I'm going through changes...

I apologize for the Ozzy Osbourne lyric. But recently I really have been switching stuff around, but at the same time I feel like there some sort of weird and eerie calm before a potential storm. I could be speaking on preemptive terms, but the past couple days have been particularly dull. It's times like these that cause me to change in some way, just to mix things up.

I haven't been to an actual Barber Shop in nearly 4 years, since Katie's always been there to cut my hair. I've never really been pleased with her cuts though because A: She hates cutting mens hair anyways so I always have to ask multiple times until she finally gives in, and B: It's like going to a therapist with whom you're emotionally involved, it just doesn't work, that person's going to mold you into the person they hope you to be and not what you yourself aim to be...and that's what she was doing to my hair.

I went to the "Exchange Barber Shop" over at Pine & Montgomery Streets. It's one of the last great all male barber shops in a city that's being eaten from the inside out by salons & "stylists". It's partially underground, so it'd be easy to miss...but it's right next to the McDonald's there, so there's a landmark for ya. Inspired by the film "Bullitt", I decided to go for a quasi-Steve McQueen cut. I printed out a few photos to show the barber, and told him to cut it just a bit shorter than the photo. Suffice to say, the haircut came out pretty sweet. It was just what I needed during this heatwave. I don't know if it looks "great" on me, but at least I'm not burnin' up from a hot head.

While I've trimmed the hair from the top of my head, I'm experimenting with my facial hair. I have the mustache/goatie combo goin', and I'm not sure whether I like either one. But I might just shave one of them to see which I prefer. Keeping the chin fur sounds like a safer bet as there have been instances in the past of mustaches taking over the personalities of other people, and I don't want that to happen to me. Although, when I cover up my chin with my hand, the stache seems kinda cool...in an "hipster irony" sort of way. I might keep the stache for a couple weeks just as a joke or something. What do I care? I have no one to impress these days with my looks.

Every few months I go through a different phase of musical taste. Late last year it was all about glam and gettin' to know more about that era of Rock 'n Roll history. Earlier this year I was trying to get more familiar with some of the latest hip hop stuff like Common and Mos Def, and that turned out pretty well. But now I've made a turn into neo-psychedelia/pop/rock stuff. Most people know me to be a huge Pink Floyd fan, so perhaps this doesn't come as a surprise, but I'm more into discovering for myself the many other bands with the similar 60's style. I've really gotten into the Brian Jonestown Massacre lately, thanks to Matt who re-introduced them to me. I was a fan of their's back in my High School days, but then I left the country for a couple years and when I came back they'd totally disappeared from my memory. But since you're able to download most of their albums for free from their website, I took advantage of the fact and loaded my iTunes with some wonderful tunes. If you've never heard of them, you should give'em a chance.

Anton Newcombe, the band's main songwriter is quite the musical genius and artist, even though he was quite the infante terrible back in his heyday. And if you really get into BJM, go watch the documentary film "Dig!" which is mostly about the rivalry between BJM & the Dandy Warhols, but it's also about Anton's drug induced demise at the time. But don't worry, he's perfectly fine and well now. I'm actually going to see BJM at the Independent in September...should be a good show.


EDITOR'S NOTE: You can download most of Brian Jonestown Massacre's at their website http://brianjonestownmassacre.com/mp3.html (just be sure to download the plugin to play .ogg files in your preferred media player, and after downloading the files I would advise you to convert them all to AAC or mp3's.