ba ba ba ba ba dum dum doowee doowee ugh!!!!!

i started a blog because a lot of my friends and/or family have them so i thought it would be a good way to "connect" with them since i live on the opposite end from my family. thing is, i don't really know what i'm supposed to do with a blog. i guess just write about what's on my mind...?

i love music. i know this is hard for many people to understand but music is my hobby. whether i'm just listening to it, playing it myself, going to a show, being in a record store looking for new bands, or reading about bands in books and magazines... it's what i love to do. people make fun of how much i adore music. but i don't care. it has a power over the mind to recall certain memories and feelings. i have so many good memories of riding with my dad (Gary Lee) on the back roads of Central Texas and him cranking bob dylan, ccr, mott the hoople, or other bands. that was one thing we could always connect with. it wasn't just riding through the country playing music. it was a series of tutorial sessions. although it would annoy me sometimes, he would turn down the music for a minute and explain to me a little about the history of the band and what was going on in that time of history and what inspired the songs he played for me. the music he played for me was the soundtrack of the 60's and 70's. music is the soundtrack of history. our kids will hear songs we grew up with and think of issues we are presently dealing with. - i also have bad memories associated with music. teenage angst is something everyone who has dealt with puberty can understand. i remember coming home from a bad day of school, throwing down my backpack on the living room floor and immediately hopping on the second drumset i hot-rodded (with money i worked hard for at a pizza place) and just going crazy for a little bit and turning that rage, frustration whatever it was into something upbeat that in turn actually made me happy and turned my day lighter. i remember feeling alone on friday nights at home in my room listening to music and trying to figure it out on a bass i bought with that same money. music, as pathetic as it sounds, was my only friend for a long time. that's why i love it so much. because it was always there for me. in the immortal words of Tim Armstrong from rancid, "when i got the music, i got a place to go".