adventure, animals, anime, art, backrubs, beach, cats, central ny, chocolate, cny, comedy, confident, cuddling, daily show, exercise, fitness, flirt, friends, fun, funny, hiking, humor, jazz, kissing, local history, mac os x, macintosh, massage, monty python, outdoors, simpsons, south park, syracuse, tall, theater, theatre, upstate new york, upstate ny, wine

I listen to jazz, mainly. Other forms of music have their merits, but there's something about jazz that just resonates with my mind and soul. Maybe it's the improvisation, the predictable unpredictability, familiar chord progressions suddenly taking a right turn at Albuquerque and ending up at the North Pole. I still remember, as a small child, before I had a radio of my own, my parents listened to the small local station that played big-band songs. Then I went through my rebellious stage, listened to what the other kids listened to, and ... it felt fake. After graduating college, getting a job and moving into my own place, I stumbled across the public radio station playing a jazz song ... Dave Brubeck's "Take Five." I was mesmerized. I knew enough music theory to understand the 5/4 rhythm, the same as the "Mission Impossible" theme, and it was so different from what I'd been listening to that I was completely drawn into the music. It seemed to last far longer than 6 minutes and 38 seconds. When it ended the radio host (no mere disk jockey) told me the name of what I'd been listening to, and who wrote it, and who performed on each instrument. And then he played songs by Ellington, and Mingus, and Davis, and after that it was like I'd ascended into a higher plane and could never be satisfied listening to popular music again.