A Simple Story

Continuing with the theme of the previous post: Whenever I listen to music I would be reminded of what my life was like when I first listened to those particular songs. So the Shins and Belle and Sebastian always bring back good memories of junior year, Bloc Party and Arctic Monkeys senior year. It gives me a bit of a warm and fuzzy feeling but it doesn't make me like the music much more than I would otherwise. Unfortunately, the converse isn't true. Some decent songs have been completely ruined for me because when I started listening to them was when I was studying for my 1L exams in January. Even my all time favorite song (as of now), I Am Warm and Powerful by Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin is somewhat tarnished because I discovered it during my 1L fall.

Off on a tangent: Everyone says 1L would be the most miserable year of your life, so I was prepared for the work load, the work was not fun but I could manage. What I wasn't prepared for was the people, and I'm not even talking about the competition between students. Suffice it to say that I learned a lot about the different kinds of people in the world, and am no longer so naive as to think that if you're nice to someone then they'll be nice to you (or rather because you're decent to someone that they won't be malicious towards you for their own unfathomable reasons). It was a necessary lesson to learn, but one that I regret having to learn. I would not have minded being naive and trusting of people because those that I've come across hadn't given me any reason to do otherwise.

Back to the original topic: It's not really that these are bad songs but that I don't like what it makes me think of. It's classical conditioning. I don't yet have the cognitive autonomy to break free from the hard wiring!

A couple of songs from the past year of my life.



P.S. Congratulations to all my friends who made law review! Your job search just got 10x easier since now you have 10x the prestige as us common folk =P

I know we always have our current favourites, most likely something that is Top 40, super catchy, and produced by a mixture of creativity and sounds/beats strategically placed to cater to the audience's tastes. I am the first to admit that I love the likes of Rihanna and Chris Brown, and I definitely have a list of songs that makes me just want to dance, dance, and dance.

But what about the other favourites? The real ones, if you will. I have a very small select of songs that can emotionally move me to a great degree, and that's what I love about music. These songs can put a big smile on my face, bring tears to my eyes, or just render my body numb while my heart is filled with passion and emotions. (My iTunes is right now repeating a song someone dear to me sent over a while ago, and it never fails to make me happy and sad at the same time). Sometimes, probably the case for most, it's the memories a song evokes or a set of lyrics that you can relate to your state-of-mind or circumstances. So amazing is that it can also be something seemily trivial like a short melody, accompanied by a broken minor triad, with a forceful crescendo.

When I started this post, I wanted to include one of these songs to share at the end. But being here now, I can't. I am sure almost everyone has something that always fills their heart with love, joy, and sadness. And it's something so powerful they only want to share it with those close to them.

Or, maybe no one relates, you're all shaking your heads, and I've lost you all in my post. And that it's just me and my music.

With You, Chris Brown

Yay my first substantive post!

Remember when people still used AIM, and would put up different stuff in their profile or away messages? When I came across a song that had lyrics that I particularly liked, I used to put it in my profile - that was my tiny tiny soapbox. Now that I use Google chat, I don't even have that anymore. But hey! I guess I'll be sticking the lyrics here now.

There are some songs (not many, I can probably count them on one hand) that when I listen to make me feel like I'm miles away, and I become a little oblivious to the fact that I'm actually sitting at my desk at work. Copeland's She Changes Your Mind is one of these songs ... and what's more, it doesn't have distractingly dumb lyrics!

It was your hello that kept me hanging on every word
And your goodbye that keeps me listening for your voice around each corner
It keeps me listening for your voice around each corner