Pixelated Scraps of Jazzmax

Going to pick mom up from the airport in about 20 minutes. Here’s the random iPod for the day:
Cold - Back Home
The Cardigans - Fine
Panda Bear - Comfy In Nautica
South - Meant To Mean
Manic Street Preachers - Send Away The Tigers

What’s your 5?

As I said in the blurb for this journal, I’m going to use this space to talk about personal projects.

Between 2004-2005 I wrote a screenplay for a movie, This Movie Sucks! It was a vampire movie. Not like Twilight, with wispy-haired and mostly innocent Abercrombie modeled vampires, but with vampires who lusted, drank, got high (from biting stoners - a favorite scene of mine) on a college campus and the ragtag team that tried to stop them, to mixed results. The main characters were based relatively loosely off my friends at the time - at least the ones who I thought wanted to be involved in the actual shooting of the movie.

I never really got over the characters. Four years later, I’ve expanded the story both backwards and forwards, and loosened most if not all of the connection between my characters and their real-life “counterparts”. I’ve also turned it into a graphic novel series, for which I have 13+ books pretty much laid out. Granted, there’s no definite artist yet, but the dialogue is finished for book 1 and almost completely for the first chapter of book 2. I don’t want to divulge too much into what happens, but I’m pretty happy with the new direction this project has taken. :)

5 iPod random songs for today:
Jump Little Children - 15 Stories
OK Go - It’s A Disaster
El Presidente - Keep On Walking
System of a Down - Mr. Jack
Socialburn - Down

Don’t be afraid to experiment a little. I don’t know of anyone who’s written a song with a Capo on the 7th fret, but I really like the way it sounds. Got a bit of a fast-folk thing going on with the song I’m writing now, with a little harmonic breakdown. No chorus yet, but the verse and the instrumental is coming along. Oh yeah, I guess some lyrics would be helpful too. Perhaps I’ll post a video as it comes along. Maybe one day the band thing will work. Maybe.

Here we go. Today’s 5 random iPod songs:
Barenaked Ladies - Falling For The First Time
The Hush Sound - My Apologies
Foo Fighters - Times Like These
Starsailor - Love Is Here
Stone Temple Pilots - Regeneration

Coldplay - Lovers In Japan (Osaka Sun Mix)
Adema - Immortal
Stereophonics - Getaway
Guster - Mona Lisa
Stone Sour - Inhale

What are your 5 songs for today?

Let’s face it, folks. Many of us have strong opinions. We have things we like and things we don’t like. I hate country music and can’t stand most pop punk, and emo is right out for me. Yet I will acknowledge that other people do like this music, and that it does not make them lesser people.

I used to be a music snob. A hardcore music snob. Not so much that I would turn my nose up at people for liking something that’s on the radio, but people who like pop music…well, I laughed. I used to torment and tease people for liking the Backstreet Boys.

Alright, look, I don’t like it, and I personally don’t feel that the Backstreet Boys or Britney Spears should have careers. But the keyword here is personally. I no longer subscribe to this wish of an ideal world where everyone listens to what I listen to. Everyone has different reasons for liking music, much as they have different reasons for liking movies, or books, or what have you. Also, for as much as people like to strut how obscure their tastes are, there’s a secret Rihanna or Kanye West or A-Ha fan inside them. People! This is nothing to be ashamed of. Within the course of 5 songs, I could listen to an obscure British band, the B-52’s, old school Bone Thugz and Harmony, Saliva, and Simon and Garfunkel. So? Does that make me any less or more awesome? No. Just like someone’s awesomeness should not be judged by their clothes, their car (or lack thereof), their hairstyle…music taste is something that should have a personal meaning, not be something to impress others or increase indie status. So here’s what I’m going to do. Shamelesly, every day I am going to randomly post 5 songs from my iPod, in addition to contributing to a music project in December. This is my way of coming out and saying “I am not ashamed of what I listen to.” I encourage others to do the same.

It starts today:

Golden State - Splinters Out
David Usher - Everyday Things
Monty Python - Lumberjack Song
Fiona Apple - Waltz (Better Than Fine)
They Might Be Giants - Number Three

What’s on your iPod?

Sometimes you wake up and you realize that something you felt strongly about may not mean so much to you. Then you wonder if this is something that is a sudden change, or something that has been boiling inside of you for a while and you’ve ignored or denied it.

Since the last year of high school - which would make this, I suppose, seven years - my favorite band has been Finger Eleven. They were my boys, and they helped me out through quite a bit. Their hit “One Thing” brought notice to my collages amongst my peers. The line “Laughing lovers can overcome their closest demons” from “Thousand Mile Wish” has been one of my mottos for quite some time. And when allegations of mainstream arrival beginning their downfall arose, I took up sword and shield to defend my Canadian musical soulmates. (In case you couldn’t tell, I have a taste for hyperbole.)

The sad fact is, Finger Eleven isn’t getting much play on my iPod or iTunes anymore. I don’t find myself singing their praises to the uninitiated, or even referring to those who don’t know F11 as “the uninitiated” anymore. My musical energy has drifted to a few targets - on the local scene, there’s the band Aversion, and then in the more professional sphere there lie Kaiser Chiefs and dredg. Since “The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion” came out, I’ve been indulging myself in daily doses of dredg, and Kaiser Chiefs’ “Off With Their Heads” always finds itself in my line of vision, pushing back the rush to click to “Them Vs You Vs Me” or “The Greyest Of Blue Skies” or even Finger Eleven’s self-titled.

I still love my boys in F11, don’t get me wrong, but they just don’t feel right for that top spot anymore.

So my question to tumblrs is, have you experienced something similar? Have you felt the tremor of your tastes shifting?