Archive for November, 2000
Is Rock Dying or Dead?
19 November 2000I hope not. Then again, I think there is some “rock” that should die. Rock isn’t dead, though.
Rock is elitist.
There’s this guy in one of my classes that claims, “All that rock has left is STP, and after that, it’s dead.” Now I’m the first to agree that rock is not anywhere near its peak, but I think this guy is off-base. First of all, he’s not pure “rock,” if rock even exists in a pure form anymore. As far as I can tell, he’s mostly grunge (which in my opinion is close to death itself, and I say that with a sigh of relief, because these leftovers don’t compare with good grunge like Nirvana.) Grunge is not any more rock than punk is, or heavy metal, or “pop rock.” (So he called the Wallflowers… DAMN him!!!) But, he insists that any group with a D.J. is not rock. Any group with trite lyrics is not rock. Any group that isn’t… (fill in the blanks) …is not rock.
If rock has to conform to such strict guidelines, I hope that it is dead. Essentially, “rock” to him is what he precisely wants it to be. I disagree. I think that the foundation of rock is diversity. Rock was born of rebellion and experimentation, from the first time Buddy Holly picked up an electric, through the drug-induced musical euphoria of Woodstock, and on into the musical expansion and capitalization in the 70’s and 80’s. (Although we won’t talk about eighties music…) So there’s no difinitive “rock band” any more. Good. rock exists in some form in almost every thing we listen to. (That is excluding complete pop, like Britney or N’Sync.) Punk, metal, and the big wave of rap-rock… It’s all got rock. So what if Limp Bizkit has a D.J.? If Blink 182 is immature, so be it. Most college students are too. And if Wallflowers sacrifice the status of “rock” in order to play the music they play, so be it. I know that Jakob Dylan’s music would’ve been called rock in his father’s glory days, and I happen to like the more old-fashioned standards of music.
So maybe rock isn’t alive in any specific incarnation… There are no Beatles, no Rolling Stones, no Claptons of today as there were in the past. (Even Clapton nowadays is not a Clapton compared to how he used to be.) Rock is still very much alive in spirit, somewhat like the “Holy Ghost” of music.
Holy Ghost… Sounds like a band name…
Eat My Shorts, Ganon!
17 November 2000Well… I just defeated The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Not for the first time, of course… but it’s been a long time. I was a big Super Nintendo player, and ZIII was always my favorite game, but I have long since sold my SNES and the games. In the past, have downloaded emulators and ROMs for the computers, but ended up deleting them or changing computers before I could get around to beating the game again. The past week or so, though, I buckled down and got to it. And I beat the game dying only once! I am sure I haven’t come anywhere near that close before. I oughtta try for a perfect game… Ehhh, maybe I’ll wait a couple more years. :-)
New York, New York
14 November 2000I got in touch with an old friend yesterday. Jessica was a senior when I was a sophomore back in Kentucky. We were in a few classes together and became pretty decent friends. The summer after, I moved back to Arizona, and she moved to New York to enroll in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. I hadn’t heard much of her for a long time. This week, she got a computer and got online. Now we’re chatting. It’s great to hear from an old friend, to be able to hold on to some good parts of the past… Although I didn’t know her back there as long as I would have liked, she was one of the silver linings I remember from those somewhat murky, cloudy years in Kentucky.
And she’s now an actress. :-)
Egg Nog?
13 November 2000Who on this god’s green earth has not had egg nog? I know a lot of people don’t like it, but… Hasn’t everybody at least tried it? Well, my roommate Ryan hasn’t. I don’t believe it! How inexperienced.
Two couples, a gay guy, and Thom
12 November 2000That was the head count at the party I was at last night. That’s even worse than being the third wheel.
Still, it was a good party, and I’m glad I went.
An Onslaught of Road Signs
6 November 2000As if there weren’t already enough signs around campus… (Thanks to the unending construction of new dorms and god knows what else!) …I’m adding a few more to our viewing enjoyment.
Check out Musician Crossing, a new little project I’m getting started.
Enchanting Evening
3 November 2000Well… Our rendezvous got cut short, but I really enjoyed meeting Genelle. I hope we can do it again sometime soon. Thanks for a great night.
- Your Nerd
It must be Halloween…
2 November 2000This has been a weird week, counting from about last Thursday to… well, we’re still going. I think I’ll just make a list for some of it… It’s almost too much to go into detail.
Thursday:
12:30 PM - Got up to get ready for my Java class. My last lick of sleep for a while.
Friday:
4:00 PM - Went over to Dante’s with him and Jeanette.
8:40 PM - Went to sleep in Dante’s spare room.
Saturday:
3:30 AM - Woke up. Everyone else had just gone to sleep. Heart felt like a big knot in my chest. Wanted to rip it out.
5:45 AM - Finally got back to sleep.
9:00 AM - Woke up again. Good as new, though supposedly with bad looks on my face.
Saturday or Sunday: (Sorry, the weekend was a blur.)
* Found out Dante’ broke up with Sarah.
* Found out Tina from high school broke up with her bf Tony.
* Found out Ann almost broke up with Dale… Perhaps I describe it as worse that it was, but it was all in all a bad week for relationships… And more to come.
* Had excruciatingly painful conversations with Jeanette, and a bit with Dante`. Much confusion.
Monday:
8:00 AM - Woke up from a nice dream… No slappings. No vomit. Score! Only in my dreams.
5:00 PM - Hung out with Dante`.
10:00 PM - Jeanette joined our company. First time with both of them after time of great confusion.
Tuesday:
12:30 AM - Knock on door. Really early trick-or-treaters? No. Cops. Guess they were going around trying to get people for “possession.” Go bust some drunk drivers. Don’t knock on my door. Must be Halloween.
1:00 AM - Chatted with Jeanette. She broke up with Kevin. (Really bad week for relationships.)
2:00 AM - Chatted with Dante`. His car broke down. Must be Halloween.
3:00 PM - While walking with Jeanette, saw a blackbird with one leg. Was it an omen? Must be Halloween.
9:30 PM - Went all up and down Mill in my Scream costume. Big lame block party. Psycho cult people tried to recruit me. (No, not Satanists… Christians actually.) Got zillions of comments on my costume. It’s really a pretty simple costume, isn’t it? Girls loved it. Sad that I have a better chance of getting some with a mask on. :-P Must be Halloween.
Wednesday:
10:00 PM - Chatted with Genelle from NAU. She’s coming down for a couple days (read ahead) and wants to meet. Hope it isn’t just a residual effect of Halloween.
Thursday:
3:55 AM - Writing this entry. Sounds monotone in my head. This could be an episode of Daria. Better wrap it up.
5:30 PM - Supposed to meet Genelle. Wish me luck.
Sometime in the near future:
* Dante` and Jeanette hook up? Hmm… Maybe. I dunno.
* I hook up with someone who lives three hours away? Hmm… Maybe. I dunno.
* Plenty more confusion to come? Certainly.
One Small Step BACK for Dre
1 November 2000Ok, I’m using my LiveJournal as a soapbox for a second. Listen to what Dr. Dre had to say a while back about a court decision in favor of the RIAA, and obviously against Napster.
“This is one small step for Dr. Dre and one giant step for people who actually work for a living…. F*** Napster, and I mean that.” -Dre
Is he really that full of himself to be saying that he works for a living, going downstairs to his studio? I mean, how many of us work to go to college? A lot of us. Yet we’re targeted as the main violators of copyright laws through Napster. Maybe it’s because we can’t afford the damn CD’s. We aren’t sitting on a horde of cash that we “earned” in a job that many would laugh at if called “work” and most people would envy to have.
F*** you, Dr. Dre, and I mean that.