Portrait of the Young Man at Thirty-Seven

Contributor, Jimhill, takes it to us again with a story of the eternal struggle within Pop Music and how he’s been riding his BMX bike for a quarter century while waiting for the next radar ping.

At 14 I liked pretty girls, BMX, and music I could call my own. Back then you were either “Metal” or “New Wave” (or you listened to Milli Vanilli and Wham, therefore negating any input you might have on important matters). Whether you liked Tears for Fears or Black Sabbath, you convinced your parents to let you wait outside Tower Records all night for concert tickets.  Those days I was on my bike every non-sleeping, non-schooling, non-working hour of the day.  There was some Nintendo in there too, but the focus was clearly to be out in front of something that few people knew about.  My older brother had God given talent for anything he tried, so I had to find something way off of his radar, and BMX was it.  The only people doing it were the people who died for it.

Pre X-Games, in the early ‘90’s, when BMX magazines started folding and parts became harder to get on shop shelves, I went a little more mainstream … I got a guitar. I tried to learn anything from Steely Dan and Van Halen to really cutting edge bands and whatever came on the radio, whether I liked it or not.  Music had become the next challenge.

Now here we are.  I’m still the God fearing fool I was 24 years ago. I live with 3 pretty girls, own maybe six BMX bikes (yeah I’m thirty-seven, WTF), play guitar, and listen to everything from Taylor Swift to Slayer (sometimes back to back).  Funny thing is, that what I hated in 1995, I’ve learned to accept along the way, like (see {some}) Oasis.

I know what I like. But I don’t know what I don’t like?  I love extreme sports, but they seem commonplace now?  I think Puffy killed rap, and Kanye came along and made sure it was dead.  Same as when Nirvana … Oh nevermind, you get my point. What can bring back excitement?  Where is the next NEW thing?

As I wait, I ride and I listen to music with my daughters. They like U2, Beck, and Stereophonics, but Z100 has also made Pussycat Dolls and Love Game unavoidable, which might be okay, because I secretly listened to Wham a bit as a kid.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 25th, 2010 at 3:57 pm.
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About the Daily Jim

Staff writers for thedailyjim can be contacted regarding freelance assignments, project consultations, and ego boosts. Your hair looks great, by the way. All content on this page is creator owned unless otherwise noted.

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