10 Day Photo Challenge Day 5 - Song

No, today I am not including a lengthy preamble, because the latest entry for the 10 Day Photo Challenge explains all of what's been happening over the last couple of weeks...


My New-Found Excitement

You may be wondering many things right now, but most of all, I bet, your minds are speculating why my posts have been less frequent over the last two weeks or so. Have I had a HUGE school project to complete? Have I been in a chamber of rabid baboons, with only a few minute-long breaks for blogging? NO!!

The truth is, I have been songwriting. I've tried to keep up at least one post a week, but the songs did take over for a bit (although I'll try to regain a two-or-three-posts-a-week schedule!). But enough about my blogging frequency: what songs have I been writing? Well, I first got into songwriting around last summer when I heard Taylor Swift's entirely self-written songs on the album Speak Now. I made up lots of possible lyrics, and I summoned up the courage to set some to music, but the result, a nonsensical ditty called Wise, was diabolical. It didn't make sense musically, the lyrics were silly and didn't fit with the music anyway, and I knew nothing about chords and scales. It was a mess. An embarrassment to my reputation.

But when I went to secondary school, we started learning about Music Theory and intervals and all that jazz, which was a much-needed jump forward for my songs. I practised making up lyrics that musically fitted together perfectly, and for Father's Day I wrote another piano ballad, This Song's For You, about my dad. It musically worked, the lyrics made sense but guess what?...it's so fancy I can't actually play it. Another tune down the sewage system.

But what about the song in the picture? Well, that is my best attempt to date, Pound Coin. It came to be after our English assignment was to bring in something to represent the phrase "the love of money is the root of all evil". Of course, most people made pictures or poems or little plays, but I decided to go radical and make a song. And Pound Coin, a slightly more upbeat song about love being more important that money, was the result. And here, I positioned the manuscript in a photo next to my new guitar (even though I usually write my songs on the piano, but I couldn't really lug that onto the sofa...)

But you don't want the rambling, do you? You want to know what my song actually was! Here are the lyrics I presented in this week's English class.

Verse 1:

You think you got everything, don't ya?

Being poor just means worthless, don't it?

Tell me, have you considered things

That do not really fit with your beliefs,

Such as money ain't worth that much?

Hook:

It's nothing at all 

Nothing to worry 'bout

Nothing concernin'

Just that

Chorus:

What I have can change you as a person

What you have just changes what you own

My heart has a love that lasts forever

Your hands have only got a pound coin.

Verse 2:

Love is just an extra thing, ain't it?

It's what you own that matters, you think.

Not any mansion, any car

Can ever be worth more than a full heart

Maybe money's the extra thing.

Chorus:

What I have can change you as a person

What you have just changes what you own

My heart has a love that lasts forever

Your hands have only got a pound coin.

Only a-a pound coin.

This is also the only song so far that I've been brave enough to post on YouTube (well, only a recording, not an actual live performance). So here is the link. If you do have YouTube, feel free to subscribe to my new channel there; it'll be the home of all the songs I write (and the ones I've written, when I've edited them to be sufficient), and perhaps some covers too. 

So that is my new-found excitement. Well, not exactly new-found, just forgotten for about a year. But I can't wait to see what kind of songs I can conjure up next!

-DP :)

Two Of My Favourite Singers: Defaced!

Last Friday, I was wandering the streets of London without a care in the world. Well, that makes it sound a bit too random and whimsical, I was actually walking home from an exhibition at Whitechapel Art Gallery (was intending to do a post today on it, but haven't really got much time, so I'm doing a less serious one). And on the billboard that usually displays festival bills with bands called things like Horsemeat Disco, I happened to glance at two of my favourite singers' tour posters displayed next to each other! What joy! The union of glorious musicians! However, there was a twist...

GRAFFITI!!!

Yup, someone with a hundred tons of imagination and zero of environmental respect has gone and defaced RiRi and T-Swizzle, putting my love of music and graffiti head to head. But which do I love more?

DEFACEMENT #1: RIHANNA

Imaginative Street Art Rating: 

The sheep is a bit random here, not quite sure what it's supposed to be symbolising, if anything. It's just like someone's doodle, that can be done elsewhere than Rihanna's head. But the "Art Is Trash" slogan is a different story. At first, it obviously seems like hate against Rihanna's music, but it seems to me as though, because it's Ri's own speech bubble, it's HER rebelling against conventional art and doing her own thing. Relevant, truthful and most importantly, not hateful. Overall, I give the art 7/10, with marks deducted for the  probably mean and profane thing previously stuck over Rihanna's face.

Disrespect To Music Rating (N.B. The higher the mark, the more disrespectful to music):
If you look at the white sticky marks around Rihanna's face, it's obvious that there's been some poster there before. Maybe it was an ode to Rihanna, or maybe it was condemning here for life, or maybe it was totally irrelevant like the sheep. Either way, it was stuck over Rihanna's face, which loses marks, but the artist had the respect to take it down, which adds them. The slogan will add marks, and the sheep will lose them, and that brings the disrespect total to round about 6/10.


DEFACEMENT #2: Taylor Swift

Imaginative Street Art Rating:

Less interesting, this one. Just some band wanting to advertise by sticking their poster over Taylor's face (I made the picture a bit bigger to show exactly what the poster was). There's so much more you could do with this poster: dip-dying Taylor's hair pink, drawing murals on the fence in the image. Just sticking a picture over a fellow artist's face because your band doesn't want to pay for an ad slot is NOT funny, NOT clever and most importantly NOT imaginative. I'm generous, I'll give it 2/10.

Disrespect To Music Rating (N.B. The higher the mark, the more disrespectful to music):

Where do I start? Hate against Taylor, superiority, it's all here. Not least zero respect for Taylor's personal desire to display her face. Maybe they could've stuck it on the fence or the grass or something, but the face? It deserves 10, but I'll give it 9/10.

So overall, what were the ratings?

ISA: 4.5/10

DTM: 7.5/10

Apparently, my love of music prevails over that of graffiti...

-DP :)

I Am Finally Learning Guitar (And No, I Didn't Just Want To 'Cause Taylor Swift Does)

Seriously, how long has it been since I last graced the blogosphere with my presence? A week? Wowzums. That went quicker than a panicked commuter on a London zebra crossing. I'm sorry everyone, but I swear it felt like one day. Maybe it's all the exams and revision that make it feel fast.

 Anyway, I have big things happening in my life that I feel are fit to announce to the whole of the World Wide Web. So big that I have a new label for them: "exciting happenings". I AM NOW PLAYING THE GUITAR! I've wanted to for a long time now, people say it came about when I started liking country music, or when I started writing songs, but I think I got interested in the whole thing a bit before all of that, when I was choosing another instrument to play when I started secondary school. My mum was suggesting more obscure options, like bassoons and euphoniums, which I can assure you I have nothing against, I just thought that guitar would fit better with piano, which I've been playing since I was about five or six. But alas, alack, I have a weird thing about not telling people certain, completely normal things. Liking singing, and being a Scout, are some examples. And wanting to play the guitar was another.

  Anyway, who cares how I got here? At least I finally am here! 

The guy behind the "Guitar Tuition" ad in a local pinboard turned out to be the owner of a living room in a tiny village near the country house overcome by stacks of every guitar you can think of plus a piano, and also a hyperactive kitten. Random? Yeah, random. But also the owner of this guitar, which I'm loaning for about a month before I summon up the courage to buy my own. And at the moment, it's looking (or should I say sounding) perfectly epic.

I don't know why, but every time people post about singing or playing instruments on their blog, we expect them to post a video of them playing some random song, just to prove they're telling the truth about what they can do. Honestly, the blogosphere isn't YouTube! But instead of showing you what I can play, I'll tell you what I can play: two chords and a couple of simple pieces involving just plucking single strings. Yeah. Waned your enthusiasm for my guitar video, didn't it?

But it's not just that that's annoying me now. It's this:

No, no, I'm a Swiftie, not a hater, so I'm not about to go on about how she always sings about breaking up. It's what people keep saying when I tell them I'm playing the guitar that's annoying me. I think four or five people so far have piped up in reply with "Are you just playing it to be like Taylor Swift?" NO!!! You think I'm just trying to be a Taylor Swift clone, because alongside blogging, Swiftie-hood is one of the main things I'm known for in my school. Sure, she makes me more enthusiastic about the guitar, but I wouldn't say that's the prime reason. The prime reason is that it's a logical second instrument, useful for my songwriting and if you want to sing with an instrument, it's the way to go. Taylor Swift is sometimes a kind of role model for me, but I don't just copy her, I simply let her give me inspiration.

But overall, a generally positive vibe in my endorphins at this moment in time, and I hope my further guitar lessons turn out well.
-DP :)
 

10 Day Photo Challenge Day 4 – Outfit

Fellow Londoners, wasn't our weather unusually fantastic today? Fantastic for a field trip day, anyway. I had a Geography trip to the Docklands, the Thames Barrier and the London 2012 Olympic Park today, which blew my expectations, said expectations being based on being stuck with a droning teacher on a Monday morning learning about settlements. But this was actually to interesting places and about an interesting subject (how East London is changing and rejuvenating, that sort of thing) and I actually loved wandering around the different places and debating with my friends whether a dirty patch on the Excel Centre building counted as vandalism. And, of course, the weather was perfect :).

So yep, good day so far. But it got better when I got to be in a vintage fashion shot for 10 Day Photo Challenge Day 4!


“Fashions fade, style is eternal.” 

Shoes ~ Schuh

Cardigan ~ Theory

Dress ~ Handmade

Necklace + Sunglasses ~ vintage so don't really have a brand :)


I chose this quote, from Yves Saint Laurent, to sum up in this photo's title how although a trend can be out of style, not be paraded on this season's catwalks and never be worn on the street, it may have disappeared, but the people who truly love it as a trend will keep on wearing it in their personal style. And the trends that I think that's most true for are those of the 1950s, and vintage trends in general. Although they were most popular nearly 60 years ago, there are people today who keep the trends alive in their personal style, apart from the current fashions.

I got this outfit about a year ago now (Really? Time seriously flies) when we had a day in my last year of primary school when our whole class had to come in costumes from the 50s and 60s. I hadn't been very interested in the dress or the whole outfit (when I was a dumb eleven-year-old, I thought it was the kind of thing old ladies wear), until I got inspired to be more into vintage clothes. I hate to say this because it sounds so shallow, but I became more interested when I saw pictures of Taylor Swift wearing her various vintage outfits in the liner notes of Red. Then, I went on lots of fashion blogs and shopping sites, and researched different vintage styles, and I'm trying to make it a more and more serious interest. So naturally, I was thrilled when it was announced that the theme of our Scout camp disco would be 1950s. Another excuse to wear my vintage outfit (you can't really see on the picture, but it has cute little bows on it :) )!

This is the only vintage dress I own (because frankly I don't go to many occasions where that'd be appropriate), but I have a ton of pictures of more on my iPad, and I'm starting to post a few on my Instagram page (it's meant to be Taylor Swift-themed, but hey, Taylor – vintage, there's kind of a link…). Maybe when I'm older!
-DP :)

A Few Laugh Out Loud Things I'd Like To Share

Hi, today's post is going to be slightly miscellaneous and unstructured, because there are a couple of unrelated little gems I saw on my wanderings around London yesterday...

Firstly, there's this little import from Africa who's somehow strolled into Liverpool St. Station...

Yep, this is what you think it is. It's a gorilla advertising Norwich tourism. My fantastical brain instinctively conjurs up a real gorilla captured from the Ugandan jungle, orphaned and employed by the Norwich Tourist Board, and painted in such cruel fashions, designs including the Norwich coat of arms, Stephen Fry (not visible here – his photo was on the side) and some blue skies that frankly belong anywhere but East Anglia. And then nailed to a podium in a bustling London station, never to escape or see the lights of day again.

Other than the shameless exploitation of wild animals, there's another obvious problem with this nonsensical mess of an ad campaign: what exactly do gorillas have to do with Norwich?  Not exactly a city icon. The last time I saw them there was in a safari park, but please do correct me, Norwicheans (?), if you've seen some lounging in Thetford Forest trees.


The second hilarious thing I have to entertain you on this fine Saturday evening came about when some unsuspecting tourists, a boy about thirteenish and his mum, talked just too loud on a bus approaching this...

*this image isn't mine

 
So we were coming up to Trafalgar Square and, I being a skilled eavesdropper, overheard this priceless conversation. You couldn't make it up.

Mum: Look ahead at that pillar.

Boy: Who's that on top?

Mum: Napoleon.

Boy: But wasn't he French?

Mum: Yes. He was defeated at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Boy: But we're in England? Why do they have a statue of a French leader?

Mum: Because he was the loser. He lost to the English.

Boy: But if he lost, why put him on a big pillar like that?

Mum: Because he was defeated, so they hoisted him up so the world could know he failed. To show him up.

I like the idea of making a big, famous statue of the loser in a battle. When the media write features on celebrities doing embarrassing or mean things, it's sort of like hoisting the failure onto a column, and if the former's convention, why can't the latter? Perhaps if my blog ever goes viral, the people who manage Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Column could rebuild it with Napoleon on, and then the tourists on the bus (and probably me as well) would go down in history for changing one of London's key monuments with a single conversation.

I'm joking, of course. Nelson up there is just fine. However, I'm seriously starting to wonder what guidebooks the tourists read before visiting our city to not know that he's the one on the column. What London guidebooks don't mention Trafalgar Square? And which guidebook that does mention it, doesn't mention Nelson's Column?? And even if you have a ridiculously "concise" guide, you might still know the main opponents in the Battle of Trafalgar. And then it's just logic to work out which one's on the column. To me, with the fame the statue has, the guidebooks and history to go by, it seems a hard fact not to know.


Anyway, so my Friday was spent collecting little nuggets of laughter like these! But of course there were other purposes to the day, but they went rather unfulfilled: the Pompeii exhibit at the British Museum (tickets were still available, but we had to wait two hours so eventually bailed out), the latest Saatchi gallery art exhibition (we got in, but it only had a couple of rooms so didn't exactly take the time expected) and shopping at John Lewis and the nearby charity shops (didn't buy a single thing).

However, the purpose of finding blogworthy items was easily fulfilled, and I hope I've made you laugh and brightened up your weekend!
-DP :)