The Music Blog

For shits and giggles (one of my favorite cliches btw, if anybody is regularly following this they will probably have already seen that pattern), I put my iPod on shuffle. No classical. Three out of three songs so far I forgot or didn't realize I had. This astounds me.

Now, I'm not going to talk up my musical knowledge — to be quite honest (and as intimated in the previous post), I'm usually quite far behind on any musical trend and have lost my taste and connections for it — but I have always enjoyed knowing I know what's in my freaking collection. It's up to 2222 songs now, a good third of that probably classical, but dammit if it this state isn't a result of pure negligence. 

Case in point: I made a friend a classical guitar mixer the other day. Got two cds out of it. And I'd forgotten how much I actually enjoyed a lot of that music. So now I'm trying to take stock of why that's happened. The usual lineup of co-mingling events are there: not enough time, a lot of music compiled in 33 years, and I've been so wide-reaching with my tastes that it's hard to get consistent thread between all of them. However, when I was younger, on my own, in SF, I'd sit around my apartment as something fantastic to do, chill and read and listen to music, usually sans the reading part (I'm guilty of trying to make myself sound to noble). And I've lost it somewhere, and sort of want to get it back, sooner rather than later.

So, the first part of this process is arranging my apartment for however long into a place I can again relax and sit and really listen to my tunes. The second — and now I'm challenging all my loyal readers out there — is to get back to making mixes. I'm guessing most of you are on the facebooks, where this blog is mirrored — send me a note, tell me what you want. I'll see what I can do. 

And if I've already made you one, then don't get too spoiled.

Anyway, this blog has now

.

rediscovering the shit on my shoes

I had a revelation tonight that, were I living back east or at least were I living in Baltimore, where I lived would be a tony neighborhood. I mean, the fucking former CAA building might as well be The Belvedere. Not to be confused with the Mister. 

Fuck, location is central, basics are almost perfect, you even get a walk past city hall and its gilded dome to go to work -- but this qualifies as inner city west-coast style. The respectable neighborhoods are all up the hill or less developed "neighborhoods," that, while they qualify as such, are much too large to substantiate basic civil existence on an old-world scale (meaning -- before cars existed). And I've met too many people here who will get their car to go half a block. True story. But that's an aside, and let's talk about the hill thing.

Now, make no mistake I don't think this is a bad idea: in general the riff-raff is less inclined to climb, esp. when it means they get farther away from freeway traffic, but something in this idea strikes me as horribly wrong. The buildings here are some of the oldest, not this pretty victorian shit but something that survived the quakes by being made well, or were made after it and are made even better.

Moreover, the monuments, arts, structure of the area says it should be so much better. And what is it? An effing ghetto. If I have one thing that always pissed me off about suburban life back east and west-of-the-appalachian culture in general is that if it means you have to be around people regularly, you must live in a ghetto. Not in a place that requires more substantive existence and people always being on their wits. No, you need to acclimate to the stupidity of the ghetto to get around beauty.

I've always said that if I ever went back to Europe, I'd never come back. I'm still tempted, but next stop (cross my fingers) will be New York. I'm done here. For several years now.

late night ruminations because i'm not sleeping

there will be no theme to this post, as quite frankly i'm only writing it in a fit of insomnia and disappointment because of it. so the list of random thoughts:

• Finished watching season three of Battlestar Galactica. Wow. I'd heard about this show for awhile, but frankly I'm amazed they've managed to pull off a show that's so bizarre, brilliant and absolutely unpredictable in a sci-fi setting. not that I have anything against sci-fi, but the genre usually relies on so many tropes it's not all that watchable. BSG...no. Easily one of the weirdest and most inventive shows I've seen since Twin Peaks, but without the Twin Peaks lulls.
  
• I miss days where I could just steal off to nowhere in particular, hang out, do nothing. Not to say I don't enjoy living in the city, but I miss the idea of going somewhere on a whim with no planning or agenda. That's the most nostalgia you'll hear from me for awhile.
  
• Music hasn't had the same power it once did for me. I still love it, but it used to be something that would just floor me and I would plan nights around. Maybe it's the prospects of not sharing.
• Grendel. Read it recently, made me realize that American authors do not write novels like that anymore. Slim, metaphysical, but also a full on monster story. Who knew? Too many American novels remind me too much of the author, like that was its purpose. 
• I'm taking a stab at making red sauce in my crockpot. We'll see what happens.
• I removed the last comment. It's too embarrassing.
• I need to get back to writing. My apartment is too much of a disaster to do so, though. Mainly to work on my portfolio.

for shits and giggles

I'm reopening an old blog. not restarting it, just reopening it to outside. Nocturnal SF. Enjoy the old shit. Also linked from my profile.