setting this record straight

I feel bad.
I realize this is my own personal blog and I use it as a place to express my own opinions. I also realize that my opinions are not always the most gracious and kind opinions one can read online... I also know I don't try to make anything here too anonymous. It's pretty easy to find this blog just by searching my name, if you know me and/or are interested...but that's kind of what the internet is there for.
Never the less, I want to make a few things clear.

I enjoy the office that I work in.
Everyone in my office is very kind and genuine and has given me the opportunity to work in one of the best environments I have ever worked in.

Me judging anyone's personal taste in music (not just those I work with) is just me going back to my old ways of being the music snob I've always been. It's never meant as a personal attack in any regard.
My taste in music has a pretty wide range of 'so great that nobody has ever heard of it yet' to 'really?'.

My previous tirade about Wilco being lame is just my stupid opinion about a band who has gotten lots of critical accolades for making Alternative music. I appreciate what Wilco has done for the music scene. Jeff Tweedy is a very funny and giving person. He is a monologist at every years' Second City 24 Hour improv marathon. He always auctions off a private performance (which is always the one item that raises the most money for the charity marathon).
In the pre-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot years I would talk up Wilco and their fanbase. I was living in Chicago. Once they released that album and started getting attention from the mainstream press - I was all about it.
I haven't yet seen the documentary about the band at that time (I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (2002), but I have heard that it's a wonderful documentary.

Here is my "a lot of my best friends are black" statement, but it's true.
In 2002 I started writing with someone I admired. I looked up to him in the Chicago improv scene because he had been around and had accomplished a lot. Pat McKenna is his name and he's currently a director for Second City BizCo in Chicago.
The way I remember us getting to know each other was our common appreciation for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
He knew me as the indie music kid in the improv scene and one day we struck up a conversation about the new Wilco album. From there (and I'm not sure how, exactly) we began meeting once a week to write and critique sketches. We never had an end goal (though I wish we had) we met almost once a week for the entire summer. He helped me write one of my favorite short stories that I hope to some day make into a short film.

I suppose I'm digressing, but what I mean with this post is - Everyone is free to enjoy any music they want. My opinions about any music are just that: My opinions. I honestly don't feel like my opinions about music are better than anyone elses and I certainly don't mean any personal offense to anyone in my writing about anything on this blog.

If you look in my musical catalog I've got plenty to be ashamed of (ironically or not)
David Hasselhoff's greatest hits
Nat King Cole
George Michael's greatest hits
Wham!
the Anniversary - Your Majesty (one of my favorite albums)
Doobie Brothers
the Faint
JJ Fad (there's nothing more pathetic than a 30 year old white boy who actually enjoys an all girl rap group from Compton who's only alum was released in 1988)
Luscious Jackson
I fucking LOVE the song One Bad Apple by The Osmonds (not ironically)


I can't play any musical instrument to save my life.
My sister started my fascination with music. At an early age she introduced me to Duran Duran, then Prince, then Depeche Mode and Nitzer Ebb... from there I sprouted my own ears and learned to appreciate music.
Anything I say against any band is not meant to be a personal attack against anyone (even the band). Everyone is free to appreciate any music they want.

I'm sorry if I have offended anyone with anything that I've written here.