man. lately i've been crazy busy. and it's not even like i've DONE a lot, i've just ...been out a lot.for instance, last night we smoked and then played hacky-sack. you know, that game with the bean bag ball thing that you hit with your feet? we sucked. and then we played rummy. and considered risk, but none of us know how to play and we'd smoked too much to learn anything new at that point. ugh. i can't believe i have to work. not only is my presence here completely unnecessary (there are FOUR of us here! for no reason! i haven't had a phone call in two hours!), but i was going to go hiking in seashore state park today and now everyone's out there having fun BUT me. but anyhow, we were listening to music the whole time and it was fantastic. first of all: *the mountain goats* are always lovely. i made everyone listen to "no children", easily the most cynical and ironic song OF ALL TIME, and then i played "lion's teeth" because it's just awesome. and we all sort of decided that *CCR* is one of the greatest bands of all time, hands down.now, see, what i find fascinating about *CCR* is that their music is genuinely good, and (just about) everyone knows their songs. why? because it played on THE RADIO.this means that there was a time when good fucking music got airtime. you know, actually got played on the radio because people liked it.i get accused of being snobby a lot because i pretty much can't listen to the radio without making gagging noises. i recall, wistfully, the days when i could listen to the radio and actually enjoy the stuff i was hearing. i also get accused of snobbishness when my favorite bands suddenly START getting radio play and i get freaked out. but i think this is the natural cycle of things.see, the radio used to be good. you had bands like *CCR*, *Zeppelin*, *Pink Floyd*, *Bob Dylan*, etc etc etc that all played on the radio. the music was good, and it was popular, all at the same time. that's so rare now, it blows my mind. and then, slowly, it started to be more about sales, more about appealing to the absolute MAXIMUM number of people you possibly could, and the music just got worse and worse. and now, i can hardly think of any "mainstream" acts that don't entirely suck. and everyone's jumping on this "indie bandwagon", thinking that *panic at the disco* makes them like, soooo cool. puke.but it's amusing at the same time - i don't know anyone who's actually _into_ music that doesn't think they're a joke band. i mean, i'm just using them as an example, you could sort of shove a bunch of band names into that one slot. so it's almost like our own little litmus test - how to tell between the people who think it's "cool" and the people who actually get the music. it's depressing, lately.on the other hand, last night we listened to *pantera*, and while i'm not too big on them, they were completely kicking my ass last night. it's like these enormous periods of time when they're just hammering their instruments and it's like, intense. and stuff.and because everyone should hear this song at least once, please enjoy "*NO CHILDREN*":http://www.vgshock.com/music/The%20Mountain%20Goats%20-%20No%20Children.mp3 because *john darnielle* is (way) cooler than you.