1. why has bon iver been the center of indie music hype for like six months? i mean, sure, dude's talented. but i've listened to the album a bunch of times and i just don't get it. to me he just sounds like yet another swimmer in the pool of guys who record a lot of acoustic guitar, add some spooky effects to it, and sing about sad things in a strange, high, tinny voice. there's nothing on that album that differentiates him from a ton of other singer/songwriters (or whatever they're calling them these days). i have the album, and i like it, but most of the time i'd rather listen to something i haven't heard 100 times already.
2. why the hell is fiction so engaging? i mean, i know i have a predisposition towards being more effected by fiction than some people, due to my own use of it as a means of personal expression. however, among other things, i saw the season finale of house this week and it just completely devestated me. i mean, it was great; easily two of the best hours of TV i've ever seen...however, the fact that things like that don't just go away as soon as you turn the TV off has always fascinated me. i saw iron man last night, and i really liked it, despite the fact that i almost chickened out at the theatre and went for the "safe" bet in indiana jones. i was very, very pleasantly surprised by this movie. you should see it. but anyway, for like three hours after i got home from the theatre i had that euphoric feeling that i was capable of anything, and i often get this feeling after watching really heroic action-type movies. i don't know, it's just interesting. i guess i wish sometimes that real life was that engaging...of course if real life was anything like movies, i'd have been dead like nineteen times by now. so there's that.
3. why am i awake? i went to sleep at 3am after watching spiderman 3, easily the earliest i've gone to bed in a week. i slept what i thought was pretty thoroughly, had a dream that (in the dream) lasted eight hours or so, and then woke up and checked my cell phone...630am. oh well.
4. why is it so fucking dry out? part of the reason, i think, that i woke up so early is that i was just so goddamn dirty that i had to take a shower. i haven't been showering extremely regularly lately because it's just so dry here this time of year that if i soap up even a little bit, for the next eight hours or so i'm just consumed by an agony of itching skin and flakiness. and i don't mean on my scalp, i mean on my goddamn arms and legs and face and whatnot. it's just that dry. combine this with the fact that my nose has been running for about 12 straight days (i've gone through at least six boxes of kleenex) and you have the two things i hate about spring (the only two things, spring is awesome).
5. why is "take on me" by a-ha so awesome? it makes me feel like i should be chasing my heavily mascara'd, angry girlfriend across the boardwalk at a florida beach on my moped at night.
6. why are the things that you don't want to think about the hardest things to not think about? is there some biological/evolutionary advantage to being constantly reminded that you're an idiot, or do i just wish my lawn was emo so it would cut itself? that doesn't have to make sense, but i still have to figure it out.
7. why is tobey mcguire's evil alter-ego haircut in spiderman 3 so fucking ridiculous? i literally cannot take that whole subplot seriously because everytime i see him i think of conor oberst and i just laugh maniacally for like 30 minutes until he becomes good tobey again.
8. why is the guitar solo in "beat it" SO GOOD?! solo starts at 2:58 if for some reason you don't want to watch the whole video.
9. why am i making this list when i should be doing something constructive, like writing the recommendation letter i have to write today? this is a trick question. there is no real answer. but you're welcome to make one up if you want.
#1 - that's how I feel about pretty much all "indie" music
ReplyDelete#3 - are you using the 'new math'?
#4 - you should try Dove or something similar... I always use it during the winter months when it gets dry around here, and it keeps my body from falling off
#6 - it's a well recognized psychological phenomenon that trying not to think about something makes you think about it more. something to do with reinforcing neural networks and/or the unconscious
#7 - maybe that's why i never saw this movie
#9 - I like the list approach... makes long posts much more comprehensible, if maybe a bit less artistic
#10 - I smell
I too am a fan of lists, for some unknown reason, as I am simply unable to ever utilize that tool to any useful end.
ReplyDeleteI kinda feel the same way about Bon Iver. He's good, no doubt, but he's kinda mining the whole hush, hush, spooky melancholy thing that seems to be "in" these days. Yet another proof that however disconnected, people move together in cycles.
Eddie Van Halen does the guitar solo to "Beat It", which I assume you know, but this probably has something to do with it's awesomeness. There is a common phenomenon of great artists doing music outside their normal sphere which somehow transcends their normal greatness and becomes anonymous, catholic greatness.
Dry skin? Try eating meat... fat is oil is lubricant. Reflect, eat, repeat.
I was thinking about the holdover effects of caffeine the other day. I drink a lot of energy drinks now, working at The Man's warehouse and all, and it feels like caffeine consumed on day one has an affect through day two and possibly even to day three. I was thinking this could at least aggravate your insomniatic tendencies.
i almost got a speeding ticket after watching fast and the furious at the theater, so...yeah.
ReplyDeleteas for number 6...i don't know, but...damn.
mike, i think you're right about people. i think no matter how stubborn people are, and how important it is for them to feel independent and self-sufficient...that you can live and survive alone, but you can only be happy with the help of other people. i see tons of artists (and not just artists) who are so hooked on expressing their "individualism" through art, and that art might be interesting, or engaging, but it's never the kind of thing that puts a smile on your face or makes you feel like you're part of something bigger. that's why i think so many of these "indie" artists sound a lot alike...because at the end of the day they aren't as alone as they'd like us (or themselves) to believe...they don't live in a cave or under a rock. they do have influences and whatnot, and people and other art matter to them, even if that's not the "in" thing...
ReplyDeletei don't know really what i'm trying to say.
that seems to happen a lot. and yeah, caffeine has some holdover effects, i think, though it's supposed to be flushed out of your system mostly after six hours. i mean, so is alcohol, but that doesn't mean you don't feel aftereffects for days afterwards.
v, interesting about the speeding ticket. i've been reassured by various women a bunch of times that reacting to movies that way is a "guy thing". i never really believed that, so it's good to have evidence to back it up.