Bands and Songs
Foster the People
Just to keep people in tune with what I think is good music.
Their most popular and overplayed song.
And my favorite Panic song off the new album
Hip to be Square
Obviously an American psycho inspired post but also some self reflection. Here are the lyrics to it’s hip to be square (chorus deleted).
I used to be a renegade, I used to fool around
But I couldn’t take the punishment, and had to settle down
Now I’m playing it real straight, and yes I cut my hair
You might think I’m crazy, but I don’t even care
Because I can tell what’s going on
I like my bands in business suits, I watch them on TV
I’m working out most everyday and watching what I eat
They tell me that it’s good for me, but I don’t even care
I know that it’s crazy
I know that it’s nowhere
But there is no denying that
It’s not too hard to figure out, you see it everyday
And those that were the farthest out have gone the other way
You see them on the freeway, It don’t look like a lot of fun
But don’t you try to fight it; “An idea who’s time has come.”
Don’t tell me that I’m crazy
Don’t tell me I’m nowhere
Take it from me
It’s hip to be square
I think I need to start taking Huey’s advice. This weekend was another bender and I’m going to spare the exact details. Absolutely nothing bad happened and I’m perfectly fine but I’m just not taking care of my body. I really have to start buying into Huey’s lifestyle suggestion because this is just not the best way to live life. I have to also apologize to the Shee for over sleeping through golf and I feel like a total schmuck for doing so. A complete “my bad” and having alcohol to blame for my irresponsibility.
The second lyric to the song is becoming the truth of not being able to take the punishment. Why I like to put myself through this feeling of how I felt all day today is plain dumb. The line “an idea who’s time has come” is sort of what I’m trying to make happen but it’s the same problem that you can talk about it til your blue in the face but really doing something about is required. I actually get tired of writing posts like this because they are like a broken record. And I’m sure you are wondering what happened that inspired me to write a whole post on why I need to remove alcohol from my life. I just spent most of the day Saturday drinking and then went to a strip club by myself and ended up spending an obscene amount of money. I’ve pretty much just spent the day kicking myself for being a tard. Everything is OK though and I will get my shit back in gear for another work week of being a square.
4 Awesome Albums
I’m going to give a list of 4 of my favorite albums. I’m reviewing these albums as a whole and will go through a few of my personal favorite songs and why I like the album. I suggest you listen to the albums in its entirety before voicing any opinion. Also know that I take my suggestions seriously and wouldn’t steer you the wrong way. These albums all get my 100% thumbs up.
The 59 Sound by The Gaslight Anthem
It’s only 12 songs and 41:32 but there isn’t a bad song on the album. The first 3 songs, Great Expectations, 59′ Sound, and Old White Lincoln have all had radio play. High Lonesome is a good song that references the Counting Crows song Round Here. The Patient Ferris Wheel is my personal favorite on the album but every song has it’s on allure. If you haven’t ever listened to this band, here is my blog giving a top notch recommendation.
Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen
I feel like Bruce is sort of an acquired taste and people among my generation sort of just overlook Bruce and his talents. Born in the USA came out in 84′ and was Bruce’s 7th album. The album contained messages relating to the pursuit of the American Dream (I read that off of Wikipedia, I just know the songs). Let’s just look at the songs that this album has. Born in the USA isn’t my favorite song but a classic nonetheless. I find Cover Me to be such a cool sounding song. I’m on Fire literally gives me goosebumps. Downbound Train and No Surrender are both quality songs and I’m Goin’ Down is sung in a way that only Bruce can sing. Then you close the album in Glory Days, Dancing in the Dark, and My Hometown. Seriously albums aren’t made this good anymore.
The Joshua Tree by U2
We can quote Gusto to intro this album “the best track 1 on any album ever”. After some thought I couldn’t think of too many better intro songs then Where the Streets Have No Name. The buildup for the first 2 minutes is really intense. Then you follow right with I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and With or Without you. Bullet the Blue Sky and Running to Stand Still follow in dramatic fashion. The rest of the songs aren’t as popular but just those few tracks make up for it. Another band that is missed by my generation but I would suggest listening to this album in it’s entirety.
A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out by Panic At the Disco
Released in 2005, Panic had a fresh sound and an incredible album for the time. The lead single was I Write Sins, Not Tragedies which is still one of my favorite songs to date. I like to call an album great when I can put it on and listen to every song all the way through and not skip over because of shitty songs. They title their songs as really long an unrecognizable so it’s better to just put on the CD and play it all the way through.4
Alt Music out now
A couple of alternative songs that are very good right now. Just use this as your playlist for a small amount of time and let me know if my selections are worthy of being posted. And yes these are all alt nation songs on Sirius but this is what I listen to so that’s how I know they are good.
Pandora played me this, from 2009.
“Ron, did you notice, maybe, you clipped me a little bit there”
Ck4 and I both agreed that this is the funniest commercial. I’m not sure if it’s the poor driving by the chimps, the guy uses the word “clipped” of that the monkey’s name is Ron. I just think the combination of things make this one a winner. Plus CareerBuilder in an economy like this is perfect for the target audience. I watched a few of the other ones but wasn’t really impressed. I remember thinking the Audi one with the escaping the mansion wasn’t bad. The Kia with the extraordinary journey was ok but in the end it’s still a KIA. As I’ve gotten older I actually remember the brands that are associated with these commercials even though, unless subliminally, I have no interest in anything they are selling. I still stick with the simpler is better and the ones that try to hard are bad. And why is everyone getting hit by things?
I’ve also noticed as I’ve gotten older that I know a ton more songs on the radio that I’m sick of. Like songs that I know are really good and I used to like a ton, I just can’t listen to. Everlong comes to mind. Popular 80’s songs like Maneater and Power of Love. Anything that is really popular, there’s a chance that I’ve listened to it frequently enough to know the chorus and have gotten sick of it. This even goes for pop songs like Firework and anything on the 20 on 20. I do want to introduce on of my favorite songs that I’ve come across. I’ve been raving about Anberlin and this cover of “like a rolling stone” is great. I’m not wild about Dylan’s version but this is just really well done and has a great sound to it.
Bball and Rut
We played a Manayunk Bball game last night w/o our usually best player, CK4 would resent that, and ended up winning by double digits. Chad probably fired up close to 25 shots but he’s obviously our best offensive weapon so no one really cares. I think that’s one thing about our team and maybe the reason why we win, we just let our best offensive players takes the shots. There’s no complaining about not getting shots and everyone just goes along swimmingly. Jkash even busted a J right in some big oaf’s eye which was a rarity (no offense). He even fouled a guy who was coming down into the lane and the guy’s comment was “I think he raped me…).” Once again though we were out sized and came away with the W to go to 3-0 in that league with a game on Tuesday in the Ambler league.
In other news, I don’t have much going on. Just to give a brief update on things and what I’ve been doing. I’m halfway done the first season of the Soprano’s and I’m really enjoying it. If you have the 2nd season, and want to help me out, I will pay to have you ship it to me because it’s running $31 bucks. I’ve also been playing a ton of poker with mixed results. I fancy myself pretty good at heads up and jump started my bankroll that way. Then I won a 12 dollar 45 man on Saturday night at 3am after coming back from the bar. I have about 400 in my account and am really just waiting to breakthrough with a multi-table tourny win. I got 36th of 617 and have made runs in bigger fields but just can’t walk away with the W. Playing sort of makes me lazy but I’ve been hitting the gym and am still active. Until I go busto again, be prepared to have me periodically update my poker situation in the blog.
One unusual thing that has happened to me is that Dunkin Donuts raised their price of the combo I get to 4.17 instead of 3.86. Most people would just move on but this throws a huge monkey wrench in my daily routine. I like to have change in my car for various reasons but what this new price is doing is making me use a quarter instead of getting .14 cents back. I don’t have an unlimited supply of quarters and it’s starting to worry me that my change supply is going to dry up. Things like this are what really bother me. Now you might say, use a 5 dollar bill and get the .83 cents and problem is solved but it doesn’t work this way. If you have a change amount <.15 cents, you should try to use change so you don't have to make the cashier count out the change and fill your pockets with nickels and dimes. The sad thing is that every single day this event transpires, it's going to bother me until it gets to the point that I'm just going create a dept with rows and rows of .17 cent increments. Problem solved.
I’ve also been listening to a lot of Anberlin and I just think that this might be the best band I’ve heard in a long time. How can you tell if a band is good? If you play their CD and you don’t have to skip songs because they are all good. Gusto gave me all their music and I just start it and let it play through. I may post some of their better songs to give my readers a taste. That is all.
Katy Perry Say It Ain’t So
I came across this picture and I have no idea if it really is Katy Perry or not but that’s what the caption said. I read it was on her twitter page or something like that. I’m scared.
MLK Day
I was perusing failblog and they had a basketball camp that was going on and today’s headline was “Martin Luther King Jr Day Shooting Camp.” I had an experience today and I’d like to relive a scenario at Dunkin Donuts this morning. So I walk in and there is only one person in line and I from just overhearing how she’s ordering I can tell this is going to be a nightmare. She’s trying to order a #8 but she wants it on #6’s bread and she wants the cheddar cheese from #2 instead of the American. She then wants her bacon extra crispy and she wants “extra extra” cream in her coffee. Literally anything she ordered was completely customized to exactly the way she wanted it and thus proving to be a real headache to the guy at the register. It’s one thing if you are allergic to onions and order something without onions but it’s a completely different matter to change the establishments menu to your satisfaction. I just stood there and thought to myself “does this woman have any idea she’s clueless or does she just live this way thinking everything is normal”.
So that got me thinking that not everyone thinks like me and may not think that what I think is moronic, is. Like that last sentence. I guess I think it’s just interesting that there are 6 billion people on this Earth and it’s impossible to think that everyone should think the same way. I think understanding that and not being closed minded in your thinking is important to becoming a better person. But I will never say it’s ok to do what Dunkin Donuts lady did today and she’s lucky I don’t have any balls because I would have told her how absurd she was being and if it was my Dunkin Donuts I would have taken her food to the back and busted some special sauce in her bagel hole. I know that doesn’t make sense but I still find it funny and it’s even funnier because me saying that I don’t have any balls would make that particular possibility impossible. I’m off the rocker today.
Final thought and it pertains to music. I like when songs are clever in their lyrics. For example double meanings and I’ve come across two recently. First being from the new Britney single “hold it against me.” The lyric “If I want your body now, would you hold it against me.” The obvious double meaning from the lyric is clever and she obviously didn’t think of it. The second being from Alice Cooper’s “Schools Out for Summer.” I heard this playing in the movie Dazed and Confused and the lyrics “We’ve got no class, We’ve got no principals.” Since schools out there is no more class and no more principals to go along with the rebellious nature of the lyrics. I’m sure I could find hundreds more but I just wanted to point out that clever lyrics add to songs. I’m also not saying that Britney’s song is good but I guarantee it gets airtime. #1 dl’d song on Itunes.
Enough Said
If you aren’t familiar with Bruce Hornsby and the Range, I will enlighten you. Ck4 and I went out to the bar tonight and I can’t think of anything better to come back to then Bruce Hornsby.
Do as I say, Not as I do
If you’ve been keeping yourself up to date with my blog you’d read my New Years resolutions and be like, “wow this guy must really have it together.” I still haven’t consumed any alcohol since Sunday and have gone to the gym both weekdays. I have felt very productive at work but there is a feeling of routine that eclipses it all. I got to a point today, after I went to the gym and ate dinner, and I just thought to myself “now what?” I have no interest of anything on TV, I played some poker unsuccessfully, and I was bored. I ended up finishing Alice in Wonderland for the sole hope that one time in a bar trivia game they ask “who wrote Alice in Wonderland” (Lewis Carroll, real name Charles Dodgson) or what story would you find the White Rabbit, Tweetle-Dee & Tweetle Dum, a Jabberwocky and Humpty Dumpty? ” I will astound people with my wisdom and live in bar trivia glory for the rest of my life. The book’s kind of witty reading although some of the languages makes the wit tough to decipher. I found the poetry to be boring but the dialog amongst the characters to be fun to read.
The title I used though does represent something. My previous entry’s gave some ideas on how to be a better individual. Let’s get something straight, if you think I can oblige by those rules for an entire year, not happening. There has to be a balance of regimen and chaos. Being too boring, although safer and conservative, has it’s negative attributes just like being a wild party animal does. Laying down ground rules for living is absurd because you are limiting the experiences you can have. We all strive to be better because working towards something is better than being content. Point being (I know I’m clever), sung best by Billy Joel “Black and white is how it should be,
But shades of grey are the colors I see” I’ll leave it here because anymore writing will just mess up the impact of the last line. Damn…