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.