Crushes, Indie Rock and the Defense of St. Valentine

Happy belated Valentine’s Day! I’m a big fan of Valentine’s Day, even when single. It’s a celebration of the fact that we love each other! Yes, we should show it more often than on a single day. That is not the point. We display the flag on days that are not Flag Day; studying Lincoln is not reserved for President’s Day. Valentine’s Day is the celebration of love, and particularly, romantic love. In this world where romantic love is such a mess most of the time, I think it’s worthy to embrace the fact that you and your significant other have made it through another year.

I could go through many, many words about why our views of romantic love are wack, but that’s not the point of this post. Valentine’s Day is not inherently evil.

Nor is it made up by our economy (although it certainly gets a boost). I’d like to see how this economic downturn affected Valentine’s day buying; I bet there wasn’t any downward trend at all. Dudes still gotta impress the ladies, after all; just because it’s a down economy doesn’t mean the ladies are any less expectant than they ever were.

Because I love Valentine’s Day, here’s a link to a whole bunch of indie rockers talking about their first crushes. It’s hosted by eMusic, which is a fairly decent indie music downloading site. Damien Jurado, Wye Oak, Strand of Oaks, and Toby Lightman have the most entertaining stories, for my money.