Why You Should See Vienna Teng with Me: Part III
November 20th is two weeks away, and that gives me little time to convince you to see Vienna Teng with me. So this week, I'll throw a curve ball at you in my convincing tactics. You should see Vienna Teng with me because of Alex Wong.
Alex Wong, you say? The dancer? No, not that Alex Wong. The Alex Wong I have in mind is Vienna' drummer, the producer on her album "Inland Territory," and singer/song writer in his own right. If you were an observant little bee, you would have noticed a few weeks ago that he co-wrote "The Breaking Light" with Vienna. Anyways, he's opening for her on the 20th, and I shall present you with a very nice song of his.
The Fighter (after clicking the link, choose the track, naturally)
I'll be the first to admit that Alex doesn't have one of those amazing voices that will render you speechless, but it's still very pleasant. As well, his songwriting is very much in the same vein as Vienna's, and that's something I absolutely appreciate. So this song, "The Fighter" is not to be confused with similarly named songs from The Fray, Gym Class Heroes or Bon Jovi. However, the title itself invokes a very familiar theme to songs -- getting knocked down and fighting to get back up. In our American society, it's a very admirable trait because that's usually the point of view of the underdog.
The thought reminds me of an apparent Japanese proverb, "Fall down seven times and get up eight times." Resilience is a virtue, and this video is what comes to mind when I hear that. In any good story, you have the protagonist take a dark turn or run into adversity in the second act. By the third act, there's the hero's triumphant return. Think "Star Wars" and where Luke is at the end of "Empire" and where he is in "Return of the Jedi."
Despite all those preconceived notions of what it means to be a fighter and what it means to not give up....continue being strong, what I love about this song is the fact that it flips that idea on its head. What if the fighter is resisting something that's good, like a relationship? That's something that's powerful. We can build all these walls to protect ourselves when the best thing can be to just surrender to the scary thing that looms over us -- in a good way. And that's a beautiful idea to me. Come and see Alex and Vienna with me.
--Jonathan