How did I miss these guys?

I was working the graveyard shift at a gas station in 1994 in Cleveland, when an RV pulled up to the pumps.  Out of it came several slacker types to buy miscellaneous gas station fare for the road.  Out of simple curiosity I asked if they were with a band.  “Yeah,” one of the guys said, “we’re Pavement.  Ever heard of us?”

I actually had heard of them, but never heard them.  I listen to albums much more than the radio, as if that would have made a difference at the time (on Cleveland radio, nonetheless.)  After a further exchange of pleasantries (and the restroom key) I made a half-promise to the guys that I talked to that I’d give them a listen, when I got a chance.

I finally got that chance… twelve years later.  I checked out Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe from the library, and upon first listen I asked myself two questions:

1.) How did it take me 12 years to fulfill my (unnecessary) promise to listen to the band?

2.) When am I going to stop slapping myself in the head for waiting to get into the band Pavement until they were long gone?

Truth is, I don’t regret it all that much.  There  were too many good bands at the time to get into all of them.  The thing that sets this one apart is that I actually told the band themselves, as if I was going to run out and buy Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain the next day, and I didn’t.

Besides, by waiting I was able to immediately buy the deluxe versions of their first 3 CDs. These come with thirty tracks instead of twelve. This is just the kind of thing that makes music fans grit their teeth when they already bought the album ten years ago.

This is why I have a new policy of getting into bands from ten years ago, or at least the ones that I made promises to.  Oh, plus they have to be good.

Sorry, Nickelback.

Ready for takeoff…

Okay, so my blog title lacks in originality. Not only that, but what did I use as a header to my picture? A sunset. Yawn, right?

You’re absolutely right. Not only is everything on this page a cliché, it’s also boring. And to top it all off, there’s nothing here. So far only one blog with 55 words and counting. I am also confused by the fact that the spell check has underlined the word cliché. Isn’t that word overused? (The suggested word to replace cliché is cloche, which is a transparent covering used to protect delicate plants. I’m considering just using the word cloche just to make this all more interesting, but I’m sure that’s been done before.)

Anyway, I started all this with a point, and now I completely forgot what that was. I’ll just say this instead:

This is all just a blank slate to begin with. I’ll figure out some stuff to write that actually may teeter on the edge of originality. Most of it, however, will hover somewhere between banal and hackneyed. The subject matter that I’ll write about (on this blog, anyway) will be a mishmash of miscellaneous whatever to begin with. Mostly a mix of things I pretend to be interested in, things I’m not at all interested in, and the occasional thingamawhatchit that I actually care about.

I suppose the whole point is to see where this goes. Maybe to change the heading someday to something that yields no results on a Google search instead of 207,000. Or perhaps to change the sunset to something more interesting… a sunrise, perhaps?

…and go figure… there’s no suggested replacement for the word thingamawhatchit.