In regards to that quote, that's definitely how I feel. The reason I post to message boards is to get differing opinions, differing ideas, differing feelings -- really, EVERY BAND/movie/book/video game/television show/etc is all just one click away nowadays. So, why exactly do so many people on this board all sound like the exact same person? There's nothing wrong with the familiar or the obvious, but it seems to me like there'd be some more people into radically different things on here... People can mock me and what will be percieved as some kind of elitist attitude, but I just genuinely want to learn new things and get into new things. I truely check out every reccomendation that people give me eventually unless it REALLY sounds like something I wouldn't like -- and even then, I kinda enjoy listening to music I don't like (within reason)... It's kinda interesting, like "why can't I get into this band? What they doing that offends me?" And sometimes I even end up appreciating stuff I thought I hated. It's crazy! There are plenty of people on this board who aren't close-minded or single-minded or Thurston-minded; like you, Derek... and glice, porky, atari, batreleaser, everyneurotic, fugazifan, pauly, nicfit, floatingslowly, melly, al, slavo, DJ Rick, Sherrif Rhys, king_Buzzo, and like 10 others who I am sorry for omitting the mention of as I've worked all night and am about to pass out... not necassarily people I always AGREE with (especially atari) and not even necassarily saying they're my absolute favorites on this board -- but they are people who are genuinely DIFFERENT. That's all I want. I don't want anyone to worship me or to think I am a music god or to even give 2 shits about my taste -- but giving one shit would be nice... that's the point of this board, right? To agree and disagree and so on. Too many people on here just listen to what thurston has to say or what pitchforkmedia has to say. It's sad but true. And there's not anything necasarily wrong with the obvious or the familiar -- but if that's all you know, that's fucked up. Here, let me do everyone a favor:
www.slsknet.org ...
www.last.fm ...
www.myspace.com ... go on, find some crazy new bands no one's ever heard of! Share with us! Put a little description so we know if it's something we think is worth checking out! Also, go to
www.netflix.com or
www.imdb.com and check out some crazy new movies! Explore other countries... other schools of thought. Go to amazon.com and find some crazy new books. You know? Just do something different. That's the reason I'm slowly leaning towards not posting here anymore. I post over on the noisefanatics.com board and while they're all pretty much just noise nerds (which I'm not -- I mainly post to the Misc and Movies section), they're all happy, healthy, informative, receptive, and most of all DIFFERENT. I just have seen an overall decline in this board for the past few months. People that don't notice it haven't been here for 7 years like I have. About a 3rd of my life! THat's insane. It has taken up HOURS of my life! Maybe days.. weeks? I dunno. I hate to say all this, because I truely love this board, even its warts. I just can't stand single-mindedness... I can't stand the people on here who love everything sonic youth and side projects have done, just because it's sonic youth or related... sonic youth has recorded some awful shit! That's like me saying Beefheart, my favorite musician in the world, never recorded a bad song; he has two
awful albums! It's okay to not like things! This group-think mentality just bothers me. I guess you'll get that anywhere but it's become obvious here over the past year. "You're not a real sonic youth fan if you don't like rather ripped!" That album is terrible! Either way, regardless of that, most of the people who I'm good friends with on this board hardly ever post, or stopped posting for good recently. I'm basically staying here for just a few people who give a fuck. This post won't change anything, and I doubt anyone even read it. It's just how I feel. I'm obviously an asshole or an idiot for wishing people opened their minds more. If I was really an "elitist" I wouldn't share any of my knowledge with anyone.
I'd keep all these treasures to myself. The biggest problem people have with me, and the biggest reason some other people like me, is that I'm informed about a few things. It's pretty interesting. Jealousy and admiration go hand in hand. It's not something I am bothered by either way, as my status on this board doesn't mean anything to me. Just the other day, I burned a whole spindle (50... actually, 48, because I had used 2 before that) of CD-R's for a friend, which took hours. I doubt he listens to or will enjoy ALL I burnt for him, but I just wanted to give him something he might enjoy. Again, I'm obviously an asshole or an idiot for that. Well, fuck anyone that thinks that. I've never felt like I was better than anyone here. Sure, I'm smarter than some people, but fuck, some people are GENIUSES compared to me! I dunno. I really love this board, it usually makes me happy, but I used to see 3 or 4 new pages every time I opened up the New Posts thing.. now I'm lucky to see a "Page 2" after not opening it up for 24 hours! With more posts and more posters, there are more entertaining things, more opinions, more knowledge. I guess I just seek knowledge and wonder why other people don't do the same... And we DO only live once, so I'm trying to make the best of it. It genuinely pains me at times to think of all the great shit I'm missing out on or have missed out on... but I still have 40+ years left, probably, so I'm going to make the best of it.