Rust your bullets with his tears, let me tell you 'bout his years
There's something so private and personal about a car. By yourself, on the road. Even if there are hundreds of people around you, you're so isolated and alone while you're driving. Those other people are just indistinct concepts. The red pick-up. The blue Mustang. If you see me driving I'm just the teal Taurus, that's all I am to you. I'm that idiot who forgot to hit the brakes in time and went 3 feet past the white line at the stoplight, or you're that jerk who cut me off when I was trying to turn left from the suicide lane.
Driving is so impersonal, but it's so personal at the same time. The actions of other drivers affect you directly, but at the same time it's nothing more than an object. That car is a car, but you don't think of the person behind the wheel when you complain that "The bastard cut me off," you just see the car. The geen Mazda cut you off, not the 30-someodd divorcee with two kids in the backseat. She might as well not exist.
I've kind of sidetracked from what I orginally wanted to talk about already. Good job, Guindo. Back to my point about how cars are private. Once you shut that door you're in your own world a whole different place. Nobody can touch you, it's like throwing yourself in a shell. You can say whatever you want, nobody will know. It's your own space, it belongs to you and you alone when you're driving by yourself.
It's so empty, though. I always fill it with sound. I play the radio, whatever's on. I sing, loud, off-key. The car is the only place I'll sing along to music when somebody's with me. Even if they're there, the car is mine, it's my space. You have no right to tell me not to sing to that music if you're in my car.
I fill my empty space with music a lot. I don't really like silence. I hate having headaches, even though I get them so often, because it's so hard to find a song that won't aggravate it. I have one right now, the only thing filling my space is the sound of my keystrokes as I write this up. I don't like it. I want to put Iron Maiden back on and rock out to "2 Minutes to Midnight." But I'm not.
I'm burnt out. I don't even know what I want to listen to. I want to listen to something different. I realized, listening to modern alternative on The Zone, that I didn't like what they were playing. So I switched to The Eagle to listen to my 80's rock, and I realizd I didn't want to hear what they were playing either. I kept hitting seek until I landed on something different. It was a country station. I never listen to country, but I stopped there and just listened to it for a while and I thought about music and categories.
Did you know modern country sounds a lot like classic rock? They just have a country twang in their voice and on the guitar, but otherwise it's very similar. What's the point of musical labels if they all blend together? What is alternative the alternative to when it's the ruling musical style? Does Bon Jovi still count as rock? Modern rock? Classic rock? Heavy metal, well, Iron Maiden isn't heavy metal anymore, they don't scream into their microphones, they sing, they have a melody. They're just rock, now. By modern definition. But back then, no, that shit was metal. Dio? Heavy metal. Now? They don't hold a candle to the harshness of current metal bands. Why? Why does metal get harder to stomach as music evolves? Why does country get more like rock? Why does my classic rock qualify as "easy listening" now?
I don't get it. I don't get music labels. Today, I showed Tito this flash game. He said he couldn't play it because the music was horrible and that he'd rather listen to his screaming metal. I made a comment about how screaming metal was lame, because honestly I need a melody to my lyrics or it just hurts my ears, and he said, "You know nothing! You and your ditzy J-pop singers you :P" (exact c/p). I was a little floored, really. Because any friend whose ever seen my playlist knows it's full of Styx and Dio and Iron Maiden and Bon Jovi and Suzanne Vega and maybe a lot of instrumental video game themes and remixes, but really maybe only 5% of it is actually J-anything.
I pointed out that I had Iron Maiden in my CD drive, and I sent him two Dio songs and Don't Fear the Reaper (he'd never heard of Blue Oyster Cult).
Ditzy J-pop singers. Hm. I don't even like most J-pop singers. I think they're too hyped up. It's odd being associated with that, just because I happened to think the game I linked him was neat. I take songs case-by-case. I love Bon Jovi, but you know, I really don't like several of his songs. I just can't listen to them, for whatever reason. Too slow, too harsh a melody, whatever it be. Suzanne Vega, I don't like some of HER songs even. Calypso, I can stand it but I really don't like to. It's too slow, it's not melodic enough.
I don't like to generalize music. I don't like to say, oh yeah I like 80's metal, because you know, that's not all of what I like. Iron Maiden might be one of my favourite bands, but Suzanne Vega is right up there, next to Bon Jovi, next to The Cars. I don't like to say that I don't like rap or country. I like Shanaia Twain. I know a few rap songs that I enjoy, some of them are really haunting and sad, you know? All kinds of music can evoke emotion, all kinds of music can make you want to listen.
I think we, as people, use labels too much. We want to label everything, but a label doesn't give you the whole story, it gives you a general idea. Labels...well, I think, when you first meet somebody you label them and you fit them into a stereotype, and as you get to know them, they develop from that initial stereotype or label that you brand them with. It shouldn't be the other way around, you shouldn't shove the people you know into labels. You don't need to have a general idea of them, you already know the bigger picture of them.
This entry went from being about driving, to music, to labels. I can't talk without digressing, but music was my original intent of this entry. I love music, but I hate being labeled for what kind of music I listen to.
Driving is so impersonal, but it's so personal at the same time. The actions of other drivers affect you directly, but at the same time it's nothing more than an object. That car is a car, but you don't think of the person behind the wheel when you complain that "The bastard cut me off," you just see the car. The geen Mazda cut you off, not the 30-someodd divorcee with two kids in the backseat. She might as well not exist.
I've kind of sidetracked from what I orginally wanted to talk about already. Good job, Guindo. Back to my point about how cars are private. Once you shut that door you're in your own world a whole different place. Nobody can touch you, it's like throwing yourself in a shell. You can say whatever you want, nobody will know. It's your own space, it belongs to you and you alone when you're driving by yourself.
It's so empty, though. I always fill it with sound. I play the radio, whatever's on. I sing, loud, off-key. The car is the only place I'll sing along to music when somebody's with me. Even if they're there, the car is mine, it's my space. You have no right to tell me not to sing to that music if you're in my car.
I fill my empty space with music a lot. I don't really like silence. I hate having headaches, even though I get them so often, because it's so hard to find a song that won't aggravate it. I have one right now, the only thing filling my space is the sound of my keystrokes as I write this up. I don't like it. I want to put Iron Maiden back on and rock out to "2 Minutes to Midnight." But I'm not.
I'm burnt out. I don't even know what I want to listen to. I want to listen to something different. I realized, listening to modern alternative on The Zone, that I didn't like what they were playing. So I switched to The Eagle to listen to my 80's rock, and I realizd I didn't want to hear what they were playing either. I kept hitting seek until I landed on something different. It was a country station. I never listen to country, but I stopped there and just listened to it for a while and I thought about music and categories.
Did you know modern country sounds a lot like classic rock? They just have a country twang in their voice and on the guitar, but otherwise it's very similar. What's the point of musical labels if they all blend together? What is alternative the alternative to when it's the ruling musical style? Does Bon Jovi still count as rock? Modern rock? Classic rock? Heavy metal, well, Iron Maiden isn't heavy metal anymore, they don't scream into their microphones, they sing, they have a melody. They're just rock, now. By modern definition. But back then, no, that shit was metal. Dio? Heavy metal. Now? They don't hold a candle to the harshness of current metal bands. Why? Why does metal get harder to stomach as music evolves? Why does country get more like rock? Why does my classic rock qualify as "easy listening" now?
I don't get it. I don't get music labels. Today, I showed Tito this flash game. He said he couldn't play it because the music was horrible and that he'd rather listen to his screaming metal. I made a comment about how screaming metal was lame, because honestly I need a melody to my lyrics or it just hurts my ears, and he said, "You know nothing! You and your ditzy J-pop singers you :P" (exact c/p). I was a little floored, really. Because any friend whose ever seen my playlist knows it's full of Styx and Dio and Iron Maiden and Bon Jovi and Suzanne Vega and maybe a lot of instrumental video game themes and remixes, but really maybe only 5% of it is actually J-anything.
I pointed out that I had Iron Maiden in my CD drive, and I sent him two Dio songs and Don't Fear the Reaper (he'd never heard of Blue Oyster Cult).
Ditzy J-pop singers. Hm. I don't even like most J-pop singers. I think they're too hyped up. It's odd being associated with that, just because I happened to think the game I linked him was neat. I take songs case-by-case. I love Bon Jovi, but you know, I really don't like several of his songs. I just can't listen to them, for whatever reason. Too slow, too harsh a melody, whatever it be. Suzanne Vega, I don't like some of HER songs even. Calypso, I can stand it but I really don't like to. It's too slow, it's not melodic enough.
I don't like to generalize music. I don't like to say, oh yeah I like 80's metal, because you know, that's not all of what I like. Iron Maiden might be one of my favourite bands, but Suzanne Vega is right up there, next to Bon Jovi, next to The Cars. I don't like to say that I don't like rap or country. I like Shanaia Twain. I know a few rap songs that I enjoy, some of them are really haunting and sad, you know? All kinds of music can evoke emotion, all kinds of music can make you want to listen.
I think we, as people, use labels too much. We want to label everything, but a label doesn't give you the whole story, it gives you a general idea. Labels...well, I think, when you first meet somebody you label them and you fit them into a stereotype, and as you get to know them, they develop from that initial stereotype or label that you brand them with. It shouldn't be the other way around, you shouldn't shove the people you know into labels. You don't need to have a general idea of them, you already know the bigger picture of them.
This entry went from being about driving, to music, to labels. I can't talk without digressing, but music was my original intent of this entry. I love music, but I hate being labeled for what kind of music I listen to.