quick swig

So maybe my psychosis has gone a little out of whack recently. The main thing to do is to keep a positive mind and an calm attitude in check then you’ll be fine. To stay sane could only mean one thing, that is to block out, zone out. Even if it means standing up and falling asleep.

Home has become somewhat of a quick respite for me. I come back only to go online and slumber with my laptop next to me snugged up in my cheap-thin blanket. That is the best thing one could yearn for everyday in the lane of the retail fastlane.

Online television programs are keeping me lifted and not succumbing to madness. The return of Weeds heralds a new wave of pot-dealing and sexy Nancy Botwin and her screwed up yet somehow complete family. The adventures continue as the plot thickens.

Weeds’ Little Boxes and opening titles.

Also we have the Secret Diary of a Call girl to join in the fun of this summer stable. Belle De Jour is brought to life by Billie Piper in this print-to-screen TV version. Now probably Billie Piper wasn’t the best candidate of choice for the role of Belle, I have to say, she kind of suits the role actually.

Bille Piper is Belle De Jour

Then we have pretty hidden gems to look forward to. Pretty Handsome, formerly 4.oz, is one of them. Writer/director, Ryan Murphy has done it again. First with Nip/Tuck, now with Pretty Handsome. He (Ryan Murphy) has pushed the boundaries of TV once again.

With Pretty Handsome, Ryan Murphy deals with the fact that a suburban doctor, has to deal with the fact he wants to be a transsexual. Thus begins the story of how he must break it to his prefect suburban family. Thus unfolding a canopy of many problems within the family.

Starring Joseph Fiennes and Carrie Anne-Moss, Pretty Handsome reaches out to a group of people that deserves their own screentime. This is why this show pushes the envelope, choosing to use real people. I applaud this and only hope a TV network picks this up. Oh Brad Pitt is an executive produces this show too.

Lovely times calls for a quick swig into the unrelenting dreamland. Laughter and intelligent conversations takes the cake. The swig is done.

vastly expanding nothingness

Once again, attempted knocks were met with harsh rejection. I am beginning to think someone has a personal vendetta against me. But luck could contribute to this downfall of mine too. Someone get me a four leave clover or a leprechaun and bless me with some luck. Maybe a visit to an Irish pub might just do the trick.

I have been surviving the “punishing” world of retail though. I am slowly but steadily getting into the mundanity of things. Trust me this job is as mundane as it gets. I mean I do get the apparent “challenge” of retail, but once you know your bearings, anyone can be good at whatever they do. Hence this no brainer of a job are left to people who has not much of an aspiration in life or has not much education to begin with.

So, in the essence of someone just wanting a taste of what it feels like, I have a adopted a sort of “zen” attitude towards this job. Number one colleagues aren’t exactly the sort that can give me the satisfaction of an intelligent conversation. The old timers certainly don’t get me and I do not wish to know them too. After work conversations include making sexual jokes out of each other. Number two, work philosophy basically consists of, stand around-fold-refold-replenish-attend to customers-proceed to payment-end. Enough said.

I do laugh but its just empty laughter. I could not be more than bothered. These light airy moments will pass, I just need to put up this front. Once they have paid me my due I am out of there. I will bring with me lessons that I have learned the hard way. I do tell myself sometimes though, “I have sold my soul to the retail devil”. How could anyone ever do that? Work in retail then you’ll know.

seemingly

Life continues in the retail fastlane for me. One minute connections are made as sales are done and wrapped up in a jiffy. Staff politics are still kind of hard to deal with. Maybe its cos we are of different wavelengths and will never reach an agreement to it. Oh! The status of my social ineptness thus shows. 

Come lunchtime however, I seek refuge the only way I know how. By treating myself to a rather expensive sandwich and a rather quiet hour. Depending on the hour my lunch hour falls on, I hop on to Toast with a good magazine. Just the other day, I had warm pastrami on panini, iced tea and PaperMag to tide me through. I’m a happy camper. 

This is the only separation I get from my dreaded colleagues and the hours of folding clothes. I treasure it with all my might. It allows me to touch base with the fact that I am able to do more than just fold. It also reminds me that I do not need the interaction of my colleagues to give me the satisfaction I derive from human interaction.

I do feel that, these grievances of mine are just temporary. Soon enough i will get into the swing of things and be all settled. I wouldn’t thus need these embellishments to get me through. But how long can I be in the retail fastlane? Tracks do end eventually. This is not the career path for me, and i know it. I shall have my slice for a little while more and will thus relinquish it soon enough.

stack

Literally being drowned in the world of easy-to-wear-americanized-italian fashion has started for me. The politicking and blunders are all abound here on now. My first foray into the spectrum of retail has been met with the normal and all-to-familiar for any new comer stepping into any industry.

The typecast and stereotypes are slowly being categorized. There is the old timers, who are too comfortable on their “high horses” to even teach you anything. Even if they do get down from their “high horses” they step off their saddles in the most unwilling way. Their service is more polished than yours and they expect you to learn from them. But inside you think, “I wouldn’t want to be ya!”.

There are of course the helpful ones who are more than willing to help. But do it in the most reluctant way because they feel that they have someone to boss around now that they are not the most junior in store. The do-gooders are those who have honed their craft over the years and are rendered ” the expert” or the goto guy for any questions.

Then there are the customers, where do i even begin. Stories are definitely bountiful and too much to tell in such short span. Americanized-Italian fashion hits at all levels and does not discriminate not one bit. Hence you get a plethora of different peoples patronizing the shop and sometimes you. All is well though cos we are thought to eat it in. Like humble servants.

Day 1 basically can be summarized into this sentence – they throw you at the deep end of the water to swim. With no life jacket or float, one can only apply old methods of customer service you have experienced into use. 

Day 2 is familiarizing with the staff. I couldn’t be more “glad” that more than half the staff are of the fairer skin and speak the “fairer” language, which translates to chinese. I’m definitely smiling from ear to ear and jumping my highest in joy. Blah.

More days are acoming all i can say is, “it will only get better” and “customer service should not be defined”. Stay tuned!

take my chances anyway

Tomorrow heralds the beginning of something new its almost diabolical. Its the time where i get my butt off this computer sit and work my ass off for the money! I can only hope I will be able to get into the groove of things, because you never what kind of people you meet in eventuality. 

But this new beginning also calls for the rehashing of new topics and fun times. The laughter should pour through the screen as the reader reads it. But I tend to over-exaggerate so do forgive me.

Okay a little piece of music nugget just before I embark on this perilous and excitable road into the retail world. 

Boomkat returns to our soundscape with their new offering A Trillion Million Stars. Boomkat of course consists of Taryn Manning and her brother (the name to which i have forgotten). Their debut, Boomkatologue 1 was great trip hop album. It had edge and it was very fresh at that time.

With the first single off A Trillion Million Stars being Runaway, we see Boomkat take a new direction in their music. Runaway sounds like a good enough pop song. With a hint of a lazy beat and very driving lyrics. It sure will hit home with the jaded people of today. I find this song really suited for a bad day at work or just a bad day in general. The video for your viewing pleasure:

The video is as typical as it gets. But its not as ghetto as it should be, which is good. It has Taryn Manning mingling at a glamorous party but not at all feeling it. Then there is the running sequences which is supposed to bring lyric to live. It does that perfectly. I do like that jacket she runs in with though. Kudos. Let’s just hope a Trillion Million Stars delivers.

The next music nugget i present to you is Camille. Of French pop descent, this pop chanteuse as they are known in France i think. First touched base with my soundscape in the form of her single, Paris and subsequent album Le Fils. She is as quirky has any French pop acts out there. Her sound is minimal music production but heavy on the beats, hand claps and random blips.

She returns once again with a new single and a possible new album in the pipeline. First single, Gospel with No Lord is as typical a Camille song we can get. Its video is also very Camille. With different variations of Camille clapping and stomping to the beats of the song. Tres interesting i say!

The Video:

 

Hope this satisfies and rumbles into your eardrums! Au Revoir!

 

citizen

Who would’ve thought, a Canadian pop star would turn out to be one of the leading women of angsty feminist lyrics and songs. That singer would be Alanis Morissette. Having a singing career spanning from days of dancing around to today, a grown woman that is still great at what she does. 

The album in review, her latest, Flavors of Entanglement. Her brand new album in a long while. Oh, the angst is still present in this one. But much more “matured angst”, if that makes any sense. Taking her breakup with movie star, Ryan Reynolds as a catalyst she has made one of her best albums after, Under Rug Swept, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and lastly Jagged Little Pill. Not putting into account disastrously done, So-Called Chaos. Maybe i’m just being tough on Alanis, all her albums are great.

Flavors starts off with Citizen of the Planet, a promising opener. I shall label dear old Alanis a cunning linguist as she never fails to deliver great lyrics. Citizen is sort of declaration that she is a citizen of the planet, going from country to country. And you could almost say she is, having appeal to almost everyone in the world. A great mix of middle eastern beats and modern drums.

Citizen gives way to Underneath. Her first single off Flavors. Once again Alanis has applied her cunning linguist skills to good use. I have to get the album sleeve for the lyrics of this one. Cos half the time i can’t seem to understand what she sings in the chorus of the song. But that aside, Underneath is a great first single. With its buildup to its amazing chorus. And the video is abit, blah. I’d rather much prefer the one she did for some festival. Here it is:

Having been through Underneath, Alanis takes us into the dark dark reaches of her repertoire. With the songs StraightJacket and Versions of Violence. Both songs are strong thumpers of Flavors, with full blown rage in them. The first verse of StraightJacket ends with the lyrics “who do you think you are, talking to me with fucking disrespect”. Now that is angst. Versions is dark deep, singing about violence and its many versions.

Not As We and In Praise of the Vulnerable Man sees Alanis veer into the simple fact of her breakup. She does not hide any shyness of being completely heartbroken. No hidden meaning lyric to decipher for Not As We. It is as emotional as it gets. With just the accompaniment of a piano and Alanis, it doesn’t get as personal as this. In Praise, on the other hand gives ode to Ryan Reynolds and how she misses him. Plain and simple.

The next song, in my humble opinion, deserves a paragraph on its own. For me, the song, Moratorium, is the best song of the album. Its birth is the perfect combination of Guys Sigsworth (whom she worked with for Flavors) and Alanis. Its a totally new sounding Alanis on this one. Moratorium is basically a pledge for Alanis on “declaring a Moratorium on all things relationship” and “a respite from the toils of liaisons”. This is where her album name pops up too. I would say this is a grown up angst song. Along the lines of “You Oughta Know” but in a more grown up fashion. Ace i say! 

As the album closes, Alanis gives us really nice productions and simple lyrics. On Torch, she once again goes back to singing about Ryan. On how she never knew she could lay down her “Torch” for him. Its basically a sacrifice and lovelost song. It brings out the more sombre moments in the album.

Giggling Again For No Reason, brings up the rear of the album. It is a perfectly made pop song in my opinion. I see this as a potential single. The way the song is sung brings a sort of chilled atmosphere to the album. It is light on the beats but still keeps a nice tune. I remember dreaming about this song in my sleep. 

Tapes and Incomplete ends Flavors very tastefully. Tapes being a song about Alanis being her own enemy, losing herself in thoughts of sadness. Its a heart wrenching song with grand melodies and arrangement. Incomplete is sort of like Everything on So-Called Chaos. It is a sort a complete way to end the album, though the title suggests otherwise. Its light airy acoustic pop with beats.

Then we come to the conclusion. I will say this, this collaboration with Guy Sigsworth, works. Alanis, instead of going back to her angsty roots, has embraced a better direction of dispelling unhappiness in the name of a breakup. This is what progression should be all about. An artist not just sticking to something they are familiar with.

If you do get your hands on Flavors, do not miss out on the bonus tracks off it. Even they are good.