The Life and Times of Abe Froman

New Podcast!
Hey my peeps.. I thought I would cruise on over here to let anyone who still reads this know that I have a new cinema-related podcast with L-Mo.. It's on Odeo but will be on iTunes and Podcast Alley soon... cruise on over and leave us some love.

http://www.odeo.com/show/453797/view

Moving On Up!
Unfortunately... the life and times.. have moved... this is the new website.. you won't see any new entires here at LiveJournal... we've broken up.. here's the new site...

http://patdonohue.blogspot.com

I can only blame myself, you can only blame me...
Two in one night, I know. I'm just in one of those moods tonight I guess. I think that I don't share a value system with my peers. I just don't.. and it's hard for me because sometimes when I hang out people my age it's easy to me to feel like a square. And that's my choice and I wouldn't change it for anything. That's a choice that I've made for myself and I don't hold anyone else to that standard. That being said, I would like to think that whoever it is that I'm supposed to be with or even my friends would have something closely resembling that same ideal... I dont know. Maybe I am a square..

I feel like in the interest of full disclosure and since I pretty much have nothing left to lose, I might as well lay out my embarassing and otherwise weird personality quirks and if some girl can love me in spite of them then... great..

-I don't drink, never smoked, never done a drug in my life....still reading? Rad.

-The Phildelphia Eagles have made me cry.... on more than one occasion.

-The first time I listened to "Fix You", I cried.. man why are all my embarassing quirks about me being a girl and crying all the time?

-I sometimes laugh at my own jokes, even when no one else is laughing.

-I don't sleep under the covers.

-I don't particularly enjoy being naked.

-When a girl puts on one of my old t shirts, I think it's more beautiful than just about anything... but I'll never underestimate the power that a nice dress can make a girl look beautiful

-I like to..... cuddle... ok.. there I said it.

-I think some girls have this beautiful glow about them in the morning that is just about more beautiful than anything I can fathom.

-I'm a magazine addict.. don't believe.. look at the floor beside my bed.

-I sleep with the tv on.

-I'm afraid of the dark (not as much as I used to be)

-I have to hold a football, while watching football

I think that's enough for now. I know this list will be amended when people bring things to my attention but I think that's enough for now...

Song that was playing when I finished this: How You See The World - Coldplay

Current Music: Swallowed In The Sea // X&Y by Coldplay

I can't drive straight.. counting your fake frowns...
I think there are certain bands that define generations. I mean for the 60s there were bands like The Beatles and The Stones and Jefferson Airplane and Hendrix and then the seventies had Zeppelin and the 80s obviously had U2 and The Police, the 90s had R.E.M. and I feel like I'm not sure yet who that band is going to be for my generation. My instincts and recently history would tell me that it's going to be Coldplay. Which I'm pretty ok with. I think that music fans have this tendency, or at least pretentious music fans (a club that to which I am admittedly a member) as soon as something becomes big, commercially or otherwise, to just sort of let go of it. It stops being special. Whatever the hell that means. And what I realized recently is that that has nothing to do with the music and has everything to do with the person listening to it. And I don't think that's necessarily fair to the people making the music. I think that any real fan of any band can be happy for them when they make it because every band is started in the hopes that they will, at some point reach some certain strata of stardom. And to resent them for that.. seems kind of caddy. And sometimes bands really do sell out.. but sometimes it's the perception of their music that changes.

There are songs that you listen to after a tragedy and that take on a new sort of poignance. That song for me recently is R.E.M.'s "Imitation of Life". There's those lines "This sugarcane/This lemonade/This hurricane/I'm not afraid..." I don't know I was listening to that song and I got to that line and I thought about all of the horrible things I'd seen and it made me kind of glass over... and that is the power of music. Music kinds of brings things into stark relief sometime better than any other medium. I love films and I'm beginning to love art but music is what makes me go... as trite as that sounds.

I thought about some of the things in my life that I'd like to have happen and you can add to that list, some beautiful girl doing a striptease to R.E.M.'s Crush with Eyeliner. It's such a sexy song.. and yeah...

I think I have a really fine eye to detail, especially when it comes to women. There are things that women do that I'm not sure most guys would notice that absolutely floor me...When a girl tucks her hair behind her ears, for some reason.. it just knocks me on my ass. I've never been able to explain it. When you're lying next to a girl and she kind of nuzzles you as she falls back asleep.. it's like, for that moment, all of the bullshit that you think is important.. all of your beef with the world and with god and your parents and ex girlfriends and friends.. all of that shit.. for that moment.. is meaningless. It's those kinds of moments that I miss now, having not been in a real relationship for a year now. It's the moments where she looks at you and you get those nervous butterflies in your stomach, like you did the first time you moved in for that first kiss. If you don't feel this when you look at the girl you're with.. do yourself and her a favor.. and break up with her.. because something's not right....

Song that was playing when I finished this: In My Place (acoustic on KROQ) - Coldplay

Current Music: Fake Frowns // Something About Airplanes by Death Cab for Cutie

I don't like to see so much pain..
I feel like I'd be remiss not to comment on the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, which could be one of the greatest natural disaster in the history of our country. The images coming from the Gulf Coast area are unbelievable and I'm not one of these people that thinks that it's hard to believe that these images are coming from our country. I think that our hearts should extend to anyone to whom these kinds of things have happened to, regardless of whether they're from New Orleans or Sri Lanka. It's imperative that you give anything that you can.. whether its $5 or $5,000... it sounds trite but every little bit does help. This is a relief effort that is probably going to take years and it's overwhelming because it's difficult to know where to start but please give as much as you can as often as you can, so please.. go to www.redcross.org and make a donation. What I'm really disappointed in right now is the finger pointing that continues to go on in the political arena. This horrible tragedy reaffirms my believe that politicians have been politicians so long that they've forgotten how to be human. I think you see how this tragedy has effected people when you see a shaky-voiced Brett Favre, a man who started 225 NFL games in a row, standing before the press unsure of whether his family was alive or not. Or to see Stephon Marbury, the tough Brooklyn - raised street baller, breaking down at a press conference... the images of the tragedy no doubt flashing through his mind as he wept openly in front of reporters. And then pledged $500,000 of his own money to the relief effort. In the past couple weeks, we've managed to stare into the face of desperation, dispair, anger and racism and in spite of all of that, it's been re-assuring to see everyone, famous or not, step up and offer a helping hand and just wanting to do SOMETHING. Kevin Smith is auctioning off a walk-on role in Clerks 2 and even a BBQ at his own home.. all of the proceeds going to the Red Cross. A lot of these people have been left with nothing, by no fault of their own.. please... give something... whatever you can.

Current Music: In Your Eyes // So by Peter Gabriel

In my head, there's a greyhound station....
I was reading the Coldplay interview in Rolling Stone (the timing of this article seems bizarre to me... some two months after the release of X & Y here comes Rolling Stone to take us inside the making of X & Y... hey guys... every credible music magazine in the world.. most notably Q... beat you to the punch some two months ago.. remember? When you put Dave Matthews on the cover? And the article was filled with the typical fodder that you'd expect from a Rolling Stone article. One of the things that I thought was interesting is when Chris Martin was talking about the miracles that he sees in everyday life (a topic that inspired him to write the first single off X & Y, Speed of Sound) and I've always thought that concept was interesting. Because there are days when I'm actually paying attention to what's going on.. today I gazed out my window and watched a crow dive off the roof of a really high nearby building and just kind of soar through the air. It was like one careless hop and the bird was soaring effortlessly to the ground and it was like at that moment... I got it..

So I've recently come to the conclusion that God or whatever being you believe in, if you believe in a being, spent a good three days or so just working on the female shape... it can be one of the most exquisitely graceful and breath-takingly beautiful things on the planet and it defies explanation. And then when I look in the mirror at my... bits, it occurs to me, quite quickly, that God or whatever being you believe in if you believe in a being, spent maybe 15 minutes on the male form. Like I think he squeezed it in during commercials or something. He was like "What's that thing lying over there? A penis? Great, throw that on there.. I like that word.. Penis.. that's funny." And then went on with whatever he was doing.. probably watching Dallas or something. But the grace with which some women carry themselves makes me believe in God.. as lame as that sounds. Wow.. my entire faith structure is based solely on the female body...makes me feel kind of shallow... eh.. that's alright.

I feel like everytime I do a blog entry. I'm entitled to a rant. And this entry is not an exception. My target this time... Rolling Stone Magazine. Rolling Stone magazing is still coasting on the fumes that used to be it's credibility. I think everyone in the mainstream music press and the mainstream press in general has cast it off as the 14-year-old just cussing to get a reaction and when I read the magazine I realize that comparison probably isn't too far off. There are some elements that are certain to appear in every issue of Rolling Stone: the political story (usually some thinly veiled or not even veiled shot at the Bush Administration).. this week... Matt Taibbi's article Bush v. The Anti War movement. Do I really need an article on this bullshit? President Bush is a war monger.. the anti-war movement are.. ready for it?....against war. I don't need a two page exposee to tell me that. The second element of every issue of Rolling Stone... the socially geared exposee....Whether it's an inside look at the secret life of girls at Wellesly or Mountain Gorillas in Thailand.. Rolling Stone has you covered... This month: the human trade in Brazil. I have no problem with magazines being more world-conscious but I feel like RS's motives for running the story are perhaps a bit more sinister... a weak attempt at restoring its credibility. Rolling Stone should start.. reporting on music.. good music.. and leave news reporting to ... news publications (see Newspapers). 3. Article about a band that most critics seem to like...whether it's Coldplay or The White Stripes or Radiohead or Sigur Ros.. Rolling Stone will give you the kind of inside info that only... Entertainment Weekly could provide..Nice try. and 4. A story or a photo essay involving a pop group that exposes RS for what they really are .... Tiger Beat with the occasionally story about prostitution, marajuana or a story about people prostituting themselves for marijuana. If you read Rolling Stone because you think you're cool, edgy, or artsy then you're a fucking idiot!

Song that was playing when I finished this: Everyday I Love You Less and Less - Kaiser Chiefs

Current Music: Soul Meets Body // Plans by Death Cab for Cutie

You'd skip your early class and we'd learn how our bodies worked..
So, I've been inspired by a great thing called Cinecast (thanks L-Mo) to make my own list of the top 5 most overrated movies of all - time in my opinion. In preparing for this I decided to do a little research on the topic. I look at the recently released Premiere Magazines list of the top 20 most overrated movies of all time. What I found funny about their list was that they had films on there that I'm pretty sure no one has ever claimed was a great film (see Moonstruck, etc.). So hopefully you won't parouse my mini list and think to yourself, whoever said that movie was great. So without any further adieu.. Here's my list...

1. Fight Club - there is no one with a functioning brain who can explain to me how the ending of this film makes sense. I love Fincher but I think this film is a decent film but certainly not worthy of the praise it so often garners. I was listening to the CineCast podcast and this one guy wrote in (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess he was a member of a fraternity) and said that Fight Club was the reason he was studying film in college. Son, you may want to pursue business like your father suggested.

2. The Shawshank Redemption - or "Shawshank" as it's come to be known by a certain portion of the population. While I like this film, the pedestal this movie is so often tossed upon is an unstable one. Morgan Freeman's performance is amazing as usual but Frank Darabont makes the film a little too hoaky and Hallmark Channel-esque. I think this film is so popular because it shows frat guys that it's ok to bond with other dudes and that it doesn't make you gay.

3. Pulp Fiction - This film is overrated for a great many reasons but the reason that I think it sucks is because it brought the career of John Travolta back to life. At the time, everyone thought it was a good thing....Battlefield Earth, Phenomenon, Be Cool, Domestic Disturbance, Michael, Swordfish, The General's Daughter... hmm, any chance we can go back in a time machine and convince Tarentino not to make this film? There's nothing clever or entertaining about this film to me.

4. Almost Famous - Cameron Crowe proves that he can steal with the best of them. In this case stealing from Alan Parker's classic film The Committments. There's the classic scene in Almost Famous where the entire bus erupts into a heart warming rendition of "Tiny Dancer" but I feel like I've seen that somewhere before.. oh wait, I have.. in 1991... when the members of The Committments break into a sing-along of Destination Anywhere. With all respects to Jason Lee, I think that movie is a little too full of itself. If you want to see what happens to a band as they struggle with sucess and have real inter-personal conflict, go to Blockbuster and rent The Committments.

5.Kill Bill, Vols. 1 and 2 - After Jackie Brown, someone gave Tarentino to make this film. And while I'm always a fan of seeing Uma Thurman in a yellow jumpsuit wielding a kitana... I have a problem with Tarentino's theft of everything that Kurosawa ever did. If you want to see the master of the genre that Tarentino did a shitty job of imitating, go rent Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood or Judo Saga. When considering Tarentino's genius, consider that he wrote From Dusk Till Dawn.

Song that was playing when I finished this: Still Fighting' It : Ben Folds

Current Music: We Looked Like Giants // Transatlanticism by Death Cab For Cutie

I'll be 'round, I'll be lovin' you always...
There are people in your life that just.. get you. And it's one of those things that you know almost suddenly. You talk to them and you connect and you both know it. And for those people that I have in my life, I am and will eternally be grateful for. I will be eternally grateful for them because I know, without them, I'd be lost at sea. As Johnny C. McGinley would put it I would need to replace "the captain of my brain ship, because he's clearly drunk at that wheel". It's the people I have in my life, my support staff, that keep me on my feet and make me realize that everyday, no matter what's going on in my life, everyday I spend on this planet, without sounding trite, is beautiful. And sure I may have shitty luck with women, or no luck with women as the case may be, and sure sometimes I feel like I'm lying next to the thinly veiled siloheutte of someone I've never even met, and sure some nights I watch the news stare out my window and wonder how such a beautiful place could be so scary and fucked...but I know that I have people that, even when I stagger, point me in the direction of the finish line. I feel like I don't need to do a roll call of the people in my life that mean everything to me because I feel like they know who they are, I feel like hopefully I do a good enough job of telling or showing them how much they mean to me in my fight to keep my ship afloat. I love that line in Little Victories (What up Matty?).. "I'll be awful sometimes... weakened to my knees...but I'll learn to get by... on the little victories" and sometimes that's how I feel. I'm not always the easiest guy in the world to get a long with. I'm moody, particular, a little high maintenance (Lauren.. watch), obsessed with the passions in my life, the things that make me go.. but I'd like to think at the center of all that is a guy with an incredibly big heart with a lot to give the people in his life. And I hope that by reminding the people around me how much I care for them and how much I need them to help me bail water that it warrants them hanging around. Whenver I get down about anything in my life, I think about the handful of people that I have in my life that would light themselves on fire just to make me laugh (and it would... I mean come on, people catching on fire.. I know you're smiling right now just thinking about it...). I guess quite simply put, it's like that line in Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters..."And I thank the lord there are people out there like you." Well said, Sir Elton, well said...

Song that was playing when I finished this: Ben Folds Five - Uncle Walter

Current Music: Parachutes // Parachutes by Coldplay

I thought it less like a lake, and more like a moat...
There are songs that I hear and it makes me want to have someone to fall asleep with. And not just some random person, not just a girl from some bar but someone that I care about. Someone I can hold to my chest and get that kind of yearning to be closer to even though they are on literally on top of you. I'm not sure what it is about me that makes me want to settle down so bad. I think it has something to do with the fact that the shallow, superficial college-bar, frat party dating scene has never interested me. It always seemed like a world of fake relationships predicated entirely on alcohol. People for whom the only connection they have with their "friends" is a pension for the same self destructive behaviors. I guess I've always wanted something more, something deeper. And I feel like, in my close friends, I have real connections with them. I would go to the ends of the Earth and back for them and I know they'd do the same for me and in a world that is as fucking terrifying as the one we live in today.... that's a pretty comfortable feeling. But that ideal romance, that ideal relationship is something that has eluded me. And I know I'm young and I shouldn't be in such a hurry and I'm not... It's just that I'm entering a time in my life that I'm really frightened about and I'm not afraid to admit it. I don't know how to be a grown-up. I feel like a little boy dressed up in one of his dad's suits and everything is way too big and I'm just kind of walking around, pretending to have it together when in reality, I'm no more clued in to what it's like to be an adult than I was when I was 6. Ok that might be an exaggeration. But it would be nice to have someone to come home to. Someone who looks way better in my clothes than I do, someone with soft skin and a cute laugh...beginning to wonder if that exists or if it's just some fantasy that I've built up in my head... some ideal that was never meant to make it this far. Maybe life is a serious of let downs and you just get used to settling and adjusting your standards so that disappointment doesn't bog you down. I sincerely hope not..

Song that was playing when I finished this: The Shins - The Past and Pending

Current Music: Transatlanticism // Transatlanticism by Death Cab For Cutie

I never knew you, You never knew...
I walk around and I think to myself that there is a high probability that I'm going to be single for sometime. Because I, literally, have no game. I'm just not that confident when it comes to just walking up and talking to people that I don't know. I wish I was.. my friend Zac has this uncanny ability to walk up to absolutely anyone and talk to them as if he's known them for the longest time and I simply can't do that, I wish I could but it is beyond me. I feel like I'm going to meet the woman I'm going to marry under some bizarre set of circumstances. I feel like it's going to be at a bar that I really don't want to be at or at some party where I feel horribly out of place and I'll meet her and she'll be feeling exactly the same way and we'll talk to each other and we'll just know. We'll like a lot of the same things but still have enough differences to have cool debates about music she likes that I hate and movies that I love that she thinks are cheesy (i.e., You've Got Mail). She may not understand my obsessions with the Eagles (the football team, not the band) but she'll appreciate my passion for it. We'll take walks at dusk around the neighborhood, move in together, get a dog, and then get married...So many people dream of a life of as many partners as they can get their weiners on and that's just not me. The idea of domestication, for one reason or another, is far more attractive to me then a life as a bachelor. I'm not sure that life... this ideal that I have built up in my head is actually something that is real or if it's a fantasy. I wish I knew.. but I guess I'll find out the same time as everybody else..

Song that was playing when I finished this: The New Pornographers - Electric Version

Current Music: Say Hello, Wave Goodbye // White Ladder by David Gray

The Arcade Fire to Everybody Hurts? I love my iPod!
I'm not sure if it's stupid or pathetic or if it speaks to how dialed in I might be to music but music often times tends to have a really really strong impact on the way I feel. The other night I was driving home from Indianapolis and the Francis Dunnery song "Good Life" (which is an amazing song, if you haven't heard it... it breaks my heart) came on. And it's basically a song about a guy who's talking to a woman that he's just broken up with or they've just split up in one fashion or another and he's basically telling her goodbye and good luck in the world. And some of the lines in that song are absolutely heartaching but the song doesn't drone on. It's kind of hopefully but quietly sad and it's such a great song. And when I started listening to it, it just made me think of this one girl that I dated and then the slideshow started.. all of those memories that you hold near and dear to your heart come flashing before your eyes, like a bad wedding video or something. "Here's to our problems and here's to our fights, here's to our aching and here's to you having a good life.... from me" Heartbreaking, fucking gorgeous stuff..

And then there are songs that make you feel kind of joyful like if you were walking down the street and a squirrel crossed your path, you'd realize what an amazing world we live in and how there are things you see everyday and you take them for granted but they are their own little miracles. Songs like "Lucky Man" by The Verve are songs like that for me...

Song that was playing when I finished this: "Amie (Live in Brooklyn) - Damien Rice

Current Music: Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) // Funeral by The Arcade Fire

You want advice? Girls need attention
There's this line in Emaline by Ben Folds (Five) that I just love "She's dear to me but so expensive, I'm not talking 'bout money, Money talks, I hate to listen but lately it's been screamin' in my ear". I will re-affirm my stance that anyone that doesn't like Ben Folds Five clearly has no place in my life. I think there songs are emotional and quirky and sweet and extremely clever. Love me some Ben Folds Five... go buy Ben Folds Five "Whatever and Ever Amen", you won't be disappointed.

So I went to see Coldplay last Friday... And as much as I'd like to tell you how amazing it was and give you a song-by-song breakdown of everything (including a rad Ring of Fire tease).. you really had to be there. I will say that as I stood there singing along to my favorite band in the world, I realized that it was nights like this and it was bands like this and songs like these that inspire me to create. That fill me with the arrogance that make me think that I actually have something to contribute to the world. Songs like "Fix You" and "Sparks" and "High Speed" give me goosebumps, make me cry and make me want to roll up my sleeves...

There are songs you hear that make you want to be in love. The problem with that being that when the song is over, sometime that feeling tends to die down substantially. I remember listening to a Mayer show from forever ago and him talking about how sometimes when songs come on the radio and you get vunerable and call someone and then the songs over and you realize that you've called a woman who you're pretty sure is a relative of Satan, if not Satan herself (or his self.. what's up ladies?). I hear songs like that all the time. Amie by Damien Rice, This Year's Love by David Gray, I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song by Jim Croce.

Add to my list of songs that are just perfect note for note.. In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel. Excuse it's supposed to ties to Jesus (rumor has it that Gabriel was inspired to write the song after looking at a painting of J.C.) and it's ties to Say Anything. That song is so gorgeous and so beautiful. That second verse may be the greatest second verse of any song ever. The way Gabriel sings "Oh, I don't like to see so much pain" makes me ache and then to follow that up with "So much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away" floors me.

Song that was playing when I finished this: Counting Crows - Recovering the Satellites

Current Music: Emaline // Ben Folds Live by Ben Folds

It's easier to leave then to be left behind
There are some songs that you hear and you forget how much you love them. That happened with with Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters bu Sir Elton John. It's like you listen to that song and every note, every lyric is perfect. That tune is so timeless and I was thinking about it and I don't think that kind of music is being made today. I think bands like Coldplay and Radiohead make music that people will still listen to years from now and even, as much as I don't like it, Nirvana. But aside from that, everything that's on pop radio won't matter next month, let alone next year, let alone in five years. I just wish that the music of our generation was about something. I take that back, I wish our music was about something other than thinly veiled metaphors about fucking. The Candy Shop? I'll let you lick the lollipop? That's really poetic. I'd like to apologize to future musical generations for this dark age in pop music. I am completely absolving myself from this mess. I think it's kind of like on an episode of I Love the 80s and they were talking to Joe Elliot from Def Leppard and they were talking about hair metal and he grimaces and goes "Oh, don't throw us in with that mess". That's how I feel. It was interesting how pop music changed after September 11th, people needed deeper pop music. We buried bubblegum pop. And it's been resurrected as blowjob pop. And I had nothing to do with it! Ya hear me?!?! NOTHING!

I'm a little bit of a hypocrite. I publicly bash people who like quotes. Who have quote books or little sticky notes with quotes on them. But I've recently unearthed my own closet love for quotes. But I've said for a long time that who said the quote is way more important than the content of the quote. That being said, in last month's issue of Esquire, that I just got around to reading today. There was a "What I've Learned" Section, where someone of some notoriety lists some of their life lessons and this one was Dan Rather. And there was a quote on there that I thought was brilliant. "The difference between love and sex is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug". Which, without going into too much detail because I'm terrified my mom will read this someday and be mortified, I think that's one of the most beautifully simple things I've ever heard. Well done, Dan-O!

Song that was playing when I finished playing this: Coldplay - Everything's Not Lost

One of my favorite things a girl does: Steals my t shirts

Current Music: Leaving New York // Around The Sun by R.E.M.

You cut me down to size and opened up my eyes..
I was listening to The District Sleeps Alone Tonight today and there's that line "stranger with your doorkey/explain that I'm just visiting" and I was thinking about the people in my life and the frequency with which people check in and out sometimes and something occured to me. That I'm like a small New Hampshire ski town. It's really nice and quaint and comfortable, if you can handle that snow and the ice and the cold. And there are people like my family and my friends that have liked it so much that they decided to stay year round and then there's other people who decided that it was one of those places that they'd like to visit again but could never live in. That analogy wasn't as well thought out as I would have liked but if you got the point and thought that was clever then I guess it was worth it.

I find it interesting how public interest in something doesn't really peak until a celebrity, or a person of some notoriety gets involved. This week's cause: Lung cancer. With the death of Peter Jennings from lung cancer this week and the recent revealing that Dana Reeve has been diagnosed with the same ailment, smokers everywhere, casual smokers to chain smokers, are starting to look at that pack of Camel Lights a little more closely. And while I think that any time we can put focus attention on a disease that kills some 400 people a day in this country, I just wish that it didn't take someone like Peter Jennings, who hadn't smoked in 20 years, passing away to make us realize that maybe doing something you know in advance is going to kill you isn't that great of an idea.

I have a recent pet peeve. It's the latest phonetic spelling that so many of my peers have taken to speaking in with talking to someone on-line. With some people, it's barely intelligble. While I'm a writer and I enjoy sticking it to proper grammar and punctuation when I can, a line has to be drawn. "Relle" is not a word... it's really. "Ur" "Cuz" .... IT NEEDS TO STOP! It doesn't make you seem cool or street or whatever the fuck you're going for it just makes you look like in mid sentence you decided to just have your cat type a random letter.

Song that was playing when I finished this: Ben Folds Five - Kate

Current Music: Swallowed In The Sea // X&Y by Coldplay

Tear you down inside, 'till you see just what is real...
I just broke one of my blogging trends. That lyric isn't from Cold Water but instead from a David Gray song called "Hold Onto Nothing". David Gray is an interesting case of someone who's music got better as he released. There are a lot of bands where people would say "I liked their older stuff better", I say that about The Barenaked Ladies (Gordon is one of my favorite records). But David Gray certainly peaked with Sell, Sell, Sell and White Ladder because his older stuff, a record called Flesh and another called A Century Ends.. they just can't hold a candle to White Ladder, which is another of my favorite records...Let's hear it for digressions...

I will always be a John Mayer apologist. He could go all Jewel and start showing his man boobies and doing dance songs and then claim they were satirical afterwards and I'd still be like "Ehh, it's ok.." I sometimes forget why I'm a fan of Mayer's because of all the really lame people that are into his music that I would otherwise not want to be affiliated with but tonight I was listening to a show of his from 2002 from Norman, OK and He played Why Did You Mess with Forever and then I remembered why I'm such a John Mayer apologist. He just gets it. He gets what it's like to be a *sigh* sensitive *cringes* guy. And that song, like no other song by a guy, captures what it's like to have a girl cheat on you and have it just tear you apart because you know what you have to do. "Stick to my rules, I'm at odds with my heart". That's a sad being cheated on song... there is the opposite end of that spectrum, one where "You Can Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac does and always will hold court. There are guys everywhere I'm sure that give props to Lindsey Buckingham for making Stevie Nicks sing backup vocals on a song that was about her own slutiness... Big ups to Lindsey B.

People, for one reason or another, are especially attracted to people who are totally different from them. You think that maybe you can make it work, you can be the couple that people wonder how in the hell, in spite of all your differences, you still remain together and in love. But it never works out that way, you can sweep those differences under the rug, but the lump under the carpet gets larger and larger until it's no longer a lump, it's a mountain and then it's time to formally recognize something you always knew in your heart but did your best not to think about. And I've been in a couple of relationships like that and I think that I'm at least smart enough to learn from them and know that I couldn't date a girl who listens to an inordinate amount of rap music, smokes, gets drunk on a frequent basis or doesn't like The Police.

Song that was playing when I finished this: The Verve - One Day

Current Music: Cold Water // O by Damien Rice

What If I Ride...
So I have a confession to make... I'm addicted to Entertainment Weekly. This is particularly difficult for me because I know what a cheap magazine it is. The writing? Admittedly shotty. The reviews? Admittely meaningless. But it's one of those things that I can lay by the pool and read and be done with in under an half hour, unlike say GQ or Esquire or one of the other magazines I love so much, which are much more of a time investment. But Stephen King's column in the back of Entertainment Weekly is really not to be missed. While I've never read any of his novels all the way through (I read half of The Dead Zone in 8th grade) and I'm aware that the public perception of his is that he's a weirdo, I really think he's genuinely funny and extremely intelligent. I think that's the problem with doing what he does for a living is that people, for one reason or another are really uncapabale of separating you from your work. And I don't think Stephen King is anything like his novels... He did this really great column in EW a couple of weeks ago where he talked about all of the cheesy, tacky things he loves about America and it was a really cool, genuine, well-written things and i wish that people realized that he's more than just the guy who wrote Carrie, Pet Semetary and The Shining. On the contrary, there are people who are very much like their work, namely Tim Burton... who's a fucking weirdo and a hack and Rob Zombie.. who's music and films match his personality...weird.

I was flipping through Sirius Satellite Radio and I happened to stop on Alt. Nation, which is like every alt. rock station across the country and I was thinking about how emo music, well certain bands, have really romanticized suicide and death when in reality, suicide is one of the most mindless and selfish acts that a person can commit. And it's not glamorous and it's not cool, there's no mystique to that.. you'll be dead and you'll leave the people who care about you most to pick up the pieces. I could never do that to anyone that I love, especially not my mum.

Song that was playing when I finished this: Blues Traveler - Look Around

Current Music: Drive // Automatic For The People by R.E.M.

There's love if you want it...
And the rich continue to get richer...Congress steamrolled through a new energy bill which benefits....well, no one. Oh wait, I'm sorry it benefits oil companies, my mistake. The new Energy Bill that was just passed before Congress adjourned for the session does nothing to decrease our dependence on foreign oil, specifically that found in the volatile Middle East and did absolutely nothing to lower the cost of gas for consumers. Instead, it gave some $7 billion dollars in tax cuts to oil companies and gave them some $2.5 billion for research and development. So that would appear that the government endorsed extortion that is occuring at a gas station near you is going to continue. This is what happens when people blindly vote along partisan lines and don't hold their politicians accountable for their votes. Every single person who voted for this bill should be held accountable by their constituents but won't. I think it's sad to say that the only show that is reporting on issues that directly affect people and not on hurricanes, shark attacks or Natalee Holloway is... wait for it... The Daily Show. The only news show that is somewhat informative is a show that comes on after South Park and Reno 9-11. (Countdown with Keith Olberman on MSNBC comes in at a close second). I feel like the public opinion regarding the media in this country is at an all-time low. And that exists for two reasons, republicans have convinced the conservative right that the media is liberal and biased and therefore not to be believe trusted. And the left is disappointed at how the media has refused to hold this administration accountable for its endless gaffs. Take the White House press corps, a.k.a. The Bend Over Bunch. The softballs that George W. Bush gets tossed at his press conferences are downright laughable. I was watching Tony Blair in his monthly press conference on CSPAN-2 the other night and to hear some of the really though, borderline incendiary questions that he was being asked made me wish that I lived across the pond, where the media is actually responsible and holds the politicans responsible and questions them on their talking points. American politics is a circus, no more and no less.

I was going to right another chunk about girls who put up with douchebag guys and how retarded it is but I wore myself out with that rant. So that'll have to wait for tomorrow.

Song that was playing when I finished this: The Shins - Kissing the Lipless

Current Music: The Verve - Sonnet

I'm not looking for the rest of your life, I just want another chance to live...
I think almost every Patty Griffin makes me weak and gives me goosebumps. She's got the most powerful, hauntingly beautiful voices and her songs are just so well written and I'm not sure there's a better and more underrated songwriter on the planet than Patty Griffin. Lyrics like "..rows and rows of big, dark clouds/when I'm holding under this shrowd/praying..." , it just gives me chills. If you've never heard Rain or Long Ride Home or Forgiveness... do your ears a favor...download them on iTunes or go out and buy a Patty Griffin record (newly inked to Dave Matthews label ATO). Amazing, amazing stuff. Perfect for walking home from class under the dim light of hazy streelights with big, huge snowflakes falling slowly from the sky and crunching under your feet...

I think there are certain records you buy that shape your musical development and your tastes. Like you hear a record and tht leads you down a path of finding other artists like it, or it turns you on to who that artist was influenced by. Like maybe a lot of people who love John Mayer were turned on to Stevie Ray Vaughan. And for me, I think that there were a couple definitive moments for me in my musical maturation. I think one of them was when I heard Green Day's "Dookie", I think I was in like 4th grade or something. There was something about that record that I just dug and I didn't know what it was. And that made me more open to bands like Bush and other alternative acts of the time. There were some slip ups, I believe there is a Christmas video in my parents' possession in which I open a present and ecstastically scream "Yes! Meatloaf!" And then I think the permanent turning for me honestly was when I heard David Gray's White Ladder. I loved every song on that record and that's when I figured out that there was this whole world of music out there that was waiting for me to discover that no one else was listening to.

I was watching Scrubs today and I realized that I could never be a doctor. And I really take my hat off to E.R. and doctors who work in hospitals. Because, on some level, you have to be so emotionally detached and centered for that job not to just tear you apart. I just can't imagine treating someone and getting to know them and doing everything you can for them and then watching them die. And knowing that that person is going to have family members and friends who's life is going to be torn apart by their passing and that's a routine part of the job. You have to have a short memory to really not allow that job to rip you apart from the inside out. I know that's a strange lesson to learn from a show like Scrubs but what I think that show does so well is that while it's comedy and while it's fast paced.. in the first season almost every episode has 3 story lines and a janitor runner (a storyline between J.D. (Zach Braff's character) and the Janitor (played to perfection by Neil Flynn). But it slows down when it has to and it lets the audience really become invested in the characters and in the relationships they have with one another and I genuinely feel like it's one of the most clever shows on television.

Song that I was listening to when I finished this: Fall Out Boy - Yule Shoot Your Eye Out

Current Music: Patty Griffin - Rain

All the seasons change, so quickly these days...
So I was watching Real World last night, which is admittedly a risky move as that show tends to cause me more problems than provide me any sort sort of entertainment. And as I'm sure most of you who care know by now that Danny's mother died and he found out and it was a really tough thing to watch and I was glad to see that for once the show was about something. Which goes to show that that show can be about something other then getting drunk and fucking and still be meaningful. There were a couple of shots that just wouldn't let you out of the moment and it was really cool to see the people on the show actually relating to each other on a "real" level. I found it retarded that one of the girls like brought it back to her own level by saying like it could have been any of our mothers and I think that is really missing the point. But it got me thinking about something that I think about all the time, in spite of my efforts to thwart that kind of thing. What I will do when someone close to me dies because I'm a person who, for better or less, depends on the people around me, my support system. And I guess my biggest fear is that when something happens, which it's sure, it's inevitable.. I guess I'm afraid that I'll collapse and fold. And that fear is something that I think I'm really really afraid of, not like something that kind of spooks me... like spiders, or deep water or the dark, sometimes...it's a real fear..something that makes me weak in the knees if I really wrap my head around it. I watched an episode of Six Feet Under one time and Peter Krause's character was asked why people have to die and he told that person to make life important.. and I think, as cheesy as it is to directly quote tv shows... that's absolutely true. I sometimes don't think I do a very good job of telling the people I love the most, just how much they mean to me. I love you guys more than I have words for...I hope you know who you are...that's Patrick Donohue, taking cheesy to new heights, once thought unattainable. I'm the Sir Edmund Hillary of Cheese.

Song that was playing when I finished this: Coldplay - White Shadows

Current Music: Matt Nathanson - New Coats and New Hats

And it was all yellow...
It never ceases to amaze me how much influence music has over my mood. There are some mornings where I'm dragging ass and one song can pick me up. Or some mornings where I feel like shit and I feel overwhelmed and stressed and anxious and one song can sedate me. Today, I was sitting around and Fix You came on and like a flood, I felt the melancholy of that song hit me like a Mac truck and it really took me a good five minutes to really shake myself free from all that stuff. But then later this afternoon, I heard 1979 by The Smashing Pumpkins and I was awake and alive again, my spirit renewed, pounding on the steering wheel. I don't know what the hell zipper blues are but I don't want to shake them either. There are a couple songs that never fail to wake me up... one of them for sure is You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon and the other is Politik... listen to that song when you're groggy and on your way to work. That'll get ya going. I was feeling overwhelmed about everything that's happened lately and then New York's Not My Home by Jim Croce and that song is so fucking gorgeous, it just made me take a deep breath and go alright.. let's do this.. Music is the all purpose remedy.

I was thinking about coming of age movies and books the other day and what a load of shit they were. I feel like that process is depicted in those kinds of mediums as a single event that happens that just changes a person's outlook and suddenly they are less selfish and more aware and worldly and it never happens like that. Coming of age is a maturation process. It takes years and years and years and it's a seemingly endless series of events that causes someone to see things differently. So next time someone describes something to you and they are like well it's a coming of age story, ask them how long the movie is, and if it's any less than 5 years..tell them to fuck off.

Song that was playing when I finished this: Mike Doughty - Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well

Current Mood: In the mood to write apparently..
Current Music: Yellow (Live) - Coldplay

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