going to the candidates' debate

i'd intended to write about music here, but it seems there's only so much to say. i listen to records differently without a discman, and might buy one soon, if i have a spare $60.

remember the odds? they did heterosexual man and eat my brain. oh, and someone who is cool. the choruses were great. "just a hetero... sexual.... man." "come on and eat my brain." "i'm just a picture that i'm holding of someone who is cool." the problem is that all you need to hear is the chorus, once. then you're done; it's the money shot. all you need is 45 seconds, not a full 3:50 running time. maybe the odds are the perfect music bingo band.

this really is the beauty of music bingo. you get to hear all the great hits you know and love, but you don't have to put up with the whole stupid song, just the good bits. it's like a whole night of big chorus money shots. night ranger's sister christian is great for 45 seconds, but any more and you'll be unhappy. when you get a clip of a song that you really do want to hear straight through, like kids in america, the tease is half the fun. music bingo is the perfect pop culture experience. if you start drinking during the classic rock game and keep going through the middle game, you be happy and drunk and singing along to the extended 80's round at the end. good, clean fun.

working with a poser makes me so grateful to be secure in my taste in music. i was almost a hipster. in late 2002, it was the identity i was edging towards. a righteous canadian nationalist and a burgeoning hipster. i read all the local papers to read about rock bands, and really wanted to go to rock shows. i wanted to go to rock shows for the sake of going to rock shows. i'd want to hear a new band for the sake of hearing a new band. it's just not worth it. i was pointed in a different direction the following spring, and am happy in life as a result, but it is an interesting road not taken to consider. i would have been so unhappy.

an interesting explanation for my taste in music, perhaps: i successfully avoided a punk phase. if there was any 'rebellious' phase in my development, it might have been shoegazer rock, but it was hardly a detour or a rejection. at no point in my life, however, have i enjoyed punk rock. neither have i attempted to reject my parents' taste in music.

a list of hit songs that i really like: (this list is not comprehensive)
bruce springsteen, dancing in the dark
this lizzy, the boys are back in town
gin blossoms, hey jealousy
rush, tom sawyer
duran duran, ordinary world
john parr, st elmo's fire(man in motion) - this was the rick hansen theme song*
the killers, mr brightside
petula clark, don't sleep in the subway
journey, don't stop believin'
elton john, daniel
tina turner, we don't need another hero
elvis presley, suspicious minds
fleetwood mac, you can go your own way
the beegees, words
gerry rafferty, baker street
white town, your woman
van halen, running with the devil

*a note that hearing this makes me think of bc in 1987, after expo. it makes me think of the plaza of nations and bc place. a strange, very different bc. bill vander zalm, free enterprise, small business, a waning resource economy. selling coal to the japanese, and building tumbler ridge as a brand new company town. brown and grey suits. the keg, canada place, omnimax,
it is because of these associations that i like this song, and also why i like going to bc place and loitering. it unsettles me, and i'll keep spending time there until i figure out exactly why.

jan has a website now, called the leader of the church of i hate you. we may be entering a strange new phase.

i think i do a good job of leading a balanced life. i do not tend towards fads, and am getting better, i believe, at a separation of work and real life.

i've been described as mellow, which i appreciate. maybe this is why i am so tolerant of what we euphemistically describe as 'workout'. it's not really bothering me. i accept it. sure, it's loud, it's dusty, these are facts, but there is little that i can accomplish by being upset, and each day they hammer at plywood is another day closer to the end of the project.

it took me years to listen to leonard cohen, but i'm currently making up for lost time. i like songs of love and hate and i'm your man. i love the jazz police.

even more, i love the total self-obsession of foxbase alpha.

post a comment if you got to the end! all you have to say is that you read it all.