Cassiopeia
🎵💥Cassiopeia by Sara Bareilles
🎧 Listen #1: That’s a kooky little song. Catchy chorus.
🎧 Listen #2: Oh there’s that weird song again. I don’t think much of the ending. But that chorus still gets me. What the hell, I’ll buy it.
🎧 Listen #10: OK I‘ve worked out why I like this chorus. The choices she has made with the harmony are sublime. Good stuff.
🎧 Listen #11: Maybe I should stop listening to the second chorus on repeat. I’ll play it all the way through.
🎧 Listen #12: Wait, what the hell are these lyrics anyway?
🎧 Listen #15: This is actually quite clever. A lonely star dreaming of love. And there’s some nice little wordplay on constellations and supernovas and whatnot. Cute.
🎧 Listen #20: Hold on, those lyrics aren’t just cheap puns about space. “She dreamed of a way to ignite”; “Lightyears alway from the hope of being sun-kissed”; “She burns with desperation”; “They both smiled: what a day to explode”; “Break me to pieces”; “Let’s see what a fire feels like”. MY HEART ACHES.
🎧 Listen #25: I’ve just noticed the extra percussion ‘collisions’ in the chorus. How the hell did I miss those until now?!
🎧 Listen #26: Oh, the drums are heartbeats. I’ve been a fool.
🎧 Listen #30: “A supernova grew up to be stardust”. Holy shit, I finally get the ending. This song is so perfect, I’m gonna puke.
🎧 Listen #Gajilion: How can someone create an entire world out of a 4-minute song? I need to write a public love-letter to Sara Bareilles, and herald her genius and humanity to the galaxy.
For the Instagram version, see here.
For the Facebook version, see here.
The Sage Kings of Karaoke
There’s a reason why karaoke is so popular in China and other East Asian societies with a Confucian heritage: it’s an important catalyst for group social harmony.
The Sage Kings of ancient China used the rites of music to help bond their subjects together. It’s no coincidence that the Chinese Communist Party emphasised the use of patriotic songs to instill doctrinal fervour. And today, many Chinese corporations still use company songs, alongside collective exercise routines, to inspire loyalty.
Today's compilation episode from Season 1 of Mosaic of China is all about the podcast guests’ favourite songs to sing at “KTV”, the Chinese version of karaoke. Out of all the questions asked to guests on the show, this one elicited the biggest array of emotions: from joy and pride, to embarrassment and… sheer terror.
It’s a shame that group social harmony doesn’t always guarantee group *vocal* harmony. But since no-one really cares about that… what would be *your* go-to song to sing at karaoke?
For the LinkedIn version, see here.
For the Mosaic of China version, see here.
The Gift of Boredom
For those of us not in immediate danger, the Coronavirus epidemic has given us a consolation gift. The gift of boredom.
Were it not for the weeks of self-confinement in February 2020, I would not have sat down in front of the piano for the first time in a year. We would not have had daily home-cooked meals. We would not have reorganised our closet and donated boxes of valuable items to our neighbours. And of course I wouldn’t have written this post.
This experience has taught me to accept more boredom into my life, and to allow more time for boredom in my working day. Because for me, boredom breeds creativity; creativity breeds contentment; and contentment breeds productivity.
