My Christmas Letter...

hunting
Originally uploaded by funkymf.

Every year my parents get some letter from somebody they know that tells a little about everything that happened to their family and such so here is mine. This was quite a year for me. I must say it was probably the most fun I've had in my entire life. One of my favorite things of the year was just lounging with my friends. Whether it was going to the Lyon's Pub with a total of 30 of us or sitting in the lake at Miller's cabin, it always seemed that the weekends were always a good time!

One interesting thing I learned this year was how certain people you meet in life tend to fade away while others come in. There are people I used to see almost everyday that now I barely get a chance to talk to for whatever reason. It's too bad that has to happen, but I can remember my father telling me that it does years ago. I also realized that pretty much everybody that I've gotten to know in the last few years is very creative in some kind of way. It's interesting to see how you are drawn to certain kinds of people.

One thing that was a negative/positive thing this year was the presidential elections. I can't remember a time where I got into so many disscussions and arguments with people about politics. Some of those arguments got pretty heated, but with the people I'm talking about, we always shook hands at the end.

Blogging became a daily thing for not only myself, but for a lot of other friends this year. I never knew blogging could be so fun. It's cool to read what your friends are up to if you don't get a chance to see them a whole lot. I also have talked to some interesting people who have checked out my site from across the globe.

My opinion of music this year was kind of lukewarm. Of course everyone who read this site knows that my favorite artist of all time made himself a household name again with the most attended tour and a best selling album! Of course there were other fantastic albums by Handsome Boy Modeling School, Interpol, and Mos Def to name a few, but I still can't stand this pop sh*t. My parents gave me the coolest gift ever of satelite radio for the anniversary of my bday, so I will never have to listen to that garbage again.

As far as my style this year, I started wearing a fadora hat all the time and try to wear at least a tie everytime I go out. This change in style is attributed to my hatred for 2005 hip hop culture. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of hip hop culture from it's start to about 1996, but I can't take it anymore. I hate going out to seeing MTV and BET clones wearing exactly the same thing that they saw in a Fat Joe video and trying to replicate that person. If you look at old footage of James Brown shows or videos from that era of music, people dressed to the 9's when they went out. They knew they were going to see a true star give his all, so they wanted to dress like one.

With the new year coming soon, I have made some resolutions that some people will probably think I'm crazy. The first is becoming a vegetarian again. This past year I found myself eating fast food on a regular basis because it was quick and easy. My goal for the end of the year is to have a washboard stomach and fast food isn't going to help that one bit. Plus, I remember when I used to be one and I remember feeling just better all the time. The second resolution I am doing is something I've wanted to do for a long time. Starting the second week of January, I am going to listen to only Jazz music. I will do that for the remainder of the month. This means I cannot go to bars or clubs that play any other type of music, the only cd's I can play are of jazz artists, and the only cd's I can purchase are jazz artists. This resolution was made because I love jazz music very much. Artists like Pharoah Sanders, Headhunters, Alice Coltraine, Hank Mobley and Lee Morgan, etc. make fantastic mind blowing music, but I always forget about it in the funk I'm usually digging. I also want to see what this does to my head. I have also decided that I really need to work hard to find a new job.

With this letter I have posted the above picture from when I went up to hang with the deer hunters in November. I have posted this picture before, but it is a strong contender for my favorite picture of the year. It also looks like I'm drinking a beer with Santa Claus so I thought it was appropriate for this post.

I hope everybody had as fun of a year as I did in 2004 and I hope to see you all soon!

"Here's to the confusion of our enemies!" - Frank Sinatra