Bittersweet Sampling

Recently I've been getting into old-school hip-hop and modern electronic music that is composed mainly of samples from other pieces of music, movies, and etc... So since my interest was ignited by this entire style of making music, I decide to read up on the history and origins of this whole culture of sampling. While reading, I found out that an entire slew of music I've heard in the past is actually sampled from other pieces music. For example the video I posted above, sound familiar? This song, The Last Time, by The Andrew Oldham Orchestra is a cover version of the Rolling Stone's The Last Time, but many from my generation wouldn't have probably associated it with that song. This song might sound extremely familiar because part of this song is actually sampled in The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony. Now the fact that The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony is not a completely original song does not lessen the value I held and still hold with this song. Bittersweet Symphony is still one the best songs I've heard. This brings to view this whole "culture of remix" we currently live in. Almost everything we listen to, watch, or read borrows from something else. We live in a time where nothing is really authentic, nothing is really 100% original. But does that mean that art nowadays has less artist value? Does that mean we should consider everything that borrows from some other work as a rip-off? On the contrary, since we live in an age with so many forms of art, so many different styles; remixing, borrowing, sampling, and rearranging, makes something we love and hold dear into something new and fresh.

Love by Angels and Airwaves

The popular rock band Angel and Airwaves are making a feature film. Love (the film, not the actual thing) seems like it is a visual and audible experience rather than depending on dialogue and a tightly knit plot in order to get the message across. A two-hour music video containing breath-taking images and powerful music.

James Cameron Is Back!

James Cameron's finally makes a new film after a long and arduous wait of almost 12 years since he made Titanic in 1997. Cameron's return to cinema is a gigantic one, Avatar is apparently one of the most expensive films ever made, and it's seems that it's a massive sci-fi epic, which has been absent from cinema for a while. Can't wait to see this film on IMAX 3D!

Uncertainty

Here's the trailer for another film with Joseph-Gordon Levitt, who is one of my favorite actors currently, and also starring the beautiful actress Lynn Collins, who was in Wolverine. The film is about a couple (Levitt and Collins) who make an important (maybe life changing) decision by doing a coin toss. The film is explores the two possibilities and how different each might have been. Interesting plot device, in my opinion. There is a certain measure of uncertainty in all our lives and sometimes we are left wondering what could have happened if we made just one different decision. Life takes us through some radical and unexpected turns, and despite the countless amount of possibilities in the realm of the "what if"we all end up learning one very important lesson, that all the situations life presents us, all of it's outcomes are uncertain, we don't know what will happen until we go through with it. Can't wait to see this film, seems like a refreshing plot device. Hopefully it will be done as well as the Expectations vs. Reality scene in 500 Days of Summer or the car accident scene in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Urban Dreams

Here is another playlist I made. This one is Urban Dreams, it's composed of smooth Hip-Hop music that is just relaxing especially amongst the chaotic nature of a city. Sometimes while walking around in New York City I see the overwhelming chaos that goes around in the city; the constant construction, the rush of people from all cultures, from all backgrounds, from all professions moving in masses all over the place, the crowding in public transportation, the bombardment of advertisement, the constant noise from all the hustle and bustle of this mega metropolis. But amongst all this chaos, a entire genre of music was invented, Hip-Hop, a modern type of music capturing the sense of the urban landscape, but not in the negative sense but more in the positive side of urban culture, the combination of cultures, of ideas, the constant flow of people, the diversity. With some of these Hip-Hop songs, they are able to relax me in this tense urban atmosphere, when I pop on this music I stay in the urban state of mind while putting me at ease and allowing me to enjoy the beauty of the city. Sometimes when you are in a place where the pace is extremely fast, one has to slow down, and take a slow and hard look of everything around you. There is beauty in chaos.

Bright Horizons

I'm back with a new playlist! This one is titled Bright Horizons. It's composed of music that just relaxes me and gives me a sense of hopefulness for the bright things to come in the future. Sometimes we just need to maintain a positive outlook on the things to come, to think of the positive things that can happen in our lives, and when one starts to create that hopeful mindset, all our hopes and desires will become a reality. Sometimes music can helps us jump start that positive thought process, music has the uncanny ability to be able to change one's mood, to alter one's emotions, to change one's very thoughts. And when we put on music that has positive lyrics, positive rhythm, and is able to create strong associations with positive experiences, we start thinking happier thoughts, we are transported to a world where we see our lives the way we want to live it. So this is the music that does exactly what I just stated. Enjoy!

Pursuit of Happiness

There are some songs that really strike a stride with me, something about the combination of the pristine lyrics and involving rhythms makes a song become an absolute obsession. Such songs that qualify are Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap, No Cars Go by Arcade Fire and now Kid Cudi's Pursuit of Happiness.

Pursuit of Happiness - Kid Cudi (Ft. MGMT And Ratatat)

Crush a bit, little bit, roll it up, take a hit
Feelin’ lit feelin’ light, 2 am summer night.
I don't care, hand on the wheel, drivin drunk, I'm doin’ my thing
Rollin the Midwest side and out livin’ my life getting’ out dreams
People told me slow my road I'm screaming out fuck that
Imma do just what I want lookin’ ahead no turnin’ back
if I fall if I die know I lived it to the fullest
if I fall if I die know I lived and missed some bullets

I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shine ain't always gonna be gold. I'll be fine once I get it, I'll be good.

Tell me what you know about dreamin’ dreamin’
you don't really know about nothin’ nothin’
tell me what you know about them night terrors every night
5 am, cold sweats wakin’ up to the skies
tell me what you know about dreams, dreams
tell me what you know about night terrors, nothin’
you don't really care about the trials of tomorrow
rather lay awake in a bed full of sorrow

I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shines ain't always gonna be gold. I'll be fine once I get it, I'll be good (x3)

I'm on the pursuit of happiness
And I know everything that shines ain't always gonna be gold, hey
I'll be fine once I get it, yeah
I'll be good

Pursuit of happiness, yeah
I don’t get it, I’ll be good

I love the lyrics of this song! I think the song is trying to describe his (whoever wrote the song) pursuit of happiness, how he hopes to reach happiness. "ain't always gonna be gold" He knows that in the pursuit of happiness not everything is going to be apparent, its not going to go exactly how we plan it. That is true to a certain extent, we all try to find happiness in our lives but we get disappointed when it doesn't happen exactly the way we wanted to. Frustrations and sorrow arise due to a fear of the unknown, due to a worry of not getting what you want and exactly how you want it. The pursuit of happiness, a pursuit we all take part, is much more than just looking for happiness in some far off place or in some goal. The pursuit of happiness is more about realizing the things that make you happy right now. As the song says "I'll be fine once I get it, I'll be good.", we just need to realize that fact, that happiness should not be pursued but rather realized. The things right in front of us, the things that truly make us happy are the things we have right now at this very moment.