james nunn | blog

I’m listening to PSB’s new song, “I’m with Stupid” from their new album, Fundamental. It’s the usual PSB style and sound, but the words are kind of funny, especially when you read (listen to) them knowing that it’s a song “dedicated” to English Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush. You can listen to the song here (you’ll need to go the minute 19 for the song).

One part of the song goes,

Before we ever met
I thought like everybody did
you were just a moron
a billion-dollar kid
You flew up all the way
like a hawk chasing a dove
I never thought that I would be
a sacrifice in love

Hmmm… I’m not sure

I’m listening to PSB’s new song, “I’m with Stupid” from their new album, Fundamental.  It’s the usual PSB style and sound, but the words are kind of funny, especially when you read (listen to) them knowing that it’s a song “dedicated” to English Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush.  You can listen to the song here (you’ll need to go the minute 19 for the song).

One part of the song goes, 

Before we ever met
I thought like everybody did
you were just a moron
a billion-dollar kid
You flew up all the way
like a hawk chasing a dove
I never thought that I would be
a sacrifice in love

Hmmm… I’m not sure

I was watching TRL this morning on MTV (well, it was on in the background). A comment piqued my interest. One of the members of the band, Fall Out Boy, mentioned something about being “exposed” on Internet, so I searched, and found what he was talking about (NWS). Nice tat!

I was going to post this as a comment on Chris's blog, but after tapping it out for a while, I realized it was worthy (?) of my own blog (so I'll just post a link on his).

Hmmm… I'm now just getting around to actually read this post from Chris.

For those that don't know me, I consider music as just noise.  It's good noise most of the time, but I don't have this drive to understand it like Chris and some of my other friends.  Chris has this amazing talent of memorizing not only the words of songs, but many of the other details as well, like the year it was released, if it is a remake, etc.  He also has this fine tuned ear that actually enables him to identify a song within the first few bars.  I don't have that ability.

One of the things that I am sure frustrates Chris is when we are driving in the car, and he suggests I pick the music.  I just pick something, anything.  As to me, it's noise. I can often tune out music, or perhaps I blend it into my brain as just part of the background noise. I guess I can just turn that part of the noise I hear down, so I don't get distracted from other “noises”, like chatting with friends in the car, or whereever.

Now there are some artists that I really enjoy listening to, but even they get to sit on the side of the road from time to time.  Many friends would remember how passionate I was about Shirley Bassey when I first came here.  I still enjoy her, but I don't listen to her all that often.  I can listen to Lighthouse Family all day, especially “High” (Postcards from Heaven) - and everytime I hear this, I think of driving along the Great Ocean Road, and having Lasik surgery.

There are certain songs which I tag as memorable, and normally these have a specific reason for being on “that” list.  Like Chris, Indigo's “Perfect Day” has some good memories from New Orleans, in September 1998. It also is one of those bitter-sweet songs, because of the connection to that song with my ex, Daniel.  Cher's “Believe” is another one of those songs (bitter-sweet).  Both of these bring back floods of memories whenever I hear them.

Of course, some may think based on my reactions to some music that I don't enjoy certain songs, or artists.  This isn't the case (in most cases).  Most of the time, it's just noise.

As my SOCI professor says, “long story, short” – it's a good post, and worth reading.

I am just catching up on the news, and I found this headline in today's Dallas Morning News (online), “Willie opens closet with 'Cowboys'.”  So naturally, I was intrigued.

It appears that Willie Nelson has released a song titled, “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other” (available as an iTunes exclusive, and released today).

“The song's been in the closet for 20 years,” Mr. Nelson said in a prepared statement. It was written in 1981 by Lubbock-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette.

“The timing's right for it to come out. I'm just opening the door.”

And while the song contains lyrics that could be delivered quite differently, Willie does his best to brand the song with his distinctive style.

“Cowboys” includes lyrics such as “I believe to my soul that inside every man there's the feminine” and “What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?” But Mr. Nelson delivers them deadpan, which gives the song an air of seriousness.

[...]

“Willie wants it out so we want it out,” says Kim Buie, a vice president at Lost Highway. “What this song does is give credence to something that I think a lot of people have known for a long time. Being gay is nothing new. It's gone through history, whether it's out on the plains or back in Roman times. Society puts its own standards on it, but that song makes it OK.”

Yay for Willie

Well over the weekend, Ian, Bobby, Chris, Layton, Jonas, Douglas and myself went to see Brokeback Mountain (the movie).  I'll join with most others who have seen this movie, and say “brilliant!”  I found it to be an extremely touching love story, and I thought that Ledger and Gyllenhaal did a remarkable job of playing the leads.  While I know that some live in the hope that one or both may actually be gay (in real life), I think their life as straight men were able to contribute a great deal to both characters.  This is not to say that gay men couldn't “pull this off” but there was a rawness to the movie that I'm not convinced could be acted.

Which brings me to parts of the film that could have been left on the cutting room floor.  First, the “sex scene” where Ledger and Gyllenhaal “do it.”  Urgh, is all I have to say.  I want to believe that the scene was caught up in the “animalistic” moment, but I saw no benefit to this being left in the movie.  Second, close up scenes of Ledger during the movie suggested that he had way to much make up on.  Of course, if this is all that I can find wrong with the movie, you know it was awesome!

Speaking of awesome, don't forget to download the Soundtrack (click on Buy Download).  iTunes has the entire album available for $9.99 – for 17 songs, including the one by Willie Nelson (He was a Friend of Mine).