what if my favorite song of the year is by taylor swift

does that make me the 16 yr old girl matt welch says ive been my whole life

i also like the video

my mom doesnt like taylor, or rihanna, or the xbi, or the legalization of 420, or that ive been spending a lot of time south of the 10

but i think deep down shes glad that im doing all these things for the right reasons

and most of it is based in the bible, which she indirectly got me into by never forcing it on me

amber says that her heroes include michelle obama, lady gaga and my mom

how nice is that.

tonight the brothers steve play and ive got hella work to do but i will see them because like taylor swift

theres something about music that just touches my spirit and does something weird to it

how does that work

is it the Lord

is that why he said for us to make a joyful noise?

is that why the caged bird sings?

is that why Angus and Neil and Tom Waits and Ozzy have lived such long, glorious lives

because rock and roll will never die

because it’s holy?

do kids slow dance at dances any more?

if i was in 8th grade i would want this to come on for the slow dance

and id find the prettiest girl in class and be all

wanna dance

and all her friends would go oooooooooo

tony what if it doesnt get better

then it doesnt.

but it does.

it always does.

and always will.

if you think things that are negative

it just means that yr in the middle

of IT

and the middle of it sucks.

so what yr seeing isnt it

it’s just the middle passage

the part where weird stuff happens

which is also the part

where change occurs

growth

magic

transformation

revitalization

rehabilitation

extraordination

your beginning the beguine, cole

yr taking em to the bridge, john paul

im reading the edward snowden book right now. he’s such a smart guy. it’s hard to tell what happened it’s so early in the book but he just mentioned something that i have mentioned here before.

he is talking about how Super Mario Bros taught him so much about life.

i feel the exact same way.

and whats weird about that game is i never owned it.

i was in college when it came out and we were living a block from the beach, classes were incredible, i had a radio show, i was in the newspaper every day,

the streets were literally crawling with the prettiest girls you could imagine

bands were playing on rooftops, in back yards, in front yards, in barns

i had no need or time for a video game, but there it was in my house that i shared with several others

and despite the fact that i was studying zen, romantic poets, the old testament, and milton

while reading every bukowski i could find in the library on the side

there was super mario brothers with its little 8 bit music and the shittiest controller in history

and it was teaching me everything:

life is a dance

watch out for the bosses

shit gets real, then it gets easier, then it gets harder

everything you’re doing is for a woman, so enjoy the journey

might as well jump

but it also taught me that every day that you learn something will help you in your battles tomorrow.

because as random as life is, there are patterns, learn them.

experiment with who you think you are.

everything is relative to how you approach things.

and also: time is not on your side.

so, hustle.

snowden mostly focused on that last part. time. that time is short.

thus, when you feel like you should act, maybe you should.