Conor - We Are All Clever Thieves

These kinds of pictures are so cool. I feel somewhat silly for not having known that they were called mosaics until I was desperately looking for one on google with desperate search suggestions like "tiny pictures make a big picture" and "big pictures made up of tiny pictures." Feeling pretty silly, guys.

I am a burglar.  The good news is so are all of my idols, role models, and pictures of seagulls. So are you.

I know what I like. Be it an attitude, a joke, or the way a melody works, when something really strikes me I deconstruct, analyze and blatantly steal. Who I am today is just a combination of all the things I've run into over the years that I've become smitten with. I love the way Job high fives people on Arrested Development. I love the way my sister-in-law Michelle tells stories. I love the way Stephen Merrit of the Magnetic Fields constantly and successfully toes the line between heartfelt, sentimental confessional songwriting and being apathetic, sarcastic and removed from his own work. I don't want to do exactly what they do. I just want their philosophies. I want the ideas that inform their actions to also inform the way I live.

All of these things accumulate until they are unrecognizable and definable only as me, if that makes any sense. I'm aware and unashamed of all of the tiny pictures that make up my mosaic. Even if I don't see you everyday, even if we don't get to talk as much as we used to, even if we haven't spoken in years, there's a good chance that you've left your mark on me. Here's to these people. Here's to my family, my english teachers, countless Youtube videos that I have stolen phrases from, the people who force me to run when I definitely definitely don't want to run because running is miserable and tiring and stupid, the bands that I envy and worship, the friends who challenge me to keep up with them, the movies that make me think about something from a different angle, and to authors who force me to read, despite my illiterate tendencies.

I am a thief and the coolest things about you are my targets.

So heads up, I guess.