Templates...

How do I explain who I am in five minutes. It's a bit unfair to ask us to sum all of our life experiences, opinions, and ideas into a 300 second presentation. It's cruel, and unusual. If I even wanted to prented to want to do this, I'd have no idea where to begin. I guess I could start by saying that I spent three hours in a pub drinking pints with a mate, and talking about music. I tend to do this a lot. The talking about music part, not the drinking in pubs. I've probably spent a large portion of my life talking about, and listening to music. Both papers that I've had to write so far this semester have been about music. Almost all the titles to posts in this very blog are indeed song titles, or re-purposed lyrics. Start to see a pattern, eh?


I do tend to get a lot of flak about it, too, though. I could probably name off a hundred different bands that few, if any of you would know. This has given me the pretentious label, and I've had people tell me that I select music simply because it's unknown. I apologize to all of those who I've given this thought to through my music selection. I tend to pick music on based on one of three criteria; First, it's eclecticness, sure. I enjoy songs that interest me. Who doesn't? Second, the story behind the band, album, band. If it's an interesting story, then I'm always interested. Lastly, enjoyment. This one is very vague, and for good reason. I consider myself a collector. Like most personal collectors, I collect what I like, and I've found very little that I don't like. This has lead to push my music collection to around 12,000+ songs at last count, in the last generation of it.

As strange as I am, I enjoy creating multiple catalogs, though not entirely on purpose. I've had many iterations in the past. I all, around 5 to 6 different "Libraries" each containing a different set of music, and each one lost due to some kind of hardware failure. All but the last one, which was backed up at 11,000 songs. Not everything was saved, but most. At the time, I felt like it would actually be more beneficial to get new music. Not having the songs I use to listen would prevent me from listening to them repeatedly, and would force me to explore new areas of music.

I was right, too. Not having those bands and songs which have come to form a sort of "security blanket" has forced me into new, and at times uncomfortable territory. This is not because I dislike the music, but people do tend to stick to one, two, or at most three different major genres without branching out too much. I've found that it's hard to when you become accustomed to what you're listening to. I've also learned that those that say they listen to "everything" are generally lying. Peoples views of what "everything" is, tend to be very narrow. Mention one genre out side of the blanket term, and you're likely to hear a "no", or, more often, a "what?". What do I listen to? "What I can get my hands on."