Sundays of doing nothing are over! June 17, 2007
Posted by Renato Vargas in On any given day.2 comments
Doing nothing on Sundays; oh, the joy of laying in bed and watching reruns of Friends and films where things blow up and don’t require much thinking, cell phone off, all three meals involving some sort of really unhealthy delivery food (usually pizza or fried chicken), and generally, just shutting the brain down. Indeed, a habit I picked up from this girl I used to date. Sundays with her would go by in what could be described as an almost state of diminished awareness in which our mere primal instincts were dominant, and activities would go from having great sex in the morning, to dozing off afterwards, waking up only when hunger was too much to bear, trying to watch a rental after eating a greasy burger, only to find ourselves sleeping halfway through it, waking up for a while in the evening to bathe, and seizing the moment to squeeze in some wet shower sex, only so that we could go to bed early, after a little pillow talk. Nothing like feeling rested on Monday to start a good week.
That relationship would “slowly collapse like a flan in a cupboard”, in the words of Eddie Izzard, but the damage was done. I turned into a big blob of nothing on Sundays and I’ve been doing more or less the same things (minus the great sex) for the last couple of years. Only, lately I haven’t experienced the same feeling of restfulness that I did back then.
I guess it must be some sort of mid-twenties life crisis, but nowadays I get the feeling that there are things I have got to get done before I get killed by a gigantic pile of paperwork, or that awful office coffee I keep drinking (don’t ask me why). There is this advertisement/trivia on the National Geographic Channel that asks the viewer how old Michaelangelo was when he sculpted the David; the single, most recognized statue in history. Of course, when the answer comes, it is my exact age: 26. Oh, you don’t have any idea of how much that bothers me, because it means that I could have done something amazing or revolutionary by now, but instead, I’m letting my youth slip away.
Take today for example. It was perfect for the old doing nothing routine: a bit chilly, a light, but constant rain, pizza in the fridge, but I couldn’t do it; not today. By ten in the morning I was fed up with the things on tv, and my bed felt ever so unconfortable. Of course, I got up, made the bed, and got in the shower, but the problem is that after I came out, well, I just didn’t know what to do. I thought of going out to look for a giant block of marble to chisel, but that might not get me the results I’m looking for. Besides, I’m not sure they have those in the local hardware store, and I don’t trust myself with a sharp object in one hand and a hammer in the other. Can you imagine, a 911 emergency just waiting to happen.
I sat down in front of the computer, and wrote this post expecting that after I was done with it, I would have come up with something cool to do, and we’re almost at the end of it and nothing came to mind. Of course, blogging is cool in itself, but you know what I mean. I keep telling myself that I am destined to do great things in this world… but what the hell are they?
My life’s soundtrack June 13, 2007
Posted by Renato Vargas in Reviews.add a comment
I often get the feeling that there’s a song for every situation. It seems like my life’s soundtrack is constantly playing on my head, and at the least expected time, a tune reminds me of a great moment. There was always music in my house. My grandfather was a great philarmonic musician and used to write children songs. He would always change the lyrics of famous songs into vulgarized versions of them, which was incredibly funny, and we had songs for everything: eating, going to bed, peeing, etc. My parents also owned great records, so I grew up listening to Queen, The Beatles, The Ventures, the King and others that had a tremendous influence on me. Although that did not matter; we changed the lyrics on their songs as well.
Over the years, for a strange reason, one tends to forget about things like singing in front of the mirror with a hairbrush, screaming at the top of one’s lungs: “she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah”, or doing one-man performances of Bohemian Rhapsody, with opera singers and everything. Undoubtedly, you do it still, but now there has to be enough alcohol in your system for it to sound exactly like it used to, at least in your head.
I had a friend with whom we used to write songs in high school. We tried to write songs for our class, that featured happy themes, like partying, going crazy, rock and roll, but they always ended up being depressive. Usually whining about girls that we couldn’t have. Ahhh, if I only knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have suffered so much for girls like that. Plus, I probably would have done them. Heh, heh. Not! After that, I discovered Aerosmith (even though they had been on the scene longer than I had been alive) made it my favorite band of all times, and bought a bunch of albums that my friends hated, like Toys in the Attic, but that was it. Music didn’t make much echo ever since.
I hadn’t realized how much music meant to me, until this morning, when a friend of mine showed me a picture of The Simpsons (great influence that deserves a post of their own). He thought it was funny. But that was it. When I said to him “yeah, great parody”, he immediately turned his face into a question mark. He was not aware that the famous Yellow Album picture was a parody of the all timer Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover.
It hit me; music has been an immense part of my life and I should be more aware of it. I have to bring ”the notes” back into my life and give them the spot they deserve, so now I will try to explore some of the less travelled roads of music in search of great sounds to serve as background in the different episodes and scenes of my days.
The first song I want to share with you, has been a top-tenner at GarageBand.com for some time now. It’s from a Canadian band called Desert Radio. And, wait… I know what you’re going to say, but think about it, Barenaked Ladies are Canadians too, and let’s face it, they rule. I believe Desert Radio deserves to make it in the business. The song’s called February Day. Lyrics are a bit melancholic, but I think it would make a great song for one of those days when you’re driving home at dawn, preferably in a convertible, but if you’re like me, and can’t afford one, well, just roll your window down to get the same “wind blowing in your face” effect, sun in your eyes, and smile remembering that incredible chapter of your life you shared with that special someone, regardless if later on she or he turned out to be a complete psycho…. with a knife and everything! Anyway, I hope you like it.
A journey back into creativity June 9, 2007
Posted by Renato Vargas in On any given day.add a comment
Now that I have more time for myself, I started thinking about how I used to be really creative and healthy. Constantly thinking of writing, drawing, singing, exercising. Nowadays, all that is gone . I can’t remember the last time I picked up a pencil and drew something. My writing has become more official and scientific, which sucks.
I’m not going to complain about it anymore, and I’m going to start doing things I can be proud of. It’s just that, it seems that whenever I had some free time, I was so tired from the university and work that I would just lay on my bed and watch TV. The inevitable happened. I developed a sedentary belly, rosey cheeks and bad sleeping habits.
I already started exercising a bit. Now I need to fire up my good side of the brain. A while ago, I started an animation project which has been put on hold too long. That is going to change. I’ll let you know how that goes soon.
Let’s start this thing June 8, 2007
Posted by Renato Vargas in On any given day.add a comment
Okay, so I finally finished school, and now I feel like I have to get all the crap they taught me out of my head, before it finishes killing my hopes, dreams, sense of humor, and creativity. I intend to use this space to explore the good side of me, which has been repressed by countless hours of reading useless things I needed to read to pass tests. When I was a kid, everyone thought I was going to be a comedian or a graphic artist, or something like that, and I became something completely different. I’m seriously going to change that, starting now.
