Introspection Intro

HI!


How are ya? Welcome to my interweb space! It appears I have become a blogger. Cool! This blog will be good for the thousands of people who have thought "I wonder what it would be like to open up Jeff's brain and check it out". Too many times I have a thought that I know would change the world (in a good way), but then I play guitar or watch hilites of the Leafs losing and the thought is gone forever and the world is still terrible. This blog will change that. I have humble intentions: my plan is to discuss my ideas about music, chess, sports, literature, movies, philosophy, life, death, etc. etc. Once people begin to understand my mind the world will start correcting itself.





I'll begin at the beginning. JERRY. I've gone through so many musical phases over the years (Short chronological list: Pearl Jam, MC Hammer, Phish, Dead, Dead, Neil Young, Robert Johnson, Parker/Miles/Coltrane, Dead) but it always comes back to the fat man's band! Lately I've been getting something different from their music. It used to be I needed to hear a 30 minute jam. That was the Dead to me...any band can play songs right? NO! The chord movements floor me now! They're so elegantly constucted! They write poetry. I recently got their annotated book of lyrics...no matter how large a deadhead you think you are, you will be shocked at how much goes into their songwriting. Their reputation for psychadelia distorts how grounded they really were. The roots of the Grateful Dead are complicated and it's a separate topic. There will be a lot more about this to come! In closing I'll say that I have become a more three dimensional listener of their music and it's been a rewarding experience.

Some people reading this are thinking "holy god this man is deep. I wonder what he thinks about other things?" I don't want to make this long. But I will give you a trailer of what's to come"

Sports: Leafs are cool but terrible. There are three stable things in the organization in no particular order: Burke, Wilson, Schenn. Movement in the right direction is good, however slow.

Chess: I play at U of T Chess Club. As white I like playing the risky Kings gambit against weak players. Against stronger players I play E4 and after that who knows. As black I like the Sicilian.

Literature: I read lots of different tings But lately I've been loving Mordechai Richler because he is blunt, politically incorrect and hysterical. Read Barney's Version.

Hopefully the process of blogging will make my writing/thinking more explicit and will develop into a novel. In other words one day this will cost you all money! This first blog was scattered because it's sort of a survey, like I'm playing a virtual "get to know you" game. I hate those games so this will be the last one. If you're still reading this I am shocked and offer my humble appreciation. Have a good day all! JERRY LIVES.

-J