stuff on my mind

I was standing next to one of our new employees as he was ringing up a sale yesterday and cleared my throat. He looked at me and said, "I gotcha" and preceeded to sell an extended warranty on the product. That was good of course, but I actually just had congestion in my throat. It's funny to me that throat clearing has become so synonymous with trying to get a point across that you can't just clear your throat because it needs to be cleared anymore.

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I bought the new Dead Poetic cd the other day and, after one listen, it seems to be pretty good. Thing is, it's a big change in sound. They've gone from what most people refer to as "screamo" to a much more mainstream rock feel without a lot of screaming or punkish guitar riffs. That seems to be a bit of a trend right now. A lot of bands that had been lumped into the screamo category have since released albums that varied a great deal from their previous sound. Finch and The Used, two of the first screamo bands to get mainstream airplay released follow-ups that sounded quite a bit different than their debut albums. Story of the Year's second album had an 80's Bon Jovi feel to it. Thrice went with a more textured, varied sound on their latest and Thursday seems to be evolving slowly as a band rather than changing overnight, but their new disc only features one song with any real screaming. It seems that all the screamo vets are abandoning the sound and moving into other territories. The part of me that enjoys several of these bands would like to think that they're simply growing up and naturally changing as good bands tend to. The cynical side of me, however, wonders if it has more to do with record label execs telling the various bands that screamo is on the way out and they'd better get off the bandwagon while they still can. It reminds me a bit of the late 90's/early 2000's when rap-rockers like P.O.D. and Papa Roach, sensing that trends were changing, suddenly started singing. Of course, Papa Roach is still around while Limp Bizkit, who stuck to the rap-metal (when they aren't doing Who covers) sold about 25 copies of their last album. We'll see how things go for the current crop of hitmakers.

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I've been to a couple of parties thrown by fellow Christians lately and both of them featured, along with other snacks and drinks, alcohol spiked punch. And I don't see anything wrong with that at all. While I don't think it's right for a Christian to get drunk, I don't think there's anything in the Bible that prohibits a follower of Christ from having a glass of wine with dinner, champagne at a wedding, or a couple of cups of "adult punch" at a party. The thing is, at the second party especially, everyone seemed to be really excited about it. It's something I've noticed quite a bit. A lot of Christiasns, while they don't ever get trashed, are really, really into drinking and that seems weird to me. I mean, if you're not getting drunk, then it's just another beverage, right? I like Dr. Pepper a lot, but I've never spent an entire night standing around a two-liter of it or drinking it out of special glasses and trying out all sorts of different concoctions. It's almost like they get some sort of thrill out of it, like they feel more adult or are revelling in the fact that they're not legalistic. Or maybe people just like the taste. And maybe I'd understand if I ever drank. Maybe I'd be just like everybody else. I'm certainly not claming to be better than anyone or looking down on those that choose to drink. I guess I just don't get it.