Today was a historic day in the United States, as anyone with a TV, web browser, Facebook feed, or ears is aware. I refer, of course to the decision of the Supreme Court to make same sex marriage legal in all 50 states. This really is a momentous occasion, and I know that many of my friends, both gay and straight, are in a very celebratory mood today.
I'm happy, but at the same time I know that the battle is far from over. This is by no means the end of the so-called "culture wars." While liberals and LGBT-friendly conservatives applaud the decision, the opponents have made their feelings very clear.
Justice Scalia wrote a scathing dissenting opinion which accuses the 5 justices that voted in favor of marriage equality of threatening democracy. Naturally, Republican presidential candidates like Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum (not two of my favorite human beings) also expressed alarm and disappointment.
Besides those Eeyores, my Facebook feed was full of joy and plenty of rainbow colors. I do hope that the animosity toward gays and gay marriage on the conservative side goes away sooner rather than later. I hope that conservative politicians are not successful in stoking the fires of resentment (though I am sure Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are shoveling coal as we speak).
As for myself, I suppose this means that marriage is now on the table again (well, living in California it's been back on the table for a while now). When I came out 3 years ago in my late twenties, I was coming off of a lengthy period of time (years) during which I was on the fence about whether to embrace my attraction to men and come out as gay. One fear that kept me closeted for so long was the possibility of closing the door on ever being able to get married, to be able to wed my partner. So the fact that marriage is actually a legitimate possibility is comforting.
Maybe if I meet the right guy and get married some day, by that time opinions will have softened even more and same sex marriage will truly be viewed by the majority of people as just as valid as any other marriage. Humanity has so many countless challenges to face, it's such a tragedy that so much time, effort, and energy has been wasted on bickering over people's right to build a life with the person they love.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
My love of music
As is probably apparent from my song lyrics-inspired blog title, I am a big fan of music. It has been a love of mine ever since I was a little kid.
One of my mom's favorite embarrassing stories about me illustrates this. One Easter, when I was very little, my three cousins were visiting from Northern California. We were doing one of my favorite Easter activities: an egg hunt (seriously, I used to beg my parents to re-hide the eggs after I had found them). My older cousin and I were scouring the front yard for the colorful little treasures. Our eyes simultaneously fell upon an egg stuck within the bushy branches of a rather tall shrub. Before I could race my cousin for the prize, however, the little stuffed bunny I was carrying began to play its tune. For a moment, I was immobilized by indecision. The egg beckoned, and if I delayed my cousin would claim it! And yet . . . the music played on. My decision was made. I dropped the basket and immediately started dancing.
A childhood musical obsession was the soundtrack to the movie Dirty Dancing. To this day, I still haven't seen the film. But I can still along to most of the songs. I remember putting on a show for my parents, me standing on the bricks in front of the fireplace, belting out "Hungry Eyes." I wouldn't discover rock music for another 10 years or so, but the song "Overload" definitely foreshadowed my future love of rock, as that one was one of my favorites.
My childhood was dominated by Disney soundtracks. I loved Disney songs, and I would memorize all of the words. My first exposure to popular music, as I remember it, was through Radio Disney. I later ventured onto KIIS FM, the local pop music station, once I realized I knew little about popular artists. It's strange to think about now, but the early development of my musical tastes was greatly motivated by the desire to fit in, rather than an inherent curiosity about music. I'd always loved music, yet for some reason I didn't do much to expand my musical horizons until I started feeling left out. Still, I avoided rock music, having some bizarre feeling that it was "bad." I swear I didn't grow up in a Puritan household!
One of the bands I credit with changing my opinion about rock music is Weezer. The music video for their song "Buddy Holly" was included with Windows 95 on my family's new computer. I grew a liking for the song, and was later surprised to hear it played on KROQ while my friend's mom was driving me home from school. Why, KROQ didn't play devil music after all!
Once the rock music floodgates were open in high school, I was sold. I devoured everything they played. Not long before, I had purchased my very first album, 14:59 by Sugar Ray. But after I discovered KROQ I began exclusively collecting albums by bands I heard on there. My two best friends, who were brothers, influenced my taste a bit as well. Through them I discovered The Offspring, who would be the first band I saw in concert (at Universal Amphitheater, which later became Gibson Amphitheater, which is now closed to make way for Harry Potter World . . . there is no justice in the world). I developed a taste for 90s grunge bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, and especially Soundgarden. As for more contemporary bands, my absolute favorite was Incubus. More than a decade later, I still follow them closely.
In college I began to try to expand my tastes beyond what was heard on the radio. I was beginning to grow tired of KROQ playing the same music over and over. While I still liked those bands, I wanted to recreate the excitement of discovery that I had felt when all of rock music was new. During this phase I discovered bands that would go on to become some of my favorites, including Injected, Cave In, and Failure. My snobbish preference for "heavy" music caused me to make some purchases that were less than stellar, but in retrospect my adventurousness of this time led me to some real unsung gems.
Eventually, through the influence of friends, I became a fan of classic rock as well. Since I didn't really want to spend the money on decades worth of albums from each major classic rock band, I would usually stick to greatest hits collections. This opened my eyes and ears to lots of new (to me) music, including bands I had at least some familiarity with, such as The Beatles.
Years later, rock is still my favorite genre. However, I have dropped the snobbish preference for "heavy" music and have been venturing out into other subgenres of rock and other musical genres entirely. Over the last year I've been working through the list of albums from the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It's a chronologically ordered list, and although it seems to have a bit of a UK-centered bias it is still a fascinating journey. I can't listen to each album too in depth since I have them on in the background when I'm doing work, but it's at least giving me an idea of the different sounds that have dominated popular music since the 1950s. I'm currently in the year 1976, which marked the beginning of punk rock with the debut album of The Ramones.
There we have it, an overview of my musical development! I'll definitely be talking a lot about music on this blog, whether it be album reviews or just general musical musings.
One of my mom's favorite embarrassing stories about me illustrates this. One Easter, when I was very little, my three cousins were visiting from Northern California. We were doing one of my favorite Easter activities: an egg hunt (seriously, I used to beg my parents to re-hide the eggs after I had found them). My older cousin and I were scouring the front yard for the colorful little treasures. Our eyes simultaneously fell upon an egg stuck within the bushy branches of a rather tall shrub. Before I could race my cousin for the prize, however, the little stuffed bunny I was carrying began to play its tune. For a moment, I was immobilized by indecision. The egg beckoned, and if I delayed my cousin would claim it! And yet . . . the music played on. My decision was made. I dropped the basket and immediately started dancing.
A childhood musical obsession was the soundtrack to the movie Dirty Dancing. To this day, I still haven't seen the film. But I can still along to most of the songs. I remember putting on a show for my parents, me standing on the bricks in front of the fireplace, belting out "Hungry Eyes." I wouldn't discover rock music for another 10 years or so, but the song "Overload" definitely foreshadowed my future love of rock, as that one was one of my favorites.
My childhood was dominated by Disney soundtracks. I loved Disney songs, and I would memorize all of the words. My first exposure to popular music, as I remember it, was through Radio Disney. I later ventured onto KIIS FM, the local pop music station, once I realized I knew little about popular artists. It's strange to think about now, but the early development of my musical tastes was greatly motivated by the desire to fit in, rather than an inherent curiosity about music. I'd always loved music, yet for some reason I didn't do much to expand my musical horizons until I started feeling left out. Still, I avoided rock music, having some bizarre feeling that it was "bad." I swear I didn't grow up in a Puritan household!
One of the bands I credit with changing my opinion about rock music is Weezer. The music video for their song "Buddy Holly" was included with Windows 95 on my family's new computer. I grew a liking for the song, and was later surprised to hear it played on KROQ while my friend's mom was driving me home from school. Why, KROQ didn't play devil music after all!
Once the rock music floodgates were open in high school, I was sold. I devoured everything they played. Not long before, I had purchased my very first album, 14:59 by Sugar Ray. But after I discovered KROQ I began exclusively collecting albums by bands I heard on there. My two best friends, who were brothers, influenced my taste a bit as well. Through them I discovered The Offspring, who would be the first band I saw in concert (at Universal Amphitheater, which later became Gibson Amphitheater, which is now closed to make way for Harry Potter World . . . there is no justice in the world). I developed a taste for 90s grunge bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, and especially Soundgarden. As for more contemporary bands, my absolute favorite was Incubus. More than a decade later, I still follow them closely.
In college I began to try to expand my tastes beyond what was heard on the radio. I was beginning to grow tired of KROQ playing the same music over and over. While I still liked those bands, I wanted to recreate the excitement of discovery that I had felt when all of rock music was new. During this phase I discovered bands that would go on to become some of my favorites, including Injected, Cave In, and Failure. My snobbish preference for "heavy" music caused me to make some purchases that were less than stellar, but in retrospect my adventurousness of this time led me to some real unsung gems.
Eventually, through the influence of friends, I became a fan of classic rock as well. Since I didn't really want to spend the money on decades worth of albums from each major classic rock band, I would usually stick to greatest hits collections. This opened my eyes and ears to lots of new (to me) music, including bands I had at least some familiarity with, such as The Beatles.
Years later, rock is still my favorite genre. However, I have dropped the snobbish preference for "heavy" music and have been venturing out into other subgenres of rock and other musical genres entirely. Over the last year I've been working through the list of albums from the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It's a chronologically ordered list, and although it seems to have a bit of a UK-centered bias it is still a fascinating journey. I can't listen to each album too in depth since I have them on in the background when I'm doing work, but it's at least giving me an idea of the different sounds that have dominated popular music since the 1950s. I'm currently in the year 1976, which marked the beginning of punk rock with the debut album of The Ramones.
There we have it, an overview of my musical development! I'll definitely be talking a lot about music on this blog, whether it be album reviews or just general musical musings.
Monday, June 22, 2015
An introduction
I like to write.
I don't write enough.
I am making an effort to write more.
Hence this blog!
I'm not new to blogging. For years I've kept an anonymous blog for mostly therapeutic reasons. But I wanted to create a new blog that is a bit more open ended. A place where I can write about whatever I want, whatever interests me. Through this blog I hope to write about various topics, from current events to music to movies to work to travel to events in my life. Maybe I'll even get creative, who knows? Of course, since it's less anonymous (I may actually share the link with people I know), I might not be quite as candid about some of the more personal aspects of my life. But you never know what I'll warm up to.
For this first entry, a bit of background. At this point I don't know who I'll share my blog with or whether it will ever even have an audience, but even if this is just a story for my own eyes I still have to introduce the main character! My name is Brian. I live in Southern California. I am in my early thirties, which at this point still feels like an extension of my twenties. I am a total over-thinker, and writing has long helped me sort through the thoughts that are always bombarding me. My other forms of release are listening to music, traveling, watching movies, playing video games, playing guitar, reading, and performing improvisational comedy. I have long had a passion/interest for creativity, it has just been under-utilized at times in the past. I would like to change that.
The name of this blog comes from a song by Soundgarden. Considered one of the big four bands of the Seattle grunge scene of the early 1990's (the other three being Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and of course Nirvana), they are also one of my favorite bands of all time. Chris Cornell's voice is one of my favorite things, and he should sing every song. Okay, maybe not every song, but he's hands down my favorite rock vocalist. The lesser known song "Mind Riot" off of Soundgarden's album Badmotorfinger is one of my favorites. It's a beautiful song, and while I'm not sure exactly what the rather poetic sounding lyrics are about, the term "mind riot" always spoke to me for some reason. Perhaps it's because, as an over-thinker, I often feel like there's a riot going on in my mind.
So hopefully this blog will serve to be a little riot control.
I don't write enough.
I am making an effort to write more.
Hence this blog!
I'm not new to blogging. For years I've kept an anonymous blog for mostly therapeutic reasons. But I wanted to create a new blog that is a bit more open ended. A place where I can write about whatever I want, whatever interests me. Through this blog I hope to write about various topics, from current events to music to movies to work to travel to events in my life. Maybe I'll even get creative, who knows? Of course, since it's less anonymous (I may actually share the link with people I know), I might not be quite as candid about some of the more personal aspects of my life. But you never know what I'll warm up to.
For this first entry, a bit of background. At this point I don't know who I'll share my blog with or whether it will ever even have an audience, but even if this is just a story for my own eyes I still have to introduce the main character! My name is Brian. I live in Southern California. I am in my early thirties, which at this point still feels like an extension of my twenties. I am a total over-thinker, and writing has long helped me sort through the thoughts that are always bombarding me. My other forms of release are listening to music, traveling, watching movies, playing video games, playing guitar, reading, and performing improvisational comedy. I have long had a passion/interest for creativity, it has just been under-utilized at times in the past. I would like to change that.
The name of this blog comes from a song by Soundgarden. Considered one of the big four bands of the Seattle grunge scene of the early 1990's (the other three being Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and of course Nirvana), they are also one of my favorite bands of all time. Chris Cornell's voice is one of my favorite things, and he should sing every song. Okay, maybe not every song, but he's hands down my favorite rock vocalist. The lesser known song "Mind Riot" off of Soundgarden's album Badmotorfinger is one of my favorites. It's a beautiful song, and while I'm not sure exactly what the rather poetic sounding lyrics are about, the term "mind riot" always spoke to me for some reason. Perhaps it's because, as an over-thinker, I often feel like there's a riot going on in my mind.
So hopefully this blog will serve to be a little riot control.
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