A little free time after breakfast

My neighbor is playing his/her music far too loud. I have no idea what it is. Whatever it is, it's got a lot of bass. So I started listening to my own music. Sometimes the most wonderful moments of life are the ones outlined by a good song. A driving guitar track can be the perfect frame for the picture of a winding road in the mountainous tropics of Maui. Sometimes the perfection lies within the lyrics that you hear when you're laying upon your bed, staring at the ceiling, seeking comfort from the music. I'm not seeking any kind of emotional comfort from anything but  I'm laying here soaking up the wisdom of these people.

Sprinkles...

Due to my own personal mindset (read: cluster-fuck), I've shifted my focus to some not-so-important things. With that said, I've put together another playlist. These are songs I'm listening to and enjoying right now:

1. "Dream" - Alice Smith. To me this song sounds like a sigh of relief. It makes me feel better when I'm feeling a little bored with life. First heard it on Entourage so I was pretty open to liking it, I guess.

2. "My Hero" - Paramore. This is a great cover of a great song (the original track was performed by The Foo Fighters). I think that when different people perform the same song, they have different feelings. The original track is tough and victorious. This new version is sweet and sentimental. Almost romantic. Love it.

3. "Call to Arms" - Angels & Airwaves. This band has grown on me a lot more since I saw them recently. They were a lot better than I expected. I chose this song because it inspires me. It's kind of like when you're running as fast and hard as you can and you can see the end. You're out of breath. Your body hurts. Despite how you're feeling, you push forward and run those last steps. That's how this song sounds to me. 

4. "I Don't Care" - Fall Out Boy. I've got to be honest here. I was listening to Fall Out Boy a long time before they were "Like, Omigod I totally love Fall Out Boy". Shortly after they got in with the MTV crowd, I got sick of them. I'm not saying that I'm too cool to like the pop music, but they just got very overplayed. I like this song because it's a little different than what they've been doing lately. Plus this lyric is sick: "Say my name and his in the same breath, I dare you to say they taste the same." 

5. "Rainy Day" - Plain White T's. Another sweet song by the Plain White T's. Surprise surprise. I know people have said that the Jonas Brothers (gag) are the new Beatles, but I honestly think the title should go to the PWT's. Just a thought...

6."Nine in The Afternoon" - Panic at The Disco. This is the kind of song you blast when you're in a good mood while you're on a drive with the windows down and well...I do a lot of driving. 

Fairy Tales and Sex Jokes

When I was a little girl I loved fairy tales. The flowery stories all unfolded in ways that made the characters' lives seem so wonderful. Of course Prince Charming would show up and rescue the damsel in distress! Cinderella would no longer have to clean up after her lazy family members. The Frog would turn into a man who conveniently is also royalty and would live happily ever after with the Princess. You get the point. Anyway, as I grew up these fairy tales which were often animated for my viewing pleasure eventually were replaced by something not far off: Romantic Comedies. Instead of Sleeping Beauty, there's Sleepless in Seattle. French Kiss instead of The Frog Prince. When you think about it, the similarities are astounding. 

If you boil all of the stories down to their bare bones, you really don't have anything left except for the makings of most any fairy tale classic. Boy meets Girl - Boy/Girl has a problem - Girl/Boy has solution - They fall in love - The End. I can't think of a single film that falls within this category that doesn't follow this formula. To be completely honest? It has gotten pretty boring. I can't even watch Sleepless in Seattle any more. 

Fortunately where there is a problem, there is a solution. The solution to my particular problem is the fleet of films that have been coming out more recently. The comedies that are as smart as they are funny while lacking completely in pretension. The movies that immediately leap to mind are The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. In my opinion, you could almost categorize any one of them as a Romantic Comedy without the gag-inducing Hallmark-memories Kodak-moment mental pictures that the other films I'd mentioned bring about. The thing about these movies is that the most important thing to the film is the comedy, not the romance. The things that spring to mind about any of these movies are not how cute a certain moment was or just how touching the end might have been, but the jokes that just don't seem to get old. The romance in these movies is so discrete that one might have to struggle just to remember the moments (I know I'm guilty of it, on occasion), but that makes it far more palatable. My point is that though some people may think that romance has died, it hasn't. It's just cleverly hidden.