Sound Bite: The happiest show on television

“How I Met Your Mother engages in a certain amount of magical thinking. It believes in signs, in the power of coincidence and the broader meaning of things that seem unimportant. It’s not afraid of fairy dust and the idea that if the sad, difficult things hadn’t happened, the good things wouldn’t have happened either, because everything is part of a whole.

It doesn’t always work … But when they get it right, it’s a very elegant and thoughtful larger story about how crushingly sad things have to be placed into a context beyond themselves. It doesn’t really have to show you the mother; it’s not a show about her, even though its storytelling structure is critical. It’s a show that has a specific vision of how life works, and that vision is basically a happy one. It might be one of the happiest shows on television, and I continue to be grateful for that.”

- Linda Holmes in this beautifully written NPR post that captures the reasons why I fell in love with the show. It was written a few months before I discovered the show (how it took me seven years, I’ll never know), but I stumbled upon it when I mined the “HIMYM” writers’ Twitter feed. Yeah, it’s like that.

Sound Bite: Don’t work, be hated and love someone.

“Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows. What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.

Since your life is over, you are free.”

- Author Adrian Tan in his speech as guest-of-honor at a recent college graduation in Singapore. Read on for his witty and fabulous take on how to live your life freely: don’t work, be hated and love someone.

Houston Press: 50 reasons Texas is the best state in America

“40. Willie Nelson. Beloved by the most stonered Austin dreamer to the most rigid born-again Baptist, and no one bats an eye when he racks up another weed arrest.

38. Friday Night Lights. Not the book, movie or show — the real thing. High school football in small-town Texas is something everyone should experience at least once.

26. If there’s an ethnic food that’s not available in Houston, it involves a very, very small ethnicity.

11. Houston took rap and made it its own and gave it to the rest of you. You’re welcome.

1. Texans are so damn charming when they brag about their state. (Um, aren’t we?)”

- Richard Connelly in a Houston Press blog post / Gawker rebuttal. Check it.

Sound Bite: "Bachelor" love child

“Rafael Nadal and I had a love child. And he’s now looking for love on ABC. We both wish him the best.”

-Josh Groban on the ridiculously boring new “Bachelor,” Ben Flajnik.

Sound Bite: Aim at the heart, not the wallet

“I just know what I like to listen to. I just know I want something aimed at the heart, not the wallet. How dare anyone in power determine for the listener what he or she wants to hear? Yet, this is country radio’s business model. The ‘failure’ of Ronnie Dunn’s “Cost of Livin’” is a microcosm of what’s wrong with commercial radio and I’m done.

I know traditional country won’t be played on mainstream country radio anytime soon. I’ve come to accept that. What I can’t accept is that they won’t even play something that makes the listener feel any feeling other than happy or blissfully ignorant.”

-Farce the Music in a post titled “The Final Straw”

Ten things 90s kids will have to explain to their children

How hilarious (and accurate) is this Thought Catalogue blog post, written by Chelsea Fagan? Some of my favorite quotes are below, but do yourself a favor and read the entire post.

On the sacredness of “Boy Meets World”:

“Topanga (pronounced Tah-payne-ga, for those who will have only ever seen in it written down) is the name of the quintessential girl-next-door who will live, along with Feeney, in our hearts forever.”

On the power of Will Smith:

“The Men In Black rap song, at the time, was created and received by the public without the slightest trace of irony. Really. He was that good.”

On choosing between N*SYNC and The Backstreet Boys:

“Though on the surface, they are the exact same thing in every conceivable way, whether you liked The Backstreet Boys or N*SYNC said more about your character than all of the terrible macaroni art you could ever make for your child psychologist.”

On the Spice Girls phenomenon: 

““I wanna really really really wanna zig a zig ahh,” has a meaning, and all true nineties kids know it, but we must never share it. Like the Illuminati, it must remain between us, the keyholders. With great power comes great responsibility.”

On Lisa Frank:

“It is a theory, a concept, a belief in something greater than yourself. It is the belief that all girls are entitled to dolphins covered with rainbows, jewel-encrusted frogs, and unicorns in acid-trip colors hugging each other.”

Sound Bite: Wounded Kelly Clarkson

“Ms. Clarkson is turning into the Mary J. Blige of pop: so good at being wounded that no one wants to let her heal.”

-New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica on Kelly Clarkson’s new album,Stronger, released today. Read the full review here.

Sound Bite: Storytellers are crazy

“Modern storytellers are the descendants of an immense and ancient community of holy people, troubadours, bards, griots, cantadoras, cantors, traveling poets, bums, hags and crazy people.”

-Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Novelist and Microsoft speechwriter Justina Chen used this quote in her inspiring session at a Ragan Communications conference that I attended this week at Microsoft’s headquarters.

Sound Bite: Melodies and memories

“Funny how a melody sounds like a memory.”

-Eric Church in a song called ““Springsteen”” off his new album, Chief. Love the lyric, like the album and am sort of, kind of warming up to the artist.

Sound Bite: The human condition

“It’s like we walked by a house and heard someone crying, got closer, and put our nose to the window. And inside, saw someone who was where we’ve once been. The land of heartbreak. It’s the human condition. To the point where some hook up with someone random just to stay in the game and others get old and refuse to play anymore.”

-Bob Lefsetz on Adele’s 21 album. I don’t often agree with him, but he makes an excellent case for why her album has resonated so well: “music trumps everything.”