Thoughts On The Past, A Look To The Future

(A brief respite from my usual updates to dabble in a bit of reflection and conjecture.)

As it becomes undeniably clear that my time at King's, and in London, is sadly nearing it's tail-end, I've slowing been running out of things to entertain myself with, which of course leaves an abundance of time to think.

About life, what I want to do, where I want to go, who I want to be.
About my budget, my impending final exams, summer internships, my final-year courses at Case.
About how, in a year from now, I'll be out buying suits for job interviews with companies possibly all over the states, or even the world.

Granted it's been a decently uneventful week, with patches of productivity here and there, but when am I doing all this thinking?! And why?!

Maybe it's the fact that I spend more time looking at photographs of amazing destinations rather than visiting them, or the approaching break, with people's many-paged itineraries spanning multiple countries, that lights a fire in my mind and imagination. I'll never tire of living vicariously through Anthony Bourdain, but when will it be my turn? When can I begin my journey actually discovering this amazingly huge and exotic world, rather than stagnating in a desk-chair? Inevitably, I tell myself that what will come, will come, and that if it's something that I truly want to experience, than it becomes an eventuality.

Somewhere, sometime down the road, I'll be reading this from a hammock in Thailand, laughing at my youthful naivety and childish yearnings to explore and to wonder. But don't we all? Aren't we all fated to tire of our nest, to bust out the newly-developed wings and hop out of the tree? Granted, there's always the chance you'll plummet to the ground, or end up on someone's dinner plate..

But it's the future, nonetheless.

While I'm in the zone, I'm just going to type away. No idea what's coming, or why I'm thinking about these things, or even why I'm doing it on here.

Might as well start with a bit on the past before I get back to my 'future' rant. Plus I'm feeling music-y right now. So.. yeah..

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A long time ago, I noticed that sometimes when hearing a particular song, my mind flashed back Lost-style to a moment or a feeling ingrained in memory. Whatever I was doing at the time was forever defined by that song, and so became one of my systems of categorization or relation: music. Over the years, the filing cabinets in my head continued to grow; whether it was Linkin Park's 'In The End' procuring memories of my first time playing Nintendo's 'Zelda: The Ocarina of Time', Good Charlotte's 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous' transporting me back to middle school dances, or even Sean Paul's 'Get Busy' and t.A.T.u.'s 'All The Things She Said' reminding me immediately of playing the original Medal of Honor PS2 game with my best friend Tom. And those are just to name a few quite literally off the top of my head.

Anyway, I've recently begin associating music with entire phases of my life. No idea why, but hearing a certain song just takes me back, if only for a moment. And that's awesome in my opinion. With my love of music, what a great way to remember. Some of the bigger examples:

Grade School: I've gotta go with Linkin Park's 'In The End'. Literally defined my pre-teen musical existence and laid a foundation for a rock-based musical taste.
Runner-ups: Smash Mouth's 'All Star' (Who didn't love Smash Mouth?!) or anything by Weird-Al. Just reading that makes me laugh.

Early High School: It was all about Avenged Sevenfold's first album. Angry, loud, rhythmically solid, musically enjoyable - just what the teen ordered.
Runner-up: Probably AFI's 'Sing The Sorrow'. Just remember loving that album. Blink-182 and Red Hot Chili Peppers were big as well.

Middle High School: Hands down - Taking Back Sunday's 'Tell All Your Friends'. The obvious choice for those 'emo' years. Still a fantastic album, even today. Definitely the point in my life where I just wanted to make and enjoy music. Right around then, I started teaching myself the guitar. Plus these guys held my 'Favorite Band of All-time!' moniker for years after.
Runner-up: Bright Eyes' 'Fevers and Mirrors'. Still another fantastic album from what became an acquired taste. Props to my boy Joe Weinzierl for getting me into them early on - considering they're still in my top ten for favorite bands, with Conor Oberst at #2 for favorite writer, I'd say he done me good. More great Joe finds: Against Me! and The Aquabats!

Late High School: Another easy choice - Say Anything's '..Is A Real Boy'. Still might be my favorite album of all-time (man, I'm throwing the 'all-time' around a bit much, aren't I?). Max Bemis = #1 favorite song-writer, even if the following albums weren't of the same caliber.
Runner-ups: Either Arcade Fire's 'Neon Bible' or Modest Mouse's 'We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank'. Both solid albums. And that was about the time I really started getting into music, what with the multiple bands, and the major beginning of my song-writing career.

Then it was off to college, the land of infinite musical discovery and possibility (thank you Shakespeer pre-shut down, and torrents!).

Freshman Year
First Semester: Realistically, I was still very much into Say Anything. But the song that transports me back is forever going to be Beirut's 'The Gulag Orkestar'. Probably defined my future folk-binge more that I'm even aware, and began my long future of finding, and falling in love with, non-mainstream bands.
Runner-ups: Neutral Milk Hotel's 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea' and Andrew Bird's 'A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left'.
Second Semester: Animal Collective's 'Winter's Love'. Any song that has 110 plays on my iTunes and held the 'Most Played' spot for almost two years has to be good. Just amazing stuff, and probably one of the most potent flashes of sitting in the Pierce third floor common room with some people, watching snow fall outside.
Runner-ups: As funny as it is, it's gotta go to Animal Collective's album that came out at the beginning of that semester - 'Merriweather Post Pavilion'. Amazing album; almost an entirely new sound from a band I thought was just some crazy, experimental folk. Have to give a bit of credit to The Decemberists as well.

Sophomore Year
First Semester: Sufjan Steven's 'Illinois'. Another contender for favorite album of all-time, with Sujan holding his own in the top-5 for favorite writers. The song 'John Wayne Gacy, Jr.' still gives me chills and sparked an entirely new style of songwriting in my own music.
Runner-ups: The Shin's 'New Slang', Death Cab For Cutie's 'The Sound of Settling', and Radical Face's 'Welcome Home'.
Second Semester: Sufjan Steven's monopoly over my entire sophomore year was complete when I fell in love with his instrumental album 'The BQE'. Just a fascinating and enthralling piece of work that had me considering music composition for sometime. Remember how 'Winter's Love' used to hold the top spot in most plays? Yeah, this ENTIRE ALBUM replaced it. That means I've listened to this entire album more times over the last two years than just a single song. If it's any indication, the most played song from the album has 170 PLAYS! Unreal.
Runner-ups: Cursive's 'The Ugly Organ' and Brand New's 'The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me' (this album actually makes me think of lunch breaks in my car while working at Baker over the summer).

Junior Year
First Semester: Local Native's 'Gorilla Manor'. Loved this album, but no idea why it reminds me SO much of last term.. Any song just throws my back into that tiny room in Noble, or walking to class along Euclid.. Crazy.
Runner-ups: Johnny Flynn's 'A Larum' and Weezer's 'Pinkerton'

Something else crazy happened last semester: I started REALLY getting into classical music and classically-composed movie soundtracks. Just found it to be fantastic study music. So special mention goes to every John Williams composition EVER (his station is my Pandora study station!) and Thomas Newman's 'The Shawshank Redemption' soundtrack, amongst all the classic composers who show up on that station as well.

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Now that's not to say that any or all of these artists or albums made it to the top of my 'desert island' list, as my esteemed pal Anthony Bourdain would say (granted, they probably would, but I'm making a point). These are just examples of songs or albums that will forever be programmed in memory as representing a specific time in my life; it's quite interesting, really. At least I find it so. And it being my blog, what I say, goes. Quite literally.

And you, the reader, are not entitled to an opinion on the matter. You may enjoy my aimless recollection, attempt at humour, and meanderings through personal musical-related history. Or you may enjoy my pretty pictures, of which there probably won't be many until I get back from my trip to Italy.

There will certainly be an abundance of pretty pictures after that!

.. but I will agree with you that the whole music thing was quite random. Let's just go with 'Rick's feeling musically nostalgic and wants to preserve records of that music and those memories for posterity's sake'. Plus, this is going to be a hoot when I'm reading it thirty years from now from a wristwatch hologram projector in the back of my flying car. Most def.

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Anyway, now that I've traipsed through the past a bit, it comes back around to that future-speak of 'what-if's' and 'where-to's'. Well, to put it bluntly: in my boredom during intermission of a recent Pen's game, I began something I'd always considered a bit silly until I started making it. It was a Bucket List. Now, there's the contingent (part of myself included) that believes a 20-year old making a Bucket List is a tad unnecessary. But like I said earlier, I've given myself far too much time to just think and imagine, mostly in the wee hours of the evening. And so, after looking through National Geographic's "Ultimate Adventure Bucket List", I figured 'what the hell?', and gave it a go.

SO. As a record for future me to behold, add to, and cross off from, here's what I came up as a start (in no order whatsoever):

Rick's Bucket List (so far!)
- Climb Mount Everest

- Hike the Triple Crown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Crown_of_Hiking)
- Publish a book
- Get a song on a national radio station (and/or record and sell an album)
- Invent something
- Be in a movie
- Visit all seven continents (most definitely including Antarctica!) 

- Swim in every ocean (man, that Arctic Ocean is going to be cold..)
- Kiss the Blarney Stone
- Go to the top of the Empire State Building
- Swim in the Great Barrier Reef
- Visit every US state at least once (Number left = ~28, I think!)
- Stand on the Great Wall of China 

- Visit the rainforest
- Learn to surf
- Go skydiving
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That's the best, most realistic list that I could come up with right off the start. I'm sure I'll think of a bunch more things over time. We'll see how it goes..

But to end on a hopeful note, I have a long and successful life ahead of me, so there's no reason to worry about the future, or to 'plan ahead' any farther than I need to. Plus, everything's going to be much easier when I'm a millionaire in a couple years. Wooooooooooo

No, but seriously. I've got some ideas.. gonna blow your mind..

.. and the music careers bound to hit it off any day now..

.. any day now..

Cheers!