-Before we get started today, I just wanna say. It takes me a while to update. I know. My goal is to have the posts be at least tangentially of interest to someone other than myself. I like to have a topic, develop a thesis on the topic, and let things naturally go to hell from there. And I don’t particularly like writing about myself, cause that usually means that something CARAZZY! has happened to me and, for the sake of my sanity, those aren’t always fun (but yes, they can be funny). But I really do like to wait until I have something really good to talk about. And when I don’t have anything really interesting to talk about, I write these Odds and Ends posts that’s kinda free association. These posts also seem to coincide with slow days at work. So there. But for those of you who have told me how much you love my posts and how brilliant and handsome and charming I am (seriously, stop it! you’re making me blush), try this. Read a post again. My humor is so layered and complex that maybe you missed something the first time? I mean, E.T. shopping at American Apparel! ROTFLMAO!
-From 30 Rock to Just Like the City, self-deprecating humor seems to be in vogue this era. Discuss.
-Somehow, and I honestly don’t know how this happened, Jack’s Mannequin’s CD Everything in Transit became my most listened-to CD on iTunes and my iPod. A copy found its way into my car as well. Of all the music I “own,” my “subconscious” made sure that, no matter where I was, this would be the one CD I would have instant access to. And “they” (it’s really kinda one person) released a new CD last week, The Glass Passenger. By rough estimate, I think I listened to it, in entirety, six times yesterday. It seriously just happened, I don’t know how. And a live version of “Kill the Messenger” just came on my iPod as I type this. And here’s the thing. I don’t even know if the CDs are even that good. They’re kinda whiny (it is emo, after all) and the songs are pretty basic. However, I can’t stop listening! Everything in Transit refuses to get old to me. I’m in love with it. If I’m listening to something else, I’m always like “I could be listening to ‘Holiday From Real’ now.” Okay, not always, but a lot.
Now, why this CD? I blame it on my delayed adolescence (my “arrested development,” if you will). This is the crap that 13-year-old teenage girls listen to when their boyfriend breaks up with them. Okay, I’m selling it short. It’s obvious that I think it’s good, maybe unhealthily so. But I’m just not that into other music like this (with a few exceptions, I guess). Why this one? It’s a question for me to ponder, to be sure. I have no answer. Has this happened to anyone else? Not Jack’s Mannequin per se, but is there a CD that you listen to way too much? For no particular reason?
-I guess I should provide a mini-review of The Glass Passenger. I like it. It’s obviously no Everything in Transit, a CD that will one day cure cancer, broker peace in the Middle East, and create a great tasting AND calorie-free cheesecake, but it’s still really good. I mean, I listened to it six times yesterday. And who knows how many times total since it came out last Tuesday. Starts off really good, gets a little blah in the middle (but just a little), and then hits it out of the park towards the end. Here’s the video for the first single, “The Resolution.” It was directed by Stephanie Meyers, the woman who wrote those vampire books that 13-year-old teenage girls seem to love and that, um, I might have to read.
Thoughts: A) I don’t like his blonde hair; B) what exactly was Stephanie Meyers’ contribution to this? I did not see one m-effing vampire!; and C) this isn’t like the best song or anything, just the only video from the thing so far. And what’s the deal with boring videos? Cause this one bored me. I might expand that one into a post some day.
-Might as well highlight another new CD. I also like the Gorillaz, though in a driving in the car, background music sort of way. But the guy and the artist behind the Gorillaz, apparently with a lot of time on their hands, wrote an opera. Yes, an opera. But wait, it gets better. It’s entirely in Mandarin Chinese. And the plot involves a monkey that fights heaven or something. And it sounds like the Gorillaz’ (is that how you punctuate that?) music. It’s called Monkey: Journey to the West. Here’s a sample, with artwork. I kinda like it a lot. But when I tried to tell this to the one Gorillaz fan I know, he responded with an “oh.” Why can’t people share my excitement over anything?!?
-I took an online religion quiz that told me I was a Unitarian Universalist. And like part Scientologist and part Reform Jew (so can I take off Thursday for Yom Kippur?). But back to the Unitarian thing. Just a heads up. A future post might involve my research into this religion/fad of the week for me. I hope they aren’t a cult. I always thought they were a cult. But to be honest, I am the kinda person that would join a cult. I mean, I lived near Waco most of my teen years. There’s crazy in the water up there!
-Finally, hey! It’s football season! And UT plays OU this Saturday…
…but a certain quarterback seems to be doing alright for himself this season, so no worries, right? Hook ‘em!
