Friday, May 22, 2009
Tears for fears - Mad World (Resung by Adam Lambert at American Idol 8)All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Goin' nowhere, goin' nowhere
Their tears are fillin' up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dyin'
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'Cause I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad world, mad world
Mad world, mad world
Children waitin' for the day they feel good
Happy birthday, happy birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sits and listen, sits and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson?
Look right through me, look right through me
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dyin'
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'Cause I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad world, mad world
Mad world, mad world
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dyin'
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'Cause I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad world, mad world
Mad world, mad world
A raunchy young world
Mad world
Innocence
2:22 PM
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Let's talk about social commentaries. I was too bored (vacation baby) and decided I shall soak myself in some American Idol madness. Okay not very mad, it you don't count the fact that Adam Lambert's version of Mad World was ringing in my head and I purged it with Kris Allen's Heartless. And now it's Heartless playing.
Okay I see blank faces.
You see the issue was that Adam Lambert was the hot favourite and Kris was the boy next door and the boy next door won the glam rocker in American Idol. I was actually not shocked at all, I kinda saw it coming after watching a few more youtube videos of Adam and Kris and now thinking back, I am actually surprised that Adam got this far (although I absoultely love him by the way) Here's my reasoning:
He wasn;t mainstream enough. He is obviously not the R&B/Hiphop/Rap type. He is a rocker. But not soft rock, crowd pleasin soft rock but rather LOUD METALLIC rock. Or perhaps alternative. He is NOT poppy at all. And I was surprised that they actually let him go this far. Perhaps it's his cute looks or how he staged his performance - I enjoyed all his performances. They were really entertaining. Perhaps the girls thought he was cute. But point being, Lambert is not mainstream - at all. He is not an American Idol but he is a star in his own right.
Now, I said earlier I wasn't shocked that Kris won right and here's why. First, Kris is mainstream. He is crowd friendly. He is someone I foresee hearing on the radio. The name Jason Mraz keeps popping up in my head, I wonder why. I love it when he is on his guitars and piano. He will take poppy melodious songs very very well. Moreover, I felt that voting for him with a combination of anti adam votes and kris fans votes. Let me explain. Adam's fanbase is CRAZY. They loved him. And Adam gets all the hype in the media. So there is this group of people who don't like him for whatever reasons and they decided that he shouldn't win and thus voted for Kris. There is another group of people, who are basically supporters of other contestants (Danny's fans perhaps) ans supported Kris. Honestly, Kris is more "centralist" (for lack of a better word) and his musical style is closerto many other contestants (Danny) who thus will be able to accept him better. On the other hand, Adam's fanbase is there already. It's an amazingly big fanbase - bigger than Kris but Kris wins really because i think almost all the fence sitters went to Kris.
I got to make a disclaimer here. That doesn't mean I don't like Kris. Kris has a way of connecting with me and everytime he carries that guitar on his back and smiles? I melt. But point being, Kris didn't really win because he had tons of die hard fans (he had a substantial amount but not as much as Adam) but because people didn't like Adam Lambert (okay. didn't like's too strong. They prefer more a mainstream style).It seems to happen all the time in American Idol. Someone got to pick up the votes of those who were sent home and the centralist takes all. SO unless one of the two finalist is SOOOO popular that even if all the fence sitting votes for the other, he will still win. If that is so, that guy must be a superstar. Adam came close, very close.
And on hindsight, I was VERY glad Adam didn't win. Can you imagine what type of album they would make Adam made as the "winner of american idol". And that is NOT him at all. I see him in an alternative genre, mixing and matching, screaming and jumping. Not ver idol yea? So in a sense, by being released from the crown of the American idol he doesn't need to sing crap. Someone PLEASE get good song writers for Adam and I am awaiting a stunning album from him.
I would want to get Kris's album and play it while I am chilling. Like last year's battle of the 2 davids? I think Kris needs to win more than Adam. Adam will do well whether he wins or not. And perhaps better if he didn't. Kris needs that additional boost. Moreover, Kris is the type of American Idol that the show advocates. Think like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood. A star from the masses. So in a sense, Kris embodies the whole of the Idol contest pretty well. And one last thing, No Boundaries is a better song for Kris anyway. I felt WEIRD when Adam sang it. VERY VERY weird. It was one of those neither here or there song and Adam can't really do his thing with it.
Then again, the song is crap la. I pity Kris for having to sing it for his first single. Don't even get me started man. Everyone hates the song and so do I. It ruined the final 2 performances I swear.
I want more of Allison-Adam. They are great together. Slow ride is one of my fave performance. They both can really rock the house down.
Allow me to venture another point. I think while the AI people clearly would like Adam to win, I think their way of arranging the finals was a sure way to ensure Adam WON'T win. Firstly, Adam's performances were all impresssive throughout the season. SO by asking him to re perform something is just a bad idea and Adam who is really famous for being creative, would lose out compared to Kris who is someone who gets progressively better and thus when he re sings any song it would be better. People who watched Adam would be like, oh, nice, good performance. But expected. The second song was good for both Adam and Kris. The final song was KILLERLY BAD. It was again, a Kris song more than an Adam song and again, many people who watch only the finals would be inclined to think Kris is better because Lambert doesn't get to show off. If you asked me, the first song should be a contestant choice instead of a recap from the previous. I really want to see Kris tear down a few more song (like what he did for heartless) and a few more outlandish performances for Adam.
So in a sense, I don't know, I cannot decide whether I like Adam or Kris more. Kris melts me in a certain way that I cannot really describe while Adam speaks of creativty, possiblity and rock. So it's really like the two sides of me being satisifed in one show. Not too bad for reality tv
Anyway, so, congrats Kris. I await your album. Adam, stun me again would you =)
Innocence
10:18 AM
Monday, May 11, 2009
I was reading Timothy Keller's The Reason for God. It was a pretty good book although I am already acquainted with some of the things he talked about. But the chapter on the Clues of God changed my perspective on generally the proving of God altogether. Subconciously I always felt that although not everything about God can be proven, but the evidence I have on my hands were soild proof to certain foundations of Christianity. But I appreciated Keller's insight upon this. Paraphased, what he was trying to drive at was that the there was a way to disprove everything that Christians claim to prove if we are looking at a airtight proof. Take for example, the argument about how everything in the universe were precisely calculated to sustain life meant that there must god. A skeptic could easily argue that well you can't prove or disprove Christianity with that piece of evidence. It could be an intelligent creator, it could be chance. Even if there was an intelligent creator it might not be the God of the bible either. So in a sense, the evidence kind of does nothing. And if you really run through many of the arguments for Christianity, it kind of appears that way too.
The question is, then how?
Keller proposes something called critical rationality in which he recongises that the dilemna as mentioned above exists. But one cannot deny that all these evidence gives one a CLUE that God exists. And following on that train of thought, he wrote that, at the end of the day things makes more sense when you put on the lenses of Christianity in light of the evidence than everything else (he went on to talk about how evolutionary naturalism and all fails in light of seeing everything as a concrete whole).
What I really liked about this section of the book is that, Keller admits that there is NO airtight proof of God per say. Which makes sense right, isn't it? If God is the ultimate playwright of our lives, then how are we going to find it? It's something like, using CS Lewis' example, how can Hamlet try to find Shakespeare in his attic? But what we do have on our hands are thus clues to the existence of this God. And the combination of these clues would be a very formidable force.
May I add something at the same time? I think the issue at hand is that, we are all flawed human beings. If that is so, then our thinking must be flawed isn't it? Therefore, although God gave us the gift of reason, if our fundemental nature is flawed, doesn;t it mean that there is also a possiblity that some of our rationalisations about things are wrong as well?
This, alongside the fact that evidence/arguements can be easily disputed, serves as a warning to myself as well that we must always listen to people who we try to talk to them about Christianity and beware of falling into the self righteous trap as well by sounding like a intellectual idiot by forcefully tweaking science and knowledge into Christianity when it really does not fit. We have got to listen and give others the credit of their arguments before we tear them down, in love.
Innocence
8:36 PM
