So where was I?.......

Sorry for the silence. Life got in the way.

As promised, some notes on music. I am a music lover for a couple of reasons. Since I can remember there has always been music playing. My dad always had music playing so I grew up with salsa (Celia Cruz, different salsa big bands from the Carribean and Latin America, etc.), jazz and 60's rock (Beatles, Stones the Animals, etc.). My musical tastes started with the Beatles and top 40 of the late 70's and early 80's. A compilation of songs from Beatles' movies was the 1st LP I purchased. I believe the 1st 45 I bought was Steve Miller's Abracadabra. (Please watch the video if you never have and you will understand why any rational persons that actually had to live through the 1980's [cause from what I read the 1880's were rad] want no part of any 1980's revivial or nostalgia).

Part of my distaste for 80's nostalgia goes back to my continued dissapointment with the times I have lived through. It seems I was born too late. Too young for punk or no/new wave I also had to endure the Reagan years, the war on drugs, AIDS, MTV, and what I consider the most damaging and critical to the success of the aforementioned, the golden age of marketing as a social and psychological science. I contend that none of the previously mentioned would have played such a large part in society if not for strides made in selling people shitty products and ideas.

I digress. My musical awakening happened right before middle school. Like everyone esle in my age group I was digging the days hits as shown in this list of rekkids released in 82. In addition the Deleon brothers had already indoctrinated me into all things classic and heavy rock.

I would like to say that I listened to these records when they came out in 1982:
# Big Science - Laurie Anderson
# Damaged - Black Flag
# The Sky's Gone Out – Bauhaus
# Groovy Decay - Robyn Hitchcock
# Everything Falls Apart - Hüsker Dü
# The Gift - The Jam
# Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets
# In My Eyes - Minor Threat
# Minor Threat - Minor Threat
# Bean Spill - The Minutemen
# The Blue Mask – Lou Reed
# Chronic Town EP - R.E.M.
# The Tunes of Two Cities - The Residents
# Stink - The Replacements
# A Kiss In The Dreamhouse - Siouxsie And The Banshees
# Under the Big Black Sun - X
# English Settlement - XTC

But my actual interests at the time read more like this:
# Lexicon of Love - ABC
# Asia - Asia
# Combat Rock - The Clash
# American Fool - John Cougar Mellencamp
# Too-Rye-Ay - Dexys Midnight Runners
# Oh No!, It's Devo - Devo
# H2O - Daryl Hall & John Oates
# Rio - Duran Duran
# Mirage - Fleetwood Mac
# The Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
# Shabooh Shoobah- Inxs
# Night and Day - Joe Jackson
# Thriller - Michael Jackson
# Nylon Curtain - Billy Joel
# Screaming for Vengeance - Judas Priest
# Coda - Led Zeppelin
# Business as Usual - Men at Work
# Too Fast for Love - Mötley Crüe (debut re-release)
# Ghost in the Machine - The Police
# 1999 - Prince
# Diver Down - Van Halen

Well got to get back to work. More later on Ignatius and music

Quick one while he is at work......

I've become a lazy blogger sooner than I thought. My apologies. Actually I tried to send a mobile post yesterday, but ran into technical difficulties.

Those that know me, may or may not know that this devout agnostic at one point was a devout Catholic up until my early teens. I even had thoughts of joining the clergy if biological imperatives and hormones hadn't interfered. Therefore, Holy Week still holds some fascination to me. Back in the cat lick days I would prep all week for Good Friday. Good Friday was filled with thoughtful reflection and prayer in memory of Christ's suffering, with Easter Sunday being a sort of sugar tinged anti-climax. No really.

I was a poseur compared to some of the fateful. Normally I dismiss people who refuse to have some grasp on the notion that maybe they do not have all the answers to life. Yet I do feel pangs of envy when I see 'fanatical' people who have devoted their entire lives to an idea or any other abstract. That includes guys like our friends pictured.

Part of my transition from cat lick to agnostic was helped by Philip K. Dick's writing. A lot of his best writing was devoted to his analyzing events that transpired in his life on 2-3-74. Basically these events led him to question the reality he existed in. These writings helped me to question my faith in any manner I wanted. This led to the dissolution of my faith then to a sort of renewal in my current agnostic viewpoint. Currently I only have faith in the thought that there are things in this universe that the universe in my head will never be able to reconcile and that's ok.

Happy Easter.

Anniversary

The end of my week unfortunately did nothing to erase the crap from my shitty week. I was lucky enough to mark my first anniversary of marriage. Symbolic of our first year together the anniversary weekend was filled with emotional highs and lows. I have no complaints about the first year of marriage only about what life threw at us in the last year.
Top on the list of life's curveballs was my dad being killed in a work related accident 4 months ago. Suffice it to say my emotional and mental well being weren't 100% before his death and has certainly been anything but 100% since. The one constant thing that has kept me going it the love and support I have received from my wife. This isn't the first time she has helped me deal with a hard situation as my mom dealt with life threatening health issues three years ago which my wife helped me get through.

Normally I am not one to mark what I consider arbitrary and artificial calendar events, such as any Hallmark holiday, christmas, thanksgiving, etc. you get the picture. Birthdays are the only such events I find merit any attention. Though I must admit a fondness for May day. This last year I added two dates to remember, the day my father died and the day I was married. This is symbolic also as I am always in search of (and rarely ever close to) balance in my life. Again I have my wife to thanks for balancing the good and bad in my life.

Reminds me of the vows I said to her a year ago today. To paraphrase, I stated that I am person that doesn't believe in anything but love and friendship and I was lucky to find both in one person. Happy anniversary Booger, I love you.

Eeenie Meenie Minee Mo......

Broke down and consumed like the good American I am. After agonizing back and forth between an ipod and psp for my roaming multi-media pleasure I decided on an iPod. Got the 30gb. I like the how the packaging asks not to streal music. Good try but a few years too late. Like apple doesn't know that one of the reasons their players are so popular, besided their nice egineering and aesthetics, is that folks have so much 'illegal/stolen' music they want to listen to, sometimes before they buy the cd or mp3 files. I am still planning on buying a PSP but only later when I can afford to get an everywhere/naitional wi-fi account and location free player so I can basically watch my tv/cable box from anywhere in world or get access to all the media on halputer. Ain' that something.

Lets begin again, begin the begin

First post. Have to start somwhere. Crappy day filled with office existence ennui and anxiety. Still beats really working for a living which is a hard perspective to keep. More later. I promise not to be a lazy blogger. This space will be filled with complaints, musings, music, film, minutae of my everyday life, etc.
For now it will be anonymous except for those who know me, you know like in real life.