October 14, 2004

Music Snobs

As a high schooler, I hated music snobs, mostly because I was jealous of them. There were kids in my classes that were into Green Day during the height of early 90's glam rock. The ones with the Skinny Puppy and "Kerplunk" t-shirts always seemed to be above the fist pumping rock of Poison.  They would walk the halls, judging you and your U2 shirt that you paid $17 bucks for at the Jacksonville mall. They would have in depth conversations about the musical genius of the Breeders, Pixies, and Velocity Girl while we would talk about how Tori Amos' grinding of her piano bench was pretty hot.

A few years later, when grunge exploded they were wearing Mudhoney and Corrosion of Conformity shirts, digging into the almost unknown bands of the era to still feel superior. The continued to take the high ground, making references to how a lot of Kurt Cobain's work resembles the early work of Tom Petty (true story) and how Trent Reznor is just ripping off Killing Joke an on an on.

By college, they wear openly ripping Green Day in favor Folk Implosion, Dinosaur Jr., and Radiohead. Of course, by then I had become weary of them, ignoring their comments on my CD collection. I proudly displayed my Candlebox sticker on my station wagon and walked through the halls of my dorm humming "Self Esteem." Have I ever mentioned how college pretty much blew? Well, for you readers who are of college age, I encourage to check this out, and one-up those snobby SOB's.

"Come out, Neville!"

Since it's October and I totally dig horror movies, ghost stories, and
scaring the shit out of little kids, I started re-reading one of my favorite books of all time, I Am Legend. Written by Richard Matheson and first published back in 1954, this is probably the best vampire story ever written. Period. I'll punch Anne Rice in the face if she tries to say otherwise. The aforementioned Neville is the last man on Earth, spending his nights holed up in his house and spending his days trying to vanquish the vampire menace.  At only 160 or so pages, you could pretty much read it in a day or two, so that is a plus. My favorite part of the story is the ending, probably one of the slickest plot twists I have ever read.

Speaking of vampire stories, I happened to be in Kmart earlier today during my lunch break picking up some stuff when I happened to notice a copy of the Near Dark DVD on an isle end cap. It was only $6.99. If you like gritty, slightly off the norm horror movies, this one is for you. I almost skipped the rest of the workday to watch it.

American History Lesson of the Day

I can't get enough of this history book I have been reading, The American Century. It's full of totally amazing stuff. Anyway, I found out that the Dust Bowl of the 1930's was caused largely in part to the growth of farmers across the Midwest of the U.S. in the 1920's. They predominately grew wheat, which was unable to hold up to the wind gusts coming from the North. So, the wind was literally lifting up all this topsoil and blowing it all over the country. It was found out that the native grass was much better deterrent to wind erosion. Over the six-year period, almost nine million acres of farmland was turned back to nature.

A Few Quick Things

I'm still making money playing poker. So much so, that I'm writing a book about it called "How to Make Money While Screaming at Your Computer for Two Hours a Day." It's sure to be a best seller.

I'm going to see the Pixies tomorrow night in Atlanta with my girlfriend and some other folks. All the credit goes to her for jumping on the tickets when they first went on sale in March. The concert sold out in a little over a day. Hopefully, Kim Deal and Frank Black will get into some tiff onstage. That would be totally sweet.

Friday night I'm participating in a charity bowling tournament. I plan on taking first place (two plane tickets) with my 150 career average and good looks. Vegas here I come! No, really I'm just doing it for the kids...

Finally, a bunch of us are going to make the trip up to Helen this weekend to get totally trashed on six-dollar 40oz beers while listening to Bavarian music for October fest. I'll be sure to bring back some pictures of me getting progressively drunk and unruly.

Until next week, you can always email me at jacsv76@hotmail.com or leave a nifty little comment for me at the bottom of the page. Take care.

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