It’s a real bummer discovering that your favorite song from one of your favorite bands has an “explicit” version in which you can FINALLY understand the lyrics, and they a) don’t make sense, and b) have completely gratuitous profanity.

The song is “Promise” by Eve 6.

Lemme say first that in general I love the lyrics from Eve 6. They’re evocative, poetic, and extremely literate. That they bind these lyrics to kickin’ crunch-chords and a great beat only improves the delivery.

I don’t get out and buy albums much anymore now that I’m not running sound for a comedy troupe, so the only Eve 6 album I have is their first one. Yesterday I bought some singles via iTunes, and I paid for “Promise” by Eve 6 twice — once for the non-explicit “radio” version, and once for the explicit version.

The lyric in question runs like this:

“I promise not to try not to [mute] with your mind”
In the non-explicit version the odd turn of grammar and the clutter of instruments masks what should have been obvious. Even if you’re not familiar with the song, you probably know what’s going to go in the [mute] spot.

Grrr… WHY?

Consider first the double-negative. “I promise not to try not to…” means, in effect, “I promise to.” In context, that’s not what’s meant, unless the singer is schizo. A simple change to “I promise that I’ll try not to…” would scan almost as well and make more sense.

Consider now the profanity. The phrase “f*** with your mind” is used all-too-conversationally these days, and is a cheap shot. Sure, sure, the metaphor is vivid: violation of intimately private spaces (the mind) with what SHOULD be intimately private tools (genitals). You take the concept of “rape” and blend it with the concept of “emotional abuse,” and you have a very powerful meme. Great. IT’S BEEN DONE. In the non-explicit version of the song, muting the f-word renders the whole phrase powerless. REPLACING the word, however… THAT would have been artistic.
“mess with your mind” may lack some of the power of the mindrape meme, but it’s alliterative. In the context of good song lyrics, it’s BETTER. Especially if you have to do a non-explicit version of the song. Grrr…

There’s a band that actually did this quite well. Nine Days, “Story of a Girl.” The non-explicit lyric is:
“How many lovers would stay
Just to put up with this every day and all day”

The explict one is :
“How many lovers would stay
Just to put up with this sh** day after day”

The non explicit lyric is more poetic, conveys more meaning (not just every day, but ALL day) and will reach a broader audience by virtue of it being non-explicit. My only gripe there is that when I bought the Nine Days album the version of the song I got was not the one I wanted.

Moral of the story: I’m glad I used iTunes. The lesson I learned yesterday only cost me 99 cents.

–Howard

Got back this morning around 10:00am. The hardwood floors here in the house are now refinished, and that means that instead of returning home to a nice nap on the couch, we came back to a nice move-the-couch-back-where-it-belongs.

Oh, and scripting, and coloring, and 200 unread Novell-related emails, and 500 Schlock-mails (most of those are spam), and Chronicles of Riddick opens today.

(I caught the 1:15 show).

–Howard

I wish I’d brought my USB memory key. Then I could upload pictures for you right now, but as it is you’ll have to wait for me to get back tomorrow afternoon.

Yesterday Sandra and I hiked to the first and second tier of falls in Primrose Cirque (the half-bowl canyon thing that the Aspen Grove Family Camp sits in the base of.) The first falls are visible from camp, and you can grab a 60x spotting scope and get a really good look at them from the comfort of a lawn chair. The 2nd falls are hidden just above them in a little grotto, and are much more magical in appearance.

While looking through the scope I spotted a group of hikers coming down the mountain. We met them later as we hiked, and I told them I’d seen them — pointing out the blue sweat-pants with the white stripe, and the fact that they all had hiking staves. The kid with the sweats was a little spooked, but got over it.

Anyway, we hiked all morning with a couple of other grown-ups, and took lots of pictures which you can’t have because I didn’t want to spend the extra hour last Saturday running to the office to grab my USB key. On the way down we ran into Link’s age-group who were on their way up for a picnic. Fortunately they were not far enough into their hike for Link to beg to come back down with us. That’s happened before, back when I was the counselor with the crowd of 5-6 year-olds, and we ambushed a hapless pair of parents on our way up.

The morning of the hike was hot. By mid-afternoon clouds had rolled in. By evening it was drizzling. I snapped a photo of the cirque shrouded in mist on my way back to the cabin. During the night there was heavy rain, thunder, lightning, and the wondrous sleep I associate with that kind of weather.

This morning there was slush on the porch-rail, and snow only a few hundred feet above us. I went to the same spot where I’d shot the misty mountains, and got a shot of those same mountains dusted with new snow. I’ll post the photos later. The breakfast we had was perfect for the weather, and vice-versa: scrambled eggs with biscuits and gravy. I told the chef (John Thill) that he was going to have a hard time topping this one. The staff will expect this sort of serendipity in the meal planning every week.

Today all the kids are doing indoor games, because it’s cold and wet outside. The new Aspen Lodge here in the center of camp is just what I wish we’d had back when I worked here, and we had very, very FEW places to play with kids indoors on those two or three days during the 10-week summer when it rained hard enough to keep us inside.

This afternoon is supposed to be “Water Frolics,” a set of swimming-pool games. I have every intention of giving those a wide miss if they’re held at all.

–Howard

The accomodations here at Aspen Grove are a long, long step removed from the tents, hammocks, and tarpaulins I associate with actual CAMPING. I knew this going in — you could argue quite successfully that it was this foreknowledge that got me here. A week of tents would be unpleasant. This is more like a week in a very clean, but very low-budget hotel.

Oh, and you have to walk through the woods a bit to get to the bathroom.

It’s really quite nice. It’s just a little too civilized, what with the trails everywhere, groomed paths, and cabins all over, for the mature adult in me to feel good about peeing behind a tree. That said, I really had to go last night, and really didn’t want to put on my shoes. There is now a very happy patch of scrub just to the left of the porch of Cabin 13.

Gleek got sick. It’s just a 24-hour flu, but she was wiped out last night and this morning, and is only now coming around. She really wanted to go with her group this morning, but hadn’t the energy to put up a fight when we told her she couldn’t. As she curled up on the couch in Aspen Lodge, one of her final bits of protest before nodding off was “it’s okay to throw up on dirt.”

“Yes, honey, it is. But you’re still not running around outside this morning.”

Last night Link and I played Star Munchkin, and he won before we got far enough into the deck to see the card I did artwork for. Oh well. At least he WON. The Munchkin series is good for playing with kids, because players are allowed to bargain one with another to help each other out of tight spots. So I’d help him kill monsters without claiming more than a token share of the loot, and sure enough, he hit level 10 while I was still at level 2. For a six-year-old with limited reading skills, he’s sharp as a tack. He got attacked by “The Cheese of Evil,” and without reading the card said “My not care. My not have any sidekicks for him to kill.” I had to check the card to make sure that the “bad stuff” TCoE did was limited to sidekicks… sure enough, Link had it right.

Every so often my hackles go up as I realize that this vacation is going to end at some point, and I’m going to have to hit the ground back in the Real World not just running, but running FAST, and in two different races. Then I relax, because it hasn’t happened YET, and there’s not much I can do right now to prepare, other than get plenty of sleep. It’s a mind-game I play on myself. I have to trick me out of being “busy.”

Sandra scheduled us for a pottery class. I rebelled, realizing that she had SCHEDULED something. I don’t want a schedule here. I want uninterrupted unscheduled time for wandering. If I happen to go to the pottery class it’ll be because I wandered in at the right time. NOT because I looked at the schedule. Not not not.

Like I said, it’s a mind game.

–Howard