confessional corner

ok, ok.  this one is bad.  sometimes these are little more than joking confessions and i don't really feel all that bad about what i have to share.  but this time.  oh, this time.  this time my words will drip with shame.  i am not standing in this corner whispering into the cold dark of the internet.  no, i am cowering in shame, hoping that i can in some way be pulled up out of this place of filth and disease, hoping redemption is still possible.

but i get ahead of myself.

those of you who know me well know that i can be pretty opinionated.  this is a fact that i've often tried to hide or at least subdue a little bit, though mostly to no avail.  let me explain why i have tried though.  my family on my dad's side is a heavy mix of italian and irish.  it seems that the result was the opinionatedness of the italians with the bull-headedness of the irish.  get my dad's siblings together and they will argue for hours about the smallest minute useless point.  and not debate.  argue.  because each one knows without a doubt for certain that they are right.  i would give an example if they weren't all so pointless that i've forgotten every single one of them.  politics excluded.

this has so scarred me that i deeply fear that i might one day become them.   so i try to somewhat subvert my strong feelings toward my opinions when i have them.  those of you who know me well might laugh at that statement--but really it could be a lot worse.  you don't even know.  anyway, i try to limit my strong opinions toward things that don't really matter, usually matters of taste and personal preference.  for example--restaurants, books, movies, and quite often music.

music.  let's talk about music.  for no reason in particular.  well, perhaps because the grammy's were just this week.  i don't need to go into how terrible the grammy's are, both in award catagories and in selections of artists.  it really is a joke and so arbitrary.  but that's not the point.  the point is that there is so much good music out there and usually very little of it is reflected at the grammy's.  it's much too difficult to judge objectively like you can with movies anyway.

but judge we still do.  and judge i do.  i am something of a music collector.  if there is any part of me that you could call "hipster," it would be by music.  i don't do it to be cool though, i just really like music.  and i am usually less than hesitant to decry horrible music and belittle those who listen to it.  don't get me started on country and that distortion you try to call music.  and unfortunately the whole world decides that they want to listen to pop so the most overproduced and unoriginal shite goes to the top of the charts and lands on the playlists of millions of teens ipods.  i try to catch these poor high schoolers and show them the error of their musical ways, but they rarely listen.  sort of like the time i tried to tell middle school boys not to douse themselves with axe body spray.  they give you that look like you don't know anything.

which brings me to my confession.  it is to my great shame and dismay that i have to admit that i have fallen prey to liking one of these pop monsters.  and not just any one, but one of the biggest.  i don't even know how it happened really.  i read an article that linked a video and i watched it and was hooked.  i can't get away from the song.  and i'm sorry to say that song is "bad romance" by lady gaga.

i know i know!  it's horrible.  i actually subjected myself to checking out the rest of the album--both discs, which is complete and utter crap.  except maybe poker face, which incidentally sounds like essentially the same song with minor changes.  so no i do not like lady gaga.  i do not like her album.  i just happen to love one of her songs.  and i hate that i do.  and i'm sorry.  and i beg your forgiveness.

the thing is, i want to try to analyze it and somehow justify my liking by seeing some social commentary she's making.  i mean, say even her name.  lady gaga.  it is a baby's cry.  she is commenting on society that she can put out the most infantile music and people will run to pick it up like a wailing baby.  but she's a lady too, because the themes of her songs are all about being a lady.  a lady who has a lot of bad relationships and a fair amount of sex.  well crap, i guess that doesn't really work.  never mind.  i'll accept it. there's no getting around it.

i realize this leaves me with little to no musical credibility.  and any time i try to tell someone the music they are listening to is terrible, they will always have this against me.  tragic i know, but i must come clean.  and in that interest i have to also admit that she is a decent looking lady.  no really, she has a nice face--when she actually has all that makeup off and isn't wearing ridiculous hats.  and with that, i depart in shame.