Well, I'll be...

On a rational level, Obama's election to the office of President was a happy occasion, but it didn't really do much for me on an emotional level. Of course, I would've been really bummed out if he'd have lost. It would've just been more weight put on to the pile of stress on my back that I have learned to ignore. Luckily, he won, but I still went about life like it was any other day. My mom wrote to me shortly after his election about how excited she was about everything Obama was doing, but it all seemed so distant to me.

Halfway through reading an article today about Obama's proposal to push wind-power I suddenly started feeling really happy. It only just hit me today that he really is the real deal. FOR REAL! There can't be any way that he's pulling a fast one us. He is actually a real good dude, and that's that. All the little things that he's doing to counteract the countless years of awfulness that I've witnessed are just too real to not smile about.

Nice.

Rejected Band Names

Stringer Bell & The Drells

Deli

Tonight I heard Less Than Jake's "My Own Flag" playing as I walked through the mall. For a variety of reasons I've written off Less Than Jake for years, but something about hearing that song tonight really struck me and had me feeling all sentimental and melancholy, especially since hearing Less Than Jake's first album in a Japanese mall is about as unexpected as it gets. I'm not really at a loss for Americana here in Japan, since food and entertainment and everything else American has pretty well infiltrated life out here. I am at a loss for the community and context that would've made Less Than Jake meaningful to me. Maybe that's why hearing this band again brought back the feelings of discovery and excitement that I felt when I first heard Pezcore and stuff of that sort as a teenager.

I came home and found this:

http://www.thetraintracks.org/track.php?id=39

I'm glad that Andrew Jackson Jihad is still around, since they're one of the only groups going these days that really can make me feel music in the same that I would have as an impressionable young dufus.