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.

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.

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.

                                

Never Be The Same

“And we are not what we seem
So we are all coming clean
All we have are broken dreams with no direction

Why are we always on the run
From the monster we’ve become
Who are we to change the way we used to be
We’ll never be the same again”

Never Be The Same – The Latest Fallout 

It is a few days out from New Years and, amongst the plans for partying and countdowns, are the thoughts of New Year’s resolutions. These are those plans, those goals, those idealisations which you make at the beginning of January because you think a new year will bring a new you. While this is not such a practical thought I do actually believe in New Year’s resolutions, but I think not many people do them quite right. I see them as a chance to revisit who are you and make some changes. I hate goals like losing so much weight or only watching so many hours of YouTube a week, as I would rather see someone changing a mindset then an appearance. 

Over the last few months I have listen to Never Be The Same over and over again trying to figure out exactly what is going on in the song. It was a week or so ago I came to a conclusion over what I thought this song was going on about, and I think it fits perfectly into a New Year’s resolution. Let me break down three of the points.

1.   In the song it seems the narrator going through some kind of change. Change can be good or bad, but mostly it can be scary and something you are never quite sure you should go through with. This song really emphasises the idea there could be very bad consequences if you make a change you were not supposed to do, but you might really need to do that change.

2.       Say you go through with this change. Here’s the thing about change – it is pretty damn permanent. So if you change whether it is good or bad, you have to live with never going back to who you were.

3.       And most importantly, change or no change, you need to understand exactly who you are and be that person. You need to be honest, you need not to run away from who you are and you need to figure out why your dreams are so broken. 

To sum up, these three points are exactly what a New Year’s resolution should be about. If you want to turn a new leaf and make yourself a better or even new person, you should consider what Never Be The Same talks about. You can’t be a new person without being completely honest with who you are and what you need in your life, and you cannot run away from a person you might become. My goal this New Year’s is to follow my advice I have just written because I know perfectly well I do not always practise these points. But I think if I do I can become a better person, and to be a better person must mean you get to lead a better life.

Also, if you New Year’s resolution is to get into more New Zealand bands (great resolution by the way) check out The Latest Fallout. They’re a pop / rock / punk band from Hamilton and Never Be The Same is a single of their debut album set to drop in the first half of 2014. Check out their work below – the Still Into You cover is one of my favourite covers I've heard! 

Stardust

“But it doesn’t matter what it takes
You gotta keep believing

Cause we are stardust
Shining so bright
Lighting up
As we ignite” 

Stardust – Hurricane Kids

A few weeks I was in yoga class lying in Shavasana corpse pose and listening to the instructor’s words of relaxation. For anyone not familiar with this pose it is one of the final positions you assume during yoga and is the time of inner reflection after all the previous exercises. As I lay in corpse pose the instructor said something along the lines of think of one thing you are grateful for which you can take away from today’s class. My first thought, without a moment of hesitation, was music. And from that moment instead of emptying my mind I repeated the lyrics of Stardust over and over in my head until the end of the class, because right now this song is my jam. 

You may think it was a bit inappropriate to think of music as the thing I am most grateful for, and for a little while after yoga class I was a bit confused with myself too, until I realised why I had thought of music and not my family, friends or good health. It is because music can be all around us and is a integrated part of all our social settings. With my friends and with my family I have music and musical experiences; it has bonded me with many people far beyond what any other social environment could have done. And as for good health – well, I blog on every week how much music has helped my spirit and helped guide me through life. Don’t get me wrong, I am most definitely grateful for all those things, but I am also grateful for music because it has helped me in many other parts of my life. 

I have deliberately bought up the topic of gratefulness now as it is a week out from Christmas, which to me is a time to be grateful. I was speaking to a friend from work who said they hated Christmas time because it is commercial rubbish and people spend too much money on presents for others who don’t really need them. But to me this isn’t what Christmas should be about and if you feel pressure then you are doing Christmas wrong. Christmas is about sharing, caring and showing people you appreciate them and their efforts.  It’s a time for reflection and remembering what is important. And this Christmas I encourage you to be grateful. Be grateful for your family, for your friends, and for any gifts you receive – because it means someone else is thinking of you. 

And most of all this Christmas be grateful for yourself. This time of year we are giving so much time and energy to others we forget to think back on the year we had and reflect on our personal achievements.  This year I have come much farther than I imagined possible last December, and I am grateful for my personal strength and commitment throughout a tough but immensely rewarding year. This festive season be grateful, and see yourself as someone who can ignite and shine so bright.