Artsy, Fartsy Gain Foothold?

first of all, i enjoy the way that newspaper headlines truncate the titles of their articles by using a comma. it is so awkward to read sometimes.

second of all, i don't consider my self artsy-fartsy (as should be obvious by the use of this term). i never have, and if i have my way, i never will.

hold up. define artsy-fartsy for me one time...

well my definition of artsy-fartsy might differ from yours. i will use an example to define it. whenever people can "see" the pain of the world's children, for example, in a piece of "art" consisting of a shoelace and a length of barbed wire, for example, i would consider that to be artsy-fartsy with the emphasis on the fartsy (no i have not seen any piece of art consisting of shoelaces and barbed wire. but i bet i could make millions by making that piece and saying that it represents the pain of all the children in the world. do you doubt it?). another example comes from Mrs. Rogers' (no kinship to Mr. Rogers the friendly neighborhood... well... neighbor) 11th grade IB english class at the Big I. as you can imagine in any higher level english course in high school, many literary works were read and discussed in class. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Homer's Odyssey, etc. But the one which sticks out in my mind (because i wrote what i thought was a darn good research paper on it) is John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. as you may or may not recall, this work (along with every other work ever by anyone if you want to take the artsty-fartsy route) has a ton of symbolism in it. this symbolism is rooted mainly in Christianity and Christian themes. Jim Casy (sacrifices himself and his body for the salvation and safety of his family and friends - JC - Jesus Christ). 12 members of their traveling party (12 tribes of Israel). the book's title (Battle Hymn of the Republic - Revelation 14:19-20) even the character Rosasharn (Rose of Sharon - Song of Solomon 2:1). The artsy-fartsy part of this ramble-fest is how Mrs. Rogers discussed said symbolism. Like any good teacher (and she was a great one - i simply disagree with this one thing) she asked for class participation: "What could this be representing?" The obvious answers that i laid out above were said. But that wasn't enough. "What else?" Students began throwing out anything and everything under the sun, and as long as it kinda made sense, Mrs. Rogers nodded, agreed and said "What else?" And this happened with any and all works that we covered in that class. NOT ok. That is artsy-fartsy. (paintings made by elephants and sold for way too much is also artsy-fartsy.)

despite all of that, i do have a few chinks in my anti-artsy-fartsy armor. the main reason for this post is to briefly analyze the song on that ipod touch commercial which says that music is a bunch of different things like significant others, comfortable things and, shall we say, more intimate things which gives the song by CSS its title "Music is My Hot, Hot Sex."

if you know me at all, you will know that music is very important to me (if i were to even begin to explain why, you would be reading this blig post for another 30 minutes - i am sure i will write a blig or two on music in the future. something to look forward to..). i was a music minor at UNC and took a few classes which required me to analyze different pieces of music and i quite enjoyed it. usually these pieces were either sans lyrics or i was analyzing the music as it related to the lyrics, not the other way around (because, after all, lyrics are poetry, not music. usually those lyrics are given a melody which has musical qualities, but this still does not change the fact that lyrics and music are not equatable).

i am, however, intrigued by the lyrics to this song and would like to give you some of my opinions on it.

the word "is" can be equated to, well, an equal sign. so wherever you see "is" you can safely put an equal sign in its place without the meaning of the word changing. so when the vocalist says that music is her boyfriend or girlfriend, she is saying that music = boyfriend or girlfriend. she is dating music. whoa... now that's kind of artsy-fartsy. that mean she holds music's hand, buys music things and makes out with music. now that's really artsy-fartsy. that's so artsy-fartsy that it's not possible or even practical (traits artsy-fartsy things rarely possess).

here are the other things that the lyricist equates to music:

(drugs, junks, boys, ladies, dead end, imaginary friend, brother, great grand daughter, sister, favorite mistress, shit (stuff, not poo), jobs, drinks, bitches, beach house, hometown, king size bed, where i meet my friends, hot hot bath, hot hot sex, back rub, where I'd like you to touch)

think of how a human being would interact with or do those things. now imagine interacting with or doing those same things to music.

is your mind blown yet?

see, its not about the fact that one could not possibly drink music, sleep in music or be akin to music. music isn't an actual, animate or inanimate thing we can interact with through our senses (what we hear and feel is vibrating particles in the medium through which we hear or feel the effects of the music, not music itself). its about the thought process of the lyricist while he or she wrote the lyrics to this song.

the idea that someone could be close to marriage with, bathe in, have infidelitous relations with or go home to the unearthly, completely God-designed phenomenon that is music is impossibly awesome*.

we would all agree that those things cannot actually be done to or with music. duh. easy. but many of us would differ on the opinion that these thoughts are beautiful, provocative and challenging thoughts about music. some might even say that such thoughts or such a line of thinking is artsy-fartsy.

i would not be counted among that group.


Dip of the Day: Google Earth

ok so google earth (not google maps) has been my dip for a while now but I was super-duper impressed with it for two (2)** reasons the other day while procrastinating at work.

(1) it now has the option of looking at the universe (or at lease what we can see of it). you can search for and zoom in on galaxies, constellations and stars. there is also a little application where you can track the orbits of the planets and the moon. needless to say, its out of this world.

Hubble Space Telescope photographs are laid onto the
celestial sphere in the correct places. Here are
the Pillars of Creation near the Eagle Nebula.

(2) terrain and tilting. goodness gracious. turn on the terrain layer and tilt the view down and all of the sudden the mountains and hills rise out of the computer screen. you find yourself zooming through valleys and dodging mountaintops. GREAT for exam time.

Grandfather Mountain anyone?

Junk of the Month: Ace & TJ's Breaking and Entering Christmas

an awesome example of doing good works behind the scenes (my next post topic). Ace & TJ are morning radio talk show hosts here in charlotte and they accept nominations for families who are planning to spend this holiday season without a Christmas and none of the cheer that comes with it. They get a bunch of volunteers together and break into the house, stock the cupboards and fridge with food, redecorate the kids' rooms, put up a tree and put a HOARD of presents under the tree. they have done three so far (1, 2, 3) and have 3 more left this season. they have already donated a car!

the best part about it is that they (Ace & TJ) go to great lengths to keep their identity hidden. the family has no idea who or why someone or something has given them all of these presents. thats what i'm talking about.

thanks for reading such a long post. let me know what you think.

*awesome meaning 'inspiring awe', not 'very impressive'
**why do legal documents and disclaimers have to put the number in parenthesis after stating the number in letters? seriously...