Today I’m a punk rocker – amongst other things

 In English, Music  Comments Off
Oct 282011
 

As everything else in life, my preference for what music I like comes in cycles. Today I’m a punk rocker (with a few sweet exceptions). I just checked the playlist on my phone (a HTC something-or-whatever, I never can remember the model) and here’s 60 albums that I love right now. This music really gets me in the mood.

3 Doors Down "3 Doors Down"
30 Seconds To Mars "This Is War"
3 "Revisions"
A Day To Remember "For Those "Who Have Heart"
Allstar Weekend "Suddenly Yours
Anberlin "New Surrender"
Angels And Airwaves "Love"
Anti-Flag "The Bright Lights Of America"
Augustana "Cant Love Cant Hurt"
Better Than Ezra "Paper Empire"
Blind Melon "For My Friends"
Blink 182 "Enema Of The State"
Blue October "History For Sale"
Bowling For Soup "Sorry For Partyin"
Breaking Benjamin "Were Not Alone Here"
Brian Howe "Circus Bar"
Bullet For My Valentine "Scream Aim Fire"
Counting Crows "Aural 6"
Cute Is What We Aim For "Rotation"
Dead By April "Stronger"
Death Cab For Cutie "Codes And Keys"
Fazeshift "The Everyday Broken Heart"
Fightstar "Be Human"
Five For Fighting "Slice"
Five Times August "Brighter Side"
Funeral For A Friend "Casually Dressed And Deep In Conversation"
Gin Blossoms "No Chocolate Cake"
Good Charlotte "The Young And The Hopeless"
Green Day "Awesome As Fuck"
Hedley "Go With The Show"
Hoffmaestro  "Skank-A-Tronic Punkadelica"
Hoobastank "For(n)ever"
Jimmy Eat World "Bleed American"
Lifehouse "Smoke and Mirrors"
Linkin Park "A Thousand Suns"
Madina Lake "Attics To Eden"
Maroon 5 "Hands All Over"
My Chemical Romance "The Black Parade Is Dead"
My Dying Bride "An Ode to Woe"
Needtobreathe "The Outsiders"
No Doubt "Everything In Time"
No Use for A Name "Keep Them Confused"
One Night Only "One Night Only"
Panic At The Disco "Vices And Virtues"
Placebo "Battle For The Sun"
Plain White T's "Every Second Counts"
Rise Against "Appeal To Reason"
Set Your Goals "Burning At Both Ends"
Simple Plan  "Simple Plan"
Sister Hazel "Heartland Highway"
Skillet "Awake"
Snow Patrol "A Hundred Million Suns"
Staind "Chapter V"
Sum 41 "Screaming Bloody Murder"
The Academy Is "Fast Times At Barrington High"
The All-American Rejects "When The World Comes Down"
The Brains "The Brains"
The Paper Chase "Now You Are One Of Us"
The Real Deal "Fun"
Toad the Wet Sprocket "Fear"
 Posted by at 17:47  Tagged with: ,

There’s something about her

 In English, People, Writing  Comments Off
Oct 052011
 
Woman Eating Apple - photo by Ambro

Woman Eating Apple - photo by Ambro

I’ve been thinking about my female characters. Or any male author’s female characters, for that matter. Commonly I, and perhaps everybody else, as well, see what we want to see. Some ten or fifteen years ago, on a sunny spring day, I walked through a small town. Having walked through the whole town, I thought that there seemed to be a disproportionate number of females in that town. Unusually attractive as well, I thought. Strange. That didn’t seem statistically correct. So I walked the same way back, but this time with my eyes a bit more objective. It wasn’t true, of course, there were an equal number of women and men, and there were, of course, all kinds of beautiful and ugly, just like everywhere else.

How do we portray people we never see? How does a man portray a female character and vice versa? Supposedly men are from Mars and women are from Venus and we don’t even speak the same language. When it comes to me, I don’t really understand any human being fully. But then again, I’m from Earth. The point is: who are these people? What do they not tell me and what do I not see?

So, how do I portray other men and women convincingly? Do I really have to understand all the motions? Or can I just simply describe what everything looks like to me and hope that it is close enough to get away with?

I’m a man. I do not have a vagina and I cannot give birth. I’m raised as a male, and all what comes along with that. As a boy all my friends were boys. However, I had a mother and I have a sister, and have had a few girlfriends and a wife. I have three daughters and most of my friends are female. Still, I know less about the female mind and of women’s true feelings, than I know of the male psyche. Or so I believe, anyway.

In an attempt to rectify this, I read a lot of female authors these days and preferably literature where the main character is female. I need to know the character I am writing about. I cannot write about someone I know nothing about. Well, I know some things, but not nearly enough. So I study.

Meanwhile, I’m still writing her. I will get her right sooner or later. It may, or may not, be a fairly accurate account of a woman, but she will be there.

 Posted by at 00:45  Tagged with: , ,
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