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About This Author
I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.
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Blogocentric Formulations
Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:
Thanks for stopping by! 
February 23, 2014 at 1:36pm February 23, 2014 at 1:36pm
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DAY 23
Song: "Hands of Time"
Artist: Groove Armada
Album: Lovebox (2002)
I love the fact that a song made by an electronica music duo has such a soulful, rich sound to it. I find myself most often listening to this song on lonely drives through the city (most often when I'm working late), but that's probably due to the fact that I first heard it featured during a similar scene in the movie Collateral. 
This song, for me, is a really beautiful commentary on regret, not realizing what you have until you've lost it, and taking responsibility for the mistakes you've made in your life. The lyrics are relatively simple (as are the instrumentals), but it has such a lasting impact. To date, Groove Armada has released seven studio albums, plus a greatest hits album, and been featured in a number of other creative works. This track alone has been featured in Collateral, Domino, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, A Lot Like Love, and Tell No One, while other Groove Armada tracks have been featured in Tomb Raider, Get Carter (2000), Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000), About Time, and Miss Congeniality, as well as the video games Rayman 3 and Dance Dance Revolution.
While this song will always be my favorite, I love the fact that Groove Armada incorporates lots of different influences into their sound and produces sometimes drastically different songs depending on their inspirations.
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February 23, 2014 at 1:21pm February 23, 2014 at 1:21pm
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DAY 22
Song: "Disturbia"
Artist: Rihanna
Album: Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded (2008)
This song single-handedly fueled my horror writing for the better part of a year. I remember this was still at the point where Rihanna was considered another traditional pop star, and a song (and video) this dark really took people by surprise. Oh, if only they knew what was in store for them two years later when Rihanna would release "S&M" ... 
I love the haunting quality of this song; the industrial beat and her melodic lyrics... it's just such a delightfully creepy song, it was a major inspiration for me whenever I wanted to write something darker and needed to tap into that part of my psyche that I usually keep locked away in the presence of company. 
The song was actually developed with then-boyfriend Chris Brown (and we all know how that worked out  ), and debuted as part of a re-release of one of her earlier albums. I like a lot of Rihanna's songs, but I think this one will always be my favorite because it was such a significant part of my writing in the years where I was trying to branch out and learn how to write some much darker, more sinister stuff than I had in the past.
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February 23, 2014 at 1:00pm February 23, 2014 at 1:00pm
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DAY 21
Song: "Where I Belong"
Artist: Building 429
Album: Listen to the Sound (2011)
Ever since my wife and I started going to church regularly again (more than two years ago), I've been steadily listening to more Christian music, particularly Christian rock and pop. I'd never really listened to the genre before because, well, I don't identify myself as strictly Christian, and I kinda steered clear of religious stuff for a while. But the church we attend has a really great worship program and they're always introducing new songs, which in turn makes me want to go home download them, listen to them, find new songs that are similar, etc. (I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I have a serious music compulsion... sometimes I can spend half a day just wandering from suggestion to suggestion on Pandora, Spotify, iTunes, etc. looking for new music.)
Anyway, I definitely tend to gravitate more toward the songs that have to them. I'm not really super-psyched about the slower and softer songs; I like stuff that you can really tap your feet to, or shout out and sing along with (when I'm in my car alone, of course ). One of the things that I've noticed about Christian music, though, is that sometimes I'll like a song even if I don't really connect with the lyrics, and this is one of those songs that I think is really powerful, but that I have a hard time identifying with.
I totally get the idea that - in the Christian faith - the concept of "home" isn't here on this earthly world, but rather in Heaven with God once we're, as Shakespeare wrote, "shuffled off this mortal coil." But for me, there's something inherently sad and tragic about feeling like there's nowhere on Earth where someone has the feeling of being safe, secure, and a place where they can let their guard down. I'm one of those people who tries to live in the moment and believes in making the best out of the circumstances you're dealt, so the idea of someone never feeling comfortable in their life is a strange one for me. Sure, maybe my eternal home is somewhere else, but while I'm here on this planet in this life, there should be a place I can go that at least approximates the feeling of home.
I'm probably missing the point of the song; lead singer Jason Roy has said that the song is about how nothing on Earth can ever fully satisfy us because it's not where we're ultimately destined to end up... but for some reason this song still has a bittersweet, tragic sound to it that always feels a little off, especially when I'm listening to it with other people who find it incredibly uplifting and energizing. I suppose this is all part of my continuing faith journey, but wow, this song gets me every time, and not in the "How awesome is this!" kind of way.
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February 23, 2014 at 12:42pm February 23, 2014 at 12:42pm
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DAY 20
Song: "Ain't Too Proud to Beg"
Artist: The Temptations
Album: n/a, released as a single (1966)
I've always loved oldies, and this is one of my favorite oldies songs. I first heard "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" on The Big Chill soundtrack (great album, by the way!), and it's become a staple of my growing oldies collection ever since. There are two distinct memories that come with this song for me:
The first is when my grandparents finally moved into a retirement community. They had lived in Montana for years, and then spent the better part of a decade living in a house near my parents as they got older, needed warmer weather, etc. Eventually, though, the house got to be too much upkeep so they sold it and moved into an apartment in a retirement community. When they did, my parents too a lot of the stuff they had accumulated over the years and stored it for them at our house. Two of the coolest things we inherited from that process were a box of about 5,000 slides (many of which you can find in the video I did for my grandfather's funeral service: "A moment of love, a dream, a laugh, a kiss, a cry"  ), and the other was a huge box of 45s (hey lizco252, has anyone mentioned those yet? ) that my grandfather had collected over his many years. "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" was one of the first once I noticed on the top of the stack, and I listened to that thing until I'm pretty sure I started wearing out the vinyl. Even though I had it on cassette tape with The Big Chill soundtrack, there was something different and cool about dropping a needle on a piece of vinyl and listening to a song that way.
The second memory I have of this song is when I first moved to Los Angeles and I used to go see movies at the Chinese Theater. It was a long drive from my apartment in Long Beach, but for a film major and a movie buff, it was amazing to see a movie in the historic Chinese Theater, which is unlike any theater I've ever been to. As an added bonus, there was a Johnny Rockets restaurant in the shopping center adjoining the nearby Kodak Theater and they had a waiter who had choreographed an entire dance to this song. It was only this song, but whenever it played, he would literally burst out from his station in the kitchen, stand in the middle of the restaurant floor, and bust out this dance while customers gathered around and whooped and hollered. When the song was over, he'd rush back into the kitchen to finish grilling the burgers. My friends and I had endless fun requesting that song two or three times over the course of a meal... and the guy came out and did the dance every single time.
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