(this message was posted Saturday afternoon, but was written Friday night - all mentions of "today" mean Friday. Blogger's server was down when I tried to post this Friday, so I had to wait until the next day).

OK, today's morning ride music was Atlas's Blå Vardag, wonderful instrumental symphonic Swedish prog. Helped get me in a good mood, which got me through my Calculus exam that morning.

This evening, I attented a lecture at the college about forensic anthropology. I noticed when entering the lecture, there was a track meet going on at the stadium. It wasn't a college meet... it was a high school meet.

Now, let me rewind a few weeks. After an evening class a few weeks ago, my parents called me and told me to come to the stadium to see one of my cousins in the meet. I declined until they upped the offer to a good dinner as well. So, I go to the meet. I'm watching, bored, when this girl (one of my old high school's track team's members) comes up to me. She asks me if I remembered her....

Rewind two years. Senior year in high school. Trigonometry class. I sit next to this girl, who is a sophmore. I'm 17, she's 15. I think she's cute, but mostly she's just a real nice person that I consider a friend. Plus, she's not allowed to date until she turns 16 anyway (which is later that year, but perhaps too late). And I don't have a car yet.

Fast forward back to this year. My little brother is a freshman at that high school, and this girl is a senior. Both are involved in a "mock trial" club on campus, so she's sorta in touch with the family.

Fast forward back to the track meet. These last two years have treated her well. She was cute then, but she's much prettier now at 18 (she fared rather well, as I recall, in an area beauty pageant). She's asking if I "remember her" (like I could forget). I'm pre-occupied with thoughts of the other girl discussed here before (you know, the one that already had a boyfriend... boy, don't I pick 'em good). I have a friendly conversation with her, but my family (immediate and cousins) are right there too, so I'm not going to be saying too much. Plus, again, still planning on asking out that other girl. I was curious about the fact that she (the track girl) would come up to me out of the blue during her track meet to talk to me...

Fast forward back to today. I'm getting out of the car, and heading to the lecture. I hear the meet going on. I need to attend the lecture, but I bet that the meet will still be going on in an hour (when the lecture ends). So I go into the lecture, and plan on heading out to the stadium afterwards.

Lecture ends. It's raining outside now. The meet is still going, though. I enter the stadium. I hear the girl's name called out over the loudspeaker (reading off the results of an earlier event). However, try as I might, I couldn't find her. As I left the stadium, I noticed that many of the athletes were getting out of the cold by sitting in the school buses right outside the stadium. Considering that the two local school buses appear to be nearly full, I conjecture that she's on one of those buses. I'm in no position to go trampling through a school bus (especially since I'm not sure what I'd do when face-to-face with her... who knows, maybe she's just being friendly, she might have a boyfriend, but it's rare that I get that sort of treatment from a female friend that isn't interested in possibly being something more. But it could easily be nothing more than a "hi, we were friends, now I'm in a club with your punky little brother, how're you doing, been a couple of years, etc. etc." conversation. She is a very friendly person (which is kind of the whole appeal). I'm under no illusions that she's "definitely" interested, but I would like to get the chance that I robbed myself of by never saying anything to her... geez, I can't believe I hadn't thought of saying something sooner. Something unique about her is just the fact that she is so likable and honest that I'd trust her with pretty much anything. There are very few people on this planet that I will unreservedly trust... but I just don't see an ounce of deceit or dishonesty in her. A heart of pure gold).

Music Moment of the Day: Driving home from the college/stadium. It's nighttime now, and pouring rain. There's not much traffic, so it's a pretty easy ride. Listening to Atlas's Blå Vardag again. On track 5 (the last one of the album proper, before the bonus material). Left elbow against my car door, left hand propping up my chin. Wondering why the hell I didn't think about asking out this girl 1-2 years ago. In fact, I can think of no less than two (and perhaps as many as four) girls that I should have asked out but didn't. It wasn't that I was afraid to, or that I didn't know them well. On the contrary, it was because they were "friends" and I either was afraid of losing that, or simply didn't think of them "like that". It reminds me of that Survivor song, "The Search is Over":

I was always reachin', you were just a girl I knew / I took for granted the friend I have in you / [...] / the search is over / You were with me all the while"

That's just it. These were "just girls I knew". But, as I approach my departure from this place, I'm seeing some failures in my time here. Like, I can't possibly come up with a single reason why I would not want to date the track girl. Beautiful, intelligent, definitely fun to be around... nope, no reasons not to. Out of all the "friends" I could/should have considered asking out, this girl stands out.

(Of course, the question now arises... with perhaps as few as 6 weeks left in town, why consider pursuing her now? Well, at the least, I want to know where she's going to college next year. I might end up near her. I could be in San Jose, which would be near anything in the Bay Area. I could be in Pomona, which is Los Angeles. And I could be in Fresno, which is just an hour from here. Now, don't take that as meaning that I might base my decision on where she is. But I would like to know, because if I'm going to be near her, I won't waste any time. And, to answer the above question in another way, I guess I just feel like I screwed up and missed an opportunity, and want to correct the situation regardless of logistical issues).

ARGH! I almost hope that I get a chance to talk to her, and ask her out, and get shot down, just so I won't feel like I missed what could have been something good.

Amazing... I continue to find new and creative ways to make myself feel like s--t.

Hmm. Perhaps I should just stick to writing about music here.

I was reading an article that dissed "indie kids" (you know, the social misfits that dig "indie rock" bands and find themselves and their music superior to anything and everything played on the radio), and one of it's many slightly-tongue-in-cheek points was:

"Indie kids like experimentation, but not too much experimentation. They like extremity, but not too much extremity. They like songs, but they like them to be a bit shy and fuzzed-up and nervous and not too songish. Best of all they like bands which sound comfortingly like the other ones they already know are cool."

This could easily be applied to the "prog" community on the whole. I always shake my head at these fans that claim that they love prog because it's "complex", (and "different", and not chained to the strict pop-song format), and then list their favorite bands: Flower Kings, Spock's Beard, Pendragon, Cairo, Arena, Jadis, etc. Prompt these neo-prog fans to listen to some of the more avant-garde prog bands (not even RIO or zeuhl, but just something more "avant" than neo-prog), and they cover their ears and run. Why champion prog for it's "complexity" if you're only going to worship at the feet of those who create it's simplest music?

Actually listened to some classic rock radio yesterday. Among the highlights were Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine", a Jethro Tull song that I did not recognize (might have been an Ian Anderson solo release), and especially Van Halen's "I'll Wait". Here's a song that the Best Of.... Volume 1 compilation missed out on. I wonder, is Volume 2 ever going to be released? EVH claimed it was all lined up when they released the first one - it was just a matter of actually doing it. Given how well the first one sold, it's puzzling why the second one has yet to follow up.

Then again, in 2000, a Van Halen boxed set, Van Halen Box 1978-1984 was released, but it appears to be available only as an import. BMG doesn't have it (argh!), and the only one Amazon lists is as an "[IMPORT]" and is priced accordingly (Amazon's import pricing is terrible). [UPDATE: The boxed set is a Japanese only release.]

Like The Who, I'll have to load up on Van Halen single CDs instead of box sets. Too bad... I like box sets.

Been a while since I've posted. I've been on Spring Break, although I haven't gone anywhere. Rather, I have been catching up on some much-needed rest. By the week before break, I was pretty constantly fatigued. I'm feeling a bit better, and am ready to finish up the semester.

Let's see, new CDs... oh yes:

The Who - Who's Next
David Tohir and his Backbone - Angels Dancing in Virga
Deus Ex Machina - Equilibrismo da Insofferenza
NeBeLNeST - NeBeLNeST
Charles Mingus - Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
Chick Corea and Return to Forever - Light as a Feather
Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come

I have barely listened to these. You see, for the next week or so, I am instating a policy of only listening to MP3s when at home. I download so much, but a lot of it just sits there. So, for the time being, I am going to listen to MP3s when at home, and CDs when in the car and on foot.

Today, when sitting outside at a shopping center, I was drinking a Coke and listening to the radio that was being played for the seating area. The music mix was interesting. There was some pop, naturally, but then a Steely Dan tune played, and I didn't recognize which one. Furthermore, after that song, a Pink Floyd song played. That in itself was pretty interesting, but what caught my attention was the particular song. It wasn't one of the hits from Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Wish You Were Here, or even A Momentary Lapse of Reason or The Division Bell. I was able to identify the song as being something on Meddle, of all albums. I couldn't figure out which one (until I got home, and found out that it was "San Tropaz"). Very interesting choice.