How to Tie Your Shoelaces

shoelaces better way to tie

Look at your shoes. Do your shoelaces come untied periodically? Are your bows straight across the top of the shoe as they should be — like the shoe on the right — or do they end up aimed down the length of your shoe — like the shoe on the left? I recently ran across a three-minute video on Netflix from TED about how to tie your shoe. Intrigued, I figured it was worth three minutes. In the short video, Terry Moore explains how you likely have been tying your shoe wrong all these years.

While Moore explains the problem quite well, it took me several viewings to figure out how I should adapt my shoe-tying style. For me, it was a matter of looping the opposite direction around my finger instead of my thumb. If you are still not quite seeing it, here is another video that explains a little more how you might make the adjustment to tying the superior reef knot instead of that granny knot your parents taught you. [2016 Update: A previously posted video from from Runner’s World is no longer available.]

In defense of your parents, the granny knot probably is easier for little kid fingers. But I am upset about all those years I wasted having to retie my shoes after they came undone. Now, if you tie your shoes correctly, you can use that extra time for for your favorite activities, including reading Chimesfreedom.

How do you tie your shoes? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    It’s Only Two O’clock and the Temperature’s Beginning to Soar

    Meat Loaf Out of the Frying Pan It is really hot today in New York, which has me thinking about songs about the summer heat. For example, if you flip through the radio stations you are bound to run across Buster Poindexter’s “Hot, Hot, Hot!” But one of my favorite songs about the heat, which is not as well known, is “Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire,” written by Jim Steinman and recorded by Meat Loaf.

    I discovered the song when it appeared on Bad for Good, the 1981 album Steinman made after Meat Loaf’s voice problems prevented him from recording the follow-up to his mega-hit album Bat Out of Hell (1977). I probably am one of the few people who bought Steinman’s album and still will listen to it. I love his version of “Out of the Frying Pan” as well as every moment his voice strains to reach the high notes, perhaps because that is how I first heard it. I grabbed anything related to Steinman and Meatloaf for awhile, and I bought all of Meat Loaf’s 1980 albums before his big comeback with Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (1993), which featured Meat Loaf’s version of “Out of the Frying Pan.”

    While through the years my music tastes went in other directions, I still play some Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman music out of my archives. And today is a good day to listen to their overblown song with double entendre meanings and lines such as, “The subways are steaming and the skin of the street is gleaming with sweat.” Here is a grainy video of a young Meat Loaf performing the song in 1988 on a small stage in Flushing, New York before his 1990s comeback.

    For a more high-quality video performance, here is an older Meat Loaf on a much larger stage in 2010. While the singer no longer has the great voice he once had, you can still tell he gives his all.

    For covers of various songs about the heat, check out Cover Lay Down.

    What is your favorite song about the heat? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Marty Brown’s AGT Las Vegas Performance of “When You Say Nothing At All”

    Marty Brown AGT Las Vegas

    As Chimesfreedom previously reported, country singer Marty Brown advanced to the New York rounds of “America’s Got Talent.” Below is a video of what they showed on television from the Las Vegas rounds, including a part of his performance of Keith Whitley’s “When You Say Nothing At All.”

    Howard Stern and Howie Mandel noted that they did not like the performance as much as Marty Brown’s San Antonio performance of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love.” On the other hand, if you saw the entire episode, you would see the show is edited to create drama so it shows the judges saying something negative about everyone. Meanwhile, one of the other competitors noted about Brown, “He makes me like country music.” Most importantly, the judges liked the performance enough to send Brown to the live performances at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. What will Marty Brown do next to win over the judges and America?

    [Update: For a post on Brown’s entire run on America’s Got Talent, check out our post on The Great AGT Rebirth of Marty Brown.]

    What would you like to hear Marty Brown sing next? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Alanis Morissette and Irony

    alanis Morrisette ironic Through the years, people have noted that the Alanis Morissette hit “Ironic” on Jagged Little Pill (1995) misunderstood the meaning of “ironic.” The events listed in her song included things like a free ride when you already paid and rain on a wedding day. These events might be described as “coincidental” or “improbable,” but not “ironic.” The Free Online Dictionary instead defines “irony” as an “occurrence, result, or circumstance notable” for an “[i]ncongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs.”

    To illustrate true irony, Eliza Hurwitz rewrote the lyrics to “Ironic” and her sister Rachel Hurwitz did the music to make “It’s Finally Ironic.” This new song changes the lyrics of Morrisette’s song to illustrate irony. For example, a fly in your chardonnay is not ironic, unless you specifically purchased the chardonnay to repel flies. Check out the song.

    The grammar critique does not undermine Morisette’s songwriting skills or the hit original, of course (and as one YouTube commentator noted, maybe is ironic that a song about irony does not feature any irony). While some have criticized the critics of the song, the new video is an entertaining and educational tribute to Morissette’s original. And Ms. Hurwitz and Ms. Leah made something fun out of all of the discussion of the song.

    What is your favorite part of “It’s Finally Ironic”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Marty Brown Advances to Radio City Music Hall on AGT!

    Regular readers of Chimesfreedom know we have been following country singer Marty Brown and his comeback trail for some time. After advancing through the first round on America’s Got Talent, he competed in the Las Vegas rounds tonight as his wife Shellie looked on. And Judges Howard Stern, Heidi Klum, Mel B, and Howie Mandel put him through to the live rounds of the competition in New York City.

    Brown sang Keith Whitley’s “When You Say Nothing At All” tonight. I got the impression the judges’ may not know the great song, but they were sufficiently impressed to put Brown through. He did a great job with the song. His performance on America’s Got Talent is not yet available online, although the episode will be available on the America’s Got Talent website (Update: We posted his Las Vegas performance here). But for now here is a video he posted about two months ago of him singing “When You Say Nothing at All.”

    What did you think of “America’s Got Talent” this week? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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