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June 28, 2006
I could have used this advice hours ago...
When you obsess on your adversaries, you risk becoming like them. The more you shape your life through your responses to things you don't like, you invite them to define your destiny. You'll have to be on guard against falling prey to this mistake in the coming weeks, Aquarius. While I don't suggest that you totally ignore the forces that oppose you, neither do I recommend that you regularly wake up in the middle of the night and spend hours plotting your next ten moves against them. Confine your scheming to a circumscribed period--say every Saturday between 11:30 a.m. and noon--and devote the rest of your time to creating what you love.
Posted by timothompson at 11:21 PM
June 21, 2006
Great Advice
In free verse from Steve Kilbey.
Posted by timothompson at 02:18 PM
June 16, 2006
Absolutely No Topless or Helmetless Ruffians Allowed
There's been a lot of talk in the Austin American-Statesman. Lots of discussion and lots of controversy. Here's my unadulterated opinion on the matter at hand. There should be no topless or bottomless cyclists unless they're wearing a helmet (Hint: read the comments). That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it, dang nab it.
Posted by timothompson at 12:53 PM
June 14, 2006
Ze Frank on the Pursuit of Cool
Classic: “Being cool is about not participating in traditionally enjoyable experiences and creating the illusion that happiness can be found in alternative less enjoyable experiences. The degree to which other people around you try to emulate your alternative life style and fail, determines how cool you are. You're only as cool as people wish they were.”
Posted by timothompson at 12:27 PM
June 13, 2006
Envelopes Remix
It sounds really summmery, and it's available on their MySpace.
Posted by timothompson at 10:57 AM
June 09, 2006
Bostonism
This Big Takeover article prompted me to open up Napster and reevaluate Boston's debut album. The album was played endlessly on our local radio stations, by the jocks in high school, at the beach, etc. I heard it so much, along with other music by Journey, REO Speedwagon and the rest of the 70s arena rock hair bands, it became like wallpaper. I retreated from it in my personal music listening time, preferring to listen to the Police and Elvis Costello, acts that were given critical approval by Rolling Stone, but weren't widely played on our city's radio stations until the early 80s.
I remember going to college and hearing this album echoing from dorm rooms again and again as we played basketball in the parking lot. At times I wanted to put my hands to my ears and just scream "Noooooooo! I cannot hear it again. Please stop telling me about your smokin' and tokin'."
Listening to it now, it seems so innocuous and not as evil as I once deemed it. Now that I have control, and I'm not hearing Brad Delp's voice emanating from my radio and in the streets over and over and over again, I kind of like hearing it. Does that mean I'm going to cue it up and listen to it again every day for the next few weeks like I've been doing with the Fall's "Rowche Rumble" lately? I don't think so. But it sounds so syrupy and lugubrious – it tickles my ear drums like honey. A drop of honey tastes sweet. A vat of honey can cause digestive problems. We won't even get into the lyrics.
Now I'm understanding the whole open-minded tip the geeks have been raving about for the past year or so. How do you know if you like music you detested as a youth unless you listen to it again with the ears of an adult? Have you tried it yourself, or have you relied on the opinions and rubber stamp of others to guide you? But it's like finding out you really like chick peas/ceci beans after years and years of avoiding them because you thought they were too gross looking and shiny? Wha? I like chick peas? What else might I like? Does this mean that even "Midnight at the Oasis" might appeal to me?
There are invisible lines we've all drawn, unconscious judgments we've made of the validity or vapidity everything we encounter. Some judgments will stand after careful speculation and inner reflection. Others may have been a snap judgment that we didn't even evaluate or give a second thought, programmed by outside forces like television, peers, or other media, or determined like mine, as a survival method against the inundation of the era's anointed cultural icons.
However, we must make these evaluations on our own. When it comes down to brass tacks, we have our desert island discs. We enjoy music that speaks to us for reasons both known and unconscious, and after trying something that someone else has anointed as this era's new messiah, we have the option to either take it or leave it. There are no absolutes, and nothing should be accepted just because someone else deems it so.
Update: Boston Globe critics debate the merits of the Boston album [via LHB] (I didn't realize it was the LP's 30th anniversary).
Posted by timothompson at 12:52 PM