The First Week of Autumn

Happy Second Equinox, everybody! Fall officially begun a couple of days ago (and it still was 85 degrees outside!), and fall has always been my favorite season. I've always been lucky to have been a resident of New England for all my life, where the foliage has always been absolutely stunning to look at. I always enjoyed taking long walks or drives and absorbing the beauty of the landscape during autumn. The leaves are kind of changing color here, but not a lot, which is typical for September; the true change in weather usually comes around October. And October is easily one of the best months of the year for me.

Even better, my girlfriend and I are taking a trip down to the Washington D.C. area in the middle of October. She's never been there before, and I haven't been there since I was 11. My uncle lives down there, so we have a place to stay. We need a vacation; this summer was especially stressful, and we're still incredibly busy now that we're back in school and trying to form a new music project. So 4 days in D.C./Northern Virginia/more of Virginia if we're feeling ambitious just may revitalize us and give a sense of relaxation that vacations usually do. I heard that fall in D.C. is absolutely gorgeous, and I've actually never been down there during that time. I am going to be bummed because we're going two weeks before Jon Stewart's Restoring Sanity Rally/Stephen Colbert's Keep Fear Alive Rally). I did some research on record stores in that area, and there's a ton of 'em, including one literally 5 minutes away from my uncle's house!

I've had the soundtrack to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World on repeat the past couple of hours. It's a brilliant soundtrack to an even more brilliant movie. It contains music by Beck (he even wrote the music for the fictional band in the film, Sex Bob-Omb, which sounds like a hybrid of The Stooges and Death From Above 1979), Broken Social Scene, T-Rex and Metric. I also got acquainted with some now-defunct bands; Plumtree, an all-girl Canadian band who actually had a song called "Scott Pilgrim," whom the character was named after, and Beachwood Sparks, a country-influenced rock band who did a gorgeous cover of Sade's "By Your Side," which perfectly complimented one of the more romantic scenes in the movie. Usually, soundtracks serve as a way for a filmmaker to shoot off his/her favorite tunes, but very few these days see a film soundtrack as an art form: this one does, surely.

And fuck the Senate for blocking the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell! Proof that the GOP is still living in the '50s (1950s? Or 1850s? Can't decide which).

I'm Not Dead

I know it's been an eternity since I have written anything on this, or anywhere else for that matter. I tend to drop off the face of the blogosphere and go Nick Drake on everybody's ass, but up until now I feel like I have had nothing to say. I have started drafts on blog entries and other shit, but hit a creative dead end after a few paragraphs and it all ends up in the digital trashbin. I started an entry about Obama standing up in favor of the Ground Zero Mosque (more like a Muslim version of the YMCA a few blocks away) and railing on how he just might have a set of testicles after all, but then I got distracted by the carnival that has been my head for the past few months. Apart from turning 25, (finally) getting my first taste at waiting tables (far more lucrative than ice cream whore), moving in with my girlfriend, listening to a shit ton of new music, having my band break up, trying to eat healthy, trying to get an exercise regiment going, and a lot more other stuff, it has been hard to finish writing a sentence, let alone upkeep a blog. And such distractions and errors actually cost me a freelancing gig that didn't pay me a lot, but I was able to put some away (until I needed new shelves, a new dresser, and a master brake system for my trusty ol' Lumina). But I'll find others I'm sure

Last time I blogged, back in July, I had supposedly begun work on a project to name the Top 125 albums since 1985 as a way to say "fuck you" to SPIN magazine, who had done a similar list (factoid: both me and SPIN were birthed in 1985). I compiled a list of 125 albums out of a possible 600 or so contenders, got writing and stopped. Because it's bullshit, no one really cares, and I was checking out a whole slew of new albums that I had never heard before from all different genres and eras, and I thought the list was predictable. What was my #1 choice? You guessed it: Nirvana's Nevermind. That's right. The album I've listened to more than any other album ever. How original. And yes, I was on a major Nirvana kick this entire summer. I was also gonna do a commentary piece on VH1's latest "Greatest" list where they did the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time (which they did in 1998, when VH1 cared more about music than reality shows starring Bret Michaels), and for what? To show how culturally bankrupt VH1 has gotten in the past decade? To opine about who should be on and who shouldn't, consdering I think the artists in my Top 100 would be people VH1 and their "panel" would never consider in a million years? Who cares? It's a waste of goddamn time.

My band A Slanderous Choir, disbanded in August. The split, overall, was amicable, but it was awkward since I was the one who pretty much decided to quit. Basically, we played about 10 shows (including a radio spot on my friend Malcolm Tent's radio show on WNHU, a local college station), and I just didn't feel like we were clicking. Amelia and I wanted one sound, and our drummer wanted another. Practices usually lead to squabbles and arguments, and it was damaging our friendship. So it got to a level if we wanted to stay friends, the band would have to go. We played our last show on July 23, although we didn't know it at the time, and it was a bad final show. The bar PA was shitty, Amelia blew her voice out after 3 songs, and we cut our set short by 4 songs just to get the fuck outta there. We practiced one more time and then I decided that I had had enough. I actually felt like a hypocrite for a while because our drummer wanted to quit after our very first gig for pretty much the same reasons (wanting a different sound, not feeling like we clicked musically, general depression and dissatisfaction), and Amelia and I had to talk her into staying and giving it another go, which she reluctantly did. Even then, she had wanted to form another band. And I had entertained a similar idea secretly. It took me until that last show to confront the feeling that I wasn't behind our music 110%; Truth be told, I hated a couple of our songs. But we all decided that splitting up would be for the best; Our ex-drummer is forming another band, and Amelia and I are in the process of starting another band. I'm not too worried right now. I'm still young, and I'm focusing on work and school also. But I took away a lot of lessons and positive experiences from being in A Slanderous Choir. I got a taste of doing gigs, meeting other bands, networking and all that fun stuff.

I'm kind of glad I'm not doing music right now because I've come to the conclusion that I know nothing. I've been doing nothing but checking out new artists/bands/albums/7"/EPs for the past couple of months. I try to check out a few a day. I've also been cleaning out my vinyl collection and the stuff on my iPod. Seeing what I really like, what I never want to hear again (Led Zeppelin, here's looking at you!), and what I just don't care for. I'm also taking a music history and appreciation class (my final class at Housatonic, then off to Southern; I gotta get the ball rolling on transferring and all that shit), and I'm finally developing a taste for classical music and minimalism.

Politically speaking.... You know what? Fuck it. I'm a socialist. Happy, Hannity?!?!?! The right these days is making Bush and his pals look like hippies passing out free condoms and pamphlets on fighting homelessness at a Hendrix show! The new superstar in the Tea Party is Christine O'Donnell from Delaware, who beat out Mike Castle, probably the most center-leaning Republican in the House of Representatives, in the Delaware Senate primary. Things are looking kind of bleak for the Democrats, not that, in a way they don't deserve it. After wussing out on public option and passing a watered-down health bill that catered to insurance companies and lobbyists perhaps wasn't the best way to keep their base excited and their grip on power intact, but when you have a 24-hour news cycle up your ass all the time, it's hard to have any integrity. Still, when you consider the alternative, the Tea Party..... The GOP is probably gonna win in November, there will be a stranglehold in Congress from now on, things will get worse when people realize that the Tea Party candidates only want limited government when the Democrats are in power, people will realize that the GOP got us to where we are now in many aspects,and the sane people in this nation will be wagging their fingers going "See? I told you so."

I'm gonna focus this blog more on myself, and less on the world. I'll still write about music, politics, films, books, etc, but I'll be more personal. I know not to turn this into a bitchfest, and view this blog as a work of art and a vehicle to keep my writing up.

And now for my current theme song. A little tune from Paul Weller and co. from 1980. The Jam's "Going Underground."