jr conlin's ink stained banana

i like Flickr. Partly because it's a photo sharing site, but mostly because there's an implied level of play there.

Yeah, there are an inordinate number of stripey sock photos, pictures of silhouettes and a stunning vista or thousand, but since things are pretty much on "Share these with everybody" and things are pretty much up front and in front of everyone. This kind of reduces the number of fat relatives bladly waving at the camera and Uncle Harold's pants. (Well, unless it's his silhouette against a stunning vista while he's wearing stripey socks.) By and large, the public eye tends to result in the photos being pretty high quality. Or at least stripey.

i know i think long and hard about what pictures i put on Flickr vs. any other site.

Thing is, i'm getting that same sort of vibe from a number of music sites i've been visiting lately.

To build community, they're showing what i'm listening to, and allow folks to follow those tracks. i mean, i don't THINK i listen to crap, but… i mean… i don't think a lot of it has been featured in commercials for iPods, so i tend to skip some of the older tracks for more indy ones. i mean, i'm pretty sure Guster is still cool, right? Likewise, i'm fairly certain that Los Straitjackets are worth a few points because someone will find them ironic (i just think they have killer riffs). Still, i'm not sure if i'd list Men at Work or Steely Dan, mostly because i can just imagine some guy in an scraggly beard and a Threadless Tshirt rolling his eyes.

It's like getting into an elevator and hearing the song you just had rattling the windows in the car playing as musak. Only in reverse. You're the musak. i don't want to be musak. i want to be one of those guys who's playlist doesn't wind up on John Hodgeman's player during some 60 second spot for an overpriced music player. So, i'm being very careful about the bands i list in my various profiles.

But when i'm driving around, i'm blasting They Might Be Giants.