Awrite, Geo...

...so you gave us the Lazy Student's guide to Exam 2. But what of the Lazier Student's guide to Exam 2?

Just joshing. Not that my journalism professor is reading this. Well he might be. But I'm really appreciative of these exam primers.

On another note. Mike Ford, you took a jab at me so now I'm just going to come forward and maybe take a jab at you. But, really, when it comes down to it we're just a couple of guys who don't care. Regardless, I'm sorry, but I just don't like Sky vs. Sea. I really appreciate you guys asking me to do this but it would have just been too much lying for no payoff except for my name on your Myspace. There's too much delay. Your singer is awful (but apparently everyone knows that? But why wallow in Peter Keating-esque vocal-mediocrity when you could do so much better...or just cut vocals altogether.) And I hate Circa Survive. And when I hear you guys, the only thing I can think of is the awful forty-five minutes I near-slept through the time I saw Circa open for Saves the Day. Your bass playing, though, is really really cool and I'm not just saying that. And Azar is a lot of fun to watch. Otherwise, whackness. Sry.

Instead of writing puff-bios for bands I don't like, I want to write the definitive piece about the actual Philadelphia music scene. Not Man Man/Capitol Years/Spinto Band/Dr. Dog, the bands that get all the coverage, that play maybe one or two hometown shows a year... the ones that the local press doesn't even touch. These are your, what some random blog described as, "post-Polothology" outfits like Street Smart Cyclist and Algernon Cadwallader and Boy Problems. How the fuck did this happen? Thirteen years after the fact, we have a glut of (great) bands taking major cues from the Kinsella brothers and the midwest as a whole. What did Philadelphia miss in the mid-90s? While everyone was fretting over girls, there was a burgeoning hardcore punk scene centered in West Philly... why didn't we get sensitive, too? These are questions I want answered! So I'm setting out to find them. I need to set myself apart from these clowns writing reviews for fun and getting their kicks and giggles from interviews with Sam Fogarino and Frightened Rabbit. Music is my LIFE, man. Let's get legit. Ultimate goal: to do lots of things like this by the end of sophomore year, get picked up by a couple mags and freelance my way out of college before junior year... graduate later, Marc Zumoff style.

Let's talk about hopes and dreams.

"Went to school for a degree in journalism and got sick of it/Wanted to write for music rags, all that Lester Bangs shit/Partied up in Philly basements with the post-emo poster boys/The guys had hair in their eyes like girls and the girls had hair short like little boys."

No Age/Titus Andronicus tonight. I will be up front, crying.