the bestest

one of the best blog posts i ever read here.

oh wait. it was written by me. go figure. :P

let's bring it back

i got you

heard this on the radio as i was driving home from my friend's house last night. amazing in so many different ways.



Go ahead and say goodbye, I'll be all right
Go ahead and make me cry, I'll be all right
And when you need a place to run to
For better or worse
I got you

why i like miley cyrus

okay. i know from the start that this is going to sound odd (and i can anticipate the jokes already - so let's just get all of that out of the way), but ... i actually like miley cyrus.

i first was exposed to miley through my work, where it was my job to market hannah montana branded soap, shampoo, etc.. though pictures, product, presentations, etc. containing miley occupied my desk, i hardly thought much of her. but this changed. at first, it was a catchy tune on the radio that i caught myself enjoying. and then, it was a movie that, although only mildy entertaining (the humour is targeted to tweens after all), struck a cord as it portrayed the struggle one can have with reconciling "professional" success with "personal" values which i identified with.

from a character stand-point, the thing i like most about miley (and i believe this is also what has helped her become so popular) is that she is down-to-earth. you will oftentimes find her character in less-than-perfect - and even embarrasing - circumstances - which ultimately makes her relatable (contrast this with other child-celebs such as britney spears who also had her start through disney).

miley has an interesting background, and i encourage you to read about it if you get a chance on wikipedia. one interesting thing i learnt is, even though she is the daughter of a famous celebrity, she didn't necessarily live a privilged life. she actually had to scratch and claw her way to become a success (example: when auditioning for the hannah montana show, disney executives originally judged her to be too young, but it was her persistence that resulted in her being called back for auditions, and ultimately led to her landing the job.)

with all that being said, it is my job as a (very part-time) blogger to impart with you my readers good music, insights, news, etc. that will hopefully benefit you in some way - regardless of the package it comes in. and if it is in a 17-year old musician, so be it.

enjoy.

A Critical Look at Music

Music shapes memory, and organizes our sense of time. Clearly, one of the effects of all music is to focus our attention on the feeling of time, and intesify our experience of the present. One measure of good music is its "presence", it's ability to "stop" time, to make us feel we are living within a moment, with no memory or anxiety about what has come before us, what will come after.

Our most revealing declarations of feelings are often expressed in banal or boring language and so our culture has a supply of songs that say these things for us in interesting and involving ways.

[Cambridge University Press]