John's Blog

I can be such a lazy ass sometimes. Heck, if truth were to be told I'd have to admit that the real answer is MOST of the time, but I suppose this blog is evidence of that as well. After resisting the pre-release hype of the new "album" from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and refusing to pre-order it from iTunes, I did an immediate "about face" the moment it came out and clicked on the old "buy album" button. I'm sure it would have been cheaper if I had just pulled into the Target I pass everyday on the way home from work and picked up the CD. But it's so darned convenient to be able to multitask from the comfort of my house and order stuff on-line that my instinct now has me inclined to make as many purchases as possible from the web. One line in the sand I haven't crossed yet is getting groceries on-line. I did go as far as setting up a Peapod account, but I've never used it. I hate grocery shopping, but buying groceries on-line somehow seems unnatural and requires too much planning. I'll keep doing THAT the old fashioned way...for now.

I'm not quite sure why we are still calling these things "albums". If you go back far enough to times of old, when they listened to 78RPM records, they couldn't get that much content on a disc. So longer recordings were issued on multiple disks, bound together in a book which would resemble a photo album. When this format was made obsolete with the release of the 33&1/3RPM record, the multiple disks went away, but the name did not. And we are still stuck with the monicker today, which seems so odd when the process is totally digital as it is these days.

The last time I bought a commercial album/CD release was ironically the last one from RHCP, "By The Way". It's hard to believe that almost four years have passed since this came out. As much as I like that one, which certainly wasn't as strong as some of their previous work, the new one "Stadium Arcadium" is right up there with some of the best stuff they've ever done. The sound is a bit more mature, but it still covers all the bases that fans of the band would have come to expect. I'm sure there will be some fans of their older stuff that might be disappointed that that it wasn't as hard or as funky as what they've done before, but I'd disagree. There's a lushness and a fullness to this album that pulls me in and gets better each time I listen to it. The album "totally rocks" if you'll allow my "inner 18yr old" to speak for a moment. Needless to say, that's all I've been listening to since I got it.

So when Nicole, who is hosting a week long "meme-a-thon" on her blog, ask folks to answer questions using only the song titles from a chosen band, my response was inevitable:
Musician I chose: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Male or female: If You Have To Ask
Describe yourself: No Chump Love Sucker
How do some people feel about you: Skinny Sweaty Man
How do you feel about yourself: Johnny Kick a Hole In The Sky
Describe your ex: Under The Bridge
Describe your current significant other: Catholic School Girls Rule
Describe where you want to be: Higher Ground
Describe how you live: Naked In The Rain
Describe how you love: I Could Die For You
What would you ask for if you had just one wish: I Like Dirt
Share a few words of wisdom: True Men Don't Kill Coyotes
Now say goodbye: If You Want Me To Stay...