Battle of the Bands Results and a Quick Update

First up, I've got Battle of the Bands results for you. The song was Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma. The contenders were Melanie Safka and Miley Cyrus. I wasn't at all surprised by the Melanie win in this battle (spoiler: Melanie won this one). Miley Cyrus has managed to turn off a whole bunch of people with her antics. The tally turned out like this:

Melanie Safka: 21

Miley Cyrus: 6

So, you can see that it was never even close. I did get some interesting comments on this one.

My friend Robyn said this:

I vote for Melanie, even though I like Miley's version better. I don't like that girl.

Frankly, that was my biggest concern about including Miley in this (or any) battle. People tend to vote against people they just don't like. Which if you're a superstar, it's really best to keep your opinions on pretty much everything to yourself, because you're bound to tick off half your audience. AND keep it clean. Put away the foam fingers and stop the twerking. It creates buzz, but often not the good kind.

My friend Christine said this:

I love Miley. I think she's young and sewing oats...she has real talent...if she straightens out in a year or two..writes some music..she'll be around for years.

There has been plenty written about Miley (and other Disney stars) who want to set aside that Disney image and tend to go a bit too far. Yeah, Miley isn't the only one. I think of life like a pendulum. Disney insisted that she live her entire childhood under the scrutiny of their microscope and not act out in any way. Let's face it, kids act out. So, when she got out from under Disney, her pendulum did a wild swing the other way. The thing about pendulums is that (usually) they come to rest somewhere in the middle. Meaning she won't ever be a "princess," but she probably won't be a foam finger waving idiot either. So, as Christine says, time will tell the tale here. If she writes her own music. If she settles down. If she grows up, chances are she'll ride out this crazy wave and find success. 

I tell you all this to say that I like Miley's music. I don't care for Miley's antics. I agree with Christine that it's entirely possible that she will straighten herself out. (I hope so.)  So, I agree with Robyn and Christine. Sort of. I try really hard to separate the singer from the song, because there are plenty of celebs I just don't like. When I was looking for a song in this battle of the bands I landed in Miley's backyard sessions. I watched quite a few of her songs, and I thought to myself that it's really sad that she went from this girl to the one waving the foam finger and twerking around half naked on the television. And her version of this particular song really struck me. I do think someone who spent their entire childhood in Hollywierd probably feels like their brain's been picked by everyone and their brother. Their life doesn't feel like their own. Everyone else makes the decisions and expects you to play the game. So, I felt like she could really relate to this song. She chose it for a reason. She felt like her song no longer belonged to her and if Hollywierd is selling tears... well, she'll be rich.

So, my vote is for Miley, which means nothing given this tally. But, I echo Christine's sentiments about hoping she settles down.

As for me... it's been whack-a-doodle here. I did fairly well for the six weeks I was gone, but I needed the pain pills to make it through. The good news was I made it through. The bad news was that the necessity of those pills put me back in that old cycle of daily migraines, rebound migraines, blah blah blah. I knew I was going to have to go cold turkey on the pain pills again. It was a matter of deciding when I could just opt of of "life" for about four days so I could lie in bed and moan with pain. I did that last week. It was pretty much as awful as I remembered from the last time. However, given that my dependence was shorter this time, so was my withdrawal period. Just 48 hours of agony versus the anticipated 96. All and still, it really sucked my energy.

I did find a renewed incentive during that period to just finish my revisions on my rough draft, which I did!!! I'm sure it's (once again) very rough, but I'm so happy to be further along in this process.

However, this blog (and blogging, in general) has suffered. I haven't been posting or reading. When you feel junky and only have so many hours in the day, it becomes really critical how you spend them. My novel was backburnered for so long that it became primary. I'm hoping to find some balance soon and find that happy medium.So, please bear with me. I fully intend to visit you soon!

Also, I will be posting some pics from 6 week adventure soon. And, I plan to get back to the Soundtrack of My Life. So much to do. So little time!