I woke up with The Contrarian in my head this morning

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It's been two months again!

This is a series of posts I've been working on for years. As three different accounts. First @marksheppard, then @oh-high-mark, and now @sharkthelion. The first account, you can probably guess why I stopped used it. It's my name and I wanted to be just a little more anonymous than that. Clearly, I'm not trying to hide who I am, though. I've been posting selfies every day in my I am Alive Challenge posts. That makes me a little queasy, but I know it doesn't matter. I'm trying to get more comfortable with it.

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A Perfect Circle - The Contrarian

This video is pretty intersting visually, even if you don't like the song. I've been a fan of this band since they came on the scene in 2000. This is from an album they did a few years ago after no albums for over a decade. It's one of my favorite songs on the album, which is called Eat The Elephant and was released in 2018.

Here's a true story about the band: my first introduction to them was actually on MTV. Yes, they did still play some videos in 2000, if you can believe that. It was only Alternative Nation or one of those types of shows, though, I thihk.

I liked the song, but I was thinking "this singer rips off Maynard from Tool so much." Obviously, it is Maynard from Tool singing, but he was wearing a long wig in the video and I didn't recognize him. In the year 2000, not everything was broadcast to us 24/7 via computers we keep in our pockets. We could be blissfully (?) unaware of so much, discovering tidbits here and there as we go about life.

Let me be a contrarian here

Smartphones truly are a blessing and a curse. Here's the contrarian in me coming out: I think life has mostly gotten worse since the advent of smartphones. It's made people disconnected from reality, anxious, mean-spirited, self-righteous, and a bunch of other words like that.

Yes, it's increased creativity and connectivty. That's where the blessing part comes in. At some point, maybe we'll be able to handle the supercomputers in our pockets. Right now, I think we're in an adjustment period and it's not going completely smoothly.

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This post is part of an ongoing series in which I document the songs which are in my head immediately upon waking. I've been making them for a long time now.

Do you wake up with songs in your head regularly? What song was in your head this morning? Comment below, I'd love to hear from you!

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The list so far

#	Artist	Song
1	Auli'i Cravalho	How Far I'll Go
2	Huey Lewis and the News	The Power of Love
3	Metallica	Sad But True
4	Metallica	Nothing Else Matters
5	Metallica	Wherever I May Roam
6	the pAper chAse	I Did a Terrible Thing
7	Metallica	Sad But True (Repeat)
8	Limbeck	Honk + Wave
9	AC/DC	Back in Black
10	Patsy Cline	Back in Baby's Arms
11	The Heligoats	Florida Panther
12	Patsy Cline	Walkin' After Midnight
13	Lord Huron	Until the Night Turns
14	Richard Edwards	Gene
15	Built to Spill	You Were Right
16	Richard Edwards	Olive Oyl
17	Frank Ocean	Sierra Leon
18	The Thermals	Back to Gray
19	Pedro The Lion	When They Really Get to Know You, They Will Run
20	Limbeck	Trouble
21	All Them Witches	Internet
22	Pedro The Lion	Keep Swinging
22	Father John Misty	Please Don't Die
23	Black Sabbath	Fairies Wear Boots
24	Father John Misty	Total Entertainment Forever
25	Cardi B	Best Life
26	All Them Witches	Call Me Star
27	Black Sabbath	Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
28	The Doors	Light My Fire
29	Al Green	Can't Get Next To You
30	Guns n' Roses	Civil War
31	Atlanta Rhythm Section	Spooky
32	Against Me!	Sink Florida Sink
33	Paula Abdul	Straight Up
34	Seals and Croft	Get Closer
35	Black Mountain	Mothers of the Sun
36	Hum	The Scientists
37	The Black Angels	Currency
38	Spiritualized	Here It Comes (The Road) Let's Go
39	Guns n' Roses	November Rain
40	Chris Staples	Times Square
41	The Get Up Kids	Ten Minutes
42	Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats	Death's Door
43	The Roots featuring Erykah Badu	You Got Me
44	Daryl Hall & John Oates	Rich Girl
45	The Lemonheads	It's All True
46	The Snake The Cross The Crown	The Great American Smokeout
47	Every Time I Die	Map Change
48	Iron Maiden	The Number of the Beast
49	Kevin DeVine	Heaven Bound and Glory Be
50	Wilco	Random Name Generator
51	Kanye West	All of the Lights
52	Terrence and Phillip (South Park)	Uncle Fucker
53	Alice in Chains	Angry Chair
54	Sturgill Simpson	Keep It Between The Lines
55	The War on Drugs	Holding On
56	Nine Inch Nails	Head Like a Hole
57	Jawbox	Empire of One
58	Alice in Chains	Rain When I Die
59	The Snake The Cross The Crown	Cotton Teeth
60	Crumb	Locket
61	Chad VanGaalen	Monster
62	Pedro The Lion	Clean up
63	The Mars Volta	The Widow
64	Magnolia Electric Company	Montgomery
65	The National	Runaway
66	Mac Miller	Circles
67	Bright Eyes	Make War
68	Mac Miller	Good News
69	Ryan Adams	Chains of Love
70	Oasis	Don't Look Back in Anger
71	R. Kelly	Ignition (Remix)
72	Ryan Adams	Rocks
73	Mount Eerie	Real Death
74	Better Living Community Center	Service Road
75	Lucy Dacus	Strange Torpedo
76	Wilco	Wishful Thinking
77	Limbeck	Making the Rounds
78	The Get Up Kids	Second Place
79	Shiner	Spinning
80	Shiner	Glass Jaw Test
81	Bright Eyes	Hot Knives
82	Satan (South Park)	I Want to Live Up There
83	R.E.M.	It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
84	Owen	I'm Not Going Anywhere Tonight
85	The Posies	Solar Sister
86	The Gloria Record	Good Morning, Providence
87	Pulp	Pencil Skirt
88	Phoebe Bridgers	Kyoto
89	Baroness	Kerosene
90	Okkervil River	No Key, No Plan
91	Johnny Cash	Give My Love to Rose
92	Sierra Ferrell	In Dreams
93	Clem Snide	Exercise
94	Townes Van Zandt	Tecumseh Valley
95	The Flying Burrito Brothers	Sin City
96	Colter Wall	Caroline
97	Paul Cauthen	Cocaine Country Dancing
98	Justin Townes Earle	Black Eyed Suzy
99	Brent Cobb	The World is Ending
100	All Them Witches	Rats in Ruin
101	The Lemonheads	Down About It
102	All Them Witches	Enemy of my Enemy
103	The Who	Behind Blue Eyes
104	Justin Townes Earle	Maria
105	A Perfect Circle	The Contrarian

Bonus video on Mass Psychosis:

I found this very interesting this morning. Perhaps you will too. It explains why everyone in the world seems insane right now.