what I'd like to do here is this...

If I'm going to write this blog, and you're going to read it, then I guess I have two principal things to confess here. The first is that I'm highly opinionated about almost everything in art and culture. There's no getting away from that, as most of my friends would tell you. I shout out my opinions at a volume slightly higher than what's normally considered conversational, and I hold to them like facts. The good news is, I respect anybody else's right to do the same. If I'm wrong, I'd love to hear why. What I won't do is treat matters of taste as some kind of intangible, sacred thing. No one is entitled to have an opinion without reasons behind it in any other area of discussion, and I won't stand for it in conversations about music, film and art either. To do that is to take these things outside of the realm where substantial conversations can be had, and to me, that's quite unacceptable.

My second confession is that I'm not the world's foremost expert on anything. In the greater arenas of the internet, or even the world of music blogging, there are sure to be people whose knowledge and expertise outmatches my own by far. This is a hobby for me, albeit one I've had for a long time now and care about quite a bit. What I'd like to do here is write for whoever's interested about the musical opinions of one guy with a little bit of game and some fairly diverse tastes. Oh, and we may branch out into other matters, particularly film and television at times. I haven't decided yet.

I wanted to start off with some kind of music survey, to more or less cover all the bases and serve as an introduction to my own tastes, but I couldn't find a set of questions anywhere to serve that purpose (maybe the subject of a future entry if somebody could refer me to one). So instead, in the style of the masterpiece High Fidelity, I'll just start with my own personal top five recording artists.

1. Al Stewart
2. The Pogues
3. Guided By Voices
4. Damon Albarn (Blur/ Gorillaz/ The Good, The Bad and The Queen)
5. The Smiths

I assembled the list when I was tired of being hopelessly flustered and unsure of where to start when people asked me what kind of music I listened to, usually after berating them for one sonic misstep or another in my presence. It's not the whole picture, but hopefully it will serve as a somewhat effective introduction. And, with all that as my preface/disclaimer, enjoy what's to come...