So...about that Brian Wilson concert...It was nice, not sure it was worth my eighty bucks though. He played two sets, the first being the surf music of the earlier Beach Boys albums, the second being Pet Sounds in its entirety plus the encore.
The first set wasn't too good. I don't like the Beach Boys' surf period. Surf music is shit, and if I'm going to listen to ripped-off Chuck Berry riffs, then I'd rather listen to the man himself. They did play some great songs, though, some early stuff where Brian's genius was starting to reveal itself, like in California Girls. Then they also played Good Vibrations, which everyone knows is great.
I loved the second set. Pet Sounds really means a lot to me, and hearing it after the first set really emphasized just how very far away Pet Sounds is from all that surf crap. I went out for a bathroom break during Sloop John B. I figured I'd go then just because it never fit in lyrically with the rest of the album even though musically it's just good as the rest.
The encore was fifty-fifty. Fittingly they first played an actual Chuck Berry song (Johnny B. Goode), then--I can't remember the order--but they played Help Me Rhonda (great), Surfing USA (kind of sucks), and another I can't remember.
Over all, I was happy just to hear Pet Sounds live. Brian had a great band, and, oh yeah, Al Jardine was there too. One thing though: they were too loud! This is music for pussies, and really doesn't need to be played that loud. I couldn't hear the keyboards and the vibes and xylophone. I don't know if it has anything to do with Brian's being deaf in one ear, but I still have a ring in mine!
Sunday, November 19, 2006
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
This has been one of my best weeks ever:
1) I've been offered a job;
2) I got a hundred on an exam (okay, so it was only psych);
3) I saw Brian Wilson on his last Pet Sounds tour; and
4) Manny Pacquiao KO'd Erik Morales just under 3 minutes into round 3.
This scares me. I feel like I don't deserve all of this, like I'm getting away with something, like all this is going to be followed by some personal disaster in order to right this injustice. If it's anything like before, something will happen to my car, and it just so happens that I'm taking it to my mechanic next week for some regular work and maybe he's going to tell me something's wrong with it.
Or maybe all this good fortune is a follow-up to some bad luck I had earlier this week. We decided to upgrade all our old, inefficient toilets at home. On Tuesday, a plumber came in to do the work. At 2:30 the next morning my mom woke me up because the valve between the tank and the pipes had just popped off and water was flooding the bathroom. I raced to the basement to shut the water off, but the damage had been done: water was leaking from the bathroom upstairs through the ceiling of the ground floor. We were quick and lucky so little damage was wrought. Still, it was a horrible night for us.
The thing about happiness is that the higher you get, the lower the lows seem. I wish we didn't have to worry about that. I wish we had just highs, no lows. Whenever I'm sad I always wish that bad things never happen to anyone, especially me. But when I'm happy I think to myself that without the bad to contrast the good with, then the good would just be mundane and we wouldn't really be happy about anything.
I guess my being nervous about all the good fortune that's befallen me recently proves that I'm learning that something bad's always going to be just around the corner, and I'm no longer naively optimistic to believe that we need bad things in our lives. Jesus, I wish everyone had it all good anyway.
1) I've been offered a job;
2) I got a hundred on an exam (okay, so it was only psych);
3) I saw Brian Wilson on his last Pet Sounds tour; and
4) Manny Pacquiao KO'd Erik Morales just under 3 minutes into round 3.
This scares me. I feel like I don't deserve all of this, like I'm getting away with something, like all this is going to be followed by some personal disaster in order to right this injustice. If it's anything like before, something will happen to my car, and it just so happens that I'm taking it to my mechanic next week for some regular work and maybe he's going to tell me something's wrong with it.
Or maybe all this good fortune is a follow-up to some bad luck I had earlier this week. We decided to upgrade all our old, inefficient toilets at home. On Tuesday, a plumber came in to do the work. At 2:30 the next morning my mom woke me up because the valve between the tank and the pipes had just popped off and water was flooding the bathroom. I raced to the basement to shut the water off, but the damage had been done: water was leaking from the bathroom upstairs through the ceiling of the ground floor. We were quick and lucky so little damage was wrought. Still, it was a horrible night for us.
The thing about happiness is that the higher you get, the lower the lows seem. I wish we didn't have to worry about that. I wish we had just highs, no lows. Whenever I'm sad I always wish that bad things never happen to anyone, especially me. But when I'm happy I think to myself that without the bad to contrast the good with, then the good would just be mundane and we wouldn't really be happy about anything.
I guess my being nervous about all the good fortune that's befallen me recently proves that I'm learning that something bad's always going to be just around the corner, and I'm no longer naively optimistic to believe that we need bad things in our lives. Jesus, I wish everyone had it all good anyway.
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