End of the Aughts: A Wrap Up (of Sorts) with Sorry For the Convenience, Part 2

Here is the second half of conversation between me and Your Escalator Operator, blogger extraordinaire from the site Sorry For the Convenience. We set out to wrap up the decade that is the aughts. Were we able to put a fine point on it all? Probably not, but we did discuss music, concerts, iPods and that YEO and I have totally different tastes in movies. Read below:

(In case you missed it, check out Part 1 on SFTC.)


SFTC: So, have you had any unforgettable pop-culture personal experiences in the 2000s?

DGB: Well, two major iconic pop culture events this decade: Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. I was never a huge LOTR fan, but the sheer magnitude of those three movies is amazing. You hear about the "unfilmable" books and how Peter Jackson's doing them all at once. And seeing that first one and thinking, "he's really done it" was kind of breathtaking.

SFTC: I'm one of the 45 people who's never seen any of the LOTR movies. (It's amazing you're still talking to me.)

DGB: Really?? What's kept you from them?

SFTC: I do hear that there's a lot to like and that they were so well done, but just not my kind of movie.

DGB: Okay, let's move to the other big one, Harry Potter. Read them? Seen them?

SFTC: I read the first few books and saw the first two or three movies. Then it all started running together and I gave up. But those first few movies were pretty spectacular.

DGB: The Harry Potter books are for the ages. They will live on for generations to come. I think it's amazing that we are living during their first wave of popularity.

SFTC: Those movies definitely worked their way into my subconscious - I think I've had dreams involving various aspects of the stories and effects, and that's saying something since it's not really my No. 1 genre.

DGB: I can't wait to share them with my kids.

SFTC: Shifting gears juuuust a little: So, I know your musical favorites include Phish. Tell me about your big music moments - concerts, recordings, discoveries - from the decade!

DGB: You can't really talk about music without first talking about the iPod.

SFTC: Very true. Don't know if I could live without mine. How many songs on yours?

DGB: I've only got 3,540. I was in the process of transferring old CDs when my hard drive ran out of space. I've since gotten a new computer with more memory, but have not gone back to the project. You?

SFTC: Same happened to me - I got them all onto my iPod and then started deleting them from the PC. Then got a new external drive and started putting them back on the computer. Anyway, I think I just recently passed 6,000 on the iPod.

DGB: New music aside, it's amazing to go back and listen to old stuff. I've always been a big fan of mix tapes and an iPod is like one giant mix tape. Musically this year, Ben Folds replaced a hole that was vacated by Billy Joel.

SFTC: That's the first time I've heard (or thought about) both of them in the same context, but I hear ya.

DGB: I also listened to a lot of G. Love and Special Sauce and Jack Johnson.

SFTC: You know, I need some more Jack on my iPod.

DGB: (Things that sound dirty, but aren't.)

SFTC: I've actually been listening to The Cars greatest hits on the iPod a lot this week. The TV show Glee had one of their big hits (either Magic or You Might Think) on last week's episode, and I realized I need to get my Cars CD loaded up. So that's in heavy rotation now.

For me, it's easy to pick the music that represents the 2000s to me - from the start of the decade to the end, it's been all about Wilco. I got to hear them live once or twice in Chicago (their home base) before their big breakthrough album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and I was hooked.

DGB: I have three Wilco songs - Kamera, Hate It Here and Box Full of Letters - on my iPod. Weirdly that's the extent of my knowledge of them. However, I really dig all three songs.

SFTC: Good selections! Funny about Hate it Here - when I first got the album, I loved that song and I played it for my wife and because the lyrics are about a breakup, that was the last time she's listened to it! I also loved another of their songs from about the same time, "The Thanks I Get," which was in a VW commercial. I played it for her and the same thing - the main idea is "Is that the thanks I get for loving you?" - and although I really just loved it because of the music, she didn't appreciate the message and won't listen to it anymore. Oh well.

DGB: WonderWife™ wants nothing to do with Phish, if it makes you feel any better.

SFTC: It does - thanks. Luckily, my wife hasn't dismissed all Wilco. She even went to a concert at the Greek with me last year or the year before.

DGB: I've gone to a number of Phish shows solo. Though I did meet ZenMom's husband at the last one. ZM was the devil on my shoulder who got me to go. I wrote this post about how being a dad keeps me from doing things I want to do and she pings me and says, “who says you have to go for all three nights?”

SFTC: Could you pick a favorite single concert of the '00s, or was that it?

DGB: Wow...great question. My favorite show was, predictably, a Phish show. The Forum on Valentine's Day in '03. WonderWife™ was gracious enough to let me go.

SFTC: Cool - why that one in particular?

DGB: I loved the first set they played. I loved where my seats were. I was with a good friend.

SFTC: Funny it was on V-Day.

DGB: I know. It was all romantic and stuff. You know how those hippies are.

SFTC: I've heard, yeah.

DGB: I'm guessing yours was a Wilco concert?

SFTC: Actually, the one that gave me the biggest feeling of "I can't believe I get to see this in person" was Paul McCartney at the United Center in Chicago - I think in 2002. I won't admit that I (almost) cried, but ....

DGB: That is awesome!

Ok, so to wrap it up... what will you remember most about the aughts?

SFTC: Personal event(s): Moving to Los Angeles and getting married, both in 2007..... Events I wasn't directly involved in: 9/11, by a landslide. What about you?

DGB: I grew up this decade. Got married and had two kids. Yet I still don't feel grown up at all.