Band: Mogwai
Album: Happy Songs for Happy People
Best song: “Hunted by a Freak” is one of the most perfect songs ever put to record.
Worst song: “Golden Porsche” isn’t much.
My actual real world job title is Online Content Producer. I won’t get into my job duties here, but needless to say, I’m widespread across the Web. “Social media” — whatever that is — is a huge part of my job, but moreover, it’s part of my life.
I’m something of a curmudgeon and I’m getting closer and closer to technology irrelevance (age-wise), so I often don’t adopt new social tools as I probably should. I was definitely against Facebook at first — Taft had to convince me to join when we both entered grad school around the same time — and I even wrote around here about my disdain for Twitter.
This has since changed and I have embraced Twitter as a news aggregator and a helpful way to get news out quickly. I won’t go on to give you a thesis on the service, but, needless to say, it’s part of my life.
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As with most people, I’m a pretty different person in real life v. online. Here, that’s probably easy to see. The variance in post styles is pretty stark, as my Jens Lekman piece is pretty different, style-wise, from a recent post on a Cursive record, which is different from this or this.
But, I’m far more opinionated in writing than I am in real life. I’m a relatively (relatively) quiet person in real life, depending on the situation. I certainly have a wide shy streak and one probably wouldn’t get that from the stuff I write online; I sound like a pretty big asshole here more often than not.
Which, of course, brings up the notion of which is “the real me.” I’m not completely sure one or the other is the real me and even thinking about such things is so wildly self-indulgent that I’ll stop right here.
The point is this: I have a lot of opinions and they’re all over the Internet. That’s sorta the purpose of this blog, in many ways.
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Here’s a fun exercise: Google yourself. Your first and last name.
It’s not as big a deal if your name is John Smith. Or, really, anything more common than, say, my name. Especially considering my last name is only shared by those related to me in the U.S., at least. Or so I thought. Turns out there are many Gianfortunes with no connection to our family, but that’s a story for another day.
Anyway, the point is this: It’s kind of fun to meet new people and let them have reign over that sort of thing. I’m not ashamed of anything that comes up; Rossgianfortune.com is on the Internet and this blog, while often too “open book” for most, isn’t all that exciting. My half-ass philosophy is stupid, but I stand behind it.
What’s weird is when I pop up in other people’s blogs. Be it a simple e-mail exchange or either a bad (“all you do is post links all day without any relevant information about yourself.”) or good review (“a very nice gentleman“). I’m always a little surprised to find out that other people read my blog, so it’s even weirder when someone posts something about me, even if it’s small. As these are.
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I should probably give up on writing about Mogwai in any reasonable way. I love Mogwai in a way that makes little sense in writing. “Hunted by a Freak” is one of my favorite songs of all time. It’s full of an picked guitar, a vocoder-ed voice and a driving bass line. The song builds to a crescendo in a way that Mogwai has perfected and it has an atmosphere that Explosions in the Sky have been trying to replicate for the band’s entire existance.
Also, an amazing anti-cruelty video.
