Bridges

For those that aren't familiar with musical bridges, they're a structural and harmonic variance from a song's main melodic line that often leads up to and includes the song's climax. 99% of songs today use the intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus formula to a tee.

It occurred to me recently that the bridges of many songs nowadays suck. I think it has to do with a few factors.

1. If you're forced to meet deadlines and write/produce songs that stem from something other than your innate creativity, there is bound to be a hit in quality at some point. Not that these songs can't still be great, but I think bridges are the most apparent place for the dips. "Oh shoot, gotta meet the formula... let's just throw these chords in there, yeah?"
2. Writers often work in teams of 2-4 on a given song, with numerous outside contributors, arrangers and musicians. With so many people, I think the song can sometimes lack a singular vision, and the overarching tone and feel can get lost, especially in bridges.
3. The increased use of synthesized beats and background, which takes away from the organic-ness that could come with composing on real instruments.
4. Pandering to the lowest common denominator, which does not typically appreciate innovation, creativity or boldness. Most of us write off new-age music as music that sounds like whales mating in a Buddhist Temple, don't we?

Therefore, many bridges have been reduced to a predictably rising chord progression that only tangentially relates to the feel of the song (Disturbia). Stevie Wonder didn't have bridges in most of his songs as he preferred a change in key or instrumental break, but there's only one Stevie Wonder I guess.

Epically great bridge: Iris - Goo Goo Dolls

Crush

My new crush: Olivia Munn.

1. She is smokin' hot. But she doesn't seem like a bitch, which leads me to believe that she was either a late bloomer (wherein she had to develop her personality instead of relying on her looks like an early bloomer), incredibly grounded or both.
2. She looks like she's half, but she identifies strongly as Asian.
3. She's hilarious and witty.
4. She's a tech nerd. She hosts a show called Attack of the Show on the fledgling G4 network, which focuses on technology and games.
5. She has a blog (heyolivia.com) and a twitter, which makes her more tangible and interesting than other simply hot girls. She seems pretty down to earth and genuine. She can't stop talking about her obsession with pie. And she vblogged drunk once:
6. She has a sense of humor about herself. She does ridiculous and embarrassing things on her show just to get a laugh.
7. She has Invisalign.. just like me.
8. She can beatbox.

Hey... We seem like a pretty good match! In my dreams.

Spoils

This year, I opted to not waste 5 hours of my life by waiting outside of Fry's for Black Friday sales.

1. There wasn't anything that I really wanted or needed. I've gotten an external hard-drive and a nice monitor in the past, but those were out of (relative) necessity. I could probably use a new set of headphones because the foam is completely gone from mine now, but those don't warrant a wait. Or even a special trip to Fry's.

2. I'm more willing nowadays to pay $20 more for something so that I can sleep and stay warm for a night. Black Friday is probably more worth it for big-ticket items like LCD TVs or stereo systems, which is not what I would be getting. The novelty is definitely over.

3. Some people are dicks about waiting in line. The line always develops tumors of people who show up at 4, completely disregarding those who actually waited since midnight. It's the principle damnit, they need to enforce that line better. A couple years ago I remember some lady was really pissed about that and grabbed a shopping cart just so she could start ramming people who showed up later.

4. I had to work at 6-10 in the morning anyway. Which is kind of ironic because my gym is literally a block away from Fry's, so Black Friday would have been more convenient for me than ever before. I could have waited and just gone to work right after.. wouldn't be the first time I went to work in the morning without sleeping the night before.

So in summation, no thanks. It was always fun to develop plans of attack on Fry's interior with Siyu and Eric, but I'm okay with missing that.

The spoils (reads more like an errands list):
-Magazine I took from work. $0
-Planner for 2009. $6
-Birthday card. $2
-Pair of shoes. $20 (online)
-Pair of shoes for my mom. $30 (online)
-And the crown jewel: socks. I splurged $2 more for reinforced heels and toes. $10

Total: $68.

Sexified

Ha, if there is anything that "buckling down" is synonymous with, it's procrastination.

Is there anything that Marvin Gaye can't sexify? Only exhibit required: Marvin Gaye singing the Star-Spangled Banner.


He could sing the dictionary and still get me in the mood.

Gap

A few years ago, my dad got an AIM screen name. I'm not proud to admit it, but I did block him from time to time. It wasn't because of the overall weirdness of him veritably invading my social sphere, or that he was checking up on me all the time, or that I had to keep my profile clear of profanities... It was just his lack of internet etiquette, his AIM-sense, if you will. Though it was pretty funny when he was proud to have learned "brb" and "gtg."

We all know about the unspoken rule that you don't keep IMing someone when there's no response, idle or not. Depending on the circumstances and level of closeness it varies, but if a friend IMed you 20-30 times while you were idle, they'd just be the equivalent of Needy McNeederson (Minh-Chau... jk).

I would leave my AIM on for hours, idle the whole time, and end up with 20-30 messages from him. Every few minutes, it would just be "Pei, are you there?" "Pei, why aren't you answering me?" "This is Dad, don't ignore me." until he got bored and presumably went to go fall asleep while watching golf. Then he would call me later and ask why I didn't like talking to him. I started getting out of the habit of leaving my AIM on, and I got a call asking if I blocked him.

I'm glad he hasn't ventured into Facebook yet, but my co-workers/bosses have and I don't quite know how to deal with that. It's a lesser degree of weirdness to deal with than my Dad, but it's still a tricky boundary to navigate, the whole personal-professional distinction. On one hand, becoming Facebook friends is definitely an avenue to becoming better friends and that's something you want with a boss. It says "Hey, I'm taking more than the required minimum interest in you." On the other hand, there's a good amount of stuff that can be viewed as inappropriate (wall posts, bumper stickers [that's all you, Sandra], I'm drunk in probably half the pictures I'm tagged in, etc.).

I see 2 causes at the root of this.
1. To fulfill some need to keep our personal and professional lives separate. You don't choose your co-workers and you have nothing in common except for the fact that you work at the same place. Some friendships only work out of workplace convenience, and they might not work if you weren't confined to the same area for hours together a week... Kind of like how everyone is in love on The Real World but breaks up when the show ends.
2. A fear that people are shallow enough to judge on the basis of a profile on a website, even if they already know you. Which they are.

Algernon

I'm not crying, it's just something in my eye.

Despite my studying and work, I'm still left with a good amount of free time. The thrill of Cupertino is just too much for me to handle sometimes... and I haven't quite decided on a new hobby to pick up yet (what the hell is out there, stamps?) so I've just been catching up on/rediscovering movies and books. I recently re-read Flowers For Algernon and started thinking... I've never cried because of a movie, tv show or book, but Algernon stood a fighting chance. Other close calls?

Flowers For Algernon: The whole second half of the book is pretty sad as Charlie realizes that he is destined to become retarded once again and documents his descent day by day. How would you act if someone told you you had 2 months to live?

Mr. Holland's Opus: That scene at the end where all of his former students come together for his retirement party and play his symphony that he worked on for years? C'mon.

Lion King: How this does not make anyone's list, I don't know. Right after Mufasa gets trampled by that stampede and Simba, failing to wake him up, wraps himself in Mufasa's paw. Come to think of it, dark themes for a kid's movie: assassination, revenge, coup d'etat, ghosts (Mufasa appearing in the cloud), domestic violence (of Simba's mom), probable rape (Simba's mom again) and virtual cannibalism (hyenas eating Scar). But not enough for the 8 year old me to not sing along to the soundtrack all the time.

Family Man: Right at the end when Nick Cage chases down the woman that was his wife in his other life, and he tells her about the daughter they had. Conversely, remember when he was rumored to play Superman instead of Brandon Routh? Weird.

Field of Dreams: When Kevin Costner sees his Dad in the field, "Dad, want to play catch?" If you've ever played catch with your dad...

Life is Beautiful: This should really be two movies, LIB 1 and LIB 2. It's like that Styx song "Come Sail Away," which was a slow song that prefaced a techno dance song in the same six minutes. Totally different moods and themes. In LIB 1, all the times he charms his woman, and LIB 2, when he is taken into the alleyway and shot, all the while making his son laugh.

A Walk To Remember: Yeah, yeah. Right at the end, when the camera is panning through the church and Landon Carter (freakin' horrible name) is narrating about how happy he was in their marriage before Jamie died.

Forrest Gump: I think the most emotional scene is the one where Forrest is talking to Jenny's grave about Forrest Jr. and starts breaking down. A lot of choose from here.

The Land Before Time: RIP mama brontosaurus.

Rocky: Yes, the last few really sucked, and let's hope that Rocky Balboa was really the last one. But Rocky actually won the Best Picture academy award in the 70's. Rocky was a pretty complex character with a lot of latent issues that were brought out by Mick, his trainer that only paid attention to him once he was set up to fight Apollo Creed. The best scene is where Mick comes to Rocky and offers his help, but Rocky emotionally explodes out of bitterness of being ignored for so long... only to realize that he was being just as bad as Mick, and runs to accept his offer.

Lost in Translation: One of my favorite movies.. The tone throughout the whole movie is so bleakly awesome and the end scene where they have to say goodbye always gets me.

The Full Monty: Yeah, it's about guys who organize a strip show to make money, but there's also the story of a father trying to reconnect with his son. The part that gets me, however, centers around one of the strippers, who is overweight. He backs out because he is incredibly self-conscious, and there's a scene with his wife where he declares "Who would want to see... this... strip?" And she replies "Me," which gives him the courage to go through with it.

Anchorman: When Jack Black punts Baxter off the bridge... not.

Notice that The Notebook definitely did not make the cut here.

Samples

I was listening to the radio today and an old school Diddy (is that still his name?) song came on. I remember he used to get a lot of heat for using a lot of sampling in his songs, (Every Breath You Take, Mo Money Mo Problems, etc) but then I got to thinking... Every freakin song out there is probably a derivative of some older song whether they know it or not. Some realize it and are less subtle about it than others. Heck, maybe the lack of subtly is just an acknowledgement and salute to the original artist?

Anyway, here are some random songs that people might be surprised to know are completely sampled off of older songs:

Will Smith - Men in Black (Patrice Rushen - Forget Me Nots)
Coolio - Gangster's Paradise (Stevie Wonder - Pasttime Paradise)
Will Smith - Wild Wild West (Stevie Wonder - I Wish)
Warren G - Regulate (Michael McDonald - I keep Forgettin')
Tupac - Changes (Bruce Hornsby - The Way It Is)
Naughty By Nature - OPP (Jackson 5 - ABC)
Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby (David Bowie feat. Queen - Under Pressure)
Gym Class Heroes - Cupid's Chokehold (Supertramp - Breakfast in America)
Puff Daddy - Can't Nobody Hold Me Down (Grandmaster Flash - The Message)

And to end, a bunch of Daft Punk samples.

Bookmarks 2

Oh yeah, I forgot this one which I thought was pretty funny... This one's for you, Minh-Chau!

Found out earlier this week that one of my clients moved from China just to go to Foothill College for the chance to transfer to UC Davis or Santa Barbara. He's my age and has 2 years to go at Foothill, so that would put him at 26 by the time he graduates as an undergrad. Now there's some perspective.

Bookmarks

I have a folder in my bookmarks dropdown called "Pictures" where I put random pictures of videos that for one reason or another, I decided would be worth seeing again.


(click for full picture)
http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cbillart.html
Pre Calvin and Hobbes art by Bill Watterson


Classic Winnie the Pooh episode... this one was hard to find! I love the idea that Rabbit finds Pooh so unbearable that he puts a frame around Pooh's ass and disguises him as a painting.


This was my computer desktop background for a few months, as Peter knows. "NOOOOOO"


Borderline NSFW, Scooby gets his when Shaggy's not around. I don't look for these, they find me.


Also... when did Ne-Yo legitimately start approaching the same stratosphere as Usher? Or is he there already? (So Sick, Sexylove, Because of You, When You're Mad, Do You, Hate That I Love You, Closer, Miss Independent.. off the top of my head) Shoot, he's been killing it for the past couple of years and his new cd is pretty solid too.

Dependence

What's a healthy amount of dependence on others? At what point should one deal with issues on their own? Are there specific issues best for that? Is someone with which you share everything with a mutually beneficial relationship down the line?

For me? The answer would be something to the effect of... very little.
When things are out of your control, you shouldn't worry about them... but only when nothing you do could possibly change that outcome, like a test, or a football game. There's no choice involved there. But when you depend on others, it seems to me that you create a situation where you actually choose to reqlinquish your control. That choice creates more factors to worry about, and people are far more unpredictable than a test or a football game.Will they be there for me? Am I being needy? Can I be there for them when they need me? Are they trustworthy? Am I crippling my ability to act independently?

Basically, you're just setting yourself up for disappointment because who, besides you, is going to be able to put you as priority #1 all of the time? Maybe your family? If you know me at all, you know I'm not a closed off or guarded person. I don't even really think I'm jaded or cynical, contrary to this blog's subject matter. It just seems like a good, logical set of consequences to keep in mind. It takes a lot of faith for me to really depend on someone, and I think the dependence has to be mutual.

Anyway on a more stupid note, I was out at a club this weekend and I was playing some age-guessing game with a girl. I guessed that she was 20. Why in the HELL would someone there be under 21? I realized my mistake... 30 hours too late.

Goals

Ever since October 2007, I've had a paper tacked above my desk with some resolutions. Some of you have probably seen it because it's written in pink/blue highlighter. Why wait for New Years if you know you have something you want to improve about yourself? Here they are:

1. Patience!
2. Be nicer
3. Buck the routine
4. Overcome the mood

1. Self-explanatory, I think. Waste of time and effort to not be. Still a work in progress. C.
2. Also self-explanatory... I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve and that, like most things, needs to happen in moderation. C+.
3. This one meant to expand my horizons. Put myself out of my comfort zone and experience as many things as possible. Become more well rounded. B+.
4. I tend to let small matters bug the shit out of me, so this one addressed that. Maybe it'll still bother, but don't let it affect my mood or actions. Keep an optimistic, cheerful mood. Pose the question, "What would someone's first impression of me be?" B.

When I took a gymnastics class a while ago, I added "Do a backtuck" to it... but sadly that one was never fulfilled. But at least I can do a front tuck if you give me a couple of tries.. and a big mat.

Fumes

Sometimes it's kind of weird to think that college is over. Four years later I know I've changed, grown and experienced a lot, but it seems almost for naught when I ended up right back at home in Cupertino. This subject would be fodder enough for a billion posts... so I'll focus.

One of the weirdest things to me was realizing that my friends from San Diego had now gained the "college" prefix. No longer were they normal friends, but now they were "college friends," as if they were to be classified as only part of a phase of my life. Not to say that I'm not any less close to them than before, but it is a different way of looking at relationships. It's just the kind of thing I heard my parents/older people talk about when I was younger, when I would be dragged to some awkward Chinese dinner when a "college friend" was randomly in the area. Is that what we're going to be reduced to, a series of obligatory contrived meetings running on the fumes of a years-past relationship? What bridges the gap from a "college friend" to a quotation marks-less friend?

Alcohol

As if it wasn't already common sense... alcohol = bad. But here's why:

When you drink, a small portion of the alcohol is converted and stored as fat, and the rest is converted into acetate. Acetate is then released into the bloodstream and used instead of fat and glucose as a source of fuel. So you automatically store some as fat that you can't even burn because the rest of the alcohol is used for energy, which in addition leaves a large amount of excess fat/glucose calories that are just stored as glycogen... which tend to resemble love handles. Not to mention that alcohol is a diuretic and dehydrates you.

One shot = 100-200 calories.
One beer = 120-200.
One glass of wine = 80-140.
One cocktail = 250-600.
A typical relaxed night? 500. The more common binge night? Probably closer to 1000.

Anyway, I doubt this will change my habits.

Disagreement

I was talking to my co-worker, another trainer, this morning and we got onto the subject of marriage. She said that she and her boyfriend didn't really believe in the institution of marriage and just dismissed it as "a ring and an expensive party." I wholeheartedly disagree (Why then were people fighting so hard against prop 8?), but didn't say anything to either direction in the interest of keeping the conversation flowing. There sometimes isn't really a tactful way to disagree with something, so why bother to put someone on the spot about it, oppose them and induce awkwardness at the cost of a nice talk?

"Yeah.. We don't believe in marriage, it's just a ring and an expensive party."
"I disagree. There are many legal advantages and privileges that are granted only to married couples. You are taking these liberties for granted, just ask any gay person around. So your boyfriend is French?"
"... "

I feel like this happens to people more than they might think. One way is when someone comes to you talking enthusiastically about tv/movie/singer that you've never heard of, and occasionally you don't want to burst his bubble so you just say... "oh yeah, I saw that, it WAS awesome." Etc. It's probably a fine line between placation/pandering and calculated avoidance. Who really cares if you say you've seen a movie, whereas if you were gay and trying to get married and were talking to my co-worker this morning, you might have to pick your battle.

Speaking of prop 8 failing, it looks like the results of these recent elections indicate that our racism (Obama winning) has been replaced with homophobia (prop 8 passing), with sexism (denying Hilary, Palin) tossed somewhere into the mix.

Food

One of my clients last week told me that he carbo loaded the day and the day before he came into sessions because he felt he needed the energy. (This is a guy that I have to try to explain the feeling of soreness to because he doesn't know what it is ) He's not running a marathon everyday, for God's sake. Good thing he told me, because that's probably been a major obstacle in his self-stated goal to "get ripped." And being that he's got probably a good 15 lbs to still lose, I don't see what dogma out there convinced him to actually eat MORE and disregard that we tap into our fat stores when we exhaust our available atp/glucose/glycogen/whatever.

I outlined roughly what I eat in a day for him and it looked something like this:
1:00 pm scramble 7 eggs, leave 4 yolks in, 450 calorie protein shake
4:00 pm almonds/cashews, basically some proteiny snack
7:00 pm dinner of some kind of meat and veggies
10:30 pm another 450 calorie protein shake and another proteiny snack, like cottage cheese

So I started requiring all of my clients to keep food logs. What, when, and portions of what they eat/drink everyday. In retrospect I feel kind of bad about just starting it now, because as hard as I push them in the gym, it can be all for nought if their diets are wack. Maybe I feel more committed to them after having known them for a while. Or, results-oriented as we are, the more results they see the better a trainer I'm perceived as. Anyway the first time I'll get to see some logs is tomorrow and I wonder what I'll find... Probably a lot of curry.

On another note, sometimes I wonder how old I look and what range my age could span to people that don't exactly know it. Hey, I can grow a thing on my chin that could be called pubey. It's something I've been thinking about ever since graduation, where before you could assume that the people you meet are between 18 and 22. Or.. 16-18 for Gary. JK. It's not like you can always tell how old people are just by looking, in no small part thanks to us shifty asians. So put someone in the workforce, where people are all dressed alike to fit the context and what's the indicator?

One more related thought: If a hypothetical A that's 35 was getting along wonderfully and became best friends with hypothetical B that's 25, does that indicate:
1. A is immature for his age
2. B is old for his age
3. just a genuine connection?

Voting

Fashion fads come and go with every season, every year and decade, influenced basically by what other people are doing. And this kind of thing happens in just about every other facet of life.

Example: For 2 weeks out of every four years, suddenly everyone becomes an expert on the events a gymnast competes in, or the intracacies of a flip turn because they watch the Olympics on TV. Then 2 months after, minus a Rockband commercial, it's mostly an afterthought.

Voting kind of parallels this to me. For about 2 months out of every 4 years, people suddenly start becoming outspoken so-called experts on propositions and bills based on the fact that they've read one strongly biased pamphlet on it. Obviously this doesn't apply to a good amount of people; not everyone bleached their hair and wore baggy jeans. Ultimately, it's even for the greater good because voter apathy is still a huge problem, and there are always important issues at hand. But it's just kind of funny to see how quickly this involvement will fade after the elections.

Turds

You can't polish them. Wise saying of The Hurng.

I keep a few sayings in the back of my head whenever I make most decisions, here are some of them.

1. Why worry about the things I can't control? Stressing won't change the outcome. What makes me worry less is #2.
2. Get myself to the fork in the road before anything else. Stop thinking, start doing and work so that I can get myself into a position to make the choices I want to make. Apple pie vs. pumpkin pie, not an apple core vs. that crap that you pull out of pumpkins when you carve them.
3. There's always going to be a million reasons to not do something. But obviously, we do things. When am I just making an excuse for myself? And what's really the worst that can happen?
4. Like #3, what am I going to remember next month, year, decade?

Tidbits
-I get a 5:30 AM client starting next week, which puts my wakeup time at 4:45. Blah.
-I was watching "Supersize Me" tonight and they always show lots of obese people walking around from behind while the guy is narrating, "Obesity is an epidemic these days, blah blah.." Wouldn't it suck to watch the movie and then recognize yourself as one of the obese people in the movie!?

Speeches

One of the best movie speeches ever, in my opinion, is from Independence Day right before the American pilots take flight against the squidbillies for their last stand. I still get goosebumps every time I hear it.




Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind.

Mankind -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests.

Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.

And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:

"We will not go quietly into the night!
We will not vanish without a fight!
We're going to live on!
We're going to survive!"
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!