Monday 27 January 2014

I Wish

“I wish I was tall, I wish I was fast
Wish I could shop with a bag full of cash
'Cause If I want you, I gotta have that
(Come, come kiss me boy)
I wish I had style, I wish I had flash
Wish I woke up with a butt and a rack
'Cause If I want you, I gotta have that
(Come, come kiss me boy)”

I Wish – Cher Lloyd feat. T.I

I have a soft spot for Cher Lloyd. I really do. I like her sassiness and I like her attitude, and she represents pop-rap music much better than most people out there right now. And I like the beat of this song but what she is wishing for irks me quite a bit.

She wants to be tall, with a butt and rack, and she wants to have “style” and a whole lot of cash to support that style, which includes five-inch heels, all while not being very smart. All that together gives me one imagine Cher Lloyd wants to be:





And why would you want to look like that when you look like this:


HOT.

Men reading this right now please confirm you would rather have Cher Lloyd over a Barbie doll? Am I right?

The point is Cher Lloyd has sung a song about wishing to look a whole lot different, but those looks she wants are nowhere near as good as she currently is. We wish for a lot of things in life and when we get them it is cause for celebration. And we wish to change bits of ourselves that will make us healthier and happier, and these are good changes. But sometimes we try to change things that don’t need to be changed, or can’t be changed for the better.


It seems silly to dedicate a whole lot of time to wishing we were different. Some of us are short and some are tall, some curvy and some straight up and down. We see these images in media and what not trying to tell us what look is the best to get the men, but these aren’t really a representation of real life. And you know what is a whole lot more sexy than being the girl the chorus of in I Wish? Being someone healthy, someone happy, and someone confident.


Sunday 19 January 2014

Dominion Road

“But its getting better now
He found it in him to forgive
He walked the city
And he found a place to live
In a halfway house
Halfway down Dominion Road”

Dominion Road – The Mutton Birds

This song is a classic in New Zealand music history – so much so that early last year someone placed a plaque on Dominion Road which said “you are halfway down Dominion Road”. Don McGlashan has said he wrote this song after making up a back story about a man he once saw walking down the road. And now whenever this song comes on people tend to talk about Dominion Road, and if you ever have to go to Dominion road there is always some joke about going halfway down it.

But what if I told you this song wasn’t about Dominion Road?

Let me speculate here – and I am not doing this to ruin a classic New Zealand song – but take the thoughts of Dominion Road and transport them to some other street in New Zealand, or even internationally. Dominion Road could easily be Karangahape Road or Cuba Street or Riccarton Road or George Street. It’s less about the name Dominion Road and more about what happens to a poor lost man while walking down a road.

I speculate about Dominion Road to bring up the point that we associate different messages with songs. It is the people who listen to bring that association to life, whether it be accurate to what the writer intended, or something completely wrong but still fitting. I have been thinking over the last little while how often I speculate well outside the original intention of songs when writing this blogs, but my interpretation still fits within the overall message the song has.

It is this idea which really captures the important of music – individuals take from music what they need and what they want. Yes, songs mean a lot to those who originally wrote them, but I think if you put it out into the public then you need to be prepared for it to lose the initial intention, but in the process gather much more meaning. I have gotten in to many debates about the meaning of songs with others, and they will stand by their argument and I will stand by mine. Neither of us are likely to be right, as we weren’t in with the song making process, but I find it interesting to hear what others have gathered about a song.


So is Dominion Road actually about a man being half way down Dominion Road? Probably. But what matters more is how a man came to be in a half house halfway down a road, and how he can get away from it. Because whether this song is Dominion Road or not, I bet you take from this song that you never want to be that man stuck half way down Dominion Road.


Sunday 5 January 2014

ob-la-di ob-la-da

Yeah, ob-la-di ob-la-da life goes on bra
La-la how the life goes on
Yeah, ob-la-di ob-la-da life goes on bra
La-la how the life goes on

And if you want some fun
Take ob-la-di ob-la-da”

ob-la-di ob-la-da – The Beatles

I’m going to tell you a story. It’s the story of my New Year’s. I blogged last week about making New Year’s resolutions and I thought that was going to be my focus for the change into 2014, until I actually had my New Year’s trip away and realised what New Year was all about.

This group of people I went with had planned our trip to Coromandel for a good few months now, and it was all sorted – we were going to a friend’s beach house for a few days for a well deserved break after a year of hard work and studying, and were going to ring in the New Year’s at Fat Freddy’s Drop and it was all going to be a nice trip. But as soon as I got there I realised it was going to more than nice. It was going to be wonderful, amazing, even special. Yes, we were in a beautiful location and we had beautiful weather to match. We saw a great band on New Year’s Eve and it was a good way to start 2014. But I was lucky enough to spend the time with some amazing people.

What I not only saw, but also got to participate in, was people being at their best. We had a group of people who ranged from being a perfect couple to those who had never met before. There were people who only spend time together three times a year, and there are people who live together and interact every day. We had people from all different professions mixed in with people still studying. But it didn’t matter who you were or what you did or when you last saw each other, what mattered was having a good time with each other.

We split up from the trip about three days ago and we are back to how our lives are meant to go on, but for a few days we the fun together I think a lot of us needed. This blog is for those people. Here’s to drinking on the deck. Here’s to card games and beer pong. Here’s to singing ob-la-di ob-la-da loudly while playing one of the longest games of pass the heat. Here’s to ALL the different types of music, and here’s to the yarns and sharns. Here’s to the good guys who looked after those who drunk too much, and the good guys who realised they had to sleep in the lounge because their bedroom was being used. And here’s to escaping everyday life to ring in the New Year with some pretty special people.