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March 28, 2007
Let it Linger
I spent the greater part of today in and out of shops on a hunt for a dress to wear to an April wedding in Charleston, SC. While I tugged on a red, charmeuse dress in a Betsey Johnson changing room, a familiar song came on and my mind began reeling in recognition. On the other side of my curtain, I heard another customer say, "Do you know who sings this song? It's really cool!" I think I may have snorted or chuckled or gasped. The song was "Anything" by Dramarama, but I was too timid to yell it out, so the girl working ran in the back and confirmed what I already knew. The customer - most likely a college student - no doubt headed up to Newbury Comics and made a purchase. I tried to remember if it had actually been a full decade since I had heard that song, and the red dress looked great, but was too expensive. Why did I bother trying it on? I can't explain - except that maybe it's a girl thing.
The song was stuck firmly in my head as I continued my search. Well, I thought it was stuck firmly in my head until I realized that it had segued in that one song by Mundy that was on the Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack. By the time I reached Jasmine Sola, my brain was spinning the "Sugar High" song from the end of Empire Records that Renée Zellweger sings. I think I ended up there because of Toad the Wet Sprocket. Then I thought about how much I love that movie and how I loved Ethan Embry and Rory Chocrane, but not the guy who was supposed to be the hot artsy one. I need to watch that again. REX MANNING! I do always feel regret that "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits isn't on the soundtrack because I love that whole scene. Of course that would mean that Gwar (that's who it was, right? with the brownies?) should also be added.
But anyway, that's my story. I tried on one other dress, but the red dress and the 90's had me totally within their thrall. Now I hope you have some Gin Blossoms or Cracker or The Cranberries or something swirling delightfully around in your brain. If you ended up going to a more Butthole Surfers type of place, I apologize.
Posted by heidi at 7:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 24, 2007
i've got alot of your records in a separate stack
so once again i find my heart burning with lust over the potential of owning my very own i-pod. since the arrival of the brand new company car a couple of months ago (a car i've already put 7500 miles on ) i've been contemplating making the purchase. and really, such a purchase would be ideal considering the amount of time i spend in the car on a weekly basis - it can be very cumbersome to pick out just the right cd selections and i do have a robust catalogue of music that i have downloaded (completely legally i might add) onto my computer and just in case you are wondering it is completely superior in any way to whatever music lurks around the darkened corners of your hard drive - 1700 + songs of credibilty affirming rawk.
it should also be noted that in the past few months - in part due to my own musical stagnation - i have been on a tear aquiring new music anywhere and everywhere that it can be found. but i've noticed that i'm alot less likely to listen to an album as a whole if i have downloaded it. whereas a compact disc with it's alluring jewel case and it's effusive liner notes are treated to my complete and undivided attention. so maybe i'm just hung up on the artifact - i don't know. i think i've already confessed before to geeking out over a new cd purchase. and with stuff i buy online - i do my b.e.s.t to give it the same attention. in most cases i'll burn it onto a disc so i can take it with me where'er i go. but i have this really bad habit of not labelling things when i burn them so i have approximately 10 cd's floating around the car and it can be laborious to pop them in one at a time to find just the one i want. why just the other day i was looking for of montreal and finally got it on the seventh try. the first 6 tries were various variations of cd mixes i've been working on. and boy do i love making a cd mix. but that's a whole separate obsession that i shan't go into here. because really we're trying to talk me into buying an i-pod. or justify not buying one.
anyway - i think the point i'm making is that i still have reservations about all of this digital music. while i fully recognize that the bulk of pop music is disposable and driven by singles - there are plenty of bands out there still carefully crafting albums of songs and they deserve to be heard as such. in fact, i was just talking to a friend the other day and we were speculating that - all things considered there is a preponderance of really good and interesting music floating around these days. certainly more so that when we were back in college. not that that really matters - people are idiots and don't really care for a musical challenge so their cd catalogue will never get more subversive than snow patrol. but there's great stuff out there. the aforementioned 1700 plus songs don't even include the bulk of my own cd collection.
i suppose i'll have to cave in someday and make that purchase but 4808 must come first. and i still firmly believe that i have no business investing in such a piece of technology when i still sleep on a poorly inflated air mattress every nite. also this new musical exploration of mine has my computer's hard drive operating at maximum capacity - which causes my other lust for a macbook that i have absolutely no real need for to burn that much more brightly. perhaps if i were fiscally irresponsible in wild and wanton ways like so many of my peers - my life would operate more smoothly.
Posted by young_christopher at 6:41 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 4, 2007
step into my office baby
so just before the start of the weekend i had my annual performance review - and is it weird to anybody else that this happens in march? i suppose - for whatever reason the company has deemed it necessary to wait until the first quarter draws to a close to decide if they are going to pay out bonuses and make any salary adjustments. not that i'm complaining - most companies pay out bonuses in the fourth quarter in the dead of winter and people no doubt spend their excess cash on wool socks and piping hot apple cider.
and if i can say here, i don't really care for apple cider all that much. in fact, the appeal of apple by-products eludes me. for the most part. i would love an apple computer. or an all expenses paid trip to the big apple. but you can keep your apple pies and your apple butters and your applebees. anyway. as a result of my peformance review i am in fact getting a noticeable raise as well as an obscene bonus. it is important to note that anything over $50 is considered by me to be an obscene amount of money. and so now the question becomes how best to allocate these funds.
i should confess that i'm a pretty boring guy financially so i'll most likely put the bulk of my bonus into savings - even though i still have this gigantic house that is completely unfurnished and i still sleep on an air mattress. but more than this i could always use even more musical equipment that can sit in a corner and stagnate along with my creativity - or that aforementioned apple computer that i've been yearning for even though i really have zero need for it. perhaps i'll devote the whole bonus to the engagement ring fund because hey - you never know.
i've been told that the very idea of an engagement ring fund is abhorrent and completely anti-romantic which i don't really understand. is it more romantic to go into debt for the one you love? maybe it's the idea of starting such a fund when one is not even remotely close to being entangled in anything resembling a romance. but it's never a bad idea to save up for a rainy day. what you think that should read sunny day? well feel free to change it yourself. i'm happy with the way it reads.
also - it should be noted that those of you who are in a panic about my aforementioned musical stagnation - now that i've stopped going out every single nite of the week i have returned to the guitar and...well - nothing's really happened yet but it's only a matter of time before the next award winning track is written for the forthcoming myth of cyphillis release. so. please stay tuned.
Posted by young_christopher at 2:39 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack