5.07.2003

A note about Idaho
I love living in Idaho. I dare say that it is the best thing I could have done for my life, however, there are some things I seriously miss about Jersey. Now for the record, I lived in Jersey summer of '96, summer of '97 and May '98 through February '99, which I know doesn't seem like much, but when you are 20 years old, go to school in upstate NY and DON'T go back to Wisconsin for summer break, you have a tendency to call the east coast home. The fact was, Jersey was a dangerous place for me at 20 years old... hell, Kansas could have been a dangerous at 20 years old for me. I was far from ready to grow up and being that close to NYC was too much for me to take. I loved every minute I spent out east, and if I was still living there, I would probably be in worse shape than I am now. I don't necessarily think Idaho is the reason I've grown up a little, in fact, I have picked up some even worse habbits since moving here (hell, Nevada is only 50 miles away) but, my brain is too much in hyperdrive to handle a place like NY. There was too much to do, see, taste, hear and smell. Because Idaho is so painfully slow and, well let's face it, stupid, I feel less stress to "perform" here. The only competition is my own. The pace is whatever I want. And the good habbits I have, like skiing and mountain biking are supported much more out here than in Jersey. I have lived here over 4 years now. Amazing when I think about it; I am an Idahoan. How disgusting is that?

5.04.2003

F@#K! and Miles Davis
I've been in a funk lately because of some late inning choking I did last weekend. What actually happened doesn't matter, and if you don't know already, then I'm probably saving you from personal tales of failure that you have heard so many times before. What does matter is that I just can't let go, nothing slides off of me, instead, I absorb it. I may seem to brush it off, but it will eat away inside of me and manifest itself in random fits of tourette like outbursts. I'm serious here, I'll be driving down the street, jamming to music, see something that reminds me of past folley and just shout "FUCK!". This is probably a bi-product of my passive-aggressive personality and I'd seek help for it if I didn't have a list of more 15 more inadequicies that are more deserving of intense analysis.

To try and leave things with a lighter note, I'm going to brainstorm my "deserted island" albums. This excercise is futile, especially when you own 500 CDs, but it's good for taking the mind off taking a third strike for the last out of the game. The place this thought usually begins and ends with Miles Davis. If I could say, "Miles Davis and John Coltrane- The Complete Columbia Recordings", a 6 disk set, I would be set, but that's not exactly the spirit of the argument. So I'm going to say that no matter how few albums I'm allowed, at least two will be Miles Davis. The final albums up for the final cut are Kind of Blue, Miles Ahead, Round' Midnight, Sketches of Spain, Seven Steps to Heaven and Miles Smiles. The problem here is Kind of Blue and Round' Midnight are such short albums, that picking one seems a waste. But Kind of Blue was the most important album in Jazz PERIOD but 'Round About Midnight has more songs on it I like. However, neither of these have my favorite song, On Green Dolphin Street, yet the album that song on isn't close to these albums. Then I square Miles Ahead against Sketches of Spain. Both have rich full sound that complement Miles at his best, and My Ship is about the best song I can think of to play for a lady, but THE WHOLE ALBUM of Sketches of Spain is great for the ladies and is the first album I can remember actually listeningto. So Sketches makes the island and we are still undecided on 'Round and Kind. Finally I have Seven Steps and Smiles. This one is easy, Steps. Smiles is a better album in terms of "where Miles and his Shorter, Hancock, Williams, Carter" quintet was going, but I like Seven Steps better even though the lineup on Smiles is better. Now, Seven Steps is a good, solid, long album, meaning you can get some value from it, BUT I'm going with my selection from 'Round and Kind of Blue which is -- Kind of Blue. Wasn't sure on this, but when I realized Ah-leu-cha and Tadd's Delight are two songs I can live without, I chose Kind of Blue, an album I technically don't own becasue I have the songs on the afore mentioned box set. So there you go, Sketches of Spain and Kind of Blue are on the island. Now, which Rush albums make it?