1.11.2007

What Have I been doing?

Here are a few quick updates on what's up with Ronson:

Meet Digi!

A Christmas gift from my most excellent girlfriend Kari, this little camera will make all my "making stupid movies" dreams come true. Former blog mentor and current video mentor Gina taught me the basics of iMovie this week, so I'm sure this'll be a big time suck for most of 2007. This might mean fewer posts 'round here, but the posts will have magnificent sound and visuals. Ronsonville may never be the same...

My version is called Twinkle Twinkle Little @$??! Star

Another recent fascination for me has been the guitar. Which is to say I learned how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on it the other day. Plus, I learned the E and B strings, and have been playing some pretty sweet études. It's a little early to say, but I'm thinkin' I might be a virtuoso by age 35...

And it always goes back to pop culture...
Here's some stuff that I've been checking out lately that I highly recommend:

Nas - Hip Hop is Dead
I'll admit it: between the new Jay-Z and the new Nas, the new Nas wins. Minus one bum, jokey track, this CD is solid all the way through.

What It Is! Funky Soul & Rare Grooves (1967-1977)
This collection is as amazing (and exhausting) as I thought it would be. I've hardly heard of any of these songs and yet almost every single one is awesome.

Six Feet Under
Thanks to a little thing called HBO On Demand, I've seen every episode of this show up to the middle of season 2. If you're not afraid of thinking about your own mortality, you'll love it, if you are, you might be a little put off at first, but, trust me, it gets better with every episode.

Entourage
The flipside to Six Feet Under, as gloriously vacant as a TV show could be. Every episode ends with a high five, no one ever seems to go through any major life change and most of the characters are totally and completely shallow. But I like it, what can I say? Everyone talks about Jeremy Piven, but Kevin Dillon as past-his-prime actor Drama pretty much steals the show for me.

Everything But Rap and Country
A recent Pitchfork.Com article only scratches the surface on what I think is a fascinating concept in modern American music tastes (it ends up just being a review of a recent Country box set). This really is the standard answer to the question "What kind of music do you like?" (I've conducted my own "studies" on this). In fact, I used to share this opinion with most of the country, but over the last five years of listening to music I've included both of these genres (often times extensively) into my favorite music.

So why did I change? In my own personal experience, I think it had something to do with thinking of Garth Brooks when I heard "country" and "The Thong Song" (or whatever) when thinking of "rap." It took me awhile to expand my ideas on these genres. I'm pretty sure that's it. I guess. I think I've replaced my irrational dislike for country and rap with an irrational (maybe?) dislike for reggaeton and jam bands. Weird, right? Some graduate student should write their thesis on this...

All for now...I'll post again once I've composed my first acoustic guitar masterpiece.

8 comments:

ann said...

Bring on the movies!!! Bring on the music!

Ronson said...

Aww! Thanks mom. Maybe I'll create a movie and provide the soundtrack. Miiiight be a little ambitious at this point.

Anonymous said...

Ronson, just you wait ... My boyfriend got me into Six Feet Under recently and I just loved it (not having had cable since 2000 most such things are new to me). BUT THEN -- I've seen all but one episode of the second season, so I'm just a little bit ahead of you, and let me tell you it gets dark. It's so upsetting! And my friend Jon warned me it gets worse!

You gotta keep watching just to see how Nate and Brenda play out, though. And you also have to, if you think about it, tell me what you think of them and which of them you hate more. I'm building an overarching theory about "Nate people" and "Brenda people" but it's not done yet.

Ronson said...

Greeeeeeat. I'm still just in the middle of season 2, so now I'm all antsy. On Demand better step it up!
It's pretty dark right now, so I can't imagine how it'll get darker...

If I had to pick, I'd say I'm more a "Nate person" but it's still pretty early in a show. They're definitely both messed up, but Brenda is more cold and indifferent and just gave one of her clients a *really good* massage. But I'm assuming Nate's jerky side has yet to shine.

I feel bad for Nate right now though. He is sort of the "main protagonist" after all. I mean, he has a life threatening ailment and a weird GF. Who wouldn't turn into a jerk?

I do like your word choice "who do you hate more." :)

Anonymous said...

Oooooo boy. If you're not a Brenda fan b/c of the inappropriate massage thing, well, I won't give away more.

Sometimes I'm tempted to defend her but I don't because Ken and I have only been together for a few months and I don't want him to think I'm a secret psycho. Although, I guess she's not really defensible, I just think Nate is no better than her when you get down to it.

Ronson said...

I definitely agree. It's not like I think Nate is a saint, I just think the show has been edited at this point to make you feel bad for him. I like Brenda, but right now they have her jumping to marry Nate one minute, and bored with him the next.

And while I think I identify with Nate sometimes, as far as characters go, I like Ruth and David better than either he or Brenda, so it makes it easier to get through some of their relationship's more confounding moments...

Inappropriate massage was the last episode I watched. I'm tempted to rent the rest of season 2 on DVD right now!

Anonymous said...

I love David! After he stopped being such a closet case, he really came into his own. Ruth is hilarious too, and I love how much alike they are. It shows up a lot later in the season.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, David's gotten much better, I think his changing and learning process is what makes his character so likable. Also I really like he and Nate's interactions, it's probably the only healthy relationship on the whole show.