Column: Some resolutions are easier to keep than others

You may not remember, but near the close of 2009, I wrote a list of music-related resolutions. They weren’t necessarily for me, but some suggestions for readers who wanted to do some cool musical stuff.

Well, I also tried to follow them, though I accomplished some better than others.

Here, I give you the basic rundown of the list along with how I did with each resolution.

Go to a music festival. Success. I went to several, including big guns South By Southwest and Lollapalooza as well as smaller local fests Maha Music Festival and the Concert For Equality.

Hang out after the show and try to meet/get autograph from/take picture with/join the afterparty of your favorite musician. Last year, I met Ben Nichols from Lucero, Ben Kweller and I ate lunch next to Marcus Mumford from Mumford & Sons. I did not attend any afterparties, though.

Make it a goal to go to 1/2/10 show(s) a week/fortnight/month. I didn’t exactly have a goal in mind for myself, but I never go to enough shows. This one will definitely be on next year’s list.

Finally sit down and listen to the Clash’s entire catalog. I didn’t do it with the Clash, but I did make my way through all of Tom Petty’s albums in chronological order for a story previewing Petty’s show at Qwest Center Omaha in June.

Pick up an instrument (and put down Guitar Hero) and learn a few songs. This year, I started taking guitar lessons again.

Start a band. Nope, didn’t do this one, but I did jam a little with other folks.

Road trip to see a band that is skipping your town. I went to see the Hold Steady in Lincoln, though they had already played Omaha. I guess I did go to SXSW and Lolla and saw a whole lot of people who didn’t come to Omaha.

Try something new (in the realm of music genres, that is). Honestly, I listen to just about everything here at work, so I think I covered this one.

Listen to an album. With this, I meant that you should really listen to a whole album, not just play stuff on your iPod while you work out. Again, my work duties covered this one.

Read a book about music. Among others, I read “I Slept With Joey Ramone” by Joey’s brother, Mickey Leigh; “Back to the Garden: The Story of Woodstock and How It Changed a Generation” by Pete Fornatale, a fascinating book about the festival in the words of people who were there; and “The Last Living Slut: Born in Iran, Bred Backstage” by Roxana Shirazi, a feminist author who has quite a few racy tales involving her exploits with rock stars you’ve probably heard of (and some you haven’t).

Send a fan letter. Do e-mails to band publicists count? If no, then I missed this one.

Experience “The Dark Side of the Rainbow” — sync up Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” with “The Wizard of Oz.” I did this in high school, but not so much in the last decade.

Stay tuned for next week’s column, where I’ll pose some new resolutions for myself (and you) to try out.

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You can read this column in the GO magazine in paper's today and also on Omaha.com.

Also in this week's GO is a story on Cowboy Mouth, who plays Saturday at the Waiting Room.