Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Lisa Dames 'No One Like Me'


Since I got my Zune MP3 player back from the fine folks at Microsoft, I’ve found myself slipping into an old pattern…

When I was a kid and on through my twenties, I would read quite a bit. I have always loved reading. I would read cereal boxes during breakfast. I would read the packaging of other quick-fix food containers during the rest of the day. And like that guy in the film Kingpin… I would read the shampoo bottles, toothpaste tubes, and other bathroom items while I was heeding the call from nature that none of us can put on hold.

I read just about every Stephen King book that was put out until he lost me with ‘It’. Ever since, I’ve only been wading the King waters instead of diving in.

I’ve even been known to take paperback books with me to concerts and theaters… If I went alone.

But somewhere along the way, I stopped reading all the time. It was mainly because I lacked the time to read. And the biggest reason why I stopped reading at home was because I no longer had music that was easily accessible. The stereo was always too far away to use the headphones. My preferred method.

Now that I’ve got that Zune player… I’m reading again. And I’m trying to make more time to read. I find it very relaxing to listen to some tunes while reading a damn fine book.

At first, I wasn’t impressed with the music on my Zune player. It had the sound quality of a normal bias tape. I didn’t notice that much stereo separation and I just don’t care for those “ear buds” type of headphones. It feels slightly unnatural… Like gravel up my nose. I thought maybe that was the price I was paying for thousands of tunes that I could hold in one hand. So I tried plugging a decent set of headphones into it and was surprised how much better the sound quality was. It was on, baby!

I may just take to this digital revolution after all… And I sure as sh*t wouldn’t have a problem ripping off Lars Ulrich by illegally downloading Metallica tunes. Everyone else… I’ll gladly pay for the music you make if I don’t get a promotional copy, that is. Lars gets under my skin with his high and mighty whining… His whining that came from 4 mansions fully stocked with expensive cars and hot/cold running ranch dressing. Whatta douche tube!

I’ve been reading Chuck Klosterman’s ‘Fargo Rock City’ while listening to the tunes on my Zune. I borrowed the book from Danny Fonorow months ago and I’m just now getting to it.



It’s funny as hell! And growing up listening to the type of music Klosterman has lived with and written about… I can read parts of my own life in most of the chapters. Including the part about keyboards in hard rock!

For the record, I was adamantly, ADAMANTLY against keyboards in hard rock. It was all right every once in a while, but if a band had a full time member on keys… I treated them like a leper colony. Much distance was kept between their music and my ears… Bon Jovi, Europe, and Autograph were kept out of my collection. And besides… In my opinion, they sucked!

I’m digging this writer’s work so much, I’m thinking about checking out his other books.

If you’re a metalhead (I’ve never liked the term “heavy metal”- I prefer using the term “hard rock”) from the 80’s, you should check out this book.

Feel free to name your favorite or dumbest hard rock band with the comments feature.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous2:17 PM

    try Klosterman's essay collection: IV

    good stuff. he is a great writer, with a valid opinion.in my opinion.


    clay

    ReplyDelete