I Don't Wanna Be Your Friend, I Just Wanna Be Your Lover

My whole life, there are a few things that I've made routine, a part of my life. Some of these are things that are in your routine as well. I've eaten food my whole life. I love eating food. I've also slept my whole life: every night, I get in bed and I try to sleep for over 7 hours. Sometimes I get my necessary 9 hours, sometimes I get closer to 6. But I still get in that bed every night and I conk out and I love it. I've also listened to music my whole life. From my earliest memories, my parents played music for me and I was fascinated by it. My dad, well when I was a babe in arms my dad was the tender age of 30. He listened to the Ramones, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, Pavement. My mom listened to The Clash, Jimmy Buffett, Al Green. The Ramones and The Clash were the first two bands that I ever really liked; can you imagine a five-year-old just loving his Ramones CD? Because that was me. I listened to it constantly. Over time, I found my own music loves, but the Ramones and The Clash never left me. As I mentioned in one of the last couple entries here, I've become increasingly addicted to finding new music, and I don't mean new in the chronological sense -- I mean it in the John Peel sense, in the "I want to hear something I haven't heard before" sense. Occasionally during my gluttonous hunts for new music, I overdose and just can't take any more new music. When Oink crashed, I lost one of my best sources of new music and summarily took a sabbatical from this ongoing search. The break lasted about six weeks. Before I knew it, I was waist deep in new bands, adding songs to my library at a breakneck pace. This firestorm has not let up since, and the result has made me question the focus on this ... dare I say it ... blog. My girlfriend has told me numerous times, and indeed I had the thought myself once or twice, that I should write about music. I listen to a lot of it and I like to write: The fit seems natural enough. I resisted for a couple of reasons. My first reason is that I'm not very critical of music. I like what I like, don't ask me why. It's catchy or it's interesting or the lyrics are fun; I don't give a shit about syncopation or harmony. It either moves me, that is, moves my soul, or it don't. As a result, I don't have a lot to say about music. This does not lead to great music criticism. My second reason is that I still feel like I haven't heard enough. I listen to a lot of music, but I don't know enough music in the historical sense. There is a lot, you will agree, and I still feel like I'm playing catch up. The goal of this blog may have shifted some over the last six months, a period when I wrote only a couple entries. I have -- okay, you and I have -- gotten further and further from the EPL season that I was once discussing in minute detail. Arsenal are in much better form this season, but I can't just jump onto their backs, half way through the season, and pretend that was the point all along. So instead I have simply decided to throw away the old framework: I will still regale you with boring sports statistics and treat you like a seven-year-old when it comes to music, but I will do so without the guidelines of irrelevant soccer games. I also want to broaden my view. I love talking about sports, music, and my life, but I want to give it heightened relevance by framing those things within the larger context of the world and humanity. You see, a third reason I abstained from music criticism is that I found little worth in the criticism; perhaps this is because my enjoyment of music is rather visceral. What does some goofball in Seattle care what I think? Why does the indie scene reverently follow Pitchfork's every word? The lack of relevance appalls me. I steered clear of music blogging because I saw no value in it. I did however find value in talking about myself and how I felt, what sports mean to me, and what music at large means to me. Thinking about music and sports in the context of the world interests me, and I think the juxtaposition creates relationships that my generation will find worth in. Listen to one of Radiohead's latest songs, House of Cards, while reading an article about a teacher who has molested a student. The song informs these events, not just singularly but also as a continuum. The pairing is important, because they are both contemporary things. It would be worthless to slap a Beatles song on that event, as it would be equally silly to play that Radiohead song while discussing the Vietnam War. I think music blogs can be platforms to larger issues, and I'd like to think they can help our generation get a grip on the rapidly evolving state of the world. This space will be my attempt to explore these larger issues, but it will also explore being a 20something in said world. Through the lens of contemporary music and sports, I will give my generation a voice in these chaotic times. Every Monday, I will post a new entry here and a list of music I am currently listening to over there. The list will heavily focus on current music, but might occasionally slip into anachronistic territory. Sometimes the post here will discuss the music, sometimes not. I am creating a flexible project so as to achieve maximum impact: I don't want to be restricted by imaginary walls. I think the entries prior to now have been good practice, but it is now time to spread the wings and see if this puppy can fly.