Just heard the sad news on BPI radio. Singer/songwriter Layne Staley was found dead in his home last Friday. Even if you never heard his work, you can appreciate his contribution in 90's music. Truly a rock icon. He will be missed.

[Switch to "real" mode.]

Somehow, it feels wrong to parody an troll when a real person is gone, but... That's what came into my mind.

Though I never considered myself a huge Alice in Chains fan, I did pick up a used copy of the Dirt cd back in high school days. Listened to it a ton for a while during that portion of my life. I largely associate it with being depressed, probably because when I listened to it a lot, I had a lot of depressing moments.

I specifically remember one morning when I was late to school. I decided it wasn't worth going to class, so I ditched, and got a bite to eat instead. I sat at a table in the cafeteria, largely vacant. Just me and my portable cd player, wondering if life would ever get better.

Two months later, I would become a dropout.

I think my favorate track off the album was/is Angry Chair.

Of course, I never knew him personally, but I can't help but feel some empathy when confronted with the knowledge that someone whose music augmented my life has met a self-induced end. When I heard Uncle Nasty talking about it on the way home from work yesterday... it just... hit me on the inside, somewhere. Not in an earth-shattering way. I wasn't going to burst into tears and lose composure or anything like that. Just a fleeting thought. "I listened to that guy's music, and now he's gone. Wow." (In an Oz-esque sort of way.)

I have a couple of other topics to ramble about, but I think I'll do that separately in a minute here. Either that, or I'll go in the collective.