Comment: Funny, personal. I liked the discussion on mis-hearing lyrics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nI am more of a karaoke enthusiast than a person who is possibly tone deaf probably should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ensconced in the orange glow of the largest of the private rooms, I prepared to scream I\u2019m a free bitch baby, <\/em>with all of my heart, but the screen said I\u2019m a freak bitch baby<\/em> and I blinked and tried to determine which of us was making the mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn my late 20\u2019s I joined a Facebook group called “All of My Friends Are Getting Married, I\u2019m Just Getting Drunk,” but then most of my friends got married and the joke wasn\u2019t funny anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even most of those who didn\u2019t have been paired with the same person long enough to have missed out on more recent dating joys like Tinder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had the kind of fame where when I met her for dinner my mother would introduce me to waiters as \u201cMy daughter, the famous writer\u201d, and I\u2019d have to remind her that actual famous people don\u2019t have to be announced as famous.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Pair 2: <\/strong>Hallway vs. Heaven<\/strong> => Hallway<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/span>A Song Is a Room Off the Hallway of Your Life, Abigail Oswald on The Killers\u2019 \u201cMr. Brightside<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\nSuppose you are in a mall, wandering its brightly lit expanse in search of some material object.
Suppose\u2026
Or, suppose you are alone.
In all of these places at all of these different times, the same song begins to play. The song varies from person to person; mine will always be a synthy three-and-half-minute anthem for the heartbroken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The music opens a door, and in all these different moments, all these different versions of you walk through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this way the song is a moment suspended in time, amber for a woman immortalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a fundamental artistic impulse buried there\u2014your heart has been broken, and then the next thought: Can I turn this pain into something else?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nIt was as if the device itself contained the only sonic tunnel back to my adolescence,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A song is a room off the hallway of your life. And wherever you are, whatever you\u2019re doing, the simple recognition of those opening riffs will always feel like coming home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>That Road Before: DJ Sammy\u2019s \u201cHeaven\u201d by Michael A. Van Kerckhove <\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nComment: Nothing really grabbed me in this essay. It is a bit too narrative; too telling rather than showing. And then it does a sort of analysis or exegesis of the lyrics, rather than weaving that into the essay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Pair 3: <\/strong>Anthem vs. Peaches<\/strong> => Peaches<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/span>BRIAN OLIU ON LMFAO\u2019S \u201cPARTY ROCK ANTHEM\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nCOMMENT: Didn\u2019t really resonate with me; a bit too much about the song and lyrics, not much about personal experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>TAP YOUR TROUBLES AWAY: LILY HERMAN ON PEACHES\u2019S \u201cFUCK THE PAIN AWAY\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nCOMMENT: Doesn\u2019t really speak to me, but still nicely done. Raw, but also insightful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nLife is fucked and hard. Sure, but we all knew that. The dirty secret, the thing that none of us wants to admit, is that we are all subject to periods where we believe it won\u2019t be fucked or hard anymore for us. <\/em>We can suddenly listen to sad songs in these interims, appreciate them for their acumen or lyrical sinew or for a clever horn interlude, because we briefly feel exempt from their warnings.<\/p>\n\u2014 Tap Your Troubles Away: lily herman on peaches\u2019s \u201cfuck the pain away\u201d<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n