WHAT IS THIS SONG ABOUT?

I’m full of quirky little projects. Granted, most of them never get finished… but once again… I swear this time it will be different.

The first project I’m not undertaking is, of course, this blog. So far, so good. I like writing here. It rekindles my soul a bit… Besides, it’s nice to know that there are some people out there who actually read this… Hey… I’ve had 14 visitors in less than a week… not too bad!

But I want to talk about my second project…

I’m working hard at building a database that will sort songs by topics. It all started a few months ago when I was creating a mix CD for a friend and I was looking for songs about recovering from heartbreak… I wondered if there was any website that would classify songs by topic… I looked and looked and found none that was comprehensive enough… Some websites do list some specific classifications… but nothing too complete… For example, I found an 80’s website that listed the “top 5 songs about masturbation from the 80’s”… ready?...

5. Dancing with Myself – Billy Idol (obvious… sweat, sweat…)
4. Turning Japanese – The Vapors (If you think about it, it makes sense)
3. She Bop – Cyndi Lauper (a British slang, I'm told)
2. The Stroke – Billy Squier (“You put your right hand out... give a firm handshake”)
1. Divinyls – I Touch Myself (duh!)

Honorable mention:

Into the Groove – Madonna: (“Only when I'm dancing can I feel this free/ at night I lock the door so no one else can see/I"m tired of dancing here all by myself/tonight I want to dance with someone”)

Where was I?... Ah, yes… since I never did find any website that would fulfill my classification needs… I decided to publish one myself. I figured that it would be a great help for EFL teachers who might want to play topic-based songs in class… (BTW, the paradigm shifted… we no longer choose songs to play in class based solely on structure).

So far… it has turned out to be one hell of a mammoth job… but fun.

I’m starting to assign possible categories to each song on my CD song database, which I completed last year… Some songs are very straight forward… (Guess what “I Love L.A.” by Randy Newman is about?)… Some songs may have multiple categories (“Rocket Man” by Elton John falls under the categories of “drugs”, “life as a rock star”, “space”, “being apart”, “departing”…) and some songs may be impossible to label (what the hell is “Come Together” by The Beatles about?)…. So, as you can see… this has to be done carefully and I have to revisit and revise classifications often…

One fun thing is to discover recurring patterns in bands… For example, Abba has many songs about “Breaking Up” (Knowing Me, Knowing You; Mamma Mia; The Winner Takes It All; S.O.S.; One of Us, Angel Eyes…), The Beatles are all about drugs (Across the Universe, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Day Tripper, Fixing a Hole, I am the Walrus, Magical Mystery Tour, Strawberry Fields Forever and –maybe- A Day in the Life)… Elton John has many songs about living life as a rock star (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Tiny Dancer, Bennie & The Jets, Rocket Man, This Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore..)

Boy…this is gonna take a while…

MAQUILLAJE PARA EL ALMA

Last night I was particularly sad and depressed. I guess I had too many things or people on my mind… I don’t know. So, when my friend called and asked if he and his girlfriend could drop by to meet the baby, I somehow felt my soul let out a big “whoosh” of relief…

We have been friends forever… in fact, he is the only friend that has remained close for over 30 years… so we feel pretty comfortable around each other… and we have a very strong bond that has somehow kept our friendship fresh over the years: our mutual love of music.

As expected, he brought a CD he insisted I played and commented… but this time it wasn’t anything from Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull, ELP, El Ultimo de la Fila or La Ley… It was Mario Maisonave’s collection of newly remastered greatest hits… and as the firsts riffs of “Todo en Su Lugar” began to play… my adolescence quickly flashed before my eyes: playing risk or monopoly until the crack of dawn or until one of us dropped drunk (whichever came first), the quest for the perfect tuna salad (we tried everything - mayo, ketchup, mustard, worcestershire sauce, BBQ sauce, tabasco... whatever was at hand), dancing at Leonardo's (every Sunday afternoon), imitating Rob Halford (the singer from Judas Priest) at La Copa del Cafe (I put quite a show... too bad I got thrown out of the stadium... in retrospect, I should have waited until the set was over...), getting the "night club" experience (remember that night at Hollywood?), exploring the zona roja with Canuto, passing out on the sidewalk, streaking down the street, wearing punk make-up and bringing bones to a headbanger's ball... in short, my sweet romantic teenage nights...

Nena, todo esta…
El pelo en su lugar, el maquillaje sin correr…
Tu paso practicas,
En el espejo comprabas todas tu armas de mujer
Que linda Nena…

Wow… his voice surely sounds different… I would have never guessed it was him… Maybe Beto Cuevas... By the way, the other day I ran into “Empe” (Distorsion’s former keyboard player)… He looked fine and married... He’s a chemist now, I think… What about Javier?... Oh, so he finished his PhD in Genetics and got tenured at the Pasteur Institute in Paris… good for him… yeah… he was always the smart one of the group, wasn't him?... Remember how he was once considered the best bass player in Costa Rica… he even played with Distorsion, right?.. He also played with Morgue, Avenida Nadie, Ictus (whatever happened to Rafita? He had such a great voice), Liverpool, 50 al Norte… the boy got around

Nena, todo esta…
Y cada luna llena es ideal para cazar…
Que bien te alucinas y el pantalón te ajustas...
Se va a romper si te moves...

We saw Suite Doble in concert the other day… at a bar in San Pedro... we didn't even know they were playing there... Martita can really sing… She sang a couple of Madonna songs in English… perfectly… if you closed your eyes, you wouldn’t even notice the difference… Remember when we used to hang out at Amalgama rehearsals?… I still have the “Holocausto Siglo XX” 45 somewhere… No… I never really liked how Jarquim sings… she lacks something... I still think “San Lucas” was a remarkable song though… lots of potential… but when they cut the 45… the production was shitty… what a bummer!

A veces te sentis mal,
Pero vos no vas a sufrir – siempre hay algo que tomar
Nunca te aburris, oh no..
Y hay muchos chicos que por vos darian su auto...
Asi es mejor!

Gotta tell you… this CD sounds pretty fucking amazing… better than most things I have heard from here… yeah… we have had some great bands… but shitty production always kills them... Tango India’s “Azul”, Gandhi’s “El Invisible”, Pato’s “Fragil”, El Parque’s “Juana Escobar”, Suite Doble’s “Al Final” or “Profanar”... even “San Lucas”, or Mario’s “Raquel”... they could all have been international hits.. but weren’t… the problem is that ticos stab each other in the back… we just don’t support our artists… did you know that Maisonave is promoting this CD in Guatemala and Mexico?… and he’s getting way more airplay than what we ever got in Costa Rica…

Que bien disimulas tus aventuras…
Vas a dar ejemplo de virginidad...
Nena todo esta... el pelo en su lugar
Pero tu ropa? Adonde fue a parar?

Capmany was a bad influence… at one point, everybody was trying to sing like him… and he could never actually sing… yeah… he was like the Tico version of Bob Dylan… Great songs but no voice at all... Café con Leche was great, right?... ah… but that was because of Leche… His death was horrible, don’t you think?... to burn yourself like that… ouch… yep… that guy was always stoned… but he was funny and smart… How many times did we sit for hours with them and Pato at the Pretil trying to fix the world with a guitar and a cangrejo dulce?... Those were happier days…

OK! Esta bien!
Que linda nena va a pasear
OK! Esta bien
Y que bien hablas Ingles...
OK! Esta bien
Todos te quieren pellizcar
OK! Esta bien
Pareces de la TV...

Dude! I can't believe they left out "El Ultimo Tren"! Bummer!

CRAZY
Icehouse

And the radio plays that forgotten song...

I've got a pocket full of holes
My head in the clouds, the king of fools
You've got a ribbon of rainbows
The sun in your eyes burning through
Could be I'm happy and sad
Could be I'm losing my head over you

Well, you've gotta be crazy, baby, to want a guy like me
Yeah, you've gotta be out of your mind - crazy
So if I'm dreaming, don't wake me tonight
If this is all wrong, I don't want it right
'Cause you're the one sure thing
When I get lost in the game once again

Hey, I'm a lucky guy
Without a reason and I don't understand

Well, you've gotta be crazy, baby to want a guy like me
Yeah, you've gotta be out of your mind - crazy
Well, there must be some kind of mistake to give your heart away
Yeah, you've gotta be out of your mind - crazy

I've got a pocket full of holes
My head in the clouds, the king of fools
You've got a ribbon of rainbows
The sun in your eyes burning through
Could be I'm happy and sad
Could be I'm losing my head over you
Well, you've gotta be crazy, baby, to want a guy like me
Yeah, you've gotta be out of your mind - crazy

Well, there must be some kind of mistake to give your heart away
Yeah, you've gotta be out of your mind - crazy
Well, you've gotta be crazy, baby to want a guy like me
Yeah, you've gotta be out of your mind - crazy
Well, there must be some kind of mistake to give your heart away
Yeah, you've gotta be out of your mind - crazy
Well you've gotta be crazy baby to want a guy like me
Yeah, you've gotta be crazy, baby.....

Asesinato en el Meneo

I have just finished watching my 50th movie for this year. I know, I know… I should have already passed the 100 mark… at this rate, 2003 will probably be my all time low… even worse than last year when I couldn’t even break the 200 mark for the first time ever… but this has been a busy year with the baby and all. Just imagine that in 2003 I haven’t been to the movies at all… the last time I set foot on a movie theatre was Dec. 3, 2002 for “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”... gee whiz!

I rented “Asesinato en el Meneo” the other day…

Real crappy movie… a low budget sexy comedy that failed at being sexy and definitely failed at being funny…. The plot is an insult to anyone with a half an IQ…. The acting feels as fake as a rubber chicken… Why do Costa Rican actors need to “recite” their lines as if they were on the stage of a trashy and sleazy play written by William Esquivel? Why can’t the so-called Costa Rican cinema movement move on beyond “Eulalia”? Why must everything produced in Costa Rica look like it was stolen from a late 70’s Mexican production? Why can’t Costa Rican “filmmakers” learn the delicate art of smart product placement instead of shamelessly turning the film into a 90-minute commercial? Why must they make an effort to show every actress half naked?... wait… let me re-think that last comment… maybe a little more Tinto Brass and a little less Mariano Laurenti would help…

Anyway… this artistic mediocrity reaches several other levels… there has never been any TV show we can actually be proud of… I know we’re exporting A Todo Dar… but are we proud of that?... The rest is just crap: La Pension, El Barrio, Caras Vemos… it’s all the same junk… the same old tired jokes… the same 30-minute long commercial… news flash… “pintas”, “playos”, “zorras” and “polos” stopped being funny somewhere back in the late 80s… move on!

What does it take to make a good independent foreign film? The answer is easy… A great story and creativity… According to the Internet Movie Database, “El Meneo” cost around $700.000 to make… Robert Rodriguez filmed “El Mariachi” (one of the best and most influential low budget foreign films ever made) in Mexico for about half that budget, took it to Sundance, won, found a distributor in the US and made a cool $4.2 million profit. Aren’t there any good stories in Costa Rica worth filming? 3 or 4 years ago, we had several short films that showed incredible potential… “La Pasion de Nuestra Señora”, “La Calera”, “Las Mascaras”, etc… What happened? How did we go from potential to crap?

And the new film out “Mujeres Apasionadas” (directed by “Eulalia” herself) does not give us any hope at all…

AND SO… IT BEGINS….

Got a couple of comments already from the first posting… Miguel writes…

“Interesting but dangerous... The humanity is not ready for these truths because "when I was a child I thought and acted as a child..." and people are children in faith, they still need beliefs and stories to believe and understand. Can you figure a world out with no Mohammed, Buddha or Christ?”

Well, actually… considering the amount of wars waged in the name of Mohammed and Christ, I guess it would be a more peaceful world…

Back on track now… People have always needed someone to believe in. No matter who that person is… Mohammed, Buddha, Christ, Zoroaster, Krishna, John Smith, Sabu, Zeus, Jupiter, Rev. Moon or Elvis Presley… And I firmly believe that it helps people to keep their sanity… to keep hope… to keep calm in moments of distress… What a bummer would it be to find out that there is actually nothing out there… don’t you agree?

Now, I do agree that most people are not ready to know the truth… and the truth is way out there… believe me… Will we ever be ready?... “Heck, no!” – is the official answer of the Catholic church. “Prohibido pensar, que ya todo esta escrito”….

Still I think my dear friend here underestimates people… True… most people are “children” in thought (I think that thinking and having faith does not necessarily exclude each other) … but the chosen few are at least “teenagers” if not “adults”… this blog is for the chosen few… this is not a blog for the masses…

Luis writes…

“The really "beauty" of reading the Bible is the fact that there are many lessons that still apply to today's society. How many books that were written thousands of years ago can do that? Rather than accentuate the little mistakes, why not focus on all the good things the Bible has to offer? It seems that the only people that do this are priests - and that's because it's their job! Any book that can teach people how to live in harmony and grace is welcome, especially in this time of war.”

Again, I agree with him. I don’t think that trying to shed light on the historical Jesus by questioning Dogmas in any way undermines the value of his teachings, spiritual or otherwise. Rather, I kind of think it reinforces them because Jesus becomes human… “I am human and I need to be loved… just like everybody else”…

A person… a guy who got angry, a guy who got hungry, a guy who got drunk, a guy who got tired, a guy who wanted to run away, a guy who got horny, a guy who had to take a shit (holy shit?)… An ordinary guy in an extraordinary position… a guy so common that Judas had to resort to the messy kissy thingy to set him apart from the crowd… Thinking that Jesus was the Son Of Man and therefore, we he was perfect… that is the easy thing to do… Thinking that Jesus had the balls to defy authority, to harbor terrorists and beating the Romans at the own game by (maybe) faking his own death… that, my friends, is the road less taken Frost talked about.

However, I have to agree with Luis… there are lots and lots of good things in the Bible and in the Gospels themselves… Nobody is questioning that… but to accentuate them?... well, that’s a job for the light side and not the dark side.