Album art

I am a cd person. When a favorite band puts out a new cd, you can find me on the Walmart music aisle disappointed by Walmart's decision not to stock it.
However, I am also a downloads person. It would be wrong for me to ignore the cornucopia of free or cheap (and legal!) music on the internet. So what decides if I buy the hard copy or the download? Generally, the art.

Every single person on the face of the earth recognizes The Beatles' Abbey Road. And it is so simple - just four guys crossing the street on, of all places, the crosswalk. They aren't even edgy enough to jaywalk. This picture is why so many people list Abbey Road as their favorite Beatles' album, despite it being easily inferior to others like Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's. Good art + good music = classic picture.
One time, I almost bought Joy Electric's The Otherly Opus, just because I fell in love in the art. The color scheme is perfect, the idea is commendable. But then I realized I wasn't even that into the music, which should be the whole point of buying the cd in the first place. I wish they'd just put that design on a shirt.
Sometimes, the art is so bad (or weird), it stops me from buying the cd. Welcome to the Masquerade is supposedly the best Thousand Foot Krutch album yet, far above the two cds that I already have...but why would I want to have that picture sitting out in my room?
I didn't buy Copeland's Eat, Sleep, Repeat for this same reason.

I chose to download The Killers' Day & Age, even though I really did like the artwork. There was an Amazon deal...
Sometimes, like in Matisyahu's case, the art can tell you exactly what is on the cd...

...but other times you have no idea what is going on.

A few upcoming albums I already like just based on their art:

Try imagining yourself in space, walking down a giant mosaic tunnel. The picture gets more epic when you put yourself in the little man's position.

The White Album is the Times New Roman of album covers. I went to Barnes & Noble once and saw they were selling puzzles of this. I laughed.

I am not much of an artist, and neither am I a photographer, but I think coming up with creative art for your cd could be one of the best parts of the whole process.

In other news, Weezer's next is the opposite of The White Album.

Let's go exploring.

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Calvin and Hobbes is the best comic strip ever to hit newspapers. Nothing of today even compares. It is optimistic, but realistic. And it's funny.

The characters are so fresh. The dad is the perfect caricature of a typical "let's go camping"-type father; probably my favorite supporting character. The simple-minded bully, the little girl, the frustrated mother...every person (and tiger) jumps out of the page and into your life.

Calvin himself is quite the interesting six-year old. He has a huge vocabulary, and he sincerely believes his stuffed tiger is real. With his imagination, there is no reason to believe Hobbes isn't real. One time, Calvin and Hobbes get into a transmogrifier fight and Calvin ends up stuck as a tiger. Another time, Calvin visits his dad at work on a flying carpet. Often, he just pretends to be an airplane and flies around the yard for extended periods of time.

If I was imaginitive like Calvin, I wouldn't really need real life. Calvin sure doesn't. In his mind, his teacher is a space worm and he is a lone-ranger spaceman. If you can create a dream-like world for yourself, maybe you have found a better life.

But Calvin is always brought back to real life. When he tries to ditch home for the Yukon, he realizes he's better off with his parents. His love-hate relationship with Suzie Jenkins always swings back to the love side no matter how hard he tries to convince himself he hates girls.

For every heavy wagon-careening-down-a-hill philosophy discussion, there is a hilarious Calvin-running-naked-around-the-house-to-avoid-his- bath. Buy a collection and be engrossed in Calvin's world. You might like it even more than your own.

What is a blog?

What is a blog supposed to be? A diary? Should I just tell stories about my life and write about my day or my feelings for my friends and enemies? No, that can't be it. I don't think a blog really has to have a theme or any sort of guidelines. I could write about how much I hated a recent hit movie. And then fans of that movie could comment about how wrong I am, and then an intelligent argument on the merits and flaws of the movie could develop. Or if I'm feeling particularly happy, I could describe the beauty of the world. How every bird resting on a tree limb and every summer thunderstorm was meant to be. Color and shape and sound combine to create natural art, like the spray of a waterfall blasting the rocks below. And from there I could move onto the beauty of humanity. How every person driving down the highway has a different story to tell and a different obstacle to overcome ... their dreams and loves, as well as their opinions and complaints. And I could write about about how humans are a species destined to create. Whether it is creating a story in song form, or building a beautiful bridge, humans gain pleasure from making something new. Being in the image of God the creator, that must be where this desire comes from. I might throw in a political blog every now and then, and rudely bash your favorite party. Yes, since a blog can be about anything, and I am going to have many posts in the future, I felt it necessary to have some sort of rambling introduction. The meaningful, pointed blogs can come later.