You Want A Piece Of Me

I really like this song by Britney Spears. Even more, I like that SHE is singing this song. For all the shit about her, this cuts right to the truth. In a pop tart electronica song, she gets hers. It is so true. Like the black guy who does the skit about being a lion in a zoo, in his comedy, Spears' has the same throw it back to you. She takes advantage of the fact that she is still above the fray, and still the candle in the wind, standing above it while others crawl. "you still want a piece of me" says a lot and shows the hierarchy. I would say, more than anything, this is an assertion of self AND that hierarchy, the social clime. I can relate to it in that I feel the freedom to do what I do and be me and be authentic, and even when others try to drag me down, I feel I am standing tall and my head is high. I have respect for ME, and YOU...well...lol...you want a piece of me!

So funny, because I remember talking to someone about Spears and he was saying he buried himself in drink when his date started philosophizing about Britney Spears. He was so bored he got drunk, to his mother's dismay. Which is funny, but I do like this one for saying something that's actually important, in its own way. Womanizer is just pure good mix and sound engineering and fun, but Piece of Me is the triumph song, in my opinion. It's still crass, and leaves nothing to the imagination, maybe hence the boredom, but I still like it for it's statement.

Then I hear songs like "Glide" by Rachel Stevens and remember why I don't like straight pop. This one is so forgetable. Everything about this song is flatliner.

I saw the guys assembling for the jazz thing last week and I guess I may as well talk to the owner of that coffee place. I met him a couple years ago when he first opened and he was the only store in town doing anything remotely creative, opening up the place and stage for music venues, if small. At least creating a space and forum and they're still there. I noticed a lot of new stickers on the door, for BMG or whatever songwriter organizations and things, and they have more instruments now. It used to be a drum set, piano and a few guitars but there's more stuff now. So I might see if I could jump in for some gigs and maybe grab a guitar and do some songwriting. For the first time in a long time, I played with a straight melody that was in my head. I couldn't figure out whether it was original though, or something I'd picked up somewhere. When I come up with melodies without using my guitar and lyrics coming at the same time, they're slightly classical in some ways. I adjust the tempo and shift a lot from one set of notes to another. More mountains and valleys. With a guitar, I can come up with lyrics at the same time, but my creativity is confined because I'm just strumming. I think it would be good if I could collaborate with a pianist at some point because there's more room for putting the range down.

I talked to a pilot before leaving D.C., who studies and reads about counterpoint. Piano counterpoint.