Category: Music

Anyone here listen to this song before?

I’m sure most of you have. It’s a pretty famous song, and a really famous music video.

It’s on my mind tonight. My dear, dear friend and roommate Jay Cooper has had two people – that he considered close and dear friends – cut him off over the past 7 days. No warning, no real explanation, no settling of accounts or discussion of the matter. Just blink – nothing.

It’s not a pretty sight, what I’m seeing right now. It’s very sad, upsetting, stressful, and heartbreaking to see someone going through this. I imagine it like losing my dear, dear friend Chris (there are some vacation pictures of me and him together on this site), or losing Jay himself. If those people suddenly decided, out of the blue, that I was a horrible person, blocked me everywhere, refused to talk to me, and so on… well, I’d probably break down and be a huge mess for a very long time.

Not pretty.

So, to all of you out there. Don’t cut people off. Don’t stay quiet. If you have a problem with someone, talk to them about it and settle it like as a grown man does. If you need to part ways, do so as a man does, at least by telling them why you need to part. It’s a scary thing to do, but here’s what happens if you don’t…

1) You will destroy the other person. They will have to find out for themselves, or invent for themselves, why you suddenly disappeared from their lives. Anxiety, self-doubt, and depression will destroy them.

2) You will be creating a mess that other people have to deal with and clean up. It’s selfish to force other people to make up for your disappearance, when really the only people who should be involved are the two affected friends.

Don’t cut people off. You’re being selfish, and you’re avoiding your own responsibilities to the human beings in your life.

That’s all I have to say about that for now.

Today is a double topic blog post. First, I wanna talk about something that causes me grief quite often. See, I’m a horrible worry wort. I have this tendency to overthink a thing, get hung up on it, let all of my emotional comfort hinge upon it, and let my day be ruined by it. I think that it’s something I’ve picked up from my mother.

Anyway, I should clarify that in the past couple of years or so, I haven’t had to worry about so many things like I have in years past. Life has been great! I’ve been comfortable in my job with prospects for advancement, I have wonderful friends who love me unquestionably, I have no financial worries.. I could go on.

But, still, every now and then a Thing will crop up that threatens that peace of mind. It’s usually something that I can’t really do anything about, but presents itself as an uncomfortable itch on my peace of mind. It’s like a mosquito bite that gets itchier the longer it’s there. And you can’t reach it. And it gets infected because things keep bumping into it. And you don’t have enough money to go to the store to get the anti-itch cream until next paycheck in a week or so. And your friend who would be willing to help you soothe the itch is on vacation until a week after that.

You can probably see where I’m coming from with this, cuz I’m sure that you’ve felt this sort of worry before. It’s anxiety. The worry about something over which you have no control. All you want is to be able to do something about the Thing, but all you really can do is wait for things to work themselves out. I hate this feeling! It’s such an uncertain thing! You can’t account for the random things that could resolve this Thing in the worst way imaginable. You also can’t really predict whether the Thing will resolve itself in a good way after all. It’s a horrible thing to feel. Anticipation, worry, anxiety, and only yourself to rely on in the end.

It’s a good thing that anxiety is almost always a temporary feeling. I usually comfort myself with the Thing by realizing that the uncertain, unstable situation will eventually have to come to a rest one way or another. And whether Thing falls one way or another, things will work out in the end. How else can life proceed, but to work out somehow?

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So, now with that relatively gloomy topic behind me, let’s talk about something infinitely more upbeat! I’ve been struggling to find music to listen to lately. I usually haven’t been one to give new music a chance, and that is still the case today sadly. :/ However, I have been able to look back to the music that I picked up (and forgot about) from college to find some respite. I have a couple of very good friends that were eclectic music lovers and helped to shape the sort of music that I like listening to, and they introduced me to a lot of really awesome things.

The other day, I happened to remember “Animal Collective.” Some of my closer friends might recognize the irony of liking a group called “Animal Collective.” Those of you who don’t, eh, you’ll probably figure it out someday.

This group is kinda weird, but melodic! I don’t know if everyone will find their music good, but I certainly do. Check it out!

Sung Tongs

Merriweather Post Pavilion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nagI_slIviA