When I was abroad last semester, I discovered that American artists are extremely popular in Britain. I had hoped to gain some new music while over there, but in a London souvenir shop on my very first weekend, I found myself listening to Enrique Iglesias’s “Do You Know? (The Ping Pong Song).” In pubs and on the radio, I’d often hear hit singles by The Fray or Kelly Clarkson. I did come across some “native” British music. There was a guitarist in Covent Garden in London playing Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight” and a few radio advertisements for Morrissey, a British singer and songwriter I happened to discover about a year before going abroad. (You might be familiar with him from The Smiths. He also recently released a new album.) On one of our last weekends, my friends and I heard one of Coldplay's old albums playing in a pub in Salisbury. It was one of those depressing ones where all the tracks sound the same. (Until “Viva La Vida” I was not a Coldplay fan, so my apologies to any Coldplay fans. They are not my taste.) But although I know those bands are native to England, I was still disappointed that I didn't hear anything radically unfamiliar. It seems that America and England have done an equal trade in band popularity.
But one of my theatre/literature classes led me to discover an intriguing medley of music in the play The Convict’s Opera, which is a modern adaptation of John Gay’s play The Beggar’s Opera. It was one of the first ballad operas of its time (circa 1728.) But The Convict’s Opera, which I was fortunate enough to see in Oxford, uses such modern day songs as “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by The Proclaimers and Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” the latter of which included lyrics such as “With one eye in the looking glass” instead of “With one eye in the mirror.” But interestingly enough, my professors had never heard of The Proclaimers or of their one hit single. Maybe some of you have never heard of it, but it was a popular song in its day, and it even earned mention on Family Guy, albeit in a cut-away gag. I really loved The Convict’s Opera because it mimicked John Gay’s plot while including a modern twist, featuring prisoners on a ship bound for New South Wales who must put on a performance to keep up morale on their voyage, which is where the ballads come in.
Another of my musical discoveries abroad was a real attraction to French pop music. I spent Easter weekend in Paris, and on our first night my roommate and I took a walk to a corner pizzeria not far from our hostel. While our (very delicious) pizza was being made before us, I walked over to listen to the radio playing in the corner and take a peek at the stack of French CDs beside it. One problem: I don’t speak or read French, so I don’t know what the CDs were and I don’t know what the radio DJ was saying about the songs. Whatever those songs were, though, they were extremely catchy. I don’t care that I don’t understand a word of French—music is music. I still got the general idea with the beat and tone of voice. I have taken to searching for French pop music on iTunes, but with little luck so far. I did look into the French artist Camille, who did the single “Le festin” for the 2007 Disney/Pixar film Ratatouille. I have several of her albums now but (of course) have not yet managed to listen to them in full.
But the gem of my musical discoveries abroad is an album I bought in my favorite country in the United Kingdom—Scotland. I first heard this album in a souvenir shop in Edinburgh just across the street from our hotel. As I was flipping through racks of plaid hats, kilts, and flags bearing the crests of Scottish clans, I realized that I knew the tune playing—though it was only bagpipes. I turned to my friend and said, “Doesn’t this sound like ‘We Will Rock You’?” And she agreed that, yes, it did. I wanted desperately to know where I could find a bagpipe rendition of “We Will Rock You,” but I didn’t know how I would go about that. Maybe, I thought, I was just missing America and merely imagined that those bagpipes sounded like “We Will Rock You.” That was until the next song sounded suspiciously like “Eye of the Tiger.” I couldn't have mistaken both, despite the bagpipes.
Yes, it turns out that Scotland is home to a very wonderful band called the Red Hot Chilli Pipers (with two L’s in “Chilli”) who play such famous American hits as those I’ve mentioned, as well as Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water” (which incidentally is the first song I learned to play on guitar.) The next day in the Edinburgh Castle gift shop, I heard those familiar bagpipe songs again, and this time I was able to find a rack of CDs and was ecstatic to buy the Pipers’ Blast Live album, which features the American cover songs as well as some Scottish songs, such as “Hills of Argyll” and “Celtic Bolero.” It’s an interesting medley, but endlessly creative and delightful to listen to. For weeks after I returned to my college in Oxfordshire, I would sit in one of the libraries and hear from various other rooms the strains of bagpipes playing “We Will Rock You”—it seems that many of my fellow classmates discovered and loved the Red Hot Chilli Pipers as well. Even if you don’t like bagpipe music (and frankly, before finding the Pipers, I wasn’t too fond of it) you should check out their albums, which are also available on iTunes.
Happy listening,
Emily Noel
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
“My Theory Isn’t Perfect, But It’s Close”
First, I’d like to give a shout-out to one of my best and long-time friends who left tonight for a semester abroad in Italy—bon voyage, mia ragazza! Party it up, take lots of pictures and, oh yeah—study, I guess. You’re going to have the best time of your life! Love you!
Secondly—yes, I know it’s technically a Tuesday entry, not a Monday, but it would have been on Monday except I was out late and then my laptop had a little bit of a meltdown and I couldn’t post in time.
So the other day a friend called and while we were talking I could make out music in the background, which I identified as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It turned out to be their latest album, the double-disc Stadium Arcadium, which I acquired last summer. Unfortunately, I am sorry to admit that I have not listened to all of it. I have to admit a terrible flaw when it comes to music: after listening to an album all the way through for the first time, I tend to only focus on a few songs that I am instantly attracted to and ignore the rest, which is a constant source of annoyance to a lot of my friends. “How can you do that?” several have asked more than once. I don’t have an answer for this; I guess I just figure why waste time on songs that don’t really grab me when I can spend more time with the ones I love? It’s not a conscious decision; it’s just something I do. Of course, I will occasionally stumble upon these “reject songs” later, sometimes on the radio or played for me by a friend, and I’ll say, “Wow, what’s this? I love it!” And when I am told the song and artist, I say, “Oh, I have this album!” I usually get the knowing look: She’s had this song for years and never bothered to give it a second chance. Again. I generally don’t have this problem with EPs or short albums, but on one as extensive as Stadium Arcadium, I regret to say I have not given it all the attention it deserves.
But overhearing my friend’s background music led us to indulge in one of my favorite pastimes—discussing music! I love it so much and yet this happens to rarely with people that I really don’t know why I don’t actively try to engage people in the topic. Instead, I often bore my mother with long-winded descriptions of songs or bands or my idol, Claudio Sanchez, the front man of Coheed and Cambria. But it happened the other night, and I was very pleased. My friend told me how much he loves the Chili Peppers because their lyrics are often so in-depth and can be interpreted in a number of ways. He said you really have to give them a careful listen and pay close attention to get all the meaning. I definitely agree with that, but for me the Chili Peppers have such an easy-going beat to so many of their songs that I tend to just write them off as background music without paying much attention to the lyrics. Of course I know the old RHCP classics (because who could forget “Don’t Stop” and “The Zephyr Song”?) and about four years ago a friend gave me a number of RHCP albums. But, of course, I just picked out a few favorites, like “Don’t Stop,” and forgot about the rest.
So yesterday, keeping in mind my friend’s conversation, I made a point of giving the Red Hot Chili Peppers another listen. It seems that whenever a Chili Peppers song comes on, pretty much no one has to stop and wonder, “What band is this?” I think this is primarily because of Anthony Kiedis’s distinctive vocals, but also for that mellow melody I mentioned before that is such a trademark of many of their songs. As my friend said, they have a very unique sound that I have not heard elsewhere. I am not going to go into a RHCP back-story, because I know virtually nothing about their history as a band, other than that (I believe) they began in the early 80's (circa 1983) and are still going strong. But I do find it interesting that they have been able to uphold their own style for over 20 years without deviating too much in style, especially when so many of today’s bands can be mistaken for one another with sound-alike vocals and lyrics. And frankly, a lot of modern bands lack creativity. (I won't name names, but you might know what I mean--the pop boy bands or the screaming emo bands with uninspiring songs of unrequited love.) The Chili Peppers have held on to their own voice, and that is really something.
After listening much more closely to them yesterday, I have to concede to the talent of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. If you had asked me before this weekend what I thought of them, I would have said they are a decent band but not to my taste. I would have admitted that they are unique, but not extraordinary, in my opinion. But now I have come to think that they have been able to create something really amazing in their songs. One of my favorites off of Arcadium (skipping over the obvious hit-singles like “Snow (Hey Oh)” and “Dani California”) is “Wet Sand.” (And okay, yes, I am guilty AGAIN of skimming over a lot of the songs on Arcadium even yesterday—but hey, it’s a twenty-eight track album, and I’m definitely going to pay a lot closer attention to this band from now on.) Focusing on “Wet Sand” called to mind some of their older singles, again with the lulling melodies and the tapestry of lyrics that seem so simple at first-listen, but on reflection are actually a lot deeper than I originally thought. “Wet Sand” is actually a really beautiful song when you focus more on the use of the words, rather on just the simple phrases themselves—and to be honest, I am not even going to pretend that I understand it all. But the line, “I saw you there so unaware / Those hummingbirds all in your hair,” creates a beautiful mental image, and what about the lines that follow it? “The disrepair of Norma Jean / Could not compare to your routine / Balarama beauty goin’ toe to toe.” I really admire the ideas behind all the imagery in this song.
AND THEN! And then, as if the lyrics didn’t turn out to be fantastic enough, it really picks up at the last stanzas: “You don’t form in the wet sand / You don’t form at all / Oh, you don’t form in the wet sand – I do!” And it ends with a really fantastic guitar part that only adds another dimension to the Chili Peppers’ talents. If you have not given “Wet Sand,” Stadium Arcadium, or the Red Hot Chili Peppers a good listen, I definitely recommend that you familiarize yourself with them. Give those lyrics a good second look-over—you really might be surprised. Or, maybe you just aren’t as dismissive of spectacular artists as I am.
Goodnight, music-lovers!
Emily Noel
[Credit for entry title: lyrics taken from “Wet Sand” - Red Hot Chili Peppers.]
Friday, August 21, 2009
Tangent Thoughts
I have decided that I need a structure to this blog and so I'll be writing every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If I turn out to have less to say or one of those days ends up not working out, I'll change it, but for now that is the plan. Unfortunately for me, today is a Friday and that of course means I have to blog. But if I give up on the second day then I guess I'm not that serious about a career in writing about music. (Dream career: working for Rolling Stone or other music magazine.) But I am serious - I just have to prove it to myself this semester.
Fortunately for me and this blog, I have recently made several music discoveries. I won't discuss them all today, otherwise I'll probably run out of topics. But first, I'd like to give you a little bit more insight into what sort of music I like and what music means to me. (That kind of sounds like a 3rd grade essay: "What Music Means To Me." Oh well - the blog is kind of like an assignment, anyway.)
If you know me outside of this blog and you are not a random reader (which I assume you're not, actually, because I don't imagine that many others will stumble across this insignificant piece of arrogance) then you probably know that my all-time desert-island favorite movie is High Fidelity (John Cusack, Jack Black; a must-buy if you haven't seen it - don't even rent it, you will fall in love forever) because of its attitude toward music. It is based on the novel of same name by Nick Hornby, a British author who actually is coming out with a new music-themed book this September, to my ever-lasting joy. (Side note - I picked up several of his other books while in England; I highly recommend him, as well. He is extremely clever and funny.) Anyway, as much as I can't get enough of Hornby and as fantastic as the novel version of High Fidelity is, I have to say that John Cusack is what really gives the story a personality, or rather, makes Rob Gordon (the main character) come to life. He is a regular guy; he is that guy who sucks at love and relationships, which is pretty much every guy ever in my opinion. (Not that I can talk. Although I am a girl, if I haven't made that clear yet.)
But he also cares about music in a way that, until I saw this movie, I thought only I was capable of. (Not to be conceited, it's just that I have never met anyone who gets so into it.) I was unaware that there is this whole mass of people who will spend their afternoons tracking down old vinyl albums and still have record players and are into all that stuff. It's like they're tracking down lost memories, is what it sounds like to me. My dad has a record player that doesn't work and I want him to fix it. I think we sold most of our records at a garage sale like nine years ago, though, but I really like the idea from High Fidelity where Rob Gordon has shelves and shelves of records everywhere in his apartment. (I'm that way with books, though.) We also have a Victrola, which for those of you who don't know or are too young to know is the next step up from a gramaphone. It's this big wooden box that plays records just like a record player, though it only plays a certain kind. It won't play modern records. It's volume control are these two doors in front and the sound gets louder or softer depending whether you open them and how widely open them. Actually, I really hate the Victrola because the songs it plays are so, so old and tinny-sounding. But I think it's an interesting piece of musical history; without it, I wouldn't have my iPod. Besides, it's nearly a hundred years old and it still plays--I'll be lucky if my iPod makes it until next Christmas, and it's only two and a half years old.
Anyway, I'm getting severely off-topic. (Can you imagine if I was really trying to write for a professional music magazine and I lapsed off on a tangent about Victrolas? Fired much?) Back to High Fidelity. So Rob Gordon (John Cusack) is all about music. And I'm not going to give you a plot summary, you just really need to watch it and then watch it again because you might not fall in love with it the first time. I didn't, in fact, I can't even take credit for wanting to watch the movie of my own volition the first time I saw it. It was on some movie channel like TBS or AMC or something one day, and I only watched it because a friend once told me that it is a really excellent, really funny movie about relationships.
But to me, it is also more than that. Rob Gordon has this thing where he makes an all-time desert-island top-five list of everything--books, movies, songs, albums, artists, ex-girlfriends. Top-five break-ups, the ones that hurt the most. (I would so do that, if I had enough exes, which I don't. Although one of them would certainly be enough to fill all five spaces.) And his philosophy is that "it's not what you ARE like that matters, it's WHAT you like." I have to agree. Books, films, and music are really an excellent way to judge people in life. I'm not saying that's really all there is to it; obviously personality counts for a lot, too. But what if two people have ABSOLUTELY nothing in common? They're doomed, I think. But if they have ABSOLUTELY nothing in common EXCEPT a favorite band or book or film, then they could be saved. Maybe that one thing could hold them together. (I don't know from experience. But I like to think that it's true.) In High Fidelity, Rob and his girlfriend both love music, but his girlfriend starts to drift into the real world and become more focused on a "real job" as a lawyer. (Rob is the owner of a record store called Championship Vinyl. Did I mention that's another of my dream jobs?) But Rob says that their entire relationship is based on Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On." Personally, I think that would be really great if I was in a relationship based on a song or a love of the same band or book. It sounds dreamy and stupid to more practical people, I guess, but I never said I was practical.
Okay, back to topic—High Fidelity is pretty much my music Bible; it taught me that it’s okay to be an appreciator of music and not feel like a total poseur because I don’t play an instrument (although I have a Silvertone acoustic guitar that gets messed around on when the mood strikes) and I can’t read music and I haven’t even sung for an audience in over two years, and that was just for chorus in high school. High Fidelity made me realize that music can be a lifestyle without being your occupation. I am not going to be the next Jimi Hendrix or Joe Satriani and I don’t want to be—I’ll leave that to some of my very talented musician friends. Yes, I do dream sometimes of what it would be like to be able to play guitar on stage for a huge screaming audience, and it wouldn’t even be my own song, it would be something fun and upbeat from Bowling For Soup, or a great hit single that everyone loves, like Journey's “Don’t Stop Believing” or Blue Oyster Cult's "Burnin' For You" or—my biggest desire—something by my own desert-island all-time favorite band Coheed and Cambria. I could write several books on Coheed and never say all that I want to about how much I love them, so I’ll save them for another entry, or several other entries. Actually, they will probably crop up a lot in this entire blog, and if you don’t like them I hope that doesn’t turn you off this blog because I think that if anyone gave them a serious listen and delved deep into those songs you would fall in love with them, too, because they are all perfect. But more on that another time.
My point is, I know I will never live that dream of covering my favorite songs on guitar with a band in front of a huge audience at a concert. Even if I learn to actually play the guitar, I know deep down it is not my calling. I’m a writer, and that’s all I’ve ever been, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still be a music critic. Sure, I have a lot more to learn about it, and I don’t even pretend to be an expert. But I’d have an opinion and frankly, my idea of a soul mate is, on some level, someone like the character of Rob Gordon who I could discuss and argue music with from the moment I wake up until the moment I fall asleep, and it wouldn’t even mean anything, because what do individual opinions matter in the grand scheme of things? But it would mean something to me, because all I really want to do is discuss music. So, instead, I’ll talk about it in this blog, and probably no one will ever see it except maybe my mom and a couple of friends. But it’s a project and that’s what I really need right now…so whatever.
I guess that’s all for now. I’m already getting LOTS of ideas for this, more than I’d originally anticipated. I kind of went off on a tangent that I didn’t intend to with High Fidelity, but at least that provided somewhat of a back story to this blog in general.
Ciao,
Emily Noel
Fortunately for me and this blog, I have recently made several music discoveries. I won't discuss them all today, otherwise I'll probably run out of topics. But first, I'd like to give you a little bit more insight into what sort of music I like and what music means to me. (That kind of sounds like a 3rd grade essay: "What Music Means To Me." Oh well - the blog is kind of like an assignment, anyway.)
If you know me outside of this blog and you are not a random reader (which I assume you're not, actually, because I don't imagine that many others will stumble across this insignificant piece of arrogance) then you probably know that my all-time desert-island favorite movie is High Fidelity (John Cusack, Jack Black; a must-buy if you haven't seen it - don't even rent it, you will fall in love forever) because of its attitude toward music. It is based on the novel of same name by Nick Hornby, a British author who actually is coming out with a new music-themed book this September, to my ever-lasting joy. (Side note - I picked up several of his other books while in England; I highly recommend him, as well. He is extremely clever and funny.) Anyway, as much as I can't get enough of Hornby and as fantastic as the novel version of High Fidelity is, I have to say that John Cusack is what really gives the story a personality, or rather, makes Rob Gordon (the main character) come to life. He is a regular guy; he is that guy who sucks at love and relationships, which is pretty much every guy ever in my opinion. (Not that I can talk. Although I am a girl, if I haven't made that clear yet.)
But he also cares about music in a way that, until I saw this movie, I thought only I was capable of. (Not to be conceited, it's just that I have never met anyone who gets so into it.) I was unaware that there is this whole mass of people who will spend their afternoons tracking down old vinyl albums and still have record players and are into all that stuff. It's like they're tracking down lost memories, is what it sounds like to me. My dad has a record player that doesn't work and I want him to fix it. I think we sold most of our records at a garage sale like nine years ago, though, but I really like the idea from High Fidelity where Rob Gordon has shelves and shelves of records everywhere in his apartment. (I'm that way with books, though.) We also have a Victrola, which for those of you who don't know or are too young to know is the next step up from a gramaphone. It's this big wooden box that plays records just like a record player, though it only plays a certain kind. It won't play modern records. It's volume control are these two doors in front and the sound gets louder or softer depending whether you open them and how widely open them. Actually, I really hate the Victrola because the songs it plays are so, so old and tinny-sounding. But I think it's an interesting piece of musical history; without it, I wouldn't have my iPod. Besides, it's nearly a hundred years old and it still plays--I'll be lucky if my iPod makes it until next Christmas, and it's only two and a half years old.
Anyway, I'm getting severely off-topic. (Can you imagine if I was really trying to write for a professional music magazine and I lapsed off on a tangent about Victrolas? Fired much?) Back to High Fidelity. So Rob Gordon (John Cusack) is all about music. And I'm not going to give you a plot summary, you just really need to watch it and then watch it again because you might not fall in love with it the first time. I didn't, in fact, I can't even take credit for wanting to watch the movie of my own volition the first time I saw it. It was on some movie channel like TBS or AMC or something one day, and I only watched it because a friend once told me that it is a really excellent, really funny movie about relationships.
But to me, it is also more than that. Rob Gordon has this thing where he makes an all-time desert-island top-five list of everything--books, movies, songs, albums, artists, ex-girlfriends. Top-five break-ups, the ones that hurt the most. (I would so do that, if I had enough exes, which I don't. Although one of them would certainly be enough to fill all five spaces.) And his philosophy is that "it's not what you ARE like that matters, it's WHAT you like." I have to agree. Books, films, and music are really an excellent way to judge people in life. I'm not saying that's really all there is to it; obviously personality counts for a lot, too. But what if two people have ABSOLUTELY nothing in common? They're doomed, I think. But if they have ABSOLUTELY nothing in common EXCEPT a favorite band or book or film, then they could be saved. Maybe that one thing could hold them together. (I don't know from experience. But I like to think that it's true.) In High Fidelity, Rob and his girlfriend both love music, but his girlfriend starts to drift into the real world and become more focused on a "real job" as a lawyer. (Rob is the owner of a record store called Championship Vinyl. Did I mention that's another of my dream jobs?) But Rob says that their entire relationship is based on Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On." Personally, I think that would be really great if I was in a relationship based on a song or a love of the same band or book. It sounds dreamy and stupid to more practical people, I guess, but I never said I was practical.
Okay, back to topic—High Fidelity is pretty much my music Bible; it taught me that it’s okay to be an appreciator of music and not feel like a total poseur because I don’t play an instrument (although I have a Silvertone acoustic guitar that gets messed around on when the mood strikes) and I can’t read music and I haven’t even sung for an audience in over two years, and that was just for chorus in high school. High Fidelity made me realize that music can be a lifestyle without being your occupation. I am not going to be the next Jimi Hendrix or Joe Satriani and I don’t want to be—I’ll leave that to some of my very talented musician friends. Yes, I do dream sometimes of what it would be like to be able to play guitar on stage for a huge screaming audience, and it wouldn’t even be my own song, it would be something fun and upbeat from Bowling For Soup, or a great hit single that everyone loves, like Journey's “Don’t Stop Believing” or Blue Oyster Cult's "Burnin' For You" or—my biggest desire—something by my own desert-island all-time favorite band Coheed and Cambria. I could write several books on Coheed and never say all that I want to about how much I love them, so I’ll save them for another entry, or several other entries. Actually, they will probably crop up a lot in this entire blog, and if you don’t like them I hope that doesn’t turn you off this blog because I think that if anyone gave them a serious listen and delved deep into those songs you would fall in love with them, too, because they are all perfect. But more on that another time.
My point is, I know I will never live that dream of covering my favorite songs on guitar with a band in front of a huge audience at a concert. Even if I learn to actually play the guitar, I know deep down it is not my calling. I’m a writer, and that’s all I’ve ever been, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still be a music critic. Sure, I have a lot more to learn about it, and I don’t even pretend to be an expert. But I’d have an opinion and frankly, my idea of a soul mate is, on some level, someone like the character of Rob Gordon who I could discuss and argue music with from the moment I wake up until the moment I fall asleep, and it wouldn’t even mean anything, because what do individual opinions matter in the grand scheme of things? But it would mean something to me, because all I really want to do is discuss music. So, instead, I’ll talk about it in this blog, and probably no one will ever see it except maybe my mom and a couple of friends. But it’s a project and that’s what I really need right now…so whatever.
I guess that’s all for now. I’m already getting LOTS of ideas for this, more than I’d originally anticipated. I kind of went off on a tangent that I didn’t intend to with High Fidelity, but at least that provided somewhat of a back story to this blog in general.
Ciao,
Emily Noel
Thursday, August 20, 2009
The First Day
This is something that I have wanted to do for awhile and today I finally just decided to go for it. I figured, new semester, new challenges. Hopefully this will be a constructive writing project to complement my academic challenges in the Fall 2009.
On that note, a bit about myself - I am a junior in college majoring in Creative Writing. I have just returned from a semester abroad in Oxfordshire, England studying literature. The purpose of this blog is both a creative vent/mode of inspiration for my often-writer's-blocked mind as well as an outlet for my obsessive passion for music. I am aware that there are probably a million music blogs out there by emo teenagers and pop fans, but I hope that this can be more than that. I can't promise that I won't lapse into angst-filled rants occasionally, but I will definitely try to stay on topic. This is not an outlet like LiveJournal where I'll talk about boys and school and parents. Basically, I want to tie the two biggest passions of my life: writing & music.
Anyway, I'm getting off-topic already. Let's just hope I don't cop out and forget about this thing. My mentality for this semester is all about ACCOMPLISHMENT. That means "finishing tasks." For instance, I've written an entire novel (takes a bow) but I have yet to edit it. This semester is all about dispelling that kind of complacency.
So, if anyone is actually reading this, I hope you'll stick with me and are at least vaguely interested.
Happy reading (and listening, if you choose to follow along with the music I'll be talking about.)
Cheers!
Emily Noel
On that note, a bit about myself - I am a junior in college majoring in Creative Writing. I have just returned from a semester abroad in Oxfordshire, England studying literature. The purpose of this blog is both a creative vent/mode of inspiration for my often-writer's-blocked mind as well as an outlet for my obsessive passion for music. I am aware that there are probably a million music blogs out there by emo teenagers and pop fans, but I hope that this can be more than that. I can't promise that I won't lapse into angst-filled rants occasionally, but I will definitely try to stay on topic. This is not an outlet like LiveJournal where I'll talk about boys and school and parents. Basically, I want to tie the two biggest passions of my life: writing & music.
Anyway, I'm getting off-topic already. Let's just hope I don't cop out and forget about this thing. My mentality for this semester is all about ACCOMPLISHMENT. That means "finishing tasks." For instance, I've written an entire novel (takes a bow) but I have yet to edit it. This semester is all about dispelling that kind of complacency.
So, if anyone is actually reading this, I hope you'll stick with me and are at least vaguely interested.
Happy reading (and listening, if you choose to follow along with the music I'll be talking about.)
Cheers!
Emily Noel
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