Sorry if this seems random, I'm just going to . . . blog for a little bit. Yes I know, it's Friday night. I should be spending my time with some choice young lady or something. Anyway, as interesting as it is actually creating playlists for my iPod (yes that's what these posts are about, a fall 2010 playlist) I really prefer just putting it on shuffle. The variety is much more interesting. I can go from live tracks of Eclipse (USU a cappella--I can never spell that, partially because the blogger spell check doesn't recognize it--group) to three consecutive cartoon themes to a jazz track. It's especially helpful when studying, because instead of trying to sing along to David Archeluta or Steve Perry, I can listen to a Primary track, MoTab, a classical piece, or country, and completely relax.
Also, I know I've made kinda a big deal about my 21 Danish views. Well, it's very surprising to me (especially the number, see the comparisons). But I am aware of 84 US view (stands to reason--I expect US views, most everyone I know lives there), 15 Canadian ones, 2 UK ones, 2 Hungarian ones, and one from Germany (something tells me that's the one from furthest away).
The other thing about shuffle? I discover songs I didn't even realize I had. Take this one for example, Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) by the Byrds. Comes off the Forest Gump Soundtrack (Never seen the movie, but this is where I got Hound Dog by Elvis too. There's a number of good tracks on it actually--perhaps not surprisingly--On the Road Again by Willie Nelson, I know it because of the movie Shrek--by the way, the newer ones are more palatable if you've seen the first more recently I promise. Though I haven't seen the newest--last--one yet. Holy mess of punctuation, I think I've cleaned it up a little to make it slightly readable. Heaven forbid that I write so you can actually understand what I'm trying to say).
Hmm, I've mentioned Steve Perry. Hmm, I'm pretty sure I've somehow avoided superlative mention of Steve until now. Yes, I think I might be about to change that. Speak of the Devil! Haha, Captured By The Moment, the tribute to Steve's hero Sam Cook just came on, from his 1983 solo album Street Talk. Okay, some background, since I know I haven't ingrained Steve into y'alls heads yet. The Voice, as he is called, believe it or not, is NOT an original member of Journey (Neal Schonn, the guitarist is actually the only remaining original member at this point. In case you can't tell I have opinions about that and think it's kinda important. While I've seen the opinion expressed that Journey without Perry and Styx without Dennis DeYoung are basically reduced to cover bands, I don't agree entirely) he's just the one who made them big. His singing and songwriting propelled the song to what they were at their height, circa 1981-83.
That said, and I love Journey, I actually prefer a lot of his solo work (admittedly after hearing some of the now released material from his scrapped 1988ish album I'm glad that Against the Wall wasn't released at the time. Before that I could honestly say I'd never heard a Steve Perry sung song that I didn't like. Now I can). Here's what I think about it (what a worthless filler phrase to put in here). Journey's talent (maybe I'm a little biased) was great. Schonn is a great (one of a kind) guitarist. Both Gregg Rollie and Jonathan Cain are superb keyboardist's and songwriters. But if the talent was huge, so too were the egos (I don't think that anyone can deny that Perry in particular was a little big headed). Perhaps that explains the absurdly huge sound that Journey produced (maybe it's just that Perry's voice could carry over it all). But Perry solo went for a distinctly softer approach, a jazzier (my impression of jazz, you may disagree. I do listen to some jazz, but to my mind it has nearly as wide a sound as the pop/rock we get on the radio. That's another thing you may disagree about. I think the distinction between pop and rock is largely imagined, though I classify my usual genre as classic rock) style. There was only one ego to satisfy on those album's (though the talent wasn't bad. Randy Goodrum on the first, and Lincoln Brewster on the second. Not that either is hugely successful--Steve's only true solo hit was Oh Sherry, so it's not like he was huge alone either--that I'm aware, but they are accomplished musician's. Brewster's guitar solo's at time's felt like he was a step away from Schredding--pun--and apparently is known in the christian rock world as a solo artist. Goodrum worked some with Chicago in the 80's, as well as his work with Perry, before releasing a few solo albums of his own). The work plays to his talents much more than when the music had to accommodate the other member's of the band (random thought since I'm listening to The Police now: I was listening to Firewind's Brother's Keeper the other day, and seriously could hear Sting singing Message in a Bottle to it. Weird). I think I might be done writing about . . . um . . . that Journey singer for now (gotta stay away from the name).
I've been told, and at time's have freely admitted, that I have a one track mind. For instance, say I'm talking to someone, and somehow, heaven forbid, I get on the topic of music. Unfortunately for that poor soul, I'm very difficult to derail at that point. But, I'm not entirely a one-dimensional person (just mostly), and I think I've done a little in that direction on here. Unfortunately it's Music & Me, which say's just a little about my priorities when I created this thing. On the other hand, I did create it, so I feel free to do whatever I want with it. For example, I don't wish to be one of those people who has an 80Gig iPod, has it full, (I actually only use about 25 gigs of it right now) but hardly knows any of the songs on it. There are plenty of surprises on it for me still, though it is still my ambition to listen to every song on it. ITunes says I have 4599 tracks, and all but a few hundred of them have at least one play count, and all but maybe a thousand of those (I'm trying to estimate) have at least two. My iPod's more accurate count (iTunes counts items that have been deleted) is 4476.
And to think I started writing that paragraph trying to prove I could talk about more than music. Oh well, I proved the one track mind thing very well. I guess this is the price I pay for writing--er, blogging--the way I do, no drafts, little editing, what's in my head makes to the page--er, keyboard? It also doesn't help that my attention span fails, and I'll start doing something else only to return and begin a new direction. I promise I'm a mildly interesting person, perhaps in incredible nerdy ways, but mildly interesting. For instance, it is currently one of my ambitions (once I've done the research) to write an article for squaretwo. I also am heavily interested in basketball (unfortunately not the right season), and reading.
Now I think we've found something that can distract me from the music. Long, long before I became a music addict, I was (and am still) a book addict. Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach was what got me, before long I was a huge fan of his, I started reading other books, The Great Brain (great, classic book series), Beverly Cleary, I got huge into Animorphs (anyone remember those?), but ten years ago or so I picked up the Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan (it might not be a good idea to start on the third book in the series). Well, I won't say I've been addicted since, because I was too young then and the depth killed me I think (pretty sure it could kill a good number of adult readers too) but once I resumed the series 4 or 5 years later it's been pretty much a continuous affair since. Put it this way, i joined twitter to follow a promotion for the series (it's called The Wheel of Time, or WoT for short. I don't mean to be overly mysterious, I just haven't found a way to work in the series title. Until now). I love Isaac Asimov, and Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (I just found Terry Pratchett on twitter, which led me to his site, where I found out his new book has been out in the UK for over a week!, but in the US isn't being released until the end of the month, which means I probably won't read it until Thanksgiving because after the first weekend in October--General Conference--that's probably the first I'll go home to get it. It's being shipped to Payson), but I admit, I read the same things--or at least the same authors--over and over again.
And with that I'm done, except for a title, which is usually the very first thing I do. Maybe next post I'll do a song for the playlist (currently untitled, well fall 2010 doesn't count. It's not allowed to stay that), maybe I'll explain my Movies or TV addiction, maybe I'll explain my theory of driving. I dunno. I was going to call this one: To blog? or not to blog? But unfortunately it just doesn't fit. And I'm going to try and stop with the whole parenthesis, dashes, and commas thing. I thought it would make it an interesting read, and to an extent I think it does, but it's gone a little out of control and over the top. It really makes it hard to read I think, and I apologize for putting your poor eyes through this.
Also, I know I've made kinda a big deal about my 21 Danish views. Well, it's very surprising to me (especially the number, see the comparisons). But I am aware of 84 US view (stands to reason--I expect US views, most everyone I know lives there), 15 Canadian ones, 2 UK ones, 2 Hungarian ones, and one from Germany (something tells me that's the one from furthest away).
The other thing about shuffle? I discover songs I didn't even realize I had. Take this one for example, Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) by the Byrds. Comes off the Forest Gump Soundtrack (Never seen the movie, but this is where I got Hound Dog by Elvis too. There's a number of good tracks on it actually--perhaps not surprisingly--On the Road Again by Willie Nelson, I know it because of the movie Shrek--by the way, the newer ones are more palatable if you've seen the first more recently I promise. Though I haven't seen the newest--last--one yet. Holy mess of punctuation, I think I've cleaned it up a little to make it slightly readable. Heaven forbid that I write so you can actually understand what I'm trying to say).
Hmm, I've mentioned Steve Perry. Hmm, I'm pretty sure I've somehow avoided superlative mention of Steve until now. Yes, I think I might be about to change that. Speak of the Devil! Haha, Captured By The Moment, the tribute to Steve's hero Sam Cook just came on, from his 1983 solo album Street Talk. Okay, some background, since I know I haven't ingrained Steve into y'alls heads yet. The Voice, as he is called, believe it or not, is NOT an original member of Journey (Neal Schonn, the guitarist is actually the only remaining original member at this point. In case you can't tell I have opinions about that and think it's kinda important. While I've seen the opinion expressed that Journey without Perry and Styx without Dennis DeYoung are basically reduced to cover bands, I don't agree entirely) he's just the one who made them big. His singing and songwriting propelled the song to what they were at their height, circa 1981-83.
That said, and I love Journey, I actually prefer a lot of his solo work (admittedly after hearing some of the now released material from his scrapped 1988ish album I'm glad that Against the Wall wasn't released at the time. Before that I could honestly say I'd never heard a Steve Perry sung song that I didn't like. Now I can). Here's what I think about it (what a worthless filler phrase to put in here). Journey's talent (maybe I'm a little biased) was great. Schonn is a great (one of a kind) guitarist. Both Gregg Rollie and Jonathan Cain are superb keyboardist's and songwriters. But if the talent was huge, so too were the egos (I don't think that anyone can deny that Perry in particular was a little big headed). Perhaps that explains the absurdly huge sound that Journey produced (maybe it's just that Perry's voice could carry over it all). But Perry solo went for a distinctly softer approach, a jazzier (my impression of jazz, you may disagree. I do listen to some jazz, but to my mind it has nearly as wide a sound as the pop/rock we get on the radio. That's another thing you may disagree about. I think the distinction between pop and rock is largely imagined, though I classify my usual genre as classic rock) style. There was only one ego to satisfy on those album's (though the talent wasn't bad. Randy Goodrum on the first, and Lincoln Brewster on the second. Not that either is hugely successful--Steve's only true solo hit was Oh Sherry, so it's not like he was huge alone either--that I'm aware, but they are accomplished musician's. Brewster's guitar solo's at time's felt like he was a step away from Schredding--pun--and apparently is known in the christian rock world as a solo artist. Goodrum worked some with Chicago in the 80's, as well as his work with Perry, before releasing a few solo albums of his own). The work plays to his talents much more than when the music had to accommodate the other member's of the band (random thought since I'm listening to The Police now: I was listening to Firewind's Brother's Keeper the other day, and seriously could hear Sting singing Message in a Bottle to it. Weird). I think I might be done writing about . . . um . . . that Journey singer for now (gotta stay away from the name).
I've been told, and at time's have freely admitted, that I have a one track mind. For instance, say I'm talking to someone, and somehow, heaven forbid, I get on the topic of music. Unfortunately for that poor soul, I'm very difficult to derail at that point. But, I'm not entirely a one-dimensional person (just mostly), and I think I've done a little in that direction on here. Unfortunately it's Music & Me, which say's just a little about my priorities when I created this thing. On the other hand, I did create it, so I feel free to do whatever I want with it. For example, I don't wish to be one of those people who has an 80Gig iPod, has it full, (I actually only use about 25 gigs of it right now) but hardly knows any of the songs on it. There are plenty of surprises on it for me still, though it is still my ambition to listen to every song on it. ITunes says I have 4599 tracks, and all but a few hundred of them have at least one play count, and all but maybe a thousand of those (I'm trying to estimate) have at least two. My iPod's more accurate count (iTunes counts items that have been deleted) is 4476.
And to think I started writing that paragraph trying to prove I could talk about more than music. Oh well, I proved the one track mind thing very well. I guess this is the price I pay for writing--er, blogging--the way I do, no drafts, little editing, what's in my head makes to the page--er, keyboard? It also doesn't help that my attention span fails, and I'll start doing something else only to return and begin a new direction. I promise I'm a mildly interesting person, perhaps in incredible nerdy ways, but mildly interesting. For instance, it is currently one of my ambitions (once I've done the research) to write an article for squaretwo. I also am heavily interested in basketball (unfortunately not the right season), and reading.
Now I think we've found something that can distract me from the music. Long, long before I became a music addict, I was (and am still) a book addict. Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach was what got me, before long I was a huge fan of his, I started reading other books, The Great Brain (great, classic book series), Beverly Cleary, I got huge into Animorphs (anyone remember those?), but ten years ago or so I picked up the Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan (it might not be a good idea to start on the third book in the series). Well, I won't say I've been addicted since, because I was too young then and the depth killed me I think (pretty sure it could kill a good number of adult readers too) but once I resumed the series 4 or 5 years later it's been pretty much a continuous affair since. Put it this way, i joined twitter to follow a promotion for the series (it's called The Wheel of Time, or WoT for short. I don't mean to be overly mysterious, I just haven't found a way to work in the series title. Until now). I love Isaac Asimov, and Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (I just found Terry Pratchett on twitter, which led me to his site, where I found out his new book has been out in the UK for over a week!, but in the US isn't being released until the end of the month, which means I probably won't read it until Thanksgiving because after the first weekend in October--General Conference--that's probably the first I'll go home to get it. It's being shipped to Payson), but I admit, I read the same things--or at least the same authors--over and over again.
And with that I'm done, except for a title, which is usually the very first thing I do. Maybe next post I'll do a song for the playlist (currently untitled, well fall 2010 doesn't count. It's not allowed to stay that), maybe I'll explain my Movies or TV addiction, maybe I'll explain my theory of driving. I dunno. I was going to call this one: To blog? or not to blog? But unfortunately it just doesn't fit. And I'm going to try and stop with the whole parenthesis, dashes, and commas thing. I thought it would make it an interesting read, and to an extent I think it does, but it's gone a little out of control and over the top. It really makes it hard to read I think, and I apologize for putting your poor eyes through this.
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