Music January 13, 2009

 

            So, I am willing to bet that as you are reading this you are listening to some kind of music. Am I right? I know I have some tunes blasting! Obviously music is everywhere we go. The mall, the movies, at home, the car, the elevator, and even the bathrooms. Which is kind of nice, but ill stay away from that lovely topic. So let me set the record straight, if you don’t know me, and if you do and don’t know this then shame on you! I LOVE MUSIC. Nothing much else I can add to that.

            It is one of the fundamental elements that all humans are born to enjoy. Since the time of the primordial ooze from which we all staggered out of, we humans have been banging stick to stone, in the hope that some comprehensible beat will come out from it. We hear music in the ocean as it hits the shore. In the wind as it passes thru branches of trees, in whose shade you steal for a quick lunch break.

            Granted, music is not entirely whimsical and soft like a pillow as I might have let it seem. But no matter the genre you prefer to listen to, whether it be fast paced rock metal or smooth slow jazz, you have unwilling succumbed to the beautiful universal language, that of  which is music. And I say universal language because no matter where you go in the world and how many different cultures and religions you encounter, music in some fashion is there. I think of the monks who sing their prayers on an almost constant basis. Or even the average American who sings to their God every Sunday.

Music has survived the gauntlet which is time, it is not a phase, or the hip thing kids are doing. It is living history. It is music that binds us, the music that makes the confusions of life become clear. It heals us when we are ill. It is our escapes from our reality. No matter the artist or the message that they want to send, people listen. They want to be taken to another world, and music provides the transportation. When someone asks me if I would rather be blind or deaf, I choose blind. For the main reason that, although I will miss all the beautiful sights and colors this world has to offer, I will miss the sounds it shares with us all, music.

We understand all of those songs we hear about love, we feel the pain, the joy they make us feel. We scream at the songs we hate and our reflexes never react faster to raise the volume to the songs we love. Yes my dear friend that is the good stuff. It is the memory that a song brings of that first dance. The song you love to sing along to in the car. It is the memory that takes us all back to our childhood. It is that song that you just have to listen to while sitting on the porch having a beer with good friends. Those are the good times I live for, that I am desperate to have.

This is music to me. Music is my escape. My taxi to my happy place. Wherever I go I have it with me. I use it to focus, to relax and to have fun. Is there any other force in our world that can have the same impact? I go to concerts and sing and dance to have fun and to get lost in the songs. For it is the music that frees us from the bonds that is reality, it gives us the pedestal to sing or play our way to other worlds.

We unfortunately live in a society that needs to live in a fast paced environment, which brings stress and anger into our heads. It is music we turn to. We need it to sing to, to dance, to have fun and forget our problems. We need it as our soundtrack when we cry. We need it to add that certain spice to our parties. If not for a short few minutes that a song last, it is the true pleasure and joy that those few moments gives that makes us whole…I listen to music; therefore I am.

Ocarina of Doom, the Revenge of Link. January 11, 2009

      As a young boy, I was betrayed. Be it the fault of my own or the trickery of the man who betrayed me. His name was Ganondorf, the King of the Gerudo Thieves. This pitiful excuse of a man used me to gain access to the Sacred Realm, where he placed his tainted hands on the Triforce and transformed the beautiful Hyrulean countryside. Hyrule was my home, a home of picturesque landscapes and beautiful flowers. Now with the aid of this King of Thieves, it is a barren wasteland. It is that in which drives me to fix the problem in which I help create. I must travel through time, gathering the powers of the Seven Sages. Travel every corner of Hyrule, including the watery domain of the Zora. The mountainous home of the Gorons. I will explore the forest of the Kokiri and the vast desert of the Gerudos. I take with me, my Hylian Shield, which carries the Royal Crest on its face. My Kokrir Sword, a treasure of the Kokiri Forest. My always present companion, Navi who is there to guide my way and offer sound advice to me. And of course my Ocarinas. My Fairy Ocarina and the all powerful Ocarina of Time.

                With these magical items, I will track this powerful force of Ganodorf that is spreading across Hyrule like an icy winter frost over a field of roses. Defeating this evil will not be easy, but I know the secrets of his demise. I know the secrets of Ganon’s Castle, where the coward hides. His tower rises through the center of his castle and is protected by six barriers which represent a different medallion from the Sages. After I release his barrier I will face my betrayer, I will use my Kokirir Sword and my Fairy Bow to attack my enemy. And I will kill him. I will bring peace back to the land I love, Hyrule…..

                But on the way I will waste time by playing little games in Kakariko Village, learn how to ride a horse in the Lon Lon Ranch and of course take some time to relax by fishing in Lake Hylia. Peace in Hyrule can wait until I get the record catch for some extra Rubees.

We are what we repeatedly do.

 So I was doing a bit of web surfing today, as if I do anything else. And I came across an article that really intrigued me. It was an unknown author saying how their life revolves around social networks like Myspace and Facebook. Most of my friends know why I don’t have a Myspace or a Facebook profile. Don’t get me wrong, at first I thought it was a great idea when we all stared a Xanga blog. Ah the good old days of random entries and online quizzes. Good times…..good times. But to dedicate your life to a fake reality and depend on it as your sole communication with other just like you? Give me a break. Tiptoeing on the edge of obsession, social networking has in all, in my mind, gotten completely out of hand. Last year, I erased myself from the online world. With a few quick clicks of the mouse and a verification email later, I was non existent. I was missing, a lost child that needed to be found. In fact a search party came, in the form of many text messages ( ill get to that delight in life in a later blog) from friends asking, “am I ok?, what happened? Why!?” but I was gone, the whole online persona that I had created for myself; profile pictures, music, my interest and activities, all carefully thought to show case to the world the very best version of me. All thrown in to the recycle bin. Doing some quick research for my first blog (see below), I found an absolutely amazing quote by Aristotle:

 “We are what we repeatedly do.”

 Think about what you find yourself always doing. Does it describe you? I realized that those days of constantly checking for new comments, friend requests, adding new pictures and layouts for my profile, was not me. I didn’t want to be that. To think that if I continued doing what I was doing I would be one of those people I see walking down the isle of Target checking their profile on their iPhones, and if you are one of those people I am sorry but your blocking my way to the cookie isle! You cant believe the look on people faces when they ask me what my Myspace page is, and I crush them by saying I don’t have one, its as if I just called their mother a gerbil and their father smelled of elderberries. Come to think of it this no Myspace thing has really put a damper on my social life. Can a guy get a date with out having a Myspace?!

 Ranting aside, I see this whole online community as ones way of isolation from others. The most common human fear is interaction with strangers, so they hide their true selves behind the colorful graphics and bells and whistles of an online profile. The mask in a masquerade that shelters your true identity. Maybe that is the appeal. The want for ambiguity is strong in the new generation. To be unknown to the outside world of what you really are. And yes I know, I know. This is a blog. I get the hypocrisy. But I really just wanted a chance to say that Myspace sucks! Ha I Win!

 “As I sit here, keyboard under palm, eyes on screen, I try to remind myself that my hands and eyes need to venture out into the community and look and touch the truly tangible that lies just beyond that other big screen: my window.”

Love; January 4, 2009

 Google the word love.  You won’t find it. Sure a few sites are saying that they have the definition of what love is. “Here take this quick quiz to see if you really are in love!” Your search will also give quotes from history’s great minds explaining what they think love is. Yes I, an absolute nobody of importance, will say that they are all wrong! That’s right, Sophocles, Mark Twain, Aristotle, Homer, all morons! Get your pens and paper ready because I am going to give you the meaning of love. Here we go…. It’s….. Uh…. Hang on I can do this….. Love is….. Well I guess now I can put my self in the same class as the great minds mentioned above, because I have no clue!

 And the fact is that no one knows what love is.  It just is. To think us humans know more about a distant star in the Ursa Major constellation than we do about our own emotions. But there I go, labeling love. Is it even an emotion? Or a state of mind? Ill admit being “in love” before. I have even “felt” loved. As I am sure many have and will continue to. You can’t really avoid what love is. In some way or form love consumes us all for better or worse. You find that some one that you always need to be around and can’t stand not thinking about them. Love is all you want to give someone, so is love a tangible thing that I can hand over to some one I love like a gift? It seems that all love really does is arise more questions than answers for the romantics in all of us.

 Is love worth it? (See another question!) Is it worth the time and work that it takes to “find” and achieve it? For most cases I would say yes. But like I said earlier, love consumes for better AND for the worse. For you can’t really be “in love” with out knowing what life without love is like. And before all you single empowering ladies out there give me the Gloria Gaynor, I Will Survive rift, you still look for love even if you don’t want to admit it! The cosmic universe of opposites handles all our problems for us all. We have all heard that we can not know true happiness without first knowing true despair. You can’t have peace without war, life with out death. Mister Ying and Yang thank you very much. So love, well love have its consequences doesn’t it? Have you ever “been in love” and not cried? Crying equals sad right? Sad equals bad right? So why does love make us sad? Love causes all of us to feel the extremes that life has to offer; extreme happiness and extreme grief.

 We have all heard the songs, read the poems and seen the movies. We know sometimes that the prince and princess live happily ever after. And God help me how many times have we all seen the movie where girl meets boy, boy lies to girl, girl gives the same line, “ you lied to me !How could you have lied to me?!” boy, apologizes, boy and girl live happily ever after again. And I dare you to search all songs that have love in the title. Write me back in a million years when you finish looking at them all. We all search for love; we all say that we want it, knowing what it brings. All knowing that love brings pain and heartbreak to all those that try and master it.

But love is still love. We know what it is. And that is good. Knowing that love can bring true pleasure and make us cry at the same time. It is that knowledge that makes us human and gives us the human sense of hope. Hope that true love, love of such great magnitude and strength is out there somewhere. That someone is out there waiting for that day the see you and say to themselves, “finally!” And think about how many times you have claimed to be in love. How that feeling of joy flooded your entire body when you found that one; that one person that gave you everything. That feeling that many have killed for, and have died for. That unequivocal sense of love that is the right to all of us living on this earth.

So finally here is love for me. Love is knowledge. The knowledge of security and comfort in someone else. Knowing that as long as they are here with me, I will be human. I will feel pain. I will feel joy. I will exist.  And yes I will love.