Tag: snobbery

Sleep and Spoilers

I did something I rarely do. I let myself sleep late on a work day. Not too late, but later than usual.

The last few nights I have had the worst sleep. Barely five hours on Sunday and Monday nights. Less than five hours on Tuesday night. I was practically in a coma for much of the day yesterday. I needed sleep so badly.

Last night? Almost seven hours. Still not enough sleep, but so much more than I’ve been getting. Bliss. I usually set an alarm on my watch for 5:00am. Jen has an alarm set for a half an hour after that, but I am usually down cellar exercising before her alarm goes off.

Today? I slept until a little after 6:00. It meant I was running behind throughout my entire morning routine, but it was worth it. I’ll still probably be asleep on my feet by around 7:00pm tonight, but for now? I feel a little better.

Okay then, part two of this post is going to deal with Star Wars: The Acolyte and it is ABSOLUTELY SPOILER FILLED. If you haven’t watched the show, bail out now. I have two stupid comments that are burning a hole in my tiny little brain and I have to get them out and THEY ARE SPOILERS so you have been warned.

Seriously… if you want to watch the show and you haven’t yet, get out now.

You have been warned… again…

Last warning…

Okay. So this is the same comment made twice. Once is me being a snob, the other is me getting mine.

Before the show aired, people online were over the moon about Carrie-Anne Moss playing Jedi Master Indara. People who’ve read the High Republic books and/or comics were all excited about what a bad ass warrior Indara is and how viewers were going to be over the moon at how awesome she is. Also… it’s freakin’ Carrie-Anne Moss. People were foaming at the mouth over having such an awesome actor in the cast.

Episode one… the first scene… Carrie-Anne Moss as Jedi Master Indara in a lightsaber fight. This is it! Here it comes… oh… she’s dead… oh.

I laughed out loud knowing that the internet would be turned on its ear over that scene. People were going to be pissed and it made me happy. Screw your expectations! Take that, know it all book readers! I was just tickled.

Fast forward to episode five. The episode was awesome. They saved up a whole season’s worth of action scenes and threw them all in our face at once. Just fight after fight after fight. It was fantastic. When Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon started fighting our dark side bad guy, the action was incredible. I was watching on my laptop and I thought to myself, if they want to do a spin off show where this kid just fights everyone, I will be totally, 100% on board… oh… she’s dead… oh… I guess that’s what I get for laughing at the Indara fans… Okay… I totally got what was coming to me. Serves me right for being snobby about people being snobby. Lesson learned, Acolyte. Lesson learned.

Okay, the spoilers have ended. You may go on with the rest of your day now. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. I appreciate your patience.

Mondays, Right?

I went to sleep at a little after midnight last night. A little later than I had hoped. I was awake around 6:00. A little earlier than I had hoped. The work day is half over and I am sleepy and want to go to bed. Oh well.

I have a half day booked for Wednesday. I forgot about that. Pretty cool, eh?

Tacoma FD did an episode in season two about blogging. I felt both seen and attacked and proud and super nerdy. I loved it. They also took a crack at dungeons and dragons, so they did out nerd me there. That felt nice.

What else… The Bruins are going to the west coast for a few games. That sucks. I am such an east coast snob when it comes to time zones. West coast games should start no later than 4:00pm pacific time. There. I said it. East coast snobbery at it’s finest.

What else? I would like to get more recording in tonight but I probably won’t. I have one song ready to mix. Maybe I’ll take care of that before bed. Assuming I don’t fall asleep around 6:30 or something. Finish work->make dinner->fall asleep. Plans, babie.

David Longdon

I am a total prog rock snob. Prog rock in general is a snobby kinda thing, but I am maximum snob. I don’t apologize for it. I don’t care if sharing my musical tastes make me sound like an asshole. I just don’t. I’m snobby about all music, but I am extra snobby about prog.

Prog started with In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson in 1969 and pretty much ended with the horrible Love Beach by Emerson Lake and Palmer. Everything that came after that is something else. Prog-ish. Prog-adjacent. Whatever. It became something else. I’ll still call it prog but I don’t know that I agree that it is. Asia was prog musicians, but is it prog? Hell no. Yes in the ’80s, same thing. Is it? Not really. A few moments here and there, but mostly no. Genesis in the 80s certainly wasn’t either, though they were sneaky and slipped some ideas in now and again. Rush… Rush, in my opinion, is the best thing that has ever happened in popular music, but was it really prog in the 80s? Prog-adjacent, yes, but authentic? I don’t know.

What about the bands that came after that? The next tier, so to speak. This is where my snobbery hits it’s heights and it’s all because of one band: Dream Theater. I had so many friends who saw Dream Theater as the second coming of Rush. The next best thing, so to speak. The bringers of a progressive rock meets metal movement that would usher in the future of prog blah blah blah. Music school friends. Rush fandom friends. So many people telling me how awesome Dream Theater was. Unfortunately, I fucking hated them. Loathed them. Listening to that band makes me feel physically ill, much like most country music makes me sick. I just cannot express in words how much I hate that band.

Clearly I was in the minority and that’s fine. I can respect the people involved for making music out of the mainstream and being successful at it. I very much admire them for that, but the music had such a negative effect on me that it made me avoid any band from the late 80s on that even gave a hint at progginess. No thanks. If this is what it’s come to then I don’t want anything to do with it.

As we got into the 2010s though, realizing that the actual authentic people who were involved in the 70s were starting to go away more and more often, I started wondering if I had missed anything worthwhile. I heard a Steven Wilson record a few years ago that I liked quite a lot. It wasn’t very prog, but it was in the ball park. I knew him as the guy who was remixing so many of the classic records. I dug a little deeper and his work got proggier and better and then I realized he was the guy from Porcupine Tree. That was one of those bands that I had purposely avoided. Should I bother? Yeah, let’s try it. I picked a record at random. It was really good. I picked another at random and it really wasn’t good. Okay. A little more digging and I find that they took a while to evolve, but once they got where they were going they were excellent. Their last 5-6 records are great.

Okay, so if that band is worth a listen then maybe what passes for progressive rock in the 21st century is worthy of more study. Who else should I listen to?

I’ve stumbled across a few good bands. One used to have a guitar player from the band XTC who, in my younger days, I liked sometimes. Not always. They were quirky and weird and those are plusses to me. The band was called Big Big Train. They had just released a record called World Tour. I took it for a spin. Good stuff. Great songs. Not even a hint of “heavy” but that’s okay. I really liked that album. Track two is called Alive and it is a spectacular song.

Apart from knowing one guy used to be in XTC, I didn’t know anything about them. Who are these folks? Who plays what? How many people played on the record? All good questions, but the biggest question that first listen prompted was WHO THE HELL IS THIS SINGER WHO SOUNDS MORE LIKE PETER GABRIEL THAN PETER GABRIEL??? The guy sounded great.

And finally, eight paragraphs later. We get to the point of the post, which realistically should only be about three sentences. That singer who sounded like a young Peter Gabriel on a really good day was named David Longdon and a few days ago, at the ripe young age of 56, he passed away. No details have been released outside of saying it was an accident. I suddenly wish I had started listening to him a decade or so sooner than I did. I missed out on a lot. They were going to tour the US in 2020 but Covid. I think they tried touring in 2021 too but Covid. That means a lot of people who are legitimate fans will never get to see him live. That’s really sad to me. I didn’t see him live because I am a prog snob, but people who are more open than I am will miss him too. Damn it. Rest in peace, sir. Everyone else, give one of his records a spin today. You’ll be very happy you did.