Two really weird things happened last night:
- I cooked in my house instead of going out to eat. I did some shitty linguini with ground beef, mushrooms, and… Ragu. But hey… I don’t get to choose a lot of good ingredients from my vicinity…
- I didn’t go out to Nelson or to drink in general. In fact, I have a caguamón in my fridge and I debated it if I should open it or not. I never did. Didn’t feel like drinking. I was tired.
Yeah. I know not drinking is the norm for most. It should be the norm for me. That wasn’t so bad.
I watched Video Game Dunkey all night. He reminds me of my friend Chuck from Michigan. And he is funny. It’s one of the nerdiest things I watch. That, Games Done Quick, gaming historian, Marvel or SF tournaments, and much more.
So I do watch a lot of nerdy shit…
Horrible intro for the last post.
YAWN!
STRETCH!
COFFEE!
I way overslept. Passed out watching LOTR again at around 11 p.m. And woke up way after 11 a.m.
I’m tired for no reason.
I have to help my mom today. But it’s so late already. Haven’t had breakfast. Barely drinking coffee. I’m being extra lazy.
It feels like a vacation when it shouldn’t.
It’s only Friday. And I didn’t finish what I said I was going to finish.
I hate myself when that happens.
And I haven’t done my top 10 music of the year.
So let’s get that over with and then my goodbyes.
And onto Christmas and next year.
Top 10 music of the year.
I haven’t heard much new music this year. In fact, like an old man, I’ve been hearing a lot of music that I already know. Nothing new for me! Them kids with their new fucking music. I don’t understand it!
1. Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, 1874
I told you I’ve been listening to old music.
This is my favorite song of all times. My biggest challenge because I want to learn it someday. Many years after the drunk Mussorgsky wrote it for piano… Ravel did an arrangement for orchestra.
And many years after that Kazuhito Yamashita did an arrangement for classical guitar.
Jorge Caballero’s performance of it is masterful. He is the youngest and only guitarist to win the Naumburg Competition Award (it usually goes to piano players or violinists). The most prestigious music award ever.
This song is just so fucking good on so many levels that it makes no sense how it occurred in 1874.
Nothing will ever beat it.
2. Jaco Pastorius – Teen Town, 1978
I love a lot of Jaco’s music, but Teen Town was the first that I listened that I was like… DAMN!!!
A Portrait of Tracy is insanely beautiful. Donna Lee (originally by Charlie Parker) is amazing on bass as well.
I bought the Jaco Pastorius Big Band compilation CDs in Tower Records in Chicago in 2005. The college jazz band went on a tour and they took us there. A few years later, Tower Records closed. It was a really cool big place with records, sheet music, books, instruments, and so much more.
I bought two CDs that day. Or maybe a couple more. But the other one I remember that I bought and loved thoroughly was this one.
3. Astor Piazzolla – Muerte del Angel (somewhere in the 1980s).
I know the shitty arrangement of this in guitar. The better arrangement by Leo Brouwer is insanely great. I tried learning it but gave up.
I should play way more guitar.
Oh man.
This list is just really really old music. Shouldn’t even really be a list.
Since I’m going for all the masters in my life… I have too.
I just have too.
4. Hella – Republic of Rough and Ready (2002)
I have a couple of other favorite Hella songs (mostly from that same album Hold Your Horse Is). Biblical Violence, Better Get a Broom, Cafeteria Bananas, City Folk Sitting, Sitting, and 1-800 Ghost Dance are all insanely great fucking songs.
But Republic of Rough and Ready…
That’s the first Hella song that I really paid attention. It blew my mind. It defied my concept of music and tonality. It switched everything that I have ever thought music was. And I went on a Hella binge.
I still go on a Hella binge.
I sort of know how to play this song on guitar.
And if Biblical Violence comes on shuffle I pretend to drum it. Of course, it’s fucking impossible. But I like to think that I know every hit.
It’s so cold in my fucking apartment…
More coffee!
5. Mega Man 2 – Soundtrack (1988)
If I had to pick only one song it would be Wood Man, followed closely by Air Man.
This is such a huge influence on my music and video game life. It’s perfection in both game and music. I was three when I remember obsessively trying to beat it at my neighbor’s house. We would write all the passwords and figure this shit out. I did most the work…
I don’t think anyone (parents, friends, etc) understood the difficulty of this game at the time. I’m not sure if I ever beat it. I just remember writing the progress passwords. Them coordinates of blue and red balls. No one taught me coordinates. Mega Man did. When they were teaching that shit in school I was like… “YO TEACH, Mega Man 2 already taught me this shit.”
No. I didn’t say that. I’ve always been a shy nerd my whole life.
And…
THAT IS IT!
So what the fuck Matingas? You said Top 10 of the year and then you just showered us with Top 5 of fucking nonsense.
Hey!
I don’t dictate this shit. I just sit here and come up with ideas.
Honorable mention of music that influences me the most.
6. Chim Charoo (early 2000s).
That was my cousin’s band. No songs are available online. I only have the albums on my iTunes and he has others too. I told him to post it online. He doesn’t. That music was WAY ahead of its times. In this modern times, they could have been a bigger band. Not famous by any means, but definitely cultivate some more following.
My original top 10 list was going to start with Delta Sleep, which I mentioned last year. But they are not huge influences like the ones I mentioned before. So they don’t belong on the list anymore.
They are still amazing and they were definitely my favorite of 2017, but that’s only because I saw them live, bought a shirt from them, and chatted with them like a fucking creep.
And the concert was fucking amazing.
Can’t believe they came to TJ.
Listen to them.
My ex came with me, well girlfriend at the time. I never nerded out that hard in front of her except for them. I felt weird after that.
Like in the scene of I Love You, Man, where they are nerding out to the Rush concert and Rashida Jones is looking at Jason Segel and Paul Rudd like “you fucking weirdos.”
I felt like my ex gave me that look. Like you fucking weirdo.
She says she really liked the concert. I believe her. But not as much as I did. It was awesome.
And I want more of that in my life.
More music.
I just realized my top 2 musicians (Mussorgsky and Pastorius) were absolute drunks.
Insane how some of the best musicians end up drunk and fucking homeless.
That might be my fate.
I guess this is it.
Hit publish and share.
Fade into obscurity.
My first post was September 25, 2012. It was about Ryan Phillippe. That was the point of the blog. Talk about celebrities.
Then it became a weekly thing. And instead about celebrities, I started talking a lot about myself. Followed by a celebrity.
And now, for the past year it has been over 1,000+ words daily. About nothing and everything.
THANKS FOR PLAYING!
Mostly, thanks to Karla for venturing with me for almost all of 2017. Made me believe in love.
Seriously. I don’t understand how she put up with me.
And was okay with my daily word vomit.
I felt so horrible in some of them. I still do.
I’m a shitty person. She hated it when I talked shit about myself. I know there are millions much worse. But I don’t care about them. I strive for being the best. Always come up short. Hate myself because of it. Beat myself up.
And now this is over.
Whatever this was.
THANKS!
Many THANKS for viewing all my stupid content.
What’s going to happen next?
The blog is going to move to a tab on the page. I wanted to put a paywall on it, but that costs money and it’s complicated (and I have no idea who would pay for it).
The main page will be an intro to who I am. Then the rest of the tabs divided in what I can do.
Hopefully, get more photo gigs. Get more writing gigs. Get more jobs. Keep making music.
Oh shit!
This post needs a goodbye picture!
The end…?!
Posted that one before. Me in 2010ish?
Posted this one before. Me a couple weeks ago.
BYE!
AND THANKS!
And if you need to reach me… I’m very easy to reach.
I said bye to LA. I said bye to the paparazzo job. I said bye to apartments. My roommate left and those times are gone. I said bye to a lot of things.
BYE WORD VOMIT!
It’s been real!
Matingas 
2 responses to “The Unimpressive Last Word Vomit – Top 5 Music Influences of ALL TIME – THANKS FOR PLAYING…!!!”
Loved it, my friend! The whole experience (what I got). I’ll miss hearing about your life so I hope you still post elsewhere and that we keep in touch.
Thank you