PROLOGUE: Happinness Is A Warm Beatle

Guinness anyone?

Music and me. My history, as seen (heard?) through the music I've loved throughout the years. This is the beginning.

I said I was going to start with my formative years, 13 years old or so, but I think we just need a bit of prologue first, to understand everything that follows:

I grew up in household where the Beatles seemed to be in everything. The air, the water, the food I ate. You name it, the Beatles were in it.

To say my parents love the Bealtes is true. They love the Beatles. But they're not obsessed or anything. They're not idiots. They don't have all the collectibles, just the music. Sure, we have the occasional Beatles coaster or magnet, and yes, we have pretty much all the DVDs and CDs (remastered mono box set status: still waiting), and I'm sure my mom can be moved to tears by them at certain moments, but that's as it should be. They love the music and definitely enjoy the history of the band; seeing the band play, talk, laugh, interact with each other; the trivia...Basically if a Beatle is involved, they're interested. Not blindly, not like a dumbassess. They just love the band because they make them happy. It's their favorite band, man, since the Beatles were around, since probably, I'd assume, the first time they heard their music.

So Beatles' music was always playing. There's a great video of me as a one year old just chillin' by a speaker with "Helter Skelter" blasting at full volume, my mom taping away as her son experiences hearing loss and, possibly, brain damage. It's fucking awesome. Best thing my mom ever did, but she was/is always doing things like that.

The Beatles are the touchstone. Any music I listen to and talk about is measured...not necessarily against them, but with them in mind as perfection. As what music should be. As what makes me happiest, just like my folks, becauase I am a second generation Beatle fan, born and bred with the Beatles since before I can remember.

Hello,

Mr. Lighter than air.

2000s: Music & Me

2000s: Music and Me
(what a fucking picture...taken December 2004 - 18 years old, so impressionable)

Music. It's been pretty good for the last ten years, during the 2000s, or the Naughties, and it was during this time that I really started to become interested in music. Finding it, listening to it, buying it, stealing it, paying for three songs on iTunes...My musical tastes were shaped during these years. I went from Dave Matthews Band all the way to Joanna Newsom (and sometimes back again!) during this time, and boy, what a ride!

There's a period in a life where music has the greatest effect on you. Those impressionable ages - I'd say 13 (Mazel tov!) to, oh, I don't know, 20, 21...basically until the end of college - when music really seeps inside of you, into your soul. It happened to my parents - and god knows how many other Baby Boomer types - with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, etc. I know my parent's interest, or should I say passion, for music is centered on these few years. They listen to a lot of stuff, but mostly they like what they liked when they were these ages. It's what they always return to, for enjoyment and comfort.

I know I'm just out of this age range, but I do feel out of it. For better or worse (better), my tastes and preferences for music were shaped during this past decade, 13-21 years old. But it wasn't really shaped by the music from the 2000s, though there are certainly albums and songs that have. I was toying around with the idea of doing the twenty best albums of the past ten years and it just wasn't fulfilling enough (hey, if pitchfork.com is doing something like this, I gotta do it!). I'll prob compile a top 20 just for the hell of it mad soon, but I kind of wanna spend a few posts talking about key musical moments for me that occurred during the 2000s, more or less that period of time I was talking about just before. It could be an album or song from any time period, as long as I discovered it or it affected me greatly in the 00s. I'll include other musical moments, too, such as concerts, jam sessions, a song that was playing at a party one night, a conversation with somebody, a mix...

So I'll talk about the music and what was going on in my life, how the music shaped certain times, all that kind of stuff. I may go chronologically, I may not (I think I may).

OK, I'll start shooting some stuff out, maybe later today, maybe tomorrow, who knows? Just hopefully not in the 2010s!

the fuhyive

uh, so, uh, here are some things that i've been, like, digging, uh...

1) The Forever War by Dexter Filkins - almost done with this incredibly gripping read about the Iraq war. This man is pretty brave. He's been in a lot of places that only soldiers and dead people have been. His writing is immediate and real, that is, it doesn't seem contrived or altered - the man writes about what happened, no changes made to make it more dramatic. This man has some great stories - and insights - about quite a war. I hope it does last forever - so he can write another book! (Just kidding, war is bad.)

2) Gmail. It's pretty good. Convenient. It gets me my mail. Very happy with this thing. Has everyone heard of it?

3) "Horrible People" and "Back On Topps" - two web series(es?). "HP" is a pardoy of a soap opera and it's fucking funny. My favorite kind of humor: so serious it's ridiculous. And it's also just plain ridiculous. A dude fills up a turkey baster with his own semen - what more need I say? And "BOT" is a surpisingly hilarious show starring the Sklar Brothers, you know those guys, you recognize them. They love sports, they were on Entourage, one wears glasses the other doesn't...Both great damned shows. I'd reccommend checking out the two links I've posted and watching these two first episodes and see how you feel.

4) Joe Lo Truglio - cousin to the BLT, the JLT has been on my mind since "Superbad". He's so damned funny in that movie that he doesn't need to be in anything else: "Hey - I'm a nice guy" "Welcome to the thunderdome! We're gonna rock out with our cocks out. No, just kidding. But we are gonna rock out." "Sounds like she fully wants it. And who's gonna give it to her, my man? You, that's who." "So you guys on MySpace or..." I could quote his lines near-perfectly all day and night and smile. But the reason he's on my mind right now is that he is awesome in "Horrible People". Classic JLT - with a beard. He's always been funny in the past, he will be in the future, but, if he never worked again, was never even in a fucking Extenz commercial (call him up, extenz!) for the rest of his life, I would be happy just thinking about him in Superbad. God bless, JLT.

5) The Americano - I had this cocktail recently and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I'd had Campari before - tasted Campari before - and it was pretty damned bitter, though that's what Campari is, it's a bitter, so what was I expecting? Just that, and I wasn't crazy about it. But after watching Bill Murray ask an intern to get him a Campari on the rocks in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou [Ed. Note. This movie would represent the 6 if this was called "the six"] I knew that it would hit the spot sometime in the very near future. However, Campari on the rocks itself wasn't cutting it, so I did some research and found that the Americano is more or less the standard Campari cocktail: Half Campari and half sweet vermouth, served on the rocks in Collins glass with a splash of club soda and an orange slice. It's a refreshing drink, different than other cocktails that have more hard A in it. And it's also not going to be everyone's cup of tea - it's a little funky, which is fine for me. I mean, recently I made a martini with pickle brine in it (so-so: I need better brine!). For me, though, the beauty of the Americano is the mix of bitter tastes (the Campari) and sweet tastes (the vermouth), with that splash of club really adding that extra crispness you so desire in a well-made cocktail. Personally I think that going half and half with the Campari and vermouth is a guideline - I think it tastes better when it skews slightly towards the bitter side. Then again, you may like it sweeter. Regardless, I think this is a pretty classy drink and, though it's getting colder and the Americano strikes me as a summer drink, I encourage you to try one, if you have the opportunity. I you come over my house, I can surely make you one!