(Readers, pretend there's a picture of me in concert dress with my trumpet here, please, thanks *wink*)
Most people don't know this about me, but I played the trumpet for 5 years. Yep. 5th grade to 10th grade. I got a standing ovation one year at the Christmas concert after pulling it out of the toilet with my solo (which I was required to write by myself). That's not saying as much as you think, our band was 5 kids (no joke), myself (I played the trumpet, french horn and baritone, depending on the need of the song, but mostly trumpet), a clarinet/saxophone player, a clarinet/bass clarinet player, another trumpet/horn player and a drummer. I was just having an on day when everyone else was having an off day. I gave it up because when we moved to Colorado from Wyoming and I changed schools, I learned that not every school is as awesome as my old one was and provides instruments for free to musical kids. I would have to either purchase my own (impossible, where does a 15 year old kid come up with $300-600?) or ask my mother to rent one for me (she worked at Walmart, I mean, need I say more?). I have regretted not finding a way to continue with music ever since.
Lately, I've been very much feeling the pull to get back into it. I don't know how, but I imagine some day I will find a way. Classes, lessons, teaching myself another instrument (I've always wanted to learn a string...), I'll find a way. Whatever happens, I must admit that I am impressed with the shift I've seen in popular music lately. There are still the artists who are not really artists... or talent. Other people write all their songs, and they then use autotune to both sound trendy and decent, because otherwise they blow, but there is also quite a bit of legitimate talent. It's not as mainstream as Lady Gooballs and Keener (my pet name for Ke$ha, because I'm pretty sure keening is about the only sound she's capable of making with autotune), but it's there and it's being played on the radio, on VH1 (sometimes), and it's making it's rounds on YouTube, in the form of covers of pop songs.
Yesterday I heard one of my neighbors trying to perfect his version of this cover:
Most people don't know this about me, but I played the trumpet for 5 years. Yep. 5th grade to 10th grade. I got a standing ovation one year at the Christmas concert after pulling it out of the toilet with my solo (which I was required to write by myself). That's not saying as much as you think, our band was 5 kids (no joke), myself (I played the trumpet, french horn and baritone, depending on the need of the song, but mostly trumpet), a clarinet/saxophone player, a clarinet/bass clarinet player, another trumpet/horn player and a drummer. I was just having an on day when everyone else was having an off day. I gave it up because when we moved to Colorado from Wyoming and I changed schools, I learned that not every school is as awesome as my old one was and provides instruments for free to musical kids. I would have to either purchase my own (impossible, where does a 15 year old kid come up with $300-600?) or ask my mother to rent one for me (she worked at Walmart, I mean, need I say more?). I have regretted not finding a way to continue with music ever since.
Lately, I've been very much feeling the pull to get back into it. I don't know how, but I imagine some day I will find a way. Classes, lessons, teaching myself another instrument (I've always wanted to learn a string...), I'll find a way. Whatever happens, I must admit that I am impressed with the shift I've seen in popular music lately. There are still the artists who are not really artists... or talent. Other people write all their songs, and they then use autotune to both sound trendy and decent, because otherwise they blow, but there is also quite a bit of legitimate talent. It's not as mainstream as Lady Gooballs and Keener (my pet name for Ke$ha, because I'm pretty sure keening is about the only sound she's capable of making with autotune), but it's there and it's being played on the radio, on VH1 (sometimes), and it's making it's rounds on YouTube, in the form of covers of pop songs.
Yesterday I heard one of my neighbors trying to perfect his version of this cover:
He screeched on the chorus several times and didn't even try to moderate it, but I was just so glad to hear someone singing a pop song covered by someone with actual talent instead of the crappy original.
So thank you, Gods of Music, whoever you are, for rescuing us from the generation that was Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and the Backseat Girls (er... Backstreet Babes? BACKSTREET BOYS! That's it.)
Now. Topic 2.
Rhapsody takes after her mother, I think. I remember once, my mother insisting I put on some pants my grandmother had gotten me in great condition from a yard sale. I wanted to like them. They were red, and I liked red. I didn't want to put them on, though. I was a dress girl and I was used to having my legs completely free, unhindered by anything. Running was easier, jumping, climbing. I got my knees scraped more often when I fell, but it was worth it. I did as I was bid, and put on the pants. They dug into my belly when I sat, I couldn't move my legs like I wanted. I squatted down, my face hot with fury and screamed "LOOK WHAT THEY MAKE ME DO!"
Rhapsody is just like that. Pants are the bane of her existence. Every time someone sends her clothes, they send 90% dresses. The only time I can get her to wear pants without a huge fight is when it's freezing outside, and then I have to plead to her sense of compassion for me, telling her that I have to do my job, and my job is to keep her safe, healthy and warm.
Every picture I have of her is in a dress. For at least the last two years.
And now she's singing along to Walk Off the Earth's cover of "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye (which is better than the original, like all the covers coming out these days). Hell. Yes.
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