So, really quickly, the ground rules. These aren’t about artists, or albums, or even songs, but rather, moments: that piece of a song that draws you into it; that piece of a song that you wait to happen again; that piece of a song that is running in your head when you can’t sleep; that piece of a song that you find yourself humming at inopportune times.
That piece of a song that you can’t live without.
This is the eleventh in a series: The first one had 25; the second one had 24; the third one had 23; the fourth one had 22; the fifth one had 21; the sixth had 20; the seventh had 19; the the eighth had 18; the the ninth had 17 and the tenth had 16.
You should go back and read the other ones. I’ll wait.
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OK, gonna try something here: a quick weekly list of five awesome things going on in the media, technology, pop culture, politics, sports, whatever happens to strike my fancy.
No real rules on this, except that whatever I put here has to be current, and it has to be something that I’m really liking right this second.
FIVE AWESOME THINGS – AUGUST 2, 2010
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Three years ago, I was really excited. Though the magic of serendipity, I had purchased an original iPhone while driving from L.A. to Seattle, and I was just beginning to discover the seemingly limitless possibilities of having a web-connected personal computer in my pocket.
Sure, there were problems here and there, but, at first, the iPhone was new, it was transformative, and most of all, it was a helluva lot of fun to own. Apple had done amazing stuff in the past, but this felt like the pinnacle of their work. The iPhone combined everything great about Apple into a single beautiful device.
Fast-forward three years, and all that joy is gone. Kaput. My iPhone 3G is used as an iPod at work, to check traffic while driving, and (occasionally) make phone calls. It’s gone from being a fun device to something that is kind of a drag to own. And I blame Apple.
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
On Twitter, there is a hashtag for complaints like this: #21stcenturyproblems, which adds a level of irony to the tweet by acknowledging that a few years ago, noone could have complained about this, and — by the way — most people probably don’t give a shit in the first place. Fair enough, and yet because the iPhone permanently established the smart phone as a must-have device, it’s weird that we’ve gotten to this point in such a short period of time.
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To me, the 1970s is the canon. Because it’s the decade where I became a music lover as a way of defining who I was, but — until the very end — was mostly about catching up with the past, it feels different from the 1960s (ancient Boomer history) or the 1980s (when I was fully immersed).
So unlike my previous lists for the 1980s, 1990s and (especially) the 2000s, maybe I hold some of this music in awe, because it already existed and was just sitting out there for me to discover. And discover I did. When I was 14-15, a central focus of my life was riding my bike to Tower Records and spending $15 on two records — Love Gun and Foghat Live; Rocket to Russia and Marquee Moon; Who’s next and Aqualung — and listening to those records over and over and over and over. Oh, and over.
Good ones, bad ones, it didn’t matter. It was all about figuring out what I liked, and by extension, who I was. Or maybe the other way around. It was sitting in my room and determining that I loved Quadrophenia but not Tales From Topographic Oceans or that I loved Close to the Edge but not Who Are You.
Then, in 1978 (a year too late) (but still too early for Fresno): punk rock. I’d been resisting — it just seemed like fashion-oriented noise nonsense — but spurred on by that first Cars album and Creem magazine, I took the plunge. Ramones. Television. The Jam. The Clash. Talking Heads. The Sex Pistols. And a host of lesser new wave and power pop and whathaveyou bands. The world was changing, I was on the ground floor, and it was thrilling.
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Dear ABC,
At this point, I don’t need to tell you that we’re barreling down towards the final hours of LOST. Are you sad, ABC? Because I sure am. I’ve watched all of the episodes since the beginning, both from the original broadcasts and on DVD. I’ve spent countless hours thinking, discussing, and arguing about your show.
(Gods know that I’ve written loads and loads of blog posts about it: so many that some guy recently unsubscribed from our mailing list, giving the reason of “too much LOST.” Ha! As if!)
And it’s all going to be over in less than two weeks.
What are you going to do, ABC, when LOST is over and all you have is Flash Forward and V.
I can tell you what I’m going to do: not watch those shows. Sorry, ABC, that’s just the way it is. On the other hand, I might reconsider if you do a small favor for me and the rest of the West Coast LOST fans: broadcast the finale “live” on the West Coast. 6:00pm PDT on Sunday, May 23, 2010. Can you do that for us, ABC? Can you? Because it would be the best thing ever!
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