July 27th, 2010

Moodily speaking

Various items of late have been contributing to my good mood–sunshine, Toy Story 3, nice friends, pizza, etc. I also got what probably the nicest massmail ever, and I thought I’d share it. It was from the guy who used to run CD Baby. I bought a cd from him back in the day (according to his records, 2003), not because I had ever even heard of CD Baby, but because it was the only thing that came up when I tried to buy Electroshock Blues Live album (they no longer have it; weirdly, they do have something by a band called Unagi, which came up in my Eels search!)

Point? What point? Oh, yeah, so apparently a couple years ago the founder of CDBaby, Derek Sivers, gave the company to charity and himself to other projects. Why do I know this? Because he sent me a really friendly massmail to tell me. I don’t think his other projects are going to make him the kind of millions selling music did, but they are pretty cool. Especially the Music Thoughts website, which has a “random thought” generator that is good fun. I am a sucker for random (as you regular readers will know), but unlike say, the random kitten generator, the random music thoughts actually make me feel a bit smarter! Ie., “The poem the reader reads may be better than that which the writer wrote.” (Brian Eno) This actually helps me! (ok, so do the kittens, but in a different way).

What else is good? Ooooh, new Meatloaf song! You can totally mock me after you listen to it–but you won’t, because it’s brilliant. I liked ML when I was a youth, too, and knew even then it wasn’t cool. Then a couple years ago, I got sucked into watched a Meatloaf biopick (stupid internet appears to deny all knowledge of said film) and he was clearly a guy I could get behind–and admit it! I mean, “I’m just a white boy/I play a guitar/I put my pants on/I drive a sh*t car.” Hooray for rock and roll!

You know, I think the main problem with my life right now is that I don’t have a toad. In my childhood, summers were full of toads–it seemed like every day I would come across one hopping through the grass and I would put it in a sandbucket and give it grass and rocks to eat and we’d hang out together, maybe with my brother if he was being good that day.

Inevitably, I would be called into the house for a meal or bed, and while the toad appeared content in his sandbucket world, my father would release the toad the second my back was turned. Of course, my dad likes animals and did not one to die due to my not knowing what toads eat or that they like freedom. However, my father never adequately explained this to me and for years I thought he did it simply to be mean and deprive me of toad-friends.

Now, there are no toads. Partly because I no longer live in a rural environment, and partly I think I just don’t see them because my eyes are farther from the ground than they used to be. And I’d really like to see a toad again. *Not* because I’m seeking to defy my father by keeping it indefinitely in a bucket, but because they are so fun, so patient and blinky and good at hopping, and their little bellies are silky when you stroke them (although FYI, toads excrete poison from their skin when they are frightened, so always wash your hands after stroking at toad’s belly). I would just like to hang out with a toad for a little bit, and maybe even my brother, too.

So really, can’t complain about things around here. Hope you guys are well too…and if you have any surplus toads, please send’em my way!