I don’t know much about Tinashé, and I haven’t really been able to find much, but he does have a website and an album coming out 9/13. (We’ll pretend like the whole album concept is still relevant even though artists can have their music heard all over the world through the magic of the internet.)

From one of my new favorite sites: Pigeons and Planes.

The Chuck producers must totally read my blog. In Part 2 of the Frightened Rabbit on Chuck series, I criticized their use of Backwards Walk and suggested that they should have saved Frightened Rabbit for when their new album came out (which happened just a little while ago, as of this writing).

Well, they went ahead and followed my advice anyway, using the song Swim Until You Can’t See Land in the latest episode of Chuck. I was literally laughing out loud (though there was no one around to hear).

If you’d like to hear the song in it’s entirety for free, I’d recommend heading over to Lala.com. If you like it, you can get it for only 89 cents, or the whole album on MP3 is only $7.49. I’ve listened to it once through so far, and it seems like it will end up being every bit as good as Midnight Organ Fight.

Are you a man or a bag of sand?

or: What Will/Has Become of The Mixtape in The Digital Age?

I’m working on a playlist for NYE. I also just recently watched Season 1 of (the excellent) How I Met Your Mother, in which (not ironically at all) Barney brings his “Get Psyched Mix” along for the NYE ride. His mix is on a CD. That was 2005.

While I firmly believe that giving someone a Mix CD was never even in the realm of romantic… what are the choices these days?

“Guys, I’m going to make her a mix SD card?”

I suppose if you wanted to make a “Mix iPod Shuffle”, that might say something since the cheapest Shuffle you can get is $59. Spending that kind of cash on a girl or guy when you’re in high school or college (or just out of college) means there’s some seriousity involved.

Now, sure, there is some coolness involved in this product (which, okay, might actually work):

I like that you can hand write the track list on there and make notes and put smiley faces, stars, and hearts in the margins. Still…

So much of the romance left when the mix went from tape to CD. Any chump can bring up iTunes, pick 14 songs, and click Burn. But do people even use CDs any more even to transfer music to someone else?

Back in the analog age, when you made a 90-minute mixtape, it actually took 90 minutes (at least) cause you had to dub each song over to the new tape. There was an obvious investment of time in the end product that was created.

Muxtape had it going until the Crushing Boot of Legal smashed them like infant flower. At least there you had to upload all the songs you wanted, so it took a little bit of time and patience.

My favorite site, Lala, lets you embed playlists on a website, but that requires that you have a website, or else you basically have to send it as a Facebook message. Of course, youngsters these days might think that getting a playlist sent in a Facebook message is the height of romance. I mean, there’s some that think that sending nude cameraphone pictures is a good way to seduce someone, right?

The Album on Lala

My immediate thought was: So, if I put “Twilight Inspired Author” after my name, will I automatically get me some extra readers? I mean, sure they’ll realize after not too long that my writing has nothing really to do with vampires, but maybe they’ll get to the almost-angsty character-driven parts and maybe think it’s okay. Or else the Meyerites (or whatever they’re called – Twilites?) will start a smear campaign against me. Or else they’ll just forget about me and move on.

Anyway, just a thought.

Also, I found it interesting that on the “unofficial” score for New Moon, Midnight Sun put “Sam Cushion” instead of Midnight Sun. Is he trying to get hired to do the score for the next one?

I recently posted the following to Facebook:

Nels kind of likes that Taylor Swift Romeo & Juliet song. He knows it’s really not that good, but combines so many “Nels Likes This” elements, he can’t help it.

which drew this response from one of my so-called friends:

what are you, a 13 year old girl? this is hilarious! are you a Jo-Bros fan too? (That’s Access Hollywood code for Jonas Brothers)

So here it is:
Why I Like Love Story Even Though I Know It’s Not a Great Song (in no particular order)

• Hint of country: I don’t like straight up country, but if you can hint at being country with some twangy guitar or something, I’m bout it, bout it
• Clearly written by the artist: I like musicians who write their own songs, and this one was clearly (at least partially) written by a 19 year old female. Sometimes I do like it when songs are meticulously crafted, but I think I prefer when they have authenticity. Of course, it’s best when they have both
• 4 different versions of the chorus: Essentially, the chorus structure is repeated 5 times with 4 different versions used. One of these is included as a breakdown (see below). I once wrote two entire songs that were basically the same with slightly different lyrics that played 2 sides of a love story. That’s how much I love use of the same structure with different lyrics hung from the scaffolding. If you’re into that sort of thing, you might like this movie
• Breakdown: Pretty much every song should have a breakdown. Of course, not every breakdown can end in a marriage proposal, but that would be kind of awesome
• Last line repeats the first line: Drawing it all back together. This is emphasized (some might say you’re hit over the head with it) in the video
• Extended Metaphor: The Romeo and Juliet metaphor is pretty much maintained throughout the song with decent continuity
• Extended Story: While the story is told in (somewhat boring) chronological order, it progresses well throughout the course of the song, and makes you happy that you get to find out they end up together
• Mixed Metaphors: “I was a scarlet letter” is an obvious reach, but it’s still fairly brilliant because the target audience probably doesn’t know how loosely it actually works, but they have the proper knowledge to make the inferred association. Also, it makes me laugh because it’s just kind of silly, and because you know Taylor was like “OMG, I can rhyme Scarlett Letter with Juliet! Awesome!”
• Name: Love Story: For some reason, I like that she was brave enough to call it something besides “Romeo and Juliet”

Love Story Lyrics

Lyrics | Taylor Swift lyrics – Love Story lyrics

We were both young when I first saw you
I close my eyes
And the flashback starts
I’m standing there
On a balcony in summer air

See the lights
See the party, the ball gowns
I see you make your way through the crowd
And say hello, little did I know

That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
And I was crying on the staircase
Begging you please don’t go, and I said

Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I’ll be waiting all there’s left to do is run
You’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess
It’s a love story baby just say yes

So I sneak out to the garden to see you
We keep quiet ’cause we’re dead if they knew
So close your eyes
Escape this town for a little while

‘Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
But you were everything to me
I was begging you please don’t go and I said

Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I’ll be waiting all there’s left to do is run
You’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess
It’s a love story baby just say yes

Romeo save me, they try to tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it’s real
Don’t be afraid, we’ll make it out of this mess
It’s a love story baby just say yes
Oh oh

I got tired of waiting
Wondering if you were ever coming around
My faith in you is fading
When I met you on the outskirts of town, and I said

Romeo save me I’ve been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you but you never come
Is this in my head? I don’t know what to think
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring

And said, marry me Juliet
You’ll never have to be alone
I love you and that’s all I really know
I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress
It’s a love story baby just say yes

Oh, oh, oh, oh
‘Cause we were both young when I first saw you

FWIW: Here was my (short) response to my Facebook commenter:

No, I’m a 13 year old boy. That’s why I likez da womenz and hate the Jo-Bros because stupid Nick got to go (aka make) out with Miley Cyrus.