Note: Corrected on Sept. 7, 2006.
Right now I'm sitting on my balcony idly sipping a beer and letting the cool breeze float across my face.Bob Dylan's 31st studio album, Modern Times
is washing over my brain like a refreshing splash of aged whiskey - an undiluted accentuation of the rarest flavors, balanced by a strong foundation and a depth one expects from an aged inebriant, while retaining enough youthful zeal to pull the whole thing off.The steady hum of car engines and tires spinning across the shiny wet blacktop arouses emotions of excitement and bewilderment for another school year. I've been living in Athens, by myself, in a four-bedroom apartment, without cable, for the past three months. I often spent my days dazed and confused, wandering around the apartment as naked as the day I will die, contemplating my next move. The summer of solitude was strenuous on my mental stability. The ethos of the Appalachian college town was one of a crippled vanguard, lost in his thoughts and gazing out of a parlor window wondering when and where it all went wrong. The streets were bare, the police were bored and the days were long.On top of my seclusion the notable music scene during the school year was but a faint apparition in the summer, a haunting memory save for the quiet coffeehouse troubadours, the occasional Celtic night at O'Hooley's Pub and Brewery and the two music festivals.Both of the events, the Boogie on The Bricks and the 8th annual Athens Community Music Festival, were a success, featuring the eclectic music styles that have come to characterize the Athens nightlife.Now with the annual population influx comes the return of the colorful music scene, and I love it. It's an abstract expression of versatile artists ranging from jam band, blues, punk, slash, rock, progressive rock, heavy metal, rap, folk and many more, giving the kaleidoscopic scene a life of its own. I eagerly await the first weekend back like a junky waiting for that morning fix, heading uptown and seeing the return of Rick the piano player providing us with a drunken sing-along while being surrounded by unfiltered decadence. I also plan on meandering up to O'Hooley's on Friday night, which is featuring the rock music of Bad Mamma Jamma, and to The Blue Gator, to witness the guitar stylings of Dave Matthews Band collaborator Tim Reynolds with opening local act Mike Genovese, because, as it says on my Facebook page, music keeps me sane. 17
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Collin Minnis
