Lonely In Columbus

It's such a lame excuse to say I'm tired

Everyone is tired, more or less

-- Stephen Kellogg

This quote got me thinking about another quote recently, though I have no idea who originally said it to, um, quote it.

It was maybe 6 or 7 years ago and my memory says I heard it on a weekday morning show. It went something like this; If you are given the option of either staying in or going out, you will most likely never regret choosing the option to go out. This is obviously geared towards a certain crowd; 20-something, no kids and at least some disposable income. It's also very circumstantial as there are obvious cases where staying in is a better option (hey, let's run naked through Chuck e Cheese).

I wish I had taken this advice 15 years ago. It's easier to tell your friends you're tired on a Thursday night after working all day. But guess what, everyone works almost every day and being tired is no longer an excuse in my book.

It also got me thinking about how it can be useful in all aspects of life. Should I finishing writing that song? Should I wash the car? Should I go to the gym? Should I try yet another application of tater tots? Should I sit around and watch TV until I fall asleep? In most cases the only option that you'll regret later is the latter.

It's easier said than done, but whenever I chose the latter I later regret it. It's time for me to create my own Red Rock Canyon.

What kind of country music do I like?

If someone asked me if I like country music the answer would be Yes. However, I forced myself to listen to the local country radio station and I found myself wanting to scrape my face off. I don't like the country music they play on the radio, or anything labeled pop country music, but how exactly do I explain which type of country music I actually like?

I asked Yahoo! to see if their users could help out. I suggested that I like these artists; Robert Earl Keen, Todd Snider, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, etc. I received a response of 'oldies', 'classics', or 'Americana'. The first two aren't acceptable as I'd consider half of these artists contemporary. Americana may be close but invokes images of of native Americans and fields of gold. Is it folk-country, rock-country, outlaw-country, Austin Texas-country? Those all seem acceptable (for iTunes taxonimies), but I'm not sure they all fall into one of these categories. Maybe it's just everything except pop-country that I like.

The country music I heard over the past 24 hours was heavily over-produced with instruments taking a back seat to the polished vocals. The lyrics weren't interesting, or quirky, and seemed more applicable to the spring break crowd... he really likes this bar, she really likes This Kiss, he always starts the fights... it's just not interesting.

John Prine sings about waking up and dying while distributing his body parts around. Keen sings about how strangers you meet would "just assume blow you away", but in a way that makes you smile, not sleep with a revolver under your pillow.

I am not going to come to a conclusion other than I like what I like, and of course, that what I like is better than what you like.