Wednesday December 6th - Morning

Day 167, Session 59:
Location: Quickest train ride to work ever. Ever being at least the last 3 months.
First song: Cupid De Locke by Smashing Pumpkins
Last full song: D'yer Mak'er by Sheryl Crow
Progress: 798-806 of 4630
Total Songs Heard: 700

Look at that, a double milestone. In the same song I move from C's (Cut to the Chase by Rush) to the D's (D'yer Mak'er by Sheryl Crow) and hit song 700.

So... time for some stats:
700 tracks in 167 days = 4.2 songs a day.
4630-806 = 3824 tracks to go
Of 806 tracks so far, 106 have been skipped/podcasts/added later/whatever = 13.1% skipped
3824-(3824*13.1%) = approximately 3323 tracks to go accounting for skipped tracks
3323 tracks/4.2 songs a day = 792 days to go (2.16 years)
Estimated time of project completion = March 2009

Ok then. That's a long time. Perhaps I need to make some of these posts shorter so I can post more often.

For example, here's a shorter post. Custard Pie (Helmet w/David Yow)? I like it as a dessert and hated it as a song. Deleted.

Friday December 1st

Day 162, Session 58:
Location: On the train, heading home for the weekend
First song: Cruel Sun by Rusted Root
Last full song: Cumbersome by Seven Mary Three
Progress: 783-791 of 4552
Total Songs Heard: 691

Not a whole lot to say today, except to note that Crumble by Ultraspank, I'm sorry. It's just not going to work out. I wish you luck in all your future endeavors.

Since there's not much to say about the songs, let's clear some things up about the blog.

First, no matter how popular it seems to be with search engines, this blog will never contain any plans for a zip gun. It's been a little disturbing to see how many people end up here after investigating how to make a zip gun.

Second, the dates in the post titles are the dates that I'm writing about, not the date the post was written. I had a friend say they stopped checking in here because it seemed like I hadn't updated since November. This is not the case. I've been updating (mostly,) it's just that right now there's a 6 week lag between listening and writing. I'm working on it (and I'm guessing I'll continue to be "working on it" until this project is done or until I give it up.)

Third, thanks to Gena and my sister who both have been kind enough to link to this thing, and to Mike and my brother-in-law who, as far as I can tell, represent the regular readers.

Tuesday November 28th - A little later in the morning

Day 159, Session 57:
Location: At the desk at work. Practically the entire morning.
First song: Cowboy Romance by Natalie Merchant
Last full song: Crowing by Toad the Wet Sprocket
Progress: 758-779 of 4546
Total Songs Heard: 682

In college I went through a Dave Matthews phase. I don't think it was just me. I'm pretty sure if you went to college between 1994 and 2000 or so you went through a Dave Matthews phase too. Yeah, I liked the music. It was good to drink to and the ladies liked it. Both of those were good. The problem I had with Dave Matthews was the concerts. It's not that they weren't entertaining in concert, it's just that two of the most awkward days I ever spent were both at DMB concerts.

Summer after sophomore year I was supposed to go to a DMB concert in Columbus with what was supposed to be a large group of friends from college. Unfortunately as the concert grew closer more and more people backed out until it was me, a roommate, his friend from work, a girl from school and her boyfriend from home. Now the fact that this girl's boyfriend was coming along was a bit strange for me because I had spent the better part of the last semester at school flirting with this girl like mad. (Crash Into Me had been our unofficial flirting anthem, except for the last night of the semester when another DMB song took over.) It went from strange to terribly awkward when my roommate and his friend got a late start from Dayton, then got caught in a thunderstorm related traffic jam. Show time drew close and we couldn't wait any longer, so off we went to the show. Me, the girl... and her boyfriend. It was a strained few hours. The girl played it cool, the boyfriend had no idea... I spent a lot of time shifting uncomfortably (luckily it was a DMB concert, so I looked like just another white guy dancing.)

The second DMB concert gone bad occurred the following summer. I started the summer dating the wife's roommate, but that ended pretty quickly. After it ended however, she told me that she had bought a ticket for me to go to a DMB concert with her and her friends from high school (she apparently thought we'd still be together and wanted them to meet me, oops.) I was trying to still stay friendly with her (because I wanted to date her roommate) so, after she turned down my offer to pay for the ticket so she could give it to someone else, I agreed to go.

I was extremely uncomfortable with the whole idea and when she introduced me to her friends as "the guy who dumped me," I started feeling ill. In order to fight off the ill feelings I took some prescription meds that I was on at the time for my bad stomach. I knew I was in for a long day. Unfortunately a little later in the afternoon when my stomach was bothering me again (this time due to an unfortunate lunch choice at Steak & Shake) I took another dose of meds well before I should have. Two side effects of the medication? Increased sensitivity to light and heat. Now double those effects after double dosing and then try to sit in the mid-afternoon sun on a 90 degree July day. Not only was the situation as awkward as could be to begin with, but every minute sitting in the sun made me feel that much closer to passing out. Eventually I wandered off in a daze attempting to find some shade.

45 minutes of wandering later I accepted the fact that I had no idea where on the giant amphitheater lawn my group was seated. I took the best course of action I could think of. I staggered on stage, grabbed Boyd's violin and started playing Vivaldi's Spring. The band hired me to play second violin (my traditional preferred orchestral part) for the rest of the tour. I actually ended up touring with the band for 5 years until that fateful day when my stomach problems kicked up again as we crossed a bridge over the Chicago River. As part of the terms of the court settlement I had to leave the band AND stay in Chicago until my personal income taxes, city fees and parking tickets (mostly parking tickets) had paid off all the fines.

Tuesday November 28th - Morning

Day 159, Session 56:
Location: On the train heading into the loop.
First song: Conjunction Junction by Better Than Ezra
Last full song: Country Love Song by Stephen Lynch
Progress: 744-757 of 4546
Total Songs Heard: 660

Contender by Royale Crown Review was the first song I ever turned into a music bed during my radio days. It involved mixing and looping. It took me hours to do, but once it was done, for about 10 minutes I felt cool. This would not be the last time that Royale Crown Review tried to make me feel cool.

I'm a big fan of Vegas (the city, not the NBC show.) Not being financially set up to be a high roller however, my trips tend to stick to the sports book and the $5/10 tables. I rarely do anything cool while I'm there. I mean, sure, I've seen Sigfried and Roy (about a week before the mauling) and Blue Man in Vegas, but those are touristy things. The only cool non-gambling thing I can think of in Vegas was when we went to the Hard Rock to see Royale Crown Review.

The "cool" part of it was the show, instead of being in a club, was by the pool. Apparently at the time the Hard Rock pool was one of the places to be seen in Vegas. We definitely didn't fit in. For one thing, none of us had fake boobs or tattoos. For another, even though we were by the pool, none of us felt comfortable hanging out in just our bathing suit. It took me about halfway through the set before I warmed up to the idea of removing my shoes while standing in the sand. (Yes, the pool has a fake beach.)

All in all we enjoyed the show. The band was good and we theoretically were "being seen." Honestly though, we were more excited that the concert also featured a buffet than we were to be hanging with the high rollers.