Zach Sanderson

With Twitter and Facebook, the quick thought has basically died on my Words blog. So now, I’m taking the policy that three quick thoughts equals a post. I don’t think Twitter will suffer. If anything, my blog will.

Three things:

Kenny Rogers
The other night SNL made a reference to the song “Islands in the Stream” by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. I’m a classic country fan, believe it or not, but I’d always dug further back in time. I kind of assume the 80s were bad. The record Eyes That See in the Dark that has “Islands in the Stream” on it is pretty dang good though. I never really counted myself as a Kenny Rogers fan before. It also helps that Barry Gibb produced it. With all that put out there, there is definitely no way I can grasp the current state of country music. I’m typically of the belief that music is improving. Most people have an era they (at the risk of sounding condescending) “cling” to. I’m sure there are some underground country artists keeping it real, but the stuff you hear is just pure syrupy junk.

This is another great Kenny Rogers moment:

Skim milk
Jayne’s parents were in town last weekend and they like their milk. Unfortunately, they like it skim. I grew up 2%, Jayne skim, so in what rivals the Missouri Compromise, Jayne and I decided to switch to 1%. Before Jayne’s parents came, I bought a gallon of skim. We had a pretty jam packed weekend, so it barely got touched. So now, I’m eating bowls of cereal to soak it up. I really can’t stand the stuff. I don’t even like the color of it. It looks like some Star Wars type stuff when it comes out of the carton.

The best of the best
I read some Chuck Klosterman point that I found intriguing a while back. He pointed out how so much popular stuff (namely: music) is pure crap. Something any rebellious 14 year old with a Millencolin record will try to tell you. But he elaborated. He pointed out that this makes sense because there are a lot of people out there with bad taste and they like to band together. He went on to point out though that there is some stuff that is really really popular that is really really good. I think he called this the Fleetwood Mac Rumours rule. I think he drew the line at 17 million albums sold. At the time of writing it may have been different and I think he also pointed out some anomalies like Shania Twain and Alanis Morrissette. Either way, I think about that all the time. I add my own ideas to it and sort of picture albums like Led Zeppelin IV and some Celine Dion album taking a different path altogether. If Led Zeppelin sold 50,000 copies, I think they would still maintain some respect and importance in the music world. They traveled an honest path it seems. You could make money appealing to lame people but I guess I’d rather do things in what I see as the right way. I don’t think I’m some Led Zeppelin type, but as I’m trying to work more into the photography world, these are the types of things I think about.

I’m not sure how often these Three Things will happen. Just thought I’d try it out.

With Twitter and Facebook, the quick thought has basically died on my Words blog. So now, I’m taking the policy that three quick thoughts equals a post. I don’t think Twitter will suffer. If anything, my blog will.

Three things:

Entertaining a guest
Whenever I have someone at my place, if it’s a friend, my family or really even Jayne, I am a bit anxious. I hate to just leave the person alone. I don’t feel like I have to do a song or dance but I at least feel like I have to be attentive to that person’s needs. I’m slightly related to my mother. It’s not crippling and it’s not the worst problem to have but recently the craziness of it came more to my attention. Jayne brought home a cat two weeks ago. The first week during the day when it was just me and the cat, I had this constant feeling that I needed to make sure the cat was happy in my home. That’s just crazy.

Words stuck in your head
Like getting a song stuck in your head, I get words stuck in my head. I know I’m not the only person that does that. Just like songs, a word will stay stuck in my head for no reason. I might here the word at some point and days later that word will just be in my head. Most recently it was “Doak Walker”. I heard it during some football festivities probably and then days later it was in my head. One time I was working on the farm with my dad and I brought up this phenomenon. At the time, the word in my head was “Notwist”, a band that had an album out around the time that I wasn’t into. I figured Dad would brush it off as me being a weirdo with strange ideas. He’s good at doing that sometimes. Instead he just responded with two words: “La Boheme.”

Inspiration vs. boredom
Back in the day when I was first getting into music, I wondered what environment fosters a band. I used to wonder why so many bands came from LA and NY and all these other big cities. Of course, you’d have to discount for the coverage and bias that might exist in those towns. Beyond that, why weren’t more bands coming out of small, rural areas? I used to think there should be a lot more because of the boredom that can come from a small town (see: Less Than Jake, I didn’t say good bands). But I really don’t feel like boredom fosters creative work necessarily. Of course, it could for some, but after spending some time in a somewhat active photo community around Stanford, I realize how much more important inspiration is. More people being around you increases the probability of someone inspiring you to do something. I’ve actually been talking with some of my photo buddies about setting up a more official Stanford photo community soon.