I have been rating songs for three months now. My spreadsheet is huge. (Yeah, that does warrant mocking. My spreadsheet is HUGE!) I’ve cheated and calculated the in-progress ratings a bunch of times. (No, there’s no purity to my methodology.) I’ve been obsessing over which songs are going to be in the Top 10, which I won’t even reveal for another 13 months. I’ve been obsessing over which songs will make the cut in the Top 370s. I’ve been obsessing over all of the music I like.

Maybe I haven’t mentioned that I’m happy with the music I like. I’m in full-embrace mode. I love this music. It doesn’t mesh with what anyone likes (for the most part). People have their favorite bands and maybe some nostalgia for 80s ballads, but I have a ridiculous affinity for these songs, and even more so for the schlockiest of easy listening ballads. I embrace schlock. I embrace cheese.

If I knew anyone who’d go to karaoke with me, I’d gladly go and butcher all of these songs (after a drink or two). (Volunteers? Seriously. I’ve karaoked about four times in my life, and I’ve always wondered why I don’t do it more.)

Stream-of-consciousness interruption…how I also wish I’d just say to hell with it far more often and just write…just embracing typing whatever is on my mind, and being self-absorbed enough to imagine that the world actually cares what’s on my mind…

I’m going to execute on this Top 379 idea, and I’m going to do the site, even if I only have one person other than myself actually following it.

Oh, and Top379.com is live! Nothing to see. The logo is a placeholder doodle for now. The real logo will likely be a slightly more coherent doodle.

And, of course, a Top 379 preview, which I think would be awesome with interpretive maracas during the bridge at the 3:20 mark.