In school we took spelling and vocabulary tests that were ripped directly from the back of our books. Every August school would start with us tearing out a year’s worth of tests and passing them to the front. The teacher would use these as the tests that would be passed back out to us, one a week for the next nine months (minus Xmas vacation and spring break).
In the seventh grade I did something that I am now reminded of almost daily. At the end of the school year, my math teacher asked for a volunteer to take the books back down to the storage room. Taking on this task got me access to the supply room. In the supply room, I had access to every spelling and vocabulary test for the remainder of my K-12 career.
It is really pretty amazing that a person that made straight A’s in the subject, could have such a limited vocabulary. I blame the public school system.
The world is inundated with new music. So much of it coming out every day, some good, some bad, some mediocre, barely any of it is fantastic, but certainly an incomprehensible amount generated very second of every day.
If you pay any attention at all to music, you will know what I am talking about. It is not something I only just discovered, but rather something that was recently pushed home. Last week I had a phone conversation with a program director I don’t know from a station I never heard of in Portland Oregon. During the conversation she mentioned that a particular band was “a bit soft for our format.” This excited me. I got a tingle in my scrotum because I am ready for the re-surge of heavy, or at least angry, rock. I had to know what “not soft” music she was playing. So I asked, “what not soft music do you play” and she gave me a very long, very detailed list of bands. I did not recognize a single one. I looked her directly in the eye over the phone and thought "For all I know you are making up these band names," She could have very well have been fucking with me, “oh you know we play Carpet and that one band Desk, oh yeah and Lamp. I love Lamp”
For approximately 2 minutes I went “uh huh, oh yeah? them too?” Politely I waited until she finished. Then I said, “I have never heard of a single one of them.” She did the thing that people do where they pretend like you are not as up to speed on music as they are, and eventually told me they all tasted like chicken and sounded like Arcade Fire, Built to Spill or Foo Fighters. These were names I recognized, but don’t listen too because they are too soft for my playlist format.
I get over 10 new albums a day recommended for potential reviews. Some of it’s “ok” none of its really that great. In the words of Jack Nicholson, “this town needs an enema.”
No comments:
Post a Comment