
Five Iron Frenzy's
So Far, So Bad
We thought we'd write a song about all of the problems inherent in the industry,
It was going to be an exposé written in unblemished symmetry.
We were going to have our glorious exit, an admonition and an encore,
We were going to make a point to the whole world, but no one wants to hear it anymore.
Don't worry what this song would say,
You’ll never hear it anyway.
They won't play this song on the radio,
So far, so bad, that's how it goes.
They'll pull our records from the shelves,
So far, so bad, that's how it goes.
The rhyme scheme to this song was mostly flawless, it might have made good poetry.
It could have bridged the gap between the classes, and overthrown the bourgeoisie.
It made a couple points about the future, and how the past was kind of uncool,
And if you ever tried to play it backwards, it told the kids to stay in school.
I thought I'd write an epiphany,
How something good is changing me,
But I guess we dodged some passing fad,
It looks like it's so far, so bad.
This song is rad.
You could ask your dad.
He won't be mad.
This song is stupid.
Okay, who's heard of the musical Aida? The opera? Well, they're not the same thing, obviously, and I know nothing about the opera. Actually, I would like to draw your attention to the song titled "Fortune Favors the Brave" from Aida. Below I have taken the list of placing some of the lyrics, but first let me tell you about the musical aspects of this song. This is a high caliber, fully enjoyable song featuring a young warrior of Egypt just returned from the conquering of neighboring countries. As soon as you read the title you should see two things wrong with it. Here, I'll italicize them: "Fortune Favors the Brave". Fortune doesn't exist and favors nobody. This song by Elton John and Tim Rice, displays a common falacy present in the majority of Disney musicals.
"Nothing is an accident.
We are free to have it all
We are what we want to be
It's in ourselves to rise or fall!
This is easy to believe
When distant places call to me
It's harder from the palace yarde.
Fortune Favors the Free
Fortune Favors the Young
Fortune Favors the Brave!"
I know people who believe this. Sadly, many of them are good Christians. Now I have to say one nice thing. I would rather tell people that if we work for something we will get it, than tell them they can just "dream" and get what they want. But it is choosing between the lesser of two evils. Take me, for instant. I am not (and I can't possibly stress it enough) an athlete. I'm not fat, nor am I unhealthy, but I am not capable of being a star basketball player, figure skater, skiier, snowboarder, baseball player or any other sort of athlete. So, no matter what I do and try, I can't be a professional athlete. It just isn't in me. Everybody has talents and weak spots. Music is my passion and my talent. Now if we take this worldview and say "it's in ourself to rise or fall" only in our talents, we're getting closer, but we're not there.
Let's say I want to be a pop star. Well, I may be a good, talented singer, with lots of personality and an ability to perform (and I'm not saying any of this is true, mind) but if God says, "Too bad. I want you to be a worship leader," then I will never be a truly successful pop star.
We, as people, also measure success differently than God. I may make millions as a pop star. The world says that I succeeded in spite of God's plans. But I may be the most spiritually destitute person America. If I make millions here, practically live in the magazines and at award shows, but spend eternity burning in Hell, what have I really got in the end.
One last note: I'm not telling you that you can't listen to this, and you can't listen to that until all you can listen to is Gregorian chants (unless you, like me, like Gregorian chants). This discussion is just to remind you to know what you are listening to and what you believe about it. Thoughts and opinions people? Favorite musicals? Mine, by the way, is not Aida, it is Les Miserables.
Jane Park
It's February! I don't post often, so I'll post early for Valentines Day. If you're anything like me, you've never bothered with having valentine in your life. And if you're like me, you probably never even cared. However, I have this love of love songs. I could list on and on the ones I like. A few of my faves are listed below.
Relient K's "Which to Bury, Us or the Hatchet"
Andrew Lloyd Webber's "All I ask of You" (Phantom of the Opera)
Billy Gilman's "Coming Home"
Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Unexpected Song" (Song and Dance)
Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" (Titanic)
Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Love Changes Everything" (Aspects of Love)
Sanctus Real's "Fight the Tide"
Sarah Brightman's "There's No One Like You"
They're all sweet and beautiful. It's important to me that a love song not only avoid being gushy and disgusting, but the chords must succeed each other in a perfect progression of harmony, the background harmonies must be perfect and the melody must be original and sweet. Of course, that is important in any love song. Now it may seem odd that I list, among a selectiong of Broadway, Country, and randomeness, two..uh...rock songs. You may be thing, "Hey Jane, rock songs don't go very well with perfect progressions of harmony and sweet melodies."
So maybe I took a creative liberty is the use of the word "sweet". We'll stick with original and melodic, then. Sanctus Real and Relient K are both rock bands I like, but don't necessarily love. However, these songs caught my attention for the simple fact that the guitar melodies are catchy and the words are sweet. If anything, "Which to Bury, Us or the Hatchet" is a little heavy for me. But the words are nice and I consider the message honest and truthful. Now just a warning, these are just my opinions. I would more than love to hear your opinions and reccomendations.
Oh, but I have another list for you. A list of some other favorite love songs. These are a little different.
Chris Rice's "Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus)"
Stuart Townend's "How Deep the Father's Love for Us"
Third Day's "Love Song"
What's different about those songs? Those are love songs of a completely seperate nature from the ones I listed first. I consider them love songs because they are all about the love of Jesus and how much He loves us. If you haven't heard Untitled Hymn, I recently fell in love with this beautiful song and highly recommend it. There are, of course, plenty of other love songs out there, but these happen to be three of my top favorites. Please tell me what sort of songs you like to listen to and what (if any) love songs you like of either variety mentioned here.
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Jane Park
Second entry ever and it's a tag! I've been surfing around HomeschoolBlogger for a while and one or two people may have found me commenting on their blogs, so I do know what this tag thing is, but I didn't expect to be tagged so suddenly! Well, SophisticatedMari wants to know more about me and I hope ya'll don't mind a little of it too.
5 favorite TV shows
1. Blank Screen
2. Anything about Ancient Egypt
3. Jeff Corwin
4. The view out the window behind the TV.
5. The dog sleeping in front of the TV
Uh... I guess I really don't watch much TV. Heh heh. I've heard that Lost is really good. Is it? Any recommendations, people?
5 favorite movies (This changes a lot!)
Lord of the Rings (pick a movie, any movie)
Star Wars (again, pick any Star Wars)
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Dear Frankie
Ben-Hur
Also recieving honours: Sky Captain, The Great Race, and The Phantom of the Opera
5 favorite music artists/groups (I have about seventy-two billion of these, give or take a few)
Glenn Miller
Billy Gilman
Michael W. Smith
Sarah Brightman
Switchfoot
5 hobbies of yours
Reading
Writing
Singing
Piano
Dreaming (Whether asleep or not. I really like sleeping)
(I could go on and on with a thousand other things too, these just came to mind.)
5 places you would like to visit in your lifetime
Scotland
Switzerland
England
France
Ireland
Ummm... I don't have a lot of friends, so I guess I'll just leave it for now. Maybe later I'll come up with another tag and tag somebody. (laughs evilly). Maybe.
Jane