Dia Reeves

So I’ve been listening to “Old Man” by Neil Young a lot lately. Probably because I’ve been watching the documentary Dogtown a lot–not so much for the skateboarding as for the soundtrack. Anyway, I read somewhere that Young claims “Old Man” is about the janitor who worked for him, which I found very disappointing. Because to me, the song is about a (somewhat angry) son trying to get his father to acknowledge him as a person. But my interpretation isn’t based on anything except my crap relationship (relationship might be the wrong word) with my own father.

It’s impossible to have an opinion about something without revealing a part of yourself, isn’t it? And it’s also impossible to put something out in the world and say, okay this is what this is about and nothing more. Because people always internalize everything and come up with their own narrative, despite the creator’s original intent.

So Neil Young and his janitor can both suck it, I guess. I like my interpretation, and I’m sticking with it.

And I totally thought Neil Young wrote this song. Turns out, there’s some dude floating around out there called Neil Diamond. Who knew?

Tags: Music
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I really like the 80s band Devo, which I first discovered in an episode of Square Pegs (short-lived show about dorks trying to get in with the cool kids). I even remember the song from the episode, Jocko Homo, which is still one of my favorite Devo songs. (They also did the song Whip It, which even you young’uns have heard of .)

Anyway, this guy recommended I listen to a Japanese band called the Polysics because they have the same nerdilicious sound and aesthetic as Devo. See for yourself.

Unless you speak Japanese, fast forward the Polysics video to about 2:08.

Tags: Music
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I love playlists. I have playlists built around all kinds of crap: food, people’s names, nonsense lyrics, mean boys, robots, spooky sh*t (I blogged about this particular playlist here). I even have a playlist based solely on the Berkinator, which I like to call Berkin’ It Up.

And so of course I have playlists for my books. Here’s a sampling from the Bleeding Violet playlist.

Tags: Bleeding Violet, Music, playlist
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• I hate surprise parties. If you want to be my friend, never throw a party for me. Ever. I will not forget and I will not forgive.
• I think it’s cute that some reviewers think writers look at bad reviews, study the criticism, and then use the lessons learned from the criticism to suck less when writing their next book. Absolutely adorable.
• Speaking of bad reviews, to all the reviewers who don’t like Bleeding Violet, but who think I have talent and are looking forward to my next book, don’t bother. It’s just more of the same sex and violence and surreal crap that turned you off in the first place. Try a Sisterchicks novel instead–those are sweet and wholesome, and when you turn the last page, the story will not linger in your mind or derange it with disturbing thoughts or imagery. You have been warned.

I haven’t done a Music Monday in a long time. I’m in a mood to celebrate the bizarre, and who’s more bizarre than Grace Jones? She’s this scary/beautiful supermodel from the 80s who’s been in movies, but is also a singer. She even sings in French–that’s how badass she is. This song isn’t in French; it IS creepy and strange though, and I’m kind of into it right now.

Tags: Music, random thoughts, weeding out the non-weirdos
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Sometimes I can’t reconcile these two sides of myself, you know? One side is moved almost to tears by old school Al Green.

(And note that he’s not lip-synching, which is typically the norm on Soul Train, even way back in the day.)  But the other side loves the awesome battle rap that is “Top That”.

(I especially love the guy rocking the capris and all those sweet sweet dance moves.)

I’m not sure how the two sides of my self are able to coexist, but they do. I should work at the UN and school warring nations on how to live in peace. If I can do it, everybody should be able to.

Tags: Music
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Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but if you know me, then you know how much I loathe blogging–I can seriously never think of anything to say. So why blog, you ask? Cuz this WP theme came with one. When I’m a big, grown-up writer, I’m gonna have a Web site built without a blog. That’s when you’ll know I’ve truly arrived.

Now on to the music. I’ve gotten into this Brit group called the Arctic Monkeys–how geeked out is that name?–and this song they have called “My Propeller”. I have three of their CDs and “My Propeller” is the best thing they’ve done, imho.

Tags: Music
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I got to thinking about this after fellow Tenner Josh Berkman (he’s @joshberkbooks on Twitter; go bug him) tweeted about pulling up to some gangstas when his car stereo sadly started blasting this:

So I started thinking of other songs that I like, but wouldn’t be caught dead listening to. Here’s a few good’uns in no particular order:

Sunshine Day – The Brady Bunch Kids

Afternoon Delight- Starland Vocal Band

We’ve Only Just Begun – The Carpenters

Feelin’ Kinda Sunday – Frank & Nancy Sinatra

Brand New Key – Melanie

Good Morning Starshine – Oliver

Sunshine on My Shoulders – John Denver

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. My music collection is full of wuss songs like that. But that’s because I’m musically tolerant. For me there’s almost no such thing as bad songs, only songs I refuse to admit I like. :p

Tags: Music
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