Giving Thanks

Usually people do this kind of thing during Thanksgiving. But, in the Wright family, we do it at Christmas dinner with Grandpa. He sits at the head of the table and calls on the oldest person first. My cousin Lexi is older than me but she lives in Hong Kong and hasn't been around the last few years to cover for me. That leaves me as the oldest in attendance, and the first one that Grandpa calls on to talk about, "What they're thankful for and why." And given my bouts with ADD (and despite me knowledge that it's coming), i never have anything prepared. Fortunately, I'm an immaculate bullshitter (hey, it got me through high school AND college. I can't do simple math in my head, but i have a degree. You want to fight me on this?!?), so, at Christmas, i say a bunch of stuff about family and love and priorities, which is usually all true and i come off as the spontaneous hero and spiritual role model of my young family. Good times, trust me.
So anyway, this year, I'm taking Grandpa's challenge seriously. I've already planned my speech, and thanks to Grandpa's week in the hospital, it has never been easier. But, i thought I'd take it a step further and talk about the music and the musical people i am thankful for. And just to be warned, this may be an ongoing post because I'm sure i won't think of everything this minute. In fact, I'm just going to post one (or 3 as it turned out) thing right now, and then post sequential "Thanks" as we go towards x-mas and the new year. And maybe this will be a year-round thing, after all, why should we only be thankful during one time of the year? We'll see.

Alright, the first thing I'm musically thankful for:
This was really tough. Do i owe it to IM? Limewire? Chris Perry? (who, by the way, has hooked me up with more bands in the past 6 months (before they've become amazingly popular ie. Panic at the Disco, Lydia, Paramore, etc.) than anyone else? OK, it's cheesy, but i have to thank this blogging community. It's not the juggernaut i thought it'd be by now, but I'm an impatient and generally cranky person. It's grown by leaps and bounds since I've become a part of it. Ron wrote first in Political.Pop.Culture and many have followed suit. It's growing gradually and gaining serious steam. And for that i am happy and visibly excited. I've tried to have one blog each for all of the things I'm interested in but found myself posting about music more than anything else, hands down. And I've discovered so many new bands. A short, off the top of the head list: Augustana, Matt Costa, The Decemberists, Neutral Milk Hotel, Iron & Wine, Lupe Fiasco, Arcade Fire, Alexi Murdoch and Michael Franti, just to name a very small few. These were all thanks to Suzanne, Sara, Ron, Courtney, Laura, Erika and many others who have joined this small force.

The second, and i believe he deserves his own section (and maybe one day, his own radio station), Nole. Because he took his love of music the farthest of anyone but knew his priorities when he had enough. And he stays so true to his roots (allowing that his roots are more than a love of POD? AHHHHHHH.) From "This Song Can't be About Blowing Stuff Up Because of Terrorism" to Freeverse to the recent Led Zeppelin Top 5, Nole has always been a musical lighthouse for me to follow. Sure, some ships follow the light and run horribly aground to the oily dismay of many seagulls, penguins and otters, but for the most part, he has lead us through the rocky shores of the damn Black Eyed Peas and towards the safe port of Johnny Cash and others. And Ron deserves his own spot here too because even though he is often the driver of the bandwagon, his open minded-ness has turned us on to some music that most of us would have missed (ie. Michelle Branch). If you're the guy testing the aim of the new batting cage machines, you've got to be ready to get plunked a time or two. But you're also going to rack some homers. Thanks Ron.

Third, I'd like to thank Monday mornings, iTunes, iPods, Limewire, AIM, Discmans, Walkmans, headphones, earbuds, vinyl, the Internet, blogs; DJs Span Phly, AM and Z-Trip; my cousin Matt (who introduced me to Punk), Donny Ducote (who introduced me to grunge and angst), my girl T from Boulder (who introduced me to hip hop), Courtney (who introduced me to Emo and depression, love you Claw); the Stugo sound system, Mike Flosi and Brett Kaufman; Y95, Power 92.3 (before it was rap), 103.9 (when it was the Blaze, and now that it's back to being the Edge), the Clubhouse, the Modified, The Marquee, Hayden Lawn, Red Rocks, the Fillmore, my 500gb external hard drive, my parents record collection; and Coheed and Cambria, Thrice, Yellowcard and Thursday (who really pulled me back into loving music after a deep, deep period of losing hope back in 2003). For without these things and people, none of this would exist today.