Midnight Music

I have been having trouble sleeping (I'm having doubts if I'll ever sleep normally again). So I've been listening to music again. That is to say I've been getting back into music and not just passively listening to it. I was going through a playlist of The Shins and I realized I listen to "Oh, Inverted World" more and more. I had some mixed emotions about his. The Shins are one of the few new bands I get excited for. I always thought they would develop. When I heard "Wincing the Night Away" I thought they grew as a band and produced a better album. Oddly enough I keep coming back to the first of their three albums. Is it possible for a band to make a better album that I like to listen to less than inferior work (not that any of the albums are bad)? It struck me as close to tragic as I like all the music The Shins have put out. Am I doomed to like the first the most even when a band has developed and improved? Or am I just in a mood that brings me to songs like: "Caring is Creepy", "Know Your Onion!", "New Slang", and "The Past and Pending". Then again: "A Comet Appears"," Sealegs", and "Splited Needles" are some really really good songs.

I've also made a decision my favorite "new" band is no longer Islands. Part of reason is I've heard the band has broken up and are no more. Even if they were making music I think LCD Soundsystem would take the title anyways. There are a lot of ways one could describe LCD, but I like saying they are like the Killers if the Killers were as good as they thought they were. I doubt any of my readers have heard of either Islands or LCD, but give them a try, you won't be disappointed. Also if you are looking for songs to download to see if you would be interested in LCD Soundsystem I personally like "Get Innocuous!" and "Someone Great" the most. However others have said "North American Scum" is the best.

Keeping it Real with RealFruitBeverage

When I think about myself who I am and what I am I sometimes find some interesting generalities that extend to a larger group besides me. To the ladies who read this blog (all two or maybe three of you) I'm going to let you in on a little secret about men. The vast majority of men are jealous and violent. I'm not saying all guys are that way, but enough to say you can assume that a guy is a jealous and violent person unless proven otherwise. This generality is limited I think to romantic relations for the most part. I don't know where these tendencies come from: are they socially taught, do they come from a sense of inadequacy or lack of self esteem, is it biologically hard wired for us to want to dominate competitors, or are we just jerks? I don't know, and I'm sure the reasons for a guy being jealous and having violent thoughts vary from guy to guy and are probably a mixture of different factors. So the cause is complicated. I'm not making a commentary on the cause I'm simply stating what is.

I know what the couple of ladies are saying, "wait I know plenty of guys who aren't that way, or I've dated several guys that aren't that way, or I'm married to a great man who isn't that way." Another argument if my claim is true, why aren't guys just beating the life out of each other all the time? This becomes an issue of guys controlling tendencies or the output of thoughts. That is to say while you might have a perfectly calm and reasonable guy on the outside, inside he is a turbulent storm, or he just wants to punch the face in of another guy he is jealous of and of course he is jealous. I have a lot of friends that are mild mannered. From them I've heard them say they would like to punch in the face every ex a girlfriend has had, or bite the nose off of all the ex's, set fire to an ex's car, stab, shoot, elbow, or put an ex in a reverse arm bar and whisper something unpleasant in his ear while thinking that the poor sap has no idea he will never be able to use that arm again.

We don't act out these very real desires for a number of reasons. The most common pointed to (but I don't know if it is the most common reason) is we know that things like that are wrong so we choose not to execute these very real desires. Other reasons range from fear of doing the act, inability, laziness, and many others. The reasons and excuses not to act on our jealousy in a violent manner are enough to keep the male population in good behavior for the most part. But remember no matter how mild mannered a guy seems there is a good chance he has very strong real feelings of jealousy that express themselves in violent thoughts.

I'm not advocating men do act on such desires or that feeling this way is a good thing. I just think it is important to recognize every once in a while that there are things about us that aren't pleasant.