Friday night was pretty cool. Hung out with Depressed Michael, listened to music, drank a lot of beer.
Michael: "I'm really empiricist about my music."
Me[slightly confused]: "Um...yeah, isn't everyone? You know it through experiencing it, and all that stuff."
Michael: "Oh wait...that's not the word I'm looking for. I meant imperialist. Yeah, that's it."

That made more sense. I'd never thought of it in those terms before, but I'm definitely imperialist about my music...when I really love a song or a band or an album, I want to grab people by the shoulders and make them listen to it, play it until they love it as much as I do. This rarely works as well as I hope it will; people have an innate (and justified) resistance to being led to water and forced to drink. And besides, even if the music speaks to your soul and you love it, it's hard to express that outwardly. No matter how you try, the experience outruns the description of it.

You can get close, though, with the right people. The best nights in the van at Koenigstein were like that...when you come as close as this life allows to having the same experience of the music, all of you, washed in it. The music like a physical presence around you, the love between all of you for each other and for the music, so tangible and real that it hurts. Not much said, halting sentences...Listen to this, so fucking gorgeous, and your eyes meet: I know, I hear it too.