"i've had a little too much to think tonight"

"Boom boom boom boom, gonna shoot ya right down!"

John Lee Hooker's jamming softly in the background  tonight.

I've been feeling pretty even lately, almost what one might call zen.  Not that I'm claiming any new wisdom or anything, just been feeling very relaxed and even.  Today I awoke without an alarm at 7:15 or so, something I've failed to do even with the assistance of my phone alarm for several days now.  But when I work nights and stay up late "decompressing" (watching crap late night tv) after work, I guess that's just what I get.  Today, however, I accomplished my goals for the day and then some, which is certainly motivating.  None of this is either here nor there though, the real reason for this entry is some things I was pondering during an

d after my evening at a free screening of the new movie with Michael Cera, "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist."

This guy Michael Cera got his start, to my limited knowledge, in the Fox show "Arrested Development," and has, since then, starred in feature the feature films "Superbad" and "Juno."  He's one of those guys that people kind of like to say, "oh I of knew him when..."  or at least his last two movies, Juno and Nick and Norah..., have that kind of Indie vibe to them.  This whole "Indie" kick I'm ranting on could just be stemming from the Indie/semi-original soundtracks that accent these films.  Or it could be that Nick and Norah... is based on a night out in NYC that revolves around a bunch of, very quirky, high school kids' ill fated search for the unknown venue in which their favorite band, which most of them brag about knowing of before anyone else, is playing a show.  The gimmick is that this band announces on the radio that they are playing, but won't release the location of their performance publicly, you have to find out through a series of vague clues.  Reminds me of a song that I heard on Pandora while closing up at Lush- I promised myself I'd remember this song's name and artist and, of course have forgotten- about a band that was so grunge that they refused to play their songs, and became so popular that they were invited to come and not perform their songs at the grammys, but were eventually beat out by a band that wasn't even together.  Side note (thanks Marincic) this song was written in the Folk style.  Anyway, we now arrive at my point.

What is it that makes people dislike music once it gets "too popular" or "mainstrea

m"?  Or any kind of public media for that matter.  What made me think of this was while the credits of the movie were scribbled over the opening scene of the movie to the tune of some Shins-esque song, in the Juno-style crayon font, I thought to myself, how long until Michael Cera becomes his own genre?  Or, thinking of my classifying the font of the credits as Juno-esque, has he done it already?  How long until people stop bragging about knowing him when... while commending his ability to play that geeky, yet smartass-ie, nervous high school kid, and start sighing about how he always plays this geeky, yet smartass-ie, nervous high school kid?

Indie bands, well anything "Indie," have/has a shelf life.  You're only cool or interesti

ng until people actually find out about you, and then your, uhhh so mainstream and you, uhhh, a

lways sound, act, look, the same.  Which is funny because it seems like a person's taste, good or bad, is then removed from the equation.  However, every person that is guilty of turning up his or her nose at some band whose "first album was great, but after that their sound was so mainstream," has a guilty pleasure.  I would know, mine is Christina Aguilera, yeah she's pretty skanky, and has a tendency to over-sing everything, but I'm a sucker for girls who can sing low, and man she has got some serious pipes.

So here's the interactive part of blogging, I want to hear everyone's guilty pleasure artist.  I mean you don't have to if you're... chicken, but if you've got the balls, or ovaries, to step to the plate and admit it to me (and the world because I'm totally going to to tell the whole school) add it to the

comments section.

As for me, I guess I've kind of been avoiding the whole topic altogether and listening to the Blues non stop.  The Black Keys (oops kinda Indie) when I'm working out, John Lee Hooker when I'm drinking wine, Freddie King or Buddy Guy when I'm looking to rock out and of course a whole lot of live Otis Redding and Sam Cooke at any time at all.