Oh my Goodness!!! I have been slaving away lately at our live shows! We played a very memorable show at the Rendezvous on Wednesday night. Good fun was indeed had by all. Now this next coming Wednesday we are playing at Oh My Posh! fashion/art charity event. All of the proceeds go to Art With Heart, which makes MY HEART feel all warm and fuzzy. It is a very important and truly wonderful organization that reaches out to youth in life-altering and difficult situations, giving them the opportunity to use art and creativity to express their emotions. Plus, there's a gonna be a live fashion show, art galore, silent auction, drinkies, foodies, and some RTB thrown in the mix for good measure... Mix... Speaking of Mix - We are also playing later this month at the Mix in Georgetown. Here's where a lot of my preproduction energy is going right now! We are putting together a full-on underground Carnival act for this event. As in from 6-9pm, there will be freaks, fire, magic, and music coming atcha. But in short: for the present, I am swamped!
I am happily swamped - I can't complain. Although with only 24 hours in a day, it is hard to keep every horse in the race in equal standing. Some things are falling behind... Like dishes, sleep, life, food, brain... But I am also meeting and working with some of the best people yet! And I feel like we are building an ever stronger troupe of performers and artists to collaborate with for our live show. -But since I am so swamped, I must get back to my swamp-wading. The point of this post is Oh my goodness! I'm so damn busy! But I think that this busyness is leading me to more good-ness! ;)
xo
-Dion
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
The Pathetique of POP
So this morning, Scobra and I have decided that it is our duty to listen to the top 40 songs on the charts. We are at about 20, and I can't tell if I'm enraged, or sick... or laughing hysterically. Oh my GOD! Is this a reflection on the market? On the youth? On propaganda? I'm not even sure if I can tell. None the less, here are my thoughts/criticisms of the current state of pop affairs.
Men and women all sound the same. And neither in this context sound like connected males or females. They sound like one of two things: wanky lilly-pad singers, or grating whiners.
There aren't actually any lyrics... I mean, there are words, but half of them... are they actually words? I swear that there should be intellectual property lawsuits against many of these artists from the likes of the Lifetime channel, Hallmark, Oxygen, and perhaps every other artist that has made an airhead hit in the last 2 years. It's like the Cat In The Hat challenge that Dr. Seuss accomplished. Can you write a song with less than 20 different words in the whole song? Children's stuff! And I mean UNDER THE AGE OF 7.
Many of the "love" songs are actually about infidelity. Umm... I understand that many great works of art have been produced by the concept of being unfaithful. In fact, I love the book Anna Karenina. But that EXPLORED A CONCEPT. None of these songs have even come close to such endeavors. And so it sounds more to me like they are glorifying the concept of fucking around. I'm no puritan, but it's embarrassing when the opening lyrics to the "epic love song" by Enrique Iglesias is about his girlfriend and her boyfriend being out of town, and so they should just sleep with each other because they "feel" something.
Some of these songs actually just sounded like jokes, and here I am not joking. I didn't know what I was listening to for the first few songs, because I was washing the dishes. I thought that Scobra was listening to a parody for a song or two.
Here's a shocker: so far, the best song I have heard was a Justin Beiber song. GOD DAMMIT! The funny thing that I am noticing, is that the songs do get slightly better, the further down you go. None of them are good though. Also, no one wrote a new song. Not a one.
Panting and moaning while forming a word spoken improperly is not an original idea. Nor is it a good one. Are they all on cocaine, singing until they run out of breath, and then only recording the worst of it? Are they describing what sort of actions they had to take (or receive) to get signed? By the way, that one's not a sarcastic statement. I'm a witness to what low-class prostitution and exploitation can get you in the entertainment industry: success (if you care to call it that).
So here's where I am going to make my possibly offensive statement. And I will be happy to stand by it in debate... If that art form has not been completely lost to the general public as well. All I hear is a bunch of bitches. I'm not trying to degrade female dogs, or female humans. But the connotation of that word is the closest thing that I can think of to describe this filth. Not empowered, feeble, conniving, contrived, stupid, without brain fuction, poor taste, and overall: silly. I'm not going to pity it either. I have no patience for BS. And here I find my ears crammed full of it!
So here's statement no. 2: Popular music needs a full on revolution. I am perfectly willing to take on said "bitches" in this challenge. I make music... actually, I don't know exactly why I make music... But one of my favorite aspects of making music is that I can then give it to other people. If I were to make terrible food, would I want to give it to people to eat? NO! It would be embarrassing if nothing else. So I think that any rational person, when given a choice between something savory and well crafted versus something bland and poorly constructed, will choose the first. In a show down, I rather doubt that the two could stand very well side by side, and so that would explain the lack altogether of any artisan sounds in the top of the charts. It would be admittedly an "unfair advantage". But let's quit playing a fixed game here. Pop has become pathetic, and until that changes, no sleep for me ;) !
Eternally sleepless for the present, and Yours Truly,
xo
-Dion
p.s. Here's my challenge: If you click on the title of this post, it will take you directly to the Top 40 site that I used for this experiment. Listen to them, and if you find something debatable, then we shall debate it... But I'm warning you: good luck.
Men and women all sound the same. And neither in this context sound like connected males or females. They sound like one of two things: wanky lilly-pad singers, or grating whiners.
There aren't actually any lyrics... I mean, there are words, but half of them... are they actually words? I swear that there should be intellectual property lawsuits against many of these artists from the likes of the Lifetime channel, Hallmark, Oxygen, and perhaps every other artist that has made an airhead hit in the last 2 years. It's like the Cat In The Hat challenge that Dr. Seuss accomplished. Can you write a song with less than 20 different words in the whole song? Children's stuff! And I mean UNDER THE AGE OF 7.
Many of the "love" songs are actually about infidelity. Umm... I understand that many great works of art have been produced by the concept of being unfaithful. In fact, I love the book Anna Karenina. But that EXPLORED A CONCEPT. None of these songs have even come close to such endeavors. And so it sounds more to me like they are glorifying the concept of fucking around. I'm no puritan, but it's embarrassing when the opening lyrics to the "epic love song" by Enrique Iglesias is about his girlfriend and her boyfriend being out of town, and so they should just sleep with each other because they "feel" something.
Some of these songs actually just sounded like jokes, and here I am not joking. I didn't know what I was listening to for the first few songs, because I was washing the dishes. I thought that Scobra was listening to a parody for a song or two.
Here's a shocker: so far, the best song I have heard was a Justin Beiber song. GOD DAMMIT! The funny thing that I am noticing, is that the songs do get slightly better, the further down you go. None of them are good though. Also, no one wrote a new song. Not a one.
Panting and moaning while forming a word spoken improperly is not an original idea. Nor is it a good one. Are they all on cocaine, singing until they run out of breath, and then only recording the worst of it? Are they describing what sort of actions they had to take (or receive) to get signed? By the way, that one's not a sarcastic statement. I'm a witness to what low-class prostitution and exploitation can get you in the entertainment industry: success (if you care to call it that).
So here's where I am going to make my possibly offensive statement. And I will be happy to stand by it in debate... If that art form has not been completely lost to the general public as well. All I hear is a bunch of bitches. I'm not trying to degrade female dogs, or female humans. But the connotation of that word is the closest thing that I can think of to describe this filth. Not empowered, feeble, conniving, contrived, stupid, without brain fuction, poor taste, and overall: silly. I'm not going to pity it either. I have no patience for BS. And here I find my ears crammed full of it!
So here's statement no. 2: Popular music needs a full on revolution. I am perfectly willing to take on said "bitches" in this challenge. I make music... actually, I don't know exactly why I make music... But one of my favorite aspects of making music is that I can then give it to other people. If I were to make terrible food, would I want to give it to people to eat? NO! It would be embarrassing if nothing else. So I think that any rational person, when given a choice between something savory and well crafted versus something bland and poorly constructed, will choose the first. In a show down, I rather doubt that the two could stand very well side by side, and so that would explain the lack altogether of any artisan sounds in the top of the charts. It would be admittedly an "unfair advantage". But let's quit playing a fixed game here. Pop has become pathetic, and until that changes, no sleep for me ;) !
Eternally sleepless for the present, and Yours Truly,
xo
-Dion
p.s. Here's my challenge: If you click on the title of this post, it will take you directly to the Top 40 site that I used for this experiment. Listen to them, and if you find something debatable, then we shall debate it... But I'm warning you: good luck.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Quickie
Hey, so this is gonna be a quickie - both random and poignant :)
I have spent the last few days canning and making pickles. I'm a bit of a nerd, but very proud of my pretty jars full of food that I will enjoy this winter... But because of that, I haven't touched a computer for a few days...
What I am really excited about though, is our upcoming show on September 22nd at the Rendezvous Jewelbox Theater. We will be playing with Naresh Michaels, and A Cedar Suede, both foxy accordion-tastic bands. It's going to be a proper carnival in there! And since I'm always trying to up the ante for our live show, I am now working madly on making this show even better than the last. Thus, this is short and sweet, because I've got to keep on it!
Also, to follow up on the Ben Pitching bit from the last few posts, I guess that he pitched on Thursday, so I missed out... But I do believe that we will be playing some shows with him in the coming months! Which to me, is much more exciting than a baseball game.
Also, here's a cool new picture that I found today from our Founders Day Festival show :)
I have spent the last few days canning and making pickles. I'm a bit of a nerd, but very proud of my pretty jars full of food that I will enjoy this winter... But because of that, I haven't touched a computer for a few days...
What I am really excited about though, is our upcoming show on September 22nd at the Rendezvous Jewelbox Theater. We will be playing with Naresh Michaels, and A Cedar Suede, both foxy accordion-tastic bands. It's going to be a proper carnival in there! And since I'm always trying to up the ante for our live show, I am now working madly on making this show even better than the last. Thus, this is short and sweet, because I've got to keep on it!
Also, to follow up on the Ben Pitching bit from the last few posts, I guess that he pitched on Thursday, so I missed out... But I do believe that we will be playing some shows with him in the coming months! Which to me, is much more exciting than a baseball game.
Also, here's a cool new picture that I found today from our Founders Day Festival show :)
XOXO
Dion Vox
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