Music to Grind Your Teeth to........

I recently received a comment on my MySpace profile from a beautiful old friend, we'll call her Amy....because that's her name and it makes sense to use it, quit looking at me that way....that I have to admit kinda confused me for a bit. The reason being, in it she makes mention of my "new look", which I was unaware that I had. Honestly, I never really thought that I had a look about myself at all...for the past several years I've been known more by certain situations that became attached to me; for example (in chronological order) I've been known as 'you're that skater', 'the guy who fought all those skinheads at the Vogue', 'the art fag' (thanks to Mike Bacayu for that one), 'you're the Kinko's Guy, right?', 'You're Kevin's friend', 'Hey, you're zombiespoon', and most recently 'you're the Art Store Guy'. I suppose that I never gave much thought before that appearance would have anything to do with me, but it would have to, I guess, in order for me to be recognized at all....but still, having a new look stumped me. That is, until I thought about the fact that it has been well over a decade since Amy and I got to know one another as well as hang out together (did I mention how bad of a recluse I can be?). We met near the height of my "closet speed addict" days...and I say that with a grain of salt, because at the time I weighed barely over 100 pounds, never slept, had wild mood swings and nose bleeds....so to say that I was a closet speed freak would be the same as calling all of my friends at the time completely stupid.....but I would like to think that they were more in denial or at least holding their tongues. Who knows? I could have missed a moniker of my life: "Hey, you're that junkie, right?"

In any case, and needless to say, I do look very different today than I did then... both physically (thank the zombie Jesus!) as well as in dress.

But still, Amy's comment came at a time (that time is now) when what I look like to others has been on my mind. On more than a few occasions recently, usually on the subject of music, I have been looked at with such looks of utter amazement that I've half expected to hear a record needle scratch and witness time itself skip back one or two seconds. One example, while at work I mentioned the band Polvo. Immediately Andy exclaimed, "You know Polvo!" followed by Judd's defense, "Fisher's cool. He knows a lot of good music." I wondered at that moment if I was feeling the same sensation that a Grandfather must feel when his grandchild says something like, "You know who Luke Skywalker is?!" The defensive side of me wanted to retort with something along the lines of, "I saw Polvo perform when you all were still watching Pokemon!", but decided to hold my tongue, understanding that saying something like this would just solidify my old man status.....so I opted instead to tell them to get off my lawn, the damn kids!

It's funny how much importance can be put on music. How the music that you listen to becomes more of a part of your identity than your own appearance or profession, ect. I sometimes wonder that had the human race evolved without any form of monotheistic religion, whether we would have a history equal in violence with music as it's justification....I also wonder if that sounds too much like a plot from a Philip K. Dick book? (Holy crap! You know who Philip K. Dick is?!)
Apparently, my taste and appearance don't match up well, like a Jew who believes in Jesus....which is fine, I don't mind.

Beyond the musical shock I've lately put into the others around me, what I listen to has come up many times in messages from MySpace friends since I've kept up the profile. And while I could point these queries towards the brief Music part of my profile, I understand that most people tend not to read that far or have a fear of scroll bars.....hell, my own brother recently admitted to only reading the first two or three sentences of my blog posts, which I'm ok with, taking comfort in the fact both that I peed in his morning Cheerios for the first few years of his life as well as the case that he won't read this far enough to discover that.
So, in response to everything above basically, I am extending an invitation to you all to join me in one of my online persona's newest corners, LastFM. I joined this little community not long ago, for the reason of discovering new artists, but I realize that it's probably one of the best ways to also present musical tastes.




So, join up if you wish....hit me up for a friend request....and get the hell of my lawn!