Seventh: Music Men

I tend to think I'm familiar with every corner of my house, but just when I fall into this state of I've-seen-all-there-is-to-see, something like my brother's clarinet case comes up and proves me wrong. Rummaging through an upstairs cabinet, I came across the little box and was flooded with memories of when he used to go around the house toot-tooting.

During the same period of time while I was figuring out how to put the thing together (it came in 5 different parts), I decided to edit the photo of the clarinet to remind me of mid-20th century movie shots. I think I failed, but feel free to make your own judgment.

The piano where my brother, my sister, and I have all been trained... to hate piano. My brother's definitely the most accomplished, whereas my sister is still taking lessons and complains regularly about having to practice. I quit the piano in 4th grade, though I somewhat regret it now that I listen to a lot of songs where piano plays a major role in the instrumentals.

I was tempted to leave off with this picture of my guitar neck and "'nuff said," but I think that I've become used to idolizing the instrument and its related music without really explaining what drew/draws me to it. So the story:
After quitting piano in 4th grade, I began listening to a lot more pop punk bands, namely Green Day and Blink 182. As any addict of pop punk music knows, you can't listen to songs like "All the Small Things" and "Basket Case" without trying to air guitar or tap your feet to the drum beat. Eventually, my obsession with air-emulating such bands turned into a desire to learn to play guitar. 4-5ish years later, I find it's a great way to project how you feel, what you see, and what you think through a language as universal as music - something that can cross boundaries like nothing else. There's a song for basically every scenario:

Queen's Hammer to Fall - pump-up for a game/competition
Tom Petty's Free Fallin' - rainy California days
Journey's Faithfully/Jackson Browne's Running On Empty - long car rides
John Mayer's In Your Atmosphere - anytime you're in LA
Weezer's Say It Ain't So - under house arrest
Black Eyed Peas' Where is the Love - any events about saving the world (which we have a lot of)
Hamster Song - wanting a good laugh but secretly enjoying it