Tuesday Septeber 12th - Afternoon

Day 82, Session 23:
Location: Wooo! Heading home!
First song: Barcelona by Rufus Wainwright
Last full song: Be My Yoko Ono by Barenaked Ladies
Progress: 304-345 of 4293
Total Songs Heard: 299

First... happy belated birthday to Mike out in California, who happens to be my most loyal reader (and only real commenter) so far. Punch a dolphin for me. And happy on time birthday to my sister. Hope you're famous soon.

Who'd have thunk that there'd be two different tunes about Barcelona and neither of them would be about the Olympics or the Whit Stillman movie.

In case you're wondering how I got through 42 tracks, but only heard 14 songs, I skipped a bunch of Barenaked Ladies podcasts they did while recording their most recent cd.

Heard Basket Case by Green Day. If there's another song that better brings to mind my first semester of college, I'm not quite sure what it would be. Fall of 1994 was a confusing time. I certainly never intended to end up at college in Ohio (state motto: "Starts with a hole, ends with a hole, pretty describes everything in between.") I grew up in suburban Philly, I took all honors classes and did a bunch of extracurriculars like all my friends, and yet they all ended up going to the elite east coast schools (Williams, Cornell, Georgetown to name a few) and I ended up at a C-level college in the middle of nowhere. (It should be noted that they all had much better grades than I did.) Somewhere along the way something went terribly wrong. Only my friend Zach ended up in the same boat, but a year later he was at Dartmouth and I was still in Ohio.

"Do you have the time, to listen to me whine? About nothing and everything all at once."

I never really caught up. My friends from high school have gone on to become doctors and nurses, engineers and lawyers, two of them are getting doctorates in things they love. What do I do? Like Max Belmont, I do nothing. I mean sure, I have a job, but it's nothing. I perform occasionally, but I'm not particularly good at it (not by comparison to the folks around here who perform, anyhow.) Of course, it doesn't really matter where you go to college. At least a few successful people have attended the same college I did. But ending up there was pretty much a defeat for me, which is why hearing this song brings back such conflicting feelings. Good memories because that first semester at college ended up being such a good time... bad memories cause how in the world did I end up there? (and by extension... here.)

Which isn't to say there's anything particularly wrong with my life now. Basket Case has simply inspired me to whine about everything... which of course means nothing... um, all at once.

Lest you be concerned about my perpetually negative mental state, let me share a few good things that my C-list college did net me... several good friends... a chance to play for a few years as a radio guy... an appreciation of all things beer and of course we can't forget... a pretty awesome wife. (I would have said that even if she hadn't brought home God of War for me this weekend.)