« April 2006 | Main | June 2006 »

May 22, 2006

Bath & Body Works Used to Smell Like Smarties

"If I was invisible then I could just watch you in your room
If I was invisible I'd make you mine tonight "
--Clay Aiken

Creepy! Just heard that song while strolling around DSW and tuned in to the words for the first time.

Not to compare the two artists in any way, or that this song is anywhere near as absurd as the former Idol's, but something about James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" just seems...I don't know...a little obsessive? Seriously:

"And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end"

Till the end? Really? Of course I recognize the romanticism and all, but I feel like it's kind of silly. I don't hate it, though. It's a pleasant enough, if not entirely original tune.

I feel that lyrics in popular music are suffering tremendously and that the young folks in our day and age have no concept of the difference between good and bad songwriting. Case in point: "My Humps."

Since I don't have a car and depend entirely upon the train and my feet, I rarely listen to the radio. And I miss it a lot. I'm a great fan of singing loudly in the car along with catchy tunes. But back to the point, I was browsing through H&M when "My Humps" came on and I almost stopped in the middle of an aisle in shock and repulsion at this abomination that the Black Eyed Peas released upon society. It was the number one song! It was featured on a Verizon commercial! How can a woman listen to this and think that it's in any way acceptable? It boggles my mind. Maybe someone thinks it's promoting a healthy way of thinking about curves...? It's gross. I'm so grossed out right now, I have to stop thinking about it.

I'm not here to say that everyone in a certain age bracket has horrible taste in music. I'm not here to lay blame on whatever it is that might have contributed to the disturbing trend in poorly written but highly praised songs. Crappy artists have always been around, and lame lyrics along with them. This is essentially a completely worthless post.

Oh, I also noticed that Bath & Body Works switched their smell to coconut oil and it made Washington Street smell like the beach.

Posted by heidi at 11:36 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 14, 2006

speakers are speaking in code

so this morning i was scrambling before church - looking around for my cell phone wondering where i might have misplaced it when i wondered aloud to myself. how is it that i've become so dependant upon this piece of technology? it's not like i make that many telephone calls - in fact friends and family complain quite often that i don't call often enough...but that's not really my thing talking on the telephone. and when i say that i don't mean to imply that i'm not any good at talking on the phone because i'm really quite good at it - whether a conversation lasts 15 minutes or 5 hours i will always have somthing interesting to say. but that's not really what i'm here to talk about....

as i was fumbling around this morning i had this strange sense of deja vu and suddenly i was transported to my former life in miami, florida where i would spend many countless hours digging into darkened corners of my apartment looking for my beeper does anyone else remember beepers? it seems like such an arcane concept now. you can't reach someone on the telephone so you call their pager, input your phone number and wait restlessly for them to call you back. i hated that damned beeper. my boss at the time insisted that i have one but he was not willing to share the cost with me. so i was paying $14.95 a month so he could have instant access to me at any time - day or nite.

i guess in some ways the beeper was better when it came to avoiding people you didn't really want to deal with...like your boss for example. because it was pretty simple to delete the page and claim that you never got it. and the other person involved really had no way of confirming or denying whether or not their call wen through. plus if you were saavy enoughy you could painstaikingly pound out cryptic messages that would read things like: let's go to bed if you held the pager upside down and desperately wanted to believe that someone actually wanted to go to bed with you.

in a way the beeper was precursor to things like text messaging - which i still haven't gotten around to participating in. and i'm often maligned for this by some of my dearest friends but i have a tendency to write. alot. i have a hard time consolidating my deepest thoughts and feelings or even the random thoughts that pass through my brain on a daily basis. so for me, i'd much rather sit down and compose an e-mail or write a letter because both of those mediums are so much more meaningful in so many ways. in fact, if they ever get around to giving away pulitzer prizes for e-mail writing i'd have to say i would be completely astonished if i weren't at least considered for such a prize.

but that whole tedious hunt and peck text message thing - it's really not for me. i'd much rather spend my time wondering whatever happened to paula cole. with her yodeling and her all around hirsuteness wondering where all the cowboys had gone and like the rest of us didn't want to wait for dawson's creek to be over. i'm getting a little bit worried because she hasn't returned any of my phone calls. perhaps i should try beeping her instead.

Posted by young_christopher at 4:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 9, 2006

Fine. Take it!

A certain co-worker of mine is a bit of a thief. Not of my possessions (except seriously, make your own damn request sheet copies), but of my credit. Sometimes it has to do with work, and sometimes it has to do with something I said, but it happens occasionally and it makes me insane. Generally we get along swimmingly – avoiding such topics as religion and politics having learned our lesson about that – and find one another rather hilarious, and it makes for a decently good time at work. It’s an unacceptable issue with me, this credit taking, but it’s one of those things you can’t do anything about without making yourself look like the asshole. Like when she gets a big laugh by ripping off something I just said. How do you respond to that? I roll my eyes, laugh along with “her” joke and try to enjoy the fact that we’re having fun in the office and not feeling miserable and depleted.

Oddly enough I care less about the work credit she steals than the jokes. It happens less often and usually has to do with research. Now when that occurs, I could say something like, “You guys, I totally found all of that yesterday,” but it would make me look like a jerk. Silent sufferer, that’s me. My office politics are impeccable as well, and this is a super-sensitive woman we’re talking about. She is deeply offended by everything.

But the jokes…I’m not a very funny person. I can’t tell stories very well, and I'm okay with laughing with (sometimes at) others. So when I manage to come up with something amusing and she repeats it right in front of me to someone else, I feel compelled to rush her and take her down and demand that she admit I told it first. There’s an inoffensive way to tell someone else’s joke. I’ve repeated friends’ jokes before, for sure - and never fail to follow up the telling with some kind of “my friend told me that back in college and it’s still funny” type of explanation. Not her, no. She basks in her filched glory as I silently stew away and try to just let it be.

The other day – this is going to sound way lame, but I swear it was funny – I composed a song about our systems crashing (because they did) to the tune of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” We sing a lot in our office, weirdly. But anyway, she and I started kind of swapping lines and were in tears with laughter until she related the song to someone else who in turn said to another “You have to hear this song that [credit thief] came up with." The statement went undisputed. And it all stopped being funny to me. I nearly made a lunge for the commendation I felt I was due (her lines didn’t even rhyme!), but alas…there’s just no way to go about it.

She's really rather witty on her own, so it confuses me when this happens. I assumed the nod to the originator was standard policy in these situations, but apparently not. In a way it's flattering, I suppose. After all, she knows where it came from, and it's a daring play to let a joke be attached to you. This is part of the reason why I don't try to be funny, generally - the possible flop is terrifying. But, still...let me have what's mine.

Posted by heidi at 2:43 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 6, 2006

or i'm still alive and there's nothing i want to do

it's not every day that you can step through the front door like a ghost into the fog that is your local music venue - brimming with confidence that you will definitely be the coolest person in the room. last night was one of those moments for me as i celebrated cinco de mayo at the exit/in with everyone's favourite novelty act they might be giants.

of course it doesn't matter how cool and/or confident i may have felt about myself as i walked through those doors because once inside i took my place amongst the throngs and sang my heart out to every single song. they opened with new york city from factory showroom followed immediately by birdhouse from their most popular album flood and then proceeded to rock the faces off of each and every person in the room.

and seriously, how is it that after all of these years this band is still dismissed as an oddity rather than an actual viable musical force? they really are musical geniuses when it comes to things like melody and song structure and every time i've seen them live i've been left with the impression that they have just put on the b.e.s.t. live show i've ever seen. and last night was no exception.

and certainly there were folks in the audience who were only interested in hearing songs from flood - one gentleman in particular became very intoxicated and angrily asked why they would not play minimum wage "it's only 8 seconds long" he said - "why don't they just play it"
of course they didn't play it but that guy didn't really care - he was too busy lighting up another smirnoff ice. and the four minute guitar intro to istanbul (not constantinople) alone was worth the price of admission.

so many bands have come along and tried to imitate the tmbg sound but few have succeeded. even my beloved unicorns (who really were more than horses) could not escape from the fringes into the mainstream. possibly because their songs are much too dark and lack the educational bent to ever be featured on a show such as tiny tunes

and i realize at this stage in their career it's probably too much to hope for that this band will ever become wildly popular - especially considering most have their recent albums have lacked some of the latent charm that was present during the early years. still - if you ever see that they might be giants are playing in your town - build a little birdhouse in your soul and go see them play. you will not be disappointed.

and so here in no particular order are my personal favourite they might be giants albums - john henry; flood; lincoln; they might be giants; appolo 18. if you don't own at least one of these albums i'm embarrassed for you. i love music.

Posted by young_christopher at 11:05 AM | TrackBack