Thoughts on music and life…from an insomniac.

The other day I was trying to narrow down a list of my top five or top ten favorite bands, and I think its nearly impossible. I know people are going to yell at me for saying this, but I find music so ridiculously subjective that I don’t know how anyone can be a “critic”.

Nirvana and The Clash are probably my two favorite bands, not only because I find their music entertaining and important (in different ways) but because of the personalities of Kurt Cobain and Joe Strummer. After that it’s a crap shoot. I’m a huge Zeppelin fan but I think I’ve listened to WBAB too much because I feel like I’ve heard every Zeppelin song a hundred billion times over. Then there’s the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Depeche Mode, The Cure, The Smiths and about twenty other bands I could listen to at any given time and enjoy.

I’m pretty sure that there’s really no point to what I just wrote other than (I guess) to highlight the fact my musical taste is incredibly random and fickle depending on my mood at the moment. A waste of time to think about? Absolutely, but a fun distraction.

Speaking of The Clash, I was just watching clips of old Clash concerts and Joe Strummer, before a performance of Rock the Casbah, was on one of his anti-establishment rants when he went off with “You make, you buy, you die…that’s the motto of America!”, which I thought was classic. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, but I think everyone knows (and, to some extent, agrees) about the idea that working your life away for the sake of existing is kind of shitty, and so is focusing all of your energy on attaining material possessions. If you can’t live your life how you want and do what you want, what the fuck is the point? There are two things I want to be able to say on my deathbed – one, that I didn’t spend my life alone, and two, that my life’s work did something good in the name of something I believed in. Is that too much to ask for? I hope not.

I’m going to wrap this up because I’m starting to ramble and all of this is getting way too deep and introspective, but I also wanted to say that the Mets are pissing me off and there’s a nuclear-level rant coming if the Phillies get any closer. A September collapse? I wouldn’t put it past them.

Stay tuned for future posts as I chronicle that as well as my adventures in graduate school and my new apartment, including the great Wasp Invasion of ‘07!

Cheers.