Thai deliciousness & musicality

Tonight my friend Trent, who is Thai, made authentic Thai food for some friends and myself. You may remember me mentioning my love of such food after Hank introduced me to it last October. I haven't had it since then but tonight did not disappoint. There is something so fantastic about a finely made curry. Just having dinner made for you is lovely, and not something that happens very often at college. It's nice having friends who cook ethnic foods. It's nice having a college family of sorts.

I could go on for ages about this food but I've also been inspired to talk about musical tastes and how crucial they are to relationships, both between friends and romantic interests.

While I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, I usually try to narrow it down for people. At the very least, I tell them I'll listen to basically anything but rap or country. Unless it's George Watsky; I like when he raps. But I digress . . . For the sake of many conversations I limit myself to categories like indie-folk or piano or jazz, when really the music I listen to is all of those things combined at times. A lot of the time my descriptions of music include specific instruments. These days it's often banjo, ukulele; and it's always included piano. Beyond the chill folk type music I love, I'm also kind of into electronic/alternative stuff, like Passion Pit. And then there is a'capella, which is unlike anything else and more fantastic than most music.

I've been thinking about music a lot as the time draws near that Jordan, who is basically my musical soulmate, returns from Scotland. I'm pretty sure the only thing regarding music Jordan and I have disagreed on is that I kind of like Iron and Wine's version of Such Great Heights almost more than I like The Postal Service's.

Music does so much to change relationships of all sorts. You can obviously be friends w/ people who have different musical tastes. I sure do. But I must acknowledge the fact that my perceptions of people and my respect for them can be lowered exponentially upon finding out their musical tastes are, well, different than mine. Yes, I do, at times, exhibit the behaviors of music snobs. I try to avoid it as much as possible, but I cannot always help myself. It's especially disappointing when I find myself attracted to a boy who seems incredibly wonderful and then I find out what he listens to and it becomes difficult to sustain the previous level of attraction. These things can be worked through, usually by focusing on the music you both happen to like, but life is just easier when you share the same musical loves. The music people like either heightens my respect for them or causes it to drop. There is no space for plateaus in my world of music. It's a weird concept, that my thoughts on someone could change so drastically because of something like music. I sometimes wish it wasn't that way, that I wouldn't use music as such a guide, but then I realize some people probably think my music is crap and are probably doing the same thing to me. Yet I don't care that they do.

At times I find myself feeling very hipster-ish because of my affinity for music basically no one else listens to. I don't do it on purpose. I just happen to spend a lot of time on YouTube where there happen to be an incredible number of talented musicians. This is not to say I don't listen to mainstream music, because I do, though it usually is limited to Coldplay. (I love Coldplay terribly and will never not, no matter what people say about them.) I made a playlist for a dance party Lorraine and I wanted to have. More than half the artists on that playlist I discovered through YouTube and no one would have heard of. It doesn't help that over Christmas break I seemed to have become some weird type of hipster/nerd/athlete combo.

For a taste of what I listen to on a general basis, I suggest reading my 25 songs of 2011 post. It is not comprehensive by any means, but it might give you an idea of what I enjoy. For example, it includes no big band or jazz music, which I was practically raised on, so just know I love things of that sort. For a truly comprehensive look at the music I love, I suggest examining my last.fm profile. That shows basically everything I've listened to since May 2007. (The song count is probably off since I forget to scrobble my iPod all the time but the most listened to artists is very accurate.)

Last YouTube video I watched: 4AM Monday (I also love running to this song.)