HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

[insert poster-art for the 1981 Columbia Pictures movie]

Ok, well...my birthday passed by on the 20th of this month, I'm now 26 years into the grave (ah!). The good news is, with money my better-off-than-my-mother- gramma gave me, I bought a one month subscription to Napster (dot cooom!) at BestBuy (you don't have to go to BestBuy to do that, but if you're a Reward Zone member, you get 5 points for doing it that way - I think...(!)). So anyway, I got a truck load+ worth of music (a very large truck, I kid you not!) and, in addition to the usual suspects, I have actually found most, if not all, of '70's progressive rock band Gentle Giant's back catalog available for on-demand streaming(!!!!). I don't like all their albums, but I remember downloading IN A GLASS HOUSE off of some site I might be better off not mentioning in this forum, and then dragging my feet deciding when to buy the album and how much to pay for it...part of me was like "well, I DID listen to it quite repeatedly, without the artist's consent..." and then another part of me was like "but you only did that 'cause you had nothing better to do!" and then not too terribly long after that IN A GLASS HOUSE and several other GG albums became "discontinued by the manufacturer". Well, after finding IAGH on Napster, I looked it up on Amazon and there it is!!!! ---- $13.99, just like the good ol' days (where have returned, if you didn't pick up on that...). Huh...Barnes & Noble (dot coooom!) is actually having a holiday-season special offer for B/N "members" where you get free S&H if you get $10+ worth of stuff. I'm actually not technically a member, but my Mom is and maybe after I'm done babbling about this, I'll go check it out...
Anyway...I'm glad sites like Napster and Rhapsody are finally making essential music like Gentle Giant and The Grateful Dead available. Of course, Columbia Records is still holding onto their '70's Aerosmith back catalog with a very firm grip. I so would like to hear CLASSICS LIVE! any time I want. Heck, it'd be great just to buy "Train Kept A Rollin'" and "Kings and Queens" in their CL glory, with the big, sharp, wailing guitars and all...the version of "TKAR" from GET YOUR WINGS just doesn't compare. K&Q is good tho, do need to replace my long-parted copy of AEROSMITH'S GREATEST HITS. The studio version of that is good, but the live from CL version has a kind of ambiance not found on the original...I heard "Same Old Song And Dance" on the radio in my outpatient therapist's car and it brought back the feeling(s) of living in Monterey County (California) during 1995-1997, near the beach and numerous breathtaking nooks and crannies. The ocean being near really made a big impact on the air itself, and the way things felt in general. We didn't get big snows and leaves turning and all that countrified traditional b.s....I guess you have to go there sometime for an extended period of time perhaps to know what I mean. Sometimes in the spring here in Cape Girardeau, MO, it feels a little like that. But we go through maybe 1 or 2 springs without it...at least I don't have to go without as much living here...of course, about a year ago when I was seriously considering going back, I started having nightmares of getting lost...when I think about it in the waking hours, it doesn't seem so far fetched. I mean, without a car, getting lost is a real pain in the ass! I would think anyway...in California, they keep away from strangers, even if a stranger approaches them, they shy away, out of the idea that you shouldn't trust anyone.
But anyhoo...getting AEROSMITH'S GREATEST HITS probably wouldn't do any good...I hardly listen to AM or FM radio anymore. LastFM and Pandora are my two main choices for branching out...so; when I heard "SOS&D" it had been awhile since hearing it. I get something on CD, especially at this moment, since I have so few, I feel an obligation to listen to it. It all depends on so many things what effects me and when....next thing you know I'll hear a Stevie Ray Vaughn song and start reminiscing about junior high, even though at this particular moment I have no fond memories of Jr. High, except it was during that time when Christmas' were more easy to look forward to...being poor in California, Xmas (or New Years'; that was what we celebrated instead of Xmas until about 1996, since my mom adamantly refused to embrace Jesus and didn't want anything to do with it/him; she got less adamant as she got older, we moved to Missouri in mid-'97) was a hit and miss...

NOOOOOOOOOOOO-TES!

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (SLIPCASE EDITION)
AMAZON: $26 (...) (no cashback)
BUY Mktplce: $25.38 (4.5% cashback)
DEEPDISCOUNT $25.50 (4.5% cashback)

BUY.COM MARKETPLACE is the way to go!!!

Hopefully these prices will be good in January (and maybe shortly thereafter...).

CARTEL - CYCLES
DEEPDISCOUNT: $8.38 until Nov 29th (4.5% cashback via Bing)
BUY/BUY MTKPLCE: $11+ ($4.5% cashback via BigCrumbs)

Hopefully I'll get some B-day $ from Gramma...(on or near my birthday...fingers crossed heavily!).

CD LIST:

1. Cartel - Chroma
2. Cartel - Cycles
3. Genesis - Invisible Touch
4. Genesis - Live/The Way We Walk Volume One: The Shorts
5. Genesis - Live/The Way We Walk Volume Two: The Longs
6. Hidden In Plain View - Resolution
7. Oingo Boingo - Skeletons In The Closet: The Best Of
8. Toto - Toto IV

DVD LIST

1. Ghostbusters
2. Ghostbusters II

BOOK LIST

1. Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park
2. Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House
3. Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird

REAL

This is why I don't like films about films:

1) filmmaking, by definition, is a lie, is lying about the truth. It either simplifies the truth, ignores most of it, or flat out lies all together. For instance, where does a person's entire life ever get documented in a movie, in complete honesty? Films focus on one or two small aspects of life.
2) the ideas/facts that movies focus on should have significance. but even the small details should be either interesting or true, either in a metaphorical sense or a hardcore sense.
3) filmmaking is only interesting to people who want to be something they are not (which is a dishonest way to live), or other filmmakers. Film should not serve the filmmaker, unless the film is to be distributed internally, as opposed to the genera public.
4) to sum it, if you make a movie about filmmaking, you are either telling a tale that's already been told or telling a lie.

Examples:
BAD:
FINDING NEVERLAND - based on the life of someone who nobody would care about if he hadn't created "peter pan". So basically it's a drama-version of Peter Pan, since all the other details are rooted in details related to "peter pan".
THE AVIATOR - Glorifies old-school Hollywood, making it look appealing, drawing sentiments of "the good ol' days" and a bunch of other b.s.

Examples:
GOOD:
BATMAN BEGINS - A film about how crime effects people. How basic can you get? The details, every last one of them, is a visual wonder. It's not a ripoff, a tribute, or any other phony crap. It's real, but, be warned, it's also fake.
MYSTERIOUS SKIN - A tale of innocence lost. Another basic tale. Every detail is rooted in deep emotion(s), again, no tributes or phony crap. It's real, but, again, it's also fake.

~Jonathan

so this is Xmas (what have I done?)

YEAR ONE - CUT

Unto my nose comes the scents of autumn
Winter is approaching, slowly
The crisp air makes its acquaintance with my nostrils
I feel no complaint as I stroll down the street on my way to the convenience store to acquire a morning latte
I make my way back home and enter the house
The sun has made its way through the skies at last and I feel like celebration
Melodies from the previous autumn enter my heart and flood my head
It’s all about yesteryear, since nothing has changed
I’m living here and now, but I might as well be living in the past
I guess I’m doing both
Strange how nothing goes as it should
Or maybe there really is something I could do
Something to make this year special?
Well, I guess there’s still time
Sunset is many hours away
I suppose life is a series of coincidences
Much of the previous year was aided by people I met
Nobody I planned on meeting
Some of it was aided by tools and services
None of which I planned on discovering
I guess this year will be memorable in its own way
I have my family
My sister’s leaving forever, but she spent nine months of it still here
I moved in with my mother since she can’t afford to not live with my sister, who bought a house that she can’t afford to keep making payments on unless she stays here, which she can’t do, because her husband forbids it
So I live with my mother, so to speak
It’s all good though
I probably will never marry, as sad as it sounds
But I feel OK with that.
I knew for many years that I’m weird
So damn weird
So it is
It took a little bit of time for me to accept it
But I’ve done that much
And Thanksgiving and Christmas have yet to arrive
Oh, and did I mention 2009 is the year of the arrival of the first post-1994 car I’ve ever ridden in on a long term basis?
My so-called friend in high school [we only hung out during school hours, and only saw each other once or twice after graduation, which after reading a passage or two in A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks, strikes me as not much of a friendship, although if it were still the way it was then I might beg to differ…] let me ride around the block in his car. I don’t remember what it was but it wasn’t the ratty old cars my mom’s been driving in the last 20 years give or take a couple…
So…the melodies and sentiments within me are at least partially rooted in the past
Maybe next year I’ll be reminiscing on Cartel’s newest CD (CYCLES)
Maybe I’ll love it more then than I do now
It’ll be awesome
And nostalgic
Wow

October 31st, 2009

AGAIN!

(hoowh!)

1. Various - Ghostbusters Original Soundtrack Album
2. Various - Nightmare Revisited
3. The Academy Is… - Fast Times At Barrington High
4. American Football - s/t
5. Armor For Sleep - Dream To Make Believe
6. Armor For Sleep - What To Do When You Are Dead
7. Better Than Ezra - How Does Your Garden Grow?
8. Jackson Browne - The Next Voice You Hear: The Best Of
9. Cartel - Chroma
10. Cartel - Cycles
11. Cold - Year Of The Spider
12. Phil Collins - Both Sides
13. Counting Crows - Recovering The Satellites
14. Counting Crows - This Desert Life
15. Dashboard Confessional - The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most
16. Genesis - s/t
17. Genesis - Invisible Touch
18. Genesis - Live/The Way We Walk Volume One: The Shorts
19. Genesis - Live/The Way We Walk Volume Two: The Longs
20. The Goo Goo Dolls - A Boy Named Goo
21. The Graham Colton Band - Drive
22. Hidden In Plain View - Resolution
23. Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Vol. III
24. Avril Lavigne - Let Go
25. Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm
26. Oingo Boingo - Nothing To Fear
27. Oingo Boingo - Skeletons In The Closet: The Best Of
28. Rush - Power Windows
29. Saves The Day - Stay What You Are
30. Semisonic- Feeling Strangely Fine
31. Senses Fail - Let It Enfold You
32. Senses Fail - Life Is Not A Waiting Room
33. Simon & Garfunkle - Bookends
34. Paul Simon - Graceland
35. The Starting Line - Say It Like You Mean It
36. Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends
37. Third Eye Blind - Blue
38. Toto - Toto IV
39. Trespassers William - Different Stars
40. Trespassers William - Having
41. Virginwool- Open Heart Surgery
42. The Wallflowers - Bringing Down The Horse

gosh, FORTY TWO albums!!!!! ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((!))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
STEREO

paper chase & more...

I had The Academy Is...'s "Paper Chase" stuck in my heart a few minutes or so ago so I thought "should I buy the MP3 or the whole album?"...I decided I should listen to it on Imeem and then decide. I'm doing that now. Album! Except I'm out of $ until January...so...stay tuned!

1. Various - Nightmare Revisited
2. The Academy Is… - Fast Times At Barrington High
3. American Football - s/t
4. Armor For Sleep - Dream To Make Believe
5. Armor For Sleep - What To Do When You Are Dead
6. Jackson Browne - The Next Voice You Hear: The Best Of
7. Cartel - Chroma
8. Cartel - Cycles
9. Cold - Year Of The Spider
10. Phil Collins - Both Sides
11. Counting Crows - Recovering The Satellites
12. Counting Crows - This Desert Life
13. Dashboard Confessional - The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most
14. Genesis - s/t
15. Genesis - Invisible Touch
16. The Goo Goo Dolls - A Boy Named Goo
17. The Graham Colton Band - Drive
18. Hidden In Plain View - Resolution
19. Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Vol. III
20. Avril Lavigne - Let Go
21. Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm
22. Rush - Power Windows
23. Saves The Day - Stay What You Are
24. Semisonic - Feeling Strangely Fine
25. Senses Fail - Let It Enfold You
26. Senses Fail - Life Is Not A Waiting Room
27. Simon & Garfunkle - Bookends
28. Paul Simon - Graceland
29. The Starting Line - Say It Like You Mean It
30. Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends
31. Third Eye Blind - Blue
32. Toto - Toto IV
33. Trespassers William - Having
34. Virginwool- Open Heart Surgery
35. The Wallflowers - Bringing Down The Horse

[rolls eyes]

Yeah, music should be AMAZING, infused with life, infusing life unto said listener, and there are several CDs that have done that for me, but it all mostly depends on where I'm at in life and what mood I'm in. However stupid it is, nostalgia is probably the most commonly felt strong emotion I encounter. So I guess it's important, to me. So it'd be kinda dumb to throw away or discard music that has been pivotal at crucial points in my life...like the time I moved out from my mom's house in 2004, where Cold's YEAR OF THE SPIDER was a source of sympathy for that time. And the time I got my second cat, Harrison, and I felt sad that my First cat, Napoleon, wasn't getting the fulfillment I'd hoped he would because he was so angry at the situation. Aimee Mann's THE FORGOTTEN ARM was there for me then. And when I had recently graduated high school, Avril Lavigne's LET GO came out, and shortly before graduation her single "Complicated" was all over the radio. I've tried to remove any music that I have doubts about, music that I can't be sure of its emotional authenticity, such as Michael Jackson and The Grateful Dead etc., and have tried to remove any music that I've enjoyed purely for the "hype"/"cool" factor(s) and/or simply used it to pass the time away.

So here's the best I could think of;

1. Armor For Sleep - Dream To Make Believe
2. Armor For Sleep - What To Do When You Are Dead
3. Jackson Browne - The Next Voice You Hear: The Best Of
4. Cartel - Chroma
5. Cartel - Cycles
6. Cold - Year Of The Spider
7. Phil Collins - Both Sides
8. Counting Crows - This Desert Life
9. Dashboard Confessional - The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most
10. Genesis - s/t
11. Genesis - Invisible Touch
12. The Goo Goo Dolls - A Boy Named Goo
13. The Graham Colton Band - Drive
14. Hidden In Plain View - Resolution
15. Avril Lavigne - Let Go
16. Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm
17. Rush - Power Windows
18. Saves The Day - Stay What You Are
19. Semisonic- Feeling Strangely Fine
20. Senses Fail - Let It Enfold You
21. Simon & Garfunkle - Bookends
22. The Starting Line - Say It Like You Mean It
23. Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends
24. Third Eye Blind - Blue
25. Toto - Toto IV
26. Trespassers William - Having
27. Virginwool- Open Heart Surgery
28. The Wallflowers - Bringing Down The Horse