Random Notes

I'm not a music guy. My iPod is loaded with songs I like, but it's not part of the culture that drives me. My interest in songs is more like that of a bird spotting something shiny; I line the mental nest without insight as to how any of it got there.

I pick up layers of appreciation through friendship. Nugent taught me opera and musicals -- the latter of which was cemented by Gravely in college -- and McKenna slathered on layers of rock and punk, and got me to watch enough rock docs to give me a slight working knowledge of modern music history.

Nobody has managed to make me like country, for which I'm grateful.

Rolling Stone compiled a list of the top fifty albums of the decade. I'm completely shocked, SHOCKED!, to learn I only have one of them on the iPod: Green Day's American Idiot. I have three of their best songs: Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out"; Britney Spears' "Toxic"; and Green Day's "American Idiot."

I only have a subscription to Rolling Stone because Amazon gave it to me for $1.