My name is Jade. I am a Duranie.

So at 6:30 this morning I dragged my ass up out of bed, fed the Bell (my nickname for the gato of the casa) and stumbled back to bed, laptop in hand, to stream Star 98.7 - a LA station offering "today's music alternative." What does this mean? It means Avril. Nickelback. John Mayer (I've been told that he is a "hottie" when flipping by the station while in the car when they should have been mentioning that the guy is pretty damn funny). It also means that the love continues. The original plan for the day was to sleep in as after I slog through the day at work I am off to rush (I know, in LA traffic?) to the airport to head to Park City where I will arrive at about 10 PST. Last night I got the email that was similar to other messages that change my plans at a moment's notice: "John Taylor is going to be on Star in the morning!"To backtrack, I still remember sitting there in front of the telly watching Duran Duran perform on Saturday Night Live while my cousins played beside me. I am still pissed at my parents for not letting me see them in '84 because "I wasn't going to like them in a year." I camped out for tickets to see them in '87 back when you could spend the night on the street because there wasn't an internet to deal with. My teacher from the 6th grade saw my Mom a few years ago and told her that she still remembers all the names of the members because of me. Actually, as my Mom works in the school district that I went to, she does run into past teachers who all laughingly mention my love of Duran Duran, which gets the response of her sighing, nodding her head and cutting them short with "Yes. She still likes them," which makes them pause as if she had mentioned that I met a horrible fate in life. I can't help but smile when I read on the calendar that it is a "New Moon on Monday," look to see if hotels I am in have a Room 7609, make jokes referring to Sing Blue Silver and am still pissed that VH1 did not include the band's performance of "the Chauffeur" on the special they shot a few of years back at Sony where the fans in the audience sang the song as the band played their instruments for us. To some, my continued love of this band could be classified as such. To me, it is just a matter of loving them. Yes, I love the Pixies, the Mats, the Clash, Pistols, Oasis, the Ronettes, GnR, AC/DC gets blared (according to house rules set by my Dad one must blare AC/DC when they hear them) and many, many others, but none puts the big smile on my face like Duran Duran does. It is not a matter of only listening to their early material - no matter what they release I will buy it, I am there no matter the tour, and I will get my ass up early to stream their radio appearance even if it is less than 5 minutes long (as with today) because in my world, any day I hear them signals a good day as I start off in a decent mood. Trust me, my being in a decent mood pre-sugar (I mean, pre-tea) is not common - unless Duran is involved. I am unsure what it is about them. The music? I love it - I admit, they have released some crap in the past (everyone is entitled to their own opinion), but they have also released some great songs (including a few on their last release, Astronaut. Live? True, the last time I saw them in Vegas was bad, but they have also entertained me with some of the best shows I have seen (by the way, my Dad, chief engineer behind the "she won't like them in a year" campaign, loved them when he finally went to see them in the 90s). Friends? I have the most amazing group of people that I met through being a fan of the band. In fact, they were among the ones that helped the most when I lost nearly everything I owned (I was able to save a good 5% of my belongings) in a house fire last year. Is it a matter of going back to what brought happiness in my youth? Possibly. Truthfully though, they do continue to bring happiness with their new material as well as their older material. Do they fit in with my general taste in music? Hell, what does fit in with my general taste in music? These days it is a matter of listening to what I think sounds good. Even if it means waking up at 6:30 to configure the Mac to stream a 5 minute interview with my favorite member of the band (I lost all stereo equipment in the fire and am not replacing it until the house is rebuilt otherwise I would have just flipped the switch).