30 Day Song Challenge (All At Once)

It’s been a while since the last time I wrote anything outside of work or D&D notes. I wanted to get back into the habit of writing a few months ago, though, so I found a nice softball topic: this “30 Day Song Challenge.” I didn’t see any reason to spread this out into 30 days, so I just did the whole thing at once.

And then I promptly filed it away and never did anything with it. And I absolutely did not get back into the habit of writing.

Anyway, I found it again and figured now is as good a time as any to post it. Enjoy this 30 day song challenge.

Hamilton (The Musical)

The newest hit Broadway sensation is a production called Hamilton, presenting a musical interpretation of the life and times of one of America's founding fathers: Alexander Hamilton.

I've never seen a Broadway musical in person (maybe someday~), but I did listen to the cast recording. Short review: it's excellent. Who knew that writing a musical about the one the most interesting figures from one of the most interesting moments in history would turn out well?

Kanye West - College Dropout

I need to preface this review by pointing out that I've never really been into rap or hip-hop. Once upon a time I thought Eminem was kinda funny, and there was this mashup of Tupac's "Starin' Through My Rear View" and Phil Collin's "In the Air Tonight" that I downloaded once off of Napster or Kazaak a long time ago. And I guess you can count some Gorillaz tracks as hip-hop thanks to Del the Funky Homosapien.

Otherwise, the genre has been mostly impenetrable to me, partially because I like to sing along to music, and rap isn't exactly singalong stuff in my experience. The other problem is generally the subject matter: I'm not going to suggest that it's the case for all or even most rap, but much of what I've heard on the radio is about sex, drugs, violence, drinking, partying, and other things that generally don't interest me as musical subject matter. As a result, I've never spent much time listening to the genre.

That said, Tupac's "Starin' Through My Rear View" gave me a glimpse of something else rap music could do, though I never followed up on it: it gave someone from a very different life than my own a chance to explain what their life is like. It's not just beats and words; it's a story, or a perspective. And if you can tell that story or give that perspective in a compelling way, then you've made compelling art. It's poetry.

"College Dropout," I contend, is compelling poetry.

Resolutions Status Update

We're about a month into 2016, so let check in on what I've accomplished as far as resolutions go.

Rockage 3.0

I spent this past weekend in San Jose, attending Rockage 3.0, the third iteration of Eric Fanali's attempts to bring a music and gaming event to the west coast.

I never attended the previous ones, but what I understand this time it was much bigger and more successful than in previous years, due in part to acquaintances of mine.

Barenaked Ladies

It's approaching five years since Stephen Page left The Barenaked Ladies. I'm sure many people don't care, since BNL only means One Week to them, maybe If I Had $1,000,000 as well. BNL is way more than that to me, though.