Category: Art

In accordance with our compromise, I am writing about Grey’s Anatomy.  The original agreement was for Holli and I to watch three episodes in season one, and then Bryce and Lindsey would watch season one of Lost.  With nothing to lose, we took on the bet.  We purchased the three episodes from iTunes, watched them, and sat back.

The results: meh.

Without a leg up by ABC.com, we had no easy way of watching the other season one episodes.  Then Bryce and Lindsey came home for Guse’s wedding, and they lent us seasons one, two, and three.  With our excuses out of the way, we commenced ta’ jigglin’.

The results: we became fans.

Without giving away any spoilers, I will say that the show is at its best when it is sharing the episode’s time between inter-personal conflict and medical mystery.  The show has a tendency to get too caught up in personal drama.  That’s fine, but I get pretty bored with that kind of thing.  You can get that sort of drama by droves through shows like The ‘Bu or Horrible People.  However, it does add a little spice.  I enjoy a smattering of moments that make me say, “Oh, no, [he|she] didn’t!  Snap!”

I like the medical mysteries a little more.  I don’t nearly enough about medicine to guess along with them, but who knows how many of those terms or procedures are actually made up, either.  There was one case in which my google searching did in fact yield the correct diagnosis before the doctors got it.  If only I’d been doing web development in that hospital, I could have helped with the case.

One of my major pet peeves with the show is the way they deal with expanding the cast.  You can bet that if someone suddenly shows up as working at the hospital, within three episodes they will become a love interest.  It’s clumsy.  It’s Nikki and Paolo clumsy, but not quite as frustrating as the characters usually make their introductions worthwhile.  Unlike Nikki and Paolo.  Whom I hate.

Despite the things that I don’t like about the show, I enjoy it more than I disenjoy it.  We’ll watch the next season, though the last season didn’t give us many reasons to return.  Their time slot also helps.  The question now will be whether we watch Grey’s Anatomy over The Office or whether we DVR it and return to ABC for Lost.

Despite our newfound enjoyment of the show, our old hatreds remain.  Holli and I are going through much the same issue that old people are going through: racism (or overt hatred of any kind) is no longer fashionable.  We hated on Grey’s for so long that we sometimes forget that we’re fans now.  In other words, it’ll be a long time before we learn to quit calling it “Gay’s Anatomy”.  There should be a support group for us.

Rockin’ the Suburbs (2001)

This song highlights Ben Folds’s ability to be joking at the same moment that he isn’t. This is an “angsty” song about the pressures of being white and middle class. This appeals particularly to those who ARE white and middle class because we feel left out of the “my life sucks” party. Ben gently lays out our own problems: hemorrhoids, needing record producers, people cutting into the line at Mickey D’s, the history of slave ownership, and (of course) the music of Bon Jovi.

In true passive-aggressive fashion, he simply laments that he is “rockin’ the suburbs” much like bands before him, except that they were talented. In fact, this song is so angsty that the lead instrument is guitar, not piano. And the way he resolves all that angst? By “cussing on the mic tonight”.

Do it, Ben. The worst they can do is take away your allowance.

listen here – may contain strong language

The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner (1999)

In what plays like an autobiography, this song details the narrator’s struggle to figure out what to do with his life. It begins, and ends, with his considering The Army. He tries The Army, but drops out and forms a band instead. Then The Band breaks up and reforms without him. The story goes on, detailing his different employments and his sad life until he becomes what we assume is President.

“Been thinking a lot today…” is the refrain. It’s a common reverence that most of us have mused at one point or another: head low, voice lower, lowball of whisky in hand, and a sneer. It’s a song that’s as much about the past as the future. It shows the unlikely domino trail that can befall even the smallest decisions, like wanting to join the army.

listen here – may contain strong language

Rockin’ the Suburbs (2001)

As much as Ben Folds loves name-songs, he also loves clever puns. This is a song of pity – about a woman, named Cathy, who has, throughout her life, done very little for herself. Most of her life, she’s been “carried”. There’s the pun. Happy?

He has a great line in this song. I haven’t done “notable lyrics” for these songs mostly because I forgot at first, but this song has a good one.

Notable lyric: woke up sad from this dream I’ve been having / the last couple nights or so / With her father and brothers we’re all at the funeral / carrying a box through the rain / then somebody says that it’s always been this way

listen here

We can be happy underground.

This song has an odd style to it. It also served as the band’s first single.

I wish I could embed the video, but I can’t, so I’ll link to it.

listen here

Whatever and Ever Amen (1997)

This is David‘s self-proclaimed theme song. With a chorus line of bu-bah bu / bu-bAA bu / bu-bah bu / uh-bah-bu-BAH-bu, how can you go wrong? This song does have a pretty bouncy, happy rhythm to it.

Picture David dancing from class to class, smile on his face, top hat, cane, winking at girls, shaking hands with politicians, kissing babies. That’s this song. Also, that’s a great visual.

listen here

The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner (1999)

Wikipedia describes the symptoms of narcolepsy thusly: The main characteristic of narcolepsy is excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), even after adequate night time sleep. A person with narcolepsy is likely to become drowsy or to fall asleep, often at inappropriate times and places. Daytime naps may occur without warning and may be physically irresistible. These naps can occur several times a day. They are typically refreshing, but only for a few hours. Drowsiness may persist for prolonged periods of time. In addition, night time sleep may be fragmented with frequent awakenings.

This song is about a person with narcolepsy. And, yes, it’s awesome.

listen here

Rockin’ the Suburbs (2001)

What a way to begin an album! Too bad this is track number two. Quirky teenagers are a topic that never gets old. You know the kind. Phrases like “Jehovah’s Witness”, “Wicca”, and “marijuana” follow them around, often without credence. These two misfits are spending part of their day in a music store. Ben describes them by subtraction: “Zak without a ‘c'”, “Sara without an ‘h'”. Does this imply that they, as persons, are missing something fundamental that would make them “normal”? Or am I over-thinking it?

There’s no way to know until I can ask Ben Folds, himself, on the 19th.

listen here

Unknown Album

Ben Folds has a talent for covers. I’ve heard a couple of them, and he manages to pay tribute to the original while giving them a unique flavor. This particular track is originally by The Postal Service. It became well known as a song, and as a cover by Iron & Wine, before Ben Folds took it on.

He gives the song a “steam punk” percussion line and a “beer hall” piano line, with some strings tossed in the mix. His voice is well suited to the song, as he and Ben Gibbard have similar ranges. Ben (Folds), through his re-imagining, turns this poetic love song into something resembling a drinking song. He even manages to throw an obscenity into the mix.

listen here

Songs for Silverman (2005)

In much the same way as Magic, this song makes me think of black and white. Cinematic shots with shallow depth of focus, rain, and a storyline that makes you sniffle just a little. This song stuck out from his 2005 release for me. It not only tells a sad story, but it tells it epically. With driving piano building to falsetto chorus lines, he gives even common listeners goosebumps.

listen here

Rockin’ The Suburbs (2001)

INT. DORM ROOM – DAY

MILES enters and sits at his desk. He gets out papers, ready to spend his night studying.

MILES
(to himself, lonely)
I love math. Seriously, numbers are so cool…

INSET: A Ben Folds music video begins to play on the TV set.

MILES
(to himself, even lonelier)
If math was girl, I bet she’d be hot- hey, what’s that?

He gets up and walks to the TV set. He listens to a song told from the perspective of a father writing to his son. His father muses with both regret for his own shortcomings and pride for his son.

MILES
(to no one but himself)
I must have that album. That that song is off. Of.

listen here

The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner (1999)

This song served as the melodic backdrop to Newsbleep 002‘s “In Memoriam” for Steve Irwin. At least, in the first edit of that episode it did. This song has a haunting quality, a love-lost sadness to it. He can not only entertain us with his song-stories, but he can make us cry. Even with a refrain of “lah dah dah”s.

It’s a song about losing someone and not wanting to let go. And we all knew what that felt like. Good bye, Steve Irwin.

listen here

Ben Folds Five (1995)

If you ever thought pop music couldn’t have the same beautiful piano flourishes of a Mozart concerto, then you were wrong. The movement of this song reminds me of a flock of birds suddenly taking off. They speed through the air, appearing to glance off the high walls of the high rise in their backyard.

The song paints the portrait of a narrator who builds a high-rise despite the derision of those around him. He holds tight to his, wait for it…, philosophy and that’s where he feels grounded. This is an example of a Ben Folds short story. Two characters at odds, with a glint of comedy.

listen here