Rock and Opera

Somehow, I like to listen to rock music when I am feeling slightly blue or down about life. I think rock music has its roots in jadedness with life, reality, frustration and bittersweet feelings. Yet the songs do not end up completely wallowing in self-pity or dejection (some love songs do that), choosing instead to vent the frustrations by singing about reality in all its brokenness, with no apologies, and a bit of rebelliousness and heck-care attitude thrown in.

Sometimes it is just so good to let our hair down, put aside all the politically-correct language aside and tell reality like it is. I think that is why I like rock. After all the fizzy frothy pop songs that sing about love in a mono-dimensional way, usually focusing on just ONE facet of emotion (e.g. "I should be so lucky", i.e. why can't I get lucky and my dream guy just falls in love with me, or "I love your smile", i.e. as it's namesake, or "longer than", i.e. I have been in love with you super long, or "Would I lie to you", i.e. I wouldn't lie to you! But sung in that cheeky smooth way that makes you doubt it), and the snappy rap songs, that sing mostly about nothing but have their funky beat and irrepressible catchy rhythm that makes you want to get up and dance and more than makes up for their lack of content and depth... gosh I lost my train of thought. Also, I realised I really love some of these songs!

Oh ok, I guess after frothy pop and funky rap, which tend to be happy, sometimes I need a bit of gritty rock music to make me feel human again, cos life is not all rosy and peaches. On those days when things don't go well, I'm too tired to find out who's at fault, to think too much about it, rock music just helps me channel my malaise out somewhere, for the time being. Of course, one can't depend on rock music to solve problems. One would just end up being permanently angry and rebellious and jaded about the world. One uses another tool for that-- like faith, for me. When my heart has stopped beating erratically, my stomach settled down from its churning (my poor organs) and my rolling emotions have worked their way out of my system, I then turn to God to see what He says about the situation. But when I am in the throes of my emotion, when I am indignant and angry about the way things are in the world, then singing or listening to a rock song just gives vent to how I feel deep down inside.

I think there is a time for everything. There is a time to grieve, to be angry, to be sad, as long as we have a healthy way to work through these emotions, without harming anybody, and we ultimately come up with constructive ways of addressing these problems. I am quite an angst individual, I must say. Being calm and happy all the time just eludes me!

I tried listening to opera as I was doing work (at home) the other day, eager to try out my new opera CDs I bought in Berlin. However all I got was a headache. I think opera and concentration on arguments don't mix. One needs focus to enjoy opera - especially as it is in a different language and we need to focus on the intonation of the voice to appreciate the emotions. But I do think opera is one of the rich forms of music adept at conveying emotion.

Running with the Swift

I recently encountered two "alpha males" in my course of work, and it was an eye-opening experience. Both of them exuded zest and alacrity in their actions (as opposed to lethargy, apathy and various states of zombification), displayed a positive and 'can do' attitude towards things, that was so refreshing amidst a growing sense of negativity and complaints of people around me, a curious mind and a breezing disregard for superficial objections by people who say it cannot be done. Both were focused, driven, and absorbed in the task they were doing, and respectful of the different talents in their team (perhaps to varying degrees). They both described the end goal in such inspiring, lofty terms, that the people around them who were still mulling over the large amount of work that had to be done (and some never rise beyond that), were left feeling slightly- yes, inspired. Of course, being alpha males, there was a certain amount of one-up-manship, varying displays of (reckless) bravado and competition, of jockeying for space, but I could not help observing how the sheer power of their drive had a cascading effect of setting the people around them into motion as well, to be more "present", more engaged, in short, more alive.

I once read a book that said the way to keep one's passion was to be with passionate people, or like-minded, kindred souls. When I read it, I did not fully understand the point and even scoffed at it. How could that be a key factor in keeping one's passion? Surely a passionate person who has a clear vision could stay perfectly driven and passionate even when he or she was surrounded by people who were otherwise? But perhaps there is some truth in it after all.

The human psyche is such that we run with the herd. You know how people say it takes a long time to break one record, but once it is done, many others go on to break it? We tend to observe the people around us, and to model after them sub-consciously, in speech, in thought, in action. Knowing this, we should probably: (i) watch our speech and conduct carefully, as there is surely a knock-on effect on others, perhaps more than we realise, and (ii) we should be mindful of the people we are with, as we may be emulating them unknowingly.

Of course not everyone has the priviledge to be with people who inspire us, or who are excellent in what they do. But if we do, this certainly goes a long way in stretching our horizons, stoking our imagination, spurring us to reach further than we would have done ourselves. If we are with people who are going in the right direction, we tend to follow suite. And vice versa. Not by our sheer individual effort, but by the mere drifting along with the crowd. It is a scary thought.

Jokes repository

I have come across quite a few funny jokes these 2 days and I thought I should write them down to cheer myself up in future before they get lost in the hazy recesses of my memory:

From questionable analogies:
The sun rose over the horizon like a great big radioactive baby's head with a bad sunburn, but then again it might just have been that Lisa was always cranky this early in the morning

Losing is like fertilizer: it stinks for a while, then you get used to it.

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

Joke about ladies and diplomats
When a lady says "no", she means "maybe".
When she says "maybe", she means "yes".
When she says "yes", she's no lady!

When a diplomat says "yes", he means "maybe".
When he says "maybe", he means "no".
When he says "no", he's no diplomat!