How to fall out of love with a band...

I didn't make it a huge secret. I love music. I loved a certain band when I was a teenager. I loved the certain band though college. I loved them after college. I loved. Loved. This band.

Things change though, as they always seem to do. I was 25, and life got really difficult. For the first time in my life, it wasn't difficult in a way that I thought I could fix, so I scraped the chalk board and moved away with a giant chip on my shoulder.

And when I was playing Atlas, music was one of the few things I clung to to get me through. But the problem with that is that now, the band I thought I loved had to play against the bands that I liked and against all the bands I finally listened to now that I had to redefine everything and put aside assumptions. Suddenly, the band I loved just lacked a certain something.

To make things worse, they put out what even their own guitarist called the worst album they've ever made. The first single was so bad that I almost didn't buy the album. I tried to let it grow on me, but at this moment, I couldn't even tell you what it was. It was just that "eh". Ultimately, I bought the album, I tried to like it, and some of the songs were catchy. But the more I listened to it the more I realized that the songs that spoke to moods weren't as good as other songs I already owned, the songs that were just fun, weren't as fun as the songs I refused to buy on the radio, and the songs that should have been a flexing of their musical muscle, just left me thinking "Oh, so they were listening to Grizzly Bear when they wrote this... huh. I really want to listen to Grizzly Bear now". It was the kind of album that leaves you thinking "This is almost good, but then they did this one thing, and it killed what they had set up. It killed their groove."

But I was used to them releasing songs that I didn't care for. Every album had one or two. Every year their fan club album had one or two. I roll my eyes when they play it at a concert and wait for the good stuff.
But this? This was a whole album that made me rethink everything for a moment.
I waited for the next annual fanclub ep. It was average at best, and out of 5 songs (I usually like 3, love 1, and ignore the last) I kinda liked one.

And then, one of my coworkers figured out that I liked this band. I was in the "This last album sucked... but they'll be ok." stage.
And all the ridicule this band produced during my teenage/college years came rushing back. And while this one friend is a safe friend and the teasing is in jest, he shared it with the rest of my colleagues (not a safe place). That was over a year ago. I haven't forgiven him for it. I reminded him of that last month.

The next fan club ep... still pretty much sucked. Two decent songs, but even then I suddenly thought... this could be better. I went to the fan club party, and the show was good, but it didn't shake my soul. Then the rest of the weekend, I spent it with my friends wishing that we were just hanging at my bar instead of running around with my "favorite" band. There was an after party... and I just wanted to be at my bar.

This year, while the fan club ep was being written the fans were invited to tune in and watch... and it wasn't awesome.  Then the drummer posted pictures to instagram, and facebook, and twitter, and they were rife with typos. I mean I'm a bit of grammar nerd, and I'm not saying someone can't have an error. But it's blatant with him. It's like he just doesn't care. It's the tiniest symbol of him and the band not really caring. Tiniest. Like no one else would take it that way... but... I snapped back. And I didn't regret it.

My brother pointed it out.
And I suddenly realized that if I never saw this band in concert again, it would be alright.
I listened to them the entire drive home from St. Louis, and I realized  that they have some talent. But they weren't worth the effort that the fans pour in to being a fan. It just wasn't everything we want it to be. There are glimmers of it, but it's as if they lack a discerning rod, or an editor. 

And... I am not a fan. I used to be.

My other brother and I have talked at length about the bands who have a bad album and never really recover from it, and the bands who have a bad album and do come back from it. The bands who do are the ones who realize that it was bad and why.  I don't think my band realizes why it's bad. They do SO much. They do. But that causes them to rush and try to produce something worth while in about a week. A WEEK. There's only so many great ideas that can just pop out that are worth while in a week. It's no longer an art form, it's a hobby. This is no longer a band who writes songs with soul searching stories, lingering hooks, and haunting harmonies. This is a mad dash to just get it done before the fans wander off to some other indie local band. And the sad truth is some of the other indie local bands who aren't doing as much can focus on their craft and it's better, and I don't have the enthusiasm for this high school fodder.

So I came to terms with it.

Last week, I was out with friends and one of them pointed out my key chain. My fan key chain. He chuckled. I couldn't explain that I just hadn't thought about the key chains, and all of this, because he didn't really care. So I called him a dork, told him he was judgmental and I loved him anyway. He returned the sentiment. 

I came home and a few days later, I took the key chain off. My keys are a lot lighter.

Songs for Today: Ed Sheeran I See Fire
It's a song from the Hobbit. Yup. But it's been stuck in my head for a few days now, and it seems to fit my mood at work perfectly. "Well, should my people fall then surely I will do the same."

Hanson: Go
Because the glimmers are the sometimes the most beautiful and painful parts of a break up. "I never thought I'd want to let you go."

Throwing Stones

The thought that I've worked my way between a rock and hard place is not lost on me.

The past week saw my birthday come and go, and it was a week that started exactly how I could only hope for it to go. In fact if you were to tell my 19 year old version of me that ten years later that would be how I rang in the last year in my 20s I would probably think you were crazy.
A long day at work for sure, but I haven't had a day that wasn't long in over a month.  But it was followed (as usual on Mondays) by drinks with a friend, his wife (and usually their friends) at one of my favorite bars. The snow kept the place quiet. At midnight, I was well enough drunk that I don't remember but I've been told that I informed everyone I was drunk ...several times. (Classy, good job you. Drunk enough to think that drunk is either a public service announcement or a status to brag about... c.l.a.s.s.y.) So my birthday morning was drunken joy, followed by headaches and nausea. (We learned things in our college days, didn't we? DINDN'T WE?! Shhhhhh.) 

The day it self was full of good food (Really good, and you were still drunk enough that escargot sounded like a good idea... yeah, sober, you just realized that you ate snails. Snails. Go you. You hook your own fishing rods but snails? Seriously, kid? Yeah, hang out with your classy friends and you eat snails. .... Wait a second you, yeah, I had snails... but it's not like I dragged them out of their shells and ate them in the mud, you weirdo. The classy friends also topped off dinner with crème brûlée. When was the last time we let ourselves order something that nice? When was the last time we indulged so well? So, yeah, maybe now sober you can squeem at the escargot but you got crème brûlée out of the deal, so hush.)  and amazing friends, great conversation and some wonderful hugs.

The week ended horribly. The sinus infection to end all others. The sinus infection that defied the science of medicine and vitamin c infusions. I was down for the count from Thursday on.

This week though, has led me to evaluate a few things that I didn't always see coming. Like the fact that when I get stressed out, instead of shutting everyone out like I used to do (my friends called it falling off the face of the planet... fitting) I just get really impossible to please and hold people I don't really know accountable. I'm not very good at letting go of these fictitious offenses. So instead of lambasting friends I lambast vague associations, so I can still feel validated in my anger instead of fixing the stress causing situations. The first step to changing  a behavior is realizing that you do it, so here's the start. Here's hoping I won't drive myself crazy fixing it.

Still on the Tengo kick. Song for the week. Yo La Tengo, Sometimes I Don't Get You

Be Everything Be Nothing

I don't make it any great secret that I really like going to a job where I do something. The office jobs that keep me sat behind a desk shuffling numbers across a spread sheet kind of kill me. So I've gone away from that career path and I'm limping along the path in retail, where if you did it yesterday, you'll probably have to do it again today AND do it with a smile (which is like a bonus challenge for me... because I look angry ALL the time) and sitting is a kin to sin. So I'm more or less happy there. I have a great management crew. That statement is kind of loss on some of my co-workers... but I get it from their perspective. I've been there long enough to see the flaws and the benefits... and I really like my team.
So as I'm limping along, I've moved departments. The new team is doing some great things, just needed a new person to shove them, it seems. But there's one person in particular, who having been there for a long time has seen fit to try to instruct me on what he wants me to do for him... he's telling his boss how to do their job. If that's not enough to drive me crazy, he's doing it in cryptic text messages. The latest of which informs me that while I don't have to DO everything, I have to BE everything.  ... What the hell does that mean?

I've ruminated on this for a few days... including a night at the bar which reminded me that I am no longer 22.

I can't do everything... there is literally not enough time in the day to have the face time my crew needs as well as do all of the packdown, take care of all of the customers and learn all I need to know. No way I can do all of it while fighting the neccessary destruction of shoppers. Can't do it all. But be it all? Be a face, and a shoulder, and a packdown guy, and personal shopper, and designer, and problem solver, and ... and... and...! But can a person be it all?... Not really.
There will always be something that just isn't part of our natural skill set. There will always be something that we're not great at. And being a leader doesn't mean that we have to be everything that the group is not, it's that we must be able to guide them, motivate, and train them. I am not perfect. I will never be. There will always be a weakness. But the mission to be a supervisor, to be a leader, isn't about being a super hero. It's a mission to help them see where they can improve while being willing to see where we can improve. There is no space here for hardened hearts and stubbornly digging our heels in. We must be flexible, but not string cheese.  Being a leader is like being copper or gold. Malleable enough that when circumstances change we can change, but rigid enough that when the path is set, that is where we remain.

It's not always easy to get there, but when we do... It's really annoying to be told to be EVERYTHING.

Song for the day: Yo La Tengo : The Weakest Part 
       Blame it on the night at the bar. There's only space enough for one new obsession, and Yo La Tengo is it at the moment. This song spurred the debate across the bar "It's a happy song!" cried out a lovely girl a few seats down, followed by my neighbor retorting "No it's not. It's a really sad song."  "But it sounds happy! The melody!" "It's a sad song!"
           A few days later, sober... it's a sad song, but it sounds happy, and it's where I lived for years.

Films and the Sad Days

Some time ago, I think I was 12, I realized that sometimes I just have to have a day where I am just unjustifiably sad. Somewhere around 18-19 during that insufferable spring (how did my family put up with me? I was horridly morose for no good reason, a break up was not a good reason for that crap.) I realized that it was the perfect day to watch all the sad films I didn't want to watch when I'm happy. And this works for two reasons. 1) Watching sad films when you're looking for a reason to cry is perfect tear fodder. and 2) People don't ask you if you'll be alright and think you're crazy for crying during and after particularly sad films. And it's important that they be films and not movies. They have to be good, the kind of good that makes you put down the freaking popcorn and cry.

I have a solid week off work. A solid week to organize the apartment (it's almost there. It's at the point where I can function and the rest is just design.) and to let out this pent up need for a cry fest. So I took it today. Today is the cry fest day. Today is the day I justify investing in Kleenex.

So I went out to the movies. I watched The Intimidation Game. It was fantastic. Brilliant. Perhaps the best film I've seen in ages... since Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, or Van Gogh, or Third Star. But oh it was brilliant.  But I knew what I was signing up for. I know the outline of Alan Turing's biography, and it is not a happy one. It's a game changer. The kind of story that makes you reevaluate a lot of your own life and what one person can do in changing the world. (Take a moment. Imagine your life without a computer. Not just with out a computer, without a cell phone, without all the digital enhancements of your car, without the information age. Hell, forget calculators even. That life. That 1950s world. That's where we'd still be without Turing. And before last year you probably didn't even know his name.) But it's not a happy ending. Turing was a homosexual. In 1950 UK, that was illegal, punishable by 2 years in prison or chemical castration. Turing eventually was found out, and was sentenced, and chose castration in stead of prison because he couldn't work from prison. A year later he committed suicide. The man who brought us computers, the predecessor to Steve Jobs, pushed to the breaking point because he was different. It's pretty rare that I sit through the credits of a movie because I'm crying so hard that I can't walk through the lobby. But today... after that, I had to sit in my car for a moment to be alright enough to drive.

So I stopped by redbox, and I picked up the rest of my cry fest movies. I've gathered my comfort foods, and then let them be in favor of wine Mom bought me at Thanksgiving and chocolates I got from work at Christmas. The cats have given up trying to fix me, because somewhere around half way through The Fault In Our Stars, the tears were just too much for Waffles to deal with.

I'm on to August Osage County, because after that I should either be drunk enough to sleep it off the rest of the way, or I'll be resolved with this sadness.

Thank goodness for this apartment. I think the move was just in time to save me. But that's another post.

For the night: Chopin Etude no 3 in E major, OP 10, no. 3