After Week 3 of NFL play, the only thing I feel like talking about is how much the NFL is getting me down. Specifically, I feel this year the league's TV presence is getting less and less PC. Usually, network personalities have to be incredibly fair and even handed. Everyone team has to be made out as having talented players and coaches, where every loss is a struggle (but not one that can't be overcome). As the season goes on, this starts to fade, but there is always optimism for next year! Even if these announcers do not directly work for the NFL, you get the feeling that they all have to tow the same line in order to stay on air.
I'm not getting the same feeling in 2009. I'm seeing pregame guys call the Browns "pathetic", plain and simple. There may be no arguing against that statement, but I still found it shocking. On the other end of the spectrum, I have heard more people use the nickname "Tom Terriffic" in regards to Brady than when he his team were division leaders. That could easily be the result of me not paying attention, but perhaps part of it is that they are afraid of people getting off the Patriots' bandwaggon, and are trying to do some damage control. Whatever happened to all of that love of parity?
The problem here is that there is too much football coverage. As such, the networks have to find things to talk about for far longer than anything needs to be talked about. This brings out conflicting ideas, and also allows each person to bring out their biases as they scrape for every last ounce of commentary. The answer, at least for me, would be to reduce the length and quantity of football programs. Let the networks' pre and post game guys come on for a half hour before and after the games, and during half time. No more coverage starting at 11:00 on Sunday, and then throughout the week. Leave the heaviest coverage to the local market networks and newspapers. Those guys may have biases, but we expect them there. I don't mind see lots of worship for Brady if I am up in Massachusetts, but he is one of the last things on anyone's mind here in Maryland. Don't assume we want to suck on the League's proverbial member because you're getting paid to.
An a relate note, football has been silently evolving into something more white collar for a while now, and every year this reality becomes more evident to me. I finally understood the concept of TV blackouts, and then saw it in effect (or rather, I saw nothing) when the Lions beat the Redskins. The sport is in a weird position where it both demands and spends a lot of money, in an economy where the fans cannot. This may work for a while, as the moneyed classes continue to "enjoy" the sport as a social event, but they are a fickle crowd who will never devote any loyalty to a team. You still need your diehard fans, and all I see is an NFL which is pushing them out of the picture. I love watching the game as much as anyone, but if I had to live without it, I could do so. Maybe one day I will do it by choice rather than necessity.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Netbook
...aaaand the reason I made my last post was because I recently had a successful time purchasing a brand new netbook. I have been looking to get one throughout 2009, so that I could get work done from the comfort of my couch, while still conversing and chilling with the roomates, instead of locking myself to my desktop upstairs. But I remembered my past purchasing gaffes, and hesitated to look for the right netbook for the job. I knew which brands were good, but which of those brands' models were the best? Which could I afford? Would I really benefit for finding one online? Did it matter if Linux wasn't preinstalled? These questions caused me to waffle over and over again. The solution was to stop thinking like a techie.
My g/f has a $300 Acer Aspire One, which I have had experience with, and which I found to offer enough power and features for the price. So when I found the similarly priced and speced EEE PC model at a retail outlet, I got it right then and there. No debating whether I should price compare online for an MSI Wind, or wondering if I would be content with Windows XP. I knew the EEE was a popular brand, and I knew it would offer the power I needed. I bought a new Flash drive to go along with it (holy crap memory is cheap), and that was that.
I don't care what anyone says - it was a good choice for me. The EEE is a great little piece of kit, with a crisp screen and enough power to suit my needs (and if not, a RAM upgrade will do the trick). Since I will not be using it as a primary PC, I don't mind having to trash and reinstall the OS on it if it ever starts to slow down. Bottom line, I will get years out of this netbook, and that makes it a worthy choice.
My only complaint was how tricky it was to get Linux running on it, though I understand that this is a silly thing to say when dealing with Linux. The problem is that the model of EEE PC I got has a newer set of ethernet/wireless hardware than previous versions, and support for them isn't built in to every distro (or at least not Ubuntu and even plain Debian). My final solution was to install the ethernet drivers (ignoring all the errors that come from them - they actually did install), update, reinstall with a new kernel, and finally dive into a backport repository to fix wireless. In the end, I got regular desktop Jaunty running at a great clip, and learned a lot along the way. A successful afternoon of hacking if I ever saw one.
So now the EEE is exactly where I want it, and I can't wait to play around with it in the coming weeks. Work has been extra busy as of late, and I'm thinking this will allow me to better unwind at home, and also keep me out of my bedroom for anything but sleeping (which is supposed to help with your sleeping). Wish me luck.
My g/f has a $300 Acer Aspire One, which I have had experience with, and which I found to offer enough power and features for the price. So when I found the similarly priced and speced EEE PC model at a retail outlet, I got it right then and there. No debating whether I should price compare online for an MSI Wind, or wondering if I would be content with Windows XP. I knew the EEE was a popular brand, and I knew it would offer the power I needed. I bought a new Flash drive to go along with it (holy crap memory is cheap), and that was that.
I don't care what anyone says - it was a good choice for me. The EEE is a great little piece of kit, with a crisp screen and enough power to suit my needs (and if not, a RAM upgrade will do the trick). Since I will not be using it as a primary PC, I don't mind having to trash and reinstall the OS on it if it ever starts to slow down. Bottom line, I will get years out of this netbook, and that makes it a worthy choice.
My only complaint was how tricky it was to get Linux running on it, though I understand that this is a silly thing to say when dealing with Linux. The problem is that the model of EEE PC I got has a newer set of ethernet/wireless hardware than previous versions, and support for them isn't built in to every distro (or at least not Ubuntu and even plain Debian). My final solution was to install the ethernet drivers (ignoring all the errors that come from them - they actually did install), update, reinstall with a new kernel, and finally dive into a backport repository to fix wireless. In the end, I got regular desktop Jaunty running at a great clip, and learned a lot along the way. A successful afternoon of hacking if I ever saw one.
So now the EEE is exactly where I want it, and I can't wait to play around with it in the coming weeks. Work has been extra busy as of late, and I'm thinking this will allow me to better unwind at home, and also keep me out of my bedroom for anything but sleeping (which is supposed to help with your sleeping). Wish me luck.
PC Hardware
Today I want to talk a bit about computer hardware, as a preface to the next topic I want to write about. After buying my college desktop back in 2003 (still my best and most thought out purchase), I have made every mistake in the book when it comes to buying computer parts, accessories, and everything in between. I have been suckered into buying "deals" that were actually rebate hells. I have bought on impulse rather than shopping around, causing me to overpay or get a lower quality product. I have bought on impulse without looking at what I needed, leaving me with hardware that was incompatible.
Most of this stems from the fact that I don't keep up to date with the latest and greatest tech when I am not in the market for it, and when I am, it typically means that something has broken, and I need a fix immediately. So of course I do not do any research - I cannot, or sometimes do not want to wait, and since I haven't had any time to save up money, my only requirement is that what I buy is cheap. The pricetag is the most misleading labels on a product, and burned me time and again.
The other problem is that no one makes buying hardware easy. Taking your time to do some research and comparisons will always help, not simply because you spend the time, but because spending that time forces you to spend even more in order to cross reference and check everything you read. Because that glowing review you read for a video card is guaranteed to be contradicted by a few others. Meanwihle hardware focused sites and message boards will have their own opinions, most of which are of little use for people who don't upgrade their hardware on a yearly basis.
Once you find the "one", that one answer to all of your troubles, your excitement will immediately diminish once you find out that it is either too expensive, too crappy, outdated, or that the true best product is out of your price range. The best video card I ever bought was the Radeon 9800 Pro. It took me almost a year, and a genuine price drop, to determine that it would meet my needs. My younger brother spent two months trying to research his own college PC, asking me questions almost nightly.
I am not trying to say we should not spend time looking into major purchases, but I do think that it is possible to overthink them. That is because the Internet can be a a hindrance as much as it is a help to shopping. For example, 'net denizens are often suspicious of premium, name brand products, which they fear (or simply know) are ripoffs . This is great when dealing with companies like Bose or Monster Cable. But there are other situations in which the reverse is true. PC enthusiasts will always recommend the highest quality RAM for your computer upgrades, and there are specific brands they chose for this purpose. If you stick with the former mentality, you will be screwed over by the multitude of cheap Chinese wares that flood even good sites like Newegg. If you go with the former, you will most certainly be swindled one time or another, and you will always have that doubt in your mind that you could have spent your money more wisely.
My solution to this dilemma is evolving, but it currently involves two major steps. First, never run out and buy non a new piece gear right away. Wait a while - a year if you have to - in order for the technology to get better and for the market to grow. Doing this successfully requires being happy with what you have, or if you have none, then being able to live without for a little while longer. Thankfully this isn't hard to do - any tech junkie that tells you otherwise is acting like a brat. The second step is to try and take good care of your hardware, including learning how it works and how to troubleshoot it. I almost trashed my (now six year old) college PC because of malfunctions, until I found out that a cooling fan was unplugged and that it was dusty as hell inside. I used the same tiny Flash drive for five years thanks to painter's tape and a sharp eye (so it doesn't get lost). A little bit of DIY can go a long way.
I have a third step that I am not quite prepared to believe in - sometimes it is worth going with the name brand for the sake of convenience and security. Can you find an MP3 player that is better and cheaper than an iPod? Of course. But I can finally see why people clamour for them. They just want to listen to their tunes, and with millions of iPod users out there, they can be confident that it will allow them to do just that.
I guess this can all be distilled into saying "when in doubt, play it safe." Now all I have to is follow through with future purchases.
Most of this stems from the fact that I don't keep up to date with the latest and greatest tech when I am not in the market for it, and when I am, it typically means that something has broken, and I need a fix immediately. So of course I do not do any research - I cannot, or sometimes do not want to wait, and since I haven't had any time to save up money, my only requirement is that what I buy is cheap. The pricetag is the most misleading labels on a product, and burned me time and again.
The other problem is that no one makes buying hardware easy. Taking your time to do some research and comparisons will always help, not simply because you spend the time, but because spending that time forces you to spend even more in order to cross reference and check everything you read. Because that glowing review you read for a video card is guaranteed to be contradicted by a few others. Meanwihle hardware focused sites and message boards will have their own opinions, most of which are of little use for people who don't upgrade their hardware on a yearly basis.
Once you find the "one", that one answer to all of your troubles, your excitement will immediately diminish once you find out that it is either too expensive, too crappy, outdated, or that the true best product is out of your price range. The best video card I ever bought was the Radeon 9800 Pro. It took me almost a year, and a genuine price drop, to determine that it would meet my needs. My younger brother spent two months trying to research his own college PC, asking me questions almost nightly.
I am not trying to say we should not spend time looking into major purchases, but I do think that it is possible to overthink them. That is because the Internet can be a a hindrance as much as it is a help to shopping. For example, 'net denizens are often suspicious of premium, name brand products, which they fear (or simply know) are ripoffs . This is great when dealing with companies like Bose or Monster Cable. But there are other situations in which the reverse is true. PC enthusiasts will always recommend the highest quality RAM for your computer upgrades, and there are specific brands they chose for this purpose. If you stick with the former mentality, you will be screwed over by the multitude of cheap Chinese wares that flood even good sites like Newegg. If you go with the former, you will most certainly be swindled one time or another, and you will always have that doubt in your mind that you could have spent your money more wisely.
My solution to this dilemma is evolving, but it currently involves two major steps. First, never run out and buy non a new piece gear right away. Wait a while - a year if you have to - in order for the technology to get better and for the market to grow. Doing this successfully requires being happy with what you have, or if you have none, then being able to live without for a little while longer. Thankfully this isn't hard to do - any tech junkie that tells you otherwise is acting like a brat. The second step is to try and take good care of your hardware, including learning how it works and how to troubleshoot it. I almost trashed my (now six year old) college PC because of malfunctions, until I found out that a cooling fan was unplugged and that it was dusty as hell inside. I used the same tiny Flash drive for five years thanks to painter's tape and a sharp eye (so it doesn't get lost). A little bit of DIY can go a long way.
I have a third step that I am not quite prepared to believe in - sometimes it is worth going with the name brand for the sake of convenience and security. Can you find an MP3 player that is better and cheaper than an iPod? Of course. But I can finally see why people clamour for them. They just want to listen to their tunes, and with millions of iPod users out there, they can be confident that it will allow them to do just that.
I guess this can all be distilled into saying "when in doubt, play it safe." Now all I have to is follow through with future purchases.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Football Season
Not much to talk about with the start of the current NFL season. It was an exciting enough first week, but it will not be indicative of how many teams perform down the stretch.
What I did find interest in was the simple, though oft repeated remark by ESPN's Bill Simmons about how football, a typically blue collar sport that captivates most of the nation, has become a white collar event, at least if you want to see it live. Tickets are pricey, parking is pricey, food is...pricey, which has been the case for long enough. But now you have teams charging for seat licences to help pay for and raise the profile of their pricey new stadiums. Meanwhile, the economy is making it so that longtime season ticket holders cannot afford their seats, and longtime waitlisters may not be able to act on their one and only chance.
As Simmons has pointed out, this leads to a situation in which homefield advantage means very little in some fields, where the only people who can afford to go do not really care that much about the team. The people who do are at home watching on a nice TV (which, while pricey, is easier to save up for than tickets), or at the bars. That's not the best situation for America's Game to be in. Thankfully, Hi Definition and good camera work can make the home experience pretty intensive. But how this obvious sign of class division can continue to go on without anyone really noticing or caring is more than a little unsettling.
What I did find interest in was the simple, though oft repeated remark by ESPN's Bill Simmons about how football, a typically blue collar sport that captivates most of the nation, has become a white collar event, at least if you want to see it live. Tickets are pricey, parking is pricey, food is...pricey, which has been the case for long enough. But now you have teams charging for seat licences to help pay for and raise the profile of their pricey new stadiums. Meanwhile, the economy is making it so that longtime season ticket holders cannot afford their seats, and longtime waitlisters may not be able to act on their one and only chance.
As Simmons has pointed out, this leads to a situation in which homefield advantage means very little in some fields, where the only people who can afford to go do not really care that much about the team. The people who do are at home watching on a nice TV (which, while pricey, is easier to save up for than tickets), or at the bars. That's not the best situation for America's Game to be in. Thankfully, Hi Definition and good camera work can make the home experience pretty intensive. But how this obvious sign of class division can continue to go on without anyone really noticing or caring is more than a little unsettling.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Pleasant Surprise
I just finished playing Wheelman, a fairly standard looking GTA clone starring Virtual Vin Diesel. But while the game might look unnecessary on the surface, Diesel's luck with the Chronicles of Riddick games rubbed off on it.
I won't go into a full schpiel until I write the review, but suffice to say that Wheelman ditches a lot of what has bogged GTA down over the years, in favor of a straightforward action film script, and missions that do their best to constantly elicit the excitement of a good car chase. Oh, and it doesn't make you travel to your mission every time you attempt it. The game isn't as memorable as GTA at its very finest, but ends up being worthy by not being full of itself.
I find myself gravitating to this kind of game lately - something stupid and relatively quick that I can start and finish on the weekend. I like to have momentum with any game I am playing, and when the work week leaves you with little time or energy, this becomes difficult. I might log 15 hours into an RPG during a light week, only to find it collecting dust two months later, when I have forgotten where I was and what was happening, and ultimately do not continue. With a simple action game, I can usually beat it in a handful of sittings, and if not, it can probably be polished off with an or two on Monday night. Worst case scenario, I call it quits, and guess how the cliche plot ends. This leads into the other advantage - this system plays well with Gamefly. I can get a game on Friday, mail it back on Sunday, and get another one the next Friday. The games spend their time in the mail on the days that I can't give them attention, and arrive exactly when I can. Plus it means I can get my money's worth from the service, while spending less on purchasing games (which I will then not play).
Most importantly, I find myself getting tired with everything else. I have played too many RPGs with piecemeal plots or 50+ hours. Too many games with OCD driven tasks. Too many highbrow, artsy titles that aren't actually fun. I still believe in the medium's ability to be something bigger than cheap thrills, but most that shoot for this lofty goal still come up short, and I do not have the time for that anymore. Give me the cheap thrills so I can actually stop thinking for a brief period during the week, and maybe save some money to be spent on other areas of interest.
I'm not abandoning gaming, but when life changes, sometimes your hobbies have to adapt.
I won't go into a full schpiel until I write the review, but suffice to say that Wheelman ditches a lot of what has bogged GTA down over the years, in favor of a straightforward action film script, and missions that do their best to constantly elicit the excitement of a good car chase. Oh, and it doesn't make you travel to your mission every time you attempt it. The game isn't as memorable as GTA at its very finest, but ends up being worthy by not being full of itself.
I find myself gravitating to this kind of game lately - something stupid and relatively quick that I can start and finish on the weekend. I like to have momentum with any game I am playing, and when the work week leaves you with little time or energy, this becomes difficult. I might log 15 hours into an RPG during a light week, only to find it collecting dust two months later, when I have forgotten where I was and what was happening, and ultimately do not continue. With a simple action game, I can usually beat it in a handful of sittings, and if not, it can probably be polished off with an or two on Monday night. Worst case scenario, I call it quits, and guess how the cliche plot ends. This leads into the other advantage - this system plays well with Gamefly. I can get a game on Friday, mail it back on Sunday, and get another one the next Friday. The games spend their time in the mail on the days that I can't give them attention, and arrive exactly when I can. Plus it means I can get my money's worth from the service, while spending less on purchasing games (which I will then not play).
Most importantly, I find myself getting tired with everything else. I have played too many RPGs with piecemeal plots or 50+ hours. Too many games with OCD driven tasks. Too many highbrow, artsy titles that aren't actually fun. I still believe in the medium's ability to be something bigger than cheap thrills, but most that shoot for this lofty goal still come up short, and I do not have the time for that anymore. Give me the cheap thrills so I can actually stop thinking for a brief period during the week, and maybe save some money to be spent on other areas of interest.
I'm not abandoning gaming, but when life changes, sometimes your hobbies have to adapt.
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Just Walk Away
Dammit, it happened again - I fell out of love with a gaming forum that I thought I would never leave. I lost count of the number of times this has happened, though I think I have finally figured out why it happens to me. It all has to do with the nature of the Internet.
Say you have a small, intelligent message board that somehow explodes in popularity. The arrival of new users of varying degrees of posting quality will eventually bring down the board's overall quality. You can't really stop this trend, however, so I find that the best thing to do in this situation is to move on and not lament.
Another scenario is that the board is part of a massive community website, in which users come and go quickly, and the idea of a "regular" is measured in the span of months. This causes the nature of its content to fluctuate, so that it will have "good" and "bad" periods of various lengths. The trouble here is that you never can tell where the forum is heading towards. You may join in when it is great, only to see it devolve into endless list threads. Will the next influx of regulars turn it around into something interesting? Or will the lists simply give way to something else that is aggravating? Usually it isn't worth finding out.
There is one more situation I am thinking of, and it applies to the forum that I am currently at. We often lament how the internet is hampered by people who are varying parts hateful and unintelligent, but just as troublesome is its ability to shelter us from the people and thoughts we do not want to hear from. When a community is so small, so tight knit, it tends to become insular and warped. Without fresh blood or fresh ideas to challenge the status quo, the members simply reinforce each others ideas until their belief becomes unshakeable. They also end up repeating themselves. You will hear about the same games time and again, and you will read the same debate play out exactly like it did a month or two ago. You can get to the point where you can accurately guess what news will be worth creating a post for, what people will say, and how others will respond. It becomes boring, and as the users keep going through the motions, they become caricatures of not only themselves, but the people they claim to avoid on the internet. The hate, the sarcasm, the snark all creep in, and they can't even tell that it has happened.
This time, I don't think I will go about looking for a new board to post in. If I find one, terrific, but if not I have plenty of good offline relationships to spend my time with. And if I do find myself on another one, I should be able to walk away before it gets on my nerves.
Say you have a small, intelligent message board that somehow explodes in popularity. The arrival of new users of varying degrees of posting quality will eventually bring down the board's overall quality. You can't really stop this trend, however, so I find that the best thing to do in this situation is to move on and not lament.
Another scenario is that the board is part of a massive community website, in which users come and go quickly, and the idea of a "regular" is measured in the span of months. This causes the nature of its content to fluctuate, so that it will have "good" and "bad" periods of various lengths. The trouble here is that you never can tell where the forum is heading towards. You may join in when it is great, only to see it devolve into endless list threads. Will the next influx of regulars turn it around into something interesting? Or will the lists simply give way to something else that is aggravating? Usually it isn't worth finding out.
There is one more situation I am thinking of, and it applies to the forum that I am currently at. We often lament how the internet is hampered by people who are varying parts hateful and unintelligent, but just as troublesome is its ability to shelter us from the people and thoughts we do not want to hear from. When a community is so small, so tight knit, it tends to become insular and warped. Without fresh blood or fresh ideas to challenge the status quo, the members simply reinforce each others ideas until their belief becomes unshakeable. They also end up repeating themselves. You will hear about the same games time and again, and you will read the same debate play out exactly like it did a month or two ago. You can get to the point where you can accurately guess what news will be worth creating a post for, what people will say, and how others will respond. It becomes boring, and as the users keep going through the motions, they become caricatures of not only themselves, but the people they claim to avoid on the internet. The hate, the sarcasm, the snark all creep in, and they can't even tell that it has happened.
This time, I don't think I will go about looking for a new board to post in. If I find one, terrific, but if not I have plenty of good offline relationships to spend my time with. And if I do find myself on another one, I should be able to walk away before it gets on my nerves.
Pink Floyd
In some cases, getting into a classic rock band is a straightforward process. You hear a couple of tunes you enjoy, do some research to find out which album people consider the best (or at least the best to start with), and check it out. If you like it, you do some more research and add to your collection.
But with some bands, this process is not so clean cut. Maybe they have too large of a discography, or their albums are a dizzying mix of live and studio recordings. Maybe they had distinct eras in which different members put their own spin on the sound. For me, Pink Floyd was one such challenge. I have had genuine exposure to them since I went to college in 2003, and it is only this year that I have grown to have an appreciation for their music. For many of the above reasons, as well as a few others, I found them incredibly challenging to "get into".
For starters, you have the fanbase. Even in 2009, every college campus has at least a few stoners who absolutely adore Floyd and all their works. These folks will easily expose you to them, but their passion is so great that it is difficult for them to recommend a good starting place for budding fans. Your other option is the radio, which isn't any better. Most classic rock stations rely on small stable of Pink Floyd songs which they reach for whenever they come up on the playlist. It mostly consists
of tracks from Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, with a handful of other tunes from the rest of their catalogue. Not only are these radio safe songs unable to demonstrate the band's full talent and style, but it is easy to grow tired of them. To this day, I still can't listen to Money. I believe that this overexposure was the major factor in keeping my interest in Floyd down for years. In any case, for a long while, I was completely indifferent to Floyd. I respected them as a major force in classic rock, and I would pay lip service to die hard fans that I talked to, as I knew enough about their history to sound like an expert. But deep down I had no urge to take a serious look at their music.
The solution to my troubles was purely accidental. I was driving around with my roomate for a few long trips, during which we listened to The Wall and Wish You Were Here almost to completion. Sitting there, being able to listen to these works the way they were intended to be heard, was the key. I had nothing to focus on but the music, thus all the subtleties and mezmerizing sounds were unlocked. I listened to them a few more times on my own, and I went from being indifferent to at least being interested. Then I purchased and listened to Animals on my own, and after that I was hooked.
Or at least, I would like to think I am hooked. But the only albums I have mentioned so far compromise the band's "Big Four", the releases which saw their best commercial success, and which many people think of when they think of what defines the Pink Floyd sound. But there were releases afterwards, when the band was in turmoil, and even more from before, when they were going through changes in their lineup and musical styles. I still haven't explored these offerings, and if my research is any indication, there is no guarantee that they will click with me in the same way. But for once I am willing to take a chance, and at the very least I have an anchor point. It took a long time to get to this point, but the journey was more than worth it.
But with some bands, this process is not so clean cut. Maybe they have too large of a discography, or their albums are a dizzying mix of live and studio recordings. Maybe they had distinct eras in which different members put their own spin on the sound. For me, Pink Floyd was one such challenge. I have had genuine exposure to them since I went to college in 2003, and it is only this year that I have grown to have an appreciation for their music. For many of the above reasons, as well as a few others, I found them incredibly challenging to "get into".
For starters, you have the fanbase. Even in 2009, every college campus has at least a few stoners who absolutely adore Floyd and all their works. These folks will easily expose you to them, but their passion is so great that it is difficult for them to recommend a good starting place for budding fans. Your other option is the radio, which isn't any better. Most classic rock stations rely on small stable of Pink Floyd songs which they reach for whenever they come up on the playlist. It mostly consists
of tracks from Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, with a handful of other tunes from the rest of their catalogue. Not only are these radio safe songs unable to demonstrate the band's full talent and style, but it is easy to grow tired of them. To this day, I still can't listen to Money. I believe that this overexposure was the major factor in keeping my interest in Floyd down for years. In any case, for a long while, I was completely indifferent to Floyd. I respected them as a major force in classic rock, and I would pay lip service to die hard fans that I talked to, as I knew enough about their history to sound like an expert. But deep down I had no urge to take a serious look at their music.The solution to my troubles was purely accidental. I was driving around with my roomate for a few long trips, during which we listened to The Wall and Wish You Were Here almost to completion. Sitting there, being able to listen to these works the way they were intended to be heard, was the key. I had nothing to focus on but the music, thus all the subtleties and mezmerizing sounds were unlocked. I listened to them a few more times on my own, and I went from being indifferent to at least being interested. Then I purchased and listened to Animals on my own, and after that I was hooked.
Or at least, I would like to think I am hooked. But the only albums I have mentioned so far compromise the band's "Big Four", the releases which saw their best commercial success, and which many people think of when they think of what defines the Pink Floyd sound. But there were releases afterwards, when the band was in turmoil, and even more from before, when they were going through changes in their lineup and musical styles. I still haven't explored these offerings, and if my research is any indication, there is no guarantee that they will click with me in the same way. But for once I am willing to take a chance, and at the very least I have an anchor point. It took a long time to get to this point, but the journey was more than worth it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)