NP: Stone Temple Pilots, Thank You (CD)

It's a long one today, given the reflective mood of the day. You've been warned.

Just to set the record straight, I am in no way, shape or form sad to see 2003 get the hell out of Dodge. I'm so ecstatic that it's over that I can't think of any clever metaphors, like "if 2003 were a Beatle, it would be Ringo," which (a) isn't clever, and (b) is unfair to Ringo, who gets shat upon far too often given his contribution to rock and roll drumming. But you see where I'm trying to come from here. Not trying to hard, mind you.

So, yeah, last year sucked, let me count the ways. Financially? You betcha, with the slight exception of my investments (don't know yet if I get any of that $50 million Vivendi settlement) and perhaps my creative credit card strategies. I did a run-through of my taxes a few weeks ago, and my taxable income is somewhere in the vicinity of what I used to make in a month.

Physically? I'd rank this one among the worst. At least the knee surgeries piled up the discomfort in a nice two-week bundle, from which there was steady recovery. The problems with my feet renewed the pain with every visit to my doctor, with the saving grace that she was, shall we say, easy on the eyes. And that wasn't much of a saving grace.

All of which took it's toll mentally, emotionally and psychologically, making me not a whole lot of fun to be around for the last couple of months, which, in turn, took it's toll on my social life, but I've maintained throughout that I've got bigger things to deal with than dating. Apparently, that showed, and being able to rationalize it away in such a manner doesn't really take the sting away when things don't go the way you had hoped.

Naturally, all rules come with exceptions, and in this case, it's music. Lots and lots of progress on that front in the last twelve months. Just the notion of getting paid to sing would have been a win, but hell, I played Soldier Field! And there's a real chance that I can earn most of my living as a musican next year if other options don't pan out. For the moment, I need to focus on those other options with both resolve and resolutions, which are as follows:

Be more assertive. I guess I've never really had a lot of experience with job interviews before this year, and I'm learning that just reacting to questions in the hopes that the "real me" that is the right guy for the job shines through is remarkably inadequate in a down market. Earlier in the year, I wondered if I need to "sell" myself, and I think that it's subtly different than that. I have to be more forthright, and I have to go in with the goal that I must prove that I'm the right guy for the job. Or for the girl. Because it's applicable all over the place. The bottom line is that last year I missed a couple of lay-ups. Maybe not slam dunks, but easy baskets. That can't continue.

Write the online music book. Whenever I get on my online music soapbox (the major labels suck, but that doesn't make file-sharing any less illegal), I invariably fall into tangents, which are then abruptly halted with me saying "you know, I could write a book." So now I'm going to.

Lose some weight. The extended layoff from playing soccer has been good for joints and ligaments, but now I've lost the yin to my beer drinking, complex carb-loving yang. Nothing extreme, but I gotta get in better shape. If I can go for a month without pasta or beer, it'll be a good start. And really, really surprising. Maybe just less pasta and beer to start with. Baby steps...

Write some damn reviews already. As I mentioned in last week's list.in.to.chicago, I promised EXO a review of their new CD back when it actually was new, in September. There's some mental block for me, and I think it has to do with buying music as a consumer and not a critic. I don't feel like I have the proper context for writing real reviews, even though my reviews are more just my reaction to the work anyway. I guess that seems like something of a hack in the face of real criticism to me, and I'm struggling on a subconscious level with it. I need to either get over it, or reinvent the way I review things.

Anyway, I'd like to think 2004 is off to a good start, but data junkie that I am, twelve or so hours is not much to base a trend on. By the end of next week, I'll have a much better idea.