Drawing would cure this but I haven’t drawn anything serious since February and yeah, if I dwell on that I’d be horribly depressed. I doodled some but that’s just not the same. I’ve been looking at a lot of artwork (by other people) earlier and though I didn’t feel like bashing my head to the nearest wall (like I do sometimes) it’s still awful that everyone else is doing something and I’m sitting here blogging about it instead.

I’m trying to expand my horizons when it comes to art appreciation. I lean more towards the conventional-types: comic artists and pen-and-ink illustrators. And turn-up my nose on doodlers, sketchers and digital artists. But the only difference between the two is the end product. It’s more than likely that if you scratch the surface, your average doodler has as much skills as your average comic artist. They just prefer doodling to drawing comics and that’s why they do as they do. Pah! Maybe this is a simplistic approach but I really want to embrace this. I think maybe it would help me appreciate other artists more, and in the process, it would open me up to more possibilities with regards to my drawing.

I know I’m good at drawing but only up to a certain point. I’m hampered by the fact that I tend to keep within my comfort zone. I don’t draw with anything besides ink, I don’t explore scenarios beyond what is realistic, I often draw only what I see and I can’t seem to translate 3D on paper. And no I’m not just feeding my inner inferiority complex here. I want to be a complete-er artist. Do crazy stuff for a change: cockroaches with ties, buildings with personality, airplanes with faces. I want to draw robots and goats and zombie balloons; I want cutesy octopi pictures, and Obama caricatures, and schoolgirls with googly anime eyes; I want to do a rough pencil sketches, leave it as is, and call it done. I want to color things in photoshop like I mean it. I want to slapdash colors with watercolour and not feel slightly foolish with the results. I don’t want to do abstract but I should try it at least once just to get it off my system. Then maybe it would finally make sense.

I was actually contemplating turning this into a portfolio/art blog instead of the mishmash that it is now. But I don’t art 24/7 and (no matter how much I wish it) this is not a perfect world and I won’t have nearly as much stuff to say.

This entry feels all unfinished but I’m falling asleep in front of the keyboard anf that’s not a good thing.

1. Money Wheel
2. What Your Boyfriend Said
3. She Looks Like Audrey Hepburn
4. Shot At Politics
5. Hey Little Sweetie
6. Joined By An Ipod
7. Face On A Wall
8. A Little Heart
9. Back Of The Pub Quiz
10. London Skies London Eyes
11. Shoulder To Sigh On

It’s a mistake having this up for spring-cleaning cos it’s a definite keeper. Maybe the last song doesn’t fit with the album and Little Man Tate in general but it’s not an awful song. So yeah, I love this record. I wouldn’t mind having it on repeat for a whole week. I’d buy it twice just to prove my point. So sorry to be chintzy but I won’t be putting this up on mediafire and I won’t even review it. Picking it apart would be beside the point. I’d rather just listen and enjoy.

If it turns out to be untrue though, and I’m still expected to go to work tomorrow and for the rest of my life, I would feel cheated. I was ready to move on a couple months ago when I went into the office early one morning and discovered that my boss is, secretly, a monsTTAAAARRRR!. And when she tried to smile conspiratorially (to include me in on the secret), I knew that there was no way I would ever like her again. Of course you don’t have to like your boss for things to work out, but I’ve been phoning it in eversince so she probably hates me already.

And that is, of course, the coolest thing ever.

I’d probably chill out for a couple weeks then I’d plunge into something totally off-the-wall like real estate or sales. I’m not worried anymore, although of course, I can’t turn off my brain and not come up with different scenarios and have a million conversations in my head, but that’s just who I am.

I picked up a couple of cds today, The Antlers’ Hospice and Stuarts’ God Help the Girl. Depending on how good they turn out, I might have them up for a spring-cleaning review (but I doubt it). Also, I checked my beleaguered iTunes and saw that I have T.I.’s A Year and A Day on my library. Now I hate the whole hip-hop/R&B thing so I might just scrap it off entirely instead of listening to it or doing a review. I’d do Little Man Tate’s Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy instead. Finally getting on with music that I really like.

Released : 2009
Label : Hollywood Records

1. World War III
2. Paranoid
3. Fly with Me
4. Poison Ivy
5. Hey Baby (feat. Johnny Lang)
6. Before the Storm (feat. Miley Cyrus)
7. What Did I Do to Your Heart
8. Much Better
9. Black Keys
10. Don’t Charge Me for the Crime
(feat. Common)
11. Turn Right
12. Don’t Speak
13. Bonus Track: Keep It Real

I’m not really familiar with the JoeBros. They’ve been around for a while but I always just think of their music as something for the ‘tween’ set, bubblegum and pink. That they actually play instruments and write their own songs is a surprise. And this fourth outing, my first JoeBros cd, is a mix of solid pop and rock tunes that I wouldn’t mind listening to from time to time.

Because it’s a major pop offering, the recall is just amazing. Although the lyrics are not sophisticated, you hardly notice because the tunes are very well-crafted. They’ve incorporated horns in some of the songs and that probably made the difference. The diversity is good: pop, rock, a bit of country, a bit of funk, and even a bit of rap infusion. Not every song is a keeper, but as a whole it’s a very good mix.

There are cheese moments that probably cannot be avoided. I especially dislike the growling-singing style in some of the songs. If this is an interpretation of rock then it’s quite off-putting. The songs are catchy enough but sometimes it borders on annoying the way it repeats over and over. Poison Ivy is a nice catchy tune but the spoken line at the end turned me off on the whole thing. Paranoid, their carrier single, has awesomely bad lyrics. I’m actually worried that the whole “that’s why my ex is still my ex” ditty will keep repeating in my head for a very long time.

Majority of the songs are fast, catchy numbers but the few ballads are surprisingly good. The collaborations are successful for the most part. Hey Baby with Johnny Lang is probably one of the best songs in the lot. Before the Storm, the duet with Miley Cyrus is alright even though the voices blended too well together and kinda lost the distinction. The rap mix Don’t Charge Me for the Crime with Common left me a bit baffled cos it just doesn’t parse somehow. Still, probably a lot of people ended up liking it so it’s quite a successful experiment for the boys.

The top songs for me are: Fly with Me and Hey Baby, both of them fast and catchy tunes. The first and last songs, World War III and Don’t Speak are both good. Turn Right is amazing, but the never ending racetrack reference can get a little tiring. Much Better seems so familiar but I can’t really figure out why. What Did I Do to Your Heart does not make it to my list cos it feels so overused. All in all it’s a very cohesive record, only the bonus track felt wrong. It seemed a little cartoon-y and is just the wrong note to end the album with.

For keeps: Fly with Me, Hey Baby, World War III, Turn Right and Don’t Speak.
I’d Spring-clean: Paranoid, Poison Ivy, What Did I Do to Your Heart, Much Better, Don’t Charge Me For the Crime and Keep It Real.
Undecided: Before the Storm and Black Keys.

Download: Jonas Brothers – Lines, Vines and Trying Times

Released : 2007
Label : (self-produced)

1. Brand New Shoes
2. Beautiful Moon
3. I Was Played
4. Wipe It Away
5. Running
6. Be My Lady
7. Wastin’ Time
8. Lovely
9. On Our Way
10. Real World
11. Land of Smiles

I like Kris Allen. He wasn’t my vote for American Idol but I’m not bitter about him winning. I knew that out of all the contestants, his songs would be the type I would listen to long after AI is over. That said, this is a forgettable album. Not bad exactly, more like mediocre. Of course this is self-produced and a couple years before the Idol exposure so you’d expect it to be a bit raw. It’s a mix of good and ok songs, nothing truly remarkable and nothing so awful, you’d have to skip it every turnaround.

I listened to it on repeat about five times but it hasn’t registered. No last song syndrome, no unconscious singing, no real desire to get to know the lyrics and sing-along. When I take off the headphones I simply forget it and get on with my life. Still it’s not bad. I’d recommend it for purchase especially if you really like Kris (it’s not available for purchase right now though, but in a year it’d probably be released as a special edition cd).

The title song is good. Reminds me of why I like the guy in the first place. If you hear it, you immediately know it’s his song and that’s a good thing. But it doesn’t set the mood for the whole CD because there’s variety as you go along. It alternates fast and slow until you get to the middle where it just slows down. There’s a little up-tempo with Wastin’ Time but after that until you get to the closer, Land of Smiles, it’s all slow city.

It’s not a record you can dance to. It’s not even something you can groove to. Some people called it bluesy but it really is not. The best you can describe it is probably dreamy. Some of the songs give off this vibe that they could be better if it’s performed a little differently. I can’t comment on the lyrics because it’s all passing over my head, nothing stands out as particularly witty or original or touching.

The song that I like best are I Was Played and Brand New Shoes and Land of Smiles. On first listen, Wastin’ Time seems almost-brilliant but on repeat I start wondering why because it seems there’s nothing really remarkable about it. Real World would be good if the vocals become more distinctive. I don’t like Running because it comes off as very boring, and On Our Way is way too repetitive.

For keeps: Brand New Shoes, I Was Played, Land of Smiles and Wastin’ Time.
I’d Spring-Clean: Wipe It Away, Running, Be My Lady and On Our Way.
Undecided: Beautiful Moon, Lovely and Real World.

Download:  Kris Allen – Brand New Shoes [2007]

So I’m doing some spring-cleaning, and this will probably go on for a while. I’ll be listening to albums on repeat and basically pick out the songs I like and screw the rest off. I’ll do a tiny review to appease myself then keep the albums on mediafire in case some people want them. Or, I get anal and decide that I actually want the whole album instead of just the good bits (it happens). It works both ways: I stay happy, other people stay happy, and I’d have my library all organized.

Now if only Mediamonkey would stop being all buggy on me so I can switch over and ditch iTunes altogether, I’d be set for life.

These drawings were done a while ago, but so far they’re the only ones (of about 80+) that are clean and web-ready. The main reason for this is cos I am lazy, the second is: I’m scared of computers, third: I’m allergic to Photoshop. I want to do as little digital editing as possible. Sometimes though I get sucked into the fallacy that I can color, and I spend countless hours slapping on colors and gradients and adjusting the elements until I get exhausted and decide to stop. I liked how the coloring went with the first drawing though, the last one not as much.

It seems that the easier it gets to have a blog published, the harder it is for me to keep up. I was more at ease years ago when you have to wrestle with HTML and PHP to come up with something halfway decent. Or maybe that’s just reverse snobbishness on my part. I still don’t know what I want to do with this blog but the general idea is already half-formed in my head. A couple more days and a healthy dose of chili powder will probably do the trick.

At least I already have the theme and header downpat. It was supposed to be a different image but the Terms of Use on that one was so horrifying-ly affected that it seems more trouble than it’s worth. What I ended up using is this Gaara fanart by tsukishoujo. I dunno if she minds, but hopefully not so much. I’d deal with the widgets in a bit and maybe they wouldn’t be such a problem.

I realize now that this is more of a note to self post, one that I would do well to avoid in the future cos it feels counterproductive. Along the lines of better to be doing than talking about it snitzel. I’m looking to post drawings in the widgets, as well as a last.fm player and others of the same ilk. That is, if wordpress.com would allow it. I have yet to check.

I feel the need to up and explain myself but I’m wondering why I should bother. It’s not as though I’m looking to share my thoughts with other people, or that there is an ulterior motive behind all these typed words. Mostly I just like reading stuff that I wrote after so many years because they turn out to be very surprising. This just goes to show that I’m very full of myself. But I think maybe that goes for everybody who has a blog so it’s a moot point.

I like music and I like books. Sometimes I watch television. And movies. But only after some years had passed, so that can be discounted. I draw some, but not enough to suit me. I play video games even though I absolutely suck. Maya is a little girl. And Bobo is her teddy bear. My name is Mermer, and really, I’m trying very hard to be succint.

3 paragraphs. That’s almost a success story.