Life In Cartoon Motion- MIKA. A review, but more like a rave.

MIKA

Life in Cartoon Motion


A few years ago I was turned on to Mika by a close friend, and I've been obsessed ever since. I wanted to review an album by someone totally obscure and cool but in the back of my mind I kept thinking about Mika. The best music is the music that just makes you feel genuinely AMAZING, and that's exactly what Mika does, every time. So I figured I'd review a bit of his first album. "Life in Cartoon Motion" is quintessential Mika and my favorite out  of his two albums (the other being "The Boy Who Knew Too Much").

 Mika has been fairly "big" in Europe for awhile now and is beginning to capture the U.S. (I'm just waiting for everyone to realize how amazing he is). He's from London and debuted his first album in 2007. His music's hard to define for me, being a person who recoils at the word "pop". I guess I would describe it as alternative pop. Wikipedia describes him as several things, including pop rock and glam rock. Some of his songs are definitely more "pop-y" than others, but both of his albums definitely have a great range of songs. There are very upbeat songs like "Lollipop", "Love Today", "Relax, Take It Easy", and "Ring Ring". Then there are some more somber and comparatively chill songs like "My Interpretation", "Any Other World", and "Over My Shoulder". Then there are the songs that seem to tell a story such as "Billy Brown". All, of course, featuring Mika's trademark falsetto. Mika is often compared to Freddie Mercury (which I find to be the ULTIMATE compliment). 

Another thing that makes Mika's songs unique are the short bits of dialogue at the beginnings and ends of a lot of his songs, particularly "Ring Ring" where a woman with a thick accent tells her story for the last 45 seconds of the song. The song also features a phone ringing at the beginning. This is just an example of the little unique, creative things Mika does. Everything he does makes me melt, I can't tell you enough, you just really have to listen. The song "Over my Shoulder" makes me hold my breath every time I hear it, it's absolutely beautiful.

This is the music video for "We are Golden", which is on his second album, but it's the video that  really made me fall in love with him, and I hope you do too. (Don't be scared off by his half nakedness)

Cheers!
Gianna

Snowflake Statistics

Snowflake Statistics*

One on top of the other, they pile outside, endlessly. Creating a huge, overwhelming blanket of snow. Just like everything else in this world. It’s no wonder more people do it this time of year.

I’m on the train, looking at these people, these things. They don’t even know, they don’t know anything. They’re all consumed with themselves, it’s a wonder they remember to breathe.

The doctors are always asking me questions, asking me to explain things. But I can’t explain if they don’t already know.

A few days ago I went outside at 2 in the morning in my underwear and lay in the snow. Tears were running down my face but I was laughing too. Why am I so weak?

I’m doomed forever to wearing long sleeves, pants; to hide them. They’re everywhere; arms, stomach, hips, thighs. I was being stupid, I went too deep.

They give me meds. But at some point they stop making a difference. Have you been taking your meds? Of course. But now it’s just like pouring a ton of salt on trillions of snowflakes, it won’t work.

The suicide rate increases this time of year. So I’m just another statistic. It’s all I’ve ever been, and it’s all I’ll ever be…a statistic.

It’s sort of funny. The one thing in my life I can control is the end.

I’m just one snowflake laying on the face of the earth. And what’s one less snowflake?

*For Jules

Thanks guys.
Gianna

Direction the Class Needs

Meh, I don't know. It's honestly a great class. I really like it. My favorite part is definitely the class discussions. I love talking about the book we're reading and everyone has such good points to make. I like them best when there isn't really a direction for the conversation to go, it just flows. It forces us to think intellectually and analytically. We hardly get any busy work, except maybe those darn vocab books. I understand the need to build vocabulary but workbooks are just so tedious and only touch the surface whereas everything else we do in this class goes so much deeper. So, in an ideal world we'd just have class discussions all the time and not do vocab books, but I understand that's not realistic. Really though, the class is good. Oh, except for people keep missing or forgetting that blogs are due (me included) which is totally our fault and we should get on that. Mr. McCarthy's been pretty lenient with the blogs though, so much thanks for that.

And much thanks for reading my blog.
Gianna.

Where did you go JD?

JD Salinger, he changed the world of literature in one fatal sweep and then he went away, from it all. He wrote "the manifesto for disenchanted youth" according to Time Magazine. People are, understandably, obsessed with Catcher in the Rye and with JD Salinger. As his book became more popular Salinger was cast into the limelight, and immediately withdrew from it. This, however, made Salinger more enticing to his fans than ever. Salinger became a myth, rather than a man. Salinger's decision to go into seclusion stemmed from his recognition of his need to uphold his principles (theme of the year, anyone?). He says "Just because I'm so horribly conditioned to accept everybody else's values, and just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn't make it right. I'm ashamed of it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. I'm sick of myself and everybody else that wants to make some kind of a splash.", it sounds eerily like Holden. Salinger recognized things that he hated, even if he saw it in himself (something Holden does not do). So he went about trying to correct that, to make sure that he would never become the very thing he detested. 


A time when a book like Catcher in the Rye was a banned and highly controversial seems  like a world away, and in some ways, it was. The 1950s were just a different time. Their principles (I did it again) were different, and more strongly upheld. If someone had different principles than you did you weren't going to accept them and be buddies, if they're not quiet about it that is... So there was a basic societal consensus, and if you went against it, you were shunned. Then this book comes along, and its published and people are talking about it. They must have thought it was madness. We can't have people going out and stating there opinion. So lets ban it. And they did. But they can't ban every book, can they? And people start thinking and speaking out and the consensus changes. That brings us to today, where EVERYONE can speak their mind (this blog for example, a 15 year old girl in the 1950s would never be posting her opinion, if she even had one, for anyone to read). And people just keep speaking their mind and pushing the envelope so much so that things that were once controversial are now standard and commonplace. 

Catcher in the Rye is everywhere, I kid you not. Even before I'd read it I must have heard about it at least one hundred times. In one of the plays Company did this year, Women and Wallace, there is a mention of Catcher in the Rye. Recently I watched the movie Six Degrees of Separation ( with Will Smith), Catcher in the Rye is one of the major themes in the book. Will Smith's character, Paul, is this sort of disillusioned Harvard student imposter, and he goes on and on about his fake (phony) thesis paper all about Catcher in the Rye. And that movie makes so much more sense now that I actually know what Catcher is about. By the way we should definitely watch that scene from Six Degrees of Separation where Paul rants about Catcher in the Rye. 


Great, thanks for reading.
Gianna.

Holden...the drifter.

Holden, Holden, Holden. I don't even know where to start with him. He's very fake, but real for a book character, if that makes sense. A lot of times book characters, especially the main character is two dimensional at most. Holden's different, he seems like a real person in that he's realistic and monumentally flawed. There's moments when I like Holden, and then there are moments when he's being a myopic idiot (vocab word, how cool am I?). On the whole I find myself searching for the redeeming qualities in Holden, yet I still find him likeable. Another reason he seems more 'real' (for a book character) is that the reader is allowed access into his head. It's completely different from the two other books we've read this year; The Crucible was all dialogue and The Road was in third person. With Holden I feel like I know him, and maybe that's why it's easier to like him. Everyone's mind is always working, always thinking and a lot of times that unique train of thought is thrown away in once people start writing.

Holden is SO lonely, uncommonly lonely. He has no one, not even himself. I say this because it feels like he doesn't know himself. He's always lying, constantly lying, that he even lies to himself. He can't distinguish the truth anymore. At the same time he's judgmental and elitist and pushes people away. He's too lonely too be so picky and judgmental. Any time he mentions any one he almost always accompanies it with a reason why he doesn't like them, but he's the one calling them up. Holden comes into everything closed off and skeptical because it's his defense mechanism. Really, Holden is very emotionally weak. Shutting down and putting up walls is the easiest way to confront emotions. Holden has an overwhelming fear of being hurt, so much so that he would rather feel nothing at all. It reminds me of the Whitesnake song (God, I can see the horrible hair now...) Here I Go Again (If you've never heard of this song you don't have a soul). Part of the chorus goes "Here I go again on my own. Going down the only road I've ever known. Like a drifter I was born to walk alone.". That's exactly what Holden is, a drifter, emotionally and physically. He doesn't have the stamina to stay in one place for too long.

Thanks for reading.
Gianna.

Also, for the record, I never thought I'd quote a Whitesnake song...ever.

My Red Foraging Hat

Okay, to be honest I STILL don't completely understand the point of this blog post. Holden's hat is this weird sort of thing that we keep talking about and what its POSSIBLE symbolism is, but I feel like we're all just guessing. We talked about Holden hunting phonies and then we talked about Holden being a phony, but deer certainly don't march around wearing red hats shooting up all their other deer-kin and claiming that they hate deer (Ahem, Holden). Maybe I'm reading a bit much into it. Anyways, Holden's hat is something he uses to make himself feel special and unique or whatever, so I guess I'll write about that.

Holden's hat is something he usually only wears in privacy or in other slim circumstances. Most people Holden knows will never see him wearing his hat, but a few do. That's a bit like me and my birthmark. I have this red birthmark shaped like Hawaii on the top of my left hand. It usually takes people a while to notice its there, some people never do. Part of this is due to the fact that it changes color (very cool, I know). It ranges from very light pink to a deep red-almost-purple color depending on my mood (even cooler). When I'm sick its usually a vibrant red. When I'm overworked or stressed or sad it becomes that almost purple color. Also, sometimes when its really cloudy and stormy it gets darker. Most people think I've injured myself. I can't count the number of times I've hear "What happened to your hand?". I've heard it looks like I burned myself, have a rash, colored on my self, sprayed myself with hot oil, got bruised weirdly, and even that it looks like a hickey (Hickey wins for most creativity, I think, yes?).

I guess my birthmark-hickey is sort of a far stretch for my red hunting hat but I don't do a lot of hunting considering I'm a vegetarian...perhaps 'My Red Foraging Hat' would be a better term. There then, title changed. Either way I buy my food mass produced so I think I get an excuse.

Cheers.
Gianna.