For Carmen (and T) (and Genesar) (and Ausar) (and Bfly) (etc.)

Something happened yesterday and its simple significance wasn't particularly clear until this moment: the one where I woke up with a dire need to urinate and now, against all better judgments, I decided to defer returning to sleep. And now to wake me up further, judg(e)ment has two spellings?!

My brother Justin and I have had a long history of disagreeing on music. I remember trying particularly hard to make him like Green Day's Dookie in the live backseat of a '92 station wagon. It was probably 1995. Maybe 1996. A melange of music was starting to make me interested. The main vehicle for discovering music was MTV. After that came VH1 and the radio. I became very interested in singles, mainly by one-hit wonders; there were a lot of them. The Presidents of the United States of America were one of these bands though they did have a couple big songs, "Lump" and "Peaches", and they also recorded the Drew Carey Show theme ("Cleveland Rocks") and the theme for the Disney Channel original movie, "My Date With The President's Daughter." (Meet the unbelievably, surprisingly, stupid and useless pop-culture proficiency I hold in my head.) I fell in love, hard and fast, with Oasis' "Wonderwall". I'm not sure why exactly, but the song is just staggering. Random bus kids and I would sing it on the way to school. After my purchase of Dookie, I picked up Oasis' "What's The Story Morning Glory" I tried to get Justin interested in it; he just wasn't.

The reason why this is important is that, to me, music, as with all art, means nothing unless it can be shared. I could dig into this and try to explain it but I think it rings truer if left alone. Art is meant to be shared. Liking a song is not nearly as great as playing it for someone and seeing their positive reaction.

My brother wasn't having it. He had his own interests (I think). Video games being one. I kept trying through middle school, attempting to get him to listen to Blink-182 and various other pop-punk bands. Why this bothered me was that he didn't really listen to any music. He had played the viola because my mom thought he was sensitive (don't get me started) and quit because it very plainly sucked. I was wrapped up in music and I felt bad he wasn't.

Something happened in high school and he started developing a taste for music. And for some reason, the reverse of what I initially set out for happened: I didn't really have any intense interest in listening to his favorite bands. We were individuals and we listened to different music. I suppose this was to be blamed on development. So very slowly would I go to my brother and ask what it was he was listening to. Neutral Milk Hotel, Pavement, Sonic Youth, Built To Spill, Modest Mouse. All bands I had some peripheral recognition of, but never felt an urge to listen to. Needless to say these bands make some incredible music which I eventually found out. I still take longer than necessary to listen to bands my brother really likes but at least it's not just me; it works in reverse.

Why is this important? Last night I recommended that my brother listen to Kevin Devine's new album. It leaked, unfortunately for Kevin, but fortunately for the point of this writing. After one friend told me she didn't really like it and another said it was amazing, I sent Justin a link to it. I could see in his iChat status that he was progressing through the songs. Every once in a while he made a comment about one of the tracks. At the end he said, "that's one of the best albums i've heard in a long time." It was slightly surreal, like two parallel lines somehow crossing, if only for a brief second of inflated importance.

My brother and I connect on many things on a regular basis but our music interests have remained largely parallel. I don't know what to think exactly but for the first time in a while, the power of music feels stronger.