My Happiness Project

Well hot damn! Did I really go the entire month of September with not a single blog post? Shame on me. Totally unacceptable. YOU might not care...but this is the place where I get my creative juices flowing. This is the place where I can vent and share and discuss the thing I love most in this world: music. And I have totally been slacking.

And it hasn't been without consequence. I've been feeling quite lethargic lately, and lost. I always believed pursuing one's passion was essential to life...and I somehow lost sight of this priority.

Some of you might be feeling as down as I have been. The fall weather sometimes does that to us, especially here in Chicago. We go from hot temperatures, beautiful flowers and days spent on the lakeshore to chilly days and gloomy skies. It can be difficult to keep your optimism when everything around you is darkening.

But you know...there is another way to look at things. The fall and early winter symbolizes the end of a year. That's 365 days of your life gone, and a new 365 await!

I just bought a book over the weekend: The Happiness Project. I'm only about 10 pages into it, but I already feel better about myself and my future. And I encourage you all to re-evaluate your life, your priorities, your values...and most importantly, what truly makes YOU happy. I know I sound like a hippie, but I don't really give a $hit. I'm sick of putting everything and everyone before me. It's not fair to me, and it's not fair to you. How can you taste the real Jazzy flavor, when I'm always worrying about something or someone?

It's time to stop worrying, and make a change. That change begins now, with this post. Here are some tracks that are currently getting me pumped for all the endeavors that await me tomorrow, next week, next month and into 2011.

Cheers!

Faunts - Out on a Limb

Maritime - Parade of Punk Rock T-Shirts

The Strokes - What Ever Happened

Cursive - In The Now

The Smiths - Death of a Disco Dancer

-

Eighties rewind

Judging by conversations with friends and random pop-culture findings of my own, I think there is a large population out there of people who hate 80s music. I'm not sure why that is. Sure a lot of the artists back then were slightly on the corny side of the spectrum, but that's all at first glance. The 80s get a bad rep, and you should also know that without the music of the 80s, all that trendy electro the kids are listening to these days wouldn't exist. So today I'd like to share some of my all-time favorites with you. For some reason, I got into a new-wave, industrial kinda groove while typing away in my cubicle.

Although I was just a child during those years, I became very familiar with the music of that era very quickly. As I've shared with you before, I became a music junkie when I was still in diapers! So here are some songs that remind me of my childhood. Songs that stuck with me over the past two decades. Songs that made me a music lover.

You'll notice these tracks aren't what most 8-year-olds would fall in love with, but I did. I mean, what child understands the heartache in Morrissey's voice, or desires to hear the angry and aggressive stylings of Ministry? What child can even begin to understand the love David Byrne illustrates in the Talking Heads' "A Naive Melody?" While my peers were busy playing with Barbie dolls and going to the circus and whatever most normal children do, I was in my bedroom blasting my headphones imagining myself as a rock star.

I'm sure I was too young to even begin to understand or relate to these following tracks. But for some reason, they stuck with me. And looking back, I listen to them now, and they possess so much meaning. They strike a nerve and probably will for many more decades to come. Listen closely.


Talking Heads - A Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place)
Ministry - So What
The Smiths - Barbarism Begins at Home
Secession - Touch