Best Band Ever? (Probably!)

Is this the single greatest band to ever exist?

Probably.

For those of you who are unable to identify Steve Perry's disconcertingly feminine features, the band in question is Journey.

There are literally several reasons (at least seven) why Journey is the pinnacle of modern musical expression, and I'm not going to bury the lead.

Reason Number One Journey is Awesome
Don't Stop Believing

There is not a person on this earth that does not appreciate this heartwrenching song, describing that unique blend of loneliness, romance, and trains that has held sway in America's heart since the dawn of the steam engine.





Whenever you ask someone what their favorite Journey song is, you're really asking them what their second favorite Journey song is, because Don't Stop Believing is their real favorite.





I don't want to say that this song is better than Thriller in its entirety, but I won't not say that either.

This song is so incredible, people that quote Family Guy love it, and people that quote Family Guy are retarded!

Part of the appeal of Don't Stop Believing is the song's versatility, it can be played anywhere, weddings, funerals, Bar Mitzvahs, Bat Mitzvahs, federal hearings, graduations, birthday parties, cinco de mayo celebrations, births, engagements, divorces, graduations, may day, earth day, president's day, mlk jr. day, inaugurations, galas, premieres, juntas, sporting events, scrabble events, sleep overs, slumber parties, the Olympics, assassinations, church, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, and New Years.

My senior year of high school, Don't Stop Believing was my musical intro whenever I stepped on the mound to bring the heat (82 on a good day).

Don't Stop Believing is potentially more accurate and reliable than a Voight-Kampff test, because to hear it and not smile would mean you were nothing but a replicant or Rutger Haur.



Reason Number Two Journey Is Awesome
Diversity.





Think about your favorite Journey song, does it feature pounding bass, brain exploding synth, and blistering guitar? Of course it does, but you know what else it has?





The depth and breadth of all human emotion.





Take my favorite song, Separate Ways, as it begins you hear a sweet synthesizer jam over a mighty kick drum, you're thinking, this song rocks, it's going to be about Journey kicking ass, but then, you step back as Steve, in a howl of pure emotional exhaustion screams his heart out of his chest, "Here we stand! Both of our hearts broken in two! two! two!"





Even Steve feels the pain of ruined relationships.





Consider also, Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin', a simple folk ballad about making lemonade and getting to second base. That's right, not only is Journey tender, but the know how to party.





Then there is Wheel In The Sky, adapted from Perry's senior thesis on the Roman deity Lupercalia, to remind you that he's more than just a pretty face.





Lastly, of course, is Faithfully, the touching tribute to Steve's dog.





Reason Number Three Journey is Awesome


Musicianship





Little known fact, everyone in Journey but Steve is/was a nerd.





The first few albums they released were boring prog-rock pieces that no one wanted to hear, if Steve had remained undiscovered, they would have fallen into a lifetime of mediocrity and become America's Rush. But luckily, for all of us, Steve washed onto the shore of the San Francisco bay from whatever moonplanet he was born on and graced us with one of the greatest frontmen ever.






























Which of these is best? Journey Greatest Hits? or Journey Greatest Hits Live?


TRICK QUESTION!!! IT WOULD LITERALLY EXPLODE YOUR BRAIN TO CHOOSE!

Little known fact, the CIA tried to make Castro choose between the two in a botched assassination attempt in 1953...30 YEARS BEFORE THE TRACKS WERE RECORDED!!!
(To avoid explosion, Castro lied and said he preferred Styx)






Reason Number Four Journey is Awesome.

I AM WRITING ABOUT THEM!!!

Words Go Here (Snarky Words Go Here)

The following is an actual transcript from a conversation I had on Friday.



Me: Cutie reading a book i like beside me, should i talk to her?



Friend of Me: Comment on the book! You have a perfect in!



FoM: Yes!



Me: What if i misjudged? What if she's only attractive at a glance? What if it's required reading?



Me: Also, I smell like pizza.



(Eighteen minutes pass)



Me: I blew it.


An exposition.



After enjoying my traditional Friday 11am One Guy pizza (I don't like the numbers in that sentence or how they look), I walked to Holden Hall to endure my equally traditional boring fifty minutes of history discussion. The discussion in question occuring primarily between the TA and the weird kid with a mustache.



But today was different. Today, after loitering around looking for rollerblade girl (aka rollerskate girl, aka rollerskate skinny) (She is called this because she wears rollerblades, inside), I leaned nonchalantly against the doorframe of my room and was surprised to see a girl that had, until this point, never shared this particular 20 by 20 space with me at 12pm on a Friday morning.

She appeared to be cute enough, and the most striking thing was that, not only was she cute, but she was reading a book. Now, you must understand that this particular discussion of 25 people may have a composite IQ of 800, they don't take kindly to booklearning. Also, there is only one decently attractive girl, and she looks like she's seen more dick than a New England phonebook.

This new apparition was reading a book that I particularly enjoy, Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell. Not only does this book appeal to the imaginary expatriate side of me, but it also appeals to the pretentious side of me, because it's written by a well known author, but not one of his more well known works. So, being the sly devil that I am, I sat down beside her to make a quip about how I enjoy the book and then con her into falling in love with me.

Except, as I sat down, I panicked and sent the previously transcribed mayday text message. So, rather than make simple small talk, I just listened to my iPod and stared at the chalkboard.

This would have been alright, had she not been, literally, the only person sitting in this particular row of fifteen desks. She was sitting at the end of the row. When, I made my tactical approach, I sat in the open seat directly beside her. We sat beside each other and endured a classful of silence. We were the only two people in the row for the duration of the period.

I later gleaned, from her conversations with the TA, that I had never seen her before because she is in a different discussion and had attended this one for scheduling reasons.

The poor girl (who could have potentially been my future wife) had to endure an hour beside a guy who smelled like pizza, said nothing, and was apparently OCD because he kept peeking over and reading the title of the novel she was reading.

Yesterday, I went to a wedding.

I like weddings. They combine two of my favorite things. (Wearing a suit and the potential opportunity to do the chicken dance).

This particular wedding was a celebration of the love between a friend of mine who is several years older and her fiance, whom I had never met, but he appeared to be perfectly nice.

This was an outdoor wedding, I watched my friend laugh off crazy bursts of wind that drowned out the pastor and tossed various matrimonial accoutrements across the sunny plains, and how she cried as she read a sweet little poem from a rectangle of paper, and how, in what I thought was the sweetest part of the ceremony, as she read words of love off the same rectangular batch of paper, her fiance helped her secure a page that was flapping in the wind by gently guiding it into her hand; I was struck by something.

I am terrified of relationships.

Toward the end of the ceremony, the pastor started talking about the symbolic nature of the wedding ring and I noticed that every married man in the audience was looking at their left hand, gently massaging the ring on their first finger from the pinky.

Then I realized that I was doing the same, twisting an imaginary piece of metal round and round and pondering my future.

Then there was the weird bit in every religious wedding where the holy man makes the required statement about his power being vested by the state of Texas, and the bride and groom kiss and everyone claps and the parents dry their eyes and the ushers do their escorting and people filter into a large hall to exchange small talk and eat sandwiches and my terror spasm receded.

The reception was nice. I had tried to put my best politician's swoop into my part and wear a suit that was conservative but with a little punch of color, and I looked remarkably like the junior senator from Illinois or someone of similar stature. I ate a sandwich and said a few hellos and felt remarkably happy. It's difficult to feel sad at a wedding, unless you're in love with one of the people being married and you're bitterly attending just to be a good sport, but even then, you can take comfort in knowing that you have a good plot outline for a Hugh Grant-type picture lined up.

I drove home eventually and changed. Then I went to a friends house to celebrate his birthday. We ate homeade tacos, played nazi zombies, and discussed TULIP; and the whole time I felt wonderful.

Then I came home and watched a little Arrested Development and then laid down to sleep.

I was still basking in the post-wedding glow of the prospect of relational bliss and felt like I would soon be adrift in the land of dreams (which have been weird and sad lately) but it was not the case. Lurking beneath the comforting emotions I had been cushioned in all day were shards of crippling inadequacy rolling about in my stomach.

I reflected (and continue to be reflecting) on how happy my friend was to be married and how happy and laid back she was about the whole affair.

And it all just seems like too much work.

I don't want to find a girl, and put the work into pursuing her, and enduring the ups and downs. And what if she's high maintenance, or she doesn't get me, or i always secretly think she's not as into me as I am to her, or she is secretly not as into me as i am to her, or i can't provide for her like she wants or deserves, or i am too distant or too clingy, or we stop relating after a year and collapse out of love.

I don't want to have to find a house to live in or raise kids. I don't want responsibility, I don't think I can handle it.

I didn't apply for a job at the school paper because the application was too much work (three 600 word pieces and a letter of reccomendation), and this is what I want to do with my life. That's how little work I put into things.

I don't know. I don't get happy thinking about being married in the future, I just feel overwhelmed, and my life isn't even that stressful.

At least I have friends, it makes me a little less anxious, at least I'm comfortable where I'm at now.

I wish i had reassurance.