"Life moves pretty fast...
If you don't stop and look around once and awhile, you could miss it."
-Ferris Bueller, on his day off
Seems like I've had a lot of days off. Well, I've had. And I've taken advantage of this unintended vacation time. Visiting family, friends, loved ones. Going to more Crowes concerts this year than in my whole life up until now. Riding my bike because I have all this time and I haven't explored on two wheels this hardcore since I was a teenager, pre-car. I am learning to cherish this time, and have realized at least one thing:
I hate fuckin' working.
I also hate unemployment, because it's like the devil giving you a paycheck, and a money band aid. "Here's money not to work. And it is going to run out."
But I love this time I've been given, because it's time that so many people so desperately want and crave. Well, I don't totally hate the act of working, I guess I hate the bullshit that surrounds it. Stupid handbook/regulations, clueless superiors (really, how many bosses have you had that had an IQ above legally retarded?), all that kind of crap. I like actual work, and the occasional satisfaction gained from accomplishing something, big or small. I just hate having to work, and wanting to work, and losing a job, and then not being able to find work quickly. Downward spiral. Whatever.
I saw Super 400 and Rose Hill Drive last night. The two best living power trios out there. On a double bill. Holy shiite, this is what I'm talking about. It's an antedote to the sickness of rock and roll that has been going on for too long now. Just plug your shit in, and play from the heart. They're both playing Boston tonight. Can't really afford to go. But, if I was working, I might not have been able to see the show last night. See, what an infuriating situation. It's awesome to have the time, but not so awesome to not have the money. Which doesn't grow on trees, in case you didn't know.
I also got the new Audioslave album. It's not as hot as the first, but there are enough cool songs on it to warrant the label of Good Rock Album. I really don't understand the dismissal of this band because of things like "It's Not Rage, or it's Not Soundgarden." Yeah, no shit. And Creed was Not Good. I mean, I LOVE The Beatles, and all of their solo work was Not Beatles. But a lot of it Was Good. Although the music is timeless and will live on until the end of the universe, The Beatles as an entity and a band were a moment in time that will never be recaptured, with a finite beginning and end. If it's just good music, I don't see why one can't just enjoy it. It's like people choose not to like it. Well, you can't fuckin' CHOOSE to not like something-- you just do or don't. It's your reaction. That's how it works. I wish I could let loose like Dr. Cox, it would be so much cooler.
I've found myself sometimes liking things that I didn't think I would. Why? Because I just liked it. Simple. When it came out, I thought Ace Ventura was gonna be really stupid. Then I watched it, and I rolled on the freakin' floor. I didn't think There's Something About Mary was gonna be that bad. It was godawful. One of the unfunniest pieces of shit ever to be put on film, let alone be considered a comedy. Stuff like that (and American Pie, and other terrible "comedies") makes me wonder what the hell happened to the collective sense of humor of America. Then, I see Will Ferrell being held up as some sort of comedy god, when he's never really done ANYTHING funny (counting the SNL years, too), and I realize, oh okay, I guess it's over. Bill Murray makes low-key "artistic" movies now, John Candy's been dead like 12 years, and Dana Carvey seems to have retired from comedy. The sitcom has been almost forgotten as a format because the need to try new gimmicks instead of just fuckin' be funny went on for too long and everyone forgot how to do it (w/rare exceptions like Arrested Development and Scrubs). Other than the sporadic actually humorous performer like Dane Cook or something, comedy is dead.
People have all these reasons to not like things. Oh, this album's just not as good as the first one. Oh, this one has a different producer. Oh, that sequel has a different director. ...BUT DID YOU LIKE IT? Yes or no? A lot of great musicians were, as Bill Hicks said, "rrrrrreal fuckin' high on drugs" when they made a lot of great music. Should we not like it because they were on drugs and drugs 'R' bad? Should we only like or dislike it if it was made by like, straightedges?
Do the circumstances surrounding the creation of art really matter when viscerally experiencing it, and enjoying or not enjoying it? Well, newbie?
-Ferris Bueller, on his day off
Seems like I've had a lot of days off. Well, I've had. And I've taken advantage of this unintended vacation time. Visiting family, friends, loved ones. Going to more Crowes concerts this year than in my whole life up until now. Riding my bike because I have all this time and I haven't explored on two wheels this hardcore since I was a teenager, pre-car. I am learning to cherish this time, and have realized at least one thing:
I hate fuckin' working.
I also hate unemployment, because it's like the devil giving you a paycheck, and a money band aid. "Here's money not to work. And it is going to run out."
But I love this time I've been given, because it's time that so many people so desperately want and crave. Well, I don't totally hate the act of working, I guess I hate the bullshit that surrounds it. Stupid handbook/regulations, clueless superiors (really, how many bosses have you had that had an IQ above legally retarded?), all that kind of crap. I like actual work, and the occasional satisfaction gained from accomplishing something, big or small. I just hate having to work, and wanting to work, and losing a job, and then not being able to find work quickly. Downward spiral. Whatever.
I saw Super 400 and Rose Hill Drive last night. The two best living power trios out there. On a double bill. Holy shiite, this is what I'm talking about. It's an antedote to the sickness of rock and roll that has been going on for too long now. Just plug your shit in, and play from the heart. They're both playing Boston tonight. Can't really afford to go. But, if I was working, I might not have been able to see the show last night. See, what an infuriating situation. It's awesome to have the time, but not so awesome to not have the money. Which doesn't grow on trees, in case you didn't know.
I also got the new Audioslave album. It's not as hot as the first, but there are enough cool songs on it to warrant the label of Good Rock Album. I really don't understand the dismissal of this band because of things like "It's Not Rage, or it's Not Soundgarden." Yeah, no shit. And Creed was Not Good. I mean, I LOVE The Beatles, and all of their solo work was Not Beatles. But a lot of it Was Good. Although the music is timeless and will live on until the end of the universe, The Beatles as an entity and a band were a moment in time that will never be recaptured, with a finite beginning and end. If it's just good music, I don't see why one can't just enjoy it. It's like people choose not to like it. Well, you can't fuckin' CHOOSE to not like something-- you just do or don't. It's your reaction. That's how it works. I wish I could let loose like Dr. Cox, it would be so much cooler.
I've found myself sometimes liking things that I didn't think I would. Why? Because I just liked it. Simple. When it came out, I thought Ace Ventura was gonna be really stupid. Then I watched it, and I rolled on the freakin' floor. I didn't think There's Something About Mary was gonna be that bad. It was godawful. One of the unfunniest pieces of shit ever to be put on film, let alone be considered a comedy. Stuff like that (and American Pie, and other terrible "comedies") makes me wonder what the hell happened to the collective sense of humor of America. Then, I see Will Ferrell being held up as some sort of comedy god, when he's never really done ANYTHING funny (counting the SNL years, too), and I realize, oh okay, I guess it's over. Bill Murray makes low-key "artistic" movies now, John Candy's been dead like 12 years, and Dana Carvey seems to have retired from comedy. The sitcom has been almost forgotten as a format because the need to try new gimmicks instead of just fuckin' be funny went on for too long and everyone forgot how to do it (w/rare exceptions like Arrested Development and Scrubs). Other than the sporadic actually humorous performer like Dane Cook or something, comedy is dead.
People have all these reasons to not like things. Oh, this album's just not as good as the first one. Oh, this one has a different producer. Oh, that sequel has a different director. ...BUT DID YOU LIKE IT? Yes or no? A lot of great musicians were, as Bill Hicks said, "rrrrrreal fuckin' high on drugs" when they made a lot of great music. Should we not like it because they were on drugs and drugs 'R' bad? Should we only like or dislike it if it was made by like, straightedges?
Do the circumstances surrounding the creation of art really matter when viscerally experiencing it, and enjoying or not enjoying it? Well, newbie?