And while I was driving around listening to Rush I realized that wrapped up in their music were a bazillion happy memories from junior high, high school, and college. Rush was my favorite band, I saw every single tour from Signals to Counterparts. I even met them when I was 14 and a family friend who was a promotor got me an all access pass. I know all the lyrics and most of the bass lines to their music pre-Power Windows because I was in a Rush cover band. Geddy Lee was like my dreamiest guy in the world from like 12 to around 15 years old. Even after I sold my soul to punk rock I still secretly listened to Rush.
So I realized that Rush's music has this golden ability to make me happy in ways that no other single band's music can.
Then I started thinking about other things that were like that and I came up with this list:
1. Rush (see above)
2. Seattle - when I get surprised by in image of Seattle in a movie or wherever, I get that heart skip feeling like when you suddenly see a picture of an old boyfriend that broke your heart and you're still not over it. I really did love that city.
3. Mike Mignola - His art is just transcendent to me. I'll stare at a single frame of a comic for an hour just startled by the perfection of it all. And it never gets old either. I love his art so much that when I see a picture of the guy I have almost the same reaction because he's the guy who made the art! Notify the Make a Wish Foundation - I will have an original Mignola before I die.
4. Vespa Scooters - I feel in love with them at 15 (there's theme here) and I've ridden them and rebuilt them ever since. Just smelling 2-stroke exhaust or hearing a 2-stroke engine makes me happy in ways I can't even explain. My 4-stroke yamaha was fun, but there's nothing like vintage 2-stroke Italian design on wheels.
That's it. There's a lot of stuff I really love (snowboarding didn't even make the list, nor did Nightcrawler), but it's not the same intense kind of fun on sensory bliss. Some lists should be short.
What do you love?
-e
)
