Wednesday, November 7, 2007

CMA Awards- Taylor Swift

When I got home from work today, I flipped the tv on. It happened to be on the CMA awards. While I heated up my dinner, I kept it on, but didn't really watch it. When I sat down to eat, Taylor Swift was about to begin her performance. If you don't know who she is, she's this amazing 17 year old singer/songwriter. I've never seen her videos, but her music has an acoustic natural, homespun type sound. She just sounds real- not all synthesized like the rest of the teeny boppers her age.

So, much to my horror, I watched her perform Our Song while she looked like a Robert Palmer back up girl. (Black minidress, black gloves, doing the side to side hip groove thang.) She looked like a cross between Hannah Montana and a rocker Barbie. It just made me sad. Who told her to do that? Her music is outstanding, especially considering she wrote most of the songs at the ripe old age of fourteen or fifteen. So, why with such real lyrics and a natural sound, do you ruin it by drowning herself in sequins? Her voice sounded great, but she looked ridiculous. She would have been so much better off had she just worn a cute little shirt and jeans and stood at the microphone. It would have been much less manufactured and true to her music.

Maybe this was her idea of a dream performance, but my guess is the dang music industry trying to take a down-home girl and turn her into a country-western Britney Spears. Have they not seen enough of the results of that? The only performances Britney has right now are inside a court room.

spinning wheels...

Do you ever feel like a hamster on a wheel spinning your wheels yet going nowhere? That pretty much sums up my life right now. Two or three days a week I walk outside to find the sun has gone down and my car is the only one out there besides the janitors. And yet, I feel like I have absolutely nothing to show for it. My room is still a mess, my planning is still not done, there's a stack of paper a foot high of papers I need to grade. It's just so disheartening.

I get home and just can not bring myself to even look at my work. I cart it to and from work all too often without touching it. It's just hard.

Don't get me wrong- I have a great job. For the most part, the kids are great. They are sweet and eager to learn. They do have quite a bit more mood swings than I am used to, but overall, they are survivors. I love watching them show their attitude.

It's just a lot of change and adaptations when I really didn't ask for it.