Obsession
I tend to go through regular phases of obsession. When I was in the second grade, it was Tom Cruise circa Top Gun and Days of Thunder. I drooled over his (bad) Irish accent in Far and Away and marveled at his bottle-juggling flair in Cocktail. I despised Nicole Kidman in all her 5’11” willowy splendor. In high school, my sights turned towards Edward Norton. I stopped going out with friends on weekends, opting instead to hole myself up in my room and watch every movie he ever made on my little 19-inch television. Saturday nights were spent scouring the aisles at Blockbuster in dirty sweatpants hunting for bargains on used copies of Primal Fear and American History X and stammering awkward excuses when I happened across a classmate or acquaintance and they asked why I hadn’t been out in awhile. A brief stint succumbing to the (now creepy) wiles of Colin Farrell, and college was spent refining my obsessive craft on a different kind of subject.
In college, rather than develop these unreal crushes on actors and stars, I started to become obsessed with stuff. I’d see a movie I liked and instantly spend the next two weeks Googling every single fact about the actors, the production, the storyline. I’d find a band I liked and instantly learn the life history of every member, their motivation for every song, spend unreal amounts of money on concert tickets and CDs. I would read books over and over, learn everything about their authors. And baseball became a steadying force in my life—leaving me now with this unhealthy obsession with David Wright.
Obsessing over those things, while somewhat psychotic, creepy, and unhealthy, have ultimately enriched my life. I still love the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Quentin Tarantino, Muse, Zadie Smith, the Mets, Portishead, David Wright, Pulp Fiction, Spike Jonze, Trainspotting, Uma Thurman, Danny Boyle, Radiohead, Ewan McGregor, Poe, et al. I learned a frightening amount of information about all these people/things over the course of a couple of weeks each, but the obsessions have died down and what lingers is knowledgeable appreciation.
As for now, I’m obsessed with Jeff Buckley. Through I first heard of him a while ago, I never really got into him until a few months ago, and now I’ve downloaded every song I can get my hands on, blown a crapload of money on every album I could find on Amazon, and spent countless hours watching clips of live performances (thank you, YouTube), and being really freakin’ sad that he’s dead.
Sigh.
I’ll eventually have to join the ranks of members of the real world.
Nah, fuck that.
In college, rather than develop these unreal crushes on actors and stars, I started to become obsessed with stuff. I’d see a movie I liked and instantly spend the next two weeks Googling every single fact about the actors, the production, the storyline. I’d find a band I liked and instantly learn the life history of every member, their motivation for every song, spend unreal amounts of money on concert tickets and CDs. I would read books over and over, learn everything about their authors. And baseball became a steadying force in my life—leaving me now with this unhealthy obsession with David Wright.
Obsessing over those things, while somewhat psychotic, creepy, and unhealthy, have ultimately enriched my life. I still love the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Quentin Tarantino, Muse, Zadie Smith, the Mets, Portishead, David Wright, Pulp Fiction, Spike Jonze, Trainspotting, Uma Thurman, Danny Boyle, Radiohead, Ewan McGregor, Poe, et al. I learned a frightening amount of information about all these people/things over the course of a couple of weeks each, but the obsessions have died down and what lingers is knowledgeable appreciation.
As for now, I’m obsessed with Jeff Buckley. Through I first heard of him a while ago, I never really got into him until a few months ago, and now I’ve downloaded every song I can get my hands on, blown a crapload of money on every album I could find on Amazon, and spent countless hours watching clips of live performances (thank you, YouTube), and being really freakin’ sad that he’s dead.
Sigh.
I’ll eventually have to join the ranks of members of the real world.
Nah, fuck that.
posted by CEO of the World at 5:05 PM
2 Comments:
thanks for that clip. Jeff Buckley was a legend.
If you're looking for a new band to obsess over, try my latest discovery - Planxty ! You might have come across them when you went to Ireland - a fusion of Trad Irish music, country and rock. I've been listening to them constantly for the last two months and they were the best band in the world !!
Why were you online writing this? You're supposed to be out lookin for Channing for me.
Get to it, woman.
Pssh, talk about selfish.
=P
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