I blame it on a gal named Megan Smith from the Buckle. I was working next door managing the FYE store, when we got to talking about Dawson Creek. I remember occasionally watching that show, and one summer at college getting sucked into the reruns on WTBS. Megan is a colorful gal, and she said, “Matt if you like Dawson’s Creek you have to watch One Tree Hill!” So, I’m always fair when I think about watching shows, but I thought oh man is this just going to be another chick show. I started watching a few episodes, and what I found was that it was actually pretty damn good. They had many plots about life, love and basketball. I’m partial to all three. As I watched the show I gravitated toward Lucas and Peyton. Lucas was a writer, Peyton was a music and art lover. I think it’s pretty obvious why I would like that couple. Peyton was also and MTV VJ during TRL, and well if you didn’t watch that during my Mix-Fm radio days then you were missing out. Carson Daly and the crew always had the biggest boy bands, and the biggest stars during the late 90′s. I remember that time well, yet it was a whirlwind. I felt like my life was a little too much TRL at times. Your job is to put on a show, so you give people the show they want. I did it for 10 years full-time, and that part of me was probably around for a good 12 and maybe 13 years. When something is so ingrained in your life, it’s hard for it not to come up, for it to not be a part of you, and for you not to play that role. The one thing that they say in life, is that as we grow we’re bound to change. Years later I’m still playing music, but I’m playing it the way that I want to. My DJ business Showtime Music was around long before those TRL days, and the guy that I was, was always around prior to the masses noticing. The only problem with the masses, is that they don’t always know the real you. They might think they do, or they might know a part of you, but they don’t know all of you. To be real honest with you, I wouldn’t want them to. So, if you still want a piece of what the masses want then on Sunday Feb. 22nd, on what will soon become my curtain call to radio on WZPL, you can have that guy.
To steal the OTH quote of JK Rowling, “The consequences of our actions are so complicated and so diverse that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed!” Lots of people have had some predictions on what my future will be. Some people have said, that I would never get married. Some thought that I was too set in my ways, that I worked too much, that no woman was going to take me serious for playing music. So, I became a banker, actually no that’s not really it. I would have said to answer all those questions that I used to work a lot, and I do still believe in hard work, rather than going into debt, or living beyond your means, I’ve only been set in my ways, because I believe in certain principles, and for any woman that didn’t believe in me playing music, really didn’t deserve a line in any of my blogs. You see, I always think that there are compromises in anything. I would think a woman that believed in family, and wanting things for the family, would support me following my passion, and making a little money while doing it. It’s certainly changed over the years. People think that I-pod’s are Dj’s. I can’t even talk about that here, because that would be a full blog. I’m waxing nostalgic about weddings here, because my OTH crush Brooke Davis (Sophia Bush), got married last night. I didn’t really care much for her character in the beginning, but I liked what she developed into. She had millions, and she gave it all up because of her principles. She just wanted true and real love, and I think that’s what a lot of us want. Some of my friends that have been married for a long time said it fades, that the shine comes off, or that you really shouldn’t get married. They tell me, ” Matt you see em on the happiest days of their life, but you don’t see them on the rest of them.” I think it’s how you manage the rest of them. One of the advantages I have, having held out on marriage, is that I’ve had plenty of time to think about it. I believe that I know what I want, and I’ve had it twice, but one time I screwed up, and the other time I got screwed over as God paid it back to me for my screw up. If I don’t end up married, I have been blessed to know what true love really is. I appreciate it, I believe I can harness it when it’s there, and make it continue to grow. The tricky thing about true love is that you have to have someone that believes in it two. One of the things that makes me hesitate about my thoughts about true love, is that people go through so much crap, and sometimes it takes a lot out of them. Sometimes once a person breaks your heart, you don’t allow it to be rebuilt again. You just sit and think about, dwell on all the things in the past, and you let it define you. While any past transgression requires some time for any reasonable human being to get over, the time that matters is today and tommorrow. Today matters the most, because you’re living it, and tommorrow matters if you want to plan special things, but don’t ever forget about today. Do you think my 92 year old grandfather thinks about much more than today? You’re damn right he doesn’t. He told me what keeps him strong and healthy as an ox, is just living every day the best way he can. It’s served him well in his 92 years, and those are the smart people. If you’ve made it to your 90′s with all your faculties about you, you’ve got my respect. I love older people, they can teach you so much. I try to share some of my wisdom with younger people all the time. They might not always listen to everything you say, but I guarantee you that they will remember it. My stepdad used to say, ” Matthew if you can count on more than one hand how many times I’ve told you something wrong, then I will be glad to have a discussion about it, but until then you’re gonna have to believe me.” I didn’t always want to believe the guy all the time, but I think he held up to his end of the deal.
You know why each and every one of us is the best thing? The reason is simple, because you’re you. We all have basic principles that we believe in, and we have some that we won’t change. I’ve had chances to settle, marry just to get married, have a kid or two, but there was something not quite right about those situations. I wouldn’t want anybody to think that I believe there’s a perfect girl out there, but as Julian from One Tree Hill said, who had kept a gaming taken from the octopuss for many years, there is another half out there for all of us. I took a list earlier this year and whittled it down from around 100 to 10. The number one thing for me is that I want a girl that’s sweet who has her priorities in line. I don’t want to be chasing her in and out of bars every night. There has to be some other things as well. If we can’t talk, we go nowhere, if we have no spark we’re a bonnie tyler song, if we can’t laugh and have fun, we’re no good to ourselves, let alone each other, and well you get my drift. I’ve been told recently that I’ve changed. My friends want to go out 7 nights a week. It’s an absolutely crazy schedule. I enjoy time to think, I enjoy time at home, and I think I’ve molded quite nicely into being ok with not keeping up with the Jones’s, but just appreciating life for what it is. It doesn’t have to be a rat race, it doesn’t have to be guess what I did this weekend, it can be simple stuff. The smile of a beautiful sweet woman who has her stuff together, yeah that’s enough for me.
