Darkness on the Edge of Town

Esquire sent me an e-mail yesterday with 75 albums they say every man should own. I decided to procure the ones I didn't own. Now I've decided to make it a feature on my blog. Everyday I'm going to listen to one and record my thoughts. Today we start with...



Upon looking over the titles of these songs, there's three types of Springsteen song titles. Biblical, Industrial, and Darkness. Of course I know this isn't true, but focusing on this album, it is.

I'm two songs into this album. I certainly love it. It sounds exactly a Bruce Springsteen album should. What is that you say? It sounds like a lot of auto mechanics get together at the garage after work and they just jam out. I really get this great image of these guys sitting on the hoods of cars playing when I listen to Abel Raised a Cain, especially in the backing vocals.

All of the songs are really solid. They are really ordered well too. I've always been curious about the process that an artist goes into with the track listing of an album. All of the recordings I've done have essentially functioned as demos, so we never really put much thought into it. But this album seems to have a really great up and down progression. Hard and dirty, slow and heartfelt, hard and heartfelt, and slow and dirty, in that order for the most part.

Final summation:8/10 It's definitely a guy album though. Something I picture my dad listening to while he's doing housework on Saturdays.

Playing to an empty room.

There's no one there, but I've decided to start writing alot more. Many people I know have blogs and update them everyday, even if it's a single sentence about McDonalds French Fries. Of course, I would love to know you're out there if you are.

Yesterday, I decided to experiment with my diet a bit. I'm not going to be counting points with Weight Watchers anymore, but instead trying to create a caloric deficit based on my Basal Metabolic Rate. I'm doing this both through calorie reduction and excercise. The goal is to have a deficit of 5,250 calories a week, which should result in a 1.5 lb loss. We shall see. So far, as of yesterday, my deficit is 951 calories. That's because I didn't get a chance to work out.

The visit home was great. I loved seeing my family and friends and eating a ton of foods that are absolutely delicious.

It's strange, but I'm not really pannicking about work. I've kind of gotten used to playing the cards as they've been dealt. I'm going to keep going about things as usual, make sure I do at least what's required of me, if not more, and just try to succeed. If that's not enough to keep me here in '09. I'll find another job.

I've been considering going back to school or at least continuing my education in some way. I don't know if it will be theatre focused or not. I should've gotten a marketing degree or something. Maybe I'll get certified as an IT guy and then I could do that. That seems like most of the improvisors/actors I know do that in some capacity.

I just need to learn a trade. And get a haircut. And upon recent inspection when I was in the bathroom, trim my sideburns.