middle school girls love Lady GaGa

sometimes I have to choose not to download songs that i think are crappy and not play them at youth group. it's in their best interest.

a marriage of mediocrity

united in their over-ratedness

I've been thinking lately about what is like for Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin to be married to each other.  Neither talk about each other in interviews or appear much together in paparazzi pictures.  In fact, there is so little public interaction that the nasty tabloids have speculated about the health of their marriage.  But that's not what I'm talking about.  

People get together for all sorts of reasons.  Chris and Gwen got married because Gwyneth was preggers with Apple.  Gwyneth said yes to Chris because he was the only English bloke ballsy enough to ask her out.  

But I'm more thinking about the level of their respective outputs of art.  I'm a fan of Coldplay.  I drove across Missouri to Kansas City to see them play.  I'm actually watching Coldplay (with Michael Stipe) on Austin City Limits right now.  "The Scientist" is one of my favorite songs of all time.  I will not, however, defend the level of Coldplay's lyrics.  They beat around the bush, they pretend to say something when they say nothing at all.  But...the music is great. 

 As for Gwyneth, the last standable movie she was in (in my opinion) was The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001!  Since then she has miraculously kept her respectablility as an actress while still producing mediocre performances in a range of crappy to awesome films.  

Therefore, my thesis statement:  Chris and Gwen are MFEO (made for each other) because they are both over-rated.  

Viva la Hova

Viva la Hova - a mash-up of Coldplay and Jay-Z (no particular albums, just random songs). Download it here.  From what I've listened to so far, the focus is on Jay-Z and Chris Martin comes in as a compressed high-pitched voice (think of the samples of female voices like in that Twista song) and the supposed Coldplay backbeats are hardly recognizable.  I prefer the Grey Album.  

I heard about this from my boy, Jeff.

flashbacks from middle school:

In my eighth grade english class, we were studying poetry and had to write original poems.  I misunderstood the assignment, thinking that we were just supposed to turn in some poetry that we enjoyed.  I turned in Lauryn's lyrics:

Loving you is a like a song I replay
Every three minutes and thirty seconds of every day 
And every chorus was written for us to recite 
Every beautiful melody of devotion every night 
It's potion like this ocean that might carry me
In a wave of emotion to ask you to marry me
And every word, every second, and every third
Expresses the happiness more clearly than ever heard 
And when I play them, every chord is a poem
Telling the Lord how grateful I am cause I know him 
The harmonies possess, a sensation similar to your caress
If you asking then I'm telling you it's yes
Stand in love, take my hand in love, Jah bless 

Hey girl, I kind of want to be you: Janelle Monae

MySpace: Janelle Monae
Janelle Monae website
wiki: Janelle Monae

thanks to Claire for the vid.  

One Man Guy

I was listening to this song on my fave radio station today, 89.1 The Wood, Lindenwood University's radio station. I've listened to this song before and I think owned it at one point (Napster probably).  I had always assumed that Rufus was talking about how monogamous he was, being openly gay.  But after listening closely there's another story.  If I ever gave a talk at Krew about selfishness or the necessity of depending on others I think I would use this song.  Rufus is so great.  

"I don't know why I'm a one man guy

Or why I'm a one man show
But these three cubic feet of bone and blood and meat are all I love and know"

"I'm gonna bathe and shave

And dress myself and eat solo every night
Unplug the phone, sleep alone
Stay way out of sight
Sure it's kind of lonely
Yeah it's sort of sick
Being your own one and only 
Is a dirty selfish trick"

how sad...

"When I listened back to the New Zealand conference I was like whoa this is pretty harsh. Sometimes I speak with no filter. I did not mean to be so harsh on the subject of Christianity being that I was a well known Christian. When I was at my Mom's funeral a fucking stranger came up to me and said, "I hope you've accepted Jesus as your saviour so you can see your Mother again!" My entire life, being an african american, Christianity was forced down my throat. Since I was a child, I would ask questions like, "so are little babies that can't speak yet going to hell also?" I one thousand percent believe in God, I believe in Karma, I believe in being a good person. I'm not trying to tell people what they should believe or not believe. To each is his own. I was in situations where someone constantly used Jesus to show me how baaaad a person I was or how not perfect or not Christ like I was. When I say I don't want to be Christ like I'm saying I'm fine with not being perfect. I'm fine with being a human being. I'm happy with just that." - Kanye 12.1.08