You are the Funnest Thing to Play With

••• today's entry continues here below •••

It evoked in me a feeling similar to what I felt while listening to » High for This by your buddy, Abel.

The distance between two very different things .. and how to maintain balance and stability with these two very different forces at work and at play in your life to a degree that fluctuates over time.

And then, at t=0:11, you drop this beat that feels like a slug to the chest. Here I thought, "Oh, is this how we're gonna play it now?"

The voice in my head said, "She gives you just enough time to look around and find something sturdy to grab hold of."

Later I thought, "This girl never stops bringing it .. in ever more impressive ways. I'm not sure if I feel more inspired or challenged."

Because I was feeling both strongly.

Much later I thought, "She didnt even have Hannah Lux Davis helping her."

Sometimes, when I am really feeling rocked from something in one of her videos .. I will blame some the size of the impact on Hannah Lux .. and the fruits that her artistry bring to any video-based project .. because I dont have a Hannah Lux helping me.

But with this song .. there was nothing but Ariana's voice. I didnt even have a still image of her to go with it.

In Film school, they begin students by limiting their storytelling options to images with no dialogue. Images first. Before dialogue.

Before a cool music video, you need a cool song. No?

» At Some Point It All Comes Down to the Song

There are certainly many wonderful and colorful aspects to your life .. but, in the end, the final-product song is really what it's all about for you and also where it's at for musicians everywhere.

It can be helpful to reflect on the distinction from time to time between what is important, really important .. and what is not.

This sort of thing requires you to explore your values. Nietzsche is all over this shit.

When you organize these different values in a roughly high-to-low ranking .. you have reasonable facsimile of your value structure .. which influences how you go about making your decisions.

» One of the Most Beautiful and Haunting Things I have Heard You Do with Your Voice

At t=2:03 you let loose with some vocals to emphasize the words "how I look on you," which is also the song's title.

Right here in particular is where I heard some things .. that speak to me in a next-generation-vocal-slayage.sort-of-way. .. insisting that such things have already arrived.

This thing you do here with your voice at t-2:03 .. this thing continues all the way to t=2:05.

And right at the end of this impressive thing .. you hold the final note a tad bit longer than the ear was expecting to hear. (I bet that the TNT boys know what I am talking about.)

And your voice does this cool, gentle, fluttery thing. And these ending vocal flutters manage to set their hooks in you as they sail on by to other parts of the galaxy.

I mean, it might be my new #1 favorite thing I have ever heard you do with your voice. Funny how such a short, delicate thing could have such an effect.

A voice in the back of my head said, "She has gone next-generation."

Thinking later about that thing you do with your voice here, I thought, "I have never felt anything like that before." (.. and I have felt many cool things).

I mean, I have nothing comparable in my past experience with which I can file this experience.

When you are experiencing new things and new feelings in your life .. this says things to me. It could signify » growth.

The end of growth is the beginning of death.

» When Powerful Effects Come from a Seemingly Delicate Source

The effect here is that it feels like something airy and delicate delivers something that has a long, powerful effect.

To me, it is a flex. Tell me that you are not flexing there, girly. You knew exactly what you were doing. You obviously know this better than anybody.

After you landed this thing that you do with your voice at t=2:03 .. this thing that seemed to dance along the tree tops af my soul.

[ You were probably thinking, "He has never heard anything like this before." ]

After landing this thing, you then march down the track, humming at a comfortable pace .. until t=2:14, where the beat returns with another thud to the chest and another line of "How I look on you."

This one here is very reserved in its demeanor .. especially when considering how free and liberated the previous one had been.

By contrast this line at t=2:14 is delivered with almost military discipline.

» Let Me Show You Some Cool Vocal Footwork Here in Verse Two

I like the way you launch into Verse 2. It feels like a display of fancy footwork. Vocal footwork where you pass through Verse 2 changing your pacing and cadence as necessary. As to your liking, for sure.

Girly, did you happen to notice what I wrote in a page titled » Flirting with Danger - Addendum Part One (23 May 2016) ?

At the very top of that page, I wrote:

I saw you on GMA release day. I see that you are feeling me. You are feeling my energy. (I look good on you. You wear me well.) And the things you are doing with it.

Notice, in particular, the parenthetical phrase » look good on you.

It may be worth noting here that I recently made the atatement that this was one of my favorite performances ever .. for reason that I spell out there.

When an artistic soul takes something from someone .. something personal and meaningful .. and then uses this something that they have taken .. in order to craft something new .

.. how can such a thing not be felt in a personal sort-of-way?

I really liked all the hums, I found them both comforting and energizing .. though not necessarily at the same time.

» August Cover of Vogue

Before I wade in too deeply on all the little things I like about your new song .. before I do that I want to mention your Vogue spread for August (released 9 July 2019).

At the risk of laboring the obvious .. I would say that you are looking very iconic here.

Look at this pose you have struck here. This is why I captured this exact frame and cropped it down so closely.

» Annie Leibovitz and her Cameras

Girly, did Annie Leibovitz really shoot your spread?

Have you ever had her before? I hope you said hi for me.

She is famous for eliciting more natural and honest shots from her subjects. She is like the Howard Stern of Photography ..

.. who is somehow able to elicit a deeper and more personal interview from a guest who is clearly in a place that is more open-n-honest.

I feel that a good listener call help elicit a deeper and more personal interview .. by being a good listener.

(The Dog is the best listener I know. He knows how to make you feel heard .. by making you feel like he is there with you. I try to emulate some of the cooler things that he does.)

Your shot here on the cover does indeed seem to be natural and honest. I dont know if I have ever seen that look on your face before.

This photo does indeed feel like we are seeing a different side of you .. a side we hadnt seen before.

I noticed how she even managed to capture an intimate moment with Toulouse. How does she do this? How does she work? Does she have any quirks?

It would seem that she knows how to be disarming.

» Those Days are Gone Forever

While reading the Cosmo article, and noticing the types of subjects you are dealing with » grief and growing up ..

.. I thought back to your days before the double-barrel tragedies .. and the voice in my head said, "Those days are gone forever."

You can never return to those days .. which now must seem carefree.

This stuff that you are dealing with .. this is the meat of life. It's not always pretty, but it's living at its realist.

» When the Beatles are Your Only Antecedent

When I started reading the article, which is titled Ariana Grande on Grief and Growing Up (9 Nov 2019)  .. and which begins like so ..

IN FEBRUARY OF THIS YEAR, Ariana Grande had the number-one, number-two, and number-three songs in America. So extreme a choke hold of the Billboard charts had only one antecedent: the Beatles achieved it in 1964, when "Can't Buy Me Love," "Twist and Shout," and "Do You Want to Know a Secret" blanketed the airwaves. (Grande responded to the news of her pop preeminence in trademark terse, unpunctuated Twitterese: "wait what".)

I thought to myself, "Now that's how you start an article." (I am so proud of you .. and I'm not the only one.)

You gave him plenty of juicy-juice to construct his story with. (I know the feeling .. trust me.)

I wonder if the remaining members still remember what is was like back when they first arrived in America.

Probably not .. with all that acid they ate. Not to mention the psychedelics and whatnot.

Check out Coffee Joe here, living large with Ringo.

I must admit .. that does seem pretty cool.

» Why You are the Funnest Thing to Play With

I titled today's entry » You are the Funnest Thing to Play With (5 Nov 2019). But why? Why are you the funnest thing to play with?

What is it about you and the playful things you do that make you so much fun to play with? It's not always the obvious things.

The obvious thing is the scale that you bring to the game. To the table.

You literally play to international audiences .. and look very comfortable doing so. You make it look easy. (But everybody knows it aint.)

» What Exactly is it About this Girl that Does it for Me?

Sometimes it could be a little thing that she does, probably something insignificant to most .. but certainly something about her that does it for him.

It makes a difference. The reason behind the admiration matters. Does it not?

So I want to tell you, girly .. why you are the funnest thing to play with. There are many reasons, or course, but I want to focus on one or two in particular.

» The Erotic Allure of a Powerful Woman.

Notice the pre-chorus in your lyrics »

We step out on a Friday night
New front page, it's a cute headline
I made you a thing, like, "Who's that guy?"
Say you ain't in it for the spotlight, boy

In particular notice the statement » "I made you a thing."

This notion of a powerful woman "making" a man a thing .. this hearkens back to the way it was done back in the day.

.. where an industrious and motivated man might summon whatever gifts and talents he could muster up .. and align himself with (secretly, or course) a powerful woman .. who is smart, and experienced, and often very sexy. Very often.

And sometimes they are even very-very sexy. (Ask me know I know.)

» The Cool Effect it has When Your Rhetoric Reflects Favorably upon Existential Reality

It is not an empty boast that you could "make" a thing out of someone. It is not an idle threat. This is not a toy-grenade, like the kind they use in the movies.

That thing there .. this realism that you bring to the narrative .. it casts the whole scene with a cool back-glow. It puts a charge of real-time electricity in the air.

You actually use the past tense of the verb » made. As in » already done, far as I'm considered.

This adds an element of realism to the game we are playing .. and to the narrative I am writing .. in this avant-garde art-form that we have been experimenting with and developing as we go .. often making it up as we go.

Breaking rules and conventions everywhere on a regular basis. In trouble not a little. Banned in many countries.

Figuring shit out often on-the-fly.

And this particular aspect of realism that you bring .. this is no ordinary aspect that you bring to the game.

It is much more sparkly than what most people would normally be accustomed to. Realism and scope are the obvious things you bring to the game.

It is almost impossible to turn away from such a compelling encounter.

» Powerful Women Who Can Make Things Happen by Picking Up their Phone

Why do I have a thing for powerful women? How can I not? I mean, doesnt everybody? Perhaps I am merely more attuned to the erotic aspects.

I'm talking about a woman who is smart and knows what's going on, and who can pick up her phone and make things happen.

» Rachel Wants to Know

Girly, I thought of you when I saw this article by Rachel Cusk (7 Nov 2019).

(Not be be confused with Rachel Cook.) You are an artist. An award-winning artist. You are a woman. An award-winning woman.

Therefore you are qualified to speak to this question. We'll talk about it later .. after you've had a chance to give it some thought.

» Why has Dove been Feeling So Good Lately?

Speaking of picking up your phone, did you happen to notice that Dove also released a track on the 1st of November? Titled » So Good.

She's feeling good. Good for her. That makes me happy to hear.

She'll never guess what I happen to be sucking on right now. (Slowly .. I mean, why rush it?)

I will give her a hint » Okay, ready? » Did you sign the consent form? » Your hint » "It tastes sweet-n-creamy .. and very yummy."

Care to venture a guess?

When it rains, it pours. Two treats in one day. Tasty treats. So sweet. So yummy. So satisfying. So unexpected.

» The Girl Who Appeared to Rise Up Out of Existential Things

When you sing the line "Boy, remember where you commme frommm .." .. you load up on words containing the letter m.

This comes right before the pre-chorus where you bring all those yummy 'hmmm's' between each line.

I really like those mmm's. They work well for me. A well established and stable base from which you launch your fireworks.

That works nicely. It's almost a little sneaky .. sneaking in some m's at the end of the verse in order to smooth your transistion into the pre-chorus.

I like that about you, girly .. how you can be such a sneaky little shit sometimes. (The TNT boys know what I am talking about.)

When you sing that line, "Remember where you come from .." I actually thought of where you came from .. or where you seemed to come from .. as perceived from the perspective of how we can experience life. Your own life, in particular.

And for me, you appeared to rise up out of (from) an inquiry into the existentialists .. and their views on life and how best to live it.

I liked that they place a priority on the cold, hard, naked truth .. instead of the antiseptic, air-brushed version of life often preferred by the polite members of society.

The more I read about them, the more I could see how their ideas and perspectives resonated so naturally with my own quirky life-experiences.

This philosophy, which originally sounded so pretentious, was not afraid get down-n-dirty in the less-than-pleasant aspects of life .. where we actually live right now.

And how it might best be lived .. so that you dont feel like shit at the end of your life .. for not doing more of the things that really matter (hopefully something you value highly) and less of the things that dont.

This says things to me. It speaks things to me. That you appeared to arise up out of existential things.

Such things woud surely sound crazy .. if I were to impy the inferences that I see.

I just noticed that they sampled Apeshit by the Carters .. for your song. I smiled big when I read that. I was tickled. I happen to be a big fan of apeshit myself.

» Things I Use with You and Only You

The title of today's entry is » You are the Funnest Thing to Play With (5 Nov 2019).

This is not the first time I have used this phrase with you. No, ma'am. Not hardy.

This is a spur-of-the-moment phrase that I use with you and only you. It is like our own private place, our own private space. So naturally it would make a great title for the type of writing I plan to do tiday ..

.. and for the types of themes that I hope to explore. (With a beautiful creature, of course. It makes exploring much more fun.)

Most of the time, I can recall where I mightve used a particular phrase before. But not always. Sometimes I need to consult the Google. Such as is the case with today's entry.

Most of the time I am just returning to a section that I've previously written .. in order to grab the link to that section .. so I can use it in the entry I am currently writing.

But sometimes, I may need to read a little of what I have already written .. to detemine if the link does in fact apply.

Now, if a long enough passage of time has passed, then when I start reading it feels like I am reading somebody else.

It feels like I am looking at what has been written » from the outside looking in .. rather than my normal writer's perspective of » inside looking out.

Sometimes when I return to a previously written bit of text .. I may feel compelled to continue reading.

And sometimes I will be impressed by what I find there. And I will reflect upon how far my writing has come.

And here is where the voice in my head will sometimes say, "You are trying to impress this girl so much that you are impressing yourself."

I can see that my desire to impress you is forever driving me to develop my craft and improve my skillset. I can see this, girly.

I can see how you provide me with motivation and inspiration and even a challenging environment.

Here is where I usually feel a sense of gratitude for you.

This is the end of this page. ■

To be cont'd, I'm sure.

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