“Fairweather Friend” — Vanessa Carlton

Rabbits On the Run, Vanessa Carlton’s fourth studio album was released this past Tuesday and I’m still waiting to get my signed copy in the mail, but I’ve heard all the songs already.  🙂   Anyway, this is one of the songs on the record and for whatever reason, it’s been stuck in my head all day.  When I first heard this song when she performed it live a couple years back, I thought it was an alright song, but the more I listen to it now, the more I see and notice the details in the words Vanessa’s chosen, and it gets that much stronger every time.

Have a listen yourself: (and get the CD!)

30 Day Song Challenge: Day 19: A song from your favourite album

Vanessa Carlton is awesome.

30 Day Song Challenge: Day 1

My boyfriend recently started this thing on facebook called the 30 Day Song Challenge and he told me to take part in it as well and since I am easily persuaded, I decided to start doing the same.  What I’m doing a little differently is I’ll be writing a tiny bit about why I chose the song for the particular day since I know all of you want to be exposed to the awesome, wonderful music I love so much.

Day 1 is supposed to be my favourite song, which in itself might seem hard to pick but I had actually thought about it recently and it was a toss-up between Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” (which technically is not a song but rules are flexible!) or what I eventually went with, Vanessa Carlton’s “White Houses”.  It’s the song that made me become a “nessaholic” after I heard it and watched the (banned by MTV) music video, and it’s a bittersweet song for me about innocence, being young, and coming of age.  It’s a song I can listen to over and over again and never get tired of.

“Get Good” — Vanessa Carlton

It’s been a while since I posted something in the Music category, mainly because I wanted to concentrate on writing other things more, but lately, I haven’t been very inspired to write anything awesome, but I figured I might as well post something now since it appears as if I have something to say!

Anyone who even remotely knows me knows that I adore Vanessa Carlton and anything she does.  Unfortunately, most people only know her by “A Thousand Miles” which was almost 10 years ago now (wow…) but she has much better songs!  Really!  Vanessa’s planning to release her 4th album titled Rabbits on the Run this June on the 21st and she’s played some new songs off the record.  Like a true fan, I love all her new material but one in particular is affecting.

According to Carlton, “Get Good” was written for a friend of her’s who was going through a tough time in her life with a divorce.  I find the lyrics to be really deep and oddly healing.  I’ve listened to this song when I’m feeling emotional and it somehow manages to calm me down, to bring me back down and to think somewhat rationally again.  And such is the power of music.

The clip I’ve linked to is the premier of the song and Vanessa explains a bit about the song before playing it (to just hear the song, skip to 1:59)  And surprise!  There’s no piano in the song!  (or at least the live, here)  Enjoy!

Crazy dream

One that I had a couple nights ago.

I was watching TV and the news was reporting an actor of a famous show like CSI or something had died.  They showed a photo of him posing, a white cloth surrounding his body, arms outstretched, reminiscent of Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel (I recognized his face though it was not until after I woke up and thought about it that I realized it was David Sutcliffe).  Anyway, he was reported to have lived in Vancouver, downtown and for some reason, he was a homeless person, helping kids.  The news showed the last known footage of him where some people were interviewing him, and that was the last they saw of him.  Police were asking for witnesses; Maggie, my sister, was, I’m assuming, in the room with me, as she then said out loud and stressed for everyone to report anything remotely suspicious, including “people who may weren’t supposed to be where they were.”

As they showed the area around which the actor lived downtown, I somehow found myself transported to where the camera on TV was shooting.  My mom, Maggie, and I were all there, going to this restaurant + movie theatre that combined a meal and a movie for a really cheap price (why hasn’t anyone thought of that?), and best of all, it was in the same building so we didn’t even have to leave.  I distinctly remember it being quite bright outside — lots of yellows and oranges.  When we went inside and stood in line behind a couple, I noticed the movies they had playing.  They were books lined up on the floor that indicated the movies.  Unfortunately, I don’t remember any of the movies apart from Alice in Wonderland which my sister and I had already seen.  We all agreed on a strange, indie movie that none of us had really heard of before.

We paid for our tickets and were invited to sit down and wait for our food and the movie.  The couple who were ahead of us in line sat directly across the table from us so that we were facing each other, like a picnic table.  Somehow, there was a piano in front of me and I started playing around on it, eventually playing Vanessa Carlton’s “Papa” because it sounds hard.  As usual, people didn’t seem to take any notice and when I was done, I wondered what else to play.  There were a lot of songs I could’ve played but they didn’t sound as good because the piano part alone doesn’t sound all that great without singing, and I wasn’t going to start singing in this restaurant.

I heard the couple in front of us and everyone else in the restaurant speaking French but I didn’t know what to say since I wasn’t fluent.  My sister, who sat nearby, was reading through a French-English dictionary and suddenly asked aloud, “How do you say ‘The French got an army…?'”

I replied, “Les francais ont un…” and the guy sitting across from us, obviously listening, finished my sentence and said, “un arme”. (I’m told that’s not the right word for “army”, btw).  There was something else about “the English” but I don’t remember that.  I eventually started playing my own song, “Un Pas” and the woman in front of us smiled and mentioned to her boyfriend, “Ah, Amelia…” or something wrong like that.  I knew she meant Amelie, the awesome French movie with Yann Tiersen’s music so I stopped playing and told them in French that actually, I was playing a song that I wrote but that I love Amelie and Yann Tiersen.

They were eventually called in to eat or watch the movie or something.  We waited around for a bit more before being called in too.  I texted my friend/super film guy about the movie we were going to see and his reply was something along the lines of “Oh, that movie has great 3D, 5, 6, and 7D, and we’re already 3 weeks into the course and we’ve only started learning about 3D!  It’s a cool movie and I like the toys.  I also like the Glum [something] character.” and somehow, I knew that the Glum character was me.  Did that make me a part of the movie?

So we went down this hallway and I was carrying this big gameboard mat thing for some reason.  It was a turquoise color.  We go into this other room where I set the mat down.  In the room is a guy wearing a mask that doesn’t quite cover his face.  Something like this:

He told us to find some books in the room and put our hands in them.  There were conveniently two books right by me — one which i don’t remember but that it was a bigger book, and my Spanish-English dictionary.  I saw my mom sitting at a table with no books but with some Chinese magazines like the ones she reads and the guy with the mask told her she could use them.  With our hands in the books, he came around and with this bottle of pastey-looking stuff and smeared it on the books.  Then, he told us to start flapping our arms and fly.  Which we did, and which it worked.

However, my Spanish-English dictionary was too small and it fell off my hand and then became useless.  I told the Mask Guy and he picked me up and I clung onto him while he flew around the room, my head leaning into the warmth of his shoulder.

Suddenly, I’m shouting, “DIE, CHICKEN, DIE!” and I wake up on the floor.  I have a hunch he dropped me and that I was unconscious for a while but I somehow got saved or something.  Anyway, I think I went flying again and this time the dictionary worked.  There wasn’t anyone else in the large room with me but while I was flying, these black snake-like cords were launching themselves at me from nowhere.

Wake up again.  I think I just got hit by a black cord or something.  Next to me in a row are piles of those black cords, wriggling around, and I can see chickens in there.  I tear at the pile closest to me to free the chicken but when I get to it, it’s grey and thin, and it looks more like a robot chicken (no pun intended) than anything else.  So I got the chicken and I don’t quite remember if I picked it up and started flying with it or not but I did start to fly again and I realized I was in my house, although the house itself seemed to be on a much, much larger scale — everything was gigantic.  I flew around the walls, avoiding the black cords, and into the kitchen.  I managed to open the back door and the gate, both of which were huge, and flew outside to supposed freedom.  But I still had a feeling I was being watched so I tried to fly as stealthy as I could, flying into the neighbour’s yard so as to stay away from the windows of my house and not be watched.  I heard the door close behind me as I flew away.

I’ve never been good at flying in my dreams and this one was no different.  I found it hard to control where I was going and how high and low I wanted to go.  I veered around my neighbour’s yard for a bit and then proceeded to go to the back lane where I suddenly became Wallace, from Wallace and Gromit.  There was Gromit standing behind me and I “knew” again that I had to walk/shuffle sideways to avoid seeming strange.  So we shuffled slowly sideways, me looking north, towards my house and him walking with his back to me, facing south.  I saw something moving in the windows of my house but couldn’t discern it.

Eventually, we shuffled and shuffled all the way to a busy street where there was a guy who dressed like a lame hipster/gangster stared at us as we slowly walked from him.  I think he may have been leaning on a fire hydrant.  He had a cigarette and I thought he was going to attack us but he merely stared and stared through his colorful sunglasses, and burned this guy standing nearby with his cigarette .

Eventually again, we got to a basketball court with lots of teenagers around, who were also staring at us suspiciously and that decided we weren’t welcome so they chased us.  I was suddenly running with two other people: Chris Martin from Coldplay and this other girl.  While we were running, she took out two books from her bag and gave them to me.  I tried to fly but I couldn’t get very high.  I realized that in order to fly and leave this place through some sort of portal, I needed to sink a basket.

All the kids crowded around me, taunting me and calling me names.  They wanted me to lose and were throwing basketballs around me, at the hoop in the hope of deflecting my ball.  I saw Chris Martin and the girl nearby and knew they were invisible to everyone since they had found the portal and were waiting for me.  They cheered me on.

I threw the ball and closed me eyes, not knowing if I got it in or not.  It was up to me to decide, not everyone else.  With my eyes still closed, I thought I didn’t get it in but I said I did because I was so tired of losing.

“Who’s To Say” — Vanessa Carlton

I’ve been listening to this song on repeat for the last week or so, which I don’t normally do with any song.  Whenever I listen to it, I imagine it as a music video that goes along the lines of this:

Stand up straight.
Do your trick, turn on the stars;
Jupiter shines so bright when you’re around.

A young guy is at the piano.  He’s lipsynching to the song, singing it.  It’s morning, and everything is oversaturated with whites and yellows, bright colors.  Obviously it’s sunny and it’s morning.

They tell us slow down.
We’re too young, “you need to grow”
Well, speed’s the key,
And they don’t know who we are.

The young guy walks down the street with his boyfriend, while people around him give them looks.  Someone tells them, “you need to grow” and he replies, “Well, speed’s the key.”  They continue walking down the street, content with each other as people look on, ignorant of who they are.

CHORUS:
And who’s to say
We’re not good enough?
Who’s to say
that this is not our love?

The young man sits watching the news on TV.  People are protesting same-sex marriage, holding up signs that say gay people don’t deserve it, that they should go to hell, etc.  Mean things.  He watches as new reporters interview some people, who seem really angry and wave their signs around.  Insert some shots of gay people on the street also protesting, holding hands, in tears.

Mother, don’t tell me friends are the ones that I lose
’cause they bleed before you
and sometimes family are the ones you choose.
It’s too late now,
I hold onto this life I’ve found

The young man sits at a dinner table, talking with his mother.  She scolds him about being in a relationship (“Friends are the ones that [you] lose, ’cause they bleed before you”, “sometimes family are the one s you choose”) while he tries to reason with her (“It’s too late now, I hold onto this life I’ve found”).  The camera dips below the table and he’s holding hands with his boyfriend, who is giving him strength even though he’s not there.

And who’s to say we won’t burn it out?
Who’s to say we won’t sink in doubt?
Who’s to say we won’t fade to grey?
Who are they anyway
anyway, they don’t know.

He keeps reasoning with his mother — not in an angry, “why don’t you understand me?!” teenager way, but in a “Well, mom, who’s to say?”  Intercut this with more shots of him and his boyfriend with saturated background, sunlight pouring around them as they lean in with closed eyes and also intercut with more images from the TV of couples holding hands, protesting their right to marry.

And you say we’re too young but maybe you’re too old to remember,
And I try to pretend but I just feel it when we’re together.
And if you don’t believe me you never really knew us.
You never really knew.

The young man at the dinner table still, telling his parents bluntly how they don’t remember what it is like to be young and in love, as they only stare back at him.  At “You never really knew”, they get up from the table and walk away from him.  The camera pulls back as they leave, leaving him sitting all alone at the table.  Fade to black.

You and I, packing up my room
We feel alright.
But we’re not welcome
Soon, we’ll be driving
’cause they don’t know who we are.

The couple pack up his room.  There are slight moments when they have a laugh but they more or less pack without any emotion.  It’s not really a day to be happy nor sad.  Bittersweet.  The parents watch from the doorway, trying to hide their disappointment and also sadness at watching their son leave.  The young man picks up a picture frame of him and his family.  At “but we’re not welcome”, he turns to his parents in the doorway and puts the picture back down, not packing it.

At “soon, we’ll be driving”, the couple drive away from the house as it gets smaller and smaller in the mirror.

Who’s to say we won’t stay together?
Who’s to say we aren’t getting stronger?
Who’s to say I can’t live without you?
Who are they anyway?
Anyway, they don’t know.

Intercut with flashfowards of the couple moving in to their new place, more with the protest on television, and the couple with the light around them.  At “I can’t live without you” they’re both in tuxedos, getting married.  He lipsynchs to his boyfriend the line, which is also cut with the young man at the dinner table again, telling his parents who they are for telling him otherwise.

And they say we’re too young but maybe you’re too old to remember
And I try to pretend but I just feel it when we’re together
Who’s to say?
Who’s to say?
Who are they anyway?

Intercut more scenes with people at the protest saying, “maybe you’re too old to remember”, and “I just feel it when we’re together” with the couple in the car, driving to their future, as well as the wedding.  At the “Who’s to say?”, the young man asks his parents, his husband at their wedding, to the camera at the protest on tv, and lastly, with the light around them.  At “Who are they anyway?” the young guy looks directly into the camera and mouths the words.

Stand up boy,
I shine so bright when you’re around.

Back to the first scene, where it’s morning and the young man is playing piano and singing.  His boyfriend (not yet husband) comes into the room, smiling.  The young man stops playing and smiles back.  He gets up from the piano, walks over to him and kisses him.

THE END!

Anyway, that’s roughly what I think about whenever I hear this song.  I sometimes think about how awesome it would be to see this made into a music video and then I think that I should be the one to do it since I’m sort of a director (reluctantly) but it’s just too much work, I think.  Also, something like this would require a budget, of which I have none.  Oh, I forgot to mention that whenever I hear this and think about the story, it makes me cry.  I think there’s a good idea behind anything if it can make me cry…