simple pleasures

Yesterday and today I have been volunteering as a Y-Group Leader for Freshmen Orientation at BYU. It has been so much fun, but also very draining! My partner in leading is a cute girl that happened to also be in my math class last semester, it's been really fun to hang out with her, meet a bunch of freshmen, and walk around campus a bunch sharing knowledge. I just woke up from a 2.5 hour nap, and I am so happy. I get to go hang out with Megan again tonight, it's raining outside, and I am going to play starcraft, this day can't get much better ;-)

Art is...

This is going to be kind of long, so please bear with me. First I'd like to start off with an interesting view on art, as told by Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World in his blogg:

Jim: I don’t usually discuss what songs are specifically about. But I think Table is worth talking about because it can help explain why that is. I was working at an art supply store off and on in between Static Prevails tour legs. At the end of the month we would be instructed to rip off the covers of the magazines we didn’t sell and box them to be returned. Being a not so great-paying retail gig, the staff would have little remorse just taking the old zines. I would check out Flash Art and Blind Spot. I found myself liking Maurizio Cattelan’s stuff. It was engaging in a way I hadn’t expected. He was the first person I found presenting art in a way that got you to think about what art really is. 


The local art scene was totally different than the music scene. Working at the store helped me find out about openings and showings. My group of friends were living in the university area but no one was going to school. We would hit up any and all openings. It felt like we were infiltrating a secret society, taking all their free food and drinks. Once, one of my dance-based coworkers had a performance on the college campus. It was tied in with some other local people’s work. Some with visual art, some with human-involved installation pieces. While we were outside waiting for my friend’s dance piece to start, there was a girl cleaning the ground with the tail of an all white dress. I think I was the only one of us who noticed. She went behind us and across a courtyard very slowly until she got to a candle lit table that had already been set up. She just sat there picking out the dirt from her dress into a few dozen tumblers. It occurred to me this was intended to be art. I know that sounds funny. This image of her stuck with me and for a while I couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t because I had been searching for some deeper meaning in why she was presenting her piece. It was because I realized it doesn’t matter why. This is the reason I usually steer conversations away from exact, specific explanations of lyrics and song-meanings: there is no correct way to interpret art. And there is no meaning more important or special than the one the listener/reader/viewer decides for themselves. 



He then goes on to talk about how this song just developed over time, creatively. I had read this once randomly through a Twitter link, but it stuck with me, I will probably always remember how he spoke of the meaning of art as no meaning at all. I feel that often in my life when I have tried to be artistic or done something creative, often there is simply too much meaning in what I have tried to do. Writing a song about a girlfriend, or an event. I try to make the song fit perfectly to the situation, and it just never turns out right. I think what I may be lacking is the concept of ‘based on’ where you don’t have to literally tell the story of something that already happened, but you can simply take the concept of it, and tell your own story. It may have the same beginning middle and end, but all the filler stuff is what you can make up, and what truly makes it an artistic endeavor.
So today I thought of it again, let me explain how this came about (I enjoy following the progress of my mind) First I was organizing my iTunes playlists. I get really annoyed when there are too many lists that you can’t really find the one you want, but today I discovered that you can make folders of playlists… so I put all my ‘classic playlists’ into a folder (labeled ‘Classics’ of course). Then I had more room to make a new playlist. I began to make a Car Dance playlist (possibly to be burned someday) for playing in the car and dancing to. It was comprised mostly of techno music, dance-pop and a couple rock songs. Since I was all over itunes I decided to look around the store when I noticed that a new music video was available from The Killers for one of their songs that I love, A Dustland Fairytale. I searched You Tube and found this beautiful video, and was naturally fully intrigued by the meaning behind it. As I watched a little ‘behind the scenes’ spot on it, I heard a quote saying the video was about such and such… which made sense, but to me it opened up my eyes to the idea that this video could mean anything you wanted it too. There is no official yes or no clear cut meaning, but it conveys feelings, attitudes, and emotions to us which we can then interpret for ourselves. Needless to say I was inspired and wrote this blogg.

Let the Sunset in!

"What did I tell you about this window.... Always leave it open!!" 10 points for getting that quote. Moving on, opening windows is a thought that I've been pondering today. A beautiful song I know says, "open the window, let the sunset in..." and it happens to not only be good advice on seeing some beauty in life, but it also a beautiful metaphor for an ending relationship. I believe that this is a great attitude toward life, not only accepting an end, but embracing it. I've recently gone through an ending relationship which has taken me some time to fully resolve within myself. Today I began to feel really good about just opening the window, and embracing the end... although maybe not just quite yet. It's hard to think of what was, and have that empty longing for what there could have been, however I look forward to many beautiful 'sunrays and saturdays' to enjoy with others, friends and lovers alike. Someday I suppose I could be good friends again with my former love (as of right now I'm pretty much avoiding everything about her, just to help me let go).

Some things just don't work out, despite all you put into it, all that you strive to develop and work out together... you find that it simply wasn't meant to be, so it has to end. In such a case there is no blame, there is no resentment, and once both sides can fully realize that neither blames either and truly admit that it just wasn't possible, then I think (I think) that it is perfectly possibly (even natural) to remain good friends. Clearly they have things in common, clearly they were friends before, just being out of a relationship shouldn't stop them being freinds. I do see though, the great importance of having the relationship comletely end before being friends. Today I simply feel that I have taken a good step in the right direction, embracing the end and realizing some of these truths. This song, illustrates much of what I feel today, 'Sunrays and Saturdays' by Vertical Horizon.

Where in the world is....

Today in my History of Creativity Class we discussed the Islam, and the Muslim explosion that took over the civilized world through the dark ages of Europe. We discussed how Spain was controlled by Muslims far into the middle ages and we learned of many of thier influences, one of which was The Alhambra, a palace/fortress built in the 14th century. I remembered/recognized it because of a computer game we used to play about the one and only, Carmen Sandiego. So, "many thanks for the food, now off we go to Fort Jesus."

The past week has represented a large change in my life. I find myself with a lot of extra time on my hands, and I also find myself, in some ways, more relaxed, open, care free, talkative oftentimes, and yet lonely all the same. I've begun a whole new socially experimenting me. It's hard to explain, but especially today and yesterday, I've been returning to a forgotten zone of flirting (something I was never good at) and seeking out social situations. I must admit there is a level of excitement, mostly adventure, not knowing what will happen at any given moment, and despite this exhilaration, I can't quite say it "just what I wanted." We shall see though what I do with this newly re-found freedom.

Just Tonight

Today I love fruit
I love doing puzzles
I think I look hott with a tan
I don't like air-con

Today was a great day
I did homework
I took an easy test
I went to work

Tomorrow should be fun and exciting.
as a Friday it is entitled to such
Class gets over at noon
and the weekend party starts

Wisdom teeth and water polo

Most of us have seen or heard Brian Regan warning us to not ever tell a "two-wisdom tooth story" because we will always be one upped (or rather two upped ;-) by someone with a four wisdom tooth story (If you don't know what I'm talking about watch this:
Brian Regan on Wisdom Teeth

But you know, the people I really feel bad for aren't those with only a two wisdom tooth story, but those with only a cavity story. I mean really, how far can you get with the story, "This one time I went to the dentist-" right there you're dead, someone's going to jump in, "Oh that ain't nothing! This one time I was going to the oral surgeon..." and go on to tell his much more interesting, not-just-a-dentist story.

Moreover, I think this is somewhat of a metaphor for personality types. I know people that are simply 'just-the-dentists' people, and every story they tell isn't actually that cool, so at a dinner party they begin to tell a story, but everyone already knows that it's going to suck, so to save time they jump in over them with a different story, the person soon realizes they're not being listened to and usually quiets down. Of course I feel to bad for them that I just have to look at them and raise my eyebrows to pretend that I am waiting for them to continue, when really I am listening to the much more interesting story being told by the guy next to me. Can you imagine, "this one time we went rafting on Salem Pond-"
"Yeah, well I took a whitewater trip down the snake river!"
"I won a candy bar at a raffle-"
"This one time at a raffle, I won a car!"
"I saw some guys playing water polo-"
"I used to be on the water polo team, that's why I don't have a left ear!!"
"I once had to eat this gross soup my Asian roommate made-"
"I ate human blood!" ;-)

Some people just aren't cut out to tell stories, and I'm not dogging on those with cool-er stories. By all means tell your cool stories, they're worth hearing. My plea is to those without cool stories, do yourself and others a favor, by not looking quite so pitiful and left out and learning to enjoy listening. You know what they say:

.. don't wake me I plan on sleeping in....

It is currently 12:30 am. I am sitting in bed with my laptop, eating ice cream and not caring one lick that it's ridiculously late and I have classes tomorrow. I'm not even going to set an alarm for tomorrow, ha! how exciting.

This evening I went on a whim to watch a video production of the french musical, Le Roi de Soleil. It was an amazing production, despite me only understanding 10% of what was said. The costumes and sets were phenomenal, and the music and dancing was beautiful and intriguing. Despite being about 15th century france, it had a very modern feel that made all the boringness of a history story melt away and the excitement that it must have had (back when it actually happened) came through quite strongly. Something I would recommend, although having english subtitles may have proved useful.

Today I lined up an interview for the best job ever!! -oh hush, hush, I'm afraid we don't want anybody else taking the idea, so I can't talk about it.... it's a very top secret, very original theme... I mean job. Anyhow, I'm really excited, and I pray that this will go better than the other ten on-campus jobs I've applied too.

I've been in a bit of a spot as of late over my hair. I'm not usually one to obsess over how I look, but now and again my hair will throw me for a good one.. Today I had to comb it nice and I even put a little hairspray in to keep it there for my choir performance. After the performance though I noticed it in some side glances of semi-silvered windows about campus, and it was not looking good. It was neat, yes, but so plastered and lacking style or attitude. As the progressed some wind knocked it here and there, but really it stayed pretty much the same. Before my evening class I ran my fingers around it trying to bring back a more natural feel, but it just kept looking my mom had combed my hair that morning :-( (not that that's always a bad thing, but...) Anyhow, that is me today.