1. Nirvana- One of the most influential bands in my life.
2. Sublime- Can someone make it stop?!
3. Depeche Mode- I’ll just sit here in a pool of my own drool.
4. Linkin Park- I need toilet paper
5. No Doubt- They were good once upon a time when Gwen was not in the band.
6. Rage Against the Machine- What a great band I never listened to.
7. U2- Can someone tell them to stop trying? It’s not funny anymore!
8. Green Day- They’re so punk!
9. Beastie Boys- Not particularly fond of them, but I have some nice memories associated with their music.
10. Red Hot Chili Peppers- *Yawn*
11. Blink-182- Nothing good has ever come out of Poway.
12. System of a Down- Another good band I don’t listen to.
13. The Smashing Pumpkins- Everyone is entitled to the mistakes of their adolescence. I just grew out of it.
14. Korn- Don’t you get those on your feet?
15. Bob Marley- Legend.
16. Metallica- They’re still around?
17. The Offspring- I love how the only creativity they can muster up nowadays is ripping of Beatles’ riffs.
18. The Cure- They should’ve stopped after Disintegrator. Really.
19. Incubus- I can only think of Electric Hellfire Club. When I actually hear Incubus, it’s ALWAYS a letdown.
20. Stone Temple Pilots- They’re funny.
21. Pearl Jam- I agree with Kurt Cobain on them: they were nothing more than corporate rock schlocks.
22. Tool- Where did they go wrong?
23. Radiohead- OK Computer and Kid A are the most revolutionary albums in the music world since Elvis Presley.
24. 311- HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA!
25. Nine Inch Nails- For a guy with so much talent, it’s a shame he couldn’t make better music.
26. Weezer- Damn they were fun for a while.
27. Candle of Filth- Isn’t it Cradle of Filth? Blech.
28. The Smiths/Morrissey- Always a fun listen when I’m in a glum mood.
29. Jane’s Addiction- The original incarnation of JA was the pinnacle of LA rock in the late 80s early 90s.
30. Oingo Boingo- I miss their annual Halloween concerts here in LA.
31. Alice In Chains- Such a shame Layne. Now they are merely a footnote in the history of Seattle rock.
32. Limp Bizkit- When I first heard them in ’96 I thought they were mediocre. Then they did that version of George Michael’s “Faith” and I just about puked.
33. The Clash- RIP Joe Strummer.
34. Dave Matthews Band- If I were a patchouli lovin’ hippie, I might actually like these guys. Face it: Jerry Garcia is dead.
35. Creed- Why must everyone sound like Eddie Vedder? Ugh!
36. The Ramones- Who’s the next Ramone to die?
37. Staind- Who cares?
38. The Used- Eh.
39. Bush- Where’s my cyanide capsule?
40. Bad Religion- Another band that needed to stop in the 90s.
41. Foo Fighters- Dave Grohl is a huge disappointment.
42. GlassJaw- Zzzzzzz
43. Soundgarden- Eh. I guess they were all right.
44. Garbage- They were fun in high school
45. Gods and Monsters- Quien?
46. Violent Femmes- Their novelty never wears off.
47. Rob Zombie/White Zombie – White Zombie was good. Rob Zombie just needs to give up.
48. David Bowie- Ziggy Stardust will always have a place in my CD collection.
49. Godsmack- How dare they reference Alice in Chains?!
50. Duran Duran- Weren’t the fags?
51. P.O.D.- We rrrrrrrrock and we’re xian! Grrrrrrrr.
52. Coldplay- I wouldn’t change the radio station if one of their songs came on.
53. Beck- Best song: “Satan Gave Me a Taco”.
54. Eminem- I’d do him if he puts a paper bag over his head.
55. Deftones- Zzzzzzz
56. Cypress Hill- zzzzzzzzz
57. Switched- Quien?
58. Jimmy Eat World- I can’t believe a shitty band used my name.
59. Tori Amos- For a while she could do no wrong. Then that double album came out and it’s been rubbish since then.
60. Moby- Dick!!!!!!!
61. Skinny Puppy- *drool*
62. Mudvayne – Zzzzzzz
63. Live- Strangely, I actually do sorta like them.
64. Hole- Pretty on the Inside and Live through This are great albums. But Courtney really does need help.
65. Rancid- Someone needs speech therapy!
66. Fatboy Slim- You thought Moby was bad?
68. Marilyn Manson – Too many good memories in high school associated with MM to bad mouth him.
69. Save Ferris- Zzzzzz.
70. The Sex Pistols- Zzzzzz.
72. Billy Idol- I fuck him in the ear.
73. The Strokes- Zzzzzzz
74. Claire Voyant- ZZZZzzzz
75. Primus- Zzzzzzz. The humor wears very thin.
76. The Go-Go’s- Alex the Seal!!!!
77. Everclear- Horrible band, but they did a kick ass version of the Smiths’ “How Soon is Now” on this comp I have.
78. Björk- Influential.
79. Dramarama- Hehehhehee. KROQ’s Flashback at Lunch.
80. Prodigy- They were all right
81. Ill nino – Quien? That’s a stupid name by the way.
82. Cake- Talented musicians, but I never got into them.
83. MxPx- Whoever wrought this evil upon the world should just be shot.
84. Third Eye Blind- What assholes.
85. Sum 41- The Tiffany of teenagers nowadays.
86. Travis- Zzzzzz. People seem to like them, but I have yet to figure out why.
87. Papa Roach- Zzzzzz. Whatever.
88. Encode- Quien?
89. A Perfect Circle- I really don’t like their cover of Failure’s “The Nurse Who Loved Me”. Bleah.
90. New Found Glory- Ugh.
91. The Cranberries- Eh.
92. Lit- Who cares about them anymore?
93. The B-52’s- Fun fun fun!
94. Puddle of Mudd- Zzzzzz.
95. Blur- They’re probably the most fun out of all of the British bands.
96. Unwritten Law- Zzzzz.
97. Pet Shop Boys- I’ve been listening to them for forever, and I still don’t know what to think of them.
98. Hoobastank- Zzzzzz
99. X- They are second to the Germs of best LA punk bands.
100. Lenny Kravitz- For as much drugs as he does, he looks damned hot.
101. Adema- Zzzzzz.
102. Echo & the Bunnymen- One hit wonder. Whatever.
103. Kid Rock- I bet you he’s regretting doing that Coors commericial where he’s hanging out with the Raiders. Hehehhehe.
104. End of the Rope- Quien? What a stupid name.
105. Everlast/House of Pain- Eh. Whatever.
106. Faith No More- Wow.
107. Ozzy Osbourne – He should have given up 20 years ago. Please stop for the sake of humanity. Please!!
In other news, I am feeling really butch right now. I got a flat and changed the tire all by myself. WOooooo!!!! I R Man!
The only reason I really look forward to my birthday is that I get time off from work and that I usually rent an Airbnb out in the middle of the desert in the Joshua Tree vicinity with a pool, hot tub, and no one around for 5 acres. So here I am in Landers (or a bit away from it really) whose claim to fame was that it was the epicenter of a 7.3 earthquake in 1992 just hours before a separate 6.5 earthquake centered in Big Bear hit on a Sunday morning. Wild stuff.
I arrived here yesterday, and on the way had to stop to get gas. Since this stupid fucking illegal war with Iran has driven gas prices sky high again, I’ve mostly been back on public transit again because, fuck that. There I was at the Arco station jaw agape as the $30 went to $40 and on up until it landed at $72 for 13 gallons of gas. Yes, the “cheap” gas.
I’m going to be spending most of the time in or around the pool trying to finish Schattenfroh by Michael Lentz. I’m at around page 604, so I have about 400 more pages to go. I’ll be honest — I have no fucking clue what’s going on in the book. It’s a slow, slow read and demands your attention but not in a painstaking way. It’s a very enjoyable read, but I honestly don’t know how we get from one part to the next. Instead of trying to make sense of it, I’m just riding the wave, going where it’s taking me and try to make sense of it later.
I’ve started working on a couple of things with myself and hope to get better at as I begin my 48th year on this planet: I have started to journal more. It’s the most mundane scatterbrained thing. I hope it doesn’t cause someone’s head to explode when they go through my journals after I’m dead. (How cute. I think I have any importance that people will actually read what I write rather than just dispose it like they should.)
I need to curb my YouTube addiction. I don’t watch tv shows. I don’t watch sports all that much. I don’t use TikTok. I only doomscroll through Facebook at 3 am after I have woken up to take a piss. I am no longer perpetually online. But I will sit down and waste hours upon hours watching YouTube videos. I really need to get that in check.
That’s all I’ve got. Overall, I’m not happy, but I’m not completely depressed. Let’s just call it nonplussed. For someone who feels like a stranger in his own country, I guess that’s about as good as we can hope for.
Occasionally, after reading certain books, when his disgust for daily life became particularly marked, he longed for the lenitive hours immersed in a cloister…
There is just a clause in the above sentence in the first chapter for J.-K. Huysman’s The Damned (Là-Bas) that really stuck out to me: “when his disgust for daily life became particularly marked.”
I had to go back to work today after two weeks off. The first week I did a road trip that culminated in being in a cabin for two days in Choteau, Montana that had a hot tub. It was nice to sit in the hot jets while it was 18F (-8C) outside. Then I meandered my way home before just doing nothing for the second week. Just sitting with my cats, sleep, and tell myself I was going to mop my floors before doing none of that.
After these weeks of doing a whole bunch of nothing, to my horror it was time to go back to work. The dread of walking into my office which I liken to a monkey cage at the zoo, plugging in my laptop and opening Outlook. Emails filled with complaints. That was the dread that was inside of me.
So I get it when Huysman’s protagonist Durtal has a “disgust for daily life.” It’s certainly reassuring that not a lot has changed over the last 130 or so years.