Relegating my favorite things

I have for a while now hated the questions that start with "Whats your favorite...." It's almost become a little insane. I can't answer them. Like what is your favorite color, or your favorite movie. If I had to pick a color it might be silver, but is that because I like that color on cars? I dont think I would want silver shoes or a silver house, or even a silver pony! How am I supposed to pick a favorite movie? I have forgotten half of the good movies I have seen. None stick out so much because so many I have loved have been so different, a real apples and oranges secnario. If you were even to get very specific and say what was your favorite movie about some cockney accented blokes who crossed the wrong thugs, I would have to say its a toss-up. Even the top 5 method (see high fidelity)can get tiring cause the lists would change daily and I don't have the time.

Funny thing is, I can look back at certain periods of my life and remember what my favorites were at that time. For instance Hepcat was my favorite band while I was a senior in high school and until I was about 24 or 25.

That's not to say they got crossed off the list, they just stopped producing music, and I stopped listening. I still love it, its just not my favorite today, but I am not even sure what my favorite is today.

Here is the problem I have and it spans in to many aspects of my belief system. I may like something but I reserve the right to dislike it at a later date. I wasnt always granted that right throughout my life. For example in middle school I was faced with the decision that I was either going to like Rap, Soul and R&B and be a part of the "soulers", or I was going to like new wave and alternative music and be a "new waver". Trust me liking country was not even an option. I could have chosen rock, but then I would have been a "stoner". Like so many white suburbanite kids I chose new wave, and I had to stick to it, at least till my Junior or Senior year. I remember my tape and CD collection being limited to bands like A-ha (my first tape) and PetShopBoys (my first CD, I paid like $35 for it). Erasure was always a favorite but I had to be a closet listener since likeing a gay pop star was about the same as being a gay pop star. That was logical though cause if you liked Bobby Brown, you had to like sex, it was your perogative. I digress...

Back to Hepcat. I was introduced to Hepcat by being brought to a live show they performed at in San Diego at SOMA, back when it was in the downtown area (South Of Market Avenue, hence SOMA) this was in the spring of 1992. They were incredible and I couldnt believe they sounded the way they did, it was like listening to Desmond Decker on vinyl or even better the Skatalites. I went to every show they performed at in the area and constantly listened to the tapes I had. I was living in Provo, Utah the summer of 94 and they managed somehow to make Provo a tour stop. I remember being so stoked on them coming to a small venue and even meeting with the band and chatting with them in between sets. I distincly remember liking a pair of shoes worn by the front man Deston Berry and I went out later that week and got a pair (Adidas Sambas, way comfy and semi stylish). They finally got a nice break and had a somewhat successful CD release in 1997 the Right on Time album. I got a copy and listened constantly, it was so good. Then one day I was cleaning out my boss's garage and I came across the cd in a tool bag or something. I put it aside and asked him about it. I can remember the conversation to this day. It went something like this:

ME: "Is this your CD"

Boss: "Yeah"

Me: "You like them"

Boss: "meeeh... so-so"

Me: "so-so?"

Boss: "yeah some of it is nice but a lot of it is like really bad jazz"

Me: (trying to retain composure)"oh"

So I thought about that for a while. and later I asked him

Me: "How did you hear about these guys?"

Boss: "I saw them on TV."

I didnt know what to think. I was happy to hear that a band I liked for so many years that was hard working and creative and truly talented was getting a break, but at the same time sad. I can only think of selfish reasons for having been sad. I guess was bummed that the shows would be sold out now and would be attended by people my parents age. I was worried that maybe the sound would become pop-ish. Or band members would get jaded and cockey. I was worried that the world would change my band. All my memories and experiences would be relegated to being a fan of a pop band. Kinda like nobody cares if you are a Beatles fan, even in the early years, cause shoot everyone was. Funny thing is Hepcat never really went bigger than that album, and even though one of the band members Alex Désert got some nice acting gigs and even a main role on a prime time sitcom, they never got big heads. Apparently they still spring up and play a gig (albeit the price for admission has gone from $5 to $40) and they even have a myspace page. wee.

I don't know if I learned a lesson through this or if I became more of an adult. I do remember not having picked a favorite band since then.

The Monument for immature boys.

I was a Boy-Scout and believe it or not I had a scout leader think that it would be a pretty cool idea for our troop to check this out on a field trip. What was he thinking? We actually went and toured the site. Oddly it was there that I learned what a body cavity search was. Not that I was privvy to one, but the tour guide was stressing the security measures they take at a nuclear facility. This was before the Clinton era when we traded these secrets for recipies of crispy honey shrimp. I suppose they don't do body cavity searches anymore, unless Bill thought that was a good idea secrets or not. Anyway that was all I learned there that day. I think I had my Atomic Energy Merit Badge already prior to the trip, so this was just an outing for entertainment.



I think the designer of this plant was a cartoonist for Playboy magazine. He just had to be. I am still trying to figure out how this design won out against the more traditional smokestack look. Maybe they thought that if they ever shut down they could sell the thing to a plastic surgeon to reopen it as a clinic or maybe it could be the venue for the worlds largest strip club.
I wonder if they will sag with age, maybe we will have to come up with some incredibly engineered bra if there is some kind of disaster. Like the sarcophagus at Chernobyl. The question is do we go the tasteful route and hire a Victoria's Secret designer for the project or go all raunchy and get some perv from Fredrick's of Hollywood for the job. Either way, we know that padding won't be necessary.
This is a huge monument to my adolesence for glaringly obvious reasons.

This Blog is for crazy/cool lo-Cal stuff

I like the San Diego area. It is not LA... yet but getting there. Lo-Cal is about Lower California on the Amreican side of the fence. Not LA or "the O.C." but stuff from San Onofre on down.