I meant to write a longer post now but instead I've been doing some blog maintenance, adding some other pages that I read and putting in a couple more networking gadgets to help my legion of avid followers keep track.
Just one quick thought - nothing particularly to do with music but a general social observation. Why is it that some people get on our nerves? I've been idly wondering about this in the context of one or two people I find a bit annoying and I'm pretty sure what it is is that when I talk to them I constantly feel like they demand a particular reaction from me. Either they tell jokes I don't think are that funny and I feel I have to laugh, or they tell me they like something they think I also like with such exaggerated enthusiasm that I feel I have to agree, or they try to engage me in heated conversation about a topic I don't really care about... It's so tiring, and boring, to have to manufacture reactions. People who don't require you to do that are so much more pleasant to talk to.
Related point inspired by another recent encounter: it takes an especially social comfortable person to feel comfortable talking to a socially ill-at-ease person. When people seem very withdrawn and don't want to make small talk the temptation many of us feel is to try to draw them out, engage them... and pretty quickly one is doing exactly what I've described above as annoying behaviour. Why can't we leave them alone? Perhaps because all but the most exceptionally graceful people are discomfited by the way socially awkward behaviour in others draws their attention to their own social dis-ease.
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