When I was young, I couldn't stand them, but at 28, I can't get enough of those Reese's peanut butter candies.

After seeing The Fountain, I swore I would never see another Darren Aronofsky movie, and I've held strong. But now he's directing the new Wolverine movie. I love Wolverine, even though the last 2 x-movies were sub-par, so now the question just becomes "Do I love Wolverine more than I hate Darren Aronofsky?"

I'm sure I'll probably see it, if for no other reason than the fact that even a blind, deaf, mentally handicapped squirrel finds a nut from time to time. If it gets great reviews from people I trust, I may see it in the theatre even. Especially if the reviews say things like "very un-Aronofsky" or "a real departure for Aronofsky" or "Finally an Aronofsky film that's not soul-crushingly pretentious and boring." Something like that.

Anyway.

March is looking like the craziest month ever. It always is, if you're a musician in Austin. The South by Southwest music/film/interactive festival rolls in and takes over the entire town. Every place of business with electricity becomes a live music venue. For better or worse, it's a big part of what makes this city what it is. I can't see a festival like this flourishing in any other city the way it does here, not any city in the south least ways. I always go into the festival with equal parts excitement and dread. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also looking forward to being done with it.

The week before the festival, we've just booked two more shows with Bob Schneider at the Houses of Blues, Houston and Dallas, respectively. I'm really looking forward to those. We've always had a great time with Bob and the Houses of Blues are the best venues in the world.

At the end of March, Leah, Harper, and I are going to Canada to visit family. Leah and Harper are going 5 days earlier than me so they can see Leah's sister as long as possible. I'll be hanging out at the house alone. Probably bored, probably naked. OK, I'm kidding about being naked....or am I? Now you don't know where I'm coming from. In all seriousness, if there is still recording to be done, I'll probably spend all my time at the studio, and get in bed early every night.

On why I would be a great superhero, or a really bad one, depending on your perspective.

I've been watching Smallville a lot lately. It's one of those shows that I always wanted to get into, and thought I would probably like, but never got around to. So now, I'm playing catch-up with the DVDs. I like the show a lot, but all the back and forth, will they/won't they between Clark and Lana gets a little maddening. It got me thinking about what I would do if I had super powers.

First off, I'd tell everyone. Well, not everyone, but several people. The whole idea of a secret identity keeping your family safe is kind of bullshit if you think about it. As long as you keep your inner circle small, you'll be alright. Just don't get caught by strangers doing super shit. But if there was a girl I really liked, I'd probably tell her the first time it became a problem. "Oh yeah, I know it was weird when I inexplicably ran out on our date the other night, but the reason is that I'm actually an alien and I have super powers as a result of your planet having a yellow sun and my home planet having a red one, and some people needed some super help. You understand right?" Or, "Oh yeah, I know I was a total dick to you the other day, but what had happened was that I'm actually an alien from another planet and as a result of the radiation from your yellow sun on my cells for all these years, different colored pieces of my home world, called 'Kryptonite,' affect me differently, and someone slipped me some of the 'red' and I just lost my shit." And maybe at some point, you could do the reasonable thing and say, "Hey friends of mine, who I've saved on countless occasions and all owe me a life debt or two, could you all please make a point to find and destroy as much Kryptonite as you can, as there seems to be a disproportionately large amount of it lying around? Thanks, it seriously harshes my mellow."

Here in the real world, to really be a good guy, you'd have to be willing to get your hands dirty. How easy would it be for Superman to fix a lot of the worlds big problems? First, I'd make a bunch of big, brightly colored, hand lettered signs that all said something along the lines of "Be nice or Superman will mess your shit up!!! :-)" and place them all around. And then I would proceed to kill all terrorists and warlords. Totalitarian? Kind of. Fascist? Maybe a little. Everyone thanking me later? You bet your sweet ass. The question you have to ask yourself is this: "Is it really noble of Batman to spare the Joker's life, knowing full well that the prison won't hold him forever, and it's only a matter of time before countless innocents will pay the price for Bats' nobility?" The answer is "no." The truly moral thing to do is to kill the Joker at the first opportunity.

One of the reasons I've wanted to get into Smallville is that one of my favorite heroes is now on the show.

Green Arrow is a badass, but when you think about it, only in a comic book could someone get away with being Green Arrow. Now, if some kid in New York got bit by a radioactive spider, developed spider powers, and started using those powers to fight crime, then we'd all think "Ok that person is crazy, albeit good intentioned." Because dressing up as a spider and swinging around on webs and beating up baddies with your bare hands is quirky and endearing.

Green Arrow's M.O. is to shoot people with a bow and arrow. Usually not even "trick" arrows. Just regular ol', "assault with a deadly weapon," arrows. Now, Batman may break several of the bones in your body and hospitalize you indefinitely, but he won't stab you! He won't shoot you in the arm! He won't run you through with anything!

...Green Arrow will, though. I don't know, just seems....well, it seems like Assault With A Deadly Weapon.

Looking forward to seeing him in Smallville, but I'm only on season 3. I can't see him and Clark getting along, somehow.

Matt suggested that my love for the Taqueria El Lugar is purely nostalgic, if it hadn't been his birthday the next day I would'a punched his throat in

Success is a funny thing. There are, of course, many ways to be successful, not all of them contingent on wealth or fame, but we all know that that's the kind we like the best/want the most/etc. The prospect of a real record deal looming has me thinking, somewhat philosophically, about success. What does it mean? Why do I want it? What does it say about me that I want it? Am I willing to make the necessary sacrifices to have it?

I like to think that success comes from maintaining artistic integrity and keeping your voice honest and true. If you can manage that, that's a win.

I also like to think that if you can make your voice heard and manage to connect to other people, any other people, then that's a win.

It's also true that there's definitely something admirable in managing to keep your artistic endeavor financially and emotionally self-sustaining (if not profitable) so that you can, at least, achieve a sense of longevity while countless others fail, or quit, long before you do.

But who am I kidding? At the end of the day, I'm just like everyone else, and there is, at least, some part of me that wants to be famous. It's true. Makes me feel like an asshole, but it's true. That being said, I'm the first to tell you that if you ever think you've met a truly humble musician, you haven't. It doesn't exist, it's an oxymoron. Which isn't to say that we're not nice people, most of us are. But humble, we ain't. We crave the stage, the attention, the constant validation. In the right light, we're disgusting creatures. But what would the world be without us, eh?

Anyway, these are mad times, right?

Leah went to Tyler this weekend to shoot a wedding, leaving Harper and I to fend for ourselves. So on Saturday, after she woke up from her first nap I took her to Toys R Us and just let her run around and explore. She had a great time, and I picked up some tacos from a local taqueria on the way home. The one good thing about Leah being away is that I can eat at places she doesn't care for.

When Harper woke up from her second nap, we went over to Matt and Jeff's apartment. Matt is currently recording somewhat of a farewell EP/album for Jeff's old band, Ethan Durelle, so we wanted to hang out with those guys a little bit. We all went and ate at a place called Pho' King, which is pretty pho' king funny....and delicious.

While Harper was sleeping this weekend I watched Justice League: The New Frontier, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Oh God!, and a little bit of an Avatar: The Last Airbender marathon.

I think DC is a superior comic company to Marvel, which I expect a lot of people to disagree with me on. But I think one big indicator of their higher quality is their cartoon series...serieses....series'...(What's the plural on that?) True, Marvel has had some good ones, but DC has had ALL good ones. I can't think of any recent (from my childhood on) DC cartoons that aren't pretty great. Especially all the Justice League and Batman cartoons.

On Sunday, my beautiful bride returned to us. That evening, Robin came and kept Harper because Leah and I were invited to our friend Liz's work skating party. So we went skating and it was a blast. I only fell twice and pretty quickly regained my grace, though Leah will undoubtably mock me for consistently cocking my arm everytime I turn. I don't know why I do it. Just one of those things, I guess.

Anyway, ended the weekend on a high note.

You really do have to be a pretty confident ninja to justify wearing white.

I figure that if everything goes according to plan, I've got another 50 or so years of life left. If I could go that entire time and never hear the word "Gosselin" again, that would be fantastic. My beautiful bride used to watch Jon and Kate before they became the spectacle that they are now and occasionally, I would witness bits and pieces of that abomination. I remember thinking/saying that Kate was the biggest bitch I'd ever seen and that Jon constantly looked run down and emasculated. The nation pitied him. All he had to do to keep looking like the victim was "nothing" but he would not be out-douched. Now we know way too much about how horrible two completely mediocre people (who's only known achievement is to breed somewhat irresponsibly) can be to one another.

How is it that Jay-Z and Beyonce, two of the most famous people in the world, manage to keep their private life private, yet two regular schmucks who's talent apparently lies with their tolerance for voyeurism can't somehow manage to return to a life of normalcy? So while I realize the hypocrisy in posting a blog about how I wish people would stop talking about the Gosselins, its no secret that those two are attention whores. So I know you read this, Jon and Kate Gosselin. So please, just go the hell away.



Anyway, I've recently bought comic books for the first time in a few years. I'm trying to finish out the GI Joe series that was going when I stopped collecting. I only have one issue left to find but I've gone ahead and read all the other ones and I realized something that I think I've known deep down all along...(and yes, I know no one's going to care about this)...but, to me at least, Storm Shadow really is way more badass than Snake Eyes. I know he's all mysterious with his mangled face and lack of functioning vocal chords, but who had the badass water tower hide out? Storm Shadow. Who almost single handedly (Stalker was there too) killed about 100 Night Creepers on the rooftops of New York(#107)? Storm Shadow. Who scaled the outside of Cobra tower without a rope and rescued Snake Eyes from the Baroness(#96)? Storm Shadow. Maybe I just love Storm Shadow and I'm not saying Snake Eyes isn't extremely badass but I just feel like everyone just takes it for granted that Snake Eyes is a better Ninja and they're equals at least.

Maybe one day I'll talk about religion again and get a lot of comments.

The most badass comic book cover featuring a mute ninja ever!

I already mentioned this but Harper laughed this weekend for the first time. If you're not a parent, I really don't think you'll understand how amazing such a simple thing can be. I teared up instantly because it was so damn beautiful. Its one of the things I've looked forward to the most about being a father. She's only done it a few times so far, so I'm really looking forward to when she does it all the time, instinctively.

We've got Canadians in town this week so that's exciting. Last night we took them down to the Magnolia Cafe, which I've never really cared for, but I decided to try something new and it really paid off. After that, we took a stroll down Congress and got some crepes with Nutella, strawberries, and bananas. Harper didn't sleep the entire time, which was weird, but I guess there was too much going on that she wanted to see.

I just did an interview for Greater Than Magazine. I think its going to be pretty cool and will be out a little later this year, I'll let you know. Talked a lot about the songwriting process and inspiration and whatnot. In other Quiet Company news, that rooftop music series thing that we shot for News 8 finally showed on the TV. Don't get excited, it sounded awful. Oh well. So it goes. We've got a show in San Antonio this Friday with two bands that we love, Dignan and The Rocketboys at Sam's Burger Joint. If its at all possible, you shouldn't miss this show.

I finished reading Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows again today for something like the 6th or 7th time. Why is it so awesome? There are a couple of moments in the book that make my eyes want to water so I think that I've decided today that when the movies come out I'm going to allow myself to cry with abandon in the theatre, my pride be damned!

Probably a few of you know this about me, but I'm a huge fan of the GI Joe comic books. In fact, I'm probably only about 25 issues away from having the entire Marvel run. That being said, I've said for years that I didn't think there was any way to do a GI Joe Movie and make it cool. Well, now there is one so I'm not sure if I was right. Its not a good movie so in one way I was right, but at the same time I enjoyed myself so maybe I was wrong. I don't think its fair to judge a movie like GI Joe the same way that you would judge a movie like Forrest Gump but at the same time when there are movies like The Dark Knight being made, you start to wonder if we shouldn't allow movies to get by by just being mindless-popcorn-summer movie fun. GI Joe has only really ever had two characters with any depth and that is Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes. So my only real disappointment with the movie was that it messed up their back story and origins. I bet the movie Snake Eyes isn't even a deformed mess under his mask. They also say that he doesn't talk because he took a vow of silence and not because he took an explosion to the face to save Scarlet in the war that jacked up his vocal chords. Storm Shadow has always been my favorite character, though. He's the most interesting because he's got the most going on emotionally, being constantly torn between revenge and atonement. In the movie he's just an irredeemable murderer, though; cold hearted and cliche'.

I didn't really have any problems with the rest of the movie, which is not to say that it was good, but rather to say that it was exactly what I expected it to be. If you can shut down the critical part of your brain, like I guess I'm capable of, or if you're an 8 year old boy, then GI Joe: Rise of Cobra is a good time to be had. Channing Tatum's performance is boring and I'm pretty sure I saw Dennis Quaid look at the camera once, but it is chocked full of all the things 8 year old boys love and you might find yourself remembering what it felt like to be one.

Oh yeah, and Snake Eyes' mask had lips!! Who makes that decision? I bet its the same person that thought the Batsuit really needed those nipples.

I don't want to work, I just want to bang on the drum all day.

After work yesterday, I went straight downtown because it didn't make sense to go home before the show. I decided to just hang out and kill time at Bookpeople, a nice bookstore in downtown Austin. I ended up getting into a long conversation with the worker who was in charge of the comic book section. I stopped collecting comics in 2007 when Quiet Company started touring full time so I'm pretty out of the loop now as far as what ended up happening with a handful of story arcs. The biggest bomb that Jerome, the Bookpeople guy, dropped on me was that Marvel has, essentially, hit the magical reset button on Spiderman's life. He's no longer married, and no one knows that Peter Parker is Spiderman. When I stopped collecting it was right after "Civil War" where Peter announced to the world on national TV that he was Spidey.

It just makes me sad because one of the things I've always loved about Spidey is that he matures. He actually grows as a character. Peter Parker today is not the same Peter Parker that appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15. I feel like that is what really makes him special and for them to just wipe away years of development for the sake of convenience is cheap, and totally devoid of real creativity and artistic integrity. Of course, I haven't actually read it so don't listen to me. I don't know what I'm talking about.

The show last night was really cool, especially since it was so last minute. I had a good time but was also really thankful that it was an early show and I still got to bed at a reasonable time. I'm also really glad its Friday and the day is almost over.

My beautiful bride and I are going to see Funny People tonight, so I'm looking forward to that. Partly because I expect that movie to be great, and mainly because I absolutely love spending time with my wife.

Friedrich Nietzsche said that “It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.” Truer words were never spoken. Leah is my best friend in the entire world, and there is no one who's company I prefer to her's. Its my greatest hope that Harper can always look at her parents and see two people that, genuinely, love being together and serving one another.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

I didn't get to go to Comic Con so I watched Justice League Unlimited for 12 hours instead

So I think I may have found a new favorite TV show: Justice League Unlimited. Boomerang had a marathon of it on Saturday and what I didn't watch, I recorded, and have been watching every chance I get. Even Leah has admitted that the show is actually pretty good. I think I've easily watched more than 12 hours of it this weekend.

I love it when any superhero show will have an episode where a b-list character gets featured, but JLU is like that in almost every episode. People like Green Arrow, the Question, and Booster Gold get equal screen time to Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman, which is really refreshing when you think about how DC Comics has a huge number of b-list characters that are really interesting if people would just give them a chance. This show has already been on for something like 5 seasons and I'm just now discovering it, which makes me feel stupid but better late than never, I guess.

I'm not surprised that its so good, though. Pretty much all of the DC cartoons have been really awesome and true to their characters and source material. JLU seems a little more mature than the others though. Its action allows more violence, and the characters' relationships are more mature and developed (even romantically).

I've still got about 7 or 8 episodes left on the ol' DVR so...you know, looking forward to that.

ADDENDUM: I just learned that this show has already been cancelled. Lame.

I would go out tonight, but I haven't got a stitch to wear.

I'm back at work today. This is the first day since her birth that I've been away from Harper and I'm sad to say that I'll be away from her quite a bit this week. Tomorrow night we've got our first rehearsal in more than a month and Wednesday we're recording a live studio performance for NPR in Austin. All of that plus work adds up. Thankfully, my mom is in town to lighten the load on Leah, which is nice, but I'm sure Leah will be just fine on her own too. She's a strong one.

I'm was sitting here listening to one of my favorite bands, The Smiths, and trying to think of what to blog about, (my last two have felt a little heavy so I'm shooting for something lighter) when I remembered how much I hated the Smiths when I first heard them.

So now what this blog is about today: things you hate and then grow to love.
The ones that come to mind are:
The Smiths, Starflyer 59, Batman, Superman, The very idea of DC comics, South Park, buffalo wings, boxer shorts, the Beach Boys, Neil Young.
I can't think of any movies that I originally hated but I can think of some that I, initially, really didn't want to see and ended up enjoying such as, Fight Club, Gattaca, the new Star Trek (which I finally saw yesterday and is every bit as good as you've heard it is), American Beauty, etc.

Its weird how many of those things not only became things I enjoy but some of my absolute favorite things on Earth. What are yours?