Musical Monday: So This is Love

Cinderella may not have the same dark panache as other Princess movies, but it undoubtedly had one of the more likeable leading characters.  It is therefore hard to believe that Cinderella was subject to a particularly troubled production by Disney standards, having at least eight people heavily involved in the development of the story.  While these numerous writers played a valuable role in developing the Cinderella character, Cinderella's likeability can also be attributed to her voice actress, Ilene Woods.

Of course, Ilene Woods is a stage name.  Her real name was Jaqueline Ruth Woods.  She was born in 1929, and her mother worked behind the scenes of film sets.  Jaqueline herself had dreams of becoming a schoolteacher, but had eventually followed her mother's footsteps and pursued a career in cinema.

Whoever deserves the most credit for Cinderella's likeability, in the end, she became Walt Disney's favorite Princess, because her work and her efforts to get somewhere struck a chord with Walt, who had to deal with an unpredictable father and had struggled with being recognized in his early days as an artist.

She sang multiple songs for Cinderella, such as this one, So This Is Love, a romantic ballad between Cinderella and Prince Charming.

This would be the first duet between a Disney Princess and a Prince (though sadly not the first Prince with personality of his own; that wouldn't be a thing until Sleeping Beauty's release around 1959, nine years after the release of Cinderella).  It was originally meant to show her dancing on a cloud to symbolize how she felt from looking into his eyes, but this was changed because, barring the talking mice and the fairy Godmother, Cinderella has fairly few fantasy elements and Disney wanted to keep it that way.

Her life leading up to her death was truly a sad story: She developed Alzheimer's Disease, and not only forgot that she sang this song, but forgot that she ever voiced Cinderella in the first place.  However, she liked another Cinderella song, A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes, and would take comfort every time she heard it play in the nursing home, and it was played as often as possible until her death in July 1, 2010.

Merry Christmas, ya Filthy Animal!!

Sometimes, I think laughter is the best gift you can give somebody, because it really is good for your health, relaxing the body, boosting the immune system, and improving your cardio-vascular system, as you will see here. 

With this thought in mind, I made a playlist for you to laugh with (WARNING: Contains Bambi sloppy joes, Osama Bin Laden getting his comeuppance from Santa, and generally complaining about the difficulties of Christmas) and this playlist of Christmas nightcore.  Enjoy!

Musical Monday: The Nightcore Before Christmas

...And we must prepare accordingly! I would never go this long without having something ready for my second favorite Holiday (my favorite being Thanksgiving)! What better way to enjoy Christmas than Nightcore?

For those of you not in the loop, nightcore generally refers to songs sped up on average from 10-30%.  It was coined by the Norwegian DJ duo,  Thomas S. Nilsen and Steffen Olga Soderholm.  It was originally used for their own dance music, because they noticed that speeding up their tracks kept their music very happy while also still suitably "edgy".  However, when music aficionados on YouTube found this genre, they edited their favorite tracks with various sound-editing software, making their own "nightcore" takes on various songs, and no genre was left out: Hip-hop, rock, musica numbers, and even Christmas music, which perfectly fits the jolly power the nighcore style of mixing can convey.

To give you an example of this, here is a nightcore take on What's This:

While perhaps not the best introduction to NightCore, you can hear how the audible energy of Jack Skellington is now almost doubled, brimming with enthusiasm!

If you think that nightcore has potential, try playlists such as this one and this one!

The Twisted Christmas Series: Jingle Hell's Bells

And to think, this was actually performed by AC/DC!

Musical Mondays: The First of Me Lyrics

Musical Monday: The First of Me Lyrics

For today’s Musical Monday, we will discuss The First of Me, a song by the rock band Hoobastank, and boy, is it a doozy! This one song will be the subject for multiple Musical Mondays, but for now, we will focus on the single most obvious aspect of it: The lyrics.

But first, you should listen to the song itself!

Some songs say more about people than their mouths ever will, and this song’s lyrics can be truly poignant, because it’s about a dilemma we all face, the pressure to be what is more widely acceptable, and the desire to express what you really are.  In the specific context provided in the lyrics, it’s about how musicians are often expected to focus on the marketable subjects, so often things about inspiration, breakups, victimhood, and sex, among other things…but some people just want to talk about things that are completely…off the wall, I suppose, with their music, one thinks of Emilie Autumn and her work.

However, one can apply something similar to our everyday lives.  How many of us held back, hiding what we really were in order to fit in with others, or rather, what we just assumed others expected from us? The ironic thing is that if we look back, we can often see that we were wrong anyway, that we probably would have been accepted if we just presented ourselves as that from the very start, but by being fake, not only do we cheat ourselves of opportunities to be who we really are around others, but we also cheat ourselves with self-dishonesty.  Yes, I do think the whole “keepin’ it real” culture takes it too far at times, which will be articulated in a later post, but in general, I see nothing wrong with being your most real self around others, and it’s usually the right thing to do.

And that’s partly what this blog is all about, to express who I really am for all to see, and to support others who are accepting this path as well.