3 posts tagged “qotd”

How do you feel about your birthday?  Do you look forward to it and remind all your friends, or do you dread it and try to keep it a secret?

Birthdays are like a punch in the face...only difference is, you don't ever, heal after.  Instead things just get progressively worse.  I like to call myself one of the few or many (I haven't really done research) who kinda dreads the full completion of their birthday calendar year.  I don't think it was always like this. I think at one point I loved having me celebrated, getting all those useless gifts, thinking really hard as I thought of that one single wish that would come true as I blew all the fire off the little colorful birthday candles.  But after many awkward years of being the center of attention on "my" day, I suppose I sort of wanted to just roll up into a ball and hide behind everyone as they all sang, jumped for joy and pretended they were having fun...

I've been mostly secretly anti my birthday from the ages of 10 till now.  I don't like to mention it and on the rare occasion that I do, I'm most likely having the best day of my life...or drugged on some happy pill, thinking that maybe this year my day of birth should be celebrated.  I'm not a birthday hater don't get me wrong, but if I can avoid the celebrations all together you're damn right I will.  I enjoy the company of my friends and truly appreciate the gifts or beers or dinners that they so willingly share with me, its just...I don't know...a reminder of the times that once were, the times that aren't now and the awkward conversations brought on by someone asking if I feel any different.

But to not be so much of a party pooper, I have realized that its not about the numbers and its not about the wrinkles or the gray hairs or the parts that will sag...its about the people whom you so luckily have at that present birthday in time....to add another BUT, that doesn't mean that this year I will be reminding my friends that I will yet again be ascending into a new ripe old age of 24.

What's on your holiday wishlist?

With the growing Yule tide trends of consumerism it seems  almost too radical for us not to take part in these seasonal  rituals. Yet I find myself contemplating, trying to decipher what it is to truly want something and what it is to actually need it.  It sounds almost too simplistic to confuse, but is way too often misconstrued.

So, when I was asked by my brother what it was I wanted for Christmas, I thought hmmm, here’s my opportunity to get that amp I’ve been wanting.  But I thought back to that contemplative Ariana and told myself I had to block the consumer in me…So I responded with, "nothing".  I didn’t regret saying nothing, I genuinely didn’t want a materialistic gift from my brother.  If anything a night out with him would be a hundred times more satisfying.  Yet when I gave him my answer, I was responded to with "well I’d rather get you something you want than something you dont".  Meaning to say, that whether I liked it or not I was getting a gift.  Although I thought it was very sweet of my brother to want to get me something as a way of showing me he loved me but I didn’t think it necessary.

With our growing need to want to satisfy people with trinkets and objects I think the most important gift of all often gets misplaced and the simplest way to make someone happy has somehow lost its value, becoming the least thoughtful.  Yet, as I watch everyone get lost in the hysteria of the holidays I often wonder what it would be like if maybe, we all didn’t get so lost...

So to answer this question directly...the only thing on my wish list is the following:

To enjoy each other this holiday season more so than the gadgets and silly objects that will eventually end up broken and forgotten.

Music-wise, what was the first 45, single or download you bought? 
Submitted by Paddy Melt Wagon.

Now, this may come off as embarrassing to those out there who have since childhood refined their musical taste...but I'm not embarrassed, I wear my first single like the proud scar from your first bicycle ride down an unsuspecting hill.

At the time, I was just like any other eight year old in the 90's, walking around with my tights, lime green colored socks, shoe laced hair band, hang ten t-shirt and of course the infamous high top "pumps".  I remember taking a drive with my brother.  I excitedly jumped into his tiny red car lowered to passenger seat window and awaited our arrival.  We got to our destination I got out of the car and slightly paused in front of the music store thinking, "yay!!! I'm so cool, I'm getting my first tape!!".  As we walked into the store my eyes scanned around, looking left and right, stopping to occasionally stare at the racks revealing artist that at the time I really didn't care to know.  I followed closely behind my brother as he searched through tapes to find my golden ticket.  Finally, it was found..."Kriss Kross: Jump!"  That's right, Chris "Mac Daddy" Kelly and Chris "Daddy Mac" Smith who in turn created the supergroup "Kriss Kross" was now...MINE!  From that day I went on to play this track numerous times...the majority of those times I was indeed jumping as well as saying the words rather, what I thought were the words.

May you not judge and simply enjoy the innocense of an 8 year old.  With that said, I leave you with this track...