Jimi Hendrix once said, "Music is my religion." I can respect that.
Whether the preferred genre is metal or Mozart, good music is an instrument that elevates the spirit. It takes listeners on a journey that often reveals something true about being alive.
For music of any genre to catch my attention, it has to engage my senses, in lyric and melody, and it has to be about love. Not the sappy Romantic Love that we think of when people mention the L-word, rather the underlying metaphor has to hearken back to a passion for something.
The germ or spark that gave birth to a song that I enjoy has to have come from somewhere inside the artist's psyche that I can identify with, and since every single strong reaction I have ever had to anything in this life has to do with what I love and hold dear—I am convinced that even anger and angst are generated by love—the music I choose must allow me to identify the humanity (and inhumanity) in myself.
As a living, breathing, thinking, feeling, loving, alert human being, I must connect with the message; I have to believe that the artist has tapped into my own experience and is conveying at least one aspect of it to the world.
Do that and you win my loyalty. Fail that and you fail a bigger test, because it is and it is not All About Me. I am every fan, and I am none.
Also, and of equal importance, music has to be fun, which is why I maintain a Myspace presence. What's your excuse?
I'd like to meet:
Friends: I would like to meet genuinely nice people, and not people who act nice but underneath are all venom. Further, I am not bigoted. If you say you're not a bigot, prove it in your words and actions. That's what I do, and that is what I expect my friends to live up to. Cool people, to me, are the salt of the earth no matter what they look like. I want friends who care about me for who I am inside out. And I have found a few of them in this life, not many.Relationships: I'm not interested right now because I need to get my head screwed on straight and remember who I am and where I came from, but when the day comes, I WANT A NICE GUY. There...I said it. I don't want a guy who portrays himself as nice but when the layers of the proverbial onion peal away, is really an ass. I want someone who will treat me with respect and expect to be treated with respect in return. I want passion, but I want friendship too. Deadbeats need not apply.
Music:
"Am I Listening?"
is now archived for your reading amusement.
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Week 1
Books:
You should read:
A Prayer for Owen Meany,
by John IrvingBeloved,
by Toni MorrisonEast of Eden,
by John SteinbeckThe Ballad of the Sad Cafe,
by Carson McCullersThe Great Gatsby,
by F. Scott FitzgeraldThe Old Man and the Sea,
by Ernest Hemingway
Heroes:
My son is my hero. He is an example of those of us who prevail despite incredible odds. I have seen what he has endured in his life and I know that I COULD NOT go through the things that he has been forced to endure. Not many of us could. He is and always be my hero.
