Mixtapemotions

  • “Walk Alone” Anberlin ft. Matty Mullins, Sunday, July 7, 2024

    In August, Anberlin will release their eighth studio album, Vega. This is probably the least I’ve been excited about an Anberlin release, mainly because most fans have heard most of it already. Vega is a compilation album of the band’s last two years work, the two EPs Silverline and Convinced plus two additional songs, the first of which, “Walk Alone,” was released as a single last month. This leaves just one more song, “Seven,” for fans to yet to hear, but this is only partially true because the band has played the show at their “Farewell to lead singer Stephen Christian” show last year, and fans can easily find the live version on YouTube. 


    IF YOU EVER FEEL YOU’VE GONE TOO FAR. Two years ago, Stephen Christian talked with Shane Told on the Lead Singer Syndrome Podcast that he felt unsure about the current music industry, so the band decided to release their album in two parts. He expressed how he felt that he felt that music listeners wanted singles and shorter forms of media. Prior to their hiatus, Anberlin had been an album band, with every single the band released being part of a cohesive album. It turns out that Silverline and Convinced would be part of an album, but I’m still concerned about the project’s cohesion. Furthermore, I felt what Stephen said on the podcast was more true of the 2010s than this decade in which the biggest pop stars make albums, sometimes long albums. The re-formed Anberlin was ready to take risks from the format that they released music to the change in their sound—harder, more electronic and technology-based, now blending more voices with Stephen Christian’s to create a sometimes eerie sound.


    CRY WITH YOU, HURT WITH YOU, BLEED WITH YOU. The most polarizing decision Anberlin has made with their latest era is Stephen Christians’ indefinite hiatus from live shows. Rather than breaking up the band, Stephen asked Matty Mullins, lead singer of metal-core band Memphis May Fire, to take over lead vocalist duties while the band toured in 2024. Mullins listened to Anberlin in high school and had taken some of Anberlin’s influence into his own band. Currently, Anberlin is on tour with Hawthorne Heights and playing the summer festival circuits. Their touring schedule is similar to their peak in 2014’s farewell tour. The hope I had was that Mullins could help Anberlin perform the heavier songs in the band’s catalog, particularly their new songs and maybe even “Dissenter,” but it seems that the band is playing a shortened “Eras Tour” of legacy hits for their set lists. As for the band’s latest single, “Walk Alone,” the song improves with listening to it, but it doesn’t sound like Anberlin. It sounds like so many Punk Goes… bands on Rise Records that have no distinguishing songs. The music video is pretty funny though. Stephen Christian said that he will continue to record with the band, but somehow it feels like the beginning of an unhealthy break up. Stephen is telling the fans, “I’ll see you around” but he never calls and doesn’t respond to messages. I hope that I’m wrong. 


    Read the lyrics on Genius.



  • “Mulberry Street” by twenty one pilots, Saturday, July 6, 2024 (repost)

    I was wrong about twenty one pilots, and the reason I’m willing to admit that is after I spent time with their album released last year, Scaled and Icy, I realized that this duo was much more than who I thought they were. Mostly gone–but not entirely–are the emo rapping and trap beats that turned me off of the group when they debuted. The lyrics on Scaled and Icy, though, are emotional, and singer Tyler Joseph masterfully weaves clichés, esoteric messages for fans, current lingo, and new turns of phrase all to a funky piano/guitar groove. Scaled and Icy is in the vein of Paramore‘s After Laughter, on the surface it’s fun and light-hearted, but when you spend a little time with the lyrics, you’re bound to discover a surprising depth.


    THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS. In 2019 I was obsessed with Mike Mains & the Branches‘ When We Were in Love. And although I didn’t listen to it a lot in 2020, I would have to crown folklore as the album of the year for Taylor Swift‘s songwriting and the vibe that helped create pristine moments when listening to the album. For me, 2021 was a year of old music and it seemed that was the case for a lot of bands as well, whether it was livestream concerts or re-recordings of records. Sure there were a few good records, Adele‘s 30, Ed Sheeran‘s =, Nick Jonas‘ Spaceman, and IU‘s Lilac, but none of them screamed album of the year like Scaled and Icy. My approach to this record comes after enjoying a nice shower to “Saturday” and a few of the other tracks last year and only listening to “Mulberry Street” two days in a row before deciding to check out the rest of the record. As I began research for today’s song, I realized that I really don’t have the proper licensure to discuss a band that has such a cult following that they incessantly comment on the band’s Genius pages about the fiction woven into the band’s songs, about a race on another world, a religion called Vialism that has something to do with social media, apathy, and suicide. 

    KEEP YOUR SUNNY DAYS; LEAVE US  IN THE RAIN. Much of twenty one pilots’ lyrics have to do with mental health, and “Mulberry Street” is no exception. Named after the street in New York City that fellow piano man Billy Joel sang about, “Mulberry Street” is a seemingly upbeat track that’s a fun listen. In a concert video (see below), the duo performs “Mulberry Street” in the middle of a cover of Elton John‘s “Benny and the Jets.” The Elton John cover feels fitting given twenty one pilots’ flamboyant style. But the happiness of the music covers the melancholy of the track. An episode of What About Therapy broke down the lyrics of the track from a mental health perspective. The podcasters pointed out that this track is sometimes criticized because lead singer Tyler Joseph is possibly saying not to medicate depression. The podcasters don’t think that’s what Joseph is actually advocating, but rather discussing that drugs, alcohol, vices, and temporal distractions can make us not actually process our feelings. Joseph reminds us that it’s okay to feel sad sometimes, that it’s okay to live in the weekdays not only for the weekends, and that it’s okay to move sideways because moving ahead may be too hard. So let’s live in that weekday for just a little bit longer.

    Lyric video:


    Live stream version:

    Live concert featuring “Chlorine” and a mash up of “Benny and the Jets” and “Mulberry Street.”

  • “Happy” by NF, Friday, July 5, 2024 (Repost)

     Nathan Feuerstein is one of the most successful Christian hip-hop artists today. Born and raised in a tiny town in central Michigan, Nate, better known by his moniker, NF, had a hard home life as a child. After his parents divorced, he was raised by his mother until he and one of his sisters were abused by his mother’s boyfriend. After that, he returned to live with his father. NF channeled his struggles with anxiety and mental health in his music.

    DEAR GOD, PLEASE HEAR ME OUT. Last year, NF released his fifth studio album, Hope, and the single “Happy” enjoyed heavy rotation on Spotify playlists. While NF does not claim to be a Christian Rapper but rather a hip-hop artist who happens to be a Christian, his music is played on both secular and Christian radio, especially due to his clean (though often brutally honest) lyrics. Currently, NF has amassed over 18 million monthly streams on Spotify, making him a highly successful artist, especially for a Christian artist. And while NF’s career may have started out signed to a Christian label, slowly but surely, the rapper started branching into secular hip hop early in his career. His music became so popular that in 2018, Eminem even squeezed NF’s name into the song “The Ringer,” a dis-track about other rappers whom Eminem perceived to be imitating “The Real Slim Shady.” Of course, NF had always listed Eminem as one of his biggest influences, but the fact that a clean Christian rapper was even on Eminem’s radar is a testament to how popular he had become in the late ’10s. That’s more than KJ-52 ever got with his attempts to get Shady’s attention in “Dear Slim” and “Dear Slim, Pt. II,” unless you really read into Eminem’s lyrics. 

    I CAN’T IMAGINE WHO I’D BE IF I WAS HAPPY. “Happy,” though, isn’t a rap track in the traditional sense of hip-hop. It’s rhythmic but sung in a way that much ’10s and ’20s hip-hop has become less distinguishable as rap. The song deals with NF’s OCD, which he was diagnosed with in 2018, and his other mental health struggles. The song is a prayer to God, and the chorus asks the question about what happiness would look like for the speaker. No matter how much money and fame the speaker receives, he will always self-sabotage his happiness. And this is what keeps NF relevant to both Christian and non-Christian audiences. Typical Christian music fixes everything. The problems are all past tense and glory hallelujah I can keep talking about that one time I was delivered from depression. But you don’t have to be a medical professional to realize that struggles are often ongoing. We all have crappy days that can turn into crappy years. Some have had traumatic experiences like when NF witnessed his mother getting addicted to opioids and overdosing in 2009. It’s about messed up home lives that cause issues later in life prayer is not enough to set the mind at ease. After all, no person would get into a car accident and refuse medical help but rather go directly to church to pray away the injuries! Sometimes it takes years of therapy and that only reduces the pain. There’s no happy solution, but listeners can find solace. We can know that we’re not that abnormal. And that’s the hope.
     

  • "Fire and Rain" (repost) by Acceptance, Thursday, July 4, 2024

     

    Acceptance‘s story about the band that called it quits before they realized made the band a legend. In 2014, Jesusfreakhideout  posted their top “One Album Wonders,” and Acceptance’s Phantoms topped the list. According to lead singer Jason Vena, when he sat down with Billy Power on Urban Achiever Podcast in 2015, the lead singer recounted about how he had no idea the cult status the band then had in the scene. In various other interviews, Vena talked about how other bands, namely A Loss for Words and All Time Low inspired him to consider an Acceptance reunion. 

    LAST SEASON OF THIS MASQUERADE. In 2005, Acceptance after their failed attempt at major label stardom, Vena took a job in Seattle outside of music. The band dissolved, and some formed side projects with other musicians. Lead guitarist Christian McAlhaney talked with Josh Coats on Your PUSH Coach Podcast in 2020, talking about what made him successful in three bands and other projects. These projects include Acceptance, Anberlin, and Loose Talk, a band he started with Anberlin’s bassist Deon Rexroat. McAlhaney talks about working with two of the other musicians from Acceptance and working as a touring musician for the runner-up of a musical reality show, Rockstar: Supernova, Dilana, before receiving a call to tour with Anberlin and ultimately becoming the band’s integral fifth member. Once Anberlin broke up at the end of 2014, McAlhaney and Rexroat formed Loose Talk and he sent the boys in Acceptance an email putting the band members back into contact after ten years. The band met and slowly started to write new music which would become Colliding by Design, released in February of 2017.

    WILL YOU LOOK IN MY EYES AS I STARE AT THE SUN? So did Colliding By Design cure the itch that Phantoms left fans? Was Jesusfreakhideout.com right to rank the band as the #1 One Album Wonder? Signing to Rise Records, the band received a lot of promotion–billboards, online marketing–anything to show that the band was back. Pop singers Nick Jonas and Demi Lovato even tweeted about the band’s new album. The production team was the same: Acceptance and Aaron Sprinkle, this time in Nashville, not Seattle. But Colliding by Design was not Phantoms. It was a much more current-sounding pop-rock album. For me, it’s taken a few years to sit with Acceptance’s sophomore record. I realized that whatever they did would be the wrong record. They could write Phantoms II, and it wouldn’t show any growth. They released Colliding which sounded like where the band would be had they stayed in the scene for twelve years. Listening to the two records back to back is a bit jarring. But in the five years since Colliding’s release, I’ve come to appreciate the dark Acceptance, post-Cities Anberlin effects on the album. It’s that dark, humid Northwest sound that makes Phantoms so mysteriously beautiful and that sound is present on tracks like “Come Closer,” “Goodbye,” “Fire and Rain,” and other places on the record as well. Seriously, how could we have gone twelve years (except for a few guest vocalist spots) without hearing Jason’s vocals?

     

  • “Asking for a Friend” by Chvrches, Wednesday, July 3, 2024

     

    Every year, people get more connected as more and more of the world joins the Internet. Now we have the world in a box in our pockets, and we can’t get enough screen time. Our parents and grandparents may have been scolded for watching too much broadcast TV after school, but now we can constantly look at a screen curating whatever content we want to watch at school if we’re careful not to get caught. Whereas many parents guarded their dial-up Internet passwords to protect young eyes from violence and pornography on the Internet, now lightning-fast data allows anyone to see some of the most shocking things online. The pervasive use of screen addiction, particularly to violence and pornography, inspired the Scottish band Chvrches to write their 2021 concept album, Screen Violence. 


    I FILLED MY BED WITH REGRETS. Each track on Chvrches’ Screen Violence deals with aspects of a seemingly dystopian technologically-driven world. The opening track “Asking for a Friend” deals with the irony of isolation despite everyone being connected. The lyrics feel more stream-of-conscious than a typical song structure. The speaker bears her soul to what seems to be like an anonymous Internet forum. She can further distance herself from her shame by simply saying that the advice she’s seeking is not for herself, but “for a friend.” Of course, “asking for a friend” is not something that was invented by the Internet. You could make a doctor’s appointment across town, dress up in a trench coat and dark sunglasses, and bring up the most perverse acts your “friend” told you about the other day at tea or you could write to Abby or Ann Landers, but at some point you have to follow the advice.  

    THE MESS WE MADE ON FRIDAYS GAVE ME SUNDAYS ON MY KNEES. While there is a plethora of misinformation and the potential for danger, in the information age, we don’t actually want to get rid of it. We certainly don’t want to have to carry around bulky Rand McNally atlases to plot out our trip or take a trip to the library to browse the latest encyclopedia with information that was outdated by the time it went to print. Some legislators claim that children can access adult material or that it even exists or that “fake news” misleads individuals to make harmful decisions is proof that the Internet should be censored. But before trying blanket censorship, what education have you offered the public about dealing with harmful information? Instead, public schools in America are forcing teachers to teach the Bible. I had a conversation with a colleague about the importance of the Internet for students, particularly when they feel different from their peers. She said that being able to ask questions anonymously gives students language to understand themselves. This is true from something like music enthusiasts who like a particular style of music their peers don’t like to students understanding that their sexualities are normal and that thousands or millions of other teenagers have asked these questions since at least the advent of the Internet. No longer do you need to sit in health class and “ask on behalf of a friend.” 


  • “Take on Me” by A-ha (repost), Tuesday, July 2, 2024

    The music, the legend, the meme. Today we take on A-ha’s 1985 summer classic, “Take on Me.”A-ha is a Norwegian band. Their dream was to get famous in the UK before sweeping the world. To do this, like other European bands and musicians, the band decided to record all of their songs in English. However, getting a massive hit like “Take on Me” took persistent marketing. The song went to #3 in Norway before the band re-recorded it and released the single internationally. But the band’s iconic music video is the reason the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 and went to #1 in 12 other countries.


    TODAY’S ANOTHER DAY TO FIND YOU. The guitar riff on “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” is perhaps a close second to the synth and drum opening of “Take on Me” for emerging the listener in the ‘80s. What I didn’t realize today when I was enjoying this song was how young the band was. I often think of bands that existed before my time as being forever old. And with today’s song’s heyday two years before my birth, I had some idea that the boys in A-ha were just a bunch of proper Europeans who played music to be enjoyed in the grocery store and influenced The Weeknd. “Take on Me,” though, was the band’s first hit, whereas I had assumed that the band had tried to make it years before in Norway. The original hit lacks the production that producer Alan Tarney brought to the single that would become the international hit. The original music video could be described as a typical cheesy ‘80s video, the band giving off a youthful, subtle sexuality with lead singer Morten Harket in ripped jeans and a ripped shirt. So many of the ‘80s classics have a “so bad, it’s good” music video. However, the band’s re-shot music video, directed by Steve Barron, sets A-ha apart from the cringy days of MTV and puts them on the same level s Michael Jackson.

    I’LL BE STUMBLING AWAY. Years ago, I was surprised to find out that A-ha had a large discography. On an episode of Hit Parade, host Chris Molanphy explained the debate as to whether or not A-ha can be classified as a one-hit-wonder. The band had other singles released in the US, but few remember them and they don’t receive much radio play on Classic Rock or Oldies stations. But in their large discography, besides the first track on their debut record Hunting High and Low, was their 2005 record Analogue. I was impressed with how the band could continue to reinvent themselves and make music that sounded modern and relevant without being gimmicky. Back in 1985, though, I realized today that “Take on Me” is practically teen pop. The synth wave in 1985 was cool when everyone was doing it, whether New Wave-post punkers or Wham! Even Bruce Springsteen’s music started to incorporate synths. But A-ha certainly fits in with teen pop. A-ha certainly had their 15 minutes of fame, and the trio seems to appreciate that their music got as far as it did. There’s a three-part video series I watched on YouTube to get much of the information for this post. I was impressed by how young the band still looks considering that this song was released thirty-nine years ago. Maybe because the band wasn’t huge for a long time preserved the members from a prolonged rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. Maybe it’s those good Norwegian genes. But either way, don’t let “Take on Me” be the only A-ha song stuck in your head. It’s an excellent song, but they have others!

    Read “Take on Me” on Genius.

     

  • “Hey! Hey!” by TWS, Monday, July 1, 2024

     

    Last month TWS kicked off 여름방학 (summer vacation) with the lead single to their second mini album Summer Beat!  Peaking at # 125 on Korea’s Gaon chart “hey! hey!” wasn’t a successful single to follow “Plot Twist,” their number 2 hit. But Pledis Entertainment’s conceptual optimistic teen boy band may not have me interested in the daily life of the boys in the band,” I’d certainly like to find out what composers of the song were listening to inspire the pop-punk guitar riff that appears throughout the song, especially noticeable at the beginning. I’m not sure what made this song flop in Korea–maybe the guitar, maybe the overly optimistic sound in dark times–but I think that “hey! hey!” deserves another taste. On the surface, it seems like a fizzy throw-away track, but I think more is going on.

    I WANT TO CRY OUT OUR DREAM FROM THE WORLD’S PEAK. Opening with a ten-second guitar riff sets “hey! hey!” immediately in the past–or maybe a future when guitar music has actually made a comeback in Korea several years after Olivia Rodrigo finally catches on here. The guitar chords are strummed fast setting the tempo of the song, though only at 92bpm. The E-flat minor riff adds a bit of contrasting melancholy with the propensity of the song, adding rare musical nuance to K-pop. There are several songs that “hey! hey!” remind me of. The first was the guitar riff that opens Michael W. Smith’s 1998 album Live the Life. After 54 seconds of New Age piano on “Missing Person,” Smith uncharacteristically launches into a rock song. The Michael W. Smith guitar seems an unlikely inspiration for TWS’s composition. My next thought was “The Boys of Summer,” particularly The Ataris’ 2003 cover. If the concept of TWS is ‘90s and early ‘00s nostalgia, the song is a perfect candidate for the inspiration of the “hey! hey!” The song was a top 2o Billboard hit in 2003. I’m not sure if the rock track made its way to South Korea, but some pop-punk had a short life in the early ‘00s. The other song “hey! hey!” resembles is “급” or “Fear” from Show Me the Money 4 Episode 5. 

    OUR PASSION BURNS AT EQUAL TEMPERATURES. “Missing Person,” “The Boys of Summer,” and “Fear” may sound similar to “hey! hey!” Even if one of these songs inspired the musical backdrop of TWS’s June 6th single, the song takes a far more optimistic tone. Unlike “Fear” in which TWS’s millennial hyungs (Korean term for males’ older brothers, often used not as a familial term) Mino and Taeyang talked about existential dread, “hey! hey!” takes on that dread but counters it with optimism. Some have called Billie Eilish the voice of her generation, Generation Z. And while Eilish’s music has become more optimistic, much of her early work dealt with Gen. Z angst, a generation that thinks deeply about climate change and the breakdown of democracy. The lyrics of “hey! hey!” acknowledge the seemingly dire situation of the future, but the youthful optimism of “I’m not afraid until we reach that day that we’ve been waiting for” wins the battle against the melancholy guitar. And with an early summer/late spring release, I think of “hey! hey!” as the Cadillac driver who puts a “Dead Head / Black Flag sticker” on, before he buys the Cadillac, of course. In other words, “hey! hey!” is almost a prequel to “The Boys of Summer.” The only thing missing to make it a true prequel is romance. Only bromance seems to be a theme in this song, and it’s not particularly homoerotic; completely platonic, maybe.  I hope that the younger generation doesn’t turn out jaded like every generation before them has, though. Don’t buy that Cadillac. Today’s song is a dose of optimism. Hell, pop-timism. K-pop-timism? 

  • "Honest Affection" by Kye Kye, Sunday, June 30, 2024 (repost)

    Fantasize is Kye Kye’s second album, and it deals with love in both a tangible and abstract way. Lead singer Olga    Yagolnikov Phelan was married to drummer Timothy Phelan during the band’s first two records. Kye Kye‘s debut record, Young Love deals more with spirituality and Fantasize deals more with human relationships. Songs like the record’s epic opener, “I Already See It,” the contemplative “Seasons,” “Glass” or today’s song, the second track on Fantasize, show the band at their best: electronic pop with vague but relatable lyrics. 

    A PART OF ME JUST ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW.  The music video for Kye Kye’s “Honest Affection” was directed by Salomon Ligthelm, who has directed several music videos including a Justin Bieber video and a Little Simz video last year. Kye Kye’s video starts off with an exploding plane over the Pacific Ocean in technicolored World War II footage. Next the message “All’s Fair in Love and War” shows the scene of Japanese children marching in black and white footage. Then there are scenes of war in Japan. After the title card shows in Japanese and English, we see a young Asian woman walking in what appears to be modern times. We see traditional Japanese architecture and a few scenes of Olga singing. Then we have an apparent romance between a man who seems to be training as a samurai and a girl in the court. All of this is intermixed with scenes of World War II, Olga singing, and scenes of the Japanese temple forest. At the end of the video, the Asian girl is riding in the back seat of a car in the present time (or the 1970s?) and she kisses something in her hand.   

    HIDING TO AVOID ANY SIGNALS.  It was either Todd in the Shadows, A Dose of Buckley, or an equally snarky reviewer who points out the impossibility of Nicki Minaj’s “Your Love,” the song that says “When I was a geisha, he was a samurai/ Somehow I understood him when he spoke Thai.” The comment was that it was highly unlikely that a geisha and samurai would ever meet, and if they did, he certainly wouldn’t speak Thai! I thought about the first part. I’m not a Japanese history buff, so it’s probably time to brush up with my favorite history video, ever. Was the Shogun finished by World War II? What story is Kye Kye’s video telling? Is the woman at the beginning and the ending the child or grandchild of the samurai/geisha who ran away from the war? Did they escape? Where did they go? Did they both survive? Are they dead at the time of the woman possibly traveling back to Japan to find answers? I guess we can make up our own story with a vague video like this. But part of me feels like it’s irresponsible to throw so many breadcrumbs into an obscure music video by an Estonian-American (not Japanese-American) band. 
     

    “Honest Affection (Remix A) Official Music Video:

    “Honest Affection (Remix B) Official Music Video:

     

  • “Like That” by Stand Atlantic, Saturday, June 29, 2024































    Pride month is coming to a close. Today, I’m posting the Apple Music edition of my pride playlist. Kicking off this edition is Stand Atlantic with the opening track on their 2020 album Pink Elephant, “Like That.” To me this year Pride is a celebration of the way I am. I’m not against flamboyance and I think that there are years that are suited for grand celebrations. But this year, when I feel like so many people cannot understand that people like me exist, I feel like it’s important sometimes to go back to the basic explanation. That’s why I included songs like Coldplay’s “People of the Pride” and Depeche Mode’s “People Are People.” I hope you had a great Pride month that you celebrated in your own way.


     

  • "Chemical" by The Devil Wears Prada, Friday, June 28, 2024 (updated repost)

    In 2006 a new band released a brutal metalcore album called Plagues. That band so happened to have the name of a much less metal PG-13 movie starring Anne Hatheway, Meryl Streep, and Stanley Tucci. The movie was actually directly based on the 2003 book of the same name. The band, however, chose the name as a protest against materialism. The band The Devil Wears Prada has become a staple in Hard Christian Rock and scene hardcore metal. In 2019, they released the album The Act  which expanded their sound to include more singing on ballads such as “Please Say No” and “Chemical.” Clean vocalist Jeremy DePoyster had always had duties Prada songs, in a sense, rewarding listers with melodic choruses; however, “Chemical” is a radio-ready hit.


    WAKE UP TO NO MEANING, I STARE AT THE CEILING. According to the band’s episode of the Labeled Podcast, Jeremy DePoyster said that unclean vocalist Mike Hranica got the idea for this song after either watching a TED Talk or listening to a podcast. Hranica became very depressed after listening to this speaker because her coping mechanism was to remind herself that no matter whatever bad news she heard, how she felt was only a chemical reaction. To Hranica, this made him feel as if nothing was real. While it’s true that whatever problems we usually face in our daily lives at home and work and back again usually seem like the biggest deal to us at the time (and sometimes they certainly hold some gravity on the future), reducing our responses to chemical reactions in our brains sent Hranica into an existential crisis. There are two ways that I think about this coping mechanism. The first is taking it to a logical conclusion: The simulation theory. In this theory, I may or may not be real reacting to you people who may or may not be real. This idea is played out in movies like The Matrix. The second way I could take this coping mechanism is to belittle my problems. So if my reaction to this moment is only chemical, I can also belittle my problem nothing substantial in the greater scheme of the world’s problems. I burned the dinner that I was supposed to serve at a party. In the greater scheme, people are starving in the world and I have enough money to throw a feast. I could spend the money again to order takeout. People could be upset with me, but at least I’m not a thief or a murderer. It’s only their chemical reactions, by the way. There are certainly problems with taking this coping mechanism to these two conclusions. 

    THERE’S STILL TIMES I WANT TO BREAK EVERYTHING I’VE EVER MADE. I’m reminded of a conversation I had with one of my students. In my teaching in Korea, I’ve seen that they have a less developed special education program than in some other countries. However, American teachers can’t pass certification without knowing the laws and practices for accommodating students with special needs. Min-hyuk (name changed) had many problems adjusting to life in middle school. When I first met the kid for an English conversation ability interview, I asked him to introduce himself in English. He replied, “I’m too cool for that.” Next, I asked him to tell me how he learned English, “It’s all about money if I’m being honest. My parents pay a lot of money for the best academies, and that’s how I learned how to speak English.” After finishing the interview he asked, “Do you have any snacks?” Throughout the semester, he was a pariah among the other middle school first graders. Nobody wanted to be in Min-hyuk’s group. Because my school is a boarding school with about 40% of the middle school students staying on campus, Min-hyuk was placed in the English dormitory; however, after hours he created so much work for the dean, senior students, and classmates. Eventually, his parents took him out of the dorm. He came to apologize for his rude behavior during the interview, though for a subtle point I had thought was not that rude, asking me which phone games I played. “My mom said it’s very rude to talk to teachers about games,” he said. He opened up about the difficulties of adjusting to a new school. I said, “All of your classmates are dealing with a very hard change right now. You went from a time when you could play as much as you wanted to a time when you have to study much, much later into the night.” He said, “Just because others have to deal with it, doesn’t make it any less difficult for me.” “Good point,” I said, “You are you and you have to learn what works for you.”