audio review : Girl On Fire ( album ) … Alicia Keys

audio review : Girl On Fire ( album ) ... Alicia Keys

If the title is a metaphor to suggest that Alicia Keys is some kind of outstanding musical talent, I disagree. The girl can play the piano, but, when it comes to composing songs, she’s lukewarm at best. Her singing voice is nice enough. I don’t even mind the husky underlining that makes it sound like she either needs to go “ahem” real loud or lay off the Newports. It’s her vocal melodies that lack. Almost every song here suffers from a case of first-degree mediocrity.

my rating : 3 of 5

2012

question : Would you break-up with your girlfriend or leave your wife if her face were badly disfigured in a fire?

It’s an extra hypothetical question for me because I plan on never having a wife to “leave” or a monogamous girlfriend to “break-up” with. It’s also a question that can be interpreted in different ways. The most obvious meaning asks if you’d break-up with your girlfriend or leave your wife because her face, which was normal before, were suddenly disfigured in a fire. It could also be meant to ask if her face being disfigured would stop you from leaving or breaking-up with her for any reason. My answer to the latter obscure meaning is no; it wouldn’t stop me. My answer to the former obvious meaning is that I almost certainly would.

Looks, in an aesthetic sense, are extremely important to me when it comes to a romantic partner, particularly her face, and I simply wouldn’t tolerate being with a girl I’m not physically attracted to, let alone a girl I consider ugly. Depending on how much damage the fire has done to her face or if it’s “badly”, I’d probably consider it (her) ugly as a result, or at least uglier enough not to want to be with her. I’d probably, almost certainly, leave her or break-up with her. If I like her personality, we could remain friends and maybe even continue to have sex, at least face-away sex, if she wants to without any romantic strings attached.

Even as friends, I wouldn’t want to go out in pubic with her though. I think I’d get used to the new face to the point where I wouldn’t mind being around her, but the odd stares and general discomfort it would bring about in other people would be embarrassing. I’d be embarrassed for her even if I weren’t actually with her. Being with her, being the person seen with her, would make me feel embarrassed for both of us. I’d rather be seen with someone who looks normal but is acting crazy as embarrassing as that itself could be. If the disfigured girl were my “girlfriend” or wife, being seen with her is something I’d be subjected to much more often.

The funny thing is that I doubt I’d have the gall to just blatantly leave her or break-up with her as a result of her face being disfigured. I wouldn’t want to hurt or humiliate her by telling her I’m ending our relationship for that reason, especially if she has a kind and bashful personality. Even if I were to suddenly end it and claim it’s for some other reason, I think it would be obvious that it’s not. I’d have to wait it out for some time, perhaps a few months, and just try to endure until enough time has passed for me to pretend I’m ending it for another reason and make it convincing. Either that or I’d give her a reason to end it herself.

audio review : This Fire ( album ) … Paula Cole

audio review : This Fire ( album ) ... Paula Cole

Welcome to the sweet and bitter world of Paula Cole; a 26-year-old woman who doesn’t seem to hold back when it comes to expressing her feelings. “I want to sit with my legs wide open and laugh so loud that the whole damn restaurant will turn and look at me,” she confesses. But it’s just a metaphor. Either that or she’s crazy. Random screaming at the end of a piano piece entitled Neitzsche’s Eyes suggests the latter.

Elsewhere she’s threatening to bite off the head of her boyfriend’s dick. I get what he sees in her though. She doesn’t offer much in terms of sexual allure, aside from posing nude on the cover photo, but her songs are musically and conceptually appealing. The album blazes with love themes. There’s also a lust theme with “Love” in the title. There she compares what’s happening between her thighs to The Amazon River.

my rating : 4 of 5

1996