Noodle(Creative Sway Day)

There is a band called the Gorillaz.

In that band there is a girl called Noodle.

Noodle, quite frankly, is the shit.

I recall visiting Italy for the first time in 2001. At that time I was around 8 years old and there was a English band called the Gorillaz sweeping through Europe with their first CD. I spent hours in in vain trying to occupy my time in the hotel room when I wasn't off seeing Italy. Suddenly I heard a interesting beat. I found its source to be the television and there I saw the scrumptious artwork of Jamie Hewlett(who remains perhaps my favorite artist to this day) in the Clint Eastwood music video. There were so many elements in it that intrigued me. The music, the visuals, the story it seemed to be telling, but most of all was the little kid. That kid was Noodle and at the time I had no freaking idea whether she was a boy or girl. Regardless I found her to be like me: small, quiet, and spunky. She is additionally a karate master so that is always a plus. I would watch it everyday countless times. After all it was so popular you couldn't escape it and it didn't hurt that it was the only entertaining thing in English either.

However, after the trip my love affair with the Gorillaz was done. I was young and at that time had a stubborn disinterest in music so I wasn't inclined to seek it out when I got back to the States. Beside the Gorillaz really weren't a hit at all in the US so they wouldn't be bombarding me with all there lovely visuals everyday like in Italy.

But the music and especially Noodle always stuck with me.

Then, one day in 2005 when I was 13 I heard a particularly familiar song come on the radio. I heard the instantly recognizable rap parts of what I later came to know was De La Soul and when I checked the info it read: Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz.

It was a heavenly song off their new album Demon Days and to my delight I found Noodle had grown in the past 4 years. She was now declared to be 14 which was close enough to my age and I was rather delighted that a fictional character I had loved was growing with me. What I loved even more was her look, her dark purple hair, and all of her outfits. I watch the music videos for Feel Good Inc, Dare, and El Manana again and again because she was in them.

Of course my love goes on today and I had a hefty dose of the 18 year old Noodle in their most recent album Plastic Beach which came out in March of 2010. My favorite Noodle scene of this album or any for that matter is her shooting planes down in the On Melancholy Hill video. I loved that scene and her outfit so much I was going to go dressed as that for this years Anime Expo. But alas, I could not go. Oh well, next year.