Meet Me in St. Louis
...because I'm all alone here.
I've been in St. Louis since Monday, attending a conference. However, today, my last day here, I'm all alone. Due to some flight scheduling mixups, my flight leaves 8 hours after everyone else's, which either leaves me to bum around an airport for a full working day, or crack open St. Louis like an oyster and dig in.
I opted for the latter.
Armed with a map, another rental minivan (this time a Kia with no Satellite radio, but a good modern rock station in 105.7 fm), and a desire for adventure, I am soaking up the home of Mark McGuire, the Arch and Nelly & the St. Lunatics. Hott.
There's something that I love about traveling alone. Anonymity, independence, freedom... I don't know. What I
do know is that it is
beautiful here! Spring has just hit, and none of the trees are budding except for the dogwood trees and tulip trees (which are sublime small trees with blossoms that look like tulips). It's amazing.
However, I can be alone for about a day before I
need to be around people again. I think that in my relationship with God, I get tempted to exert my independence at times. I feel like I need time to just "be myself," whatever that means. It feels great for a time, but after a few days I need to know that I can go home to my Lord.
Here in St. Louis, I like the freedom to go wherever I want, spend as much time in as many different coffee shops as I like (running count for the day: 3), browse whatever record stores I like without concern that my companions are growing weary, whatever. In the end though, I need people around. I need relationships. Doing what I want only satisfies me for a short time, and then I need a companion (ironically, the name of the last coffee shop I was in is "Companion" [a great name for a coffee shop/bakery, since etymologically, a com-pan-ion is someone with whom you share bread - bread = "pan" in Latin]). I need people to break bread with me. People complicate things and ask you to do things that you don't want to do (or misplace your Spoon CD when they borrow your car), but these minor annoyances are the spice of life. They make you grow, they make you mature, they make you realize that you aren't as smart as you like to think you are, and that sometimes that living an undisturbed life is stupid.
I think that one key to companionship is forgiveness. When people mess my world up, I still need them, and unforgiveness is the most indestructable wedge that you can drive inbetween people. I would even venture to say that the less you have to forgive or be forgiven, the less you experience true companionship.
I think God made it this way. Maybe He allowed the Fall so we could really know what it means to be loved when we're unworthy. Maybe that's why He said that it is not good for man to be alone. When we're alone, we don't grow up, we grow in. When we start to let people in, that's when we really start to grow.
So as much as I love the dogwoods and tulip trees, as much as I love the newness of an unknown city, as much as I love short periods of anonymity, I think I'll get back to where my people are. I loved that song Nelly did with the girl from Destiny's Child a few years back,
"No matter what I do/all I think about is you/[Oh!]", but no matter what I could do here, all I think about is getting home.
Excuse me, but I've got a plane to catch.
Que' Onda Guero?
I just got the new Beck album, and by way of comparison, I'd say that it sounds pretty similar to an Odelay-style genre-clash.
For all you Sea Change fans, I recommend track 4, "Missing". Speaking of Sea Change, what is your favorite Beck album?
It's too soon to rate Guero, so other than that, I'd have to say that Sea Change is my favorite Beck album. I know that Odelay was ground breaking, and that it came out when I was in high school, so it has great memories attached to it. But I listened to it, but never really absorbed it as an earth-shattering life-changer. I was too into the Beastie Boys.
If I were to rate Beck albums, top to bottom, it would probably be as follows:
1. Sea Change
2. Odelay
3. Mutations
4. Midnite Vultures
5. Mellow Gold
Beck listeners, tell me your favorites!
btw: "Hell Yes"=Hell Yes!
Since You Been Gone.com
For all of you who wanted the mp3 of Ted Leo doing a cover of Kelly Clarkson (by way of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs),
enjoy!
I'm in St. Louis, so I'll try to think of something interesting to blog about. Later.
Prolific=Good?
I post an average of once every two weeks. I received head trauma that prevents me from being concise. This means that if I were to
blog daily or even
weekly, I don't know if I'd have a life.
That's not to say I have much of a "life," per se.
Prolific artists:
Picasso: a prisoner of his own prolificacy?
Ryan Adams: You'd try to pull your hair out if you wrote 1,834 songs in five years, too!
Not-so-prolific Artists:
Michaelangelo: No BS, the David took time.
Jeff freakin' Buckley: I'm not going to lie.
Grace may be the best one-and-done in history.
Amy Weiner: she posts only during lunar eclipses, but every time, it's a hit.
So the question I pose to you, dear reader, is as follows:
Is it better to be prolific, or not?
Write often or write well? Or both?
You be the judge and jury.
Making Minivans Cool Again
My friend Trey said that once you start shopping for minivans, you stop comparing your car to other ones. "Is my 2004 Mustang as cool as the new 2005's? Probably not. My car sucks." Stuff like that. You just don't do it with minivans. Why would you? Each minivan that comes out, year after year, is just as uncool as the previous year model. "My minivan has automatic sliding doors! Yay! I drive a minivan... Boo!!!" Mazda minivan, Honda minivan, Toyota minivan, domestic... they are all just as much a poor-man's SUV as the last.
I happened to be the proud renter of a minivan for the last week, while escorting college students to Florida for a conference, and aside from the inherent soccer-mommishness of my mode of transportation, I found a redeeming quality in it all: a little something I like to call satellite radio.
The Blessed Grand Caravan Stereo ConsoleSomewhere in between Austin, TX and Florida, my hand fumbled across the stereo controls and serendipitously discovered the salvation of our roadtrip. Comedy, Sports galore, yadda yadda. What made me fall in love were the multiple "alternative" radio stations. My favorite two were the "fresh indie sounds" station and the "proto-alternative 70's/80's hits". The latter station reminded me of being 14, listening to the Edge retro shows in Denton, TX (this was before the ClearChannel buyout).
Call me shallow, but there's a legitimacy I feel when songs that I had been listening to on my iPod earlier that day show up on the "fresh indie sounds" station. I didn't even know that these guys showed up on radio rotations! I think that the last time I felt this way was when I bought
Use Your Illusion 1&2 by Guns 'n' Roses the day they came out, and was completely overjoyed when "November Rain" and "Don't Cry" started getting radio play (These weren't the first singles, but they were my favorites).
This is an unfortunate byproduct of the current state of radio: move slightly out of the mainstream, and there is hardly a voice for you between the dials. Your only hope lies in some low-wattage college radio station (which opens you up to the possibility of having to sift through some pretty heinous garbage before you hear the goods - I know, I had a radio show in college) or you can listen to NPR, hoping that in between talking they expose you to some softer indie hits (but I wouldn't hold my breath for anything with a distorted guitar - kills the hippies' buzzes).
But now, you can put down your hard-earned money to enjoy an endless, commercial-free stream of good indie rock and New/No Wave on satellite radio. Who knew minivans could be so eye-opening?
"Rock on Panama City Beach! Rock on Minivans!"My Florida Spring Break satellite Radio Playlist '05:
1. Can't Stand Me Now - The Libertines - S/T
2. London Calling - The Clash - London Calling
3. The Bucket - Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
4. Another Travelin' Song - Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
5.
Walking with a Ghost - Tegan & Sarah - So Jealous
6. I Touch Roses - Book of Love - S/T (one of my favorite New Wave songs)
7.
Since You've Been Gone/Maps [link moved - sorry]- Ted Leo - (covering Kelly Clarkson - sorry, I had to make this hipster in some way, but I
love this song!)
8. The Wind - Cat Stevens - Teaser & the Firecat (I didn't mention the likeable 70's soft rock station I also enjoyed)
9. We Will Become Silhouettes - The Postal Service - Give Up
[For closers, I'll give you a live version of a song off the upcoming Coldplay album. You're Welcome.]10.
Square One [link moved - sorry]- Coldplay - Live 3/12/05
My Girlfriend is Clever
That's her on the left in the blue shirt. Me on the right.
Katie in the back, not knowing that a camera is capturing her soul.
Amy posts about once a year, but when she does, it's worth a read. Like her
most recent post.
Read it. Comment. So on.
The Top 25
Ok. I want everyone who reads this to be vulnerable. No editing. No kidding. Post your Top 25 Most Played from your iTunes in the comments section. Just do it. Remark on mine as you deem necessary. I'm ready. Be brutal. Ask questions. Let's make it a dialogue.
Criteria: List Song, Artist, Album, # times played, and last time played.
1. Girl on the Wing - The Shins - Oh, Inverted World! - 36 - 1/17/05
2. Blame it on the Tetons - Modest Mouse - Good News... - 35 - 9/21/04
3. Wishful Thinking - Wilco - A Ghost Is Born - 33 - 2/12/05
4. New Slang - The Shins - Oh, Inverted World! - 32 - 1/17/05
5. Rain - Patty Griffin - 1000 Kisses - 29 - 12/24/04
6. Theologians - Wilco - A Ghost is Born - 27 - 2/12/05
7. Rock N Roll - Ryan Adams - Rock N Roll - 26 - 2/15/05
8. Don't Wanna Know Why - Whiskytown - Pneumonia - 25 - 2/14/05
9. Hummingbird - Wilco - A Ghost Is Born - 25 - 2/12/05
10. Handshake Drugs - Wilco - A Ghose Is Born - 24 - 2/12/05
11. Float On - Modest Mouse - Good News... - 23 - 10/6/04
12. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - The Arcade Fire - Funeral - 22 - 1/25/05
13. Homesick - Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street - 22 - 2/28/05
14. The Way We Get By - Spoon - Kill the Moonlight - 22 - 1/22/05
15. Waiting for the Kid to Come Out - Spoon - Soft Effects EP - 22 - 1/22/05
16. Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell - 22 - 2/15/05
17. Walk on a Sunday Morning - Cheyenne - You Talk Like You've Seen a Ghost EP - 22 - 3/3/05
18. It's Only Time - The Magnetic Fields - I - 21 - 11/28/04
19. Balloon Maker - Midlake - Bamnan and Slivercork - 21 - 2/28/05
20. Some of Them Are Superstitious - Midlake - Bamnan and Slivercork - 21 - 2/28/05
21. Jesus, Etc. - Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - 21 - 2/28/05
22. The World At Large - Modest Mouse - Good News... - 20 - 10/6/04
23. Suitcase - Over the Rhine - Ohio - 20 - 2/1/05
24. The Rescue Blues - Ryan Adams - Gold - 20 - 2/4/05
25. They Cannot Let It Expand - Midlake - Bamnan and Slivercork - 19 - 3/1/05
So there it is.
