Like a Butterfly

Tomorrow my muscles could experience new dull aches like nothing they've ever felt. For the first time I participated in the sport I love that no one else seems to get. One hour later it required conscious hand-eye coordination to open the door and enter my car. But I loved the experience so much that not only am I interested in continuing throughout the summer, but I already found a gym for it in my fall home of Harrisbug, Pennsylvania.

Last month ESPN gathered sports scientists, athletes, and journalists to determine the most difficult sport, the one with the most potent combination of physical and mental abilities and toughness. The conclusion: boxing is the toughest sport to master. Boxing is a misunderstood sport. There are so many complaints and grievances about it, I wouldn't know where to being my retort.

It's an incredible demand on your physical body and brain. Even one second of betrayal from either can completely alter the course of outcome. There's no one to back you up when you make a mistake. And try to stand there punching and weaving for three straight minutes! It's incredibly draining to your legs, shoudlers, and arms after the first minute!

A beautiful craft when done right. An invigorating workout even when not.

Music Makes Me Come Together

People see my family music collection and one of the first questions to come after how the hell do you listen to all that? and how much do you think all of those cost? is:

So which one's your favorite?

My dad can spit it out immediately, and it's a somewhat predictable answer: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles. As for me, it used to come out just as easily. I'd say MoodSwing, Joshua Redman and never express the slightest bit of doubt. It's the album that got me into jazz, he's my favorite artist, and it still receives somewhat regular rotation after 10 years. If I'm still playing an album at age 21 I listened to at age 11, it's a keeper.

That album-- and favorite artist status for that matter-- has been seriously threatened since Rufus Wainwright released Want One last fall and my recent discovery of Grace and all that was is Jeff Buckley. For the first time in a while I can't honestly say what my favorite album is. Everyone should have one album that stands to them above the rest. There must be one musician out there who compiled enough excellent songs together in one package so eloquently that you couldn't imagine someone doing you a better job for you even if they personally worked in the studio thinking of your musical likings.

Picking a favorite song to me is much trickier. A song usually recollects on a certain theme, with a certain emotion, in a certain style. There will be songs with melodies that will never leave my head, chords and high notes that give me physical chills on my arms, and lyrics that I wish I had thought of first so I could post them as a blog entry. But it would be a mighty task to come up with 4 minutes of music that could capture half of what my entire self stands for. I can't imagine finding a song, one song, that could unequivocally represent all that is wonderful to me about music. An album can elicit many feelings across many colors, but a song is merely too compact and focused to accomplish that to the same magnitude.

I've never had one favorite song. Whenever asked about my favorite song, I used to recite a Top 5 list, but nowadays my Top 5 list has about eight or nine bullets. I feel no shame, because my dad's favorite song list is a top freaking one hundred, and he doesn't even include any Beatles songs ("There are too many. They'd take up too much of the list.")!

With that, I've decided to compile a list of my favorite songs, songs that I couldn't imagine skipping over if I heard them on the radio. Perhaps this will become an evolving list with additions and subtractions in the future. And who knows, maybe one day I'll reach an even 100 and call it a catalog. I'm almost halfway there anyway.

And if I had to pick one at gunpoint today at this time, I'd say the Rosie song. Or Jimmy. And maybe Josh.

My Favorite Songs

"Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers
"Ain't Too Proud to Beg" by The Temptations
"Airbag" by Radiohead
"All Apologies" by Nirvana
"Amsterdam" by Coldplay
"August in Bethany" by The Juliana Theory
"Beautiful Child" by Rufus Wainwright
"Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
"Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen
"BPD" by Over the Rhine
"Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison
"Con te Partiro" by Andrea Bocelli
"Crystal Village" by Pete Yorn
"Dare You to Move" by Switchfoot
"Dawn (Go Away)" by Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons
"Drops of Jupiter" by Train
"867-5309/Jenny" by Tommy Tutone
"Faith" by Joshua Redman
"Fast as You Can" by Fiona Apple
"Free Falling" by Tom Petty
"Go or Go Ahead" by Rufus Wainwright
"Good Lovin" by The Rascals
"Grace" by Jeff Buckley
"Gratitude" by David Murray Quartet
"Hands Down" by Dashboard Confessional
"Hear You Me" by Jimmy Eat World
"I Alone" by Live
"Into the Dark" by The Juliana Theory
"Last Goodbye" by Jeff Buckley
"More Than Words" by Xtreme
"Nice to Know You" by Incubus
"Norwegian Wood" by The Beatles
"Politik" by Coldplay
"Poparazzi" by Xzibit
"Runaround Sue" by Dion
"Salt Peanuts" by Joshua Redman
"She's Not There" by The Zombies
"Simon" by Lifehouse
"Standing at the Edge of the Earth" by Blessid Union of Souls
"Thugz Mansion" (acoustic) by Tupac Shakur
"Two Way Monologue" by Sondre Lerche
"Wedding Day" by Rosie Thomas
"What the Fuck are We Saying?" by Lenny Kravitz
"Who We Be" by DMX
"Yesterday" by The Beatles

Things I Could do With a Summer of Solitude

Write songs
Practice trumpet/sax/piano
Read books
Write a book
Become a runner
Drive around the country
Work on my cooking
Become an online poker player
Make lists in my blog