Job Search: Day 28 (Approximately)

I remember someone telling me that money does not grow on trees.  Skepticism accounted for, I walked outside and found such a fact to be validated.  What they did not tell me, and what I should have realized by extending similar logic, is that jobs also do not grow on trees.  (However, if your situation is like my friend’s, Andrew Oberbroeckling who is now living in Hawaii harvesting coconuts, then jobs actually and literally do grow on trees.) 

I cannot exactly say to what degree – if at all – I have been discouraged during the process.  But it's definitely not as easy as I thought.  Maybe my expectations were too high.  Maybe I was too naïve to believe that I would be pushing employers back with a broomstick once they realized I had not only one but two majors, and let alone that they were in the oh-so-practical areas of Religious Studies and English Literature...

Hey advisor, Religious Studies is NOT a “goldmine” major.
Oh… you were being sarcastic when you said that… Ha I like jokes too.

This experience has been cool a reminder of how much God is in control, and how exciting it is to know that he’s the provider.  He’s never going to be surprised if I don’t get a certain job, he’s never going to give me a job and then say “Oh shoot, that wasn’t supposed to happen.”   I’m excited and encouraged to see what the next few days, months, even years have in store for me.  It’s going to be awesome to look back and see how God was working, even in little things like filling out applications, making phone calls, or sending emails.  He’s a faithful father. 

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?”

Music of 2010: Pt. 5 (Nothing like being timely)

2. The National – High Violet

This is an amazing follow-up to their 2007 album Boxer.  Lyrically, High Violet is more cryptic than its predecessor, using words and images that critique the social condition of the middle class.  Unlike Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, this album is not obvious or over-handed, but carries itself with straight-faced satire.  The band is certainly an “album” band, not looking to produce singles, but there are a handful of songs that carry significant emotional resonance.  Coupled with effective hooks, the songs are appealing without being distracting.  With more plays, the album reveals an emotional and intellectual depth.

2. Sleigh Bells – Rill Rill

Catchy, lovely, innocent, nostalgic, and almost nothing like the rest of the album, this song is awesome! (The album would make the Honorable Mention list... if it existed)

1. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

I’m not one for hyperboles but this may be one of the greatest albums I’ve listened to in the past five years.  Kanye depicts an Icharus-like attempt to reach the heavens only to show us the tragic fall as the wings singe.  This is Breugel’s painting in the form of music.  The beginning of the album calls out, “Can we get much higher?” and Kanye will explore such question not with an answer of yes or no, but do we even want to get any higher?  The opening track along with “Power” sounds similar to the pop-hip-hop that Kanye is known to produce, but unlike his former efforts these songs are not meant to celebrate the celebrity life.  He’s no longer winking, but accepts his status as one that carries much torment.  Yes, he may have “Power” or be “Gorgeous” but the first third of this album holds a deeper irony that we quickly realize in the final two-thirds.  The middle songs flesh out the other side of the coin, and we see the darker outcomes of a life that is never satisfied.  The grass is indeed always greener, and his protagonist is desperately searching for companionship.  This insatiable appetite offers little comfort, his search for something meaningful renders and morphs itself into a hedonistic lust. 

Thematics aside, Kanye’s production is brilliant, creating rhythmic beats that then transform into something more haunting such as the sampling of Aphex Twin in “Blame Game.”  The music parallels the themes, as a singular piano key echoes the lonely and alienated title of its song “Runaway.”  Kanye also garners much help from his associates, many of them who will make a name for themselves based on this album alone.  The most talked about guest appearance is from Nicki Minaj who outraps both Kanye and Jay-Z on “Monster.”  Rick Ross provides a tremendous verse in “Devil in a New Dress,” with his delivery supplementing his rhymes perfectly.  Kanye also shows his skill as a rapper, “Gorgeous” being exemplary.  Two lines that are personal favorites show his satirical-political bite, as well as his social awareness: “I treat cash the way the government treats AIDS, I won’t be satisified till all my niggas get it, get it?” and “Is hip-hop just a euphemism for a new religion? The soul music of the slaves that the youth is missin’?”  Kanye is never one to shy away from controversy and puts himself as a voice of ironic and paradoxical consciousness.  

As self aggrandizing as is Kanye the Celebrity, Kanye the Musician avoids any presumptuous claims about this album in particular.  In none of these songs, does he suggest the album to be a “game-changer” as many of his contemporaries will and have done on their respective albums.  But hopefully it will be.  Kanye West has created an album that deceptively caters to the mainstream and then abandons them in a twisted and murky pool of intentional wit, self-parody (in a good way), intellect, and critique.  Some may dismiss the album of holding any depth, but if we move past the seemingly “pointless” vulgarity, then we realize that Kanye has provided something that reaches far beyond any radio-rap, and has given us an album that is truly meaningful, that is truly art. 

1.  My number one song of the year: Gorgeous by Kanye West

Music of 2010: Pt. 4

4. Sam Amidon – I See the Sign / Pretty Fair Damsel

A great collection of traditional folk songs.  Amidon’s vocals create a heartfelt intimacy, evoking a self-reflection that supplements the lyrics.  Lazily, I will also include the song example as my fourth favorite song.  I’ve never heard any other version, but I love the story that is portrayed.  Although I do not have concrete “textual evidence” I understand the soldier riding by, to be the damsel’s soldier, and the following verses are filled with sweet ironies as the two comfortably exchange familiar banter as they have been separated for seven-long years.  Amidon sings the alternating verses with subtlety, never making the shifts too distinct or obvious, but provides the musical arrangements to dictate a change in voice.

3.  Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt

Another folky addition to the list, the singer/songwriter has a distinct voice and has garnered many comparisons to Dylan.  His lyrics are not political or define generations by any means, but his stream of consciousness verses creates a dream-like quality that allows the listener to relax and bring his/her own meaning to the songs. 

3. Sufjan Stevens – All Delighted People

Sufjan surprised many by releasing an “EP” this fall, only to tell us that he would be releasing an LP weeks later.  The eponymous track of the hour long extended-play provides a good preview to the rest of the songs in both All Delighted People and The Age of Adz.  The music is a combination of his electronic elements found on Enjoy Your Rabbit, with the haunting and verbose arrangements that were scattered among Illinois.  Lyrically, Sufjan creates a dream, almost nightmarish-Dantian journey as his speaker tries to find meaning, truth carrying certain elements of the Christian-spiritual realm, only to be warped into his own vision of truth-seeking.