Love in Times of a Zombie Apocalypse

This video is old, but nevertheless, it is a celebration of love in the times of a zombie apocalypse.



Ryan and I snuck into the studio on campus late one night to obtain a rather half-baked recording of a zombie rock opera we wrote. That can be explored at nightofthelivingsoundtrash.com, if anyone cares. :)

Also, if you want to hear more from my band, Original Sound Trash, check out myspace.com/originalsoundtrash. Consider this a shameless plug. :D

Here's a video we made last month. Doesn't really have a lot to do with love, but has a whole lot to do with apocalypses (yeah, it's one of our favourite topics, can you tell? :D )



There you go, two videos for the price of one! It's my attempt to make up for the week of neglect.

Blargh. New videos up soon. Really.
But now? The ever-present headache is telling me to drink NyQuil and go to bed already.

Goodnight world.

I've Seen Better Days But I Don't Care :D

Maybe I'm just a twisted soul, but I can't watch this video without grinning (no matter what mood I'm previously in).

(Warning: This may offend you. Don't take it too seriously.)



I didn't get any letters from Oasis today (probably because a. I didn't write to them and b. They've broken up) but it's still gonna be a good day. Or, it will be a good day once I do that thing where I get dressed and leave my house. Last night was a good night and today I'm not gonna let anything get to me.

Working on new material. It may be up here soon.
Updating this everyday is unrealistic.
But updating it sporadically yet frequently works. :D

Happy Tuesday, oh universe.

Looks like somebody has a case of the Mondays

You've probably noticed that I've fallen behind. It was bound to happen.

And I don't have anything to post today either. Not in the mood. Blah blah blah. Caught in a Monday slump. Time to listen to the Dresden Dolls.

Nobody really reads this anyway, right?

Valentines Day always makes me so damn cynical. This year was supposed to be the exception, but it's not. Ah well.

I think I need to take a nap or something. Make more coffee. Get my head examined.

Till next time, cyberspace.

- Me.

*hits oven repeatedly and enthusiastically*

This is me right now:

Well, I'm not a goat, but I'm pretty freaking stoked to be alive.

The sun is shining. The future is bright. I am blasting music with a good beat and dancing with me and my caffeinated self. I wore my power shoes today and they did not fail me. I am off to watch a strange subtitled horror film and eat a cheeseburger. :D

Will post a song upon returning perhaps.

Until then?

You can watch this video that I did not make.



:D

Day 4 - Best Laid Plans of Mice And Men

Good morning world. I've been up forever and ever it seems. My boss called everyone in for a meeting at 7am today, which was obnoxious but gave me a chance to get up and get a jump on the day. After the meeting I spent a long time in a practice room working on various pieces. I forgot how great it is to start the day by playing the piano. Traditionally, I am not a morning person, but there's something quite lovely about making music for a couple of hours before facing reality.

I was able to hammer out a new song this morning. Usually when I write a piece, it all happens at the same time. But this song has been floating around my brain for about three years or so. It's finally evolved into this.



It's not really a love song in the traditional sense. I'm not really sure what kind of song it is really. Maybe it's too simple. Maybe it isn't structured enough, doesn't undergo enough changes. Maybe the theme isn't strong enough. Some parts are weak, I know this. And maybe the lyrics are too cliche and Pollyanna at times and too vague and bizarre at other times. Maybe I'm just being too critical of my own work, because I do that. It's got a good tune at least (I'd like to think it does anyway - gah, I'm being that self-conscious musician I always make fun of!).

I also moved into the 21st century and did something mildly repulsive on this song - I wrote it on my iPhone. Not ideal, but I forgot my notebook. I still definitely prefer the experience of handwriting songs. But on an iPhone, I could email the lyrics to myself when all was said and done. Whoa, cool. Almost too technologically advanced for me to handle, yo.

Kinda sick, right?

But, sense the lyrics are incomprehensible at times in the video, I figured I should post them here.

Some say you can never say what you mean unless you write it in a song
Gotta stick your heart onto a melody
And let the universe sing along
Outside it might be kinda rainy
Outside it might be kinda cold
But you can stay inside and sing until we all get really old

The best laid plans of mice and men so often go astray
She's drinking coffee in the morning
And then just drinking all the day
She really wants to write the perfect thing
Maybe a poem or a play
But her house is always empty
And her world is always gray

I read about her in a book
I saw her on the silver screen
I've probably met her type in person at the store while buying tea
I used to be scared that would be me in 15 or 20 years
But I think I'm gonna be kinda normal
I think it's just a silly fear

The best laid plans of mice and men so often go astray
Some say that the man has got it lucky
I think the mouse has got it made
He's just a rodent, never lonely
Only hungry or afraid
Or does he feel the same emotions but is too quiet to explain?

It's a curse and it's a blessing to have an overactive brain
But im glad you came along and showed me it's okay to be insane
I am weird and I'm nuerotic
The best part is that you don't care
So my life hasn't always gone like I planned
But it is taking me somewhere

Bam! Coming at your screen straight from my iPhone. Yeah, be impressed. :P

Aaand that's it for today friends.
Don't be afraid to subscribe/comment if you like. The main reason I'm doing this right now is to keep myself sane, so it doesn't really matter if anyone ever reads this. But I won't complain if I have a cult following. :)

Also, if you've got suggestions of songs I should do, totally let me know. :D

And with that, I shall finish drinking this cup of tea and perhaps take a brief siesta. After all, I have been up forever and ever.

Day 3 - Bad Romance

Today was less than wonderful. Last night was one of those weird nights that left me eating cookie dough out of the fridge with my bare hands at some unattractive hour, and when I finally woke up this morning I found myself in a bit of a slump. But there are two things that always get me out of slumps, even if it's only for a little while.

1. Rock Star Jewelry.

It may sound silly, but sometimes a piece of gaudy jewelry around my neck can significantly improve my outlook on life.

2. Lady Gaga.

Okay, judge me if you want to, but her music is catchy/fun/motivational/innovative/creative/dancetastic/fabulous. I usually don't really go for mainstream pop music, but Lady Gaga does it right.

She's also got this crazy fashion sense and performing style that I love. I've always had a secret love for sequins, fur, and all things that are completely gaudy. When I saw her video for "Bad Romance" for the first time, all I could think about was how I wanted that polar bear coat that she prances around in (don't tell my animal rights activist friends).

A couple of weeks ago someone gave me a coat that rivals Gaga's polar bear ensemble. I got way too excited about it. In fact, I believe it's number three on the list of the two things that always get me out of a slump.

3. Fur Coats.

Weirdly enough I own more than one full length fur coat. The one pictured is my newest. It's from the 1980s and made out of a Peruvian alpaca.

I should have thought to wear it in today's video, but I didn't think of it until now. Instead, I just look like a very caffeinated rocker having a bit of a bad hair day (in fact, I think I'm having a bad hair week...blast).

Also wanted to light the piano on fire for maximum effect, but that would involve burning down a piano that doesn't belong to me.
(By the way - the whole flaming piano thing? Totally my idea two years ago! I just haven't gotten a chance to do it yet. Lady Gaga beat me to it! If she didn't pull it off so artfully, I might be bitter.)

Anyway, without further ado, here is today's video - my strange cover of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance."



Maybe this one's out on a limb, but I had to try it.

Not really a reflection of my own love life, but "willingly involved in a pretty good romance" doesn't have the same ring to it. ;)

And in case you haven't been alive for the past couple of months and don't know what I'm talking about with all this "Bad Romance" stuff (or if you just want to watch Lady G strut her stuff while wearing an entire polar bear), here's the original song:



Can I please be Lady Gaga?

That is all.

Day 2 - Giardia

Iiiiit's lunch time! Aaaaand I'm back with song numero dos, as promised!
It's only day two but I've already developed a pretty efficient system for this. I can have this sucker recorded, uploaded, and posted in about a half an hour. That's less time than it takes me to get ready in the morning! Yowza.

So I'm munching on a peanut butter and banana sandwich (all that's missing is the honey and the bacon and I could be Elvis...gah, how do I not weigh five million pounds???) and waiting for youtube to process my latest video.

This one's an original. I wrote it last summer after picking up a parasitical hitchhiker in a foreign land. Hopefully it will counteract all the sappiness of yesterday's entry.



Enjoy!

Things I Don't Love

1. Sore Throats. I have one today. No big deal, except now my voice is even lower than usual. (I've always found it comical that songs written by deep basses like Stephen Merritt are somehow more accessible to me than songs sung by chicks)

2. Physics class. Yup. I am still a college student and I still have to suffer through a science class. It's not really that bad I guess, other than the fact that it's, well, science.

That being said, I am off to go drop things off of a building with my dorky lab partner (or something like that). Then I shall drink a lot of tea (with honey, naturally) and think about song numero dos! That's right, I haven't given up yet amigos (all zero of you at this point. Maybe on day three I'll start giving this url out to the world. Maybe. :D)

I'm off like a herd of turtles.

Day 1 - A Magnetic Fields Cover

So it's February 1st, which means two things:

1. Time to pay the rent. Bloody hell.
2. Time to post the first song up here on my experimental music bloggy blog!

And my first song in this venture is none other than "The Book of Love" by The Magnetic Fields.



Cliche? Maybe.

Embarrassing? Slightly.

I guess I've always felt a little self-conscious about being so musically mesmerized by a band that churns out albums with titles like "69 Love Songs." (Hey, go listen to it before you make fun of me, it's some catchy stuff).

But a few weeks ago, when discussing my secret affinity for the musical genius of Stephen Merritt with my brother (who as a similar secret affinity), this song came up and my brother made a statement that I just had to challenge. He was so bold as to declare that no one other than Stephen Merritt should ever sing this song. I don't know if I have proved this statement wrong or not with my cover of it, but I tried.
I put a whole new spin on it, making it more of a rock song than it naturally is.

Here's the original version for comparison:



I'm not sure what's up with the video. It's a little Ernie Kovaks-esque, especially towards the end with the sink, but that's irrelevant.

Let me know what you think of all this madness. New post tomorrow if all goes well.

Introduction

I started up a music blog awhile ago, but cast it to the wayside in September after it had become the home of ten thousand half-baked emo lyrics. I think it's still floating around the Internet for the sake of comedy. I very distinctly remember a good friend taking a look at it and, instead of giving me the lyrical critique that I hoped for, told me to go get a dog to keep me company. I guess when you post songs with lyrics like "IF I'M GOING TO DIE ALONE, WHY THE HELL DO I NEED FRIENDS," those are the kinds of responses you deserve to get.
I think I've left my emo stage though. At least for awhile.
In fact, one can even say I've gone soft. I've replaced The Dresden Dolls on my iPod with The Magnetic Fields. I read stories on mylifeisg.com for hours without cringing once. I see boys holding hands with girls and am not immediately tempted to throw large flaming objects at them. At first this change of heart somewhat scared me. After all, I am a self-proclaimed cynic, an angsty rock chick, a brooding pianist who is too cool to express her love to anything that is not an inanimate object (or perhaps Matt Bellamy). Of course, this can all be blamed on a very nice man who showed up on my front porch with hummus one night when I was contemplating running off to a local monastery. It's like my songwriting life is a video game and he unlocked the sappy love song level. Maybe he had a cheat code with him when he brought me that hummus, so I could stop trying to beat the boss on the cynical get-me-a-dog-or-send-me-to-a-nunnery level and skip ahead. Whatever the case, I'm all mushed up in time for February, the most sickeningly lovey dovey month of the whole damn year. And instead of just locking myself in a closet with Kill Bill and a stash of Chinese food leftovers again this year, I'm going to embrace it. I am going to throw a love song up here everyday.
Shouldn't be hard, right? Love is a central part of who we are and therefore is a part of most songs that become so popular. Some songs will be covers. Some songs will be originals. Some songs will celebrate love in the traditional sense. Some may be about inanimate objects. Maybe there will be a song or two about heartbreak and giardia, for old time's sake. Maybe I'll take requests. Maybe three days into it I'll wake up, realize this is mildly insane and abandon the whole venture. Or maybe this will become a bizarre internet sensation and all occupants of cyberspace will be talking about that ultra hip red head who plays piano and sings quirky love songs. Who knows.
All I know is that Monday is February 1st. A video will be posted. We will see what happens from there. :D