Ooops!  Don't forget the music.  I gotta have my hard rock, even though I grew up listening to all types of music.  I remember my mom and dad used to have this tape player... Oh wait!  They still have it.  Anyways, I remember how they used to blast their old music loud and proud while we (my bro's and sis's) were very young.  As a result, I malignantly became accustomed to the likes of Johnny Cash singing "How high's the water momma?," even whilst Cher wailed out her gypsy "Thieves, thieves, tramps, and thieves!"  Follow that with 60's retro like... ahem... "Oh yes, I'm the great Pretender... ooOOoooo."  Ok, well, I never said I could sing.  But that's not the point.  The point is this: . .  Did you miss it?  Take another look: . .  Try the zoom: . .  Need glasses?: . .  No?  Ok then, I guess you got the point.  No really now, the point is that I learned to enjoy that music even while my older siblings were rebelliously listening to that "damn loud 80's crap.  Turn off that music!"
     Yeah, I can still remember taping all those Top 40 hits while eagerly mastering the pause button in order to mask out those annoying bits where Dick Clark got in the way... or was it Casey Kasem (damn, I always get those two confused).  And this was the 80's stuff, too.  You know, like Prince crying about doves and Madonna trying to be a virgin.  Still, I learned to like that stuff.  I may not be hip or cool anymore, but growing up listening to all sorts of music sort of made it easy to learn to tolerate all the different forms of music out there.  To me, that's cool. In fact, I can put up with everything from P. Diddy to Beethoven.  Unfortunately, I've found that I only really enjoy rock. And that means all kinds of rock: hard, soft, heavy, light, classic, new wave, alternative, no alternative... ok, I made that last one up.  Indeed, my favorite bands all spring from this genre.  If one were to look at my CD collection, one would only see things like the Wallflowers, Blue Oyster Cult, Sponge, Fuel, Matchbox 20, and the like.
     By far, though, my two most favorite bands would have to be Def Leppard and Collective Soul.  The first I've always liked, ever since they hit it big with Hysteria, which is when I first discovered that they even existed.  It's weird that I liked the second, though.  I distinctly recall never liking the first song that helped them to hit the big time.  In fact, I still don't like it that much, enough that I don't even remember the name of it, and never bought the first album (though the title is cool: Hints, Allegations, and Other Things Left Unsaid).  However, I have loved everything else that they have ever put out since, without fail, especially since "The World I Know."  Hell, I even like ALL the other songs from all the albums since, enough to make me want to play the whole album, rather than just specific songs.  That's when I knew they were a favorite band, b/c there was only one other band who consistently swept me off my feet.  I can't help it.  I just like 'em.  And if you don't like it, fahr zur holle!  That means "I love you," by the way.

This page was last updated on July 12, 2006