Why!?!?...

I like to think I have good but 'eclectic' taste for a gay 21-year-old.

Instead of worshiping current Top 40, I worship Top 40 from 30 years ago. While people know every word from Madonna's Hard Candy album, I know every word from Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. I prefer real voices and guitars over synthetic bass and Pro-Tools enhanced wailing. 'Eclectic' seems to fit.

I've got the gay music, albeit from a few generations ago. Give me Streisand and Bette (and some early Madge) any day. Hell, I even do Cher. I think I like it because, well sure, it's campy as all hell at times, but the women were also great singers and entertainers.

I always feel a little lost when I got out with friends and listen to what newfangled tunes those crazy kids are listening to these days. I count it a good night when I recognize five of the 50 songs played. I don't watch MTV (I hear they don't even play music on there any more...), and I don't listen to the newest-of-the-new radio stations.

There are days when I wish I could go out and dance to disco and just fun songs instead of being exposed to what every establishment believes is the next big thing in music. It happened in the grocery store today. There I was, waiting in line to check out, and Donna Summer's 'On the Radio' came on. I tried my best to dance invisibly, because damn, that's one catchy-ass song!!!

With all of this in mind, I'm a little terrified in my new heavy-rotation song...Jesse McCartney's 'Leavin'

Wtf is wrong with me!? Why do I like this song so much?

I came across the album after reading a somewhat positive review online, where it was heralded as a great summer pop album. After listening to some of the songs, it sort of scares me that people think this is 'pop' music...I guess it's 'popular' music, but it sure as hell has nothing in common with the pop of the past. It's more like 'white boy sings to hip-hop backing tracks'. Oh wait, isn't that Justin Timberlake?...

Anyway, to my absolute horror, I'm actually really liking that song...and others on the album...but why!? I usually hate this crap! Please, tell me I haven't gone soft and finally bent to the crowd's choice in music...

Jesse isn't as cute as he used to be when he had the long hair going a few years ago, and his voice isn't really a voice, merely a computer-generated replication of what I imagine it sounds like at times. But here, nonetheless, is Leavin'...



Edit: After actually watching part of the video...yeah...he's pretty fucking hot...But see! That shows that I was willing to pass judgment before I even realized how very doable he still is!

OMG!!!...

Fleetwood Mac may be gaining a new member, Sheryl Crow!

You have no idea how excited I am about the news that Sheryl Crow, a close friend of Stevie Nicks' since the late 90's, will be joining Fleetwood Mac. Truly, this news is bigger than the announcement Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks had re-joined the group and they were releasing new material.

Of course, every site has the same story, which is pretty vague, but from Sheryl Crow's own mouth. There are no details other than the actual announcement that she will be collaborating with the group. From reading online, this could mean either in-studio work as an actual contributing member, or just joining them on tour to fill the void that Christine McVie left upon her retirement from the group in 1998.

Stevie Nicks has recently said she did not wish to continue with the group without Christine McVie, who had been a member of the band since before Nicks joined in 1974 but retired after the 1997-98 reunion tour. She reportedly just wasn't interested in touring anymore, and has lived a quiet life in England ever since. Undoubtedly there was some great back room deals being made between Nicks and Crow to ensure the band continued its great tradition.

It will be fascinating to watch how this unfolds. Crow in her own right is a good songwriter and performer, and at times can veer into the eclectic, which Lindsey Buckingham must gleefully be embracing. I can just imagine them working out harmonies and Crow/Buckingham collaborations, not to mention the kick-ass show they would put on when the tour finally starts.

In case you missed it, I'm a Fleetwood Mac junkie. They have been, and always will be, my favorite band and favorite music. Their style has changed over the years dramatically, veering from SoCal rock on the 1975 'Fleetwood Mac' album to the experimental 'Tusk' in 1979 and the pop-perfection of 'Tango in the Night' in 1987. They came back around in 2003 with 'Say you Will' to a more straight-ahead classic rock formula. Throughout all of this, I have enjoyed their creations more than any other influential artist.

Nobody really knows why one comes down with a love for Fleetwood Mac so severely. If you've got it though, you know what it's like. Mac fans are a small but super-loyal group; we all seem to share this insane appreciation for their work, far beyond the "I like some of their songs" mentality. What really annoys us is when people undercut the amazing quality of their work, writing it off as simple fluff their parents listened to in the car on weekends.

If you feel this way, go listen to 'Tusk'; I maintain if a group released the same product in 2008, it would be a critically heralded album. Actually, that makes a funny coincidence, 30 years after 'Tusk' is released, the band may release a similarly amazing double-album.

Really, I called this myself way back in 2003 when 'Say You Will' was released. It was clear that McVie wasn't coming back to the group, and it seemed obvious that they may be searching for a new member. Crow has been heavily influenced by Fleetwood Mac, and writes and in a very similar manner. The group has had a history of ever-rotating lineups, and it only seemed natural that they adopt a new voice and writer.

Realizing all that, I proclaimed way back then Crow would eventually join the group. Its taken five years, but it looks like it will finally happen. OMG!!!

I just have to take the time to thank my mom, who actually just told me she heard it on the radio this morning. Unbelievable that I missed it online, but hey, thats cool. Lets just hope this actually happens!

This has made today so great! I feel like a kid again!

(Yes, I know this was a totally geeky post. If you've read this far, congratulations. I don't normally drone about stuff like this, and damn, I'm excited!)

Trashy pop...

I always love 'trashy' pop music.

I'm not talking about the new Britney single, because that's not pop. Pop is like the Beach Boys and ABBA. Vocals, catchy tunes, and that little bit of scmaltz that makes it different than 'critically acclaimed' music.

Earlier in the week, while tuning into my shower radio, I caught the last half of a song I hadn't heard before. I loved it, it had that great pop-single feel, with real instruments! Kinda rare, and I took a stab at guessing the artist...

Celine Dion.

Yup, the woman that irritated most of the world with 'My Heart Will Go On'. I'll admit, I love some of her singles. And hate the other ones. I love the pop-driven songs, like 'That's the Way It Is', or her cover of 'I Drove All Night'. I hate her songs-for-moms, like 'Because You Loved Me' and 'In Some Small Way'.

But this new single is actually catchy-assed brilliant. Hell, I may even buy the album if she's taking the turn towards more pop-vocal productions like this one.

The video makes no sense...but I never watch music videos, and the only reason I've posted it is because I want to share the song, dammit!

Happy Friday!

Ka-Ching...

Holy spent a lot of money lately!

Concerts everywhere...Lindsey Buckingham in April, Roger Waters in July, the Police in July and then today's damage of $177.00 for Genesis in September.

I'm sooooo excited! I mean, these are the acts that I've dreamed about seeing all my life. Real rock artists playing live shows. Never did I expect that I'd get to see Roger Waters, much less the Police or Genesis.

The downside is I've spent...oh my...lets say a bit of monies on shows that I cannot live without seeing. And there's a ton more that I'd love to go to, but can't because they're not right downtown. Also because I'm now near welfare and can't afford much of anything.

But holy crap am I excited!

The only downside...I'm going alone to all but the Lindsey Buckingham show. Yup, I'm boring. Or my friends are...I can't decide. I mean, I'd love to do the concert thing with friends more often, but nobody ever has the money or the interest to go to the shows I'm dying to see. So I get stuck going by myself.

And not often do I meet interesting characters and strike up conversation. When I saw Roger Waters in September, the only people who were talking were two blonde bimbos (a -la Paris & Nicole) who danced and screamed through the quiet numbers. Totally inappropriate for that part of the show...they were quite hammered and probably high as kites too, which I don't necessarily object to, but when you get in a fight with the guy behind you who wants your ass out of his face...

Oh well. I'm pumped. And it's not even April yet!

The Visitors...

Saturday morning I got up and actually didn't feel bad about having relatively few plans. The first thing I did was get online to Ticketmaster, and prepare to buy my ticket to The Police concert in July. General Sale tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. and I wasn't going to miss going.

I love music, mostly anything not new. Right now I'm listening to CHFI's 'Sunday Morning Oldies', then I'll switch over to Q107's 'Pyschadelic Psunday'...basically I listen to old stuff of all genre's, with very few new artists on my radar. This is good, because I love the music with all my heart, but bad because none of my friends really do. I've got a few who like the classic rock stuff, The Doors, Zeppelin...but that's about it. So when it comes to concert time for me, I either get to sit at home and miss the concerts I want to see, or I go by myself.

It used to be weird going to shows alone. I mean, it's such a fun time when you go with people, drink and be merry, but the real reason I go to concerts is the music, not the festivities. I think I've only been to maybe 3-4 shows alone...otherwise I go with my Mom/Dad (how big of a loser am I?). But honestly, I tried to convince someone to go to Bonnie Raitt with me, but nobody wanted to go...everyone thinks she's 'soft rock' or something, but holy crap she played a mean show last year...I mean, that woman can play guitar!

So at 10 a.m. I hit refresh on my browser, selected 1 ticket, and hit 'find'. Thankfully I seemed to be on the first wave of buyers, because my wait was only 2 minutes. A ticket popped up, in a good-but-not-great seat, but it was the most I was willing to pay for the show, so I took it. Yay! I'm going to the Police! Now I just have to pray they keep it together long enough to play Toronto...

The rest of the morning was devoted to cleaning my room, organizing my laundry to do, and watching some CNN. Britney shaved her head, and honest to God CNN repeated it every 3 minutes the entire time I was watching. How stupid is that. Who cares!? The Anna-Nicole Smith thing deserved the coverage it got, because it's a sensational story. But Britney doesn't...she must be jealous of all the attention Anna had got...

At 1 I met Lisa outside my building, and we headed for the subway. Her best friend from the West Coast, Kyle, was coming for a visit this week, and we were picking him up at the airport. An hour's ride later, and we were standing in Terminal 3 at Pearson, scanning the arrival times.

Kyle finally came out of the doors, and Lisa went insane, jumping on top of him and screaming. It was really cute to see, they're best friends since High School and haven't seen each other since Christmas. After she tore herself off of him, he turned to me, hand outstretched. We shook, then I in mock super-excitment grabbed him in a hug. We laughed, and headed back to the bus stop.

Kyle is gay. He came out last year, and it was a little hard for Lisa to take at the time. They'd maybe-kinda-sorta been a thing at the end of High School, so she was a little let down that they weren't going to fall in love after school and live happily ever after. But it never affected their friendship, and they're closer than ever.

Kyle is also staying at my place. Lisa lives in a residence-style apartment complex that doesn't have big enough couches to crash on, so she asked me if I would mind if he slept here, and of course I don't. We then made some bad jokes about sleeping arrangements, which weren't exactly jokes...

We really hit it off yesterday, conversation came very easily and we'd already had the sex and sexuality talk within 3 hours of meeting. I was really sure we'd get along fine, since Lisa says we're a lot alike, but it was great to find out that we actually do.

I cooked us dinner (yes, I'm a good cook, and it's something I don't mind doing either) and we ended up going out for a few beers with a couple friends. Kyle was dying, I could tell, since he hadn't slept in pretty much 24 hours and had flown across the country, so I kept asking him if he was ok. Finally, he caved, and said he kinda wanted to leave. So we said our goodbyes and he and I left.

The Roommate was away last night, so I knew we would have the place entirely to ourselves. I grabbed us each a glass of water, and did a few things around the place...see earlier in the evening I could swear I caught him checking me out, more than once I would turn my head and find his eyes staring into mine. I didn't know how to take it, so I just smiled and gave him some eye action back.

So I had no expectations when we got back here...I'm not that insane, even if my life has actually been including sex lately. He asked where he'd be staying, and I said either the couch or in my bed. I immediately realized how that sounded, but I didn't explain that it would be a non-sexual stay in my bed (if he wanted)...the problem with the couch is that my Roommate is a bitch and will be up until 3 a.m. every night making dinner when Kyle is trying to sleep on the couch. I don't have enough floor space to blow up a matress for him...so the choices are either sleep on the couch and not sleep, or sleep in my bed.

Naturally, I didn't coherenlty expalin that last night, since I'd been drinking, and kinda hoping he'd make a move. So when I told him 'bed or couch' he immediately said couch. I pulled out a pillow, couple blankets, and laid them out for him. He came out of the bathroom, smiled at me, thanked me again for letting him stay, and moved over to the couch.

"Good night, Steve," he said, which sounded so formal and so odd to me. I smiled, and said goodnight.

I called Brian when I got into my room to say hi, and we chatted for a few minutes. He asked what we were doing this weekend, and I told him probably brunch this afternoon. Brian was supposed to leave town on Monday, but now he's staying until Tuesday, so I keep thinking I won't be able to see him again until next week, and he keeps surprising me by being available. So I invited him (tentatively) to brunch today.

"Oh no, I don't want to make it awkward..." he said, but I know he really wants to go.

"It's fine, I want you to come."

"Yeah, I know, but..."

"Brian, they know. Don't worry about it. They're the small minority who do know. It's ok."

"Oh..." So we made the deal that I'll call him today if I'm still ok with him coming along.

I'm really excited about having someone stay over from another city, because we get to do the whole Touristy-Toronto stuff that people who live here don't generally do. Sadly I won't be free to post as much as I'd like to, so bear with me over this week. I'll try to take advantage of some time that I get to update you on the week. Plus I really need to vent about what the hell I want right now...I have a few very interesting cases in point that I can't wait to compare.

Have a good Sunday, grab a coffee and enjoy the sun.

Oh, so thats all it takes...

Last Thursday evening was a blast, even if it was a little rushed. I gawked in horror at the fact that I had a midterm that night until 7 p.m. Resigned to the fact I had to concentrate, and was missing the company of my out of town friends, I wrote my midterm. The second I was done I bolted out the door and headed to Laura's apartment.

* * * * * * *
Laura and I were very close friends through high school. She was also the first girl I'd really fallen for. We've got this chemestry that still hangs around to this day, which can make for some pretty interesting evenings. But when I wanted to go out with her during high school, she wasn't interested in dating anyone. Time passed, I figured it was long gone. She came to Toronto to school, and I moved on.

Then two summers ago, the summer before I came to Toronto, we fired things back up while she was home for summer break. We both were interested again, it seemed, and we were headed in the right direction. But I thought to myself, "I'm moving to a new city, and even though she lives there too, I don't want to rely on her instead of meeting new people." She apparently thought the same thing, though we never discussed it with each other.

I found out in December of that year from her sister's boyfriend that she had been crazy about me that summer, and had wanted to get into something. He even named the weekend in early August where she was about to ask me out. But her conscious had told her not to bother me when I was about to start a new chapter in life, with the possibility of meeting someone new.

That chemestry haunts me sometimes. One of the first times she came to visit me in residence, we ran into a girl who lived down the hall from me. Laura was on roller blades, demanding that I pull her along the carpeted floor. I, naturally, was being a pain about it, and at one point we almost ended up on the grond. After I had piled her into the elevator, my neighbour came to talk to me.

"Wow. So are you guys dating? You're such a couple."

Yeah, that pretty much hit it on the head. A couple who don't date.
* * * * * * *

I arrived at her apartment, threw one very large and very stiff rum and coke down my throat, and we headed back out to the show. There were a bunch of us, Laura, her roommate and his friend, Laura's sister and her boyfriend, some other couple and me. On the elevator ride down, Laura and her sister were fidgeting with their bras a little more than usual. I gave her a look, and she pulled two joints out of her strap.

"Ah. Cool."

Once inside the Air Canada Centre, our big arena/music venue, we found our seats in time to hear the rather pathetic music of 'Buck 65', some sort of rap/hip-hop performed by white guys. I'm not a rap fan, so Joe (the sister's bf) and I headed to buy some beers. $18 and two very small pints later, we were back in our seats. Buck 65 finished, and Joe and I got to have a great chat. He's a friend from highschool too, we go back a long way.

The Tragically Hip came on stage to a roar of mostly 20-30-something audience members, sloshing their beer about in rythem to the beat. I got into the show too, they were pretty awesome players and for being 'new rock' they really know how to not screw it up.

Of course, through the concert, I was also checking out the bevy of hot guys who came either in groups of guys or with their presumed girlfriends. As I was studying them, I was shocked at how much of a carbon copy they were of each other. Practically all of them were wearing the same type of clothes, had the same haircuts, and the same looking girlfriends on their arms.

I wondered then if that's all it takes to be successful in both social and sexual endevors. To be the successful, typical 'college guy' you must wear:
-a polo of either short or long sleeved variety. Bonus points given if you wear it with the collar up, and have a well displayed necklace of some variety
-a hoodie. Specifically not just anything with a hood, but something that is your sweater/shirt and has a well-covering hoodie
-a baseball hat, perched at any angle other than straight
-jeans that are not ripped/frayed or stone washed, but are more skater-like, or khakis that are a darker shade, also of the skater variety

So the reason I've been single all through college is the fact I've missed the dress code memo. Well, 'dress for success' they always say...I of course find it hard to believe that if I indeed pull on a polo and baseball hat I would become an instant success. But still, it's pretty amazing to think that all it takes is a certain kind of shirt or a hood to give you an advantage.

The show ended, we headed back to Laura's place for more drinks and hanging out. I bailed wayyy to early because I had another mid-term Friday morning that I couldn't exactly miss. But I had a great time, came home to a nice surprise, felt very happy, and did my part to better the scientific understanding of being in college.