Money, Ties, Money, Peacoats, Money, and Coldplay

It’s 11:15 PM right now.

So, recently I opened a checking account with Bank of America. There’s currently no money in it, put I plan to deposit $100 or so to begin with. There’s no minimum opening deposit and there’s no monthly maintenance fee that I have to pay, so that’s always good. Also, I can do stuff online with my checking account. I have no clue what that entails, but I’m guessing it’d have something to do with transferring funds, looking at how much money I have, etc. I’ve heard some bad stuff about Bank of America’s customer service and how they suck or something, but for now, nothing bad’s happened so I’m not going to change it just yet. Besides, there’s a branch close to Chapel Hill and a Bank of America ATM machine right outside my dorm, so I see no reason to change it right now. I also applied for a Discover credit card. So… yeah, I won’t have to pay with cash all the time now. And, I’m building credit… and doing other responsible stuff… ^_^

In any case, I expect to have around $800-$1000 by the end of summer. For the moment, I have a little over $200, but I intend to spend… maybe $50 by the end of the summer, so I have to make around $650 by the end of summer, which shouldn’t be too hard, I think. I’m supposed to be tutoring a kid in pre-calculus before he goes to college in a little over two months, but I can’t do that until he gets off his lazy ass and actually begins to start working at it.

On a separate note, I’m looking to buy some new clothes. I made a little promise to myself that I’ll buy myself a new peacoat when I get under 140 pounds, which, at least according to a BMI calculator, means that I will be in the “normal” weight range. At the moment, I’ve still got 40 lbs left to go. Ideally, I’d like to be around 120 to 125, but I’ll think about once I get to 140 first. Maybe I should just throw up like those dancers I met one time… hahahaha…

No, I’m just kidding. When I found out they did that on a regular basis, I was struck with a sudden feeling of sadness that was wholly unrelated to the alcohol in my system at that time. I mean, I know bulimia was alive and well among dancers and models… but I had never actually met one… so when I did… it was a bit sad… except, it’s not really bulimia because they don’t have eating binges… they just eat very little and throw up anyways… (T_T)

Oh yeah, and I’m listening to Coldplay’s “A Rush of Blood to the Head” album right now. I’m listening to “Daylight” right now. It’s a good song.

So… yeah, that’s all I have to say right now. It’s 11:26 PM now, so I think I’ll try to get a bit more studying in before turning in.

New Music and Japanese

Uwa~… I’m not doing as many blog posts as I used to. I think I’m going to try for at least 3 or 4 a week. I think that’s a good number… enough so that I don’t get bored.

Anyway, seeing as how it’s summer, I’ve got a bit more time to devote to hobbies and stuff now. Lately, I’ve been listening to more music and watching more movies and TV than I have before. So, I went on a bit of a music, movie, and TV binge… it’s fun! And not nearly as unhealthy as a food binge! YAY!

So… some of the new music I got included (what I think is) the entire Coldplay discography, the entire Ellegarden discography, the entire Explosions in the Sky discography (up til now), Mogwai’s “Mogwai Young Team” album, “Hey” byPixies, some classical music (Liszt, Mendelssohn, a ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION albums, the entire Chatmonchy discography, and three albums by the Shins (“Chutes Too Narrow”, “Oh, Inverted World”, and “Wincing the Night Away”).  And I’ve listened to hardly ANY of them… hahahaha…

I’ve put all my Coldplay music on Shuffle and I’ve played through about half of them, which means that I probably haven’t heard… about half of them. I should probably get around to listening to more Coldplay at some point. I think my favorite Coldplay song at this moment is “Swallowed in the Sea” on the “X&Y” album. It’s a sad, melancholy sort of song, like most of Coldplay’s music. Most of it is about forgiveness and acceptance.

Explosions in the Sky’s and Mogwai’s music is a bit harder to write about because they are almost entirely instrumentals. They’re… awesome. That’s really all I can say. My favorite Explosions in the Sky song would probably be “First Breath After Coma”. It starts out slow, but then builds to a fantastic climax… before receding back to being slow. It’s atmospheric. There’s really no other way to explain it. As for Mogwai… haha… I actually haven’t heard listened to much Mogwai… so I can’t really say much about it. It’s good, but I don’t like it as much as Explosions in the Sky. Explosions in the Sky is sort of like a modern-day progressive rock orchestral piece. Their songs have to be taken in one piece. Otherwise, it kind of loses its effect… so if you listen to any of their songs, listen to the entire song.

“Hey” by Pixies is also a good song. I don’t really understand the lyrics, but I like the instrumentals, especially the bass throughout the song.

Chatmonchy is probably my favorite band. It’s a three piece (guitar, drums, bass, and vocals done by all three) Japanese girl rock band. They’ve had quite a bit of success in Asia, but I don’t think they’ve ever topped the Oricon Top 30 Singles or Top 30 Albums list, which is basically the list of the top 30 Japanese singles/albums sold in the week. I think the highest they’ve ever reached is #2 on both charts. ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION/アジアン・カンフー・ジェネレーション is another of my favorite Japanese rock groups. Their music tends to be heavier than Chatmonchy’s songs, which often leaned towards more bubble-gummy pop but lately has been a bit heavier too. My favorite Chatmonchy song is “Last Love Letter” and my favorite ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION song would probably be either  ”Re:Re”, which has an awesome guitar and drum intro, or “After Dark”.

NOTE: The video of the PV is kind of weird.

As for The Shins… truthfully, I haven’t listened to any Shins music except for what I already had… so I can’t really say much about the new stuff.

On a sidenote, I’m self-teaching myself Japanese! I dunno if it’ll turn out to be a good idea or not… *shrugs* Either way, I can get Daryl to help me when I get back to college in August… or September. I can’t remember which.

Art, Beauty, and Fashion

I watched “The Devil Wears Prada” last night. It was sort of funny and the dialogue was snappy, but I felt that the characters were a bit hollow and the plot was too chick-flick-ish. It also wasn’t emotionally arresting. Interestingly enough, I found myself criticizing some random girl’s boots today… *shrugs*

The movie got me thinking about how much influence one person’s opinion has over an entire industry. Miranda (Meryl Streep’s character) is supposedly based off of Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of “Vogue” magazine. 60 Minutes recently did a bit on her, which is how I found out about Anna Wintour and “The Devil Wears Prada”. Apparently, Wintour holds sway over a large swath of the fashion industry and her opinion of someone’s work is enough to catapult a designer to the heights of fame or sink him to the depths of obscurity. I found it strange how one person’s opinion had such influence over things as subjective as good fashion.

That got me thinking about art and beauty. Who determines if art is good or bad? For example, when I see Picasso’s paintings, I personally see no great value in Guernica, and the only reason why I know that the paintings are significant is because of my art teacher in grade school. I’ve listened to Franz Listz’s “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in E Flat Major” and it doesn’t strike me as being particularly good. I’ve seen “Citizen Kane”, and even though it’s supposed one of the best movie’s in the world, I found it slow and boring. I feel that sometimes a book, piece of art, song, or film would be given a pass that it ordinarily would not have been given if it were not associated with a particular author, artist, musician, or director.

This dichotomy between what the world sees as “good/bad” and what I personally see as “good/bad” makes it difficult to define something as good or bad. I had a bit of row with a friend of mine about what made a film good or great. I basically said that a good film ought to have layers so that re-watching a film makes you think as you uncover another layer that you may not have previously noticed, whereas my friend argued that a good film ought to entertain. Eventually, I came to the conclusion whether or not a film is good depends on the viewer, but the question of whether or not a film is great depends on how much influence it had on cinema and the rest of the industry in general.

I’ve come to the conclusion that any work of art, film, book, etc. should to do one of two things: It should make you think or it should entertain you. Ultimately, a book, a song, or a movie is merely another medium to transmit a certain opinion from one human being to his audience. If that opinion is transmitted successfully, then it should make the audience see the world in a slightly different way, or at least consider that their world is changed somewhat. If it fails to do that, it should elicit some sort of emotional response. For example, I enjoyed “Independence Day”, even though it’s a stupid, stupid movie. I don’t give a damn, it’s Will Smith vs. Aliens. I’m there. I’m eating popcorn and I’m watching that dumb movie.

So… yeah… That’s it. I kinda rambled again.

Nonsense Song

I wrote this song while I was listening to “Saint Simon” by The Shins. This song (my song, not “Saint Simon”) makes no sense and I don’t think it’s even metered properly but… *shrugs*… I might as well post it up. It’s that good… in fact… I think it’s kind of crap… hahaha…

Since I, have not the time,
Nor the space, to make this rhyme,
Settle for this nonsense song…
Not the bong,
Not am I on,
Please trust me,
For without me,
You cannot see,
What I’ve to show…

Since I, have not the mind,
Nor the wits, to make this kind,
Of lovely-sounding noise…
My head’s sour,
‘Tis not the hour,
To ask me for,
At the core,
Of Brain’s door,
You cannot know…

Since I, have not the hands,
Nor the skills, to make a band,
Listen to my simple voice…
Watch me do,
Wait for cue,
From the blind,
Upon whose shined,
The light of mind,
Sprouts insane talk…