It was a fun, enjoyable, and emotional time.
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Since my return, I've been readjusting to life in the United States, and relaxing. I've also been contemplating my next adventure.
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I find that one major form of contentedness in Chengdu, China during the winter (which feels like it lasts between October and March) is simply to possess warm fingers, and especially to have warm toes. In fact (and quite unfortunately), warm feet and hands are nearly a prerequisite for any other forms of potential happiness to manifest.
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The American suburbs are startlingly quiet. After living in the city (a large Chinese one, nonetheless) for more than a year, the lack of noise hits me like thunder as I walk through my parents' Phoenix neighborhood.
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My uncle and aunt who live in Guangzhou, China invited me to visit them last year. With the first foreign television channels at my disposal in more than a few months, and despite the fact that multiple soccer matches were on, I found myself naturally drifting toward nature documentaries.
This tendency of mine at that time satisfactorily illustrates the numbing effect of Chengdu; the literal and figurative clouds tend to cause one to forget that there is a huge world outside of that bubble of a city. I had forgotten about lions and tigers and sunshine and safaris and waterfalls and rain forests and diversity and color, to the extent that those nature documentaries turned my world upside down in a great way.
I love being in that city, but I hate that White Wall of China. I despise it with all of my heart.
Naturally, I've been hanging on Alec Baldwin's every word as I watch "Frozen Planet" episodes recently.
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I could never fathom that people would prefer silence when the chance to listen to music is available, but I know people are not all alike in that regard.
Staying at my parents', I haven't been waking up to music, nor is there a set of speakers in the room in which I am staying, both of which are the norm (if there is such a thing).
For this reason, I've discovered at least one reason regarding why I can't handle being somewhere quiet without music playing. I often wake up with songs that I find unpalatable going through my head, and, with no speakers in my room, I can't get those songs out of my head until I reach the headphones at my laptop in the kitchen or some other source of music. Sure, my thoughts may remain in the foreground, but that music is always in the background...
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::Begin Rant::
I used to be really competitive about my musical tastes. I'd have to hold myself back when an artist I'd listened to for years started getting popular among my peers.
I've gotten a lot better about that. In fact, I don't even feel that way any more. If artists or genres I enjoy get popular, I'm glad that more people in the world get to enjoy the music.
That being said, I cannot stand some of the abomination that is on the American radio these days. With all my heart, I hope I'm not just getting older and turning up my noise at the kids and their MTV and Pokemon. Ultimately, that's impossible, because any bones I have to pick are not with the people who consume the music, it's with the money-craving hounds who are making it(or cutting and pasting, rather).
No, it's not everything. There's still some great stuff out there, even on the radio. I guess I'm talking about situations in which samples from songs and music videos that got popular on Youtube are tossed into hip hop songs shamelessly.
I have no qualms with mixing genres, nor do I have any issues with so-called "genre-less" music. What I have an issue with is when popular, talented artists take part in songs which involve samples from songs which got popular from the internet, and these tracks are placed over the most popular beat at any given time to create a sort of misfit "super-song" which has been created and marketed for nothing more than mass appeal, and, therefore, to make someone rich.
Again, mixing and matching is great. The problem is that they aren't making music when they make those songs. They are making what I perceive to be mainly (and perhaps, solely) a product. I love hip hop music, and I usually don't mind, appreciate, or enjoy songs that get popular on the internet, but when the best of both worlds are taken and forced to co-exist because their money-making potential is sought out by the man... it sucks. I feel like the life-giving nature of the pieces as separate entities is lost.
I know this could become a bigger discussion about how the art only reflects the culture, or perhaps about how it's always been like this, or that, if I don't like it I should just not listen to it. Those are all valid reflections.
The reason I feel strongly can be summed up in this: think about what songs have been displaced by these remixes. The potential that has been lost breaks the heart.
Examples? I know a lot of people like this song, but... I can't handle it...
I released an R-rated tirade when I heard "Somebody That I Used to Know" (Gotye ft. Kimbra) in a hip hop song a few days ago. I don't have the guts to try to find it. Plus, it broke my heart the first time I heard it (even if it was only for a few seconds); I can't go through that again.
Someone with knowledge of the industry and/or an opinion that differs from mine, you are welcome to come and put me in my place!
(Removes monocle, nods at C. Kidd)
::End Rant::
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So, what's my next step? My sister and brother-in-law invited me to go visit and stay with them in La Ceiba, Honduras for a couple of months, so I'll be leaving Phoenix some time at the beginning of April to go chill with them. My parents and brother move to Philadelphia in a few weeks. We have a family reunion in North Carolina in June, so I'll be there. After that... I don't know.
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Mt. Eden-Beautiful Lies
Gotye- Hearts a Mess
Kimbra- Two Weeks/Head Over Heels
And here's the kicker...
Kimbra- The Build Up
