the ever-ponderous dilemma of the hardcore music fan: someone you adore, someone you know is definitely one of the top ten or so people you have ever met in the ever-lengthening duration of your life so far, someone you wish you could spend time everlasting just enjoying the company of, goes and says something like, “i know you’ll probably make fun of me, but i really like both the new no doubt song (“hella good”, but we both knew that so she didn’t have to say it) and that nickelback song from spiderman (again, no question as to which [absolutely awful] song she was referring)”

how does a rational yet emotionally-involved music appreciator deal with this? tell me you don’t know what i mean. it’s really hard not to judge a person at least in part by their music taste, especially (perhaps only, i can only speak from my own perspective) if you’re the kind of person who sees music as such a huge part of who you are. and it’s at least slightly hard to ever fully like someone who professes love for dave matthews, or linkin’ park, or fucking anything you would line dance too. i have friends and family who probably fall into all of these categories, all of whom i do love in case they were beginning to doubt. so i guess it’s not impossible; well, i know it isn’t. but all the same i can’t help wondering how it got to be that this hobby of mine at some point gained the power to instill in me such extreme dislike — at least in a superficial way — of those who are musically incompatable with my own style. how somewhere along the line, telling me your favorite musicians fall under the group of “performs choreographed dances with headsets” category was about the same as telling me you think the south should have won in terms of how fast i’ll write you off as a potential close friend.

it’s just weird, is all. and i’m still recuperating from having the girl i hold above all others tell me she digs a nickelback song, but we’ll find a way to get through this.

[now hearing this: some solea mp3’s . . . hearing “former texas is the reason” always makes my head perk up, and i was supposed to see them play at two shows now that ended up being sold out before i could get tickets, so i finally had to settle for the old magic download system. a couple of these are really good, but the song “shiekilish” (i think that’s how it’s spelled) is an awfully poor derivative of “under pressure”. again, we will try to get through this musical faux-pas.]