Interpreting Music

FINDING MEANING IN LYRICS

Okay so this is not a new song. It is a song we have all probably heard before. It is John Mayer singing "Waiting On The World To Change". Sometimes I wonder what the future will hold for John Mayer. He started off his musical career with slow and soft sweet ballads like Daughters and Your Body Is a Wonderland and then he was in a skit on Chappelle's Show. He got into trouble in 2010 for giving an interview with Playboy magazine(NSFW) where he made sexual and racist remarks. I believe that his racial remarks were something regarding his status as a hood pass holder. I digress.

I have always been fascinated with the song "Waiting On The World To Change" and its subtext about the baby-boomer generation standing in the way of the dreams and the success of a younger generation. This is a very unhealthy mentality, however it is a sentiment that makes me weary. The past year a decision was made that anyone in Canada under the age of 50 years old will have to wait two more years before they can qualify for their pension. This is a decision that was clearly made by people over the age of 50 without consulting with Canadians who are under the age of 50. 

Some days I feel as though I have woken up in a world where I have inherited all of the problems from a previous generation and all of the nice parts that were left have been spoiled. Maybe I am just cynical because I am about to turn 30 but pollution, poverty and corporate greed have spiraled out of control. How are people from my generation supposed to look forward to anything when we are preoccupied with the baby-boomer generation's problems? Anyways, I think that John Mayer is singing about how Generation X and the Millenial generation are ready to change the system but we cannot act on our instincts until we are given the space and resources that we need. Otherwise we might topple the baby boomers. Here are the lyrics:

Me and all my friends, We're all misunderstood, They say we stand for nothing and There's no way we ever could           

Interpretation: Our generation has been marginalized by the ruling class

Now we see everything that's going wrong, With the world and those who lead it, We just feel like we don't have the means, To rise above and beat it 

Interpretation: We are made to feel helpless by our leaders

So we keep waiting Waiting on the world to change We keep on waiting Waiting on the world to change 

It's hard to beat the system When we're standing at a distance So we keep waiting Waiting on the world to change 

Interpretation: This is just the chorus he rhymed system and distance

Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want 

Interpretation: We want the war to stop, it is hard for us to understand what the war is really about because the people who control the armies also control the media.

That's why we're waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It's not that we don't care,
We just know that the fight ain't fair
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change 

Interpretation: Alright here is the best part. When he says 'Its not that we don't care, We just know that the fight ain't fair'. Perhaps this is self-defeatist. Perhaps motivation is what is lacking. My theory is that there are so many problems in the world that it is so hard to tell where to start. If we help one cause then we discriminate against other worthy causes. How can we choose a worthy cause? We are too busy defending ourselves from the barrage of capitalism and constant economic growth that traps so many people. Who are we really breaking our backs for? 

And we're still waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

Graffiti on a Power Box Near Westhills

GLAMORGAN GRAFFITI REVIEW

I came across this and I just had to stop and take a picture. It was too terrible not to pass up. 

"What We Doin Codienen?" Obviously this kid should have asked himself this question before he left the house. "What they doin" is definitely not art. It is so shitty that it makes me want to curl up and die. 

Looks like we have another delinquent juvenile who is tagging "rasta". MGK or M*terriblesymbol*K is probably a gang. I better watch out. They don't seem educated. 

Speaking of uneducated, I think that codeine followed the grammatical rule of 'i' before 'e' so bless his heart for trying. 

Codien and Contin seem to be something of an item. You can tell by how close their tags are. 

Visual Style                   awful out of 5
Artist Dexterity                    0 out of 5 
Creativity                            1 out of 5
Effort                                  3 out of 5
Cultural Relevance              -1 out of 5

TOTAL: 3 out of 25 

12%

Comments:

I say that we set up a fresh clean power box as a trap and when these kids come to tag it a rope net will scoop them up off the ground. We will keep them captive and educate them about art and culture. We will teach them about chemistry and economics and we can teach them the importance of giving back to the community and keeping good dental hygiene. These kids are not lost causes. Okay, yes they are probably lost causes but maybe they just need someone to look up to and show them the way. 

Striking Cinematic Similarity

CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW vs DREXL SPIVEY

So ever since we saw Django Unchained in the theaters we have been going through some of Tarantino's films. The photographs above are of Johnny Depp from the Pirates of The Caribbean franchise on the left and on the right is Gary Oldman in the 1993 film True Romance.

These two guys look strikingly similar. We were discussing how Quentin Tarantino usually has black actors in major roles in most of his films. Samuel L. Jackson is in True Romance very briefly at the beginning and he does not have very many lines. I joked that Gary Oldman's Drexl character was supposed to represent that aspect of the film but also that True Romance was written by Quentin and he sold the script when he was still relatively unknown. If Tarantino had directed the film it may have been quite different altogether. True Romance was directed by Tony Scott.

It's Caturday

Its Caturday again and here is a picture of my cat at my front window. This is how she greeted my friend Paul when he came by to visit.

He posted it on his instagram page and called it guard cat on duty.

She really is a sweetie but if she sees anyone through the front window she goes ballistic. Sorry to the mail carriers and the guy who shovels the front walks in our condo site.

Anyways.

SCRABBLE MANIA

Hasbro's Scrabble Nostalgia Version

So we picked up a new Scrabble set last week and we have been playing Scrabble like crazy. To verify the words we consult Hasbro's online Scrabble Dictionary. We have found such hilarious words as "boners"; "yar"; and "epilate" to be listed and we are finding that playing Scrabble is helping us to flex our vocabulary. We are not playing by the traditional rules where a person must sacrifice a turn if a word is challenged, but we are using the opportunity to explore the Scrabble dictionary and learn new words.

We have found that learning all of the acceptable two letter words in Scrabble can help out in tight situations. The Hasbro Scrabble Web Site has a list of acceptable 2 and 3 letter words as well as other helpful tips.

The Scrabble game set came in a really cool square tin and cost $35 from a store at the mall. I figured that I could have found a better deal but the tin is pretty snappy. It turns out that the Toys'R'us website says that they sell $19.99 versions that come in a regular cardboard box.

Here is a photo that I took of a game the other night where I used the blank tile to spell the word 'blank'. It was so meta. You should have been there.

We tried a game where if you spell a person's first name you could get an extra 50 points. It was pretty sweet. Names cannot be pluralized like regular words but they can still be extended. Stephen can become Stephanie and so on.

We also looked up to find out what was the highest scoring word and it appears to have been 'quixotry' which ran through two Triple-Word Scores.

Someone told me that there is a documentary about Scrabble. I might have to check it out bro. I used to play a lot of Scrabble when I lived with my Grandma in Edmonton. She keeps the list of "Q without U words" and 2 letter words so that she can check it out at anytime. She also has the deluxe set which has ridges to keep the tiles in place. Nice.

Project Censored

PROJECT CENSORED 2012

Here is a link to the top 25 censored stories of 2012.

This list is compiled each year and it highlights news stories that were not published. I learned in my urban sociology class that the mainstream media wants to portray citizens as ideal workers and companies as ethical because it encourages other people to move to their area and it will increase the number of people who get their news from that media. 

OWL TV Intro

GROWING UP IN THE 80s

I used to watch this TV Show all the time growing up.

At the Grocery Store

CHOOSING POPCORN

So I was in Safeway and I was confronted by these flavours of Jolly Time Popcorn. The box on the left is Blast O Butter and next to it on the right is Healthy Pop Butter Flavour.

Is this one of those marketing schemes where they put something that is really bad next to something that they want you to buy? This is such a juxtaposition.